[ applause ] good afternoon. My name is don heller and i am provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs here at the university of San Francisco. On behalf of father fitzgerald, president of the university whos traveling on business today, i welcome you to the university to the university and our hill top campus. Its kwai it here on campus as students are on break still but i encourage you all to come back at 6 30 tonight this evening and join us in war memorial gym at our Mens Basketball Team takes on the 15thranked zags of gonzaga university. I wont guarantee a win but i think well do well. Were pleased to host this. U. S. F has deep rooting in policy making so its fitting were hosting this event today. We count among our graduates lynn woolsey, former member of the u. S. House of representatives. Acting San Francisco mayor listen don breed and speaker of the California Assembly kevin mullen. Next month we will be hosting on campus through our leo mccarthy cent center. Starting with former Los Angeles MayorAntonio Villaraigosa on the first and Lieutenant Governor gavin newsom on february 5. I encourage you to come back for those events as well. Its my pleasure to turn the podium over to congressman Mike Thompson and the democratic leader of house of representatives and i hope a year from now the speaker of the house of representatives nancy pelosi. Thank you, dean heller, let us thank the university of San Francisco for their hospitality today, more importantly for their leadership as Civic Leaders as well as academics and part of our faithbased values of San Francisco, thank you provost heller. I want to acknowledge father steven prevet, the former president of the university of San Francisco. My daughter christine is sitting next to them. This is a Family Affair because when i was sworn in as speaker of the house the father was the led the house in prayer that day. As you know, it always opens with a prayer and father prevet opened up with his inspiration. I had the pleasure of being at his installation when he was president and i mentioned it because it relates to our val s values. They day when he was sworn in the Escort Committee that brought him in carried banners of the jesuits killed in el salvador, their housekeeper and her daughter and his commitment to newcomers to america and also respect for the people where they live, the beautiful diversity of our community. Later when i went to congress one of the first speeches i ever made there was about aids but then about el salvador and we need temporary protected status, which we got and now they want to take it away. So again, our values have connected us for a long time. I invited you here to talk about the gop tax scam. Im very honored to be joined by my colleague from up north Mike Thompson who as the leader we are copresenting to you today. Mike thompson a member of the ways and means committee. Well hear more about that when i bring him on but i want to place us in time. Here we are on Martin Luther king weekend. One year ago many of us came together determined to protect the Affordable Care act. We launched our Campaign Working with indivisible and many of the groups to protect the Affordable Care act quoting dr. King of all forms of injustice, the inequality of health care is the most inhuman because people can die, he said, using him as an inspiration, we protected the Affordable Care act, theyve damaged it but we have saved it and we will continue to improve it. So i thank you for all you did which means our maneuvering was important. The outside was essential and made the difference. Here we are one year later, seems like yesterday but also seems like a very long time. [ laughter ] one year later again inspired by dr. King and his remarks about equality and justice and Economic Justice. And really saying that he didnt think that it was intended to have a society, a country where people lived in excessive, excessive wealth while others were living in abject poverty. Thats what he said. And, again, that equality is what our fight is about in this tax bill. I just want to say a few words about it. Well, let me just say this first because as we gather together on Martin Luther king day we cannot ignore the vile statement made by the 45th president of the United States. His vile and racist words are still ringing in our ears. Ringing in the ears of people throughout the world his terrible disrespect for people brings tears to our eyes but we must give voice to opposition to such attitudes. His vulgarity and vile beliefs should disgust every american and requires our immediate action and its never been more important than for us to protect our d. R. E. A. M. Ers because thats the context in which he made that statement ill be joining the d. R. E. A. M. Act all the way. Thats our position. Just to stay with this for one moment though, our Congressional Black Caucus which has been very much involved in this discussion on immigration, and you know why, as the president made his statement, they will be having a motion of censure which we will all be joining as soon as we go back to d. C. This week. [ cheers and applause ] imagine he would make that statement. Then he denied it and then he said he did it but it wasnt vulgar. Really. Okay, enough about him. Because the fact is what were here to talk about, this gop tax scam is the work of the republicans in congress. The work of the republicans in congress and this is i just want you to remember a few things before i bring on our distinguished member of the ways and means committee, the committee of jurisdiction on th that. Remember this. 83 of the benefits of the bill go to the top 1 in our country. 83 top 1 . 86 million middleclass families will get a tax inkrecrease apprh 1. 5 trillion in tax cut go to Corporate America. If were borrowing money to give tax cuts to the rich and to Corporate America and talking about Corporate America, in addition to that, tax provisions that give a benefit to create jobs overseas rather than in the u. S. The cartoonists have it just right. I saw one that had a mouse trap and the mouse said middleclass, the mouse had this little crumb that they were getting and then these fat cats were there waiting for the mouse to take that little crumb. So we cannot be misled. But its complicated situation and they will spend millions of dollars, already are, misrepresenting to the public that this is the middleclass tax cut. Imagine robbing from our childrens future to give tax cuts to the wealthiest. Increasing the estate tax. It doesnt make any sense. President kennedy says to zbovrn to choose. People say democrats are about taxing and spending. Who you tax and how you invest into the future is the are the choices. Ill close by saying this. Republicans have already said republicans in congress have already said that they created this big tax deficit. This big deficit their budget hawks, deficit hawks. Theyve either become endangered or extinct because they dont care about the deficit. Theyve proven that. But what purpose it serves to them to have this big deficit is an excuse to go after medicare and medicaid and other opportunities for investment in our childrens future. So a budget should be a statement of what we value as a country should be reflected in how we invest our resources. This is not what this is about and thing budget they already said were not going to do a budget because they dont want the world to know the damage they will do on one piece of paper, theyll just do it regularly. Our colleague will talk about some of the specifics of it. Its very harmful. This gop tax scam is very harmful to california. They did that intentionally. There are so many other things, they Just Announced theyll theyre taking back the rule that banks have to invest in communities that are an advantage to low income people. One way well stop this is by youve heard repeal and replace when they talked about the health care bill. Well we want to replace and repeal this bill. Replace them and repeal this bill. Very honored all of our success springs from the stories and the reality of the impact on what they were doing whether it was health care and the list. Well hear from elena ford, the mother of gideon, four years old and lila, seven years old and she will tell her story about her son gideon who was diagnosed when he was six months old with west syndrome. Id love to brag about her some more but i want you to hear from her and that time to be used there. We will be hearing from connie ford. She was instrumental there founding San Franciscos branch of jobs with justice, a coalition of labor unions and Community Organizations dedicated to expanding Economic Justice for all workers and im so honored shes here because the labor piece of this is very important. We will be hearing from a champion in the Labor Movement, tom oconnor. He currently serves as the Union President for San Franciscos firefighters. He is leading the nation in trying to detect and prevent cancer among firefighters. He will tell the story of how this firefighters he will tell the story. Now, im honored to bring up my cochair, he came from his own e vent in the north bay. Congressman Mike Thompson is a champion in so many ways. If youve seen him recently coming to the aid of the people in his district and beyond in terms of the fire in the north bay. He is the chair of our task force in the congress on gun safety, gun violence prevention. Hes is veteran, a gun owner and hunter and he knows well how to protect the American People from gun violence. He lead the way in the debate as republican colleagues have chose ton ignore las vegas and texas and all of these terrible situations but because of his own experience as a veteran, he knows how to use a gun and he knows that hunting is not something that requires theres no reason we shouldnt have a sensible common sense legislation on gun violence. I point that out because this is a very major issue in our country. The same time the committee and a champion for america and call, welcome a colleague, a friend from San Francisco, Mike Thompson. Thank you. Thank you leader , we are for a clean act. Shes been a leader from before there was a dream act, so thank you leader for inviting me down to your event and thank you for everything you do. Its a pleasure to come to San Francisco to nancys district because she exudes what she feels about you. You couldnt have a better person representing you. She feels it, knows it and loves it and we see it all the time. The truth is every time she comes to my district and ive been to other peoples district, she cares about the country and the people in it. Thank you for taking this on. I was asked to tell you a little bit about the tax bill from my perspective and my role in congress, im a member of the ways and means committee. The tax writing committee. Charged with the responsibility for writing tax laws and i want to be right up front with you right away. That committee did not participate in the writing of this bill. It was and i guess i can say it in a Catholic University it was the the process. It was terrible. The bill was written some place other than the committee. Written without the benefit of an input of a single democrat. Written without one hearing, not one hearing on a bill thats going to touch the lives of every american for if history is any indication, probably the next 25 to 30 years. Unless we replace and repeal. And we didnt hear from one Expert Witness. And thats important. Thats important to note. Because since the passage of this bill, i met with a number of tax experts across the country. And the one thing everybody tells me consistently, is nobody knows what the full impact of the bill is. They are still looking over things and a lot to learn. They dont know what the consequences are and what the intended consequences are. And we also know that whenever a major piece of legislation is passed, shortly there after a clean up bill is passed, to fix things. The experts tell me theres a number of things in the bill they dont think they can fix and they believe if they fix some things its going to nak things worst. I dont think we have seen the mess before us. I want to point out some things we know. We know it was a bait and switch for the entire time since this guy was elected president , we heard from the republicans in congress that they were going to do tax reform. They werent going to do a tax cut, but a reform. That means redo tax policy so it better treats the taxpayers of this country and addresses our priorities. We were told from the president himself that it wasnt going to help wealthy people. Well, for starters they lowered the tax bracket to 37 , that helps wealthy people. In addition to that, they doubled the exception on the estate tax. So now the first 22 million that you inherit and id ask for a show of hands, but i dont think there are many of us here that are going to inherit 22 million. But the first 22 million is exempt from the tax system. So that helps rich people. It doesnt help middle class. They told us it was going to be a middle tax class bill. Its not. Now, the fact that the middle class will receive some ben fits some of the middle class will receive some ben fits on the front end of the bill. Those provisions expire. They sunset out. And the corporate stuff stays in. So that is again, a bait and switch. Were told that it was going to be made so simple you can do your tacks on a postcard. Ever since that bill passed, the house nobody talked about a postcard. What this bill has done is made things more complicated. My accountant called me twice to withdraw advice that he had given me the last time he called. Its just very confusing. As the leader said, 83 of the tax cut will go to the top 1 of the people. And 9 million middle class taxpayers are going to see an increase right away and then by 2027 as i mentioned when the personal stuff, individual stuff phases out, 60 of taxpayers will see a tax increase. Thats why i said its a bait and switch. They tole the American People one thing, and passed, a bill that did something else. And i think particularly, is that the fact they borrowed money from our children and our grandchildren and their children and grandchildren in order to pay for this. Its going to cost, its going to add to the debt about 2. 3 trillion. Thats trillion with a t. And it could get higher. The actual number, the mediate number is 1. 49 trillion. When you factor in the interest paid on the debt. And we all know that the Interest Rates are set to go up three more times this year so it can actually be higher than that. And i think its always dangerous to pay for tax cuts with borrowed money. Its not something that we should be doing. I also want to mention that for those of us who live in high cost states and we are one. In california, this take as particularly hard hit at us. It does two things that are important to note. One, it changes the way by which you can deduct your mortgage Interest Rates and it lowers the amount and in a high cost state that disadvantages us. It also puts a cap on how much you can deduct in regard to your state and local taxes. And its 10,000 tax on that. That hurts us. And its particularly agreed because we are already a state that sends more money to washington than we get back and thats going to exacerbate this. Youre going to hear from one of the speakers how thats going to hurt a particular service that we all count on and depend on and i can tell you that it is absolutely true. Its going to hurt everything because theres going to be less money for the state to do the things they need to do and what the state does is supplies the services that we as taxpayers want and need. Less money for police, fire, transportation or for any other particular service that you believe that we should get. Weve seen this movie before. We know how it ends. In 2001, we saw it with the bush tax cuts. They borrowed money to give a tax cut that benefitted largely, the richest people in the country. Again in 2003 they borrowed money to give a tax cut to the majority of the recipients were rich folks we know what happened after that. We had the worst recession we ever had. We were baby steps away from a depression. It costs us all greatly and then we had to come back and safe it under the leaders and then speaker along with president obama we were able to save the country from going into a depression and low and behold when theres an emergency, you have to spend money to fix it just like if you have a household emergency, and the roof blows off you have to spend money to fix it. We had to invest money into our country to save us from going into a depression. And that added money to the National Debt. I would submit that is what the National Debt is for. If theres an emergency, not for when things are going well and the best stock market we had ever and were going to give money back to folks who are quite capable of taking care of things themselves. So its the wrong time and now the Republican Leadership says well now the debt is too big and were going to need to come back and look at all the quote, unquote, Entitlement Programs to make cuts. When they say Entitlement Programs, this is what they mean. Programs that youre entitled to. Thats what an Entitlement Program is. Such as Social Security, insurance that you bought. Medicare, healthcare coverage that you bought. Veterans benefits. Benefits that veterans signed up for, benefits part of the deal. They want to come back and look at programs such as that. Veterans benefits, Social Security and medicare to make these cuts. Its not right and as the leader said, we need to replace so we can repeal this thing and have tax policy that is fair and inequitable and the worst thing about this tax bill in my view. The absolute worst thing is it was a huge missed opportunity. We had a chance to reform the tax process from the middle class out. Address issues that working families are facing. Make an investment in the middle class that is going to balloon out and help everybody else. Help our entire economy. And that was missed. Not with standing the false promises and the bait, we missed that opportunity. We were not able to do it. What they did in order to get a cheap expensive political win was to do a tax cut not tax reform. And its a tax cut that benefits corporations and the richest people in this country and it was wrong. Im going to turn it over to tom from the firefighters. I was at a town hall meeting in santa rosa with the victims of the fire in the north bay and its a big lift up there to get things going. Some 8,000 homes that have to be replaced. People are still living in motels and on friends couches. We have a lot of work to do. I can tell you if it werent for the First Responders in particular, the firefighters who came o ut and really were heros and heroins. And San Francisco was there. The mutual aide and other countries and states were phenomenal and the men and women in your shop did a fantastic job, i want to thank you for you from the bottom of my heart. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and im proud to serve for the San Francisco firefighters. Over 1,500 of the most dedicated professionals in the best in the nation here in San Francisco and i couldnt be prouder. I also couldnt be prouder f being a member of the fire service in california. We witnessed terrible tragedies in santa rosa, napa, and Santa Barbara fire and thomas fire. My brothers and sisters in the fire service are elbow deep in mud trying to find one more survivor down in montecito. I couldnt be prouder to stand with leaders like leader polo ssi. A scam that is going to have a devastating impact on california firefighters and millions of hard working californians. This is a disaster across the nation. We are funded by local taxes. This elimination of the state and local Tax Deduction, this is going to have a devastating impact on local governments, that are going to be forced to raise taxes, cut services or do both. This impact will be absolutely devastating. Now, as he was trying to pass this tax scam, President Trump went out of his way to seek photo op after photo op with firefighters saying this was a tax cut for middle class families. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is not. The truth is real middle class americans people like myself and my fellow firefighters count on the state and local Tax Deduction to provide the Vital Services for you and to make ends meet at home. As we sit around the Kitchen Table trying to balance ks school, cost, tuition, groceries, braces, et cetera, this deduction this tax write off helps middle class families and now that is gone in the blue states like california, new jersey, new york. The donor states that pay more and send them back to washington while the other states take in more. The states that provide the most will be hurt the most by this tax plan. So i want to tell you as california firefighters working day and night to put our lives on the line to protect properties in california and we do so bravely with honor and dont ask for much. This tax plan is going to cut into the funding and resources that we need to do our job and need to make ends meet for our families so on behalf of the 1,500 men and women, i want to tell you that we will not be used as political pawns and a photo op for a tax scam to benefit the rich, corporations and the top 1 in this nation. What we need is true tax relief and support for middle class families and what we need to protect the workers is the hard work and dedication from the leader who i can be proud to fight next to and try to preserve the American Dream. Thank you. Now you know why we refer to our firefighters and other First Responders as the noblt of our community. Thank you. It is my pleasure to present elayna ford and her personal story is one that has helped stories like her helped us whether it is the healthcare bill. This is g id eon and lila. And their mom. Thank you very much leader. It is pouring rain on tuesday as i weve my way through streets of San Francisco. Thank you so much tom is a [ inaudible ] i sing along to the radio to distract myself from the dread that fills my stomach as i head towards the building that brought my son into the world and tried to take him back when he was a baby. The building home forren months drive ago wrecking ball through my already fragile family. My name is alayna and im a native. When he was six months old he was diagnosed with west syndrome a form of epilepsy with a terrifying prognosis. It is known in the literature as the catastrophic diagnosis. He underwent several brain procedures. Like many families of children with epilepsy, we were forced to choose between two evils on going seizures or disabilities. I used to jokingly refer to him as a Million Dollar baby but it is no longer funny. With all of the changes occurring lately, nothing scares me more than the risk to Healthcare System that keep him alive by providing access to the team of specialists that manage his care. Were it not for the aca benefits his med kale waiver paired with the critical cut out, California Childrens Services we can not afford for him to see his doctors. We can not afford the multiple emergency room visits every year. We can not afford the inevitable hospital admissions which if my memory serves me correctly, we have never gone six months without since the day of his birth. His primary insurance is not adequate to meet his needs especially this year now that his father job has basic insurance. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the tax bill. The facts are that one, this plan creates over 1. 5 trillion tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy. Two, congress should not be willing to take on this much deficit for tax cuts. So three, congress will need to make cuts to other programs to balance the budget. Speaker ryan, even after setting his sights on medicaid last year. Targeting entitlements to achieve this. This tax bill is a direct threat to my sons life. These issues are not about, should not be about red or blue, left or right, elephants or donkeys or nonsense. This is about human life, my sons life, the lives of tens of thousands of americans like him. The disabled, the medically fragile, they are not the other. We must not allow them to be Collateral Damage or Economic Policy that has been proven time and time again to meet the stated objectives. We are not the burden of the American People, we are the American People. [ applause ] what is important for you to understand is that our story, though poignant in its own way is not an exception that should be swept under the rug of special circumstance. There are many people like my son in the bay area throughout california and throughout the United States. We dont want special treatment. Although, we will not have the comfort of life free from disease, we dont wan my son and others to be deprived of civil rights, access to healthcare so they may have the freedom to pursue their dreams. It is my hope that we as a society can strive for systems that dont threat ton take the right of life away from anyone. It is not too late, my American Dream is still alive. Thank you. [ applause ] before thank you so much. What more needs to be said. Before they leave, i want to thank you lyla throughout the country and throughout d. C. We have lobbyists coming to lobby against these cuts and seeing the care that siblings take of their little brother in this case, lets thank lyla for what she has done. [ applause ] thank you. Now, alyyna ford, no relation, were going to introduce another ford to the podium, a member of organized labor in our Community Speaking about the threat to workers in our country posed by this legislation. Thank you for your leadership as well, connie. Thank you, leader for holding this very important discussion in this teaching and thank you for inviting us. I am connie ford and i wanted to take a second to tell you im a former secretary treasurer of o ppi u and a vis president of the San FranciscoLabor Council, we try to bring the Labor Movement in San Francisco over about one hundred unions together to help working people about 85,000 of us. I want to mention a few important people in this room. We have the secretary treasurer from the Labor Council. Olga. And i want to mention and the reason im mentioning this, i dont know if you know this, usf is a union shop from the bottom to the top. From the bottom to the top from the top to the bottom. Unions represent, faculty, 200 professional administrators. And the janitors and every part of work for this university so thank you usf for being a good union shop and a leader is here, natalie nailer who is the director of representation. And we have two people who do the hard everyday work. Helps the University Run smoothly, gina alvarez, thank you. So let me just be clear and thank everybody on this panel because they took half of my speech so im almost done here. But it is a hoax. This tax plan is a hoax and a travesty for all of us. And i must be a little older than you because i was going to say we have heard this all before in the 80s and george bush days and now we are hearing it again. We give corp. Rags and the 1 massive tax cuts and it will trickle down for us. Remember that word. It will trickle down in the 80s and it has always been its never been effective. So were not going to fall for it again. I want to emphasize a few things that has already been said and shows the travesty. One, is that yes, the corporations and the 1 are getting a huge tax break, 83 of all of this information theyre also getting on a personal level this estate tax which is horrific. It raises to the amounts that the representative told us today but it is doubling and from my at that actually 2. 3 trillion of the deficit. 4 billion will be lost because of the people who are using the estate tax, the 22 million tax free money to do it. And you know how many people that affects in our country . Do you know . Less than 5,000, the whole country is getting a 4 billion tax break. And what are we getting . I have looked at my taxes and they are staying flat and im even, i might be getting 70 over this whole year. And most of my friends are looking at it and if they are getting 700 which is the high amount over the whole year, they are shocked by that. Guess who is really getting the taxes cut here . Guess who is really getting it . The corporations. The multinational and national corporations. Not only are the tax rates and you know this, its in the news. The tax rate of 39 was down to 21 . Thats the lowest tax rate for corporations since 1939, we are going backwards in terms of income and wealth and wage and equality. Thats 15 or 20 tax give aways. I want to bring out one in particular that will make your stomach turn. Shockingly the tax bills cuts services for the average worker but it will kill jobs, increase o out sourcing of jobs. The one prominent example of this is something that many economists are calling putting america last policy. And what that is is the profit that corporations are going to have to pay that they made for their industry in the United States as i just said, its going to be 21 . If you offshore your business, if you take it away and take it anywhere, its going to be taxed at 10 . It is encouraging all of the corporations and multinational corporations that left already or left, its not going to encourage people to come back but to move on. Theres always a situation where theres more money for the rich and the 1 in corporations and its enough to make working people like all of us ashamed. And were tired. I dont know about you, but were tired of giving these big tax give aways to the corporations and the rest. We want a budget that reflects our values, as the leader said. We want a budget that addresses the pensions and protects the dreamers and the tsp people. I read yesterday that avenue the travesty in puerto rico, 15 of those people still do not have electricity. 15 . And where are the resources to help puerto rico and other parts of the country . Its not there. We need money for healthcare as my newfound sister miss ford has eloquently said. Its not that hard to figure out what kind of budget we want. Theres three main points we talk about. Wall street must pay their fair share, tax reform that raises additional revenue must go to jobs, good jobs. That helps our infrastructure and building our schools, helps build our healthcare. Its not the cuts that we need and the last one and this is the one that needs the toks reform needs to eliminate, all tax incentives for corporations working abroad. That is how it is hurting people and taking away our jobs and not providing income that we need and want and deserve. But this is not a doom and gloom kind of situation, i want to tell you. I dont know leader, it would be fun to hear some stories, in d. C. When this tax bill was presented and worked on by the republican for the last month with no hearings of course. The capitol was filled with people. Seniors and working people and disabled people and they are shouting to their highest levels. Listen to us. Respect us. With tone deaf ears and they were told to listen to directly to the republicans that they have to listen. And more importantly or just as important, in california where we have republicans who are representing their districts in the Central Valley, Orange County and san diego, the same folks saying you have to listen to us. That resistance and organizing efforts, the group of folks which is a majority of the United States, can only do one thing in order to change that. You all probably know what it is. You all probably know what it is and that is the mechanism to change the dynamics and the policy in d. C. Is to change who controls the congress. [ applause ] our leader talks about this all the time but we can do it. We can actually change the representatives in congress to represent our values and in california where we have eight or nine districts in the Central Valley as i said and in Orange County and stan day goe, were going to target them and call them. I know if you are like me, youre a from San Francisco and you think they are in whatever land because it is so far. We are going to be scheduling buss to go to the districts in the Central Valleys and knock on doors because the residents need to be told about what the truth is and the truth is that their congressperson is hurting them directly. The congressman or congresswoman is hurting them directly. I want to close by quoting one of my favorite civil rights leaders of today. Reverend William Barbara of North Carolina who just yesterday said this and he said it we must put checks and balances on trumps powers and policies. He was referring to trumps remarks yesterday, the racist remarks. Im sure hello agree with the tax plan as well. The best way to do this is to change the make up of the congress. We need to change our outrage to sustained organization and voter mobility. I hope that you will join us as we go out to the Central Valley and we in california make a difference and start to help the speaker, the leader become our next speaker in the house of representatives. Thank you. Thank you very much connie. The conclusion of her remarks will be the subject of a whole other meeting we will have when we talk politics. But it is important for people the elected officials to understand that the public will hold us all accountable as to how we act in relationship to issues that relate to their lives and that people will remember in november when the time comes. In any event, i want to acknowledge, again, my colleague, Mike Thompson and what he had to say about the unfairness of this legislation. In addition to that, in terms of the deficit which has been mentioned by everyone, suppose they had said were going to go a trillion dollars into debt and were going to spend it on infrastructure creating good paying jobs across america . Because infrastructure is what we need to do. We need it in terms of the maintenance is not there, the most expensive maintenance. Theres no maintenance. The society of said we have over 4 trillion deficit in the infrastructure, roads, bridges, Water Systems, some of the Water Systems 100 years old made of brick and wood. High speed a high speed broadband. Just think about the jobs that it would create all over america in every district. And it would create jobs that would reduce the deficit. Instead they decided to do what they always do. Idly place the money in a place that benefits the wealthy. We dont want it to be the the exploitation not only of our workers and our childrens future y futures. So remember this, we could come together in a by partisan way transparently in a hope way in a way to union fie the country to say how do we have a tax policy that creates growth, generates the good pay jobs and reduces the deficit and invests in the future. It was a missed opportunity. Were proud of what tom owe conner had to say, he pointed out what it means in the lives of our First Responders and others and our veterans. We have so many veterans in california that are affected by this and they want privatize veterans administration. Theres an apaling again, comprehensive plan that they have to turn us into a permanent bu tok ra si and what it means in the lives of alayna and lila and g id eon. 13 Million People losing healthcare and on top of that saying we spent our money on the wealthiest people in Corporate America but were going to make it up by going after medicare, medicaid and Social Security. We can get into it in our q and a. Imagine this t we have been fighting for it this to get renewed one of the argument is this how do we pay for it . Almost 1. 5 trillion in tax breaks for Corporate America unpaid for but we have to pay for chip, for Childrens Health. And their plan they had originally we did not vote for saying Childrens Health will be covered by taking money from other Childrens Health. Lead poisoning and that kind of thing. Thats how we are going to pay for Childrens Health. Really . Of course, talking about the unfairness of it all, not that you needed me to recap. But could we have had better presentations . Let us thank them. [ applause ] and when she was speaking i was thinking of dr. King when he said, legislation, no he said it differently. The ball et the ball et, legislation, legislation, your life, your life, your life. We have to show people the connection between voting and their lives. Legislation makes a difference in peoples lives thats the purpose of what we are doing today, to show people who this means in their lives. With that i would like to have questions about the tax bill and then we can open up to any subject you would like. And in the course of this i want to take it to what we are engaged in now. The battle of the budget for year end, now it is into the next year as well as how that relates to passing the dream act. The clean dream act. Yes, sir. I saw the giants hat, i didnt know. [ inaudible ] devastating tax bill on the necks of every republican running for the house and senate this coming november, how are we going to turn around their straj did i talking about the middle class tax cut [ inaudible ] i thank you for your question. Were having these teachings across the country today and they will continue. Next week theres a march, the womens march and some people will be showing up about this. And this will continue relentlessly until april 15, tax day. By then we hope to have e knocklated people against what they come in with their big money advertising, because they dont tell the truth about it. Thats the sad thing. Its about these teach spgs when i said teachings, its not us teaching you, but were going to hear from you. Your stories or your suggestions about how we do this. This has to be a relentless story told not necessarily by poll ti politicians but by people whos lives are affected by it. And well talk about how we connected directly to the republicans. In california imagine, these people for the most part voted to harm california. Mr. Thompson, did you have something you wanted to say on that . I think a lot of the folks who you are talking about are already hearing the voices and people across the country. A number of high ranking republican colleagues of ours announced they are in the going to run for reelection and theres been a lot of folks especially down in Southern California, somebody mentioned it already rallying at the offices of those republicans. They see the handwriting on the wall. That coupled with the incredible candidates coming out to run in the 2018 Midterm Elections. I think the message is getting out there and the grassroots is delivering that message well. Just said this yesterday, we kicked this off in Southern California with the members of congress from down there, judy chu and others. And the polling this week is on the bill. 55 opposed the bill and 33 support it. I dont know if 33 of the public is so wealthy. Nonetheless, we want to be sure they know what it means to them in their lives. This isnt about democrats or republicans, but its about the middle class the backbone of our democracy. I want to mention that i think information is the key here. We learned, for instance, in the Labor Movement well actually last night i was watching tv and i happened to be crazy and listen to a fox newscaster, and she was like bragging about all of these corp. Rorations and bragging about the bonuses. Whether it is like three or four or five corporations, one is at t. The workers there are union and it was in their contract last year to give them a 1,000 bonus. At t laying off 400,000 americans workers, 250 in california. It is that kind of information that people need. I can go on and on but that is the best example. Where do you sign up [ inaudible ] contact the Labor Council, were going to be doing in late spring and early may. The San FranciscoLabor Council on franklin street. Im curious, now that theres several announcements by republicans saying they are retiring, is there a strategy or thought been given to prevent them from engaging in skror ched every time activities taking advantage that im out of here so now i can do whatever i want and mess with as many people as i want for the rest of this year even though i know im not going to run again or is there anything to be able to keep certain people in particular from burning the rest of the barn down . Let me just say your question to enlarge it for a moment from just individuals. I do believe the republicans understand that the handwriting is on the wall and they are going to lose to congress and they are like people theyve been evicted from their taking down the art, rugs. They are going to do every bad thing they can think of. Undermine the Affordable Care act. Go after the entitlement and give tax breaks to the rich. The list goes on and on. And now you see, they are going to Say Community reinvestment act insis tans or requirements to lend to economically less advantaged areas than the rest and into that diversity. They are doing all of those bad things. Thats one reason to have a big spotlight on it and that these teachings will constantly put the spotlight on it because they have to know that people know what they are doing. Let me just tell you, they are doing what they believe. People have said, republicans must know there isnt anything that trump has done, guns immigration, womens right to choose, climate change, lgbt, nothing he has said or done they havent done longer and worst. And on the entitlements they are worst. This is about the individual members of congress. And thats what it is about. Perhaps, we can set a date to come together to talk about that right now, right now we are under a official we can have a certain discussion of politics here. Transparency, openness. The more people know that again, you see they voted for this bill knowing how harmful it was. Its about money and owned by the fossil fuel industry, gun industry, wall street and the rest. Our donor said if you dont pass the bill, dont give us a call again. They themselves have admitted that. Anything here . No. Okay. Yes, sir. One of the things that was mentioned in a way like california can mitigate the impact of the tax bill is to convert the state income tax into a payroll tax. So that the corporations could deduct them, is that something that anyone is talking about . It is being talked about and theres also a provision that would allow you to make your property taxes payable through a charity contribution. And theres legislation already been drawn up that i think the mortgage part has already been introduced into the state legislature and i dont know where its going to go and dont know what the republicans will do Congressional Republicans will do if it were to be passed. I know that california is looking at it, new jersey and new york are looking at it and i met with the law professor who did the staff work so to speak on it and wrote the bill. Theres three Southern States looking at it as well. So it could turn out to be a pretty embarrassing move against the republican party. Theyre in kind of a quandary. Talking about how great it is and middle class seeing all this money and to come back right away to make changes because states are acting in a way that indicates it isnt good for states. Could be embarrassing. I dont know where it all ends, but yes, its being talked about and introduced into state legislatures as we speak. That woman, okay. You have a question here . Isnt there many court cases against it because it is states rights against federal government federal rights . I think the question is is there a legal avenue to pursue because i think it is double taxation will be the i think new york is suing. I dont know whether california is, on behalf of the states rights and federal rights. Im sure theres going to be lawsuits filed. The big issue is the double taxation. What happens now if this were allowed to go through, wed be paying twice for our services. Right, right. Thank you. Hi, im from the act of congress and im proud to be part of the groups and poll tigs and labor groups hoping to tell people the truth about this tax bill and as we try to go forward, it would be helpful for us to have a clearer more coherent message. Around shifting the balance of taxation from being favorable to making income idly through stocks and capital to people who work. So if you can talk anything about that and share plans, if you are working on a plan or anything like that would be helpful moving forward, thank you. I appreciate that. As you know, we have said all along, we want to have a tax plan, a real reform that is about creating growth, generating good paying jobs and reducing the deficit and investing in the future. The issue and we would do that in a by partisan way with transparency in a unifying way for our country. So theres a better way to do this. So our other better way is better jobs, better pay, better future. And among those provisions are provisions that respect workers and the workers ability to have a collective bargaining and the rest. So some is discrete in terms of how the bill affects different states and the rest, but youre right. It has to be a positive message x our message is about preparing the country for the future. When we work with the groups and i do all the time. Whats important to me and the teaching is to hear what resinates the best with the public. It doesnt mean we change our values but we have our words and prioritize the message and making it succinct. Some of us want to say build, build, build. Build the infrastructure, a human infrastructure, education and healthcare, build a democracy by fighting off the attempts to undermine the democratic process. What we learned from the groups is one of the biggest messages on this bill in addition to the tax piece is the health piece of it and what i heard from the groups and you can confirm or not is that when you say this tax bill does this, and thats bad but whats worse is what they will do because of the deficit. Medicaid, medicare, Social Security, aca. Thats what were hearing back in terms of this. That is again, not the positive message. The positive message is a way to do this. Theres a better way and that is to mr. Thompson said, a middle class tax break. Lets start here and not start with the trickle down as connie said. It never worked. Never created jobs and always increased the deficit. The teachings are saying what do you think is the best positive message to put out there . But right now, we have to take this down. And we will be rolling out in the course of this more positive agenda put together building consensus from the people who will be delivering the message. Did you want to Say Something about that . Remember, we were not given an opportunity to participate in tax reform. Democrats came to the table ready to work. Under the last chairman, dave camp, we spent a year in task force broken up by Bipartisan Task force examining different policy changes that could be made with the idea that you would do tax reform in a way that the tax code would promote growth in our economy. As i said earlier, from the middle class out. Where all the proverbial votes would rise. We were not given that opportunity. Remember, they did this thing in a matter of a couple of weeks. We did not have a hearing on the bill. We did not have an Expert Witness on the bill. Democrats put forth a number of ideas, amendments to the code that would make things more, make things better and would help the middle class and help grow the economy. Every one of them was turned down. They didnt write the bill in vehicle r secret, they wrote and rewrote and rewrote the bill in secret. Democrats have great ideas on how we can do this and we have a list of amendments that would make you all proud. Ideas how we can empower working people and middle class wage earners to do what they do even better. And in turn, that would help our economy. And we could do it without growing the National Debt by 2. 3 trillion. Let me just say nobody really mentioned this and kicked 13 Million People off of healthcare and making sure everybody elses healthcare goes up 10 . So this was truly a nasty evil thing that was done. And the proposal he did it went nowhere. The republicans rejected their own chairmans proposal because it was done in that way. Nancy, if i could when you were talking how they have their ideas and how terrible they are and what it does to blue areas. I want to tell you one thing that happened to the tax bill when it left the house. The House Republicans wrote in their tax bill that if you had a casualty lost. For instance, if 8,000 homes in your district burned down. You couldnt use the tax code to capture or recapture any of that loss. And the chairman of the committee, the republican chairman of the committee is from texas. He wrote a provision in the bill that grandfathered in the texans who lost their homes in a hurricane. Oh. I wanted to respond to what you were sag. I truly agree and i want to share that Labor Movement at the national and state level and local level spending a lot of time thinking about that. The facts to what the republicans are doing and all of the ho ren does efforts there. What is possible to really move our society forward. So these are the discussions happening now and we hope that in early april will be able to come out with some of the provisions. The labor has joined us in a better deal. Some people dont like the word deal, the senate loves it. As long as we can say better deal or job, it is important because under it is better and bigger paychecks, lower cost whether it is because of prescription drugs, lower cost because of communication, fees you pay, every month lowering the cost to taxpayers because people are being exploited. Taxpayers and consumers are being exploited. You will see provisions. It is a better deal for women, rural america, better deal for veterans. We have different pieces to it. It took us like eight months to have members, house and Senate Working together in a positive way to come to the fact that it has to be an economic message. We have other issues part of our value system. To win the election it has to be an economic message. Were calling ours a better deal as we go forward that will be refined. I want to say one other thing about california. One of the things we can do and hopefully we will is to say were not accepting the repeal of the mandate. Were going to restore the mandate in california. For the Affordable Care act. So in addition to what was suggested about tax deductible organizations taking the taxes as a deduction we have some other things that we can do that will make it very important because as you can see, it has an impact on peoples lives m lets Work Together on that because some of you are the sales man of the message and you know what works and resinates with others. Okay. With the ss food bank. Were concerned about the provision of the tax bill. It provides a disententive for Many Americans we know thats going to be downward pressure on doe neighs to the food bank, meals on wheels. It is hard to see how thats not going to be able to help the people we need to help the most. As you pointed out, the going tr ryan his stated intention to go after Entitlement Programs. We are very concerned if hes successful in damaging the snap program we will have a perfect storm of people coming to us and needing help and were hobbled in our ability to help them. Can we protect snap . How to we protect snap next year . Did you want to speak to let me say the best news yet is theyre so wrapped around their axle with all their internal problems and all the problems this president is creating with his outlandish comments and techniques theyre going to be theyre not going to be able to go after all the cuts they can this year and in june or in november, were going to change things in the house to make sure they cant do it the next year. [ applause ] but specifically, on snap, so thats from the standpoint of the tax piece of it, but in terms of the allocation of resources for snap were hoping in our negotiations we can address that or to give resources to the committees that address that. Beware of them in the farm bill. When we had the majority and did the farm bill we increased the nutrition piece which includes snap enormously under leadership as you know and we have to protect that. But i think you would be very surprised, i hate to be the bearer of bad news, on the floor of the house, our colleagues get up there and say god did not intend for people if you work you eat. It was in the garden, grew food or something and really were talking about in many cases children and their assault on medicaid by saying work and medicaid and the rest because being eligible for medicaid connects to being entitled to snap theyre trying diminish that connection as well. This is brutal. This is not you know we keep talking about the gospel of matthew and these people being people of faith. When i was hungry, you fed me, you did for the least of my brother than you did for me. The second part of the gospel just a couple weeks ago, right, the second part is, when the people that god is rejecting come before him, he said when i was hungry you did not feed me, when i was homeless you did not house me, when i was naked you did not clothes me, when i was in prison you did not visit me. Its not just about doing something positive and being rewarded for it. Its what they are not doing, these people of faith that we have to hold them accountable for. Food, children, and people in need, really. Its, again, this is all hands on deck, and everies aspect of it because it leads to one subject, governance and responsibility in a community of people to each other. If you dont value that, if you work, you eat, really . If you work you eat . Some of these people, they came from poor circumstances. But they have sort of a resentment or something. I cant explain what it is. Except who supports their campaigns. No thank you very much. I would like to know what is your plan to really do outreach and target the disproportionate communities that are that they dont have media, tv, they dont have internet and how can we really give them the message like simple message, because many of those communities dont have this high level of education and many politicians are preying on giving the wrong information to those communities and they believe the message they get. How can we shift and change the message and talk the language, simple language, to reach those communities all over the United States to take the congress and then we can really change and shift the politics and the country. Thank you. Well, the hopefully were hoping that, again, with our teachings across the country and again, as i say, we have been successful in this fight largely because of the grassroots organizations that had been out there conveying it, shall we say, i say discreetly, i dont mean they are narrow in it, but target, in a targeted way, to communities. Some of this will have to take a political approach to it. Thats not something we can talk about that much here today. But ill invite you to other meetings. But to the extent that there are see, validations, you talk so beautifully about what it means in terms of snap and food banks and feeding people, institutions of Higher Learning are affected by that same the first part of your question of philanthropic giving, weve had doctors come in to our office constantly saying this is how its going to Effect People who are in need of medicare and medicaid especially. So again, so many different pieces of it, but the validation of it doesnt necessarily come from politicians. It comes from Community People who have the confidence of these people in the community to say this what is this means in your lives and thats what happened with the health care bill. People just knew better than what was being told to them. This is more complicated because they did it in a rush. The speed of light in the dark of night, no information to the public so they could just say anything, and we have to counter that. I hope that you will be receptive to being part of it. Again, validate measures are not politicians. Theyre the people trusted whether it leads to housing or jobs or Labor Movement or moms with kids who have are little lobbyists and the rest, those are our best messengers. Yes, maam. I would like to know if when in 2018 and we win, win the seats in both the house and the senate, if one of the first things i would think thats really important to do is for the country to see that their congress is going to honor all of the things that we say we honor in terms of people participating that we do not do Something Like not hold any hearings and not have any i mean that has to change because otherwise its excluding everybody. So talk to it. The Affordable Care act is a good juxtaposition to what they did with tax and what we as democrats did with health care. You know, the fox news and all the critics say that nancy pelosi just jammed this thing through. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a matter of fact, i would argue if we jammed it through we would have avoided all of the august uproar that the fox news people created. We had hundreds of hearings and multiple committees and we took i think it was 173 they had a couple hundred amendment, the republicans. We took some, modified some. [ inaudible ]. No. Well no thats hard because, you know, the rules of the house dominate. As an example, when leader pelosi was Speaker Pelosi we put back in place a rule called paygo which peens you have to pay for means you have to pay for something before you can pass it. Had that still been in place, if they wanted to do a tax bill that cost 2. 3 trillion more than they had they wouldnt have been able to because you couldnt meet that rule. As soon as the republicans won, the first thing they did in regard to rules, was they expunged the tax part of that rule. They kept the part if you want to do a program, if you want to help the food banks or you want to help the poor you have to pay for it, but cut taxes for the richest in the country, just add it to the debt. You give me an opportunity and i appreciate the question, because we did things in a fair way. They criticize it. I say to them, write the rule the way you want and they will say we will criticize you anyway. Well give you the opportunity for amendments. Why would we want to cooperate with you with that . It was their design, especially with president obama who was very nonpartisan, they had to make him look party sap. To the future. As far as the future is concerned, we take an oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States. Central to that constitution is a system of checks and balance which was mentioned earlier. That is essential. That is essential to our country having, again, a democracy. And checks and balances says the legislative branch, article 1, the executive branch, the first branch of government, speaker of the house is a very powerful person and the speaker of the house, not of the democratic party, of the house. To have transparency, to have bipartisanship, to unify the country, not use paths that divide the country but unify the country, theres plenty of things we can do working together for our country. And what we have to do is brag about what we did more. Because if they they mischaracterize how we did things, like wait a minute, didnt you see how we conducted things versus how they did. For just one example, when i was speaker, we allowed them to have free reign on the floor of the house. They were dancing on the floor, criticizing me all the time and all this and that. When they took the majority, they shut that down, right. You can only speak this much at this time and all the rest to the point where we had our sitin that Mike Thompson was a part of it, oh, my god, they were going to arrest us. I said to the capitol police, i dont think you want to do that. You think about it. Make my day, arrest me. [ applause ] anyway, but youre right. We have a higher standard and its about our constitution and you know what, it produces better policy because people know better how they are affected and they will hold everybody accountable, whatever the party, majority, minority, and others who want to be in that loop. So thank you for that question. I think you would were very proud of our record of what we have done, but we didnt practicibrag about it enough. Selfpromotion is a terrible thing but somebody has to do it and we intend to selfpromote what the democrats are about. Where are we . Yes, sir. And then well come in front to you next. My name is [ inaudible ]. Im a Business Owner of a Financial Services where we service over 4,000 families here in the bay area for tax planning. My question or issue is this, the gop tax plan or the tax bill really promoted the whole were going to double the standard deduction. For singles its going to be 6300 now its 12,600. For married filing joint, 12,000 double it to 24,000. What do we say or are we promoting actually announcing that whatever happened to the personal exemption . Because when you take personal exemption of 4100 per person in a family, all they did was just add another 2,000 on the Tax Deduction. Thats all they did. They didnt actually double it. They just gave you an extra 2,000. But the question that i have is this, i come from a mexicanamerican family and theres eight of us. When taking a personal exemption deduction on eight people, i mean, were talking a nice hefty deduction for a family of eight. That personal exemption, is done. Its gone. So when youre talking about middle americans youre actually talking about my mother, my father. So when you really think about the personal exemption, my mother, my father, mexicanamerican families, immigrant families, no matter where you come from, who here belongs to a family of more than five people. You know what, youre going to be paying more in taxes. And thats the key point. Aside from that, i host a weekly radio show in spanish that broadcasts all over Northern California explaining this issue and not only do i am i talking to immigrant families, Spanish Speaking families im talking to anybody who will listen on how to really answer. Today i took in calls and took over 22 calls answering the question, what am i going to do . Because of my family of eight, i have three undocumented members that dont have a valid Social Security number. Those people can be included on a tax filings with an video taxpayer identification number. The sad story here, is that if a child thats aged 10 goes to school, knows nothing about politics or whatever just got to wake up and go to school, from what ive read the Child Tax Credit the earned income credit, there is no credit and there is no personal exemption on it. My question is this, what do i tell families of the 4,000 we service of the radio listers that call in, hey, when they tell us im not going to file my taxes anymore, im going to avoid coming into the light and go back into the shadows and go two, three, four plus years without filing taxes because i get no benefit whatsoever some what do i tell them . Thank you. Thats a terrible thing as you well know. And we see it, its a terrible thing that focuses on latino families more so than anybody else. Maybe asian families in certain districts. Clearly in california, latinos are the ones that take the bankrupt. And theres a consistency in this administration to do just that. We saw it last week with the 7eleven business. We see it with big thing in the district that i represent, local Law Enforcement has worked for years building a strong republican between latino communities and the police community, and now i. C. E. Comes in, whats the prominent lettering on their jackets and vests, police. Little letterses i. C. E. And its created huge Public Safety problems in our community. And this administration wont listen to the calls for help from local police. So its kind of goes with the territory with these guys. You have to tell your listeners that call in, if they need to do the legal thing, they need to do their taxes. They cant avoid it. Help is on the way. And we just need to make sure we double down our effort and we can fix these atrocious parts of this new tax policy in a way that will help american families. But also, from the standpoint that many people are affected, the standard deduction versus the personal deduction did you want to speak to that point . Sthi told tom a minute ago, tell your folks in the Firefighter Union although they cant write off the cost of on duty meals and uniform costs anymore, we were able to make sure that they kept their deduction for owning a personal jet. So its just another bad part of the bill. Its but the standard is a bait and switch. In other words yeah. Its a bait and switchrs give you something and take it back. And i mentioned when i spoke how this the whole thing was a bait and switch but every skin of the onion you pull back it becomes more apparent. We will give you a tax break but it only lasts until 2027p. The er. Al stuff goes away. We will give you this tax break. How many times you hear the middle class will do great, unless you depend on your mortgage interest deduction, state and local Tax Deduction. You may get a little benefit on one hand and take it away on the other hand. Every bit of this is a bait and switch. Did you have anything . Say another thing in this regard that is that again, teaching. Were learning from you. We have to have clarity in terms of how we equip you to talk about the its just such a horrible thing. Double your standard deduction and take away the personal deduction and let me just add this one more thing that is this, theyre going around now saying, oh, were going to extend this middle class tax cut. You hear some of them saying were going to extend it. They cant. Because theyre constrained by their bill. You want to speak to that, mike . Theyre constrained by the amount of money theyre allowed to spend on a bill and the 1. 5 trillion which is going to turn into over 2 trillion because of interest on the debt, is prevents that. Thats why they use the middle class as a source of funds to give tax breaks to the high end that take away the middle class tax cut. Same thing with some of them are going around saying were going to change the s. A. L. T. Thing. Thats cant change the s. A. L. T. Thing. Thats a source of their money to give tax breaks to the rich. It would be a bigger deficit without the s. A. L. T. So dont fall prey, have anybody fall prey to any things theyre saying. Were going to fix it. If you go through, theres a lot of little things, the dogs and cats in here that make no sense from a tax perspective, but they did it because of the issue that the leader mentioned. They needed money. So they take a little bit here and a little bit there and a little here so they can build in and meet that 1. 49 trillion level and make the corporations whole permanently. Im so pleased that we spent so much time on the tax teaching part of this and we we will continue but i did want to bring you up to date on where we are on the negotiations with the keeping government open and the immigration issues that are contained there. We have been in negotiations, lets just say there had never been one d. R. E. A. M. Er in our country, that should have never come up, we still have an issue about how we allocate resources and the interest of the republicans is to have an enormous increase in defense spending. If we need to protect our country and need defense spending we want to go to that place. Well see. Lets see what that is. But not at the expense of our investments in our domestic side. We he believe the strength of our country is not only measured in our military might but in the health and education and well being of the American People. [ applause ] but even in a i digs to that, the domestic we call more than you ever want to know on the subject, the domestic nondefense Discretionary Spending which is where this fight is, one third of that is a defense a security function. Its veterans affairs, its Homeland Security, its the state department, and it is the antiterrorism activities of the justice department. So a third. 34 of the domestic nondefense discretionary budget is a security function. So when you limit the opportunity for that budget, you are limiting our big part of our security function. Thats where the fight is. Its about parody in terms of how much money each side gets, its about pay for, were going to have to pay for this and then pay for the defense spending yet we have to pay for c. H. I. P. Really. And then so thats where that negotiation and its not there yet. Were not finished on the c. H. I. P. Negotiation for pay fors that we could accept even though they dont like the fact they have to pay for it, but pay for we can accept. Thats what that part is. In addition to that and they they want this big defense number, but they know they have in their own ranks some people who dont want to have to spend much money on domestic side and we have to spend money on domestic side so they need our votes. So far. They did not need our votes on the cr, continuing resolution. People said why didnt you shut down government. They didnt need our votes. They had enough votes in their own ranks. Giddy with joy they passed that scam and that unified them for the moment. We go toward in that negotiation of gagain even if there was no immigration involved here, we arent at a place that said we can honor our responsibilities to the American People on the domestic side in terms of the as we address our defense needs. Now so on the side, we went to see the president in september. Our first conversation with him mind you, he was put in office in january. This is our first meeting with him Chuck Schumer and i in september, we said to him he called us there to talk about the debt ceiling. And we said to him, any conversations that we have have to be predicated on whether we have shared values and one emergency challenge we face is the fate of the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. The president was going to be lifting the protection for the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. We need to know that we have this shared value or else what are we talking to each other about. He supports the d. R. E. A. M. Act. Likes to call it daca with his happened. Call it daca. Okay. So in any event, be he said, yes, i support that, want to do some security things. Lets talk about what they are. Four months later, and we went to the speaker of the hispanic, and black caucus and said this is it, see what we can come to where we want to secure our border, thats not we have a responsibility to do that. Were not doing it to destroy the community that is there. But nonetheless, lets see what we can do with technology, this, that and the other. Four months later, you see the situation. Now, we think the hispanic, black caucus, the kpac, congressional Asian Pacific caucus, this should just be leaned down. The senate has come up with a good plan, a plan that will get can pass the senate with 60 votes. Dick durbin has been to the only a hero and a champion, the driving force of this. He has been in the congress, what, maybe 35 years or Something Like that. Half of his congressional life has been on daca. He was with the bill starting in 2001, 2000, Something Like that, and he is he has given his lives to passing this bill. Gotten all these awards or this or that. We passed it in the house when i was speaker. Clean d. R. E. A. M. Act. They couldnt get the 60 votes in the senate. So now they have a plan that can get the 60 votes in the senate and it respects the protections that we must give our d. R. E. A. M. Ers. However, from our standpoint, while respecting that and hoping that that will have some currency, we are just plainly saying, clean d. R. E. A. M. Act. What do you have to offer if you have something. If not, lets just do a clean d. R. E. A. M. Act. Not that we want when they offer something its not about negotiating anything in the bill. Its about what additionally they witness to do in terms of they want to do in terms of technology at the border or some border. We have to fight them on internal enforcement. That is not the border in our view. With them knocking the d. R. E. A. M. Ers do not want their opportunity to be harmful to their parents or other immigrants as well. I dont know, maybe im just prayerful, father, i believe that this is so right that 80 support that they have demonstrated so beautifully the contribution they make to america. Every time i meet them i say thank your parents for bringing you here. So we so again, some of the things youll see this week, again the focus on the d. R. E. A. M. Act, the opportunity that the senate may have to bring introduce their bill and bring us their bill, but also, to do so in a way that honors our values as a country. Immigration, the life blood of america, the life blood of america, the constant reinvigoration of america, our founders, with their checks and balance, beautiful constitution, they said, this the seal of the United States says a new order for the ages. So confident with what they were establishing because one generation would always take responsibility to make the future better for the next. Called the American Dream. Everyone who came to our shores, came with that hope and determination and optimism and courage to make the future ber better for their families and in doing so these immigrants make america more american. None more so than our d. R. E. A. M. Ers. This as we said to the president , this is a value, this isnt an issue. This is a value. This is a value. This is we are either sharing that value or how can we discuss other things. Thats where that is. Im optimistics because of the Public Awareness of it, everybody is writing in, everybody is calling, we have the votes, we just say give us a vote. The votes are there. The d. R. E. A. M. Ers and their friends have done a fabulous job of advocacy and mobilization and the rest, the votes are there. Except the speaker we need him to give us a vote and we need Mitch Mcconnell to give us a vote in the congress. You had a question, sir . [ inaudible ] i have epilepsy and [ inaudible ] anything now that is there anything in the works sorry. Is there anything in the working that we could grandfather in the children that are now covered under aca as opposed to just taking them off the program . Well, the children are covered a couple different ways. C. H. I. P. , medicaid, half the children in america are on medicaid. A huge number of kids. So the fact is that having them on c. H. I. P. Or having them on medicaid kansas city costs less than having them on aca. One way or another we will protect the children and their health. One in five children in america lives in poverty, goes to sleep hungry at night and if they have health challenges, or just to keep them healthy, its about good health, thats important value for our country. So one way or another we have to protect the children. Any subject you name, whether its immigration, health care, tax policy and their future and the deficit that were leaving them, talk about the children, thats probably the best place to go. Yes, sir. Back there. Talking about passing a clean d. R. E. A. M. Act at the same time talking about discussions on Border Security and willing to consider a deal that has other things in it and then diversity we dont want do that the only reason we would consider any of the let me just thank you for bringing that framing it that way. I hate to be the bearer of bad news and i dont like to be a fear monger, one word they really dont like, is diversity. Can you imagine . We think its our strength in our country. We take pride in our diversity. They want to get rid of diversity visas. The only reason to and what the senate did was to improve the situation for the people who are affected by the diversity visa. Theres no reason to accept anything unless it makes it strengthens the population, the demographic that is there. Now i think i mean, i think we should just save that for another day. The president didnt mention that when we went to see him. He said, we want to do some things at the border. And now the last, what, 96 hours, 48 while we were still in washington, they all of a sudden are doing diversity visas and what they call chain migration, which we call family unification. They dont like the word diversity. They love the word chain. [ inaudible ]. But thats what we think is the easiest thing. Its what we passed. Its what we support. And theres no reason we shouldnt be able to do that. Theres no reason. There is no reason. Except you heard him, you heard what he said. The fact is, he made a commitment. How the president of the United States or any person could say what he said, thats what i was saying to my republican colleagues, is this okay with you . You have to reject that. Well see when we have our motion of censure. Right there and then another. [ inaudible ] alluded to, i want to raise. I want to raise because of it affects me personally that is tax scams and that is the home office, the loss of the deduction for a home office. Im a professional service provider, im in my 60s, i am significantly adversely affected by that. And i think its an issue that disproportionately i know its an issue that disproportionately affects women because in the aftermath of the great recession, it was women who started home businesses at a significantly higher rate than men and this is devastating for middle class and upper middle class and highly educated people and lower middle class folks and people who are struggling at all socioeconomic levels and i would like to hear some discussion of that loss, the loss of that deduction and what can be done about it . Im not sure what they did on the home deduction. Its gone. Its gone. Zeroed out. Not i dont have i dont have it in our priorities but let us get back to you. I have pages of the provisions. That is not one of them. Dr. Ruth lyndon. I would be happy to hear from you on that issue. I will give you my card. My daughter christine. I dont it is gone. Well get back to you on that because again, anything that is gone, understand this, anything that is gone, is to enable them to get a tax break to the rich and Corporate America. Thats really the tragedy of it. My name is [ inaudible ] with individual sf. You mentioned that you asked, well is this okay with you as a question to ask republicans and i really want to encourage democratses to be able to say this is not okay. Theres a different framing. Instead of being always on the heels and always on the defense, i want my Democratic Leaders to speak up, speak loudly, when theres something that they need to defend against. So i am encouraging all of you guys to have a louder voice, to be a little more concise with your messaging, so that you support the rest of us. Thank you. I appreciate that. Let me say this. You afford me the opportunity to say this. Were trying to get the d. R. E. A. M. Ers protected. So a lot of people are pulling their punches on one thing or another to get the d. R. E. A. M. Ers protected. After that no holds barred. Let me just say thats just the way it is. [ applause ] im you know, we take our lead on the hispanic, Asian Pacific america and the black caucus and theyve been vocal out there, but the fact is, our goal, for the door close at night for our d. R. E. A. M. Ers and they go to sleep and know somebody isnt going to be knocking on the other door to take their parents out. Thats what we have to do. The list of grievances that we have against the administration is so vast, but the fact is, is that in furtherance of protecting the d. R. E. A. M. Ers and that is our purpose and goal. But theres, again, these issues that relate to the economy that relate to individual liberty, to the air our kids breathe, the fact is, you know, you talk about talked about regulation, that word means protection. Taking away protections for clean air, clean water, food safety, you name it. Workers protections. In the work place. You name it. He calls it but thats a long list and as has been said its a lot for the public to grasp. Right now, our focus is on having a budget that addresses the needs of the American People as we use our leverage there to protect the d. R. E. A. M. Ers. But i dont think as we go past this period were in the election season that youre going to see any lack of shall we say enthusiasm from differentiating but i thank you for your and to be helpful to support the democrats too. A lot of times people are like well, why dont you go see the republicans. Tell them. Because they have the majority for the moment. Tell them. And but this thing is really rises above a lot of things in that the republican president has said something so distasteful to the world, to any person who has a feeling about humanity, an theyre saying, what, disappointing or Something Like that. Did he really say it. Okay. Maybe one last question . Thanks. First of all, i think its shameful that you would agree to militaryize the border in exchange for protecting d. R. E. A. M. Ers. Were not militarizing the border. Increasing border enforcement and the technology they want to use as militarizing the border and thats what began under bill clinton and it actually led to the deaths of thousands of immigrants who were forced to cross under more dangerous circumstances in the desert in arizona. I think its shameful. What i wanted to say, though, is that the idea that were going to put all our eggs in the basket of the 2018 Midterm Election is seriously delusional. It does nothing about the executive power which trump has, and hes continuing to use threatening the whole world with nuclear weapons. Right. Plundering our precious ecosystems now opening up our coastline right now, right. Accepting the fact that were going to have white supremacist in power for four years and nancy pelosi has said impeachment is off the table. So my question to you, nancy pelosi, is are you okay with having a white supremacist in power for four years . Please let me talk. This is a town hall. Thank you. Question. I just asked my question. My other question is are you okay with trump incinerating the country of north korea which has repeatedly threatened to do and even the same socalled you know, the wise men, the generals and the military experts have said theres a 30 to 50 chance of nuclear war. I dont know about you goes in the room but i dont like those odds. The trump pence regime has to go. Its on us. We cant wait for elections or 2020, four years of this, no. Im with im with refuse fascism. Org. Nancy. Dont worry about that. Hes had his moment. Balance of power. Separation of power. Elections accomplish that. Next question. The woman had a question, yes. Hi. Were going to end on a womans note. Thank you. Thank you. Ill follow that with just a very technical tax question for representative thompson. I am curious and wondering if you know at this point if you could speak to the passthrough that the aspects of the tax bill that that i believe favor passthrough business entities . Because it seems to me this is my guess anyway that those people are mostly small and middle sized Business Owners, doctors, lawyers, professionals, people who might have considered themselves may consider themselves part of the middle class but that if theyre getting some kind of favorable tax treatment that might be a wedge issue to widening the gap of the inequality and im wondering because i dont know that part of the economy seems very private equity difficult to get your hands around not so much information on it as there about wall street and publically traded corporations if you know how big that sector of the economy is and how the tax bill will affect that through those passthrough programs. Yes. Business entities. When you talk about passthrough income, its individuals that other money coming in from outside businesses, and its taxed at your individual tax rate. So it passes through to you as an individual. And the way that tax bill changed that is it allows you to take a percentage off the top of the passthrough amount and deduct that from calculation so you only pay your income, your passthrough income on the amount thats left. So if you have a vineyard, for instance, and sell your grapes to make it real personal and the money that you would get from the winery from selling your grapes, you would take 20 off that and only pay tax on the other remaining amount. So there is a benefit to folks who have who calculate their part of their income as a passthrough. Now on a heads up on this thing, that theres some who are suggesting that the state come back, because the state is going to lose a lot of revenue on the overall tax bill, but that the state look at the lost income or the gain in income that individuals who use the pass through will get and try and take a piece of that. It may be a benefit to some in the beginning but could end up in a greater state Tax Liability in the end. So from what im hearing here today, we learned a lot from you, thank you. Especially the part that took most of our time. I think what i also heard earlier on we need to come together under a political auspice shus so we can talk about how we translate our disagreement on policy into a political solution and we will set a time to do that. In the meantime i thank you all very much for coming. Theres some hospitality out there because youve been here a long time. I hope that you will avail yourselves of it. I want to thank usf and again, the dr. King, i want to be specific, god never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous wealth while others live in abject poverty. Thats what unififies our caucus. You keep them unified. Our values keep us unified. We have in terms of the technicalities of the bill, ek changed some ideas, learned a lot, well get back to you. Secondly, again, hope that some of you and the activities for Martin Luther king on monday, the interfaith breakfast and then the service later. The breakfast is the labor breakfast. Central labor breakfast and then the Interfaith Service later in the day. Ill leave after that to go to d. C. To resume our negotiations on the rest of it. Let us thank usf and father fitzgerald a champion of our community. Couldnt be with us today but thank usf for their hospitality. Thank you for coming and for what you do. You will be hearing soon about how we come together under political auspice sus so we can go down the path of how to make the difference that makes a difference in the election or hold people accountable. Election can support whos there if they support the people. Thank you. But let us thank our let us thank our panel. [ applause ] elana thank you for sharing your personal story with us. Conny, thank you for what the Labor Movement is doing, president oconnor, that has a nice ring to it. Thank you for being the noblibility of our community and Mike Thompson, we are so blessed to have him as a strong leader. And thank all of you. Thank you. This afternoon a look at Global Perceptions of the United States with diplomats from africa, europe and the caribbean. Live at 5 30 eastern here on cspan 3. On wednesday members of congress will share their ideas on ways to reform the use of federal earmarks. You can watch the first part of the twoday House Rules Committee hearing, live at 10 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan 3 and on thursday journalist Michael Wolff will talk about fire and fury about the inner workings of the trump administration. Live coverage at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2. Union officials representing Border Agents and officers talked about Security Issues along the u. S. mexico border. A House Homeland SecurityCommittee Held a hearing last week. The committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on border and marty time security will come to order. Meeting today to examine the challenges the United StatesBorder Patrol agents and. S