Transcripts For CSPAN Rep. Pelosi Town Hall On Tax Reform Immigration 20180116

D. C. ,nt in washington, look around you, youll see it everywhere. Minority leader nancy pelosi and california Mike Thompson held a town hall meeting over the about tax lawk and immigration policy. Hours from thewo university of San Francisco. Good afternoon, my name is heller, provost of Academic Affairs at the university of San Francisco. Fitts,lf father traveling on business today, i welcome you to our hill top campus. Is quiet on campus as students are on break but i atourage you to come back 6 30 p. M. And join us in war our mensym as Basketball Team takes on the gonzagaked zags of zach university. Were extremely pleased and this conversation today for democratic leader of the United States house of pelosi,tatives, nancy and congressman Mike Thompson of the north bay. Usf has deep roots in politics and policy making in the bay and, across the stated nation so its fitting were hosting this event today. Graduates,ong our woolsey, current acting and kevinsco mayor mullen. One more program note. Next month we will host on campus through our leo t. Center, a series of appearances by the leading democratic and republican governors to replace jerry brown, starting with euror los angeles mayor, and gavinllaraigosa newsome. It is now my pleasure to turn podium to congressman Mike Thompson and democratic leader of the house of representatives year from now, the speaker of the house of pelosintatives, nancy [cheers and applause] Speaker Pelosi thank you very much. Thank you, provost heller. Also want to acknowledge father steven prevet who was here, former president of the of San Francisco. My daughter, christina, sitting him, and she knows this is a Family Affair for us because when i was sworn in as house, father prevet was led the house in that day. As you know, it always opens prevetprayer and father honored us with his inspiration that day. Pleasure of being at when he wastion president and i mention it because it relates to our values. In, day when he was sworn the Escort Committee that brought him in carried banners the jesuits killed in el salvador, their housekeeper and daughter and his commitment newcomers to america and also respect for the people where they live, the beautiful of our community, our extended community. Outstanding. O thank you, father, prevet. A jesuit mades progress in bringing justice to el salvador. Later, when i went to congress, i everthe first speeches made there, first was about elsalvadorhen about and we needed temporary protected status which we got and now they want to take it away. Again, our values have connected time. A long i had invited you here to talk tax g. O. P. Tax scam. Im very honored to be joined by colleague from up north, mike who is a leader so we are copresenting to you today. Is a member of the ways and Means Committee. Well hear more about that when i bring him on. I just want to first place us in time. Here we are on Martin Luther king weekend. One year ago, many of us came to protecttermined the Affordable Care act. Workinghed our campaign with indivisible and many of the the affordablect care act. Quoting dr. King, of all forms of injustice, the inequality of healthcare is most inhuman because people can die, he said. Using him as an inspiration, we the Affordable Care act. Theyve damaged it but we have we will continue to improve it so i thank you for all that you did because our maneuvering was important. The outside mobilization was made all the difference, inspired by dr. King. Here we are again, one year later, seems like yesterday in some ways it seems like a very long time. One year later, again inspired remarksing and his about equality and justice and Economic Justice and really saying that that he didnt intended tot was have a society, a country, where in excessive, excessive wealth while others in abject poverty. Thats what he said. Equality is what our fight is about in this tax bill. Few wordst to say a about let me just say this first because as we gather kingher on Martin Luther vilewe cannot ignore the statement made by the 45th president of the United States. His vile and racist words are ears,ringing in our ringing in the ears of people throughout the world. Disrespect for people brings tears to our eyes. Voice tost give opposition to such attitudes, thecially expressed by president of the United States. His vulgarity and vile beliefs every american and requires our immediate action and has never been more important than for us to protect our dreamers because thats in the context in which he made that statement. Dream actining the way. He i know. This for onewith moment, though. Our Congressional Black Caucus been very much involved in the discussion on immigration, and you know why, made hisesident statement, they will be having a censure which we will all be joining as soon as we go d. C. To [applause] pelosi that he would statement, first he denied he did it and then that he did it and it wasnt vulgar. Really . Enough about him. Because the fact is, what were here to talk about, this g. O. P. Tax scam, is the work of the republicans in congress. The work of the republicans in congress. And this is i just want you to remember a few things before i bring on our distinguished member of the ways and Means Committee, the committee of that. Iction on remember this. Benefits of the bill our country. 1 in 83 , top 1 . 86 million middle class families increase. Tax 1. 5 approaching 1. 5 trillion in tax cuts go to Corporate America in addition to 1 . Goes to the top deficit inrease the the two trillion dollar range. In other words, were borrowing tax cuts to the rich and to Corporate America talking about Corporate America, in addition to that, ax provisions that give benefit to them to create jobs overseas rather than in the u. S. Total horrible thing. People say, well, theres a tax break for some middle class the beginning. Yes, there is. And the cartoonists have it just right. Saw one that had a mouse trap said middle class. The mouse had a little crumb they were getting and the fat there waiting for the mouse to take the little crumb so we cannot be misled. A complicated situation and they will spend millions of are,rs, already misrepresenting to the public middle class tax cut. Imagine robbing from our childrens future to give tax wealthiest, increasing the estate tax it any sense. T make president kennedy said to gven choose. People say democrats are about taxing and spending. How you invest into the future are the choices. Govern is to choose. Ill close by saying this. Republicans have already said in congress have already said that they created this bigtax deficit, know, theyre budget hawks, deficit hawks. Theyve either become endangered or extinct because they dont care about the deficit. Theyve proven that, but what purpose it serves for them to have this big deficit is an medicare andafter medicaid and other opportunities our childrensin future. So a budget should be a our national days, what we value as a country in how wereflected invest our resources. About. Not what this is and the budget they already said, were not going to do a budget because they dont want world to know the damage they will do on one piece of paper. Theyll just do it regularly. Our colleague will talk about specifics ofsks it. The g. O. P. Tax scam is very to california and they did that intentionally. Are so many other things. They announced theyll eliminate Community Reinvestment act that insist that banks invest in the community in way that advantages lower income people. This is a plan, a design that must be stopped. Way we want to stop it is by youve heard repeal and replace when they talked about the healthcare bill. Want to replace and repeal replace them and repeal this bill. Very honored all of our springs from the stories and the reality of the impact on what they are doing, whether it the rest. Care and and some stories we will hear from elena ford, the mother of gideon, 4 years old, lila, 7 years old. She will tell her story about her son, gideon, who was when he was 6 months old with west syndrome. Someove to brag about her more but i want you to hear from her and that time to be used there. Connie ford,from she was instrumental in founding San Franciscos branch of jobs justice, a coalition of labor unions and Community Organizations dedicated to expanding Economic Justice for all workers. Im so around this shes here piece of thatbor is very, very important. Hearing from a movement,n the labor tom oconnor. Tom currently serves as a Union President for San Franciscos firefighters. Is leading the nation in trying to detect and prevent firefighters. He will tell the story of how affects our First Responders and the rest. Up mym honored to bring cochair of todays event. He just came from his own event bay. E north congressman Mike Thompson is a champion of congress in so many ways. He has as youve seen him recently, very prominently, coming to the aid of the people in his district and beyond in fires in the north bay. He also is the chair of our task on gunn the congress safety, gun violence prevention. Hes a veteran. Hes a gun owner. Hes a hunter, and he knows full well how to protect the american gun violence. He has led the way in the debate, as our republican colleagues have chosen to ignore, newtown, ignore, las vegas, ignore, texas, ignore all of these terrible situations. Ownbecause of his experience as a veteran, he gun and knowsse a that hunting is not something reason why wes no shouldnt have sensible, commonsense legislation on gun violence. I point that out because this is very major issue in our country. The same time, is a member of and Means Committee and champion for americas workers place, champion for california. Please welcome my colleague, friend of San Francisco, Mike Thompson. [applause] Mike Thompson thank you, leader pelosi. Were for a clean dream act. We have been for it and nancy pelosi has been the leader in that regard from before there a gremac, so. Pelosi forleader inviting me to your event and thank you for everything you do. To comeays a pleasure to San Francisco to nancys exudest because she just about all of you district. You couldnt have a better person representing you. It. Knows it and loves the truth is, every time she comes to my district, she cares about our country. She cares about the people in our country. So, nancy, thank you for taking on. I was asked to tell you a little bit about the tax bill from my perspective and my role in. Ongress, anda member of the ways Means Committee, the tax writing committee, the committee charged with the responsibility for tax laws and i want to be up front with you right away. That committee did not participate in the writing of this bill. Guess i can say it at a Catholic University bastardization of the process. It was terrible. The bill was written someplace than the committee. It was written without the benefit of the input of a single democrat. Was written without one hearing, not one hearing on a bill thats going to touch the lives of every american for, if history is any indication, 25 or 30the next years. Replaces unless we and repeal. We didnt hear from one Expert Witness and thats important to note because since the passage of this bill, ive met with a number of tax experts from across the country. Everybodye thing that tells me consistently is, nobody really knows what the full is. Ct of this bill theyre still looking over things. Still a lot to learn. They dont know what the are orded consequences the intended consequences. A major pieceer of legislation is passed, shortly thereafter a cleanup passed to straighten out technical changes and to fix things. The experts tell me there are a number of things in this bill they dont think they can fix and there are a number of things they fix,believe if it will make things worse so i dont think weve seen all of mess that is before us. But i want to just point out some of the things we know. That it was a bait and switch. For the entire time since this guy was elected president , weve heard from the republicans in they weress that going to do tax reform. They werent going to do a tax cut. Were going to do tax reform. Tax policy so it better treats the taxpayers of addresses ournd priorities. We were told from the president himself that it wasnt going to help wealthy people. Well, for starters, they lowered bracket from 39. 6 to 37 . Wealthy people. In addition to that, they on the the exemption estate tax so now the first 22 inherit, andyou id ask for a show of hands but i dont think there are us here who will inherit 22 million. 22 million is system som the tax that helps rich people. Middle class. P they told us it was going to be a middle class tax bill. Not. Notwithstanding the fact that receive class will some of the middle class will receive some benefit in the front end, on the front end of this bill, those provisions all expire. Out, and the corporate stuff stays in. So thats, again, a bait and switch. It would be told made so simple that you could do postcard. On a ever since that bill passed the house, known on that side of the aisle has talked about a postcard because this bill has made things more complicated. My accountant has called me that hethdraw advice had given me the last time he called. Its just very, very confusing. The leader said, 83 of the tax cut will go to the top 1 of the people and nine million taxpayers are going to see an increase right away 2027, as i mentioned, when the personal stuff, individual stuff phases 60 of taxpayers will see a increase. Thats why i say its a bait and switch. Theyve told the American People one thing. Passed a bill that did something else. And i think particularly egregious is the fact that they borrowed money from our children and grandchildren, their children and order to pay, in for this. Its going to add to the debt 2. 3 trillion, thats trillion, with a t, and it could get higher. The actual immediate number is 1. 49 trillion but the 2. 3 trillion comes in when you factor in the interest paid on debt. Thats at todays Interest Rates and we all know that the Interest Rates are set to go up three more times this year so it could actually be higher than that. And i think its always for tax cutspay with borrowed money. Wes not something that should be doing. I also want to mention that for those of white house live in highcost states , and we one in california, this takes a hit at us. Y hard it does two things that are important to note. It changes the rate at which you can detect your mortgage Interest Rates, it lowers the amount. And in a highcost state, that disadvantages us. Much you canhow deduct in regard to your state 10,ocal taxes and its 000 cap on that. That hurts us. Its particularly egregious already a state that sends more money to washington than we get back and will exacerbate this. Youre going to hear from one of to speakers how thats going hurt a particular service that and i can telln you thats absolutely true. Its going to hurt everything be less moneywill for the state to do the things they need to do and the state services we, as taxpayers, want and need. That means there will be less fire, forpolice, for transportation, or for any other service that you get. Ve we should weve seen this movie before. Ends. W how it in 2001, we saw it with the bush tax cuts. Borrowed money to give a largelythat benefited the richest people in the country. Again in 2003, they borrowed a tax cut to the majority of the recipients were folks. We know what happened after. That we had the worst reception that weve ever had in the our country. We were baby steps away from a depression. Us all greatly. Then we had to come back and the leaders, then Speaker Pelosis leadership, with president obama, were able to save the country from a depression and lo and behold when theres an worstncy such as the recession weve ever seen, youve got to spend money to fix it, just like if you have a household emergency. If the roof blows off, you have to spend money to fix it. To invest money in our country to save us from going into a depression. Added money to the national debt. What theubmit thats National Debts for, if theres an emergency, not for when are going well, the best stock market weve had ever and were going to give money back who are quite capable of taking care of things themselves. So it was its the wrong time. And now the republican well, now thes, debts too big and were going atneed to come back and look all the, quote unquote, Entitlement Programs to make cuts. When they say Entitlement Programs, this is what they mean. Mean programs that youre entitled to. Thats what an Entitlement Program is. To,rams youre entitled such as Social Security, insurance you bought. Medicare, healthcare coverage that you bought. Benefits thatits, veterans signed up for, benefits were part of the deal. Now, they want to come back and look at programs such as that. Veterans benefits, Social Security, and medicare to, make cuts. Its not right, and we need to replace so we can repeal this policy thats tax fair and equitable. And then, worst thing about this in my view, the is it was at thing, huge missed opportunity. We had a chance to reform the process from the middle class out, address thashs working families are facing, make an investment in the middle class that is going to balloon and help everybody else, help our entire economy. Was missed, notwithstanding the false promises, notwithstanding the bait. We missed that opportunity. We were not able to do it. Did in order to get a cheap or expensive political do a tax cut, not tax reform. Cut that benefits corporations and the richest people in this country and it was wrong. To turn it over to tom oconnor from the firefighters the leader doing so, mentioned i came from my own event. Inwas a town hall meeting santa rosa with the victims of bay and in the north theres a big lift up there to get things going. Theres some 8,000 homes that be replaced. People are still living in motels and on friends couches. Have a lot of work to do. But i can tell you, if it werent for the First Responders, in particular, the firefighters, who came out and and here heroroes it would have been a lot worse. Aid from other states was phenomenal. Your shopd women in did a fantastic job. I want to thank you for it from of my heart. [applause] mr. Oconnor good afternoon, im proud to serve as the president of the San Francisco over 1500 of the most dedicated, professional, hardest working firefighters, best in the nation in San Francisco and i couldnt be prouder and i couldnt be prouder to be a member of the in california. Weve witnessed terrible tragedies in santa rosa, napa, eclipsedave this fire fire, andta barbara are kneers and sisters deep trying to find one more survivor in montecito and i be prouder to stand here with people like leader pelosi to tell you the absolute truth about this recently passed republican tax scam, a scam that have a devastating impact on california firefighters and millions of californians. This plan is a disaster for the fire service and our just inters not california but across the nation departments like mine are funded by local taxes. This elimination of the state and local Tax Deduction will have a devastating impact on local governments. Theyll be forced to either raise taxes, cut services or do both. This impact will be absolutely devastating. As he was trying to pass this tax scam, President Trump went out of his way to seek photoop after photoop with firefighters and tell us it was a tax cut for middle class families. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is not a tax cut for the middle class. Real middle class americans, people like myself and my fellow firefighters, count on the state and local Tax Deduction not only to provide for you, but make ends meet at home, as we sit around the Kitchen Table trying to Balance School costs, braces, groceries, et cetera, this tax writeoff helps middle class families. Now thats gone, gone in the blue states like california and new jersey and new york, donor more in taxesy and send them back to washington more,other states take in mosttates that provide the for their citizens will be hurt the most by this tax plan. I want to tell you that california firefighters are put ourday and night to lives on the line to protect lives and property in california and we dont ask for much but this tax plan will cut into the very funding and resources we need to do our jobs and make meet for our families so on behalf of the 1500 men and women the San Francisco Firefighters Local 798, i want not be you that we will used as political pawns in a to benefit tax scam the rich and corporations and top 1 of this nation. Is true tax relief and support for middle class families and what we need to protect the state and local Tax Deduction for firefighters and is the hard workers work and dedication that people pelosi who stand and fight for to pry try to preserve the American Dream. Thank you. [applause] leader pelosi now we know why to firefighters and First Responders as the nobility of our community. Thank you, mr. President of the union. My pleasure to present of lila and mother gideon, and her personal story has helped stories like hers have helped healthcare its the bill or unfairness of this. This is gideon. Gideon and lila elanna. R mom, thank you very much, leader pelosi. Ass pouring rain on tuesday i weave my way through the San Francisco. I sing along to root to distract myself from the dread that fills towards thes i head building that brought my son into the world and try to take baby. Ck when he was a the building that was our home for months, driving a wrecking fragileough my already family. My name is elaina and im a bay native. Im hear to tell you about my son, gideon. Old, it he wasonths diagnosed with west syndrome, a infantile epilepsy with a terrifying prognosis. It is known in the literature as catastrophic diagnosis. Seven brainndergone surgeries as we struggled to remedy his seizures and the ramifications of injuries sustained during his first procedure. Like many families of children with epilepsy, we were forced to two evils n ongoing seizures or a combination of disabilities. I used to jokingly refer to gideon as a Million Dollar baby its not longer very funny. With all of the changes lately, nothing scares me more than the risks to the Healthcare System that keep him to they providing access team of specialists that manage care. Not for the benefits, could notaiver, we afford for gideon to see his doctors or the multiple everyncy room visits year. We could not afford the admissions. His primary insurance is not meet his needs, especially this year now that his father had to get a new job only offers very basically insurance. It is difficult for me to wrap head around the details of the tax bill but the facts as i see them are that, one, this plan creates over 1. 5 trillion in tax breaks for large the ultrans and wealthy. Two, congress should not be level ofo take on this deficit into the federal budget cuts. X so three, congress will need to make cuts to other programs to the budget. Speaker ryan, even after setting lastights on medicaid year, was explicit that he would socalledo target entitlements to achieve this. Im here because this tax bill is a direct threat to gideons life. These issues should not be about or blue, left or right, elephants or donkeys or any of nonsense. This is about human life, my sons life, the lives of tens of of americans like him, the disabled, the medically fragile. They are not the other. We must not allow them to be damage to Economic Policy that has proven time and statedain to meet its objectives. We are not the burden of the American People. People. He american whats important to understand that our story, though poignant, is not an exception to a swept under the rug as special circumstance in discussions about policy. There are many people like area, in the bay throughout california and the United States. We dont want special treatment. Away whatant to take rightfully belongs to others. Although we will not have the of life free from disease, we dont want my son and others like him to be deprived of their toil rights, Access Healthcare so they have the freedom to pursue their dreams. The answers but it is my profound hope that we, as a society, can strive for not threatens do to take the right to life away from anyone. Not too late. My American Dream is still alive. [applause] Speaker Pelosi thank you so much. Said. Ore needs to be before gideon leaves, i want to thank lylea. Throughout the country and in d. C. On many occasions we have our little lobbyists who come to lobby against cuts in medicaid and the rest and seeing the care siblings take of their little brother, in this case, gideon. Thank lila. [applause] andk you, lyle agideon elaina. We will introduce another ford, connie ford, to the podium, member of organized labor in our community, speak about the threat to workers in our country by this legislation. Thank you, connie, for your leadership, as well. You, leader pelosi for holding this very important and for inviting us. I am connie ford. Toanted to take a second tell you im a former opeiu,ry treasurer of Vice President of the San Francisco labor council, for not bef you who might aware. We try to bring the Labor Movement in San Francisco, over 100 unions together, to form policies and initiatives to help about 85,000 working people. I want to mention a few important people in this room today. Have our secretary treasurer, olga miranda, here from the labor council. I also want to mention the this, im mentioning dont know if you know this. But u. S. F. Is a union shop from bottom to the top, from the bottom to the top from the top bottom. Represent 200 professional administrators and the janitors and every part of for this university, so thank you, u. S. F. , for being good union shop. Opeiu is here, ofalie nailor, director representation and those who do the hard work of helping this run smoothly and getting respect for the workers, its gina alvarez. Gina. You, so let me just be clear and everybody on this panel because they took speech so im almost done here. But it is a hoax. This tax plan is a hoax and travesty for all of us and i must be a little bit older than you, representative thompson, because i was going to go back and say weve heard this all before. It in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan said. The george it in bush days and were hearing it again. That we give corporations and the 1 massive tax cuts and it will trickle down for us. Trickle down word, for us. It will trickle down in the 1980s and its always been a mistruth is the nicest way to say that and its never been going to so were not fall for it again. I just want to emphasize a few beens that have already said that shows the travesty of it. One is that yes, the corporations and 1 are getting a huge tax break. This information. Theyre also getting, on a level, this estate tax, which is horrific. , raises it to the the representative told us today and its doubling it. Account, 2. 3 trillion of the deficit, 4 billion will lost because of the people tax,re using the estate the 22 million taxfree money know how manyou people that affects in our country . Know how many people . Its less than 5,000. The wholecountry, country, are getting a 4 billion tax break and what are we getting . My taxes are staying flat and i might be getting 70 over this whole year and most of my at it and ifooking the highetting 700, amount, over the whole year, theyre shocked by that. But guess whos really getting taxes cut here . Guess whos really getting it . Its the corporations, the and multinational corporations. Rates are their tax and you all know this the tax 21 . Of 39 was down to thats the lowest tax rate for corporations since 1939. We are going backwards in terms of income and wealth and wage inequality here. 15 or 20 other tax giveaways but i want to bring particular that just wants to make your stomach stern. Turn. Tax bill cutsis services for the average worker jobs, kill the economy and the one prominent example of this is astuteng that many economists are calling putting america last policy and what that is the profit corporations will have to pay that they made for their industry. The United States, as i just said, its going to be 21 . If you offshore your business, if you take it away, if you take it anywhere, its only going to taxed to 10 . So its encouraging all of the corporations, multinational corporations that have already tot, its not going encourage people to come back but to move on. Theres always theres always theres morehere money for the rich and the 1 in enough tons and its make working people like all of us, you know, ashamed, and were tired. I dont know about you, but were tired of giving these big giveaways to the corporations and the rest. We want a budget that reflects our values, as the leader said. We want a budget that addresses pensions, that protects the dreamers and the t. S. P. People. In that budget so that we can help the puerto ricans. I read yesterday that after the travesty in puerto rico, 15 of those people still do not have electricity. Are the resources to help puerto rico and other parts of the country . Its not there. Need money for healthcare, as newfound sister, ms. Ford, has so eloquently said. Its not that hard to figure out what kind of budget we want. There are three main points we, in labor, talk about. Wall street and the wealthy must pay their fair share, tax reform additional revenue must go to jobs, good jobs, that helps our infrastructure, that helps building our schools, that helps build our healthcare. The that we need. And the last one, tax reform all tax eliminate incentives for corporations that are working abroad. Some of thel of information, how its really hurting people, its taking away not providing any kind of income that we all need and want and deserve. Is not a doom and gloom kind of situation. Just want to tell you. I dont know, leader, it would be really fun to hear some of the stories. When this tax bill was being presented and worked on by the republicans for the hearings, ofth no course, the capitol was like filled with people. Filled with masses of people, seniors and working people and disabled people and they were all shouting to their highest levels, listen to us, us. Ect it went to tone deaf ears but told directly to those republicans that they have to listen and more importantly or just as important in california whoe we have republicans are representing their districts in orangetral valley, county and in san diego, those republican offices were also the sameth people, folks who were saying you have to listen to us so that organizing that effort, that group of folks which is the majority of us people, are going to can only do one thing in order to really change that. You all probably know what it is. You all probably know what it is. Is the mechanism to change the dynamics and the in d. C. Is to change who controls the congress. [applause] our leaders talk about this all the time but we can do it. We can actually change the congress toves in represent our values and in california, where we have eight nine districts in the Central Valley, as i said, and in orange san diego, we are going to target them, we are going to call them. And i know if youre like me, youre a san franciscan and think terlock is in hinterland weree its so far but going to be scheduling buses from San Francisco to go to districts in the Central Valley, knock those doors because those residents there from usbe told and hear of what the truth really is and the truth is that their Congress Person is their congressman is not representing their interests. That is how we are going to change the direction of congress. Thank you. [applause] i just want to close by quoting one of my favorite civil leaders several rights thatday who said yesterday we must put checks and balances on trumps powers and policies. He was referring to trumps racist remarks yesterday but im sure he would agree with the tax plan as well. The best way to do this is to change the makeup of the congress. We need to turn our outrage into organizing, protesting, and mobilization. I hope you all will join us as we go out to the Central Valley and we in california make a difference and start to help the leader become our next speaker in the house of representatives. Thank you. [applause] connie. You very much, the conclusion of connies remarks will be the subject of another meeting we will have when we talk politics, but it is important for people to have the elective officials know the public will hold us all accountable in terms of how we act in issues that relate to their lot their jobs and lives and that people remember when the time comes. What my colleague thompson had to say about the unfairness of the legislation, in addition to that in terms of the deficit, suppose it had said, were going to go 1 trillion into debt and spending on infrastructure, creating good paying jobs across america. Terms of the maintenance is not there. The society of Civil Engineers said transportation, bridges, roads, a highspeed rail. , just thinkroadband of the jobs it would create all over america. And we would be left with jobs that would reduce the deficit. Instead, they decided to do what they always do, place the money where it benefits the wealthy. Want exploitation of our workers or our childrens futures. We could have come together in a bipartisan way, transparently and openly, in a way that would unify the country to say how do and generategrowth good paying jobs and reduce the deficit and invest in the future. It was a missed opportunity, as he said. Where very proud of what tom oconnor had to say. Of delivery of services and what it means in the lives of our First Responders. There are so many veterans in california who are affected by this. They are trying to privatize the veterans administration. It is up paul lang it is an appalling plan that they have to turn us into a permanent photography. Tocracy. This whole thing about taking away the mandate and the health care bill, 13 Million People losing health care, and then on yourf that, saying, spend money on the wealthiest people in america but we are going to make it up by going after medicare and medicaid and Social Security. Imagine this. One of the arguments that is there is had we pay for it . For,hilean dollars i paid but we have to pay for childrens health. Dollars must be paid for, but we have to pay for childrens health. Really . Connie talks about the unfairness of it all. It is impossible to go completely into the bill, but could we have had better representation . [applause] when a lady was speaking i was thinking about dr. King when legislation, the ballot, the ballot, the ballot. We have to show people the voting,on between legislation, and their lives. The ramifications and the legislation that makes a difference in peoples lives. That is the purpose of today, to show people what it means in their lives. I would like to have some questions about the tax bill and then we can open up to any subject that you would like. , thee course of this battle of the budget into the next year as well as how that passing the clean tree and act. Dream did jury act. Which we did. How are we going to turn around their strategy . Pelosi we are having these across the country today and they will continue. Next week there is a march and some people will be showing up. We will continue relentlessly until tax day. We have to have a nokia related inoculatednst people against what they are saying. They are not telling the truth about it. Teachingnot about us but this has to be a relentless story that is told not necessarily by publications, but with people whose lives are affected by it. On another occasion, we will talk about how we connected directly to the republicans. In california, people for the voted in california. Mr. Thompson, do you have something to say . Thompson a lot of the people you are talking about are already hearing the voices of people across the country. A number of highranking republican colleagues of ours have already announced they are not going to run for reelection and there has been a lot of people, especially in southern at thenia, rallying offices of those republicans. They see the writing on the wall , that coupled with the incredible candidates that have come out to run in the Midterm Elections, i think the message is getting out there and the grassroots are delivering the message well. Pelosi just yesterday we kicked this often southern california. Ith the members of congress the polling right now this week them the bill 55 of oppose the bill, 33 supported. I didnt know 33 of the public was so wealthy. But nonetheless, we will be sure they know what it means to them in their lives. This is not about democrats or republicans. It is about the middle class. Connie . I want to mention that information is the key. Last night it was watching tv and i happen to list listen a fox news castor newscaster who was bragging about corporations. Three or four or five corporations in the background, but i happen to know about two of them in particular. One of them is at t. Taxes. Nothing to do with andunion was under contract last you they gave them a 1000 bonus. In the meantime, at t this month is laying off 400,000 American Workers here, 215 in california. That is the kind of information that people need. I could go on and on. Contact the labor console counsel. We will be doing that in late spring. Now that theres been several announcements by republicans saying they are retiring, is there a strategy or any thought having been given to prevent them from engaging in scorched earth activities . In other words, taking advantage of the fact that, i am out of here, so now i can do whatever i mess with as many people i want for the rest of this year, because i am not going to run again. Is there anything to be able to keep certain people in particular from burning the rest of the barn down . Questiono a larger believem individuals, i the republicans understand the writing on the wall in terms of and they are taking down the art, the roads, they are going to do every bad thing they can think of, undermine the Affordable Care act, give tax breaks to the rich, the list goes on and on. Now you see what i mentioned earlier, that they are going to and reading to diversity. They are doing all these bad things. These teachings will constantly put the spotlight on them because they have to know that people know what they are doing. They are doing what they believe. Summary people have said to me, why dont the republicans know what trump is like. There is nothing that trump has done, guns, immigration, climate change, nothing he has said or done that they have not done longer and worse. [applause] pelosi this is about the individual members of congress. Perhaps we can set a date to come together soon to talk about that. Transparency and openness. The more people know, but again, you see that they voted for this bill, knowing how harmful it was. It is about money. Holding onto the fossil fuel industry and the gun industry and wall street and the rest. That is what they said. One of the things that was mentioned as a way where places like california could mitigate the tax bill is to convert the state income tax into a corporate payroll tax. Is that something that anyone is actually talking about . Thompson it is being talked about. There is also a provision that would allow you to make your property taxes payable through a charity contribution. There is legislation that has been drawn up, i think the mortgage part is not even introduced in the state legislature, i do not know where it is going to go. I do not know what the republicans will do if it were to be passed, but i know that california is looking at it, new jersey, new york. I met with the law professor who did the staff work on this, who wrote the bill, and there are three Southern States who are looking at it as well. So it could turn out to be a pretty embarrassing move against the republican party. There is a quandary. They are at home talking about how great this is and how middleclass is going to see all this money. To have to come back right away and make changes because states react in a way that indicates that it is not good for states, could be a very thing. I do not know where it ends but yes, it is being talked about and introduced in estate legislators as we speak. Question . You have a many court a cases, state rights against federal rights . Thompson i think the question is is very legal avenue to pursue because it is double taxation. What new york is doing. I do not know whether california is. But new york is doing states rights against federal rights. Thompson im sure lawsuits will be filed. The big issue is the double taxation. What happens now if this were allowed to go through, we would be paying twice for our services. I have been really proud to be part of our groups and labor groups and able to tell people the truth about this tax bill. As we get out there and do this and try to navigate a better way forward, it would be helpful for us to have a more coherent message in addition to the negative message, particularly around shifting the balance of taxation to being favorable to making income idly through talk through stocks to people who work. If you can talk about that and share plans if you are working on a plan, anything like that would be very helpful. Thank you. Pelosi we want to have a tax plan, a real reform that it is that is about creating growth and creating good paying jobs in investing in the future. That in a bipartisan way with transparency and a unifying way for our country. There is a better way to do this. Is betterbetter way jobs, and a pay, better future. Among those provisions are ones abilityect workers and to have collective bargaining. Is how the bill affects different states on the rest, but you are right, it has to be a positive message. What is important to me and the teachings is to hear what resonates the best with the public. It does not mean we change our values. It means we tailor our words and prioritize the message and making it so saint. Suspenctme of us succinct. I know some of artists some of us want to just build on the democratic message. Is to buildlearned on each bill. When i heard from the group is that when you say the tax bill does this, and that is bad, but what is worse about it is what they will do because of the deficit. Medicaid, medicare, Social Security, aca. Positiveot the message. The positive message is the better way to do this. As mr. Thompson said, a middleclass tax base tax break. Lets start here and not start with the trickledown which, as connie said, it has never worked. It has always increased the deficit. These teachings are saying, what do you think is the best positive message to put out there . Right there, to be able to take this down and roll out a more togetheragenda, put from the people delivering the message. We were not given an opportunity to participate in tax reform. Democrats came to the table ready to work. Under the last chairman, we force, aear in task Bipartisan Task force, examining different policy changes that could be made, with the idea that you would do tax reform in a way that the tax code would then promote growth in our economy from the middleclass out. We were not given that opportunity. They did this in a matter of a couple of weeks. We did not have a hearing on the bill. We do not have an Expert Witness come in on the bill. Democrats put forth a number of ideas and amendments to the code that would make things better and help the middle class and help grow the economy. Every one of them was turned down. They did not write the bill in secret, they wrote, rewrote, and rewrote the bill in secret. Then they rolled it out on the floor for the vote. Democrats have great ideas about how we can do this message. Had a list of amendments that we put forward that i think would make you proud. Ideas about how we can empower working people and middleclass wage earners to do what they do even better and in turn that would help our economy. And we could do it without growing the national debt. And nobody really mentioned this, and also kick 13 Million People off health care and make sure everybody elses health care is up 10 . This was truly a nasty, evil thing i have done. Pelosi i what happens with mr. Caps proposal in that way. They rejected their own chairmans proposal. Thompson you were talking about how they have their ideas and how terrible they are and what it does to blue areas. I just want to tell you one thing that happened to the tax bill when it left the house. The House Republicans wrote in if you had al that casualty loss, for instance, if 8000 homes in your district burned down, you could not use the tax code to recapture any of that loss. The chairman of the committee, the republican chairman is from texas. He wrote a provision in the bill that grandfathered in the texans who lost their homes in a hurricane. Connie i want to reply on what you said and i truly agree and i want to share that the Labor Movement at the National Lever national, state, and local level is spending a lot of time thinking about that. What the republicans are doing and also what the vision is and what is possible for the democrats. These are the discussions that are happening right now. Pelosi the senate loves the word deal. Is important. Better, bigger paychecks, lower costs for prescription drugs, things that you pay every month, lower the cost to taxpayers. People are being split it. Taxpayers and consumers are being exploited. Ours would be a better deal for women and veterans. There are different pieces to it. But it takes us eight months to have the house and Senate Working together in a positive way. We have many other issues that are part of our value system but this election has to be an economic message. We are calling hours a better deal to go forward. I want to say one other thing about california. One of the things we can do and say, wey will do is to are not accepting the repeal of the mandate. We are going to restore the mandate in california. [applause] so in addition to what was suggested about taking the taxes and deductions, we have that havegs we can do an impact on peoples lives. The lets Work Together on that, whatse some of you know works and resonates better than others. Select Stay Together on this. So let us Stay Together on this. We are concerned about the provision of the tax bill that provides for Many Americans who itemize their charitable living to be able to do that. We know it will put downward pressure on the nations, food banks, meals on basic Human Service providers. It is hard to see how this does not keep us from being able to help the people who need it the most. As you pointed out, the bloated deficit is going to give speaker ryan his stated intention to go after Entitlement Programs. We are very concerned that if he is successful, he is damaging the snack program, we will have a perfect storm of people coming to us who need help and we will be hobbled. How doprotect year we protect snap next year . Thompson there is so wrapped around the problems that the current president is creating, they are not going to be able to go after all of the cuts that they can this year. In november, we are going to change things in the house to make sure they cant do it next year. [applause] pelosi in terms of the allocation of resources for snap we are hoping that in our negotiations we can give the sources to the committee to address that. When we had the majority and we did the bill and new trade and increased the nutrition peas, in increased nutrition piece, in increased. But in the house, our colleagues say, if you and work, you eat. Adam in the garden grew food or something. [laughter] pelosi they think that medicaid is connected to snap and they are trying to diminish that connection. Cost will of the matthew gospel of matthew. But the second part of the people thaten the god is rejecting come before and say, when i was hungry, you did not feed me. When i was in prison, you did not visit me. So it is not just doing something positive and being rewarded for it, it is about rewarding the people of faith, we have to hold them accountable. People in need . Really. This is all hands on deck because it relates to one subject. Governance and responsibility in the community of people to each other. If you do not value that, really . If you work, you eat . Some of these people came from poor circumstances. I would like to know what is and targeto outreach the communities that do not have media or tv or internet. How can we really give them the message,the simple because many of the communities do not have a high level of areation, many politicians giving them the wrong information to those communities, and they believe the message that they get. How can we shift and change the message and speak the language to reach those communities all , so thatUnited States we can really change and shift the country . Thank you. Hoping that we are with speeches across the country , and we have been successful in this fight because of the grassroots organizations that have been out there conveying in a targeted way to communities, some of this will have to take a political approach. Thats not something we can talk about that much here today. But to the extent that there are validations, we talk about what it means in terms of food events and feeding people. Institutions of Higher Learning are affected by the same. We have had doctors come into our office saying, this is how it is going to affect people who are on medicare and medicaid. There are so many different pieces of it. Does notation of it necessarily come from politicians, it comes from Community People who say, this is what it means to our lives. That is what happened with the health care now. People just knew better than what was being told to them. This is more complicated because they did it in a rush. The speed of light in the dark of night. No information to the public so that they could just say anything. We have to counter that. Validators are not necessarily politicians. They are people who are trusted, whether it relates to housing, the Labor Movement, moms and lobbyists and the rest. Those are our best messengers. When, ind like to know 2018 when we win, when we win seats in both the house and senate, one of the first things i would think is important to do is for the country to see that there congress is going to honor all of the things we say we honor in terms of people participating, that we do not do Something Like not hold any hearings. That has to change. Because otherwise it is excluding everybody. Thompson the asa is aca is a good juxtaposition to what we did with health care. Fox news and all the critics say that nancy pelosi just jammed this through. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would argue if we had just jammed it through we would have avoided all of the august uproar that the fox news people created. We had hundreds of hearings and multiple committees. 173 how can we institutionalize so if the republicans win again, we go back thompson the roles of the house dominate. When leader pelosi was Speaker Pelosi, we but put back in place of a role that means you pay for something before you pass it. Wanted to do a tax bill trillion, but they could not meet that role. Won,on as the republicans the first thing they did in regard to rule is they expunged the tax part of the role. The cap the part about if you want to do a program they kept the part about if you want to make a war, pay for it. But if you want tax cuts for the wealthiest, you can add it to the debt. Pelosi i appreciate the question because we did things in a fair way. They criticized it. Theyre going to criticize us anyway. We will give you the opportunity for amendments, why would we want to cooperate with that . Especially with president obama who was very nonpartisan, they had to make it partisan here it as far as the future is concerned, we have to support and defend the constitution. Central to that constitution is a system of checks and balances. That is essential to our country having a democracy and the system of checks and balances says the legislative branch, the executive branch, the speaker of the house is a very powerful person. House, so tof the have transparency, bipartisanship, to unify the , there are plenty of things that we could do to Work Together for our country. What we have to do is brag about what we did more. Because they mischaracterize how we do things. And we can say, wait a minute, that you see . When i was speaker, we allow them to have free reign on the floor of the house. Took a majority, they shut that down. You can only speak this much at this time out and that is it. The Capitol Police were a point where theyll most arrested as. I dont fit you want to do that. [laughter] [applause] pelosi we have a higher standard and it is a bad and it is in the constitution. We need a better policy because people know better how they are affected and they will hold everybody accountable, whatever their party. Majority, minority, others who want to be in the loop. So thank you for that question. We are very proud of our record of what we have done. We did not brag about it enough. Bragging is a terrible thing but i guess somebody has to do it. Owner i and a Business Owner where we service over 400,000 families in the bay area. My issue is this. Promotedax bill really the whole, we are going to double the standard deduction. Married, 12,000 double to 24,000. What do we say . What happened to the personal exemption . When you take that, 4100 per person in a family, all they did was add another few thousand dollars on the Tax Deduction. They did not actually double it. They give you an extra 2000. I come from a mexicanamerican family and there are eight of us. When taking a personal exemption deduction on eight people, we are talking a nice deduction for a family of eight. The personal exemption is done. So when you are talking about middle americans, you are talking about my mother and father. So when you really think about the personal exemption, my mother and father, mexicanamerican families, immigrant families, who here belongs to a family of more than five people . You are going to be paying more in taxes. That is the key point. Aside from that i host a weekly radio show in spanish that broadcasts across northern california. , not only this issue am i talking to immigrant families, Spanish Speaking families, i am talking to anybody who will listen, how to really explain or answer. Today i took over 22 calls, answering the question, what am i going to do . Eight, i havef three undocumented members that do not have a valid Social Security number. Those people can be included on a tax filing. The sad story is that if a child aged 10 goes to school, knows nothing about politics or whatever, just wake up in the morning and go to school, from what i have read, the earned income credit, there is no credit or personal exemption. So my question is, what do i plusfamilies of the 4000 families we service, the radio listeners that colin . What do we listeners that call in . I am going to avoid coming into the light and go back into the shadows and go several years without filing taxes because i get no benefit. What do i tell them . Thompson that is a terrible thing as you know. And it focuses on latino families more so than anybody else. Maybe asian families in certain places. But clearly in california, latinos are the ones to take the brunt. There is a consistency in the administration to do just that. We saw it last week with the 7eleven business. We see it would be big thing in the district i represent. Local Law Enforcement has worked for years building a strong relationship between latino communities and the Police Community and now price comes in ice comes in. What is the prominent lettering on their jackets . Police. It has created Public Safety problems in our community. This administration will not listen to the calls for help from local police. So it goes with the territory with these guys. You have to tell your listeners who call that they need to do the legal thing, do their taxes, and that help is on the way. And we need to double down our efforts and fix these parts of the tax policy and a way that will help american families. Pelosi in the standpoint that many people are affected, thompson i told tom a few minutes ago, tell your people in the firefighter unions that although they cannot write off the cost of onduty meals anymore, we were able to make sure they kept their deduction for owning a personal jet. [laughter] thompson it is just another bad part of the bill. Pelosi it is the and switch. Bait and switch. Thompson the whole thing is. Every skin of the onion you pull back it becomes more apparent. We will give you a tax break but it will only last until 2027. The corporate stuff stays but personal stuff goes away. How many times have you heard that the middle class is going to do great in this unless you depend on your state and local Tax Deductions. So you might get a little bit of a benefit on one hand, but we are going to take it away on the other hand. A bait andsiness is switch. Pelosi let me say one other thing in this regard. We are learning from you. We have to have clarity in terms of how you it is just such a horrible thing. Personalay the reduction. And let me say this. They are going around now saying, were going to extend this middleclass tax cut. They cant. They are constrained by their bill. Mike theyre constrained by the amount of money they are allowed to spend on the bill. Overi it is going to turn to 2 trillion because of debt. The use the middle class is a source of funds to give tax breaks that are permanent by taking away the other part of the middle class tax cuts. Same thing, some of them are they areund saying going to change some things. They cant. It is the source of their money. To the thingsey they are saying. A lot of Little Things that make no sense from a tax perspective, but they did it because of the history the leader mentioned. They needed money. Take a little bit here and there trillion level49 and make the corporations hold permanently. Nancy pelosi i am so happy we spent so much time on the tax teaching part of this. But i want to bring you uptodate on where we are in negotiations with heaping government open and the immigration issues. Negotiations. N if there is never been one dreamer in our country, we would still have an issue about how we allocate resources. The interest of the republicans is to have a huge increase in defense spending. Lets see what that is. But not at the expense of investments and are to mastic side. The strength of our country is not domestic side. The strength of our country is not just measured in our military, but in our people. The domestic nondefense discretionary spending, one third of it is a security function. Security, state department, antiterrorism activity of the Justice Department very 34 of the domestic nondefense discretionary budget is the security function. So when you limit an opportunity for that function, you are limiting a big part of our security function. Parity in terms of ,ow much money each side gets it is about paying for it. They wont pay for the defense spending but we have to pay for chip. Really . And were not even finished on the chip negotiations. So that is what that part of it is. Additionally, and they want this big defense number, but they know that they have in their own somesome people rank people who do not want to spend as much money on the domestic side. So they need our votes. Ony did not meet our votes the continued resolution. They could shut down government because they did not eat our votes. Need our votes. Now we go forward in negotiation. We are still not out of place that says we can honor our sponsor abilities to the American People as we address our defense needs. See thewent to ourident in september, in ,irst conversation with him mind you he was put in office in january and our first meeting with him was in september. We said to him, he called is there to talk about a debt ceiling. And we said, any conversations that we have had to be predicated on whether we had shared values. One emergency challenge that we face right now is the state of the dreamers. The president was going to be lifting the protection for the dreamers. So we need to know that we have this share value otherwise, why are we talking to each other . He supports the dream act. He likes to call it daca. In any event, he said yes he supports it and wants to do a security thing. Months later, we went to the speaker and said, this is it, lets see what we can come to. We have a responsibility to resecure our border but we are not doing it to destroy the community that is there. , you see theater situation. Blackspanic caucus, the caucus, the congressional asianpacific caucus, we think that this should be leaned down. The senate has, with a good plan that can pass with 60 votes. Durbin has been a hero at a champion and the driving force of this. He is been in congress for 35 years. Half of his congressional life has been on daca. Inwas with the bill starting 2001. He has given his life to passing this. He has gone all these awards. He passed it in the house when i was speaker. A clean dream act. Now they have a plan to get 60 votes in the senate and it expects the protections that we must give our dreamers. So from our standpoint, by respecting that and hoping that would have some urgency, we are plainly saying, clean dream act. What you have to offer if you have something . When they offer something, it is not about negotiating, it is about additionally what they want to do in terms of technology at the border. We have to fight them on internal enforcement. That is not the border in our view. Dreamers do not want their opportunity to be harmful to their parents or other immigrants. I believe that this is so right and so may people have demonstrated the contributions they make to america. Every time i leave i say, thank you, thank you parents for bringing you here. So some of the things you will see this week begin to focus on the dream act and the opportunity the senate might have to introduce their bill and bring it to us. In a way that so honors our values as a country. Lifeblood ofthe america. The constant reconfiguration of america. Our founders, the beautiful constitution, they said, the seal of the United States says a new order for the ages. Generation would always take responsibility to make the future better for the next. It is called the American Dream. And everyone who came to our shores came with that hope and determination and optimism and courage to make the future better for their families. In doing so, these immigrants make america more american. None more so than our dreamers. So this today is not an issue, it is a value. Either sharing that value or discussing other things. I am optimistic that the cause of the public awareness, everyone is weighing in and calling, we have the vote. The votes are there. The dreamers and their friends have done a fabulous job of mobilization. Except we needn the speaker to give us a vote in congress. In regards to aca, and i feel for them because i have anything in there the works that we can grandfather into children who are now covered under aca as opposed to taking off the program . Nancy pelosi children are , itred in chip and medicaid is a huge number of kids. Having them on chip less than inosts some cases having them on eca here it so one way or another, were going to protect the children and their health. One in five children in america lives in poverty. They are hungry at night. If they have challenges just to anp them healthy, that is important value for our country. So one way or another emma we have to have the children one way or another, we have to help the children. Talking about the children is the best place to go. When you are talking about passing a clean train act, dream act, and Border Security pelosi i hate to be the wordr of bad news, one they do not like is diversity. Can you imagine . We think it is a strength in our country and we take pride in it. They want to get rid of diversity. Did was improve the situation for the people who are affected by diversity. There is no reason to accept anything. Now i think they should say that save that for another day. The president did say that when we went to see them. He said we want to do things at the border. 96 hours 48 while we were still in washington, then they are doing diversity visas and chain migration which we call family unification. They dont like the Word University the word diversity. They like the word chain. That is what we think. That is what passed. It is what they support. It is no reason we should be able to do that. [applause] youe is no reason except heard what he said. The fact is he made a commitment. How a president of the United States can say what he said. Is this ok with you . Is this ok with you . You have to reject that. Well see when we have our motion sensor. This man right here. [indiscernible] what are the dogs and cats that senator compton alluded to . I want to raise because [indiscernible] the home office, the loss of the deduction for a home office. My 60s, i am significantly i think it that, and is an issue that is i know it is an issue that disproportionally affects women. In the aftermath of the great recession, it is women who started home businesses at a higher rate than men. It is devastating for middleclass and uppermiddleclass and highly educated people. And lower middle class folks and people who are struggling at all socioeconomic levels. I will like to hear some discussion of that loss, the loss of that deduction and what could be done. I am not sure they did on the home deduction. It is gone. Rep. Pelosi i dont have it in any of our priorities but let me get back to you. I am dr. Ruth linden. I would be happy to hear from you on that issue. I will give you my card. Thank you very much. [indiscernible] we will get back to you on that. Anything that is gone is to enable them to get a tax break to the rich. That is the strategy of it. Hi. Assess. H indivisible you asked if this is ok with you . The question to ask republicans. I want to encourage democrats to be able to say, this is not ok. This is a different framing. Instead of always being on the heels, i want my Democratic Leaders to speak up and speak loudly when there is something that they need to defend against. I am just encouraging all of you guys to have a lot of voice, to be a little more concise with your messaging, so that you support the rest of us. Rep. Pelosi i appreciate that. Let me say this. We are trying to get the dreamers protected, so a lot of people are pulling their punches on one thing or another to get these dreamers protected. After that, it is no holds barred. Let me just say, because [applause] lead onosi we take our hispanic, Asian Pacific americans, they have been very vocal, but the fact is, our goal is for the door to close at night for our jim risch and they go to sleep for our dreamers and they go to sleep and no that no one will be knocking on the door to take their parents out. That is what we have to do. Under the lists of grievances we have for the administration is so vast but the fact is, the furtherance of protecting the dreamers. That is our purpose. Again, these issues that relate to the economy, individual liberty, the air in the kids , talks, the fact is about regulation. Then word means protection. It ticks with protection for it takes away protection for clean air, clean water. List. S a long it is a lot for the public to grasp. Budgetus is on having a that i just us the need of the American People that leaves our leverage there to protect the dreamers. I will think as we get past this period, we are in the election season that you are going to see lack of enthusiasm from differentiating. Like,of times, people are why dont you go see the republicans and tell them. They have the majority of the moment. Tell them. Risesg is really above a lot of things in that the republican president has said something so distasteful the world, to any person who has a feeling about humanity, and they are saying what . Disappointing. Did he really say it . Maybe one last question. Thanks. First of all, i think it is shameful that you would agree to militarize the border in exchange for protecting dreamers. We are not military as an the border. Happened under bill clinton and it led to the death of thousands of immigrants who were forced to cross into more dangerous circumstances in the desert in arizona. You know, i think it is shameful. What i really wanted to say though is the idea that we are going to put all our eggs in the basket of the 2018 Midterm Election is seriously delusional. Does nothing about the executive power that trump has an continuing to use, threatening the whole world with nuclear weapons, right . Plundering our ecosystem now opening up our coastline. Accepting the fact that we are going to have a White Supremacists and power for four years and nancy pelosi has said impeachment is off the table. My question to you, nancy withi, is are you ok having a White Supremacists in office four years . My the question is are you ok with trump incinerating the country of north korea which he has threatened to do. Even the same socalled wiseman, the generals have said there is a 50 chance of nuclear war. I like those odds. I dont like those odds. This nightmare has to end and it is on us picked we cannot wait for election. We cannot wait for 2020. Nancy power,losi balance of separation of power, elections accomplish that. Ask question. Next question. Woman had a question. Verywill phone that was a i will follow that with a very technical western. I am curious if you know the passthrough that the affects of the tax bill that i believe favor passthrough business meities, because it seems to that those people are mostly small and middle size Business Owners, doctors, lawyers, professionals, people who might have considered themselves a part of the middle class, but that does there getting some sort of favorable tax treatment, that may be a wedge issue to widen the gap of inequality. I dont know that part of the economy seems very private equity, difficult to get your hands around not so much on publicly traded corporations. If you know how big that sector is and how the tax bill will affect that. About has toalk income about passthrough income, it is individuals with other money coming in from outsides , businesses and it is taxed at your individual tax rate. So it passes through you as an individual. The way that tax bill change that is that it allows you to take percentage off the top of the passthrough amount and deduct that from calculations. You will only pay your income, your passthrough income, on the amount that is left. Vineyard and you sell your grapes, to make it real personal. And the money that you would get from the one great of selling your grapes the wine rate of selling your grapes, you would take 20 and you would only pay tax on the remaining amount. There is a benefit to folks who have who calculate part of their income as a passthrough. On a heads up on this thing, there is some who is suggesting that the state come back because the state is good to lose a lot of revenue on the overall tax bill, but does the state look at the lost income, or the gain in income that individuals who use the passthrough are going to get and try to take a piece of that. It may be a benefit to some. Six to some. It could end up in a greater state tax liability. Rep. Pelosi from what i am hearing here today, we learned a lot from you. Thank you. I think what i also heard earlier on his we need to come together under a political hospices so we can talk about how we translate our disagreements on policy and to a political solution and we will set a time to do that. In the meantime, i thank you all very much for coming. You have been here a long time. Think to to thank dr. King. I want to be a specific quoting what he said, god never intended for a one group of people to live superfluous while others live in abject poverty. That is what unifies our caucus. Our values keep us unified. We have in terms of the technicality exchange some ideas, learned a lot. Secondly, again i hope to see some of you at activities for Martin Luther king. Later, the breakfast and in the Interfaith Service later in the day. I will be there for that. And then go to d. C. To resume our negotiations. He couldnt be with us. Think all of you for coming and for what you do. From use hearing soon on how we can come together and we can go down a path and how to make a difference. It makes a difference in the election or leasehold people accountable. Or at least hold people accountable. Let us thank our panel. [cheering and applause] thank you for sharing your story, your personal story, with us. Connie, thank you. , thank youconnor for being the nobility of our Community Saving lives. Mr. Thompson, we are so blessed to have you. [applause] rep. Pelosi thank all of you. [applause] [crowd noise] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] congress is back in session tomorrow. The shutdown deadline is friday. The Senate Resumes at new for speeches. Later in the week, the bill extending government funding comes up and an abortion bill. Reauthorizingder nsa surveillance programs and they work on keeping the government open. When congress is back in session, watch the house live on cspan and the senate live on cspan2. To find out more about the week ahead, we talked to a report on capitol hill. Isjoining us on the phone Christina Marcos of the hill, walk us through what will happen over the next few days. As of right now, congress does not have a clear plan for how it will avert a shutdown. They wont support the spending bill unless there is progr