Government funding deadline, the january 19 deadline. Republican leaders on the hill huddled with the president at camp david over the weekend. What do we know of what they talked about when it comes to resolving this budget impasse . They are talking about the priorities for 2018 and what they should be. As far as the budget goes, what they are concerned about is what they see as a lack of military spending. They feel that the military has overstretched all the branches. Is i dont want to say alltime low, but speaker out a Statement Last week. Week, if you look at military readiness in the early 1990s compared to now, it is much to grated. I think they want to focus on boosting that defense spending number over whatever increased other programs get. There is also talked on the hill about getting an immigration fix is part of the spending bill is probably not going to happen. The immigration negotiations are not as far along as the spending deal is. Behind the scenes, democrats and republicans said they were pretty happy with how things went last week. They seem to be moving ahead. Host democrats are willing to punch that immigration discussion a little bit farther down the road and not included in this funding deadline . Guest that is a good question. Last week, they were saying that the meeting that they had with mark short and Mick Mulvaney went pretty well and they are insisting that there be a global what they are talking about is a global negotiation. They may be willing to split the issues as long as there is an understanding that something will be done on immigration along with the spending bill, even if it is not in the same package. They should be a little bit cautious because the president and the Republican Leaders promised Susan Collins health care would be taken care of before the tax bill moves and that did not happen either. I think the democrats should have trepidation as to whether they really want to take republicans at their word that this immigration bill will be dealt with even not as part of the spending package. Host jason dick, i want to bring you in on this. What are you hearing as far as what might come together by january 19 . Guest it is sort of oscar and Golden Globe Awards season, so i think a lot of democrats are asking what their motivation is to cooperate . On theuld not get in negotiations of any kind of substantive level with the tax reform debate because the capacity through the procedures that allow the republicans to not consult them. It is different now with the spending bill, with immigration, with any of these Health Care Bills that alex is talking about. What do they get out of it . Before we left for christmas break, nancy pelosi said there was no way we were going home for the holidays without an immigration deal. They went home for the holidays without an immigration deal. It sounds like their supporters are getting a little antsy on this. Keep in mind, this is a crisis that the white house created. They are the ones, the president himself is the one who set this march deadline for taking care of this deferred action on childhood arrivals program. Democrats have some leverage and i think there is an internal debate, at least that is what our reporters hear, that is what we here in the capitol about just how hardball they are going to play. At this point, the possibility of a Government Shutdown by january 19 if a deal does not come together by then, is there talk of another continuing resolution to buy more time . Guest even if they do get a deal today, they will not have time to put together a trillion dollar appropriations bill. Republican leaders have been very clear, Mitch Mcconnell has been clear that there is not going to be a shutdown. They guarantee it. They had the experience in 2013. It was very bad for the gop brand. The last thing they want is a Government Shutdown. Two democrats want to precipitate a shutdown and hope republicans will get the blame . Traditionally, they have not played that game. They have not been willing to take Government Operations as a hostage in highstakes talks and i would be surprised if they did that. Host the week ahead in washington with alex bolton and jason dick. What do you want to talk about . What are the issues you want to hear from these two folks who are very connected on capitol hill . A great time to call in. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Jason dick, remind us of some of the other deadlines we should be keeping in mind this month, specifically what is happening with the Chips Program and some of the other ones . Guest so, the Childrens Health insurance program, a Bipartisan Program passed in 1997 with democrats and republicans alike, it is meant for children who are not poor enough to qualify for medicaid, but who otherwise would not have another option for health care, it expires september 30. Several states exhausted their cash reserves in order to keep kids enrolled in it, but then they started sending out that they didces not know where the money was going to come from. They got a little bit of cash infusion with the continuing resolution we are operating on 19. That expires january that will not last that much longer into the new year without some sort of i always hesitate to use the word permanent extension, but a longterm extension, at least a couple years. They have that to deal with. There is also the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authority, part of the patriot act. Host the section 702 program. Guest the house is going to consider a longterm extension of that on thursday. They are operating on a shortterm extension. As alex mentioned, these Health Care Stabilization measures. Susan collins made her support for the tax bill contingent on passage of two market stabilization measures. That is a lot. We are three and a half months into this fiscal year. We are already past the deadline. ,ost a lot of constituencies for each one of those, is there a possibility of some kind of grand deal coming together for all of that or are we more likely to see these things taking place piecemeal one at a time . Guest i think it would be challenging for the most adept president and congress to get all of this wrapped up. We saw barack obama and john boehner failed in their efforts to get a grand deal before john boehner left. This is tough for people who are really good and this congress and this president have shown that they are not they will probably not be regarded as the most competent, best at their jobs. I cant help but think it is going to be a series of shortterm things. Host alex bolton . Guest i think they can get the section 702 reauthorization, the chips down as part of the spending deal because those are relatively routine. I think the health care component is a lot harder than anyone anticipated. They are very quick to make the promise to Susan Collins they were going to pass this mariealexander which subsidizes Insurance Companies to keep rates low and this bill sponsored by Susan Collins and bill nelson to keep premiums from getting out of control for more expensive people. But that is very controversial in the house. People are facing primaries next year and this could be painted by challengers as an obamacare bailout. I think that part is going to be hard. I think the immigration component is going to be very hard. I think those things, i think immigration is not going to be part of the spending deal. Health care, we will see. Host why do people keep underestimating how hard it would be to make changes to the health care system, to the Affordable Care act . The halls of congress, when they look at it as policymakers, i think some of the prescriptions are pretty straightforward. There is bipartisan consensus. Patty murray, the democratic ranking member, they say look, this needs to be done. But once you start looking at it through a political lens, then it changes completely. I think that is why they underestimate it. I think the policy solutions seem pretty straightforward on the hill, but politically it goes topsyturvy because there could be because people are worried about Tea Party Challengers and how this gets portrayed in gop primaries later this year. Host plenty of time to talk about campaign 2018 in this hour. The roundtable with alex bolton of the hill, jason dick of rollcall. Lets get to some of the callers. Irv is in bloomington, illinois. Independent line. Caller yes, a couple quick comments. One is why are we even bothering to try to balance the budget if our politicians are going to give away the cash coming in . It would be like me walking into the office and telling my boss, i dont mean the extra money, im going to let you have it back. The second comment is why should i vote for either party if, according to the courts, they are an independent corporation and not beholden to the people . I will listen to your comments offline. Host that is irv in illinois. Thatof the issues politicians are thinking about going into 2018 in terms of getting people to vote for them. Guest it is interesting. The budget is not balanced. The tax reform bill is projected to add 1. 5 trillion to the deficit. They are talking about an infrastructure plan adding more. If they do and immigration deal, that will cost more money. It is difficult to explain if you made your career saying we have to bring deficits under control. Frustrationevel of that if youre expecting that from your member of congress and they keep voting for the deficit. Host do you think that gets in the way of what the president wants, a grand Infrastructure Investment . Guest some of the stuff we saw from camp david this weekend, the president said he does not know how the publicprivate infrastructure partnerships would work. It. S sort of disparaging i think they would like to get something done. Contractor, he likes to build stuff. You can go up there with a shovel and cut a ribbon and say we are opening this bridge, that is a nice readymade campaign thing. The cost, if they actually get some sort of agreement, they will make that down the line. What is the incentive for democrats to want to join in on on what would politically be seen as another victory for the president before the 2018 election . Guest in the senate, you have 10 democrats running for reelection in states that trump won in 2016. They have incentive to look as people who can work with the president to get things done. Polls show voters are tired of the partisanship, they want solutions. If you are joe manchin or joe donnelly, if you can vote for an infrastructure package and work with the president and get a photo op, then that is good, that is good for your general election chances. But the problem is is this going to be something they can support. Lets go back to tax reform, democrats at a press conference last month where you had almost 20 of them saying we want to work with the president on tax reform, but this is not something we can accept and they have a real problem with the corporate rate going all the way down. If the infrastructure package is not what they kind of envisioned or not the classic infrastructure package that the democrats want, where you have a big contribution from the federal government, if it is mainly reliant on private sector fundraising, if it is going to be building things like toll roads and things like that, i think the president is going to have another hard time swallowing it. How do you pay for the infrastructure package . The plan was always to use Corporate Tax reform, the repatriation of money overseas to pay for that infrastructure. That is what paul ryan and Chuck Schumer had been circling around the last you years, but that money is out the door now. It is really hard to figure out how this infrastructure package happens with anything significant. Host west chesterfield, new hampshire. Ron is a democrat. Caller good morning. Good morning, washington journal. Awesome guests as usual. I love this show. I think everything comes back to the haves and the havenots on just about every issue. I would like to move to Sexual Misconduct and hour laws in this country because everything is geared toward the wealthy. You could wipe out decades of misbehavior by just paying money if you are wealthy. And you pay some money could misbehave for a decade, pay some money, you are off and out and running. Bill oreilly, you know. There are so many examples. Host let me bring you to congress. Do you think that can happen for politicians in this day and age after the year that we just saw and the Metoo Movement and the members of congress that have left in recent months . Caller absolutely, so long as the wealthy have the option to just pay a fine, pay a payment, were accused if i by eight women over the last 10 , irs of Sexual Misconduct would be in prison for 1020 years because i just would not have the money to pay the millions of dollars and pay everything off and be done with it and that does not work with just Sexual Misconduct, it is with all of our laws. Host got your point. Jason dick i want you to pick this up. Movement that seems to be happening now and your expectations about what it will mean for 2018 . Guest it seems like the issue is here to stay. The house is looking at policies and procedures for how people come forward with allegations of Sexual Misconduct. I think people admitted late last year that the code is archaic, overly complicated. Especially when we saw that in contrast to the way that Media Companies and other businesses and so forth were dealing with the accused. They are updating the procedures, but the house and senate move a little differently. I would suggest that they will get their act together too. In terms of a political issue, because it has been fairly widely dispersed among the parties, younger members, older members the fact that the president himself has been , itsed of Sexual Misconduct seems that it would not be a political issue to the detriment or vantage of one party. Host patricia on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. Conspiracy means to plot together. Collusion means, a legal agreement, to lie. Live tv, mr. Trump said, russia, if you are listening, get me those 30,000 emails. Thats it. Investigation. A what is happening on capitol hill this week and next . Bring us to the immediate future here. Guest people are really just waiting on the Robert Mueller probe. Meanwhile, the two investigations that matter the most right now are the Senate Intelligence committee investigation, pulse of the Senate Judiciary committee investigation. They are looking at a little bit different things. The Judiciary Committee is focused on the circumstances of james comeys firing and looking at his role in dealing with the Clinton Campaign in 2016, as well as the trump campaign. As far as the Senate Intelligence committee, they are moving ahead with interviews, they expect to have principles come before the committee and answer questions, but i have no timeline on that. That is to be figured out. The bottomline is both of those congressional investigations are moving pretty slowly and i think lawmakers really want to see what Robert Mueller comes out with before they speak on the subject. He has all the investigative power. They are pretty much waiting to see what he does. Host some news on that front this morning. Nbc news reporting that anticipating that special counsel Robert Mueller will ask to interview president trump. The president s legal team is discussing a range of potential options for that format, including written responses in lieu of a formal sitdown. According to three people familiar with the matter. Lawyers have been discussing with the fbi investigators a possible interview by the special counsel with the president as part of the inquiry into the russia collusion of the 2016 election. Obviously, we dont know when that would happen or what we would find out about it, but your thoughts on if the president were actually to sit down for that interview. Guest i would be surprised if he did because it is a constitutional question and i think if he doesnt want to, he does not have to. It might look bad, but on the other hand, is going to want to put himself in a position to delegitimize this investigation if it comes up with anything negative, so that is a reason for him not to sit down with them. I would be surprised if he did, but it is hard to guess. Host did you want to jump in . Guest im having flashbacks to the Clinton Administration when president clinton was interviewed. It was over the secure line. They sort of answered and asked questions. The crux of some of the obstruction of justice claims against the president. There is huge risk. Host in that format . Guest in that sort of format, particularly somebody who can kind of bill offthecuff like donald trump. This would not be his first deposition and he has sat for a number of them over the years, but there is a huge risk there, but it also may be kind of enticing to him, particularly if he thinks he wants to clear things up. I just remember like how kind of diminished clinton looked in those sort of crane screen captures when you saw him in this weird windowless room on a secure line. Obviously telekom was a little different back then, but it was a weird moment for the country. Host coming up on a 30 on the east coast, a halfhour left with our panel. Alex baldwin of the hill, jason dick from rollcall. Terri is in canton, north carolina. Whats on your mind . Caller good morning. Good morning. Bolton, over your right shoulder is a flag. Theyve got it flying upside down right now. Youve set me off. Host we are still here. You are talking about the flags outside Union Station on capitol hill in washington dc. One flag has been twisted in the wind. It is flying upside down. That is disrespectful. Im looking forward to the fake news awards. Host who do you expect to get an award . I thinki tell you what cspan should be in the running. Let me give you an example. The last day of last year, you run the thing on charlottesville and the president talking about both sides. Then you went on to show neonazis with tiki torches. You show the klansmen. You refused, like every other news organizations, to show antifa destroy public property. You refused to show the communists carrying the red flag with a hammer and sickle. Your thing on the introduction, the republican independents. It should read communists. That is the youve got running the democrat party. Alex bolton on the fake news awards this week and what youre are hearing from news organizations around town, how much interest they will happen with the president has to say in whatever format this comes out on wednesday. Guest yes, i dont know whether people will see it as a badge of honor or as an embarrassment. I guess it depends the u. S. I dont know how you are going to he is going to justify these things. The failingalling New York Times fake news for a while, similar cnn and abc. He has been very critical with the press. It does not seem to have phased the New York Times or the Washington Post or cnn. There was an interesting interview between cnn on cnn between Stephen Miller and jake tapper that was very contentious. Dear getting to the point where the administration and the media elite are talking right past each other. As far as trump and his inner goode goes, they see it as politics to diminish and delegitimize the media. That is part of what this is all about. I dont think that news are goingons in d. C. To take those fake media awards that seriously. That is not to say that they shouldnt. President trump does have a lot of supporters out there. I think people should be receptive and at least Pay Attention to criticism. That does not mean they should stop doing what they are doing. Host jason dick. Guest i have mixed feelings about this because im kind of quick to be defensive, knowing how hard that we all work. Caller my message to the within our editorial meetings. , it is hard to get everybody on the same page in a small newsroom at rollcall. The idea that there is a sort of the concerted effort among media, whether it is cnn, cspan, the hill, to delegitimize the president is simply not true. We are all doing the best that we can. We are working like incredibly hard. Most of us are not in this for the money. It is certainly nice to be paid, but this is something we feel is important, it is an important part of the democratic process, to cover what happens in washington. That being said, having somebody sort ofmp insult us is like sometimes you are blessed with good enemies. The New York Times has done quite well under president trump. People feel very strongly about subscribing to that and to the Washington Post. Host you think the news media has gotten sharper because of the criticism in general . That they will double check and triple check more than they did in the past . In fear of being called out for Something Like this . Guest i think certainly there is an awareness and every newsroom that you need to make sure that you have got your ps and qs straight. We have always taken it seriously, we always take the fast fact checking, the seriously. You have broken quite a few good stories yourself, john. How many times have you had to withstand a withering amount of criticism from somebody whos bys has been embarrassed legitimate reporting we are doing . Obviously, the stakes are higher when you have the president making these noises, but this is not new to us, being criticized and people saying youre not important or you are making things up. I feel it we are doing the same job that we have been doing all the way along. Host the president announcing on twitter that the fake news awards are happening on january 17, wednesday, rather than what was expected to be today. Washington, douglas, republican. Caller good morning, mr. Bolton, mr. Dick. Two comments and three questions. Real quick. I dont think america has any place for neonazis. It is an embarrassment to our country. Secondly, black or white, republican or democrat, we all should realize we are americans first. , when it comeson to infrastructure and you talk about rebuilding roads and iuff, i thought that was, thought there was a federal gas tax and stuff to fix all of our roads . If they douestion is fix the daca for the 800,000 people that came over young, they said it would cost 19 billion now i could be wrong just process them and also say the wall is about 20 billion so dont you think that maybe they could come together i mean, they wont, but if they did, trump gets his way, plus they get daca because they are both going to cost about the same . My last question is, what do you think about the alabama election where roy moore was accused by all the women and girls, so it was a big deal, he lost because of that, i believe, and now, you dont hear a word about the accusations and stuff, you dont hear a word after the election is over . It seems the kit was all used because of the election like it was all used because of the election. Host alex bolton, i will let you start on the infrastructure, gas tax issue and the daca fix and the cost of that. Needs well, the gas tax to be increased, but there is no political will to do that. People are talking about a mileage tax now. Because you have electric cars out there. Host when was the last time it was increased . Guest the 1990s, i think. The early 1990s. It is not indexed for inflation. The money it generates goes down every year. Guest while mileage standards have gone up. Mileage standards have gone up and they have not indexed for inflation. Guest there are really only two guys calling for a gas tax in greece, tom carper increase, tom carper and bob corker. I dont know why it does not have more traction on the hill, if they tax, it is something that can be campaigned on. People are afraid of that. He is talking about some sort of deal where if you have. Cut and infrastructure paired daca and infrastructure paired, therefore maybe they should be paired together, i dont see that happening at all. For one thing, the infrastructure package is going to take a while to hash out. They dont have any ideas right now. They are two there a veryoversial subjects controversial subjects. Host jason dick on the daca fizx. Do we know what number it would be for the dream act . Guest im blanking a little bit on what the Congressional Budget Office estimated. It would not be cheap, it would not be free. Things rarely are. In terms of a solution where trump gets a little bit of what , there are these happening about, why do we sign off on part of a wall . If there are a few miles of all outside tijuana, what is the big deal . Saye are other people who given to these demands. Im used to large swaths of my state being walled off, so to me, it would be a distinction without a difference and that it is trumps wall versus a wallet has been there for a while. There would be the problem of paying for the fix, whatever that may be and i apologize for not having that number down from cbo, plus the cost of the. Ecurity measures it would be a double package at that point. The accusations against roy moore in alabama and what has happened since the election. Guest i think part of this is that the National Media has moved on. There is a question of resources. Toward the end, every major National Media organization had people down in alabama reporting on the story. They have moved on because the election is over. However, there is still news coming out of that. It is a little more difficult to find if you dont have al. Com and so forth bookmarked. Accusers one of his there has been a defamation suit. Another woman, her house just burned down. Tragic circumstances. Things are going on. Moore, even though doug jones has been sworn into office, still not conceding, he is Still Holding ground. But there is only so much news that comes out of that because we know the doug jones is a senator and roy moore is not. Host a followup on the cost of the dream act. Mid december cbo came out with their score on it. This is the daily caller report. Cbo finding it would increase the federal budget deficit by 26 billion over 10 years mostly from conferring eligibility for federal benefits on amnestied immigrants. Cbo also has their scores available on their website. Guest and the president says 18 billion is what he wanted initially for the wall, for this round of wall building. He came out with those principles on friday. Host martin in salem, oregon. Line for democrats. Caller i was wondering why nobody is talking about social safety nets. I work three jobs and i was going back to college and then i had a disabled son, so he had to go on disability, i had to go on disability, we had to get housing, now he is homeless. Hello . Host yes, see you want to know what is going on with social safety nets . Caller it is life or death for me and my son and if they put a work requirement in medicaid, if your job and you are mentally ill, you have to be seeing a doctor to get Social Security and anybody disabled without a job and the did not have medicaid, they would never be able to get disability. Host entitlement reform. Alex bolton. Guest that is something paul ryan wants to do. He said it at the tail end of the tax debate last year that welfare reform was going to be a priority next year. Cohn said that they would be moving and infrastructure package and welfare package simultaneously and im sure that was discussed at camp david this weekend. However, Mitch Mcconnell has already shot that down. He said he does not see a whole lot of appetite for entitlement reform in the senate. I dont think theyre going to be using reconciliation. Get democratico by an on it welfare reform entitlement package . I dont think so. This is something some republicans want to do. This is the Graham Cassidy legislation that came up in the fall which would convert obamacare funding into block grants for states and that would fall under the rubric of medicaid reform. I think we have a ways to go. Already, mcconnell has signaled there is not a interest in doing that. Paul ryan, since he is the speaker and he controls the house and he can rule with an iron fist, he cannot be the one saying we are the ones who are going to do this. It is mcconnell on the senate side pointing to democrats saying, we need by and, we need by and, were not going to get that, lets move on to bipartisan things. I think welfare reform, we are going to talk about it this week at the retreat in camp david, there is going to be a joint housesenate republican retreat later this month. Im sure it will come up for discussion. Host jason dick. Guest that seems to be where we are heading here. One of the things to look for this week is that the House Republicans are going to choose the next Budget Committee chairman. Black is stepping down from that position to focus on her run for governor in tennessee, so this has opened up. There are three candidates, all for the most part say the same thing. That they would love to tackle entitlement reform. This is something you hear over and over again. Of the candidates have an inside track or supportive leadership . Guest rob lytle, steve womack, bill johnson have all been here roughly around the same time. They seem to believe that the is one thing that they do consider. It is a remarkably similar things about how they work. Bill johnson seems to have the most spread. He is that of the tuesday group, this moderate group of republicans, and part of the republican study committee. It is the vast majority of the republican caucus, but they consider themselves of the conservatives of the republicans. He likes to talk with everybody, he says. It is difficult to say how this would go. With all things being equal, you might go with seniority, but they also remarkably similar things, that they would love to tackle entitlements, but they dont know if theyre going to get to it this year. Host 15 minutes left with our panel. You should follow both on twitter. Good follows on twitter. Alex bolton of the hill newspaper. L call. Ck of role south milwaukee, wisconsin, line four republicans. Go ahead. Caller good morning, gentlemen. How are you . Host doing well. Caller great. I have a couple of things i would like to reference, in particular the infrastructure thethe daca, as well as medicare reform. Host gimme one or two questions because we are running out of time. Caller first of all, the daca to me as illegal immigration, so lets call it what it is. Canadianughter of a who came over with a green card, i would let you know that our infrastructure, our Justice System has failed. When we going to get these judges in . I was refused welfare, we were told to go back to canada if she wanted to divorce my father. We never received an ounce of help in the 1970s. I was born in detroit, my father is the 10th best Civil Engineer in the United States. Look him up. Lake michigan is the only body of water the United States owns. Amazing a amazing that the states surrounding it have the highest taxation of the public, the people. Our medical is not going to wipe out in the way of genocide because we are not paying attention to the medicare system. Toare not paying attention the Justice System, the criminal and the family courts are divided. , husbandstances arrested, taken out of the home by the state, these manager here, and apartment manager, have dwelling is together. Guess what . Is to protect me as a Domestic Violence person, correct . As a victim . Im being read victor might because the criminal court cannot touch the family court and the family court wont touch the criminal court. Host alex bolton, pick up on the first part of that and the focus on the potential daca deal and what sort of pressure republicans in congress are getting from immigration hardliners and how much pressure they can exert on this process. Guest i think senator James Lankford of oklahoma is one of the negotiations and a think you summed up the republican position well. He said his point is that this may be the last immigration bill for the only immigration bill they consider in the next five something needs to be done about the system. If we are going to take care of the dreamers, Illegal Immigrants in the country as a young age, they did not break the law themselves, they were kids, if we are going to give them a path to citizenship or legal status, then we have to do things to take care of the broader immigration system. So we are going to have to tackle the diversity visa lottery program, get rid of that. We are going to have to tackle this issue of familybased immigration, or chain migration as some conservative critics call it. We are going to have to do as much as we can to shore up the immigration system writ large. Democrats are saying, no, lets keep this narrowly focused on dreamers, any sort of Immigration Enforcement provisions we pass along with dreamers should be focused on immigrants who fall under the daca program. They want to narrow it. I think the border funding is less of an issue. 18 billion is something that i think is palatable. They are not going to build a 2200mile wall. That is probably not what is going to happen, that is not what trump asked for. The negotiation is over how brought is this immigration bill going to be and, right now, republicans are taking the position, dont tell us we are going to deal with the rest of these problems a couple years from now. Immigration is on the table, lets deal with these global issues. I want to make the other point that Chuck Schumer always saw daca as kind of the candy that would get the broader Immigration Reform across the table. Well, it is no kind of boomeranging on him because that is what republicans are doing. Host jason dick, youve got great in maryland. A democrat. Caller good morning. I love your show. Thanks for giving us a voice. This is concerning fake news. University of maryland did a study that found that fox news was 79 not factual. So, i think they should get the award. Thank you. Host that is gregs comment. Anything you wanted to pick up on . Guest i would say that the comment should probably be directed to the president. He seems to be a great fan of fox news. Ont i will give you gene the line for democrats in st. Petes, florida. Go ahead. Are you with us . Go ahead with your comment or question. Caller my question is about paul ryan. Can i give it now . Am i on . Host what is your comment about paul ryan . Caller paul ryan asked us to give trump a break, he was new in washington, just give him a chance. Well, we have been waiting and waiting and it did not turn the oval office into a classroom and make trump and apprentice, but who was going to teach him, the chief of staff, john kelly . Is he going to stand behind donald and say, no, no, donald, dont touch that button . Governor of ohio said the same thing, give him a chance. How long do they expect us to give him a chance to learn to be more diplomatic . Guest i would say that you will probably hear paul ryan say give trump a chance for as long as trump is an office or as long as paul ryan is in office. Host the headline from usa today, fitness debate asetracks trump and aides the president defends mental capacity. Alex bolton, how much are you seeing the agenda get sidetracked in the past week, with this book that came out, fire and fury . Guest the house was out last week, the senate was only in for a day. This week, we will see if there is any fallout. You know, i think questions about the president s Mental Fitness are not new. We have been feeling hearing them all year. Guest during the campaign. Guest during the campaign and after the campaign. Lawmakers have been grilled on that subject and usually, they just dodge it, they dont really want to talk about it. In fairness to them, they arent Mental Health professionals and they dont see it as their job to be assessing the president s Mental Fitness. The pushback would be for psychiatrists and psychologists making judgments without having examined the president , there is professional propriety as far as that goes. I dont think his Mental Fitness is something that will be discussed on capitol hill. However, when he does say things like my button is bigger than your button, that stokes some concern on capitol hill. Does it stoke enough concern that republicans would support legislation that would put some sort of safeguard to the Nuclear Arsenal . I dont think so. Hes still the commanderinchief. People think it is his job. That is the commanderinchiefs job. I dont think anyone is going to try to curtail that. Host a reminder on the president s schedule today, hes headed to the Farm Bureau Federation convention to address that group in nashville, tennessee. That is happening earlier in the day and then the president expected to be at the National Championship game, the College Football championship game in georgia tonight. Jeff is on the line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller yes, if there was a bill that would attach the daca people that are trying to come into the country that stated you are not allowed to vote for the next 20 years and then after that you can vote, you can bet the democrats or the progressives would care less about those people and the reason we want a wall so badly is because every time the democrats are progressives get in office, they come out against the agents to our assigned to guard the wall. The arm ofwe have the progressive party, which is the press, Everybody Knows it now because it is absolutely so, so obvious. The shows are all identical. On homelanddick, security funding and where it has gone in recent years and where the president wants to take it. Guest it has gone up, it will continue to go up unless they dont get some sort of budget deal. One of the things to keep in mind as we look at this january 19 funding deadline is that years ago, in 2011, there was an attempt to deal with the debt, an attempt to deal with spending and they formed this supercommittee, they called it, which we all sort of like, lets see something super now. The supercommittee did not get any kind of agreement and, as a result, they instituted acrosstheboard cuts going on for years and years. , as it was called in some circles. Every couple years, they get a deal. This was John Boehners parting gift when he retired, to negotiate a budget deal. Paul ryan has negotiated one of these deals with patty murray in the senate. Host that list these caps. Guest what the deal, the framework usually is, that everybody gets their priorities. They raised the caps and the get a dollar for dollar increase in terms of defense programs and the mastic programs. Obviously, there is more defense spending than domestic spending outside of the mandatory spending on Social Security and medicare and medicaid, but that has been the deal. If they dont get some set of deal on that, which they probably will, those cuts go into effect. For the most part, Homeland Security spending has gone up and will continue to go up, just like everything goes up in the government. Host santos is a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning, fellas. How are you today . Host doing well. Caller i find cspan very fair. I dont agree with a lot of your guests, but i find it very fair. About this fake news host appreciate that. Caller as ridiculous as the stake news awards sound to me, i just fake news awards sound to me, i just wonder is there going to be a rebuttal planned for him . Some newsnd that media is a little slanted here ,nd a little slanted there but throw some facts out there, defend yourselves. Im not saying you lay down for everybody. Dont stop now. Because we need you we need you. Get some facts, use his own words against him. Im not antitrump, i voted republican this last time around, but im saying that the ability for america to speak out loud is on you. Host that is santos, his advice in illinois. Lets see if we can get to tam in owings mills, maryland. Tim, go ahead. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Happy new year. My question is how come no one trumpll pull trumps card on this . We want the wall, yes, whos going to pay for mexico . Mexico. Over and over, he said the American People would not have to pay for the wall. Host alex bolton . Guest i dont know how he is going to square that circle. Is going to emphasize the positive and say look we got unaccomplished done and he will gloss over what he said in the past. He has an ability to rewrite history. Even on the access hollywood take, there was some revisionist history as to whether he was on the tape in the first place. He does a really good job of changing the narrative and the focus and i dont think he is going to lose any sleep over the flesh that mexico will pay for the wall. Host i did want to get your thoughts on a tweet from last week. Rather than listening to another destructive, divisive speech by trump, i will not attend this years and he will address to congress, instead, i will be working at home, listening to oregonians, and what they think about the state of the union. Democratic congressman from oregon earl blumenauer. Are we looking at a boycott by democrats of the state of the union . Guest too soon to tell, not to be a political prognosticator. There are always a few people who choose to stay home or they will go watch football or Something Like that. Host as the bennett largescale boycott in your memory . Has there been a largescale boycott in your memory . Guest maybe during the obama may be during the obama years. The pageantrythat takes over, the office of the president takes over. Blumenauer is the first one to say he will boycott. It would be pointing it would be different if there was a wide scale, significant numbers. Host alex bolton, to end it here. Sost politics have changed much. There is a resist movement. I could see a number of House Democrats who want to make a strong statement. I just do not know how productive it would be. Lets go back to the polls. Voters want people who work together. Not even listening to what the president says by his agenda does not fall into that category. Host announcer cspans washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, immigration policies, and a onsible shutdown congressional health. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern tuesday. Join the discussion. , president trumps nominee to be the next health and Human Services secretary testifies before the Senate Finance committee. Starting at 10 00 a. M. On cspan3, cspan oregon, and our free cspan radio app. Tuesday, a look at Media Coverage of the investigation into russias interference in the 2016 election. The International Spy museum and New York Times host the event with a former cia officer in new and times reporters editors. Watch live starting at 6 45 p. M. Eastern on cspan three, cspan. Org, and listen on cspan radio. A sunday night and on afterwords, Georgetown University law professor looks isthe way the court penalized by extensive fees in his book not a crime to be poor the criminalization of poverty in america. In terms of the war victims of the world drug, how did poverty plate into that . No men around. What happens to family. What happens to the men who been locked up and all of the collateral consequences. They cannot get jobs. Theyre not allowed to live in public housing. Countryaws across the with requirements of one kind or another destroys somebodys life. If they were not poor when they went into prison, they are definitely povertystricken for the rest of their lives. It is totally connected to poverty. Night at watch sunday 9 00 p. M. On booktv on cspan2. Now the results of Public Opinion surveys on american and japanese views of north korea. The Brookings Institution looked at the results of the polls and looked more generally at the peninsula. This runs one hour and 45 minutes. [indiscernible] conversation