the committee will stand spnspn today on c-span, "washington journal" is next live with your phone calls. they speak of mineral rights and the superior national

forest and cleanup of national waste sites. in today's "washington journal" we talk of tax legislation and sexual harassment in the workplace. call in with your comments. ♪ host: today the senate continues debate on the republican proposal looking to make significant proposals to the tax code. 50 votes are needed to pass it. however, several republican senators are looking to make changes to the tax plan. changes such as bumping up the corporate tax rate from the proposed 20% and imposing, quote, triggers to keep the national debt from increasing. with so much activity in mind, we're dedicating the entire program today to give you the latest information on the senate debate and hear your opinion of the republican proposal for tax reform. here's how you can let us know your thoughts this morning. if you want to call us, 202-748-8000 for democrats,

202-748-8001 for republicans and independents, 202-748-8002. you also can reach us on our social media venues. post-it on twitter or facebook as well. as you call in and send your tweets and facebook posts on the republican plan, we'll be feeding you information on the current debate going on in the senate, the latest on the proposals and amendments and all that other vital information as the senate continues its work. joining us to do that for us is c-span's john mccartle. john: good morning, pedro, as you said we'll be focusing on the vote today in the senate but the senate took a key first step yesterday when they voted to begin debate. they voted to take up the debate on the house legislation on tax reform. that's the vehicle the senate is using to move their own tax reform plan. remember, those two plans are different. and if they both pass we'll

have to go to a conference committee at some point. but that vote to begin debate yesterday passed on a party line vote. here was some of the reaction yesterday on twitter after that vote to begin debate from majority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday. the senate has taken another important step tonight towards giving americans the tax reform they deserve. president trump was in missouri to rally support for the tax reform plan and he tweeted now we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to restore american prosperity and reclaim america's destiny. but in order to achieve this bright and glowing future the senate must pass tax cuts and bring main treeth roaring back to life. one more series of tweets from dick durbin, the minority whip from illinois. senate republicans voted to advance a bill to lead to millions of americans losing their health care and insurance premiums increasing by hundreds of dollars and taxes going up for working families. republicans could be working to pass a tax reform bill that benefits working families instead of this partisan

boondoggle for the wealthy but they're not. when the final vote happens today, republicans can only lose two on a 50/50 tie. the vice president would be coming in to break that tie, expected to vote with republicans, of course, so the whip list is important to watch today. "the washington post" is one of those news organizations keeping track of the yeses and noes and the maybes. here's "the washington post" whip list with 37 republicans supporting the bill. five unknowns or unclears. but not in the category of having concerns. 10 republican senators having concerns, expressing concerns as far as "the washington post" has tracked. among them are senator susanne collins of maine and bob corker of tennessee and ron johnson of wisconsin, john kennedy of louisiana, mike lee of utah, john mccain of arizona, jerry moran of kansas and marco rubio

of florida. they have no republican senators with outright opposition at this point. one other whip list to keep track of this as well is "the los angeles times." they narrowed it down to eight republican senators to watch and they narrowed it down among categories. they were the deficit hawks concerned about what this bill might mean for the national debt including corker, lankford and jeff flake. those who want the bill to include more tax breaks for so-called pass-through businesses and those who file their taxes as individuals, that's ron johnson, steve dains of montana, those concerned about health care and the effect of the individual mandate. that would be senator susanne collins in that category and the wild card as "the los angeles times" calls them. that's john mccain and jerry moran of kansas. a lot to watch there, senators to watch. we'll keep track of all this for you throughout the morning on washington journal. host: here's your chance to give us a call and tell us what your thinking is from the

proposals. 202-748-8000 for democrats and 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 independents. the president stopped in missouri to talk about the tax plan, particularly what it does for higher income americans. here's some of that from yesterday. [video clip] president trump: it is riddled with loopholes to let some special interests, including myself in all fairness, it will cost me a fortune in this thing. believe me, this is not good for me. i have some very wealthy friends not so happy with me but that's ok. i keep hearing schumer, this is for the wealthy. well, if it is, my friends don't know about it. i have to explain why. now, it is great for companies because companies are going to bring back jobs and we're lowering the rates very

substantially. but right now we're bringing the rates down from 35%, which is totally noncompetitive. the highest industrialized nation in the world by far and we're bringing it all the way down to 20%. but that's good. that's good for everybody whether you have a company or whether you want a job because we're going to bring back jobs. what we've had is a massive give away to foreign countries which encourages businesses to relocate offshores. you've seen what happened. before this, this is for the most part as bad as our tax cut is, we have toyota, we have big car companies coming back in building plants in michigan and other places. we have a lot of businesses coming back in. and they see what's happening. they see what's going on and why our code is a giant, really, it is, a self-inflicted economic wound and been that

way for so many years and nobody wanted to do anything about it. but all that will change and it will change immediately if congress sends a tax cut and reform bill, the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, bigger than reagan. if they send it to my desk, i promise all the people in this room, my friends, so many friends in this room, it's a great state, i promise you i will sign it. i promise. i will not veto that bill. host: an analysis piece in "the new york times" this morning, they look at the elements of the tax proposals, particularly what it would do for wealthy americans and they say under the senate plan, every income level would receive a tax cut in 2019 but people earning 20,000 or $30,000 annually would face a tax increase and the next year according to the joint committee on taxation by 2027, most people making under $75,000 next year would see a tax increase while those making

more would continue to receive a tax cut. your calls for this first hour are for these first tree hours look at the senate work on tax reform. susanne from florida, democrats line, good morning. you're up. hi. caller: good morning. you know, it's really difficult to comment without information other than what we get in the newspapers or tv and i feel it's incorrect but not certainly as in depth as we need. it's also very difficult to get information because there aren't any congresspeople or senators answering their phones. everybody's been calling that i know. i tried many different times. and you get recordings. we have resorted to sending emails but don't expect to get replies. for instance, nobody seems to know whether the earned income credit is staying or going and that hasn't even been on tv. i wish there was some place online we could look at what

the congressmen and senators are looking at and then we might be able to comment. if they'd answer their phones. host: valerie from new hampshire caling up next on independent line. valerie, go ahead. caller: hi, yeah, i'm like absolutely amazed that anybody would think this tax bill as well. just to cut medical expenses alone. we already have the formula using the schedule a form. if you have a 20% co-insurance, you can't deduct money from that. that's already a loss. the far right is pushing this bill. trump is not in touch with reality. as far as toyota coming back, where is he coming from with this. and products, everything he has is made in china. he's a fraud. a liar. host: aside from the medical tax, what other element of the tax bill are you not in favor of? caller: basically from what i read, it just seemed like over the next six years it would be

almost like a popsy type thing, the level of taxes will go up to the middle class but also he's taking away vets -- deductions for a lot of different people and a lot of convolution and things going back and forth and what you see online is what we're going by because that's right, all the lines are busy and orrin hatch, lindsey graham, none of them are taking calls, none of them at all. host: let's go to cleo in kentucky. republican line. hello. caller: hello, yeah. democrats are never going to go for a tax increase. because they want a selfless overnment. they thought bernie sanders and -- they're not going to get the economy going, that's the last thing they want. they love to keep people in

poverty and that way they can buy. they've always bought elections with the promise of food stamps by keeping people in poverty. and as long as they have people in poverty, they have a selfless government. host: the economy reported a 3.3% growth for a second quarter. do you think the economy still needs a tax cut or will the economy be able to do well on its own? caller: the tax cut will do more to get the economy going p. that's why the economy is doing as well as it is on the promise of a tax cut. host: as far as the tax cut or the proposal for tax reform, how does it benefit you? have you looked at that? caller: who, me? i'm a 70-year-old man. i only live on my social security. so it won't affect me at all. but for my kids, grandkids and their grandkids, it's going to

affect the world in a big way, if donald trump -- [inaudible] he could have the economy going the next 50 to 100 years. host: let's go to oklahoma, independent line. loudy, hello. good morning. caller: good morning, mr. pedro. i hope this morning find you well, sir. listen, oh, lord have mercy. i believe the trump bites must be living on the trump planet since it's been created from the election and everything. now, this gentleman that called from tennessee, bless his little heart. indeed he is right, it will not, it will not positively affect the everyday jack, jill and john. it is absolutely literally a gain for wall street and the 1%

folks. host: why do you believe it benefits those people versus the everyday person, specifically, why do you believe that? caller: absolutely. look here, i believe strongly -- i firmly believe the everyday american knows how to add, two and two make four. however, the math that is done here asks to two and two makes six or seven perhaps. now everybody even in elementary knows that math doesn't add up and the trickle down economy proven wrong ever since reagan even. it's completely false that a tax cut will stimulate the economy, absolutely wrong. now, if you don't have nothing coming into the culture, folks for everyday folks to under properly, if your city, starts with your town and your city, with your county, if indeed there's no money coming in your streets won't get fixed and your pipelines -- not pipelines, lord forbid the pipeline, nothing will be

fixed, nothing will be done. look at oklahoma, for instance. its faith is completely broke and yet run by nobody but republicans. host: that's loudy in oklahoma. one of the many voices we'll hear throughout the course of our three hours together on the senate debate on the tax bill underway. again, give your thoughts on the phone lines, 202-748-8000 democrats, and 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for the independent ens. things going on on capitol hill we want to keep ue wear of and here's john mccartle. john: we've been tracking the debate over sexual harassment and how it's treated and what members of congress are doing to change that system. yesterday we saw a vote in the house on legislation requiring sexual harassment prevention training and passed in the house by voice vote yesterday and "usa today" with their

story on what that would do. the house resolution would require lawmaker staff, interns and fellows to get harassment training and would require congressional offices to post a statement of employment rights under the congressional accountability act and requires congress and legislative branch to comply with work force laws in of the private sector. the senate approved a resolution earlier this year -- this month to require that same training and also a reminder this coming amid a high profile member of congress, the longest serving member of the house, john conyers, democrat from michigan, facing his own allegations of sexual harassment. the story from the associated press yesterday noting john conyers has no plans to resign amid allegations that the congressman sexually harassed several women when they worked on his staff according to lawyers. his attorney told the associated press yesterday the 88-year-old conyers is going to

fight the claims he inappropriately touched the women and that anyone making the allegations should be prepared to back them up. we had one member of congress on this program yesterday, earl blumenauer said conyers should resign but that decision up to him. a glowing chorus of democratic lawmakers calling for him to resign. some reaction yesterday after the vote on the sexual harassment training. the prevention sexual harassment training, here's the reaction from paul ryan, sexual harassment has no place in any workplace, let alone in the united states congress. this week's legislation mandating training is an important first step as we deal with this problem. a democrat from california, a leader in this effort, shared her own stories about harassment when she was a staffer on capitol hill and tweeted yesterday about speaking on the house floor about the vote and said members

of congress need to know we're not special and we need to stop hiding behind due process nicities. here's more from jackie speier yesterday. [video clip] jackie: we do have a problem and must address it. due to the system congress is created to protect itself from being exposed. there's been no accountability. it's now clear this misguided attempt to protect the institution is instead harming it and leaving victims in its wake. we work in a very special place. a trusted place. let me be very clear. we are not special. the outcry for accountability we are hearing from all corners of the country must be heeded. we are seeing titans of entertainment, news and every other business be swiftly terminated yet here in congress we hide behind due process nicities when in reality we have constructed a system take shields us from true accountability. the harvey weinstein or matt

lauer receive months or years of due process before being terminated? when do we simply believe the victims and provide them a fair and safe process to report and get justice? and then we've got to decide, is one occurrence worthy of expulsion or two or is it three? these are thorny issues. we don't like to come down on our friends and colleagues, i get that. but don't we have a moral responsibility to victims, to society at large? when a c.e.o. of a major company is fired because of sexual harassment, the board of directors doesn't say let's wait until the shareholders can meet and decide. well, colleagues, our board of directors are the american people and they are loud and clear. they do not want us to hide behind opaque decisions by the house administration or ethics committees. they do not want to pay for our abilities to keep our hand to ourselves but want accountability and transparency and want it now. colleagues, i urge your support for this bill but i also call on you to join me in taking

congress from a cruel and disgusting joke to a leader in workplace fairness. i know we can do better than this. the american people know we can do better than this. and we must rise to the challenge. host: back to your calls. winter park, florida, republican line. stephanie, hi. caller: hi. i just wanted to call because like your other caller said, they're not answering my phone at my senator's office so i thought i'd call in to you. i oppose the tax bill that's coming up. one of the things that's really going to hurt me is i've recently turned 53 and i've had more medical and dental bills recently than i have in past years. and one of the components of the new tax bill is i won't be able to deduct those costs like i have in the past. so it will really affect me.

and also, by being 53, i plan on collecting social security in the next 15 years and i want it to there for me. host: when it comes to the medical bills and things, if you don't have the ability to deduct those things, what dollar figure are we talking about, how much more will you have to pay out of your pocket? caller: my dental bills this year alone were $6,000. o at a 15% tax bracket, that's 1,500, $61,600. i won't be able to deduct. host: have you tried to call your member of congress about this? caller: i have and my senator, marco rubio, because it's on the senate floor now. host: any response at the office at all? caller: none. host: have you actually spoken to somebody? caller: no. i just get answering -- the

computer. host: independent line. go ahead. caller: hello? host: you're on. go ahead. caller: i have two comments. one comment about the taxes and one comment about sexual assault. first of all, the tax rate, this is what they call the one-two. first they raise the taxes and put news debt and then they -- the interest rates go up on the debt and we give all our money to china and then they'll come back and say we're in debt so much we have to go after social security and medicare and what they call a two-step. always the republican party wants to pull up the social security and medicare. and it doesn't help them. just the death tax alone he'll get a billion dollars more when he dies. the death tax they say is unfair. you buy stock and the stock goes up in america and then your family gets the inheritance so you don't pay no

tax on it. i agree if your family own as store or business and the business should be passed to the kids. but all that profit you make in real estate, stocks and everything else you make, you should pay tax on it. this as far as toyota -- host: as far as the arguments for that, there would be argumented saying stocks, why tax them again. caller: you don't tax stock. you're only taxed on the dividends. then if the shares go up to $75 a share, you made that money. when you sell it, you make a profit. you make that profit. you're not taxed. host: you're taxed on capital gains. caller: but not on -- when your family inherits -- basically when you die, a company that starts off and makes more and more profit, you're not taxed on that. and it's not good for the

company because we're going to be borrowing money when the interest rates go up, we'll be owned by china. host: let's hear from tom from ohio. the democrats line. tom, go ahead. caller: these are the same companies that took all of our jobs overseas for cheap labor and you think if you give them a tax break they're going to bring those jobs back over here and pay more for labor? taxing you on -- taking away the deduction for state taxes, that's paying taxes on money you've already paid taxes on, and that's what they're saying they want to get rid of the debt penalty for.

these people are going to stick the money in your pocket, you're wanting to bring the money they made from overseas back home and not pay taxes on it. and they're not going to make any jobs, there aren't any jobs to make. they'll stick to money in their pocket. host: 202 is the area code if you want to call us about the debate on the tax bill currently underway with the 202-748-8000, 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents. john: this is the time of day when the president often tweets. he tweeted twice already this morning. both focusing on tax reform and focusing on "the new york times" as well. here's the president's tweets. he said the failing "new york times," the pipe organ for the democratic party have become a virtual lobbyist for them with

regard to our massive tax cut bill, they're wrong so often that i now know we have a winner. and they've gone against the social media guidelines they installed and deserves credibility after many of their biased reporters went rogue. here's what the president is referring to yesterday. just before noon, a tweet from "new york times" opinion, the editorial board took over "the new york times" opinion twitter handle to urge the senate to reject a tax bill that hurts the middle class and the nation's financial health and here's how they did that. here's a few of the subsequent tweets after that. contact senator john mccain, they wrote, and jeff flake, particularly if you live in arizona and tell them to oppose the tax bill and would add more than $1.4 trillion to the deficit over 10 years without helping the middle class. then they listed the numbers of flake and mccain's congressional offices and did the same thing for several other republican senators,

including lisa murkowski, here's the tweet about her. the politico in their wrap-up of this after i got a lot of social media attention noticed it wasn't immediately clear whether "the new york times" editorial board which is separate from its news division ever directly called on constituents to oppose the bill by listing the phone numbers for the representatives but the move signaled a rare call to action by the group which has grown increasingly antagonistic republican efforts on tax reform. brightbart in their wrap-up of this debate and tweets from "the new york times" editorial board said that the republican national committee chairwoman mcdaniel tweeted yesterday "the new york times" published senators phone numbers in order to push their liberal agenda. can we stop pretending "the new york times" isn't a political organization? and the republican g.o.p. twitter handle responded with contact "the new york times" and listed their phone number to let them know how you feel about their liberal bias.

host: if you want to look at "the new york times" this morning, rush a bad bill is the headline. and say the senate bill contains a special tax cut for makers of beer, wine and spirits for no particular reason, perhaps those companies are doing their patriotic duty of keeping america in good cheer and would reduce those imported in the country and described as a boon for the craft beverage it would benefit the entire industry saving it about $4.2 billion over 10 years. this has not increased since a and calculated with deduction and calculated over time. the democrats line, hello. caller: good morning. ok. about this tax plan. this is how it affects me and people i know. my next door neighbor is a school teacher and she does buy supplies for her students because they lack supplies.

under this new tax plan she wouldn't be able to deduct that anymore. at the same time, she nor i, neither one of us have a jet plane that we fly over the cup but these billionaires and millionaires will be able to deduct that. this is the craziest thing in the world. i always thought the grinch that stole christmas was just a fable but now i see it's real because the grinch and all his minions and tax bill, are they really going to steal christmas? they really are. yes. host: greg, also in maryland and on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: i'd like to say i have six kids and make under $75,000 and i used to get $12,000 tandard deduction and also the $4,050 for each exemption and as a result on this change if it goes through, i'm definitely 100% going to be paying more in taxes as a result of them leting the $4,000 -- the

$4050 exemption per person in my family. what i don't understand, there's no talking points, and i am a democrat but even the democrats aren't saying anything about that. even though they are going to double the standard deduction $12,024, i from definitely am going to be paying higher taxes. and anybody with more than two children making under $100,000 i would think, i'm not positive but i'm pretty sure they would be paying more in taxes as a result. host: have you tried to reach out to your legislator to talk about -- caller: yes, i have. you don't get to the actual senator but you get to somebody at their office and they pretty much listened to me and that's about it. and my concern with them and when i reached out to talk to

them, it was more about why isn't there any talking points, because nobody is saying how they're getting rid of exemptions. and i think the exemption has gone up to $4,100 for this year, i think. it was $4,050 and they're totally wiping that out. host: if there are changes made when it comes to the area of state and local taxes -- caller: i haven't checked into that yet. i just took my federal taxes and i did the numbers and the numbers i am paying. plus, i'm not saying it used to be 10% and the new bill is going to 12%. that's your minimum taxes. host: the lowest bracket there. caller: exactly. on the lower bracket, it's not going down. there is no tax cut and actually going up. the whole thing hinges on the doubling of the standard deduction and then exemptions that is being deleted and anybody with more than two

children are going to pay and these are the people who need the tax break, the people with the children, like in my case, you know. host: that's greg in maryland. let's go to jim in oklahoma. republican line. caller: ok. yeah, i'm all for it. it's long overdue, starting with -- i don't know why people are complaining about being able to keep more of their money and decide what they want to do with it and it will only help the economy because most people are going to, you know, go out and spend that money which helps people. right now people are afraid to spend their money because everything is so tight. and the death tax is criminal and should get rid of it because people already paid their taxes to get whatever they've amassed and their inheritance should benefit from that, not be penalized. and the only people that are against that are the liberals

that succumb to the propaganda that are to risk and should pay more. why? they already did pay more in taxes. host: if the tax reform goes through and these changes go through, how does it affect your bottom line and affect you there in oklahoma? caller: very much so. they say that a single person, which i am, making the first $12,000 is not taxed. that helps immensely. i'm a partially disabled vet and that would mean a big difference to me. and so i see nothing wrong with it. we should be able to decide what we want to spend our money on, whether it is to put it in the bank or go out. but most people, the way it is now, they have to pick and choose what they actually have to have to sustain them when they go to the grocery store or

whatever. but if they had more of their own money, they'd reinvest it and buy things and that would help other people keep their jobs and keep their businesses open and so on. host: one of the discussions that's been going on in this process is about what it does to the long-term debt and deficit in light of the tax cut and even some republicans expressing some concerns. do you have concerns about that? caller: i'm not a highly educated person but doesn't make any sense whatsoever. it's not like they won't be getting the fund coming in because like i said, most people will be spending money, which is taxed when you buy things already, and that goes into the fund. and the more people you have working, the more people are paying taxes as opposed to now with less companies being able to afford to hire people, you have less people putting tax into the fund. so that's hurting the economy way more than this would ever hurt it because the more people -- it only makes sense, the

more people you have out there putting into the pot, even if it's a lesser percentage of the taxation is better. host: ok. back to john mccartle. john: news this morning that former anchor matt lauer addressed the growing state of allegations against him while he was part of that nbc institution. this from variety which has been tracking the story. the statement from matt lauer, there's no words to express my sorrow and regret by pain i caused to others by words and action and the people i've heard, i'm truly story. as i'm writing this i realize the depth of the damage and disappointment i left behind at home and nbc. some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized but there's enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed and sorry that shame is shared by the people i cherish dearly. repairing the damage will take time and soul searching and now

is my full time job and the last two grace forced me to take a hard look at my troubling flaws. it's been humbling. i'm blessed to be surrounded by the people i love and thank them for their patience and grace. again, that being reported by variety this morning. immediately afterwards, we noted that president trump had tweeted about this tweet throughout the day, this story picking up with the news cycle yesterday. here's one from anna navarro, political commentator with cnn, telemunedo, noting the differences between entertainment and the reporting industry and politics when it comes to this allegation. matt lauer lost his job, charlie rose lost his job, mark halperin lost his job, glenn thrush lost his job, billy bush lost his job, harvey weinstein lost his job, kevin spacey lost his job, but in politics, conyers still there, moore is still running and trump still president. brad on the independent line,

working on the tax issues, an expected vote this week on their proposal. brad, hello. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i want to dovetail off the first two callers and quite a few about the lack of information, exact information on this new proposed tax plan. i want to preface it by first saying george washington warned about the perils of the two party system in a democracy with the strength these two parties have. and as you can see, i'm an independent which is a party hat is absolutely cloutless. anyway, i would equate it to two sports teams. what is going on in the tax plan is irrelevant. it's the democrats against the republicans. one of the reasons i think there are no specific websites to go to that actually have the

whole bill to be read is out se they love to call the information they feel is wrong. just one quick example is doing away with the deduction for state taxes. when a democrat says that, you get the impression the deduction is gone which is not true. you can deduct up to $10,000 on property tax. well, if you live in a home where the property tax is morpe $10,000, i would consider you to be pretty wealthy. so that would be a loss of a deduction on the wealthy. so maybe you guys could come up with a website that posts all the nitty-gritty details on these types of things. host: it stands as a proposal now and there's plenty as far as information on the various elements part of the proposal, aside from the state and local tax aspect, what other things do you support or maybe not support about these proposals that have been out there?

caller: i do support lowering the corporate tax rate but i understand there are loopholes i cannot find out about where that money can stay overseas, and i can guarantee you aside from the 10 talking points or so that shows up in the press, there are probably hundreds of other things we don't even know about. i believe the tax code does need to be simplified. i don't know if you remember ross perot with his charts and graphs but somebody should come up with some simple charts and graphs and explain what this cut or not a cut is about. host: so as you say the hill website has published, actually the legislative text of the senate g.o.p. overhaul legislation, i guess we can put that on twitter for you to read as well. it gives you the highlights of what these proposals are out there and what the senate is currently debating and potentially what might happen and might change even before a

final vote is taken place. again, after this vote there is a reconciling between the house and senate versions you have to go to and votes after that. but that's the process of where we're at right now. phil is next. he's in south bend, indiana, democrats line. hi. bill in south bend. caller: i just would like to make an observation that there is no such thing as a death tax. for anyone to assume that there's a death tax, that would mean that children have complete access to all their parents' funds. they are part owner in that. they can buy property. they can use that money in any way they want. and of course that isn't how it works. host: meaning what? caller: meaning there is no such thing as a death tax. it's an inheritance tax when money is transferred from ownership of the parents to the

children. host: and you support that idea of taxing as far as when that transferance takes place? caller: you know, actually, they ought to make stricter laws or rules about how people can avoid paying that tax. because an individual can pass on $5 million. that means up to $5 million nothing is taxed and for a couple, $11 million. so nothing is taxed up to those amounts. and the myth about farms being affected, family farms is that have hose farms additional assets tied up in the farm so the family business doesn't suffer. i think like 80 farms in the

united states are even affected by this. host: you know a lot about the specific tax. why is that? caller: i read. i read and sort through the b.s. and go to the facts, look at white papers, etc. host: why does the topic overall interest you, do you have a estate as well or part of an estate that might benefit from the exemption of the tax? caller: no, no, i don't. i'm concerned because it's a revenue stream. look, for one thing, we don't ave an aristocracy here that money that a working person has earned in their lifetime automatically becomes a right of an individual to inherit. people that pass on, a lot of people give it away to charity. a lot of people like warren

buffett, for instance, he isn't going to give all that to his children. he doesn't want to ruin their lives. we have to value work in america. if we start valuing nonwork entities where people just win the genetic lottery, then that says a lot about our values and where our country is heading. host: that's bill in south bend, indiana. by the way, several senators posting about the estate taxes from a couple days ago from mysan antonio.com, john cornyn of texas with the op-ed and find it online if you'd like and the estate tax in the express news out of san antonio. allen in washington state, republican line. good morning. caller: how come they say it will hurt the deficit but every time they've cut taxes the revenue to the government goes up? why don't you put that on your

screen. what the revenues were before the tax cut and what the revenues were after the tax cut. host: give us an example. caller: well, when reagan went up, the taxes -- the government went up. the government got more money. they cut the taxes, the government got more money. look it up. you guys got all of the stuff to look it up. host: jack in arizona. independent line. hi. caller: thanks for taking my call today. really appreciate that. host: go ahead. caller: getting back to this whole thing on the republicans like mccain who is now -- and flake with his flaky cousin, jeff flake, saying they'll add to the deficit. well, what are they so freaked out about? obama added $10 trillion. what's the big deal?

they're just against trump. they're losers, ok? they need to be republican but straight republican line ticket. bottom line is -- host: jack, do you think senators flake and mccain are going to be sticking points in this process of passing this legislation? caller: what do you mean? look what loser mccain did, came out with a thumb's down on to repeal obamacare. for seven years he said repeal obamacare. he proves it, he hates trump. he's a loser. host: you think he's going to vote against it? caller: what do you mean vote against it. they should vote for it. they are republicans and should be voting for everything republican. all of them should be a straight line ticket. with a, are they stupid? host: jack in arizona. here's john mccartle. john: in hit latest tweet the president swimping to foreign affairs, focusing on the north korean missile launch earlier this week and the international reaction to it. here's the president's tweet from 15 minutes ago.

the chinese envoy who returned from south korea seems to have had no impact on little rocket man. hard to believe his people and military put up with living in such horrible conditions. russia and china condemned the launch. the associated press with the story yesterday after some new photos were released about that missile that was launched. here's what they had to say. the north korean released dozens of photos thursday about the new intercontinental missile that claims it can reach any target in the united states and it shows the deigses of the ruling party daily is a gold mine for those trying to parse reality from bluster. the general conclusion is it is bigger and more advanced and comes with a domestically made mobile launcher making it harder than ever to preemptively destroy it but there's a catch, it might not have the power to go farther than the west coast if loaded down with a nuclear warhead, not a dummy like the one it carried in its test launch that

happened wednesday. also yesterday, nikki haley, the u.n. him ambassador for the united states addressed the u.n. security council about the latest launch by new york. here's what she had to say. nikki: first, we should continue to street north carolina as the international pariah it's become by taking its u.s. rights and privileges away including its voting powers. [video clip] nikki: through sanctions we've cost 930% of north korean trade and 30% of its oil but the crude oil remains the major supplier of that oil is china. in 2003, china actually stopped the oil to north korea. soon after, north korea came to the table. e need china to do more. president trump called chinese president xi this morning and told him we come to the point china must cut off the oil from north korea. that would be a pivotal step in

the world's effort to stop this international pariah. as i mentioned, many countries have made some big economic and political sacrifices by cutting tides with north korea. they did that to serve the peace and security of all of us. we now turn to president xi to also take that stand. we believe he has an opportunity to do the right thing for the benefit of all countries. china must show leadership and follow through. china can do this on its own or we can take the oil situation into our own hands. the dictator of north korea made a choice yesterday that brings the world closer to war, not farther from it. we've never sought war with orth korea and still today where he do not seek it. if war does do it will be because of continued acts of aggression like we witnessed yesterday. and if war comes, make no mistake, the north korean

regime will be utterly destroyed. host: we'll hear next from illinois, democrats line. hi. coil good morning. guess i'd like to first start commenting on the last republican call they're was a fanatic republican no matter what they're voting on just by your party. i think that's mainly what is wrong with today's politics is everybody is voting upon party lines. and that might be what is sticking us up. i think what happens best for the country happens when both parties get together and settle on something in the middle. and my opinion on the tax is i've got my own views on it. i think maybe they've got something with simplifying it and getting rid of all the loopholes, having a straight tax, $15%, $20%, whatever they

decide on, and have the corporations pay their $20% with no loopholes so they're going to actually be paying more than what they are right now because exxon and a lot of them pay zero. and maybe we can go ahead and throw in -- since they want to throw in health care on it, why don't we throw in health care from cradele to -- cradle to grave and then salvage the medicaid and medicare and it would save the companies. they don't have to have insurance on their employees anymore and would save them money. and then maybe put one little deduction in there for corporations and small businesses. and if they invest in their workers and invest in higher wages or invest in our country, maybe we can bring it down little bit below 20% and that's my idea on it. host: that's harold's idea on

tax reform. again, talking about not only some of the proposals that republicans on the senate side have championed during this process, talking about some proposals the democrats have championed as well. you have a chance to comment, too, 202-748-8000 for democrats, 202-748-8001 for republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents and the topic is what the proposal might mean in the long run for the united states. part of a conversation had by senator mitch mcconnell on the fox news network last night. here's part of the conversation. [video clip] >> some of the headlines what you're trying to do with tax reform, g.o.p. ugly secret, tax plan would force a quarter thrillian dollar cut in medicare. $1.4 trillion to the deficit and will really hurt higher education and make it more expensive college presidents

say. specifically on this quarter trillion cut over time and medicare that's going to force spending cuts on medicare. mitch: that's of course completely false. reporter: how? mitch: it's not true. we're not touching medicare at all in this bill, not at all. on the deficit question you raised, we'd only have to grow .4% over the next 10 years. .4% over the next 10 years to fill that $1.2 trillion gap the critics keep saying is going to sit there as if the economy wasn't going to respond to this incredible relief it's going to get from the burden of high taxation. nonsense. reporter: you're not worried about the deficit, you think the growth spurred by the tax cut -- mitch: this will not be a deficit producing effort. host: john from tennessee, republican line, go ahead. caller: well, about the death

tax, i am skeptical of it. i think it's kind of shady how the government can take my money whenever i die, so all of it go in too much his. host: do you have that much of and a estate that would concern you? caller: well, i used to be a farmer, a volunteer one and live in a small town and a bunch of city boys can come down here and invest a bunch of mare money and have big old houses and i don't want the government to take as much money as they have been. host: hollywood, florida, independent line. next up is heather. hi. caller: hi. i want to know more about the c.p.i.w. and the change that this tax cut would do as far as

changing it into a chained c.p.i. which would affect many of the seniors, and not a lot of people are talking about this and i think a lot of seniors think that they're safe here and there's a concern that they're not because once the c.p.i. is changed, it affects their cola which could negatively affect the amount of their payments that they're getting monthly and i don't see anyone really talking much about this. host: what's your undergo of change c.p.i. and possibly what could happen? >> from what i -- i haven't read a lot but from what i've seen so far, it's looking like the payments that seniors are getting, that they depend on, really, is their financial rock for living month to month, the payments could go down over time because of what's in this new tax bill because it would change the way that the cola is

configured right now. from the way it is now, yes, it does need to be updated. however, changing it from how it is right now and making it a chained consumer price index that figures out the cola will negatively affect many, many seniors. host: the columnist john wasak of forbes.com had a piece yesterday taking a look at the republican proposal. he did talk about chained c.p.i. he said one way to lower social security payment is change the way they are calculated and now indexed to inflation as a standard measure of the consumer price index and will change under a new way of figuring inflation. republicans want to use a chained c.p.i. which would cut the amount retired people receive. he quoted "the los angeles times" columnist michael hiltrik, who said i thinking --

changing it would raise $125 billion the next decade and $500 billion in the decade after that according to the tax policy center. most of that would come out of the pockets of working middle class taxpayers and most important would slow inflation adjustment to the tax bracket and hurt those taxpayers because more of them would move into higher tax brackets purely because of inflation and wages. john bsite, the column by wasak, of the 29th of month. read it for yourself. dorothy from the democrats line. hello. caller: hi, pedro. if i called my senator and they get any of the republican votes other than theirs, but i was listening last night, summers, you know, he was the economist under bush and he had already said what's going to happen with this tax. the people making $75,000 and

under, this lady talking about the c.p.i., she's on track with what she's saying. people making $75,000 and under will be paying the most tax and that's the reason why corker wants to put a trigger on it because if this backfires, that means that they could say we could go up on taxes. but in the meantime, the temporary cuts that the middle class is going to get, theirs is going to go away and phase out, where the richest people in america, it is going to be permanent. and these people say it's a grand idea, that it's going to bring back jobs and we're all going to be cheering this, it's not going to happen. these corporate entities are not going to bring jobs back to america with higher pay. that's why they went overseas and they like the low cost.

off their ing to pay people, their stockholders. and they are going to sit on that money. they already have a lot of money. host: that's dorothy in ohio. robert simpson off of twitter talking about the democrats saying what the democrats do when they ruled both houses, filled out the insurance industry with the a.c.a. and attacked -- and a tax ponzi scheme. from montana, the tax bill is only for rich republicans and democrats and the rest of us will lose, corporations win. we go back to john mccartle. john: pedro, we focused a bit on the president's twitter page this morning. yesterday the president retweeting decisions getting him -- earning him some international backlash. here's the story from the guardian newspaper about what happened yesterday. president trump retweeted a handful of anti-muslim videos posted by the deputy leader of

a british far right group, prompting a rare condemnation of teresa may who official spokesman called his actions wrong. one of the videos he highlighted to his twitter followers from the feed of david franzen, britain's first, reported to show a group of muslims pushing a boy off a roof. another claimed to show a muslim destroying a statue of the virgin mary and a third showing a imbrandt hitting a dutch boy on crutches. a teresa may spokesman said yesterday britain seek as divide by use of hateful narratives that penalize. and cause stress to the people. and we reject the rhetoric of the far right which is the antithesis of the values this country represents, decency and respect. the president going to back to twitter yesterday after that reaction, here's his tweet from yesterday afternoon saying teresa may, don't focus on me but the destructive radical

islamic terrorism making place in the united king dom. we're doing just type. more los angeles -- more reaction, the mayor of london which the president butted heads with and in part of his statement said as mayor of this great diverse city i called on teresa may to cancel her ill judged offer of a state visit to president trump after this latest incident and is increasingly clear that any official visit from president trump to britain would not be welcomed. he went on to say the prime minister of our country should be using anything she has with the president and administration to ask him to dreet the tweets and apologize to the british people. host: for the first hour of our program today we focused on the senate tax plan or the proposal from the senate republicans who changed the tax code, the debate opening up on that and hopefully, potentially a vote this week and we continue on those topics for the next two hours of this program. we've dedicated the entire

program to hear from you about the senate tax proposal and what you think of it, give you information about that and other news stories along the way. here's how you can comment with us this morning, 202-748-8000 for emocrats, 202-748-8001 republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents. if you want to post you can comment on our facebook page at facebook.com/cspan. if you go to c-span.org, a lot of information available to you. text of the senate legislation that we referred to earlier, and our congressional chronicle section, other things, and video we've taken in and events when it comes to the topic of tax proposal. all of that available to you when you go to our website, at c-span.org to find out the latest details about this proposal and what potentially might happen this week as the senate debates and potentially votes. to give us more information on that process of what's going on

in the senate, ryan joins us from capitol hill. he's the appropriations and tax reporter. good morning to you. guest: good morning. host: the fact that we're already in a debate on this, what is the potential we might see passage of this proposal by the end of the week? guest: it seems likely at this point. today they'll be taking up amend ams and probably get into vote-o-rama, the where senators can offer unlimited amendments. that could stretch into late into the night tonight, potentially followed by a vote on final passage. it's possible it could stretch out any longer, but as far as we know, they are on end to finish by the end of this week. host: some of the amendments coming from republicans stray a little bit from the original intent. walk us through those and what's the most important one to watch? guest: i think a very important someone coming from senators marco rube scombrow mike lee, who would essentially make the

child tax credit fully refundable against payroll taxes. this is a proposal that could draw some democratic support. we're not really sure how democrats will play this, but it pays for some of the changes by actually raising the corporate tax rate a little bit from what is proposed under the underlying bill. that's sort of a big one to watch. there are a lot in the queue, but that's the highlight of this morning. host: also, there was some news this morning and yesterday from senator bob corker, calling for this idea of a trigger. walk us through how that works and what other republicans think about this proposal. guest: this trigger idea gained momentum in the past few days, and how it would work is essentially a few years down the line, if these tax cuts are passed, if there's a large increase to annual deficits, which is projected by a lot of the independent analysis that have come out, then this trigger mechanism would essentially kick in and claw back some of the revenue that has been lost. now, this is an idea pushed by

some deficit hawks like senator bob corker of tennessee, as you mentioned, but there are other republicans and some conservative outside groups who are opposed to it. they say this is essentially giving corporations and companies less certainty about what the future of the tax policy will look like, and so they're opposed to it, and senators and tax writers and republican leaders are trying to find a compromise that will get these senators on board, but also not lose any other votes who may be concerned about this trigger mechanism. host: one more amendment, from senators ron johnson and steve danes, the idea of how pass-through corporations are handled may need an explanation of what they are and what's being proposed by them. could you give us that, please? guest: yes, ron johnson of wisconsin and steve danes of montana were the two, only two republican senators to come out initially and say they're actually opposed to the original bill. they were pushing for these changes to pass-through businesses. they wanted the tax bill

essentially to be more favorable to small businesses relative to large corporations, and they seem to have reached a deal yesterday that would raise the amount of deductible income for these pass-through businesses, and that was enough to get them to support the first vote, just to take up the tax bill, and it seems to be -- may be good enough to get them to a yes on final passage. it essentially makes the bill slightly more favorable to smaller businesses like s corporations or partnerships, etc. host: the senate majority leader has to appease a lot of members of his party in order to get this passed. aside from those you mentioned, who else is getting extra attention from the majority leader? guest: senator susan collins of maine is seen as another senator on the fence. she's pushed for some changes regarding deductions per state and local taxes, which would be fully eliminated under the senate plan. she's pushed to restore some of those deductions. she's also pushed for passage

of separate healthcare legislation, which would aim to sort of mitigate some of the damage that may occur if they repeal the individual mandate from the 2010 healthcare law, which is part of the senate tax plan. so she's one of the votes that republican leaders are trying to shore up. there's a few others we don't know exactly where senator john mccain stands on the proposal. he's been somewhat quiet. there's a few on the fence to watch. host: for senator mccain being so quiet at this point, is there anything to take away from that? guest: hard to know. in the past, he has voted against republican tax plans, and just recently he's been advocating for more regular process, and he seems to have indicated that he's happier with the way that this tax process has gone compared to the healthcare repeal effort earlier this year. so it's hard to know exactly where he stands right now, but we'll find out soon. host: what about the individual mandate? this was a matter of discussion leading up to this point. where do we stand on that as

far as this proposal is concerned? guest: well, it would be repealed under this tax proposal, which was a big controversy when it was announced in the bill. as i said, some senators are pushing for separate legislation that would seek to sort of mitigate some of the effects of that, but that is in the bill as it currently stands. ost: if this does pass, what faces the senate and house? guest: there's really big differences they have to work through. some central parts of the plan including just basic individual tax rates and the house version did not have this repeal of the individual mandate, so there's a lot of big issues that they'll have to work through in the conference committee after the senate passes its plan, if they do, and that could take, you know, anywhere from weeks to possibly even months if it drags out, but republicans are obviously aiming to finish before the end of the year. that's an ambitious timeline, but we'll see if they're able to make that.

host: as far as influence from the white house, have they played a role in these final hours leading up to the vote? guest: they have -- yes, they have been involved in this process, more so sort of than they were during the healthcare repeal effort. gary cone and steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary, have been on the hill meeting, pushing some ideas, and president trump himself has been, as we've seen, tweeting out ideas through the process about essentially policies that he wants in or out of the proposal, and he's sort of also just been rallying senators from the sidelines. he was on the hill earlier this week to rally support for the bill. so they have been involved and expect them to continue to be involved. host: at this point, how are democrats playing out this process? guest: well, they're expected to be unanimously opposed to the bill. they see it as essentially much more favorable to large corporations and wealthy taxpayers than average americans, and we've heard a

lot of fiery debate so far, and it's not likely to see any democrats peel off and support the plan. host: ryan, who reports on appropriations and tax matters for c.q. roll call joining us. his latest story looks at the procedural matters and the process that plays out. you can see it for yourself when you watch at c-span2. ryan mccrimmon, thanks for your time. our guest mentioned democrats and their reaction. senator chuck schumer, the senate minority leader, yesterday on the floor of the senate talking about the plan, particularly aiming his comments when it comes to corporate taxes. here's him from yesterday. senator schumer: it's no wonder the bill is so unpopular with the american people. in every survey that i have seen, and every state survey that i have seen, the numbers who dislike the bill exceed most cases by a lot those who like the bill. just like healthcare.

now, corporate profits are at an all-time high. companies are flush with cash. the richest 1% of americans receive 20% of the overall national income. the richest 1% get 20% of the income. god bless them. i don't like that percentage. that percentage hasn't been matched in nearly a century since the roaring 1920's. but do they need a tax break? come on. corporations and the wealthy are doing great right now. god bless them. them don't need a tax cut. to lavish them with huge tax breaks and ask the middle class to bear so much of the cost, that fwets it backwards. that's not a bill anyone in this chamber can be proud of, whether your views are for tax cuts or not. the main argument my republican colleagues use to counter these damning tax, what i say is the

core argument of their tax plan is that as massive corporate tax cut would grow the economy and make it easier for companies to invest in their workers. the argument that a massive corporate tax cut leads to more jobs and higher wages is a flimsy house of cards that falls down under the slightest scrutiny. host: justin from ohio, republican line. go ahead. caller: hey, good morning. i was going to make a comment. senator schumer, i think he's kind of comical. you know, these guys keep talking about rich versus poor. there's only one way to raise wages, and that's through economic growth and demand for labor. now, i don't know how a democrat thinks that happens if businesses aren't flourishing, especially senator schumer, who lives lives in new york, where all the major corporations are. he knows this is good for his state, but he's got to toe that

political line. that's really all we get from d.c., this political line, this hyper bolick reaction to everything. all these crazy predictions. nobody knows what's going to nap 10 years. nobody knows what the deficit is going to be. they're about to negotiate budget in a month. they've got to come up with a budget resolution. if everyone is worried about the deficit, like your previous commentator was talking about, bob corker being a deficit hawk, which is just silly. there's no deficit hawks in washington, d.c., if they're really concerned about the deficit, they got a budget negotiation coming up in a week. cut the spending, and you got no deficit problem. host: let's go to patty, sterling, virginia, democrats line. caller: yeah, good morning. i'd like to disagree with the guy that just called from ohio about 100%. the way you stimulate the economy is you glt mohr money in the pockets of people who actually need stuff, who

actually have a 10-year-old car and would like to buy another one, but their salary has been flat-lined for 10 years. i think what we're seeing here is sort of this mass -- masked illusion that if we just do the same thing question at the beginning of the george w. bush administration and give us a little bit of money back to people who, you know, could use it, but then give a ton of money to the people who are supposed to be stimulating business, that's not what stimulate business. what stimulates business is demand. demand comes from people who actually need stuff. so i guess, you know, i'm really, really distraught that we're about to make, it looks like we're about to make the same mistake that led us into a massive recession, almost depression, which hurt so many

of us. and hurt the middle class. and made it harder for to us put our kids through college, save for retirement, etc., etc. host: ok, let's go to john in georgia, republican line. caller: yes, good morning. i have just one comment i'd like to make before i tell you my feelings about the tax cut. this congress is a do-nothing congress. they have a percentage of about 6%, if i'm not mistaken. all the democrats are doing, they get up and they grand stand. if they were serious about the tax cut, they should have met with president trump instead of getting on tv and reading a bunch of nonsense. we need a tax cut. tax cut grows jobs. it grows the economy. and the lady that just called and said she disagreed, well, i got news for her.

i got a 17-year-old car, and i live on a fixed income, but i can use a tax cut. it's not just for the wealthy 1% as chucky boy likes to say. s so have this do-nothing congress start doing their job, and the republicans that don't vote for it, they should not be in office, they should resign and never run for public office again. host: ok, ok. john from new jersey, independent line, hi. caller: yeah, hi. this is not actually a tax cut for me. i live in new jersey. i itemize my taxes. i itemize to about $40,000 with my exemptions. the exemptions are going away. we have $23,000 in medical expenses, and i'm going to basically lose that in either plan. so my taxes go up by $2,000 or $3,000. i'm a retired 74-year-old man. he keeps saying that trump and the republicans keep saying this is going to be a tax cut.

it's not a tax cut for me. i am just an ordinary retired guy. myself and my wife, we don't make a huge amount of money, but our taxes are going up. so they can keep talking about this being a tax cut. it's not a tax cut for me. it's probably not a tax cut for most people who itemize. thank you. host: ok, that was john from new jersey. let's go to john downstairs. >> as the senate continues its work on this tax reform legislation, its works on confirmations and nominations is continuing. yesterday, a pretty high-profile hearing, for alex azar to become health and human services secretary, a reminder that position open because two months ago, former h.h.s. secretary tom price resigned. some information about azar, according to "the washington post," a former pharmaceutical executive and top health aofficial during the bush bush administration. spent a decade at eli lilly

and company, including its big's fill ate before stepping down in january to work as a healthcare consultant. he previously was h.h.s. general counsel, then served for two years as the second in command. yesterday he was before the health education labor and pensions committee for his nomination hearing. a reminder that that won't be the only hearing that -- the only committee that he'll be in front of. this story from abc, noting that he's also expected to be before the senate finance committee, and that hearing has not been scheduled as of yet. but yesterday, at that senate health committee hearing, he was questioned by senator tommy baldwin about insulin prices while he was at eli lilly, and an important topic, especially because president trump, when he nominated aczar to be h.h.s. secretary, called him a star for better healthcare and lower drug prices. here's that exchange at yesterday's confirmation hearing.

>> when you were president of eli lilly, you were there during a time that there were really radical increases in insulin prices. it increased more than 1,000% since 1996 and over 200% during your tenure. can you tell us -- and more specifically, greg and his two sons with type one diabetes -- why eli lilly and other companies are systematically increasing the list prices of drugs that are already on the market? >> so senator baldwin, thank you for that question, and also thank you. i really enjoyed our discussion the other day. n this and other issues. first on the finger pointing, i've actually been really clear, even when i was at lilly on this issue of drug pricing,

finger pointing is not a constructive enterprise. everybody owns a piece of this. everybody in the system owns a piece of this. and i think the government owns a piece of this, and that's why i want to serve, because i think that the experience that i bring can help me with the government on -- change at one company can't actually necessarily impact -- >> i appreciate that, but my question specificly is what would you tell greg and other constituents about eli lilly's role? >> yep, and the insulin prices have been significant, as increases have been significant for all drug prices pretty much. and the problem is that system, this system makes it so that -- and greg, greg and his kids -- >> the system. i should tell them it's the system? >> the system has to get fixed. that's the problem. >> what about the drug manufacturers are the starting point. they set the list price. what should i tell greg about during the ease time you were there in the

price of insulin? >> that what we need to do is work to fix it so that greg and his kids have insurance that covers that insulin, so they have low out of pockets, so that the drug companies, we got to get the list prices down also. >> it starts with the drug manufacturer, and this feels reminiscent of the hearing we just had. it's a complicated system, and it's this and that. it starts with the manufacturers setting the list price. host: jacksonville, florida, democrats line. fran, good morning. caller: good morning. you know, i was listening to that confirmation hearing. of course he'll be confirmed. the whole cabinet is filled with foxes running the hen houses. and that's a perfect example right there. ok, what i had called about was the tax bill. and how this whole thing should be scrapped. i heard somebody calling up saying that the same stuff

about the companies get more money, and then they'll create more jobs and the people will get more money, but that is not true. those companies that leave because of the taxes, they left because of the wages. and these people are thinking that they're going to get higher wages. companies are not going to pay americans more wages because now that globalization is the thing, they don't have to do that. and we'll just be throwing good money after bad. we'll be draining the coffers of our government. the next big hurricane season that comes along, we won't have any money, and fema, they're going to be looking for the average citizen to pitch in, pay more, or suffer their losses. the lozz won't even be tax deductible because of the tax bill. host: ok, let's go to greg, new

york, republican line. caller: yeah, i just wanted to comment on how mulvaney, which is documented, tricked president trump into -- when he told him that ssdi is not part of social security, which people pay into. and as a result, the budget, you know, has massive cuts to ssdi. he also lied to trump when he said that most of the people are on disability, which is a joke, are not for trump anyway, so what's the difference? host: to the topic of tax reform and the proposals and work of the senate this week, your thoughts on that? caller: oh. is that not part of the tax bill? host: you're talking about things that matter -- we're talking specifically about the senate budget or the senate tax bill. caller: that's how it's going

to be paid for. that's one of the ways it's going to be paid for. the tax bill is going to be paid for, once again, by massive cuts to medicaid, massive cuts to ssdi, which is part of social security, and trump made a campaign promise that he wasn't going to touch social security. and now they're going to pay for this bill by cutting ssdi, which is a joke. host: ok, you made that point. south carolina, democrats line. caller: yes, name's amos. anyway, i said, listen, we need to come together as americans and stop pointing at democrats, republicans. we have to realize that we are living in a system where we are going to have to be able to compromise. when i was table work before i became disabled from an injury on the job, i paid my fair share of taxes. it didn't bother me, because i know that we have to contribute to our national security.

and like trump and like all the others in the senate, in the congress, we are trying to make he best decisions for america. see, nobody remembers hiroshima. if everybody wants to be in the condition like the japanese after we dropped that bomb over there, then they don't like living. it's about living, surviving, and being comfortable and happy. host: ok, let's go to alabama, republican line. you're next. go ahead. caller: yes, sir. what i like to tell our american u.s.a. mainland lovers, the first thing, i'm a staunch republican that love responsible democrats, and sensible republicans. and the confusion here is that whether you support the rich or whether you support the poor or

the middle class, the system is designed where it takes care of each other, because americans know how to take care of themselves. the biggest problem we have as republicans is we have a person who is a democrat like donald trump, he came from the democrat side. his thinking, his viewpoints is not supported by republicans. it's not republicans believe. and we are saying that it has a republican brand. but however, i would like to say that i want everyone to be happy and unified and work together. democrats are not coming to the table. they won't do anything about it. and republicans are doing their best to put things in a right way. host: ok, let's go to john. >> a new allegation out against

senator al franken, democrat from minnesota, involving inappropriate touching. this from just about 20 minutes ago from cnn. we'll just read you the top of the story. an army veteran says al franken groped her in december 2003, telling cnn that while she was deployed in kuwait, the minnesota tell cupped her breasts degree a photo op, definitely -- she's the sixth woman in two weeks to accuse franken of inappropriate touching and the second person to allege that such behavior took place while franken was on a u.s.o. tour. three of the five women have been identified by name. kemplin says while she was stationed in the most, she met franken as he was visiting american troops, a long-time fan, she got in line to take a photo. when he put his arm around me, he cupped my right breast, kept his hand there. i've never had a man put his arm around me, and he was holding my breast on the side. al franken's office was contacted, got a response from

a spokesperson, told cnn on wednesday night, as senator franken has made clear this week, he takes thousands of photos, met tens of thousands of people, and he has never intentionally engaged in this kind of conduct. he remains fully committed to operating with the ethics investigation. host: comes to thoughts about the senate tax proposal. one says scrap the bill and pass a 10% flass tax for everyone, personal and business. 10% of every dollar earned. then thomas lewis says this legislation passes and starts to hurt the middle class. the republican party will get wiped out in 2018. from hudson, florida, independent line, this is james. caller: hello. yeah, ok, it's james in hudson, florida, first-time caller. listen, nobody looks at the whole picture, how he got to where we are. this actually is the best government money can buy, and the way i say that, the reason i say that, supreme court years ago, all wealthy people made it possible to buy lobbyists by

the politicians. loopholes carried interest, everything for the rich. now, if you look at these politicians, the way they voted on the health plan, all they did, recommended voted for it. it was the worst health plan in the world. nd the reason they did that. the agencies offset the money that they give to the wealthy. it's all about the wealthy. i listen to trump yesterday, he's saying he don't gain by this, and he wants to pass the debt tax, and who would gain besides him? we don't make make $5.5 million apiece or $1 1 million per couple. it's all fake. i know trump from new york. they used to say in new york, you used to get trumped. what you know that meant when you got trumped. you got taken. the contractors, subcontract force, workers all got taken. and this trump is -- i know -- i used to go to restaurants and

his father used to be with the son that died, and they -- the message i got there in brooklyn at that time, the trump village where the father lives and went to the restaurant, is that trump was an outcast in them days. they got rid of him. host: ok, ok, let's go to bill in michigan, democrats line. caller: good morning. host: hi, go ahead. caller: thank you, pedro. the republican party, corporations are people, and as people, they are allowed to interject their religious views on their employees to deny them healthcare coverage. but when it comes to paying taxes, all the sudden they're not people. they want the corporate rate. so that they pay less. this is just ridiculous. and agree with the last caller. donald trump is a con man. he's going make out like a bandit. this is why he calls this tax bill a beautiful bill. the republican party and donald

trump are a bunch of scumbags. as a matter of fact, i call the republican party the rape and pillagers. host: let's go to twitter. james says that what makes democrats experts on what make an economy work, eight years of obe proves they have no clue. and then michael from twitter says it will be interesting to see what amendments the democratic senators offer. wayne in chandler, arizona. independent line. hi. caller: good morning. a toddler will tch a hot stove, and he'll probably never do it again. what we're getting ready to go now is serve up those with a disaster. if you go back to the reagan tax cut, the inflation went through the roof. i build houses. and my cost to build a house went from about 20,000 in materials to about 50,000. ok, so the deficit, when he

billion.was $987 when he left, it was $2.85 trillion. so on comes bush sr., so he es the hemorrhaging, so he raised taxes on just about everybody. and when he left office, it was $4.4 trillion. when clinton took over, he took t down to $33 billion. so we're up to $5 trillion. host: ok, so wayne, given the vote this week then, what's the likelihood do you think that senators flake and mccain are going to support this? caller: well, mccain, like i say, i'm an independent. he voted for the iraq war, one of the most disastrous things that ever happened.

but i've studied, when i retired, like i say, i majored in mathematics, and i minored in accounting. and i studied the national debt. i used to do it about three hours a day. and the debt, when bush left, was $11.9 trillion. it was $5.7 trillion when he came in. host: gotcha. you got all that math in. senators mccain and flake, how do you think they're going to vote? whites the likelihood they're going to support it? caller: i think -- well, that's a tossup. they're both ticked off at trump. like i say, i don't know of anyone on either side of the aisle at this point that i'd vote for. in congress, i -- host: wait, we got to leave it there. let's go to john. >> just want to follow up on

that caller who was talking about the president's claims about what the tax bill would mean for him personally. want to point you to the fact checker at "the washington post." taking up these claims that the president saying that it will cost me a fortune, that this is not good for me. glenn giving him four pinocchios in the test, writing if anyone believes this line, we have a bridge in brooklyn available. glenn kessler taking up how this tax bill would affect what we do know about the president's taxes, although noting that we have very little information to go on on that point. but he said when you add it up, trump would have saved $4 million on his 2005 taxes under the house bill and $35.1 million under the senate bill, a big part of the savings is from the elimination of the alternative minimum tax, and, of course, we don't know how often he was subject to it. but the fact that the president -- the fact that the president has refused to release his tax

returns should not allow him to make claims about his taxes without offering documented proof. the information that we do have, that partial 2005 return, shows his claim of losing a fortune on the tax bill is poppycock. host: this is front royal, virginia, republican line. caller: hell snow host: hi. you're on. caller: listen, i got to turn down my radio. host: we appreciate it, thank you. caller: wait, wait, wait. i'm so sorry. i'm too old. host: mona, it's ok. go ahead. caller: i want to say that when mccain was running for i ident a long time ago, was very questionable then on eft and right. but then he turned republican, and i voted for him. i have a shirt that says don't

blame me, i voted for mccain. now thank goodness he hasn't said turned it down completely. do hope that he will not what he threatens to do, which is to turn down the tax bill. host: we heard from previous reporters saying there's really been no indication on senator mccain as to how he's going vote. you're looking to him to actually help get the vote to pass the bill. caller: yes. the other thing i want to say i regarding prior calls, hire people all the time. i pay them a small wage, $10 an hour, but they are elderly, some of them are elderly veterans and so forth who can't do a lot of work. and i also have a house in

washington where i house a lot of people. and i am retired and elderly. and i don't want my taxes to go up. host: ok. let's go to jeffrey, clarksburg, west virginia, democrats line. caller: hello. host: hi. go ahead. caller: ok, yeah. well, i think this is just a big sham. there's no such thing as trickle-down economics, which is what this is. it's just going to make the rich richer, the poor poorer. why don't they bring back jobs to this country? that's what's wrong. they let these corporations move all their jobs, all the american jobs off shore so that they can save money on hourly wages, bring back chief products that aren't worth bringing into the country to

replace all the stuff that was american made. it's just a shame. host: so you don't think that the proposed corporate tax cut will bring more jobs back to america? caller: no. it's want going to help. it's just going to go right in their pockets. it's going go into the shareholders' pockets. it's not going to go down to people. host: what makes you believe that? caller: that's what happened when reagan did this. there were no jobs made. that's what happened when the first bush was in there. there was no jobs made from that. the jobs got worse. the job market got worse. it's been worse since the 1980's. host: that's jeffrey in west virginia. "the wall street journal," a story looking at the economy when it comes to growth in the quarters that they keep track of. this is the commerce department, showing the gross

domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced in the u.s., expanded at 3.3 annual rate in the third quarter, justed for inflation and seasonality, it was the strongest quarter in three dreers and an upward revision from the initial estimate of 3.0% growth -- host: we'll hear next from kyle in illinois, independent line. caller: hi. i like that guy from west virginia. he was spot on. but my comment is simple that will we've heard enough about how companies are going to commit to share repatriation, essentially giving money back to people that invest in them.

we hear that the middle class is going to be attacked by these cuts, and we also hear about how teachers aren't going to be able to deduct their expenses and so forth. but my concern is also still on raising minimum wage to like something that would be more affordable. i think that would go hand in hand with these tax cuts, and it would actually force corporations to repatriate, in a sense, to their employee, which is essentially going to create those jobs. host: would you apply that to businesses, large and small alike, and would it differ out as far as how those businesses are fect if you raise the minimum wage? caller: i suppose it could object a tierly level. that would help, in a sense. i mean, federal level, raising the wage, of course it would probably attack the small business, and i understand that. but there's got to be some way that if you're in some kind of

earning bracket, then you have to pay a decent wage. that's the whole point of minimum wage in the first place, to make sure we're all making a decent wage. and we don't focus on that enough. these tax breaks that we're going to get for multibillion dollar corporations, that's not that's not keeping money in one spot. it's not sharing it with anybody. there's no trickle that ever happens, ever. that's all i got to say about that. host: let's go to louisiana, republican line. this is michael. caller: yes, sir. after all i've read, the tax reform, if they let this pass, it's definitely going to help a lot of people as far as the middle class, but they were kind, if they can get off the national debt and the deficit, which is hard for them to do, they don't realize that $20 trillion was spent. that's not something that we're going to have to worry about right now. it's $20 trillion, that's fine.

but they can't -- when they vote on this, it has to pass, because the people demand that it passes, because it's going to make a difference. they know it's going to make a difference in the wages for the people. i know how the banking industry works, and i've been studying the deficit also. $20 trillion is not a whole lot of money, but they use it as an excuse again to not pass this bill, then they failed. host: we've had a few callers throughout the morning say that if you look at the reagan tax cuts in the 1980's, what the former president george wish bush did, you did not see any large results from that. you're saying that's not case? caller: that can't be the case, because all that is allocated. they spent $1.8 trillion in iraq. beginning through the list. i did the math. they allocate that money for use, which is fine, which is going to be spent anyway without your yes or no. but the people have to have a say in this issue. because it's on the table, tax bill is underway.

they have to pass it to see what the effect is going to be. people demand that. mom and pop can fail. i mean, the minimum wage near louisiana is only $7.25. it should be $9 or $10 because of the gas and oil industry is so phenomenal here. but i do believe mccain should own up and at least try to put this thing on the floor and say we'll see what happens, instead of letting it be drawn out into 2018, 2019. a lot of people are looking for that tax cut, are they not? they are, sir. host: that's mike until louisiana. politico put out a story last month that looks at income tax proposals from the previous administration and how it affects the economy. this -- takes a lock at ronald reagan's first tax cuts, it was less than 20%, saying that from 1970 to 1982, the economy experienced a recession, the second dip came in 1982 when president ronald rage and an a g.o.p. congress passed a slew of tax cuts, including cutting

the texas rate from 70% to 50%. the next year congress rolled back other tax cuts, but the top remained the same. in 19 4, the deprothe rate was the best since at least 1961. it goes to reagan's second tax cut. this happened, cutting the top tax rate was the lowest point in the post-war era at 28%. it was during the subsequent five years, the economy experienced the small recession that occurred during the george h.w. bush presidency. and then in the clinton era, raising of the top income tax rate to 8.6%, adding that while president george h.w. bush rolled back the cuts, raising the rate for the top income earners, president clinton introduced the first major increase, and the economy posted slightly above average growth for the ensuing five years t. goes on from there. politico has the story on its cuts , how past tax

affected the economy. from colorado, democrats line. this is chuck. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm a vietnam vet, so i emember back then. i've seen how these tax schemes by the republicans, their trickle-down economics, or they want to call it supply-side economics, when actually it's emand that drives the economy. it's akin to what will rogers, the indian cowboy, american philosopher of his day said about republican tax schemes. he said it was akin to feeding a horse too many oats. he called it the horse and sparrow theory. he figured that if you fed a horse an overabundance of oats, eventually some of those oats would make it through the horse's canal, and it would benefit the sparrows. host: so when it comes to the

specific tax reform that's being addicted on the senate, what's the issue that you have with it? caller: well, you can't very well have guns and butter. you can't be fighting a war and wanting to beef up your military, and then give tax cuts at the same time. that just don't figure. that's -- host: ok. let's go to thomas in old orchard beach. hello. caller: yes, good morning. host: good morning. caller: i have a couple -- actually, two parts. the corporate tax rate dropped. there's no provision in there that says that these corporations will, in fact, build factories to bring jobs home. so they can just take the money and run. i have a problem with that. trickle down does not work. part two, they've forgotten the people that make between $40,000 and $60,000. we're going to get ruined.

part three, i'm in construction. i've worked in 38 states to make sure that i get a pension. they want to eliminate the tax that you pay individual states. sometimes i work five states a year just to keep food on the table. now i won't be able to deduct that. so i'm going to be taxed in the state i'm working in, my home state, and the federal. you want and you want me to work? i'm going to be working for nothing. host: thomas, thank you. let's go back to john. >> as "washington journal" viewers know, we spent a good amount of time earlier this year tracking the messy leadership fight at the head of the consumer protection bureau. earlier this week a judge ruled that mick mulvaney can serve as acting director of that bureau and in his capacity as budget director for the trump administration. there was that challenge from the person appointed by the former director of csfb to be

the acting director after he left last week. supporters of the consumer financial protection bureau not worried about the future of that agency in the wake of that decision. elizabeth warren, who helped create and found the cfpb, has a column in today's "usa today" talking about the cfpb, its work over the years. she says in the first six years of operation, the agency has made good on its mission, has returned nearly $12 billion directly to people who were cheated by banks, credit card companies, and student lenders. it's handled more than one million consumer complaints, allowing people to quickly and easily resolve disputes with banks. it's directly helped 29 million people and helped millions more by creating new rules for mortgages, credit cards, checking accounts, prepaid cards, and pay day loans. she ends that column by saying the fight over the director boils down to a fundamental question, will the cfpb remain a strong, independent agency that levels the playing field

and protects american families, seniors, students and veterans, or will wall street succeed in forcing the consumer cop off the beat? i believe that the president and congress should stand on the side of consumers and protect the cfpb. one more tweet to show you. mick mulvaney has been working this week to show that he's hard at work as the head of cfpb, taking over the official cfpb twitter exact posting himself working there at his desk at the consumer financial protection bureau. host: nate from wisconsin, democrats line, hi. caller: hey, thank you. run through a couple of quick points. oddly enough, i actually voted for john mccain back when he was running against obe. and i feel like he actually ended earning my vote back then from this year. i look at this tax bill.

i do not see good things from t. it's the rest of the government what they'll have to cut later if the deficit goes crazy. the last time they did this, it did not work. and on top of that, they've not been simplifying it for a lot f companies, so they leave loopholes in taxes, and i remember back in the days when paul ryan actually used to care about deficits. i see he's topped. host: ok, i'll stop you because your signal is going in and out. let's go to marian, virginia, democrats line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i really do believe trump has betrayed the american worker. he has filled his cabinet full heads, and so corporations pretty much own our government. and to me, one of the questions

that i would really like to ask you, and i haven't heard it, is how much of all this money that we're going to go, $1.5 trillion in debt, will go to foreign shareholders that own stocks in these corporations. so in other words, are we basically giving a lot of this money and going into debt so that foreign shareholders can make a ton of money? and that concerns me. do you have any statistics on that? i haven't heard anything on that. thank you very much. host: from santa paula, california, republican line. next up is john. caller: good morning. i'd like to make a couple of comments. first is that we ought to embrace this tax cut. when was the last time the federal government offered the american people a tax cut, like 40 years ago maybe? we ought to really jump on this. we're not going to get another chance at a tax cut for another 40 years. it may not be perfect, but the tax code we're in right now is

really bad. as far as -- host: when it comes to the tax code, how is it bad for you? caller: well, you know, i have to spend about $500 just on a tax preparer. that's one thing. if i can eliminate that, i'd be happy. i don't care if i pay the same amount of tax, if he can just eliminate that tax preparer, that's a lot of money. so i think the whole thing, simplifying it, making it easier, and i make less than $100,000 a year. i think it will help me. host: when you hear, and you may have heard people throughout the course of the morning say if you take a look at the reagan tax cuts, they didn't work. if you look at the bush tax cuts, they didn't work. how do you respond to that? caller: i say they did work. they worked in the following years, two or three years after the tax cuts. there was a boom in the economy. i tell you something about obama. his first four years, he did not even have a budget. he just ran on continuing resolution. his first deficit, his first year was $1.8 trillion. so don't talk about democrats talking about the deficit is

crazy. e reality is that, you know, the rich people, they pay taxes. september people don't. why is everybody complaining that the rich people are getting a tax cut? i think that we all should get a tax cut. we all should be simplifying. and as far as the minimum wage, that's just an entry-level. people that are relying their whole careers on minimum wage are, you know, there's too many people that have unskilled and have not trained themselves and have not made themselves employable, and, you know, now they're relying on the government to give them pay raises. so really, the minimum wage is just an entry level. you've got to rely on your own skills to get beyond that. host: ok, that's john from california. president trump yesterday in missouri making the case for a passage of the senate's version of tax reform and ultimately getting a bill to his desk to sign. here's part of his speech from yesterday.

president trump: this week's vote can be the beginning of the next great chapter for the american worker. to summarize, our plan cuts taxes for the working and middle-income families. it nearly doubles the amount of income taxed at the rate of zero. it lowers tax rates. it expand the child tax credit. it provides relief from the estate tax, also known as the death tax. it cuts small business taxes. it reduces the corporate rate from 35% all the way down to 20%. and it provides a one-time low tax rate to return corporate money parked overseas, trillions and trillions of dollars. this is the right plan. this is the right time. we have a moment in time. the republicans have the

senate. the republicans have the house. the republicans have the white house. it's very unusual. ery unusual. this is our chance to free our economy from our workers, from the terrible tax burdens. we have workers that are so burdened with taxes. we're freeing our workers from those terrible burdens. host: that complete speech available to you at our website at c-span.org. you can also view action that's taking place on the senate when it comes to tax reform. the various legislators and experts have said about it, including what's going on in the house, when they pass their tax reform bill. all of that available when you go to our website, c-span.org. here is cheryl from florida, independent line. caller: yes, i think our country is just stuck in a vicious circle, and greed is

consuming so many people. i think once you get a certain amount of money, you just want to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. there is so much need in this country, and it should start with a living minimum wage. i think the republicans and democrats need to sit down and talk and think, and let's get some ideas in here that's going to benefit the american people. it's going help america. our country is disgraceful now. i am so ashamed of what's going on in our country. and it's like corporations have more rights than human beings, than people. we've got millions of children that have no food. they're undernourished. they have no roof over their heads. but we're giving tax breaks to rich people? come on, people. find your voices. get out there. talk to your congressmen, and let's bring about some change. if we can't get change, don't re-elect them.

throw them out. host: ok, ohio is next, democrats line. hello there. caller: hi. my thoughts are there's a definite problem with this country, and it doesn't just start on the level of government, democrats or republican. it's what this lady that just called in said. greed has ruined this country severely. the way we're going to fix it, they can cut their taxes all they want, but here's the way we're going to fix the country. we are going to break up private sector business. we don't need a lot of things. we're going back to recycling. we are going to get our unions back. we are going to strengthen our pensions, get our pensions back, and let these companies stop stealing from america with the garbage they're selling people and trying to rip us off. people are forgetting something. host: so marilyn, how do you -- how do you plan to do that personally then? how do you plan to boycott corporations? caller: you boycott. you don't buy. nobody should be buying anything. and keep the money in their

wallets tightly. this is how you pay back america for what they're doing. these corporations are going to keep screwing people, and the government is going to let them do it. host: so marilyn, that's your personal plan then? you're going to boycott corporations? caller: absolutely. i've recycled for years, and i have done it very conservatively, and am a democrat and i'm proud of it, because i don't want to see this money going to people's wallets. i want it to go to the better good of this country, which means our roads, our hospitals, our healthcare, and many, many other things, education. if the government wants to keep stripping us and taking our pensions and screwing with unions, why are people striking? why are nonprofit businesses, why are people walking out of jobs and say they're not worth the minimum wage, they can do better than this? host: ok, thank you. let's go to john. >> pedro, coming up in our 9:00 hour, i know you're going to be talking to a couple united states senators about this tax reform bill. one senator you aren't going to

be talking to is lisa murkowski, republican from lasses will, but that's ok, because we already know how she's going to vote. measure key ski will vote for the tax bill. remember, murkowski, one of those key votes to watch because she was a no vote, one of the votes that sunk the republican healthcare repeal effort back over the summer. lisa murkowski releasing a statement yesterday about her vote. she says that the bill before us has a number of features that are very attractive to alaskans. it lowers tax rates, doubles the child tax credit, and provides tax relief for many families by doubling the standard deduction and promotes economic growth, employment, and invest by improving the tax code for corporations and small businesses, and it removes the tax penalty for those who do not wish to purchase health insurance that they cannot afford or that offers little value to them. of course, the bill also includes a title that i am proud to have written, she writes, to open a small portion

of the nonwilderness area in the alaskan national wildlife refuge in northeast alaska, responsible energy production. that's the gist of her statement. alaska public media noteding on that lost provision there about the anwar opening that the senate parliamentarian has reportedly ruled that part of the language on that issue exceeds the limit about what can be included in the bug bill. they contacted lisa murkowski's office and told alaska public media that the problem is easy to fix. we are looking forward to an opportunity to wrap this up in what is called a cure aactive amendment. she said i'm not worried at all. host: that is correct, lisa murkowski not joining us. she's more than welcome to join us, as well as any u.s. senator they'd like to come on the program to talk with us and you about this proposal by senate

republicans. the debate opening up this week, potential vote this week. and we'll also be joined by senators in our 9:00 hour to give their thoughts on what they think about the actual text of the legislation and the process as it plays out. we've opened up the last two hours of the program to hear from you about these proposals, what you think about them, what you think about the specifics, what they'll do to the economy overall. this final hour, we'll do the same if you want to join us. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents, 202-748-8002. people have been posting on twitter this morning, you can do so @cspanwj. and on facebook.com/cspan. orlando, florida, republican line. susan is up, first call in this 9:00 hour. susan, go ahead. you're on. caller: good morning. what i'm calling about is there's a program that i saw, and it's about the reason why we're not in a manufacturing.

china has got over 350,000 people in one company that does manufacturing alone. we don't have that type of population. it's technology. if most of us could either -- if they're not going to go to college, it's important that they go to trades. but everything should be heading to technology. were with ok after world war ii because every other country was down, they were completely destroyed, so of course caller: no, no. we need technology, education is now, put more t people into education to have a new workforce for technology, is what is the future. host: donald in maryland, hi.pendent line, caller: hi, good morning.

solely t the tax bill, on the grounds that it taxes university endowments. universities like harvard and tanford essentially run tax-free hedge funds worth billions and billions of dollars proposal is going to tax university endowments, which think is a good thing. indifferent to other details of the bill. taxes hy do you think those endowments is a good thing? stanford arvard and shouldn't be able to run, another private university shouldn't be able to run funds, especially when this sort of education that they're offering, sort of graduates they are producing, are so terrible. mean by that?you you look at the more or less run by

educated in elite private universities and they're all morons.ist host: there is a letter in the columbus dispatch this morning professor at case western university about the topic of endowments. this is, you can find on the website of the columbus the republicanys tax bills winding through congress contain several that would impair higher education from taxing waivers and tion tuition to removing deduction for student loan interest, on planned attack this tax endowment, would disrupt research for ecades and how university endowments work. this tax provision is both and passed in the pous g.o.p. bill and senate g.o.p. bill under consideration, with leveeing thresholds, each 1.4% tax on endowment income of

hundreds of universities. this threat of taxing endowments back several years and plans to lower tuition. this is unfortunate, there are higher necessary education with challenge of affordability and access at the tax on , simple endowment does nothing to incentivize addressing them and efforts harder. it goes on from there, columbus written website, it is by peter shulman, associate professor at case western reserve university in cleveland, there is a letter you can find endowments,ng about the priests caller talked about. elburn, ext up in illinois, democrat's line. caller: hello, good morning, c-span. host: good morning. caller: i think this tax plan, the is so good for ountry, why not have a go over all unsel

the numbers and show the american people who gains and hurts? another point real quick is i bush jr. tax cut a depression, o so, you know, it sounds like from the e same republican party. you hard-working republicans, get over, you're about to screwed. host: all right, mississippi, gena, republican line, hi. caller: hi. first of all, i would like to agree with the young man that several callers back, that said just getting -- just having to pay a tax preparer taxes each to do year would really benefit me and point out o like to that 47% of american people

pay no federal income the lower -- the poor people in this country pay no income tax, so i don't understand why they would be upset. this tax cut was primarily middle to help the great.nd i think it is i'm for it all the way. host: is that because you'll it?ctly benefit from caller: yes, i will, i certainly will. my husband still works. we had a very hard time trying to make it on my social security him still working because we the 75 tonow, like in 80,000 dollar range. the end of up at the year and pay taxes and then

do someone $400 just to taxes, it puts the hurt on. host: how much do you end up pay i may ask?es, if caller: oh, gosh, you know, it right now, my mind we we always have to pay and $500 s have to pay $4 to for her and it is hard. host: charlotte, tennessee, from joe, independent line. joe, hi. caller: okay. good morning. thist to make a comment on tax beat switch here. hello. host: you're on, go ahead. okay.r: oh, i agree with that lady earlier a t was talking about corporation boycott. consumer about society, is that the consumer

the power. all he has to do is hold on to can andy as tight as he these corporations will be on their knees within 30 days and that's a guarantee. hen 150 million americans stop spending these corporations will money ag it, but i have my main have e is 10 years old, i a 23-year-old truck that runs to buy d i'm not going anything. my bills are all paid and i'm and pop find a mom grocery store, stay away from walmart. ost: okay, but joe, to the specific tax bill, you called it bait and switch, what is the switch? what is the caller: the bait and switch is that everybody's going to get a but that's the big lie. nobody is getting a tax break

but the millionaires and illionaires and the rest of us are paying just like we've been doing for the last 200 years in country. host: okay, that is joe in tennessee. downstairs. from guest: want to update vieweros looking schedule is like today when it comes to this senate tax reform amendment and the vote, the senate expected in at 10:30 following remarks, debate will continue on the tax bill. capitol hill producer craig capland noting that debate expected to continue throughout the day and into the late votearama and at final passage expected late morning.r early friday vote-a-rama, 70 plus amendments have been filed in the senate tax reform bill. here is an example of one of

them, courtesy of the reporting on st" republican leaders who are under pressure to make some changes to the bill. marco rubio and mike lee pushing for the tax ndment child credit to millions of poor families, particularly those who taxes to offset cost of that change, they propose lifting corporate tax 20% to 22%. the "washington post" saying to get enough ly republican support to pass their could nt, but democrats ban together and push amendment into the bill if they receive help from one or two more that could force republican leaders to make a last-minute decision about the amendment or decide whether to pressure lawmakers to withdraw it. process play out today on c-span2. editorial of the "wall street journal" takes a look at that amendment by marco rubio. calls it the

rubio-schumer amendment. his say this, mr. rubio and political fight car mike lee of to announced the amendment the tax bill. make child credit refundable up liability among other expensive tweaks to pay and lee es, mr.s rubio would change corporate tax rate to 22%, more destructive, the "wall street journal" go on to say, increase in corporate tax rate, the most the bill and could significantly increase what labor, s tax fallos point or two more may seem like no big deal, but might be the the rence between making u.s. more competitive than the oecd 24% average or not. is a mere average. one competitor for invest rate ry ireland's 12.5% mrchlt rubio knows this, or ought to, his press release ould have been could have been written by chuck

schumer, 70% of tax cuts would go to businesses, rubio-lee dispatch says 30% to individuals, this is a false choice. earn income at usinesses and -- class war politics. read more at "wall street journal." next from north carolina, democrat's line. hello. morning.hello, good host: good morning. caller: first of all, i think i caller, joe, and ady called to hold our money not to spend so that the back to ons will come us begging for our money. ow on earth can this corporations take business utside this country for lower wages? and now republicans are telling break, they -- tax will bring the business back to the u.s., that is not true. i mean, seriously, it is not rue, because i mean, this corporations -- and if they see

-- outside the united tates, thinking tax break, so only thing i think is that the hold our e have is to income, to hold our money. from indonesia, they will find to bring -- here so we, too, good-paying job and pay them. tax n our paychecks, reak -- [indiscernible] -- put the money offshore america. host: okay. port huron,jerry in michigan, independent line. is er: hello, yes, this jerry. i'm just wondering about that tax break, all for the million people like mr. trump, who lives in florida and state tax n't pay no like the rest of them people in

florida. but as far as regular guy making living here tis impossible. i'm a landlord, my wife is on social was security until they took me off because i was in an automobile ccident, what kind of break do i get on taxes? i will get absolutely nothing. he last couple tax breaks, i got nothing. host: that is jerry in michigan. former republican senator from wyoming, former bill clinton, to have op ed in the "washington post" on the proposals in the senate. national moment of truth, is what they call it, they write this. the actual bill in the house and senate are worse than the 1.5 trillion sticker price because include half trillion in phony savings from sunsets and interest, icks, with meaning tax cuts could add 2.2 trillion to the debt. bringing our debt under control will require reforming and enacting tax

cuts will make that harder substantially and politically, substantially because by worsening the debt situation changes, l painful politically, because democrats with ss likely to agree entitlement reform if republicans won't allow for sufficient revenue. next on the republican line, hi. caller: hi, good morning. few suggestions about this tax bill that i'd like to one mentions ask your have you viewers, ever seen -- i'm 58, have you ver seen democrat come to the floor, come to the microphone offering a tax cut, saying to he american public, it is time for a tax cut to the american people, whether it is business or personal? i've never ever seen a democrat ever come to the microphone, so that needs to be context. the last part ideological trump walked on

water, democrats would say tis because he can't swim. no wrong, but an outsider coming into power has xposed a lot of corruption on my side of the aisle, reason they can't get anything done, there is a lobbyist pocket. my suggestion for the tax bill, is that it would be more democrats, m even not that we owe them exception, bill, t the health care didn't allow amendments and bribed them to get it through, we know the history of that. don't owe them anything in but if we want more democrats onboard, stipulate criteria for business tax cut. be based on gross number of employees or gross but give tax ars, cut to small businesses with no strings attached, give the tax to businesses, large corporations that prove that cut, prove it has been applied to employees and not dividends. host: okay. okay.

reid, don't sorry, mean to cut you off that way, because joining us now, senator kennedy, republican of louisiana, he's a member of both and appropriations committee here to talk about the process that plays out. good morning. here do you stand on current proposals, as you have seen them? will add bill, it half a point to point to gross domestic product. will increase foreign direct investment by 50%, i the op u talking about ed piece, didn't hear all of it, that op edng to read piece, i've been told about it, it's wrong. opponents of this bill want you to believe and this is astounding they would suggest but they want people to believe that tax policy has with tely nothing to do the economy or economic growth , if you believe

nothinge tax policy has to do with the economy, you're only much like a rock, dumber. host: senator kennedy, we've had several people call thanksgiving is ing compare whatting being proposed now to what we saw ronald reagan and george w. propose, several people making the case it didn't work then and won't work now. do you respond to this? guest: this is not like a pharmaceutical drug trial, where you've got a control group and then you've got another group drug.ets the the economy is very complicated. whether tax policy works depends the tax policy, it depends on on how hics, it depends well your training partners are doing. the world is in resxegz we're not, that impacts our economy. it depends on technology. you have a lot of different variables, that is why i laugh economists come out and

say, i can tell you exactly what is going to happen or not happen if you do this. no, they can give you an sometimes an and uneducated guess, all i can tell ou is what i believe and i wouldn't vote for this bill if i didn't believe that, number one. businesses and people, all things being equal, money they earn better than government can. a lot of my colleagues don't agree with that. believe, number two, when you tax something, you get less of it. f you want more of it, tax it less. and number three, we see it in he stock market right now, the stock market is not going up because of earnings growth. in anticipation of help being on the way. studied, i've spent 200 hours reading the spill, reading sources, looking at redlich like the parrow

story, the article they wrote, at harvard. they must be correct. study of the american economy from 1912 to 2006 and part of tax changes. 1% y find that for every decrease in average marginal tax ate, you will get extra half point of economic output. i believe it is going to work your m willing to come on show and let the american people in the eye and say, i believe t's going to work and i'm voting for it. if i'm wrong, i will come back. host: what do you think about proposals like senator corker placing trigger necessary place o make change fist need be, depending if the economy doesn't work? guest: i will vote for the bill, even if bob insists putting that in there, but i don't like it. i don't think we need trigger, i don't want a trigger that automatically raises taxes, i

a trigger that automatically in there, butcuts discretionary spending. fool can vote to raise taxes, that is easy, that doesn't take any guts to do that. what is tough is to cut spending and that is the fundamental around this place. while you and i have been talking, we probably borrowed $5 or $6 million to run this place, borrow about a million dollars a 1.4 billion a day, that is how much we deficit has been the most surprising thing to me, since i washington is how little will there is to actually scrutinize spending. host: when it comes then to issues, senator, about the were former department of -- head of secretary of department of in louisiana. when you look at those from that hat, how do you justify come as ly what could far as the debt or deficit of the united states versus the the tax bill hat could bring?

you cited growth in there, is compensate growth to for that? guest: that's a great question. obviously we've got a debt and a deficit problem n. fact, our debt is growing faster economy. and what we've got to do with this bill, strike a balance, got to pass tax cuts we can afford. now, based on my analysis, i'm saying i have all the answers, but i have an opinion and it is reasonably informed. spent a lot of time on this bill. i could be wrong, but i don't on my am, based analysis, all we've got to do is average gdp growth to between 2.4 and 2.6 average over the next 10 years and this bill will play for itself. says right now despite the recent increase in our gdp, they we're going to grow about 1.9% per year over years.t 10 so if we can add an extra, i

don't know, let's be fair, 5.5 and 1% to gdp growth, i think we'll be able to do that just with the increase in foreign direct investment and talking about repatriation money, but about the fact that f you know the corporate tax rate to 20%, lower pass-through ate, you're going to have capital that wants to come to america and invest here. mccrone, in hink france, nobody ever confused him conservative, why does he want to cut france's 25%?orate tax rate to why did president obama say we need to cut the corporate tax rate to 28%? because they know, they know that it will attract investment. host: senator john kennedy, republican from louisiana, and a member of the budget and thanksiations committee, for your time. guest: thank you, enjoyed it. calls, t to your

arline, in gold hill, oregon, democrat's line. hi. caller: hello. trump's speech in missouri and the one thing that speech was in that that this is a tax cut, not a reform. reform, reform, us and rightve got now we are hooked, not line and inker yet, they come out and tell the truth, it is a tax cut of the tax cut is going to the wealthy and i believe that senator kennedy very well the stock market and the economy, as they keep is doing so well, no reason to cut taxes when we have $200 billion worth of natural help er that we need to our states recover from and we have infrastructure probably a trillion dollars that

needs to be done in our cities states.our he roads that flood interstate 10 flooded in texas and i want to say to mr. kennedy fit come't work, he says he'll back to tell us. mr. kennedy, if it doesn't work, whether you'll be back at all. thank you. indiana, o mike, independent line. caller: who is it? host: it's you, go ahead. caller: okay. this tax bill, they ought to go consumption taxconsumption tax to pay off at least 500 million dollars a year on the national debt, set it for the national debt. amount,dy pays a certain democrats, rybody, republicans say get control of spending. a put a tax and make

progressive, they won't spend money. and i'm 72 years old, my wife live on $1700 a month, we got a house payment, this tax will help me, but i'd grandkids my kids and along at grandkids get i'veave a better life than had. host: that is mike in indiana, joining us from capitol hill, peters, democrat from michigan. sir.morning, guest: good morning to you. host: we've heard many democrats, if not all will not bill, will you be one of them? guest: as written now, i won't be supporting it. changes. if it i would love to support a thoughtful tax reform bill, that now, i want we have to work on a bipartisan basis, that is why 17 or 16 of my in talking oined me about how we'd love to work in

bipartisan to get to a place helps lps the economy, middle class families, but we're not there yet. host: specifically what changes like to see? guest: one, you can't have a tax bill loaded for folks at the very top. the top 1%, folks ealthiest folks in the country get vast majority of tax breaks. i'm believer tax policy works in from onomy, if you grow the middle out and that means middle-class families, put more monnemiddle-class family pockets that creates a stronger economy, not trickle-down approach that time and time again. we're back to trickle-down economics, which we know is a failure. let's grow the economy from the middle class that, is my view. had senator kennedy on previously, he talked about if it was passed, he said growth happen and if that growth happened, the tax bill would be for. guest: i think that would be hard to see that happen, given the way it's structured right now. we see when you give tax breaks

to the wealthiest folks, that translate and increase consumer spending. when you look at corporate tax my joint ell, in economic committee yesterday, we yellin, does this lead to invest snment she said the weak.ic links are very look at what c.e.o.s are going to do, listen to corporate what they are saying they doll with this tax break and they are saying they will do buybacks, paying money back to shareholders, that they owngoing to be buying their shares, inflates their share price, great news if you are a shareholder or hold stock options. yellensdshgs that increase wage? absolutely not, share buybacks do that, that is what we see executives telling us they will do with the money. is not thoughtful process, thoughtful tax policy looking fairness and efficiency and

simplicity tis not in this bill. host: what is the long-term picture under this bill in your estimation? guest: well, we know some 1.5 trillion re dollars, we'll see what other reports come out. scoring, be dynamic you got to look at the methodology of that. agrees, every economist you're talking about a large increase in the federal deficit, to realize that wealthy folks will do well, if you are a shareholder, you are to do well because of stock buybacks, but you will not see increase in wages. $50,000 a year, somewhere in that range, may get $100 tax benefit. recent report said 40% of people ill see tax increase with this bill and in the process, we're going to leave a huge deficit for our children and grandchildren. you know, it is amazing to me, like tolican colleagues say they are fiscal conservative. you can't be a fiscal and run up $1.5 trillion deficit that our

children and grandchildren are you can have a giveaway for folks who are extremely wealthy. sense, not good tax policy, not about driving the future of our economy where we out and the middle make sure we empower middle class families to be the engine of growth in this economy, which we know. host: senator peters, you serve committee, security your thoughts on north korea and what faces the united states of recent y in light test of their? guest: it is obviously very troubling what is happening, is definitely on path to be able to create a missile that will reach the homeland, which is unacceptable. we can't tolerate that. hat we need to do is have a full diplomatic effort to stop north korea and that means ngaging the chinese more, the chinese have made some positive moves to do that. to do more, the trump administration needs to engage diplomatic effort and quite president trump has to

stop crazy tweets that he puts out, that does not help the situation. he needs to be an adult, he needs to be the ommander-in-chief of the world's most powerful military and act like it, that means diplomacy. host: what deterrent should we ave should a missile be launched at the united states? guest: we have missile defense ystems in place, i'm currently co-sponsor on bill and working for language to increase our intercepter system, hopefully putting one in the midwest, in addition to ones we in now in california, alaska, i think we can deal with can intercept, we it. we need to expand that intercepter capability, which i need to focus we on diplomacy first and foremost hile we continue to develop missile defense system. host: senator gary peters, thank you for your time. you.t: thank host: now we go to john mcardle. senate heard from the and more than 50 callers this

morning talking about the tax facing a l that is vote either late tonight or early tomorrow in the senate. here is latest nationwide poll from reuters, it goes out senate tax the reform bill. opposition has grown among tax cans to the republican plan before congress, with 49% of people who are aware of the opposed it,ing they up from 41% in october, according to that polling yesterday, in addition to the 49% who said they oppose 29% said they , supported it and 22% said they didn't know. poll of 1257 adults around the country, when asked most ands to benefit the from the plan, half of all american adults selected wealthy corporations, 14% said all americans, 6% picked middle 2% chose lower income americans. of course, the only poll that today is that

roll call vote that is expected tonight or early tomorrow morning in the senate. al,: ohio, republican line, good morning. caller: hey, yes, thanks for the call. what i don't understand is the democrats should at least go put a nd maybe try to little bit of input in. it's been like what, four or five times they didn't show up. mr. obama was in power, and mitch mcconnell guy, even if he didn't like the guy. at least they should do that, class, quit talking about somebody else don't have class, you know. -- quick, about the host: indiana, republican line, walter, hi there. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call, i do appreciate it. i am so excited and hopeful they going to pass this tax overhaul system. points.uick i'm an old new yorker that moved

indiana 20 years ago. 20 years ago my property taxes on long island were 6800 a year. 12,000.'re getting rid of the salt tax is a now out idea because in indiana, they are financially stable, they are very they have low property taxes, it appalls me rich new e to pay for yorkers that keep raising their taxes, raising everything through the roof for politicians and pay for it. if we get rid of the salt tax, politicians to come up with new plans to lowering the cost of things, having the rest of the country subsidize it. he second point is, if you are that to make a dixie cup, is your little business, it is prudent to find an environment conducive for you to be able to dixie cups, hire the people, tell it and make is what the united states is down to 28th or 29th,

money they w much pay in torp corporate tax rate. will come back to the country. get repatriation of 4 to 5 from overseas to bring back to the united states and the funniest thing in the world to any democrat talking about financial stability, when under their years, tration for eight they doubled the debt. those three things are critical idea is if you pay less, if it costs less to make a roduct, the price will go down and it is going to enhance the environment. i've never been hired by a poor in my life and do you ealize 49% of americans don't pay in taxes? that 1% of the rich pay 70% of taxes? the idea is my gosh, rich people are going to do well. that is great, if you are doing well, you have more business. i think those three things are critical. ost: we'll leave it there, walter in indiana.

202-748-8000 for democrats. republicans. for 202-748-8002 for independents. on te republicans work passing reform bill this week. here is john mcardle. news from breaking detroit from the cbs station and associated press out of detroit, congressman john conyers has een hospitalized for stress related illness. family relative confirmed the 8-year-old conyers is seeking treatment at a local hospital and declined to detail what from.s is suffering reports indicate it is stress-related. embroiled in a scandal after being accused of sexual misconduct by several female staffers, news of his hospitalization came the stafferning that former maryanne brown went on nbc's congressman g the

subjected her to years of sexual harassment, we'll keep looking updates on his condition. host: kenneth in arkansas, democrat's line. kenneth, go ahead. caller: yes, pedro, i have real american or the people. terme at the end of bush's that the economy was going into recession and president obama in and had to spend a lot of money to get us out of the ditch. that and that same night, when he was getting mitch mcconnell and paul ryan, they were down at out otel trying to figure how to make him a one-term president. fought thatars they president, instead of working with him to go ahead and bring his country forward, they worked for eight years against that black president. the ce he got it out of ditch, he had to spend money to get us out of the ditch, the messed ans had everything up.

his country this last election was won on russian collusion, what is fixing to happen, the people, like the last senator you had on about triggers, he said he wouldn't triggers kicked in if things went bad. e said he want to see the triggers kicked in on discretionary spending, that means social security, medicaid that is what he wants to to kick in o. the up ican people need to wake and find out that president obama did his best and they fought against him for the whole entire eight years. host: okay. you made that point, let's go to hris in new york, independent line. caller: hi, pedro. thought i'm on long-time and caller.r just want to make a proposal to since brian lamb, the whole purpose of c-span was to the american citizens of

ur government and the way it operates; correct? correct. caller: so my proposal is we show -- c-span should percentages of the numbers federal government takes n, versus where all the government expenditures go to. you could eak down, demographics as far as wealthy people, but you bottom line , the is, the main line is to give the per state and total revenue versus total expenditures, where is all the going to. thank you. host: chris, before you go, i don't remember the exact date, i we did a segment very similar to what you're talking bout, as far as revenue, what is taken in and what is spent by

the federal government, the recall, the last couple of weeks or so. if i invite you, if you would go website at c-span.org, topic in, e that taxes or something like that, hopefully we can find nformation exactly when this segment took place. if you want to look for yourself, it is available on the website. similar type of segment over the last couple weeks. arlington, tennessee, democrat's line. aller: hi, pedro, thanks for c-span, you help us stay sane in an insane america. can you hear me? host: yes, you are on, go ahead. aller: my thing is, we're americans, we're usually pragmatic people, we have this stock market is off the chart. money is just flowing. making major money. the people making the money have o much money they have shipped it off to another island and put

it away because they don't need need to keep on't it around f. they get more shake itey're going to off and not do -- i mean, they ave to vote, excuse me, the secht , like five out raised their hand and said they would do wage increases. come to the icans point they could keep watching giving rich keep people montow sit offshore and lives better?ur is it our long-term memory doesn't work? blame for the deficit, in 2008, the world was crashing? don't understand what has happened to us and if i'm not created incomeln tax initially, only the rich paid, no one else had to pay. okay. thank you very much from tennessee, to the previous segment,y the way, the chuck marr, the segment entitled

the federal government spends your taxes. you can see his analysis and you may have answered from the segment. took c-span.org, that place november 18th. go to our website chuck marr, or 18th.er one of those ways, you will get o the seg sxment view it for yourself. from william, shelbyville, line.cky, republican caller: thank you for having me on, i've been listening to the comments. reform lem with the tax or tax cut is just a bandaid they have been trying to fix an archaic system. they need to start over from scratch. propose they take and everybody pays 10% tax, no tax $1, you pay you make 10%. you make a billion, pay 10%. 10% : what is it about the figure that you think would fix thing? equal. well, what it is, f you have something that is

steps, like now, somebody has to foot the bill. would foot the bill. 10% system, it works for the lord. ou look at all the churches, they don't have a deficit. our government has deficit. earn wouldn't those that less be more affected if they pay 10%, versus ones that pay money? caller: no, everybody pays 10%. correct, if you make more, you pay more in the long run. caller: no, you will be paying 10%. 10% is 10%. if you make billion dollars, you pay $100 million in taxes. if you make $1, you pay $.10. john okay, let's go to mcardle. john: while today's focus will tax reform and that senate vote, reminder, we're less than a week away from government shutdown unless a deal is reached to fund the government that's ember 8th,

midnight, december 8th, when the current funding of the government would run out unless deal is reached. some reporting on what is a pening to try to come to deal from politico, one new idea gaining traction, would be to next week to ill keep the government open until leaders 22nd, giving time to work out deal to boost spending caps. december 22nd, congress would pass that spending cap deal, with another stopgap measure to keep the government open until sometime in january. leaders would use that time to hammer out a full year's funding bill. reporting, tico's they also note in another piece on this, many democrats have withhold their votes for any spending agreement that oes not include a fix for young, undocumented immigrants brought to the country. emocratic leaders have suggested that nancy pelosi and chuck schumer back one or two continuing resolution, load

to move the deadline past january 1. lot more focus on that after whatever happens today on reform ends and leaders turn issue.attention to that host: we'll go to wesley, in florida, independent line. today, how you doing pedro? host: i'm well, thanks. caller: thank god. thing. to say a quick i think the only way to straighten out america is for verybody to pull up their boot straps, i've been through hurricane andrew, we went two category 5 storms, i think we could all take it and figure out how to live with it. the united states, take one week off of work and rush the government by not paying taxes, crush the stock gain and juston't put a crush on them, to tell you they're just taking advantage of us. it took me five years to get on for ility and thank god marco rubio, if i hadn't gotten

ahold of marco rubio, i would a hearing.er gotten and that's all i want to say. if the people could really deal it, take two weeks off, you won't lose your job, don't pay your mortgage, don't go to walmart, everything in the world would be straightened out, i firmly believe. me ask you about that, two weeks, though, you pay mortgage monthly and other monthly, what on difference would two weeks make other than consumer spending in period?week caller: i think it would change a lot of things because just tax that we have, i think congress and senate would stop and look and it would hurt things to where, you're going to regardless, any way you look at it, i think hurting our change, because they're so rich all they do is line their pocket and don't care about the little man. host: wesley in florida, show ou story in washington times

based out of canada, the headline says that canada offers for poor and unemployed. story associated press to provide io plans for communities as part of experiment to evaluate whether people g more money to on public acysssistance will maa in their lives. those eligible for the program to 64, le age 18 unemployed or with annual income dollars or00 in u.s. $37,000 if they are couple living in certain test regions. people receive up to $13,000 basic income and can keep half what they earn from working. anadians have to subtract what they earn from monthly benefit this, is incentive to work, $19,000.get from california, next from mary, democrat's line. caller: good morning.

host: morning, you are on. just think the christmas gift that has going to upper 1%.ving to the i disagree with the whole thing, be permanent, i don't like they are taking money medicare.icaid and canada is probably trying what they are trying is replacing omation is people and they don't pay taxes, robots don't pay taxes. i think he's looting the dismantling the government, this administration s just privatizing, privatizing, privatizing and i don't think anything will help the middle class with this tax plan. host: st. petersburg, florida, republican line, alfredo, go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. host: morning. my er: thank you for taking call.

i've got just three quick points. this is in reference to who said m indiana that, have you ever seen a democrat actually come to the floor and propose tax cuts? and the answer is who said abs yes. did it eight years ago. in fact, i believe it was politofact gave him mostly true, ut tax for middle class and small business, especially through aca. he other comment, someone from indiana said that have you ever seen a poor man create jobs, etcetera? you know, how does the rich get to be rich if it wasn't because people buying their items? and the third comment, just this real quick. republicans are going to be ending the tax cut

middle class families and i think it is in 2025 or those, but yet they are going to be allowing cuts for theof tax for the rich indefinitely. andink that is a real shame people need to take a look at that. frederick, independent line, go ahead. caller: yes, thank you for taking my phone call this morning. i just want to ask a question. what is the definition of insanity? this time and time again and it normally goes the going y, where they are to give tax break, it is slotted just a little bit higher for the wealthy and those that own major corporations. yes, can you hear me? keep yes, you cut out,

going. caller: once they get through giving high tax breaks to the wealthy and the won't they , start -- host: okay. that is frederick from virginia. one more piece of tape to show you, wyoming senator on the tax talking about n what happens not only about the tax bill, but the individual proposal from he senate republicans. barraso.senator guest: under the republican lan, people no longer pay tax penalty to the i.r.s. if they didn't want the democrats or nsive health insurance, if they couldn't afford it. we've seen health insurance the pastskyrocket over few years in this country and it's because of the way emocrats wrote the healthcare law. the cost, as well as the deductibles are so high that people find that even if expensivepaid for the insurance, the deductible is so

high that they still can't that theyget the care need. the law says, though, no matter getsexpensive the insurance or how unusable it is for that law still people by have to buy it or pay a tax. ought to be able to make decisions about what they want to buy and what works for the government. well, i believe if people don't the obamacare insurance, they shouldn't have o pay a tax penalty to the i.r.s. those are the things we're looking at, mr. president, and interesting, the -- today in the "new york times," more devoted to this n the top of millions paid penalty instead of buying policy, who are they? over ate of wyoming, 15,000 people paid over $5 to the i.r.s.es

6.7 article today says million tax filers paid the penalty in 2015. who are they? well, mr. president, it is not you to know the great, great majority of these, who paid fine have adjusted family income of less than $50,000. host: the comments you have seen are available through our website at c-span.org. we go to john mcardle. john: pedro, anything but a slow news day today in and around washington. his being reported just now by "new york times." the white house has developed a plan to force out secretary of rex tillerson, whose relationship with president rump has been strained and replace him with mike mike pompeo, in the next several weeks. officials said on thursday, mr. mike pompeo would e replaced at c.i.a. by tom cotton, republican from

arkansas, key ally of the president on national security according to the plan. mr. cotton signalled he would offered, e job if officials said. it was not immediately clear whether mr. trump has given of the plan, but said to have soured on mr. illerson and ready to make a change at the white house. with as been discussed officials and the shake-up of the national security team would appen around the end of the year or shortly afterward, that is reporting from just a few "new york from the times." host: anthony in philadelphia, pennsylvania, democrat's line. yes, my comment is with the disparity between the republicans onhe if tax bill, is it possible you can get the chairman and the ranking member from each across the o go country and get maybe 100 or taxpayers and look

at their tax returns from last ear and put them up against proposed changes this year and see who is telling the truth? you think that would produce? caller: well, i think it would are going t the rich to benefit, some of the middle may and then point you have the other part, when i es go away in 2025, believe, we're going to get clobbered. ost: what leads you to that conclusion? caller: well, if you make the the nent tax cuts for businesses, let's talk on that second.e they have allegedly by president trillion offshore there is no major investments right now. money they are going to get, they have done do eys, 65% are going to stock buybacks and dividends, so here is the increase in businesses?

i just don't see it. georgia is next, gerard, republican line. hi, gerard. how you doing? am i on the air now? host: you are, go ahead. people keep talking about corporate taxes. corporate taxes are added to the product, it's a hidden federal sales tax, i donald trump -- host: gerard, keep going. in er: oh, i don't see why the world the politicians aren't a hidden out, it is federal sales tax and not paid corporations. think trump ought to go talk to his accountants, they can tell you it is added to the product. that mean in the whole topic of tax reform? caller: it means corporate taxes they are paid by the consumer, not by corporations, added, if you buy an

automobile, we pay all corporate taxes. didn't, companies would be going out of business. host: -- iny from washington, you're dependent line, next. caller: yes. surprised that seems to me republicans have collective amnesia, because when you look, what applies 35 years, republicans have had four presidents in amnesia, because when office, a time they leave, the country go roke, they do not talk about that, democrats come behind and clean up what the mess they left behind and yet they still complain and work to blame somebody else for their own fault. and also, this country is rich d yet they

enough to help the citizens out in so many ways, be it education, healthcare, all these other things, but the problem is greed. that is reed preventing, you know, this progressing.is this tax cut is not going to class,ybody in the lower it's all gimmicks. host: let's hear from john mcardle. reminder on the timing today, the senate expected to be following today, leader remarks, they will debate bill, senate tax reform as our capitol hill producer raig caplan notes, that debate expected to happen throughout the day today and into the late evening. final passage are possible tonight or perhaps early friday at 10 , the house is in a.m. today, some other hearings high-profile witnesses appearing on capitol hill today, just to run through a few for you. fema administrator long will be

estifying today at 10 a.m. on funding for his agency. treasury officials will be before the house financial committee, to testify on the effectiveness of u.s. that will beograms airing on c-span3 at 2 p.m. capitol hill, attorney general jeff sessions will be in the closed session before the intelligence committee to testify on the russia probe. whole lot going on on capitol hill today in addition reform debate in the senate, which you can watch all day long on c-span2. just a few moments from the house of representatives going in, john in new york, democrat's line. caller: good morning, first of thank would like to c-span for focusing on the tax reform today. number one, so much news today have got sody, they

much other news on, this is -- should be the focus, this so important. i was just looking at some of he key points of the tax bill, hurt especially our youth. christmas concert, looked up at the stage and saw said, what is going to be for their future, you know. driving hat should be on. an example of this tax bill. change the student waivers as taxable income. that is going to burden, i overwhelm the students, students with debt, giving out bigof ax cuts through people -- corporations already don't pay

taxes, they get money back. pharmaceuticals pay no taxes and get money back from the government already. got you. john, we'll have to leave it there, we've been focusing on of senate, but the house representatives has come in for their daily session. we'll take you to them now. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the spomse, washington, d.c. november 30, 2017. i hereby appoint the honorable gary j. palmer to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2017, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the