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September 22, 2022
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The Portman Variation
Senator Portman joined FOX Business Kudlow. This afternoon to discuss the merits of working on authorizing reform legislation on a bipartisan basis. Senator Portman is a strong advocate for allowing reform and has long pushed for bipartisan solutions. Portman then highlighted the Democrats’ spending spree, which has led to nearly 40 years of high inflation and higher prices for consumers. He also touched on the importance of open government and urged Democrats and Republicans to come together and put effective legislation on the floor of the Senate to control the government’s finances and spending.
A transcript of the interview can be found below and you can also watch the interview. over here.
Senator Portman on bipartisan consent reform
“I think there’s an easy solution, Larry, and that’s to bring a binary package here. Until the last couple of days, we’ve had no language regarding Joe Manchin’s proposal. We are now trying to figure out what is in it. As you can see, many outsiders are not sure if what they are watching is good or bad. I think there are good things in it. I think there are things that need to be improved. But it has never been done bilaterally. So, let’s do the very simple thing we should have done in the first place. Let’s have a bipartisan consent reform bill. As you know, I am a hawk on allowing reform. By the way, this is one of the biggest problems we have in this country compared to all the countries in the world.
It takes us a long time to green light something. Energy projects, yes, but any type of construction, including infrastructure, roads, and bridges. We’ve done a great job with the infrastructure bill to move the ball forward. Now we can do more, but let’s do it bipartisanly. So, there is time to do that. First let’s do the expense account if necessary to do the expense. But let’s sit down, get a bipartisan bill with some good ideas in Shelley Moore’s Capito proposal and Joe Manchin’s proposals and things the rest of us want to have. And, let’s get it done and we can. All we need are ten Democrat votes.
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“Of course and there’s no need to do that, there could be a neat next solution so that doesn’t happen. But in allowing updates, remember we’ve done this before. Larry, you mentioned the council, your administration’s licensing reform council is a bipartisan effort. I worked for about eight years. We’re done. It will help to move the time frame for approval of all types of projects from an average of about six years to an average of about two years. By the way, energy is green energy and fossil fuels. It should be applied to everything. Construction of buildings, roads and bridges. all.”
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“Critical minerals needed for electric car batteries, including on the road, what the Democrats want to do is stop the transition and go immediately to electric cars. If you don’t have the ability to extract these minerals, you can’t do it. That requires an amendment.”
Senator Portman on the pay cap and mandatory spending
“You can. This all comes out of the $1.9 trillion, by the way, Larry, that we talked about earlier on this show. So, to remind people about $2 trillion to work on Covid. Most of it had nothing to do with Covid. It’s had a huge stimulus effect on the economy, which is economics. Experts say it caused inflation right, left and center. But what happened was, that money was spent much faster than predicted. So, there are pay-as-you-go laws that are now in place to offset some of that. So, I think that makes sense, maybe. It’s not going to happen in CR. Because as you said, it doesn’t make sense to shut down the government, and it could happen, but certainly with respect to the omnibus benefits bill, the next bill where you’re going to get real money. Or can you allocate other funds instead?Which may be a local decision but I think it is possible.
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“yes. One thing you and I both agree on is that while the PAYGO rules mandate spending cuts on mandatory spending, ie Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, reforming those programs would not be better. Save money and perform better? So, instead of doing the type on the board, let’s modify these programs. There is a law to do this. I am one of the sponsors. There are about five Democrats and five Republicans. Not enough yet, but that’s exactly what needs to be done. I know you and I have talked about this before, but most of our spending now is 70 percent on autopilot. This is a mandatory expense. It’s the cost that we don’t want to touch because it’s politically very difficult. That’s where the biggest increases are. The amount of money is increasing. “
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