We do leave the last few minutes of this, take you live now to the u. S. Capitol. Good afternoon, everyone. As you know, we had a lunch with the president. He did q a with our members for about an hour. Underscored the importance of accomplishing for the American People the First Comprehensive tax reform in 31 years which we fully intend to accomplish in the next few days. The Budget Committee will be meeting at 2 30 to take a step that is required to move the process forward, and were optimistic that step will be taken. Im going to have to run down to the white house for a meeting that i gather senator schumer and leader pelosi are not coming to, so i will not be here very long. But in order to allow for a couple of questions, ill be happy to throw it open just for a minute, and then im going to call on senator hatch if hes here right behind you. Yeah. Nancy . Leader mcconnell, how do you address all of the concerns that some of these gop holdouts have simultaneously without making this bill too costly . Its a challenging exercise exercise. [laughter] think of sitting there with a rubiks cube trying to get to 50, and we do have a few members who have concerns, and were trying to address them. Ask we know we would not be able to go forward until we get 50 people satisfied, and thats what were working on. Leader mcconnell . Yeah. [inaudible] are you confident they dont fully buy in that you can [inaudible] keep the government open with only republican votes . Let me say i never refused to go to a meeting that president obama called, a bipartisan meeting. It never occurred to me that i could just say to president obama im not showing up. I mean, that strikes me as a lack of seriousness about the matter before us which is the funding of the federal government of the United States for the rest of this fiscal year. But what about so youll have to ask them why they think its appropriate to refuse to meet with the president of the United States over something as significant as how were going to fund the troops and all the other needs that are addressed by the spending decisions we make every year. Mr. Leader [inaudible] some senators are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good or the good enough on this task force . Look, yeah [laughter] im not going to criticize individual members. Look, big, complicated bills like this are challenging. You all have watched us wrestle with this sort of thing in the past. Its always difficult. But everybody has an opportunity to weigh in. And some members are still weighing in, and were hoping to satisfy them all. And with that, im going turn over the podium to the chairman of the finance committee, senator hatch. Oh, dear. [laughter] well, im happy to be with all of you. I have to say, this is an opportunity for the first time in 31 years to really get a tax bill that could help turn this country even further ahead. I wish we could get rid of the partisan politics. I wish we could get our, both republicans and democrats together. This is a time when we ought to. Its an important time for our country. Weve come a long way on the finance committee to get the bill this far, and i believe that, i believe were going to be successful. I just wish we had more bipartisan support. As you all know, ive worked all my 40 years, plus years to try and bring people together on both sides. And ive never seen it worse than it has been the last but years. Hopefully, we can break through with this bill, and i call on my democrat friends, lets work together, and lets get this done. Accepting the idea that american jobs will continue to go overseas customer selfdestructive business tax code. For the doers and dreamers and hardworking American Families who want a piece of the american dream, this is our opportunity and our moment to deliver to them an opportunity then to pursue their dreams and we intend to follow through and accomplish that. It has already been stated but this is a generational opportunity that could come at a more important time. If you look at the last part of the decade and what we see in this country up until the last couple of corporation is one and a half to 2 growth, sluggish in it in slow growth which too many have come to accept as the new normal. This country is the greatest economy in the world and we can do better than 2 growth. What that means for American Families is most of them have not seen a pay raise in a long long time because wages during that period have been absolutely flat. We have an opportunity to do something about that. Tax reform bill that the senate will be voting on it later this week doubles the standard deduction doubles the child tax credit, lowers rates for families in this country and average family is country typical family of four combined annual income of 73000 get a tax cut of 2200 and we also know that according to the analysis that has been done that wages will increase as a result of more vibrant and robust economy where wages are going to go up about 4000 in the Tax Foundation says it will create a million new jobs and we will see a 3. 7 growth in the economy over the course of the next decade. Those are the things we want to see happen for the typical american family. That is good for jobs and go for wages and good for the standard of living and good for quality of life and that is what this text effort is all about. We have an opportunity to get across the finish line and as senator cornyn pointed out we have issues working through with the image of individual members all of which are valid but all of which in the end are overcome by the compelling logic and rational for doing something meaningful and important for the American People and that is getting this economy growing at a faster rate with better wages for their families. Was good to have the president during this today and our policy Committee Lunch and he talks about the fact that Consumer Confidence in america as an alltime high and part of that when you try to go the economy is through the regulatory relief that has come out of this administration and the next step is the tax relief that we are working on. We as a conference are unified on the efforts to make taxes simpler and fairer, lower rates for people across the country. That is why you have a strong and healthy economy and thats the way you allow people to keep more of their own hardearned paychecks. What bill we are proposing is one that clearly keeps the Republican Party promises to the American People, lower rates, simpler and fairer system. It will deal with the issues that americans face every day and will help grow the economy and keep businesses in investments in america. Additionally, it eliminates the mandate that everyone must buy government mandated health insurance. Paul in wyoming over the past thanksgiving recess i continue to hear about the cost of the mandate of the burden of the mandate of peoples lives. Across the country of those people paying the fine and there are millions and millions eight out of ten of them have a gross Family Income of less than 50000 and it is a direct tax on the American People, on hardworking americans and is part of what were doing the tax relief we will illuminate that, as well. [inaudible] [laughter] its hard to talk about keeping the government open for the democrats take themselves out of the picture. [inaudible] i dont think we know the answer to that yet. We will do what it takes to keep the government up and running until we can reach an agreement. Given the president ial tweet that triggered the unwillingness to get everyone in the room today, was that helpful [inaudible] i assume as responsible adults we are all responsible for our own behavior. I cant imagine why the democratic leader in ms. Pelosi decided to simply not do their job and they can blame it on the teat and im not familiar with the truth that you are referring to but theyre all are sorts of reasons to say no but what they need to do is step up and say yes to doing their job keeping the government up and running. The majority leader is exactly right. This is the bill with which we fund and pay for the troops that are now serving in harms way like in afghanistan and iraq in this is one example. Its completely irresponsible to turn your back on your responsibilities and i hope they will reconsider. [inaudible] im going to ask senator kuhn to complete the answer and this is a completely illusion. We been working on tax form for 30 years since the 1986 tax form and we had 70 hearings before the Senate Finance committee and a lot of working groups, white papers and the like and a lot of work has gone into that and as a matter fact some of the very provisions that senator schumer and senator wyden have complained about the have plucked from their own legislative proposals so theres more than a little hypocrisy here given some of the red anger engine frederick. [inaudible] that did come up during the discussion and it is important to all of us that consumers not see a spike in their premiums and unfortunately they have seen 105 increase in their premium since 2013 anyway but we want to try to get premiums moving down, not up and Alexander Murray seems to be something that they talk to the white house about and the white house is open to as part of the larger negotiation. Could you support having a fix for dreamers in the spending deal at the end of the year that includes Border Security smart. I think President Trump did the right thing by sending us to congress. This is Congress Responsibility and thats a mistake president obama tried to do all by himself. We are in the midst of negotiations now with senator derman, senator schumer and others to try to come up with solutions. I think the solution is fairly obvious and it is important that we get it done and i told senator derman yesterday that we could do it anytime he was ready to sit down and negotiate. We could do it before the end of the year or after the first of the year and we know that march is an important timeframe when the benefits of the daca begin to go away and i think there is a great opportunity you want to keep it separate . Yeah, i think it deserves its own consideration together with some enforcement and Border Security measures. I think that is a good solution to the problem. [inaudible] we have had an experience government shutdowns and they werent good. They were good for the country or good for congress because people sauce is feeling to do our jobs. I dont think the threat of shutting down the government just because youre not getting something you want is a good idea. We need to keep working together and keep coming up with [inaudible] well, we need 60 votes in the senate to close off debate and with 52 rebellions we can do it by ourselves. So, that is the short answer. Thanks. [inaudible conversations] [background sounds] [background sounds] good afternoon. I am proud to be joined by my colleagues here this afternoon. Now with the just three and a half short weeks to go before christmas the to do list in washington is long and compensated. We need to reach a cap field to increase spent defense spending as well as domestic programs that the middle class relies on for jobs. We need to write an omnibus appropriation bill and we need to extend funding for Community Health vendors and reauthorized chips to protect dreamers. To get this all done in a few short weeks all parties need to engage in good faith negotiation to reach an agreement. That is what we hoped would have happened at todays white house meeting. Unfortunately, the president had other ideas. With his point this morning the President Trump made sure that todays meeting is nothing but a photo op. These issues are far too serious for these kind of games. Mr. President , it is time to stop tweeting and start leading. There are serious questions that must be answered and many things that must be done. Democrats and republicans on the hill have come together on government funding for. In april, speaker ryan, leader mcconnell, leader pelosi and i worked together from the government and avoid shutdown in the four of us have worked together for and we, democrats, are ready to do it again. If President Trump doesnt want to get involved in this and President Trump says hes not interested in cutting a deal then we suggest that speaker ryan, leader mcconnell, leader pelosi and i sit down and we can come up with a good deal on her own. That is what was done before and that is what can be done again. As i said, there are serious issues and from us. We dont have time to waste and games to play. We need to from the military. We need to protect millions of american pensions, funded Scientific Research and Student Loans but we need to rebuild in texas, florida, puerto rico, Virgin Islands and california and we need to protect the dreamers. If the president reverses course and decides he wants to be a constructive force working with both sides to forge a bipartisan deal we are happy to be with him anytime, anywhere, any place. As long as he remains a Destructive Force it will be a waste of everyones time to continue working with someone who clearly has no interest in coming to an agreement. We hope the president in order to avoid this calamity will change his mind and the president and the republican friends run in the house and senate and they have a responsibility, a responsibility not to let the government run out of funds. We are willing to work with them but they have to do it in a bipartisan way. Senator durbin. Thanks, chuck. The treat the president release this morning concerned me in one particular expect. Theres only one immigration bill pending before this congress that is taken fiercely. Senator cornyn just addressed it. Its one we all know very well. It is the presence decision on september 52 eliminate daca perfection 780,000 young people looking forward, pay the filing fee in with her criminal back on track, cemented other information to our government and are currently protected from deportation and given the right to work. President trump announced september 5 that as of march 25th that protection wouldnt. With the end of that protection it means disastrous consequences thousands and thousands of young people. He called on congress to ask and senator cornyn said it is our responsibly to act. How did the president describe this challenge this morning in the street . He said the democrats were coming in in favor of Illegal Immigrants flooding into our country unchecked. Illegal immigrants flooding into our country unchecked. The dream act requires that if you are eligible you have to have been in the United States for four years. Were not talking about people flooding into the United States but those who lived their lives in the United States being given the chance to earn their way to legal status and citizenship. That is what the challenges before us. We need a president who will work with us to solve the problem which he created on september 25th when he abolished daca. We need a president who has said so many times that he is respectful of the talents these young people bring to america. We need a president who doesnt use this divisive rhetoric and we can sit down and make this on a bipartisan basis, im convinced of it. Senator graham has cosponsored the acts and three other republican sponsors and it can be done but we have to stop the divisive rhetoric and stop the training and sit down and meet our responsibility before the end of this year. It can be done, not with these points. We will take questions. You cant stop the president from training so does this mean that Going Forward youre not planning to sit down with him . All he has to do is say he is serious and wants to undergo a real negotiation and we will sit down with him but there is an alternative when the president stays out of it we seem to do much better, for leaders and we are happy to sit down with them and thats how we did it the last time the government funding expired in 2017. The president doesnt indicate he is serious and we will not sit down for a photo op. This is serious stuff. [inaudible] they couldnt pass this without a note and they probably wouldve done it a long time ago. They set out in a bipartisan way because in this case they need 60 votes. On this issue, unlike the tax issue, bipartisanship is required and not only the right thing to do but required. That means serious, mature, negotiations with the president has by his this morning show he is not yet ready and we hope he changes his mind. You cut deals with the president for and you come out and said i talk to chuck and nancy and we got it all worked out and why do you not trust him now and how much of this is the politics in your own party . No politics in our own party. The a full agreement to go forward and get this done. This is about the president not being serious and this is about the president we would like to sit down this episode with the Republican Leadership as we did six months ago and we got this done without the president being involved. [inaudible] there is a whole bunch of issues that are reporting to us. The defense spending making sure the parity, the Childrens Health initiative and the disaster money, as well, of course, dreamers. There are a whole bunch of issues out there that are very important to us and we believe there are some things they want and some things we want. If you are serious we can negotiate a very good timely deal and we can do it now we dont have to delay. The staff is making great progress until the president stepped in. We were very close on the number of issues. [inaudible] you cant sabotage the entire system and then say you will do it small little fix on top of that sabotage because Marie Alexander was never designed to be in a situation to be in where there was a direct, print the aca. It was made to improve the aca. Marie alexander is great but first our republican colleagues should abandon the idea of sabotaging aca as they did the individual mandate because it just doesnt make sense. [inaudible] government runs out of money december 8 and the president , republican colleagues and we are waiting for them to come to us and we will work with them to get it done but it got to be serious and theyve got to be real and theyve got to understand there are two sides to negotiation with the president doesnt seem to understand that. [inaudible] im hopeful we can avoid a set up. Our republican colleagues have shown in the past that they know with them in charge that the shutdown falls on the back and the American People know they are running the show and we will not obstruct for its own sake but we need to make a bipartisan agreement there are some things they want and some things we want more willing to compromise. The president seems to say do it on my way or no way and that will not work. Thank you everybody. [background sounds] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] just a look at their inside the Capital Building with President Trump leaving the capital a short time ago meeting with the public and senators but the text from bill and federal spending. We just heard from democrats in the senate and for them the republicans. A meeting scheduled at the white house with autocratic leaders was canceled by the leaders after the president did this. We heard from the Senate Majority leader about the Budget Committee hearing on tax form underway now on cspan3 where numerous protesters were dragged out on the floor by capital please. The Budget Committee meeting to combine several tax reform provisions and capping the one that would open the alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling. That debate is going on in a vote to report out in the merged bill to the full senate, cspan botox are there and they got a look outside the Committee Hearing and share this video. We dont have that video and we will continue on here with a tweet from Jennifer Jacobs saying he will be speaking possibly about tax reform and also talking about the report from south korea that north korea had launched or was testing a Ballistic Missile and will bring you that update in the president s remarks on the cspan networks. Right now we will take a look at the week ahead. Here is a tweet from the hill from speaker ryan. We heard on washington journal this morning that to capitol hill reporters about the mood on capitol hill and the issues facing congress. For a two state roundtable during a busy week on both ends of capital. Were joined by [inaudible] from bloomberg in jordan from the hill newspaper. Steven and dennis, white house support for the hill. Congressional leaders from both parties are scheduledre to go to the white house later this afternoon and what is on the agenda for this meeting . To the top of the agenda meeting is the funding deadline that is coming up on december 8