Governor sanford, one of the headlines, Government Spending, 985 billion in one year. Rd, one of the ,eadlines, Government Spending 985 billion in one year. Your party passed a bill in the house to balance the budget. How did we get to this point . That is not just the spending. That is the deficit. Onhave gotten there based benign neglect. On the democratic side, more versus more. On the republican side, i see no evil, i speak no evil, but it is a great detriment to the american taxpayer, American Dream, but we got here. Hard, soith it will be people dont want to and have left it alone. Troublesomeularly with the weight is president has made promises to eliminate the debt. Be ahas proven to completely empty promise. He raised the debt by 9 billion. He signed off on deals raising additional billions in debt. Is that there has been zero leadership on the president ial level, benign neglect from the congressional level. Debt in one year. Where is the Republican Party that has claimed to be deficit hawks . Malignuld describe it as neglect, not benign neglect. This is a National Security issue. We cant rely on other countries our debt. It is an intergenerational burden on the younger people in this country. They will never see Social Security, unless we stop running these deficits. Deficit on my16 first month in office and closed it in one month. Budget items as sacred cows. It is zerobased budgeting. A deficit toou cut zero in a year. Thats what we need in d. C. Debt approaching 23 trillion, raise taxes . Cut spending . A combination . Reduce military spending . All the above. I did a bill called the penny what you have to do is recognize the problem. Right, left, i guess it is not a problem. Asked what is was the biggest threat to National Security, it was the american debt. You have to recognize you have a problem. That is why we are running. Absence of that on the spending front from the standpoint of this president. Conversationshad to meolks, it is amazing the way americans can rally around a problem to fix it if they see this problem. Would youplan says accept one penny and cuts for every dollar you got if everyone else was cut by one penny as well . Republicans versus democrats, i am not giving up mine, because they are not giving up theirs. Would you raise taxes . Never. I never raise taxes as governor. You cut spending. There is only one way, cut spending. People say that is impossible. It is impossible only in washington, with the democrats want to risk social spending by 5 or 10 , the republicans want to raise military spending by 5 or 10 , so they demonize each other to scare their base. Once they get reelected, then they come back next year and agreed to compromise by raising everything 20 , and that is how you get a 1 trillion deficit. There is no discipline there. It takes a searching examination of how every program performed the previous year, and if it did not perform, it should be cut to zero. With two thirds of the budget entitlement programs, do you go after those programs, how . Pennyts why i say one out of everything. Everything . Defense, foreign aid, everything. Kids,s tell me, i love my but my grandkids more. Would i give up one penny out of every dollar . Everyoneif and only if else was in the same boat. We have lost the intent of the as we havethers become increasingly polarized. Category ofgrowing the government you and i own is interest costs. That ifowing so fast you are a social progressive, think about this. In just one year, we will spend more on interest than all programs on behalf of children in the United States of america. If your left, you have to care about it. We will spendht, more on interest in three years then we will spend on the entirety of our defense budget. Onenterest rates go up point, in just the cost of that one point rise in Interest Rates , we will spend more on that than all uniformed military personnel, everybody, reserve, active duty, guard. Andnumbers are astounding begin to spin out of control. Threat to ouremic way of life and it is the elephant in the room nobody is talking about on the democratic side or with this president. You had the house, the senate, the white house, what happened to the party that was so critical of barack obama spending, and now nearly at her a trillion dollars in 12 months . I think what happened is both parties, including the republicans, were insufficiently creative. Social spending is supposed to be one of the holy grails i was National Chairman of the privatization council, so i think the private sector can often do a better job than the government and delivering what were previously government services. We have put a lot of social Services Spending out for bids, s. Nonprofits, the 501 c 3 in boston, there were nonprofits run by minorities who wanted to serve their own populations. They underbid the state employee unions in terms of cost and did a better job, so we saved 300 million and got a better delivery of services, but if you werent prepared to be creative about how we deliver to the services, to red brick thedings, or two houses deliver those services in a much more humane and dignified manner for the people receiving them . That saves a lot of money. I have never seen federal, state, local government that was not 10 or 20 higher in terms of spending than it needed to be. You have to think outside the box and have the political will to do that. Let me dovetail on that, it doesnt mean ending government services, it means making them more efficient for individuals. Think about with the governor said. Young folks are more likely to the fulln ufos and get value of their Social Security check. Look at counties down in 1983, yous, prior to could create your own social that is system, and with those counties did. If you talk to a janitor, a fireman, folks who say they love our program. They are in an annuity. A Supreme Court decision said none of us have any legal claim whatsoever to the Social Security system. They have a real account. If they died, they can give it to their kids, church, a charity. It has produced a higher rate of return for individuals. Ofre are lots of ways skinning the cat that dont entail more government. To your earlier question about what happened, what happened is congress is almost unable to lead. That is not the way it was designed. It takes executive Branch Leadership. When the president says we will , add toh entitlements defense, have a tax cut, what it does is give the house and senate ceeo incentive to say, no. That is why it is so important we have this conversation and executive Branch Leadership on the subject. Weld foranford in bill the next 90 minutes. We welcome your participation. We did invite congressman joe walsh. He was unable to join us. For example, lets propose that was a Preventative Health care program that avoided a lot of bad outcomes and saved a lot of money. Multiply that by five because they did such a good job. I do think that there is room for saving money by innovative weapon systems and other ways to skin the cat that we are doing with the military. The military is there for more than just one reason. Keeping the lanes open for free trade is another important reason. This president seems to think that having allies to be helpful is not worth his time. That is a mistake in the Foreign Policy area. It costs us money. Tolitary spending is up 700 billion this year alone. Off. At is not the trade the president is not telling the truth on three fronts. It is the opposite of what he said he would do when he ran in clips like you just played. He said if you elect me, i will eliminate the debt. Instead, they have raised the debt by more than 9 trillion. Haveast two debt deals military increases and domestic discretionary. The trade is on the republican side you get the military, and domestic discretionary on the democratic side. Either he profoundly did not understand the process, and or he has been disingenuous. Folks with promised the executive branch budgets is levels of growth that are wholly unrealistic. The committee for responsible federal government would say is it could not come true, and yet that is what they base their numbers on. It is the opposite of what he promised, at odds with what they budgeted, and at odds with the numbers examined by thirdparty groups. From cedart ron hill, texas. Good evening. Good evening. I have an undecided voter. I like the candidates you are talking to tonight. What can they offer to undecided voters and young people like me in order to implement change to the u. S. Economy, because i want toknow what they can do balance the budget. Thank you. Governor weld . Younger voters in particular need to understand there are two issues. One is the terrible deficit. Your generation will never see Social Security if we keep on with troy again dollar deficits. The other issue is Climate Change. The Younger Generation will reap storms, thed of the polarized cap melting, which will have a catastrophic effect for every country, including the u. S. With its long coastline. Those are both unfair to ers. Nnials and gen x i would say reality shows are great, you can watch them for an hour and then flip them off. Good 365 days a year. I say that because the wall street journal did in interesting write up a couple of weeks ago, and they editorialized on how theyre been a full percentage point policy in our economy based on what they called trade uncertainty. It is something we all know. For businesses to make an investment, there has to be some degree of certainty. We are going to take these different risk because this is the playing field. You have to give them rules to get invested in the process. What this white house is done is every day you have no idea what is coming next, so it has frozen investment. Let me ask you about the president. Of youeferred to the two human sucm. S at least he has is in the human category. Evidenceing out the amassed of the ukraine situation and the 10 examples of the criminal obstruction of justice in the Mueller Report constitute overwhelming grounds for this president to not only be impeached by the house, but removed by the senate. I have suggested that might be a great blessing and relief for this country and a good precedent, not a bad precedent. It might be viable in case we have another person coming along who is interested in coasting up to dictators and imposing thecratic principles on United States of america and undermining of democratic institutions. We can say, no, there are ground rules, limitations on what the executive can do. You are guided bypass principles diminish you have to what you do. Do you want to respond to his use of the word humans scum . , the says something crazy media and opponents react. Up,spend a week spinning it he is the center of attention. The next week, he says something even crazier and it is a new spin cycle. , as im out on the road and i look at what is happening in washington, d. C. , i think it is important we react less to some of the crazy things he says. Lets go to lenny from indiana, you are on the air. Good evening. Good evening. How are you . Fine, thank you. I hope one of these guys makes it onto the ticket and wins the republican primary, because if trump is on the ticket again, i will vote democrat this year. Mark wasr to what saying, i dont think we can let mr. Trump get away with his craziness by saying he dominated the new cycle, now we have to lower our voices so it wont be so stormy and awful all the time. American people are exhausted. They dont even want to hear about mr. Trump. I think we have to give as good as we get. He likes being the center of ofention, but after a couple months of the impeachable conduct that i referred to, exactly what the framers of the constitution were afraid of, after a couple of months of that being front and center every day, maybe he wont enjoy being the center of attention quite so much, and we have to be prepared to play that game, returning in kind. Jack is on the phone from north agosta, good evening. Good evening. I want to talk about the state republican parties canceling their caucuses, especially governor sanford on being sued because of the cancellation of the primary. Thank you, sir. I think it is unfortunate, wrong, antidemocratic. South carolina has enjoyed historically disproportionate influence as a consequence of being first in the south. The powers that be decided to take that away, and again, it is a mistake for the voters come from the standpoint of electoral odds, but it is telling, saying someone in the Trump Organization is looking at numbers they dont like. If you have a chance to pick up ine, your 90 chance w do it all day long. The fact they are pulling it off the table, somebody is looking at the number saying his supporters are milewide mud but may be an inch deep. Why do you weld, want to be president . I have spent a great deal of time in and around the oval office under bush president s and content clinton. There are things that need to be the on the fiscal front, on environmental and Climate Change front. The paralysis between the toties is paying attention the coming loss of 15 or 20 of jobs in the United States, owing to the confluence of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and driverless cars. That is going to happen 10 years from today, and you might think of the displaced workers as trump voters. No one is thinking about them, how to give them the training and Technical Skills to get the replacement jobs which will be higher wage jobs. The cost to give him that at a Community College level or online Distance Learning courses would be one third of 1 of estates budget. Ors,ern both been and you can make policy choices based on what you think are emergency choices for your state. If youre losing 10 of jobs, guess what . Emergency, so you just allocate that money there. You can find that money, crisis avoided. No one in washington is talking about that, you know why . Because it doesnt work. Governor sanford, same question . We may be living the 1920s all over again, and we know what followed, yet it is not being discussed, talked about. Bill and i may be political opponents, but we are not foes. We have to have more of that in politics, where we disagree, but say no matter where we are, we would be better off with one of the two of us then we are with this president. I am focused on four things that need to change with this administration. One is the focus on spending. Ending the American Dream with the trend. Inward. To be looking i think where trump is taking us is a job killer. I think we need a robust conversation about political norms and institutions. I think the president is taking us in the wrong direction. When he goes Jerome Powell is an enemy of the state, you are doing destruction to the shock absorbers of what the Founding Fathers created in balancing holdsit is the glue that the country together, a nation of laws, not men. Finally, we have to change tone in the white house. What he is doing is destructive, pulling people apart, and if her going to survive his republic, we have to get back to get together. Good evening, jeff. Good evening. You,estion for the two of being a trump supporter planning, what are you on doing about immigration and the border wall and would you continue what trump is doing currently . We begin with governor sanford. A wall. Ed to support voted to support a secure border. You cant have a porous border and have rule of law. When you look back at the reagan firstthey allowed amnesty with the promise of security later. Security never came in amnesty went through and break and described it as one of his biggest regrets. Theme,r continuing the some of the implementation i disagree with. I have the votes to support that. Governor weld . We dont want a porous border on our southern border. What we need is not a 220mile people, moret more judges, more border agents, more drones so they cap come over undetected, and that would stem the flow. That is a realistic way of addressing that, and cheaper than the wall the president harks on. Platforme his oneword for Climate Change, hoax. Toee why it is appealing people who have this vague sense that people might be coming into take their jobs and harass their wives, and the president stokes that that. He started with muslims, then hispanics, any group that he can stigmatize to stir up resentment in the population, which he thinks served his political advantage. I probably know too much about how the business in the economy of this country work to i spent a lot of time in the country during the last cycle, in any governor texas west order to fully populate the industries in the western half the United States, you need that paper coming in, yes across the southern border, yes from el salvador, honduras, guatemala, mexico, but the economy of those would be harmed if you had an absolute closure of migration across the border. We need more work visas. Most of the people present trump says wants to be citizens tomorrow having not waited in line, they did not crawl across the border three months ago. They just overstay their visas. As soon as they overstay by one aliens,y are illegal conjuring up this threat where i do not believe it exists. We could look north. Canada has a robust guestworkers program that less people come work agriculture or construction during the season in canada. They send Financial Support back to the family south of the border, then go back and live with their families where they want to be. That Program Works marvelously. If we had that instead of your instead ofuld paranoia, we would be better off. Would you support usmca . Yes, because it is better than nothing. Used tariffs has way too often from my vantage point. When you describe canada as a National Security threat and use section 232, that is way out there. Is legislationre to say lets trim the sales. Sails you can follow us on twitter at cspan. We will read you some tweets. We have one on your performance so far. I was promised a president ial neverthree years ago, happen. Im ready for conservative who understand you dont spend your way out of debt. I think i would take a chance on mark sanford. What do we say . Thank you. Back to your phone calls. Good evening, kim. Kimberly, are you with us . We will try one more time for kimberly. I am right here. Go ahead. I left a message before. My son went to the bronze obamacare,ing the and he could not afford his overine because it was 5,000 a year deductible, then ofwas laid off in february 2019, then passed away due to a didnt asthma attack, have the medication because he could not afford it, and my baby boys gone. Kimberly, thank you for sharing your story. Lets turn to the issue of health care. What works with the Affordable Care act, what doesnt, what would you change . Governor weld . It added 20 Million People to the insured. That is a big plus. You always have to have in mind two concerns, one is lowering costs and adding to the pool of insured lowers costs for everybody, and the other is preserving the quality of care. Our Health Care System has the highest quality care in the world. One thing that needs to be changed in the Affordable Care act is that there is too much government in it. The government says Everyone Needs a cadillac plan, onesizefitsall. The government says you cant buy insurance across state lines, prescription drugs in canada. Why not . Reverse that and have more decisions made by individuals and doctors. More individuals should have Health Savings accounts, where they can set aside funds on a taxadvantage basis to make their own decisions about what kind of mistake they want to build up taxfree until it is withdrawn to guard against a Health Care Emergency in their family. People make decisions like that all the time, and the doubters say no, no, no, if they mess up, they will die, and we the nanny state have to make all those decisions so everybody will be healthy and happy. It is not true. People make those decisions every day of the week. When they buy insurance, if they cant take a hit, they want no deductible. If they want a lower premium, they take a deductible. People can make those decisions for their own family. Its Like Congress wont balance his checkbook. They say it is impossible. They say it will take nine years. Got nine years to balance the checkbook so they could pay their mortgage . It is a disconnect between everyday life and how people work in washington, d. C. House republicans was president obama was in the white house voted repeatedly to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act, then that went by the wayside when President Trump was elected, because they were in control. The talk showng said wesh limbaugh, cared about deficits when obama was in office. I was the author of the alternative to the Affordable Care bill when i was in the house has a companion bill to a senate bill. It took some of the positive features to your question earlier to bill on the Affordable Care act. Young people for to stay on the plan of their parents. To take care of the preexisting conditions. But it shifted a couple of important things. Toloyment has been linked health care since world war ii, getting around the wageprice controls. It is nonsensical. There is no nexus. If you are a small business, individually employed, on your own, you got the same tax treatment. Was ther thing it did problem with the Affordable Care act is it offered a magnificent package, but if you are 20, you dont need a magnificent package. Lets say an insurance policy on your house, 200 million from the houseove it, but is only worth 200,000. It forces people into a more expensive package. With the Affordable Care act, a lot of young people said i am out and it put itself into a mathematic spiral. People skipped on it because it was heavy lifting. I think the bill i offered made a lot of sense. Beverly in decatur, georgia. Good evening. Good evening. Win over thelan to voters that support President Trump only because of hate . And that is my question, and i will listen to your response. Thank you. Governor weld . I think the Trump Campaign of 2016 was nothing but a series of dog whistles, disguised appeals to white supremacist, images of George Lincoln rockwell, most people dont know who he was. He was the founder of the american nazi party, and the white supremacist and neonazis new who he was. I remember when people came to rallies four years ago, the question would arise, do black lives matter . There would always be trump colors in the stands who would stand up and say, all lives matter. That was the dog whistle. Blackas code for, no, lives dont matter. In the correct answer is not, all lives matter, it is yes. , as mark said, the tone the president has said is completely outrageous. I think the most important thing in a democracy is the idea that individual shall never be thrust into a corner by the government, and mr. Trumps first reaction whenever he sees anyone or isthing that troubles him absolutely to thrust them in a corner. The most salient example is going after that poor woman whose son was killed in the middle east fighting for the United States. What does the president of the nine states in office say to her , he says, what is her problem . She must be muzzled because of her religion. She sat there saying nothing. She mustve been muzzled because of her religion. What is her problem . Her problem is her son is dead and the president of the United States is attacking her by name to have the temerity to complain about her son being dead in policy by the United States. I would be hopeful on this front. What i see is trump fatigue setting in. It is starting in the district i used to represent. That was a solidly republican district, it went democratic for the first time in 50 years, based on talent alone, working turned awaynials and said what is going on is inconsistent with what im teaching my kids, i am out. I would say whether it is me, bill, or somebody else, there is something taking effect based on promises that have not been delivered on and the weariness of a weird reality show people are getting tired of. If donald trump is the republican nominee, will you vote for him . Will you support him . Is the bullseye of ym running. We are walking our way towards a financial crisis that could impact a civilization and every one of our lives. If Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren is elected, it is to have given these 30 trillion packages they have been talking about, so i will take it on a casebycase basis, but i will look at the debt and deficit as the center of making my decisions. Governor weld . Under no circumstances would i support donald trump for any office whatsoever. I think he is dangerous to the United States and has zero substantive knowledge of any serious issue in washington dc. I am sorry to be so tough on this, but his ignorance and the areas of International Relations is simply staggering. He said we should not join the tpp because it would be dominated by china, 12 pacific facing nations. The whole point was to get a beachhead in asia without china at the table, and the president didnt know that. Its like when he told everyone about the mueller investigation. He said, what is your point . Meaning your only duty is to serve me in my interests. I dont think he gets outside his own skin. No, i would not support him. Governor sanford, you mentioned outward as well as inward, but the president is focused on the u. S. First and rethinking our alliances and how much money we are spending. What is wrong with that . Budget. 1 of the it is not where we are spending the money. Is the the bigger point greatest the generation set up in the wake of world war ii has served our countrys interests mightily, and has made a real difference in peoples lives. We are 5 of the worlds population, our economy is 20 of the world, so we have disproportionate influence because of the trading apparatus we set up. Has it resulted in squeezes, dislocation . Yes. Its what ricardo talked about in terms of Creative Destruction , so people have been hurt, and it is the role of government to step in and help people transition, but you cant close the door and thanks will get better, because that is not the way we set the system up in the wake of world war ii when we had all the industrial capacity and were rebuilding other places. Those benefited us given the numbers. Taking us doing is down a road that does not work. If this is the case, then zimbabwe would be prosperous on the tariffs it has in place, but that has not been the economic model that works. Is wrong with an America First policy . Everything. He thinks everything is a zerosum game. In free trade, both countries profit. Freetrade is always best for the United States. We have the most productive workforce in the world of , so we, including china will always get the highpaying jobs that are freetrade. That . Has been pushing quite the contrary. No, he is a tariffs and sanctions man. Bully. E to be a you have to throw your weight around. You have to take an unreasonable position, back the other guy off , because theres only so much coffee in the glass. You have to get more than the. Ther guy, or you are weak usingther nations see him tariffs and sanctions to throw his weight around, and all too often he backs off of it the next day, so time they know hes not serious when he does it. Railroad,ay to run a much less an international order. We welcome our listeners on cspan radio with governor mark sanford and former governor bill weld of massachusetts, two republicans running for the 2020 nomination. We welcome your phone calls. Michael from kentucky, republican primary voter, good evening. Good evening. Gentlemen, i have one question, how in the world do they think they would fare any better against a Democratic House . News media is on their side. They are totally on the democratic side. In my second question is, would both of you support term limits for congressional seats . I think that should be put to the voters. Thank you. Michael, thank you. Term limits . When i was in the house, six years, i cosponsored the other bills on that front. I believe passionately in term limits. It sets a limit and changes ones perspective. If you view this as your career, you would do a lot of things to make sure your career is not interrupted, versus a chapter of your life, you have a different perspective that is to the interests of the taxpayers. Could you do better . I believe so. As a former governor dealing with different constituencies, but we got a lot of things done. Largest recurring tax cut in South Carolina history. I wont go down the list, but we did a lot of things because we worked with folks. One of the problems with being a bully is people are not as apt to work with you. I think the president plays that card too often. You have elections every two years, six years in the senate, why not an arbitrary deadline or criteria on how long you can serve in the house or senate . Notwithstanding my own election a year and a half ago, the reelection rates with the congress are higher than the soviet duma, 97 percent, 90 reelect number. There are a couple of swing outside0 in the house, that, you are safely democratic republican. Governor weld . Organizations, u. S. Term limits on the privatization counsel. The president was an active member, but i was chairman. I have seen examples of people stuck in their ways. They think they are indispensable because they have been there 24 years or 30 years, so they think they have built a base of knowledge. The graveyards are filled with indispensable people. Dont winds of change blow through, we dont get good policy in washington, d. C. One of the reasons were not getting good policy now is we dont have term limits and everybody is obsessed with getting reelected, which is what causes the two major parties to h spiral andat brace to activate their constituencies to give him money, on the other hand, they need each other for the same reason. The peoples business does not get done. Is there an issue that divides the two of you . I will not dwell on those. I am on the opposite side of the issue on those rights. There are differences between us, but it does not mean we cant sit at the table and work things out. That is what is missing in politics these days. There is a lot more in common than there is indifference. At the end of the day we are americans and probably have more in common as republicans and democrats than we do with competitors around the globe, but we have lost the ability to sit down and say i disagree come but this is what i need, and lets try to work out a compromise. Answer,ld give the same and f r you treat everybody with respect, you get better results. At i never ask if you are a republican or democrat. I did not cal. I did not have to ask him that. I did not have to summon him anywhere. Goodwill gets goodwill, and you get better results. Why are our Politics Today so toxic . Party extremes are partly the result of gerrymandering. Your own threat is getting knocked off as a member of congress is in a primary now. People are incentivized to go to the extremes and not compromise. That is true only in washington. That is not true in the states. Things are getting done in the states. It is more fun being governor that it would be senator or member of the house with all these pressures now in washington. Another tweet from john hogan to both of you. Really either of you think you have a chance when President Trump has such strong Approval Ratings among guns . Republicans . When i was governor i said to each of the living governors, give me some wisdom. Said with governor every decision you make, you will let somebody down. This is a game of edition, not subtraction. I dont think the president ever got that here. 45 ,s never risen above creating real problems in terms of the general election and caring the republican banner forward. Numbers, it is a shrinking base. High, butumbers are increasingly people are disavowing the republican label. We are in a solidly republican ,istrict that goes democratic as have other suburban districts across this country. Based on tone and policy, they said i am out. Joe and is a republican voter from new york city, welcome to the conversation. Myhi, thank you for taking question. It sort of repeats the question that which is asked. I think the only way you can make a dent in the primary is to target independents, also those who live in close primary states. Do either of you intend to adopt the strategy in your campaign . Governor weld, you talked about this on newsmakers. I am adopting that strategy. Voters have to change the registration, but beyond that, my strategy is not to go to the state committee in 50 states, because they are appointed by President Trump, appointed by the Trump Organization, to appeal to women, not all women, suburban women. Have been outrageous taking reproductive rights back to the stone age. And millennials, they will bear the brunt of the president s policies on deficit and climate, so im trying to get more millennials and women to vote in the republican primary, so it wont just be the Party Leaders and the people who are appointed by mr. Trump. He is not immortal. He went down 17 points in New Hampshire last month visavis me, and i went up 11 points. He is still way ahead, but he cant take too many more of those months, and i think he has more months of bad publicity coming. You assess the performance of Vice President mike pence . Guess he has been ideal as a Vice President it is a different model. Dick cheney had a different model. He was robust and had a direct hand in policymaking. I think mike pence has taken the oldschool Vice President , there to attend ribbon cuttings and ceremonial events, and other than that, be completely deferential. I think he has taken it to some new extremes. A i think mike pence has done good job of keeping his head down. I dont give him a lot of credit for that. I think he has been skillful at it. Based on his prior track record, he is a pretty extreme social movement conservative, so my differences with him on that score would be very substantial, but that is not reflected in his performance as Vice President because he has not been called upon to advance that. Happen soon. Would you run against mike pence . Yes. And you, governor sanford, or would you drop out . I would have to think on that one. Back to our phone calls. Good evening. Good evening. I am a 55yearold africanamerican, a lifelong democratic voter, and im calling to congratulate and support the candidates. Republicans should look at all of them as great examples. Their virtual silence and complacency is disgraceful. I think it is important for the republican to have a choice. Someone on that side of the aisle with integrity, political experience, and basic common sense represented the Republican Party , some calling to say bravo. You are a breath of fresh air. I wish you the best. Cspan, thank you for what you do. Thank you for your call. That is kind and appreciated and important, and more importantly, it is where a lot of other people are because people have grown weary of washington generally, but specifically with the person you have in the white house. This idea of getting back to ,ommon sense, simple themes some measure in the way we relate to each other, the way we come together, it was the intent of the Founding Fathers, and something lost of late, and something we have to rekindle because if not what we have real problems going forward. Let me get your reaction to the reporting of bill taylor, theicked by mike pompeo president criticizing his performance on the role, somebody elected by his son secretary of state. Lead . Is this going to his testimony based on what you have read so far . As far as painting the picture of the impeachable, removable conduct, it sets the stage. ,ou get bill taylors testimony plus the transcript of the actual phone call to the ukrainian president , and it is abusive office in the ways the framers feared most, inviting foreign interference, and using your office as president to aggrandize yourself. Those are the two things they were most concerned about, so i dont think the president has anywhere to go. He is not a rule of law man. He thinks the law is his enemy. Keepto when he tried to people of color outside his housing projects in new york city, he has always thought of the law as the enemy. Now someone has told him, mr. President , when you are talking about all the stuff involving ukraine, you have to say there was no quid pro quo. You told him you held back 400 million in aid, and you could do a lot more for him, but i need a favor. That made it sound as though there is a quid pro quo, so you have to say there was no quid pro quo. So what did end faster someone to say he had just heard from the president . He talked to somebody else, it mightve been bill taylor, he said, well, there was no quid pro quo. The president told him we were but there was no quit proquote quid pro quo. But itld him to say that does not mean anything. He is basically ignorant about the law and the meaning of the impeachment and removal clause and i think that chicken will come home to roost. Steve the Justice Department is now investigating into 2016 led by william barr. Do you oppose or support that idea . I am open to it. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If there were nefarious levels of intent and that original investigation in that original investigation, we ought to know about it. Steve do you think there was . I was not on the judiciary committee. I was on the budget committee. That is more my thing, budgets. I dont have a problem with the investigation. Nor do i have a problem with the impeachment investigation. I think we should get to the bottom of that. Steve when matt gaetz other republicans, two dozen, stormed the capital to get inside that closed door meeting even though there were republicans in the meeting, what was your reaction . That is wrong. In politics, if you cannot attack the facts, you attack the process. They are attacking many cases of process. Not disputing the facts. That makes people uncomfortable and to do something that disruptive i think it begs the question where are we in the political process . Let me go back to bill barr opening the criminal investigation into President Trump and how that got started. I served the Justice Department for several years. Ist those career people bid it is called opening an investigation. It is not called spying. Im sorry to say this. A number of initiatives have barrtaken under william who was a good attorney general under bush 41, there have been a were id of wrongheaded statements of policy and what the law is, what the law of a obstruction is an this last one is something else. It strikes me as way off base. Steve let us go to minnesota. Don is on the phone. Thank you for waiting period caller thank you for taking my call. Is non this disrespect to either of you at the problem i am having i used to be a republican and now i am independent. I would like to ask your guest a couple of things. What is your stance on going to war and nationbuilding . Bush got us and engaged in conflict, i wont say if they were necessary or not. The economy was decent in both cases. Donald trump and turns everything upside down. In terms of the military, nato, immigration. I am looking at republicans like brian ey and paula calpaul ryan. Most of us as average supporters of republicans are sick of that. He promises the moon. Steve thank you for the call. Gov. Weld part of the answer, as we have been describing, is to work across the aisle and get things done with the other party. As to the Foreign Policy aspect of the question, i am not in favor of sending boots on the ground in service of nationbuilding every time we see something in another country that we dont like. And i think we got perilously close to that in a couple of examples. The military might of the United States is a sword best cap in kept in the scabbard best kept in the scabbard. Steve what should we be concerned about the most . I think the president is so often,wards russia it represents a threat. A threat to Eastern Europe and the baltics and the whole world is watching whether we are willing to stand up to russia there. Support ukraine. It is a very important policy issue in its own right apart from whether President Trump wants to investigate hunter biden. They are in a hot war with russia right now. You could make a case that the president is undercutting our security guarantees to ukraine by providing aid and comfort to ukrainian people. The are where all of fighting is now and the concentration in Eastern Europe. He, because of his own political agenda, pauls the rug from under the ukraine after russia annexes crimea and continues to send tanks and there, we might as well just say Vladimir Putin coming you can have whatever you want. Steve governor sanford, what is americas biggest foreign threat . Gov. Sandford the big threat is the National Debt and what we do on that front. I would say there are two, one domestic and one international. Manage how china is increasingly stepping onto the world stage. Oftentimes, when you have a rising superpower going up against an existing superpower, war comes to we have to manage that process. I think we have taken our eye off the ball in terms of middle eastern engagement. What comes next with chinas growth could be far different. Managing the relationship with china is very important. To your earlier question, i would ask you to paul my votes on the authorization of force. My votes on the authorization of force. People do not want to take the vote in congress because they know it is a tough vote so the executive branch runs with the tol and we move ever closer an imperial presidency which i think is dangerous. Mastech lake on the biggest threat is managing the American Dream. If you stop and think, the American Dream is predicated on two things. Ever rising levels of opportunity. I grandparents did so well, my parents did so well, and im going to do better than that. People are calling that into question more than ever before. And then the question of fairness. Parents are making remarkable sacrifices to help their kids get off to college. At levels never before, people are calling this into question. In 2008, the big banks got bailed out but my cousins pizza shop did not, this is not fair. I think that is the fuel behind the trunk movement. We better carefully manage those real concerns that are real and warranted so we dont go off in a strange direction which happens way too often with civilizations. Part of the threat that donald trump represents. Steve either as it an individual either as an individual or as a public official, the most difficult decision you ever had to make. Let us go to the republican line, noah. Caller what would you do about college debt and out of control College Costs . Steve how old are you . Caller i am 12. Steve you are going to college and a couple of years. Caller yes. Steve are your parents prepared for that . Caller yes. Steve what are you concerned about . Caller it seems like a lot of money to go to college. I would be in favor of expansion of the existing program for the forgiveness of college debt for people that go , teaching inervice the Public School system for so many years. I think the Interest Rate on federal Student Loans could be negotiated downward. I believe there is a provision in federal log right now that says the only kind of debt in the world that cannot be renegotiated is federal Student Loans that. They may as well hang out a sign saying we hate students. That should be repealed right away i think. And if someone pays on their college debt interest and principal for a lengthy period of time, 15 years plus, we might explore some way for them to get that forgiven. It would have to be taxfree. Or you are in the same amount of debt again. Steve governor sanford, you are paying college debt right now. Gov. Sandford look at the numbers. The people who are getting most part in the college debt equation, or actually, not people with very large amounts, which is often folks with graduate degrees. They have a big payout. The people that get hurt are those that go to college for one year and then dropped out. They are being devastated. One thing i think we need to do fundamentally is which the level of incentives for the institution. Programto have a tech which is something i worked on as governor. If someone is gifted with their hands, you get an electric bill or plumbing bill too often in our high School System we slant people towards college which may not be the best fit for them. We need to look at incentives there. And also at the university level. So we are not inducing people into programs that dont have much of a payout. Steve governor weld, for you personally or as a public official, what is the most difficult decision you have had to make . Gov. Weld resigning from the Justice Department because i felt the department was becoming politicized. That was a step i did not take lightly. Years in the Justice Department and much of that effort was directed towards making sure the department lived by its model which is to do Justice Without fear or favor. When i sensed that there was a push in the department to do playingwith favor, i. E. Favorites are making decisions based on politics, i felt i could not remain in the department. Together with five other people i did resign from the department. When you do things like that, you make friends but you also make enemies. Steve how do you view the Department Today . Gov. Weld i think the ascension of attorney general are has brought a certain amount of change. I do think he agrees with President Trump that the function of the attorney general is to be the president s lawyer. And he has indicated that i believe by both word and deed. I am on the other side of that trade as they say on wall street. I am apprehensive about that. Sanford,vernor personally or politically come the most difficult decision you have ever had to make . Gov. Sandford keeping it in the political framework for now, i would say the last stop in. Hat process the Governors Office for South Carolina and so you do a final Conference Call with a couple of your attorneys and daft and whatnot before they make the final call their at the corrections facility. In a veryd for me was feeling, thehty constrained sense of government. It even has the power to put people to death which is a remarkable testament to the power of government. Steve another tweet. This is from a viewer describing himself as a rightleaning independent but more importantly the father of two brilliant and politically savvy daughters. How do we tell our children that conservative values are still valid . Gov. Sandford they will have a better life and a less outofcontrol life. The tweeter is on the right wavelength. I have five daughters and i wish we could have replicated that the next generation. I have nine grandchildren and eight of them are boys. I congratulate the tweeter and i think the principles that he annunciate will only enunciates will only produce good for his daughters. Steve what are your childrens biggest concerns . Enough, iord oddly think this is reflective of many millennials out there. They have said to me that a lot of what the president does is at odds with what me and my former wife have tried to teach them. They have had a great struggle with how can this be . How can this be ok . This is at odds with what we thought you were teaching us. The larger notion of numbers not adding up. They get that. They are bright boys and they have a good education. They get the numbers part and the importance of government but they do not get the carnival taking place right now. Gov. Weld just so i wont get into trouble, i also have three sons. Steve joe in charleston, west virginia. Caller how are you doing . Steve good. Caller i voted democrat to times in a row for president s. This time i will hands down vote for donald trump and i will to you why accomplishments. His resume is off the charts. North korea. Japan. China. The middle east. The economy. I live in west virginia, the poorest state in the union. 40 years in business. The first year i have ever been booked up through january. You cannot tell me that this guy is not the best thing since sliced bread. Steve do me a favor and stay on the line. What do you say to joe . Gov. Sandford i think the president has been good for west virginia. He really want to be involved in that coal industry and i am on the other side of that issue. There is no doubt that the Unemployment Rate is in a good place. We will perhaps get to this with jobs and the economy but i think it is very important to kurt pursue a program policy. Works is great. It worked great for the economy and our Unemployment Rate from the highest in the country to the lowest. Those stats are working out well for the president. Beyond a certain point, i think much creditet too and blame as do governors for the Movement Overall of the economy but it is nice to see so many people having jobs. Steve what would you say to joe . Gov. Weld i would agree with you on some things although you may see them differently as a former democrat. I would agree with many of his judicial appointments. And the focus and trying to raise the issue on the border but here is where i disagree with you on the economy. You know the family that lives down the street that appears to be unbelievably prosperous . How do they do it . It just turns out they have been racking up the credit card. I would argue that that is exactly where we are as a nation. You can buy growth. Buy growth by spending a bunch of money you dont have which is what we are doing. You can buy more growth with tax credits and increased spending. You can buy more growth with the lowering of the Interest Rates which the fed has done but at some point, you have a flag. I would humbly submit this to you look over the last 70 years, with every economic downturn, there has been a five and five rule. The fed has lowered Interest Rates by five points to combat the recession and on the fiscal side. And on the government side, deficits have gone up about 5 . Guess what . We are now in the longest economic recovery in american history. That we there are signs are going to slow down and we are out of bullets in the gun. We have jacked up the credit card. I think we are about to pay the piper on that front. I would say it is not just my viewpoint but that of a lot of people that have looked at the numbers really hard. Steve joe, a chance to respond. Caller most of the people i theiror they do remodeling based on their stock portfolio. And that is based on security in the system. Created, on aas worldwide basis, security from a standpoint that we are the most powerful country in the world and everyone knows that now because donald trump made it very clear. My button is bigger than yours and it is. We will sanction you to death and it worked. Dead ins of war stopped its tracks. How many stuffed shirt politicians said that is not a good idea . Both democrats and republicans did not think it was a good idea but guess what . He did it. I will respectfully respond. Not based on security, it is based on cash flow and the value of the cash flow is discounted by where Interest Rates are. We are at the bottom end of a 40 slide. O i fortyyear a lot of trouble for a lot of folks. We are living in an asset bubble and the stock portfolios have been inflated by an inflation of that. If you look globally, global debt went up 60 trillion. Mckinley and company did a great report on this in the wake of the 2000 a crisis which was caused by too much debt. I would argue that we have inflated the value of stock but as that bubbles have a way of popping that will hurt everyones portfolio and life. Steve let me take the economy one step further. What is the biggest weakness we have in training the American Workforce for the 21st century . Gov. Sandford duplication probably. I cannot speak for bill, but we had some pretty good programs. What happened is there is a lot of duplication in that process and as mentioned earlier, in many cases, people are guided in the First Step Towards college when it may not suit them. I would say stigma with regard that peopleprograms should avail themselves of and whether there is duplication whether it when they have left the first job and gone into something more technical. Steve where are the weaknesses . Where should we focus . Gov. Sandford we need to stop social promotion. Put rigor and accountability and standards in the system. They are not there now. Working with the legislative democrats, i have put in a program that equalizes spending across the school districts. That has helped minorities in the area. In return, i put a lot of money on the table for the teachers unions. They were not my constituents to put it mildly. , if you do not pass the test you do not go on to the next grade. And if you are into both great, you dont get to automatically move ahead. That is one thing. The other thing and i strongly agree with mark i would put it even more strongly. Tooelitist system is elitist. Emphasis onave more vocational education. The dropout rates from vocational schools is zero because that is where students want to be. And my state, they have come up i think we should take a step towards the german system. I want to go the route of the and i also want a liberal education. I want to start working parttime and focus on my future employment from a younger age than kids do that go to the ivy league colleges. They wake up five years after graduation. Steve follow us on to better at cspan and also on cspan radio. Next, we go to dan from pennsylvania, a republican voter. Caller hello, gentlemen thank you very much for standing up to the for the republicans that i stand for. I am so glad i have a choice to vote republican again because the democrats running right now, i am not really satisfied with. And i just believe listening and debate soou tonight nicely it is just a great help to republicans and other voters because you are making sense. If either of you were to be the president ial candidate, i would vote for you and i would hope you would choose your partner sitting next you as youre Vice President because i think you would make a great team. , my concern is they can people because they are not out there voting. In the pennsylvania primary i will be working again as i have done in the past and all we see are people older than myself and i am 67. It is frightening that young people do not even know their civics, they dont know who their congressman is all they know is the tweeter trump and it is disturbing. I would like to know if there is any way that we can get rid of this of Electoral College . And one comment about something i read called washingtons farewell. Fathers warning to future generations by john avalon. I think we could all read that and learn something from our very first president. Gentlemen. Thank you, a great conversation going on and now i know i can vote for someone that is republican if either of you get the banner. Thank you again. Gentleman. Hank the you do have two Truth Tellers here on this stage and our colleague, joe walsh from illinois would be with us but he is in sioux city, iowa tonight with his wife or he would be with us. A third truth teller. I want to mention one thing about young people voting which you noted as a major issue. I think that is so important. I think we should move of eventually towards a system of socalled mobile voting or you can vote using your cell phone. It already recognizes fingerprints and iris identification so anyone could take a selfie of themselves voting, date stamp and email it to the Election Bureau and it would be more secure which is a question, more secure than someone walking in saying my name is john smith. You dont know me. I wont give you any identification. I want to vote. If young people could vote using a cell phone, the ratio would a sharply increased. Last cycle, only 49 of millennials voted. Inre the largest voting bloc the United States and if that percent went up to 65 , i guarantee you one thing donald trump would not win a single primary in this country in any state. Steve but would your Party Support that . Of course they would not. They want fewer people to vote. I want more people to vote. Gov. Sandford it needs to be looked upon at an issue level. What are we saying that has appeal to the younger people, for instance, my four sense . My four sons . The deficit is nothing more than a deferred tax. It will be handed to the next generation. Our Founding Fathers set up the notion of no taxation without representation. Off ins what was kicked your neck of the woods and get that is not where we are. I think we need to talk about issues and their implications in young peoples lives whether that is what comes next with Social Security or with the deficit. Let me conclude this is a conversation and not a debate so no closing statement but as you go through this process of running for president , what have you learned about the country . What of you learned about yourself . Gov. Weld i have learned that people are exhausted. We are supposed to be the United States of america. I do fault the occupant of the oval office for sowing disunity in the country and i think we have to put a stop to it. What ive learned about myself ird knew it i am a happy knew it, ii already am a happy warrior. We did that during my two terms as governor. Nobody was left behind. And i think that i have come to think that the president of the United States is the chief executive of the country and has a duty beyond just making sure to make sure that the laws are executed. The chief executive has the job of caring for everyone and looking out for every member of every Interest Group and make sure that nobody gets left behind. That generalized duty of care but it is a sharp duty of care and it is something that has become crystallized for me only during this campaign. Steve governor sanford . Gov. Sandford going back to ofls point of the diversity the people that make up this country. I have been struck by how big the country is. Last week, a took a weeklong trip across the United States kids ared it the bankrupt and we did not even know it, tour. We made three stops a day. We started in philadelphia outside of Independence Hall and ended outside the Reagan Library near los angeles. I have never taken that drive of thelook at some challenging Economic Conditions of western pennsylvania or as you go into ohio and some of the that had beenons left behind based on modernization, trade. To go through 1000 miles of corn. The diversity of what makes our country so great is something that i did not really fully appreciate i do now. It makes it that much more important that we find a way to communicate again as americans. The diversity is there. Is how will we communicateo again as americans so we can forge solutions and solve problems that face all of us . That is what i am attempting to do and i appreciate the chance to be with you. The campaign continues, we hope to continue the conversation and follow you on the camping out. Weld, toord and bill both of you, thank you for being with us. And a reminder that we continue to cover the campaign as part of cspans 2020 campaign coverage. Follow us online at c campaign 2020, watch our live coverage of the president ial candidate on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Thinking about participating in cspan 2020 competition but you never made a documentary film before . No problem. We have resources on our website to help you get started. Studentcam. Org for producing information and video links. Teachers will also find resources on the teachers materials page to help you introduce studentcam to your students. Find a topic that you are truly passionate about and pursue it. Create aite you to documentary on an issue that you want president ial candidates to address. Cspan will award 1000 in cash prizes and a 10,000 grand prize. Thatoduce the best video you can possibly produce. Visit studentcam. Org for more information. Next, testifying on election infrastructure security and how each agency is working to protect voting systems and coordinate with state and local officials. This hearing runs about two and a half hours. The house committee
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