Stephen mansfield on his washington in one hour, author Stephen Mansfield on his Washington Times oped about President Trumps support our go talk show host bill press. He discusses the year in politics and what to expect in 2018. Members are advised that these of the last votes expected in the house for the day, the week, the month, and the year. The House Republican leader in congress as they wrap up business for the year. Lawmakers quickly leave the u. S. Capitol and head home for the holidays. We welcome you to washington journal. Congress did pass a shortterm spending plan that keeps the government running for a few more weeks, only to face the same issues when they return in early january. We want to get to your calls and comments. How would you rate the performance of the house and senate and your own representative . 202 7488001, thats our line for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. For independents, 202 7488002. Yesterday, congress wrapped up business as lawmakers head out of town. Send us a tweet, or join us on facebook. This is the headline inside of usa today as Congress Avoids a shutdown. The house and senate move ahead on that threeweek extension. Here is the speaker of the house, paul ryan. [video clip] we come to these jobs to try to improve the lives of the people we represent. This bill more than so many other things we try to do does that. We are very thankful, and we are very hopeful because when we have been working on this issue for so many years, we can see on the horizon this Great Potential for our people and our economy. We know this is the greatest country on earth, and we know america has better days ahead, and we know america has some much more potential to tap. This bill taps that attention. The average income family of four in wisconsin will get a 2000 tax cut. That is real relief for real People Living paycheck to paycheck. We are seeing Companies Across the country giving bonuses to their employees. One company in philadelphia, 50 billion in Capital Improvements and investments over the next five years because of this tax bill. We are encouraged that this will give the American Economy jolt of energy it needs to give people the opportunities they deserve. We are so excited for this chance and opportunity. We are so thankful to the men and women of this country who sent us here to work on their behalf, and that we are able to actually deliver. Host House Speaker paul ryan as lawmakers pass that tax bill. The president signing it in early january. The front page of the Washington Times is focusing on that legislation for the gop. Most americans doubt they will benefit from the gop tax cuts. Most americans just arent buying what President Trump is selling. Resistance to the tax cuts compounded by the overwhelmingly negative coverage from the news media and resistance from democrats poses a significant threat to republicans up for reelection next year. The most Immediate Impact will withholding taxes in february. 48 of americans opposed the tax approvalthat won final on wednesday in congress. The headline on the front page of the Washington Times, american skeptical of the benefits of the tax bill. Robert is joining us from kentucky, republican line. Caller good morning. I would not to go as far as saying we are not buying what trump is selling in eastern kentucky. We are not giving up on donald trump. We will like him to come to hazard and visit our community. We are not giving up on him. We will buy a little of what he is selling if he will let us. We think he is doing a great job. Host if you could give this congress a great, what would it be . Would be ans grade f. Mitch mcconnell has done nothing for call mining. Host thank you for the call. From wisconsin, democrats line, good morning. Caller good morning. I would give them a lowgrade, probably a d. If you are a republican or millionaire or billionaire, give them an a plus. Donald trump delivered. He delivered what they want. Ooted our country to the tune of 1. 5 trillion and give it all to millionaires and billionaires. Yeehaw for the koch brothers. They are going to make out like bandits. So is donald trump and his whole family. They got rid of the estate tax. He is going to line his pockets bigtime. 16 ofole tax cut, only it is going to people that make less than 75,000. I just saw steve ratner on morning joe. Only 16 of all of that loot is going to people that make under 75,000. If you make under 20,000, you know what your tax cut is going to be . 60 a year. 60 a year. Host you are calling from appleton, wisconsin. The speaker of the houses from your home state. How is he doing . Caller for him to say donald leadershipxquisite was so embarrassing. Paul ryan is a disgrace to wisconsin. Host thank you. Let me share a tweet from ghos teagle. The gop have proven they cannot govern, they can only fund their donors. On the republican line, teresa from tennessee. Good morning. Good morning, teresa. We will go to john on the republican line from pennsylvania. Caller good morning, sir. Plan they put in his excellent. My wife and i have raised seven kids, put seven kids through college. I have a high school diploma. This country has given me a chance to work. What trump is doing is putting people to work. , stop on the left complaining, stop listening to the negative media, they will see what is going on in this country, and it is good. Host thank you for the call. At bloomberg news, this is the headline, congress of hurts a ts a shutdownver but faces a messy start in 2018. Thank you for being with us on this friday. Walk us through how this all unfolded yesterday. This e house passed thisled and passed stopgap bill that case the can down the road until january and medicare andto other entitlement programs that would have been triggered by the tax bill. That was a big win for Susan Collins, who secured that agreement from Republican Leaders as part of her vote for the tax bill. The democrats in the senate went along with it, went along with taking kicking the can down the road. That means we will have a whole bunch of Unfinished Business early next year with a lot of money at stake. Housewe heard from Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on daca, they wanted to tie that into this cr. Ofs that increase the chance a shutdown with the next deadline being january 19 . Itst i dont know if increases the chance of a shutdown. There is a lot of interest on all sides to come up with a deal that gets a lot of these things off. From is a lot of interest both parties and the white house to cut bipartisan agreements and get them done. And includes daca, immigration Border Security package that the president wants, whether it will be called a border wall money or not is to be determined. Certainly, that is what the president wants. There will be a package in there for health care. Susan collins wants reinsurance and other things that would shore up the Affordable Care market. Also Childrens Health insurance, sass to relief. Disaster relief. The opening bid in the senate is 81 billion, which the house pouseassed. Top 100d easily billion. Then you have the underlying package to keep the government open for the rest of the fiscal year. That involves a big deal on caps. There is bipartisan agreement to increase those caps by a lot, potentially a quarter trillion dollars or close to it over two years. These bipartisan negotiations have essentially been on hold until the tax bill is done. That is why it was not done. They hope to have it done by the end of january and maybe kicking the can one more time down the road to valentines day or so. Host let me turn to the Midterm Elections in 2018, a piece you wrote after doug jones won that senate race in alabama. The headline you wrote, doug jones stealing President Trump a rebuke. How does this impact will we may or may not see next year . Caller guest i think you have seen senator mcconnell, the majority leader, really try to ratchet down the potential for victories next year. He doesnt want to see a repeat of the First Six Months of this past year where they tried and failed repeatedly to have a repeal and replace of the Affordable Care act. He said in multiple interviews yesterday that he is looking to do bipartisan deals with democrats. He is not interested in taking on medicare, medicaid, Social Security cuts as a republican only initiative. He has very little margin. Senators like Susan Collins dont want to do these things on a bipartisan basis. Senators, itwo will not happen on a partisan basis. There is a dispute, a fight inside the Republican Party for what to do next year, how hard to go at the Affordable Care act again, how articulate things like work requirements for food stamps, something conservatives really want to do. It is something that it is very hard to see a path to passing in the senate, and it could make republicans very unpopular in certain segments, allowing democrats to say you just past this big tax cut, and now youre going to take food away from poor people. Expect that to be a fight between now and the present giving the state of the union. President giving the state of the union. I think a lot of republicans are looking to the president to set the agenda and see if he is really going to push these things or bipartisan deals. The number one bipartisan deal out there is infrastructure. About aties want to do 1 trillion infrastructure package. Host we are talking to Stephen Dennis of bloomberg news. Fat cochran has been dealing with health issues. He has not shared a hearing in several months. Maybe stepping down early next year. What have you heard . Guest they have been pretty coy as to how long he will stay in the senate. He is clearly not nearly as vigorous as he was in previous years. In the senate floor, you can see aideithin aid with an telling him what the vote is. He has voted incorrectly and then had to be corrected. Road foren a tough him. If he does wait until january 1 or more likely after the omnibus spending package, which is of, that is in charge has some advantages for Mitch Mcconnell. The special election to replace him would not take place until november instead of earlier. Earlier,e to step down there would be an earlier special election. If you have these special elections, yet another seat up, that we have just seen with roy moore in alabama, no seat can be taken for granted. Host your other headline with regard to the Robert Mueller investigation and what we have in hearing from the ranking democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, the headline is muellers silence cutting through the noise of the trumpet russia inquiries. What can you tell us . Guest i think on capitol hill, especially in the senate, mueller remains sort of bulletproof. There has been a lot of attacks on him in conservative media, but he has not said a word in public since he was appointed. That strategy has served him well. There have been a number of its on members of his team of hits on members of his team, the fbi, the Deputy Director andrew mccabe, Chuck Grassley wants him fired. That people think it would be a mistake to fire mueller, and muellers strategy, which is a contrast to comey who got bipartisan flak for how he handled the Hillary Clinton emailed investigation, or even previous special investigators who became a lightning rod, and bill clinton and his white house were able to attack him for some of his statements. There has been a lot of incoming on the mueller investigation, but it has not hit him personally yet. We will see if that continues next year as they get closer, if they get closer, to the president himself, members of his family. You saw mark warner on the senate floor lay down some red lines and markers if there were to be any pardons in addition to firing mueller or taking other steps to rein in the investigation by the president. If it gets closer to the president or his family, that is sort of an all bets are off moment. Stephen dennis covers congress for bloomberg. His work available at bloomberg. Com. We thank you for being with us. Guest it is great to be here. Merry christmas. Host Merry Christmas. A couple of facebook posts we want to share with you. What grade would you give to congress . This is from mary who says the left and the elite media are so stunned that President Trump and republicans are going to pass tax reform that they continue to make up false claims to convince americans it is bad. It is good for the middle class. It is good for jobs. Say goodbye to the american dream. Robbery bill is highway to line the pockets of rich donors who have donated to the gop. Jim says apparently the producers have not seen the headlines of corporations handing out bonuses. At t among those, their employees will get a 1000 bonus. Stop giving a platform to stupidity . From another viewer, why do most folks feel they were not benefit from the new tax bill . Says, paul ryan isnt just a disgrace to wisconsin, but to the nation as well. We are focusing on what grade would you give congress . Our phone lines are open. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. Nbc news with the ap story, Congress Passes a temporary spending bill to avoid the christmas shutdown. Congress returns in january facing enormous challenges along with legislation to increase the Governments Authority to borrow money. Each of these issues is likely to challenge the unity of republicans. Mark meadows, a leader of the powerful faction of the hard right republicans. Democrats had initially pressed for adding their priorities to the measure, but once rebuffed on immigration, they worked to keep the bill mostly free of additional addons. Lets go to keith in wisconsin, independent line. Caller good morning. Paul ryan really is a disgrace. We are embarrassed by him. That class warrior is spearheading a class war in this country. If there is truth in advertising, that bill would have been renamed the class war bill. It shifts resources from the workingclass to the owning class. From those who do work to those that do absolutely nothing of any meeting. Nations recently took a tour of the United States, and what he saw was shopping. He saw People Living on the streets in l. A. In tents. Living withpeople sewage in their front yard. Class isd that social something most people are not aware of in the United States. There is a definite last division, and these republicans are just class warriors. They are spearheading a class war in this country. There will be a leftist backlash. We will know who is on our side and who is against us. Host thank you. From the Washington Times, the government gets a reprieve, dreamers get shut down. If you could give congress a grade, what would it be . Congressional democrats should look to the United Nations for , referring to what happened at the u. N. General assembly yesterday. From michigan, good morning. Democrats line. For what grade would you give congress, judy . Caller first i would like to angel. O from this little when i say hello, that is llo, you little devil. Anyway, in downtown lansing, the state capital of michigan, for the season, tis the season, Christmas Carol and scrooge, tiny tim, god bless us, everyone. Host this headline from the Washington Post, key u. S. Allies voting against the president s decision to move the u. S. Jerusalem. 35 countries abstained, and nine supported the u. S. Republican line, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning, america. Talk to you about something very strange that i just found out. During Mitch Mcconnells interview, he was so funny. I have never seen him in that state of mind in my life. He goes oneonone with the person, you find out his inner personality. He is a funny guy. It is no wonder he has such a beautiful wife. I always wondered why. He was very funny. When he does his business as a politician, he seems so dry and boring. He is a really funny guy. On our website, sponsored news website. The what grade would you give congress . Caller i would give them an Approval Rating of about zero. Host pretty low. You cant get any lower than that. Caller no. Running this corruption really deep in both parties, we have seen the 17 million that the taxpayer provided for them andet out of Sexual ConductEverything Else. It is just hard to give them a a high rating. I would like to talk about Campaign Financial reform a little bit. I dont think we will get that except if we had a thirdparty, and also term limits. It just seems they are not going to vote for that because basically they want to sit in their all their lives there all their lives and become multimillionaires. Aaron miller, i think you had him on the program several years ago. The end of greatness, he wrote that book. I think it had a pretty go