Its not taxes, but rather productivity growth. Thats been very, very weak. If these companies do invest a little more, that will boost productivity. That will increase wages. Now, wages. Theyre making profit. Its been weak. Productivity has been weak. Thats right. Anthony and i agree entirely on that. When Companies Invest more in equipment and research and technology, who benefits from that . The workers who are working with that kind of you give a worker a forklift, hes going to make a lot more money than he doesnt have that kindf equipment. I had a dinner with fred smith, the ceo of fedex. You do this plan, were going buy more trains, trucks, vehicles, thats good for workers. Understood. Thats your economic lesson for today. Very good. I like the debate. You make us better. Steven, anthony, preeappreciate were getting over to the top of the hour. Good morning and welcome to your new day. Thursday september 28. Alison and chris with you. President trump kicking off his big push to cut taxes for individuals and businesses. New moves on business, but the question is who is it good for and how will they pay for it. Now the details with president giving them over to a divided congress to figure it out. President hailing plan as revolutiona revolutionary. Analysts split on it. A lot of people say the wealthy are going to benefit the most. And the president not ending feud with nfl. Instead saying team owners are scared of their players. Trump threatens to get rid of one cabinet member. Refusing to say if hell fire tom price for using taxpayers dollars. Live at the white house. Whats the latest joe. Reporter the white house and the president trying to get back on track after a brutal week after the third try, the Health Care Plan failed once again on capitol hill. The president has taken heat for the response in puerto rico as well as the virgin islands. And he also backed the losing candidate in the Alabama Senate election. So now theyre hoping to get back on track with a crowd pleaser of a tax plan. Theres never been tax cuts likes what were talking about. President trump kicking off the Republican Party ambitious attempt to slash tax rates and revamp the code. Unveiling nine page framework. Rou reducing the number of tax brackets. Increasing the child tax credit. Reducing the Corporate Tax rate from 3520 . Creating a new tax rate for pass through businesses eliminating the alternative minimum tax and estate tax. Trumps plan lacks details. Including limits for tax brackets and how they plan to pay for the tax cuts. Committee for responsible federal budget estimates they will add 2. 2 trillion to the deficit. This is a revolutionary change and the biggest winners will be the every day american workers. Mr. Trump attempting to cast the proposal as a boom for the middle class. Democrats say it is wealthy americans who will benefit the most. Behind republicans they framework and deceptive math, the American People find a billionaires first tax plan that fails the middle class. Mr. Trump also insisting that republicans have the votes to repeal and replace obamacare despite the fact of the coauthor of the latest bill refutes that. Congress fell short because of republican senator Thad Cochrans absence. We had the votes to get it done. You cant do it when somebodys in the hospital. Senator cochran tweeting hes not hospitalized. Recovering from a medical ailment. Several controversies consume the white house. Facing growing questions about the response to puerto rico and the virgin islands. As three of the president s cabinet secretaries are under fire for spending taxpayer dollars. President scolding tom price over repeat use of private planes. Foregoing cheaper commercial options. Im going to look at it. Im not happy and im going to let him know it. White house official says prices job is safe for now. President continues to soundoff on the nfl not doing anything to stop players who kneel during the national anthem. In my opinion, the nfl has to change. Or you know what is going to happen, their business is going to go to hell. This morning we have a bit of breaking news on the hurricane response in puerto rico. White House Press Secretary sara sanders just tweeting momenti i ago that the administration has decided to lift or suspend the jones act. S ago that the administration has decided to lift or suspend the jones act. This is a 100 year old law that requires supplies being carried between the u. S. Ports to be carried on u. S. Ships. Number of democratic members of congress had called on the administration to wave that rule for now at least for a year they wanted in order to try to get supplies more quickly to the island territory. So once again the white House Press Secretary tweeting out that the administration has decided to lift the jones act for puerto rico. Thats huge, joe. Thank you very much. This is exactly what the mayor of san juan had been calling for on no uncertain team saying this is what were waiting for. This is what we need. Just last night made an national appeal. The president has done it. What they said was the governor, lets bring in david. David what the white house is saying is we needed to wait for a formal request. Look, is that true . Its truish. Thats the way its supposed to work. They could have jumped the ball. Governor of puerto rico saying it andeporting betrays some sort of confusion. Governor didnt know they were waiting on him. There are a lot of business interest tied up in the jones act. Simply stated its a rule that made different places like puerto rico have only ships that were made in the u. S. And crude by u. S. People deliver goods there. It excluded a lot of other suppliers. Raised costs and kept down the number of people who could help. David, whats you take . Theres no doubt it has. In fact you heard President Trump say, a lot of those shippers, they dont really want us to waive the jones act. It does raise cost and increase their profit it does have that America First approach. You are right about that. I think the white house was playing a bit of a dance here. You are right. Waiting for the formal request trying to back down reports that they had denied a request which they claim they did not do. Then as you saw, the governor last night tweeted saying i am petitioning the Trump White House as of wednesday night to please waive the jones act and this morning we have the response. Hes doing so. Talk to mayor and put a fire point on it. Mr. President , not to eliminate the laws of shipping is immoral. An act of financial oppression that will only succeed in deepening our downturn. President heardhem and now that has happened. Lets talk david about taxes. What do you see in this tax plan that the president has put up. The first thing i see is no sort of path to pay for it. That will end up being a big part of the conversation on capitol hill as it really becomes legislation. You will just see that some republicans who are in favor of this are going to argue that this is going to create an economic book. That is going to help pay for it in and of itself. The tax cuts will indeed pay for it with the economic increase in Economic Activity that will take place. Youll see a lot of democrats push back on that and perhaps some republicans as well who are true fiscal conservatives. In terms of whats offered here, its a huge tax cut. I know the president is keen on framing his just as a middle class miracle. He wants to keep it all about the middle class in terms of rhetoric. The corporate side of this seems to me to be a huge piece of this. As you saw, President Trump is in a nonnegotiable mood about 20 rate for business. Heres what i dont get. Wheres the disconnect on the Arctic Police station of the plan. The promise from the president on the campaign was crystal. Im about the middle class. Dont care about the wealthy. Im going take a bite of out them. I dont need their money. That was excelling. Why put out a plan that really only details how youre going to help the upper income people and not the middle class. It has some information in there for the middle class, but youre right. It is not. Theyre not the headlines. Amt, estate tax, lowering business rates, you know. Hes clearly on the mind that as you were talking about with steven moore, notion of lets free up some money. Give some of the wealthy more money. True supply side economics and that will have sort of a trickle down effect into the economy. Theres a great debate in this country over whether or not that works or not and is it proven or not, but clearly donald trump believes that is part of how hes going to get this through. Remember, you just saw a completely divided Republican Party over health care. Tax reform is not going to be any easier. Its because of these kinds of issues, hes trying to make sure he has the votes to get something done here. So i think he wasnt able to just take one approach. I think the white house needed to start putting a plan together that had a little bit for everyone. Good news for republicans. The president says they do have the votes on grahamcassidy. Mitch mcconnell never got this memo which is why he canceled the vote, but the president this morning says they do have the votes. Listen to this. The Health Care Bill didnt go down. We have the votes, but reconciliation is a disaster. As you know, it ends on friday. We dont have enough time. We have one senate who is a yes vote. Great person, but hes in the hospital. Hes a yes vote. We cant do it by friday. So we have the votes. We will do it sometime at the beginning of the year, but prior to the election in november. Hes talking there obviously david about senator thad cochran of mississippi who is not in the hospital. Not in the hospital. And said he would be happy to come back for the vote. He tweeted this. Thanks for the well wishes. Im not hospitalized. They didnt have the votes with cochran anyway. I know that. Thats all good. You got the facts wrong on cochran and hes not in the hospital. It doesnt matter. Irrelevant piece of information. Thad cochran is not one of the names listed as already declared no votes. It only takes three. I thought what was most interesting at the very moment he was saying this on stage yesterday in indiana, that he has the votes, precisely the same moment, lindsey graham, sponsor of the supporters, said we dont have the votes to get the bill passed right now. You could call it that. Back to puerto rico. The mayor of san juan, puerto rico. So wonderful to fuful to talk ts morning. What is your reaction to the news the jones act will be suspended started immediately. First of all, i think it is an act of justice. I tweeted yesterday that not repealing the jones act would be an act of injustice. The jones act makes everything we receive in puerto rico between 3033 higher. The cost of construction will be lower. The cost of acquiring goods will be lowered. We are grateful that our cries for justice were heard and that the president did the right thing and stood in the right side of history. You called for it and now its happened. I know you must be very grateful. Do you know why it took so long to take this action. No, but you know, sometimes it doesnt matter why things happen. And who makes them happen. When justice prevails. And that is what is important. That justice has prevailed here. We have a broken supply chain. And that broken supply chain begins with just repealing the jones act. Yes. And must have been a difficult decision, but it is the right and the just decision. Mayor julian, i want to ask you about the supplies and the supply chain because its hard for us to know exactly whats happening. We understand there are thousands of containers of emergency supplies sitting idly at the port of san juan. Do you kno about this situation. Well, it has been reported that and yesterday there were some images that floated around the internet, which frankly has become a primary source of communication. And this is something that needs to be taken care of quickly. The people of puerto rico need to know what the plans are and how they are unfolding. This is why its so important to work that all of you are doing down here and its so important that you magnify the voices that are crying for help. Who is supposed to be organizing this. Why would there be supplies that people are so desperate for sitting in the port without them getting out. Who is supposed to be spear heading that. Im going to have a meeting today with fema. I know that fema employees have come to the municipality and ill take my municipality. They have told me theyre eager to help, but it seems to be some sort of a jurisdictional situation whether it is should the help be coming through the municipality. Should it be brought directly through the municipalities or should another method of supply be used. What im finding is that the mayor of miami beach came personal yesterday and brought me supplies in san juan. The mayor of new york has also done so. The mayor of chicago has helped. What im finding is that mayors are calling mayors to help mayoring direct because or supply chain is faster. Is it true. Is it true that these supplies are sitting at the port of san juan . The information thats loaded yesterday through the internet with the images shows that is true. Theres about 3,000 containers that are stuck there and theres no reason at ll. So my cry today is lets get it done. Lets me on it. What would happen if you went to the port and said please off load these now. Nothing. Nothing. Because from a jurisdictional basis, even though the ports are in the capital city and im the mayor of the city, i have no jurisdiction over those ports. So nothing will happen. So we are relying on you guys to put the pressure on and make sure that everyone that needs to hear, just like mr. Trump heard, the cries for justice that got him to repeal the jones act, we ask, i beg you to just repeat this and repeat this, and use the municipalities as the supply chain. We know our people. We know where the hot spots are. We now how to get our people involved. We can get the stuff to where it needs to go. There are some municipalities that are hindered in their ability to do that. Those that can will help those that cannot. Its a simple fact of life. It is not complicated. Politics needs to be put aside. And we need to get the job done now. So mayor there is a fema press briefing happening right now along with the governor of puerto rico. So you are calling upon them. If i hear you correctly. To release these supplies to you because youre saying that you know better where they need to go and you can make it happen better than waiting for the feds and fema to try to get to them. Not better than waiting. With the help of the feds. With the help of the fema people, and with Distribution Centers that are closer to the municipality. If the distribution centerings are far away from the municipalities and there are not many, what happens is we will be using what little gas and diesel they have to get supplies. These supplies need to be distributed into bigger centers that are closer to the municipalities and then they can be distributed throughout. So when we hear that the obstacles. Im glad this is happening. It may be happening and they may be what the governor will be announcing. Also the communications need to be sharp, clean and clear and people of puerto rico need to know what is happening and when will they get help. When we hear the obstacles are too great to speed up this process because theres no radar at the airport, making it very hard for planes to land, and ports are damaged, is that true . Or is there a way to make this happen. For heavens sake. If we were at war, there may not be any radars and planes would be landed. You know, there are ways to get around obstacles. If justice is going to revail. If we are our main put food and water and medicine into people hands. When youre in a war situation, they have little drones or little parachutes that dropboxs. Different places with supplies for people. That can be arranged. It has been used since world war ii. It cannot be that difficult. Since the 1940s its been used all over the world. So perhaps go back to basics. And get things done. When youve talked to federal officials and said my people are dying. My people need help. My people need water and food. Let me handle it. Let me help through our Distribution Centers, what is the response that you get. Twice ive been told right amendment. Twice ive been told right amendment. Twice the people of fema who are great, good compassionate articulate people. They know what theyre doing, theyre telling me, look mayor, what theyre saying is that all of these, all this stuff needs to be centralized. Your petition directly to fema is not good enough. It has to be centralized. Well, as long as we keep centralizing things. This is what a supply chain is all about. Its about decentralizing things so that they get to where theyre supposed to get fast enough. So the federal officials are telling you right a memo. That sounds like bureaucracy and red tape in this crisis where obviously time is of the essence. They want you to write a memo to who the feds in washington. No, they want me to write a memo to give it to them. Mind you, send an email. The communications are broken. Communications are broken. I may have an ability to write an email now i wont have it. This call at any point in time can just go off. Just because the communications are broken have i a Satellite Phone because my dear mayor friend. She came to puerto rico. She came to san juan and send one of new yorks finest, a fireman to put a Satellite Phone in my hand. So youre message to anyone listening in the white house, or in the federal government is that now is not the time for memos. We dont have time for memos and you dont have the technology right now for memos. Now is not the time for memos. Now is the time for action. Now is the time for justice and now is the time to get life support supplies into peoples hands. Mayor, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us. I know before our phone call you were trying to get fuel to people who desperately needed it. Thank you very much. Coming up in just minutes. We will speak with puerto rico man who is trying to do everything he can. He luis fonsi. New details about facebook ads purchased by the russians during the 2016 election. How far did the kremlin go to stoke unrest in america. How did that do it . Who might have helped them. House Intelligence Committee got a member next. Feel the power of theraf