Mistaking that car for a giant carrot. It caused 6,000 in damages. Jon the car was parked next to the donkeys enclosure. The man could have picked a better parking spot. That does it for us today, americas news headquarters starts sandra awaiting the start of the White House Press briefing on this very busy day in washington. Hello, everyone. Im sandra smith. We expect fresh white house reaction on tax reform, healthcare and aid for hurricane ravaged puerto rico. We have live fox News Coverage for you. John roberts standing by at the white house. We begin with mike emanuel who is currently live on capitol hill. Mike, the framework is public now, so where do lawmakers go from here on tax reform . Reporter well, sandra, House Speaker paul ryan is among those out selling this tax proposal, saying it will help those who deserve it. Our plan lowers taxes for small family owned businesses. Middle class. Now were Learning Healthcare may also be back in the mix. John roberts is live on the north lawn. John, the white house is defending its Tax Reform Plan . Reporter they are. In terms of the volume of things coming out of here, it is a typical day at the white house. President said his Tax Reform Proposal is a give away to the rich. Tweeting this morning, quote, democrats dont want massive tax cuts. How does that Win Elections . Great review for tax cut and reform bill. Chuck shumer is critical of the president s plan for a couple of reasons, saying that because it eliminates the state and local deduction, people in high taxation states like new york state, like connecticut, like california, will actually be taxed twice and their taxes could also go up. The reason schumer is calling this a give away to the rich is that because the president would eliminate the estate tax and also eliminate the alternative minimum tax. You might remember that in that one snippet of President Trumps tax return that we saw, he paid
puerto rico expected to be a big one, too, right . Reporter it will be a big topic especially since there have been criticisms of the white houses response to whats happening in puerto rico. People saying its ineffective and unconscionably slow. But the white house is saying, look, were on an island there, were getting material in as fast as possible. Lot of the roads are blocked. We heard from the acting Dhs Secretary and Homeland Security adviser a little while ago outside the white house. They say theyre air lifting supplies. They got 10,000 federal workers there. 7200 are troops. Theyre trying to get as much material as they can into puerto rico as quickly as they can. Of course, the president this morning asked for a waiver ten days in length of the jones act, which would allow foreign flying vessels to take supplies from the United States into puerto rico. Thats prohibited by the jones act. I asked secretary about that earlier today, if that helps them hro gistically. She said, yes, it helps very much with resupply. Hopefully well see more getting into puerto rico. Getting from the ports to the areas where it is needed most. Sandra john, youre getting new information on Scott Pruitts flights. Reporter it all started with tom price and if the revelation that he spent 400,000 on private flights. Now people are talking about the Epa Administrator taking a number of noncommercial flights. A source tells me it was four flights in total. The only Charter Flight was one between denver, colorado and duragno. This was after the commercial flight on Aou Nighted Airlines that the administrator was booked on was delayed for eight hours and he would have missed this event in a mine had they not chartered the flight. Also asked the governor of colorado if they could jump on his plane. They were initially told there was no room. After they chartered the aircraft, the governor said weve got one seat. The other flights were government flights. One was a Military Flight from cincinnati to jfk so the administrator could jump a commercial flight to italy so he could join the president at the g7 summit. Another one department of interior flight inside oklahoma. Would have taken more than five hours to drive there. The epa reimbursed the department of interior for that. The other one was a ride on the governor of north dakotas aircraft between two cities in north dakota. Between fargo and grand forks for which the governor was reimbursed. All of that was cleared by the epa office of ethics. So theyre saying this is not a tom price situation, this is completely different. Sandra . Sandra john roberts, thank you. Reporter thank you. Sandra so the Focus On Tax Reform now turns to capitol hill, where lawmakers in both the house and senate must craft their own bills. Joining me now colorado senator Corey Gardner who sits on the Foreign Relations committee. Senator, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Sandra senator, a lot going on. Lot of optimism coming from you and your colleagues over this tax plan. Is there enough there to get this passed . You know, i believe there is. I think the reason there is, because we have to jump start this economy. There are far too many people in our country who have seen their wages remain the same. Stagnant wages mean people havent been able to get ahead. They havent been able to get that leg up they thought they could. Through tax relief to American Families, were able to make sure people keep more of their own money. Job creators able to create more jobs by investing in their businesses. This is a good thing for america. Sandra you heard some of the reports coming from capitol hill earlier. Nancy pelosi saying this swindles the American People, it would be catastrophic for the budget. Chuck shumer saying this is a give away and a major disappointment. Will democrats be able to come around on this . One of the provisions chuck
shumer has objected to. 88 of the people who receive that tax benefit earn over 100,000 a year. Thats hardly the middle class of america. We have to make sure we do whats right for the middle class americans. We have been talking about coming up with opportunities to drive down tax rates to let people make their own decisions on how to spend their own money. We know once you drive down those taxes, more money will be coming back in to the United States from overseas. Well see more investment. Well see wage growth and the opportunity to create more businesses. There are some areas that havent seen Net Job Increases or new starts since 2000. 17 years its been stagnant on the job front and new business front. We can do better. Tax reform, tax relief is the way to do it. Sandra you sound optimistic. We see President Trump touting this plan. Are you going to be taoeubl sell
this . Yeah, i think so. Im old enough to remember that president obama talked about cutting taxes. So i think this is something that has bipartisan support. Its something that both sides should agree to, unless they just want to play politics. It will be easy to convince the American People. Would you like to have more money in your own pocket than you did before . And theyre gonna say yes. Sandra i think you can bet on that. Thank you very much, senator gardner, for coming on. Thanks. Sandra the White House Briefing ahead this hour. Well see what the administration has to say about the new tax plan. Also be asked about the response to the growing crisis in puerto rico. We need the president to really take this seriously. Theres no way in the world that Puerto Ricans together working with the local government can just with the support that we currently have on the island from fema were going to be able to rebuild puerto rico for at least as an emergency get these supplies to the people in need. Patrick woke up with back pain. Containers that are sitting here just waiting to go out. These containers are filled with food, medicine, construction materials, anything you could buy at a walmart, grocery store, pharmacy. These are the same items folks are lining up to buy, waiting for hours. That is what has port officials here so frustrated. The water, the food, the medicine T Construction materials right now people are without roofs. People are without walls right now. With all this cargo that we have sitting here, we know that we can bring immediate relief to all those people in need. Reporter the problem is with distribution. Right now puerto rico does not have enough drivers to get these containers out on to the road and to those places that need it. That is why the governor told me yesterday, right now his biggest need is folks to sit in a seat and drive a truck. Its a logistics problem. If you fly over as we did over the port, you see that we have thousands of crates of food, water, fuel is plentiful. But we need the transportation to execute. This is going to take every truck driver in puerto rico so we could be effective. And were going to need support from the outside. Reporter and the reason these Shipping Containers are sitting here still is as of right now, only 20 of puerto ricos Truck Drivers have gotten back on the job. Some of them lost their homes, their trucks. Others the government has not been able to contact. They are looking for anyone to drive a truck, for folks outside puerto rico to get in here and help with trucks as well as drivers. Right now its a frustrating situation for both the government and for people here at the port especially folks across the country who are in desperate need. Sandra thank you for
netanyahu your reporting on that. We are Just Moments Away from the White House Briefing where we expect questions on President Trumps tax plan and puerto rico. Plus, some Cabinet Members in hot water for Spending Taxpayer Money on chartered flights. Well look at the potential consequences. The president s made it clear that hes not happy with those developments. Hell look into it and ill leave it between the president and secretary to work it out. Devastation on the island and for anybody that needs food and water, power, Life Saving Needs and commodities, health care, theres nothing that can happen fast enough. But what i will tell you is that we are mobilizing and marshaling the resources of the United States of america that is absolutely professional, fast and adequate. Sandra louisiana senator john kennedy is a republican on the appropriations committee. Senator kennedy, thank you for joining us today. You bet, sandra. Sandra first off, what do you make of the administrations response to horrific situation happening in puerto rico right now . How is the administration handling in their response . Well, i think the administration is doing a much better job than some members of the National Media and certainly the democrats are giving them credit for. Thats one example of where nothing that the president does will ever satisfy our friends on
the democratic side. Ill give you another example that i have been listening to your clips of what chuck shumer said about our Tax Reform Bill Being a tax cut for the rich. You know, i noticed something since i have been in washington these nine months. Lying is a Growth Industry around here. Now, i really like chuck. I think hes a great guy. I dont agree with him. But when it comes to tax reform, our bill, hes going through a phase. Called brain dead. Our bill will do more for middle class americans, working families, ordinary people, whatever you want to call it, than anything this town has done in 50 years. So i have got to set the record straight on that. Chuck is just not telling you the truth about this bill. Sandra senator kennedy, to let everybody know what chuck shumer said. He said this is a give away to the rich. This tax plan is a major
disappointment. You have responded by penning an op ed, a tax code for the middle class you call it. Lets invest in the american dream. You wrote nearly threequarters of americans opt to take the standard deduction. Its simple, fair, requires less documentation than itemizing. All Congress Needs to do is double the standard deduction in order to inject 600 billion back into the economy over ten years. You cited a 2014 report. Its very simple. Take an ordinary couple making 70,000 a year. Mom and dad both work. They take the standard deduction. They file jointly. They pay about 3500 in federal income tax. They pay a lot more in taxes but 3500 in federal income taxes. Double their standard deduction and thats going to give them an extra 1800 of their own. They can spend it on whatever
they want. Thats not a tax cut for the rich. Thats a tax cut for people who get up every day and go to work and obey the law and pay their taxes that need a little help. Sandra if its that easy, why cant republicans sell this . I think we can and we are. Youve got to refute nonsense as spoken by my friend chuck shumer. Its not just nonsense. Its nonsense on a stick. He knows that. Chucks base has white hot hatred for donald trump. Theyre never gonna say anything good about the tax package. Maybe he believes. You can believe 2 plus 2 equals 5 and that doesnt make it correct. Its wrong. Sandra i want to get your response, senator kennedy, to Hhs Secretary tom price. Hes under fire for using Government Resources for personal use. He was asked on camera, with a
microphone, whether he thinks he should be fired. Listen to this. Were gonna work through this. Do you think you should be fired . I think weve still got the confidence of the president and we continue to work on important issues like flu vaccinations. Sandra senator kennedy, what did you make of his response . No excuses here. Cant put lip stick on this pig. Its a pig. Tom shouldnt have done this. Whether he stays on is between him and President Trump. Taking these Charter Flights, playing the big shot on the taxpayers dime when you can go by bus or train or regular commercial air. Cant put lip stick on this pig. Sandra should he be fired, senateer . Thats not my call. Thats up to him and the president. If youre asking me if i think its wrong . Its dead wrong. Its more than wrong. Dont defend this. Its indefensible. Sandra all right. Senator kennedy, really good to have you on this afternoon. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Sandra all right. Well, the White House Press briefing, ill remind you, it is just moments from now, where all these topics are likely to come up. Plus details about top security leak. Remember a Reality Winner, how she claims to have smuggled out a classified report. I just saved a bunch of money on my Car Insurance with geico. Huh. I should take a closer look at geico. Geico can help with way more than Car Insurance. Boats, homes, motorcycles. Even umbrella coverage. This guys gonna wish he brought his umbrella. Fire at will howd you know the guys name is will . Yeah . Its an expression, ya know . Fire at will . You never heard of that . Oh, there goes will bye, will thats not his name take a closer look at geico. Great savings. And a whole lot more. Sandra were awaiting the White House Press briefing. It is set to begin moments from now. We are also awaiting a Life Briefing from the State Department as Remembering Tillerson kicks off a high level trip to china. The whole talks on the Nuclear Standoff with north korea among other things. Rich edson has the latest on the State Department. Hey, rich. Reporter good afternoon, sandra. Secretary tillerson is on his way to beijing for high level meetings with Government Officials there. Secretary of state also welcomed at the state Department Today officials from the chinese government. Before he left, he discussed his priorities for that trip to beijing. Preparation for President Trumps important visit. So we want to talk about the agenda for that visit. Then well continue our discussions on a number of other issues that are important. Certainly north korea will be on the table for discussion. Reporter this is his second trip to beijing as secretary of
state. Nuclear Missile Development first component of his first trip in march. Those issues are a priority this time. China recently agreed to support u. N. Resolution sanctioning north korea. Chinas Commerce MinistryJust Announced businesses in that country operating with north korea have 120 days to close. China also announced it will reduce energy and text tile trade. That prompted President Trump to publicly applaud chinese President Trump xi for his actio actions. There are critics that point to china being north koreas top Trading Partner and those u. N. Security Council Sanctions that china did support, it and russia worked together to water those measures down. There are those at the State Department are saying china can do a lot more when it comes to north korea and that will be part of the conversations the secretary will have with his weekend trip to beijing. Chinese, theyre saying they want the United States and north
korea to cool it with the rhetoric. Theyre all saying they want both countries to avoid any type of Military Conflict in that region and on their border. Sandra . Sandra briefing there set to begin any moment. Thank you. Meanwhile, we are awaiting the White House Press briefing. Tax reform is gaining traction on capitol hill. It will likely be a big. Of discussion in that room. Lets go to guy benson Fox News Contributor and Bernard Whitman former bill clinton pollster. Thanks to both of you for being here. Guy, ill ask you first. What do you think will be the first question from reporters in that Briefing Room . What is the hot topic today. Reporter congratulations on the new gig on americas news room. I cant wait to watch this week. Sandra thank you. Im not going to try to predict what journalists might ask, but i would not be surprised if it was about tax reform and whether or not the plan put forward will, in fact, benefit the middle class, which
is what the white house is saying and maybe trying to tease out some more specifics. What we have right now is a frame work. I think its a frame work. I like the messaging. I think tax reform is essential. Were off to a good start. But there are some big Policy Questions that need to be answered, and some holes that need to be filled by congress. And maybe a question that i would ask is what type of direction the president would want to give the bill writers in the house and senate on questions like the size of the tax credit, the Child Tax Credit is one example that jumps to mind. Sandra speaking of the hole in the deficit, nancy pelosi verbalized her criticism for the plan. She said this, after republican tax plan blows a multitrillion dollar hole in the deficit, they will sharpen their knives for Social Security, medicare, medicade. Bernard, heavy criticism coming from nancy pelosi, chuck shumer. Youve been hearing it all day. Well deserved. This is a massive Tax Redistribution to the wealthy. This will disproportionately benefit the top. 2 of americans. It is outrageous. If you look and see, the gap between not rich and poor, but the gap between rich and middle class has grown 160 in the last 20 years. This is a fundamentally against what the republicans and donald trump promised. They said two things. They promised to prioritize the middle class. Two, they promised it would be revenue neutral. This falls incredibly sandra let me get guy to react to that. President said, as we have heard him say on fox news this morning, this plan is for the working people. This does target the middle class, guy. And it does. Bernard, i hope you get a big enough tax cut that you can buy yourself a new talking point. I have heard this always from democrats. Whenever you want to cut taxes,
oh, its for the rich. No. This is across the board tax relief and Tax Simplification which benefits middle class and Working Class families. When you talk about any tax cuts, yes, if youre going to cut taxes, the top 1 of wage earners pay 40 of federal income taxes. The top 20 they have the wealth. Top 20 of wage earners pay 70 of all federal taxes. So, yes, they are going to get a break, but so are Working Class family, so are Small Business, so are corporations that have lots of dollars parked overseas. And its going to simplify the tax system, which we spend billions of dollars trying to comply with this tax rule. Sandra bernard i want to get you back on that Small Business point. When you look at that Corporate Tax rate, what problem do you have with that . Small business is twothirds of the u. S. Economy. Lowering that Corporate Tax rate that has been such a burden for
those Small Businesses from 35 to 20 . Im all in favor of lowering Corporate Tax. But what i want to ask guy is what happened to the deficit hawks in the Republican Party . What happened to the idea that we have to cut our deficit. This is going to balloon the deficit. Even aggressive tax cutters believe it will balloon by 2 trillion. Evidently that goes right out the window. One legislative win. I do find it interesting that democrats are all of a sudden interested in deficits and debt after barack obama almost doubled the National Debt over eight years all by himself. I have been critical of President Trump for saying certain things like Social Security and medicare. These are giant when we talk about a debt crisis, those are the programs driving the debt crisis. It is basic math. We have to reform those programs for younger people. Not current seniors. But later on these things are
going insolvent. Thats what we have to do. Growing the economy through pro growth tax cuts and reform i think is completely appropriate. But, yes, we should have an eye on the deficit. Sandra one point that paul ryan continues to sell, bernard, simplifying the tax code, shrinking down from seven tax brackets to three. Being able to do your taxes on a post card. Say goodbye to the deduction you have for your children, for mortgage interest. Probably going to go away. Nope. Nope. Sandra this will all likely come up in the Press Briefing. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Sandra thanks to both of you, bernard and guy. Brand new details about a top secret security leak. Accused nsa leaker Reality Winner unveiling how it all went down and why she would do such a thing. Peter ducey is live. How did winters sneak this document out of an nsa office . Reporter Reality Winter Folded up a classified report and shoved it in her panty hose
so she could walk out the door, take it to a mailbox and send it to the News Organization intercept. She got mad something the nsa knew about Russian Election interference wasnt widely reported and decided to leak it telling the fbi, i guess i didnt care about myself at that point. Yeah, yeah, i screwed up royally. She also revealed a frustration with fox news saying, quote, i guess its just been hard at work because, i filed formal complaints about them having fox news on, you know . Just at least for god sake put aljazeera on or a slide show of peoples pets. I have tried everything to get that changed. There is one potential problem. When fbi showed up at Reality Winners house, nobody ever read her her miranda right, her right to remain silent. So her lawyer saying anything she revealed there is not admissible. Sandra do the feds have any other evidence against winner they can use . Reporter they do. They have a face book exchange
between winner and her sister from a few months before she leaked that reads like this. Winner said i have to take a polygraph where theyll ask if i ever plotted against the government. Hash tag gonna fail. Her sister said laugh out loud. Just convince yourself youre writing a novel. Winner said i only say i hate america like three times a day. Im no radical, its just mostly about americans obsessing with air conditioning. The sister then said you dont actually hate america, right . Winner said, yeah, i do, its literally the worst thing that happened on the planet. We invented capitalism, the downfall of the environment. Winner saying she wasnt trying to be like snowden but another place saying that she sides with snowden and asange. Sandra peter doocy, thank you. We are waiting Sarah Sanders to take the podium. She is expected to field many questions about the president s tax plan, among other things. We will bring that to you live
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the spin the new tax plan is a huge give away to the wealthy. This from the new york times. Trump land gives substantial rewards for Healthy People and corporations. These headlines ignore the fact that he opened the door for high earnings. Seems the coverage obscure the fact that among the so called wealthy people, getting a tax people for Small Business, sandra i think youre starting your presser. Ill go back to you. Sandra thank you. Sarah sanders at the White House PressBriefing Room. Today the president actively engaged in monitoring the Recovery Efforts in puerto rico. This morning he received an update from Fema Administrator Brock long. Administrator long has also briefed members of the senate this morning and members of the house this afternoon. The full weight of the United States government is engaged to ensure food, water, healthcare are making it to the people in need. At the request of the governor who is doing a terrific job, the
president waived the jones act. This will ensure ample resources are making it to the island. We will continue to focus on the challenge of districting those resources. The Island Setting presents logistical hurdles that do not exist on the main land where trucks can converge on disaster areas. 10,000 federal government relief workers are there, including 7200 troops are now on the island and working tirelessly to get people what they need. We have prioritized life saving resources to hospitals and can report that 44 of the islands 69 hospitals are now fully operational. The Army Corps Of Engineers is spearheading a massive mobilization to restore power. This began with providing the deisle fuel necessary for sustainable emergency Power Generation. Theyre also working to restore long term Power Generation and distribution around the island. Theres a long way to go, but we will not rest until everyone is safe an secure. Our message to the people of
puerto rico is this. The president is behind you. We all are, the entire country. Your unbreakable spirit is an inspiration to us all. We are praying for you. We are working for you. We will not let you down. As you all know the president traveled to indianapolis, indiana, yesterday, to roll out a frame work for delivering tax relief for hard working american. Our frame work is based on four key ideas. First, we will cut taxes for the everyday hardworking americans. Second, we will make the tax code simple, fair, easy to understand. Third, we will cut taxes on american businesses to restore our Competitive Edge and create more jobs and higher wages for american workers. Finally our frame work encourages American Companies to bring back the trillions and trillions of dollars in wealth thats parked overseas. Robin helman owns a small printing business in indianapolis. Robin and her husband roger bought the business in 1991 and have since tripled in size. They both work full time in the shop and employ three additional
people. As robin describes it, her family is living the american dream. However, robin feels Small Businesses in our country have been neglected and in her words put on the back burner. But shes now excited about what if president and congressional leaders are proposing. She believes this tax cut will be a boone not just for her Small Business, but also for her customers. Robin relies on Small Businesses to take risk, make investments in Marketing Campaigns that require printing services. Robin is thrilled about the possibility of a Tax Code Being simplified to allow the average taxpayer such as herself to save time and money so they can invest in their families and their business. People like robin are at the heart of the president s tax relief plan. To talk more about the tax relief plan, id like to bring out gary cohn. After gary takes a few of your questions, well also have tom bossart up to answer some questions specific to the Hurricane Relief efforts, and then ill come up for more general, if you are insistent
and have other topics you want to cover. Thanks. Thank you, sarah. I was going to make some opening remarks. I think i wont because you covered a few of them. Couple things i will say. The president s made his goals very clear what he wants to achieve here with tax reform and cutting taxes in the United States. I think you know where we are in the process. The group of six has been working really well together. We are now in the hands of congress. We want to go through a normal process both in the senate and house. Were working well with both tax drafting committees. The committees will continue to work. Theyre working really well. Were trying to drive tax reform as quickly as we can. You know the basic premise behind it. Im not going to take you through what we talked ab before. Question we get asked a lot, so ill say it right now. We have to make some basic assumptions on where well end up with the brackets, but based
on Aur Assumptions a typical Family Earning 100,000 with Two Children Ha Bes an a standard deducter continues to use the standard deduction. They can expect a tax cut of about 1,000. Thats where were headed. Thats where were going to continue to be. With that, i think ill open it up to questions and see whats on your minds. The theres been criticism that its a give away to the rich. One criticism that seems to be relevant for your own state, connecticut, california, is that by eliminating the state and local deduction, there are certain people who will suffer double taxation. These are obviously itemizers. Is that a hard and fast red line with you or would you be willing to give that up in Congressional Negotiati negotiations . Our plan is based on lowering rates and expanding the base. Its very simple if you think of what were doing. You expand the base by getting rid of the loopholes. The loopholes that the wealthy taxpayers have used to pay tax on less of their income. So we have designed a plan where youre going to pay a lower rate, but more of your income. That is a basic core premise of our plan. Were committed to it and were sticking with it. Criticism is there are people in the middle income for whom this tax cut is supposed to be beneficial because they itemize. Just to remind everyone in here, 25 of American Families today itemize. Thats it. 75 of American Families do not itemize. So when youre talking about itemizing, youre talking 25b9 of the population. We all have many things were doing in the tax plan to help out American Families. Were lowering tax rates go, from seven to three rates. Were expanding the zero rate, up to 24,000 for that family. First 24,000 of income they will pay zero on. Were lowering the 15 down to
12 so the next rate will be 12 . Were doing things to help that family. Were expanding the parameters for child care greatly. Were really going to move the upper bounds to whos eligible for child care up to a substantially higher income level. So that family may be eligible for more credits. You have to look at this plan in its entirety. The one thing i would beg you all to do is dont look at any one piece. Look at the plan in its entirety. Thats how were looking at tax reform. Were looking at it in its entirety. To follow up on what john was asking, standard deduction versus itemize. There are people who think if you dissuade people from itemizing people wont be interested in buying homes because they wont use the itemized deductions. Were protecting the mortgage deduction. The Home Builders came out in favor of our tax plan. The number one reason why people
buy homes is theyre excited and optimistic about the economy. They have a job today, they feel confident theyre going to have a job tomorrow and their kids are going to get a job and their spouse has a job. They feel like theres upward wage pressure. They feel good about the economy. Thats when people go out and buy homes. We have not been in that situation in america for the last decade. We have to get america back to a place where people feel excited and exuberant about the economy. When they do that, theyll spend money, theyll buy homes. People dont buy homes because of the mortgage deduction. Again, 75 of families dont use itemized deductions. Yes . How are you going to ensure wealthy taxpayers dont abuse the tack rates . Thats a great question. We have spepb enormous amount of time on the antiabuse language. The last thing we want to see is wealthy individuals, or wealthy groups or families move their tax rate down from the 35 rate
to 25 rate. We are spending time on that. The tax writers in both the house and senate are acutely aware of this issue. Weve got language on it. You will be seeing language as we deliver more in the coming days. We are acutely aware of that. Guys like myself should not be allowed to put their assets into a partnership and reduce our Tax Liability by 10 . Two things about one thing you said this morning. You said that you couldnt guarantee no middle class taxpayers would pay more taxes under the plan. Because of the details that you were talking, thats a real possibility. Some lower income people could see a small cut of a few dollars or not more than that. Is it a red line for you and the president that all middle income taxpayers benefit from the plan. President said yesterday this tax cut would not help him. He said in indiana it would be
bad for him. What little we know about his finances hed get a big cut, Something Like 31 million on past income hed save 16. 5 million. Hed obviously save a lot not paying estate tax, his heirs would. How can you say this is not helpful to him . The American People are concerned about their financial position. I think what theyre concerned about is when they go to work every week and get their pay check, how much do they get to keep . How much goes in their pocket versus how much goes to the government . How much do they get to spend versus how much do they spend on the government . If we allow a family to keep another 1,000 of their income, what does that mean . They can renovate their kitchen . They can buy a new car. They can take a family vacation. They can increase their lifestyle. Thats what our tax plans do. Our tax plan is aimed to return more income back to hard working americans. Thats what were trying to do
here. Speaking of the president saying this tax plan wouldnt benefit him. Dont you think it would be a good idea if the president proved that by releasing his tax returns . Like i say, what were trying to do and what were all working on in the white house is to increase the lifestyle of american citizens. Our hard working citizens that get up every morning and work as hard as any people in the world to try and keep more of their hard earned income. Thats what were all about. Thats what our tax plan is about. Our tax plan is trying to get the economy, get the growth rate back to a normalized rate above 3 . Yes, we just had a quarter 3. 1 gdp. People didnt think wed get to 3. 1 for awhile. What does 1 of gdp mean . It means 3 trillion. It more than pays for a tax cut. Thats what were trying to do with our tax plan. If you cant guarantee that all middle class americans or some middle class americans won
see their taxes go up, does that contradict the plan to help middle class americans . Our tax plan is aimed at making sure we give middle class americans a tax cut. We are going to give middle class americans a tax cut. That is what we are spending all of our time on doing. Weve got lots of tools to make sure we do that. As i said this morning, ill say it again, i could read my statement from this morning. I liked it so much this morning, id say it again. I cannot guarantee that. You could find me someone in the country that their taxes may not go down. Remember, we have 50 states. We have counties. We have cities. We have long term capital gains, short term capital gains. I guarantee you, you could find someone in this country, maybe one person, who their taxes may not go down. Can you walk us through the timeline for how you think the Tax Writing Committees will get through this . What confidence do you have given whats happened so far this year on capitol hill, that they will actually get this done . Secondly, why did you decide to stay at the white house in the wake of charlottesville . I am very confident that the house and senate are working as quickly as they can. If you look at Chairman Brady right now and what hes doing in the house ways and means committee, they are working. They came in sunday to start working on the tax plan. They continue to work every day. Chairman brady said they will get through the tax plan as quickly as they can. We will hope that we get through the house in october. We would hope to be in the senate in november. We hope to have a bill done by this year. Why am i here . Im here just for this reason. Think about the opportunity that im involved in with the president being able to rewrite the tax code, something ha hasnt been done for 31 years. The amount of impact that we can have on the u. S. Economy and u. S. Citizens and changing the outlook of the United States. This is a once in a life time student and i would never miss this. Following that and then my question which is when youre done with tax reform you will no longer be at the white house. Did you mean to imply that . There are many more once in a life Time Opportunities at the white house. Wed love to lear what would make you stay. On the Child Tax Credit which we heard President Trump talk about. Can you give us any kind of description as to what that will look like. I know its still being written. What is the goal here . Will it be refundable . What are some of the specifics . I think we said in our outline yesterday, the existing Child Care Credit is refundable. Well say refundable. The additional money that will be put into the credit will be nonrefundable. We want to encourage people to work. We want to have people have taxable income to take the credit against. The size of it were still working out. Do you have a range in mind . We have a range in mind. We are working on delivering a