Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 03102020 20240713

Coronavirus outbreak with california representative nanette berrigan, a member of the Homeland Security committee. At 9 a. M. , reid wilson previews todays primary contests in six states. The primary contest in 6 states. Host good morning. It is tuesday, march 10. Senior Administration Officials will head to capitol hill to discuss the package of emergency economic measures aimed at blunting a slowdown over fears of the coronavirus and plunging oil prices. Major stock markets tumbled more than 7 with the dow jones shedding 2000 points in the largest oneday point drop in history. We are opening our phone lines to ask if you believe fiscal stimulus is needed to respond to the coronavirus. Phone lines split up regionally. Eastern and central time zones, it is 2027488001. In amount or pacific time zones, 2027488001. You can send us a text. That number, 2027488003. If you do, include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media. N twitter it is cspanwj on facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. You can start calling in as we show you headlines from Major National newspapers americans are waking up to from the front page of the wall street journal. Today,nt page of usa virus and oil fears shatter markets. The Washington Post amid outbreaks, stocks dive and recession fears. The dow jones gains from 2019. President trump plans for an economic emergency proposals include payroll tax cut amid spiraling stocks and an oil war. [video clip] we will be meeting with House Republicans , mitch mcconnell, everybody discussing a possible or substantial relief. That is a big number. We are also going to be talking about hourly wage earners cash looking with companies, Small Companies, large companies, so they do not get penalized for something that is not their fault or our countrys fault. We have been handling it very well. Host that was President Trump yesterday from the White House Briefing room. It is expected to be larry kudlow, Steven Mnuchin speaking to republicans at their weekly senate lunch. Here is a little bit more detail from the reporting. The president s stimulus plan foruding a cut a really hourly wage earners. Aboutesident talked hospitality where that is the plan that is the plan white house officials are expected to outline today on capitol hill. Democrats have proposed their own clan, economic response to the coronavirus. Here is Chuck Schumer speaking about the democrat plan on the floor of the senate yesterday. [video clip] Speaker Pelosi and i suggested several policies the administration should pursue to help American Workers and families. Paid sick leave for workers impacted by quarantine orders are responsible for or responsible for caring for children impacted by school closures. Enhanced Unemployment Insurance for workers who may lose their job from the epidemic from the impact. Food securities to ensure vulnerable populations do not lose access to food during this epidemic. Clear protections for frontline workers Like Health Care professionals and workers who are responsible for cleaning public facilities. Coronaead and free testing as well as Affordable Treatment for any noncovered coronavirus related costs. Protections against price gouging and increased capacity of our medical system. The Administration Must move quickly and seriously to address the expanding threat to the health of the American People and the severe impacts of the coronavirus on the Financial Security of american families. The best way to deal with the problem here, health and economic is to address the problem headon. Ont senator Chuck Schumer the floor of the senate yesterday. We are asking if you think a fiscal stimulus is needed. Phone lines split up regionally this morning. 2027488000 in the central or eastern time zones. 2027488001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. Start calling now as we delve the the debate more with congressional reporter for Bloomberg Joining us on the phone. Good morning to you. We are at the point where there is about a half dozen members of Congress Self quarantining right now out of concern about whether they may have come in contact with someone who has been infected by the coronavirus. What is the sense on capitol hill, the mood when it comes to the virus and whether congress will be in session long enough to pass measures the president and democrats on capitol hill are proposing . There is anxiety about the spread of the virus and some members are self quarantining, newuding mark meadows, the chief of staff. Last pelosi had a Meeting Night and made clear there is no reason to suspend congress or shut down, there is not any advice to do so and they are planning to move ahead with some sort of secondary package of virus relief. Congress is slated to go out on thursday for a 10 day recess. It looks like that will take place. Pelosi said they might introduce a bill this week and you played Chuck Schumers floor speech. You notice there is no mention of a payroll tax cut. Democrats are skeptical of that idea. Host if they are at issue with that with that at are the chances of getting something done before that thursday deadline . Are we looking for an introduction this week and a vote sometime 12 to 14 days from now . Andt i asked steny hoyer he suggested a series of packages, not just one and for him, the high priority is access to testing. People are worried a copay of 40, 50 deterring them from ng tested could deter a larger package especially dealing with the issue of makesing paid sickleave it harder to craft. As for the payroll tax cut, i asked pelosi and she said they are open to negotiations. She was perhaps saying they would need to show they had been effected rather than a widespread payroll tax relief. The former white house Economic Advisor reappeared on twitter to say he is skeptical as well because many people are not spending money because they are afraid to go to stores and get on an airplane. If you give them a couple thousand dollars more, they would put it in the bank rather than go out and spend it because virus fear is there. The underlying fear seems to be the priority for many in congress. Host the president talked about relief for hourly wage earners impacted by the virus. Democrats talking about paid sickleave. Are those the same thing or no . Guest it is unclear how they are going to craft this bill. At the end of the day, the devil will be in the details. With trump coming up with concrete proposals for the hill, we will have a much better sense of what a final package will look like. Host he will not be here himself, right . The reporting was larry kudlow and Steven Mnuchin. Are we expecting to see the president . Guest we might see the president come to the senate lunch. It has not been confirmed. He talked about relief to the travel and hospitality industry. Apparently it will not talk about industry bailouts and we have concern already today saying they would not support that idea right now. That is being left off the table where as there is more focus on the payroll tax cut issue and chuck grassley, who was skeptical of the idea, the chief tax writer, he said it is too early to talk about broad stimulus measures. Clearly they are at least saying to the white house they are willing to consider what trump comes up with. Host you have been on capitol hill a long time. Talk about the mood of the press corps and what sort of briefing or advice you are getting working in a building that gets visitors from all across the country and whose members come from all across the country. Its nature iss by where people congregate, they come together from all over the country and it does have the feeling where if this is where the virus is coming alcoholbased lotion available through the capital, but there are no restrictions right now as far as tourists. Congressman Louie Gohmert is quarantining. Lf there is kind of a mixed feeling between depending on what a members personal outlook is to disease. Host eric wasson, you can see his work at bloombergs website. Follow them on twitter. Thank you so much for your time. Always appreciate it. Guest thank you so much. Wasson mentioning Louie Gohmert, the congressman putting out his statement yesterday about why he is not self quarantining. This was the statement from twitter. Its saturday night i got a call from the house physician advising i had possibly been exposed february 27 and a top cdc official would call me to discuss. After physicians called me and we discussed the specific circumstances of which he was aware along with my circumstances including that i symptomatic, he was cleared to return to washington. He said he would return if he carefuland i should be and observe hygiene protocols. I returned to work. No one is panicking and we are observing the recommended cautions. Congressman Louie Gohmert of texas. Stimulusu if a fiscal is needed in response to the coronavirus. Phone lines are open, you can call like norman did from washington. Caller good morning, cspan. I am calling because right now, in 2008, i was supposed to get a costofliving raise because the stock market crashed september 15, 2008. I lost my costofliving raise. I am scheduled to get another costofliving raise this year. It is in the house of are nowtatives and we in danger, i think, because all of our investment for costofliving comes from the stock market. The states are getting really ripped off by what is going on virus. Is in washingtonty where the high school has been closed for almost three weeks. The kids are not attending school. Everybody is shut in. I am a retired teacher. I taught for 30 years and i cannot believe this stuff. Every time we have gone through a crisis financially, it happens with republicans. What is wrong with those people . Are you to the reports we have seen of the virus in Washington State and some of the areas outside seattle where specifically many of the deaths have happened . Died two milese from me. I cannot believe this stuff. I went to a movie yesterday with my wife and her friend and there is nobody in there. We were the only ones there. Nobody is moving. Host do you think you will keep going to movies . Caller i am supposed to go today, i will get out of it. I cannot believe what is happening to the area around seattle. I do exercises. I belong to l. A. Fitness and i go there i was going five or six times a week. I havent been in two weeks. I was afraid. Host this time yesterday, we were talking just over 500 total confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus dashboard, which has been trying to stay on top of the numbers. 755 confirmed cases as of this morning. The total death toll, 26. 22 of those in Washington State, 2 in california and 2 in florida. Taking your phone calls as we talk about this fiscal stimulus. Everett in winter springs, california. Caller hello . See stimulus. O i am going to call my financial how lowomorrow to see the market should go. I have a friend and she is selling her house and it would be very kind of the president to stimulate the economy so she can sell her house on lower Interest Rates because she wants to sell her house and move to ohio. I dont know why she wants to leave california for ohio. Host there are beautiful parts of ohio. The fed lowered Interest Rates by half a point last week and there is talks of perhaps another half point, do you think the fed should take that step . Caller i think they better drop it a whole point. Host thanks for the call. Randy from michigan, you are next, good morning. Like to start by thanking you and all the other great men and women it takes to bring us this program. Host i know you do that every time you call. We appreciate it, randy. Caller thank you, john. I appreciate that. On the stimulus package, i am all for whatever the government has to do to keep the economy running. If you are telling everybody to stay home, i dont see where freer money is going to make anybody go out. We just refinance the house for 3 . When i was started when i was 18, i had 16. 5 was what i paid. It is down to 3 now. If you are not going out to go to crowds, it doesnt matter how easy you can get a hold of money, you are not spending it. Maybe it is even better not to. These mixed messages are going to hurt people. You cannot play with older folks health. That is irresponsible. I dont care how many people you talk to. If you are in that room, you should be human enough to say i will self quarantine and not endanger my constituents. Host is michigan michigan is one of those states set to vote today in what is often recurred to read aresday 2 you planning to vote in michigan . Caller yes, sir. I wont miss that. This is a hard call this time. Dont hearmple, you anybody saying anything, i think this could be a bernie win. Nobody is saying they are going to vote for bernie and he will win like 4 years ago when around here you could not find anybody that was going to vote for President Trump and yet he won. That is one of the deals i am seeing out here again. I would never vote for that guy until they get into the voting booth. Host we are going to talk a lot more about michigan today and we will be joined in 45 minutes by reid wilson,d then Political Editor at the hill newspaper, National Political reporter will be joining us in our last hour to talk about primary day 2. I did want to point out this story from usa today looking around the country at the different states voting and coronaviruss impacts. Officials are telling people working in voting locations to votinginfectant wipes on booths as well as pencils, pens, doorknobs. The election day hygiene guidance tells election workers to ask voters to spread out in line if they are worried about the virus. We will take a look at today and tomorrow, the impacts of coronavirus on the voting populations in those 6 states. Mississippi, missouri, north dakota, washington voting today. Marty in wisconsin, good morning. Caller there with me on this one. Rump is a billionaire he thinks everything is about money. Money will not drive this disease away. I canceled my trip personally because i did not want to go through that. Host this idea of a fiscal stimulus payroll tax cut, you dont think it will do anything . People planning trips already have money saved. He is just throwing money out there. Host to your point and the previous caller as well, this is eric boehm from reason magazine, his piece from last friday talking about the economic thects of coronavirus and difference in what it means for the economy this time around. The economic effects of the virus are different from the 2008 recession. Most of the longterm effects were demandside problems, not enough people buying houses or the slackening and demand that comes when millions of people lose their jobs. There were too many sellers, not enough buyers. If Global Supply chains are seriously disrupted, there will not be enough goods to sell and too many people wanting to buy. That is why you cannot find Hand Sanitizer on amazon. It assumes there are goods and Services Available for them to buy. We talk a lot more throughout this segment about the idea of a fiscal stimulus, what we want you to answer as well calling in from around the country on phone regionally. Frank out of georgia, good morning. Am 62 years old. I have high Blood Pressure and i will go on living my life like this is not even happening. We have been in a trade war with china. You can call it an economic war. This whole thing is being fanned by the media to instill fear in americans. Thousands of people die every year from the flu. I cannot understand and hiv is still here and we did not panic that much when it was here. I think we need to censure sensor the media. You are your responsible, a tool socialists. Ean host what do you think of the plan for a payroll tax cut, targeted really for specific industries, Small Businesses . Caller unfortunately, i guess we need a stimulus plan because the media is the enemy of the state. You guys these people believe everything they see on the news wagged by theng dog or whatever you want to call it. Host how much news do you watch these days . Caller i watch too much. When china did the thing cleaning the crosswalks and the ppe i said this is totally fake, they are putting all this false stuff out for our media to pick up on and frighten the American People. Host this is kurt in new jersey, good morning. Cspan. Thank you, good forsaying this is the green new plan, keeping everybody off the roads. China is getting some clean air out of this. My wife is in the hospital right now and we have been chasing brain cancer for three years and all the benefits in the world cannot fix it. We need to find some peace. I dont trust anything i hear on the news. Host what are you will about this as you are there . With your wife in the hospital, what are they telling you about coronavirus and precautions in the hospital . Caller you dont want to stir up too much fear because you are supposed to come here and get well. They are cleaning. The workers have to be scared. They are following protocol. You have to wear an apron every time you come in. It is something that will take its toll. When i was young, we ate dirt. Host good luck to you and your family. In new york, you are next. Good morning. Needr the American People to wake up and quit believing this phony in the white house. He is doing everything for his own financial gain and he is not going to help the people. I worked for this guy for several years and got shafted in one of his many bankruptcies. Host where did you work . Caller i was selfemployed for 40 years and i did work for him in the casinos in jersey. Is a hypocrite, liar, misogynist, everything they say is absolutely true. Wake up, america. Host do you think regardless of what you feel about the president , that a fiscal stimulus is needed . Caller i think that is a wrong way to go, every time we put a stimulus it ends up in somebody elses pocket and not the people who need it. They will not do anything for working people. Never have, never will. Wake up, america, it is absurd to listen to these guys. You think they got this money because they were nice to people . They treated people like dirt and they still do. Host here is a few comments from text and twitter and facebook. This from donald in south bend, isfiscal stimulus now, it too early. This Administration Needs to focus on getting the outbreak under control. Many schools can do distancelearning. Many schools have distancelearning plans. Proposed fiscal stimulus to fix george w. Bushs economic disaster, republicans had a cow. Trump wants to do the same and i see no cows. This is carol saying if this is not contained, fiscal stimulus will not aid in the spreading of this disease. Just a few comments from facebook, twitter, and our text messaging service. 2027488003 is that number if you want to join the conversation. President trump proposed his economic stimulus package yesterday at a White House Briefing and promised more details about the package later this afternoon. Some of his top officials including larry kudlow, Steve Mnuchin headed to capitol hill to the Senate Republican lunch taking place today to talk about it and President Trump may even show up as well to make the pitch in person. Here is what the president out rolled yesterday, a payroll tax cut was the first thing the president talked about touting that would be a key economic stimulus and relief are hourly wage workers impacted by the coronavirus. Targeted really for impacted industries such as hospitality and travel, the president focusing on those industries and what is being called cash flow injections for Small Businesses through the Small Business administration. We are waiting to hear more details on those things. Here is more from President Trump yesterday. [video clip] we are going to be seeing the Small Business administration creating loans for Small Businesses and we are working with Industries Including the airline industry, the cruise ship industry, which will be hit. We are working with them strongly. We want people to travel to totain locations and not other locations at this moment. Hopefully that will straighten out sooner rather than later. We are working with those industries. We were also talking to the Hotel Industry and some places will do well and some will not do well at all. We are working with the Hotel Industry. We are taking care of the American Public and we will be taking care of the American Public. Host that was President Trump the white house. Is a fiscal stimulus needed in response to the coronavirus . Taking your phone lines on regional lines. 2027488000 in eastern or central time zones. 2027488001 if you are in amount or pacific time zones. It is just after 7 30 on the east coast and this is steve out of california. Caller i have one thing very important to tell america and i would like somebody to respond to it. On a good year, 27,000 americans, not people across the world, but americans die of influenza and flu, on a good year. On a bad year, it is 60,000 70000 and how many deaths do we have so far . About 50 . This is all by the news media to take down trump. It is overreacting. Go about your life, use common sense and common caution and we will be just fine. Got the greatest medical people in the world here. ,e did good through sars through swine. We did good through all of these things. Live your life, people. Get on with it and that is all i have got to say. In indiana, good morning. Caller i am a 70 fiveyearold vietnam veteran and i dont think giving a payroll tax will improve anything. People panic and become paranoid because of the media and i agree with the prior caller. I think 27 or 30,000 people died from regular flu in the United States and 22 people died from the coronavirus, less than one 1000th of that. I agree with the previous caller. It is not going to help anything to have a payroll cut and people should not be paranoid dont go in big crowds, but i would go to a restaurant, things like that. That is all i have to say. Host jeffrey in new york, good morning. , i weepon a side note for the Education System of the 1950s and 1960s. It seems like the older generation is illinformed and uneducated. Host before we start blaming all old people, what is your idea on the thought of a fiscal stimulus . Caller i think it is illinformed and it shows people over 70 maybe are barking up the wrong tree. My view is the chickens are coming home to roost of these world traders. I come from a factory town and we manufactured all kinds of things. Many of these have been closed down by mostly republicans who are antiunion and they went for the lowest common denominator of the least amount they could pay a worker and the least amount went to china and now we are trying to import masks, import andile, purell pharmaceuticals from china where the epidemic started. The spanish flu, they just had a story on sunday morning, cbs to 100 news show, 50 Million People died from spanish flu in 1918 and possibly more. That is just the known cases and in the United States, hundreds of thousands of people died from it and they silenced the media. Woodrow wilson silenced the media and did not want the antisedition act made it a crime to criticize the government and the war. I see this shadow of the censor the media, do not let them report bad news about trump is the same thing Woodrow Wilson did during the spanish flu. Here is a few more comments from twitter and our text messaging service. Derek on facebook saying we need more than physical stimulus, we need honest, forthright leadership. This from sterling, virginia, yes, we need a stimulus and response to the coronavirus. It blows me away people are blaming the media. Blame our ill prepared government. Into corporations, that should cover everything and lynn saying the focus needs to be on Nursing Homes and hospital workers who may not be provided paid time off for sickleave. Many people go to work while sick because they cannot afford to lose a days pay. Democrats have focused on paid sick leave as part of policy proposals. They also have talked about expanding Unemployment Insurance , anfood subsidy programs effort to protect against price gouging and free coronavirus testing for those who cannot afford it or who are uninsured. In the senate yesterday, it was dick durbin, member of thes democrat leadership who talked about specifically paid sickleave. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] look forward to the next steps to respond to this Critical Health emergency. Congress must prioritize the health and safety of workers and their families. Public Health Experts are telling people to stay home if they are sick. For Many Americans, staying home means losing a paycheck that helps them pay rent, for food, medication, and childcare. For Many American families, losing a paycheck, even one would be devastating. 40 of American Adults do not have enough savings to cover a 400 emergency expense. I am proud to have helped introduce legislation last week that would immediate the provide 14 days of paid sickleave to workers in light of coronavirus. It also is important we ensure workers have access to Unemployment Benefits during this time. Passed a robust robust funding bill. There will be far reaching out impacts of the outbreak. It is imperative we look forward to a competent of response that benefits everyone, including andicas working families Small Businesses, not just large corporations. Host taking your phone calls this morning as members of the Trump Administration expected to be on capitol hill talking about the president s fiscal stimulus proposals. Jim in nebraska, do you think a fiscal stimulus is needed to respond to the coronavirus . But be targeted mostly for health care and in that respect. Basically i was calling about the payroll tax cut at a time when Social Security needs to be the funding isse not adequate. Had to 1983 when we iase withholdings under believe it was reagan, we had to into the system and we probably need to do the same if we are expected to recover retirees at the current rate. A payroll tax cut is defeating the purpose. I dont believe when obama made the payroll tax cut that it was ever reimbursed into the system. I am not sure about that. I dont think it was covered, it was just released back. Host to your first point that you think stimulus should be for the Healthcare Industry and not travel or leisure, do you think that is what the 8. 3 billion Congress Passed was meant to do, to shore up the Health Care Response or are you saying there is more needed than that supplemental . Caller i think it needs to be targeted for the health care. Response to the health care side and understanding what coronavirus is because it is a brandnew virus and basically all we can do is preventative and that is arecountries like italy trying to keep people from big groups so it does not continue to spread. A fluis really no like shot for it for another year or so and it needs to be targeted for that. High country right now, confirmed cases around the world according to the johnsvirus dashboard Hopkins University is keeping up, 100 14,000 cases around the world, nearly 81,000 in mainland china. More than 9000 in italy. 75 hundred south korea. Over 7000 in iran and france with 1400. Germany with 1200 and the United States, 755 confirmed cases. The death rate around the world, the total number of deaths, 114 confirmed cases. Some 4000 deaths. The vast majority, over 3000 in mainland china. Elizabeth in virginia, you are next, good morning. Caller i am wondering where all of our good republican free marketeers are. Aro all we usually here is the government needs to stay out of everybodys life and get out of the way of business. How much of the 8 billion is going to go into mr. Trumps hands . He is in the Hospitality Business and i am sure he doesnt plan on suffering losses. Host the 8. 3 billion last week was targeted to the healthcare Care Industry and Emergency Response although you are talking the hospitality industry. The president has talked about industriesf help for specifically and we are waiting for the details and who would receive it. We will find out more about that today. Caller doesnt that wreak where thecialism government is coming in and helping people. I keep waiting to hear from them and i am not hearing anything. It is so ironic it is almost laughable. Thank you, goodbye. Host dave in maryland, you are next. Caller hello . Host goahead. About they are talking tax cuts. I think that is a mistake. That money should be directed haved people that have to stayathome if they get sick, 14 days is the period they are talking about. The vast majority of people that work for Small Companies do not. Et enough sick leave where if these people have to stay home, they can be guaranteed they will get paid for that 14 days. That money will be better spent that way rather than a acrosstheboard tax cut. I am not going to get into the politics of trump versus democrat that all that. Everybody has their own opinion. I just think a acrosstheboard tax cut is a mistake. Host this is san diego, california, richard, good morning. Caller i was wondering about the stimulus package. We are always running stimulus packages for this and this. That is the taxpayers money. I pay taxes per die always have. It never seems to really go to the people that need it. We can always come up with ways to spend money, but never come up with ways to police the money. People just want to stay home and how are you going to figure out who is staying home for coronavirus and who is staying home for the flu or lack of interest to go to work or whatever . How are you going to distribute that money to those folks . Will it be after they are diagnosed . Host what about this proposal and it is one that has gotten a lot of tension since jason furman proposed it last week. Jason furman, professor at harvard, former chair of the white House Counsel of economic advisers during the Obama Administration, this is what he said in that wall street journal piece, congress should pass a simple onetime payment of 1000 to every adult who is a u. S. Citizen and 500 to every child who meets the same criteria. This is similar to, but somewhat more generous than what president bush data. Electronic deposits were made available within three months. Some consumers might spend the money right away to meet rent and others might have a stronger Balance Sheet and spend the money at whatever uncertain date the virus is contained. The payments would continue in 2021 and beyond if the unappointed rate rises to 5. 5 and remained there or higher. Hopefully this will not happen. If it does, the money will be needed. What are your thoughts on that proposal . Caller i dont understand how with it. It keep up our government seems to we cannot keep up with anything. We spend all this money in this country, all this money and all these other countries and then we have our own people here and when i think about the coronavirus, i believe about 4 callers ago, they asked a question that nobody answered the peoples that die from the flu each year, the numbers are not adding up to big iee this as a feel for the people that get this and pass away or whatever, but it is very few people in the big scheme of things. If you think about all the people in the world and this is a worldwide thing and how many people actually have it. I dont see it as a crisis yet. I dont feel it as a crisis yet. Host samantha out of new waterford, ohio, good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for cspan. I think the markets are going to crash before the end of coronavirus because i think it was all inflated. If listeners have any lysol or disinfectant containers at home, if you look on the back, it lists coronavirus. Everybody is saying this is a new virus. It has been on the back of lysol products or sanitizing things. Host we are talking about a new strain of coronavirus. Caller hey new strain. Okay. I listed wondered why it is listed like it has been around before. Esst other coronavirus have, yes. Have three quick points. These bailouts dont work. And had theaxes bailout. The coronavirus, if you really bush cut taxes two times. The coronavirus is not the only. Ssue the oil market is crashing and prices are going down. Republicans trying to choose winners and losers. All of this was set up. Big oil is the reason the stock market crashed. The battle between russia and saudi arabia. Trump, the tax cuts do not work. It is a sugar high. The stock market has nothing to do with this coronavirus. History has proven this over and over again, voodoo economics, it does not work. It kills the economy and what ends up happening, the public always has to bailout large corporations. Thank you. Host al is next in st. Joseph, missouri. Caller i have a comment and a question. We are calling this virus deal by the wrong name. If we want history, this is the virus and i have a question. Why has the who and the u. N. Not charged china for crimes against humanity . Stephen in South Carolina, good morning. Caller good morning. You mentioned a moment ago, it was 114,000 cases and approximately 114 thousand cases and 4000 deaths from total numbers, correct . Host that is the latest numbers. Those are getting updated every day. We are going off the dashboard tracking Johns Hopkins university has put out available on the internet if you want to take a look, but that is what it looks like. So the that is 3. 5 people saying that isnt as bad as the flu, you might want to do the numbers. That is my point. Hope you have a good day. Host continuing to take your phone calls. Another 10 minutes in this segment, we will be joint and next by congressman fred upton, republican of michigan. Michigan one of the states headed to the polls on super tuesday. A lot to talk about today, but you can keep calling in as we talk about the fiscal stimulus proposed by President Trump and that democrats are proposing, whether you think it is needed. Eastern or central time zones, 2027488000. Mountain or pacific time zones, 2027488001 is that number. As you are calling in, eric lawson of bloomberg mentioned this story when we talk to him earlier in this segment, chief of staffs quarantined after contact with a carrier of the coronavirus. The incoming chief of staff among the republican congressman who said monday they are quarantining themselves because suspected contact which took place at the conservative Political Action conference in washington two weeks ago. Five of the six members of congress who have said they are quarantining our republicans who attended that conference. Matt gaetz, doug collins, ted cruz, paul gosar, mark meadows attended that meeting. A sixth lawmaker, Julia Brownley said monday she met with a person in washington last week who has tested positive for the virus and she would be working remotely as a result, showing you some of the pictures of those members of congress who are self quarantining. Collins, twod doug members who have had recent contact with the president after their potential exposure at that event which has caused a whole lot of questions and articles being written about protecting President Trump from the coronavirus. This is the story in the Washington Post about it. Access asiting projectt trump tries to confidence. There was a moment at the White House Briefing, the very end of the remarks where this issue came up of President Trump meeting and having contact with people who may have been exposed to the virus. The president was asked about it as he was leaving the room and the question was left to be answered by the Vice President , mike pence. Here is that moment. [video clip] i will be here tomorrow afternoon to let you know about some of the economic steps we are taking, which will be major. Thank you very much. Have even tested . Tested . You been thank you, mr. President. Have you been tested . I have not been tested for coronavirus. Has the president been tested . I will get an answer to that. I honestly dont know the answer to the question. We will get you an answer from the white house physician very quickly. Host following that yesterday evening, a statement from white house sec. Stephanie grisham, this is what she said, the president has not received covid19 testing because he has neither had prolonged close contact with any patients nor does he have any symptoms. President trump remains in Excellent Health and his physician will continue to closely monitor him. Medical professionals should one testing conditions symptoms and exposure history. Time for a few more of your calls. 2027488000 in the eastern or central time zones. 2027488001 in the mountain or pacific time zones. Martin from alabama, good morning. Caller good morning. That last graphic you put up was excellent. I appreciate that. Regarding the stimulus package, i think the important thing is of course i like it and given giving the american citizens is. Oney money is important 50 of americans cannot put their hands on 500. A lot of americans will need that money faster than three months. That is my comment. Host a few more comments from facebook. D a fiscal stimulus for the poor and workingclass, not for companies. Kids need to stay home. Much will Steve Mnuchin he will be joint by larry joined by larry kudlow as well. Those lunches take place behind closed doors, we get statements after the lunches. For an event taking place in front of the cameras today, we point you to cspan 3 at 10 00 a. M. , Coronavirus Response hearing before the House Appropriations subcommittee. The committee will be joined by the director of the cdc. Watch that at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan 3 and cspan. Org and listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Tim in wisconsin, you are next. Caller yes . Host go ahead. Caller i am with you. I would like to say i dont really believe it. I think it is somewhat of a political ploy because by the time the stimulus tax break comes in, congress is going to go on recess in a few days and nothing will be done by then. I believe the most important thing by far is to contain it. Not tankedtaly has their economy because they want to get donald trump out of office because this is serious. I hear the people talk about the flu killed this many and that many and the elderly population, if you are 80 years old, your chances of dying are better than 10 . We will have a serious problem on our hands. Host do you mind if i ask how old you are . Caller i am 63 years old. Host are you doing anything different . Caller not really. Wisconsin has two cases, minnesota has two cases. The spread has not hit wisconsin yet. These people in seattle and new york, these cities are basically turning into ghost towns. It is real. That is what i am trying to say. This isnt some kind of conspiracy theory. This is about human lives. Carolina, in south you are next, good morning. It seems like they always want to socialize losses and privatize profits and the working people in the hospitality trades do not make a lot of money as it is. It would be good if it went only to the working people. Host that is our last caller in this first segment. 2 more hours of our program instead ahead. We will be joined by fred upton and later, at the bottom of the hour, democratic congresswoman Nanette Barragan. We will be right back. This is action season, the during these election season, the candidates are only be on the talking points, but since you cannot be everywhere, there is cspan. It differs from all other applicable coverage for one simple reason, it is cspan. We brought you your unfiltered government every day since 1979, and we are giving you an unfiltered view of the people looking to steer that government and your future. Unfiltered. See the biggest picture for yourself and make up your own cspans campaign 2020, brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. Comes out today, a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, we are going to win that election. For those who have been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign. Primaryresidential continue tonight for six states including idaho, michigan, mississippi, missouri, north dakota, and washington. Watch the campaign 2020 coverage of the candidate speeches and results tonight live on cspan, cspan. Org, or with the free cspan radio app. Follow the federal response to the coronavirus at cspan. Org coronavirus. You can will that she can find White House Briefings and interviews with Public Health officials. Reviewed the latest events anytime at cspan. Org coronavirus. Washington journal continues. Host we are glad to have back at our desk this morning,ichigan congressman fred upton and five of your fellow republicans are under self quarantine after potential exposure at cpac, and what is the mood on capitol hill . Guest things are little bit worried, and we saw matt gates come to the floor with a gas mask, a lot of us thought it was a stunt, and then we see some others who apparently had a contact with someone at cpac. We have a conference this morning at 9 00, dr. Monahan is going to give us a briefing and he spoke to the chief of staff yesterday, so we will get a sense of where things are. On the talking about air, all of us are taking more precautions. Toave a bottle of liquid gel wash hands, so i made it until the very end yesterday onerday i did handshake, and Everything Else was fist bumps. We have all changed a little bit, and as i talked to Companies Back home, they say, it is clean. People are very cognizant of what is going on, so it is up here. Host any changes in your office, what are you telling folks who want to come to washington . I b told them to stay away . Guest we have seen a number of conferences canceled, so my schedule is getting freer, and it is spring break, so we have a lot of students coming up. Last week, i asked some students from one of my high schools, how many of you have not had the onlyar flu vaccine, and the teacher raised their hand, and it will probably prevent you from getting the regular flu, will not have anything to do with coronavirus, but it will keep you out of the hospital. We have seen a lot of vacancies, and flying back and forth this weekend, more empty seats on planes, so, ohare was a little bit last. Less. Host what could get done this week, your thought on the president s proposal . Guest it is a little too quick to Say Something will happen this week. I thought it was a really good move this is the way that congress ought to work last week when we did the 8 billion supplemental bill, and it was timely. The problem solvers caucus, artisan group, we all met not all, but a number of us went down to the Vice President in the situation room and we talked about the need for this and the need to have it bipartisan, and we got it done and the president signed it on friday, one vote against it in the senate and the two votes against it in the house. As we talk about this issue now, fors very disruptive companies. Governor hogan said yesterday that everybody over 60 years old in maryland ought to stay home, they are most susceptible to this. Package,k at the made what do you do for folks who really think they should stayathome for 14 days, we have to make sure there is adequate testing there, and that was a lot of my local folks in michigan, and different accommodations will have to be made. We will have to see some kind of package emerged. And we Work Together on it. Host those things that may be less controversial than the payroll tax cuts, could you see those being broken down to smaller bills and that moving . Guest i just think the normal committee process, we have to know what is going on. One of the complaints that we had that we caught the later as related to the 8 billion package that we did, good thing for medicare, it will allow for telehealth, so you do not have to physically go to the hospital and you can go online and have a doctor, but it did not cover medicaid. Michigan, 20 of the patients are medicaid. Shoulds an error, we have done that. We are going to try to correct it. A number of us sent a letter to cms to see if they will take that in, and if not, maybe we will pass a bill. It is tuesday, so to get some thing by thursday, that is hard to do. Host could you see congress staying in past thursday and responding or . Guest you have to talk to the speaker. And i do note, have a security clerk on me. Host talking to congressman fred upton, congressman from michigan. The number for medical professionals, 202 7488003, otherwise, democrats, republicans, and independents, will put those numbers on your screen. As folks are calling in, it is election day in your state. I wonder your thoughts, are you hear anything about coronavirus impacting people going out to the polls . Guest the polls just opened at 7 00 a. M. , so they have been open for an hour as we talk. Number ofn, we had a things to make it easier for people to vote, so you can actually sign up, if you are over 50 years old, and you never ballot proposal to get an absentee ballot it is done. My parents are 90 and almost 96, and they do not have to apply for an absentee ballot anymore. They have their ballots, they got it weeks ago, and they sent it in. Yet a number of different candidates drop out in the last week or 2 you had a number of different candidates drop out in the last week or two, but those votes are in, and unless you go and remarkks office your ballots and turned it in, that is locked in. But ife is on there, they voted last week, they may have voted for Pete Buttigieg, and that vote counts. Host care to make a prediction of whether Michigan Democrats are Bernie Sanders or joe biden democrats . Guest the polls show that biden has a doubledigit lead, but they sort of showed that before with four years ago with hillary, and we thought she would win the entire Michigan Democratic delegation, and bernie won by six points. We will see. It will be interesting to watch what happens tonight. Missouri,s michigan, and byippi, idaho, the way, cspans coverage of the results and candidate speeches begins at 9 00 p. M. You turn this evening. If you want to join us, we would love to see you. Ron is calling this morning from missouri on the phone for congress in fred upton, go ahead. Caller yeah, i have a question for any of the democrats that are running. Undern 1964, 1965 johnson, they took our Social Security and dumped it into the bureau to make it look good, and the representative at the state of missouri said, there is no way the people of the United States will ever need this much money, but if they do in the future, we will repay it. With interest. Et, every time we turn around, they take it out of the Social Security, and people who make up the rules on how the stimulus moneys is going to be spent, they want to make sure their companies and colleges will get that money. Ron, i republican from missouri a republican from missouri. Johnson whos lyndon did the stimulus i was nine years old. I am told it was Lyndon Johnson who did the accounting change to put the Social Security receipts, the taxes and to general fund. That has been the case for the last 60 years and it has not changed. Benefits, rightly so, are still being paid. I am on the Social Security that money is a part of one big bank account that the u. S. Treasury has. Host he is concerned about stimulus money going into the pockets of people who need it. Guest that is why i think well my guess is, if you look at the potential of a payroll tax cut, that would be more for hourly workers, and it may be capped for those earning under 50,000 or 60,000, so it would go to those most in need. Host but it does not do anything or someone loses their job as a result of the economic slowdown, you are no longer on the payroll. Guest thats right. You are exactly right. You will be able to qualify for unemployment, food stamps, and some talk about increasing the eligibility of those. There are a lot of different there,als that are out which is why i think it would be very difficult for this to come together for a vote on the house floor by thursday. We also have to listen and we have to figure out how long is this going to last. Some industries are harder hit than others, the entertainers, the busboys, the cooks on cruise ships and they may not be sailing, Flight Attendants on the airline, these are not overpaid people. It is a decent job, but no one is getting rich being a Flight Attendant on united or delta. When they canceled 25 of the flights, they cannot go off someplace else. The wolverine states, this is kevin, independent. Caller good morning. My question is i have a few of them. How come that when they show the statistics of the corona, they do not show the same statistics for the h1, n1 virus . Two up in much the same thing, the viruses that are spread, how come they dont show the comparisons of the two . And how come they do not sure how many people have recovered from it . Help you with that one for the second, and we have been referring that john Hopkins University dashboard tracking coronavirus cases, and these numbers change by the day, but they have total confirmed cases around the world at 114,500, total deaths around the world, over 4428, and the total recovered which they are tracking as well, 64,000 around the world, and that number is climbing. If you want to look at specific u. S. Numbers, i can do the same thing for you, 755 confirmed cases in the u. S. Recovered solly far, but we will track those numbers as they go. Host what is your other question . Caller where is barrs report . It seems now that we have the coronavirus, Everything Else in the government seems to have stopped. There are people in my area wondering what is going on. Host congressman . Know if younot are referring to the fisa report that they are working on, there are some negotiations and a latenight meeting last night i think it was a bipartisan meeting, and of course, the fisa law expires this week. If it is going to be extended or changed, we will have to see what those changes are. Capitol lasthe night, there was still no smoke. Host can other things get done amidst the response to this crisis . Guest the issue with fisa, here we are literally at the deadline, the 15th and it is an important tool in the toolbox. To try and stop terrorism, and we as members have not had an opportunity to see the proposed changes. The president came out yesterday and said he is against a straight extension of this, so there has to be some changes if he used his veto pen, but at the same time, we want to see what those changes are before we decide. They live concern that waited a little too long to try to share what those changes ought to be. Job. Ve to do a sell host what do you mean . Guest did administration, they will have to do a sell job. Host is there such a thing as a continuing resolution on that shortterm . Guest the president said he was against the straight extension, so you presume that it is two weeks, who knows, but we are at the cliff. But we will probably hear about it this morning at 9 00 at our meeting. I will call in. Host we will be happy to have you call in to give us an update on that, and we will be in phones at that point. Our next caller, democrat, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Why did not the cdc or our 3000nment test all of the passengers and crew members on the grand princess line before docking in oakland . That would have been a perfect opportunity to just separate those persons who needed treatment versus those who needed quarantine, and it would have given us a good demographic breakdown of who is impacted by the virus, especially since we have the kits, and we are very frightened to tell you the truth, because, i do not know if we can trust our government to tell us the truth. The numbers have been constant for over 10 days, and that is due to testing. I would rather know than not know. And would you also answer, is this an airborne disease . Host tina in north carolina. Guest thanks for the call. As you may know, there was a glitch in the testing kits themselves. They began to produce them and they found an error, and they had to start all over again. You are right to all of the folks getting off of the ship need to be tested, and i think from the press reports that i have seen, i think that has been happening, and i think they have the past two tests each before they are claimed to be ok, and in the regular world, you could put it. They all have to be tested. Those that are tested positive, they will be going to a special place and they will be there until they recover. And the folks that are from overseas are going to be, at the end, going back to their host country. Host and the second question from the cdc on the spread of covid19, persontoperson spread, the virus is spread mainly between people of close contact within six feet, and spread through respiratory droplets with a person who coughs or sneezes. Guest so you have to be careful, so when you sneeze, go into your elbow or wash your hands, and if you are in an area with a live traffic, wash your hands at length, a good number of times during the day. Host this is howard, a republican. Caller good morning. I was just going to mention that ohsu ono the clinic, monday, and i noticed i was early. There was a line of people at the side door and they were handing them masks, and by the time i got in there, asked my doctor what was going on, and they did not have any kits per se to be testing people, but they were just trying to assuage their fears. This is a town of 30,000 people so i can only imagine what is going on in the bigger ones. A brief comment, i stopped all of my rhetoric about because i know in the past, if you cannot get to the guy who you perceive is causing the problem, you will get his supporters. I have tried to quiet everything down and allay my fears about this getting out of hand, and becoming a pandemic and food shortage and stuff like that. Clinican i ask you, the you were talking about, what exactly was it . Ohsu, it is where they teach doctors and stuff out of portland, oregon. Host the reason i ask, yesterday we had dr. Ronald, the chief medical officer of the health center, talking about coronavirus and he talked about the issue of not enough personal protective equipment and how they are working to deal with it, so i would point you to that segment yesterday. Guest and they are trying to reserve many of them asked for hospitalks workers themselves, they may be the ones who are most at risk as they try to treat people. That is where the First Priority is pretty the other priority that we have the First Priority is. The other priority is how many you have available, and are all states covered, and hopefully, that will continue as we look to the end of this. Host back to your home state in lawton, michigan. Caller yes, now that congress is coming into recess, fred, i was wondering if you will get tested before you come back from washington, because you will probably be doing some politicking, and i just do not think we need some type of typhoid mary spreading this disease when you could get a test easily. Before you come back to a state that does not have any known cases yet, maybe you should get a test before you come back to your district. We are going to have a report from the attending physician this morning. At this point, knowing we have a very limited number of tests, they ought to be for those that really are somehow exposed to this. I am being very cautious and i have a number of colleagues who have been exposed to someone with the virus that has self quarantined themselves, and if that was the case with me, i would do the same. Host to grand junction, colorado, everett, a republican. Caller good morning. Representative upton, this may be a stupid suggestion, but it has either been months ago that i saw on television that they went around and were looking for different bacterias on everybodythings, but uses gas pumps to fill up the cars, and i just was going to angest that maybe they made announcement to gas station owners and attendants to steri lize their gas pump handles. Everybody uses it every day, they travel all over the country, just one of those suggestions, none of those political. Stupidthat is not a suggestion actually, and it would be the same as an elevator button in a building, and i gas station pump could be contaminated from one user to the next and a gas station pump could be contaminated from one user to the next. So all those things you might touch with your hands, if someone else has touched it, it could be contaminated. Reid,naples, florida, republican. Caller good morning. I believe it is insane how i can go to the store and i am just trying to pick up something, maybe i need Hand Sanitizer, and i go there, they do not have anything. It is all just gone, and everything is sold out. Why it hasderstand to be like that, it does not make sense to me. Grabbingd everyone is a bunch, and i went to the store last night, and i did not see any, but i would have bought some if i had, but there is a shortage of it, that is virtually every store. And the prices are going up for a lot of these different products. Hopefully, you will find it. Democrats, among their policy proposals in response to coronavirus, one thing they talked about is antiprice gouging protection. Would you support that . Guest yeah, i think so. When i was going back to michigan this weekend, there was a former colleague who was now a former democratic congressman, the ag in the state of california, and they are looking at that. Similar to what has happened for a number of other things, gasoline, Different Things over the past number of years, but there is a real concern about that. And i think there is some state laws are in place that would prevent that from happening or at least, tell store owners host this would be a nationwide effort . Guest it very well could be. Host diane in ann arbor. Caller yes, hello. I would like to know if any in the past three years, any cutting the budget in any way for Something Like this. It does not have to be budgeting for the coronavirus. I am talking about budgeting for something that may be a biological disaster. Y have been warming warning of pandemics forever. And the idea of not having test kits we go to one source to make all of our test kits. This is ridiculous. In germany, they have bedside test kits. What is wrong with america . We were caught totally off tied, our hands are being so if you do not test, you do not have the numbers, and the more tests you take, the more you will rise the numbers, just like trump is so worried about bringing people off of that ship because his numbers would rise. I just have to think this is a monetary issue, stockmarket issue host got your point in running short on time. First of all, good news. On a very strong bipartisan basis, we have increased the money for Health Research, cdc, the nih, and we passed a major bill for the number of years ago on pandemics, and i do not think anyone voted against it, and increases for that, you may have some proposals, but at the end of the day, money has improved and increased the funding for that. As it relates to the test kits themselves, they had to develop new tests for it, and sadly, there was a glitch, and the cdc, there were some issues that they had to have them recalled and , anddered to move forward that now has been fixed, and production is going, but it needs to continue and trouble and triple our efforts. We will get a report a little bit later this morning in terms of where we are, but we need to have additional test kits here. Host what is the 21st century act and doesnt do a couple of things . Guest i does a couple of things. We moved this past the house by an overwhelming margin and we actually had some roundtable discussions, but it speeds up the approvals of drugs and devices, so when we get this vaccine in place likely before the end of this year, it will be because of the cures act that we are taken a lot of the checks out so we can get it done faster. We have also increased money for Health Research by 45 billion over a ten year span, so we are far better prepared today than we were before president obama signed this into law in 2016. Florence,ncis, oregon. Caller good morning. I appreciate the congressman is ing, but my concern i do not know what he thinks about it, but his positions have gradually changed on the environment all over the past 10 years. We have two people in the drivers seat, trump and pence, who essentially, deny science. Pence is not believe in Climate Change or that the worlds 7000 years old or that smoking kills you. And trump is even dumber than that. Ow that what ends up happening being responsible about 10 years ago, but he has moved to the Republican Party to not being able to think anymore it seems, and if he address that, i would appreciate that. Guest Climate Change is real, and i care deeply about the environment. We have actually reduced emissions in this country which is a good thing. I have been a supportive for a good number a supporter for a good number of initiatives, but we also have to Work Together. I was one of the few republicans that said that we should not full out of the paris agreement. We tohere, and real, and Work Together to find a Greater Energy efficiency and a whole number of things as we look to the future. Host congressman fred upton, republican from michigan, and anytime you want to call in and update us, you are welcome to. Come back again. Up next, we will continue our conversation about the federal response to coronavirus and we be joined by congresswoman Nanette Barragan of california, stick around. During this election season, the candidates beyond the talking points are only revealed over time. But since you cannot be everywhere, there is cspan. Programming 2020 differs from all other political coverage for one simple reason. It is cspan. We have brought you your unfiltered view of government every day since 1979. This year, we are bringing you and unfiltered view of people looking to steer that government this november. In other words, your future. This election season, go deep, direct, and unfiltered. See the biggest picture for yourself and make up your own mind with cspans campaign 2020, brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. I comes out to be a campaign in which we have one candidate who is standing up for the working class and the middle class, we are going to win that election. For those who have been out,ed down, counted left behind, this is your campaign. The president ial primaries and caucuses continued tonight for six states including idaho, michigan, mississippi, missouri, north dakota, and washington. Coverage campaign 2020 of the Campaign Speeches and cspan,tonight, live on cspan. Org, or listen with the freeseas been radio app. Follow the federal response to the coronavirus at cspan. Org coronavirus. You can find White House Briefings, hearings with key Public Health officials, and interviews with Public Health specialists. Review the latest event anytime at cspan. Org coronavirus. Washington journal continues. Host congresswoman Nanette Barragan joins us now, member of committee. Here on capitol hill and what actions are you taking at your office. Caller we are guest we are obviously concerned as we have members of the house that are in self quarantine. Ive been watching my hands a lot, and doing a lot of elbow bumps, and people thought it was awkward at first, but i think more people hear about the spread of the virus, there is concern, so we are taking every precaution. Host are you satisfied with the levels of communication on capitol hill first with the spread of the virus and potential self quarantining that you mentioned has happened already with some republicans are now one democratic member from california . Guest correct. For what we are hearing from the administration, there is mixed messages and it feels like sometimes we are not getting enough information re read contradictory information in the papers. Host on what specifically . Guest the availability of test kits, that everyone who wants to get tested and get tested can get tested, those are things we are in from the top which is not what we are hearing from congress and certainly not on the ground we talk to people who want to be tested. We need to make sure that the American People can trust what the government is telling them, especially when it comes to a Public Health crisis as we are experiencing. Making sure we are getting information and that it is accurate is key, which is why i think we need to make sure to continue to have folks rely on the center for Disease Control and Public Health officials. Host what about the mean occasion in the state of california . Guest we have been doing a good job. The governor has been involved and just the other day, talked about increased Unemployment Benefits for people who may have reduced hours. I am seeing it myself in my district and i represent the port of los angeles, and they are working less hours because of slowing work at the port. There is a lot of fronts where people are being hit on the economy and certainly on the health concerns. Host and now we are seeing proposals from the white house and Democratic Leaders to address the Economic Impacts of President Trumps stimulus proposals, the tax cuts, and the big thing he talked about with targeted relief for impacted industries and potential cash flow injections for Small Businesses for the sba, your thought on that. Tost my concern is we need focus on people to have paid sick time and family leave and something that needs to be a focus of people who are impacted by the virus instead of a u niversal payroll tax. Thatrats are seeing package together. I remind you and your viewers, when this first started coming to the congress for funding, the president only asked for 1. 2 billion and it was democrats who had to say, that is not enough. We need to put 8 billion which is going to go to survey link surveilling, screening, and it became a bipartisan issue and passed on a bipartisan basis, but we have to make sure we are focusing on the right things. And to be sure that people are having paid sick time. We are hearing people who are going to work even if they have symptoms because of concerns that they cannot afford to not go to work. We want people if you are sick, stay home. Do not go to work. We had a conversation up from the Vice President when he was on the hill. Host did anything get done this week before congress is scheduled to get out . Guest i know Speaker Pelosi is working with the chairs of different committees to immediately get this sped up, but i do not know how quickly we will be able to get that to the floor, and then the senate has to take action on it, too, given that we are here for a couple more days. It may be challenging to do but i know congress is trying to get it done. Host congresswoman Nanette Barragan joining us this morning. ,emocrats, 202 7488000 republicans, 202 7488001, andpendents 202 7488002, for medical professionals, if you call in at 202 7488003. Happy to hear from you as we have been hearing from you throughout. Pat is up first as a republican out of st. Louis, missouri. Good morning. Caller yes, i would like to comment. People thisd 18,000 winter and the coronavirus has killed probably 18 host 26 as of this morning in the u. S. Caller it seems to me that this is no different than any other flu. I think it is a good thing that people are concerned and the and media is hyping it up, teaching people to wash their hands more often, but i think people are going a little bit crazy right now. You cannot to buy alcohol in the store, and people are going a little nuts over this and there is a lot of panic. Guest i think we should remain calm. Mistake, this is not just like the flu. We are seeing the spread of this virus and if you are elderly or a vulnerable population, we see those populations suffer a much higher mortality rate than anybody with the flu would have at those ages, so this is a concern. We believe, especially, me personally, my mom is 79 and has alzheimers. If i am carrying the disease or the virus, and i go to see her and i touch her and now she gets hasthe mortality rate gotten much higher than anything the flu is showing and will result in. We do not know either what the real rates are, that is the real concern because we do not have enough test kits. At this point, we really do not know what the real rate is, but people should be cautious and certainly take every measure. If you are elderly, we are telling people to avoid a large gathering, stay home, so we continue to take precaution until we know more about this virus, and there is no vaccine, on like the flu. Host how to l. A. , this is dependent. In caller good morning. Why should we even trust this government . Especially democrats here in los angeles where they have decimated the black community. What are you going to do about the Homeless Population that is out there how are you going to test them . Most of them out there are blak because there are black because youve allowed so many illegals. Issue is ahomeless huge concern and something that we have had some legislation in congress congresswoman Maxine Waters has legislation that would infuse money into addressing the homeless issue, but you raise a really good point and that is, we need to make sure that homeless folks and those who do not have access to health care have the ability to go in, be seen if they are ill, and be treated. If they believe they have the virus, to be tested, and it should be done free of charge so everyone has the ability to be treated and tested. Host i know immigration is an issue that you work on quite a bit here in capitol hill. Coronavirus and the issue of immigration, what are you concerned about . Guest i am concerned about the virus spreading into Detention Centers, because we have seen that the government is not willing and able to provide flu vaccines, so imagine what would happen if the coronavirus is there and would easily spread. When you go and you visit, you will see people held in close proximity to each other because there is no space, although we tend to be sending folks back to mexico to weigh under the mpp program which is a horrible policy. While i disagree with your last caller on the immigration policy, i want to make sure that today will focus on this Public Health crisis and making sure that people understand that we should be taking precautions. Remain calm, but certainly, take precautions. Host tomorrow on capitol hill before your Homeland Security committee, Ken Cuccinelli will be testifying. What will you ask him about . Guest i want to know what the Committee Case and is like with the agencies and information sharing. I want to know where they are on having supplies. We are hearing about the shortage you mentioned earlier, and some of the physicians are talking about our local Public Health and county Public Health and mentioning the same thing of the protective gear, so asking about where we are on that, and making sure there is comedic case and going on, and are they working with local governments going on, and is there information that they need to share with governments so they can make decisions on whether to close schools down or not. There is a lot of concern given the vacancies there are at homeland of weather that is impairing their ability to respond to the crisis. Host we have the line for medical professionals, 202 7488003. Susan called in on that line from michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. Everybody is all talking about is sanitation and isolation. Nothing about improving the populations resistance to viruses. There has been a tremendous amount of research that has been done over many years on zinc. Natural resistor to viruses. And even the person that discovered the coronavirus is recommends that we take zinc, at least in the form of the lozenges, to help us fight off all viruses. Host susan, where do you work . I am retired and i wrote a book called the art of cytology. Many doctors have received my book, and they all agreed that we need to improve our own resistance. Host susan in michigan on improving our own resistance. Guest thanks, susan. I have gone to the store and throat lozenges and heard mixed results from physicians on how effective it is. , think if people feel secure lets listen to all of our Public Health officials, and right now, the advice we are getting, and i think it is universal, is washing our hands, making sure we are being cautious, not spreading germs, and covering up if you have a cough, and to make sure that we are not getting other people sick, and certainly those in volatile populations. In vulnerable populations. Host a major way to improve is a vaccine, and we are hearing perhaps a year away, but who gets it first when it is available . Guest good question. I think everyone should have equal access to it, but first of all, those who are elderly and vulnerable populations should be at the front of the line, given that there mortality rates are higher. We need to make sure it is affordable or free and in my case, i think it should be free to people. Host how do you do that . The government will have to step in, and they already have by providing the 8 billion legislation which will help with finding a vaccine. The government will have to do its part to make sure that we get there. With 15 minutes left congresswoman Nanette Barragan of california, taking your phone calls this morning on the washington journal. The phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents, and the special line for medical professionals, 202 7488003. ,his stays in michigan janice who is a republican. Caller good morning. Nanette, i am so sorry, but you began speaking this morning about how President Trump is sending out mixed signals. He has been on this from the very beginning. Hek on january 31 when banned people coming in from china, you all and the media, criticized the media him and called him xena phobic and racist. This is an evolving crisis we are experiencing. Copd, so i amhave one of the vulnerable ones. Im just using the common sense practices that i have seen the president and Vice President and all of the doctors and experts at these press , washinges tell us hands, avoiding close contact with people, not going to crowded places, and things like that, so we have been getting very good advice. I really, really do not understand when the democrats and media, but again, i repeat president and the Vice President of being science deniers. That is the most egregious lie. Host got your point, caller. Facts we actually have and data that shows that when outbreak was first learned about in the United States, the u. S. Who,d away a test from the the world health organization. There is an example of where the ,resident Administration Made a decision that i think is wrong and did not take it seriously. We have also been hearing from the administration and the president about the concern about people coming off of cruises because the numbers will increase and it will hurt the economy, and it seems the president is more interested in a campaign then the health of the American People. Also, we will go back to the end of february when the administration and this president only requested 1 billion, when that was woefully insufficient, and this president also eliminated the person at the National Security council that would be in charge of making sure there is a nice spread of a Global Pandemic. There have been multiple efforts from the administration and also money from the cdc, the centers for Disease Control. All of those are facts that lead me to believe that the president has not taken this virus serious enough and his own words, also, our concern, telling people, it will disappear on its own and a couple of months, and the misconception that when it gets warm, that will be enough to make the virus go away those are not scientific facts and data that are Public Health officials are saying, and peop e concern that people are hearing with information and not taking it seriously. Next fromperson is michigan, good morning. Hi, mi on the air . Someone will turn to from michigan. Caller that was an idiot from michigan . [laughter] sorry for the language. I want to talk about the border crisis and the people coming in lly, you do not know if they are bringing in the coronavirus. And like the previous caller said, the democrats called President Trump xenophobic for closing the borders. The democrats, we know how they are on immigration, but how do people are coming across this border on the southern border that you do not know what kind of diseases they have. Host got your point. Guest thanks, mike. I have not heard of a case of Health Officials saying that comes from the southern border. I think it is easy for the president to go after immigrants, but there are also plenty of studies that say that just closing all of our borders and preventing people from coming from anywhere is not effective in this situation where we are now. It is not very effective from what we have been hearing, and now we are having a spread within the United States as some people traveled internationally, and these people who have come have been, from what i am hearing, are citizens coming back from international travel. Are you going to close our borders to american citizens . Unfortunatet is an attack on immigrants, and i have not heard of or seen any cases from folks coming from the sword the southern border. Yuma,y, you arizona, republican. Caller thank you for taking my call. I was going to ask about the border, i live on the border and i am 15 miles in the southern asked thed the fellow question i was going to ask what are you, as a democrat, concerned about the possibility of people coming across our border with a contagion such as coronavirus or some other disease that enters illegally and possiblyction, coming into a major metropolitan area undetected, and spreading some kind of disease. Not just coronavirus but anything . We have a lot of unsecured border, and it seems like President Trump had the right idea about securing our borders some years ago when he said we need to secure our border, because this would be one less thing that would be a concern or worry for the American People if we knew exactly who is coming across the border, and in fact, they were being detected and checked at the port of entry like they were supposed to come through. My concern is if you have a case of someone with coronavirus and a Detention Center and it being spread. We are seeing apprehensions at the border one people come in when they come into a port of entry or they are apprehended near a border within the ports of entry, cdp is taking folks and conducting some screenings. I will say i do not think those medical screenings are good enough, and i know we have passed legislation to make sure that we are providing more toure and more thorough, describe those screenings. We do not want anybody bringing viruses into the country regardless of whether they are coming off of the plane or a port of entry, but i think it is not fair for us to go and start attacking immigrants coming to this country. We have seen discrimination unfortunately in our communities against Asian Americans, which is something that is wrong, and people need to understand, this is impacting everybody across the border, whether you are a democrat, republican, regardless of the color of your skin, you could be susceptible to getting this virus, and we should be taking this opportunity to treat everybody fairly and making sure we are taking precautions and having a little bit of empathy right now. Host on that line for medical professionals, mark, here in washington dc. Caller thank you for taking my call. I was calling regarding the risk posed to Community Pharmacists. Who areharmacists already overworked have to stay in a pharmacy to provide medications throughout the sorts of emergency situations, and often times, they catch the flu, even if they get the flu shot. What concerns or anything that has been heard with regards to the most trusted professions, retail, Community Pharmacists and their risks for catching the flu or coronavirus . Guest thanks, mark. You raise a good issue and we believe that we need to make sure that those on the front line, our medical professionals, including our pharmacists, are protected. We have heard from Public Health officials talk about protective make sure they have access to it, and the shortage that they see coming down the line, and making sure we have masks for those who need it. And frankly, i would be interested in hearing from pharmacists on what they believe they need and other Health Officials on what they believe would be helpful for congress to allocate. We are here to partner with our medical community. We are here to make sure that congress is doing its job and playing its role. This is one of the questions that i think might be good and my homeland hearing tomorrow and ask, what is being done . I we working with medical staff to make sure they have protective gea to protect themselvesr, and lastly, i will say that if we have medical professionals who believe that they have been exposed, that they have access to be tested as well. We have heard one story of a woman who was in the medical field, and did not have access to be tested. Host the package of policy havesals the democrats talked about, expanding Unemployment Insurance, expanding food subsidy, and antiprice gouging, is a package you plan to see expand in the coming days . Ofst that is the meat legislation right now, but there is always subject to changes and adding things that we feel are needed. We are hearing folks saying, they cannot afford to stay home or if they do, they cannot afford to feed their children. This is a measure that will help sickies and people who are or are vulnerable to be able to stay home and help prevent the spread. Host you mentioned that hearing tomorrow with Homeland Security the deputy secretary at dhs, Ken Cuccinelli, the House Appropriations subcommittee holding a Coronavirus Response hearing with robert redfield, the director of the cdc. We will be showing the on cspan 3 on 10 00 a. M. Eastern and also on cspan. Org, and you can listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Ian from oceanside, new york. Caller i want to echo the guy from l. A. , but what concerns me is that gavin newsom wants to test people on the ship. But you have Homeless Veterans and americans in the street ready to run a lot of problems, and you are worried about having test kits in Detention Centers. When they come over illegally, we are supposed to let them loos e, or i would like you to agree with me that we should send them back to where they came from . What do you think, we should keep them six feet apart in Detention Centers . We have a problem here, but you better go clean up your street in california. Guest i think that anybody who is a vulnerable population our people have been exposed need to have access to test kits. The folks who were on a cruise ship were mixed within people who had the virus, so i think anybody needs to be tested if you have close proximity with people who have been exposed or have the virus. To keep here is everybody safe, and the idea is to prevent the spread and the se Global Pandemic and the crisis. Whether you have people on a cruise ship or you have people being detained, we want to prevent the spread of the virus and make sure that everybody has access to be tested so we know who we need to separate, who needs to be treated. And it is inhumane to suggest that people who are fleeing countries and the violence there to not have access to any treatment or testing and that we would just allow them to be ill and die and not be treated, that is inhumane. We willng sure that provide a government response that we are all working together for people and making sure they are safe and healthy and we deal with this Public Health crisis. Host Nanette Barragan, thank you for joining us on the washington journal. We will be joined by reid wilson of the hill to talk about primary day in six states. Stick around. We will be right back. During this election season, the candidates beyond the talking points are only revealed over time. But since you cant be everywhere, theres cspan. Our campaign 2020 programming differs from all other political coverage for one simple reason. Its cspan. Your brought you unfiltered view of government every day since 1979. We are giving you an unfiltered view of people looking to steer that government this november. In other words, your future. See the biggest picture for yourself and make up your own 2020with cspans campaign brought to you as a Public Service by your television provider. It combats out to be a campaign in which we have one standing off of the working class and the middle class. We are going to win that election. For those who have been counted out and left behind, this is your campaign. Watch our campaign 2020 coverage of the candidate speeches and results tonight cspan. Org or, listen with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. And it is super tuesday 2 coronavirus is dominating the news. Is here, author of the book epidemic. Lets start with the less scary of the topics. Six more states hold their democratic primaries today. What are the storylines . What should they be watching for this week . Glad you said super tuesday 2. Most critical one for both the campaigns right now is a state that Bernie Sanders won in 2016. Largest delegate hall and appears to be tilting towards joe biden. Hes gotten the support of not just cory booker and Kamala Harris but also the governor of the state gretchen witmer. The mayor of detroit who was a young dynamic up and comer. Seems to behment going behind former Vice President biden. Tois almost certainly going win mississippi by a pretty handy margin tonight. That similars estates that joe biden one last week won last week. Up tonight,e thats missouri looks like its going to go for joe biden as well. The really fascinating three states that im going to watch tonight are washington, idaho and north dakota. There are three states that went for Bernie Sanders years ago but there have been some changes in the way they conduct their elections. Those states held caucuses for years ago as a way to allocate their delegates. Theie sanders won Washington State caucuses by a significant margin in 2016 but he lost the beauty pageant primary. Withoutust voted delegates being allocated. Sanders is going to have trouble democraticoader elections. Inhington state has all male elections. State hasary of advised people not to lick their envelopes. Find another way to seal it. Use a sponge or paper towel so that nobody spreads coronavirus. State quotedary of in usa today about the people who have to open those ballots and set all the people opening are wearing gloves. They try to keep distance from their coworkers. From thee statement secretary of state. Of the six states that are up tonight, Bernie Sanders got four of them in 2016. It wouldnt surprise me if he only wins one of them tonight. Its a party run primary. Its more like you go in and cast your ballot and walk out. This is continuing the trend. We have seen sanders lose several state he won in 2016 and he has yet to win a state that he didnt win in 2016. He needs to grow. And he needs to grow fast. Otherwise this race is going to wrap up pretty quick. Host we have seen the ballot shrink. Mike bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren now the longer no longer in the race. The moderate and progressive lane that we talk about was always too simplistic. Iwas in iowa seven times and had a bunch of other early states as well. I was more likely to come across somebody struggling to decide between week Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren. Linesort of cross boundary tells you a little bit about the sort of people the sort of thing people were looking for. Somebody knew who could convince them they could be President Trump. None of those secondtier candidates made the sale that they were the ones who were best able to beat President Trump and so everyone resorted to the mean. Host four years ago on this program there would be guests surprised when callers said im for Bernie Sanders in the primary but if he doesnt get it, im voting for donald trump. Thosere were a lot of people. One of the consistent themes weve seen in the elections that have happened so far is that Bernie Sanders is underperforming among rural voters. The flow ofse where the system voters who voted for sanders in the primary. Voted for President Trump in the general election and have stayed republican. They are now trump voters. Bernie sanders promises a serious revolution to disrupt the system as it exists right now. Thats what President Trump promised. Of course they differ on how to get there and which systems to blow up. If they are looking for a revolution, they got it with President Trump. About Bernie Sanders making one of his closing arguments at of super tuesday 2. Heres what he had to say. Trump,ou want to defeat which all democrats do, a majority of independents, some republicans. We are that campaign. Alsod of all, what we understand is that while it is absolutely imperative that we be trump, weve got to do more than that. Transform this country so that we have an economy that works for you and you and you, not just wealthy campaign contributors. A government that says that what we need is a multiracial, multigenerational workingclass movement of people coming together for justice. Bernie sanders in missouri yesterday. Has anything changed much in Bernie Sanders pitch . Hes going much more heavily after biden. He recognizes the situation that his path the nomination is growing short. Hes got to take away support from biden and earn it himself. Themselves seem to be rendering a verdict on that very question that sanders just brought up. Democratic voters arent interested in more than just beating President Trump are the number one thing i hear over and over is i will vote for anybody. In iowa there were signs in peoples yard that said any senti in human 2020. Sankrgument that almost his Campaign Turns out to be the thing fueling his rise in these polls. Reid wilson with us this morning. Emocrats 202 7488000 republicans 202 7488001. 202 7488003 202 7488002. Bill is an independent. Good morning. Caller i would like to ask a question concerning the long , there are sixhour weights to vote in some of these states. I would urge all the people voting today to vote for Bernie Sanders because hes definitely head and shoulders above joe biden without a doubt. Comment on the number of democrats that are masquerading as republicans like Stephanie Murphy down here in florida and mike wela in texas. Fact that these people say they are democrats and vote 70 of the time with donald trump. Thank you very much. The concern about long voting lines is something people have wrought up especially lately after the texas primary. The last guy walked out of his polling place at like the clock in the morning or Something Like that after waiting for so long. An entire of spending workday waiting in line to vote is something that is a pretty massive problem in a state like texas thats going to be more in focus for the president ial contest. Even states like california there were long lines. We have seen the l. A. County board of supervisors calling up the Elections Department and trying to get assurances that those lines will not exist on election day. There are going to be three times as many people will voting on election day as in a primary. Texas, the problem is with counties. And a lot of these estates we are the only western democracy that has a noncentralized voting system. Its not up to the federal government to regulate how voting operates. Its not even up to the states. Texas has 200 54 counties and some of them its very near they have not made reparations for a higher turnout. The legislature cant do anything to address that unless theyre called in a special session because they are only in the oddnumbered years. Its going to be up to counties to do some real work to get more polling places open. Crackede has recently down on the use of mobile polling places which is used to get seniors and people who live far away from poland laces to cast a ballot. We will see if that hasnt a difference. From tony onion twitter. Is it that biden has been judged electable or that bernie has been deemed unelectable . That is a great question. Its a little of both i think. Ive been surprised by the ferocity of coverage after Bernie Sanders won the nevada caucuses. People not talking about him as a front runner as much as talk about how demo thats were freaking out about how they needed to stop him. Some personalities on cable news who went way over the line in casting sanders as some kind of threat when it would have been much more appropriate to just cover him straight and talk about what he was saying on the trail and what his appeal was to voters. Sanders has a lot of critiques of the media and the way the media treats him and he is not wrong. Candidate whohe was in the best position to be President Trump, that has been his pitch from the absolute beginning. Hasnt really borne out. We havent seen a surge of new voters and in a few cases the new voters casting their first ballot in the democratic primary are voting for biden more than for sanders. The pitch that he is uniquely capable of turning out this wave of voters who set out the last time, i dont see a lot of evidence for it in the actual numbers. In michiganoe biden making his closing on. Ago, the press declared this campaign dead. Then South Carolina spoke. Then super tuesday spoke. And the turnout was incredible. Michigan, mississippi, missouri, north dakota, idaho. You will be heard. Michigan, im counting on you in a big way. Senator sanders god bless him likes to say, we are only going to be donald trump generating excitement and turnout. Guesss what the what . On super tuesday we turned out 70 more voters and they voted for us. North carolina 19 more voters. Texas 40 were voters. Hes right. Out a going to turn Democratic Party that is supported by the backbone of this country. The fact is that this movement we started and all of you are part of his generating an incredible amount of motion around the country. We cant create a Movement Without there being powered by people who have been the days of the democratic primary. Host joe biden yesterday in michigan. The history of michigan and deciding primaries. Is the third contested democratic cycle in a row in which michigan has played a huge role. In 2008 michigan and florida violated Democratic National Committee Rules and held their primary earlier than they shouldve. They encroached on South Carolina and the early state window the democrats tried to protect. Their delegates would not be seated at the convention. There clinton campaigned pretty heavily trying to find some sort of momentum to revive her primary campaign. Barack obama stayed away and clinton won both of those states. Count andgates to then they struck it and the delegations got to show up at the convention anyway. In 2016, Bernie Sanders was the one who was behind the eight and was trying to find a boost of momentum to get ahead of clinton and he found it in michigan. He stuns the polls. He came out ahead when no one really expected him to and that gave his campaign a boost and vaultedm him. I feel bad for my home state of washington which i think is a pretty cool state and places like mississippi and idaho and north dakota where democrats have had less success on the statewide level but historically have faired better. They are going to get left off the front page lead story but michigan is now playing a big time real for the third time in a row. From the wolverine state to the volunteer state. Good morning. Caller good morning. Person africanamerican was a fan of Bernie Sanders. I wish ms. Warren would support him with her delegates so he can move forward and when the and they say we werent prepared healthwise to , and itthe pandemic kind of made me look at joe person who shows definitely that weve been waiting a long time for help here in america. Working people. That virus is the same thing to me. You are not prepared and you dont want to be prepared. Seei wish america would that we need people like Bernie Sanders to stand up and do the right thing. That i would like to say everybody, just put on your heads. Put her near gloves. Putting your scarves. Tire mouth up. Go vote and have a great day. I will put on my virus hat here for a second. The United States has not done the preparation it needs to do to battle a pandemic. , a pandemic like the coronavirus. Pandemic like ebola which is thanharder to get coronavirus. The Obama Administration and congress after the ebola passed a 5. 8 billion ebola supplemental bill and part thinkunded what you can of as a mini version of the centers for Disease Control and prevention in 40 other countries. Because we are a globalized world and people travel all over the place. If something happens in the democratic republic of the congo or liberia or wuhan, china, its going to come here eventually. Host was china one of those countries . Yes. The chinese version of the cdc sent are presented ofs to west africa to shallow the seat shadow the cdc officials. President obama called the president of china and made the case that if youre going to be a superpower on the International Stage you have to do things like help out when theres a pandemic virus. We were funding these many versions of the cdc in the 49 countries. That has run out. Host was it the funding that didnt pass it . Was sponsored by senator tom harkin from iowa. We do not spend the money preparing for a pandemic. Not to planature very well for the future. We should recognize that we are doing it again and actually make the preparations. Smarted to a really Global Health security expert and she said we should be seriously preparing for something of a pandemic nature that is happening right now and the very worst Case Scenario is that we spend a bunch of money improving our Public Health infrastructure. That sounds like a great idea to me. Book again, 2018 demic, ebola scramble ebola and the global scramble. How did you get into the issues of writing about epidemics and pandemics . We were just having lunch and i said, tell me some stories. The stories he was telling were knocking my socks off. The american response to the ebola out rake at a moment when we are all at each others partisanship and polarization is as bad as its ever been, this was a great moment to spotlight that americans of all strike did , puthing so selfless themselves in harms risk for people they would never meet that it spoke to the best of america. There was a scene where president obama hosted a bunch of survivors who had survived and some of the officials who were there were looking around and looking at an evangelical doctor who had volunteered in liberia who had come down with the disease and almost died. An older woman, also an evangelical volunteer, she almost died. Craig spencer, a young hippie liberal. Dr. From brooklyn. Young Asian American nurse. Huge process in all of america who did this selfless thing. Now that coronavirus is here, how confident are you that we are going to see the best of america again . In talking to a number people from across the Health Security space, there are some optimistic signs. If given are smart and the proper information about how to protect themselves and their communities they are going to do the right thing. Theyre going to engage in social distancing practices. They are going to stay home when they can. They are going to do everything possible. Washing our hands a lot now. Seeingd more we are state and local governments providing that information. What do you need to do and how do you need to do it. This is an opportunity that we should all see. To come together more as a country. I sound like im being too overly optimistic. If you have an elderly neighbor who lives alone, go check on him or her. Make sure they have the supplies they need for the chronic diseases. Is concerning to a lot of Public Health professionals, it may not be the coronavirus that kills the most people. Just like in west africa. It wasnt ebola. It was things that are treatable. In thets not malaria United States but its going to be hypertension and diabetes and things that are treatable in a normal Health Care System. If the Health Care System gets overwhelmed then we will have some real problems. Check on your neighbors. Host the house is scheduled to be in at 10 00 today. Livell take you there for gaveltogavel coverage. Until then, reid wilson is here. John is in california. Republican. Good morning. Caller id like to make a statement and ask a question. Trump inadvertently has set us up to be better protected from the coronavirus by closing the borders and bringing our Companies Back into america. System our health care privatized is doing quite well. The reason im saying that is because when you look at Bernie Sanders with open borders and socialized medicine, you have to think whats italy with socialized medicine . They are just getting clobbered. China with socialized medicine are just getting clobbered. Deaths bying with 26 putting america first, trumps policy has had the unintended consequences of protecting us from the coronavirus. Thats my statement. Id like to make one other statement on voting and getting people to vote. Its my opinion that no one should vote unless they fill out an income tax form. Whether you make no money or any money. Doesnt matter. You have to fill out that income tax form because 50 of americans dont. Formu cant fill out a tax , you can be coerced. I remember they were giving out cell phones one year. Whatever they can to get that vote. With anre dealing uninformed voter against an informed voter and i would rather see the informed voters vote than uninformed voters that have an coerced. Everybody has the right to vote. Thats in the constitution. Let me talk about the borders and the difference between countries here. Johns pulled up the hopkins form that shows where the cases are. I think its important to know that a larger number of cases is not evidence of a system Health Care System thats not working. Let me take the example of south korea. South korea is doing an incredible job finding this virus because they are testing people everywhere. They are testing people in drivethroughs. Last time i saw it was north of 100,000 tests. Therefore they are finding a lot of cases. To look at. Hing to compare south korea iran is about example because iran is a whole other halfhour i dont want to get into. 7500 cases. Only 54 deaths. That is great evidence of a robust Health Care System that is doing a lot to get people in treatment early. So that mortality rate is less than 1 . In the United States we have done less testing. When the president talks about a million tests going out, thats fantastic that we have the tests but we dont have the ability to process the tests as fast as possible. If we get tested, it doesnt do any good if its just in a test tube waiting to be processed. The koreans have done an outstanding job testing as many people as possible and getting those people in treatment early. Thats evidence of a robust system. Same thing. Ng the they are testing as many people as they possibly can and locking down the country to stop the virus before it spreads further. Italy, 463 deaths. 724 recovered. Thats going to rise before this is over. Again, thats a better mortality rate than weve seen in wuhan, china or places like iran where we may have serious disaster coming down the pike. Just because there are more cases thats not a sign of an illequipped health system. Its a sign they are testing a lot and therefore getting a lot of people in treatment. Host in florida, democrat, good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to make one point, mr. Wilson. Whether you give people small or large metrics, it really doesnt matter when their ears are closed and all they want to do is make a political point. I understand what you were trying to say and i truly say and i truly appreciate your argument for that. My question is and the reason im calling is because somebody did Say Something about Stephanie Murphy. I happen to be Stephanie Murphys constituent. I happen to be a democrat and i happen to be an old hippie whose 66 years old. So i take real umbrage when somebody doesnt call me a real democrat. Really, not Stephanie Murphy. The deficient not only between republicans and democrats but between democrats within their own party. Systemic ofits a whats actually happening. We have to grab to one person and one person alone. Bernie sanders is a great guy. Socialist programs are idyllic and utopian and god i wish we could have them. I really do. Seen arguments that economically and mathematically that might not be the case. But if he became the nominee, i would vote for him. If joe biden becomes the nominee i will vote for them. Because the truth is like you said before, any sentiment being, my dog, my cat or myself i will take for donald trump. Think is goingu to win the democratic primary next week . Oh please. After mr. Sanders said the Literacy Program thing which is close to mussolini running the trains on time . Who do you think . Really. Come on. Jans political analysis is probably correct on florida. One thing that jumps out at me when people talk about the divisions between the parties, these two parties are more homogenous ideologically than they ever have them. Even 25, 30 years ago when there were southern democrats like richard shelby. The senator from alabama who got elected as a democrat and switched to republican when bill clinton got elected. Bill clinton was the governor of arkansas. He was a centrist who is the product of a Democratic Leadership council. There were effectively for parties in congress. There were southern democrats who were very conservative. There where the rockefeller republicans in the northeast who and the moreeral conservative republicans out west. Gone andtinctions are now a democrat from alabama is going to vote the same way as a democrat from my hometown of seattle and a republican from seattle is going to vote the same way as a republican from alabama. Theave erased a lot of internal lines and the differences between the parties are tiny. Host where does Collin Peterson fall in . Running for reelection in a district that donald trump won by 30 points. Ironically in the state that has voted for a democrat for president longer than any other state. So peterson is a democrat of a different era. Hes got a good shot at winning reelection. Win reelection, whatever republican when their primary would certainly win that seat. Peterson is one of the rare members of congress who has built himself a reputation that transcends party. There arent a lot of those across the country. Host is there another one off the top of your head . Pete king from new york. Democrats have a pretty good shot of winning his district. Host john. Republican. Good morning. Caller thank you for cspan. I have a statement to make about Bernie Sanders and then i have something to say about the coronavirus. Have is in your research and talks with different people, what are some of the reasons they say they support Bernie Sanders . Because Bernie Sanders whether we like it or lack or not, is out of touch with his own party. Free health care for all because it just cant be done. When i talked to a lot of the people in palm beach, especially the cuban people will tell you that socialism has never worked. On the coronavirus i think we all do need to come together on things to get same some things done. Do like we used to do in the old days. We would just come together and help each other. Relatives andly so forth. Little things like that. Accomplish a lot. Thats all i have to say. So why sanders. The people i talked to at sanders rallies, they want to revolution. I think the system is stacked guy, those little who are not powerful. Found just a huge number of people who gravitate to that and to his point, there are a lot of people who come out for him because of him and would not show up for any other politician anywhere. Sanders attracts a group of people who want to see the system blown up and refashioned in a way that would that to them. On your neighbors, excellent. I love to hear it. Lets all do that. Host we will head to minneapolis. Douglas. Independent. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I dont know how people can continue to defend President Trump with his most ignorant kind of conduct regarding so many issues. But about the virus for example. He has come out and said that people can even go back to work during this time and it will just go away. Him. Hen they defend its indefensible. Peopleer aspect is the who are panicking about socialism. You already have socialism here. Public schools. Roads. Public hospitals. I can go on down the list. Most people have no clue what socialism is. They just regurgitate and dont read or anything. Host we talked about President Trumps proposed economic response to the coronavirus. Raising the payroll tax cut, relief for hourly workers. Do you support those . I support it. Its late and there was a comment made that people dont prepare. Will obviously south korea was prepared because they have run so many tests. Its incredible. Not beingws you about prepared and that he allocated this money after we were already in crisis. And then for the people talking about not testing people that are detained, its just an ignorant idea because the people can go back, spread the virus, wherever they come from and it reenters us in larger quantities. There are a couple things that the president has a limited supply of and can never get get get back. The clock is always ticking whether its a fouryear clock or eightyear clock. The other is trust. The president squanders trust that americans have in him to handle a crisis, he might never recover. We saw that with george hwb bush. After Hurricane Katrina and mishandling what happened in new ratings his approval fell and never came back. Not into calling this somebodys katrina or Something Like that but if this response goes really poorly for President Trump, his solid base may start to crumble pretty fast. Host who are the trusted government officials during ebola and are any of them still around today . One was tom friedman, the director of centers for Disease Control and prevention. Hes now running a global nonprofit. I spent an hour on the phone with him trying to learn lessons from the outbreaks in his career. This is not the first outbreak. There will be more in the future so we need to learn the lessons. Still inho was government you have probably or seenthe sunday shows him during their briefings. He is the director of the National Institute for allergy and infectious diseases. Hes been there since the reagan administration. Trump is the sixth president he has served and he is a guy who takes these really complicated questions and translates them for us. One of virus hits, he shows up on the sunday shows. He has a very distinctive brooklyn accent. He was apparently back in the day the loan yankees fan and dr. Territory. A world leading aids researcher who works his way up through nih. There are not many people in the world who have treated more aids patients than he has. He is one of those people who t exudes confidence competence. There were some concerns that he was not allowed to speak as freely as he should. So becauseted doing he eggs is the expert. And yet he is warning about this. I think its fair to warn about the dangers of the coronavirus. Not to scare anybody put to spur people from prepare to prepare. As simple as washing your hands and covering your mouth when you cough. Of shakingng instead hands. Im cool with just a wave. The elbow thing is weird. The hill. Com. It came out on saturday. The author reid wilson with us this morning. Delaware. Yce in republican. Good morning. Caller ive been listening to the show. This whole thing started with the democrats. Just another propaganda of donald trump. Hes doing everything he can. Theyve brought in the most leading people. I think its a scare tactic. Its all about the election and the Republican People i know are just sick and tired of it. Host i hope this thing doesnt become actually partisan. The coronavirus is scary and it is going to infect a lot of people. It already has infected more than 100,000 people around the world. The notion that this is a scare tactic is troubling to me because we have the greatest Health Care System in the world. We can stop Something Like this but it takes a concerted effort beyond just doctors and nurses. We have to engage in the practices that keep us safe. I have a three and a halfyearold at home. Im trying to teach him to wash his hands. No reason to be afraid, but reason to take precautionary steps and do things like wash your hands and stay home when you are sick. Host its about 116,000 confirmed cases around the world. Total deaths over 4000. Numberal recovered continuing to take up. Look at the orange line. That is the case count in china. You can see that its bending downward. Theres a bell curve that happens with infections. Experiencingey are fewer and fewer cases. The source of the outbreak is starting to show fewer cases. But they took really extreme steps that are not available to the United States. We are not going to lock down whole cities and prevent people from traveling. Which means its incumbent upon steps that are super simple. Thats our version of the measures they have taken in china. Americans are smart. We are smart enough to do this if people tell us. Host in vermont. This is jeanette. A democrat. Good morning. You are on with reid wilson. Caller im a native vermonter and i work on volunteered with Bernie Sanders for 30 years ever since he was the mayor. And then a big issue came up in vermont and it was the f35s. And f35 is capable of carrying nuclear missiles. And we are in a small community. I live about five miles from burlington. Bernie sanders was for the f35. We have a shortage of housing. In order to get the f35s to be located here and Bernie Sanders was a main leader of this, we had to take out at least 10 million worth of housing. Housing wasw income bulldozed because bernie wanted f35s. Well the f35s are totally capable of carrying Nuclear Weapons. For peace. Was he always said i dont want the proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and we said bernie, then you cant have it both ways. He goes, they are coming. End of story. And all these people that have supported bernie, thats why he only got 50 of the vote this time in the primaries. Talk on one side of his mouth and he will say another thing to his constituents. Host this is the story from july of last year. Bernie sanders faces backlash over the 1. 2 trillion war machine he brought to vermont. In my nonvirus and nonpresident ial life i cover what happens outside the beltway and to her point, one of the themes thats cropping up in cities around the country is a lack of affordable housing. And im not just talking about seattle and san francisco. Moines,ing about des iowa. Minneapolis is seeing rent skyrocket. We are experiencing a housing crisis around the country that is increasingly the focus of state and local governments. I talked to the speaker of the iowa state house and hes really worried about the supply of housing as a cap on Economic Growth in northern iowa. If you cant have workers coming into fill jobs, the companies cant get bigger. Youre going to see a lot more elected officials paying attention to the housing supply in coming years. I feel like that was a very odd tangent for the rest of the conversation that weve had. Host the house is getting ready to come in this morning. Calls asn, your phone we sit with reid wilson this morning. Denise in college park, maryland. Caller good morning. Thank you. Host go ahead. Caller i have a comment about the coronavirus and the voting. As far as the coronavirus im a little confused on why we are being told its ok to fly when youre guest just said earlier that the biggest problem we have with this virus in order to contain or end it is testing, testing, testing. If no ones being tested, why would it be safe to fly. So i have a problem with that. Voting, i like biden. I trust him. I believe in his track record. But i dont think he will be able to stand up to donald trump unless his debate is mostly attacking his policies, mannerisms, character and all the things that he did not do as president. And one other thing on the coronavirus. Why is he Walking Around shaking peoples hands. What type of leadership is that . To shake peoples hands during this outbreak . The shaking hands at the rallies, i wish you would stop that. Thats the one thing that man. Lets stop shaking hands for a little while. Thats a totally reasonable step to take. It doesnt cost anything. Host theres the picture that has gotten a lot of attention and the video of it from the Washington Post. The president shaking hands with supporters in orlando. He is just bathing in Hand Sanitizer these days. It would not be good if im not even going to go there. One of the things denise talked about is the challenges of joe budden debating. The guy who teaches democrats how to debate and highpressure situation is getting run clean. Former chief of staff to joe biden and al gore, also the guy who if you are reading Washington Post opeds about the coronavirus and the appropriate response, look at the byline. Host what was his background . Why did he get picked for that . The Obama Administration got criticized because he did not have a medical background. Thats not what is required for a job like this. What we need the most for an effort that is across departments and agencies and things like that as somebody who understands how Government Works and who to call to get agency x transport across the country to where its needed. How to get the leverage of government working and thats what you need most in a case like this. Its not a medical response. Its a government response. The government basically was acting to bolster the medical and Public Health systems. You dont need a medical expert to do that. You need somebody who knows how to get the supplies from the government to the health system. Host coronavirus likely to be a subject talked about on the floor of the house today. Livell take you there for gaveltogavel coverage. You can also continue watching on cspan3. We will be heading over to one of the subcommittees at the House Appropriations committee with the director of the centers for Disease Control. Robert redfield will be testifying there. Been talking a lot about super tuesday. Tonight our coverage of the results of the candidate speeches begins at 9 00 p. M. Here on cspan. We hope you join us for that. John in woodbury, new jersey. A republican. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Im on the air . Host whats your question . Caller keep saying they dont have money to pay the bills. What is an President Trump nstate the Corporate Tax doesnt President Trump reinstate the Corporate Tax and make it retroactive to 2006 . Thatt something republicans typically do. Increasing taxes especially in a retroactive way. Be an issue in the general election. The role of taxes and how much. Host in brooklyn. Democrat. Good morning. Caller i just had a quick comment. Thanks for doing this. Wilson,commented, mr. That americans are smart enough. Country only china or a like china would do Something Like shut down its country which obviously wouldnt be the case for Something Like italy. My question to you would be, whats it going to take for americans, and i hate to be polarizing on this, but americans that support trump so heavily, whats it going to take for them to realize that coronavirus isnt a political tool. Vice president mike pence is increasingly delivering a message of prepare and get ready. Areappropriate messages coming out of this administration. Maybe not from the president himself but at least from his people. So the message is getting across. If supporters he is delivering good advice about things like washing their hands. Those messages are getting across. I hope everybody listens to them and pays attention because they are coming from democrats, republicans, career officials, politicians and everybody across the spectrum. Its good advice. Less lets listen to it. Wilson from the hill. Thank you. Now we will take you live to the house floor for gaveltogavel coverage. We will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. 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