Eliminate the Affordable Care act individual mandate. 9 00, an assistant secretary of east Asian Affairs gives analysis of the trip to asia by President Trump. Caller good morning. Host lots of headlines coming out of capital this week from tax reform to health care and gun policy to allegations of Sexual Harassment and how both parties are responding. It we want to get all of your thoughts on this. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7848001. , 202 7488002. You can also send us its we or a spoke. Com. Congress this week is our topic. We want to get your thoughts on all the different stories are in lets take a look at the front page of two national papers. Times. The Washington Times, the new york faces senate obstacles. On Sexual Harassment, the Washington Times has the headline about al franken. The senator apologizes for misconduct. The New York Times frames it this way. You also have this headline this morning and the Washington Times, a mistrial for senator bob menendez. It the york times frames jury was deadlocked and it ends his corruption trial. What your thoughts on these headlines . We have headlines about the individual repair repeal of the mandate. You have a deal on a gun bill. We have those details in the first hour of the washington journal. The president has been tweeting this morning on tax reform. He went on to say democrats were not such obstructionists and understood the power of lower taxes, we would get many of their ideas into a bill. First for discussion this morning. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I was calling about the Sexual Harassment situation. This has been going on for years in the south with white man and young girls, black men with young girls. I dont know why these christian win. E put up with this this is not just starting here. Do you feel a cultural shift on this issue in the south . Caller the south has been doing this all along. Its just coming out. It has been white men and black men going with young girls all the time. Host what i am asking you, you think now that this is coming out that it could change the culture . Caller it should. In the south, its not going to change. You can see the preachers getting up there vouching for this man that they know his the doing this. No maam. Roy you are talking about moore. Lets go to vermont. Congress this week, what do you think about what is happening . Caller i would like to respond to the finance Committee Debate between the democrats and republicans where 14 of the republicans voted in favor of a voted in favor of a measure of the tax reform and 12 opposed it. , 50 one must keep in mind of the nation pays federal taxes. Alldo not pay that are taxes. There lies the problem. 50 tax is a heavy burden on of the nation. Thank you for taking my call. Host the finance committee finished working on the proposal in that chamber yesterday. They cleared it from the theittee 1412 to approve tax package. It cleared the way for the senate to consider the bill after thanksgiving. This was in the New York Times us morning. It remains to be seen if it has the support to pass the chamber. The debate became heated yesterday in the Senate Finance committee. Take a look at this exchange between orrin hatch and sharad brown. The tv ads that will be run against the five most of her senators on this committee, they will say senator mccaskill and senator casey and senator nelson were voting against a 4000 raise. We know its coming. We know you will have way more money to promote that and we will have to defended. Thats why the amendment was so orton. Important. This tax cut is not for the middle class, its for the rich. The good selling point, companies dont just giveaway higher wages. Ofy are sitting on a lot profits now. I dont see wages going up. Sarcasm in the satire. From the poor people. I have been working here my whole stinking career for people who dont have a chance. I resent anyone saying im just doing this for the rich. Give me a break. I think you overplay that all the time and it gets old. Im not through. I get sick and tired of it. Its a nice political plate. Its not true. I get tired of the richest people getting richer. Regular order. Over and over again, how many times do we do this . Toi have honored to allowing spout off here. What you said was not right. I come from the lower middle class. Dont do that stuff on me. Get tired of that crap if we worked together, we could pull this country out of every mess its in. I think ive got a reputation for working together with democrats. Start with chip. Ive got more bill passed that everybody on this committee put together. Is i like you personally very much. Llcrap you throw out here is not right. Host the scene there between these chairman of the finance committee and sherrod brown. They worked through the day to pass it out of committee and it has to go to the floor for a full vote. TheNew York Times notes house passed their version with 227 republican votes. Its the most sweeping tax overhaul in three decades. Cutting 1. 5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals. We were covering it all. Go to www. Cspan. Org and you can find it there. Voted 13 republicans that against the legislation the, many of them are from states that allow taxpayers that taxes. Gh local state this would get rid of the state and local tax deductions. You would not be allowed to do that anymore. Here are the republicans that voted no. Voted no. Democrats donovan from new york. Lets go on to lucy in virginia. Good morning. What do you think about once happening . Caller i have many thoughts. I am watching the news all the time. I think President Trump deserves a lot of the raise for his trip to asia. Has brought about a new national awareness. Badink he has gotten such a rap, standing up for america. Its not like we live in a world of angels. We must maintain our strength. Together we are strong. I really hope that people will start appreciating what is trying to do. I think it all boils down to a andle between Globalization National sovereignty. Event, the other thing is i resent the way conservatives and republicans are giving this and xenaf being evil phobic and homophobic. Everything you can possibly conjure up, they blame republicans. Im not, i know that. , just wish all the democrats they want to reduce everything to the sameness. We have 60 different gender identities now. Different, of these what do you call it, groups of people who are victims. Thing is a victim group. Host i will leave it there. Eileen is in washington. Your turn. Caller good morning. I dont condone what roy moore did and he is a republican. I dont condone what al franken did. Lets start at the top. Women,trump rate three one was a little girl of 13 years old. Shes in hiding. How do you know that . Caller its all over facebook. Just look in your computer and you find it all. Then you have all of the women that he sexually abused and harassed. Why dont you start there and then come down to the other ones . Host what did you think about the bill Clinton Administration during that time when the president. That was consensual sex. Im not condoning him either. I wrote him a letter to resign. Im not going there either. Host you might be interested in york the senator from new holds the Hillary Clintons old seat. She said bill clinton should have resigned over the lewinsky scandal. When it comes to the roy moore story, breitbart. Com led by in baan, than nnon, she admits she doesnt know if he signed the book and hasnt asked the client. Report, the headline on face assault, dems allegations. As we said, the New York Times has two stories, what about al franken and one about roy moore. After initially apologizing without acknowledging the accusations, he released another more contrite statement that contested nothing. On roy moore, the New York Times support,as unqualified ignoring the condemnation of National Republican leaders in brushing aside worries he could lose a senate race or be expelled from congress if he wins. Judge moore held a press conference yesterday. Effort by Mitch Mcconnell and his cronies to steal the selection from the people of alabama and they will not stand for it. 30 million and voted for me in the primary. They are trying a different tactic. Bigot a call from one magazine. Call that asked me to step down from the campaign. I will tell you who needs to step down, thats Mitch Mcconnell. There have been comments about me taking a stand. I have taken a stand in the past and i will quit standing when they lay me in that box and put me in the ground. Was standing with christian leaders, talking about how he will not be stepping down from that race. Washington, an independent. Good morning. Caller i was calling about tax bill. Host i apologize. You are going in and out. Caller good morning. Let me say this on the sex scandals in hollywood and the music industry. Seent all of america to what it was like for a black woman during slavery and during the segregated south. They didnt have the right to resist. It was so bad for black women. They started playing time black women down so that if she had a female child, she would smother it. That was her gift to her child. Is, thomast jefferson was given a 13yearold child as a christmas gift. They had nine children, five of which they kept. They could not even resist. , a 14yearold girl was purchased off of a slave block. And he was raping her took her to court and the jurors because shelashes resisted and she was pregnant. Pregnant again and given 30 more lashes. What it was like being a slave woman in america. Caller good morning. I think america is being tested from what i see in the news today. Unfortunatetely that it seems republicans enjoy hurting people, given that this tax bill hurts people under the Affordable Care act. That is about 17 ilion people. Securitythose for because it reduces our benefits by about 25 . The rich seem to get all of their money offshore and a failed to pay their fair share of taxes that inhabits inhibits our public schools. Week,s a her in this representing who we are as a people. We are not caring for the poor and the disenfranchised. That is because the middle class is so shrunken and they do not define what the middle class is. It is smaller than the poor. About how thisk bill helps the poor. How does it help people who earn under 45,000 a year . How will it ensure that once you get money to the rich that they will let it trickledown . Our experience shows that it doesnt trickle down. Hike the senate will to taxes on average earners. Cuts to give large tax the rich while raising taxes on earning families 10,000 to 75,000. Host rose in michigan, a republican. Caller how are you . Its common sense that if you make more money you are going to be taxed more. If you dont have a big salary, youre not going to get a lot back. Just common sense. Democrat, republican, independent, whoever is in the white house. The rich are always going to be rich and the poor are always going to be poor. I want to Say Something about mr. Moore. This stuff happened 40 years ago. Yourother once told me, if got a problem, deal with it when it happens. This is crazy what they are doing to them. By the way, you are the best host and i wish everybody a happy thanksgiving. Host high, alexis. Are you there . You sound like your phone is breaking up as well. Anna is in philadelphia. Caller good morning, credit. I would like to make two points. With al franken, they ought to go back to his senate run when he was making jokes about bestie l. A. Bestie alley. He is a symptom of what has. Appened to our country until they are rooted out, our andtry is going to dissolve none of the standards are going to be maned maintained. Corporations can prove they will reinvest in the country and actually higher, i dont think they should get this big break. The senate and congress have made themselves where Small Business are not subject. That should be explored. Thank you so much for all the work you do. Host on the tax bill, Senate Republicans are hoping to pay partly for the tax cuts by including arctic oil drilling. This is from the Washington Post. Killing for oil in the Arctic Refuge is one closer to reality. We covered the Committee Wednesday when they look to this bill and debated it and voted on it. Go to our website www. Cspan. Org , they passed earlier this week. Jim is in pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller al franken has got to go for the last two weeks. We have been calling for judge moore, a man who should never be in the senate. If they sent 20 journalists up to minnesota and really got into the past of al franken, we will find a lot more out there in every democrat out there, especially the women in the senate and house, should be on the steps of the house today calling for al franken to step down as a senator. This is a double standard. This is what got us in trouble. This is why we havent been winning any elections. Its time these people who run around like al franken, saying what a great champion of womens rights is, they need to get him out of the senate as soon as possible or we will get clobbered in 2018. Host what do you make of the woman from california on tuesday, she focused on Sexual Harassment on capitol hill. She said there are two sitting members of congress who she knows have harassed women in their offices. Caller you are right. About seven months ago, the senator from new york state said the same thing, that they know about these editors in congress congress, butn they wont name them. Million,aid out 15 260 allegations. We need to know who these people are in congress. You cant just go on tv and say there are two predators. How about letting people know so if my granddaughter is an intern, she stays away roomies creeks. Ps. Cree lets know who these violators are. , start Congress People putting money in there until we get our 15 million back. Host i dont know this for sure, and that searing she talked about the process that people have to go through on capitol hill, their own way of filing a complaint. Tothe process, they have file a nondisclosure agreement. I think we have that part of the hearing. Lets listen to her from earlier this week. There are two members of congress, republican and democrat right now, who served, who have been subject to review or not. They have engaged in Sexual Harassment. Propositions like exposing their genitals or having their private parts grabbed on the house floor. All they ask for in return is to be able to work in a hostile free environment. They want the system fixed in the perpetrators held accountable. Ive been working on this since 2014. There are three steps we need to take to fix the egregious and illegal behavior. The first is to require prevention and response training every year for members and staff, just like Cyber Security training. The office of compliance is a start as you pointed out. It is not adequate. Effective training requires in person interactive instruction in dialogue or it the simple change to the rules would achieve this result and there is legislation coauthored by many of you. Brady andto member lofgren for their leadership on this issue. In my experience working on Sexual Harassment on College Campuses and in the military, surveys are conducted regularly and are key to recognizing the scope of the problem and evaluating the reforms. Congress should institute a survey every two years. We must reform the broken resolution system. It may have been ok in the dark ages. It is not appropriate for the 21st century. Host we covered this earlier in the week. If you missed it, go to www. Cspan. Org. The hill newspaper reports that the office of compliance where victims of Sexual Assault go on capitol hill is responsible for handling complaints and settlements. Once a settlement is reached, the money does not come from member offices, it is paid out of a special fund operated by the treasury department. This is taxpayer dollars. 15 millionid out by the house on behalf of harassers in the last 10 years. Were you following this hearing . Caller this is the double standard. Us people that work hard and pay our taxes, we live under one set of rules. Those people in congress, we found out they had their own post office and their own hairdressers and their own finance. These people get to washington and the problem is on both sides if you then down there for more than 20 years, you are part of the problem. This is why donald trump got elected. He is not part of the problem. He came in there. I hate the guy. In here when all of this was going on. Understand the double standard. This is why Hillary Clinton can do all the things she does and get away with it and have the f dei guy understand the double say she did this, but we dont think she had any content. If we do that, you dont worry about the intent. , we have this other story in the washington he is the interior secretary for President Trump. TheWashington Post said investigation into them proper travel practices has been stymied by incomplete documentation for several pertinent trips. We lost our caller. We are curious about what you think the president should do if it is shown that there is ethical lapses in his own administration. High, donald. Caller hello there. I originally called because i was going to make a comment about this tax cut. We are deeply deeply in debt. How you can talk about cutting taxes when you cant pay your bills is beyond me. We couldnt do that in our families. It doesnt make sen