the tax cuts, repealing don t ask, don t tell and the treaty with russia. they will have to tackle with lawmakers and the white house, the next couple of months, a budget. the lame duck kept the lights on in congress through late march with the budget actually so they have to do a new budget. the deficit and debt ceiling for the country and republicans will try to repeal health care. not a lot of common ground between democrats and republicans on these issues that are now in front of them. my question is to you because your day job, here in washington covering congress. where do you think house republicans will start first? this first vote, this is the opportunity for republicans in the house to real make a statement. what is the first thing they will put on the floor, and the answer, paul, it s still a bit of a secret. we know generally what it could be. on the one hand you mentioned health care reform. they say they will make good on a campaign promise to repeal it. republicans hit
heavy political fire on the sunday shows today. republicans rallying behind their pledge to america after announcing it on thursday. meantime, democrats not to be outdone, highlighting what they say are cracks in the g.o.p. s agenda. steve centanni. the document called the pledge to america lays out a broad frame work what they d like to accomplish, most notably appealing hurricane and some say the document doesn t go far enough in cutting spending and while democrats say it s nothing, but a pledge to return to bush europe policies. that debate was played out on the talk shows and tea party republicans talked about the need to return it amorphous callie responsible government. and the truth is republicans didn t just lose our majority in 2006. woo he lost our way. we walked away from the principals of fiscal
participating in the sunday shows today who were asked about this and yet it was not really their desire to comment further. so they re in that kind of rock and a hard place, where they may want to speak more freely but they also don t want to say more than the president has publicly, trying to thread a needle of conveying support for the women who have come forward to sort of assign credibility to them without going as far as saying because of that roy moore should step aside or be out of the race. it is one of those things that has placed a very obvious awkwardness we have seen from the president through his spokesperson saying these a serious allegations and the people of alabama should make a decision and at the same time not going further than that. today mark short, who is the director of legislative affairs for the white house, so he s always interfacing with those on capitol hill for the president s agenda. so the agenda, of course, matters very much with the outcome in alabama
that is what we heard a lot from and similar things from most other republican senators on the sunday shows today. senator susan collins from maine says she is going to continue to speak out when she believes it is appropriate. i have not hesitated to disagree with the president, whether it is with his comments after the incidents in charlottesville or on the very important health care issue. i will continue to do that. i will work with the president and support his policies when i think he is right but i will not hesitate to oppose it when i think he is misguided. reporter: the main unifying issue for all republicans right now is tax reform as the president s top legislative priority and will continue to push it hard this week. he s also expected to announce for chairman of the federal reserve and also be preparing for his epic 12 day trip to asia. he leaves for that on friday.
i wouldn t necessarily say it s likely. the republicans have struggled to get health care, obamacare, the affordable care act repealed and replaced, as you know, there is an effort right now to come up with a temporary solution but the white house and president trump in particular have given mixed signals as to whether or not they would support that plan. the president having stopped the subsidy payments to the insurance companies and now saying he does not want them to start up again. well, that s at the core of this compromise plan between republicans and democrats to get it going again. arthel: to that point, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell saying on the sunday shows today, he would like to work with the president on health care but wants to hear from the president, what sort of bill, what items would you like in there that you would sign? we would love to get it done. that s right, mitch mcconnell said he would like to bring something to the floor but not if the president