Show host bill press, the former chair of the Democratic Party in california. What does the landscape look like for democrats and where should republicans be most concerned in 2018 . Bill merry christmas. Nice to be back. Blue wave, is what i think of for 2018. I do not want to get ahead of myself, but based on what we have seen since donald trump has taken office, in new jersey, in fridge and income in washington state, in iowa in virginia, in washington state, in iowa, and across the country, at the state level and the gubernatorial level with City Councils and mayors, with state legislative races, democrats have been winning. They have been winning because frankly donald trump stirred up the base more than anybody else did. And higher voter turnout in virginia, they turned out more than they did for barack obama. Doug jones picking up a seat against a faulted candidate in roy moore in alabama. But i think the signs are good that with the energy the energy is clearly on the democratic side right now and i think it is a good chance that they will take back the house, the senate, and picking up governorships along the way. Host let me take another point of view. Speaker ryan says the results will be next year. If you are a middle income families, you are getting a tax break, more money in your paycheck, is stronger economy, you are looking at a stock market continuing to go up because corporations are doing well, wont that help republicans in november of next year . Does whatthe tax cut republicans say it will do, it will help republicans. I do not think there is a chance that it will do it they say it is going to do. Number one, people we have seen and heard the smith that if h that if youyt give corporations and millionaires more money, it will trickle down and everybody will be incomes are going to go up and more jobs will be created. It did not happen under Ronald Reagan or george w. Bush, and most economists will tell you it is not going to happen under president donald trump. Head of the chief counsel economic advisers, and steve mnuchin, both say that we are going to see 4 growth next year. Goldman sachs, where they came from, their official report says that the tax bill, i think it is 1 of growth it will result in. May contradict the people from goldman they contradict the people from Goldman Sachs in the administration. Most people will not see the impact until april of 2019. E ivanka trump on fox and friends said this will be great because when people pay taxes in april of 2018, they will know exactly how much money they saved. Know they wont. No they wont. Host it is not retroactive. Bill has not even taken effect. He has not signed it. He cant until january. I do not think people, the people who do see any may be slight increase right now in the takehome pay, it will be minuscule and they know it is going to disappear in two years, maybe four years, while the Corporate Tax cuts are permanent. Host congress delivers a tax bill as it rep. Pocan leaders and members of the house and senate are joined by the president. You look at this photograph and it these pictures, what is your reaction . Bill on that point, when i say that reaction, i believe republicans are going to rue the day that they passed this tax bill, because i think it is going to work against them. Today, 55 of americans in the latest cnn poll opposed the tax bill, knowing the little bit that we know about it. I think that number will go higher and higher. So that these republicans who are there celebrating the tax bill have to now go out and sell it. And i think they will have a hard time selling the tax bill, once people realize who gets the advantage of it and who is hurt by it, not to mention that 13 million americans will Lose Health Insurance because they get rid of the individual mandate. Not to mention that this piles 1. 5 trillion to the deficit. The other thing is there are a lot of phonies in that photograph. The people standing behind the president , including those who have been republicans, these are all republicans, who have been the most critical of donald trump on his policies and on his personal behavior. And then they go down there for a big photo op with him. They put the party ahead of credible and country sometimes and of principal and country sometimes and it is sad. Host we will get your phone calls. Good morning my welcome to the conversation. And welcome to the conversation. Caller i am not an american but i have some comments. Maybe some ideas outside the box. Every country in the world is either run by a government or companies. And it is sad to see america run by companies because america has a great constitution and people. Did lobbyists become so powerful in america and why are we not calling this corruption . Around the world, it is corruption. People rely on the government to change the agenda. I do not understand why americans accept this corruption. Host thank you for calling. That theorough wrote tax bill is written by lobbyists. Bill no doubt about that, this bill the members of congress did not even see the bill before they voted on it. The lobbyists did, particularly those for the oil companies, and those for the real estate commercial, the commercial real estate industry. It is interesting too that the realtors association, right . The people who help people buy homes opposed the bill because they know that it is going to limit, severely impact peoples ability to write off the interest on their Home Mortgage deduction. Where as the commercial real estate industry, bob corker, donald trump and their friends, all supported the bill because they get a huge financial from it. Let me Say Something to the response of the call, lobbying is not a crime, it is not evil, lobbying is not wrong. I was a lobbyist for in Environmental Organization in the sacramento legislature, there are lobbyists for quakers, teachers have lobbyists, labor unions have lobbyists, Childrens Health care people, the supporters, they have lobbyists it just means if you bring information to members of congress and hopefully it will influence their vote. What becomes evil is when some legislators, their votes are determined by how much money they get from lobbyists. What the root of the system is is the money in politics, the corrupt money, and that is why it is important to overturn Citizens United and get back to some form of financing, which Bernie Sanders proved you can do, you do not depend on millions of dollars, you can depend on small contributions. The average contribution, 27 to his campaign. Host a new Development Following yesterdays action by the united nations, the u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Nikki haley inviting americas quote friend to a party on january 3. Those who supported the u. S. Bill they could have it in a telephone booth. This is an embarrassing moment for the United States. Withows how out of step the rest of the world donald trump is. I do not think he cares. Hasalso how we have, how he really quickly alienated most of our allies and distanced the United States from our allies, and abandoned the position of the United States as the leader of the free world. So he does this action. Naming or, which declaring jerusalem the capital of israel, as if that is our job to do. I think it is for the people of the region to decide israel is the palestinians together. Other president s have promised to do this, Ronald Reagan talked about it, george bush talked about it, barack obama talked about it because once they got but they never did it, because they realized we should not dictate it. Donald trump does it anyhow. They have a vote yesterday and the president and the nikki haley warned, if you do not vote for us we will take your money away and the vote was 128 against us, 35 abstained, which is also against us, only nine of them voted for us. And most of those nations we have not heard of. Ive heard of togo, but what is this nyru or something. Where are they . Above water or below water i do not know. If she has a party for our friends there will be eight people there plus us. [laughter] host chris joining us from texas on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Hi. It is the democratic morning. I want to share my personal story. And from whenold i was a kid until now it seems that when the republicans are in office everybody seems to be doing better, the economy is better and things are just better. Democrats get in and things are worse. That is my lifelong experience. And you know, i guess that is all i have to say. We cannot go back to the socialist policies that almost destroyed this country, like everybody is so upset because they are not socialists . Host rob is saying, what is wrong with businesses getting a tax cut . What is your response . Bill first of all, to our friend from texas i have to say, the economy is doing great right now, my 401 k is doing great, the market is doing great, god bless america, but this is the ninth year of economic recovery, so do not say things have gotten better under donald trump. I would say things have continued to get better under donald trump, but eight of those years of economic growth, the longest period in United States history, eight of those years under barack obama, so the economy is getting stronger every day but it has not gone from night today under donald trump. Barack obama bringing us out of the recession under george w. Bush. Point, i just who needs a tax break . The people who need a tax break are the working class americans. People who are making less than 100,000 a year, who are working two or three jobs to keep food feed their family and put money aside for a college education, maybe have a vacation with their family, or just paying bills. They need a tax break my corporations today are making more money than they have ever made in the history of the states, fact. They are sitting on about 700 billion in cash assets. So they do not need a tax break. They could use that money to invest, they could use the money to raise wages, they could use money to create new jobs and they havent, it has gone into the pockets of shareholders and ceos. And final point, i do not mean but theolize on this, idea that corporations pay the highest taxes in the world, we hear that all the time, it is not true. The rate is 34 , the average that corporations pay is like 12 . They do not need a tax break and we are bankrupting the country, throwing 13 Million People off of health care to give corporations who do not need a tax break. I do not think it makes sense. Host the headline yesterday from politico, the future of cochran in the senate, described as feeble, confused as he was casting votes. He has had to rivers of votes because of that and he has not delivered a speech all year. He is the chair of the Senate Appropriations committee. Bill i hear the same thing from reporter friends of mine on the hill. He has Serious Health problems. He is confused. When he came back from a long break, he did not know how to find his way to the senate floor, people had to help him find his way to the floor, so i think it is sad and i think it shows that he will not be there long. For republicans dealing with not only at cochrans Health Problems but also senator john mccains Health Problems, we wish them both well but when you have a senate that has a one vote, for republicans, a onevote majority, having two senators retire that they did not expect, now two that are seriously ill, it changes the political equation for 2018. Host we will go to earl from connecticut, on the democrats line. Caller yes, good morning mr. Press. Bill hi. Caller what is confusing to me is the number of people Walking Around listening to stuff coming out of the white house. They have to know it is not true. About it ally fact is they do believe, they believe it and it is even scarier. Donald trump has been donald trump ever since i have known him, what makes people think that he will tell the truth all the sudden . Bill you know, i think the theal for donald trump in republican primary, and also in the general election, was that people saw, i believe, that he had a message that appealed to workingclass americans. He had a message that appealed to people who felt left out of the economic recovery and left behind, it was a message similar to the message Bernie Sanders had in the democratic primary. I think people felt that this was a guy who is not from washington who is going to shake things up and make things better for average americans, the 99 . There have been several stories recently that you have seen that he has not done that. The people, the forgotten people are still forgotten, certainly in this tax bill they are still forgotten, and attempting to rebuild obamacare they are forgotten repeal obamacare they are forgotten. I think with the approval rating, only at 35 , which is the lowest since anybody started taking a president ial approval poll. No president has ever been lowered, not even harry truman, as well as donald trump at 35 . I think it is striking in this whole year donald trump has not, he started at 45 in january and it has gone down, now at 35 . Even his base is starting to shrink. Let me say one thing on the lies. Sunday, the New York Times said, they did a whole list a month ago about all the lies they documented of donald trump. They got a lot of blowback saying, talk about other president s lies. So they said, we admit every president lies. So look, take a look, they found in eight years barack obama had told, they could identify 18 lies in eight years. Your number one they identified then year number one divide wonder three lies 103 from donald trump and that trump. Trump it host donal host you are an author who has written about donald trump. And barack obama. Bill did not fight the right fight. Gave into easily on some of the important things. How can people listen to your host how can people listen to your Radio Program . Bill go to bill pressshow. Com. We are on every platform, like cspan, we have a podcast. We are on free speech tv, part of directv. We are on youtube. You can stream live. You can connect with all of those, going to bill press show. Com. Host lets go back to this photograph, yesterday in the New York Times, from the south lawn of the white house. Among those on hand, the chair of the Senate Finance committee, orrin hatch. Mr. President , i have to say that you are living up to every, everything i thought that you would. You are one heck of a leader. And we are all benefiting from italy could not have passed and this could not have passed without you and the leadership in the house and the senate, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. And other leaders as well. All i can say is that we are making headway and this is just the beginning. Just stop and think about it my this president has not even been about it, this president has not even been in office a year and look what he has gotten done. I just hope we all get behind him every way we can and we will get this country turned around in ways that will benefit the whole world. Above all, benefit our people, bring us all to the realization of how really Great America really is, and how the rest of the world depends on us. I love this country. I came from very humble roots. This is oneo say, of the great privileges of my life to stand here on the white house lawn with the president of the United States, who i love and appreciate so much, and with these wonderful colleagues and cabinet members who stand behind us. To see all of you and realize that you care too. All i can say is god loves this country, we all know it. We would not be where we are without him. And we love all of you. We will keep fighting and we will make this the greatest presidency we have seen, not only in generations, but ever. God bless all of you. [applause] host senator orrin hatch, the greatest presidency ever . Your reaction . Bill George Wilkins said last sunday he was the worst of 45 president s. I thought it was embarrassing and a disgusting yesterday, it started with a Cabinet Meeting in the morning when they went around the table again. There is nothing donald trump brags more on than praise. You cannot praise him too much. He was sucking it up. Mike pence, the worst of all, even worse than orrin hatch. What Big Shoulders he has. Cspan just put out a montage of mike pence saying donald, the man with the Big Shoulders. Then you get to this phony News Conference on the south lawn and paul ryan, donald trump has blistered paul ryan, he has blistered mitch mcconnell, and although of them get up there and they showered praise on donald trump. Paul ryan saying, this would not have happened without the exquisite president ial leadership of donald trump it at the same with orrin hatch. I think they have realized that the way to Donald Trumps heart is through his ego, not through his stomach or whatever, and they will pile it on anytime they can. Look, he will sign their bill. They have a president paul ryan has wanted to cut taxes on millionaires, on corporations, for he says 30 years. He finally has a president that will sign that turkey and now he will get to do it. This is just round one. Now he will get to do what he wants to do. Created a 1. 5 trillion deficit and the next year he will say, oh my god, we are broke, we need to cut Social Security and medicare and medicaid. That is the real goal. This is just the beginning. Around 2 is coming and round 2 is coming. He will sign it. Donald trump will sign it. Host on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Mr. Press, we do not agree on much, if anything. The new normal that president obama gave us was 1. 5 gdp. It is over 3 now. That is a good thing. The cost of doing business in america because of the regulations that donald trump are gone. , tha businesses feel like they have a future, where they feel like they have a better footing to make more predictable decisions for their future and make investments. The tax, the tax rate of 14 , you mentioned well, what about overseas . Do they really pay 20 . They have loopholes. The fact that it is established, we always talk about how it is lower than it really is, that is not the case. The cost of doing business. Look at motorola moving out of high cost states to mexico or texas. Motorola moved 2000 jobs from illinois to texas, because the cost of doing business in texas is lower. Host thank you. We will get a response. Bill so many points. Again, i am not jumping on the trump economy dumping on the trump economy, i am saying that those people that own stocks, who have investments in the big corporations, may have done very well. The majority of americans do not have that privilege. Even for those people, this is built on 8 years of economic success under barack obama. You have to admit that. If donald trump, if it is 3 now and it might have only been average, i will take your point but i can double check it, maybe it was 1. 5 under barack obama, look at what it was when he came in, we were hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs a month when barack obama came in. That was the last month under george w. Bush. He had to bring us out of a big hole and now we donald trump came in he inherited an economy that was maybe 45 years with over 100,000 jobs every single month. So you have got, you have got to admit that. As far as regulations, we do disagree on that and there are so many to talk about. I will mention one. Getting rid of the regulation that barack obama put in to limit the amount of greenhouse al was something to the benefit of all americans, not just the planet, and reversing that, i would not say that that is good news for this country. Host if you look at 2017, what was the biggest Significant Development do you think the democrats and for the republicans . Bill i want to echo something that al franken, senator al franken, soontobe former senator al franken said host do you think he should have resigned . Bill no. I do not think he should have. This is a long discussion, but look, i think it is so important, this me too movement, is so important is so importantt women are finally being heard. They have been ignored, dismissed, ridiculed for so long. I think it is important that they get response and some people have to pay the price. Harvey weinstein, john conyers, absolutely. I would say donald trump, absolutely, who did not pay any price at all. , think that with some of them some kind of reprimand or punishment, but not every crime deserves the Death Penalty is the point i am making. Censureal franken, some from the senate would have been better than his resigning. Democrats and republicans 2017 . Guest what i have been so disturbed by his i think we have lost any sense of truth that truth matters. We do have a white house where i go to the briefings, you cannot believe a word anybody says. You just make stuff up. You say stuff you know is not true. Ivanka trump saying everybody is going to build a pay their taxes on a postcard next year no they are not. Not true. Out bytrump is starting saying barack obama tapped his phones at trump tower. It is not true. Donald trump saying obamacare is dead or dying. More people just signed up for obamacare the neighbor expected to 8. 8 million. It is not dead. Ourink we in the media job is to point that out, when they are not telling the truth and tell people what is really going on. That is the most disturbing thing of 2017. Host merry christmas. Thank you for stopping by. Gues cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning, author and law professor Frank Buckley will talk about his book the republic are virtue and what we can do about it. Conflict global experts are watching in 2018. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern this morning. Join the discussion. Next, a Senate Environment and public works subcommittee hearing on trade movement Freight Movement in and out of the u. S. This included transportation experts discussing the Economic Impact and what a a senate envit and public works subcommittee hearing on trade movement potential exit could mean to the freight industry. This is one hour and a half. The meeting will come to order. Order. We are honored to have some great Witnesses Today and i will save the introductions. I know there are a couple introductions that would be made from up here. This morning, ill go ahead with Opening Statements and were honored to have the chairman of the ranking member. Then i understand senator