My friend mr. Gizzi, im dave cook from the Christian Science monitor. Our guest today is marc short an activitient to the president and director of the office of legislative affair. This is his first with our locale Breakfast Club home to what steve bannon calls account pearl clutching mainstream media. Thanks for making time for us in your busy schedule, sir. Marc short graduated from washington and lee university. He got his start in politics serving as finance director for oliver norths Senate Campaign and went on to become executive director of Young Americans foundation where his role including stewardship of reagans ranch. He earned an mba from the university of virginia. He worked in the Homeland Security department during the bush administration. Served as senator kay bailey hutchinsons chief of staff and later chief of staff under mike pence. He was later hired by freedom partners becoming the organizations president. And thus ended the biographical portion of the program. Now on to breakfast mechanics. As always, were on the record here. Please no live blog or tweeting and no filing of any kind while the breakfast is under way to give us time to listen to what our guest says. Theres no embargo when the session is over. It will end promptly at 9 00 a. M. To help you curb that relentless selfie urge, well email several pictures of the session to all the reporters here as soon as the breakfast ends. As regular attendees know if youd like to ask a question, please accepted me a subtle nonthreatening signal and ill happily call on one and all in the time we have available. Given the number of reporters here today, please try to confine yourself to one question till others have had a chance. Well offer our guest the opportunity to make some opening comments. Then move to questions from around the table. With that, sir, thanks again for doing this. The floor is yours. Thank you so much for having me. Ill be very brief. Im anxious to get to your questions. Thank you for hosting me. Special thanks to david and linda for me and nor our team. Christian science monitor has been a leader in helping to not just cover the news but help drives the news. We appreciate that. 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 is the president take unprecedented steps in cutting unnecessary regulations. Basically getting government out of the way of our economy. The Trump Administration has withdrawn 860 regulatory actions to date and we work with congress to pass 14 pieces of legislation under the congressional review act. The executive actions and legislation combined to save our economy an estimated 18 billion annually. These actions are having a real impact in the lives of American People. To date, since inauguration, weve created 1. 2 million jobs. 125,000 of those in the manufacturing sector. Wages are up. Small Business Optimism is up. The dow jones as you know is up 20 since election day and the s p just reached another record high. But theres a lot more we can doing to return jobs to american shores. Thats why the president is focused right now on providing tax relief this year. We have been working with congress to get unified tax relief to the president s desk and in fact, since april, the white house has met with over 250 members of both parties of congress to discuss tax reform. Soon we will release a unified outline with congress and the committees will get to work on a bill. And the spending deal we reached with Congress Last week provide the legislative space we need to get this done this calendar year. But as weve all learned, the legislative process is slow. And in this new season of bipartisanship, we hope that Senate Democrats will end their Unprecedented Campaign of obstruction against some of our nominees. In totes, weve sent 385 nominees to the senate. Only 35 of those nominees to date have been confirmed. By contrast, 70 of the Obama Administration nominees had been confirmed by the same date in his presence. At this point, president obama had 385 nominees compared compared to 133 for this administration. With the emergencies we are facing in texas and florida, the importance of getting these nominees into their jobs is hard to understate. Blocking these nominees during a National Emergency is dangerous and it is irresponsible. So we call on democrats to stop playing politics with our nominees and help us to fill our departments. I will say that i am encouraged that last night i spoke with leader schumers chief of staff about a path forward and in particular as you know, today, had there be a confirmation vote on the council of economic advisers kevin has set. We also believe that in much of the recovery at this point it turns to a housing issue in both particularly in texas but likely in florida, as well. To date, our deputy secretary at hud has yet to be confirmed despite being voted out of committee three months ago. We hope they will allow her a vote this week and im encouraged by last night that that will happen. Nominations and hurricane relief, we have other important priorities for the American People. Were long overdue to secure our borders and we Hope Congress will provide a legislative fix to dhaka. The president is still committed to rebuilding americas infrastructure in this congress. We still think that americans deserve relief from the spiraling costs of Health Care Insurance and lack of options caused by obamacare. But these are just some of our priorities. Theres a lot more to be done. Fortunately, what weve seen so far in the economy is the president s positions particularly at the executive branch level with some of the Regulatory Reform is making a difference. 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. As you know, my job is to throw out the ceremonial softball and then were going to go to john bennett, calen mcneil, jonathan, linda feldman, heidi przybilla, demetrius, cheryl, george, and tara. That should get us going. There are people who looked at the deal that was done, the fiscal deal that was done last week as a sign that President Trump is the First Independent president to hold that office, either not focused in terms of loyalty on either party. Is that an assessment you would agree with . How does it affect your job as legislative director . I think that the president first and foremost rather than Party Affiliation looks what he can do best for the American People and to fulfill the promises he made on the campaign trail. I think that the deal that he struck last week enabled us 0 clear the decks to focus on tax reform. The president has made getting jobs back in our economy a number one priority and the tax reform is what we think is necessary to get the economy growing again. I confess i do find some of the coverage interesting. As i mentioned in my opening remarks, weve been meeting at a bipartisan level with members of congress for months now on tax reform. So the president has sought to get cooperation from democrats on several pieces of legislation, but i confess that i think some of the conch in our initial few months was that i know im painting with a broad brush. I think some of the commentary was this president is relying on his base and he cant accomplish a lot if he continues to surround his base. The last few days the coverage has been how in the world is the president going to accomplish anything if hes discarding leadership in his own party. Theres an irony its either a youre relying on your base or youre not getting done because youre partnering with schumer and pelosi and not working with republican colleagues. The president s focus is what he can doing for the American People and less worried what the relationships are, what the coverage is about, the going on with mcconnell, ryan, pelosi or schumer. Do you agree with the comments that the Senate Majority leader made to the New York Times that the deal last week is actually not as good as it looks for democrats because of the extraordinary measures being ep employed so that the debt ceiling wont happen till 2018 . I look at it as it was a good deal for the American People. The American People are tired of impasse in washington, tired of dysfunction in washington, d. C. In many reasons that was why President Trump was elected. I think there was a lot of frustration about the way that washington, d. C. Worked and in a matter of we came into september with i think a lot of commentary how in the world will we ever get through september. Theres a roadblock on debt ceiling, continuing resolution, lease too much that congress has to do. I think the president cleared the deck effectively and the American People are relieved theyre not have having crisis conversations about government shut down or about debt ceiling. So i think that again, he was looking out for what is the best interests of the nation. John bennett from roll call. Marc, thanks for being here. You mentioned speaker ryan and taxes. Speaker ryan has talked about a corporate rate somewhere maybe around 20. The press firmly is at 15 . Is there any wiggle room on that 15 to bring this some kind of deal together or is 15 nonnegotiable . The president wants to get corporate rates down 15 . I think it doesnt help ourselves to negotiate against ourselves. So i think that we should aim for what we think is best and i think we all understand that ultimately, theres probably compromise to get to the best deal but we think that what is best for the American People is a 15 corporate rate right now. We think its more competitive on the international stage. This isnt just about corporate rates. Its about jobs in our country. What weve seen is because of our unfair tax code that Many Companies have decided to invert as you know and leave america and taking jobs with them. So we believe its important to reduce those rates so we can be more competitive and keep jobs here. Taylor mcneil, talking points moorm. On dhaka, im wondering if you can outline what the administration will be looking for in a bill in congress. Would something that kind of restore the dhaka protections need to be prepared with funding for the wall,er who Border Security measures . Are you willing to go for more of the d. R. E. A. M. Act scenario where youll get actual legal status as opposed to just Something Like dhaka. I think the white house will be laying out legislative priorities we would like to see as any part of a daca package in probably within the next couple weeks. I will say that broadly, theres several things we think are important. We do think its important to secure our border. We do think interior enforcement is critical and also think that we should be moving to a merit based immigration system. To what extent that can be one package, whether or not thats multiple packages we dont know. I would ask you guys i think one thing thats got has not received enough attention is that this week on the house floor, there will be a vote on ms 13 legislation that has been a priority of the administration. Weve worked with house leadership to get that on the calendar. That follows legislation previously passed on kates law and sanctuary cities. So the house has been moving forward on several pieces of legislation we think are critical to our country and were hopeful that the senate will be taking up those bills at some point this fall, too. Justin zincing from bloomberg. Go back to taxes and ask both you know with mark meadows last week, im wondering how that conversation went and if you guys were able to reach areas of agreement on tax reform and if you anticipate them helping the House Freedom caucus helping your push and to just follow on the earlier question, do you want to get the corporate down as low as possible, is that going to mean limiting expensing which is something Republican Leaders across the board has said is essential to the growth you expect to see. Ill take the second one first. On the expensing front we dont think expensing should be prioritized at expensive rates. Were more interested in prioritizing rates. Thats more important to get the economy growing. Can you speak up a little bit. Sure. Sorry, the question was about expensing relative to rates. My view is the administration believes its more important to get rates down and that while we value the discussion on expensing we want to prioritize getting rates down. Regarding the conversation with free caucus, thats been an ongoing conversation. Weve partnered well with him. Weve partnered well with his conference. They were very supportive with our efforts on repeal and replace. Thats not an unusual occurrence. I talk to him frequently. I talked to him this morning before coming over here. We value that partnership and i think that theyve laid out a pretty fair case which says in order to get tax reform done, well have to pass a budget first. And their position is that we want to know whats in the tax reform package before we vote on the budget. I think their viewpoints are understood and i think they will get details of tax reform before a budget vote comes. Jonathaning from new jersey star ledger. Stay on taxes. According to tax foundation, the state and local tax reduction, more than half of those taking that deduction make less than 200,000 a year. How can be you describe this as a middle class tax nobody making 200,000 a year or less pays the tax rate. So how can you describe as helping middle class families a tax plan as the president s proposed that eliminates the estate tax, lowers the top rate and eliminates the state and local Tax Deduction . Many of the most wealthy in our country are the ones i think that take make it easier to comply with fairly difficult tax policy that america has right now. Additionally, we would be lowering the individual rates on the middle income so we do want to prioritize middle income tax relief and despite the analysis that you cite, i think what weve seen in analysis weve done is that those particularly in those states suffer from the highest tax burden on state and local taxes. Thats a deduction that is probably better dealt with at the state level than at the federal level. Linda feldman from the monitor. So i want to continue on the theme of donald trump as the First Independent president. Theres been a lot of speculation whether hes remaking the Republican Party or perhaps fomenting a schism within the party. Im just curious what your take is on that and what kind of impact the president might have on the midterms next year. I dont think that the president is fomenting a schism within the party. I think in many cases you look at the special elections conducted so far and the candidate the president supported has won all four of those. In many cases hes helping to build the party and get the party grounded back with the grass roots activists. I think hes been an asset in helping us to strengthen the party. But again, i think that the president looks at whats best for the American People. Hes not looking at it through a prism of what benefits which Political Party more. Do you want to do a follow, carl . Sorry. Mr. Dahntay from the hough post down at the end of the table. Thank you. I guess is the administration committed to making sure that corporate rate is extended to s corps and partnerships, et cetera . If so, is the white house prepared to explain how much the president personally is going to benefit from that change. We are committed to extending it to small businesses. The details of that will be coming forward. Im going to ask on the second question about the president s benefit. I think that thats obviously been a discussion held throughout the campaign. Hell be happy to share his tax returns when the audit is completed. Heidi przybilla. In laying out the priorities on daca you didnt mention the wall. Does a continuous wall along the entire southern border have to be part of whatever compromise is reached by the end of the year on daca . I think we are most interested in getting boreder security and the president has made a commitment to the American People that he wants he believes that a physical barrier is important to that equation of Border Security. Whether or not that is part of a daca equation or another legislative vehicle, i dont want us to bind ourselves into a construct that makes reaching a conclusion on daca impossible. The president is also interested as he said in solving the issue of daca and believes this is an issue that congress has failed on. I think what you saw from the department of justice was an explanation that the order that obama had given was unlawful and could not be supported. Hes asked congress to fix it. I think we look forward to provide them some guidelines and seeing how they work through the process and put together a solution they think works. John from news max. Thank you, dave. Thank you, marc. One of the things thats come up recently, the president and the Campaign Said that he was fully committed to maintaining entitlements. And said this over and over. The chairman of the Republican Study Committee a