>> house republicans pass a sweeping overhaul, but at what cost? i'm robert costa. we take you inside the tax debate. plus democratic senator al franken faces an ethics investigation, and allegations continue to pile up against republican senate contender roy moore. tonight on "washington week." >> this is about giving hardworking taxpayers bigger paycheck, more take-home pay. this is about giving families who are struggling, peace of mind. robert: the house passes a $1.5 trillion tax cut package, scoring a momentary victory for president trump. >> thank you, it's going really well. robert: but the path ahead in the senate is more complicated as gmples o.p. lawmakers add the repeefl the federal insurance mandate. at least one republican says he's opposed. >> i'm not for the current version. what i want to see is

information to prove the kind of economic growth we'll get with all our tax revisions. robert: democrats say the g.o.p. plan is a gift to the rich that will raise taxes on middle income families and scale back health insurance coverage. meanwhile -- >> this is an effort by mitch mcconnell and his croneis to steal this election if the people of alabama and they will not stand for it. robert: tense fallout sur rounding jouge roy moore's past and his potential future if elected to the senate. >> he will not step down. robert: and democratic senator al franken faces an ethics investigation amid accusations of sexual misconduct. we discuss it all with jackie calmes of the laz times, jeremy peters of the "new york times," nancy cordes of cbs news and ed o'keefe of "the washington post." >> celebrating 50 years, this is "washington week."

funding is provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by -- newman's own foundation, donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences

in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator robert costa. robert: good evening. after weeks of fits and start the house passed a tax without bill -- tax cut bill on thursday moving president trump and republicans a step closer to their first major legislative win of the year. the action now moves to the senate where there are glimmers of trouble with democrats and some resistance from republicans. the stakes are high and the schedule is tight with christmas the informal deadline. nancy, what's fascinating about what's happening on capitol hill, it's a return to traditional fault lines. core republican values like tax cuts to core democratic values. is that what's at the heart of the debate. ? nancy: this is a fight that was going on long before obamacare was a word that had been uttered

in the halls of congress. it came to a crescendo on thursday night when you had orrin hatch, a conservative and sherrod brown, finally, after 25 hours of debating this g.o.p. tax plan had it out. brown made the case this is a giveaway to wealthy, to corporation, that trickle down economics doesn't work and the middle class will see its taxes going up. orrin hatch and other republicans on the panels say all boats will be lifted by this. this will put businesses in a better position, make them more competitive and that means more jobs for everybody. robert: what changes in this bill as it heads to the senate? one thing that may not change is the cut of the corporate from 30% to 25%. with sometimes what's not in there tells you what the bill is all about. >> that stays as is in the house

plan. the two biggest things that will be seized upon in the coming weeks is the fact that the senate is adding reneefl individual mandate, the cornerstone of the affordable care act, to this bill in part to generate some revenue. and to make it easier to pass in the senate under the weird rules they have to use in regards to how much it can cost. a bunch of senators in both parties said, wait, guy well, litigated this already, why are we doing this again? however, most republicans holding firm to that idea. the other one that sticks out to me that i think will be an issue once they go back to the house with the compromise version is that it would eliminate all deductions for state and local taxes or salt they call it. the house compromise was that you can deduct $10,000 of your property taxes. the senate doesn't have that at all. this is partly because big, high-tax states, california, new york, wril, new jersey, massachusetts, they don't have a republican serving in the senate. but in the house, there are almost three dozen republicans

representing suburban communities in those states who went to leaders and said you cannot make me vote for this or expect me to vote for it an also see me get re-elected. so those are the two, i think, bigger ones. the other problem in the senate of course is just the politics. it's a narrow margin. you've got three to six republican senators whose votes are still unknown at this point for various reasons. robert: what does it mean if that happens? if that obamacare mandate is repealed, what does it mean if you're an american who counts on those subsidies or funding? jackie: it is the reason the joint committee on taxation said that people who make from $10,000 to $30,000 a year will in effect not get a tax cut and people $doctor 75,000 and under eventually won't either. they're losing the tax credit for the health coverage and the subsidies and you know, the republicans are arguing well that's not really a tax increase for them because it's just

making people, as someone said, not having to pay for crappy health insurance. well, but now they're going to be uninsured and so this comes back to all of us where they're going to be back in the emergency rooms to get their coverage. they're not going to have insurance coverage -- to get their care. and the rest of us are going to be paying higher pleem yums and higher costs in the hospitals because of the fact that these people will become once again what republican senator chuck grass lee used to call free riders back in the years when republicans were for an individual mandate for the very reason that people had to take responsibility and get health care coverage. they were free riders because they were just going to e.r.'s or getting free health care. so this is the -- this is where the health care bill debate has gotten conflated with the tax debate. but it is -- it is an -- it affects cost of living and quality of life. robert: when you look at why they're intertwined, jeremy, you have to ask why, why are

republicans moving on health care as well as moving on taxes? sit because the base wants it? you cover breitbart and the base so closely you interviewed steve bannon recently are they clamoring for what's happening on capitol hill? jeremy: not really. in the abstract people like the idea of a tax cut. but you see this poll that just came out the other day, 16% of americans think it will actually cut their taxes. that should fright ven every republican on capitol hill. right now. with regard to the health care mandate though, the reason they're doing that, the reason it's in the senate bill is, they need to pay for this somehow. it's also satisfying to the base. to your point. seven years went by. republicans said, put us in the seat, we will deliver. they tried, they failed, it's still not clear to me they'll be able to do it next year. so they needed to have this in there as kind of a

demonstration, oge, we'll give it one more shot. in the end, though, you don't hear many people talking about it. it's not part of the conversation around the tax debate. by and large. because most people realize it's not going to happen. >> interestingly, originally it was the president who said, why don't you throw a reneefl individual mandate in there, that way you can bring the top rate down from 39.5% to 35%. republicans balked at that because they said we're getting slammed for making this a big boon to the wealthy. getting rid of the individual mandate, which by and large helps low income people and doing that to bring rich people's taxes dun is the no -- is not going to fly. they decided what we can do is bump up the tax cut for middle income americans and double the tax -- the child tax credit. so that's what that money is going toward. trying to lift it out at this point would really put them in a big fiscal bind. >> jeremy pointed out that the

reason they did this was not just to salvage their promise to repeal obamacare but to bet money from not paying out those subsidies anymore so they could pay for more tax cuts. even so the fact remains that these bills will add $1.5 trillion over 10 years in the first 10 years to the debt. >> i thought they were going to pay for themselves, isn't that the theory. >> find me a credible economist that says that. >> i saw larry thomas doing an interview saying it's just a fantasy to assume these tax cuts will generate so much growth they'll generate growth. they will generate some economic growth. >> they've done this to get more money for tax cuts yet the tax cuts for individuals expire in 2025 when the corporate tax cuts are permanent. >> in the senate plan. >> and you know what the democrats are doing when republicans voted for this, when the tally was called? bye-bye.

they are convinced this is going to cause a huge wave. you've combined raising taxes potentially on lower income and middle income americans, plus in the senate, you're causing once again the unpopular prospect of ending the individual mandate. robert: if you're bob casey, senator, democrat, from pennsylvania, or joe donnelly, in a state trump won big, why aren't you tempted? >> they are tempted to help make a deal. they are eager and willing to sit with republicans and do it. but now especially with the individual mandate repeal added back they said no deal. no way. because look at the polling just a few weeks ago in virginia, new jersey, and all those other local races across the country. what's the number one domestic concern? preservering mess -- or messing too much with health care. democrats know it's a rallying issue for them. >> and they have not been part of the negotiations in a serious way from the beginning because republicans believe that they can pass this tax plan without democrats. and so democrats offered, god

knows how many amendments over the past week in the senate finance committee and zero were approved. so there's no incentive on the republicans' part to negotiate with democrats and therefore no incentive for democrats to -- >> what about the deficit hawks? senator flake, senator corker they broke with president trump, they don't like the way this adds more than $1.3 trillion to the deficit. >> senator lankford of oklahoma is also concerned about this. they understand the hypocrisy of it. these are guys who ran on a message of tea party fiscal austerity and now they're talking about adding trillions and trillions and trillions to the debt but by passing this mass i tax cut. they understand that it's bad politics. and not only is it bad politics but voters don't seem to understand what they're getting out of this. republicans feel like they'll be punished if they don't pass something so they need to pass something or so they told themselves. but i'm not sure that the benefit of passing anything vealy all that great because as nanity -- nancy pointed out, the

public doesn't feel, they're not asking for a tax cut. they want their health care. they want a job. they want their country not to be nuked by north korea. 4% of people in the last poll i saw listed tax cuts as their major concern. >> if i could just add to that, it's just the -- this is a corporate tax cut. that's what it is. and when you -- to your argument at the outset of this discussion that this is a traditional tax debate and republicans -- right up republican's alley, that this was -- the fact it's not what donald trump promised. he promised a populist plan that would, for individuals. and i would say jeremy bringing up the deficit. in 2025, when individual tax cuts expire, and people -- all the republicans are say, oh, they'll be extended. they're not going to let taxes go up for people. the debt, the federal debt in 2025 will be $25 billion even without this tax cut which is 90% of g.d.p. >> and the big democratic concern is this is just phase

one. phase two is next year republicans say, oh, look at what a hole we put in the budget with these tax cuts now we need to start cutting services, we need to start cutting medicare and medicaid and social security. >> we're going to keep a close eye on all this. we'll have to see if they can get it done by the holiday. robert: i'm not planning any vacation. i don't know about all of you. for the moment, let's turn to another controversy. on capitol hill. not -- more controversial than taxes. this is republican senate candidate roy moore. former alabama judge continues to deny the allegations against him as more women come forward accusing him of inappropriate sexual advances and misconduct over the past 30 years. during a news conference in birmingham, moore accused senate leader mitch mcconnell of trying to steal the election from the voters of alabama. mcconnell says he believes moore's accusers and suggested the republican senate candidate

would face an ethics probe if elected. jeremy, i want to pull up something you wrote. it tells me so much about where we are. this is in the "new york times." this was theres after time you wrote when the question of whether to disown a candidate accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl was fairly straightforward. but the divisions in the republican party run so deep that it's now become a proxy fight. that's what i want to talk about with yo uh. this fight this question about roy moore. it's now become something about the base of the party versus mcconnell. it's not so much about moore. jeremy: it's not. moore is a stand-in character. we've seen this happen in race after race for the anti-establishment. he represents to them a -- he represents to the base a big middle i think ifer to mitch mcconnell. and that's basically what you have here. that's what donald trump was to a much larger degree. so i think that what roy moore can do is get -- what he is

doing -- is once again resetting the parameters of civility and lowering the bar in terms of what americans will expect from the candidates that they elect. and this is really bad. somebody who is accused, some very credible accusations of being essentially a sexual predator. and there are enough voters out there in alabama say, you know what, we hate republican leadership so much that that's our guy. >> and the democrat, doug jones is gaining. >> and republicans on capitol hill, i've spoken to, have said that really the only thing they think at this point can get to moore or to the republican party leadership in alabama, which is still backing him, is if president trump were really to step in. >> he's not, though. >> he is not. i shouted many questions to him this week about whether he believed moore's accusers, whether he thought moore should get out of the race.

i know a lot of other reporters did too. he did not touch it. he did not want to talk to microphones. >> the challenge for mcconnell right now is big. governor ivey, female republican governor of alabama, says she supports moore. she's not going to call some kind of different election or ask luther strange to resign. his hands are tied. >> they are. you spark this fight that infuriates the base even more to vote for moore and then he gos to the senate. and by mcconnell's estimation he then faces an ethics probe. so for potentially the next year you immediately have a freshman senator facing all sorts of salacious allegations the press and public will want to hear about. >> and democrats will run on it. >> he will immediately become a poster child for the republican party and every other senate candidate across the country will say, senator x stands with roy moore. how can you vote for this party.

flip side gets even worse. chambers become even more nearly divided if jones wins. it'll become even more impossible to pass significant legislation. it's not a good time to be mitch mcconnell. >> the irony is mitch mcconnell is the villain in this to the moore supporters, and yet you mention the governor of alabama. she said explicitly that the reason she's going to support him is -- vote for him is because she thinks we need to have a republican senate in order to confirm judges and get more neil gorsuches on the court. the irony is that neil gorsuch would not be on the court but for mitch mcconnell who held that seat open for an entire year by not giving barack obama a vote. and i have to say, i continue to this day to be puzzled as to why the conservative right, the evangelical right, does not give mitch mcconnell more credit. >> proxy war. >> he can make a credible cause

that he's a big reason that president trump got elected. buzz in the suburbs of philadelphia and other cities, republicans who are moderates and might not have liked donald trump very much went to the polls and voted for him anyway because they said this is about the supreme court. there's an opening on supreme court. that was engineered by mitch mcconnell. >> does dough jones, the democrat, have a chance? >> looks like it. one of the best, we call them live caller polls done this week on behalf of fox news by a bipartisan firm, found him ahead. and also curiously if you dive into the numbers, if you look at the favorability ratings for the president, jeff sessions, luther strange, incumbent who lost the primary, and former president barack obama, who has the best numbers in the state of alabama right now? apparently former president obama. >> doesn't that make you think the poll is suspect? i had somebody raise some red flags to me. not that i think that, by any

means, well, i don't know. think about it this way. if you are an alabaman, right now, you're inclined to vote for moore. you're probably changing your mind day-to-day. do i believe "the washington post." sorry. do i want -- do i want to give mitch mcconnell a victory? or do i want to stand by the guy i know will stand up to the very political system that i feel is bad. >> it becomes a political calculation more than thabttheabt accusations of women putting their name on the accusations. >> i think it's entirely political. >> let's stick with this topic. while the president has avoided publicly addressing the allegations against moore , he did -- he didn't shy away from commenting on the explosive accusations of sexual harassment against democratic senator al franken. radio host and former model said the comedian forcibly kissed her and groped her while the two were part of an overseas u.s.o.

tour a decade ago. franken issued an apology that said in part, i don't know what was in my head when i took that picture and it doesn't matter. there's no excuse. i look at it now and feel disgusted with myself. what's more, i can see how millions of other women would feel violated by it. franken has promised to cooperate with an ethics committee investigation. hours later, president trump commented on the accusations via twitter, write, the al frankenstein picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. nancy, you've been covering this all week. the fallout for franken, he's still there. it shows both parties are implicated in this national debate discussion about the important issue of sexual conduct. >> absolutely. senators from both sides were quick to come out and say that he was right to apologize, that it was disgusting what he did and that they believed his accuser. and that they supported an ethics investigation.

i think the question when it comes to his future in the senate is, a, does anyone else come forward, and bmbing, what's his record in the senate? we called around to more than a dozen of his former staffers, all of them said he had always behaved professionally around them. that he was very supportive of women. very appropriate around women. and that they felt that he was a good boss. so obviously that's important to. so they've come out, they've come out in support of him. so far no one else has made an accusation against him. >> it's gone beyond franken. senator jill brand of new york told "the new york times," i believe, that now she believes president bill clinton should have resigned over the monica lewinsky incident in the late 1990's. that's been revived as an issue. >> it was revived a year ago by then-candidate trump when he was trying to distract from allegations against him. you know, it's fair game but

it's going back that far, it's -- you know one good thing about it is going back that far shows that this isn't just a recent phenomenon. so that is good. it's also not just about politics, because this actually started with harvey weinstein and it's gotten people in sports and business. i'm sure nancy and i could share notice, we could tell you this is not just -- this is not just in politics, although it is in politics. >> it's pretty bad in politics. in a hearing this week they spent millions on settlements of harassment cases on capitol hill. >> ed may know better than i, that list of settlements got a social play on social media is paid out for cases against members of congress but it's not just sex harassment. it includes wage and hour dispute, family leave, disability, so it's -- we don't how much of that is about sexual

harassment. >> i think we need to keep one thing in mind here. this is -- it is quite amazing first of all how quickly the senate closed ranks on franken and said this is unacceptable and you'll face an ethics probe. this was sparked because earlier in the week mcconnell had said if roy moore gets elected to the senate, we will immediately launch an ethics committee investigation. the precedent had been set he knew right away, if it's that way for roy moore it has to be that way for franken. i want to make this point. early in the week, mcconnell, without fail, without hesitation made very clear, i believe the women. he doesn't like roy moore he doesn't want to see moore in the senate. he's doing everything he can to stop him. but i think seeing one of the most senior political leaders in this country very clearly say, i believe the accusers, was a watershed moment. something that i think allowed very quickly for what to unfold this week where just about every other lawmaker said -- >> can we not forget though this

is about child molestation allegations. >> in the case of roy moore. >> i hate to be the cynic but ultimately this is all political. >> everything is politics. mcconnell could not -- >> we'll get to this on the webcast. we have to leave it there. thanks, everybody for, for being here. our conversation will continue online as i said on the washington-week extra. we'll tell why millions of dollars in taxpayer money has been spent on settlements including harassment sutes against lawmakers. find it all weekend long at pbs.org/washingtonweek. i'm robert kostya, i wish you and your family a happy thanksgiving. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> funding for washington-week is provided by -- for "washington week" is proy provided by -- >> their leadership is instinctive. -- instinctive. they understand the challenges of today. and research the technologies of

tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> additional funding is provided by -- newman's own foundation. donating all profits from newman's own food products to charity and nourishing the common good. the ethics and excellence in journalism foundation. the yuen foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> you're watching pbs. ♪

-corporate support for this program provided by... -we share stories. we create experiences that aim to inspire you... to live a flavorful life. at feast it forward, we view music, food, wine, and philanthropy as the fabric of our community. feast it forward goes beyond the plate, bottle, and guitar with master chefs, tastemakers, and musicians who take a seat at our table to share their inspiration. feastitforward.com. -support for "american masters" provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and by...