Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 02072018 20180207

Store continues in jackson, mississippi. Our guest is Mississippi Attorney general jim hood. To it 30, more on efforts avoid a Government Shutdown this week, and volatility in the financial markets. We will talk to Carolyn Maloney. Host good morning. Its wednesday, february 7, 2018. The house is in a 9 00 a. M. This morning, the Senate Reconvenes at 11 30. The looming deadline is tomorrow at midnight, when funding runs out on the current spending plan and when another shutdown would begin unless a deal is reached. Lawmakers from both parties say they are close to coming up with a twoyear spending agreement, but yesterday, President Trump ofed an element uncertainty. We will talk about that this morning on the washington journal. As we do, we want to hear from you. Republicans can call in at 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. You can also catch up with us on social media, on twitter and on facebook. Morning to you. You can start calling in now. The president s comments making frontpage headlines. Here is one from this mornings Washington Times. Trump to democrats negotiate on border or shut government. President trump was meeting with lawmakers of the capital yesterday. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] if we do not change the legislation, if we do not get rid of the loopholes where serial killers, gang members can come into the country we are just talking about ms 13. If we do not change it, lets have a shutdown. We will do a shutdown. It is worth it for our country. I would love to she a shutdown ca shutdown if we do not see a shutdown if we do not get this figured out. And by the way, the world is laughing at us because they cannot believe these policies. I can name 15 of them right now no other country has what we have. It stopped. To get if we have to shut it down because the democrats do not unrelated but still related, they do not want to take care of our military shut it down. We will go with another shutdown. Host that was the president yesterday at the white house. For more on what is happening today on capitol hill, we turn to lindsay mcpherson. How close is congress to coming up with a deal to avert a shutdown . Guest they are pretty close on butbudget caps themselves, the holdup seems to be immigration, just like trump was talking about yesterday. House democrats see this as a leverage point for them, because their vote on will be needed on the spending bill, such a large increase in nondefense spending, and that is probably a third or close to half of House Republicans that could ultimately vote against this ill. You need a sizable number of democrats, and they want to try to use this opportunity to extract a commitment from Speaker Paul Ryan to have a vote on immigration, similar to a commitment that Mitch Mcconnell had made to the senate during the last shutdown. Us through the legislative dance of the next 24 hours and how this is likely to play out. The house passed its shortterm spending deal with longerterm money in their for defense appropriations. How does this work with the senate, and what ends up being sent back to the house . Tost the senates goal is strip out the defense language, make everything a cr, and include the language or even the budget caps in the deal they are working on, which would do roughly 80 million for defense. I think we have heard about 60 million for nondefense, 60 million for nondefense. It would also likely include a debt ceiling extension. We have not heard the exact they want to keep that passed the elections. There is a lot of stuff they have been talking about for a long time that could be put on a global deal. The resolutionis on immigration in the house. The immigration language itself is unlikely to be attached, but some kind of commitment might be needed to move forward. That is kind of where the negotiations are taking place. Host and what impact did President Trumps comments yesterday likely have here . Did it bolster the immigration hardliners who would not go along with any sort of deal on this . Guest i do not think they need trump to bolster them, since they feel strongly in their position. I think what it did to some degree with give democrats the high ground in negotiating on this, because they can say well, the president is just trying to get a deal, and we want an avenue to have the debate. For ocrats are asking they are not asking for their bill or the highway, they are asking for a process, specifically, hoyer has talked about a rule in the house that would allow you to talk about any number of bills on the floor, and the one that passes with a simple majority vote, with the most votes, is the prevailing measure. In that case, some bipartisan measures would win out over a conservative measure, so they are specifically looking at the regular bill versus the goodlatte bill. Ryan is also unlikely to agree with that, and that would upset his caucus. The key differences between those two bills that you just mentioned what are they . Bill, it the goodlatte does everything that trump wants, touches on all four pillars. It funds the border wall, it to what an end republicans call chain migration, which is basically familybased visas outside the nuclear family. The visauld get rid of lottery program. The angular bill does not touch bill doesccaguilar not touch those latter two portions, and it increases technology for border security. Host we know that House Democrats are leaving for their strategy retreat today. Actually, late last night House Democrats decided to move their retreat in cambridge to d. C. , at the capital, to be er to the negotiations. They could go up to the wire, but i think expectations are a deal could be announced as soon as today. Mcpherson covers it all for roll call newspaper. We appreciate your time this morning. And we are talking about it with our viewers in the first half of the washington journal today. President trump with those comments yesterday at the white house. Fix immigration or lets have a shutdown. What do you think . Cliff, and california, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Theres not going to be a shutdown. I am surprised that cspan would be framing the discussion the way they are. Mcconnell and schumer have pretty much already indicated that not only is there not going to be a shutdown, but we are not even going to have this little cr continuing stuff. Muche going to go for a bigger deal, according to mcconnell and schumer, which you know more about than i do, but it will have longterm pentagon spending. Increase in pentagon spending. That is a big win for trump, but that is really small ball compared to what is going on. And more on the point here, because the daca bill, that is what trump is talking about when he is making threats. The daca deal. Host on the pentagon spending, not a 70 increase. The emerging agreement, we have not seen it yet, expected to increase military spending by 80 billion a year and nondefense spending by 63 billion a year. It is expected to be a twoyear plan. Lindsay macpherson said we might see it as soon as today. You are confident that when that emerges that can make it through the senate and back to the house and to the president , and have him sign it as well . Caller yes, but i am surprised that you interrupted me when you are back to talking about the small ball stop when we are both looking at you know the big deal, which is the daca thing that trump is talking about when he is making these threats, just elly waseral k talking tough yesterday. When youre dealing with people Chuck Schumer, you have to play top. I do not think anything is going to be able to stop this deal. I think america will be a great big winner. I think we will all get daca and the wall and the chain migration reform, and the visa lottery. I do not think anyone can stop it. Schumer, for instance. Because it is so extremely generous. Donald trump is offering nondeferred action, but citizenship, three terms as many as this saint barack obama offered. Host here is Chuck Schumer yesterday, talking about the daca negotiation and the comments about an immigration deal. [video clip] there are several different bipartisan negotiations going on over immigrations. Is there one particular negotiation you support . I would encourage everyone to talk to everybody in our meetings today. Leader mcconnell pledged that we would have an open process next week after this week. What we are going to try to do is find a proposal, a Bipartisan Group is a great example of that , that could pass the senate with 60 votes. He said he is willing to have the Government Shutdown of democrats refuse to change immigration laws. He said he would love to see it shutdown. Speak for himself. Shutdown,e trump nobody wants another. Chuck schumer on the hill yesterday. A cold morning on capitol hill, some freezing rain around washington dc. As we taking your calls are creeping towards that midnight tomorrow deadline for spending agreements, or else shutdown would happen. Roger, democrat line, good morning. Caller good morning. I do not know what king trump thinks he is up to. He hollers shutdown, it is my way or the highway. The Republican Party cannot lead. They cannot build up our country. We are having one class right after another. This immigration bill should over with years ago, but they would not work with barack obama. Remember . They shut down the government a whole bunch of times, and then they call democrats treasonous. What are they going to do about the treasonous president we have in office now . Host ken, washington, independent. Good morning. Caller i was just calling to comment on the Government Shutdown. Im an independent, and i do not understand why a president not just our president , both parties are even talking about a Government Shutdown over immigration. I work for the federal government. When it gets shut down, and a lot of other people do not get paid. When we do not get paid, our bills get backed up, and they do not help us. I thought donald trump cared about the little man. Host ben, pennsylvania, republican. Caller good morning, im calling from penn state. I am a senior of your. All ofrazy watching this. I completely respect the president. I voted for him in the primaries and the general election. The reason he is so popular is not because its crazy rhetoric, it is because he is able to speak the language the people not the beltway washington, d. C. Elites he can talk to people in rural in missouri,and wherever, in the middle of the country. It is the fact that he can get on tv and shout shutdown the government. For him toople voted turn washington dc upside down. He is draining the swamp. Host the president commented yesterday at the meeting with Law Enforcement officials, certainly getting a lot of attention. Also getting some pushback by one republican member of , barbara comstock, criticizing the president on tuesday for saying he would love to the a shutdown. The story in the hill newspaper. Comstock represents a virginia district in the suburbs of washington dc that are homes to many federal workers. Here is the exchange between the two yesterday. [video clip] since i live right by the cia, and sheriff chapman is the sheriff of my largest county, we do not need a Government Shutdown on this. I think both sides have learned that a Government Shutdown was bad, it was not good, and we have bipartisan support on these things. I think we need to talk about these cases that are going on. We have eight or so. Press has done some great reporting, all stories about the gang killers recorded in the final moments. They have been covering this, and people no one a bipartisan basis this problem. President trump we are not getting support from the democrats. Say what you want. We are not getting support from the democrats on this will. , put this up in the senate you will see they are not supporting us. The secretary to stop them at the border, and if they are here, get them out quickly. That meeting yesterday, after that exchange, after some of the headlines came out about it, the white house yesterday saying that the president is not cheerleading for a shutdown in hopes the government keeps running contingent on a democratic agreement to a twoyear budget deal, and laws cracking down on illegal immigration as part of a deal to legalize immigrant dreamers. In their reporting, the New York Times this morning quotes Sarah Huckabee sanders saying the president did not view the spending bill about keeping the and immigration as mutually exclusive, meaning he would not necessarily precipitate a shutdown of congress agreed on spending without meeting his specific demands on immigration. Getting your thoughts on the washington journal. Jeanne, ohio, democrat. Go ahead. Caller yes. I would just like to say that beginning,and in the he said mexico was going to pay for the wall. He was wrong. So now he is blaming the democrats because he cannot go back and blame the mexican president. Everything that does not go his way he puts on the democrats. Why make a problem for other in other countries when he cannot push the people, so he is trying to blame everything on the democrats. Mind so confused in his that he always has to blame somebody else. Host patricia, illinois, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I am appalled by what the president says. He has been emboldened by the response to the release of this memo. And he now feels he can say and do anything. It is stunning that this man would say lets have a shutdown if i cannot get my wall. He is like a spoiled child that needs to be disciplined. He is outrageous and an insult to the presidency. I certainly do not support this mans actions, conduct, and performance. I do not support the shutdown, necessarily. I do support the dreamers and i do support legislation that will protect them, but i do not support in any way this president. I believe he should be impeached. My motto, frankly, is dump truck and save the world. Trump and save the world. The newtricia mentioned nas memo. The democrats have the response, known as the schiff memo. President trump has until friday to approve the documents public release, and could decide whether if certain details need to be held back on security reasons. Democrat, adam schiff, who authored the memo, said he feared the Trump Administration would politically redact the ito by all missing passages finds embarrassing. That is not reductions were protected sources or methods, which we have asked the department of justice and fbi to do, but reductions remove information they think is embarrassing to the president. That could be a real problem. Dexter, maryland, line for democrats. Go ahead. Good morning. I want to make a comment based on a lot of things i have been hearing on cspan, all the time. And a lot of untruths, especially like the dossier. The dossier was created by republicans and taken over by the Hillary Clinton and the dnc. Trump only wants the immigration in way he wants it because 2044, america will not be majority white anymore, it will be majority of color. If he gets this immigration bill, it gives him five more years. Goes tommigration bill 2044 to 2049. He is trying to get a next her five years. Host bring it back to the over the next 2436 hrs. Should democrats hold the line on immigration in a spending bill and tie the two together . Caller i think the democrats need to show that they have a backbone. The reasons why the republicans are in power now is because a lot of democrats like myself have seen the democrat base fold over and over and over again to the lies and the talking points of the republicans, and if they do not stand up somewhere, they will fall everywhere. We want them to stand up to this guy. If he wants to shut down the government, that is fine. We got your point. The wall street journal in their story about the budget deal that is coming together that we could see, as soon as this morning. It notes that a budget breakthrough this morning would mark the separation of two issues that recently became linked together government funding and immigration. They go on to say the coalescing budget deal was a disappointment to immigration advocates, but a going backdemocrats to the falls midterm election. We do not need to be shutting down the government, one of the quotes from democratic members on this issue. Decatur, georgia, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller how are you this morning . Host doing well. Caller what trump is doing is a winwinwinwin for vladimir putin. You act like illegal immigration just started yesterday. This is as american as apple pie. It reallyhan 9 gets on miners. I work immigration around immigrants, and they are some of the best people. He is trying to break up families. It is a winwin for vladimir putin. Host we have about 10 minutes left in this segment of the washington journal, talking about the looming government funding deadline. In about 10 minutes, we will be joined by Steve Russell, a republican congressman from oklahoma. Also, cspans bus tour continues to the 50 state capital around the country. We will be in jackson, mississippi, joined by attorney general jim hood. There is a shot of the Mississippi State capitol there. That is coming up this morning at around 8 00, so join us for that discussion. Is waitingtime, john in virginia, line for republicans. Thank you for waiting. Caller yes sir, how are you . Host doing well. Caller i am a return caller, and thank you for cspan and all the social things. When i am curious about is that for some reason, they are lumping immigration into the same project as funding the government, which you know what i mean . They do not seem to go hand in hand for me. I do not understand the relationship between the two things. That is pretty much it, as far as the last comments on the russian president. The way that i understand it, but inot get off topic am dealing with a guy, do w. Miller, who is writing articles to avoid nuclear holocaust, and that engagement with people on levels is healthy, but this is only relative. Host we will speak to the Budget Discussion that is happening this week. Todd, moreno valley, california, independent. Go ahead. Caller how are you . Host good, you . Caller good. The Daca Recipients should get amnesty, and the border wall is too expensive and wont work. They should just hire more ice agents to enforce current law, and the budget should not include daca and the border wall, and if no budget is should just budget defaults whatever the current spending is. If they want a fix, they can do it later. Host thelma, new jersey, democrats. Caller yes. This is a question. President playing with peoples lives . I cannot understand this. Why is he playing with peoples lives and shutting down the government . For what. People need their money to live, and this is wrong. This is inhumane. I cannot understand it. Can somebody please answer that . On twitter, the conversation happening all morning long, as it usually does, during our program. Wee are a few programs, as have been having that discussion. Tj says the democrats are putting illegals above american citizens. The insanity of it all. Liberty with a comment gives the president what he wants, he wants a shutdown. He said so himself. Republicans cant govern. Another writer, it should be easy to agree on immigration. Potentiallyst what more votes to ensure future total control of our government. Carol referring to the story on the front page of the Washington Times today and many other newspapers around the country after the president highlighted it on twitter the death of Indianapolis Colts linebacker edwin jackson, being one of two men killed early sunday morning by a twice deported illegal immigrant, when he struck him in his and his uber driver. That story on the front page of the Washington Times. Bob, michigan, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller yes, how are you doing today . Host i am well. Caller we have had a problem in the United States, we always have. The government is good at keeping their eye out. All we hear is russians, russians, russians. It was not 12 million russians here illegally last time i looked. It was not russians who had 2 million of their children at the border. It was not russians that inundated our schools and welfare systems, and the democrats beat their chests that all the mexicans are here illegally, they are doing great and fine and working, but they stopped short, they always stop short of the voting. Pointss one of trumps at the election, and there were a couple Million People that voted illegally. Get a drivers license in california so you can vote. He russians are not coming the mexicans are already here. Have a great day. Host nina, ohio, democrat. Good morning. Actually, i called on the republican line. It should have been republican. I have a comment for your rollcall reporter, first of all. To cspann listening for years, all of your networks. I need a teacher a little lesson in respect. When you are speaking of the president , he is president or President Trump. Get the smirk out of your voice, treat the president with respect. That was my comment, thank you very much. Host chris, new york, caller independent. Chris, new york, independent. Caller thank you very much. It should be stressed across the media, number one, when they talk about, when trump talked about mexico paying for the wall, it is not necessarily about cash. It is about the trade deficit. Barriers and the not so much barriers, but if you put up the control coming across youder, you reduce reduce the trade deficit. That, in the long run, everyone thinks short term. If you think longterm, that is high you pay for the wall. I guess i will leave it at that comment. Thank you very much. Host two other stories today, the first based on President Trumps comments as well in the white house, his comment yesterday, that President Trump is exploring staging a military parade in the. House confirming that President Trump has asked the pentagon to explore organizing a Major Military parade, a desired he first expressed after the marshall welcome he received on a visit to france last year. Trump is incredibly supportive of americas Great Service members who risk their lives every day to keep us eighth, White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said yesterday in a statement. He has asked the department of defense to explore celebration at which all americans can express their appreciation. We also spent a lot of time talking about the wild day in the stock market earlier this week. Yesterday, another wild day on wall street. The story in usa today noting that tuesday marks another roller coaster day for the dow jones, which rallied from an early plunge of more than 500 points. Overall, which the dow, which finished 2. 3 higher, appeared to stabilize at the end of tuesday. And speaking of that wild week on the stock market, answeringhin questions about what happened this week on the stock market and the trump presidencys responsibility for it by democratic congressman Carolyn Maloney, who will be joining us at about 8 30. Here is that exchange. [video clip] i want to know, are you concerned about this recent market rout . This recent market turmoil . They have been quite volatile today. I normally would not be looking at my iphone, but given the it. Et moves, i am checking it is now up 187 points. We are not overly concerned about the market volatility. I think the fundamental are quite strong. I have checked in with Market Participants this morning before i came to make sure there was orderly market activity, clearance functioning, no systemic issues. I am happy to report that i got the green light. Do you believe does this ive Financial Stability and locations . No. I do not think these types of moves, given how much the market has rallied, do have Financial Stability concerns . Will be administration claim up,it for the markets going and will they claim credit for the markets going down . They will claim credit for being up over 30 since the election. Watch that it cspan. Org. Time for one more call, can is waiting in washington dc. Go ahead. Caller good morning, good morning, good morning. The previous caller had mentioned mexicans and that they were the enemy because they were flooding into this country obviously, he does not know what the definition of an enemy is. Russia has always had hostile intentions toward this country. It is a lot cheaper to pay someone to launch a cyber war against a country than it is for them to launch a nuclear or conventional war. It is ironic that a lot of people that have very little compassion in their heart try to make it seem as though a legal or socalled Illegal Immigrants are the burden on society. Im sorry, the largest demographic that is using welfare are white people. Are we going to get rid of white people and build a wall for them . Are we going to build a wall north on the Canadian Border also . Heree are trying to come to better themselves, and i think Illegal Immigrants do pay taxes. So as opposed to going after them, go after the people that hired them . Punish some of these larger companies. But they are not going to do that, because you have to have somebody to blame. In thisr last caller segment, but we will continue our discussion about the looming government funding deadline with republican congressman Steve Russell of oklahoma. Later on today, Mississippi Attorney general jim hood will join us aboard the cspan bus in the state capital of jackson. Stop number 18 in cspan 50 capital store. We will be right back. Band history series landmark cases returns this month with a look at 12 new Supreme Court cases. Each week, historians and experts join us to discuss constitutional issues and personal stories behind the significant Supreme Court decisions. Monday, february 6, and night 00 a. M. Eastern. We also have a companion guide written by tony mauro. The book costs 8. 95 plus shipping and handling. To get your copy, go to cspan. Org. Afterwards,ght on black lives matter cofounder patrice khan kellers with her book when they call you a terrorist a black lives matter memoir. As we created black lives matter, we knew we had to get people on board. We also have to interrupt when people try to coopt black lives matter, so we spent a significant amount of the first year ensuring that it was not coopted, and challenging people in our own movement sometimes do not say our lives matter, to not use it to say that other communities matter, but to focus on black people and be ok and out lies and in solidarity with and ineople allies solidarity with black people. And then we took it to the world. Washington journal continues. Congressman Steve Russell is a republican from oklahoma, a member of the House Oversight and Armed Services committee. Congressman, do you think we are in for another shutdown tonight . Guest i hope not. I think the last shutdown circus , people realize that was pretty silly. The house passed a very good measure, it fully funds our military and Everything Else was clean on it. To be pretty far removed on what is best for the country rather than for political posturing to say oh, how dare we fund our military for the rest of the year. We are going to shut down the government. That makes no sense to me. Host you call it a very good measure. Sll the reporting todays i saying it is unlikely to get enough support in the senate for this twoyear deal being put together. What do you think about that . Guest i think it is unfortunate. You see, i was a soldier most of my a dull life, and i have lived on the other side when we play these games here. People have no idea the impact that that has on our military in terms of training, in terms of operations, in terms of basic things like families being able to move. People being able to go to conferences and speaking foreign leaders, whatever it may be. When i watch my colleagues on both sides of the aisle posture and pontificate about various things, i remember those costs. When it is election time, we like the people with the pointy hats, we appreciate your service, but if you really do, lets fund the military for a year. Why cant we do that . Host if the house bill is replaced by whatever this deal is, an increase of 80 billion a year for defense spending, nondefense spending increases, somewhere in the area of 63 billion a year, is that something you could vote on . Guest absolutely. Lets put the increases in context. We are asking our military as a nation to include extraordinary things, including the defense of our own country with the Nuclear Posturing in the situation in korea. Increases, it is like if i had a sandwich you had a sandwich and i took away all of it, and then i gave you back half, and they call that happen increase. You are adding half a sandwich to your diet. No, there was a lot taken away in the last decade, both with president obama, even prior to that with president bush. We have to put it into proper perspective, to take everything away or much away, and continuing to ask our men and women in uniform to make the sacrifices it is not lets not forget we had more people died due to training deficiencies and accidents and our military than we had combat casualties. That is inexcusable as a government. Whether we are republican or democrat, we cannot do that. We have a constitutional and a moral obligation to defend this republic. When we are going to play games and posture and see who can shove their face on television, i have very little tolerance for that, being a warrior and now being a member of congress. Host Steve Russell with us and about 8 00 this morning. Phone lines are open. Republicans, 202 7488001, democrats, 202 7488000, independents, 202 7488002. You heard President Trumps comments about fix immigration or lets have a shutdown. What did you think . Guest i think it what they taught. He has been very clear that a shutdown is not good for the country. But that does not mean that todds necessarily are good. Of the oldme blackandwhite Comedy Series the three stooges, when we go around and we have the media, poke them in the eye and the president slapping back, and at some point the nation looks pretty foolish. How about lets call a truce and get the governmentfunded, did the military taken care of, and do the things that most people do. Unlike in washington, most people get up every day and go to work, and they are not hanging on every word or every action we do. They could care less. They want to be left alone. You said your perspective on immigration is very different than the president. How so . Guest three of my five children were orphan siblings that came from a foreign country. They came at that time under the immigration laws. It was not instantaneous citizenship when you did foreign adoptions. We had to go through an application visa and they had to get permanent residencies, and then they were able to become United States citizens. I learned a lot about the immigration process there. It was an accelerated process, but it was also very expensive. At each stage along the way, we paid thousands of dollars in fees to make that happen, even through the government system. I think sometimes, as we look at our work permits, our permanent residencies, those numbers could be adjusted to what the needs and the demands of the country is for a workforce. Problemsany of our with illegal immigrations could be solved with work permits of some kind. In other places of the world where i have been stationed. I have a bit of a different view on some of the solutions. When it comes to refugees, i put them in a completely different category over those that were igrating illegally those or those immigrating legally. We have been pretty realistic and passionate with that. Not always, we have made some mistakes in the past, but we have tried to do the right thing there. Host Steve Russell here to answer your questions. Independent, line from oklahoma, go ahead. Caller why do you keep calling it a Government Shutdown when all it is is a paid vacation for all of those workers . They do not get paid for a week or a month, but you go ahead and give them their back bend . Fair, would you want soldiers not to be paid as they defend us and keep us safe at night . Would you not want them to have that pay . Would you not want our fbi officials and those in our Intelligence Community to not do ok, i am notd getting paid so i will leave . I think we have to be realistic about it. One of the things i want to try to do, as we approach our National Defense authorization this year, is to try and put a 30 day certainty that if congress is going to continue to be stupid on the shutdown of government, we need to put a 30 day safeguard in there. I was sitting on an airplane with a surgeon in the United States navy, and he was coming up to do duty and schooling so he could help save servicemens ves or others. He had to cancel his school. He was coming in on that weekend, and he said i think they will send me back home, which they did. They should have been able to continue that school. We have to be realistic. Look, we can have simple phrases and answers to complex problems, but the reality is we have dedicated people that work in our government every day, and they are to be paid for that work. Bryan is in oaklawn, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning congressman. Guest good morning, how are you . Caller good, and yourself . Guest i am actually doing well. Very good. First, i want to thank you for your service. I am a veteran myself, and i was stationed near your parts of oklahoma. I am also a democrat. So we see a little differently. [laughter] is,er what i want to know i see things a little bit differently with all the money that was given to military contractors. , boeing, and everybody else. What i am concerned about as a registered voter is how much of the spending is actually going to go toward the military . The Actual Service people. Guest i totally agree. Both you and i have experienced firsthand in our service in a lot of ways, and that is one of the reasons i try to focus on the waste watch series, which on the website. One of them was on defense specifically. There are a lot of ways, but that is how we should get at it. Rather than not provide the critical parts for our jets or critical training so we can andgate ships and oceans other things, lets go after the waste. I think there is a lot of innovation with some really talented companies that are small and midsized. There doing cuttingedge things, and many times through our contracting process, we see waste because we big that provide defense objects for our country, but there might be smarter ways we can do the contracting. We should focus on that waste and identify it with our great and, our great great inspectors general, our great Government Accountability office. This came out in january of this year. What are some of the most egregious examples you cite in that report, and why is it the same waste in a new years . Why isnt it changing . Guest we got into 19. 8 notlion worth of debt, and one massive bill that put us there. We got into that debt by making very small decisions one at a time that have added up to a real problem. I take the view that we get out of it in the same way. If every member of congress were to eliminate 1 billion worth of waste in one year, which is not the next room area some which m, wet an extraordinary su would have less deficit each year. If everyone would find 1 billion worth of waste. If they are having problems, i can show them. I have found hundreds of billions of dollars worth of waste. The farm bill is coming up for renewal. Why do we need to take katy perrys hiphop songs and turn them into something to try to encourage kids to lose weight . That is a hiphop flop. Host how much did we spend on that . Guest we spent 3. 5 million on that. It is just outrageous. For every 1 million that is wasted, 96 oklahomans have to work all year long and pay all of their taxes to the federal government that they pay on average so that we can waste 1 million. Here we have nearly 300 soahomans work all year long we can make a hiphop song . That makes no sense. That is just a minor example. We have identified tens of billions of dollars worth of waste. Well intended programs. The National School lunch program, things like that, but we see an exorbitant amount of waste in those programs and in many cases, the schools do not have control over that where they can actually guide and prevent some of that waste. We lay out a lot of those things. Host the waste watch report, you can find it at the website. An from the freddie is an indiana, for democrats. Caller good morning, congressman. Im a vietnam era that. I served in vietnam. Guest thank you for protecting me when i was a little guy. Caller well, i wonder at times. To republicans speak when they get on tv, and you guys are so articulate in your speaking. Sounds sohe world wonderful. You make yourself sound like you really want to get out there and help. But when it comes down to your voting, you always vote lockstep against the American People, and i do not understand that. Why are you so articulate, making us believe that this all sounds good, but when it comes time to vote, you vote against American People . Host what specific voter you concerned about . Guest there are a lot of votes we would agree or disagree on, but as far as voting against the republic, you, sir, took an oath that 18 years of age to defend and institution republic, called that in more standard than any party. Host what vote do you have a problem with . Caller not specifically of the congressman personally, but he and all republicans vote lockstep together. Well, we certainly voted lockstep the day before yesterday, to fund the government and to fund our military rather than shut it down. Guilty as charged. Why should we shut down the government . That makes no sense. Host steve, independent, florida. Go ahead. Caller good morning, congressman. Guest good morning. Vller i too am a vietnam et. I thought in 1969. I was doing what i was told, like everybody else. I have two things. One, why is it that every time the government shuts down, all of our representatives and senators still continue to get paid . \ number two, when you are reading the declaration of independence, there are many things in here against executive power. Im telling you, there is one here that has me, and it says abolishing our most valuable fundamentallying our forms of government. Dont you think that trump is doing this by trying to consolidate all of his power in the executive branch, just like putin, his idol . Thank you. Guest well look. Have, and imy sure cspan has tapes of similar comments made when president obama was in office. People have different political views, and have been since we were wearing tricornered hats. Changes to our to your question on government officials being paid, one, i think it is you responsible that we cannot do our jobs to keep government open. I am reminded of a brit who said recently that if the United States cannot keep its own government open, why should they be encouraging the rest of the nations to follow their leadership . I think that is a valid question. Question about why government members get paid when there is a shutdown, it is the very people who would get it reopened. I have my own personal opinions about the senselessness of those types of things. I did not vote to shut down the government. I think that is irresponsible. A mystery to me that we would put our political aspirations ahead of the country, and we find ourselves in that. Human beings are fallen creatures, and many times we do stupid things. Hopefully we will not do that again here at the end of this week, and we will fund our military and keep the government open. Host what is your view of the nunes memo and the future of the Mueller Investigation . Guest i do not know that it was any specific design or correlation toward the Mueller Investigation, as chairman gowdy has said. Robert mueller has a great reputation, both as an attorney and as an fbi director. I think he will uphold the rule of law regardless. But what the nunez memo certainly does bring out that has yet to be refuted is it raises a question where Andrew Mccabe said himself that without this dossier, there never would warrants granted or extended. We take mr. Mccabe at his word. I think that is an accurate statement. We will not know unless we talk to those judges specifically, but we do trust by and large, most Americans Still trust the. Bi i think it is important that we have open government, that we do investigate, that we use those powers. Is controversial because of the Fourth Amendment rights that it could abuse, and americans are not willing to have this type of abuse. Soap and light are the best antiseptics to infection, and we have some infection, lets bring it out. Host democrats say the schiff memo refutes point by point the nunes memo. Do you agree . Guest i cannot comment until it is authorized to be released. I was somewhat disappointed by the hyperbole in the memo. I do not mean that flippantly or butisan link partisanly, it came across as more than matter of fact with personal attacks it came out with personal attacks. Having held a top, secret sci clearance before we got into politics, there are some things in there that clearly would have needed to be redacted. Unfortunately, as the fbi and attorney general and others review this, they will have to make those reductions to protect our government. And that will be viewed as oh my gosh, he is redacting this information to protect himself while they make accusations against the president. The American People are smart. If presented all of the facts, they can come to their own conclusion. Lets bring those facts out there. Is an awful lot of wrongdoing that has happened, where we have had political designs that have created information that the fbi trusted from a former spy, the Political Party used that to try to persuade. The dossier was built, and thisw mccabe himself says was the basis for five of warrants. We ought to all be concerned. Where are the hearings on that . We are to all be concerned with that as americans, not any political affiliation. The wall street journal noting that President Trump met with his Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein, who has come under fire for the white house from the white house by releasing the memo. We will see in the next few days with the president what the president does with that. Kathy, colorado, democrat line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Good morning. I would like to preface my this does something to the effect of his power. As emperor, you want to be emperor. I do not know of you smart enough to say that, but he said history is not what happened, what history is everybody got together and said happened. I thought that was pretty smart and pretty real. Straight to this is a military comment. I have to get there, im sorry. Elected, one of his speeches was about abortions. Give me a chance. Before, i remember what it was like before then. I was born in the late 1940s, and my entire teenage years were the 1960s. I am a lifelong musician, so you know what that taught me. Heres the point. [inaudible] dont you dare have an abortion. But when these little babies were not aborted, and by the time they were 18, they were in the vietnam era. They did not mind sending them off to places they have never been, places away from their home, just to get them killed. Host we are running out of time, so what is your question . Why what i think is are they interested in the children when they grow up and sent off to war, but with their mother in jail for trying to have an abortion were actually having one . Guest my view on children is simply this i believe that god has created us all in his image. I believe that life ian that conception. Life begins at conception. I believe that if children are born that are unwanted, they would have someone who doesnt love them and does want them. Three of my own five children does love them and does want them. Three of my own five children were adopted and incorporated into our family, and i love them very much. I take an unapologetic view of being very much alive. I believe everyone deserves a chance at life. There can be horrible and difficult circumstances, we understand that, but the children we have to be able to defend and speak up for them, and that is why i am very much prolife. Host congressman Steve Russell is a republican from oklahoma, a member of the Armed Services and government reform committees. We appreciate your time. Come back again. Guest thank you. Break,p next after hour a conversation with Mississippi Attorney general jim put about how policy here in washington is impacting his estate. In the magnolia citys capital of jackson. Later on, democratic representative Carolyn Maloney of new york, a key member of the House Financial Services committee, will join us to talk about the looming shutdown and the roller coaster week on the stock market. We will be right back. American history tv on cspan3 is live beginning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern with allday coverage from the museum of the bible and washington, d. C. With a symposium of historians exploring the bible and founding of america. Speakers and good Baylor University history professor thomas skid, author of benjamin franklin. American University Public affairs professor. And Vanderbilt University divinity Professor James burr, author of sacred scripture, sacred war. Atch Live Saturday morning 9 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Cspans q and a. New york times Staff Photographer doug mills talks about the photo he took while covering President Trump. He enjoys having us around. Constant despite his comments about fake news in the media and so forth, i really feel he enjoys having us around because it helps drive his message, it helps drive the news of the day which he can do every day and does every day. He is constantly driving the message. Having us around really allows them to do that. Q and a sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Desk stop number 18 on our 50 capitals tour across the u. S. And today it is jackson mississippi named after general andrew jackson. Joining us on the cspan bus to talk about some of the issues facing his state is mississippi s long serving attorney general, jim hood. As a democrat, what is the secret to getting elected statewide in a very red mississippi . I was elected in 2003 and i think i was grandfathered in. Law enforcement issues, fighting cybercrime, protecting children. Those issues are nonpartisan our state. Mississippi may be seen as a red state, but there are a large percentage of independence in independents. One of the cases youre been working on is a case about prescription drugs and the cost, would you recently won. Describe that. It was one of those cases and wehere were pricing look to the company, the company was a bad operator. The case went on for about 10 and a very conservative judge issued a 20 million punitive damage verdict against them. We recovered 33 million. Our court upheld that verdict. It tells you some of the operators with overcharges of about a thousand percent. The pharmaceutical Companies Continue to do this unless our attorney general stops them. Recoveredof that, we 224 million for the state against a plethora of manufacturers. Where does that money go want to recover that . Medicaidill go to the program and the rest will go to the state general fund. That is part of the job of attorney general is collecting money from a lot of Large International corporations. To fight themte because it takes years to recover. The same time i have republicans of the legislature fighting to take my authority away under the Consumer Protection act trying to protect these pharmaceutical companies and these large number of International Corporations to try and thwart the efforts of states to recoup funds that are taken from them improperly. Approximately 25 of mississippis 22 billion budget goes towards medicaid. One of the other issues that we have been discussing on the National Level is prison and judicial reform. Where is mississippi with this issue . Issue ive been in Law Enforcement for 25 years. I was the da for two terms. I served 14 years as attorney general, worked with the fbi. I hate to see washington politicalization of Law Enforcement issues. That is a concern to all of us in Law Enforcement. When you have these kind of attacks. Having traveled, i saw a oner they attack prosecutors and many in the media that i met there are in jail now. In turkey. There are patterns that are disconcerting for mississippi incident going on in washington. As the legislation, they are trying to make these cuts without knowing what they are cutting. They are doing the same thing in mississippi. It is translated down to our legislature. They are doing tax cuts and giving them to large corporations that are having an impact on our services for Mental Health. We are facing the Opioid Crisis. Those policies in washington are affecting our states. When we make these huge tax cuts, these corporations, they recently passed 418 million tax bill. 78 of those tax cuts went to large outofstate corporations. They are giving our state treasurer treasury away at the time we need money to pay for medicaid, particularly to face the Opioid Crisis and treat those who are addicted to opioids. It is a lot of these issues going on in Washington Land on the states. As attorney general im in the midst of a lot of those battles. Jim hood is our guest, the attorney general for mississippi. First elected in 2004. Numbers are on the screen if you would like to dial in and to foricipate 2027488000 mississippi residents and for everyone else, 2027488001. Attorney general hood, you mention the Opioid Crisis. Could you put some numbers or some facts to how it is affecting mississippi arrests, costs, etc. . Deathsof the overdose last year were as a result of opioids. During thesecutor crack at the epidemic in the early 90s. We dealt with the meth epidemic in nearly 2000s. I havent seen an epidemic that reaches such a crosssection of our citizens than opioids. Military serving in the military. A middleaged person, to an elderly person. Some injury they get addicted to opioids and many times they turn to heroin and that is where we are seeing the overdoses in our state. Many appalachian states who struggle with this before. We had an opportunity watching what happened in the state to take some measures and encourage the legislature to do that. Provide moreem to for treatment and rehabilitation for those who are addicted. Found an action in 2016 concealed good manufacturers. , it is incredible the misrepresentations that they made about the nature of opioids. My grandfather was a doctor in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Morphine was moved primarily to the hospital environment. The Drug Companies said that all of a salesman to guard the public. At some point they will be held accountable. We were one of the earlier states to get involved in that litigation against the manufacturers. Hopefully we will have a source of funds to pay for the damage caused by those. Tell that to a mother who loses her son to an overdose. We will never be able to repair those damages. At some point they will pay, but our legislature is not stepping forward to try and deal with this crisis. They are making the cuts, the same thing happen in kansas. The exact same thing. The legislature had reversed all those tax cuts and given way to corporations. It affected the growth and it is doing in here in mississippi. We have seen a lot of turmoil that occurred in other states. In louisiana, bobby jindal did the same thing. We are struggling with a lot of those cuts and they are hacking off parts with it affecting people. State of mississippi laid off 624 workers. About 3 Million People live in mississippi, including 1 of mississippis budget comes from federal funds. Do you keep a close eye on a potential shutdown . Does that affect you on the state level . Sure. In areas of dealing with children. Our state turned back federal dollars and we get for every dollar we spend, we get about three back from the federal in medicaid money, different types of federal money and so our legislature faces deep cuts that we are not even able to provide that to and we turn that back for so many programs and it is not good economic sense to do those things. But they are doing them for political reasons. Its for the next election. Theyre not going to raise anybody taxes, and there are ways to raise revenue without necessarily raising taxes. It is all about politics rather than policy. A couple more issues in mississippi before we go to calls. I want to ask you about the antiprofiling ordinance in the city of jackson. What is your view of it . The antiprofiling ordinance in the city of jackson. What is that in what is your view of it . Im not familiar with that. I havent read it. So i cant comment on it. Most of our Law Enforcement are trained out of any kind of racial profiling in the Police Department here i think is a pretty good job of following that. If you could comment on the new proposal that is put in the legislature to have two state flags. What is that . Corner,ve a flag in the it is the Confederate Flag and it hurts so many of our citizens. Mississippi is about 39 africanamerican and there are many people that that is offensive to and so there has been a move in mississippi to try and have a flag that unifies. Of all things, our flight should unify people. As a symbol. I dont know of that bill will pass, but it some point we will have to develop a sense of unity here in our state incentive the divisiveness we have seen in washington and to some extent here in our legislature. Jim is the long serving attorney general for the state of mississippi. Lets begin with a call from jim in maine, you are on the air. Good morning mr. Hood. Guest good morning. Caller you said you got 22 million back from that company. I dont remember how many years you fought to get that back. My question is how much did it cost you to fight for all those years . Guest we were able to basically privatize that outside counsel attorneys for the bill for it. If they lose, we dont recover anything. Our state contract is much lower than what people get when they hire a lawyer. Maximum legislature is capped at. 5 . We have been very successful in recovering those funds and using outside counsel to help us do it or they have expertise in these cases. There is been a recovery in other states and so a lot of law firms that do that type of practice will go around to other states and look at the model. It is a matter of engaging those firms. I only have about eight lawyers in my civil litigations. Ive won at 35 lawyers total in the state. It is rather difficult for us to have expertise in the money back. It does provide funding to the office of attorney general to engage in that lengthy litigation. What is your budget per year . Guest it used to be about 36 million. We recover over that every year. We recover over 50 million generally every year. We recovered 3 billion in the 14 years of an attorney general. Ours is one of the few agencies that pays for itself. Trial a case set to go to in november against the power company. Literary owes us literally 1 billion. Here i am getting it set for trial and right over here in the capital, that company has got a bill out of the senate to do away with that lawsuit and it has gone over to the house which where hopefully cooler heads will prevail. When you have a kind of Corporate Power lobbying our legislature, using their peoplece to hurt our own and the evidence is clear. We have lawyers who handled the case in louisiana where they settled about 15 years ago, this is one of the few cases where nardi has the material before we start. Those battles occur, i remember when i worked for mike who brought the tobacco litigation. The governor himself filed suit trying to stop at litigation and protect the tobacco companies. So these large corporations have that power influence that affect our economy, our capitals when they can come in and just cut off litigation. An oil company had a verdict in West Virginia where they had a judge got one of the selected and reversed the litigation. Finally a federal Court Reversed it. You have that power and influence, we have seen it with the robber barons, we sought in 20s0s saw it in the when large corporations to control the government. We are seeing some of that again. Host bruce is in florida. Go ahead. Caller thank you for having me on. I would like to ask the attorney general, most of these opioids, are they coming from overseas or out of the country or are they coming from prescriptions filled by doctors there . Vast right now the majority are coming from prescriptions that are written by doctors. We didnt have a mandatory requirement for doctors checked the prescription Monitoring System in our state. I think urging the medical licensing board to do that. If they prescribe over 10 pills that they checked the Monitoring System. Directly your question , it is coming from pharmaceutical companies. There are some that are being purchased that are counterfeit over the internet, particularly the dark web. Some of the battles ahead with google dealt with that. A lot of the heroin that is the fallback position once the doctors cut them off and they cant get prescriptions, that is coming out of mexico and from all areas of the world. Where we are having the heroin epidemic. This exemplifies how bad your good epidemic is. Had a son whone did two drawers in iraq as a marine, his two best buddies were killed on a roadside bomb. His shoulder was a most blown off. When they cut them off, he got on heroin. He got off clean a couple years, he got into law school down here in mississippi and i told his father he can work in our office the same semester. Office and didur not show up about the second or third day when he started in january. We called his wife and she found him dead at home. He had taken apparently the same dose that he had taken when he was addicted to heroin and it killed him. American heroes dying like that at a rate of an airplane crash every day in our country. It is unacceptable. When Drug Companies mislead people saying it is not as big, it is ok. You can use it for a toothache or backache, knowing that it is highly addictive. A majore unleashed problem for the states and federal government. Im not seeing help out of washington that i expected to help some of the states like mississippi to deal with it. You in florida have been through this Opioid Crisis were probably the past eight years. Example, we saw it coming and yet it is hard to get the legislature to try and deal with it. We are doing work that is innovative, which is what we have and is training every Law Enforcement officer to identify healthy with a mental issue are opioid addiction and instead of taking them to jail, we train them how to identify those people, the escalate the situation and have the numbers to call and they are doing the training so that we are putting them in a Mental Health facility rather than a jail. We are try to divert them to the Health Care System and i think that will work. It takes money to treat those people once they get into the Mental Health system. ,ost adam is in mississippi youre on with attorney general jim hood. Caller good morning mr. Hood. How are you . Guest good morning, doing great. Caller first i wanted to thank you. I am sympathetic to being a democrat among our strongly republican governor and legislature. I thank you for your efforts. I want to get you to comment for two things three things. Any current efforts on gerrymandering in the state of mississippi . Marijuana legalization and of course can we expect your run for governor . Thank you. Guest thank you. As far as gerrymandering. We have got to get prepared for the 2020 census so that we do avoid the problems we had in mississippi. Peoples eyes glaze over when you talk about redistricting. It is vitally important as to why washington is so divided now. Thereredistricting cycles were 135 members of the United States house of representatives that office could get elected by democrat or republican. So they had to listen to the other side. Now the gerrymandering districts , we have created these little district where people get elected to say nasty things about the other side and so now there are less than 35 who can , electing a democrat or republican so dont have the listen to the other side. We analyze the problem of why washington is become has become so divisive. The u. S. Green court struck part of the Voting Rights act of they are trying to come up with a remedy for these divisive districts and i think they will. I think a spring court is working hard the u. S. Supreme court is working hard to fix those problems and ive reached out to experts to make sure we are prepared in mississippi to draw some lines where we can have more moderates elected because the extremists that become elected, thats whats happening in washington and here in our legislature. People dont want all of this fighting. After that, you have to govern. I think this divisiveness is something people are looking for and your answer about whether i can run for governor is something am looking at very carefully. My wife hasnt decided that the thing for us to do and ive got children and social media and all the impacts so that somebody i have to consider, but im being encouraged by republicans and democrats on both sides that tot to see a more moderate get things done. There are such easy issues of low hanging fruit that they could do to put us in a better position, the expansion of medicaid. That was 11 billion and 11,000 jobs in our state. Lottery here and dedicated to prek education which is so vitally important for young people. There are a lot of others. Internet sales tax, things we can do fixing our roads for Economic Development versus there are a lot of things people want to see us accomplish and that his business people, many of whom have supported republicans in the past. Now they see undercurrents in the state changing just as they did in louisiana where they elected a great democrat governor, john bel edwards. Then we saw the senate race in alabama. Hopefully we will return to some moderate government so that we can actually govern. Host both the house of representatives and senate in mississippi are dominated by the republicans. Are the governor and Lieutenant Governor extremists . I think their politics, not them personally. In order to keep someone running to the right of them, they have to run over to that direction. Anybody that runs on the extreme right of the republican side, if thatraised any revenue, would defeat many of them because there are so many disgruntled people. After the great recession, people lost their savings. They are mad and angry. All it takes is somebody to tell them what is wrong and whose fault it is. That emotion gets stirred up and people get out and vote. That is affecting our state. When you are concerned more about politics rather than helping people. Mississippi is the poorest state of the nation. Bymany of them get elected thumping the bible and telling them how great they are. But they dont ever read the new testament about jesus talking about the widows, orphans and elderly. I am encouraged by the undercurrents and hopefully with what were dealing with in or having to chill tell the truth about what is happening. Those battles are here for a reason and hopefully we are about to turn a corner towards more moderation and we actually get something done. Host that caller also asked about marijuana legalization. Legalization,na our young kids in our state, i was a prosecutor and send people to the penitentiary. Eventually our young people are going to change it. They will change the law and our state, probably legalize it in my lifeline lifetime. That is something that is coming. Some kids, it doesnt take much to get them off track and that is what bothers me about legalization of it. But i suspect that is inevitable at some point. Host steve from ohio, go ahead. Caller good morning. My question is, in the 80s we had crack babies come in the 90s we had meth babies. What are we going to do about all these babies than doing all this crime that irans psychotropics and everyone of these kids and they are the ones doing the school shooting. Every one of them. If you want to eradicate the poppy plant, drop bombs on it. If you want to give it to the coca leaves, drop bombs on it. If you want to get rid of the people in mexico that make methamphetamine, drop bombs on them. Thats i you win the war on drugs. They had heroin over there and he incinerated that place. Host that is stephen ohio. Attorney general hood. Any answer for him . Guest yes. Unit in the ags office in the early 90s before i went back down to two below. Ive fought those battles. Our cheapest bang for our buck is prevention. Then you have treatment, rehabilitation, incarceration. We need to do more Work Overseas and i agree with you on going to the source, but our cheapest way to do it is to prevent kids at an early age through boys and girls big brothers big sisters, Early Childhood education. That makes a better person once they have a better vocabulary rather than someone just reading to them. Our cheapest way and first line of defense is to prevent it and educate those people whose parents might be working two jobs. Maybe they are on drugs because the parents are on drugs. If you reach that child, your odds of making that child a productive citizen are much higher. Host jim of what is the attorney general for the state of mississippi and he as been our guest for our kitty on our 50 capitals tour. We are in jackson parked outside the state capital. We want to finish our partners in jackson. Next week we will be in little rock, arkansas. Coming up next on washington journal is representative Carolyn Maloney, a member of the Financial Services committee. Talk about whats going on with the stock market and a potential shutdown. Q a. Nday on cspan New York Times Staff Photographer doug mills talks about the photos he took wallcovering President Trump. Obviously he enjoys having us around. I really believe despite his constant comments about fake news in the media, i really feel he enjoys having us around because it helps drive his message, it helps drive the news of the day, which he can do every day and does every day. He is consummate driving a message. And having us around really allows him to do that. Q and a sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Sunday night on afterwards. Black lives matter cofounder patrice with her book when they call you a terrorist. A black lives matter memoir. She is into as we create a black lives matter, we knew we had to get people on board. We have to offer when people try to tell up black lives matter so we spent a significant amount of the first year ensuring that it was not coopted. Challenging people in our own movement, people that we love to not say all lives matter, to not say other communities matter, but to really focus on black people and to be ok and allies it be in solidarity with black people. Then we take that out to the world. Watch that sunday night at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on booktv. Washington journal continues. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is a new york democrat member of the House Oversight and Financial Services committee. Unless a deal is reached by midnight tomorrow, the government will shut down again. Do you think there is a deal to be had . Guest absolutely. Last night the house voted to have a continuing resolution to keep the government open for three weeks until march 23. We were scheduled to go on a retreat last night at 10 00, but we are not going anywhere. We will be working. The senate is looking at details are the ball is now in their court and they will be sending back hopefully an agreement that will include democratic priorities such as not only the dreamers, but also Disaster Relief, support for the Opioid Crisis and cap that are lifted for democrats are demanding domestic spending has the thing treatment for some of the needs we have in our Community Health centers and other pensions and other needs of the government. Do you think immigration will be included in the deal the senate is coming to . We know there was an agreement after the other Government Shutdown that there be a vote on february 8 in the senate. A debate and vote on the floor. A mcconnell said, let thousand flowers rise, lets make a decision. We have been debating this for the past two months nonstop. I would like to see an agreement to put this behind us. I like to see comprehensive Immigration Reform so that we could move on to other pressing needs of our country. Host Mitch Mcconnell has agreed to have that debate, but we havent heard from paul ryan integrated drought that debate on the floor of the house. How does that play out . Guest that is a challenge because ryan has been following the has to to agreement, but just that he does not bring anything to the floor unless he has a majority of the votes. If you allowed an on an open vote with democrats and republicans, i believe there would be enough votes to pass Immigration Reform. If you look at the bills that are already out there, there are about two or three other immigration bills that have a combination of 50 republicans on it. With those if those republicans to vote for Immigration Reform, then you would have the votes with the democrats and the republicans. It all depends. It is like mercury in your hand, you dont know what will happen. You cant really project. I believe it is in the National Interest to have an agreement and move forward. Host you can predict what needs to be in a deal that get your support. What you need to see in a spending deal and what you need to see an immigration deal . Guest it is all in negotiation between the two parties. You cant really say what if because you have to see what the final package is, it is very out there, but the democrats are supporting, we are very disturbed the Disaster Relief as not been appropriated for texas and florida and california with the fires in the mudslides and puerto rico. Many people are suffering without any electricity and is a very bad situation. The Opioid Crisis is out of control and yet everybody is talking about it, but there is not funding or a determination to really approach it. We have that is a priority. There is a huge support on the republican side to increase defense spending and we are saying if you deep increased defense spending, but also increased the mastic spending, that it has to be a parity. Also there is pension reform, veterans come the Community Health centers if we get past the child health programs. If you dont have the centers to provide that to the community. Of course, the dreamers. Dreamers torought the state of the union. I brought one from my district. He knows no other language or country. He knows American History, he believes he is an american. If you dont for your own interest want to support Immigration Reform and a pathway to citizenship for the dreamers, the economic interest of our country, the institute which is a conservative think tank says that the boarding the dreamers would cost the nation over 280 billion. We need a work force and educated workforce to grow our economy. It is in everyones interest economically. If you dont like it personally, then economically in the interest of the country. Towards giving money the wall worth changing the visa lottery system or changing the chain migration system . Guest all of this is part of a negotiation. Obviously, the republicans are demanding a greater border in my opinionhat would be part of the deal. I think everyone supports secure vetting to extensive make sure that terrorists and people who are not holding the best interest of america not let into this country. We need Strong Border control, but we also are a nation of immigrants and immigrants have built this country and lead this country in sciences. I read one report that a third of the Nobel Laureates that one won a science award for the u. S. Were immigrants. They made massive contributions. Host condiment Carolyn Maloney of new york is with us until 9 00. Then, lines are open. Republicans, 2027488001, were democrats 2027488000, independents, 2027488002. Lewis is up first in West Virginia, republican. Good morning. About howwant to ask a Government Shutdown would affect the Financial Services oversight regulator and the eps, where was miss maloney during thatrowth of the etf started at hundred and now are 7500 that cause tremendous turmoil in the stock market with a lot of these junk etfs. Where were you . Guest we are concerned about the stock market, it did have the largest it felt the largest it hasnt six years on monday with the s p falling 4. 1 and the dow, 4. 6 . So we are concerned about the stability of the country, but because of the reforms we are past with dodd frank, we have a firm structure. We have 80 straight months of private job growth. We have a sound foundation on which to build. We need to keep an eye on all of our Economic Indicators for the good of the people. In terms of a shutdown, i hope we dont have a shutdown, economists predict that each day of a shutdown cost the government this country 1. 5 billion. With a lot of needs and the government needs to be there to help people. I hope we will not have a Government Shutdown and we will come to some type of consensus that will be put to the vote. Responsibility do you put on the Trump Administration for the instability of the stock market that we saw earlier this week . St i said to mr. Nugent talked to steve mnuchin, if you to claim credit for the increase is coming up to take credit for the falls. It is not due to one person, but the American People, many people are involved with it. The Obama Administration inherited a very risky government where we were shedding 800,000 jobs a month because of the hard work we had 80 straight months of job growth come 15 million new jobs. The Trump Administration has continued to build on that. We have a broad economy, lets continue to build on it. It is the American People what their hard efforts that are the real source of the strength of our economy. Michael is an independent, good morning. Caller two short comments in one question. I think you really should change or formatting on your programming, you should have some independent experts on to comment on these things instead of these partisan people because no offense, but it is just disgusting. Host we certainly do that as well, but go ahead. Caller you dont do it enough, thats the point. Secondly, in my opinion, forgive me. Secondly, regarding this nation of immigrants. I stop voting for the democrats and i dont vote for many republicans either because ive been forgotten. Im a white retired workingclass man and i dont fit in anywhere. My question is this regarding the stock market, the reason it is at the heights this is my opinion. The reason it is at the heights that it is is because the fed has managed the economy sucks that you get no interest in your Bank Accounts virtually. Bonds,ly no interest on yet credit card interest is like 24 , so please explain this to me with dodd frank. How do you allow this to go on . We had the worst of financial crisis since the great depression. The head of the office of Economic Advisory test by before congress that the economic shock was five times greater than the great depression. Yet we rebounded back with trying new things and putting new protections in for investors and investments and stimulus and other activities. We bounded back faster than the rest of the world. So our economy has built itself back again and this was because of a combination not only of the leadership of the government and president obama, but also reforms we put in place to protect investors. Trillion of 18 private Family Wealth during the great recession. We hopefully will never go back to that again and we hope we do not need to. The Economist Says that with the first economic downturn that couldve been prevented by managing our Financial Institutions and protecting our direct investments in a greater way. Pennsylvania. N caller it is kind of gold here and a lot of snow. I have a couple comments. I keep hearing about the Russian Investigation into the election and i would like to make a comment. Votedny American Voters for their person based on russia . I would like to know that. Also, the oversight committees, a lot of the people ask questions, either take the fifth or refuse to answer. I know they are under oath and if i was before a judge on the being investigated, i would have to answer the questions or go to jail. Why is it that why is that not happening . Guest our constitution protects people and the fifth amendment says you do not have to testify against yourself. So many people will plead the fifth. They will be protected from having to testify against themselves. There are other ways to convict with other information, with prosecutors the prosecutors of access to. But that is a challenge when people do reviews to testify before congress, it happens all the time. Host another congressional investigation. Last month you called for an investigation into the u. S. Olympics committee, usa gymnastics following the larry nassar verdict. What is the state of that and what would that look into . Absolutelyund that disgusting and appalling that it went on for so long and that people did not act. This was our elite athletes representing our Country International desk in international competitions. So they not that they are not protected, children are not protected in other areas of our country. It was astonishing to me that they complained or filed objections to the fbi, other Law Enforcement and it never had any traction or reactions until the spoke up and said this is outrageous and put it on the front page of the papers in indiana. I hope trey gowdy and Ranking Member cummings asking for a hearing and a review of what happened so that we can understand how to prevented in the future. I am pleased to report that both Ranking Member cummings and chairman gowdy have agreed that this is a serious issue that needs to be explored. We are sending letters out this week to michigan university, to the olympic commission, to the gymnastics commission and many others asking them to answer a set of questions. Trey gowdy has called for hearings. We will be having hearings and get the information so you can report to the public. We need to not only respond to what happened here, but to look at how did it happen and take measures to prevent it from happening in the future. It is an outrage, we should do everything we can to protect our children. Reading the story, i could not understand how this was covered over and shielded, it seemed like the system was more focused on protecting dr. Nasser then it was protecting young girls, many abused. Were sexually it is a scandal, it is a most unbelievable and it is something that i am distressed that it happened in the great country of america. Need ton government take every step to protect our young people. Host about 10 minutes left or the house comes in. Were talking with congressman Carolyn Maloney. Roy is in alabama, an independent. Go ahead. Morning . Ith us this caller yes, i have two questions. And the board of directors cannot come up with a balanced budget, wouldnt it be replaced . And alcohol are the three highest killers, why havent they been talked about more than opium . We do talk about tobacco alcohol. Talk about we have taken a lot of measures to Contact People and to make people aware of the Health Threats of tobacco and alcohol. The Opioid Crisis is really a selfimposed one. Doctors are prescribing painkillers that a been abused and the number that i saw was roughly 60,000 people were reported as having died last year from this opioid overdose. That is higher than alcohol abuse and really cigarettes now where we have passed all kinds of laws. Protecting people from secondary smoke. The abuse from opioids has just grown soquel swiftly and some of our laws that we have passed say the doctors are now graded on whether or not their patients have any pain. I think that should be removed because that then forces the doctor to prescribe more opioids. I had a friend who just love the operationrom a minor and the doctor gave her three or four prescription for opioids and three or four to try. A lot of this is a selfinflicted problem that we should be able to address and should be able to stop. The First Priority of a government is to protect our people. Protect our people from any type of foreign invasion, from another 9 11, but also to protect people from abuses that are happening in our own country. This should be a crisis that we can control. Why are we even producing so many opioids that are killing our people . It is a National Scandal and needs to stop. Host would you ever support a constitutional amendment requiring congress to pass a balanced budget . Guest you bet a constitutional amendment, i been try to pass the equal rights amendment since i came to congress. It is a very difficult standard to get to. I think you hold your elected officials responsible for the decisions that they are making. Sometimes we are crisis is like 9 11, would you have to react very quickly to to help people. We have National Disasters that are on for seen natural disasters which are known for seen to our budget. You need a flexibility in your budget, you need to be a will to respond to it. Has a from a state that constitutional amendment. We do have to balance our budget and we need we have various laws to bring budget control. If you increase spending, you have to also show where that money is coming from. We have taken steps to bring more budgets formalities were budget discipline, but at this point i do not support a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. Republican, good morning. Guest how is new york . Caller how are you feeling, i hope you feel better . Guest i have a bit of a cold. Caller i was curious, i saw something on cbs about the abuse crisis. One of the dea heads was going after the pharmaceutical companies, but somehow he was stymied against doing it and he was removed from his job. I was wondering what happened with that. Guest i dont know specifically about that particular program, but i will look at it and try to find out why he was removed. I think the pharmaceutical should become more responsible. I think they should have Higher Standards before they allow their drug to be prescribed. I think dr. Should not be rated doctors should not be rated on how they treat their pain. I think is much better for americans to have a little bit of pain and not being drug addicted to i think that there is a lot of responsibility and blame to go around. Policies need to be changed. Ending secrecyhe about Workplace Sexual Harassment act . Guest with the sexual harassment, it is always part of the job. It used to be something that happened all the time. Movementf the me too and times up movement, it is being treated seriously for the first time in my life. We in Congress Want to make sure it continues to be treated seriously. That is not a wave that hollywood stars to put a spotlight on. But everyone should be entitled to a workplace and be protected. I put in two bill to address harassment in the private sector. We passed one that address congress. This would say that you would have to report to the eeoccommif sexual harassment. So that employees would know the with thef a Company Emphasis or pressure on companies to really focus on this and make sure it is not happening in their environments because it was me it would be made public. The bill oreilly settlement where they are paying people huge sums and then to ducting from the tax. Taxpayer should not be subsidizing this type of bad behavior. So you could no longer deduct this from your taxes. Host you met with former fox news host Gretchen Carlson on this issue. What did you talk to her about . Guest i talked to her about these issues and arbitration. She feels very strongly and there is a bill in congress to abolish the requirement of arbitration. Findpeople are required to sign arbitration requirements that they they cannot talk about it. So therefore that is a coverup. Even with the gymnasts, we are all told not to talk about it. You should be warning other gymnasts of this is happening. You should be telling them. They told the leadership of the societies what was going on and they did nothing. They told the fbi, they did nothing. It was only when it became public. ,ou want to make it public sunlight is the best disinfectant. To cleaning upd this problem and if someone ever talks about it, they never get hired back again. I hope that she was one of the first to speak up, i hope she will be one of the first to speak up and continue to be hired in her profession. Usually if you speak up, women learn that you will never work again. You will never work in your field again. You are blackballed. You become the one who was punished and often the abuser gets a promotion. This needs to stop, of users should be punished, not the survivors were victims of female or male everyone should be a to go to a workplace and work in a protected area. I asked her if she would help us with what we are planning. She said she would. After she would lobby before congress. She said she would. She said she really wanted to be able to work in her profession and i hope she will not be punished by her field. Host the house coming in a couple minutes. Howard, lynchburg, virginia. Line for democrats. How are you doing . Guest im very happy to talk to a democrat. Nice to hear your voice. Caller i hope you are feeling better. He cares about Peoples Health care, thank you. Liker it seems to me democrats and the republicans are in negotiating pretty good right now to prevent a shutdown. Guest i hope so. Caller it seems like trump is talking that he wants a shot down. I dont think he is going to have anything to do with immigration. Vetohe senate override his and make it a law anyhow if they come to an agreement . Guest yes they can. Our Founding Fathers built in many protections and ways to Balance Power and an agreement between the house and senate that passes, the president has the ability to veto it. The house and senate can override the veto with a two thirds vote. There are many checks and balances in our system. Hopefully we will come together and be united and have an agreement on a budget, on conference of Immigration Reform so that we can work on the other interesting issues. No country is stronger are better than america, especially when we decide to work together. To compromise, to move forward. I hope we will do that. I thought we were going to this democratic retreat, the average rate on the policies every year. 10 00 they sent out a note, we are staying and working, trying to get an agreement. We hope we will have a vote on the floor in the house and a debate on the issues of the budget and immigration and have a vote and hopefully have enough votes between republicans and democrats to pass a copperheads of Immigration Reform with the budget and address other pressing issues of the American People are bringing to our attention on health care, education, Opioid Crisis. Host speaking of the floor. The house coming in now. [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. 2015] et us pray. Thank you god for giving us another day. Please bless the members of the peoples house and the men and women of the senate in these waning days