ek's house republican leadership elections. and, angela stent discusses russian president vladimir putin's authorization of a military campaign in syria. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. president obama traveling to maryland later this morning to deliver remarks at the national fallen firefighters memorial service. it will take place on the cap is about st. mary's university come about an hours drive from washington, d.c. meanwhile, here in the nation's capital, the race to succeed john boehner is on, now with two candidates. the house gop conference right now is scheduled to vote on thursday. it is sunday morning, october the fourth. we will type but syria, russia,

u.s. foreign-policy, and also hillary clinton on "saturday night live," and news over the week and that joe biden might announce his decision to enter 10 race in the next week to days. we want to hear from you. ilife or-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. if you are an independent, (202) 745-8002. send us a tweet at @cspanwj. or, join us at conversation. many of you already have on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. good sunday morning to you. thank you for a much for being with us. on facebook, a couple of you weighing in, including this from lauren, saying, everyone should pay something eerie john saying, stop taxing everything that is not nailed down. tells we think about america's

tax code. the tax foundation has basically outlined each proposal. you can get a cross-section from democrats and republicans, what has been announced, and what is expected. donald trump, the latest to do so, this past monday in new york city. [video clip] theld trump: we will cut individual rates from seven brackets to four periods of the vacation. 25%, 20%, 10%, and zero. if you are single and earn less than $25,000, per year, or earn lessnd jointly than $50,000. if you are single and are less than $25,000 or married, and

jointly, earn less than $50,000, you will not pay any income tax. nothing. eliminates, very strongly, and quickly, a very unfair penalty. it eliminates the amt, which is the alternative minimum tax. tax, doubledebt taxation. a lot of families go through ll over the death tax. it eliminates or reduces the loopholes available to special interests and the very rich. in other words, it will cost me a fortune. host: the comments from donald trump. he did so at the trump tower in new york city. we want to hear from you, how would you change the tax kojak at you can begin dialing in. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats.

the cover story of "the new york , "donaldnday magazine trump is not going anywhere. go he is the latest in a series of candidates, including marco rubio, to outline plans to change, fix, simplify america's tax code. if you have the authority to do so, what would you do? here is jeb bush. he was on cnbc this past week. [video clip] jeb bush: we need to go at a far faster rate than we are going today. people'sting a lid on aspirations. 6 million more people living in poverty today than the day that barack obama was elected president. a high-growth strategy requires a dramatic reform of our tax code. we propose civil find the tax

rate, expanding the inclusion, so that many low income earners will not pay anything at all. simplify the code to put a cap on deductions because there are thousands and thousands of these credits. eliminate local and .tate exemptions of taxes that would create an environment where people are saving more. all would get a tax cut of some kind. host: jeb bush was on cnbc reacting to what donald trump had to say. marco rubio also outlining his campaign. here are some highlights.

host: joe is joining us from north charleston, south carolina. welcome to the conversation. what do you think? caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: doing well done here. it is wet. host: you have had a lot of rain. one of the headline said the worst rain in two centuries. caller: it is a historic event. it is kind of moderate now. thank goodness i live on high ground and sandy soil. host: good luck to you. caller: anyway, when this came out the other day, i did some

research online. i did not know why i could not from irs, any t i found one from 2009. lets of the finest thing. i know people think this is silly, but i'm in favor of a national sales tax. if you hire somebody to put a roof on your house, and you do not 1099s and, they will pay their taxes at walmart. number two, it is fair across the board. the middle income people, just like now, they support the country, and pay a lot of taxes. the rich people, who by the big toys, the nice cars, they pay a lot of taxes. no exemptions for businesses. for a piecet to pay of art.

if you do away with the irs, i don't know how you weave that in? i am in favor of doing that, if they find a way to leave it in. host: that is one of the more popular tax deductions that people have under the current system. some are saying that eliminated that, and making it a simple tax system. caller: if it is a simple way, i'm in favor of it. host: anything else? caller: know, steve. from daniel is up next bloomington, indiana. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i appreciate that. i would send the five attacks code doing a few different things. we need a fairer system.

definitely offset a lot of how truly representative we are in the system. i think that doing away with the .rs the about idea havingontinue to look at programs and incentivize for large corporations, and reductions like the mortgage reduction, we need to have the proper oversight. congressional our leaders are going to do the all by themselves. there is a lot that can be done to simplify what is going to are going to have to properly regulate the market, which is not being done. we see that in appropriations bills. they cannot get anything passed properly. 2005 is the last time they claim to have passed the bill.

we need to set the five the tax code, and have the irs involved. host: thanks for the call from indiana. some of the highlights from the trump tax plan. host: roger from pennsylvania,

democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have ideas for different system entirely that i think is far better than anything anybody has adjusted. my idea is what i call a combination flat slope and flat rate tax. a flat slope is a seamless 10% tax increase. 10% pergraduate of $100,000 of income up to $500,000, in which case it would be a 50% rate. then, he would become a flat rate tax. $25 would be 50% to about million, and then there would be to $100 million, where

it would be ultimately 70%. the sounds like it is too high, terms -- torical under eisenhower, a moderate republican, we had tax rate of 90%. john f. kennedy reduced it to 70%. in france, i believe the top rate is 70%. this is in line. high tax rate, do you think there's any way that this republican congress would go along with something like that? caller: probably not. the republicans do not represent .merica i don't know why we should support ridiculous and stupid

ideas just because they happen to be popular with one party or another. host: thank you for the call. -- er twitter page, this stop the tax giveaways for the corporations, they must pay for the privilege of raping the american people. latest layingthe out plans for reforming the tax system. the democrat race with new speculation on joe biden possibly joining the race. a gayke last night to rights organization here and washington, d.c.. the announcement could come within one week to 10 days. cbs news reporting that two people say he is leaning toward entering the race, but family

considerations remain the overriding concern and the reason that he would not run, if he were to enter, of course, she would support. he would likely not participate in the cnn debate, he would need time to put together the foundations of a campaign, and raising money, looking forward to upcoming ballot deadlines. the vice president has been weighing the bid for the last few months, even with fundraisers. again, that is from cnn.com. how would you fix the tax code, if you were? caller: i would actually keep taxwhat of the progressive code that we have. thever, i was close

loopholes. i would get rid of nafta, where it allows the corporations to get a tax break for having jobs overseas. i would enforce the tax, as it stands with corporations, so that they pay their fair share. i don't think we can afford to give tax cuts. debt now trillion in because of the bush and mr. asian. i don't think we can afford that. also, i would tax credit default swap, and make sure they get taxed, one dollar on every credit would probably bring in some extra revenue to reduce the deficit, since we are so

concerned about the deficit. donald trump's tax reform would cost us tend to trillion dollars -- $10 trillion, i don't think we can afford that. host: edwin has this point. again, you can share your thoughts at @cspanwj. eliminate theld tax, it was originally set up as a temporary tax to supplement tariffs. reactions to the shooting and oregon. sheriff inne, "the oregon shooting has spoken out against gun control." ruthto this is a piece by marcus, inside the op-ed page of thisington post," "will shame us?" she makes the following point.

host: back to your calls. on the republican line, gordon from texas. good morning. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. i would like to limit all taxes and medicines. one a set, all taxes groceries and the drugs at the store that we buy. host: let's go to morton next in florida. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. going back a long time, before war, we had ald federal sales tax. it was to pay for a war.

the tax got out of control. i listen to jeb bush just now. i live in florida. the higher was part of tax rate. americans don't remember when they want out of the white house, and said, we are in trouble. as far as the tax on the interest of a home, i but a home for $15,000 -- i'm an egg servicemen -- i want to tell you, that little tax deduction at the end of the year, i took my children and wife out to dinner. as far as the rich people, i am angry at them. they think the sales tax should over $250,000.

why should a man have the right forake attack tax deduction an elevator on his home in the beach area, and then turn around and sell it. host: how long have you owned your house? you said you purchased your house for $18,000? caller: i bought it for $15,800. in the korean war. host: certainly if you are buying a house today, you will not get a house in most places in the country for that amount. caller: no way. i'm not saying that. as far as the tax rate goes up, above $250,000. allow that person to get that small tax rate on his taxes below $250,000.

mr. trump does not need a tax break. it is a shame. host: your final point? is jeb,my final point stop walking around, and blaming the president for everything you are doing wrong. go back to your own family, speak to your brother, not the american people. we are not all full list. rubio, i know my family is part hispanic, part cuban. i know mr. rubio, you did not serve this country. -- allegingtor cruz to go to war for someone else's skin. host: i will let you go. thank you for the call. this is from victor who says, no tax cut until the debt is reduced to a manageable level.

they need to pay it down. another story on guns and america, this pullout from "new york times," "how they got their guns." the president, again on friday, speaking out on the need for changes to america's gun laws. ayre is what he had to s from the white house. [video clip] president obama: this will not change until the behavior of elected officials changes. the main thing i will do is talk about this. on a regular basis. and, i will politicize it. our inaction is a political decision that we are making. the reason that congress does even the modest gun

safety laws that we proposed after sandy hook is not because the majority of the american people do not supported. normally, politicians are responsive to the views of the electorate. majority have the of american people who think it is the right thing to do -- background checks, other common sense steps, that would maybe save some lives. they could not even get a full vote. why is that? it is because of politics. the president on friday. the flag at half staff to commemorate those who were killed in the oregon shootings, outside the u.s. capitol and federal buildings around the country, also at the white house. we are asking you about america's tax code, and how you would change the tax code. peg, we still have

to pay for iraq and afghanistan wars, putting more money in the top 10% pocket accomplish that. "meet themp saying on press" that he would also cut federal spending. "meet the press" is one of the five sunday programs that as on noonn radio, beginning at eastern time. this program is also carried 124.on serious xm, channel the front page of "the new york ," let me read you some of the details from afghanistan. the american military acknowledging that it may have killed 19 patients.

host: one of the front pages of "new york times" has a photograph of one of the children injured in the airstrike. america's tax code, how would you change it?

joe from florida, democrats line, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. i'm so happy you have this subject on. i have been working on devising a tax plan for years. it is based on a proposition that each dollar the you have in has the same value, no matter how you got it. but, how you got it depends on how much tax you paid on it. my plan is one where all income is taxed at the same rate. most people can actually do their income taxes on one sheet of paper, without hiring somebody. you add up all your different sources of income, and then each person takes a minimum from their income gross income, and pays a flat

rate on the difference. the minimum subsistence income is something determined by some federal agency to be that minimum subsistence income for your family composition in your zip code. what this does is it it just -- adjusts for the cost of living in your area, something and deductions do not take into account. the entire plan is explained pretty well in detail online. i buy people to look at it. one of the other features is all deductions are totally removed. that is number one. number two, the federal budget is combined into -- excuse me, it is combined to include the

regular budget, the social security budget, and the medicare budget, so that this is all done as a single unit. each year, the budget to be balanced to pay for the expenses. average thed be to national debt over 10 years so it is totally gone after 10 years. the flat rate is adjusted to allow for that year's budget. ,or businesses and corporations they would pay the same flat rate, except that they would have to pay a minimum of 1% gross income, if it is more than the flat rate of the profit. host: i want to move on to other callers. what was the website?

caller: jobe venuttiforcongres.com. host: you are running against whom? caller: buchanan here in florida. host: bob is joining us on our independent line, philadelphia. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have three good points to make here. the last caller, he said tax or income regardless. a lot of retired people rely on dividends and interest. there should be no tax on interest. that was romney's plan when he was running, no tax for the retired on interest income. about what obama said on in action of gun control, creating grief and sorrow. president, you're in action

on things ray cities is causing the same sort of grief. when he takes action on that, maybe we can talk about gun control. im going to go back to taxes think with loopholes and tested actions, we want the poor to become rich, right? it's good. i think we should. 's plan -- we should leave the loopholes in place for $50,000, so they become rich. everything the wealthy have now, we should leave it there for those of to the 50,000 level. for the port people, we should have all these deductions that the rich had to get there. i think it is a great idea. host: thank you very much for the call. stan has this point, let the americans handle their own payroll taxes, let them manage what they have, and change will

come. ellen, your take on all of this? caller: thank you. first of all, i don't know why people keep saying $250,000. that is some phony politician's idea of who the rich is. that is not the rich. that is who paid the bulk of the taxes in this country. to keep punishing people -- that .ay be to teachers my tax idea is -- and it has been there for decades -- a flat tax, 10%, 11%, or whatever would board, whethere or make $50,000 per year .500,000 per year, or 5 million

it is proportionally fair. the other thing, the payroll tax has to be changed. it is the most unfair tax to the people of this country. it has to become a whether it is 1%, 1.5%, again, whatever figures were, across the board for medicare and social security. right now, i don't know if a lot of people realize, there is a percentage of your check the goes to social security. once you earn $118,000, that stops. host: that is going to be part of the debate in the next congress. caller: it should be. well, the next congress -- it should be the same for everyone, going all the way up to whatever it is. i don't care if you make $1

billion. that 1% goes to social security. if you do that, you will be able to sustain social security. one of the main reasons it is in trouble is because the bush, and evener reagan, began to dip into social security, which is supposed to be a trust fund for the people. host: a so-called trust fund. caller: anybody who talks to politicians about cutting social security, immediately their crossed off my list. it is an entitlement only in the sense that we are entitled to it because it is our money. it is not an entitlement that they are giving us a gift. they took this money and spend it on war, and left us empty. now, they want to cut it because they did the wrong thing. i think the people who made the money on that war should have to put back into social security. i also believe there should be no subsidies.

the idea of corporate subsidies -- the first time i found out about this, i was 18. i learned that oil companies get subsidies to drill on our land. i thought, isn't that backwards, shouldn't they be paying us? do you think they will not drill ? host: i'm going to move on. they give a much for the call from new jersey. we appreciate you adding your voice to the conversation. the is from gary who says tax code should benefit people who live in high expense areas, t tax of 17% is there. from "los angeles times," who wins -- mostly the wealthy. good morning, your thoughts on this, john? many of the towns and

operate onrnments property taxes. why can we not eliminate income tax altogether, and make a national property tax, where everyone pays based on the assets they own, property assets they own. it would make it much simpler. global corporations would pay based on what they own in america and globally, whereas regular homeowners pay on the basis of the property they own. i think that would probably be a much fair tax to run our government. host: thank you for the call. the cover story of the "new york times" sunday magazine. i will share with you a portion of what he writes.

host: we are asking about the tax code by the different candidates. donald trump outlining his. again, he would have no taxes for those earning $25,000 individually, $50,000 for couples, and then have to tax comeets at 10%, 20% between 5%. also, he would eliminate the death tax. governor jeb bush is also outlining his tax plan with tax

brackets. he would eliminate the corporate they cap's would be at 2%. it would nearly double the amount of standard deductions. senator marco rubio would have to tax brackets at 50% and 35%. he would a limiting reform deductions, the marriage penalty, and increase the child tax credit by an additional $2500. he would also cut the current 35,000 corporate tax rate. jerry is joining us next from the sylvania. good morning, welcome to the program. caller: thank you for taking my call. we need to get a national sales tax going. that makes everyone pay, whether you are a foreigner or a citizen of the united states. also, while we are getting that in order, we can have a flat income tax, and gradually do

away with that. states withbut five . sales tax system we can get rid of the irs. on another note, you have to stop the primaries -- helping parties get there candidates elected on the backs of taxpayers. let them have their own conventions. the gentleman who called about the property tax -- that is totally unfair. we need to have time limits on our representatives in congress. that is what i have to say. host: jerry from pennsylvania. fichter says, if they actually came together and performed the

tax code, it would further revamp the economy. let me job your attention to a piece this morning from "the washington post," involving a tragedy. the headline is "yelled little odd couple of the demise bipartisan hope." and a bicycleed accident on september 19. he was doing a triathlon. his bike swerved to the other side of the road, he was hit by a car, and died instantly. the white house and the president releasing words of remorse. from reading, pennsylvania, republican line. good morning, welcome to the program. caller: good morning.

people who own their houses, and do not pay taxes, they get social security. pass that.even ignore it completely. we are going to have a lot of problems. if you remember years ago, they were fighting for the same thing. i think a flat tax is good because it will relieve everybody. the rich, they will pay the same thing as the poor or middle class. i think donald trump's idea is very good. the only thing, i would like to sociallat tax on security. people who work all their lives, you know what i'm saying. we are not going to do that. as long as we have the welfare worked 37 -- my wife

years in the government. i can tell you right now, it is wasted. we are throwing the money away. we should send these people back from where they came from. host: where did you come from? caller: i came from athens, greece. i don't know what to talk about that. athens is a disaster right now. i would say to the people that if we stay together, then we will create something. if we don't, we will not create nothing. i thank you very much. have a nice day. host: thank you for the call. cnn reporting that about half of americans would not pay any taxes under the donald trump tax plan. you can read details online.

also, from a viewer, saying, if the take away the homeowner induction, i will be the first of thousands protesting in the streets. reporting on the other therelican candidates -- is another dynamic unfolding, with nothing to do with business in politicians. host: host: next is lawrence -- actually, we will go to frank in pennsylvania. caller: good morning, steve.

involveam would immigration, a personal id card, and a new tax system. we would give people a choice. we would go from a zero to 10% flat tax, and a 0-25% sales tax. if you are an immigrant, and you don't want to pay taxes, if you , a u.s. cheater, and don't want to pay taxes, i don't give a damn. ,hatever you pay or by excluding groceries, you will pay a 25% tax. that way we have a one sheet tax form. ofrybody will have a degree

fairness. we no longer belabor our thoughts with immigrants who are illegal, undocumented, or whatever. everybody has a choice, and their choice will be either pay plus thelat tax, progressive sero-25% sales tax, and that would be my remedy. i thank you for listening to me that another viewer says takers should pay tax as well, on the first dollar of welfare or swindling income. "l.a. times" focusing on those leaving syria.

it is sports on the front page of "the chicago tribune," "a beautiful baseball dream." as one t-shirt says, anyone can have a bad century. the chicago cubs in the playoffs , looking for a world championship. lawrence from new york. dy.will go to ru on the democrats line, daytona beach, florida. caller: the way to raise tax flowue is have a cash society. there is no tax out there. would pay taxes according to their income. everything would be recorded, it would be hard to achieve. i know so many people in