oversaturated and as such public safety did not have access to any comedic agent tools in a broadband space. that's where it comes in paid we have that on par on the first spectrum that acts as a foundation for all the public safety broadband medications and it's been a complete game changer. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> eric watson covers politics in congress for bloomberg news. good monday morning. thank you for being with us. >> guest: thank you for having me. >> host: let's begin with this headline in your report at bloomberg .com for the president this week a pivotal week as he meets with congressional leaders on wednesday, the headline saying that this meeting is a point in dealmaking, pivotal point in dealmaking, what is the significance of this meeting on wednesday that will include republican leaders kevin mccarthy of the house and senator mitch mcconnell? >> guest: that is the headline meaning of the week. thee big first time the presidet

biden met with the top leaders in congress would be house speaker and chuck schumer the majority leader will be there as well. it's also a follow-up meeting on thursday with other key republican players on every structure and so combined they really, it's a real turning point. democrats say they will giveg bipartisanship a chance and they really have to do that because their members like joe manchin and kyrsten sinema wanted to be a bipartisan and protector deal so this is a chance for them to startrt to come together on the issue of pay for and for structure bill and i'm thinking it could be anywhere between the republican offer of $600 billion or perhaps more and how to pay for it, come together on a deal and we could see that come together at the end of the month when committees mark up. if things fall apart, however, we could quickly seemed democrats turn to budget reconciliation process of the use for the covid 19 rescue package the $1.9 trillion bill in which they need all of 50

democrats and independents to vote together to ramp up and get this through but they can't try that process until they at least try to do a bipartisan deal and this is the week that could come together. >> host: if that were to come together would republicans agree to spend more and would democrats agree to spend less?s? >> guest: that is one of the big questions. i think what they were trying to do any talk to some of the before the senate recess was try to find out what the needs and find some data and let's look ad what are the exact needs and add them up and that is a way to get away from the dollar versus dollar type of debate and grounded in fact. that is what staffers were working on so they can come together on real data as to what the bridges, airports, you know broadband, internet needs are and perhaps they can find common ground. but the big one is how to pay for. i didn't want to raise the corporate tax rate fromom 21% to 20% but the other plans talk about raising taxes on those making more than $400,000 per year and those are polling

pretty popularly so the white house is confident that there is a real chance they could just do that and maintain political popularity. however, republicans are rejecting that and say they do not reopen their signature trump tax cuts from 2017 where those rates were lower and they are suggesting user fees. interestingly keep even a gas tax increase or vehicle miles traveled which would be able to charge electric vehicles that don't use gas and in addition perhaps rolling back some of the spending. i talked to deb fischer of nebraska, moderate, who said there's too much money going to state and local governments and let's cross some of that back. it might be hard to find common ground on that however. >> host: the other headlineer ad this is from inside the washington times as the house republican leader kevin mccarthy yesterday officially saying yes, he is endorsing a least a phonic to her replace liz cheney and the house republican congress taking place the same day that leader mccarthy will be in the

white house meeting with president biden and the news yesterday from foxnews is sunday morning futures with maria bartiromo and fox news news business and here is leader mccarthy. >> what can you tell us about next week and do you have the votes to formally out liz cheney? >> maria, everyone in leadership serves at the pleasure of the conference and as you know there is a lot at stake. democrats are destroying this nation and we have watched the greatest expansion of government in the socialist, liberal agenda and we have watched them destroy our borders where hundreds of thousands are coming across, not being tested for covid and catching people on the terrorist watch list and you got the destruction of our energy, you got the largest missed job support in more than two decades. to defeat nancy pelosi in the socialist agenda we need to be united and that starts with leadership. that is why we will have a vote next week and we want to be

united and looking moving forward and i think that is what will take place. >> is this just her ideology that she is unable to get over being never trump and hindering her ability to discuss that very message that you just laid out? >> no, any member can take whatever position they believe in and that is what the voters vote on individuals and they make that decision. what we are talking about is a position in leadership and we are in one of the biggest baddest ever for this nation in the direction whether this next century will be ours. as w conference chair you have e of the most critical jobs as a messenger of going forward. are we talking about with the democrats are doing on the border or are we talking about all the missed job support that we just had an army building an economy that we are watching joe biden create inflation that we never seen before, takeover of government and the rising of taxes, the damageg of what will

be done that we cannot come back for and that is why we need a congress united and a conference chair that is delivering that message day in and day out and uniting the nation to make sure that we are on the right footing going forward. >> to support elise stefanik for that job? >> yes, i do. >> host: maria bartiromo. eric, if you are in the room on wednesday what would you be looking for? >> guest: i'm very interested in how this battle within the republican party affects these bigger biden plans. we are looking at the wider economy as well as the markets and the packages have remained a focus for us. u when you look at the words that mccarthy was using in this program he's talking about the democrats being destructive and using a lot of very strong rhetoric and i think that makes dealmaking more difficult. my analysis is that these divisions within the republican party serve toes, you know,

promote the idea of resisting biden. look what happened when mitch mcconnell last week in kentucky was asked about his own comments about president trump and said he's 100% focused on stopping the administration. the difference from roderick he said in the past and later he walked back saying he wants to be do deals with biden if he becomes a moderate. we are releasing this idea that the republican party is to unite and then i might need a common enemy of biden and that makes the dealmaking that we see more politically tranquil times further away from an election and more difficult. we will see likely see liz cheney ousted and replaced with elise stefanik and perhaps the waters come down and coming weeks and there's not a huge deadline to get a deal but were very much looking to see how her publicans posture themselves or the demonstration in the wake of all this turmoil within their own party. >> host: one of those were publicans and the senate is bill cassidy of louisiana and he was one of seven republicans, as you know, who voted to convict donald trump in his impeachment trial. he was on embassy meet the press

yesterday and was asked about that vote again and where he stands in the republican party in the state of the gop. here's an excerpt. >> i can't speak for the people but i do find being honest with the merck people always works. if you give them the facts they will flip their mind but if they ask about the constitutionality of the impeachment proceedings i just say watch the youtube of the first day of the impeachment and you will come away convinced that it was constitutional and so the more you had that these are good americans and the more they do their investigation and the more they will come to understand that i think at least it's reasonable to hold position as i and is representative cheney and that is our process of getting to a better place. >> to still feel welcome inside the republican party? >> absolutely. i feel incredibly welcome. believe me, there's some people still upset with me and there are some people who are very pleased. >> host: that from senator bill cassidy of louisiana, republican britt eric, your reaction.

>> guest: bill cassidy took this historic vote on the impeachment and he's talked about the political points he's made but on the other hand he's a key itmember of the bipartisan group talking about infrastructure deal and talking about finding common ground for the biden administration. he welcomes the president to louisiana last week and i think he's making moves to establish himself almost on the moderate wing opposing biden where it makes sense. i'm looking forward to seeing when the rubber meets the road with proposals s and the negotiations get heated whether he will put forward compromising positions are not. >> host: let's talk about elise stefanik, she represents upstate new york district, republican now in her fourth term and eric, six years ago in june of 15 we sat down with her in the cannon house office building as a freshman member of congress and had a conversation that included advice she got from her parents including this moment. >> and my mom's advice is always

maintain a moral compass. i think that's very good advice for anyone, particularly when you are an elected official that it's very important to live by the values you espouse. i think some people people are disappointed in what they see in their elected officials and particularly millennial's don't have a very high approval rating of elected officials and people to get involved in politics and i think that's part of the reason why they don't so i think it's important to live by a moral compass. >> you're here now and running for reelection but have youun given any thought to what is , next in any other glass ceilis you want to break? >> i am excited. and love representing this district. i'm working hard to make sure the promises are made on the campaign are capped andke i'm working on legislation and i think there's a lot that i can do. >> we leave the washington journal at this point to fulfill our 40 plus your commitment to live coverage of congress. you can watch the rest at c-span .org. the senate is about to gavel in. lawmakers will re