August 2, 2022
|
The Portman Difference
Senator Portman joined FOX Business’ Cavuto: Coast to Coast this afternoon to discuss House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and the Democrats’ latest reckless tax-and-spending spree. Senator Portman, who visited Taiwan in April as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation, expressed his support for the visit, saying it was important to show leadership in the region and not back down in the face of China’s growing aggression. Portman also touched on the Democrats’ new tax and spending bill, which includes $326 billion in new taxes on investment, especially manufacturers, and will make inflation worse. Portman explained that this is the exact opposite of what Congress should be doing now that the country is in a recession. This bill will inevitably burden American workers and consumers, who are already struggling due to record high inflation, and does not address the inflationary mismatch between our economy’s supply and demand.
You can find the transcript of the interview below and you can also watch the interview here.
SENATOR PORTMAN ON CHAIRMAN PELOSI’S VISIT TO TAIWAN
“Jackie, I couldn’t agree more. I don’t agree with Speaker Pelosi on a lot of things, but on this one, I think she’s absolutely right. I was there just a few months ago in Taiwan. It was a very productive meeting. We we talked about the military issue, obviously, and what Taiwan needs to defend itself better, and that was important. But we also talked about the economic situation. As you know, 90 percent of the high-end semiconductors in world are made in Taiwan. These are the chips that we depend on for our military, for our automobiles, for so many of our electronic devices, so it’s a very important place in many ways. But one is, as we’ve seen over the years last in the semiconductor debate, Taiwan makes the high-end versions of that, and it’s very important that we protect that source of our supply chain. So it’s very important that it’s there. I think doing otherwise and you want to retire to be a sign of weakness at a time when China is increasingly aggressive across the Indo-China region. Other countries in the region require us to provide leadership and certainly not to back down. And the Speaker has the right to go to Taiwan just as we had the right to go there in April.
“Well, they have punished Taiwan as best they can in various ways: commercially, certainly in terms of the misinformation that is flooding the island. We saw some propaganda footage of them flexing their military muscles earlier, so they’ve already been doing military training in the Taiwan Straits. When we were there, they flew six fighter jets over the demarcation line and the straits, so they’re still doing that. And by the way, it’s not just about Taiwan. There are many other things in the region that are worrying people. What are they doing about the South China Sea and on a coral reef, developing a military base. The Philippines will tell you that one of those islands is theirs, and they are in a dispute about it. But also, people are worried about what’s happening in Tibet, what’s happening of course in Hong Kong, what’s happening with the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. So there are a number of issues that are of concern at a time when it is an increasingly dangerous and unstable part of the world because of China’s aggression in the area. This is not the time for us to retreat. Instead, it’s time for us to talk to China to make sure they know we’re not escalating, but also to talk to our neighbors and friends, China’s neighbors and our friends, our allies in the region. You know, they’re looking more and more to us for leadership.
“Well, it’s true if you’ve seen the early responses from the administration, including the President as you saw, saying they didn’t recommend it. I think instead they should have been the opposite of what Speaker Pelosi was saying; they should have worked together so that we could have a consistent foreign policy. And I think in this case Speaker Pelosi made the right call. And I think the trip will be quite productive.”
SENATOR PORTMAN ON DEMOCRATS’ $700 BILLION SPENDING BILL
“No, I won’t. It’s inflationary, and clearly, by adding $326 billion in new tax increases, we have a significant tax increase on the American people, and there’s no way around it. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has said half of that tax comes from manufacturers. They also said that taxes are passed on to workers and customers, and how much is passed on depends on which analysis you look at. But it’s anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent that goes to employees. That’s why they say that a number of Americans, who didn’t expect to be taxed, will actually be told, “Hey, your paycheck is going down, your benefits are going down” because of this new tax. Fifty percent of those people, by the way, or more make less than $400,000 a year, so it’s a tax that gets distributed to employees. Of course it will hurt consumers. And in a time of high inflation, why would we want that, or a tax increase or a higher price for the goods we buy? So it’s a tax increase, and that to me is the exact opposite of what to do right now. Democrats have consistently made policy, whether it was the $1.9 trillion bill that had so much stimulus that it boosted demand dramatically at a time when it wasn’t needed, which helped cause the inflationary mismatch between supply and demand. Now, that’s going to hurt again on the supply side, and it’s going to make it harder for us to see investment in America, harder for us to build things, harder for us to have the ability to get out of this inflationist. spiral.”
###
