I put myself in the shoes of that steelworker and ohio. The coalminer, the coal mining family in west virginia. The mother of two in detroit. And i really go to those folks, look them in the audience a come i want to take money from you and give them to corporation for public broadcasting. I will cut the wasteful government spending. The president is beholding to none of that. The president has drafted a budget for the entire nation. And my first budget report to congress, im going to ask for the elimination of the defense sequester. We had America First and America First candidate. We now have an America First president and it shouldnt be surprising that we have an America First budget. Martha can they make that happen . First, chief White House Correspondent john roberts takes us through this today. Good evening. The new budget of the president released today could be described in this way. Big increases in hard power, big cuts to soft power. Lets take a first look at some of those big ticket hard power items. 54 billion increase in defense spending, that breaks down into 52 billion for the pentagon and 2 billion to be given to other agencies who are involved in defense. Homeland security ops the budget by 3 billion, Veterans Affairs gets a little more than 4 billion. Also, 1. 5 billion for beginning construction of the wall, as well. Massive cuts on the other side to some of the most important apartments we have. State department gets a 28 decrease in funding. A 10 billion cost. Epa will see a 31 decrease in its funding, that will cover the elimination of some 3200 positions. Hhs, 17. 9 decrease and restructuring and the National Institutes of health. How it gets a 13. 2 decrease. In that, about 6 billion in total. And matt, a cut to the 3 billion Community Block grant cuts. One of the things the Community Block grant does is that it staf which goes to Fund Programs like meals on wheels. Make mulvaney, the budget director says he cant burden taxpayers with that sort of spending. Listen. We cant do that anymore. We can spend money on programs just because they sound good. Meals on wheels sounds great. A state decision to find that particular portion, to take the federal money and give it to the states and say, we want to give you money for programs that dont work. I can defend that anymore. He also said it wouldnt speak compassionate to take money on the other end for people who are struggling to make ends meet and give it to programs that just arent working. He says that in order to craft a budget, martha, he listened to literally everything the president set on the campaign trail over the months and crafted a budget policy item for just about everything the president said and that is what we sell released today. Martha interesting. It was also interesting, john, the explosive White House Briefing today, especially for sean spicer. He doubled down on President Trumps claims that he was wiretapped by his predecessor, president obama. Those claims persisting despite both the house and today, the Senate Intelligence leadership coming out and saying that there is no evidence that that happened. Watch. Hold on no, i understand that. Where was your passion and where was your concern when they all said that there was no connection to russia . Where was it then . Crickets are from you guys prayed at the end of the day no, hold on. Hold on. Let me i am trying to answer your question, jonathan if you can calm down. You have done plenty of reporting on all of this. You want to cherry pick one commentary. That has all been looked at. How do you know all this . How do you seem to be such an expert in this . I call the questions. If you dont want to answer a question, call on someone else. Thank you. Martha back to john roberts at the white house. What was that like today . It was the craziest thing i had seen at the white house since the president s press conference a few weeks back. Every day, Something Else happens. Let me give you the back story. About 15 minutes before the spicy racing spicer briefiny said they didnt see any evidence for the wiretapping. The president and his staff googled everything they possibly could so they could come out with a lot of ammunition. Spicer had basically a sermon that he wanted to deliver from the podium. We knew he was going to get the question when my colleague from abc asked him, he went on for 7 minutes. He wanted to get out everything they had googled the previous hour. He did, then, got content just because a lot of people thought he was stonewalling. I think the reality is, martha, i know that some people arent going to want to hear this. The evidence to back of the president s assertion that there was wiretapping or some sort of surveillance specifically of trump tower is exceedingly thin. It may be that there were some incidental surveillance of people who may have been coming in and out of trump tower because they have transcripts, apparently, of Lieutenant GeneralMichael Flynn speaking on the telephone with the russian ambassador. That had to come from somewhere. They are other people who were loosely connected to the Trump Campaign over the course of probably the first part of last year who have said to me they think they were being surveilled and their cell phone was in and out of trump tower a few times during the course of the year. We may find that out. Any direct development, knoche proof yet. Martha the big question is whether it is based on the reports. Sean spicer read them, president reference to them in the interview he did with tucker. Then he said, over the next couple of weeks, you will hear interesting things. That is the bucket that hasnt been filled yet. I know you want top of all of that. John, thank you. I got to point out that every intelligence official who has been asked had said there is no evidence that that happens. Maybe news reports i said that but nobody from intel has. Martha thank you. Lets bring in our panel on what has been a very busy day. Chris stirewalt, richard fowler, and charles hurt. Gentlemen, welcome. It was a very spicy news briefing today, we could say. I want to start with this budget. There was a lot in there. You can pick it apart, it leaves the overall budget the same, even though they talk about cuts. Chris, let me start with you. There was language and a way of looking at spending in terms of taking it from the taxpayer and giving it to someone else that we dont really hear put that way quite often. Absolutely. If conservatives were lukewarm or even upset about trauma care and the Health Insurance plan and all of that jazz, this is something that will make them stand up and cheer. This is the most conservative, conceptually conservative i think you nailed it. It is not about the dollars, the concept of what the scope and role and appropriate place for the federal government is in american life. This is the most conservative, by those standards, the most conservative budgets ever put forward by chief executives. Martha we are talking about slashing programs, 28, 30 . Richard, the argument that was made, you know what, we dont have the money for all this stuff, folks. We just dont. We need to figure out where it will come from. I know you feel strongly that they are taking it from the wrong place. I do think they are taking it from the wrong place. Bolstering up our Defense Department when our Defense Department is pretty muscular as it is is not the right move. Heres the Silver Lining in this cloud, martha. Trump says he is the guy who is the art of the deal. Maybe he is creating a budget that is absolutely, positively so toxic that he knows it wont get to the hill and he can get the thing more like what he wants without much movement. Maybe thats it. But if not, i find this budget to be really, really heartrending for the seniors who depend on meals on wheels every day to get their dinner or the kids that wake up and watch sesame street or the african nations that depend upon the United States for their to be able to eat. All of those the other point i want to make here, i spent a month in africa with Foreign Service officers who do the work of maintaining peace every day when our military isnt there. 31 cut or over 30 cut to the state department and our diplomacy by far is one of the worst things we can do in the world. Martha i hear you. Let me break and charlie hurt. Interesting things happen when companies are told that they have to cut by 25 . They find places to cut the money and find ways to make money. The notion that a company can have a 20 trillion debt on their books and not have to cut things dramatically at every department is absolutely unheard of in the private sector. So, for donald trump to step in here and do that and to make these dramatic cuts, i think is exactly right. The most conservative budget that i have ever seen in my time in washington. Politicians, they love to give stuff away. It doesnt matter if it is their money or someone elses. In fact it does matter. They prefer to be other peoples money. They love to give it away. They think that spending it on cartoons or shrimp jogging on treadmills or silent shakespeare productions, they think it is a great expenditure. Martha sometimes better than audible ones, by the way. No, i love shakespeare. This whole concept that its wrong to take something from a single mother of two in the form of taxes or a minor who is trying to put food on his table, in order to give it to a program that is failing as i think somewhat a revolutionary thought. Not the kind of language we hear spoken in washington every day. Not even failing. You are just taking the money from the mother come with a single mother with a child, in order to give it to some program may be as a break, great program. It is still something we have to say, is this right . Martha i want to circle back. I want to get your thoughts on the other part of the briefing, which was combustible. Something else. What did you think . We see this side of trump that gives hope for his supporters. This is going to work, this budget, maybe he is doing deals, selling the health care plan. Then, the stuff that we are reminded of the troubles he had when he was running for president when he gets stuck on something or when he first came into office. There is 5 million secret votes, so, i really did win the popular vote. The problem is, his defenders have enough work to do defending him on substantive matters. When they have to devote their time, effort, energy, do defending the president on this stuff, this pointless stuff that is matters of pride, when you do that, you are Burning Energy and burning capital that is desperately needed to advance an agenda that is the most ambitious id ever seen. Martha gumming up the gears. They are wasting 7 minutes recounting all of this today. As tucker said last night, charlie, why didnt you wait until you had the evidence and then presented . Rather than spilling all the stuff all over the place and making everybody talk about it in the press briefing when you would rather have them talk about your budget. Absolutely. A lot of people have gotten hung up on the word wiretapping and the trump tower. The bottom line does remain, though, there have been a lot of reports about surveillance of either the campaign or people around the campaign, off a political opponent of the sitting president. Those are serious charges. There has been reporting to at least suggest that there may be something there. That is alarming. Martha if there was something there, we will see it when it comes out. I got to go. Thank you. Richard, you will get the first word next time. Good to see you all. Stella had come a First Lady Melania Trump the victim of two separate attacks from a wrapper and a liberal cable host. Governor huckabee and lisa boothe sound off on the double standard. Plus, could the American Health care act be turning a corner . With the president voicing his continued support last night in nashville and signaling that he wants folks to come together, is it off . We will see. That does not include House Freedom caucus mark meadows. He is up next and he will tell us what he thinks the whole thing should be scrapped. It is something i havent seen in a long time. This president is getting deeply involved, the president is the one who has been mediating this, hashing out the differences so hashing out the differences so we can get to a various shouting heigh ho its off to work we go woman on the gulf coast, new exxonmobil projects are expected to create over 45,000 jobs. And each job created by the Energy Industry supports two others in the community. Altogether, the industry supports over 9 million jobs nationwide. These are jobs that natural gas is helping make happen, all while reducing americas emissions. Energy lives here. When you have digestive sensitivities, all while reducing americas emissions. Life can feel like a never ending search for food that wont cause bloating, gas, or inner turmoil. Try pronourish. A delicious nutritional drink that makes a great mini meal or snack that has protein and fiber. And pronourish has no gluten or high fructose corn syrup. And is low in fodmap ingredients that can trigger digestive sensitivities. The search is over. Pronourish. Nutrition you can feel good about. Did you know slow internet can actually hold your business back . Say goodbye to slow downloads, slow backups, slow everything. Comcast business offers blazing fast and reliable internet thats over 6 times faster than slow internet from the phone company. Say hello to internet speeds up to 250 mbps. And add phone and tv for only 34. 90 more a month. Call today. Comcast business. Built for business. Speak with the bill that i will ultimately sign, that will be a bill where everybody is going to get into the room and we are going to get it done, will get rid of obamacare and make Health Care Better for you and for your family. Martha that was last night and nashville. President trump at a rally saying that he hopes to bring everyone together and to hammer out this Republican Health care bill. He believes it can get done. With the future of Obamacare Repeal at stake, summers suggesting that perhaps the replacement legislation could b. Maybe they can get this done. In the moments, we will talk to mark meadows, who says that he thinks theres a lot of work that needs to be done. Not too crazy about her. We begin with mike emanuel live on capitol hill. Hi, mike. Good evening. House Speaker Paul Ryan said his focuses on finding the votes to pass this Health Care Replacement plan in the house. We constantly get feedback, we constantly get suggestions for members. We are working on bridging these gaps to make improvements in the bill so that we have a bell that can pass. And we feel like we are making Great Strides and great progress on getting a bill that can pass because it incorporates the kind of feedbacks for members from all walks of life in our conference. Idaho conservative congressman Raul Labrador took a swipe at the speaker today, saying he should try to play on offense, i dont think we are talking anything about leadership issues but he does need to figure out what it means to have a majority. I have to be honest, sometimes i give credit to nancy pelosi that she knew what it meant to have a majority. Today, they both take another step, passing the Budget Committee on 91917 vote. Three conservatives doll black conservatives with democrats against the g. O. P. Plan. Palmer pushed for tightening up medicaid soon. The Affordable Care act led to the exclusion of the program into a permanent welfare benefit for anyone including the able bodied and childless. The Medicaid Expansion has created a perverse incentive for states to provide things to adults. The democrats continued attacking this bill. Nancy pelosi suggested that paul ryan may force his critics to walk the plank. All of the evidence addressed at this bill will worsen every aspect of our health care system. And return us to a time before the ata when coverage was neither accessible nor affordable. The burden is on the Trump Administration to prove otherwise. Ryan said the president is being helpful trying to rally support. Martha. Thank you. Two republicans, senator ted cruz and House Freedom caucus met marcos mark meadows, where they argued that the house g. O. P. Plan simply doesnt go far enough to achieve the goals. Congressman rado strides with us. Good evening, great to be with you. Do you think they should scrap this and start over . There are some things that have been thought out with the speaker and putting forth us. We are not there yet. I can tell you, i made a promise to the product on my president to negotiate in good faith and make substantial changes. Martha, the real barometer for all of this is that we have two lower we dont do this, then, we fail. Martha does not lower it by 10 . That is really calculating on increase or a decrease in terms of the younger population. So, older americans, those that are 40 and above, actually will see an increase over a 10year period back. According to cbo, our seniors really have to be careful with this. We have to adjust this to make sure that not only those that that are getting protected with this, those that are not, actually get the protection. Martha there are specifics out there that conservatives are pushing for, for instance, work requirements for medicaid for ablebodied recipients of medicaid. Medicaid expansion that would end sooner, 2019 perhaps, rather than 2020. Which things do you think i know yo