Speaker Johnson Joins Squawk Box to discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill
For Immediate Release
June 6, 2025
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Joe Kernen and Becky Quick on CNBC’s Squawk Box to highlight the pro-growth provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill which will provide jet fuel to the U.S. economy and help put the U.S. back on a sound fiscal trajectory.
Watch Speaker Johnson on Squawk Box here
On social media not being representative of real life:
The American people are sort of caught up in the drama of this, but I don’t think at the end of the day, tweets and, and social media posts really determine what’s most important to the American people. I think what they’re concerned about is what we all promised on the campaign trail, what President Trump was elected to do, the mandate that we got by 77 million popular votes. And that is to make sure that the border is secure, to rebuild our military industrial base at a very difficult time. That’s the only new spending in this bill.
The rest of it is securing historic tax cuts for the people, making the tax cuts permanent, having a pro-growth set of infusion into the economy, jet fuel of the economy, which is what this bill will provide, and at the same time, a historic level of savings for the American people. It’s a fiscally responsible product. It is the first in a series of steps to get us back on a sound fiscal trajectory. And I think, Joe, it’s a very important message for us to send to the bond markets, the stock market, investors, job creators, entrepreneurs, risk takers around the world. And here, of course, in the US economy. The Congress is serious. We have steady hands on the wheel. We’re going to address the debt problem at the same time as we are making the economy work again, and we can’t wait to get that done.
On reducing the deficit and national debt:
I love Rick Scott, Mike Lee and Ron Johnson. I mean, they’re good friends. We have lots of discussion about this. We are all deficit and debt hawks. We’re concerned about the fiscal trajectory of the country. The national debt is the number one national security threat, we have to address it. But here’s what I think Ron is missing in all of this is. He’d like to cut, you know, $8 trillion overnight, some huge figure like that. So would I, but we don’t have the votes to do that. And if you did that that quickly, it would actually do real harm to the US economy. So we have to do this in a step-by-step sequence.
Look, I liken this to an aircraft carrier. Y’all have heard my analogy. I mean, we did not get in this situation overnight. The US economy is like a large vessel on the sea. You don’t turn it on a dime. It takes a mile of open ocean. But this is the largest turn on that wheel that we’ve had since I’ve been alive. I mean, this is the largest cut in spending that any legislative body on the face of the earth in all human history has ever achieved. And we did that by a long, deliberate process of getting everyone there. Remember, I have a very diverse Republican caucus. I’ve got people from very different districts across the country. They all see the same problem set with different lenses. And I’ve got to concoct 218 votes, currently 217 votes to get something across the line. So, we did that. We reached equilibrium, we achieved this massive achievement with the package.
On the repercussions if the One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn’t signed into law:
If we don’t get this bill passed, not only are the American people going to have the largest tax increase in US history descend upon their heads at the end of this year when all this expires, but all these other pro-growth incentives in the economy won’t happen. And small business owners and job creators and entrepreneurs will not expand their businesses. Wages won’t go up. The job participation rate will remain low, and inflation will continue to increase. We won’t have the solutions.
But also, remember, if we don’t deliver on this and we don’t deliver a little bit on SALT relief, then we’re not going to have the house majority. And if we lose the house majority, the Democrats take over, they will impeach Donald Trump. I would forecast probably on the first few days of the new Congress, next January, January ‘27, and everything will go to chaos. So this team has to stay in power. This team has to stay working on our plan to get our fiscal trajectory back. And it all begins with the one big beautiful bill. Everybody who is criticizing this is playing with fire. We have got to deliver this product. We promised the people we would, and I think we will by July 4th.
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