Works and when you could be seeing a difference in your paycheck. Liftoff. And sky show. The dazzling display overnight. For a second we thought it was santa claus. The rocket launch thats creating confusion and excitement. What this mission is all about. All right. Good morning. Happy day before the day before christmas. Paula is off but were very lucky to have ace Congressional Correspondent mary bruce filling in. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Watch out for that one. Ive heard about you. Ive been warned. Thank you for having me and on such a busy day in politics and in the runup to christmas. Yes, so were dealing with two big preholiday storms. Look at the radar from the eastern half of the country. One of the storms hitting right now, the other, theres the radar, will swoop in on Christmas Eve. Rob will have more on those storms coming up but start with a pair of preholiday terrorrelated stories. One of them just breaking overnight involving a series of shootings targeting Police Officers in and around harrisburg, pennsylvania. Police say the suspect who is now dead had recently traveled to the middle east. Yeah, police are investigating whether this was an act of terror. Meanwhile, police in San Francisco are looking into a foiled Christmas Day attack on a popular tourist spot there. Gloria riviera is covering it all from our washington bureau. Gloria, good morning. Reporter good morning, mary. Thats right. Authorities in harrisburg, pennsylvania, are asking for tips, any information on the man who they say opened fire in three different locations near the state capital. In San Francisco, Authorities Say they thwarted plans of a man planning his own attack for Christmas Day. He was not afraid to fire at different Law Enforcement officers. Reporter this morning officials are investigating if a string of shootings targeting Law Enforcement friday in harrisburg was an act of terror. We believe only one individual was responsible for their shootings. Reporter Police Say Officers shot and killed 51yearold Ahmed Aminamin El mofty after he fired on them riddling a police car with bullets in one location and shooting a state trooper in another. Officials say the suspect has ties to the middle east and recently traveled there. This as authorities arrested a suspected isis sympathizer in california. Everitt aaron jameson, a former marine who was trained as a sharpshooter was planning a Christmas Day attack, they say. His target, one of San Franciscos most popular spots fishermans wharf. Jameson is accused of being an isis sympathizer who expressed support for the new york vehicle attack on halloween that left eight people dead. His father in shock. Thats not how he was raised. Reporter in october, two fbi undercover agents formed an ongoing relationship with jameson after noticing support for isis on his facebook account liking images promoting violence against americans. This kind of tip could have came from anybody in the public and thats what the fbi and Law Enforcement wants in dealing with potential terrorists committing attacks in the u. S. Reporter the fbi then forced to act quickly searching jamesons home in modesto, california. They say they found firearms and a handwritten martyrdom note. The reason the fbi had to move in so fast, one offed agents mistakenly called him from an identifiable d. C. Number. Jameson then told the other agent he had reconsidered going through with his attack. Dan, mary. Gloria, thank you. Now were going to turn to the preholiday rush which is being complicated by weather. Nearly 100 Million People are hitting the road this Holiday Weekend and many of them will be up against two sizable storms. Lets start with our senior meteorologist rob marciano. Hey, guys, snow, ice and rain have been an issue the last 24 hours, record rain across parts of arkansas, pine bluff, a roadway now a river. Four and six inches of rain reported in some areas. You see the heavier rain across the Tennessee Valley getting into colder air across the north and wintry mix north of 84 and 90 especially this morning deicing programs in effect for some airports so thats a dicey go but i95 mostly wet then colder air comes in behind this and sets the stage for potentially the White Christmas coming for denver, getting up into chicago a little bit here on sunday. This is Christmas Eve day then this kind of develops into a coastal low. Its a quick mover so we dont expect a ton for the big cities but it may be just enough to get you in the spirit of things and make travel a little more difficult. Well talk more about this throughout the show, but whats happening today as you head out to travel on the roadways right with eva pilgrim. Reporter good morning. If youre planning to hit the roads, now is the time to do it. You can see there arent that many cars on the road right now. But as you travel today, expect to find some traffic. From coast to coast millions of americans are battling long lines, gridlock and Mother Nature en route to their holiday destinations. My wife was kind of worried about it. Ending up taking off a day early. Reporter 15 states in the path of a major storm. In the northeast several states issuing travel advisories due to dangerous driving conditions. Overnight in missouri the weather staying just below freezing causing slick Road Conditions for drivers. Vehicles slipping off the road. This semi jackknifing as it slid off the highway. And last night in northern texas, lastminute christmas shoppers faced low visibility and snow flurries. Many holiday travelers in massachusetts hoped they could beat the storm. I was going to leave tomorrow morning. And now im going now but im trying to beat it. Reporter roads were so icy in vermont, authorities are asking travelers to avoid a 30mile stretch of interstate. Trying to avoid having to travel if we can. Reporter more than 107 million americans are traveling this holiday season. Most, 97 million are hitting the roads. Experts warning it could take three times longer to get where youre heading. Later flights, more traffic to contend with trying to get to the airport and then long lines at the security checkin. Yeah, those have been interesting challenges. Reporter guys, if youre trying to avoid traffic, the best days to travel, christmas and new years. Not sure that helps you get where youre going though, guys. Eva, thank you. The other major preholiday stressor, of course, is shopping. It is panic time for all of us procrastinators. Youre including yourself. Absolutely. But it turns out this is good news for you. Waiting may have paid off in the form of big bargains and abcs Erielle Reshef is reporting in from the mall in paramus, new jersey. Erielle, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, dan and mary. If you havent done your shopping just yet, you still have a little bit of time, but the clock is ticking. The doors are already open here at this toys r us as millions are expected to flood retailers to get those down to the wire deals. Hope holidays. Reporter just two days left until christmas and the final push to put the perfect presents under the tree. Im running a little late this year. But were going to do a lot of shopping. Reporter Super Saturday looking to be the second busiest shopping day of the entire year. Retailers across the country expecting 53 of consumers to hit the stores this weekend. Its almost christmas, dad. 126 Million People say theyre waiting to scoop up holiday deals. Its raining men reporter the majority of those procrastinators, men. Every year we see men waiting last minute to buy these gifts so probably good chunk actually over 50 of the 126 million adults are going to be men. Reporter shoppers holding out for lastsecond savings. Some of the pros of waiting until the last minute is the fact that a lot of accessories, apparel and especially winter gear items are going to be very heavily discounted. Reporter macys and old Navy Offering discounts up to 70 and we spotted this ninja blender and these Bluetooth Speakers at best buy half off. Big box retailers like toys r us and kohls open 24 hours letting you order online today and pick up in stores on Christmas Eve. You can use the convenience of it by leveraging their websites, buying things that maybe are already available at stores so youre not having to run around and find it. Want to skip the holiday crush completely, gift cards can be the way to go with savings on sites like Gift Card Granny and cardpool. Experts say there can be downsides to waiting until the last minute. A lot of the most popular items on the market especially like toys like this fingerling can sell out so youll want to get moving early and make sure you have an alternative gift in mind and maybe an excuse for the family. Dan, mary. I dont know what that excuse would be but thank you, erielle. Im going to start working on that right now. Were going to turn to politics and President Trump is spending these holidays in florida after celebrating a big, big win for his administration. Yeah, check out that signature yesterday using a very big, bold marker, he signed into law the 1. 5 trillion tax plan. His first major legislative achieve many. Cokie is standing by with her analysis but lets start here with abcs Kenneth Moton who is down in West Palm Beach with what this means for your bottom line. Kenneth. Reporter good morning, mary and dan. President trump is on his first full day of holiday vacation at his maralago resort and he cruised down here to West Palm Beach on a high after delivering on his promise of tax cuts for christmas. A fistpumping President Trump in sunny florida greeted to a warm reception in West Palm Beach. Best president ever reporter the president shaking hands, kissing babies apparently feeling good after his first major legislative victory. So this is the bill right now. Reporter before leaving washington, trump in the oval office signing that 1. 5 trillion tax bill into law. And i consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. Reporter democrats disagree, not one supporting the major tax overhaul. This has been a year of lost opportunities, squandered opportunities. Weve always been open to working with the president when we believe it benefits the american people. Reporter tax changes already in the works. The irs sent out a notice that new 2018 withholding guidelines on the way and taxpayers will begin seeing the changes in their paychecks as early as february. But people in high tax states are bracing. Many in new york, new jersey and california expected to pay a lot more under the new tax law. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order friday to allow residents to prepay next years property taxes. This is an economic dagger because it effectively raises our income tax and property tax 20 , 25 . Reporter the president ready to move on to other big issues in 2018. I really do believe were going to have a lot of bipartisan work done and maybe we start with infrastructure. Reporter republicans argue the 1. 5 trillion tax law will pay for itself through economic growth. Well, a new analysis this morning from the joint committee on taxation, a nonpartisan group, found that it wont. Instead adding 1. 5 or i should say 1 trillion to the deficit by 2027. Dan, mary, of course, as you know gop leaders believe that wont be the case. Big debate there, kenneth, thank you very much. A lot more to say about this. You cover capitol hill, have for quite some time. The president has said im not going to go out, i dont need to go out and sell this thing but thats not what youre hearing from republicans. Look, republicans i talk with know if they want to turn this big legislative win into an actual political win as they head into 2018 they have to get out there and sell this thing. The bill right now is deeply unpopular. As kenneth mentions it will put a big dent in the deficit and there are Big Questions about how the middle class, whether they will really benefit in the long term so republicans have their work cut out for them but as leader mcconnell said the other day, if they cant sell this to the american people, they ought to get into another line of work. Among the reasons why its great to have you on this saturday morning. More on this with abc news political commentator cokie roberts. Good morning. Good morning, Merry Christmas. Thank you, Merry Christmas to you. This bill is as mary just said unpopular right now, but over time as the vast majority of americans do get tax cuts, do you think the bill will become more popular . That is certainly the hope of the republicans. And that was the hope of the democrats when they passed obamacare and didnt work for them. Now obamacare is popular but it took years. And that might be true with this tax bill as well. The people who are likely to be immediately happy are people who will get the big child care deductions, because thats a credit. Thats just subtracted from your taxes and some of those people might end up paying no taxes at all. But the vast majority of people will have to see whether they actually feel it or not and then whether they get credit on that because thats not where the Political Energy is right now. Political energy isnt around taxes. Its around things Like Health Care and education and immigration, and so well see whether it really benefits the republicans or whether they are going to find themselves in a hole because of it. Cokie, you mentioned health care there. The president claims this is not only a tax bill but also an appeal of obamacare. Is this really the twofer that he is claiming . Is he right . You know better than anybody having covered this like a cheap suit, mary. The truth is that it does take away the mandate, the taxations really if you dont get health care, but thats all it does. And obamacare is still there, and a whole lot of people signed up for it this year, many more people than expected. So, americans are now ironically liking their health care under the obama plan and using it. Cokie roberts, really appreciate it, such a privilege to have a great conversation with two great political reporters on a saturday morning, thank you, both. Lets get it over to ron claiborne. Early christmas gift, late hanukkah gift. Whats popping . Good morning. Good morning. Good morning to you, mary and adrienne and my friend, robert. Good morning to you. Good morning, everyone. I got the news for you in washington, were going to begin with the Trump Administration approving the sale of antitank weapons including javelin missiles to ukraine. The state department announcing the decision late friday night saying its part of a u. S. Effort to help ukraine defend itself against russianbacked separatists and russell responding this morning saying the ukandu states, quote, in a certain sense crossed the line and american weapons can lead to new victims to which they cannot remain indifferent. In pennsylvania, residents of bethlehem warned to shelter in place during a ninehour standoff friday between a gunman and police. Police say the 36yearold suspect shot his mother outside her home and then he barricaded himself inside her home firing shots at police. The standoff ended when the suspect shot himself. Both he and his mother died in that incident. In wisconsin, a violent dispute between former coworkers at green bays Lambeau Field football stadium, officers say a stadium vendor fired earlier after a physical altercation with a coworker went after the same man with his car chasing him through the parking lot crash nothing another vehicle and damaging four others. The driver was arrested. The man he was allegedly chasing was not hurt in that incident. And the United Nations unanimously approving tough new sanctions against north korea in response to last months launch of a Ballistic Missile that north korea says could reach the u. S. The resolution lowers the limit on how much oil north korea can import and cracks down on ships smuggling illegal imports into the country and also requires north koreans working overseas to return home within the next two years. In Southern California the thomas fire near Santa Barbara that has scorched more than 270,000 acres over the past thee weeks has now become the states largest wildfire in its history. And its not over yet. The California Department of forestry and Fire Protection reported as of friday night the fire was still only 65 contained. And finally the duke Football Team is set to play Northern Illinois in this years quick lane bowl in detroit, but before heading to motown, some players in the Christmas Spirit were inspired to belt out this little number. Check it out. Hes making a list hes checking it twice hes gonna find out whos naughty or nice santa claus is coming to town thats cool. The b