Really sort of finally kicking fully into gear. It looks like the new year will begin with fights over minimum wage and longterm unemployment. What are the issues you are going to be watching most closely . Which do you think are going to matter the most . In november, obamacare will be the top issue. You basically have two parties. One who was trying to stop the bill from going forward, new knew socialized medicine was not going to work and tried to stop it. Another party willing to do everything it could to make sure the bill went forward. When you see the implications, the implementation started in terms of job loss, fulltime workers, temporary workers, premiums going up. It was gone the last couple of months in terms of the federal government not being able to implement a project of that magnitude. November will fundamentally be about this difference between one party, the party of Woodrow Wilsons progressivism and one of the more limited government. Founders. Ated by our the democrats are saying they will be able to play off minimum wage. How involved in this are you going to get . We will monitor everything going on. We try to inform the country of what is going on in washington and what the elected members of congress are doing. Unemployment insurance, the data shows that extended Unemployment Insurance causes unemployment to be higher. It causes people to put off looking for work and finding work. We think 26 weeks is better for the country. It is better for people than 99 weeks. Those are fights that will develop over the course of this month and year. What about minimum wage . That is something that is hugely popular among all voters. You have to look at the policy issue. The president could try to spin this and make it into a message appeared at a time when applebees is delivering food menus on an ipad, leading you letting you order from your own table, raising the minimum wage will have a great effect on jobs. They looked at a project in the bronx. There is a plane to have 1200 there is a plan to have 1200 jobs created. Unfortunately, the higher minimum wage that was being applied caused it to be killed and a new project only creates 250 jobs. Is it better to have 250 jobs that pay slightly more or better to have 1200 jobs . Full employment is a worthy goal then solving some of these other issues that are out there. Lets look back a little bit. It is fair to say the last quarter of 2013 was not a great quarter for the conservative movement or your group. It was seen as a debacle by a lot of people within the parties. It dropped to the lowest approval level. You had a falling out with speaker john boehner. A lot of republicans have decided to distance themselves. How do you describe this bruising time . I do not think there have been that many republicans have who have distanced themselves from heritage. At the end of the day, if the shutdown was caused by the president. As we are seeing the problems with obamacare, the fundamental flaws for america that he had and that he has turned into law, more and more people are looking at conservatism is something as something that is admirable. 72 people do not like the Republican Party. I am one of those. They need to find the soul and who they stand for. When most americans of that washington, they see a game and pretend food fights. They have the tax code written in their favor. You are a Small Business person or somebody who just wants to go to work and go on to your family, you do not have a voice in washington. Arent you, in a way, part of the game . You score members. The scores go together. Youre very much part of the process. A lot of republicans say youre stirring things up within the party. We ask tough questions. We informed the constituents of the answers. It sounds a lot like what both of you too. We have opinions on legislation that go forward. We thought it was a bad deal when paul ryan and patty murray cut a deal to cut spending and raise taxes. We put out our argument. I think it is good for democracy for members of congress to go home, have a more well informed constituency and answer them. That is what were doing. I get it is frustrating to people in washington. It is easier when there are fewer people talking to your constituents, when you can frame a farm bill that 80 food stamps is about agriculture. One of the things we found is there are people who said i do not need a farm bill. If it is having this gargantuan cost to the taxpayer. The more people asking the tough questions, the better it is for the democracy. What do you think were the speakers motivation in deciding to take on your organization so directly . It is an extraordinary moment. I do not know. It is probably better question for him. The Republican Party in washington should be big and up to be able to have backed based policy disagreements. Factbased policy disagreements. There are good people that are that thought cutting this deal was the right thing to do for the country. I do not begrudge them that opinion. I disagree. When we look at the alternative we solve, keeping sequester while imperfect was better. This country should be Strong Enough that we can have those disagreements. Do you consider john boehner part of the conservative movement . Yes. He is a great conservative. I disagree with some calls he has made as speaker. We articulated our disagreements with him. There has been a lot written about you and Heritage Action within the last few months. They said because of Heritage Foundation having gone from a conservative think tank revered by Washington Republicans to the loathed ideological connoisseur. Do you see yourself as an ideological connoisseur . In washington, d. C. , today there are so many influences. They need to raise millions of dollars for campaigns, 33,000 lobbyists make it difficult to advance good principled legislation. One of the things we are trying to do is go over the heads of washington and talk about the types of bold ideas that can make america better. When you look at an idea that the Heritage Foundation did to developed to change the Higher EducationAccreditation Process, over a trillion dollars of student loan debt, the average money the graduate gets year over year. We need to change the Accreditation Process. That is a difficult thing to be changed if youre in the pocket of universities with Million Dollar endowments. Mike lee has been willing to take on the establishment. Mike lee has undergone a real conversion of sorts. I do not think that is true. We could argue that. After the shutdown, he really rolled out this whole series of interesting ideas. He has that we cannot be the party of no. We have to say yes. Heritage action is known as a reject, overturn organization. Do you agree the Republican Party really needs to find an affirmative positive agenda to win not only this year but in 2016 . There are many bold ideas that have come out over the last out of the Heritage Foundation over the last couple of years. We create something three years ago called our saving the American Dream plan. It looks at the entire federal government and said if youre starting from scratch and you were looking at the responsibilities of government and society toward individuals, what would a modern Social Security system look like . He took this plan. He turned it into a budget. In washington, it only got 17 votes which is probably an indication of why some the people look at washington, d. C. And frowned. If you are willing to take on the status quo of this town, willing to say there are a lot of things that are good policy but they do not have constituency among the well connected lobbyists and you want to take on the influences, you can have big, bold ideas. You have this concern. They are seeing too much as a rejection as a repeal. There are many institutions that have big bold ideas. Washington, d. C. , is the city of no right now. You cant get fundamental tax reforms because there are so many different people who want to preserve this. One of the first experiences i had was tom delay saying there was no defense on the federal government. It is absurd. What he meant was true. Every single dime of the federal government has been soaked in spoken for by some well connected interest in washington, d. C. What we need it the federal government wants to become more bold is a willingness to say what should these programs look like . Washington does not yet seen to be ready to do that. Speaking of bold ideas, immigration is being talked about again. The potential for some kind of movement. What do you think the Republican Party needs to do on immigration to ensure its survival . We need to modernize our immigration system, to have a system that says we welcome people from all around the world. Unfortunately, you have one chance every 10, 20 years to do big, bold immigration. What about the ones that are here . That are all sorts of problems that are there. If you have a president of the United States that wants to use this issue for political means and not forgetting for policy, many people know that we need to increase visas. That is something we should agree on. We should have some sort of program to work for a time and go home. It is what many people want to do. Once you start fixing the imbalance in the markets that exist, security becomes harder to do. Now that we have fixed the system, what do we do about the people who were here right now . You would back some incremental approach that would keep the amnesty off to the site . Off to the side . It depends. Right now, the president has been pretty clear that it would be difficult to get much Immigration Reform done. Going forward, the right way to do it if there were people who are trying to solve problems is looking at what we can do to fix the system, starting to improve the matching between labor supply and demand. You do not think there will be any overturning or repealing of obamacare until 2016. Suggesting a bigger fix to the immigration system will not be possible until after this president. I do not think you will get a modern immigration system to this president. He does not want that because guestworkers do not sign up for the labor union. Thats not an environment until you can i think we should wait until we have a policy that is more conducive to solving the problem. Does that suggest that it will remain out of reach . I do not think this is true of the latino voter or anything else. Whatever issues you have out there now, they are not voting working. Bypassing passing amnesty and letting barack obama, although some latinos look at the Republican Party in say that is and say that is the party does these from he is pretty foolish and insulting to people that look at an entire array of issues who have all sorts of concerns. They need a party that speaks for them. People would party voters have big problems with the Republican Party. This is a party that struggles to attract new people. What are the fundamental flaws with washington, d. C. That cause so Many Americans to feel disenfranchised from the system . The first party to get to this position says you are right. If you cannot hire a team of lobbyists, you do not have much of a voice in washington, d. C. We will appeal to all sorts of different groups. Currentdemographics and demographics in a way i think both parties right now struggle to do. There are two parties. In many ways, the last year or two has been a story about inviting that suggested there are more than two parties. There is the inside versus the outside. There is a group that is different from the Republican Party. He said you are among the 72 that is not like the Republican Party. Talk about what is going on within the party. I think theres a healthy debate going on right now that looks at all sorts of issues. Are we better off trying to do the best job we can within the current framework within washington, d. C. Or do we need to start recognizing some fundamental problems that exist in this town . When i look at washington, it is a town that does everything it can to stifle out of the box thinking and is happy with the status quo through the job you next election and through ae job you have after being member of congress to make sure you have people who are giving you the pay checks you need to raise millions of dollars. Republicans are just as guilty of that. Republicans are caught in a system that is not conducive to bold ideas. Most americans intuitively get that. That is why washington has such low Approval Ratings. If the Republican Party wanted to grasp onto big conservative ideas, were going to fundamentally reform the tax code. There will be a lot of people in washington who are upset about that. At the end of the day, youre better off in an environment that has a tax code that is simple and fair and as low as a it possibly can be while funding the necessary functions of the government. Were going to fight for that. A lot of people cannot afford to hire a team of lobbyists to figure out how to get the marginal rate down to zero. Theres nothing like nothing defines a party like nominees. Who excites you in 2016 . The whole field excites me. When you look at people who will run in 2016, there is a great diversity. There is a lot of energy and invigoration that will be in that field. It will be healthy to watch it going forward. What excites me the most is if you look at the republican nominees, they all improve this they all opposed reagan in 1980. Bush in 1980. Bob dole ran against him. Romney, an independent of the time. We now have the generation that was brought up seeing ronald reagan. They believe the party of reagan will have people running in 2016 who had their formative years all competing to give the American People the inspirational message that conservatism has been can show andlimited government how Civil Society can make life better for everybody. How is Heritage Action feeling about Mitch Mcconnell these days . You can go to our scorecard. Heritageaction. Com. What we do is be very transparently for every member of Congress List all the votes we thought were important and why we thought they were important and how they voted. It is the job of the constituents, not me, to look at the scorecard and the overall score and say is this person doing a good job . The scorecards, this is not a static process. In terms of trying to marshal resources in that race. What are you going to do . We are not involved in electoral accountability. We are asking tough questions, informing voters of tough questions so they can ask them back home. It is the job of every member of the house to go home, talk to the constituents about what they have achieved in washington and answer the questions. There are some opportunities for some brinksmanship like we saw last year, the debt ceiling debate will be one in particular. Do you support their being some holding feet to the fire in ways that could be maybe not great for republicans in an Election Year . Why do we have a debt limit . Many countries do not have. To fund world war i basically. At the same time were going to install a fire alarm in our house that goes on in various increments and forces a conversation about whether we have taken on too much debt. There is a sense in washington that every time a smoke alarm goes off we need to take off the battery and spend some more money. We need to increase the debt limit. Theres no way we can balance this overnight. What kind of changes are we going to make to start getting this under control . These are checks of having government on autopilot and staying on an annual basis we saying, on an annual basis, we are going to look at the appropriation bills and decide whether we want to go forward. It is part of a Healthy System of government. I think they talked last year about giving our country on a path to balance. If you are raising the debt limit you should be raising the types of policies that get our nation to a balanced budget. Most families do that. It is responsible. It is not responsible, 17 trillion of debt. Any increase needs to be accompanied by spending cuts the that start getting our country toward that balance. What is your number one focus this year . For the Republican Party for conservatives to prosper we need to show that we are the party of bold ideas. When you look this summer at a Higher Education, that is a great opportunity to show how we can change the broken Accreditation Process and this country and empower people. When you look at the purest form of corporate cronyism, ending that is an example to show that we are not a party of washington but the party of the people. When you look at the appropriations bill, these are important things. This is an opportunity for the Republican Party to show that conservative policies are the soul of the party. That is what are you going to go positive . We have been positive the whole time. There was a big blowup over the farm bill. Historically, there has been an unholy alliance between inner city people who care a lot about food stamps and from Square States that care a lot about farm that had made sure the status quo had broken this year over year. That the broken policy goes forward year after year. It was perceived as negative that we were opposed to a continuation of that. We would love nothing more than to sit down with the committee. What does a modern 21st century farm look like . Lets put it together. Lets fight for it. Youre going to have to break this unholy alliance. People do not want washington to continue in this broken man are broken manner the only rewards those that can hire lobbyists. It is necessary toward having the bold ideas that people hunger for. We have just a minute left. The speaker critiqued your organization. Would you be as bold to give him some advice . Anybody in congress would be best served by putting forth bold ideas that show their value as a member of congress. I hope the speaker and everybody will look at some of these outside the box innovative ideas that are percolating around, learn the lesson that mike lee has shown and put forth these bold ideas and tell the American People why they make america best. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Newsmakers is back with neil king and karen tumulty. You seem to be struck with a comment he made that 72 of americans do not like the gop and i am one of them. Where does that leave the party that goes into the midterm elections . His presentation was very much we are all in it here. They are kind of a purity keeper in a lot of ways. Heritage action has been one of the strongest forces in the city over the last year or so in pushing things other republicans regretted, particularly the government shut down. It is clear he was looking more to a different approach. He kept talking about wanting to advance things that were a little more on the positive side. I do not know if it is right to say Heritage Action is undergoing any kind of a turning point. I do not think that is the case. I do think it reflects a little bit of the transition we saw at the end of december with in the within the Republican Party. Maybe we are going into an Election Year. Maybe we need to be a little different. Karen tumulty, we spoke a lot with him about the forces within the Republican Party. He described it as a party looking for its soul. The president has the lowest Approval Ratings of his term in office. How does that factor into legislative advancement . He is right when he says the countries disgusted with washington. Every poll you look at suggests the republican numbers problems is worse and worse. I was struck by the degree to which he was talking about a need to make the people who already are inclined to vote republican more satisfied with their elected officials. There is almost no talk at all of persuading people if you are alreadye who arent inclined to vote conservative and republican. I think right now that is one of the big differences between the elements of the party, it is a struggle for the partys soul. That is a difference between the party that he represents and the part of the party that the establishment represents. They have a sense that they really do have to do something that reaches out to actual swing voters. We also saw last week that social conservatives had a big meeting. They feel they have been a little too quiet and want to reassert their concern over social policy issues. How do you see this all playing out . This is a question for both of you. It is interesting. The Republican Party came out of the election. They did their autopsy report at the beginning last year. They said we cannot be a divisive party, particularly on social issues. They are welcoming a lot of conservative groups. I think they are trying to figure out how to go forward and make an impact. The action has basically been that these other groups that are more concerned about limited government and cutting spending and the like is what mike needham represents much more. Social conservatives are out in the country getting some big defeats. We end the year with gay marriage being legal in utah. That is a big part of this, too. They look at what is happening on the ground. I do not know if asserting themselves again is a question of persuasion. We have a minute left. We do have the budget again, the standoff between the parties on federal spending. What do you see the next year being like . We are already talking about 2016. Is this basically in a Holding Pattern until the next big election . The terms of engagement have been set for the election. I cannot see how anything they anything big can happen between now and then. I think it will be small and incremental. Regarding immigration, they are looking toward a postobama 2017. He said that about the health care act. There are those looking well beyond the legislation termed toward the home new era. Thanks to both of you for being here. Thank you for your questions. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] on the next washington journal, we will look at what is on the agenda for the second session of the 113th congress as both chambers return. The boston globes brian bender in the wall street