Session we like to take time to look ahead and washington and at this week helpfuln than normal because theres a whole lot going on in washington. A joining us to take a look at it, the congressional reporter with the hill newspaper. Lets talk budget first. Congress passed another shortterm funding to buy themselves more time. A reminder viewers but the new deadlines are that are hanging rightht now congress is bearing down on the deadline for agriculture, justice, commerce. Thats the easier deadlines free package coming due for the marc. March 2222 is people looking ata tougher deadlin includes funding for Homeland Security, pentagon, labor, health and human services, education. With a ann mac to that as part of stopgap plan. Do members think they have enough time for package, and what is the state of those negotiations rightey now . Theyve been working on crafting these bills for the past few weeks. Bit harder to come to agreement on because theyrite department bills seen as more of a policys a lot of Different Things going on worldwide. Different types of provisions people are looking for and we the sticking pointsai early on t the Financial Services government, talking about irs funding and national security, about the specific details but i am expecting a lot more to come out in the weeks ahead. Theres a potential for a 1 across the Government Cut if congress cant come to a deal. How would that happen . After april if Congress Fails to pas i bill. They already have technically under the bill that passed last year. Theres a lot of confusion that isnt really possie but it will carry out in that regard of it looks different from what is expected to happen after april 30th. But it would take, how its been explained to me is it would take effect across the board and it would be kind of indiscriminate cuts so itsin not like if you work for the Education Department i am going■8 to do 1. No from how its been explained it would be program by program but theres a lot of different interpretations of how it would be implemented if they were to come to that point but i dont think they want that. Shortterm spending bills, more deadlines, that potential for the 1 across the board cut does it all mean politically for speaker johnson righty y now . You will talk to conservatives about this. I think feel he is doing the best job he can rightes now. The bills coming out are more in line with the line thats already brokered and the predecessors last year. I think after a certain point, people feel like the writing is already on the wall. Some conservatives have written these off because they dont like the path line. I think that this is just a time where republicans have at least a shot at being able to shape the government funding in some way andso having an influence on crafting these levels and theres an understanding they are not going to get all these winsns and some we will see what happens in the ahead with Homeland Security funding and state department funding. It remains to be seen. Our guest until the bottom of the hour, taking a look at the week 2027488001, democrats, 2027488000, independent, 2027488002. Has there been any telegraphing . Definitely reports. Theres an expectation that they are hoping the president is focusing on trying to communicate what they feel like are the legislative achievements being more effective atve communicating the bipaanfrastrun reduction act and the increases for the irs how does that help impact service. The president also could be doing a better job when it comes to communication on the economy. A lot would be happy we are not in a recession currently ehere a lot in a pinch right now in this inflation so a how do you communicate these at the time gapeople are feeling like their pockets are being squeezed. Theres also the pageantry stuff that we watched when it comes to members bringing highprofile guests have you heard anything on that front or sitting with a member of the other party or wearing a certain color from a certain because . Haveve you heard about any of those efforts . Not sure but im sure it will come out in the next few days. A lot of the focus right now is on government funding because the deadline is on friday and they are trying to line up the package in the house and the mof those details to come out. Super tuesday is tuesday, the government funding deadlines friday, a lot going on. The hill newspaper, edward out of michigan. You are up first. Good morning. I was wondering a couple of things. Is this the longest time i guess in months weve gone without a budget because i guesse budget was supposed to have been passed fall you were supposed to pass an entire budget so is this the longest weve gone without a budget and a second, the budget is supposed to be divided up and passed into 14 different spending bills that come out of■;a committee. That hasnt happened either. Theres supposed to be 14 spending8 nly gotten four or five. Maybe you can budget process and are we ever going to get a real budget ■ ■b past . To pass 12 annual funding bills the house passed more the floor and i think there was a lot of difficulty gin in nature and there was a narrow margin with getting the senate side some appropriators truck them up to not having bills if you are republican due to humor in whatever suspicion you have if democrats what the time is precious. This is in the longest congresss funding. Im pretty sure we have had stopgaps before and at the previous fiscal level they couldnt work out an agreement on the new funding levels. Thiss from the pew research service. This is a chart ofe Congress Passing the spending bills with 12 appropriation bills by october 1. The longer the line the more spending bills that pass getting up to 100 meaning they passed all 12 of the spending bills by october 1 in that year. The last time that happened was 1996 and you could see a number of spending bills pass inec£ent years. Usually it becomes an omnibus package were fullyear continuing resolutions but 1996 with the last time they passed the spending bills by october 1 with the deadline they are given each year. We will refer to this again in the future. The main■ concern with the vote on extending the budget its a major thing you have to balance the budget. The partyas about it, biden and trump and they raise theefu problem is this ise future of the country and what you cant do is bankrupted because that would cause Major Economic problems 34 trillion, 482 billion and counting. Members talking about getting the debt under control right now. Thats been a maj focus debate in the last year they focused a lot on bringing down overall funding with a focused while democrats focus more on the tax society they feel like its been widening and more funding should go to areas likes the irs, focus on getting after a corporation that has found loopholes that are not always■j accessible for the average american. Some experts feel combination of some changes on the tax side in conjunction with spending cuts is probably the more effective approach but this bi is expected tode be passed are coming due fr friday is more in line with a bill that wasck brokered again y biden and estimated would help reduce the deficits by about 1. 5 trillion but it remains to beith the return is on that. 460 billion package this week that we are focused on with six agencies. The department of transportation, veterans affairs, energy, agriculture, housing and urban development and food and Drug Administration going on this week. T in this in georgia, democrat. Good morning. Ive been speaking about the border. Random thoughts go through your mind and after the republicans i guess killed the border bill i was thinking isnt much like the a and democrat ane as many as we can and they dont have enough to plug all ten and within the republicaning to leto sink. Isnt that what happened with the border bill that republicans just said we arent getting everything we want to so we are going to let it totally die, and thats all i have to say. Thank you. Thoughts on that nlg . I think a lot of democrats would agree with that and there are of course the collapse of the border billion there was a lot of politics at this comes at a time that we are in election season and one of the negotiators is i guess what you would consider a moderate republican so there was some surprise that he was able to negotiate with senator murphy and actuallyroduce something but it fell apart in thata way. If trump does win a second term, but feel is a more robust package in their opinion but■ its a very Different School of thought account of the debate. Back to the state of the union, the republican from alabama is set trco an responset bidens state of the union. Have you had a chance to talk about what she will talk about and members of Congress Giving the state of the unionem respon . I havent had a chance to ask about it, but i was interested to see. Again i assume it might be a bigger issue later this week. Also the Top Republican on the appropriationsfor Homeland Security, and ive had the chance to talk to both . Host well. Caller say there hasntat beena balanced budget since president clinton was in office. This figure of the house was a republican called newt gingrich. That was the last time a budget was passed. Today, politics is purely politics. They dont care about us, the American People. They are worried about their next election. When is the last time you saw a democrat crossover and vote for a republican bill . To oust Kevin Mccarthy and to get rid of josh santos. That was it. Time they crossed over. They do not crossover, there are very stern, they will not budge. Tohem a bipartisan bill is everything they want and nothing a republican wants. And that is about that with that. The democrats will never ever crossover. Same with the supreme court. It is always 53,■but democrats. Host e foley on bipartisan votes, crossing of the aisle. Guest i think it depends on who you talk to. Im by no means an expert but i definitely know there were a lot of democrats who were very upset an■d advocates with the border deal and democrats still voted for it. At the same time, there are republicans who say that maybe democrats are a bit more effective at being unified and voting behind certain measures and some conservatives more to get behind a more conservative agenda. But at the same■2e, it at the same time i think there are compromised measures where democrats are not happy about everything in the bill and the same would be said its an example where you can see both sides with losses against the other side they are able to make it across the finish line. I think the caller was talking about two Different Things and the it, the 12 appropriation bills on time. A 2001 is the last time that there was a balanced budget and it last Time Congress completed all 12 of the appropriation bills on time. Does that jive with your memory it . It isnt going to be one bemonth after the initial deadle probably. Z this is the 2025 deae coming■ up. Have they started that process yet while they are trying to finish the current years budget . Guest there are republicans that are excited and feel like its going to be a fresh new of some are already kind of writing off the process because they know they areec not happy with the top lie and its like house is losing a lot more leverage to democrats and have sympathy so they are in the a senate and to have the majority and still have to bend in this way its been a difficulty for the leadership. Fairmont west virginia, republican, next. I think the main reason they are having trouble passingvi the bills is because but biden did to invitee border anybody to come to the border. This is all on the democrats. Tt laid there and they never even passed it. If they needed money all they have to do is did you seeernd state employees get paid holidays, just give them tir the day off but dont pay them. Use the money for something. Host i think hes referring to hr two, t■q secure the border act. Can you update us on where that is . Guest i dont think there was any expectation at all that that was going to be something that of her past of the senate. It wasnt a bill that was designed to pass the senate. It was designed to show the republicans kind of agenda the border and asylum that wasnt a bill that was meant to pass the senate and one that comes upn conversation i think if you were to ask a democrat you want ukrainfunding if you want funding why not pass hr two, i dont think you would get an answer because its not something that i cant see by the democratic leadership would bring something thats not. I dont know i cant say. Thats just not something theyve seen as a starter. May of last year the partyline vote to 19 to 213 was the total on that passage. Next out of virginia, democrat. Good morning. Good morning. W are you. I think they very good. Trump controls the republican party. You mightht as well forget about them and go to trump. The best thing to happen [inaudible] host i forget what state he was in. David, republican. Good morning. Caller good mor about spende then the creation of jobs and programs and the bureaucracies that come into existence. They all come from the same place. It comes from the private sector and this contrast between the spendi end of the governments interest, people with their jobs and benefits, theres fewer and fewer and now weve borrowed money. Either you tax it and take it directly or put it in a 34 trilliondollar demand that when that emerges its the idea of the governments job iso be paid for and the more government you created, the more tax liabilities you create. Time. Do you have a question . Guest it was more of a commentom today on anything els. The length of the bills, am i still want . Host yeah. Caller isea a 1400 page bill and you have to read through it and nobody reads through it. There should be a rule somewhere on the appropriations that cant be more than ten pages long and you have to break it off and vote on that got more to do than keep breaking it down but dont put it in a 1600 nobody knows whats in there except the special interests that right to the bills. On extremely long bills. Guest the color shirt of the criticism that many members on both sides of the aisle■x probably have as we are prepared to see Congress Vote in the coming days on a bill that is more than a thousand pages, but this is a ■npackage six funding bills. Theres a lot of different programs hashing out thelevels m by program, its the idea that Congress Moves through or is taking the process through regular order, bringing of each bill one by onend not doing it against the shutdown deadline, you would be doing this kind of throughout theear but its the getting ready approach booking for fiscal year 2025 and they are already acknowledging they are quite a bit behind when the process starts so they begin next weekend they are still going to be working onppropriation bills for the current fiscal year. Host mary out of the buey are on. Caller i just want to say trump plus 8. 3 trillion in trump. And he doesnt care about the American People. Heuns t■epublin and whatever he wants, johnson does it do so biden cant get anything done that he wants to get done because johnson is too far to want to work with the American People so he wants us to go into a recession which he said for america to lose everything, pensions, Social Security and everything because he wants to come in and act like hes going to save us, but hes not. He is going to try to take down america and i wish the american that your reporter would report things about that. It has nothing to do with of the democrats noto work. Host got your point. But the caller is saying that is something that at least on the budget side is something that democrats have definitely pointed out. There was spending and speaking its quite different from things like the dynamic between mcconnell trump. Republicans would like a second trump term. Im not sure what else to divulge. A lot going on in washington. A good place to go to track it all from super tuesday to the state ofy the union budget negotiation and the hill newspaper. Congressional reporter there. Appreciate the time on a busyor. ■