Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- John Curtis aims to lead Social Security reform as a newly elected senator.
- He supports preserving beneficial tax cuts enacted in 2017 while addressing deficit concerns.
- Curtis opposes ending the filibuster and emphasizes the need for political compromise.
SALT LAKE CITY — In one of his first official acts in Congress after being sworn in to replace Rep. Jason Chaffetz in November 2017, Rep. John Curtis voted to approve then-President Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Curtis described the deliberation of the tax overhaul as "the most thoughtful, informed debate I've ever seen in my life," and said he "made the mistake of thinking ... every bill is going to be just like this." Every debate would not be as thoughtful, the new congressman would soon learn, especially in the U.S. House of Representatives — the more raucous of the two chambers in Congress which Curtis has previously said can be "impetuous" at times.
Seven years since he was first sent to Washington, Curtis is now gearing up for his first term in the U.S. Senate after defeating Democrat Caroline Gleich Tuesday night to replace Sen. Mitt Romney early next year. During his first year as a senator, Curtis will once again have a chance to weigh in on the tax cuts Trump proposed during his first administration because many of the key provisions are set to expire in 2025.
And with Trump returning to the White House in January, Curtis hopes to play a role in preserving what he sees as the positive elements of the tax cuts while addressing provisions that the Congressional Budget Office in 2018 estimated would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.
"From my perspective, mission No. 1 is: Can we preserve the good things that were done in 2017, but be thoughtful about — OK, maybe some things were better than others," Curtis told the KSL and Deseret News editorial boards Wednesday morning, just hours after he was projected to win his Senate race.
When asked about his governing priorities, Curtis said he is keen to take steps to reduce the federal debt but made clear he believes simple opposition to proposed budgets isn't enough to reverse the trend of ballooning deficits.
"It's clear voting 'no' is not enough," he said. "I voted no consistently; the debt keeps going up."
Curtis has proposed creating a baseline budget for Congress — akin to the budgeting process in Utah's Legislature through which spending levels revert to previous year marks if lawmakers can't agree on a budget. The congressman said "one change" would be eliminating the prospect of government shutdowns, continuing resolutions for spending and the large omnibus spending bills approved nearly annually in Washington.
He believes those changes will help but acknowledged that more needs to be done to reform entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare in order to address the nation's debt. Senate Republicans will select a new leader to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell in the coming weeks, and Curtis said he has spoken with two prospective leaders — Sens. John Thune and John Cornyn — and offered himself as a sacrificial lamb of sorts when it comes to reforming both programs, which have long been considered risky political fights but make up a majority of federal spending.
"Everybody else is afraid to talk about it," Curtis said. "I'm not afraid to talk about it, and I've told them both, 'Use me as your tip of the spear.' I'm fine with that, and I actually think that's not a risk for me in Utah."
Curtis will be a newly elected senator not up for reelection until 2030, which will give him room to lead out on the issue.
Curtis said he has sensed an appetite from constituents to tackle entitlement reform, especially since reports that Social Security could be insolvent in fewer than 10 years. Although both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have said they would not cut benefits, Curtis thinks voters doubted both candidates' ability to follow through on that.
"Both presidential candidates said, 'We're not touching this,' and I think people know this is untrue," he said.
"This is death around the country for a lot of politicians," Curtis said of proposing benefit cuts to recipients of Social Security. "Look, we don't need to touch this for anybody who is in retirement. We don't need to touch it for anybody near retirement, but somewhere between (age) 21 and — pick a number, 50 — right, we need to start making some changes."
Curtis says 'no' to ending filibuster
Senate Republicans will hold a majority of seats beginning next year but not enough to clear the 60-vote threshold necessary to end debate on most pieces of legislation. Many Democrats attempted to end the filibuster when they controlled a narrow majority during the first two years of Biden's administration but fell just short.
"I'll go on record, and I've gone on record and I'll stand firm on this: John Curtis is not a vote to repeal the filibuster and won't be," he said when asked how he would respond if Trump pressured the Senate GOP to change the rules to help enact his agenda.
"There's enough people I have heard say we're not going to touch that — including people who would like to be in leadership in the Senate — so I do think it survives," he added.
Political divisiveness
Although Trump won a decisive victory in Tuesday's presidential election and is on track to win the popular vote — something he didn't do in 2016 or 2020 — Curtis noted that the United States remains closely divided and said Americans need to "rethink about how we disagree."
"I certainly know (in) my family people that can't sit down and speak at a table together anymore because of this. It's a terrible place to be," he said.
"We wouldn't have this country without compromise. We wouldn't have the Constitution without compromise. Doesn't mean that compromise is good or bad, it just means that we've got to figure out how to work with people that have different opinions," Curtis added. "It's an art. To some it's lost, but to many of us it's not lost. There are a lot of members of Congress who work really hard on that."
