>> the hard-fought 2016 primary season is over with historic conventions to follow. >> colorado. >> florida. >> texas. >> ohio. >> the first woman to ever had a major political party and the first non-politician in decades. seat to a front row every minute of both conventions on c-span, all beginning on monday, july 18. >> our guest on c-span's is texass this week

congressman kevin brady. thanks for coming back. representing the houston suburbs in a week where we are waking up to terrible news out of dallas. i want to introduce the reporters who cover congress. you have put out a statement about how this sickens you but this country is in such a state right now with the murders of black men by police. how do we solve this as a nation? rep. kevin brady: it seems like we are divided against each other. it is particularly troubling that this was a peaceful protest and some used that as an opportunity to target and kill law enforcement officers. coming on top of a tough week. what i do know is congress's responsibility is not to add to that divisiveness. it is to calm the waters. take a look at these incidences one by one. it is troubling in so many ways.

host: let's turn to taxes and the economy. you were the architect of a blueprint that the speaker has put together on major policy proposals and your area is texas. -- taxes. i want to introduce kelsey snell and joe lawler. kelsey snell: i just wanted to ask about the blueprint. when speaker ryan started the process, he said he hopes all the blueprint elements together would give house republicans a platform on which to run in the upcoming election. i'm wondering how much you have discussed that platform with your presumptive nominee donald trump. did you attend that meeting? rep. kevin brady: i did. the speaker is exactly right. we have to stand for change in america and layout what our solutions are.

we have done that with his leadership. giving us the green light on how to get people from welfare back to work and self-sufficiency. how do you make the country safer? how do we fix this broken tax code and get the economy going again? i was at the meeting. it was very positive. i feel like on the area of tax reform and how we get the economy going, there's a lot of common ground with mr. trump. and i'm hopeful as president that he will embrace our ideas. it seems like his tax reform proposals are very similar. so i'm pretty optimistic in that area. kelsey snell: the major differences in the platform you put out in the blueprint and the details he has shared about his vision tend to differ on the rates. i'm wondering if that is something your staff has discussed with his staff.

rep. kevin brady: the rates don't have to match perfectly. what we're doing is going all in for growth on jobs and opportunity. because we can't settle for this second rate economy, so we take less from local businesses so they can grow. we redesign how we tax so we leapfrog from dead last in the world to one of the leading packs of best countries for progrowth tax codes. we simplify for families the very complex code enough that they can fit 14 lines on a postcard but take care of the basics like home mortgage deduction and charitable deduction. and we designed the irs to have a fair simpler tax codes.

we are proposing to redesign it so they work for us and we can more quickly resolve tax disputes for families and small businesses. joe lawler: what happens next to build support for this blueprint? what you have to do to get all the different interests that will be affected by this on board and what needs to happen at the committee level? when are you going to actually start putting pen to paper? rep. kevin brady: we laid this blueprint out. we are telling america, this is not our tax code, this is yours. you have a say in how you are taxed. we are not imposing it. we are proposing it to the american public. tell us if you want more job and a stronger economy. tell us if you want a code so simple and fair he could fit on a postcard.

we will be listening. townhall meetings and social media. we will be taking feedback from taxpayers and businesses is blueprint -- on this blueprint. but we will be doing the hard work of putting pen to paper. working on the transitions. going from an old car that doesn't go very fast to a new car that drives differently. there will be a transition to that. do the rest of the year we've got some work to do but it's good work -- through the rest of the year we've got some work to do but it's good work. simple and fair and economically so much stronger. kelsey snell: have you discussed at all how you would modify or adjust these proposals if hillary clinton is elected president? rep. kevin brady: tax reform is such a big undertaking. if it is to become law it will be bipartisan.

it will have bipartisan ideas. it may not at every step of the way. i don't anticipate leader pelosi embracing a republican tax reform plan. we know there are a number of democrats who know america can't compete around the world anymore. local businesses are holding onto their money and not creating new jobs. they know the code is so complex, families can't understand it if their life depended upon it. regardless of who is president, we're going to advance what we call built for growth tax reform. we're hopeful that president is ready to work with us. kelsey snell: how much has the process changed since the last time tax or -- house republicans put something out? what has changed in the republican party to move you away from things that were in that draft? rep. kevin brady: two big differences.

you have a speaker who is all green light on big issues. because he comes from the ways and means background. but think of his history. he has always been a bold thinker. tax reform kicks the green light like it never has before. the draft made tax reform inevitable because he proved you could lower rates and do that in a revenue neutral way. he had the tightest constraints in the world and still did it. we have the opportunity to take 10 pounds of growth and put it in this five pound bag of tax reform in a way that really grows the economy. we've had some opportunities now to take areas and really supercharge them as far as local businesses being able to invest in the community.

hire new workers. create opportunities we haven't had before. at each step we want to make it better. so that's why through the rest of the year we will be listening. we are also looking to make the blueprint better going forward as well. kelsey snell: i may have misspoke. it may have been 2014. joe lawler: let's talk about one of the big obstacles you will face. the distributional impact of the plan. you cut the individual tax rate, capital gains taxes, eliminate the estate tax. democrats say, this is going to result in big tax cuts for high earners. how do you address that? rep. kevin brady: i think those press releases were written before the blueprint was actually sent out. so they were anticipating that. if you look at the blueprint you see tax relief at every income level. simplification and every income

level. less dollars are taxed for low income families. we virtually eliminate the 10% bracket. it is just not needed anymore. the analysis of the blueprint is it provides wage growth, strong growth for the economy, 9% growth. after-tax in your paycheck growth at every income level. and that is by design. we think tax relief should occur across the board and take less money from you at every income level so you can have more control of your life. and it will also grow local economies. joe: let me ask about one of the specific interest groups that was notably cool to the introduction of the tax plan.

the real estate industry, the homebuilders and realtors came out and expressed concern. they right now benefit from some of the bigger tax breaks including the mortgage interest induction and they stand to lose a lot. how are you going to proceed with them for other groups like that are bound to come up who stand to lose a big break and could lend a lot of influence against the bill? rep. kevin brady: first we are going to be listening. this better and more progrowth we are wide open to it. we retained the home mortgage deduction as well as the child tax credit and charitable deductions and helping getting people from welfare to work. we think that continues to support homeownership. and my experience is nothing builds more homes and gets people into homes than a strong

economy. nothing replaces that. and so since we are all in for that growth in the tax code i think you're going to see more homes built as a result. joe: so you are increasing the standard induction by so much -- deduction by so much that you are going to make it so fewer people are claiming itemized deductions. that's a concern for these groups that get an advantage from so many people claiming that mortgage interest reduction right now. are you going to go any further to diminish the impact of that deduction?

rep. brady: first we are going to be listening. this better and more progrowth we are wide open to it. we retained the home mortgage deduction as well as the child tax credit and charitable deductions and helping getting people from welfare to work. we think that continues to support homeownership. and my experience is nothing builds more homes and gets people into homes than a strong economy. nothing replaces that. and so since we are all in for that growth in the tax code i think you're going to see more homes built as a result. joe: so you are increasing the standard deduction by so much that you are going to make it so fewer people are claiming itemized deductions. that's a concern for these groups that get an advantage from so many people claiming that mortgage interest reduction right now. are you going to go any further to diminish the impact of that deduction? rep. brady: my guess is and we will he or from the american public that their desire for simpler and fairer in a system they can understand is stronger than any groups that have a special provision that works as long as taxes are high and the code is really complicated and we force people into longer

filing forms. if that's the provision you are counting on i think you're going to be in conflict with the american public who just wanted it simpler and understandable. the american people are going to have their say. i think they're going to opt for simpler.

kelsey snell: some research shows the american public does like the idea of simpler taxes until they are faced with giving up something they are accustomed to. we saw a lot of reaction that was negative when chairman camp put that out on this issue. i was wondering if there was a strategic decision to not include which deductions you would get rid of to avoid that feedback. rep. brady: we were looking at, what's important to most families? one, lower taxes so they can keep more. savings for retirement and investing, which also grows the economy. we cut those rates in half. think about the basics. help with homes, charitable giving, raising kids. help with getting people on that first rung in the economic ladder. for most families the feedback from the blueprint is, that's what we want. that covers our basics. and we would prefer not adding dozens more to the postcard. maybe hundreds of more provision and having to send our dollars to washington in helping you get some back. we will do tons of town hall meetings. we will get that feedback from the people. host: we're at the 11 minute mark. kelsey snell: -- in recent

months has been the most -- hope there could be some talk with senate democrats really in the year about an international tax reform plan. wondering where that stands right now. rep. brady: it's not out of the question that we could come together in that area. the clock seems to be taking. this legislative year is racing by. a reason for the focus on the blueprint was to give businesses in america especially their computing around the world hope that there is a serious discussion about how we connect and competitive again and how when they win they can bring those profits back to reinvest here in the united states. we are lowering taxes, taking less money from our businesses whether they are competing on main street or around the world so they can grow. we have redesigned had they compete internationally so they are competitive again. for the first time we are going to stop taxing our exports. we will simplify our tax code in a way. i'm convinced we are going to leapfrog from dead last. the response has been very good. whether it will be a targeted approach before we leave for the year is still under discussion. kelsey snell: what about in general doing international first? rep. brady: there is an urgency on the international side. i don't know if that will come together before the end of the year. we know a lot of businesses are now looking at that blueprints with a welcome because it really

addresses the competitiveness. we eliminate every incentive for a u.s. company to a forehead -- for a u.s. company to move overseas. -- forehead headquarters, manufacturing, intellectual property. we actually create incentives to do it in america. that is the signal we want to send. joe: right now the obama administration is trying to limit those corporate inversions through treasury rulemaking. i know you had a meeting with treasury officials this week about one of those provisions which is complicated but they essentially try to prevent companies from loading up on debt which they can then deduct interest payments on and shift income out of the u.s. into low tax jurisdictions. can you tell us what you heard from them and if they proceed with those rules what options do you have to shape those are stop them if they are going to be

harmful? rep. brady: we want companies to not be forced to move overseas. there is common ground on that. how the white house is approaching that is wrong. the only solution is to fix this broken tax code. in their haste to keep u.s. companies from leaving, they have built a wall that keeps foreign dollars from flowing back into our local communities. the regulation they have laid out is so complicated that in that meeting for every answer there were five more questions that were raised. my worry is that they rush into this rule that has huge economic consequences at home. they miss the target and don't really solve it and in fact make us less competitive which means you have missed the mark in every way. our advice to them is slow down. take more input. we will work with you in this area.

we agree with the concept of incentives to keep companies in america. they are rushing into this regulation and it's going to have long-term consequences. joe: is it possible with congress might weigh in with more than just letters to the treasury secretary and possibly legislation? rep. brady: it depends if the treasury is listening. i got the sense they were a bit dismissive of the concerns that were raised in the meeting. they do seem open to some small changes. the bigger concerns that were raised by members of congress from both parties didn't seem to be resonating with them. they kept reiterating we want to move swiftly. we would rather that they move correctly and accurately on these regulations.

if they rush, we are putting every legislative option on the table because they come down to jobs at the local level. >> i know that we wanted to move on to a couple of issues that are not tax-related i wanted to move on to the issue of trade. your presumptive nominee has been donald trump been characterized by the way the u.s. has done business over the past many years. the week before you put out a trade lieshat said at the heart of free enterprise. i wonder if you expected that as a rejoinder to trump or had did you want that to be read. >> i wanted to be clear that republicans will continue to be a champion spending the economic freedom to trade. it is a part of our free enterprise system. the freedom to buy, sell and compete anywhere in the world with his little government

interference as possible gross our economy in a major way. it creates opportunities and raises wages here at home. it works for america. i know we disagree with mr. trump on this area. i'm hopeful that we can convince him that making our tax code more progrowth will make america stronger but to do that it's not enough to simply by american we need to sell american all throughout the world so we wanted manufactured produced here and we want to level that playing field where we can sell all around the world and turn one-way trade into two-way trade. trade agreements of been successful they've grown drugs here will continue to make the case that republicans are going to lead on free trade. ways and means committee chairman your committee has oversight over

health care. with the issues that came up was the obamacare cost-sharing reduction program. one of your subcommittees put that it has finding been administered illegally which was the finding of a federal court. where does that go? doesn't remain in the court system or are you looking to push's -- push that issue further. >> it's bigger than health care. can any white of house ignore the constitution and simply spend money for a program that they want where congress has repeatedly and specifically said zero funding don't do that. the court really agreed with us. the white house went ahead and knowingly spent $7 billion to date illegally funneling money and insurance companies to hide the fatal flaws within the affordable care act.

can any white house ignore the constitution to spend for they want? all four agencies we subpoenaed documents for continue to refuse to give it to us. we will demand to get that information and hold the head of those agencies accountable for providing those documents because there is a bigger issue here and i a plot the chairman of our oversight committee. the work we did jointly in the investigation was critical going forward. pluse just about a week out from your national convention. will you be going? >> what you campaign for mr. trump? >> i will back the republican ticket. we are going with a convention to highlight a better way. we will lay out the arguments for why having a bold progrowth positive vision is good and house republicans are going to

continue to lead in this area i'm hopeful that our nominee embraces these ideas. and the goals behind them because i think we can turn the country around. some unhappyll delegates who are planning to use the rules of the convention to put his nomination in play. will he be the nominee? >> i believe so. i've not follow the convention politics as closely as i have fixing this broken tax code but i'm hopeful to come out of the convention unified. i certainly know that while anyone may have disagreements with our nominee, i've never agreed 100% on any issue with any company we have had. hopefully we are united in making a positive case for change. >> there are people who watch congress very closely who

suggest this candidacy may put the house in play. are you concerned about that? >> we will work hard. this is an uncertain environment. incumbentates, both and are independent candidate trips in the values of the district and i'm convinced that we will hang onto the majority. i'm hopeful that we can build on it and that we will run our own races. >> representative brady, thank you for being with us. newsmakers is back after our conversations with house ways and means chairman represented a brady of texas. we spent a lot of time with the chairman on his blueprint. part of speaker ryan overall policy agenda for the house republicans. joe lawlor, you pressed about the special interest groups with a lot of money in this town who will want to have their say and

try to shape the outcome of this. the chairman cap talking about the will of the people. the difference is the people don't generally have money behind their proposals so watching how this works, how will the moneyed interests in onl estate have their say tax affect the outcome of this process? >> this is the problem with tax reform. you getting live summary tax breaks and preferences and the bet is that if you lower the tax rate enough people will be happy with that, but of course it will be winners and losers. one of the losers i asked about was the real estate industry who has some of the more prominent taxes that tash tax editions. ande are hundreds of others there are obviously as you mentioned some very powerful lobbies here in d.c. who protect those. but also the people. a family might take benefit from the tax break for college for instance.

have lobbyists here in d.c. but you can bet the colleges do. for a most every preference in the tax code you'll find somebody here to advocate the years of -- keeping the ears of all of those lawmakers. years,the past 50 to 60 they've really grown up around tax code in this country. we talked about the former chairman dave camp a left frustrated because he could not do tax reform, why will this be different? >> it's not clear to me that it will. the 86 tax forms all about that. think we will continue to see significant lobbying here. as he said he doesn't anticipate they will get much done this year. it will really depend to is president and what the will of congress is once they see the lay of the land with whoever happens to be in the executive. >> we didn't talk about the

revenue side of the tax proposals and republicans have been big deficit hawks. how does us all shake out in terms of the money brought into treasury? >> did say they intend for this to be revenue neutral. if that is the case it's hard to see exactly how they get there until they tell us which deduction will be eliminated to make up the rates. they also say they will score this using dynamic scoring. they anticipate that economic growth will be part of that equation. >> i was interested in your conversation about trade because his strong statement and the republican statement of strong trade puts them at odds with one of the really prince will parts of donald trump's candidacy. >> that was a great question by kelsey because in his initial statement, in response to donald trump's big speech on trade. in front of that big pile of compressed recycling, he didn't

mention donald trump by name. he said republicans are in favor of free and open trade and free enterprise. as part of what conservative republican support be did not mention donald trump by name and that criticism in the he did not sure if he did but he may have skirted that direct confrontation once again but he did say republicans will continue to stand for free trade for lowering tariffs and other barriers. notice that in passing the trade agreement this year the tpa and working toward the tpp there was division within the republican party. live issue with house republicans and something he will have to deal with as the ways and means committee chair. ask a question for you as we wrap up here. this was the final week for the congress before the break for their party convention in the week we just finished was quite a mentis. what do you anticipate?

we know and the senate they will attempt to take another vote on the sica funding package paired with military construction and veterans affairs appropriations bill. we expect the outcome to be nearly the same democrats will block that. they have a number of additional things in the table. and one were appropriations bill they will attempt to get through and likely they will start talking about a socket spending bill that they can to act on in september. next the democrats will protest an unknown quantity. >> they absolutely are in the developments inside of dallas today and overnight may change the calculus of how that goes down. >> they give for being a newsmakers this week.

courses yourtain should take, math, science and english, that should be in place if you expect to be successful in college. simply accept student who haven't filled that curriculum to let them into a school, i think it's doing a great disservice to them. the effort of affirmative action. ontonight at 8:00 eastern 's "q&a." >> now look at some who might be the vice presidential short of hillary clinton and donald trump. first look at al franken. then look back at new j