Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 08172019 20240714

The trade war and tariffs are having on farmers across the u. S. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. It is saturday, august 17. We read that nearly one quarter of the electorate this time around will be 65 or older and seniors vote at a much higher percentage than others. We ask seniors only to call in this morning. What are your top issues for campaign 2020 . If you live in the eastern or central time zones, call 202 7488000. West, 202 out 7488001. You can send a tweet c spanwj. Commentalso post a on facebook. Key to the 2020 democratic president ial nomination. As they talk about iowa, in 2020, 23 of the electorate will be 65 and older. That is the highest share since 1970. In iowa specifically, the numbers are more dramatic those 50 and older accounted for 58 of democratic caucusgoers in 2016. 28 were 65 and older. Clear thateeds to be 60 of caucusgoers are going to be over the age of 50 said brad anderson, who is a former democratic nominee for secretary of state. If you are not Pay Attention to paying attention to the 50 plus voters, you are not going to win the iowa caucuses. Turnoutak down the 2016 by age. 60 and older voted at a 71 rate. 45 to 59 66 . You can see the numbers going down with the various age groups. 18 to 29 43 of those folks voted. As far as democratic primary toprs, joe biden is on according to a Washington Post poll covering june and july. He has 47 percent of their vote. Kamala harris 13 . Elizabeth warren 10 . Bernie sanders 3 . We wanted to show you former Vice President joe biden at an aarp forum in iowa last month on how he would help caregivers. [video clip] be ank there should minimum 5,000 tax credit for any home caregiver who is a family or just volunteering to do it. We found the hardest thing to do even though iowa is in relatively good shape was you have very little cooperation from hospitals. When you got released, you did not have someone saying here is the deal. This, ando look for here is the chart i want to give you. We should do the following. You should take the Blood Pressure every so often. They dont do it. They should. You should be given everything that needs to be done. Obviously, you are not going to perform an operation. In the world thes of my state and around country, paid caregivers are not getting paid much at all. They are not getting trained well. They should be well rewarded and compensated for what they do. They are desperately needed in poor and rural areas. We should be compensating them and training them so that they get paid more than they do now. It is a tough line of work to be in. You have all been there probably. Nobody more important to you. Scared,they get really holding their hands. Good, important people. Host they should be compensated. Host joe biden they should be compensated. Aarp for biden at that him. 2016, voters 65 and older, 52 went for President Trump. Hillary clinton got 45 . Moving forward to this new cycle, voters 65 and older, 48 would vote for a generic democrat. No name yet. 41 would vote for President Trump. From connecticut. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Heartlly just touched my because i took care of my parents, and caregivers are so important. Are, i amn issues going to support joe biden. I have never missed a primary. It boggles my mind that the youth dont vote. They could have so much power. They dont vote in primaries. My issues are always health care. Having taken care of aging parents and raising a family, and Campaign Finance reform. We have got to get the dark money out of politics. Youthney is blocking our out of being candidates themselves. I am also very concerned about our stature in the world. It is not just in the ego america is the greatest. We help so many counies. We influence social change. We have a moral obligation because we have so much to maintain our Foreign Policy and make the world proud. Host thank you for laying out those issues. You say you support joe biden. What do you see in him . Who livedsee a man some of the same Life Experiences i have lived. I see a man i believe. I see a man i trust. I see a man who will make this country proud again. I see a man who will be donald trump. Beat donald trump. Host charlie, what are your top issues this season . , which ihe major issue think is behind almost every problem we are facing, is the fact that the country has become so corrupt. Toward favoring the people in power and the people who have a lot of money is so severe that it is very hard to get anything done that helps the country. It just helps the people in power. I can give you many examples of it. It has become blatant with the ascension of donald trump. It has been around for a long time. Opinion, the best candidate to take on this corruption and really revive america is Elizabeth Warren. She has a clear idea of what to do about it. Who willproven fighter actually be able to accomplish most of these things. Basically by rallying people, by having a popular uprising. It is very exciting. I am 77. I have never seen a candidate like this who has this kind of potential. In my mind doubt that she will defeat donald trump. More important than simply defeating donald trump is the idea of actually doing something that is going to revive the entire country and make us productive again and with all the problems that have come up in the modern world. Host we will hear from Elizabeth Warren at that aarp forum in a moment. Were asking seniors only to call in this morning. Give us the name of someone you like. What you are hoping to hear from them. What issues are most important to you. Central 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific 202 7488001. Wage for allimum workers to 15 an hour, and it will help the senior parttime job market. Writes, myames Biggest Issue will be government transparency. Every citizen should be able to track everything up any from when it was taxed to the service it provides. Every citizen should be able to monitor their officials to make sure they are voting in line with what they want. Caller good morning. Issuengle most important is the environment. If we do not stop Global Warming and Climate Change, nothing else is going to matter. Folks are saying we have to do as much as we can as fast as we can within the next 10 to 12 years, or we are going to cross a Tipping Point we might not be able to survive. Host is there a specific candidate that speaks to you about Climate Change . Caller Bernie Sanders is who i am supporting, but i like the message of Marianne Williamson because she talks about love all the time, and love is excuse me. Anniversary ofth the last day of woodstock. Played thex starspangled banner on his guitar. All of a sudden he turns and looks directly into the camera, looking up from what he is doing, and he just looks at the camera. That kind of caught my attention. I was watching that, and i went through the words of the starspangled banner, and the two words that he looks into the camera is gallantly streaming. Caused him to do that to emphasize the words gallantly streaming. God is love. God wants us to be gallantly streaming love on the internet and in our lives. We can change this world if we will let love into our hearts and souls. And we will start trying to really love one another. Jerry on facebook agrees with arnold on one of the points they make, Climate Change is a top issue. Also keeping Social Security solvent. No democratic president ial won the senior vote since al gore in 2000. Every republican nominee has won a larger share of seniors. Vox, olderon voters are moving to the left. Like any demographic group, voters age 65 and older are no monolith. There are certain characteristics that define older americans. They are conservative and they care about Social Security and drug prices, and they vote. Advocates for seniors seek a more fluid electorate. They are interested in what they will leave for their grandchildren from Climate Change to education access. They are shifting ideologically to the left according to this piece. Senator Elizabeth Warren was at the aarp forum in iowa last month explaining how she would lower Prescription Drug prices. [video clip] about 90 of all prescriptions will be eligible as their drugs. Insulin, high Blood Pressure medicine, cholesterol medication, allergy medicines. All of this would be generic. Insulin is been around for nearly 100 years. The Drug Companies have found 100 different ways to keep those markets from working. Market hasgenerics either zero or one manufacturer. Having toy up to manufacturers. If we have a market that is not working, like the market for insulin, the federal government should come in and do a contract and say we will contract with a company to produce generic insulin. Andre going to turn around make it available to the American People at cost plus. We do that a few times, and the cost of Prescription Drugs goes down, and Drug Companies suddenly see that their plan doesnt work anymore. That is one way we can bring down costs. Clips from the aarp forum last month in des moines. You can watch those on the Des Moines Register youtube page. We will look at some of the other candidates and look at President Trump this hour. Aidabeth warren has offered to native americans. She laid out policy proposals intending to help native americans, bolstering funding for programs that serve native people. She is drawing attention to native american issues after months of largely refraining from doing so in the wake of a controversy over her ancestry. Arthur in tennessee. Good morning. Elizabeth warren is the person i would like to see as president. Seems like she is for everybody, not just a few. Herident trump calling pocahontas again is childish. She is very mature. I think she would make a good president. Host what issues do you have in mind . Caller she is for the environment. She is a senior citizen. I am a senior citizen. I think she would make a good president. Go to terry in connecticut. Caller good morning. , i amsues that bother me a very conservative person. In the values of our constitution, the bible. Everything that the Founding Fathers based the constitution on. I think we are going so far left that i could see us becoming a socialist country, which i read about in college, and it is not a good system. On illegal immigration, that is bad for our country because it is overwhelming our country with too much. We need quotas. The School Systems are going to be overcrowded. The Emergency Rooms are going to be overcrowded. I dont think illegals deserve anything. I believe in Donald Trumps idea, to port. Isfar as Climate Change, it overused. My brother was a scientist from m. I. T. Very brilliant man. He said Climate Change is overblown. He said it is cyclical, and people who talk about it constantly dont know what they are talking about. They make it sound like the world is going to end. I dont think so. The epa is constantly monitoring our environment. That is an issue that is completely ridiculous. Say,ast thing i wanted to open borders, very bad. Very unconstitutional in my book because what defines a country is language, culture, and borders. That keeps our country distinct and exceptional from other countries. That is all i wanted to say. I love donald trump. Host from connecticut to indiana. Robert, what are your top issues this Campaign Season . I believe what the lady said. If you talk about god, they want to cut you off. Let me talk for a few minutes. , theyis talk about money are going to give this, theyre going to give that. It is not money. We need god in this country. You will find out what we are living in today. The book of micah says they will ride in the streets, the young people will rise up against their parents, and that is what is happening today. The schools are overcrowded. I believe that because when i school, there were 19 i graduated with. Now there are thousands. It is crazy. We do not need anything about Global Warming because god said the world will be destroyed by fire. Host we will go to linda. Disagree would like to with the woman from connecticut. No one has ever said the world would end in 12 days due to Global Warming. Would pass the point of the problem being reversible. In 12 years, we will no longer be able to solve the problem. I would like to agree with the man from massachusetts that it seems like our country is more corrupt than it has ever been in my lifetime. The rich and powerful are just. Ecoming more and rich that is all our politics seems to be these days. Say that i have been getting emails asking me to contact my senators to ask for them to fight against the gutting of the endangered species act that the department of the interior did a few days ago. I dont know if the senate will vote on it. It could not hurt to call because it is really are logically and environmentally to do to the endangered species act with the department of interior has just done. If you are watching in our next hour, we will talk about the endangered species act. Jonathan wood of the Pacific Legal foundation and Jason Rylander of defenders of wildlife. We will take more of your calls for that hour. We will have a special 50th anniversary look back on this program tomorrow on woodstock. That is a joint production with American History television on cspan3. A little more from that vox piece on what older adults are looking for. Have reliedublicans on older american support since 2000. 53 of adults 65 and older voted for President Trump, who campaigned on protecting medicare and Social Security and lowering drug prices. Those dynamics could be changing. Yearlicans spent the first of control under President Trump attempting to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act. They could have made health care more costly for older and sicker americans. Donald trumps 2020 Budget Proposal includes party 5 billion in cuts to Social Security over the next 10 years. The oldest president ial candidate since we look at the democrats and republicans, President Trump right now. Here are the current ages. Bernie sanders 77. Joe biden 76. Donald trump 73. Elizabeth warren 70. This would be the oldest campaign 2020 candidates. Those are there current ages. Here is Bernie Sanders at that aarp forum talking about his medicare plan and providing more coverage for seniors. [video clip] im a strong defender of medicare. Medicare is a good and Popular Program for seniors. Lets be honest. Medicare does not provide all of the benefits that seniors need. Seniors need dental care. Medicare is not provide it. Seniors need hearing aids. Medicare does not provide. Seniors need eyeglasses. Medicare does not provide it. Under medicare for all, we expand those benefits to seniors. They are health care benefits, and they deserve it. Furthermore, we expand Home Health Care. Millions of seniors would prefer to stay at home rather than go into a nursing home. They cannot afford to do that. They have to spend everything they have saved in their life. We fund Home Health Care so people have the choice about staying at home. What are your top issues for camping 2020 . Stephen writes, im concerned about guns in our culture, especially schools and the environment and Climate Change. Vote for any democrat so we can bring back civility and objectivity to government. We have jean on the line. Caller hello and thank you. I very much enjoy your show every morning almost. Things that i would comment on. I will try to be brief. I cant remember when Lyndon Johnson was in office, and we started the great society. We are he had Social Security. Acial security was sort of ponzi scheme, but it was working. It is a good thing because a lot of older people had no way of taking care of themselves when they got older. That social program was a good one kept under control. Medicare also worked pretty well, then you had this ability added to it where younger people could collect the Social Security that the working people had paid into. I think that one solution would be to separate Social Security and disability by age. Disability should be a separate program because it is a separate problem. I think the government having a hand in the Insurance Business is what has made the problem that we have got. Came into operation, we went on it for a while, and we came to that doughnut hole, and by september, we were out of insurance for drugs, but the drugs cost so much, and you had to buy the brand name. You could not by generic at that time. We put about 4000 out of our pocket for our drugs. Medicare began to pay for things like hospital beds and things like that, my fatherinlaw was ill. We rented a bed for 40 a month. When medicare took over paying for that, the government paid 100 for a hospital bed, and you still came up with 40 out of pocket. The best thing that could happen to this country is to pull the government out of everything, which i know is impossible. Buck onerybody making a government programs. Me to climategs change. Likear everybody talking the climate is changing, which it probably is. It changes a lot over history. We hear people talking about they are going to stop Climate Change. I dont know whether people know this, but the nuclear bursts on the sun are not included in the study of Climate Change, and it of what happens here on the earth. They dont add that to the statistics because it is too far away, too complicated. Thank you for calling. We want to get more voices, including ed. Thats me. Im calling from insulting you. Host where in pennsylvania . Pardon . Host what town . Caller eastern. I dont believe a democratic woman can run and win the presidency in the United States. Host how come . Caller too many would vote against her because they would say she is not strong enough. Hillary clinton was one of the best campaigners in my book. She lost because of what comey did with the emails. We all know it. She was leading. All these other women candidates, they think they can beat donald trump. They could not be there you know what. What issues are most important to you this cycle . Caller getting rid of trump. He put Atlantic City down the tubes. Everything he has touched is only for him. Which of the candidates do you think could win . Caller joe biden because barack obama picked him as the second in charge. If hillary did not win, these other candidates are high in the sky. They are offering more stuff, but they cannot come up with no clear issues on how to beat donald trump. Host we are going to do this for another half hour. We are asking seniors, what are your top issues for campaign 2020 . For joe biden supporters from it you might be interested in this headline from new york times. Lengthy about the relationship between barack obama and joe biden. Thebumpy beginnings of obamabiden ticket. This, in 2016, mr. Obama quietly pressured mr. Biden to sit out of the race, partly because he believed mrs. Clinton had a better chance of building on his agenda and because he believed mr. Biden was in no shape following the illness and death of his son in 2015. The two men spoke at least half a dozen times before mr. Biden decided to run. Mr. Obama took pains to cast his doubts and personal terms. You dont have to do this, you really dont, mr. Obama told mr. Biden earlier this year. Mr. Biden, who thinks he could have defeated donald trump four years ago, responded by saying he could never forgive himself if he turned down a second shot at mr. Trump. Makebama said he would not an inducement in the primaries endorsement in the primaries. You can read the rest of the story at the new york times. Carl, you are in West Virginia. Caller good morning. Know, i remember when john f. Kennedy became president. I voted for him. Statement, aske not what your country can do for great,thought that was but the democrats have turned that on its head. Ask what the government can do for you, free stuff. That is what it is all about now. Nothing is free. I worked in that city behind you for 27 years as an iron worker. Illegal immigrants started pouring in. I was an iron worker. That job. Do i was a foreman. Those elept bringing salvador and kids and telling me teach them how to weld. I did. Guess what . When they learned how to weld, i was no longer needed because they would work for seven dollars an hour, and raising five kids, i cannot work for that kind of money. I had to move to West Virginia and take a job driving a school bus. That is the problem right now, illegal immigration. If the democrats wouldnt that anybody except for hillary clinton, i would have probably voted for them because i did not like what donald trump said about john mccain because im a marine corps veteran. I thought that was terrible, but if it was anybody but hillary clinton, i probably would have voted democrat for the first carter. Nce caller good morning. Thank you. I just wanted to insert a comment for the gentleman from pennsylvania who indicated that women could not be elected president. As the brother of a very capable sister who is a worldrenowned bone metabolism expert and is conducting research for nasa to resolve the issues of bone loss on longterm spaceflights and also being a native of wyoming, which gave women the right to vote 30 years ahead of the u. S. Federal structure, i would caution people who say women are unable to govern. They are uniquely qualified to govern in my opinion. It is far beyond time that we elect a woman as president. Thisggest to issues at effect ofo reduce the big money in politics. It has truly poisoned the well of civility in congress. See thelks who do not judicial and other Committee Hearings on cspan get this impression that it is an eternal dogfight between the Political Parties when in fact those representatives are doing their the viewpointsnt and the needs of all americans. Thatnk that is a big issue we return a degree of civility to the political discourse and get dark money out of the political process. It is an awful thing. Change take climate seriously. We must have leaders who believe because and science with environmental concerns, if you dont hit the ground running, we may well have missed the critical Tipping Point, and everything we are arguing about liberalnservative and could become a moot point. Host on social media, the Biggest Issue, recruit Police Officers to address crimes, equip them with body cameras to validate actions. Less populated states get more representation in the federal government. Writes, im a senior, and no on biden. I vote for trump in 2020. Here is President Trump in New Hampshire on thursday. [video clip] we are all americans. We share the same heart and dreams. Samee all children of the almighty god. [cheers and applause] at the very moment when our country should be coming together to enjoy these wonderful blessings, the radical democrats are trying to tear america apart. They vilify anyone who doesnt share their extreme views. They slander our Law Enforcement heroes. You see what they are doing with our police that we love. You see what they are doing. Has anyone ever seen anything like the water being thrown on new yorks finest . I know a lot of new yorks finest. They are not happy. They are great people. These are great people. For that to be allowed to happen is a disgrace. As fascistserybody and not seized. They use the term nazis. You could not even use this term. Now they use it on a regular basis. Hes a nazi. Think of that. He is a nazi. They could not use it. Now they use it. That was thursday night. As we talked to seniors this morning, there is this headline in the wall street journal, the elderly in the u. S. Are projected to outnumber children for the first time. People over 65 would outnumber kids by 2035, a first in u. S. History. This milestone would be the latest marker in the nation aging as baby boomers move into their senior years. The shift deepest challenges for fiscal policy. Francis and tennessee now. You are on the air. My main issue is abortion. Aboutats are concerned the children being held at the border come but the millions of children who have been killed on a daily basis like the governor of virginia said. We put the baby on the table and asked the mother to keep it or not after it is born. What on earth are we coming to if that is the sort of thing we are allowing . I support the rule of law. If the laws had been in force in philadelphia, maybe that man would not have shot six policemen. Illegal drugs, we need to get those out of the country. Lastly, america first. After we solve our problems, we can invite others in, but not yet. We are not there. Host suzanne, california. Welcome to the program. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to bring to everybodys attention that Elizabeth Warren did a wonderful thing working across the aisle and brought down the cost of hearing aids, which have been costing people 4000. Get them in drugstores for under 100. That is a monumental contribution to people with hearing loss. Disabilities like blindness and other things that people dont know the services are there. You need to focus more on women of color. We vote at the highest rate of all groups, and yet we get the least attention. I have written a book on women of color. I cannot get anybody in your whole company after eight years to read it. I have given it away. I have done a lot of activism. Women of color activists do not get heard. We have major issues like the removal of the reproductive organs of women going on across the country, and people dont want to hear about it. Medical malpractice is rampant. You need to really look at some new organizations representing women of color, both older and younger. We have a lot to say. We have done a lot of research. Finally, you are still pushing not you personally, but the media is still killing us with coverage of donald trump. We hear the hateful stuff over and over. That is what is persuading some of the people that are racist is that he is successful because he is always there. Thank you for your suggestions and ideas. Which candidate do you have in mind this cycle . Caller host Elizabeth Warren. Thank you. Irene is calling from houston. Good morning. I have two or three points. My main issue is health care. We pay forsue is how medicare for all and all the problems medicare has. I have medicare, and i have to carry supplemental insurance. It is so expensive. Both premiums plus all the so itibles and copays, put it to democrats and republicans, if we can win world war ii, if we can go to the moon , if we have individuals that devised amazon and google and it,book, bitcoin, you name all of these smart people, why cant we have a health care that really works for the american . Eople host thank you for calling. Charles writes, i hope there is neither a republican in the white house or gop majority. Raising the cap on Social Security payments. Need a major increase in elderly housing. Harris atnator kamala that aarp forum in iowa talking enforcingecting and the americans with disabilities act. [video clip] this is the job of government to concern itself with Public Safety and public education. This is a Public Health issue. From whout oversight is getting government contracts and requiring accountability and aompliance for anyone who is a recipient of federal government contracts, creating standards around housing through the department of housing, the work we do creating standards through hhs. This is about having an administration that is focusing on these things and requiring accountability from the private sector, which we have not seen a lot of from this administration. Issue . Eremy, your top caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Among many issues, my top issue is i would really like to see the Foreign Policy of our country improved. If you look at the news, you can policy policy foreign in this administration is doing everything to start a war with iran. Havestanding does the u. S. America, remember the embassy. F the american the iranians remember operation ajax, the overthrow of the democratically elected leader of iran in 1953. Cia tortured and murdered iranians until the 1979 revolution. Gas to saddam in their 8 year war with iran. They remember. U. S. Killing 290 people. The iranian tanker story is a prime example of how trump has us. Ened completely inconsequential. Host we have about 10 minutes left. Carol is waiting in washington. Go ahead. Caller my first thing is we need to make sure the candidate who is running is someone who can beat trump. That wont be someone who is offering to give away the whole store. Host who is that person . Caller pardon . Host who is that person . Wller most of the people ho can beat trump . Best. Amy klobuchar the she is doing her job. She is doing a great job. Biden because i know that so many of the himcanamericans support because he does have a good track record. Age. Lmost bidens i have been keeping tabs on top of our politics for all of these decades. Biden has done a good job despite his imperfections. Those two people have not offered to just give everything to everybody. That, wed in hand with have to protect Social Security and medicare for us older people who have worked and paid for those programs. I do not care that spoken to by anybody. For the most part. I have heard it a few times. We hear the term whatever it is called, entitlements. Social security and medicare are not entitlement programs. Except for the fact that the woman who called in that said the ad in two Social Security of to socialy add in security of disability for people of all ages is a big part of what is draining Social Security. Host thank you for calling. Washington post lead story, u. S. Is close to a deal on withdrawal from afghanistan. The two sides are close to announcing the agreement on an initial u. S. Troop withdrawal and discussions between militants and the afghan government. We have news from the House Judiciary Committee yesterday that they are going to take up Gun Legislation as part of a markup in committee on september 4. The full congress is not coming back until the 9th. They will take up gun violence before the house recess ends. Jerry nadler says his committee will mark the keep america safe act. Argues they are particularly dangerous. Twopanel will also markup bills aimed at who can possess firearms. Also the disarm hate act, people committed of misdemeanor hate crimes will be blocked from purchasing firearms. Bobby. Hello. Caller thank you for cspan. I am an 81yearold disabled veteran. I want to say that the a is not betterthe va is not any than when i left it 20 years ago. It is worse. We need health care. I want to talk about the education for the young kids today. They are in desperate need of a revamp of their schools. They are not teaching civics. They are not teaching you what you need to do when you go look for a job. These kids know nothing when they get out of school. In college, they dont teach them what life is all about. I think we need to look at our Foreign Policy. I worry about afghanistan. Very seriously worried. Lindsey graham of South Carolina said we need to take a Second Thought about this. We dont need to get out of afghanistan because who can we trust, the taliban . Give me a break. Host thank you for calling. As we wrap up the hour, we will start with Pete Buttigieg of indiana. [video clip] some of this is actually separate from what we would call a longterm care system. Wengs like making sure invest in Public Transportation and unlock the power of telemedicine. I have proposed a National Service program that tries to create the same bonds that i got from military service for other americans without having to go to war to get it. The idea is to create a million opportunities for service so that it became the norm. You graduate high school, and the first thing you do where youre going to college or the workforce, one of the elements of that would be Intergenerational Service that could work with seniors on things like allowing them to stay in their homes for a longer. We have to be able to deal with a longterm care system. That includes making sure we have better pay in the field. I support increasing the minimum wage. There is a crisis of recruiting people to work in longterm care. We have to have an insurance system to help manage these costs. I would make it part of my medicare for all who want it plan to have that kind of coverage. Host lee is in california. Caller good morning. I just wanted to call about Global Warming. If you believe in god, i dont see why you would worry about Global Warming. Enough to create the earth for a specific purpose, he is smart enough to control the temperature. See why. It seems like you are trying to rebuild the tower of babel. They areng to not going to do anything. You have to put your faith in god. If you believe in god, you know he is smart enough to have created this earth to last as long as he intended it to last. In connecticut. Good morning. I think my top issue is corruption. Everything sticks to it. It goes into every aspect of what is going on today as far as the gun lobby. It is things like right to work so that the man who left his welding job and had to drive a bus in virginia. The employer actually is someone who is lobbying for right to work. If we had more unionization, workers rights, these people would not be able to take these jobs if everybody had a level Playing Field when they went into a job. This has really destroy the middle class. I think Social Security is a big issue. Im 75. I went in the womens march. I have been to all the rallies. Live in a rural area. I drove to 65 houses last election. 94 of my people voted. I will be out there again. Reproductive writes, i am a still practicing nurse. The same people that are screaming about abortions are proponents of capital punishment. There is a real dichotomy. Trump in newnt hampshire thursday making his pitch to voters for reelection. [video clip] we will never be a socialist nation. [cheers and applause] no matter what label they use, a 2020 is any democrat in a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the american dream. We have a dream. It is a great dream. This is the destruction of the american dream. Tonight this campaign with the best record, the best results, the best agenda, and the only positive vision for the people of New Hampshire and for the people of america. Host we have time for a couple more calls. Patterson,y, michael new jersey. I am 67. I am talking about Bernie Sanders or all of the guys that are talking medicare for all. Say medicare advantage, they can do your dental. They can do comprehensive dental. Medicare is progressive, but they are doing it very slowly. Advantage means they only give you a cleaning and an xray. You pay 10 extra. Clover gives you dental. I just had a root canal. I did not pay but just my copay. Got,aying thats what i and im against Bernie Sanders and all them trying to make it medicare for all. I want to see what is in the bill before they pass it, like nancy pelosi said. Bring that up with the exchanges because medicaid makes you pay everything back after the age of 85. They make it pay you back when you die. They dont let you leave anything for your kids. Medicare at least makes you paid up front. Medicaid grabs it when you die. Host thanks for calling. Last call from northport, florida. It is a debt. Caller it is odette. Caller thank you for taking my call. I like medicare. I do not like medicare advantage. I have a supplement program with Blue Cross Blue Shield, but it is expensive. Its 204 every month. What bothers me is if medicare says no to something that i need, Blue Cross Blue Shield will not pay for it because medicare said no. Every time i had a procedure or , i askeden or whatever if medicare takes care of it. If not, i wont have it done because i cannot afford it. That is really my main concern. Kratzt think that emma want to make this country socialist. I dont think that. This time i am going to vote democrat. Not going to vote for trump like i did last time. No, im that going to do that. How dare he take Social Security money and take it away from us . I worked 50 years for that. Its not an entitlement. Its a benefit. I paid for it. Its not a social benefit either. Host to thanks to everyone who called his first hour, seniors only. Were going to take a short , changes shift gears the administration is looking to make to the endangered species act. Our guests will be Jonathan Woods and Jason Rylander. They will talk from either side of the issue about making changes to the endangered species act from 1970 three. Later in the program, a discussion of how trade and tariffs are impacting farmers. Lots more time for your calls. Watching washington journal this saturday, august 17. We will be right back. Today on book tv, live coverage from the mississippi book festival featuring author talks on American History, the civil war and the south, race ,nd civil rights, true crime and world war ii. Then sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, afterwords, with journalist natalie wechsler. And off have the background knowledge to understand a reading passages in the first place. It is not that they cannot make an inference. They make inferences in their lives all the time. Toddlers can make an inference. Thats not the problem. So much as they lacked the background knowledge and vocabulary to understand the passage, and that has been a big problem. Watch booktv every weekend on cspan2. Sunday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, a washington journal and American History tv live special callin program looking back at cultural ande 1969 musical phenomenon. Historian david farmer, author of the book the age of great dreams america in the 1960s joins us to take your calls. Drugs matter, but who takes those drugs and why the drugs had the effect in the early night in 60s and 1970s is again something we are wrestling with as scholars to understand. He technology of drugs we have people who thought long and hard about this. It is imperative to the understanding not just of the 1960s but of the production of history, what drugs were used in a given period has the incredible ability to change the direction of a given society. Call in to talk with david farmer about the social movements of the 1960s, leading up to woodstock and its legacy. , sunday at0 years 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan washington journal. Washington journal mugs are available as cspans new online. Tore check out the washington journal mugs and see all of the cspan products. Washington journal continues. We are to talk more about the endangered species act and the changes the administration would like to make. We had to do firsttime guests, Jonathan Wood, a senior attorney with the Pacific Legal foundation. Good morning, thank you for joining us. We also say hi to jason my letter, with the group defenders of wildlife. Mr. Rylander, remind the audience with the endangered species act is and how successful you think it has been in these 40pl years. The endangered species act is probably the worlds most successful Wildlife Conservation statute. It has been responsible for bringing back Many Wildlife species like the bald eagle, the grizzly bear, the florida manatee, the humpback whale. It has a remarkable record of success. More than 1600 species on the list and only about 11 have an declared extinct since they were listed, so it is a track record we can be proud of. It is protecting species from extension and working to recover them to the point way the point they no longer need protection. You agree with the administration it is time for change. How come . Is it is partly successful. The endangered species act has been good at preventing extension. The 99 number you hear actually understate it because most of the species that have gone extinct were probably extinct before they were listed, but at the same time, we are not recovering species at the rate people want. Less than 3 of protected species have recovered and the last time u. S. Fish and wildlife reported to congress on a species were improving or declining, the number of declining species exceeded those improving 321. Host our viewers can call to speak with Jonathan Wood and Jason Rylander. Here are the numbers to call. Again, were joined by Jason Rylander from the group defenders of wildlife, and also Jonathan Wood of the Pacific Legal foundation. Lets dig into the details of what some of these changes are going to be. Of course, talk about any legal challenges that might be coming up. We will put on the screen some. F the basic provisions here changes to the in danger species act include easing the Regulatory Burden of the act, considering the Economic Impact of a listing, making Climate Change less of a factor, making it easier to remove species from the endangered list, and to reduce protections for threatened species. Jason rylander, what do you see here with those potential changes apple guest the administration is taking a wrecking ball to a number of different provisions of the act, from the way species are listed to the way medical habitat is designated for those species and to the way the federal government assesses the impact of its decisions on endangered species and their habitat. Thoseare a lot of provisions that really concern us. One of them is that under the new regulations, threatened theies do not receive automatic protections of the act. The exception is now the rule because threatened species used to get full protections of the act automatically unless the administration developed a special tailored rule that deviated from that in some way. Now that will be different. I think that will increase the burden on threatened species. We will also see this problem with considering economic listing process. Congress made it very clear that listing a species is a scientific decision, if its endangered or threatened really has nothing to do with how much it costs to save it or if we want to save it. The biologicalth data. Injecting Economic Data will only politicize further decisions about endangered species protection. All thed you agree with potential changes out there . Make a defense of the ones you agree with. Of thei think most changes arent extremely technical or not changes at all. A lot of the talk has been how far into the future you can project impacts to endangered and threatened species. The new rule just codifies policies that have been in place since 2009. It actually is knowledge is the agency cannot consider Economic Impact. They are just eliminating a gag rule. That said, there are some significant changes in the rules that i think will help us recover species. Jason mentioned the change to threatened species. I think that is a key element in improving the intent to recover endangered species. For too long, by treating these categories exactly the same, we every private landowners a reason to move species from endangered threatened and off the wrist. By lowering Regulatory Burdens as a species recover, it better landownersthe interests. One of the things these regulations do is they continually raise the burdens for protecting species and for assessing the impact of federal actions on species. Already haveation the ability to tailor special rules for threatened species, so it is unclear to me why they would suddenly shift the presumption to one where threatened species do not get any protection unless they take action. That will just mean war work more work for the agency are time when they are already underfunded and dealing with increasing burdens of trying to protect the number of species that are threatened by habitat laws and Climate Change on an accelerating basis. Host before we get to calls, let me get each of you to react to some of the voices out there. Post published an editorial today. Facing threats. It is fair to were the Trump Administration once again seeking to focus on the former and ignore the letter. Guest i disagree. The strict regulations for endangered species remain in place. Economic costs still will not be considered. The changes are geared toward reducing conflict and promoting efforts to recover species. What editorials like that do is highlight how broken our politics are on endangered species issues. If you go back and look at the coverage we have when the obama missed ration proposed changes, they were the exact same thing. Every administration will be accused of getting the endangered species act. Thats just where we are politically. Generally, it is not true. Changes tend to be small. One more reminder about the fall months. They are based on region. They are listed at the bottom of your screen. We know calls are starting to come and so will get those on the air shortly. Jason rylander, first, let me wilburu a statement from ross, the commerce secretary. He writes that the revisions finalized with this rulemaking fiscally within the president s mandate of easing the Regulatory Burden on the American Public without sacrificing species protection and recovery goals. The changes were subject to a robust process during which we receive significant public and put that helped us finalize these rules. What do you think . They received more than 800,000 commons, the vast majority were opposed to these rules. It really emphasizes what the intention of the rulemaking was, and that was to reduce regulation. We have seen that unfortunately throughout the Trump Administration agenda, if its opening up public lands to oil drilling or trying to open up our coast to offshore drilling or reducing protection for public lands, clean air, clean water, it is just part of parcel of an antiregulatory agenda that seems to be designed to benefit industry over our future and our Natural Resources for our children. Our first call, michael from illinois. Good morning. Caller heres my point i want to talk about the fact that this is public land. Im in illinois. Any statistical study will tell states, eastern ,articularly the blue states finance all the water projects out west. We subsidize every one of these red states, their politicians, and everybody else, and then these idiots want to allow some who has beencher stealing from the public treasury for years because he and almostlow rates free grazing, which i have to pay for it in my taxes, so i should have more of a say. Lets do with the republican way. East thates in the paid for this should have a say and those People Living out there should not have anything. I want those animals protected and i dont care if the ranchers go out of business and starve. Theres my comment. Host lets get a comment from jonathan would. Grazing reform should be a focus and there are definitely it,gs we can do to improve but its definitely not true that endangered species issues of public land issues. By privateves faced land owners, we should contribute more and pay more to encourage efforts to recover species. We all have an interest in that, but we have to also consider the incentives for land owners, it was the incentive to recover andies, restore habitat, unfortunately, right now, prior to the rule change, the intent was to destroy habitat preemptively because if you do not, youll will face more burdensome regulations. Guest endangered species dont recognize state borders. They dont care if we are in a blue state or read they. They represent heritage we have inherited and hope to pass down to our children, so i think it is a question of how we are going to reaffirm our National Commitment to protecting endangered species and Natural Resources, and it is certainly true that endangered species can be found on public land as well as on private land. The endangered species act is different provisions that land for federal Agency Consultation and also provisions that can apply to private land through conservation agreements and Habitat Conservation plans and other ways of incentivizing private stewardship of our resources. Host explain a little bit about the process. The endangered species act 1973 signed into law. How does this exactly work within the administration to make changes to the law . Why dont you start . There is a Public Comment process in which the agency has to consider comments and respond to them and make a final rule that contains those responses. Has not seriously looked at or updated the law in decades. Most of the work and many of the things jason just mentioned about Habitat Conservation plans are all administrativeled innovations because thats where all of the work is being done. Guest that is exactly right. There have been some administrative improvements and they probably continue. There could be some additional ones, but the act its health hasbeen the act itself been on the books since 1973. People dont realize this, but it was passed by a Bipartisan Senate and house, 920 in the senate and 39012 in the house, and it would be wonderful if we had that sort of bipartisan commitment to endangered species protection going forward, but as it is right now, with action on many things stymied in congress, most of the discussion is how did ministers and can implement the act and our concern is similar that we are moving backward in terms of implementation and not forward at a time when we really need to be increasing our protections for endangered species and the environment. Host lets hear from sarah in New Hampshire. Welcome to the program. Morning, thank you. Yes, we need to protect the environment from capitalism. Were people,ion too, they would be sociopaths because there is no conscience in capitalism. Its all about making money. Here in New Hampshire, we got feel good industrial wind. It went through the process of the sec site evaluation committee. The site was surrounded by water, and when i came to live in southern New Hampshire at 10 years old, we did not have bald eagles. Now we do. This site is surrounded by water. Eagles are waterbirds, basically. If theynd sec said lowered a turbine and got rid of forrbine, the site change some reason. The site had not changed in 15,000 years. They blasted the top of our mountains off. They destroyed the watershed, and they all did this because theres 4 sites in New Hampshire, 40 turbines producing 2. 4 of our energy needs. This fifth site produces energy out of state. We have thats in the area, these endangered, eagles endangered, and that all went out the window because of capitalism. The National Forest in arizona to a Mining Company out of australia to do a deep pit copper mine. This is what is happening to our federal lands. Federal lands belong to everybody. When they talk about species, they talk about habitat. We had a fivemile swath of forest destroyed and habitat for endangered right now, our moose herd is endangered, and fish and game did not speak up. Ees did not speak up. At the the sec went along with it, and we got railroaded by capitalism pure capitalism thanks for calling. Do you want to respond to that . Guest the reality is the reason so much forto do the environment as we are more profitable today than before. Companies that do not have thriving markets do not have to environmental outcomes because they dont have the incentive and Government Systems to do it. The private sector brings a ton of resources. Corporations care about perception and will invest in environmental outcomes. I think that is true, but the threats to endangered species are greater than ever before. Climate change and biodiversity have been striking and disturbing and indicate that we could lose as many as one million species in my lifetime indicating what than 70 of land areas are already disturbed. And we will be adding more than one billion people to the planet in the next decade or two. Something is going to have to change. Unfortunately, we have an administration populated with oil and gas lobbyists. Have individuals, highranking officials at the department of the interior saying that they do not believe that there should be public lands, that the endangered species act should be repealed, so the amount of money that is flowing into influence some of the decisions at the expense of the public good is a serious problem. We certainly have to make some changes if we are going to preserve our future. Host we move on to West Virginia. Is it middleton . Middleton. , its im a smalltown farmer. I live out in the country in West Virginia. We talking about animals and the environment. Im for the environment, but, you know, we got these animals they are so domesticated now im a small farmer, and i cannot keep fighting the animals because they eat my peaches. They raid my garden all the time. Only thing i could do would be a fence around all my gardens to keep the animals out. Its a constant battle to try to raise produce to sell at the farmers market. Great,ironment is all but how to you take care of something where even the squirrels come out of the woods and eat all the peaches that we got on the trees . Everything, and i constantly have to try to kill them all the time, and i dont eat squirrels or nothing like that. Horrible, but this is the way the country has got to be now that, you know, it makes it hard for People Like Us host thanks, middleton. We get the point. Tip from Jason Rylander on that. Callersappreciate the comment and we know a lot of people are having difficulty, particularly on our farmlands, making ins meat. What were talking about really is protection of imperiled species, once you are probably not likely to see around your farm because a lot of their habitat has already been destroyed or because they have declined for other reasons. So most Wildlife Management is up to the state and one important piece of this is that states step up and do a better job protecting wildlife and managing wildlife before we get to the point where they need to be put on the endangered species list. Unfortunately, they can only spend about 5 of the amount of money on endangered species, as the federal government does, in a state like West Virginia does not even have its own eight endangered species at, so theres a lot more that can be done to try to make sure that we have abundant wildlife and that works for people as well. Here is a quotation from the legal director of the Nature Program at the National Defense counsel. Were in the midst of an unprecedented crisis, but the trumpet ministration is steamrolling our most effective Wildlife Protection laws. Demonstration seems set on damaging fragile ecosystems by prioritizing industry interests over science. We intend to fight these so we can preserve the Natural World for generations to come. Guest this probably dozens of lawsuits to be filed, but the reality is it emphasizes why it is so critical we get the incentives right and the things in the rules that provide landowners better incentives are critical to achieving those goals. The previous caller highlights the concern that we and the public are enjoying the benefit of keeping endangered species around but by and large not paying for it. We are expecting landowners across the country to bear those costs, and it would be more effective and error if we as the public for those costs more effective and fairer. The changes are focused on doing that, not slapping more burdens and regulations on people already bearing disproportionate costs. Letting the public bear the cost of public benefit. Host you want to add to that . Guest think the most effective way to protect public speeches is to have a mix of incentives as well as everything else. That is an approach that has worked well throughout the history of the act. There certainly will be litigation over these regulatory changes. The attorney general from california indicated he was interested in doing a press the attorneyth general from massachusetts as well, so there will be action by some states. There will be action from environmental groups and our intent is to make sure the endangered species act continues to be successful recovering species going forward. A half hour left. Ith our guests, Jason Rylander were also talkings morning with Jonathan Wood, senior attorney for the Pacific Legal foundation, talking about changes to the endangered species act. We read that this talk about two years to get to this point this took about two years. Can either of you explain why . Was it because of the Public Comment period . Generally, rulemaking takes a long time. You have hundreds of thousands going into the office and there will be duplicate of comments or not having substance, the agencies still have to catalog or read them and provide responses. Internal review has to go through it within the agency and outside the agency by several white house divisions. It is not uncommon for rules to take two years. It is frustrating somewhat that the government is so slow and inefficient, but that is kind of the way it works. And knowing there is a process if one president makes changes, another president can come by and make additional changes. That is absolutely correct. It is hard to have a clear view of what is exactly going on inside the interior department at all times, but, you know, for much of this administration, there is still not an official Wildlife Service director confirmed by congress, so that might be contributing, but it does take time to develop regulations, to assess Public Comments and, hopefully, respond to them, which in this case i dont think the trumpet ministration did. Lets go to gym in idaho. Good morning. Caller jason, how many grizzlies and mountain lions and wolves have you introduced to the large blue state . Thank you. All right, well, one of the greatest successes of the endangered species act has been the fact we have been able to bring back the gray wolf into , great lakes states as well as the northern rockies. They are beginning to expand their range even into california and colorado. We are also involved in red wolf protection in North Carolina and hoping to bring them back throughout some of their historic range in the south. It has been discussed and proposed in the past two recover wolves into parts of their historic range in new england as well. The important thing is that with these kinds of species, they are part of our birthright. We have been remarkably successful in bringing them back and some of that work still needs to be done to make sure of these iconic species can be seen and enjoyed in as much of their historic range as possible and not, you know, we just have to travel to alaska or montana to see them. Host Popular Mechanics actually has a list of what they call a species that were saved by the endangered species act. They start with the bald eagle, of course. You can go to their website to see more. Popularmechanics. Com. They have the whale. I think the Peregrine Falcon is part of their list. Barry is calling and. Good morning, very. Morning, barry. Here in tampa,n florida. My question is how much does Climate Change play a role in these animals going extinct. We have an issue down here sometimes with red tide, which occurring in the ocean. My question basically is how much does Climate Change have to do with a lot of these animals going extinct. We already know about capitalism and manmade designs taking these animals out of their area. Change, frankly, scares me a lot when it comes to the protection of endangered species and we are starting to see effects of Climate Change on quite a few species. The polar bear was one of the first ones that was listed because of predictions about melting sea ice that we are seeing come to pass every day. There were temperature readings above the Arctic Circle in sweden i saw in the press yesterday that topped 94 degrees, and that is just not normal. You mentioned red tides. The Sea Level Rise in and around florida, those red tides are a big threat to manatees, just at beginningen we were to think about if they could be considered recovered. Were losing coral reefs. Were losing the incubators for a lot of our fisheries, and you can see changes in rainfall patterns, changes in vegetation, and that is going to shift the species range. If we dont address that and protect habitats both where they live and where they might be migrating to, we are going to be losing a lot of species. Thats why the United Nations reports suggested we could lose as many as one million species due to Climate Change and habitat loss over the next few decades. Does the Pacific Legal Foundation Look at the idea of Climate Change in this context . Guest one of the things you have to start with is theres not much the endangered species act can do to address Climate Change. I think the fact were starting to see species threatened by shows why reform is needed. The endangered species act historically has not worked so well was species considered management defendant, that leaving them alone is not enough. It is critical that we have that incentives for land owners so that active management can occur. The more we see species threatened by Climate Change, the more important it will be to focus on those incentives and provide compensation and other positive benefits to landowners rather than burdens and regulations. North hampton, massachusetts. William is on the line. Are you . , how good morning today. I wanted to comment about the discussion. What i noticed, sadly, over the years is there is a problem with bringing attention to endangered species all over the world. First, you have the World Population and how many laws actually protect endangered species. How many laws protect rain forest where 70 of our cures nd medicines are derived from . And also quantifying that whole of the, which some Indigenous People are doing, but when you get back to our neck of the woods, which im in new england, it feels like the environmental agencies and people are just so. Utrageous now im just saying that in , and i would like to say that, you know, people have their living to do. Im particularly a builder, and it seems like the regulations that have gone into place really the progress of our nation in a sense, but i surely whale to want the last swim off into the sunset never to be seen again. Thank you, gentlemen. Host mr. Rylander . Guest he has raised a lot of different issues. One of them is that we do derive enormous amount of benefits, and some of them are economic ,enefits from biodiversity including medicines, nature tourism and things like that. It really is important that congress when passing the endangered species act said the endangered species is literally incalculable. Thatsomething we have to bear in mind. I think the endangered species act does a really good job, though, of addressing the concerns of folks like you in terms of development, and there about thestudies done endangered species act consultation process, whereby federal agencies have to make sure that permits that they give out and project that they approve do not jeopardize the survival of species. Our research showed we look at about 88,000 projects. Most of those complications occurred in formally within just a few weeks, and very, very few less than 1 of projects have ever been stopped or billys ability or severely altered because of the endangered species concerns. Esaidea that the dsa the is hampering progress is belied by everything you see around you. I think the benefits of in danger species protection need to be taken into account as well. From aeres a tweet democratic congressman. Want to give jonathan would a chance to respond to anything you have heard in the last couple of minutes. Think thatnt rhetoric has been very helpful and it has been recycled too much. The exact same things were said Administration Try to make changes, that the ministration was in the pocket of the oil and gutting the act. It is just filled with landmines no one was to go near because they dont want to face that kind of rhetoric. The lastoader point of color, the truth is in danger species are incredibly valuable, but protecting them is also extremely costly, so that is why it is important to look at who bears those costs. One of the disappointing things we have found is that burdensome regulations encourage land owners to destroy habitat preempt a plea. If they see a listing coming down the pike, for them, theyve got to earn a living and they are going to face regulations, they will cut down a tree or whatever. Host would have another voice here, peter in new york. Thanks for waiting. Youre on the air. Guys. good morning, i came in late on the conversation, but as far as im concerned, it is encroachment into wild areas by human beings that is the biggest threat to the environment and to endangered species. Im in my middle 60s. When i was a kid, the big bugaboo was overpopulation. 1990, traditionally we brought in about 250,000 people a year legally into this country. Million. About 1. 2 if we want to protect the environment, i think the smart thing to do would be to reduce in legal population coming and also do something about illegal immigration because thats what is putting a big strain on the environment. Our farmers are concerned, the big thing now is have to export their wheat and grain and soybeans to other countries. One big environmental problem is how to farmers in this country make a living years ago when they were not exporting so much to other countries . If we want to be sustainable, no matter what we do as far as technology is concerned, the have is by 2050, we will 600 Million People in this country. If we go back to 250,000 a year legal immigration, we will be 400 million. To me, that is the main problem is far as the environment is concerned, is encroachment. Guest the collar makes a number of points. I think it is important to bear in mind that in the era of Climate Change, were likely to amount of refugees around the world who are fleeing areas where they can no longer grow food or they have been inundated by sealevel rise and this is going to be an issue all over the world. Those people have to be treated fairly as well. For me, the Biggest Issue is with protecting endangered species and habitat loss is certainly a prime one, is a smart plan and swift transition to renewable energy. We simply need to stop extracting fossil fuels at the rate were doing. This administration seems to be doubling down on Extractive Industries at the expense of investing in wind and solar and new technologies that may reduce the impacts on our land may result in cleaner air and cleaner water and a healthier environment for all of us. I think that is where we really need to be focusing right now. Why are we opening up the last major productive salmon run in the world to mining . While we opening of the arctic wildlife refuge to oil and gas . Why are we reducing the size of our National Monument and leasing for coal . We need to protect our habitat. We can do that and we have ways to do that right now. I disagree with the colors views on immigration. The truth is the environment of movement of the 1950s, 1960s, 1976 and 30 pretty bad positioning on environmental growth. The key to improving environmental outcomes is more human prosperity and more people focused on the effort. Jason mentioned how renewable increased when we reduce fossil fuels. The key is we have seen technological innovation that makes it possible. If the market continues to push people in a positive environmental direction, we will see continued improvement in the key to that is prosperity. We hear from kyle and carson city, nevada. Caller good morning, gentlemen. How are you today daca my question is for mr. Wood. I have a degree in agricultural economics. Im taxed enough already, mr. Wood. I dont need to support the cost of landowners. I dont even own land myself. God bless you. Sympathizertainly with the idea that taxes are too high, but the truth is when we as a society want to enjoy some benefits, the expectation is we should pay for it. Some people disagree and say it is the cost of protecting endangered species are too great. Protecting endangered species tends to pull well into the 90 . I suspect if we did fund more of that, the public to bear most of those costs, we would continue. O do it more effectively ultimately, that is a political decision. If we want to continue to protect endangered species, we should be willing to bear the cost, and that is just the political calculus we face. The senator from hawaii and mr. Bernhardt were talking here about a potential revision to the esa. This exchange has to do with Economic Impact and removing some of the language. Heres a look and we will talk about it. [video clip] i would like to know why your agency is considering changing species listing to take out my goods that such decisions should be made without reference to possible economic or other determination. In theseeans that listing decisions, you want to be able to consider the Economic Impact of providing protections to endangered species. Isnt that the import of the change you are contemplating . Actually, no. Under the endangered species act, and making a listing decision, you can only consider why factors. Those factors are the factors that do not include economics, so you cannot consider it for the listing decision itself. The question is can the other be documentation yes, i know. You are not supposed to consider economic decisions, but you are now taking out that provision so you will be able to consider economic although it may come out of the rule and that is still under debate, it is in the statute, so again, no one can do that. That would be illegal. It has to be the five factors and that is it. [end video clip] host can you help explain what that was all about . Explains clearly that listing decisions are solely to be made on the best Scientific Data available in the regulations mirrored that but also included language that said economic considerations should not play a role, and they spelled this out specifically without reference to economics i think is what the actual language was, and they are removing that language from the regulation. Hand, you can say this doesnt change anything because the endangered species act already prohibits consideration of economics. They made it clear in the preamble they want to be able to issue Economic Impact statements at the same time of the listing and this will simply an hour listings, delay of burglary fish and Wildlife Service that already has two much to do, and it will have the effect ofthe injecting the starts of considerations into what should be a completely scientific review of the species biological status. I agree with most of what jason sent an disagree with the rest. With secretary bernhardt says is correct. The endangered species act, the relations continue to prohibit the consideration of economic costs. It just illuminate the gag rule that prohibits them from acknowledging the cost. Eliminates the gag rule. In the long run, i dont pick it will make much of an impact because i think people will continue to support listing endangered species despite the cost. Cuss 100 millions of dollars per species it routinely costs hundreds of millions of dollars per species. It is more about letting the public know what things cost at different stages, but in the long run will not affect if a species gets listed. Host lets move on to hoboken, were tracy is on the line. Gentlemen. D morning, i have a question for you and also a statement it is based on. Since the beginning of our species, mankind has considered itself superior to all other forms of life. To solve therying problem of saving life on earth. If you had true reverence for all life equal to humans, you would never have allowed this to happen. Youre sitting here now with your tales all twisted trying to figure out how you save things. I want to ask each one of you, do you consider yourself superior to other life forms on earth, or do you believe in the anthropocentric view exclusively . Is this something you want to host is this something you want to tackle . Guest i personally believe all the species traveling with us on this planet have a right to exist. I also think that in my other life, im a classical musician, and we perform music that is from bachf years old, to monteverdi. Worksserve pyramids and of art that are thousands of years old, and yet here, in just a generational two, we are causing the extinction of hundreds, perhaps even millions of species that we will never be able to recreate, and that is just something we have to grapple with. This is new, and it is something that we are accelerating the on natural rates of extinction beyond natural rates of extension. I hope most people will agree that our natural treasures are very much worth preserving as part of our heritage and culture. The callers comments reflect human prosperity. No other species things about its effect on its local environment. The reason we do is we are not advanced enough and rich enough to do something about it. I think thats good, keep the engine going, keep going in that direction. Im anthropocentric. Wouldt think many people treat human life for an animal wee, but at the same time, that human beings are evolving socially to care more about more species. For more thann half my life, i sympathize completely and him devastated by , but thats animals because im growing up in a society that is prosperous enough that i can afford to have that care. The main points the white house the administration would like to put out, here they are again using the Regulatory Burdens of the endangered species act, considering the Economic Impact, making Climate Change less of a factor, making it easier to remove species from the endangered list and remove. Rotections went with these changes when were they designed to take effect . Guest they usually go into effect 60 days after they are published, which i have not seen yet. Should be in the next couple of months. Caller im calling because im really worried about what the administration is doing, the actions they are taking that hurt wildlife and the environment. Over the last 20 years, i have seen our land completely change, and of course, it is because of the climate, the weather changing. We cannot depend on seasons anymore. Since we have lived here, i have seen owls, ducks, geese, birds, hawks disappearing. We used to have them, see them regularly, and now i dont see them at all. In fact, tons of birds, they are all disappearing. They used to migrate here and are now not showing up. I also see them competing for food. All the lizards compete with the birds for food, and i think the texas loves to make properties that take over a lot of wildlife territories, they should really consider start looking at the bigger cities and build up instead of out. Host thanks for calling. Want to respond to that . Key tothe truth is the protecting habitats is to incorporate them more into working lands, and a lot of environmental groups are doing some great things. Environmental defense fund, for instance, has a working Lands Initiative that makes it so farmers can both make a living while also improving or protecting habitats. If we treat the environment as something distinct from humanity and the world we actually live in, we will ultimately undermine our environmental goals. With that. Uld agree i would also point out since the caller pointed out Migratory Birds, the of ministration has also taken a wrecking ball to the Migratory Bird treaty act and changed a 100your interpretation of the law 100year interpretation of the law. Every bit of our environmental protections right now are under attack in this administration, so it snows price that you may prize no its no surprise. Host glad to have you, carol. Go ahead lease. I think this administration is taking everything american out of america. I will be 80 this winter, and i all ofat im dead before them are gone. Thanks for calling. Jackie is in virginia. Good morning. [indiscernible] company, amining any involvement, the mountain pipeline, they have no respect for nothing. Nothing or no one. Issues, are the main the birds, and wildlife and water supply. Protect what we have. Weve got to recognize the importance of weve all got to havere together and we all a little unit that has a purpose. The bees have a purpose. You get rid of all these little animals that everybody just thinks dont matter. Have a purpose here on this earth. It is for all of us. I think we lost jackie. I think we got the point from her, though. Anything you want to respond to from those last couple of calls . It is easy to scapegoat industries. Aggers have then been common target, but historically the accusations dont pan out. We have cut logging a ton. After the logging stopped, species continue to decline and even on properties that never had logging in the first place. There were other threats, but they were not as attractive as a villain. Endangered species face problems, but increasing the politics of the issue are not helping. Guest jackie was from virginia and mentioned a Mountain Valley pipeline. We just went to Court Last Week to try to challenge the cursory biological analysis of that pipeline, which is cutting through Rural Communities and impacting habitats and with atlanticcies. Oast on the pipeline the project is now on hold, and it stands to reason that a lot of these projects simply are not needed. We need to transition to renewables. We need to protect these areas and make sure that if these types of projects are going to go forward, that the administration looks at them with a skeptical eye and gives the benefit of the doubt to protecting our species and our Natural Resources. That is what we are trying to do. On to illinois, chris is on the line. Caller i have a question about Invasive Species. Is there any data that correlates Invasive Species to the cause of species endangerment from, like, local species . Thats my question. Host can either of you help with that . Theresm not sure if global data, but this certainly lots of species listed on the endangered species act because of Invasive Species, and that is another example of a management dependency issue. Do things to protect and restore habitats, you will not recover these species. Hes right that Invasive Species do require management, and it is a growing problem that will affect our ability to protect threatened endangered species going forward, so that is definitely a concern. Rick, south florida, good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. Caller i just had a question. Earlier colors were talking about peoples influence, and i just want to know what the booksiewees thought about talking about the decline of the climb of human populations. Ver the next 30 or 40 years parts of the United States and spain, for example, will be pretty much ghost towns because people are dying off without returning. These debates abouton isthis, f the Environmental Impact gets shifted onto individuals, and the majority of corporations and businesses that are pretty much decimating environmental spaces, i mean, why isnt the discussion what is your opinion on the discussion of why it is always framed like it is an individual problem and individuals will be taxed for it . Why arent the Companies Tax at higher rates, and also, why are they allowed to do it . Host thanks. That was our last call. We have time for your thoughts. Guest for me come of the important thing is we protect our endangered species act and reaffirm our commitment to protecting species and our natural habitat. This administration is going in the wrong direction, and the endangered species act is just the latest attack on our environmental protection. We need to do better. We are going to stand up in court and try to argue that the regulations are contrary to the role of congress and should be overturned. Guest i would start by saying there is a difference between regulating a bill to protect species and actually doing it. Regulation is not the chief driver of environmental improvement. Private landowners that are out there every day doing things to protect habitat, that is what our focus should be on, not government rules and regulations. Host our guests have been Jonathan Wood, attorney at the Pacific Legal foundation, and Jason Rylander with defenders of wildlife. Thank you for being here. Guest thank you for having me. Host one hour left on the saturday edition of the washington journal, and when we come back, we will talk about the condition of agriculture and the farming industry in the country, especially with tariffs and trade disputes happening. Our guest will be mario parker of bloomberg. He will be joining us from chicago. In the meantime, this weeks Newsmakers Program will be featuring david mcintosh. He was asked about the calls of the recent stock market volatility and President Trumps trade policy. Here is a look. [video clip] what is happening, a lot of the volatility of the marketplace is the president s strategy with china has required that we impose significant areffs on china, and those ultimately a cost to the American People. At one point, i think he articulated it, we are doing well now, so let me use this tool. I understand the tariffs may be a real drag on the economy, but now is the time to do it, because in the end, we will get a great trade deal, and both sides will benefit. But this past week, he did late of limiting some tariffs, saying he did not want consumers to have to pay them for christmas. Which i think is saying, recognizing that the tariffs are a drag right now on economic growth. I would not say a small drag, but they are not as significant as other things could become alike high taxes and more regulation. What it really means is that window is narrowing for when we have to get a new trade agreement. When that happens, then i thank you see another boost to economic growth, sustained the cycle we are in for a number of years because you have got certainty, basically, and the World Economy about trade in the United States. And i am actually confident that president is able to deliver on that. He has taken time. The chinese have basically called him on it and say we think you have to have an agreement in name, but we do not have to give you any sustenance concessions, and trump called inaudible. I am not going to just sign an agreement that Means Nothing in reality but says we have an agreement. There has to be a real concession. China, by the way, is hurting worse than the United States. Through the next election cycle, but it is also a impossible when they get to the point where they see it as a winwin. Steve would you say today that the United States is winning the trade war . China needsk that to consider basically accepting International Property rights, changing some of their fundamental business models. End, it is clearly on the table, something they will have to concede, that is the win. In the middlely of the backandforth negotiations. There is no clear one way or the other, but the possibility of getting a very good trade agreement is still there. Washington journal continues. Host e are going to talk now about trade in the agriculture industry. On your screen is mario parker, a reporter for bloomberg news, joining us from chicago. Good morning. , mr. Parker. I want to show you a headline from the chicago tribune. Farmers celebrate ag but bemoan a nightmare of a year. What has t nightmare been like for farmers, and add to it the recent trade disputes. What is it like out there . Guest it is biblical proportions, to put it mildly. You have a trade war, you have got income down, you have incessant rains earlier this year that delayed planting, you have a winter in which the Mississippi River flooded, so that prevented farmers from getting supplies, and now you have really dry weather out here, so they went from praying for sunshine to praying for rain now. It is a tenuous time for american farmers. Host there is a headline to a u. S. T piece you cowrote, farmers now facing a 3. 5 billion corn loss. What is happening in the industry . Guest there is unprecedented uncertainty in the major right now care you cannot control the weather, you cannot control so many their equals, but when you layer on top of that the weather problems they have had, the worst in decades, and you layer the trade war and uncertainty there, whether or not there will be a resolution with china, it kind of makes it hard for farmers to note went to market their crops are not. The have also criticized downs thatome of the have come down, a report earlier this week on supply and demand projections. It is tough for everyone to get it right these days. Host so what is next . How our farmers from the midwest and elsewhere responding to all of the problems they have been having . What does the future look like . Guest there is only so much they can control right now, quite frankly. The best thing they could do is tighten the belt buckle, prepare for worstcase scenarios. Theres trade aid packages, of course, that the Trump Administration has announced to the tune of some 28 billion, between last years announcement and this years distribution as well. The president is anticipating more to come if the trade war with china were to persist. But the only thing farmers can do right now is to really tighten the belt and make sure tsthe is are dotted and are crossed. Host we will have two lines for mario parker of bloomberg. If youre a farmer or a member of the agricultural industry, call the following number 202 7488000. Everyone else, 202 7488001. Our guest has been a reporter a bloomberg since 2006, covering farming issues currently, agriculture issues currently, as we talk to them about the plight of farmers. Here is a tweet from the president just recently. Sayingsaid and has been that the United States is by far the biggest, strongest, and most powerful economy in the world. It is not even close. In the best shape ever come a plenty of cash, optimism is at an alltime high. That is his general point about the economy and people, mario parker. What do farmers have to say about President Trump and his policies these days . Guest there was a response to that tweet from a biofuels producer. Biofuels overlap with agriculture, and they use a lot of soybeans and also corn. That response was it does not look so bright for my industry right now. That was one of the things that kind of floated on social media in response to that tweet. Farmers, they are optimistic by nature. They plant something, they hope it grows some months later. But they are feel full, they are stressful. That is even going so far as to middle health issues, farm aid, the farm bureau as well have kind of steppedup efforts of awareness around Mental Health issues as farmers deal with this difficult time. Host one of the most recent stories in all of this on the trade war, chinas decision to abruptly stop buying u. S. Agriculture products. How much more is that hurting them . Guest yes, well, that tenor of some of the trade groups when it was announced was much different than the tenor or the rhetoric previously at the onset of the trade war. It was a lot more urgent. They were calling for President Trump and his counterpart in china to quantify th a resolution quickly. They are sticking with the president. They have stuck with the president throughout this trade war, but it is becoming more and more stressful. It is becoming more and more tense. A couple ofustrated weeks back when usda secretary sonny perdue was then minneapolis excuse me, rural minnesota, and farmers gave him an earful about the administrations trade policy, boer alone approach, and a sense of urgency, that, hey, something needs to be done before too soon now. Host the first call for mario parker is betty. What would you like to say or ask . Caller i would just like to comment. President trump, i understand he is allowing checks to help the families out, but he is not a farmer, and he is totally clueless. These farmers are stressed out. They want to trade like they did in the past with china, and china traded with them, you know . I think our president takes everything to lightly, you know . Host thanks for calling, betty. Whatnt to ask mr. Parker the president has been doing for farmers. Here is another story that you cowrote. Trade aid as farmers endure a body blow. What are they prepared to do . Welcome of the trade last year, there was an announcement 12 billion in aid. As things defend recently, the Trump Administration announce another 16 billion in aid for farmers. President trump, as things the in between he and xi jinping a few weeks ago, he tweeted out aidhinted that more trade could be coming if the trade war to persist. There is some thought that maybe the trade war will last until the 2020 election, in which case the administration is hinting to farmers that they will still, you know, end up getting some type of payment again. Host are there certain states or regions that are hurting more than others right now . Guest it is pretty widespread. Mean, of course i was a very important, given h large agricultural footprinit, but it is pretty widespread. They are spread across many agricultural products, whether soybeans, ethanol, c orn, meat, poultry products, potatoes or spread pretty widely, and that has a larger footprint in the u. S. Host lets go to barbara. Hello, barbara. Caller hi there. I am a junkie with International Policy and national policy, and mr. Parker did a great job in his opening comments, painting it really vivid picture of all of these factors that are going into this situation right now for the farmers, so they are the acts of god, which, you know, that is one column, and then there are the acts of government. But that they have really want to talk about is this issue of uncertainty, ok . So there is a pattern or a connection between the issue of uncertainty in the stock market affecting that whole economic arena and the issue of uncertainty in the agricultural arena. Because we have all become, i think, very unconsciously, um, u certainty, ando i think the certainty comes from the unbelievable role of technology. Our phones always work, our cars always work, our dishwashers always work. I am 72. I come from a time when things do not always work. You look at the pictures, the magnificent pictures of the seals that you just showed and how perfectly manicured they are topped beautiful, glass silos that they are pouring the grain into, we need to think about the certainty and uncertainty in terms of expectations and trying to juggle and balance those rationally. That is where i want to say. Host thanks. Mario parco, from chicago. Guest sure. That is a very astute observation. In fact, the technology, there is a nexus between technology and uncertainty, because you will see a direct correlation between positive comments between maybe a trade resolution with china, an uptick in the stock market, but also an uptick in agricultural products, like soybean futures. And then you will see the converse happen, there is something, and announcement, a at maybe morets angst or more tension at the Worlds Largest economy. Host brian is on the line from athens, wisconsin on our line for farmers. Either. Hi there. On a farm 35w up years ago, and for the 35 years, my comment would be that america has not taken care of the farmers. It is not just the last two years with trump. Barack obama did nothing for us supporting corn prices or soybean prices. They were already going down the past years. Is the problem with it america has always had a sense of wanting cheap food policies. They dont understand, a car does not cost 12,000 anymore, so why is a gallon of milk still 2. 95 . They dont understand that a 2 doesr that is 1 or not allow the beef farmer to run this operation. You have to understand that things cost more, and American People one day will be forced to buy all of their food from a foreign country instead of supporting the greatest industry this country has. Why have not the democrats brought up that usmc trade on the table, it pass it, force china to come to the trade war with america, and get this thing done . We have got a policy here with our two neighboring countries, and we cant even get that passed, but supposedly the democrats will tell you it is trumps fault. Host thank you, brian, for calling. Mario parker, do you want to respond to that . Guest sure, yes, as brian mentioned, the usmca is something that would help farmers right now. It has not moved forward legislatively just yet, but that is also something that is a concern to farmers, given the trade between both mexico and canada. Um, aside from that, one thing is the market was now, prior to the trade war, and part of the reason is the farmers are very, very efficient, which goes back to that Technology Question again. They have got apps on the phone that show them the best patterns in which to sow or harvest crops. They have big, fast machinery that brings crops in very, very fast. And so part of it is we have had a supply glut for the last few years, and then the trade war exacerbated that, and then the weather exacerbated that as well. Host we have looked at the problems with farmers extending into the businesses surrounding farms the memorial party. Farms, mario parker. For u. S. Lower demand farm commodities have been demand, not just for farmers but for sporting businesses, right . Sure, yeah, we have spoken to ancillary businesses as well a few months back just to take the temperature of what this all means, and the warning signs are there. On point cutting back back to the local diners that they may go to, maybe going back family, but as a also these large purchases of heavy machinery that cost them upwards of 300,000 to 400,000. You know what, i will take that into the shop, let the mechanic work on it, as opposed to getting new equipment. Host bonita springs, florida, gina is calling on our line for farmers. Hi gina, good morning. Caller good morning, young man. It is nice to speak with you. I want to complement mario for being on top of everything and for reporting. He is a sharp young man. Also, i wanted to let you guys know that i am a farmer in iowa. I have 2000 acres that i own, solely. I am considered a small farmer in iowa, and trump has no idea what he has done to the farmers in iowa. It is devastating my tenant farmers. Are just they are not even breaking even. I mean, they are going broke. , i have saved my money my whole life, and so i am debtfree, so i can afford to myak even, when i sell soybeans, but we cannot take too much of this, guys. I mean, this is really serious. That is all i have to say. Thank you. Host thanks for calling, gina. Mario parker, in chicago, do you get a sense that farmers or any of the general farming population sees some value in President Trumps current approach . Do you think in the long term this will help then, despite the short term pain . Fort that is the sentiment most of this trade war, that something needed to be done, farmers share the sentiment that china was a bad actor, in times of trade, they stood behind the president. They also felt as though in the long run, this would increase export sales. Now, that was for most of the trade war, and that sentiment is probably still prevailing, overwhelmingly, however, there to kind ofs starting show up, where farmers are saying that, hey, we are burning through cash. One farmer that we spoke through said, think about it, if you went to your job, and you left your job at the end of the day, and they said, hey, you actually owe us for dollars an hour, just to put that into perspective. Are wellsuited financially. They are burning through cash. They are also warning about the fact that china in the interim is turning to other countries, so they are worried about those trade patterns kind of being cemented going forward. China, aterms of fairly big customer for u. S. Agriculture. They say no more, at least for now. Is the Farming Community able to find new markets right now, or are they just going to have to take a big hit . Guest that is what they are trying to do. They are seriously trying to find other markets, other avenues. Usda secretary sonny perdue is w ont to say may be on one side of the scum a kind of shows that you may be should not be so dependent on one customer, so they are trying to diversify. They are also trying to maintain connections with customers in china, once this thing kind of blows over. Host lets go to kevin in indiana. Good morning, kevin. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host you are on the air. Go right ahead with your question or comment, kevin. Caller it is kind of both. Whatever, so free trade for them in the united offset itms like we the farming industry to allow china to grow the way it did over the last 30 years. I feel like it is back to the biofuel, when we had when that was a big thing. To what to compare it is, and weortage will not be able to keep up with the demand of the fuel, to keep from buying overseas oil. Why, weant to know start to pick and choose industries over, i mean, i am over 40 years old. I have been paying attention to with thekets president s for over 20 years. Why is it that every solution or every problem that we have in this country has to be until there is innovation, which you talk about technology, innovation and technology is never interrupted by the government, so when it comes to farming, it gets interrupted, well, china has to by 50 . A bunch of biofuels and take 50 , and we have to counteract, so when saudi arabia or one of the oil people want to crank the price up, because they do not like the certain car or war, whatevero to the reason, why arent we trying to diversify, and why arent we technology instead of senators sitting on their perduejust because sonn makes money, or his family does, when the right laws are passed . Host kevin, thank you for calling. Interesting question. Mario parker, would you like to take that . Guest sure. That its a long debate over Government Intervention and commodities in general. That is one of the longrunning debates. You will survey 100 people, you will get 100 different answers on that. Host marcel in clayton, North Carolina. Good morning, marcel. Caller good morning. Yes, i would like to make a statement about the farmers. Old, and i see that the farmers are having a hard time with this tariff that the president put on. My thing is how was it that the president just came in and intolike, through a wrench the farmers. I heard one farmer saying he was selling soybeans at 16 a bushel, and now it is down to 8. So he came in, he threw a wrench and it, and then he built them a small chest. But the farmers do not want to be subsidized. My thing why is it that he can do this and not go to the house or the senate to get stuff past, but just go in that she knows nothing about farming. Nothing and whoever he has got in there, that is no way to do it appeared these farmers are suffering, and he keeps saying hold on, hold on, nothing is going to happen. Host thanks so much, marcel. He was talking about congress. What has been the role of congress in the most recent rash of problems for farmers . Had they been active in any way . Guest sure. Marcel points out a larger debate that has gone on during the trade war, which is limits or freedoms of executive warr, in terms of a trade of this magnitude, so that is something that has been up for debate. Also, as i mentioned earlier, when secretary perdue visited minnesota, one of the things thatcame up was, you know, this is not the best look, necessarily, for farmers that already have to deal with public criticism about subsidies and so forth, so they are concerned that this could be misconstrued or added to that type of criticism that the industry holds. Host lets go to rob in springfield, oregon. Rob is a former. Good morning, rob. Tell us your situation, and if you have a question or comment, please ask. Caller good morning, mario. Landed aregon, we have massive boost our economy in every aspect with the marijuana industry. I am a small cannabis farmer. And everybody profits from it. If you sell real estate, if you un a garden store, instruments and tractors and irrigation equipment. My question is not primarily regarding the marijuana industry, but i used to live in the chicago area, i used to drive down to south chicago, and you could see the factories, they were dilapidated. What does the future look like for urban and then i have one quick question for you. On the background, on the program this morning, i see you have a Trump Building in the back. I will take my answer off the air. Host thanks for calling. Urban farmers, he asked about. Guest sure. That is a trend that is , as more are aware and conscious about where their food comes from, they have taken to just growing their own food, particularly in communities that have been underserved by a grocery stores, traditionally. Leaves primarily minority communities taking too vacant lots to grow vegetables for that community, so that is a trend that has been increasing. Host josh on the line from louisiana for mario parker. Hey, josh. Caller yes, my comment on the farmers that is hurting themselves, they are getting all chopping contractors, off the trees, you have millions and millions of acres, they pushed off the small farmers, and corporations is doing it now. You cannot replace the trees, the soil, wildlife, and fish react, they dont have place for no more trees. You have got the trees, the sunshine, when you get hot, you go outside and sit under the shade tree. It worked out for the same farmers in the land. You are cutting down all the trees. Habitat dont have nowhere to live. All of this is back around your communities center. You are dry now. When you fly over, you can look down. How many trees do you see . You put a trade tariffs on afghanistan, a trade tariff on iran, a trade tariffs on venezuela. He can sell soybeans to those people. Not just china is all about the big bucks, and the farmers themselves, just take a sunny drive and see how many trees do you see. All you see is acres and acres and acres of soybeans that go to china, and when you have got all of these other countries that he has trade embargoes which is solvin starving the people. Now what he is doing now, when he has really done, endorse this campaign, getting farmers just to get their votes now. You cannot just go around the world, the states, and see that chinese farmers and all that, you know, and put all of these other people, because you cannot buy america soybeans. Host josh, thank you for calling. A lot of points of their. By sayingbegan farmers are hurting themselves. Can you explain what he means by that . Guest sustainability is something that has taken on a debate, particularly among the 20 or so democratic president ial candidates. They are all trying to figure out a way to speak to farming andagricultural sustainability at the same time. Farmers have responded, there is no person or individual or stakeholder that cares more about sustainability then they do, given that they work off of the land. So you have kind of the virgin points on that. Host is there one particular were a couple of particular Democratic Candidates that are appealing to the farmers in terms of the results and polling . The you have any sense of who they look up to . Guest sure. Speaking with some voters in iowa, for example, particularly democratic voters, they feel as though the democrats are missing moreportunity to speak explicitly to rural and agricultural interests. That being said, elizabeth out severalrote policy positions on agriculture, whether it is the consolidation of big Agribusiness Companies or sustainability. Bernie sanders has mentioned and talked about it as well, as has joe biden, among others. Some of the other candidates, including those as well, have visited ethanol plants, farms, etc. In iowa. Host last call, lewis, and salisbury, North Carolina, good morning to you. Caller good morning. Good conversation. Look, i would like to ask you this question, because i know that trump continued to say that we are receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars from china. And i think a lot of people believe that. I would like for you to go ahead and comment on that, to show the American People that that is not happening, and one more thing, who is allocating this money went they give this welfare check to the farmers . Who is overseeing it, which former did what, and maybe you can help me out on that as well. Host thanks, louis, final comments from our guest. Guest sure. In times of policy, the usda is in charge of remitting the payments for the socalled market facilitation payment for the trade war. The overalljust would say analysts that it does not necessarily work that way in terms of how the tariff system works. Again, the administration has debated about how the tariffs manifest themselves within the u. S. Economy and on the consumer, but there is divergence in that arena. Host our guest has been mario parker, who is in chicago, it reported for bloomberg news. Thank you for your time and insight into the farming industry these days. Appreciate it. Guest thank you. Host with we have about 25 minutes left in this edition of washington journal. We ask you at the beginning of the program, seniors only, call in about top issues with the campaign 2020. Eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacic, 202 7488001 is your number. Only, thoughts and issues on campaign 2020. We will be right back. The first africans to land in english north america would arrive here in 16 in, and that 1619, and that would begin an amazing experience in the development of the United States. Saturday come august 24, and tvpecial American History , at 8 30na a. M. Eastern, we are live with Norfolk State University history professor cassondra alexandra knew before the history and origins of slavery in america. 9 30, live coverage of the withmorative ceremonies government officials including senator mark warner, tim kaine, northam, andh others. The history of africans in america, Live Saturday august 24 beginning at 8 30 a. M. On spans washington journal and on American History tv on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host again, looking for calls from seniors only. If it is someone you like in the race, what you have heard from them and what you would like to hear from them. Some recent reports out there, this one in the wall street journal. It talks about senior voters. Trump,e wavering on the headline says. Host that is a bit of the background, and we have lots more calls coming in, including john from boeing, maryland. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. And asbe 72 in october, indicated in your previous segments, trump and the administration and the budget, 25 cut to Social Security and medicare. Now, what i dont understand is how seniors can vote for someone that is going to cut their benefits. Withher concern is that medicare, the seniors are calling in, and they are complaining about the medicare and what medicare pays for and does not pay for, and then they complain about the supplemental medicare. That is all base, the supplemental is staterun thing. States, the republicanrun states are the ones that have the worst supplemental medicare. Now, i am here in maryland. Month. 28 a im not pay anything for my prescriptions. I have two prescriptions. Now, for xrated, i paid 10 copay for the xrays. I had surgery in 2017. Was 35,000. My mouth was 725. And it is the same care with obamacare. Obamacare is nothing more than guidelines for asterisk. Pays out their own obamacare or benefit or whatever you want to call it. Now, in the republican states, they chose insuranceompanies that did not offer that much, or, in the republican states, they did not extend the medicare benefit, which was going to pay 90 of, and they did all of that for obamacare to fail. Ist im saying is obamacare not like blue cross, blue shield , it is a guideline. Therefore, the guideline that republicanrun states is to benefit the insurance company. Want people to know and seniors to stop voting against their own interests. Host all right, thank you, caller, for calling. John is in fairfax. Good morning, john. Caller good morning. I would like to address two issues that are not being talked about used by the candidates or by cspan. I would like to see programs about these. Host ok. Caller what is marijuana. Taking away the title i prohibition for even selling it, and how much it could bring in in tax revenue. And the other is aliens. I have seen some programs on travel tv and science tv about years and years of alien intrusions, and i do not hear anything about it in mainstream news. Thank you. Thanks. For calling asking seniors only, top issues, campaign 2020. Hairy is calling from chandler, arizona now. Caller yes, good morning. How are you doing . Host good. Issue is truly centered around the insurance industry, the medical insurance industry, as a senior, how much. T is costing me personally id recently have been diagnosed with an anemia problem, and i go doctor, and my copay is 100 for just the copayment come up with have to pay because i am still working plus i have to pay my premium. When you go into a specialist, from one specialist to another ach 100 per for e specialist for a copay, and you are paying, i do not understand how it is that people can believe it is not good to have medical insurance that is basically, the situation, when it comes to one payer or whatever that is, i actually andeve that we, as seniors, the American People in general, should have some type of insurance, because it is costing so much for us to survive. I mean, i make a certain amount come out ofhave to my pocket, 10,000, close to 10,000 per year before i am even actually covered by my insurance . It does not make any sense. And for people to stand in and believe that not having some kind of relief from our government, it does not make sense, and when it comes down to it, i will be qualified for Social Security coming up in about another year and a half, and for people to believe that this particular administration is saying that they want to cut your benefits Social Security is an insurance that i have been to 50 i worked close years of my life, since i was a young man. And to say that it is a what do they call it . This is not welfare. We have paid into the system for 50 years. We should be getting a raise in Social Security and not a cut. Host terry, thank you for calling, as we talked to seniors for the next 16 or so minutes about your top issues. Primary voters 65 and older, who did a favor right now . Joe biden, according to a in juneton post poll and july, according to folks, 65 and older, kamala harris, 13 , Elizabeth Warren, 10 , and Bernie Sanders, 3 . In terms of turnout back in 2016, those who were 60 and 71 , came out at a according to the census. To 59, that a group, 66 , then went down to 57 for folks in their 30s and early 40s. Those in their late teens and 20s, 43 . So seniors voting at a 71 clip. Here is joe biden, the former Vice President at senator, at an event put together by aarp and the Des Moines Register, talking to seniors about caregiving and his experience with taking care of his own parents. [video clip] think there should be a minimum 5,000 tax credit tax credit for any home or friend just volunteering to do it, number one. Number two, the thing we found the hardest to do, i know iowa ,s in relatively good shape people pick up the phone when i call, with you got very little cooperation with hospitals. When you got released, you do not have someone saying, now, look, there is the deal, when you get her home, do the following things, and you have to look for this, and here is the chart i want to give you. You should do the following. You should take the Blood Pressure ever so often. I mean, they dont do it. They should. They should. You should be given everything you know need to be done. Now, obviously, you are not going to perform an operation you are ok. You are ok. [laughs] rural parts ofhe my stay and run the country, there are a awful lot of paid care givers that are not getting paid very much at all, and they are not being trained very well. They should be getting compensated for what they do. They are desperately needed, particularly in poor an rural areas. I wont go into the deep i know you are looking at your watch. I am goingo get there. We should be compensating them in training them so that they should be getting paid more than they do now. It is a tough line to be a. Have alle way, you been there, probably. If you need the help cannot i promise you, nobody more important to you then that person doing everything from helping with a bed pan to when i get really scared, you know, hold their hands, you know . So it is not these are good, good, good, good, important people, and they should be compensated. Host lets go to betty. Betty is in Virginia Beach, virginia. Seniors only. Your top issues this Campaign Season, betty . Caller good morning to everybody. Host good morning. Caller good morning to everybody. My top issue is the gun issue, because i live in Virginia Beach now, and i was originally from sandy hook, connecticut, so naturally i took that very bad. In fact, my daughter was a math assistant at another school in newtown and still lives in newtown and is still working at the other school. Nd also that i lived in charles penn, North Carolina, where the horrible shooting in the black church occurred. And now we have a shooting here in Virginia Beach, and what is it, a week and a half ago, two weeks ago with the horrible weekend we had with the el paso and the dayton, ohio, i mean, ohio. These republicans have blood on their hands, because they will not do anything about the guns. Beentime, they should have called back early like they wanted to. Completeonnell is a disaster. He does not bring up anything for a vote. They, uh, chris murphy, i lived in connecticut when he first started out as representative, so i know chris murphy comedy store up on the senate floor for 15 hours, and he has been on it ever since sandy hook. Inthat time, i had lived danbury, connecticut, right next to he newtown, so i knew chris murphy personally. I campaigned for him. Host that he, they for calling. The gun issue, by the way, if you have not heard, the house judiciary will comment early, right before labor day. The congress is due back system or not, but on september 4, they will hold a markup on a piece of Gun Legislation. That will be on cspan, a 10 00 a. M. Start. Take upset they will take up several bills, one to keep america safe act, which will deal with highcapacity magazines. Another limits firearms. Two different pieces of legislation coming from the house early. They will come back early from their break to at least marco a bill, and we will let you know when that is going to be on the floor. Mary is calling it from san augustine, texas. Good morning, mary. Caller good morning. I agree with the previous caller that said Social Security is our right. It is not a gift from the government. Both parties have taken from Social Security, almost completely running it out, and, unfortunately, i have not heard a democrat at all say anything but that they are going to give medicare to all, even the illegals. I just cannot go along with that. I have not heard one democrat say anything about the old people that need the Social Security and the medicare. So i will be voting trump again. Host thanks for calling. Farron is calling. Farron is in lawrenceville, georgia. Farron, what is your top issue for campaign 2020 . The economy, it is and my concern about the impending trump recession that we are going to have. I did not go for trump. I did not vote for the democrats. I typically vote libertarian. I do not know who i am going to vote for yet. Ae democrats dont offer logical and viable alternative to economic issues. Have a debt of 22 trillion, and they want to add another 10 trillion dollars, 30 trillion with some of their harebrained we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. One to correct the lady who called an earlier about Social Security, the Trump Administration, which i am not a fan of the Trump Administration, but she was lambasting them for the 25 cut to Social Security benefits that will happen automatically. That has been in the law for decades, since the last time that Social Security was revived , performed on a bipartisan basis, i might add. So you cant blame the Trump Administration, as much as i would like to. The is a problem that both republicans and democrats have both dodged and refused to face for the last two decades, and i do not see any particular, you know, possibility they are going to do it anytime in the near future. Host ok, farron, thanks for calling for your heard from joe biden a couple of minutes ago. Here is a list the same aarp forum about how she would deal with Prescription Drug prices. [video clip] sen. Warren right now, about 90 of drugs would be available insulin,c drugs, cholesterol medications, allergy medicines, all of them would be generic. Shoot, insulin has been ad, what, nearly 100 years now . And yet the drug company has 100 different ways we could talk about it to keep the markets from working. 40 of the generics market has either zero or one manufacturer. 60 is only up to two manufacturers. This is not a market that is working. So here is my proposal on that. If we have got a market that is not working, what is the market for insulin . Then the federal government ought to come in and just do a contract and say we will contract with a country to produce generic insulin, and then we are going to turn around and make it available to the American People at cost plus. , we do that a few times, and, oy, the cost of Prescription Drugs goes down, and a whole bunch of Drug Companies that have been finagling around in the generics market suddenly goes down here that is one way we can bring down costs. Host we go to wanda, who is in chico, california. Thanks for waiting, wanda. Caller ok. My most serious issue is the bias, lying press and the crooked cops in the fbi and their media cohorts who are still spreading lies and calling racist, andis a a the Mainstream Media is not covering the story of the crooked fbi cops who tried to conduct a coup detat against trump both before and after he was elected, but you guys are completely ignoring that story. Andther concern is google, i think that google is trying um, stop the stories that are protrump on the internet, because people like me, we get kicked off of twitter, now twitter is practically nothing but just democrats talking among profaneer with their remarks against trump. And i still dont get why you guys are not covering this story of the crooked cop. Host wanda from chico, california there. Lets go to john in penn valley, california. John, what would you like to say this morning . The first thing is the last thing you had with the Vice President , what he said is a bunch of malarkey, because we have discharge planners and hospitals. I worked in the medical field for over 40 years, and when it comes to home care, the individual granted they do not get as much money as a nurse , but yet as a caretaker, they do a job. I just had they do an excellent job. I just had a 92yearold combat veteran of world war ii that just died this summer, and he did 35 missions over europe in the b17, and he got excellent care. , our families and stuff helped him as well. The other thing is, when it comes to bernie, bernie is too old. Same way with our former Vice President. They should go in they ought to become mentors. Lets get some youngblood in there. You to judge would be one mayor pugh to judge would be ttiegeg would be one, the female pilot, the captain, would be another one of your we need to stimulate the democrats and get more respect to it, not president isent disrespecting things, he is doing just fine, as far as i am concerned. Host all right, john, thank you. The caller mentioning Bernie Sanders could one more clip from that aarp forum in iowa to hear his Bernie Sanders talking about medicare. [video clip] supporterrs i am a of medicare, it is a good and important, Popular Program for seniors, but lets be honest, medicare does not provide all of the benefits that seniors need. Seniors need dental care. Medicare does not provide it. Seniors need hearing aids. Medicare does not provide. Seniors need eyeglasses. Medicare does not provided. Under medicare for all, we expand those benefits to seniors. They are health care benefits, and they deserve it. Furthermore, we expand Home Health Care. Millions of seniors would prefer to stay at home rather than go into a nursing home. They cannot afford to do that. They have to send out everything that they have saved their lives. Care soome Health People have the choice about stayathome. Host one more point about Bernie Sanders, based on our last callers comments, here are the current ages of canada Bernie Sanders 77, joe biden 76, President Trump 73, and Elizabeth Warren is 70 years old. Brenda is calling from the bronco, texas. Caller good morning. Host guest what would you likeo say . Caller several things. First of all, medicare, when they put everybody on medicare, it is hard enough to get an appointment now on medicare. Number two, your doctors are dropping out of medicare, because they do not get paid enough. Number three, they do provide a settlement that even pays for a dental, so the lady who said the republican state number two, on the gun deal, they want to take our magazines, they want to take our assault guns, and i am a veteran, and i , because theit all wait is going right now, here, we have had a shooting through the republican window of the headquarters, the republican headquarters. That if we threats had meetings, there would be trouble. I mean, this is in a small town, usa, and we are being threatened. I am so live it. And if the government wants to come for our guns, come for them. This is the second amendment. My First Amendment right here, boppingw people are down, the republicans are bopping down, not having their meetings. I must admit, one meeting to take place later, but we have to go undercover to have our meetings. What kind of america are we living in . I am telling you all right now, antifa, and the rest of you come us veterans went and gave our lives for you all. We will give them again. Host thank you for calling. One last call this saturday. Bradley, you get the last word. Caller hello. Mcpherson. Ad i am a biologist, retired, 83 years old. Looking at the political situation and studying it carefully, i think there is no doubt that the next president should be Elizabeth Warren. She has studied very diligently. Arious issues host quick word about tomorrows program, henry olson will be with us. Future of the republican party, he will talk to us about the workingclass republican, Ronald Reagan and the return of bluecollar conservatism. We will take a look back at , adstock with david farber history professor at the university of kansas. That will be a joint production with American History television. Tomorrow 7 00, just like we are every day. Enjoy the rest of your day. We will see you here tomorrow. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] here is some of what you can watch this morning. Next, interviews with three teachers visiting cspan this summer. After that, president ial candidate Pete Buttigieg needs voters at the i was stay there. Beto orourke announces the iowa state fair. Beto orourke announces he is continuing his campaign. Sunday, doug mills talks about photos covering President Trump. He enjoys having us around. I believe despite his constant comments about fake news and the media, i really feel he enjoys having us around because it , driverive his message the news of the day, which he can do every day. Around really allows them to do that. 8 00 p. M. Night at eastern on cspans q a. Every year, cspan awards fellowships to several middle and High School Teachers who have demonstrated innovative methods of incorporating cspan programs in their teaching. They join cspans education Relations Team in washington, d. C. , for four weeks in july to develop new teaching materials. They help lead cspan summer educators conference. One of our three 2019 teacher fellows is middle School Teacher Maureen Mcguirl of jamestown, rhode island. 2019 teacher fellow Maureen Mcguirl teaches at the Jamestown School in jamestown, rhode island. Tell us about your school and students. Well, our school is on an