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continues. host: welcome back, we are joined by mychael schnell, congressional reporter for the hill.com. welcome back. guest: hi, good morning. host: let's talk about house republicans trying to advance the blueprint to support president trump's agenda, what are the big priority, the policy priorities for the budget? guest: very sprawling piece of registration that house republicans are trying to get this done in the one, big beautiful bill we've heard about , this would advance a lot of president trump's thomistic policy agenda, including the extension of tax cuts first implemented by trump in 2017, in addition to funding for the

situation at the southern border, in addition to energy policy and other promises trump has made on the campaign trail. for example, no tax on tips or, so all those priorities and more they are trying to cram into this bill. host: speaker johnson spoke to reporters yesterday about where negotiation stand, where do they stand right now? guest: the plan is to have a markup of the legislation on thursday, but there are a couple of problems. a, no legislation has been released yet. house republicans have been engaged in the negotiations for weeks for a budget resolution, and the budget resolution is the piece of legislation that if passed by the house and the senate, would unlock the budget reconciliation process, which allows republicans on capitol hill to circumvent democratic opposition in the senate. host: explain that a little bit more, the reconciliation process and how that is able to

circumvent the democratic decision. guest: this can be used in washington when one party has a trifecta i controls all power. we have publicans with control of the white house, the senate, and the house, so if they would like to pass a bill for low priorities that they know they will not get any support from the other side of the aisle, for example, democrats will not want to support tax extensions, border funding or energy policy, republicans can use budget reconciliation, and arduous process where if you can get everybody on board, allows you to circumvent the democratic alabaster, so for most pieces of legislation, 60 votes are needed in the senate, republicans only control 53 seats, and to get any of these big-ticket items done in a normal world, they would have to get at least seven republicans on board. if you use the budget reconciliation process, which can be used for various pending matters, you can circumvent that opposition.

right now we are seeing republicans trying to get going on the budget reconciliation process, the first step of which is passing a budget resolution, which the answer to a chest of art diluted house republicans. host: if you would like to join the conversation and ask a question about president trump's legislative agenda or plans for the budget, call us, republicans, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independent, (202)-748-80. you -- independent, (202)-748-8002. house freedom caucus defies speaker johnson and release his own budget resolution from the washington examiner. what's going on with that? guest: one of the biggest debates about the budget reconciliation process has been to advance trump's agenda in one sprawling bill, a single package, or split into two priorities, the first of which, including border security money and energy policy, try to get

them on the board quickly for president trump and the second deals with tax cuts because that issue will take longer to negotiate. senate republicans have said we would like to do one bill, and speaker johnson and top republicans in the house of said, -- sorry, senate republicans said they would like to do two different bills on they are moving on that plan, first, border and energy, second, tax cuts. house republicans said the best way to do this for our conference is to get it into one, big, beautiful bill. host: why not two? guest: good question. the idea that the way johnston sees this, he is working with very little room for defectors in the conference, and he feels that when you are working with a lot of priorities, some of which some republicans are going to hate, some other republicans are going to hate, either they turn conservatives off with some things, if you cram them

altogether, there are sweeteners for the folks to support. for example, you are a hard buying conservative, you may not love how much the package costs. it goes off when you talk about tax cuts and other provisions, but they are up in arms about the conversation about the southern border, and they would not want to be caught voted against additional funding for immigration, so that is johnston stopped, if we put these together, we are daring republicans to vote against the bill. they may not like one part but they love the other parts. republicans in the house think that's the best way to do it. senate republicans say that tax cut part will take more time to negotiate and we are already seeing that dynamic play, so they would like to give president trump a quick win, move border and energy policy, something that republicans are united on, get that out of the way and take more time for tax cuts. host: speaking of senate republicans, let's take a look at the budget committee chair lindsey graham. spoke to reporters yesterday.

i will have you respond. [video clip] >> i would still like one, big, beautiful bill, but i cannot after hearing what i did today, not act. i talked to president trump over the weekend. he would like to get results. after that briefing, if the republican party cannot provide the money to the trump administration to do all the things they need to do to make us safe, we have nobody to blame but ourselves because we had the ability through reconciliation to do this, and i would like to do it sooner rather than later. >> your plan is a nonstarter, so how are you going to pass this? >> i'm going to do what i think is best with my colleagues to make america safe. if you listen to what i heard today and you are hesitant to act, that would be a problem.

i heard tom homan, tough guy, begging us for money. i beg you to give me more resources. i heard the omb guys say, ice is out of money. all i can tell my house colleagues, whatever you need to do to get the one beautiful bill, do it, do it now, you have my blessing in support, but if we cannot do it quickly, we need to go to plan b. [end video clip] host: reaction. guest: this has been lindsey graham's feeling all along, saint johnson and i are united with the president and we know priorities need to get done. we are aware of trump's agenda, but what we differ on a strategy and it is because republicans feel an urgency to get the president more money and they feel an urgency to deal a lot of energy policies, so they would like to get that done quickly and that could probably get done in a quicker fashion because those are noncontroversial aspects.

the more controversial aspect our tax cuts. how do you deal with the tax on tips and how do pait for provisions that can be expensive and add to the deficit? host: what are ideas to pay for this? guest: there are various tax cuts across the board, and the latest proposal put forward by house republicans, it would be a $1.5 trillion floor for tax cuts with a target of 2 trillion. folks have not really gone into the details of what the areas of tax cuts would look like. there has been chatter of potential cuts to medicaid but that would turn off more moderate republicans but each committee has been tasked with looking where they can cut the funds needed to offset the build but it depends on how much it costs and they all have to be decided and discussed during the budget reconciliation process and that is why we are seeing hangups now in the house. you are talking about different, controversial thorny issues, so lindsey graham is saying let's

continue to discuss tax cuts but let's get done what we can with border and energy, speaker johnson feels the best way to do this is to put it altogether because he thinks it will be easier to get tax cuts over the finish line. host: what's the timeline in the senate? guest: today, senate budget committee will be working of the budget resolution that lindsey graham unveiled and will include 175 billion dollars for the situation at the border, hundred 50 billion for defense, the energy and water package, later, tax cuts will be dealt with, so the budget committee will advance this. at some point, the senate will consider it on the floor and then it moves to the house. johnston has called this a nonstarter. he told me it was a nonstarter and he is plowing ahead with this one, big, beautiful bill idea, but johnson has plowed through a number of self-imposed deadlines that the house budget committee was supposed to mark up as budget resolution last week but that did not happen and

there was supposed to be a mark up yesterday but that did not have. the new plan right now is a mark up on thursday but there's a lot of skepticism. lawmakers don't even have their eyes on the budget resolution. there is still debate about particulars, and another detail i reported yesterday for the ways and means committee would have $4.5 trillion to carve out those tax cuts and figure out what the tax cuts look like, and then as jason smith, the chairman of the ways and means committee, what do you make of 4.5 trillion for this area? he said anything below 4.7 trillion, the congressional budget office i said that to extend trump's 2017 tax cuts. that will cost $4.7 billion. 4.7 trillion, one letter but a difference, anything below that is not nearly enough, and anybody who proposes that is saying that president trump's tax policy is wrong, so we are

seeing tensions flare and frustrations aired because republicans are behind the eight ball, they have been blowing through self-imposed deadlines, and they are trying to reach a strong deadline tomorrow but there is skepticism if it could get done. host: stephen and michigan is asking house trump going to get 60 votes in the senate to pass his agenda unless they change the filibuster? guest: this goes back to budget reconciliation. republicans are trying to use this process to circumvent the 60 will threshold in the senate. the arduous process can be used for matters involving revenues and things like that, spending, so republicans are trying to use it. they essentially will have to have unanimous republican support in the gop conference and senate and the house conference to get this done and then they will circumvent the filibuster. host: let's talk to callers. we will start, independent,

kieron, you are on the air. caller: they are talking about cutting everything but on top of that, the old people are going to suffer. they are going to want to cut medicaid, medicare, we'd, they're going to cuts. trump is not the president, it is elon musk. elon musk is over there with putin. all he can do is weaken the united states for putin. how can a millionaire, billionaire be talking about money and now everybody is all about money? trump, elon musk, all about money. and the people who don't know anything about government, i worked in d.c. and the government, so not everybody is going to feel the wrath of trump, elon musk, putin. host: how much fear is there of

being primary with elon musk's backing? guest: that's a real concern, shifting the conversation to the senate nomination conversation e senate nomination process, the big three we had heard about through the process guest: there were some real concerns behind-the-scenes among republicans, but a number of

republican lawmakers found a way to support her. she advanced on the house floor earlier this week in a party-line vote and likely will be confirmed later today. the same goes for rfk junior to advance to the finance committee, including getting support from senator bill cassidy, the chairman of that committee who raised concerns, so i talk about this because the grip of the trump white house is so strong, and we know there are still detractors within the house and senate, particularly the house, when it comes to support for president trump, mitch mcconnell, thom tillis and others, but we are not seen -- susan collins and lisa murkowski, but we are not seeing them flex their muscles too much because of the wrath from the trump white house. the current nomination process shows elections matter, in order for the small group of republicans to band democrats and tank a trump nominee, it would take four publicans to

oppose, a huge number when you talk about the senate. i talk about why elections matter because they were close senate races the last cycle. for example, pennsylvania, if bob casey beat mccormick, a race determined by .2%, this would be an entirely different ballgame. i think this is showing the grip on the trump white house is strong, but the margins in these two chambers is the ballgame. host: we talked about the fear of being primary to have lawmakers mentioned a fear of physical violence against them or their families? guest: i have not heard that. there's always a concern about violence against lawmakers and we've seen unfortunately a countless number of examples of lawmakers being the victims of these attacks, the main one

being nancy pelosi's husband, so there's always the concern on capitol hill, but i'm not sure that they are leaking it when it has to do with legislation. host: nicole, republican, shaken. -- michigan. caller: good morning. mine is more of a comment or suggestion. we are talking about trump and the gop's budgets, but we have not gotten to the bottom of what we are finding we can get rid of and what is being misused. the disclosure and the audits happening, and then a republican called and recently and said washington journal, do your part and she was with the usaid found. you guys come back with this much for health and aid, and that is very broad. you would be doing good justice

and everyone talking transparency with what is included in the humanitarian aid? what is included when you say health? what exactly is that budget? you will say budget but you don't give us much. let's say i have an itemized grocery, my husband sees it, i have $1000 this month, and when you look at it, i'm spending all my thousands dollars a month at the casino for food while on gambling. is it food? yes. is it grocery money? no. so you tried to save this much for health and humanitarian aid is exactly what the american people are saying. we are onto that and see through that. that tells us nothing. we would like to see exactly the breakdown of health, exactly the breakdown of what is entailed. host: i will mention to you the

website called usaspending.gov, that has good information, as well. guest: when it comes to the budget and were spending cuts come from and where they are looking to cut, we have not gotten fully immersed into the phase of the plan were process yet. republicans are trying to figure out what the base number is in the ceiling for tax cuts, and how are they going to offset all of this customers republicans are dealing with that before they detail what cuts are looking like, but i will note that doge is a big thing being talked about in washington right now, the department of government efficiency, folks trying to correct weasel spending in the government, led by elon musk, that's just not in the white house or executive branch, we are also seeing the doge effort translate to capitol hill with a subcommittee. we will see them have their

first hearing today, talking about fraud in the federal government and the wasteful spending in the federal government, led by marjorie taylor greene. the first hearing will be today, so they will be more discussion about specifics as we get past the numbers and dive into the details. host: darrell, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to say thank you to professional journalists out there. why are they wanting to increase the national deficit another 4 trillion from 17 to $21 trillion if they are saving so much money? guest: good question. republicans do not want to increase the deficit in this package, they would like it to be neutral. we have heard from chip roy, republican from texas, who said that's his redline and will not support a package if it is not deficit neutral and a lot of

republicans would like this to be reducing for the deficit, so how much -- republicans are also saying that because of the tax cuts, there will be growth in the u.s. economy and that will help pay for some tax cuts and other deficit spending. this has to do with dynamic scoring, essentially the way republicans are going to score and judge the package, determine the numbers, the bottom line looks like, but republicans do not want it to add to the federal deficit. that is one of the red lines thrown out. host: carlos, florida, republican. caller: no snow here in miami, but i think there is four inches in washington. host: there is, indeed. caller: some defend $20 million of american taxpayer funds being paid for sesame street in iraq, and this is that they knew. long-term, nothing will change,

and it will happen again and again until there is accountability and the type of transparency we saw in the oval office yesterday, you could see it on c-span for 32 minutes and it is worthwhile watching, but until there are more revelations like this and investigation that include prosecution and punishment for wrongdoing and malfeasance, it is just going to continue. some people see elon musk and his son in the oval office with trump and disparage them, while some of us see an honest, transparent real-world display of elon musk taking a break is a dad with the president of the united states in his office, bringing sunlight to these dark, existential, incompetence, fraud, all seasons, corruption at the u.s. treasury. host: --

guest: the image of elon musk in the oval office was interesting, especially with his son. that underscores the idea that he is an unelected official but a key part of the u.s. government, a close ally of president trump and a large donor. there seem to be a lot of leeway within the federal government. whether people like him or not, he is a key power player in the current trump administration and it is interesting to see how his impact continues to play out. host: he is doing a financial disclosure been making it public, so how does that work? guest: that will be an interesting dynamic. it could change the pressure. we will have to see. we saw this conversation about the tax returns with trump during his first administration, so it will be curious to see how that plays out, especially because he talked about potential compex of interest, so

it will be a fascinating dynamic to follow. host: judy, oregon, democrat. caller: let's see. i have a few questions. i was not very convinced listening to elon musk talk about how he will seclude himself from his own interest. they fired all who would watch out for that and why do the republicans have to get their tax cuts for the very well-off, for the corporations, the millionaires and billionaires? why not get a tax cut to those making under 400,000 and then wait until things start now? i'm sure there's a lot of waste fraud and abuse. any huge amount of money spent like that, there's going to be,

but they are only talking about the things that they don't want. i'm sure it cost a lot of money from alani after to go from new york -- for melania to go from new york to washington and they spend a lot of frivolous money but they won't pick that apart as they pick apart usaid, and then they are making up a lot of stories, like the condos in gaza, which was not true, and they are making upthey are maki. people get on social media and they spread these rumors and lies. why not just give tax breaks to the people making under $400,000 for now and then come back to the big huge tax cuts they want to give to their donors? guest: i cannot speak to the motivation over why republicans are choosing one specific tax

cut that i can speak to why they're such an urgency to extend the 2017 tax cuts. a number of the provisions in there expire at the end of 2025. that is why republicans feel they are facing the clock and racing the clock and this is why johnson has laid out such an ambitious timeline. if republicans cannot unite and extend the trump tax cuts by the end of the year a number of those provisions will lapse and there'll be an impact on the american people across the country. this is the reason we have seen such an urgency to get started on this process quickly and to try to work out the kinks early so they can get something by the end of the year. host: you mentioned the hearing happening today. we will have that on the c-span networks at 10:00 a.m.. you will be there. guest: i will be in the capital. there are a lot of stories to cover. i'm not sure i will be in that room. we will see this doge initiative

make its way onto capitol hill and i'm curious to see how congresswoman marjorie taylor greene handles herself. just about four years ago she was stripped of her committee assignments because she was such a controversial figure. four years later her close ally donald trump is in the white house and she is wielding a subcommittee gavel. it is a drastic turn of events. interested to see how she conducts herself. on the other set of the aisle there a lot of colorful lawmakers. congressman garcia, congresswoman jasmine crockett. these are people who are not afraid of confronting congresswoman green and becoming combative and loud in these hearings if they hear something they do not like. it will be a fascinating display. host: let's talk to christina in

iowa, republican. caller: good morning. just said it will be an interesting display. i have a couple questions and something to say. this administration plans on upholding the constitution, right? host: is that your question? go ahead. caller: in the constitution it does not say nothing about a democracy. we are a republic. when i grew up we pledged allegiance every day to our republic. i hear you talk about the budget. it is amazing we can have a government that can regulate every individual spending and where they go and what they are doing all this other stuff but

we have elected officials that are supposed to be there to protect and defend the people. you guys cannot even act like grown adults. you act like a bunch of children that are debating and yelling and screaming. why asked the first question is because democracy means the small group of people dictate and make the decisions for the mass amounts. that is what we have going on right now. we need individual transparency and we do have action now. we can spend billions of dollars on ukraine and on immigrants but we cannot bring that money back to the people. what i care about is my children's church and what is going on right now. host: and i ask you a quick question. when you say democracy is a small group of people making decisions for everybody else, can you explain that?

some people consider democracy people vote and whoever gets the highest number of votes they get to represent the rest of the people. explain that to me. caller: you have to think about it this way. i have been studying law. the declaration of independence tells us that we are all created equal. it does not matter if you're are in a government position or whatever. we are all created equal. when government becomes destructive to where it is harming the well-being of its people it is time to alter it or abolish it and that is the people's choice. host: isn't that the democracy? caller: we are trying to get our concerns out and nobody is listening. you are playing this ping-pong

game and dividing us. then you can continue -- not you personally -- they can continue to keep up this ruse and this team. it is very easy. if you're going to clean up a place you will have individual accountability. you will have transparency. if the government is doing their job we should have no problem for the people to figure out where we want our money to go. the government's job is to protect and defend us. our job as the people is to work together to create prosperity and futures for our children. host: all right. guest: i would say the president takes an oath of office to uphold the constitution so that is the intention of the president. i don't know where else to go

from there. host: i want to show you house democratic caucus chair pete aguilar talking about the state of funding negotiations on the possibility of a shutdown. [video clip] >> republicans control the house senate and white house. if they want to keep government open they should keep government open. we are working with them. the chairwoman will lead our efforts to negotiate and work through issues just like we have for many years through multiple congresses. that is our plan, that has always been our plan. if republicans need votes they can come to us and we are happy to negotiate. there is -- and i said this last week. there is very little appetite to help republicans when we do not trust that donald trump is going to spend the resources we have allocated for education, for health care, even for our

defense. with elon musk and his unelected friends running through and combing through the federal system, we do not have those assurances. these are not advisory bills, this is not advisory spending. this is the full weight of law as described by the constitution. we are standing up for the constitution and our article one responsibilities. host: the representative saying there is very little appetite to help republicans when we do not trust donald trump will spend the resources we have allocated. what you make of that? guest: government funding will have to be bipartisan because there is a 60 vote threshold in the senate. for something like government funding you cannot use budget reconciliation. democrats and republicans will have to vote on something together to keep the government funded. that deadline is just around the

corner, it is march 14. pete aguilar is flirting with the idea there could be a shutdown next month because if he is saying democrats do not have appetite to help republicans with anything, they will need to help republicans with government funding because by definition some of that will require a bipartisan vote. we are hearing a lot of frustrations from democrats about the types of things doge is doing. dismantling usaid, dismantling cfpb. there is real concerns and anger. the appetite among democrats to provide the votes for a standard bill like government funding is low. i think when push comes to shove i am not sure i can see democrats forcing a shutdown. it is not in their nature to do that. shutdowns also have impacts across the country. i don't know if i see that happening but the fact that democrats are taking the stance

in expressing how they feel underscores and displays the true anger and frustration they have with how things are going. host: one more call and then we will let you go. mike in california. independent. caller: good morning. kudos to both of you. i have a bias towards journalism. i think you're doing a great job. the other day a journalist got in some kind of trouble with the white house for not using the gulf of america. that is one question i had. i cannot help but think about when mike johnson made his first speech when he became the speaker and he says how the constitution says all men are created eat will -- are created equal and he turns to left and right and says we are not made equal. what you mean?

why are you trying to be biased like that. what is this new proud boys group that just popped up? that is against the american constitution that i think is completely wrong the way donald trump was saying for the south africans to come over here because they're being treated bad. just the other day the white south africans mocked him. they do not want to come over here. elon musk come all he has to do is say i found $100 million over here without showing any proof. i want the journalists to sit there and let us eat where is the proof of what they are talking about. from now on, don't let them say stuff. i want to see. show me the proof.

that is all i want to say. thank you. host: last comment? guest: i agree. it would be great if politicians and lawmakers would backup their claims of what they are saying with evidence. i would love to see the proof as a reporter. i endorse that idea. i believe the story he was referring to is the white house had shut down access free and associated press reporter because the associated press had not abided by the new gulf of american name rather than the golf of mexico. we are in favor of press access. i think journalists should be able to do their duties. the fallout from that will be a story to keep an eye on. host: congressional reporter for the hill. see her work at