What you can do is prevent. You prevent by controlling the territory. Trying to listen to whatever you can. Obrien all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Obrien President Trump came to the defense of his former National Security adviser today. Michael flynn pleaded guilty on friday to lying to the f. B. I. About his contacts with russia. Today, the president called the charges very unfair. Well have more on the unfolding russia investigation, later in the program. Mr. Trump is also throwing his full support behind roy moore, the Republican Senate candidate in alabama. In tweets today, the president said democratic opposition to tax cuts is why we need roy moore to win in alabama. Moore has denied knowing any of the women who say he pursued them as teenagers when he was in his 30s. But one said today shes come across a signed card from moore for her high school graduation. Hundreds of american and south korean warplanes have begun five days of war games over south korea. The exercises began just days after north korea tested its most powerful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile ever. Two dozen u. S. F22 and f35 stealth jets joined in the war games, dubbed vigilant ace. But north korea charged theyre pushing the region to the brink of nuclear war. The u. S. Supreme court will allow the latest version of President Trumps travel ban to take full effect, for now. That ruling came late today, and applies to six mostly muslim nations chad, iran, libya, somalia, syria and yemen. We get more now from marcia coyle of the national law journal. To have you with us. Walk us through, what did the court do today there is a little legal intricacy to it. Okay, essentially the court issued an order saying that the president s latest travel ban may take full effect while legal challenges to the merits of the ban are moving forward in the lower courts. There are two federal Appellate Courts that just this week will be hearing the merits of the travel ban. One is in theth circuit which is be o the west coast and the other in the Fourth Circuit which is on the east coast. Lower courts had partially allowed this particular travel ban to go in feblght. But it had exempted from the travel ban individuals that had what they call a bonaified relationship with the u. S. Citizens or entities in the United States. Obrien so what happens on the lower courts now, does that all stop . No, not at all. In fact, the lower courts are expediting these cases and the Supreme Court said today that it expects, because it is expediting them, that they will reach a decision with appropriate dispatch. So the travel ban will be in effect not only while those courts are deciding whether the travel ban is constitutional or correct under the immigration statutes but also possibly through Supreme Court review itself. Obrien so what did as teut Court Watchers such as yourself learn today reading the tea leaves as to what the court ultimately feels about this one. Okay, you really cant predict with certainty but when the court does Something Like this, the government which prevailed had to show the court that its arguments supporting the ban were serious. So it may well be sending a signal to the lower courts that are looking at it that it believes the government may prevail this time on the merits. Obrien all right, marcia coyle, of the national law journal, thank you very much. My pleasure, miles. The High Court Also grappled today with a case that could make Sports Betting widely available. New jersey is leading more than a dozen states against a federal law that restricts sports gambling in most of the country. The arguments continued after the hearing, with new Jersey Governor Chris Christie and les bernal of the stop Predatory Gambling Foundation making their points. Those states may or may not ultimately have Sports Gaming if it were allowed; i think many of them wouldnt. But what they do know is that letting the federal government get involved in states being able to govern their own citizens, in a broad and impermissible way as it was done here, is dangerous for everyone. Government sanctioned sports gambling is extremely predatory and its really government sanctioned consumer fraud. It would change the way kids watch sports. In countries that have legalized sports gambling like australia and the united kingdom, kids associate gambling with sports. Obrien the four major u. S. Professional sports leagues, the n. C. A. A. And the federal government are opposing the states lawsuit. New yorks metropolitan opera is now investigating multiple sexual abuse claims against longtime conductor james levine. Hes been suspended for the rest of the current season, after three men said he abused them as teenagers between the 1960s and 80s. Meanwhile, former tv host billy bush says its definitely President Trumps voice bragging about lewd behavior on an access hollywood recording from 2005. That comes amid reports that mr. Trump is suggesting its a fake. In sundays new york times, bush wrote of course he said it. And he said, the president is indulging in some revisionist history. On wall street today, the market bought phone company and bank shares and sold tech stocks, with an eye toward who wins and who loses under a tax overhaul the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 58 points to close at 24,920. The nasdaq fell 72 points, and the s p 500 slipped two. And, former congressman John Anderson died overnight in washington. The Illinois Republican ran as an independent for president in 1980, against democratic president jimmy carter and republican ronald reagan. He won 7 of the vote. John anderson was 95 years old. Still to come on the newshour whats next for the republican tax plan now that passed the senate. Do the president s latest tweets change the russia investigation . Houthi rebels kill a former president in yemens civil war, and much more. Obrien we start tonight with the first of several deeper dives we plan in coming days into the particulars of the republican tax plans, as the house and senate get to work reconciling the differences between the two. A number of provisions found their way into the bills along the way, some related to taxes, some not. Tonight, well focus on a handful of them, paying particular attention to how each might affect middle, and lower income taxpayers. For that, i am joined by our own lisa desjardins, whos been following the process closely on capitol hill. Veronique de rugy, Senior Research fellow at the mercatus center, a freemarket Research Institute at george mason university. And political analyst and historian, thomas frank. His 2004 book whats the matter with kansas explored the rise of populist conservatism in the u. S. Lissa you had a long weekend, how are you g . Im doing also. Obrien up late while this was all unfolding. There is lots to talk about as far as differences between the two bills. Lets get kind of top line, what are some of the key differences that this so called Conference Committee, the two sides of capitol hill, as they get together to try and figure out what the bill will be that will go to the white house. Thats right, that is what he had are doing. The house and senate will appoint select members to join the Conference Committee part of duking out what ends up being, they hope, the final bill. Lets talk about the most important big sweeping parts of this. How about you and i, individuals, what is what is happening here in these bills both plans would cut tax rates but also limit deductions. So while most people would see a tax rate go down, the effect on you really depends on how many deductions if any you take. That is why we see some people with a big cut, some people might see their taxes go up. The big difference also to remember there is that for the senate, those individual tax cuts are temporary. The senate says theyre counting on those being extended later but it really isnt quite clear. Lets talk about the other big, you know, gorilla in the room here. Corporate tax cut. That is where the republicans are the most excited about. For businesses, what these plans do, one they both cut the Corporate Tax rate to 20 from the current 35 . And then also the senate one difference here is that the senate would have a larger tax cut for so called passthrough businesses. Those are weeses that sometimes are owneroperated, usually small skorps and different kinds of businesses that might be owner operated like an accountant or could be donald trump himself. He has a passthrough. If we were just talking about what you just mentioned without getting into the real details of the plan, do you think the two bodies could be together, close enough . Yes, very close and they both have incredibly high motivation to pass these tax cuts. Obrien so the devil is in the details, lets go into them. First of all we know that the Affordable Care act came front and center. And the mandate for coverage. Tell us what each side has determined on that. This is actually one of the trickier issues. The senate has repealed the individual mandate, requiring all americans to get Health Insurance. There would be no penalty if the Senate Version of this tax cut bill went through. The house bill however did not touch health care at all in this particular way. And that is a big difference not just in philosophy but also in dollars. By doing that the senate raised over 300 billion dollars that they put into tax cuts. But miles, the issue on the house side is they have a lot of moderate members who are worried about people losing Health Insurance or not signing up for Health Insurance if the mandate is not in place. Obrien all right, tom, the individual mandate which is part of obamacare, the Affordable Care act, that is something that gets right into middle class country. There is obviously still a conference report that needs to come out here. What is this going to mean for the mid e8 class, do you think . I want to teak a step back first. Because done all trump as we all know was elected by sort of a remarkable series of events, well, a blue clar voters who left the Democratic Party and went and voted for him. Its very similar to the phenomenon that i documented in kansas many years ago. Populist conservatism. And trmp did it by talking to these people about what had happened to their communities, the deindustrialization, bad trade deals, the sort of raw deal that working class people have got in this country for a long time. Now ironically it looks like the one big thing donald trump is going to get done his first year in office is deliver a huge Corporate Tax cut. You know, and there is an enormous irony in. This but this is how it plays out again and again and again with these guys. Is that they act populist to get elected. And then once they are in office, of course they turn around and do theetion stu pendous favors for their friends in the c suites, as for the individual mandate, this is going to make ultimately make health care more expensive in this country. I dont think it will repealing the individual mandate which is by the way the most unpopular part of obamacare, but the rest of obamacare, the Affordable Care act really depends on it. You take that away, its going to be, i dont think it will kill obamacare but its not going to be healthy. What do you think about removing the mandate. Is that something that is absolutely essential to make this whole tax plan work . The shortterm impact on getting rid of the Obamacare Mandate is one of beneficial for lower income people. Something that people dont quite think about is that 80 of the people who are paying the pan date are American Families making under 50,000 dollars, right. So these are people who for whatever reason, maybe because health care is still too expense ef. Those premiums are higher. They cant afford them or whatever. They decide not to buy insurance. They have to pay a premium. They have to pay an extra tax. So these in the shortterm talking just specifically about this bill, these are the guys who are going to be benefiting from repealing the pan date. Obrien lets go to lisa. Lisa walk us through what both student, graduate students in particular. Colleges and universities, there are two things, there is a lot of details but the two biggest ones, first of all that Student Interest loan deduction, they that almost elected Bernie Sanders president because he wanted to change that the house would remove that deduction. So those who have Student Loans could no longer deduct the interest. The senate keeps that provision. Now also kind of in similar philosophy the graduate student measure that youre talking about, graduate institutes now get free tuition even though they are technically employees they teach their own classes. The house would tax the value of that tuition so that say you work, you are a graduate teud at mit, tuition 49,000. That would be taxed as income under the house plan, the senate would not tax that, that is a very big hit to those graduate teud students bottomline. Why are they going after the poor grad institutes. You have have the keyword, poor, these are people who are politically weak, powerless, who are identified as with the Democratic Party. You look at universities and who they donate to the top donors of barack o bma and Hillary Clinton will be all of your research universities. And so this is a political target and people that cant really defend themselves. I was a graduate student once by the way. In case your viewers dont understand this, this is strictly a paper transaction t is not like the university gives you the money and you give it back to them. You never actually see the money, and so it is going to force the university to do some accounting work around or Something Like that but no, it is just a way, it is just making a vulgar gesture at the other guys core constituency veronique, vulgar gesture, do you think . I dont know. I wont question their motives because i just dont know what their motives are. But one of the things i find questionable is that they have left, and there is no doubt economicically that this is income, this is income. And by the way, under the tax plans these guys who benefit for doubling the deduction, lower marginal rate,s and so be and so forth, right. So it may not actually end up being as bad as they think. But what i find questionable is that they have left otherwise a lot of money on the table of like tax preferences that they could have gone after that clearly benefit higher income individuals. For instance, they made this deal about the state and local Tax Deduction and the exemption, the 10,000 exemption, right . This benefits people who itemize, who are vast majority are in the top income bracket, same thing with their mortgage interest deduction, there is just a lot of tax preferences that they have left on the table that would have actually gone towards more simp if i kaition and that i would have been, you know, maybe better to focus on this. Obrien we have to leave it there. Veronique de rugy, tom frank, lisa desjardins, thank you all for this wonderful taxing discussion. Obrien we turn now to the growing russia file that special Counsel Robert Mueller is accumulating. The president himself added to it over the weekend after Michael Flynns guilty plea. P. J. Tobia begins our coverage. I feel badly for general flynn. I feel very badly. Reporter President Trump voiced sorrow for his former National Security adviser this morning, and took another shot at an old foe. Hillary clinton lied many times to the f. B. I. Flynn lied once and they destroyed his life. I think its a shame. Reporter retired general flynn pled pleaded guilty friday to lying to the f. B. I. About his contacts with Russian AmbassadorSergey Kislyak during the transition. That touched off a running response from the president , starting saturday morning with his renewed claim that theres no evidence of any election conspiracy with the russians. Theres been absolutely no collusion, so were very happy. Reporter hours later on twitter, he was back, with this i had to fire general flynn, he wrote, because he lied to the Vice President and the f. B. I. Mr. Trump had said before that he fired flynn, on february 13, for lying to the Vice President. The reference to lying to the f. B. I. Is key because former f. B. I. Director james