Senators return from thanksgiving break next week. Former texas senator phil graham, visiting scholar in American Enterprise institute. Senator, great to see you. Thanks for coming in. Great to see you, paul. Paul you have seen a lot of tax legislation in your day, helped pass good legislation, how do you see the two bills now just as policy, as tax and Economic Policy good or bad . I think they are both good represent good policy. I think the debate is that a lower level than i have before seen, people forget that 56 democrats in the house voted for the reagan tax cut. The tax reform in 1986 got huge bipartisan votes. Its ashame that things are as partisan as they are. Paul yeah, thats where we are right now. I think they will get no democratic votes in the Senate Unless republicans show they can pass it. But do you think theres enough progrowth policy in these bills to energize the economy over next two or three years, get up to 3 growth annually plateau . Well, first of all, the eco
And provide substantial relief to the middleclass. Joining the panel, wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor dan hettinger, columnist and manhattan senior fellow jason riley and columnist, mary, 51, 52 votes, not always sure they were going to get them, what turned the tide in the end . Using a seasonal metaphor, you heard of the christmas tree, there were four or five senators who were holding out and i think Mitch Mcconnell very masterfully addressed concerns of each of them by giving them small presence to put under the tree or on the tree so you have Susan Collins, who gets her 10,000 property deduction, property Tax Deduction, medical expense deduction increase, ron johnson really wanted Something Better. Paul senator from wisconsin. For small businesses. And a quite generous deduction for businesses. Each of those things were enough to bring 51 senators on board. Leland paul not pretty, lets be honest. Buying of votes with policy. Why did this succeed where the effort on
Redacted whereupon they would blame the white house for lack of transparency, told them to redo and send back in proper form. Lets bring in wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor Dan Henninger and columnist kim strassel, dan, what do you make of the president s decision to say, send it back and not declassify and renegotiate . Well, we have not seen the democrats memo, we dont know what was redacted, we have to assume that since they talked to fbi director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein about the content of the memo theres something substantive at the center of it. Mr. Wray and rosenstein had their own letter that they sent simultaneously to the democrats raising the questions and i have to say, paul, god knows what the American People are making of this right now. I mean, they must feel like they they were sucked in novel. You have one set of memos dueling with another set of memos. Go back to the beginning of this, this is ultimately about whethe
General joins me now. President trump said this week he wants to speak to Robert Mueller, looking forward to it. As somebody who has represented private clients, would you recommend it . You have to consider the alternatives. On this basis, yes, i would recommend it. The alternative is if he doesnt speak to him, he can get a grand jury subpoena. If he speak to him, he gets to speak to him with his lawyer present, they get to talk about the topics, on so on and so forth. If he gets a grand jury subpoena, once hes there, he cant have anybody with him. He can do out and talk with his lawyer but it would look awkward. Paul even the president of the United States cant have his lawyer present . The only people in the grand jury room are the grand jurors, the lawyer for the government, the witness and the that nothing fer. Paul the president is known for somewhat inprecise statements on occasion and the fbi has been known to interpret statements as lying that may have been false memories. Tha
Deduction for individuals and married couples and eliminating the socalled debt tax but reduction of Corporate Tax rate from 35 to 20 , a provision the president has called nonnegotiable. Visiting scholar at the American Enterprise institute. Welcome, senator, great to have you here. Thank you, paul. Paul so as you look at this plan, how good is it, do you think, in terms of helping the economy . I think its very good in terms of helping the economy. I think with what we are doing legislatively through rulemaking, through executive order and and and lessening regulatory burden, we would guaranty that we would return to 3 plus growth, more jobs, better jobs, higherpaying jobs and, of course, the government would get 2. 2 trillion in new revenue. Economically i think the plan is right and i think politically its very strong because its exactly what republicans promised in the campaign they would do and voters dont like to be surprised, they dont like it when you say, im going to do somet