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WSJ CEO Council Majority Leader Mc Connell CSPAN November 15, 2017 7:44pm-8:14pm EST

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sunday at 10:30 a.m. on how smear tactics are used for public opinion. charles sykes opens his thoughts. cnn's van jones reason of the president emerita, beverly danna looks at race relations in the united states. watch live weekend coverage of the book fair on book tv. >> next, senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell talks about tax reform an event hosted by the wall street journal. he talked about the alabama senate race between roy moore and doug jones. his remarks are about 25 minutes. >> we've heard about the white house's agenda for the economy, tax reform and healthcare

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scavenges started about economic growth. congressional republicans in sync with the president? washington editor will interview mitch mcconnell. please welcome them. [applause] >> thank you for making it here. not much. >> we've had conversations today about tax cuts, tax bills and tax reform. a lot of people who think it will happen or hope it happens, guy who has to make it happen. will it happen? can you guarantee it will happen by the end of this year?

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>> yes, it will happen. just a contrast beatitude the republican conference in the senate with regard to healthcare. >> interesting contrast. >> every meeting i had on healthcare was like a trip to get a root canal. nobody wanted to be there. a solid a challenging undertaking that was. i bring that up because on this issue there's genuine enthusia enthusiasm. everyone wants to get to yes we believe it's important to the country and important was politically as well. i'm confident we'll get now come by using the reconciliation process it contrasts my belief the way it was done 31 years ago. that was a bipartisan effort

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largely, pretty much there an agreement it was important, yet liberals like bill bradley and others who thought it was a good idea. this time i have a letter signed but all but three senate democrats outlining the kind of tax or from there interested in. it had nothing to do with getting the economy growing again. so were using the reconciliation process that allows us to pass it with a simple majority. there's a chance the three democrats who did not sign this would sign on at the end. my suspicion is they may not be there unless we have 50.

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so they may sign on a thin so we could have some bipartisanship is largely partisan exercise. by using reconciliation it allows us to do with a certain majority and it was quicker and faster. think the house will finish this week i will take it in senate the week after thanksgiving. the marking is going on as we speak. it will be in the for the week after thanksgiving and will be on the for the senate the week after thanksgiving. the only place i see it slowing down is in conference. i think all of your audience has looking at both bills so they are somewhat different reflecting the politics of the two bodies.

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for example, members of the house from new york and new jersey and illinois, california. >> you don't have that part. >> i don't have any. how does that play out i'm policy? the senate version we eliminate the deductibility of state and local taxes. i don't think that would pass the house. the speaker has different considerations. the conference could be challenging but the goal is to finish by the end of the year. if we get a conference there's no chance we won't finish. whether it will be completely sorted out it could slow bit. >> the president made it clear via twitter that he hopes you include in the tax bill and the

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limitation of the individual mandate under obama care. i understand the repeal of the but it complicates because now you can a common goal taxes and have. >> the senate finance committee decided to include the. the additional revenue, some $300 billion over ten helps to a few things that are important. it gives us a shot at making the corporate tax rates permanent. under what we call the bird rule in the senate we have to not add to the deficit outside the ten year window. could help us get from the sale the corporate rate and provide additional funding to look at

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some of the middle class tax relief. it's pretty appealing. it will be in the version coming out of the finance committee this week. >> one question that arises is whether you have 52 votes on the republican side or 51 votes. that's because of the state of alabama and roy moore. you have a mess on your hands. what he want to happen in alabama? you hope you withdrawals,. >> first, it will not impact taxes. the matter who's elected they won't be certified until december 23. we are confident the tax issue will be dealt with the current

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members. with regard to the alabama royce. wymore should withdraw. the women who come forward are credible. his campaign is collapsing and from a republican party view that produces a dilemma because the ballots have been printed and i've spoken with the president he calmly from vietnam largely about this to talk to general kelly on saturday. where in discussion about how to salvage the seat if possible. it appears as if the only option would be a right and. that is very seldom successful although we had an example of in 2010, lisa murkowski from alaska lost the primary, ran a writing campaign and one, the last

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person to do that was in the 50s. why did she win? she was well known and very popular. the main may be most often discussed may not be available but the one who process standard is the attorney general of alabama. that obviously would be a big move for him and the president. i'm confident this is an issue there discussing in great detail. >> is jeff sessions a possibility? >> we don't know, but he fits the mold of someone who might be able pull off a right in. in the same way lisa was able to do it. >> you say that like someone

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would like to see happen. >> i like to save the seat and it's a dilemma. it's a tough situation. >> if you if you wins would you seat him? >> good question. the supreme court said the active seating someone, swearing them in is limited to constitutional qualifications. are you resident in 30 years old? continued service is a different matter. i was chairman of the ethics committee when we decided to expel someone for similar behavior i think it's safe to say that if you were to be sworn in here immediately in a process before the ethics committee in

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which he would be asked to testify under a that would be a rather unusual beginning. >> and probably a precedented so as you can see, this is a dilemma for us. >> there's other things on your agenda. the ponds impose a question to the audience about your republican agenda. which legislative priority would do the most, before we have listed are the big four, healthcare and tax cut, more infrastructure spending and deregulation.

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yuri said at the outset, and virginia the virginia race just happened. my warders said healthcare as their top issue. how do you bring it back? this is been a thorn in your side for some months, how do you pivot back to health, and when? >> since i'm the guy who does the scheduling, with the exception of the repeal of the mandated to next year issue. if a short-term crisis with continued spiking of insurance rates. senator alexander murray have been discussing a bipartisan approach. honestly, i don't know if that

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will be addressed, we have our hands full as you can imagine. but it is possible some kind of short-term fix it could be stuck onto an omnibus. all i said is that i'm not going to bring up anything the president is not in favor of. you have to have a signature to make a law. but if he decides he's interested in a short-term bipartisan fix that will take a hard look at it. >> is a step back from these issues and not a huge surprise that tax cuts affects most people, would you step back from these issues and look at it historically, does it bother you we are continuing to try to connect big social and economic changes along partisan lines?

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>> it's a pretty partisan time. this is not your father's democratic party. very few moderate democrats left. the best evidence was the contrast i drew between significant tax report years ago and three this time. we just look at it differently. we look at the last eight years and not achieving a 3% growth in underperforming economy. i think the administration is doing good to rollback regulations. we are ready have a different regulatory environment. if we can add a progrowth tax reform we have a legitimate shot at getting the growth of our

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country up and producing more revenue and jobs an opportunity for people. they just don't look at it the same way. they just think it's stagnant in a matter how you arrange taxes, behavior doesn't change. i think that's inaccurate. if you're looking for a bipartisan issue i don't think you're going to see it on this issue. >> also though not your father's republican party. steve bannon says you should be out of your job by the india year, there's a deep rift in your party, is that going to stop you from having cohesion? >> dealt with the settlement for several years. the people who nominated many

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people and in case you forgot some of these they're not u.s. senators, i was remind people that those who an election make policy and those who who's going to another line of work. this is an element that emerged, succeeded in nominating candidates who lost in november. i change the business model said it's not working for us. we need to start being assertive and nominate people who can win. we did then 2014 attack the majority. did it again in 2016. . . . .

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which is probably the reddest state in america. we are optimistic that we have people that like roy moore to be nominated than any other state. . and we will go to the audience for questions in a second by another issue that was not on the list but sanctions on iran. there is a desire on the part of the president and many in your party to impose new sanctions or at least to consider opposing them because of the nuclear activities but because of ballistic missiles, is that going to happen, will there be legislation imposing new sessions in iran that comes out of the senate? >> probably. the chairman of foreign relations committee and senator cotton are working on and on

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legislation as you suggest. if the children come together, my assumption is the president will likely agree to that and probably would be moving forward on that next year. >> another next year issue. questions from the audience for senator mcconnell? questions about the congress? yes? right here. >> senator mcconnell, i wondered what is the rationale for putting the individual mandate or having it go away to help demand it go away in the tax bill. what is the thinking there?>> remind us we are. >> mark ãthey say they will raise $330 billion over the next 10 years. we have two achieve deficit neutrality in this bill in

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order to pass it. that revenue as i said earlier would provide us for example, the opportunity for a couple of things. to make permanent the corporate tax rate so it would extend beyond the 10 year window, to a lot of you would help you plan your business if you knew it wasn't going to go away a certain point. it also would provide additional revenue to pump out some of middle class tax relief that we would like so it is attractive from that point of view.plus, everything the member of that conference is for that. and it is based on the low income people plus it is the most unpopular part of the current law. so as you can see, there is a

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lot of material to this for multiple different points of view. >> other questions? >> i am paul browning. senator, you said this is a particularly partisan time in the senate and congress in general. click new sink forward, do you see that changing in the, any time horizon that you can think about? and what would it take to start the change that dynamic? >> it has never been as bad as you will think it is. for example, but my example with things that we do on a bipartisan basis is nobody covers it. let me give you three examples. of very significant things we did in the last congressman there was a democratic president and republican house.

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with a five year highway bill which may sound easy to you but we hadn't done one that lasted more than two years in 20 years. probably the most important piece of legislation we did was called the 24th century bill which was a coming together of interest, the president had a particular interest in precision medicine, the vice president and i had a particular interest in regenerative medicine, that is the ability to take stem cells at one part of your body and put in another.we all together and did a major plus up. it was complicated to get all the moving pieces together. but we did. of course, since it passed overwhelmingly, it was largely buried and nobody knew anything about it. another similar piece of legislation, it the comprehensive addiction recovery act related to the

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opioid crisis. we do things together. but with all due respect to your colleagues, i think they learn in journalism school that only bad news in controversy cells. so you'll get much of anything we do when we come together. i would say it is not as bad as you think it is but yet, it is a pretty controversial. we had big differences with president obama. i thought you wanted to turn this into a western european country. we believe you know big debt, taxes, slow growth. no have an opportunity to try it our way. and that to get the country growing faster. and they do not like it. so there are big things that we differ on certain have big differences on healthcare. that does not mean we do not ever come together and also, we

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do not haiti. i think most of you think we all hate each other. i want to tell you there hasn't been a single incident with a congressman from south carolina came there was a must beat another senator with a cane which happened in the 1950s. [laughter] this has been a big ruckus country for 240 some odd years goodwin had been debates about wars and depressions. i am not alarmed about all of this and i think it will ã thank you for serving the country so many years. symptoms about the budget. when will happen -- when we will have a budget order as well as payment of the

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sequester? >> will have to reach an agreement on what we will spend for the balance of the year this month. that will have to be done on a bipartisan basis. and the discussions are underway. and neither side will get what they like. and we will come together and we will do that before the end of the month. that is the other big thing going on. but it is not as newsy because were actually talking to each other about it. and at the end, we will reach a bipartisan agreement. and the sequester will be significantly revisited in this agreement and whatever way we can agree to, we obviously want to increase defense more than they do. they would like to increase domestic every dollar we increase defense, we broke out of that equivalence in june and

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i'm hoping will still be able to pick under that equivalence because i do think we have a greater need on the defense side as we do on the domestic side. >> one more question in one minute left.>> yes. >> thank you for spending time with us today.in terms of tax reform, can you foresee part of it being approved? or is it going to be all or nothing at once for example repatriation, can you see that coming forward? >> yes. it will be one bill and you have heard from steven and gary, right? we have what we call certain of the six party talks. starting right about the time the president was sworn in. we sort of agreed on the parameters and we were familiar with them. wanted to get the corporate

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rate down to 20. wanted to have a roughly comparable rate and a repatriation and territorial system going forward. even of the houseboat looked a little different than the details and hours. that is the big question. the big picture. it will all move together. >> senator mcconnell? last question. >> them some discussion earlier today about whether that should be regulation, microsoft i'm sorry she is spoke and twitter and social media and political advertising there. you think that is a good idea? >> you know, i am kind of pocket when it comes to free speech. i do not know this area always causes me to pause. so i'm not sure what the answer to that is. >> thank you very much. [applause]

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>> congressional republicans have two tax reform bills they are working on. the senate finance committee will continue debating and voting on amendments to the senate gop tax plan. their version of the bill includes a repeal of the affordable care act individual healthcare mandate.live coverage starts at 10 am eastern on c-span3. the house will continue debate on its tax bill. the final vote on the package is expected, live coverage doesn't 9 am on c-span. c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you pick coming up thursday morning, we are getting your reaction to the republican tax reform bill as the house appears to take a vote on the measure could join the conversation all morning long with your phone calls, emails,

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base comments and tweets. assured lexi spans washington journal live at seven eastern thursday morning. >> a senate panel approved a bill that would allow oil and gas drilling in a portion of alaska's arctic national wildlife refuge exploration. that is next on c-span2. senate finance committee chair, orrin hatch announced that the senate republican tax reform bill would include a repeal of the affordable care act individual mandates. we will get reaction from democratic minority leader chuck schumer later. then congresswoman susan brooks is about sexual harassment in congress. later, a discussion on media ownership in the us. that is from georgetown law center. the senate energy committee approved a measure allowing for oil and gas drilling in a section of the arctic national wildlife refuge in alaska. the 13 to 10 vocalist and existing fan on gas and oil

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leasing and republicans and democratic senator john manchin voted in favor of the bill while the rest of the committee's democrats voted against it. alaska's senator lisa murkowski chairs the committee. [inaudible conversations] >> good morning everyone. the committee will come to order. before we begin this mornings marked up i would like to send a special welcome to some of the folks that are here this morning, there come a long way. several alaskans

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WSJ CEO Council, Majority Leader McConnell
CSPAN November 15, 2017 7:44pm-8:14pm EST

The Wall Street Journal hosted its annual CEO Council meeting in Washington, DC. In this portion, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) talked about the Senate Republican agenda, including passing tax reform, the 2018 budget, and an infrastructure bill. Sen. McConnell also talked about the Alabama Senate special election between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. The majority leader called his party's nominee "a completely unacceptable candidate" in light of recent reports of sexual misconduct with minors. "Roy Moore should withdraw. The women who have come forward are completely credible. His campaign is collapsing," said Sen. McConnell. He also said that he had talked with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly on the best way to move forward, including the possibility of having Attorney General Jeff Sessions run as a write-in candidate, saying he "fits the mold" of someone who could launch a successful write-in

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