Fox News’ Jonathan Hunt confronted Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) Saturday about low approval ratings and how Republicans plan to fix Americans’ “economic pain” before they go to the polls to vote in the midterms in November.

Lawler was just off a President Donald Trump–headlined rally in Rockland County, New York, where the president praised Lawler for the State and Local Tax Deductions (SALT) in his state.

“That was quite the compliment, I guess, the president paid you yesterday,” Hunt said about Trump calling Lawler, “Mr. SALT.”

“No question. It’s nicest nickname he’s ever given anybody,” Lawler responded. “I mean, we saw on average, people were getting anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 refund checks because we were able to quadruple the SALT cap from $10,000 to $40,000 and provide real tax relief, you know, to New York’s high tax burden, both property and state income under Kathy Hochul.”

He continued, “So, you know, my constituents, over 90% of them were able to fully deduct their state and local taxes and received a big boost which helps with everyday expenses, it helps with housing costs, health care costs, grocery costs, gasoline costs. So, it was a big, big win and something that I was happy to welcome the president to my district to celebrate.”

“A lot of Americans in your district, as well as others across the country, are really still feeling economic pain when they look at their paychecks right now and how they’re having to spend it,” Hunt said. ” The president not getting good approval ratings right now. How do you and he fix that before November’s midterms?”

“Look, there are some really positive indicators,” Lawler answered. “Take home pay is up. The stock market continues to hit record highs which certainly impacts 401(k) accounts, retirements. But there are some challenges, still.”

Lawler continued:

Whether you’re talking about housing costs, health care, and energy, and so, we are focused on that in Washington, we passed a bipartisan housing bill this week. We’re focused on bringing interest rates down on 30-year fixed mortgage rates. We’ve already cut it in half from where it was under Joe Biden. Energy costs are critical, which is why we’re focused on permitting reform so we can actually increase domestic production of energy. If the situation in the Middle East has taught us anything, it’s that we never want to be reliant on foreign sources of energy and oil. We want to produce that here in the United States and we want to be a net exporter of energy. So, there’s a lot of work to do. We are focused on it.

The congressman added, “We have five months to bring down the costs and that’s what we are going to focus like a laser beam on, as we already have.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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