Implications of a few Big Tech Companies taking over much of the world. Sreenivasan all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The lemelson foundation. Committed to improving lives through invention. In the u. S. And developing countries. On the web at lemelson. Org. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan a cold wave kept the nations midwest and northeast in the deep freeze today. Wind chill warnings and advisories stretched from north dakota to new hampshire, as arctic winds dropped temperatures to 20 degrees below zero in some places. Officials warned of the risk of frostbite with less than 30 minutes of exposure, and they went on alert. Anytime that we have an extreme in weather, be it cold or hot, it taxes the e. M. S. System as a whole. Look for people who may need assistance maybe before theyre so bad off that they require an ambulance to go to the hospital. And, theyll get them Services Like a shelter, a detox, things like that. Sreenivasan as the cold set in, erie, pennsylvania declared a state of emergency, with a record 65 inches of snow. More snow was falling today. In syria, critically ill patients are finally being evacuated from a rebelheld area near damascus. Hundreds of sick people in Eastern Ghouta have been unable to get treatment at area hospitals. But now, Government Troops are letting aid groups evacuate nearly 30 critically ill patients. In return, the rebels want a like number of captive fighters released. Also today, russia declared the main battle with the Islamic State in syria is now over. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the syrian army and its allies must turn their focus to hunting down the nusra front group, linked to alqaeda. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has officially registered to run for his fourth term as president. In moscow today, putin handed in his papers in person, to the nations election commission. Early polls show hes likely to be reelected in the march vote. Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is urging a boycott of the election after he was banned from running. Today, he called for nationwide protests next month. translated lets come out to the street for yourselves, for your rights, for your future for the fact that we do not want to lose another six years. We will start a big campaign, on one hand, to persuade everyone to participate in the boycott and not to take part in the election, and on the other hand, to count how many people really come to the polling stations and not to let putin fabricate that number. Sreenivasan putin is 65 years old and has already led russia as Prime Minister and now president for a total of 18 years. Former president obama is urging leaders to be careful in their online statements. He spoke with britains prince harry in an interview that aired today on the bbc. The former president did not directly mention president trump, but he did voice concern about social medias effect on politics. All of us in leadership have to find ways in which we can recreate a common space on the internet. One of the dangers of the internet is that people can have entirely different realities they can be just cocooned in information that reinforces their current biases. Sreenivasan mr. Obama also said he considers the Affordable Care act, widely known as obamacare, one of his greatest achievements. The library of Congress Says it will no longer archive every public tweet, including the president s. Instead, starting in the new year, it will be more selective. The library cites the growing volume in tweets and the increase in characters, from 140 to 280. The National Archives keeps all president ial tweets, and will continue to do so. And, on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 28 points to close at 24,774. The nasdaq rose three points, and the s p 500 added two. Still to come on the newshour should you pay your property taxes early . We look at the pros and cons under the new tax law. A nation divided, a review of the year in politics from the right and the left. America addicted a doctors personal loss to opioids, and much more. Sreenivasan the new tax laws are set to take effect on monday. Given that the president and republicans in Congress Just passed and signed the legislation days ago, some taxpayers are scrambling to try to squeeze in deductions, some for next year, before 2017 ends. Thats especially true in a number of municipalities where people are standing in line to prepay their property taxes for 2018. Lets look at what you need to know, and begin with this field report by Brenda Flanagan of new jersey public television. Reporter while republicans celebrated and called their tax bill historic, homeowners panicked and called their accountants in highpropertytax states like new york, california and new jersey. Phones and emails have been going off crazy, because a lot of people are hearing about the Real Estate Tax deduction, hearing about all the changes and wanting to know what to do. Reporter thats because in 2018, the republican bill will cap property Tax Deductions at 10,000. But in jersey, average property taxes exceed 10,000 in four counties. In fact, homeowners here pay the highest property taxes in the nation more than 8,500, on average. Anyone in new jersey, thats got to be scary. Reporter so many homeowners, like wayne defeo, are meeting with c. P. A. s and looking to prepay next years property taxes, to take advantage of the full deduction before it expires. Its kind of a loophole. If i could prepay half of my property taxes for next year, to take advantage of it for this tax year, based on what my accountants told me, is i would save almost 1,000. And that goes to my pocket. Its up to each and every taxpayer to make a decision how comfortable they feel, paying Real Estate Taxes in advance. But you should look at it. Everyone should look at it. Cause its a onetime opportunity. By december 31st. Its a lot of money to leave on the table. Reporter how much . Say youre single, with no kids, making 75,000. Your property taxes are 20,000. We figured that for 2017, youll owe the i. R. S. About 8,500. But prepaying the first two quarters of your 2018 property taxes could knock that i. R. S. Bill down to about 6,000. Youd save almost 2,500. But accountants advise it wont work for everyone. For people that make more than 200,000, theyre caught up in alternate minimum tax, which basically disallows income and Real Estate Taxes to get you back to a minimum level. Reporter c. P. A. Dan connolly also warns some people may be tempted to borrow money to make those prepayments. Some people are going on credit lines to pay for them, and then theyre going to have to pay interest on the money that they borrow to prepay the tax. So the calculation is not that simple. Reporter regardless, municipalities from elizabeth to alpine, and here in the shore town of belmar, report residents are showing up with checkbooks to prepay at least the first two quarters of next years property taxes. Were walking them through the process of prepayment. We have our staff ready to accept those prepayments, process them properly, make sure its all documented for anyone who comes in, so theyre able to take advantage of the deduction this year, in 2017. Reporter mayor Matt Dohertys prepaying his taxes. But, besides working the loophole, lawmakers in several states are also looking for other ways to soften the blow. Here in jersey, one bill would increase property Tax Deductions for homeowners. But itd cost the state 170 million in revenues. Well the bill would allow full deductibility of homeowners property taxes on their state income taxes. And that will cut in half for most people the hit theyre gonna get by the trump bill, which doesnt allow deductibility for property taxes over 10,000. Reporter for the pbs newshour, im Brenda Flanagan, reporting from elizabeth, new jersey. Sreenivasan some more questions, and perspective, about the changes to the tax code and endoftheyear decision on property Tax Deductions. Mark steber is a c. P. A. And chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt tax service a mark, what are some of the factors that should go into figuring out whether you should make these payments now versus late sner. Well, your piece was excellent and spot on with several of the observations from some of your professionals. Basically dont think that one size fits all on this opportunity it certainly works where it works but where it doesnt, it can have the benefit of biting you pretty badly on the back end. So the two things im telling folks on this property tax acceleration idea is one, make sure you have the money, borrowing money to do a tax planning idea that might change even after the first of the year, not my best advice. And the second thing is watch out for that alternative minimum tax. Your other featured speaker said that these taxes are not deductible when you go in and compute that, as are not mortgage interest and a whole host of other items that you do to calculate that, so if you make this accelerated deduction it throws you into alternative minimum tax and you dont get a benefit, all might have been for naught, so have the cash, watch out for alt min but we are telling, to consult with your tax advisor, they know your facts, circumstances, what to watch for and what your tax profile will lack like for 2017 and for 2018 even given the new limitation on the property taxes. There is a lot to look at and you certainly dont want to file with the benefit you might need next year even if you are in a high property tax area. Sreenivasan one of the things we heard is this will affect states like california and new jersey but this isnt a blue state red state thing s it . No, its not, that is really as mischaracterization, those states do have high property taxes but im from florida and have friends in all the different states and many of them have high property tax locations. So its really for anybody who has high property taxes, they should look at. This but they should also look at their other factors as well. But there is not solely a new jersey issue or a california issue or a new york issue. Its a whoever has property taxes more than 10,000, the new limit, that is where this is kind of applicable because that is where you will get capped out in 2018. Sreenivasan what about the possibility that congress could move forward to tray to close this loophole retro actively, everybody that went out of their way to stand in line and pay these now might not tallly see the benefit. Yeah, that is certainly a possibility with the correctioners bill that will come in after the fact, to tweak up some of the areas that were not absolutely looked at in totality when they passed the law. But i really wouldnt worry too much about a retroactive change unless there is a great deal of abuse. I think once folks take a a look at this and see what some of the risks are, what some of the costs are, i dont see this really being an overwhelming opportunity, it is a lot of money up front for a tax benefit arguably in 2019 when do you your taxes. You really have to have a compelling set of facts and circumstances to do that. And you know some will do it and it will make sense but most people are taking a cautious look at the idea. But will it make sense . It makes sense but its not for everybody. Mark stebber of jacksonhee wit, thanks so much. Sreenivasan. Thank you. Sreenivasan taxes were just one of the top political stories of 2017. John yang now takes a deeper look at president trumps first year, and whats in 2018 from two different perspectives. Yang hari, we are joined by karine jeanpierre, who is Senior Adviser to moveon. Org and contributing editor to the online womens magazine, bustle. She also served in the obama white house. And Chris Buskirk is a radio host and editor of the conservative blog, americangreatness. Org. Thanks for being with us, chris, i want to start with you. You talked to folks out there on your radio show every day, as we end the year, what is the, sort of the state of the trump base, of Trump Supporters out there now . Well, a lot happier than i think folks were maybe even two, three weeks ago. I think the fact that the tax bill passed was a welcome drk dsh at the end of the year, there are two elements to that. One is that people generally supported the tax bill. They think it was good policy. And thats a big part of it the other part is just seeing a Republican Congress for whom so many trump voters have very, very high hopes at the beginning of this year and seeing that Congress Actually do something, you know, i called it a do Nothing Congress for months and months and months primarily because of a do Nothing Congress but they did something. I think it was good policy from our perspective and as we are rapping up thier here the trump voters are looking and saying you know what, the president did a lot of things he promised to, now we are actually seeing congress get on board too. Karine, you point out a lot of unhappiness about congress, people were still supporting the president and blaming congress for inaction, has this solved all that . And also has the gap between the president s supporters and for a lack of a better term the elected officials in washington, the speaker ryans, the leader mcconnells, have that been healed over by this . I dont know if it heeled over but st a good start. I guess i would put it that way. There has been a sort of changing of the guard going on on the american ride among conservatives in the past year or two or three if we go back to 2015. Is everything brushed under the carpet . No. But you know what, that is okay. What is important here from my perspective, i think from a lot of peoples perspective on the right is that different factions within the Republican Party are figuring out number one that they need to work together, number two how to do it. And so as we go into 2018, that is a reason for people on the right to have some optimism. Karine, con versely what is the state of the loyal opposition. Con versely indeed. Look, i think that republicans passed an unpopular bill now that they have to go into 2018, and not only that they have a president that is historically unpopular. The Republican Congress is unpopular so they are facing potentially a blue wave next year from the democrats and i just dont understand how they even think this is a good thing when you see the polling after polling that says people hate the gop tax plan. And also the intints. There is an intensity on the democratic side that we have not seen in a long time. They are unified, they are energized. Democrats won a senate seat in the ruby red seat of alabama that is unheard of. People would say we have no business even going into that state and trying to fight and win that race. And so i think that republicans have a tough fight gensz them, ahead of them in 2018. And i just dont see how they even stop that, union fying right now, doesnt even make sense either because they have an unpopular president. Congress sun popular. Lets not forget there is daca that needs to be taken care of, there is chip that needs to be rized both bipartisan programs that are popular. Chris what about that, the democrats, there is a lot of talk about whether the democrats, there is an Enthusiasm Gap with the democrats, that they are more enthusiastic, more fired up go ing into 2018, going too the mid terms, what about that . Well there is something to it, there really is. I think this is going to be a hardfought Election Year there e American People in 2018. Orey but you know what, you have to make the case. That will be the challenge for republican candidates all over the country next year because there is a lot of enthusiasm on the left. So i say lets have at it. That is making a case for the republican ins 2018. For the democrats, do they have to say, i mean what is the better politics for them to stand and say no to the president , to be the opposition, literally the opposition or do they look to work with him on the issues you talked about, daca, the dreamers, the Childrens Health insurance, infrastructure. Right, so what i say to daca and chip is that look, it is a bipartisan support, it is very popular with the public. So it should be able to be fixed easily. Its not very difficult. And not only that republicans control all three branches so they should be able to do that. If they dont its not the democrats fault t is the republicans fault that is that point there. But i do agree that democrats need to not just be antitrump, they need to also offer something as well which is okay, lets list minimum wage, fight on that, be sure to expand 34ed care, expand medication, expand Social Security, be about something, not just antitrump. Chris, are there places where republicans can work with the democrats in the next year before the elections . Yeah, i will tell you what, this is a place im really interested in. I think there are two big areas where republicans and democrats hopefully will be able to find some Common Ground and come together. Number one is infrastructure. This is something that has been talked about by p