>> the tax overhaul is a go, so will it be a benefit or a burden to local lawmakers? let's get the inside story. ♪ good morning, and merry christmas eve to you. i'm tamala edwards. welcome to "inside story." let's introduce you to the panel. merry christmas, sharmain matlock-turner. >> merry christmas back to you, tam. >> and she is, of course, our resident nonprofit executive. our foreign-policy analyst, ed turzanski. merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> lawyer rich negrin, merry christmas. >> merry christmas. >> and law professor jan ting. >> hey, tam, merry christmas. >> and it is kind of a merry christmas for republicans after a year in which it seemed they were having a really hard time getting something through. with some sturm und drang, they have gotten tax-reform overhaul through the house and the senate. just waiting on his signature.

but it's an interesting thing. on one hand, they finally have something they can hang on to. but some of the polling suggests the way the public is looking at it is not really positive. we know a lot of local republicans will be in tough races. is this good or bad for them? >> if you look at previous attempts -- and this is the most robust change since the '86 tax law. in '86, president reagan traveled the country in advance, spoke in great detail about it, and rallied support for it. president trump's approach is that c.e.o./c.o.o. kind of division, where he says to the house and senate, "you do your work, and i'll sign it." well, that won't be enough. and the real effects, if there are going to be good ones, are going to start in february, when people bring home paychecks with more money. at that point, my guess is that the president will then start

talking about the plan, in a way, because there will be results to discuss. >> and so it sounds as though there may be time yet for meehan and costello, macarthur, and others to say, "look, we've had six months, eight months of showing you this was a good idea." >> you know, i think, to borrow from dickens, i see the ghost of christmas future, and democrats are gonna run against this in 2018. and so i think they're happy right now, and they're celebrating and taking a victory lap. but i think as the public learns more about what this is, that it's a significant tax cut for that 1% and corporate america, democrats are gonna run on this all 2018. we're gonna see the midterms. it's gonna mean a lot to them. if you're gonna make america great again, you got to rebuild the middle class. this does nothing to rebuild the middle class. >> yeah. i would say if you look at the comments from just about -- certainly every democrat, from the mayor to the governor to congressman evans and others, they have all been quite strident that this is really, really bad for the region. and i expect -- i agree with rich -- it's gonna be a strong

part of the campaign. >> we're on the edge of a titanic public-relations battle going into 2018. >> 'cause you could make a case on either side. >> who's got the better story? i mean, i am very critical of this tax act. i think there's a lot of bad stuff hidden in it, including the undermining of the federal estate tax, which in its present form only affects the richest 0.2% of american taxpayers, and then only when they die. so it has, you know, the cutback on the federal estate tax, which raises a lot of money, really has no effect on wages or employment or anything like that. it's a tax on wealthy people when they die. it encourages charitable giving. it acts as a check on the development of a permanent ruling class that transmits its wealth from generation to generation, and it has for a generation. >> but what about this? i remember when george bush came in, and everybody got those checks. they weren't big. they were a couple hundred

dollars. and even people who complained went to cash those checks. so even though we can look down the road and see maybe some negative things are coming, next fall, if people have a little bit of money, does that hurt a bob casey, who has come out, calling this thing horrific, where people go, "but i liked a couple of hundred bucks"? >> yeah. i think there's a danger in looking down your nose at something that someone will bring home and say that it's a pittance. it was somewhat comical to see chuck schumer in the well of the senate screaming about this. nancy pelosi got very emotional in the well of the house. and while they were doing that, at&t said, "by the way, we've got more than 200,000 employees who are getting a $1,000 bonus, and we're gonna spend a billion dollars." and, then, comcast, boeing, and wells fargo all stepped in and said very similar things. so as jan said, this is going to be a titanic struggle to explain it, but the proof will be in the pudding. >> what the democrats do, though, when they do that is

they come out and tell you how much at&t is going to make and comcast is going to make. >> yeah. >> and even those billion dollars, it's nothing compared to what they get. >> and, then, they're also gonna talk, tamala, about what they think the long-term effects are, which i think is always a harder argument to make. but when you start talking about how you're ultimately gonna fill the trillion-dollar hole that was put in the federal budget, people are now talking about medicare, social security, and medicaid. and i do think that that will have an effect on how people vote in '18. >> and in the near term, they're talking about chip, which they passed a stopgap to get through the holidays. but there's a big question about chip and whether or not this program, which specifically insures children, is going to get the funding that it needs. we know 180,000 kids in pennsylvania, they're saying the money will run out in march. you guys are my republicans. jimmy kimmel beats up on this all the time. do you think they will let this thing expire, or they know things having to do with children, you can't let this one go away? >> you know, the reason i'm a

republican is because i felt the republicans played a positive role in restraining the growth of the deficit and saying, you know, debts and deficits matter. you can't just ignore that. but i think in this tax bill, they've ignored it, you know, and they're actually adding, you know, $1.5 trillion, more or less, to the deficit and to the national debt. and in comparison, chip is like a little chip. >> a chip. it's a chip. >> you know, it's $16 billion that they're having trouble finding the $16 billion for, whereas $1.5 trillion -- you know, that's, like, suddenly nothing. suddenly, the republicans sound like democrats in saying, "we can grow our way out of it. don't worry." >> so, ed, do you worry that the republicans will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if they don't get ahold of this chip thing, that we'll be talking about kids getting kicked off of healthcare rather than "pay me back some more money"? >> that's always a danger with the republicans. >> right. >> the old saw is it's the evil party against the stupid party. and the republicans, very often,

do find a way of turning a victory into a defeat, except in this case. i do think that they're going to fix this, because the impact of this is just too powerful, emotionally speaking. but, also, keep in mind schumer and pelosi have maintained great discipline in saying, "we're not playing with you guys. we're not giving you any victory on this." so at some point, you've got to try to coax the other side in to say, "let's do a grand bargain." chip -- >> and corker and others have said, "we think there's some guys over there on the democratic side who would come to do this." >> there are. you hold this out in the hopes that you can bring them in to do a number of things, even some of the things that you may want on your side. i think in the end, they'll do it. but it's part of the parlay, the back-and-forth in terms of making legislation. >> tamala, let me try to humanize chip a little bit, 'cause we talk about it in the abstract. i had a special-needs child, my

wife and i. we lost a child a few years ago to a terrible disease called spinal muscular atrophy. because of chip here in pennsylvania, we were able to supplement our insurance where there are incredibly important things like catheters that she needed that our insurance wouldn't pay for. and chip steps in to help children who are sick and support them in those ways and was there for us. it's not gonna be there after march unless they come to an agreement on this. and this is important, and it matters. >> okay. we'll see what happens. >> and i think they'll do it. >> let's change and talk about -- this sexual-harassment wave continues to roil across the nation and across the state. we have a number of cases to talk about. one, a berks county legislator, caltagirone -- it comes out that in 2015, an almost $250,000 settlement was paid to a longtime staffer. she went away, but now this evidence has come out. he says, "i didn't do anything wrong. i settled because the lawyer said it was the best thing to do." and they have found a note from a lawyer saying, "it's this or

an even uglier eeoc suit." he says he's not gonna resign, even though others are calling for him to. does he stay there? like, how does this get resolved? >> well, the governor's trying to clean house here in anticipation of his own re-election. >> on a number of fronts. >> and, you know, he's trying to -- he doesn't want to have any surprises during the campaign, so he wants all this stuff taken care of beforehand. you know, daylin leach, another senator who's in trouble, is my state senator, and, so, i followed his career with some interest. and i think he can't see the writing on the wall. he's in denial that basically, his career is over. >> well, let's take them one by on, because we do need to talk about leach. does caltagirone have a -- i hope i'm saying his name correctly -- does he have standing to say, "you know what? i want my day in court. i say nothing happened. i had to sign this agreement. make her come out and explain what happened. fine. i'll go to court"? >> yeah. look, i think there's a difference between a one-off -- >> she says it was years. >> now, wait a minute.

but it's one individual. >> mm-hmm. >> if suddenly six show up, and they're saying the same thing, now, suddenly, without knowing the details, you automatically say, "one, you can have a difference of opinion between people." >> what about two? he has an ex-sister-in-law who had lodged a complaint against him years ago and then went back to work for him. >> well, then, you have to find out why that happened. >> [ laughs ] >> but i agree with ed on this. i mean, i think what people have been looking for are patterns. and when there appears to be a pattern, people are less tolerant of saying, "let's wait until we have a day in court. let's investigate this." people are saying, "let's end this now." >> and that seems to go to daylin leach, who has eight women and three men say that either they were targeted or they oversaw people be targeted in ways they thought were inappropriate. >> nobody gets a day in court. this is not criminal activity. >> yeah. >> this is politics. and whether we're going to tolerate this kind of behavior

in our political system -- it's not a question of whether we're gonna put anyone in jail, so you don't have a beyond a reasonable doubt standard. it's just politically, do we want to tolerate this kind of misbehavior? and i think a lot of americans are now saying we want to send a message. we want to take every single case that's out there, make it an example so that everyone understands this kind of misbehavior. you may not end up in prison, but, you know, you're gonna have to change careers. >> but you're not gonna be in positions of power and authority over others because of this behavior. >> right. >> well, what do you do? daylin leach has said he's taking a step back from his congressional campaign, not getting out so that sheehan, muroff, and moro could say, "okay, look at one of us to run against meehan." so he's still kind of occupying that space, and he's not saying, "i'm stepping down from my seat." and could they technically make him? or he could stay there till the next election. >> this is really not that hard. the hr department in the legislature is tiny, with a very small budget. it is reactive, not proactive.

they had sexual-harassment training for the first time in harrisburg i think last month because of a lot of these things. you need to professionalize the way people run their offices. because you are an advocate or a representative or a state senator doesn't mean that that is your kingdom, that you get to do whatever you want and abuse your power. we need to hold them accountable, professionalize those offices. many of them are not managers, and they need to learn how to manage, including fire power appropriately, hire people appropriately, treat people appropriately in the culture and your workplace, and they're not doing that today. that's a fix that needs to happen. but let me just say this -- the part that we haven't talked about yet, which really infuriates me, is the fact that we're paying out these settlements with taxpayer dollars, and nobody knows what's going on. and that, both on a national level and a local level, has to stop. >> and it sounds as though there may be some efforts afoot to say, "we can't do that anymore, but we'll see." >> right. well, certainly, governor wolf came out saying absolutely not. there is legislation that was

introduced by leanne krueger-braneky, who is a state representative who actually won in a special election and is saying, i think along with a lot of other women who are in the legislature, number one, we need more women in office... >> oh, yeah. >> ...and that we need to make sure that we're doing more to bring women in. so i think they're gonna be some other responses to this as we look at the politics. >> very quickly, a question about changing of cultures. wittig, who had been the head of the board of education in pennsylvania, has given his resignation, the governor's accepted, when the enquirer broke a story about his past, having had inappropriate relationships with underage girls when he was in a coaching position. he went on to continue to have relationships with universities. he had important relationships at jefferson, at drexel. he was overseeing school children all over the state. beyond him, that pitt investigation was there. do we have to look at these institutions and say, "how did this person keep going, even at an institution that kicked him

out from one role?" >> well, i think it gets back to the question we asked -- how does someone get on a list of not being able to go to a mall and end up heading the supreme court in a state? i mean, it is the environment. it's the climate that sort of gives people an okay that yeah, this might not be good, but, you know, it's not really that bad. and i think what, as jan said before, we're now at a place to say no, that is not acceptable. it is bad, where you're not gonna be in a position of over and authority when you use your power in this way. >> did people know, or was due diligence just not done? >> no. i don't know that the same stringent due diligence was in place decades ago, as it is today. i mean, look, today, you get a job, first thing you have to do is go through your criminal background check. >> social media, yeah. >> and then they do the social-media check and everything else. so, today, there would be no excuse for bringing someone like that in. >> all right, we have to take a

break. we'll come right back to "inside story." >> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by temple university.

♪ >> welcome back to "inside story." i'm tamala edwards. governor christie this week made moves on something. a state legislator had put forward a law, and it would essentially loosen up criminal

records. here's what it would do -- make it easier for you to expunge now four crimes instead of three from your record. it would expand the ban-the-box laws. people couldn't go online and look through your record. they'd have to sort of be careful about what they asked you about what was expunged, and that it would also help juveniles be able to expunge their records sooner -- three years instead of five. and he's been very busy around this opioid crisis, trying to help people get their lives and jobs back. he says this will help people who might have been caught up in the legal system move on. should we feel good about this as we hear that the opioid crisis has decreased the life expectancy in america for a second straight year? a lot of people are dealing with this. or should we feel a little queasy? because, yet again, it highlights the fact we did not see this kind of effort when people were dealing with the aftermath of crack, the aftermath of meth, which targeted largely rural, white, poor, and urban black poor. but this disease, which may be broader for some, we're treating it a little bit differently. so how should we look at what

he's pushing for here? >> well, i think what he's pushing for is what many of us have been pushing for during the crack epidemic and during other times when low-income and urban communities were dealing with issues, and we were getting not a lot of sympathy or empathy coming from the broader community. and so i think it's absolutely the right thing to do, but it's always a little uncomfortable that it takes someone sitting at your table or living next door for you to see what it really means to try to support people who have had challenges, you know, and really difficult challenges. >> tamala, i for one am so happy to see this. we did ban the box here in philadelphia five years ago. my old boss, mayor michael nutter, used to say the same thing over and over and over -- the number-one way to stop someone from repeating as an offender is a j-o-b, a job. everything you see governor christie doing is geared towards helping folks get through their situation and get

back into the workforce and get a job and stay out of trouble and get off drugs. anything we can do with regard to that i think we should do. >> let's talk about somebody who did many people would say a really good j-o-b, and that would be dana redd as mayor of camden. >> yeah. >> many people give her a lot of plaudits for what she did. she's in the news because the new jersey state legislature would like to try to, as an end-of-the-year thing, change some rulings, so sort of bump her pension. it would make her pension go from $25k to $50,000. it's a glitch. she would have gotten it if she'd stayed on city council. things changed over when she became mayor. but they're doing this all at the same time, that they're saying we can't fund state pensions in general. is it the right thing to do by her, or does it create an uncomfortable juxtaposition when they're saying we may not be able to pay out other pensions? >> i think it's always uncomfortable whenever you are talking about any kind of benefits for elected officials, especially at a time when many

pension plans, not just in new jersey, but a lot of governments are trying to figure out how to fund them long-term. but it seems like to me to penalize her from going from city council to the mayor's office by $25,000 just doesn't seem fair. i do think that they need to fix it. >> i don't think you can have special laws for special people. i think everyone at this table appreciates what the mayor of camden has done. but in new jersey, they made a transition from defined-benefit retirement plans to defined-contribution plans. that's something we ought to do in pennsylvania and in philadelphia. and it's been proposed, but it's a reform that needs to happen. now, in doing that, people were moved off of defined-benefit plans into defined-contribution plans when they switch jobs for their prospective pension. and in new jersey, they've got a big, unfunded pension problem. so the justification is "oh,

well, this is a small number of elected officials. it will only add a little, tiny bit to the already huge deficit that will have to be paid for by the taxpayers." that's not a persuasive argument. >> yeah. it's the most widespread problem in the country. more states have the same kind of problem around pensions. jan's right. it's the defined-contribution model that we've got to move toward. and by not doing it, it gets harder and harder to implement fixes like this one, where you had a dedicated public servant who really did a good job. >> mm-hmm. >> and you say, "well, i really can't help you, because we've got this big problem that we just haven't dealt with." >> is there any chance that you think phil murphy, who's incoming -- they have a number of new incoming people in atlantic city, in camden. do you think he's going to have an easier time than christie did getting his arms around this pension issue, or it's the bear that gets everybody? >> it's the bear that gets everybody. i mean, in the end, you've got to figure out how are you gonna

fund it? how are you gonna pay for current expenses and really try to figure out how you're gonna pay long-term? you're not going to change how you are gonna get benefits to people who already paid into that system. so unless you create a new system for new people coming in, then that may cut things back a little bit. but it is a tough one. >> all right. well, we're going to take a short break and come back to our inside stories of the week. ♪ michael: i'm thankful that

i'm alive and have a second chance. james: i'm thankful for the help and the opportunity that i received. darlene: i'm thankful to be able to help people in crisis. vanessa: i'm thankful that addiction is treatable, and that help is available. christie: new jersey is experiencing a heroin epidemic fueled by opioid painkillers. but if you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, i want you to know: we are here for you. this holiday season, choose help. call 844 reach nj or visit reachnj.gov.

>> 6abc's "inside story" is presented by temple university. >> welcome back. it's time for our insiders' inside story of the week. sharmain, we'll start with you. >> tamala, again, merry christmas, and merry christmas to all of our watchers and listeners for the show. i want to thank some special people who are doing great things for the holidays. malcolm jenkins of the philadelphia eagles has partnered with the philadelphia police department to give out gifts and food. mel wells, a great community

activity at one day at a time, is doing the same. and hundreds of other people in our community are doing it, as well. as we say, it's the reason for the season, right? >> indeed, that baby in a manger could have used some help. let's go to ed turzanski. >> tamala, you try to take 12 days of christmas and turn it into 12 months of christmas. cole hamels, former phillies pitcher, texas ranger -- he and his wife built a $9.4 million house that's surrounded by 100 acres. this week, they gave it to an organization that ministers to special-needs and chronically ill children and their families so that they can be together for the difficult treatment they go through. well-done, cole hamels. >> wonderful. rich? >> tamala, an important issue that hasn't gotten enough notoriety is net neutrality. last week, the fcc overturned net neutrality, which basically is the equal ability of folks to have access to information on the internet, regardless of content or user. we should be proud here in

pennsylvania. the a.g., the attorney general, josh shapiro, is leading the national effort to help enforce net neutrality and bringing suit against the fcc to make sure that we all have equal access to the internet. >> all right. and, jan, we'll end with you. >> former chadds ford resident dr. dean winslow is better known in wilmington for his work as a physician and as an air force flight surgeon who served six tours in iraq and afghanistan. he's now a professor of medicine at stanford medical school, and he was just named by president trump and by secretary mattis to be assistant secretary of defense for healthcare policy. unfortunately, he got tripped up in his nomination hearings when he managed to disclose, in response to questions about the mass shootings, that he thought we needed to have laws restricting the ownership of high-velocity weapons by civilians. he had a lot of experience in iraq running a medical hospital in baghdad. so his nomination was stalled, and he recently withdrew himself

so that the position could be filled by another appointee. >> okay. well, that's unfortunate. all right, thank you, jan, and thank you to all of you for joining us here on "inside story." merry christmas. >> all: merry christmas. ♪ ♪ i'm nydia han with christie ileto on this day before christmas. >> coming up next on "action news" holiday rush is on, as time runs out to get all of the trimming for christmastime plus, police seized what they believe is a car involved in the deadly hit/run. eagles aim for a christmas night win would boost their playoff hopes. those stories, accu weather forecast and more next up on "action news".

"action news", delaware valley's leading news program, with gray hall, nydia han, and meteorologist chris sowers. good afternoon, it is sunday december 24th, christmas eve, gray's off christie ileto joins us. here are some stories we are following for you on "action news". he is on his way santa is making his rounds and he will be here in 12