Well get into that with senator round in just a second in order to advance the ball a little bit on tax cuts. Separately we have been following this other scenario from janet yellen kind of single hand he hadly propelled this market forward. If you think about it, the fed brought us a long bull market. Given added boom by donald trump. She seems to give indication in capitol hill testimony, the rate hikes people are fearing, might not be that much more of them if any. Maybe dovish Federal Reserve conducive to keeping rates where they are, not a sharp spike in those rates. They could be wrong. In and out of record territory as we speak. Meantime we were telling you a little bit yesterday how the house seems to be swallowing a little bit what the senate is cooking up when its comes to the health care rework, one that will keep some key taxes in place. Want you to take peek at this. One of the plans senate is cooking up, keeping 3. 8 surtax on upper income and 9. 5 1 2 surtax for upper income in medicare in place. What do you think . I want to say this. We want to look at the context, neil. Here is what we have the back side, even if you left that in on potential repeal and replacement, we have tax reform on the back side of that. Lower taxes stimulate the economy. Neil you would be open to that as part of a means to getting to the tax things . The devil is in the detail. Our official position is to repeal all the taxes. At the same time i want to make sure before i weigh in on anything i look at both the tradeoffs. Neil early senator who is looking at this not only got his way getting the Senate Republican leader to keep the lights on and doors open through at least the first half of august, but south Dakota Republican senator mike rounds also appears to be open to that very idea of a 3. 8 tax, largely on upper income, that would stay in effect. In other words, not all the taxes associated with socalled obamacare would be rescinded, but there is a method to that, not only to try to strike a deal eventually to get this thing done and out but to move forward on a couple of things that would be advantageous. That opens up a lot of money, better than 230 billion worth over the next 10 years. You can do a lot with that. Doesnt senator mike rounds know it. Senator, thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. Neil talk how you were able to influence Mitch Mcconnell to keep the lies on, keep the doors open . Well there is a group of us, 10 of us sent a letter to the leader. We did it because we were pretty sure that the leader really did understand the need to stay in for a little bit longer. We have been in a series of delays here in the senate. If we could add ten days to the work period, that means we get more stuff done. I think leader wanted to do it, this was our way sending a very clear message we would support him in this plan. It is not popular to stay here. A lot of people want to get back in state. They want want to be back in thr home state. At same time folks were talking to, when we get back and do pa rates and do coffees, look, we want results. You may not individual perfect. We want you to get something done. We didnt send you there to keep the status quo. We sent you there to fix things. If it means spending more time in the middle of august, that is what weve got to do. Neil Rapid City Journal commentator said of you senator, when you looked at this, obviously got your way keeping the lights on but also on this surtax on the wealthy, to keep that going for a while, this idea of apparently was among, you were early converts to that, that senator rounds shows some welcome independence, i think im quoting that correctly. But you know conservatives in the house will come back at you, sir, anything the media likes, maybe we conservatives should not. What do you say to that . That theyre concerned that you senators are giving up your zeal for tax cuts keeping big ones in place . What we know there isc a cot to obamacare. Were not out of those costs yet. We have to recognize those costs. If we dont take care of it, and help the American Public they will end up with higher premiums. They cant afford that right now. This is obamacare hangover we have neil what does that buy you, senator . I know this means extra 200 to 230,000,000. 10 years and keep that and medicare surtax largely on the wealthy, does that buy you more votes or potential votes among some of your colleagues, maybe yourself included, concerned about medicaid cuts and the rest . More importantly than buying votes, it give us tools to continue tax subsidies for folks who would see extremely high premiums because of what obamacare put in place without any means to pay for it. What this does, it gives us one more tool to transition out of obamacare. I know there are folks like it repealed, if you do that, remember all the protections in place through state laws and were repealed by obamacare. If you repeal it and dont address it with changes in market conduct reforms, then basically you have a nofrills plan which preexisting conditions could apply people to be dropped once again and so forth. We want to take the best out of obamacare because a lot of states had protections against the loss of preexisting conditions before obamacare ever came in. We want to take the best of that, and incorporate it to make it a better product than what they have got today and we think we can do that but you have got to have the resources to transition out of obamacare and back into a competitive market again. We know neil i know your views on the subject, but your colleague rand paul says this still ends up being obamacare light. You heard all the critics from largely conservative Community Say when you compromise on these taxes youre going to compromise on the next wave, that is the tax plan to come . For example, on upper income, do you believe the upper income should get a tax cut . I think everybody should get a tax cut but i would like to see it across the board. My proposal on tax cuts is different than reforming health care. We need to keepp them separate. So in this particular case we have a cost involved with obamacare that we have to recognize. We have to transition out. And i respect senator paul. I understand he would like to have this be as god as it can be. Thats what we all want but we also understand if we were to simply cut obamacare right now and walkway a, say there, we repealed it, well leave a whole lot of people that get hurt, that have no place to go to help cake care of their health care needs. We cant do that so we have to help them pay for it. Neil i understand. I apologize. Do you feel criticism will be whatever republicans come up with, this does advance the ball to your point, i talked to mark meadows runs House Freedom caucus who was open to the idea in tradeoff getting comprehensive tax reform done later in the summer but this shows republicans have not torpedoed obamacare, they just replaced sitting smaller but still substantial governmentrun health care . Lets get away from rhetoric to helping real people. What they want is access to health care, Affordable Health care, that is what they care about, they want us to do things to fix the mess weve got right now. Obamacare is failing under its own weight. We cant simply walk in and say its gone because without a transition, people will get hurt. So, once again, pragmatically well do what is right for the people of the united states. And that means protecting them against the loss of protections against preexisting conditions. Neil all right. When it comes to medicaid this, is the first major reform effort on medicaid since its inception. Were moving in the right direction. Well make it sustainable for another generation. So i feel there is some real benefits in the proposal right now. I just think we can make it better with a few more tweaks. Neil that with these tweaks, that you will be able to pass something, maybe as soon as next week, the week after . I hope so. That is what i want to see. I know that is what leadership wants. I think we can make it better than what it is today. Remember, we havent seen a wraparound the leadership has laid out. They have given us a broad overview of it. I like what they had for recommendations. Havent seen it in writing yet. Well get to read that bill again. Were actual reading bills before we pass them. That is a major change for congress. But what were doing is, were learning where we can make things better. As long as we have an open amendment process, im convinced as we learn about the changes that are there, we will tweak it. Well make it better than original provisions. Neil would i be remiss donald trump, jr. , flap over meeting with a volusia shun, whatever you think of what he did is going to be a summerlong distraction, might even get in the way of what you want to do on all this other stuff . Well, we want want to be prac in that respect too. Well come party mentallize thec issues. It is important to American Public. We recognize russia was trying to influence elections, we recognized that, but we set it up that the Senate Intelligence committee is taking a lead role. Well let them do their work. Meantime we will focus on health care. Well focus on getting armed services, National Defense authorization act through. Well focus on tax reform. By the way, i think there will be some real opportunities for legitimate tax reform coming through before the end of the year. Im optimistic by that. Neil you werent angered by these developments . Whatever you think of the whole back and forth with russia and Everything Else, that maybe donald trump, jr. , maybe unwittingly made a crisis for you guys . I see some inexperience in terms ever running political campaigns. That is a part of it. Folks wanted a new president. They want ad president without a lot of government experience. They wanted him to come in and shake things up. They also wanted him to be successful. If we want this president to be successful, we have to focus on our part of the job. He wants tax reform. He wants to do an infrastructure bill. These are things we want to do as well. Well focus on our part of it. Well let them deal with fallout of most recent discussions. Neil anything impeachable here to you, when you heard all the other stuff . No, no. This is, this is just a case once again well come back into it. Well talk about what happens during a campaign. Neil okay. Could it have been handled better . Of course. Hindsight is always better than middle of a campaign. Neil always good seeing you, senator mike rounds, beautiful state of south dakota. You hard what the senator is saying here, an idea to maybe barter and trade with his colleagues in the house. We heard from a number of key house players, including the guy that runs thes who freedom caucus, open to an idea keeping taxes on upper income, part of obamacare, the Affordable Care act. Im talking specifically the 3. 8 surcharge on Investment Income for those earning 200,000, couples earning 250,000 or better, and keeping that roughly 1 surtax, that medicare surtax in place for the same group. Reaction now from independent womens forum carrie lucas, and former bush 43 special assistant ron christie. Carrie, the argument the senator is raising others raised as well, hike a tax to keep a tax. Hike a tax to keep one in place that will benefit and keep this health care thing going be maybe help get more votes. And pave the way for deal on taxes. Doable . I really respect theyre trying to find a way to make this happen, to make progress in terms of repealing obamacare. This isnt easy. Not easy to fix our health care system. Just not like not easy to fix our tax system. I think American People, particularly conservatives, we have to accept that were not going to get everything we want this one time. We need to take a bite at apple. Hope for another bite at the apple down the road, get the best deal we can now. Frustrating to hear about tax cuts that arent going to happen or repeals that might not take place this time. But we need to start moving in the right direction and get this process going. Neil ron, what worries me, if youre a big tax cut enthusiast, i understand bartering that goes on back and forth, Ronald Reagan bargained things in his tax package in 86, willingness without getting in negotiations, negotiate away for example, a 15 corporate tax. Were told more like 20 to 25 before they even sat down, rescind the house cut in all obamacare related taxes, now two big ones largely stay for upper income, that theyre giving ground on those issues. What do you think . Neil, that is right. Looks like the republicans are negotiating against themselves frankly. A game of whackamole. You will keep the upper end tax hikes in place in order to pay about 230 billion over 10 years, 240, for an increase of course for medicaid expansion, for some of the opiate programs that people like rob portman and other people want to keep in place. Neil we should stress, on top of extra money provided by having smaller deficits with the senate plan that was out there, so they had couple hundred bill, versus the house plan. Now a couple hundred billion in the tax plan. They have half a trillion dollars to play with right now, seems like theyre giving it away. Precisely. Giving it away before they negotiate. Democrats will not vote for this. You have 42 republican senators that you have to keep in line. Seems to my, neil, half a trillion dollars on table, and republicans already making concessions not looking at tax cuts, not looking to stimulate the economy here, not keeping their promise repealing some onerous provisions seems were not actually negotiating from a good position of strength right now. Neil i apologize, breaking news. Thank you for your input on this were following it closely. Were also following confirmation hearings of President Trumps fbi pick chris wray on capitol hill. He is asked a lot of questions what he would do with oneonone meetings with president of the united states. He was asked whetherc he had bn sort of sworn to any loyalty, but the president of the united states, he said no one asked me for any loyalty oath. That is his way of saying im my own man. Well have more after this. ,. Your Insurance Company wont replace the full value of your totaled new car. The guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. No, i picked the wrong Insurance Company. With Liberty Mutual new car replacement™, you wont have to worry about replacing your car because youll get the full value back including depreciation. Switch and you could save 782 on home and auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Neil President Trump defending his son after emails on russian meeting. Blake burman with latest from the white house. Tweet very quiet reaction, huh . Reporter neil, there was relative silence from the white oust on this one. They put out a statement from the president on donald trump, jr. Even that was some 13 words total. However its a new day. The president was tweeting this morning in which he called the russia storyline once again a political witchhunt. And he tweeted out this morning he feels he is the victim of a double standard here. Well read to you a couple of tweets from the president on this day. One of them he quoted from the wash on times which said i quote here, democrats have willfully used moscow disinformation to influence the president ial election against donald trump. And then about an hour later after that, he followed up with quote, why arent the same standards placed on the democrats . Look what Hillary Clinton may have gotten away with. Disgraceful. However, democrats and even many republicans here in washington question what might come next. One of the real big questions, how many other meetings took place . Were there any other meetings . Was this beginning after quid pro quo . A change in the republican platform to take out issues pertaining to crimea. Reporter now among the tweets from the president today, there was this one earlier this morning which he said quoting again, the white house is functioning perfectly. Focused on health care, tax cuts, reform and many other things. I have very little time for watching tv. However, neil, i was just listening to interview with the representative or senator that you were talking with a little while ago. That is the question here in washington as many republicans openly and readily admit that some of the distractions that are coming out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue might have an impact about a mile down the road at the capitol as they try to move forward on issues like health care, on issues like tax, the budget and so forth. Neil . Neil blake, thank you very, very much, blake burman. Former Justice Department official tom dupree said as things stand right now, awkward though this whole meeting had to be and the sons zeal to have it, there is no smoking gun going on here. Tom, your argument is just that, right . Doesnt zoom to be anything untoward, maybe a little bit bad optics but leave it at that . I dont think it is a smoking gun, neil. Look, there is no question this is a meeting that never should have happened. I think it was a terrible idea to get involved in the shadowy world of russian espionage and that sort of thing look at from legal perspective do i think the evidence we know and understand it today amounts to a federal crime, i dont. I dont think we crossed that line. As we know, there could be more to come. That has to be the concern of the white house, if it ends here that is one thing. If this will be a situation where day after day, week after week, we have sequential disclosures, i think that is really going to be a killer. Neil im old enough to remember i guess the whole watergate thing, im not comparing the two at all, tom, please indulge me here, only thing i will say, what undid it for Richard Nixon, this notion, wait a minute, you said this didnt happen and fear of a coverup, and outright lying, not so much the incident itself but lying about it. Im not equating the two, donald trump, jr. , said he never had any meeting with any russians, now we come to find out in the email exchange, you know, that he not only did, but he arranged it . Absolutely. It is immensely disappoints. Sort of thing when you find out what happened, you know, his telling a