Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 06132019 20240714

Lee of california on the 2020 spending package being worked and by the house. As always we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. The federal deficit jumps 207 billion in may. Those on Social Security face a 20 cut in benefits unless Congress Acts and lawmakers face a deadline to avoid mandatory cuts across the board. Is thursday, june 13 and spending season is upon us. This morning, your chance to tell washington how you want them to spend taxpayer dollars. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. You can go to twitter at cspanwj or join the conversation on facebook on facebook. Com cspan. We will get to your calls in just a minute. How do you want lawmakers in washington to spend these federal dollars . What are your priorities . Take a look at the drudge report, the banner headline federal spending sword. Wall street journal with similar headline. U. S. Budget deficit grew 39 in the first 8 months of this fiscal year. From that story in the wall street journal, u. S. Budget gap widened last month as Government Spending outpaced tax collection, boosting the deficit 39 during the first eight months of the fiscal year. The government ran a 30 30 7 billion deficit from october through main. Yesterday starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the House Armed Services committee began what is called the Defense Authorization bill. This is the committee that authorizes the pentagon on how much they can spend. It is up to the appropriators to finally decide, but the national Defense Authorization markup happens every year. In the House Armed Services committee. They start at 10 00 a. M. Eastern and they just finished moments ago. Going nearly 24 hours. The lawmakers debating amendments and voting on amendments to this legislation. The chairman of that committee, adam smith earlier this morning had this to say about the overall number overall budget for the pentagon in 2020. [video clip] 26, 70 republicans sent a letter to the president saying you have to stick to 733. Our National Defense is dependent upon that. Somehow, the president is not a particularly good negotiator in my mind. He started at 730 three and after he negotiated, he came at 750. That is not normally the way you go in a negotiation. That was a very informed number over a long period of time to arrive at that number and it is a number republicans as recently as three months ago were insisting upon. I will also submit strongly, as we have seen with the battle for the wall, it did not take the pentagon more than a blink of an eye to find 7 billion for this wall. It was not hard at all to take 1 billion from other places. The pentagon has a history of asking for money in many cases for programs that are not ready to spend that money yet and if we give it to them, it discourages them from being efficient. Without warning because of the budget control act, cut the pentagon by 20 , yeah, you are not going to get efficient when you are cut overnight by 20 . Increasing by 2. 4 and after we do that, we throw another 17 billion at you, there is no incentive to develop efficiency because you know there is more money coming around the corner. Host what he is referring to is the budget deal reached and as i said at the beginning, lawmakers face another deadline on this. If congress does not reach a deal on budget cuts, the pentagon would be cut by 71 billion. Domestic programs would be cut by 55 billion. We are asking all of you to tell washington where you want them to spend the money. Helen, you are next. Caller my name is helen. Host okay. Hi, helen. Caller what i would like to do is for them to spend more money for drugs for these senior citizens. A drug i was paying 47 dollars four is now going to be 128. I would also like for them to revisit Social Security as far as how they negotiate the increases. In the last three years, i have had 15 and now, because of the drug prices, the grocery prices, good. Id not do me any they need to get off of their job wen and do the elected them to do. Thank you and you have a good day. Go, you are you king about the cost of costofliving adjustment. They 1 caller one year gave me a raise and increased it all because they increased medicare. They are not increasing the cost of living to compensate for the increase in drugs. Three drugs i have to take now are going to cost me 300 a month and if i wasnt getting a little extra money because of my late husband that died that i was divorced and married to him for 10 years, i was told i was i persisted, but and i did, but it is still not enough for me to live on. In North Carolina and this is the headline in the Washington Post. House Democratic Leaders postpone vote on part of a spending bill over a congressional pay raise. Democratic leaders have decided to withdraw part of a spending bill set for a vote later this week after an uproar over whether members of Congress Might see their first payraise raise in a decade. The bill would restore a costofliving increase suspended amid a recession battered economy. Lawmakers in both parties sensitive to the optics of voting to raise their own pay publicly erupted over the issue. This was pulled from a debate and a vote now expected next week that began on the floor yesterday. These house lawmakers on the floor working as well into the night. They adjourned at 4 00 a. M. This morning from that debate. They will come back at 9 00 a. M. And we will bring you coverage of that debate on cspan when they come in this morning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Lets hear from holly in florence. Democratic caller, good morning to you. How do you want washington to spend taxpayer dollars . There, what i just heard the money they voted to give we are living here on 14,000 a year Social Security and that is what we have to live on. A lot of people live on a lot less. Taking ourng is Social Security money instead of giving us raises. Payingd for 45 years Social Security and then republicans come along and decided they were going to invest in Social Security, but there was too much piled up in the bill so they lost it. Republicans should have to pay back every dime of that money plus interest that they took from what we worked for and put into that particular fund while we were working and they are probably still doing it. As far as that wall, that can go jump in the lake. Those people are only coming over here to find work and you would be doing the same thing if you were over there starving and not having no work and whatever their reasons are. I would be trying to go the same way. I do not understand why trump they are doing all this and trying to spend all this extra money when the people here are literally starving and having to beg food and churches are giving out food to go each month. I am in the same category. Living on 14,000 a year saying no money for the wall, more money for Social Security. Carol, a republican. What do you think . Caller i have been paying attention to the military budget since the 90s under bill clinton it went way up. It was about 330 billion and now it is pushing 1 trillion. First of all, the pentagon budget has to be reduced more than 71 billion or something. Reach a they dont deal, it would be acrosstheboard cuts 71 billion from the pentagon. Caller cut them 100 billion or double the 71 billion and leave the money for medicare and Social Security. I have heard they are going to take the acts to medicare and Social Security and both gals i on fixed are like me, incomes. Going up. Eeps that costofliving increase on Social Security is a joke. Host let me clarify for you and others because Social Security and medicare, those programs are mandatory spending of the federal budget. The lawmakers that spending happens no matter what, it is mandatory. When we showed you that graphic that said they would cut domestic spending, they are talking about discretionary funding, domestic programs where lawmakers have discretion over how much they can spend, just to clarify those two things. Caller i understand. Infrastructure. I am from pittsburgh originally and i will tell you other parts of the country have crumbling infrastructure that would provide jobs. It needs to go. These promises on infrastructure by both parties have to be met and also, the Green New Deal is going to create jobs. Bill, but iead that am forgetting off of fossil fuels and cleaning up and keeping our air and water clean. I am from pittsburgh and i grew up when there was particulate matter flying out of the steel mills. I know what dirty air looks like. As a breastcancer survivor, i attribute my cancer to growing up in a horrible environment. Those are my issues, health care, infrastructure, and some sort of Green New Deal. Host thank you. What theet you know president proposed for the military in 2020, the president sends his budget blueprint to congress, but it is congress who controls the purse strings. They take his blueprint and look at it and acknowledge those are his priorities. They will set their own priorities for the budget and then you have the senate controlled by republican so these chambers have to come together and agree on something for spending bills in 2020 that could make it to the president past desk. This is what the president proposed for the military. A base budget of 576 billion. Overseas Contingency Operation funds for efforts in iraq, afghanistan, 174 billion and defenserelated spending, 213 billion. David in kennesaw georgia, independent. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host good morning. Caller okay. I like that dress. I want to make a few points if you will allow me. I will keep them brief. It is amazing we always complain about Social Security when we want to make cuts, Social Security and medicare, but we dont ever talk about the things programs ando many money to people to pay for things. We dont do that. I get tired of being threatened with that every year and you all have been showing this a lot, the debt meter where they show all this money has been accumulating. I dont know if it was you all or somebody else. Host if you go to debtclock. Org. Caller exactly. When the republicans are in there and the debt goes up, you dont hear any of these republican hypocrites calling in and saying anything about it. The minute democrats get in, that is all they talk about. Big government, big government. It is hypocrisy and the last thing i want to say is about the question you asked, it is profiteering. We throw all this money at the war machines and the money goes to these certain families in our country and they get all the money for it. Like the lady said about the spending bill, it will go to the same families and they hired mexicans. You dont want them here, but that is who they are hiring and the money goes to the same people. To the same goes people over and over and over again. Money does not trickle down in america. It keeps going to the same people. Host a little bit more about mandatory spending. Mandatory spending is estimated to be 2. 84 one trillion for fy 2020. The largest programs are Social Security and medicare, 60 of all federal spending. Congress established mandatory programs under socalled authorization laws that also mandated Congress Must appropriator whatever funds are needed to keep programs running. The mandatory portion estimates how much it will cost to fulfill authorization laws. They are made by the office of management and budget. It also says Social Security is the single largest budget item and the budget for 2020 for Social Security is estimated at 1. 1 trillion. There is a story in the New York Times about a crisis looming for Social Security. They have not seen a crisis like this since the 1980s. Jeff has the story this morning. A slowmoving crisis is approaching the program, threatening to undermine a central pillar. , the program will start drawing down assets in order to pay retirees all the benefits they have been promised. Unless a political solution is reached, Social Securitys socalled trust funds will be depleted in 15 years and then something that has been unimaginable for decades is required under federal law. Benefit checks or retirement checks or benefits would be cut for the first time in years. Caller good morning. About givingalking d eople in washington washington, d. C. Their vote on a pay raise. I am on a fixed income. I have no problem giving them a raise, but it has to work in reverse. Instead of them getting a 15 raise, which i just got a raise of 2. 5 on Social Security. Give them a 2. 5 percent raise, give the people on social so it can 15 raise cover the cost of medications and stuff like that. That is all i have got to say. Host john in michigan. Caller hi. Lawmakersdo you want to spend federal taxpayers dollars . What are your priorities . Cannot seeht now, i a payee ofe i am not my benefits. Host all right. We are going to move on. Mike in North Carolina, republican. Caller good morning. Thank you for what you just put up. That mean that needs to be screamed from the mountain tops how dire the situation is with Social Security. It appears many of your listeners are not even paying attention. They just come on and have their positions and their wants and they dont understand how these programs are funded. They dont understand they are in desperate trouble. They dont understand that fiscally, the United States of america is insolvent. The only thing that prevents us from becoming venezuela or greece or other countries that have allowed their debt to consume them is the fact the United States dollar is the worlds reserve currency. Most of the world uses the dollar to buy oil and trade, trade with other countries. This is what allows us to keep printing money. We are 22 trillion in debt and running one billion. My priority if you were to ask me what are your federal budget. Riorities, cut the spending President Trump, i think he has already done it to a degree, he sent his cabinet secretarys back to their respective are part departments and said i want 5 or it should be 10 because that is where Discretionary Spending comes in, department of this, department of that like you very correctly stated, most of this stuff is on autopilot. Social security and medicare spending and stuff like that, that just ratchets itself up every year. It has some kind of a multiplier to account for inflation. Passescongress legislation, we are headed for a financial train wreck. To many of the callers just dont know. Host when you say they need to cut spending, are you talking about these mandatory programs . Caller yeah. That is where the problem lies. Like you have the same cough i do. Host i somehow caught it through the camera. Caller my apologies if it came through the phone. I have a degree in economics. That doesnt make me a genius, it at least makes me capable of understanding this. When Social Security was created, there were approximately 33 active workers paying into the program for everyone retiree. That ratio is down to like 2. 5. There are not enough people working and paying into the program to support the amount of retirees and i am a baby baby boomer myself i am still working and i plan to work well into my 70s if i can. I have allowance for that, thankfully. We are bankrupting our children and our grandchildren future because we are borrowing from the future and that means borrowing from our progeny to pay for want what we want now and then we have one political party. I called on the republican line. That one caller was kind of right. Republicans love to scream about deficits and deficit spending and the National Debt when there is a democrat in the white house and all of a sudden you do not hear a people from them. As a republican, that upsets me. There are other words i could use. Host i will show you and others this pew research poll. A majority of those polled favor ,ncrease spending for education veterans, infrastructure, and other government programs. 72 said more funding for education. 72 for veterans. 55 for medicare. 55 for and bind mental protection. 53 for health care and it goes on from there. Lets go to bill in georgia. Hi, bill. Caller thanks for having me on. I am a disabled veteran and i am on Social Security. I deserve to have Social Security. The evangelists on tv and stuff and they act like there is a problem with people being on Social Security like you are getting handouts and a lot of other people act like that, too. You paid into Social Security. Fine ifecurity would be it wasnt for them to keep stealing money out of Social Security every time they have a shortfallmewhere or a somewhere else. Lets take money out of Social Security and we will put it back later. It never comes back. I dont see why we can have increase for Social Security to get it back to where it should be. Host let me show you a little bit of a debate happening this week. A nita lowey introduced billsday several spending they began debating through the night until 1 00, 2 00 in the morning. They will come back today and continue that debate. [video clip] bills towe bring four the floor that reject the and burn approach to the Trump Administration and instead, chart a new course. One that increases investments in American Families to make up for lost ground. One that gives every person a better chance at a better life. With these bills, we are investing for the people. We invest in education and in the health of the American People, infrastructure and the environment and our National Security and the needs of Service Members and military families. Let me just say because frankly, the administrations misuse of Government Funds should concern both parties, this bill includes necessary oversight provisions to prohibit the administration from misappropriating funds including for a border wall. Not bew institution must a rubber stamp for president ial pet projects. The chairwoman of the House Appropriations committee. Listen to what kay granger had to say about republicans concerned about these bills. [video clip] is aving these bills as is wasted opportunity because the bill is far from what the president has requested and will support. Defense spending does not meet the request while nondefense spending exceeds the request. This could lead to a veto and another government shutdown. Something both agree would be devastating. In addition to these funding concerns, these bills have vehiclesrtisan reversing prolife policies and risking the safety and security of the American People. Many provisions of this bill force a return to policies of the Previous Administration and place unnecessary restrictions on federal agencies. For example, the labor health and Human Services division of this five bill package includes 100 million to help people sign up for obamacare. Forces the administration to blocks prolife rules from growing going into effect. Foreigny, the state and Operation Division prevents implementation of the president s expanded mexico city policy and provides 479 million to repay United Nations peacekeeping cost even though the United Nations has not made required reforms and prohibits funds to withdraw from the pairs climate accord. For defense, there is no funding for any type of barrier or fence along the southern border. Host what are your priorities for washington . How should this money be spent. We will go to staten island, new york. Republican. Caller thank you for allowing me to artist debate in this discussion. The funds seem to be allocated to getting to the right people i am a struggling artist. The conditions on where the money is going are horrible because i should not have to be or anybody in new york state living in inhumane conditions. Hud should be overhauled. A lot of money seems to go to foreign nations buying up real estate. I dont understand how that is possible. I think new york and washington needs to fix this really quick. It is not right for citizens of the state to live in those conditions and other foreign nations are able to buy up real estate and we are left hanging on the edge. That is where some of the funds and attention and appropriation should be going, fixing the real estate market. Host robbie new york, independent. Caller lets not forget the pentagon lost 21 trillion they misappropriated in the last decade and a half. As far as what they should be funding, in new york state like your last caller said, our infrastructure is horrible and we have a governor who wants to take everything from the people who works for work for a living and give it to the people here illegally. Our assembly voted to give drivers licenses to these people and our local media are cheering for it like it is the greatest thing in the world. Give them all hunting licenses and every other license you can think of. His is ridiculous our military misappropriating 21 trillion when we are 22 trillion in debt. We need to downsize. We dont need to build more and more and more. We already have the biggest military in the world by far and we need to cut. It is time to cut. Host joining us from capitol hill is senator david perdue, republican of georgia, member of the Budget Committee to talk about how he wants to fix the budget process. Let me begin with the wall street journal headline we have been sharing with viewers. U. S. Budget deficit grew 39 in the first eight months of this fiscal year. Is the president and republicans responsible for this . Guest of course not. In the last administration, we took a 10 trillion debt and doubled it. Here is the reality. A couple of your collars alluded to it now. We have 22 trillion. In the year 2000, we had six trillion dollars. 6 trillion. President obama comes in and we go from 10 trillion to 20 trillion and under President Trump, it continues to grow. 25 ofionary spending is what we spend is a federal government. We spend about a trillion of a hat extra a trillion and a half military. What is mandatory . The interest on the debt. Today, all this talk about the budgeting process and the budget spending cap and all of that is talking about Discretionary Spending. We dont talk about mandatory. Discretionary spending means every time we spent Discretionary Spending is borrowed money because we are adding a trillion dollars a year mostly because of Social Security, medicare, and medicaid. In thoser, the losses trust funds are going up dramatically and that is what is driving this debt. Until we get on the mandatory side and save Social Security and medicare, this is an idle conversation politicians do in washington. Host what is your fix and what would it do for what you were just talking about . Guest nobody does budgeting and appropriating the way the u. S. Government does. I will talk about the funding first act here in a second. We want to change the way we fund the government so we do it on time every year. We have only funded the government, congress has only funded the government on time four times in 45 years since the 1974 budget act was put in place. They have used 186 continuing resolutions, which is devastating to our military. They have actually shut the government down. Congress has shut the government down 21 times over 45 years. My act is a first step and it is part of a year round effort of a select committee. 4. 5 years of working group in the Senate Working on this to come up with a better way to fund the government area basically it is built on presets. Spend should be included in the budget. We have to have consequences for Congress Just like states do if we dont get it done on time. It is that simple. Host how would this address mandatory spending for Social Security and medicare . Caller the first guest the first step is address the fiscal year. I propose we go to biannual budgeting. Series of due dates within the appropriator process. Last year we appropriated 75 of the budget by the end of the fiscal year. We stayed in august to make that happen. When you get that done, then you can move over and deal with the mandatory side. Right now we are funding a deficit in Social Security and the Medicare Trust fund such that the Medicare Trust fund goes to zero in seven years. At that time, we will have to use money from the general account subsidize trust funds and at that point, that needs to be considered in the budget and appropriating process. It is as simple as that. Host i wanted to share this article in the business section of the New York Times on Social Security. It says unless a political solution is reached, Social Security trust funds will be depleted in 15 years, something that has been unimaginable for decades will be required under current law. Medical checks will be cut by 20 . Guest nobody will allow that to happen. You can see those dates. Ome say 15 the office of management and budget and the Congressional Budget Office use 12 year on Social Security, but it could be five years depending on how fast they let the trust fund deplete. Now is the time to do it. Since 1983 when Alan Greenspan and president reagan at that time try to negotiate a fix for Social Security. We have known for 30 years this day was coming. One day this knew thing would be bankrupt because of the baby boom bubble and here we are. Within a decade by anybodys measure of having to face that down. Worse than that is the Medicare Trust fund will come to zero before then. We have to find a way to save those. Social security can be saved, but that is not part of what we are doing right now. We want to come up with a politically neutral platform that will allow us to fund the government on time and not allow it to be a political vehicle that one party can drive down the throat of the minority, their view of the physical reality of our country. We need a bipartisan solution every year without this drama. Host how do you get this fix approved . How do you get lawmakers, some of them who have been up there for many, many years to change the process . Guest that is the question and thank you for getting to that question because that is the problem. Every budget chairman, every appropriating chairman for 30 years have all talked about this. What we did last year was we put pressure on leadership and leadership agreed to form a joint select committee and we agreed on several precepts, we just could not get a comprehensive bill. We believe in the senate we will put forth things like my act that put forward some of these details like changing the fiscal to decemberember 21 30. A lot of states do biannual budget. The model for this is really most of the states process. Year and 40, 45 days a their primary responsibility is to fund the government and if they dont get it done, they dont go home. We have to bill build consequences. It is a placeholder to start the piecemealo this in a basis, we can pass these issues test i am a business guy and you have to have due dates. If you are trying to get everything done, you better start doing it early. What we proposed last year, we did the top line budget first and started appropriating earlier. Break the appropriating process trillion, break it down into four components, put a do date on it and if we do not get it done by that date, nobody goes home. We have these various times during the year and i believe that would work. Host senator perdue the only fortune 500 ceo serving in congress. He was the ceo for reebok and Dollar General stores. Explain to our viewers why Congress Faces this deadline to deal with budget caps. Remind our viewers when this happened and why we are back at this point. Guest congress in an attempt years ago in the early part of the obama administration, all of us agreed we had to control spending. We put a budget control act that would limit spending and if you went over that, it automatically kicked into sequestration where you cut 10 across the board. In business, nobody does that. One of your collars earlier talked about infrastructure. One of the ways to grow the economy is to build infrastructure. Where is the money going to come from. The budget control act has never worked in the way it was intended and what it did do is it crippled the military because 60 of the cuts came out of the military. 25 cut the military by such that we could not protect the country anymore. Two years ago when President Trump came into office, our readiness was at an alltime low. We had the Smallest Army since world war ii, Smallest Navy since world war i. We could not fulfill the responsibility the constitution gives us to protect the country. Both sides understand severity of this. We dont want to have another shutdown situation. That is immature and irresponsible. We need to get these appropriating bills on the floor of the senate and i think we are moving to do that right now. Host when is your deadline and where do negotiations stand . Host september 30 is the deadline for funding the government for the next fiscal year. We have got to get the military and hhs because those things typically are put together. In the next few weeks we will have to get passed this deadline. My view is every day we should not go home on fridays, we should be here on the weekends. I am not pandering, i think it will take that kind of intensity to force both sides to face up to this crisis. We are in a Funding Crisis now and the reason we are not talking about it is we have the attack this one will be front and center shortly and i think the quicker we can do it, the better we will be. Host the house led by democrats started minibuses here in washington, spending packages. The one on the floor yesterday and today is four different spending bills in one package. Where is the senate in the process . Guest we dont have a topline number and this is the breakdown in the system. The budget process, we passed the budget earlier this year. The house has not passed the budget and they have started appropriating. It is so dysfunctional. It is supposed to have a budget process, author rating process, and appropriating process. The house bypassed most of that. It is ridiculous. What we have got to do is the senate is get a topline number. At the end of the year, if you dont have the budget or agreement, 8 people get together and decide on what the topline number is and they appropriate quickly against that. That is where we are now and if we did that we should have done it in january, but we could get passed the budget control problem and move on to appropriating and then i think we have a good chance of getting it done before the end up september. Host senator david purdue, we thank you for the conversation. Appreciate it. We will take a break and when we come back, turn our attention to socialism. Bernie sanders yesterday offered a full throated defense of the program in a speech in washington and we will get your thoughts on the political philosophy. You can call in now. If you support democratic socialism or oppose. We will be right back. Here are some of our featured programs this weekend on book tv. Sunday at 6 45 p. M. Eastern, we is at the home of Jean Schaefer and Richard Brooke heiser to hear about how they maintain their relationship despite opposite political views. Me ofs is the basis to what matters in life and it is called the chemotherapy test. Chemotherapy test is the fact that when you rely were lying on a hospital bed getting theotherapy, you do not ask current affiliation of the person standing next to you getting you through it. Mark love in talks about his book freedom of the press. Offers his firsthand account of covering the Trump Administration in his book of the enemy of the people a dangerous time to tell the truth in america. Watch book tv all weekend on cspan 2. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with your thoughts on democratic socialism, supportoppose is how we divide the lines. Washington times frames the senators speech yesterday in washington this way. Sanders proclaims democratic socialism as answer for america, compares arotech time of hitler rise and compares hitlers rise and fdrs new deal. [video clip] we now have an economy that is fundamentally broken and grotesquely unfair. Even while Macro Economic numbers like gdp, the stock market, and the unemployment , millions ofng middleclass and workingclass People Struggle to keep their heads above water while at the same time the billionaire class consumes the lions share of the wealth that we are collectively creating as a nation. In the midst of a socalled booming economy, real wages for the average worker have barely risen at all and despite an andosion in Technology Worker productivity, the average wage of the American Worker in real dollars is no higher than and millionsrs ago of people in our country today are forced to work 2 or 3 jobs just to survive. Host we are asking all of you do you support or oppose democratic socialism . Tom in maryland, you support the philosophy. Good morning. Tell us why. Caller can you hear me . Host we can. Caller lets call it democratic fairness instead of socialist. This is the term republicans like to use to make americans feel as if they are inviting a foreign philosophy into our democratic system. Fairness is the word you want to use. Senator sanders on a moment ago talking about the budget, he is talking about what they need to do to cut down on expenditures and all this sort of thing. Let money that could be used for the American People to pay their bills and make things. Need immigrants to come into this country if we are going to keep a social fairness Security System in place, medicare and all these sort of things. We need people to come in and help pay taxes. We are cutting off our nose despite our faces. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces. Caller socialism will work until you run out of other peoples money. That was said by margaret. Hatcher you are spending other peoples money. The government did not earn the money and the people receiving it did not earn it. Proposition. Ulous the United States would never have been the United States if we were a socialist country. Host why . Caller you can compare the evidence. It is right there in front of us. All the countries that try socialism end up abusing citizens. It is never going to be voted for in this country. I dont even know why it is a topic. Host listen to senator sanders yesterday talking about past reaction to socialism. [video clip] today, new deal initiatives like Social Security and employment compensation, the right to form a union, minimumwage, protection for farmers, regulation of wall street and enter structure improvements are considered pillars of american society. We can never forget that president roosevelt was reviled by the oligarchs of his time who paraded berated these extremely popular programs as socialism. Similarly, in the 1960s when president Lyndon Johnson brought about medicare, medicaid, and other extremely popular and important programs, he was also viciously attacked by the ruling class of this country. Here is the point. Stateno exaggeration to that not only did fdrs agenda improve the lives of millions of wasicans, but the new deal and warm asleep popular enormously popular politically and helped defeat extremism. Host judy supporting socialism, good morning. Bernie issupport what saying and i think it is remember that we are all involved in socialism right today. We have Social Security. We have social programs. The fire department, the police department, the roads. The gentleman that called before, is he willing to give up all those things . We pay taxes for that and we all use it. Acialism is being used as fear tactic to keep people it is crowd control. It is to keep people from thinking and a lot of people calling in our mimicking what they of heard, whether it is republican or democrat. I would say we need to think for yourselves. I am 80 years old and the whole time i have lived, i have background in politics. My family is in politics. We have a Republican Party that through the years, every time they have been in control, have taken social programs away from people. We have People Living on the street. I am on disability right now and my caretakers cannot afford to take care of me because they have to work two and three jobs. It scares me what is happening in our country. Host i am going to go on to jared in brooklyn. You oppose the idea. Up. Have to speak caller socialism is one of the worst things this country could ever do. Capitalism is what has brought people out of poverty around the world. You talk about these new deal programs, people are going bankrupt. A police and fire are not considered socialism. They are what the government is meant to do, protect its people, that is not socialism. There is a difference. Host tom in wyoming. What do you think . There is ahink confusion between what fascism fascist socialism and communism are and that we are socialist people, social people and we put our hard earned money into Social Security. I am 63, i just retired and it is hard to live on 1100 a month. Republican party completely rewrite the laws to keep themselves in power with gerrymandering and they are all millionaires and billionaires. This has to change and i am kind of nervous. I am tired of seeing our country. O downhill i am tired of seeing war after war after war ever since i have been alive. It is not supposed to be this way. We are supposed to be loving each other and caring about each other. Our homeo have corporations. We will call it Citizens United for the people and take that title away from the giant corporations because it is a lie and make it so we have one equal share in our medicare so that there is no ceos, no ruling. Arty that has the majority corrupt politicians take care of their own money and own businesses, but they cannot take care of our businesses which is medicare and Social Security. They are not doing their jobs. Host the Washington Post with the headline sanders defense reflects largest democrat battle. Sanders gave a similar speech in 2015 and he has built his Political Movement on the pillars of enacting medicare for freecreating tuition universities and colleges, raising taxes on the wealthy and powerful and curbing the influence of large corporations per he casts his ideas of the the newed business of deal Economic Initiative pushed by roosevelt. He is talking about income inequality. [video clip] in america today, the very rich on average live 15 years longer than the poorest americans. In2014, for example, mcdowell county, West Virginia, one of the poorest counties in the nation, Life Expectancy for years. 64 in fairfax county, virginia, a wealthy county just 350 miles to away, Life Expectancy was years. 84 of unfettered capitalism is not just an academic debate. Poverty, economic distress, and despair are lifethreatening issues for millions of working people in this country. Host lets go to mary in louisiana. You oppose the idea of democratic socialism. Caller yes, i do. I am going to tell you. Please allow me to finish so you can understand where i am coming from. Host okay. Caller you have so many people that have been brainwashed by the democrats, by socialism. Welfare destroyed black families. There is people that need help, but there is a lot of people that needs to help themselves. Not only that. Did you know the pilgrims tried it . The pilgrims tried socialism and they had to stop. When they changed it, then they prospered. Welfare, the is on only thing they are doing, they the governmenth that they will never have anything the rest of their life. Power with thet president and senate, watch and see. Mark my words, they are going to destroy this country. Thank you. Host maryland in brooke part marilyn in ohio. Socialismjust feel has pluses and minuses and more pluses because it really does enable people who need to build themselves from the bottom up longterm by providing the social safety nets needed, especially the young people need education. It helps them build their economic base so they can be productive in society whereas capitalism has been distractive because it is owned by the private sector and that creates an issue with control and basic corporate fascism over the country and therefore it does not serve a longterm purpose for societies where socialism benefitsother economic for the people of the United States. Ohio. Dave in hi, dave. Caller top of the morning to you. How are you today . Host good. Caller what i want to call about is i challenge you, cspan, to let people know what economic socialism is about. The person you should have on his richard wolf. He has a show on free speech, the economic update. What i want to talk about his health care. Bloomberg, which we all can understand is a probusiness out a healthput care ranking report in february and the top five countries under this work spain, italy, japan, switzerland, and iceland. They all have one thing in common. They have a universal health care system. The United States ranks 35th on that list below cuba, which was ranked 30th. Income on7. 1 of our health care per capita. What the driving forces on the cost factors are is High Administration costs, u. S. Physicians incomes are very high. Pharmaceutical cost, medical equipment, and emergency room care. We are one of the highest exceptual cost per switzerland, they are higher than us, we spend the joyce, in new jersey,ealthhost opposing the idea. Your turn. Yes, what Bernie Sanders is not telling the people is that he is talking about how many jobs that the american can the American People are working some any jobs , but he is not telling the people that their taxes are. Oing to be raised if he wins the taxes are going to go up. The to income the income taxes are going to go up and so they will have less money coming in. So how does he think that will work . Host finish a thought. Finish your thought. He said how do you think its going to work . Caller how do you think its going to work . Its absurd. Are brainwashed by the democrats, its absurd. Your income taxes are going to get raised, 40 to 70 . That means you work two or three jobs now but you may have to work six jobs. Host joyce, in new jersey. On tuesday the president was in iowa, at the Republican Party dinner. I want to show you what he had to say about socialism followed by Bernie Sanders in washington yesterday, talking about the attacks on those who share his progressive ideology. You better get out and vote. Thats all i can tell you. Your businesses will be taken away. Your taxes will be quadrupled. You better get out and vote, its a serious thing happening to our country yet we have never done better. And its easy as a socialist to say, when youre doing well, lets do this, we are going to take this, we are going to give you free this nothing is free, you are paying or. Other people are paying for it. Theres nothing re. We will be another venezuela. That country was really wealthy 15 years ago, they have destroyed that company. And i look at it every day, with venezuela stunning venezuela. What happened is beyond belief. A wealthy country, they dont have water, they dont have food, they dont of hospitals, its incredible. Dont let it happen to us. We must see ourselves as part of one nation, one community, and one society, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or country of origin. [applause] this quintessentially american ideal is literally emblazoned on our coins. Many,ibus unum, from the one. And i should tell you. It is enshrined in the motto of our campaign for the presidency. Not me, us. [applause] let me be clear. That i, andand other progressives, will face massive attacks from those who attempt to use the word socialism as a slur. But i should also tell you that i have faith and have overcome these attacks for decades. And im not the only one. Family the trump [booing] you got 885 million worth of and forks, subsidies, housing that was built on racial discrimination. When trump screams socialism, all of his hypocrisy will not be lost on the American People. Americans will know that he is attacking all that we take for granted. From Social Security, to medicare, to veteran health care, to roads, ridges, public schools, national parks, clean water, and cleanair. When trump attacked socialism, i am reminded of what dr. Martin luther king jr. Said. This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor. Speechernie sanders at a in washington, we are getting your thoughts on democratic socialism. Do you support or oppose the idea . Arnold, from tennessee, go ahead. Strongly,support it, because socialism, not socialism, democratic socialism, its the gospel of jesus christ. To fees feed the hungry, house the homeless, close of the naked, heal the sick, and reform people who are in prison. , and the message of jesus the love of money capitalism is the love of money. And the bible clearly says you mammon, for god and those who do not know, mammons wealth and power. In the bible theres a birth that says and i am i my brothers keeper . And the answer is yes, you are, we are supposed to look out for each other. And personal responsibility is always in the mix. You always have to do what you can to help yourself, but what you cannot do to help yourself, we help each other. Paraphrase what bernie just said, its not me, its us. I,pitalism operates on the me, my philosophy. And democratic socialism operates on the hour, us. We are here to love each other. Love is the answer and level solve our problems. Otherlet me get in some voices, we will go to john, and valley, i will. Isler my comment to him that that is what charities are for. Maybe i dont believe in the bible, so Charities Take care of that. My point was, Bernie Sanders had a town hall and he said his father came to from poland with a dime in his pocket. Hes a welltodo guy, welleducated, 80 years old. So when he makes comparisons to a town in mississippi, how does well . How did he do so thats what i dont understand. 50 years for medicaid and Social Security, why should my 24yearold daughter get it for free . I want that money back with interest. Host robert, in georgia, good morning. Caller thank you. , i think aocion and mr. Sanders are very smart people. Thent to college back in 70s, back then the definition of socialism was really state ownership of the means of production, factories, distribution systems, and all of that. And i wonder if anyone else has a query about how we are using the term socialism now. And i agree with many of the things they are saying, but ownership of the means of production, thats really the true classic definition of socialism. Not this welfare state notion that has to do with Free Services and support and safety were maybe could get someone on to help us make a more precise definition of socialism. Thank you. In alabama, opposing the idea. Hello. Caller first point, how is democratic socialism going to when one half american half of americans pay income taxes . If we have universal health care, and free college, and free medicare, you think we have a border crisis now, wait until people south of the border get the word that we have Free Health Care for everyone. We will have an even worse immigration problem on our hands. Host howard, in indiana. Hello. Caller good morning. Socialism, my concern is that there are aspects of our society which an effective role for government makes sense. And we coin that is some sort of socialism. Its really a productive use of government. I think we are primarily a market economy and we believe in free enterprise. But there is an effective role for government. One is universal health care, we should have medicare for all, such that every employee has the freedom to choose a job, moved to another state, without fear of going bankrupt for health care. That makes sense and it promotes free enterprise. So when we have these binary questions it makes it difficult to have an intelligent discussion about what we are really talking about. What i hear happening is every time we have a Public Movement advancing for effective governmental action for health , or for protecting our environment, the opposition to something socialism come or something negative, because there is a negative note to that word. Host for those interested in learning more, some of you have mentioned that, here on the washington journal recently we sat down with a critic of democratic socialism, who talked about his book on this, and following the conversation we , who leads theia democratic socialism and we spoke to her as well here on the washington journal. You can go to our website, cspan. Org, go to the top and it says Video Library and at that search bar you can type in democratic socialism and you will see the programs that we have covered here on cspan and on the washington journal. Lets go to diana, in connecticut, good morning. Caller good morning. Im totally opposed to socialism, and the problem i have is with the ignorance of the democrats. They complain about money. We want to get rid of the wealthy people, where did they think the money comes from, the workers who work for big is. Issus big businesses and the taxes that they pay for everything they want. When businesses lead as they are doing in socialist connecticut, then taxes go up because there will not be enough workers. And its a vicious circle. These people dont want money, they dont like capitalism, but money is what feeds them. And eventually they will not have any. The people were going to get wealthy are the politicians. They always get wealthy. Look at aoc, shes the perfect example of capitalism. 174,000 income, but its not enough money, so she want to go to the taxpayers for more money. That is socialism. Take it from the taxpayers, make the politicians rich. And Bernie Sanders made his money being a politician, he did not work, he stayed at home, he was a politician. Socialism, medicare and Social Security comes from your paycheck, it is not free. Medicaid was meant for the people were handicap or as a temporary fix, i live in connecticut, theres so much fraud and people get as many as four separate checks for Social Security and welfare. Bragging how they can scam the government, they dont have to work and they never have to work. These are young people. Host im going to hear from marcus, in jacksonville, florida. Good morning. Do you agree with socialism . Ler host dog, and baltimore, why do you oppose it . Caller i oppose it because the Economic System doesnt work. I have an economics degree. If you study the history of it its the same discussion occurring today that occurred when karl marx was writing. Concerned about working people. Socialism has been tried. Im not a fan of donald trump, but hes 100 percent right about the analogy of venezuela. It started with minimum wages rising, they did price control, they destroyed the economy, and now people are starving. Where free markets raised a billion chinese out of poverty. And i think people dont understand it. I think really Bernie Sanders is using these terms as a class warfare, rich versus poor, us versus them for politics. And if we were to get that system he proposes people would be a lot worse off. And that would be tragic. Host paula, in alabama, what do you think. Caller good morning. I dont have an opinion one way or the other, but i would love red state republicans to google red state socialism. I live in a red state, but a lot of people dont realize that the blue states are the ones that are taking care of the red states. Check the federal distribution of federal income tax, and they will see, and maybe they will change their mind, because i think in alabama for every one dollar that alabama sends to the we get 1. 60nment, back. The same thing with georgia, and i cant remember all of the redes, but you can google state socialism and you will see who benefits from socialism, its republicans. Host we will go to clay, in louisiana, who opposes the idea. Caller thank you. Yes, i think capitalism is a fine system. As Warren Buffett and bill gates does not work for 10 of the population and that needs to be addressed. Comparison with china, and russia, and venezuela, controlled by dictatorships and people should not forget , the nazi party was national socialism. , wevefrom louisiana long espoused a chicken in every pot, and every man a king. Look what happened to louisiana. Host tom, in West Virginia. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Host why do you oppose socialism . Caller generally speaking, yes. I have looked at it for 40 years in West Virginia, where 40 years ago people that were not on public assistance, generally assistance, looked pretty healthy. Now i see generation of young people that are morbidly obese, on welfare because they are not getting the proper nutrition they should be getting. And what has happened in this at one time we were the Worlds Largest manufacturer. We do not do that. There are good things about socialism, with Social Security, Unemployment Insurance compensation, the problem is we have too many people dependent on government. Im bringing in millions of immigrants, legal and illegal does not help the American Worker. This cannot be in either or discussion. Trump, voting for bottomline, and im a union member for 35 years and i broke ranks with my union and voted for a republican. Host tom, in West Virginia and. In michigan support socialism. Hello. Areer most republicans incapable of remembering bill a 33 n, who originated , and the multicorporations need to be taxed. And when bush got into office he destroyed everything. From michigan, opposing the idea. Hello. Theer socialism is simply government by the poor. And the free market is always peaceful and voluntary. 51 alism is where you have of the people who finally gain power using mob rule to steal from 49 or less of the people. That is not what this country was founded on. It was founded on individual rights and responsibility, and you succeed on your own merit. And if you dont you need to change we were doing. Because its not working. Host but eli, when it comes to programs like free tuition, or medicare for all caller those programs are bankrupt. The United States has trillions of dollars, over 100 trillion of unfunded debt from democratic programs like medicare, medicaid, and Social Security. Those programs are broke and we will suffer when they collapse. Host so what should be done . Caller i have a plan, its not perfect, but i think everyone will agree. Lets let individual states decide how to run those states. We could have 50 different options to choose from. People from california should not be governed by people in washington. Let the states organize their own affairs, because we are all different, with different programs in different parts of the country. Host brandon, in texas. Hello. Caller howdy. Basically, i would like to discuss the difference between democratic socialism and social democracy. Most people are behind the idea of social democracy, not because it really works in the framework of capitalism, and democratic socialism is a way to demolish and replace capitalism. So i think most people dont support democratic socialism because of that, does that make sense . Host ok, so how do you think n, that Bernie Sanders and and others have a broader appeal when they promote democraticsocialist . Caller just tell people the truth, and instead of saying we want to be like norway and denmark, that they are socialist. Just call them that. They are capitalist societies but there welfare societies are no vast that they are better than our american programs, and they work within the capitalist system. If you can do that thats how you get it. Thank you. And south carolina, opposing socialism. Hello. Caller hello. Supporter. N i think Bernie Sanders has gone off the ledge with this socialism bit. , thanksntry is broken to donald trump, and its going to stay broken until we can get that believesed in capitalism. Thats just my opinion. All i know is we need to get rid of donald trump and his minions in the white house. Host marys thoughts and south carolina. Beverly, in North Carolina. Host caller good morning. I dont know if i popped in the wrong number, but what is socialism . I remember when Social Security came in and everyone called roosevelt a socialist, is it because he wanted to help all of the people at the same time . And i would really like to know what is communism. I heard the president say hes against socialism, he never mentions communism. He wants to be a dictator, so which is worse for us in this country . I believe in democracy, ive never heard him say democracy works, because he doesnt want it to work. And its very disheartening the way this country is going, with these little labels and whatever. And its plain ridiculous. Beverlys thoughts, in North Carolina. Weant to let you know want to let you know that a hearing happening at capitol hill on cspan three. Coverage of the House Intelligence Committee cross look at National Security risks and artificial intelligence. The Washington Post has a story , and what can be done with technology, deep fake videos and the concern that this is posing for lawmakers. Yesterday on capitol hill, the House Intelligence Committee covered a hearing looking at volume one of the mueller report. This is the russian interference portion of the mueller report, the front page of the Washington Times intelligence chair, impatient for fbi answers about russia. We covered that hearing if you go to our website, you go to that search bar at the top you can see the hearing and you can watch it if you missed it. We also covered a hearing with testimony from the state department about the Administration Costs Emergency Declaration for arms sales administrations Emergency Declaration for arms sales. An Emergency Declaration was used to push through arms sales to saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. Holding back the weapons would have crated an opening for commercial rivals in china and russia. You can find more on that in our website. And a followup from earlier in the week. Many of you may have saw a hearing we covered with jon of 9 11and his defense responders. Heres the headline in the New York Times. A passionate plea that he made to lawmakers to fund their health care, it went viral. Here is a story in the Washington Post this morning, that the House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously in support of a bill that would give fresh money to the Compensation Fund for those sick or dying from illnesses linked to their work and the toxic debris at 9 11 attack sites. After an emotional hearing, which First Responders and jon lawmakerssasted inaction action on the issue. Lets go to ralph, in washington, d. C. Back to our conversation with you about socialism, you disagree with the idea. Caller . Socialism i totally disagree, im an investigative i am an investor with a business degree and a Computer Science degree. But what im seeing is that fullblown socialism does not work in the most cap and capitalism is the most beneficial system. For that said, unlimited its unbelievable. What we have in the United States is a situation where the middle class pays 40 of their income in taxes. While the very wealthy only play pay capital gains, they dont pay Social Security, medicaid, medicare, its limited. And when you look at the scandal involving trump and his cronies, you see that they were able to hide tens of millions of dollars overseas. And somehow people think this is not uncommon, this is quite common. To make capitalism work you need to knock off you need certain social programs. Is distribution of wealth completely biased against the middle and lower class. You have 10,000 pages of tax code, and about 500 of them or even 200 of them are for the middle class. The rest are loopholes so the wealthy can keep their wealth. And that has to be corrected and nobly talking about it. Theyre talking about panacea we will tax 1 of your wealth and everything else. Rid ofhe loopholes, get 5000 pages of this, manage the tax system and then you have money to afford the social programs people need. Thank you. Host earl, in georgia. Good morning. You are behind the idea of democratic socialism. Morning. Ood i have been listening for quite andile, i was a unionist when i graduated from high school in 1969 i was in social promotion. And since soon as i got out i was drafted. Wife had a daddy that was a Union Official and i had a job in the construction union. They trained me, they employed me, and they prepared me for retirement which im enjoying now. Which here in the south, i would have never even known there was a union like that and i would have never had anything that i have now. Louisiana saysm that these are democrats that are brainwashed, i am a brainwashed democrat and i dont regret it. I get at least 3000 a month for my retirement was Social Security. And im lucky. Host ive heard your point. I have to get joanne in before we get this conversation, shes in geneva, new york. Caller this is joan. I have a different perspective. Socialism is about control. They control your money through taxes, they control your health care, they control your speech through the education department, they control your thoughts through the news media its indoctrination, and they control your right to protect yourself. Who is doing this . Its the democrats. They want to take away all of our rights so they can rule us. And we are not going to go for it. Thank you. Host we will leave it there. We will take a break. When we come back, congresswoman barbara lee will be joining us, shes a member of the Budget Committee and the appropriations committee, here to talk about the showdown over federal spending. We will be right back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] most of us and we think of Winston Churchill, we think of the old man sending young men into war. But no one knew better, and knew he was well the reality new thell knew as well, terran devastation. He said to his mother that it comes through, you cannot gild it. He knew what war was. Candace mullarkey talks about the early military career of Winston Churchill in her book hero of the empire, the more war and the making of Winston Churchill. Me a regiment, i want to fight. He goes with the regiment to pretoria on the day it fell to the british. He takes over the prison, and he sees the man who had been his fellow prisoners. He put them into prison, his former jailers, and he watches as the flag is torn down in the union jack is hoisted. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome back to our table congressman barbara lee, democrat of california sits on the appropriations and the Budget Committees. Talk about the spending package that was put together, they began yesterday and it continues today with debate going latent to the night. One of the spending bills and how does this fit into the overall process . Guest its very important that the public understands that we are evidently working for the people each and every day, doing our job, and thank you for having me. We are in the process of moving forward the appropriations bill. The labor, health, and Human Services bill, energy and water, the defense appropriations bill, and we are working to make sure the public understands that for the first time in many years we are putting forth a budget that will invest in people. We are talking about increasing funding levels, because there was sequestration years ago where budgets were not only held flat, but were cut, and workforce training with increased budget for the National Institute for increased health, cancer research, and to begin to close the disparities based on ethnic and racial disparities. We have invested in public education, and put resources into job creation, areas that really affect peoples daily lives. Health care. Resources into our efforts to clean to make sure that our Water Systems are clean. We should be proud that we worked in a bipartisan way, i dont believe many republicans will vote for the bill, but the committee chairs, and i serve on three subcommittees, agriculture , health and Human Services and and this one and we have worked together to bring republicans into the discussion and negotiated many provisions that they wanted in the bill. Host one highlight is the defense appropriations bill. You got language in there to do what on authorization for military force . Guest after the horrific events of 2001, there was an authorization to go to war. It was really a blank check to set the stage for perpetual war. I voted against it and i was the only one because i thought it would give any president the authorization to use force forever. Members of congress we have the constitutional responsibility to declare war and engaged in issues and to sit andssues troops into harms way. We have not done that and now we have been engaged in war throughout the world. Over 40 times this resolution has been used, this resolution that was supposed to strictly be a response to 9 11. It has been used in 18 countries and this is in a declassified report. 75 of members of congress serving today were not here in 2001. They never had the opportunity to represent their constituents on these grave end important issues and important issues. It is time that congress do its job and decide. That is what i put into the bill, that we would repeal that 2001 resolution, and while it is in place we would have eight newhs to debate anyone a one, whenever countries engage in war or intends to go to war. That would put congress back in the mix, we would be doing our job and members of congress will be representing their constituents and sending the signal to our troops that congress has their back. Authorize into war. And that repeal measures in the defense appropriations bill. Host congress womanly is here to take your questions and comments about federal spending. For democrats 202 7488000, for republicans 202 7488001, for independents 202 7488002. Lets go back to the budget, tell viewers where you all are with avoiding around of sequestration. Guest we are trying to avoid them because we cannot have, especially our domestic spending, at levels that have been in the past, we have too many People Living below the poverty line. The economy is good for some, but not for all. People are working two and three jobs and barely making it. We need to invest in communities, we need to lift the cap end and sequestration and move forward with major investments, like the bill to work with the American People so they can have access to the dream an opportunity. Because sequestration has really put a damper and put barriers in front of them by their federal government. People often need a bit of help from their government, we should do that. And we should create opportunity so people can work, make good wages and benefits and take care of their families area that is what this is their families. That is what this is about. Host and that requires the house led by democrats in the senate led by republicans to agree. Guest and the president to sign the bill. This is the first step, we have a long way to go. But im happy or talking about this. ,he public needs to understand they need to call their senators and way in weigh in. This is a participatory democracy. This is the power of the people that allows these bills to move forward. To let theireople senators know, this is a budget, and these are appropriations bills. This will really impact their lives in a positive way. The senate should vote for it, the president should sign it. The phones. Get to john, in connecticut. Caller good morning. I want to thank cspan for all of the great topics. I wanted to suggest to barbara that the democrats embrace the term people is him. Get rid of the word socialism and embrace people is him peopleism. I think that has a positive connotation versus the negative connotation that socialism implies. Some make a National Effort to replace the term socialism with peoplism. Host congresswoman, tell us where you are, are you a socialist . Capitalist . Caller i like the caller, people is him, peopleism, thats prequel. Guest pest i like the caller pass caller costs callers peoplism, thats pretty cool. Thenot a fan of the labels, economic inequality needs to be closed. Thisok away look at government giving away tax cuts to the very well see a very wealthy, is that socialism . I think getting involved in a debate over socialism versus capitalism does not do us justice. We need to talk about do we care about medicare . Social security . Affordable housing . Closing the gap between workers and ceos . Do we care about companies that have created monopolies, running out smaller businesses . Do we care about farmers . What do we care about, what are our values, and make some decisions about who we vote for and some part based upon what we believe. Rights. Er fdrs bill of everyone should have a right to guaranteed annual income and a job. And i think most people get that. We need a country thats more structural and institutional changes. And if we get rid of these terms in these definitions i think people will come together and say we want to create a country that has a quality, he andty equality, justice for all. Host lets go to cal, in tennessee. Are a mess. Guys you have appropriated funds i dont want to pay for anybodys abortion. And i dont like the idea that you are cutting funds from the military. You have not address the problem on the southern border. You dont know what your talking about. You are a failure. Thank you. Guest well, thank you very much. If you talk to women, especially low income men and women and who have access to any kind of health care, health care should be human right. Men, communities deserve access to Affordable Health care. Planned parenthood provides breastcancer screenings, health care to people and women who dont have access to health care. Its important that we fund a health care system, including any clinics, including community clinics, land parenthood, so that women can have Quality Health care. Rightsens reproductive should be there rights their rights. And roe v. Wade held up the right to choose, the right to privacy, and the constitution requires that we should do the and battle by women, elected officials when it comes to making decisions on what women should be able to make and their own Doctors Medical professionals and however a woman would want to make the decision. Host can you remind the viewers about with the Hyde Amendment is. Guest it was placed into effect in the mid70s right after roe v. Wade. Its a no federal funds can be used to support abortion care for women. For my staffer here former boss, who recently passed away. I was furious. I couldnt believe that. I knew then that what that would do is allow the constitutional right that had just been decided by roe v. Wade to not be in reach for women of color and low income women. It was a discriminatory amendment and it has been in place since the mid70s. I introduced, several years ago, the each woman asked. We have 130 five cosponsors now which would repeal the Hyde Amendment. Every woman should have access to a full range of Reproductive Health care, including abortion if she should chooses. Right now its a discriminatory system, if you have money you have access. If you live in certain zip codes , or a woman of color, or poor, you dont have that access. Its about making sure all women have access to what roe v. Wade allowed. Host do minority communities have access to planned parenthood . Guest in some states they dont. In some states they do. There has been an allout assault on planned parenthood, we see it place in the states with regard to abortion laws and preventing women from seeking their full range of Reproductive Health care. Its outrageous. This is a war on womens health. They are shutting down planned parenthood and clinics. They dont want women to have access to contraception, they dont one teen pregnancy prevention programs, they support abstinence only programs. They dont want to make sure that women in Rural Communities have the full range of Reproductive Health care with these laws that they are passing. I remember the days of back alley abortions very well. Many of these laws will take us back to those days. We will not let that happen. We will fight back and we will move forward to repeal the Hyde Amendment with the each woman asked. Host we will go to add, in winchester, virginia, and independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. And handsfreeo in my car, this is the first, can you hear me . Host we can. Caller im a little disappointed because i dont get to see your smile. But nevertheless. Thank you barbara, for all of your comments. Im calling on two things, specifically the war powers act and where we are, very close to going to war again. I heard this morning, allegedly iran they are saying they believe it was iran attacked two carmona,n the gulf of i think it was. And lets not forget the gulf of tonka and the lies we were told about it. Lets make sure we are not getting ready to go to war again with the war powers act with donald trump charge. Guest you are correct. Was inber that, i congress with iraq, and he remember the administration then, he went to the United Nations and said there are weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction. We knew that. And i offer the amendment for ,istorical contracts context let the web and inspectors complete their business before we engage in an authorization to use force. When i brought the amendment to the floor i got 72 votes. We passed the eminent how we passed it, the truth would have been told, there were no weapons of mass destruction and we would not of loss of many of our brave men and women and we would not have opened the floodgates for these wars that are now taking place. Many refugees,d, its a terrible war. Mistakes can happen, and with this appropriations bill we put the language in saying nothing in the bill constitutes an authorization to use force against iraq. If it is the intent to engage in war, and of course the president always has the authority to use force if we are in and in amend in an imminent threat. But short of that this Administration Needs to come back to congress, put the costs and consequences and rationale for using force and going to or and we voted up or down vote it up or down. Thats part of what we are working on. Host and the headline the caller was referring to, oil tankers hit in fresh torpedo attacks in gulf of oman. You can find more updates. Barbara, ino massachusetts, a democratic caller. Caller good morning. Barbara lee is in the pantheon of africanamerican women, at the level with rosa parks and harriet tubman. I am 71 years old. I vividly remember the iraq war resolution, and the unbelievably courageous take on that. She looked fantastic. You should compare yourself to how you were back then because you havent aged a hair. Guest i was up almost all line along all night long, thanks. Caller i want to hear barbara lee tell us about the money going to the Defense Budget. I may student of Charles Darwin and human evolution, we have legally evolved beyond war,cticut war kinetic and as far as im concerned, cyber war is way better because nobody dies. But with the doctrine of mutually assured destruction that president eisenhower brought to us after hiroshima pertains to cyber war, and we are working our way beyond war all together. Take some time and tell us what you think about the 761 billion Defense Budget to upgrade our god damn nuclear arsenal. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. Bye. Guest i dont support the huge increase in the Defense Budget, i think its excessive and the pentagon has still not been audited. There has been 150 billion in waste, broad, and abuse. We have to get the pentagon budget under control. 4. King reminded us on april 1967, a year before he was assassinated, he said the three evils we are faced with our racism, militarism, and poverty. And we are still there. The race to continue to increase the Defense Budget has to stop. We have to look at a rational military budget that ensures the National Security and global leadership, and we also have to recognize that Economic Security of our people here in our own country creates a strong National Security. You cannot have the Defense Budget out of budget balance with the domestic budget. Sooner or Later Congress will have to come to grips with the fact that we will have to begin to reduce the Defense Budget to what is rational and makes sense. Right now i believe its out of control. Ont and an update investigations into the 2016 elections. Craig kaplan tweeted out that the House Intelligence Committee andsubpoenaed rick gates Michael Flynn for documents and testimony. Lets go back to our conversation about federal spending. We will go to thomas, in texas, an independent independent. Caller i have some comments. Can make green energy that start spending what istan, happening to the black farmers . And redlining and banks. Do me a favor, can you try to call my representative, hes not picking up his phone. I will speak specifically to whats happening with redlining. In many ways, its very subtle. When you look at what happened during the subprime crisis, and you look at where people of color and africanamericans specifically lived, and who had been targeted for these really horrible loans, it really was minority communities. And many of my constituents and people around the country have lost their homes as a result of that. Thats a new form of redlining, but it took place. And you now have a huge wealth gap in the black community. The primary way that we acquire wealth is through the equity in our homes. So in addition to redlining, we now have the wealth gap, and how we begin to rebuild our families of thesenities because Financial Institutions targeting our community. It was devastating. And we are still feeling the impact of it. Watersod we have maxine on the Financial Services committee, serving as chair. She is looking at all of these issues to make sure that affordable housing, homelessness, and all of the around what i call the right to live in a different decent, safe, house, home, apartment, is available for everyone in the country. Early in las up vegas, shes a democrat. Caller i have so many issues. As far as money for the military, its large enough, i think trump will instigate us into a war with iran. I cant believe anything that comes out of his mouth. And like the gun salesman for the nra, selling weapons to saudi arabia. And now he wants to sell airplanes to turkey. The saudis, 15 of the terrorist from september 11 came from saudi arabia. And we are allowing these Foreign Countries to come here with their large corporations, purchasing our farms, our property, no wonder we cant afford homes because everything is about the money at the top and they have too much power. And hes not a kratt an autocrat. He will not change. Its all about him, making America Great for him. Host congresswoman . Guest i agree with what you just said. Not seem tont does believe in our system of checks and balances, which is the fundamental bedrock of our government, or does not care about it. And as we have seen over and over again, he stonewalls his administration, the congress, we goingany investigations out, exercising our Job Responsibilities to hold the president accountable, and his administration. They thumb their nose and their finger at us, and to say to heck with it. So we move forward with the investigations, and we have to move forward to make sure that this administration understands that they are not above the law. No one is above the law. They have to be accountable to the American People. At this point im concerned about the state of our democracy. We are at a defining moment because we have an administration that wants to holiday power to consolidate power in the white house and that is scary to me. Host we have a few seconds before the house gavels back in. They gaveled out at 4 00 a. M. , you were up until about 2 a. M. Voting two clock a. M. Voting. 1 30, but weabout had amendments also but i was able to get home by 2 30. Host we thank you for getting up and coming to speak to our viewers. When they come back in at 9 00, a slain how the rest of the debate will work and what happens next week. Guest we are still debating amendments to the bills. We will have a vote probably at 11 30 on these amendments and they come back next week and we continue debate on new bills that will come forth until we 12 bills from the appropriations committee. Minibus,his one a these are subcommittee bills that are really funding bills that address every aspect of criminal justice reform, housing state andness, the foreign operations bill, which is addressing our diplomatic issues to create peace in the engage inher than more. We have a lot of work to do but we are doing it for the people. I hope the country understands that the democrats are doing a heck of a lot in terms of not only exercising our constitutional responsibility, but also working on our agenda for the people. Making sure we reduce the cost of prescription drugs, passing the violence against women act, the paid equity act for women, hr one looks at corruption and gets corruption out of politics. We are doing our job and we look you doing it yet doing it. Thank you for the conversation. Guest im glad to be with you. Host we are bringing you to the house floor