D. C. ,nt in washington, look around you, youll see it everywhere. Minority leader nancy pelosi and california Mike Thompson held a town hall meeting over the about tax lawk and immigration policy. Hours from thewo university of San Francisco. Good afternoon, my name is heller, provost of Academic Affairs at the university of San Francisco. Fitts,lf father traveling on business today, i welcome you to our hill top campus. Is quiet on campus as students are on break but i atourage you to come back 6 30 p. M. And join us in war our mensym as Basketball Team takes on the gonzagaked zags of zach university. Were extremely pleased and this conversation today for democratic leader of the United States house of pelosi,tatives, nancy and congressman Mike Thompson of the north bay. Usf has deep roots in politics and policy making in the bay and, across the stated nation so its fitting were hosting this event today. Graduates,ong our woolsey, current acting and kevinsco mayor mullen. One more program note. Next month we will host on campus through our leo t. Center, a series of appearances by the leading democratic and republican governors to replace jerry brown, starting with euror los angeles mayor, and gavinllaraigosa newsome. It is now my pleasure to turn podium to congressman Mike Thompson and democratic leader of the house of representatives year from now, the speaker of the house of pelosintatives, nancy [cheers and applause] Speaker Pelosi thank you very much. Thank you, provost heller. Also want to acknowledge father steven prevet who was here, former president of the of San Francisco. My daughter, christina, sitting him, and she knows this is a Family Affair for us because when i was sworn in as house, father prevet was led the house in that day. As you know, it always opens prevetprayer and father honored us with his inspiration that day. Pleasure of being at when he wastion president and i mention it because it relates to our values. In, day when he was sworn the Escort Committee that brought him in carried banners the jesuits killed in el salvador, their housekeeper and daughter and his commitment newcomers to america and also respect for the people where they live, the beautiful of our community, our extended community. Outstanding. O thank you, father, prevet. A jesuit mades progress in bringing justice to el salvador. Later, when i went to congress, i everthe first speeches made there, first was about elsalvadorhen about and we needed temporary protected status which we got and now they want to take it away. Again, our values have connected time. A long i had invited you here to talk tax g. O. P. Tax scam. Im very honored to be joined by colleague from up north, mike who is a leader so we are copresenting to you today. Is a member of the ways and Means Committee. Well hear more about that when i bring him on. I just want to first place us in time. Here we are on Martin Luther king weekend. One year ago, many of us came to protecttermined the Affordable Care act. Workinghed our campaign with indivisible and many of the the affordablect care act. Quoting dr. King, of all forms of injustice, the inequality of healthcare is most inhuman because people can die, he said. Using him as an inspiration, we the Affordable Care act. Theyve damaged it but we have we will continue to improve it so i thank you for all that you did because our maneuvering was important. The outside mobilization was made all the difference, inspired by dr. King. Here we are again, one year later, seems like yesterday in some ways it seems like a very long time. One year later, again inspired remarksing and his about equality and justice and Economic Justice and really saying that that he didnt intended tot was have a society, a country, where in excessive, excessive wealth while others in abject poverty. Thats what he said. Equality is what our fight is about in this tax bill. Few wordst to say a about let me just say this first because as we gather kingher on Martin Luther vilewe cannot ignore the statement made by the 45th president of the United States. His vile and racist words are ears,ringing in our ringing in the ears of people throughout the world. Disrespect for people brings tears to our eyes. Voice tost give opposition to such attitudes, thecially expressed by president of the United States. His vulgarity and vile beliefs every american and requires our immediate action and has never been more important than for us to protect our dreamers because thats in the context in which he made that statement. Dream actining the way. He i know. This for onewith moment, though. Our Congressional Black Caucus been very much involved in the discussion on immigration, and you know why, made hisesident statement, they will be having a censure which we will all be joining as soon as we go d. C. To [applause] pelosi that he would statement, first he denied he did it and then that he did it and it wasnt vulgar. Really . Enough about him. Because the fact is, what were here to talk about, this g. O. P. 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 that. Iction on remember this. Benefits of the bill our country. 1 in 83 , top 1 . 86 million middle class families increase. Tax 1. 5 approaching 1. 5 trillion in tax cuts go to Corporate America in addition to 1 . Goes to the top deficit inrease the the two trillion dollar range. In other words, were borrowing tax cuts to the rich and to Corporate America talking about Corporate America, in addition to that, ax provisions that give benefit to them to create jobs overseas rather than in the u. S. Total horrible thing. People say, well, theres a tax break for some middle class the beginning. Yes, there is. And the cartoonists have it just right. Saw one that had a mouse trap said middle class. The mouse had a little crumb they were getting and the fat there waiting for the mouse to take the little crumb so we cannot be misled. A complicated situation and they will spend millions of are,rs, already misrepresenting to the public middle class tax cut. Imagine robbing from our childrens future to give tax wealthiest, increasing the estate tax it any sense. T make president kennedy said to gven choose. People say democrats are about taxing and spending. How you invest into the future are the choices. Govern is to choose. Ill close by saying this. Republicans have already said in congress have already said that they created this bigtax deficit, know, theyre 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 for them to have this big deficit is an medicare andafter medicaid and other opportunities our childrensin future. So a budget should be a our national days, what we value as a country in how wereflected invest our resources. About. Not what this is and the budget they already said, were not going to do a budget because they dont want world to know the damage they will do on one piece of paper. Theyll just do it regularly. Our colleague will talk about specifics ofsks it. The g. O. P. Tax scam is very to california and they did that intentionally. Are so many other things. They announced theyll eliminate Community Reinvestment act that insist that banks invest in the community in way that advantages lower income people. This is a plan, a design that must be stopped. Way we want to stop it is by youve heard repeal and replace when they talked about the healthcare bill. Want to replace and repeal replace them and repeal this bill. Very honored all of our springs from the stories and the reality of the impact on what they are doing, whether it the rest. Care and and some stories we will hear from elena ford, the mother of gideon, 4 years old, lila, 7 years old. She will tell her story about her son, gideon, who was when he was 6 months old with west syndrome. Someove to brag about her more but i want you to hear from her and that time to be used there. Connie ford,from she was instrumental in founding San Franciscos branch of jobs justice, a coalition of labor unions and Community Organizations dedicated to expanding Economic Justice for all workers. Im so around this shes here piece of thatbor is very, very important. Hearing from a movement,n the labor tom oconnor. Tom currently serves as a Union President for San Franciscos firefighters. Is leading the nation in trying to detect and prevent firefighters. He will tell the story of how affects our First Responders and the rest. Up mym honored to bring cochair of todays event. He just came from his own event bay. E north congressman Mike Thompson is a champion of congress in so many ways. He has as youve seen him recently, very prominently, coming to the aid of the people in his district and beyond in fires in the north bay. He also is the chair of our task on gunn the congress safety, gun violence prevention. Hes a veteran. Hes a gun owner. Hes a hunter, and he knows full well how to protect the american gun violence. He has led the way in the debate, as our republican colleagues have chosen to ignore, newtown, ignore, las vegas, ignore, texas, ignore all of these terrible situations. Ownbecause of his experience as a veteran, he gun and knowsse a that hunting is not something reason why wes no shouldnt have sensible, commonsense legislation on gun violence. I point that out because this is very major issue in our country. The same time, is a member of and Means Committee and champion for americas workers place, champion for california. Please welcome my colleague, friend of San Francisco, Mike Thompson. [applause] Mike Thompson thank you, leader pelosi. Were for a clean dream act. We have been for it and nancy pelosi has been the leader in that regard from before there a gremac, so. Pelosi forleader inviting me to your event and thank you for everything you do. To comeays a pleasure to San Francisco to nancys exudest because she just about all of you district. You couldnt have a better person representing you. It. Knows it and loves the truth is, every time she comes to my district, she cares about our country. She cares about the people in our country. So, nancy, thank you for taking on. I was asked to tell you a little bit about the tax bill from my perspective and my role in. Ongress, anda member of the ways Means Committee, the tax writing committee, the committee charged with the responsibility for tax laws and i want to be up front with you right away. That committee did not participate in the writing of this bill. Guess i can say it at a Catholic University bastardization of the process. It was terrible. The bill was written someplace than the committee. It was written without the benefit of the input of a single democrat. Was 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, 25 or 30the next years. Replaces unless we and repeal. We didnt hear from one Expert Witness and thats important to note because since the passage of this bill, ive met with a number of tax experts from across the country. Everybodye thing that tells me consistently is, nobody really knows what the full is. Ct of this bill theyre still looking over things. Still a lot to learn. They dont know what the are orded consequences the intended consequences. A major pieceer of legislation is passed, shortly thereafter a cleanup passed to straighten out technical changes and to fix things. The experts tell me there are a number of things in this bill they dont think they can fix and there are a number of things they fix,believe if it will make things worse so i dont think weve seen all of mess that is before us. But i want to just point out some of the things we know. That it was a bait and switch. For the entire time since this guy was elected president , weve heard from the republicans in they weress that going to do tax reform. They werent going to do a tax cut. Were going to do tax reform. Tax policy so it better treats the taxpayers of addresses ournd priorities. We were told from the president himself that it wasnt going to help wealthy people. Well, for starters, they lowered bracket from 39. 6 to 37 . Wealthy people. In addition to that, they on the the exemption estate tax so now the first 22 inherit, andyou id ask for a show of hands but i dont think there are us here who will inherit 22 million. 22 million is system som the tax that helps rich people. Middle class. P they told us it was going to be a middle class tax bill. Not. Notwithstanding the fact that receive class will some of the middle class will receive some benefit in the front end, on the front end of this bill, those provisions all expire. Out, and the corporate stuff stays in. So thats, again, a bait and switch. It would be told made so simple that you could do postcard. On a ever since that bill passed the house, known on that side of the aisle has talked about a postcard because this bill has made things more complicated. My accountant has called me that hethdraw advice had given me the last time he called. Its just very, very confusing. The leader said, 83 of the tax cut will go to the top 1 of the people and nine million taxpayers are going to see an increase right away 2027, as i mentioned, when the personal stuff, individual stuff phases 60 of taxpayers will see a increase. Thats why i say its a bait and switch. Theyve told the American People one thing. Passed a bill that did something else. And i think particularly egregious is the fact that they borrowed money from our children and grandchildren, their children and order to pay, in for this. Its going to add to the debt 2. 3 trillion, thats trillion, with a t, and it could get higher. The actual immediate number is 1. 49 trillion but the 2. 3 trillion comes in when you factor in the interest paid on debt. Thats at todays Interest Rates and we all know that the Interest Rates are set to go up three more times this year so it could actually be higher than that. And i think its always for tax cutspay with borrowed money. Wes not something that should be doing. I also want to mention that for those of white house live in highcost states , and we one in california, this takes a hit at us. Y hard it does two things that are important to note. It changes the rate at which you can detect your mortgage Interest Rates, it lowers the amount. And in a highcost state, that disadvantages us. Much you canhow deduct in regard to your state 10,ocal taxes and its 000 cap on that. That hurts us. Its particularly egregious already a state that sends more money to washington than we get back and will exacerbate this. Youre going to hear from one of to speakers how thats going hurt a particular service that and i can telln you thats absolutely true. Its going to hurt everything be less moneywill for the state to do the things they need to do and the state services we, as taxpayers, want and need. That means there will be less fire, forpolice, for transportation, or for any other service that you get. Ve we should weve seen this movie before. Ends. W how it in 2001, we saw it with the bush tax cuts. Borrowed money to give a largelythat benefited the richest people in the country. Again in 2003, they borrowed a tax cut to the majority of the recipients were folks. We know what happened after. That we had the worst reception that weve ever had in the our country. We were baby steps away from a depression. Us all greatly. Then we had to come back and the leaders, then Speaker Pelosis leadership, with president obama, were able to save the country from a depression and lo and behold when theres an worstncy such as the recession weve ever seen, youve got to spend money to fix it, just like if you have a household emergency. If the roof blows off, you have to spend money to fix it. To invest money in our country to save us from going into a depression. Added money to the national debt. What theubmit thats National Debts for, if theres an emergency, not for when are going well, the best stock market weve had ever and were going to give money back who are quite capable of taking care of things themselves. So it was its the wrong time. And now the republican well, now thes, debts too big and were going atneed to come back and look all the, quote unquote, Entitlement Programs to make cuts. When they say Entitlement Programs, this is what they mean. Mean programs that youre entitled to. Thats what an Entitlement Program is. To,rams youre entitled such as Social Security, insurance you bought. Medicare, healthcare coverage that you bought. Benefits thatits, veterans signed up for, benefits were part of the deal. Now, they want to come back and look at programs such as that. Veterans benefits, So