White House Legislative Affairs director marc short spoke with journalists about the Trump Administrations legislative agenda, which includes tax reform and immigration. This hourlong event was hosted by the Christian Science monitor. My friend, good morning, and dave cook from the Christian Science monitor. Thanks for coming. I guess todays mark shortterm assistance to the president in office of legislative affairs feared this is his first visit with our breakfast club, home to what tbn and calls the mainstream media. Thanks for making time for us in your busy schedule, sir. The virginia native graduated from washington and lee university. He got his start in politics serving as finance their poor Oliver North Senate campaign and went on to become executive director of Young America foundation what his role including stewardship of Ronald Reagans ranch after running the ranch he earned in an ea at the university of virginia, worked in the Homeland Security department and security department, served as senator Kay Bailey Hutchison chief of staff and later was chief of staff of the House Republican conference and event conference chair mike pence. He was later hired by freedom partners with the urbanizations president. The biographical portion of the program, now on to breakfast mechanics. As always, we are in the record here. No live blogging or tweeting of any kind while the breck this is underway to give us time to listen to what our guest says. There is no embargo when the session is over. It will end promptly at 9 00 a. M. To help you curb the relentless self he urged, well email several pictures to all the reporters here as soon as the breakfast and peered its regular attendees know if youd like to ask questions, please do the traditional thing and sending a subtle nonthreatening signal and ill happily call in the time we have available. Given the number of reporters today in the please confine yourself to one question and tell others about a chance. We will start off by asking our guests the opportunity to make opening comments and then moved to questions around the table. Thanks again for doing this. The floor is yours. Thank you for having me. Ill be very brief and get to your questions. Thank you to david and lindsey for your hospitality this morning. I know the Christian Science monitor has been a leader in helping to not just cover the news, but we appreciate you. [inaudible] we appreciate it. Im honored you included me. The Trump Administration has been and remains very focused on jumpstarting the American Economy and allowing the private sector to create jobs. What weve seen already as a threat to make unprecedented steps in cutting unnecessary regulation, and basically getting government out of the way of our economy. The Trump Administration is withdrawn 870 actions today can we work with congress to pass 14 pieces of legislation under the congressional review act. Executive actions and legislation combined to save our economy an estimated 18 million annually. These actions are having a real impact on the last of the American People. Today sent the maturation weve created 1. 2 million jobs, 125,000 of those are manufacturing your. Wages are up, Small Business optimism is out. The dow jones is up 20 since election day in the s p reached another record high. But theres a lot more that we can do to return jobs to american shores and that is why the president is focused on providing tax relief this year. Weve been working with congress to get unified tax relief to the president s desk and since april, the white house has met with 250 members of both parties in congress to discuss tax reform. Soon we will see the unified outline and the committees will get to work on a bill. The big deal to restrict Congress Just like we provide legislative space we need to get this done this calendar year. But as weve all learned from the legislative process is slow and in this new season of bipartisanship, we help Senate Democrat will end their Unprecedented Campaign of obstruction against some of our nominees. In total we spent 385 nominees to the senate. Only 35 of those nominees of data have been confirmed. By contrast, 70 of the of on administration is now confirmed by the same date in obamas presidency. At this point in his administration, president obama had 385 nominees confirmed compared to 133 for this administration. With the emergencies we are facing in texas and in florida, the importance of getting these nominees into their jobs is hard to understand. Blocking these nominees during the National Emergency as dangerous interest on zabul. So we call them democrats to help us fill our department. I will say that im encouraged that last night he spoke with the chief of staff about a path forward and in particular as you know today, a confirmation vote on economic advisers passing and we also believe in recovery at this point, turns to a housing issue in particularly texas, the likely florida as well. Today, our deputy secretary of hud to be confirmed despite three months ago. We do hope that theyll allow for a vote this week and encourage conversations. On top of tax reform, nominations and hurricane relief. We have a save other important for the American People. We Hope Congress will provide a legislative fix to daca. The president is committed to rebuilding americas infrastructure in this congress. We still think americans deserve relief when its spiraling cost of Health Health care insuranced lack of options caused by obamacare. These are just some of our priorities and theres a lot more to be done. Fortunately, what weve seen so far particularly with some of the regulatory reforms is making a difference and we will continue to work with congress to fulfill the promises the president made to the American People. With that, i look forward to your questions. Thank you. My job is to throw out the ceremonial softball and then will go to john bennett, caitlyn mcneil, mr. Pattaya, john dizzy, dimitri is commissioner bolen, George Condon intern mckelvey. There are people who look at the deal that was done on a fiscal deal that was done last week as a sign that President Trump is the First Independent president to hold that office, and not focused in terms of loyalty on either party. Is that an assessment youd agree with . How does it affect your job is legislative director . I think the president first and foremost, rather than Party Affiliation of what he can do best for the American People and fulfill promises made on the campaign trail. I think the deal he struck last week enabled us to focus on tax reform. The president has made getting jobs back in our economy and number one priority and tax reform is what we think is necessary to get the economy growing again. I confess i find some of the coverage interesting. As i mentioned in my opening remarks, weve been needing bipartisan bubble number for tax reform. The president has thought to get cooperation from democrats and several pieces of legislation, but i confess some of the coverage in our initial few months and i know im painting with a broad rush so forgive me, but some of the commentary was the president is just relying on his face and he cant accomplish a lot if he continues to thrive in space. Blessed is the coverage is and how in the world does the president accomplish anything if he has the leadership of his own Republican Party. Theres an irony that either youll not get anything done because you align your base where be your actually partnering with shimmering posting. So i think the president s focus is really on what he can do for the American People and less worried about what the relationships are in the goingson with mcconnell and schumer. And do you agree that the Senate Majority leader made the New York Times that the deal last week is not a credit all for democrats because of extraordinary measures being employed so that the debt ceiling doesnt happen, wont happen until 2018 . I look at it as a good deal for the American People. They are tired of this function in washington d. C. Many reasons that was why President Trump a select day. Theres a lot of frustration about what washington d. C. Worked and in a matter if we came into september, which i think how in the world we ever get september with the roadblock on continuing resolution, to match the congress has to do. The president clears the deck for effectively. The American People are relief not having conversations about continuing resolution that Government Shutdown were debt ceilings. So i think again it is the best interest in the nation. John bennett from cq rollcall. You mentioned speaker ryan and taxes. Speaker ryan spoke about a corporate rate somewhere around 20 and the president firmly at 15 . Is there any wiggle room on the 15th to bring some kind of deal together for 16 nonnegotiable . The president wants to get corporate rate down to 15 . It doesnt help to negotiate against ourselves and so white ink we should aim for what we think is best and i think we all understand ultimately theres compromise to get to the best deal, we think what is best for the American People as a 15 corporate rate. Its more competitive on the international stage. This isnt just about corporate raise spirits about jobs in our country. We see because of our unfair tax code that Many Companies have decided to leave america and take jobs with us. So we believe that the important to keep jobs here. [inaudible] on daca, wondering if you can outline what the administration would be looking for in congress with something that can restore the funding for the law, other security measures, are you willing to go for more of the scenario where they get actual legal status. I think the white house will be laying out legislative priorities. We would like to see is any part of the daca package within the next couple weeks. But i will say broadly theres several things that we think are important. We think its important to secure our border. We think interior enforcement is critical and we often think we should be moving to a meritbased immigration system. To what extent that can be one package, whether or not thats multiple packages, we dont know. I would ask one thing that has not received enough attention this week on the house floor there will be about on ms13 legislation. We work with house leadership to get that on the calendar. That was previously passed on sanctuary cities. So the house moving forward on several pieces of legislation that we think are critical to our country and we are hopeful the senate will be taking a at some point this fall, too. Just insane from bloomberg. I want to come back to taxes. You met with mark meadows. I am wondering how that conversation went and if you guys were able to Reach Agreement and help being the House Freedom caucus helping your push. You just fall in the earlier question, you want to get the corporate rate down as low as possible. Is that going to mean eliminating expensing which across the board is really essential to the Economic Growth . [inaudible] i think on the expensing front we dont think they should be prioritized, so we are more interested in prioritizing lower rates. Thats more important to get the economy growing. [inaudible] yeah, sure. Sorry, the question was relative to rate in my point was the administration believes its more important to get rates down a multivalue expensing, we want to prioritize getting down. Regarding the conversation with mark meadows on the Freedom Caucus, that has been an ongoing conversation. Theyve partnered well within minutes conference as you know they were very supportive with our efforts on repeal and replace, so that is not an unusual occurrence. I talked to him this morning before coming here. We value that partnership. I think that dave laid out a pretty fair case, which says in order to get tax reform done, we will have to pass the budget first and fair position is that we want to know what is in the tax reform package before we vote on the budget. I think their viewpoints are understood and i think they look at details before the budget bill comes. John plan for new jerseys starledger. On the Tax Foundation and the statelevel taxes that two half make less than 200,000 a year. So how can you describe the middleclass taxes and nobody making 200,000 the year for less get the estate tax rate. What you describe is a healthy middleclass family to eliminate the estate tax and the state and local tax exemption. Many of the most wealthy in our country are the ones that think taking advantage of the deductions more than anybody else and i think by making the tax code simpler and fairer, people will see we are looking to get rid of the deductions and make it easier to comply with a fairly difficult tax policy america has right now. Additionally, we would be lowered individual rate on income. We do want to prioritize middle income tax relief and despite the analysis that you cite, i think what weve seen in the analysis that weve done is those particularly in the states suffer from highest tax burden in state local taxes and, you know, that is a deduction that is probably better doublets at the state level than the federal level. [inaudible] thank you. I want to continue on the theme of donald trump as independent president. Theres been a lot of speculation over whether he is making the Republican Party or perhaps within the party. Im just curious im not and what kind of impact the president might have here. I dont think that the president is fomenting a schism within the party. In many cases he looks at the special election so far in again the president supported all for it. In many cases hes helping build the party and get the party grounded, so i think that he has been an asset in helping us to strengthen the party. But again, i think the president looks at the American People. Hes not looking to up benefits which Political Party more. You want to do a followup, carl . Mr. Dossier from the post at the end of the table. Thank you. I guess is the administration committed to making sure the corporate rate is excited to scored some partnerships, et cetera. If so, is the white house prepared to explain how much the president could benefit from that change . I think we are committed to extending it to Small Businesses and i think that the detail for that would be coming forward and im going to ask on the second question about the president s benefit thats actually been a conversation discussed throughout the campaign. I think youll be happy to share his actions. Heidi philip from usa today. Laying out the per doritys priorities on daca, does this have to be part of what other compromises reached . I think that we are most interested in getting Border Security and the president has made a commitment to the American People that he wants he believes it he believes that its imports to that equation for security. Whether or not that is part of a daca equation or whether thats another legislative vehicle either one of set ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion impossible. The president is also interest it as you said in solving daca and that this is an Issue Congress has failed on. What you saw from the department of justice was an explanation that the order that obama was given was unlawful and not supported. Hes asked congress to fix it and i think we look forward to providing some guidelines in seeing how they work through the process and put together a solution they think works. Dizzy from news max. Thank you. One of the things that has come up recently. The president said that he was fully committed to maintaining entitlements inside this over and over. The chairman of the Republican Study Committee as well as congressman schweikert who participated in a recent tax reform conference said the only way to achieve tax reform is to put medicare and medicaid on the table for reform. The president s Campaign Statement notwithstanding are entitled on the table and tax reform. I think the president remains committed to keeping the promise he made to American People are not cutting medicare and social security. They think as you know, john, the repeal and replace legislation was a thinker best opportunity for real entitlement reform and medicaid and that was something the president supported and unfortunately, despite campaigning on that is 2010, republicans when given the opportunity were not willing to follow through on that. I think the president has been willing to make necessary cut into that program to make sure is sustainable for the future. The broader issue of the additional entitlement are concerns about balancing the budget. The president put forward a very fiscally responsible balanced in 10 years without making cut as you know it will