Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11102017 20171110

First and foremost and its mission is to deliver great news reporting to a nationwide audience. Intentiongned and its is to provide coherent and sharp analysis and conservative commentary reflecting our values and the way we look at the world. Host in what way do you look at the world . Forthrightlye a conservative view of the world. This is based on freedom. Ofbelieve on freedom of expression, freedom of religion. Believe in american strength and American Global leadership. America is the defender of freedom in the world. States is the united a shining city on the hill for the rest of the world. We believe in those traditional values. Right centere a bias. Would you agree with that . Had you square your conservative vision with reporting facts . The first half of my career came when i was at the Daily Telegraph in london. It was very wellknown of being read by socialist mps in parliament. There is no incompatibility between reporting the news. People want to know what actually happened. You can provide commentary that reflects your view of the world. One of the things that is fascinating is your readership will just be conservative if you have conservative views. Our readership at the washington into thirds. Ivided we are much more balanced than the readership of our rivals at the Washington Post. History of other publications and we know from data like that it straight news reporting which appeals ross the spectrum is attractive to people from the left and the right. Thatan write commentary reflects the values you have. We are growing because it has achieved that balance. Host the fact check website said the Washington Examiner often utilizes loaded words to influence an audience by using an appeal to emotion or stereotype for conservative causes. They give a rating of high on factual orting. Guest i think thats true. We report the facts. Tellingnterested in news across the United States and politics. We think that is an Important Role and we believe in diversity in the media. We dont think there is any merit and twisting the news. What we want to build up his trust with our audience. Wewant them to trust what give is straight reporting. Allowbreak stories which which means we should be read i people from across the spectrum. We stand out from a lot of the media by giving i think a fair hearing to conservative policies and opinions. This is a News Organization where conservatives can, and get their news, they also get commentary and analysis which takes their view of the world seriously. I think that makes us stand out in washington and the National Media picture. Host what is the history of the publication and who owns it . Guest it is owned by philip and shoots, a colorado businessman. He is in the entertainment business, the oil and gas business, the cruise business. He has a wide range of interest. That is were the ownership is. Host what is the history of it as well . Guest was launched a little more than 10 years ago as a local newspaper. In print, delivered to peoples doorsteps each morning. About four years ago, the decision was made that we would focus entirely on politics. Initially, as a local newspaper we covered sports, local politics, local business. We sharpened the focus to politics, principally hetero politics and decided instead of being a newspaper, we would be a website and a weekly magazine. I think that reflects the way news is moving. People want their news fast. Have hads as you know a tough time over the last 10 years. At the same time, people want to be able to take a deep dive into a subject. They want to read at length. And everyr website tuesday we come out with a magazine. Issues dives into policy. Magazine ishe popular outside washington. There is a digital edition. Host is the publication profitable . Guest we dont reveal the aspects of our organization. It is certainly at a comfortable level. Host lets here where viewers have to say. Lets go to keith in chicago. Welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. I am a journalism student. I have a masters in journalism. I would like to know from your audience, i am fed up with the conservative war on media. Its dangerous. Its been happening since the nixon administration. The thing i see with partisan conservative, no believe in the concept of objectivity. I would like to get his thoughts on objectivity. They dont believe in it. Host what you say . Respect the caller and its a fine question. Reporting entirely in the news straight. What we think is a news story will reflect our view of the world. There are certain things we are interested in like labor law which another News Organization might not be interested in. Its our mission to deliver the news straight to our readers. Our readers are divided very evenly between democrats, republicans, an independents. We have a set of values and those put us on the conservative side of the spectrum. News and wee comment on whats going on in the news and reflect those values. Host our guest is the editorial director or the Washington Examiner, and online and print publication. We are live from their newsroom this morning. We are taking your calls and less chins. Questions. We will talk with some of the room orders over there at the publication as well. We want to encourage our viewers to call in with questions and comments about journalism and what you are reporting on. Lets get to the phone lines. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7848001. Independents 202 7488002. What is at the top of your website this morning . Probably the same stories that was featured widely by a number of publications, the allegations about judge roy moore, the Republican Senate candidate. He has an inappropriate relation with girls who are much younger than he was when he was in his 30s, on one occasion with a 14yearold girl. Were reporting on that. Onhad an extraordinary scoop this subject. We were talking to one of the judges supporters in alabama. He actually compared the relationship between the 14yearold girl and judge more as like that between mary and joseph, the mother of jesus. That got very wide coverage. Its a rather extraordinary comparison and it raised eyebrows. Host we read a little bit of that story. It got quite a bit of a reaction. What did you see on social media and reaction . Up social media here it media. There were a lot of people who thought this was an outrageous comparison. As some of your guests on the program have said, we saw that there were those who believe this is a hit job on the judge. Im not point to step in. I think the only people who know the truth are the judge and the 14yearold who is now in her 50s. The allegation is a serious one. The republicans have said if it is true he should step down. The only one who said he should down whether or not its true is senator mccain. Host john is in florida. Caller good morning. I just wanted to say i understand want to report the truth about roy moore. Are you going to report the truth when it is a hit job or if its not . There were so many allegations against President Trump when he ran and they were all false. I believe this is a hit job. You want to speak the truth about the news. Andhave cnn and fox overseas stations that are not speaking the truth. Its going to get worse before it gets better. Out for thes are money. I have been through it. I reported a lot of things in the past. I just wanted to let you know that i hope you report on roy moore when its hit job and not just on allegations of a 14yearold. The democrats on the left dont in office. On host got your point. The callerler has hit upon an important point here is the media are now making up the biggest story. They are the biggest stories themselves of the past year. The focus from the president on downward on the trust of the oria is worth giving squandered. He talks a great deal about fate news. There are people in the media who say it is their job to oppose the president. The caller has hit on one of the most of orton subjects right now, how much can people trust the media . Why is one of the reasons we at the examiner are determined to report the facts. When we are doing news reporting, we are absolutely straight. We will report when we think somethings fault. We have immediate writer and a media commentator. Problems inng the certain reports. We are making sure we are telling people about those things. Only 36moore story is hours old. There is a lot more of this that is going to come out. We will be following it and we will report the things we find that are true and untrue. Host anthony is on in las vegas. Caller good morning. Democrat, iy as a actually follow the Washington Examiner. In my past history, i would never have followed you. Primary, i was looking for the truth in media. I started following liberal and conservative sites. Off, i can to cut me give you an example of how independent media can be hotter than the better than the typical sources. I am the member of a group called crowd source the truth. We do our own investigations. The Washington Post wrote the story about Debbie Wasserman aid. Tzs i. T. In the piece, they said there is no evidence of espionage. Our group found that is not true. Individuals that were renting residences from him. We found onsite servers that were looked dated in a garage that had a bunch of cooling fans and there were routers in the basement. He was paying for this. Thisashington post left out of the article. Include that. They did not include the second person they interviewed. This was an africanamerican democrat marine who found smashed computers in his garage. Host i am going to leave it there. The point is about citizen journalism. What role can it play in the industry . Guest first of all, i am grateful that the caller is in pursuit of Fact Checking. Citizen journalism should be encouraged. I would encourage him to continue his reap warding. Reporting. One of the problems and benefits of online journalism, if anybody can publish anything really quickly, the cost of entry is low. You get people who go into it independently who are well motivated and they think theyve got something to contribute. The congress is investigating s that were bot deliberately feeding false information into the new cycle. 20 or 30o be thought years ago that the Communications Revolution would make it difficult or tyrants to stay in power. What we are seeing is online journalism has become a tool for nasty people to express their views and influence elections. There are pros and cons to citizen journalists. Into reporting. That is one of the reasons why organizations like the examiner are determined to build trust with the readership. Given that anyone can write what they want on the web and opinions are at a discount, the thing that is really at a premium is a new source you can trust. If you read it, you know its going to be right or if there is a mistake, that organization will correct it. What is happened with online journalism, it has increased bad journalism and increased the merit of good News Organizations. Modelealize the business depends on being relied upon. Host what is your process for Fact Checking a reporters piece . How many stages does it go through . Guest the principle fact check is supposed to be the reporter. You hire people you can trust to do a good job in check the facts. The story goes through a number of different stages. The reporters have supervising editors. Six editor has five or reporters and they talk about the story in advance and the editor will monitor the way it is done and talk to the reporter about how it is coming along and what they found out. The story will be written and come through to the editor. Once the editor has finished editing the piece, he or she will put it through to the web producers. That will be where it is copyedited and prepared for the web. From there, it is published to the web. There are three different stages, and each stage, the staff handling the story will be checking the facts and the accuracy and just checking to make sure there is clean copy. Host the owner of the organization is the 37th richest american. He owns the weekly standard. Does he have a say in the editorial content . I speak to him occasionally. Editorials the independence of the in organization. Before i joined this organization, we spoke. I went to colorado and we talked about our views on what journalism was and politics. Obviously, he decided i was the person he wanted for the job. Almosteye to eye on every issue. He has an troll over the publication. Basiseek to week asus, he expects us to do a good job. We have more than doubled in size in the last couple of years. More and more people are trusting us. Host how do you measure success . Guest in part by the number of people who read us. We average about 8 million unique viewers each month. That has doubled in the last couple of years. We expect to grow more than that. We also measure it by the a matter of anecdotal feedback. We see ourselves cited more and more by other media. We are linked to more and more by them. We also measure we have extremely good access, both with the Trump Administration and on capitol hill. And with both democrats and republicans on capitol hill. When you become an important publication, as we have become, the politicians need to Pay Attention to you and need to give you a degree of access. They cannot ignore you. And we have a very Good Relationship with capitol hill and with the administration. So we measure success to a great extent that way, too. Guest hugo gurdon, editorial director with [video clip] washington journal continues. Host we are in the newsroom of the Washington Examiner those quote talking to their editors and reporters about news of the day. Joining us is tim carney, a commentary editor for the Washington Examiner. What is a commentary editor . What does that mean . Guest as examiner, like most publications, we have a news site and an opinion side, or the commentary site. I am editor of the commentary page, so i am in charge of coming up with and writing the editorials. A lot of our commentary writers theirnhouse, i am editor, editing their pieces and sometimes assigning pieces. So i am the boss of the opinion side, you could say. Host what is your take on the judge roy moore story, and what is the latest . Guest we had a piece yesterday were one of our opinion guys one of the things we try to do is do reporting, so one of our opinion writers call up sources from the alabama race and got one of the state officials going on the record, sort of moore isg what roy accused of doing, by pointing to the bible and his understanding of mary the in teenager and joseph being an adult. To me, what that highlighted was in the Republican Party, there is a fears, increasingly fierce, partisanship, a willingness to dig in heels and make excuses for the sort of things that i remember under bill clinton were entirely unacceptable to social conservatives. Meanwhile on capitol hill, you have john mccain coming out and saying that moore has got to step aside. All sorts of conservatives and Establishment Republicans did not want roy moore. They wanted Luther Strange or someone is to be the nominee for the alabama senate. They are trying to finagle hitting a right getting a writein candidate or campaign. We have an allegation and a fierce then ill fierce denial, and it is way past the statute of limitations. So we will not have a trial or criminal investigation. It is very unstable, and we do not know which direction it will go. My opinion is that the republicans have an obligation to try to get roy moore, maybe depose him, and get him to swear on the bible and ask them really to questions about what exactly happened. Is that for proof . Thanut it would be better just saying and till it gets proven, we will stick with him. Mentionedtbart. Com the establishment was behind the current sitting senator. They were behind roy moore. There headline, quoting mr. Ben talked aboutannon, who was behind this roy moore hit piece. Not believe it because it is coming from the Washington Post. Guest this is a real big problem of the media, partly the fault of main street medium, and partly the fault of politicians that are being opportunistic. We have seen, especially in the trump era, left of Center Mainstream media being very uncareful and being willing to report things that turn out to be completely false if it is negative about donald trump. Here, wehe first hour said donald trump was trying to have Martin Luther king removed from the oval office or they talked about an olympic medalists being detained at the airport and they said it was because of trump, and trump was not even in office. One of my commentary writers has been chronicling this. The media has done a lot. The mainstream bigger papers, who lean left, in my opinion, they have done a lot to undermine the credibility. Hasnfortunate side effect been arming people to say, well, you cannot trust anything in the media. Wheni try to do is to say Mainstream Media makes a mistake, attacking republicans or attacking trump, say here is what they did and here is what they did not do that would have been good journalism, and here is how it is wrong. When i look at the Washington Post story about roy moore, icy 30 sources, with i see 30 sources, which is astounding. Use the contemporaneous of theration from peers woman. She is on the record with her name, the one making the accusations youd and there are public records to corroborate the story. That does not mean it is true. That reporters say the story was not handed to them i the democrats. In my mind, this is steve bannon taking a true phenomenon with the media being more unfair to republicans in the last six months or the last year than they normally have been and exploiting that fact to undermine a story when they do not have any real counterarguments. It was incredibly well reported in this case. Host lets look at the alabama newspapers. Moore hit with sexual allegations. The Campaign Calls it fake news. That is a headline. Another one, gop leaders a phone for moore. Tim carney, if he stays on the ballot, what does this mean for republicans retaining that seat in the senate . Guest a point of law, my understanding in alabama election law is that he will stay on the ballot. There is no way to replace him. What could happen is a writein campaign, and the most likely candidate would be Luther Strange, the sitting candidate who lost to roy moore and the primary. But if he is the only republican candidate running, he does not mean that he is done. Remember, donald trump was elected after audio came out of him bragging about Sexual Assault. Bill clinton became the democratic partys rockstar after he came out that he had an affair with a woman half his age in the oval office and lied to cover it up. There is a republican congressman, two, who offered abortions to their mistresses, and one of them has gotten reelected. So it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that roy moore could win statewide. It will hurt. Are a lot ofhere people, especially a new yorker like me living in washington, d. C. , seems to love all alabama white republicans together. Some will say, well, i just cannot have a democrat controlling the senate and some will agree with steve bannon that this is just a big lie by the Mainstream Media. There will be conservatives and conservative christians who will not be able to vote for roy moore. The they vote for democratic opponent . Will they stay home . If there is not a good republican alternative, it will hurt more and turn what would normally be a very safe seat, an alabama statewide senate seat, into a very competitive seat. Republicans only have 52 seats. They go down to 51 and they have a couple other folder will seats, so it is very possible that roy moore and the story about his past could be the thing that gives democrats control of the senate. Host tim carney to take your questions and hear your commentary. Frank in west virginia, independent. Caller what is going on down there . Host a lot. Caller hey, im telling you. Im confused. The thing i do not understand is fake news. Press. Freedom of the if someone says it out of their mouth and it is rewritten by the news media and it is word for word verbatim, is that fake news . And if a person lies and then it is printed, is that fake news . They say, well, no, they did not get it right. I am a little confused. Host go ahead, tim carney. Guest i think that is a great question. In the press, we have standards. They are not always obvious to the public, what those standards are. They change. It might be given for an opinion page than it is for a news page, and it might vary depending on the severity of the church. I have seen people say, oh, this congressman is having an affair with this staffer or this lobbyist. I would not report, oh, i was told by this person that this staffer was having an affair with this lobbyist, even though my quoting that person would be accurate. Is similar to how you would not spread gossip like that, but i think there is a higher standard for the media that if it is something that would reputation, wes have an ethical responsibility, in some cases a legal responsibility, to go out and get some sort of confirmation what is going on. So sometimes you get an anonymous accusation of Sexual Harassment or Sexual Assault in these recent cases. Stories,lot of these you will notice the journalist did not run it until they had multiple and musicians and until they had gone to the accused and asks them and got there response journalists did not run it until they had multiple accusations. And found followed up out that there was this custody hearing. They got Court Records from decades ago, and they found out where roy moores office was at that time, and it was in the same place. Didthey asked other people, you ever hear anything of this . It was in a small town. That is the sort of corroboration you want on something that is such a heavy charge as what has come up against roy moore, which is Sexual Assault against a minor. You cannot just run it because somebody said it. Ine oh, well john mccain is goio introduce a bill, you can say that, but if it is a heavy charge, there is a responsibility on the journalist to try to find some corroboration and to give the accused person a chance to respond. In indiana, line for republicans. Caller i would like to remind and gentlemen here that not only was a bill clinton guilty of having an affair with monica lewinsky, he has been accused of rape and Sexual Assault by many women. Congressman barney frank ran a brothel in his home. Guest not exactly. It was a brothel and his home, but i do not think he ran it. Caller well, his boyfriend ran it. Are you trying to tell me the man he slept with did not know . Give me a break. Host what is your point . Caller my point is how funny the media on the left is. They jump on everything ever said on anyone on the right. Barack obama lied to the American People for a year about cutting premiums by 2500, going to do this, going to do that. The left in this country is exam insane. Host it is a center conservative application. What do you make of each side, and democrats do it, too, saying that they do not get a fair shake, that they get scrutinized more than republicans or republicans more than democrats and the media . Guest i come from a conservative perspective, so perhaps it is through biased lenses that i see it, but it is undeniable to me that half of what that caller said is true, that republicans and conservatives are subject to, in general, to former scrutiny than democrats and liver kra liberals are, whether it is about sexual morality or about honesty. Years,lumnist for eight i have had time to jog about what barack obama is saying about lobbyists and here is what he is doing about lobbyists. Most of the media was not interested in that and was not reporting it, and i had a lot of running room on my own. Attacking roy moore or was attacking donald trump a year ago and sort of coming up with excuses for bill clinton 20 years ago. My response to those make that charges we were right in the 1990s when we said it is destructive to have a president who behaves this way. We were right when we said that about Anthony Weiner. So we should be right now with regard to donald trump and being caught on tape bragging about Sexual Assault. And we should be right saying roy moore, to the degree that we know this was true, that this was despicable and should disqualify him for office. Does the media have a double standard . Yes. At the examiner on the commentary page, we try to point that out and correct that and not have a double standard ourselves. Holdied to we try to them to the same standards that we hold a bill clinton and an Anthony Weiner and a barney frank. With barney frank, i agree, it was shameful that it was completely ignored. Carney, what about republicans, a platform for the party that stands on family values . Republicans have run on family values and morality. Guest so then this is the it is worse that for republicans to have these sexual exploits than it is for democrats. I think that is the soft bigotry of logs petitions. I do not i think that is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Democratshink the think having an affair with a 23yearold is fine while you are president. I do not think your boyfriend can run a brothel out of your house or you can fix parking tickets if you are a member of congress. I do not think that is something democrats find is ok. So the attempt to say there is a double standard, what is implied is something i would find very offensive if i were a democrat, which is that democrats are ok with kind of stuff, 16th min sexting minors, which is what Anthony Weiner was arrested for. Ishink the hypocrisy charge really an opportunistic charge by liberals who do not understand how bad the application is for their side if it is notaying, well, hypocritical for bill clinton to abuse power and have a sexual affair in the oval office with somebody half his age. Host jerry is a democrat in georgia. Caller thank you. Sinclair ask about the news, it is my understanding it is being cut up like the Republican Party and President Trump to be a staterun media and taxpayer dollars would support this and they would only put up propaganda, of course. If he would give us any background on that and the danger of that on our democracy. Thank you. Host tim carney . Guest thanks. I am not an expert on the story. It is not true that it would get sort of taxpayer dollars. To some extent, broadcast news in the u. S. Has some partnership needgovernment because you the broadcast frequencies and all that, but there is no special support. When people talk about staterun media, that is an opinion writer characterizing it as media that will be overly friendly to donald trump. Whether this is true with sinclair is not something i can address because i am not a next word on what they can do or what they will do. I think the main job of journalists in the United States there are sports journalists, culture journalists but the reason we are written into the first amendment, freedom of the press, in addition to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, as we hold accountable the people in power. Anybody in the media seeing the job is protecting people in power, that is something that is troubling to me. During the obama years, i think the Washington Post and the New York Times turned away. After obama left, they said democracy dies and darkness, the Washington Post did. Now said the truth matters more than ever appeared in the clear implication was the truth did not matter when obama was the one spreading the untruths. Scrutiny towards trouble is good. But i wish they were a little more sober and would check their facts a little more and accusations against trump. But i think the idea of media that is overly firmly to the people in power is something that is concerning, whether it is a fair charge against sinclair or not, i dont know. At the Washington Examiner this morning talking to their editors and reporters. Tim carney, commentary editor, is with us now. We will say goodbye to him around 9 00 a. M. , because the house will be gaveling in quickly for a pro forma session. They will come in for about five minutes and then gavel back out, and then we will pick up with our conversation with the Washington Examiner and continue with your phone calls. Continueith us as we to talk to the reporters from the Washington Examiner this morning. N bloomington, indiana, democrat. Caller yes, thanks for taking my call. Newsnk i watch a lot of because i am disabled, and i know i am pretty sure that President Trump is the one that is putting out the fake news. When hehe starts it puts it on twitter. And then it just continues. Host lets take that point. Tim carney . President of the United States and his willingness to sort of put out information that is not, that he has not vetted. Will saysomething and it in a speech or will put it out on twitter. I do want to pick on the word fake news. Years ago, people did not really use that word. President obama started talking about it shortly after elections. He meant something specific, which was people actually making up stories. There was a story that pope francis had endorsed President Trump, and nothing like this had happened. It was not a misunderstanding. It was a made up story. So that is what was meant by fake news. When President Trump adopted the term and called cnn fake news and a lot of people have used it to point out when somebody makes a really bad error, which again, the press has done with increasing frequency since the election. So fake news as something that is erroneous or misreported is not a very useful term. Does President Trump have a unchecked repeating facts . Yesterday. If you come to our website, you could find hundreds of stories of stuff going out that is false. Just yesterday, we had a White House Reporter point out something that trumped it in china that he did not do, and he criticized him during the editorial. Donald trump did not push a communist leader. This is a bad thing. It is a rare chance to actually ask questions of the leader of societyously closed that is very opposed to transparency. But the cnn reporter said, well, he is the first president since george h. W. Bush to not do that with china. That was just false. He said it in a tweet. Turns out the first time barack obama went to china, the same thing happened. Retweets. Ets 1400 eight hours later, he comes back and says, oh, i was wrong, obama did it on his first trip. That gets about 12 retweets. We often have a first draft and check it, but sometimes a first draft gets out there very unchecked, especially since the election of donald trump. To say that donald trump is the purveyor of fake news is to ignore the great role of media, left and right, played in pushing up facts, especially on twitter and especially since the election of donald trump. Host a quick question from bill in connecticut, democrat. Caller hi, thank you for cspan. I have got a lot to say but not enough time. One thing to start with, mark twain said if you dont read the news, you are uninformed. If you read the news, you are misinformed. And this has a lot to do why our country is so messed up. The news media is there to confuse people. In iraq, they will use that i will end it at point, that the news media is there to confuse people. Tim carney, how do you react to that . Guest i have been harsh on a lot of the Mainstream Media here, but now i will say what aty get right if you look the news pages of the major newspapers, of the networks, of the Washington Examiner, you will see a lot of very careful people trying to get the story right and typically doing a lot of work in their fulltime job to get the story right. In the election campaign, you can point to excellent journalism being done. DidNew York Times excellent journalism on Hillary Clinton. They got the reporting up and made sure voters understood how adverse and antagonistic Hillary Clinton was with transparency. Washington post did a lot of good reporting to show what sort of man donald trump was, that he did not have a political record but here is more about his record. He said he gives charitable gifts but he did not. Here is an audiotape of what he said when he did not think anybody was listening. That was excellent journalism. Voters knew the most essential things about the candidates. A free press is very important. Even the newspapers that i criticize, they do lots of good reporting. I think the media has a lot of core problems. But i say we give our criticism in terms of expectation. It is such a Crucial Institution and does so much good that it makes it such a shame when our colleagues go ahead and misreport something or are sloppy, precisely because of those doubts among the public in this Crucial Institution. That doubt is exploited, as you see in Steve Bannons comments, in such a way to try to make it so that people are untethered to facts except when the politicians tell them. Host you can read more from tim carney on washingtonexaminer. Com. Follow him on twitter, as well. Susan ferrechio, the chief congreszional correspondent, the viewer, as well. Susan ferrechio, what was leadership andse the ways and Means Committee leadership to the Senate Tax Bill yesterday that was unveiled . Guest depend morning. It was interesting because this chamber has been working agether loosely for months on tax plan, as well as in consultation with officials from the white house because they be too far apart overall, but there are fundamental differences between bills and i think the ne that will perhaps end up changing because there is a lot of disagreement over it is the Corporate Tax break. I think republicans in both chambers want to lower the rate level, the agreed upon you see in both plans. On the house side, Corporate Tax reduced immediately, beginning january 2018, whereas until 2019. Delays the senate bill does this in money in reate more the treasury, more offsets. That, you reduce money coming into the treasury, that is part of the reason they do it. They consider that to be gimmickery and the Corporate Tax rate will spur growth in Economic Growth overall. So my thought initially on this lawmakers g to house when we learned of the plan, is they feel Corporate Tax rate happen immediately or faster than in the senate bill. Lawmakers, to senate when they first came out of the briefing yesterday morning, them the tax plan, many of told me the same thing, that they want the Corporate Tax rate happen sooner and theyre oping that can be accomplished somehow by playing around with the tax plan and to reduce costs elsewhere. Is my initial perception from talking to lawmakers they left townre for the veterans day holiday. Susan ferrechio, what are you hearing about the vote . Do House Republicans have the votes . Have the republicans votes . Guest thats a good question. Know, these things can be tricky because there are members lose fornd members who their districts in this tax lan, right now the people that may not vote for the house bill are republicans from wealthier and higher taxed districts. Many of them have gone on the record already to say they cant support the plan because their constituents would be paying ore because tax rates go up slightly for some joint filers property tax the deduction changes, mortgage interest Tax Deduction changes and the elimination of state and local Tax Deductions overall in the house bill. Do not these lawmakers constitute enough of a faction the house. Bill in i think the majority of members, conservative big factions who can cause problems when the house is trying to pass ills with republicans only, they appear to be on board with this right now. My initial thought, its in good house next week Going Forward with the exception lawmakers from the higher tax districts, who at appear to dont constitute enough of a faction to prevent the bill from passing. Host we talked about senator david perdue of georgia yesterday, former fortune 500 c. E. O. , he has the president s relying on sident him for tax reform and he told us in the newsmakers interview, believes they have 5152 republicans in the senate. Reach 50, you could see up to six democrats voting yes. Us and Susan Ferrechio, what do you think . Well, thats really an outstanding question here. What will democrats do. The democrats we have our eye on, are democrats up for states ion next year in won by President Trump in 2016, we call them red state democrats in the senate. None of them committed to voting for this tax plan. Talked to many of them individually and they aopposed o bill, f what is in the including local and state Tax Deductions, and i think what it down to greta, whether they calculate it will benefit f. They stituents determine by looking at details of the bill, there will be a lot of avings for majority constituents, it may be difficult for democrats in the bill,s to vote against the however, that is not a guarantee, none of them committed to doing it, the resident has gone through with outreach for democrats who have talked to the president about and say n cooperation could lead to collaboration. But there is no real connection there, other than these loose talks that theyre aving on capitol hill occasionally between white house administrators and key democrats. Think that but i senator perdue brings up a good for , it may be hard redstate democrats to vote against a tax plan that benefits th constituents if they calculate it to turn out that way. With susan g ferrechio, chief congressional reporter with the washington xaminer, here to take your questions and comments about the legislative agend a. Tax reform can call ic, but you on other Public Policy issues, as well. Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. 2027488002. Nts, call in now, well get to your in a minute. Susan ferrechio, you wrote a weaver, long with al g. O. P. Election route haunts tax reform push. Way . At guest it was pretty new esting, the results in jersey and virginia. Less so the governors races, races that vidual knocked out a lot of local in the suburbs. The suburbs are where the state deductions are very popular and of course, hose are eliminated in the house bill. It had a lot of lawmakers talking on capitol hill about that on their reelection prospects in 2018, popular. Eductions are the tax bill overall, would lower rates, but it does get rid socalled loopholes or things people use to pay fewer taxes. Has a lot of lawmakers on capitol hill nervous about how that will look constituents will think of it and how it will impact their election prospects next year. They certainly, i think, were elt warned by what happened on tuesday, with these big wipeouts with local elections in i think particularly virginia, where you saw the nearly flip ture from very strongly republican to now just a bare republican majority. A day there, wasnt uite sure majority hung in the balance. So lawmakers are paying attention to this, they always postelection contests dont really mean anything, especially in states that have blue, but they do Pay Attention to them and i think the impact wary of of what tax reform will do for constituents. Al the interesting thing about this bill, more than most that ive capitol hill is the way lawmakers are talking about it will impactve their constituents. They are going through constituent property rates, tax rates, they want to going house by house to see whether people are oing to win or lose from the tax plan and that is how they decide whether they will support it or not. And theyre being very careful about it and the republican the rship intends that in end, the vast majority of onstituents will benefit from this plan. And theyre counting on that, that is going to make or break makes it not it through congress. Host Susan Ferrechio, the other story you have from earlier this push for erve tiatives Obamacare Mandate in the tax bill. What do they want to include and leadership responding . Guest well, persistent theme now, is there a way to repeal the individual mandate. Ont forget, they attempted to repeal and replace healthcare law earlier this year and werent able to do it. A quest to get it done one way or the other. Here they would have an done with to get it just 51 votes, circumventing filibuster that would block it. It would create 400 billion in would be a which help to maybe eliminate some of thatther loophole closures are unpopular. There is chatter on capitol hill way to put this in, i think republicans are tempted by it, i think they are, talked about it, the president encouraged it, key leaders on the hill are it. Cussing but, i think theyre on the ence because it also has the potential to for the entire doing there may be unease that among senators who they need in the senate to pass the tax bill. Moderate senator. So i know there is discussion, do i think they are tempted by it . Do, but i dont see a commitment to do it. Its not off the table. Talking to were Republican Leaders yesterday afternoon before they left town, about, still talking they wont rule it out and i is something we need to keep our eye on when the mark up comes on the senate and house doesnt make it into the house passed bill, pass the house next week . It could come later on, both chambers will probably have to work on a r and compromise bill since each chamber is likely to pass a plan. Rent tax host well see what the viewers have to say. Sarasota, youre up first, mary. Of er i really think most the public supports doing away and local Tax Deduction as way to compel say new york and howfornia to really look at their tax money is spent. Federal f receiving deduction for state and local taxes, theyll have to take a how the state and all county necessary their state are money. Y using their it will hit them in the pocket pay and compel them to attention to how their money is being used. Have is point that i that according to the u. S. 27 the adultbout of our country is college educated, all the way degree to ates professional degrees, doctors why should now loansty subsidize student for quite a minority . When we really need skilled tradesmen training in this people to be ed job ready and to make a decent iving, yet everything has been focused on college education. Paying n tell you from for my own children, every penny to go through school get through. Classmates use student loan money without any are that they were going to have to pay it back. Got went shopping, they spray tans, got their nails done, you know, this is not taxpayers should subsidize. Host all right, mary, Susan Ferrechio. Guest well, two interesting topics, both about deductions. There is definitely a fight on capitol hill amongst lawmakers bout the state and local Tax Deductions. You have lawmakers from states like texas and florida, who say, why are we subsidizing state and high Tax Deductions for tax states . Why are we doing that . The high eople from tax states who feel they are doing the subsidizing because money back into the federal government, which rest istribute it to the of the country. You have sort of quarrel going on amongst lawmakers over who is paying more and who is owed more and i think the state and local ax deduction is the heart of that right now. And they are in the house people who dont like the state and local Tax Deduction, you have places like york, new jersey, california, pennsylvania, where taxes and the r rest of the congress is saying, exactly the argument the caller is that why ich dont they take it up with their own governments. Tax rates. Igh that appears to be where the debate is headed right now on hill. Ol go back to the second point that the caller was making about the idual deductions and fight over that. It certainly has brought up really the what government should subsidize. People feel angry about the deduction, terest they believe it favors the high everybody ers over else. There are people who do not favor these other individual deductions and think there should be fewer of them. Loan, the student other could be anything, the child tax credit, anything where like why are we subsidizing any of this. Issue. T is part of the the republicans have argued, why dont we lower rates and get rid deductions, and then when you calculate taxes, keep ore of your money up front rather than getting it back through the deduction process. So it is really brought up that debate on capitol hill and you really see lawmakers struggle withing how to deal this. Everyone has their pet deduction they are trying to save. You know, deductions that are taken out in restored in e been the senate, among them the Student Interest deduction that about, er was talking its back in the senate, hasnt been taken out in the house. Nother one is medical expense deduction, which is gone in the house, restored in the senate. House yesterday voted to restore the credit for those who up to 13,500 per adopted child. Restored. Nd it is because people are attached to deductions and favor them or dont favor them and on capitol g fight hill over them, not clear what will make it out in the end. Beginning of process, its churning through the house now and beginning its a lot in the senate and of the work may ultimately doors and nd closed house and senate are working out that final deal and you may see termsore change necessary of which deductions make it in or out. Rose waterbury, connecticut, democrat. Can you hear me okay . Host i can. Caller okay, im just calling i am very unhappy with the Current Administration and to be quite cruel. And even the tax plan itself, to take away medical writeoffs, it cruel. Seems and they are replacing it with, are makingeople that billions and billions of authorize, theyre going to get cuts, that seems very, very cruel. And of course, a big concern of mine mine, we seem to be headed for world war iii at our own accord, pushing this. I think it is really important pparents to nd grand children and grandchildren will have to fight if we have world war iii. It is very serious. Concerned. Those are my concerns. Writeoffs and the tax plan just is another angle of cruelty, in my opinion. Host okay, rose, Susan Ferrechio. What the caller might be talking about is the state tax, it would choose always a point of contention on capitol hill between republicans democrats, democrats want to preserve the estate tax, whereas republicans want to get rid of it. In this case, you see two house and the he senate, the house phases out the raises cap, the senate keeps the estate tax, money coming g into the treasury. I happen to think that estate going to stay in and because they need revenue, i think two, because that republicans are hearing the entiment of callers like the one we just listened to. I feel like they tonight want his to be a tax cut for the wealthy. Know that the priority of republicans writing this plan in both Chamber System make sure this is tax cut for the middle dont want a whiff of this benefiting the wealthy expense of the middle class. I think you will see all efforts to prevent tax plan from looking way. I think overall, people on the ends of income earners will see savings. Those who are paying more are oing to be higher income earners and i think the estate tax will probably stay in, at point, if i had to guess, byause mostly it was left in the senate. Theyre going to have more say process, they have smaller majority, harder to get through the senate, they need they areuence over it, the tougher chamber to get this thing passed. That is how it will be addressed, preserve the tax cap on how much, end up preserving cap on who will still be in process ise time the over. Host brenda in chi co, republican. Far as judge is concerned, they can corroborate make up a story to fit the coberation, that would be pretty easy for them to do. As far as the estate tax is concerned, that takes away farms and then agri business moves in with all their want less and if you pesticides, you need to let farms keep their host okay, brenda. Comments on the judge and what is political fallout, if any, for republicans and their agenda. Well, you know, there is ow a threat they could lose another seat, so that is terrible for the republicans because they are barely scraping their 52 seats in the senate. They were not able to pass a majoritye bill because wasnt big enough. They need more padding so they few people and still pass things f. They in fact Lose Senate Seat from pam bam, they ofl be down to bare majority 51 votes, which means they can nly lose one vote on any given g. O. P. Majority measure, which many, so thats a problem for them and i think there is a real fear amongst could ben leaders this political disaster for them. They have called on roy moore to, if allegations are true, for him to step aside. An moore was never establishment pick. He did not have full backing by he republicans and the senate to begin with. And he won his primary. Trump endorsed Luther Strange, the handpicked replacement for Jeff Sessions he left the senate to become attorney general. Roy moore is claiming that the allegations are not true. The way it works in the state, his name will remain on the ballot. Republicans are in a tough spot right now. Candidate s is the and they dont like it and it is clear, it is a red state, not clear what happen fist he fate of t will be the his seat in the senate and i think its a real problem for right now and with a lot of uncertainty at this moment about will happen. In general, with the seat. Area, notomething, red clear that is going to happen, ut it certainly hits senate very hard yesterday. This happened when they were all in the tax briefing and they out of that tax briefing and all of us reporters are aiting with the news of this breaking story and within, you all 20 minutes they had it of read it and digested and came out to talk to reporters, which is unusual, that, they r does thought if allegations were true that he should step aside. I think there are some conservatives who are angry of the story ng and in feeling that it was prevent here to republicans from winning or winning. Oy moore from so it really created a big explosion on capitol hill and i think republicans on the hill are very distraught over it at this lot of uncertainty about the seat. Ridgecrest. In an independent, you are on with Susan Ferrechio, of the examiner. N caller good morning, america. And good morning, greta. On air. Tiest journalist host thank you, mike, your question or comment . I have three very important questions for susan and the examiner. But, you know taxes for us out in the far west is a mute point. California is lost, the federal 1282 dollars for fourmember family is a joke. In two months chases down work for my in racting business california in the slow economy. Was, i how great this almost fell out of my truck. Hat we do, 1282 dollars, that is a joke. Moonbeam is raising taxes offset the to federal taxes, so you know, in states, it doesnt matter, governors will raise take more money from you. Thisnow, on the radio show 7 00, he will t expose that the house of congress is 98 corrupt. And in the pockets of wall street. My split question. Number one, are the democrats efforts to7 00, he will expose that the house of congress lean toward socialism . In the republicans corrupt efforts to lean toward facism is funding the soros black hood protest . Host okay, Susan Ferrechio, his do you make of question . Guest well, there are people tax ng about the amount of avings, whether the amount of nearly 1200 for a family of four aking 59,000, when that amounts to much for people. And in a lot of the country, it does. It does amount to certainly expensive is a very to live and it does have very high taxes. So youre right, those states may not benefit as much and i that that is an argument is happening on to live and it very high winners and losers in this thing. The hill right now about the they try to write a bill that had all winners, but you cant because if you cut taxes one place, you need to find the elsewhere or else the deficit may grow too big, which lso damages the economy and eventually hurts everybody. Trying to find delicate balance and this is the number the house came up with savings and i think the caller is talking about people around he country may feel, as well, pending where you live, where it is very expensive or property taxes are high and the deduction will hurt you or where your mortgage interest is pretty high costscause of the housing and now youre going to lose money on that under the house plan. Be a winner under this thing. Oftentimes in congress its about the math on how you pass legislation. How to get things through with in votes in the house and this case 51 votes in the senate and they build legislation turn intoes t legislation that can just win the right amount of votes and deal s where a lot of making comes in and that is at rate, make is tax sure middle income americans will benefit at least most of them. Out, it mayr points not be enough for everybody and other in some cases, people may end up paying more. Host lets get a couple calls michigan, republican. Bob, good morning. Not a happy , im republican, those republicans in congress are a disgrace, i mean, god, that republican bill in the Senate Looks Like something would write. Riculous. D host why do you say it looks like something the democrats write . Caller keep the estate tax, they certainly would, they are putting off bringing the money for a couple hore years. You know what, were not in they in a couple years, will get rid of that. This is craziness, we have power now, use it. Dont like e guys donald trump and i dont think they like be nothing power. Be ink they would prefer to in the minority. Nd im sick of this identity politics business. Host bob, i want Susan Ferrechio to jump in, what do bobs comments . Guest well, he sounds like some embers on capitol hill, there has been more divide among populous republicans who say more awmakers should move aggressively on this tax plan cuts should be no delay in and they should rely on economic rowth to bring money to the treasury to allay fear that debt ill get much bigger, through aggressive tax cuts, including the estate tax, which, you know, does affect family farms, familyowned businesses and not just for the rich, however, it benefit the rich. And there are a lot of republicans who are very angry particularly ce, in the senate, where they have a often require nd 60 votes in the House Democrats which most legislation, stalls a lot of things. They would like the senate to, the green ey have light, which is the power of majority in entire congress and white house, they should be moving faster and more have sively, while they the power. And they are not moving aggressively enough and will knows, back in the minority and then democrats will they will use the power more aggressively than republicans are doing now. A hot debate on capitol hill and caller is reflecting a people want the senate, for example, to get rid of the filibuster rule so that all pass with only 51 votes and not 60 votes. Of discussion in the house, they would like the senate to to that. Of bills, to lot move forward a republican agenda, the isnt able to pass because of Democrats Use of the filibuster. So, you know, thats always under discussion. See much changing this ongress, but its certainly under discussion and its part some populous tone of republicans in the house and some in the senate, as well. To john in chantilly. Caller thank you for taking my call, i want to say to susan, i countrys and ier see when people pay taxes how they improve their country. I know,the only country people want good service, they dont want to pay for it. Line, i have my own house, i get Something Back my y year fthat goes to community and i see roads being changed, i dont mind getting this money at all. I can do my own, i get 1000 back every year, but bottom line is this, people calling, complaining about the congress. 40 republican and a 40 democrat, and people who involve thing, they sit out and start complaining. F you dont vote and dont engage politics of the country, you will end up Something Like want to say st something about alabama, the man running the senate. Mitch mcconnell has how siness to tell our they elect their representatives, i think this is attack about is people who dont like that guy. Host thanks, john. Susan ferrechio. Uest well, you know, the tax debate is kind of neverending on capitol hill, how much you you d pay and how much, know, you should keep in your own pocket. Different philosophies, each party argues. Democrats believe that you need to pay more into the system, so government can more for you along the way m terms of services. People arly in helping who may need more help. The poor and the disabled and just need more help. Whereas on the republican side, hey think that individuals should make the choice about what to do with their own money and keep more of their own of governings sort philosophy and you see that reflected in the tax bill, where you to keep more money and letting ates you keep more up front rather than having to use deductions to of it. Some again, it is two different philosophies, it is one reason you are seeing this bill so far on capitol hill have before it. Icans because the divide is pretty big how each party approaches taxes. Definitely believe that more government is needed coming and more money in, they consider it an nvestment, call it investment via Infrastructure Investment would create jobs through programs or education through medicine funding, through government funding, whereas republicans want the individual to be more in charge keep more money and be more personally responsible, two different philosophies have ople who vote different philosophies, as well, reflected in how they vote and i that is why on capitol hill right now, you are bipartisanship in tax reform, one of those things i two truly divides the parties. Host viewer consist follow this debate and Susan Ferrechios to rting if you go Washington Examiner. Comgto twitter at Susan Ferrechio, congressional correspondent. Susan ferrechio, thank you and the rest of your team at the examiner for letting cspan come to your news room this morning and chat with you all do there in your reporting. Thank you very 50 years ago the u. S. Was at war in be a nonhistory tv on cspan3, the 48 hours of p. M. Age sunday at 4 00 eastern on railamerica. In 1967 cbs news special report. Whether it is the ever tactics or the whether or if the terrain it seems clear the American Military offensive along the dmz has bogged down. Like the marines in the mud. Artifacts,n american exhibitf the remembering vietnam and an eight on the presidency, the 1967 president Lyndon Johnson vietnam war press conference. We made our statement of what we would do if we had come asked aggression in that part of the world in 1954. We said we would stand with those people in the face of common danger and the time came when we had to put up or shut up, and we put up, and we are there. Watch the vietnam war 50 years later this week and on American History tv on cspan3. And here on cspan, we return to the National Archives in washington, d. C. We have been here for most of the day for discussions about the vietnam war as the archives opens a new exhibit, about aring vietnam, 50th anniversary year of the u. S. Entry in the conflict. We heard earlier from the author of the book six years in the hanoi hilton, and we heard a discussion about women in the vietnam war earlier. Next, you discussion about the hardware and helicopters used in the war. This is helping to got the National Archives exhibit remembering vietnam, which will be open through the first week of january. The William G Mcgowan theater here at the national archive. Least you can join us whether you are here in person, up in the theater, or watching us on