Rep. Hill remembers Barbara Bush, discusses tax cuts and House leadership

U.S. Rep. French Hill, a veteran of the George H.W. Bush White House, fondly remembered former First Lady Barbara Bush, who passed away at the age of 92 last week.

“Barbara Bush was a wonderful, warm, gracious woman with a sharp wit and a sharp tongue and was fiercely loyal to her husband and to her family. And absolutely, that was her hallmark. I’ve known her since 1979 and I love her sense of humor, but she was a tough lady, and you sat up straight when she came in the room and you better follow all her protocol rules,” recalled Hill, a guest on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics.

The GOP incumbent Congressman who represents Arkansas’ Second District also discussed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s announcement that he would not run for re-election and outlined some of his principles on future tax cuts.

While he’s comfortable with Congressmen Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.), Hill (R-Little Rock) said that he believes the race to succeed Ryan should wait until after the November elections. He noted that somewhere between 30 to 40 Republican congressmen are retiring this year.

“I don’t think you can get out ahead of that decision when you’ve got a substantial portion of the Republican caucus that’s yet to be determined because of the November elections. I think it’s fair to all parties to be involved at that election time as we always do and immediately after the election select our new leader for that upcoming Congress,” Hill said.

On taxes, Hill said the tax cuts that became law in December 2017 are working to grow the economy and he said he expected the impact from the plan to shrink the forecasted addition of $1.5 trillion to the national debt that stands close to $21 trillion today.

“First, the dynamic scoring on the December tax cut is more in the $300 billion range over the 10 years when you incorporate growth. Secondly, CBO just this week announced that the economy was growing much faster than they thought. They’ve now suggested that it’s growing at 3.3%, which is substantially above the 1.8% average of the last decade and that difference in growth alone from the original forecast more than pays for a third of their original forecast,” Hill argued. “I don’t think we’re gonna have a long-term revenue deficit.”

Hill faces Libertarian Joe Swafford in November and one of four Democrats — Gwen Combs, Jonathan Dunkley, Paul Spencer, or Clarke Tucker — who are vying for the Second District nomination. Watch Hill’s full interview in the video below.