was over and this treaty would remain in effect for several years "after words". >> american history tv, every weekend on c-span three. >> the washington times reported today on comments made during c-span's interview with house speaker paul ryan that he worries his colleagues will sink into the worst days of porkbarrel spending if they return to earmarks. they must be wary of the abuses of the past, that it could lead to bad government. here's the interview with the speaker in its entirety during which he also talks about what's ahead in congress, his relationship with the white house, and his portico future. >> house speaker paul ryan, thanks for joining us on

c-span. let's talk about this tax bill. members of your party are saying there need to be some fixes and revisions to the bill. what change, if any, is needed. >> it's good to be back. >> come by anytime. >> anytime you do massive legislation like this, this is the biggest revision. the last was in 86 and this is bigger than that. we know all along when you have such a massive rewrite you will have technical changes that will need to occur. we wrote our tax system on how we treat international economics and cash flow. we knew that would need some revising. so far, not a lot that really needs to be done other than what i would call small things. >> no republican support for the affordable care act, is that the new norm? >> i hope not. >> i was surprised. not a single democrat voted for this.

in 20 days you've seen 2 million workers getting raises and bonuses producing all these reasons being announced in electricity companies announcing they are lowering rates as a consequence of this. in milwaukee we have a big insurance company. a couple months ago assurant said because of tax laws they would move to bermuda and become a bermuda company instead of an american company. now because of the tax law they are staying in milwaukee. you are seeing stories like that, businesses expanding, workers getting wage increases and getting bonuses, better benefits. 4o1k, all of those things and it's just been 20 days. i think that democrats will regret not having support of this. i think will do tremendous things for our economy and we

are in a partisan climate but that doesn't stop us from doing what we think is right to help people in this economy. >> leader pelosi is calling all of this crumbs. >> i'm surprised and sad they settled us. somebody working at walmart just went from nine dollars an hour to $11 an hour, i don't think that's crumbs. working paycheck to paycheck and they just got a thousand dollar bonus, that's not crumbs. comcast, just one company is investing $50 billion in america in jobs and expanding across the country. this isn't crumbs. the additional maternity leave at walmart, the higher 4o1k plans, these are crumbs. half of americans are living paycheck to paycheck. when they get something like a thousand dollars bonus at

christmas time, it's hardly crumbs. >> i will go back to november of 1998. you appeared on the c-span column as a member a lot. here's what it said. >> i think the first principle of tax reform are to be those in the bottom wrong should be held harmless. give them a chance to get up on their feet on a road to self-sufficiency before they get whacked with taxes. what i think is interesting is take a look at our current tax system. we are working till may 17 just to pay her taxes to the government. our tax system is punishing all those qualities that make america great. we can have a better tax system. >> your reaction. >> that's what they call my gumby haircut that i had back in those days and i still have that type. >> i've been working on this for over 20 years. i've been working on this issue pretty much my entire adult life. jack cap was my mentor. i worked on this issue 20 years in congress.

my reaction is, it's what i tell my kids, it's what i tell school students when i talk about civics and democracy and the republic that we are, if you believe passionately something that will make a big difference, what's great about our system of government is that you work and you push and you convincingly run on an idea by running for office. that's what these jobs are about. that's what's exciting about what i do and it takes time in a system like we have. it does take time. tax reform is literally something i've been working on for over 20 years for this country, we been talking about it for about 30 years and it takes time to do these things but it does work. that is a vindication of the system of government that we have which is representative of democracy and the fact that if you believe in something you have to stick at it and eventually tackle those goals. that's my big take away.

i can get into the economics of why i think this is a good idea but the real take away is looking back at when i was a young guy, it takes time to do big things in this country and this is a story of big things getting done. california and new york looking at workarounds. will you or the republicans do anything to stop that. >> i don't the goal work anyway. i think the best ideas are talking about is let millionaires and billionaires pay their taxes as donations, that's not going to work. i can't imagine they would even let that happen. it is beyond reason to think tax regulation, filling this out would allow that to happen. i don't even think we have to legislate to prevent those workaround. >> your first appearance was 1995 on a saturday morning and you were talking about the debt of the time which was

approaching $5 trillion. >> this budget debate, what is this about. >> it is evolving into a fundamental difference between the two parties. the republicans, we say we have to balance the budget. we have to pay down the debt. it's interesting to note that the clinton administration's budget for this year projects building more deficits, in excess of $200 billion. we think we have to balance the budget as soon as possible. the debt is now $20 trillion in tax bill will add another trillion to the debt. >> i think my haircut was better in 1995. if you take a look at all of our full-scale efforts like the budget that we passed this year it had a lot of reforms in it and it is a balance budget.

it's all balance budget plans but the problem is you have to get these bills to the house and the senate and get them into law. we think there's two things you basically have to do. you had to get the debt under control. you have to reform our entitlement program and make them work better and make those dollars stretch further and you have to prepare for baby boomers which were really not prepared for and how to grow the economy. this is been one of the most important things we could've ever done to grow the economy. this is a piece of our fiscal agenda which is economic growth through tax reform or revelatory reform. i do not believe this latter trillion plus dollars to the debt. i think the athletic growth, i don't know what the numbers going to be. i think will be tremendously different and will help people earn more wages, pay more taxes and more company will come back into america. that does not mean we should

be focused on spending part we should be focused on spending. >> leader mcconnell said it's a nonstarter. >> yes, we have a challenge with a razor thin majority and it's extremely hard to pass. what i regret the most is that we have yet to reach bipartisan consensus when all of us know this is necessary to get our deficit under control. you cannot tax your way outside of this problem with the baby boomers. we have to grow the economy and this helps us do that. i'm glad we did that. at the end of the day we have to get bipartisan support to fix our program. medicare has already borrowed money more than 50%. we don't want that to happen either. these are important programs we have to preserve and save for future generations and that will take bipartisan

support. >> will happen this year. >> i just don't think it's in the cards but there are other things we could probably do to help give people from welfare into work so they are getting a better job, better life and paying taxes. >> that was part of our plan and house bill. that's something we passed back in may. that is something we are in favor of. >> there also suggesting that your mark should come back on capitol hill as a way to grease the skid. >> i offered the ban on the earmarks. there is a frustration among any of our members that's been seated to the executive branch too much. there is an argument and point to be made but i do have concerns about the old earmark process that we had which i helped stop, but i do believe there is a concern about

having more legislative branch oversight on how the executive branch spends money, but we've got to make sure this doesn't go back to porkbarrel spending. >> do you worry if your marks come back it could hurt the numbers and house? >> i just worry could lead to porkbarrel spending. it could lead to bad government. that's what i worry about. >> republicans tell them the democrats will take back the house next year. >> don't tell me that. >> should we address chair limits and term limits. >> i'm a big fan of term limits. i think we should have them on congress itself. we should control our chairmanships. you are seeing chairman retired now. we are having a number of them because we operate in the

republican house with six-year terms, meaning two or three terms, six-year totals for chairmanships and they're all on a similar cycle. we have a lot of chairmen coming at the end of the chairmanship and that's why people like ed royce are retiring. what that does it gives younger, newer members the ability to move into the ranks and move up and take these chairmanships. it brings fresh blood, fresh turnover, new perspective. i think that's a good thing for congress. >> what's the biggest challenge for you in this job. >> getting things past, getting big things done. what i'm excited about, we iran on a very specific agenda in 2016 and we came around, we all got consensus and we came up with better way. now we are in the middle of executing but i'm very excited that we passed more bills this past year, in this president's first year of office and reagan, bush, bush, clinton, obama. meaning we passed, we were

very successful in past our bills. we have over 400 bills stuck in the senate that have not been moving through like the house. getting these bills not just through the house but into law is the biggest challenge given the fact that they have a filibuster. we are so partisan. i hope we can get more bipartisanship this year not just passing them in the house. you intend to be speaker and 2019? >> that something my wife and i discussed in the spring. we have this customary conversation before deadline in wisconsin. >> house speaker paul ryan, thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having us back. >> this interview is available on our website, cspan.org. you can also see it again

later today. we will be playing at 6:45 and 8:45 eastern time on c-span. denny hoyer is this week's guest on newsmakers. he talks about what's ahead in congress and the outlook for democrats taking over the house next year. congress relationship with president trump. you can watch newsmakers sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern also on c-span. congress returns tuesday, facing a government shutdown of midnight friday january 19, the house gambling in at 2:00 p.m. eastern as members were to extend government funding and consider an abortion bill. the senate is back at 4:30 working on the fisa bill. later the senate will have to work on extending government funding past that deadline. the house, live on c-span and the senate live on c-span2. >> sunday on c-span q&a,

author and wall street journal contributor aj boehm with his book the accidental president. harry s truman in the four months that changed the world. >> roosevelt's funeral was saturday and sunday. truman was terrified to give the speech. he talked about it the night before he laid in his bed and he prayed to god. he climbs the stairs, for stairs to the pulpit and looks out and sees his wife in the crowd and she is crying. she is crying because roosevelt is dead. the nation is in shock, and she never wanted to be the first lady. she never wanted her husband to be president purge she is frightened, she is writing for him purchase to get up there and inspire confidence in the whole world. the whole world has to understand that america will continue, that the war will continue.

>> earlier this week the u.s. election commission hosted a summit with state and local officials on election system issues. it includes efficiency, security and voter assess ability. the commission is an independent federal agency created in 2002, charged with identifying best voting practices. >> what is the eac? glad you asked. it stands for election assistance commission and simply put our goal is to make your job easier. seriously. we were established by the help america vote act of 2002 as an independent bipartisan commission, charged with helping americans vote. the primary way we do that, by ensuring a elect