deduct their property taxes, preserving the property tax deduction up to $10,000 is crucial for middle income taxpayers across the united states. as for democrats, they re waiting to see if republicans have at least 50 votes and they re expressing some frustration. one, i repeat, one expert witness. that s it. finance committee democrats offered 60 amendments to the bill. republicans rejected everyone. committee republicans said they re not interested in bipartisanship. this isn t tax reform at all. what this is a grab bag bowl of special interest goodies. final passage is unclear whether it s late night tonight
that s a nonpartisan group that analyzes bills before members vote. here s paul ryan celebrating with republicans after today s vote. i ve got to say, this is nothing short of extraordinary. this country has not rewritten its tax code since 1986. this powers of the status quo in this town are so strong, yet 227 men and women of this congress broke through that today. that is powerful. before the vote, the house minority leader, nancy pelosi called the republican house bill a scam and she invited republicans to negotiate with democrats. this isn t tax reform. it s not even a tax cut. it s a tax scam. why don t we go to the table, as has been done in the past in a bipartisan way, sit down, listen to testimony as to what works and what doesn t work. shepard: as house republicans celebrate a win on taxes, another measure is still making its way through the senate and
that s a very good point. and i think what ben was saying right there is very, very important. let s look at a couple things. the politics of how they are going to sell this. they are trying to push this through right now and it is november. now looks like they have two months left before the end of the year to try to get this through. fact of the matter is congress doesn t look at every single day of the year. also looking at republican party right now that is very much divided. it s a party that has centrist members and conservative members. people who represent states that are conservative such as mississippi or states where ben is california which happens to be more moderate. selling this plan as over all tax cut for middle class is going to be very difficult. and howard shultz today admittedly a very big democrat, someone who might run for president, they talk about tax reform. this isn t tax reform. this is tax cut for the wealthy
going to be hit. but this is not tax reform. no this isn t tax reform. on the individual side they re not changing much. think about what they re doing keeping all the rates the same almost. neil: well we don t know for sure. adam, is it your sense then that a lot of democrats have appeared on this show, other shows all been saying, you know, don t skew this to the wealthy if you don t we might not be inclined to reject it right out the gate, but i still can t imagine democratic votes for this regardless even if they were to double the taxes on people like ben. what do you think? adam: i think you re right and charles set the tone from the very beginning there s a lot of good policy being discussed on this program and in congress and i think that will be, that will end up being beside the point. they have so many things working against them. neil: i don t think what we discuss on this show is ever beside the point. [laughter] adam: i heard some very interesting things b
they re going to based on the current thinking, could change, keep it at 39.6%. that s so they can pay for some of these other cuts to help the middle class. what s your sense as far as democrats seem to already be saying, this is what we re going to run on going forward. we re going to essentially say president trump is rich. he s got a bunch of billionaire buddies and they want to raise all of your taxes. is that a message they can run with and win on, based on this bill, or do you think some of the democrats in swing states, a tim kaine or joe manchin. if he cuts taxes, i might be okay with it? i think there s some hopefulness for those joe manchins and tim kaines and other people in the world that they could bring them to the table. that goes back to the tax reform versus tax cut issue. and that if it isn t tax reform, if those democrats can t find things that show that taxes are going to go up on some of the rich or stay at the level they