The Honorable Steven T. Mnuchin, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury

[Music] mr. secretary I want to thank you very much for coming work absolutely pleasure to be here let me give a brief introduction and then we'll go into some questions secretary minuchin is the 77th secretary of treasury he's a native of New York graduated from Yale in 1985 where he was the publisher of the Yale Daily News and also a member of skull and bones which he cannot acknowledge because it's a secret society he joined in 1985 is that right you cannot really just true that I if I were I couldn't acknowledge it right okay so he joined goldman sachs in 1985 became a partner in 1994 and rose up to be a member of the management committee he was the chief investment chief information officer of goldman sachs also headed the mortgage securities department at one point he left in 2002 after 17 years and formed in capital which did a number of financial investments one of which was in the bank which he bought from the FDIC he also was involved in the entertainment business he threw dune entertainment he financed a number of movies including and co-produced them avatar Mad Max Superman Batman other movies like that ultimately sold Indy bank through CIT after that occurred he told me when I saw him at a dinner once that he was going to become the campaign finance chairman for Donald Trump I said you'll never be heard from again because that probably won't lead anything that's correct that is correct but my predictions are usually wrong and so it worked out reasonably well for you and you became the ad for the President and for the president and I became secretary of the Treasury appointed by the President and was confirmed by on February 13th of 2017 so have you talked to your accountant about your own taxes are they going up are they going down well I'm definitely making a lot less money in this job so I can categorically say but my rate is is going up going on so given California New York my rate is going up so are your friends still friends of yours because their tax rates are going up or your friends saying they're happy and what your friends are happy with the tax bill we're not absolutely I mean I think people understand the economic impact that this is having and this will continue to have and I think you know Eve even for people in New York in California there's a slight increase it's it's not a very big increase on the high end but obviously we saw yesterday Walmart's announcement which was very impressive over a million people at Walmart getting additional bonuses we're now up to over a hundred and thirty companies and two million workers that have gotten raises and special bonuses okay so the process of getting a tax bill through Congress were you really convinced you could get it done in the first year I really was I mean originally I was on the record saying we could get it done by August there was a schedule to get it done by August obviously the health care delayed things but yeah we this was a well thought-out plan okay now it didn't go through what's called regular order regular water meeting committee hearings and so forth and do you think the regular order is more or less a good thing to avoid in tax legislation or are you happy with the way it went actually technically it did go through regular order I think the issue is it went through reconciliation which was 51 votes but technically it did go through the committee process and regular order so is there anything in the bill that you wish was not in there is there anything that you're not happy with the bill no I think you know overall I couldn't be more pleased with it you know if you look at the process and I think what worked very well is first of all the House committees had worked on taxes and thinking about this for a long time so you know way before the president and I showed up they had been working had gone through a blueprint during the campaign in developing the president's economic program we spent a lot of time with him thinking about taxes and taxes were a major part of his platform and what he was going to do and I think we couldn't be more pleased that's not to say that every single page and every single light item but I think we couldn't be more pleased with the overall bill you know sometimes after you pass these major bills there is a so called technical Corrections bill but to get a technical Corrections bill passed you need 60 votes presumably so are you going to try to get a technical Corrections bill or you don't need one I think that something will we'll see so you know I don't know if we will or we won't it's something that we've we've talked about I would say you know as opposed to everyone else who has now moved on to other legislative things our number-one issue right now is implementing the tax plan it's it's a massive amount of work at Treasury and the IRS yesterday we just announced the new withholding tables so people will get tax breaks and in February I'd say the good news is there's there's nothing that we've identified so far that we think is particularly problematic that we think we'd need a technical correction there are like 80 sections of the bill that are left to the secretary to put out regulations so we have a lot of work at Treasury in the IRS now very often when you pass new tax legislation the IRS has more work but there doesn't seem to be new evidence of hiring more IRS agencies or an effort to go and got more a IRS agents or you're not need to do that no I'd say I mean this touches every single aspect of the IRS from technology to process these two forms and we are speaking with Congress about getting additional funding for the implementations so we would expect that we would we would hire a significant number of people to help with the implementation but not to audit people you know I would say in all seriousness one of my projects for the IRS is to look at how we can use technology much more for audits so you know I think we want to make sure that we automate I think as you know there's something that's called the tax gap which is the theoretical difference between what we do collect and what we should collect and we're gonna we're gonna look at using technology in an era that and one of the most important changes in the tax code as a result of the bill is the elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes were there's some limitation of $10,000 that was controversial and politically controversial I suspect do you think you could have avoided doing that if you had phased in the corporate tax cut in other words the corporate tax cut comes in right away suppose had phased it in over five years would you been able to keep that deduction well David issue is you know kind of within reconciliation we had a certain amount of money that we had to work with so there were trade-offs and that's one of the trade-offs we could have made I would say the elimination of what people refer to assault as a state and local taxes that was something that was part of the house blueprint from day one that was something we kind of thought through I think you know the $10,000 I'm gonna realize for people in this room that may not seem like a lot for state and local taxes but that was a meaningful impact for a big chunk of the country and I I think we had the right balance I mean I think the issue and we've said this from day one is you know why should the high tax States be subsidized and let me just say because then normally the follow-on question is well the high tax states are donor states and they give more money and my response to that is that's because there's more wealthy people that live in those states well some people say it was an effort to buy the red states to tax the less I don't think that's the case at all there was there is there is not one meeting that I was in that this became anybody said this is a political issue is an economic issue what do you think about governor's who might be saying to their constituents you can make your payment to your state and local taxes and make it a charitable deduction I think I think that's one of the funniest things I've possibly heard III will say we'll wait to see the language but well then I think most people understand the concept of a charitable deduction that is voluntary that goes to help people and things like that is very different than the high cost of real estate taxes in my favorite two locations New York in California so there would be no auditing of governors who propose that in other words you wouldn't audit their taxes we wouldn't audit their taxes but I can assure you we will we will audit real estate taxes now people who work on this tax bill that gang of six so that's gang of six so what were those meetings like and how did you avoid the press knowing when you were meeting and and what was the interchange like well again I think one of the things that worked really really well is this was a team effort so you know I think there were a lot of people in the beginning who said you know well you know the White House and Treasury you should put out your own you should put out your own plan you should write the bill and I think was very clear to us from the beginning that we need to make sure the Treasury the White House the House and the Senate were on the same page and when we started the process I think the House and the Senate were pretty far apart and we we worked every week on narrowing those differences and today and then just answer your second question of how did we avoid you know one of the good things about having the Secret Service followed me around is that they can take you through kitchens and garages and things like that conveniently so the tax bill it is said by some that it will increase the u.s. debt by roughly 1 point 1 to 1.5 trillion over 10 years do you agree with that I don't you think it will be revenue neutral where so I mean he here here the numbers okay the joint let's start with joint axe which scored it at I think a billion four fifty we'll call it a tree excuse me at one-and-a-half trillion okay that was what we had to reconcile to on what we call a static basis with no change joint tax thought there was about five hundred billion of what we call dynamic scoring and revenue that we'd get back there was also about another 450 or 500 billion and what we call the difference between policy and the baseline so we they were measuring it to what they call the baseline there were tax extenders that were rolled over every year again our view is you should measure it to what the actual policy is and you know we think there will be over a trillion dollars of growth so I do think this will pay for it so you're projecting growth out of the government of roughly three percent a year for the next ten years or so yeah I mean it's actually about two point nine point nine we do believe we can we predict for modeling purposes we use two point nine but we do think we can get to three percent or higher but if you actually fail then you got just two point two or two point three the deficit would or the debt would be much higher yeah I mean by by definition but it's never gonna be higher again the worst case scenario it's the trillion and a half less the half a billion and what were policy extenders well there are no Democratic votes for the tax bill so did you try to get Democratic votes with just no willingness and the Democrats apart to participate no we did and you know we had a series of meetings that the president hosted several bipartisan meetings we had several Democrats fly with us on Air Force one with the president to their home states when he gave speeches but you know from the beginning you know kind of the Democrats sent a letter to the President and copied me and made very clear kind of what their conditions were and I think there was a big philosophical difference we were focused on creating growth and creating things that were good for the American economy and they kind of drew a line in the sand okay so if the Democrats were to regain control of the government at some point that say to Congress and even the White House at some point do you worry that the tax bill would be undone because there are no Democratic votes for it not not at all I mean first of all I think it's a unlikely hypothetical but even if it were I think at that period I mean you're gonna I think it will be clear that you will have the economic growth and if there is the economic growth it's not going to be unwound hey so money is going to be there's a tax on money that's offshore so you're gonna bring money back or you're gonna put an excise tax on it so presumably companies will bring it back yes there's no requirement that they invested in job-creating kinds of things why was there no requirement that they use it in a certain way you know that's that's a good question and that was something we talked about a lot and various people came up with ideas should we put conditions should we attach it to this I think our view was if we create the right incentives that companies one will bring it back because we charge them the tax either way so obviously there's a big incentive to bring it back but I think as you know David certain industries people should make capital investments certain industries people should return money to workers as we've seen with Walmart so I think philosophically our view was let the companies allocate that capital and we believe 70% of it will ultimately flow back to the workers now the president was involved that you call him every other day or how did that process work and what's going on a president was unbelievably involved so I mean again if I go back to the campaign you know kind of on his two major economic speeches one was Detroit and one was New York I mean literally up until he went on stage he was fine-tuning you know the tax rates what we were doing we debated them and you know I would say there's no question that for the last year he called either Gary or I or both of us every single day with either he had views or we were reporting back to him what we were doing when you get a call from the president somebody says the president's aligned is make you nervous or you don't know what he's gonna say or that's you're happy to get those clothes I mean it doesn't make me nervous at all and again I think one of the good things for me in this job is I've known him for a long time and I traveled with him for a year in the campaign so you know kind of I wouldn't be here if I didn't feel like we could have good two-way conversations but at the end of the day I understand he's the president it's his decision so on the tax bill today as you see it you're very happy with it and you don't see any need to make any modifications you're gonna live with this bill there's no effort to modify it anyway I mean there there may be a need for certain technical Corrections but I think again there's there's nothing we've identified right now that's a problem but we will see if we need to so the debt of the United States is roughly 20 trillion dollars yes more or less and you are in responsible making certain that we pay the debt and as a owner of Treasury bills I want to make sure that you do pay that debt are you worried about the debt limit you're gonna run out of capacity you were actually over the period of time now but you are so you have a couple more months before you can't pay my Treasury bills is that right so you know again this was one of the things that you know multiple Treasury secretaries advised me on before I got into the job I've been through now one extension you know kind of a certain people were critical of of me in the extension at the end of the day this is all about you know kind of we absolutely have to raise the debt ceiling every time we get close to the debt ceiling I think one of the things the president and I are thinking about is how should this process be changed I mean we have a debt ceiling we have a budget and we have appropriations and I think you know David in any business you kind of plan what you're going to spend and then you plan how you finance it it's somewhat of a ridiculous process the way we do this I think you should have a debt limit at all I don't know I won't go so far as saying we shouldn't have a debt limit but I do believe that when money is authorized to be spent there should be some mechanism that the debt limit is also raised to pay for it so however we refine that process and the other thing you know I we're now in a I'm using these Treasury super powers because we have hit the debt limit and again the problem with that is all that does is the more time you extend that you know this town doesn't really work till you hit a deadline that you need to do it well speaking of another deadline the government will run out of money relatively soon I think January 19 is that well that that they would that that's again that's authorization to spend we won't run out of money the debt limit is running I will have the cash we just won't have the authorization to spend it I mean the operative the operation of the the government the funding government the appropriation you think that that will get resolved in time I I I don't think there will be a shutdown I think it'll either be resolved or there'll be another CR to extend this okay people to work on it alright so let's go through a couple of other things before we get back to the tax bill for a moment you grew up in New York you went to Yale as I mentioned you went to Goldman Sachs why did you want to be an investment banker and it was that what you studied in had to be and when you were at college er well I did study economics I was when it when I was at Yale I was actually publisher of the Yale Daily News and I was very interested in publishing and I remembered I actually thought I may want to go into publishing and I actually applied for a job at Conde Nast for the summer and I think probably the one of the best things they ever did was reject me that they said thank you very much but we're not hiring summer interns so I actually ended up working at Salomon Brothers for three summers and you know had grown up around Wall Street and really liked the mortgage trading business that's kind of where I started okay so you left goldman sachs and you then started your own financial services company and one of the companies you bought was indymac and controversial at times why was a controversial when you were confirmed people ask you a lot about it why was it so controversial sure so you know I was sitting in my office in New York during the summer of 2008 watching TV all the the news and indeed this was kind of in the middle of the crisis and IndyMac the literally there were people lined up around the block trying to get their money out so that this was this was a real bank run we hadn't had a bank run in this country in a very very long period of time and IndyMac was actually one of the I think what are the only deals the FDIC actually had to take it over and operate the bank but most of the way the FDIC took over Bank says they take it over Friday night they'd sell it on Friday night you'd open up for business on on on Monday IndyMac was a highly problematic Bank it had it had specialized in no-doc loans their mortgage portfolio had 30% delinquencies as I like to say even in the financial crisis it was hard to originate loans that were that bad that had those delinquency rates the only reason I was able to buy it and put together an investment group was no real Bank wanted to buy it I mean it had it had every problematic loan it had construction loans it had home builder loans it had a big portfolio of reverse mortgages so we came and cleaned up but the reason why it was controversial is because it had so many delinquent loans that we had to work through all those loans under government law sharing agreements okay so you openly sold at the CIT did well yes you did you know Donald well let me ask you about your movie career first before I get the Donald trust what what does a producer actually do you know when you're a producer I mean you're picking the the actors or actresses what does a producer actually do when you were producing all these movies so first I'd say I was probably the least likely person to get in the film business when I first looked at these investments in what I had my own investment business and someone came to us and said well you know we should look at this film investment I'm like that's the craziest idea if we invest in films everybody will take their money back from us but we developed a theory which turned out very well that if you invest in any one film it's very risky if you can put together a portfolio of fifty or a hundred films that are high-quality films it's a long-term bet on content and when I made these investments and partially because I had a technology background I had a view as that content was going to be worth a lot more money at the time there was no Netflix at the time there weren't iPads but I did understand technology and understood bandwidth and and understood that as bandwidth became faster and faster and faster to the consumer there would be more and more demand so I didn't actually pick any of those films I did two deals one I did with with Fox where we did two hundred one hundred and sixty films with Fox and then 75 films with Warner Bros you don't go on the set and say well you should act it this way or do it that no absolutely not I was I was the the I was a the money all right so I saw you at a conference out in Los Angeles I think it was the Milken conference it was we were kind of to host me for a dinner and you told I think several years I did several years you did and I would say one time you said you were gonna become the finance chair for Donald Trump's presidential campaign I said look I've lived in washing a long time he is not gonna be president States so are you sure you know what you're doing and your response was you didn't know what you were doing yes and how did you happen to know Donald Trump so I knew him I've known him for about 15 years you know I would describe it was more socially than business we did a little bit of business together we looked at a lot of investments together and we got to we got to know each other quite well and I actually had been speaking to him even going back to while he was thinking of running matter of fact came out to Los Angeles I remember having dinner with him right before he announced and after he decided to run you know I'd come visit him every couple of months and be like how can I help and he's like well I'm financing the whole thing myself now thank you very much and then right after he won New York I was actually in New York he called me up the next day and said do you want to come on board I'd like you to be my finance chairman and we agreed to meet in Indianapolis the next day and talk about it because I was in California actually back in California and I will tell you I went to this event I don't know if anybody in this room ever went to a trump rally okay but I showed up this doesn't look like a big Trump rally there there were there were 30,000 people who had been waiting probably three or four hours and the only way I can describe this is it was like showing up with Mick Jagger to a Rolling Stones concert and it was the minute I saw that I knew he was going to absolutely win and be president and the more the more I traveled with him the more convinced I was that he had on something now had you been a Democrat or a Republican I've been absolutely a Republican you know for whatever reason I gave well I gave money to a bunch of Democrats as you can appreciate people like you would call me up and ask for favors not you I might add but people like you and you know I I did write some checks but I've always been a Republican and you most of your friends though in Hollywood area probably were liberal Democrats someone they heard you were doing this did they call you and say what are you doing yes and have they come to try to get favors from you since then or if they leave you alone now they haven't tried to get favors but I would say you know even a lot of people who were skeptical have come around seeing the economic plan and seeing what this has done to the economy and the markets okay so he was elected president did you think he was going to win again I told you I was a hundred percent convinced and even at the end when we were seeing the Florida polling numbers I was hearing from people on the ground I said these polls are not right he's gonna win Florida and he will win okay so he called you and said I would like to be Secretary of Treasury and did you have any doubt you wanted to do that job actually he didn't call me right after he won I was part of the transition and actually he put me even though I knew him well and everything else he put me through an interview process like like other people and being the good former investment banker I showed up with my yellow pad and had a whole presentation and kind of walked him through what I would do if I had the job and that's literally distilled the game plan that I'm operating on today okay so when you he offered you a job did you realize that the IRS audits every year the tax returns of the Secretary of Treasury and you would have to be audited every year and because that's okay with you he has no problems i I didn't matter of fact I I will tell you one of the things I mean I knew I'd have to sell lots of I'd have to sell everything you know that didn't bother me I I did not realize how difficult the process was of going through a confirmation I think I delivered like literally 8,000 pages I mean in the most ridiculous part is you know I'd say I'm selling you know this this this this I literally sold everything and they're still what we want to look at every investment so how much it cost and legal entity a lot I won't say it here and we're on live TV but it was it was very expensive okay so what's the best part about being Secretary of Treasury other than interviews like this it's definitely not interviews like this although I'm I'm always happy to be here this is great so the best part seconded it what I mean it is it is by far the most interesting thing I've ever done and I think the thing that's that's great about this job is it touches on so many different aspects of the government so obviously a big focus of what I do is domestic in international finance but a big component of what we do is manage all the sanctioned programs so whether it's Iran whether it's North Korea whether it's Venezuela whether it's Russia kind of I'm a member of the National Security Council and this is a big part of the strategy that we employ for foreign policy so the job touches on a big part of this and I'd say the other thing that's great is we have the best location we got the best building in the best location matter of fact the president every time he flies in a marine one he's like your building's a lot bigger than my building now but the best thing is it's six minutes from my office to his office and six minutes back but his button is bigger than anybody else's right that is true and is there a secret tunnel under the Treasury Building that goes to the White House actually there there there was it there was a tunnel at one point I won't tell you whether the tunnel exists or not but I will tell you I don't use the tunnel I literally walk out of the steps they open a little gate for me I walk into the East Wing I walk through the East Wing through the Rose Garden into the West Wing so you made a trip that got a lot of its intention to Fort Knox is our gold really there it is and why do we need all that gold and because who cares about the gold anymore why do we need it well that's that's a good question I think is is you know at one point we were on the gold standard that's how we got all the gold most of the gold was bought during that period of time and you know it's it's it's been a good asset so you know we've got gold there and we also have gold at the New York Fed and it's well practically had the opportunity to see both of them from there well protect they have guards around the clock and everything it's classified so I won't tell you what's around the clock but it's very well protected okay what about Bitcoin are you comfortable with that currency and what do you think that US government should do about it should we encourage it discourage the UO actually don't I don't own any I just wanted so I own no Bitcoin I don't know what it is really but though I know I missed the boat on that but but is that something that you're worried about that could replace the dollar as a currency and so I mean first let me say I'm we are very focused on cyber currencies crypto will you call crypto currency cyber currencies we're very focused on this and actually at the last eff sock meeting that I chaired we set up a working group we're working with all the regulators so really the the biggest issue I have two issues with them that we're focused on one is we want to make sure that bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things so in the United States and people may not realize this under our laws if you have a wallet to own bitcoins that company has the same obligation as a bank to know your customer so in the United States we have rules that for money laundering for all different types of things we can track those activities the rest of the world doesn't have that so one of the things we will be working very closely with the g20 on is making sure that this doesn't become the Swiss numbered bank accounts and then we do it the other concern I have is there's a lot of speculation in this and you know I want to make sure that consumers who are trading this understand the risks because you know I am concerned that consumers could get hurt where do you worry that like Russia it was now some of those it was a legitimate government report maybe fake news I don't know but that Russia is thinking of it and coming up with its own cryptocurrency as a way to get around sanctions is that something you're worried about not not at all no I mean I don't think it's a I don't think that's a concern I mean there there are countries and again this is something actually I've spoken to the Fed about so there's crypto currencies like a Bitcoin which you know effectively it's instead of euros or dollars you have a different currency there are central banks that are thinking of instead of issuing cash physical cash issuing a digital currency so I mean the Fed has contemplated and looked at and I don't think they have any intention of doing this in the near term you could issue digital dollars the Fed and we don't think there's any need for that at this point talk about physical currency there's a picture of you getting I guess one dollar bills I guess it was from the Treasury and every secretary signs it do you have to improve your handwriting before you actually put it on the deep practices well I I did because I'll tell you my signature I'm sure like yours was perfected from signing lots of documents and like a nanosecond but was completely illegible so now my signature is really neat and of course I've never been criticized that it's too neat on the bill but if you actually sign a check and with your real signature and then you sign the dollar bill this way people cover compare that maybe I actually actually David I thought of that problem and now I have institutionalized my NEET signature so I sent new documents to the banks and signed checks that way as well so your predecessor said that I guess in the twenty dollar bill we would change some parts of it but actually he left office before that could happen that takes a couple years to get to change the currency have you any plans to change what he proposed or what are you thinking about the twenty dollar bill so you know as you mentioned the previous administration looked at changing the currency let me first start with you know kind of why we why we change the currency and the reason why we change the currency is all about counterfeiting so there have been changes to the currency over time if you look at the hundred dollar bill there's certain features that obviously you can now see there's actually certain features that are in the bills that you can't see that only machines can see and detect whether they're counterfeit or not so I have met with the Secret Service I have met with the Fed we are working our focus is working on the next kind of security features in the bill and you know kind of this this is this is years away okay but on the question of whether you would still have Harriet Tubman we haven't made any decisions as to whether we'll change the bill or we won't change the bill in terms of that but again are the money has been a the money's been a certain way for a long period of time and we'll look at whether we change it or hey when you mentioned the Fed it was reported the press that you had recommended that j-pal become the chairman of the Fed was that your recommendation so I'm not going to comment specifically you know I was very involved in a recommendation to the president I'm not going to comment on who I recommended her who I didn't but I would say on I'm very supportive of Jay in this job we look for I think Janet Yellen has done a great job and I look forward to now working with Jackie how many how frequently do you meet with the chairman of the Fed every week so we alternate we meet every week alternating between their office and my own did you ever say well maybe interest rates should stay low be helpful the economy you can't quite give them a Prada bout what they do on interest rates er no I mean I respect the independence of the interest rate decisions we talk about what the impact of the economy is we talk about regulatory issues we talk about international issues I mean it's interesting because when I started these meetings it's like what are we gonna have to talk about every week and and and I will tell you there's not been a week where Janet Yellen and I have not literally spent an hour talking about important things and a lot of times it's they're very different very different issues well is it awkward it was reported in the press that you were recommending somebody other than her and you still are meeting with her that that got to be awkward in those meetings no okay so the economy what are you projecting for the economy this year in terms of growth inflation rate unemployment rate higher growth moderate inflation lower unemployment right what is your biggest worry about the economy today we've had 8 years of uninterrupted growth more or less the third longest period since World War two at some point something will probably slow down are you worried about it however happening this year or next year you know David it's a good question I mean you know what I would say is in people in my job people in your job are not very good at predicting necessarily what the next problem is and a lot of reasons why the next problem turns out to be such a big problem is because it's something that people haven't anticipated so I mean III would say you know if there's something I am concerned about from the financial system I would say cyber is something I'm very focused on I do think it's a you know kind of it's one of these areas that we've got to continue to invest a lot of money privately the government make sure that the government is working with the private industry but that that would be the one area that you know kind of if there were an issue would be concerning now a number of Treasury's cabinet secretaries including you and the president are going to Davos next week Davos is a place where the global elite gather but the president's constituency is not the global elite so why is he going there well David you know I got asked this question yesterday when I gave a brief news conference at the White House and first of all I didn't realize that it was the global elite okay you tell me a little bit more about I realized that globalist like you do attend but actually I've looked at the list there's an awful lot of world leaders there's an awful lot of Finance chairs there's an awful lot of businesspeople so to me this is this is no more the global elite than the the g20 or the event that I attended with you in Saudi Arabia or the Milken conference this is an important economic agenda so when you meet finance ministers around the world do you under wonder how they became a finance minister or you often say these people are really impressive or how do you get along with these finance ministers you know generally very well I mean I'd say the the person who I've been the most impressed with is Wolfgang Schauble who's now retiring from the finance chair I think he's the longest-serving but you know I've had several private dinners with him and to me you know spending time with people like him it's really an education I mean he his perspectives going back to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the changes to the economy there some some people are very interesting some people are not you've met with men which ones are not you've my gave you one of the really interesting ones so you've met you've met with number of your predecessors what is the most important advice your predecessors give you about the job of being Secretary of Treasury I think there's been a lot there's been a lot of good advice I think I think probably the most important part and the most important advice has been around kind of the various different aspects of the job and you know kind of different people have had different advice on policies but I think kind of one of the things the Treasury is known for is the career staff you know we have a very long very professional career staff I think in other agencies the politics gets much more impacted through the career staff I think treasurer is really known for kind of and again because so many of the functions are operational just you know great career staff hey now the legislative goals of the president this year infrastructure is that one of his highest goals and it is and do you see that being bipartisan or will be solely Republican no that definitely has to be bipartisan and you know there's there's been a lot of work done on it already now health care legislation the president made an effort earlier to change Obama care that didn't quite work but some of the mandate is to take it out through the Treasury bill after the tax bill is are you done now on trying to make any legislative changes on the health care bill I think that's something that the president is considering and talking to Congress about I mean I would say you know what we were able to accomplish in the tax bill was getting rid of the individual mandate I think fundamentally the idea that you should charge people penalties because they're forced to buy insurance that's something we didn't agree with and we think makes sense to come out the other thing we're now looking at is in and again we're working with the Department of Labor and and and others on regulations that will allow different businesses to get together in different associations to get together and across state lines their insurance buying and I think that's going to create a great opportunity for companies to lower their costs lots lots of companies that independently would be very expensive as opposed to having to go into the exchanges will be able to buy down their risk now do you have your full complement of assistant secretaries or most the people you need now or you're still working to get them confirmed now we still have several people that we're waiting to get confirmed and we have a few more people that are going to the process to be announced it's it harder to get them through the white house process or the Senate process not yet not even close getting them through the white house process has been very easy for us I mean again I think we have very good communication to the white house getting it through the Senate is is very challenging I mean I think I think the statistic is that at this rate you know kind of we won't fill the government okay so now you see the president regularly is he happy with the job does he wish he hadn't run for president is he happy being president he loves being president hey now before he was elected president he actually came the Economic Club of Washington we had an interview do you think he should come back and I I do all right well you recommend I will all right so let me ask you now you I've been Treasury secretary now for about almost a year yes you enjoy the job do you have any plans to stay for one year two year three years you stay the whole post term term I'll be here as long as the president is as president and meaning either four years or seven seven years eight years okay so you you're happy with the job now Cecily some of your predecessors have gone on to be Secretary of State do you aspire to do that I do not thank you well thrilled with my job don't want another job happy to do this now where are the egos biggest Hollywood Washington or Wall Street that is really a tough competition okay where are the people the nicest Washington Washington Washington people are definitely the nicest - okay so that's when I story and I'm sticking with all right mr. secretary I want to thank you very much for coming I appreciate your take [Applause]

Channel: The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.

Views: 35,443

Keywords: The Honorable Steven Mnuchin, David M. Rubenstein, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Id: 4IaKyNM_h00

Length: 44min 5sec (2645 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 12 2018