Christina pierson covers, for the wall street journey wall street journal. Erik wasson covers budget and appropriations process for bloomberg. Christina, you are up first. Christina the current funding expires on april 28. Are we a week away from a Government Shutdown . Rep. Yarmuth i think it is highly unlikely. I think most likely he will see a shortterm continuing resolution a week or two. That will provide enough time for negotiations to take place. I think both sides have things they would like to see in any funding mechanism over the last five months of the fiscal year, so i suspect we will look for more time to do that rather than get that all accomplished in basically three days next week. Eric republicans control the white house and both houses of congress, but i hear some of your democratic colleagues saying democrats have the upper hand in the bill will luck it would have under president obama. Do you agree with that . Rep. Yarmuth i think we have a letter leverage in the situation. Every deal of the last few days as endowment democratic votes. Some of our democratic votes than republican votes. They will need to make get democratic votes in the house and senate. So i suspect what republicans some republicans want to put in this funding mechanism, that we dont like, it will be we have the advantage on those issues and also possibly on the one thing we would like to have, which is the authorization for funding for the cautionary reductions in health care. Erik do you think you can get that in the bill . Rep. Yarmuth i think we are on a good negotiating position. As you mentioned, republicans are in charge of the entire government now, and nobody is going to confuse who is to blame if the government gets shut down and the ensuing disruption to the economy that would mean. I suspect that republicans want to make sure that they get something done a little bit more than we do. Erik and a finer point on it, one of the elements of compromise i am hearing about, democrats may be willing to increase the Defense Budget somewhat using more funding as a way of making a compromise. Is that something you would be prepared to support . Rep. Yarmuth it depends. When the Administration Proposed their skinny budget last month, asked for 54 billion for defense and a 54 billion cut in nondefense Discretionary Spending. Cost increase comes at a of any reduction in nondefense discretionary, that would be a nonstarter. If we can come to an agreement on a proportionate increase in both defense and nondefense, i think that is something i can support. Erik one more thing, it looks like the border wall is a big issue. How do you see that getting solved . Well that receive any funding whatsoever in this bill . Rep. Yarmuth i would doubt it. I really think at heart there is not a real big appetite for border funding even on the republican side here in we have got a lot of border state republicans who are unenthusiastic about building a wall on their borders. Im not sure that will be a sticking point. I know the administration would like to see it, but i dont think congress is hungry for it. Kristina if i could go back to the cautionary reduction, aca payments to insurers how long do , you think democrats would see the payments appropriated, given the president has indicated he might withhold paying them on the administration side . Is that something you would like to see permanent or just for the rest of fiscal year 2017 . Rep. Yarmuth i would like to see the authorization be permanent, but realistically that is probably not doable. Certainly we want make sure there is no disruption in the individual Insurance Market based on a potentially adverse appeal in the court system were where the case now rests or other move on the party administration. We want to make sure we havent that habit for the rest of this fiscal year in the beginning of she asked that. Kristina and on the Affordable Care act, there is new discussion of a proposal from his senate republican, tom mcarthur, deltek republicans are trying to revive their talks on that bill. Do you see anything that you could support, and do you think the republicans have a shot at getting this across the finish line . Rep. Yarmuth the answer to your first question is i find it hard to believe they can propose anything i would support. I think what we saw with the last episode a few weeks ago was what they tried to do to the Affordable Care act, the resulted in millions of americans losing their coverage and a significant portion of people in the market parenting dramatic increases in premiums. I dont see how they can avoid that, even by going to the socalled high risk pools, which is at the core of this compromise they are trying to propose. I dont think there will be any support for a new proposal from democrats, and i find it highly unlikely republicans will be able to muster the 216 votes they need either. Erik your own Party Leaders have said there are problems with obamacare. If President Trump dropped his resistance on repeal. Your party would be willing to work with him. What will your role be in the coming weeks to craft an Democratic Alternative budget . What are your thoughts on that, are you going to propose a singlepayer option . How would you propose fixing obamacare if you had the ability to do so . Rep. Yarmuth first of all, i am a strong supporter of singlepayer. I would love to do that, but our leadership is not prepared to focus on singlepayer right now. I think their First Priority and most of the caucus would say make sure we dont lose ground in the health care area. I dont think we will be proposing singlepayer. I think we would be in our budget talking about the costsharing reductions and making sure the funding was there for that. Provisions the other that could sabotage that we would probably try to put the risk corridors back in, being the payments made to Insurance Companies to guarantee they did not suffer from adverse selection getting a disproportionate amount of sick patients versus healthy ones. That is where i think we probably want to go in our budget, but even though i think a majority of the Democratic Caucus would get behind these singlepayer proposals we are , not ready to go that way yet. Kristina are there any taxes in the Affordable Care act that you would want to see erased or tweaked in any way question mark some democrats have proposed a few of those like the medical device tax. Rep. Yarmuth i have never understood this controversy over the medical device tax. Here you are talking about one of the most Profitable Industries on the face of the earth. You are talking about attacks it was agreed upon in the negotiations over the Affordable Care act, and what would end up if we removed that tax, the only would only be segment of the medical universe that doesnt help pay for the cost of health care. Hospitals, drug companies, virtually everybody else is paying and helping to contribute to the cost of the program. I have no interest at all in changing the medical device tax. I think the cadillac tax that is , something you get a lot of bipartisan support for repealing at this point. One thing i have always said and suggested to my republican colleagues that they ought to do is appeal the employer mandate because probably democrats who would support repealing the lawyer employer mandate ironically needed to make the law work effectively. You can argue its not only good for business but good for workers because there would be incentive for employers to Start Playing around with workers hours and cutting back their hours and so forth. I think that is something if i was a republican, i would repeal the employer mandate and a couple of the panels the dont like and call it a victory. Host we are at the Halfway Point in our conversation with john yarmuth. Erik returning to the subject of tax, as part of the alternative budget, you will have the opportunity to lay out tax. Do you see the advancing democratic corporate proposal as a part of the alternative budget . Rep. Yarmuth we will be proposing additional tax revenue, but we will not be very specific about it. We dont need to be specific about where we would get it in our budget. But we would be anticipating additional revenue. Thats where we will be on the budget. Erik your former Budget Committee member mick mulvaney, now the white house director, recently on cnbc, said he doesnt care what his tax proposal does to deficit. He said is more important people keep the money they earn, and the government prevent wealth transfers which he said was economically inefficient. Can you react to that statement . Rep. Yarmuth mick is a friend of mine, and i had a hard time understanding how he would reconcile his philosophy and principles with those of the administration. This is one of those areas where he will have a hard time doing it. So i think to enter into a comprehensive tax reform initiative, basically saying you will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit and the debt is something that i think will not sit very well with a big portion of the republicans in congress. They have to consider what kind of impact that will have on their ability to get votes in the congress. Ultimately the tax reform could get some democratic votes, but they will have a hard time if they blow a hole in the deficit with that attitude. Kristina right as lawmakers were leaving for recess, President Trump had Just Launched strikes against syria. Do you think there will be a real debate about this when you return . I know lawmakers say the president needs to consult with congress, but there has not been appetite in the past to take a tough vote on authorizing military force. You think that will change now . Rep. Yarmuth i think Congress Needs to be engaged. We need to assert our prerogatives under the war powers act. When president obama had asked for authorization in 2013, we got the most disproportionate constituent response of any issue in my 10 plus years in congress. Calls and letters are running about 201 against involvement. I think there was a consistent reaction of both republican and democratic offices. The Public Opinion may have shifted slightly, i dont think it has shifted that dramatically. I dont think there was much interest in the American People about getting heavy involvement in the middle east. Certainly in syria, so i think we have to have the debate. I have called on speaker ryan and majority leader mcconnell to demand a vote on not just Going Forward but perspective of authorizing military activity but also retroactively approving this event. I think members have to go on record approving what the president did. Kristina if you were to revive this debate about military force, would there be specific constraints that you want to place on the president . Would you want to put boundaries around the use of Ground Troops or the timeline that forced to be authorized for . Would you want to set it at a certain point . Rep. Yarmuth the situation around the world is so volatile, it is very difficult to even establish parameters of the use of force. Things can change on a moments notice. The president has the ability to act in an emergency fashion to defend the country and then come to congress for authority. I am not worried about drawing lines. I just want the Trump Administration to come to congress and say, here is we want the authority to commit under whatever terms they propose and let them consider them. I am not sure i am in a position personally to say what kind of conditions i would want. I would like to see what they have in mind. Erik are there things you can see working with President Trump to get accomplish . He has mentioned infrastructure. We have not seen many details on that. Is that something that is realistic or other other things you see congressmen and the president getting together from a democratic point of view . Rep. Yarmuth i am seeing less and less fewer prospects for cooperation. Infrastructure is the natural. We would have a difference on the mechanism for funding infrastructure, i according to wally heard out of the white house. Have heard out of the white house. We dont want this to be investor driven and investor benefiting proposal. We wanted to be something where the American People through their governments at every level decide what project need to be built. But we can work with the white house. I would certainly welcome that opportunity. I think we can do criminal Justice Reform on a bipartisan basis, and if they wanted to engage in Immigration Reform, i was part of the gang of eight in 2013. I know that bipartisan comprehensive Immigration Reform can be done if the republicans had the courage to say lets solve a very, very serious problem in a comprehensive way. I know we can do it because it was done. We just finally could not get our bill to the floor, even though without we had a majority to pass it in the senate had passed a bipartisan bill. Those are the three areas i see real potential for bipartisan action if the white house is interested. Host during the break there were a number of town Hall Meetings around the country, and some of them really quite volatile. Activists on the democratic side seem to be insisting there be no compromise by democrats of the Trump Administration. What do you see as the power of these activists Going Forward for your party, and what will be successful for 2018 . Rep. Yarmuth i think this is an Incredible Opportunity for democrats, but more importantly it is an Incredible Opportunity for the reassertion of the act of democracy. When a healthcare proposal from the republicans was beaten back a few weeks ago, it wasnt because of us and the congress. That was because the people rose up and made their opinions known and their passion known. We are seeing that everywhere. The thing that is assuring to me about the energy out there now is that while many people involved in the individual movements and others have particular issues their current they are concerned about, whether its gun safety or Immigration Reform or lgbtq rights or Voting Rights or cant Campaign Finance or other issues, the administration the universally understand that unless we win control of legislative bodies in the country nobody gets what they , want. So there is a much greater willingness to kind of accept differences on certain issues with the greater goal in mind. Just the other night, Bernie Sanders was in louisville with tom perez. Their come together to fight back tour, and the response was amazing. I was kind of the theme of it. We need a big tent party, and if we do and allow this energy to permeate the party, we will have a good chance of taking back the Congress Next year and state legislatures around the country. That is what we are focused on. Erik on activism, do you see the democratic aggressive factor activism helping you address this the budget cuts trump is proposing, 30 to state . Do see yourself being successful in opposing those . Rep. Yarmuth absolutely. Virtually everyone who observed that or looked at the budget said it was dead on arrival when it was issued. There are few members. Not a lot of republicans will vote for cuts, 30 cuts at the state department and 20 cuts at nih and any Community Development block grants that funds meals on wheels and those things. Totally defunding the national , nationalfor the arts endowment for the humanities and the corporation for public broadcasting. Those programs and entities have huge constituencies around the country in red districts and blue. Ink that was kind of know some people called it the opening bid in the budget negotiations. I think, to be honest, i think it was a mick mulvaneyinspired document and not something that really reflects for the white house for president are. Kristina do you think House Republicans will be able to craft and pass a budget of their own . Last year they cannot coalesce around a budget, but now the rize carrot dangling wanting the reconciliation to pass the tax reform bill. But there are divisions among their conference among spending levels and what priorities they want to see. Do you think they will be able to come together this time . Rep. Yarmuth i would bet against it. Thats all i can say. I would bet against it. Kristina why is that . Rep. Yarmuth mostly for the reasons you mentioned. They have total differences. They are not going to get very close to a budget democrats cant support. If they dont insist on cuts to match increases in defense spending, if they increase defense spending which you know any republican budget is going to do, and dont have significant increases on nondefense side you will get no , democratic support. And the other, you will lose republicans. I think the dynamics are not agreementreaching an just with republican votes and , they would have to have just republican votes on the budget. Erik talking about the countdown to a Government Shutdown, you also have one to the Kentucky Derby . Have you started that clock . Rep. Yarmuth in my office we have a countdown that starts 365 days out. Today is the 20th, so we are 16 days away. I look forward to the derby festival. It starts saturday night after the show airs. Thunder over louisville, one of the largest fireworks displays in the world, it draws close to one million people. Then we have about 90 different events over the next two weeks leading up to the first saturday in may and the greatest 10 two minutes in sports. This community is revving up. The bourbon is flowing. Host that seems like a good way to end. I think the news out of the conversation with you is there is no appetite for Government Shutdown despite all the differences in the Republican Party and the two parties. That is the message you want to leave with viewers this week . Rep. Yarmuth absolutely. A lot of people learned their lesson in 2013. Host thank you for being with us on newsmakers. We appreciate your time. Rep. Yarmuth thanks for having me. Host you talked to a lot of other members and their staff. Is he correct. There is no appetite for Standing Firm on this budget, even if it means a temporary shutdown . Erik there is some posturing going on with negotiations. The white house is saying, we have to have some win. The implicit there he theory would be the president would veto a bill if he did not get a win. But as you really going to veto a bill to shut down the government . It will be his 100th day in office. A lot of people feel that would be an empty threat. But there does seem to be a compromise on the table to allow win, whichto claim a is the way things work. It depends on if things would come together in time or you need a shortterm stopgap. Kristina my sense is there is not a lot of appetite for a shutdown on capitol hill. Because we have seen House Republicans fight many of the same fights over again. I think the particular fight is not one they want to pick. It is a new president , new administration, not clear that they have quite the same desire to avoid a shutdown or near shutdown in the dramatic headlines that would generate. Host the congress and the brakes seemed good time. People needed a timeout. Two weeks ago, things were pretty acrimonious in this town particularly on the senate side of the Senate Confirmation process for neil gorsuch. What is your anticipation as a return this week . Will the temperature be as high . Is this a good coolingoff perio d . Is there an appetite for compromise on any of this stuff . Kristina it could be a messy week, and the reason is that the 100 day mark what kind of arbitrary puts pressure on the white house to get a win on the board. It sounds like they wanted to be on the Health Care Bill. And is not clear if they can get that. If you tie up a big part of the week fighting over the Health Care Bill when you have a Government Shutdown looming, you risk running out of time. I think thats a big pressure that could come hurtling down. Erik i would also say one bashing is the appropriations committee. They do their work behind the scenes, and there is a lot of agreement they know how to compromise, and they have to predecease 12 bills or some version of that every year. Sometimes they come up short nephew of stopgap, but they are working along. The messages leave us alone, we will have a deal can coalesce around. But aides on the Committee Say trump is indeed a wildcard, and if he reads the deal, he could put a stop to it. Kristina i totally agree, and if the appropriations members are the only ones who voted to never have a Government Shutdown or anything close to it. The trick is they need to pass the whole house and the whole senate. That is where we can run into problems. Post what is the Freedom Caucus saying at this point . Have they been active during the break . Are they prepared to compromise or hold their ground . Erik i think they will vote against the bill. That is assumed. And because they dont have much of a seat at the table because leadership goes to democrats immediately to craft a bill. The Freedom Caucus has been very involved in trying to revive the obamacare bill from our reporting. I think their effort in the most recent days has been trying to bring that back for the next week. End . to what what do they want to look like . Erik they want the bill essentially to weaken Insurance Company regulations. Offer lower quality the cheaper health plans. They are concerned with the high cost of premiums and believe that basically weakening regulations that govern everything from preexisting conditions to Community Health ratings would do that. Democrats are coming back and saying, people will buy the plans thinking they are covered, but their insurance isnt worth very much. That is where the debate within the Republican Party is going on. There was a compromise on the table the last couple of days that would allow states to opt out of some of these regulations. That could theoretically work because members from northeast states who are moderate republicans will say my constituents. Coverage. Of the report the plaintiff not have the votes to pass. Host tax reform and health care were initially supposed to be of a piece for republicans and the Trump Administration. I am wondering what the concern in the town is about the debt, because we heard from mr. Yarmuth that their grounds for compromise would be no cuts in discretionary, or few cuts in Discretionary Spending alone the republicans to continue adding more money to the military budget. That sound like more spending overall. Where is the debt and all this as a concern for members of congress . Kristina i think it is really low on their list of priorities these days. I think its not because its a priority of President Trumps. He doesnt want to touch Social Security spending and he doesnt want to touch entitlements at all. He see that translated into his budget which did make large cuts to agencies, but didnt touch mandatory spending and the entitlement programs. You really have not seen it be a driving factor in these talks. That could change, but unless the president were to really engage on it, when you make cuts that hard and painful and if you avoid that, its easier for everybody. Erik there will be more clarity in late may with the budget releasing a full trump budget for 2018. It will be interesting to see if it shows the balance. Many republicans have tried to have a balance in 10 years. Everything ive been told from the administration is the budget will not balance and 10 years. It will send a powerful signal that the deficit is no longer the top priority of the Trump Administration. President ial budgets are a rivaly considered advisory at best. There were some reporting i have done that shows the budget will not have a complete tax reform plan and it. That is something the markets are very sensitive to. They want to see movement on a tax cut and to the extent of the budget just shows the numbers but no details that could promote market reaction. Host thank you for being with us. It will be a very busy week for capitol hill. We appreciate your questions. Erik thank you so much. Kristina thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016]