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Republicans Pass Budget Blueprint; Trump Declares Opioid Emergency; Drug Overdose Discussion. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 26, 2017 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:21] JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Welcome to INSIDE POLITICS. I'm John King. Thank you for sharing your time with us on a busy, busy day here in the nation's capital.

The House just moments ago passed a budget blueprint that keeps alive Republican hopes of sending President Trump a big tax cut plan as a Christmas gift. The Democrats call it a lump of coal for the middle class.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R), MAJORITY WHIP: Cutting taxes across the board so that middle class families can have a better opportunity for the American dream.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: The Republican budget and tax plan cruelly rigs an unfair system even further against hardworking Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Plus, the president later today designates opioid abuse a national public health crisis. It could free up more federal grant money, but falls far short of a Trump promise to declare a full national emergency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNDI SWAFFORD, ATTENDING PRESIDENT TRUMP'S OPIOID SPEECH: Everyone that we meet knows someone or knows of someone who's had a close encounter with the heroin epidemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And, 54 years after that fateful November day in Dallas, the government making public reams of long sealed documents about the assassination of a president, and the long running debate about whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: A lot of the conspiracy theories are about even if you believe Oswald was the lone gunman.

When the first batch of these are coming out, people are going to be honing in on the Oswald files of both FBI and CIA.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We begin with the big moment here in Washington that could affect the Republican agenda and potentially your business or family bottom line. The House, last hour, narrowly passing a budget blueprint, the vehicle Republicans need to pass their still secret and still evolving tax cut plan. It is a giant win for the Republican leadership, which is promising now to produce the actual tax cut details next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: This budget that we just passed in the House today brings us one step closer to historic tax reform. That means more jobs, fairer taxes, bigger paychecks for Americans. Too long the American people have been living under a broken system where they see too little of their own hard earned dollars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The speaker was in a happy mood, but the 216 to 212 vote, 20 Republicans voting no, proof this debate is far from the finish line. There are big internal Republican debates over the details ranging from the explosion at the federal deficit to plans to wipe away popular tax deductions, like the one you get now for state and local taxes that you pay, or maybe the tax-free savings you get in your 401(k).

As the votes were being counted in the House, President Trump tweeted this, do not underestimate the unity in the Republican Party. That unity will be tested and tested soon. Republicans want to get this done fast and they can't count on any Democratic votes, especially in the House.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says the Republicans are flat out lying when they sell this tax bill as a gift to the middle class. She is meeting with reporters as we speak. We'll turn some of that around for you in just a few minutes.

With us on this big day to share their reporting and their insights, Margaret Talev of "Bloomberg," Franco Ordonez of "McClatchy," Michael Warren of "The Weekly Standard," we got that backwards, and CNN's Lauren Fox.

Sorry about that, gentlemen.

A huge day for the Republican Party. A huge day for the president and his agenda after what has been a very disappointing eight, nine months, failing to repeal and replace Obamacare. The question is, can they move it forward? You spend your days walking the halls of Capitol Hill, 20 Republican nos. That's a sign to the speaker that you got over the hurdle today. You better figure out the votes on the details and you better do it fast.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: It's absolutely a terrifying sign for Republicans moving forward that is a budget blueprint, this is not a bill. This is not something that's going to make policy. This just paves the way for tax reform. We have not gotten into the nitty gritty details yet. And those are going to matter tremendously moving forward. We will see an update on November 1st on what exactly is going to be in this bill. That's going to be a key day to remember.

KING: And that's the hard part. You have, again, lawmakers from -- there are about 35 Republicans in the House, from high-tech states, like California, like New York, like New Jersey, who have to go home and tell their constitutes, if they leave the outline, the bill, as the outline now is, we're going to take away six, seven, eight, nine, ten and sometimes $12,000 of what you get to deduct. There's the debate about 401(k)s, which we'll get to in a minute. Other details about a lot of conservatives say, wait a minute, what about the deficit? Where are you going to cut spending?

Another wild card, as he was throughout the Obamacare debate, is the president of the United States who, today, tweeted unity, did exactly what the leadership wanted him to do, stay out of the details. Listen, though, to Speaker Paul Ryan being asked, as Lauren just noted, the details come out next week. Are they worried they're going to produce a bill and, as happened during Obamacare, then the president goes on Twitter to say, no.

[12:05:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Are you at all concerned that this rollout next week, when you actually detail these tough choices, that he's not going to maybe like some of them and tweet something about it?

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: He's going to be in Asia, number one. No, no, I'm just kidding. That was kind of a joke. I was just sort of joking on that one.

No, I'm not, because we're working very, very closely with the White House on this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL WARREN, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD" It's funny because it's true.

KING: Yes. Yes, that was a joke, kind of.

MARGARET TALEV, "BLOOMBERG": Funny and not funny.

WARREN: Right. Look, I think that this budget vote sort of underscores we're kind of obsessed with this idea that the Senate majority for Republicans is narrow. But we forget that the House majority is as well.

And the president, I think, has a problem here, which is that he can tweet about unity all he wants, but the fact of the matter is, is that these are not unified Republicans. There are different I think legitimate reasons why Republicans are worried about all of these different issues, the deductions, the deficit.

And the president doesn't have the tools that you might expect a president to have when he has both majorities. You know, the -- he's at 38 percent in the latest Fox News poll in his approval rating. He doesn't have sort of the public mandate to be able to say, look, at this moment, the country's behind me because the country's not behind him. So Republicans are going to need something from the president on this to, you know, step out and make a decision that could hurt them with voters for the sake of getting the Republican agenda through. Right now the president doesn't have those tools.

KING: You make a very important point because at 38 or roughly 40 percent, it makes it really hard for the president to get any Democrats. And without any Democrats, that leaves the Republicans, as we saw during Obamacare, we didn't see this so much in the House, we will now, with very little to lose in the sense that if you have 35 members worrying about the state and local deduction, well, guess what, Mr. Speaker, you can't pass a bill without most of those. You lost 20 of them. A mix of people today that got you to 20.

One of the key issues here is the president of the United States tweeted last week, and that's why Ryan was joking, as you said, or almost joking, when he said he's going to be in Asia. The president tweeted the other day, don't touch 401(k)s. Well, one of the things they have to do here is take a $1.5 trillion -- a big tax cut that's more than $1.5 trillion, and put it in a $1.5 trillion hole in the budget, which means you have to raise some money elsewhere. You have to bring some new revenues in to help pay for this and get it within the budget outline. 401(k)s, one of the things they're thinking about. The president says no. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who is writing this bill, who will release it next week, even after the president said no, says maybe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN BRADY (R), WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE: We think in tax reform we can create incentives for Americans to save more and save sooner which can help them. We are continuing discussions with the president all focused on saving more, saving sooner.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 401(k)s, to me, are very important. And they're important because that's one of the great benefits to the middle class. I didn't want that to go too far. That's why I ended it very quickly.

You know, there are certain elements of deals you don't top the negotiate with. 401(k)s -- and Kevin knows it and I think Kevin Brady is fantastic -- but he knows how important 401(k)s are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The "I think Kevin Brady is fantastic" reminds me of, I love the House bill. Let's have a Rose Garden celebration. And then you later you it mean. I mean that is the quicksand the Republican Party's going into as they now put the details on paper. TALEV: But the president is right, of course, about the middle class impact of 401(k)s. And the entire like populist selling point of the need to do this is not -- the corporate stuff is part of it. Like, we want to stimulate the economy. But the reason why the president is trying to sell this to most Americans for this to be popular is that it could help the middle class.

When the two things you're talking about using to offset the revenue loss from the tax cuts are middle class tools for retirement savings or to, you know, kind of buffer yourself if you live in states with expensive taxes, then aren't you just talking about kind of doing this, right?

And so publicly the goal is still for Republicans to get this passed by the end of the year. But privately and starting to be publicly now too, people are talking very much about how this could push into the early year, into spring, well past the beginning of the primary season for Republicans. In fact, we reported yesterday -- "Bloomberg" reported -- that Gary Cohn is no longer on the president's short list for the Fed. And when I talked to a senior administration official, one of the explanations for this is that Gary is so important to tax reform that the president can't live without him in that role. Well, of course, the Fed thing doesn't need to happen until next year.

KING: Right. But if you think it's hard to get some of these lawmakers to cast very tough votes in an odd numbered year, try it in an even- numbered year when they are on the ballot, especially in the House.

So the challenge for the Democrats here is, they don't have the votes to stop this as long as the Republicans stay together. So the challenge for the Democrats is to put the fear of the voter into a lot of those more moderate or the high tax Republicans, who might be conservatives, they're just in a place where some of details are going to be a very tough sell.

Here's Nancy Pelosi, a short time ago, amping up the Democratic message that when the Republicans tell you this is for the middle class, they're lying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), MINORITY LEADER: This morning, when the Republicans voted to advance the budget that they put forth, they made a -- they drew a line in the sand between the middle class and working families and the very wealthy and corporate America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:10:10] KING: The question is, you know, look, they don't have the votes. But can they have an effective message that again sways some of those Republicans who are looking at Nancy Pelosi and saying, if I lose my seat, she's speaker.

FRANCO ORDONEZ, "MCCLATCHY": I mean I think they're looking at that but I think there's also a realization that Trump does have more power than perhaps he's given credit for. There's a big difference between a New York Republicans and say a Texas Republican.

He has a lot of support and he's gaining more. He has several issues that some Democrats are actually interested in. The 401(k), like his daughter Ivanka, the four -- pardon me, the child care tax credit, the mortgage interest deduction. These are issues that Democrats want and some Democrats in red states have indicated that they're willing to talk with the president about some of these issues.

I wouldn't count it out entirely. Also Republicans yes are indeed against many of these issues. But I think Trump is showing that he has a lot more control on the Republican Party that some give him credit for.

KING: No question over the Republicans. I guess the question is, what will the president do? The speaker's right, he is going to be in Asia next week. But then he'll come back, he'll be here for the key moments of this debate.

Our White House correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, had a fascinating piece yesterday about the fact that here's the president too, whether you like him or not, can be a very effective communicator. He does have huge sway over Republicans -- 83, 85 percent approval rating over Republicans -- will he hit the road?

And in Jeff's piece yesterday he quoted an administration official saying the president likes his rallies, but he likes staying in the White House more. Some people think he feels a little burned by getting involved in the Alabama Senate race and doesn't want to go out on the road so much anymore. How important is the president to helping Speaker Ryan get those votes?

FOX: If you talk to Republicans on Capitol Hill, what they want the president to do is go out on the campaign trail and sell this tax bill. They don't need him involved in the nitty gritty details because they have to pay for this bill. They don't want him nixing some of those paid fors on the front end.

But what they want him to do is go out there. They're -- he is more popular than many of them. And they know that. And so he -- they need the president to back their tax bill because some of these decisions are going to be really tough.

WARREN: But here's the conundrum on that, which is I think the -- the -- on the nitty, gritty details, the president's instincts are a little more right than the sort of --

KING: Yes.

WARREN: Certainly the Republican establishment and the Republican leadership on The Hill. That's where he's sort of -- you know, this 401(k) talk, for instance, is a perfect example of where he's kind of got his pulse on where the middle class, his base is, and the Republican leadership doesn't.

KING: Right. His instinct tends to be more populist and some would argue more Democratic, or at least the proposals more aimed at traditional Democratic.

WARREN: Yes.

KING: Maybe where the parties are in this churn right now, who knows, but that's where it gets interesting when he gets out on the road, if he gets out on the road, sometimes he can't resist. He reacts for the crowd and off we go.

So we are at the beginning. This is the first chapter now, but a big victory for the House leadership today. We'll see where the tax debate goes forward.

Up next, opioids may be the country's biggest public health crisis right now. Later today, the president of the United States will officially label it a public health emergency.

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[12:17:05] KING: Other big, important news in Washington today. This afternoon, President Trump scheduled to declare the opioid epidemic a public health emergency. It's a very significant move, but well short of declaring the crisis a national emergency, a designation the president has been promising. A full national emergency would give the White House direct power to immediately increase federal funding. The lesser designation, which the president will use, means any new money would have to be authorized by Congress in its year-end spending packages. The president promised the full national emergency declaration back in August.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The opioid crisis is an emergency and I'm saying officially right now it is an emergency. It's a national emergency. This is a national emergency and we are drawing documents now to so attest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And here's what the president told reporters just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have a big meeting on opioids tomorrow. We're going to be doing -- we're going to be doing a very, very important meeting sometime in the very short -- very near future on opioids in terms of declaring a national emergency, which gives us power to do things that you can't do right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now, I would argue, an attention at the highest levels of government paid to this crisis epidemic is good. Any attention is a good thing.

But why the retreat? Did the president not understand the language? Is he just a new president who didn't understand the distinction and the language between a national emergency and a public health emergency? Is that what it is? Or was he talked out of going the full limit?

TALEV: Yes, two things happened. And one is that there began a series of legal discussions about whether or not you actually could use hurricane emergency funds, natural disaster funds under the Stafford Act in this way, even for a short period of time, much less a prolonged period of time.

But the second and much more important thing that happened was that there were like three massive hurricanes that just completely devastated, you know, Texas and Florida and Puerto Rico. And if he had gone that route, the Stafford Act, the FEMA route, it would have been that pot of money.

Now, could you get Congress to approve more money as some sort of emergency thing? Sure. But there's a -- it's a bottomless pit of need, particularly in Puerto Rico right now. And the opioid crisis is so expensive. Tens of billions of dollars a year. You could just -- it's like painting the drywall, that even if you tapped all of those FEMA funds, took them all away from natural disasters, which are not going to do, nobody would do that, it would not fix the problem.

KING: Right. And so now you have the problem. Again, any attention from the president is good. But now you have the issue, I think a lot of these families would argue, the treatment centers would argue, the law enforcement officials around the country would argue, that this is a daily natural disaster for them.

TALEV: It's a public health crisis.

KING: That this is -- this is tantamount to a constant hurricane, a constant tornado. Not minimizing the loss and the pain of the people of Florida and Texas and Puerto Rico, et cetera, but they would argue that. And so the challenge is, the president does this today. It's a 90-day, which we assume he will renew. It tells ever federal agency, look around. What have you got? What have you got to spend? Can you redirect resources now? But it doesn't have any new money.

[12:20:06] Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, says, to her, that's the test for the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (R), MINORITY LEADER: What I would say to the president on that is, show me the money. Declaring an emergency means he can have access to some funds, but the funds in that account are like $57,000, $58,000. So, show me the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And as we had the conversation, this is not a Washington conversation. It is, because that's -- he's the president (INAUDIBLE) here it is because the money gets allocated here.

But I'll just show the map that we have here. You don't need me to tell you this. This is a problem in every state, every community in America. And if you look at the map here on the overdose deaths, and, in fact, and this is numbers from 2015, the darker the state, the higher the rate of opioid deaths, mortality by state. But it's everywhere. It's everywhere. This is shaded to accent and highlight the states where it is worse. If you look at a lot of those states, again, I don't want to bring -- there shouldn't be politics involved in this, but that's a lot of the president's base states if you look though that region of the country.

I want to come back to the issue of, you know, he is a new president. He's learning the language of government. But if this was so important in the campaign, is it a fair question to ask, why are we in late October before we get this?

ORDONEZ: Yes, I think that's a very fair question. I mean I think you had experts who were very eager to see something done immediately. When you say a national emergency, that's a sign that urgency is necessary. It took this long to get through.

You point out, any public health address is good. Obviously there are other issues that involve how much that involves life-threatening problems. Margaret mentioned Puerto Rico. We've got Harvey. We have nuclear missiles that could potentially be targeted at California. There's a lot of life-threatening issues that are going on right now. Opioid abuse is one of those.

And as you point out, and that map shows, this is an issue that covers the swath of America, red, blue, rich, working class Americans. And I think it's clear that both Republicans and Democrats realize that this is something that needs to be addressed.

KING: And I want to go back -- just jump in. I just want to go back to the campaign, because this was a surprise to the candidates. If you remember about this, they're going to town halls in Iowa, town halls in New Hampshire. And in every presidential campaign, something bubbles up that Washington's not paying enough attention to. And this is just a sample of candidate Trump on the trail talking about this. And anybody who ran for president, anybody who ran for anything in 2016 will tell you they would go to town halls this would come up again and again and again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm now doubling down on that promise that I made to the people of New Hampshire and can guarantee you we will not only stop the drugs from pouring in, but we will help all of those people so seriously addicted. We'll get them assistance. We'll make sure that they have the top treatment and get better.

We're going to take all of these kids and people, not just kids, that are totally addicted and they can't break it. We're going to work with them. We're going to spend the money. We're going to get that habit broken.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Our conversations about politics sometimes gets snarky here. That's the nature of the business. I don't mean this to be snarky. I hope the president goes back and looks at those words and he's doing what he's doing today. But in terms of the focus, do you renew it for 90 days, do you kick Congress? Congress has to appropriate more money for these emergencies. Can he get them to do it before December? Can he do something to prove, it might have taken me 10 months to get here, but I mean it.

WARREN: But I think the fact that this was a surprise to candidates on the trail sort of underscores the problem -- the bigger problem here, which is that it's -- it's cultural. And, you know, Nancy Pelosi, of course, is going to say, where's the money. Show me the money here. But I'm not quite sure what more federal money could be doing to stem a problem, which is so -- it's cross cultural. It cuts across, you know, this is happening among people who are -- who are wealthy, just as much as it's happening among people who are poor. But, I mean, more so they don't have the resources to deal with treatment. But this is a problem that I think is so unwieldy, you wonder -- I mean an effort to bring more awareness to it, good enough, but there's a problem here that goes deeper than just simply throwing more money at it from Washington.

TALEV: There are also other aspects than the users themselves, whether it's addiction or treatment or whatever. It's whether or not you regulate, add more regulations to the pharmaceutical industry.

KING: Right.

TALEV: It's how you deal with the diplomacy of other countries. I mean it's -- it's in China that so much of the fentanyl is made that's coming here. The president is getting ready for a big Asia trip. Is fentanyl policy going to be part of those discussions with Xi? So the money's important, but understanding what the administration's regulatory approach and diplomacy approach to this is really important. And the money is up to Congress.

KING: But the constant focus, the constant conversation, the constant attention from the president of the United States, his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, is going to speak at this event. She has taken this on in recent days. Set your politics aside. Give them a chance. Let's see what happens. If they give the constant attention, you're right, some people would say, we need more money. Other people would say, it's not the money, we need a conversation about this, that or this. Let's have the conversation. That would be an interesting thing going forward.

Sit tight.

Coming up next, President Trump says the media not giving him a very fair shake. We'll let him make his own case about civility, next.

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[12:29:15] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the press makes me more uncivil than I am. You know, people don't understand. I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I'm a very intelligent person. I -- you know, the fact is, I think -- I really believe, I think the press creates a different image of Donald Trump than the real person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's President Trump just yesterday lodging a complaint against the news media, making the case, as you just head him, he's a good person both in the head and the heart. And as you just heard, he said we, in the media, create a less flattering image. Well, you make the call. A look back here at some of the president's most civil moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Little Marco, they hate him in Florida.

[12:30:02] We call him lyin -- lyin Ted.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Is to replenish the Social Security trust fund.

TRUMP: Such a nasty woman. But Elizabeth Warren is terrible. In the Senate, everybody hates her. You can have Pocahontas.