Jordan fabian, start with you. Congressional leaders from both parties are scheduled to go to the white house this afternoon. What is on the agenda for this meeting . Caller it is going to be the funding deadline that is coming up december 8. They need to get to an agreement to keep the government open and prevent shutdown, so that is what the leaders will be discussing. They have not even agreed on spending levels, so it seems likely they will pass a shortterm measure to keep the government open. They might bes talking about some of the issues and holdups that could stop them from getting a longterm deal. Host remind us why we have a december 8 funding deadline. Caller in september, President Trump cut the deal with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer to extend the government funding from september until now, and also lift the debt ceiling. This is why Republican Leaders were angry about this deal, one of the reasons was that they had to reis visit this thorny issue. Expectationsnd of are chuck and nancy and Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan setting . Caller what you will see is the democrats want trump to give them something, they want to see some daylight on more spending. The democrats want more spending for domestic programs. Trump has proposed cutting domestic spending. Trump also wants more defense spending and if he wants democrats to go along, he needs to give them something. Democrats also want immigration in this bill. They want to have some ship funding for Childrens Health insurance. There is a whole bunch of things that have either expired or are about to expire that will have to be in some kind of year end deal. Maybe that will end up in next weeks potential stopgap bill to give them potential prime time, but this will be jammed right before christmas and potentially be a Christmas Tree or a nightmare before christmas, with a potential shutdown over the holidays. Host is that the expectation, that it will be a shortterm stopgap funding bill and will go right until christmas . Caller right. The friday before christmas is like december 22. I think you could see a deadline like that that would put pressure on lawmakers to vote yes on whatever package leadership comes up with. That is usually the position that leadership wants to be in, do you want to go home for christmas . You better vote for this. Host Sarah Sanders was asked about the potential for some sort of deal happening. Caller i will not get ahead of that meeting i will not get ahead of that meeting, but if any of those democrats would like to come on board, we would certainly welcome them. Reformordan fabian, tax possibly an issue that is brought up today as well . Think absolutely, but i that will be the discussion that dominates the trip to capitol l when he goes to talk to a big vote on the Budget Committee. The votes are very narrow right now. You have steve daines and ron johnson, two holdouts. I think the leaders will be asking President Trump to put some pressure on them to try to get the votes they need to get this bill done, which is their last budget best chance of a major accomplishment this year. Host walk us through where Mitch Mcconnell and john cornyns strategy is now. Guest you have sort of three buckets of senators with different holdouts. You have ron johnson who wants bigger tax cuts for Small Business owners who pay taxes on their individual income tax. They want to get rid of the state and local Tax Deduction for corporations, which is a big deal if you are a company in new york or california, silicon valley, when you lose that big Tax Deduction, that would pay for the bigger tax cut. Another group of senators are worried about the deficit, like bob corker. If he votes no, they cannot pass withnd he has been feuding donald trump so i do not know if President Trump rallying bob corker will be successful. What some of the deficit hawks want is some kind of trigger in this bill that if it the deficit over time and the cbo says it will add 1. 4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years that there will be triggered tax increases later on. A lot of republicans do not like the idea of having a trigger tax increase later on. Senatorsonly lose two on the senate floor if it gets to the senate floor. They have to get through the Budget Committee. Host the Budget Committee hearing happening at 2 30 this afternoon on cspan3 and cspan. Org. Listen to it on the cspan radio app. We are talking about it this morning with Steven Dennis of bloomberg, jordan fabian of the hill newspaper. Democrats, call 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 before we leave this tax discussion, the individual mandate repeal being included in this tax reform effort, how much closer or farther are we from that, from your perspective . Beginninghink in the when they first inserted this, there was fear it would really turn off a lot of republican senators. We have not seen that. Susan collins has been a hold out, lisa murkowski, someone who i think leadership, maybe flake, has not. The white house is certainly happy it is in there. They want to get any kind of victory they can on obamacare is of the bill collapsing over the summer. Right now, they are pretty enthusiastic as far as obama care repeal in this tax bill. Host what about the issue of daca, the deferred action for childhood arrivals, the end of that program looming . How is that impacting the tax reform fight . Guest daca is more in the budget fight. If they need democrats at some point down the road, and they will, they are going to need to deal with that program because you cannot pass a budget without democrats. They are not going to vote for something that does not protect those kids. , i do tax reform fight think the individual mandate has been fascinating to watch. Lisa murkowski has a lot of things in this bill that are very important to alaska. Oil drilling and that Arctic National wildlife refuge, something they have been pushing for for decades, is in this bill. That is her provision. If this bill does not pass, that does not pass. She came out the other day and said getting rid of the in development individual mandate she supports. There were only three senators who voted no on the skinny repeal and she was one of them. John mccain has not said how he will vote yet. Susan collins does not like the fact that it is in their bank. She just in there. She has not said if it will be a dealbreaker. She wants a middleclass tax break and property deduction for individuals. All of the senators are still in play. At this point, even though some senators have said they would vote against the current ill, every Republican Senate current bill, every republican senator is trying. Of republican senators who voted yes on the skinny repeal, although they did not like it and were trying to give something to congress, this is a different thing, something a lot of republican senators are enthusiastic about. Host you often keep your own count for these important bills that come to the floor. How many babies are there right now . Are thereed maybes right now . Guest i think maybe six or seven senators in play, and maybe three or four really in play. People like steve daines and ron johnson, it is hard for me to imagine in the end they will not the for a bill. They are negotiating. They want some very specific tweaks to a bill that amounts to 100 billion or so over a 10 year period, and affects trillions of dollars in tax revenue. There has got to be a way to get them to yes. They are not trying to get to know. No. You have people like Susan Collins absolutely in play, john mccain a wildcard, and bob corker and jeff flake, two senators not running for reelection who are no fans of the president could be the keys. They can vote any which way they want, and both of them are concerned about the deficit. Those are the two people i would be watching. Host the hill newspaper has their watchlist for the tax bill and you can check it out on their page. We have two guys here who know their beats very well on capitol hill to answer your questions, take your comments as we are discussing all these issues. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. I have been watching things happen since junior bush was in office with osama bin laden. D Saddam Hussein we owe a lot of money out to a lot of people. If china was to decide to call our loans if they dont a little upset with us in any way, and were not catering to their demands, and also how are we going to balance this . Nobody ever thought that trump would pull the mortgage interest thing back because he owns properties all over the world. This is going to affect a lot of people in california. You have Million Dollar homes, at least 500,000 homes that everybody has bought and is paying mortgage interest on. How is this going to play out . Were thinking about using that 1 trillion coin that we have in washington as well. Were thinking about using that host thats a lot of issues you bring up already. Ill let steve dennis start on the balancing side. What is the balance, remind us again, the balance that Senate Republicans need to meet in this using the reconciliation process to pass this bill. Guest they have to keep a deficit under over a 10 year period the maximum increase in the deficit they can do is 1. 5 trillion. Thats a lot of money. We do have a 20 trillion debt already. Right now they are probably going on auto pilot head to 26 trillion or 27 trillion this. Would add another 1. 5 trillion on top of that. The republican senators, almost all of them, would say, hey, we think this plan is actually going to pay for itself because growth will pick up, because corporations will bring their jobs back here, and will employ more people, the Unemployment Rate will go down, and more taxpayers. Thats what theyll tell you. But they are not not every republican is onboard with that. Thats why they are talking about maybe we have a trigger if the growth doesnt happen and the growth fairy doesnt show up and deliver goods, then you dont have a huge new debt burden for children and grandchildren. Now, that is going to be an interesting debate. There is another law right now that is getting some attention but probably not enough, thats the paygo law thats already a trigger in place that if this bill passes, in january there would be spending cuts in medicare and a whole bunch of other programs that people care a lot about. The republicans are saying, hey, well just waive that. If youre going to waive that trigger, whats to say you wouldnt in five years if there is a tax increase trigger you wouldnt just say, hey, well kick that down the road, too . Something to watch. Host how much, when the president goes to capitol hill today before the leadership comes to him at the white house, how much do you expect him to get into those details . Whats the pitch hes going to be making . Guest not very deep into the details. Hes not a details guy. Hes going to be the type of guy that goes into the room and a rahrah speech you need to get this done. He wants victories. Wins. Thats what hell stress. It will be a salient argument. A lot of republicans, look, this is a party thats going to the mid terms without anything in hand right now they can show voters. Hey, reelect us, we can give you accomplishments. We can govern. Thats going to resonate with a lot of people. Thats going to be the argument that he makes to these senators. He might get off topic anything in hand right and talk about pocahontas or whatever else, but as far as taxes i think that will be the top line. Host columbia heights, minnesota, mike, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. One of the questions i had, caw, they havent passed any bill yet, the democrats should pass the bill but and then go and aggressively advocate for what they want. One of the things was is can they look at those that do standard deductions and say ok this person would no longer have to. Allow some people to take some takes like youre saying. Maybe i dont fully understand this new tax plan because its kind of complicated. As far as talk about national debt, actually the obamacare did far worse. Thats just a flat out comment. And will continue to drag the system down. So there needs to be a change. Thank you. Guest the Affordable Care act, briefly, the Congressional Budget Office said it reduced the deficits because it raised taxes and cut medicare more than it spent on new programs. Welcome to hopkins. My name is rhonda miller. I have as president of the hospital the distinct pleasure of welcoming youall to our institution. As president i have also had the immense pleasure and privilege of working closely with congressman Elijah Cummings on a variety of issues and were grateful for his steadfast leadership, nationally and on behalf of his local constituents here. Were truly lucky to count ourselves among those he had a expertly represented for more than two decades