Would think about what we are doing with our military . Soldiers want to serve in the military, et cetera. Guest first of all, in terms of our federal spending for national security, which is part of the constitution and thatction of our country, is probably about 15 , 12 to 15 of total spending. The total number of entitlements , in terms of Social Security, medicare, medicaid and paying the interest on public debt that has to be paid, we are talking about 70 . Theres a difference here. You could reduce defense spending. Its not something popular right now. The president has asked for an increase in defense spending as well as there seems to be consensus in the congress there should be an increase in defense spending relative to where we are today. Even though the uncertainties. Im not disagreeing with you or suggesting we shouldnt look for finding where there is waste abuse or whatever, unnecessary spending in defense and nondefense programs, but still, after said that having said that, the major drivers to spending will be on the entitlement side. Host from florida, independent line. Hi. Caller how are you doing today. Today . I keep hearing medicare and medicaid i mean medicare and Social Security, but those are things people paid into, sir. I never hear anything about these Pension Plans that were put into the 80s when people were getting a certain percentage, but now salaries have gone up so high, and these people get free medical, free dental, free this, free that, for them and family while they are serving. Nobody ever talks about what is that doing to the debt. It has basically ruined the bond industry, the Municipal Bond industry. The city tensions, state tensions have destroyed these states, the bond market. You never hear anything about is about wealth, which 800 billion plus every year that these politicians just giveaway. That doesnt include the empowerment zones that they put in these cities that they have tried to do over and over again. It always turns out to be a fad. Host we will stop you there because you said a lot for the guest. Guest in terms of the tendons you are talking about, those are private tensions you are talking about, those are private pensions, not part of the federal government pensions you are talking about, those are private pensions, not part of the federal government. , the type of pensions you are referring to are in the state and local level specifically. Im not going to get into the weeds too far, but in terms of 800 billion in spending for welfare programs i think that is an overstatement unless we add in the state and local level. Much less of that is spent here at the federal level for welfare programs. The federal Food Stamp Program is probably less than 80 billion annually. Host a viewer on twitter says, can you name me any insurance policies that has raised premium . Social security is the most significant insurance the American People have had. Guest i cant identify any Insurance Premium that has not raised premiums. I want to come back this is always very dicey. I understand sensitivities to this. The Social Security trust fund is a trust fund where we are paying in and those who are working and paying into payroll taxes, and there are benefits going out. As of today, that balance between what is in the trust fund and what is being paid out will exhaust in the year 2035, i believe. 2035,hat perspective, in we will only be able to pay that which is coming in. There wont be any trust fund to pay those benefits of what people thought they were going to get. It would probably be, as an average, a 20 reduction on what people thought they would get in Social Security. Yes, Social Security is never has never not paid its benefits, but to make it functional for the future, we have to make changes in the Social Security program. Host whats the most efficient change you can make in the amount of time we have those excesses . Guest i would point to two. One of them is probably increasing the payroll tax. That would probably have to be had. At the same time, the other aspect is the fact that that we the fact that we want to focus on demographics on aging and make sure they receive full benefits. We have moved that out to retirement age of 67, but we can move that forward. The good news is, here, we are all living longer, are healthier , and as a consequence, we need to adjust our pension programs to reflect we are a much longer living population. Host is there a magic number when it comes to the age to make Social Security most beneficial . Guest i cant think of one off of the top of my head, but we want to move closer to the 7071 . Something in that neighborhood. Kansas,shington state, on our republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to discuss to you about foreign aid as an example. What about investing in Different Countries like the congo . Its been proven many times that if you involve other countries into the world economy, it helps balance the deficit. Guest first of all, the amount of federal spending that goes to foreign aid is always overstated significantly. Too percent goes into what we would define as foreign aid 2 goes into what we would define as foreign aid. Of issues facing on the border today, as it relates to the difficulties having to leave Central America to get out of the difficult situations they live in, i think investment in those countries would improve the living standards, maybe control some of the poverty in that country, and would avoid problems with immigration today. Im one who has always believed this is a global economy, but lets be clear, the first and foremost aspect of this is that we dont spend that much in foreign eight foreign aid. It would increase the deficits further. Carolina, north democrats, this is carol. Caller good morning. Guest for years and years, all of these different president s and money has been taken out of Social Security and medicare like it is a piggy bank. Law thatng, we need a money cannot be taken out of those laws to fund wars or other government expenditures. We dont know what is being taken out of those funds and how much. Every now and then, we hear about it on the news like someone is taking out for obamacare. These funds are robbed all the time. Then, you hear about all of these big expenditures the government wants to spend this on. Wheres this money coming from if we are so short on Social Security and medicare . Wheres all of this money coming from that the government spends on all of the Different Things to spend on. Thank you. Guest this money comes from the taxpayers who pay their taxes. It also comes from a very important aspect of something we are dealing with right now. We borrow the money. Right now, as i explained to pedro, we have a debt in this country of nearly 22 trillion. We borrow 22 trillion and we have to pay interest on that. That is where, when we are ning deficits, we have to we have revenues coming in, but they are not covering expenditures that we have to borrow. I disagree with you. We are not stealing from Social Security or medicare. Those programs have their funds, their trust funds, they are spending the money that comes into them. I think when you talk about obamacare having induced spending having reduced spending and medicare, it was the fact that the expansion of particular benefits reduced the pand onneeded to ex medicare. To first and foremost, answer your question, wheres this money coming from . Taxpayers and borrowers. About 50 , today, of the money we borrow, thank you very much, is from investors overseas. I have a friend thats a former cbo director that likes to say we are the best looking horse in the glue factory. We are still looked at as a good investment and people were willing to invest in this country. Host will interest on the debt exceed medicaid or defense spending on a yearly basis . Guest good question. In 10 years, you will see that expended. Projections, and it depends on Interest Rates, and we know today that Interest Rates, tebow Interest Rates are at a low level. 2 i believe. If those Interest Rates start to grow back to what we call normalized, back up into the 3 three. 5 , the fastest , the Fastest Growing in fact, figures in yesterday looked at the first nine months of 2019 it showed interest in humans grew 16 last year. Host headline to show you. The Treasury Department could reach its debt ceiling by early september. What does this mean in our discussion of budgets and such . Guest very good. This is a bipartisan policy center. We tracked this. At what time does the federal government actually run out of Borrowing Authority . We reached that date on march the first of this year. Since march, we have the secretary of treasury, has been initiating extraordinary measures he can legally use to make sure we are able to borrow the money to fund. At theown estimates bipartisan policy center, we believe there is a risk that we could run out of our Borrowing Authority by sometime in early september. It is a risk. It depends on what happens from into september, particularly as it relates to income. We have seen not the growth in corporate taxes people thought. They have been flat this year. Personal income taxes, relative to the same nine months last year. We are thinking the federal government is facing a significant cliff, which is that we could default. Ae federal government in 230 some year history has never defaulted. I dont think this president wants to be on watch that says the federal government went into bankruptcy. That is what a default means. It has never happened, but to deal with this conger this, congress has to raise its authority to borrow or suspend it so they can pay its bills. Host which adds to political discussions we have seen over past congresses. Guest this is a confluence of two events. We have a fiscal year that begins on october the first, where we have to find government. Fund government. We have to have the money to fund government. Makeifference i want to is that a default is something that has never happened. That is the federal government in bank or to up being bankrupt and cannot pay. Good morning. My question is, instead of spending so much money on defense, it isnt the United States using the federal budget to fund foreign aid, specifically to prevent global conflicts through peace building . Theres a bill in the senate, the global fragility at, that would use the International Affairs budget to eliminate global conflict around the world. That would boost the United States economy, yet it is taking a lot for senators to sign on, even though it is a bipartisan bill and reduce defense spending. Guest i think a previous color also raised the issue of increasing spending on foreign affairs, foreign investments. Again, it is something that is a serious proposal. Staffer for 33 some years. Foreign aid is something, yes people look at from a humanitarian perspective, and yes it does have a peacekeeping focus, but at the same time, when it gets down to it, we are still needing to maintain the benefits and security to our own public. Whether it is Social Security benefits, pension benefits, health care benefits. This is a balancing act. How much do you invest in Foreign Investors or Foreign Countries versus investing here in the United States . Host budget caps for 2020 fiscal year. Without action by congress for the white house, budget caps on the pentagon were cut by 71 billion dollars. Fill in the blanks. Guest here we go. , we passed an act called the budget control act of 2011 which set caps on spending for 10 years. Those caps set a level for defense and nondefense. We are, at this point, about to reach 2020 terms of the fiscal year. The caps adjusted a year and a half ago now will be dropped act goesuse of this through 2021. To adjust, in order them, congress has to pass a law, or they leave them where they are. If they leave them where they are, they would issue an outline that would be a 10 cut in the fence. In fairness, some people in defense. In fairness, some people would like to see that cut. I dont think this congress or president would support that. At the same time, it would result in a 10 cut in nondefense spending at the same time, such things as education, science, technology, infrastructure. The negotiations ongoing right now, separate from the debt limit we talked about earlier, is what to do, how to adjust those caps for 2020 so we dont have those cuts. Government shuts down and we can pay anything at this point. Host from michigan, the republican line, helen. Caller hello. Wondering why on earth can all of these illegals, they get everything for nothing, and we live here and ive worked for 50 , Social Security is getting cut off you say. But, everybody else gets something for nothing. Food stamps and a lot of people that work cant hardly afford the food. What about the democrats that everybody to arrest for just to find out something that dont mean anything . Host we will leave it there. Thanks. Guest im not sure how to respond, helen. First of all, your Social Security benefits will not be cut off. What we are talking about is a reduction in 2035, a potential reduction, if we dont adjust or make changes in the Program Going forward relative to what people expected. Host heres pat from pennsylvania, democrats line. Morning. Good morning. Caller i have three things. If you lift the cap on how much people pay into Social Security, that would help. , people say that would increase their benefits, but rich people die young too. Second, how come everybody that works in a chair all of their lives once to increase the age limit on Social Security for the workers that do work out here . The third thing, how much is corporate agree about adjusting the cap on payments going into the fund. I think thats 118,000. Raise, thee that you im blanking on what it was specifically. The trust fund has to be addressed. Corporate waste is out there. I have always found in my career wastehat one person pots persons waste is another persons income. Host if you look at changes that could be done to start to tackle the debt, what would you advise . Guest you have to approach this in a bipartisan manner. You are going to have to focus on spending and revenues. I think we are not i want to be clear we are talking about slowing the rate of growth in some of these programs. We have to focus on the pension programs, the retirement programs. Makebelieve we can adjustments to those programs Going Forward, to lower the rate of growth. Spend money on foreign aid, defense, rebuilding our infrastructure out there, we are going to have to say we are going to have to have additional revenues. The carbon tax is another approach we might want to think about Going Forward that would benefit generating revenue and improving the environment. Host we have one last caller from kentucky. When the government lets a contract by material, thats a bump to the economy. Andr that job is finished the product starts going to use, thats a to bump. Bump counts more, its a up and down. They never want to talk about this. Guest if i understood the question, there was a bump up. We did with the tax cuts in 2017. Part of the growth in the economy, the low Unemployment Rate is associated with a bump up. Thats in terms of the tax cuts that went into the economy. Longterm, they go away. You have to stabilize Going Forward. Were going to have to find a way to reduce that level of debt that will be a tax. The bipartisan policy center. You will see analysis from the tonight at 9 00 eastern or after the house adjourns, u. S. Defense strategy. On cspan2, a secret service News Conference outlining a report on mass attacks in 2018. And at 8 00 eastern on cspan3, just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, a Senate Hearing on past and future exploration by nasa and its astronauts. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, Board Members of the one country project including former senator Heidi Heitkamp talk about the Groups Campaign to reinvigorate the democratic partys relationship. And then bill johnson who serves on the House Budget Committee will discuss the debate over federal spending and efforts to avoid another government shutdown. Also, emily martin of the National Womens law center will join us. Shell talk about efforts to close the gender pay gap. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern wednesday morning. Join the discussion. Federal reserve chairman powell will testify before the House Financial Services committee on Monetary Policy and the state of the u. S. Economy live wednesday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. And then live on thursday at 9 30 a. M. Eastern, the senate armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of army general mark milley for chair of the joint chiefs of staff. Watch both hearings live on cspan3, online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Sunday night on q a, former new york city Deputy Inspector talks about his book once a cop. I grew up on welfare. A family of six. Five girls and myself. My father left after the third grade. Its ironic in my book i have a picture of me in the fifth grade and im sitting indian style in the front and im holding my feet because i have holes on the bottom of my shoes and i have cardboard in them so my socks wouldnt get wet. So i had a rough upbringing and i got involved in the streets. Met some friends. They were selling drugs. So it was like the thing to do. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress, any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to appear before two committees of congress on wednesday, july 17. At 9 00 a. M. Eastern, he gives testimony to the house Judiciary Committee. And later in the day, hell take questions from the house intelligence committee. Both open sessions. Our coverage of Robert Muellers congressional testimony will be live on cspan3, online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] and the house coming in, getting down to legislative work after the fourth of july recess, taking up seven bills this afternoon. All from the Financial Services committee, including a whistleblower protection bill. Also, the house has announced theyll vote friday on the 9 11 Victim Compensation fund bill which passed by the Judiciary Committee unanimously last month by voice vote. And tomorrow, the house will 733 k on the 7 3 defense appropriations bill. The Senate Passed their version. 750 billion measure. Votes in the house this evening at 6 30 eastern. Theyll be here shortly. Live coverage on cspan