Good morning everyone. The committee will come to order. We are here this morning to review on going Recovery Efforts in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands in the wake of hurricanes irma and maria, as well as efforts to rebuild it electric grids on those islands in a smarter and hopefully a more resilient manner. Were over two months removed from when Hurricane Irma devastated st. Thomas and john on september 6th and its been nearly 60 days since Hurricane Maria hit st. Croix and puerto rico. Just a little over a week ago that senators cassdy, franken and i along with senator carper who was just here and senator harris as well as some of our house colleagues visited both st. Thomas and puerto rico. I want to thank both governors. For your hospitality. The time you gave us during that visit. It was incredibly important i think for all of us to see to be on it ground and to be hearing directly from you and those that you are working with. I know that some other members of our commi
Good morning everyone. The committee will come to order. We are here this morning to review on going Recovery Efforts in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands in the wake of hurricanes irma and maria, as well as efforts to rebuild it electric grids on those islands in a smarter and hopefully a more resilient manner. Were over two months removed from when Hurricane Irma devastated st. Thomas and john on september 6th and its been nearly 60 days since Hurricane Maria hit st. Croix and puerto rico. Just a little over a week ago that senators cassdy, franken and i along with senator carper who was just here and senator harris as well as some of our house colleagues visited both st. Thomas and puerto rico. I want to thank both governors. For your hospitality. The time you gave us during that visit. It was incredibly important i think for all of us to see to be on it ground and to be hearing directly from you and those that you are working with. I know that some other members of our commi
In your reporting it says he went off script. This has been a chronic problem, so i think that theres a real concern about the lack of discipline here. President trump reportedly reveals classified secrets to the russians. The story as reported is false. I was in the room. It didnt happen. If the president revealed the actual threat, please tell us and dont play us for idiots. No white house can sustain these types of constant leaks. So if youre in the white house and youre doing this, well, then you might want to get out of the way. I answered the question over and over again the same way. Another story regarding the Trump Administration has been whether the president is recording private conversations at the white house. The president has made it clear. You cant see nothing. A deadly Small Plane Crash in new jersey. Like a missile just came down and its just shocking. Something terrible went wrong. The sight lines were good but all of a sudden this plane went down. The heaviest satel
Carrying a birthday card. But first, your world in 90 seconds. Sa it e id hwent off script. This has been a chronic problem. I think theres a real kconcern about the lack of discipline here. President trump reportedly reveals classified secrets to the russians. The story as reported is false. I was in the room. It dtidn happen. If the president revealed the actual threat, please tell us and dont play us for idiots. No white house can sustain these types of constant leaks. So youre the white house and youre doing this, well, then you might want to get out of the way. I answered the question over and over again in the same way. Another story regarding the Trump Administration has been whether the president is recording private conversations at the white house. The president has made it clear what his position is. A deadly Small Plane Crash in new jersey. It was like a missile came down. Its just shocking. Something terrible went wrong. The sight linere all the sudden this plane went down
So whats the first thing we do . We tax it. We call it earned income. While another category of income called unearned gets a preferential rate. This is a discussion we need to have. Second point, simplification. A few years back we had a Tax Reform Act here, a number of, it was controversial a number of us voted for it, it passed. Before doing that, i decided to run up the road and see someone who lives near where i do, his name is warren buffett. Warren buffett and i have different philosophical approaches on many things, but he was generous to welcome me to his office, we spept about an hour together, and i wanted to get his look at that tax bill and some other things. In an interesting exchange, he turned around to his credenza, pulled out a file, an old file, pulled out a single piece of paper, and said, jeff, do this. Lets do this. Put the tax code on a piece of paper. Simplification. Now, a tax coat in reality cannot always be cut. It has to be optimized. We have to run the gove