JOHN DICKERSON: On taxes, senator, what can Democrats do? This is moving into the conference committee. And Republicans have the votes to pass it. What are Democrats going to do?
DICK DURBIN: Well, it did pass the Senate. There was only one Republican senator, Bob Corker, who voted no. Susan Collins made it clear she's still waiting before she makes her final decision. I think others are in the same position. Jeff Flake, for example, from Arizona made it clear that bringing up this issue about DACA and the DREAMers is critical to his vote when it comes to tax. So I can't assume where the Republicans will end. But they have an awful lot to accomplish in a very short period of time.
JOHN DICKERSON: You mentioned DACA. Let's just go off on a side road there on that. A number of your Democratic supporters, colleagues would like you as a Democrat to basically make funding of the government to keep the government running- would like you to make it contingent on doing something about DACA. Will you?
DICK DURBIN: Well, I can tell you this. We don't want to see the government shut down. We want to move forward in a bipartisan fashion to solve our problems. We believe that DACA is central. The president is the one who made this the issue. September the 5th he eliminated the DACA program and put in doubt the future of over 780,000 people in America. And we want to get this done and accomplished.
34 Republicans in the House came out last week and said, "Do it before the end of the year." The Senate Republicans have said the same thing. Lisa Murkowski yesterday tweeted that her Christmas wish- her greatest Christmas wish is to see this done, DACA and the DREAMer issue resolved, this calendar year. It is within the power of the Republicans to get this done and to put together a package that we can pass. We want to stand by them, work with them, and get that done.
JOHN DICKERSON: Nothing focuses the mind like a deadline though. And using the deadline of the funding as leverage both for this and also the Children's Health Insurance -- 9 million children -- that still has yet to be dealt with. You at one point said, "I'm not prepared to go home for the holidays until we get our work done." That suggests a little bit of use of this funding as a deadline. But are you really going to go that far?
DICK DURBIN: Well, I feel very strongly about it. There are many important issues. DACA to me personally and the DREAM Act are very personal and mean an awful lot. But when we're talking about funding our government, providing the resources and programs that many middle income families use across America, dealing with the opioid crisis, making certain that we take care of our veterans, making certain that we have the money for biomedical research, these are part of the conversation and part of the dialogue as we close down this budget. It is up to the Republicans to make a decision about what we will do. I think we can get this done right.
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