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Brady vows GOP tax plan will bring 'relief' to Americans of all income levels

Rep. Kevin Brady, the House’s top tax-code writer, on Sunday defended the chamber’s overhaul plan against criticism that many middle-class Americans will pay more and turn voters against the Republican Party, vowing relief for all Americans.

“Here is where I strongly disagree,” Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told "Fox News Sunday." “I believe there is tax relief all up and down the income level for families, regardless of what they earn.”

The lawmaker is defending the plan against criticism from congressional Democrats and two analyses, including one in The New York Times that concluded one-third of middle-class families will get a tax increase.
“They’re describing an America that doesn’t exist -- one where the economy never grows and one where your paycheck stays stagnant no matter what happens,” Brady said about The Times analysis. “I strongly disagree.”
Senate Democrats have also panned any GOP plan that will eliminate state and local tax deductions, warning that congressional Republicans representing suburban districts especially will face voter backlash for their support.
“The reality is many middle-class families are going to end up paying more," Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Commitee, told Fox on Sunday. “Folks in suburbs are going to get clobbered.”
The GOP-controlled House and Senate have each introduced separate plans, which must pass in each chamber before leaders can craft a compromise bill that gets passed by the entire Congress and put on President Trump's desk before the end of the year.
The major differences: The Senate bill wants to delay by one year a corporate tax cut, from 35 percent to a projected 20 percent. And the Senate bill wants to eliminate all state and local tax deductions.
“Everyone’s stressing the differences,” Brady said Sunday. “There are some, but there is far more common ground.”
He also essentially guaranteed the House plan will keep some state and local deductions and was optimistic about his committee voting on the plan in the coming days, with final passage before a self-imposed Thanksgiving deadline.
“That’s our goal,” Brady said. “That’s what we’re scheduled to do."
He also disagreed with analysis that the GOP plan will increase the federal deficit by $1.5 trillion, arguing that critics don’t take into account that the tax cuts will stimulate economic growth.
Brady repeated what House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and others in the GOP leadership have for months said about the plan, that it increases paychecks and allows Americans to decide what to do with their money before the IRS gets its hands on it.

Dems mum on whether Menendez should step down if convicted

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., arrives at a federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., for his federal corruption trial, Oct. 26, 2017.  (Associated Press)

Top Democrats on Sunday refused to say whether Sen. Bob Menendez should step down if he’s convicted of federal bribery charges.
“I’m not going to get into the hypotheticals on either of these situations, as I said, several steps removed,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) the Senate minority whip, said on CNN's "State of the Union," also referring to GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama. “I’m hopeful that, when all is said and done, that Bob Menendez will be returning to the Senate representing the state of New Jersey. ”
Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said he won’t comment on Menendez’s fate in the Senate until the federal jury in New Jersey announces its verdict.
“We’ll wait and see what happens,” he said on ABC's "This Week." The jury has not spoken yet.”
Pressed on whether Menendez , 63, should resign, Perez said jurors are still deliberating.
“The jury has not spoken yet, so I don’t like to answer what if questions,” he said.
Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland also said he would withhold weighing in on Menendez.
“We’re going to leave this decision to the jury. I’m not going to get ahead of the game,” Van Hollen told "Fox News Sunday." “I’m not going to speculate about what the outcome of that jury decision will be.”
Durbin said President Trump should address the scandal enveloping Moore, who was accused of molesting a 14-year-old Alabama girl when he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in 1979.
The Washington Post reported last week that he also pursued romantic relationships with three other teens.
“President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party in America,” Durbin said on CNN. “It’s his responsibility to step forward and say more and do more when it comes to the situation in Alabama. ”
Trump is on the final leg of a 12-day trip to five Asian countries.
The Newark jury weighing the Menendez case will have to begin deliberations from scratch on Monday after a juror released last week said the senator is being “railroaded” and predicted a mistrial.
“It looks like a hung jury,” Evelyn Arroyo-Maultsby said last Thursday after being released due to a long-planned vacation.
Menendez has been on trial since September on charges that he provided a rich Florida doctor favors in exchange for lavish gifts — flights on a private jet, all-expense-paid vacations and $750,000 in campaign donations.

Roger Goodell reportedly requests $50 million salary, lifetime private jet in contract talks

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has reportedly requested nearly $50 million per year in addition to the lifetime use of a private jet amid contract negotiations with the league.  (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell reportedly has requested nearly $50 million per year in addition to the lifetime use of a private jet amid contract negotiations with the league.

Goodell, whose proposed contract with the NFL currently is undergoing an approval process, asked the league’s compensation committee in August to raise his salary from $30 million to $49.5 million per year, ESPN reported Sunday.

Goodell also reportedly asked to use a private jet for life, and also requested lifetime health insurance for his family.
NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL: ALL PLAYERS ‘SHOULD’ STAND FOR NATIONAL ANTHEM
The commissioner currently is embattled with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has threatened to sue the NFL if negotiations regarding Goodell’s contract extension are finalized without approval from all NFL team owners.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, right, has threatened to sue the NFL if negotiations regarding Goodell’s, left, contract extension are finalized without approval from all NFL team owners.  (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

An unnamed NFL owner told ESPN that there are “several owners in this league who don’t make $40 million a year.” The owner added: “That number for Roger just seems too much. It’s offensive. It’s unseemly.”
Goodell has made headlines in recent months for his handling of league players protesting during the national anthem ahead of NFL games.
He said last month that “we want our players to stand” during the anthem, but stopped short of imposing a rule for players to do so.
NFL COMMISSIONER CONTRACT DISPUTE WITH JERRY JONES, EXPLAINED
One team owner, regarding the possibility Goodell possibly would leave his position, said “the problem” with the NFL is “no one is talking about games anymore.”
“It’s about concussions, Jones vs. Goodell, [Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension], the anthem. No one is talking about football. It’s just killing the game,” the owner told ESPN.
Another owner told the sports network that “Roger is defiant,” and they don’t believe he’ll “take a pay cut” or resign as commissioner of the NFL.

Trump, Duterte to hold first formal sit-down as uncertainty over Philippines' human rights lingers

President Donald Trump is set to meet Monday with the so-called “Trump of the East,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, another controversial world leader known for his ultra-tough approach.

However, the first formal sit-down between the two leaders may not trigger substantial changes in the Philippines' human-rights record. In fact, Duterte said last week that he would tell Trump to “lay off” if he raised the issue of human rights, according to Reuters.

Breaking with his presidential predecessors, Trump largely has abandoned publicly pressing foreign leaders on human rights, instead showing a willingness to embrace international strongmen for strategic gain.
This week, Duterte boasted that he murdered a man with his own hands.
Duterte previously called former President Barack Obama a “son of a wh---.”
Above all, Duterte has sanctioned a bloody drug war that features extrajudicial killing.
Duterte’s war on drugs has alarmed human rights advocates around the world who say it has allowed police officers and vigilantes to ignore due process and to take justice into their own hands. Government officials estimate that well over 3,000 people, mostly drug users and dealers, have died in the ongoing crackdown. Human rights groups believe the victim total is far higher, perhaps closer to 9,000.
Duterte has defended the violence strenuously and boasted of participating himself.
Late last year, he bragged that he personally pulled the trigger and killed three people years ago while serving as mayor of Davao City. And last week, while in Vietnam for an international summit, he said he took his first life years earlier.
“When I was a teenager, I had been in and out of jail, rumble here and there,” Duterte said during a speech in Danang. “At the age of 16, I already killed someone.”
He claimed he fatally stabbed the person “just over a look.”
His spokesman later tried to downplay the comment, saying, “I think it was in jest.”
Trump has shown little interest in pressuring Duterte to rein in the violence, instead saluting him during a May phone call.
“I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” Trump told Duterte, according to a transcript of the conversation that later leaked. “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”
White House officials have suggested there is a strategy behind Trump’s flattery of Duterte.
Advisers have said that while Trump is unlikely to publicly chastise the Philippine president, he may offer criticisms during private meetings. Trump would plan to hold his tongue in public in order not to embarrass Duterte, whom he is urging to help pressure North Korea and fight terrorism, and to avoid pushing him into the arms of China.
Trump met Duterte for the first time at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam on Saturday.
The meeting was “short but was warm and cordial,” Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, told Reuters.
“The leaders were generally pleased to finally meet each other in person,” Roque added.
Trump dismissed the notion that he buddied up to dictators.
He said Saturday he has great relationships with all sorts of leaders, “every person in that room today,” after leaving a summit in Vietnam attended by Duterte and Putin, among others.
In addition to meeting with Duterte, Trump is expected to attend the Association for Southeast Asian Nations conference on Monday to urge allies to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Trump’s trip to Asia was meant to be centered on trade, as well, where he held meetings with other Asian leaders to push his agenda for bilateral, rather than multinational, trade agreements.