Mistaking that car for a giant carrot. It caused 6,000 in damages. Jon the car was parked next to the donkeys enclosure. The man could have picked a better parking spot. That does it for us today, americas news headquarters starts sandra awaiting the start of the White House Press briefing on this very busy day in washington. Hello, everyone. Im sandra smith. We expect fresh white house reaction on tax reform, healthcare and aid for hurricane ravaged puerto rico. We have live fox News Coverage for you. John roberts standing by at the white house. We begin with mike emanuel who is currently live on capitol hill. Mike, the framework is public now, so where do lawmakers go from here on tax reform . Reporter well, sandra, House Speaker paul ryan is among those out selling this tax proposal, saying it will help those who deserve it. Our plan lowers taxes for small family owned businesses. Middle class. Now were Learning Healthcare may also be back in the mix. John roberts is live on the north lawn. John, the white house is defending its Tax Reform Plan . Reporter they are. In terms of the volume of things coming out of here, it is a typical day at the white house. President said his Tax Reform Proposal is a give away to the rich. Tweeting this morning, quote, democrats dont want massive tax cuts. How does that Win Elections . Great review for tax cut and reform bill. Chuck shumer is critical of the president s plan for a couple of reasons, saying that because it eliminates the state and local deduction, people in high taxation states like new york state, like connecticut, like california, will actually be taxed twice and their taxes could also go up. The reason schumer is calling this a give away to the rich is that because the president would eliminate the estate tax and also eliminate the alternative minimum tax. You might remember that in that one snippet of President Trumps tax return that we saw, he paid
puerto rico expected to be a big one, too, right . Reporter it will be a big topic especially since there have been criticisms of the white houses response to whats happening in puerto rico. People saying its ineffective and unconscionably slow. But the white house is saying, look, were on an island there, were getting material in as fast as possible. Lot of the roads are blocked. We heard from the acting Dhs Secretary and Homeland Security adviser a little while ago outside the white house. They say theyre air lifting supplies. They got 10,000 federal workers there. 7200 are troops. Theyre trying to get as much material as they can into puerto rico as quickly as they can. Of course, the president this morning asked for a waiver ten days in length of the jones act, which would allow foreign flying vessels to take supplies from the United States into puerto rico. Thats prohibited by the jones act. I asked secretary about that earlier today, if that helps them hro gistically. She said, yes, it helps very much with resupply. Hopefully well see more getting into puerto rico. Getting from the ports to the areas where it is needed most. Sandra john, youre getting new information on Scott Pruitts flights. Reporter it all started with tom price and if the revelation that he spent 400,000 on private flights. Now people are talking about the Epa Administrator taking a number of noncommercial flights. A source tells me it was four flights in total. The only Charter Flight was one between denver, colorado and duragno. This was after the commercial flight on Aou Nighted Airlines that the administrator was booked on was delayed for eight hours and he would have missed this event in a mine had they not chartered the flight. Also asked the governor of colorado if they could jump on his plane. They were initially told there was no room. After they chartered the aircraft, the governor said weve got one seat. The other flights were government flights. One was a Military Flight from cincinnati to jfk so the administrator could jump a commercial flight to italy so he could join the president at the g7 summit. Another one department of interior flight inside oklahoma. Would have taken more than five hours to drive there. The epa reimbursed the department of interior for that. The other one was a ride on the governor of north dakotas aircraft between two cities in north dakota. Between fargo and grand forks for which the governor was reimbursed. All of that was cleared by the epa office of ethics. So theyre saying this is not a tom price situation, this is completely different. Sandra . Sandra john roberts, thank you. Reporter thank you. Sandra so the Focus On Tax Reform now turns to capitol hill, where lawmakers in both the house and senate must craft their own bills. Joining me now colorado senator Corey Gardner who sits on the Foreign Relations committee. Senator, thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Sandra senator, a lot going on. Lot of optimism coming from you and your colleagues over this tax plan. Is there enough there to get this passed . You know, i believe there is. I think the reason there is, because we have to jump start this economy. There are far too many people in our country who have seen their wages remain the same. Stagnant wages mean people havent been able to get ahead. They havent been able to get that leg up they thought they could. Through tax relief to American Families, were able to make sure people keep more of their own money. Job creators able to create more jobs by investing in their businesses. This is a good thing for america. Sandra you heard some of the reports coming from capitol hill earlier. Nancy pelosi saying this swindles the American People, it would be catastrophic for the budget. Chuck shumer saying this is a give away and a major disappointment. Will democrats be able to come around on this . One of the provisions chuck
shumer has objected to. 88 of the people who receive that tax benefit earn over 100,000 a year. Thats hardly the middle class of america. We have to make sure we do whats right for the middle class americans. We have been talking about coming up with opportunities to drive down tax rates to let people make their own decisions on how to spend their own money. We know once you drive down those taxes, more money will be coming back in to the United States from overseas. Well see more investment. Well see wage growth and the opportunity to create more businesses. There are some areas that havent seen Net Job Increases or new starts since 2000. 17 years its been stagnant on the job front and new business front. We can do better. Tax reform, tax relief is the way to do it. Sandra you sound optimistic. We see President Trump touting this plan. Are you going to be taoeubl sell
this . Yeah, i think so. Im old enough to remember that president obama talked about cutting taxes. So i think this is something that has bipartisan support. Its something that both sides should agree to, unless they just want to play politics. It will be easy to convince the American People. Would you like to have more money in your own pocket than you did before . And theyre gonna say yes. Sandra i think you can bet on that. Thank you very much, senator gardner, for coming on. Thanks. Sandra the White House Briefing ahead this hour. Well see what the administration has to say about the new tax plan. Also be asked about the response to the growing crisis in puerto rico. We need the president to really take this seriously. Theres no way in the world that Puerto Ricans together working with the local government can just with the support that we currently have on the island from fema were going to be able to rebuild puerto rico for at least as an emergency get these supplies to the people in need. Patrick woke up with back pain. Containers that are sitting here just waiting to go out. These containers are filled with food, medicine, construction materials, anything you could buy at a walmart, grocery store, pharmacy. These are the same items folks are lining up to buy, waiting for hours. That is what has port officials here so frustrated. The water, the food, the medicine T Construction materials right now people are without roofs. People are without walls right now. With all this cargo that we have sitting here, we know that we can bring immediate relief to all those people in need. Reporter the problem is with distribution. Right now puerto rico does not have enough drivers to get these containers out on to the road and to those places that need it. That is why the governor told me yesterday, right now his biggest need is folks to sit in a seat and drive a truck. Its a logistics problem. If you fly over as we did over the port, you see that we have thousands of crates of food, water, fuel is plentiful. But we need the transportation to execute. This is going to take every truck driver in puerto rico so we could be effective. And were going to need support from the outside. Reporter and the reason these Shipping Containers are sitting here still is as of right now, only 20 of puerto ricos Truck Drivers have gotten back on the job. Some of them lost their homes, their trucks. Others the government has not been able to contact. They are looking for anyone to drive a truck, for folks outside puerto rico to get in here and help with trucks as well as drivers. Right now its a frustrating situation for both the government and for people here at the port especially folks across the country who are in desperate need. Sandra thank you for
netanyahu your reporting on that. We are Just Moments Away from the White House Briefing where we expect questions on President Trumps tax plan and puerto rico. Plus, some Cabinet Members in hot water for Spending Taxpayer Money on chartered flights. Well look at the potential consequences. The president s made it clear that hes not happy with those developments. Hell look into it and ill leave it between the president and secretary to work it out. Devastation on the island and for anybody that needs food and water, power, Life Saving Needs and commodities, health care, theres nothing that can happen fast enough. But what i will tell you is that we are mobilizing and marshaling the resources of the United States of america that is absolutely professional, fast and adequate. Sandra louisiana senator john kennedy is a republican on the appropriations committee. Senator kennedy, thank you for joining us today. You bet, sandra. Sandra first off, what do you make of the administrations response to horrific situation happening in puerto rico right now . How is the administration handling in their response . Well, i think the administration is doing a much better job than some members of the National Media and certainly the democrats are giving them credit for. Thats one example of where nothing that the president does will ever satisfy our friends on
the democratic side. Ill give you another example that i have been listening to your clips of what chuck shumer said about our Tax Reform Bill Being a tax cut for the rich. You know, i noticed something since i have been in washington these nine months. Lying is a Growth Industry around here. Now, i really like chuck. I think hes a great guy. I dont agree with him. But when it comes to tax reform, our bill, hes going through a phase. Called brain dead. Our bill will do more for middle class americans, working families, ordinary people, whatever you want to call it, than anything this town has done in 50 years. So i have got to set the record straight on that. Chuck is just not telling you the truth about this bill. Sandra senator kennedy, to let everybody know what chuck shumer said. He said this is a give away to the rich. This tax plan is a major
disappointment. You have responded by penning an op ed, a tax code for the middle class you call it. Lets invest in the american dream. You wrote nearly threequarters of americans opt to take the standard deduction. Its simple, fair, requires less documentation than itemizing. All Congress Needs to do is double the standard deduction in order to inject 600 billion back into the economy over ten years. You cited a 2014 report. Its very simple. Take an ordinary couple making 70,000 a year. Mom and dad both work. They take the standard deduction. They file jointly. They pay about 3500 in federal income tax. They pay a lot more in taxes but 3500 in federal income taxes. Double their standard deduction and thats going to give them an extra 1800 of their own. They can spend it on whatever
they want. Thats not a tax cut for the rich. Thats a tax cut for people who get up every day and go to work and obey the law and pay their taxes that need a little help. Sandra if its that easy, why cant republicans sell this . I think we can and we are. Youve got to refute nonsense as spoken by my friend chuck shumer. Its not just nonsense. Its nonsense on a stick. He knows that. Chucks base has white hot hatred for donald trump. Theyre never gonna say anything good about the tax package. Maybe he believes. You can believe 2 plus 2 equals 5 and that doesnt make it correct. Its wrong. Sandra i want to get your response, senator kennedy, to Hhs Secretary tom price. Hes under fire for using Government Resources for personal use. He was asked on camera, with a
microphone, whether he thinks he should be fired. Listen to this. Were gonna work through this. Do you think you should be fired . I think weve still got the confidence of the president and we continue to work on important issues like flu vaccinations. Sandra senator kennedy, what did you make of his response . No excuses here. Cant put lip stick on this pig. Its a pig. Tom shouldnt have done this. Whether he stays on is between him and President Trump. Taking these Charter Flights, playing the big shot on the taxpayers dime when you can go by bus or train or regular commercial air. Cant put lip stick on this pig. Sandra should he be fired, senateer . Thats not my call. Thats up to him and the president. If youre asking me if i think its wrong . Its dead wrong. Its more than wrong. Dont defend this. Its indefensible. Sandra all right. Senator kennedy, really good to have you on this afternoon. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Sandra all right. Well, the White House Press briefing, ill remind you, it is just moments from now, where all these topics are likely to come up. Plus details about top security leak. Remember a Reality Winner, how she claims to have smuggled out a classified report. I just saved a bunch of money on my Car Insurance with geico. Huh. I should take a closer look at geico. Geico can help with way more than Car Insurance. Boats, homes, motorcycles. Even umbrella coverage. This guys gonna wish he brought his umbrella. Fire at will howd you know the guys name is will . Yeah . Its an expression, ya know . Fire at will . You never heard of that . Oh, there goes will bye, will thats not his name take a closer look at geico. Great savings. And a whole lot more. Sandra were awaiting the White House Press briefing. It is set to begin moments from now. We are also awaiting a Life Briefing from the State Department as Remembering Tillerson kicks off a high level trip to china. The whole talks on the Nuclear Standoff with north korea among other things. Rich edson has the latest on the State Department. Hey, rich. Reporter good afternoon, sandra. Secretary tillerson is on his way to beijing for high level meetings with Government Officials there. Secretary of state also welcomed at the state Department Today officials from the chinese government. Before he left, he discussed his priorities for that trip to beijing. Preparation for President Trumps important visit. So we want to talk about the agenda for that visit. Then well continue our discussions on a number of other issues that are important. Certainly north korea will be on the table for discussion. Reporter this is his second trip to beijing as secretary of
state. Nuclear Missile Development first component of his first trip in march. Those issues are a priority this time. China recently agreed to support u. N. Resolution sanctioning north korea. Chinas Commerce MinistryJust Announced businesses in that country operating with north korea have 120 days to close. China also announced it will reduce energy and text tile trade. That prompted President Trump to publicly applaud chinese