host: we will talk about the work of congress in session with mike lowlands. will the congress work at all, this week? guest: the senate will work, the house has already said no. we are just waiting to see how the storm develops and last night we heard that they will cancel both all week -- votes all week. they do not have to much, anyway, they had disco votes

votes pending. the democrats are going to go on to their annual issues retreat, to baltimore. the republicans did this about two weeks ago. they get everybody off of capitol hill into a resort setting with a little more , an easier time for them to sit down in environment that is not capitol hill and it talk about strategy, messaging, what they will do policy wise, with the presidential year. they get out of town and take a look at the year ahead and find out the strategy. host: as far as the democratic agenda, what do you think is the top of that list? guest: 2016 will be the top of that list, they know they cannot bring any bills to the floor,

but they know they have the power of the filibuster and that president obama has the veto. infighting we have seen the past couple of years gives , so theresi leverage is a policy element to that, especially on big spending bills and they will talk about all of those things. 90% of this is going to be messaging, we have an election to run, and they want to pick up seats in the house, they think a strong presidential contender will bring that ballot. then lines are not drawn in their favor, but they think they can pick up seats and they think they can take the senate, so to enormous things on their plate and they want more leverage. host: how many seats in the senate to overturn? guest: they are looking at six and carry read things they have

thinks theyy read have them. there is a bit of a divide in terms of strategy going ahead. republicans control both chambers. is very energized and wants to get out there and say this is what we are going to do if we win the white house, this will be the policy agenda, we know nothing will pass with president obama in the white house, we'll want to just repeal obamacare, this will be our replacement, we don't want to undo his regulations, these are our regulate -- our replacements. do tax reform and health care reform, that is the house side. mitch mcconnell doesn't want a lot of his guys taking tough votes ahead of election, so he

is happy to repeal obamacare. they don't have to put anything on the table and own it because if you replace obamacare, you have to come up with a lot of money's you have to cut things like medicare and medicaid, unpopular with seniors who vote. you are seeing a little bit of a divide between paul ryan in the house and mitch mcconnell in the senate, that will be interesting to watch as the new year's eve ball's, strategy right -- strategy was. host: numbers on the screen if you want to give us a call. republicans, democrats, and independents, give us a call. there is that is there a division between those who would support hillary clinton and those who with fort bernie sanders, is there an internal struggle as far as support for the candidate? guest: we did a story a few weeks ago asking the questions it bernie sanders is unelectable

because you hear this from a lot ,f people, a socialist democrat too far left, out of the mainstream of the democratic party, but he believes everything that nancy pelosi and harry reid -- it is the same agenda, item by item. what is your agenda, there is not a lot of daylight between hillary clinton and bernie sanders on the issues. going back over the years, they have had policy differences, but i think it you ask bernie sanders, if you gave him some truth serum, he would be surprised that he has done so well. togot into the selection pull over clinton's of the left and a fact that he -- she is attacking him on gun reform and issue like that means that he has already won the debate. he has done what he set out to accomplish, his success surprises even him. he is riding the wave wherever

he -- wherever it takes him. go back to the senate and fight for what he was fighting for the last 40 years. two house democrats have endorsed bernie sanders, the heads of the progressive caucus and keith ellison from minnesota. bernie sanders is a founding member of the progressive caucus, no surprise there. over 130 people who have endorsed hillary clinton, though it is not even a contest. all those dynamics are up in the air, but democrats like bernie, they like hillary, they are

pretty much on the same page so they're not really any disagreements. host: (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 four republicans. for independents. our guests has covered a wide variety of topics, one of the hitting health care and one of those messaging bills on the republican side. look atvote taking a obamacare, what is the vote this time and why? they just repealed it and this is significant because it passed the senate and it is a procedural move really only needed to get a regular majority. obama's desk, the first time since 2010 that he has had to veto a repeal obamacare bill.

back tock -- he came the house, if they had not canceled the vote, they would try to overturn it. they need to hundred 90 to override the veto, almost everybody knew that it would not pass, but in the election year, it is a messaging bill. they celebrated it with a big photo op after they sent it to the president's desk. they are taking small victories and trying to blow it up in the headlines and say if we get the white house in 2017, this is what we will do for you. as far as paul ryan is concerned, will we see more of these messages? will this be a regular occurrence? that all year see long, there is not a lot they have to do because of what happened last fall. john boehner really cleaned the bar out with what he said he

would do and he did a pretty good job of it. they don't have to deal with debt ceiling or a highway bill. before theve to do elections is appropriations bills and you can see them just packaging those. the end of september is there a deadline, about a month before the election. you can see them not wanting to take a tough vote on the spending bills to they can take that to be on the election. at the same time, paul ryan is a big committee guy, he says we will do this from the bottom up and that is why the conference was so restive, he says he will do it differently. he has headed the budget committee and the ways and means committee, so he will want to do everything through appropriations committees and that will be interesting to watch because the republicans, with their budgets every year, they don't include that they

include the sequester level budget cuts which they enacted in 2011. andaw, they have these caps the question is how to we fund the government within them, and the answer is they don't, they bust them every year. liberal and democrats say they still have not fund of the government enough, so you have anger on both sides and this interest middle that comes together and can pass some big huge spending bill. look for a short-term resolution that will pass in september, get beyond the elections and then ats a bigger spending bill the beginning of the year, but they don't have anything else to do like is here to talk about the agenda and the first call is from evelyn on the democrat line . caller: i'd like to say a couple

of things. check he was -- every wanted to be written and everything he wanted, and now the congress won't write any checks for anything and if we saying hp, we will be eil trump. kasich, a lot more with he cut ohio into a thousand pieces and he gets up and talks about being a president, well i tell you what, he is not going to go up the ladder for one thing, he is a liar when he says the state is debt free and every bill he passed was unconstitutional. check them out and look up his record. he is not worth the powder to blow him to hell. nameepublican party has a and that name is heil trump.

initial point which was that the democrats are more willing to work with president if you ask nancy pelosi and harry reid, they would agree , it was something they say all the time and they do this in charging the republicans with being obstructionist and they point to mitch mcconnell's comments early in obama's first cycle and say his chief goal was not to fund government but to make government -- not make government work better but to make obama a one term president and something they pound over and over again and they go back and point to the wall street bailout where george bush came to congress and nancy pelosi was speaker and a needed those votes and the democratic votes and they gave it to the republican somethingand that is the democrats like to point out,

that they were more willing to work with -- across the aisle when the white house was controlled by the other party. republicans have their counter offer, they say that this president is not willing to work with them, he will not compromise, he is a lecturer and when he comes into the room, he doesn't want to compromise across the aisle, he just wants to tell them what to do and how to pass his agenda. two different stories, not surprising it is washington. believe depends on id -- ideologically's -- ideologies. host: columbus, georgia, independent line. forer: i have a question the guest. i follow politics a little bit -- i made normal

middle road thinking type of guy, there is no rocket science into what's going on in our country in regards to the politics right now. i think he mentioned it earlier, trumphow mr. sanders and has come to the forefront of the parties in politics. primarily because of the general electorate that is angry at what has been going on and a a lot of rhetoric that people have bought into, but in any event, i personally feel that esther sanders is going to get the democratic nomination and mr. trump will

probably the his opponent. he has personally alienated so much of society, i just don't see it possible. my question is, if my predictions are right and we are as the at mr. sanders president, how far to the left do you think he would go on the democratic agenda? you are right, i personally feel as you mentioned, his ideologies are pretty much aligned with the democrats. question and i think the answer is it would not go very far left of the democratic agenda at all. they are basically on the same page.

he is an economic populist, he would not change his tune on that. you could expect him to go after wall street. they want to raise the minimum wage to $15, that is across the board. reform,t immigration sanders would want to do that, he has -- he is even talking and reform. look -- listen to him now, he is in line with the democratic party. i don't think you would see a divide at all, they are very much on the same page. the question is what could he get done what they republican controlled congress. you have the same sick -- the same dynamics as you have right now. president obama is a pretty liberal guy and was able to do some things when he had the

democrats controlling both chambers of congress, but since then, he is had to do a lot of unilateral actions and executive actions and in rare instances, he was able to compromise with john boehner and mitch mcconnell . that is an anomaly in this congress and in this town right now. i think the dynamics would be very much the same as you are seeing with obama if bernie sanders became president. asking about the major policy differences between the former secretary of state and a president, that anything reveal how much she compares and contrasts? person a career, but more recently, obama is pushing the enormous trade deal, the tpa, 40% of the global economy would be affected by this. she was in a tough spot because she was secretary of state well parts of it were being negotiated.

it was finalized and the text is out. they may vote on it this year. obama wants it and hillary is against it. keystone was another questionable issue, the keystone pipeline in canada to the gulf -- from canada to the gulf. while obama was still kind of waffling and had not made his decision, there was some question over whether there was a divide between the two of them. turns out there is not, they are on the same page. these two are on the same page, which puts hillary in a tough position because obama is not popular and a lot of these purple districts where democratic votes are going to be necessary to win the white house. she is going to have to make some kind of conservative -- concerted effort to distance herself from the things obama has done. you can see her doing that on foreign policy. as agh thing for her to do

former secretary of state when the president was doing some of these things. on a policy basis, there is not a lot of daylight between the two of them. host: you said that the trade is thatht happen and surprising considering an elected year, even amongst democrats? guest: this is another issue that might divide paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. republicans tend to be pro-trade, but something this day in a lot of these populist districts and blue-collar districts, many of which are controlled by -- republicans, will be a tough vote. paul ryan's thinking is that they have not committed to this, but the house republicans do want to bring this up for a vote and mcconnell doesn't and would rather kick it until after the election or until the next presidency. it is one of those wait and see type issues, but it is a very

regional issue that does not bring along party lines because it concerns so many jobs and manufacturing and environmental. every interest group out there you can imagine is involved because it is so big and so it breaks down by region. host: this is steve from new york, republican line. caller: i had a couple of questions. adnow that ted cruz's latest was on eminent domain and i was disappointed because the ad was a complete fabrication. bulldozed that trump a poor old woman's house for a casino parking lot but in reality, while trump try to get the house, he never did and nothing was ever below -- nothing was ever bulldozed. glenn beck was lying about donald trump voting for obama

which was a complete fabrication . ted cruz seems to be hated by his fellow republicans, but there -- is there a growing recognition that ted cruz and his supporters are just unprincipled liars? i noticed one more thing, when he was interviewed about his views on deporting illegal immigrants, he would not answer, it was like he was still in a debate and i think trump alludes to this. even we talked to a one-on-one person, he can't talk like a normal human being. is there any other background within the senate or congress and alleging that ted cruz has this intensity to lie and his supporters will lie on his behalf? andt: it is a good question

they used to call it lies and now they just call it spin and everybody is spinning some wildly and out of control, it seems like you can keep up with them. is guys are running for office, they have all taken tough votes , except for guys like donald trump and ben carson. it puts guy like marco rubio and ted cruz in a tough spot on issues like immigration where they may have taken those in the past that will not win that any favor among conservatives on the primary trail. it is not surprising that they are putting out ads trying to spin their record one way or the other. thatdon't like to admit they have changed their minds, that is called waffling. when john kerry did it, people walked outside with large flip-flops at every speech he made.

these guys have track records and they have to -- should they own up to them? sure. marco rubio -- marco rubio was on the sunday shows and he said he made the vote then and since then we had the san bernardino and paris attacks and he changed his mind because the environment changed and that is kind of refreshing that you don't see very often, but they all stand, you call it lies and they call it spin and you can expect much more of that as the debate goes on, as the election gets closer to november and that's why exist, to point out all the inconsistencies. in the age of internet journalism, sometimes things fall through the cracks and i you have fact checkers checking the journalists and journalists checking the fact checkers. host: your colleague at the hill

recently put up a story taking a look at republican senators and how they viewed senator cruz and talks about the polarizing nature of senator cruz. can you give some context for what it might mean? the senator has all these traditions and set -- teachers and rules and for its entire history, you come in as a backbench, young senator, he was 40 years old when he was a -- elected. usually, these guys would sit on the backbench, put on a committee and work their way up, sponsor some bills and raise some money. you make a name for yourself and make some speeches. ted cruz took a totally different route. from the verystar beginning because he was such an upstart. he was an underdog in the texas race and he became a national

figure that meant he was on cable shows and he was being chased by reporters around the backal and he never looked to the point that he would go to the floor and with talk about liars. liarlled mitch mcconnell a for telling him he would do one thing on a vote and then switching it in order to get cruises vote on something -- get ted cruz's vote on something. he has not made any friends among republican colleagues, certainly not his democratic colleagues. he is a firebreather, he is there -- he has a conservative agenda and he will stick with it and his ambitions are well beyond the senate. senator, chuck grassley introduced it -- introduced donald trump in iowa, what is your take on this? even if it was not a endorsement, what do you think of the significance?

guest: he has a fascinating political character who has been around for so long, he is politics in iowa at this point. he is still a farmer, he knows his role. he will not alienate people. with donald trump as the front runner, he will introduce him, i would not put too much emphasis on it or look too deeply into it. he also said he would introduce all the other candidates as they came to the state. does not mean much, you cannot alienate your front runner and it is a tough russian for these guys because donald trump has been so demonizing of certain groups of people and has put people like paul ryan in a tough spot and in certain cases they have made it clear that they do not agree with this or that policy. they also take their fallback position that if he gets the

nomination, they will support him because that is what the republican voters want. i think that is all that means. host: jack in west virginia, and a credit line. -- democrat line. caller: this is a very important election and everybody should vote this time. we need to move forward in this country instead of bickering back and forth. i mean, do your job and move the country forward. host: let's hear from can in california, independent line. half of america is living in a tennessee world.

jobs are being created that don't pay minimum wage, more people on food stamps than ever everybody is- [inaudible]-- what the constituency to stop voting party lines and think outside the box, this country can't afford to continue paying people health care with

obamacare, with the premium, the biggest -- i predict obamacare will fall apart. a country they cannot control its borders is not a country at all. host: the topic of obamacare. as far as the republicans, we see a specific plan of action when it comes to their idea of like?eplacing it looks guest: it looks like paul ryan wantsguest: to do that and that will be another divisive issue between him and the ronald is the year eve all. -- him and mcconnell as the year eve all its -- evolves. it is tough for them because there are 70 million people who

are insured under obamacare who were not earlier and if you just repeal it and take away health insurance for 17 million people, that might show up at the ballot box, so you don't want to alienate those people. he comespeal it and it enacted, then you will have to have something to replace it. we don't know what that is going to look like. you can imagine that it will be -- make wealthier seniors pay a little bit more into medicare to create some money there. it might make eligibility for medicaid a little tougher, save some money. they want to do things with lawsuits to protect doctors. the of and trying to do that for a long time, one of the big policy issues. in terms of getting the universal coverage that obamacare has at the cost, we don't know what that will look like and it will be interesting

to see what kind of bill they put out there. that what you're saying kind of match up to proposals that a research committee has or as far as the replacement aspect is concerned? guest: we've seen elements of the replacement aspect, as individual bills. some of this goes through ways and means and so this goes to -- through republican study committees. we see elements out of energy and commerce and education and labor. the committees have been working on different pieces, they know it will not pass with obama in the white house. at this messaging bills point, but the indicate that they have some policy ideas. paul ryan came out of that issues conference in baltimore

and said this will be a dress rehearsal for 2017. to just been wheels, we don't want to pass a bunch bills we know aren't going to get through president obama's desk, but that is the reality, he will not pass anything we want, so what we'll do is pass these things over and over to show people what would happen if you give us a republican in the white house. mike joining us from the hill. bob, washington, republican line. i am for trump. do and what he wants to i think he will do it. he wants to help people get jobs and straighten out people coming into this country. he doesn't mind them coming illegally. -- coming in legally.

he never said he would keep them out, he said he wanted to keep them out until we got a bill and i think that it is a good deal. we need to get our borders shut down. i think he is the strongest one to do it. i trust the man until he does me wrong, then we will go from there. i think he will push for the right thing. he doesn't need money, so he does not go favors to anybody. favors to anybody. host: for congress, immigration is always perennial, but is that different this year?

the san bernardino shootings, the paris attacks, they really put congress on the spot to do something. they did as part of the big spending omnibus bill. they came together and they made it tougher to get visas for those who of travel to syria or iraq and the sudan. they did do something that is already law. they can go back to their districts and say they are protecting us. it would not have affected the san bernardino case. for the most part, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell have both said that they will not touch it and they don't charge -- trust the president to put in any immigration reform. that is a thickly because they can't bring it up in their conference because it is so divided over the issue and has

been for years. goingll they bring up is to tear the party apart in essence. thes a tough issue for republicans and they don't want to bring it up and so they can use obama as an excuse. 2017ll see what happens in when they likely control both chambers of congress. will they trust the new president? we will see who it is. one note is that the supreme court made an announcement last week, they said that they will review the challenge to obama's executive actions on deportation. these were two new programs that he announced right after the 2014 midterm elections and up to 5 million illegal immigrants would be eligible to stay temporarily on three-year work programs and not have to worry about being -- being deported. texas and five other states sued and the supreme court will hear it and we should know by june

whether or not those programs will take off. obama wants those and it is a huge legacy issue for him. the opponents think they have a lock tight case in court. youris something to keep eye on and will fuel the immigration debate on the campaign trail. host: democrat line, hi. caller: i have a question and that is, why are all the democratic congressmen and senators except for the three you mentioned supporting hillary ,ent and the most recent polls i watch the news and read and everything, they say that bernie polls isn national

as aelectable and high higher poll number as far as against hillary. being able to be the republican front runner, donald trump, who horrifies me. i agree with a much earlier him to an compared early day hitler. in his speech and mannerisms and the way he divides people. such people against each other. host: what would you like our guest to address? caller: i would like him to address why the democratic

are sos and congressmen -- about hillary versus bernie when the latest polls show that ernie can actually do a better trump.defeating donald guest: it is a great question and the answer is, electability, it's a question of image and there is still the sense that regardless -- if you look at bernie's policy issues, they are the same as nancy pelosi's and harry reid's, basically the same as president obama's. it is basically a question of image and electability and there is still a sense on capitol hill that bernie is simply not electable, that he is not middle of the road enough, image wise to win the general election and

down ballots to bring house and senate seats over the -- over to the democratic side. if you look at national polls, hillary is still ahead by double digits in most of them. iowa and new hampshire are very tight and bernie is doing very well in those early states, but nationally, she is still the front runner by a large margin. say this out loud, but nobody wants to cross the clinton machine, they are very powerful. a lot of respect for bill clinton and hillary clinton. they like hillary, they liked her as the first lady, as a secretary of state, as a senate colleague and they think she would make a great president. they also like bernie sanders was in the house for many years and is now a senator and he works well on both sides of the aisle. they like him personally and they like his policy, but there is just a sense that he is not electable and no one wants to

stick their neck out. very unlikely thousand eight when you had guys like take kennedy and -- ted kennedy who were sticking out for a young senator named barack obama even though hillary clinton was seen as the front runner and you know what happened there. state,rom washington independent line, brian. theer: this climate on congressional agenda, it appears that the democrats congressional agenda appears to get hillary elected 2016. republican congressional agenda same since itthe has been since 2008, to prevent the black men in the white house and getting this country down the road and progressing into the future. this election, 2016,

if you watch the sunday news this weekend and scored it, bernie is ready for the super bowl. ofid not see what the team the republicans had on sunday, but it appears that bernie is seasoned. if he goes into a debate with donald trump, the first question asked will be the iraq war, donald trump is against it, bernie is against it, we will have a debate on the next subject. is the iraq war still a factor as far as voting records are concerned? guest: hillary will have to explain it because bernie is going to make an issue of it, it is one of the you things were they disagree -- few things for the disagree. -- where they disagree. republicans have been beating

the benghazi from for how many years now -- for how many years -- benghazi drum for how many years now. it has not become the scandal that the republicans had hoped. voters eyes glaze over when you talk about it, people care about the economy and they care about their paychecks and it is the domestic issues that resonate on the campaign trail which is why things like something as major as the iraq war and the war on -- something big happens and it's wings votes for a short period of time but overall the campaign trail, it is all economy. host: vicki, washington, republican line. caller: why is hillary clinton getting by with so much, legally? things seem to be drying out in parallel with the election.

i am personally voting for donald trump because he doesn't care and everybody is saying, he is ready to step up and get the i personally don't want a socialist nation and if one of your previous callers whatever thing to look at history, true democracy is built on capitalism and its unfortunate our country is so far into the tank when it comes to socialism. i don't understand why hillary just gets by and get by when she was right at the top to begin with. guest: i'm not sure exactly what issue you are talking about. there is a sense of entitlement when it comes to hillary clinton, she has been dogged by accusations of this are many decades that because she was the first lady and has worked her

way up, nobody questions her intellect or her political savvy , but there is also these charges of entitlement and they are dogging her in this e-mail scandal that has really needed a lot of people, and she is --uggling to make an admin make amends on the campaign trail. the legal case against her, there are investigations. , seven different investigations they have had an one is still ongoing -- and one is still ongoing. it is something that will take time and something they could break before the election, we just don't know the outcome. it is something she wants to go away and has not. host: before we let you go, i want to talk about house speaker

beenryan, now that he has on the job a few weeks. he enters line says the first full-year as speaker of the house with the unified caucus and agenda with an audacious goal. let's start with unified caucus, have people settled around him? guest: i'm wondering what congress he is looking at. it is ase, there is -- personality question. the conservative tea party guys did not like john boehner, they did not like how he handled things. they thought he was a chamber of commerce lackey he was up there to rubberstamp things and they really criticized what they call his top-down approach. he would write bills from his office and not do it from the committee and they thought that it stole the voice of their constituents. paul ryan is approaching very

differently. he is a committee guy who want and makes thep right moves and proven -- has proven to be a very politically savvy guy in the way that he has handled the critics, the tea party guys who ousted boehner. at the end of the day, the dynamics have not changed. these guys do not want to spend more on government, it is a total disagreement between the governments about the size and the scope. that dynamic is not going away and as long as you have president obama in the white house and the filibuster from wille democrats, paul ryan be in a tough spot because he will be asked to make some very difficult decisions about what spending bills to bring to the , about what he will endorse, about what deals he will cut. republican spending bill that goes through an appropriations process or committee is going to be something that president obama will want to sign.

you will either have to compromise on the federal government is going to shut down and the republicans got blamed for that last time, and it certainly don't want to do that right or election or after -- right before an election or after. paul ryan is going to have to face these same guys because they have not left. the dynamics have not changed and we don't know how that debate is going to end, but you don't see it ending must differently than with boehner. there will be sharp disagreement and he will lose a lot of republicans on the spending bills. host: