hey could decide to bring some children who are not already inside a medicaid program into medicaid program. and they will certainly be families around all of their different options, any ding helping to manage care transitions that are necessary with the plans that well.pacted, as host: how many states decide to operate chip apart from medicaid? have combinations, some of the children usually the lowest income of the range and younger "washington journal" live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. coming up, the house voting tonight on going to conference with the u.s. senate. live coverage of the house now on c-span. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. december 4, 2017. i hereby appoint the honorable bradley byrne to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. god of wisdom, we give you thanks f

but about 300,000 of them, about 0.4 of 1% of all medicaid recipients could be pushed off of medicaid under a gop work mandate. even the conservative heritage foundation admits work requirements for medicaid wouldn't raise a significant amount of money. look, if republicans want to reform our public assistance, let's have that debate. but to do so on the false premise of saving a buck or, worse, paying for a tax plan that benefits the rich off the backs of the poor, that's just ugly. >> just a little clarity here. 0.4 of 1% of people that receive medicaid are the people who could work. that's what we're talking about, right? that is the poorest of the -- the toughest and the people in the worst circumstances in the country. that's who we're looking at squeezing for that wealthy people and corporate tax cut. i'm not saying we shouldn't reform medicaid and if you want to have -- like i said, if you want to have a medicaid work requirement conversation, great one to have, but that's what we're looking at doing. we're looking at squeezing medicaid recipients to pay for a tax cut for corpo

maine's governor and maine voters fight over expanding medicaid. the trump agenda-- reviewing the year of the president's foreign policy shift, and much more. >> sreenivasan: now, additional details of the new tax laws. the rewrite of the tax code, signed by the president last week, takes effect on monday. one of its central features and biggest changes involves a tax rate known as the "pass-through rate." many experts are watching to see how businesses, employers and individuals adjust, and what kind of loopholes it may offer. correspondent lisa desjardins reports on what that pass through rate is and who might be affected. >> desjardins: in the tax code, not all business is created equal. corporations, defined by the fact that they pay direct corporate taxes, saw the biggest tax cut in the republican law. that led republicans to create a another tax break for smaller companies. >> historic small-business tax cuts and pass-throughs now are made really, really good for the business owner. the small-business tax cut and the pass-throughs are now rea

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

simon benefits from medicaid. and you all know sister simone campbell, a lobby for catholic social justice. you'll be hearing from them and from our distinguished ranking member of the ways and means committee richie neal our champion on this issue. thank you. okay. everyone, today we stand at a decisive moment for the future of america. today the house will decide whether we have a government for the people, of the people, or a government only for the privileged, powerful and rich. today we face a gop tax scam that raises taxes on 86 million middle class families. 86 million middle class families, hands 83% of the tax cut to the wealthiest 1%. 83% of the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%. buries our children in debt by increasing the debt future generations will pay and takes the first step to obliterate medicare, medicaid and social security. they are talking about raising the age for access to social security. and their assault on medicare and medicaid is well-known. our distinguished ranking member will address so

as medicaid expansion. north carolina, hear from sledge, hello. caller: hello. few really rough years in the past, we had two kids, there were two of us. working, weth of us either got our insurance through employer or we got nothing. we paid for it out of pocket. how poor do you have to be to hand-out? seems to me like it is impossible. didn't really get the question, does it go to illegals? no, it does not. and do you ask how poor have to be, states have option of setting eligibility levels. typically again, chip is for familys with higher incomes than covered under medicaid, but incomes. 90% of the children covered under this program are living in families with 200% federal poverty level or lower. york, bayside, new york, frank, good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to pick up where that left off.alabama woman with like 10 kids and she keeps getting benefits. you stop?en do when do you stop rewarding for having kids when they can't afford them? taxpayers, they give them enough, like she pointed ou

president trump promised he would protect medicare, medicaid, and social security. but republicans wrote a tax plan to explode the deficit and use it as an excuse to cut medicare, medicaid. they have made no secret of their plans. they have even said this week to social security age. so as the republicans -- who got conned? did the people get conned by the promises? did the president get conned by the republicans? is he signing a bill that betrays his promises to the american people? it's all about the republicans in congress. they have in their d.n.a. trickle-down economics. tax breaks for the rich. tax breaks for corporations. and former speaker even said, if trickle down created jobs, that would be good. if it doesn't, so be it. that's the free market. so as republicans head to the white house for their victory lap, hopefully they won't trip over the wheelchair of audie and other americans with pre-existing conditions. i caution them not to trip over the wheelchair of simon hatcher and other children with severe medical needs. they will be in the paths of your vi

simon benefits of from medicaid. and, you all know sister simone campbell, the lobbying for catholic social justice. you will be hearing from them and our distinguished ranking member of the ways and means committee. everyone, today we stand at a decisive moment for the future of america. today, the house will decide whether we have a government for the people or a government only for the privileged, powerful, and rich. today we face a gop tax scam that raises taxes on 86 million middle-class families. 86 million middle-class families. 83% of the tax cut to the wealthiest 1%. 83% of the tax cut to the wealthiest 1%. it buries our children in debt by increasing the debt. future generations will pay. it takes the first step to obliterate medicare, medicaid, and social security. they are talking this morning about raising the age for access to social security. and their thoughts on medicare and medicaid is well-known. i wanted you to see, do we have the quote? every day we learn more about the disgraceful special giveaw

and their thoughts on medicare and medicaid is well-known. i wanted you to see, do we have the quote? every day we learn more about the disgraceful special giveaways and loopholes that republicans have added to the gop tax scam to enrich their donors and themselves. and the president wash family. the gop is exploding the deficit to fill the pockets of the wealthiest and corporate america. when it comes to children and working families, republicans have the gall to say this, and i quote, the chairman of the finance committee, senator orrin hatch. senator hatch says, i have a rough time wanting to spend billions of dollars to help people who will not help themselves, will not lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything. is that shocking? shame. shame. how dare they? how do republicans say that about hard-working americans? nationalst, the conference of catholic bishops have said this proposal appears to be the first federal income tax modification in american history that will raise income taxes for the working poor while

he benefits from medicaid. as you all know sister simone campbell, executive director of network, a lobby for social justice, you will be hearing from them and are distinguished ranking chair on this issue. thank you richie neil. everyone, today we stand as a decisive moment for the future of america. today the house will decide whether we have a government for the people, or government only for the privileged, powerful and rich. today we face the gop tax scam that raises taxes on 86 million middle-class families. it has a 3% of the tax cut goes to the wealthiest 1%. 83% of the tax cut to the wealthiest 1%. it buries our children and that by increasing the debt future generations will pay and take the first step to obliterate medicare and medicaid and social security. they are already talking about raising the age for access to social security. their assault on medicare and medicaid is well-known. our distinguish ranking member will discuss some of it. >> i wanted you to see, the quote, do we have the quote? >>

it means when two out of every three nursing home residents this country rely on medicaid to pay for long-term care the republican ones massive cuts. now, we don't know exactly where four of these cuts will take. there has been discussion among republicans about raising the retirement age 70, face forcing older workers to work more before they can get their earned retirement elephants. maybe the cut back on cost-of-living increases, that's a new formulation which means lower benefits for seniors and millions of disabled veterans. they believe that we have been getting in recent years are too high. that increase you got a few years ago was much too high we have to change the formula. maybe they'll go back to the long-term dream of privatizing medicare, converting it into a voucher program which will say to the elderly in the country, here is a check for $8000. you go out and find private insurance on your own. i would say, good luck to any elderly person in the country who was struggling with heart disease or cancer and you see what kind of insurance program you'll get with a check of

medicaid was always sort of the poor step child.icare was the program that policy makers, lawmakers were afraid to touch. and yet the efforts to really pare back medicaid, not just take away the expansion, but cap it overall, were met with enormous resistance from republicans as well as democrats. so i think they may be surprised at how difficult it is to scale back medicaid. >> julie, good to see you. >> you too. >>> up next, the most dangerous man in america. this is what it's all about, jamie -- helping small businesses. damage your vehicle? we got you covered. [ glass shatters ] property damage? that's what general liability's for. what?! -injured employee? -ow. workers' comp helps you pay for a replacement. what's happening? this is carla. how's it going? and if anything comes up, our experts are standing by. ♪ boo! when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. >>> today the highly anticipated movie "the post" opened in select t

about 300,000, 0 .4 of 1% of all medicaid recipients could be pushed off the medicaid under a gop work mandate. work requirements for medicaid wouldn't raise a significant money of money, though. if republicans want to reform the systems, have the debate. to do so on the false premise of saving a buck or worse paying for a tax benefits that benefits the rich is just ugly. and to discuss this more, first i want to dispense of the philosophy behind this thing. it is one thing to discuss reform of medicaid and government support programs. it's another to discuss it in the context of making up for the shortfall in the deficit that is created by corporate tax cuts that don't have a whole lot of ration natural behind them. >> we're seeing here, ali, i think, a long-term plan. speaker ryan, you remember, when he was being interviewed by and talking to rich lowry of "national review" said they'd been dreaming about this. namely, cutting programs like medicaid, medicare, social security and turning them into private plans fundamentally since they were in college and kegging. >> yeah. >> and thi

medicaid was always sort of the poor step child.icare was the program that policy makers, lawmakers were afraid to touch. and yet the efforts to really pare back medicaid, not just take away the expansion, but cap it overall, were met with enormous resistance from republicans as well as democrats. so i think they may be surprised at how difficult it is to scale back medicaid. >> julie, good to see you. >> you too. >>> up next, the most dangerous man in america. the movie is at the center of much oscar buzz. the film is directed by steven spielberg and focuses on the publication of the pentagon papers. thousands of pages of top secret documents that exposed lies about america's role in the vietnam war. this weekend, msnbc is presenting a special documentary, the most dangerous man in a america, a real-life thriller about daniel elsberg, the man to leaked the documents. >> i began xeroxing the mcnamara study in the fall of 1969. at the end of the day working at rand, i would put several volumes into my brief case to take with me. walk

medicaid was always sort of the poor step child.ogram that policy makers, lawmakers were afraid to touch. and yet the efforts to really pare back medicaid, not just take away the expansion, but cap it overall, were met with enormous resistance from republicans as well as democrats. so i think they may be surprised at how difficult it is to scale back medicaid. >> julie, good to see you. >> you too. >>> up next, the most dangerous man in america. eal. fibromyalgia is thought to be caused by overactive nerves. lyrica is believed to calm these nerves. i'm glad my doctor prescribed lyrica. for some, lyrica delivers effective relief for moderate to even severe fibromyalgia pain. and improves function. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions, suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worse depression, unusual changes in mood or behavior, swelling, trouble breathing, rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects: dizziness, sleepiness, weigh

medicaid was always sort of the poor step child.m that policy makers, lawmakers were afraid to touch. and yet the efforts to really pare back medicaid, not just take away the expansion, but cap it overall, were met with enormous resistance from republicans as well as democrats. so i think they may be surprised at how difficult it is to scale back medicaid. >> julie, good to see you. >> you too. >>> up next, the most dangerous man in america. ♪ when you have a cold, stuff happens. ♪ { sneezing ] shut down cold symptoms fast [ coughing ] with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels. let's get the one with the candy canes. well, you know, the wrapping paper doesn't make the holidays. it's what's inside that counts. it's a phone for mom. okay, well, it's also what's inside the phone that counts, too. circuits? no, the network. so the network is inside the phone? well, no, the network's around the phone. and verizon is the most awarded network ever. that's why more people count on it. here you go. (announcer) a gift is only as goo

he said the republicans wanted to cut social security and medicare and medicaid. well, candidate trump, you are exactly right, because that is now what we will see in a few weeks or a few months. another quote from donald trump as a candidate. social security faces a problem, 77 million baby boomers set to retire. now, i know there are some republicans who would be just fine with allowing these programspr to wither and die on the vine. the way they see it, social security and medicare are wasteful entitlement programs, but people who think this way needay to rethink their positio. it's not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money's worth. that's not an entitlement, that's honoring a deal. end of quote. well, there it is. mr. president, candidate donald trump said over and over and over again that he would not cut socialoc security, he would not cut medicare, he would not cut medicaid. and, in fact, quite correctly he predicted that the republicans would try to do exactly that. would like to talk directly, if i might,

their assault on medicare and medicaid is well-known. , do we have to see the quote? every day, we learn more about the disgraceful giveaways and gop taxes added to the scam to enrich their donors and themselves and the president's family. the gop is exploding the deficit to fill the pockets of the wealthiest in corporate america, but when it comes to children and working families, republicans have the gall to say this. senator orrin hatch. wanting torough time spend billions of dollars to help people who will not help themselves, will not lift a finger in expect the federal government to do everything." is that shocking? shame. how dare republicans say that about hard-working americans. contrast, the national conference of catholic bishops says this proposal appears to be the first girl income tax modification in american history that will raise income taxes on whilerking poor simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy. they go on to say that this is simply unconscionable. unconscionable. this republican bill is not tax reform, as i've said. it is the wo

why didn't you mention medicaid? medicaid is a very important part of your portfolio. i found it interesting in read -- in reading that sentence, you didn't say a word about medicaid. >> the only reason i don't mention medicaid in that context, it's really that medicaid does not have the same kind of payment rules at the national level. that was my focus. >> say i'm a governor and i ran a program. it's interesting. wouldn't you also agree that we can focus to paying for procedures and sickness, shift that focus to paying for health and outcomes. the medicaid program can be part of that as well. >> it certainly could. if governors are willing partners to try to drive that, medically the secretary has more levers in his or her control to do would you try to do the same thing in medicaid? public school. if we can make medicaid better, it will let us solve that. >> i enjoyed our conversation. i was very open to your namtion. -- open to your nomination. i'm very concerned about your answer to senator casey's series of questions. i just want to state it to you one more time

want to make massive cuts to medicaid. we do not know exactly what form these cuts will take. that's not clear. there has been discussion among republicans about raising the retirement age to social security for 70, forcing older workers to work years more before they can get their earned retirement benefits. maybe they'll cut back on cost-of-living increases through chain cpi's. that's a new formulations which means more benefits for seniors and millions of disabled veterans. they apparently believe that what you have been getting in recent years is too high. 0% increase is too high, they're going to change the formula benefit increases. or maybe, though go back to their long-term dream of privatizing medicare, converting it into a voucher program which will say to the elderly in this country, here's a check for $8000, and you go out and find private insurance on your own. and i would say, good luck to any elderly person in this country who is struggling with heart disease or cancer you see what kind of insurance program

states are you suggest correctly more and more states will be 10 to two take the medicaid expansion.ates in the south have not taken it for political and healthy reasons and they for medicaidssure expansion. the question will be what will republicans try to do to alter the way the medicaid expansion will administer, to put private that, thatuences on is one path they could take. it is not likely they will completely scaled-back medicaid expansion to the more likely outcome is they give states greater freedom and flexibility to administer those programs in the way they see fit. it is not likely they will completely scaled-back medicaid expansionthat is something repus could get behind. >> do you think deficit hawks will rear their heads going into 2018? iny had quieted down mostly the end during the tax overhaul process. do you think they come back and if so, what gets cut? is there a concession thrown to them in terms of a cut in spending in some area? >> if there will be significant change on the spending side, it will have to be a reform of medicare, social security, and medicaid a

why didn't you mention medicaid? >> medicaid. >> i found it interesting in reading that sentence that you didn't say a word about medicaid. >> the only reason i don't mention medicaid in the context it's not a lack of the commitment. it's really that medicaid doesn't have the same kind of payment rules that medicare has at the national level. that was my focus. >> can i say this i'm a governor and i ran a medicaid program. it's interesting why wouldn't you agree that we can focus to paying for procedures and sickness shift that focus to paying for health and out come. the medicaid program can be part of that as well. >> it could. the governors and if governors are willing partners to try to drive that. medicare the secretary has more levers in his or her control. >> would you try to do the same thing in medicaid? >> absolutely. if we can make medicare better we can serve more people. >> thank you. senator murphy. >> congratulations on your nomination. i was very open to your nomination. i'm very concerned about your

we've got to squeeze medicaid now. we've got to squeeze medicare. we've got to squeeze social security. we've got to squeeze investments in transportation, house, education and research. you can see it coming. we've seen this bad republican movie before. although never on such an epic scale. mr. garamendi: may i interrupt for a moment? mr. price: absolutely. mr. garamendi: we don't need to guess what they're going to do. the speaker of the house of representatives, mr. ryan, has said very clearly that next year will be step two. they will take on what he calls the social safety net. social security, medicare, medicaid, food stamps. that's where the cuts are going to come. thank you for allowing me to interrupt you for a moment but this is not our words. these are the words of the leadership of this house of representatives. the words of the speaker. mr. price: the gentleman is absolutely right. this has been in republican budgets forever. of safety the kind net provisions that so many of our fellow citizens depend on. fiscal rectitude indeed. they'r

medicaid. step four, accuse democrats for being irresponsible for opposing those cuts. step five, repeat. repeat as the rich get richer, repeat as the deficit grows larger, repeat as working families struggle and repeat as a social safety net disintegrates. we are seeing it right now. you don't have to take my word for it. take, mr. speaker, the republican tax bill will add $1.5 trillion and paul ryan is saying we need to cut entitlements. last week ryan warned and i quote, we have to get back next year at entitlement reform. it is the health care entitlement that are the big drivers of our debt. that's where the problem lies, unquote. not true. our problem doesn't lie with medicare or medicaid but with the monsstrossity of a tax bill. what if we tried a different approach? if we pay tax cuts for trump's cronies and say no to this scam. what if we said no to raising taxes on middle-class families or hurting students to help the pairs. tax and would it just once the republican majority actually

the idea if you take the biggest entitlement program, medicaid. you look at the number of people who get medicaid, who potentially could work. it's a small portion. it's a few hundred thousand. it wouldn't move the needle. if you're trying to find a way to pay for your trillion dollar deficit addition with this tax bill because you financed and you gave a cut to corporations, you're not going to get it done through entitlement reform. president trump in his speech in st. louis said there are people working three jobs, and somebody next door to them is not working at all on government assistance and getting more money. i doubt that story is true. i thought we were gone talking about welfare queens. we realized it didn't move the needle. nothing wrong if there are some people who receive government assistance who could otherwise be working, we could figure that out, but don't kid yourself that this will help you deal with the expensive tax cut for the rich. >> how do you justify that? you add on top of that the members of the trump cabinet and the m

you know, you're no longer going subsidy to go into medicaid. that doesn't mean there aren't cuts, what they are doing is they are using the economic projected economic growth to pay for the low income tax cuts, not from medicaid that is one thing viral video that mckaskill, went against orrin media and as in the it wasn't really true. host: two other avenues you all, yourself, first of tax cut is primarily for the rich, as described and second of not really tax cut for the middle class, how do you nterpret statements you have heard and where is the truth? guest: a lot of people say it is not a middle-class tax cut. ways, they are right, what it means is actually in tax cut, 80% of people are 5% of taxpayers are actually seeing tax increase more.0 or you can't say that it's going to for everyone in the middle class, i mean that is not true. you know, the rich is going to get all tax burden to the g top 1%. they are actually getting more burden other than most of the tax cuts, middle tax is seeing more of the cuts, somewhere around 35% of the tax

our twins qualify for tennessee's medicaid, and so -- this tax bill is putting medicaid in jeopardy againd, you know, as mom of kids who depend on, you know, their doctors and specialists, i -- this is keeping me up at night worrying, are we going to be able to afford to give them the medical care that they need in the future. >> what sort of medical care would they lose if medicaid gets cuts if your premium goes up? what do you stand to lose? >> if medicaid were cut, if my twins lost their coverage, we wouldn't be able to afford to send them to the doctors that they need to see. our son was born with a cleft lip and has already had four surgeries to repair that, but throughout the rest of his childhood he will have more surgeries. we see a number of specialists, twice a year. his surgeon, his orthodontist, his speech therapy, and if it were not for the medicaid that he's on now, i don't know that our family would be able to afford to give him the care that he needs to develop like his peers who were worn without a cleft lip, and we would be faced with the decision of, you know, do we go

right now we are paying a lot of money for medicaid and with some pretty poor outcomes in medicaid. medicaid. when you control for everything you still have four outcomes. and so when you get better reporting requirements, and if it takes a statue to make that happen or some sort of oversight, sometimes that makes it work better. so want to work on that. so at least murphy and cassidy staff would like to meet with your staff regarding that. >> got it. >> okay. i have some of the questions but i'm almost out of time so now i think i go to senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good to see it again, doctor. when a new with people in minnesota who are struggling with mental illness and substance use disorders eye-opener about the stigma, people experience mental illnesses are often regarded as physical conditions, rather sometimes seen as moral failings. we'll know that's just not the case. my predecessor senator wellstone made it his life story to fight for people with mental illness, pushing for mental health parity. one of my greatest honors as senator from minnesota has been

we are going after medicare and medicaid and said raise the age of social security. that will be part of our fight this year, to say you may be using that big debt as an excuse to do what you have always wanted to do. you never believed in medicare and medicaid. and now you are going to go after them. that will be part of the fight we will have and our teachings across the country. the need for change to it will be addressed and how the consequences in terms of medicaid, medicare and social security will be affected. but that is a debate that we welcome. so it's a busy time and see what happens the rest of the day. i don't know how long we will be here. not making plans the next couple of days. who knows when they have the votes and see the senate does with what they send over. yes, sir. reporter: on entitlement reform do you think that is possible in this congress? and if so, what are some of the things that democrats could get on board with? ms. pelosi: this is part of the starve the beast value system that the republicans have. they do not believe in governance. s

us know and we knew already what's going to happen to programs like social security, medicare and medicaid. when you run up the national debt and want to try to balance the books, our republican friends have been very open about this, they want to cut benefits under social security, medicare and medicaid to try to balance the books. well, america, are you ready for this? are you ready for senior citizens who are counting on that social security check to get a cut in benefits to pay for a tax cut, a tax giveaway to the wealthiest people in america? are you ready to see medicare cut? that's reimbursement for seniors for medical expenses in order to make sure the biggest corporations in america get a tax break. are you ready to see medicaid, taking care of seniors in nursing homes, are you ready to see those benefits cut in order to give an incentive for businesses to move jobs overseas? that's what this is all about. here is the reality. as a percentage of gross domestic product, american corporations have never been more profitable. never. and as a percentage of gross domestic product, amer

and what ryan in my view will come back with are massive cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid in order to offset that deficit. massive tax breaks for the rich. cuts to social security, this is a grossly unfair tax bill. >> dickerson: i wouldn't get to the entitlements in just a moment on that question of the middle class, what the administration says and republicans say that, yes, tax cuts expire for middle class, but knowing politics as they do, that nobody is going to vote to have -- let them expire that they will be capped. that seems pretty probably in the way washington works. is it really fair to say that -- go ahead. >> they are. the way this bill is written is the tax breaks for corporations are now permanent, why weren't the tax breaks for middle class made permanent because it has to do with the priorities of the folks who wrote that legislation. and their job is to represent multi-national corporations not working families. that's where we are today. >> dickerson: let me ask you, lot of talk about politics here. is the democrats take control of the senate and you ca

medicaid. when you control everything you still have poor outcomes. we need to have better reporting requirements. if it take astute to make that happen, or some sort of oversight, sometimes that makes it work bet. so, want to work on that. so at least murphy and cassidy's staff would like to meet with your staff regarding that. >> got it. >> okay. i have some other questions. i'm almost out of time. now i think i go to senator franken. >> thank you, mr. chairman. good to see you again, doctor. when i meet with people in minnesota who are struggling with mental illness and substance abuse disorders i often hear about the stigma people experience. mental illnesses are often not regarded as physical conditions. rather sometimes seen as moral failings. and we all know that is just not the case. my predecessor, senator paul wellstone made it his life's work to fight for people with mental illness, pushing seeslessly for mental health pairtry. one of my honors as senator of minnesota is carrying on

it so threatens social security, medicare and medicaid. they will rue the day. finally, mr. president, on the mueller investigation, we have a lot of business to get to this week, but because the topic is so important i'd like to address the investigation of special counsel mueller into russian interference in our elections and the potential involvement of the trump campaign. over the past several months the investigation and the f.b.i. have been the target of a smear campaign by republicans and the media primarily, in a media outlet hardly regarded as down the middle, a media outlet that seems to say how high when president trump seems to jump. but now it's been joined, quite naturally, by several republicans here in congress. their intent is not to push back on the findings of the special counsel or introduce exculpatory evidence on behalf of manafort, papadopoulos or flynn who have been indicted or convicted. their intent is not to make an argument about the substance of the investigation at all. their ?int -- intent is to discredit the investigation and investigators by

soaring the national debt, they have to find some way to pay for it so they're coming after medicare, medicaid and social security. the understanding the understanding of some is whether they do it this year or the following year after the election. well, i think you are in a lose-lose situation. you lose with your donors if you don't pass this bill. you will lose with the american people if you do. democrats believe people deserve better. deserve bipartisanship in how we put this together so it's sustainable. we do it -- we are offering a better deal, better jobs, better wages and a better future. the american people deserve real bipartisan, permanent tax reform that puts the middle class first. the truth is that our colleagues either choose to ignore or do not understand the gravity of the situation, as they say in "the music man," this is a terrible assault on the middle class, and so tonight, with the democrats' motion to instruct conferees, we want the republicans to show where they stand. will republicans vote yes to protect vital state and local tax deduction? enable people to live in a

>> the funding source is medicaid. a state-federal partnership. >> reporter: sharon lewis is a senior advisor on disability policy for the u.s. government. she explains that states decide how to spend federal money for adults with autism. >> there's no minimum requirement in terms of how many people you're gonna serve, how much money you're gonna spend on this. it's a state decision. >> reporter: so the federal government can't say to florida, "you've gotta do the same thing." >> at this point under the law, no. >> reporter: what's more, lewis says states split their medicaid dollars between the poor and people with disabilities. she says it all adds up to a system that can't take that much weight. back in new york, he is better off staying put, so they are breaking up the family. mike will move to florida for his job alone. >> what does it mean to the family? >> it will be long distance and it leaves nick and my daughter and i here to try to figure out how we're going to be three quarters of a family. and keep dad con

we're going after medicare and medicaid. they've even said this week, raise the age on social security. that will be part of our fight in this year to say you maybe using that big debt as an excuse to do what you've always wanted to do. you've never believed in medicare and medicaid and social security and now you're going to go after them. but that will be part of the fight we'll have and part of our teach-ins across the country about how harmful this bill is, how the need for change to it will be addressed and how the consequences of it in terms of medical ca medicare and medicaid and social security will be affected. but that's a debate that we welcome. so it's a busy time we'll see what happens the rest of the day. i don't know how long we'll be here. i wouldn't make any plans the next couple of days. kw who knows when they take their votes? we'll see what the senate does with what they send over. yes, sir? >> on entitlement reform, do you think it's something that's even possible in this congress? and if so, what are so

and so next step is to underfund medicare, , medicaid. they talk about even recently this week raising the age or social security. so there is a role, since the beginning of our country our history, the senate debate of how much government, how much federal, which local, how much state. but this is anti-governance, just as they stay starve the beast. who is the beast? the american people. starve the beast. so they have not been living up to their responsibilities and that's the fight we have. let's find a way to find common ground on how we invest in our future, reform our tax code, to create growth, create good paying jobs, to again a better deal, better jobs, better wages, a better future. and that's what this debate will be about and that's what election will be about. so to the question about republican say this would be a good issue, republican say this would be a a big issue for then this campaign. of a tax both as a lowe's of almost anything that has been put forth, about one-third of the american people about similar to the amount

the hole it blows in the deficit, will, make no mistake, endanger,, social security, medicare, medicaid. republicans including president trump openly admitted they will seek changes in this program after the tax bill. senator sanders has outlined eloquently how dangerous this bill is to the future of social security and medicare. and i know our republican colleagues came down to argue against t him, were all on defensive. all the things our president and republicans say they wanted to do, are not happening, and this bill moves in the opposite direction, not only helping wealthy, not helping middle class in the way it need, but also endangering social security and medicare. most insidious of all, the bill hides a ticking time bomb of middle class tax hikes at the center of our tax code. who could want to vote for that? . .ed it's a something they have never believed in before or republicans have an alternative. they can step back, step back from the brink and work with democrats on a bipartisan tax reform bill to deliver across-the-board tax relief to the middle, as. a bill that makes ar

and the american people understand this is the first step of continuing attacks on medicare, on medicaid, and social security. this vote will not be forgotten. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i yield back the time on this side. the presiding officer: the question occurs on passage of h.r. 1 as amended. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 51 and the nays are 49. the tax cuts and jobs act as amended is passed. the presiding officer: the majority leader. the senate will come to order. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 495, kirstjen nielsen. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all favor in favor say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen of virginia to be seventh. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding

and i'm not going to cut medicare or medicaid. >> that was during the campaign. the president still committed to that? >> the president has the same commitment, wolf. >> he's not going to cut social security, medicare -- you know a lot of the -- and you work with these republican lawmakers. a lot of them say, there's going to be a huge deficit, as a result of the tax cut, maybe $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion. the next step has to be finding ways to reduce that deficit and a big chunk of the federal budget, as you know, are those entitlement spending, that medicare, medicaid, and social security -- so they're looking for ways to reduce, at a minimum, the rate of growth of those programs. >> the president remains committed to looking for ways to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. but he is not looking to make cuts to the programs. he's made that clear. i do think that you will see an effort on welfare reform that we think is important and will save money, too. but wolf, when we submitted a budget to congress last year, we submitted a budget over ten years that balan

for weeks there been rumors about a potential medicaid retirement. a handful of outlets reported on saturday that he would retire in the new year. almost immediately, the president fired off a number of tweets attacking mccabe. the white house defended the tweets on fox news sunday. >>> the president saying that we need to have, we need to know that our civil servants are doing the honorable thing. it's important that the american people know what happened in the investigation. >> he spent two days in over 14 hours testifying on capitol hill last week. democrat said that the closed- door meetings, and other attacks on the fbi are less about the integrity of the bureau, and more about the special counsel investigation. >>> this is been an attempt add a lot of diversion from the real issue. this is about the russian attempt to subvert the last election. there was collusion, or certain collusion by many members of the campaign officers. >>> it's important that we respect the independence of the department of justice, and the fbi. no one is above the law

man -- social security, medicare, medicaid and other vital programs in order to pay our bills. we know this is the road that this bill sets us up upon and the american people certainly see this coming so let no one who votes for this bill say that they did not know the consequences of their actions. this will not be remembered as tax reform but rather as a serious mistake to be corrected in the future. how do middle-class americans know that republicans did not write this bill for them? because they have watched republican economics rig the tax system in favor of the wealthy and corporations for years. even as income and wealth inequality have reached historical levels, they took the republicans at their word when republicans promised that the bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 which skewed tax relief for the top 1% over the bottom 20% of americans by more than 6-1 would eventually trickle down. that's what they -- trickle down. that's what they thought. even on the eve of the great recession after income tax -- after tax income to the richest 1% had soared while middle-class wages

i don't think democrats are willing to put social security or medicaid on the table when they are doing these negotiations. also if you look at what president trump said on the campaign trail, he was adamant he was not going to touch either of these programs. if there is one to be welfare reform, i think it will be at the margins for some of the orller programs like snap unemployment insurance, but it will not be the larger drivers like medicaid and social security. political playbook talks about the moves fordaca. "needless to say the fix for daca will be a huge priority for 2018." we hear some republicans want the gop congress to take up the issue in the first few weeks of january. why? republicans say doing earlier allows them to handle the issue on their terms. if the gop let the close to jerry 19th, republicans their democrats could use the government funding deadline to .xtract more they have a few months. but there is the spending bill. .uest: absolutely democrats have leverage. republicans will need 60 votes. they will have to get by and from democrats no matter what on the spen

dollar the government takes in they spend on entitlement programs, social security medicare and medicaid plus interest, do you know what those are forecast to increase over the next few years social security 62% medicare 73% medicaid 45%, dagen? the problem is not tax cuts. it's not tax revenues. the problem that we have this big entitlement program moving through, increasing increasing over the next 10 years, if you include state and local spending , the government total federal state and local will spend half of everything we produce. that's the problem. >> dean: i'd like to see those democrats stepping up and talking about cutting spending. >> well i'm glad to see democrat s who are concerned about deficits and concerned about the national debt. you know this shouldn't be a partisan issue and i hope that republicans will take the mantel of fiscal conservatism on in 2018 and that they will address many of our entitlement problems , our spending problems because we have a national debt and we have deficits year-over-year over year not because americans are taxed too little but because w

and these 9 million kids are not eligible for medicaid, and their families can't afford the affordable care act because they have to pay a certain amount, and the subsidized amount doesn't cover the cost.