The Democratic National committees Unity Reform Commission was created in 2016. Its meeting this weekend for its final session here in the nations capital. The committees recommendations will be ed to update the d. N. C. s rules and bylaws and the committee will consider them for the 2018 election. It looks like itll be a few minutes to get under way as members make their way to the room. Well show you some portion of this mornings washington journal, congress this week passing the stopgap spending measure, funding the government through friday, december 22. We talked about that on this mornings washington journal and whats ahead. Host what exactly is in this measure . Guest its a clean stop gap spending bill. Almost nothing in this except keeping the funding going. Theres a small technical fix for the Childrens Health insurance program. This is just kicking the can down the road until the 22nd. Host why do this now . Guest they dont have a spending agreement yet. Congressional leaders the white house havent agreed how much to spend in fiscal year 2018. They cant write the big catchall, yearend spending bill until we get those numbers. This is giving two additional weeks to iron out negotiations on the hill. Congressional leaders in the white house can seek meetings to try to come up with that. Host lets focus on the house, then well talk about the senate. On the house side, republicans are on board for this measure yesterday. Democrats all oppose it. What are republicans, what are the different factions, they supported this yesterday but will they support a longer term deal . Guest this is probably the only time well see so many House Republicans vote for a spending bill. This is a big achievement for the republicans. It was overlooked by the fact that shutdown was averted. Republicans traditionally have not been able to pass spending bills with only their own members. Republican leadership has almost always had to rely on democrats. Here we had a full week of wrangling with paul ryan and his deputies trying to get republicans on board so they wouldnt have to go to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and try to come up with a deal. We did see all the conservatives in the house, the fiscal conservatives, defense hawks, immigration hardliners who said we cannot support something for the dreamers, we had all these different demands and somehow House Speaker paul ryan was able to get everyone onboard because they zrnt to go to nancy pelosi on this host what longer term, what are republicans, what do they want, the different falks within the Republican Party . You have those who want an increase in military spend, and those who are worried about the deficit. Guest right, there are a lot of dueling demands here. We do have defense hawks and some of the condition servetives on brd with an increase in the military, even the House Freedom caucus which shies away from deficit spending said theyd support a major increase in defense funding which is not something theyve done in the past. The big difference, President Trump. They are in frequent contact with President Trump. Mark meadow, chairman of the Freedom Caucus is constantly talking to trump he feel knows hes advocating on behalf of the president when hes calling for big increases in defense spending. Thats one of the major issues going ahead of the 22. Theres a lot of military, folks in the Armed Services committee, who are worried about punting major spending decisions into january. They say that undermines certainty for the pentagon. Going into the 22nd, theres already members of the house demanding a full Year Spending for defense which really would put a wrinkle in negotiations. Decisions on domestic decisions would be paused until january. Defense would be settled this month. Theres no way it can happen but its something defense hawks have been pushing for. Host were going to hear if the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, mark meadow, hell be delivering are remarks at the conservative Womens Network forum here in washington, d. C. This at 12 00 p. M. Eastern time. You can tune in to that on cspan2, or our website, c span. Org, or down load the free cspan radio app. Well see what he has to say if he delivers remarks about the negotiations. Is it the Freedom Caucus folks who will not agree to increase the military spending without touching domestic spending . Guest thats right and there are more beyond the Freedom Caucus. House conservatives are feeling empowered after the vote yesterday where they didnt need to rely on democrats theyve feel they have the majority in congress, they have the republican president for the first time in many years. They want their demands. So nay it seems like every day they have a new goal post in these negotiations. Every day theyre asking for something new, putting speaker ryan in a tough spot. This is going to be one of his big tests and thats said iver time theres a major leadership decision but here with the spending conversation, its the first time that President Trump is influencing a spending bill other than what we saw in april which was pretty much punting everything until now. So this is going to be a really high stakes moment for the house even though we have sort of this down the road we know the Senate Democrats are going to have more leverage in this. Obviously they need democrats to pass this in the senate. So were going to have the house conservatives get rolled on this in the next couple of weeks. Host the speaker of the house needs to go to democrat, what do democrats want in return . Guest democrats have a long list of demands that seems to be growing every day. The biggest demand right now is immigration protection for socalled dreamers. They want some sort of resolution for the deferred action for childhood arile program which President Trump is ending in march. Republicans have said they also want an agreement on this. Theres bipartisan conversations happening behind the scenes. But conservatives do not want this into any spending bill. They dont want this to be quoteunquote, holding the spending bill hostage on immigration. They know its a tricky issue. Theyre trying to keep it separate. Democrats are also looking for whats called parity between defense and domestic spending. Basically they want to say if the spenk going to get a major increase in spending for the next year they want to make sure the domestic programs are getting an equal increase, something thats controversial on the hill. Defense hawks are not willing to go that far with domestic funding. They say its a difficult time for the military. We need to be having this massive buildup. They say the pentagon needs to have a much larger increase than omestic program. Host the question is what can pass in the senate, where does that stand . Guest well see house conservatives oppose whatever deal comes out of negotiations with nancy pelosi, Chuck Schumer and speaker ryan. And President Trump of course. The five of them met yesterday in the white house. They all walked out of it saying it was a good meet bug no deal had been reached. There were a couple of numbers tossed around the democrats didnt like. The republicans are still trying to propose levels for higher defense spending, theyre still saying we want to put more money toward the pentagon than were willing to increase for domestic programs. Democrats are drawing a line saying we want parity, equal increases. So were going to have to see where democrats are willing to compromise on that issue. It does seem difficult that they would get precise parity but well probably see bigger increases in the next week or so when we see the negotiations unfold. Host sara is here to take your questions about spending on capitol hill. Gene in park ridge, illinois, independent, youre up first. Caller good morning. As a taxpayer im concerned about the earmarks and the fat thats going to go into this legislation. Both democrats and republicans. You know, our country is at war. We have men and women serving around the globe. They should be priority one. I understand that, but why is it at the end of the year when everybody is packed up, ready to head out for christmas, that the country is held hostage . Thank you for taking my call. Host sara . Guest this scenario of having lastminute deals right before christmas is exactly why conservatives were opposed to this spending bill that passed yesterday. It only goes through december 22. Its the friday right before christmas. This deadline was spicked was picked strategically. Leadership knows putting a deadline thats hard to miss is a big way to get the negotiations to finish up on time. No one wants to be no one in the house wants to be the member holding up christmas. For the hundreds of other members in congress. This is something house conservatives say we want to punt these into january, give ourselves extra leeway. We dont want to see these tricky negotiations on hundreds and hundreds of different policy issues that are going to be decided in the next couple of weeks that we will not fully grasp even into the coming weeks and months. We havent seen these appropriation bills other than what the house has written, the partisan document, the bipartisan decisions that are going to be coming out are going to be, were going to be poring over these for weeks. Host and from croffton, nebraska, republican. Caller i hope they do something with the military and if they dont, if they shut the government down because they didnt get the kun because they cant get the money they need, and we know they have problems with the oxygen because the pilots are still refusing to fly, and we know we have problem with the osprey, we have problems with some of the ships, we have problems with training. And we have people playing games with money. And i know that this lady here is just happier than a pig in poop because the democrats might win and not get the we wont get the money for the military, well take your little rear end out there and go to the military. See how you like it. Host sara reports for politico, i dont think she expressed happiness toward democrats and their negotiations but the military doesnt see an increase, what will their funding level be at . Guest fiscal 2018 is the first year sequestration would go into effect. If they cant reach an agreement it could be a drastic cut to defense, several billion dollars below what it is right now. Thats almost certainly not going to happen. There will almost certainly be an increase in defense spending going forward. This is something that everyone on the almost every on the hill, even some deficit hawks, said is a priority. President trump made this a priority. So i dont think theres any question that there will not be an increase to the pentagon budget next year. The question of course is just, what exactly will democrats agree to when it comes to domestic levels as well. Host we want to get your questions and comments about spending on capitol hill. Republicans 20 27488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independent in north carolina, youre next. Ller i wanted to comment on the situation, stepping down from the senate, i think it was the honorable thing to do. Me being a democrat, there should be no tolerance. Host im going to leave it there, weve gone on oto spending and the budget process up on capitol hill but we will return to this week in congress and so youre welcome to, and others are welcome to share their shouths thoughs about that and other news from capitol hill coming up here. Well spend from 8 00 to 10 00 a a. M. On washington journal talking about that. Caller hello. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Id just like to comment about some of these republicans that call in and make comments like the fellow that just called in and said you should get your butt out and join the military. These people are over the top. I dont think that they understand that paul ryan has already announced that they plan to attack Social Security and medicare and medicaid next year and these people that call in, older fellow, im retired, but as an older fellow, these republicans hate Social Security. They hate medicare. They hate the Affordable Care act. And if they was to get their way, they would destroy those programs. Host all right, dennis, well leave it there. This is a call we got from a few viewers last week when we were talking about the push for tax reforms. Viewers say the republicans are doing this so they can then turn and make cuts to Social Security and medicare. Guest right. Politically it does look bad for republicans as they finish up their tax push, there are several Top Republican leaders in the house and senate who are eyeing a push toward socalled welfare reform. This is a longtime goal of the Republican Party, theyve been looking to cut, they say they want to cut rates, trim spending around the edge, they want to have some reforms such as maybe adding work requirements to some of these programs for ablebdied adults but this is a priority that theyve had for a long time. This is not something they plan to use to pay for their tax plan. But politically having these two items, these two priorities one after another, i think welfare reform is going to be a big part of what we hear about throughout 2018. This is going to be really, having this as the central focus through 018 after the tax push is going to look politically really bad for republicans. Ahead of the 2018 election year. Host this viewer tweets in, why do the democrats go along on stopping the shutdown . Guest democrats have been for many years the party of averting a shutdown. Democrats say that theyre never the ones who want to hold negotiations hostage. They have said this for a long time. For the last week weve seen a delicate dance of Democratic Leaders trying to say, these are our priorities we want a fix for daca, but at the same time they said we will in the shut the government down. Yesed in the house, 14 democrats did support this bill in the house even though nancy pelosi and her leadership had been whip had been whipping against it, telling members not to vote for it, wanting to watch the republicans squirm on the floor and see if they could get the votes. In the senate there was only about a dozen or so democrats who didnt vote for this by and large Senate Democrats said we have no reason to vote against this. Theres nothing in this clean c. R. , continuing resolution we can dont like. So it was an interesting dynamic to watch so Many Democrats in the house not vote for it because they said they werent part of gerkses with republicans and then in the senate the democrats, theyre feeling good about where negotiations are going, they know theyll have a lot of leverage going into the 22nd on the next round of spending. The kems did vote for this because they said they have the democrats did vote for this because they said they have no reason not. To host this is nancy pelosi yesterday before she went to the white house, before the house passed the shortterm bill. Shes talking about a longer the longer term negotiations and what democrats want. Are you backing off your stance from last month where you said we will not leave in december without a daca fix . Ms. Pelosi no, i stand by that statement, we wont leave here without a data daca fix. Next week. Roip have you reporter have you changed your mind about accepting border wall funding . Ms. Pelosi we said to the president the night he agreed to the daca legislation that we have a responsibility to protect our border and we think there are many things we can do working together to do that. Members have been working in a bipartisan way to address that. So were not backing off anything. Including meeting the needs of protecting our borders. Were not going to turn this country into a rein of terror of omestic enforcement and have daca, the dreamers, pay that price. Host what did you make of her comment there is . Guest if you listen to the full press conference yesterday, she is saying that daca will be a priority. She doesnt want to leave before the end they have year without a commitment on this. Interestingly, she didnt say it needed to be in the spending bill. She was asked earlier in the press conference, will you be demanding a fix for dreamers in the next spending bill and she did not say she was going to do that. She said im not going to be starting a shutdown over there. Democrats have been the party that say, we dont want to be the shutdown party. They always try to blame republicans for any of this talk about a shutdown. So i think what were seeing here is she is agreing with republicans that there could be a separate fix outside of the appropriations process. Which is something that conservative republicans said has to happen, they dont want to see this tied up in the same process. I think shes trying to stand strong on this while acknowledging that theres no place, there is probably going to be no place for the immigration debate in the next spending bill process. Host david in maryland a democrat. Caller hi. My question is, with all the problems going on in our country with north korea, the embassy being moved, the government shut down, it seems to me that democrats and republicans are at war with each other. When we should be worried about Everything Else thats going on in the world. Thats my question. Why are the democrats and republicans always fighting with each other when they should be working together . Host that question would take a long time to answer. Guest it would. I dont think theres anything thats changed that much in the past couple of years. I dont know that we expected democrats and republicans to suddenly have a couple baa moment with President Trump a kum ba yah moment with President Trump in the white house. These will get finalized, avert a Government Shutdown and each party will walk away with system ru