Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 11282017 20171128

Agenda this week. Our guests are Steven Dennis of bloomberg and jordan fabian. At 9 00 a. M. , we talk about the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. Host good morning. Tuesday, november 28, 2017. Pennsylvania avenue between the capital and the white house will be a busy stretch of roadway with President Trump said to be on capitol hill around lunchtime. We will talk about the budget and tax reform issues that are expected to dominate those discussions later this morning. We begin getting your thoughts on the Sexual Harassment allegations that have been leveled against politicians. When it comes to reporting the treatment, do you think the media has been fair in its coverage . Give us a call. You can catch up with us on social media. A very good morning to you. Has the media been fair when it comes to coverage of Sexual Assault allegations, Sexual Harassment allegations . That is our question for you. You can start calling in now. Were having this discussion a day after senator al franken returns to capitol hill and apologizes to both his staff and his supporters and to the women who have made allegations against him. Here is what he had to say. I know that i have let a lot of people down, people of minnesota, my colleagues, my supporters and everyone who has counted on me to be a champion for women. To all of you, i want to again say i am sorry. I know there are no magic words i can say to regain your trust, and i know it is going to take time. I am ready to start that process and to start going back to work today. Yesterday. Franken one more of the Alabama Republican Senate candidates with his supporters to deny the allegations that of the leveled against him. Heres what he had to say last night. , now just two weeks remaining pictures of Young Children whose names are not mentioned that i do not know appear conveniently as. He opposite politicians these accusations are false. Their malicious, specifically i do not know any of these women nor ever engaged in Sexual Misconduct with anyone. Prosecutor judge and , i know the seriousness of charges like this and they should be serious if it happens. When a young lady is abused, i have represented many victims cases such as this, i have not seen one who wants her picture posted on national tv, especially in a political advertisement. The truth is, this is not really odd at all. This is simply dirty politics. Host that special election taking place on december 12. One headline from todays wall street journal from todays europe times on that race. Just from todays New York Times on that race. President trumps influence and how you may play on that special election. Yesterday, Sarah Sanders was asked about what role the president would play in that context. Heres what she had to say. The president is not planning any trip to alabama. Frankly, his schedule does not permit him to do anything between now and election day. Continuehe president does he have plans to continue his campaign against the democrats and alabama . I am not going to get into a backandforth from the podium. I have declined that opportunity many times. The president wants people who support his agenda and certainly once people who are looking to make america better, to improve our educational system, to grow our economy to continue to fight against isis, those are the president s priorities and he wants people in place who are going to support those host . Those. St those host the question where asking our viewers this morning, has the media been fair . Give us a call. We will start on our land on our line for democrats. Larry is in massachusetts. Caller this is larry. I have been given this a lot of thought and i think what we need at this point is a south african style truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with these charges of allegations. Offer, the accused would first of all, confessions and sincere apologies. If those apologies are accepted by the offended party, then i think the nation would be able important to the more and pressing and dangerous problems that this country faces. I would not extend that to pedophiles are people guilty of serious crimes or aggressions against the victims. I think we have to forget this tabloid pylon, because if you really want to look at the truth of it, you can go all the way jefferson. Sident if you want to look into the behavior of men. Not all men but some that event that. Host what is an example of a tabloid pylon . Is with he was supposed to have his woman who was to come forward with a false confession about having been byaulted and made pregnant the judge from alabama which was ofmoted by a breitbart type news facility that was really a set of. Both the story and started reporting it. Hey couldve done it they werent disseminating false news and it would have damaged the credibility of any other subsequent charges. Host for those who missed the story, he came up yesterday afternoon. The one who falsely claimed to the Washington Post that roy moore impregnated her appeared to work for a newspaper that uses deceptive tactics in an effort to embarrass its targets. The post did not publish the article based on her unsubstantiated accounts. Bob is in clover, wisconsin. Go ahead. Caller how do you do . Host doing well. Veryr the media is onesided, prodemocratic. What worries me the most is the fact that it onetime we used to be innocent until proven guilty. Notice how the media slammed and slammed more more called him a pedophile type. When the democrats do wrong, they talk about it and frank encompassing him up and say i am sorry and poses a threat on it and says good for him but condemns others. The media is so public ties. I wish we would get back to innocent until proven guilty. That is about it. Host mike for independence, go ahead. Unfair the media is very about the reporting of these sexual allegations. I will give you two other examples. Media,mple, the main whoever that is, i guess people seem to know who the main media is. The main media, ive heard them the has beenen three women to come forth on mr. Moore. Ive said one media say there has been nine. Ive heard one of the main media say there were 14 women that have come forward on mr. Moore. Come on, we were born at night not less night. We see through this charade that is going on. Even cspan is guilty of this. For example, yesterday morning, you had a socalled ethics expert on their named mr. Weiner in the very first words that came on this mouth early on, he said mr. Moore was a sexual predator. Just think about what he is saying. What if i were to yesterday morning, just what if and i wouldve said to you, mr. Weiner, i was your nextdoor neighbor when i was a little boy and you sodomized me when i was six years old. That wouldve been an allegation, right . He said that mr. Moore was a sexual predator based on three or four or 514 women. I dont know how many have come forward. Five or 14 women i dont know how many have come forward. I couldve made an allegation. Would that have made him a sexual predator because im a delegation . Come on, folks. Host that was peter weiner on our program. It was sunday morning, i believe. If viewers want to go back and watch that segment. You can watch all of our segments on cspan. Org. Always available on our website. In terms of the accusations and those who have accused roy moore of sexual misdeeds and targeting minors in the past, doug jones, a democrat in that race, the Senate Democratic candidate for the special election has included the names and images of those individuals in a campaign ad that is running and alabama at of that special election. Heres that add. , glorialy young nelson dixon, gina richardson, wendy ander, kelly Hansen Clarke the list is glowing gaseous growing. Growing. They are winning they are women. Ablewe make their abuser u. S. Senator gecko u. S. Senator . Host that was a campaign ad by doug jones. One more Running Campaign as and he describes the allegations as a scheme by liberals and conservatives elites in washington d c. And watch watch in wash wash wash. Four weeks before the election, false allegations, a to protect the government really no able for roy moore means conservative judges, tax cuts and rebuilding the military. Roy moore, the right choice. Host our question for your viewers, has the media been fair in his covers of Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment allegations on both sides . Jeff is in temple hills, maryland. Yes. R thanks for taking my call. The media has been fair. There is one issue i would like to address real quick. When you think about the rash of allegations that have come out, it is indicative of what politicians have been doing on all spectrums, in terms of hiding behavior on the public. These allegations just accentuate what we need to know about what our government is up to when we are not looking. It is a part of the reason why trump was elected as want to get away from politicians, and yet he even had issues. But we are seeing these allegations come out and we are learning now that this is what our politicians are up to when nobody is looking. We need to keep an eye on what is going on. Tweet as we have been having this discussion. You can follow along with the conversation on twitter. It happens every morning during this program and continues often throughout the day. Steve is in ashland, kentucky. Go ahead. I am pretty i feel strongly that the media is less fair than they would like us to believe, less objective than they should be. It seems to me they are trying to prosecute these people through the media which is not their position not their job. Mens none of these men have been charged with anything legally that i can determine. Exceeded thehave statute of limitations. Most of these complaints. Host what should the medias job be when the allegations, against a highprofile politician gecko just politician . Politician . I studied journalism in college. I feel it should report the without so much extremism as it seems to be taking sides. One thing i have noticed is that first they were going after moore, but nowr. Congressmanng after conyers and senator franken who if they ares, so being unfair to the gentleman, at least it is not at least it is bipartisan. Host what is an example of the fanfare and extremism . I watch a lot of news, so maybe i hear these things over and over again more than i need to. Me just im having trouble finding the words. They are getting away from the idea is a former caller said, innocent until proven guilty. Steve. Hanks a contributor for the federal column by her. The headline, more and more feeding frenzy. She writes you want to read more on her column, it is in the federalist. Nan nan is a republican. Morning. Ood i think it is time for these congressmen, if they have done wrong and they are committed Sexual Harassment, that they should step down. I dont think the media is fair when it comes to the republicans, because when it is a democrat, they get away with it. Look what bill clinton got away with. It was ok with the democrats and then hillary she runs and everybody is for. Put them back in the white house. All these people and women, if they werent so trashy and would i saw thet clothes, former first lady, shooting even have an up dress to cover piercy sat there with her legs folded crossed over and you could see right up her dress. Girlsare out there, young , 13 years old, out there prostituting. I said a lot of times they hook theyth men, if you notice are mostly all men with money. Host in terms of calling for resignations yesterday at the White House Press briefing, one of the reporters in the audience in the press room asked Sarah Sanders y President Trump had not been more forceful and calling for the resignation of al franken. Heres that exchange. At one point does the president condemn him deco coming accusations just condemn him . How many accusations does it take . The president is not going to weigh in on every single matter like this. Every single day, we got people from the media, hollywood, members of congress that allegations against them and we think this should go through a due process. That is something that senator franken should be the first one to address and not for the president to weigh in every single time one of these accusations comes up. There should be a process. We want to make sure that is completed. Spoke, do youof think i think the president addressed it at the time. You think the fact that the president has been elected, the women who have accused him in the past are wrong . I think the president has been very clear that he denies any of those allegations having taken place. Ift just like this program, you missed that press briefing, you can go back and watch that. Our question for you, has the media been fair when it comes to ,ts coverage of Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment allegations against politicians on both sides deco and in just both sides . Both sides . Yeah, i believe the media has been fair in its coverage. It is just and i am going to go back to my namesake, steve from kentucky. One point he made was about how we are innocent until proven guilty. Have a statute of limitations is up on a lot of these accusations. But they are getting covered as they are brought up. Be it democrat or republican or the it hollywood mogul, apparently the sun shines spotlight is coming down on all. Another point he made though was talking about the media, talking about how much he hears of it. He keeps hearing it from this and maybe he is it too much and maybe we all do. We talk about the lady was talking about an article the death of due process. Have 20diency people or 30 Media Outlets that have to be fed. Theyve got to have news so they are going to hash and rehash as much as they can until he get something for the mill. Where is my point . They are going to keep rehashing that. Do just sit around and watch news programs who dont really watch other forms of media or do much else but just sit around and watch all the stuff are being constantly bombarded by the same thing over and over. It gets to the point where people weve got to do something about this. Why isnt this fixed deco it has only been two days this fixed . It has been two days. Due process is a years long process that is being eroded by our fastpaced culture today. David is in monticello, georgia. Caller thank you for taking my call. What have done for the last year and a half is watch television and i watched the first part of the morning shows and this morning, seven minutes and 30 moore and a for roy little controversy that the president made to the code talkers. Then as far as al franken and mr. Conyers go, 52 seconds. 52 seconds. Had the media been fair . Actually not host . Who is they . Caller the seven minutes and 52 seconds was a combination of damning the president for saying what he said host are you talking about a specific network . Caller that was in bc. They are the driver that was. N bc nbc they are the driver. They gave us all kinds of false that show theolls president would never be president. Everybody figured it out. What i do find interesting this morning is most of your callers everybodysaying innocent until proven guilty. That is refreshing to see the Mainstream Media doesnt have the robots that they think they have watching. That is refreshing to see American People, theyve got plenty of sense. Unless youre out in california or new york or chicago, you dont believe anything. That is sad. Host lets head out to california. Life for democrats. Alabama, my goodness, you need these allegations to realize that roy moore is not good for america. Anyway, the early in the morning of you get is viewpoints of rightwing fundamentalists. I was using the term after the election, fake patriots in fake christians. Ive been regulated by my children that this is totally not right. They believe they are christians and patriots. Good for them. For fake news, these allegations, my answer is why now . Why did you wait 20 years . These women didnt want to have any big deal over donald trump. Personey saw that this was going to assume this position, they were honorbound to try and tell their story and whatever happens is this hardcore base of white folks who are not mad, they are afraid. That isold white guy not financially good but i dont blame anybody else. It is not because of mexicans, rate this, the reason i dont have a new boat like charlie dent in the street. Street. Charlie down the i cannot believe it. It is like some kind of crazy documentary that these people are coming up with this. This business of the fake news, he started right at the very beginning. There is going to be a lot of stuff said about me but it is all fake. Like. Got your point, paul, line four republicans. Caller i am afraid that in media is being used to avoid focusing on the real issues. Timee not spending enough dealing with the attacks the tax reform and some of the other things that are going on with this administration. Thank you. Do you think Sexual Harassment in this culture is a real story . We lost the caller. One other column on this is from the baltimore sun. One of their columnists. He writes last week if you want to read his column, it is in the baltimore sun. Woodberry, connecticut. Independent. Caller good morning. I want to say one of the previous comments really upset me. So i have beenok sexual harassed. I have been sexually assaulted by people of all races. I cannot believe that he would lately say mexican racists. People from mexican racists. Why is it just man . I recently read articles about women who have taken advantage of people also. I feel like the media really portrays this cookiecutter image of who does this. I think when it comes to the media specifically, in terms of politicians, i dont think they are being unfair. I think they sensationalize it. Taking advantage of it for the story, for the ratings. I think it should be taking taken a lot more seriously. There is no rome for any individual was ever taken advantage of someone to sit in a Government Office ever. Host the caller was talking about mexicans, i think he was referring to what he was hearing what we should do just what he was describing what the other side was saying. Do you think there is a change right now echo the just right now . Do you think it makes it easier for people who have been sexually assaulted to come forward in 2017 . Different from what it was in 2016 . That society as a whole is so very reluctant to automatically believe people. At the same time, weasel word allegations because innocent until proven guilty. Coming forward about Something Like that is so personal, and you risk having your life turned upside down and everyone looking at every corner of your life. I will think it is any easier i dont think it is any easier. People are feeling more empowered to come forward, but it doesnt make it any easier. Host appreciate the call. Just past 7 30 on the east coast. We are having this conversation this morning about the medias andrage of Sexual Assault Sexual Harassment allegations against hope profile political figures. You can keep calling in on that topic. Also want to keep you uptodate on some of the other stories we are tracking. This headline from the Washington Post. Headed to the white house to talk to the president about budget headlines. We are going to talk about all that coming up at 8 00. Well have a political roundtable to discuss with reporters, steve dennis of bloomberg and jordan fabian of the hill newspaper. We will take your questions about what is going on. One of the story to keep you aware of is a confirmation hearing taken place today, Jerome Powell will be before the senate committee. He is the nominee to be the next Federal Reserve chairman. Todays happening at 10 00. You must live on cspan. You can also watch it on cspan. Org listen to it on the cspan radio app. Wall street journal says that Jerome Powell is facing a smooth Confirmation Path saying in their reporting that it can be one of the least contentious confirmation hearings for nominee to lead the fed since the financial crisis. We will watch to see if that is the case coming up starting at 10 00. Back to your phone calls on his question about the Media Coverage of Sexual Harassment allegations. On the line for democrats, matt is waiting. Caller you are welcome. Good morning. To a lot of these folks calling in, i think too often it is so easy to attack the media, especially since we have a president who calls on media fake news. Some of your you to reevaluate where youre getting your media, because cspan has done a good job of covering the hearings. I saw the hearings of jackie spears and others news sources have called al franken equally. A lot of you all who want to say it is all the medias fault, where are you getting your news . Are you getting it from one or two sources . That is the problem. It is like saying food is bad and all you are eating his doughnuts. A lot of you first of all my dad taught me, you have a brain, use it. Dont just watch one network. Dont just watch one program. Go out and survey the news, just like this gentleman here, he has multiple news sources in front of him. A lot of you need to open your mind. Host i assume you have some thoughts on the president s tweet yesterday when he said, we should have a contest as to which of the Networks Plus cnn and not including fox is the in yourhonest, corrupt coverage of your favorite president , me. They are all bad, winner of the receive just wanted to receive the fake news trophy. Isif all youre going to do have a close minded and say, well, just because the president said it is fake news, that must be it. A lot of you really need to use your head and think. And not count on the president says. You need to look at all sources and decide. Think for yourselves. Host line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I will try and be quick. In general, the media is doing a very good job with this. This is a sea change that is going on and it is long overdue. About due who talk process and innocent until proven guilty, that is about a court of law. It is not about an election. No one is saying that we should put roy moore in jail that due process. The question is are you going to elect him. Anyone who has listened to the understand that they are very credible. If he does when and i think he is likely to win, i think it really should be in a landslide. I dont think i dont want there to be any great area about what the people there are like. N they say that they would yes, they believe the women but they would rather have roy moore in their, and the democrat believe them and i wanted children and grandchildren to slowly change. This is no longer acceptable. I wanted to know the kind of place that they come from, what their grandparents are like that alabama is not just the deep south anymore, it is the deep south of the deep south. I dont want any great area. I want him to win in a landslide. Is alabama the only place in the country where you think that is happening . Caller it is the most obvious right now. They are proud of it. Host bob, port Crane Company york. Caller i love cspan. You guys are taking the bait. Immediate is really dropping the ball on this whole thing because while everything everybodys talking about the sexual indiscretions, the Panama Papers came out a year ago. The Paradise Papers just came out. Donald trump has been wrapped up in that. Rich people are hiding trillions of dollars offshore when it cannot be taxed in the media their comes they are so concerned on the other stuff. They should get their priorities together. Host do you think Sexual Harassment is a real legitimate problem . Absolutely, but it has been for a millennia. This stuff with these people hiding money offshore while reaping the rest of us working class for stealing tax money come all of that goes unnoticed because they have been talking about outbreak in for a week and. Udge more for many weeks it happens, it has happened for years and it will continue to happen. Until these rich people quit reading the system, we are not going to know about it because americans are so stupid. The only listen to abc, cbs and cnn. They are fake news. Host helen, line for republicans. Caller it will not continue to happen. I dont think the media is essay topic. Zing the lurid it is picking up on something that is of historical significance in that this is showing this topic being at oured and not winked hidden in shame by women who are victimized by it. Beginningows is the ,f the end of Sexual Harassment and alsoty with women fears of life including politics. It will not continue to happen. It is not a tradition. This is a time of change and the media it may seem like it is tabloid topic but it isnt. It is very significant. That is my comment on it. I hope the media continues covering it because it is necessary. The era of women just being happy with what is given them and never standing up for their own dignity and rights, i think it is coming to an end. Im glad the media is bringing attention to it. They are not promoting it as some titillating topic article. Thank you. Host several callers have brought up alabama. Irises in alabama. Go ahead. Caller i dont think you are are biased at all. We are listening to real people. Anyway, i live in little alabama. I was raped by a powerful man in our county. The reason women weights along to bring this out, they are afraid. They are embarrassed, ashamed, they dont want their children to know, the family or anything. I told a couple of people and they are dead now. A pastor was one of them. Only place in the the world that this is happening. Sexual harassment, rape happens all the time. Women dont want to bring this out. It is embarrassing. It is hurtful. Everything that you can imagine. Byn all the kids got raped the priests, they waited so many years to bring all this out, they are ashamed. Host as somebody who has lived through a rape, do you think the media has been fair to the accusers here . Roy moore yesterday the ninth the allegations against him said the media wasnt a fair by putting their pictures up and publicizing this. They are brave enough to speak up, they are brave enough to show the picture,. Ecause it is happening all the women may not be telling the truth, but all of them are is not line. I would like to bring up about this one. I live down here on the river swamp. Let me tell you what happens when a drain the swamp, the swamp is strained and the little fish is left behind. The big gators come out and eat them. When there is nothing left to eat, they start eating each other. I wanted to make that point about the swamp because i live down here. I have seen it happen. All the little fish is eat up, they start eating each other. The gators do. I think youre doing a great job. The people behind the scenes that answer the phone, they are doing a great job. We are listening to real people. I never heard anybody announce our commentator on cspan inject their own opinion. People that call in and say that about you all come ive learned more about watching cspan from regular people calling in and talking and i have any new show i have ever watched. Call. Iris, i present the i guarantee you we learn a lot from listening to you our viewers. Tom is in frankfurt, kentucky. Go ahead. Caller good morning good thanks for taking my call. These accusers, you must remember theres a 5050 chance that they are telling a lie for telling the truth. I think when a decision is made that the accuser if they want to pursue it and the person denies it, they should agree or be given a sodium pen with all or some truth serum to get at the truth. Host why is it a 5050 chance . Caller they may be lying and they may not. That is 5050, i think. The thing i want to talk about is the sickness of the society and the United States of america. The other day i was watching a commercial on breakfast cereal, like cheerios and the commercial adults and small children and gyrating and bumping and grinding and all kinds of sexual moves. What does that have to do with serial . Host we will go to ginny in lancaster, ohio. Caller you look rather handsome this morning. Host thanks. ,aller my mom just said to me they waste too much time on this. They act like the only crisis we have is this sexualharassment. Away. Ws does get carried it is a horrible show, that talk to bs. They put everybody down. I dont know why they think their opinion is more important. Theyre wasting too much time. Right. Much of his it is fake News Donald Trump is right. It is fake news. I dont know why everybody blames donald trump for everything. That is silly. He does have more money than me but that is fine. I dont feel like he owes me anything. They need to focus on other things like these men who are defending our country. They are dying for us. Nobody cares about that. Host when you say it is fake news. Is it fake news including the charges and the allegations echost democrats as well just as well . I dont know. People should read the constitution and people should realize that you are innocent before proven guilty. That is it. I dont know if they are guilty. I am not edit i am not that absorbed in them. That is not the only thing that is important right now. Host a few more comments from twitter. Michael writes in that conversation happening at cspan wj if you want to join us on twitter. It also happens on facebook. A few more minutes left for this question, has the media didnt fare when it comes to its coverage of Sexual Harassment allegations . Media been fair when it comes to its coverage of Sexual Harassment allegations . Lewis is in florence, alabama. The morning. Caller i am from alabama. This lady that called earlier from south alabama, she is right on. What we call here in alabama a nothing fair about roy moore and what he did. He is like bill cosby. Bill cosby lost everything he had it he was guilty until he was proven innocent. He still aint been proven and sent. He is lost everything. They act like he was the worst human being in the world. Women that hen was supposed to have given a quaaludes but he is a grown man who is supposed to be a judge who molested and raped teenage kids in alabama. If you aint in alabama, you dont have any business calling on this line. Host bill is in reading, pennsylvania. Caller how are you . Governmentks for the and i was gone to run for Congress Years ago. I believe whatever we talk about right now, that is history. What weto talk about are going to do tomorrow to fix the system. The system has to be fixed by our government. If the airplane games and fighting each other and everybodys laughing, i think we should stick together and get this job done and make this country great like we always said it. I am 73 years old. I have been around a long time. Is think we should do you have a child is to result in you test a child, and you get caught, you get the death penalty. He got garbage, you get rid of it. That is it just you got garbage, you get rid of it. That is it. You make a woman, guess you raped a woman, you get the debt penalty. You in six months, this is going to stop completely and we are not going to have to go through all the scrap. These lawyers are making money. Ideal of lawyers everyday. This is a temp lawyers, they are making money. Change, the amazing people that be smart and wake up and lets stick together as americans. Host bill focusing on the system. There has been a lot of focus on the system here on capitol hill when it comes to harassment complaints and how they are handled. Twoeditorials today editorials today focusing on that process. The truck that goes along with the lead editorial about the system on capitol hill. The story noting whether the claims involve Sexual Harassment is unknown and so is the identity of lawmakers and aides involved in the election. Such secrecy is a betrayal of the trip betrayal of the public trust, the whole nation just the whole notion that the Government Works in public. Calling for changes to the system. Some changes already underway to comes to sexualharassment training as the Editorial Board of the New York Times notes. The senate adopted a bipartisan resolution requiring its members and staff to participate in antiharassment and antidiscrimination training. You want to read those, you can check up his papers. A few minutes left in the segment. I want to get to as many calls as we can. For democrats. Just the line for democrats. The life for democrats. Caller a lot of the stuff is noise. There needs to be a laser focus on donald trump. That thethe old adage fish rots from the head down. If all of these sexual allegations are coming out against everybody, if the president of the United States has been sexually and morally corrupted as far as harassing women and sexually abusing women , and he is not held accountable, what should everybody else be held accountable echo accountable . It doesnt make any sense at all. America has some form of add becomes too the sensation du jour. We get blown in the wind by this new topic. Tomorrow, it is going to something else. There needs to be a laser focus and concentration on this president. Getting him out of office. The face of our democracy and what is going on and how he has turned things upside down. Donald trump he is laughing at all of us. He is playing the media, he is playing the american public, he is playing everybody. He is the master confusion. That is how he gets away with all the stuff. As far as all the trump supporters, to me they are the biggest tips on the planet. I am not talking about the voters because people voted for trump thinking he was want to do everything but i am talking about the people who still support him after everything that has gone on. The media plays into that. He plays the media like a violent. He played them all the way to the white house. The media basically elected the sky. Elected this guy. Ridiculous. Tely America Needs to wake up in the media needs to wake up heavily as a focus on getting donald trump out of office. Host jake, New Hampshire. Caller hi bill, this is jake. I seen this all my life for over 50 years. Aw go on both sides host both sides of the aisle women didler the just as much wrong is men and women use their bodies to advance themselves and i dont hear anything in immediate talking anything about that. We will hear from robert. Media yes, i think the has been fair to both sides. You look at roy moore and this guy is 70 years old like i am, and he should be retired. Are you there . He should be retired, all these old guys, john conyers the same way should be retired and let some new breed come in their. I go along with the guy from maryland saying that donald trump should be held responsible for the times that he was talking about women on the bus before he got elected. Youve got people that will follow him to the grave but they are going to pay for it sooner or later. Guess what they voted for gecko all these old guys want to get in congress and stay in congress. Congresswant to leave just like this guy from idaho, he stepped down at houston right and being in politics and getting money. Money rules the world. Host just a couple of minutes left until our reporters roundtable. A lot talk about. Addedews expected to be on top of that today. Reporting that congressman louis gutierrez, longtime advocate for competence of Immigration Reform and striding critic of the trumpet menstruation is set to announce today that he is retiring desk Trump Administration is set to announce today that he is retiring. We will look to that News Conference expected in chicago this morning to see if that retirement will be happening. Time for a couple more calls. Bob, line for independents. Caller on the topic, making accusations from a police standpoint, seems to be two different things. There are laws that govern. 10 years of 12 years for rape. Two years for to make a civil suit. Here it seems like 30, 40, 50 years goes by and you can talk about it like it happened yesterday. This happened to me about a month ago that someone accused me of rape 25 is ago. Luckily that person, that girl made some outlandish stories about me that i could easily prove that she was wrong. One of the things i dont hear about discussions about this, i hate to say this, mental issues. Some women have mental issues that think they were raped or molested but really were not. Not. That unfortunately happened to me. Why you ask a question, would they be making up the stories, they might believe what they are saying but it never really happened. Host our last caller in this segment. Up next, Steven Dennis and jordan fabian will be here to discuss the white house meeting with top democrat and republican congressional leaders, as well as key legislative datelines deadlines facing congress. We will take some time to focus on the size and state of the Nuclear Arsenal with barry blackman. We will be right back. The cspan bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. We stopped in baton rouge, louisiana, asking folks what is the most important issue in their state . The number one issue faced in my district continues to be flood recovery. Historic flood in 2016 and my district was heavily impacted. My citizens are forced to deal with issues regarding sba loans. The federal government considers those to be a duplication of benefits, and we are having trouble getting those families the necessary dollars to recover because without state run programs, that affects the amount they will receive through the sba loans. Right now, our recovery has been stalled because of this issue. We are working with our congressional delegation, but it is an issue in our community. The most important state issue to me is coastal restoration. Our coastline is eroding and a very fast rate. We are losing a football field wouldd per hour and i like our stay to focus on restoring and replenishing our coastline, so future generations can see it. I think the most pressing issue we are facing and one we are working on and have been since the conclusion of our sessions this past year, has been our fiscal budget situation in the louisiana. Uncommon to a lot of other states, i think ours is unique in that a good bit of what we face in 2018 is a rolloff of some temporary revenue and form of taxes that will expire in june 2018. To findity to be Able Solutions for that, both on the revenues side and expense side are what we will be working on, and hopefully coming up with solutions before we arrive in 2018. Voices from the states on cspan. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1970 nine, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host for a tuesday round table during a busy week on both ends on capitol hill, we are joined by Steven Dennis and jordan fabian. Jordan fabian, start with you. Congressional leaders from both parties are scheduled to go to the white house this afternoon. What is on the agenda for this meeting . Caller it is going to be the funding deadline that is coming up december 8. They need to get to an agreement to keep the government open and prevent shutdown, so that is what the leaders will be discussing. They have not even agreed on spending levels, so it seems likely they will pass a shortterm measure to keep the government open. They might bes talking about some of the issues and holdups that could stop them from getting a longterm deal. Host remind us why we have a december 8 funding deadline. Caller in september, President Trump cut the deal with nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer to extend the government funding from september until now, and also lift the debt ceiling. This is why Republican Leaders were angry about this deal, one of the reasons was that they had to reis visit this thorny issue. Expectationsnd of are chuck and nancy and Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan setting . Caller what you will see is the democrats want trump to give them something, they want to see some daylight on more spending. The democrats want more spending for domestic programs. Trump has proposed cutting domestic spending. Trump also wants more defense spending and if he wants democrats to go along, he needs to give them something. Democrats also want immigration in this bill. They want to have some ship funding for Childrens Health insurance. There is a whole bunch of things that have either expired or are about to expire that will have to be in some kind of year end deal. Maybe that will end up in next weeks potential stopgap bill to give them potential prime time, but this will be jammed right before christmas and potentially be a Christmas Tree or a nightmare before christmas, with a potential shutdown over the holidays. Host is that the expectation, that it will be a shortterm stopgap funding bill and will go right until christmas . Caller right. The friday before christmas is like december 22. I think you could see a deadline like that that would put pressure on lawmakers to vote yes on whatever package leadership comes up with. That is usually the position that leadership wants to be in, do you want to go home for christmas . You better vote for this. Host Sarah Sanders was asked about the potential for some sort of deal happening. Caller i will not get ahead of that meeting i will not get ahead of that meeting, but if any of those democrats would like to come on board, we would certainly welcome them. Reformordan fabian, tax possibly an issue that is brought up today as well . Think absolutely, but i that will be the discussion that dominates the trip to capitol l when he goes to talk to a big vote on the Budget Committee. The votes are very narrow right now. You have steve daines and ron johnson, two holdouts. I think the leaders will be asking President Trump to put some pressure on them to try to get the votes they need to get this bill done, which is their last budget best chance of a major accomplishment this year. Host walk us through where Mitch Mcconnell and john cornyns strategy is now. Guest you have sort of three buckets of senators with different holdouts. You have ron johnson who wants bigger tax cuts for Small Business owners who pay taxes on their individual income tax. They want to get rid of the state and local Tax Deduction for corporations, which is a big deal if you are a company in new york or california, silicon valley, when you lose that big Tax Deduction, that would pay for the bigger tax cut. Another group of senators are worried about the deficit, like bob corker. If he votes no, they cannot pass withnd he has been feuding donald trump so i do not know if President Trump rallying bob corker will be successful. What some of the deficit hawks want is some kind of trigger in this bill that if it the deficit over time and the cbo says it will add 1. 4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years that there will be triggered tax increases later on. A lot of republicans do not like the idea of having a trigger tax increase later on. Senatorsonly lose two on the senate floor if it gets to the senate floor. They have to get through the Budget Committee. Host the Budget Committee hearing happening at 2 30 this afternoon on cspan3 and cspan. Org. Listen to it on the cspan radio app. We are talking about it this morning with Steven Dennis of bloomberg, jordan fabian of the hill newspaper. Democrats, call 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 before we leave this tax discussion, the individual mandate repeal being included in this tax reform effort, how much closer or farther are we from that, from your perspective . Beginninghink in the when they first inserted this, there was fear it would really turn off a lot of republican senators. We have not seen that. Susan collins has been a hold out, lisa murkowski, someone who i think leadership, maybe flake, has not. The white house is certainly happy it is in there. They want to get any kind of victory they can on obamacare is of the bill collapsing over the summer. Right now, they are pretty enthusiastic as far as obama care repeal in this tax bill. Host what about the issue of daca, the deferred action for childhood arrivals, the end of that program looming . How is that impacting the tax reform fight . Guest daca is more in the budget fight. If they need democrats at some point down the road, and they will, they are going to need to deal with that program because you cannot pass a budget without democrats. They are not going to vote for something that does not protect those kids. , i do tax reform fight think the individual mandate has been fascinating to watch. Lisa murkowski has a lot of things in this bill that are very important to alaska. Oil drilling and that Arctic National wildlife refuge, something they have been pushing for for decades, is in this bill. That is her provision. If this bill does not pass, that does not pass. She came out the other day and said getting rid of the in development individual mandate she supports. There were only three senators who voted no on the skinny repeal and she was one of them. John mccain has not said how he will vote yet. Susan collins does not like the fact that it is in their bank. She just in there. She has not said if it will be a dealbreaker. She wants a middleclass tax break and property deduction for individuals. All of the senators are still in play. At this point, even though some senators have said they would vote against the current ill, every Republican Senate current bill, every republican senator is trying. Of republican senators who voted yes on the skinny repeal, although they did not like it and were trying to give something to congress, this is a different thing, something a lot of republican senators are enthusiastic about. Host you often keep your own count for these important bills that come to the floor. How many babies are there right now . Are thereed maybes right now . Guest i think maybe six or seven senators in play, and maybe three or four really in play. People like steve daines and ron johnson, it is hard for me to imagine in the end they will not the for a bill. They are negotiating. They want some very specific tweaks to a bill that amounts to 100 billion or so over a 10 year period, and affects trillions of dollars in tax revenue. There has got to be a way to get them to yes. They are not trying to get to know. No. You have people like Susan Collins absolutely in play, john mccain a wildcard, and bob corker and jeff flake, two senators not running for reelection who are no fans of the president could be the keys. They can vote any which way they want, and both of them are concerned about the deficit. Those are the two people i would be watching. Host the hill newspaper has their watchlist for the tax bill and you can check it out on their page. We have two guys here who know their beats very well on capitol hill to answer your questions, take your comments as we are discussing all these issues. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Lois is up first from california on the line for independents. Caller happy holidays. I have got a little bit of accounting background, that when you have got money coming in and money going out, less all these loans to china, and i have been watching these things happen since junior bush was in office with Osama Bin Laden and saddam hussein. We owe a lot of money out to a lot of people. If china was to decide to call our loans, if they got upset with us in any way and we are caught her in to their demands, and how will we balance this . No one ever thought trump would pull the mortgage interest thing back because he owns property all of the world, so this will affect a lot of people in california. Or have milliondollar homes 500,000 homes that everybody has bought and is playing paying mortgage interest on. How is this going to play out . We were thinking about using the 1 trillion coin that we have in washington as well. Let me look at my notes. Host there is a lot of issues you bring up already. I will let steve dennis start on the balancing side. The balance that Senate Republicans need to meet in using the reconciliation process to pass the bill. Guest they have to keep a period over a 10 year , the maximum increase in the deficit they can do is 1. 5 trillion. That is a lot of money, and we have a 20 trillion debt already. Right now on autopilot we are heading to 26 trillion or 27 trillion. The republican senators, almost think them would say, we this plan will pay for itself because growth will pick up because corporations will bring their jobs back here, and we will employ more people. The Unemployment Rate will go down and we will have more taxpayers, that is what they will tell tell you. Not every republican is on board. Maybe we have a trigger if the growth does not happen, then you do not have a huge new debt burden for children and grandchildren. That is going to be an interesting debate. There is another log right now law right now that is getting some attention but probably not enough, that is already a trigger in place that if this bill passes in january, there would be spending cuts in medicare and a whole bunch of other programs that people care a lot about. Republicans are saying, we will waive that. If you wave that trigger, what is to say if you would not in five years just say, we are going to kick that down the road too . Something to watch. Host when the president goes to capitol hill today before the leadership comes to him, how much do you expect him to get into those details . What is the pitch he will be making . Guest not very deep in the details. He is not a details guy. He will go into the room and give them a rah rah speech about how they need to get this done. He wants victories and that is the point he will stress. Alot of republicans, this is party going into the midterms without anything in hand that they can show voters, reelect us, we can give you accomplishments and govern. That will have a lot of resonance with a lot of people, and that will be the argument. He might get off topic and talk about pocahontas or whatever else, but as for his taxes, i think that will be the top line. Host columbia heights, minnesota, mike is a democrat. Caller one of the questions i had is can you and they have not passed any bill yet. The democrats should get the bill and aggressively advocate for what they want. One of the things was comic and they look at those who do standard deductions and say, this person would no longer have to allow some people to be able to take some tax breaks iq are saying, or maybe i do not fully understand this new tax plan. It is kind of complicated. As far as you talk about National Debt, obamacare did far worse. That is a flatout comment. We will continue to drag the system down so there needs to be a change. Host dennis, take that one. Guest the Affordable Care act, the Congressional Budget Office said it reduced the deficit because it cut taxes and raise medicare. Plan, a lot of people are interested in how it will affect their bottom line. The woman said about california target interest, that is something they will have to deal with politically. Probablyof people will see a tax increase if this bill becomes law. Part of it is, you will not have to have one of the benefits is you will not have to have all these receipts. Most people will not have to itemize. About one third of people itemize now and under the new plan, about 5 to 6 . The standard deduction doubles for a couple of to 24,000. Get over 24,000 with all your deductions, and they are going to get rid of the state and local Tax Deduction except for an little bit of property tax. Even if you keep these deductions, they will not be worth anything to most people because they will take the standard deduction. The advantage is, you do not have to keep all these receipts and have all this cumbersome accounting that uses up a lot of energy, but you do get and you get lower rates, but if you are somebody who has been taking advantage of all of these itemized deductions, some will survive and some will not. That is something to watch. That will be potentially worked out on the senate floor this week with individual amendments, and also there could be a lot of horsetrading in a Conference Committee if we get that far. Host unlimited amendments, does that mean and all night voteorama . It could beoks like an all night vote on thursday or friday. That is always fun for people like me who are budget nerds and a lot of people who like their eyes glazed over. It should get a lot of attention. The is a question of whether democrats really want an all nighter. Democrats upsenate in trump states and probably do not want to cast a lot of votes, so it will be interesting to see how long it goes. Host the Budget Committee markup happening at 2 30 today and we are showing it on cspan3 and on cspan or. You can listen to it on the cspan radio app. Everett from grand junction, the line for republicans. Caller i have a question, and i hope that the republicans or somebody there gets the tax changed and simplified. I have never heard anything about the windfall clause. It used to be called double dipping, getting into two retirements at the same time. It affected me kind of greatly as i got into applying for Social Security. I have 37 left in my Social Security, so it kind of affects me a little bit. I worked for a Fire Department and then worked two other jobs during my off days and over the years. I am 67 now. I have never heard that subject at all brought up on cspan. Is, in article one, section eight, it says that all taxes basically should be uniform throughout the United States and federal government. Host i appreciate the suggestion on a feature segment journalor washington on the windfall clause. Guest on the first thing about didrements, the house bill change as far as 401 k s, lowering the amount of taxfree money you can put into those accounts, trying to push people to a roth ira. I do not know if that addresses every situation, but they were thinking about Retirement Funds as a way to change or tax status to pay for this to make sure the debt load of the tax bill was a little bit less. Donald, homewood, illinois, line for independents. Caller the major problem we have is during the obama administration, we doubled our National Debt. Son of anhe International Communist but for some reason is not broadcast to any degree. I think he hates the United States and he has done his utmost to put us into a position that would be very detrimental to the future of the country. Host where did you get your information and wide you think that . Why do you think he hates the United States . Caller why would he doubled the National Debt in eight years . Host that is donald in illinois. Steven dennis on concerns about the National Debt. Guest i think a lot of people are worried about the debt, and the debt did go up a lot. The debt, you know, in 2001 we had surplus. The cbo put out a document for four or five years ago talking about how we had gone from the biggest surpluses we had seen in a while to the huge deficits under obama , especially when he started, when the financial crisis happened. Most of that was ask of Congress Acts of congress. Congress passed round after round of tax cuts, paid for new wars on a credit card, paid for the new medicare drug benefit on a credit card. We also had a financial crisis. You add that up, and we had a lot of deficits and debt. At some point, the bill comes due. We are at a very low Interest Rate environment, so it does not show up in the bottom line that much. We are not paying that much interest on the 20 trillion debt, but we have a new Federal Reserve chairman coming in. Jerome powell will have his hearing shortly. People want to hear from him more Interest Rates will go. Up, our payments on that National Debt will start going up a lot. , which do notns seem to be dominating washington right now, they are talking about spending more money and cutting taxes at the same time. Maybe that will change. Host on that hearing for the nominee for Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will be before the Senate Banking committee. We will be taking viewers they are at 10 00. Before we leave this conversation about spending and debt and deficit, there is some big items that are still out there right now, including hurricane funding for disaster recovery. The president obviously still wants the wall along the u. S. Mexico border. Will we see any movement on those issues in the Budget Discussion happening today, or within the next couple of weeks before the end of the year . Guest i think both of those will be discussed today by the democrats. They have said no funding for the wall. Maybe in the end they cave and get something in return. On Disaster Relief, there is bipartisan opposition to the president s request. He has asked for another 44 billion. Lawmakers, florida people who are worried about puerto rico want a lot more money, and i mean a lot more money. Potentially hundreds of billions of dollars. The administration wants to have spending cuts offset a lot of that money. That is something that will have a lot of resistance on capitol hill, and that is something that is potentially a big fight in the next month or so. Will we take out the credit card again and put another 100 billion or 200 billion on it, or will we say this is the way we will pay for it by 10 years from now . At some point, have an actual plan, and right now it is anybodys guess. Guest you talk about the state and local Tax Deductions. These are hitting states like california and new york that trump did not win. Disaster relief, talking about and florida. We remember how nasty that fight got after Hurricane Sandy when republicans insisted that Disaster Relief be paid for. If trump is looking to pick that fight again, it will be interesting to see how he moves his legislative agenda forward. Guest do not forget puerto rico , a lot of it is in exodus to florida, a battleground state in 2020, perhaps thousands of new voters. This is something that really does matter politically. Just before 8 30 on the east coast, our reporters roundtable this Tuesday Morning on washington journal. Steven dennis is with bloomberg, jordan fabian with the hill newspaper. You can call in this morning. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Jordan fabian, i want to return to the conversation about the usage of focal juntas pocahontas by the president yesterday. These are some of his comments. I said, how good were these code talkers . He said, sir, you have no idea. They have done for this country. The strength and bravery and love that they had for the country, and that you have the country. That was the ultimate statement from general kelly, of the importance, and i just want to thank you because you are very special people. You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in congress, who they say was here a long time ago. They call her pocahontas. But you know what, i like you because you are special. You are special people. You are really incredible people. From the heart, from the absolute heart, we appreciate what you have done, how you have done it. The bravery that you displayed and the love that you have for your country, i would say that is as good as it gets. Host plenty of reaction after the president s usage of pocahontas. Nation leader to insert Something Like that as belongs a senator, that on the campaign trail, not in a room where war heroes are being honored. And you talk about the reaction to that in the press room yesterday . There were some questions to the press secretary. Guest Elizabeth Warren reacted immediately, accusing the president of using a racial slur. People in the press room where asking basically why the president decided to say that kind of thing in the room with native americans who served the country during world war ii, whether it was disrespectful, whether she agreed it was a racial slur. Sarah sanders denies it was a racial slur and went on the attack against Elizabeth Warren, bringing up this example of her maybe exaggerating her native American Heritage on a job application in harvard. No love lost between the president and Elizabeth Warren, but we are talking about tax reform and budget issues. I do not think republicans on capitol hill are thrilled that the president decided to say this sort of thing a day before a hugely critical day for his agenda. Host a lot of play in the media after this happened. Does this become anything more than a oneday story . Guest this is sort of standard trump eruption that has a pretty short shelf life, unless Elizabeth Warren could run for president. We could be hearing the word pocahontas many more times. Trump has used this attack in the past and is not shying away from it. Republicans are not really interested in talking about these things anymore. They have sort of hunkered down. If you ask them about things trump has said that people find objectionable, pretty much no matter what it is they clam up and say, i am focused on taxes, health care, my job, and they have moved on. There are a few people like jeff flake and bob corker who are still sort of reacting to some but by andcomments, large republican senators run the other way when we ask. Host maggie, st. Paul, minnesota on the line for democrats. Caller you are a great. Thank you for keeping us informed. My question is about the 1. 5 trillion budget. One dish i want to know where that number comes from i want to know where that number comes from. 1. 5 something that trillion tax reform, does that mean they will not be able to take any nonbudget option . Host jump in. Guest one rule about the senate as you can do almost everything with 60 votes. You can burn down the building, start a war, raise taxes, cut taxes, increase spending. You can do almost anything you want with 60 votes. What they are trying to do this weeks packs pass a big tax code with 50 votes, and there are special rules for that. The way they came up with the 1. 5 trillion as they went to the Budget Committee a couple of months ago, and that is the number they settled on. They could have come up with 10 trillion or 300 billion. That was the number they all agreed to, how much this bill could increase the deficit by. Under the rules, you cannot increase the deficit in future decades, so they can only increase it by 1. 5 trillion. What happens if they pass this hill, Mitch Mcconnells dream comes true, and they still have to pass a spending bill. They can do whatever they want as long as the democrats are on board. If they do not have 60 votes, they need the democrats. The democrats want more spending on domestic. They want more spending on defense, and Everyone Wants more funding for Disaster Relief. We could have a 200 billion or 300 billion increase in spending just in december. The one thing to watch is there might be a vote this week on waving pay go. These are the automatic spending cuts that require 60 votes. It will be interesting to see how the democrats vote. If they want to stand up for what they voted for, they enacted the law while they were in charge, they would probably vote not to wave it and find a way to cut the deficit. In the past, when these waivers have, they have passed every time. Host richard in charlotte, North Carolina, line for independents. Caller my question is regarding the senate bill, and there is a clause i have heard about recently that requires an individual investor to use a method instead of the specific identification method. As an active trader, i use it on a daily basis and i wonder if there is any movement in that. I have seen a little bit of activity, discussion on cnbc. They say it is going to simplify taxes. It is going to do nothing to simple fight taxes. Shares as, if i buy they fall and selling them when they go back up, i will have washed sales. I probably have hundreds of washed sales on my tax return, creating a nightmare for me. Completelyles eliminate any gain or loss, and push it forward to a future day. Not only will i not be paying gains, i will have a bunch of ugliness polluting my tax return in the future. Has anybody proposed an amendment and hopefully a republican because the democrats cannot seem to pass any amendment . Host something you have been following . Guest there is not too Much Movement on that issue. The one issue where there seems to be movement is around the there maye they say be more stable rates for business paying their taxes through the individual codes. I do not see Much Movement on the stock selling side of the bill. Guest there is always negotiations that happens mostly behind closed doors. Anyone senator can force an amendment any one senator can force an amendment on that bill. Whohere is any one senator agrees with you, maybe they are a day trader or have stock sales of their own they are worried about, it is possible there could be an amendment on the floor. Right now, leadership is trying to keep the bill as intact as possible without a whole lot of changes. I do not know if the concerns of Stock Traders right now is not really their number one concern. Their number one concern is how to make this ill a little more popular. The polling for this bill is pretty terrible, not quite as bad for the health care as the health care bill. They want people in the midterm to feel like they are getting a tax cut. Like it is more of a cut for the middle class and Small Businesses, and less for big corporations. Host barbara in st. Louis, missouri, line for democrats. Caller thank you for cspan. I just had a question about the tax plan. I have heard several people talk about how the standard deduction is going to double, but my understanding is that the personal exemptions are going to go away. If you are a family and you have three old people in your family, you are already claiming a personal exemption of 4000 per person. If you have three people, that will just be a wash. Unless i am misunderstanding something. I think that will raise taxes on a lot of families in year one, so i would appreciate your comments. Guest that is one of the Major Concerns that steve was alluding to. There is not a whole lot of tax relief is what the cbo was finding for low income families making less than 75,000 a year. Middleclass families could see a lot of their tax relief go away after the 10 year window in this bill expires. That is some of the changes he might be thinking about, although i do not know if they will be making too many tweaks to deductions because of concerns of budget hawks. The more deductions you decide to take away, the more money you are adding to the deficit. Guest that is absolutely an issue. If you lose the personal exemptions, the doubling of the standard deduction is not necessarily all it is cracked up to be, especially if you are somebody who itemizes your deductions, itemizes your charitable deductions. You have all your receipts for your medical bills. You do all that every year. If you look at your last years tax return and you took 23,000 in itemized inductions, you will not be able to take any and you will probably have a tax increase. It is something to consider, it could increase your taxes, especially in a lot of states with higher taxes like maryland, new york, california. If you have a house in a mortgage and a mortgage and a decently expensive house, you could very well pay thousands of dollars more. Host about 15 or 20 minutes more left. One topic we have not talked on, you can see it in this headline Consumer Financial Protection Bureau judged the first ruling on the challenge to trumps appointment. Explain on what is going on. Guest it is a huge fight over who should be the leader. What the white house is saying that under the federal vacancies act, President Trump has the power to raise to place a replacement. Richard corker left a few months ago. President trump put in Mick Mulvaney. ,eople at the Consumer Bureau most of them i would imagine are not fans of the Trump Administration, are worried that someone like Mick Mulvaney who said the agency is a disaster, will got it. Got it. They decided to put in Richard Cordray to a point to appoint angela english. The Deputy Director would become the acting director in the absence of the director. We have this legal fight brewing. English filed lawsuits in federal court yesterday to challenge President Trumps appointment of Mick Mulvaney to lead this agency. This will be a nasty fight that could play out in the courts in the weeks ahead. Host Steven Dennis, does congress get involved . Guest potentially. Yet one more thing put on their plate for the year end. Keep in mind, this agency was created to be independent by the Democratic Congress when they passed dodd frank. They wanted it to be independent to protect it from the whims of the new administration or congress. It is not funded by appropriations, which republicans want to change. Billions of dollars are at stake, so there will be lots of lobbying. The agency is very powerful with its ability to regulate Financial Institutions, which have wanted to roll back a lot of these regulations like payday lenders and other things they have tried to regulate. Mick mulvaney could theoretically come in, and a lot of analysts inc. He will either roll or eliminate a lot of these regulations. This potentially has a lot at stake for your pocketbook. If you are one of these Financial Institutions and do paperwork, file more you are happy that there is potentially a changing of the guard. Host here is a picture of Mick Mulvaney from the front page of the New York Times. Left, toaney on the the right in that picture. We show juliann drink english, the previous directors choice. Back to your calls for Steven Dennis of bloomberg, jordan fabian of the hill newspaper. Sharad, an independent. Caller how are you doing . Host doing well. Fromr one, Robert Wright the Clinton Administration did a video called saving capitalism. Before i go further, i just want to say you can find it on netflix. It is a very good watch. It really shows us how we got to where we are today. Most people do not understand that there is a corporate, bulletproof shield pretty much over congress where the American Peoples voice is not going to get hurt. A lot of these conversations we have at home among the family and in our community do not make their way to capitol hill, and it is scary. I could walk around d. C. And go to the white house and i know for a fact, the president all never hear my voice. Those numbers that we talk about today, they really have nothing besides, just numbers. American people need to understand it is not too late, we still have a voice, that we need to get together and have people get people out. We need to find people we can actually vet and hold accountable. That is the main thing. If we are not going to do that, we are wasting our time. It is a true patriot and a true american that understands. Host sharad from fort washington, maryland. Kevin is in palos verdes, california, republican. Caller wish your family the best for the holidays. My first question is about the National Debt. It is 20 million. 2001, it was a surplus of 1 billion. Thatnot think realistically anyone will tame the budget deficit. It will always be there lingering over their head, and as long as nobody sets it off it will always be there. My question to you both is, congress is in a position where they have been given Carte Blanche to do whatever they want and they have not been able to produce anything. As a result, they feel the need to push something through by the deadline at the end of the year to get taxes done. Is there a way they may overlook things, and it is not necessarily the best for American People because they need to give more time and not necessarily push something through . Host Steven Dennis. Guest some democrats would tell you they wish they had more time on the Affordable Care act, which the original bill passed december 24 in the senate. It went through a lot of hearings, it went through a lot of scrutiny, but the final bill was put in toward the end. There were some things that ended up getting litigated in the courts. If written in a slightly better way, would not have gone through courts. House democrats wish they had had a conference before scott brown one. Won. With this tax bill, they are trying to jam it through on the senate floor. There will be changes right up until the end. It is possible we will see changes on a bill in the middle of the night and then they could vote on it, and that could go to the house and theoretically the house could pass it. We have a lot of reporters and journalists paying a lot of attention. You can find out about what your lawmakers are doing. It is a representative democracy, not like some secret thing. Even if it is behind closed doors, there are people outside those doors waiting to find out what is in the bill, trying to scrutinize it. Pay attention,g get involved, look at our websites, read the bills. Do not just take someones word for it. You can read the bills yourself. You can find out how it will affect you and your family. No, there are mistakes in all these big bills. That is why they have that is why democrats, one of the things they are saying is we should slow down. We should make sure we get the full analysis on how this will affect the economy before we vote. The republicans do not want that. They want to pass the bill as soon as possible because they have other things to do. Rule one in politics, when you have the vote you vote. If they do not have 50, they will not vote. Host one issue that some members of congress have brought up concerned about flipping through the crack is the Childrens Health insurance program. The authorization for that program expired on september 30. Jordan fabian, where does that stand . Something that democratic sources in the senate tell me will be brought up today in the meeting with President Trump at the white house. It will not be dealt with in the tax package but could be in the year in end funding package. Stephen was talking about concessions that democrats want to extract for their vote. I think that is near the top of the list of things they want in the spending package, so expect a hard push from Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi to get that done in a stopgap that could be produced next week or in year andy. Year end. Host alicia on the line for democrats, good morning. Caller i have two statements. Can you explain to me, whenever there is a federal disaster and the federal government has to spend our money to help these states that have encountered disasters, dont that increase the deficit . Is, how canatement they be working on a new tax plan that we have not even seen the president s taxes . How do we know this new tax plan will not be more beneficial to him in congress and the senate . Lets face it, these people have money, and i just do not think it will be a good plan for the average american. Can you comment on that . Host steve dennis take disaster, jordan fabian take the taxes. Guest disaster almost always adds to the deficit, and they almost never come back at some point in the future and say, maybe we should pay for this in some way other than debt. Whether it was katrina or other disasters, we have added hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to the debt over the years. Back after katrina, there was a bill that passed that cut the deficit i may be billion dollars over five years, but that was a fraction of the cost of the hurricane. It is very hard in the middle of a disaster when people are struggling to survive, to get a deficit cutting package through congress. There is always going to be a fight over, are you going to cut medicare, medicaid, the farm program . That takes too long, and congressmen do not like spreading pain. They like taking care of people, so what happens usually as they will pass and another 100 billion in Disaster Relief maybe in december, and it will probably be a good bet they do not pay for it. Guest as far as the president s taxes, you hit on something democrats on capitol hill have been talking about. They are tying this tax bill to the president s tax returns, this issue that was such a big thing during the election. The president did not release the tax returns, one year did come out during the 2016 election. The president paid millions of dollars in taxes through the alternative minimum tax, and that tax is going away in this tax plan. You do the math. Guest also the estate tax will get cut in both the house and senate plans. The senate bill does not repeal it entirely, but doubles the deduction, almost certainly going to be a tax cut h to heirss tax cut to his. Host a few minutes left with our panel this morning. Keith in valley city, North Carolina north dakota, line for independents. Caller i would like to remind everybody that the corporate democrats are really critical of Corporate Tax reductions, but remember, operations do not pay taxes. If you follow the money, corporations simply collect taxes from their customers. I have managed norton 500 manufacturing operations my whole career. When budget time comes around and my forecast for profits for a year come around, im always asked for taxes, after taxes . Typically a just add 6 to the manufacturer errors suggested retail price Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price to make my Corporate Taxes whole. That will reduce or improve or increase buyers leverage and buyer power by about 6 Cost Reduction on almost every consumer good. Thank you. Host steve dennis, anything to add . Guest i think the argument of the republican senators in the hallways, if you go from 30 to 20 like these bills do, you will spur more investment. Instead of investing overseas, maybe more investors will invest here to get better returns and that will cause more growth. Varymists are very widely on whether that will be a. 04 increase over the year or higher. That is the case for republicans. Most of the democrats i have talked to want to cut the Corporate Tax rate as well here it they see it as uncompetitive as well. The question is, how do you pay for it . There is a lot of corporate loopholes and deductions of assorted briefs. Breaks. , ayou go from 35 to 20 number of democrats would be willing to go to 28 or 28 , depending on how you pay for it. They say you are giving a giant Corporate Tax cut. Millions of middleclass families will get a tax increase. That is not something they want to be a part of, especially if it increases the deficit by 1. 5 trillion. They see this as a very easy bill to vote against. Even these trump state democrats , none of them are expected to vote for this ill except maybe one or two. That is only if the republicans show they have 50 votes. Guest there are even some economists who question whether the Corporate Tax relief would spread its investment and growth in the u. S. It might take money and pay out dividends to the shareholders. There was an interesting moment at the wall street journal meeting. The moderator asked the ceos whether they would reinvest the money they got from this Corporate Tax relief, and i believe two hands went up at of dozens of ceos in the room. That was a stunning example or rebuke of this argument that President Trump and republicans on capitol hill have been making about Corporate Tax reform. ,ost to amherst, New Hampshire susan is waiting on the line for democrats. Caller you just touched on what my question was. It is regarding gary cohn in that meeting. Anything to get assurances from the ceos that this money would not directly go to shareholders, but would in fact lead to increases in salary and more manufacturing . What assurances do we have from the ceos of these corporations that that is where the money will go . That is what these tax cuts are being sold on the basis of to the rest of us. Guest President Trump and gary cohn and Steve Mnuchin and members of the Economic Team have been meeting with ceos behind closed doors for months with the development of these tax plans. I do not know if they have asked the ceos to give them assurance they would use this money that way. I can tell you, you hear constantly President Trump harping on this message of by. Merican those ceos might feel pressured to do that, but legislatively, if there is language in this bill that would force corporations to spend their money from Corporate Tax relief in any way, shape, or form, that does not exist. Host dave is in brecksville, ohio, independent. Caller top of the morning to you. My question is, the cbo has come out and stated it is going to be 1. 7 trillion that will add to the deficit. I think this question basically a, this bill looks like it is call for welfare. The biggest question i have is, if this was a Democratic Legislature and they brought this bill up, with the republicans, the fiscally responsible republicans vote for this bill . I think not. Host about a minute left for each of you, steve dennis, start. Guest i covered obamas stimulus package and half of that was tax cuts. It got like three republican votes. They parked on the question of this will add 700 billion 800 billion to the deficit. Republicans in the house voted for it. There are absolutely partisan divides over how you do these things, and one thing that happens whenever a new party takes control of washington, i have seen it with republicans and democrats, concerned about the deficit the early first year 10 to go out the window hear it want to reward your supporters. Window. Do not want to report everybody feels like it is christmas and they want to be passing out christmas gifts. Where did the deficit hawks go . We will find out what bob corker thinks later today and this week. He has potentially a chance to do something about it. Guest that just highlights how much pressure there is on President Trump to get republicans on board. Steve touched on it. The partisanship has become such an overwhelming force in washington, i cannot envision any democrat getting behind this plan. It will be critical for President Trump to shore up all the republican votes to have the votes he needs to pass the bill. With thean fabian hill newspaper, Steven Dennis with bloomberg. Appreciate the time. Hoover institution john kogan entitlement programs. Entitlement programs stem desire to help someone who is in need of assistance. Its just common, all of us have it in us. It is easier to do it with somebody elses that but they still have same basic desire that you and i do, they also have this desire reelected, so once that entitlement is put in place, has changed. Nterest groups form around protecting that entitlement, pressing for more assistance. Oney starts flowing to politicians who protect benefits and the game changes. Reelection. For john kogan on federal programs sunday q a. 8 eastern on cspans with a busy week ahead for congress, our live coverage Senate Banking committee today considering Jerome Powell to be the next chair, live ve today at 10 a. M. Eastern on span, also today, senate Budget Committee reviews tax reform bill, live 2 30 p. M. On cspan3. Wednesday, the Senate Health Committee Considers nomination azar pick to replace tom rice as health and Human Services secretary, live on span3 o. Wednesday, house takes up bill requiring members of congress and staff to take antiharassment and antidiscrimination training. Live coverage of congress this week on the cspan network, or with thespan. Org free cspan radio app. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. Was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and brought to you today by your capable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host were taking time this on the size of the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. E are joined by cofounder of the Stimson Center and Barry Blechman, what is the stimson how long have you been studying the issue of the u. S. Nuclear arsenal . Ive been studying the issue personally for over 50 years. 30 Stimson Center is almost years old, were nonpartisan, onprofit think tank, here in washington and we work on a range of security issues, weapons being one of them. Host and how many people do you have there . Does it get funding from . Guest we have about 50 people. Funding comes from foundation, government contracts, european governments, as u. S. Government and a little bit comes from individuals. Host and Barry Blechman, cofounder, distinguished fellow there. The ave been working on Nuclear Issue for 50 years. Viewers may remember the president talking about wanting put the u. S. Nuclear arsenal in perfect condition, perfect the president said. What condition is it in right now . It . T is not perfect about guest its in pretty Good Condition and its Getting Better because president obama a very Large Nuclear odernization program, where replacing the submarines, missiles, land h base missiles and bombers with new versions and new warheads new infrastructure, so the president s going to have to find far and wide to additional things to do to if he wantsarsenal, to. Host lets talk about the arsenal, how do we understand size, is it by warhead, type of delivery vehicle . Warhead is probably the best measure. Allave maybe 5000 warheads, told, including those onweapons and those in reserve. 1550 longrange by the warheads, limited start agreement that we negotiated with the russians, but we also have some tactical weapons, maybe 500 of them, as well as additional bomber weapons. Host that new start agreement hat you refer to, president barack obama involved in negotiations back in 2011, gave next year to meet those limits. On we there at 1550, are we track to meet that . Guest yes, we have already met it. Russians lieve the have of yet, they are on track to meet it, as well. What is limitation for the russians and how did we can come to the number . Limitations are the same, 1550, im not sure how they ended up with that number, it higher in previous agreements 67 agreements. With the going down russians since the nixon agreement. 30,000 Nuclear Warheads each. 15 let 50, why is enough 1234 ed guest the theory, you want enough Nuclear Weapons to retaliate attack and with devastating force against the attacker. One would that, no be tempted to start a Nuclear Attack. An there is nothing magic about 1550. Bama had announced his goal of going down to 1000 weapons, but relations turned bad and, you know, we quit talking to them. Size andking about the status of the u. S. Nuclear arsenal. Barry blechman with the Stimson Center. If you want to join the conversation, have questions, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Before we get to the calls, what keep up the to current u. S. Nuclear arsenal . What is the price tag . Is very e price tag high and going to be higher. The cbo, congressional budget estimated this Modernization Program i 1. 2ribed will cost between and 1. 5 trillion dollars over next 30 years. The same amount as tax cut that trillion. Host what is the main cost here . 1. 5 thrillion . Guest these are very expensive, systems. He submarines and submarine launch missiles are probably the most expensive. The bomber will be very expensive, no doubt. And we dont know how much the be, theyd missile will are just starting to design the followon. Ost when it comes to the u. S. Nuclear posture, what is our this term, Nuclear Posture review, is something that weve talked about a bit in the past, specially several years ago when last visited, remind us what that is. Guest well, congress requires administration to do a Nuclear Posture review, to look arsenal, the size of modernization, as well as the doctrine. Licy and so the Trump Administrations was w is in draft, it briefed to the president in september and will come out year, maybed of the early next year. Will contain his decisions on whether he wants to add additional weapons, although hes constrained by the start agreement. Modernization program in some ways, there has been another e wants to add Nuclear Armed Cruise Missile to submarines. And most importantly, whether he wants to change policy. Years, on bipartisan basis, administrations have been narrowing what we say about when weapons. Use Nuclear Obama said we would only use extraordinary circumstances and not against nonNuclear Weapon state in compliance with the nonproliferation treaty. New umors are that the posture review, well loosen wet, the constraints on what say about when we might use Nuclear Weapons. Host do you believe that is the that is what will happen . Uest i think it will be, it fits with the president s philosophy, threats hes been making against north korea and others, i think it is very unfortunate, because it tells countries that Nuclear Weapons are important and therefore, hey, maybe i ought to some of my own. I dont like i dont continuing is a good idea 6789 how much does the simmering conflict with north korea, how much is that driving, ou think, the president s strategy when it comes to Nuclear Weapons and when to use them . Nd not use guest i dont think it is driving that, it is certainly relations in east asia and hes working hard to chinese to lean on the north koreans in such a way they constrain their program. But, i dont think it will posture e nuclear review, i think thats a broader question. Host several callers for you. Them. Get to john in brooklyn, new york, line for democrats. On with gerry of the Stimson Center. Cspan, good morning, thank you for taking my two quick questions. And russia d states dominate the Nuclear Arsenal in and establishing the peace structure around the orld, do you think that the additional countries like china, has the same a, philosophy as maintaining the the structure around world . Y second question is, based on Nuclear Material availability is nd the world, how likely it that a terrorist entity can weapons . Nuclear thank you so much for taking my call. Host thanks for the question. Guest thank you. U. S. And russia have more than 90 of all the Nuclear Weapons in the world, so we certainly determine what happens arsenals. Ear the other nuclear arm states say hey will not engage in negotiations until the u. S. And russia substantially cut their arsenals. As i said, we and russia each have thousands of weapons, no than a few more hundred, including the chinese. Dominate ussia will the peace structure in europe, for sure, whether there is a eastern europe, that will depend on what nato, the russia and natodo. But the situation in russia will by the chinese and u. S. To a lesser extent. Host james, san diego, california, line for republicans, go ahead. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. My question or point goes like this. Just like in football, when you pileon, some nation attacks the United States, china north korea, what is to say they are all not going to attack 550 weapons to e shoot back at, that doesnt make sense that were confined by at all. Eaty host james, you think we should 1550 allow . Ed caller i certainly do. Pileon, one player goes on and everybody else says, we can get rid of the united pileon, help me with that thought. Host james, do you have a sense makes you feel safe . Caller a number greater than he combined numbers that are out there, how do we know china only has x amount . Nuclear all their places, see how many weapons they actually have . So. Ont think guest we know how many the chinese have because we know all about the reactors that can produce the materials that are weapons. Hese we know where they are and how much materials they can produce. Chinese only have maybe three or four hundred weapons, to five hundred eventually. North korea have a handful of weapons. More importantly, our weapons are invulnerable or some of the ones on the submarines can never be destroyed destroyed. Theres no antisubmarine detect ties that could submarinessdrdestroy our f. Russia, china, japan attacked farfetched ly, a idea, the submarines would survive and retaliate and they weapons to totally destroy all three countries, if countries were to attack us. Problem. Is really not a host in terms of what we know nuclear her Countries Development and arsenals, are we confident we know where iran is to development of their Nuclear Capabilities . Guest yes, thanks to the iran agreement, which was negotiated few years ago under the obama administration, iran has more of anything related to its Nuclear Capabilities than any other country in the world and every quarter the nternational Atomic Energy agency conducts inspections, place, ve inspectors in every quarter they report and every report has said that they with the pliance agreement, which not only stops them from having nuclear prevents them from having Nuclear Materials that concentrated enough to produce Nuclear Weapon. So as long as that agreement is we can be very confident that we dont have to worry about iran. Go ahead. Guest im sorry, the first callers question about likelihood they could have Nuclear Weapons. I forgot that. Great amount of Nuclear Materials around the world, medical facilities, reactors and these and could ized produce a threat of what we call something that would spread Nuclear Material, to they would not be able construct a Nuclear Weapon, goething that would actually boom and have destructive capability of a Nuclear Weapon. Iran, before we leave remind us what the key decision congress and the white house need to make when it comes to Iran Nuclear Deal in the coming month . Uest well, the president has refused to state that iran is in agreement, with the despite what the iaea, nternational Atomic Energy agency said and despite what very other country who signed the agreement, including european allies have said and he kick today down the road to the congress. And the congress could in decide to put back in place excuse me, the sanctions that were lifted, the sanctions on iran that were for them return accepting the constraints on weapons. Clear so, it would be unfortunate if is if d that, my guess the congress did put back the constraints, iran and the rest would continue with the agreement and only american out. Ness that would lose the French Energy company total, not xample, would be happy to have to compete with American Oil Companies in developing the industry. Host to brandtnnashville, tennessee, line for go ahead. Ts, caller good morning, thank you for cspan. Quick comment, hawaii is testing an Early Warning system my Nuclear Attack, but question is, please, you other issues in nuclear, could you describe the which we seem to be in the amount of the total defense since the patriot act . Total amount of defense when it comes to nuclear that lities, brandt, is what youre asking . Caller no, were told obama set aside 1. 2 trillion, but not told how much has been set aside homeland security, its so spread out. Total . Ebody have a host got it, got your point. Guest im sorry, i dont have that total. Have a project at the Stimson Center to answer that question antiterrorist money, counterterrorist money homeland out and security department, state department, Defense Department seen a total myself. Were trying to put one ogether, maybe ill be invited back to talk about that one day. Host wed be happy to have you center, that, stimson stimson. Org, to check them out on the web. Hanabel,line for democrats, go ahead. Thank hi, i want to cspan and thank your desk. Senate six years on the staff and always found stimson incredibly useful and informative. I was wonder figure your guest about the centers namesake, henry stimson, served in patriot, many different capacities, but retirement as secretary of war under f. D. R. , himou could say a bit about and his autobiography with bundy. Guest sure, he was an extraordinary man, we named the center after him. He served as secretary of war back under president taft, war and e first world he then enlisted when he was in led an artillery unit in france on the front then went back and served as secretary of state in the kept going back to his law firm in new york and president en roosevelt knew we were going into world war ii, he did not be a partisan issue war. Eeded entry to the he recruited stimson and a man of war and frank knox, to be secretary of navy, both prominent republicans. Stimson served in his 70s as presiding overr, 12 millionman army and budget think was like 40 or 50 of the gnp, it was really quite extraordinary. Host Stimson Center founded in 1989. Correct. Host youre cotfounder, who else helped found it . Michael crap on, focused mainly on south asia throughout but also workos Nuclear Issues. Stimson. Org, to check them out. John in louisiana, line for republicans, go ahead. Morning. Ood i spent 25 years of my life in a air called Strategic Command as air crew member, guy on the pointed end of the spear the nuclear war doable. To follow whatng happened and it is not like there are two great super soviet union and the United States squared off each interestingly enough under the cy op, there were plans against other nuclear the game. Back in the day we had mutual estruction and i dont think that is going to work well in todays world, where you have the table and nuke, evenissile, one though inaccurate from north korea, is a real threat. Glad that were addressing it, but its going to have to be pretty much what we did with the soviet union, address then reat that exists and maintain the force to execute to take plans we have care of that force. Guest you are correct. Force fellow at alternate. D they we have Strategic Bomber pilot ne year and a missile guy or gal the next and these are extraordinary people, so i on your service. Its quite an organization and t is the Tipping Point of the spear, as you say. World. Ore complicated and north korea has gained apability, we believe to reach hawaii with missile, whether it the put a warhead on missile or not, i dont know, i dont think we can tell from the material, but eventually it will have that capability. Up in a daughter, lives worry body north korean missiles, as well. We are developing defensive systems, technology has been slow to come. Be able to hit one or stop one or two north korean missiles, but we certainly would not be able to stop an attack of 100 missiles say from china. He only way to be totally safe from Nuclear Weapons is for the countries of the world to get eliminate d agree to them, but that is not going to appen any time soon, im afraid. Host defensive systems you talk the space paid systems we talked a little about before on the program, and there landbased systems, the ones you are referring to . Uest the parts in space are warning systems, both the tracking radars and the nterceptors are on land, up in alaska and some in california. Congress will he eventually ask for missile east coast, on the as well. Ut the problem is that you can outfit an attack missile with what they call penetration aids, ways to trick he radars and to multiply the number of targets you have to player sophisticated like the russians, for example, o doubt has these on its missile, it would be very hard. The only way to have an defense, Cost Effective defendants, would be with spacebased systems, but technology is long, long way off. Host to north brook, illinois, independents, bill, good morning. Caller good morning. Couple things prompted my question. It was a discussion of in authorization the for the use of military force today go r actions back 10, 12 years to that and then north korea, there is a truce that my question u. N. , is this, recently a general, a that the al said ilitary would not launch an illegal order or launch a Nuclear Weapon with an illegal this, nd my question is when we launched the world war war. E had declaration of legal . Kes an order let me just put it that way, a t makes an order to launch Nuclear Device legal . Host thanks for the question, bill. A very difficult problem, you know, during the waning days of the nixon administration, secretary of with e slazenger, spoke the chairman of the joint chief and head of Strategic Air told them to not to xecute any order from the president who was in obviously under great stress without with he, the secretary, first. Has the resident authority to order launch of and it would be up to those that would have to order to decide whether it was a rationale act not. I would suspect if out of the lue one day, he ordered a Nuclear Attack on china or on else, that the sensible people we have as mattis, y of defense general dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs or general mc master, head of the nfc staff, would advise the president that to discuss this order, o they want to outline the options and consequences and perhaps try to talk him down from that. You think there need to be more checks and balances when it comes to the president s launch a Nuclear Attack . Guest i dont think you could nice, but would be there is such a short period of time, if you are going to depend deterrents, on the ability to attack, then you congressional authorization before responding attack, in my view. Many would disagree with that. Host a few minutes left with the stimson n of center, cofounder, twshed fellow there, taking your questions. Daniel is in bellevue, florida. Line for democrats. Daniel, go ahead. Caller thank you. Speak sure to be able to with mr. Blechman. Contemporaries,e im 71 years plus. Anyway, i called regarding this atter before many years ago when you were all were talking about Nuclear Warfare and incidentally, im old enough to remember the execution of my mother and how wept and she did, she wept. I dont know what her connection the rosenburgs was, but she as so upset those two were executed for having shared secrets with the russians. Now what about governor allowed the ho north koreans posse from north called, whatever it is not a posse, but, you know, a and loop the in hard drives at los alamos, and addition to that, they took housands of tons of nuclear ground from the trinity side. Just never been a satisfactory to me about that. I tell you one thing, the sniffling about donald trump, hes got Nuclear Weapons. Individual e first president that utilized Nuclear Weapon was . Of as a democrat, by name harry s. Truman and god bless wish to hell nd i President Trump would nuke the out of north ts korea and put this thing to rest. Thank you. Host that is daniel. Up and explain what daniel was referring to there . Know im afraid i dont about this charge against governor richardson, he was trying to negotiate an end to the nuclear program, as many others, bipartisan back to the bush senior administration, really. Very clear weapons are destructive tochlt say weapons we should nuke north korea is millions of people. I dont think the United States unless ething like that it were attacked first by itself. He atomic bombs that were dropped on japan, did not end the Second World War. The Second World War ended when ended the war and began to attack japan. Cities oyed 64 japanese hiroshima and ng hiroshima. D so this Nuclear Weapons are good only for that. For killing civilians. And that doesnt win wars, what defeating armies, so they are not very useful weapons really, they are a to all nd a threat people and all countries, in my view. Host one more call for you from richmond, virginia, line for republicans, charles, ahead. Yes, listening to what they are about Nuclear Weapons, think of something that you can is a big ke it firecracker or Something Like that. Totally weapon would destro destroy number one, guys in submarines that have to do this, will i have somewhere to go when i surface and after we have done this damage . One comment you made about the absolute correct, ussia didnt even declare war on japan until after the United States attacked it, russia until late. My concern is that the religious people dont ause understand, nobody understands, material that exploded weighed less than a gram and it container, once get wrap it where you can in c4, it will explode. Youou look at bombs and all see are picture of the top of the bomb they are testing and looking at a picture tells you a lot of things, you have to explode it and compress it. Pictures, you t can understand a whole lot about material. Charles, were running out of time, give Barry Blechman a chance to respond. Constructing a would uclear weapon that explode is a complicated thing have a you have to device which creates Critical Mass of the radioactive material. The simpler thing, take adioactive material, add to conventional explosive like c4 and spread radiation, but that dangerous weapon, it could kill a few hundred people, depending where it was but not nearly as dangerous as Nuclear Weapon itself. Host Barry Blechman is cofounder, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, at stimson. Org, follow them on twitter at Stimson Center, do come back. Much. thank you very host well end today with open phones. Any Public Policy issue that you phones talk about, the are open. Democrats, 2027488000. 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Calling in now and well be right back. On cspans q a, Hoover Institution senior fellow on u. S. Entitlement programs. Entitlement programs stem human desire to elp someone who is in need of assistance. Its just common, all of us have it in us. Politicians, it is easier, of course to do it with somebody elses money, but they still that same basic desire that you and i do, they also have be reelected, so once entitlement is put in place, then the game has changed, Interest Groups form protecting that entitlement, pressing for more assistance. Flowing to politicians who protect those benefits and given changes and is desire for reelection. John cogan, on u. S. Entitlement programs on cspans sunday night 8 eastern. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas companies and n is brought to you today by your seattle provider. Washington journal continues. Host it is open phones to end our program today. Any Public Policy issue that you want to talk about, the phone yours. Are line for democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. E covered a lot of ground this morning about meetings on capitol hill and at the white ouse between the president and congressional leaders, certainly could talk about that, if you prefer. Ther issues going on today, here is front page of the chicago sun times, the expected announcement from gutierrez, luis critic of Trump Administration, e are expected to his hear retirement announcement today, if reports are true, look for today, and we can talk about that tomorrow, as well, he would add to list of members of are leaving after this term. Also want to let you know in 25 to take ourre going viewers to the Senate Banking for there is a live picture of the Senate Banking ommittee, the nomination hearing for Jerome Powell to be the next fed chair. Here, watch h that on cspan. Org, listen on the cspan radio app. One more key hearing that were keeping you up to date on, senate Budget Committee markup of the tax bill, that is well ng today at 2 30, be showing that on cspan3 and cspan. Org and the cspan radio app, stay with us, all day today, here on the cspan networks. Next open phones for now, 25 minutes, your calls. For, benton, virginia, line democrats, good morning. Caller yeah, just call nothing wondering when were going to hold trump accountable for ll the stuff he tells us that on andnt follow through how it on and how it cheats the minorities when he speaks to them . You know, then were talking about this deficit thing, republicans, how long have they sat on the fed saying we dont want to raise taxes . Well, now not only are they going to lower taxes, they are benefit to thehe millionaires, so when are we going to hold our government responsible . Host gary is in sterling, virginia, line for republicans. Ahead. Caller thank you. Id like to say what sobriety in i think ooks like and it looks like Michelle Obama and duckworth and donna brazil that ladyof staff and thats the a10 pilot, id put in charge of department of defense. Mcsally, the congresswoman . Caller is that her name . You. The other thing id like to say daca, i believe that violates the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law, leans toward justice. And next thing id like to say, league, hester bombing where they disclosed or printed detonators of the and gave feedback to the and then they released the names of the so they knew, anyway, gave them feedback and lot like an awful deconstruction and im wondering could get that guy steve bannon to come in and explain this deconstruction theory is so productive and those are some of the things oh, and like this mexico city makes us look like a bunch of hypocrites, were not foreign aidhe is not going to let them have features Birth Control we have in america . Complain then they about immigration, you know. Gary, well take your points on that, to your comment about steve bannon, if we can on this program, take some calls from you, we certainly would be happy to do that. Harvey is in iowa, line for independents. Harvey, open phones, what is on mind . Caller id like to know how many days that the house of representatives and the senators fly actually work, not home every weekend and back to iowa or virginia or any place they live . Host harvey, does it count in mind when they have district work periods when they are back home in their district meetings in their offices r meeting with constituents, does that count as work . Caller i dont think so really. Home. Re back they are home. They sometimes it does, not most time. They just go back to their house and live there for two days. Work is here in dc in voting . Caller yes. Okay. Well go to jill in marquette, independents, for go ahead. Caller an old saying about divide and conquer and i think to quit doing party tittat, republican democrat. Richardson may have been guilty treason, doesnt matter democrat or republican. Plenty of republicans and emocrats working under the guides of government doing treasonous act, selling secrets plans, selling out our government and it is time that he people quit bickering amongst each other and Start Holding our people accountable. A have a messed up congress, messed up senate and they are not doing the job we sent them to do. We got to hold them accountable and get the corporate entities power, the a messed up senate and fcc chair, da, we have to get them out of the regulating business because they are working for corporations and im not a not a st and im republican, not right or left, i just want to be fair and we got get those people working for us again. Host jill, is there anyone in doing the job correctly . Caller well, there probably are a few guys, i could probably a few, if i sat down on both parties that ive liked things they have done. I will not throw out names right now, i will probably get a bunch of people yelling at me from some other party, but there are people, not many, if we can get people working together, ike net zero business on the trying cennsorship. Is all propaganda and ollywood news, we need legitimate news channel, even if jazeera again. El they are running everything, the running ons are everything and i am a capitalist, so for me to say very hard, i have business interests and such, but linewhen you got to draw a in the sand and you say, heytis my business t, is go beyond what is right and society . Our host jill in michigan. Ere is news from around the country, front pages from various state newspapers starting in alabama. Montgomery advertiser, their rontpage story focusing on President Trumps influence on that Alabama Senate special election. President trump wont be stumping in alabama, that was an from the podium yesterday from the White House Briefing room. Again, the president Sarah Sanders saying the president not not have the time, will be in alabama before december 12th special election. The San Francisco chronicle, focusing on that several stories we talked about in our first hour of the washington journal today, assault, sexual abuse allegations, this story from the focus ogisco chronicle lawmakers caught in the spotlight there, including john michigan, the longtime democrat. One more front page from the constitution, l their story, key picture on the front page focusing on republicans trying to build support for their tax bill, members of Senate Republicans conference went to the white house yesterday to to President Trump, senatoren hatch. Happy to be with, we had an meeting with the president , how we pull the country out of the mess were in. Serve with the men with me at this press conference and we intend to turn this mess intend to do our best to do it in the right way. Okay. Go ahead, say a word. So the current plan this week vote on the Senate Tax Bill that was voted out of the last thursday ee night. We are members of the finance chaired by chairman hatch. We think the senate bill made substantial improvements over bill, well work through those when we get to a Conference Committee with the house. To get the economy growing again, get people with pay, they can spend the way they see fit or retirement and make the United States economy competitive in a global economy, where everybody is fighting for very single job and every single investment they can get, were not competitive, that hurts job creators here in the United States. Ost about 15 minutes left in our program. Open phones, what Public Policy do you want to talk about . Are up ndsor haven, you next. Caller yes, hi, i saw the new the courts, bout the companies and what they are do suggest explaining what to your health and the side effects it does to your health. Thing with drugs, Illegal Drugs fwe can explain legal what it does to your body, psychosis, relapse, what to your family, your mo including jour job and voices you have to deal with, we can stop the drug problem in the country. Once we understand what legal we can to your body, stop addiction, slow down low depression, bring back common sense and also start sing, your brain becoming more smarter as you figure this out, once you get rid of addiction of problems. Host the addiction issue, is that something that impacted you your family personally . Caller well, Family Members hat are tied to drugs, in the future, i will have Family Members that went through oodstock, one Family Member went through the issue. So understand what they went understand live their whole life when they went to issue. Ock with this now understand the problem, plus mentala support group on health. Understand if we can broadcast all over the media, the ewspaper, our congress, whoever, f. D. A. , to explain what cocaine, l drugs, heroin, pcp, all this stuff does o your body and affects your family and your children, money, streetb, it is with wall later on, that is what it is relating to. Opimushgs, and everything else, related to ddiction, selfsteam and depression. Host thanks for the call, thanks for sharing your story. Democrats, what is on your mind . Caller how you doing . Bring up net neutrality, it is important, the overnment prevents like the Internet Service providers from deciding what theyre going to for what you see. Right now they treat every data see, and you got head of ftc [indiscernible] want to tell everybody, call congressman host greg, you are fading away, i think we got your point. Anthony, line for republicans, go ahead. Caller thank you. Show, i have a great enjoy and appreciate it. I want to know about the it ist, curious about how paid and is there a consortium countrys ces this debt . You guys have great guests on, aybe you can bring somebody on to answer that question so i can understand it. Thank you. Host appreciate you bringing it up, an issue we talked about quite a bit on the program, well be talking about it again, im certain. He current federal deficit is the billion, that is not the u. S. Debt, though, the u. S. Debt earlier this fall, the threshold 20. 5 rillion and ticking, u. S. Debt clock, information we use to debtunderstand and see the in realtime tochlt ron in line for indiana, republicans. Ron, good morning. Aller yes, you have several guests talking about the new tax eform and have not yet heard them talk about what effect the social rm will have on security benefits and how they taxed. E id like to see another guest alking about that and that question posed, what effect on will the tax have Social Security benefits . Host appreciate the suggestion, ron. Line for wisconsin, independents, go ahead. Caller hi. On the republican tax plan, its like steers in a they t in the midwest, feed them whole kernel corn f. Hey dont get enough roughage with it, it goes through their ystem without being digested, they put hogs or pigs in the steers and whene they get done with it, the and the and sparrows to fill their tummy with leftovers. Ost help me out with the comparison, harold. Aller well, trickle down, it goes through it just the little guy on the end get what left over. Host got it. Thanks, harold. Reva, maryland, line for independents, go ahead. Caller hello. Thinking that with all the Corporate Tax theyre talking i ut cutting and everything, mean, there is several companies that pay almost no taxes, our country and they say that the effective tax rate across the board is rid rid like 12 , why ant, if they want to do big tax cuts and everything, why cant the corporation have minimum . Ve host all right, appreciate the call. Two minutes left in our program. Remind you at 10 00 we will be heading to the Senate Banking hearing , which the room, as you can see there, is starting to fill up, members seats. G to take their it is confirmation hearing for Jerome Powell to be next federal chairman, that is happening at 10 00. You can watch it on cspan. Org, on the cspan radio app, or stay on cspan and well take you there at 10 00. As we said, one other key hearing were keeping an eye on, Budget Committee continues work, markup of the tax bill happening 2 30 today. You can also watch that on cspan. Org or the cspan radio show it live on cspan3 at 2 30. Back to your call necessary open phones, lilly waiting, san diego, california, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller yeah, hi. Republican on the tax plan. Its a huge give away to and to the trump family, thanksgiving analogy, just had a huge feast with mounds of food and corporations and the trump family are sitting down to it. Cleared away and crumbs are on the table, that is what the American People are get. G to as a californian, it is double axation, taking away our eduction for state and local taxes and property taxes. Hat where is outcry from republicans about double taxation . Ou know, specifically im appalled this tax plan because deductions, e private planes are going to be carveoute and special for golf courses. Benefits . U think that abomination, republicansublicans are ramming it through in the dark of night because they dont want the American People to see not for the little guy, just as this consumer Protection Bureau is being gutted by republicans, because it helps the little guy. Wake up, trump supporters, and g. O. P. Supporters, and call your Congress People and, you know, get america back on the side of guy again. And thats the democrats, theyre going to help out on this. Host both issues you bring up are front page stories on the front page of the Dallas Morning News today, republicans pushing for deal on tax cuts in the lead story spot. Also a story focusing on leadership fight at Consumer Bureau, a protection nimulvaney, each are in the cfpb, well be focusing more on that story a little later this week on the and then n journal couple other front pages from the post and courier out of south carolina. Clyburn critics calling for hange, potential challengers against congressman jim clyburn, south carolina, key member of the House Democratic leadership team. Then one other front page to show you this morning from the that courier, a question perhaps you could answer if youd like, what would you say f you had lunch with President Trump . That is the lead story, the lead question of the Daily Courier morning. Rizona, this time for a few more calls. Poconoos, pennsylvania, line for republicans, go ahead. If er what would you say you had lunch with President Trump . I would say, why are you playing with our taxes while youre bragging about our record highs how good our economy is doing, what are we actually fix . G to host maurine, thanks for answering the question. Wanda, westbrook, maine, line for independents. Toler im calling in regard the inheritance tax. For one thing, i cant understand why they want to drop it, it would be one way to help pay off the deficit from the using that have been loopholes and stuff over many years, not to pay taxes and that thing f. They drop it, its a millionaire tax, anyway, how many people in america make 5 million . Most of the people i know are lucky to make their 10 an hour, 20,800 a year, they pay taxes, so Social Security off that. I would like to see trump live 20800 a year, just one year, it is a challenge, id like to and not be hat president , because hes so used being a rich man, has no idea what it is like to be a real, american. Im sorry, i cant help it. When you are born into wealth to give ont want anything ever, it kind of hurts the people that actually work living all their lives and then theyre starting to fear hey are going to lose their Social Security and their medicare and all that stuff and tax away o yank the that might help reduce the deficit. I dont understand the man, i sorry. Im thank you for listening, i think your show is one of the greatest on television. Thank you very much. Host appreciate that, wanda. Republicans, torence, california. Go ahead. Caller hi, good morning, cspan. I just wanted to make a brief comment. Callers one of the other mentioning california and how we were going to get nailed because california live in and that is true. Hat is part of the problem, we continue voting, not myself, but a lot of people continue voting in who continue to raise our taxes, good afternoon brown gas tax. Hrecent no tax peep nel california do not love. I think like with new york, alifornia, new jersey, the taxes basically theyre saying the government is not going to subsidize taxes liberal politicians in the continue to levee on the citizens. That is pretty much all i have to say. Host gay in greenville, North Carolina, line for democrats. Phones, go ahead. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Listened to that News Conference where the i orrin hatch said that he country is in such a mess that the republican tax bill is going to fix it. With the previous caller, the president saying great, you know, the employment t is up, is at almost full employment. Me there is quite a difference in what one republican is saying and what is. Her one and id like your comment on that, thank you so much. Want to hear viewer comments in this open phones, oakland, california, line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller hello, good morning. And so, im concerned about the so what about 80 years ago, congress made a people that th the back thenwar was over income tax and were still waiting and so were lso waiting donald trump recently has made a commitment with the people to abolish but people who made all i or less, that is have to say. Bye. Host our last caller in todays washington journal, were to take you to the Senate Banking Committee Hearing lready under way at the hearing. Well be the nomination hearing for Jerome Powell to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve, but right now Banking Committee a few houseing and urban Development Nominees and they will turnt, to Jerome Powell, well take you to that hearing live now and see you back h