>> good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. you're looking at live pictures of the house floor as the senate votes on the biggest tax overhaul bill in hifstory. the house ordering a do-over after realizing there were te text errors, requiring a fix overnight. there was a protest in the gallery. >> the senate secedes that without further amendment, the tax bill is passed. >> you couldn't hear it but there was a lot of shouting in the gallery. we bring you kristen welker at the white house. kristen, right now the president is talking to the pool. it's his ninth cabinet meeting and we have a summary from them. we'll have a tape very shortly to play it back. it sounds not only self-con g f

self-congratulatory, but he asked ben carson to read a prayer. >> reporter: that's right. that was certainly an unusual moment, and andrea, there have been a number of unusual moments in these cabinet meetings. you'll remember the first one when the president went around the table and had all his cabinet secretaries effectively thank him for the job that he was doing. in this meeting, though, in addition to that prayer that you just talked about, the president touted the fact that this is going to be the biggest tax cut, he is hailing it, in history. the president also praising his cabinet for all of their work. a number of successes he has said occurred in his first year in office. and he also talked a little about foreign policy. the fact that nikki haley having some stern words at the u.n.

effectively taking numbers and names of those who break with the u.s. at a time when the united states president trump has said is funding a lot of the efforts abroad. make no mistake, andrea, the focus right now is on this historic tax cut that is going to happen, that is passing soon on the house floor, we anticipate. and that the senate passed overnight. this is the president's first major legislative victory and he is going to take a victory lap at the white house here later today with all of the republican senators and members of congress who will be here to help him take that victory lap, andrea. >> and one of the things, of course, we're going to be drilling down on are the details of this tax package passed in haste, but a big victory for the president. but the deficit implications and the implications of the unpopularity of it, they are now going to try to sell it, as you well know, kristen, and try to persuade people it really will

help the middle class and not just the corporations and the wealthy. the they have a lot of work ahead of them because it is at low popularity. let's go to the president and hear what he has to say. >> i appreciate everybody being in the cabinet meeting, and this looks like it will probably be our last cabinet meeting until the new year, but who knows. you never know what happens with cabinet meetings. we have had some really great and productive ones, and this will be one of celebration because of what took place last night. we had a historic victory for the american people. it will go through final passage today in the house. then the congressmen and women and the senate will be coming over, the republican senate. unfortunately, the democrats don't like to see tax cutting, they like to see tax increases. and they like to complain if they don't get it done, unfortunately, but they complain a lot. we're going to have the republican senators come over, we're going to have the republican house come over, and

we're going to have a news conference and people are starting to see how great this historic victory was. the passage of the massive tax cuts and reform, a lot of reform in there, but the tax cuts precede it. i specifically use the words tax cuts. before they tried to pass it and haven't and they used the word reform. there is reform, but we're going to be talking about tax cuts. the heart of the bill is an immense relief for the middle class including a doubling of the child tax credit and a near doubling of the tax deduction. they'll start seeing the results in february. this bill means more take-home pay. it will be an incredible christmas gift for hard-working americans. i said i wanted to have it done before christmas. we got it done. i want to thank all the leaders. i want to thank mitch mcconnell, i want to thank paul ryan, and so many other people, and we'll

go through the official ceremony in a little while when they come over to the white house. but you've had -- we have a tremendous amount of talent in the house, a tremendous amount of talent in the senate, i can tell you that. and they love this country. the bill also includes a new family tax credit for dependents. it makes the vast majority of family farms and small businesses exempt from the estate tax. the state tax was killing the farmers. they were forced to sell farms at bargain basement prices. they don't have to do that anymore. it brings overseas corporate profits back to the united states. our plan also lowers the tax on american business from 35% all the way down to 21%. that's probably the biggest factor in this plan. we've become competitive all over the world. our companies won't be leaving our country any longer because our tax burden is so high, because now we're down toward the lower end of the spectrum as opposed to being the highest. we were the highest.

and it's really, above all else it's a jobs bill because these corporations that are already coming into the country, but they're going to start pouring into the country. it's about jobs, and they're going to build some really great companies and a lot of jobs. we've already created over 2 million jobs since the election. the stock market, as you see, it's at an all-time high yet again. i think that's 86 times since i got elected at an all-time high. unemployment is at a 17-year low. we've liberated the american economy from washington overreach, cutting 22 regulations for every one new regulation, the most in history by far. we've cut hundreds and hundreds of regulations allowing people to have their businesses, work their businesses and hire people. and we still have plenty of regulation, don't worry. we have plenty of regulation. regulation is not the worst thing. but overregulation was stifling in our country. you couldn't do anything.

we've unleashed u.s. military might on isis, and today the coalition to defeat isis has rec recaptured nearly 100% of the territory once held by the terrorists in iraq and syria. we're close to 100%. we'll be finished pretty soon with the isis situation in those two countries. we're making it very difficult for them to come here, believe me. we're fighting it very hard, homeland security and our great military. we're restoring immigration enforcement at levels that our country has never seen before and taking the fight to the criminal gangs like ms-13 where we're decimating those animals. they're animals. what they do is horrible. horrible. and we're making the immigration system work for americans, but we're cleaning out towns of those ms-13 gangsters. that's why we're calling on congress to fund the border wall, which we're getting very close to. we're working on that. we have a great wall. we put up, as you know, six

different varieties of wall. we want to be able to see through. we have a lot of help from the border patrol and from the ice agents. we're getting their input on the wall because who knows better than them? but we want vision, we want to be able to see through, who is on the other side of the wall, and we have some wonderful prototypes that have been put up, and i may be going there very shortly to look at them in their final form. and we'll be building the wall and we'll be doing lots of other things. we will, very importantly, be funding and closing the loopholes that undermine our enforcement, and we will get rid of chain migration and the visa lottery program. we had the lottery program where we take in a lottery people from other countries. in some places we are bringing in some very bad, bad people. through chain migration and through the lottery, the man

that ran over people on the west side highway in manhattan a month ago, two months ago, he came in through the visa lottery. we don't want this group of people anymore. people met him in the neighborhood and they all said he was horrible, nasty, mean. wouldn't talk to people. they could see it coming. they could actually see it coming. when they went back to his area where he lived, they could see it coming. they said, what's he doing here? when we take people in a lottery, they're not putting their best people in the lottery. it's common sense. they're not saying, oh, let's take our best people and let's put them into the lottery so we can send them over to the united states. no. they put their worst people into the lottery. and that's what we get in many cases. so that's not going to be happening anymore. we're going to end it. we're ending the lottery, we're ending the chain migration where, in his case, they said he might have had up to 24 people come in with him indirectly. aunts, uncles, cousins,

grandfathe grandfathers, grand mothemother. they come in because one guy gets in and they bring the whole family. not a lot of jobs, either. let me tell you. not a lot of working jobs. we're rebuilding our nation, we're rebuilding our confidence, and we're standing in the world as a different country. we'll be respected again. today the entire world can see that america is coming back and america is coming back rapidly and strongly. they see that with what's going on economically. this is even before the tax cuts have been approved. i have to say that a lot of people thought the tax cuts have been approved. i heard a couple of our folks, steve and gary and a few others this morning, and they're thinking that the market hasn't fully digested what they've got here. i don't think the market has even begun to realize how good these are, for instance, full expensing and other things. we have things in there that are so incredible.

one of the great things is bringing back perhaps $4 trillion back into our country. $4 trillion. money that we couldn't get back because of our tax code and because of regulation. we were unable to. that money can now flow back into our country and produce jobs and go into our companies where they want to spend it. they want to spend the money here. they weren't allowed to. americans are filled with excitement for the future, optimism like they haven't seen. you've seen all the charts. and enthusiasm for the incredible possibilities that lie ahead for our country. at this wonderful time, it's a blessed season. we have a blessed country. we're renewing our bonds of loyalty to each other and to this nation. this nation is a nation with tremendous spirit again. you see that. housing confidence is the highest it's been in many years, just came out. manufacturing the highest level of confidence they've had since they started doing it many years ago. and business has the highest

level of confidence. so we're doing a lot of things. so we'll be meeting again, the cabinet will be meeting again shortly, but we have done a job like no administration has done. when we get the final passage, and we're waiting for the final passage. as you know, we do have to go through one more vote in the house, and that's being done virtually as we speak. so when that's done, you add all of that to what we've done in terms of regulatory, in terms of military. as you know, we're going 700 billion for military. we're rebuilding our military. we cannot have a weak military in this time and age. we're rebuilding our military. but when you add it all up together, and then you add two things, the individual mandate is being repealed. when the individual mandate is being repealed, that means obamacare is being repealed because they get their money from the individual mandate.

so the individual mandate is being repealed. so in this bill, not only do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed obamacare and we'll come up with something that will be much better, whether it's block grants or whether it's taking what we have and doing something terrific. but obamacare has been repealed in this bill. we didn't want to bring it up. i tell people specifically, be quiet with the fake news media because i don't want them talking too much about it, because i didn't know how people -- but now that it's approved, i can say the individual mandate on health care where you had to pay not to have insurance, okay, think of that one. you pay not to have insurance. the individual mandate has been repealed. the other one is enwar. my friend in the oil business, i can't believe it, enwar, they've been trying to get it for 40

years. we're going to try building in enwar the largest oil field in the world. that in itself will be a massive bill. it will be one of our biggest oil reserves. it's one of the biggest in the world. puts us at a level that we're not even at now, and we're doing very well in terms of, as you know, energy. but anwar by itself would be a big bill. that's when it hit me. they said, they've been trying to get that, the bushes, everybody, all the way back to reagan. reagan tried to get it, bush tried to get it. everybody tried to get it. they couldn't get it passed. that just happens to be here. and we did that at the request of the two great senators from the state of alaska, which is a very special place, but i will tell you anwar is a big, big deal. it's not ever mentioned by the press and that was fine until

now. now you can mention it. so we're going to have tremendous energy coming out of that part of the world, and people have wanted to do it for 40 years. so with that i'm going to ask ben carson, you can stay if you want because you need the prayer more than i do, i think. maybe a good, solid prayer, ben, so we'll ask you to say grace. thank you. >> our kind father in heaven, we're so thankful for the opportunities and the freedom that you've granted us in this country. we thank you for a president and for cabinet members who are courageous, who are willing to face the winds of controversy in order to provide a better future for those who come behind us. we're thankful for the unity in congress that have presented an opportunity for our economy to

expand so that we can fight the corrosive debt that has been destroying our future. and we hope that that unity will spread even beyond party lines so that people recognize that we have a nation that is worth saving. and recognize that nations divided against themselves cannot stand. in this time of discord, distrust and dishonesty, we ask that you would give us the spirit of gratitude, compassion and common sense. and give us the wisdom to be able to guide this great nation in the future. we ask in the name of the son, the father and the holy spirit, amen. >> thank you, ben. thank you very much. mike, would you like to say a few words? >> i appreciate it, mr. president. as i told you last night shortly after the senate vote.

i know i speak on behalf of the entire cabinet and millions of americans when i say congratulations and thank you. thank you for seeing through the course of this year an agenda that truly is restoring this country. you described it very well, mr. president. from the outset of this administration, we've been rebuilding our military, putting the safety and security of the american people first. you've restored american credibility on the world stage. we're standing with our allies, we're standing up to our enemies. but you promised economic renewal at home. you said we could make this economy great again. and you promised to roll back regulations and you signed more bills rolling back federal red tape than any president in american history. you've unleashed american energy. you've spurred an optimism in this country that's setting records. but you promised the american people in that campaign a year

ago that you would deliver historic tax cuts. it would be a middle class miracle. and in just a short period of time, that promise will be fulfilled. and i just -- i'm deeply humbled as your vice president to be able to be here. because of your leadership, mr. president, and because of the strong support of leadership in the congress of the united states, you're delivering on that middle class miracle. you've actually got the congress to do, as you said, what they couldn't do with anwar for 40 years. you've got the congress to do with tax cuts for working families in american businesses what they haven't been able to do for 31 years. and you got congress to do what they couldn't do for 7 years in repealing the individual mandate in obamacare. i know you would have me also acknowledge people around this table, mr. president. i want to thank the leaders in congress once again for their partnership in this.

i want to thank your outstanding team, your secretary of the treasury, steven mnuchin, gary cohen, for ivanka trump, for your great legislative team. all the members of this cabinet who partnered to drive your vision forward over the past six months after you laid out that vision for tax reform. but mostly, mr. president, i'll end where i began and just tell you, i want to thank you, mr. president. i want to thank you for speaking on behalf of and fighting every day for the forgotten men and women of america. because of your determination, because of your leadership, the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more, and we are making america great again. >> thank you, that was very nice. i appreciate that. thank you very much. i also want to thank all the members of the cabinet, and i think we have a fantastic team.

and next year we're going to go on to really some amazing things. we're going to -- we're making ourselves very strong again, right, general? he was not so happy that first week when i met him. he was saying, it's really depleted. well, we're building it up rapidly and we'll be at a level like never before. but the members of the cabinet, you've been outstanding. i like the message that nikki sent yesterday at the united nations. for all these nations that take our money and then vote against us at the security council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly. they take hundreds and millions of dollars and then billions and say, we're woecatching those vo. let them vote against us. we don't care. but they spend hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows where it went. people are tired of the united

states, the people that live here, our great citizens that love this country, they're tired of this country being taken advantage of, and we're not going to be taken advantage of any longer. thank you very much. thank you all very much. thank you, appreciate it. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> thanks, everyone. >> with the thank yous to the press and some shouted questions, the cabinet meeting has been begun by the president, an unusual one to say the least, the ninth cabinet meeting. joining me again kristen welker at the white house and with us now on capitol hill, nbc's kasie hunt, garrett haake as well as political analyst josh earnest who served as press secretary to president obama. kristen, the president obviously taking great pleasure and pride in the tax package that's about to be passed on the house floor as we speak.

a final vote has not yet started. we'll bring that to you, of course, when it happens. but also his points about immigration, the issues that he's proud of in his first year. the unusual nature of the prayer held by ben carson. of course, the hhs secretary. that i don't think i've seen in the cabinet room, something other than a white house prayer at breakfast. of course, the vice president praising the president for his service and accomplishments from their perspective. kristen? >> reporter: andrea, that moment hearkened back to the original cabinet meeting i talked about before we rolled the tape. you saw all the cabinet secretaries go around the room and effectively thank the president for his service, for his accomplishments. the vice president sort of had a redo of that moment again today. you heard him effectively heap praise on president trump. he did so within the context and within the backdrop of this tax

bill that is about to pass, but andrea, you raised a couple other points. immigration. you heard the president talk about his intention to end chain migration. this is something we heard him talk about for quite some time, the visa lottery program. you also heard him talk about the wall. that's something we haven't really heard him talk about in depth in a little while. he said he plans to, in fact, visit some border towns where they are making some plans for the wall. i thought that was a little newsy. but again, the primary focus was on this tax bill. but that moment where you had ben carson effectively lead everyone in prayer, he tried to make a joke about it, the president saying maybe the press could benefit from that the most. but it was striking to see everyone bow their heads in prayer in that context. and then one final point, andrea, i'll make, which is where we started this conversation, about the very tough sales job that the president and republicans now

have to do. you could hear all those shouted questions. a lot of them had to do with taxes, including how this would benefit the president based on the one tax return we've seen by the president. it looks like he will gain from this tax reform which is about to pass. the president insists he's actually going to pay more, but it's impossible for the american people to see that with their own eyes, of course, if they don't see his tax returns. that's something that will be under a microscope, i think, as they try to sell this tax bill that's passing today. and also the fact that based on our latest nbc "wall street journal" poll, 41% of respondents said this tax bill is a bad idea. of course, that hovers over the republican party as they head into the midterms, and that's something democrats are prepared to campaign on, andrea. a lot to unpack there. >> one thing i want to bring up is the president's very strong

endorsement of a controversial tweet from nikki haley, the u.n. ambassador, who in reference to the jerusalem vote, the resolution criticizing the u.s. 14-1. she vetoed it on the decision on jerusalem. she said that the u.s. will be taking names. he praised that and repeated it, saying that the u.s. is going to be taking names, we're talking about the brits, the french and all the other u.s. allies who were against the decision by the president in the security council. it was a very aggressive and harsh statement from the u.n. ambassador which has now been endorsed by the president of the united states. kasie hunt, they're voting on the rule, they're debating the rule, they're getting ready for the final vote. but you're back in the house because they're doing a do-over because they rushed through and had some procedural problems that had to be fixed by the senate last night and now refinished as they go for final passage in this hour coming up on the floor. >> reporter: that's right,

andrea. the house speaker joking, hey, we had so much fun yesterday, we thought we would do it again today, but the reality is a couple of the provisions in the bill didn't meet the rules set out by the senate. they, of course, wanted to pass it with just 51 votes here instead of 60, and that means they had to comply with very strict budget rules. they found a couple that didn't meet the criteria, so here we are, play it again, sam. we did this yesterday. we'll see another moment shortly, i think, from the house speaker paul ryan. and i think this really starts not only a period of grappling for american families where they're going to have to figure out what this means for them, but a real political battle over whether or not this is something that ultimately republicans are going to be able to take to the polls on election day in 2018 and have people feel like they actually did right by them, or whether the argument the democrats make that this is really just a tax cut for the wealthy and for corporations at the expense of the little guy is

what people are going to believe. right now americans are betting that having their withholding change in february, maybe feeling like they got a little bit more back each month, will really swing the tide on that. i asked nancy pelosi about this earlier. i said, republicans said it will save them at the polls, and all she said -- it was a bit of a funny moment. she said, well, just go ahead and let them think that. so i think they're pretty convinced that at the end of the day, the american people are going to decide this is not the right thing for them. again, this was really do or die, i think politically for republicans, and that's the bind that they were in. andrea? >> one of the reasons why this is all taking place, garrett haake, why it is so unpopular is that the message has been delivered to people. people are taking in the fact that the corporate tax deduction, which is pretty dramatic, going from 35 to 21%, is going to be permanent, but

the individual tax cuts that affect you and everybody else that we know, the individual rates, those are going to expire in a couple of years. >> reporter: that's right. >> so the argument from republicans on the hill is they will be extended. that defeats their argument about it not having that huge an impact on the deficit, because if they were extended, that would increase the deficit from $1.5 trillion to 2.2 trilli$2.2. there is sort of a no-win argument from them on that perspective. >> reporter: andrea, the republicans are essentially operating on a couple assumptions here they hope will pan out in the way they see it going. the first is that future congresss, four, six, eight years down the line will continue to agree to continue the tax cuts on the individual side. nobody wants to be responsible for reversing those and raising taxes on individuals, especially if and when the corporate rate continues to stay down.

secondly, they're hoping the growth projections they've made, the fact they think the economy will grow, the companies will add more jobs and pay their people more which are, again, assumptions at this point, will continue to pan out in such a way that they can campaign on this. and they're committed to. last night after this vote, mitch mcconnell said, if we can't go out and sell this, we belong in a different line of work. so there is a bipartisan agreement here that this tax bill is going to be a big issue on the campaign trail next year. republicans hope that by the time it comes up, people are seeing enough of a difference in their paychecks and in their lives that it matters, but they're confident about this. they feel pretty good about the bill itself. while we were watching the tape of the president, i had a chance to grab the house majority leader kevin mccarthy and ask him about this. i think we can play that tape. talk to me about the feeling among your caucus having to revote today. is this better late than never?

>> i think people in the caucus like this bill so much they want to vote on it twice. we knew because of the senate rules, this was possible. nothing serious, we like it, we got it done now. it's going to the president. we'll be down at the white house today. >> reporter: so a little bit of bravado, a little bit of humor from the majority leader about the idea they love this bill so much they're happy to keep voting on it. but it underscores a central point here. republicans are 100% committed to this and they will potentially live or die next year on election day about whether or not they're right about the projections. >> garrett haake, thank you. while you all stand by, we're going to watch for the vote. maybe about five minutes for the final vote to begin, and that could take up to 15 minutes for them to actually go through the role. josh earnest here. let's talk about winners and losers. first of all, the mandate repealed for obamacare. this is a fundamental pillar of obamacare being repealed. they failed to repeal obamacare in 70-plus attempts, but now

they've taken away one of the financial underpinnings of it. the impact of that, we're told from congressional budget office, could be as many as 13 million people losing health insurance. >> it certainly would have the impact of millions of people likely losing health insurance. the other impact, andrea, that people shouldn't overlook is it's likely to put upward pressure on health care prices again. so when people are looking at their health care statements at the end of the month or the end of the year, and they recognize those costs have gone up, they know exactly who they can blame. there is an enormous amount of risk republicans are taking here by putting in place policies that will increase the deficit, increase health care costs. they'll make it more likely that jobs get shipped overseas. the only reason we know the republicans are doing this is because this is their opportunity to cut corporate taxes. and their corporate benefactors who fund their campaigns have told them this is a priority. time and time again, republicans on capitol hill have excused outrageous, offensive,

incompetent actions from this president all in the hopes that he would sign a tax reform bill. that wish they have been making for more than a year now since donald trump became their republican nominee is coming through for republicans today. it's going to be bad for the country and bad for the economy, though. >> but short term, people will see a benefit in their pockets because the individual tax cuts will affect a lot of people. the repeal is down the road. so before the midterms, there will be some political benefit from it. in terms of distribution, it's hard to compute. if we take the effect of the individual mandate out of the picture, because there have been speculative computations saying how much more this will cost people. but if you take a very conservative estimate from the tax policy center, 54% of people in the lowest income level, 54% would receive a tax cut. which means almost half would not get a tax cut. but when you get to the highest earners, the people in the --

91% of the top 1% of income earners would get a tax cut. so it's hard to imagine how, if that becomes apparent to people, how that will be fair, how that can be advertised as a middle class tax cut. >> substantively there is no debate here. working people, middle class families, working families, families that have to work for a living in order to pay the mortgage and put food on the table, their lives get harder because of this bill, the vast majority of them. certainly we know at the end of the 10-year window here, the taxes go up. the important point here to recognize is people may see the impact in their paycheck every month starting in february. the question, though, is they may see it but will they feel it? the reason i raise this is included in the recovery act that was passed by the obama administration in -- or passed by the congress and signed into law by president obama in 2009 that the obama administration had advocated for, it included a substantial cut in the payroll

tax in a way that had positive economic benefits for the country and was important in building momentum for a long-term recovery that we're still benefiting from. but the important thing, andrea, that we remember is that in the midterm elections, democrats got wiped out. part of the reason for that is people weren't experiencing the economic benefits of that plan and they weren't feeling those tax cuts, because they're distributed on a two-week basis, they get shrunk down. so i think we may see a similar dynamic here where there is a benefit, but people may not even know that they're getting it. and that is going to be another challenge that republicans are going to face when people go back to the polls for the midterm elections. >> josh, stay with us. on that point i want to first of all go to live pictures of the house. any debate on the so-called rule? we're expecting any moment now to bring up final passage of the tax bill. yes, they did in yesterday, but they're doing it again today. yesterday the senate voted along party lines to pass the sweeping

$1.5 trillion bill. joining me now is senator warner. senator, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, andrea. >> you have a background as a venture capitalist, so you know the business world. i want to bring you something that happened this morning. savannah guthrie interviewing paul ryan on the "today" show and questioning the speaker on his claim that corporations are going to reinvest as a result of this corporate tax cut which, unlike the individual tax cut, as you know, is permanent and goes from 35 to 21, even though corporations, very few are actually paying that full 35%. but in any case, that's their talking point, that corporations are going to reinvest and we're going to see the job growth, we're going to see wage increases. let me play part of that exchange for you and get your reaction on the other side. >> corporations are already sitting on a ton of cash. they have record profits. $2.3 trillion. why aren't they raising wages and creating jobs now? >> guess what, about $3 trillion

of that cash is trapped overseas and cannot come back into our economy to be reinvested because of our tax laws. so you remove these barriers to investment in our economy, you give businesses an incentive to invest in america in their factories and that's exactly what we do. >> okay, senator. why, in your opinion, is the speaker wrong? >> well, the speaker is partially right. i do believe that we need to make america's business taxes more competitive with the rest of the world. i believe we need to bring back those earnings that are caught offshore. but what i would have done, if i had been able to be in the room, would have said, all right, you're going to bring these dollars back at a really low rate? let's have some responsibility that you'll actually invest in a work force, for example, upscaling low and moderate income workers so they'll have a job as we go through this changing dynamic economy. if we put in this so-called tax reform, which frankly is just a

big tax cut, real incentives for start-up businesses, there is none in this bill. if we look over the last three or four quarters where corporate profits had been at record highs, companies have not been investing. they've been using their profits for share buyback and dividends. i was recently at a function with gary cohen that was made up of all ceos. when he asked how many were going to use this to go out and hire more workers, only a few hands were raised. the vast majority of companies have already indicated that this wi windfall they receive, they're using it for share buybacks, not for growing the economy. i think it will take a decade to undo some of the damage, and that's not until we get north of $2 trillion that will be added to our debt. >> what about the political benefit they expect to get before the midterms with people having more money in their pockets? >> andrea, as somebody who spent

more time in business than i have in politics, there's the notion we ought to bring back those earnings that are caught offshore. i think because they did this in closed door sessions without any transparency that, for example, on the international basis, they got it wrong. they created such loopholes that there's going to be actually greater incentives for companies to move more jobs offshore, and if you see that start to take place as companies realize some of the benefits they'll get by offshoring more jobs, i think it will actually backfire. and i frankly think the diminimus amount of tax cuts you may see may be more offset in states such as mine where people have taken minimum tax deductions and those have been cut back dramatically. >> the president made some claims about the tax cut and how it would affect him, claiming it would not benefit him at all. i want to play some of that. >> this is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me.

this is not good for me. i have some very wealthy friends. not so happy with me, but that's okay. i keep hearing schumer, this is for the wealthy. well, if it is, my friends don't know about it. >> what about that, because one of the big controversies is that last-minute real estate benefit, the loophole that was put in which could benefit the president as a real estate guy and senator corker and others. >> andrea, i mean, again, the president -- i guess he knew more of the details here than he knew on health care, but let's just look again at what was passed. lowered the top rate from 39 to 37. a remarkable special deal for real estate, so-called, pass-through entities that will, of course, benefit donald trump and the members of his family. so his comments there, i think i heard it sound like there was a

little bit of laughter or tittering in the background. i think the american people absolutely know, and frankly all of the senators who voted on this bill last night, those who voted in favor of it know there was this loophole put in for real estate pass-throughs and president trump has a host of those entities. >> i also want to ask you what seems to be a coordinated campaign against robert mueller and the investigation. we can see what's happening on the house side, the house intelligence committee is trying to wrap it up quickly. the fbi association representing the career fbi agents, special agents, has issued a statement this morning saying in part that, attacks on our character and demeaning comments about the fbi will not deter agents from continuing to do what we have always done, dedicate our lives to protecting the american people. controversies of the day fade, but the sworn duty of special agents endures.

special agents are focused on the constitution and protecting the public. their work should be recognized, not denigrated. that's obviously a reference to comments from the president, even as he was heading out to quantico to their new facility out there, criticizing the fbi. >> amen. i find it stunning. i'm going to make -- i hope it will be a fairly major speech on the senate floor on this topic later today. this president came into office denigrating the work of the intelligence community because he didn't like the results, the unanimous results of the agencies that talked about russia's massive interference in our elections. he didn't like jim comey's actions as an fbi director and fired him, and then after the firing, there were enormous calls, again, from both sides of the aisle to appoint a special prosecutor. and that special prosecutor in bob mueller, a lifelong republican, someone who was

praised virtually anonymously for doing his job. he said he had a preference for hillary clinton. when it came to bob mueller's attention, he immediately took him off the case. i would say that actually reinforces his integrity. and i am extraordinarily worried with this coordinated effort that comes out of certain news networks, that comes out of certain spokespeople for the white house, and as you mentioned, certain house republicans. this coordinated effort to undermine our law enforcement, this draws us closer and closer into crisis territory. and i think it would be a red line that i hope and pray and that i'll take the president at his word that he has no intention of firing mr. mueller. but if he were to fire mr. mueller, for that matter, pardon any of the individuals who either already pled to crimes or who are under indictment, i think he would cross a red line where there would be no return. and i think -- i would hope and pray, at least, that so many of my republican colleagues who

made those statements during the fall would stick to those sentiments because this would put us into uncharted territory. >> well, if that's the case, why are the republicans blocking efforts by some of your democratic colleagues to pass legislation, preventive legislation, just in case mueller is fired? >> there are some republican co-sponsors on some of that legislation. i've been talking with them. i think that legislation needs to move forward and move forward quickly. but i am obviously extraordinarily concerned because there does appear to be this effort to undermine not only the investigation, but frankly, to undermine law enforcement and the fbi in general, and there we can get into uncharted territory where we've never seen this kind of action from either political party in the past when you frankly undermine the validity of the fbi. again, i hope everyone will take a deep breath here.

i think the fbi association, their statement today was right on and hit the nail on the head. i would just hope and pray that the president would realize that when he speaks and tweets and he undermines the intelligence community or undermines law enforcement, that he does damage that you can't repair by simply taking back a comment. >> senator mark warner, thank you so much. joining us now is doug holsig, former chief of the white house council. thank you for being with us. i know you support this tax plan. tell me why it's a good plan since you've always been a deficit hawk since i've known you, and it's going to add at least $1.5 trillion, and if this budget deficit is added, it

would be $2.2 trillion added to the deficit. no amount of scoring is going to compensate for that. >> i agree with that, and i think we should be concerned about the deficits. now the budget included $10 trillion in future deficits and there's been no plan to deal with that. i think it comes down to a very simple calculation. we have a problem. the problem is a labor market that does not deliver higher standards of living in 2016. families that worked full-time for the full year saw zero for their standard of living in their incomes. that's not good. we know what's going on. because our tax rules date from the 1950s, patents and trademarks and great ideas in other countries, increasingly the production takes place there. when earnings happen, it stays over there. and if there's a merger acquisition, it stays over there. all of that results that we're not investing in this economy and the capacity to raise the

standard of living. that's the problem. this tax code addresses those problems. it modernizes the u.s. tax system so a degree is simply remarkable and will greatly benefit the american worker. it creates some deficits. you have to decide, is it worth it? that's a hard call and we've seen different people make different judgments on that. the status quo is dangerous to the american standard of living. let's do something better. >> mike bloomberg, as you know, is a billionaire and knows something about money and how businesses work. he says, ceos are not waiting on a tax cut to jump-start the economy, a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company or handed out raises. it's pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth. >> there are two things i don't think people understand very well. first of all, this is not a jump-start notion. this is about changing the tax incentives to be in favor of adjustment and favor of doing it in the united states. over the long term, regardless

of whether you have a lot of cash now or don't, regardless of whether you're a corporation or a small business and being taxed as a pass-through. this is about the core incentives, not the jump-starts. i really believe if there is a company sitting out there that when it gets another billion dollars doesn't have anything it wants to invest it, please don't invest it. that's wasting a billion dollars. get the money back into capital markets. get it into a firm that has some value that's going to raise the wages of workers, going to hire new people, invent new products. that's how america succeeds. the key so this, i think, is misplaced. >> i just want to make a point that earlier i talked about those who could benefit from the real estate loophole that was put in the bill. i didn't say that senator corker put that in the bill, i didn't ins insinuate anything else except to say he had real estate investments as does the president. they, among other senators, will benefit from that loophole which

was put in, and again, there were no hearings on this bill. contrary to what mitch mcconnell said, there were no public hearings on this tax bill. why the rush? >> i think that the fundamental incentive is to get the economy performing better. republicans control the house and the senate for only one reason. poor economic performance, the kind of wage growth i talked about in 2016, and they want to make a difference, so they're trying to get in place better incentives. you want to do it before the beginning of 2018 so the people can operate based on those incentives for the full year. and quite frankly what they accomplished is remarkable. the notion that they could pass through the house and the senate a major tax reform of this type on the schedule they announced. when they announced it, people laughed. i was skeptical, i admit this. this is a legislative accomplishme accomplishment, but more importantly, it's a legislative change of tax bill incentives for this country and it's going to benefit people in that way. the best thing for the middle class is not what's in the

brackets and the child credits and the standard deductions, it's in the improvement of the economy surrounding them. thael that's the best they can get. >> thank you very much, douglas holsic. i want to get back to garrett haake on capitol hill where the bill is passing. and still with us, msnbc political analyst josh earnest who served as press secretary to president obama. rejoining me now. charlie sykes, out there in the heartland, is this going to be popular? >> well, let me start by saying, i think it will become more popular because, keep in mind, 80% of americans will actually get a tax cut. this, in fact, is going to make american business competitive internationally. i think it's going to be a big boost to small businesses. i do think that for people who are not sure how it's going to play out. now, here in wisconsin, we're going to be losing the state and local tax deduction. it's going to hit.

then there is the question of salesmanship. that the republicans are going to go out and they're going to try to convince people that this is better than they think it is, but their number one number one donald trump. what have we learned about donald trump as a salesperson? number one, he's not credible. number two, he has a hard time staying on message. three, he's the symbol of this gilded age where the you mega rich are benefiting disproportionately from this tax bill. i think that's going to be a problem turning this around for republicans. >> speaking of gilded age, there's some news from the white house they may be signing this. they'll have this celebration this afternoon with republican leaders, but they may be signing it in mar-a-lago, which may not be the image of a middle class tax cut they want to convey. let's go through the polls of how popular or unpopular it is right now. >> our new nbc/"wall street

journal" poll shows 24% think it's a good idea and 41% think it's a bad idea. to put that in perspective, that's a worse overall net rating we had for obamacare or the affordable care act when it ended up passing. it starts out in an unpopular territory. to me maybe the most important part of the nbc/"wall street journal" poll is how democrats took back the gain on the economy. they have a five-point edge. we haven't seen the democrats with an advantage on that since february of 2013, right after barack obama's second inaugural address. who was this tax plan designed for, you have almost two-thirds of americans, 63%, who say this benefits the corporations and the wealthy. it was designed for them, versus 22% of americans who say overall it benefits all americans equally. just 7% say it was designed for the middle class. so, that perception, as charlie

was mentioning, that this is really tilted towards the upper class, to corporations, is one really set in with the american public right now. >> and josh earnest, as we see the time is almost expiring for the vote as the tallies are being computed and speaker ryan is back in the chair waiting for final passage, can the president with his megaphone, his enormous online community, can he sell this and change those numbers? >> i think the challenge they'll face certainly both what mark and charlie had to say about this, are relevant to this discussion. but the other element of this is, this is no longer about campaigning and making promises. this is now something the american people will be able to render a judgment on based on their own experience. so, they're no longer listening to the rhetoric of president trump saying we're going to have a wonderful tax system and it's going to create an unrealistic number of jobs. people are actually going to take a look at their pocketbooks, take a look at their paycheck and draw their own conclusions whether or not

this has been good for the economy and whether or not it's been good for their family. so, that is going to be the challenge. i think it underscores something i and other democrats have been saying for a long time, which is that there's a big difference between campaigning and governing. when president trump was campaigning for the presidency, he made lots of promises. now he's governing the country and he's in a -- he's in a position to try to deliver. people will have an opportunity to make their own judgment about how they benefited or whether they benefitted from his attempt to deliver on those promises. >> garrett, the president still seems to be giving campaign speeches. most recently when he was in pensacola. that was more of a political speech. still campaigning against hillary clinton, which is a great way of rallying the base. but even when he gave his foreign policy speech, they produced a very credible document, their new national security strategy, you can agree or disagree with it, but it was more or less mainstream. the speech he gave was at least the first ten minutes of it, more of a political rally, congratulating himself on what

he was achieving. and he doesn't seem to be able to get out of campaign mode. >> well, andrea, even the cabinet meeting we opened this hour with is a good example of that. the first couple minutes of what the president had to say was about touting this bill. the major accomplishment that happened when it passed the senate overnight last night when most people were asleep. he pivoted then to migration and the u.n. and half a dozen other issues while the cameras were rolling in the room rather than, as some might -- the political argument might be, it might be better to let the spotlight shine bright on what is, again, his biggest legislative victory so far. arguably his biggest victory of his presidency, right? if you set aside the confirmation of neil gorsuch, this bill will have the tax cuts, will have the opening of anwar and has the gutting of obamacare. it's sort of a three-in-one for republicans. and focusing on that, maybe the better political move, but as josh, i think, hit the nail on the head here, we're now out of

the politics of this bill. we will see its practical implications starting this spring. >> and, charlie sykes, let's talk about paul line for a moment because he's been notably, let's just say, ambiguous about his plans. there was a story saying that he was planning not to run for re-election. he was asked again today repeatedly when he was going to declare or whether he was going to declare for re-election. he sort of skirted around it. he hasn't shut the door on anything, he hasn't opened the door on anything. do you think he's going to -- this will be his legacy moment and he can see the handwriting on the wall as you go further down the road with this deficit hanging over their heads and likely entitlement cuts to balance this budget or bring the deficit down and maybe preserve some possibility of running for president. >> yeah, i don't have any inside information here, i want to make that clear. i think you're exactly right. this is a legacy moment for paul ryan. you know, to a certain extent, whether this becomes known as

the trump tax cut, this is really paul ryan who really, really drove this. you can see that that moment of affirmation. think of all the compromises, think of all the things he's overlooked to get to this moment. this would be a high point. on the other hand, what you're seeing is republicans who are feeling very, very emboldened, very empowered right now. it's possible he would -- >> charlie, let me introduce you because i think -- >> we can get more done, too. >> there goes the gavel. i think this bill is just now passed. let's listen. >> the unfinished business is on the vote for the motion from mr. dunn to pass hr-1159 amended. >> hr-1159, a bill to provide for continuing cooperation between the national aeronautics space agency and -- >> so, they moved on to further business, charlie. while we were talking, you can

see what went on. you have the boards up, the house bill has passed. again, the house has passed the bill again. and that's final passage on the tax cut. the biggest tax cut in 30 years. and i was one who said, having covered the 1986 tax cut, it took several years and multiple hearings, months and months of hearings, charlie sykes, i did not think it could be done this quickly. >> no. and that is an incredible accomplishment, but i also think that, you know, there's a downside here to do something like this. think about the reagan tax reform bill. that number one was revenue neutral. it took a very long time and had significant bipartisan support. none of that is the case here. this was done in secret. this was done very, very quickly. when you legislate that quickly, you know, who knows what all the unintended consequences are. and that's what concerns me. how many little time bombs, how many unintended consequences, what will this do to the

mortgage market. you know, will this backfire in terms of incentivizing companies to actually keep some of their plants overseas as senator warner suggested to you a few minutes ago. that's one of the problems. look, republicans do this. this is what conservative republicans do when they get in office. they cut taxes. but this one has an awful lot of moving parts and unknowns, even as of right now. >> and thanks to you, charlie sykes. kristen welker outside the white house, there are buses headed your way. the final vote was 224-201 with all republicans and democrats voting against. those 12 democrats from california, new york, new jersey, from those high-tax states. we're going to lose the state and local tax deductions or capped, at least. as you can see the bus, they'll be coming down for a victory rally at the white house, republicans only. the president is certainly entitled to his day of victory here because it is an enormous

achievement. >> indeed. this is going to be a massive victory lap here at the white house a little later on today. as you said, senate republicans, house republicans, will all be here at the white house. we'll hear from president trump, of course, likely the vice president again. and then leader mcconnell and speaker ryan. i wouldn't be surprised if we heard from some more lawmakers who were engaged in this process. important to point out, andrea, this is a very different way of doing things than we saw during health care. of course, that attempt to repeal and replace obamacare failed. you'll recall that in that first attempt, president trump had a vick story rally after the house passed a version of a bill to repeal and replace obamacare. then they never got it over the finish line. so, this is very different. the president, members of congress waited until they had a real victory. president trump engaged in this process, engaged in the details more than he was during health care. so, they are going to have a big

celebration here at the white house. as you've been talking about throughout the hour, andrea, the hard work of selling this to the american people now begins. >> and we've got to go. thanks to all. the tax bill is passed. 224-201. craig melvin, take it away in new york. a big day in washington. >> a big day, indeed. craig melvin at msnbc headquarters in new york. we start with groundhog day for tax reform. just a few moments ago, the house passing that massive tax cut bill, handing president trump his first significant legislative victory. the senate forced to act several provisions passed by the house. that vote which you just saw play out on our air a few moments ago. president trump scheduled for quite the public victory lap in about two hours. republicans and the white house promising, it will be right what ails the gop brand. the only thing working a