I liked, even though i did like it, it was senator mcconnells reactions to her material. Its not easy being Mitch Mcconnell. After three in washington, youve just given up. I hold you accountable and i dont need outlaws to track you down. Thank you. He doesnt even move. Not a single twitch, nothing. Either Mitch Mcconnell has through years long control of breathing a deep state or that man is dead inside. Good morning. It is thursday, august 7th. Good to have you with us. Youre taking a live look at new york city. Sure is a lot better doing this show, harold ford, when its light outside. Always helps. It lifts the mood a little bit. Better than february where its, like, cold and dark until,
like, 2 30 in the afternoon. Weve got harold ford, Brian Sullivan, elise vivek, and visiting former democratic candidate harold ford jr. And in washington senior Political Editor in college, sam stein. How are you doing today, sam . Im good. Ready for class. You think youll be going to red sox playoff games again this year . No. Not at all. Its looking kind of ugly, yeah. Pretty bad. Harold, im glad youre here. Im glad youre all here. Why is it dark in d. C. But light in new york . Its always dark in d. C. , be honest. Its unbelievable speaking of depressing situations. You guys are going to have to explain this inversion thing to me, because i dont get it. I dont understand why American Companies can take their Companies Overseas, gain all the benefits of being here, and dodge taxes. The white house doesnt understand that either. And they plan to crack down on American Companies that are dodging taxes. Not avoiding taxes, dodging taxes. And this of course adds another layer to the debate over president ial powers. President obama announced hes going to act as soon as possible to stop what is known as inversion. Thats when Companies Move their headquarters out of america so they dont have to pay american tax rates and you do. Its not fair. Its not right. The lost revenue to treasury means its got to be made up somewhere and thats typically going to be a bunch of hard working americans who either pay through higher taxes themselves or through reduced services. I think its something that would really bother the average american. I think most American Companies are proud to be american, recognize the benefits of being
american, and are responsible and willing to pay their fair share of taxes. I never have a green light. Im bound by the constitution. Im bound by separation of powers. Theres some things we cant do. And were going to make sure that every time we take one of these steps that we are working within the confines of my executive power, but i promise you the American People dont want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for congress to get something done. Just last month, however, treasury secretary jack lew suggested the Administration May have to go through congress to address the issue. We have looked at the tax code. There are a lot of obscure provisions in the tax code. We do not believe we have the authority to address this inversion question through administrative action. If we did, we would be doing more. Thats why legislation is needed. Thats why we proposed it in our
budget. So thats the focus of the wall street journal editorial this morning saying the president sounds like hes going to be writing the tax code by executive fiat which violates the constitution separation of powers. I guess, harold, come on. Okay, so weve got harold ford jr. , youre a professor. You work on wall street. So you understand this stuff. And we have Brian Sullivan. You work at cnbc. Thats all i can say for you. You guys need to explain no, i love you. You guys need to explain to me why is it that americans with American Corporations with their families living in america, being educated in america, using Public School systems, getting all the benefits of being an american can move their corporation overseas, dodge taxes, and make everybodys tax rates thats watching the show right now higher. Why is that the right thing to
do, harold ford . Couple things. First, these companies are still paying taxes on money generated in the u. S. Whats happening is money generating overseas which Many Companies arent bringing back anyway. People want to enact some sort of holiday but theyre not moving overseas for their health. Theyre moving to dodge taxes. Theyre not paying american tax rates on money generated overseas. But theyre still moving their corporations overseas. If youre an American Corporation and you live in america and you work in america and your family lives in america and you want to move to switzerland, theyre doing it to save taxes. Not because they cheered for the swiss soccer team in the world cup. Theyre cheating the system. Why is that the right thing to do . Im not saying it is. Im just laying out the facts. Why are you defending this, harold . For gods sake can i answer the question . I just want to answer the question. Thank you for going to him
and not me at 6 00 in the morning. This makes me sad. We have a set of tax laws that are complicated and should be fixed and streamlined. One of the ironies in this conversation is democrats when we talk about the border situation, they want to reform the entire law. And when it comes to tax inversions, republicans want to deal only with a broad system. Im surprised the president can do it. I dont know how he finds it. Would you support it if the president of the United States could figure out a way to do this legally . Sure. Of course. If he can figure out a way to do it legally. I think a majority of people would. But you asked why are they doing it. They have every right to do it . Is it unpatriotic . I think its unfair to call them corporate deserters. Most of the companies doing this are competing globally. Theyre making working class americans pay higher taxes. We should fix this code. If they want to leave america, they can take their families with them and they can take their dogs with them and their cats with them and their nannies with them. You asked me to talk about this. Not that im being a populist here. Brian sullivan, do you have an explanation. First off, harold said it very well. And thank you for just taking the beating why that. I sat here and grinned for once. So youre making an important point. And i agree, its totally distasteful. But the tax code was written by congress. Are there a couple former congressmen on set here . The u. S. Tax code is 70,000 pages long. You know how long the tax code is in hong kong . 400 pages. Forget about inversions for a second. What youre going to see in the future unless congress or the president gets its act together, michael kors, a name we all know, theyre in hong kong. Samsonite, ipoing in hong kong. Theyre just starting there even though theyre doing the same thing because its a 400page tax code. Let me ask, why cant congress do something . Republicans arent interested in doing something because right now they are bowing to the right pressure from libertarians who see this as the pinnacle of economics. They want corporations to be able to go here or there. Right now president obama is under pressure from Senate Democrats to act on his own. Which is going to bring up the question of whether hes constitutionally legal to do that. Sam stein, youre up. If they could, they should. If they have the right to do it, they should. You cant pass laws if there were were a republican president others would be complaining. Do republicans really want to go back to their districts saying im going to stand in the way of allowing american
corporations to move overseas. So working class americans have to pay higher taxes. Because theyre dodging taxes. I dont know if theyd phrase it like that. But thats exactly whats happening. Yeah. I think what theyve been saying, essentially, is that instead of doing something simply on inversions that this is an opportunity to tackle tax reform more broadly. And, you know, thats a theres a case to be made that Corporate Tax reform was one of these lowhanging fruits that lawmakers couldnt get around to doing for a variety of reasons. Maybe this would be the catalyst to do it. But the counterargument is more effective which is that you shouldnt not do one thing because youre hoping to do the other. That you can do something on inversions before you go doing something on Corporate Tax reform at large. And so i think the pressure will ramp up for lawmakers when you go back to the districts. If it reaches the constituent
level. The problem the administration is facing is theyre worried about a cascading effect. Theyre worried that companies will get worried about a forthcoming rule and suddenly a bunch of them in a row will do this inversion. And you cant put that genie back in the bottle. Yesterday walgreens stepped back from doing piit. Yesterday the president said it may be all right, but its not the right thing to do. Walgreens stepped back from the pressure. Other American Companies need to feel the pressure of this. Certainly republicans need to step forward. This is just a twoyear moratorium. Just say were putting a moratorium on this until president obama leaves office. Two years, maybe that stops companies from moving overseas. But this is ridiculous. Lets move to kentucky. Former president bill clinton looked as comfortable as ever as he was playing surrogate for Alison Lundergan grimes in kentucky. Watch this. I love kentucky. Youve been youve been good to me. You voted for me twice. And youve been good to hillary and i appreciate that. You know, i dont pay too close attention, but as i remember, she won a primary election here by 37 points. I appreciate that. Sam stein not paying close attention, just knows the exact percentage she won the primary by. Not keeping score, but she won by 37 percentage points. Bill clinton is there to shore up support for a democrat who is not popular in all areas of kentucky because of coal and some other issues. True. Theres a reason bill clinton is there and not barack obama, right . Barack obama has a disapproval
rating in the state. So you dont send him down to stump for Alison Lundergan grimes. Bill clinton has some cachet in there. His wife did better in the primary. He did well there. So hes the surrogate. And i have a feeling i dont have a feeling. You can gain this on the reporting that hes going to be much more present on the trail this fall than barack obama will. And, elise, the race is going to be a barn burner. Mitch mcconnell i think upside down in kentucky. Not popular in his home state. This race is extraordinarily close. This is one race where a guy like bill clinton could make a difference. I agree. Bill clinton is extraordinarily popular. Look at Mitch Mcconnell. He doesnt have a surrogate out there working for him who is as popular as the clintons at this point. His wife came out and tried to rebut attacks against him, but im not as sure this will be
effective for him. Right now the clintons have a corner on the market. Mitch still has rand paul. Hes pretty popular in the state. This is the state, too, where they dont have the issue of obamacare. No state has been as successful with the state implementation of obamacare. It seems the president wouldnt be the one to come down. She wants president clinton. That Health Care Law to your point, performing better there. They dont associate it with obamacare. Its the state exchange. Despite the successes of obamacare, its just to loss. Politically it is just a loss. Why do you think that is . Even in kentucky, joe . I think its just too big. I think her point is a good one. They give the state management of it the credit. You look at the last two presidencies and you have george
w. Bush coming in promising to have a humble Foreign Policy. 9 11 comes up, changes absolutely everything. His entire administration is defined that way. And then you have barack obama saying hes going to be a new democrat. Youve got the crash, youve got the Bank Bailouts that george w. Bush and barack obama both supported. You had the stimulus package and all these other things. Then you had this Massive Health care reform plan. He was defined out of the gate. He was defined as a Big Government liberal. Has not been able to shake it. Certainly not in these elections. Its done all right for him in president ial elections. You all have helped us out with great nominees youve given us. We do our best. And the administration has not messaged the law well. I think thats very clear. Theres almost no american who understands exactly whats going on with the Health Care Law. I think if people understood, maybe they would put it together a bit more. But this is going to be a noose around their neck far long time. Theres a great piece in the
journal saying how its cutting cost. When you say no american understands it you also mean congress. Thats absolutely true. They didnt understand it when they passed it. Because hopefully theyre americans. Can we ship congress over . Can they invert . Can Congress Move to the haig . That would be awesome. New quinnipiac polls coming from new jersey. Headtohead, Hillary Clinton versus Chris Christie and the winner is Hillary Clinton. 50 to 42 . Favorable 60 , unfavorable 38 for clinton. For chris 47 favorable, 47 unfavorable. You talk about candidates and it helps the republicans in president ial election years. Mike huckabee was talking yesterday about, sam stein, that impeachment for president obama
would be justified. Said we dont have the votes in the senate so we shouldnt do it, but this talk of impeachment keeps doubling up. Those damn democrats keep bringing it up. Oh, wait, it was Mike Huckabee this time. Im confused where it stands in the Republican Party. Do they think its a legitimate path to pursue . I cant tell. When Mike Huckabee makes comments, hes actually probably hurting his party more. Hes helping the democrats fund raise. I imagine theres some people in d. C. That would wish he wouldnt talk about it. I dont think its helpful at all. This is Mike Huckabee in iowa talking about how president obama could be impeached. Has this president done anything worthy of being impeached in your view . Absolutely. Theres no doubt that hes done plenty of things worthy of impeachments. Its an important argument to make there are a number of things this president has done
in overuse of executive power, his complete ignoring of the law. I mean, its i know Mike Huckabee. Its unfortunately hes traveling down that path to try to create credibility for a candidacy. This is not democrats doing it. Its a credible candidate on the republican side. The numbers you showed with Hillary Clinton and Chris Christie, one of the great advantages she has is shes been through an impeachment. Number two, what else can be said about her that has not already been said . We talk about unfavorables and favorables, where we talk with others on the scene we may learn something that could change opinion. We still have more to learn about hillary. The book tour showed us. I would not be thrilled with the way shes performed over this summer. I hear you. But what can you learn about Hillary Clinton . Shes been in the public were still learning a lot. I disagree. I think weve consumed so much about the clintons. Dont get me wrong, we learned she has a 40 inch vertical and can run a 40 yard dash. Howd you get to hillary off of impeachment . You just showed a poll with christie that was a story behind. Im sorry. Were on impeachment. Who said it . Can she really run that . My goodness. This is a great case for mitt romney. It is. So im going to take control back here just for a second. So lets weve seen sort of the harsher side of the republican image. Lets soften it now. To congressman justin amash. He won and this was his acceptance speech. Very gracious towards the candidate he just beat. I want to say to lobbyists, you are a disgrace. And we could hand you one more loss before you faded into total obscurity and irrelevance. Okay. Thats bringing a party together. I dont know what you did, harold ford, after really tough elections. I will tell you what i did. I picked up the phone and i went over and i talked to the person that i beat and i told them i was lucky to win. I mean, i ran i had some people say some nasty things about me. I remember. And you just bury it and you go straight over there and say i was lucky. Youre so much smarter than i
am. I shouldnt have won. Will you help me in the fall . Im serious. Thats what you do. Look at this. Somebody should play reunited because it feels so good. I like that. It used to be both sides. Democrats would go to republicans and vice versa. But to see the intraparty stuff. To watch this young fella not be gracious after a win is when you win, smile, walk off the court. Back to brians point about inversion. I want to make the point, his opponent called him, i think, al qaedas best friend in congress. So its not like, you know i had a few things and joe had a few things too. Would you like to hear some of the things that harold ford had hurled at him . No, i remember that. And it was terrible. But justin amash is just being honest. Hes just not faking it. Its almost refreshing. I agree with that. Refreshing. You imagine that people have to feel this way after a blistering race, right . And hes getting all this attention. I say, why not. Go home and do it. Exactly. This is the millennial right here. This is what we got t