Transcripts For CNNW At This Hour With Kate Bolduan 20171128

Senators on the committee voicing concern and a handful of others also on the fence. So where exactly do things stand . What does this all mean for your tax bill . Lets get over to capitol hill first to cnns Congressional Correspondent Phil Mattingly there with more. Its like almost like super bowl sunday. Were almost at super bowl sunday, like on super bowl saturday well call it. Other than waiting for a food fight, my friend, where do things stand right now . Look, you kind of your tease was spot on right there. Theres two senators that everybody is keeping an eye on, senator ron johnson of wisconsin and senator bob corker of tennessee. Theyre on the Senate Budget committee and i know you just are desperate for Senate Budget Committee Markups, just watching them, with tense hands as they go through but this one really, really matters and you nailed why. Republicans have a 12 to 11 advantage on that committee. Senator ron johnson, senator bob corker say theyre currently no on the plan unless there are changes before that 2 30 committee meeting. If they lose one of them, this bill will not be approved by the committee. Now, looking at their issues, i think this is where its important right now because they represent where other senators are, too, that are still on the fence. For ron johnson about pass through income, business entities that pass through their income and taxed at individual rates. Ron johnson wants the cut in the senate bill, kind of through a credit, to go deeper and to be expanded. He wants it to be more parody wise when it comes to the corporate side of things. Heres the rub on that, that costs money, like a lot of money, more than 100 billion. Thats 100 billion not only do republicans not currently have to work with based on the budget rules theyre working under but runs head long into what senator bob corker wants. Bob corker representing people like jeff flake, james langford, very concerned about deficit issues. Doesnt want the 1. 5 trillion package it to add to the deficit over the long term. So youre adding money to appease one senator and potentially lose another senator. This is the balancing act they have going on. To take you behind the scenes a lot of meetings, a lot of phone calls, Administration Officials on a fullcourt press here. Ive been told a lot of Administration Officials working specifically on senator ron johnson and worked through the night last night to try to get there. Heres the reality, theyre not there yet. And so what we have is kind of a standoff right now. Senator ron johnson making clear he still planning to vote no in committee. Mitch mcconnell and other leaders saying theyre planning to move forward. How this ends people dont really have an answer right now. And i think thats why you are going to be glued to your webcast of the Senate Budget Committee Markup at 2 30 today, kate. Grabbing the popcorn, no question about it. Glued. Great to see you, phil. Its just as easy as that. See, everybody, phil has it figured out. If anyone tells you they know what theyre talking about and how this will end up, they are lying to you. Great to see you, phil. Thank you. That is the state of play as of this second well go with. A closer look at one of the hangups phil was talking about there. What theyre fighting over and ha it means for you. Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans is here. There are so many layers of this, lets start with the pass through. Why does this matter so much . It really matter because this is a Sticking Point right now that theyre trying to that theyre trying to figure out here. So how do pass through businesses work . Lets start there. These are Company Earnings that pass to the owners of a business as phil said, llc or an s corp. The profits are taxed as personal income at the personal income tax rate not at the 35 Corporate Tax rate that is the stated rate we have right now, were expecting that congress is going to cut that Corporate Tax rate to about 20 . Where does that leave theses pass through businesses . These companies, Small Business owners, some mid and big Business Owners paying their corporate earnings or the corporate profits through their personal taxes. The house pillowers that tax rate on the pass through entities to 25 . More complicated in the senate reducing taxable income for a lower rate. The problem, the big concerns from people like senator ron johnson it doesnt lower it enough. Might not lower it to 25 , certainly doesnt lower it to 20 which the big corporations pay and so theres this feeling that some of the Small Businesses might not be getting the big tax relief the big businesses are. Heres an important statistic, kaishgts everyone should really keep in mind as were having this discussion. A university of chicago economist found 69 of all pass through income goes to the top 1 . So the risk here, the risk here fizz you give more relief to those pass through entities, in fact, it does continue to tilt tax reform here, these tax cuts, to the rich and to the well off at the expense of the middle class and everybody else. And this is why, i mean this is just one element that is a hangup, a very important hangup, for a couple senators. This is why breaking this down piece by piece is so important. Because it can just get lost in the jargon being thrown around right now, and its important for everyone to understand it. Christine, thank you so much. Discuss the pass through and hangups. Former republican congressman jack kingsen to here, a commentator, a Senior Adviser to the trump campaign, john was chief of staff to former democratic senator max baucus, kevin is the political commentator and former adviser to mitt romney working with groups to help push for passage of this tax bill in the senate. Let us begin, kevin, start with you, this president first and foremost whats happening the president is heading to capitol hill for another lunch with this it was house last time, the senate this time, what is the president s job today . Pep rally, twist arms, make deals, throw food . No matter what, what can he do . The pep rally part of it. Keep driving attention about how important this is to him, amongst his base voters. The president , you know, i think his actual time on capitol hill today my wish list would be to do no harm, dont tick off bob corker, dont tick off a big ask. He just hasnt shown working over individual senators and growing the vote. What he has shown a deafness for is elevating and animating this as an issue amongst his most core supporters. When those people start picking up the phones or start emailing their senators, it can have a very important impact on this debate and can possibly in the long run change some minds. I mean, some minds need to be changed. Thats the bottom line. Theyre not there yet. They are not there, no. We have a conference to go to. It if we pass this we still have a conference to go to. Dont get me so excited. Thats why tax reform has taken 30 years since the last one. Thats why you also have to have a deal cut though because jeff flake and bob corker are not running for reelection and theyre not going to be swayed by calls back home. They want to know what its going to be in this bill to safeguard against increasing deficits. I think that kevin is right, but the other part is, you absolutely have to have a deal cut for those guys. Where do you see a deal being cut . If you take as phil laid it out, if you and you just look and take Budget Committee as the example, you get ron johnson, you lose bob corker. You get bob corker you might lose ron johnson. This is nearly impossible stuff. I think the concept of a trigger if the deficit is going up because the tax cuts arent helping the economy, arent helping the deficit, then what senator corker wants is some sort of trigger that says we have to back off these. And, you know, i think if we traditional republicans are right that tax cuts increase revenues we should be confident and say okay well cut that deal because we believe were right and never have to use the trigger. If you do that you dont necessarily affect the financial part which is what daines and johnson have to have. John, there seems to be genuine optimism, though, still, genuine optimism that at the end of this, theyre going to get there, republicans will get there, and that this is different fundamentally different, politically maybe than health care because in the end, they want to get there. Your expertise is taxes and also what the heck goes on behind closed doors in the senate. Where do you see things going right now . Look, i mean, i always thought wed get Health Reform done because at the end of the day youre a democrat because you support health care for americans. Right. I think the same is kind of true with taxes, right. The republican brand is tax cuts. So at the end of the day, my gut is theyll get something. Im just not sure its going to look a lot like what they have on the floor now. Because of the complications that weve been talking about here where you have some who want a big are tax cut, some worried about the deficit. Do you think it only gets through with only republicans . Oh, yeah. Theres no grand deal to be cut here. Unless the deal changes substantially and theres a good reason for that. This is a very unpopular bill. And its very unpopular because as christine was pointing out it already tilts heavily towards corporations and wealthy people and actually raises taxes quite significantly on middle and lower income americans. And that is never a recipe for popularity. I mean, kevin, thats what some of the estimates are saying, how do you sell it otherwise . How is this how do you make this, how do you change these headlines of whats coming out from the cbo . And elsewhere . I think as, you know, johns reference to some of the polls and popularity, partisan tribalism takes over no matter what bill is on the floor. We have to remember that, you know, president obama when he was in office, he promoted a corporate reduction as well as tax reform for individual rates. So, you know, because this isnt an obama bill theres a lot of democrat opposition. I think ultimately you to make the growth tase that Jack Kingston was making before, what that reform to the corporate rate does to create a more competitive atmosphere for american businesses big and small and the worker benefits when it comes to wages and increased job growth. So i think those are the key tenants of republican vision for tax reform that they have to keep hammering home. Going back to the partisan part this is a popular bill amongst republicans and john is right, this is going to be passed with pretty much strictly down the line party vote. As long as there is that buoy republican support for this, there is a good chance for this bill to become law. But i know i keep hitting on this, congressman, and i want to get you on this, what is quintessentially republican if its not talking about tax cuts is also, deficit and tackling the deficit. Bob corker said this morning on fox that that, obviously, is one of his huge hangups and how he explains his case, listen to this. Ive been a deficit hawk for 11 years. What i dont want do is lose my integrity and actually help hurt our nation and our children when we have 20 trillion in debt. Yeah. I mean, if thats the case, how does he get how do you see him getting to yes at all . You know what, i think that senator corker, senator flake, and i think all of them, senator langford, they are deficit hawks and sincere about their arguments and i think that its incumbent on us as republicans led by Mitch Mcconnell and the senate, in this case, to say look, we agree with you, weve got to do something about this and thats why im saying give them the trigger. If were wrong, we should say lets go back to the table. But both kennedy and reagan have proven with substantial tax cuts that you grow the economy and revenues do increase. If you just look at whats happened with less regulation under President Trump, the stock market has gone up 28 . Black be friday broke all records, at least with online sales, and so the economy is coming back strong. I wont go back to reagan but i dont know with bush it helped. Bush had a war, though. Its a different issue. All of them are different. Congressman, thats an important point about the trigger and its one of the reasons why the trigger is such a terrible idea. Because we dont know whats going to happen and if there is an economic youp downturn that is the event that would make the trigger go into effect and raise taxes at exactly the worst point to do that. Right . So that totally out of Congress Control at that point. So as an economic matter its a very bad idea to institute a trigger. The smarter thing to do is pass a fiscally responsible tax cut in the first place and find wasteful corporate loopholes to close in order to make sure that this thing balances out in the right way from the getgo. First things first, find out whats on the menu for lunch and then figure out what happens in the Budget Committee, i will get the popcorn. Not sure what you guys are going to bring. I hope its alcohol because you can drink it because i wont for the next month and a half. Great to see you. Thanks so much. Great to be here. Coming up tonight, a programming note i want to remind you of, live cnn debate, bernie sanders, ted cruz, tim scott, maria cantwell. All will be battling it out both sides of the tax reform issue tonight at 9 00 eastern. You will hear what you just heard at this table, and you will hear much more tonight in important discussion to be had. Still ahead for us, the president coming under fire for calling a senator pocahontas for the umpteenth time in front of this time, though, native american war heros. I will speak with the leader of one prominent American Indian group who says Donald Trumps comments smacks of racism and this is just coming into cnn, two Senate Committees in a fight over Jared Kushners sworn testimony. Could the president s soninlaw because of this fight be headed back to the hill . D thousands of. Shes a worldclass swimmer whos stared down the best in her sport. But for both of them, the most challenging opponent was. Pe blood clots in my lung. It was really scary. A dvt in my leg. I had to learn all i could to help protect myself. My doctor and i choose xarelto® xarelto®. To help keep me protected. Xarelto® is a latestgeneration blood thinner. Thats proven to treat and reduce the risk of dvt and pe blood clots from happening again. In clinical studies, almost 98 of patients on xarelto® did not experience another dvt or pe. Heres how xarelto works. Xarelto® works differently. Warfarin interferes with at least six bloodclotting factors. Xarelto® is selective. 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Breaking news coming in, two Senate Committees fighting over transcripts of Jared Kushners testimony in their various russia investigations. This fight could also now force a president s soninlaw back to the hill for a return visit but what does this mean and whats a fight over . Cnns senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju has the details for us. What is going on here . The Senate Judiciary committee sent a letter to Jared Kushner earlier this month asking him for a number of records they said they had not received as part of their investigation into russian meddling and any communications he had with russians and one of the things that they asked for was a copy of a transcript that of an interview that Jared Kushner agreed to do with the Senate Intelligence committee and the house Intelligence Committee back in july. Now, the Senate Judiciary committee has not interviewed Jared Kushner yet but theyre saying they would be willing to forgo the interview if theyre ibl able to get a copy of this transcript from either of those two other committees. Now we talked to the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman richard burr who said flatly no. They are not going to hand over that trips over to the Senate Judiciary committee. The soninlaw could come back to capitol hill for further questioning by the committee if their questions are not answered. I asked chucks grassley if they wanted to bring kushner back for an interview theyre trying to get documents from Jared Kushner on a numbe