The senate floor. Lawmakers hours away from this big vote on a tax reform fwhal would completely change the american tax system as we know it. And unexpected serious and dramatic problem, senators rushing to negotiate final details and moments ago the republican senator bob corker there on the floor raising a major issue with the bill. Specifically with the socalled trigger. What the trigger would do is basically raise taxes if the economy doesnt grow as quickly as the bill anticipates. So its an automatic thing. If the numbers dont come in right, guess what the taxes go back up. Corkers republican colleagues including senator pat toomey of pennsylvania have become frustrated with corker. This is all playing out on your screen. All of this undoubtedly reaction to the analysis released hours ago by the bipartisan joint committee on taxation. This study shows that the bill would add a trillion dollars to the american deficit over ten years. Trillion dollars is a huge blow to the republicans and the Trump Administration. Who, of course, promised again and again and again this bill will pay for itself. Just listen to the treasury secretary. He talked about the president s tax plan. Not only will this tax plan pay for itself but it will pay down debt. So pay for itself and then extra money to pay down the trillions of dollars in debt. So it is shocking when it comes out that its going to cost a trillion dollars never mind one of those things. So what is the secretary talking about . Its hard to say. The New York Times is reporting that his own Treasury Office of tax policy does not have a report to back the bosses claims up. Which is pretty amazing. Were hours before the senate could vote on legislation that will impact every single taxpayer in america and lawmakers do not have the report from treasury that backs up the most fundamental claim. Dianne feinstein tweeting, we may vote on the republican tax bill tonight. We dont have a final bill or a Treasury Department analysis. This is outrageous. Bill mattingly is out front from capitol hill. Phil, obviously this is an 11th hour drama that is playing out. Where does the debate stand . Its unexpected and very serious. You set the stage perfectly. To provide context here, why the senators were on the floor is to vote for a the kraic amendment that was largely considered pro forma. Republicans walk in, vote against it, walk out. It wasnt expected to be problematic at all. It turned into a major scene inside the well of the senate. Im told from several aides that senators not named bob corker are furious now. One that it happened publicly and so problematic to the bill. You talked exclusively about what the trigger is. Here are the issues. First and foremost, the trigger wont fly with the budget rules that are required under the process the republicans are working under. So that is flnow out the door. The other is that jct report. They said the modelling is wrong and say any number of different things. Bob corker has not. Several aids telling me seized on this issue. Not only does he want tax increases, some type of tax increases to be in this bill, he now wants more money than he want wld he was drafting the triger in the first place. Here are the options right now. Im told there are several, erin. One of them is possibly increasing the Corporate Tax rate. They would bring down to 20 after six years. Stepping it up on a basis of. 5 over the next couple of years. The other option is perhaps reinstituting the amt. Both on the corporate and individual side. Then there is another option too. Lose bob corker. I think the big issue right snou there were three senators that wi withholding votes on the floor. Jeff flake, also a deficit hawk was with bob cork eastern ron johnson. We talked about before wants him more expanded tax cut for past through entities. Problem is those two issues run head long into each other. If you want to address senator johnsons issues, you have to add more money. If you add more money, you have Serious Problems with bob corker and jeff flake. What Republican Leaders are doing right now behind the scenes, drafting multiple options to see if there is a way forward. The key point here is senate Republican Leaders this morning were talking about the possibility of finishing this bill, final vote, get through the vote around everything by the end of the day. That is very clearly not on the table right now. Instead, theyre back to the drawing board on one of the most central pieces of their entire plan and they are actively considering raising taxes on americans in a republican proposal. That is something that would be like any republican and yet right now thats at least one of the issues theyre left with. All right. Phil, thank you very much. Explaining the details. So heres the thing. Everything its hard to overstate how much this matters to the president. If he doesnt get this legislative victory, it is a massive failure. He needs it. Were out front at the white house. Sarah, now the president obviously seeing this drama play out. The white house says hes been working the phones. But this is unexpected for the president as well. Well, thats right, erin. I think thats part of the reason we were talking to senior white house aides today. They said the president feels good about this. Were feeling positive about the direction that things are going. We think were going to get the votes. Nobodys popping champagne corks in the west wing and thats because they have seen major pieces of legislation go down before. They remember the lessons of health care. They remember what it feels like to be close to a victory and have it snatched out from underneath you. So that is exactly what they were afraid of happening when it comes to tax reform. Now we know the president has been a little upset lately. We have seen his twitter feed. We have seen him lashing out. We seen him tweeting andy muslim videos, going after news executives. Hes getting some advice from his allies. Theyre saying, look, you need to calm down, you need to stay focused on tax reform. Most importantly, you need to not give anyone a reason to want to vote against you at this point. That is the advice he is getting. So why is the president still stug . He feels like hes not getting credit for any of his accomplish ments. You can check out the twitter feed to see him tweeting about the stock market, the economy, trying to get more support and, of course, more applause for what he thinks he has done right. Thank you very much, sarah. I want to go now to Rick Santorum from pennsylvania. Our senior political commentator and gene sperlg, speakersperlin. Now we have the drama. Oftentimes you see them and say okay, theyll figure it out. The track record thus far is there is huge failures. Theyre going to figure this out or not . Oh, yeah. Obviously, there is ligit drama. Theyre tl are serious issues here. But there is no doubt in my mind that there will be 50 votes whether its late tonight or whether its tomorrow. There will be 50 votes to pass a bill out of the United States senate. And the one thing that i think you need to Pay Attention to is the two names and the people that are the most problematic right now, bob cork easteer and flake. Throws are the two people that the president has gone after and attacked. You can say that had nothing to do with the other, maybe it didnt. But neither of them feel a particular affinity to the president that they have to do something to help him. Both of them are now leaving office. In part because of President Trumps opposition to them. President trump has to understand that there are consequences to some of the things he does, particularly within his own party in alienating people come the very crucial votes. Neither of these folks should be where they are right now. Whether they lose both of them or not, i dont know. I think ron johnson will get back onboard. I think theyll have the 50 votes to do it. I know theyre working both of those issues. But there is a problem that is in part created by this administration. And, gene, what is your take . I know certainly you would agree with the senators analysis of that. Do you agree this will get done . Theyll get there . Look, i think were watching a fierce battle between desperation on one hand and incompetence and irresponsibility on the other side. And, you know, its possible desperation might win. But its nothing to be proud of. I mean, erin, lets just step back. You guys have all given great analysis so far. But lets just remember they are by design increasing the deficit by 1. 5 trillion. No party, not when Rick Santorum and i were sevenirving together one ever thought through that. Even in the face of that, they design a plan that would raise taxes or give no tax cut to virtually 80 of americans by 2027 when its fully implemented . Ien into is fair why are they in this situation . Because they built a tax plan, a tax strategy on a fundamental lie. If they give hundreds of billions of dollars, deficit increase to the major corporations that somehow that is going to lead to wage increases when over the last 16 years weve seen corporate profits go do near record levels and the percentage of that money going to employee compensation, going near record low levels. So let me ask you about that, senator. That is the core of this, right . If youre going to say i dont believe the trillion dollar deficit number. Youre going to say i dont. Then you have to be betting on the by the way, president obama put together the stimulus package. Nobody offset that. That was added to the deficit. And here Gene Sperling and others complaining about deficits. How many wrongs make a right. That wasnt a wrong. That was a deep recession. They suggest its Government Spending and what republicans are saying is, no, we need to unshackle this economy and we need to release lt what are you going to the whole bet is were going to cut the Corporate Tax rate. Thats the core of this. It is. And then the money is going to come home. Theyll have a lower tax collate is liar thhigher than a lot of countries and theyre going to increase it to wages. Senator, why . Why would they do that . If you create more Economic Growth and more jobs, youre in an economy that is already starting to see for the first time in 20 years as gene pointed out wages beginning to come up. Why . Because president has done something about immigration. The president actually been in a position where he is trying to say, look, we need labor markets that work for wage earners, not just salaries employees. I think the combination of trade and immigration and now more Economic Growth. What about what he had to do with immigration which is unskilled labor which stopped because of the slowdown . You have unemployment rates at 3 . Almost fuel employmell emplo. Weve seen illegal immigration come into the country soaking up a lot of the other jobs. They are low skilled workers. Thats you see wages going up. We dont have as much of an influx of workers coming into this country. Gene . First of all, the one thing donald trump has done right is follow barack obama. Because he inherited a strong economy. What about the immigration point though, gene . Do you give that to the senator . I give him absolutely nothing. Wages were already going up. The idea you no he what would lep wi help with wages is if you had more people undocumented right now feeling they had a path to citizenship and come out of the shadows. That would help wages go up. Thats what would help. But the real issue is that there is no connection here. Its got to be embarrassing for Rick Santorum to have to defend a plan that raises the deficit by 1. 5 trillion that even after you have aggressive optimistic dynamic scoring still has the official score keepers as of tonight saying its going to increase the deficit by a trillion dollars. And, yet, its still by a time its fully implemented, raises taxes on most middle income americans. Ill leave it there since the senator began the conversation. He would like to get a comment. But well go that way for fairness. Thanks to both. And next, speaking of embarrassment, President Trump publicly shaming his secretary of state on purpose. He is trying to humiliate Rex Tillerson to quitting because hes afraid of firing him . Plus, its now confirmed. A former Senate Investigation launch flood al frankens alleged misconduct, there are five accusers and the white house saying the president likely didnt know that he was retweeting a White NationalistGroup Whether he promoted three antimuslim videos. How many times do they have to give that same excuse . Were out front. Well, like most of you, i just bought a house. Oh very nice. Now im turning into my dad. I text in full sentences. I refer to every child as chief. This hat was free. What am i supposed to do, not wear it . Next thing you know, im telling strangers defense wins championships. Well, it does. Right . Why is the door open . Are we trying to air condition the whole neighborhood . At least i bundled home and auto on an internet website, progressive. Com. Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto. I mean, why would i replace this . Its not broken. You can do it. We can do this. At fidelity, our online planning tools are clear and straightforward so you can plan for retirement while saving for the things you want to do today. Whoo when does a business trip really start . 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Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Just managing your symptoms . Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. The president trying to publicly shame the secretary of state. A source telling cnn that white house purposely circulated a story today that president is considering replacing Rex Tillerson with cia director mike pompeo to express the president s displeasure with tillerson. He was asked directly about there today and heres his answer. Do you want Rex Tillerson on the job, mr. President . Hes here. Rex is here. Were out front at the state department. And michelle, look, the president tillerson hasnt had the most cozy relationship. Last month at a press conference to deny reports that he called trump a moron. But obviously you would think if trum Health Care Plan real problems or wanted to talk to him in private, that is not how this president works. Will tillerson take the bait . I dont think that white house feels that tillerson deserved that. It is clear that they wanted to do this in this way because of those simmering tensions that clearly now did not go away. And tillerson doesnt have a choice now. I feel like the choice he really has is to either go quietly, we know hes been a man of few words. Or to go loudly and do Something Like give an interview where he publicly reacts to. This but a source close to the white house says that, yes, this was a narrative that was finally put out by the white house to express that extreme displeasure over tillerson and his tight inner circle. Theyre not now considered to be staunch trump supporters. And this source acknowledged that this is a public shaming of tillerson and the goal is to wait for limb to punch out and that clock is ticking. I did ask, you flow, isnt this a sad way of doing things . And the response was, is it though and tillerson should have seen the writing on the wall. So nobody wants to leave the sta state department unmanned. We could see tillerson stay but how excruciating is this going to be through the end of the year at least, possibly longer. Were not so sure and not really sure if the white house is completely sure who will then replace pompeo, erin. Thank you very much, michelle. And, of course, there is always this possibility, right. Everybody you could say Rex Tillerson could say its excruciating for me. It is way more excruciating for him if i sit here and force him to fire me. There is that. Out front now, editor the alarge for cnn politics. It does come down to in a sense to that. Because this is a president who likes to say youre fired publicly. Its part of his brand. But he actually is pretty meek about doing it. Sure. But the writing has been on the wall for this. I mean we know that this is a secretary of state who privately called the president a moron and then held a press conference to not disavow it. To a great degree. They disagreeden issues. The president tweeted about rex wasting his time negotiating with north korea. I was told this evening by a very good source that there is a disagreement over moving the embassy to jerusalem. There is a lot of disagreement. I think that there has been trouble in terms of tillerson and reorganization of the state department. And that there are a lot of complaining from dip low plats