Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07102019 20240714

House budget committee, discusses federal spending and efforts to avoid another government shutdown. And at 9 30, emily martin of the National Womens law discusses efforts to close the gender pay gap. Host political reporting that House Speaker nancy pelosi will meet with Steven Mnuchin to discuss finding ways to avoid budget cuts and raise the debt limit as congress possibly faces another federal shutdown later this year if these issues are not resolved. This is the washington journal for july 10. Part of his political many credit him for the rise of and airdparty system recent poll showed many respondents say the current twoparty system is broken. That is what we want to get your sense of in our first hour of the washington journal. When it comes to the twoparty system, do you think it is broken . Call us and tell us why. If you consider yourself a political independent, 2027488000 is the number to call and everyone else can call at 2027488001. You can post your thoughts on twitter at cspanwj and if you go to our facebook page, you can make your thoughts known there, too. If you take a look at a recent nbc poll taking a look at the idea of third parties and the when itsystem, it says came to the 2020 election, a minority of all americans of the poll, 38 say the twoparty system is seriously broken and the country needs a third party. That is the highest percentage on this question going back to 1995. If you go to gallup, polling they did in january asking about political affiliations shows more u. S. Adults continue to identify as political independents. Democrats, 30 and republicans, 26 . At least 4 in 10 americans have billing have been political independents. Past 30dding over the years when they regularly conducted surveys by telephone, independents have outnumbered republicans and democrats. An increasing proportion of adults have identified as independents, reaching 40 for the first time in 2011 and maintaining or exceeding that level since then. With that in mind about the current twoparty system, do you think it works . Do you think it is broken . If you identify as independent, 2027488000 is the number you can call and tell us about what you think of the current twoparty system. Everyone else can call 2027488001. This conversation comes up as yesterday there was the announcement about ross perot, the texas billionaire who ran for president twice and his influence on the process. If you go back to 1992, the president ial race under the reform party than her, he talked about getting out of the race at the time and jumping back in after volunteers encouraged him to do so. Here is what he said about the state of politics. [video clip] Neither Political Party has addressed the issues that concern the American People. They asked me to run this campaign on the issues and a the problems the American People are concerned with will be dealt with after this election is over. I know i hurt many of the volunteers who worked through hard so hard through the spring and summer when i stepped aside in july. I thought it was the right thing to do and i thought both Political Parties would address the problems that face the nation. We gave them a chance, they did not do it. The volunteers forged ahead and put me on the ballot in the july 16. States after the day we were on the ballot, the volunteers requested i come back in because the Political Parties had not responded to their concerns. My decision in july hurt you. I apologize. I thought i was doing the right thing. I made a mistake and i take full responsibility. There is only one issue starting today and that is what is good for our country. Looking back wont solve any of our problems. Working together, we can fix anything. The American People are good, but they have a government that is a mess. The American People are concerned about this government they pay for that does not produce results. Nobody takes for sponsor ability, even when they have direct responsibility. The American People figure that out and want that changed. Host ross perot making several appearances on our network and if you want to see those, go to our website. If you go to the box and type his name in, it will show you everything we have taken in. When it comes to the twoparty system, if you think it is broken or not. Manassas, virginia, starts us off. Jack identifies as an independent. You are first. Jack in manassas, virginia . Caller caller good morning. Host you are on, go ahead. Caller hi. Perotslike to say mr. Were rather true then and i think the system is even more broken now. Things stills, got done, but it was not all right. I think there is even more partisanship now. Democrats and republicans both play to the extremes of both of their bases. It makes it hard to vote for them. I do my own thinking, i just i dont just buy into party lines. I think there is a lot to be another voice politically that might represent a higher percentage of the people. There has the potential to be a lot of middle ground that would make this country a better place. Host what issue for you would make an ideal independent 30 or independent party or thirdparty . Caller someone who is not so extreme on everything. Immigration was brought up. You can provide legal status behout handing it could legal status and a work visa program. It does not need to necessarily be citizenship. I dont think that would be right. Host lets hear from john on this idea of the twoparty system. Our line for others. Go ahead. Democrat. Was born a my mother and father are both democrats. My brother and i became and worked for the government and saw it was not very efficient. I voted against republicans even though i became a republican just to see if they would it seems like democrats are going to keep getting stronger and stronger. They have the media on their side and i really think it is hopeless now. It is going to become a more democratic country. Host when it comes to the party system, two parties not doing it . Caller i dont know if a third party would do it, but democrats have captured all the blocks the special interest blocks and the rest, working people are going to be stuck with working for the government or giving all money to the government. Host in atlanta, georgia, independent. Hello. Caller this is my first opportunity to get in on cspan. Thank you for this opportunity and i wanted to send my condolences to the family of ross perot. I voted for him twice. He gave me a call and left me a message on my voicemail. Wayink independence is the to go. The two party system is inherently corrupt. They speak on issues in a bubble, in a vacuum and its more like george orwell, 1984. Double speaking, et cetera. I want to commend the first caller because i think he was right on target. Host what about a third Party Changes that . What has to exist within that third party to change the concerns you highlight . Caller you would have to have systems in place so that you are refreshed and not susceptible to the problems the American Republican Party and Democratic Party has displayed where they lean toward various extremes. We should guard against extremes. We should think, we should apply science and not just emotions in our decisions. They capitalize on people possibility or inability to think deeply and they benefit off of emotions and cult of personality. I think that is partly the issue. Host tyrone, pennsylvania, on the line for others. This is christopher. Hello. Is the systemnion is broken because republicans and democrats are not working together to find the middle ground. I personally agree with all the republicans. I am registered republican. That doesnt mean i wont vote democrat on someone because of the fact they may have Better Options than what the republican candidate might have. They need to come together and be on the middle ground instead of fighting each other and that is where it is broken at. Host is that even possible, when you think do you think, when it comes to middle ground on contentious issues . Caller it is possible, they just have to stop being so against each other and actually try to look at the other sides view and come to some sort of option that would benefit the entire american populace. Aboutchristopher talking the twoparty system and giving his thoughts on if it is broken. This is jim off of twitter saying we will get a Viable Third Party when there are three positions on every contentious issue and that is an impossibility. The current twoparty system does not work for the majority of people and steve saying our political system is completely controlled by the media and money. I thirdparty candidate will never get traction and typically is not invited to take part in a debate. I am a Constitution Party supporter, fat chance, right . You can make comments if you want to on our twitter feed at cspanwj. Facebook available at facebook. Com cspan. Cnbc talks about ross perot in light of thirdparty candidates who have run for the presidency and the percentage of votes who got the popular vote. The top of that list is teddy roosevelt, gaining 27 of the popular vote at the time and coming in second in 1992, ross perot running independent gaining 19 of the popular vote. When he ran in 1996, he only received 8 of the popular vote. Christopher, we will go to connie. Independent line. Comment is i am an independent because i dont feel either one of the major parties represent me. Iam an economic populist, so strongly support someone like Elizabeth Warren and bernie sanders. However, i am a hardliner on immigration. I believe that is ideologically consistent because the bottom line is i am proamerican worker. Proamerican worker means i want the best deals for american labor, which means cracking down on all forms of immigration. I dont see anybody in the political spectrum who represents me. They are either bleeding heart liberals or right wing nut jobs. Who out there represents someone like me who is hardline immigration, but economic populist . Host when it comes to president ial elections, ultimately, how do you make a decision . Caller i swallow my pride on the immigration issue and usually vote democratic. What i would like to see is a democrat who has the guts to come out and say we are going to go back to how it was in the 1900s, i will support american labor, which means i will be for limitations on immigration. Host from Golden Valley arizona, our line for others. Morning, pedro. I always like it when you read the newspaper to me. I cannot read. My disability, words and letters get all mixed up. I want to remind people of the. Istory of our country we all came together after they settled and we decided we wanted a self ruling government and Abraham Lincoln was president and he had a preacher and the preacher was adamantly against slavery and so was abraham and so we had a war and why did we have a war . Because we were broken. We have been broken since we fought for slavery. Republicans are not standing behind president donald. We are standing behind Abraham Lincoln and all the blood that was shed to make our constitution for everyone. Host if you say we are broken, is the thirdparty a way to go . Caller i think we should have a third party called the patriots and the patriots are for america. Is three generation german and i asked her, do we speak german . Do we have german holidays . She says we are american, you speak english and stand on the constitution. Host what would be the single thing you could point to new the caller hung up. Massachusetts, you are next up. Caller good morning. I echo the sentiments of your earlier caller who said our system is essentially being controlled by far right wing nut jobs or far left not jobs. There is no more center. We are we are a completely polarized system and i think the problem or the reason for that is twofold. Limits. Ne, we need term the system was not designed or created to have senators in there for 30 years. Term limits would bring fresh ideas, fresh perspectives, and people who remain committed to integrity putting forth their ideas. We also need to fix campaignfinance. If we get the money out of politics to the extent it is in there now, i think we will see senators and representatives coming in with fresh ideas and rather than being owned by money and lobbyists. Twoink we need to fix those components. I dont think i thirdparty is a viable option. The twoparty system needs to be fixed through term limits and campaignfinance reform. Host that is rob in massachusetts. Can add yours to the course of this hour. 2027488000 if you consider yourself an independent. Are part of if you others. Party or all when it comes to this discussion about third parties in becoming an independent, a recent entry into that category leaving the republican and now becoming an independent first state. On cnn, he explains the background of why he made that choice. [video clip] when i was discussing impeachment, i had fellow colleagues and other republicans, highlevel me sayingcontacting thank you for what you are doing. There are highlevel republicans saying this privately, but not publicly. It is a problem when people are not allowed to speak out. I think we need the American People to stand up and say enough is enough. We have had it with these parties trying to ram partisan nonsense down our throats. We want a person to represent us and represent the entire community. Host here is eric from california on the line for others. Caller good morning, america. I would like to make a proposal of a jubilee party, celebrating what god has done for us. I hear too many people who want to call in and talk about what we have done instead of celebrating what god has done for us. Celebrating the fact we have the biggest part party of people from friday to sunday morning gets up in honor of what god has been doing for us and we celebrate every weekend in honor of this great country we have been given. We celebrate jubilee, start all over. Allete people give let people give citizenship to everybody. This is what we are supposed to be doing, celebrating. Celebrating what everyone is doing. Us dividedhe keeps america, we lose. Lets celebrate our unity. I see america unified as a great country. Host lets hear from john in new jersey, independent line. You are next. Caller i recently turned. Ndependent since mr. Trump got and, i dont even think he is a president. You dont represent half of america and say half of america is wrong. Everybody is wrong sometime. Then they dont come out and say i am sorry i did this, i did that. I dont see how he could think he is the president of all of us when he is only including half of us. Host as far as the twoparty system, is it broken or not . Caller yes, it is. It has been broken since he ran for election. I am telling you, Ronald Reagan would not stand for this. Host you are saying up to the point President Trump was elected, the twoparty system worked fine . Caller before he was elected, it worked fine. It wasnt all mixed up, everybody was lying Mitch Mcconnell has got to go. John in trenton, new jersey. In other news, aside from the topic we are talking about, bbc reporting came to roche resigning as u. K. Ambassador to the United States amid the row over leaked emails critical of the trump administration. The house of commons, it is the outgoing Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, theresa may talking about this event. [video clip] mr. Speaker, this morning i have spoken to and told him it is a matter of great regret he felt it necessary to leave his position. The whole cabinet rightly gave its full support on tuesday. He has given a lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and we owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. Good government depends on Public Servants being able to give full and frank advice. I want all our Public Servants to have the confidence to be able to do that and i hope the house will reflect on the importance of defending our values and principles, particularly when they are under pressure. Host in domestic news, there was a hearing in new orleans yesterday taking a look at the future of the Affordable Care act. Two republican appointed judges on the threejudge panel on the fifth u. S. Circuit of appeals peppered lawyers with skeptical questions appearing to suggest they might hold. Unconstitutional. The mandate up or could Purchase Health insurance. Andp administration favors mark to the latest development of a 2019 lawsuit by republican itning states claiming converts the law into an unconstitutional directive to u. S. Citizens to buy a product. Zach on the topic of the twoparty system, if it is broken from new port richey. Pedro. Good morning, what i would like to say is the twoparty system has always been broken. I really want to point out we kind of got rid of earmarks like 10 years ago and that creates like a parliamentarian system where if you do not own the three branches of government, you are not going to get anything done and everyone focuses on the freak show issues like abortion and stuff like that. There is nobody getting any ground. You are expected to put meat on the table for your district and i feel like a lot of people would cave a little bit if they could get something to show their district they did something for them. Justin in a pretty democrat heavy district. With the election coming up, he will be pushed to go to that side so he knows which way the wind is blowing. He cannot be like, i did this. They wait until there is a crisis to get things done whether it be the debt ceiling or immigration now. Host independent line. Good morning. Caller the first thing i would like to mention is Thomas Jefferson was the first person system. Se a three party he said basically a twoparty system at many times would lock horns and nothing would be finished or completed. Also, i agree with one of the other callers who mentioned a lot of the times it is the money that is affecting things getting done are not. Votes ofists sway the the different Political Parties. Host if you are calling for a three party system, what would that look like in your mind and how does it separate itself from the Current System we have . Having twotead of bulls locking horns, you would have an alternative that would help separate them. It would help make decisions in the right direction for either party to get things done. Host philadelphia, line for others. We will hear from mark. Go ahead. Morning, pedro. Thanks for taking my call. I will be a little contrarian here. I dont think the twoparty system is broken at all. I think it is functioning the way it should be. I think people are expecting too much out of our government out of each party and i think that is part of the problem. The first what is bill that sales through congress . It is the defense bill. Isnt that what the federal government is meant to do . Provide for National Defense . I think the problems between the parties has to be over other parts of discretionary spending. Host when it comes to the system, does it work best only in the financial matters budgeting matters or does it work overall in other issues outside the budget . Know. i dont i would say outside of the budget doesnt work too well, to be honest. Host keep the system as is, that is what you are saying . Caller thirdparty is impractical and unrealistic in my opinion. Host why do you say that . I am curious. Ler because a third party have we ever had a third party teddy roosevelt, the bold moves party, he was probably the most contentious thirdparty we have ever had and he wound up electing woodrow wilson. Ost that is mark philadelphia, pennsylvania taking the contrarian view when it comes to the parties and the twoparty system. This is from South Carolina, independent line. Steve, hello. Caller good morning to you. I tweeted a while ago, but there is only somebody characters. I firmly believe media and money control american politics. Politicians are not ever going to lose the form to appeal to a part of their constituency. To callers or three callers ago, a gentleman said we had a problem with your mark. Earmark. We are in serious need of Campaign Financial campaign reform. There is too much money involved and a thirdparty candidate is never going to get traction. If you had a thirdparty, i am not just calling president. I am talking about representatives. That would add another balance in the checks and balances situation. I want to thank washington cspand cspan2 for introducing me to the Constitution Party. These people are strict constitutionalists and that is what we need in this country today. Unfortunately, i dont think it is ever going to happen. Host when you cast your vote for them and maybe other people find out you are casting your vote for the Constitution Party, do they ask if you are wasting your vote because of that . Caller i am accused of that anytime. The other side of that story is you know how South Carolina is going to go. I did not waste anything. It did not hurt South Carolina as far as the way South Carolina is going to vote. Said last time they held their nose and voted, i did not have to hold my nose. Out theree only voice that shows these people. Host go to our website if you want to learn about the Constitution Party. We have had representatives on this program. Type it into the box. Green party, reform party, what have you. Houston will be the site of the third debate. It is expected to include a field. Ed version of the 20 expected further debate in detroit in july. Democratic officials tightened requirements for the debate raising the threshold candidates must meet for National Polling performance and a number of unique donors to their campaigns. Charlie in texas on the line for others. Wanted to call and say i am for a thirdparty even though i am a democrat. The problem we had like the said earlier, we need to reforms because there is too much money in politics. We need to get rid of those guys that have been there for 30 years. Mitch mcconnell is the grim reaper, nothing comes out of the house regardless of if it is a house run by republicans or democrats. When it goes to the senate, it dies because of Mitch Mcconnell. That guy must go. Host how does a thirdparty resolve these issues then . Caller you are going to have to have representatives and senators. You are going to have to have them everywhere. When you have them everywhere, those politicians that have been are notthe machine ng to have an opportunity their ideas will not be squashed if there is more people putting a voice out there. I have a representative that has been here for 30 years. He does absolutely. Othing for the people here nuclearuency is energy deal and that is all he cares about. The Big Companies and the people that work there, you are just stuck. Host that is charlie in texas giving his thoughts. Ran as the. Perot nominee of a thirdparty reform party, but the country was at peace and prospering and washington was cruising toward a balanced budget. And histt perots party began fading into them obscurity. Spent taxpayer money phylicia lee and sold out the interest of middleclass workers to corporate titans. It was 1992 during the second president ial debate ross perot participated in and one of the targets he took on was nafta. [video clip] we have got to stop sending jobs overseas. For those in the audience who are business people, pretty simple. If you are paying 12, 13, 14 an hour and you can move your factory south of the border and pay one dollar an hour for labor , have no health care, that is the most expensive single element in making a car. Have no environmental or pollution controls and no retirement and you dont care about anything but making money, you will be going south. I will study that agreement and make sure it is a twoway street. Host alfred off twitter says the twoparty system provokes voters to vote based on Political Party instead of voting based on a candidates proposed foreign and domestic platform. Thirdparty is never discussed until two days before elections. Jimmy in las vegas, independent line. Hello . N las vegas, caller yes, good morning. Host good morning, you are on. There should be more than two parties. In america for the last 240 years, the twoparty system has worked well. The twoparty system has not trump treats the senators as personal servants. Nobody has the guts to stand up. Leastk there should be at three parties. Host what would the thirdparty look like as opposed to the other two parties . If you have a left ring and right wing, there should be a party for the working people. Host jimmy in las vegas giving his thoughts. We will go to remmy in maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. One of the most exciting segments you have had in quite some time. We have a twoparty system that is really broken. The only thing we can do is deconstruct and reconstruct, i feel. People in america need to understand we have corporations that run this government. Andcorporations that run it the lobbyists that bring money to the politicians if you look at their lifestyle, they have a lifestyle of opulent living and they will continue to do this. When any Party Changes, the pros become cons and cons become pros. The only thing we can do is step back and say are there other countries out here we can learn from . China with the road and Belt Initiative and Economic Development bringing the two koreas back together, incorporating an Economic System that is going to reach into europe through russia. These are the things the American People need to wake up and understand with the Current System we have, it is time for a major change and i am not talking about socialism or communism, i am talking about a system we, as independents can bring back our troops out of these other nations and rebuild this country from the inside out and see if we cant come up with a better way other than going through a repetitive motion we keep doing again and again. Host with the history of the thirdparty system and those who actually win under that system, do you think that is a viable option in this day in age only if they cannot win elections what is the point of having the party . Caller there is no point. A thirdparty is just another distraction. They immediately become politicians and what happens to politicians . Corporations get lobbyists to bring money to them and again, we have more rhetoric in the same issue we have today of a 22 trillion deficit that there is no end in sight for that one. My point being the media and i am going to include cspan on this, the media is what keeps america divided so politicians can continue to conquer and with the 16 three letter agencies that control what it is that goes out on our airwaves. I dont see that happening either. It is almost like it is a Propaganda Machine with no end in sight for that as well. Host i would contend cspan is as far as them comments on how you cast them as far as media coverage. We will go to indiana, and independent line. Caller that man nailed it right on the head. We have a twoparty system run , fascists,t, nazis everything. The only independents were ross perot and donald trump. I am in independent, but i have to register republican to vote. I would not give a dime for democrats or republicans. They need to clean house, drain the swamp like trump says. He is right on the money. Host let me ask you again. A twoparty system currently works or does not work . Caller it does not work. It is a oneparty system and they play off each other and. Eoples fears it is like the bushs and the clintons. They want a monarch, is what they want. These people have totally destroyed the country. We dont need that. We need a third party, an independent party or tea party and get these criminals out of office. Host we had a tea party at one time, a very active one, particularly in congressional races. Host republican caller republicans and democrats did not want that. The republicans are just as corrupt as the democrats and they play off of each other and keep the people down. Trump and perrault threw a wrench in the whole project. Randy int is louisiana. It to highlight other news, continued calls for the oust of the labor secretary for his work as u. S. Attorney on the Jeffrey Epstein case saying in comments echoed by dozens of democrats, Chuck Schumer of the senate said Esther Acosta must leave office. Democrats who have the power to impeach cabinet officials were reluctant to go that far. He said it is up to mr. Trump to oust the secretary. I dont know how you impeach him for something done years before he took office. Brings shameit toward government and certainly this administration although they seem beyond shame. His donor history suggests he was a political ally to democrats, articulate around the turnofthecentury when he is accused of committing the crimes. To democrats9,000. Nd 18,00to democrats ronald is next, texas city, texas, all others. Hello. Pedro. Good morning, you are one of my favorites along with greta and susan, who rarely does this job anymore. She is at a higher grade level. Anyway, my main issue is the debt and the main person who has been working on that problem in washington for decades is maya mcguiness. Nobody is going to remember maya mcguiness. Please remember budget hawks. Put those words together and put go toymbol in front and twitter. Pause you only for a second because we have had miss mcginnis on this program talking about that issue. How does that apply to our discussion about the twoparty system . Need allecause we levels of Public Policy to be pulled in order to get our disaster. H away from issue fortudied this decades. Organization, and behind her. Host i want to stick to the topic of the twoparty system. If you go to our website and type in maya mcguiness, 87 appearances not only on this network, but around our network. You can see all of them as she talks about budget issues. The two party system if it is broken, michigan is next, rob. Caller i think for the first time in history, a third party could become viable and win an election. The polarization of the other parties has created a gap. That candidate would be Condoleezza Rice for president and schultz as Vice President. They could bring the nation together and set an agenda saying we are going to look for bipartisan support from both of the other sides. I think they would win not only the popular vote, i think they could win the Electoral College and maybe that is the best venue for them. Host let me ask you what qualities you think those two have to make that happen. What do you think they bring to the table . Caller Condoleezza Rice is probably the most respected nonpolitician out there. She served as secretary of state. She is a law professor. I think she holds the personal. Espect about from the public she could bring people to vote for her. Exit polls showed people were not voting for democrats or republicans, they were voting against the other candidate. Host this is rob in michigan talking archives of ross perot appearing in a president ial debate. One of the things he did talk about, the hopes of becoming president of the United States was the ability to bring people together. Here is how he thinks he could have gone about it. [video clip] i think iigh could go to washington in a week and get them to shake hands. Since they are bred from childhood to fight with one another rather than get results, i would be glad to drop out and spend time and see if we could not build bridges. Results is what counts. The president cannot Order Congress around, congress cannot order the president around, you have to work together. I have talked with chairman of committees that want this. The president wants it, but we cannot get it because we sit here and gridlock because it is a campaign year. We did not fund a lot of other things this year. The facts are the American People are hurting. These people are hurting in middle cities. We are shipping lowpaying jobs overseas. Textiles, shoes, things like that. If i am out of work, i will cut grass tomorrow to take care of my family. I will make shoes and clothing. Just give me a job. Cities. E jobs in inner host we will hear from don on our line for others. Caller yes, sir. Good morning. Host good morning. Caller the two party system is not the problem. Officialsm is the that are elected dont do their job. They are interested in doing Everything Else than what their job is. They need rules and regulations they have to follow like the president does. They dont seem to want to do that. And the news media, there is no more walter cronkites. Cspan does a good job. Host when you say legislators are not doing their job specifically, what do you mean by that . Caller they go on more vacations and take more time off and do less than anybody in the entire country. They accomplish less. Independent line. Frank in north carolina. Good morning, frank. Caller good morning. Good morning. Bless ross perot. Great man. I wanted to make a comment. Our very first president , George Washington and he defined the presidency. He was against little parties. I think perhaps what we really need is what ross perot said, Public Servants, not professional politicians. Too long, they think it cannot run without them. I think senator cruz has a bill proposing term limits for senators and congressmen. When they put the party first, that is what hurts us and when they stay there so long, that is what becomes their god, the party. Host you are saying that changes will happen within the current parties, not outside of a third one . Caller George Washington was against Political Parties. Host right. Caller you pick the person with character and professional politicians are further party first and foremost and they will do everything they can to destroy the other party. California,ike in you are next, our line for others. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. How are you . Thank you for taking my call. Chuck schumer and nancy pelosi, it is criminal what they did with trump and how they treat him and how they and he is the only one i can see putting people back to work and trying to bring factories back and big corporations and they work it out with some of those big heads in washington and allow him to go out of the country and all those people coming back to california and buying houses for a Million Dollars and write the checks like you would not believe it and here we are, americans, we cannot even afford to buy a house here anymore and this is what is criminal. Host the two party system not working for you, then . And we absolutely not to wipether 5 trumps out the other party completely. Host from connecticut, this is bill, independent line. Cspan. Thanks for i could give some real insight on all of this because i have ran as ansider and outsider in politics. The big trouble is yes, we need. Third party the trouble is, everybody would be fighting for party for power, it never works. A third party stings like a be and then it dies stings like and then it dies. The two system is terrible. Like in russia, to get the bums out if you could, all you have to do is go to where they all 80s in washington, easier to pick ticks off a rabid porcupine than it is to get these crooks out of washington. Host the office you ran for, third party, what was that . Caller alderman. I saved a Riverfront Park because they wanted it. Fighting within the party and what also happens with the media with the media, you are new easy news, confrontation. As it comes to the end, both parties donate a lot of money and then they turn against you in the end. Host when you ran as alderman, did you run and win as an independent . Caller iran as an independent independent. N it was split pretty well down the line. What they also do, the two parties. They send people into join and disrupt. It is a very tough game. Even if one person like perot won. He had a chance to win and he called all the shots and his own money, so he proceeded to move forward. If you have meetings with 50 people and they are i want this, i want that, it does not go anywhere. Host to the topic of term limits, if you go to rochester researchy, it cites done by linda powell, a professor of Political Science and says term limits were expected to replace career politicians with citizen legislators who intended to serve a short while and return to the previous occupation. She testified before congress and when she did and study the matter since 1995, she told the subcommittee term limits had not led to an increase in citizen legislators. Instead, she found in states with term limits, politicians often ran for another office. She discovered no differences between term limit newcomers and other newcomers when it came to politicians level of education, income, age, race, gender, upation, ideologically ideology, and ideological extremism. In north carolina, independent line, jim, hello. Caller thanks for cspan. I believe President Trump got elected because our system was a voters were disappointed in the candidates. Vote in the last election. I dont know if term limits is the answer. I dont have the answer, but the two party system better wake up because i think independent voters and a third party will eventually take hold and possibly ruin it. Highlighted ou President Trump ran as a republican, not as i twoparty candidate. Thirdparty candidate. Caller that is true, but i dont think he would have gotten into that position. I think when president obama tried to get immigration passed, republicans refused to vote on it or voted it down like the democrats are doing it now for the republicans. Host that is jim in carolina. We have been talking about the twoparty system and we showed you a pole showing participants poll showing participants said it was broken. If you identify as an independent, 2027488000. 2027488001 for all others. James is up next. Hello. Caller yeah. For giving me to power the power to talk. Is the twoparty system broken . They are both broken. What is happening now is it is not about the system. There must be people in power they dont respect. The citizens are the ones that put them in that position. I am 76yearold. When i retired at the age of 65 me 53 are going to give 2022. Politicians in this party are corrupt. Host that is james in california. We show the results of that nbc poll while james was talking. When it comes to that gallup poll and those who identified by party, 42 of participants identifying as a political independent. 30 as a democrat and 26 as a republican. Shane in kentucky, independent line. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host fine, thank you. Caller there should not be any Political Parties in my eyes really politics is ruining the congress and the senate because they want to fight against each other. I want to be your congressman, senator, or president. To get out ofem that Political Party line and figure out what us American People want. Host what changes that, do you think . Caller i just think if more people stood up and ran as themselves and ran as somebody for theirople and constituents in their states, it would really change it. Because i am an independent doesnt mean i do not have views as a democrat or republican. I host as an independent, what is something that is agreeable to you, something between the extremes . Caller i pretty much support balancing the budget, President Trump wanting to build the wall. In some areas, i support that and in some areas i do not. How he wants to fix the trade agreement with china. I agree with some aspects, the tariffs are two extreme. Too extreme but it got china to the negotiating table. On the democrat side, i have been agreeing with much they have done so it is hard to give an example on what i agree with. I do agree that they need to step out of their own ways and get stuff done for us. Instead of trying to step on each others toes. Host a couple of hearings to tell you about on cspan at 10 00 today on cspan3, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve before the House Financial Services committee to speak about fed policy on cspan3, cspan. Org, or the radio app. A hearing over House Oversight and reform looking at immigrant children, you can see that 2 30 this afternoon on cspan3. You can go to our website to monitor that and our radio app. Maryland,ver spring, the line for others, is the twoparty system broken . You arei am not sure going to do away with the twoparty system of voluntarily. It will happen because of the Interest Groups of many different groups. That, as otheris groups become more viable and delectable, you will have extreme right and extreme left groups with representatives in Congress Giving those extremes, charlottesville groups for example, legitimacy in the u. S. Congress. Forink it is problematic people to think we need more than a twoparty system because you would be opening up windows to these extreme groups. These violent groups. I do not know if you can stop that. I do not know if you can create it. If you have it, people need to have some awareness. It will not be all milk and honey. Other European Countries have more than a twoparty system and they do have extreme groups. Sitting in their representative bodies. In Silver Spring will be the last call on this topic. Coming up, we talked to former democratic senator 2027488000 the conversation coming up. Later on, we hear from bill johnson of ohio, a top member of the budget committee, talking about the current battle in congress over the federal budget and federal spending. First, a conversation between our founder brian lamb who sat down with ross perot in an interview in 1992 a few months before he decided to run for president. [video clip] how come you do not use it . I do whenever i sign my name. Do they ever call you it . No. Did they go to the ross when you were a kid. . I have never represented my self as h. Ross perot, someone else did it. I have kidded him fouryear. Four years. For years. I did not sign my name that way and i do not refer to myself that way. H is for henry. Wheres you grow up . Sex or canada, texas. Texarkana, texas. My dad had to drop out of school when he was 14. Worked as a cowboy when his dad died. Became a cotton broker, he bought cotton, it was a cotton farming center. He met my mother and they married. Asked how it suddenly felt about having a modest life for years, and you were rich. Born richs, i was because of the parents i had, no child could have had better parents than my sister and i more that is so much my sister and i hear it0 that is somewhat cspan opens the door to washington policymaking, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years but the idea is more relevant than ever, on television and online cspan is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your online. Washington journal continues. Host a conversation on a reach out to rural voters with heidi from north dakota, former senator from 20132019 and a founding board member of the one country project, j. D. Scholten, and the state director for working hero iowa. One country project. How would you sum it up . Caller guest the Democratic Party has lost Rural America and time we get it back. This is our attempt to say there is plenty democratic policies good for Rural America and listening the Democratic Party needs to do. Host was that clear cut the last election or before . Guest the trend has been continuing since 2008, president obama did well in 2008 and less well in 2012 and 2016 was a disaster and you can see the trend. It is important that people understand you cannot win National Elections and you cannot win back the senate if youre not speaking to Rural Americans. Host what is the message to Rural America you think has to be delivered . Guest getting out there and having the right message and part of it is all about health care. Almost every gas station where i am from has a donation box for someone who is sick or got into an accident. Candidates, we are the party of health care. That is the message, one of the many messages. You see what donald trump is doing secondmost agriculture, i would, you see you see what the immigration is doing to our farmers. Administration is doing to our farmers. Host how do you go about this message . Guest we have been doing a lot of research and that is important because it is critically important the question i get in new york, what do rural voters want . They want what the new york cabdriver wants, good health care, good, quality education and the way you deliver services in Rural America is different than how you deliver them in downtown manhattan. When you look at the budget of the president which is to me a value document you see there is no support for Rural America and when you look at trendlines with the Rural Economy versus the urban economy you see a decline in the Rural Economy you do not see in the urban economy. Before making the argument that people may say this economy is the best in the history of the world, which i could dispute, it has not been true for Rural America driven by agriculture , bothning and extraction have been a declining position in gdp and will continue declining with this president s fails and reckless trade policy. Host campaign 2020 is the topic with our guests. If you want to call and ask them questions, in a rural area, tell us where you live and call 2027488000. All others call 2027488001. You can tweet us at cspanwj. Owa,ident trump was in i talking about his efforts, reaching out to rural areas. Listen to what he has to say. [video clip] President Trump unemployment is at the lowest rate in over 51 years. We will still be breaking the record, and africanamerican, hispanic american, Asian American unemployment have reached the lowest rates ever recorded in the history of our country. That is pretty good. [applause] areident trump wages growing fastest which makes me very happy. Fast disproportionately for forcollar fastest bluecollar workers. Doing the best. Over the next three months, companies are expected to hire workers and the fastest pace in more than a decade with the greatest gains for workers right here in the midwest. Did you know that . You have the greatest gains in the country, the midwest. [applause] trump the last administration delivered low wages and economic stagnation and wrap it off shoring, countries did not respect what we were all about, they took advantage of our country and took our jobs and businesses, they took everything but they are all coming back very, very fast here. Should digpresident deeper into his economic numbers, unemployment is on the rise in many of the states he wo n. That farm income is half of what it was in 2013 and the fact that the average american over 50 of america could not afford a 500 hit to their budget. He is not living in new real world and giving us macro numbers. Migrant my great friend said you can live in the macro numbers but the cheese numbers the macaroni and cheese numbers, and those numbers for role america are devastating. Guest unemployment is so low because people are working multiple jobs. When i decided to run i moved back to my hometown before i decided to run, the best job i could find was 15 per hour with no benefits and his economic message is about yesterdays economic message and what we see owa, agriculture technology, but he does not ,nvest that he does not see it, only happening in 50 counties and maybe on the coast. That is getting missed. The drivers in Rural America is renewable energy. He told us windmills give us cancer. Winston ours and windmills in the United States are what is sustaining a lot of our own communities. Rural communities. Given low Commodity Prices and failed trade policy. Lets get down to the specifics of what is happening. Host trade is something you discuss, particularly with this administration in rural areas. Guest you have to see the trade policy overall and who is benefiting and we have not seen, has the farmer benefited . In my neck of the woods they have not and they are handcuffed right now. With aing to make a dime half decade of low Commodity Prices and we do not know what is next. Guest important to point out that manufacturing jobs are not increasing the way the president says they are with the latest job numbers, 80 of the economy a servicebased economy and to suggest that somehow revitalization of Rural America will be done strictly on the back of manufacturing, i agree with the president but disagree on his strategy on revitalizing the manufacturing sector. We also in Rural America understand the need to engage in the Service Sector and we have to have infrastructure to do so. The president s budget dramatically cuts Rural Development where our infrastructure dollars are. It is one thing to say, i will give you e15, im ethanol blend we have been fighting for for a lot of years and the president has agreed to do it year round. Guess what he takes off on the other hand, given waivers to the Largest Oil Companies in this country, the largest refiners, negating the value of any of his policies on ethanol. Host Heidi Heitkamp and j. D. Scholten who represents the one country project. Talking about issues, particularly voters in rural areas. Linda in tennessee is first. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller the democrats do not have a clue what the american wants. All they care about is the illegals. Was once a democrat but change to independent. To change to republican. I talk with people everyday and they do not want they do not want medicare for all, but the democrats think that is what they want. Thank you. Guest i would disagree that the democrats want medicare for all. I am not a medicare for all advocate and neither is joe biden or Michael Bennet and a lot of people on that stage do not believe in medicare for all and that is the right strategy. Democratic policies regarding immigration, take a look at what was passed in 2013, Strong Border control, 40 billion would have been huge had we done it along with taking a look at what we need to do to fix our immigration problem in this country. We have 13 Million People by some estimates living here undocumented. What are we going to do . We should be serious about cracking down on employers who hire them but that is not the strategy of the Republican Party to get to the heart of people who are encouraging migration by hiring people undocumented. We have a lot of work to do and none will get solved without looking at bipartisanship. I have to argue a little bit about democrats do not know what rural want, i grew up in a town of 90 people at my dad was a seasonable construction worker, i know a lot about farming and Rural America and they want good schools, good Higher Education affordable for them and their kids, they want the opportunity to make a living where they live and better housing. These are ignored by the Current Administration. We created one country to address the disconnect you feel as a former democrat to this party. Why dont you support this party . We need to have a conversation about that and get real. Thank you for the comments. Host elizabeth in bridgeport, connecticut. Caller i wanted to ask the senator about family farms. It seems as in all states people want locally sourced food and they want preservation of open space. I would like to know what policies you think could promote the preservation of smaller farms instead of the Large Industrial farms . Havingld the highspeed broadband in rural areas and better transportation help people in rural areas . Guest first lets talk about broadband. That is true. We need the Tech Companies to understand there are resources as north dakota is one of the best rural connected broadband states. You can get better broadband at my husbands family farm in rural jamestown then you can in fargo, north dakota. Saying to be careful broadband is the solution to all problems, we have to encourage amazon to understand there is workforce there and understand getting other tech copies to understand we have a resource undervalued their. We have to change the way we educate kids in Rural America, we have to bring the best education and growing a workforce that can live and work in rural communities. Agricultureility of and the issues of small stakeholder farmers, we are basically a commodity producing state. But we have a lot of small state farmers. Many of the programs we find it in the farm bill have actually allowed smaller farmers to survive on smaller pieces of land. And do it in a more responsible way. We will produce to the market. ,hat is one thing i will preach you can raise your fist and say all those people who want farm to table products, they are just greedy but lets produced to the market and that is what we need to do. We need to understand there is a role for both kinds of our culture in america and encourage smaller farms and sustainability in agriculture. Host do you want to pick up anything else . Guest technology and broadband, in my district, we have Iowa State University and a 2017 we graduated 1400 students who can go into the Technology Field and a year later in 2018 only 258 a. Ved in worked in iow that is what we see in our communities. We are losing folks. There is so much potential because we have the workforce but we need to get the investment going into all 50 states and all districts. That is a big message we have. Centerss large tech like San Francisco and seattle deal with homelessness, deal with the challenges that they have, trying to support that level of a labor force, they have seen escalation in housing prices and food prices. We have workforce in Rural America, the ability to deliver and with technology with the backbone we can make a real contribution to the servicebased economy which is a focus of what we should be looking at, not just improving agriculture or how we will sustain the manufacturing we do in Rural America, which is also a big part of our economy but looking to be part of the service economy. Host don in mount victory, ohio. Caller how are you doing . In thisittle confused conversation because i live in the rural part of ohio. There is no more small farmer. Farmers whogtime operate on Profit Margins that are low because theyre so big. I am curious, is there a difference inu here and in rural here and there . Everybody in the government, you try to make one policy to cover rural and the suburbs which does not get it, and if you try to go into states rights we get into the Bigger Picture of the federal government. Aboutheitkamp, you spoke the micro and macro. The federal government, all they do is macro policy. Your Agriculture Community i heard a few weeks ago donald trump was terrible because of what he did with the china trade deal and soybeans. That is a macro policy. How are you going to take a micro policy and apply it to china when they deal with nothing like a freemarket enterprise does . Guest first off, when you say that we see unprecedented consolidation in agriculture, that is true. It is because we have high inputs and low Commodity Prices which really narrows the margin and makes it impossible to do this on a smaller scale. As the woman from connecticut said, you can rise the margins by producing higherquality products. You see more and more of that in agriculture and you will see the trend. 10 years ago, the fastestgrowing sale john deere hat was small tractors for small stakeholder farmers but that is not true with increasing Commodity Prices and now higher Commodity Prices. Agriculture will adjust for the market that is there. Take the other part of the question. In my we have 39 counties district but to farm to table restaurants. It is an economic myth for our areas, especially rural areas. Highway 20 east from where i live in sioux city, two of the next three towns have lost their Grocery Store in the last five years and we are the secondmost i closer producing district in america agricultural district in america and you have to grow your own tomatoes or drive a half hour into sioux city to get one. We are missing out on localized markets. Guest about the macro versus the micro issue, he is correct that there are many issues that are addressed, we are talking about the fed rate, we have to do both write and he pc Democratic Party does the best is the micro please, why when Rural America is so dependent in our state for medicaids expansion what this demonstration and thousands of people are on Medicaid Expansion , many in rural, many with opioid addictions are dependent on Medicaid Expansion but this administration argues to eliminate that program in court. I could go program by program and get down to loans we could be making to Small Business and down to tailoring a lot if our farm programs so we can bring back the small stakeholder farmers. Looking at Rural Development which gets down to a micro Economic Analysis when youre looking at a Grocery Store. We would not have thought about funding Grocery Stores in the past but today in Rural America we have food deserts. We talk about those in urban americas and we have those in Rural America. That needs to change but it will not change if all we do is focus on the issues, the fed interest rate, overall trade policy, whether it is fiscal policy of debt and deficit, if we do not say, what do American Workers need and americas farmers need to survive . They need Affordable Health care. Withyou look at the party the policies for Affordable Health care, not perfect, we need to improve obamacare, but totally eliminating it would have a devastating impact to rural hospitals, one of the major employers in my state and in every rural community. It would have a devastating effect on people suffering from addiction and a devastating effect on so many in rural but this administration is pursuing this policy because somewhere along the line that was what they promised and it was a promise made tenuous ago 10 years ago. Aca the case about the are youy, how concerned it will be ruled by constitutional . Unconstitutional . Best police we should concerned, Chuck Grassley said it would never happen, i am a former attorney general and whenever you are in court you do not know the outcome. You can try to predict it but you do not know and it was reckless and not responsible for this administration to take the position they took on health care. Guest i agree. The differences of the two parties, the democrats are trying to have health care and improve health care. In my district, the costs are going up and accessibility is going down both in the wrong direction so lets improve. The other party just wants to take away health care. Not even keeping me status quo. We need to come together as a party. Guest one of the biggest concerns we have with health care is workforce. We cannot find Mental Health workers and if a child goes to a teacher and says, i am close to i am thinking about suicide, that teacher may be could get a Mental Health professional to look at the child in 30 days which is not responsible and not what should happen in america. We have to develop workforce and develop access. Representatives of the one country project, Heidi Heitkamp who served as a senator 20132019 dakota from and a board member, j. D. Wa. Olten, working hero io your research, 2016, what is the potential there will be a change of the map in 2020 given messaging to rural areas . Guest we saw some change in 2018, we saw a little bit better map in 2018. , if theell you this percentage ratios continue on the trend line, a democrat could not win michigan or pennsylvania , pennsylvania is more dicey. I believe we can win iowa, three of the four congressional districts in 2018 went to the democrats and almost carry the last one. , and get the message right you cannot just talk to people, you have to talk with people and respond. Our messages, you may think sitting in new york does not matter what people think in Rural America but it does for a policy that will move this country forward, one country, together, moving forward. Host talk about your race . Guest we move the needle 24 points from the trumpclinton election to our election and through that we had success. Seeking sentative steve king . Guest right, who tends to be controversial. I went to all 39 counties at least three times and most of them five or six times. The way democrats have traditionally ran in the last 10 years have not enabled to get out there as much. We have to change the narrative. That is what we did in the fourth district. Intook an abandoned district a flyover state and we made a competitive. It is amazing to see all of the 2020 candidates come into western iowa and get the crowds whereas before we used to just come by one time to say they came by but now theyre coming back and it is cool to see what we have built on, or what they are doing with what we built on. Host robert in michigan. You are on, go ahead. Caller i have a question for you. Why dothe republicans democrats in washington allow prayer to go out of the school . Guest this country is founded on separating church and state and with public schooling, there is plenty of prayers in Catholic School where i attended my first couple of years of school. Host when the messaging you talk about happens, is there a separation between the economic messaging you have to do or what about social policy messages . Guest it is just as important and just as important for us to understand that people in Rural America are more socially secured socially conservative. We need to be more respectful in the Democratic Party to those positions. An example, i would never say i would eliminate behind amendment. The hyde amendment. There should not be a constitutional right for taxpayers to pay for abortion if they feel morally opposed. There are many issues that will come up that are in that cultural lane, the social lane. Wethe end of the day, if continue to divide this country by using this and using that and well all get to our corners, we will never be successful. We are looking at a bipartisan way to unite the country because when we unite the country, the country becomes much more governable. People say why cant people get along . Because people at the bottom are not getting along. When i ran in 2012 and got elected in a very red state of north dakota, we anticipated 15 of of people people who are republican crossing over, there were 12 more republicans in north dakota of also about 4 , 5 republicans in this country were willing to cross over. You could say that is a product of losing some people to the Republican Party because of the behaviors of this president but the bottom line is they people have hardened on the bottom and that will take a long time to unite. This is a president who promised to unite us and has done anything but unite us. I have been critical in the past of president obama not uniting the country. If we do not have a unified country willing to listen and compromise on policies, we have andongovernable country that is why we have named this project one country because we project butrural the issue is what unites us in terms of what we want for our families and friends and communities . Unites us better than what divides us. Host do you have access to those running for democrats and message or Just Research . Guest we posed research and data on our website. We hosted a watch party for the democratic event which gives us a chance to listen to what democrats are saying because they come with stories about what their neighbors said. A woman from tennessee who says my neighbor, it is important we listen to that and important we do not make people feel bad about saying it, that we actually listen. A tough issue more than some of the issues you would typically think has been the issue of immigration. I think it is an issue the president has definitely divided the country on instead of uniting the country. There are ways forward for Immigration Reform that can satisfy both sides. Bert. Columbus, georgia, caller how are you doing . Democratic party wants to get them great, makes talking to the people who vote for him and that is probably the rural areas. My mother and father were sharecroppers and they came into being that way because they could not afford their own farm but they could not afford to be sharecroppers so they moved to the city and when they did that they got a job as a textile worker and when they did that they raised a family. Aen i got grown, i heard politician they said they wanted to transfer to textile industry into this industry of computers and credit cards and stuff like that. Thats what they did in this town, twice 7 million of taxpayer money to turn a cotton mill into what they call whole systems, a pretty big industry. What happened was like ross perot said, you heard the big sucking sound and it went down ormexico or china or japan wherever the textile industry went to and a lot of people lost their jobs. You haveis this nafta now which is what caused this, to my belief, what do you think about nafta versus the usmca . Guest in america, our number one problem is that we have not addressed mobilization as it affects the working class. Our number one problem for the economy. We were speaking before about in order totry, compete against china, we cannot just have the coast compete against china, it matters to every district and that is why i think there is this bipartisan huge issue we are missing the usl on, focusing on getting getting the economy together and focus so we can compete against china because they have not been in the war since ive been and are investing in themselves. If we are not investing in district like mine, we are missing out and we need to compete in every area. Guest important to understand the new usmca is a modernization of nafta with additional labor support. I support the new nafta. I believe we need to understand that the United States of america is less than 5 of global population appeared when children being born today are my age, it will be less than 3 . We have to understand the globalization peace and make these transitions that will enable us to be successful. About china, everybody talking about the manufacturing jobs which have been moved to china. Guess what . Labor costs in vietnam are almost half of what they are in china. If you shut down in china and the Labor Movement vietnam, a tougher Competitive Position and i am not saying we do not need to be tough on china, we need to , but we need to understand the law of unintended consequences and figure out how we will win and a much more sophisticated way. The president s trade policies have misunderstood the supply chain evaluations that need to be made to understand how manufacturing happens in this allocations basic of resources happen in this country. Says, yes,lan that we have to be global because we will not be successful if we are not global but it has to work for American Workers. Usmca is a step in the right direction. Host john, wisconsin, you are the last call for our guests. Good morning. , ther i was wondering problem with farmers have been around since 1985 with Willie Nelson starting far made concerts. Aid concerts. Arm why does it take too long to do anything . 1987 we havend horrible droughts in the midwest and low Commodity Prices and a failed Foreign Policy called freedom to farm. We fixed that with Foreign Policy but now finding more and competition with brazil and argentina and the trade policies in terms of our market that the president is pursuing means that all of those competitors now are getting a toehold in our markets that we spent millions of dollars creating. This is a fluctuation. We had some of the best years in the farm in 2013 and 2014 and now we have devastating net farm loss numbers coming forward. We need to figure out how to diversify the Rural Economy to insulate us from commodity price swings and need to figure out a better path forward for trade policy. Farmers do not want help. Somebody saying the president is paying them off, that is true, i do not know one farmer who would not rather have a market than that money because they understand that market when sustainable will sustain american agriculture. Host our guests are members of the one country project. Go to website for the research and what they say to rural voters. Heidi heitkamp the former, u. S. Senator from 20132019 and j. D. Wa. Olten of working hero io for the next 20 minutes or so, we will let you comment on events that are happening today in washington. Democrats call 2027488000. 2027488001, republicans. Call 2027488002. We will take those calls when washington journal continues. Sunday night, former new York City Police Deputy Inspector cory mcgees talked about his book. Whenwas in a family of six i was young, five girls and myself, my father left after the third grade and in my book, i have a picture of me in the great sitting indian style in the front and holding my feet because i hope holes in the bottom of my shoes with cardboard in them so my socks would not get wet. A rough upgrading and i got involved of bringing and i got involved in the street upbringing and i got involved in the street. Glhf on thursday at 9 30 am eastern, the Senate Armed Service committee will consider the nomination of an army general for chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Watch live on cspan3 and online as cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Journal mugs are available as cspans new online store. Go and see all of the cspan products. Washington journal continues. Host at 10 00 this morning on cspan3, a hearing featuring Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve before the House Financial Services committee. Whats that on cspan3, cspan. Org, and the radio app. A hearing on facial recognition technology. Go to cspan. Org for more information. , a hearing inn front of the House Oversight reform for the threat of the aca with the lawsuits stemming from texas and monitor it. 2 30 this afternoon, looking at children at the southern border as the House Oversight committee on civil rights and the subcommittee on civil rights and human services, watch on cspan3 and cspan. Org and our radio app. All of those taking place in washington. 2027488000 for democrats. Republicans call 2027488001. Independents hall 2027488002. Democrat line. Caller i was listening to the Previous Program as i do every morning. It gave me a thought to comment d. C. , city, washington, my city, i am a native washingtonian, born and raised here. Thinking about all of the political issues going on but looking at cities, major urban cities that are going through gentrification and the fact that someone who has lived in a city i am over 50 years old, and watch the changes that have occurred in the last 20 years alone, are monumental. In ways they are considered to ,e positive change for the city when you look at someone like myself who has grown up here, you wonder where all of the change has been went i have been lived in the city and pay taxes and lived in the city and worked for the federal government. I think people like myself look around and wonder where has all of this been and why now. Host terry in homestead, florida, independent line. Caller good morning, mr. Pedro and thank you. And morning to america everybody listening on cspan. Love you guys. Is, word, in one word, that trope. Truth. Everybody can get behind the truth. And disclosing the truth behind the real issue america is facing. Yesthird and last thing is, if they will be a oneparty system, it should be united behind the truth. Any lies would disqualify you. Host miami, florida, republican line, ken. You are on, go ahead. Caller i would like to say the trumpsters, the conservatives, they are aligned with the trumpsster trumpsters, the antiimmigration thing with kids in cages, they have lost their way. Amash, whoing is, resigned from the republican president he runs for be on getting reelected in his district, he will take votes from donald trump. Both Political Parties have lost their way. Left will not be able to be reelected, they are two much like socialists. We need a moderate republican or independent and someone should go after donald trump in the primary. Host the House Oversight and reform hearing at 2 30 this afternoon and you can watch on cspan3. Other immigration related news, Washington Post highlighting the number of people taken into custody along the u. S. Southern border fell 20 in june, a drop u. S. Authorities say reflects the early impact of mexicos crackdown on Central American migration. 104,344horities detain people along the border last month, down from may. June was the fourth month in a row in which border rest exceeded 100,000 and the total was more than twice 42,180 people taken into custody of june at 2018 and nearly a fivefold increase over june 2017 when authorities detain 21,673 people. Sayingk times, a story inside a London Office building in early june, three investigators for the Justice Department investigator took a crucial step towards clearing the fallout from the russian investigation, spending two days interviewing Christopher Steele, the former british by who dossier reportedly links Trump Associates and russian associates ended in the hands of the fbi a just before the 2016 elections, a key step by the investigation by Michael Horovitz and underlying a better part fbi did fbi officials includingg in 2016 how they used information from Christopher Steele . Rich from running springs, pennsylvania. It morning. Good morning. Caller i hear a lot of talk from joe biden about working across the aisle and working with the other side. If he means that he should upset this election and he would get election elected, if he would announce right now he will pick a moderate republican as a running mate. It has happened before and can happen again. Kasich,t romney or john he would be a shoe in for the 2020 election. Host stephen and laurel, maryland, independent line. Caller i wanted to say that the Jeffrey Epstein indictment has been on my mind being that we have an administration that has locked up children. Farmed the border and them out to different adoption time,es so at the same the president is being accused of commiserating with a pedophile and a sex trafficking. Has been clinton involved with this as well. It is disheartening and i really hope we can hear more about it from with more investigation. Host President Trump addressed the issue with his labor secretarys time regarding Jeffrey Epstein. [video clip] President Trump i met secretary forta, i can tell you that 2. 5 years, he has been a secretary of labor and done a fantastic job. Part of it is the economy so good and unemployment is at record lows. But he has been a good secretary of labor. What happened 12 or 15 years ago with respect to when he was a u. S. Attorney i think in miami, is in miami . You go back and look at everybody elses decisions, whether a u. S. Attorney or an assistant u. S. Attorney or a judge, you go back 12 or 15 or 20 years ago and look at their past decisions. I would think you would find they wish they may be did it a different way. I do hear there were a lot of people involved in that decision. From what i know i can only say this, he has been a great secretary of labor. The rest of it we will have to look at carefully. You are talking about a long time ago and not a decision made by him but by a lot of people. We will look at it carefully. Ok . Anybody else . [indiscernible] wasident trump i knew he i knew him like everybody knew him in palm beach but we had a falling all and i guess a falling outd and i was not a fan of his, i have not seen them at 15 years, i feel very badly for secretary acosta because i have known him as being somebody that works so hard and has done such a good job. I feel badly about that situation but we will be looking at that and looking at it closely. Host meredith from atlanta, georgia, democrat line. Caller hello. To go back to border and migration concerns. I am concerned about how the Current Administration uses foreign aid as a tool of policy and the pain is tackling the symptom of a larger problem of global poverty and inequality but the u. S. Goes back to supporting more measures to alleviate extreme poverty with a lot of benefits to ourselves in terms of economic and security benefits. Host key west, florida, independent line, sean. Caller it is my understanding that the florida senator marco offered a suggestion with regards to people coming from nicaragua and costa rica, mexico, looking for some sort of asylum. Facing death. Hopelessness. All sorts of nonsense. It was a suggested make you him that what we do is they take a yellow jewish star of david and attach it to the clothing and a way to convey to the American People what is going on. Host that will be the last call for that topic. When it comes to just in a mosh sh ofchigan justin ama michigan becoming an independent, what will become of his career . Good morning. Guest good morning. Host in the light of his announcement, what happens when it comes to the possibility of reelection if he runs as an independent . Guest it is an open race. It is being described as a threeway race where you will have a republican candidate, ash, with aive am good chance as an independent, and now the democrats have a chance the district has changed some what and in a threeway race there is a possibility that a democrat could win the race, depending on who the nominee is. Host how would you describe politically the district he lives in . Guest it is conservative. County, this can is the area of gerald ford representative in congress and still a very conservative district but grand rapids is increasingly an urban committed the and becoming more democrat. The democratic governor of michigan actually won kent county over the republican candidate in 2018 but there is quitewo counties that are rural and conservative. Calhoun county, a mixture of urban and rural. Basically it is still a plus six republican district is how it is rated. Host who is lined up to challenge mr. Amash . Caller it is becoming guest it is a crowded primary with five republicans and three democrats announcing so far. Yesterday, a grand rapids area businessman enter the race. He owns the delta plex arena where President Trump has held a number of grand rapids Areas Campaign events. He has some ties to people in the trunk campaign. Trump campaign and he may be the odds on favorite to get an endorsement from President Trump which would be quite a boost. There are a couple of representative state state representative republicans. Grandson of a meyer Grocery Store chain and the name is well known in western michigan and the grandson of the founder of that Grocery Store chain is in the race with another local elected official by the name of tom norton. Five reasonably solid candidates. You may see some of the candidates drop out, particularly if one gets an endorsement of President Trump. Amash with mr. Reelection, what are his prospects after talking about donald trump . He has won five times in a row since 2010 and by double digits each time. Following,ry strong partly because of his very conservative libertarian bent and the fact he talks a lot about going about the constitution. The situation with President Trump has split his supporters somewhat. There is still a fairly significant never donald trump faction behind him. There is another group that respects him as a politician and will stick with him. Thislking to weekend weekend, some do not like the position he is taken on the Mueller Report and calling for the impeachment of President Trump. Hearing is he is making this too much about himself, some of them did not like thesome people did not like the announcement through an oped in the Washington Post, they see it more as a liberal publication. So you are getting certainly some loss in his support. I think some of that thinking is better, he done much may have done better not running as an independent. But some feel like he is doing this as an issue of principle rather than a tactical decision. Aboutpaul egan talking those reelection prospects. Thank you. Coming up, we will have a discussion with Republican Congressman bill of ohio a , member of the house budget committee. We will talk about federal spending. And then later emily martin of , the National Womens law center discusses efforts to close the gender pay gap. Continuesn journal after this. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony from this office it would not go beyond our report. Andontains our findings analysis and reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully into the work speaks for itself. The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Announcer Robert Mueller is set to appear before to committees of congress on wednesday, july 17 at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, giving testimony to the house judiciary committee. Later, taking questions from the house intelligence committee. For their open sessions. Our coverage of his congressional testimony will be live on cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen with the free radio app. Years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington dc and around the country. So you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan has is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal continues. Host Representative Bill Johnson is a member of the budget committee, as well as the energy and commerce committee. He is here to talk about federal spending. Thank you for coming. Give us a status report when it comes to the budget and big issues that have to be resolved before the august break. Budget,e do not have a that is the disappointing thing. Our democrat colleagues have the gavel and they made a determination early this year that they were not going to pursue a budget, and they havent. That is frustrating, because the fundamental foundational requirement of congress is to manage our countries physical health, and that starts with the developing of a responsible budget. We passed a budget out of committee in the eight years that republicans were in the majority. I wish my colleagues on the democrat side would have done the same. They have not seen it that way. So right now, we do not have a budget. The 10 Appropriations Bills that have passed have been largely partisan bills that exceed the caps. They are not going to go anywhere, because they just, they will not work. And it is very unfortunate that we are in the situation we are in. Host can you explain to the audience where we are at as far as the budget caps . Guest the budget control act put caps in place and go above those we must pass legislation to raise those caps. And we do not have a cap steel. The reason is our democrat colleagues will not come up with ways to offset that increase in spending. The tenant perspiration bills the tenant probation bills they have passed increased spending with no consideration for how it is going to be paid for. That is the critical part. And at the closer we get to that limit issue, the more critical of this is going to become. Host as of reporting this morning, nancy pelosi says possibly there could be a vote on the debt ceiling before the august recess. On if thatr thinking will happen or not . Guest i cannot tell you what the democrats are going to do, because they have been very to the chest with that. I have not received information on what they are planning to do. The senate please into this as well, as plays into this as well, as you know. I do not know what the senate is going to do. It is very much in speaker how wes control about handle this. What i would like to see happen is come to the table, lets sit responsiblek about spending caps that meet the physical needs of the federal government, but at the same time dddresses the National Debt an insurers that we are being ensures that we are being fiscally responsible. Host would you support a raise in the debt ceiling . Guest that depends on how it comes across. I understand the question and i am not downplaying the question. But there is a lot that goes into a debt limit increase. Is it offset . Do we have mandatory spending cuts to go along with it . We can talk about this all we want, but the reality is we are over 20 trillion in debt. And until we begin to address mandatory spending cuts to go along with the increased revenue that has come about because of the tax cuts and jobs act, then we are going to have a big problem getting republicans to vote for a debt limit increase. Free 2027488000 democrats. 2027488001 republicans. 2027488002 for independents if you want to ask questions of our guest. You talked about Democrats Holding off on passing a budget, what is the main Sticking Point . And is it defense spending, other issues, what are the main Sticking Points . Guest i do not think that they can come to a consensus on their side of the aisle. Instead of talking about passing a responsible budget, we are talking about medicare for all, adding 32 trillion over 10 years to the debt. We are talking about the green t 90 plus trillion dollars added to the debt. So we are not talking about responsible budgeting. We are talking about things that are adding to the spending. Theycant tell you what are going to do to find consensus on their side. They cannot pass a budget just with themselves, and they are in the majority. Host is there potential to freeze the budget as it is, then hold off on actually passing one . Is that something you would support . Guest i think that we would be in a situation where a continuing resolution, that is no way to run a government, no way to run a business or families. It is not the way we should run our country. It is devastating to the military, it does not provide them certainty that they need to be able to provide further personnel and for the resourcing of our brave warriors across the globe. And it is not the way to do business. But it could come to that. Host lets hear from annabelle, who is in greenwich, new york on the democrats line. You are first up. Caller i wanted to ask in regards to the federal budget, donald trump was proposing to cut the International Affairs budget by about 6 million, that provides a lot of federal aid to foreign countries, and i was wondering if you thought this was an irresponsible move. Guest i am not hearing anything. Host she asked about the International Aid budgets and at the president proposing cuts, and if you think that is a responsible move. Guest when we talk about what america spends at the federal level, you have to look at it all in total context. We should be supporting those countries that support us. And agree with us. I remember in my first term being on the Foreign Affairs committee. We addressed legislation and i supported it. If you disagreed with us more than 50 of the time in important measures at the united nations, then you were not eligible for Financial Aid from america. In other words, we should be helping friends and allies, not those that oppose us. At the got foreign aid is absolutely something we should i think that foreign aid is absolutely something we should be looking at. Host from bill in columbia, maryland. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Am i on . Host yes, go ahead. Caller ok, i am glad you are talking about this subject. Budget is thethe most important thing that congress does. And i agree with that. When i look at what has happened, i am 56, and when i look at this huge debt we have accumulated over the course of my lifetime, it is disconcerting. The numbers are so astronomical it is hard to wrap your mind around them. So what i did is i sat and i took off eight zeros. Zeros off of one trillion, it is tens of thousands. So essentially what we have right now is we are spending, if you take those zeros off, we are spending 47,000 a year, bringing borrowing a year, 10,000 a year. We have 220,000 in credit card debt. 1. 5 Million Dollars in unfunded liabilities, promises we have made to the future. This is just unbelievable. Everything going on in washington, all these discussions about Free College Tuition and we are going to have medicare for all, all of this, it blows my mind. I feel like it is the representatives in congress, they know the facts, and they are just promising a pieinthesky thing for people. They know it will never happen. And it is unbelievable what is going on in washington. I feel like it is a huge lie. Guest i think that he brings up a very valid point. I think it was Thomas Jefferson that once said, i predict future success for america until they figure out that they can vote themselves treasurers from the nations storehouse. That is very true. Are two sides of the fiscal responsibility equation, one side is Revenue Generation. I do not think that anybody can argue with the fact that revenues are going up. The tax cuts and jobs act accomplished what it was designed to do, we are seeing Economic Growth like we have not seen in decades. We are at a half a century now low in unemployment. We are seeing the lowest unemployment on record among Asian Americans, hispanic americans, africanamericans. We are seeing Revenue Generation and the broadening of the economy, but we are not seeing on the other side of the equation is a concerted effort by congress, in a bipartisan fashion, to address the mandatory spending curve. I have said it many times, and maybe it is worthwhile having another discussion about that this morning if you look at what america spends in the form of a pie, what we argue about and debate every year when we talk about, are we going to shut down the federal government, are we not going to shut down we are talking about basically one third of what america spends in the federal in the annual cycle. Other two thirds is mandatory spending that you cannot Touch Without changing the law. Lies,s where the problem getting people on both sides of the aisle to come together, roll up their sleeves, and address those really tough questions. He is right, the debt continues to rise. And it is going to continue to rise, and we are going to continue to borrow money to pay thatills, until we address mandatory spending. Theou zero doubt out weathered we argue about in terms of keeping the government open, if you zero that out the spending curve is still going in the wrong direction. We have over obligated. Under the obama administration, under that administration the National Debt doubled, practically doubled in the eight years he was president. It continues to rise today under President Trump, because we cannot get democrats to come to the table with us and help us address mandatory spending. Host the head of the National Economic council told nbc, when it comes to the 22 trillion, it is manageable. Do you agree . Guest i think it is manageable, but it takes leadership to sit down and make the tough decisions. When you and i work our Family Budgets and we sit down with our wives and children and talk about how we will make it to the end of the month, you have to make responsible financial decisions. Thingses you do not buy you had planned to purchase, if the revenue is not there. And that is where we are having a problem. Host another bill from ohio, the republican line, go ahead. Caller thank you, congressman, for your support of veterans. And i think you are doing a great job here in ohio. I had a question related to the budget. Clinic, any possibility of expanding services at the clinic to help guys like me that drive many miles to go to huntington or over to chillicothe, for example for the radiological services, because they are not available otherwise. Is there money available in the budget in the future where we could possibly expand the services at gallup list . Guest i appreciate the question. I am an air force veteran myself. Veterana very Large Population in southeastern ohio. I have been to the clinic many times there. I can tell you the ability to provider veterans the support and to provide our veterans the support and services they need, it is not a money problem, it is a bureaucracy problem. The president has done a lot to begin to address that by allowing veterans the choice to get their health care through a local provider. The situation you are talking about is a little different, because you are talking about having a v. A. Clinic in your community. And if your ailment or Health Care Needs can be addressed by that, that is where you have to go. But if you have to see a specialist, you have to go to cleveland, huntington or chillicothe or some other place. It is not an issue of money, it is an issue of updating the system and making sure that we have the Resources Available with the money already being spent. The v. A. Is the Largest Federal Agency in washington, many folks may not realize that. With the largest budget. And it so it is not the lack of money, it is how the money is being spent. But here is what i will commit, contact my office locally in ohio and lets get into the specifics. I had not even heard that there was an effort to expand the services at that clinic. I woulduld be very, very much like to look into that. I have an office in marietta, you can reach out to them. Lets get you in, we will talk about that. Host we have phoenix on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. Cspan has a somebody here who is giving us the line. You will notice, he is talking about an artificial cap, then they wring their hands and say that they must raise this artificial cap or they cannot pay the bills, they will default and we will go bankrupt and we will have to cut Social Security, which is basically what this man is saying. Please pull up an article called taxes for revenue are obsolete. It is published in the huntington post. Quotes, 2010, and it he the former federal chairman, rummel, of the Federal Reserve of new york, who explains how taxes for revenue are obsolete. Host aside from that, what do you want to address with our guest . Caller well, i could he is going to give me the same old story, which is financially illiterate. He compares the federal government and money creation by a sovereign government, and he is in congress and of the constitution gives him the right to create the money, he delegated that right to the Federal Reserve, which is fine. No problem. But right now, money is being created, but it is being created by the private commercial banks. Ok. Guest i actually did not hear all of those comments. And the question. But i did hear the one part i did not create the Federal Reserve, i did not delegate anything to the Federal Reserve. It was in place long before i came to congress and i have been a proponent of altering the Federal Reserve to find out actually what they are up to. Because i think that there are questions about how we manage our finances in america, and i think that we must address those. That being said, i am never going to apologize for allowing the American People to keep more of what they earn. To make at federal government effective, efficient, transparent and accountable to the American People. To me, that means that we take less from the American People, because it is the private sector economy that our country has the since our founding in 1700s, that has built the greatest economy and most prosperous standard of living on the planet. ,ur families have opportunities because of our marketdriven private sector economy, where businesses flourish. And americans can innovate and compete with one another. Aost from baltimore, wha lter. Caller i totally disagree. Mr. Johnson, it is the Democratic Party i continue to hear your party disparage in any idea, any progressive ideas. I agree that we do not need a Free College Education at this point. I agree that we do not need that guarantee giveaway of welfare to the rich. Praised this businessman, also known as the president , with creating some wealth for the billionaires, not for the people. You have taken the money from the tax break and you made a permanent Welfare Program for the billionaires and multimillionaires, but you just said out of your mouth that you would not take money from the middle income. If i am wrong, you will have a moment. But that trillion dollars added to the deficit by the tax cut, what the lady just said to you is now threatening medicare, medicaid, Social Security your party has advocated cutting food stamps from the board. Host ok. From the poor. Host ok. Guest it probably does not come as no surprise that i see the world differently than you described. We have seen as a result of the tax cuts and jobs act, we have seen the economy surge. Them, theeing one of Congressional Budget Office said if we got Economic Growth above 2. 5 , that we would not see the deficits. That they would be overcome by Economic Growth, we have seen that happen. In the month of june, we saw 224,000 jobs created. At that is an average of 192,000 jobs per month over the last 12 months. We see, even though unemployment picked up around 3. 7 , we are seeing the lowest we have had in decades. The Social Security trust fund and Medicare Trust fund, they are going bankrupt. They are going broke, not because of the tax cuts and jobs act, they are going broke because we need to reform those programs for a new era in america. We have 10,000 americans retiring every single day, going on their retirement rolls, drawing Social Security and medicare. And we do not have enough money going into those programs to sustain them. Past havesses of the dipped into that Social Security trust fund for one reason or another and i think that is wrong. I think it is an obligation that the federal government has made to the American People that paid into those programs, and we mosys disdain and we must sustain those programs and make sure that seniors get their security benefits without any changes. But to sustain those programs andnd 2026, from medicare, 2036 for Social Security, we need to reform those programs. That is some of the mandatory spending reforms that are necessary if we want to make sure that those safety net programs are available for future generations. Host kevin brady, who authored the tax cut, said at the Peterson Forum he was not sure if they were going to be able to pay for themselves, and it would not be until later that they are fully realized. Why are you so optimistic that the tax cuts will have their desired effect and be paid for . Guest because i talk with Business Owners, i see what is happening on the street. You know, Small Businesses create about 60 of the jobs in america. I am talking to the americans who have seen wages go up. We have seen a 3. 1 increase in wage growth over the last 12 months. Insignificant, especially to parts of the country like i represent, Rural America, where People Struggle to make ends meet from payday to payday. Whoeak with Business Owners are growing and expanding their businesses. I talked with Investment Companies that are investing in the energyrich, Energy Development in my region of the country. So i have a lot of reasons to be optimistic, because i know american history. And i know where we started. And i know that at the beginning of the civil war, we had practically no money in the budget. We overcame that. At the beginning of world war i, we struggled. At the end of world war ii, we had some of our highest debt and we recovered. We can do this. We can recover from this. And we can make responsible fiscal decisions, if we sit down and we get politics out of the way and we put the American People first. Host cheryl on our republican line. Caller good morning. Yes, i had a question is it true that we spend 250 billion a year on issues dealing with the illegal alien publishing . If that is true, does it add to the National Debt . I was also wondering about, it looks like cspan is about to cover the soccer parade on cnn, they could not cover the president s parade for the American People and american soldiers . Anyway, i will listen for your answers. Host if you are talking about the salute to america, we did cover that. We are not covering the soccer parade. Guest i appreciate the question. Millions,millions and actually billions being spent to secure the southern border. The reason for that is because of the influx of illegals trying to come here illegally. We are not a nation with closed doors. But we need a meritbased immigration system that moves america forward. We needns doctors, technicians, seasonal workers, we need agricultural workers, we need all of that, but it needs to be meritbased and it should be our choice. Because this is our country. And i do not know the exact figure, but i can tell you that it is a big number. I do not know if 250 million is the exact number, but i can tell you that we are spending a lot of money managing illegal aliens that have come across our southern border. That is something that we need to address, that is why i have been so supportive of what the president is trying to do. Host dorothy on the democrats lines. Caller you said Social Security is going bankrupt, but you said more people are working, over 100,000 jobs created and a 10,000 people were retiring, that is 101. That means Social Security should be going fine. Also, the deficit, look at the deficit when obama left, look at it now. I hope that you check that when he says it. Look at where obama left it, look at unemployment. And look company jobs are being created every month under obama and what is being created now. One more thing, you took Tax Exemptions from us, the ones that needed a tax break. You did not take any loopholes from the rich. You gave them 83 of the taxes, gave us 17 . The billionaires did not need any money. They had it all already. Guest once again, it does not come as any surprise that we see things differently. We doubled the standard deduction, we doubled the childcare deduction. Deductions toe iose middleclass america, come from the middle class and i know how important that is. But i can tell you that this moneyhat we gave all that is notwealthy, that true. That is a false narrative that has been propagated by liberals to try to destroy what President Trump and this congress, the Republican Congress in the last session, was able to do. Get to how else do you the lowest unemployment in half a century . How else to get to the lowest unemployment on record among Asian Americans, and africanamericans . That is because of the tax cuts and jobs act and Economic Growth we are achieving. Lets go back to medicare and Social Security. I want to make sure that was kept in context. I said 10,000 people are retiring every single day going on into retirement. That is every day. That is 70,000 over the week. 3. 5 million this year for the next 20 some years. You are talking about 50 plus million americans going on into retirement. That is a big number. We are putting more people to work and at that will help, but itselfll not overcome by the deficit that we are seeing created in the Social Security and Medicare Trust funds. It is important that those programs are saved for current seniors to make sure we meet the obligations for those already in the retirement window, so they do not have to worry about it. For those of us who are still working and have the ability to plan our retirements, we need choices. We need to let the American People make those choices, instead of the federal government. Bill johnson, republican from ohio, thank you for your time. Coming up, we will speak with emily martin, she is with the National Womens law center and we will talk about the wage gap. We will have that conversation when we continue. Announcer Jerome Powell will testify today on Monetary Policy and the state of the u. S. Economy, live today at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. At 2 30 p. M. , the house subcommittee hearing on the treatment of immigrant children at the border. Witnesses include an Asylum Seeker from guatemala. A. M. ,rsday morning, 9 30 the armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of mark milli fire chairman of the joint chief of staff. Watch all three hearings on cspan3, at cspan. Org or listen with the free radio app. In 1979, a Small Network rolled out a big idea. Let viewers make up their own minds. Cspan opened the doors to washington policymaking for all to see, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years, but it is more relevant than ever. On television and online, cspan is your unfiltered coverage, so you can make up your own mind. Brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Announcer washington journal continues. Host this is emily martin of the National Womens law center, she is there Vice President for workplace justice. Good morning. Talkingns soccer team, about it in their industry, but overall with pay gaps in other industries, what is the situation . Guest as you compare women who work fulltime yearround and men who work fulltime yearround, women are paid about . 80 for every dollar paid to men. For women of color the wage gap is even larger, black women paid about . 61 for every dollar paid men. Ite, nonhispanic latino women are paid . 53 for every dollar paid to white, nonhispanic men. Host is there a definite why . Guest there are a lot of answers. Part of it is the classic pay discrimination, women being paid less than men for the same job based on either unconscious or conscious stereotypes about women being less competent at work. Part of the wage gap is the fact that women are more likely to work in lowwage jobs than men. For example among women are about two thirds of people in minimum wage jobs. That is in part because many of the jobs that mostly women do, we pay less because mostly women do them. It is a classic example with childcare workers, they often make less than parking lot attendants, which does not really make sense when you compare the skills that are required to take care of toddlers. Host as far as women, if they decide to stayathome and take care of their children, how does that factor into a womans ability to make an equal wage . Guest if you are out of the workforce for some years to take care of your children, that does impact income when you go back to the workforce. So part of the problem is the lack of support that makes it possible for people with primary giving responsibilities to also be fully outward. Affordable and accessible childcare in many parts of the country is lacking, even a lack of paid leave. If you have paid family leave a when you have a baby, you are more likely to go back to work after and less likely to have one of those gaps in your work history that ultimately depresses wages. Host our guest will be with us until 10 00 a. M. If you want to talk about the gender pay gap, we divided the lines for women, 2027488000. For men, 2027488001. We saw the passage of something called the paycheck fairness act. Describe what the act did and have wasting Measurable Results . Guest unfortunately, it has passed the house, but not the senate, so we have not seen a result because it is still waiting to become law. Act would do is modernize and update our equal pay laws. So among other things, it would tighten up the loopholes that employers have used the justify paying women less than men. It would make clear that you can only do that if there is a real business since a city for paying women less. It would protect individuals ability to talk to each other about wages at work. Many employers have rules, saying you cannot talk about how much you make it work, that is disruptive. That means it can be paid less for years and years and have no idea. The paycheck fairness act would make clear that employers cannot prohibit you from talking about wages at work. It would also prohibit employers from requiring you to talk about your Salary History or setting your salary based on what you made in your last job. That is important because if you are getting a wage based on what you made at your last job, pages commission can follow you from job to job to job through your whole career. And another thing the paycheck fairness act would do, it would providecompanies to wage data to equal Employment Opportunity commission each year. That gives companies a real incentive to make sure that they have a clean house, since they are handing over this data to the agency that can is in charge of enforcing pay discrimination laws, and it would give the eeoc more information and tools to enforce the law. Some problems with rooting out pay discrimination is a culture of secrecy around pay. It is hard for an individual in a workplace to know if there is a pay discrimination problem, because employers have that information and employees do not. Host we have some calls. We will start with lynn in st. Petersburg, you are on. Go ahead. Been in and out of the workforce and to the question i have is whether it is women or men, regarding the family leave policy, who exactly is supposed to be doing the jobs of the people who are out . I have seen jobs, i have been on jobs, and if somebody leaves you cannot just replace them for a few months. So this is a serious question. Guest it is a serious question. Under current law, the family medical leave act, which has been the law since 1992, requires larger employers to provide unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks for family and medical leave issues. Is thathort answer companies have a lot of experience figuring this out. Workers can be reassigned among current employees who are not on leave. Sometimes projects can be delayed until the individual comes back. Ones somebody is brought in a contract basis to fill that role. Quiteat is really Still Necessary in our economy is some guarantee of paid leave, so that people can afford to take that time to take care of a newborn, to take care of a Family Member with cancer, because right now while there is a right to family medical leave for a lot of employees, from any the right for many of the right is out of reach because it does not financially make sense. Host here is a question off of twitter, someone says, women do the exact same job get the pay, with some paying more than others. That is a market function. Guest when you look closely at the same jobs, in occupation by occupation, and 97 of occupations men are paid more than women. In studies that have really drilled down on all those issues, that you might think would make a difference, like how many hours are worked, what is the job, what is the experience, about a third to a quarter of that overall 20 wage gap remains unexplained. And unexplained is a way of saying there is something irrational happening that definitely has discrimination as a piece of it. So there is a wage gap. It is across industries. And the other part i want to respond to about the Market Driving different wages for jobs yes, somewhat. But it is also the case that the market can bake in and perpetuate discrimination. So if women are typically paid less because of discrimination, that is sort of a market force that can lead an employer to say, i do not have to pay this person as much because she is a woman, because she sort of commands less money on the market than men, so it is rational for me to pay her last than a man who may command more. That is what the equal pay laws are meant to reset, to say that that is Just Commission baked into the market and it is not an acceptable rationale. Host george is in alexandria, virginia. Caller hi. Host go ahead. Caller i wanted to say that first of all, i noticed that every time somebody leads this conversation leaves this conversation, they leave with what the pay differences are for a different type jobs, but as she said, she said 3 of that was for jobs that were the same. And even within that, she said that there is only about a third of that that cannot be explained by more hours or other things. To bely, men also tended more likely to die on the job, get disfigured on the job, along those lines, but we are more concerned only with the idea of having equal pay for jobs that often have different consequences, which i would like to have addressed, especially sonsidering that kamala harri seems to be citing these same statistics about the 30 of the amount paid and other things. Guest a couple things, i did not say there was a 3 wage gap in the same job, 97 of occupations have a gender wage gap. The 15 20 5 in range. The other thing i said is if you look at that overall, the 20 wage gap, if you control for things like occupation and experience, about a third of 7 is0 wage gap, roughly unexplained. That is smaller, but think how you would feel if your employer said, i am cutting your salary by 7 . That is not much, you are not concerned, right . 7 is a lot. It isalso the case that important to look at the facts that women are less likely to be in highway jobs high wage jobs, more likely to be in a lowwage jobs. That is part of the problem. In response to comment that men are more likely to be killed on the job, it is true that men and jobs. Do different and of jobs that men tend to do tend to be paid more. I think that one important solution to the gender wage gap obstaclesre that the that keep women out of higher wage jobs, like for example construction or policing, that we break down those barriers too, that that is also in important part of overcoming the gender wage gap and really achieving equality in pay. Host mary on twitter says, that is why we will unionize workforce and make sure the oppositions are paid equally, no matter who fills them. What about unions on this topic . Guest we know that women that belong to unions have more equal pay and higher pay, women in color and bigler benefit from Union Membership in color typically benefit from Union Membership. Ae reason for that is in unionized workplace, you are more likely to have a lot of transparency around wages. That is often baked into a collective Bargaining Agreement in a specific way, who is paid for what and why. That is why transparency is a driver for equality. Host from san jose, santiago. Caller yes. Theknow what, that is not point regarding gender pay. The bottom line is, when i was hired by the city of san jose in for, i have been harassed how many times, i have been discriminated, and you know what have given opportunity for us, low income. Now the mayor terminated all custodians. I cannot pay my mortgage anymore, 2000 a month. 2001,twobedroom condo in you know . I left that condo. Host we have your point. Guest i think that one thing that that comment indicates is wages andy raising improving working conditions in lowwage jobs is important for women who are overrepresented in those jobs, but it is also important for entire families, it is important for men who do those jobs as well. It is not as simple as thinking about women versus men, it is thinking about creating a more equitable economy. That benefits everybody. Host karen from kansas, good morning. Caller yes. If she feltg to ask like it was better to concentrate on the wage issue rather than generalize that into the era amendment again . Guest i think that whether there is an equal rights amendment or not, there is a lot that we have the power to achieve through law and policy now. So we talked a little bit about the paycheck fairness act that passed the house earlier this year, that is an example of the ways we can strengthen our laws and policies to be more effective in addressing pay discrimination, without having to amend the constitution. States are taking action to strengthen equal pay laws, to raise wages for women. Whether it is through measures is similar to the paycheck fairness act, whether it is through raising the minimum wage and ensuring that tipped workers are entitled to the same minimum wage as everybody else. Those are just some examples of the things that we have the power to do, we do not need a constitutional amendment to do it, we just need political will. Host the rebuttal for the paycheck fairness act came from the republicans in the form of the wage equity act, representatives presented the act and talked about what was good about it. We want you to listen to the arguments and respond. Democrats have put forth a bill that prioritizes trial attorneys and government regulation over womens economic empowerment. The democratic bill, for the first time, would require data thatosure to the eeoc collects compensation data broken down by the sex, race and National Origin of employees, while also tracking the hiring and promotion data of those employees. These intrusions into the operations of private businesses would add Compliance Costs exceeding 700 million per year. And on top of these new 7 is a good wayr to trial attorneys, by changing information from often to opt out. Americas businesses will need to prepare for an onslaught of frivolous lawsuits, which will now be open to unlimited compensatory and punitive damages. The bill establishes an impossibly high burden of proof for employers defending the legitimacy of pay differentials. And we need to recognize that in our modern economy, 40 of Small Businesses are run by women. This bill would make it harder for these Women Business leaders. This issue is far too important to leave to partisan solutions. Tot is why today, i am proud introduce the wage equity act, with over 40 of my colleagues, and it offers a stark contrast to the partisan approach made out in hr7. Host what did you think of those claims . Guest i think that the claims illegitimateit is to enforce our equal pay laws, which is really what the attacks on trial lawyers sound like to me, is a way of saying, we will give you a right to equal pay if there is no meaningful remedy for. So again, one of the problems with addressing pages commission is it is hard to do, it is hard to get the information, is hard to find an attorney that will bring the case because the remedies available under equal pay laws are really pretty weak. So even if you find out enough to learn that a man is being paid more than you for the same work, it is difficult to enforce a right to equal pay. So this act would put a piece into the requirements that employers treat men and women fairly. Host one of the elements of the wage equity act would create a self audit system, it would urge businesses to rectify disparities themselves, what do you think about that . Guest i think self auditing is important and i am heartened by the fact that more businesses are undertaking these audits. I have concerns about the wage equity act approach, which would say if a business has done one of these self audits, that they are basically in a safe harbor from damages in equal pay lawsuits. That does not seem fair. If you are proving in court that you are being paid less than a man for the same job, the fact that a business did some self audit three years ago does not seem a good reason to say, you do not get a remedy. Host this is emily martin of the National Womens law center. Mary in florida. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. My daughter works at the richest sorry, i lost im the word. My daughter is being robbed blind. Walmart and everybody keeps everybodyshat wages are going up. My daughter works there. No,works almost 40 hours, only 38 hours a week, and that makes her in for insurance. She is a single mother ineligible for insurance. She is a single mother and she is low income. I am tired of corporations at lying. I live here and i see it. She lives next door to me. And she gets help from no one. I wonder why that is. Maybe because she is a woman, or our republicans are telling us a line. Host ok, lets respond. Guest that is a great point how many of the jobs in our economy do not pay a sustainable income, that is especially difficult for women with caregiving responsibilities. I think that the fact that in any lowwage jobs, there is absence of benefits, like health insurance, in lowwage jobs it is hard to get the hours to add up to fulltime work. All of that is a burden that falls disproportionately on women, who hold most of the lowwage jobs in our economy. That is part of the problem that we need to solve when we talk about what does it take to close the wage gap. Host craig in houston. Caller yes, i am not disputing anything that the guest has a said, but when youre guest gives statistics and bases arguments on a variety of statistics, i would i like them to cite their references. I would like to read these, i think that listeners waited like access to these, so that we can verify for ourselves exactly whether or not, you know, the guest is interpreting this this the sister six in a correct way. Host what would you like to ask . Caller you have talked about percentages of individuals getting paid less, you said that there is a certain percentage unaccounted for. This sort of thing. Any of the statistics you have, i think that you should give the audience this is where i get the numbers from. If you want to read them, this is my reference. Guest the wage gap data that i have been referring to comes from government sources, from census data and to the bureau of labor statistics. The analysis of the percentage of the wage gap that is unexplained is a study done by and if you want to see more about this data, the analyses come a great place to go is the National Womens law centers website. Page oflick on the equal pay and at the wage gap, you will find a lot of resources and a lot of footnotes. They will explain how we came to the conclusions we came to. Host a little less than four minutes. We will hear from maxine in michigan. Caller good morning, cspan and america. I want to clarify something for your guest. All of her talk is fine about women being paid less. I am going to give you personal experience. Head, employee en lose women, women oft more time than men. Up,babysitter did not show they cannot come in. What i had to do is have one shift stay over and another shift, related makeup for that time. Then i had to pay time and a half to each of those employees, because they worked more than eight hours. This is at a union shop. It goes on. Out of workore time than men do. I never had a man come to me and say, i have to leave early because my babysitter is not showing up. Ok . Host apologies. We are running short on time. Guest part of the answer is more men need to leave early when the babysitter does not show up, i think that is a place we want to get to in this country where the men and women share caregiving responsible it more equally. But as i said, i do think that part of the solution to the gender wage gap is to ensure work can both and be done well. And that means investing in things like affordable childcare, paid leave, fair work schedules. So that people can balance work and family obligations. Host what do you think they debate within the womens soccer field has brought to the larger issue of the pay gap . Guest i think that the womens soccer team has been a source of inspiration for so many people around the country. Courage in talking about how much they are paid and making the fight for equal pay part of their fight for excellence, i think it has really inspired people and i think that it means we will be continuing to talk about equal pay in state houses and in congress. Host emily martin with the National Womens law center, thank you. We take you to the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The speakers room, washington, d. C. , july 10, 2019. I hereby appoint the honorable jim costa to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to thede