Republicans celebrated their first legislative win of the year Wednesday, after both houses of Congress passed a sweeping tax reform package.
But one Democratic congresswoman told Cheddar there’s still hope for constituents who remain opposed to the bill.
“Stay mobilized, let your voice be heard,” Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) said Wednesday morning, after the Senate voted, but before the House reconvened. “Nothing is permanent but death and taxes, and we can do something about these taxes and we can do something about the makeup of this Congress.”
The president and his party leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon to praise the benefits of the tax system overhaul, which drops the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, nearly doubles the standard deduction for individuals, and lowers the tax rate for most income brackets.
While the GOP says the long-overdue changes will provide a boost to the economy, Democrats dispute that claim and say the bill will largely benefit the wealthiest Americans and balloon the deficit.
The bill does appear to be broadly unpopular. A recent CNN poll found that 55 percent of respondents opposed the legislation, a 10 percentage point increase since last month. Still, it passed the House by a vote of 224-201 Wednesday afternoon, with only 12 Republican naysayers.
Republicans also took to Twitter to cheer the victory. President Donald Trump posted a gif that read “Tax Cut for Christmas”.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-bonnie-watson-coleman-d-nj-says-voters-can-change-the-makeup-of-congress-in-2018).
Sen. Elizabeth Warren spoke with J.D. Durkin about the accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the response from President Trump that Democrats are engaging in a "con game." She says if the president really believes the accusations aren't true then he must want a full investigation by the FBI. "Have at it, Mr. President," she said.
Stocks were mixed Tuesday, a day after tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports went into effect. Art Hogan, chief market strategist for B. Riley FBR, said investors have been taking the escalating trade war in stride, but whether that can last under these new tariffs will be the question to watch in the weeks ahead.
Hugh Jackman's forthcoming film "The Front Runner" follows former Sen. Gary Hart and his rise and fall in the 1988 presidential election. Cheddar spoke with Jackman about how he approached the role and why it was so important for him to meet Hart.
A year after delivering his "fire and fury" speech that threatened to annihilate North Korea and its "little rocket man" leader, President Trump addressed the annual United Nations General Assembly Tuesday, expanding on his "America First" motto and replacing North Korea with Iran as the major antagonist.
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The newest round of tariffs on China imposed by the Trump administration will be damaging for American farmers, particularly soybean and corn growers, said Kimbal Musk, the restaurateur (and brother of Elon) who founded the Kitchen Restaurant Group. Because farmers can only "innovate once a year" during harvest, what they need most is certainty.
U.S. markets dropped Monday as questions over the future of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein added to investor concerns, which were already heightened by the onset of the latest round of tariffs on Chinese goods. "The political environment seems to be mayhem on a daily basis, and we're just going to have to get used to that," said Jason Moser, analyst at The Motley Fool, in an interview on Cheddar Monday.
From Omarosa to Bob Woodward to Jeanine Pirro, authors are cashing in on the Trump presidency. Brent Lang, a film and media editor for Variety, said that sales of books on the Trump presidency ー regardless of political leanings ー are surging as readers want to make sense of this era.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has left a meeting at the White House with Chief of Staff John Kelly and remains, for now, employed.
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