WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking and Foreign Relations Committees, today joined Surveillance on BloombergTV to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s record-high inflation and war on domestic energy, the future of the U.S. economy under a second Trump Administration, and the importance of cryptocurrency and digital assets for American competitive advantage.
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Partial Transcript
Hagerty on record-high inflation under the Biden-Harris Administration: “We have a number of problems with the economy. I think the biggest one, however, and it’s related, is inflation, and inflation is driving higher interest rates. Of course, that has a direct impact on our currency, but President Trump’s policies will have an immediate impact to bring inflation down because he is going to end this Administration’s war on fossil fuels to bring energy costs down, go back to a deregulatory construct as he did in the prior Administration, and take down regulatory and compliance barriers. All of these will have a lowering impact on cost here in America. It’ll have a lower impact on inflation. Those will be directly beneficiary and then basically help make the case, then, to bring rates down and therefore bring our currency into a different position.”
Hagerty on the effect of potential Trump tariffs on the U.S. economy: “Look, I’m fully aware of the concerns surrounding tariffs, but let me make this point: the United States of America has the lowest tariff barriers of any major economy in the world. The converse of that statement is that our major trading partners, you know, do not have the similar tariffs. They have much higher tariffs. Therefore, we have a real lack of reciprocity. That’s not fair. That’s something that needs to be addressed. Many of these issues date back all the way to World War II, but there’s come a time and a place to step up and address that. President Trump wants to see them addressed. We want to see more reciprocal and fair trading terms. The time has come to get that accomplished.”
Hagerty on balancing trade reciprocity and U.S. dollar exchange rates: “Well, you know, I think it’s something that always has to be balanced, Lisa, and I think you’ll see any Administration do their best to do it. I think President Trump did an excellent job of that during his first Administration. The playbook is laid out there. We were strong, we were tough with China. At the same time, we brought economic growth that was twice the rate of any other major economy at the same time here in America, so we can do both. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. I think that’s the challenge. The most important thing, though, is that President Trump will come in and end these reckless policies domestically that have created inflation, that has caused so many knock-on effects. Again, back to energy independence. We need to get there. Not only will it be important for lowering inflation here, but it’ll be an important geostrategic tool as we become much stronger allies who are able to export our energy to places like Europe and Asia.”
Hagerty on the Biden-Harris Administration’s war on fossil fuels: “Lisa, it clearly is a war on fossil fuels because Joe Biden came in and took federal lands off the map immediately upon taking office. That’s a quarter of our capacity right there. What you’re not saying is that there was a trajectory that was much more rapid, much higher. We took ourselves off of that growth trajectory and we flattened it. We continued to produce, but demand is out stripping it. Think about the demand for electricity here in America. If you think about what we’re going to need for Artificial Intelligence and the electrification of the grid, we’ve got to get back into the energy production business, full-blast. We have the technology to do it. This Administration has done everything they can to slow that down. We need to get back on a rapid growth path that’ll put us on a trajectory to be not only stronger here domestically and lower inflation, but also stronger partners with our allies […] We should be producing more than anybody else in the world, as we are. We need to produce more LNG, and we need to become the strongest energy partner there is. You think about pipeline capacity and the difficulty of getting permits of this Administration. You think about the difficulty of getting a refinery started here in America. All of these log jams and difficulties make it less possible for us, and make it more difficult for us to be the best possible ally that we could. We need to expand it. We need to realize that this is a true source of competitive advantage for the United States of America. Let’s exploit it.”
Hagerty on the future of the USMCA: “Well, in 2026, the USMCA is up for renegotiation. I think one of the greatest concerns is the fact that Chinese EV makers are looking to end run tariffs and use the USMCA and Mexico market in particular, as a means to get into the U.S. market. And they’re using their subsidized product to destroy the U.S. market. That’s going have to take a very solid look. I think also with respect to Mexico itself, we’ve seen some very concerning behavior there. The prior Administration there under [President] AMLO actually nationalized some American companies’ assets. We’ve got to address that. I intend to speak with the new Administration there very soon about what we can do to make certain we have a much better and much stronger relationship there with Mexico and fairer terms.”
Hagerty on the importance of cryptocurrency for U.S. competitive advantage: “Lisa, I think this is something that has evolved over time. I first began looking into crypto in the previous Administration in 2018. That was my first engagement. I initially started at a point of skepticism, as I think many of my colleagues do, but when I began to understand the underlying technology and realizing the potential for dramatic productivity gains, what I thought to myself is we need to make certain that it happens here in America. The last thing we want is to see what happened with the semiconductor industry, where it got pushed offshore and weakened us from a geopolitical standpoint. We need to see this innovation happening here. I’ve been in many conversations with President Trump. His thinking has likewise evolved and he’s embracing the fact that this has tremendous potential for America. We want it to evolve here. We want to create the ecosystem for it to thrive here, and the last thing we need to do is push it offshore. However, the current Administration has done everything they can to attack this industry and to push it offshore. Again, to use the SEC, the CFTC, every tool at their disposal to come in and attack this industry and refuse to provide it with any type of regulatory framework. President Trump made the statement at the Bitcoin conference that one of the first things he’ll do is change out the Administration’s leadership. Gary Gensler, he said, will be fired. That brought people to their feet in applause. He’s going to end Operation Chokepoint that’s been taking place on the crypto industry here in America, and he’s going to try to create the environment here where the industry can thrive, and we’ll see the next wave of innovation happening right here in America.”
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