trump will hold a news the italianith prime minister. italy will hold -- host the g-7 summit in sicily next month. watch live coverage at 3:45 p.m. eastern. next, a conversation on president trump's relationship with congress including efforts to pass the health care bill and other republican proposals. we will hear 2018 midterm elections. the committee for economic development posted this conference. >> good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us for the committee for economic development spring policy conference. , i would likeand to first of all thank our

sponsors and if you look around the room, you should see signs and we will put them up during the day but without these wonderful people, we would not be able to do this. triple creek ranch, the graham corporation, tiaa, insignia, hartman, pace communications, kelly services, thank you, carl for everything you do, the independent women's forum, arizona state university, the aerospace corporation, and the [inaudible] [inaudible] and the thunderbird school of global management and the national aeronautics association. our sponsors, let's give a round of applause for all our sponsors. we have a terrific lineup over the next two days. we will have conversations on the new administration and

congress's first 100 days, we will look at the prospects for bipartisanship or as we heard earlier, bipolarship. the outlook for tax reform, immigration, infrastructure, a few little issues we are dealing with as a country. we will take a step back from public policy and discuss issues of corporate governance policy which has been a long focus of cd and our colleagues at the host it.e will we honor ambassador barbara barrett and we will present her with the leadership interest award followed by a conversation with barbara about her career in civic work. -- maybeou know that we can turn the microphone down

here. this is the 75th anniversary, we have been here active on public house issues since our initial work which started with the development of the marshall plan plane 1940's and in the 1940's and our involvement in the fred woods agreement. everybody goes, yeah, right. but we are. -- and we are proud of that. everything we are doing today is on the record. we are being broadcast by c-span so the cameras in the back our c-span. if you wave you will see yourself later on television through the repeats and if you stay up all night you will see it twice. we also are on twitter. tagyou use the hash

@ceduptake. are only tweeting good things about the conference. that you only thing are doing on your phones so we allow it. we are pleased opened today's session with a conversation about the new political landscape and what it means for a partisan policymaking. a monopoly onas good ideas and that is especially true when you consider these enormous issues that we are dealing with today. we are very pleased to have a great panel this morning and here to lead the first discussion is the computing editor to the atlantic and one of the country's most esteemed, one of the country's most esteemed magazines for commentary on politics, culture, and technology. by lisa nelson,

the ceo of the american legislative exchange council. and weeporter from cnbc keep trying to get more cnbc involvement. our member bob walker. from then -- there, i will you take it away. thank you. >> thank you. here to talkare about the nitty-gritty of the new political landscape. this is usually a great event and part of -- because of at the end we toss it to you everybody has great questions. sure indig down i am specific areas as this progresses. i want to start with the banquet -- a picture question for you. you have been around town a decade or three. >> or four or five.

>> what has struck you about the political climate in the early trump era in terms of, what about it looks like the same old same old if anything, what about it is particularly unusual? >> i use my state of pennsylvania as the example. when pennsylvania was not expected to go for donald trump, this is the first time in my 50 year history of politics in pennsylvania where the rural areas.eat their urban not because the urban areas did not turn out their vote. they thought they would lose pennsylvania because they would not turn out the vote for philadelphia. 450,000 people in philadelphia which is what they needed that they were overwhelmed by what happened in the rural areas. what was that? if you notice to of the earliest members of congress who endorsed donald trump where tom marino

and lou barletta. they are. -- from small towns in have aennsylvania that constituency for different than suburban philadelphia or pittsburgh or the cities themselves. those are towns that were affected by illegal immigration, towns that lost jobs, they were towns that have a strong -- nationalist leaning. that is the constituency that donald trump brought to the forefront and that helped elect a republican senator that was considered to be in trouble and also elected dozens of members to the fence of a net legislature. we have an overwhelming republican edge in the legislature. the question is measuring those constituencies against what will , becausese in 2018 donald trump's constituency, those people he brought in think he is being overwhelmingly successful. wellthink he is doing very

on the jobs front. he has used a lot of micro-targeting to tell them that i saved jobs at ford, i saved jobs that carrier. they believe he is doing well there. they believe he has shut down the border, that it is down for -- to a trickle and he is winning on immigration and they love the tough talk he is doing on foreign policy. that constituency they think he is being successful. if you go to the rest of the republican constituency, they have concerns about donald trump. trump constituents have some concerns about the republican congress. they do not think he is doing very well. you have the whole resistance movement out there, people who are angry about the fact that they were sure they will win and they did not. there are a lot of crosscurrents in politics right now that are running but the people who do

not watch morning joe in the morning are people who believe that donald trump is doing quite well. policymakersalk to , other people around, what is --ir sense of being able to i understand the micro-targeting and white rural pennsylvania voters think this is going. republican lawmakers think it is going well or the glitches that cropped up, are they optimistic that this is going to iron itself out or are they anxious that this is kind of how it is going to be going forward? >> a little bit of both perhaps. anould agree with bob that washington, d.c., any member of congress is going to look at how is what donald trump is saying and doing going to impact me in my race a year and a half from now question it will have to measure their activities and

temperature around their support. around their reelection. that is the name of the game. where i said is with the state legislators around the country. it is an interesting juxtaposition working in the beltway but also talking to the state legislators on a regular basis around the country. i would say just like bob talked about in terms of the heads of in your example, we had a pretty good sense at my organization that donald trump was going to win just because we were hearing from the state legislators i see the numbers in wisconsin and it is looking good, i see the numbers in michigan, it is looking good. on election night i was texting with the majority leader of michigan, the majority whip in wisconsin. i.e. 30 p.m. they knew they had the states locked up. a similar story to bob's and it

was tracking the different turnout models to i was thinking about this before we walked up having been a part of the 1994 contract with america and the takeover of the republican house back then. it is an interesting comparison to see because that was as equal of a shakeup i think in d.c. as this election in terms of a wake-up, more than a shakeup but it was a wake-up call. contract with america had the first 100 days and that was one of the first policy initiatives that laid out things that the new republican congress was going to effect and pass and the first 100 days. i do not think this president or speaker ryan or mitch mcconnell were prepared for the first 100

days in the same way that the republican congress tried to prepare themselves back then. you're seeing some of this play out with their inability to get a health care bill and i know health care is a panel down the road. when i talk to my legislatures -- legislators, they want to find solutions, they want to be productive and my legislators are republicans and democrats, more republican than democrat because we are free market and limited government. we have legislators who want to work with this congress and this administration on the issues that are playing out but they are having a hard time figuring fans are shifting as they offer up their support. >> d you want to jump in? >> i will comment on a couple of things. i will say we did not see the

trump wave coming in november. even so, the thing that has struck me most as we near the first 100 day mark is that even , senate,ified house and white house, there is still remarkable divisions within the republican party that seems to have hampered the economic agenda that the president and the republican leadership had hoped to push through. that once the president, once donald trump elected -- was donald trump elected for his policy or because he was giving voice to frustration that was being felt workers and who have felt left behind by globalization. casee latter was the he can continue to be

that mouthpiece, identify with that worker. he was elected on the jobs record so look at the far, it does not seem like it has truly panned out. donald trump does not have a higher policy record, a prior voting record to contend with. he is someone who is interested in making a deal. when you look at paul ryan and the republican leadership, they operate from a comprehensive policy framework that limits their ability to make the compromises needed to pass a health care bill. i think that political opportunism that donald trump was able to use to create a new that took him to the white house, it is running against policy principles in

congress that might limit how far they can actually go in achieving some of those. >> this is a question for everybody. i focus primarily on congress and when i talked to the republicans on the hill, they are not all that upbeat about things so far. there are very anxious and there is a range of opinions of what can be done. what are you hearing in terms of where they think this is going and it has been very bumpy from a policy standpoint. you cannot overestimate what a spectacular epic feel it was not to repeal obamacare when they said they would. the republican party is going through growing pains and they learn how to govern. theheard the rumbling that spending bill they may punch down the road. the timeline for achieving some

getting pushed back and the question becomes ,rom our networks perspective at what point do you start to doubt whether or not these come through it all and the president has said, the treasury secretary has said they look at the stock market as a scorecard, another measure of potential success, stock markets are starting to flatten out and people wonder if the trump trade could be over. that is another thing that gives them pause especially when you look at the cabinet and administration when it is filled with wall street bankers and a number of people from goldman sachs, etc. they are attuned to those dynamics perhaps in a way that previous administrations may not have been. >> if you are a republican on capitol hill and you are not concerned, you had better get concerned. they are being assessed in a far

different way than the president is being assessed and he is being assessed by a constituency .hat he put in place for a lot of those people who voted for donald trump were also traditional republicans. the folks on capitol hill are used to talking to those traditional republicans. many of them are unhappy with what they see happening and the coalitionle in that are unhappy with what they see happening. there has to be concerned. you are dealing with the white house where the president said in the midst of the health care debate, who knew it was this complicated? anybody who is -- has spent any time knows it is a complex issue and he said you pull out one part, the whole thing collapses, that is the problem. in the health care arena. they are faced with the fact that the health care bill was

needed in order to do the tax bill. the tax bill that will be more complicated than the health care bill was. hereave a series of things that the administration needs to get on board with. the administration needs to decide whether they will work with republicans who are divided in their own conference or go to a more bipartisan formula. donald trump does not care, all caps about at the end is his success and i think one of the interesting things happening in town is this administration trying to figure out who it is they are so they know where they go to make their deals. >> the one thing that i would i agree with all the comments that have been said in terms of the health care bill and the failure that took place, we would hope that because of donald trump's message and the outreach of the forgotten man

and the worker, at least their message of devolution of power and shrinking the federal government could start to be an underpinning of how they might take the next step on health care. someve been talking with of the governors of the national governors association and trying to figure out a way that may be the state legislators on both sides of the aisle, the governors can get together and to, let's find a way for us seek the waivers that have been waywn around, figure out a on the states that have taken medicaid, figure out a way to address the fact they have taken it and the other states that have not taken medicaid, coming up with a waiver so they can come up with their own policy. i would hope at least that there would be some commitment to at least addressing the balance of power and trying to devolve some of that power down to the state level.

michelle: bring it back to the bloody politics of this all, as you noted, trump in the republican congress are being assessed somewhat independently. usually the situation is that if you break it, you own it as a president during a particular term. this president has a particular gift for -- you know, blame the freedom caucus for when the bill fails or blame the democrats. how nervous are the republican congress members about -- whatever happens, they wind up blamed for it. if you want someone less popular than trump, you on the have to look at the speaker of the house, whose numbers are in the toilet. ylan: i was looking at some polling numbers coming back on

recess. lisa: it was interesting to me and a low bit surprising that the polling and the recess experiences at the freedom caucus members are having is better than the more moderate republicans who are willing to go along. on the health care bill specifically, this base that bob was talking about that elected trump and many of the kind of new members participating in the freedom caucus i think our kind of cheering them on, which is a little bit nerve-racking. when you want to get something done and you might want to compromise with whoever comes to the table, i think they are going to be coming back from recess with a lot of different opinions on how to move forward and paul ryan is going to have to figure that out. ylan: if you want to consider nervousness, look at the elections in kansas and georgia,

which was much closer than anyone had necessarily anticipated. the other thing to think about is that we have spent so much time already talking about the forgotten man and the base that helped put trump in the white house and elected him to begin with and how they sort of were voicing that frustration. a number demographic that you can remember that will be critically important in 2018 are the folks in the suburbs, the affluent suburbanites who where they voting in november as an anti-hillary clinton vote and sort of holding their nose and voting for donald trump or was the rhetoric and sort of vision of america that he was putting forth, was that something truly appealing to them? it was interesting to me that brian fallon, hillary clinton's former spokesperson, tweeted out after the georgia lecture that the path to success in 2018 is

through the panera bread of america. is the democratic party going to rekindle that spark with role america or go after the college educated centrists who might feel they have a better chance of winning over? it will be really interesting to see where they focus those efforts. lisa: i think that's going to be a case by case basis in each district. we are talking about 2018, right? we know there are a lot of senate races on the block. when you start to dissect state-by-state and look into what is the political dynamic in wisconsin, is it going to be tammy baldwin's year to get reelected? there's already four or five republicans in that race. they see some elements or at least expressing interest in that race. they see some elements of an opportunity there.

on the congressional side, i just think that each house member is going to have to play their cards the way the district would read out. they're going to maybe have to step aside their loyalty to the white house and actually play out their own district as they should. bob: look, paul ryan's numbers reflect the fact that a lot of people think that the speaker of the house can simply tell his members what to do and they will do it. it doesn't work that way. so he is dealing with the freedom caucus and the tuesday group and a whole bunch of factions inside his conference. the fact is this constituency out there that trump appeals to seize paul ryan also as being someone who the president lied upon to get the health care bill passed and he didn't do it. some of those numbers are driven

by that fact as well. there is time yet, but the republicans need to figure out a way to govern. republicans are great at opposition and going out. we are not so good i governing. -- at governing. that is the frustration this administration is going to feel and the frustration that many members of congress feel. michelle: that begs the question of -- the next presidential election is an eternity away. the midterms not so much. what will congress need to get done bottom line in order to not have the wrath of voters come down on their heads? bob: i think they have to come up with some kind of health care solution. it won't necessarily be the bill that paul ryan wanted. i think lisa has identified one

way in which they could begin to do this by default in power back to the states and making certain that everybody is covered, but covering them under the medicaid program largely run by the states. there are solutions out there that might even attract some bipartisan support in the congress. i think they have to get something done on that front. i think they have to get something done on the jobs front, on economic growth. they have to come up with some kind of a tax reform package. again, it may not be the big tax reform that people have talked about. it may be a series of smaller tax changes that they ultimately are able to pass. i think in those two areas they have to perform. and they need to have something to keep the government up and operating. they have to pass a budget that

keeps the government in place and assures that people are not adversely affected by a government shutdown or a government unable to meet their basic needs. michelle: i think we would all like to avoid the government shutdown this month. ylan: this is sort of an out there question. do republicans have to do anything an order to see success in 2018? meaning do basically have to avert disaster of a government shutdown, disaster of nuclear war with north korea, for simple? -- for example. basic things here in order to be successful. the economy is doing a lot better. we are seeing estimates for economic growth at 2% or perhaps even better. the trump administration will tell you it will be 3% even. perhaps if they get some small tax cut through, that could temporarily boost gdp. if americans were voting on the economy in november and sort of adding up all the angst that

they had gone through during the great recession and the long and slow recovery, we are kind of back. if we are kind of back, is that enough in itself in order to hand republicans another victory in 2018? lisa: i would think it would be a huge disappointment if there was not a tax bill that was kind of transformational. it is a huge disappointment. 80 -- 1986 was a long time ago and that was the last time we had a big package tax bill. do i think it is going to happen, probably not. it is such a missed opportunity likewise,ke light -- for them to get their big banner topics and issues done but i

would think the health care bill and the tax reform are some elements of tax reform, i would add to rob's list potentially some infrastructure and that is element of his message. i would add that infrastructure package is talked about on health. >> that is right. republicans are indecent political shape. we talked about the divisions about the republicans because they are the governing party but the democrats have huge divisions they are resting with. it is not clear that you can anger thate kind of is driving some of the special elections right now. in decenticans are shape. a lot of their seats are safe, even some marginal losses will keep them in place. win several senate

seats, they have a good chance to do that based upon the numbers. good, atmosphere is not they will have a problem winning those additional seats. you are right, a strong economy will make for a much better election season but the strong economy will depend upon getting some of these tax changes because the economy right now is getting some momentum just out of a belief that some of these things are going to take lace in washington and will improve it. the one thing that trump is with that he can do executive orders, is a lot of work on regulation and that will .elp keep the economy going a lot of the changes in the regulatory atmosphere will make a big difference for companies being up to keep jobs on board.

>> what do you think democrats need to do if they want -- besides march around with resist science. >> to what extent to the politics shaped the policy, if the focus is going to be on that blue-collar worker, the policy agenda or the economic message to your voters is going to be different from the one you deliver if you are trying to reach suburban soccer moms who drive minivans. right now, democrats are trying to figure that out. going to the most recent example, it was interesting to see in kansas, some women who were bernie sanders supporters who received funding, they had the aggressive appeal. -- progressive appeal.

in georgia, it was a different situation. a lot of the money was outside national money coming in. that candidate was considered much more moderate. both candidates considered moderate and not really that's part of the standard of the progressive wing of the party. which one of those will be the heart of the democratic message for 2018? that is still being debated. >> i will put on my partisan hat for a second. it is interesting in georgia to have the party that will empower women to run viciously against the woman who is the republican with a candidate who doesn't live in the district. [laughter] >> he was on msnbc and he called out women as a key demographic he was trying to win over. >> what was it? 8.5 million dollars came from outside of georgia for that

race. i would say to your point about republicans, maybe they can coast through this and avert disaster. wearing my state legislative hat, would employ -- implore everybody to go and remember what is happening in the database. when they say the republican party is doing well, look at what i passed around on the table that shows republicans have 69 chambers of 99. those are state legislative chambers across the country. 99, not a hundred because of nebraska. you can drive from key west florida to the border of canada and not leave a republican trifecta state. that means governor, senate's and house in the state, and that

-- that is all of the moving parts that we have to think about in terms of what is, how things are going to play out and what is going to happen. redistricting will become a huge issue on all sides and the fact been drawnmaps have every 10 years, they will be drawn again. if this map that i headed out stays the same by mostly republican membership and/or legislature. legislaturesate are the teams for national

office and right now, the aging partye an that elects a farm team which is an ongoing problem that they will have to solve. question, the the coasting question and the way the maps are drawn. i do not think anyone is looking for the democrats to retake 2018 because the map is so prohibitive. do you wind up with a situation where republicans control everything in washington and they cannot get anything passed so you are left with similar to the complaints of doing -- obama doing everything by executive order, but you cannot get a major tax bill done, you cannot get a major health care overhaul done. ?ow big of a concern is that even if your party is still winning. >> you cannot do legislative reform.

-- immigration reform. it cannot get to that issue without doing the legislation. some of it can be done by executive order. infrastructure will require lots specific target. >> got the bid anyone tried to tactile [inaudible] reform. right now they are having trouble. careme level, will voters if they still have trumped up there cheering and they are still being told that carrier is getting a few thousand more jobs and stuff like that. at what point do they care? >> going back to your previous question connecting it to this one on what democrats need to do to see address for their party in 2018, there is a real question over much to cooperate with the president, how much to cooperate with republican leadership. do you give them, do you become

part of that coalition that allows them to do some of these things because democrats have wanted for such a long time infrastructure spending. there is a warning there which we saw over the past week. president trump had come out and changed his position on the xm bank that he was opposed to it and meeting with some business ceos and democrats and now saying he sees a use for it, saying it is helpful and nominating people [inaudible] is something people have been advocating for. they were people who had opposed the bank and were extremely conservative. put forth bills that would have eliminated -- would have eliminated the bank. mansion, theike

president can give and take away. double-edgede a sword in trying to cooperate or being willing to come on board .ith some of these republicans >> that is a perfect example of his ability to find the deal. wherever it is. i am sure that a lot of people are upset that he flip-flopped on his position on that but i am sure he will try to figure out a way to split the baby and say i came out and i learned a few more things but i have put some people in place that are going to try to dismantle it in a different way or use it in a different way. it is an interesting -- having somebody who is a deal maker and negotiator bite trade is a very different thing than having a classic politician that has come ofthe ranks. >> this is one

the real failures of this administration this far. that is to get their personnel in place. everyone in washington knows that personnel are policy. the fact that some of these departments, the only top political appointee that exists is the secretary. secretaries,tant the agency heads, a lot of them have not been put in place yet. tos administration is going have trouble moving its agenda forward and negotiating with the hill on the agenda. >> there was a little bit of discussion from pentagon folks that maybe if the have everybody they needed they would not have lost an armada. just saying. it is an armada. we probably have time for one more thought from you guys before we talk to the audience. is there anything that you think has been a gender conversation that peoplesy or

should be concerned about, the conflict of interest things, that could be politically problematic but really are not. the russia issue is an interesting one because i do not know that you will ever find a place where the trump people were directly involved. you have fresh show that is -- russia has interfered with elections. we should expect they will continue to interfere in hours. has spentat one, it time on the front pages that is not warranted given the realities of it. >> in general, the politics of hurting this town and the people who work in policy and the people who are in the jobs fretting government relations for their companies. to have to explain to your

c-suite. this -- and just the general politics of disruption and orchestrated events and calibrating that is owing to become, i have called it the new normal. it is said that it is. >> one thing i am watching is what is this is his influence in washington, this is a president has welcomed ceos to the white , made a bigle times show of it. to what degree does the business community temper that populist, nationalist vein that trump tapped during the election cycle, is this a shift we are saying in his viewpoint permanently or is it something that he is reacting to the most

recent advice he received. if the business community is in their frequently [inaudible] microphones floating around. anything you want to ask the esteemed experts here. right in front. mic. >>oming with the good morning area i am from the university of central florida. the bothon to you was of do no harm. the president put forth his guidance for the fy 17 spending which next week is the first time he is required to sign a spending bill. the guidance he put forward, one of the things he did, he proposed getting -- cutting nih by 19%.

if there is one agency that is sacrosanct, it is nih. to what extent will congress have to throw itself on the sword and push back and is he going to be so teflon that he whatever happens is going to be congress's fault, it will not be his? there is goingnk to be a problem with regard to the 2017 spending which is what the bills are they are coming up in the next couple of weeks. those are pretty well cooked at the present time. for 2018 where they put in a lot thehese cuts, and i think omb sitting negotiating points, there is no way that you will cut some of these agencies by the numbers that are in there. negotiate-- reallocations. this administration is going to look to changing some of the

administrative structures in order to find some of those savings. i think that is going to be the negotiation >> the democrats are never going to get behind or cut 54 million out of nondefense. they would have to find a way around that. it will get very heated and will break down from what he is wanting, so -- >> hi. what is the likelihood we will move back towards compromise census?

or will we throw whatever parties out over time and back and forth in a compass very little? >> who wants that one? bob: we live in very difficult times for a lot of people out there. the way people adjust to it is moving to their own tribes. our information sources at the present time allow you to do that. if you are one side, you watch msnbc. if you are on the other side, you watch fox news. you get your opinions reinforced constantly. so long as the country is reacting to world events and to national events from their tribal decisions, it is going to be difficult to change the nature of politics. part of this is to open up the debate more in the congress and use congressional reforms that

make certain that all the sites get expressed in come to an conclusion just come to a conclusion -- come to a conclusion. there are attempts in the way -- on the way to deal with the whole issue of congressional reform but i think in fact could may congress somewhat more responsive than it's been the last few years. >> that's a very long way of yourg, "don't start bipartisan club right now." [laughter] him. next to >> my question is we seem to focus on the republicans versus democrats, but yet when you look at the number of republican governors who don't support trump and still don't support him, do we really have in

reality a republican party? or do we have a whole bunch of different parties just under the "r" heading? bob: it's not just republicans. the democrats have a problem as well. there are divisions in both parties from finding government. donald trump is a phenomenon. he caught a wave of anger and frustration in the country. people had him in their living rooms for 10 years and if i really want to shake things up in washington, here's the guy. he doesn't have much in the way of partisan loyalty. i don't think he will govern very much as partisan.

he will govern in ways that advantage the trump administration and if that means unifying the republicans, he will try that. if it means seeking help from democrats and putting together a coalition that is very different from one that the republicans would be comfortable with, he will do that. >> i spent a lot of time talking to the house freedom caucus members, and before trump got sworn in, mark meadows assured me they would be giving trump the work over they gave obama and i doubted him, but sure enough they stuck to their positions for the health care debate. talking with house leadership,

they were pretty confident in the name of opportunity, this was going to be the republican 's bigs -- party opportunity to come together and put aside their small differences and move forward . that may happen, but right now no one is terribly optimistic. the failure of the obamacare replacement bill makes it really tough for them to do a big tax reform. the odds of that have gone up. you are working with weird timelines, so you have not one republican party even within, say the house conference. that doesn't mean they won't him together on certain things, but the answer to your question is they started out thinking oh my god, this is it. we can do this, so everybody is going to pull together, even if

they don't like every clause of the bill. they will put that aside and pass it and that has not happened. they are not talking like they are looking at that happening in the next couple of revolutions. >> i would say identity politics is playing out. donald trump i think is an evolving political figure. it is safe to say that he is still learning on the job a little bit, and whether he knew he was a republican or thought he might be a republican he said, why don't you check it nationally and see what it would look like. he tapped that nerve and saw -- basew this political, this . i haven't seen the figures, but i would venture to guess that a

base we thought were traditional reagan republicans are reagan democrats that maybe went back to being democrats and have been the forgotten guy for a while. he was elected with a lot more broad-base than i think a traditional republican candidate. >> there are ideological differences within the white house as well. when you think about the man in versus kushner -- the bannon versus kushner divide, it seems like the president and white house can settle the differences between some of the factions that can be difficult for what happens in other elections and on the road.

>> that is a good point. the treasury secretary says he does not like to play with the debt ceiling. he thinks it is absurd that congress has played with the debt ceiling as political football. mick mulvaney is the person who really likes to play with the debt ceiling and has made it his signature issue. >> there is no ideological core within the administration. i would venture to say the president does not want that. he's looking for all of these crosscurrents to play themselves out and he is going to take the best deal he can get or in the last person who talk to him, but a lot of managers like a little chaos in their senior management team, because they want people to get out and really argue for their positions. he might just be managing in a similar type fashion. >> i can't see them. blinded by the light.

there we go. >>: excellent panel -- excellent panel. bob, you started out your remarks saying, how overwhelming the response was in pennsylvania for president trump and that has been replicated all over the country, yet there's more polarization that has become evident. -- thethe rural/urban other is big business and small business. i am puzzled given the fact that this population gave overwhelming support to president trump, how come there is no rural reinvention program going on? something like a new homestead

of millions funding of farmers on both sides of the border. i don't see anything about the current agriculture secretary saying we need to prepare these broken down factories or storefronts or causing an increase in health care costs. that is a lot to say in a few minutes. how come there is no development project going on in the current administration? bob: on the agricultural side, we haven't got an agriculture secretary yet. he is waiting in the senate to get confirmed. i do believe the infrastructure bill they come up with ultimately will be very different than some of the infrastructure bills in the past , and it reflects the need of the small cities and communities across the country.

from what i'm hearing, we are going to see an infrastructure bill that is far broader than we've had before. >> i would add to that keep your eye on secretary carson. i think you're going to see an -- that is an agency that is overlooked and not followed. is putting in place a good team and he's got the ear of the president right now. some of the urban renewal projects, whether they are folded into the if the structure are not, they are going to start to get some traction. >> the democrats have made clear they won't sign and infrastructure bill that is soliciting private investors for toll roads or things like that.

they want something more comprehensive as well, so that will be one of the more interesting projects. talking to conservatives on the hill, they flip out when they -- when you talk about the $1 trillion price tag and they talk about how they will make up for that and keep it budget neutral, but it will be one of the more interesting areas when they get around to that, so nobody really knows. >> first of all, president trump says he will bring back coal jobs. that is one way he is trying to address the needs of rural voters. that might not be done necessarily through comprehensive legislation. that may be done through deregulation instead. he can start the process of repealing some of the environmental regulations, the

waters of the u.s. act. he has started on that. >> i think you will have to have the last word because we are out of time, but thank you so much. [applause] >> ok, if we can ask for everyone to take their seats, our next panel will focus on the first 100 days of the new administration in congress. this is a milestone that it's back to the roosevelt era. he used the first 100 days to launch the new deal program, so the first 100 days has become a nomenclature we use.