Would like your phones on silent or vibrate because we also like you to tweet and follow along here in the room and of course to our viewing audience. Turments allow it but we would like it on silent or vibrate because we would like you to tweet and follow along and to our viewing audience. And to do that you would follow us using the handle pressclubdc nancy, p as s in paul, live or hashtag headliners. Using the handle pressclubdc. And thats for our Television Online and radio audiences. Please be aware that there are member who are members of the general public. So therefore if you hear any expressions of applause or signs of approval or disapproval, that doesnt necessarily mean its coming from the working journalists in the room because we do have some decorum, at least id like to think we do. Before we get into the rest of it rest of the things, i would like to introduce the head table and then we will thank some important people who put together todays luncheon. So starting on my fair left, tamera hinton, founder and chief strategist of communicata p. And a member of the National Press clubhead liners teams and this is a team that brings our speakers here to the club on a year round bases. Im glad to see youre on the head table instead of outside taking the tickets. Thats a good thing. Phillip bra shirt, senior editor. Suzannea luthey reporter at inside health policy, Ben Williamson press secretary of the office of congressman mark meadows. Tim alberta, political magazine, one of our softball players on the press corps soft ball team. Alyssa ferrar. Tipping over myself one of our newest members in fact, we just handed his card. Robert costa, National Political reporter for the washington ost and moderator for washington week. Welcome to the club, bob. Skipping over our speaker for a ment, matt, president of advocatists group and coordinated todays luncheon. Thank you very much, matt. Mrs. Debbie meadows, wife of mark meadowings. Ing a culture and trade reporter at c. Q. Roll call, thank you for joining us today, debbie ellen. And Lauren Ashburn anchor of news nightly clts on the global catholic channel. We are missing one person. Well pick up michelle hatman the reporter for the wall street journal who is tied up on a plane but will be able to join us for the luncheon. You can applaud the members of the dais at this time. Thank you for joining us. [applause] id also like to point out additional headliners of the team who helped prepare the luncheon and prepare me. Ive mentioned tamera helped with todays luncheon and mark. And i particularly want to thank our staff liaisons from the office of membership engagement, Lindsay Underwood and laura coker. Now, the blame for an spread ngly partisan is widely among washington. One group that seems to always come up in the conversation is the Freedom Caucus. Is there that a Fair Assessment rights group thats a far in its cause even with its own conference . Or is it unfair depiction of those who think that washington does not represent them as the caucus says on its Facebook Page . Todays luncheon headliner es luncheons guest, representative mark meadows of North Carolinas 11th district which i should add represents ashville, North Carolina where i have family, incidentally,. So im going to call my uncle joe if i dont like something youre doing. He is chairman of the House Freedom caucus and will help us explore those questions about the group. Congressman meadows has been in congress in 2013 after working as a Small Business owner and was elected chairman of the caucus in november 2016. Over the past several years, his caucus has been at the heart of several significant legislative policy and political battles. The Government Shutdown of 2013 which tied repeal of the Affordable Care kt, 2015 vote of no confidence and john boehner retired from the speakership and leaving congress. The caucus has pushed to repeal and the Affordable Health care act since it was sign into the law holding waivering republicans feet to the fire. However, in spite of that, the Affordable Care act as you know remains the law of the land. So were going to ask about that a little later. They have urged congressional leadership to raise the debt ceiling among other demands causing what was known a few years ago and i remember covering this the debt ceiling crisis which kind of got the markets more than a bit upset. More recently congressman meadows has called for congress to be more productive and to ork through the august recess. Kind of upset some of your colleagues on that one, didnt you . He told the Washington Post this month, theres a real anxiety among the people that i serve on why were not putting more things on the president s desk. Theyre tired of excuses. Despite its influence little is known about the House Freedom caucus. They have about 40 members but no one knows for sure. Maybe you can clear that up for us. He will illuminate its deliberations, explain its philosophy and outline its agenda. And before i bring them up, i wand to remind you if you have cards, you can send them up at any point and theyll make their way to me. And well try to sort them out and i will ask as many questions as time permits that dont repeat themselves and so forth. With that, i will bring up to the podium, House Freedom caucus chairman congressman mark meadows. [applause] congressman meadows well, good afternoon. Its great to be with you and certainly with that introduction, i guess theres a whole lot of clarification that needs to be done. But jeff, thank you for the invitation. Matt, thank you for the logistics that really gives not only a warm reception but certainly one that is is very organized. So what id like to do is take you back to the 1850s very quickly. So we can put things in perspective and so id like to take you to the Mississippi River where there was one particular writer who was going up and down on the mississippi. And that particular writer we now know by the name of mark twain. But at that particular time as he was going up and down the Mississippi River, he many people dont really know how he got his name. And so they would throw out a particular marker as they were going up and down the mississippi and if the Mississippi River was six feet deep, you know, they would holler back, mark one, meaning it was sixfeet deep. But it was too shallow to go ashore for the men to drink. But if the depth of the mississippi was 12 feet deep, they would holler mark twain. And with that, all the men would cheer and they would be excited because they could go ashore for a night of drinking and beverages. And so so it is that mark twain decided to pick the name mark twain. So at the very mention of it, men would cheer. [laughter] and so as i get introduced today, i, you know, come to you in great humility knowing that as a committed christian and someone who was never planning to run to be a member of congress, that i come before you being able to address not only this wonderful crowd but millions of people watching perhaps on television and addressing a group that has a tradition of making sure that journalism has its excellence. And so i just want to say thank you, one for the invitation. But the other incident men may not cheer with the introduction of my name. Id like to go on a little bit further and tell you the rest of the story as it relates to the Freedom Caucus. Now, this is the first time i must confess that we have had a cookie. Eedom caucus we have a 68 name i. D. Across the country. Now, for many of you, how many of you think that the Freedom Caucus has been out there for six years . Raise your hand. Ok. How many of you think its been out there for four years . All right. How many of you think its been out there for two years . How many of you didnt vote . All right. Most of you. So actually the Freedom Caucus is i had one democrat colleague the other day who was saying, well, for six years you have been out there trying to make sure that things dont get done in washington, d. C. I said, well, thats real interesting because by created it over two years ago. I got on the phone after a very frustrating time where we had some of the conservative members voting one way, more conservative members voting another way. I got on the phone with jim jordan and said weve got to be organized. If were going Carry Forward a message for the millions of American People who think that washington, d. C. Has forgotten them, we need to be organized. And so i love to talk policy. Very rarely will you ever get a reporter who will where i will actually agree to talk strategy. So today is one of the few times where im going to share a little bit of the Freedom Caucus strategy, the kind of the behind the scenes of what actually happens because there are a lot of interesting thoughts in terms of who we are as a caucus. Now, we do not give out the number of our members. And so ive got well well we would have to kill you if we told you. But i can tell you that as we have Freedom Caucus members, many of them think that were exactly alike. And yet, some of the best debate youll find on capitol hill because as we come together the 300plus members actually well meet tonight. The first night we meet on the first nights of votes, after votes. And so we come together. And we actually have debate on some of the policies that we should be having debates on the floor of the house each and every day. And yet, what we found is so many times there are speeches that get made on the floor of the house but theres not a whole lot of debate. Theres not a whole lot of going back and forth. And so as you look at some of our members, they are very different. We have libertarians and what you would say traditional conservatives. We have more aligned with leadership and some who would never vote for leadership. And yet, here we are. I believe we needed to take a business approach to what we do as conservatives. And so as we embark on setting things up, we actually the Freedom Caucus has a set of by laws. People dont realize that as we came together we need a structure, some rules. So we actually have a set of bylaws and that structure actually provides for a Good Foundation to make sure that we are member driven. One of the complaints we have that its not right that just a few members of congress would be super members of congress and decide everything that happens in capitol hill. We believe in the bottom up approach. And so as we looked at that, we believe that everybody who brings an idea, gets to take the idea. Weve got very diverse members as i mentioned. One of those diverse members is a gentleman from virginia by the name of Morgan Griffith. So now, you at least know two members of the Freedom Caucus. Let me say if your reputation will handle it, well invite you to the next meeting, jeff. But as we look at this, one of the meetings that we had is that Morgan Griffith from virginia has a certain expertise. He understands the rules pretty well. So he and i try to banter back and forth to find rules that perhaps no one else really understands or have read. Now, theyre available to everybody. But its a matter of just reading what you might have there. And so since i always believe that you should at least get something as a takeaway from every time that i get to address the press. Heres the takeaway today. Or the first time in 35 years, 35plus years there will be a rule that will be used this week rule. The homan i understand were in the homan room. The hoeman rule was nonexistent since 1983. We put it back in as a way to cut down on some of the federal bureaucracy because it gives us the tools to actually go in and cut the funding without cutting an entire agency. So this morning, Morgan Griffith put forth an amendment that would be part of the appropriations coming up later this week if its ruled in order that would actually cut the scores for c. B. O. For the congressional budget office. Now, you can tell that a number of us have been very critical of the congressional budget office. In fact, i think theyre the one group that makes a weather mans 10day forecast look accurate. And so as we see that, we believe that we needed to address it. And so this amendment will actually go in using the homan rule saying that were going to reduce their employees by 89, some 15 million, not a big targeted selection, but in doing that, what we said is, is they ought to be aggregators. There are plenty of think tanks that are out there. And we ought to take a score from heritage, from a. E. I. , from brookings and from the Irving Institute and it would represent a very wide swath of actually think tanks and their abilities. We think thats a pragmatic way to use the private sector and let congress depend on a score thats accurate. So in terms of making news, jeff, that is something that you can tweet out because were going to be debating that this week. Now, i use that thank you. I use that as an example of just the diversity of who we are. So weve got Morgan Griffith who is not considered a bomb thrower. But also is one as weve seen over and over again is a thoughtful individual. And so ooze weve gone back and forth over the last 72 hours, we said we could put this out here. The other thing that is a misnomer is that we all vote in lockstep together. Ow, we have in part of our bilaws that if we take a 80 threshold that we will take possession. I say that because getting three dozen people to agree on anything is almost impossible. Getting to 80 is extremely difficult. But we have made the decision that if we get to 80 , we will take an official position which means that we will all vote together with one exception. You get two passes a year i mean, two passes a congress to vote so lets say you had something that is very critical to your district. And as weve taken that position lets take the export, import bank. You said weve got boeing in my district, i need be supporting them. You would be able to get a pass up to twice during a congressional calendar and not be kicked out of the group. But outside of that, youre going to have to actually vote with the group. The power of this is is it gives us the power of negation. When i say that is when you can stop things from happening. It gives you great power on what things might happen. So its the power of no. But its just as critical for us to have the power of yes. And thats wouldnt the things that i think that any unified government as we looked together. The American People are tired of gridlock. They want something done. And jeff mentioned the debt ceiling. I believe that we need to go ahead and get the debt ceiling done right way. We took an official position six weeks ago and said the debt ceiling is coming. It is time that we get it done. It is like a flow rist being surprised by valentines day. We know its coming. Lets go ahead and deal with it. And lets make sure that we do that. And so as we start to look at that, you will find the Freedom Caucus is pushing more and more and more to make critical decisions, even if theyre decisions that we dont like. So there is structure but theres also great flexibility. And ill share this. Sometimes things are not always as they seem. And so ill share this personal story from the mountains of North Carolina. We live about ha minutes away or we did live about 45 minutes away from a walmart. Now, you think about how far out we are to be 45 minutes away from a walmart. You know, we can watch the light change in wintertime. It go to blinking. So we dont get the benefit of red, yellow and green. As we see that, thats 45 minutes away. The priest of the Episcopal Church was going down to address the ladies at a gathering. She went down a mountain and realized that she didnt have any panty hose. So she pulled into the walmart parking lot, jumped out of the car. Ran in. Got the panty hose, came running back out, jumped in the car and got ready to leave and realized there was not a place to put them on between the walmart and where she was going. So without getting too graphic, she decided to go ahead and put those on in the front seat of her car. All of a sudden, she got this weird feeling that somebody was looking at her. So sure enough she looks over her shoulder and there is somebody staring in the window. She opens the door and she said what do you want, you pervert . He said, i dont know, maam, but youre sitting in my car. True story. So i share that to say that sometimes things are not always as they seem. And so as we look at this, i want to say that as you trade headlines about the Freedom Caucus, what im hopeful today is to share a little bit more of what is not there. So theres structure but yet theres fleblingsbility. Ill give you a prime example. When we said if theres no result, there should be no recess. That happened one particular night at a meeting where we were there that all of a sudden we were having this meeting and the nose notice came that we were canceling our friday votes. We couldnt figure out why we were canceling our friday vote since we had plenty to do. So the comment was made, we shouldnt be canceling friday votes. In fact, if anything, we should be staying here in august. So from one comment that was started by a member within the caucus, we took an official position that particular night and actually say lets stay in august. You know what, i bet more than 80 of americans agree that we should stay in in august and get things done. And when you look at that, thats what were all about is giving that forgotten man or that forgotten woman a voice on capitol hill. Our reach many times goes well beyond the Freedom Caucus. And i share that as we look at the Affordable Care act. What we knew during the Affordable Care act is that we had to get it right for the American People. And that meant two things. We had to lower premium and we had to make sure preexisting conditions were taken care of. And if we didnt do those two things, we would have failed. And so as we looked at that, we started going out beyond our members to see if there were other members who feel the same way. And as they whip the first vote, we fart started to realize that not only was there not even close to enough votes but that we needed to get better. Were all about process. And when you read about the bill that youre about to vote on in politico for the very first right, eres a problem, tim . Now, you dont see a problem because youre with politico. When we see the text for the first time in a publication, you would think that woe would be part of that process. We had a problem with the process but we also had a problem with the product. As we started to look at that, we decided to go on a Communications Strategy to take our message to where our power really comes from. And the power comes from the people themselves who think that washington, d. C. Has forgotten them, and theyre just begging for someone to stand up on their behalf. Theyre begging for people to say, im tired of the political correctness. Just get something done. So alyssa who is here came up with a communication strategy. Its amazing. We kept going out. Many of our leadership were talking about what a great bill it was. And all we had to do is just share the facts. And so there was one particular day as we mentioned. There was three press conference and an infomercial by our leadership trying to sell a product to the American People that they didnt want to buy. And we thought that it was better to actually sell them something that they want to buy and that actually lowers premium. Whenever you have the pow wore the people on your side, it actually goes real well. So let me in the interest of ime shift it two other things. We original said we wanted a straight repeal. We voted on it in 2015. If it was good enough to send it to president obama, it surely should be good enough to send it to President Trump and we might as well go ahead and do that. And we couldnt figure out whether there was a good argument to not do that. And alongside that we worked with senator rand paul, mike lee, ted cruz and others to say, all right, if were going to repeal it, lets have a replacement there. Senator paul, mark sanford had a replacement plan that was going on parallel tracks where we believe that what would happen we would pass a straight repeal, it would pass the house, it would pass the senate. And yet in the replacement we figured it could pass the house and fail in the senate but the pressure would grow since democrats would never repeal something that had a name of their previous administrations president , we felt like if we did the hard work of repealing that we could get some democrats to help us on the replacement side of that. As weve seen, when you conflate the two and bring them together, it makes it much more difficult. Now, i am still optimistic that we will have a motion to proceed tomorrow out of the senate where they will go on and start to debate this. But i can tell you that it was in no small part to a lot of other people that actually got involved in the negotiations to try to at least get something from the house to the senate. U know, a real shut out to congressman Tom Macarthur that was part of the tuesday group that was willing to meet and take great Political Risk to meet with someone who is seen as much more conservative to try to get some sort of strategy. Heres what we did. We actually kept our members closely informed throughout that entire debate. It was happening over the easter break. And as we were looking at that, we were Holding Conference calms and letting them know what was happening. They empowered a number of us to negotiate on their behalf realizing that the final product would not be perfect. And we have embarked and tried to say that on any given situation we will offer two solutions because weve been accused of saying its our way or the highway. And so whether its with the debt ceiling or whether its with the budget or anything else, we are trying to make sure that we give at least two alternatives for a solution. So when you hear that it is our way or the highway, know that today you heard this. And i would challenge it. Reporters here in the room ask it. What are your two ways to solve this particular situation . And if we cant articulate that, i will ask that you remind me of this conversation and well make sure that we have two results. Let me close by saying this. We have the greatest country in the world. We have a free press that literally is to be admired from around the globe. We have men and women who have fought and died for this country many of them have shed blood to make sure that those freedoms are preserved. It is that freedom that we can all applaud but it is never more obvious to me than when debbie and i were on the hills in normandie to see the white stars that hill for es people who fought in many countries who would never say thank you for a people that today might not say thank you. But its a reminder that thats what makes america unique. Were willing to put forth sacrifice first the cause of freedom whether its the freedom of the press or any of the others that enumerated in our founding documents. I want to say thank you for allowing me to be here. And it is an honor to represent the Freedom Caucus, a very diverse group, the one that im humbled to serve for a temporary basis as their chairman. God bless you. Thank you very much for allowing me to come. [applause] the questions were getting are pretty much all turnover map. So were going to try to get through these as quickly as we can. Theyve come from emails, cards, previous anyway, lets get right to it. You talked about trying to pass health care. What are you going to do if the motion to proceed in the senate fails . And for example, how damaging is it going to be to vulnerable members like congressman macarthur who walked the plank and passed the bill. Obviously any time you pass the house and it doesnt go anywhere in the senat, were used to that. Sadly were used to that. Sadly this is a unique situation. What were getting out of the senate is a must. It is not a something that we can fail at. Primarily its because a number of us have campaigned on it for a number of years. Its something that the president has campaigned on. And so whey would say is just like when they put the fork in it and said it was done in the house that it was over with, the bill was pulled on that infamous friday afternoon, we have to stay engaged. I can tell you that the upper chamber, you have people from all different perspectives trying to work to do that. You know, ive had conversations with, ted cruz and mike lee and pat toomi and Lindsey Graham and everybody in between as we look at that trying to come up with solutions. So they need to stay engaged. I believe that if they dont do the motion to proceed this week, then what they need to do is actually make sure that we stay in in august until ultimately the pressure of going home becomes so great that they come to some kind of compromise. More health care questions. In october 2013, there was a Government Shutdown because you and your caucus members insisted on the repeal to funding government. Was the effort worth it especially since the debt ceiling was raised, and the its still the law of the land . Let me make it clear so that doesnt get ucus blamed for this. A lot of people bring them together and say that the Freedom Caucus was there. I did lead the letter of letter. There was another letter in the senate. To be fair some of the same members, jordan were in that group that was giving Speaker Boehner a very hard time. Well, yeah, you were there. There was actually some 60 people on that letter. And so if all 60 people could be in the Freedom Caucus, i would welcome that today. But as we look at that, to be fair, did it accomplish the result that we hoped it would accomplish . The answer is no. We believe the Affordable Care act was not ready to roll out. We believe that it wouldnt work. We believed that premiums wouldnt go down. We also believed that if you have your health care that you wouldnt necessarily be able to keep it. When we found all of those things, a lot of those things and i can tell you i was on the house floor close to midnight dealing with one of the administrations Congressional Liaison saying certain lay sixmonth delay would be more prudent instead of rolling out something thats not ready. In doing a shutdown, it didnt produce the results. The answer is obviously no. Could we have found another way to leverage it . Perhaps so. Were going to skip were going to come back to health care. Two years ago this week, you filed a motion to vacate the chair which triggered to a series event that led to the departure of speaker jon john boehner. Do you regret that . Now that people say that speaker ryan has not represented much of an improvement . It was it was actually two years ago today this coming friday was my birthday, july d 28th which is this friday. Im reminded of that. Do i regret that . The answer is no, i dont regret that. It was really a function of again empowering the people, empowering members of congress. And when you do that, i can tell you that the original resolution had some 40 different points. We ended up with five, i believe, nonpartisan points. It talked about empowering members of congress. The truth of the matter is, theres 435 members of congress that represent 435 very different districts. Jerry conleys district is the 11th district of virginia. Mines the 11th district of the North Carolina. We have a deal. His is so different than my deal and he is so much more to the left, his district than mine is to the right that if he gets a primary opponent, im going to endorse the opponent saying that jerry is far to liberal. Likewise hes going to say im far too conservative to work with. But its all about empowering those members and when you do not allow 435 members representing very different districts to carry on the will of the people, were making a mistake. And so whether that is with the current speaker or a future speaker or a past speaker, it is very critical that we allow everyones voice to be heard. Jeff ok. I got this question about 10 different ways. I realized the Freedom Caucus is a relatively recent creation. But some of the members are being grouped together in various configurations. And those members helped to drive a number of votes to try to repeal the Affordable Care act. Congressman meadows right. Jeff why didnt you have your plan together if you had all that time, all those attempts over and over and over again . It seems so much happening, so many conflicts, so many debates that you would have sought a solution to repeal the a. C. A. The question is why didnt we have a plan . Yes. I can tell you that there was a group that had a plan. It was the Freedom Caucus. We put out a repeal and replacement plan. We felt like it was important. Weve been talking about this for seven years. The other part of it that is critically important that you cant care who gets the credit. Truman was one of his favorite quotes and Ronald Reagan says its amazing what you can accomplish when you dont care who gets credit. This town is about getting credit. Smarter people than me came up with a plan that we rolled out. Now, it didnt get accepted by our leadership. But i dont know why we didnt have something sitting on the president s desk on january the 20th. We should have been prepared. We should have been there to do that. Is that a criticism that is fair . Without a doubt. And thats why im saying, its time that we take action whether its this or anything else that were dealing with. Jeff the fall of the knock was not just that a plan wasnt ready in january, that you didnt see a plan time after time after time over the course of several years. To debate then as opposed to when you got a new president. The political reality of that is the understanding that president obama would have signed something into law and ctually repealed it would have been to disengineuous to suggest that he was going to do that. Perhaps the replacement plan was not seen as important to try to push that. And the American People needed to see what a replacement is all about but thats a Fair Assessment. Now were going to get into some policy minutia. Ok. With additional medicare payroll tax and the 3. 8 investment tax both levied on individuals earns 250,000 for a married couple, you know, will that survive a form from the ffordable care act essentially a tax. You guys dont like taxes do you like taxs . I have to pay my fair share. Whats your fair share . We can debate that. This came from the Affordable Care act. Do you like it. Do you not like it . Why . Why not . Great question. I got to ask this question by some reporters when i was walking through the halls the other day. What about the tax . Its generally considered a tax on the rich. Are you going to give them a break and take health care from the poor . I think the answer to that is no. Were not going to take health care from the poor and give the rich a tax break. And that being said, you know, the we were for repealing all the taxes. We dont think its good to tax the poor or the rich. In fact, we think the less taxes that you get to pay, youre better, jeff at spending your money than i am spending your money if you dont believe that give me your wallet, ill show you how you can spend your money. Jeff i can do that myself. You should be empowered to spend your money. The more money that we put in your pocket, the better off you are to spend your own money. Now that big said, would we allow that to be a deal breaker to stop us from finding a replacement . I went on record to say, listen, weve we as a Freedom Caucus we believe we need to repeal all the taxes. We have to figure out a way to do a safety net to make sure that its paid for. Those are two taxes that perhaps could stay in as we look at that going forward. Jeff you push transparency as a process in the a. C. A. Practice but no hearings were held on the medicaid per capita caps provision which would be. Gnificant entitlement reform do you think that was a good move . The hearings we have had a lot of hearings on the believes congress. The previous part of that is when we look at positives an negatives, i can tell you i had in my committee the Oversight Reform Committee i had the infamous Jonathan Gruber and Jonathan Gruber you know, if you well, you all know that he was the guy that basically said the American People are too stupid and thats why we got the Affordable Care act. But we also found out other things in that testimony that there were a lot of things that Jonathan Groover put forth that werent exact i well, they didnt pass the muster, lets put it that way. We had a number of hearings. Certainly thats thats ways and other thats ways an means and other committees. The resistance the primarily political, it is also practical from a standpoint. Everybody can think of a preexisting condition that somebody some member of their family might have. Thats why weve been taking care of those preexisting conditions. Should we have hearings . Without a doubt. I believe we should have hearings on a number of things even now and some that may not be as welcomed as others. That begs the question of you talking about it. That was a demand not just from members of your party but also from democrats. You talk about trying to Work Together in terms of political polarized environments in some respects. You have is there a way for you to lead the Freedom Caucus for a discussion for a bipartisan solution to try to do something that is sort of out of the box that dash is a winwin for the American People . Realizing you have a position, maybe the regressive caucus and the democrats have a position. They have their position and so forth. You think theres a way to sort of to do a new way forward that brings everybody to the table instead of the criticisms, this bill was done in the dark and this bill wasnt met here and da, da, da, and so forth. I dont want to be polyana about it. When you come to washington, d. C. , i think the thing that surprised me the most was that i felt like when i got here that if you had a good idea and you went out and convinced a enough of your colleagues both democrat and flauns it was a good idea that it would perk thrite the top and it would pass and become law. Surprise. Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, and so that was a was a big disappointment to me as a business guy where you only look at the results as really counting. That being when we look at that, jeff, i think the real question becomes is can we find some Common Ground together where we actually look at that. If we repeal the Affordable Care act first, i think that you do get democrats onboard. You dont necessarily get a more conservative piece of legs. In fact, if anything, i dont think you do get a conservative piece of legs. You pass a straight repeal. The conservatives are left out. And what you do is get more moderate republicans teaming up with enough democrats to put a replacement plan in place. But i dont see that as long as theres a repeal. Democrats feel like they passed this and its kind of like an octopus. The tentacles reach into just about every aspect of government and life. And pulling that out is difficult. So if you repeal it could you find some Bipartisan Solutions . I think so. You know, weve been working with some actually i went to five different democrats an said, all right, assuming that we repeal it, you tell me what the five most important things are that you would put in the replacement. I got some real meaningful input from democrats that probably would not want me to say who they are here on a live mic. Jeff lets get into another snudget a minute. Well come back to health care. Ing a culture ing a culture. Many of your colleagues blocked passage of the last farm bill until the nutrition title was preformed. They commit a farm bill that passed the house if it includes a nutrition title or does not cost to snap efficiently. Weve taken an official position on this. Im one that voted on the last farm bill. You would imagine the number one economic driver in my district is ag. You vote your district. Thats a novel concept. We go and we say were not going to vote the party. Were going to vote the people that we respect and when you do that, good things happen. But that being said is when you look at nutrition actually you got pulled apart. And then it got pulled back together and it ended up passing. We believe that there should be a work requirement for abled bodied adults with nondependent children that weve got to put the value back in work once again and what is it is not fair to the american taxpayer for us to continue to give benefits if someone could work. And in maine is a prime example. I met with the governor of lepage, they put in a 20hour work requirement. Thats not a real high bar. 20 hours and you could volunteer. You could get education credit for it, or you could work. They found over 80 of people got off of snap when they did that. Now the interesting thing is is they also found that the five places that use most of the snap benefits in maine were not in maine. One of them was kissimmee, florida. The other was las vegas, nevada. Now, thats a problem when youre having a safety net for maine. Its a long commute from those two places. And so we believe that we need to put a work requirement. Thats what weve taken an official position on. And as we do that, we think we can find some Common Ground on the other part of the safety net. Thank you. So sorry to go all over the map. Spending bills. Will the border wall billion in the spending bill whether the odds of a Government Shutdown is to fall . I think the odds of a Government Shutdown are very minimal when it comes to that. I do think that the funding of the border wall will happen. The president has made it part of his campaign. There are two reasons for it. Its not just securing the southern border. If youre going to do anything on immigration whether its reforming the Legal Immigration process, you have to secure your southern border. Even some of the most moderate members of that of the g. O. P. Are sitting there looking and saying, well, part of a fivestep process is to secure the southern border. So the president s committed to that. Were committed to helping him there. And whether it becomes something that we shut the government down over, i dont see that happening. I do find a way that we will find at least a billion or so dollars to make sure that we start the wall. Back into technical questions on the farm bill. Net farming income has declined 50 since the last farm bill was entacting yet the farm bill was saving four times as much accord ing to c. B. O. Its pushed deficit spending 650 billion higher. Wouldnt you agree that the farm bills are work and would continue to support it . The answer is some of them may be working and some of them could continue. I think this is from my good friend agripolls giving me these details questions. But youve got to take every piece of legs. Ive got a novel idea. I actually read the legs that i vote on. And if more of us actually did that, you know, instead of just taking the talking points and debating the talking points because thats what a lot of people do i can tell you the Affordable Care act was never on my bucket list i now have a ph. D. In Health Care Policy from reading and reading and reading and listening. Because theres an element of truth in every argument. When everybodys making an argument even if its 180 degrees opposite of yours if you listen for the truth it in, you can sometimes get to a point where you see that. So in that, are there some good things in the farm bill . Yes. You know, the Less Government involvement that we have generally, the better off we are. I found that one of the probably the only thing that the government does extremely well is defend our country. Outside of that, everything is suspect. Jeff are you for Medicaid Expansion . And how and this is sort of a tied question. What, in terms of your vision of health care and legs, how much would medicare be cut by in terms of billions of dollars . Whats an acceptable figure. Congressman meadows really there are two different functions. One is medicaid or medicare. Is the questioned medicare . Jeff medicare. Congressman meadows im from an expansion state. We felt the expansion has the potential harm of those who actually need medicaid. Were seeing that in some states but theyre actually moving dollars away from those that are truly needing the help for some that are abled body and quite frankly should work. We believe there should be a mandatory work requirement and if we kept it at, 138 of poverty where it is now and put a mandatory work requirement on there, i could even see it leaving that because then it gets to the very basic of what were doing. Weve got well over 1,000 jobs. In fact, i use that figure because i know it is a conservative figure. Of jobs that we could fill tomorrow in western North Carolina, if they would do two things, pass a drug test and show up to work. Now, thats a low bar. Weve got to weve got to put the value back in it. And if we dont if we dont start looking at federal policy that empowers people to get out of the cycle of poverty but to understand that that value of work is probably the thing that gets them out of poverty quicker than anything else, we need to make sure that were not an enabler. Jeff some people think thats not necessary. Most people are honest people and would show up to work anyway. Why why mandate that . Congressman meadows im not saying that we mandate showing to work. Im saying that the work requirement. If im going use your money to give someone else a benefit, then i need to be responsible with taking your benefit and making sure its going to the most needy of the needy. And if theres someone who could work and chooses not to and doesnt have children, then i dont know that they should be entitled to a safety net as much as the mom with two kids that you understand why perhaps she cant work or doesnt work. You know, i think that as we look at that, weve got to shake sure that we provide a safety net. Were a compassionate nation. We want you know, some of the most generous people are the people who will take money out of their pocket to give to people in need. And yet, at the same time, we have this sense of fairness that says, boy, if youre taking advantage of me, thats not right. And so sometimes we need to make sure that we put in in the stano make sure that we have that. House appropriations. Proposedublicans have 26. 7 billion in spending. Defense, energy, water, and the legislative branch. You said we dont have an agreement on topline numbers, not an agreement with the senate , and that you expect to pass a continuing resolution in september to keep the government funded for at least part of fiscal year 2018. If those numbers get past the president s desk at the end of the day, his or yours, and what does this look like . I think we have already gone beyond the budget that was put out by the administration, so obviously we are negotiating this week on 12 Appropriations Bills that would have nondefense discretionary at 511 billion and plusdefense at 621 billion 10 billion. We are starting to teach our children how to count, billion one, billion two, billion three, and eventually you run into real money. Expect that those numbers are not where we will end up. We will actually end up much higher than that on nondefense discretionary, and thats my whole point. If we are going to do that, lets look at offsets on the mandatory spending side of things. If we are going to increase by 100 billion today, how much do we save over the next 10 years to offset that . Do you believe in a minibus, omnibus . Some people want to push out a package of bills in one fell swoop. How big or small can you tolerate . I believe we need to go back to regular order, which means you past 12 Appropriations Bills. This is a recent phenomenon when we have done crs. Originally a cr was only for a week or two while we were negotiating. Now they are three months, a year. We have got to get back to 12 Appropriations Bills. That the appropriators do their business. The real stumbling block is the senate, but not just the senate. It is differences in our own conference. Specifically what i be for the or 12 Appropriations Bills in an omnibus right now . Im for the 12 Appropriations Bills in an omnibus primarily because the appropriators have done their business as if they were passing individual bills, so they have a lot of conservative riders in there, so i would support that. Taxes. What is an acceptable tax package look like to you . I will take one example. A congressman was trying to navigate an online sales tax. The Freedom Caucus is not a big fan of taxes anyway, but it looks like some of your members are willing to take a look at that. Shiftingeedom caucus its position in terms of taxes in this arena . A twoparter. Likewould tax reform look aunt would you back this specific tax of online sales . Did christie send you this question . Christie actually came to the Freedom Caucus. That is one of the things you might not realize. We get a lot of people coming to the Freedom Caucus to talk about their idea and say, can we support it . They have found it is a very deliberative body. With this online sales tax, it is a matter of fairness, not a matter of a new tax. Do you support brickandmortar, do you look at online . There are very different views. There is zero chance we could get an 80 threshold for or , just showing the diverse the of our group right now. What we trying to do is give her an idea as well as the chairman on flood insurance, how many knows and how many yeses there are with that. A lot of that depends on where your district is as we look at that. Are we changing on taxes . I want to make sure i dont make news. The answer is no, were not changing on taxes. You are pretty good as slipping that in. We believe less taxes are good for the economy area we believe we need to be very aggressive with tax cuts. We also believe we need to make a decision now. This is one of those things that is not a fine wine. It does not improve with time. Lets make a decision and get it done. Carbon tax, yes or no . Im not in favor of carbon tax but im listening, looking for the element of truth. I have democrat colleagues were trying to share that, even have once effort would think that is merit, so im willing to listen. Transfer station transportation infrastructure. Taxes need to find bridges, roads, etc. What is the acceptable transportation package for taxes versus what you would like to not have go forward . We have two or three. The Highway Trust Fund has two different vectors going the wrong way. Cars are becoming more fuelefficient, driving less miles, so you get less revenue from a gas tax area there is no way he can adequately do that. At the same time, toll roads. Im not a big fan of toll roads. All you have to do is drive between dcn new york and figure out what the problem is. If you have done that, get your wallet out and get ready to continue to pay over and over again. We can do Public Private partnerships, we can look at the gas tax and Highway Trust Fund. A decent ofd legislation from john delaney, a democrat from maryland, who looked at an infrastructure, looking at repatriation of earnings coming from abroad to look at another facility to make sure we have that. It is a combination of all of those as we put forth to look at funding, the 1 trillion in infrastructure the president is committed to making happen. Before i ask you last question, we do what we normally do, hours tradition we give you the National Press club mug. It is valuable. I am extremely grateful. Hopefully, lord willing, this is the closest to a mug shot i will never get. [laughter] question i understand there are several types of barbecue. You come from a barbecue rich state. What is your favorite and why . I can tell you, it is not texas barbecue. [laughter] we have five different types of barbecue in North Carolina. It depends on what area of the state you are. Im from the west, so we dont look at vinegar as being the barbecue of choice. We have more of the red, sweeter barbecue sauce. My personal favorite is a mustard barbecue, which will throw everybody off and make news. By way of closing, our next headliners luncheon is the army chief of staff two days from now. Press. Orggon to www. For more information on these and other programs we hold at the National Press club. Until that, thank you, we are adjourned. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up this morning a , minnesota republican congressman discusses the Opioid Epidemic and a California Democratic congresswoman discusses the russian investigation. Then David Hawkins of cq roll call will discuss congressional pay and benefits. Be sure to watch the cspans washington journal, live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Fcc chair joined to others to testify on operations at the fcc. They testified before a house subcommittee live at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan2. And an update on border security, live coverage from the subcommittee starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. President trump holds a rally tonight in youngstown, ohio. That starts tonight at 7 00 p. M. On cspan3. You can also listen using the free cspan radio app. Minority leader Chuck Schumer inhouse majority leader Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is to announce their policy. Genda this was held in berryville, virginia. Applause]