The American and Chinese people share much in common. We value courage and achievement. This region and the world is a special world with the two of us united and together. And also, President Xi said, it's the most important bilateral relationship in the world. I don't argue.
Day one, two-day super summit in China. And what we have seen so far has gone pretty well. But what really happened behind closed doors, or what do they hope happens? Let's bring that question to Senator John Usted. Senator, from what you saw, I don't know how early you were up, but we carried the remarks of both men who have already met for two plus hours and will meet again.
Your thoughts about how it's going so far? I think it's going very well. I think the President is trying to build a warm personal relationship with President Xi and also put the issues on the table that matter to the American people. Look, we just want free trade. We believe in American competition.
We believe that America can out-compete anyone in the world if we just have a fair playing field. You talk to American businesses, that's what they'll tell you. I think that the President is pushing that agenda forward effectively. But now, when it comes to cars, explain why they cannot be allowed to sell the BYD or any other cars in America.
Well, they can't because it's a surveillance tool. I mean, a car that's connected to our transportation grid can gather all kinds of information on the American public. We don't. It's a safety concern. Plus, they're also undermining every car industry.
They want to flood the zone with cheap cars, drive automakers out of business, and then you're left with only one option, which is a Chinese-made car.
So for all of those reasons, we can't have Chinese automobiles in America. I mean, the whole federal government's subsidizing the whole thing, right? It is because, look, have we learned our lesson with the steel industry, with the aluminum industry, with so many other industries where the furniture industry, in many cases, we see Chinese subsidized systems do not have the same workforce or environmental standards that we have, and then they undermine American businesses and drive them out of business. Have that with the auto industry. Europe is going to rue the day that they allowed China to enter their auto markets.
So I know that we brought all these great business leaders over, and then the president invited President Xi to meet with the Chinese business leaders and the American business leaders. And here's what President Trump had to say about that, because he said that it was important to do deals, cut four. And I just want to say, on behalf of all of the great delegation that we have, we have the greatest businessmen, the biggest, and I guess the best in the world. We have amazing people, and they're all with me. Every single one of them.
And we asked the top Thirty in the world, every single one of them said yes. And I didn't want the second or the third in the company. I wanted only the top. and they're here today to pay respects to you and to China. And they look forward to Trade and doing business, and it's going to be totally reciprocal on our behalf.
So I really look very much forward to our discussion. It's a big discussion.
So, what do you think should happen with all these JPMorgan, Meta, and all these other companies, Boeing? What do you hope happens? What what do you worry could happen?
Well, look, I represent Ohio.
So what I hope happens is that we get a fair trade deal out of it. Look, we're at a disadvantage in the sense that China has things like the precursors for our pharmaceuticals, rare earth materials that we can't make batteries or bombs without in many cases. But they lack the sophisticated technology that many of our companies have. China. What I want to see come out of it is just a fair trade deal, where they're not subsidizing their industries, that they're not dumping products in American markets, and they're opening up their markets to American products, particularly agriculture, and also that when Americans make investments in China, those investments are protected, that they don't have to turn over their technology to the government or Chinese businesses.
We just want a fair, you know, we want a fair deal. Senator, I love with J.D. Vance of Ohio, as you know. He was senator there, you took his place. I love what he's doing on fraud.
Remember, Kamala Harris was given an assignment, fix the border. She denied it. She said, Oh, it's an impossible assignment. It was given to me to make me look bad. And she did a terrible job.
It was the worst border ever. J.D. Vance, about a month ago, has said, head up a fraud investigation. And now he's pushing California, he's pushing Maine. And he went to your state of Ohio and he saw it: blue states, red states.
Find out what the problem is. Cut 35. On the Ohio issue in particular, look, this happens everywhere. We're a big country, hundreds of billions of dollars goes out the door every single month from the federal government, and inevitably you're going to have people who try to take advantage of it. What bothers me is not that you have a few fraudsters out there, it's that the government hasn't taken seriously pushing it back.
You're always going to have bad people. You're always going to have a few bad apples try to take advantage of the system. What's so unique about this country until recently is that we didn't take that seriously. We didn't try to push back against the fraud, and that's what's changed. When I talk about cooperating with these various states, So Ohio, he points out They say an auditor reported a roughly 15.6% eligibility error when it comes to Medicaid, also flagging concentrated home health spending in Franklin County, that Avon Van's home state is a mess.
He says nearly 16%. They said that the red state, blue state doesn't matter. He went on to say that now the governor saw this, and now he's trying to get the money back and he's trying to put in reforms. But in the blue states, they just try to push back. Yeah, look, uh Yeah.
This is what happens. Every time the federal government makes it easier for people to have access to the social services that they need, they also make it easier for fraudsters to do these things. In many cases, the states don't have an incentive to crack down on the fraud because it's the federal government's money. It's not the state's money that they're administering. And so you just, so you have to want to do it.
When this was identified by our state auditor in Ohio, and then JD came in and really put a highlight on this, Governor DeWine responded and said, yes, okay, we've discovered this. Let's go find it. Let's get the mini, let's shut it down. What do they do in Minneapolis and Minnesota? What do they do in California?
They push back. They point fingers. They blame. They don't want to be a partner in solving the problem. That's why I'm actually introducing legislation today, along with Tommy Tubberville, to crack down on student loan fraud.
We've seen bots and other things try to apply for student loans. Put them in accounts, ship them overseas, and then we never see the money again.
So we got a fraud problem that technology has enabled in many cases that we have to fight back. But you got to be intentional about it. You got to have people that want to stop the fraud. See. Ah, I'm sensing plumbing problems.
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There's no kids in them. And there's hospice care, which has been abused. There's hospice care in every block in California.
So there's a six-month moratorium on new health care initiatives, money, federal money coming into Ohio. And they're doing some de-risking. You guys are doing mandatory GPS tracking for electronic visit verification on systems and new electronic visit verification requirements for live-in caregivers to make sure they're showing up. And that's what's going to be happening. Also, for you, There's police week.
So this has been an important week that I couldn't believe it. Our reporter, it was actually written up. Our reporter said on Monday, on was it Monday night, Tuesday night, when they honored those who lost their lives that year while on the job. that there were no democratic lawmakers on the stage. Has this been is this no longer a bipartisan support issue?
I don't understand why the Democrats have such animosity for the rule of law and the people who risk their lives to protect us every single day. In Ohio, last year, we lost four officers in the course of the line of duty, you know, responding to domestic violence calls. One officer just got run down by a car. Another officer. Who was eating lunch was just shot by a sniper who hated police.
These people have very dangerous jobs. They protect us. And the fact that Democrats just don't want to back the blue, that they want to defund the police, just like what they're doing at the border, they don't want border patrol. They don't want to deport criminals. I don't know why they've aligned themselves on the side of criminals and against law enforcement so often.
It just doesn't make any sense to me. Senator, where do you stand on funding the rest of DHS? I know you're going to do a supplemental. a reconciliation. We've got to be done really by June first if the President gets his wish.
But the question is, do you add things into it like the ballroom? Do you add things into it from the America First Act? I think we're having some lively discussions about those things right now. We want to protect the border. We want to protect the people of America.
And we certainly want to protect this President and any future President. And so we need to make sure that the security That the security at the White House is sound, but we also want to make sure that the American public. Supports those expenditures. Anything you add. What about suspending the national gas tax while we're in the middle of this war?
Oh, look, we need to bring the conclusion to this war in terms of the straight-of-war moves. Iran is keeping it closed. We need to get it opened up. If we do that, it will give dramatic relief to the inflationary pressures that high gas prices cause. And so we need to get that done as quickly as possible.
And I intend to meet with some officials from the administration when they get back from Beijing to figure out what's next there because this has to get opened up. And if reducing the gas tax is one of the options we consider, I think that we probably should. I don't know what it's going to do because I know you've got the War Powers Act, and we're going to debate the constitutionality of that. And can you pause it when we're in a pause like now? Because I think the President's got to make a decision by the time he gets back because the status quo doesn't work and we can't really get anything done.
So we might have to escalate in order to de-escalate. Senator, I'd love to talk to you about your reelection, but I can't because you're in your Senate office. But your thoughts on the war?
Well look at the On the war, we didn't bring it to a brief and successful conclusion. The fact of the matter is that a nuclear-armed Iran will be a greater threat than they are right now. And so we cannot let them have access to a nuclear weapon. Everybody says that. President Trump's the only one person that's ever actually tried to do something about it.
But I hope that the rest of the world joins us. It's in Beijing's interest. It's in China's interest. It's in Europe's interest that Iran not have control over the Strait of Hormuz. They should join us in denouncing what they're doing right now, open it back up, and then, frankly, get the nuclear material out.
Stop the process of Iran getting access to a nuclear weapon and then let them rejoin the global economy so that they can actually improve the quality of life for the people in their nation. There can be a good ending for everyone here if they're just reasonable about it. It would be, I think that the belligerent way in which they're approaching this. These talks and this ceasefire makes me think that we need for the Israeli Elimination Squad to get back into action. Senator, thanks so much.
Thank you.
