My friend mr. Gizzi, im dave cook from the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is marc short an activitient to the president and director of the office of legislative affair. This is his first with our locale Breakfast Club home to what steve bannon calls account pearl clutching mainstream media. Thanks for making time for us in your busy schedule, sir. Marc short graduated from washington and lee university. He got his start in politics serving as finance director for oliver norths Senate Campaign and went on to become executive director of Young Americans foundation where his role including stewardship of reagans ranch. He earned an mba from the university of virginia. He worked in the Homeland Security department during the bush administration. Served as senator kay bailey hutchinsons chief of staff and later chief of staff under mike pence. He was later hired by freedom partners becoming the organizations president. And thus ended the biographical portion of the program. Now on to breakfast mechanics. As always, were on the record here. Please no live blog or tweeting and no filing of any kind while the breakfast is under way to give us time to listen to what our guest says. Theres no embargo when the session is over. It will end promptly at 9 00 a. M. To help you curb that relentless selfie urge, well email several pictures of the session to all the reporters here as soon as the breakfast ends. As regular attendees know if youd like to ask a question, please accepted me a subtle nonthreatening signal and ill happily call on one and all in the time we have available. Given the number of reporters here today, please try to confine yourself to one question till others have had a chance. Well offer our guest the opportunity to make some opening comments. Then move to questions from around the table. With that, sir, thanks again for doing this. The floor is yours. Thank you so much for having me. Ill be very brief. Im anxious to get to your questions. Thank you for hosting me. Special thanks to david and linda for me and nor our team. Christian science monitor has been a leader in helping to not just cover the news but help drives the news. We appreciate that. Im honored you included me. The Trump Administration has been and remains very focused on jumpstarting the american economy. And allowing the private sector to create jobs. What weve seen already is the president take unprecedented steps in cutting unnecessary regulations. Basically getting government out of the way of our economy. The Trump Administration has withdrawn 860 regulatory actions to date and we work with congress to pass 14 pieces of legislation under the congressional review act. The executive actions and legislation combined to save our economy an estimated 18 billion annually. These actions are having a real impact in the lives of American People. To date, since inauguration, weve created 1. 2 million jobs. 125,000 of those in the manufacturing sector. Wages are up. Small Business Optimism is up. The dow jones as you know is up 20 since election day and the s p just reached another record high. But theres a lot more we can doing to return jobs to american shores. Thats why the president is focused right now on providing tax relief this year. We have been working with congress to get unified tax relief to the president s desk and in fact, since april, the white house has met with over 250 members of both parties of congress to discuss tax reform. Soon we will release a unified outline with congress and the committees will get to work on a bill. And the spending deal we reached with Congress Last week provide the legislative space we need to get this done this calendar year. But as weve all learned, the legislative process is slow. And in this new season of bipartisanship, we hope that Senate Democrats will end their Unprecedented Campaign of obstruction against some of our nominees. In totes, weve sent 385 nominees to the senate. Only 35 of those nominees to date have been confirmed. By contrast, 70 of the Obama Administration nominees had been confirmed by the same date in his presence. At this point, president obama had 385 nominees compared compared to 133 for this administration. With the emergencies we are facing in texas and florida, the importance of getting these nominees into their jobs is hard to understate. Blocking these nominees during a National Emergency is dangerous and it is irresponsible. So we call on democrats to stop playing politics with our nominees and help us to fill our departments. I will say that i am encouraged that last night i spoke with leader schumers chief of staff about a path forward and in particular as you know, today, had there be a confirmation vote on the council of economic advisers kevin has set. We also believe that in much of the recovery at this point it turns to a housing issue in both particularly in texas but likely in florida, as well. To date, our deputy secretary at hud has yet to be confirmed despite being voted out of committee three months ago. We hope they will allow her a vote this week and im encouraged by last night that that will happen. Nominations and hurricane relief, we have other important priorities for the American People. Were long overdue to secure our borders and we Hope Congress will provide a legislative fix to dhaka. The president is still committed to rebuilding americas infrastructure in this congress. We still think that americans deserve relief from the spiraling costs of Health Care Insurance and lack of options caused by obamacare. But these are just some of our priorities. Theres a lot more to be done. Fortunately, what weve seen so far in the economy is the president s positions particularly at the executive branch level with some of the Regulatory Reform is making a difference. We will continue to work with congress to fulfill the promises the president made to the American People. With that, i look forward to your questions. Thank you. As you know, my job is to throw out the ceremonial softball and then were going to go to john bennett, calen mcneil, jonathan, linda feldman, heidi przybilla, demetrius, cheryl, george, and tara. That should get us going. There are people who looked at the deal that was done, the fiscal deal that was done last week as a sign that President Trump is the First Independent president to hold that office, either not focused in terms of loyalty on either party. Is that an assessment you would agree with . How does it affect your job as legislative director . I think that the president first and foremost rather than Party Affiliation looks what he can do best for the American People and to fulfill the promises he made on the campaign trail. I think that the deal that he struck last week enabled us 0 clear the decks to focus on tax reform. The president has made getting jobs back in our economy a number one priority and the tax reform is what we think is necessary to get the economy growing again. I confess i do find some of the coverage interesting. As i mentioned in my opening remarks, weve been meeting at a bipartisan level with members of congress for months now on tax reform. So the president has sought to get cooperation from democrats on several pieces of legislation, but i confess that i think some of the conch in our initial few months was that i know im painting with a broad brush. I think some of the commentary was this president is relying on his base and he cant accomplish a lot if he continues to surround his base. The last few days the coverage has been how in the world is the president going to accomplish anything if hes discarding leadership in his own party. Theres an irony its either a youre relying on your base or youre not getting done because youre partnering with schumer and pelosi and not working with republican colleagues. The president s focus is what he can doing for the American People and less worried what the relationships are, what the coverage is about, the going on with mcconnell, ryan, pelosi or schumer. Do you agree with the comments that the Senate Majority leader made to the New York Times that the deal last week is actually not as good as it looks for democrats because of the extraordinary measures being ep employed so that the debt ceiling wont happen till 2018 . I look at it as it was a good deal for the American People. The American People are tired of impasse in washington, tired of dysfunction in washington, d. C. In many reasons that was why President Trump was elected. I think there was a lot of frustration about the way that washington, d. C. Worked and in a matter of we came into september with i think a lot of commentary how in the world will we ever get through september. Theres a roadblock on debt ceiling, continuing resolution, lease too much that congress has to do. I think the president cleared the deck effectively and the American People are relieved theyre not have having crisis conversations about government shut down or about debt ceiling. So i think that again, he was looking out for what is the best interests of the nation. John bennett from roll call. Marc, thanks for being here. You mentioned speaker ryan and taxes. Speaker ryan has talked about a corporate rate somewhere maybe around 20. The press firmly is at 15 . Is there any wiggle room on that 15 to bring this some kind of deal together or is 15 nonnegotiable . The president wants to get corporate rates down 15 . I think it doesnt help ourselves to negotiate against ourselves. So i think that we should aim for what we think is best and i think we all understand that ultimately, theres probably compromise to get to the best deal but we think that what is best for the American People is a 15 corporate rate right now. We think its more competitive on the international stage. This isnt just about corporate rates. Its about jobs in our country. What weve seen is because of our unfair tax code that Many Companies have decided to invert as you know and leave america and taking jobs with them. So we believe its important to reduce those rates so we can be more competitive and keep jobs here. Taylor mcneil, talking points moorm. On dhaka, im wondering if you can outline what the administration will be looking for in a bill in congress. Would something that kind of restore the dhaka protections need to be prepared with funding for the wall,er who Border Security measures . Are you willing to go for more of the d. R. E. A. M. Act scenario where youll get actual legal status as opposed to just Something Like dhaka. I think the white house will be laying out legislative priorities we would like to see as any part of a daca package in probably within the next couple weeks. I will say that broadly, theres several things we think are important. We do think its important to secure our border. We do think interior enforcement is critical and also think that we should be moving to a merit based immigration system. To what extent that can be one package, whether or not thats multiple packages we dont know. I would ask you guys i think one thing thats got has not received enough attention is that this week on the house floor, there will be a vote on ms 13 legislation that has been a priority of the administration. Weve worked with house leadership to get that on the calendar. That follows legislation previously passed on kates law and sanctuary cities. So the house has been moving forward on several pieces of legislation we think are critical to our country and were hopeful that the senate will be taking up those bills at some point this fall, too. Justin zincing from bloomberg. Go back to taxes and ask both you know with mark meadows last week, im wondering how that conversation went and if you guys were able to reach areas of agreement on tax reform and if you anticipate them helping the House Freedom caucus helping your push and to just follow on the earlier question, do you want to get the corporate down as low as possible, is that going to mean limiting expensing which is something Republican Leaders across the board has said is essential to the growth you expect to see. Ill take the second one first. On the expensing front we dont think expensing should be prioritized at expensive rates. Were more interested in prioritizing rates. Thats more important to get the economy growing. Can you speak up a little bit. Sure. Sorry, the question was about expensing relative to rates. My view is the administration believes its more important to get rates down and that while we value the discussion on expensing we want to prioritize getting rates down. Regarding the conversation with free caucus, thats been an ongoing conversation. Weve partnered well with him. Weve partnered well with his conference. They were very supportive with our efforts on repeal and replace. Thats not an unusual occurrence. I talk to him frequently. I talked to him this morning before coming over here. We value that partnership and i think that theyve laid out a pretty fair case which says in order to get tax reform done, well have to pass a budget first. And their position is that we want to know whats in the tax reform package before we vote on the budget. I think their viewpoints are understood and i think they will get details of tax reform before a budget vote comes. Jonathaning from new jersey star ledger. Stay on taxes. According to tax foundation, the state and local tax reduction, more than half of those taking that deduction make less than 200,000 a year. How can be you describe this as a middle class tax nobody making 200,000 a year or less pays the tax rate. So how can you describe as helping middle class families a tax plan as the president s proposed that eliminates the estate tax, lowers the top rate and eliminates the state and local Tax Deduction . Many of the most wealthy in our country are the ones i think that take make it easier to comply with fairly difficult tax policy that america has right now. Additionally, we would be lowering the individual rates on the middle income so we do want to prioritize middle income tax relief and despite the analysis that you cite, i think what weve seen in analysis weve done is that those particularly in those states suffer from the highest tax burden on state and local taxes. Thats a deduction that is probably better dealt with at the state level than at the federal level. Linda feldman from the monitor. So i want to continue on the theme of donald trump as the First Independent president. Theres been a lot of speculation whether hes remaking the Republican Party or perhaps fomenting a schism within the party. Im just curious what your take is on that and what kind of impact the president might have on the midterms next year. I dont think that the president is fomenting a schism within the party. I think in many cases you look at the special elections conducted so far and the candidate the president supported has won all four of those. In many cases hes helping to build the party and get the party grounded back with the grass roots activists. I think hes been an asset in helping us to strengthen the party. But again, i think that the president looks at whats best for the American People. Hes not looking at it through a prism of what benefits which Political Party more. Do you want to do a follow, carl . Sorry. Mr. Dahntay from the hough post down at the end of the table. Thank you. I guess is the administration committed to making sure that corporate rate is extended to s corps and partnerships, et cetera . If so, is the white house prepared to explain how much the president personally is going to benefit from that change. We are committed to extending it to small businesses. The details of that will be coming forward. Im going to ask on the second question about the president s benefit. I think that thats obviously been a discussion held throughout the campaign. Hell be happy to share his tax returns when the audit is completed. Heidi przybilla. In laying out the priorities on daca you didnt mention the wall. Does a continuous wall along the entire southern border have to be part of whatever compromise is reached by the end of the year on daca . I think we are most interested in getting boreder security and the president has made a commitment to the American People that he wants he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of Border Security. Whether or not that is part of a daca equation or another legislative vehicle, i dont want us to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on daca impossible. The president is also interested as he said in solving the issue of daca and believes this is an issue that congress has failed on. I think what you saw from the department of justice was an explanation that the order that obama had given was unlawful and could not be supported. Hes asked congress to fix it. I think we look forward to provide them some guidelines and seeing how they work through the process and put together a solution they think works. John from news max. Thank you, dave. Thank you, marc. One of the things thats come up recently, the president and the Campaign Said that he was fully committed to maintaining entitlements. And said this over and over. The chairman of the Republican Study Committee as well as congressman schweiker who participated in a recent tax reform conference said that the only way to achieve true tax reform is to put medicare and medicaid on the table for reform. The president s campaign statements notwithstanding, are entitlements on the table in tax reform . I think the president remains committed to keeping promise he made to the American People and not cutting medicare or social security. I think as you know, john, the repeal and replace legislation was i think our best opportunity for real entitlement reform in medicaid. And now its something that the president supported and unfortunately, despite campaigning on that since 2010, republicans when gimp the opportunity were not willing to follow through on that. So i think the president has been willing to make necessary cuts into that program to make sure its sustainable for the future. On broader issue of the additional entitlements i think concerns are about balancing the budget. The president put forward a very fiscally responsible budget that balanced in ten years without making those cuts as you know. It will be voted on soon in congress. He looks to continue to keep his promise to the American People. Were going to go next to dimitri from financial times. You said had you 250 meetings with members of congress, democrats and republicans. Can you sketch out for us on tax reform where you think there might be room to work with democrats we may not be seeing . Sure. And to be just clear on nuance, with 250s members,ing there were 250 members sometimes individually, sometimes in group settings. I think that the feed back weve received from Many Democrats is an interest in they recognize the corporate rates are too high. They recognize that the Corporate Tax system is unfair. They recognize that its causing companies to leave our shores. And so i think that there is opportunity to partner there. I think typically, theyve expressed a willingness, as well to lower individual rates. On the lower income, middle income, i think theyre reluctant to lower rates on higher income. I think, as well that they have also expressed a desire in some cases to marry tax reform with infrastructure. I dont i think thats a conversation for them to continue to have within their conference and dont have much to add to that. Its commentary we received back from them. Were going to give you a little time check here. Were going to going to cheryl, alexis, george condon, tara, carl, merle, brian, todd and nancy cook. Im also conscious of the fact that we havent gone to any of the tables in the back. Im feeling guilty. Wave at me. Cheryl from bloomberg b a. Since you opened with regulation, does the administration have any new initiatives plan to cut more regulations this winter or next year, and also, do you support senator portmans regulatory accountability act . Forgive me, but im not familiar as i should be with portmans bill. On the first question, i think the administration will continue to review legislation sorry, review regulations in many cases, there are reviews under way. So yes, i would anticipate we will continue to look at ways to roll back what we felt was an undue Regulatory Burden that much of our economy faced when this administration came into office. Any new executive order . Not any to announce this morning. Were going to go next to sorry for the mechanical hassle, alexis from real clear politics. The president not only tweeted but spoke over the weekend about his impatience to get to tax reform. He would like to speed things up. Wanted to ask you a question related to his impression as you said that congress is slow and he would like to move faster. Can you describe what he means by speeding up . He linked to hurricane in his remarks. Im not sure what he means by speeding it up. Secondly, you were describing a sequence here of what the Freedom Caucus wants, they want to see the tax reform. You said theres going to be an outline. Can you help us understand in the president s view what the timing is and is he are you saying the president is going to tell the committees heres what i want before they actually begin to draft anything in the committees themselves . It sounds like hes going to stick to his positions and tell them to draft something from that. Is that wrong . Well, alexis, i think that the president has laid out on the campaign what he a tax reform package helps him to get elected. Yes, hes still consistent in pushing for the same principles. He recognizes that the markup process will likely alter that some. But we have been working with speaker ryan, leader mcconnell, chairman hatch, chairman brady to try to reach consensus on that. I think that the president believes that right now the is our window to get this done. And so yes, i think youll be seeing in a matter of days not weeks this administration pushing out more details on what we believe should be needed in tax reform. Can i ask you, you could have done that months ago. What the summer has been about what . Well, i think it was intended to make sure theres a few issues that between the senate and the house and the white house needed resolution. And i think weve pretty much close to finalizing that at this point. Theres some preference on just the mechanics of getting through the month of september. The white house is anxious to do is now. I think youll see the white house to get that laid out sooner. George of the national journal. You said at the beginning that everybody understands how chlo the legislative process is. Im not sure thats true in the, in, some of your colleagues on the white house staff. You have to go back to jimmy carter to find a staff that had fewer people ho had passed a bill. You, rick and steve are about the only ones on the original staff that had ever done that. How much has that led to the frustration that clearly the president feels and how much has that made part of your job getting across to your colleagues and to the president how the process works . That it is slow. George, i guess when i say everyone, i should mention that my view is everyone here in this audience understands the pace of congress. But i think that the president s frustration is born out of what hes articulated several times that republicans have promised since 2010 that when given the opportunity they would repeal and replace obamacare. I think the frustration was that that that was something that was promised in an expeditious fashion not just would we get it done but get it done very quickly. Theres been some commentary about the president s false expectations but leadership laid out to us an expectation of completing the repeal and replacement of obamacare before the easter recess. When they give us the expectation and the president is naturally frustrated that not only did we miss the timeline but we didnt get it done. He believes that the American People are suffering under obamacare. That we continue to see rates skyrocket. We continue to see people lose insurance. We continue to see counties be completely bare of offering any insurance on the private exchange market. Theres a couple senators in particular where rates in arizona have gone up 116 in, alaska, 200 . Yeah, i imagine the president is frustrated that despite promises, that they would get it done, that that didnt happen. So i think thats a natural reaction. I think right now, back to alexis question, hes anxious to say okay, now were moving on to tax reform. How quickly can we get this done. Next to Tara Mckelvey from the bbc. Tell us about your former employer about the Koch Brothers and the relationship with the administration how its changed over time and how youve acted as an emissary between the two. My role is to help advance the president s goals and his goals on capitol hill. I think that my sense is that charles and david are very independent, as you know. And then theyll express their disagreement when they have disagreements. I think right now, theyre very supportive of helping to make sure we complete tax reform. Theyre very supportive of the positions the administration laid out, not just in the particular i think the simplify indication and getting rid of many of the deductions that i think the government chooses winners and losers with. Theyre interested in making sure individual rates are lowered and corporate rates are lowered. We look forward to partnering with them on that particular issue. There will be plenty of issues where well be going separate ways. Carl for the dallas morning news. Mark, you mentioned it the outreach the president has had on a bipartisan basis on tax reform. But we all know that the main work is being done by six people from the two committees and the two leaders and from thevation. Is there any thought to broadening that group and to bringing in congressman neil, senator widen, the ranking democrats on the committees . And as part of that, are you still planning hopeful of getting a budget resolution which you still havent gotten of doing this beak through republicans, recognizing that the last time tax reform was done in congress it, took two years with the president and both parties involved. Carl, i think that the president has been clear that his preference is to get reform done on a bipartisan basis. Its why his first two trips to give speeches were to missouri and north dakota. Heidi height catch joined us on that trip. Many of you have been reporting on tonights dinner thats a tax reform conversation in bipartisan fashion. Secretary mnuchin and gary cohn met with the entire complete not just the republicans to lay out our plans. We are hopeful well get partnership there. The message they sent was if you go on reconciliation, you wont get our cooperation. Im not sure that threaten ables us to find a pathway forward. I hope that people will see the benefits of overall tax reform. Is the belief theres a real outreach to the key democrats . Its one thing to meet with the whole committee. We know how that works. But the fact is, there are ranking members who in the past on this kind of thing would have been brought in from both parties. And theres apparently been a conscious effort not to do that. I think theres been a conscious effort to make sure before the markup process begins were on the same page with our leadership, carl. I think theres a full recognition that a markup process will go through the committee process. So i think theres plenty of opportunity for us to work with ranking members on each ways and means and Senate Finance committee. Next to brip bennett, nancy, annie and teddy. Mara from npr. I have a question of kind of relationships between the president and his own Party Going Forward into 2018. Hes already inserted himself into a possible primary challenge for jeff flake. He has yet to schedule a trip to alabama for the capped that he endorsed. Im wondering if you can say now that heal support every republican incumbent in in 2018 or will he involve himself in the primary process . I dont know the president has a commitment to avoid primary processes. I think that each one will play out by itself. But you know, as far as the relationships with members and with leadership, i think that the president maintains a strong relationship with Mitch Mcconnell and with speaker ryan right now. I think that despite some of the news of the last week, i dont know that we think theres anything wrong if he also has a Good Relationship with Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi. We would argue that the Obama Administration in some ways failed to have those relationships across the aisle and it probably hurt them in some of the things we were trying to do and probably hurt the country for not getting more done. Youll see the president look to continue to not look at it as, hey, what do i need to do to stay in the good graces of mcconnell or paul ryan. He looks and says whats in the bests from of the American People. Hell probably have the same filter for making decisions on elections. Youre saying there was no fallout at all an in the way the deal was made that affected the relationship between republicans and the president . I think there was a lot of coverage about the fact that Republican Leadership was not supportive of that deal. But at the same time, the president was on the phone with speaker ryan and Mitch Mcconnell within 24 hours. He had dinner with speaker ryan the next night. I think their relationship remains strong. Brian bennett from the l. A. Times. The president campaigned on a platform of economic nationalism and trade protectionism. There arent a lot of members of the House Republican caucus that have the campaign gone that way in the past. Is there something that the white house is doing to structurally change the types of people or the positions that the republicans in the household when it comes to trade protection yich and economic nationalism . No, theres not. I think that how the conference is made up is really a decision for the conference and who has what leadership position. I think we view it as actually the diversity of opinions inside the republican conference is a benefit. There are many factions within the Republican Party that times make it more difficult for us legislatively. So i certainly can see that theres a lot of different viewpoints but i think sometimes having those competing viewpoints is better than a party being monolithicing. Todd of the dallas morning news. In terms of the factions in the Republican Party, im wondering about longterm funding for relief and recovery from the storms. And how the pushback against the rather large price tags that this will entail. I mean, there are some people within the Republican Party who want to see budget offsets. How much of an impediment is that going to be . I think that the vote last week is a good indicator, 300 and some to 0. And so i think that certainly there will be some in the Republican Party who ask for offsets. Probably i would imagine, todd, if depending on how large the numbers get, that will be a growing number. I think the president s committed to making sure relief is provided to the people who need it and that will be the driving factor. I think that well end up getting through congress the support needed for the victims of the floods. You know that the texas delegation better than anybody else here. I know that there were several members of the delegation who opposed it. But by and large, members who were typically pretty conservative in their voting record were supportive of providing that aid. I imagine there will be to whatever aid package comes forward for florida, as well. Unrelated question daca followup. Can you clarify if the president is open to citizenship for these dreamers . At this point, im not going to state on that. I think that well wait and see how the process plays out what deal can be made. Nancy cook from politico. You talked a lot about certain bipartisan outreach that the president and you have been doing on tax reform. But i want to im curious to hear your thoughts what the outreach has been to conservatives. Ive talked to several house members and also conservative groups in the last few days who have always been skeptical of treasury secretary mnuchin and gary cohn because they largely view them as democrats. That coupled with the deal that the president cut on the debt ceiling which dismayed a lot of conservatives has people wary of tax reform. What kind of outreach are you doing for conservatives to make them feel tax reform will go in a way that makes them feel comfortable. One thing that unites members from the liberal side to the conservative side to the moderate side, theyll all say theyre not getting enough attention no matter what. I think that yes, we if we focus simply on republicans and i think the criticism, as well, you guys are not being bipartisan enough. If youre bipartisan, youre alien lating your Republican Base. That comes with the territory. I think that i dont think were ignoring the conservative base of the party that i think helped propel the president into his election nor the conservative base in congress that i think has been most loyal and supportive of his agenda. It was already asked, we met with Freedom Caucus chairman mark meadows and jim jordan last week with secretary mnuchin and gary and myself to talk through the plans forward on tax reform and i talked to mark just this morning before coming over here. So i think were pretty well in touch with that caucus in making sure that we continue to work with them closely. I dont think theres a obviously, thats a question for them in a lot of ways too. I dont sense that theres a worry that were leaving them behind. Franking from mcclatchy. Thanks so much. I wanted to ask about the u. N. Meetings next week. Can you talking about what kind of the most pressing matters are, what you hope to accomplish. Any chance that youll meet with venezuelan president that trump will meet with Nicolas Maduro . Has either side reached out for a possible meeting, be open to it. Im sorry, im going to be no help whatsoever to you. My portfolio is u. N. Is not it. I have enough with 535 members of congress not having to worry about the u. N. Delegation. Im thankful for. I apologize. I dont know that the plan and lindsay can probably get back to you on that later. Paul bedard, Washington Examiner back in the cheap seats. Upper deck, baby. Marc, what is the relationship with chum schumer and pelosi . Does he make a lot of phone calls, theres a lot of smoozing . Does he send pelosi chocolates . Secondly, is he going to campaign for Luther Strange . Does he continue to endorse him . The president has endorsed Luther Strange and he continues to stand by that endorsement. Regarding the relationship with the others, paul, i dont know if i need to say this a different way that im not getting through. I think the president looks at it and says im going to do whats in the best interests of the American People. Sometimes that may be partnering with pelosi or schumer. But i dont think its bad. I dont think its bad if he has a positive relationship with them. I do think that the last administration did not have a positive relationships across the aisle. So i think that the president has spoken to nancy pelosi. He has spoken to Chuck Schumer on occasion. But i dont know that theres like a road map that says okay, this is how were going to navigate that relationship. Its more about what at the time, what can he get done thats going to benefit the most American People. Annie from the boston globe. I wanted to ask you a little bit about john kelley. Can you talk at all about how hes changed things at the white house, how his style might be different from Reince Priebus and whether you would credit him with any of the things that have happened in the last month or so since hes been chief of staff. I feel like we are very privileged to have a chance to work for an American Hero like john kelley. I think that hes done a terrific job in providing structure to the white house in ways that i think empower staff to do their jobs more effectively. And i think that we are were excited to have him inside the building and i think hes been a great asset to many of us. I dont know whens to offer you other than that, annie. I think the structure hes provided has been obviously something that was needed inside our building. But also something that more than the drama of covering the white house, i think it just enables people to do their jobs more effectively. Talk about how hes established relationships. He came from the outside a bit. Hadnt been in the building previously. I guess that i think he views his role as he said, to help top be the staff and to help be the president. And what i mean by that is that hes not hes not in this to draw attention to himself. Hes in this to try to help make sure that people get their jobs done and if theyre not, then theyll be held accountable. Thats the way it should be run. We go to teddy davis from cnn. Hey, marc, i wanted to follow up on Steve Bannons interview with 60 minutes. It took a long time to get to that. Do you and the president agree or disagree with steve bannon that paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell do not want the president s pop uist economic agenda to be implemented . I think that paul ryan and Mitch Mcconnell have been terrific allies in us with thetach reform package. I think theyve been terrific allies as i mentioned on the regulatory front. I dont know anybody who could have done that better than Mitch Mcconnell did. I think his team was helping us to say okay, here are the pieces of legislation that we can target to begin to roll back the Regulatory Burden. So i would disagree with steve. I think that the leaders have been strong partners in helping us to advance our economic agenda. Were going to go to ken thomas of the a. P. There was a lot of interest about the president s views of the trade agreement of korea. What kind of push back have you received from state members members representing the auto industry. Is there a lot of concern if the u. S. Did pull out of that agreement, that that might hurt the economy or hurt certain sectors . I think the president has stated many times his displeasure with many of our trade deals and believes they could be more strongly negotiated in ways that benefit the american worker. We certainly when there was press coverage, theres no doubt some of the studencies from the midwest reaches out to the white house to express their concern. But i also think that the president s going through a normal review process on that and i dont have any news to make one way or the other on that policy right now. But i dont expect any sort of announcement soon that would change our policy there. Does this conversation though help the Foreign Policy element right now . Weve yeah. Theyre interlinked, theres no doubt. And i think that thats certainly a conversation that nsc is engaged to talk with the president about that. Were going to have all the way in the back to jeff mason from reuters. Marc, theres been a lot of coverage of gary cohens relationship with the president after charlottesville. Hes a big player in tax reform. Can you walk us through a little bit on what hes doing on tax reform . How he fulfills that role with congress and within the white house . And then more broadly on sort of relationships in the white house, do jared and ivanka help you with things on the hill . Do they reach out to congress men and women as well or focused on other issues . Well, im not really going to talk about relationships inside the white house. As far as partnership on the hill, i think in many cases the way that we look at it is that thats coordinated. Its productive for them to advance interest that are part of the president s agenda. With gary, look. We all serve with the pleasure of the president. Right now gary is first and foremost on our point for tax reform. He and steve are in all of the meetings. He was meeting with speaker ryan last night. He will be part of a big six meeting again on capitol hill today. And gary is essential to us right now in our efforts to provide tax relief to American People. Hi. On wednesday reportedly tim scott will be meeting with the president on issues of race. And you might charlottesville, senator scott was on television and talking about the president s comments undermining his moral authority on this subject. And apparently what he wants to talk about with the president is sharing some of his own personal story and also talking policy points like black colleges and poverty. So my question for you is, do you see the president changing or modifying either his tone on this subject to deal with this overall moral authority question on issues of race . And do you see him dealing specifically with policy points . Some of the things senator scott wants to talk to him about. You may know more than i do as to what senator scotts plans are for the meeting. I think that the president has condemned the violence in charlottesville and i think that he was clear and outspoken in that. Regarding this meeting with senator scott, senator scott asked for an opportunity to sit down with the president and share some of his personal experiences, you say. And the president is happy to do that. And im sure that we will all learn from that conversation. And thats a good thing. As to what outcomes that . Theres no way to prejudge right now. Jim sciutto from cnn. Thanks, marc for taking the time. The president is of course extended u. S. Military deployment in afghanistan, given the pentagon Broad Authority to set troop levels. The military presence in syria and iraq certainly doesnt look like the conditions there are going to be stable enough to allow u. S. Troops to leave any time soon. In fact, there are a lot of arguments they might be there for a very extended period of time. For a candidate who often during the campaign and even before the campaign criticized extending u. S. Military deployments abroad, does he intend to seek a new authorization from congress . Go to the hill for u. S. Military operations . The administration sent some mixed signals on this. At times they said it looks like weve got enough. In briefings to senators on the hill, they said theyd like a new authorization. Where does the president stand on this . The president believes the current use of military force is sufficient for our needs right now. Were not looking to change it. And the administration submitted a letter to congress stating that from both secretary tillis and secretary tillerson just last week. Would be happy to get you a copy of that. But we stand by the 2001 aumf. It provides us with the flexibility we need. How does the president rectify that position with his own criticism of extend eed deployments abroad . And how does he in his mind justify a post9 11 authorization against al qaeda for battles against isis on the ground in syria, even at times regimebacked forces. How does he rectify that with his past positions . Jim, i think its a very fair question, but i think the president laid that out pretty specifically in his speech at ft. Myer when he talked about what changed when he walked into the oval office. How his position on this in particular was one he wanted to make sure that there was not continued unrest in ways that created threats to the American People. And it was his policy is one to try to protect the american citizens from attack. And so i think that he laid out his viewpoints in that speech very clearly to the American People. And as far as the authorized use of military force, we believe that whats currently on the books provides the flexibility for our policy. Steve from the washington times. Real quickly on the border wall, are you saying that the president will not insist not necessarily insist on that as part of a daca fix . And then the section 702 letter came up from some of the security folks yesterday saying that they want to see a bill without any removing the sunset provision. Will the president stand by that . Is that something hes willing to back up on the veto that 702 has to be made permanent . Or will you accept a 702 that has a sunset in it . I believe were still working through a position on the 702. I think it should be coming forward honestly in the next couple of days. I know its going through an internal review process at the moment. So i dont want to get ahead of that, steve. Im sorry. On the other question, im cautious of having steve write that the president backs off border wall. Thats not the position that i in any way am trying to convey. The president is committed to sticking by his commitment that a physical structure is what is needed to help protect the American People. Whether or not that is specifically part of a daca package or in a different legislative package, im not going to prejudge here today. But he is committed to making sure that wall is built. Anyone who hasnt had one that wants one otherwise we will have done 27 questions. Yes . Something that i didnt hear in all of this sorry. Francesca chambers, daily mail. Is how exactly you plan to pass tax reform. Could you walk us through that . I understand that the administration thinks it could use reconciliation, but if thats not an option, you would have to get eight democrats. He seems like hes the president seems that hes having a couple Democratic Senators over this evening, but not quite eight. So could you kind of walk me through how you plan to get the tax reform passed by new years day as paul ryan has said . That was francesca of the daily mail. Its a great question. I think we would love to have enough bipartisan support to get 60 votes that ensures permanence on tax reform. Thus far what i think weve faced is unfortunately resistance to that because i think that in many cases rather than looking out for the interest of the American People, many people in the other party are looking to try to deny victories to the administration. So getting to 60 votes, i think, will be a challenge. Its one we would like to see happen. But i think itll be a challenge. We defer in many cases the process to those leaders that we have and i think that their guidance has been that reconciliation will be the most likely path forward. The reason that were having engagement, though, is even if we go the reconciliation process, we still believe tax reform would be better if done on a bipartisan basis. And weve also learned this fall im sorry. This summer that keeping 50 of 52 republicans is not something thats reliable. And so despite promises of commitments that they made to voters since 2010, we dont feel we can assume that we can get tax reform done strictly on a partisan basis. So its wise for us not just from a policy perspective, but from a perspective to reach out and earn the support of democrats as well. As you note or as carl noted in 1986 when president reagan passed it, it was on a bipartisan basis. So what vehicle whether its a 60vote threshold of reconciliation threshold, we want democrat support on a tax reform package. Were going next to james from reuters. Thanks, marc. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of this rogue campaign the president is embarking on in terms of tax reform . And was that a recognition that perhaps the white house didnt handle health care correctly and now youre learning from your mistakes and that the president now needs to go into the public to advocate for that . I think that the president is our best salesman. And hes our best spokesman. And so, yes, its good to have him out on the road making the case to the American People as to why we need tax reform now. I think that Lessons Learned from health care, what i would say is just a reminder that i think ive articulated one thing we could learn from the last battle was that in many cases, we did not get all of our allies on board with the path forward. Therefore the Republican Base was splintered and some of the reform packages were tagged early on as obamacare light. I will say and im sure this sounds like a copout to some of you, but i will say that that process began that first couple days in january we were inaugurated at the end of the month and didnt really have our team on the field. We do believe that was a process that we had a lot of our conservative allies out attacking the house package before we were even in office. But youre right. It was a Lesson Learned for us. And its one of the reasons that we spent a lot of time our last couple months. Your question about what we do in the summer. We were engaging a lot of outside groups from earlier questions about americans for prosperity to heritage to other organizations, club for growth, as well as engaging business groups downtown to say heres our plan for tax reform. Heres our timeline. We welcome support because you will help us make this possible. So, yes, that is a Lesson Learned. No doubt. Weve got about five minutes left. Were going to try to do two last questions. Mr. Donte from Huffington Post and mr. Bennett from roll call. The president and then you yourself here this hour have talked about republicans kind of in the third person when it comes to health care. I think the president actually was the republican nominee who did promise himself, not just people of congress, that he was going to repeal and replace obamacare. In fact, in his first speech when he announced his candidacy. So how much of the blame or whatever does falls to him as well as congress . I think youre reading a lot more into my comments than i think are really intended. I think the president has said all along that he is ready and willing to sign, repeal, replace when republicans complete that process. And, you know, i think also weve not had any questions about senator grahams efforts that i think are intended to be announced tomorrow about progress theyre making on an effort to still keep that alive so that we can complete that effort before the september 30th window closes. But i think thats not looking to try to say we arent republicans too. I think thats kind of a stretch in interpreting my comments. The president continues to favor an effort to repeal and replace obamacare. But thats the vehicle he prefers . That is a vehicle that will hopefully get more attention in the coming days. [ inaudible question ] im not familiar with any Public Comments he has right now about it. Does he still favor outright repeal without a replacement as many house members do . I think that the president stated that he preferred repeal and replace, john. But he was recognizing that if repeal and replace at that time was too difficult, then we should at least do the repeal part. Thats what he said at the time. One last quick one. When do you need to make a decision on tax reform if youre going to pursue 60 or if youre going to try this on reconciliation . Because as you just said, you need to do that work to make sure allies are with you. When does that decision have to be made . I think that the budget votes will be some time in october. So i think that that is thats roughly the timeline. And we hope that well earn the support necessary to get budget resolutions with reconciliation instructions passed in both chambers. I want to thank you for appearing at one of our biggest breakfasts. Appreciate the help from Lindsay Walters in setting it up. Thanks, sir. Appreciate it. Thank, yall. [ indistinct conversations ] is there any concern about revenue neutrality at all . Yeah. But i think its what gets the most votes. If theyre members who say i only support revenue neutral, that guides us. But our party is getting the growth. Can you get if the calculation says you only get my vote if its revenue neutral, that will dictate the final policy. That was our sujs doiassumption in. Yes. But it is not something thats, like, we got to be revenue neutral. We want what gets the most growth. But revenue neutral means real tax reform. Getting rid of deductions. Yes. And you think you can have that fight and win . Yes. Despite the history of these kinds of things. Yes. Within two years or within a year . Yes. Within months. Yes. Oh, my god. That doesnt get you to revenue neutrality. So what else is out there . Im going to let you hold onto that one. Thats a huge, big, like, armageddon tax reform. It is. We havent gone small so far, why start now . If the president wants this as fast as he can this year, is he willing to dial it down to a tax cut bill . Were not going to way too early for that. Have fallback decisions. The president wants tax reform. But the president has also done the slash thing on twitter. Tax reform cuts. We need to get a territorial system. That requires tax reform. Uhhuh. Thats how you get the but then youre saying hes willing to hold out if it goes past this year. Im not going to say what to fall back on. We want it done this year. In terms of the what do you think that means . Was that a one off thing or does the president see other deals like that in the future . I think that theres a lot of people trying to portend what it means. And i view it as a one off, but i also dont think that means there wont be more. Right. But these are situational. Hes going to decide in the moment like you said. I dont know in the moment, but its going to be case by case. Can you describe your expression in that fra . What was going through your mind . I was like no more deals today, please. Make your life simpler. On the graham thing, are you worried it will get in the way of tax reform . No. Because it would have to get done by september 30th. 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