Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey discuss President Trump's "big beautiful bill", proposed tax and spending cuts

CBS News

10 hours ago

As the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate considers making changes to President Trump's "big, beautiful bill", Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas vowed, "We're going to get this done. We will get the one big, beautiful bill passed, and the reason we're going to is because we have to."
Cruz made his comments to CBS News Texas Thursday during an interview for Eye On Politics. When asked what changes he would like to see made to the version of the bill passed by the U.S. House last month, Cruz said, "I'd like to see us cut more spending. I'll tell you one idea that I've been urging my colleagues to do, and an idea I urged the President in the Oval Office last week to do is to end the Federal Reserve's practice of paying interest rates on bank reserves. For most of the history of the Fed from 1913 until 2008, the Fed did not pay interest on reserves. Then it started paying interest on reserves fairly recently in 2008."
A report by the Federal Reserve at the time said, "This policy gave banks an incentive to hold onto their reserves rather than lending them out, thus mitigating the need for the Federal Reserve to offset its expanded lending with reductions in other assets."
But Cruz said it's too costly to taxpayers. "In the last couple of years of the Biden administration, that expenditure skyrocketed, and it's spending now over $150 billion. That is your and my taxpayer money that is going straight to big banks. Ending that practice, that one change alone, would save $1.1 trillion over the next ten years."
Cruz said the U.S. could save another $2 trillion over a decade by cutting more federal spending. "For example, removing illegal aliens from federal government welfare benefits that saves hundreds of billions of dollars. Another is expanding work requirements to receive federal benefits. I think work requirements are incredibly helpful and beneficial for young, healthy people."
He also said the Senate's version of the bill will include his legislation for no tax on tips, a federal tax credit that provides incentives for school choice programs, and a what's called Invest America, which provides $1,000 to newborn children that can be invested for them. Parents, family members, and employers can also give up to $5,000 a year in a tax advantage account. "By the time he or she turns 18, they'll have $170,000 in that account, and if they keep contributing $5,000 a year, by the time that child turns 35, he or she will have $700,000 in that account."
House and Senate Republicans favor extending and making permanent the income tax cuts approved in 2017 during President Trump's first term. When asked about the Congressional Budget Office's projections that the "big, beautiful bill will add $2.4 trillion to the debt if passed as is, Cruz rejected it. "Historically, CBO has been wrong in its scoring. Over and over and over again, they underestimate the economic growth from tax cuts. But what I'll say secondly, is I agree. We need to cut more spending."
All Democrats in the U.S. House, including Representative Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, voted against the "big, beautiful bill." When asked what he favors, Veasey told CBS News Texas, "I probably would include a much smaller tax cut. I certainly believe that when we have an opportunity to cut taxes that we should. I'm not one of these people that think that we ought to be sending out extra punishment just because someone's been successful. That's not what I'm all about. I think that entrepreneurism and people that are wealthy in this country have created a lot of jobs. I just think that people need to pay their fair share. Kicking people off of health care services so Elon (Musk) can have a tax break is not what I'm all about."
The national debt has grown to nearly $37 trillion and asked whether spending cuts are necessary, Veasey said, "Spending absolutely has to be cut, but it needs to be done responsibly."
The CBO also projected that under the bill passed by House Republicans last month, 7.8 million people will lose their medicaid coverage by 2034. Veasey said, "I'm not surprised. It's going to be detrimental, particularly to a state like Texas, where you hae such a high percentge of residents that really do rely on medicaid services. You're going to see mortality rates rise and you're going to see a lot of people that voted for Trump, they are literally going to see their health care coverage ripped right from up under them."
Republicans in the House and Senate have said the spending on Medicaid has grown unsustainably, and that they want to preserve it for the people who it was originally designed for: pregnant women, the poor, and the disabled. Republicans favor strict work requirements. But Veasey discounted that. "There are a lot of nuances in that, that I don't think the Republicans are explaining to people on purpose. Someone that's pregnant would need to verify, probably more than once during the pregnancy that they're actually pregnant. That's the sort of thing that is going to end up through attrition kicking people off the rolls. What it's going to do is exacerbate poor health care outcomes because people won't go to the doctor anymore because they won't have a practitioner. They'll go and get all of their needs through the emergency room."
Senate Republicans hope to pass the "big, beautiful bill" by July 4th. It will then go back to the House for consideration.