which is most of the stuff that you don't see, but also the public engagement that is provided and let people kind of get a sense for where we are in the universe, which is pretty and significant if you consider all those images. it was a great first mission for me. words" sunday night at book tv onn on c-span2. >> this morning president trump signed into law 1.5 chilean 1.5 trillionlaw -- dollars of tax reform and short-term spending bills. the president said he decided to sign the tax bill before the holiday rather than waiting for a formal event in june way because of media reports that said he promised to do so. this is about 15 minutes. good morning.

good morning, everybody. thank you very much for being here and merry christmas, happy new year, have a great holidays. we are going to sign some very important things today. one is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. very important, top-of-the-line, best of the world. we make the best military product in the world. nobody is even close. so we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense and that will be done by signing right here and also by notifying the speaker of the house and president of the senate designating the missile defense as emergency defense funds.

that andillion for $700 million for various other military forms of equipment. and i'm very honored to be doing that. our military has been doing a fantastic job and 70 ways with isis, and everything that they have touched lately has been working out so we are signing that. this is the letter to mitch mcconnell and separately to paul ryan authorizing that having to do with missile defense. ok.

very important, so that's being done today and that's going to be sent out. then when i watched the news, as you know, we had the largest tax cuts in our history just approved. i was going to wait for a formal signing sometime in early january, but then i watched the news this morning and they all said, will he keep his promise? will he sign up by christmas? -- sign it by christmas? i called downstairs and said get it ready. we have to sign in now. we are not going to wait until january 7 or eight to do a formal ceremony co. every one of the networks was saying, will he keep his promise? will he signed before christmas? as you know, $3.2 trillion in tax cuts for american families including the doubling of the

standard deduction and the doubling of the child tax credit. the typical family of four earning $75,000 will also receive an income tax cut of more than $2000. many much higher than that, slashing their tax bill in half. they will start to see that because we are signing today and we will start to see that in february. the numbers will speak. one of the big things that happened -- there are some great companies. i want to thank at&t, which was the first out of the box, and boeing and sinclair and wells fargo and comcast, even though they own nbc, which is not so nice to the presidency or the president, but comcast also. also have made tremendous contributions to their employees and tremendous contributions to spending money in this country because of the tax cut. and they all said that because

of the tax bill. they are making tremendous investments and that means jobs. we are very happy. that's at&t, boeing, sinclair, wells fargo, comcast, and many other companies. just this morning i've seen three more companies came on. a friend of mine, bob kraft come and saidme last night this tax bill is incredible. he owns that england patriots, but he's in the paper business, too. he said based on this tax bill, he wanted to let me know that he's going to buy a big plant in the great state of north carolina and he's going to build a tremendous paper mill there or paper products plant. i've had many calls such as that where people who are entrepreneurs, people in business, are going out and going to buy frankly factories that are closed, abandoned, and now they are not going to be abandoned. this is having a bigger impact even faster than i thought.

the corporate tax rate will be lower from 35% to 21%. that means that more products will be made in the usa and a lot of things are going to be happening in the usa. we are going to bring back her companies. they have already started coming back. i think they had certain confidence in me that we were going to get this done, but their party started. something very important to me -- the family farmers and small business owners who lost their business because of the estate tax, most of them won't have any estate tax to pay. it will be a great thing for their families. you can leave your farm to your family. you can leave your business to your family. not even so small because the numbers are pretty big here. ion of having to pay the estate tax will keep farmers in the family. businesses will be able to deduct 100% of the cost of the investment in the year the investment is made. one year expensing

is one of the biggest things of the bill. people will go out and absolutely go wild over expensing. bob kraft mentioned that last night in his telephone call. expense that they can to one year expensing is a fantastic asset. historic small business tax cuts and pass-throughs now are made really, really good for the business owner. they are hiring people and i see it on television. i'm reading about it all over where people are hiring a lot of people right now to go to work. the small business tax cut and the pass-throughs are now really incentivizing people. we are going to bring back probably $4 trillion from overseas. nobody knows the exact number, but it's massive. it could be $5 trillion, but it's tremendous amount of money that was held overseas. bureaucracy and the tax laws do not allow it reasonably to be brought back into our country,

so we think at least $4 trillion is going to be brought back. if you look at that, it's going to be brought back right under code. thatis something republicans wanted for years and democrats wanted for years, yet never got done. who would object to trillions of dollars being brought back into our country? nobody. it never got done. now it's being done. the bottom line is that this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. this is bigger actually than president reagan's many years ago. i'm very honored by it. in addition, we are opening up and wire for drilling. they try to get that for four years. they try to get that during the reagan administration but could never get it. that alone would be a big part of this. we have of course the individual mandate, which is a very unfair and very unpopular provision as you know in obamacare.

itentially i think ultimately leads to the end of obamacare. essentially i think obamacare is over because of that. we're going to come up with something that's going to be really good. the individual mandate was very unfair because you're basically saying pay for something in order not to have to get health care. so you are paying not to have to have health care. it was very unfair. many people thought it should of been overturned in the supreme court. didn't quite make it. almost, but didn't quite make it. there turning over individual mandate, the most unpopular thing in obamacare, very unfair. this is the best right here and we are very proud of it. it's going to be a tremendous thing for the american people. it's going to be fantastic for the economy. it's going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries. they are very disincentive

ized. you do that and i do not think he will be running your company very well. what's happening as we are going to sign this. this is a little picture of it. it fits nicely in the box. i said take it out of the box because people have to see. all of this, everything in here, is really tremendous things for businesses, for people, for the middle class, for workers. i consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. and jobs are produced through companies and corporations. you see that happening. corporations are literally going wild over this. i think even beyond my expectations, so far beyond my expectations. so i will sign this today rather than having a big formal ceremony in two weeks when we ire going to do it because didn't want you folks to say i wasn't keeping my promise. i'm keeping my promise and i'm

signing it before christmas. i said the bill would be on my desk before christmas and you are holding me literally to that so we did a rush job today. it's not fancy, but it's the oval office. it's the great oval office. just to conclude, our country is doing very well. we have tremendously cut regulations. legislative approval for which i'm getting no credit in the mainstream media is i believe 88, which is number one and the history of our country. second now is harry truman. harry truman had more legislative approvals than any other president. on legislative approvals, for which i get no credit. this of people said he did because he has had no legislative approval. if you look at the v.a. accountability act and some of the other bills having to do with the v.a. and the military

and many things, we have more legislative victories than any other president, not including this. but this is the cap or because this is again the biggest tax cuts, biggest reform of all time. so it's an honor to have you with us and we will sign this right now. this is something i'm very proud of, great for a country, great for the american people. thank you all. so we won't do the whole thing, but this is basically what it is. that's your bill. and i want to thank some people in particular that aren't here because again we expected a formal ceremony in two weeks,

but mitch mcconnell has been fantastic. worked so hard. we would speak at 3:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the morning and we would speak whatever we had to speak, but he worked so hard and he worked so hard and exact same thing can be said for paul ryan. and are very proud of this we are already seeing the results. as i said come along ahead of schedule. paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, think you very much. orrin hatch, the chairman, made a beautiful speech the other day in front of the white house, and absolutely brilliant and beautiful speech. i appreciated it. hard-working. kevin brady, i don't think he slept for months. that's all he did was this. black, robdiane portman, rob worked so hard. pat toomey likewise could tim

. tim scott likewise. john thin likewise. these people worked so hard and i will think they are given the proper credit. when i say the whole senate, unfortunately the republicans in the senate, democrats don't like tax cuts. they want to raise your taxes. they don't want to lower your taxes. they want to raise your taxes and they want to spend money foolishly on things that we don't need in many cases. we are cutting taxes. we are taking care of her military -- our military and we are taking care of people. we are really doing a job on jobs. these folks have been so fantastic that i had to call them out and plenty of others, believe me. republicans in the house and republicans in the senate have been incredible. this is what we've got. we had it. it was all set to go. as soon as i got back from christmas, we will be working in florida. i will be working very hard

during the christmas because we have many things to be talking about including north korea and a lot of things happening in the middle east as you know. we have made tremendous strides obviously in syria with isis p w. we have taken that richly all the caliphate in all the land. we are making tremendous strides. it is sort of the unwritten story right now, but since my speech on afghanistan, we are making tremendous progress, tremendous strides. we opened it up and it's a whole different world and afghanistan i can tell you. i will be working very hard over the holidays . again i want to wish you a very merry christmas. i have some beautiful tens over here. because these folks are either continuing to work down the road or getting ready to leave, and i'm sure that will be working very hard also, i think i'm probably going to hand some to the press. when any of the media --?

look at these cameos. -- camera guys. many of you have worked very hard. many of you have worked very, very fairly and we appreciate it. do you want the box with it? >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: i do not think i will have to travel too much to sell it coul it's sellin. that selling itself. you will see something on february 1 when they open the paycheck. that's when they will see it. by signing it now, it kicks in for this year. remember -- if we didn't make a certain date, it would not take into next year, meaning the following year 2019, so i wasn't happy with that. we worked very hard to make it this year. even the original language that the corporately kick in 2019, but we had to sign. i did i think we will have to do much selling. the corporations that are giving

billions and billions of dollars away to their workers and many more are coming. i think that's really what selling this may be better than anybody could come including myself. come february when they open their checks and they say wow, i have a lot more money in here, i think that is something very special. have a great holiday. ine of you folks -- particular, they were so nice to me the other day. and the cameramen. >> thanks, everyone. thank you everyone. pres. trump: i think the democrats will really regret. the democrats already regret it. they do the typical thing where it's for the rich and they know it's not true. they have been called out on it by the media actually. the democrats very much regret it. they wanted to be part of it. it just doesn't work out. i really do believe when i said on social media today that i really do believe that we are going to have a lot of bipartisan work done and maybe

we start with infrastructure because i really believe infrastructure can be bipartisan. we have spent $7 trillion in the middle east, not to mention all the lives and all the hard it. it's so sad. $7 trillion. it's time for us to rebuild our country. thank you very much, everybody . thank you very much, everybody. thank you. >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: we are going to get infrastructure. infrastructure is the easiest of all. we are very well on the way. we essentially repealed obamacare. you know the individual mandate is a very big factor in this .ill frankly ty infrastructure is by far the easiest. people want it, republicans and

democrats. i could've started with infrastructure. i actually wanted to save the easy one for the one down the road. we will be having that done pretty quickly. thank you all very much. i appreciate it. thank you very much. >> have you heard anything in process that will help you in 2018? pres. trump: i got to know and became very friendly with the people in the house and the people in the senate, both republicans and democrats. when i can, i didn't know too many. i was very politically active, but i didn't know too many. the fact that it became friends with psalmody of the names that i read off, so many of the senators and congressmen and women, i think that's a huge factor. i can call anybody and i know them very well. i have to say i know the legislation very well. it's been a process. believe that the fact that

i've gotten to know so many of these people and many of these people -- i have to say, not saying all, but many of these people are great people. they truly love this country. i think that helps and i think you will see that in this legislation. thank you all very much. thank you very much. pres. trump: and about the same time this morning, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell held his year and news conference, highlighting some of the major republican achievements of the year and outlining the areas for more bipartisan effort. he answered a range of questions on what to expect in 2018, including health care legislation, immigration policy, and examining the senate sexual-harassment policy. alsor mcconnell

commented on his colleague, senator john mccain, wishing him well and fully expecting him to return in the new year. this is just under five minutes. -- 25 minutes. [laughter] sen. mcconnell: good morning, everyone. i picked a heck of a week to have laryngitis. i probably talked more yesterday than i have any day this year. i apologize for sounding like donald duck. i've got my traveling clothes on. i'm ready to go to louisville, kentucky. i hope you all are headed in that direction as well. >> louisville? sen. mcconnell: you're welcome to come. [laughter] or wherever you are headed .