Today, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), and Congressman Mark Messmer (R-Ind.) to discuss how the One Big Beautiful Bill will reduce our deficit and unleash economic growth. Leader Scalise slammed the Congressional Budget Office’s false projections, noting their history of miscalculating opportunities for economic growth like they did with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Leader Scalise highlighted how House Republicans will continue to rally around legislation that protects taxpayer dollars, pointing to the White House-requested rescissions package that Leader Scalise is bringing to the House Floor next week. Additionally, Leader Scalise condemned the horrific antisemitic terror attacks that continue around the country.
 
On the rise in antisemitic terror attacks:

“We all mourn those who were the victims of these attacks here in Washington, D.C., as well as in Boulder, Colorado. And it just unfortunately highlights this continued antisemitism we've seen around the country. Last week, I met with Jewish leaders, and they're understandably concerned about this trend that keeps going on. It's been going on for years. You know, you go back to October 7th, and ever since then, it's been a growing equivocation between almost trying to equivocate what the people who attacked and murdered Jews in Israel and Americans and kept hostages with those in Gaza who we've seen what Gaza has become in and all of those who want to clean up Gaza. President Trump has made it clear, Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear, they want to turn Gaza back into a place where you don't have to fear for your life that it's going to be a terrorist hotbed. And yet there are people there that want to sympathize with the very terrorists who want to continue to not only carry out evil against Israelis, but against people here in America and all across the globe. It's got to stop. We're going to continue to bring legislation on the House Floor to address it.”

On House Republicans unifying around reconciliation:

“Now, I do want to talk about the one big beautiful bill. This House came together in a way that maybe surprised some people here in Washington. We've defied the odds every step of the way, from the first vote on the budget to the second vote on the budget to final passage. But there's a reason for that.

“And, you know, as the Whip just said, we've said all along, failure is not an option. I've been asked by some in the press, 'What's plan B?' when there were reports that the bill was going to fail. And we were very clear, and it wasn't just a talking point, we said there is no plan B. The American economy, the voters of this country demanded that Congress deliver on the promises that President Trump made to get this country turned around. And what we do in this bill delivers on so many different fronts to help grow America's economy, to create jobs, to put more money in the pockets of hardworking families. That's been the focus of this bill from the very beginning.”

On CBO’s history of miscalculating economic growth: 

“I think there are some people that start reading too many Congressional Budget Office reports and ignore the lessons of history. And there's an old saying that if you ignore the lessons of history, you're doomed to repeat it. But I think it's important to go down that road of history and go back to 2017. You don't need to go back that far to see how wrong the CBO has been when it comes time to make prognostications on economic growth. They've always been wrong, and they've always ignored what tax cuts will do to grow the American economy. In 2017, when we started this process, when President Trump came in and said, ‘We're going to make America competitive again,’ we were at a 35% corporate rate, and we were losing jobs all across the globe. Every month, you'd see a great American company move to a foreign country, and they would take the jobs along with them. Millions of jobs were leaving America. They were called inversions. You don't maybe know that term as well anymore, because we haven't had an inversion since we passed TCJA in 2017.

“But if you go back, look at what CBO said about that bill. They said it would cost a decrease in revenue to the tune of one and a half trillion dollars. One and a half trillion. Now you go look at the numbers, they were off by more than one and a half trillion dollars. Because what they left out of that report, just like they're leaving it out again, CBO is making the same mistakes. They ignore economic growth. What we saw in 2017 when we cut taxes is that businesses started growing. They started giving pay raises to their workers. They hired millions more people. Unemployment went virtually to zero. Inflation dropped dramatically. People had more money in their pockets because wages were up. And all of those things produced more money for the American Treasury. It all happened, and yet CBO failed to recognize that. And they're making the same mistake again. And anybody who repeats CBO's analysis is also making those same mistakes.”

On the historic growth this bill will generate for hardworking Americans:

“If you ignore the growth that will come with keeping tax rates low, with helping businesses invest more in their workers, giving pay raises, putting more money in the pockets of waiters and waitresses, overtime workers not having to pay taxes on overtime, bonus depreciation, immediate expensing, all the things that will generate economic growth and ultimately put more money in the pockets of workers and send more money up to the federal Treasury here in Washington. CBO missed all of that in 2017, and they're missing it again this time. That's the only way they’ve come to a conclusion that it would increase the deficit. This bill will actually reduce the deficit if you recognize the historical economic growth that has always been there. To say you're going to get 1.8% growth, at a minimum, we think you can get 2.5 to 4% growth. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, says over 4% economic growth. So I get that, you know, we've got to play by the rules of the referee, but the referee has been wrong. You know, we got a referee that tries to sack our quarterback a lot, and yet we still manage to play by those rules and deliver for the American people. Because when this bill is passed and signed into law, hopefully by July 4th, when the Senate does their work, you're going to see economic growth in this country like we haven't seen in generations, meaning more pay in the pockets of workers. And you're going to see more Treasury money coming in because of the growth in the American economy. It's happened before, and it will happen again. We just need to keep moving forward. And the Senate's got the bill now, and I'm confident they're going to move it on and ultimately back to us to the president's desk.”

On putting the rescissions package on the House Floor:

“And finally, you saw yesterday the White House sent the rescissions package. This is the first maybe of many. We are now putting that in bill format. We'll file that bill hopefully by tomorrow and then bring it up to the floor quickly and get rid of more waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. This will deal with, obviously, the abuses we all saw at USAID, NPR, and public broadcasting. So those are the things that are going to be in this rescissions package. We're going to continue working with President Trump to root out waste, fraud, and abuse and get the American economy turning around again.”

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