so one of the things we suggested was something of a clearing-house where if a website or civil society identifies certain types of code, certain language, certain i.p. addresses or email addresses or phone numbers that are known with sex trafficking you kind of put that in a central repository so online sites and services can kind of scan against that and better identify these coded languages. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> more now on the status of tax reform in congress. this is from today's "washington journal." " "washingtl continues. host: joining us now is amanda becker with reuters. she looks at the house and senate as they work on tax reform. good morning. what would you describe is the

major difference between the house and senate version? two.: i would point to one on the business and one on the individual. on the business side between the house and senate bill is that the senate would delay the corporate tax cuts. the centerpiece of the whole plan, what they say will encourage the economic growth that they are expecting to see. on the senateey side. on the individual side, the senate has said there posing to the statehe repeal and local tax deduction for income tax and property tax. a stickingready point in the house before they unveiled the bill because there are a lot of republicans from high income tax states like new .ersey, new york, california they were worried about that so they decided to keep the part of the deal that caps off at $10,000. the senate totally repealing it

-- no go for him. he does not support that. on those do you focus taxes? guest: it raises money. it would add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade and they cannot go beyond that. if it goes beyond that than it abides by the senate rules. deductionhe tax allows them to raise a lot of money. host: who would get the tax reduction or a break on taxes? who would get the increases? tesco it cuts tax rates for everyone. under the house bill, they leave the highest tax rate intact for the wealthiest americans. in terms of whether you are going to get more money back or more money at the end of the year, it is individualized. it really depends on how you have been doing your taxes, what

sort of deductions you already lowering the rates and doubling the standard deduction -- so getting rid of a lot of deductions that people use such as the state and local tax inductions. host: if you want to ask our ,uest questions, (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002, independent colors. make thoughts on twitter. amanda becker joining us. who said theyr wanted to eliminate the idea of itemizing altogether. guest: the house went a lot further in eliminating deductions and saying it will be double the standard deduction and then you will not need to i domestic actions anymore. the senate allows you to keep some of them but it also mostly eliminates above the line deductions, the ones you can

take even if you are taking the standard deduction. the idea is yes. that is how paul ryan has been selling the plan. we get rid of deductions but you pay less taxes anyway so it doesn't matter. host: that is the individual side. do talked about the corporate tax rate. remind viewers where it stands right now and how it could change? cutting fromuggest 35% down to 20%. a big deduction. they say one of the main reasons they are doing tax reform is because they say is this is have a hard time being competitive in the united states and we need to have a lower corporate rate. the senate plan suggests delaying that. host: does anybody pay the talk for a, really? guest: very few. they also had to duction's on their side and ways to pay different rates. ast: we see the house taking

vote on its version and the senate working on its version. when it comes to reconciling the two, what happens and what is the possibility when it comes to a final product? senate will start marking up and changing their version today and considering different ideas from mostly republican members because they control the senate and committee. the house is set to vote on theirs on thursday, as of now. they are still getting votes together, as far as i know. so we could see that shift a little bit depending on if they have the support they need. then, they say they will go to a conference committee which is a formal process to reconcile differences. the math in the senate is a lot harder. 100 seats52 out of and they can only afford to lose the votes of two senators and rely on the vice president to

pass legislation so they have to be worried. and there are already several concerns, mainly to do with the deficit. host: the final deadline or goal to get this accomplished is one? guest: the end of the year. trump said he wanted to see action before thanksgiving which is why we expect the house to vote this week. workingte will start there is not. when they will vote is unclear. they want this to go into effect next year. legislativeneed a win right now after trying and failing with health care several times going into next year's midterm elections. amanda becker is joining us. the first call for you comes in pennsylvania on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i was wondering what happened to trump's campaign promises that we should all have $50,000

before taxes, if we are married, and 25 thousand dollars if we are single? on lessanybody live than that in today's age? thewhy are they taking away exemptions that we worked so hard for? allowed for we are the exemption for each one of us . and they want to take that away? that is wrong. can you answer why they want to take that away? is, get it andrm i can't speak to the promises he they haven't done this since 1986 and there is a reason. when you start cutting, you have to find ways to pay for it. getting rid of a lot of personal exemptions will be a big deal for several people. kids, who have several say, they are getting rid of

that. so even though you might have a lower tax rate, you could have a higher tax bill because you would be losing the exemption. host: as far as a single person, will they see drastic changes? depends on deductions, where you live, the state and taxes. don'td to do mine but i think i will be able to keep redoing it. a lot of people who are currently itemizing may find that they are not going to have a reason to anymore, especially if they completely repeal state and local tax inductions. host: from texas on the republican line. james is next. caller: good morning. my question is twofold. this isseems to me that more of a bait and switch. they bade you with one thing and they take so much more way. the other thing is, i am a

self-employed guy and i'm too old to go work for a corporation so i am stuck working for myself. last year, my deductions was $7,030 but the check i wrote to $6,306.was will this hurt me even more? because now i can't take my state deductions or my deductions on my taxes. right now i am self-insured. but i can't take my deductions on medical. it seems like this is going to hurt me, really bad. host: amanda becker, talk about the small business person. guest: they have provisions in here to give business owners a break. and one of the changes the house committee was to create a new chunk of small business income which would be taxed at a lower rate in order to get small businesses on board. we saw the small-business lobby

approved the bill after all. they supported it out of the committee after originally saying they couldn't. on thing they tried to do the house side that isn't in the senate bill is establish a new small businesses that are paying individual income tax rates from their business income. in a new propose that 25% rate, if you are a wealthy person and you are a business owner, you could be paying up to 39.6% on that business. 25%.proposed a new rate of the senate proposes doing it differently by allowing each portion of your business income from your individual business income that you are paying taxes on. they approach it a couple of different ways. they're trying to provide targeted relief for small , in order to allow

them to take advantage of the same tax rate. there will be changes and it will probably change between now and the end of the week. host: wisconsin is next, here is kathy. caller: good morning. i have a question regarding write-offs for corporations. we hear that these write-offs for the individuals are being eliminated. we hear that the tax rate is being cut for corporations by -- what write-offs are being eliminated for them because it seems like if their tax rate is still cut but they still have all of these write-offs then they want be paying much taxes. guest: one thing democrats did criticize the past couple of weeks was the state and local tax deduction i have been talking about. businessserved on the side but not the individual

side. so there are differences in how they are approaching businesses and individuals, in terms of getting new business income tax -- they are asking businesses to repatriate profits and pay a special tax rate on that. but i would say, in terms of the deductions, there are more changes that i've noticed on the individual side. explain how the repatriation works and what is the benefit by targeting those? -- tax jurisdictions. if you give them an incentive with a lower one-time rate in order to bring it back into the united states, it is a revenue raiser. and they have been looking for ways to raise revenue to offset the other cuts. host: what is the type of rate in other countries compared to what the united states charges

on businesses? guest: into various which is why you see tax shelters in different countries there tends to be -- countries. there tends to be businesses targeted in certain areas -- bermuda is one of them. host: here is skip in pennsylvania. caller: how're you doing? i am curious because they want to make all of these changes. in pennsylvania we just voted on something for a property school tax deduction, or just get it out of here but there want to raise the income tax and sales tax. i was talking to an attorney friend of mine the other day and he said that if they take my school tax and property tax away from my $1 million home, that is a big savings for me. and he pays an increase on the state income tax. said, it is a and

win-win-win for me but not for other people. i think what is going on in washington will be the same as pennsylvania. and they will put truck stop gambling, second in nevada with income from the gambling thing. and with a person like myself going onto medicaid next year, i can't understand it. wow. there is 400 pages in the pennsylvania thing. what is washington, 3000? guest: we haven't seen the .enate bill yet we have seen a detailed summary. we will get the actual text of that. i don't know what the page number ended up being on the house side after they amended -- it is shorter than what you are mentioning in pennsylvania.

but it is complicated stuff and every time you change one thing in one area, it has a ripple effect in another area that has to be adjusted. toi will expect the tax code remain collocated. host: from arkansas on the republican line, william. i stand to gain by the debt tax repeal. i guess i have to see my tax attorney and then i have to go talkshington, d.c. and face to face about the people in government there. this is the part i don't understand. they keep telling me that they will give me my money back but they will run up the deficit by up to $2 trillion in 10 years? that doesn't make sense. you are giving me my money back but you are borrowing money to give my money back? highwhole deal stinks to you know what. host: go back to state tax, how

does that affect you personally? caller: most people would say i am in the top 1%. i stand to inherit some money, quite a bit of money. and that is the only thing i see in this deal that will help me. but it doesn't make sense that they will give me my money back trillion. $2 host: you made that point. first of all, can you define what this is? how could it be changed? guest: it is different in the house and senate. the estate tax is a tax levied on the wealthiest assets and asset holders, when they pass it on to their heirs. $5 million in change, anything above that for an individual and you double that for a couple or children. the house proposes to double the amount that would be exempt from

the estate tax. over $10 million for an individual and double that for a married couple, and then phase that out entirely. the senate version proposes doubling that amount that would not be subject to tax but leaving it in place. so that is something that moderate republican senator susan collins asked for during the negotiation with the idea being that these are the wealthiest of the wealthy and we can't get rid of all the revenue raisers everywhere. we need to keep some of the money coming in. host: about the estate tax, the alternative minimum tax? can you explain how this is treated? guest: this is something -- it was eliminated. see tweaks to we this over this week. in florida, you are on

with amanda becker from reuters. hello amanda becker from reuters. thank you for being here. in the senate -- and i know it isn't finished yet -- that would benefit, mr. grassley who is a landowner but my question to you of-- i am in florida and all the people who call in and talk about issues regarding repealing or replacing or doing something with this tax dilemma with the state taxes and local taxes -- in florida, we have no state income tax. and what issues i have with that is that we have an influx of people in florida coming here from new jersey and pennsylvania other places and

that do have state income tax. their capital of that they get from reaping benefits from the income tax breaks that they receive and we end up paying a lot of the and go.when they come and we have had discussions in our house at about, why is this fair for them to go against this people in florida having to take up for all of the people in these blue states or purple states? not just income tax is affected by proposals for the state and income local tax reduction. currently, people can did act even if you are in a state that doesn't have an income tax under tax,eduction for a sales

so once again, the house version allows you to continue deducting the property tax cap at $10,000 a year and the senate would repeal that entirely so you wouldn't get any deductions for .he state and local income host: one of the selling points for the plan is that if they pass it on the corporate tax side, growth would happen. is there clear evidence in the past that growth has come from that? guest: no. that didn't happen in the past when they did this. and that is one of the sticking points. there are two assumptions here. it, they will pass can'tn to workers but you mandate that in any way. you can try to incentivize it at you can't be sure that is going to happen. another thing, and this is what some senate republicans have already raised concerns about is the growth estimate and whether

they are too conservative or two bullish. will the economy grow at the rate projected? --e of the tax writers say growth will make up for that. it is a static estimate and once the economy starts growing we will see an additional 1.5 trillion dollars from that. host: sarah in texas on the republican line. caller: thank you for talking to me. i think we need this tax reform. i would like to say something besides taxes -- i think the problem in the united states is that republicans don't stick together. the president is trying to do a good job.

trying -- it is time realizesakes up and this is that united states. host: thank you. the idea of sticking together on this. guest: in the house, a big point of division -- i know i keep coming back to the state and local tax reduction's but it is a sticking point. i expected to be a sticking point as they prepare to vote on the bill. if you are a republican from new jersey or new york or california or someone else hit by local , it'll be hard to go to constituents and say, i'm sorry you lost the deduction. don't worry, it is mostly canceled out by a lower tax rate . i would expect that to be a sticking point in the house.

we have already had workers say that they are really not ok with -- deficit this much? senator corker has announced he is retiring and he may not have as much of an incentive to deliver trump with a win as someone running for reelection. other senators have said that makes them nervous. host: how hands-on has trump been with the efforts? in asiae is traveling this week. he is physically removed. members of his administration have been meeting frequently with congress. soughtaid that trump has the senate version would be better. and members of the thatistration has said they will find something that is not good for the middle class. middle class will pay higher taxes by 2027 under this plan.

the joint committee in taxation has said 11 point 5 million households will see taxes rise betweenbut make $10,000-100 thousand dollars. so a lot of it will be whether they buy into the estimates. there isn't a hard definition of what is middle class in this country. so when they say they will not sign something that will hurt the middle class, where is the definition of the middle class? host: steve mnuchin was on yesterday talking about -- was on cnn, talking about what would happen if it goes through. here is a look. >> middle-class voters who voted for president trump who will get a tax increase in this plan if it becomes law -- that is not what they were told by candidate trump would happen. >> it is not what he wants.

as we go through both of these plans, the house, i expect, will pass their bill this week. the senate will end up in conference and we will fine-tune this. the problem is that the tax code is so complicated that everybody may take advantage of a different piece. we want to make this simple and fair. i am comfortable we will do that. ask are you comfortable saying that you want this to be fine-tuned and changed so any middle-class americans who would have their taxes increase -- which is a minority but it is a chunk of middle-class americans -- that he wanted fixed before trump signed it into law? >> there are slight differences between both bills. the good news is that the house, senate and administration have the same objectives about middle income tax relief. fixing the business tax system so that we are competitive and the slight changes between both

bills, i am confident we will iron out in conference. host: the secretary called them find changes. guest: i hate to make predictions about congress at this point, having covered the multiple health care votes, i have lost count. there is more than fine tuning that needs to be done at this point. they are not minor details that need to be ironed out. and local tax reduction alone is huge for a lot of people. it will be huge for a lot of the representatives in the house, in particular. there are significant reconciling's that need to be done in twin what the house has presented and what the senate has presented and what the senate will end up with my the time the committee gets through with it.

so i'm not ruling it out that it could get done by the end of the year but there is a lot of work to be done. host: let's go to gail in michigan on the independent line. caller: i have a question and comment. i'm wondering if they still love the head of household adduction for single parents out there? and i have a comment that -- i markup andg the bill i wondered why they wouldn't answer how they come up with the analysis for the tv ad of the average family of four. and i figured it out. and it is unsettling to me. they took the extra from the standard eduction and the child tax credit and the added them together and then they multiply them by each of the four tax brackets. then they took those four numbers, divided by four and there is the magic $1100 that

nobody can find. i have spent almost eight days trying to find the elusive average american family that will get this in a refund. , yout $1100 as a refund would have to be given at least almost $10,000 in additional reduction. so then i realized how tailored all of the republican statements are. and the average american family should really save the average of all american family should get this. guest: you have been doing numbercrunching. a lot of people have been doing numbercrunching. i actually try to redo my own taxes using the house proposals. the house did retain the head of household language so if you are a nonmarried head of household, you will get that benefit. in terms of what you are talking about second, that is the

criticism you're hearing from democrats. you know, they have chosen the ideal family when they have crafted this theoretical middle-class family to show the tax cut they would get. and they have chosen the ideal control for various things. if you chose a different family with a different set of circumstances who itemizes and takes advantage of a medical deduction and a state and local detection and has several children so they get exemptions for their spouse and independents, it could turn out a lot differently. that is one criticism you're hearing from democrats on the plan. at the ideal family there are talking about is actually the ideal family to illustrate the plan but it may not play out like that in the life. host: from indiana on the democrat line, alan. caller: thank you for c-span and for taking my call. and question -- i saw

steve mnuchin make the comment that this is trickle-down and he still believes it will work and were calling for history, i was around with ronald reagan and he made a huge tax cut for the recall,income and as i the country went into a two-year recession after that. and towards the end of the second year, ronald reagan made the biggest tax increase in the history of the country. he raised taxes 11 times while he was president. because nothing ever trickle-down and unemployment, for the first time it hit triple digits. 10.1, since the great depression. so i'm wondering, is this the same thing all over and we can expect the same results and we are just repeating it?

i am not an economist and i cannot forecast where the economy will go in the next couple of years. you are correct that the trickle-down effect never materialized after the 1986 tax cut. that is something that you even have republicans worried about. on the senate side you have a few senators saying, you know, we can't expect economic growth to happen this fast to offset this. their plan reason delays the corporate tax cut one year. 1.5 trillion dollars is a lot of money to add. there is the, then question of -- if you delay the cut a year, will you get the projected growth that they are wanting and will you get it as quickly? host: what is the lobbying on this effort, especially when it comes to state and local and how much is this playing out in the final product? guest: there is a lot of lobbying. paul ryan said as soon as we get

it out there, they would start to try to preserve tax breaks. every interest has their own loophole or benefit that they want preserve right now. that is why you saw the home builders lobby, they really don't like the idea of doubling the standard eduction because they are worried that people would be incentivized to take it vantage of the home mortgage interest deduction and it could affect home sales. revealed --y fully if they fully repealed the property tax, that could affect value. is an ongoing process. they will still be calling and meeting with lawmakers about this. this is not over until it is and by the house and senate sent to the president. host: let's go to jeff.

caller: hello, pedro. it has been a while. 100% veteran. retired, living on retirement. that is my only taxable income. how is this supposed to affect me? i have a paid taxes in -- shoot -- 10 years? guest: for taxpayers right now who currently have no taxable is going tomuch change. you will not all of a sudden have taxes owed. but you also are not going to see much change the other way either. dependent on the individual taxpayer. once this is written out, people need to meet with their tax preparers and the software that

they normally use every year, you've to find out what is due. but it is my understanding that the taxpayer that doesn't owe taxes on their income right now will probably be about the same. host: one more call. steve from new mexico. caller: good morning. it is reported or i have read, that 70% of the tax paying population does not itemize. that leaves 30%. i can't believe that so many people who are complaining about the loss of property tax and state income tax would itemize at over $24,000. i consider myself to be upper but i don't itemize over $24,000 and i never have. explainedever been and i think this young lady here , who said that they have not identified what is middle-class hit it on the head.

is middle-class goes up to 250000 -- goes up to thousand dollars-three hundred thousand dollars, certainly there will be people hurt. thank you. guest: that is why there is a lot of geographic different on the itemization as it relates to state and local tax eduction. itemize, of people who state and local is why they itemize. that is why i itemize. i live in washington, d.c. and we pay relatively high taxes. new york,re living in new jersey, some areas of --nsylvania, it you see -- therenia, d.c. could be a lot of geographic variation and across the income spectrum in terms of how worth it i do my thing is.

but offsetting the percentage of people who do choose to itemize their taxes, that is a big reason why. host: tell me what you are looking out for specifically this week. out for will be looking any change to the state and local tax deduction as the senate marks up the bill. they also did not address something we haven't talked about yet, president trump's promised during the campaign to close the. trust loophole -- close the loophole that benefits wealthier financiers on wall street. it wasn't in the house bill. they partially closed it. it allows them to pay a lower .apital gains rate the senate did not address this at all. you have heard he had a couple of republican senators say that will be one of the first changes they make. so i will expect to see

something on that in the next couple of days. >> and the house gaveling back in at 2:00 p.m. eastern for speeches and starting legislative work at 4:00 with four bills on the agenda today including one seeking to reduce the allowance given to former u.s. presidents for their staff and other expenses. also, a nonbinding bill expressing the sense of the house for the, quote, urgent need for a political solution in yemen. and thursday, the house republican tax reform plan is expected to make it to the floor, and the senate starts work on its version of the bill today. here's a look at our coverage of tax reform on the c-span networks. >> watch c-span this week as congress debates tax reform. the senate finance committee begins a review of its bill monday. at 3:00 p.m. eastern. live coverage on c-span3. the house debates its bill on thursday. live coverage on c-span. get details about both bills at

c-span.org/congress and listen to live congress of tax reform using the free c-span radio app. tonight on "the communicators," we'll discuss legislation opposing online sex trafficking. missouri republican congresswoman yanukovych wagner discusses -- congresswoman ann wagner discusses her legislation. mrs. wagner: actually, many different actors can be affected by the communications decency act but what we're doing with my piece of legislation is to make sure we are very narrowly going and amending section 230 to make sure that congressional intent is clear when it comes to the issue of sex trafficking. because right now a lot of these online internet actors and providers, websites like

backpage.com and a whole host of others that have been blossoming, sadly, over the last handful of years to make sure they cannot hide behind the communications decency act and its immunity. >> when it comes to sex trafficking, we've been told a lot of this is encoded language, it's a lot harder to identify. so one of the things we suggested is something of a clearing-house where if a website or civil society identifies certain types of code, certain language, certain i.p. addresses, certain email addresses or phone numbers that are known with sex trafficking, you kind of put that -- sex traffickers you kind of put that in a certain repository so they can scan and go against those coded languages. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> as the trump