In an interview with Chuck Todd that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Senate Budget Committee, discussed foreign policy, tax reform, and his decision not to seek reelection. Excerpts follow.
On his decision not to seek reelection:
“I told people that I couldn’t imagine serving more than two terms,” said Senator Corker.
“And Chuck, I’ve felt a total freedom since I’ve been here to be myself. To speak frankly, to work with the other side of the aisle. That’s obviously needed. I can count. I can do math… And so, I’ve never, ever, ever thought about electoral politics in what I’m doing… I’ve enjoyed the freedom of conducting myself as a businessperson who’s come to Washington to solve problems.
“And now I’ve got 15 months of even more freedom, in many ways. And I’m going to do everything I can to have the biggest impact possible.”
On whether he will support tax reform legislation that adds to the deficit:
“I'm willing to accept the realities of where we are, and that is that we have a policy base. In other words, taxes,” said Senator Corker. “It's kind of like the doc fix. You know, we kept making up the fact that this was going to change. So, I'm willing to accept current policy, number one. I think that's rational. And I'm willing to accept a reasonable score on dynamic growth. A reasonable score on dynamic growth. [Joint Committee on Taxation] does those. There are some other groups that do it. But if it, if it looks like to me, Chuck, we’re adding one penny to the deficit, I am not going to be for it, OK? I’m sorry. It is the greatest threat to our nation. The greatest threat to our nation. And so, look, I voted against the NDAA the other day. That was a painful vote. I mean, you know, I support the military. They know that. But when you blow through even the president's budget and you use huge amounts of OCO, overseas contingency operations, to pay for it, I'm sorry, I'm opposed to that.”
“It's like, Chuck, we've entered a party atmosphere here,” he said. “You know, everybody was a fiscal hawk, kind of. Not really, but kind of up until the election. Now, it’s like there's a party going on up here, OK? Heck with revenue. Heck with the, you know, constraining spending. So yes, I will remain a deficit hawk until I leave here. And I'm looking so forward to this tax reform debate because the one thing that hasn't been discussed is the $4 trillion in base broadeners that have to occur for this to be successful. And every lobbyist in the world is going to be up here fighting those.”
On North Korea:
“I think that there’s more going on than meets the eye,” said Senator Corker. “I think [Secretary] Tillerson understands that every intelligence agency we have says there's no amount of economic pressure you can put on North Korea to get them to stop this program because they view this as their survival… Should we step it up a little bit? The answer is absolutely yes. I mean, we should step it up. I mean, you know, we're moving to a place where we're going to end up with a binary choice soon.”
“I don't think we're cornering ourselves. But if we don't ramp up the diplomatic side, it's possible that we end up cornered.”
On the performance of the administration:
“I’m not trying to be critical here, but some of the words have been left out,” said Senator Corker. “What I said is he has not yet demonstrated some of the competence and some of the stability… And that we need for him to be successful. I mean, the country needs for him to be successful.”
“I think that General Kelly has brought in an air of discipline that has been transformative as far as how the White House operates,” he said. “I do think they did a great job with Texas and Florida during the hurricane(s). Very professional. I thought it took a lot of courage by the president to change his long held position about Afghanistan. So, I’m seeing changes.”