Congressman Byron Donalds (R) Florida Talks Bitcoin
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It's not easy to stand out from the crowd. Simplify how you stock up to get ahead. Go to AmazonBusiness.com for support. Joe and I, yes, are in Washington, but we actually have our eyes on Las Vegas at this hour where the Bitcoin 2025 conference is taking place. Remember last year when it was in Nashville, then Canada.

Donald Trump spoke before the conference, and today his now sitting vice president, J.D. Vance, was the keynote speaker, talking a big game about how this administration wants to be friendlier for the crypto industry overall. Make it, of course, as they've said often, the Bitcoin capital of the world. J.D. Vance today, Joe, saying we want our fellow Americans to know that crypto and digital assets

particularly bitcoin are part of the mainstream economy and are here to stay so helping us connect the dots between las vegas and washington here an actual policy from what goes on inside the venetian resort to underneath the capitol dome is byron donalds the congressman republican from florida's 19th is with us right now on balance of power congressman welcome back i hope things are going well in las vegas kaylee's right it was donald trump's turn last year when he promised america would become a bitcoin superpower

under his leadership. What changes need to happen right now to make that happen? Well, first, it's good to be with you. The first couple of changes are going to be legislation we're going to be moving through the Financial Services Committee this summer. One, dealing obviously with stablecoin legislation. We've been at that for a couple of years now under the leadership of former Chairman McHenry, who's now left Congress and now chairman of French Hill. And then, of course, our market structure legislation to create the regulatory framework

for digital assets overall to actually have a rules to the road where you have regulators understanding what their purview actually is. And unlike what was happening with Gary Gensler, just making up your purview as you go along because that's how you see that industry.

So I think those are the those are steps one and two for making Bitcoin as the president talks about the making Bitcoin of the United States, the Bitcoin capital of the world. You have to address the regulatory environment. You have to create a clear regulatory system when it comes to stable coins in particular that will feed the engine for people to bring more investments into the United States. And then that's how the United States will become a true leader when it comes to digital assets.

But as all of that legislative effort, Congressman, and it's great to have you on the program again, complicated by the conflict of interest questions around President Trump, knowing he has a meme coin and attended a dinner last week with investors in said meme coin, that DJT, the media company that literally bears his name, is...

raising money so that it can buy Bitcoin. Does that add a complicating factor to any kind of bipartisan effort in advancing legislation like that when that's giving Democrats a lot of noise to make? No, I don't think so. There's a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill who do realize that digital assets are here to stay. Bitcoin is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. And so it's time for the United States to actually take the necessary steps forward to fully embrace digital assets.

And so I think what's going to happen is we're going to move that policy out of the House. There are going to be Democrats, in my view, who are going to support both packages in the House. And you're going to have Democrats in the Senate support it. I think what you saw, and I think Democrats saw this by and large with how they acted towards the digital assets industry under the Biden administration. And if you're here on the conference, it was soundly rejected. I think people here understand that you have to have clear rules to the road.

You can't have regulators just picking and choosing how they're going to look at digital assets. You simply can't. So I think that to your question, I don't think that's going to matter at all. We're talking about an industry that really has the potential to be a trillion dollar industry here in the United States.

And not just to talk about the guys who are doing big things, whether it's Coinbase or any other company that's out there. Talk about the little guy, people who are getting in at the bottom of this industry, who are finding an opportunity to really build a company, really build wealth. That crosses party lines. It crosses demographic lines. And so we need to lead on this and not be afraid of talking points or other things that are going on.

But as we consider building wealth, what if all of this effort directly leads to further building the wealth of the president of the United States? Do you not see an issue there, Congressman? Look, I would tell you that a rising tide lifts all boats. You know, if Eric and Don are doing things in their personal capacities, that's fine. That's all well and good. That's America. I don't think people should be told that you can't do business in our country.

I will actually to be but to be blunt with you it's better that these things are actually out in the open for people to know and to see as opposed to what was happening under the previous administration where they were hiding how the family was making money they were hiding it from everybody they were lying to the American people the president

President Biden or the auto pen, whichever one you choose, had to do preemptive pardons. That stuff is ridiculous. That's outrageous. What we're talking about is regulating an industry in a proper way so that industry can thrive, it can grow, people can invest, capital can be raised, and people, whether you're at the top or the bottom, can get in. One of the things that I'm so excited about digital assets is

that when we finally get the regulatory environment settled you can do things like fractional you can do fractional exchanges where people can buy a fractional piece of real-world assets or a fractional piece of companies going forward so if somebody doesn't have you know fifty thousand dollars to their name to and to invest and they might have a

a couple hundred dollars, it might have $5,000, under a fractionalized tokenized exchange, you can invest in that. That helps people grow their asset base. It helps them grow themselves financially in our country. That's a good thing. We should celebrate that.

Congressman, I want to ask you about the effort on Capitol Hill that you're in the midst of right now when it comes to reconciliation, the Trump tax cuts, the spending cuts, and all the rest that comes with it here. Kayleigh mentioned a moment ago that the president was just asked in the Oval Office about comments from Elon Musk about the way this bill took shape in the House and is now, of course, on its way to the Senate. Let's listen to what he said, and we'll have you react. I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly.

which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and it reminds the work that the Doge team is doing. I actually thought that when this big, beautiful bill came along. I mean, like, everything he's done on Doge gets wiped out in the first year. I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful. It can be big or it can be beautiful, Congressman. That was with CBS. Is Elon Musk wrong?

Well, a couple of things. One, in the package, obviously, we maintained all of the president's tax policy and made a lot of it permanent, which is to the betterment of every small business owner, every American. We secure the border. We actually build border wall. We modernize our Defense Department. We do a lot of things that have been neglected, especially over the last four years that need to get done. And we were able to accomplish that.

When it comes to spending cuts, yeah, Elon's right on this. We have to do a much better job in making sure that these bills are at a minimum deficit neutral, but what they need to do is decrease deficits. And so that was a major sticking point for a lot of conservatives in the House. They want to see real spending cuts in these packages. I know that there's a rescissions package

that the House has in their possession, we need to move that to the floor and do that immediately. A lot of the doge cuts are in that rescissions package. We should be voting on that. At the end of the day, before you get to bills or how any of that looks like, I look at the bond market.

And one thing is crystal clear, the bond market is looking at the United States and they are saying, you better get your fiscal house in order or we're gonna charge you more to borrow money. No nation can thrive under that kind of a scenario. So we have to be serious on Capitol Hill. Last thing I will say is the president and his team, they did a tremendous job of trying to get this bill through the house. Some of the sticking points on why we didn't cut more spending was because of Republicans

who to be blunt, were concerned about their reelections in their districts, as opposed to making sure that we put the fiscal health of the nation forward and have that be the number one thing we're concerned about. So I think that as this bill goes through the Senate, the Senate is going to make changes. It will come back to the House. And if for future packages, I'd urge my colleagues, we have to take our deficits and our debts seriously, because if we don't get this under control, the bond market is going to come for everybody. I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. It does not matter.

the bond market charging higher rates for treasury bonds is going to be a major issue that really could hurt the United States over the long term, if not sink us. Well, on the bond market, Congressman, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro just penned an op-ed about that today in The Hill, saying that the bond market is wrong about Trump's tax bill. It misses the substantial positive revenue impact of tariffs. What's your take on Navarro's argument?

Well, I agree with Peter when it comes to the president's tax policy and even some tariff policy. Yes, those are revenue raisers. And I would argue that when you get out of the, frankly, the negotiating around what the economic growth rates are going to be on Capitol Hill, that was a negotiation. It's not about what's going to happen.

I think things in the president's tax package, obviously section 199A being continued and now permanent, 100% expensing over four years, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. I think all those things are going to be stimulative to the economy. But I think what the bond market is really talking about is our deficits and our debts and the velocity of borrowings into the future. That's what we have to get under control. I would argue that if the bill was deficit neutral coming out of the House, Moody's would not have downgraded.

I'll tell you that right now. I don't think they would have. And so I think that those are the things that the bond market is looking at. It's not tax policy. Peter is correct when it comes to tax policy. Totally agree with him on that. But the bond market is looking at the deficit projections, the debt projections of the United States.

We have to take this stuff seriously. There are real reforms that need to happen in Washington, D.C. And so that's the stuff that when you look at future pieces of legislation, when it comes to deficits and debts, that's the stuff that we have to get to get serious about. This is fascinating for us to hear, Congressman. In our remaining moment, are you quietly hoping the Senate cuts spending further when it gets its hands on the bill?

Oh yeah, of course. Listen, I am all for cutting spending. And look, let's be clear on this. I know that there are a lot of Americans who say, well, if you cut spending, is that the thing that I use? And I will tell you that the federal government wastes so much money, we could actually do more when it comes to spending and actually not hit vulnerable populations. I'll give you an example. There was a lot of conversation around Medicaid and this bill. The Democrats are saying, oh, Medicaid is to pay for tax cuts.

That is a lie. That is simply not true. The reason why it's a lie is because when the Democrats were in charge, they did not touch Donald Trump's tax policy. They left it in place because it's good tax policy. So what the real argument is in Medicaid, should the federal government be spending $9 for every $1 that a state spends on able-bodied adults with no kids versus the same federal government paying $1.33 for poor kids,

elderly people who are poor and pregnant women. That is a dichotomy set up by Barack Obama and Obamacare. And it's terrible policy because what you've done is you've expanded the Medicaid population for able bodied adults and you're actually disincentivizing state systems and hospitals from serving the most vulnerable. So there are positions on the Hill that said, look,

Let's try to rework some of this stuff. Let's do more investment into poor people, vulnerable populations. Let's actually try to take a stab at rural health and some other issues that are happening in the country. But we have to end this Medicaid expansion fallacy around essentially creating expansion populations around Medicaid. You have to end that.

One of the big reasons the Democrats want to keep Medicaid expansion is not for health care. It's because they want single payer health care. That was the reason they wanted a public option back when they did the Affordable Care Act back in 2010. That was the purpose of that. So there are conversations like that happening on Capitol Hill where you can make changes to a program like Medicaid.

You can make sure people who are on those programs are grandfathered in, their benefits don't get cut, but going forward, the federal government says, "We're not gonna be funding able-bodied adults going forward into the future. We're gonna make sure we prioritize vulnerable populations, people who are truly in need."

That's the kind of spending reform that I think the bond market would say, you know what, they're being serious. That's also the type of spending reforms that I think the American people will get behind because they'll be like, that makes sense. We should be making sure that people who are truly vulnerable get the help that they deserve.

What about people who are vulnerable to the elements, Congressman? And I ask you this knowing you would like to be the next governor of Florida. Are you worried that funding cuts in areas like FEMA and elsewhere as we head into Atlantic hurricane season could leave states like Florida more vulnerable in responding to disasters?

Well, look, I think that what you're going to see is the reworking of FEMA, which is something I have advocated for. I filed a bill with Jared Moskowitz, Democrat out of Florida, about getting FEMA out of Homeland Security, having it being a direct report agency to the White House. So I think I commend the White House on what they're doing. President Trump is leading on this issue, making sure that FEMA is reformed. So I'm not concerned about that.

Knowing the president, knowing his team, they're going to be there to make sure that people are getting every help that they need and they deserve from the federal government when disaster strikes. So I have no concerns about that. But you do ask the real question about FEMA. FEMA.

FEMA is a bureaucratic mess, and it has been for quite some time. Go ask the people in North Carolina. They will tell you. Ask the people in the Panhandle, Big Bend area, Southwest Florida, my district. They will tell you this. So FEMA needs to be reworked. I commend the president for what he's doing. Let them go through that process. But I will tell you, Americans, Floridians, they're going to get the help that they need when disaster strikes from Donald Trump.

All right. Florida gubernatorial candidate and current Republican congressman representing Florida's 19th district, Byron Donalds. Thank you so much for joining us here on Balance of Power live from Las Vegas, where Bitcoin 2025 is underway. We'll have more on crypto and its ties to this White House and this president later on. How can you grow your business from idea to industry leader? Bring your vision to life with smart business buying tools and technology from Amazon Business. From

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