About two wooerks ago. Were going to do strong background checks, work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18. Getting rid of the bump stocks and going to be focusing strongly on Mental Health. Here is a case of Mental Health. Part of the problem is that we used to have Mental Institutions. I said this yesterday, we had a Mental Institution where you take a sicko like this guy. He was a sick guy. So many signs. And you bring him to a Mental Health institution. Those institutions are largely closed because communities didnt want them, communities didnt want to spend the money for them. So you dont have any intermediate ground. You cant put them in jail because he hasnt done anything yet but you know hes going to do something. And President Trump says he will stand up to the nra, the National Rifle association, for the First Time Since the school shooting. We are hearing nra leaders speak. It was quite clear after days and days of student survivors calling for gun reform that the nra has not changed its political call to arms. Lean in. Listen to me now. And never forget these words. To stop a bad guy with a gun it takes a good guy with a gun. Nra chief Wayne Lapierre had a lot more to say. Well dig into that in a moment. First lets check in with pamela brown, standing by at the White House Press briefing set to start any moment now. The president made a lot of news a while ago. Talk me through those headlines. Yeah, he did, offering more specifics on some of the ideas that he has, including the idea of Arming Teachers. He said he would agree with or support Arming Teachers who were highly adept with firearms and also offered up the suggestion, brooke, to give bonuses to those teachers who, in fact, would go to firearm training. That is not something weve heard from this president. When he was asked about those teachers who dont like this idea we heard that last night at the cnn town hall. One of the teachers stood up and said she was not supportive of that. The president dismissed the idea that teachers should not be supportive, saying it would only make schools safer, calling shooters cowards, that they would not go into schools where 20 of the teachers were armed. He does not like gunfree zones in schools but also that this wouldnt apply to all teachers in his view, only those that are highly adept. What is he going to do to confront the nra on what he is supporting now, raising the age limit for those who can buy ar15 rifles, other types of similar weapons . Here is what he had to say about the conversations he has had with nra officials on that matter. I spoke to them. And theyre ready to do things. They want to do things. Theyre good people. Theyre patriots. They love this country. But the nra is ready to do things. They want to they actually came up with certain of the rules and regulations that we have now. Were going to have to toughen i told them, were going to have to toughen them up because it doesnt make anybody look good and, most importantly, i saw the devastation of these families. We cant allow that to happen. Again, we need a hardened school. We want to harden it without having everybody standing there with a rifle. So, of course, you know, one of the questions here during this briefing, of course, will be about how is he going to get the nra on board with some of the ideas, possible solutions that he has . As you pointed out, brooke, the nra has not changed its position in the wake of this latest shooting. And so the question is, how will the president lead on this matter . Pamela, thank you. Well stand by for that briefing. Meantime, nra responding to last weeks massacre in florida, not necessarily with thoughts and prayers but a warning, insisting to the 5 million members that this outcry for gun control is really not about safety but exploitation of tragedy and an ploy to infringe on their rights. Wayne lapierre said yes, what happened in florida is horrible. But he and his nra spokeswoman say guns are not to blame. The elites dont care not one wit about Americas School system and school children. If they truly cared, what they would do is they would protect them. For them, its not a safety issue. Its a political issue. Their goal is to eliminate the Second Amendment. And our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms. We will not be gas lighted into thinking that we are responsible for a tragedy that we had nothing to do with. It is not our job to follow up on red flags. It is not our job to make sure that reporting to the background system. Rebecca bird was there, our cnn political reporter. You listen to those speeches today, these rallying cries. Rebecca, it seemed to me there was a lot of blame going around from particularly Wayne Lapierre in the wake of what happened in parkland. Absolutely, brooke. And none, of course, for the nra. The blame was placed squarely on the shoulders today in this room on democrats, on the media. They said lapierre and dana lash who you heard there speaking, spokesperson for the nra, they said democrats and the media are trying to exploit this tragedy, ultimately trying to eliminate the Second Amendment all together and they warned the crowd here of that threat. Take a listen to a little bit more of what lapierre had to say about democrats and the media. What they want are more restrictions on the law abiding. Think about that. Their solution is to make you, all of you right under the carpet. Even the unbelievable failure of the fbi. The thing that lapierre did not mention as you can hear. For his tweet earlier today where the president supported strengthening background checks, raising the minimum purchasing age for guns to 21 years old and banning bump stocks. These are all things that the nra would oppose in some fashion. Wayne lapierre did not mention the president explicitly in that regard today. Instead he sent sort of a suggestion to the president and republicans that this is still a political issue. He received lapierre a standing ovation here today. Clearly a lot of support still for the nra among conservative activists at cpac. I want to begin with that with my panel, rebecca, thank you very much, in the d. C. Area. Want to have a bigger conversation, right . Waiting for this white house briefing. Jamie gangel is here, chris cillizza, editor at large and dana bash, our cnn political correspondent. I think its important that we score, you know or underscore what the president said a bit ago at the white house. He made changes, news about how he wants to strengthen background check, get rid of bump stocks, raise the age to 21 for buying these weapons. Something that the nra opposes. He specifically said that he talked to the nra and they are willing to, quote, do things. Do we know what the things hes referring to are . No, we dont. Just the fact that he said pretty specifically that he talked to the nra and he told them that they need to do things is quite interesting. I would love to see if we could find out i dont even know if its knowable, if Wayne Lapierre changed his speech at all. It was pretty hot, and clearly focused on the white house and republicans like marco rubio, who are considering proposals that the nra completely opposes. Well see. The question, though, brooke, that im hearing from sources on capitol hill is the president talking, and this is early. We have to cut everybody here looking for solutions some slack but will it get to the point where were talking about an actual legislative solution and, more importantly, will the president use his Political Capital with gun rights voters, with the nra and use that kind of muscle and capital to push republicans in congress, and some democrats, who are from red states who dont want to touch this, to get this through the house and the senate . And, of course, what is the this . Of course. Chris, what do you think about what the president said . I echo a lot of what dana said. I would add this is a daytoday presidency. I say that a lot but back to immigration, remember on tuesday donald trump was saying we have to do comprehensive. Were going to do daca, border security. Were going to get all this done, yeah. We can do a clean daca bill to dianne feinstein, Kevin Mccarthy jumped in. By thursday, all that was out the window. How much will does he have for any of these fights . I would say what youve seen in the past 24 hours is sort of a laundry list of potential proposals. Its Arming Teachers who tried to modify that, raising the age in which you can buy a gun, strengthen background checks. I dont think you get all those things. That doesnt mean you dont ask for them. Thats part of the process. As dana points out were in the beginning, not the end of this i think. What does he choose to focus on . Does he continue to talk about this . Does he continue to care about it . Does he continue to push it . Just because hes doing it today and he did it yesterday doesnt tell us all that much. Sure. Two days ago we were talking about donald trump and his attacking yesterday jeff sessions, his attorney general, for not doing enough about hillary clinton. So, that he does and says a lot. Can he stay on it . Does he care enough to stay on it . Can he impact it in a meaningful way as it relates to legislation . Sure. Its a valid point. On the menu of options presented here in these early stages, jamie, one of the issues we heard from, of course, the president and even, actually, the nra today, this whole notion of hardening our schools, right, and this notion of Arming Teachers. And the president a bit ago at the white house took it a step forward and said give them bonus s to carry a weapon would be more Cost Effective than hiring armed guards. Armed teachers, less expensive. I come from a family with a lot of teachers, principals in it. They did not become teachers and principals to be Law Enforcement people. But apart from that, apart from what marco rubio said last night which he disagreed with the president on this. He disagreed. The police show up. Who is the adult with the zbhun whats going on . I watched last a veteran secret service agent, our town hall. Ive been talking to Law Enforcement officials all week long. Actually, jamie there we go. Good afternoon, everyone. Since its founding in the 1940s, white House Counsel of economic advisers has written and delivered a report to congress on the annual economic report to the president. The 2018 report, delivered yesterday, covers the president s successes to date and our agenda Going Forward. To dig into the details, kevin hassett, chairman of the counsel of economic advisers will make a brief statement and answer your questions on the economic report. Then ill be back to take your questions on the did news of the day. With that, ill give it to kevin. Thanks a lot, raj. Its a dark, dreary day. I heard the White House Press corps was a little depressed. I said lets do some economics and cheer everybody up. Digging around the Chairmans Office on my book shelf was a copy of the first report from 1947 and harry truman said this. The economic report is an opportunity for National Self examination and self criticism. Its a challenge to the president and congress to determine the causes of whatever problems we face in our Economic Life and find the solutions of those problems. Thats what we endeavor to do at the counsel of economic advisers and what we endeavored to do with this report that came out yesterday. We briefed the president on it yesterday at 11 30 in the oval office. I encourage everybody to read it. Its a scintillating read. Eight chapters in the report. The first chapter is an Economic Outlook where we projected our policies will create about a 3 growth rate Going Forward over the next ten years. Real gdp will be about 2 trillion higher in 20 28 because of the president s policies. Deregulation, labor market policies, infrastructure investment, enhancing global trade and innovative policies for americas health. They all basically go into how it will affect our Economic Growth. 2. 2 growth, we can get to 3 growth by adding what the literature says about the economic effects of our policies. Were supposed to also come up with measures of our nations problems that help set priorities. Two attempts at the economic report to do that. Chapter on Cyber Security where we did a lot of original research to find the cyber theft is costing us about 100 billion a year right now. In the u. S. In 2016 and the second thing we did was look at the opioid crisis, finding thats costing us 5 billion a year. Ive got a few minutes for questions but also anyone who wants to can reach out to us and come over to the cea office and ask me questions there. Ill start with you in the back. Thank you, kevin. Two questions for you. One on the dollar and the other on the stock market. Stock market volatility over the past month or so. Im wondering if you think that that volatility has any impact on the real economy beyond just wall street. It is something to be expected. Its a regular thing in the stock market and tends to go up a lot when the market has gone up a lot, as it has in response to our policies. I dont think its anything unusual for something for people to be concerned about. Followup on the dollar . Secretary mnuchin has talked a lot about the dollar and thats not changed. A strong dollar policy. Sure. Some comments to suggest that maybe the United States secretary mnuchin is in charge of communications about the dollar policy. Economic policies of this president may lead to greater inflation. Thats something people are concerned about. Theres been inflation data that has caused some pause for markets and concern for markets. Most of our policies will create growth for the economy on the supply side and when the supply side growth comes and thats good for inflation, it puts down more pressure on prices. We can get the growth we forecast without a pick up in inflation. When we modeled this, we get forward Interest Rates that are about what the fed Forward Guidance is right now. You cut taxes, and to thats the concern, that will stoke the if you cut marginal tax rate you get more Capital Spending, increasing supply. If we were to do Something Like have a big cash for Clunker Program like we did eight years ago, that would increase demand and cause inflation. Question on the stock market or stock market as an indicator, the president has often pointed to the rising stock market as evidence of the success of his economic policies and strength of the economy. If the stock market goes down, should we conclude the reverse, that the president s economic policies are failing and the economy is not healthy . The stock market is a great forwardlooking indicator. The value is basically the markets assessment of the president value of future earnings after tax or free cash flow. Through the ups and downs, the stock market is a great indicator. There will be up days and big down days in the short term, theres big literature on this. Your best guess of what the stock market is going to do tomorrow is flip a coin and that will tell you the answer. In the longrun, Economic Policy matters. In this regard the stock market is up about 35 since the president was elected. And thats pretty consistent with what you would expect, given all the positive policy changes weve made. In particular, cutting the Corporate Tax rate to 21 . That goes from. 65 to. 79 then that means you should expect markets to go up. Equity markets go up and down. Thats the nature of the business. Fair market come about we should conclude theres fundamental problems . If theres a fair market thats sustained that would likely happen because there was a lot of bad news about Earnings Growth and the state of the economy. The stock market is a reasonable indicator of the current state of the economy. Its been going up a lot because of optimism about the president s policies. Ill go to the middle and then come back to the front row. Im sorry i still dont know everybodys names. Thats all right. Have you done any forecasts about what it would mean for the economy, net positive and negative if the u. S. Is to pull out of the north American Free trade agreement . At the cea weve done a heck of a lot of analysis to help guide the president s thinking on trade. There are a lot of decisions coming up. Our job is to provide objective analysis of the pluses and minuses of each of the moves being considered. That analysis, of course, is confidential that has been shared with the president and can be forayed in analysis of time but i cant get into that. Would it be good if the u. S. Said were done with nafta . I point you to the trade chapter of the economic report to the president. We have an extensive discussion of trade. One thing that surprised me as an economist as i dug into the details is how right the president is about trade in the following sense, that our trade deals really are asymmetric, that we charge pretty much no tariff at all on imports but a lot of our trading partners have high tariffs or nontariff barriers. U. S. Auto sales into korea, theres nontariff barriers so that u. S. Firms cant sell there. If economists were to sit down and write a trade deal, it would be lets have free trade. Thats all it would take. Thousands of pages long and those thousands of pages have often been negotiated by negotiators that have disadvantaged american wo