Trump Calls On GOP To Pass Budget, Tackle Tax Reform
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork) -- President Donald Trump is set to head to Capitol Hill for action on a budget bill, and he hopes for a quick passage to move his agenda forward.
As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, Trump was also touting a deal Monday to create jobs in the U.S. He touted it as he welcomed the leader of Singapore to the White House.
Trump spoke Monday in the White House Rose Garden with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The president was also was on hand for a signing of a deal between Boeing and Singapore Airlines totaling $13.8 billion.
"Most importantly, it's about 70,000 jobs… in this country" Trump said, laughing as he added, "Otherwise we cancel the order."
Trump will head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. He wants fast action by Republicans in the House of Representatives to approve the Senate budget plan passed last week so they can move on to tax reform.
Trump sent his daughter, Ivanka, to Bucks County, Pennsylvania on Monday to push the tax reform plan at a town hall meeting.
"The total complexity that exists today only benefits one group of people -- the people who can afford to hire the armies of lawyers and accountants and lobbyists," Ivanka Trump said.
But Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) is putting pressure on Republicans in some swing states because the tax outline calls for elimination of deductions from state and local taxes.
"State and local deductibility is a dagger --aimed at the heart of New York and particularly of so many of our middle-class residents," Schumer said.
Republicans said the loss of deductions for state and local taxes would be eased by a proposed doubling of the standard deduction. New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, and California claim more than half of the state and local tax deductions and would be hit the hardest by the proposed elimination.
In the meantime, a widow of a soldier killed in Niger, Sgt. La David Johnson of Miami Gardens, Florida, said she was upset after speaking with Trump last week. Myeisha Johnson said the president could not remember her husband's name.
"I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband's name, and that's what hurt me the most -- because if my husband is out here fighting for our country and he risks his life for our country, why can't you remember his name?" she said.
But Trump tweeted Monday morning, "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!"
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. also held a briefing Monday on the attack in Niger, which killed Sgt. Johnson and three other soldiers – staff sergeants Bryan Black, Dustin Wright, and Jeremiah Johnson.
"On the 4th of October, U.S. and Nigerien forces began moving back south, and en route to their operating base, the patrol came under attack from approximately 50 enemy using small-arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and technical vehicles," Dunford said.
Dunford said U.S. forces did not ask for air support for one hour, perhaps because they thought they did not need it. The general said it then took French fighter jets another hour to get to the scene.
He also said the intelligence indicated it was unlikely that there would be enemy contact.