The blood slowly drains from the face of Margaret Brennan as she faces the indefatigable smiling truth that Kevin Hassett represents. The furrowed brows deepen, the lips pulsate to a purple posture, the accusatory sanctimony drips from her squints and failed constructs until ultimately, she is reduced to a sneering inflection of autonomous twitching.

Kevin Hassett smiles, thanks Ms. Brennan for her endeavors, outlines the White House position on the BBB and China trade negotiations, then happily orders an ice-cream cone for his walk back to the office on a bright sunny day.

[TRANSCRIPT] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by the Director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett. He joins us from the White House. Good morning to you.

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Hey Margaret, good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So I do want to allow you to respond to some of the very specific criticisms that Senator Klobuchar made. One of the things she brought up was something that, frankly, the Senate Majority Leader seemed to acknowledge was under discussion, and that was touching Medicare, making some kind of adjustment. He said anything we can do that’s waste, fraud, and abuse is open to discussion. Is the White House open to any discussion around Medicare?

HASSETT: Well, first of all, what’s happening is that the senators, respecting the legislative process, are discussing what they think that they can put on the table. And the President has made it clear that ending waste, fraud, and abuse, and giving benefits to illegals and giving benefits to people who are able-bodied workers, those are his high priorities. If the Senate comes up with other things they’d like us to look at, I guess- I guess we would have a look at them. But, there have been a lot of false stories about Medicare being on the table, and it’s totally not on the table.

The way that that was covered in the news a couple of weeks ago was that in the end, when the budget process ends, if they don’t waive the budget caps, then there’s going to be reductions across the board in spending. And that’s what no one would intend, and no Democrat would vote for that, but that was covered as our intent to go after Medicare, and it was just a big fake news story last week.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so Leader Thune and leader Johnson have- and Speaker Johnson have said anything with waste, fraud, and abuse. But you right now, you are taking-

HASSETT: Waste, fraud and abuse. Waste, fraud and abuse–

MARGARET BRENNAN: But to be–

HASSETT: It’s the same.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood, but you were taking Medicare off the table. The White House says don’t do it-

HASSETT: No we- no, but, but, but, but I’ve not- I’ve seen a massive amount of waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, and I’ve not been briefed on Medicare waste, fraud and abuse. But if they find something then, of course, we would look at it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You would look at it —

HASSETT: — Of Course

MARGARET BRENNAN: — Senator Hawley was also brought up by Senator Klobuchar- Klobuchar, and Missouri senator has made it clear he wants to see changes to the increased copayment requirements for Medicaid that was in the House version that was sent over to the Senate. Are you comfortable with this House bill as it is written? What do you want to see done to Medicaid?

HASSETT: Again, what we want to see done now is we want the Senate to pass the bill, and then we want the House and the Senate to work out their differences, while negotiating with us. And right now, the Senate has to get the votes they need to pass the bill, and we’re supporting them in that process. But you also need to be mindful when you’re thinking about this, that one of the things that we put out a report for the Council of Economic Advisers, that if the bill doesn’t pass, then they estimate that this would cause a reduction of GDP by 4 percent. We’d be in a deep recession. We’d lose six or seven million jobs of those people, almost all those people, would lose their insurance. And so this idea that the only person who ever is going to get insurance is someone who’s getting it from the government is just incorrect, and if we create the jobs that we have in the bill, then we’re going to create a heck of a lot more insurance than what we’re talking about in waste, fraud and abuse.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So you’re open to what Senator Hawley is looking to change, though, that’s what I understand.

HASSETT: I’d, I’d have to go see what he has and I’d want to look at the high details before I say I’ll open it. And I also would want to talk to the President about the specific matter, which I’ve not done.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, so one of the other massive influences on the economy right now is the, the trade war, particularly with China. Tomorrow in London, the treasury secretary, the trade representative and the commerce secretary are going to meet with Chinese officials. Treasury Secretary Bessent told us last Sunday that the recent tension was around exports of critical minerals. When will those exports resume? And what do you expect to come from tomorrow’s meeting?

HASSETT: Right. Those, those exports of critical minerals have been getting released at a rate that is, you know, higher than it was, but not as high as we believe we agreed to in Geneva. And President Trump, being a deal maker, talked with President Xi, and he said, let’s take, you know, our senior guys, and the people who are the same level as you. Let’s have them meet somewhere, and let’s get these things cleared up, and then we’ll clear up what you don’t like that we have agreed to release on our side, and we’re going to shake hands about it. He literally said, I want to meet in London, and I want to shake hands on it, so that we know we’ve got a deal. And then after that, I think there was a very affable exchange about President Trump visiting China and President Xi coming here. And so, I’m very comfortable that this deal is about to be closed, and it’s going to be closed not with a bunch of staffers and bureaucratic language, but with handshakes. So that’s the way President Trump operates.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Same terms, nothing new.

HASSETT: Well, I think that there- we can’t talk about the terms that they’re coming out with throughout because they’re still working on it. But the point is, we want the rare earths, the magnets that are crucial for cell phones and everything else, to flow just as they did before the beginning of April. And we don’t want any technical details slowing that down, and that’s clear to them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So our CBS News polling shows that most Americans don’t like the tariffs, and most Americans don’t think the Trump administration has a plan. We’re also hearing from top economists, including the head of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve who said the rules are really unclear, and business leaders need certainty. When will they get that certainty from the administration?

HASSETT: Well, you could be certain that there’s going to be some tariffs, and the stuff that folks have been saying that’s going to happen to tariffs is inconsistent with what you and I have talked about before, Margaret. So what’s going on, right, is that we’ve had a trade deficit with China forever and ever, because they just want to sell stuff here, so they create jobs in China and help, you know, control their government so people are unemployed, that it’s harder for a dictatorship to run. And so the point is just that, that if we put a tariff on them, then they’re going to bear the tariff. So what just happened? What just happened is that we had about 60 billion dollars in tariff revenue in the U.S., and inflation, inflation, every measure of inflation, is the lowest that it’s been for more than four years. And so all of our policies together are reducing inflation and helping reduce the deficit by getting revenue from other countries. And how much revenue, I think that you might have covered it, the Congressional Budget Office put out a 10-year estimate that says that the tariff revenue that’s already in place right now is going to raise 2.8 trillion dollars over the next 10 years. That’s more than their own estimate, their own static estimate. So this entire bill, so that that’s deficit reduction right there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I’m glad you brought up that stat, because it made me wonder. You just said that one certainty is there will be tariffs. You are saying tariffs are staying put, that this is a constant source of–

HASSETT: –we’re, we’re negotiating reciprocal-

MARGARET BRENNAN: –of

HASSETT: –You’ve seen deals.

[CROSSTALK]

HASSETT: And exactly where they are. We’re working it out, and we’re opening up markets. So that–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah but the deals- this is where I’m stuck, because deals is about negotiating down the tariffs. So that’s a diminishing source of revenue over time. But, are you saying that there will be blanket tariffs–

HASSETT: –Last year–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –of what percent?

HASSETT: Last year, before we got here, we were raising 80 billion a year in tariffs. Right now, the CBO projects that we’re going to get 2.8 trillion over the next 10 years. Exactly where the number ends up is going to depend on how much foreign countries open up their markets to our products and how much- how well they treat our farmers and we’ll see–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –So you don’t know how much revenue you are going to have–

HASSETT: Revenue, revenue was 80 billion last year. Revenue- tariff revenue, is not going away. That’s what I’m saying.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But we don’t know what the tariffs are going to be. So-

HASSETT: We’re negotiating them on a country-by-country basis.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Exactly.

HASSETT: We’ve got a whole bunch of trade deals. We’ve got a trade deal with UK that’s already, you can see what the trade deal with the UK is now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, so it’s a fluctuating number. It’s not- it’s not a constant. But before I let you go, the Senate Finance Chair, I know you were in this meeting at the White House this week, he indicated quadrupling the state and local tax deduction, or SALT tax, is not something he’s interested in doing. They don’t have the politics in the Senate like they do in the House that would require it, right. So is the White House committed to keeping this, this quadrupling of the SALT tax deduction as it is?

HASSETT: The- the President has said that he supports changing the law, the state and lo- local tax deduction. And this is a very, you know, it’s a horse trading issue with the Senate and the House. And again, the President has listed his priorities of the tax bill, and you know, it’s no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, you know them all. And the Senate and the House, they know that those priorities for the President are red lines. And then on the other side, they’re negotiating what they’re going to negotiate, because there’s a different level of support in the Senate that there was in the House. And in the end, the one thing we need, the President wants, is a bill that passes. It passes on the Fourth of July.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So Senator Crapo needs to prepare himself that that is staying as the House wrote it.

HASSETT: He’s got to work it out with the House.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Kevin Hassett, thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be back in a moment.

{END TRANSCRIPT}