TUSCALOOSA — On Monday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) discussed paying down national debt, which is approaching $37 trillion.
After attending a summit about reforming the Simplified Sellers Use Tax, Alabama's senior U.S. Senator was asked if the national debt could be reduced by 25%.
Tuberville said he could see the debt getting paid down 25% in his lifetime, adding that tariffs and getting people back to work would be key.
"[B]ut it’s not going to be through taxes. The American people can't afford it. We are taxed enough as it is. President Trump has laid out his plan. We've got to grow the country. We've got to get more people working, obviously. We've got to do everything we possibly can with these tariffs."
"And a lot of people don’t like the tariffs, and I can understand that. We’re having to pay a little more at the grocery store, clothing, things that are made in this country, but for us to pay our debt down, most of it’s got to come through tariffs. They're predicting this year $500-$700 billion will come back into our country from tariffs this year, and that was even before the EU deal or the Japanese deal, so we can't put the burden on the American taxpayers. We have to put the burden on the people that live out of the country that are taking away from us. We are the biggest consumer of products in the world, the United States of America, so if we're going to pay this debt down, it's got to come from tariffs, and it's got to come from growth of the country, putting more people to work, better jobs, and that's President Trump's gameplan."
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