Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 04072020 20240713

Result of the pandemic. Jared joins us to discuss changes to alcohol laws in several states amid the coronavirus outbreak. Host good morning, it is tuesday, april 7, 2020. The number of coronavirus deaths in the u. S. Is now past 10,000. In new york officials expressed hope that the pandemic is in wisconsin voters will head to the polls despite efforts to cancel in person voting over fears of spreading the virus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been diagnosed with the disease and moved to intensive care. We are giving you the chance to talk about all of this this morning on washington journal. Our phone lines are spit up regional ash split up regionally. In the eastern or central time zone, 202 7488000. Mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. You can send us a text at 202 7488003. If you do include your name and where you are from. Follow us on social media csp anwj. A very good Tuesday Morning to you. You can go ahead and start calling and now as we show you the front page of the wall street journal u. S. Deaths crossed 10,000 in the struggle to contain the contagion or can contagion. The death toll exceeding the battlefield deaths of six major u. S. Wars. Waramerican revolution, the of 1812, the mexican war, the indian war, the pen spanishamerican war, and desert storm. The number of coronavirus fatalities is more than double of the most deadly illnesses in america, lung cancer and the flu. The frontine from page of the New York Times new york seeing a glimmer of hope. Here is Governor Andrew Cuomo expressing expressing cautious optimization optimism. Of. Cuomo total number hospital admissions down, icu admissions down, and daily intubations are down. Those are all good signs and suggest a possible flattening of the curve. The number of discharges is down and that reflects the overall reduction in the numbers. The big question we are looking , what is the curve . We have been talking about cases increasing until they dont. When they stop increasing, then what happens . The projection models have a number of alternatives. Curve goes uphe and then drops precipitously. Some suggest there is a slight pause at the top. Some suggest there is a longer pause at the top which is effectively a plateau effect. Straightraight up and down precipitous drop which is the peak effect. We cannot tell you which will occur. Host Governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday, that was followed later in the day by a Task Force Briefing from the white house. Talkinganthony fauci about potentially good news coming out of new york. Dr. Fauci Governor Cuomo reported Interesting Data today from new york. The number of hospitalizations and the number of admissions to intensive care, and a decline in integrations over the last three days. Knows iy who knows me am conservative about making projections, but those are the kinds of good signs you look for , you never think about claiming victory prematurely, but that is the first thing you see when you start to see a turnaround. That does not mean you dont have a lot of work to do. That tells me instead of saying that is pretty good we got there through mitigation. Of people the stream who ultimately required hospitalization, required into bashan, all kinds of extreme methods. We have to realize this is an indication despite all the suffering and the debt that has occurred that what we have been doing has been working. But call that i say when i get to this podium is keep it up, this will get us out of it. This is our best and only Great Public Health tool. Faucher. Anthony yesterday at the white house Task Force Briefing. There will be another one today, watch it on cspan. Taking your phone calls on phone lines and up regionally. In new york, this is bob, in new york city. Go ahead. Caller good morning, thank you for cspan. Fair program. , press conferences are bizarre. I enjoy learning from the doctors when they speak, but as far as what our Supreme Leader contributes is bizarre. It is more like it is taking the place of his Campaign Rallies that he is unable to have. He did not want to give it up but he gave it up because he had to because of the virus. He has now substituted the showign rallies for this that he puts on. The coronavirus pandemic shows how chronic a liar trump is. If he was able to control his lies he would not lie about a deadly virus, which is a matter of life and death. Likely so much it is he believes his own lies, the best liars believe their own lies so when they talk they dont sound like they are lying. Host how are you doing in new york city . We are wiping everything down. Trying to wear gloves, trying to wear masks, wiping down our groceries. There was a doctor from the midwest who had shown a procedure for bringing in your groceries, dividing the table in onf and putting unclean wiped down groceries on one side, wiping them down. We are doing what we have to do. We know a few people who are sick that have not been tested. Is ok. And my family i hope you are ok and the cspan family i dont wish to make this a partisan thing. It is not a partisan thing. This virus is not partisan. I have republican friends and trump believers who have come around to see that we have a president who is not telling the truth. It is one thing if it is about matters,and outside but when it comes to matters of life, death, and health, i have Many Republican friends who have come around and seen through the lies. Host stay safe new york. A story out of wisconsin this morning. Wisconsin primary elections today back on. The state Supreme Court getting in the final word. Thwarting the governors attempts to postpone in person voting in the state apostle selection and reschedule the the seventh. E the Supreme Court got involved extended blocked an attempt at early voting. Lacked the authority to unilaterally change an election date through the executive order he issued. The bottom line is i have an obligation to keep people safe and that is why i signed this executive order, governor ebert said, prior to the court order overturning his order. Other states and puerto rico have postponed their elections. Have replacedming in person voting with mailin voting. Wisconsin, this is randy in madison. Are you going to vote . Isler the unfortunate part our Republican Legislature is playing games with people possible lives. This is a cynical play. They know the election should not be on but they are doing it because they believe that the republicans can sway the election, the fewer people vote republicans win. Fitzgerald and voss are their names, they are playing with peoples lives, literally. I dont know why they are doing it. I dont understand. I am expecting a low voter turnout. Most of the area i am in have voted by absentee ballot. The madison city clerk was swamped with letters. They were taking tens of thousands per day on their twitter feed. It is sad that they have to play politics with peoples lives. This is unbelievable and unconscionable in the u. S. Host before you go, do you want to say who you voted for in the president ial primary . The headline today asking whether wisconsin will be a last stand for bernie sanders. Won last time and i am hoping he will again. Biden is an uninspiring candidate. Im going to vote for whoever it comes to this fall. Biden will not inspire anybody, he is like hillary 2. 0. Host a quote from the New York Times noting that, despite everything that coronavirus has done to shake up the president ial campaign, mr. Sanders has pushed on and in wisconsin has campaigned with more than 50 Staff Members dedicated to the state. They have made more than 300,000 phone calls to voters and they continue to use their proprietary app with a virtual barn storm with a representative from wisconsin. Endorsing mr. Sanders as he fights to stay in the race. In 2016 he tromped Hillary Clinton in the state, winning 71 of 72 counties there. Out of las vegas, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you. I have a comment about the coronavirus host go ahead, jim. Saddest timeis the for america in the last 50 or 60 years. More than 368 people are morering this disease and than 10,000 people have died. Is ask what we should do how we can save lives. Whatever these experts say, then the president should use politics to implement that. Economy and other things saving lives, thats it. Host when it comes to saving lives, do you think these now three legislative efforts that congress has passed, the last one was a massive 2 trillion stimulus effort, is that helping in this effort . I cannot hear you. Host thats all right. Jim out of las vegas. Maybe priscilla out of california has some thoughts, go ahead. Caller i just heard the first two people that called. This place looks like everyone everywhere you look looks like a twilight zone. I hear people calling and putting down our president. Tos is the time for people not be blaming this on anyone except the people that brought it on us. No one can do anything about this. Of a person,pect it does not matter what color you are or what party you are with. It doesnt matter whether you are rich or poor, a king president , dont be so evil in shaming and putting blame on someone. Host thats priscilla. President trump has been a staple at the coronavirus Task Force Briefings and likely will be leading it again today. We are covering it on cspan. Yesterday the president talked quite a bit about the potential of another stimulus bill, that fourth package that congressional leaders talked about with continue discussions about what could be included. This is what the president said on that topic. You mentioned senator schumer just a moment ago. He had a Conference Call today and he believes that a covid for relief bill will be necessary, do you share that belief . Dr. Fauci i dont real trump i want a infrastructure, not agree new deal i am not looking for a carbon footprint. Wenkly, for so many years have let out infrastructure go to hell because we are wasting all our money in the middle east. I want to rebuild our country. Rebuild if you can call it that or destroyed it. What we have done is so crazy. The direction this country has taken is so sad. We want i Real Infrastructure of 2ike in the vicinity trillion to completely rebuild our roads, bridges, highways, tunnels, everything. I am totally open to listening. I am also open to listening to and putting forward more money for our citizens. They have been through trauma. Nowhere. Out of we had the greatest economy in the history of the world. We had the most people working. Our professionals correctly came to us and they said we have to close down the country. We have to close down our country. Downntire world closed because of this hidden enemy. We are going to take good care of our people. Host yesterday from the white house, you heard him talking about the potential for major infrastructure deals. We will take up that topic at 8 00 a. M. Eastern, we will talk about what may be on the table in terms of a transportation and infrastructure deal. Stick around for that discussion. On phonen, your calls lines split up regionally. Central and eastern time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain or pacific time zones 202 7488001. This is jim out of lady lake, florida. Caller good morning. I want to make a comment on a call a few callers back. He said our president was making this a political rally. Shame. Gets his 1200 check and cashes it he will be happy people will hate the president so much. Some people dont need it. Um thats about all i have to say on it. Host out of fairfield, california. Caller good morning, how are you . Host i am good. Withr i was wondering, the repeal of the Affordable Care act how is this a affecting the cost of covid19 . They had to put money in the stimulus package to cover anyone tested, when under the Affordable Care act, known as obama care, everyone would have been covered and they have to put more money into the Health Care Systems to get everyone covered in addition to the 17 states that are still challenging the Affordable Care act. That means there will be another stimulus package that the taxpayers will have to pay for if the republicans had not repealed this, they were supposed to replace it. I wonder where that is. Some cases about the Affordable Care act are making their way through the courts. , what do is all over you think the coronavirus experience will mean for health in this country . Do you think there is a case to be made to drastically change the way we do health care . Caller there has always been a case of how to change health care, but they are so adamant about repealing the Affordable Care act all we have to do is tweak the Affordable Care act. Health care is going to become a problem in this country. Just work on repairing the Affordable Care act we might not be in this situation of spending all this money now in order for people to get tested. Host large parts of the Affordable Care act are still in place. You are correct in that there have been efforts by republicans to change part of it. Caller thats correct. Being in california we still have the exchanges and are doing the same. We kept medicare exchanges open, so we are ok. There are states around the country that are challenging up to the Supreme Court to repeal this and it will cost more money. Thats something i wanted to put out there. Out ofhis is kent diamond, missouri. Caller good morning. The first thing i heard this was a trump hater, thats all i hear every morning on here. What i am calling about is we have very little of the virus in this part of missouri. I am in a rural area and we seem to be doing pretty good. I think most of the citizens around here are waiting for their jobs to open back up so they can go back to work. Thats about all i have to say at this point. Host before you go, you talked about trump haters. I wonder what you think about what we learned about yesterday and formerdent trump Vice President biden a conversation yesterday. What that should mean to people around the country who have strong feelings on one side or the other. What do you think about those men talking . Caller it was a good thing that they talk. I know they did not bring anything out in public. What i dont like about the news conferences every day is too many reporters asking questions. They want to play this got you game. That is sickening. Especially during this time. Is kenneth in diamond, missouri. A story from the New York Times calling it a rare direct conversation between the two. Mr. Biden had offered to speak with trump and they connected after the biden team renewed efforts to reach out to the white house on monday following a tweet by the president that read whatever happened to the phone call that joe biden said he wanted to make today. This is President Trump talking about the phone call. Was informed that Governor Cuomo has told you and announced he called me up a while ago and wondered whether it would be possible to use the ship with respect to fighting the virus. , andd not had that in mind we are also going to let new jersey, governor murphy, we spoke with him a while ago and new jersey is going to use it also because new jersey is a hotspot. Governor murphy and Governor Cuomo are going to be using the ship and its a big ship, it is set for covid and we are hopefully hopefully that will be very helpful to both states. The java center bill for our military will be manned by the military, they will be in place tomorrow and they will start sending a few people over to that center. It is convenient and in the middle of everything. That will be something great. Governorste the really nice statements and likewise governor murphy. We have worked very well with both of them and with frankly all of the governors, Vice President pence had a call this morning with them that lasted for close to two hours. I understand there was not a negative person on the call, 50 governors or just about 50 governors. I think they were all on from what i understood. They were very positive about everything. The federal government president was the talking about his conversation with governors around the country including Governor Andrew Cuomo. TalkingPresident Trump about his phone conversation with former Vice President joe biden. Bidens spokesperson made some suggestions that there are actions you could take . Pres. Trump we agreed we would not talk about what was said. It was a good talk. I enjoyed it, i hope he enjoyed it. Suggestions . E good pres. Trump he had suggestions, it doesnt mean i agree. I told him some of the things we are doing. The conversation was a very friendly conversation. Host the president from the white house. Another coronavirus Task Force Briefing taking place this afternoon. Calls, rene phone from west chester, pennsylvania. Caller the first thing i want to say is the conversation between trump and biden, on bidens part would be decent. Biden is a gentleman and a professional. Public ite out to the would be on that level of professionalism. Thing, every day i dont need to watch trump go on and on about things that he does not have a background in. He does not have a medical background. He is not a doctor. I want to hear from the specialist. Let them speak a little bit, for a moment. I want to hear more from the specialist, the medical doctors, the specialists and infective disease or virus specialist. Those are the people i want to hear from. Toant to i dont want hear the president throwing out off label medicines about this is for this but this will work and there is not enough medical data or proof to back it. Host i dont have any statistics, but since you have been watching these do you think the medical professionals spoke more in earlier briefings and are speaking less now . What is your sense of how this has been flowed ebbed and flowed . Caller trump is a media hog who misses his rallies. There in has to be out front of the microphone. Medical professionals, i think some of them speak a little less feel a little less and maybe that might change. Somewhere in the beginning they spoke a little more but that is who i want to hear from. From south san francisco. Good morning. Caller good morning. I agree with the last caller. I dont want to watch the trump briefing every day, i want to hear from the doctors. And is very serious to me dont like the way he is handling this. I dont think it is nice of him to attack the news people who want to ask a question that we all want to know. I dont understand why he is behaving that way. I have one more thing to say. I dont understand why people and call in and act like everyone hates trump. Trump is really hateful. I do not think anybody hates them, they want him to do the right thing. Of california, this is isaac out of bellingham, washington. Good morning. John, andod morning, thank you for cspan. Are with everyone in the cspan family and everyone that is listening and all the medical workers. , onein concern right now of my main concerns for the coronavirus, when you see what is going on with wisconsin is that we need to establish universal mailin voting in the country. We have it in Washington State and we have for a while. It is very easy and very secure. You can go online and see when your ballot is accepted and counted. I have no idea what the argument against it would be. Of this, how in the world can you argue against it . It makes me nervous and sad that we could jeopardize not just the primaries but the general election in november. It is likely medical experts say to come back in the fall. Host one concern about moving to that kind of system is it would be a drastic change for states that dont have an allmale in system to try to do , with a lot ofr people not voting or not figuring out how to vote. Your thoughts on that . Raised that when we said we are going to put a man on the moon and it took a National Effort and we did that. This seems to be a far shorter call than putting someone on the moon in the 1960s. We have withem television, text messages, and ial media i hope we are, i really do. To the democrats identify less and less with the democrats as time goes on, i hope they figure it out if they want any chance of getting rid of this president. The not i think president is incredibly dangerous, foolish, and not a leader. He is not able to lead us. In washington. This is connie out of illinois. Good morning. Good morning. I was watching Laura Ingrahams show and she had a lady on from michigan, she holds office in michigan. She is a black lady, democrat, and she was praising donald trump for saving her life. In michigan that medicine that the mosquito medicine. Said [no audio] host are you still with us . Caller yes. Host finish your comment. She was diagnosed on march 12 and we will give you a chance to figure out what is going on with your phone. We go to maggie on long island. Caller good morning. I wanted to talk about how i think that this was avoidable in that everything that i have seen and read has said that people in power have known about this. Now that it is here and the death toll has been set at what it is and we know that people are going to die, i want to know what people can learn from this in tunes of in terms of government and voting. What we have learned is we need competence in government and trump has failed and continues to fail. People understand why refuse to see the reality of this. People need to wake up. Trump has failed from day one in my opinion, but this is just a show of how much he has fumbled this. Not just the pandemic itself, his presidency. The entire concept of him in office. The main thing here is the importance of people governing who care about the sanctity of office. People should elect leaders who listen to science and leaders who actually care about people, not just the industries that they are getting money from. The local about on level, who is your member of congress out in long island . Not actually entirely sure of that. Host who on the local level is doing well . Callr we did receive a from our town representative at the local levels people telling us to stay home. The new york response has been great. I feel thatmo the general lack of the federal response in terms of making sure that states are not bidding against each other for respirators is ridiculous. We need a federal response. At the very least, having the federal government saying this is what we recommend. The federal government did not have to mandate a stayathome order but they could have recommended it so we do not have the seven or eight states who still do not have stayathome orders. In longat is maggie island. David in flint, michigan, good morning. Caller good morning. I am enjoying the calls today is one oflad michigan those states that killed the obama health care. People that cannot afford it has been a blessing to the working poor that do not have Insurance Coverage on their jobs. And also i would like to hear stuffrom the doctors and telling us Different Things to do to keep from catching the virus. It is hitting the black community kind of hard in michigan. Knowledge ofasic what to do to keep from getting it. Our governor has done a great job when she closed everything down here. Is a curfewt there from 9 00 p. M. Until 6 00 a. M. Every night to ensure that people do not gather at stores and stuff. Blame President Trump for anything. I kind of blame the voters that put them in there. Trump was not a politician. He did not know how the constitution worked. He did not know any of this stuff. He is in a role he is not qualified for and when this pandemic came, america is a country with the smartest professors, the best colleges, and when you dont have a person that knows anything about science or statistics or how to handle a country of this magnitude, i do not blame trump. I blame the people that put them in there. Cspan and listen to instead of the people calling into worry about the people that are dying by the droves, they are calling in trying to campaign and take on for trump. Trump is alright, hes a billionaire with good health care. We need somebody to help these people that are dying. Comments started your talking about how coronavirus is impacting the black community specifically. I dont have numbers for michigan, but here is a story in the Washington Post looking at wisconsin, specifically milwaukee. Residents that have died of covid19 in milwaukee were black according to the medical examiners office, that is 73 though black residents made of the countys coronavirus infections. Difference is more glaring statewide. Black residents represent more than half of coronavirus deaths, the state that is only 6 black. This story from the washington communitiesit black in milwaukee fighting back against coronavirus. Michael from silver spring, maryland you are next. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing all right. Caller i want to thank you and all of the other hosts for what you do. I feelu all get together thisut you hear all people jumping on trump, than for the last eight years before that you heard all these people jumping on obama, in the years before that you heard everybody jumping on george w. Bush, and the years before that going back to clinton it is just a flipflop. I know you sit in that chair wanting to shake your head. Host i was talking to a host yesterday, it is a privilege to be able to do this and hear what people think. Especially at a time right now where people want to talk. Bere glad to be able to here and listen. I commendnow, you. Listener. Gtime cspan for eight years it was obama hate to the maximum. All of a sudden you hear all this whimpering and crying coming from the people that support trump. I think it is a guilt thing bad he is buthow somebody has to defend him. I have to call in and defend him. They see the craziness in the briefings. Narcissistic it is all about me responses and not being sympathetic. He has not said anything. I am an obama supporter. I think that he would be trying to call people that have lost themy members and console and hear their i dont know. With this man it is just about the stock market. Now . Ives a shit right we are trying to get well. We need healing right now. Caller when do you think healing comes . Caller we should be in the. Ealing part now in the emergency Pandemic Response group. That that whole group trump got rid of is response. Where theye thing had a group of people creating models and situations prior to giving into the that we would , we got rid of it so there is no kind of response, it is just makeshift come up some in ship and it is incredible what we are seeing. You notice trump does not read. Playbook fromf a the response group. Host i do want to point you to this story that looks at, it may not be specifically the response that you are talking about but investments in Public Health and looking at it over the long term. Specifically focusing on the years after the 2008 recession. From todays Washington Times. The story noting that as the economy recovered from the recession, Public Health funding did not recover across administrations. A review of budget figures and interviews with experts showed a persisted despite several outbreaks from h1n1 to ebola. Under democratic and republican administrations and while there is no single number, the budget for the federal centers for Disease Control agency for Public Health felt like 10 fell by 10 between 2010 and 2019 after adjusting for inflation. The story noting that the group found that funding to help state and local officials prepare for emergencies such as coronavirus outbreak had fallen to 1 billion after 9 11 and 650 million between 2008 and 2017 state and local Health Departments lost more than 55,000 jobs. 1 5 of the workforce, a major factor in responding to covid19. If you want to read about that study that story is in todays Washington Times. Doug in newport news, virginia. Caller good morning. I do agree with him that you are the best thing on the news because msnbc is too biased. What you just read is right, it is the government, not just this president s fault. He is at fault somewhat, he has been in office for three years, but there were people before him. If the country would stop this hating trump, running him down, making up news, and pull together like we did in rough times during world war ii and Everything Else we would come together better and stop criticizing and hating President Trump. He is doing the best he can, if somebody can do it better run for office. Who would want to be president right now . Host this is donnie out of north carolina, good morning. Caller good morning. The caller before me just pretty much said everything i was going to say. We have got to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. Every american needs to be accountable for themselves and how they take care of themselves because of the unknown. We need to stop the hate and Work Together so we can work as americans together. All of the news media, all of them spread fear, fear, fear. We should have faith, not fear. Our fightsust send above instead of cutting everybody down and hating on everybody who does not agree with the other side. Towards thet you cal thomas column in the Washington Times and other papers today, his syndicated column saying everywhere you look from newspaper headlines to tv alerts to those white house briefings, people Wearing Masks in public places, there is hardly any news that is not negative. Stories of people not getting the coronavirus or people who have recovered from the coronavirus are usually buried or not covered at all. This negative attitude produces its own kind of infection. He ends the column by saying, for those inclined to worship and authority higher than scientists or federal governments there is a song that Elvis Presley saying i have confidence that god will see me through, no matter what the case will be he will fix it for me. Lets accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. We will feel better and it might have a side effect of benefiting our immune system. The front of good news, here is a sidebar story from usa today about some good news. A local community outside of iowa, residents in this indiana town woke up thursday and checked their mailboxes and found a gift. An anonymous donor surprise the 540 nine by purchasing gift cards to local businesses and arranging for the city to send them to every household. Residents of the town received an envelope containing 350 gift cards to westside bar and grill, hometown market, and broken branch. The cards added up to more than 82 thousand dollars spent by a donor between those restaurants. It started with a march 26 call to the mayor from a man who said he was contacting him on behalf of the anonymous donor. The donor wanted to pump some money into the local economy. They do not know who the donor was but he says if social distancing rules were not in place he would give that person a hug. Financially it is one of the biggest things to happen to this small town. Leave from orlando, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. Nurse. I am an assistive is forent this morning be esident, dont to feed people when you put them outside to decrease crime in the country. It is time for us to get together and to pray for us to be all right right now. I asked the president to make a big effort to have Health Care Workers save on the safe on the front line. Host christopher out of frederick, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning, hello. Want to thank cspan for bringing us this program where we can contribute our comments. I have been paying attention to everything in the discussion this morning. , i do wanted to say was not hate the president. I have noticed a lot of donald Trump Supporters calling talking about people hating on donald trump. My problem is that some of us knew that if donald trump was not knew that donald trump was not qualified to be president. This is the first crisis donald trump has had to deal with, and like most of us predicted he is fumbling everything. He is not qualified. He is not capable of dealing with this crisis. Care, so i amth on the front lines of what is going on in these emergency rooms. It is very appalling. You have lots of people dying, we do not have ppe, ventilators, what we are finding out is the government and this administration was warned in advance that Something Like this is coming and they never prepared themselves. I hope people will really and truly learn that we need people who understand government, we need people who have experience running government. This never would have happened. I would love to see cspan bring someone on the air who can talk tout things that we can do keep our immune system. I am on the frontline working in emergency rooms. I am of these patients having First Contact with them. Are there things we can do to strengthen our immune system. Hile we go through this host we have had several doctors come on and talk about how to protect yourself. All of our coverage available on our website and all of the segments available for you to rewatch at cspan. Org. About 10 minutes left in this segment of washington journal. Following up on a story we have been following over the course of the past week. This from the wall street journal and others. The acting Navy Secretary defended his decision to fire a commander of the uss Theodore Roosevelt. Saying in remarks to the crew s distributingn a memo about the coronavirus outbreak and urging sailors to do their jobs. The secretary delivered his remarks over the public address system of the vessel which is docked in guam as crewmembers undergo a quarantine because of the coronavirus outbreak. Ozier and to captain cr his remarks, saying if he did not think this information would get out of the public in this Information Age he was either too naive or too stupid to be commanding that ship. He went on to say the alternative is that he did this on purpose which is a serious violation. Mr. Mosley explaining the removal of the captain and citing the need to move through the navy chain of command regarding sensitive information. That story from the wall street journal today. Chairman of the House Armed Services committee weighing in on this issue as well. Adam smith, the congressman from washington issuing a statement yesterday saying, i disagree strongly with the manner in which the secretary of the navy has handled the covid19 outbreak on the uss Theodore Roosevelt and his decision to relieve the captain was at best an overreaction. The acting secretarys decision to address the sailors and personally attacked the captain show the tone deaf approach more focused on personal ego than one of calm and steady leadership we so desperately need in this crisis. I no longer have confidence in the acting sec. s leadership of the navy and believe he should be removed from his position. That is from adam smith yesterday. Jeremy in maryland, you are next. Caller how is it going, great listening to cspan. I listen to you guys daily on my route into work. I work here in virginia. Host what kind of work do you do, jeremy. At a laundryked facility, right now we are just down to a few people. We went from three and 50,000 to 5,000 in revenue weekly. I understand everybody is scared. We all know how to wash our hands, we know how to clean up to our elbows. We know how to distance ourselves from each other. We have been doing in our whole lives. That is what Primary School is for. We learn how to not get each other six. This country runs on capital and if we dont have any money we are not going to have a country anymore. We cant just keep saying lets borrow some more money. We are already 20 trillion in debt. I have three children that are going to grow up paying for this. Thele get sick every day, flu has been around for forever and there is preventative maintenance for that. Im going to be honest, i am a narcissist. I live with a wife who helps guide me in having empathy. I am a robot, i get up, do my work, go home and love my family. Provide, i pay my taxes. It is part of america. I passed my dna gone. I have three girls and two boys. I have another son who i cant see because i cannot travel to delaware. Technology, i can facetime him whenever i want. Will tell you, traffic is amazing. I have not seen any car accidents, i usually see two a day. That is saving lives right there. All of you people working from home, i appreciated, show your bosses it can be done and there is no reason to be away from your family if you can complete your eight hour shift at home a man stay safe. Thats my comment. Jeremy in port tobacco, maryland. Guillermo from philadelphia. Caller good morning, cspan. I found out through my years ist the easiest thing to do to fix someone else, i can fix republicans, democrats, the world. The hardest thing to do is to fix myself. Can i carry my calls, can i carry my covid19 . Can i do something for myself, what can i do for myself . That is what i should be worrying about. May peace be with you. Rob is next in stockton, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. That guy was right on. I will get right to my point. , he is on youtube. Thanguy makes more sense the doctor that has been telling us what to do and what not to do. Host what about him makes sense to you . Caller i am going to tell you. He is an m. I. T. Graduate, currently he is running for congress or a senate seat. This guy is no joke. He shared that the vitamin d level of most americans are extremely low. Some youtube recordings out there where he describes if we were going to blood test to find out if we were low on getmin d levels and if we intravenously inject vitamin d, sea, and e into individuals and bring vitamin d levels of that back up to normal our immune systems would keep viruses away and not even penetrate this the cells in our body. Rob from california with his youtube recommendations. Some comments we have received over this first segment. Harold from tennessee saying that he guesses there are more deaths than being reported. My understanding is the only the number the number is only for those who have died in the hospital. This is from craig in new york, trump has picked a fight with all who disagree with him. This from california, we need to start over. Now is the perfect time to a more climate, earth, and animal friendly system. Medicare for all. This is hannah from gaithersburg, maryland. Caller good morning, how are you . Host go ahead. Isler i love how trump responsible for everything that goes wrong in this country. I am happy we had a businessman running our country and our economy is so strong. Do message to your viewers, you really think this is a coincidence . Do you relate we have had viruses for as long as man time has existed and china has the literately and intentionally released this virus and people in the United States cooperated with china on this. There are people currently under investigation from harvard you point to as the evidence of this conspiracy . It is not a conspiracy, it is facts. How many backs do you need before it is not a conspiracy but a reality . Host what facts . Sweden shouldnt did not shut down their economy. Their schools are open, businesses are open, restaurants are open. They are advising people with compromised indian systems to stay home and everyone else is practicing social distancing. This is going to be absolutely devastating for our country. I dont think people realize the implication of this, we are 23 trillion in debt. By the end of this we will probably be closer to 30. The gentleman who called and that said we are enslaving our children and grandchildren, that is exactly what we are doing. Host that is hannah in maryland. This is patrice. Caller thank you for taking my call. Just had an issue with many of these Trump Supporters calling in on these lines, getting upset with people that are upset with his responsemp and to this virus. Navarro senteter out a letter on january 29 regarding this virus, saying it was going to be a problem. I do not want to get all into it. He sent trump another letter. This is one of trumps people. These people that call that are Trump Supporters, you have insiders,ople, his and they still do not believe at all. I cannot understand. Trump did not want to face the ,acts that this was happening after three years of him being in office, he was not equipped to handle something of this magnitude. This is different. The last caller is very dangerous by spewing out all kinds of conspiracy theories and then she says it is fact. It is not fact. You repeatedly asked her her proof and she did not give it. I just have an issue with that. It is very dangerous for our country for this information to be flooded through our systems when people are dying. This is on trumps hands. The buck stops with donald trump. There is no way to rewrite history. I just get upset about it. Thank you for taking my call. Host i would point viewers to the story that therese was referencing on the front page of the New York Times. Top white house advisers warned Trump Administration officials in late january that coronavirus could cost americans. Peter navarro is the highest level alert known to have circulated inside the west wing when the administration was taking its first steps to confront a crisis that had consumed chinas leaders. The lack of immune protection or existing cure or vaccine would leave americans defenseless in the face of a fullblown outbreak on u. S. Soil, mr. Navarros memo said. He came during a period when mr. Trump was playing down the risk. Mr. Navarro said the administration faced a choice about how aggressive to be and contain the outbreak, saying the human and Economic Cost will be relatively low if it turned out to be a problem along the lines of the seasonal flu, but he went on to emphasize the risk of a worstcase pandemic scenario should not be overlooked. That story on the front page of the New York Times. That will do it for the first section of the washington journal today. Stick around with calls for a nasa Infrastructure Program to massive Infrastructure Program to boost jobs amid the pandemic. At whattake a look could be that legislation. Eugene mulero will join us. Later, michele evermore of the National Employment law project joins us to answer your questions about applying for Unemployment Benefits during coronavirus. Yesterday during a press briefing, Florida Governor ron not tos urged residents attend large religious services and gatherings during this passover and holy week. Week. Are in a holy over the last few days, we have been in contact with a lot of religious leaders through the state in the christian and jewish communities. We wanted to discuss with them their plans for these upcoming events, passed over passover and easter. Adhere to social distancing guidelines. I think what a lot of churches have done in terms of online doneces, some have even outdoors were people just stay in their car, i think they have been innovative. I think that will ultimately be something that matters a lot to people. We also pointed out the risk of having a gathering right now given what we are going through. In fact, you look at different parts around the country. There have been different events talking to thes georgia governor. They had a big funeral and that spread throughout the folks there. It would be a potential to have a super spreader. That would eventually have Serious Health consequences for folks. We want people during this time to be spiritually together, but to remain socially distanced. Please keep god close, but please keep covid19 away. We appreciate all the cooperation we have had with people throughout the state of florida. Washington journal continues. Host Eugene Mulero joins us via zoom. He is a Senior Reporter for transport topics. There has been discussion amid the coronavirus pandemic about a massive new infrastructure package to boost an ailing economy. How big a package are we talking about and what is the likelihood that it would get passed on capitol hill and signed by the president . Guest President Trump has, for the past week, been calling for 6infrastructure plan at trillion. He is saying this is something that can fix our roads, bridges, potholes. He is talking about ways we can expand access to broadband in rural parts of the country. This is something that the president has been talking about since he was a candidate. However, the money he is talking about, the white house has now put out a document that will lay out the president s vision for this plan. While he is adamant this is something that could create jobs and help with the economic recovery, on capitol hill he does not have support from Senate Republicans and house democrats. Both congressional leaders wants to have an Emergency Response to the crises and focus on infrastructure later down the road. Do the pelosi is saying infrastructure package when they have more time to work on this. Democrats have put out an infrastructure plan of their own, scaled down a bit, and the area of 750 billion dollars. Guest the democrats in january had a plan. It is a comprehensive proposal that looked at not only surface transportation but our aviation grid, as wellal as broadband and waterways. President th the when the president talked with his infrastructure proposal, Speaker Pelosi was quick to galvanize her Leadership Team and go on board with that suggestion, saying that the next phase of the economic recovery package should be infrastructure focused. At whatnot only looking her plan was in january but also pressing ahead with environmental centric provisions. Reasons, people on capitol hill are telling me the speaker shifted her focus within days. On wednesday, she was document infrastructure. By friday, she went back to Emergency Response. The democrats have not abandoned infrastructure. The speakers focus is on Emergency Response. Host we have seen three Emergency Response packages pass on capitol hill. The first two really did not touch on the central Infrastructure Projects you and i think about and stakeholders think about. The first one did address some specific infrastructure sectors, air cargo and got grants ands some assistance of 10 billion. The airlines also had access to 46 billion in loans. This was not for airlines and airports. Or make up enhance for loss of business. Transit received 25 billion. This was not for the but for transport. Gencies to build new programs this was to make up for loss of ridership. Billion. Bout 1 about 1 billion. Truckers, fright rail, they are expected to be somewhat of the focus in this next, down the road in these economic recovery packages. Host Eugene Mulero will tonsport topics, if you want with transport topics, if you want to check out his work. You can call in on phone lines, split regionally. 202 7488000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. Let us know what is going on in your part of the country and what you are seeing on the roads if and when you are traveling. Go ahead. Hope you guys are doing well. The first thing i want to do is say a short prayer for all the families and people who are passed away. Passed away from covid. With that settled with, trump cannot do we cannot do an infrastructure bill until let me go back. Obama tried an infrastructure , alleged it was public shovel ready for projects. Hardly even a pothole got filled. Corruption. Into trump needs to audit. Wherever federal money goes, we can audit it. Pray that he appoints an Inspector General to trace and follow all the money into the social services, into the metros, the transits, the department of transportation. He needs to follow all of that money. Before covid, before they knew how much covid was going to hit, they started building tents outside hospitals and in parking about everyjust county. I want to know how many millions of dollars they are going to charge for throwing out that rickety tent. Host Eugene Mulero, take us back to the american reinvestment recovery act, the Lessons Learned from that. Guest that was obamas first major way to stimulate the economy. The circumstances were rather different. I do want to clarify a little bit of what the caller suggested. Projectsr shovel ready and some of the money, there has been audits on it, and it did go to financing local road projects, local highways, school districts, municipalities and states used it. Projects that were big picture projects. Southeast the some states in the southeast did not accept available funding. That was more to stimulate the economy. What we have seen right now out are these hill funding to make up for the loss of commerce. Money congress has given to the airlines in loans and grants aretransit communities pretty much to stabilize and loss ofthe laws of business, loss of commerce, and not necessarily to rebuild. Big numbers. The other thing is that christie hasa President Trump somewhat of a money problem with his infrastructure package because he is talking about relying on deficit spending, borrowing the money, true trillion,ollars 2 zero percent interest. Longterm infrastructure, especially surface transportation, that is backed by revenue from the Highway Trust Fund. That is something that congress and the administrations previous to President Trump have the hardown and taken votes on issues, look hard at how to restore solvency of the Highway Trust Fund. Do you want to do a brief oneonone on the Highway Trust Fund for folks who may not be familiar . Guest the Highway Trust Fund is an account managed at the u. S. To partner transportation. 24. 4 cents for diesel. In the past more than a decade has been insufficient to meet the needs around the country, to help roads. N and repair there has been congress has been injecting money from the general fund into the Highway Trust Fund to ensure that the obligations the federal government is required to give money back to the states through formula funding, to ensure that there are repairs. If you talk to stakeholders, the quickest way to restore the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund is by raising the fuel tax at the federal level. Sinces something that, 1993, has not happened. President trump has not publicly endorsed that idea. Pretty much you cannot have a discussion against infrastructure if you do not that to theow to do Highway Trust Fund. Host Eugene Mulero summing up a topic of Committee Hearings in the Transportation Committees in the house. Here to take your phone calls to walk you through transportation infrastructure issues. This is merrill out of plainview, new york. Caller thank you for taking my call. I support President Trump 100 . He is a patriotic american and he is looking out for our interests. As far as the infrastructure goes, we all know that the roads are in terrible shape, some of the roads. Once we get past this pandemic, it would be good to rebuild the country. I trust the president to lead the country in that. As far as the pandemic, i have noticed a pattern. The pattern is create a problem, profit from the problem you have created, and with the victim dies there is no accountability. Im speaking about new york states wrongful death statute. It is legally better to kill people in new york state then enter them. Our lives are worth our paychecks. State bill to correct this has been in the state capital since 1994. Host it sounds like a topic for another day. We only have about 10 minutes left with Eugene Mulero. We wanted to let you way in in terms of profits right now. There are transfer systems around the country that rely on Revenue Streams of people actually traveling on roads and paying tolls. There are less people traveling now. What does that mean for those groups, for those organizations, and for those states . Guest if you look at department of transportation statewide, agencies are calling on the federal government to approve the next recovery package, something about 50 billion. It can make up for this loss of revenue. That is less money going into paying the fuel tax then goes to fund the Highway Trust Fund. Diversity states do foresee and project having to be struggling financially because of this loss of revenue. Of the what the purpose 25 billion were transferred systems was here and have been talking. Groups are telling me that may not be enough in the long term. The one in washington, d. C. Has struggled financially in the past years. This justady compounded that crisis for them. Expectation that not only state trance rotation agencies but also other modes of transportation. We could be looking at the trucking industry, freight rail, the whole Infrastructure Network will be receiving some sort of a Economic Relief from capitol hill not so they can rebuild projects but just so they can stay above water and maintain the programs and services they already provide. Host jimmy out of las vegas, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I got disconnected. I was talking about coronavirus. More than 10,000 is too many dead. I do not think there should be any deaths. I think initially our president it was very hard to solve this problem. Host jimmy in nevada. This is danny out of louisiana. Good morning. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Caller good morning. I wish everyone well through this crisis. On the infrastructure thing, that is our hope to work our way out of this. Our infrastructure has been hasred while our defense been ballistic. This does not make sense for society. The only way to work ourselves out of this mess is to rebuild our infrastructure. Put everybody back to work. To say one other thing in closing. I am a 72yearold vietnam bedran, lying for bed in for three years fighting aids and the side effects of chemo. I have watched my country deteriorate in my lifetime to where it is unrecognizable. We need to find reasons to unite and love each other again. That is all i have to say. Thank you. Host thanks for the call. Iowa. S randy in caller i want to comment that that last caller really touched me. I am a 64yearold vietnam veteran. God bless him and his fight to survive. The point i wanted to make is that the situation with the infrastructure bill and all this deficit spending is we have a president with six bankruptcies in his history. He now has half 1 trillion to spend, discretionary slush fund pretty much. These tax cuts he enacted accelerated the deficit curve of this country and has to be dealt with. Not stopats do spending and allowing this thing to continue, to a salary this deficit, piling on trillions of dollars, without addressing the tax issue, then they are falling into the trap. Democracy andof andend of freedom for all representation by the federal government in an equal fashion. They have got trump has been trying to drown government in the bathtub to do budget cuts for the last three years and now we are spending money like there is no end, like we can keep renting it and there will be no consequences to it. , i haveastructure bill been infrastructure worker all my life. It is important. It was more important than the tax cuts that trump got enacted. We need some fiscal responsibility and democrats with some backbone and people who report on this stuff every day. I want to thank you, eugene, for being on the show today. I will end my comment. Host Eugene Mulero, you report on this every day. Your thoughts . Howt the whole point about you pay for an infrastructure are , the democrats one of their proposals led by Chuck Schumer has been to trumphe tax cuts euro tax cuts. Era tax cuts. That was dead on arrival with his senate counterparts. When you look at the Transportation Committee, they are big proponents of an untested nationwide vehicle miles per travel miles for. Led this is something still at the state level, but nationwide is not ready right now. The trumpet ministration in 2018 came out with a infrastructure cameuck club and 20 team Trump Administration in 2018 came out with an infrastructure plan. That is something that not only a Broad Coalition of democrats on capitol hill but also lawmakers who represent rural parts of the country, they are not fans of the private sector being a Strong Partner on infrastructure because the private sector is there to make money, profit. One way to do that is through volume in vehicular rural parts of the country is low. You can have more vehicles in urban regions. The last point i will make is the politics of this are obvious. Time trump the first has been talking about infrastructure. Speaker pelosi and trump began negotiating on infrastructure before the house proceeded full force on impeachment. Those talks collapsed. Big show ofis animosity on both sides. The people i am talking to are telling me those relationships have not repaired over the years. With this talk about deaf and deficit, we will be remiss not to show the numbers from the u. S. Debt clock. The current u. S. National debt is at 23 trillion 911,050,000,000 23,911,050,000 and counting. Thanks for saying that. I agree with that. Addedump administration to that. We do not hear any one talking about that. Tax cuts to corporations and all that kind of stuff and they do not pay any taxes and everything goes up. I know they are frustrated. They do not want to give a lot to that stimulus because they know that trump is already 3 trillion in the red. They never talk about that. Can i get your input on that . Host Eugene Mulero, do you want to jump in . Guest that is part of what President Trump is still saying. He is saying because interest loans are Interest Rates are low, this is the best time to borrow the money for an infrastructure plan. What im hearing is that the white house see in Congress Passed a 2 trillion spending with Economic Crises facilitated the thinking in the white house on transportation and infrastructure. The is something that deficit spending is something that has concerned leaders from both parties in previous years. , with the pandemic, the effort was to move plane now. One other point i want to make not infrastructure is it does not have a lot right now and capitol hill, congress is still working on a highway bill. It is not a infrastructure bill. In current highway law september expires in september. The Transportation Committee in the house is suspected to unveil their version of the highway reauthorization measure. Everyone is going to be looking to see how they address the democrats address the Highway Trust Fund. People im talking to are saying there is the potential that congress is going to rely on these shortterm funding fixes because they may not have time to reauthorize this highway law by the end of september. That is something that raises concerns around the transportation community. Host Eugene Mulero, only about a minute left with you. Other impacts of coronavirus, one thing it has done is install federal will making. In thes in the works transportation and infrastructure front that is now being put off . Work right now was repairers to the ports repairs to the ports, longterm fixes to corridors, amtrak. Aging infrastructure in railroads, especially in the northeast. Structures are many decades old. Around the country, states have put out a list of their projects. These are projects that are familiar to people around the country. We are talking a bridge in bridges. Some very key the one thing states and the federal government have been working on that they had to put on hold right now is traffic gestion and the show colts in new jersey, chicago, l. A. , atlanta. Those projects are on hold right now while congress and the in ministration respond administration respond to the pandemic. Host if these issues are of interest to you, you should check out transport topics. Eugene mulero is the congressional reporter there. We appreciate your time. Guest thank you. Host i did want to know before we moved to the next segment, news coming out of politico this with a, jake sherman, tweet about a scoop in politicos morning playbook. The former drug in ministration commissioner, outspoken on coronavirus response, is joining Maryland Governor larry hogans coronavirus team. Jake sherman quoting the governor about scott gottlieb, his experience being invaluable for how and when we can responsibly live restrictions will keeping marylanders healthy and safe. That news from politico this morning. Up next on the washington journal, we will be joined by michele evermore of the National Employment law project to answer your questions about applying for unemployment but if its as job losses continue benefits as job losses continue to mount. Later we will be joined by Jarrett Dieterle to talk about changes made to alcohol laws amid the pandemic. Yesterday during a world health , andization press briefing executive director spoke about what countries should consider before they lift lockdowns. [video clip] once you raise the lockdown, you have to have an alternative method to suppress the infection. A way to do that is active case finding, testing, and isolation of cases. Tracking contact and Strong Community education, participation, and ownership around physical distancing, hygiene, and giving communities ,he power to control infection managing their own physical distance and capacities to support the response. Have a community that is mobilized and empowered and you strengthen your health system, then you potentially are in a position to start unlocking or unwinding the lockdowns. The specific parameters you need to look at are things on two sides. One is it will be very to lift lockdown if the number of cases coming through the hospital is already at 100 . You need to be in a system where you have free beds in your system so youre managing and coping with the caseload. That means you have some absorption capacity left. You need to look at things like the doubling rate. How many days does it take for the number of cases to double . You need to look at positivity rates. What proportion of all samples we test are positive . And somewhere like korea, they are testing 2 to 6 of the samples they test are positive. In new york last week, 30 of tested samples were positive. You need to carefully look at what proportion of people were positive. You need to look at the number of contacts generated per case. It goes on and on. Guidance that is more specific around the parameters they should be looking at. There are no answers here. There are no numbers that say if this number is this, do that. We can offer countries specific measurements to chart a path out of lockdown. That approach of unlocking some watch and then waiting to see you need to say we will stop doing this element of the shutdown and then we will wait. We will look at the data. If that works, we go to the next stage and the next stage. Calibration putting in place Public Health capacities, putting in place immunity capacity community capacity, building the capacity of the health system, that is the safe path out of lockdown. We want to achieve it as quickly as possible and we want to avoid many people going many countries going into that circumstance. We still have many countries that are not in a lockdown situation. Epidemiology suggests they can of ward avoid the worst. Washington journal continues. Host a discussion now on employment assistance during the coronavirus pandemic. We are talking to michele evermore at the National Employment law project. Remind viewers what your group does and how. Guest we work to advance the interests of underpaid workers racism,ting structural erasing any quality, and Building Worker power. Nelp. Org for viewers who want to check them out online. 6. 6 million americans filed to run employment last week. Put that number in perspective for us. How does that compare to the worst week of the Great Recession . Guest it dwarfs the worst weeks of the Great Recession. It is worse than the 3 million that came before, which dwarfed the highest weekly claims number in history, which was 1982. In 1982, the number was around 680,000. The Great Recession never reach any of those numbers. Host what are the projections for this coming weeks numbers . Guest i hesitate to gas. It is possible that it could be even higher because a lot of people have been trying to get through and have not gotten their claims approved. There are continuing layoffs all over the United States. Host of that 6. 6 million number, do we know how many are layoffs and people not having a job anymore versus furloughing and the fact that there will be a job on the other side hopefully . Guest from the systems perspective, a furlough and layoff are identical. As long as your boss told you you cannot come in and we are not going to pay you, it is unemployed. Trying to figure out the difference between furloughed would beoff fervently speculation on my part. Host for folks who have been furloughed or laid off, give us a call. We want to hear your stories. 202 7488000 is that number. Michele evermore with us at the nationals limit law project. Take us through what is available for those folks who may find themselves in that position of a furloughed or laid off through the cares act that was just past. Should try to apply for regular Unemployment Insurance. People do not believe they are but often are mistaken about that. The cares act does is for workers who do apply for Unemployment Insurance but not my might not be eligible because they are selfemployed or miss misclassified as independent contractors, they should be entitled to a benefit relatively similar to the regular Unemployment Insurance benefit. Anybody getting a pandemic unemployment assistance benefit or a regular Unemployment Insurance benefit should be eligible for an extra 600 per week through the end of july. A pandemichat, emergency Unemployment Compensation provision says that expense benefit eligibility for an additional 13 weeks in every state. Host all these things are available to anyone who lost their jobs . Guest yeah. Somehow, between those programs, anyone most workers should be covered who lost their job because of covid19. One other provision in this legislation that i want to highlight is an incentive for short timeor compensation or work sharing. Instead of waiting on certain ing off certain intervals individuals, employers can spread that across workers to reduce hours by 50 . Then each of those workers could get an unemployment benefit for those lost hours. Plus the additional 600 a week. These will be fully federally funded. In states that already have programs host walk us through the application process. Do you need to apply for each of these things separately . Streamliningf the is not clear from the guidance that just came out. Hopefully workers should just be applicationit one through their employment insurance website. The simplest way to apply is by going to your states Unemployment Insurance website and following the instructions. Youight be the case that if are not eligible for regular on employment insurance and you know that and you are attempting to apply for pandemic unemployment assistance because you are selfemployed or an independent contractor, you should wait until the program is running in your state. Keep an eye on whatever your state is telling you to do in terms of applications. Also make it clear whatever documentation they require. Anerally i would keep on hand 1099, any information you have about how you get paid. Have that ready for the agency. Pay stubs for those who are regular w2 employees. Be ready with your Social Security number, your last 18 months of earnings, plus the names of all the employers you have worked for the last 18 months. Finally, once you start signing up for benefits, the most important thing you can do is not lose your password. A lot of people are having trouble. One of the number one complaint im hearing is people will lose their password and not be able to get it reset except through a phone call or in some states by mail. Keep your password once you start to apply. Host heres an example of one of those state pages for applying front employment insurance. This is the virginia Employment Commission. Michele evermore, why is this run through the states . Why is there not one federal Agency Everyone can go through . To 1935,is goes back when the law was established. There was a lot of debate about whether this should be a state or federal program. A compromise was reached that this is a federal program with some federal guidelines but broad state options to set benefits, set qualifications, set tax levels. All of that is set by the state. Guest what are some reasons somebody could be denied from their claim . What are some reasons summit he could be denied from their claim . Guest if it was determined they , if fired for misconduct they quit. This are the two main reasons. Host i wanted to give you a chance to talk to folks around the country, expect especially those who may have really become unemployed. That phone line, 202 7488000. Mike is on that line from maryland. What kind of work were you doing and when did you lose your job . 2018r i lost my job in said there was abuse. In thise lies going on world. Chele, i know her personally and she is great. System has been misapplied. It has not been designed correctly. On theichele evermore design of the system and ways to make the system better. Guest that is a key point right there. One thing that is not included in any of the packages that have pastor stimulus is underlying Unemployment Insurance reform. Unemployment insurance is different in every state. And some states, people are receiving record low benefits. It is difficult for people to access benefits. Florida, north carolina, fewer than 10 of people in certain quarters who were unemployed were getting Unemployment Insurance benefits. That is going to change now because more people are going to be able to apply and receive we do needut underlying reform. What is going to happen is states are going to spend the money in their trust fund. At the end of this economic downturn, there will be great pressure to reduce benefits, as we saw after the last recession as state trust funds ran out. Host how soon did that happen after the Great Recession . When did the effort to reduce benefits kick in . Guest the first major laws were passed in 2011. Betweene passed largely 2011 and 2015 to really modify state Unemployment Insurance reformsthough massive whenstill taking place alabama reduce their benefits. Host michele evermore with nelp. Org if you want to check out their work and if you have questions about applying for employment benefits. 202 7488000 if you are recently unemployed. 202 7488001 for all others. In louisiana, this is vincent on the line for those recently unemployed. What work did you do . Waiter at as a casino in louisiana. I have a question. We have applied for unemployment. Our casino does not match our funds. I do not know what theyre what weabout, matching were making total. There is no such thing. 600 for unemployment, that does not count in louisiana at all. Where are to wonder they giving all these funds that they are telling us they are sending us and we are not making what we were before . At the most, we are making 140 a week and i was making 500 a week with my tips and regular pay. We get paid lower than minimum wage. Host michele evermore. Guest thank you for raising this. It is difficult for tipped employees to prove what their tipped income was for the purpose of establishing a weekly benefit. In most states, what you have to do is file claiming what your tips were in order for that to count in establishing your benefits. Tipped workers do have a real challenge in establishing eligibility. The good news is those who are not monetarily eligible under the regular Unemployment Insurance program may be able to establish eligibility under the new program. The other thing is the 600 and you provisions have not kicked in yet. For guidance to come down. To take someoing time for states to reprogram their computers. We are talking about 3 million additional benefits two weeks ago, 6 million claims last week. They have been having to process claims at record levels, with low levels of administrative funding and having to reprogram their computers all at once. It may take a little while for provisions to kick in and for you to start receiving the additional 600. Host from what you have seen, which states are doing well and which are not . Guest i think most states are really working hard to make sure workers get these benefits. State unemployment agencies do generally care about serving the unemployed. I have heard of new york state and michigan and Washington State, oregon doing really heroic things to get benefits out the door. I think that also every state realized there was likely to be recession soon. They had all been planning to staff up quickly, just not this quickly. Nobody could have anticipated what has happened recently. There are states where there are some problems. I would highlight florida, which has gotten a lot of press in the last week for having insufficient computer systems. Nelp has filed a complete with the department of labor because the application process has been so onerous to keep people from applying for and receiving benefits. Regardless of what state you live in, this is an earned benefit. You deserve it. Keep trying. Keep applying. You will eventually get through. Host jim on twitter makes this comment this morning, saying the stateo way Employment Commission had the staff to investigate every claim that comes in. He said this is a huge giveaway to every worker in america. Guest it is not really huge giveaway, and i would strongly discourage anyone fraudulently applying because states since the last recession have established real penalties for overpayments, especially those gotten fraudulently. It is very clear from the department of labor guidance on all of this that people who fraudulently apply for benefits or quit their job without cause and receive benefits states have been erring on the side of over sometimesud making sure that initial claims are approved correctly. The policing of fraud is out there. It is in real force. It has been a priority for state agencies and the administration. Host one other question from twitter, this from greg in kentucky. If conditions are improved to two months from now, what requirement would there be front up limit recipients to seek and gain employment which would gain them less than the additional 600 they are receiving . Guest there are many protections. Unemployment insurance was set up with the idea of getting people back to work. People must be able and available to work and prove every week so there state Unemployment Insurance agency that they are seeking work, which means submitting information about work searches. Once this virus is passed, people will need to be looking for a new job. They cannot reject in other new that paysther new job as well or is substantially similar to the last job. Host to john in venice, florida. Through thede it unemployment claims process in florida. Days to go through the website application before i finally made it through and at the end there is a phone number to call to verify your identity. I called it 100 times and waited on hold for six hours to find out the piece of information i could tell everyone right now. Is they want you to do submit a copy of your Social Security card, drivers license, your name, phone number, and last four digits of your social to identityrequest deo. Myflorida. Com. Something that makes me even is the person i called was in her home with children playing in the background and i feel this was unsecure as she asked for my Social Security number, my address, my phone number. I could hear from the background that she was not in a professional environment. I feel totally insecure and psychologically. Host thanks for sharing your story. Guest i am sorry to hear you have gone through that. I thank you for sharing this information with other floridians who may be listening. I also think this underscores the need for paying attention to the Unemployment Insurance system and times that are good. All of these cuts, all of these changes were made as the Unemployment Rate dropped. Systems became incredibly inaccessible. We ignored these legacy institutions whenever the Unemployment Rate is low. S underscores the need for to invest in longterm reform and make sure states are never able again in the future to do what florida did. Brenda is on the line for those recently unemployed out of virginia. What kind of work did you do . Caller i worked for the boys and girls club. Host what has your experience been like . Caller i beg your pardon . Host you have to turn down your television and listen through your phone and we can have the conversation that way. Go ahead with your question or comment for michele evermore. Filed an recently unemployment claim in which i was denied. I got a computer call telling me to continue to file weekly. I did not stated that receive benefits in the right quarter, but during those quarters i was doing a training. I do have to file taxes for them and i was wondering if that was why i did not get the unemployment because i did not record that as a job because it was told to me that we were training. Guest right. I would continue to try to contact the Unemployment Insurance agency. One thing that may be the case eligibley find you are for new benefits. You may be able to appeal. I know monitor eligibility requires that monetary eligibility requires that. There may be some way you are eligible either under the new pandemic unemployment assistance or by appealing. Continue to be involved with the agency to try to get benefits. Host heres a question from mike in north carolina. My wife and i sell antiques on ebay. With the total shutdown, the places i pick up my merchandise, such as flea markets and yard sales and estate sales all shut down. All of our business has stopped. Are my wife and i eligible for corona unemployment . Eligibility, determinations are ultimately the decision of your state they interpret the regulation. You may be able to make the case. There were criteria established but total loss of employment that is a direct result from on employment insurance and how it states interpret that is still a little bit how states are going to interpret that is still a little bit unclear. I cannot promise that they will approve your benefits them about you do not know until you apply. Host about 15 minutes left with michele evermore of the National Employment law project, senior policy analyst there, taking your questions about employment assistance during coronavirus. 202 7488000 if you are recently unemployed. 202 7488001 for all others. From minneapolis. Good morning. Caller thanks for taking my question. I am selfemployed as a cosmetologist. All of the loans i am not eligible for because i do not have employees. Per instruction of our commissioner of economic development, we were encouraged to apply for ui, which i did. I was sent a denial letter because im selfemployed. When theon is if and u. S. Department does send any guidance back to the states, will our benefits be retroactive from the original date of our applications were are we just out of luck for all these weeks we are waiting for this to get guest if you are found to be eligible, your benefit will be retroactive from the time you became unemployed. Peoplete will be sending letters that explain to them that they were denied for regular Unemployment Insurance, but now pandemic on employment insurance is in place. The guidance needed for states to implement this was issued sunday night. States can really start their program. It may still be a little while. All of the systems have to be completely reprogrammed at the same time that states are paying out record benefits. This could take a couple of weeks, but you should try to apply for pandemic on appointment assisted and that should be retroactive. To the new programs have any impact for viewers who may be worried about making sure they still get their medicaid or the funding from the Childrens Health Insurance Program . Guest this income should not be counted against their eligibility for those programs. Host teresa is next out of new hampshire. Good morning. Caller good morning. I do work right now. I am 60 and my husband is 65. I am essential with family dollar. As the numbers get higher, for my own safety, i think i have to leave my job. Would i be eligible if it gets to a peak in the valley . We are hoping it does not and i would like to just keep working. Go ahead, michele evermore. Guest it is unclear how states will interpret the guidance that the department of labor issued. If you have to quit your job as i a direct result of covid19, there is a chance that you can make the case particularly if anyone has tested positive for covid19 that requires you to selfquarantine. The guidance that was issued sunday night seemed fairly narrow. It made it clear that people cannot simply quit and receive benefits. They gave examples about how to interpret the broader language about who can leave work in order to get pandemic on employment assistance. I would say consult with a state agency and make sure you are truly eligible for on employment insurance before you quit. Host this guidance you keep referring to that seems so important for eligibility, who is consulted when federal officials are coming up with that . Has your group been a part of that process . Guest the federal guidance is a factor it is one thing the does using its , a internal staff expertise number of Training Administration staff has to be involved in the guidance setting. This is not like rulemaking where the public is to come in. We shared with the employment and Training Administration our desire for this to be broadly interpreted so that everyone who lost their job as a result of covid19 could be eligible. Host for those recently unemployed, and any out of loss vegas las vegas. Caller i fall into an interesting category. I should easily be able to get the extra 600 per week. An Union Construction worker and i was recently laid off from the Convention Center in las vegas. I am an electrician so im losing quite a bit of money being laid off. Normally my salary would be week. 1800 per even with the extra 600, i am losing out substantially. We were laid off of our jobs because of this. I have filed on employment and i am getting regular on employment unemplmployment oyment. I heard you say earlier that that would be retroactively applied. I totally understand the process because as a construction worker i am used to dealing with the system. Is that a positive that they are going to be doing it retroactively . Since im a person that should easily qualify for that . Guest let me clear up confusion about retroactivity. The base pandemic unemployment benefit that mirrors regular insurance would be retroactive for when people lost work and that is because the unemployment base benefit was not available to them as it was to other people affected by the pandemic. The additional 600 that applies insuranceemployment and compensation will only be back dated to the date that the Agency Signed an agreement with the department of labor to carry out the new cares act. That should be retroactively available starting this week. The 600 is really only going forward. Base benefits should go backward. Host lets less than 10 minutes with michele evermore. For those who are recently mployed, www. Cspan. Org 202 7488001 for all others. This is debbie out of florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is my husband was terminated on march 25 from his company of tournament 20 years. They offered him a small severance package which is only going to last him for about 16 weeks. E is 68 years old he was planning on working until he was 70. He is wondering if he is able to collect unemployment. Guest im going to leave a blanket caveat that the on employment Insurance Agency is the my advice is not the final determination. One thing to keep in mind is stayed on appointment Insurance Programs require state require t programs it seems like he should be able to apply for and receive benefits. He probably would not be eligible to start receiving benefits until the severance is paid out. Het what kind of work did do at that company for 20 years . . Re you still with us installer for an a fire door for hospitals. He was going to stay until he was 70. Host what is his plan now . Caller he does not know because im only 62 and he can get on medicare, but i cannot. He has lost his insurance and he has lost his job. Host how is he doing . Caller he is ok, he is a little down. Host thank you for the call. Caller thank you. Host out of pennsylvania, this is ellen. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you doing . Host im well. Go ahead. Caller i have been working at a casino and i have been laid off and i went through the filing , it toldnd in the end me that i have to submit my formsfor my workers comp and my doctors note saying how much i can work and all that. ,t the end of the submission there was nowhere to attach those forms. When i called back, it says i have to speak to a representative and i could not get through to anyone. You dost wondering what in that case. Guest unfortunately, the systems are stretched to capacity. The good news is that additional administrative funding was included in the second covid stimulus bill and those funds are flowing to states right now to staff up so more people will be available to take your call. Additional funding is included in the third stimulus package for administering the new emergency programs. Hopefully there will be less stress on the system in the coming days and weeks so that it will be easier to call in and address technical problems. We anticipate needing to spend more money on the administrative funding so hopefully there will be more funding in any upcoming stemless package. Host speaking of the fourth package, what else needs to be clarified and what else do you hope will be included . Guest it is not clear from any guidance that the process to apply for benefits is streamlined. Also, this is now the time to start thinking about how do we sure up the system for the long run. P. The recent package has been helpful in terms of getting packages out on a temporary basis. All of these are based on systems that are not very userfriendly and do not pay enough benefits in normal time and are very difficult to maintain eligibility for. We are hoping that the next package includes more longterm reform. Host time for just a couple more calls with michele evermore. Connie is waiting on the line for those recently employed out of north carolina. What kind of work did you do . Caller i was at a restaurant for 30 for years. We are temporarily unemployed in the winter. I have been on unemployment. Have to turn your tv down. Tell us your story, you said you have been on on the plumbing for a while . Ive been on unemployment through the winter. The day we were scheduled to come back, she had to shut us down. Down,when they shut you what . Caller when they shut us down, might on employment is going to run out unemployment is going to run out. It is very likely that by the time you get to the end of the 13 week extended benefits, regular extended benefits will outy and whenever that runs , because you had a job that you were planning to go back to but could not, you should be able to apply for the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program and continue that as long as it takes you to get back to your job. Host this is janet from pennsylvania. Caller yes, hello . Host go ahead, janet. Caller my question was kind of what that man before asked. It is for my daughter. Charts. Ieves medical she is what they call a travel agent for a company. She has been on unemployment in november for lack of work. Now, it is because of the virus. Her question was can she go over does she dohat or what she just told that man to do . She should be eligible for regular extended Unemployment Insurance which means all she has to do is certify and she can untilditional benefits regular benefits runs out. It will probably roll into ifular extended benefits and all of those are exhausted before the end of the year, it might be worth rolling onto pandemic on Employment Unemployment condensation compensation. This should be a smooth transition for her. Host is a couple of minutes left. This is kathy out of california. Good morning. Caller hello, should i give you my question . Host yes maam. Caller i work as a substitute calling fori am substitutes working with the union here. Two things have come up, one of them is retired teachers and the other is is immigrants with green cards. We solved the problem with retired teachers, it gets collocated. The immigrants with green cards are saying they cannot get unemployment. Can you give more information on that . Guest it is generally the case that immigrants with Work Authorization should be able to apply for and receive benefits. Undocumented workers may not. Most workers with authorization should be able to get benefits. I am not sure what the holdup is. I would need more information from the agency about what their denial is. Host for viewers who have questions like that, what is your recommendation . Guest talk to the state agency, reach out to local Unemployment Insurance activists. For lowwage workers, legal aid provides invaluable assistance to people trying to get Unemployment Insurance. Those are the best sources. Host the National Employment law project can be found at takingg. Thank you for the time with us and our viewers this morning. Guest thank you so much for having me on. Host up next, we will be joined to talktt dieterle about changes that several states are making to alcohol laws amid the coronavirus pandemic. Stick around for that conversation. First, it is primary day in wisconsin. Several other states have postponed their primaries today amid the coronavirus pandemic. To talk more about it, we are joined by a democrat from the Fourth District. Wisconsinwers why voters are heading to the polls today. Electionis a statewide for the Supreme Court. Fromis extremely important weather whatever ideological perspective that you have. As we look at the request for absentee ballots, there were thatmore absentee ballots were requested that have been returned. People have relied on being able to do in person voting. I enjoy in person voting. It only occurred to me at the last minute that i had better becauseentee this time the pandemic seems to be reaching an apex. People are really at a we see folks in Waukesha County voting. Riverside high school, one of the five locations down from 180 locations in milwaukee. You have people voting and our concern is whether or not people would be able to practice social distancing and stay safe while they are exercising their right to vote. You should have to choose between your right to vote and youre right to live and this is where we are. Host take us through the past 20 for hours. Did you agree with the governors effort to try to postpone this primary question mark . Obviously, you want to get an election over with. Concern ofthe Public Health really prevailed, we saw the governor being elected early on. I think everyone in the country has suffered so much from this sixweek lag we had on information about the pandemic coming this way. The denial from the top that there was a pandemic coming, had we known that and known what the trajectory was, we could have postponed the election earlier than we saw it heading this way. Host the u. S. Supreme court got involved yesterday. Absentee ballots postmarked after today will not be counted. Your reaction . That is very devastating because i know there were many innercity in the that applied for absentee ballots relying on that extended date. Enjoy in person voting. Not only that, being concerned that theburden by theon Africanamerican Community on the north side of milwaukee. The concern about social theme thathas been a we have tried to push which is counterintuitive for going out to vote. How do you say stay safe, stay hitting discourage is our committee in particular. Yet, we want you to go vote. Two different messages. This, ourt to add ,ommissioner of Public Health the Milwaukee County board, i think that they have determined at some point before this andemic that racism was Public Health problem. I think that there will be looking we are already at those who have started an initiative to look at the Racial Disparity down the road of how the pandemic manifested itself. We see, if you live in crowded conditions, if you are not able to social distance, if you cannot order food to come to my polling site literally is at the corner of where i live in atkinson library. If i were going to be doing in person voting, i would have to have a car to go and drive about three miles from my home to vote. Those are the kinds of hardships that i am expecting to see with regard to turnout. Host i wanted to get your reaction to the numbers that the washington reported Washington Post reported highlighted when they were talking about how the black community has been impacted by the pandemic. This is what he writes in his story. The 45onday, 33 of residents who died of covid19 in Milwaukee County where black according to the medical examiner. That is 73 . Back residents made up fewer than half of the infections and 28 of the total county population. The disparity is glaring when you look at it statewide. Black residents represent nearly half of the coronavirus related deaths in wisconsin, a state that is only 6 black. Something that is going to be studied going forward. , evenk we have some cues though africanamericans who are veryoor, we live in a densely populated area. Withan come in contact folks at the hardware store, the Grocery Store, grabbing the gas , and ihind someone else inequitieshave really show up. One of the first places they show up is in healthcare. If we are saying you need to wash your hands often, that asumes that you have residence, you are not couch , you are not living in situations that are conducive to promoting good health. If you are not practicing social , i think people did not take it seriously at first and that is of all races. To the extent that people are taking it seriously now, it is going to show up in Health Outcomes and also in this election. I am really proud of people who are trying to exercise their votes. I think people who wear particular covering, remember not to touch their face, try to stay distanced from other people , there are people who risk their lives to vote. Host just about one minute aft, are you supporting president ial candidate in the primary and who do you think will win . I was trying to be a good hostess and welcome all of the delegates to milwaukee and trying not to express my preference. I will let you guess. You can stereotype me if you like. Host i certainly do not want to do that or put words in your mouth. You are welcome to stereotype me. On the stimulus bill before you go, when you think it will happen and what needs to be in it . Technicalre some fixes that will be in it. The District Of Columbia was treated like a territory inside of a state, losing hundreds of millions of dollars. I think there will be other technical fixes. We are very concerned about how the Small Business distributions are being made. I think a fourth stimulus package and the others have not been seamless packages. They stimulus packages. One of the things is that im going to work on my workers act and that is expanding the earned income tax credit and the definition of who is unemployed. Pandemic has really shown whereflaws in our economy we do not recognize good workers and restaurant workers as first employee people. All of a sudden, it is a crisis that they are unemployed. It is always a crisis when they are unemployed. We need to fix some things that are systemically wrong. The congresswoman from Fourth District of wisconsin. Thank you so much for the time over the phone. Guest in the meantime, stay safe. Host thanks so much. A focus on state alcohol laws during coronavirus. We turn to Jarrett Dieterle from the r street institute, a Senior Research fellow joining us this morning. A tweet on this topic from the hill newspaper noted that liquor and alcohol laws are being liberalized faster than at any time since the end of prohibition. Would you agree . Guest yeah, i would. Thank you for having me on. I think that is an accurate assessment. Isce prohibition, there reluctance to update our alcohol laws despite prohibition having started over 100 years ago now. Crisis,of this current it is causing a lot of state and local government to rethink how they approach alcohol and creating more flexibility whether it is retailers or producers or breweries to allow them to either deliver or do curbside pickup. Two examples that is something that was not always the case. It has definitely created a push for more flexibility. Host what do you know about alcohol sales in recent weeks . Things from Grocery Stores, other traditional resource retailers has skyrocketed. People are stuck at home. A lot of people are stressed right now and want a beverage with dinner. Unsurprising, cap rooms, the local bar or restaurant, those have limited exponentially plummeted. It has been an interesting time in the alcohol landscape to have sales booming in one landscape and falling in another. It has helped producers who have flagship products to produce what they have a lot of out in stores, those are doing well. Producers that emphasized they are struggling right now. Host for our radio listeners, some of the numbers by the associated press, alcohol is up 55 , premixed cocktail sales rose 75 compared to last year. Whileales are up 626 beer sales rose 42 . The online alcohol sales are up to 43 . We are taking your questions 3 . S morning 24 eastern and central United States, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific regions, 202 7488001. Taking your calls about alcohol sales during the pandemic. How much debate has there been beer and wine stores essential and keeping them open . Guest it has been one of the predominant questions. Most states have made them essential. They realized that people are going to want to have readily available legal access to alcohol like they traditionally do. It looks different. But theybside pickup, still want the access. There has been a couple of outliers. Pennsylvania and nevada. Pennsylvania decided to close all of their state run alcohol stores. The government runs the wine and Liquor Stores. It created unintended consequences that led to pennsylvanians going across state lines to surrounding states. Those Liquor Stores in those states got overwhelmed that it made social distancing difficult and if anything, helped spread exposure to the virus instead of going in the other direction. Pennsylvania is trying to do online alcohol sales. They are only able to process a few orders a day. They only open the website at certain points of the day. The states that are not trying to function as close to normal as possible, are really struggling and creating unintended consequences that are not good for Public Health overall. That youtes realized can debate all day long is alcohol essential or not, the reality is that people will want avenues to get it and enjoy it responsibly. The recognition of that is appropriate. By and large, it has been done by most states. Host we will talk more about individual state responses. First, this is andi out of illinois. Good morning. Caller the lady asked if i had an opinion on this. Im concerned about local breweries because unlike restaurants, they cannot easily come back and they are capable of making disinfectant which is something we need now. I think the laws surrounding them need to be reupdated. I am surprised the surgeon theral is not above governors which are seemingly being arbitrary. My questions. Host thanks for the questions. Guest those are good questions. As far as the Surgeon General and the federal government having more authority, the reason that our alcohol legal regime is at the local level is the direct heritage of prohibition. After prohibition was repealed, there was little appetite to keep most alcohol regulation at the federal level. Y devolved that power to local government. They canide still ban alcohol, they can control sales directly. They can control what breweries do. That is why we have the structure we do. If things move from one state to another, that may in book eight the federal government. For the most part, it is local. During a national emergency, that can be frustrating. States are acting differently from each other. Is not true in illinois, true in virginia or georgia. That is why we have it where it is. Breweries and being concerned about them, i think that is fair. A lot of them have prioritized taproom offerings and the local community hub. Maybe they host bingo night or some other community events. Those are not happening right now and it really hurts those breweries. We can get into the Hand Sanitizer issue, but we have seen more producers trying to get into that and create disaffected to help fill that market gap. I dont know if that will be enough to sustain them throughout this, but it is something that they are doing. Miriam in texas, good morning. I dont drink, but i was is moreg why alcohol andntial than other stuff is there any probability that there is going to be a lot of or a lot of at home people drinking and stuff . Guest i think the reason alcohol has been deemed essential is just a reflection of learned experience on behalf of public policymakers. Have raised the barriers or tried to ban or at least prohibit alcohol sales, it has almost immediately triggered people to take riskier steps. You have seen it prolifically with the development of the black market. In our modern society, for example in pennsylvania, it has caused people to go across state lines and bring that alcohol back and perhaps they are selling it to friends and creating their own form of a black market. I think that is the reason, it is a reflection of reality, not getting bogged down over whether it should be essential or not, but what reality is. It is harmful for people at home with potential alcohol abuse disorders like you referenced. That is always a concern. We want alcohol to be enjoyed responsibly. In states that have closed their alcohol stores, what we have seen is that a lot of people would have an alcohol abuse disorder are all of a sudden out of access to alcohol but not in a way that can help them longterm. It is a sudden withdrawal and they are flooding hospitals and it has led groups like the Pennsylvania Family Council to come out and urge the state from a Public Health standpoint to reopen stores. It is a big concern. We need to address abuse issues. Doing it in the middle of a crisis is the wrong way and causes unintended negative effects. There are complex issues at play which is why you have to be very careful about how you go about it. Host when it comes to people underg delivery alcohol stayathome orders, why in some places will they deliver it without food and why do some places make you order food if they are going to deliver you alcohol . , for it is arbitrary sure. A lot of that has its lineage in prohibition and post prohibition landscape. Was concerned that people need to have some food when they are Drinking Alcohol or it will lead them to indulge drink too muchr alcohol was not enough food to balance it off. Obviously we want to drink alcohol responsibly. It is not a reflection of the situation right now. A lot of people are able to get their food from the Grocery Store but they maybe are not able to get their access to spirits that they are used to. I think it is a different situation with what those laws are intended to address. That is why it is a lineage that we carry with us from the prohibition mentality that probably does not make a lot of sense in a modern context. Host from richmond, virginia, this is andrew. Good morning. Guest good morning. I have a twopart question. The first is the relate of rate of change ive seen. Is there any risk or do you foresee that a lot of the loosening of rules will be revoked or unknown undone following the pandemic and the latter is more general, we have the a tremendous change in liquor and alcohol laws state to state. New york city just started allowing the delivery of liquor and cocktails. And medicine and healthcare researches have been loosened. Laws graduallyt change and progress is slowly accomplished or are we entering a new phase where Rapid Development of laws and progress is upon us . Guest those are both really good questions. To your first question of whether this change will be durable, that is the key question to be asking. I think there is evidence pointing both ways. On the one hand, some of this is pandemicdriven right now. Makingrs and mayors are quick decisions, signing executive orders, using their authority in the most robust way tosible to give flexibility alcohol licensees to do delivery and take out as you mentioned. Some of them have not, which is interesting. In virginia, for example, they are allowing distilleries to ship their products to customers, that is temporary. It also is giving them the permanent ability to either hand live in hand deliver themselves or use thirdparty contractors. That is a permanent change. It is caused by the covid crisis but it is going to last for the duration as announced by regulators. Hope thatere is some this will be durable and create more flexibility longterm. I think a lot of producers and restaurants are discovering that having some kind of delivery component to their business can make a lot of sense. There will probably be some place for that to continue into the future. Question about the weader landscape, i think certainly have reason to believe that these changes will be longterm and durable. To your point about them changing really quickly is very interesting. In alcohol policy and change can be really slow. What we are seeing is a harsh reflection of reality of people realizing the benefits of more flexibility. A lot of these things are longterm changes. At the same time, i do think it is unfortunate that we had to wait for a crisis to actually cause that quick movement. It is interesting. It is an area that has been occupied for a very long time changing quickly. Host has there been any push to change the drinking age . Overtime you occasionally see groups that call for that. Often times the context of a subgroup like in the military. You can go and be drafted at a younger age coming should be able to have alcohol at that age. Not beenrge, there has a large movement to change the drinking age. I do not see anything coming out of covid that directly relates to that. People are more focused on how to help users and consumers with access and flex ability. Host talking about alcohol sales amid the pandemic. Jarrett dieterle is our guest of the r street institute, a Senior Research fellow there. This is people out of michigan, good morning. A eva. Caller the state collects a lot of revenue from alcohol sales. Wont they make adjustments because they cannot afford to use the revenue at this point in time, i think revenue is very important. A lot of those are a reflection of reality. States make a substantial portion of revenue off of alcohol sales. Therefor they want those to continue in some form. Beyond a tax revenue, i think it is important to note how many jobs are created in the alcohol industry. These are not just whitecollar jobs. They are production line jobs, they are killed by people without degrees. The politicians talk about wanting to expand and grow. Policymakers want to keep that up. In recent years, the most growth we have seen in the Manufacturing Sector has been in the alcohol industry whether it distilleries, people in breweries or bottling wines at distilleries. That has revenue implications, it also has job creation applications. I think people want that to continue which is why we have seen some of those adjustments during this time. Host laura out of texas, good morning. Caller good morning. Have a comment i have personal experience with abuse, childpousal abuse. I do not appreciate that they will allow alcohol to be home where there is severe abuse. I think it is ironic that they will allow alcohol to be sold in crimeay when this type of is being risen. It is going skyhigh. There is not a sheriff, not a cop, no Law Enforcement officer in this country that will not tell you that women and children are locked up in a house with a man that wants to abuse them. Host we had a conversation with the head of International Association of chief of Police Yesterday and he talked specifically about that issue that you bring up that they are seeing rates of Domestic Violence calls go up in Police Department around the country. Youett dieterle, i will let take on the Alcohol Delivery component of that question. I have had members in my family that have suffered from alcohol abuse. I think it is very important in this situation not to conflate multiple patterns that are not related. Yes, there has been evidence that abuse rates are rising. There has not been any evidence that it is related to Alcohol Delivery. Probably a virtue of more people being stuck in the home, not necessarily alcohol being delivered there. Some of the highest abuse rates that we had in our country, a lot of people during the prohibition era were related to saluting and permits drinking ning. Men after work go to the saloon and then coming home and being abusive. I dont think delivery itself is exacerbating that issue whatsoever in a place there has not been any kind of documented rise that is related to it. It is definitely a Public Health concern and a criminal justice concern, an issue that we want to be aware of and make sure it does not rise. There has been no evidence that the cause or even made worse by Alcohol Delivery. Host jean in michigan, good morning. Caller good morning. The woman kind of hit on a point that i had myself. And the smoking that they have done all of these laws against and have raised all of these taxes, the alcohol industry has not had any taxes it. Nst it put against they are encouraging younger people to go out and drink constantly. All of the commercialization is toward. I believe Alcohol Companies touch just as many lives and hurt them as the tobacco does. These Alcohol Companies should be taxed harder and help pay for the pandemic. , thoughrrett dieterle ahead. Guest it is not true that alcohol producers are not being taxed. There was a recent part of the ago. Ill a couple of years that was the first time there had been a modest production. It is not the case, i would disagree with the notion that they are not paying taxes. Taxes,so pay state sometime local taxes as well. They can be very high. Is over 50 of the revenue that distilleries get from a bottle of alcohol by the time you add the state impose markup on it as well as at the federal level. Most producers understand like any business that they should be continued in taxes. Taxes. Ributing a lot of them put time and thought into alcohol abuse issues. It is something that deserves public attention and Public Health responses two. Doing that through Public Health education, counseling services, and addressing the cause is what is important and not conflating that with alcohol generally which is a product that has been enjoyed throughout Human History by a lot of people responsibly and in an appropriate way. Obviously like many goods and services in our economy, there are things you need to monitor but i think we should not be overbroad in our response to that. It creates a whole host of other very negative problems. Some of the highest crime rates we had were during prohibition where we had violent gang organized structures moving alcohol and potentially hurting people they get in their way. Everyone wants to find the right niche to help the most people. I think that actually points toward reform combined with resources versus going to the way and making the problem worse. Host the question about drinking age in this country spurred some discussion on our twitter page for those who follow along everyday. Steve said the drinking age to be 18 everywhere in the u. S. Thess the law changed for draft at age 21. When it comes to beer delivery, how do you ensure that somebody under 21 is not ordering the beer delivery and the incentive is there, you have driven the product out to somebodys home already. They areu make sure the right age to consume alcohol . Guest that is a good question. Im glad you brought that up. It is not much different. The delivery model has been going to the store, there is still id verification requirement. It is computerized in most cases like it often is at stores that you go to. Some of the places that have allowed delivery have actually found better compliance for the age requirement through delivery then they have sometimes at stores which sometimes dont even check ids. A lot of people have had that experience and are probably listening. They have been to a store and not necessarily had that id checked even though they are in that range where they probably should. People bring up that concern but given the way that technology has evolved, there is a readily available model to make sure that is not happening. Au are not giving ability to have alcohol delivered to their house. It is important that it continues because that is the law. Whether you think it should be or not, it is. It is something that is happening and the companies that are doing delivery are putting a lot of time and effort into compliance for that. Host time for one or two more phone calls. This is dug out of alaska. Good morning. G. Dou caller this is not exactly related to the virus problem but my friend and i would like to make beer and wine and enter a local competition. I wanted to enter in some of the contest in colorado or california or washington. Illegal told me it was because of federal or state laws. You know anything about that . I dont know exactly the situation of brewing beer in alaska and onto colorado. It would not surprise me. A lot of states have a lot of restrictions on bringing alcohol into the borders from outside. Very much to the vestige of prohibition. The homebrewing movement was triggered by president jimmy carter when he signed a law that allowed homebrewing. It was actually a federal restriction at the time. That combined with statelevel brewpubsnvolving created the craft beer revolution we have today that has led to all of this economic andth and jobs manufacturing jobs across the country. Homebrewing definitely has a rich history of being entrepreneurial. It does not surprise me if that is the case that there might be restrictions going from state to state. Host we will have to end it there. If you want to see more of his work with the r street institute. He is a Senior Research fellow there and we appreciate your time. Guest thank you much. Host a few minutes left, we want to turn back to the phones and to congressman peter king joining us by phone from his district on long island. Good morning to you, sir. The headline on the front page of the New York Times, new york seeing a glimmer of hope. Are you seeing that where you are . I think we hit the plateau. In some ways, the numbers got worse. ,ust in the last several days the total death toll has gone to over 600. Positives over 30,000. In suffolk, wes have people leaving the hospital greater than those leap entering the hospital. I think you have to look carefully. I give Governor Cuomo a lot of credit at the state level. Suffolk county executives, they do a very accurate job of letting us know where we are. Host you have what you leap need on long island question mark what are you short on . Guest there is no immediate panic or shortage. If this continues over the next several days, there could be shortages. Certainly we needed masks. They are coming in. , hospitalstors increased. We certainly need more ventilators. It is very tight. There is no room for error. We have to get everything we possibly can because per capita we are in some ways comparative to new york city. We have over 16,000 positive cases as of yesterday. Another for hundred deaths. Another 400 deaths. We can always use more ventilators and masks. We have to stay on it because we are one day ahead of everything. There is no margin for error. There is an infusion of masks the other day in suffolk county. We do believe there will be enough. This is a daytoday effort that they are making. Overe departments, there 100 positive cases. In new york city, we have 20 of the police force out sick. The positive thing that i have seen, people are cooperating and i see it in my neighborhood and my community and i talked to government officials in areas in my town. There appears to be overwhelming compliance. I hope that keeps up. It is constant, dealing with the hospitals, government officials, and the federal government to make sure that all of the ways we need are here. At this moment, i think we are ok. Something subject to changing daytoday. Go, we want tou see what you would like in that package and when you think it might have been. Might happen. We need to start working on it as soon as they can. Implement itlly will be another issue. I think that we have to start right now. Infrastructure is important but also make sure the hostiles have the funding that they need. Getong island, if we can the production put back in. It is important to the economy of rhode island as we try to come out of this tremendous economic hit that we have suffered. Would be essential to the economic recovery of long island. Those are the main things. To make sure we have enough hospital supplies. The infrastructure, that is also going to be part of a longtime economic recovery. All of those issues should be considered as part of the next bill we do. I have been contact in contact with construction workers. They were inadvertently left out as far as as far some of the benefits they should be getting. Pension plans could be going under right now and we have to look where we are going to be months from now when the country tries to come out of this. It cannot have people losing pensions. We cannot have companies shutting down. Some Small Businesses are having a hard time getting through. We have to improve the system of implementing the benefits that congress passes. Host we do appreciate time. Stay safe. One last bit of news before the program ends, this tweet. Stephanie grisham is back to the east wing is what Caitlin Collins is reporting. Perhaps some thing to watch for today. We will be back tomorrow at 7 a. M. Eastern and foreign pacific. In the meantime, have a safe tuesday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] 2027488003 here is what is andrew cuomo updates on covid19. We plan to bring that you live when he starts. The house will gavel in for a session scheduled for 1130 eastern time also lived on