if you say no, (202) 748-8001 send (202) 748-8001. send us a tweet. all eyes on the house and senate. we will have the coverage on the c-span network, but first we will tell you what is in the bill. the corporate tax rate will drop to 21% from a current rate of 39%. the top individual income tax 37%.drops from 39.6% to it increases the standard deduction for all who take it. businesses will get a 20% discount on the individual tax rate. the alternative minimum tax is .etained but it is narrow the corporate alternative minimum tax is taken out. state and local productions are capped at $10,000. student loan interest remains deductible while graduate student loans do not. joining us is bernie becker who has been following this for politico. walk us through the schedule this week. what can we expect? guest: we expect the house to take this up on tuesday. after that, it would move to the senate. president trump hopes to sign this by the middle of the week and by all accounts,
the latest analysis that we have seen suggested that 72% of the benefits go to the top 5%. my guess is 60% of the benefits will go to the top 1%. at the end of the decade, because the benefits for the middle class are temporary but corporate benefits are permanent, at the end of the decade, over half of the middle class will be paying more in taxes. what we are seeing is a massive attack on the middle class. the administration says and republicans say that yes the tax cuts expire for the middle , its, but knowing politics seems reasonable in the way washington works. is it fair to say? go ahead. sen. van hollen: they are. sen. sanders: they are. the way this bill is written, the tax breaks for corporations are permanent. why weren t the tax breaks for the middle class made permanent? it has to do with the priorities of the folks who wrote the legislation. their job is to represent multinational corporations, not working families. for more on congress and the tax reform
that was done in ronald reagan s signature 1986 tax reform a month before it passed, 18% of the people polled thought they would benefit. this is the nature of the debate on things this big like tax reform. you have pundits and spinsters confusing theers public, so that is what is happening with tax reform, like any large piece of legislation. what comforts me as the results will produce fantastic results that improve the lives of hard-working taxpayers in this country. i am convinced it will repatriate capital, launch investment in businesses and workers. i am convinced it will give bigger paychecks, a simpler system. doubling the standard deduction means nine out of 10 people can fill out taxes on a form like a postcard. the results will be what sells this will, bill, not the confusion before it passes. host: bernie becker, i want to share this headline from the new york times. speaker ryan saying many americans could fill out their taxes on a postcard. is that the case?
also how we deal with international competition, which was damaging to the united states much of that gets fixed. it is tax reform like the bipartisan 1986 tax reform fix, but his rate reduction progrowth . the president and speaker ryan said that you can do your taxes on a postcard. will that be the case? can.r: 80% to 90% right now, two thirds of americans use the standard induction. i do not have to itemize their deductions. 95%.will go up to at least 90% of americans will have the benefit of it. the do not need to, because they get a larger standard deduction before doubling it. so yeah, it will be easier for most people. some will have more complicated ones family like. there s more to be done. happenexplain what will to the alternative minimum tax for individuals. not corporations, but individuals. grover: we hope to abolish it completely. because of senate rule constraints, we were not able to. i think we should get rid of it, because any tax consultation it camet ca
perpetuating the problems of the looking more or just that what we think we can do and not looking squarely at what the country needs to do. those can be two different things. does the department do any recalculation of revenues on the chance we could go a bit longer if congress tales to send the president the bill and are there any contingency steps the department is taking in case that doesn t happen? them when we think about the impact when we think about the impact, it is not a small impact. internal to d.o.t., probably 4000 of our employees that would be furloughed. they range from folks on the federal highway administration who do permitting work to federal motive carriers. those are primarily the agencies that would be impacted. external to d.o.t. we send out letters to all of the states and the territories, explaining what we would do in terms of cash management in the event that we started to go below the balance. he s sensually portion of those states and perc