Page 3 - Back Earmarks News Today

White house? spelling can you imagine that crowd right now whispering and texting each other, what is this going to be like? i would love to be on the fly in the wall on that meeting. >> the swamp is alive and well. >> dana: nothing says drain the swamp like bring back earmarks, but later in the program we have a few guests here to talk about that. bret baier, i could not think of a better guest to have on today. thank you so much. for more on that extraordinary moment in the white house today. ...

Comprehensive immigration reformulater. work barrel politics, its good, bring back earmarks. an extraordinary get together today, president trump and law makers from both parties in a rare cabinet room on-camera session. sarah sanders called the talks very successful. todays meeting with the bipartisan group of nearly two dozen lawmakers lasted close to an hour and covered a range of immigration issues, specifically border security, chain migration, visa lottery program, and the dreamers. presid...

That we were here in d.c., and over the weekends a lot. it was -- that was tough to negotiate. were not going to be very far down the comprehensive road when we finish daca but it will be a start. thats a good thing. >> the president also floated the idea of bringing back earmarks, pork barrel projects to help control members of congress, help cajole them and get them on board. the conservative group club for growth said about that idea, quote, bringing back the earmarks is the antithesis of dra...

That is one way to do it. >> we covered the white house a long time. this was unusual. >> we covered the white house and i stayed on in the george w. bush days. you have democrats and republicans sitting around a table having conversations they havent had in a sustained way in years. they do it when they get up to the deadline on the spending issues. patty goes into the room and do an urgent thing at the last minute, but if this is the beginning, the president responding to the criticism and the...

Deal to allow the d.r.e.a.m.ers to stay, work out what border security means, work out what the chain migration might mean as far as a short-term deal, the lottery, maybe kick that down to comprehensive immigration reform, but after possibly leading to a pathway to citizenship. >> he is willing to consider the comprehensive immigration reform after this. but the deal now would call for an end to chain migration. >> the president has promised to drain the swamp, that language during the campaign....

Ill be signing it. ill be signing it. and we dont know what that it is, but we know now this is a president who has been burned testifyicly by the michael wolff book. a president who knows, and john points out, what his approval ratings are, and he wants a win. he wants one win. by the way by the following afternoon ill get another win. >> this is something he cares about, tex taxes, health care, thats important. but this is tough immigration, one of the things he wanted. >> he wants bipartisan ...

A senator. a lot of people who worked for her had been around washington for quite a long time. and they were familiar with those people. so theres a lot of uncertainty and the kind of relationships that would normally be there are just starting to develop. mike pence is a reassuring presence because a lot of people do know him. they worked with many of his top aides have been with mike pence since he was here in the house. mike pence himself thought about running for president back in 2011-2012...

Current political stage? >> i think they are both good ideas. they are wildly optimistic in the sense i dont know how republicans would sell to their base the idea that we need to bring back earmarks, as good an idea as it would be. its a lubricant to the legislative process and in the broader scheme of the budget and how much money it entails, its a drop in the ocean. the problem, i talked to political scientists about these reforms toward the end of my piece. the problem is that the same parti...

Bringing back earmarks institutionalizes the pork. >> it is like saying responsible alcoholism. it lubricates corruption . massive spending bills and obama care and the like. the only time we should have that kind of pork stuff is pass the flat tax otherwise ban them. >> rick, you had a piece a couple of months ago saying congress cannot operate without earmarks. >> it is interesting. i got on to a piece after a conversation with jack who got me think being it. before the moratorium went into af...

You know, a bill usually doesnt become law until earmarks are tacked on. thats just the way washington works, right? well, this week the democrats and republicans are swapping promises to end earmarks? lets get straight to our congressional correspondent, brianna keilar. brianna, a republican announcement on cutting back earmarks. what is this? >> reporter: yeah, and followed by a democratic announcement just the day before. >> yes. >> reporter: what you have going on, tony, is some oneupmanship...