You a question about senator john mccain who had a serious diagnosis this week. In 2008, you are cochair of his indiana president ial campaign which give you special perspective on senator mccain. What is the impact of his absence on the policy agenda for republicans in congress . Rep. Messer john mccain is an american hero. There are times he says things i agree with another times he says things i do not agree with. No one ever questions his patriotism, his dignity, whether he is somebody who loves his country. He has literally given blood, sweat, and tears to the cause. First we think about john mccain and his health. Beyond that, it creates further challenges in the senate. Im sure we will talk about this quite a bit in the next 25 minutes. Right now, we are not where we want to be. As Republican Leaders. There has been a lot done for the last six months but its difficult to get major items through the senate if you dont have a full team over there. How problematic will it be for republicans if they are unable to pass legislation repealing the Affordable Care act this year . Rep. Messer we promised the American People we would repeal obama care and replace it with Something Better and that is what we need to do. As President Trump said, there is no other acceptable option. The reason is because millions of americans are hurting under the current law. I hear from hoosiers in indiana, who talk about how they pay a premium of up to 1000 a month with a policy with a 10,000 deductible, middleclass families are 30,000 outofpocket before they dip into health insurance. That is just not ok. We have got to step forward with an answer and come together and figure it out. I still believe that is ultimately what will get done. Rothur colleague dennis issued a stern statement where he said he was upset with the senate. Are you upset with the senate . Rep. Messer absolutely. Absolutely i am upset with the senate. There are a majority of senators who have promised the American People they would repeal obamacare and replace it with Something Better. My house colleagues passed a bill and sent a bill to the senate that does that and they have so far they have gotten crit cricket. Nothing. It is unacceptable. The leader, Mitch Mcconnell, said at the at a minimum, there would be a vote on a repeal only bill that got 51 bills and i see no reason that cannot pass. I think that is where the making people are. They want to see something done. Thes congressman, if senate is unable to pass repeal and replace, senator mcconnell has said they would have to work with democrats and find some sort of solution to shore up the individual marketplace this year. Do you think the house to pass something to temporarily short the individual or to place marketplace . Rep. Messer failure is not an option. As President Trump has said we , need to stay here until we get it done. We have done it in the house. Beyond that, i do not think bailing out obamacare and funding a program in a death spiral is the right way to help the American People. I would have a hard time supporting legislation like that. What i want us to do is keep our promise to the American People, repeal obamacare, and replace it with Something Better. President trump said congress should stay in through august if the bill does not get past sin. Do you agree . Rep. Messer i think we do need to stay until he get major legislation passed. We have a lot to do this year. We have got to get the government funded, repeal obamacare, have major tax relief, which is what we promise to the American People. The president has spoken often and eloquently about building a better infrastructure package building better bridges and , roads and we need to get that done. When you get that done. We have got 200 bills in the house that are sitting over in the senate that have not been acted on. My colleagues in the house feeling we have done a lot already, but yet, on the bigticket items, we are not yet where we need to be. James one of the bigticket items you mentioned is tax reform. In order to detect reform through budget reconciliation, you would first have to pass a budget in the house and a lot of conservatives say they cannot support the past the Committee Last night and there are a lot of questions about whether or not there is enough republican support. Do you think republicans are in a position to pass the budget and what happens to test reform if you cant . Rep. Messer we better be. It is not acceptable for the House Republicans to not be able to come together and pass a budget. I probably through some double negatives in their. In there. My High School English teacher might not like it but what im trying to say is we need to pass a budget because it is the right thing to do for the American People, because we are continuing on a spiral of debt that is bad not only for the Economy Today but few are for future generations. We need to pass a for the reasons you described. That is the track. That is the avenue we can use to pass major tax reform, and tax relief that will help the American People and get the economy going again. So failure is not an option and , this one is on us. It is on the House Republican team that has to come together and figure out a way to get a budget passed. I appreciate chairwoman diane blacks leadership on the issue. We were excited to see a bill to matter committee. Im optimistic we will get a bill passed in the coming weeks. Does the budget need to come the house floor next week . Rep. Messer there is hope it will. We all know to get tax reform done we are likely going to have to pass a budget. The budget should come to the floor only have the votes to pass it. My hope is that will be as soon as next week. James you mentioned funding government appropriations. We know a package of four appropriation bills are likely to come and the rest of the appropriations will be by the wayside and not to floor in september. Where do things stand to keep the government open in september . How concerned are you about a potential shutdown . Rep. Messer americans expect us to keep the government open. When we are in charge of the house and senate and presidency, it would not be acceptable to the government shuts down. We cannot allow that to happen. I did have some conversation right before i came here today with leadership and the House Appropriations committee and i believe you will see the house work hard to have a comprehensive appropriations package passed over and give policy and riders the on the security related measures we talked about before. We were elected to govern. We need to get things done. It has been a tough week here. Some disappointing news on health care in the senate for now, but getting funding bills passed is an important part of governing. This is been a threat through all of your answers. What do you see at the political consequences for putting your members with a lack of accomplishments on the legislative front . Rep. Messer again, there have been some legislative achievements. Major Veterans Affairs performs just last week. We in the house have passed the obamacare reforms that we promised. Yes, you hit it. We are sent here to govern and that means we need to pass a tax package. We need to pass Major Health Care reform. We need to have an infrastructure package. We need to secure our border. That is what we promised we would do and it is long past time we start to get it done. There is the possibility of everything falls apart in the anate that we are enabling major tax package to include elimination of most of the obamacare packages. We will have to be treated about how we get to our solution, but its not acceptable to continue on the current path. That is what the president has said. The public is well aware that he has called them to task and said the iraqi people sent us here to get these big items done. I agree with the president that is what we have got to do. We need to do it because it is the right thing to do for the American People. The political consequences will take care of themselves. To put a finer point on susans question, are House Republicans at risk of losing control of the house of they feel they have major legislative achievements this year . Rep. Messer that is the farthest thing from my mind and we need to deliver for the American People. We promised the American People we would get big ticket items done. We are only as a quarter of the way into a twoyear term. We have got time to get it done but we need to do will be said because that is the right thing to do. James to talk about your personal situation for a moment, you have been raising money and there has been a lot of speculation about a run for senate. A lot of people think you will be running for the Upper Chamber come 2018. Do you plan to announce anything anytime soon on that . Rep. Messer we will make a final decision in the coming days and weeks. I have been encouraged by all of the folks across indiana, hoosiers from all across the state who said i consider my family. We ought to consider running for the United States senate. It is important to be able to move a legislative agenda there. Frankly part of the challenges we have faith of these big items i talked about, taxes, on infrastructure, on health care is how partisan the climate is. The democrats are not really interested in working with us on these topics, but those decisions will come soon enough. Siobhan have you had conversations with mike pence about your Senate Prospects . I know you are fairly close to him. Rep. Messer we are good friends or he was my predecessor in congress. His brother is a finance chairman of our statewide finance committee. Certainly ipad3 conversations i have had brief conversations. I appreciate his private council. I will leave it at that. Siobhan you cannot tell us what mike pence has counseled you to do . Rep. Messer i cannot. James another member, congressman mikita is going to run for that as well. There has been a lot of backandforth a lot of , criticism between the two of you even though neither has announced. I wonder if you are concerned that a primary between republicans, a messy primary could hurt republicans chances to win a seat next year. Rep. Messer to be fair and clear, it is not criticism back and forth. Byd opened his campaign attacking my life in her career and attacking my family. All i have done is respond and say hey, that is beyond the pale. We will not campaign in a way where we will do anything and say anything to get elected. I ultimately trust hoosiers to figure this out. I am not worried about a primary in the sense that hoosiers are smart. They get it. When people distort the truth and twist facts hoosiers will , figure that out. We are trying to figure out how we can best serve the country and state. Is that the seat we are currently in, where im proud to be representing indianas 6th Congressional District and proud to be part of the Leadership Team trying to get things done for america . Or is it the United States senate . Part of why i am not announcing to you today what we will do is our family hadnt figured it out yet either. We are working our way through that. We are honored by all the people who stepped forward to support us and we will make the decision based on the calling, not on any bickering or distortions in the primary. Susan we have about 12 minutes left in the conversation. Siobhan to move back to the policy agenda, what needs to happen on raising the debt ceiling . Rep. Messer it is a difficult challenge. The American People are tired of the nation continuing to build up debt. Support increases to any debt ceiling, i need to see spending reforms. I need to see steps taken to stop the trend of spending money we do not have. I think that is where most of the House Republican conference is. They would have a hard time supporting any what is come Carte Blanche a open debt ceiling increase without policy reforms. My guess is that is where we have to be as a conference, you have to have spending reforms as well. James can you detail any specific spending reforms House Republicans would like to go along with the debt raise . James do you have spending they came out of a couple 100 billion in spending reforms. We have been very clear over the last several years passing budgets year after year after year, that would balance within at least 10 years. Frankly i voted for budget seven balance far quicker than that. It could be done. I was part of a state legislative effort in indiana to balance the budget in our state in one year. It can be done if we make hard choices. Ultimately that is something we will have to work on and deliver on in the coming months. Siobhan will there be any consequences for House Speaker paul ryan if you brings a clean ill to the floor and passes with mostly democrats . Rep. Messer i would be surprised if that happens with the speaker, but paul ryan is in strong position in our conference. What we are focused on as a team is how do we get these they bigticket items done for the American People. Paul ryan is our leader and im certainly proud to work with them to try to deliver. James there have been a lot of republican members that have expressed frustration with the legislative agenda. Do you think the white house has been actively engaged in the legislative agenda . We know President Trump has not yet held a Campaign Rally to drum up support for the healthcare effort. He called the Republican Health care bill mean in a private meeting after you passed it. Is the white house doing their job to sell this legislative agenda . Rep. Messer one of the chief leaders on legislative affairs for the white house is my good friend mike pence. I am proud of the effort he is made, regularly meeting with members and senators to get the agenda done. The early stages of any change Team Sometimes creates challenges. The president has been clear that we need to move past talk and start to deliver. I believe that is what you will see in the coming months and that is what the American People want. For all of the political intrigue and palace conversations when i get back , home in indiana, people want to know when we will get the big things done. When we will cut taxes and when we will get rid of obama care. When will we start having infrastructure and secure our borders . That is what we want to see and what we have been called to do and what we were elected for. I know my colleagues know that. We have got to set aside differences and come together and deliver for the American People. Siobhan you mentioned mike pence but not President Trump. Does mr. Trump need to get out there and himself publicly campaign for a health bill . Rep. Messer look, just highlighting mike pence as my friend. President trump has been very clear in where he stands on the need for us to repeal obama care, to have an infrastructure package, to pass tax reform. I think the president has been very clear and very strong in his leadership. I do not think there is any ambiguity about where he stands. He has spoken out publicly and certainly has many private meeting. When we were trying to move the bill to the house, president was the key to getting it passed, including when he came and spoke to the entire conference. I think the president has led and will continue to lead here. Susan bringing it back to house politics, the House Freedom caucus at a conference this week about major agenda items. Leadership has been having this constant negotiation with the Freedom Caucus members. Where do you think their influence will be at this point in time and what do you want to get done legislatively . Rep. Messer we represent a diverse conference. Our republican members in the in theeat district seats northeast or california have a slightly different philosophy the numbers coming from solid conservative districts in the deep south. I represent a conservative district in southeastern indiana. We will have our differences and that is ok. Ultimately, we have got to make sure the differences do not get in the way of us delivering on these big ticket items we have talked about today. I am optimistic we will get that done. We have passed 200 bills in the house that are now sitting in languishing over the senate. In part because the senate has the focus on appointment in the Trump Administration among the other items they are trying to work through. A lot has been done. Even more needs to get done given my message today would be we understand that. That is what you see is focused on in the coming six months. Susan we have six minutes left in the interview. James a lot of house members have echoed the frustration. Some called for the move to removal of the filibuster for legislative items. I know you will not announce this here, but if you ultimately run for the senate, would you advocate for moving the filibuster . Rep. Messer i think we should go back to the physical filibuster. We all are very the iconic movie mr. Smith goes to washington, where Jimmy Stewart stands and reads from phonebooks and calls the attention of the American People to what he thought was wrong. Given great programs like cspan and all of the National Newscasts we have today, never in the history of the republic could an individual member of the senate call the imagination of the American People to an issue like today. If you have a physical filibuster where a member of the United States senate has to actually come to the floor and further debate through the filibuster, i think that would be amazing and a way to preserve this great historic tradition. Unfortunately what has happened , with the filibuster is instead of being what it was originally intended to do, a tool used to further and enrich the base, it debate it is now used as a , tool to cut it off. A member files the sheet of paper and the senator files a sheet of paper, and the issue goes away unless you can get a high enough vote total to break the filibuster. That is not how it was originally intended and i think that compromise, having a physical filibuster, would allow us to protect the rights of the minority as the filibuster was intended to do while allowing legislative business to take place in the senate. Siobhan jump ahead a little bit to tax reform, how wedded are you to deficit neutral tax reform . How important is that to you . Rep. Messer that is a debate within our conference. My number one priority in tax reform is figuring out whether our reform is a path to 4 growth. If you look at americas policies over the last several decades, the only time we at have actually pay down the National Debt was in that period of time in the 1990s we had 4 growth. For me, that is the number one target. In washington speak these the phrase paid for tax cuts. Unless you are spending subsidies or raising tax somewhere else, youre not allowed to cut taxes. History tells us there are some taxes you can cut that would actually increase your revenues because the economy grows and more people have good paying jobs. And even though the percentage taxes paid or lower, the coffers for the government is higher. That is what i want to see us do. We are working our way through the dilemma. I am optimistic we will get a progrowth tax cut package passed this year. James do you support the border adjustment tax that paul ryan and kevin brady support . Rep. Messer there has been a robust debate on that topic and i have not taken a public position because i am frankly working my way through understanding it. I am sympathetic to the idea that we ought not give Foreign Countries a better deal when competing against american businesses than they give us and in their countries here we. In their countries here we have a situation now where American Products are exported and foreign products get a benefit. That does not make sense and it does not help create american jobs. There are big consequences to the Retail Industry and manufacturers of having a border tax. I do not have, im just not clear on where i will come down at the end on the. I do believe that border tax will be very difficult to persuade the American People in the coming weeks in the limited amount of time we have. I want to see us step away from the border tax of eight and move into a tax relief package. Susan we have about two minutes left. A final question for each. Siobhan talking about tariffs, what is your position on the nafta rewrite . Rep. Messer i represent Manufacturing America in southeastern indiana. It is clear that nafta has been a good deal for some and a bad deal for many others. I support the effort to renegotiate nafta. I think it is smart and we need to modernize it. Of course the details will matter as we work through it. James we have talked about a lot of big issues pending before congress. How difficult will it be in 2018 to make an affirmative case for electing republican members to congress if things Like Health Care and tax reform have not gotten done . Rep. Messer it will be a challenge. Listen we need to deliver for , the American People. We all know that. I believe by the time we get to 2018, we will have passed major tax reform, and if researcher package, we will pass repeal of obamacare, and a path toward replacement with a much better system. That is what i think we will ultimately be judged on in 2018. By the way, that is where most americans are. When i go home and talk to hoosiers they want to give us , time to do it right and they want to see us to deliver but they expect us to deliver. Susan congressman luke messer, chair of the republican policy committee. Thank you for your time. Our reporters questioning mr. Messer and he underscored several times in the conversation that they have not done enough in congress and particularly in the house on their delivery of promises to voters. When you look at things right now, it was a good bit of a muddle. What you see when you talk to the Leadership Team about their path forward to get legislative achievements under their belt . James it seems to me that they are under a critical juncture here. There was a lot of frustration. I think we heard that in the unity that things have not gotten done. Back in january, the plan was to Pass Health Care in the first couple of months and have tax reform by the august recess. They dont have health care by the august recess. Tax reform is not yet settled. There is a realization that if things dont start moving very quickly ended a start breaking the logjam on some of these issues, they could be looking at november and december and a lot of things not getting done. At that point, the legislative agenda is in deep trouble. Susan where are democrats . They seemed fired up about their opportunities. We are beginning to see more Democratic Candidates with their names in the ring for house seats. What of the politics of all of this . Siobhan democrats clearly see they have an opportunity and republicans even at the highest level, people will say, yes, we agree we are at risk of losing the house in 2018. You saw the rnc chair yesterday basically say, guess what, the Senate Majority could be at risk. Beforewe were talking about tools the leadership has to really enforce consensus. Other than the power of persuasion, what kinds of tools does the leadership have to bring ticket numbers on board . Siobhan few tools after Republican Leaders have so many few tools after earmarks were got rid of. They can try to use Committee Assignments but that is a problem because there was blowback a lifetime john boehner try to do that and he had to quickly reverse it. Paul ryan is a fundraiser so that can help but i saw plenty of members who he helped fund raise baldly asked them to vote his way. Balk when he asked them to vote his way. Not much power there. Susan a question on the Freedom Caucus. A diversity within our conference across the board, but how problematic has the Freedom Caucus been for the Leadership Team . James the Freedom Caucus has been problematic for a couple of years now. We see those problems caused bigger trouble for republicans now that they control government. They had enough votes that they could stop even republican measures and obviously, democrats are unlikely to support anything. If the Freedom Caucus opposes something it will not get , through the house. They know that and use that power to their advantage to force things to become more conservative. As soon as things become more conservative, republicans have more hard times of the moderate votes. We have seen things play out where it makes it that much tougher to get these difficult things through. Susan it sounds like it mimics the problem Mitch Mcconnell has with his moderate and conservative members in the senate. Siobhan it absolutely does, but you have a republican president President Trump, and , he has been pretty influential with the Freedom Caucus. To the degree that you saw the health bill that failed earlier this year pass after trump intervened. Members clearly felt the pressure. In that sense, paul ryan is probably in better shape than Mitch Mcconnell because senators are more impervious than house members are. Susan were you surprised at the level of support mr. Messer gave to President Trump . The question you raise about the president big event of the white house after health care passed an attorney greta the bill mean, which is been reverberating. Is the president doing all he can to help the legislative agenda in congress . James when you talk to lawmakers privately, they can knowledge that could have been a taker public push from the white house to sell this to the American People. One thing is health care is a difficult legislative item. People cared deeply about it and it is an emotional issue. You need to have the president who has the bully pulpit using that the sell the bill and get numbers some cover. That was really lacking. There is frustration. In a private conversations in the meetings, the president and the house clearly had an effect. Publicly, the support and the persuasion just has not been there to give them cover on it. Susan mr. Messer announced the importance of Vice President pence on the bill. What do you know from your reporting about the role he is playing . Siobhan mike pence is on the hill all the time. I see him going all the time to talk to senators or congressmen. He is very influential in particular with conservatives but not exclusively. He is viewed as someone who is credible and has experience but that said it is not enough. It may be necessary but not is close with a look at the week ahead. What do you know about the chances are of passing a budget . Conservatives think they have enough votes to prevent the budgets from passing. Unless something changes in the next week am i think it would be a longshot to have a budget pass in the house next week. What is the significance of passing a budget . Is crucial to getting tax reform done. Passll allow tax reform to on a simple majority vote, which is the problematic chamber. The window of opportunity to get major stuff done is in the major the very beginning of the presidency. This window is closing rapidly. Thank you for your help and understanding in taking apart capitol hill. Announcer tonight on q a. When we look at president obamas domestic legacy, there are two things in a very important that will have longlasting good consequences for the United States they can be summarized in for words, sonia sotomayor, and alayna kagan. Announcer the second of our twopart interview with a pulitzer prizewinning biographer of rising star the making of barack obama. I think the point to emphasize here is that over the course of rocks presidency there were scores of scores of people who had known him in illinois who are deeply disappointed with the trajectory of the Obama Presidency and disappointed in two ways, number one, disappointed that barack forgot that people many of the people, most of the people who were central to his political rise. Announcer tonight at 8 00. Stern on cspans q and a ofouncer now a discussion corruption in russia over the decades. This was hosted by the commission on security and cooperation in europe. It is also known as the helsinki commission