First Tank Battalion and a young intelligence officer who would become a novelist.
Again, we'll have live coverage of President Biden's remarks here on C-SPAN this evening at 6 Eastern.
C-SPAN is your unfiltered view of government.
We're funded by these television companies and more, including MIDCO.
Where are you going?
Or maybe a better question is, how far do you want to go?
And how fast do you want to get there?
Now we're getting somewhere.
So let's go.
Let's go faster.
Let's go further.
Let's go beyond.
Midco supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
The U.S. job market rebounded in November, adding 227,000 workers to the economy after a slowdown in October caused by hurricanes and strikes.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reports that the unemployment rate ticked up from 4.1% to a still relatively low 4.2%.
We want to welcome back Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, member of the Ways and Means Committee and a member of the Progressive Caucus joining us from Capitol Hill this morning.
Congresswoman, let's begin with the 2017 tax cuts put in place during President Trump's first term in office.
Remind viewers of the changes that were made then and which ones are set to expire.
Well, thanks for having me, Greta.
In 2017, the Tax Cut and Job Act, I was not on the Ways and Means Committee at the time, but there were very serious changes.
The corporate tax rate went down from 35% to 21%.
I heard your programming earlier where somebody was talking about the Eisenhower years where it was 92%.
Well, the corporate tax rate went dropped precipitously from 35 to 21 percent.
In addition to that, there was a change to the standard deduction to double the standard deduction for individuals, which was great.
But mostly the tax cuts went to the top 1% of the population, you know, CEOs of companies and to shareholders.
We had a provision called the 199 provision, which was supposed to be targeted towards small businesses, but quite frankly, the benefit primarily went, 70% or so went to very large corporations.
And so what we found is that we had like a $2 trillion tax cut, and most of the benefit went to shareholders, CEOs, and to corporations, quite frankly, and sort of didn't trickle down to regular Americans.
Which ones are set to expire?
The ones that are set to expire, unfortunately, are the individual taxes.
But even if we were, and that's about $3 trillion, but were we to renew those tax cuts, people with incomes, say, under $114,000 a year would not experience that big of a tax change again.
Those individual tax changes will benefit primarily people who are wealthier.
And we also have business, we have the 199 that I mentioned before provision for businesses that is to expire.
And that's a provision that I think the committee ought to look real hard at because we've had input from small business associations that say that, you know, that the small business community, what we consider Main Street businesses, don't really benefit from a 20% deduction on qualified business income.
It's mostly those larger companies, you know, $10 million or so more in income that organize the same way that smaller businesses do as LLCs and so on.
They are primarily raking up all of the benefit from those tax cuts.
Let's listen to Missouri Republican Jason Smith.
He's the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, and he was on Fox Business earlier this week.
And here's what he had to say about letting these tax cuts expire.
We win this by delivering for working class Americans, small businesses, and family farmers.
If Congress does nothing, every single American will face a tax increase by the end of the year.
Every individual rate will go up.
The child tax credit, which is something that helps a lot of working families, will be slashed in half.
It will go from $2,000 to $1,000.
The standard deduction, which 91% of Americans use to file their taxes, gets slashed in half.
These are tax cuts for real working Americans.
And I would hope to think that the Democrats would not want those taxes to increase on working class Americans, small businesses, and farmers.
You know, Jason Smith and I are good friends, and he's a very clever man.
And what he just talked about there was the fact that they elected to make permanent those tax cuts that benefit corporations.
And were they to renew them, that will add $4.6 trillion to the deficit.
And what they allowed to expire were those provisions that helped families.
You know, I just want to say that doubling the standard deduction, again, that helped a lot of families.
But at the same time, doubling the standard deduction, people lost tax deductions that they had, lost other benefits.
And again, those tax cuts for small businesses, you take a small business, there's a small business, say you had a small business that had a net income of $100,000.
That tax cut was about $2,000 as opposed to the millions of dollars that larger corporations receive.
There definitely was no equity.
So the other thing is that the $4.6 trillion of tax cuts that Jason Smith has said that we need to renew would be added to the deficit.
And the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Federal Reserve Board, other economists have said not a single penny of the tax cuts that we have given to these corporations has trickled down to regular Americans, that they've gone towards CEO pay, that they've gone for stock buybacks and to shareholders.
And if there's any growth that's been realized from slashing the corporate tax cut down to 21%, it is inured to the benefit of large businesses and crumbs literally from the master's table.
So if Jason Smith says that, you know, every single person will have their taxes increased and the measly child tax credit that they have put in place to replace what we did, Democrats did during the American Rescue Plan, it's hardly worth the pain that people will endure with this being added to the deficit.
Congresswoman, Republicans will have the majority in the 119th.
It will be a thin one, just a handful of seats.
Will any Democrats join them in re-upping these tax cuts?
Well, I'll tell you, some of the tax cuts have bipartisan support.
I think there's bipartisan support for the research and development credit, for example.
But the question for me is what Republicans will join Democrats in reforming some of these things.
As I mentioned before, the 199 credit is really a huge giveaway to large corporations.
The bonus, the 100% bonus depreciation is a huge giveaway to big corporations.
How many Republicans, there are Republicans that wax on about the deficit, and I hope that they'll step up during these discussions and cause there to be some restraint.
I heard earlier in your programming that people talked about, oh, how spending is the problem.
Spending is the problem.
Providing tax cuts to corporations is spending.
Be clear that that is spending.
And the pay for for these corporate tax cuts that I've heard about have included Medicaid, have included SNAP, formerly called food stamps, and we've even had Republicans admit that Social Security and Medicare is on the table.
So, yeah.
Let's get to calls, Congresswoman.
We've got a handful of people waiting for you.
Bill in New Jersey, Democratic caller, you're joining the conversation here with Congresswoman Gwen Moore.
Welcome.
So, yes, I just want to know about the status of veterans disability pensions and health care.
I hear that the Republicans are probably going to go after that.
I just want to, well, what you could say about that.
I hope I'm getting your question right.
The disability benefits, the Social Security disability benefits?
No.
No, the veteran disability benefits and their health are health care.
I'm a veteran.
Okay, well, what you're talking about, I think, is the Doge committee that's to be headed up by Elon Musk and Mr. Ramaswani.
They've talked about really slashing and burning any sort of program that doesn't have a reauthorization connected to it.
The veterans' benefits that you're talking about, and I am really stouring my memory, I think that it hasn't been reauthorized since maybe 1976.
So that would theoretically put it on the chopping block.
And it's an example of how sort of this blanket notion that programs that don't have the reauthorization could be on the chopping block.
But yeah, that's an example of a program.
And I don't remember the exact date, but it hasn't been reauthorized for decades.
But it is one of the programs that could be on the chopping block because of its status with regard to reauthorization.
All right, let's go to Tom, Charlotte, North Carolina, Republican.
Hi, Tom.
Good morning.
Good morning, Madam Congresswoman.
Good morning.
I'm glad we strolled into Dolge because that's what I'm calling about.
I was a VA nurse.
I'm a retired VA nurse and a veteran.
And the administrator in my hospital got a $500,000 bonus because he had saved $5 million from the Veterans Administration.
And they say if you save the government any amount of money, you get 10% of what you save them.
So if you save them $2 trillion, then these boys, Musk and Vivik, are headed for a $200 billion bonus.
You know, I'll just have to plead ignorant on what you're talking about with regard to these bonuses.
But I think that the bonus ought to endure to the American people.
You know, if we've got $2 trillion that they can save from somewhere, we ought to make those investments in people.
The child tax credit we discussed earlier, I mean, there's a $10 to $1 payback that we can document for investing in our future workforce, in our children, versus,
you know, 100% bonus depreciation, which, you know, if we restore that benefit, cost us more than half trillion dollars just to go into the pockets of big fat cats, quite frankly.
You know, there's more useful, productive use of money than just providing it, than slashing benefits, which is another thing they're talking about doing, slashing benefits from our efforts to meet the challenge of climate change, just to be able to provide those benefits to fossil fuel companies.
And we do know that we've got to tackle this problem and not just stand up to the donor community.
You know, there's absolutely no reason to go back to having, you know, grandma pay, you know, $500 a month for insulin because we're realizing some savings for pharmaceutical company executives who are not suffering at all.
This is the biggest profits that they've seen in the history of the industry.
And so I understand the whole notion of your question.
I'm sorry I don't know the specifics.
But yeah, the trend has been to reward people at the top, CEOs, and to allow people at the bottom to suffer.
I just want to point one thing out.
You know, when we start talking about the poor, we're talking about the 11% of people in the country who are struggling from day to day, facing possible homelessness and food insecurity.
But the reality is, is that when you look at the true cost of making it in America, over half of Americans, 52% of Americans, are financially insecure.
I mean, doggone it, if that car that gets you to work every day breaks down, you don't have $500 to get it fixed up, ready cash in the bank.
52% and not a penny of the tax cuts that we're talking about reauthorizing will solve that problem.
People under $114,000 a year really will, the problem of that financial insecurity will not be solved by adding another $4.6 trillion to the debt.
Well, first of all, I want to tell the Congresswoman, Madam Moore, I love your eyeglasses.
They are absolutely bad.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I got three quick questions that I tried to cut them down, so I'm going to try to just go through them.
I want to know, first of all, why can't a mother divorced on food stamps with a couple of kids get the assistance that she needs over the years?
Because they cut all of that, but someone who owns a company and not paying taxes can continue to get tax cuts and they haven't paid any taxes.
I would like to see the Democrats come down on those Republicans about where this money is going.
All right.
And Loretta, I apologize to you, but we have to just take the one this morning because we're running out of time with the Congresswoman.
Well, Loretta, thank you for your question.
And, you know, basically, that's what they're talking about.
They're talking about cutting SNAP or food stamps or Medicaid, block granting it, you know, so that there's not enough money to meet the need in order to provide these tax cuts because that's where their priorities are.
There are some people who perhaps believe that these tax cuts pay for themselves, and there is absolutely zero proof that it ever happens.
Investing in people feeding babies with food stamps has a return.
Peter in Orange Park, Florida, Independent.
Hi there.
Peter in Orange Park, Florida, Independent.
Your turn.
Yeah, I'm right here.
I'm here.
Representative Moore, thank you for everything.
I'm a retired teacher from MPS.
I was at MEC and at Clark and with the NexStar Foundation.
And thank you for fighting for our children in MTS.
Thank you for your service, sir, and a male teacher at that.
We really need you.
Akiva in Clifton, New Jersey, Independent.
Good morning to you.
Good morning, Greta.
Good morning, Representative Moore.
Good morning.
First, before I get to my question, I need to say your city hosted the Republican National Convention.
Congratulations.
And my question is about the tax law specifically to certain insurance companies.
The insurance company Assurance is headquartered in Milwaukee.
And I also code that because of the tax law, which was passed in 2017, President Trump worked with Speaker Ryan at the time.
Because of the tax law, it was not going to leave for Bermuda, and it was going to stay in Milwaukee.
Isn't that a good thing?
And so why are you not going to vote to extend the tax law?
It does not make sense.
Well, I didn't say I wouldn't vote to extend some of it.
I hope they take it in pieces.
I'll tell you, we have insurance is different.
Life insurance, they were the pay for for the corporate tax cut.
And it really put a lot of the life insurers in a really strange position.
They became the pay-for for other businesses.
You know, I guess it's picking winners and losers, so to speak.
But you say, why wouldn't I vote for the tax law?
I mean, the tax law ought to provide some sort of equity.
Remember when I talked about the 52% of Americans, you may even be one of them, who day to day, I mean, you're not facing homelessness.
Your kids aren't going to starve.
But, you know, if Aunt Mame dies and you need to get a plane ticket to go to her funeral, that would be a huge strain on your budget.
People just don't have the kind of window and kinds of needs that they have.
You know, everybody doesn't have employer-sponsored insurance, and we're talking about cutting Medicaid.
People are very, very insecure.
And so why would I vote to extend bonus, 100% bonus, depreciation or the 199 benefit so big it doesn't help mainstream businesses.
You drive a Mac truck through that loophole to so that CEOs you know the head of pharmaceutical companies and fossil fuel companies and can can get $10 million bonuses while 52% of the population is struggling.
And so I'm gonna look at it and I'll vote for some of the stuff.
We do want companies to grow with the research and development credit, but some of it doesn't make any sense at all, particularly since it is going to extend the deficit, which Republicans complain about all the time and watch.
They're going to stop complaining about it all right, James?
San Diego Republican.
As the Congresslady knows, corporations do not pay taxes.
They pay employees.
Number one, they pay share.
They pay shareholders with interest and dividends.
So that area, that area, is not correct, young lady.
Number two, the Congress spends the money.
If the House president sends out a budget that he thinks or she thinks is correct, the House OF Representatives go over the budget along with the Senate and then they approve and they compromise on what they want to spend.
If the Congress and the Senate quit spending money, then the deficit would go around to go down to start off with.
All right James, i'm going to get the congresswoman's reaction.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for that.
I'm not as young as you think, but thanks for the compliment, you know.
Uh, spending tax cuts to corporations is Spending through the tax code.
We're given bonus depreciations instead of doing other things with the money.
So be clear that, so we start talking about spending, everything needs to be on the table.
Right now, we have a deficit of revenue.
We don't have enough revenue in this country to meet the needs of veterans.
I mean, we just had a caller earlier.
If they block grant, for example, Medicaid in order to pay for these tax cuts, what that'll mean is that we'll have so many of our wonderful seniors in nursing homes, you know, maybe spending the last month of their life in an ICU burning up the Medicaid dollars.
And some mother with two kids who's totally eligible won't be able to receive those benefits.
We might find ourselves, states might find themselves cutting things like rides to doctors' appointments, cutting perfectly eligible people on behalf of rich people.
And like you said, corporations don't pay taxes, but the tax cuts that we have given them, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Federal Reserve Board, all of these economists find that people did not get jobs, new hires, or increase, I'm sorry, increases in wages based on these tax cuts.
They went to shareholders.
They went, like you said, they went to shareholders, good for them.
But they did not trickle down to the 52% of the Americans that I'm talking about.
The people who, during exit polls in the election, say that they voted because they were feeling financially insecure.
The money did not help them.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, thank you as always for talking to our viewers this morning here on the Washington Journal.
And thank you, Greta.
At our table this morning, Congressman Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, 17th District, and the co-chair of the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus.
What prompted you to start this caucus?
The need that became apparent, not just to me, but I think the country came as a result of the performance of the last four years.
As the chairman of the subcommittee for government reform and oversight on government operations and federal workers, we saw very early on the impacts of the president, whether we say COVID or not, the president having almost every single government operations figure out a way where you can stay at home.
Figure out a way where you can not only operate from home, but see if you can use that as your mainstay.