Least ideas being discussed to address this. Meantime, blake burman with the latest from the white house. Blake . Reporter hi, there, neil, the white house within the last minute releasing the economic report of the president. This is a pretty lengthy, 500 plus page document put together by the president s council of economic advisors. Weve gone through it t paints a fairly rosie picture coming out of obama administration. Tax cuts, the president talked about the need and the want and how he feels potentially we could get to 4 gdp growth. However when you look at 10year span as the Administration Economic advisors are projecting out, theyre projecting gdp growth over 3 . When you get to the back end of this 10year term, dropping just under 3 . They do warn though of some headwind in both near and long term and this is it. They write, quote, challenges remain for 2018 and the longer term including increased opioid dependence. The recent low rate of Labor Productivity and wage growth. Downward pressure on Labor Force Participation rate from demographic shifts. There is the debate, neil in washington, as the administration rolls out the infrastructure plan. The question is, how will you pay for this massive plan or this massive idea as it stands right now . Might they raise the federal gas tax . This document sort of dives into it. And leaves at least the general impression that maybe now is the time to do just that. It points out that the federal gas tax has been at 18. 4 cents per gallon since 1993. For last 24, 25 years. It points out construction prices, cost to build roads, highway, et cetera, increased nearly 4 every single year since then. As for the events ongoing at the white house today, we look for the 4 00 hour event with the president and 15, 20, paints, students, teachers from Marjory StonemanDouglas Senior High School in parkland. This listening session will take place in the white house. For those listening session, those impacted by sandy hook and columbine shootings. Neil . Neil thank you very much, blake burman at the white house. There is a back and forth talking about economic matters both parties addressing about the tax cuts and majority of americans now in fact, double what was the indicates before these came out the chute not like them, have favorable view of then. Democrats are in a bit of a conundrum how to react to all of that. Congressman tim ryan, remember he was the ohio democrat challenging nancy pelosi for leadership of the democrats in the house, he recognizes that. Take a look. She runs unchallenged will you let that happen . Well, you can have me on if that is the case at some point but i dont know if that would be the case. I dont know how these elections are going to turn out. I know between now and then, between now and november, democrats have to jump on this economic message. Neil lets see how that sorts out with the dow up 100 points. Deroy murdoch and kat timpf and shelly holiday. Shelby, are democrats in a bit of a box because not one of them voted for it is getting favorably view. Were. They are boxed in. Candidates hold the vote against tax reform against them. Senator Heidi Heitkamp that is being held against her. The big issue the democrats should talk about the economy. Their perception of tax cuts dont match up with reality. Polls showing momentum in favor of tax cut bill, even among democrats. Now that they see tax cuts in their paychecks and see benefits, the market stumbled and back on solid ground. People generally feel good about the economy. When you oppose a bill that your constituents are happy about there is a little bit of trouble. Neil responding to improving economy that those tax cuts are making possible, right . That is an economic worry. If youre upset about the fed, you yell at the fed, not the republicans. Gop is not pushing up neil theyre lookings at, i got a tax cut. Now i know it is more expensive for me to borrow. Do they sort that out who to blame . I dont think they blame the gop. We had long debate about the tax cuts. Gop won that. You would think the democrats would back off. But nancy pelosi saying going from crumbs to armageddon. If you voted for tax cuts i guess youre guilty of treason. They got, said your tax was go up. You have all the benefit. 375 companies raised wages, given bonus, announced Something Like 50 billion investments in this country by apple alone. So you have all this good stuff going on. It will continue throughout the year. At some point the democrats say were sorry we should have voted for the thing or come up with a positive agenda, change the issue. Stop slamming it. They cant stop doing that. Neil we talk about, young people, you both are representative of that, maybe not you and i are they might change their views on this, depends what they see in their paycheck, right . Young people, just like everyone else like to have a little more money. It is absolutely correct that the democrats should focus on a economic message. We can make it even simpler for the democrats as deroy hinted, have them have some kind of a message. Mainly by and large the resistance, resistance. Did you hear what trump said, did you hear what trump did, bad, bad. They already tried to run an election on resistance. Look what happened. They lost that election, oops, exactly. Still running on the same thing. You have to be for something. Some sort of a positive message rather than counting on talking down everything trump says or does. Neil im wondering how all this factors out by november . People always see the prism of politics and so much else that happened could still yet happen, that will take attention off this. I was thinking if you have the atlanta fed and some of these others, now even the white house itself giving pretty conservative economic projections. 3 growth on their part. The atlanta fed dramatically revised down optimistic scenario for First Quarter growth. What is going on here . Well that is true. Aside from the market data that were seeing, the market projections were seeing the republicans have a very difficult time focusing on the economic agenda, focusing on benefits, because we have a president who continues to tweet about things like russia. We School Shootingses sexual misconduct, foreign elections and the shift is difficult, very difficult to tout your message when you have a president driving the news cycle every day in all different direction. Would certainly help if the republicans didnt talk about things like raising the gas tax. That is absurd and ridiculous. Voters will notice that. Not just a little. They want to go from 18 cents to 43. Neil under reagan it was nine cents, right . Yeah. Neil he is last republican president to do it. That was what, a generation ago, Something Like that . If they raise the gas tax, americans for tax reform that it will reduce the tax cut benefit by 6 60 . People feel that. Neil when they raised gas tax in new jersey, was raised many times it was falling. Many did not see the magnitude out of it. Could that help. Gas is going up. Neil fast is on the rise. To your point maybe republicans wouldnt be held responsible by voters for increasing Interest Rates but gas taxes certainly. They will get the blame for that, deservedly so. They shouldnt do that. They will get the blame no matter what. People dont put the Interest Rate thing together. It is really the fed but it is republicans. No matter whether you like the idea or not it is not going to happen with months to go before the midterms. It is not in the offing. Right. Neil real quickly, do you twice seeing republicans hanging on to the majority in both houses . I think it will be tough. I think it will be really tough. There are a lot of issues affecting voters right now. Whether sexual assault, shootings. Like i said, russia. People are concerned neil normally party in power loses seats. I think they dont lose the 23, 24. That could be a worry. They lose some i think they hang on to the majority if theyre optimistic. Theyre diving under their desks. Economy is growing. They can run on tax cuts. Isis down to couple sand dunes in the desert. There is positive news. They should be optimistic, not hiding biting their nails which they do now which is terrible. As long as we put forth good candidates instead of some disasters in the past, we all know what im referring to there, absolutely they could hold on to the majority as everyone behaves themselves and stays on message. Neil including the president. Especially the president. Democrats continue to not have a message. I think republican cost be in food shape. No riding to the polls on a horse. Neil that is exactly right. That is exactly right. When we come back here, a lot of things are waiting. President meeting with those affected by last week School Shooting. He is calling his party to task, not only cracking down on bump stocks, cracking down on background checks. That is roiling some in his own party. The that after this. But im not standing still. And with godaddy, ive made my ideas real. I made my own way, now its time to make yours. Everything is working, just like it should neil continue to watch live shots out of tallahassee where theyre having student rallies. A lot of students directly affected from those in that Florida School that was hit by that attack as well as other sympathetic students across the state, gathering in tallahassee, demanding gun control right now. Florida republican state representative Matt Caldwell calling for changes, whether they suit some of the students doing protesting i dont know. He is here right now. Sir, thank you for taking the time. Absolutely. Thank you for having me on, neil. Neil what have you had a chance to tell those students, tell those concerned about this, telling those who dont want to see that again . Administrators like yourself, politicians, lead, offering them . Yeah, no, not about me telling them anything. Im listening to them. They came by our office here about an hour ago. I gave them about 20 minutes just to tell me exactly what their experiences were. Were talking about some kids saw their own friend honestly die right in front of them. Its a horrible tragedy and i wanted to hear what their thoughts were, were the things they wanted to work on. Ultimately, well have to figure out what it is that is going to make a difference. I think what will make a difference, treating this for what it is, it is a lone wolf terrorist attack. These are individuals, maniacs, they plot, they plan, they practice, but we need to be able to take them as seriously as we do radical religious terrorists or radical civil terrorists, people who lay out a plan in the long term to side to carry out an attack on the people at our schools, in our churches and places where unfortunately weve designated funfree zones, so gunfree zones so no one is able to fight back. Neil did that satisfy them, representative . A lot of them who i heard want a lot more. They recognize the nature of the crazy shooter issue but their problem seems to be guns again and again, too many out there, too many in the wrong hand. Theyre focused on that. We absolutely want to pursue ways to keep the wrong people from getting guns. That is all i will have from my position. What will be effective. The worst outcome we have pass a blanket gun ban like proposed yesterday or tried to pull out of committee yesterday. That not actually solve anything. That not make any difference. When do you look in the next parents eyes, this didnt solve it, try Something Else that wont have any impact on the situation. You have to have Law Enforcement willing and able to communicate with each other. Clearly in this instance, fbi knew something about him, School District knew something about him, they werent talking to each other. They werent able to identify he was a threat in time. That is kind of things were talking about, identifying lone wolf terrorist what is these folks fit in. They are not religious terrorists. They are not civic terrorists. Theyre looking for fame in some horrific way but our actions match the. Well talk about some of the proposals out there. We heard people talking about changing the age to buy certain guns and certainly the legislature is the one that should speak to what is the age you can do things, whether talking about buying tobacco or alcohol, guns are just the same. Absolutely should have that conversation. Neil are you open to that . Is the legislature open to that . Would at the entertain in florida you have to be older than 18 to get one of these weapons . Certainly want to talk about it and figure out how would that change anything . At the end. We look at experiences people had. You go to sandy hook that wouldnt have any bearing. He killed his mother. Stole her guns. In that instance we needed to know who he was and what he planned to do, whether or not youre able to buy a gun at certain age would not affect that outcome or circumstance. It is not any one solution. All that i want to make sure we recognize is that our Second Amendment rights are the same as First Amendment rights. They were written by people who had to fight rebellion, overthrow a king. They wanted to guarranty they would be able to defend themselves in the future. They would be able to speak freely in the future. Any changes we talk about having coming to selfdefense, would we entertain this in the same way as it of affected the First Amendment . The founders looked at them equally important. That is why theyre both side by side in the bill of rights. That is neil do you have any idea about semiautomatic weapons or people who would have access to that and shouldnt . No. But they had no idea about the internet or anybody would accept the federal government coming in to try to censor what youre able to say or not say in either of those media. Look, that is where there are parallels. We absolutely need to make sure people mentally unstable, are not buying guns. People who intend to harm us, whether that is because of religious fanaticism, whether they want to bring down the government, they want to for whatever reason they will be famous attacking friends and family in these situations. That is what we have to address. Neil sir, thank you very much for taking the time. Matt caldwell state representative, tallahassee. Absolutely. President is meeting with survivors of School Shootings including those in florida last week. Both side are coming together. We dont know how theyre being chosen and who is specifically being invited but it is an important powwow. To the hill editorinchief bob cusack. Bob, do we know a little more some of these include those very critical of the president and his visit to florida last week . No, no. We were talking about this morning. We dont have that level of detail but i agree with you, neil, whoever in the room will be survivors of these shootings. That will be a key meeting. Trump is is the key player here. Not paul ryan or mitch mcconnell. It is President Trump, even though he has gotten support with the nra. He said if youre on terrorist watch list you shouldnt get a gun. Pushing forward on bump stocks. He is talking about background checks. Clearly though, this movement, neil, it is not going away. Theyre in the state capital of florida. Theyre coming to washington and trump knows that. I think thats a powerful thing. Now as you were alluding before in the prior interview, not everyone will be happy with whatever solution comes up with. I think something has to get done what will be a problem for the president and law makers in congress. Neil what i worry about this stuff, both sides get into their intractable positions. For example, if you think this is about guns, of course the rap is republicans are afraid to take on the nra conversely when republicans point to these violent video games and movies that begin a backdrop, lo we come to discover in the shooters case, police visited his home at least a few dozen times over the past few years, several of those times because his mother was taking his xbox game away. There you could say, democrats are beholden to hollywood and wont take them on. Is there a middle ground both sides begin to prick their sacred cows . I think so. It will be awfully difficult. I mean there was no real solution after sandy hook. Neil right. That was a big showdown between the president and the nra and he had a Democratic Senate at the time. So, they didnt get anything done there but i, this could be different. I do think that both sides have to get in the room, well not agree on everything but well agree on certain stuff. There is Bipartisan Legislation in the senate backed by conservative democrats, sponsored by john cornyn, the number two republican. Neil right. That could be part of the solution but certainly gun control activists will want a lot more. I do think there will have to be compromise on this issue. It will honestly happen over the next month. That is what were talking about right now. These students have dominated the news cycle this week. Neil they really have. Changed the tone of this as we watch one after another speak about this and activism behind this. I am curious, bob, what what implications are for real change . You have a short life to change something, because it dies down. You would think they would have moved more quickly. Yeah. Neil on these, bump stocks and they didnt. Here where there seems to be some Common Ground addressing at least checks, tightening who is getting guns and when, with, when john cornyn gets aplus rating from nra, gun users favorite senator, the time for thoughts and prayers of our victims families has come and gone, that this is that moment. Is it . I think it is. Time is of the is sense, i agree with you. When you look back to sandy hook, democrats in the Senate Bipartisan proposal pushed by pat toomey and joe manchin. They had hearings, and didnt act quicker. That is part of the reason the bill died. Neil wellput. Bob cusack, the hill editor. What makes them different. They are kids. Maybe your kids. They have seen their friends, their colleagues, killed. And parents who are tired of this sort of thing, seeing one incident after another, these kid are saying, no, no. It stops. After this. Think about all the double miles you could be earning. y