Congressman Nathaniel Moran speaks during a lunch hosted by the Republican Women of Gregg County Monday at Roma Italian Kitchen. (Les Hassell/Longview News-Journal Photo)

U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran on Monday told a crowd of East Texans the nation needs to reduce its spending and that doing so will help it in the long-term.

Moran, R-Tyler, also said the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations, offer buyouts to federal employees and impose tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico have greater rewards than risks and will help the economy moving forward.

Moran spoke to dozens of attendees at Roma Italian Kitchen in downtown Longview during a town hall meeting hosted by the Republican Women of Gregg County. He addressed a number of major political topics and fielded questions from members of the audience. Here’s a rundown of the main topics he discussed.

Federal spending, tax cuts

Moran said he hopes Congress will reduce federal spending by $2.5 trillion over a 10-year period, and while spending cuts could be far-ranging, they’re necessary.

The federal government has more than $36 trillion in debt. If Congress doesn’t cut the hoped-for $2.5 trillion in spending, the nation will pay $3 trillion more in interest over the same 10-year period, as interest on bonds will increase, Moran said.

“The bond market is on the verge of going up a percent because it doesn’t like the amount of debt that we have. It looks at $36-plus trillion and says, ‘Nobody should hold that amount of debt.’ And that’s exactly right,” he said.

However, cutting federal spending isn’t an easy process. While many people say they want spending to be reduced, they don’t want Congress to cut the spending that affects them, Moran said.

“Every person is getting something from government in some way or will be affected by our reduction in spending across the board,” he said.

While Republicans aim to reduce spending, they’re also planning to extend tax cuts that reduce federal revenue.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which brought income tax cuts to most Americans, is set to expire at the end of the year unless Congress renews it. Without a renewal, Americans will see “a dramatic increase” in their taxes in 2026, Moran said.

But passing it won’t be easy. Democrats are opposed to the measure, and unifying the House’s razor-thin Republican majority — 218 members compared with Democrats’ 215 — will be challenging. (Two seats also are vacant.)

“You hired us to go there to keep your taxes low. Why? Because lower taxes means higher liberty, higher freedom for you and your businesses,” Moran said.

The tax cuts, if extended, would keep the federal government from collecting $4 trillion through 2034.

Moran said the nation’s tax code should incentivize economic growth.

Tariffs

After Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on goods coming from Mexico and Canada, leaders from the two nations reached agreements to strengthen border security and help stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. But no such agreement has been reached with China.

Moran said tariffs are “better suited, I think, for negotiating leverage on the short-term, but long-term, we’ve got to be real focused on who those tariffs are after.”

“We need to get after protecting us against folks like China that are not strategically aligned,” he said. “But ultimately, consumers are going to bear the responsibility, the financial responsibility, of across-the-board tariffs.

“President Trump, he said that. He said, ‘Look, it’s going to be difficult in the short run.’ So, I would say, just hold on for a little bit.”

Environmental regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering rolling back certain environmental regulations under the Trump administration. Trump has promised to end regulations on vehicle tailpipe emissions and other rules applying to power plants.

His nominee to lead the EPA, Lee Zeldin, has been confirmed.

Moran said he supports reducing certain regulations because they “have gone way too far and are no longer economically feasible, and, frankly, no longer really based on solid science on what does and does not affect our environment or our health.”

China and data security

China, which Moran called a “strategic adversary,” should not have access to Americans’ private data through social media apps such as TikTok, Moran said. He cited TikTok as one way in which Chinese adversaries have harvested Americans’ information.

“I don’t oppose the platform,” Moran said. “What I oppose is China’s ownership and access to all the data gathered by that platform that then gets used against us as a nation and them as individuals. So as long as we can get China out of the picture, those platforms should continue without interruption.”

Federal workforce buyouts

Trump is offering buyout packages for federal employees as a way to shrink government. He wants federal employees to resume working in their respective offices rather than working from home, a trend that originated during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump’s buyout plan could face legal and financial roadblocks, and it could lead to some agencies losing experienced employees with institutional knowledge. However, Moran called it a “brilliant proposal” to give workers who are “bureaucratically entrenched” a chance to walk away.

“I’m hopeful that a lot of the employees that don’t want to work for President Trump or don’t want to show up physically decide to take this exit ramp and leave the federal bureaucracy,” Moran said. “That attrition would give us the ability to shrink government without going through the civil service process that is very difficult to go through.”

Border security

Moran said the Trump administration’s move to declare drug cartels as terrorist organizations has cartel members “shaking in their boots.” Military troops have been deployed to the southern border, and military resources could be used to fight cartels.