NBC News "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Tax Code Reform
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
When people think of Tea Party republicans in the Senate, they immediate may think of those that are running for president right now, the likes of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. But if you ask those three senators that I just mentioned who they'd regard as sort of the intellectual backbone of the reformed conservative movement here in Washington, they'd name just one senator, Mike Lee of Utah. And he's got a new book out, Our Lost Constitution. And he joins me now. Senator Lee, welcome back to Meet the Press.
MIKE LEE:
Thank you.
CHUCK TODD:
Congrats on the book. I want to get to it in a minute. But let me get to a piece of Senate business. Jeb Bush had this to say about the Loretta Lynch delay. Here's what he said.
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JEB BUSH:
I think presidents have the right to pick their team, in general. If someone is supportive of the president's policies, whether you agree with them or not, there should be some deference to the executive. This should not always be partisan. The longer it takes to confirm her, the longer Eric Holder stays as attorney general.
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CHUCK TODD:
That's been the part of this that I've never understood. What is the endgame in delaying her nomination, considering all of the anger that many conservatives like yourself had toward Eric Holder?
MIKE LEE:
There are a lot of concerns with Loretta Lynch that focus a lot on what President Obama did with our immigration code back in November. He basically rewrote--
CHUCK TODD:
Loretta Lynch didn't do that.
MIKE LEE:
No, she didn't. But when questioned in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which I sit, she refused to acknowledge that there are limits to prosecutorial discretion, limits that must be taken into account, for example, when you have a president, effectively, undoing a huge swatch of federal law.
CHUCK TODD:
Give her a vote. Vote against her. By why not just give her a vote?
MIKE LEE:
I'm certain that she's going to get a vote. I'm not sure exactly what the timing of that's going to be. But it's going to happen.
CHUCK TODD:
You think six months is reasonable? I mean, do you think this has been a little ridiculous?
MIKE LEE:
I'm not going to say that it's ridiculous. I do think it's ridiculous that the president rewrote the immigration code, and that he still hasn't provided a full, legal explanation of what empowers him to do this. And when you've got someone who's been nominated to fill the highest legal role in his administration, and that person doesn't come forward with an adequate legal explanation of either why the president was allowed to do this--
CHUCK TODD:
The courts are reviewing this now.
MIKE LEE:
The courts are reviewing it.
CHUCK TODD:
So it's moot with her.
MIKE LEE:
But Congress, the Senate in particular, has a responsibility to review those who will be advising the president on legal matters. And that's what's going on.
CHUCK TODD:
So you think there should be a vote now.
MIKE LEE:
I think there will be a vote soon.
CHUCK TODD:
What does soon mean?
MIKE LEE:
Within the next few weeks.
CHUCK TODD:
Let's go to the presidential race. As you've pointed out, three friends running. But there's one that you've got a plan that is going to get debated a lot. And it's this tax plan that you've done with Marco Rubio. What's interesting about it is that it seems to-- You get hit from both sides on this one.
Some conservatives aren't happy. It lowers marginal rates only from 39 to 35. A lot of conservatives want it much lower than that. And you keep a progressive tax rate there, 15 and 35. But it also increases the deficit by a lot, by billions of dollars in the first five years. And it takes, even with dynamic scoring, and I don't want to get into that for our viewers this morning, it could take over a decade before it rights itself. Do you think this tax plan can withstand scrutiny?
STEVE SCHMIDT:
I do. I do. Because this is a pro-growth, pro-family tax reform, one that dramatically simplifies the code at a time when Americans have just experienced their annual tax day, at a time when our tax freedom day keeps getting pushed out further and further.
The American people are tired of a tax code that, 100 years ago, was a few hundred pages long, today, is 75,000 pages long. They're ready for reform. They're ready for tax code simplification. My tax reform plan would get rid of the marriage tax penalty, which is a concern to many people. It gets rid of the parent tax penalty. And it would provide a new child tax credit to help get rid of that parent tax penalty.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you have a favorite among the three?
MIKE LEE:
You know, I really like all three of my Senate colleagues who are running for president. And I intend to be a supporter of all three of them, as I possibly can.
CHUCK TODD:
What do you say to the criticism that says, "You know what? The republicans shouldn't nominate a senator. Senators, they can't run things. Governors can run things." What do you say to that critique?
MIKE LEE:
Well, the other side of that is that someone who has held federal office, you have the opportunity to do examine how they view federal issues, how they view their constitutional authority, given to the federal government, relative to the power that a governor wields in a state.
CHUCK TODD:
You and I are going to have a longer conversation about your book on Press Pass. But I'm curious. You call it Our Lost Constitution. Do you think the Constitution is a living document? Or do you believe it is sort of as written, a strict sort of document that shouldn't be over-interpreted?
MIKE LEE:
It's written in such a way that it can be amended with time. Over time, it can be amended. And it has been amended 27 times. But once it's written, once its provisions are put in place, we need to follow it. And if it's not up to date, then we need to amend it from time to time, just as we have.
CHUCK TODD:
So that's how you would change it, amend it only, not trying to reinterpret it.
MIKE LEE:
Well, we reinterpret it for the times, certainly. I mean, for example, the founding fathers didn't contemplate interstate air travel. But it fits comfortably within the commerce clause, as I explain in the book, to regulate channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce, like interstate airways, even though they didn't contemplate that specific thing.
What I explain in my book, the reason I wrote Our Lost Constitution is because we've drifted so far from the founding generation's understanding that this is supposed to be a limited purpose government. And there are a number of provisions, a half dozen of which I profile in the book, that we've neglected entirely. We need to restore them.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Well, maybe the country needs a constitutional convention. That would give us a nice little education on that. Senator Lee, thanks for coming on Meet the Press. Appreciate it. We'll be back in less than a minute with End Game.
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