laby the president'sth: how wiproposed tax plan?impacted today, we break it down with someone who knows what the numbers could mean. internet essentials, the program that offers low-cost high speed internet service for low-income americans, now reaching more people and aiming to keep your family safe. face facts, freckles and spots that look innocent but turn out to be dangerous. today, we'll clue you in to some surprising signs of melanoma, helping you spot the cancer early when it's most treatable. male announcer: "nbc10@issue: starts now. lauren: good morning, i'm lauren make for "nbc10@issue." we begin with your money. president trump calls it a middle-class miracle. critics call it a giveaway to the rich. today, we'll take a hard look at that plan and what it means for who may pay more, who may pay less.

right now, details are limited, but here are the basics. the plan increases the standard deduction and keeps mortgage, interest, and charitable deductions, but it gets rid of many others. the top tax rate drops to 35%, the corporate tax rate is slashed, and the plan eliminates the estate tax. with me now is jamie hopkins, he is an associate professor of taxation at american college of financial services in radnor. thanks for being here, jamie. jamie hopkins: thank you for having me, lauren. lauren: so, the president calls this a middle-class miracle. is this a good deal for the middle class? are they going to pay less? jamie: so, the reality is this is a tax cut almost for everyone in the us, so from the highest earners, businesses, all the way down. now, how much of a tax cut it is for each different group in the country, that's where the details are going to matter. but it really is a tax cut almost across the board. lauren: are we able to tell at this point what it means for, say, a family making $50,000? jamie: yeah, so when you pull an exact income range,

we can't really tell you exactly where it's going to fall. so, if you're at $50,000, are there going to be some breaks for you? yes, especially if you have some kids, some dependents, they're likely to raise up the childcare, dependent tax credit. and so, if you got a couple kids, earning a low amount of money, and depending on what state you're in too, it's also-- that is going to factor in a lot here. lauren: who's the big winner in this when you look at the whole framework of the plan right now? jamie: yeah, so the tax policy center and a couple other places out there have kind of analyzed at least the initial numbers. and what they said is most of the tax breaks, 50% of them, are likely to go to the top 1% of earners. well, why? because the elimination of the estate tax really only applies to people with $11 million or more, as a couple, when they pass away. now, that's not a whole lot of middle america, right? so, that's a tax break for a small group. the other one is the corporate tax rate being slashed. that's going to really impact the business owners more,

but that's designed to kind of spur business and growth. so, will it create more jobs in some areas? yes. in some other areas, it might just cause more corporate restructuring, companies buying back stock. so, that's going to have a mixed impact depending on the different company. lauren: jaime, you mentioned that everyone may get some sort of cut, but you know, are you talking about something that is really going to be significant, that people may be able to take and go on vacation with, or put towards a college fund, something like that? or is this going to be, you know, an extra $50? jamie: yeah, for some people, if you're somebody who has a mortgage today and you live in a high tax state like new jersey, it might be a little bit of a tax cut, but we're not talking about something that's going to enable you to fund your kid's college, or go on a really nice vacation each year. in some of those areas, you could see some people actually pay more. now, that's-- lauren: pay more? jamie: pay more, yeah. lauren: who's going to pay more? jamie: yeah, so the one that's going to pay more is

you've got that mortgage, right? and you're deducting that interest today. and they say, "well, we're going to let you keep that." but if you itemize, you really need a lot of things to itemize, and one of the kind of kickers for that is usually your state and local taxes. new jersey, very high state taxes. actually four of the kind of seven highest congressional districts of itemizing come from new jersey. so, they're going to be ones that are very heavily impacted. actually, new jersey has 4 congressional districts where over 50% of the filers there itemize. itemization in this is not going to be nearly as popular. with an increased standard dedication, less likely to do that. lauren: and you know, you mentioned the deducting those state and local taxes, this is something that the administration has been talking about. why don't we take a listen to the treasury secretary as he is making the case for that? this is steven mnuchin, take a listen. steven mnuchin: one of the things we're trying to do is eliminate lots and lots of deductions. one of those deductions is about getting the federal government

out of the business of subsidizing the states. lauren: so, is that going to fly? we don't know if it's going to--what these deductions are going to be that are left on the cutting room floor. is this one going to fly? jamie: so, i think this is going to be hard to sell to states like new jersey and california, which do have republican voters, right? and they do have republican congress and senate members. and that's going to be tough to sell there when all of a sudden you might be raising taxes for some people in your district if you remove this state income tax deduction from the taxes. so, that could be hard to sell. that could be one that's on the chopping block. i actually think it was recently said that's on there, but it's not redline. jamie: if they--if they say, "oh, okay, we'll keep that," can they make the numbers work without it? jamie: yeah, you can still make the numbers work without it. and a lot of this, right, is tax deductions, it's tax credits, but really your effective tax rate is what matters. so, then they're going to have to play more with what we say is the tax brackets.

so, you might have to expand or contract some of them-- lauren: where you fall depends on--makes a difference in how much you pay. jamie: yeah, so how much money you earn, right, that exact dollar amount will matter. and so, then they'll have to do some more movement and work there to make it work. lauren: what's going to be the biggest factor behind the scenes and what this actually ends up looking like? jamie: yeah, so, it's votes right now, right? you have to find enough people to vote for it, which means there's going to be different interest from different states. the tax code's not equal to every state, as we were just talking about. if you're a high income tax state, it's different than the states that tax for sales or property taxes. and the other thing that's going to matter a lot here is the estate tax i think is a bargaining chip. i personally don't think that that's going to be part of this. i think if you looked a president trump's budget back earlier this year, he actually showed increase in tax revenue over the next 10 years from the estate tax. lauren: so, you don't think that's going away. jamie: i don't think that's going away. i think that's going to be a bargaining chip there. lauren: you know, one of the things that some people really like about this plan, i was in an event just last week,

and some folks were saying they liked the idea of making it simpler. that is something that administration is really pushing here. and take a listen again to the treasury secretary talking about that issue. steve: it's gotten harder and harder. and under our plan, 95% of americans can fill out their taxes on a giant postcard. i mean, think about the beauty of that, in that what--the money it saves, the money it saves at the irs, and the simplicity of it. lauren: that's really attractive to people. do it on a postcard, make it easier. is it realistic? jamie: so, the postcard language was still kept in what we saw last week from, you know, kind of the republican leadership. but it was in quotations, meaning it's probably not actually a postcard, right? but simpler, yes, this plan will make things simpler by removing a lot of credits and deductions, and more standard filers using standard deduction, that is easier. so, this does simplify filing for a lot of individuals. lauren: all right, thanks so much,

jamie, for your insight there. jamie hopkins from the american college of financial services, thank you so much. jamie: thank you again. lauren: well, next on "nbc10@issue," a program that provides low-cost internet service to low-income americans gets a big boost. we'll tell you about that and a new push to keep kids and seniors safe online.

after 8 years of chris christie, is kim guadagno the change new jersey really needs? guadagno is christie's hand-picked successor. says she's "proud to be part of the christie administration." guadagno was chris christie's right hand as our schools came under attack, critical services were underfunded, and our credit rating was downgraded...11 times. from the bridge to the beach,

we've seen it all, and we've had enough. kim guadagno isn't the change we need. kim guadagno isn't lauren: comcast's internet essentials program has connected more than 4 million low-income americans to the internet. that includes nearly 200,000 from our area. now the program has an additional goal, to keep kids and seniors safe online. comcast is the parent company of nbc10. and with me now are comcast senior executive, vice president, and chief diversity officer, david l. cohen, and pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro. welcome, gentlemen. david cohen: lauren, thanks for having us. josh shapiro: good to be with you. lauren: thank you for being here. david, i'm going to start with you. now, you have been making some changes to this program,

adding speed and wi-fi spots as well. you are now getting into the arena of safety and talking about that. tell us about what you're doing. david: so, i think the whole strength of this program has been its integrated approach to getting people connected to the internet. and the number one barrier to adopting the internet is this bucket of digital literacy, digital relevance skills. people don't know how to use the internet, they don't know how to use a computer, they're afraid of the internet, afraid of being scammed, afraid of their kids being subjected to child predators. but we have connected these hundreds of thousands of people in pennsylvania, millions of people across the country. and so, i was talking with the attorney general, actually we were saying a month ago, about this problem. and i think we, sort of sitting there, had an aha moment that there was a great dual purpose project here. first, to help to break down the barriers of fear,

to be able to educate seniors and families about how to protect themselves on the internet. and then second, since we're connecting all these people on the internet, to make sure that they are in fact safe and can protect themselves. and out of that conversation was born this partnership among the attorney general, the city of philadelphia, through philadelphia corporation for aging, comcast, and nbc10 telemundo, and telemundo as well to produce educational materials about internet safety, to promote them, to promote them on the station here, to promote them on our website, to promote them through psa advertising, and take advantage of the materials and the expertise that exists in the attorney general's office to make sure that pennsylvanians are safe on the internet. lauren: and those conversations are happening in different ways. how are you getting the word out? david: so, they do happen in different ways, and i think one of the secrets of communication in this day

and age is to use every communication source available. so, nbc10 will be running stories around internet safety. we're going to be using you and your colleagues to produce videos that we'll be able to use on social media and to use on our internet essentials website. we're going to devote a significant amount of public service announcement inventory across the commonwealth of pennsylvania to this, plan on making a psa with the attorney general. the attorney general office itself has outreach on this subject. we're all going to use the bully pulpit to talk about the importance of internet safety. and we'll use our regular website and promotional and educational materials. and then last, we are partnering with a series of non-profits who are providing in person digital literacy training sessions that will include a significant component of internet safety.

lauren: specifically for seniors, what is the most important safety lesson for them to keep in mind? josh: well, the commitment that david l. cohen and comcast have made to get hundreds of thousands of people across this country and so many thousands here in the philadelphia region connected is extraordinary. i mean, it's really life changing. but with that life changing connection comes great risk. and so, we want to make sure that kids are safe online, and we've put a lot of resources and emphasis on that. we also want to make sure seniors get online, that they're not afraid of it, and then when they are online, they're very careful, particularly from scams. and so, i want to commend comcast, i want to commend nbc for this commitment to our community, not just for plugging people in, but for making sure they're safe when they're online. we know that 62% of seniors are connected right now. and thanks to the work that comcast is doing, that number amongst lower-income seniors is climbing. we also know that seniors are really susceptible to scams. that's one of the big priorities of my administrations is focusing on that. and one of the key ways we can help reduce scams

is by educating seniors about the dangers, about the things that they should be looking out for. thanks to this commitment and partnership with comcast, we're going to actually be able to double our reach of connecting with seniors and providing them with the educational materials that they need so they can not only stop a scam for themselves, but combat them, and educate other seniors who are online to make sure they're careful as well. last point here, the average senior who is scammed online, successfully scammed online, loses $36,000. billions are fleeced from the pockets of seniors across our country each and every year. this program with comcast to protect seniors online is really critical to stopping those kinds of scams. lauren: what are some of the things that you hear in your office? what are some of the scams that are out there? give people an idea, if you could, of things that they should be keeping an ear out for. josh: top three scams we get. number one, the grandparent scam, where you get an email or you get one of those annoying

phone calls, and they say, "we have your grandchild. and in order for your grandchild to be freed up from this difficult situation, send us money, wire us money, send us gift cards." that's one big one. the other big one we get, and these come online and by phone, are those annoying calls from supposedly the irs, telling you that you owe back taxes, pay up now. let me tell folks who are watching, if you get a call from the irs and they're demanding that you pay up now, hang up immediately, call my office, and let us know. it's a scam. or if you prefer, if you're connected to the internet thanks to comcast or others, email us at scams@attorneygeneral.gov, and make sure that we're aware of that. and then the third one, and you see this a lot online, when particularly seniors are online, you know, the email that says, "send us $300 or $400." it may not seem like a lot of money to some, but it's a lot of money to many seniors. "send us that and we'll get the malware off your computer." well, there is no malware on your computer, this is a scam. so, those are the big kind of scams we get,

you know, we hear about from seniors. and we're dedicated to try and root out each and every scam. and thanks to this partnership with comcast, we're going to be able to reach more seniors and educate them, which is our best defense against these kinds of scams. david: lauren, i'll say obviously internet essentials is a program targeted to low-income seniors, but one of the powerful elements of this program is that these scams impact not just low-income seniors, these impact seniors of all sorts of income levels in the state. and you asked about distribution channels for this. we're going to be reaching seniors at every income level, not just low-income seniors, and i think really helping to make a dent in the scams and almost the terrorizing that occurs of seniors online. so, it's a program with a much broader implication than just low-income seniors qualifying for internet essentials. lauren: attorney general shapiro, i can't let you without asking you about something important

that's been happening this week, which is the former ceo of equifax testifying in washington. i know you are leading an investigation into what happened there. what are you finding? josh: we're leading a 47 state investigation into the equifax data breach, which has impacted 5.4 million pennsylvanians, roughly 75% of our adult population. we've subpoenaed documents from equifax. we expect to be receiving those materials very quickly. let me--let me tell you, we will get to the bottom of this investigation, we will hold equifax accountable. in the meantime, equifax has demonstrated some horrible corporate behavior, forcing people to pay to have their credit frozen, forcing them to sign up for different things that they don't want to sign up for with equifax. we've shut that down. we've also shut down equifax's attempt to stop people-- or to force people to give up their legal rights. so, while the investigation's ongoing, we're trying to stop this bad corporate behavior. i want pennsylvanians to know, i want americans to know we'll get to the bottom of it, we'll hold equifax accountable,

we'll recover any funds that are lost. and i hope this also sparks a broader discussion amongst policy makers on how to best protect our data going forward. we need tougher laws in this area, both on data breach and on cyber security. we're trying to lead the way in pennsylvania to do that. lauren: thank you so much. all right, comcast senior executive vice president david cohen, and pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro, thanks so much for joining us. still to come, we'll show you how some local students got a big surprise when they learned about what this program will mean for them. plus, a warning from a local dermatologist, what looks like an innocent freckle could be something more serious. she also has an inexpensive face fix for those of us who spent too much time in the sun this summer.

lauren: many of us are getting smarter about checking ourselves for skin cancer. when caught early, even melanoma, the most dangerous form of the disease,

is very treatable, but melanoma can be sneaky. in addition to the dark, scary mole we typically think of, it can look like a simple bruise or a dark line under a fingernail or toenail. and that's not the only way melanoma can surprise us. nbc10's rosemary connors got the lowdown from dr. christine stanko of bryn mawr dermatology. rosemary connors: thanks for being with us, doctor. christine stanko: thank you. rosemary: so, in terms of skin cancer, i think people think they can recognize it, they're going to see that scary looking mole. but in reality, it can be small spots that you really should be aware of. christine: believe it or not, the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, can be flat. it can look like a freckle. it can be very deceiving. so, that's why it's a very sneaky condition and scary. rosemary: i think people, when they think of melanoma, they think that it mutates, it is enlarged, it may be bumpy, but you're saying just the opposite. christine: in a nutshell, probably the best thing

to look for it is change. if something's changing, getting bigger, changing in color, in size, something that's new or different. rosemary: in terms of people who were in the summer down the shore all summer like they were, people who were on the beach all summer long, the damage done, is there any way to fix it? christine: uv is--it's a carcinogen. it's why the world health organization has declared it actually a carcinogen. so, there is a certain amount that we cannot totally undo. but if you stop the exposure, it's almost like-- i try to explain it, it's almost like smoking. it's never too late to stop. now, there might be some baseline damage that you can't completely undo, but the body can repair itself. so, it's never too late. a lot of people say, "oh, the damage is done. you know, i was burned as a child. and it's like, well, i mean, to some extent, there is some damage that won't go away and we need to keep an eye on things. but you know, it's not too late.

rosemary: what advice do you give to people who want to improve their skin, improve the look of it? i mean, especially damage, you know, and spots? christine: daily sunscreen, no brainer. it not only limits skin cancer risk, but helps all the anti-aging concerns people have, and can help reverse some of the sun damage. other simple, over the counter options, things like hydroxy acids, products that contain those ingredients. there actually is a product now called differin. it used to be a prescription, it's now over the counter. it's in the retinoid category. many people know the name retin-a. it helps acne, some people know it for that, but it also helps aging, which is sun damage, it's all part of that process. so, these are, like, simple, less expensive, over the counter options. i mean, we can go through, you know, facial peels, lasers, in-office treatments if someone's a little more motivated and has a larger budget. there are options. rosemary: all right.

well, thank you so much, dr. stanko, really appreciate you coming in. christine: all right, thank you so much. lauren: and remember, skin cancer is colorblind. you don't get a free pass if you have a darker skin tone. melanoma and other skin cancers are rarer in people of color, but it happens. jamaican singer bob marley died from a genetic form of melanoma. he's a double-dipping mepension padder.y. double-dipping pension padder! he had two government jobs, two paychecks and padded his pension along the way. he's a double-dipping pension padder!

now he's making over $300,000 a year as a lobbyist and a senator. double-dipping pension padder! so he's all set - thanks to you, the taxpayer. which is why steve sweeney had no problem voting to raise your taxes 145 times, including the largest gas tax hike in history. sounds about right, coming from a.... double-dipping pension padder! sweet 4k tv, mr. peterson. thanks. pretty psyched. did you get fios too? no. mr. peterson, fios is a 100% fiber optic-network. what does that mean? think about it.

if you got an awesome new car you'd put the best gas in it, right. so why hook up your awesome technology to anything other than a fiber-optic network? i got to go. peterson. peterson's wife. counting on you guys. your internet deserves the 100% fiber-optic network. and now get our fastest internet ever plus tv and phone for just $79.99 per month. lauren: some local students got a big surprise from comcast, something that can help them with their schoolwork. each was given a brand new laptop. senior executive vice president david l. cohen passed them out to their new owners. the students are from beverly hills middle school in upper darby. that's it for this edition of "nbc10@issue." thanks for joining us, have a great sunday. ♪ ♪

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