To show some of the flaws of democracy, the positive things in democracy, and during the Tumultuous Times i served there was so much that occurred that showed the weakness of what we are doing. My book was talking about how can we improve democracy and also remind people of the great history of western civilization and what we have in this country, and try to move forward to a rebirth of democracy. Host im interested in your thoughts on the title what are you trying to a couple should . Guest a restless wrote a book folly,n pursuit of highly political, but it was moving toward the protestant reformation, and talking about how much reform was needed. I use that title as a backdrop to really show how important it is to reform and change the way we do things in d. C. Onef there were 1 major step congress could take to reform, what could it be . Guest we should have a balanced budget every year. He saw recently we had a continuing resolution that moved us from september 2 december, and now we have one that is only one month. Now youre talking about the entire federal budget cannot be agreed upon, yet the country has a huge amount of debt, and as you know, if you have debt continually, it will bankrupt the country. Host why is it difficult for congress to set up budgets and tacitus . Guest a lot of the problem and pass them . There is too much unwillingness to compromise. The great cover mise of 1776 created the constitution. Without that compromise, we would not have a country today. You get different members of Congress Taking positions they will not change or cup must. That means in the end we stall the congress. You ever find yourself in a situation where compromise was not possible, and what was the end result of it. Guest there were times. I am prolife, so that is an area that is difficult to compromise. Also, there are areas, when you come to congress, you have strong feelings. I am a conservative publican. If i am doing with someone that is a strong liberal from new york city, it will be difficult to compromise. An africanamerican from new , a democrat from the bronx, from yonkers, we passed a bill that shortened clinical trials. There is a good example where he and i came together and he was a liberal from new york city, and i was a conservative from ocala, florida. Our guest with us for the hour. If you want to ask him questions about his time in congress, host you write in the book from the first moment you get elected as a member of congress, you must decide what you want to do with that office. Host can you expand on that . Guest sure. If you stand stay in congress to long, it is difficult to go to Higher Office because you have such a strong record of people perceive you as part of the problem. If you decide early on you want to leave, you have a better chance of running for senate or governor. If you stay in congress, you get seniority, and chairmanship. I was chairman of the Oversight Committee of energy and commerce, and Consumer Protection and trade. With that, you having him his power and the ability to bring Great Service to your constituents as well as this country. Then, also, somebody like john mccain, when he was in the house and went to the senate, he was considered a maverick, so that is the type of strategy you have to decide you do not really want to be part of congress and you want to continually be against congress, and that gives you a certain reputation, too. There are different roads you have to decide early on because the longer you stay the more you will be entrenched in one particular career. Ability to rise in congress how much of that is connected to the ability to raise money . Unfortunate, it is seriously flawed, the business of raising money, because as publicans or democrats we have to rate as republicans or democrats, we have to raise money. That shouldnt be. More importantly, if you receive sums of money from one Political Action committee or political group, obviously they are going to influence you. You shouldnt be influenced, but oftentimes you sums of money fre are. So, if you are raising money, the amount of time it takes takes you away from actually doing your job. That is a serious problem. Host you tell a story in the book about running for a chairmanship against roy blunt from missouri, and the factor of money. Are. Can you tell that story . Guest he was a majority leader and decided to run for senate from missouri. At this point, the chair of the energy and talking the kitchen of theittee was in energy and Telecommunications Subcommittee was in play. Be chair because it helps them to raise money to run for the senate. I was in a battle with him to see who was going to be chairman of that subcommittee for the republicans, and he was very skilled because he had lots of contacts, had given left of money, so i tried to realize what cover mise could i provide so i can retain that chairmanship, and i worked with the speaker. It would be very difficult for me. I worked with joe bartman, and the long and short of it is we had to come up with a compromise to provide him a special place and for me to retain the chairmanship. I also realized it would not look good for a person like thisf to be wasted out of wasted out of this position with my seniority. The compromise i realize was to give them vice chair and he will be able to go to all subcommittees as vicechairman and have great jurisdiction, and i would continue to be chairman of the telecommunications. It was a great cover mise. Host speaker compromise. Speaker boehner mentioned the amount of money you would be able to raise as well. Him 150,000e dollars, and he indicated it would have to be double that, and i said that is not reasonable. I had to give more money. I did give more money, but roy blunt, the majority leader, had much more access than i did. , the vote came down on the energy and Commerce Committee members, and i think i had a lot of influence there, so when it came to the decision, we thered senator blunt opportunity to be vicechairman of the whole committee, which he agreed to, and then i became chairman of the subcommittee. When i was on the house floor in Speaker Boehner came up to me and said stearns, you are very, very lucky. That was a great skill for being able to do that, because at that point i really wasnt sure i could win. Host that is while the stories recounted in life in the marble palace. A book by the honorable Cliff Stearns, who joins us now. The first call for you comes from virginia, democrat line. Jay, youre on with Cliff Stearns. Go ahead. , i was mr. Stearns wondering about abortion. Republicans got the senate, the house, supreme court, the president why dont they move on it . Is it because a wedge issue . Isst i think your question since the look and tell the majority why dont they do more on the prolife issue since the republicans have the majority, why dont they do more on the prolife issue . The life of a mother him of rape and insist is protected. That pretty much made the issue moot, but at the same time we have to be careful that the knot estates is not giving taxpayers money to mexico the United States is not giving taxpayers money to mexico for a patient for abortions. Obviously it is a divisive issue. The trouble administration has shown a strong predilection to be prolife. Host california is next. Republican line. David. Go ahead. Caller i had a question about bipartisanship. David, go ahead, you are on. Caller why would republicans need to be bipartisan . If republicans feel they are right about an issue, the democrats are wrong about the issue. Why the need to Work Together . Why not do the job without bipartisanship . Democrats passed obamacare without one republican vote. They did not care about bipartisanship, so why should republicans care about it . Guest it is an interesting question, but the reality is in the senate are 52 senators, republicans, and of course with john mccain now, his illness, 51. Brings it down to that is why Vice President pence has to break ties. Republicans pass the tax reform act. No democrat supported. In the house, they have a majority, but they have a strong group of individuals from michigan, pennsylvania, highly industrialized urban areas, and they vote modern moderately. You feel from the south that strong vote strong conservatively. You cannot get the majority at any one time. This is shown when they try to obamacare. They passed it in the house, but in the senate, they could not get the votes, and they lost enough senators that it failed. Obamacare. Host take a look at the effort on the tax bill democrats say they did not have any input. Were those legitimate concerns from democrats as far as that process was concerned . Guest clinic it was. In a larger sense, when you have a belly should go through the regular procedure, from the house committee, to the floor, committee. Senate it is so controversial in terms of different aspects of it, they will give it to the subcommittee chair they will have him look at it, and they might have a markup, and take it from the subcommittee to the full committee and not have a markup until it gets to the senate or house floor. During the process, if the democrats really want to get involved, they could have offered a separate ill of their own, having voted on, and that would have for some pelicans to vote against it. I think senator schumer of new york made a mistake forced republicans to vote against it. I thought senator schumer of new york made a mistake. They should have come up with a bill that would have been voted down. Likewise, when we had affordable the Affordable Care act, republicans never offered a health care bill. That was a mistake. Republicans voted against obamacare, but where was the answer to health care it was not there. I think it is a mistake by either party not to offer their version of tax reform or health care because then the American People have a clear choice. Host our Guest Services served in contract congress. What you do now . Guest i work for a worldwide public medications and Communications Public relations and communications company. It is founded by alison krauss. She has an exceptional job. I am also a member of the International Policy Advisory Committee with about 80 other , who haven and women great experience in government, and we advised people in a way to help them understand how government works. Between those two, i have a great opportunity to continue to provide policy, and at the same president of the United States association of former members of congress. The has 450 house members, and about 100 50 150 house senate members. I am honored to be the president. We have 11 employees. We do great work in terms of Civic Education and also a lot with the embassies in this country. So, i have a great great career after congress, and i welcome that opportunity. Guest do any of those careers give you lobbied host do any of those careers giving give you lobbying work in congress . Guest i do. I am registered. Work is ays, lobbying pleasant experience. People think it is not, but when you go back to see your colleagues you have known for many years, you are in a close friendship with them. It is almost like coming back to see old friends. It is very lowkey because as a former member i know High Pressure is not the way you do it. In try to educate the member the senate or the house, and you say i understand what your situation is. I just want to tell you my side of it. It is very lowkey. It is a great opportunity to talk to them, and listen to them. Host this is from maryland. Howard is next. Democrats line. Caller senator, i would like to know how the people that are , voting forhis law building the military up, how can they come into existence when we are giving the people that can afford to pay for it the money back to them, and that means that people like me that work by the hour will be the ones that have to pay for it . I also would like to know is there a building in d. C. That could house every person we sent to work for us to come together and come up with a plan for anything said you go your way taking one plan, and i go my way making another plan. Guest those are interesting questions. We are spending more money on the military and were getting a tax cut how is that going to benefit the average joe . Can increasef you gdp, that will create more incentive to invest capital, create more jobs, and create higherpaying jobs. The idea is under a free economy, if you increase the amount of revenue, it will help the person in the minimum wage and the person working in a job much like it sounds yourself is working in. The other interesting thought that ring the members of congress and make them live together, eat together, if they want to get out of washington they can only do it when they compromise. I think there is a certain logic. Lots of times members go right back to their district. They dont stay here in washington. An opportunity to meet fellow members of congress. They do not develop rp with them. They look at them rp with them. They look at them. It would be a practical way to think about it. Philip is in orlando florida. Caller good morning. Runyou ever read the book . My shoes an honest attempt to understand beginnings of americans. I really endorse it. You sound to me like an honest broker, and i welcome that because we do not get that all the time, especially in this era we are living with with the presidency. You are the historian that i believe you should be fewer in the position you are, you look at the decline of the roman empire, the american empire, and the scientific issues we are facing like climate change, and in denial about that. I am asking you to give an honest question look up in the sky, maybe not today in washington, d. C. , but in certain portions of the country, on a clear day, you see kenny trails going on. Why are they doing this . There are so many theories about it. What are they spraying us for, doing these patterns . Caller i am not sure what he is saying. When you see look in the sky, you see spray and patterns question mark that patterns . Patterns . Host chemical trails. Caller i have not seen that guest i have not seen that in florida. That might be where they are trying to fight fires. The concern would be if you are in california today, you had the smoke in the spring of chemicals obviously that makes you think of agent orange during the vietnam war where they sprayed to start the and in stop the foliage the end, veterans were affected with cancer. Even today they are starting to get cancer. The spreading the many chemicals in the atmosphere is not good and i understand his concern. Host there is a viewer off of twitter to asking you to guest i do recognize the Republican Party. The National Review ran a huge issue saying that donald trump was not a conservative, but he has shown in the last year he has issued edicts from the white house. He has taken a philosophy which is conservative, and i think in many ways he has had a very opinion,l year, in my and i think that a lot of the people his core supporters are still with him. Obviously the Mainstream Media is not with him, and i think a lot of his tweets are but in the end he has done a great number of things that are important. Host we sell republicans come together because of the tax bill , but do they support him as a whole . Guest i think they do. Some of the things he has done some republicans may not agree with. For example, the renegotiation of nafta. I was only one of 13 the book one of 13e against republicans to vote against nafta. I took a lot of heat for that. The thought was that in the end, it was going to hurt america in terms of jobs to be exported. I think that is true in my opinion. I think he is to be commended for that. Thettp, he got us out of. I think trump has shown certain aspects the republicans do not agree with, but i think the American People agree with him, and i think bluecollar democrats agree with him, and he wonow up when pennsylvania and ohio. Host from pennsylvania. Democrats line. Tony. You are on with Cliff Stearns. Caller good morning. I want to pick up on what the congressman said earlier regarding the need to have conversation and copper mines and the parties in congress, and my compromise within the parties in congress. You have to have truth and facts to make the best decision possible, but in my view, the Trump Presidency has ignored the fact and deliberately lied on many occasions. He claims to have signed more legislation than any other president since truman, and that is an outright lie. I want to know what the withessman opinions are discussions of truth in what the Republican Party is saying. Guest i think it is a good question. Any republican asked to that question has to be thoughtful about it. There are some good things about President Trump is a competency in a couple executive orders he has done he has not passedle to successfully a major piece of legislation except for the tax reform act. He lost health care. Nothing has been done on infrastructure. Nothing has been done on immigration. You can really say to your point that some of the major pieces of legislation he has talked about, he promised when he ran for presidency, has not been passed, and has really not even gotten off the ground, but on the other hand, he has shown enormous leadership in terms of other things. Whether you believe it or not, he has relaxed the ability to mine for oil and gas in the western part of the United States through executive orders. He has also relaxed regulations so that it can be used as an alternative source of energy. He has also gone ahead and talked about ways to help Small Business through linda mcmahon, now the secretary of Small Business administration. He has done some rethink that has been helpful to the economy, not to mention the stock market is at an alltime high. We had 3 gdp for the first time in years. Through eight years in the obama had 3 tration we never gdp, and now we have it. That is the a feeling that is the feeling americans have less regulation, the opportunity more freedom, the opportunity to make more money and take care of our families. More freedom, the opportunity to make more money and take care of our families. I think the symbolic positions he has taken in the white house has created this climate of we are going to change, improve, yet congress has lagged behind. Guest houston, texas. The public in line. William, go republican line. William, go ahead. Caller good morning. I have a question about the legislative process. When i am listening to cspan radio, the last time was on the shortterm budget resolution. I feel a lot of congressman get worked up on the floor, get pretty loud, and one of them does a pretty good Martin Luther king impersonation, but how much of all of this you think is just a show, just trying to get attention from the public, and how much is productivity. That is a good question. When the constitution was being debated in 1776, there was no media. They had guards not to allow anyone in, and they had vigorous debate. In the end, as i pointed out earlier, without the great compromise that gave two senators from small states and two senators from large states so small states would not be bullied that together with representation from the house was a cover my vet got things done. What you seek compromise that got things done. What you see on the house floor publicity. M of that is true. Often times there is a huge amount of disagreement between, lets say a strong republican, and someone who is a strong liberal. And on those issues, they cannot even talk to each other because they just wont listen to each other. So, in the end, that is shown on the house floor. There have been fights on the house floor jim moran of virginia had an altercation with a republican. Fears, you see that fierce amount of rhetoric is actually true because that is how they feel. Host how difficult was it to keep a connection with your constituents back home, and what would you advise numbers of congress to do now that you are out of it . I had 655 town meetings, and now members of congress did not have town meetings because of the feeling that they are putting themselves in jeopardy in terms of the violence that could occur, and because lots of times they cannot even speak because people speak out so loudly against them. What they do now is telephone town meetings, which are pretty effective. You can this your district, announcing you can call in and ask questions to the congressman. He will be in his office or anywhere, and he can have two or 3000 people listen, and maybe only get 25 calls, but at the same time, you again a chance to hear from the people, although a lot of members screamed the calls before they come in. It is not like a town meeting where anyone can answer ask any questions. I think is much as possible, member should get out of their office, get down to their areas and listen to the people, causing it if the people dont agree with you, you get their side of the argument. Program this occasionally we will have people tell us they called the congressmans office and never heard back. Did that happen to you . Well the fact that i had so many town meetings made it easy to access me. I was a businessman before i came to congress. I had a strict procedure that within eight days we had to answer each and every mail or email and i would get every week a list of all the emails that came in and the correspondence, and then it would be put into a matrix, and i could see how long each one was being held up or not answered. So, at the end of the week i can say to one of my staff, look, this was assigned to you, john, david you have not gotten it done what is happening . I did not have that problem. A lot of numbers, if they are not careful, they can get behind. Some are 10,000 behind. They did not run their office will. Host Cliff Stearns is joining us. Former member of congress, and author of the book life in the marble palace in praise of folly. Sue is in fort myers, florida. Our line for independents. For taking myyou call. I could talk for two hours myself here. A couple of questions. Number 1 i am 74. I have been around for a while. I am concerned about the Social Security and medicare that paul ryan is going to be attacking. I am not happy with either side, just so you know. I dont understand why Social Security and medicare cannot be dedicated funds, end of story. Nobody should be able to touch it no president on either side. Strictly for that. The other thing i would like to comment on an observed, and it is upsetting we have in farm, and there have havethree barry farms that maintained torture. Reported on. Ng i call the department of our culture. They say local people are handling it. If you saw these photos this live footage, i would be having nightmares about it. They are burning them with fire torches, beating them. They are throwing babies around. It is absolutely disgusting to watch. Host susan, appreciate the call. Guest i will take your second question first, because Something Like that is occurring in our horse industry, and that became such a problem that it became the attention of several members of congress from kentucky, where obviously horse racing is very important. I would say you should go to your congressman, send him a letter, and after you sent him a letter outlining what you think are the problems, and if you can find statistics or pictures you can confirm what you are talking about, include that with your correspondence. To hism back, try to go town meeting, and see if your congressman will pick it up as an issue because he can make a difference offer legislation, bring it to the forefront, get publicity. To answer your first question, you are right Social Security is paid for by citizens in this country, and is matched by the employer, so it should be a trust fund that is set aside, not touched. Under Lyndon Johnson president Lyndon Johnson, he changed all of that and used the trust fund to help fund the vietnam war. That is a problem. It should be walled off, protected, and i think many people say we paid for it, we deserve to have it. If it was properly invested instead of putting it into just the treasury, or not invested in a proper way, it would have paid for itself, but now it is not paying for itself. But it really people growing old will find it will be more of a serious problem. I believe with you Social Security should be walled off protective. Ve it is not an entitlement because it is paid for by american citizens. Host the numbers to call if you want to ask questions or give comments to Cliff Stearns. Representative stearns, a recent headline from the washington examiner, when it comes to 2018 agenda things they want to immigrationructure, welfare reform. Immigration will be difficult. There is no agreement on the wall on the democrat side, and no agreement on any of the issues doing with immigration. The government will have to pass it by themselves. In terms of infrastructure, i think there is bipartisan support for that. I think the Trump Administration should have taken that before the health care issue, because they if they had gotten democrats to agree on an infrastructure bill, what a bank for a book that would have been thathe president to have pass in the first 90 days of congress. I think President Trump realizes he can go to Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi and say we want if a structure for new york city, infrastructure for new york city, san francisco, florida everywhere in the country because we have bridges collapsing. They can help pay for it with really doing something extraordinary and setting up a bond. Just like we had savings bonds during world war ii. You could have savings bonds for infrastructure and sell it to the American People. Take that money, go ahead and use it with infrastructure instruction. It is so needed, it would create jobs, and it would be a winwin situation. Between the other things he talked about host welfare reform. Guest welfare reform under the Clinton Administration we passed welfare reform under speaker gingrich, but that has been, sort of, emasculated through the obama presidency. I think there are many ways the Trump Administration and republicans could wrap it up, but i think democrats in the very reluctant. Host a number of republicans retiring from congress this year into next year. What does that tell you not only about the retirements themselves, but for the potential for republicans to remain in power in the house in 2018 . Guest i think the Senate Majority is in jeopardy because some senators have decided to leave because they did not want to go through a primary. Trump himself has come out against two of those u. S. Senators, and they decided to leave. There is a possibility in the senate we could lose the majority, but on the other hand it depends upon what the muslim agenda is for the next year. What the legislative agenda is for the next year. That has many people realizing in six months politics could change dramatically. We have six what the legislae agenda is for the next year. Months nine months before the next election. In the house, a lot of these districts have been gerrymandered. A lot of members of Congress Play to the right or to the left and do not worry about a general election because if they have a general election they will win it in republican district that went for trump by 10 , you will win in the general easy. Your big race will be in the primary. So, a lot of these congressional districts have been gerrymandered. I dont think the house could lose the majority of mr. Is a say,amount of, shall we dissatisfaction with trump as well as Republican Leadership of paul ryan. Guest you host you, yourself, in a primary, were running against three other people. What did you learn form from that . Guest what iran in 1988, my inls showed me when i ran 1988, my polls should be 50 behind, and i 15 behind, and i won. In this race, my polls showed me i had by 17 , and i lost my 842 votes. It was a case where there were too many people in the race, and generally you have a runoff. Governor jeb bush did away with a runoff. I think in a runoff, i would have won. I think winning and losing is great character building or in the end, you accept the people and their vote. You say ive had this opportunity for 25 years. I cannot be dissatisfied. It is such a wonderful experience to her present your people in congress, and it is a very high calling. To represent your people in congress, and it is a very high calling. Historically, going back to aristotle, david hume, or even being people, the professional nature of being a number of congress is a high profession. Looked at it. I had this gift and i was so grateful. Host doug. Medina, ohio. Democrats line. Caller you mentioned about the country going broke because of and i seem to recall on three different occasions, mexico owed us a lot of money and they just default it, renegotiated the terms and got a better interest rate. Any reason they make people own about onethird of the debt, and the rest of the debt is owned by foreign companies. I dont see why there is any bad, theyit gets that noticed a shouldnt say we will not pay you. You will have to renegotiate with us and well come up with other terms. Host caller, thanks. Guest it is a scenario. President trump indicated why dont we shut the government down he indicated. So members of Congress Want to shut the government down. The dollar is the national standard. If you cannot have confidence in the dow that would change economies around the world. Thefault confidence in dollar, that would change economies around the world. A default would cause disruption everywhere, not to mention the people we owe the money to, include china, japan, europe, it to seee too calamitous the United States ask for renegotiated terms. If the government will just spend less than it brings in, ultimately the government could have a more solid finances situation. Host james from tennessee. Republican line. Senator, first i would like to say i wish you were still in the congress, and you the town halls and how many you have done. What you think it says to the American People when congressman are afraid to talk to their constituents in person . Thank you. Guest i dont think it is a good sign. I know they are concerned about their safety, but every town meeting i had, i had a policeman, sometimes two. I have had people try to disrupt my town meeting, have people try to arrest me with their socalled writ of legislation that they wanted to do. I have had the same kinds of problems. I think the people should be and to have access to you be able to talk to you oneonone. None of the questions should be screened before they come in. Year,ke about 174,000 a plus you get Subsidized Health care from the federal employee program, savings, a retirement it is a very good job, it is paid well, yet you go back to the city of ocala, back to jacksonville, gainesville the average salary there is 35,000, 40,000. You have a responsibility to talk to people and understand what kind of life they have, how can you improve their life. They have trouble with medicare, Social Security, with the military, veterans that is your job. I think they should have the courage to go back. I served as a captain of the United States air force during the vietnam war. If were going to send our men and women over to fight to protect our freedom, at least members of congress should get out of the glass houses and go back to talk to the constituents, explain depositions and listen to them. Host we will hear next from marielle in washington, state. Washington state. Independent line. Caller good morning. I have been listening intently. Suree to say, i am not which side of your mouth you are talking out of, sir. You never answer the question when he asked you was trump lying . He was clearly lying. He you never answer the question. Youwent on to whatever else were saying. Im a black woman, and right now i am absolute terrified of our president. You talk about living in glass houses. You just explained everything you got. Ee nothing you have done now you are selling a book. It is just madness. It is sickening. Where is the line the moral line, where you are supporting the president who was going to put it at a file in the senate. Pedophile in the senate host marielle, we will let him answer. Guest marielle, thank you for calling in. When i talk about town meetings, this is what people need to get out and listen to people like yourself, to empathize, say this woman is coming from this protective perspective, this is what she hears your this is her opinion. Heres. This is her opinion. To your question, i am not going to accuse the Trump Administration or the president of the notices of lying. I am not going to do that. If the president of the United States says something, the press will point out he is not telling the truth, and second come in some places, he might be exaggerating, hyperbole anything to use sell his point. He is a salesman in the end. Yet been successful in the real estate business because he has been selling and create a perception that perhaps is not in any case fully accurate. Is helping with his negotiation. I think the Trump Administration has used his tweets and public utterance to push his agenda, and to tell you the truth up here, it is difficult to get through the main media get your point across. I comment President Trump for at least getting his position koppelman President Trump for at least getting his position across. Host you talk a lot in this book about scandals, things you saw in the house. Talk about that through the lens of the last couple of months, particularly with Sexual Harassment being such a big topic on capitol hill. Guest when a number of Congress Comes to washington, he should realize there is a huge amount patients, as well as opportunities for him to cross the line, which he would not get if he was back in his district. Example, when you hire staff, a lot of the female staff are quite enamored by a member of congress, and honestly, a lot of the female staff want to do well by the cognizant, so they are more apt to show by the congressman, and theyre more apt to show a willingness to help, and it could be taken if only, and it could be sexual attraction particular to a younger staffer. I think we are seeing that. The temptations are across the board in terms of getting gifts when you go overseas, using your campaign or congressional funds inappropriately, or also, in asy cases, using your power a congressman for things that are not appropriate, or at the same time you are doing it for a quid pro quo for a Political Action committee. The temptation is large. The scandals we are today goes to the fact that a lot of numbers of congress do not understand what Sexual Harassment is about. Members of congress do not understand what Sexual Harassment is about. You cannot inappropriately touch a woman in a workplace, even flirt with a woman as it isnt timid in for a woman. Likewise it goes for women is intimidating for a woman. It is an important issue members of Congress Need to be educated on. Sexual harassment in the workplace is there and it has to be stopped because both sexes have to be feel comfortable going to work every day and not feeling the constant tension that the member is going to flirt with me, ask me out, and it will influence my position here and i cannot keep my job. Host on another front, politico published a story saying you use a Campaign Account to pay for first in a personal expenses. Guest they filed a complaint, we had two lawyers answer it and incorporated we did file all the host fcc complaints and they moved to dismiss it. Ftcpublication did complaints, and they moved to dismiss it. Host the publication did . Guest no, the lawyers filed an answer to their objectives and moved to dismiss it because it showed the campaign was fcc ng everything the rules were. Host fcc how does it allow the Campaign Account to continue if you are not in congress . Caller it is what guest it is one thing if youre a candidate. I am not a candidate, but a lot of times members of congress run again. Second, if you have this money, you give it out every year in terms of charitable contributions. I have given it to my alma mater, george washington, to the college of central florida. I give it out to my colleagues in washington here, but ultimately it will all be given out as charity or move to a foundation. Politicalthe story says it is used for membership dues, things like that. Is that the case . Guest i use it for the organization of former members of congress, which is a 501 c . I think these folks. Thats all these things did not think were folks, they thought these 501 c s. E not i do not think any honorarium for speaking. At the same time, it is part of the political understanding of what the issues are and to be able to talk about it, i go to some of these notforprofit and speak. Host that said, are you planning to run for congress against . Guest you never say again . Guest you never say never. My district has changed again. It is highly republican. If iran, i would have a good chance. At the moment, i am not thinking about it, but i did not rule that out. That is why my Campaign Front still active. Host is anyone encouraging you to run for congress currently . Guest people are always asking me to run, and sometimes they are asking me to run for the senate or some other higher positions, but i think after you serve 24 years and he said yourself that is a long time to be a Public Servant i used four years in the air force. I think 28 years is plenty. Host democrats line. Fort worth, texas. James is next. Hello. Caller thanks. I will congratulate you on being a politician. You can turn a two word sentence into an eight paragraph soliloquy. Gingrich turned lewinsky, into monica the tax cuts declined, knee capping a good, decent, honest person like barack obama the Republican Partys lust for power is so strong they are willing to accept someone as dishonest, as unstable as donald trump to do what they are trying to do, and that is take from the needy, give to the greedy. My from a family grandfather was very active. He was a high level Republican Campaign operative in state politics, and i am afraid the republicans are trying to turn america into a neofascist authoritarian government and take away our democracy. Host thanks, caller. We will let our guest responded. Guest in the president ial election, Hillary Clinton won by 3 million votes in the popular vote, but the Electoral College showed that donald trump won, but the founders of our country were wise to have Electoral College so you do not have the tyranny of the majority and you have the minority to have their fees. I think the Electoral College represents that. Theident trump won presidency fair and square. Fromthe caller is saying his perspective is under republican control we have tax cuts, and these tax cuts have heard him and his fellow citizens hurt him and his fellow citizens because they are needy and they have not seen the effect of the tax cut. I would say to him the standard of living in this country has significantly improved over the years going back to george h. W. Bush, and in fact under the Clinton Administration with republicans in control, we had welfare reform, tax increases, and at the same time a balanced budget, a surplus and the standard of living increased. I would say to the caller the United States is still the most powerful and economically powerful country in the world, and this is due in many respects to the economy, and the economy comes from a strong ability to have an opportunity, and that comes from reducing Government Spending and reducing private sector increasing private sector private sector spending. Host independent line. Caller i have a question and a comment, and i will make it quick. You keep saying democracy if we were a democracy, clinton would be president. We are not a democracy. I have a constitution read here. Nowhere in it doesnt say the word democracy. If you dont know the difference between a republican and democracy, republic and a democracy, perhaps we ought to go back to school. Quickly, my comment, for the people that have been talking all week, i cannot believe this country is arguing over whether or not jesus is black or white. It is the message we are all humanity. The color of his skin does not matter. Guest that is true. If you look at our genetics, where all the same genetically, 98 or 99 . To answer your question, you are right we are a republican, not a pure democracy where everybody would meet at the town square and have a vote. In this case, you can elect people in your hometown to represent you in congress. It is a representative form of government. Initially, senators worked elected by the state legislatures. Both the state senate and house voted to elect the senators. We change that so it is a popular vote for the senate should you are clearly on the mark when you say we are a republic. We are not appear democracy. Host two that callers point, one of your chapter titles is where is god . Guest what happens is when you go on the house floor and they click on the voting mask, and all 435 votes, and it is the ballot versus the bullet what you have to say yourself when youre on the house floor with the most powerful country economically, militarily, and in terms of its attempts to provide freedom to all people we are the first nation in the worlds history not trying to conquer, just trying to extend freedom and opportunity to countries around the world. That is our modus operandi. When you go to the house floor and you see these 400 35 members vote, and you realize the house is very powerful constitutional amendments for the womens right to vote, to do away with slavery, all happened in the house. Lastly, oversight of the president happens in the house. You say to yourself when youre getting married to vote, is there a right or wrong here getting ready to vote, is there a right or wrong here . Is god here in the house . Mi i voting the right way that spiritually i should be . This is a strong argument every commerce its often a right or wrong vote. You often say to myself its god in spirit in the house when i vote. Host one more call from new mexico. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] caller i heard a caller talk mike cannotles and believe its the first time ive heard anybody talk about it. I cannot believe you were in the airport and dont seem to know much about it. Planesere and i watch fly back and forth going in one direction and then turn around, huge trails and after a while they turn into clouds and the whole sky is filled with it and then you listen to the news when they report it as hazy. Its nothing to do with the weather. Its a biggest crime to humanity ever. Guest im glad you brought that up. I have not seen it and i am in the middle part of florida. I dont see the trails but your call in the previous call is calling out a serious problem. I think the military should address it. Should that continue, that is theset from the jets in planes and thats exhaust thats detrimental to our atmosphere. Tothe end, its detrimental the atmosphere dispersing over. The book is called life in the marble palace. Florida, we thank you for the conversation. Guest thank you. Host we will ask the folks in hour what grade they would get President Trump. What grade would you give him . I would say ab. Done, ivengs he has been on this committee for 23 years and one thing he allowed by executive order is that you can hire doctors in the Veterans Administration and you could not do that before. Doctors have malpractice issues and yet they continued to remain there. I think the president has done a very good job in terms of ruling this country in with less regulation. He says the military can decide. Hes getting more of a free hand. I agree with him on his trade issues. Cspans washington journal. Coming up friday morning, scholar, it will not discuss his social media and countering violent extremism with his book, Digital World war. Journal life saturday morning, joined the discussion. The situation in north korea told by diplomats, refugees and defectors. A look at the regimes desire to hold onto power. Here on cspan. On American History tv on cspan3, saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history we visit Iowa State University in ames, iowa. A class on food during the great depression. And a lot of families there was selective starvation. Meets would choose not to in favor of letting their children eat. Daylies stayed in bed all and produced two meals a day so that everybody would conserve as much energy at possible and not get as hungry. At 10 00 on real america, a. D. A look ahead at family life in the 21st century. Lunches,second disposable dishes, part of the society of tomorrow. Sunday at 4 30 p. M. Eastern, historian james oakes talks about runaway slaves and the consequences of fugitives. Most sufficient means of keeping slaves from being returned was among the most peaceful and least violent. And monday at 8 00 p. M. , we will tour the world war i museum and memorial in kansas city. It is an extraordinary story. To pay for what turned out to be a dramatic memorial. This weekend, only on cspan3. Purdue university celebrated cspan archives 30th anniversary with a discussion on how Television Coverage has impacted politics through the years. Cspan founder, brian lamb, moderated the Panel Discussion with two former u. S. Representatives from indiana, steve buyer and tim roemer. They also talked
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