Ohio Representative Jim Jordan Talks Midterm Elections

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Kailey Leinz (0:07)

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio's 4th District is joining us now live from the convention hall here on Bloomberg TV and radio. Mr. Chairman, thanks for the time. Welcome back to Balance of Power. When we consider this $5,000 dividend, your colleague Tom Massey said, Congress has a few more days. I'm quoting him directly in session before the election. I should do a discharge petition to give out $5,000 checks before the election. I wonder how many Republicans would sign it. It begs the question, Mr. Chairman, why can't you just do this now? You already have the majority.

Jim Jordan (0:41)

Well, look, I want to see the proposal.

I'm always in favor of letting hardworking Americans, American families keep more of their money, more of their money to spend on their goals, their dreams, their kids, their grandkids, their endeavor. So I'm always in favor of that. I want to know how this program that the president announced last night might work. What I do know is the president gave a great speech last night. There was a huge crowd, a lot of energy, which I think we're going to need as we go through this next 54 days in this election period. I think we can keep the majority because I think we can go remind the American people just how radical the left has become and they now control the Democrat Party. And I think if we do that and we also remind the American voters about what we've done in cutting taxes, what we have done in securing the border, I think we can win.

Kailey Leinz (1:25)

Well, just to go back to the suggestion that you need to see the details of this proposal, should we understand then that the president hasn't actually talked to Republicans in Congress about this idea before he announced it on that stage?

Jim Jordan (1:40)

Well we heard it last night in his speech. Like I said, I thought it was a great speech, a lot of energy here in the arena, but we want to see the details. What I do know is what we did in the big, beautiful bill, largest tax cut in American history, letting families, letting Americans keep their money to spend on the things that they want to spend it on, that's always better than government deciding to spend it on some new, crazy program. So I think that's good, empowering people with their, letting them have more of their money. I think it's a good idea, but let's see how the, I don't know all the details of this plan that he announced last night in his speech.

Kailey Leinz (2:12)

Well when you consider then the wider picture, which you were just speaking to, on the government spending money, this obviously is a program that could cost over a trillion dollars, at least by a rough calculation. You mentioned the one big beautiful bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said could add four trillion dollars to the deficit over a decade. How is any of this, frankly, Mr. Chairman, fiscally responsible? Is this fiscally conservative?

Jim Jordan (2:39)

Well, the tax cuts were, the one big beautiful bill, they mean letting people keep more of their money, letting businesses keep more of their money, doing things that are good for our economy and promote economic growth.

Those are all positive. This idea that somehow that's creating the deficit. No, it's the spending side of the equation that's creating the deficits and piling up the huge debt. Now, that's a real problem. We're going to have to address it. I remember the headline in the journal back in January. It said, this United States Senate class will be the first Senate class which will have to deal with the Social Security question on, because there's projected to be a shortfall. So we got to make sure we honor that commitment, make sure Americans get their money. Social Security is sound. That is coming. So we have to deal with this debt problem.

But cutting taxes, letting Americans keep their money, that is not, that doesn't add to the deficit. It's the spending side of the equation that adds to the deficit. And that's what we got to work on with some of the fraud that's going on, some of the other things that we see government spending on. And President Trump and his team have done good work in that area, particularly in the fraud area.

Kailey Leinz (3:43)

Well, when we consider that President Trump and his team, of course, were speaking at the convention, including the Treasury Secretary, who has been trying to address the challenges arising in the bond market because of this fiscal situation as well. And sir, the Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanch, I ask you this as the Chair of the Judiciary Committee. Should the Attorney General have had any business speaking at a political convention like he did last night?