--- title: Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan on GOP Tax Bill description: 'Today Show' anchor Savannah Guthrie grilled Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on various details about the GOP tax bill and Trump's accusers canonical: https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-20T15:54:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T18:38:36.990Z article:section: Politics og:title: Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan: 'Are You Living in a Fantasy World?' og:description: She also asked Ryan about President Trump's alleged sexual misconduct og:url: https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc37f78f65853bf19/6988f4edbc6cfcb6f43e450b/tax-reform-bill-congress-agreement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4918 og:image:height: 2766 og:image:alt: Speaker Ryan And House GOP Leadership Discuss GOP Tax Bill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan: 'Are You Living in a Fantasy World?' twitter:description: She also asked Ryan about President Trump's alleged sexual misconduct twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc37f78f65853bf19/6988f4edbc6cfcb6f43e450b/tax-reform-bill-congress-agreement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan on the Tax Bill: 'Are You Living in a Fantasy World?' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Dec 20, 2017 3:54 PM UTC  U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks in front of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) during a news conference on Capitol Hill December 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks in front of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) during a news conference on Capitol Hill December 12, 2017 in Washington, DC. Al Drago—Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Dec 20, 2017 3:54 PM UTC _Today Show_ anchor [Savannah Guthrie](http://time.com/5040635/savannah-guthrie-hoda-kotb-matt-lauer-statement-transcript/) grilled Speaker of the House [Paul Ryan](http://time.com/5064972/paul-ryan-congress-retirement-white-house/) Wednesday morning ahead of the revote on the [GOP’s sweeping tax reform](http://time.com/5072678/gop-tax-reform-bipartisan/). Guthrie questioned the Wisconsin Congressman on the tax bill, which passed through the Senate Tuesday night and is expected to pass again in the House after a second vote on Wednesday. In a tense exchange where Guthrie read a quote from billionaire Michael Bloomberg about how it was “pure fantasy” to expect the legislation to increase wages and growth, she bluntly asked Ryan: “Are you living in a fantasy world?” “I would compare that anecdote to just the surveys of businesses like the National Association of Manufacturers, which show the vast majority of businesses are going to do just what we say — reinvest in their workers, reinvest in their factories, pay people more money, higher wages,” Ryan responded. “Corporations are already sitting on a ton of cash,” Guthrie said shortly afterwards. “They have record profits — $2.3 trillion —why aren’t they raising wages and creating jobs now?” Later in the segment, Guthrie shifted the conversation to [sexual harassment allegations against President Donald Trump](http://time.com/5058646/donald-trump-accusers/), asking if Ryan would support a Congressional investigation into the accusations. “Well, as you know, the person in charge of that committee, Trey Gowdy, has given a very articulate response which is those are criminal matters. Congress doesn’t do criminal investigations,” Ryan said. Four of Trump’s accusers came forward again recently, demanding that Congress investigate their claims. A White House spokesperson dismissed the request in a statement to [Megyn Kelly](http://time.com/5063676/megyn-kelly-today-sexual-misconduct/), who interviewed three of the women last week. “These false claims, totally disputed in most cases by eyewitness accounts, were addressed at length during last year’s campaign, and the American people voiced their judgement by delivering a decisive victory,” the White House Statement said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/"},"headline":"Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan on the Tax Bill: 'Are You Living in a Fantasy World?'","datePublished":"2017-12-20T15:54:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T18:38:36.990Z","description":"She also asked Ryan about President Trump's alleged sexual misconduct","url":"https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc37f78f65853bf19/6988f4edbc6cfcb6f43e450b/tax-reform-bill-congress-agreement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc37f78f65853bf19/6988f4edbc6cfcb6f43e450b/tax-reform-bill-congress-agreement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Speaker Ryan And House GOP Leadership Discuss GOP Tax Bill","caption":"Speaker Ryan And House GOP Leadership Discuss GOP Tax Bill","creditText":"Al Drago—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5073399/savannah-guthrie-paul-ryan-tax-bill/","name":"Savannah Guthrie Grills Paul Ryan on the Tax Bill: 'Are You Living in a Fantasy World?'"}}]}] ```