Ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. Host we will talk more about trade and the economy and the president s comments in our last hour of washington journal. I did want to show you a few of the tweets from members of the president s. Of the president s cabinet. Sayingasury secretary the progrowth agenda is working for the american people. Callingerce secretary the state of the Union Address the best in recent memory and one more tweet from the Agriculture Sector secretary who was the socalled designated of thef the member cabinet member who is not in the chamber. Time for one more call. The topic we have been talking about for our first hour of the program. George from tennessee, line for democrats. Caller thank you. I would like to know how do somebody who was forced to come here or made to come here through no fault of their own get a name like a dreamer . A dreamer is something somebody urines for, but if you come here like everyone says through no fault of your own, how does that make you a dreamer . That is just a observation. Also that response from the ,emocrats from that individual maybe democrats are not too fond of women. I guess that is all. Host that is georgia and tennessee. We turn now to the topic of infrastructure. One the headlines on if it structure from this morning. Trumps friend Structure Plan has a 1. 5 trillion price tag. To talk more about that, we are joined from our news desk by jacob fishler, a reporter with Congressional Quarterly. What is the president proposing when it comes to this new Infrastructure Investment . Guest what we heard last night was very similar to what we have heard in the past. The biggest thing is that headline, the jump from we are talking about 1. 5 trillion. That is in total investment. We think the federal share of that is about 200 billion and that would be supposed to spark spending at the state and local levels. We are not sure how that would. Ork it is kind of a twopronged plan. The dollar amount is part of it permitting report reforms. Taking 10 years to get all the necessary permits. It would be down to an average of two years. Host when are we going to see a plan before congress and debate on the floor, when it comes to what the president is proposing . Year, all through last there were several times when the administration said we are going to have a plan out, soon. A couple months, and of this quarter, etc. That never quite materialized. Now,es seem more immediate but we are still waiting on that. We spoke to a frustrated democratic member who said he had given up on the idea that the administration would put forward a detailed plan. I think it is going to come in the next couple of weeks and then it will be up to congress to work through it with hearings. I think it will be written at the Committee Level and it will be on the floor, i dont think in the immediate future but in the span of a few months. Host talking to jacob fischler, a transportation reporter with Congressional Quarterly about infrastructure. We invite our viewers to call in on this topic. We will get to your calls in a few minutes. The phone lines as usual, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Going back to that 1. 5 trillion price tag, how much comes from the federal government and how much comes from state, local and the private sector . Guest the president did not say last night, but an advisor said about a week ago, that what we have been hearing for a while is that the federal government would pay about 200 billion over 10 years. , we dont really know the breakdown, but stay governments, local governments, private entities, and the biggest part of the spending would be in the incentives program. A state or local government would come to the federal government and say we have this plan for a road, a bridge, a port, broadband, whatever and here is the money that we have, to use on it. It is our own money, we are partnering with a private partner and it would be evaluated on how much money they are bringing to the table. Host when it comes to the president s proposals on streamlining regulation, is that something that agencies can propagate rules on their in the last two transportation some reformswere on permitting and efforts to streamline the process that have not been fully implemented by the department of transportation. Waitpeople say, we should for that to be fully implemented , those improvements to be made before we evaluate where we are next. There are others who want to with some more legislation to further streamline the process. That is something that we will see play out. Host infrastructure has historically been a bipartisan issue. Has this been in the first year of the Trump Administration . Guest it is really interesting because it is bipartisan and everybody supports infrastructure. It breaks down a bit me talk about how to pay for it. Democrats are really pushing for direct federal spending. Senate democrats have a plan, but they want to spend 1 trillion from the federal government. The idea that state and local governments are going to pay more than they are already paying is not popular with democrats. Private entities will come in and take over something that they see as a core governments function is also a nonstarter with them. This idea that its going to lead to tolls, tolls are obviously used by public and private entities, but not a real popular thing on the democratic party. On the republican side, you have the issue of how do you pay for it. , you dore a fiscal hawk not want to appropriate to billion dollars without any kind of pay forward especially after this tax cut bill in december. Go, who are the key players that we should watch who would President Trump likely be reaching out to if he wants to start moving this in congress . Chairman bill shuster, chairman of the house trepidation infrastructure committee, he is a republican from pennsylvania and he is relatively close with trump and he has got the expertise on this issue. He has talked to the white house about it. I would keep an eye on Peter Defazio as well. Shuster and the fazio have been working together on their own plan. It could work with the administration. On the senate side, you have and tom carper and bill nelson are there ranking members. Mark meadows, influential guy in the house, he is the chairman of the House Freedom caucus. That when wenger of the party will have a lot to say. Host why specifically the Freedom Caucus . They have a lot to say about anything in contact with trump with the idea of big spending packages that is going to have to get by those people on the right. Meadows is not totally against infrastructure. He thinks that could be a way to establish new budget caps, domestic spending, if you want to add to the cap on that side, infrastructure could be the way to go. He is on the transportation infrastructure committee, he is close to trump, and he is an interesting one to watch for it watch. Host if you want to find him on fischlercq. S we are taking your calls on the president s offer of 1. 5 trillion infraStructure Plan. We want to get your thoughts after the state of the union last night. A caller is up first, go ahead. Caller thanks for taking my call. I wanted to say, after this big tax bill fiasco, the government has no money. They give although these tax breaks to the rich. It was a big part of the income for the United States. Now, there is no money. How are they going to pay for this. All of these republicans who hounded obama for six years about, we have to pay for everything, and now, we do not the pay for nothing. This is just unbelievable. Somebody needs to investigate the republicans. Not just the president , i think there are a lot of republicans that are spies for the russia the way they are asking acting. Host do you think democrats are suddenly more concerned about spending than they were under president obama . Concerned about spending . Caller it is no change. They have been more fiscally responsible than the republicans for many years. All the way back to the bush administration. Everybody complained about how much money, but it was all the republican spending all of the money. Not the democrats. We are in a fiscal problem because of the republicans. Here we are talking about the money we do not have. Host to joe in boston, line for democrats. Gerald. It is i agree with the gentleman who is just on the line. People were Walking Around, i do not know which republican candidates was Walking Around with the money that should look at all of this money, oh my god. Then they talk about the deficit. They are supposed to be hawks and they are giving away money to rich people. Most of thenk that people understand that hes not really for the ordinary man or the rich man or the rich woman. Very republican is complacent. They are agreeing on everything. They been hypnotize or something. Host jimmy is in ethridge, tennessee. The democrats to go there i love that. Democrats what is the problem up with that . A lot. Infrastructure, yes, go for it. , wee can rebuild the world rebuild the United States of america. To thisen it comes infrastructure proposal, the president looking to use 200 billion in federal spending over the course of 10 years coupled with cutting red tape and and state,private and local investments for a total of 1. 5 trillion when it comes to a new Infrastructure Investment in the United States. That is what we are talking about in this segment of the washington journal as we approach 8 30 on the east coast. President from last night talking about his infraStructure Plan. [video clip] rebuild our as we industries, it is also time to rebuild our crumbling into infrastructure. [applause] pres. Trump america is a nation of builders. The Empire State Building in just one year. Isnt it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road . [applause] pres. Trump i am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve. [applause] pres. Trump tonight i am calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least 1. 5 trillion for the new Infrastructure Investment that our country so desperately needs. Dollar should be leveraged by partnering with ande and local governments where appropriate, tapping into private Sector Investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit. We can do it. [applause] pres. Trump any bill should also streamline the permitting process getting it down to no more than two years and even one. Together, we can reclaim our great building heritage. [applause] we will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land. We will do it with american heart and american hands, and american grit. Host we have been showing you headlines this morning, the morning after the stay of the union about the president s speech. Gazette s democrat pushes for infrastructure to the front page of the indianapolis star. The union tosave extend open hand to craft infraStructure Plans. We want to get your thoughts specifically on the infrastructure side. Phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents this morning. Chuck is an independent from alabama. Good morning. Caller yeah, it looks like a lot of the welfare checks came in this morning with these idiots calling in about the deficit. Where were they for eight years with obama when he and the democrats ran up 10 trillion deficit, doubled the deficit . Not a people out of them back then. My comment is that was one of the greatest speeches i think that was better than ronald reagan. Trump is a genius businessman. Man. A selfmade he knows business. High in university of pennsylvania, school of business. His masters degree in it. He is a genius. Without the money, every time that the gdp goes up one point and remember obama, for eight 1. 8 gdp,e average was trumpquarters administration had it over 3 . Trillion 1. 5 adds 1. 5 trillion. Remember that. The democrats look pathetic. Host you think its a good time to invest money into the infrastructure . Caller he has a plan. He is so smart. You will get private industry investing in it, you will get the state investing in it, and the money will be there from the gdp going up. We had Just Announced in huntsville the largest new auto in the nation is going to build their in huntsville. Toyota and chrysler is going to build the biggest one they have had. They are bringing their money back from mexico into detroit. It is on and on. Is just thetalk to latest for it is just elated. Host the president did mention some of the car factories you were talking about in his speech last night. Charles is in michigan, a republican. Caller hi, i want to talk about the infrastructure. I am in michigan and our roads are by far the worst in the country. I have driven in almost every state except for new jersey. Ive yet to see any roads that are this bad. , theye got potholes that are the size of raccoons. Literally feel at my car is going to fall apart on the road. It is that bad. It has to doof with the way the structure here in michigan, how the State Government goes with the contractors, they build roads that start failing within five years. We truly need a real new infraStructure Plan because, pothole last year and one of the cities that the city had to pay people to get their cars fixed because the potholes were that bad. Host do you think more regulations about those roads, they do not last five years, do you think they would last longer and we would be better served if there was more people checking to make sure that the infrastructure that was being built lasts . Caller yeah, partially. Absolutely. You have these contractors that deals with the state. Dealsate gives them these , and the state does not demand anything of the contractors of the contractors build roads to fail and then in the next couple of years, they are going to fail again. That is job security. Heres another multimillion dollar contract for you because the last road fell apart. Host sharon is a democrat, good morning. Caller how are you . I was just listening to chuck and part of the problem we have in michigan is that the trucks do not have any weight limits. The man with the problem about obama . Obama was paying off the deficit and mr. Trump gave the upper one half of 1 1. 5 trillion of our tax money and i notice he keeps talking about one point 5 trillion this, that, and the other thing. It looked like one blue over the cuckoos nest last night it r thed like one flew ove cuckoos nest last night. 1. 5 trillion is coming from the middle class. He is very happy to hand out our money. I wonder how long we are going to be a book to take this. Host when you talk about though weight limits of trucks, are you concerned that the president says he wants to streamline the permitting process, get rid of some of the red tape when it comes to building . Caller well, you know, as soon as see said that come i thought to myself, we could have new waterways. Soon as he wrecks the shorelines all around the United States, then we can build some new waterways on the inside of the United States. At least seen the pictures of the africa of what they did to the water with the drilling . That is pretty scary to think that our water will look like that in five years. Host to paul in chesapeake, virginia. What do you think about the president s pitch of 1. 5 trillion in for structure investment . Caller it is really interesting because we have two former governors here who entered into partnership and that is mark warner and tim kaine. They know how this works. Was there were repairs on tunnels here in the tidewater area that needed to be done and they entered into the andatepublic partnership youre goingt to wind up paying tolls on these products. That is what has happened here in virginia. That is one of the problems here. That went through corporatewhet infrastructure, we are talking about more than just roads. People have to know that. There were callers from michigan. They have the water problem up there. We have the electrical grid. The intercoastal waterway coming down through virginia. There is a lot more than just roads and the 200 billion is really seed money to get these things started. Government will reimburse x amount of dollars for so many years as in some other programs, and then they will turn it over to the state. Many of the states are already having fiscal budget problems. X amount of dollars and say we will reimburse you for this much. Now the state is on the hook. Getcitizens of that state put on the hook. There is mark warner and tim who are real familiar with that. A lot of people were upset with that private public. The department of transportation went through without using the legislature. Host here is the front page of the usa today of this morning. State of the union inters new era, talking about the reach of the state of the union, last ,ight enters a new era talking about the reach of the state of the union. It has been reduced by the political circumstances of the day and the way the 41st president communicates with the world. His personal social media accounts have a bigger audience than the one he will reach when reading prepared remarks loaded in a teleprompter. Audience of about 47. 7 Million People during his speech to a joint session of Congress Last year. The president has yet to tweet, this morning since the state of the union. s last tweet input his last tweet inviting his followers to join him live. That was retweeted about 16. 4 thousand 16. 4 million times. We will keep you updated if the president tweets again. Philip in oklahoma, line for democrats. Caller on this infrastructure deal, i wish they would take the money that they are trying to get on the border wall and put in these highways and things. He kept on about mexico will pay for the wall and it makes me sick every time i see it. That wont work. Callerof that, we had a from alabama that claims this is some genius businessman . A genius businessman does not file bankruptcy multiple times. They need to get this guy out of office before we really blow up. What i mean by that is before he blows us up or north korea. He is not a businessman or a genius. He is a idiot. Host on the cost of the border wall versus the Infrastructure Investment the president is looking for, some estimates about 18 billion for the first phases of the border wall. The president looking to leverage around 200 billion over 10 years for Infrastructure Investment, to help create a total of 1. 5 trillion in Infrastructure Investment around the country. Those of the numbers stemming from the president s state of the union last night. We are getting your response. Indianapolis, indiana, independent. Caller thank you. Night, our mayor was on the television with the and he stated that it would cost 2 billion to fix the roads in indianapolis, alone. Indianapolis is not a major american city. It is not huge, it is a major city but it is population light. That is just one city. Furthermore, i have never seen so much hot air come out of one room in my life. His condescending attitude. I would like to give any president in the any president a chance, but the way he condescends and his overall delivery and his gravitas. Host what is an example of Something Like that that you could not handle from last night . Caller when he turned to the democrats who are not standing and applauding him. He would put his hands out like well, are you going to get up and clap . I found that to be very arrogant and very undignified. He appears to have no humility. Host did you ever feel that way about past president s when it came to the other party and the interaction between clapping and not clapping . View, iin my point of dont think you need to clap after everything. We are trying to listen to what he wants to do and it is more like cheerleading, to me. I found it to be that way with previous president s, obama and bush and down the line. I do think we have had a great president since kennedy. I was a little girl, then. I was only six years old when he was killed and they had just been undignified. There is no humility, there is no they are just arrogant. Host do you think it is time to do away with the state of the union . Caller that is interesting. I think it is good to come on and talk to the nation. I think it has its place. Just dispense with all of the theatrics and the pageantry and just say what you really want to do. I wish more president s would speak from their heart. Hearst, come off silver even obama. I found him to be arrogant, even. I would like to see more humanity in the president. Host charlie in wisconsin, a democrat. Caller ive got two questions. Over the course of all of this discussion, i dont know, how does mexico feel about daca . Inhave 1. 8 Million People the United States who can go to mexico and possibly change the and is thel network reason they leave is because they cant sustain their own economy . Host thomas is in ohio, line for republicans. The president pitching a 1. 5 trillion infraStructure Plan. What do you think about it . Caller look at all the jobs that have come back. Host you got to turn down your television and speak through your phone. The lady called in and said about mexico paying for the funny,nd i think it is mexico is paying for the wall because look at all the jobs that are coming out of mexico, back to the United States. It is just common sense. If all the jobs are coming back to the United States, jobs that were going to mexico, that money is going to help pay for the wall. Host on twitter, kevin writes in, invest in america before investing in any other country or making more debt on the american people. Dana writes in, if the economy cannot pay for this Infrastructure Investment, then the u. S. Should wait to rebuild roads. The democrats will not prevail if they act like spoiled children. Jimmy is in south carolina, independent. Go ahead. Caller trump is a businessman. Somebody who can bounce back from 2 billion can certainly manage this country. Speech lastucture night, people need to realize there is more than just President Trump making these decisions. There are so many people that call into your show that have a distinct hatred for President Trump and not viewing his policies on things. That is all i got to say on that. Host larry is in phoenix, arizona, a democrat. Mentioni just wanted to that he has talked about infrastructure and repairing the roads. He is just going to invite them whenney in, and they repair the roads, they will own them forever. He is offering to give away Public Infrastructure private corporations. This is a way to sync the country, something that will cost people everything, forever. The man is a crook and a thief. Thats all ive got to say. Host a caller was talking about the number of applause lines during the state of the union. President trump nearly breaking all the records for a modern state of the Union Address, generating 15 rounds of applause for his First Official review of his presidency. 115president obama rounds of applause for his First Official review of his presidency. Former president obama was interrupted 90 times and former president george w. Bush generated 80 applauses during their addresses to the nation. Caller cspan, you are a national treasure. The bottom line host we lost tom. Richard is in massachusetts, independent. Your thoughts on this Infrastructure Investment . The gasinfrastructure, tax was supposed to take care of it goes moree, but into public transportation. Amtrak. That is not what it was meant for. That takes most of the money. Amtrak has its own police department. Mbta up here in massachusetts. That is coming from the gas tax. Bridgespposed to be for and streets and that is why it has never been done. There when you get contractors shame. T, it is a the taxes that we pay for the tax for the gas tax are supposed to go to the roads, not public transportation. Host do you think we should look at fixing that before we invest an additional 200 billion infrastructure into new billion into new infrastructure . Fixing the gas tax now so the money goes to bridges. Caller yes, that is one it was done for. It was done to keep the roads and the bridges up, not to do public transportation. Public transportation is a rip off. That is the biggest problem with the government. We pay more taxes. They waste of the money and it goes to the wrong places. Thank you. Host peter in washington, a republican. Caller i was just wondering if people remember in the earlier obama years, the 800 billion to shovel ready jobs that were not shovel ready. 80 million was basically thrown down the tubes. Inm not a real believer Public Private gettogethers on this but at the same time, the nation cannot afford a lot of this stuff, but if the contract is right and i would trust this man and even though i am a republican, i have my questions about our president , but i think we are desperate and we need to do things a little different these days and it might be a good idea to get the right kind of ontract for infrastructure us and looked over in a way that the money is not spend on foolish projects that go nowhere. Here in washington, we have construction that is going on in tacoma for a good 10 years and billions of dollars spent on it and it is there are off ramps and on ramps to know where and that stuff can be handled. That is what the government should be interested in, is keeping an eye on these contracts incident trying to decide, picking winners and losers when it comes to construction. That is my consideration. Several callers bringing up the president and the economy. We will focus on the economy and trade in about 10 minutes. One editorial focusing on the president inflated president s inflated view of the economy. Writing there was a threeway relationship amongst the economy and the truth and you would have to say it is complicated when boasting about economic achievements. The president generally avoids a tangible falsehood that he is famous for in other areas, but exaggeration they say is pretty much the norm, particularly in regarding the president claims he has turned around a second after a somewhat slow start last year, the economy grew by 3. 6 with regulatory changes and a passage of a 1. 5 trillion package of tax cuts including a reduction in corporate taxes. That is the editorial of usa today. One political cartoon that is also in usa today, next to that lead editorial is this one by nate buehler, showing the state of the Union Address with the Vice President and the speaker behind President Trump and Robert Mueller looking over the president s left shoulder. Concerns by congress about the potential bias from the justice department. House Speaker Paul Ryan said yesterday that there are legitimate questions about the fbis behavior in targeting members of then candidate donald why theteam and that is house is pressing ahead with the release of a controversial memo on the subject. Mr. Ryan says the public deserves to see the conclusion of the republicans on the house intelligence committee. He says quote, what we want is this memo to come out for the. Ransparency can reign supreme we are expected to get a message from the white house in the next couple of days. On his way out of the chamber, President Trump was encouraged to release that memo and it was caught on tape as he was shaking jeff with congressman dunham
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