Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 01282018 20180128

If you immigrated to the u. S. Five years ago or more 202 7488001. If you are a daca recipient or eligible or applied for daca 202 7488002. All others Illegal Immigrants, we have set aside a line for you as well. 202 7488003. We welcome your comments on our facebook page. Will get your calls momentarily. The week ended in washington with the unveiling of some of President Trumps proposal. Members of his administration detailing it to Congressional Staff and some congressional leaders on friday. The attorney general speaking about it and norfolk in on friday. Ginia the plan would provide a 10 to 12 year path to citizenship for about 1. 8 million current daca eligible immigrants. 25 billion for a border wall and other security measures. It would also limit what has been called chain migration to include spouses and minor children only and would eliminate the visa lottery system. We will appear more from the president and Jeff Sessions in a moment. To point out the lead editorial in the Washington Post. Their approval of the plan to a certain degree. Their lead editorial, dreamers for the wall. Congress should welcome mr. Of a path toer citizenship for undocumented young immigrants. Immigrants are no longer spilling over the u. S. Mexican border. It would be better served by a combination of fencing and surveillance. Promised a wall and politically he feels the need to deliver. Congress should welcome mr. Trump scruff or of a 10 to 12 year pathway for citizenship for the estimated 1. 8 million undocumented young immigrants enrolled in daca. The time horizon is reasonable. The number is more than generous than some proposals which were limited to the 690,000 were enrolled in the program when mr. End. Announced its a deal with surprise security and a future for a promising young class of immigrants whose lives might otherwise be ruined. As part of the editorial in support of President Trumps proposal on immigration. 202 7488000 if you are a recent immigrant to the United States. You 7488001 for those of who have been in the country five years or longer. Daca recipients 202 7488002. Immigrants, 202 7488003. Lets hear from President Trump this week at the World Economic davos. In we are also securing our immigration system as a matter of national and economic security. America is a cutting edge economy. Our immigration system is stuck in the past. Replace our Current System with a merit a system of admissions that selects new arrivals based on their ability to contribute to our economy to support themselves financially and to strengthen our country. Host all of President Trumps comments at davos available at cspan. Org. Your thoughts this hour, immigrants only on the trump proposal for recent immigrants. 202 7488000. In the country longer than five years 202 7488001. Aca recipients 202 7488002 in the New York Times on the. Pinion pages the headline of the piece is the necessity of Stephen Miller. Thats one of President Trumps policy advisers. He writes that trump and miller made an interesting offer. Amnesty and path to citizenship for Daca Recipients and other dreamers. In return for a shift over many years to a skillsbased policy and a somewhat lower immigration rate. If you are committed to the view canon must beons steamrolled you will respond to this offer calling a white supremacist ransom note. If you think that lasting deals are forged when all sides are represented you might consider making a counter offer. Rough blueprint with more green cards for skilled immigrants so that miller gets his cuts but the overall rate stays close to the status quo. Know if theres a deal to be had along those lines. Democrats might not want a grand bargain with this president. A bargain that actually reflects the shape of Public Opinion can only happen with someone like Stephen Miller at the table. Sean hassean has been in the coy over five years. Good morning. Your thoughts on what the president is calling for. Hello . Host you are on the air. Go ahead. Caller im not 100 against daca but as one that followed the Legal Immigration process i actually got a green card twice. Time i was recently married and we invested a lot of money. We didnt eat out or it we didnt take vacation for years because we had to pay for lawyers. It hurts me personally because i know the time and the investment and following the rule of law that i did to be here in the u. S. Host tell us where you and about howm much did this cost you overall . Caller from ecuador. Everythingime we did ourselves. It was several thousand dollars. About 6000 the first time. The second time we did with lawyers and it was 20,000 throughout the entire process. Its a considerable investment. I understand and appreciate and respect theres a lot of different situations. For me the toughest thing is you hear so many of these immigrant advocates demanding without realizing that for us that welowed the rule of law couldnt take a vacation for several years because we had to stay in the u. S. Because we didnt have the resources. We did the right thing and to see everybody around us that didnt do the right thing all of a sudden getting many benefits i think there needs to at least be some fairness. Advocatedbecause we didnt have resources. We did the right at least some rebate or something for us that followed the rule of law. If you are going to give everything for free to those who didnt follow the rule of law what about us that did . It is so frustrating. Im not saying kick everybody out. I think trump says that. We cant kick everybody out. Let me ask you in terms of you came from ecuador. What was it that initially drew you to the United States . Caller for education. Host you came here for college . Caller yes. Got married and ended up staying here. Toughrst time it was very for us at the beginning. People dont realize. We had to wait in line. We had to do interviews. We had to file fees. The second time i was a professional. I had the money. Without any ck 20,000. The lawyers throughout the process. Painful but we had the resources to do it the second time. The first time that we followed the legal process. Host lets hear from ray who is up next in maryland. Been here longer than five years. Good morning. Good morning. My problem is what is this wall and is this the most efficient way to spend this money . I think the main problem we have is the opiate problem and that is coming through the post office from china. Why dont we put that money to making that situation go away and trying to build a wall . Can you tell us about your immigration experience . And is this the most efficient way to spend this money . Which country you emigrated from and how long you have been here . Here over 20e been years. I came from nigeria. Immigrated here over 20 years. I went to college here. Worked here, lived here. My problem is building a wall, what good does that do . If people want to come over a wall they will come over a wall. Have you seen these guys climb a tree . This is a serious problem. The problem we have is the opiate problem. Why dont you take that money and put it towards resolving the opioid problem coming through the post office and the federal express. President has argued that part of the reason for putting the wall there is to help stem some of the Illegal Drugs coming into the u. S. How do you respond to that . The people who bring drugs to this country are not the guys that you see. Those are just examples. The people who bring drugs into this country fly them in or send them in. The big problem is that the government doesnt want to address who brings the drugs into this country. Thats why the problem will never go away. Thanks for your call. Asking immigrants only this hour. If you have been in the country longer than five years 202 7488000. Less than five years 202 7488000. Years 202 five 7488001. Daca recipients 202 7488002. Undocumented people 202 7488003. Now back fromp davos tweeting late last night saying democrats are not interested in Border Security, border safety and security or in the funding and rebuilding of our military. They are only interested in obstruction. Heres a headline in bloomberg businessweek. Their headline immigrants against immigration. The party divide over who gets to come to the u. S. Has never been wider. Can it be bridged . That bipartisan consensus on immigration feels like ancient history. Today Congressional Republicans spurn proimmigration messages while democrats have gone all in on liberalized immigration seeing themselves as the party of inclusion. Republicans increasingly see whatelves as defending they see as what it means to be an american. The wall street journal writing about the president s proposal in their friday editorial on the proposal from the white house daca and deportation is the headline for their editorial writing if republicans dont want to spend the next three years defending deportations of people like mr. Garcia or be reminded about mr. Trumps expletive they should work with democrats on a daca compromise. Americans want to know that the u. S. Isnt admitting criminals or terrorists but they are also demonizing immigrants. Good morning. Caller my name is jay and i have been in the u. S. Since 2002. I am a graded from brazil. I came here with a green card brought me here. I got my citizenship. I got my mom here. I heard the previous caller saying it was so much money to get hiS Immigration status straight and maybe he should get some rebate back. I disagree with that completely. I think folks come to the United States because its a better country than the country that they came from. Purcell,he case with the entire south and latin america including africa. We come here for a dream and thats the model of america. Rebate on thed a 3000 to 5,000 i spent. I think the folks who left their country that dont have an opportunity should be given a path to citizenship as long as they are doing things the right way on the 3000 to 5,000 i spent and they. If you are not a criminal should be allowed to stay in this country. Let me ask you about the president s proposal. Up to 1. 8llion Million Immigrants allowed. You would be ok with the numbers the administration is proposing . I would be ok with 2. 5 million. Whether hes going to anchor that into building his wall i think is a fight the democrats and republicans need to fight to make that money reasonably spent responsibly. Not a stupid wall that is not like youdo anything are saying to resolve the Opioid Crisis. They build tunnels. They do all kinds of things. If the drug problem is really important for you to fix start from the top. Lets crack down on those who are involved in money laundering. And notllow the money just the drugs and physical ponds of the system that are actually visible. The invisible folks are the ones that are really driving that problem to continue in the future. T first hour only immigrants only this first hour of the washington journal. We are talking about the white house immigration proposal. Tuesday nightore in the president s state of the union speech. Tell us your story. Caller good morning. I have been here almost 10 years now. I saw america as the country of opportunity and it was truly a country of opportunity. My position is keep the folks who are already here as long as and not not criminals involved with any bad action. And not involved with any bad action. Give them permanent residency. If you are someone who is on the verge of being deported i think no one would be asking to be citizens. They want to security to live in the u. S. Securely. Keep those who are already here. As long as they are not criminals. Give them papers and build the wall. I think that would be a very good compromise. Host you are from silver spring, maryland. An area that has a fairly vibrant immigrant population i understand. Is this a high topic of conversation among your neighbors . Caller yes it is. I feel so bad that before i came we felt the u. S. As a welcoming country. I lived in europe for many years and i saw the difference. A welcoming country built with immigrants. Everybody trying to survive. I think we should keep that spirit alive and continue rather than dividing this country as immigrants. Lets go back to the american spirit of accepting immigrants and counting them as good contributors to the society and also definitely there are criminals. I dont have an issue with building the wall. They could serve a good purpose. Before you came to the United States how did you think your reception would be . Caller i assumed it would be very welcoming. I lived in europe and i dont want to mention where i lived in germany. When are youask going to go back to your country. They make you feel that you dont belong there. Host really . Caller yes. This morning we welcome your calls. Immigrants only on the Trump Administration immigration proposal. 202 7488000 for those of you recently arrived. 202 7488001 if you have been here five years or longer. 202 7488002 Daca Recipients undocumented people 202 7488003. Go ahead with your comments. Welcome. Aller i do believe i am legal immigrant from france. That those Illegal Immigrants should be returned to their country of origin. They are breaking the law. You came from france. You are a legal immigrant from france. Caller right. Host you feel that the most recent you are talking specifically about the daca and those whose immigrant fate is somewhat up in the air at this moment. Caller i am not talking about daca. Im talking about immigrants. Whatever the immigrant is. Ok . Im not talking about daca here. Whoever is coming in this country illegally crossing borders illegally or doing whatever else should be returned to his country of origin. To new jersey. O welcome. I agree with the previous caller and that is my same sentiment. I have been here almost 34 years. I came the legal way. I filled my documents and i got here. Anybody coming here undocumented or illegal should not think they have a sense of entitlement because its a country of immigrants. Because they are immigrants they should automatically be admitted to this. There has to be rules and regulation. , you applyo line properly. I think its an unfair advantage for people who live right by the border of mexico to be able to jump in wherever. I come from india. People from india dont have that advantage. They have to take a visa. They have to buy a ticket. You cannot have u. S. Government officials hold of the government just to let you in. Its time to wakeyou cannot havt up and be fair to everybody here. We are not here. We are all immigrants. We pay our taxes and we cannot afford to have you admitted here and take on your expenses and have the u. S. Government impacted. Reaction on twitter. Lets take a look at a couple. This one is from sally who tweets the democrats should take the deal knowing that trump will be impeached or indicted soon and then a new deal can be brokered. Says the democrats are reeling and Richard Rogers says republicans time to choose between trump or country. Connie is in new jersey. Been in the country more than five years. Good morning. I have been here since 1957 and immigration has changed a lot. In 1957 when you come from europe it was very easy to come here. It was the kennedys who changed that. I know they are not supposed to come illegal. But everybody is looking for a better way of life. Here and who immigrate to oury good officials in the government this goes to the people they want to bring here with higher education. Andmother came from russia he didnt even speak a word of english. And from that you go on and on. It breaks my heart the other day when i saw on television this man who was 39yearold has been here with both his parents and must be alive for them now. At 10 years old. He has been in this country for 30 years and was deported. Now the children are born here. To stay hisright father here. Somebody had a priority. So i dont understand it. I really dont understand what happened to United States. Host part of the proposal would be to limit the ability to bring family members, the familybased migration. Some have called it chain migration. You would be opposed to that change . Caller in a way yes. In a way, no. To the family and they have to wait. Like your sister and so on. It comes to your wife and your husband you separate the family and children, what are you going to do . Send the mother back and leave the children here all by themselves . Everything is very twisted. United states is a great nation. Wasve been here more than i in spain. I was born in spain. Host how long have you been in the United States . Caller im 77. I have been here since 1957. Host what you did you get your citizenship . When you came here as a student you could apply for it. Host how long did it take you . Caller not much. Maybe a year. Calls in aof your moment. Breitbart headline. The Supreme Court of law. Saying that attorney general Jeff Sessions begins 2018 with a series of wins for President Donald Trump delivering on several issues on a way that few could to the applause of the present space. First iS Immigration. January has seen could two histc immigration case is headed can bethe Supreme Court explained by one simple fact. President trump pickton immigration warrior. The attorney general was out friday speaking about a bit aboutand whats in the proposal that President Trump unveiled. Here he is speaking to Law Enforcement officials friday and virginia in virginia. We saw two terrorist attacks in new york. They were carried out by people who came here as the result of the diversity lottery and change migration. As a result eight people were killed. Duty to allow to not allow terrorists into our country and yet we know that hundreds of them have endangered the lives of citizens we are sworn to protect. Any crime committed by improperly vetted immigrants especially illegal aliens is by definition a preventable crime. The problem we dont need to create. Even one victim of a crime in this fashion is one too many. Criminals have no right to entry into the United States. There dont have a constitutional right to demand here. We entry into the United States. Have a duty to select people that we believe will flourish and be lawabiding in our country. We should strive to never admit criminals. Thousands of americans across our country have suffered because of decades of lax immigration policies and even more lax enforcement. Host more of the attorney generals speech online at cspan. Org. Focusing on the president S Immigration proposal. Hearing from immigrants only this first hour. 202 7488000 if you are a recent immigrant to the u. S. 202 7488001 five years or more. 202 7488002 Daca Recipients. Undocumented people 202 7488003. Politico with the headline this rubio fires chief of staff for improper relations with subordinates. Senator marco rubio has fired his chief of staff after determining the Violet Office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and subordinates. Politico writes that the center said in a statement of the investigation concluded his chief of staff engaged in that amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits. The senator announced the decision to fire him just before midnight on saturday. Lets go back to calls. In ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I have been a legal immigrant. Thats important you know the distinction between legal and illegal is important. Now a u. S. Citizen. Probably served on the jury as the way i am shocked the proud heritage of United States is being sold by the Democratic Party. Gosh. You remember that when was murmured murdered not a single democrat spoke out against ilLegal Immigration and all of a sudden you hear that these people are here for a long time its not their fault. Why should american taxpayers pay for criminals who are exploiting the same taxpayers . Let me ask you a political question. Have you supported the democrats in the past . Caller note. Note. No. And why is that important . Host you are critical of the democrats on this issue. Politicalknow your leanings on politics outside of just immigration. You think the stance that the democrats are making here will hurt or help them in the longterm . Even in the short term, the 2018 midterms for example . Caller of course it will not. Because the message is that the Democratic Party is soliciting unlimited illegal votes. At the cost of life and property of american citizens. You see the message . How can any legal immigrant who is paying taxes or any american citizen who is paying taxes support any of this . Its very clear the Democratic Party is soliciting unlimited illegal votes. They dont want the borders to be closed. Hillary claimed that as and open trade. Whatever that meant. The message was clear. Keep the borders open. No voter id. And illegal votes. Hear from rudy in ontario, california. Good morning. Tell us your story. Good morning and thank you for taking my call. I was brought here by my mother when i was 12. We were supposed to be here just for a little while. I came with papers. Me and my mother did. We came here and she had enough money to buy a restaurant. We never went that. In the callsoticed and some of the past calls is its kind of like when you come here after a while you become very judgmental. You come here as an immigrant having one point of view or one way of being and after you get educated here then you pick up the spirit of forget about others. Came here asfirst immigrants we didnt have that in mind. Thatust spoke with a woman had i have to go by her accent. I believe she was probably from europe. She came here in 57. I came here in 56. I got my citizenship after i served in the United States army. I was in the airborne. I didnt think i was ever going to become a citizen until i served the country that i was going to live in. So i did that. ,his lady comes as a student doesnt even know why shes here. And also the availability of funds. Talk about cuban immigrants. There is an act called the cuban adjustment act. All i have to do is get here. And they get everything. I was also a worker. That castro people let go. That was my file. I was one of the few bilingual social workers. Early 80s . N the was yes. After if yes. You had one policy for the cubans. Alldy has even mentioned the stuff that they got when they got here. But i noticed that many of them are our commenting that they dont want anybody else to come here now. Host you said you came here with your mom and she opened a restaurant. She passed away. I have been retired. I was a teacher and i was a mailman and now i am retired im active in politics and i do have a point of view. I have been an independent for 50 years. None of the parties have satisfied the needs of working people here. Lets hear from rose in connecticut who has been in the country more than five years. Hello there. Caller thank you for taking my call. Have a short story. I came here in 59. I was seven years old. And my from morocco parents waited over a year and a half to get except to to the u. S. And we came here through were verycard and we poor. We lived in a tenement house note eight. No heat they raised three children in 10 years. Within five years my parents went to night school to learn how to speak english. And then they got their citizenship. So over time we work hard. We purchased a home. Later on in life i raised two children. Today one of my children is a veterinarian and the other is a lawyer. In theally believe system should have rules and laws and people should follow the rules and laws. So things dont become so chaotic. You think that what the president has proposed is getting us more back toward the rules and laws . Are you in favor of the things you have heard about the proposal . Caller it seems like you dont have much of a choice. I think that they shouldnt be here because they are illegal. They didnt follow the rules. And thats one side. The other side is youve got to the humanity part of it. To just dislodge them and put them back to their own country and you got to look at the moral issue. So its a tough call. I can see what hes trying to do. And it seems like its more the humane way. Fence with that. I feel that whoever comes here should follow the laws of the land. Rose in connecticut. Asking you this morning immigrants only your thoughts on the president s proposal. About 20 more minutes of your calls. 202 7488000 recent immigrants. 202 7488001 if you have been here longer than five years. We talked about some topline elements. The white house has issued a good chunk of the plan so far. Posted on their website. Klesko through a few of the letss elements go through a few of the elements the administration has proposed. They say the department of Homeland Security must have the tools to deter ilLegal Immigration. They will have a trust fund for the border wall. Of ports entry and exit and a northern border improvement plan. Hiring and pay reforms to include the recruitment and personnel. F the ending catch and release by closing loopholes that have eroded our ability to secure the immigration system. These are all detailed on whitehouse. Gov. The white house is proposing to legalize status for Daca Recipients and other daca immigrantslegal adjusting the timeframe to encompass a total population of 1. 8 million individuals who would include a 10 to 12 year path to citizenship with requirements for work education and good moral character. Clear eligibility requirements to mitigate fraud and the status subject to revocation for criminal conduct. In terms of what has been called chain migration its familybased migration. They say that protecting the Nuclear Family by emphasizing close familial relationships. The plan would promote nuclear by limitingtion family sponsorships to spouses and minor children only for both permanentnd longtime legal permanent residents. Ending extended family chain migration that would apply these backlogs prospectively and not retroactively by processing the backlog. The white house plan would eliminate the lottery and repurpose the pieces. The visa lottery selects individuals at random to come to the United States without consideration of skills, merit or public safety. This program is riddled with fraud and abuse and does not serve the national interest. Plan atead all the whitehouse. Gov. We will hear more this week about it. Lets go back to your calls. In richmond, virginia. Good morning. Good morning. What i wanted to say was i have a need to secure the borders and thats legitimate. It was the way the messaging that made a lot ofo say out people including myself i have been here for about 27 years. That made a lot of people uneasy. It felt like it was targeting only a Certain Group of people. I think most immigrants including myself are not we are lawabiding people. We do support the borders being secure. Callers say a few that the Illegal Immigrants are a burden on society and all of that stuff. Im seeing a lot of these people are hardworking people. Same things that anybody else wants. To support their families and have a good life. A chance would not be a bad idea but at the same time securing the border would also be host as an immigrant does it the you uncomfortable that whole issue of legal and ilLegal Immigration gets blended together like this sometimes . Caller it does because for the first time in my life after having been here in this country for almost 27 years last year was the first time someone attacked me for being an immigrant. Someone actually accused me of being a sleeper cell. I dont even know what that is. And they threatened to kill me. So the entire conversation as far aS Immigration goes has changed because i have always and very safe in this country until last year when the conversation and the a big iecame cant find the words for it. To be taken into consideration as well in my opinion. Host what country did you come from originally . Caller ethiopia. Host thank you. Lets hear from rhode island. Bert. Good morning. Morning. Ood im an immigrant for 50 years. I came from the caribbean. I have a lot of issues with this. My family came here from a family migration. The term chain is ridiculous. My father came here to law school and then i followed him later. When he got the permanent visa. I have become a clinical psychologist. I have worked hard in my life and its very sad to see this. Can beandmortar wall invaded in seconds with a Hydraulic Press or just a sledgehammer. We have enough sophisticated things to stop our border. All these young kids from daca have a lot of merit. If you want people to come to the country who have merit we have them here. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars educating them. They are professionals. Some are doctors. Police officers. Teachers. Everybody else. It is totally ridiculous. I mused on why norwegians wouldnt move here. My niece is married to a norwegian. They say we accept no National Healthcare. The rich are the only ones who can get health care. We pay below starvation wages and accept big corporations making billions of dollars in telling us all this stuff. Im also amused by walmart. Walmart had to raise their wages to 11 because it is required in the states that already raised their wages. I could go on but i would take up all of the time. The only people who got the 1000 bonus for fulltime workers. Immigration talking. We will hear more from the president on state of the union night. Urged to strike chords of unity in speech on tuesday. The larger question is whether trump can expand his appeal beyond his face to reach the majority of americans who are responsible for his historically poor job approval ratings. Hes in a position to be very president ial. I dont think this year he needs to speak to i dont think this year he needs to speak to part of america. He needs to speak as president. Counseled judd gregg that trump should attempt down his tendencies to personalize every issue and instead look outward. Look optimism that isnt selfcongratulatory. We will have complete coverage of the state of the Union Beginning with our Preview Program at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on tuesday night. The speeches at 9 00. You can follow it here on cspan. Morning froms this the Republican National committee. The headline in politico, rnc chair steve wynn resigns after Sexual Harassment allegations. Down. Pped the decision followed a friday report in the wall street journal alleging he engaged in Sexual Harassment. Trumpsonald handpicked choice for the finance position. It has not been determined who will replace them. Him. We will hear from marion and florida. Caller yes. I am an immigrant from switzerland. Immigrant i think legals what americans and immigrants should kneel down and thank god that we are in this country. Girl i a young come from a large family and women had no rights. I came to this country. I had rights. Right to divorce and be on my own and work in a male environment. I was the boss of some of these immigrants. And i am telling you people dont realize the freedom. I did not come in this country switzerlandountry is in poverty. I came here for the freedom of this country. And i dont think that people realize. I dont think russia has 11 waitingpeople that are to get here illegally in russia. People need to think about that. My two older sisters were told who they can marry. Here, i have the right to divorce my husband. And be who i am and go out there and at that time opened up the business of cutting grass. My family and switzerland couldnt believe that. Immigrants only this first hour on President TrumpS Immigration proposal. Lots on twitter as well. Here is michael who tweets that will Mainstream Media and democrats be willing to separate question and solution and immigration policy deal . There already conflating them. Katie reding says nothing wrong with legal immigrants. Tj says i am serious about deporting millions. I would volunteer my services at no cost and i know many more of my ilk who question and solutiod immigration policy deal . There already conflating them. Would do the same. In minnesota, on the line. Been here longer than five years. I escaped czechoslovakia in 1969 after the russian invasion. Thing that i would like to say, everybody is talking about things that are not really relevant to thiS Immigration. And is good over here divorce is fine and so on and so forth. The point is law and order. Austria. Prison in i was for four months locked up in a refugee camp. Then i went for my physical at the u. S. Embassy. First i had to pass a physical. The secondthen i went for my pht the u. S. Time i had to pass my. Motional state and i received political asylum. At the same time i will serve two years in the u. S. Army. I served 71 to 73 during which time i received my citizen paper. After that i came back. Went to school. Finished my schooling. And for the past 45 years i was paying taxes and was a productive member of the society. Id for the past 45so what we ns understand everything. Point is it is responsibility of our congress to put the law back in order. It wasnt that long ago 1969 when i came in under the proper sequence. Host do you think the idea of to serveme immigrants either in the army or some other Public Service position could be part of this legislation . Caller yes. Because thats what i did. When they asked me at the embassy what do i think about the war in vietnam, i said you are offering me freedom. I knew because i had two uncles over here family was divided. It would be something. Under daca you are going to school. You are receiving the education. You are receiving the health. Please give something back. Dont just be out there day in and day out. What bothers me the most is how the illegals are over there denouncing our government. Denouncing our president. Be here to right to begin with and then you go out denounced the United States . You that you can go with and call the congress, the president , representatives those means names. Is anarchy to be honest with you. Not law and order. Congress needs to get in. Sit down. Stop recurring. Bickering. And say, you are here. You already work and your parents were working. Your parents were paying taxes. Fine. Lets work out a deal. Headline from the Washington Times looking at the first year of the Trump Administration and fighting ilLegal Immigration. The headline is how trump turned the tide of ilLegal Immigration. Crossing is at a 45 year low. Illegal Border Crossing tumbled to a 45 year low. Interior arrests of Illegal Immigrants stored in 2017. The crackdown that intangible results during his first year on the job. Lets hear from michael in seattle. Caller yes. First of all i want to say god bless President Trump. The best president in american modern history. I am i remember immigrant more than 25 years in United States. I came from former soviet union. Everything the previous caller said is true. I am sick and tired of all of and demands. Its amazing how those people who came illegally or got brought illegally with the mexican flags just insulting, screaming insults to american demanding. Its outrageous. I came from former soviet union. I know what is the former soviet union how it used to be. It amazed me political agenda like cspan. Like you are doing, guys. All the time you are bringing leftwing outlets and never bringing some midway some information. You just manipulating and bringing propaganda old soviet style. And its amazing and appalling. Thats all i want to say. All of this theater about ilLegal Immigration is just so appalling and just shameless show of lawlessness. Host a couple recent callers, a russian immigrant. We want to show you from this the vergeappalling and, twitterg hammered over its russian propaganda response. In response to questions about its potential russia linked twitter bot activity during the brexit vote twitter provided a letter to the u. K. Parliament last week. The company said it examined research on bot activity and thought many accounts examined were sending spam. The company said it couldnt find a link to russian misinformation programs. In a testy response sent this week a member of parliament asked twitter to clarify and provide more information on the suspect accounts. Lets get one more call. Stephanie in florida. Thanks for waiting. Tell us your story. How long have you been here and what country did you come from . Entire familyle are actually from berlin, germany. We came over when my father was in the military and was stationed in berlin and met my mother. I came over when i was maybe two years old. At the time my mother was a berliner and she had to come over legally. We had to pay attorneys and she learned to speak english and she went to school and took exams and she was very proud of the fact that she became a citizen of this country. Of course we became citizens. We were dual citizens because we had a father who was american but we had a mother who was a berliner. Now my family, i am in florida and they are stationed in texas and they live on the border in el paso. Retired years ago. Its disgusting. If you lived in areas like that on the border like we owe them something. They came over here and had to it the correct way. The legal way. It is upsetting. Callers ask other ing why dont we provide Health Insurance and provide this . Are paying and provid ing for so many illegals costn those areas illegals the borders. They send their kids to the school, put their kids on the cross backand they over. They contribute nothing. It is not like our family that worked and paid and educated ourselves and we contributed and were very proud citizens. Ican they want to take everything they can from us. They dont have the respect. I think that there are many, you know, i understand why they to get here. I would love to see a way for these you know, the Daca Recipients. Know, haveat, you gone to school and are educated and have families and have work. They want to stay here and re main here and work here and contribute here and be an thats great. En, i think we should figure out how to make that happen for them. Here ande sitting collecting our social services and going to school and were feeding you and giving you health and sitting on your butt while im working hard every day paying my taxes, im not for that. Your comments,r stephanie and all of the callers an hour. Were going to look at u. S. Readiness. Well hear from dakota wood. Later on a look at the 2018 as dacave agenda and fits into that agenda. Into newsmakers from john james inhofe. The National Defense strategy says the United States greatest threat will come from russia and china. The classified version of that report . And what you think of. Some things i cant talk about right now. You were talking about the 2 3 strategy. I agree in terms of the greatest threat eventually would be or china and china i could say. The other three are important too. Thats north korea, iran, and isis. So thats the strategy that hes priority to as a get to us. So you really have two different of strategies. Is one is i mentioned it north korea. Thats the one that every person comesmes to our meeting to our hearing and public televised hearing. They come up now. Were talking in the military now. They say we have the greatest faced, that weve ever because in the case of north jongun isguy, kim totally unpredictable. They always use that word un predictable. Scary when you are un predictable. You have a weapon delivery system. Let me hasten to say, i know the credittics are out there watch ing us right now. Yes, they have something that i can range continental United States. Dontill say, well, we know on november 28 when they demonstrated they had the range kind of a payload they had. Or if they had any payload at all. Yes, if it is increase and if you cant use the pounds. Increase by the amount of weapon then maybe they have made that kind of a range. And the other thing is the reentry. You are in a trajectory and you come back in, it is anyicult to come in with accuracy at all. Comfortsnt give me any host hear our entire newsmaker at 10 00his morning a. M. Eastern and 6 00 p. M. At cspan and cspan radio. If you miss it there, you can find it online at cspan. Org. Were joined next by dakota wood , a former strategist with the marine corps, military veteran, a former strategist and senioh development for the defense programs. Joining us this morning to talk about the readiness of u. S. The newnd overall Defense Strategy unveiled by the pentagon. Us about yourtell military experience that lead you to the position you have at heritage. A u. S. Marines as i graduated in 1985. I refired in 2005. In the last dozen years ive organizations that dealt with defense analysis, operation concept development, and prior heritageming to the foundation i was at the Marine Corps Special operations. Bit of everything. Host one of the reasons were having you join us and certainly headline in your Heritage Foundation report on u. S. Readiness, u. S. Military is in death spiral you write about in your report. By that . Ou mean guest well, lets say you have a fleet of taxis or family cars. You continue to under invest and dont reduce the use, they start breaking. One due to lack of maintenance or repair parts, then the fewer number that you again if you dont reduce the use of them, they get used to that more quickly. Thats what weve seen in the military. Weve under invested relative to what we asked the military to do over the last 15 or 20 years. Break,s and equipment they get smaller, they are still used up at a high level, you whereinto the spiral things are used up and broken or not replaced, repaired, properly managed. Host youve mentioned the last weve been in a state heightened military activity. Iraq and different parts of the world. Why hasnt that been a higher priority with the military . Theres always competing interest. We have the obligations abroad. All policy decisions that are made. The countries attacked and when to respond to that. To remove sanctuar ies for terrorists elements, maybe organizing and conduct additional attacks like what would be the case in afghanistan, then you stay involved in that period of time. Back here at home we have things like infrastructure and education and health care. This is a whole rash of things that compete for attention and certainly with funding. So the problem going in to 2001 1990s we would under invested. It is so the union was gone. The cold war was over. Now you are at full combat operations in 2001 and 2003. Iraq. In to its always been just enough to sustain the current operation. The utes that were back home ed to deteriorate. Weve gotten to a point that the bill is catching up to us. Youve probably had a fair sense of hill military history. Have we been in a position where the conflict starts when it was vietnam or gulf war that the personneleadiness and and equipment was ready for the challenging that were ahead in the coming years . Guest no. Thats one of those cycles. After a war everybody is tired of it. For it to be done. Everybody comes back home. Thats a good thing. The dramatic drop off of spending on defense. It goes into the bathtub. Because people feel that, you know, other things like diplomacy and economic are the besthich option fail to prevent the rise of tyrannical power. So people will try to avoid going to war. Again it is a completely understandable reaction. But you are always in a Lower Readiness than what you really need to be once you get into the conflict. Found ourselves over the history of the United States in a major conflict about every 15 years. Host i want to get into some of the details you have in the heritage. You talk about general allen one third oft only the bier raid combat teams and one fourth of the aviation brigades are considered ready. Has been precip ties in details. Force is 20 short of the fighters they need. Also the marine corps in sufficiently manned, trained, operation in an everevolving operational environment. 276 shipsvy, only that the navy had twothirds of the ships it did near the end of the cold war, the smallest battle fleet since before world war i. Shopping list. Guest it is. If youve seen some of the discussions about the upcoming fiscal year, and the one to follow, they are trying to to rectify funding this problem. Ive seen some exchanges with secretary of defense, bob worth. Certainly weve seen secretary of defense mathis and general dunfort who has talked about the deteriorated state and capacity, stuff and the readiness of what you do have. End of the cold war 780,000 soldiers in the active duty army were down to less than 480,000. Fighterir force 75 squadrons, now they are down to 32. Off inen a dramatic drop capacity. Then again that reduced capacity time cantt all the help but get worn out. Host our guest is dakota wood. Militaryking about readiness and the strategy of the pentagon going forward. Is 2027488000. 2024788001. E independents and all others 2027488002. We have a line for active and re military. Thats 8003. Some from secretary mathis about this last week. How does what you are saying in terms of our equipment and personnel readiness jive with are proposing are the strategy and the challenges a military . He u. S. Guest it aligns fairly well. Secretary mathis and the direction he gave to the National Defense strategy is thes be realistic about nature of the world and the nature of the competitors that have evolved over the last decade. He calls out russia noting what theyve done in europe with from ukraine,ory and much more aggressive in the baltic seas, what theyve done theyria to help prop up regimes. Then he calls out china and the islands of the south china sea, jongun regime a float. Actions in thee western pa tisk ocean with other neighbors states like japan and vietnam and the philippines, et cetera. It is very realistic, i think. The theyve done in classified annex has been much more realistic about the real shortfalls and the hard decision s that will have to be allocateerms of how we military forces to address the competitors. Host do you get access . Guest i have not read the classified annex. We try nod to do that kind of stuff at the Heritage Foundation even though we maintain active clearances. We dont want the independent acknowledge and what we look at to by kind of insider tainted knowledge. We wouldnt want to give away something we shouldnt be talking about. Host we have a number of calls. Before that we talked about the defense. The number going up in defense. The headline late in the week was about 2019. Resolved 2018 yet. They plan to ask for 116 defense, a National Major increase. Where do you think most of the funding will be focused . Guest it will have to go to readiness. Capacity, expanding hes got to make sure the current force we have is ready. Guest in terms of training and making sure we have munitions available that people would be used as they are doing today over syria and in support of operations in afghanistan. If he had a dollar to spend, hes going to spend it on readiness, even though that incurs the risk of modern replacing old and worn out equipment. Host first to New Hampshire on democrats line. Caller good morning. Taking my call. Im a retired army officer. Started out in 1960 over in germany. I noticed since we got rid of the draft and got the profession we spendry an enormous amount, much, much more on manpower and personnel used to. Soldier is mak ing 30,000 a year. I dont think the russians and paying their military personnel that much. Ive heard the argument we have professional military, but weve created a warrior class. I think generally were spending we much on the military when spend more than the five, six, combined. Ther nations makingl have problems our policy successful. Aboutit is time to think a less aggressive military rest of theard the world. Ill, you know, take your comments off of the air. Host theres about three big issues that you raised in there. Caller one is the policy how we engaget the world. That differs by administration. At where ourlook interests might be challenged, how we stand with friends and regions, access to markets and material resources. All of those sorts of things. They certainly need to respond of terrorism. Those policies are decided in thetes between congress and administration. Those decisions are made. When you decide to go about find ourselveswe in a major conflict. You need a force ready to go. Talented, trained, well equipped, and supported personnel. Recruit into the u. S. Military, you are competing with market. Lian job what kind of housing and education as opposed to a course as you mentioned that largely is used in other countries where they are not well educated, they bottom of the pecking order in terms of the social and economic strategy, and they arent well taken care of. Those arent in alignment with american values. Expensive. Osts are that means were taking care of our people. Fight, that in to a has good equipment and they are well trained. Thats the intent. Compete forle to good talent with other opportunities on the civilian market. The marine corps, for example, better than 60 of its opent is dedicated personnel dedicated to personnel alone. Does that mean too much . No. To recruit. You hinted at some of the differences. The nature of the people they bring in, how well they are supported, and whether they are revealing, and then you have the thing called purchasing power parody. How far does the dollar go in the United States compared to other countries . China has increased its spending years. Er the last 25 and they are able to do things in a command control of the arent able to do in the u. S. Economy. Colleagues. Ouple of they are in heritage and the great paper that blows apart the we unnecessarily spend 12 countrthe ten or ies and why thats not the case. Woods reporting on chinas spending. You write that china is spending as much on defense in the early 1990s. Building a Blue Water Navy and Stealth Fighter to compete with americas f22. Portsmith, virginia. Caller good morning. Im a retired navy chief. Years. D for 24 ive heard they are saying the doing better with President Trump than president obama. Was a chain of command and also we serve on the ucmj. How is it that President Trump can allow the generals to do things unlike president obama allowed the generals to do thing s . Makes athink it really real big difference. Because the generals have to ucmj. Under i think it is said that the been able to do better a better job on underent trump than president obama. Thanks for making my call. Caller absolutely. Governs book that discipline and how folks are dealt with in the court system and when thing need to correct things. It is more restrictive. The challenge on how well or poorly general officers and admirals and such operation under administrations doesnt necessarily have to do with the of command which always exists. It is the permissions that are given. Are decisions retined at the high level, at the white house, for example, or are authorities further out into the operating forces where local morends are able to take independent action. So the holding tide or releasing varies bys administration. Eramaybe aware of vietnam photographs of president johnson on the floor with maps and military should attack in vietnam. That would be one example to problems isnt a unique to the age. That the criticism is during the things werestration tightly controlled at the National Security council and the white house in terms of what going on in iraq and afghanistan. In the Trump Administration, a lot of the authorities back to the operational commands to different parts of the world. Host republican line. You are on the air with dakota wood. Good morning, jim. Caller good morning. Thank you. I would like to ask your guest well, when i hear the discussions about the increased how for military spending, can the American People be ed that it is accurate . Remember well president eisenhowers warning to us when theeft office about military industrial complex. To your like speaker to address or that issue. Debate isf this controlled by the private benefits from this additional spending . Thank you. Guest yeah. I would like the aggressive media andthe broadcast access and filings hearingsrecords and that occur on capitol hill and investigative journalism. I think it reveals a lot more reveal inossible to previous decades. So the various committees on call capitol hill, holding the executive Branch Accountable and not only representatives from the industry and the defense industry, but also your Service Military services and then the secretary. Secretary of the army, air force , and navy, et cetera. All of that provides some transparency. It provides an opportunity for American People to their elected representatives to expenditures. If a program isnt doing well, why would we want to spend nickel on it. We saw previous secretaries of future who canceled the combat system. Other major Weapons Systems that nonbeen canceled for performance. These are all good indicators. Dollarsnot mean the arent misspent or wasted. I think as a percentage of the total budget, it is a pretty small amount. I think the american taxpayer should be fairly well assured ds arent misspent or that the military leadership needs everything that it can get given the pace of Current Operations and they are low to ways any dollar they receive. I go back to that report at offeredion that maybe or asked for in the 2019 budget. Mind we havent nailed down the 2018 budget. Washington post said the is a victory for general mathis who said he wants to re deterhe military to and if necessary fight a major conflict with powers such as china and russia. The secretary unveiled the plan this past week and talked about like for then pentagon operating under budget constraints. Heres what he said. No enemy in the field has done more to harm the u. S. Readiness and the military than combined impact of the budget control acts spending cut us operating in nine of the last ten years under resolutions wasting Copious Amounts of precious dollars. Today as our Competitive Edge due tor foes erodes budgetary confusion, even with gathering, america s military is operating under yet another continuing resolution. For too long weve asked our stoically carry test at any cost attitude as they tirelessly to accomplish the mission thats now in adequate and misaligned re because thely congress could not maintain regular order. Do budget battles on capitol hill cause such a military . R the including the cr, the continuing resolution. Guest right. The federal fiscal year begins on october 1st. Andou were to get a budget you start spending the money. You spread it out to plan for ships andnance of airplanes, training exercises, are only so many train ing areas. You have to cycle. Sohip yard can only handle many ships at a time. You carefully sequence all of the action throughout the 12 month period. If you start the year and dont have a settled budget, a continuing Resolution Says that you can only spend to the level the Previous Year you cant do anything new. You cant increase procurement something, you cant start a to buy a newon item to replace an aging item. Work whereght in the things i had plan to do i cant. Expends, theat worse the problem gets. Because i had wanted to bring a ship into maintenance. I now delay that three months. Well, that work was supposed to have been over with my january. Was supposed to go to ship number two. What do i do . Repair ship number two . Go ahead and bring it in when i now shipget going and number two is delayed . Ast has this built in culture of expecting cr . Thea plan for not getting money. Guest right. They will work two or three different budgets. Budget and how to spend it. They do a second budget on how we gote spend money once it in the latter part of the year. Ofyou get a years worth money and you have eight months left to spend it in, now you have a lot of waste. Trying to rush it to manufacturers who may have more crew or outside parts from other vendors to get it quickly. The prices are higher. Spendsting of money and ing more than what would have needed because you are delayed in getting the resources has really caused a lot of conflicts. Ross the host lets get a few more calls chris on democrat line. Caller good morning. Are you . Thanks to cspan. Most of us know warned us ofgton foreign entanglements, time. Ally in europe at a lot of our history has brought us to where we are. Is an obsolete kind of philosophy. Positionhrust into a of world leadership. Our military has to be ready. Unfortunately thats the reality of the world. I just think it would be best if it in a more efficient way. We need to remember that we have other national priorities. You know, peoples health, oflth, and all of that type thing. And we cant just continue to spend unlimited funds on our military. You know, it is a tough situation. Think anybody who is an american would have to the necessity of a Strong Military. Host how important is it for the nato allies to increase the spending . Are we taxed further not tax ed but stressed further by them spending at a level where they should be . Worsened the problem of the secretary of defense and secretary of state have been clear about that. Nato is an organization. Theountries are part of organization. They set targets of 2 of the gp d, gross domestic products spending on defense. A few that meet that level. Those are domestic policy thesions they made because government subsidized large portions to the economy and on the daily living with the citizens. Do we care about that . It comes back to harm our interest. Aggressiveve an character like russia out there things like to do when they invade ukraine and and the balticd nordic countries. Were urging them and pleading with them trying to coerce them into spending more because we benefit from that. We could spend less in the area. To just walk away. Even though they are spending less than what they should, it still creates problems for the u. S. As a caller just mentioned, you cant ignore the nature of the world. If you havent been to see the movie darkest hour on churchill, he was dealing with the same kind of problems with not wantw country men, ing to get involved, but he aspirationslers are going to bleed over into britain. Nd great the United States have a bigger channel in the pacific. We still have to deal with ris ing powers in north korea, iran, and china and russia who thetrying to develop ability to influence greater parts of the world. Host lets get a couple of call backtoback here. , your comments. Caller hi. Im happy to weigh in. The Caller Support from wyoming. I have a Strong Military service in my family. Im very pro military. I admire the military for being laboratory of social mobility and, you know, gender equity, whatever. Is just a great career. We have a great nation. Server my late father who ed in the army, air corps in world war ii, active duty, and finished out his service in pro curement at okinawa. He later become a cpa. Just decried the military waste and price gouging. To my knowledge, to the day, the undergone a never full transparent audit like the do. Ican citizens have to host good point. One more call. That. Ask about caller hello. 57 years ago, i was in the navy. Up. T hang it highs in the military budget. Post last spring, we was paying are you still there . Host yes. Comment, johnyour year 536. 3 billion a plus 23 billion child earned illegal aliensor and daca. Money off take the and put it in the military budget. The comment onto the federal audit. The audit of the pentagon. Members of Congress Asked for that. Guest yeah. Theyve initiated that. The of the problem is expanse of the military. Two million service members. You add about 700,000 or so in civilian members. They are in the department of defense. The colors of money, in other words what it can be used for, gaited over the year allocated over the years , sometimes the shortterm longterm funding, you see mergers and acquisitions, how do you diverse and acquire property when you close a base or open a area . Aining all of these are transactions that have to be accounted for. Notsprawling operations just in the United States but globally as well have to be accounted for. Massive under taking. Orders of magnitude larger than orakery or car manufacturer the airline industry. So theres a recognition that needs to be done. Of activities have to be funded. I mean you have to, you know, the sorts ofto do audit work which are above what normal financial transaction would be in the first place. When you are squeezed for fund ing and you have things like theinuing resolutions and budget which reduced available funding, where do you get that accountant toan do the additional work . Increasing the funding helps with the Washington Post this. It will cost taxpayers 24 million. Steep climb. Guest it is the unique nature of military equipment. The direct nature. You dont just buy a the local best buy or lowes. These are all custom made because of the configuration of they need to do and how re liable they need to be. Force one has to stay off for days at a time, which it can do. A good know if thats price tag or not. Usually military expenditures are fairly unique because of the equipment in which the equipment is being used. See a parallel use in the civilian environment. Wood insight from dakota and the Heritage Foundation. Thanks for being with us. Is a great pleasure. Thanks. Host more ahead. Meet ezra nevins. Here to talk about the progressive, the agenda, and the shutdown. Well also hear later from John Auerbach and how the shutdown impacts Public Health agencies. Washington Journal Journal ahead. Are from . Ou hes a surprise. He called me over. Hes the president of the United States. If he says who are you . Of dont not. Caitriona perry talks about covering President Trump after the 2016 election season. Is incredibly provocative. It does on the pin. What hes talking about and play the notion that d. C. Was built on a slump and by training and taking it the horrible people that live there and replaces it with better people. That was something that, you know, whether they believed him that he couldeved fulfill that or not, they were on himd to take a chance tonight on 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. This week on the we take you to the Consumer Electronics show in las vegas and speak about the latest developments in artificial intelligence, virtual 360degree camera, and enhanced communications. At 8 00nday night eastern on cspan2. Washington journal continue s. Joined by ezra nevin s. Hes here to talk about the shut immigration proposal, and whats ahead for the Democratic Party in 2018 and near term whats ahead in the immigration discussion . Project. Bout your the indivisible project. About . What all guest sure thing. In 2016ter the election were goingnd i transitions. We can tell them how congress works. Suddenly all of the indivisible chapters starting forming all over the country. There are 6,000 all over the congress. Bluest of blue and reddest of red. Is theividual project organization that we set up to the Ground Troops on host how have you been active in the elections that weve seen so far . Guest yeah. We had ance in alabama indivisible auburn and montgomery, all of the groups were out there. We had a few folks helping with that as well. Fundamentally, it is about supporting the group and the local leadership in communities and getting involved on advocacy and getting involved in election s. Them to do it. Were here to support them. You feel like you are getting support from National Democratic organizations . About that . Erned guest indivisible is very individual from the Democratic Party. We are just outside of the structure. We think thats important, know, part of the battle is ensuring that it isnt rubber stamped by republicans. The other battle is making sure democrats stand up for progress ive values. We see a lot of our members with areor two senates who democrats. Sometimes they are cheering them on. Sometimes they say, hey, i want to see you fight harder against agenda. P host headlines after the shut down last week. What was the indivisible project view of the shutdown last week . And how it was resolved . Guest yeah, when were thinking about the shutdown, you are to think how did we get there . The answer is that trump unilaterally chose to end the da ca program. He did it in september. Congress had the chance in september whether or not to push back on trump. Not to. Se republicans have been in line not reinstating the daca program. It is up to democrats to say no. Back in september they said were not going to put up the fight now. To use the leverage in december. December came and went. Fightgoing to put up the in january. Thats when they said, look, thee not going to pass budget that pays for deportation or the documented use for the daca. F they started fighting for those progressive values. It was great to see. To see theited democrats out there fighting for it. On monday, they gave into the demands. That was really disappointing. Host some reaction from on that. Gutierrez has been active. Part of his statement said i how a vague promise about a vague policy to be voted the dreamfuture helps ers or maximized the leverage. It shows me when it comes to immigrants, latinos, and their families, immigrants arent willing to go to the mat to allow them to live illegally. Are you seeing more people view or aligning with the compromise that senator agreed to . All, represent ative gutierrez has big advocate for this issue. This is fundamental to who with are. We ought to be standing up to fight for this. It is the morally right thing to do. Were talking about supporting school and work ing in the military. It is also politically the strategic thing to do. I was talking to the individual in the battleground state. And got a full time job. Shes doing this in the weekend and her free time. Told me ive committed to theg knocking on doors in battleground district. Were hoping to fled. A Community Going every single week. Ive got to drive an hour out from and an hour back. Fightmocrats kept on not ing for the dreamers. When Chuck Schumer started stand ing up, it made me want to there so much more. I was talking it her in the middle of the shutdown. Up. Was jazzed a lot of democrats are counting on the big blue wave to carry them through. They want to retake the house and senate. What were arguing is not only daca theng up for morally right thing to do, this is how he billed the big blue wave. You generate the energy. Make thegoing to democrat majority the speaker of the house. Thats how we win. You said you were working on capitol hill. Who . Worked for dodd. Ellis. Worked for perry host you are from texas . Guest yes. The localsee perspective. Guest absolutely. It is not just one state. Undocumented youth are in every state. Are with ezra levin. We welcome your calls. 000 for democrats. Good morning, mike. Morning, cspan. Good morning, ezra. Mike. Hi, caller yes. I have some questions for you. I went to the web site. You have a banner on the front that says cooking up resistance. A take off from the claim that he was spirit cooking . Guest i dont know anything about that. I will say that the indivisible the ground one of the things i love about them is they ideas aboutup new how to make their voice heard. Our message to the group that spread out in every single group in the country. Zip code and find one nearby. They are figuring out ways to senators and one representative know heres how i feel about the issue and heister representing me in congress. The fact that it isnt command and control. Us telling everyone what to do. It means theres a lot of creativity throughout the movement. A lot of interesting new things are cooked up every day. Host we noticed the group and team active last night in the at the trumptol hotel on the oneyear the muslim ban. Videos of thesome visual flashing on the front of the trump hotel. Orlando, west in virginia. Democrats line. Thank you for the opportunity most people that were brought here as children and babies, this is their country. Havent lived any place else. Be givenhey should citizenship. The problem then they are going to spend 25 billion just to with mexico. And 90 of the people that are flew in here at airplanes. It is obvious we cant build a wall high enough to keep the airplanes out. We need to stop it at route cause. Hiring thethat are illegally should be put in jail. 10,000ould be a fine per day and the ceos that are needs to goompany to jail. I know the republicans is not going to do that. Because it is the wealth of the republicans that not paying them anything. Are todays slaves, because they are not paying them. If youve got an illegal mowing your grass or washing your changing your dirty diapers on your baby and you get caught, you need to go to jail for it. Thats my take. They need to put them in jail. Over the folks that came when they were young and babies. They were working in the military and raising families. They ought to be able to say this is their country. This is what they know. Were on the democrats line. I would point out to everybody else watching, it is not just democrats who think that. The vast majority of republicans the dreamats support ers. This should be a no brainer for all of us. Should have a clear bipartisan bill on the book. It should pass. For thatheres support the only thing standing in the that is senateg majority leader, Mitch Mc Connell, the republican who leaves the senate, and donald trump who is blowing up the deal to allow that to happen. Host liz from pennsylvania on the democrats line. Welcome. Caller hi. What . Ow i im glad your organization exists. To your web site. Heres the thing. I agree the daca people should allowed to stay. Im just wondering whether it the government shut down. You say the democrats arent playing about it. I want to know who they are. A very democratic area i dont know anybody that was willing to shutdown our or go to the mat for immigration. I dont. I feel sorry for the daca people i live in an area where the latinos they dont have if door, theres the no english signs. You dont advertise and, you talk english,to what you are telling me is im not welcome here. Host do you think members from the pressure from constituents back home and democrat support ers back home not to thee this whole deal on future of those immigrants, immigrants. Guest coming down with that, democrats were just trying to hold Mitch Mcconnell and the republicans to their promise which was back in december. They said in january we will get to vote. I think it is i would push back a little bit on the characterization that democrats were shutting down the government on this. There was a bipartisan bill on both sides to pass this. A tiradeump went on and blew up the deal. Thats what caused the shutdown. Well keep the government open for five days, or pass a bipartisan deal that weve put together. Happy to do that. There was no reason for the shut down. Shutdown aur post dreamers, you are writing that you think Mitch Mc Connell has no intention of taking up in debate. Have an immigration proposal actionll be some sort of and committee in the floor debate. No evidence that Mitch Mcconnell is going to live up to his word. To see something get done on the issue whereas the republicans and trump in the states. We havent seen that. Thats really distresses. Peoples lives are in balance here. It is the responsibility of democrats to say look, were going to fight as hard for our as they are fighting against. Independent line. Caller hi. I have a problem with your of this ist all ingmps fault for eliminate or deciding to end the daca program. I thought it was partially adjudicated. The Supreme Court let stand a that court ruling essentially said the program had or asestablished in law it was with put in place by executive order by obama, that was the part that was un acceptable. So the fact that trump is follow ing what the court said is not his fault. Guest thank you for your question. That n this out there i just i think it is worth doing a little bit of research. Own time. It on your it was a common misconception. In onprogram was fine legal footing in september. That donald trump issu order to end the program was his choice. It is very clear. We wouldt issued that, have had daca in october, november, december, and this month in january. It would still exist. It was the unilateral action that caused this. Dont just trust me. I would encourage you to do the research and find the facts. Assure that thats what happened. Line heres the republican in mississippi. Hi there, jim. Caller good morning. Would like to daca i got just a cover. Can you break down for daca to legalanS Immigration . What is the difference between d aca and Legal Immigration thats proven the set by the constitution . Listen, it is a general credit. They really wanted daca to be approved, they would have did it when they had the president and the house and everything else. Started. Just has been going on for years. You a responseve on numbers in terms of immigrant 650,000 a lowball figure for the number of active recipients december 4th. This is how many people have by 2012 and 2017. Broaden out the explanation . Guest sure. The folks who got the daca status, it was created by the obama administration. Brought over to babies, as children, as newborns, and in the u. S. They had gone to school, served in working jobs, raising families. This is the country they know. Daca program says, hey, for all of you folks who have been here and this is the only know, were you going to allow you to stay. Were not going to threaten you with deportation. Youe going to give protection to work the job and finish school, et cetera. So this is the program that talking about. Now the your earlier question so why didnt the democrat s do this before when obama was there. Set up the program through executive action and there was a request in congress to get this done. But unfortunately senator mitch thennell who was then Senate Minority leader and now majority leader, hes been in way. I would love to see a bipartisan compromise. I dont think this is just a or talking point. Like i said earliering the vast andrity of democrats republicans and independents support the program. Withould see an easy bill no problem. Faceing is were and mcmitchtrump connell are using it as a up the point to ralley base. Host republican line. Caller yes. How are you doing . Guest hi, jerry. Caller im out here in texas now. Lived most of my life in california. I have lived on the border in 15 years. In commercial construction for eight years a reasonable approximation of immigrants working on the building. On the grounds, more than you sir. You know things i dont know. Working on false documentation. The reason why i want to bring immigration is thats why daca was created. Theres nobody saying we conservatives alike are not say ing support the daca people. It is a non seq. Order. It is a straw man argument. They were brought here as babies we all know that. I want to pass legal citizenship what we want and what mc want, wend trump want Border Security along with this. Unreasonable about that . These people ill just end it we want a compromise as you are suggesting. Security with the pathway to citizenship for daca people. Jerry, thanks. Great hearing from a fellow texan, of course. That whiled say is it might be the case that trump and republicans and other folks hill dont want to see the Daca Recipients resorted, thats what is happening right result of their action. 122Daca Recipients lose their status every day. 1,000 aoing to go above day after march. That has real human impact. Have a whole debate about broadly how immigration policy work in the country. If you and i both agree that the ought to not have to worry for their livelihood and we can agree to that, why not get it done. Overwe can knock it out what immigration policy ought to be. If thats a thing we can agree can do that. Theres support for it. To see. Hat we want host couple of comments, keep good fight. Welcome to deferred action. Forould have argued permanent action kicking the can , he amplified the crisis. Guest i think obama gets a lot implementing the d aca plan. I would have loved to see Congress Pass a permanent fix. Thats ideal. The fact is as ive said, this shouldnt be a partisan issue. It shouldnt be democrat or republican. This is something that everybody supports. Know that immigration is a contentious issue and that folks opinions onf various aspects of it. Everybody can agree that daca aught to have that protection and ensuring they can families in the military. Thats a no brainer. Regardless of what kind of representative that we have. Telling them i know you are dealing with a lot, this is something we move forward on. It and get on to the next thing. Ray on the republican line guest hello. Caller yes. I was raised in san juan king valley in california. A lot of spanish people. With them. Chool they came over and stayed. Now these werent babies. They werent little kids. These were middleaged i mean and above. Now everybody calls this babies, babies. Ple are thats not true. And this started with ronald reagan. Him in to letting one Million People immigrants and get citizenship. Now weve got 12 million and more. So thats what if you agree these peopleet stay here, you are going to have 24 million by the time it is over. Porous. Er is it needs to be fixed. Host let me ask any echoes of 1986 debate and the immigration bill and debate in 1980s to what were see ing now . Guest it is funny. If you go back to theres a video. The people may have seen it in their feed somewhere of the 1980 president ial debate in the primaries and the republican primary. Reagan andgot Ronald George h. W. Bush. Debating immigration policy. They are debating and enjoying a what ourart about immigration policy ought to look like. What we would like to see republicans and democrats coming together. We might not agree on everything agree these folks that came over when they were children, the folks that only know this they ought to be safe here. This is their country. They are americans. Is fact thats not happening really disheartening. Again i dont think this should be a partisan issue. Is right now. Because Mitch Mcconnell figur ryan and donald trump are refusing to allow this to move forward. The proposalshink the president introduced and the familybased migration and the ending of the lottery dacem will be part of if a is included will be part of the final legislation. A brand new idea that donald new idea after bipartisan was brought to them. It is offensive to many on the frontlines of the immigrant community that a sequela donald trump is saying is we will provide you Daca Recipients of protection but the your families. We are going to use the use as a bargaining chip and it is unacceptable. I do not see that becoming part of a final deal. There was a bipartisan deal for daca. If donald trump does not win to get behind this, congress should pass it and force them to veto it. Host lets get one more call from california. Independent line. Yes, i think your guest should explain to the public that he is speaking to this morning that the president does not have the authority to make a law in violation of the current laws on immigration. Obama did not have it, and trump does not have it. It is up to the congress to make a law to change the current immigration law. You are putting out a lot of false information. That is not true. As aou are really here spokesman for the Democratic Party. That is my comment. Caller it is worth saying it again that indivisible is not an arm of the Democratic Party. Sometimes, and in this case, we are pressuring democrats to do something different. If the question on president has the ability to make law . Some things they can affect, like when trump decided to end the daca program. But to make permanent, you are right. Congress needs to act. See not additional executed action but congressional action, a law passed that gets support from both sides and i think that is the right track. You are right to push that. Host democratss line, next. Henrietta. Good morning. I have been listening to this young man. He is really misinformed. First of all, obama made two programs. And dapa. Dapa went to front of the courts. The courts let the lower decision stands, which said all of it is legal, so to help the daca chin,he right thing. Sos young man is just uninformed. It is unbelievable. Guess what . Leave inhese daca i Hudson County i live in Hudson County most of them do not speak english. Host henrietta, lets ask ezra levin about dapa. What happened with that . The story ofnk Immigration Reform over the last several years is a story of attempt to do congressional action. In the absence of that, trying to do the best you can do executive action which is not enough to pass a permanent program. In an ideal world, we would see democrats and republicans come together and pass laws. In this case, they have not been able to get and we should push that. Host we saw a bill passed in the senate in 2013, when happened to that effort . Caller we do not control the house of representatives and you need the house and the senate to get something done. Host lets hear one more call from new york. Tony on the democrats line. Caller good morning. This is a very intelligent young man and that went to represent the compromise. I hope you dont cut me off. I would like to respond when he hears what i have a. I paid 36,000 in taxes to put my son through 12 years of public school, as did my parents, and my grandparents, who were immigrants. There was no safety net when my grandparents came here. They paid to put us through school. We are all successful, than god. Like you said come all of the daca kids to served in the military and have good jobs like i did, but now they want to stay. I agree they should stay. Here is the compromise. I believe the daca families should make a contract with america, be vetted by july 4 of this year to agree to pay back all of the free benefits that they got while they were here. They would get a chance to pay back all that money, the collective family, over time at a fair pace, deducted from their ay, just as we would the duck mortgage or a college loan. Host i will let you go. We are running out of time. Caller i think there is a common misconception that in some ways the daca kids or their parents were not paying taxes. They were. Immigrants are indeed paying taxes. If we look at the extension of the daca program, it is a moneymaker of the government. It makes a ton of money because people have to pay to register. Ending the daca program we are the federal government of the revenue they could use to pay for services. Host ezra levin is codirector and founder of the indivisible project and you can follow them on twitter at ezralevin. Coming up next, we will hear from John Auerbach with the trust for Americas Health, joining us to talk about changes and challenges facing the Public Health agencies in the u. S. When washington journal resumes. Tonight on afterwards, Republican National Committee Spokesperson on her book the new American Revolution the making of the populist movement. Shes interviewed by a senior columnist from daily beast. Conservatives say to me, why do you use this word . I not a populist. To me, it sums up what the book is about and it is the people. I wanted to honestly profile the people. On the left and right. Most of the voters are profiled were trump voters but i did profiled some who are not. To me, it was capturing a sentiment that drove an electorate to deliver one of the most astonishing electoral defeats we have seen in my lifetime and i think in modern history. It was a profile of the American People on given issues from terrorism to poisoned water in flint, michigan. Watch afterwards, tonight on cspan2a book tv cspan2s book tv. Communicators, we take it to the Consumer Electronics show in las vegas and speak at the latest developments in artificial intelligence, 360 degree cameras, and enhanced communications for self driving cars. Watch it at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Washington journal continues. ,ost with us is John Auerbach president and ceo of trust for Americas Health, joining us to talk about the impact of spending and programs ahead for the Public Health agencies in the u. S. , the shortterm measure , the Senate Just Passed it through february 8, would extend childrens Health Insurance agency but the funding of the Community Health centers is unsure and John Auerbach is who to talk about that. Tell us about your organization, trust for Americas Health. What is your focus . Guest morning. It is a nonprofit, Nonpartisan Organization based in washington. Our focus is on promoting the health and wellbeing of the American People. In particular, we have a focus on supporting the Public Health system and prevention activities , and we are completely independent. We dont take government, corporate money, we have no members. We are supported by foundations to be truly an independent voice. Host part of the reason we had you on this morning are the spending issues on capitol hill that have not yet addressed funding for Community Health centers, and this headline tells the story in the hill the shortterm spending bills leave Public Health agencies in suspense. We are talking Community Health centers, typically where are these and how much federal government assistance does a typical help center dot . Center get . Guest i have worked for a number of years that Community Health centers so i have direct experience. There are thousands around the country. They tendrovide to provide Clinical Services to low income people, or who have obstacles to Getting Health Care anywhere else, and they were like a great deal on federal funding because many of the people who use those centers may be uninsured or underinsured, therefore, keeping the lights on, keeping the doors open at the Community Health center requires federal support. Host we will have a special line for Public Health workers. Here are the numbers, 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. S and for independent, and for independents, 202 7488002. If you are a Public Health worker, call us at 202 7488003. Similar to the conversation we had earlier about Defense Department spending. The hill writes that the shortterm measures hinder ahead, recruit staff, even as they keep the government obey. Target shortterm measure was to fund the childrens Health Insurance program that they had not resolved the funding for these immunity Health Centers. Why is Community Health Center Funding not included in the general funding for health and Human Services . Guest there is a Specialized Fund that needs to be approved, called the Community Health center funds, and that is aliens of dollars. Like the childrens Health Insurance program, it requires a special vote to be continued. That vote has not occurred. Funding for it has been put in suspension until that gets resolved, so for Health Centers across the country, that is problematic area by the way, problematic. By the way, it is not just talk centers affected by the budget issues are you it is also local and state Public Health departments around the country that kind themselves in a difficult straits. Departmentslth across the country count on funding and guidance from the annual appropriations . Guest well, the local and state Health Departments depend heavily on federal funds. About 50 of the funding for states, Public Health departments come from the federal government and that pace from Emergency Preparedness Infectious Disease activities like the flu season, immunization, and other preventive measures. With continuing resolutions and uncertainty about whether or not there will be a budget at a certain level, Health Departments are also hamstrung with regards to hiring, paying for supplies and equipment. Host what has efforts in the past year or more under the Trump Presidency to change or end the Affordable Care act provisions . E we saw some of the tax plan that passed. What has that makes for help agencies across the country . Guest local and state Health Departments have, for decades and decades, it is a safety net, if you will, for people who cannot get services elsewhere because they cannot afford them or do not have Health Insurance. Those agencies have tried to people theyhey see normally circuit Health Insurance and are able to go to a doctor or Community Health center, but when they adapt, say may be scaling back the safety net services. If they see there is uncertainty, will people lose insurance or will they need them again . They need to think about, what can we do . We know longer have the funds we had before to run the clinic, the vaccination clinic, so Health Departments around the country are concerned. Host as you look across the country, your organization, either states are areas where you are particularly concerned that help agencies are in real trouble . Guest guest this truly is a National Problem but we do see that there are some states where they rely more heavily on federal funds as they do on state funds or local funds. For example, in the southern states, states like you said statesama, and like mississippi, alabama, georgia, there is a disproportionate reliance on the federal government for healthrelated funds because legislatures in those states have not voted to provide the state with specific funding. When federal funds are impeded in those states, it is likely to have a part. Host are some states allowed percentage than others and does the federal government respond this . Ing, yes, we can do guest guest it depends. There are scores of different federal programs. Many of the programs give out their funds based upon a onpetitive process that is the conducted every several years. The state has to apply, demonstrate they can use them well, so it is not solely based upon need. It is based upon need and performance, and willingness to apply for it. Host you come to this position as the president and ceo of trust for Americas Health with broad background, including a Public Health commissioner in boston. We will go to our first caller on your Public Health line. Lets hear from brandon in california. Brenda in california. Caller good morning. When i would like to say is that i have been working in the health care for over 37 years now. Ofare in the Department Health in san francisco. We have many Health Centers. I am also a union person, so i communicate with people in all of those centers. There are some good things going on now in Public Health and some things that people see not so good going on. There are some political are bringings that things that are not so great, like this thing like the lean, like all Public Health being run as if it is toyota. All of these things are impacting everything. I do think that and we are worried now that translates as, what now that trump is in, what is going to happen to health . Decisions are being made that are having a negative impact on people working in Public Health based on the fact of what might not happen in the federal government. Host thanks for calling. Guest thank you, brenda and thank you for your service and Public Health. It is a difficult time to be in Public Health service at the city level because of the uncertainty about funding for and in california, where do work, this year has been a trying time because we have seen the importance of Public Health in responding to some of the emergency in your states, such as the wildfires, the mudslides, Public Health is often involved in responding to situations like that to make sure that lives are saved, that injuries are minimized, and that people are able to get back to their lives as quickly as possible. Host this is from the health 202 in the Washington Post, they write that Community Health inters technically expired september 30, which provides a range of services to the loop in the population that will lose 3. 6 billion this year with that renewal. It was a surprise that lawmakers allowed the bipartisanship to go on someone without inuvo, especially because democrats and republicans praise the program and have voted overwhelmingly to vote its. It is more shocking to some Health Care Advocates that congress has permitted Community Health and intel labs this long. That is in the Washington Post. Her points pretty well taken, why isnt Community Health Center Funding as popular as pictured program . As a chip program . Guest i think they are very popular in a nonpartisan way. They are being held hostage towards partisanship and tensions that exist in congress. Truly, there is broad support on both sides of the aisle or Community Health centers, and we have seen that repeatedly. However, in preparation for today, i spoke to a number of people in Community Health centers who were talking about the dangers of scaling back their hours with uncertainty about funding, maybe closing one staff. Eek, laying off when Health Centers are worried about that or thinking of closing some doors, it starts to worry. In longview, washington, jesse, good morning. Democrats line. Caller i appreciate this mans comments. I think he is right on the money. But i went to address the concern but i want to concerned that address address the concern of Mental Health issues and local communities. It is very concerning. There is not enough funding for these establishments. Are you concerned that in your area that those programs are not being funded . Yes, sir. In my specific area, in longview, washington, these problems are not being addressed. Know, it affects all of society, all of us. Once again. I appreciate this mans comments. Issuesddressing these i would just like to bring this to the forefront. Host thanks for opening up the topic, Mental Health or rims. How prevalent are they in these Community Centers and state agencies and what is the status of them . Guest nationally in the last several years, we have seen the seriousness of Mental Health and Substance Abuse issues within the country. When we look at the data with regard to causes of death, we have seen a significant increase in opiate overdoses, and death for related to alcohol and in suicides. All of them relate to Mental Health and offensive Substance Abuse. We refer to those as diseases that despair. We think it is critically the services to address those issues before the integrated into primary care sites, Community Health centers, addressedhey also are by local and state Public Health departments with a particular focus on prevention. Are healthiere longer or resilient, as we sometimes stay. We are facing a crisis with regards to those issues now. That is very much related to making sure we have Public Health systems that are functioning well, and indie Health Centers addressing those issues. Host was there additional money focused when the president and white house announced the Opioid Crisis was a national emergency, was there more funding after that . Guest there was not more funding made available after the president announced that this was an emergency. We thought it was good to draw attention to that, and we also thought the recommendations that came out of the president s commission were excellent. But money to actually implement those recommendations has not come yet. In the past year, there have been some services of overdose prevention, and some access to treatments, but not enough and not enough of a focus on how to prevent this from occurring so that we dont just address peoples needs at the point where they are addicted, that we think about how to keep people from becoming addicted or developing Mental Health problems to begin with. Host on a more basic level, we are on the midst of a near flu epidemic on this past weeks washington journal, we had the head of the institute for allergy and Infectious Disease. He talked about how their programs are impacted by limited budgets or budget debates on capitol hill. Heres what he said. [video clip] what happens is when you shut. Downthe governments, you have to perpetually even though it was shut down for a short amount of time when you shut down the governments, you have to perpetually prepare for it. Even if it is a short amount of time, you have to decide who is essential and nonessential . That designation alone is one of the bigger damages you have. You have to tell somebody who is working very hard to protect the health of the nation at the cdc or have you, and say, you have got to go home. That is a morale kick in the butt. Host you talked about on the local level possible agencies considering shortening hours. And he talked about the impact on morale. Have we seen that, too . Guest definitely. I have spoken to a number of local Health Departments and Community Health centers that are not able to keep the hours of the clinics and special services that they need to because of the importance of addressing influence influenza as a result of budget cuts. Ors rights, the shutdown was problematic. I would add that there are additional problems that have to do it continuing resolution and the way that funding has created uncertainty on the part of Health Departments throughout the country. When you do not know what your budget is for the year, you cannot build vacant positions. Nobody wants to take a job with you can only them guarantee their job for two months. You cannot buy the supplies you need three you may not be able to get the flu vaccine because you have to buy six months of vaccine. If you have been only given enough for two months because of the interruptions involved in the continued resolution, so even when you get to the point of the shutdown, you already crippled the system and made it more difficult for us to work effectively. Are some of our viewers washing across the u. K. , john from scotland, good morning. Caller i want to talk about the health care system. I think america is shaming health. American people are very generous. It surprises me when i see that you do not put as much funding in your health as we do with u. K. Some people criticize it as the best in the world. For me, the American People are great. To bringd find a way democrats and republicans together to match the generosity of your nation and fund your help service properly. Ellicott donald trump and i see i look at donald trump and did not want to see his peoples healthy. I think getting American People to work together, i think you are a great country, you are missing this year. Host we will hear from st. Louis on the independent line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I am a retired registered nurse. I still work in the home care area. My concern is that we see a lot of cuts in medicare and medicaid that are affecting homebound clients and preventing them from receiving the care that they made to live in their home and my with dignity, question to you, sir, is what can be done to ensure that these Senior Citizens are not denied the care that they are eligible for their medicare . Because a lot of the sumter agencies are fearful of not because a lot of these home care agencies are fearful of not being reimbursed . Guest i certainly agree with to have we need adequate services for older adults in this country. It is important to people can live independently and healthy as long as possible within their homes. It makes sense from a humane perspective. It is the best for them and their families. If you just consider it from a cost perspective because if people cannot get those services in their home, theyre more likely to end up in the emergency room or hospital, where the costs are quite high. The coverage of services through medicare and Complementary Services that are offered often from the Community Health center for local and state health department, all need to come together where those services are blended or braided together. Those people who are meeting with their doctor, or if they need a home delivered meals, transportation, or avoiding social isolation and make sure they have a connection with the Community Agencies that can provide those services. So thinking about a coordinated approach to keeping older adults healthier in the home for a longer amount of time does require this perspective of keeping many different programs functioning and coordinated with each other. Host lets go to victoria in indianapolis on the democrats caller line. Yes line. Caller yes, my name is victoria. To every taking my call. Call. Nk you for taking my i am living on a fixed income and socalled tax break that i got this year was more than taken up by the increase in the that i had toe , uh, umm, health that i had to pay for. That. Eally upset about i am paying more for health care and getting less. Benefits security host i would to share other experiences. From the wall street journal, saying that idaho to allow plans outside of the aca, they say officials said they would begin allowing insurers to sell new plans that do not meet requirements set i the Affordable Care act. Im not sure what plan to caller talking about, but what are your thoughts question guest it is important that what are your thoughts . Guest it is Important Health care is affordable. If you cannot afford it, that is a problem and we need to Pay Attention to that. We also want Health Insurance that is meaningful, that will provide people with the services that they need if they get sick. Efforts thatr of cut back on services that are available to Health Insurance is that you think you are protected because you got a premium, you are covered, and when you are diagnosed with cancer, or if you become pregnant or if there is another reason you need help services, you do not want to find out at that point what you need is not covered. It is good for us to be creative and think of ways of making Health Insurance or do both, but i dont think we want to do that at the cost of the quality and conference of miss of the Health Insurance coverage. Host the two from alan in North Carolina last lets hear from alan in North Carolina. Caller my name is alan. My question would be that you see what the president hasnt done so far with the democrats nipping at his heels every step of the way. How far do you think he would have gotten if he had gotten a little help from both parties . He could have done a lot more. Hes got three more years, how that everybody put your big boy pants on and help . Host lets get one more call. George from maryland and independent line. Go ahead. Caller how are you doing . I am listening to your commentary here. It appears to me that the majority of the people actually want to have National Health coverage. And your Insurance Company is fighting tooth and nail to hold on to what they have. And the cost is escalating all the way for everything that it takes to get health coverage. Over r cost is way way over exceeds what we could have with the National Health coverage system. Needsk that that is what to be promoted. We would not have any copays everybody pays through attacks and it would be a lot cheaper than having to pay Health Insurance companies. And then we would not have to worry about Public Health funding. It would all the paid for through our taxes, income taxes. Give us your input on that, please. Guest well, it is certainly important we take the steps necessary in order to make Health Care Available to everyone and Health Insurance coverage available to everyone. We know from the Public Health arena that people are healthier when they had access to health care services, Health Insurance makes a difference in terms of your help, and Preventive Services and treating services when you need them. It is important for us to be thinking creatively and as much as possible in a nonpartisan way without the importance of addressing this issue. These kinds of issues should be exempt from the kind of partisanship that prevents creative problemsolving. Host your organization is a Nonpartisan Organization. You do not take government funding, but we had a new secretary of Health Human Services confirms, any thoughts on the new secretary and what he brings to the job . Guest we are pleased to has been confirmed because it gives us the opportunity to work with him. And we had been encouraged by some of his comments about his commitment to prevention and withc health and working different agencies within the departments, so we asked an organization the forward to sitting with him and talking about some of the issues we are talking about now, such as how to address Preventive Services when we can reduce the opiate crisis, how can we ensure there is assistance funding guaranteed so we can address the increase in terms of flu cases around the country, and how we can think about prevention in general . And a wide variety of different approaches, including tobacco, addressing obesity, so we are eager to sit down with him and begin to have those conversations. Host on the opioid epidemic, has organization but not into discussions with Government Agencies about solutions or potential solutions . Guest we had. Not long ago, we issued a comprehensive report called pain in the nation. It looked at 60 different evidencebased policies that would make a difference in terms of addressing the opioid epidemic. After we released the report, we heard from federal, state and local officials to talk about those accommodations in what could be done to make the difference and we have met with senior officials in the Trump Administration, as well as Congress Members and their staff, to think creative about what could be done. Host in georgia, the democrats line. Caller good morning. Rights, do not cut me off, please. Hear me out. Life hard fromis the cotton field to now. Problem with this medicare situation. I am 78 years old, paying 200 a month, and i had a sky in my eye. Ye in my eye. One medical agency paid zero and almost cost 100. The other one cost 80. The other one cost 90 something dollars. Pays zero dollars and you are still paying your money into it. Last year, i went to the doctor three times all year and im still paying the fees. Where is that money going . When you need it at that point in time, you cannot get help. Lets care for the people already here. Host thank you. Any final thoughts on her situation . At the barriers created when there are copays for medications, and what we found is even if the copay is as low as one dollar, for some people, that is enough not to get the prescription filled for chronic disease, so it is very important we think about eliminating those financial obstacles to medication, as well as healthcare services. What may seem like a small amount of money to one person can be the difference between one person getting the medications, paying for rent or their medications, so economic barriers to access is a problem, she indicates. Host John Auerbach is the president and ceo of trust for Americas Health. You can follow them on twitter. Thank you. We will continue with your calls and comments. We would open phone for the remaining 25 minutes. 202 7488000 for democrats. Republicans, 202 7488001. And for all others, independents, 202 7488002. We will be right back. This week on the communicators, we take you to the consumer electronic show in las vegas and speak about latest developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, 360 degree cameras, and enhance communications for self driving cars. Watch it on cspan2 at 8 00 eastern. Where are you from . Go ahead. I mean the moment itself, i described at the time, and i described it as bizarre, was a surprise when he called me over but he is the president of the United States and you are in the oval office. A thesis, who are you . , be her, when he says, who are you . You go over. A reporteron q a, talks about her book in america. During the slump, three words are provocative and desolate it says, immediately what he is talking about, and it plays on that notion that d. C. Was built on a slump, and by replacing it with better people, that was something that whether voters believed him or not or he could fulfill that are not, they were prepared to take a chance on it. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host it is open phones on cspan. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. Ndependents, 202 7488002 we will get lastminute tweets as well at cspanwj. Headline from the Greenville News in South Carolina no sanctuary. Our immigration fixes needed . They write that governor henry make faster once lawmakers to pass legislation to prevent sanctuary sitters and henry lawmakers to pass legislation to prevent sanctuary cities. The push comes as it requires reasonable efforts to determine if inmates are here illegally has brought different efforts to comply in different faces, including greenville, and anderson during a survey of sales and and anderson. A survey of jails good morning, mona. Caller hi. Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to comment about your first hour from 7 00 to 8 00. I stand corrected if i am wrong, no one calls from daca and no one called on the line for Illegal Immigrants. Host you are right about that. Caller and that tells us was only theat it legal immigrants that had in here for five years or more, and what he went through, and then the next hour, or that boy, he democrat, and a well, he was very biased. I would like to hear somebody speak up for citizens instead of Illegal Immigrants that they marched, they demonstrate with the mexican flag, and they tell our government what we should or have to do. I resent that. Host mona, your first ever come up pretty good observation because we did not have calls from our legal immigrants white and daca, but we have done segments before where we set aside lines really have had calls. Sometimes you cannot tell when people call and why, but you were listening. We appreciate that. In connecticut, tom on the democrats line. Caller thank you. I just want to bring up one thing about medical. The last two years it should have been done, but now that republicans are more in charge, are private partnership with walgreens, the governments, so others could go to walkin clinics right there where there there so you dont use emergency room street they thought they would save money on obamacare by people not going to Emergency Rooms but it did not usedout because people are to going to the Emergency Rooms and they dont get charged. If the government private partnerships that republicans always talk about, im hoping that can be worked on in the next few years. Host heres dorothy on the republican line in iowa. Welcome. Caller welcome, sir. Thank you for taking my call. I am calling on the half of my husband, who served in the navy during the cuban crisis. Three years he d. S diagnosed with cop we have been fighting this for two years and they keep fighting him down. He served his country well with pride and they cannot help them. We pay the va a little bit each month. We have social security. He is 76 years old and he works parttime. And i have been calling congressman, senators, and all i get is messages. I need to talk to somebody to help me. Just recognition, you know, he served his country well. Help, they needs the turned him down. And they said you know what else they say . They say that he did not complain about it when he got out of the navy. He did not know he had expressed this asbestos, and now he was just diagnosed. He will be three years in july. He went to one doctor and they think he is on disability because they want i am not on disability. Said, theyed and he want to say it is smoke, and my husband has not smoked. He has had two heart attacks. We need help. Has the Veterans Administration been helpful . Caller sir, you would not believe how many times we fill out papers. Doctors even said his health was declining. Host im sorry about that. Best of luck. Im sorry to hear that. John is next in rochester, minnesota. Democrat asterisk line. Caller i wanted to call democrats line. Host make sure you use your telephone you mute your television. It is part of the isolationist program by the republicans. It not only these mexicans out of coming to this country for keeps americans from enjoying vacations and shopping and all the things they got to do in mexico. Also, the poor countries that he humiliated and told the people here, thatot come means we cannot go there either. It is to keep us isolated from the other countries. There is a better way than spending billions of dollars, which could be used for our reconstruction of roads and things, and for education in this country, and it is an abomination of using my tax money for doing something that i think is totally unacceptable. Host open phones until 10 00 this morning. This story was yesterday in the New York Times. Hillary clinton goes to shield a top advisor accused of harassment in 2008. A Senior Advisor to her president ial campaign was accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a young subordinates and was kept on the campaign that mrs. Clintons request, according to people familiar. Her Campaign Manager recommended she fired the advisor but she did not. Instead, he was docked several weeks of pay and ordered to undergo counseling and the young woman was moved to a new job. The former president ial thisdate responding morning on twitter to that, and she writes the story appeared today about something this came out on the 26, i apologize. The story appeared today about something that happened in 2000 and eight i was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman can forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and address area also saying i called her today to tell the how proud i am of her and make sure she knows what all women should, we deserve to be heard. Vo stop them is next gusta is next in kansas. Caller i am calling to talk about the immigration situation now. I wrote the i hope the president , senate and congress can take action. It is a very important issue. Immigration has been postponed whenating administrations we have a majority. It is an issue that needs to be solved. There a lot of people affected. Their lives have been affected every day. Law. Ed to make a we also need to keep this country safe. There needs to be a comprehensive Immigration Reform bill that will help this country , the citizens, immigrants. I think it is time for congress to take action. Utah,lets hear from independent line. Caller good morning. I appreciate your services. My heart goes out to dorothy and her husband, and i disgrace and appalled to hear a story so personal. Related to the Hillary Clinton date, it comes down to those of well, human nature says they will of that authority. We can see that from priests to policeman, teachers to crazy parents and california. Parents in california. And so we hold them to account for those things, and to we hold them to account for those until we hold them to account for those things, it will continue to happen. Especially when it comes to children, that is the kind of stuff that should be handled. It should be unacceptable. Host on that issue, here is what people in michigan are reading about frontpage of their state journal pain, grief, resolve. Magnitude of the nasser case. Follow ways on the community in search of an answer. Emotions to enter if you live here. One is grief for the victims but also for the illusion we had chicken state university. There is a sense of loss we had a Michigan State university. There is a sense of loss. Host terri is in round rock, texas, on a democrat line. Open phones. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking the call. I wanted to talk a little bit more going back to the medical situation with the nation, medicare, medicaid, and what it looks like is we are starting to move ourselves into a situation of economic euthanasia, where it is survival of the fittest. We had an aging population with rumors boomers and an aged group that we are starting to see more money going out, and the nation appears to be in a situation where they are not wanting to do what is right to take care of our people that we have here, and until we get to where we can rethink this, rebalance ourselves as a nation, and not look at this as though we are giving and helping in with those who have done so much in our country over the years, if we do not get back to where we say we are united and we are here to take care of all and not look at the situation to her birth to a place where we help our people means to show a sign of weakness, then we had an issue. We are at a fork in the road where i think we really need to think of the past we are taking. Thank you for the call. Host thank you. Comments on twitter about issues this money. Marilyn calling we do not want National Healthcare. Why should i pay for your health care . Jodi says, hillary did want at the time when the standard procedure was to ignore the woman victim and promote the abuser. Is airing in california on the republican line. Caller i would like to talk about north korea and immigration situation. First of all, north korea, if on hitlernews grills , he is doing the same kind of. History repeats itself. Im pretty sure if we do not do anything, like right now, he is so quiet. That the this happening over there, but they are sneakily building weapons and getting missiles ready. I think somebody should act. Or look into acting or were going to find ourselves in concentration camps. On the immigration situation if there are all spanish workers, the people who own the company would say, you need to ask the foreman for the job. Well, the foremans spanish and he says, speak english, so basically, someone needs to monitor the situation. How many spanish workers are there . How many black workers are there . On the white workers are there . A regular citizen or an average community go ask for a job, their answer is english. I think that is wrong their answer is no speak english. I think that is wrong. Host on the republican mike, good one. Good on the republican , good morning. On the republican line, good morning. Caller good morning. There are a lot of things not logical to me. Number one, we have laws in the books about immigration and lawmakers turn your heads aside to that. They do not want to recognize these people as felons. Number two, why should i pay for all of these people and drug addicts . I have never been an addict. I paid for everything i ever gotten. We paid for over 10 years for my sister to be in assisted living facilities. Most of the people there were on medicare. Medicaid. There is something wrong here. I want everybody to think about this. What would you do or how would you react if everybody in the United States were responsible for themselves . Host thanks for calling you to his next in fairfield, connecticut, democrats line. Caller how are you doing . Thanks for the call. I am more curious now than ever about what happens with south if there wereand others involved . And angelas, it may merkel were involved and all that . I remember there was coverage but it was quite after that. Host you are talking about what specific incident . Theisio ferry disaster seal ferry disaster. Host sure. To upper weighing in. A couple more minutes for invesco to lebanon, missouri. Lebanon, lets go to missouri. Howard on the republican line. Caller i was talking to a friend of mine about insurance and how it has changed. Obamacaretten off of and we sign up for insurance, and everything is like, well, [indiscernible] for myas paying before other insurance and stuff, and all of a sudden, you end up paying copay. It is like they do not expose when you buy the insurance predict how you after and you go to the pharmacy. And they want you to talk to the pharmacist more than the doctor about side effects or whatever. I am a diabetic. They want to change all of my drugs to what they want you to have. Host appreciate you. Thanks for all of your calls and common on washington journal. We are back tomorrow morning on cspan and cspan radio with another program at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. At 8 00, a look ahead to the week ahead in washington. The white house, congress, and the state of the union on tuesday. We would be joined with the Associated Press White House Reporter and the Washington Examiner lyrical reporter. Discussina olson will on how ready the irs is for the implementation of the new tax law. That will do it for this morning. Hope you have a great day and rest of the weekend. We will see you back here tomorrow morning. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] next, newsmakers with the oklahoma senator. Then, President Trumps speech at the economic climate davos, switzerland, followed by a form on the global economy. After that, a Senate Hearing on global challenges. This week on newsmakers the senator from oklahoma the number two republican on the Armed Services committee senator james inhoff. Thank you for being here. Guest we heard earlier today from senator cornyn that we should expect at least two more crs. There was some optimism coming out of the last cr vote that ultimately will see an increase on defense spending that budget caps would be lifted. What message douf for leadership as far as breaking the impass and getting to a larger deal to fund the federal overnment . What we have to do, it was understood we were going to have appropriation bills. We have 12 appropriation bills and we have frankly ts