the only obvious question is why didn t republicans introduce this bill? it s not that voters are against it. they are for it. a new poll finds 70% of both parties support this proposal. is there any reason not to pass% it right now? thomas vartanian is a professor at george mason university s antonin scalia law school. executive director of the school s program of financial regulation technology right in the middle of this issue all the time so we are grateful he can join us tonight. professor, thanks for coming on. why do you think 70% of republicans would support this?? i don t know, because history is replete with problems that have occurred from rate controls and tinkering with pieces of the market. because it forces certain things to happen in other parts of the market. for example, we put a 15% rate control on, there s no doubt tho consumers deserve the best services they can get at the fairest price. but when you put a rate control on, what you are effectively
saying they aren t going to this which will hold in its tracks. brian: there are been a ton of cases where republicans come out and say they don t like what the president is doing, number one. so this is factually incorrect. number two, this is the common strategy that he and others like to use. beneath the surface, there s all sorts of rancor and discord and it s ready to pop. and man is going to be ugly. he s done that for years now. he s doing it again, assuming republicans aren t on board by a large with the president. i don t think the strategy works, but he sticks with it and it is clearly something he s doing repeatedly. speech he was also interesting because, as he says, there s all this grumbling behind the scenes maybe there is. because this president is about upsetting the status quo and the swamp and the entrenched interests. and republicans are just as guilty as democrats, being part of the swamp and part of the establishment. harris: we mentioned earlier that nanc
it s not just trump or obama or george w. bush, it s been going on for a very long time. here s a president trying to stop the new crisis with central americans and he doesn t seem to be getting any support. so republicans have a lot of responsibility here, but the reason they didn t get it done over the first two years as they didn t want to take the political risk with the midterm elections. brian: it takes two to tango, as well. the fact is they haven t had a partner in this. they haven t played ball the right way haven t been partners in this. as a result you get nothing done. so the president looks at this and says, this is an emergency. congress, you give me the ability to declare this national emergency. i m going to do it and let s see what happens. melissa: in the meantime, one of president trump s most vocal critics, democratic congressman adam schiff, pending an open letter in the washington post yesterday urging his republican colleagues to go public with private c
hoping for a little too much. the two jessica, i always think it s rich when they say that in private they bemoaned his lack of decency, character, and integrity. these are politicians. [laughter] i don t think of them as leaders of character and integrity. harris: that s too bad! melissa: it s true. jessica: the american public agrees, even if they do think that donald trump s character is a little bit worse than your average politician. but millions of people went to the polls in 2016 and said, i don t care about his character or how he treats his wives or women or whatever it is. i like conservatives on the supreme court and i want a tax cut. and these people have republicans in congress have largely gotten agenda in line with republican parodies. national emergency is a bit of it out later get there, but the idea that adam schiff is going to be coming out of the wings on this one is rich. but senate republicans are doing their job. we already have nine that are
writing, when the president attacked the independence of the justice department by intervening in a case in which he is implicated, you did not speak out. when he attacked the press as an enemy of the people, you again were silent. and now he comes for congress, seeking to strip it of its greatest power that of the purse. you have chosen to keep your misgivings and your rising alarm private. that must end. you must speak out. katie, i love this. rising alarm! katie: i don t trust adam schiff at all. i m sure there are some republicans every scene on the record that are saying, we don t like this national emergency. mike lee, a constitutionalist, said it s unconstitutional but it s legal. the way they proceeded to the legislative branch for years and years. their other republican saying publicly that they don t like the way the branch has been abused. but for adam schiff think that that republicans on capitol hill are going to be allies with him after everything he has done an