>> that was a rollicking fast hour. >> it was. >> thank you for joining us. >> "outnumbered" starts right now. when we begin with the fox news alert. protesters are gathering in gainesville as white nationalist leader richard spencer is gearing up to give a speech at the university of florida this afternoon. florida governor rick scott has declared a state of emergency on monday morning the threat of potential emergency is imminent. you may recall violent clashes broke out during a white nationalist rally and start charlottesville, virginia, back in august. one person, one woman, died. we are are keeping updates on . fox news alert now, republicans taking a key step today to get tax reform done. they are voting on the budget. aiming for final passage by tomorrow. the g.o.p. has to get it done to pave the way for tax reform.

this is "outnumbered." a busy day. i am harris faulkner pretty here today, host of kennedy on fox business network, kennedy. the editor of townhall.com, katie pavlich bringing the ink. republican congresswoman marsha blackburn of tennessee is here. she's a member of the subcommittee on health and is also running for senate. in today's hashtag delete mack #oneluckyguy talk show host richard fowler is outnumbered. >> richard: i am outnumbered. >> harris: a couple of things going on today and congresswoman, so glad to have you today. weighing in on things like tax reform and health care that are developing right now. >> marsha: that's it. >> harris: is a crucial step for tax reform. republican senators are aiming to approve a budget measure by tomorrow to open the door for them to vote on tax legislation. meanwhile, the meeting president trump had yesterday with the senate finance committee suggested they create a bipartisan working group on

tax reform. listen to what senate majority whip john cornyn told reporters about that after the meeting. >> the president made clear his preference for a bipartisan bill, and there are a lot of ideas that were tossed around as you know to do this on a bipartisan basis to get the economy growing again. this will be a win for the american people and if we're able to do it on a bipartisan basis, it will be durable. it will be something that we sustainable like the tax reform of 1986. we are hopeful that we can do this. there is a saying in politics trust but verify. we are going to give this a try. >> harris: also was saying in politics that bipartisan means you need the other side. it doesn't like democrats are on board. >> the president is parading around the country telling people this is going to reduce the tax burden on the middle class. that's not the case. you take away that deduction

along with some of the other deductions they take away, like a personal exemption and you are going to increase taxes on tens of millions of folks in the middle in order to finance tax breaks for the folks at the very, very top. >> harris: president trump took to twitter this morning. he said republicans are going for the big budget approval today. first step towards massive tax cuts. i think we have the votes, but who knows? congresswoman, who knows? do you think they'll get it? >> marsha: i think they're going to get it. i think the president has tried to work on this in a collaborative manner with the republicans. we are hopeful that there will be democrats that will support the budget. this needs to get done. it is time for this country to have a budget and not be on the continuing resolution and be able to move forward to tax reform and to reform the agencies which will give us

regulatory relief, which will give the opportunity to some of these agencies. >> harris: co continuing resolution, they were supposed to get the budget done in the spring. richard, the bipartisan part of the apple. both sides of the apple. why are democrats taking a bite? >> i think what crispin holland was talking about there is talking about the deduction that middle-class people are allowed to take for state and local income tax. >> harris: he doesn't like that either, by the way. >> for a lot of states like new york where we are taping the show where people take the state and local deduction, maryland is another state, california, states on their federal taxes. that is been illuminated for families wears corporations are allowed to take that deduction. so for example amazon will make their choice today of where they are expecting headquarters to go and if headquarters comes to new york, amazon will be able to take a deduction for local and state taxes but families will be able to. >> is an incentive for big

corporations like amazon to come here so they can employ people to people working there so they will pay taxes and they will buy stuff. be delete arguably a socialista democratic governor's push taxes to such a limit they are so prohibitive, they are so high that middle income can never get in places. they know it is going to be a write off and hopefully it will be. >> marsha: there is another component of this and it is also sales tax. that is in that state and local tax deduction. yes, it is state income taxes, but you also have the ability to deduct sales tax, which is something i got worked with kevin brady and we got this restored because it has been illuminated in 1986. so this is something that is important across the board. now, let's make certain that we are sure tax foundation information is that you are

going to see $4,000 per family on average of tax relief. that is what the american people are wanting to see. before we have to keep in mind that what the president set up to capitol hill was simply a framework and the structure. it wasn't legislation. the negotiating starting point so as her as just mentioned, there are a lot of republicans who don't like the idea that these deductions for middle-class americans including the president, which when he re-looked at that structure and said i don't like this, they can negotiate that as they start to build the sausage and make the sausages would like to stay in washington, d.c. it is something they can take a look at and it also very state-by-state in terms of which corporations are going to get tax breaks based on the state deductions and which ones are not. that is something that corporations and businesses have talked about. one thing that always gets lost when we talk about tax reform is they talk about the rich and the top 1% as if those aren't business owners. we are talking about they bring

in a million dollars in a business in terms of how many people you employ, what your overhead is, what your payroll looks like, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are rich. >> kennedy: and vilify those people but as congresswoman blackburn can attest, you also have to cut spending. there such a spending problem in both parties and we end up squabbling about the wrong things. we have these manufactured disagreements and it does says are great disservice to not be looking at the budget and seeing what we can really trim and tighten everything up so people can enjoy more of their hard-earned money. >> marsha: got some every year. a penny out of every dollar. >> richard: i agree and i think that there were are democrats that will come to the table if we can agree to deal with both. for democrats, our sacred cow is domestic spending for it. for republicans, the sacred cow is that you pentagon. we know that there is fraud abuse and the pentagon and we

know that there are problems in domestic spending but the president said he wants to increase spending at the pentagon the same time, he must make massive cuts to domestic programs. >> katie: stop accusing for publicans of hitting poor peopl people. >> harris: we get to keep talking. meanwhile, treasury secretary steven mnuchin found confident tax reform is going to happen. there is no question the rally of the stock market's future expectations of tax cuts and tax reform are just around the corner. but he warns there will be consequences if congress does not get this done. >> i think to the extent we get the tax deal done, the stock market will go up higher, but there's no question in my mind if we don't get it done, you are going to see a reversal of a significant amount of these. >> the dow has been hitting record after record grade of 25% adding 5 trillion in value since the president took office. so congresswoman, it is so interesting because now you're running for senate and some of

the complicating factors for legislation has been on that side. so you must be excited to get over there and set those people straight. >> marsha: of course. the reality of where we are with tax reform is that in order to keep that vote threshold to majority on health care and other issues, he's got to get this going. so now we've got to vote. what is it going to look like? >> marsha: my hope is yes, the budget goes through today. yes, the house in the senate complete on health care. they need to get it done by the end of the year. i will tell you this. the tax reform vote does not happen, then what steven mnuchin is saying is really true. it's a no-confidence vote. and i think that we have to show we believe in the president's agenda, stand with president trump on the jobs, on

the economy, on getting health care attended to, getting tax reform done. i think it's an imperative for congress. >> kennedy: can i just at some into what you said about the dow because i think this is really important. these are games made on theoretical economic growth. it hasn't happened yet. it's like buying a pair of yoga pants. if you buy size to yoga pants and you're still a size eight and you don't start the diet you're never going to wear the yoga pants. >> richard: there's one point to be made about steve nations, and there and i think it's very important to hit home to the viewers is that while we were seeing gains on the stock market, it's not all the time that you see those gains on the stock market that they trickle down to everyday americans. the stock market gains have happened over the years. we've seen with that eight years of economic growth. >> katie: that's not actually

necessarily true because a lot of americans who have worked for corporations have a 401(k) plan. >> richard: i hear you. before they have retirements carrying vehicles so they don't have to be dependent on social security which they're never going to be. >> richard: i hear you. the people at homes in mississippi which of the poorest county in mississippi, they're not seeing the gains from a stock market. so when you say the stock market is going to crash, the people at home in mississippi are saying it doesn't matter. were going to be poor. >> katie: it doesn't matter to a lot of people in the middle class so to act like there's no trickle effect. >> kennedy: i do want to make more poor counties? evaluate the economy overall. >> marsha: we have x amount of resources. if you have people who are already struggling and they're going to be more people struggling, that means they've got to split the atom on that of resources that many more ways. i don't know that that's the best example, but i'm just

weighing in on just that part of it. >> marsha: in my district in tennessee that went about, we hear about health care, we hear about the need for tax reform. lowering those marginal rates, allowing people to keep more of their paycheck then not having a go to the federal government, main street businesses and small businesses saying let us keep money and let us invest. being able to imply that business rate to the pass-through entities, they want the tax rates to be flatter. they want the system to be fair or, and they want compliance, filing with the irs to be simpler. and you can follow me all across my wonderful district and you're going to hear that repeatedly. flatter, fairer, simpler. it is what our goal ought to be. >> richard: i agree with you and i think that the democrats would agree with you is it well and that's why i think katie is right, how we get a bipartisan deal done is by closing some of the many loopholes that exist in

a very, very broken tax system. and if republicans and democrats are willing to work together to close some of these loopholes, corporations have benefited from for decades, then let's get to work. >> harris: we will move on. making progress but were not in washington yet. >> harris: former cia chief john brennan speaking out against president trump handling of the north korean crisis. watch this. >> i think his comments have been rather provocative and has served to increase tensions, not to de-escalate them. i'm hoping that rex tillerson is going to be able to continue some of his efforts to try to address these issues. >> harris: why brennan says he believes this is all leading to a high chance of war. and it may be too early for 2020, but a key poll showing bernie sanders the clear front runner in the first in the nation new hampshire. what it says about the party, the democratic party and whatever happened to getting fresh faces? you are laughing, but it's your party.

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>> kennedy: this is a fox news alert, the north korean threat. the rogue nation vowing to unleash a unimaginable strike on the u.s. amid tensions over pyongyang's nuclear missile

program. the president owing a visit when he visits south korea next month. former cia chief john brennan saying he's worried about his handling of the crisis had and that he feels the possibility of war has up to a one in five chance of happening due to the harsh rhetoric coming from both sides. >> i think the caustic and bellicose comments that are coming out of washington, his tweets have led to an escalation in tensions. i'm concerned there could be some type of classroom between south korean and north korean forces that could escalate. >> kennedy: we don't know the end game of what's going to happen between the united states and north korea and the rest of the region. is it help would have the former cia director injecting his opinion into these matters congresswoman? >> marsha: people are always going to give their opinion on matters but i think it is encouraging that the president is going to be in the region and in south korea. having been to the dmz a couple of times, i would encourage him

if they can make it safe and get him there, i think he ought to get there. this firsthand. it would be helpful, and i will have to add i was so pleased to see president bush making a speech today your new york and addressing this. >> harris: what did you hear that he said that you thought we all need to hear that even if it was just a review? >> marsha: as he talked about bringing people back together on issues, and i thought it was very much president george bush. in his approach that he would take to issues. why it is instructive for us to work together on the message. >> kennedy: he obviously went and visited the dmz right after he gave his speech listing north korea as part of the axis of equal. you've been nodding your head the entire time. how important is it for president trump to visit the dmc and is it to an inflammatory when there are such high tensions and the stakes are so great? >> katie: i think would be an

enormous show strength for the president and for the united states. we would show that the united states is not afraid of north korea and kim jong un and that they are serious about protecting our troops in south korea and are south korean allies and also our allies in the region like japan. i also think that the message to china. we are here. i'm in this area, i'm not afraid to come here. the secret service is a little bit nervous about it but in terms of how the president is going to move forward and what john brennan said, this nuclear threat from north korea is now worse than ever, why? because president trump is daring to push back on the north korean threatening the united states with nuclear war? if something happens and there was a conflict, it will be because of the north koreans, not because of the united states. >> harris: it's interesting because president trump is not a career politician and he would have to have been that in order to be present for some of what was seen leading up to this, i.e. the father of kim jong il and his role in all of this rhetoric and the missile firing

so on and so forth and president trump has not been. >> marsha: that's right and you look at the fact that trying to deal with the north korea situation goes back a couple of decades, this is not a new issu issue. >> kennedy: so many of ministrations have tried in different ways and they have not done so successfully but i want to ask you, richard, do you think that it is inflammatory? to think it is making the situation worse, the optics of the president so close to the north korean border at this time? >> richard: i don't think it's a bad idea. i think i got in trouble in this couch were saying. >> harris: you wouldn't get in trouble on the couch. >> richard: here's my thought it on this and being harassed talked about this quite a bit. i think they should be talks because i don't think there's any walking back from a nuclear strike is watched by north korea, that's destruction and the idea and i think the

commerce woman is right, this is a decade-long fight because his father and grandfather coakley's nuclear weapons to keep their resume alive. this individual who clearly wasn't loved by his father. >> kennedy: thank you for the psychological assessment. >> richard: i try my best. he feels as though he wants to launch nuclear weapons for fun but we've got to find a way to bring him back from the brink because of the launch is a nuclear weapon it's going to be. >> kennedy: that's a rational solution that you're imposing on a rational person. a poll shows. >> richard: there's no walking it back after he launches. >> kennedy: they actually favor, 46% favor a preemptive strike in north korea. 41% of republicans oppose. simple republicans actually. >> harris: who should we talk to, japan. the people who took the pole. >> kennedy: is very hard because of the time change.

>> harris: you will know what i mean when i say this. there is strong reporting right now and some polling within the record of people in japan against the idea of making any sort of move militarily because they actually have been on the receiving end of an atomic bond. >> marsha: our allies are important. >> harris: has been dropping in japan state. >> kennedy: will be dropping back onto the couch and just a moment with more "outnumbered." at the white house saying president trump opposes the bipartisan deal on health care calling it a step in the right direction. is there any compromise lawmakers can get behind mack plus former president obama returning to the trail. hoping to boost the democratic candidate in virginia. but after mr. obama failed to carry hillary across the finish line in 2016, can he energize voters now? does he have the magic potion? we will debate.

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the fast, secure and simple way to send money. >> harris: the battle over health care still looming. the authors of a bipartisan plan to stabilize the obamacare markets which are falling say that they will push the proposal forward even as president trump stance has changed from support to opposition. the public and senator bob corker says he is cosponsoring that measure and fellow republican ron johnson uploading some changes to it. but speaker paul ryan says he is against the bipartisan approach adding that he does not expect the measure to be able to pass the house. in the white house says the president cannot support what he sees as bailouts with insurance companies. secretary sarah sanders on it. >> we want something that doesn't just bail out the insurance companies but actually provides relief for all americans. this bill doesn't address that

fact. we want to make sure that's taken care of. we think this is a good step in the right direction, this president certainly supports republicans and democrats coming to work together. but it's not a full approach and we need something to go a little bit further to get on board. >> harris: is is a good start? lamar alexander and patty murray who is a fierce negotiator on the other side of the aisle but they've come up with something bipartisan. is it a good start or not close enough to what the president had already articulated i thought pretty well and pretty clearly what he wanted. >> marsha: not only the president had articulated but the house. and when you look at the affordable care act exchanges in the what you see is about ten and a half million people in the exchange, 9 million get a subsidy. the product is too expensive to afford without the subsidy. you only have about one and a half million people that are paying for the full insurance cost. the number one complaint we get

is when you get the insurance co is too expensive to use. but you have to look at the escalation rate in the cost of insurance. in tennessee, it's 176%. we do over what period of time? >> marsha: since the affordable care act went into being, since it was signed into law so you look at that spread of 176%, you can subsidize all day long, but if you are not going to make the structural changes that are necessary to get down the cost of delivery of the cost of access, you are going to solve the problem and the president is right and congress, the houses right on this issue. >> harris: richard, how do you then work, democrats work with republicans on that specific issue? that is very clear. there's not a lot of gray area there. when you're seeing some states and we know arizona and others are seeing the costs skyrocket about 100% as well. >> richard: don't get me

wrong, i think the affordable care act is perfect. >> harris: of president obama didn't think so either. he used his executive 1045 times. were on the same page about tha that. >> richard: what the congresswoman points out is thus ideal that those who are paying full freight, their cost is going up. the president moved last week to get rid of the payment that goes to insurance companies. their cost is going to go up exponentially more because of the president's move. because of the president's move. >> kennedy: we are looking in the wrong place here. so grandma is in 1 foot platforms and she's wobbly. she hasn't had anything to eat, she's 90 years old and we shouldn't expect that we can just prop her up and she can keep dancing. we have to get her out of the shoes. right now, we are addicted to obamacare. obamacare is heroin. the subsidies are methadone.

just making doesn't make it right. >> katie: that's exactly why the president opposes this is because it's a two-year fix which is just punching this again. this is putting a band-aid on something that deserves a tourniquet and he doesn't want to go down the path and neither does speaker ryan of doing the two-year fix and saying that's good enough instead of doing repeal and replace of obamacare. >> harris: got some breaking news coming up and i want to get this to. this is urgent. alexander and murray with regard to their bipartisan health care bill will now formally rule out the health care sharing plan on the floor at 1:00 p.m. eastern. so in about 30 minutes, we will get to see. in the meantime, we got the president who is meeting right now just moments ago with the governor of puerto rico. let's watch this together. >> is a tough situation. so much has to be rebuilt even from before. the difference between texas and florida and various places as we

are looking at designs of a new power plant, big electrical plant in many different designs and concepts. which of course is very unusual. because he was in pretty rough shape. that's an even rougher shape. with that being said, i think we've done a really great job and we have tremendous cooperation from the governor and we are getting there and people are releasing the effort that has been put into puerto rico. it's been a very, very difficult situation for many people, i will say that. especially the island nature. if you look at getting food there, the distribution was very difficult because the roads were blocked and the people of puerto rico couldn't get to their food in many cases because of the distribution centers and the roads were in horrific shape because of the storm. sometimes because of before the storm. with that being said, step-by-step, it is taken care of and i say we have a wonderful and the people of puerto rico

have a wonderful representative with respect to themselves in this governor. this governor has worked as hard as anybody i've seen, and it's getting done. so thank you for all of your help. >> thank you. thank you, mr. president. thank you for setting this opportunity. it is a catastrophic situation. the only time where to go category 4 hurricanes have passed back-to-back in a jurisdiction in the united states. certainly working in a united front, we are going to beat this. we are going to be better for it. today is an example. i don't think in the history of puerto rico we had the opportunity we have today to speak with members of your cabinet, decision-makers and not only talk about what we've done, but also the path forward. to establish our commitment to treat the citizens of puerto rico, u.s. citizens,

proud u.s. citizens of puerto rico equally. so while there has been a lot done and i want to thank you, mr. president, you answered our call for the real end emergency declaration, you declared puerto rico a disaster area very quickly and a verbal request that we made because we didn't have electricity at that moment, you gave us the waiver for a and b for fema. and sparse communication with all of your members now. we recognize that a lot has been done, but a lot has still has to be done. so we are hopeful these meetings that we are going to have come we are going to about the immediate needs for puerto rico, what we need to do to get out of the life-sustaining phase but what we need to do stabilize puerto rico and of course, what we need to do to build puerto rico stronger and better than before. i am confident that with your commitment and your support and

your team's support, we will be able to come out of this in the long haul to get it with puerto rico, give the u.s. citizens of puerto rico the adequate resources, treat them the same as citizens in texas and florida and elsewhere, will come out of this stronger and we will make it. i know you are a proponent of public-private partnerships and i think there's an opportunity here to leverage growth in the energy sector and to be innovative. not only rebuilding what we had in the past, but also with the aid of the federal government, with the private sector, we are building much stronger platforms. and not only have puerto rico have energy but actually be a model of sustainable energy and growth towards the future. those are our aspirations. i think we can talk about that in the education sector, and the health care sector, and those are all of our aspirations. we are confident that within this group, we will addressing those short-term needs but also

talking about the long road ahead, working together, working together with your administration, just want to thank you on behalf of the people of puerto rico for your leadership, for your team's leadership and for having a commitment to stay with the people of puerto rico. the u.s. citizens of puerto rico here for the long haul and not just put things back together again but to rebuild them as it should. >> thank you. one of the things we have done is delivered to the island massive numbers of generators for electricity because with the power plants down in such bad shape, we really had to find some way especially for the hospitals and certain other areas. i don't know if it's record numbers, but it's got to be pretty close, record numbers of generators so that we have electric and the most important locations and step-by-step, bringing it back. you can't bring electric back until you rebuild the power plant and it's obviously a different level of subject.

with that, i will say that i have given my blessing to congress and congress is working with you and your representatives on coming up with a plan and a payment plan and how it's all going to be funded because you are talking about some substantial numbers and i guess you knew that. i know you are talking about rebuilding your electric plant long before the hurricane. you've been wanting to do that for a long time so maybe this is a reason that we can do it and we will help you and will all do it together grade i will say the people of puerto rico are amazing, it is incredible people. the spirit they have, the strength they have, what they've gone through, many were isolated in areas with no roads, no bridges, the bridges were wiped out, it really was incredible to watch the spirit that they have and they did it with grace. they did it with a smile in many cases. it was really something beautiful to watch. so just please extend all of our warmest regards and we are with you. thank you very much.

speech 29 to 20 >> president trump: i am working very closely with the government on that because there has been corruption on the island and we can't have that. we are sending a lot of supplies, sending two minus amounts of food and water and everything and i know your folks are working on that very hard. just can't have it when it comes to texas as an example in florida, it's operating like a well-oiled machine. they are really going well and the people are working very hard and in puerto rico, they are working hard to. but we have gotten some of those reports on a local basis. i think the governor will be able to do something about that.

i hope you'll be able to do something about that. >> if you want a preview on what we are doing. we've got some reports that food was getting either from fema or the private sector or not for profits and are being distributed appropriately. we did three things. we got the national guard to go to the municipalities and help with the logistics. in that case, it was just a matter of not knowing how to execute. number two, we had auditors from our treasury department so that we can have accountability of what goes in and what goes out for the people of puerto rico. number three, very importantly, we had our department of justice and is investigating whether there has been mismanagement because it is unacceptable and as i stated the first day. >> not federal, this is local page just we all understand. i think brock is here and tom is here and they've done an incredible job that we are now talking on a local basis and i think that was your question

also. >> we are following up on that and as i stated the first date, if there is a public official that it's person of purposeful, there will be hell to pay. i say that for anywhere. i can say that for any place we go. at some point, fema has to leave. first responders have to leave and the people have to take over. puerto rico is and more difficult circumstances. at a certain point, we have to leave various locations that we are in. in louisiana and they have done a fantastic job. they were sort of raised lake charles on the various areas were hit very hard but it was a grazing hit. we worked there and they've taken over in bed fantastic in texas and florida, it's been incredible to watch. it's really been incredible to watch how quickly things are coming together. at a certain time, fema and

first responders and the military, we have close to 18,000 people in puerto rico right now. we moved a hospital ship, the largest in the world that is there now and you don't want to use it as much as you can have the local hospitals that are in many ways. but we have tremendous assets in puerto rico. at some point, no matter where it is, whether it's texas or whether it's florida, i can say in the case of texas on the case of florida in the case of louisiana, some areas also got grazed, they have been incredible and the response and incredible with how fast it's coming back and in many cases, the areas that were devastated are already back. in this instance, it's a more difficult situation but i think the governor understands that fema, the military, first responders cannot be there forever and a matter where you go, they cannot be there foreve

forever. >> it may just briefly asked, that is the importance of the short-term and long-term packages that will be in congress. we are going to need some resources. of course, fema is there for the initial response. there is some rebuilding to go through. so that is why we are thankful to the president for supporting these petitions to congress so that we can get the resources to kickstart the economy and of course, the long-term rebuilding process. this is very important. the president has been clear on stating that no u.s. citizen will be left behind. we'll be working, and this is the way we work towards making a better america and a better puerto rico. >> president trump: you have areas in puerto rico where we literally have and that's getting less and left deliberate food and supplies by helicopter because the roads have been wiped out in the bridges have been wiped out. there's no way to get there except by helicopter.

and to those are difficult situations and we are working with the governor and the folks on getting it taken care of but we are literally delivering supplies dropped by helicopter and with that being said, i have to also say our military and our first responders and brock long and fema and tom, the job they've done has been incredible. but we are delivering very essential supplies by helicopter because there's no way to get to the area of the island. the folks have done an incredible job. would you like to say something? >> every day, we continue right now to focus on restoring essential services. we've stabilized a lot of the emergency power needs of hospitals we are starting to focus and work with the governor today on rebuilding power grids going forward as well as water treatment. roadway systems, as we are going to continue to support the governor. we are looking at trying to

specifically restore the essential power where the essential functions to six major municipalities within puerto rico that there was about 80% of the population starting their and then working our way out. so the traditional recovery is going to require a solution far greater than what fema typically puts down, that's why we are here today working with governor rossello and the president and all of the cabinet members to figure out what is the best way forward for the longer-term solutions. >> president trump: there's never been a situation where power and energy have been so devastated, never. you don't have a power plant. power plants come you don't fix them up and we're not just putting a pull-up in the street like in texas where you'd put up the polls in florida actually had a lot of underground wire which is great, wonderful if you could have underground wire, makes it a lot better in the storms. there's never been a situation where the energy in the power has been totally destroyed and

part of the problem is it was pretty well destroyed before the storm and we are working together to get that back up but also to make it long-term. they were working on a long-term prior to the storm. so now they are really working on it. >> that's part of the litigation strategy. i can't stress enough how important it is that we keep this for the long haul, that we work together so that we can make sure that we don't just put things back. again as they were but that we make it better than before. i think that's the critical that's better for all u.s. citizens of this happens. i think in puerto rico again looking at the long term, recognizing that we are still in the emergency phase, this could allow puerto rico to be showcased in terms of energy production and others by way of mitigating and innovating. >> at say it was a ten. at say was probably the most

difficult when you talk about relief, when you talk about search, when you talk about all of the different levels, and even when you talk about lives saved, you look at the numbers, i think it was worse than katrina. in many ways it was worse than anything people have ever seen. they got hit by a category four grazed, but grazed by a big portion of the island but it was grazed. the rest of it hit florida as you know. but that was bad. and they got hit dead center. if you look at those maps by a category five, nobody has ever heard of a five hitting land. is that time, it's dissipated. it kept to a five. it hit right through the middle of the island, right through the middle of puerto rico read there's never been anything like that. i give ourselves a ten. i think that locally, i really

think locally and this gentleman, great leadership. i have to tell you. it is a tough job, but we have provided so much so fast, we were actually there before the storm hit. we were there before the first storm hit, before the category four hit. brock in the military had a lot of people there were before the storm we had the coast guard waiting for the storm just outside the storm and following the storm in. many lives saved. the coast guard in texas saved 16,000 lives. the coast guard is incredible. the job they've done. but all of the armed forces, what they've done has been army, navy, marines, the air force, all of the goods dropped in, helicopters that weren't even met for this purpose, all of a sudden delivering food and services. i would give a ten. i would say locally, and i understand locally, a person

loses his or her or their house, and they can't go to work. if you lose your house, it's hard to go and be a policeman for the day. you're trying to have your family live. this is what happens. we read that, they have no drunk drivers in puerto rico. they have a lot of truck drivers in puerto rico but many of them lost their houses. so they had to be with their families. so we would have the military driving trucks. they're not supposed to be driving trucks. it's not even there aptitude. some of them didn't know how to drive trucks but they learned very quickly. they are smart. we had the military driving trucks because it's not the people's fault. they lost their house, they were devastated. and i think we did a fantastic job. giving credit, was very nice that the gentleman who worked for bill clinton when he was president gave us an a+ and that included puerto rico. gave us an a+ and i thought that was really very nice and i

really believe he's correct. we have done a really great job. texas again really very far along, florida very far along in puerto rico is a different kind of a situation because it means so much infrastructure but over a period of time, that will happen. we are not talking about that now. you get me into trouble with that question. we will hold that one. how about we hold that one for a later time. >> will do. [speaking spanish] >> harris: we are going to pull away from this. this is the president of the united states meeting with the governor of puerto rico and talking about some translation now for a lot of things just said from our president. you see the governor rossello is going to translate. while he does that over the next couple of minutes because that's something we've already heard in

english, let's pull out. congresswoman marsha blackburn is with us today on the couch and we appreciate her being her here. the importance of the president doing this specifically now is what? >> marsha: i think the fact that he and governor rossello working out a plan and addressing what have been the complications and the missteps, and they are saying this is how we go forward. putting the focus on energy, getting puerto rico back up and running, that is important. also, putting attention on the humanitarian disaster that is there that is absolutely heartbreaking. when you hear the stories, things like richard was mentioning from people that are working in the area, they are just heartbreaking. it's important that they do thi this. >> harris: and richard, the president acknowledged and he has taken some criticism. he was asked about the job that he thinks the government has done and give it a ten considering this was a very rare

category five try to take on in any sort of landmass if you will and just devastated puerto rico. >> richard: i would say this. it's hard to do disaster relief on an island when it's hard to do disaster relief on the mainland. but you give yourself a 10 out of 10 when everybody knows that the performance was lackluster at best is sad. >> harris: richard and his opinion. we'll go back now to the president of the united states and puerto rico's governor. >> the reality is that we still need to do a lot more for the people of puerto rico and that's why we are meeting here. this is not over, not over by a long shot. again, it is the president's commitment to work with the u.s. citizens of puerto rico to treat is equally on this event. to make sure that those 250,000 that have lost their homes get equal treatment, that we can start restoring the more than 42 roads that have been destroyed in puerto rico, that we can lift

up our energy great and that is something that needs to start happening now. i petitioned the floor of engineers, i.e. petitioned the fema and power authority to work together so that we can be aggressive and we can get results the people of puerto rico restoring energy as soon as possible while keeping an eye on having the opportunity to have a better assistance for puerto rico. mr. president, the united states has been characterized for taking extraordinary measures and extraordinary times. these are extraordinary times in puerto rico. therefore, these are just ordinary times for the united states. >> president trump: i think we will be successful tonight. it'll possibly be sometime in the morning, maybe sooner. i think we have the votes for the budget, which will be phase one of our massive tax cuts and reform.

i think we will be successful tonight with respect to the budget. i think you probably know you can count the votes may be better than most people, but i think we have the votes. frankly, i think we have the votes for the tax cuts which will follow. fairly shortly thereafter. so we will see what happens. i will tell you our country needs tax cuts. these are examples when you look at what we just went through with texas and florida, louisiana, puerto rico, virgin islands. we need growth. we need people who are going to be pouring into our country, and we have that now. we are starting to have that. we are starting to have that even on the prospect of tax cuts. we have companies you saw last week, massive improvements and expansions in some cases brand-new plants coming in. fox con is building -- they make the apple iphones and more -- they're going to build a fantastic plants.

i think it's going to be in the state of wisconsin, and hopefully it's going to be there. we have been showing that land, it's a beautiful piece of land. i hope they'll like it but that'll be one of the biggest in the country. i think apple is going to be building some very, very big plants. people are starting to say this is where we want to be. when you see the stock market, hit an all-time high yesterday. we fitted about 49 times red. we are really doing well. we can do something very, very spectacular if we are given the tax cuts. we are one of the highest taxed nations of the world. you look at our taxes compared to other competitive nations or competitor nations because nothing is competitive with this but i'm a little biased because that's the way it is. but you look at how high we pay and how much we pay in our companies, they leave because the taxes are so high. if we get this done, it will be historic. it will be bigger than any plan ever approved ever.

it will be the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country, and i can tell you we have tremendous support for this. the budget is going probably fairly late tonight. and they'll working late tonight, could be one of those morning calls that you'll be watching your television at 3:00 in the morning and it could be sooner than that but i think we have the votes and right after the budget, we start with the vote on the tax cuts. i think we are in very good shape. figure who is going to pay for the infrastructure recovery to back >> president trump: we are going to be working systems, dealing with congress, we are going to be coming before the meeting far before any existing debt that is on the island because as you know, the island has massive debt. as we talk about the electrical facilities, i think 9 billion in debt, any debt that is put in will be coming before that debt. we want to make sure that we put in debt and that that is absolutely protected in addition to that, we are providing

tremendous relief and services right now. we will continue to provide that and then a new group will come in. the new group will be more billing oriented when things are perfect. but we do have to come before the existing debt. by some counts, $120 billion if you add everything, probably about 120 billion. certainly any money that is put in whether it's public or private, they're going to want to come in first position and it's a very important. the governor understands that. i would imagine pretty much everyone understands that and puerto rico. we are helping right now. we are helping a lot. this is costing a lot of money, having fema, having the military, having the first responders and we are doing that because we have an obligation to puerto rico to humanity. we have an obligation to ourselves. we want to continue to do a great job of that. at some point, you're going to

have to be reconstruction. again, the biggest thing is the power plants. but there's going to have to be -- it's pretty bad when you have to say power plants, almost coming before bridges. you have power plants that are needed, you have bridges that are needed, and you have roadways that are needed. it's something you don't see when you going to when you go to areas hit by hurricanes or disasters of almost any kind. it's a very, very good question actually. as you know, we have much of the electric is done by generators that have been brought to the island and massive numbers as i said before. the plant itself is going to take a while. we have to build a brand-new plants. all we have to do essentially a renovation that is so large is going to be like a brand-new plant. we are looking at both right no now. there's never been a case where

power plants were gone. so this isn't just like, as i said, you can just fix the polls. there's never been a case where power plants were gone. it's going to be a period of time before the electric is restored. >> as i said, the president has answered all of our petitions and this is still ongoing. so we expect that that will continue. we are being very diligent, giving all of the data and what we want to do and i want to assert this. this is a storm centric approach to what happens. there was a massive devastation and catastrophe in puerto rico and our responses should be added to that. on that's why the first responders were there, that's why destabilization effort is there. that's why we set some very aggressive milestones to restore energy and puerto rico about 30% of the energy by the end of the

month. by the middle of next month, about 50% and so on. because we want to make sure that people have that knowledge of where we are going to go, that they can stay in puerto rico and be part of a rebuilding process. what is going to keep the people there, what what is going to keep this going is knowing we have the backing of the white house and the backing of congress so that we can have the resources appropriate to tend to this and be smart about it. be innovative and restore puerto rico to a better position than before. leveraging all the stake holders, private stake holder, nonfor profits, people who want to innovate. this is our opportunity, again, to showcase that puerto rico, u.s. citizens of puerto rico can come out of this catastrophe stronger than ever before. >> president trump: governor just want to ask you a question. from the spirit of the people who worked so hard and so long