Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 10172017 20171017

Then policy counsel for the group demand progress. Telling about the efforts to limit Group Surveillance under the fisa act. Pres. Trump i have great relationships with actually many senators but in particular with most republican senators. And i am not going to blame myself, i will be honest. Host that was President Trump yesterday at the white house before hosting Mitch Mcconnell for a private lunch. He then held a press event in the rose garden. We are nearly nine months into the Trump Administration. The republican controlled house and senate has yet to achieve a major legislative victory. As the calendar creeps towards 2018, we are asking our viewers who you think is responsible for the lack of legislative maneuvers. Or republicans, 2027488001 for democrats, 2027488000. For independents, 2027488002. You can also chime in on it twitter and facebook. We want to hear from you this morning about who you think is responsible for the stalled agenda. As can start calling in now we show you the front page of the Washington Times trump does an aboutface about keeping mcconnell. A picture here from there joint press conference in the rose garden yesterday. Most of the Major National newspapers are focusing on the story on their front pages today. Here is the wall street journal story about the last time Mitch Mcconnell had met with the president. He met with the president along with speaker paul ryan, and they were caught offguard by the a debt ceiling increase agreement proposed by democrats. Tensions had been churning between mr. Trump in the top gop senator since august when mr. Mcconnell told a kentucky audience that the president had excessive expectations. We have been friends and acquaintances for some time should we do not give you a for some time should we do not give you for some time. We do not give you a readout every time we have a conversation, but we havent spoken on the phone on the weekends multiple time but we have spoken on the phone on the weekends multiple times. About the natural disasters we have been afflicted with lately, and the senates unique role. It seems people forget that we are in the personnel business. The house is not in the personnel business, we are. Host that was President Trump and Mitch Mcconnell in the rose garden yesterday. Two more headlines about the meeting yesterday. In the New York Times, a meeting between old friends. Featuring this press conference in their headlines. Responsiblehink is for the lack of a legislative a compliment . Accomplishments . Frank is up first from connecticut. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Onmy view, this is 100 congress. Laws that havee to be passed in order for a president to sign. Congress cannot seem to get out of the own way. Both parties cannot seem to get out of there own way. The democrats seem to unanimously vote every time against something, and the republicans cannot get out of their own way to use their majority, as little as it might be, to pass anything. This falls 100 on congress. They simply do not know how to get along together and compromise. That is why there has been nothing dime should host nothing done. Host you think it is both democrats and republicans in congress . Washington journal caller i do. Absolutely. Commonas to be at least ground somewhere in these issues. You may not get to that huge compromise, but it does not have to be a major accomplishment. Another accomplished enough accomplishments on their own can make a big difference. So, it is absolutely on both of them in my opinion. Host the big legislative push right now in congress is for tax reform. On that front, we have a headline from the Washington Times coming out of that rose garden press conference. They are talking about the timeframe for that tax reform effort, and who President Trump is looking to work with on that effort. Democrats and President Trump are eyeing each other over a tax overhaul. He is trying to reach out to Senate Democrats this week as he broadens support for the massive tax cuts in the plan. Cute key lawmakers are wondering if he is aptly going to compromise with democrats or just use them as political props. Linda from knoxville, tennessee on the line for democrats. Go ahead. Trump is holding them up about everything. Democrats inthink congress have caller he is not working with democrats, and he is not working with republicans. He wants to do everything himself and get all the credit. Host is it a good thing that President Trump is being held up in his legislative remedies priorities . Caller he is the one Holding Everything up. He is not doing anything he is supposed to do. Line for on the republicans. Caller it is not the Republicans Holding things up. It is the republicrats. Of turncoats. Unch they have been bought off and are doing what the democrats want. Him why they have have a majority in the house and senate during obamas administration, and they could not get anything done. They just did not want to get anything done. Host who are some of these republicrats as you described them . Caller anybody in the house and senate who will not do anything to pass bills for the good of the country. They are not doing anything. Host who would you specifically say is an example . Well, one i would say is ted cruz. I was going to vote for him during the election, but then i found out he was being supported by a super pac. If i vote for him and he wins, it will be the same old, same old we have always had. They say they will do the republican thing, but once they get in they do the democrat thing. Host bob is next. Caller thank you for taking my call. Blames hisc often problems on others. The underlying problem is alcoholism. Washington often blames the other party for the countrys problems. The underlying problem there is lobbyists. Washington is basically addicted to money. It is kind of like an alcoholic. If you do not deal with the addiction, you are not going to get anything done. Lobbyists are the reason nothing is getting done. One set of lobbyists go up against the other set, and there is no thinking involved. It is just what you represent with the lobbyists. When you take the thinking part out of it, nothing is going to get done. Thank you. Host bill is in texas on the line for republicans. Caller thank you. Good morning. In thel problem is senate. The individual responsible is john mccain. The senate could have accomplished a lot more than the house of representatives, and vacationso on taking and making promises to do the opposite. Host why john mccain in particular . And thei think he president have a personal vendetta. Host in what way . In the fact that the sident has called him a has said that he is not a war hero. Host you think that since then he has been trying to undermine the president . Caller largely. He has been in congress for a long time, and he does not care what happens. Host senator john mccain getting a lot of attention last night for a speech he made in philadelphia at the National Constitution centers Liberty Medal ceremony. He was receiving the Liberty Medal at the National Constitution center. Noting that story senator john mccain announced purious nationalism. Here is an excerpt from last night. To abandon the ideas that we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership, and our duty to maintain the last, best hope on earth for some halfbaked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find it scapegoats rather find scapegoats than solve problems. [applause] it is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other type of have that americans assigned to the ash heap of history. Host that was senator john mccain last night. This morning, we are asking hugh asking you who is responsible for the lack of legislative accomplishments in these first nine months of the Trump Administration. Republicans on 2027488001. Democrats on 2027488000. Independents on 2027488002. Froma on the line democrats. Go ahead on the line for democrats from maryland. Go ahead. Noter the republicans are pushing things that everybody wants. They are only pushing things that a minority once. One caller said that he was frustrated that the republicans are separated, but that is a good thing. Some republican senators understand that what other republican senators are pushing for is not what the people want. Host do you think Democratic Leaders in congress are effective in what they had been doing . Or is this just a matter of republicans not listening to the people . Caller i think the democrats are voting in the right way, but i think they need to start looking at legislation that people actually do want. Republicans keep throwing up these things that do not make any sense while the democrats are not making any proposals of their own. The democrats are not offering anything to counter things like the Affordable Care act. So, i think they are voting the right way, but i do not necessarily think you are doing the right thing. Host what is the effective legislation to counter . Caller a lot of people right now are saying they have a problem with the subsidies, and the president just undermined it. Maybe the answer is to expand medicaid so it covers more people and then tax the money so thatsubsidies the money can go to families that need medicaid. Host later today, we will be joined by betsy mccoy of new york. We will talk about the future of health care and her box specifically on the president s executive action last week on the subsidies. That will be the topic of conversation if you want to join on that it arthur join in on that. Arthur is on the line for republicans. Caller americans continue to be bamboozled by members of both parties. Roy blunt is not a republican. He is a democrat in disguise. All of the things that go on in the state if you file a complaint, you will not hear from a soul up there. Americans need to wake up and get a thirdparty to clean this mess up. Legislators have been in office for so long, and they are bought and paid for. Not get it. It is only one party up there, and they are all about the money. Mr. Trump needs to clean that mess up. Once he drains the swamp, he can get one of those bulldozers and clear out the swamp. That is what it is. It is a swamp of discombobulated people up there. They are not going to do the right thing for the common man. The common man needs to weigh show needs to wake up and march on washington. They need to all resign. That is my comment for the day. God blessica america. Host next caller on the line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller i want to add a comment back to john mccain. I think it is strange how people keep talking about how trump is going to bring us into world war on and start dropping nukes north korea win john mccain has has when john mccain been calling for this exact thing. I think he said that we should obliterate north korea act in in 1990. Back i do not know if his mind is in the right place, that i think his heart is in the right place. Then ias our president , think we would have had boots on the ground in multiple countries in the first few weeks after he got into office. Host john is in california on the line for independents. Caller thank you very much. I really enjoy watching. It is 4 00 in the morning. I woke up, and i could not go back to sleep. Anyways, i think we need a new generation of people in there. I think the caller before this kind of hit the nail on the head. John mccain is an old man. Anm 72 years old, and he is old man. We need some young blood in there. The same thing happened in 1924, whenhe same thing happened Churchill Churchill was an heident when he came in, but was young blood that got things started. We have to get a lot of these old people out of the house and senate to get things done. The young guys we have from florida, illinois, these individuals are really trying to do something while the old hats are just screwing things up as far as i am concerned. That is why nothing is happening in the house and senate. They are sitting in their little i sorry, you say im not used talking on a host who is an example of a up and comer who should get the chance at leadership . Someone who would shine if they got the opportunity . Caller i think the individual who came from cuban descent in florida. Host you mean marco rubio . Caller yes, he is an excellent talker, what he has actually talker, but he has actually gotten things done in florida as my brother has told me. Also in illinois, they have that old system. In wisconsin, you have a state wisconsin is not turned around because of the republicans necessarily, but they are tried to get rid of the old school and bring in new ideas. Host melanie on the line for democrats. Caller i think the reason for the lack of legislative competence is the president legislative accomplishments is the president. People in the slide people in the legislature have gone to town Hall Meetings and heard what people had to say about obama care. They have heard what is wrong with it and what needs to be fixed, but the president does not want to hear that. He only wants to repeal it. The people in the legislature are trying to go along with the majority will of the people in the United States, and President Trump wants to go along with his will. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Host before you go, you do not credit the Democratic Leadership with stalling the president s agenda . The Democratic Leadership is just putting a balance to the republican unbalance. That is what they are doing. Host here is more from the president yesterday talking about well, in a second we will show you the president expressing his displeasure with republicans. Verse, we want to get to j first, we want to get to joe on the line for republicans from guam. Caller good morning. , he justident trump does too much playing golf and all that. He is not really concentrating. Host we lost joe from guam. Here is more from President Trump from that meeting at the white house yesterday expressing his displeasure with some republicans in congress in trying to pass his agenda. Pres. Trump i have great relationships with many senators , but, in particular, with most republican senators. We are not getting the job done. Am not going to blame myself i will be honest, they are not getting the job done. Approved, butcare then you had the surprise vote from john mccain. We have had other things happen, and they are not getting the job done. Where a lot ofd people are coming from, because i am not happy about it and a lot of people are not happy about it. Later, thehours president was in the rose garden with Mitch Mcconnell. The headlines in the wall street journal this morning, trump unity. Gop President Trump get most of the speaking at that press conference. Getting your thoughts this morning. Who is responsible for the lack of major legislative a congressmans accomplishments . We have phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents as usual. Our next caller on the line for independents. Caller i want to respond to the caller who said that trump should drain the swamp. It is the people who should do it should the people drain the swamp by voting them out. T is not up to the president to tell to the People Congress and legislation the issues they care about. People need to vote. The president cannot Tell Congress what the people want. The people should tell the president , the congress, and the senators what they want. Host the congress, the senators, the house of representatives, are they listening to people . It sounds like they are saying they are listening, but it is not agreeable to what the president wants. The are going against what president wants, so he just does what he wants while blaming the congress and senators. Think he will make people mad at the congress and senators for trying to do what the people want. People need to just listen to and thegress is doing senators are doing and focus on them, because they are the ones who make the laws. Host tim on the line from wisconsin. Go ahead. Caller good morning. My point as to why there are no legislative accomplishments goes back to our new civil war. It is abortion. In every bill, republicans put out the funding without parenthood,planned and they are not going to get bipartisanship with that. If you want to be bipartisan, get away from the abortion i ssue. Host it is affecting all the legislative issues coming through . Caller yes, it sticks to everyone. Everyone one. Host next caller on the line. Caller some good comments this morning. Lobbyists that are international. Fromany lobbyists are russia or china and allowed it to lobby our government because they have a business here . The california fire didnt we learn this from the chicago fire . You need fire breaks every so often. Host that was rich in ohio this morning. We are asking who is responsible for the lack of major legislative accompaniments. One story talking about the comparison to other president s. At this point in his presidency, a majorama had signed stimulus package and was barreling ahead on health reform. George w. Bush was shepherding education reforms. Bill clinton had worked successfully with congress to raise taxes on the wealthiest americans and expand the earned income tax credit. President trump, by contrast, has nothing. The a bomb at care repeal is a bust, his infrastructure plan does not actually exist, and his push for comprehensive tax reform hasnt yet to translate to an actual plan or proposal. The president continuing his outreach today to senators on the tax writing committee. Who is responsible for the lack of major legislative accomplishments . We have phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents. David is on the line. Caller good morning, cspan. The lack of legislative accomplishments is due in large part to the American People themselves. We keep voting the same steps in e term afterther term, and we keep expecting different results. Hundreds in the house up for reelection every two years. Vote everyld be to iffs out everyt two years. Nothing is getting done anyway. The politicians themselves the politicians themselves, especially the large parties which control the politicians, they need to understand that the people are there constituents and need to be heard from. Voting the same people in do not allow any incumbency in there. Host we often hear from folks who say to vote out the politicians. But do you like your own congressman or two senators . Caller i do like my senators. Out our would vote congressman just to get change. I think they represent the Republican National committee and the Democratic National committee. Host what do you think of Dianne Feinstein and her reelection chances . Caller she is getting a little long in the tooth. I would like to see her voted out. The other thing i would like to board isly across the more women in power. Whiteired of stale, old men telling everybody what to do, because they have failed miserably. Time for someone also take over. Host should nancy pelosi stay or go . Caller it is time for her to go. She is too long in the tooth. We need some new people in there. It is time for her to step down. Host that was david speaking about Dianne Feinsteins reelection chances. She has drawn a primary opponent. In the era of trump, her reputation might be a weakness. Her home is where Hillary Clinton drew more than 60 of the vote last november. State Senate President Kevin De Leon of los angeles announced sunday he will challenge einstein. Next caller on the line. Caller Everybody Knows who the problem is, our fake resident. He is the reason we cannot do anything. He is talking too much. He is distracting senators and representatives in doing their jobs. Talking about war heroes like john mccain, they are all distractions. We cannot do our jobs, because he is running his mouth. He is not a real president. He is just out there thinking and going through the motions. 7 30 on is just after the east coast. In about half an hour, we will have our capitals tour continuing this morning. We will spend the day in misery in missouris capital city, Jefferson City. We will be joined by secretary of state j ashcroft to talk about voting security in his state. That is coming up in just about 30 minutes. Until then, the question we are asking is who is responsible for the lack of major legislative a compliment in the past legislative accomplishments in the past nine months of the Trump Administration. Great in louisiana on the line for greg in louisiana on the line for republicans. Caller i agree with the earlier callers talking about these lobbyists. There are two issues quite nothing gets done issues why nothing gets done. Two, republican one, republicans and democrats will never get along. Two, we need to get rid of the lobbyists, and we need to start drafting legislation one issue at a time. Just put out one idea at a time, vote on it, and then get onto the next one, i think things would improve. Host why the focus on the lobbyists . Caller well, it is money. Washington is addicted to money. Corruption starts with people groups. Ribes from big Campaign Finance . Money in politics . Is it the donations or the lobbyists themselves who work in d. C. . Caller it is about the money. They throw a lot of money at the candidates. Money . We need all this you have the internet, you have so many ways to get your message out. You do not need to run ads and stuff. You can find other avenues to do that. But it is always the money. How many of these guys walk out of office filthy rich . Free health care, but we have to work with obamacare. Why dont you just send people to military hospitals . Those guys are already taking care of folks, and i realized that the v. A. Hospitals are overworked, but there has to be a better way that everybody paying for the people who do not want to pay or cannot pay. I am 56 years old, and i have never had a problem finding a job. Just get up off the couch and go look. Complicated the hiring process with the internet. Most people do not like the internet. As far as i am concerned, they just need to get rid of the lobbyists. Host you mentioned free health care. We have had it members of congress on saying that they need to purchase their health care through the exchanges under the Affordable Care act, but there has certainly been criticism of that process. The former Lieutenant Governor of illinois is one of those people who has expressed criticism about that process. We will talk with her about 8 30 this morning when we focus on health care and the Trump Administrations recent executive actions when it comes to subsidies would be avoidable care act Affordable Care act. Lisa on the line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Mr. Trump and his republican cronies are to blame for what is not happening. Because iname, just the click you played he said you played, that he understood Steve Bannons position except for the Colin Kaepernicks and black people of the world. C thinks that god is in ontrol, but he really is. He used to blame his republican cronies to stand up to him. I love what john mccain is doing. I love with the alaska and maine senators are doing by standing up against his racist, negative ways. Host it seems that you have more praise for republican senators then Democratic Senators . Caller i am just talking about the three republican senators Strong Enough to stand against him. I love it that the democrats are standing up in saying that this is not right for the country or their constituents. The three republicans who are Strong Enough to withstand his barrage of negativity, i applaud them. I love my senators. I applaud what the democrats are doing across the country. , i do not give kudos to most of the republicans except for those three republicans i named. Host you mentioned Steve Bannons position. Weekendis from over the. Talking about his position right now when it comes to congress and President Trump. , a real piece of work. [laughter] he called the president. This is a guy who had about 6 million cash in the bank. He was chairman of the Senate Foreign relations to midi, the most prestigious relations committee, the most prestigious on capitol hill. He is from a state that President Trump won by some outrageous number. He did not have an opponent. According to him, President Trump endorsed him. Money, prestige, no opponent, and an endorsement from the president of the United States, and he quit. [applause] he had called over to talk what was exit polls, happening down in alabama. He knew that the men and women of alabama were holding Mitch Mcconnell accountable, and they knew and he knew that they were going to hold bob corker accountable, too. They say there is a civil war inside the republican party. Why are you going after folks like deb fischer and all of these guys who vote the right way . Has trashed the commanderinchief of our armed forces, the we have young men and women in harms way. He says that he is not that he is leading us on the path to world war iii, that he is not stable, that he has to be kept moderated. Senatoring from a u. S. In a position of that authority for the first time in the history of our republic has mocked and you killed a commander mocked and ridiculed a commander in chief what we have men and women in the field. Nobody can run and hide on this one. These folks are coming for you. The day of taking some nice conservative votes and hiding is over. Host that was steve bannon at the family values voter summit. One columnist writing that he is alarmed i the republican by the religious right adopting steve bannon. The word for it is called ideology. You can find his column today in the Washington Post. Next caller on the line for independents. Matt, who is responsible for the lack of major legislative competence at this point legislative accomplishments at this point . Caller i think both parties are. What we are seeing right now has been symptomatic for decades. Neither party is concerned with getting their business done. An opinion. Ally just look at their track records. A lot of people seem to forget that the democrats controlled the house for four years. It then went back to republicans and newt gingrich. It is now back to democrats, and then back to republicans. Both parties have been in power. I agree with a caller from california earlier who was speaking about term limits. Both democrats and republicans have been in the house for 30 years or 40 years. There are no excuses. I think people like President Trump, because he was not a career politician. I think that is an overriding thing for all of these issues. Gerrymandering is an example. Parties like it when they are in power, and they dislike it when they are out of power. So, we need some fresh blood, fresh ideas, people who want to get things done. Ofo think this is a symptom people just sitting on their hands and not getting things done. Host our twitter audience echoing some of those comments right now. We are asking if it is a good or bad thing . Who do you think is responsible for the lack of major legislative accompaniments in this first nine months of the Trump Administration. Frank in memphis, tennessee on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. My problem is that we need to speak for ourselves. The house is run by the republicans. The senate is run by the republicans. They have the majority of votes in everything. What we really have a problem with it is about who is good to take care of the poor, the middleclass, and the rich. That is what we are really fighting about, because those are three classes of people in this country. The poor, the middleclass, and the rich. Over who isighting going to be for the rich, the middleclass, or the poor. What i found very strange this morning is that you are not talking about what President Trump said about president obama about not calling the military were heroes that died. You are speaking about steve an end. You have not said anything about steven bannon. You have not said anything about President Trumps comments about president obama not speaking with military families. Host let me say this story i have right front of me. President trump claiming falsely that president obama never contacted families of the fallen. If you it yesterday that look at president obama and other president s, most of them did not make calls to the families of the fallen. I like to call when it is appropriate. Belied as assertion long series of meetings that president obama has had with emilys of fallen servicemembers. Thats outrage from president obama has met with families of fallen servicemembers. There was outrage from several former Obama Administration officials. It is also noted that president obama never attacked a gold star family. To mr. A response trumps comments on the campaign trail. He was quoted as saying, i was told that he did not often. The other president s do not. They write letters. That was the story in todays New York Times. That story getting a lot of attention. It was a wideranging press conference yesterday in the rose garden. We are asking you this morning who is responsible for the lack of major legislative accompaniments in these first nine months . Edward is next. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. It starts at the top. Personft dodging, lying who we have to call commander in chief. It is impossible for career politicians to back this man. Putting a youth football coach out to coach a nfl team. Also, i blame the populaces haveopulists who allowed the rhetoric to play to their fears. We have heard drain the swamp several times this morning. People do not even think about what it really means. They just think it sounds good. Republicans have voted how many times to repeal obamacare . They had then opportunity, they could not do it. Thank you for taking my call. Host on the drain the swamp , those colorssue have used the term to express their frustration at washington is not working for them. Who would you what would you say to them who think that people are not representing them here in washington . Morer there needs to be a informed populist. There are plenty of outlets much like yours. Why would you even give slanted, an obviously racial motivated person, credence . How does that happen . What civilized country does that . Host are you talking about steve bannon or the entire News Organization . Steve bannon got his start at breitbart. He is obviously a white nationalist, but, all of a sudden, he has credence. He is saying that he is going to replace the whole senate and that he is going to get mcconnell and all of those guys out of there. He is going to do that . His white nationalist, racism can do that . People are actually giving him credence . He is saying all of this in alabama. I wonder why. Where else would people give him credence to his rhetoric . Host the breitbart front page focusing on that rose garden meeting. The headline they are using, bitter mitch triggered by bannon. These are some of the headlines from breitbart this morning about that rose garden meeting and press conference. Next caller on the line for republicans. Go ahead. Bothr yes, i think that parties are at fault. I am a republican, but i really want to change my mind. Give allentatives will kinds of information like on the Affordable Care act. Of thisl kinds information to separate. All kind of information to separate. They had no policies to put in place. The Main Objective was to defeat anything that obama had going on. It was not about policies or doing the right thing for the country. Us, trying toto make us into a cold rather than patrons. That is ridiculous. This is not acceptable. There is no place for that type of action in our government. It is getting to the point of being stupid. There is no governing going on. It is about winning and losing. I am in middle income person, and it is like they do not care. Giving people misin formation. For example, the state tax requires that you be in a certain income bracket for it to make any difference for you. They say that is a good thing, but it does not apply to meet our most middle income people. You have to be in a certain income bracket for anything to apply to you. People upare riling with these sayings. Host before you leave tax reform, how confident are you that it is actually going to happen . It. Er think about if people get the information, then they will want to make it better. We have a problem of people not having insurance. In our state, we have a lottery here. Got money was supposed to into the educational fund, and it did not. Instead, they put it into the general fund. Money out of the general fund, the lottery money, and they reimburse the hospitals. Now, they are doing the same thing with the Insurance Companies. They are telling the middle income people one thing, and then the policy is something else. Host just of a few minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal today. We will then take you out to missouri as our 50 capitals tour continues this morning. The senate is expected to start at 10 00. That will be happening on capitol hill today. The senate will also recess as usual on tuesday for their weekly caucus luncheons. We will see what news comes out of those later this afternoon. We still have time for a few more calls. The question, who is responsible for the lack of major legislative confidence in these first nine months legislative accomplishments in these first nine months of the Trump Administration. Next caller, go ahead. Would say the republicans, definitely, because they are in control of both houses. The reason i am calling is to address a comment from another person in california who said it was time for Diane Feinstein to go. I would like to remind him that he that she is a Senior Member of the senate and that replacing her would deeply affect californias influence in the senate. As long as she is capable, and she certainly seems to be right now, i would continue to vote for her. I think her status in the senate is something to be considered. Regardless of who controls the senate after 2018, it will take many years for anyone else to work their way up in the hierarchy. I think it would be foolish to advocate dianes place in the senate. I think that is something voters in 2018 should consider. Host karen is in iowa on the line for independents. Caller hello. I just wanted to talk about trump was getting on the nfl about the flag, but he did not talk about the guys who died the other day in the military fighting against the taliban. I do not like that. That is wrong. How can he go on about this respecting the military and he does that . I do not understand it. Thank you. Host bobby from missouri. Caller i do not think anything is going to be done with the legislation until you get rid of the president. Maybe someone else can get something passed. That is all i have to say. Host alexander from springfield, virginia. Caller good morning. The reason we are not getting any legislative progress is something we should have seen last summer. This president is hollow as a soap bubble. There is no substance to him. He always promises wonderful things. Now, it is time for him to deliver substance, and he has nothing to deliver. That is why we are not getting anything. In utah on the line for democrats. Caller i would like to say that i hope the press will make more of an issue this time on trumps assertion that obama did not honor the fallen military. Is k this insane live any oflie is worse than his past insane lies. I truly believe that he is unable to face that he is an idiot. Obama was brilliant. He is unable to face that obama was dedicated to our country and our people. Trump only cares about money. He cannot face that. Just any lie that pops into his head to make himself look good compared to obama, he spits out. Host what would you like to see from the president from the press, more than a headline like this, trump claims falsely that obama avoided families of the fallen . Investigationan lies, showing that there really is a problem. He really has some psychological problem. Host that is lynn. Our last caller in this first hour of the washington journal. Our 50 capitals tour continues this morning with the cspan bus, spending the day in missouri capital city of Jefferson City. State jay ashcroft will join us. Sunday night on afterwards. Only 90 of Sexual Harassment cases end up in settlement and what does that mean . It means the woman for you but never works in her chosen career ever again and she can never talk about it. How loss how else do we solve sexualharassment suits. Secretit in arbitration, meetings. You can never talk to never talk about it and in most cases, you are also terminated from the company and in many cases, the predator is able to continue working in the same position. This is the way our society has decided to resolve sexualharassment cases. To gag women so that we can fool everyone into thinking we have come so far. By ae is interviewed Washington Post columnist. Watch afterwords on cspan2s booktv. Cspans 50 capitals tour bus ines with the cspan missouris capital of Jefferson City. We are pleased to have secretary of state jay ashcroft to talk about some of the issues facing that state and particularly, voter security. Secretary ashcroft, what does the secretary of state do . First of all, let me thank you for having me on. In missouri, the secretary of States Office has many duties. All of your securities regulation, your state archives, the keeping of those Historical Documents regarding the government goes to the secretary of States Office. Think people are most interested in, i am the chief Election Authority of the state. I work with local authorities in the state, county clerks and boards of elections, to help make sure elections are run smoothly and that though we have partisan candidates, we have a nonpartisan board of elections. System do youd of use . Guest every authority gets to decide which Voting System they use. We have some base criteria that any Voting System must meet and they have to be approved by our office, but we actually have several different types of Voting Systems across the state. We have some localities where virtually everyone uses a paper except for those who need special accessible voting equipment. Local areas, it is all done on electronic Voting Machines and we have a number of different manufacturers and machines in the state. A very distributed, spread out, almost chaotic system if you were to try to inappropriately affect changes in it. Host what are your concerns, if any about voter security . Guest we are always concerned that when people go to vote, that they can be sure that if they are a legally registered voter, that they will be able to vote, that their vote will count. They will not have their vote disenfranchised by bad actors who try to hack into the system or do some sort of registration fraud to allow people to vote that shouldnt. It is something we take seriously. The secretary of states Computer Systems are separate from the rest of the state and our election systems are actually separate from those. We have every type of security you can think about, from firewalls to intrusion detection systems, to the regular auditing of systems and offsite distributed backups. We encrypt our data at rest and in motion. With 116aling different Election Officials across the state that have the equipment you vote on, in their position in their possession. Up withssouri just came a new voter id law, didnt it . Guest we did. 1, the missouri law was changed with regard to what id you can show to get your ballot. We are quite proud of that. Before the law went into effect, we had legally registered voters that went to the polling place on the right day and they were turned away because they did not necessarily have the id that was required. Requesting the people use a government issued photo id, but we actually increased the safeguards so we made sure we can say with finality and honesty that if you are a registered voter in this state, you can vote on election day. We have actually had about 60 elections under that law and more than a handful of individuals that would not have been allowed to vote under the law. Because of changes to make sure we knew who was voting, those people were able to go ahead and vote anyway. We made it more safe to protect against fraud with standard access to make sure that every registered voter can vote. Host secretary of state of missouri, jay ashcroft is our guest. We are in Jefferson City, which sits along the missouri river, pretty much in the middle of the state. Is the number if you want to participate. Or all others, 202 7488001 the name in the face might look familiar to you. Former missouri senator john ashcroft, but you did not come into the Family Business in a typical manner. Guest probably not. I grew up in politics and decided i wanted nothing to do with it. I went into engineering. I have a couple degrees from the university of missouri of science and technology. I practiced as a engineer for four years. Some people would say i went over to the dark side, law school and became an attorney. I jumped into a race and it was by the grace of the people of the state, they allowed me the privilege of serving as their secretary of state. I cannot thank them enough. Host what does it cost the state to put on an election . Guest the best numbers i could give you would be going back to the president ial preference primary in 2016. , inou look at that missouri, you are looking at a hat looking at about 7. 5 million. We have been looking at the cost of that election. We believe we could probably drop that cost by 1 million in the future, and we will continue to work on that. Why did you decide to participate with the president ial Voting Integrity Commission . The majority of states did not send information. Guest what you are seeing is the majoritys majority of states are undergoing the process of sending information to the commission. It was a very easy answer for me. Under missouri statute, i am required to. We have the sunshine act. Most people think of it as analogous to the federal open records or freedom of information act. Under that law, any individual who requests Voter Registration data, it is limited to what we give. We dont give out Social Security numbers, Party Affiliation or how they voted. We dont know that information and we cannot give that out. We are required to collect data under state law and we are required to give that out to , that that asks for it promises and affirms they will not use it for commercial purposes and if they do, we turned that over to the attorney general to go after them and pay a 35 fee. This is the exact same information we have been giving out for years, to newspapers and any citizen or resident or anyone in the state that requests it. For me, it was i am going to fall follow the law. I swore an oath that i would be true to the constitution of the United States and the state of missouri. Host lets hear from some of our viewers. First up is neil inhouse springs, missouri. Caller how are you doing . I would guest doing guest doing well, thank you. Caller you touched upon a subject i called about. You are not going to tell me it is the law for the state of missouri to turn around and give our information to the feds. I want to know how come you right to workng down our throat without bringing it to the voters when it has been in front of the voters since 1970 . And gotblicans got in it back in like they did in wisconsin and indiana. I would like to understand why you are dragging the working thele in this state down tubes and making it right to work like the rest of the Southern States because right to work has not worked out for them. Host i think we got the point. Secretary ashcroft . Guest on the first question with regard to voter information. Chapter one,n section 115 of the revised statutes, it defines what information is a Public Record and it refers you directly to 610, which requires we divulge that information to anyone that swears they will not use it for commercial purposes and pays the fee. Our legislators and talked to the speaker of the house and i think it would be great frost to have a conversation about what should be Public Information because there has been a lot of discussion and a lot of people have come up to talk to me about that. , am going to follow the law that is simple for me. Secondly, with regard to write to work, that was passed by the general assembly, in missouri earlier this year and signed by the governor. A referendum petition has been filed and signatures have been filed with my Office Pursuant to that. We are reviewing those signatures with the local Election Authority and if there are enough, i cannot officially take sides on it, they will referee on the referee on referendums. If there are enough signatures, that law will go to the people to vote on. Enough, it will be approved. If you are concerned about that issue, stay tuned, it is not over yet. Host what are the rules for getting a Ballot Initiative . Let me back up a second and say a referendum is slightly different. That is where the people decide to take something that is passed by the legislature and they want to put that to a general vote of the people, regardless of whether or not it is signed by the governor. Once that is passed by the house and the senate, individuals may submit that language to the secretary of States Office. We check to make sure it is correct to perform and it is sent off to a couple different parts of the state. Lets say they have gotten everything right. Rewrite some language. We call it simple ballot language so people can easily understand what they would be voting on if it makes it to the ballot. Individuals go out and collect signatures for an Initiative Petition. Eighteed from six of our districts, they need a number of signatures equal to 5 of the number that voted for the governor. They have a short time period to do that. August 28 of the same legislative session that it was passed. With initiative positions to either change the law or change the constitution, they file with our office in much the same way. We make sure that they meet the criteria, they are checked by the attorney general and the state auditor. We write a simple ballot summary so that people are looking at that Initiative Petition change, they can read our summary to see what it really means and then the people can go ahead and collect signatures once we release that, signatures are going to be due for this twoyear term in may of next year. For an initiative position that petition that a statutory, many 5 of the people that voted for governor to sign those petitions in six of the eight congressional districts. For a constitutional change, they will need 8 of the people that voted for governor. You will see people that need to turn in anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 signatures for constitutional measures because they will lose some of those signatures. Some people wont be registered to vote, some people will have signed multiple times. When they turn in those signatures, our office makes copies of those petitions. We send them out to the local election authorities who use Voter Registrations to check the signatures. If there are enough, they send it back to us in that matter will appeal on the jeep appear on the general ballot for the people to make their own decision on. Host lets hear next from illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest good morning. Host i think he had his phone up and was getting a bit of a delay. We are going to move on to greg in st. Louis, missouri. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Host please go ahead. Hello . Host go ahead and state your question we are listening. We are going to let greg go at this point. Ashcroft, is there are sameday Voter Registration in there sameday Voter Registration in missouri . Caller weaver guest we require people to register in advance, it makes it easy for local authorities to make sure their Registration Information is correct. Election day is a big day. 6 00 in theween morning and 7 00 at night to vote. There are a lot of moving pieces , and we just like to get that taken care of, ahead of time so we can have registration books done in paper or electronically. That is just one less thing they have to worry about on election day, to make sure that every registered voter can vote. What are the deadlines for an election in 2018 . In 2018, in november, your deadline, i would have to look at a calendar. It is november 8 or seventh. Your deadline is going to be right at the beginning of august right at the beginning of october or the end of september. Always go back and checked the law so i dont tell people wrong. Im sorry, i have not checked for next year. Host a little over a month. Cairo, missouri. We are listening. Caller good morning. I have seen ads in this state about the new voter id law. Has to there on camera and said if you are registered, you can vote. , unless need a photo id you dont have one and it has been said that you can vote with your electric bill. What is the purpose of a law like you have passed, when it does not mean anything . Host are you supportive of the voter id law . Caller i am not. I believe we need paper ballots delivered to every mailbox. Host secretary ashcroft . If you are registered, you can vote. One of the things we have done with this law is there are a couple extra safeguards when people come in. We want people to use that government issued photo id. We are moving them to use that id. It helps us with some of the technology. And theo not have that state is happy to provide you one, and for for free, if you need one. ,lease visit our website showusthevote. Com. Law, if you do not have that government issued photo id, you can use one of the other forms of edification that you have been allowed to use, before. You will be required to sign a statement. It used to be called an affidavit. Under the statement, and informs you that you are supposed to use a government issued photo id. Onedo not currently possess and the state will provide one to you for free, for the purposes of voting if you dont have. Once you sign that, we will have a record kept under federal law. You will get a letter from our Office Offering to give you or assist in getting a government issued photo id. We would be glad to help you do that. Law, if the local Election Authority chooses, they can decide that anyone that comes in to vote that is not show that auto id, they can simply take a headshot. Not when they are voting or when they have their ballot, but in case there are irregularities and problems, we know who to look for. We have had problems with voter impersonation and every type of fraud you can think of and it generally is not the person coming up with their passport and saying make sure you know who this is, this is who i am. I think it is appropriate to make sure we do two things with regards to this law. We make sure that if you are registered, you can vote, because that is your right. It is also a privilege and a responsibility. We try to make it a little bit more difficult to cheat and we try to make it easier to go after people if they do so we can prosecute and make sure they dont cheat again. We did not have the availability to do that and we believe every missourian should have confidence that their vote counts, they wont be disenfranchised by fraudulent votes. Host do you think that voter fraud is widespread in missouri . Guest unfortunately, there has never been a very comprehensive look at voter fraud. It is one of those things that i think is most interesting about the president s commission on voter fraud. Whether or not vote fraud occurs in great magnitude is something that people on different sides of the political spectrum politely disagree about. In missouri, we know at least one case where an election was changed by vote fraud. We had in it had an individual who won his primary election in a heavily democratic district. He won his primary by one vote and to members of his family subsequently pled guilty. They were not just found guilty but they admitted in a court of law that they illegally voted in that election and their nephew was the candidate and he was elected by one vote, two illegal votes, and that is the difference. There has never been a comprehensive look at how much voter fraud there is, in missouri. There has never been a requirement. We are working to make sure there is a Common Ground for looking at those investigations. At the national level, i think it is great that we finally have a task force commission. It is going to look at this information and tell us once and for all, is this a problem or is it not . If you are on the side that says it does not exist, you should like a comprehensive report and investigation and if it shows that, you can stand up and say i told you so. If you believe vote fraud does occur and that we need to make sure it doesnt happen, then you should also looking look forward to having a commission to investigate how big of a problem it is and how we can mitigate it and make sure people have confidence in elections. I am happy we are taking a look. I understand it is a controversial issue, but controversial issues are the ones we need to get to the bottom of. We need to find ways to fix it and if it isnt a problem, lets move on. Host lets hear from brenda, in pennsylvania. Caller about the issue of sameday registration. What about the people that have birthdays on election day and are turning voter age on election day . This this this disenfranchises them from being allowed to vote. On electionion night, i watched the coverage and between the hours of 8 00 williams, both brian and chuck todd mentioned that some states were experiencing computer glitches, and that is why some of the returns were coming in slowly. I wonder if an investigation is being done into what chuck todd and Brian Williams were saying for these computer glitches. Thank you, brenda. Tell you, your first question is a great question because that is a real concern. What if someone turns 18 on the day of the election or the day before and you have to register ahead of time . In missouri, we allow people to register before they are 18 if they would turn 18 by the date of the election. We want to make sure that everyone who would be eligible to vote on election day can get registered and vote. We work with high schools and other organizations to make sure we get those people registered and they know they can register before they are 18. We want every individual that is allowed under the law that can vote to participate. That is how we elect the best people. People from all different walks of life looking at the angle and coming to a solution. Secondly, with regard to the computer glitches, i cannot speak to what happened in other states. I focused my efforts on what is happening in missouri. We work with every local election, before and after their processes. We do auditing to look for problems not just for something appears to be a problem but we do spotchecks. I am confident with what we have seen happen in elections, recently in missouri. That confidence is not something that stops us from looking at how we can do it better and make it more secure. I am confident in the results we have been seeing. Cairo,arlier, jim from missouri talked about voting by mail. Oregon does this. What are your thoughts . If you look at states that have done that, you have also seen large numbers of over sending of ballots and a inability to keep track of those ballots to make sure people have only voted once. I think that our system works well in missouri. Are required, you to get three days off on election day so you can go vote. We have absentee ballots people can use if they are traveling on election day. We have poll workers that work so they cannot vote and they use the absentee ballot. It is pretty easy to vote in missouri. I feel confident that if people want to vote, they have that opportunity. I love the idea that election day is one day where we the people in the state of missouri get together on one day to decide who will lead us, to give them direction, who will no longer lead us because we dont like what they are doing. Maybe i watched mr. Smith goes to washington to many times, that i love the idea of people coming together to make that decision. Host lets hear from one final caller, this is kristin in maryland. Caller i just have a comment. The discussion earlier was around showing a form of id and paper voting mechanisms over the hakuba computer mechanisms. As far as showing photo id, every person should have a photo id, government issued, because it is required to go it is required when you go see any doctor. The federal requirements are to show state or federal id and identify yourself. It is not something that is difficult to obtain. Host secretary ashcroft . Call i thank her for her and i would suggest that under missouri law, it is easy to obtain. If people want to go to our website, we have already given , free ids forits people who want to use them for the purposes of voting and anything else that you use an id for. We dont charge for the id or the underlying document. We will find that birther to forget for you. You may need to answer a couple questions for us. We have reached out across the country to help individuals. We want to make sure that every individual can use that government issued photo id to vote. It is a great way to help bring a small segment of our society more fully into society. Most people dont think about how many times we have to use that government issued photo id. Not only are we better protecting our voting and our elections while still making sure that every registered voter can vote, but we are helping to bring those individuals that dont have that id more fully into society so they can take part and be more productive and have happier lives. It is a great thing we have done in missouri and we are really proud of our voter id law and the fact that we have increased the ability of people to vote. People that would have been turned away last year were able to vote and their vote counted and that is the way it ought to be. If you are registered to vote, you can vote and it will count. Host how did Jefferson City become the capital of missouri . Guest originally, the capital was farther east in along the missouri river. When they were picked in the capital, they wanted to find something that was centrally located. The water was important in Jefferson City is right on the banks of the missouri river, in the center of the state. It was a great location. Host jay ashcroft is the state. Ry of thank you for joining us on our 50 capitals tour. We want to thank our cable partner in Jefferson City and that is mediacomm. Nextll continue our tour week in topeka, kansas. Host that the mccoy is betsy mccoy is new yorks formerly been a governor. Column e posted a what is Health Care Freedom . Column, iording to my was explaining the purpose of last thursdays executive order by executive by President Trump. You could call it free at last. It enables millions of people who do not have insurance to buy much more affordable insurance. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They did not get insurance at work the way a lot of americans do and they cannot afford those hefty obamacare premiums. In most cases, they are not eligible for subsidies. By executive order, President Trump says you are free to buy a wider array of policies, including policies that offer fewer benefits and therefore a lower cost. He is really opening the way for millions of people who are currently paying a penalty for not having obamacare compliant insurance or who have gotten hardship exemptions. Many of them will be able to buy these shortterm policies that less than slightly half about what obamacares cheapest bronze plan cost. Host what will these changes cost the federal government . Aret the changes on friday very different from the changes last thursday. Lets distinguish. Last thursdays changes, the executive order offered americans the freedom to buy a wider range of health plans and allowed insurers to offer those plans. Fridays announcement was quite different. It addressed a constitutional if you issue, whether the president alone can continue to fund what are called tax subsidies in the absence of a appropriation from congress. Host what happens, moving forward with what happened on thursday and friday . Is this Something Congress can turn into law . Is this something that the president can continue to do on his own . Authority president s is limited by this document, the u. S. Constitution. He can change regulations, but he certainly cannot change the law, including the Affordable Care act. Act is about 2500 pages, but accompanying it is about 40,000 pages of regulation. Thursdays executive order addressed regulations that the Obama Administration put into place in 2014. What happened is this. The Obamacare Exchanges open 2013, that quite a few people did not want to pay for the cost of those plans and the cost of has steadily gone up. They are expected to rise another 25 percent to 30 in many states. 30 in many states. ,here are quite a few people incurring a tax penalty for not signing up for obamacare compliant insurance and another 12 million have gotten hardship exemptions. These are people who dont get insurance at work. They looked at the premiums and said i cant get a subsidy, i am not eligible and cannot and i cannot pay these premiums. Thursdays announcement was a regulation. It was rolling back an obama era regulation. In 2014, after obamacare what into effect, the administration saw many people were not signing up. They wanted these shortterm plans that offer fewer benefits. If you are too old to have children, you dont need to sign up for maternity care. If you dont have children at , forget signing up for pediatric and dental care. These are what you might call barebones plans that offer fewer benefits but they were much more affordable and very attractive to young people who were just starting out and have car payments or mortgage payments. Flee thele started to exchanges and say i cannot afford these premiums, the Obama Administration slammed the door on the exit ramp and said we are not going to let you go for these cheaper plans, we insist that you buy the compliant plans. That left people with fewer choices. President trump rolled back that obama era regulation and said you can have those choices, those more affordable choices. That is what thursday was about. Host plenty of criticism from democrats on the executive action and the president s move to halt obamacare payments to insurers, including senator chris murphy of connecticut, a member of the health, education and pensions committee. Here is what he had to say. The equivalent of health care arson. Setting thelly entire system on fire just because the president is upset that the congress will not pass a repeal bill supported by 17 of the American Public. These subsidies going to the Insurance Companies help low income people afford insurance. Subsidies, there will be many people who wont be able to provide insurance and other it, and the subsidies that go to individuals to access coverage will increase, meaning that the deficit goes up, the amount of money we spend on the Affordable Care act goes up. All that happens is the payments that used to go to Insurance Companies go to tax credits to individuals to before the coverage. The president is trying to sabotage the American Health care system, trying to put a gun to the head of our constituents by taking away health care in order to force us to repeal a bill that the American Public does not want us to repeal. Host sabotaging the American Health system. Guest im so glad you played that clip, because i am eager to address it. What chris murphy is saying really disqualifies him from running for president. He is already being talked about as a likely president ial candidate. He is arguing that president moneyto continue to spend that congress is not appropriating. That is a violation of this document and the president like every senator takes an oath to uphold this document. Let me explain what has happened. There are two kinds of subsidies in this Affordable Care act. Year,g one, 44 billion a its for subsidies of the premiums themselves and they are still in place because congress appropriated that 44 billion, giving the president the authority to spend it. When you go to sign up for obamacare, you will find that you are eligible for a subsidy and you will get it. There was a second kind of subsidy, about 8 billion a year , intended to help low income people with their outofpocket expenses, deductibles and copays. Congress did not appropriate the money for those subsidies, so a judge in the thatict of columbia ruled the president is not supposed to be spending that money. President obama illegally spent that money. He was told the congress had not appropriated the money, but he , whichead and spend it was already a faltering system. President trump continued those payments for over six months, hoping the congress would act, but they didnt and he said at some point, i have to do what the constitution says which is only spend money that congress has appropriated. The ball is in congress is court and for chris murphy to say that this action by the president is health care arson is preposterous. No president should be spending that money until Congress Appropriates it. Host Betsy Betsy Mccaughey with us until about 9 00 this morning. Taking your calls as we talk about the future of health care, especially in the wake of the president s actions last week. Joann is up first. ,epublicans, 202 7488001 democrats, 202 7488000. Ndependents, 202 7488002 in harvey,to joann illinois, line for democrats. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to let the viewers know that what this lady is saying is untrue, thats because for seven starvedhe republicans president obamas health care plan, because they did not want to help the American People who need health care. What they did was they decided not to fund it, so that the parts of obamacare that really needed help, they would not even work with the democrats to try and change it, because they dont want the American People to have good health care. For the republicans to continuously say obamacare is falling on its own weight, it is collapsing, it is dead, those are all lies. Host Betsy Mccaughey . Guest thank you for your call. Let me point out two things. Is true that republicans controlled both houses of congress. They were elected to those offices. It is up to congress to theopriate the money for obama health law, the Affordable Care act. Whenever congress decides not to appropriate that money, the president does not have the authority to spend the money. That is the issue we covered. Issue, the fact is obamacare has been funded, each year, most of the funding contained in the original act. Thatostsharing subsidies chris murphy understood on Fox News Sunday were not funded and that is the real issue. Host gold hill, oregon, douglas is a republican. Caller good morning. I want you to know right off the top, you are a hero to many of fight toour continued try to bring the truth of what is going on. In my opinion, President Trump is all weve got standing between us and singlepayer. I have two questions for you. After the original legislation was passed, it is my understanding that there have been thousands of pages written by health and Human Services or whoever is doing it that have never gone through congress and it is just government regulation on top of regulation imposed on our health care system. Second question, who is really being hurt by obamacare . We hear about the 6 Million People or however many it is that may be affected by changes or by following the constitutional the subsidies. Who is being crushed . In my opinion, it is the middle class. Guest thank you for both of those questions. The first question is simple to answer and that is that as i pointed out, there are 2500 pages in this law at about 40,000 pages of regulations that have been written by the secretary of health and Human Services and other bureaucrats in the executive branch. That is a problem in our entire government. So much of the rulemaking is delegated from congress to unelected bureaucrats. Americans feel as if they dont have a representative government. That is a big problem in our system, too much rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats. The second issue and this is important. The new uninsured in this country are the middleclass and you will see in the next year, several million newly uninsured people, because of these soaring costs, we have 155 Million People who get their coverage on the job. 74 Million People who are covered by medicaid which has been expanded under this law. That is a social safety net for low income people. We have 55 Million People who are 65 and older and they are covered by medicare. Unfortunately, in the individual market, which is about 20 Million People, many of them simply cannot afford the premiums. About 12 million, 13 million of those 20 million are in ineligible for a government subsidy and is the premiums rise, they are simply throwing up their hands and saying we cant pay anymore. It is like paying a mortgage. It is too big a part of our budget and we see that we are paying bigger and bigger premiums every year, but because of the very high deductibles, we are not getting anything back. When we go to the doctor, we are still paying full price. You will see millions of people, between two and 3 2 million and three people 3 Million People drop out saying we cannot afford these plans anymore and that is one of the issues that President Trump was addressing last thursday in his executive order. He was reaching out to those people who dont get a government subsidy, dont get coverage at work. They are the forgotten middleclass. They own their own businesses, they work for Small Businesses and they need help. Host viewers have seen a special line on their screen, those who get their insurance through the Affordable Care act. That is 202 7488003. We are talking with the former Lieutenant Governor of new york, Betsy Mccaughey. As we have been having this conversation, a question for you. Do you think those who have preexisting conditions should pay more for their insurance or that they should pay the same . Guest this is a very important question. I believe that people with preexisting conditions should get help so that they have the same access to insurance and are not out of pocket for the additional cost. Here is the difference between the republicans and the democrats. There is a consensus in both parties that people with preexisting conditions need help. Under the obamacare system, the cost of caring for those with preexisting conditions or chronic illnesses is imposed entirely on those unfortunate enough to be in the individual insurance market. Less than 20 Million People overall. System,e obamacare everyone is asked to pay the same premium. Those who are healthy pay that high premium. They have a high deductible. They never get any of the money back, themselves. Instead, their whole premium goes to care for the very sick. People with preexisting conditions used 10 times as much health care as they generally help as a generally healthy person does. The republicans have a different view. They say instead of imposing the entire cost of those with preexisting conditions on the people in the individual market, lets have everyone in the nation ship and. We are a country with over 300 Million People. Lets have everyone chip in and use general tax revenue to set up a pool of money that will subsidize care for those with preexisting conditions. We used to do it statebystate with high risk pools but some people felt to the fell through the cracks. The Obama Administration actually had a temporary highrisk pool that did just this. The republican repeal and replace bill all duplicates that. They have a high risk funding system based on general general tax revenue, rather than imposing the cost on a small number of people in the individual market. It is unfair that people have to pay for their own insurance because they cannot get it at work. Host if the president s executive order from thursday shrinks that individual market and gets more people out of that, does that create a larger burden . Guest i dont think that is what is going to happen. I have heard that accusation several times, that people will drop out of obamacare to buy these newly accessible, affordable plans. That is not what is going to happen because 83 of the people who are on the exchange get a subsidy. They are not going to leave their subsidized plan, something where the government is paying most of the cost, to go to a system where they have to pay for it, all themselves. The executive order was not designed to lower people out of lureexchanges people out of the exchanges. To see people sign up for those shortterm flexible plans, that people who are currently uninsured, it is going to reduce the number of uninsured people in this country, which is a vote that democrats and republicans share. Host our line for independent, good morning. Are you with us . Chris is on the line for those who get their insurance through the Affordable Care act. Indiana. You are on with Betsy Mccaughey. Caller my comment is that my husband and i are on aca and people think it is affordable, but our premiums are 1300 a month, combined and out of the rebels are 4500 a year, each. Our outofpocket is about 26,000 a year and we pay it, but i dont consider that affordable. Guest i dont, either. It really isnt affordable and that is why i just explained these two or 3 Million People are going to drop out this year. We will see an increase in the uninsured and a new class of uninsured. The uninsured middleclass. They cant afford it and that is why President Trump made his executive order on thursday. You may want to look at these barebones plans. Let me explain the principle behind this. It used to be that insurance was regulated statebystate. Many states give consumers a lot of flexibility about what insurance they want you to buy. Then the Obama Administration passed this law, which says everyone must have the onesizefitsall washington design benefits package. 10 essential benefits. That is like passing a law that the only car you can buy is a fully loaded fourdoor sedan. Some people want a convertible, some people want a motorcycle. This is the same principle. Let people buy what they want and let them buy more affordable Coverage Options if that is what they can afford. Lets subsidize people with preexisting conditions out of general revenues, instead of up imposing the entire burden on you, the relatively healthy consumer who happens to be in the individual market. You will see premiums come down when that happens. Host is the Affordable Care act marketplace in a death spiral . Guest it is. For the very reason you just heard our caller explained. Fewer and fewer people deem this affordable insurance. Those who have relatively are going to start to leave the Affordable Care act. Is far below what the Congressional Budget Office predicted, leaving behind only those who were too sick to bail out of obamacare without of sing cost obamacare. Will that increases the cost to consumers who are still enrolling in that system. That is the definition of a death spiral. Host maryland, line for independent. Caller good morning. I definitely think that some reduction in regulation is needed, but i am wondering when the conversation about the cost of health care is going to take place, because trying to shift the blame was a responsibility for payments are premiums and deductibles is one thing, that does not change the cost. It is kind of just moving a water moving water around in the balloon. Guest its true that health care consumes a big part of our national economy. It is very expensive to individuals, to companies that provide coverage and the government who provides coverage. It is expensive. I am going to give you two sides to this. On the one hand, health care is more expensive in the United States than in most countries. On the other hand, we are the source of a very large percentage of medical innovation. Take a look at the list of nobel Prize Winners in medicine and physiology. Since the end of world war ii, the United States has won more nobel prizes than the rest of the world combined. That is important if someone in your family has a incurable illness. This is where the cures are developed. We dont want to impede that continuous innovation. On the other hand, we want to make sure that the people who have serious illnesses really get care and if you look at the cancer survival rate, they are far higher in the United States than in other parts of the world. A woman diagnosed with Breast Cancer here has a 90 chance of surviving it. In europe, the chances are with less than 80 . A man diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in this country, it is not a death sentence. In europe, nearly one out of every four men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer dies. We want to make sure that as we can attempt to control costs, we continue to innovate and also continue to treat diseases like cancer rapidly and aggressively. Host a lot of calls and a little bit of time left. Chris in buffalo, new york, line for democrats. Caller lets get one thing straight. Washealth care plan ,riginally a republican idea put out by the heritage corporation. So it was a republican plan to begin with. By the way, why are you referring to it now as obamacare when President Trump said it is dead . Start calling it trumpcare. Host Betsy Mccaughey . Labelsi think the viewer the fewer labels we use the better. I will refer to it as the Affordable Care act. That is a good reminder to me. The point is not who originated. The point is, if it is not working, lets make sure we deliver Affordable Health coverage to those who are unfortunate enough not to get it that we secondly make sure that once people have coverage, they can actually go to the doctor and get the care they need. Right now, you look at these insurance plans, the deductibles are so high that even after somebody has forked over the money for the coverage, they are still hesitating to go to the doctor. York, thatlyn, new line for those who get insurance through the Affordable Care act. Caller i would like to say that i am a Senior Citizen who has benefited by the Affordable Care act. Dont qualify. For medicaid because my income is too high what is going to happen to people like me, who have been kept healthy all along and now im afraid that theyre going to make america sick again . Where do i stand . It, yous i understand said you are a senior, so you must be 65 or older. Host that was my understanding. Guest i think what we are talking about is medicare. That is the program for seniors, not medicaid. I would like to make sure that medicare is protected. I am alarmed when i hear Bernie Sanders call for medicare for is, whenuse the fact seniors have to compete with younger people for health care, they are always pushed to the back of the line. You see that in the British National health service, where seniors are called that bloggers, where the National Health service is facing a huge debt crisis right now 25 weeks for care that is but dered not elective, urgently needed and so im very concerned that we protect and one way to do it, not to make it medicare for all, it should niors and be kept just for seniors. Host tennessee, line for good icans, clara, morning. Caller good morning. Y concern is lack of information for pricing. One thing i would like to see in profession, because weve been a victim of this, you what your price, average average cost ay, of any type of procedure so that shop around when you get sent to a specialist and work means, your budget. The other thing is the hospitals. If you check out of a motel room, they give you an itemized statement on your bill. The t understand why hospital cant do the same thing when before you leave the ospital, so that you can dispute any disagreement that you have. What my concern is. Guest this is a really smart caller. Smart, those are both terrific suggestions and frankly, when congress does get around to health reform, they encourage initely people, enable people to shop decisions based on cost, that is unfortunately obama health the system, people who sign up are stuck in Narrow Networks, maybe two hospitals they can use in their whole region, so have the liberty to shop around and get the best prices. Give consumers more power, we could drive down prices. Right. E absolutely host why isnt that transparency something that can happen in its own bill . Congress move that separately . Why hasnt it happened yet . It can happen within the confines or this bill because under this bill the insurers Narrow Networks in order to keep the prices lower otherwise would be. They are still whoppingly high, they otherwise would be. And the fact is that if you sign in los angeles for obamacare plan, youll find that you are limited to just one two hospitals, you cant go o cedar sinai, some of the prestigious Academic Medical Centers in los angeles, you have go to one them and hospital designated by that plan. Robs consumers of the choices and the ability to get the best price. Talked a lot about the president s executive order from thursday. Ere you critical under the Obama Administration when president obama used executive things happen that he couldnt move through legislatively through congress . I was critical when the president , when president executive orders that violated the constitution. Orders are not meant congress ay authority under article 1 of the constitution. Meant to orders are supplement the law, using the given under the constitution to the president. Regulation, o issue the powers to implement the law, but not the powers to change the law. Back and look at many of the executive orders, the obama issued pertaining to the Affordable Care act, they actually changed of the law, they period, he enrollment many of the provisions regarding what would be in an insurance plan, that was against the law and that is what i objected to, intentions were good and i dont question him, his intentions were good, he was ignoring our system of government, the Congress Makes he law and the president implements the law. Host Betsy Mccaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of new york, on the obama n, Health Care Law is the obama law what it says and how to overturn and and its sequel. Appreciate your time on the washington journal. Guest thank you. Host up next this morning, the Intelligence Surveillance act, fisa, is set to expire this year. Act and k about the government surveillance with sean vitka, policy council for be right gress, well back. The cspan bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. Stopped in charleston, West Virginia, asking folks whats the most issue in their state. Smith, my name is isiah prelaw major at university of charleston, i think the most important issue for west somewhat twofold. I think it is an issue of poverty, which ties into our epidemic, lack of jobs, makes f opportunity, just the drug epidemic worse and its builds upon that itself. My name is carissa, senior major at the nce university of charleston, one of the biggest issues in west now is governor justice questioning a road bond bill for special election that supposedly pump millions to our infrastructure, which sounds really, really look at the n you big picture, its going to hurt my generation and millennials in the future. It says it will not raise taxes, not be a problem, but if you its just he road, going to steal West Virginia longterm and that is not we need right now. Speaker of the house of delegates. In West Virginia weve had difficult Economic Times over or six years in our top try, one of priorities is to improve our economy and be able to put people back to work. Great deal of different steps to do that, that our priorities right now. My name is lauren, senior at im rsity of charleston, double majoring in english and political science. Senior projectmy on West Virginias what we would consider to be a wellknown opioid dependency issue. Perspective to look from, whether it be a larger perspective or more perspective and determining an issue that would be more effective individually patients. My name is danny jones, im the mayor of the capital city of West Virginia, charleston, i think the most important issue for us is keeping young people if we plan things around the youth and were able to keep the youth, then we will is young and hat vibrant and exciting and full of and i think that continuous involvement is what our city, state great. Voices from the states on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host for discussion on federal surveillance law and Foreign Surveillance act in particular, were joined by sean itka, policy council at the progress. Sean vitka, remind our viewers is and man progress when folks demand progress and demand progress action, what the are roups, how they related. The progress action are two the same organization. The d progress is c3, demand progress is more political arm. Host what do you do there . The work you are involved in . Gree as council for them. We are active on neutrality and surveillance issues. Sections of the two is mass surveillance law of the day, omething weve dedicated huge amount of time to and something our members are active o. Comes emind us where it to and history behind this. 702 is from 2008, t passed in 2008, the law allows for the program attic surveillance of tarts. People tended for overseas and who you are not u. S. Persons. Is trick in the debate today number of americans who get andt up in the surveillance we know that is a large number and we know it is used in ways people would not accept. Host why do we know it is a large number, but do not know exact number . Guest the number from the government comes from 2011 estimates 215 Million Communications are ollected yearly, a Staggering Number tis hard to imagine. The reason we dont have a clear umber about either the overall volume or more importantly, the number of americans affected by surveillance is government resistance. Refuse to produce estimates, more actual accounts of americans affected by this. Promised over the course of the last couple years partsgress and to various of the public, they would come up with an estimate. Year, director coates and rogers, the dni director, nd the nsa they just decided to balk on the since then refused to give congress an estimate of how Many Americans are they are on. Ng host this is a Time Congress is looking to renew parts of this. Renewalon the table for at the end of this year . Guest section 702 because of invasive it is, comes with a sunset built in. Two years ago with section 215, as well. Sporadically decide it must be revisited continue. Can the reforms on the table are very broad range and some extent sunset itself is on the table. We are fighting for a number of reforms. The one that i think most people would be familiar with is the back door search. Door search, after they collect hundreds of millions of communications, what can they do it . H the governments argue and the. B. I. , in particular, does a practice that is looking specifically for americans in this information. We talk about hundreds of millions of communications ollected, some large number includes american information and the question is can you go back in and specifically look though you s, even wouldnt be allowed to when you initially collected it. Reauthorization process is going forward, demand to ress is sending a Letter Congress talking about the reforms they have been pushing for. Surveillance has always been justified on the back of concerns, evenity though many occasions its been employed to counter progressive reform movements and targets communities of color and people working for social change. Administration has made no secret of the desire to criminalize people of color and no democrat should support a law granting trump the ability to spy without a courtissued warrant on 325 Million People that live in this country. Sort of response have you gotten, this letter specifically to democrats on capitol hill. They hear the concern loud and clear. Under president obama, there to say, we impulse trust the person in charge. Wayemocrat should feel that under President Trump and feel that way under attorney general sessions. This letter was designed to remind congress that 60 years jr. Was in luther king targeted by the f. B. I. We still have major questions concerns about how environmental activists, among others, are spied on today and the beginning of this country, really. O congress, i think, is actually quite aware of that and particular, theyre concerned. Host you mention in your letter, the National Security defenders of this law. Nsa director s the s, talking about benefit of section 702, here is what he had to say. The insight generated under Lawful Authority has enabled us to achieve significant insight from cyber perspective. We would not be able to generate some of the insights weve been to do that supported u. S. Intelligence community 2016, with from regards to the russian activity, able, we would n without this authority, not have the same level of insight with cyber actions around the world, both directed against ur neighbors, as well as directed against the u. S. Structure. So i hope one of the takeaways talk to people about why is this so valuable, you get a unique this is, the fact it generates insight direct, actionable impact, this is not just theoretical, taking people off battle field, helping our partners take people off the of le field in terms arresting those terrorists and those who would do harm to their in other izens countries, were able to help stop nations from moving arms parties. To other we are able to generate huge insight in terms of cyber security. To highlight to people, this is why 702 is so valuable. Its deep, unique information we cant get via other means and it volume of this information and it is global applicability that make its such a powerful tool for us. That is why we feel so strongly, hey, we believe it is in our nations best interest to statutory th the authority in 702, we think it is best interest. Host sean vitka, chance to respond to that . Point out thing they is huge breadth of it. Thinkabout what americans this is authorized for, the breadth is stunning. Championing here. We are not asking for them to all access, were not saying that they cant use it legitimate National Security purposes, were talking about can they target americans on the saying can were they knowingly collect entirely communications under a law authorized for National Security purposes . The American People didnt those practices. Host sean vitka is with demand progress policy council there. Them out online. Demand progress. Org. Us taking your calls and questions as we talk about the surveillance law by the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act reauthorization coming up. For republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. 2027488002. In new york, rst line for independents, chuck, go ahead. Need to es, i think we look back to president a veteran, who was and when he warned us that the ilitary industrial complex, that there was a problem going on. If we hear about terrorism, the amount of money that the u. S. Spends bombing other with drones, even atomic bombs. Going on with the information from manning, which criminal, a traitor, he was pardoned, she sorry. Doned, im but then assan, who people say he just journalist, released truth, the whole look n picture, oh, boy, up russia and podesta, and it is just incredible. U. S. Media, i do want to mediacspan, but the u. S. Is totally, it is what we were eisenhower , what warned us about. Cia, are all just connected, controlling it. Host chuck, do you have a sean vitka . Caller yes. What do you think about the most department of defense statements regarding the united has to actually the empire is falling, were going war ve to start a somewhere . I mean, the truth that youre fisa just , i think let it expire. The patriot act should expire. Also agree on that . Guest we would support expiration of the authorities. I mean, the amount of abuse we problematic, ery we released institutional lack the ndor, the name of report was taken from a fisa court opinion. That is what the fisa court that the nsa suffered from. Isnt u know, there enough trust to support these authorities continuing. The caller mentioned helsea manning, what Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden have played in the debate playing out the reauthorization process . Guest one interesting thing we knew or ebate, had information that suggested a lot of things that were going on going on. It wasnt until snowden showed Court Documents that the severity of it was known. Benny, kirk s like levy, these people predate laura by many years and herself did reporting on them back in the day, but since the information has become a bit more standardized, people know this. That other side of knowledge, we see some major problems that come with mass program, in particular, we have evidence that tens of millions of adults online ging their activity in fear of government. Hose are innocent americans acting differently, that is infringement on free speech and ight to association and right to privacy. Those are massive problems, social problems we will feel for time to come, no matter when the laws expire. Host john is a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. My question is they constantly they only collect metadata and never look at the content and therefore theyre violating any americans rights, but they also say that that a american has committed a crime then they will by law have to report that crime or pass it off to the f. B. I. How would they know that committed a crime if to the nt listen content . It is sort of trying to bamboozle people, they are and ing your phone number date and timestamps and not actually listening to the say, theon, but like i only way it can know im doing a rime, have to have some content. Host got your point, sean vitka. Guest so just at the outset, a lot of different ways the government can surveill a person. Authorities, broader authorities justified by foreign intelligence, the metadata distinction showed up at great length in the debate section thing called 215, a foreign Intelligence Authority and under that, the overnment said they successfully ordered in front of ability court they had to collect, lawful right to collect every phone record in perspective n basis, and they were 90 thorizing that every days. That is stunning and that was the initial snowden revelation. Metadata, to s be clear. Tis full take, everything, concept of communication, in some cases on of scanning e content of communications and particular ne reforms that were certainly looking for and the american eople are looking for are limited to make sure information does not get sent for criminal urposes, right, foreign intelligence law, let it be useful for intelligence and make ure we are doing anything domestically, traditional norms apply, the constitution still you know, in particular for people on u. S. Soil who are specifically protected under law, just not under government practice. Fisa court, tioned explain their role with 702. Uest foreign Intelligence Surveillance act tasks a secret ourt, fisa court, with reviewing government sec702, the with government goes yearly to get reauthorization to get what they are surveilling under 702. He problem with fisa court, they operate in secrecy and where that is necessary, that is what we rsation, but see on the other side, especially of snowden dont ions, is they function particularly well and the re rather twofold, reports i mentioned for lack of andor documents over decade of fisa court throwing up a red flag saying something is wrong here. To dont have real ability do anything about it. Five different instances identified where they of criminal sanctions to the nsa. They raised Fourth Amendment nsa. Es to the but at the end of the day, we were able to substantiate that the government was collecting information the fisa court would deem to be unauthorized collection. Pottsville. Rence, go ahead. Caller can i speak now . With go ahead, you are on sean vitka. Caller yes, first of all, let me say this. Condemning snowden for what he done, they said he broke the law. Administration, he broke he law and the nsa broke the law by breaking Fourth Amendment and article four, bill of rights. What they did, they should have warrants to listen to our cell phones, our home phones, laptops, special t. V. s we had, they broke the law to begin with. Snowden did, i consider him a hero, the American People know our us. Rnment betrayed host sean vitka, anything to add to that . No. St well, yeah. Ist is important to remember that number that i mentioned. Study and found adults change online behavior. Esearcher studied the traffic to Wikipedia Pages department of recommend curity suspicious, if you mention Facebook Al Qaeda on feed, that might be indicator of something. People researchers went to wikipedia and found corollary ages and after snowden, there was 22 trop in traffic to that. What is important to remember is that the moment you worry about the government looking at you ar the wrong reasons, that is problem, and when you spread that across society, it doesnt of the population is going to be alarmed and afraid, there is going to be 20 that are worry body how they interact online and americans ghts as today and they are not unreasonable people, they are people like you. Consider Edward Snowden a hero . Guest i think it is kind of and i think snowden said that. We deal with facts and the issue have with the fisa court, with the nsa, it makes it in facts. Cult to deal i think it is a huge problem that snowden was the person to know. What we the fact he did it or that he xyz reason e it for is not material. The problem is the government is spy og millions of americans. Kaufman, texas, marlin is morning. Can, good caller i agree with you on a an le of things, im 81yearold republican, i heard democratic talking points, you job for them, at they probably enjoy what they are hearing. Twofold. M is one with the outing of the people on the conversations that collected, what in the world is the secretary of the u. N. Doing outing all hose people, it is nothing but political damage trying to be inflicted on the republicans. Problem is, like you are talking today, you will have a ard time getting a single republican vote for your bill ecause you used the same old tired democrat talking points. On esus christ were running the republican ticket, the first thing you would do is accuse him you are a racist like accusing trump of being a racist and hes not. Knows hewho knows trump is not a racist bone in his body. The are you accusing president of being a racist . Guest no, im saying he has authoritarian authoritarian we were out there with president obama. Democrats, we have fought republicans, we will be fighting both on this issue right are not on the side. Host demandprogress. Org, to online. Hem out do you have republicans you sent similar letter to the one you earlier . What has their response been . Here. Eed the votes guest republicans, some republicans are the best or privacy champion necessary congress. Done entative amosh has incredible job over time and we see pairings we dont otherwise see. Of le mistake a number issues being bipartisan, very few issues are as bipartisan as even if we have Different Reasons to be concerned. Ome people are concerned about president obama having this authority, some are more concerned about President Trump this authority. Im concerned about both, i will explain that. People happy to explain that are representative amosh and lewis. Entative john host caller used the term outing, we have heard the term unmasking, can you explain what unmasking is . Guest in certain context, the mask information they know or determine is u. S. Person information. It is important to remember, not happen with all the communication that come in each year the government go hrough all of it to determine it, that is not how it works. When the nsa sends information agencies, they will redact or mask information and one, instead ofn something more explicit about who the person is. Is important to understand the underlying or the itself, the receiving gency can unmask it, respect it. Masking and unmasking, there is room for abuse there. We have enough u. N. Rmation to say that the ambassador was part of the problem there and, you know, but where congressre should look. They always should look for where laws have been abused. Host time for a few calls with progress, of demand policy council there. Bob waiting in hometown, illinois. Republicans, bob, go ahead. Caller good morning. Xcuse me, good morning, john, thanks. Regarding the unmasking of micha flynn, how does the department of justice prosecute find out anybody in the Obama Administration was unmasking . Illegal thank you. Gues guest guest im a little bit confused. Somebody did something wrong, yes, that is it. But the question of, one that 702, what happens with evidence that is produced and when it ends up in criminal court, that is a potentially big problem for both sides. Shows up in secret, that means the defendants rights are not something they can stand up for, right . If Michael Flynns rights were violated, we need to to sure he has the ability defend himself and potentially to challenge the governments ase on the basis of the constitutionality of the search. And e government shows up they announce or revealed they introduced or used evidence they collected unlawfully, that compromises the case there is integrity issue at the heart of question. We need to make sure if 702 up in court nding used against defendants, it is properly noticed, defendants happened so they can say i had a right to privacy and you violated it by getting this. Flip side, where the government doesnt have to use 702, ordinary powers like they dont have to. It was ase of flynn, if used secretly, that would be a massive problem, i tonight think hat happened with michael flynn. I dont know enough about flynn right now. Waiting with baited breath right now. Host lisa, line for republicans, go ahead. Caller hi, good morning. I agree with your concerns about unfair government spying of process. Ithout due i do dont think it is fair author hat trump has tearian tendencies on this topic, that remains to be seen, with it. Ill do but id like to know what the been doing. Have can you talk about that . They e ive heard that also use technology sometimes to of people,hone calls suspects, lets say, locally, can you talk about that, please . You. Guest thank you, lisa. So the first part about trump, authortarian one thing or not, put out here, powers whoever comes next will have. Enough for concern. It should be enough for concern of everybody and should one them prove to have authoritarian we dont want them have power this invasive and road without all checks and balances. With that said, local police lot to saye is not a about 702s relation to local police. That some ossible information is filtering down to issues, but thats not necessarily where the biggest concerns lie. It is best ot identified with whether or not it shows up in court, with that aid, there are massive surveillance problems across this country that implicate ocal police or local Law Enforcement and ill give you a couple different issues and move on then. Stingrays, stingrays are very invasive technologies that dont have a whole lot of rules on the road right now. Of now that a number localitys possess these devices. A t they do, pretend to be cell phone tower. When your phone is trying to connect to its provider, it goes accesss the closest one n. Turns. Hey connect with the stingray that provides surveillance that i think most people dont realize, these are not all the time. Ing but whether or not you need a warrant to use it and need articulate who you are trying to find with it, those are Big Questions because dont have those rules in place, tonight have protections, what a local know law enforce cemetery doing with he technology and that is just one. There are plenty other examples of spying tools being in the enforcement. Host back to capitol hill in the last minutes or so we have left. Reauthorization moves forward, can you explain the spectrum of table . S on the is it possible the fisa Amendment Act could be reauthorized with no changes . If so, how long could that for, another n be five year . Guest were looking at anything from four to six year reauthorization or outside that straight sunset or straight reauthorization. Straight reauthorization without a sunset unlikely. Rdinarily very few people are willing to champion that message, everybody is massive and different than all the other ones and thats, i think, one why everybody, even people more hawkish than we are, of sunset. Upportive i also dont think there are votes for straight and weve heard house judiciary chairman bob goodlet say he doesnt think the house of representatives would support straight dont think on, i they would. The question is what reforms come out of the process. Ont demand progress letter this issue is available on their seante demandprogress. Org, vitka policy council there. Appreciate your time, come back again. Guest thank you, john. Next, well end with open phones this morning on washington journal. You wantc policy issue to talk about, whether we covered it this morning or not. Are open. S republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. 2027488002. Well be right back. Sunday night on after words. Cases end up in settlement and what does that mean . Woman prettyat the much never works in her chosen areer ever again and she can never talk about. Shes gagged. Ow else do we solve Sexual Harassment suit . We put in arbitration clauses in contracts, which make it a secret proceeding. File a inds out if you complaint, you can never talk about it ever. Nobody ever knows what happened you and most cases you are terminated from the company and cases is or in many left to still work in the same position in which he was harassing you. The way our society has ecided to resolve Sexual Harassment cases, to gag women everyone can fool else that weve come so far in 2017. Fox news host Gretchen Carlson talks about her new book about harassment. Shes interviewed by washington sally quinn. St 9 eastern on book t. V. Temperature cspan, where history unfolds daily. 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Television Companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host it is open phones on the until our Journal Program ends at 10 00 today. Any Public Policy issue you want to talk about . Are yours. 2027488001 for republicans. Democrats. 00 for 2027488002 for independents. Calling this morning, lead story in todays Washington Post focusing on president s pick for drug czar, that is congressman tom at the press conference in the rose garden yesterday, he president declining to express confidence in congressman tom marino, from ennsylvania, in the wake of revelation the lawmakers helped spear legislation making it to act against giant drug companies, remarks came amid reaction across the local spectrum in a 60 minutes investigation, tom marino helped guide the legislation which sailed through congress with virtually no opposition. President just this morning, about an hour ago, with news on topic, saying that congressman tom marino has informed me hes withdrawing his from consideration as drug czar. Man and a great congressman, that tweet from the president an hour ago this morning. The washington journal. James is up first here in ashington, d. C. , line for democrats. James, go ahead. Caller good morning, sir. Very much. Host thanks for calling. Caller im originally from st. North carolina, and im a vietnam veteran. A gentleman called 10 minutes said the president wasnt racist. I wanted to comment. His man for seven years campaigned across the United States trying to find president birth certificate and every time you see him on t. V. , hat is the first thing his obsession with president obama, but the main thing about that birth certificate, there are of c. E. O. s in the United States and he was the only one running around the criticizing their resident, not being born an american citizen. And they always say they are not racist, but people who lived this, im 71 years old, we know who a racist is and who racist. Host james in washington, d. C. His morning coming on a day after President Trump made more comments about president obama, rose garden hat press event he held with the senate, er of Mitch Mcconnell. President trump asserting on predecessor barack obama and other president s did not contact families of american killed in the line of duty, drawing swift, angry ebuke from several of mr. Obamas former aides, that story in New York Times today, just one aide, this is an outrageous and disrespectful standards, trumps the former Deputy National president visor to obama posted on his twitter page, obama never attacked a goldstar family, those comments from that rose garden president attention. Lot of if you missed the event, watch it in its entirety on our cspan. Org, in our cspan video library. Reminder, it is the 30th video sary year of the library, so if it happened yesterday or 30 years ago, you events there. Velma, in new york, line for phones. Ents, open what is on your mind . Caller good morning, thanks for taking my call. Concern is that regarding the health care issue. My family e seen embers dealing with Mental Health issue on this walking street for 35 to come in to testing and it is really criminal and one of my relatives and on the record, they were supposed to give her with codeine to come home with as pain medication and none of this was sent. From a Staten Island ospital, Staten Island university. And this in the health care there is just e totally robbery and i continuing out of the hands of the insurance company, too, i agreeable with that issue. The inside. Host is that a vote for single ayer health care in this country . Caller yes, i would say yes, that would eliminate that. Companies trying to make money, they have workers there they need incomes, as much possible. And theyre taking advantage of it on the taxpayer. Velma, can i ask you, do you think democrats would be better served to continue to the Trump Administration to protect the Affordable Care or do you think they should turn all their efforts to single payer . Be more beneficial right now . Caller well, i would say single payers. N terms of saving and ways and fraud, fraudulent action that i i am a n personally licensed practicing nurse on the its a business. They have machines, they want to do the test. Velma from far rock away new york, staying in new york, bob is an independent. Good morning. Caller yeah, good morning. Why there is us not an f. B. I. Investigation on blackburn, marino and hatch from the ations pharmaceutical companies . To play. Like paid concerned these people and everybody who voted for this cost the ing to taxpayers billions of dollars in treating all these people that addicted to opioids and im trump is not t looked at joe, i cant say his name, as a drug czar. Here is a guy that is experienced, hes already graduated, you get somebody like years will take him two to get educated and in addition, the dea andhat left went to work for the harmaceutical companies, they are in contempt of their oath to dea. I just think it is sad state of affairs if this story goes away, blemish on this country. Host perhaps more to come on story, well keep you updated if and when it does. Flemming, new jersey, line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller good morning and thank you. There was and is significant portion of our opulation that benefits from what is often called Catastrophic Health insurance. People who just fall through the cracks, they cant get it through their jobs and they afford itify or cant through other programs and i really appreciate you letting me express this. Think this is portion of the population that really has not the attention that is warranted. Ost so david, what is the way to solve this problem . Think to have what ight be called bare Bones Programs that would keep people from going bankrupt, if they got massively Expensive Health care cost, often younger people, 30s, s, who never think they will get sick, they are wiped out life, they get started in they dont believe anything can happen to them, especially costly. Ng major and so the answer is to have, you know, authentic programs that over people when the cost get, i dont know the number, i havent thought it out that well, when the number gets so whole life would be ruined and you lose your car, for life , be hounded by collection. These people need to have something available, yes, they doctor, pay for the medicine regular, their lives shouldnt be ruined and i think very much of a ilent population that just completely fell through the cracks when Catastrophic Health was basically, i guess eliminated. Think peopledo you should be forced to have that at minimum if that were available, people take the risk and not have insurance at all, would you be okay with that . Hear you shchlt they be forced . Host yeah, would you be okay if risk decide to take the and not even have that level of Insurance Coverage . I think that if youre a parent of somebody in their 20s 30s and they are working and dont qualify or cant afford it catastrophic, it is the job of the parent or whoever is and wiser about how you can lose everything, no matter i think that re, they should be told, youre not eing smart if you dont carry at least a bare Bones Program to keep from having your life ruined. Not to, so be it, no, i dont agree that it is the to be the government parent. I think this should be ampaigns, if there were Catastrophic Health insurance, no matter what age you are, you ould end up with a heart condition that nobody ever thought you would have or a kidney or liver or a brain, bid, and you would be ruined, you cant get rid of that debt any more than student debt. If you choose not to, then you chose not to. Now. S not about a choice it didnt exist anymore and people couldnt have it. New jersey, open phones on the washington journal until 10 00 this in red lion, s pennsylvania, a republican, jim, whats on your mind . You for es, thank taking my call. First of all, my comment about ne of the earlier callers said that he was definite donald trump was a racist because he searching as to whether toned donned was born in the United States or not. How that signifies being racist, he was doing of people were wondering about, not necessarily racism. I want to call about, i notice over the last two or three years that the news news es dont provide anymore. They simply provide biassed information about the president. Mean, whatever side youre on, doesnt make a difference, we get simply ws, we reporters talking about how this is going to happen if this donald trump e wanted it to happen or congress ants it to happen, we dont necessarily get any information other than biassed set of facts primarily either drawn up by a group of people or simply set aside as to becoming own views of the news. Host jim, if it happened over didpast two or three years, it happen under president obama, as well . Caller no, i think it happened took he republicans control of both the house and the senate. I think that is really what because obviously the liberal side of the news is and it just means that we dont get any background this ision, all we get, going to happen if donald trump does this or Congress Passes that. It became more indicative of what went on in congress than what went on with trump. Host jim, what would you say to he democratic callers who have complained that fox is biassed and that it was only providing its own narrative against President Trump . Because weve heard complaints here, as well against president apologize. Caller is biassed and that it only providingyeah, i think fox rathersimply a response, than trying to do the opposite of what you found at the other end. The other News Agencies were more fair about what they news would fox become simply something that provides the news. News is a response, not something that is established to provide news bias the republicans or for whatever the conservative side. Host jim, if you are looking background in straight news, what are sources you go to and trust . Obviously i trust fox news, but i dont trust the newspapers, i read the New York Times, probably daily and i read the Washington Post but unfortunately, everything on the front page, if ou look, this is going to happen because trump will appoint this man and these people are millionaires, it anything ate regarding, you know, the news, trump was says if going to appoint someone, it should say he will appoint this the situation take its own court and let the news reporting if he does a bad job job, indicative of hes going to be bad because hes a comes from wall street or something of that nature. Host jim, here is the entire washington the post today, as we noted earlier tom marinotory about who as weve learned has since pulled himself from the for trug czar, a story below that about the wall, proposed border wall between the United States and mexico. In Foreign Policy and news on one oforces retaking the the key cities in dispute with afghanistan, story on nafta on the vine, headline there. Bringing forth new era of astro physics, one more story. And jesus keeps a low profile at hightech bible museum is the other story on the of the Washington Post. Jay, jacksonville, florida, line or independents, its open phones. What is on your mind . Caller yes, i want to talk Weinstein Harvey investigation and coverage on fox news. Been watching fox news the past several days and irst of all, i mean, if you show me a picture of Harvey Weinstein and asked me to is a good chance i probably wouldnt have been able to, neither would 90 of americans. Ent since then, its been almost all to wall coverage on fax news and i just think it is the eight of hypocrisy how it is being covered on certain programs, whether tucker sean hannity, jesse aters, it makes me think they dont even realize where they are. Fox news channel, which as we now, for years and years and years, there was coverup at highest levels involving oreilly, biggest stars on ox, for years, as if were supposed to forget that. They are outraged now that and obama, they took ive whole days to come out and publicly condemn harvey. Mean, how long have these people taken to condemn to condemn trump . As far as i know, were still waiting for that. Be the at would appropriate way for them to cover that story in your mind, jay . Aller first of all, its a minor story, at best, you know. Was famous instein in hollywood, but to the broader public, he was not that famous. Mean, the idea that hillary is being hypocritical about this, the way they oreillyave covered the story is they should have covered it to begin with. I think there was pretty much a blackout on fox during that whole time about these guys. Mean, i think theyve covered in one day more on harvey in the year and a half since the elles and oreilly story broke. Host jim, line for independents, go ahead. Thanks for taking my call. Id like to comment on the the ous section about a. C. A. , i live here in ohio, i obamacare. It is affordable. It was a big jump last year when this, i pay 300 indiana, d i work in 25 miles away and i talk to my guys like me, e, middle age nonsmokers and talking a thousand dollar premiums and 10,000 there deductibles. That is t unaffordable. Here in ohio, i have health care i can afford, it is not that is my comment. Host jim talking about one of segments, we talked about the future of health care, Betsy Mccaughey,. Ormer Lieutenant Governor if you missed that segment, it is available online. Talked about reauthorization coming up of isa, foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. Matt smith with a comment on twitter about that segment. Americans are already substantially altering their habits due to fear of and nment surveillance retaliation, how free are we . Conversation happening at cspan wj, if you want to join on twitter. In us a call, like joan rochester, minnesota, line for democrats. Just want to make opioid t on the situation. According to the news yesterday, the opioid situation became and at that time, republicans n the became in charge of all of the of the nd in most supreme court. Think their leniency toward big business is very evident and the latest what is the magazine . Geographic, there is an article in there, where in one african countries, the huge, on the streets have huge columns of drugs, of all drugs that they sell in the streets to people. Do im wondering is where those drugs come from . How did they get them . Pay . Do they are they the discontinued drugs country . S because there are thousands and thousands and thousands of drugs on the streets by vendors in an african country. And i think that we need to look the deeper things, what pharmaceutical companies do with their old drugs, how they them or get rid of thement. Thank you for listening to my comments. The issue of opioids, President Trump saying yesterday that hell declare the crisis a National Emergency next week, teasing major announcement probably next week on the drug risis, that story from the guardian and several other newspapers, as well, following comments ents yesterday in the rose garden and of course as we learned this nominee the president s for trug czar is withdrawing his congressman tom marino, republican of pennsylvania. The president tweeting about saying tom is ng a fine man and a great congressman, but he informed the withdrawing hiss name. Tom west palm beach, florida, independent, go ahead. Caller yeah, thanks for taking my call. A few words about the health care, that ive been eceiving for the last several years. Whats not being discussed are people like me, who are selfemployed and work in different parts of the country, covered my own insurance on an independent when i had 2014, openheart surgery. Doctors, im paying 500 more in the last three extremely high dedu deductib deductible, im in my early 60s. Birthday is coming up. My income is zero and in tax credit or medicaid for me. You know, i try to get work, but wants to hire anyone my age and yeah, it is kind of a be in and i dont think President Trump has helped comment, i that is my appreciate it. Host herby in fort washington, aryland, line for republicans, good morning. Caller good morning. I think i called on the wrong have a t i still comment. Host herby, turn your elevision down and make your comment. Caller my comment is this, we dont have republicans. Host what do you mean by that, herby . Caller because what happened i mean, im from south carolina, all these people talk about they are republicans, they republicans. Republicans are good people, decent people, they help people. Are old democrats men, johnson signed civil rights bill and they ran to the republican party. They are not republicans, they republicancrats, my comment. Host herby, you said you called on the wrong line. Republican . Caller no, i was a republican, im not republican anymore. Now . what are you caller im independent. Host why are you an independent, herb sne have to ecause i dont be obligated to the Democratic Party or republican party, i am years old, never seen nothing like this in my life. Rush limbaugh, fox news, black lives matters, all groups, hate in this country, people sick and tired of this foolishness, i just like it. Host herby in maryland. Line for le, alabama, democrats. Go ahead. Caller yes. In 1960, when students were protesting vietnam and i burning the flag was like everyone else, i thought, oh, it should be burn the you cant flag. Y husband, military, was stationed in north of virginia. Emotional about of i had the good fortune belonging to the wives club and we had a p. O. W. Street tour. He talked about how they would take them into a room and psychologically torture him by showing him pictures of students protesting and burning the flag and the vietnam torturers told him in your country, they are burning your flag. You are fighting for nothing. I never forgot what he said. He thanked them for showing him the picture and he asked them what would happen to you if you went outside and burned your North Vietnam flag in protest of the war . You would be shot. He said i want to thank you for showing me that in my country we are so free, we can even burn the flag in protest. Then we come to the nfl. As the Football Players kneel during the national anthem. , butht not agree with them instead of being horrified, to me, i am so proud of this country that we have the right to protest. Is anna in alabama, the last caller on washington journal. Tomorrow. Back we take you live to the senate banking, housing, and urban Affairs Committee on consumer data security. A followup to the equifax data breach hearing which affected more than 145 million americans. We are talking about that. We will take you there for live coverage. This committee will come to order. As a followup to her hearing on the equifax data breach, we will hear testimony on the protection of super day consumer data at the euros. Members expressed interest of how Credit Bureaus are in protected, how they protect consumer data and whether there are gaps Congress Needs to fill. Ive been concerned about the everincreasing amounts of the data collected