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As plans for sweeping federal budget cuts take shape in Congress, United States Sen. James Lankford spoke of the need to reign in government spending. Wednesday at the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce’s Congressional Forum.
Lankford said the U.S. is set to “overspend our budget by $2 trillion” this year.
“Every year we say we have to do something about this,” Lankford said. “Well, this is the year.”
Lankford said supports changes to Medicaid, such as work requirements for “healthy adults with no children.” He said 97 percent of people who “wait until after marriage to have kids, graduate high school and have at least a minimum wage job” eventually rise out of poverty.
“But Medicaid for healthy adults with no kids has no work requirement,” Lankford told the crowd. “Why would we not have a work requirement? They’ll likely then get employee-provided healthcare and be out of the system.”
Lankford spoke to a crowd of more than 100 business leaders in downtown Tulsa on Wednesday as a crowd of about 100 more protested his arrival.
“I got a warm welcome on my way in,” Lankford jokingly said of the protests. He said a crowd of people also recently protested the release of his new book at an event in Washington D.C.
“I’ve never had my mind changed by people yelling at me,” he said.
But in 2021, while speaking in the U.S. Capitol in favor of not certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election, Lankford was cut off when protestors entered the building. Hundreds were eventually charged with crimes, over 100 police officers were injured and five people died. When Congress resumed, Lankford voted to certify the results of the 2020 election.
“We have become a nation where our signature emotion is anger,” Lankford said. “We’re a nation where we want to be angrier today than yesterday. When it’s all about how loud can we yell at each other, I have no time for that.”
Lankford said President Donald Trump was “working hard” on trade negotiations and immigration reform, two topics that have dominated national headlines since Trump was elected last November.
On trade, Lankford said that while he’s “not a big fan of tariffs,” they’re “a good negotiation tactic.”
He pointed to countries like Vietnam, Australia and Israel as allies who nonetheless have restrictions on the purchase of U.S. goods. Vietnam, Lankford said, makes it extremely hard to purchase U.S.-based goods in their country as they try to raise themselves up economically on their own. Australia, for instance, bans the sale of U.S. beef. Israel recently said it would “erase” its trade deficit with the U.S. after Trump placed a 17% tariff rate on the country.
“The President is focused on talking to as many countries as we can to bring down trade barriers. My advice is to lock down as many (trade) deals as you can, as fast as you can,” Lankford said. “Even with our allies. Those deals need to be corrected, but … correct it as soon as you can.”
Lankford also spoke about the “traumatic event” that was his own bi-partisan border bill that was killed by his Republican colleagues last year.
“I still stand by that bill,” Lankford said, noting that Trump would likely use his executive powers to reduce immigration rates using many of the same things that were in that legislation. But he cautioned the crowd that the courts would probably rule against many of Trump’s efforts.
“And that will let the cartel take advantage,” Lankford said. “They’re businessmen as well. It’s an illegal business, but they’re businessmen … and they are losing billions right now on human trafficking.”
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