Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11172017 20171117

Eliminate the Affordable Care act individual mandate. 9 00, an assistant secretary of east Asian Affairs gives analysis of the trip to asia by President Trump. Caller good morning. Host lots of headlines coming out of capital this week from tax reform to health care and gun policy to allegations of Sexual Harassment and how both parties are responding. It we want to get all of your thoughts on this. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7848001. , 202 7488002. You can also send us its we or a spoke. Com. Congress this week is our topic. We want to get your thoughts on all the different stories are in lets take a look at the front page of two national papers. Times. The Washington Times, the new york faces senate obstacles. On Sexual Harassment, the Washington Times has the headline about al franken. The senator apologizes for misconduct. The New York Times frames it this way. You also have this headline this morning and the Washington Times, a mistrial for senator bob menendez. It the york times frames jury was deadlocked and it ends his corruption trial. What your thoughts on these headlines . We have headlines about the individual repair repeal of the mandate. You have a deal on a gun bill. We have those details in the first hour of the washington journal. The president has been tweeting this morning on tax reform. He went on to say democrats were not such obstructionists and understood the power of lower taxes, we would get many of their ideas into a bill. First for discussion this morning. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I was calling about the Sexual Harassment situation. This has been going on for years in the south with white man and young girls, black men with young girls. I dont know why these christian win. E put up with this this is not just starting here. Do you feel a cultural shift on this issue in the south . Caller the south has been doing this all along. Its just coming out. It has been white men and black men going with young girls all the time. Host what i am asking you, you think now that this is coming out that it could change the culture . Caller it should. In the south, its not going to change. You can see the preachers getting up there vouching for this man that they know his the doing this. No maam. Roy you are talking about moore. Lets go to vermont. Congress this week, what do you think about what is happening . Caller i would like to respond to the finance Committee Debate between the democrats and republicans where 14 of the republicans voted in favor of a voted in favor of a measure of the tax reform and 12 opposed it. , 50 one must keep in mind of the nation pays federal taxes. Alldo not pay that are taxes. There lies the problem. 50 tax is a heavy burden on of the nation. Thank you for taking my call. Host the finance committee finished working on the proposal in that chamber yesterday. They cleared it from the theittee 1412 to approve tax package. It cleared the way for the senate to consider the bill after thanksgiving. This was in the New York Times us morning. It remains to be seen if it has the support to pass the chamber. The debate became heated yesterday in the Senate Finance committee. Take a look at this exchange between orrin hatch and sharad brown. The tv ads that will be run against the five most of her senators on this committee, they will say senator mccaskill and senator casey and senator nelson were voting against a 4000 raise. We know its coming. We know you will have way more money to promote that and we will have to defended. Thats why the amendment was so orton. Important. This tax cut is not for the middle class, its for the rich. The good selling point, companies dont just giveaway higher wages. Ofy are sitting on a lot profits now. I dont see wages going up. Sarcasm in the satire. From the poor people. I have been working here my whole stinking career for people who dont have a chance. I resent anyone saying im just doing this for the rich. Give me a break. I think you overplay that all the time and it gets old. Im not through. I get sick and tired of it. Its a nice political plate. Its not true. I get tired of the richest people getting richer. Regular order. Over and over again, how many times do we do this . Toi have honored to allowing spout off here. What you said was not right. I come from the lower middle class. Dont do that stuff on me. Get tired of that crap if we worked together, we could pull this country out of every mess its in. I think ive got a reputation for working together with democrats. Start with chip. Ive got more bill passed that everybody on this committee put together. Is i like you personally very much. Llcrap you throw out here is not right. Host the scene there between these chairman of the finance committee and sherrod brown. They worked through the day to pass it out of committee and it has to go to the floor for a full vote. TheNew York Times notes house passed their version with 227 republican votes. Its the most sweeping tax overhaul in three decades. Cutting 1. 5 trillion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals. We were covering it all. Go to www. Cspan. Org and you can find it there. Voted 13 republicans that against the legislation the, many of them are from states that allow taxpayers that taxes. Gh local state this would get rid of the state and local tax deductions. You would not be allowed to do that anymore. Here are the republicans that voted no. Voted no. Democrats donovan from new york. Lets go on to lucy in virginia. Good morning. What do you think about once happening . Caller i have many thoughts. I am watching the news all the time. I think President Trump deserves a lot of the raise for his trip to asia. Has brought about a new national awareness. Badink he has gotten such a rap, standing up for america. Its not like we live in a world of angels. We must maintain our strength. Together we are strong. I really hope that people will start appreciating what is trying to do. I think it all boils down to a andle between Globalization National sovereignty. Event, the other thing is i resent the way conservatives and republicans are giving this and xenaf being evil phobic and homophobic. Everything you can possibly conjure up, they blame republicans. Im not, i know that. , just wish all the democrats they want to reduce everything to the sameness. We have 60 different gender identities now. Different, of these what do you call it, groups of people who are victims. Thing is a victim group. Host i will leave it there. Eileen is in washington. Your turn. Caller good morning. I dont condone what roy moore did and he is a republican. I dont condone what al franken did. Lets start at the top. Women,trump rate three one was a little girl of 13 years old. Shes in hiding. How do you know that . Caller its all over facebook. Just look in your computer and you find it all. Then you have all of the women that he sexually abused and harassed. Why dont you start there and then come down to the other ones . Host what did you think about the bill Clinton Administration during that time when the president. That was consensual sex. Im not condoning him either. I wrote him a letter to resign. Im not going there either. Host you might be interested in york the senator from new holds the Hillary Clintons old seat. She said bill clinton should have resigned over the lewinsky scandal. When it comes to the roy moore story, breitbart. Com led by in baan, than nnon, she admits she doesnt know if he signed the book and hasnt asked the client. Report, the headline on face assault, dems allegations. As we said, the New York Times has two stories, what about al franken and one about roy moore. After initially apologizing without acknowledging the accusations, he released another more contrite statement that contested nothing. On roy moore, the New York Times support,as unqualified ignoring the condemnation of National Republican leaders in brushing aside worries he could lose a senate race or be expelled from congress if he wins. Judge moore held a press conference yesterday. Effort by Mitch Mcconnell and his cronies to steal the selection from the people of alabama and they will not stand for it. 30 million and voted for me in the primary. They are trying a different tactic. Bigot a call from one magazine. Call that asked me to step down from the campaign. I will tell you who needs to step down, thats Mitch Mcconnell. There have been comments about me taking a stand. I have taken a stand in the past and i will quit standing when they lay me in that box and put me in the ground. Was standing with christian leaders, talking about how he will not be stepping down from that race. Washington, an independent. Good morning. Caller i was calling about tax bill. Host i apologize. You are going in and out. Caller good morning. Let me say this on the sex scandals in hollywood and the music industry. Seent all of america to what it was like for a black woman during slavery and during the segregated south. They didnt have the right to resist. It was so bad for black women. They started playing time black women down so that if she had a female child, she would smother it. That was her gift to her child. Is, thomast jefferson was given a 13yearold child as a christmas gift. They had nine children, five of which they kept. They could not even resist. , a 14yearold girl was purchased off of a slave block. And he was raping her took her to court and the jurors because shelashes resisted and she was pregnant. Pregnant again and given 30 more lashes. What it was like being a slave woman in america. Caller good morning. I think america is being tested from what i see in the news today. Unfortunatetely that it seems republicans enjoy hurting people, given that this tax bill hurts people under the Affordable Care act. That is about 17 ilion people. Securitythose for because it reduces our benefits by about 25 . The rich seem to get all of their money offshore and a failed to pay their fair share of taxes that inhabits inhibits our public schools. Week,s a her in this representing who we are as a people. We are not caring for the poor and the disenfranchised. That is because the middle class is so shrunken and they do not define what the middle class is. It is smaller than the poor. About how thisk bill helps the poor. How does it help people who earn under 45,000 a year . How will it ensure that once you get money to the rich that they will let it trickledown . Our experience shows that it doesnt trickle down. Hike the senate will to taxes on average earners. Cuts to give large tax the rich while raising taxes on earning families 10,000 to 75,000. Host rose in michigan, a republican. Caller how are you . Its common sense that if you make more money you are going to be taxed more. If you dont have a big salary, youre not going to get a lot back. Just common sense. Democrat, republican, independent, whoever is in the white house. The rich are always going to be rich and the poor are always going to be poor. I want to Say Something about mr. Moore. This stuff happened 40 years ago. Yourother once told me, if got a problem, deal with it when it happens. This is crazy what they are doing to them. By the way, you are the best host and i wish everybody a happy thanksgiving. Host high, alexis. Are you there . You sound like your phone is breaking up as well. Anna is in philadelphia. Caller good morning, credit. I would like to make two points. With al franken, they ought to go back to his senate run when he was making jokes about bestie l. A. Bestie alley. He is a symptom of what has. Appened to our country until they are rooted out, our andtry is going to dissolve none of the standards are going to be maned maintained. Corporations can prove they will reinvest in the country and actually higher, i dont think they should get this big break. The senate and congress have made themselves where Small Business are not subject. That should be explored. Thank you so much for all the work you do. Host on the tax bill, Senate Republicans are hoping to pay partly for the tax cuts by including arctic oil drilling. This is from the Washington Post. Killing for oil in the Arctic Refuge is one closer to reality. We covered the Committee Wednesday when they look to this bill and debated it and voted on it. Go to our website www. Cspan. Org , they passed earlier this week. Jim is in pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller al franken has got to go for the last two weeks. We have been calling for judge moore, a man who should never be in the senate. If they sent 20 journalists up to minnesota and really got into the past of al franken, we will find a lot more out there in every democrat out there, especially the women in the senate and house, should be on the steps of the house today calling for al franken to step down as a senator. This is a double standard. This is what got us in trouble. This is why we havent been winning any elections. Its time these people who run around like al franken, saying what a great champion of womens rights is, they need to get him out of the senate as soon as possible or we will get clobbered in 2018. Host what do you make of the woman from california on tuesday, she focused on Sexual Harassment on capitol hill. She said there are two sitting members of congress who she knows have harassed women in their offices. Caller you are right. About seven months ago, the senator from new york state said the same thing, that they know about these editors in congress congress, butn they wont name them. Million,aid out 15 260 allegations. We need to know who these people are in congress. You cant just go on tv and say there are two predators. How about letting people know so if my granddaughter is an intern, she stays away roomies creeks. Ps. Cree lets know who these violators are. , start Congress People putting money in there until we get our 15 million back. Host i dont know this for sure, and that searing she talked about the process that people have to go through on capitol hill, their own way of filing a complaint. Tothe process, they have file a nondisclosure agreement. I think we have that part of the hearing. Lets listen to her from earlier this week. There are two members of congress, republican and democrat right now, who served, who have been subject to review or not. They have engaged in Sexual Harassment. Propositions like exposing their genitals or having their private parts grabbed on the house floor. All they ask for in return is to be able to work in a hostile free environment. They want the system fixed in the perpetrators held accountable. Ive been working on this since 2014. There are three steps we need to take to fix the egregious and illegal behavior. The first is to require prevention and response training every year for members and staff, just like Cyber Security training. The office of compliance is a start as you pointed out. It is not adequate. Effective training requires in person interactive instruction in dialogue or it the simple change to the rules would achieve this result and there is legislation coauthored by many of you. Brady andto member lofgren for their leadership on this issue. In my experience working on Sexual Harassment on College Campuses and in the military, surveys are conducted regularly and are key to recognizing the scope of the problem and evaluating the reforms. Congress should institute a survey every two years. We must reform the broken resolution system. It may have been ok in the dark ages. It is not appropriate for the 21st century. Host we covered this earlier in the week. If you missed it, go to www. Cspan. Org. The hill newspaper reports that the office of compliance where victims of Sexual Assault go on capitol hill is responsible for handling complaints and settlements. Once a settlement is reached, the money does not come from member offices, it is paid out of a special fund operated by the treasury department. This is taxpayer dollars. 15 millionid out by the house on behalf of harassers in the last 10 years. Were you following this hearing . Caller this is the double standard. Us people that work hard and pay our taxes, we live under one set of rules. Those people in congress, we found out they had their own post office and their own hairdressers and their own finance. These people get to washington and the problem is on both sides if you then down there for more than 20 years, you are part of the problem. This is why donald trump got elected. He is not part of the problem. He came in there. I hate the guy. In here when all of this was going on. Understand the double standard. This is why Hillary Clinton can do all the things she does and get away with it and have the f dei guy understand the double say she did this, but we dont think she had any content. If we do that, you dont worry about the intent. , we have this other story in the washington he is the interior secretary for President Trump. TheWashington Post said investigation into them proper travel practices has been stymied by incomplete documentation for several pertinent trips. We lost our caller. We are curious about what you think the president should do if it is shown that there is ethical lapses in his own administration. High, donald. Caller hello there. I originally called because i was going to make a comment about this tax cut. We are deeply deeply in debt. How you can talk about cutting taxes when you cant pay your bills is beyond me. We couldnt do that in our families. It doesnt make sense. I know it sounds good to voters, but there is no practical way. The other thing i keep hearing about is Sexual Harassment. I am 78 years old. I was a supervisor for a number of different companies. Women workingd 82 under me. Men are human beings, they all make goofy mistakes. They all are not angels, not even the women. I respect women. Not all men are predators and not all women are angels. Saying harassing a woman is a goofy mistake, forcing yourself on a woman . Caller i think thats abusive and unacceptable. What im saying is people are people. I am not defending harassment. Not at all. I have seen women make remarks that are abusive toward men. They do it in a joking manner and so forth supposedly. I have seen this type of thing. All people have. There are no angels. What she said i agree with. If a man says something or makes a goofy joke, thats one thing. I have heard women say things that would curl your hair. Host we are talking about congress this week. The headlines are coming out of capitol hill. Are in thehink they gutter. If anybody can tell me where its in the constitution to feed the poor, i would like to see that. It is the churchs job. D. C. Aint no morals in because the devil is running wild. Onalabama, everybody jumped roy moore and condemned him. They dont have no proof of nothing. Im just sticking up for anybody. If youve got proof, bring them together. Host what about the stories, that corroborate the stories with people that they worked with . Caller thats hearsay. That dont stand up. One lady said she voted for donald trump. I heard that her voting record is inactive. You can hear anything you want to. If youve got some proof, bring your proof. Cruz and all of these ,epublicans which are democrats they jumped out and condemned him without no proof. Host liz is in texas. Because im calling have concerns over this round of tax cuts. This is the second round of tax cuts we are going to be getting during a time of war. I think the economy cant handle that. 2008, we deregulated finance and went to work. We gave all of these tax cuts and everybody decided it was time to spend. The tax cuts over the last 30 years have it helped the working class. Late 50s. Ur it stagnated our wages or it we have been stuck at a lower earning potential than we would have had if things wouldve remained the same. The tradeoff for these tax cuts, i dont understand why they cant create the jobs first and then we give them a tax cut. Theyve proven they are going to spend this money on the company and on the labor. I think there is a better way to do this. Host tie it to their performance or their creating growth in the economy western mark economy . Caller right. Stay with what the past shown. We have given these tax cuts to corporations and what did they do . They moved it offshore. Host you think the government needs to regulate them . Caller the proof is in the pudding. The past is shown that what they do with the money is by back their stock and health their investors. I understand. A lot of our 401 k s are tied up in corporations. Host listen to paul ryan after the house approved the bill with 13 republicans voting no. This is what the speaker of the house had to say. This country is not rewritten its tax code since 1986. 227 men and women of this congress broke through that today. Thank not just the members who made this possible, i want to thank the president and our partners in the senate. From the very start, we said that earlier is not an option area the president has worked so constructively with us. He has been a tremendous partner. I am proud of this conference. We know that there are people who are struggling in this country. We are coming through a decade of real economic anxiety. We know this is a nation of has so much more potential that has not been tapped. Thats what this is about. Thats what getting this done is about. Giving struggling families peace of mind. Its about getting the economy to grow faster so we get more jobs and put america in the driver seat. Its about giving people hope and a new opportunity. Its about making sure america is the best lace and the world place in the world to live and thrive and start a business and grow and construct. Weve got a long road ahead of us. This is a very big milestone in that road. We have a timeline to get this done i the end of the year. About goinged through the legislative process and making this will even better. Bill even better. The last thing i will say is this, we asked the country and 2016 to give us a chance to work for them. We asked the people of this country who were struggling to make good by you and give us a chance to make life better for you. Is one ofrence today the greatest things we can ever do to make on that process. Host that was the speaker of the house yesterday. The senate is working on their own version of the proposal. They will come together and compromise on the differences. We are talking about congress this week, tax reform, guns. Caller good morning. I am a 62yearold bluecollar guy with a business degree from a brickandmortar institution. I was earning my degree, i had a statistics class which included a chapter titled how to lie with statistics. My concern is the deception republicans use when they identify an average family and and cutst tax savings for an average family. The word median is much more effective. The best example i can cite is to say between bill gates and myself, we have an average net worth of 45 billion. Thank you. Host cynthia is in indiana. Hello, cynthia. Good morning. Caller good morning. My first comment, if this tax plan rings back jobs to america, how come they asked how many people will create jobs . Host where did you read that . Its a video of it from the meetings they had. They had a financial meeting this week with some of the is this leaders. Its on video. You can see it. T another legislative another piece of legislation making its way through congress is on gun control. This is the Washington Times. Senators find Common Ground on background checks. The deal was struck there. We will see if it gets Committee Hearings or vote on the floor. Richard is in rockport, texas. Caller good morning. I have a suggestion that the women in congress initiate legislation that would eliminate all federal benefits for former harassnts who sexually anybody. Any elected official that receives benefits, that includes health care and pensions. The other thing i would like to comment on is three days ago trump signed off on legislation that allows elephant parts to be brought back to the country. The logo for republicans is the elephant. Thats pretty sick. Host another headline in washington yesterday, the trial was in new jersey but bob corruption his trial, there was a hung jury. The judge deemed it a mistrial. Now, politico israel porting he faces eight Senate Ethics probe. Mitch mcconnell whitley called for an investigation after his Corruption Case ended. Here is senator menendez after that trial ended yesterday outside the courtroom. I have learned a lot about our system of justice. It is a system of justice you can afford. I understand why so Many Americans feel the justice is elusive. People across the country will leave did me and knew who i am and what i stand for, i could never have afforded the millions of dollars this case has cost. Gratitude to those americans from across the country who believed in me and helped me mount my Eagle Defense against the millions of dollars legal defense. Ive also learned about the in overweight and power of the federal government and how it can crush you if it wants to. It gives me a greater resolve to make sure there is a check to that awesome power. Where do i go to . That thece gives me past 2. 5 years of my life . Where do i go to have the damage they did to my reputation . Let me share some final thoughts. To those who left me, who abandoned me in my darkest moments, i forgive you. To those who embraced me and my darkest moments, i love you. To those New Jerseyans who gave me the benefit of the doubt, i thank you. To those who havent, i will work harder than ever before so there is no doubt. To those in the press to do their job and did it with professionalism and even to some , iyou who were actually kind believe you showed others with a professional press is all about. That is why freedom is so important to our society. Who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, i know who you are, and i wont forget you. Host that was senator bob menendez yesterday. Robert is in arkansas, a republican. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. First of all, if you want to fix the government, do it like the house of commons. That will get rid of the lobbyists. The corporations are what i call the vet. They they will pay the people that work for them and most people pay taxes. Then we will get everything running again. Corporations dont pay taxes until the year and is finished and then whatever then got last left is what they pay taxes. If it was me, i would say all corporations pay no taxes. Where do you think the jobs are going . The taxes are too high. I was trying to think of something else. The previous caller mentioned gary cohen. How many of them plan to create jobs. Video she was referencing was the wall street journal conference. You can find his interview if you go to our website. He was appearing tuesday a conference in washington with a bunch of ceos. Dismay whenn attendees were asked of a would spend more on growth, only few responded. Why arent the other hands up . Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Sexuallling about the abuse. Worldionally, across the women have been subjugated. Its a patriarchal world. I think our women need to be detected. Beings just like anybody else and i know we hold them to a higher standard. He should resign. Every time i see al franken, i think about him on saturday night live. Every time i see him, i think of that. Be grillingould people in the senate Committee Hearings. The arrogance was so in rentable. Incredible. I think these people need to check themselves. Host what about roy moore . Caller its the same thing. If this was something that was a probably goings to be looked upon as someone who is a violator of women. He probably should step out of the race. Incredible, these men thinking they can get away with this. Our women need to be protected. A gentleman called them about what the like women suffered, when you think about it, our beautiful black women, i cant imagine what they had to go through. Its a travesty and look how far weve come. We have to create a system of checks and balances. Women dont want you coming on to them like that. Host the president last night tweeted about the al franken claim by this woman. He said that Al Frankenstein pictures are bad. The president has not said anything about roy moore. He didnt answer any questions about it. The white house spokesperson did talk about it yesterday at the press briefing. You can watch that on www. Cspan. Org. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to say about the Sexual Harassment, i remember the duke lacrosse players and nancy grace ran them down. I havent heard her apologize to them afterwards. Some women do come unto men. They know what they are doing. They know when it is right or wrong. I had a person who was grabbed when he worked. The women were after him all the time. Goes, he isy moore going to lose. He is not a nice man. Bill, they areax holding building plants. How many poor people can do that . We have to have the rich who are able to do some of this. Swampill never drain the as long as they cant get any cooperation. I voted for trump because he was different. They hate him so much, they lose their common sense. They dont contribute anything to it. It was the same when they passed obamacare. I just wish they would drain the swap of all of those people. Constraints onof these people so they can abuse their power like that. There are all kinds of things in the swamp is still there. Didntomething he contribute to. Host mike in virginia. Good morning to you. What do you have to say about congress this week . Caller good morning. Taxes, when met romney was running for election, at that time he was pain 14 paying 14 . Now they are not going to pay anything. Government will one of refunding money to him. When you republicans must be fair to this country. Can do anything for its citizens when it has no taxes. Host high, willie. Caller good morning, cspan. This topic of congress is spot on. On, you could fill a bucket with all the nonsense. This is a great topic for this morning. Menendez, its interesting that he talked about the government coming after him. He is a democrat. They are all about the federal government to tie your hands. He got a taste of his own medicine, which probably wont cure him. Senate on back in the some committee, questioning people in the same smarmy manner he always had done. I call for ryan and mcconnell to step down down. No senator or congressman who has been in office for 10 years or more should replace them. Get some new blood. Drain the swamp of all of these people. Moore, if there are actual charges against him, he should be tried by the Justice System in alabama. Let the people of alabama decided whether they want to keep him or not. Host let it in raleigh, North Carolina. Caller i just want to call in and Say Something to these men calling in, saying roy moore should not step down and that we should not believe the women because it was years ago. As a victim of Sexual Assault, you do not come out and just talk about it, especially when you are children and you know no one will believe you, and the guy was a district attorney. And what about the freaking president . He is no better. He is a sexual predator himself. I cannot wait for women to get into congress and kick these old white men out, because there is no room for the kind of attitude. You are right, there should be term limits, just like the last guy said. Get rid of that old blood and bring in some women who have some sense and are rational. Host all right. We are going to take a deeper dive into some of these issues we have been talking about here on the washington journal this morning. Us toBridget Bowman joins talk about what is going on. Later, Forbes Avik Roy columnist avik roy joins us, forbes columnist avik roy joins us, and we will talk about the individual mandate of the Affordable Care act. Those conversations coming up. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3, saturday at noon eastern, the 70th anniversary of the hollywood hearings before the house of american activities hearings. They read from transcripts. What was your last employment . I just finished a picture called the tall target. I have been in theater for about one in five years. Well enough known to all of them from the rolls i have played. Were you a member of the communist party in 1942 . On the grounds of the fifth amendment, well, they might incriminate or degrade me. The word communist is emotional and hysterical, much like the sa andle ain discussion on civil war monumentsm. Much like the word witch in salem. And a discussion on civil war monuments. It was a victory. America, a reel film on the north africa campaign. President of the United States welcomed the Prime Minister of great britain. The gravity of the moment brought them together. At 8 00, a talk about the book 26 seconds. Gradually, starting in the late 1960s, versions of the film began to leak out and people began to see it. Because ofey saw it, the way that the film looked, it did not look like what the Warren Commission concluded. American history tv, all weekend, every weekend, only on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host we welcome Bridget Bowman from roll call. Senator al franken was accused yesterday of acts in 2006. He said he did not remember it that way but later had a lengthy your statement apologizing to this woman and those who worked with him, those that were on the tour, etc. What is happening now . Guest senator franken indicated he is willing to work with the Ethics Committee on the investigation. Mitch mcconnell and Chuck Schumer are both calling for an ethics investigation. That makes this investigation extremely likely. How it would probably work as the Ethics Committee would conduct an initial investigation into the allegations and likely hold some sort of hearing and then come out with a recommendation, whether that be expulsion or something else. Can take atigations while. I was talking to the former chief counsel for the Senate Ethics Committee Earlier this week about roy moore, and he says investigations can sometimes take months to years. If it is more of a public case, it could take weeks to months. Host and they do investigate things that happened when they were not in the senate . Guest yes, so that leaves the senate open to investigating roy moore if he comes to the senate. This man i talked to, former chief counsel, mentioned that the Ethics Committee has left this question open and the past. Decisioned to 2008, a regarding a former senator, and the Ethics Committee said they were not going to continue looking into allegations that he solicited prostitutes. Not,did not say they could even though the allegations took place before he was a senator. They do have the option to investigate. Host you mention roy moore. Who is talking about an ethics investigation if he were to be elected by alabamans . Guest Mitch Mcconnell indicated at an event this week that the Ethics Committee process would move forward. There were questions as to whether or not they would just vote immediately to expel him if he can to the senate. Counselormer chief mentioned, that could open them up to a legal challenge. Normalhey go through the process, that could be to expulsion eventually, and it would find of stave off any legal challenge. Host what else a republicans in washington thinking about doing about roy moore . Mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, has been clear that he does not think he should be on the ticket, that he should step down but what can they do about it . Guest there is not much they can do at this point with moore not stepping down and the Alabama Republican Party saying they are standing behind him, and they did have the option of disqualifying him as their nominee, but they decided they are not going to do that. Theyre going to let the alabama voters decide. Lawyers associated with the National Party were scrambling after the Washington Post story published last week, trying to find a way forward and keeping him from coming to the senate, whether that is moving the date of the special election. Without the governor or input from the president , that makes that difficult. Host what about senator strange it has been floated that he could trigger a special election. Option somewas an National Republicans were looking into. Senator strange says he intends to serve out the term, and governor k iv through coldwater at that governor kay ivey through cold water on that. Host what is the potential political fallout from republicans in washington trying to control what happens in alabama . Guest this has allowed roy moore to take a similar position that he did during the republican primary, where he is making Mitch Mcconnell kind of his number one enemy, saying in press conferences, calling on mcconnell to step on, accusing him of trine to steal the election from the people of alabama. It is interesting that you see the same playbook coming out again. It was effective during the primary we will see how effective it is in the general. Republicans on capitol hill saying about President Trump not publicly speaking himself . Through a spokesperson, they have given statements. But himself not on twitter, not before cameras, not talking about these roy moore accusations. Guest it is interesting. I am sure republicans would acknowledge that it would help with the president were more forceful in his remarks. An interesting dynamic here where the president is a very popular in alabama and does not want to alienate his days who also support roy moore. We know mcconnell has spoken with trump about this, what it looks a good president has taken the position that the alabama voters will decide. Host that decision will be made on december 12, the date of that special election. Barbara in texas, a republican. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. My thing is it is as if everybody is condemning this roy moore before he has even been tried or anything. They are coming up with accusations from 40 years ago, 40 years ago. We are it is like condemning him before he has even been it has been proven that he has done anything. It is just another play out of the democratic playbook, just like they tried before. It is to get another seat so they can get their democrat in there. That is all it is. Host what about the republicans in congress who believe the women who have come forward . One of them said she was 14 years old when it happened. Caller ok, they are afraid to andthis is still america you were still innocent until proven guilty. It is not the other way around. To say whatt afraid is right. What is right is you are still innocent until proven guilty. And President Trump is doing the right thing by keeping his mouth acts come oute f and you know for sure what is going on. There are a lot of tricky things going on these days with the secret underhanded stuff, all of the stuff hillary was planning during the elections. I mean, democrats can go pretty low. Oint, bridget, to her p this has not been proven, so are there any investigations right now looking into the allegations by these women . , a lot ofl, certainly reporters are looking into it. Locally, as well. Another l at came out with another woman he made accusations another woman came out with another outlet came out with another woman who made accusations. About the question timing of this and why allegations had not come out before. Campaign has said it is both democrats and republicans, and i think that is part of the strategy of bringing mcconnell into it, saying Establishment Republicans are teaming up with the democrats to push this forward. In houston, texas been, democrat. Caller yes, maam. It seemed like his discrimination against the republicansou know, get away with everything, but the democrats, they always want this lady is talking. They are scared to even say anything. Speak about what he did was wrong. He was always with women and everything. Out on thispeak man, but if it had been a democrat, he would have spoke out. This man, he need to be impeached for that. And these ladies talking about, oh, no, he is not so. That lady was crying. They are scared to even speak out. N i was a child [indiscernible] i was scared to even speak out. Scared to say he touched me the wrong way and everything. So this is not right here. Host she mentioned the president has spoken about al franken but we have not heard him talk about roy moore. Guest that is right, and that has been an interesting contrast. We have not heard too much reaction from capitol hill about that tweet he made about senator franken. Certainly an interesting dynamic. Host ron in tennessee, republican. Caller yes, i would like to make a comment about the Sexual Harassment. Rs ago was ale lady, and she hit the mail on the head. Up, america you are innocent until proven guilty. All this slaying going on against mr. Moore, bring the proof and then do something about it. But to make accusations and tear a person down is wrong. It is totally wrong. And why didnt mr. Trump, our president , Say Something about mr. Moore . Bring the proof, and i am sure if they bring the proof, mr. Trump will be against him. Host ron, is their proven the al franken case . Caller maam, from what i have seen on your show, yes. There is a problem. Ok . Is the proof in that case versus the roy moore accusation . Caller if i am not badly mistaken, there is the picture of him standing with the beatty and his hands standing with the lady and his hands well, that do not look too good. It is a reason to start investigating to find out whether or not he is guilty or not. Until they have that investigation, all this sharing his character down and accusing him, bring the proof, get it into court, and fix it. Host should President Trump have said anything on twitter about senator franken . Caller if he seen what i seen, i think he has a right to Say Something. Host so is there enough to start an investigation on roy moore . Hearsay i have not seen anything that proves that he did yet. If somebody says, yes, he did this to me well, prove it. Host what about the number of ladies saying he did it . Caller how do we know that this aint financed by somebody back . Host ok. Bridget, when we talk about the distrust for washington or the party and politics, i mean, that caller is not alone in thinking that this is politics. Guest that is a really interesting point, and it ms like allee of these cases and accusations do not do much to help congres Approval Rating either. Backlasha, you see a to National Republicans looking into ways to try to keep moore from coming to the senate or keep him off the ballot. Broader distrust. Rachel from texas, independent. Welcome to the conversation. Caller yes, they are trying to make it into a democratrepublican thing. We really need to know if he did this or not. Ot of people think [indiscernible] i guarantee they would not move next her to him if they have daughters. Andew up in a small town, this man lived next door to us and was exposing himself, and i was only eight years old. With my age and everything, the more or less let him go and he wound up working as a janitor in a school and wound up raping a young girl. Half the people in town where he is from, roy moore, remembers hearing stories about this man going around and trying to pick up young girls in town at a mall. I mean, these people come forward. Dide people voted for him, not even know it was the same person they voted for. I mean, these were stories told years ago, and now they are saying it could not be true and it is just because the election. They are just trying to keep him from getting elected. These things were told years ago. There are women out there scared to death that some Child Predator is going to kidnap their kids and god knows what theyre going to do to them. Then we have these people willing to vote for something they are so far against it i just do not understand it. Host ok. Bridget bowman, the dynamic care of that caller talking about if these allegations are true against roy moore, that he would come to the senate and represent the state of alabama. What are you hearing about the standard for senators or for members of congress holding a Political Office . Guest well, republicans in the senate say that moore should not be in the senate attention should not be representing the republican party. They say he does not belong there and does not meet the standard of serving in the senate. So a couple senators do acknowledge that there is not much they can do at this point to keep him off of the ballot or keep him from coming here if he is elected. Host they cannot not seat him . Guest correct. Not seatway they could him immediately is if he did not meet the constitutional requirements, which means the minimum age for being a senator, that he was duly elected. So it looks like he will have to be seated if he was elected. Host ann in biloxi, tennessee, republican. Caller good morning, i would like to say that the post in washington found out about roy senator spears have told us if there are present senators members of the house and senate, congress, that have taken advantage of women i wonder if the press is going to find out about them and expose the democrats and the republicans who have charges or who have had accusations made against them. Then i wonder if anybody has looked into mr. Jones, who is running against mr. Moore. Everybody should be suspect, not just one. Host ok, we will take your point. She is referring to congresswoman Jackie Speier testifying at a hearing on sexual hold Sexual Assault on capitol hill. She did not name names, but she said there is a democrat and a republican who she heard stories of them harassing women. Guest that is a unique thing about this issue on capitol hill, that there have not been a lot of names yet. It contrasts the scandals in hollywood, etc. I think there is certainly more to come. We have reporters looking into this issue on capitol hill. Seems like only a matter of time and there will be more to come out of that. Host stories about Sexual Harassment claims that have been made. Roll call, your website, has this officee that handles the complaints, they said u. S. Taxpayers paid out more than 900,000 in the most recent fiscal year to settle complaints on capitol hill, the highest amount in 10 years. What do you know about the last year and these claims . Guest the office of compliance, the organization referenced, also oversees other legislative branch agencies, not just theyre looking at Government Accountability office and others. So they deal with workplace disputes, harassment disputes, and all of that. They issue, i believe, a biannual report of issues and recommendations. I believe,equested, and additional staff member to look into Sexual Harassment claims. Trying of congress are to change the process of how this works, make it easier for people who are accusing or alleging Sexual Harassment to be able to go through the system. Host what is the process now . Guest it is a bit convoluted. Congressman Jackie Speier had a flow, and it was pretty extensive. Benefits theat it member of congress or the staff member who is being accused, that there was not a lot of transparency and not a good route for someone who maybe had been harassed. There are different bills trying to change it, so we will have to watch and see. Host if you missed the hearing and are interested in what congresswoman speier had to say, you can go to cspan. Org and watch it there. Next call from michigan. Caller listen, the thing that is so irritating about this whole thing is the democrat versus republican thing. When it happens, it happens, and it is bad. It does not matter what party they are on. The only thing that is a possibility of a difference is a or woman, who man has done this and one who has made a mistake, like they say about franken. If franken was a republican and moore was a democrat, i was still think the same about both of them. Franken was a comedian writer, so that has nothing to do with it. It needs to look of a job at hand and needs to look at the general character of the person who has done it, and it should be an independent study by congress, doing the investigation. The only thing about what i really dislike and find disgusting is when somebody hides behind christianity. He says he is a christian, so he cannot have done this. That is such a bunch of bull. It needs to be the person and what has happened and go from there, just cut this republicandemocrat stuff out of it. Host all right. Sherry in iowa, independent. Caller hi, i just wanted to say that i am so sick and tired of them, the people, saying bring proof. When someone has been i would say when they have been violated, they carry that with them for years and years, and there is no counseling, no nothing to show you how to let it go, as some of these men have said. Have not been through this think that it is no big deal to us. Well, it is. And i believe these women who are claiming this and have carried it for 40 years, the reason they have not said anything is because they are intimidated. They have been taught that men have the upper hand, and it goes back for years and years and years. I am 65 years old. , i have been violated and it has i have been violated, and it has never gone away. Host were talking about culture on capitol hill. Congresswoman speiers speaking out congresswoman speier speaking up. What is being done on both sides about Sexual Harassment on capitol hill . Guest Speaker Paul Ryan has made Sexual Harassment training mandatory for all members. That will be mandatory in the senate. It was not mandatory prior to this. Roll call it a step survey back in july, and four and 10 women staffers said they thought Sexual Harassment was a problem on capitol hill. They have women said experienced some form of Sexual Harassment. It is very pervasive here it we will have to see how it changes. Host rhode island, gary, independent. Caller good morning. Because i question have not been up to date on everything going on with roy moore. He deniedring, has being told to stay away from the mall . Guest he has. The campaign is touting a former mall employee who said moore was not banned from the mall. But there are a number of former workers who said he was. Denied all wrongdoing in any of these allegations and continues to do so. Employees and others say they warned women to stay away. Others say that he was banned from the mall, a mall in alabama where he is from. Diane, connecticut, republican. Caller good morning. Thank you. I have a question regarding to the timing, and i have to say i am not a fan of mr. Moore or mr. Bannon. I think theyre very polarizing with the republican party. The sorry that he won primary. I do not think it will help the republicans. However, my question is, you know, sexual allegations are very damning and very disturbing. I question the timing of this. As mr. Moore has said, he has been vetted so many times for so many positions, and i know that people are coming out now inause there is strength numbers, but there were people coming out a long time before he was put on the ballot. It seems i just question the timing, that they came out when the names were on the ballot and there was nothing more that could be done. Why didnt they come out and expose him after the primaries or even when he was running or before his name got on the ballot . I am very suspicious of the democrats. I wonder, did they go to the democrats and Say Something and they said, no, wait until his name on the ballot because that way there is nothing that can be done. I have learned that once the names are on the ballot, there is nothing that can be done. Host lets talk about that. Guest that is something that i heard from alabama republicans, questioning the timing of all of this. His atoo late to remove from the ballot if there was a desire to do so. These allegations came out after that window had already closed. So that is a good point that the siming made sure that moore name was on the ballot in a matter what. Host what are republicans talking about next . That theyey admitted do not have a lot of options . Guest i have talked to some Senate Republicans about that this week, and some noted there is not much we can do without him stepping aside. Senator mcconnell said theyre are looking at a bunch of actions, including a writein candidate. It is not clear who that would be. There is concern that would just split the republican vote, leading jones to win, the first of a credit to win in two decades. Host alabama, independent. I want to. Bowman, say that youre very beautiful. Discussed it in the way we treat our women overall. As agent or, i believe we hold gender,ck a lot as a i believe we hold women back a lot. We need to treat our women better. I am from alabama. I do not know too much about roy moore, but i do believe he is guilty, not just because of women but also other allegations. They told him to stay away from the mall. The whole political system just needs to go, all of them, republicans, democrats. The president is a liar. Roy moore is a liar. Jeff sessions is a liar. We just need to start over. Park,helen, tacoma maryland, democrat. Caller good morning. Alabama, thesein were young woman. They were afraid to Say Something, and he was adjudged by the time. And the democrats, franken, he even said he is sorry to this woman. That one, he is a comedian. He jokes. His job was that. Leave it there. Bridget bowman, where are the polls in alabama right now ahead of this december 12 special election . Some viewers believe the accusations and some do not. Guest it has been a little bit all over the place since the allegations came out. A recent poll from fox news last night showed jones several points ahead of moore. If you look of the average, they are essentially tied, which is remarkable given how republican alabama is. But this is a special election in the middle of december, so turnout could be very low. It could be hard to predict who will show up. The polls are preliminary sense of how the allegations are affecting this. Host a lot of attention focused on alabama though. Bridget bowman with roll call, appreciate your time. Next, we will talk with avik roy to get his take on the Senate Republicans trying to roll back the individual mandate of the Affordable Care act. Later, Michael Fuchs on the president s trip to asia and what it did for the United States. Be right back. This weekend, cspans cities tour takes you to burlington, vermont. Partners,elp of cable we explore the literary scene and history of burlington, what sits on the shores of Lake Champlain. Saturday on booktv, an author and cartoonist discuss their book about vermont in the age of trump. I really wanted to put out a book because vermont i think voted for Hillary Clinton in greater numbers than any other state. Remember, it is a small state, so it does not amount to much. But the numbers were impressive. He wanted to put together a book were people in the state answered the question, what do we do now with trump in charge . View, againsty most of the values and characteristics that vermonters have. 2 00 p. M. Ay at eastern on American History tv, here about a revolutionary war hero and vermont founding father, ethan out and. Ethan allen. The Green Mountain boys were at one time the Largest Paramilitary Force in north america, if not for the actions of ethan allen and the other Green Mountain boys, vermont may very well have looked different than it does today. Then a visit to the Lake Champlain maritime museum. Lake when itfirst comes to historic significance. It is a 120 mile long water superhighway the cuts between the Green Mountains of vermont and the adirondacks of new york. Watch cspans cities tour of burlington, vermont, saturday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2s booktv. And sunday on cspan3. Working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. Washington journal continues. Austin,ining us from texas, is president of the foundation for research on equal alsotunity, avik roy, contributor to forbes magazine, and former policy adviser to three president ial candidates. Are here to talk about the Affordable Care act. Thank you for joining us. If the Senate Republicans want to include in the tax reform bill repeal of the individual mandate. What do you think about that idea . Guest i think it makes a lot of sense. One thing you have to remember about the individual mandate is it has played an outside role in the fiscal debates about both replacing obamacare and tax of courts and the way washington works. The Congressional Budget Office believes that if you repeal the millional mandate, 16 were 13llion people million is the latest estimate, they would drop out of the Insurance Market because they would not be forced to pay a fine if they do not sign appeared because cbo believes this, all these massive fiscal savings that come from including the individual mandate in tax reform, and the Supreme Court famously in 2012 ruled that the individual mandate is a tax, and that is a big part why it is compatible with this legislation before the senate now. Host what does the individual mandate do, and what has been the impact of it . Guest great question. Under obamacare or the Affordable Care act, what the individual mandate does is it says you are required to buy Health Insurance, which is defined under obamacare with certain criterion in terms of what kinds of insurance qualify for that. There are certain exemptions it if your income is below the or if youne roughly do not file income taxes, you do not have to. There are other loopholes and exemptions. Broadly, most people are required to buy Health Insurance either from their employer, medicare, medicaid, or on their we just 695fine, a year or 2. 5 of your adjusted gross income, whichever is greater. So he gets larger as you go up the income scale. Host what has been the end cap the impact on the cost of health care and on the Health Care Industry . Guest another great question. In terms of the real word, the view is that the individual mandate has had almost no effect. There was a paper published by jonathan gruber, one of the people consider the architect of obamacare, a few years ago in a journal saying there is no evidence of the individual mandate is having an effect in terms of encouraging people to sign up for coverage. Lot more people, particularly at the lower end of the income coverage at a buy discounted rate because of federal subsidies. The realworld effect is minimal. In theory, the hope was, the reason why democrats enacted the individual mandate in the first place is because the way obamacares regulations work is a doubled or tripled the cost of Health Insurance for younger healthier people in order to make Health Insurance less extensive for sicker or older people, such as those with preexisting conditions. So a lot of the younger or healthier people have a lot less incentive to buy Health Insurance because it is more expensive. The role to force those healthier and younger individuals back into the market. Because the fines are low and because of the exemptions and because the mandate has not been forced that strongly, most people are not really seeing it as a reason to buy insurance. They look at the cost and say it is too expensive and i would rather pay the fine than pay thousands of dollars for insurance it does not have a lot of value for me. Movingow republicans are to repeal that mandate by tying it to the techs are from bill. Here is a democrat from missouri arguing what impact repealing would have on health care. [video clip] 179 billion in reduced medicaid subsidies. Beg your pardon, that is where the money is coming from. Where do you think it is coming from . Is there a fairy dropping it on the senate . The money you are spending is coming out of medicaid and subsidies to people who make less than 50,000. So you are trying to shop this baby like you are giving a 43 billion saving. That is peoplet who are leaving medicaid. You arehairman, 318 billion to make tax cuts for corporations permanent. That money is coming from the very people you say you are saving by eliminating 43 billion in tax penalties. And i am missouri, telling you that i was not a great student in math, but i will tell you, this is not a good deal. Host avik roy, then you have the joint committee on taxation yesterday with their analysis, saying President Trump and republican lawmakers have been heralding their bill as a win for hardworking americans, but there is doubt about that. Says that most americans earning 75,000 a year or less would be forced to pay more in taxes, while people earning 100,000 a year would continue paying less. Come frome hit would the push to insert a Major Health Care change into the tax bill. How do you respond . Guest lets take both of those separately. First, the exchange there. I think senator hatch is right and senator mccaskill is wrong. What the individual mandate repeal does is it means people will no longer be fined to buy insurance. The cbo believes that there are 5 Million People today who are signed up for medicaid, which is effectively free, a Free Health Care program for people who are lower income, and ecb a believes that people 5 Million People will drop out of medicaid if they are no longer being fined for not signing up. Most people in the real world do not believe that is the case. Why would you need to be fined to signup for a program that is not cost you anything . And why would you opt out if there was no threat of a fine . The reason the cbo believes there would be less medicaid spending under the tax bill is because the 5 Million People would drop out somehow and there would be less medicaid spending because there would be fewer people and rolled in medicaid voluntarily. Not because the republican bill cuts medicaid spending. Senator hatch has the argument there, not senator mccaskill. They gets us to the revert report you were quoting. I do not know where it was published. Host it was in the Washington Post, quoting the joint committee on taxation. There,there are errors too, because the way this is working is if you are signed up you areacare subsidies, buying insurance on the obamacare exchange, the subsidies come to you in the form of a tax credit. If you voluntarily drop out of the market because you do not want to buy obamacare insurance, you will no longer have to pay a fine for that. And you will no longer get the benefit of the subsidies, which are tax credits on the obamacare exchanges. Would seeple who socalled tax increases, and the way this is being defined by the Washington Post, are not people who would have to pay higher taxes. They are people who would voluntarily for go a tax credit to subsidize coverage on obamacare because they do not believe obamacare has value for them. It is a voluntary decision to for go a tax credit, not that they would have irs agents knocking on the door saying you owe us more money. Host lets go to viewers. Al, a democrat. This is stupid. Your grandfather would lose everything. Now you are trying to tell us that obama is crazy. You are crazy, sir. Host hold on, hold on. I will move on. Lets keep the conversation civil. No need to call people names. Sheila, florida, republican. Caller i was wondering why you keep calling it a fine when the Supreme Court decided it is a tax. Congress does not have the right to levy fines. It has the right to levy taxes. Guest great point. In the Patient Protection Affordable Care act, it is in many places, called a penalty. It is not really called a tax that often. The Obama Administration wanted to promise americans that no one under 250,000 a year in income would face a tax at obamacare. According to the Supreme Court, the individual mandate is a tax that affects people earning less than 250,000 a year. There was a lot of politics 2009, 2010, when the Affordable Care act was being enacted. As you say, and the Supreme Courts view, it is a tax. Is watching in ohio, independent. I am not sure how to say the name of your town. Caller you were pretty close. Good morning to you and your guest. A few things since they are going to repeal the individual mandate, what this will do is create free riders. When these people without Health Care Show up to the emergency room, people such as myself who do have Health Insurance by the way, as a retired operating engineer, we have Health Insurance that i pay for, we will be the ones that have to pay for the free riders. Was abe honest, there mandate put in during the Reagan Administration that hospitals have to accept into their emergency room people that, even if they do not have Health Insurance or no means to pay for their health care, they have to be accepted. The mandate that hospitals have to accept people without insurance. That way, people such as myself do not have to pay for free riders. Look at the people that were just shot in that horrific thing in las vegas. A lot of them have had to set up gofundme accounts to pay for their health care because they have no way to pay without insurance. Ife i said, lets be honest, you are going to repeal the individual mandate, that is going to make free riders. That repeal the mandate says hospitals have to accept people for Free Health Care. Guest great question. It represents a widely held misconception about socalled free emergency room care. The first point to make is that as a taxpayer, you are paying for the socalled free riders either way. If they get free emergency room care, yes, maybe your insurance goes up a little bit to pay for that. That if you pay for obamacare sponsored insurance, that is subsidized by taxpayers. Couldount of money you spend to cover the subsidies under obamacare is far greater than the cost of uncompensated care in the emergency room. Not only that, but all the obamacare and romney care in massachusetts was the expansion of the Medicaid Program led to increased use of the emergency room for un compensated care, not less. The reason is that a lot of people on medicaid medicaid pays doctors so much less than private entrance does, so a lot of doctors may not take medicaid. A lot of people and rolled in medicaid show up to the emergency room to get basic care because they have a tough time finding a doctor they can get a normal appointment with. So there has been more federal spending, more taxpayer spending on health care, not less. That it wouldt reduce the amount taxpayers spend on health care, the opposite has happened. Is onfrom missouri, jim our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have had several family members that resisted the mandate. I did some research, went on the marketplace, and found, to their surprise, that there were plans available at no cost to them. Now it was not good insurance, but it was some insurance. They had focused on, oh, i have to pay this fine if i do not get insurance, and i cannot afford it. Well, it was affordable. Another point, i signed up for trumpcare recently. My premiums had gone up 20 . My subsidy went up 20 . My insurance went from a 250 deductible to a 5,000 deductible. The government is paying more for less insurance for me. Like most people, i had insurance through my job all of my life. Host ok, we will have avik roy respond. Guest those are all very important point that you brought up. The experience you have had buying Health Insurance in the open market is an experience a lot of people are having. The laste, 2013 was year before the obamacare regulations went into play from then until 2017, obamas last year in office under obamacare, premiums doubled on average and tripled or quadrupled for, particularly, younger people. In your case, if you had to buy insurance in 2013, you are probably paying 50 to 60 more. It is not just the premium that has gone up, it is also the deductible. This is one of the challenges with the Affordable Care act. There are opposing views. Some say it is worth it to spend that extra money on Health Insurance because insurance covers more things and has more generous payouts in certain ways, and that is better for you. Other people say, no, youre forced to pay a lot more for Health Insurance then you otherwise would. That debate will be with us for a very long time. Host connie in new jersey, democrat. Caller good morning. This mr. Roy how he is going to solve my problem. I make 19,000 in my social security. They take 100 for medicare. I pay 270 to my secondary. Ay almost 100 for [indiscernible] besides copays and medication, out of my 19,000 in income. 9,000a house that i pay in taxes. And in my golden years, cannot move out of my house. I cannot take a vacation. I cannot take nothing. And this is the greatest nation in the world . They cannot figure out how to help the retired and the poor people . , they have better insurance than we have. Host avik roy . Guest all of your points are really great points. This goes back to the way medicare was originally designed when it was passed in 196i5. In 1965. It set up 50 years of massive inflation in the cost of health care such that even though medicare is heavily subsidized you described the different frames and copays that he pay for your medicarebased insurance. What you do not see is for every one dollar you are spending on your medicare, there is another two dollars to four dollars that the rest of us are paying to subsidize the cost on top of that. That is because we have the most Expensive Health care system in the world, because the federal policy decisions that were made in world war ii and the hospitals,have given doctors, Drug Companies an incentive to church really high prices, knowing that taxpayers will foot the bill. That is the most important thing we have to tackle and health reform. We have to get those underlying prices lower. We have done a poor job of that over the last 70 years. Call from missouri on our line for republicans. Caller yes, good morning. I have watched cspan every hour, every day that you have had these sessions in regard to what were talking about now. Roy has finally, mr. Found his way to your microphones to explain how this thing works so that i can understand. And i9 years old, understand what mr. Roy is saying, and i think him so much and i thank him so much. Listen to him, folks. He is explaining it just like it will be if we can get this through. Thank you. This is the first time i have called, and i appreciate it. You called. Lad if you missed anything that roy said, it is that mr. Royce it, you can go to cspan. Org. You can also follow him on forbes. Com. This is his latest piece. Victoria in oregon, a democrat. Caller good morning. This is my 51st year as a registered nurse, so i know a little bit about health care. The big problem has been feeforservice. I will not get into that whole argument, but i think the Affordable Care act and a lot of incentives have helped people. My daughter is a 46yearold diabetic. She lost her Health Insurance when she lost her job a couple years ago. She got onto to the plan, got subsidies. She got quite ill soon after she got her card from obamacare. She ended up taking a lot of medications. She did recover from that. Her. Ally, that helped she had to pay for things but not at the cost it would have been without insurance. So she used it for about nine months, and then she got a great job. She doubled the salary she had before and had wonderful Health Insurance. She was taxed on this subsidies, so she paid it back. So it is not a free ride for people. I think it is very important, and i have worked for the oldest notforprofit hmo in the country for 40 years and they are a model for how good Health Care Systems should work. Host ok, mr. Roy . There are a lot of great people trying to make Health Care Better in this country, absolutely, and you are one of them. I support universal coverage, and i think the debate i hope we have about universal coverage is it is not just enough to say, lets have universal coverage. How you do it matters. There is only so much money to go around. Federal spending on health care, because u. S. Health care is so expensive, is the primary driver of our deficit and howard that and what our grandchildren will pay off when they pay bills for all this stuff primary driver of our deficit and our debt and what our grandchildren will pay off. We have to do a bunch of things to make it affordable. One, make sure we tackle that he gets problem, the fact that u. S. Health care is so much more expensive than any other country. Left toe ideas on the tackle that and ideas on the right to tackle that. Approaches can work to a degree, depending how you implement them. But it is important to make sure that we not only make Health Insurance affordable by subsidizing it, but make sure we make it less expensive. We are all paying for those subsidies oneway or another. The only way to make a Health Care System in america affordable for everyone is to make sure we tackle the underlying problem of how expensive it is. Host avik roy, what is your foundation doing about this problem, and who finances it . Guest the foundation for research on equal opportunity is a nonprofit think tank based in austin, texas, and we are building an office in washington. We focus on ideas that move the needle, policies, ideas for reform that make a difference for people with below median incomes or net worth. So everything will be is a research we do, every scholar we try to recruit, every oped we publish is focused on these issues related to how we can make sure that the people who are being left behind in the to First Century economy can be and theirck into it opportunities can be expanded. Specifically on health care, we launched the foundation for research on equal opportunity a little over a year ago with a big white paper on how to achieve marketbased universal coverage, a bipartisan approach in which we use and deploy the most innovative ideas in the private sector, whether it is an doctors,nurses, hmos, innovative Drug Companies to see how we can make Health Insurance and health care more affordable for the people who can least afford it today, and make that system fiscally sustainable for the future. That is our big focus in health care. Host who finances your foundation . Guest we are financed by individuals, foundations, stakeholders, corporations, basically the Standard Range of funders that found most think tanks. Host do you have any personal large donors . Guest no. , de soto, kansas, republican. Caller mr. Roy, you are doing a phenomenal job of explaining things. I have kind of a complicated scenario for you. The Affordable Care act, when initially passed, it was paid for in part by 700 billion in cuts to medicare. New gop proposal, i understand there are also cuts to medicare. That is one thing. The second thing is i am a senior citizen, and i know, by doing some research and also hearing from some pundits on what is going to change for Senior Citizens is that they will lose the deduction, the extra deduction that they currently are getting on our taxes, we will lose that. That, we will lose ouron top of medical deductions and on top of that. First, currently we are paying taxes on a rate of 10 on the first part of our income. It is going to be kicked up to 12 . All the cutse like that are being made to medicare were also the seniors the seniors are getting cut on the benefits they were getting for medicare. Can you please explain this and who thought this up . Is it going to go through . Guest is conceivable it is conceivable that there is some provision that i am not aware of. I am not aware of any provisions that would cuts medicare spending. In general, as we talked about earlier with the joint committee out on thes report republican tax bill in the senate, pretty much every tax bracket would see a taxcut. Only the people who would not buy health care under obamacares individual mandate print many seniors individual mandate. Should see reduced taxes under this bill and those that have retirement accounts, andhis bill actually passed succeed, that should lead to a significant uptick in the stock market which should help a lot of people in their retirement years. Host gary and more filled, West Virginia. Good morning. You are saying it is a tax. Correctly, when the Affordable Care act was done, it was there as a backup because there is not enough young people i have got a lot of children and grandchildren. Retired. Years in and i take there turn to kind to care of me. It seems to me that you are trying to take that away. It is going to make medical stuff go up. I have been around a long time and i have never, ever seen insurance come down. Have, i have some oceanfront property in colorado to sell you. Host over to roy, what do you think . Is one program and which premiums have declined yearoveryear. That is the Medicare Prescription Drug Medicare Program where premiums have come way under budget. The very clever way that program was designed when it was passed in 2003 and a bipartisan way between democrats and republicans under george w. Bush that is one area of success. Speaking to your question, there are no changes to the taxes and spending that involve medicare. There is no change to the medicare payroll tax so the People Like Us that are younger are going to be paying the same. And there are no spending cuts in the bill related to medicare print to medicare. Isis conceivable that there a provision that i am not aware. Oft you can follow the work roy if you go to the website. We thank you for the conversation this morning. Guest thank you very much. Host we are going to take a break but when we come back, our discussion on the president trip to asia. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this weekend on book tv. Live coverage of the Miami Book Fair starting saturday at 10 30 a. M. And him msnbcs chris , the immigration to the United States. S uncovering the trump campaign. Our live coverage continues on sunday on how smear tactics are public opinion. Cnns van jones ways and on politics. President of Spelman College looks at Race Relations in the United States. Watch our live weekend coverage this weekend on cspan2s book t v. Cspan, where history unfold daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas public table public table companies. Washington journal continues. Host at our table this morning uks he served from 2013 to 2016. I want to begin with the president in the diplomatic room at the white house. After returning from asia, this is what he had to say. [video clip] pres. Trump we have established a new framework for trade that ensure sure reciprocity and new fair trade deals that benefit the United States and their partners. We have laid out a pathway towards peace and security in our world where sovereign nations can thrive, flourish, and prosper sidebyside. This is our beautiful vision for the future. This is a future where this vision is only possible if america is strong, proud, and free. As long as we are true to ourselves, faithful to our founding, and loyal to our citizens, there is no task too great, no goal beyond our reach. My fellow citizens, america is that in the future has never looked brighter. What the president was talking about was something that was a little bit divorced from the reality of his trip. Ets take a step back for decades, the United States has played a role in upholding peace and stability and prosperity across the Asian Pacific through our alliances, partnerships, and dealing in a very frank and straightforward way with adversaries. Thatg to make sure everybody is able to benefit from a peaceful and stable region. That is a relatively fragile peace. It takes a tremendous amount of diplomatic work to keep that. What President Trump did in the region over the last couple of tremendouslyd some profound anxiety amongst our allies and partners in the region about credibility of americans staying power in asia and the priorities we have. Not we will prioritize the same things we have in recent decades that have benefited everybody. Host in what way did he do that . Guest he has completely dropped human rights from the priority list of the United States when it comes to asia. When he was in china, it was very clear he did not take questions from journalists during their press conference. This is something the american president s have fought for repeatedly. Host president obama did not either in his first trip. Guest president obama did fight for and has on other trips to china. American officials repeatedly. Ight for that right to do that whether or not his for their country, it is important for the united dates to show this is something we prioritize. When he was in the philippines and he was warmly embracing strongman leader of the philippines rodrigo duterte. There were no signs that he raised about the Deadly Campaign that the president has gone on, more than a year ago that hes killed estimates of thousands of people in a Violent Campaign against drug use in his country these are things that show raising issues like human rights show what america stands for in the world and in the region and it is ending a very different signal when we do not directly address concerns. What is the impact or whatat is the impact Strategic Decisions do you see them making because of this . Guest the ramifications of the anxiety in the region are clear. President trump in one of his first acts as president withdrew the United States from the transpacific trade deal. President trump has withdrawn and with a tremendous amount of credibility but what has happened is a number of things. The other 11 countries that are part of the tpp have moved forward without us. A are going to write the rules of the road in trade in asia and we are not going to benefit nor are we going to be at the table when it comes to actually trying to figure out how we can benefit from trade. Forward with ag broader regional trade agreement called the regional comprehensive economic partnership. Everyone else is moving forward benefit with how they from trade and President Trump is withdrawing. Host he says he wants to write new deals. Guest that is what hes been saying since the campaign trail but to date, there is no sign of him getting any results. He is talked about starting bilateral deals with countries like japan, vietnam this trip would have been a very good way place for him to outline. Host has efforts been made . Guest effort has been made with Vice President mike pence with japan he tried to start a dialogue but what we are seeing from these countries in the region is a real lack iof in engaging with the United States because they are concerned about the credibility. The president withdrew the United States from an agreement that we spent a decade negotiating. Why would these countries believe that we are going to make good on the promises . Host what do you think is the of japan and china moving closer together or these other countries moving closer together and not including the United States . I think there are a number of different ramifications. On the economic side, china has been growing rapidly. Of the countries of asia are integrating economically. It is becoming more difficult for the United States to get what we need. We need to have skin in the game. We need to continue to fight for our interests. By withdrawing us from those multilateral discussions is that we are not there. We do not have a seat at the table. The other countries in the region will continue to move and the United States is not going to have the same alike up. O the same leg when it comes to security, the United States has played a very Important Role behind the scenes and trying to keep the peace in the region. Our alliances with south korea, japan, philippines, australia, and others have made sure that other countries china in recent years does not try to do something to undermine peace in the region. The unitedity in states weekends, you will see tensions between many of these countries rise. The risk of some sort of miscalculation or conflict over north korea for instances the type of thing we could see. Host we are taking your questions and comments about the president trip to asia. Michael is our guest this morning. He will take your questions and comments. Did the president argued during the campaign that these were bad deals for americans if you seem if you look at the vote results, the people agreed with them. That these have been bad deals that have been cut by the Obama Administration and previous administrations. What evidence do you have that these are not bad deals . Guest i do not think that is the question we should be asking. The question is regardless of what you think about tpp, for instance, or path trade deals past trade deals, the question is whether or not the United States should be trying to lead in crafting the agenda in the region on economic trade deals that would advantage of america . What the president is doing is not saying, hey, i would like to look at the tpp and try to figure out how we can strengthen this so that a good advantage american workers. What he has done is said, i am packing my bags and im going home, and i am happy to have individual conversations about what we can do, but there is not a lot of perceptive and he on the other side. On the other side. The result is that we are not able to ship the rules of the road like we would have been able to if we had been engaged. Host from columbus, georgia, republican. Caller good morning. I love how these liberals always outt president obama sp president obamas policies and they do not realize that when you come up from a position of weakness like president obama did and you lead from behind, you have lots of money leaving the country and corporations leaving the country, and lots of jobs leaving the country. When you get out of these trade deals that we were in for weakness, we turn around and say, we do not blame yall for taking advantage of us because we did a bad deal. So what we are going to do, we are going to change it. We are going to be into good deals that way our economy will become stronger. Your pointt to take because this is something that was set on the campaign trail and you have heard from conservatives president obama was seen as weak. President trump is showing strength by saying, these are bad deals. Guest i think you cannot confuse strength with hyperbolic over the top rhetoric. That is not strength. Loud talking points are not strength. Strength is showing resolve. Inn you look at asia particular, you have to go back decades. This is not about obama policy versus trump policy. This is about american interests and what american administrations going back have been trying to do to advance. It has been on the economic side which is benefited the American People but is also on the Security Side. This is one of the points that we need to keep in mind. There were massive wars fought in the asiapacific in recent decades. Wars that cost americans tens of thousands of lives not to mention, intense casualties in the region itself. This is something that our policy in asia has been to prevent and we have been successful. That takes a lot of hard work. Serve in the Obama Administration as the secretary of state for east Asian Affairs. Advisor toved as the the secretary of state when Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state. Paul, florida, democrat. Caller i wanted to ask you if you could describe please the currents military relationship between the philippines and the United States. Recentthing done at the meeting between President Trump and president duterte about that relationship, especially the joint military exercises . Guest i think this is one of the very difficult relationships that the United States has. The relationship with the philippines is an alliance that goes back decades and that is an important one. It is something that many administrations have tried to build up over the years. Last year when president duterte was elected president of the philippines, we became faced with a difficult decision which is that we had a democratically of the leader philippines begin to directly undermine the rule of law in respect for human rights in his own country by embarking on this Deadly Campaign against drug users and his country. The Human Rights Concerns are awful in the philippines. What the Obama Administration tried to do was to try to step back a little bit from some of the cooperation with the philippines on the Security Side while making sure we were not andrmining our interests not publicly embracing president duterte. What President Trump has done so president duterte date, not raise any concerns about his human rights record. Confusing signal and will be detrimental to our interests. A warmer trump has had personal relationship with president duterte. At the moment, there is less friction and tension in the bilateral relationship. On the military side, we continue to move toward in terms of the cooperation between our on theies in making good deal that was a military deal struck under the Obama Administration with the previous Philippines Administration to boost military cooperation between the countries. That is a good thing. Is a lack of ag concern on the United States part about the human rights. Is in missouri. Caller hello. Im sorry that you are not still in the state department. Our props are being knocked out. They will be nearly impossible to resurrect. What is absent that i hear in so much lately is any talk of what is going to be done for the American People. I come from the midwest where we need desperately Public Transportation connection with we need of the world, health care, and we need Education Beyond High School that is affordable. I do not see why we cannot have it. Book published by barnes noble several years ago a republication of mark damned human race. He has a very interesting take on our involvement of the philippines back then. Guest i think your point is exactly right. The First Priority of the american president and American Foreign policies to make sure we of theancing interests American People did when it comes to asia policy and some of the things we saw from President Trumps trip, there is overarching points. There are things we should not take for granted and that was the point i was making earlier about stability in asia. It was not that long ago that we thought the wars in this region because of the severe instability there. What we have been doing in recent decades is the heart of omatic work the hard diplomatic work of trying to make sure we keep the peace in the region. The second point is the one about trade and economic relationships. Trade has become a very divisive issue in this country. Sometimes there are fair concerns. Regardless of whether you thought the tpp or the u. S. South korea trade agreements point we or bad, the should all agree on is that the United States needs to be engaged and needs to be leading the trying to board best economic arrangements with our sotners around the world that we can create jobs at home. Population st the worlds biggest countries biggestworlds economies, we have to be engaged there and trying to forge those trade agreements. Host marquez next in virginia. Would like to challenge on his question of no seat at the table. Those countries they should be doing the best for themselves and they all want to do business with the United States. We will have a seat at our table when they come. As having results in strength, if we have been negotiating the trade deal for 10 years, that does not sound like very good results. I would much rather throw those deals out, start over, and look out for our country first. About i think your point the power of the American Economy is absolutely right. The biggest thing we have going for us is the innovation, the creativity of the American Economy and the american worker. That will continue to make us desirable for other countries to and makeo trade deals sure they are investing and working together with us. But the question really is in asia, how are we going about doing that . We cannot do what President Trump did, unfortunately, when he was in vietnam and gave us each to a roomful of officials and said, we are not going to get cheated by you anymore. That is not the kind of attitude that is going to get these countries come running to us and want to negotiate better trade agreements. What you need to do is sit down with them and show a willingness to actually engage. Make tradeoffs with these other countries like we all do. Are the ways in which we will get the best results for american workers. Unfortunately, what is happening the countries in asia which are important economic markets for the United States are becoming more and more hesitant about doing what you suggested which is running to the table to want to strike an economic deal. In the long run, that will hurt our economy. Host a few minutes left in our conversation. In oklahoma, a democrat. Like to knowld since china owns so much of our debts, do we have any kind of leverage to get them to come to the trading table . Host that is a great question. The u. S. And China Economic relationship is one of the most problematic of our policy in asia right now. This is a very difficult balance. There are lots, of ways in which china is unfairly treating American Companies. They subsidize their exports giving them an unfair advantage into our markets and other markets, they have the same time placing taxes and restrictions on investments, so they are disadvantaging American Companies and many way. Ways. How do you deal with that . What President Trump talked about on the campaign trail, i do not think is the way necessarily and i would start a trade war with china and that would be very bad. What we need to be doing is showed china that we are going to be tough, that we may have a willingness to come down pretty hard on them in specific sectors that wes to show them are not going to continue the kind of relationship that we have had. I did not see that from President Trump. Believelike to that hes going to put a little bit harder to strike a deal, but i have not seen it yet. Host what is the state of the state department under secretary of state Rex Tillerson . How many positions are still open . What are you hearing . Guest being served and the state department for seven years, i came to know the building very well. Aree people who work there the backbone of American Foreignpolicy. They are the backbone of American Power around the world. While secretary tillerson on the policy side is trying to strike a allens on this administration and trying to do strike a balance on this administration his view on the state department is completely lost. He is approaching it like a ceo would when you are told you need to cut percentage out of your budget. That may work fine for a company like exxon mobil. What drives a Department Budget the interests that you cannot just say you want to cut that by 30 . That unfortunately is what secretary tillerson is doing. While he figures out how to cut the budget at the state department, he has not been filling the jobs. We do not have a white house appointed ambassador to south korea, we do not have a white house appointed assistant secretary of state for east asia , and these should be concerning issues when it comes to trying to implement foreignpolicy. Host curtain montana, republican. Caller hi. Filling the positions in the state department, it kind of goes back into the congress and how slow the democrats are as far as people being confirmed. The other thing is i have not heard you say one good word about the Top Administration so far. That is understandable because eracome from a obama individual from the state department host lets end on that note. What do you see as success or a positive action from this administration when it comes to asia policy . Guest i think that there are a few areas in which the administration is doing a solid job. Aen it comes to our lliance with japan. Very goodced a relationship with his counterpart Prime Minister in japan and that was on full display when he went to tokyo. That is a crucial part of American Foreignpolicy when it comes to asia whether it is economic or security. That is a really positive thing the president has done. There are other aspects of his policy in asia that are positive. The u. S. Defense department appears to have restarted navigation operations in the South China Sea on a regular basis which is something we need to be doing and something we are going to defend. There are pieces of policy across the region that the Trump Administration is actually doing a pretty good job. It is the broader policy in the region and the relationships that he is origin with some of these countries that i think is overall disturbing. Host we appreciate the conversation this morning. Thank you. We are going to take a break and congress back this week and all the headlines washington this week. Those calls coming up after this break. This grand man walked into though room first into the room first. He had the initials kkk right here on his chest. Embroidered on his beret was knights of the ku klux klan and on his hip he had a semiautomatic handgun on his holster. He came in and was followed by mr. Kelly, the grand dragon in a dark blue suit and tie. When he saw me, he just froze. Into his backed because the guy had stopped short. They stumbled and regained their balance all around the room. Either hethinking, gave him the wrong room number. I stood up and i approached him and i said, hi mr. Kelly. Daryl the past 30 years, davis has befriended ku klux klan members. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on q a. Washington journal continues. Congress this week and the headlines being made. They are showing up in your papers around the country. Majorsas city star steps towards overhaul. And then you have the birmingham news, in support of moore. , frankhe Pioneer Press and disgusted at his own behavior. The democratic senator from minnesota making the front pages of that newspaper. The starledger out of new ey, resurrection day after the case against him was deemed a mistrial by the judge. Mitch mcconnell, the majority leader in the senate, has called for an ethics probe into senator menendez. What are your thoughts on all of the headlines this morning . Your message to washington. Caller i was speaking to my daughter last night and she was asking me why all of these women were taking 20 or 30 years to come out and say things. They were probably afraid because back then, you saw what the clintons did to women that accused president clinton at the time and i think that is why they were afraid to do things back then. Thank you. Host speaking of that, on the front page of a headline for the huffington post, they had up quoting the democratic senator from new york saying that bill clinton should have resigned over the lewinsky scnadal scandal. This senator is in the seat that Hillary Clinton once had out of new york. Peggy from wyoming. What i do not understand is we get all of these loopholes to these Big Companies so they do not really pay any tax anyway. They are the ones who taken our jobs who has taken our away from us. When are they going to change e . They are not going to change. They do not pay any tax so what is the big deal . They should not even get any tax. We end up paying them sometime. Take the Work Overseas and they try to bring it back in , then tax them and tax them good. Maybe they will get over having to make billions of dollars especially for the people of their ceos. The Senate Finance committee passed yesterday late evening, 1412 along party lines, there gop proposal. Alongouse passed largely party lines and now the two sides have to come together and reconcile their differences. That is on the table for our discussion until the top of the hour. Peter in maryland, democrat. Good morning. Caller can you hear me . Host is it mechanicsville, maryland . Caller yes maam. My point is there is a lot of smart people out there and i when paul ryan says he wants to put money in the pockets of people, why dont they raise the minimum wage . That would 4000 a year into the income of the pockets of poor people. Hi. kimberly from texas, i am calling because ive been watching this information about Sexual Harassment in the congress and it shocks me. For 20rline pilot years i have flu and we dealt with this issue back in the 1980s. After that, the men were so respectful and i never experienced any Sexual Harassment. We were just on our ability to fly the plane. Im shocked by this thing in congss where they have been experiencing this Sexual Harassment. For s a fund that pays the claims. I just wanted to say that is happening. Host we covered this hearing about Sexual Assault on capitol hill on tuesday. It was where congresswoman jacky spear testified and she said where congresswoman jackie spei er testified and she said it has been happening over the years. Currently is happening as well. Chart breaks down yearbyyear congressional sexualharassment settlements. Released thisit year by year. That 70 million has been shelled out to victims of Sexual Harassment. A large portion of cases originated from employing offices in the legislative ranch other than the house of representatives and senate and involved several various statutory provisions. The statistics on payments are not further broken down into the that claims because settlements may involve cases that have violations. All sexualharassment, this is just the office that handles those types of complaints as well as other workplace complaints. You can see the breakdown. Ine reported earlier, 2017, 8 cases so far overnight over thousand dollars 900,000. Reporting that the money comes not from the lawmakers or the other offices but rather from a fund with and the u. S. Treasury. Taxpayers are paying for this. Don from texas. Good morning. Caller yes. I think that you and others like on who have great guests should correct their statements rather than people understanding them. The statement that china is our biggest debtor is not true. Foreign companies own about three point something trillion most of our debt is our own. Dont let us get excited about all these people that are supposed to have influence over the United States economically. It is just not true. There you are. Good morning. Caller hello, i am calling in about the tax cut that republicans put through yesterday. Baloney thatown they keep feeding i am 80 years old and ive listened to it ever since the reagan years. They seem like they would come up with a different lie that would be a little bit more palatable but i guess they figure they have enough new listeners that they can come out with the same lie as usual. The only trickle down you will ever here is the rich laughing theyrd going to the bank wet themselves. Downis the only trickle you will ever hear. It is ridiculous. Trop,ou got donald duck when you got donald duck trump, the biggest liar, they should, with a new live. Ee. Keystone pipeline oil spill and marshall county, 210,000 gallons leaked. This is south of amherst thursday near the site of the leak. 5000 barrels of oil were late and were leaked in the incident. Theres also this from the washington examiner, up to run for reelection dropping the senate bid. That hecker reporting is running for reelection in 2018 and will drop his plans to run for senate. This is a boost for House Republicans who havent toured a haveng to have who endured a string of retirements. It is tied to recent bad news for the party especially after a white out from virginia to you new york to new york. The daily beast a story this qi forces haveira recaptured the last town held by isis. ,he command said in a statement though pockets of resistance still exist, fridays developmentmeans that isis has been defeated. Lets go up to new york, michael is watching. Good morning to you. Caller good morning to all of the staff behind the scenes, i give a tremendous thank you for putting all of us on. Today i did not get and when mrs. Bowman was with you but i actually contacted her. I will be sending her a press release. That same press release was very welcomed bite representative speier. Sadly, i tried to go to the and imile with senator cannot get the time of day. Vinc a pastor michael th ent. Wonuman Rights Ministry one. I was raped in the new york seminary. I was fired by a priest over two miles from where you are sitting and anacostia, washington who was having sex with teens. The Washington Post on the front page in august of 1989 said that he was molesting kids and a cincinnati jail. What we are doing today right eier said it this is the 21st century and ive been advocating for human rights courts. Why canon owner of a piece of property bring you are anyone protect property but we cannot bring in a hater that kill somebody, we cannot bring , we cannoter bring in someone at pages you at we need to have people to work with people like myself. Ive been invited to the italian , i have worked and lost time and even stood up to Michael Bloomberg with my thatilities and a hernia caused cancer i have lost a lot. The fact is there is separation of church and state. T does it say when senator when a senator will not talk to a constituent. She has dated government up there. What does it say . Host i have to leave it there so i can get other voices. No one in new york, a republican noah in new york. Caller im a republican but im so disgusted by the state of the party. President opeful for trump to make America Great again. Are callingts america and endangered country. Host why . Caller because we have left all these trade deals with the rest of the world. President trump is emboldening china. It would effectively mean the dollar in several years time would no longer be the currency. Can we stop with the nonpartisanship and focus on what our country needs . Host he said you voted for President Trump, would you do it again . Caller absolutely not. He is incapable. I was really hopeful for him but he is incapable. I would like to add that i am a new yorker. Here is a piece you might be interested in the Washington Post. In North Carolina focus group, most trump voters reveal buyers remorse. Women said they are embarrassed by him and exasperated. She did not like how Hillary Clinton handles benghazi. That President Trump is marching us towards war with north korea. While i thought his ideas appealed to me since hes been in there, hes embarrassed me by , he behaves so unpresident ial, the words he uses, the tweeting. When he was away in asia, he was great at being a president. I cannot imagine how they let him build a country club. Im surprised a billionaire would behave the way he has. Lets go to joe a democrat. Caller hi, thank you for cspan. Thunderthem stole my simply because they said cspan is a great format. To express some concern about the tax proposal that the house passed. It is for the rich. If you look at the taxes by Companies Like ge ge paid no taxes in the last three years and actually got a refund from the federal government. After loopholes only 8 or 9 . Those tax cuts for corporations that have all of this money parked on offshore accounts that they do not want to bring back to america, those are the greatest profits ever in the history of the world. They have no reason to bring them back to the u. S. The only thing they have had to do is sit on them and they are going to be discounted. The problem in america is that we have no jobs. We have allowed corporations to , there is nobs reason for that. When you look at the agreements that all of our president s have signed, why would we as a country allow our jobs to be exported . Ohio, you godusky, to detroit, michigan, you go to huntington, West Virginia and look at what is happened to these manufacturing facilities and look at what has happened to the working class men and women. You can no longer afford to buy a house to educate your children or to live a normal life. I am so disgusted with the democratic party, but truly disgusted with the republican party. Host in some Foreign Policy news, this is a story on business insiders website, u. S. Treasury secretary says saudi arabia is doing a great job with corruption purge. The financial times, saudi princes pressed to sign over billions in exchange for freedom. They hand over big chunks of their wealth as a price for their freedom. In some cases, the government is seeking to grab as much as 70 of the victims assets. The arrangements, which have already seen some assets and funds handed over, provided insight into the strategy behind the prince dramatic the princes dramatic corruption purge. The chairman of the saudi Construction Group some suspects are keen to secure the release by signing over cash and corporate assets. The daily mail, saudi arabia king has that down and hand over the crown to 32yearold son. Lets go on to david from denver, colorado. Caller good morning. Thank you for accepting my call. About the three basketball players who were detained in china. Host ok. Caller President Trump did the right thing to advocate on their behalf with the chinese president. He he messed it all up when demanded that they think cam. Of course they were going to and they thank him did at the news conference. What i think was really going on was at 45 was trying to talk to his base and he was trying to n. Base, those that is what he was trying to say to his base and he messed it all up. This is one of the reasons why he is not fit to be our commander in chief. Host from minnesota, a republican. Caller good morning. Thanks for cspan. It is such a great opportunity to express our opinions. You had a collar on a talked about trickledown and all of the benefits. The question id ask is do you you ira or 401 k have some sort of personal investment for your retirement and if you do, are you investing in mutual funds . The answer is, probably most of us are. Question mark, what are those mitchell funds . What are those mutual funds . Newsmakers,eek on we sat down with the attorney general of texas to talk about many issues, immigration, being one of them. Here is a little bit of that exchange. [video clip] in an interesting way, it was precipitated this by congress. I am wondering if in the end, if Congress Finds a legislative fix and granting some sort of legal status, can you live with the results of hundreds of thousands texas couldn you live with that . Is up to congress to decide. It is up to congress to decide. My job is not to make law, my job is to enforce law. We did that here in texas. It is completely up to them. We will enforce whatever law they put in place. I used to be in legislature, but that is not my job anymore. Host the 51st attorney general for texas is our guest on newsmakers this sunday at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Oregon, a democrat. Caller i have a question. If i understand this correctly, they are going to double the standard deduction and im going to be 65 next year are they going to standard deduction again for me . I do not have a clue. Host tax reform, they helped pass that the legislation yesterday. No democrats voted for it but 13 republicans opposed it. They finished up their work in the Senate Finance committee passing it 1412. Was after working on the legislation for four days and that is expected to go to the floor in the senate for a vote what it not happen until after the thanksgiving holiday. The house and Senate Republicans will have to get together and reconcile their difference is and then pass that before it can go to the president s desk. Republican still promising that they will get tax reform to the president by the end of this year. President trump was touting tax reform yesterday as well