Fortune, this thing, believe me. The president s big broken promise. The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. Plus, no end in sight. We have confidence that its going to come to a close in short time. Reports bob mueller has a lot more to investigate. And more white house nominees go down. I dont have that readily at my disposal. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. After weeks of back room dealmaking, months of grand prk la medications about what theyd deliver, years fantasizing what another round of reaganera tax reform, today the moment arrived for republicans to put their tax bill up for a vote and they bungled it. Lawmakers are debating the bill in the senate. The house voted earlier today which was supposed to be the big celebratory moment. Due to a procedural snafu the bill has to go back to the house tomorrow for another vote before it eventually lands on the president s desk. Consider what exactly republicans have spent so long trying to achieve. In an economy whose defining feature is its vast income inequality, more wealth in fewer hands, an economy with record corporate profits, booming stock market, and wages, paychecks for average folks lagging far behind, the republicans are offering a bill that quite frankly redistributes wealth upward to the most prosperous americans. The economy is being looted, according to House Minority leader nancy pelosi. This gop tax scam is simply theft. Monumental, brazen theft from the american middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it. Largest share of the tax cuts go to corporations which will see their rates slashed 14 , as well as the top than earners. There are other goodies for the wilty. The bill benefits those who make money through private businesses like real estate, people like the president of the United States it benefits big banks and private equity managers. And in general favors those who make money off the wealth they already have. People with investments and stocks and bonds and real estate. Over those who get by on wages. Working for a living. While most middle class families would get some degree of tax cut in the first couple of years that will happen, after 2025 theyll start to pay more in taxes because while the Corporate Tax cuts are permanent, the cuts for middle class families come with an expiration date. That is not what the president pledged to deliver. The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. Were not were looking for the middle class, and were looking for jobs. I think the wealthy will be pretty much where they are. Pretty much where they are. Nope. Nope, nope, nope, no. Instead the final measures in this bill are so imbalanced that according to u. N. Envoy for human rights the package stakes out americas bid to become the most Unequal Society in the world. On top of that the bill adds over 1 trillion to the deficit, which republicans are already signaling they are going to use as an excuse to cut medicare, Social Security, medicaid, and other safety net programs. Just like the obamacare fight this bill has activated grass roots protests on capitol hill where people have been crowding the senate gallery, staking out offices, filling the halls to make their voices heard. At least 18 people were arrested earlier today in the house. The American Public appears to largely agree with the protesters. According to a new poll from nbc news, just 24 think this tax bill is a good idea. Its the least popular tax bill in modern history. Which is why Chuck Schumer had a warning for his republican colleagues. This bill will be an anchor around the ankles of every republican. Our republican friends are listening to the thousand greedy, greedy, multibillionaires who want their taxes cut even though theyre doing great, and dont want to share those benefits with the middle class, even making millions of middle class people pay more. Republicans will rue the day that they pass this tax bill. Senator john tester, democrat from montana whos up for reelection next year. How does a democrat up for reelection in the state that donald trump won overwhelmingly vote against a tax cut . Because our children are going to have to pay for this tax cut, thats why. Its going to add 1. 5 trillion, as youve pointed out. To our national debt. And our kids and our grandkids are going to have to pay for the sugar high, the temporary sugar high, that this tax cut will give folks. As youve already pointed out, the tax relief for the big corporations is permanent. The tax relief for working families goes away after a few years. This bill is just wrong on all sorts of different fronts. But mostly, but mostly its bad for our kids. You know, ive said on the floor a few minutes ago, people come to the senate to work for the next generation. The generation after that. This really does drive a nail in the coffin of their opportunity and their ability to be all they can be moving forward. Because theyre going to have to pay for some 12,000 in Additional Debt because of this tax bill alone. But senator, doesnt this show i mean, i hear democrats talk about it, i hear republicans talk like that when theyre out of office, democrats largely when theyre in and out of office, they seem to care more about deficits in that respect. Doesnt this bill and the political machinations show no one does care about the deficit . The whole things been a fig leaf . Why should that be a motivating concern for anyone after republicans just went from decrying deficits to passing a deficitlarding bill . Theres no doubt about it, the fiscal hawks have flown away. We havent heard a peep out of them. Bottom line for me, for folks from montana, folks who have worked at very slim margins, fiscal responsibility is very, very important. I can tell you i think its very important for folks across this country. At a time when we should be paying the debt down, when times are better, were adding to the debt. So its a double whammy for our kids and grandkids. I want to play you something that joe manchin, a colleague of yours, up for reelection, a democrat running in a state that donald trump also won, talking about how he was a gettable vote at the beginning of this process and wasnt at the end. I was an easy pickup, very easy pickup. I had a couple, two or three other democrats would have been very easy pickups if they made an effort. Our republican friends wanting to use the gimmick of the budget reconciliation, they got to make some choices. It shows you where their values are, their choices were that the corporations get the greatest cuts. Were you a gettable vote on, in theory, a tax bill at some point . Chris, absolutely. I mean, i sent letters to the administration said, look, id like to give you a rural view of what needs to be in a tax bill, i never heard anything back from them. There were 17 democrats that stood about three weeks ago in a press conference that said, we want to work with republicans to get a bill, a bill that takes into consideration public input and a bill that we can negotiate and vote on together. When reagans tax bill was passed, it was passed initially 973. This bill is going to be passed on a strict partisan line. Tax reform is too important, far too important, because it impacts everybody in the country, just to do it on a partisan line. We should have gotten public input. Our committees should have done their job and really negotiated this bill. If we would have, we wouldnt have ended up with a bill that taxes our kids. Senator john tester, thanks for making in my opinion tonight. Congressman lance, republican from new jersey who voted against his partys tax bill, one of only i think about a dozen members in that caucus. Why the no vote, congressman . For the reasons that senator tester suggested. I am a budget hawk. I hope im a budget hawk not only when democrats are in the white house but when theres a republican president. And also theres the very important issue, chris, of salt, continued deductibility of state and local taxes. It has been in our tax code since 1913, it should have remained in the tax code. You represent a suburban district in new jersey. New jersey has a state income tax. Its a place with relatively high tax state like new york and california. Those states are really going to get pounded, particularly relatively affluent folks like the people in your district. Do you think youre going to see tax hikes for people in your district because of this . That may occur with some. Doubling the standard deduction affects in a positive way all districts across america, but we in new jersey have the highest property taxes in the nation. Our new governor is suggesting that the state income tax may increase on upperincome filers to a marginal rate of 10. 75 . So i think as a matter of federalism, as a matter of fairness that salt should have remained asis. I heard a republican strategist debating this on Chris Matthews show, he said its only going to raise taxes on people in new york and san francisco, which is a standin for all the folks who live in blue state, and say they deserve it, thats his perspective. Thats the perspective of the tax writers and the republicans. These arent our people, so if it punches them in the face, they deserve it. What do you think about that . New jersey is a sending state, not a receiving state. Ive heard discussion among colleagues of mine from the south and Rocky Mountain west that states like new jersey are hightax states. That is a matter of federalism. And certainly is a matter of fairness. We dont want to exacerbate the situation. New jersey sends more funds to washington than we get back. I think were at the bottom of that list. And i do not want to make that situation worse. You voted no on this bill. Youre going to almost certainly have a challenger in 2018. And what do you say to a voter sitting in your district who says, sure, you voted no and i appreciate that vote, i didnt like the tax bill. But youre part of a republican majority that crafted this, that pushed it through, that voted for paul ryan for speaker and a Republican Party that made sure that people like myself in new jersey and california and new york, we took it on the chin. Why should i empower the Republican Party at all come election Time Next Year . I want to work in a bipartisan capacity, moving forward. I hope salt can be revisited. We do not live in a parliamentary system, we live in a system where there are separate branches of government. The executive branch and the legislative branch. And i think that the administration should have examine the our bipartisan proposal regarding retention of salt. Sure, but congressman, respectfully, they didnt. The reason they didnt is even if we dont live in a parliamentary system, increasingly both parties act in a parliamentary fashion. You happen to be from a party that doesnt really care that much about new jersey, new york, and california. Because its not where their base is. So what do you tell a new jersey voter about why they should vote for a republican whos going to go join a caucus that seems to gleefully delight in their voters taking it on the chin . I think this was true when democrats controlled both houses in 2009 and 2010, with a democratic president on health care. That was done on a singleparty vote. This was done on a singleparty vote. It just proves we need moderates governing from the center out. And i represent a district that is highly sophisticated, and i believe the voters in the district i serve will judge me based upon how i have conducted myself and how i have voted. All right, congressman leonard lance, appreciate your time tonight. Thank you, merry christmas. You too. For more im joined by josh earnest, former White House Press secretary, and michelle gold bear, New York Times. Josh, i thought this was an amazing moment of messaging from john cornyn, whos in leadership in the senate. Under tax cuts and job the names been changed a married couple earning 100,000 per year, 60,000 from wages, 20,000 from their noncorporate business, and 15,000 from business income, will receive a tax cut of nearly 24 . I thought, who is that . Checks out, thats what my house old budgets like not exactly a Norman Rockwell depiction of the typical middle class american family. Chris, theyre straining to try to justify putting forward this kind of legislation and trying to convince people that it benefits them. The truth is, we know what this was, this was a Corporate Tax cut bill that was done without much consideration at all to middle class families, no consideration to the deficit. Chris, you were talking to john tester about whether or not he was a gettable vote when it came to a discussion about tax reform and Corporate Tax reform. During the Obama Administration we did a lot of legwork, putting on out position papers and white papers from the treasury department, explaining how we could reform the Corporate Tax code in a way that would eliminate loopholes, lower the overall rate, make our businesses more competitive here in the United States, do something good for the committee economy, in a way that wouldnt worsen our deficit picture. So there is a good way to do this, a commonsense way. That is not what republicans chose to pursuit. How do you think whenever i watch this, i remind myself that Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes, the president is sort of governing from a minority of voters, and the party is governing from a minority of voters. Yet they have unified control of government. Those things really feel explosion out of a night like tonight. Right. Because they are essentially stealing from the rest of us. Stealing from the majority of this country. One of the things thats so striking about this particular tax bill, Matt Iglesias made this point in vox, were used to thinking of corruption in terms of congresspeople doing stuff for friend in their districts, doing things to benefit particular constituencies. The extent of actual straightup selfdealing in this bill, the extent that this is just a bill to give more money to bob corker and donald trump and ivanka trump and john cornyn, is really something new and astonishing and sort of more i think in common with a postsoviet kleptocracy than what were used to seeing in american politics. All these different wrinkles about how passthrough income is treated, if you have to have a real estate interprize or investment vehicles that are throwing off money, which members of the United States and congress have a lot of compared to average americans, means theyre getting more benefit than your working joe. This is structured so that even two people with roughly similar incomes, the person who earns the income as opposed to the person who inherits the income is penalized. Its a situation where if youre a surgeon on one hand, or you have a bunch of if youre a slumlord on the other, and youve got a lot of rental income on buildings you dont maintain very well, the slumlord makes out better than the surgeon under the tax treatment in this bill. Josh, the argument that the republicans make is, democratic scare mongering are dont believe the hype. Weve seen this before and i actually saw this when i was sitting in the white house ingy 09. This is exactly the argument that we made about the Affordable Care act. That it was not polling well when it was passing through congress. We staked our hopes on the idea that once people had experienced the law, once they understood the benefits, that they would enjoy, that the law would become more popular. Thats exactly what happened. By 2016, not as fast as we would have liked to have seen, but by 2016, you had democrats outwardly campaigning on the law because people had come to appreciate and experience the law themselves, that they could keep their kids on their Health Care Plan until they were 26, they could be prevented against preexisting conditions being discriminated against. The problem for republicans in the strategic error theyve made is the more that people learn about this law, the less theyre going to like it. Theres less here than meets the eye. And its compounded by the fact that the law actually starts out in worse position than the Affordable Care act. Its the most unpopular major piece of legislation since the history of polling. And its being backed by the president of the United States, who by the way is also polling lower than any other president at this point in his presidency. Republicans have made a strategic error here if they think that down the line peoples minds are going to change on this. We should note that a lot of it is back loaded, it took awhile for Affordable Care act to start rolling out. Here the tax cuts are up front, then they table it off. What i do think is similar is the catalyzing effect on the kind of give adviciveness of the democratic party. Its too hard to tell what the issues are going to be in november 2018. So much is going to happen before then. But this is such an insult. And its such an insult across the board. Its an insult to the poor, its an insult to the elderly, an insult to people who rely upon obamacare. It dismantles a huge part of obamacare. Yeah, oh by the way. It also is theres this contingency, theres this contingent of kind of suburban women who have been sort of maybe moving towards the democrats in certain states. Certainly they were responsible for helping roy moore helping doug jones beat roy moore in alabama. Especially in states like new jersey, like california, like new york. Where we still have republican representatives. This is a dagger pointed at them. This is going to destroy a lot of peoples public schools. Yeah, theres a real activism that will come out of this. Josh earnest and michelle gold bear, thank you. How President Trump sold populism on the campaign trail but delivered to Goldman Sachs in the white house. The direct con next. Run, jump, or swim in to experience the power of tempurpedic sleep with our 90day trial and being the highest ranked mattress in Customer Satisfaction by jd power, its easy to love. Find your exclusive retailer at tempurpedic. Com Inauguration Day President Trump promised the days of washington politicians enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else were over. For too long, a small group in our Nations Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself. But not the citizens of our country. That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you. Before that speech, the president had already tipped his hand. Not long after election day. He went to manhattans 21 club where a burger costs 36, and made a very different promise. Thank you, well get your taxes down, dont worry. Taxes down hey, hey well get your taxes down, dont worry. We now know definitively which promise the president would keep. It was most certainly not his vows to fight for the forgotten man. It was a promise to a bunch of rich people eating 36 burgers, that he would cut their taxes and make them even richer. Donald trump has proven time and again his populist message was basically con. A candidate who promised to fight for the working man, elected to fill his cabinet with Goldman Sachs billionaires, who helped craft a tax bill that enriches himself and wealthy members of congress, while leaving mostly scraps for everyone else. Cnbc editor at large john harwood, you have really reported on this bill. Distributionally how do you see it . This bill is essentially a Corporate Tax cut, a business tax cut. Because in addition to the corporations youve got all the passthrough businesses which get a the owners of a lot of passthrough businesses such as President Trump himself. I think what the president is doing is during the campaign, chris, he said he was a populist. And was going to help the forgotten person. But he did propose tax cuts that were similar to this as a candidate. Its just that people didnt pay attention. People accepted the characterization of him as a populist, even though he had a tax cut that at the time was very tilted toward the wealthy. But what happened was we got after the election, and you had steve mnuchin, treasury secretary, saying, no. No tax cut for anybody at the top end. And things like the president said, the rich arent going to benefit. Those things simply were not true. And it is remarkable that this president , having provided so much of an emotional identification with those voters, would take this turn or embrace this path as robustly as he has. Thats well said. They were very clear. No one at the top is going to get better off. This is what Sarah Huckabee sanders had to say about the president s own taxes at the podium today, i want you to respond. The president has said that this tax bill is going to cost him a fortune. Thats actually not the case. How does he figure . Look, we expect that it likely will certainly on the personal side, could cost the president a lot of money. I mean, is that possible . The only way that that is possible is if the president is a lot poorer than he has told us. But look, i think it is not possible. And you know, when Sarah Sanders says on the personal side, remember, those passthrough rates are on the personal side. So when you take the reduction in the top rate, the passthrough income, the changes to the estate tax exempting more income from tax, the breaks for real estate in this bill, there is no way if the president has any semblance of the wealth that he claims that hes not going to come out way ahead in this bill. The wouldnt here is that if youre sitting on a bunch of buildings that are throwing off passive income, like a real estate mogul, all of a sudden you just got an enormous once in a lifetime tax boon. Thats what just happened today. No one is going to benefit more in some ways than a person whos situated in precisely that way. Right. Now look, i think its worth saying that many republicans, and i would put paul ryan in this group, sincerely believe that lower taxes are better for the economy. And related to that, this gets to what were going to see next year, they want government to be smaller. So in terms of the issue of the deficit, you were talking with senator tester about the hypocrisy argument against republicans, they cared about the deficit under obama, not so much now. Well, they care about government deficits when democrats are in power because they think democrats are for larger government. When theyre in power, if they can lower the amount of tax revenue, that makes it easier for them to cut programs. They dont support those programs. Thats what were seeing. Theyre going to try to do it next year. The deficit is a feature, not a bug in this case, thanks for your time. Reports Robert Muellers investigation could potentially wrap up before the end of the year, just not the end of this year. On trump tv today, around lunchtime, during a discussion about an fbi agents antitrump text messages, a Fox News Contributor floated the idea of an fbi plot to assassinate President Trump. Intent, regardless whether gas an assassination attempt or whatever, was definitely whoa, whoa. Im just saying, we dont know what it was. When you say weve got to make sure that this guy doesnt get in at all costs, what does that mean . One thing that we know for sure is that he was plotting in an election against a candidate. And theres fbi fingerprints all over this. All right, because i know how things get clipped on social media, i just want to make sure that we press in on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea its been floated. When i talk about this im talking about social media stuff thats out there, im not talking about media. Nothing credible . Well yeah. Well done, harris faulkner, clarified a bit. Keep in mind this is the network the president is evidently glued to. A network that has raptly escalated its attack against the fbi and special counsel Robert Mueller. Washington post reports a white house adviser to the president has enjoyed the attacks, hes spoken to a number of fox news hosts, republican lawmakers and others who have cast gated muellers team. President trump may think the investigation will soon end but new reporting suggests muellers investigation will last at least through 2018. President trump appears to be on a collision course with special prosecutor Robert Mueller. White house lawyers are set to meet with muellers team later did week, reportedly seeking assurances the investigation will end soon and President Trump will be cleared. The reality appears to be quite different. According to the washington post, at least, people acknowledge the investigation said it could last at least another year, pointing to ongoing cooperation from witnesses such as former Trump Campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn. The special counsels office has continued to request new documents and members of muellers team tell others they expect to be working through much of 2018 at a minimum. Natasha bertrand, business insider. This meeting, it really does feel like trains headed toward each other, all the reporting weve gotten is the white house is being told ty cobbs telling the president , dont worry, its going to be done, that does not appear to be the case from the mueller side. Not at all. People i speak to say theres no chance this investigation is going to be over before the end of 2018, its not looking that way at all. I think what trumps lawyers are trying to do is keep him calm, keep him not only from tweeting something that hell regret later that could be used against him, but trying to prevent him from firing mueller. Which would of course have really dramatic consequences. Theyve pushed back the date repeatedly, ty cobb at first said its going to be thanksgiving, then christmas thats right, i remember thanksgiving. That hadnt happened. You really are left wondering whats going to happen next year when trump is not exonerated by the date he expects to be . To go back to something that you said, the people youre talking to, the reason they think it will be longer is based on the nature of the investigation, from whats publicly viewable . Right. The trials for manafort and rick gates that are they havent been set yet. Michael flynn, whos cooperating in ongoing way with mueller. George papadopoulos, cooperating. You have a ton of witnesses that have yet to be interviewed by mueller. And these are all going to help him build a case not only for collusion but also obstruction. Trump doesnt seem to realize how serious the obstruction aspect of this actually is. And that kind of arrogance is really going to backfire as it already has in some way with that tweet we saw with Michael Flynn. When after Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to the fbi, you saw trump come out and tweet, i fired him because he lied to the fbi. That actually would have been an admission of obstruction of justice the way many people read it because the original explanation he gave was that he fired him for lying to mike pence, not the fbi. Right. So things like that, careless mistakes where he says things, just because hes overconfident that could blow up in his face. Theres this desire on the part of the president to get an exoneration. Hes, according to some reporting, talking about how hes going to get a letter. But that seems unlikely to me. Seems unlikely to most legal experts who have experience in this kind of thing. Thats not how Robert Mueller is going to do things just because that would essentially diminish his leverage. If you were to exonerate the president now before hearing everything Michael Flynn has to say, before hearing everything that the Transition Team has to say. He got their emails. Hes going to be interviewing them in conjunction with the written statements that they said last december. Which they didnt realize that he actually had. So he still has to go through all of these things. For him to exonerate trump now before learning the half of it would be useless. The other thing is, prosecutors dont write exoneration letters. The way it works is you got chargeable crimes, you charge a person, or not, bring it to a close. You might have some announcement saying, this is as far as it goes. But its not prosecutors dont do that, thats not what i think hes seeking a level he wants some sort of official clearing of his name that it feels like even the best Case Scenario is not going to happen. Right, he might just be telling people that because he thinks maybefy say it enough it will happen. Have it in writing. This is not the process they usually take. There have been argues maybe its because hes the president and bob mueller thinks its logical he wouldnt want this cloud hanging over his head because it could damage his ability to run the country. But this is not just an average investigation. Natasha bertrand, thank you. Still to come, adi barkan on capitol hill protesting the tax plan. Well get his reaction to todays vote ahead. Tonights thing 1, thing 2 starts after this. Thing 1, the New York Times recently reported trump spends at least four hours a day, sometimes as much as twice that, in front of the television. The president pushed back calling that a false story and wrong. Because how could he watch all that tv . He claimed last month he is an avid reader of documents. I quote here, believe it or not, i dont get to watch much television, primarily because of documents. Im reading documents. A lot. So with that you might assume the president reads his administrations new National Security strategy, a 55page document designed to keep the country safe. Has the president , as far as you know, read the entire strategy document . The president himself personally led the presentation of the document to his cabinet only about a week ago. But has he read the whole document . I cant say that hes read every line, every word. Hes certainly had the document the entire for throughout the process. It has been briefed. If the president hasnt read his own National Security strategy, makes you wonder what else might be slipping through the cracks in the white house. Thats thing 2 in 60 seconds. If your moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or crohns symptoms are holding you back, and your Current Treatment hasnt worked well enough, it may be time for a change. Ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. Pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. This condition has not been reported with entyvio. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flulike symptoms or sores. Liver problems can occur with entyvio. If your uc or crohns treatment isnt working for you, ask your gastroenterologist about entyvio. Entyvio. Relief and remission within reach. One of the key white house responsibilities is to nominate and vet qualified candidates to run the upper levels of government and to sit on the nations courts. So hows that vetting of the best people going . According to the nonpartisan partnership for public service, the Trump Administration has seen 14 nominations requiring congressional approval go down in flames. Today we can add former congressman Scott Garrett to that list. After two republican senators helped to block his nomination to head the Export Import Bank in part due to his prior attempts to eliminate said Export Import Bank. When it comes to ju dirk nominees three trump picks have withdrawn in the past week. Matthew peterson was unable to answer basic questions about the law during his confirmation hearing. Have you ever tried taking a deposition by yourself . I believe no. Okay. Have you ever argued a motion in state court . I have not. Have you ever argued a motion in federal court . No. Whens the last time you read the federal rules of civil procedure . The federal rules of civil procedure, i have in my current position, i obviously dont need a stay. As, you know invested in those on a daytoday basis. But i do try to keep up to speed. I love you, basement guest bathroom. Your privacy makes you my number 1 place to go number 2. I love you, but sometimes you stink. Febreze air effects doesnt just mask, it cleans away odors. Because the things you love the most can stink. And try febreze small spaces to clean away odors for up to 30 days. Breathe happy with febreze. Protests surged on the capitol hill in response to the gop tax bill. At least 18 people arrested in the house, nine in the senate today. Among the provisions of the bill that has americans upset is the repeal of the obamacare individual mandate. Congressional Budget Office previously estimated the killing of the individual mandate would leave 13 Million People without health insurance. The republicans previous attempt to repeal obamacare met with massive protests with gop plans ultimately failing. Thats what many of the protesters in washington hope will happen with the tax bill too. One of the most vocal protesters on capitol hill, addi barkan, theyre going to vote in the senate tonight, revote in the house. Whats your reaction to what happened today . Thanks, chris. Its an ugly day for democracy. Not only are these republicans undermining the entire National Health care system, taking away health care from people who need it, taking money out of the pockets of middle class and working class families and sending them up to Real Estate Developers like donald trump jr. , hedge fund managers, but maybe worst of all, theyre totally undermining our democracy. The process has been a sham. Our voices have been excluded. This is an affront to the institution of the congress and affront to american democracy. And so its a sad day. And we have to mourn it. And we have to be outraged. And tomorrow and the day after and every day until november, we have to fight back. You have been diagnosed with a. L. S. , its something youve spoken about extremely movingly. You have a son. And you also have talked about the ways in which this bill is a health care bill. Its something thats gone undernoticed in many ways. It repeals the individual mandate. It requires cuts to all sorts of spending which they may or may not waive. What do you predict the politics of this bill among activists, among folks like yourself, is going to be like six months from now, a year from now . Look, this is the first major piece of legislation that donald trump is going to sign. So this will crystallize for all of us the atrocities of this administration and the congress. And as i said, its an assault on our economy. Its an assault on our health. Its an assault on our democracy. What more do we need . Primarily its hitting women, primarily lowincome folks, it hits black and brown folks the worst. Look, it reflects the racism and the sexism and the kleptocracy of this country. And i think the Progressive Movement and the left in this country is going to rise up. And were going to mobilize americans and raise our voices and make sure that all americans, the coal miners in West Virginia and the farmers in montana and the janitors in los angeles, will understand that this bill screws them and all of us over for the benefit of the wealthiest. And the American People are going to rise up and were going to demand a government that actually is accountable to us and that actually promotes our interests. And so thats why weve been getting arrested. Were saying, you have to hear our voices. You have to understand the damage. We cannot let this kind of horrible legislation and governance go on as business as usual. Adi barkan, making sure there is no business as usual in the capitol, thanks for your time again. Thanks, chris, keep it up. After the break, can republicans recover if they successfully pass such a deeply unpopular bill . Why it could severe cost the party at the polls next. This bill will be an anchor around the ankles of every republican. It so helps the wealthy and the powerful corporations. It does so little and even hurts many in the middle class. Its a loser. Republican tax bill is historically unpopular and it comes at a time the gop has a president whos also historically unpopular. The party has already been paying at the polls. Democrat Ralph Northam won the governors race last month. Doug jones won a senate race in alabama, of all places, a stubbing rebuke of the Republican Party. Republicans say if they pass the tax bill, voters will learn to like it. But will that gamble pay off . Joan walsh and David Cay Johnson author of its even worse than you think, what the Trump Administration is doing to america. David, let me start with you. As someone who covered taxes and tax policy for decades, what do you think the politics of this bill look like . Well, the bill should be wildly unpopular as the polls are showing at the moment but i think the republicans have actually done something very politically wise here. A lot of people who have seen their wages slipping over the last 15 years are going to now have 20 or 40 a week more aftertax income because of this bill. Unless they connect that to in the future theyre going to come for your Social Security and your medicare and other programs, they may well think, well, gee, you know, this is not so good, you know, donald trump got a whole cake and i only got crumbs but at least i got some crumbs. I think thats a good point about i think thats a good point about popularity because i do think theres been a lot of focus on 2027 when taxes go up. Most people will see some kind of cut next year and the year after that. Right, exactly. I also feel like the way that politics works now, what matters most is what the activist base feels about it. What do you think this does to that part of the equation . I think this energizes the activist base like crazy, add ady barkan just told you. I just off a Conference Call with virginia democrats. They got a recount today which means they took the house back from republicans. They won at least 16 seats. Theres another recount to go. We know the activist base is already incredibly energized. This will even do more. I defer to David Cay Johnson on all things tax related. But i dont think barack obama got a lot of credit when people got money back in their pockets. He didnt get any credit. Unfortunately, i dont know people are paying that much attention when their taxes just go down by a little. Something else might happen in their withholding they dont notice it. George w. Bush did the smartest thing in our political lifetimes practically by sending us a check. I got one, it had my name on it. That check with the name on it. I like it. George w. Bush gave you this money. Theyre not even doing that. Plus they made several byrd rule mistakes that mean they have to vote again, which makes them look incredibly stupid. Im hoping democrats have found 20 mistakes and theyll only release two a day so theyll have to keep doing this every day through christmas. I think that part is really a good point. David, in a broader sense, its striking to me that this bill is polling worse than even tax hikes have polled. What it says to me in some ways was, and this is true with the aca and i want to get both sides here, but i do think the phenomenon of negative partisanship and polarization that exists in the country means that its very hard to pass big popular legislation. I dont think they tried very hard here, but theyre already behind the eight balls that were on this thing. Well, one of the things the republicans got smart about on this thing was recognizing that they couldnt just give the entire store and have a Goldman Sachs shopping list. They had to sort of, you know, throw some things at people. The person who was really smart in this was marco rubio. The amount of money he got for people at the bottom is actually quite small. Its a tiny, tiny fraction of 1 of the economy. But hes going to be able for years to now pose as this champion of people at the bottom. Even though this bill really shows the republicans want socialist redistribution up. Right, 83 of the benefits going to the top 1 . I think those numbers are getting across to people, i really do. They are. Whats been remarkable to me, im watching conservatives who have spent all day whining about the messaging and the framing and the media framing, theyre very upset people are talking about 2027 or talking about the corporate rate or the benefits that go to the 1 and what about those people making 60,000 a year that will get a benefit. In some of the ways its remarkable to me that the basic kinds of messaging that has worked for so long hasnt actually worked on this bill. Its partly the president s unpopularity and people are realizing that he ran as a populist but hes ruling as a politicrat. Not to the base of his base but even no democrats are winning with suburban republicans, with white suburban moderates. I think that people are starting to see that he was going to drain the swamp. He is the swamp. And hes not keeping most of his campaign promises. And so people may see a bump in their takehome pay but may not notice it or may notice these other things that are going on and they certainly are coming after medicare and Social Security next year. That to me, david, is there just is no by bik big takeawa theres no popular constituency for ryanism. Yet here we have this bill that is a paul ryan special. When they come for medicare cuts next year, i think the politics of that are going to be even worse than this bill. Im not sure theyre going to do it right away. Interesting. I suspect that the revenue losses will be worse than the preliminary projections show and theyll wait until after the 2018 elections to do that. Ill tell you a headline well see in the future, its going to be a profile of congressman lance, who you had on earlier in the show. And it will be the last budget hawk. Last thing, five of seven California Republicans live in Hillary Clinton district who voted for this bill. Theyll be sorry. They are dead congresspeople walking right now. Joan walsh and David Cay Johnson, thank you for joining us. That is all in in this evening. Breaking tonight, a latenight senate vote to pass the new tax law, the house is back at it tomorrow. Well explain. And President Trump on the verge of victory. Plus, what can the president hope to get out of it when his lawyers sit down with the mueller team . All signs point to the russia investigation sticking around over the holidays and hanging over 2018. And a former fbi special agent weighs in on whether donald trump is being recruited as an asset by vladimir putin. The 11th hour begins now. And good evening, once again, from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 334 of the Trump Administration, and congress is
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