Congressman Burgess Owens urges GOP unity behind Trump plan, cites debt and investment goals

Congressman Burgess Owens said he supports the direction of President Trump's proposed agenda and urged Republicans to unite behind it, citing concerns about national debt, border security and economic growth.

Owens, speaking in an interview, said, "I'm with you, 100%, Rich. And and this we have to understand and kind of realize, you know, why, Elon is the success he is. He's a risk taker. He's a focused entrepreneur." He contrasted private-sector decisiveness with government processes, adding that elected officials must "bite the bullet to get this done in order to fix some of the problems we have and move forward in the right direction." (Interview host: Rich.)

Why it matters: Owens framed the discussion as a choice about whether the Republican Party can cohere around a single, long-term economic vision. He said the party historically struggles to act as a team and described the current effort as a narrow-margin undertaking: "We have a 3 to 4 vote margin. That's it."

Owens listed several policy areas he said are part of the plan, attributing them to the president and to broader Republican priorities. He cited the national debt figure, saying, "$3,738,000,000,000,000 dollars in debt over a long period of time," and described the need to address "fraud, waste, and abuse." He also pointed to trade and tax ideas, noting a tariff-based revenue history and saying, "the last time this house back in the 1913 when actually 95% of our federal income came from tariffs." He said the plan would "seal the border" and include provisions such as "no tax on tips on Social Security."

Owens asserted that the approach championed by President Trump would encourage business investment, saying it had already brought "$10,000,000,000,000 of investments back to United States already." He urged fellow Republicans to "trust the coach" and described Trump as "a visionary" who can "pull all these different pieces together, including growing our GDP." The host, Rich, responded by comparing trusting Trump to "trust the coach, run the play."

The interview included repeated comparisons between entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and elected officials. Owens said of Musk, "He's a risk taker. He's a focused entrepreneur. He makes things happen on a dime when he wants to because he's in total control." He added that the president is "a genius when it comes to negotiating," while noting that government does not operate with the same centralized control as private companies.

The remarks reported here were discussion and political commentary in an interview setting; no formal legislative action or vote was taken during the recorded segment.

The interview proceeded to other topics after this exchange.