infrastructure program that involves a lot of spending is pretty -- is pretty difficult. >> which is why you give part of a difficult list ahead for republicans they will celebrate today and worry about that in the future. thanks for joining us with "inside politics." our special coverage continues in just a moment. wolf blitzer after a quick break. oh, right now. >> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. hello, i'm wolf blitzer, it's 1:00 p.m. in washington, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we're following breaking news, live pictures from the house of representatives chamber where members just moments ago voted to pass the massive republican tax bill. it's a $1.5 trillion bill of tax cuts and reform and it marks the first major legislative victory for president trump. later this afternoon, the president will welcome republican leaders over to the white house to celebrate the victory.

let's bring in our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. also from capitol hill phil mattingly. jim, first to you, what's the reaction. so far you're hearing the president clearly was very, very thrilled by this development. >> that's right. the president was touting this victory earlier this morning at the white house meeting with his cabinet. this is now a signature legislative achievement for president trump, no question about it. but instead of selling this policy before passing it, they passed it and now they'll have to sell it and that's what you heard from the house speaker on the morning talk shows and that's where what you heard from the president this morning with his cabinet. here's what he had to say about this tax cut package being passed. >> the passage of the massive tax cuts and reform. there's a lot of reform in there but the tax cuts supersede and i said very specifically "use the word tax cuts." for 34 years they've been trying to do this and they haven't and they used the word "reform." well there is reform but i said we'll be talking about tax cuts. this bill means more take-home

p pay. it will be an incredible christmas gift for hardworking americans. i said i wanted to have it done before christmas, we got it done. i want to thank the leaders, i want to thank mitch mcconnell, i want to thank paul ryan and so many other people and we'll go through the official ceremony a little while when they come over to the white house. >> the president is planning to have some of those republican leaders over here at the white house later this afternoon, 3:00. we understand the event will be on the south portico of the white house, but some details are still being worked out. the question this afternoon is whether the president takes a victory lap and sings the praises of this piece of legislation or is he going to take questions from reporters? we're expecting at some point for the president to hold one of those year end news conferences as presidents often do before they head to the holidays and, wolf, this white house and the republicans on capitol hill are about to test the law of unintended consequences because

there were hardly any hearings on this or much discussion in the public about this tax cut bill before it was brought to passage on its way to the president's desk they are going to have to find out whether or not they can turn the numbers around for this piece of legislation. the polls have shown, including here at cnn, that it's deeply unpopular at this point. >> deeply unpopular but it passed the house of representatives 224-201. let's go to phil mattingly on capitol hill. walk us through the final vote. what happens next? >> wolf, this wasn't an expected vote. this came up because senate republicans had to strip out a couple pieces of their bill, force the house to vote again but i was speaking to one house republican who said i have no problem voting for tax cuts the first time, the second time is better. there was no drama. what we knew was going to happen is the house was going to vote to pass and clear this bill. so it will be a process that takes a couple days. we don't know when the president is going to sign but as jim

noted, buses are currently waiting outside for republicans to get inside and head to the white house. they are ready to celebrate their first major legislative achievement of the year. >> we'll have live coverage of that, phil mattingly, jim acosta, stand by. we'll get back to you. i want to stay on capitol hill, get reaction to all these developments, joining us now the vermont independent senator bernie sanders. senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> let me get your reaction. the president is about to hold a victory celebration at the white house with the republican leadership. this is a huge win for him, right? >> well, it is a victory for billionaires like donald trump. it's a victory for wealthy campaign contributors like the koch brothers but this is a disaster for the american people. according to the tax policy center, at the end of ten years, wolf, 83% of the tax benefits go to the top 1%, 60% of the

benefits go to the top one-tenth of one percent. this whole policy is based on the fraudulent theory of trickle-down economics and that is if you give huge tax breaks to large corporations and the wealthy somehow the middle-class and working families benefit. the problem is, that here inry has never worked. it didn't work under reagan, it didn't work under george w. bush, certainly didn't work recently the state of kansas. this is a payback for wealthy campaign contributors and i think the republicans will rue the day. they may be celebrating today, but i have the feeling that next november they will not be celebrating quite as much. >> is there anything, senator, in the bill you support? >> sure. there are proposals that help the middle-class but they expire at the end of eight years. what republican priorities were about is giving permanent, permanent tax breaks to large

corporations. some of them will get tens of billions of dollars in tax breaks but the benefits for the middle-class were made temporary. further more -- and this is really important -- listen to what speaker of the house paul ryan is saying literally today, this morning. this is what he is saying. he is saying that in so many words this bill drives up the deficit by $1.5 trillion. remember, the republicans used to hate large deficit. this drives up the deficit by $1.5 trillion. how are they going to offset that? listen to what ryan says today. what he is saying is they're going to come back very shortly with entitlement reform. please, america, understand what he means by "entitlement reform." those are cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid. remember, during the campaign candidate donald trump said "oh,

if i'm elected president, there will be no cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid." that is exactly what ryan has in mind and i challenge the president maybe for once in his life, keep the promises that you made, tell ryan and mitch mcconnell that you will veto any legislation that cuts social security, medicare and medicaid. it's obscene to give tax breaks to billionaires and then cut these programs that are life-and-death for the middle-class of this country. >> and the president as a candidate did repeatedly say no cuts to these entitlement programs, social security, medicare, and medicaid. he often said that, we know that the speaker has a very different perspective on those entitlement programs, a lot of conservative republicans do as well. the speaker was also on tv this morning and he also said this, listen to paul ryan, senator. >> the tax rate before this bill passes is 35%. >> that's the highest in the industrialized world. the rest of our competitors tax

their companies at about 22.5%. canada is 15%. ireland is 12.5%, england is 17%, china is no higher than 25%. so when we tax american businesses at much, much higher tax rates than our foreign competitors are taxing theirs, we're losing and they're gaining and what's more important, american businesses are moving overseas, they're not even american companies anymore. this is a trend that has to be reversed. >> so you heard the speaker. the corporate tax rate is going to go from 35% to 21%. and this will give these corporations a lot more potential to go out there and create jobs, get higher wages for the working class, for all the union workers out there and others as well, that's something you support, right? >> in theory i do, unfortunately what ryan said is grossly misleading. what he said is the tax rate is 35%. wolf, that is the nominal tax rate. the vast majority of corporations do not pay 35%.

they keep saying this over and over again. the fact is that the real, effective tax rate because of all the loopholes that now exist is somewhere around 16% to 18%. not 35%. in fact, one out of five major american corporations making huge profits may zero in federal taxes in recent years so what ryan is saying is simply not true. nominal rate is 35%. effective real rate is significantly lower than that. now, the second point is what these guys are going to do is lower taxes essentially for corporations that invest abroad. yes, we want to bring jobs back to america, what they are doing is exactly the opposite. they are making it easier for corporations to go abroad and pay lower taxes than staying in the united states of america so i strongly disagree with him on that principle. in order to get jobs, the companies to reinvest in

america, among other things, what we have got to do is change disastrous trade policies which make it easier for them to go to mexico and china and hire low-wage workers. this tax policy won't help that process, it will likely hurt it. >> in his cabinet meeting just a little while ago, the president spoke about other consequences of this legislation now passed by the senate, now passed by the house, he's about to sign it into law p. listen to what he said about this. listen to this. >> when the individual mandate is being repealed, that means obamacare is being repealed because they get their money from the individual mandate. so the individual mandate is being repealed. so in this bill, not only do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed obamacare. >> so is the president right, senator? >> no, of course he is not right. >> with the repeal of the individual mandate included in

this tax legislation, is obamacare as we know it for all practical purposes dead? >> no, of course it is not. but obamacare -- forget obamacare, t obamacare. think of the american people. 13 million americans will lose their health insurance because of a repeal of the mandate. people get really excited "isn't that a great thing, wolf?" my god, 13 million more americans on top of the 28 million who have no health insurance are going to lose their health insurance. let's celebrate that. what kind of insanity is that? we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people, we pay twice as much per capita for health care as any other nation and trump is celebrating the fact that 13 million more americans won't have health insurance? and by the way another disastrous aspect of this bill is that when younger people and healthier people are no longer in the universal pool, what all

of the experts say is that health care premiums are going to go up significantly. so not only are 83% of the tax benefits going to the top 1% at the end of ten years, health care premiums are going up. that's one of the reasons why aarp, the largest senior group in america, has opposed this legislation. >> senator, on a very related issue now, the deadline, as you know, to pass a spending bill is friday or else the government will have to shut down. it looks like it will be another short term continuing resolution as it's called. december 7 was the last cr, continuing resolution, that avoided a government shutdown. you were one of 14 votes against that one. will you vote against this continuing resolution as well? >> i sure will. >> why? >> how many hours do you have? here's why. we have a situation today where

800,000 young people, d.r.e.a.m.ers, people who were raised in the united states, who are now in school, who are now working, who are now in the united states military are on the verge of losing their legal status and will be subjected to deportation. a poll came out yesterday, i believe, quinnipiac poll, 77% of the american people, democrats, republicans, independents, understand that the right thing to do is to maintain the legal status of these young people and, in fact, move them toward citizenship. that's what 77% of the american people want. republicans have been so busy trying to give huge tax breaks to billionaires and the wealthy they haven't paid one iota of attention to this looming crisis. second of all. we have the chip program. this is the health insurance program for children, for children. it has not been reauthorized in

almost three months. there are states running out of money. children in this country. middle-class, working class kids are going to lose their health insurance. further more you have the community health center program something i have been very actively involved in expanding. 27 million low income working class families get their health care through community health centers. that has not been refunded this fiscal year. >> senator, let me interrupt because we're out of time. so basically you're going to vote against it unless those let's say three issues and other issues are included which, apparently, they won't be included but there probably will be more than enough senators to vote in favor without that and deal with those other issues in january or down the road. the daca program, the dreamers. >> they have got to be dealt with -- look, maybe, i know this is a radical idea but maybe the republican leadership might want to worry about the needs of the working class and middle-class of they are this country, not just their billionaire campaign contributors so i will vote no

unless those issues are dealt with. >> senator sanders, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you very much, wolf. up next, republican senator mike rounds has a very different perspective on this. he has a lot to say about taxes, looming potential government shutdown, deadline. he's standing by there. he'll join us live. and why new jersey governor chris christie says judiciary committee deserves scrutiny over his meeting with russians during the presidential campaign. stick around. lots of news. in. with an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brain-health supplement in drug stores nationwide. prevagen. the name to remember. at t-mobile when you holiday twogether, great things come in two's. like t-mobile and netflix. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. wow t-mobile covers your netflix subscription, so you can catch the hottest new movies and shows all year long on us. amazing

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cut. we'll have live coverage of all that coming up. joining us now, republican senator mike rounds of south dakota. senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. appreciate the opportunity. >> we want to get your perspective. i know it's very different than the perspective we just heard from senator bernie sanders. in an interview with "fortune" magazine about the tax bill you said this "honestly, the big issue is just the confidence of the american people. the american public wants us to get something done." but in our latest cnn poll, only 33% favor this tax bill. 55% majority oppose it. how are you going to change those numbers? >> getting accurate information out to them and showing them cold hard cash come february and i think the combination of good information and a growing economy and cash in their pockets will do the job. and by that i mean i think for a lot of the families out there they really wanted to see

whether or not they could feel in the their pocketbook beginning in february they will and along the line they're going to see an economy which is going to continue to grow. they'll see job opportunities come and we believe they're also going to see an improvement in their own wages. that takes a little bit longer to happen, but we're convinced it will. >> at the same time -- and i know you're a deficit hawk -- this tax plan comes with a price tag adding about maybe $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. part of the plan to help offset future cuts potentially could be a future deficit to offset future deficits could be cuts to entitlement programs down the road which eat up a big chunk of the federal budget every year, social security, medicare, medicaid. but as bernie sanders just pointed out, the president as a candidate promised no such cuts. listen. >> save medicare, medicaid, and social security without cuts.

have to do it. get rid of the fraud, get rid of the waste and abuse but save it. people have been paying in for years and now many of these candidates want to cut it. i'm not going to cut social security like every other republican and i'm not going to cut medicare or medicaid. >> are you with the president? >> i want to see the safety net strengthened. john podes i don't want to walk back into anybody that has medicare, medicaid or social security and say no you no longer qualify. that's not the intent but those three programs along with interest on the debt make up 78% of the entire federal budget. we don't even vote on those. they're not part of the discussions when we talk about the appropriations process. we only vote on 28% of the budget right now. we can't balance the budget unless we do two things -- raise more revenue which is what this tax plan is designed to do and second of all we have to manage those programs, not by hurting people but by making them more

efficient and i'm convinced we can do that. i'll give you one example and i think republicans and democrats will agree with me, dual eligibles, people who are eligible for both medicare and medicaid, that's individuals over the age of 65 and live in a nursing home, we need to help them manage their own health care needs and in doing so the states recognize it and yet we have two different programs that don't talk to one another. we can save billions of dollars and this will improve their quality of life and it will make it long-term a more sustainable program. just as an example. >> but you also know not just social security medicare and medicaid eat up a huge chunk of the federal budget and interest paying the federal debt another huge chunk but the defense spending also a big chunk. are you ready to start cutting defense spending? >> actually, we're going to increase defense spending because it's the one thing that has taken the brunt of all of the cuts that have been made so far. let me just share with you what

we ought to be doing right now, as we grow the economy, we have to be able to manage each of the programs. it doesn't mean we can't become as efficient as possible with regard to our defense budget but i'll give you one example. when you talk about the aircraft on board our carriers, the f/a-18 hornets, 60% of them right now are not operational. you can't go to war with only 40% of your aircraft on aircraft carriers that are operational today. we've got three nuclear attack submarines that are setting not a depot but at dock. the "boise" has been there for more than three years. we don't have the resources or the capabilities to get them back into service. >> let me interrupt politely, senator. let me be precise. no cuts, an increase in defense spending but you want to start cutting entitlement spending, social security, medicare and medicaid to pay for the $1.5 trillion deficit increase? >> no. >> well, explain.

>> no. let me explain. first of all, we're not going to cut medicare, medicaid or social security. there's no discussion on that. we would like to slow down the increases in them over an extended period of time by making them more efficient, not a cut. second of all, with regard to defense, we have to do that, that's a primary responsibility of the federal government. and finally with regard to the plan we've got right now for the tax plan, the design there is to actually make our economy grow. if we have an increase -- and you've heard these numbers before -- or 0.4% in our gdp, we pay for the entire $1.5 trillion cost of those tax rate reductions. if we do more than that, that's the money that we can actually use to offset the skpising ongoio -- existing ongoing deficit that according to reliable sources will approach $1 trillion per year if we don't do anything else. we want the safety nets to

survive. >> what you want to do, though, is cut the rate of growth in social security, medicare and medicaid and that would be a significant cut, as they say, but that's washington speak. let me get your thoughts. i know you agree on one issue with senator bernie sanders in that you're not going to vote to keep the government running when there's another temporary spending bill that comes up later this week. but you have different reasons why. tell our viewers why. >> i voted against the last two week-week extension, the continuing resolution, i intend to vote against the next extension unless they make significant progress or at least progress in addressing the needs that we've got with the changes or the new programs that we have been working on and the 12 appropriation bills that made it out of the committee but never made it to the floor of the senate so we've worked all year to get them done and simply to say last year's policies and programs and pricing is appropriate is wrong. we knew last july that october 1

is the beginning of the fiscal year, yet here we are in december kicking the can down the road again making no progress i similaredly think it's time we start meeting our deadlines. this has been going on for 43 years. it's been 43 years we've had four times in which we've done our work, got it done all time, passed all 12 appropriation bills out of the house and senate. if it's not working, let's change it and make it work so people have some stability when it comes to funding that we're supposed to be doing not just for the operation of government but for the folks that expect the services that government is required to provide. >> you and senator sanders were among the 14 senators who voted against the continuing resolution last time and i hear you'll probably vote against it this time as well and he has got very different reasons why he's going to vote against it but you know the majority probably will continue to keep the government operating in the meantime. we'll see what happens next.

as usual, senator, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. appreciate the opportunity, wolf. just ahead. the russia investigation. one of president trump's close campaign allies, the governor of new jersey, chris christie, is now speaking out rather bluntly saying jared kushner, a senior trump adviser and son-in-law deserves to be under scrutiny given his role in the transition. that and more when we come back. m show me minivans with no reported accidents. boom. love it. [struggles] show me the carfax. start your used car search at the all-new carfax.com.

the president's son, donald trump jr., believes the russia investigation is part of a government conspiracy to block his father's agenda. listen to this.

>> my father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign and people were "oh, what are you talking about?" but it is, and you're seeing it. there is and there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america. they don't want to let the little guy have a voice. donald trump, jr., made those comments at a conservative right wing student activist event in florida. it came on the same day andrew mccabe, the deputy director of the fbi, was grilled by members of the house intelligence committee during a closed-door session. the interview comes as republicans call for mccabe -- at least some republicans -- to be fired. they claim he has conflicts of interest because his wife in virginia formally ran for political office as a democrat. let's get perspective. joining us are senior politics reporter chris cillizza and chief national security correspondent jim sciutto has been covering all of this. when you heard donald trump jr. say what he said is it all that

different than what we've heard the presidency about a hoax or witch-hunt? >> it's part of a disturbing trend. certainly the trump administration isn't the first to say that a government institution or investigation isn't fair. go back to the clinton days or -- that's bill clinton, but hillary clinton with the fbi. they felt horribly done by the fbi. what's different about this is a broader mortar insidious accusation about the nature of our government. that there are people at the highest levels he says. this is about this deep-state conspiracy which is an idea that in previous years you might expect to live only in the alt-right web sites of the world but now it's come forth, you have the president's son, the president has said the same thing about multiple institutions. the president said the intelligence community is beh e behaving like nazis, the fbi is part of the deep state, and this is insidious. these are institutions that are part of our system and i can tell you dealing everyday with people inside each of these

institutions, hard-working people who dedicate their lives to government, civil servants who do so for multiple administrations of different parties, it's upsetting and concerting. >> the words "there are people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let america be america." that's donald trump jr. >> i mean, look. the literal translation of that is there are people who are rooting against -- people who are working actively to undermine american in american values. >> who in america? >> right. now i don't know -- my guess is he doesn't know the sort of impact of wordslike that, don jr., he's speaking in front of a friendly audience and he just talks and talks. but it's part of this broader embrace of this conspiracy theory that donald trump sr. has shown a willingness to do from the second he was a candidate, right? i saw thousands or hundreds of

muslims celebrating on new jersey roof tops on 9/11. no proof that that's true. maybe ted cruz's father was involved in the assassination of jfk. no proof that that's true. >> birth certificate. >> right. how could i forget? the or gin of the candidacy, obama not being born in the country. so the problem here is it's not donald trump or donald trump jr. saying -- this is either the president or the eldest son of the president saying these things which i think jim makes the good point. this used to be the stuff that would be in the fever swamps of the far right and also the far left had their own conspiracy theories. but the president has mainlined these things. he has taken them into the mainstream and said i'm not saying this is true, but i'm not saying -- you know, simply by airing it it gives it a level of credibility. >> the new jersey governor, chris christie, jim, he's been pretty loyal to the president but he is defending the special counsel robert mueller's investigation of jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, senior adviser. listen to this. >> i'm telling you that he

deserves the scrutiny. you know why? because he was involved in the transition and involved in meetings that call into question his role. okay. if he's innocent of that, then that will come out as mueller examines all the facts. >> a pretty startling statement coming from a republican supporter of the president. >> it is. keep in mind, he's not the only republican who has said and shown that they believe these investigations have merit. look at richard burr, the republican chairman of the senate intelligence committee. he has said repeatedly these are open questions about involvement not just with jared kushner but there could be evidence of collusion, cooperation, et cetera. this has the added personal tone because it was chris christie who happened to put jared kushner's father in prison for crimes. so we know they have some -- they certainly have bad blood the

there. it does show that when we think they're all deep state democrats who have it in for the president, republican, that's not true, there are substantive republicans, folks like christy who supported the president, richard burr who campaigned for the president. mike conway, the schachairman oe house intelligence committee who do not dismiss these servants. >> and the reason we have a special counsel is because rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general in the justice department, decided we needed one. mueller was appointed fbi director by george w. bush. the idea that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are behind the scenes orchestrating this is not born out on facts. >> thanks very much. good analysis. just over an hour or so from now. president trump will be joined

by congressional republicans passage event at the white house. we'll have live coverage as a new cnn poll shows the bill is very unpopular with the american public. might it cost the gop at the bl ballot box in november? our panelists are standing by. they'll weigh in on that and a whole lot more.

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3:00 p.m. eastern is when the ceremony at the white house is scheduled to begin. sometimes they run a few minutes late. we'll have live coverage of that coming up. this legislation now passed by the senate and house is the first major legislative victory for president trump. house speaker paul ryan so proud of the accomplishment that he posted this video online that shows him talking about passing tax reform throughout the years going back all the way to the '90s. but today at what could be the p pinnacle of his time in office this is what he said when asked about his personal future in the house of representatives. >> i'm not going anywhere any time soon. i'm so focused on getting our agenda done. on questions way down the line, i'll address them. but in the meantime, we have a lot of work to do, i'm here to stay, i'm not going anywhere. if something changes down the road i'll address. >> it you haven't decided to run for reelection yet? >> i haven't even -- it's not even 2018 yet. that's something my wife and i

discuss later in the campaign year, something we haven't even discussed yet. >> let's discuss it amongst ourselves. joining us, our cnn congressional reporter lauren fox, cnn politics senior writer wanda summers and cnn political director david chalian. what's your reaction to those p precise words the speaker used? >> they were precise because they had no information in them. when i heard this i sat there and said that is the sitting speaker of the house of representatives who is just coming off his biggest legislative victory of his career who is unable to say ten calendar days away from the election year whether or not he's seeking reelection in his congressional district. that's not the normal answer you give if you're all systems go so for all the batting down of rumors he's been doing and trying to get donors to calm down that he is going to be around, there's no specificity to a typeline. to me that's only going to raise more questions, not tamp them down.

>> how do you see it? >> i covered paul ryan when he was running with mitt romney in 2012 and one thing that's important, he said he hasn't even talked to his wife yet. if you know paul ryan well, one thing you know is he has a three young kids who are about to be teenagers so i think there's truth about it. these are conversations going on at home. the other thing i think you need to know about paul ryan is that he's a policy guy. i don't think he has a lot of appetite for the bickering that goes back and forth between segments of his own party and the house, this is a crowning achievement, something he's wanted for years and years. i can understand how he'd be having soul searching. to david's point, the answer he gave won't quiet the chatter around what he plans to do. >> it's been 30 years plus in the making, this major tax reform, tax cuts that the president is about to sign into law. the republicans are thrilled right now but should they be politically thrilled because the polls show not so popular. >> that's right. and this was something majority

leader mitch mcconnell had to address at his press conference when they're celebrating his big win. he said i look forward to selling this to the american people. if we can't sell it to the american people, maybe we need to get different jobs. he was definitely pressing on that he looks forward to making red state dems uncomfortable with the fact they didn't vote for the bill so i think a lot of republicans believe americans will see more money in their pockets and will be happier with the tax bill once they see results even though democrats are messaging this as a tax cut for corporations. >> democrats are excited right now, too. one poll that -- a cnn poll shows 56% of the people say they're more likely to vote for a democrat in the midterm elections, now there's a long time between now and november, clearly a lot can change but you see right there 56% say they're ready to vote for a democrat. >> that 18-point gap, 56% democrat and 38% republican on the generic congressional ballot, that's huge.

if that is the reality of the landscape right now republicans need to prepare for a potential big democratic wave. as you said, there's time. this is matching what we're seeing on the ground in elections, new jersey, virginia, even house races this year where the democrats came up short and didn't win, their enthusiasm and their turnout was higher than in the past. they have a 20-point advantage in our poll among those who say they are verier extremely enthusiastic about voting next year. something something republicans are hoping this bill will start energizing their base. >> juana, what happens if the economy continues to hum along very nicely, 3% growth, maybe even more unemployment, rorpd slows, stock market record highs and middle-class families starting in february, they see their paychecks and they're getting a few hundred dollars, a little bit more money in the course -- because of the result of this tax cut. that could help the republicans. >> it could but that remains to be seen. again, the head of the republican party, the person at

the head of the ticket is donald trump and while you've seen the economy to come along well and he has this victory, his favorability has not risen as those things have happened so it remains to be seen because at the end of the day the president is the leader of the party, can republicans while they industrial an unpopular president ride that wave in 2018? not sure. >> they're going to get this temporary spending bill passed by the end of this week so the government does not shut down? >> that's the major question right now. we saw senator susan collins who argued part of her vote on the tax bill would be making sure she got the obamacare stabilization bills. she says she is comfortable with the fact that won't happen at the end of the year, that was a key sticking point between house republicans and senate republicans. house republicans said we're not willing to be jammed with that at the end of the year so i think that that is progress moving forward but stay tuned. we have about two days left. >> it would be a very short term continuing resolution till january or so just to keep the government going. >> just to keep it going where it is now because they have

these outstanding issues they need to resolve and they realize they won't resolve it if they want to get home for christmas. >> what's happening, juana, with the d.r.e.a.m.ers, the daca. jeff flake among others voted for this tax cut because he was assured yes these 800,000 or so d.r.e.a.m.ers, the children brought here by their parents illegally i believe we saw senator flake say on twitter there will be a vote on that sometime after the first of the year. biggest issues lawmakers have to confront as we are looking forward into what is the biggest deals ahead of 2018. >> thanks, guys, very much. ambassador nikki haley over at the united nations issuing a stern warning saying she's taking names of any country who votes in favor of the united nations to condemn america for recognizing jerusalem as israel's capitol. and look at this, right now republican lawmakers once again

boarding buses getting ready to drive over to the white house. join the president over there in what's being billed as a celebration as the just passed tax bill. we'll have live coverage and a lot polar when we come back. mpo. . . . . . . . . at t-mobile when you holiday twogether, great things come in two's. like t-mobile and netflix. right now when you get an unlimited family plan, netflix is included. wow t-mobile covers your netflix subscription, so you can catch the hottest new movies and shows all year long on us.

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this is cnn. the most trusted name in news. once again, members of congress, republicans in this particular case, getting ready to board the buses to take them to the white house for this ceremony celebrating the passage of the tax reform legislation with the president, that's coming up in an hour or so, we'll have live coverage of that. in the meantime, there is other news we are following.

the u.s. ambassador to united nations nikki haley has issued a stern warning ahead of the assembly vote to reject president trump's to have jerusalem as capitol. she tweeted this, at the u.n. we are always asked to do more, so when we make ha decision at the american people, where to put the american embassy, on wednesday, there will be a vote, the u.s. will be taking names. the threaten came after ambassador nikki haley was out numbered 13-1. let's discuss this with my next vote with my next guest rear admiral served as former state department during the obama administration. john, thanks very much for coming in. >> yes. >> so the president he echoed

just awhile ago what nikki haley just said. listen to the president. >> i like the message that nicky sent yesterday at the united nations. for all the people voted against us at the assembly, take hundreds of millions of dollars, they vote against us. we are watching the vote chblt let them vote against us. we'll save a lot. we don't care. but this isn't like it used to be they could vote against you and pay them hundreds of millions of dollars. so nicky that was the right message. and i've had a lot of good comment on it, believe me. >> it sounds like the president is going to be watching, you know, u.s. foreign aide recipients, close friends of the united states, whether jordan, or muslim countries, that receive significant u.s. foreign

aide and threatening that money will be shut down if you vote in favor of this rest logs criticizing ts united states. >> yeah, it's a transactional way of looking at diplomacy. goes to his idea of competitive diplomacy. but unfortunately he'll be cutting his own nose. so the foreign aid that we give, if that's indeed what he's talking about cutting, goes to help stability where they need the help and assistance and where maybe we can prevent threats that could challenge the homeland. there is a purpose for aide and assistance. it's not charity. there is a real political and diplomatic reason to do that. so i think it's in sane and self dpeeting f defeating for him to make a threat like that. >> nikki haley said what president trump has said is say the u.s. embassy will be moved and u.s. will recognize jerusalem as israel capitol. but goes into detail there is no

decision about the sovereign borders and status quo will continue. she writes president supports two state solution, she read at length to say you know what, you guys are over reacted zblg th. >> they want their cake and eat it too. they didn't talk about final solutions which has always been the discussion about the fact that the status of jerusalem would be an out come of negotiations between the parties. but they want their cake and eat it. they want to be able to say, well, yeah, jerusalem s. so they have to live with that now. they knew before they made that it would be controversial and not well received around the world and have to live with it. that's big boy diplomacy. what working inside the u.n. is all about. they need to stop acting like kindergarten. >> and they voted against the

resolution, all the others including close allies, britain, franls, voted in favor of that resolution. >> absolutely. >> we'll see what happens. thanks it for me. thanks for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern. for our viewers in north america with newsroom with brooke baldwin starts right now. all right. we will pick it up from here. good to be with you. i'm brooke baldwin. you are watching cnn live special of the biggest day in the trump administration. we are mere minutes from the president celebrating the most substantial set of tax cuts in 31 years. what you are seeing now here, just a bunch of buses, but it's who is jumping on these buses that's so significant. taking these republican lawmakers from the capitol down the street to the white house for this symbolic signing of the tax cuts and jobs antibiotct.