Forest and cleanup of National Waste sites. In todays washington journal we talk of tax legislation and Sexual Harassment in the workplace. Call in with your comments. Host today the Senate Continues debate on the republican proposal looking to make significant proposals to the tax code. 50 votes are needed to pass it. However, several republican senators are looking to make changes to the tax plan. Changes such as bumping up the Corporate Tax rate from the proposed 20 and imposing, quote, triggers to keep the National Debt from increasing. With so much activity in mind, were dedicating the entire program today to give you the latest information on the Senate Debate and hear your opinion of the republican proposal for tax reform. Heres how you can let us know your thoughts this morning. If you want to call us, 2027488000 for democrats, 2027488001 for republicans and independents, 2027488002. You also can reach us on our social media venues. Postit on twitter or facebook as well. As you call in and send your tweets and facebook posts on the republican plan, well be feeding you information on the current debate going on in the senate, the latest on the proposals and amendments and all that other Vital Information as the Senate Continues its work. Joining us to do that for us is cspans john mccartle. John good morning, pedro, as you said well be focusing on the vote today in the senate but the senate took a key first step yesterday when they voted to begin debate. They voted to take up the debate on the house legislation on tax reform. Thats the vehicle the senate is using to move their own tax reform plan. Remember, those two plans are different. And if they both pass well have to go to a Conference Committee at some point. But that vote to begin debate yesterday passed on a party line vote. Here was some of the reaction yesterday on twitter after that vote to begin debate from Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell yesterday. The senate has taken another important step tonight towards giving americans the tax reform they deserve. President trump was in missouri to rally support for the tax reform plan and he tweeted now we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to restore american prosperity and reclaim americas destiny. But in order to achieve this bright and glowing future the Senate Must Pass tax cuts and bring main treeth roaring back to life. One more series of tweets from dick durbin, the minority whip from illinois. Senate republicans voted to advance a bill to lead to millions of americans losing their health care and insurance premiums increasing by hundreds of dollars and taxes going up for working families. Republicans could be working to pass a tax reform bill that benefits working families instead of this partisan boondoggle for the wealthy but theyre not. When the final vote happens today, republicans can only lose two on a 50 50 tie. The Vice President would be coming in to break that tie, expected to vote with republicans, of course, so the whip list is important to watch today. The Washington Post is one of those news organizations keeping track of the yeses and noes and the maybes. Heres the Washington Post whip list with 37 republicans supporting the bill. Five unknowns or unclears. But not in the category of having concerns. 10 republican senators having concerns, expressing concerns as far as the Washington Post has tracked. Among them are senator Susanne Collins of maine and bob corker of tennessee and ron johnson of wisconsin, john kennedy of louisiana, mike lee of utah, john mccain of arizona, jerry moran of kansas and marco rubio of florida. They have no republican senators with outright opposition at this point. One other whip list to keep track of this as well is the Los Angeles Times. They narrowed it down to eight republican senators to watch and they narrowed it down among categories. They were the deficit hawks concerned about what this bill might mean for the National Debt including corker, lankford and jeff flake. Those who want the bill to include more tax breaks for socalled passthrough businesses and those who file their taxes as individuals, thats ron johnson, steve dains of montana, those concerned about health care and the effect of the individual mandate. That would be senator Susanne Collins in that category and the wild card as the Los Angeles Times calls them. Thats john mccain and jerry moran of kansas. A lot to watch there, senators to watch. Well keep track of all this for you throughout the morning on washington journal. Host heres your chance to give us a call and tell us what your thinking is from the proposals. 2027488000 for democrats and 2027488001 for republicans and 2027488002 independents. The president stopped in missouri to talk about the tax plan, particularly what it does for higher income americans. Heres some of that from yesterday. [video clip] President Trump it is riddled with loopholes to let some special interests, including myself in all fairness, it will cost me a fortune in this thing. Believe me, this is not good for me. I have some very wealthy friends not so happy with me but thats ok. I keep hearing schumer, this is for the wealthy. Well, if it is, my friends dont know about it. I have to explain why. Now, it is great for companies because companies are going to bring back jobs and were lowering the rates very substantially. But right now were bringing the rates down from 35 , which is totally noncompetitive. The highest industrialized nation in the world by far and were bringing it all the way down to 20 . But thats good. Thats good for everybody whether you have a company or whether you want a job because were going to bring back jobs. What weve had is a massive give away to Foreign Countries which encourages businesses to relocate offshores. Youve seen what happened. Before this, this is for the most part as bad as our tax cut is, we have toyota, we have big Car Companies coming back in building plants in michigan and other places. We have a lot of businesses coming back in. And they see whats happening. They see whats going on and why our code is a giant, really, it is, a selfinflicted economic wound and been that way for so many years and nobody wanted to do anything about it. But all that will change and it will change immediately if Congress Sends a tax cut and reform bill, the biggest tax cut in the history of our country, bigger than reagan. If they send it to my desk, i promise all the people in this room, my friends, so many friends in this room, its a great state, i promise you i will sign it. I promise. I will not veto that bill. Host an analysis piece in the New York Times this morning, they look at the elements of the tax proposals, particularly what it would do for wealthy americans and they say under the senate plan, every income level would receive a tax cut in 2019 but people earning 20,000 or 30,000 annually would face a tax increase and the next year according to the joint committee on taxation by 2027, most people making under 75,000 next year would see a tax increase while those making more would continue to receive a tax cut. Your calls for this first hour are for these first tree hours look at the senate work on tax reform. Susanne from florida, democrats line, good morning. Youre up. Hi. Caller good morning. You know, its really difficult to comment without information other than what we get in the newspapers or tv and i feel its incorrect but not certainly as in depth as we need. Its also very difficult to get information because there arent any congresspeople or senators answering their phones. Everybodys been calling that i know. I tried many different times. And you get recordings. We have resorted to sending emails but dont expect to get replies. For instance, nobody seems to know whether the earned Income Credit is staying or going and that hasnt even been on tv. I wish there was some place online we could look at what the congressmen and senators are looking at and then we might be able to comment. If theyd answer their phones. Host valerie from New Hampshire caling up next on independent line. Valerie, go ahead. Caller hi, yeah, im like absolutely amazed that anybody would think this tax bill as well. Just to cut medical expenses alone. We already have the formula using the schedule a form. If you have a 20 coinsurance, you cant deduct money from that. Thats already a loss. The far right is pushing this bill. Trump is not in touch with reality. As far as toyota coming back, where is he coming from with this. And products, everything he has is made in china. Hes a fraud. A liar. Host aside from the medical tax, what other element of the tax bill are you not in favor of . Caller basically from what i read, it just seemed like over the next six years it would be almost like a popsy type thing, the level of taxes will go up to the middle class but also hes taking away vets deductions for a lot of different people and a lot of convolution and things going back and forth and what you see online is what were going by because thats right, all the lines are busy and orrin hatch, lindsey graham, none of them are taking calls, none of them at all. Host lets go to cleo in kentucky. Republican line. Hello. Caller hello, yeah. Democrats are never going to go for a tax increase. Because they want a selfless overnment. They thought Bernie Sanders and theyre not going to get the economy going, thats the last thing they want. They love to keep people in poverty and that way they can buy. Theyve always bought elections with the promise of food stamps by keeping people in poverty. And as long as they have people in poverty, they have a selfless government. Host the economy reported a 3. 3 growth for a second quarter. Do you think the economy still needs a tax cut or will the economy be able to do well on its own . Caller the tax cut will do more to get the economy going p. Thats why the economy is doing as well as it is on the promise of a tax cut. Host as far as the tax cut or the proposal for tax reform, how does it benefit you . Have you looked at that . Caller who, me . Im a 70yearold man. I only live on my Social Security. So it wont affect me at all. But for my kids, grandkids and their grandkids, its going to affect the world in a big way, if donald trump [inaudible] he could have the economy going the next 50 to 100 years. Host lets go to oklahoma, independent line. Loudy, hello. Good morning. Caller good morning, mr. Pedro. I hope this morning find you well, sir. Listen, oh, lord have mercy. I believe the trump bites must be living on the trump planet since its been created from the election and everything. Now, this gentleman that called from tennessee, bless his little heart. Indeed he is right, it will not, it will not positively affect the everyday jack, jill and john. It is absolutely literally a gain for wall street and the 1 folks. Host why do you believe it benefits those people versus the everyday person, specifically, why do you believe that . Caller absolutely. Look here, i believe strongly i firmly believe the everyday american knows how to add, two and two make four. However, the math that is done here asks to two and two makes six or seven perhaps. Now everybody even in elementary knows that math doesnt add up and the trickle down economy proven wrong ever since reagan even. Its completely false that a tax cut will stimulate the economy, absolutely wrong. Now, if you dont have nothing coming into the culture, folks for everyday folks to under properly, if your city, starts with your town and your city, with your county, if indeed theres no money coming in your streets wont get fixed and your pipelines not pipelines, lord forbid the pipeline, nothing will be fixed, nothing will be done. Look at oklahoma, for instance. Its faith is completely broke and yet run by nobody but republicans. Host thats loudy in oklahoma. One of the many voices well hear throughout the course of our three hours together on the Senate Debate on the tax bill underway. Again, give your thoughts on the phone lines, 2027488000 democrats, and 2027488001 for republicans and 2027488002 for the independent ens. Things going on on capitol hill we want to keep ue wear of and heres john mccartle. John weve been tracking the debate over Sexual Harassment and how its treated and what members of congress are doing to change that system. Yesterday we saw a vote in the house on legislation requiring Sexual Harassment prevention training and passed in the house by voice vote yesterday and usa today with their story on what that would do. The House Resolution would require lawmaker staff, interns and fellows to get harassment training and would require congressional offices to post a statement of Employment Rights under the Congressional Accountability Act and requires congress and legislative branch to comply with work force laws in of the private sector. The Senate Approved a resolution earlier this year this month to require that same training and also a reminder this coming amid a high profile member of congress, the longest serving member of the house, john conyers, democrat from michigan, facing his own allegations of Sexual Harassment. The story from the Associated Press yesterday noting john conyers has no plans to resign amid allegations that the congressman sexually harassed several women when they worked on his staff according to lawyers. His attorney told the Associated Press yesterday the 88yearold conyers is going to fight the claims he inappropriately touched the women and that anyone making the allegations should be prepared to back them up. We had one member of congress on this program yesterday, Earl Blumenauer said conyers should resign but that decision up to him. A glowing chorus of democratic lawmakers calling for him to resign. Some reaction yesterday after the vote on the Sexual Harassment training. The prevention Sexual Harassment training, heres the reaction from paul ryan, Sexual Harassment has no place in any workplace, let alone in the United States congress. This weeks legislation mandating training is an important first step as we deal with this problem. A democrat from california, a leader in this effort, shared her own stories about harassment when she was a staffer on capitol hill and tweeted yesterday about speaking on the house floor about the vote and said members of Congress Need to know were not special and we need to stop hiding behind due process nicities. Heres more from Jackie Speier yesterday. [video clip] jackie we do have a problem and must address it. Due to the System Congress is created to protect itself from being exposed. Theres been no accountability. Its now clear this misguided attempt to protect the institution is instead harming it and leaving victims in its wake. We work in a very special place. A trusted place. Let me be very clear. We are not special. The outcry for accountability we are hearing from all corners of the country must be heeded. We are seeing titans of entertainment, news and every other business be swiftly terminated yet here in congress we hide behind due process nicities when in reality we have constructed a system take shields us from true accountability. The Harvey Weinstein or matt lauer receive months or years of due process before being terminated . When do we simply believe the victims and provide them a fair and safe process to report and get justice . And then weve got to decide, is one occurrence worthy of expulsion or two or is it three . These are thorny issues. We dont like to come down on our friends and colleagues, i get that. But dont we have a moral responsibility to victims, to society at large . When a c. E. O. Of a Major Company is fired because of Sexual Harassment, the board of directors doesnt say lets wait until the shareholders can meet and decide. Well, colleagues, our board of directors are the American People and they are loud and clear. They do not want us to hide behind opaque decisions by the House Administration or ethics committees. They do not want to pay for our abilities to keep our hand to ourselves but want accountability and transparency and want it now. Colleagues, i urge your support for this bill but i also call on you to join me in taking congress from a cruel and disgusting joke to a leader in workplace fairness. I know we can do better than this. The American People know we can do better than this. And we must rise to the challenge. Host back to your calls. Winter park, florida, republican line. Stephanie, hi. Caller hi. I just wanted to call because like your other caller said, theyre not answering my phone at my Senators Office so i thought id call in to you. I oppose the tax bill thats coming up. One of the things thats really going to hurt me is ive recently turned 53 and