Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 05132020 20240713

A. M. , dr. Joshua gordon, director of the National Incident of Mental Health, on the impact covid19 is having on Mental Health and the nations Mental Health care system. Host democrats plan to vote this week on the 3 trillion financial package. Providing funding for the postal Health Services. Senate republicans are questioning the need for a funding bill. Some culling it aspirational. We will take your calls on it. If you want to comment on the phone lines, its 202 7488000 , mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. You can text the set 202 7488003 text us at 202 or comment onk us facebook. The bill starts out with 500 billion going directly to state governments. 170 5 billion would go to Public Health emergency funds and offer 75 billion for housing assistance, 25 billion for the Postal Service, tribal relief, 10 billion of this new package would go to Small Businesses. 3. 6 billion dollars for the fall election, offering direct each household. The election aspect, the Washington Times highlights some of that proposed ending, saying it would expose by mail with additional requirements for eligible voters and require states to allow 15 days of inperson early voting in november. It highlights a provision that would automatically extend permission for guest and illegal immigrants. Those under the deferred action for Childhood Arrivals Program would receive another full year of eligibility. More of that in the Washington Times, nancy pelosi appeared before the cameras to provide some of the ideas as to why the democrats are proposing this package. [video clip] the Federal Reserve bank has told us to think big because Interest Rates are so low. We intend to use low Interest Rates to bolster the American People. We must think big for the people now, because if we dont it will costs more in lives and livelihood later. Not acting is the most expensive course. We are presenting a plan to do what is necessary to deal with the corona crisis and make sure that we can get the country back to work and school safely. We have a goal. We have benchmarks and the science to succeed. In this critical moment for our country, we must demonstrate a Clear Strategy of testing and treatment again, honoring our heroes in the Coronavirus Crisis with support, not just words. We must address the pain of families who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. I am proud of our jurisdictions for the work on all sides of bills and we must all take an extra moment to understand the numbers we are seeing, the most overwhelming in our lifetime. The numbers require action that we have never had to take before. Suffering,s that are the hunger doesnt take a pause, the bills dont take a pause. The hardship of tragically losing a loved one doesnt take a pause. Its a momentous opportunity for us to meet the needs of the American People to save their lives, our livelihoods, and their democracy. Host again, the planned vote for the package is on friday. What do you think about the next round of proposed spending . Eastern and00 four central, 202 7488001 mountain and pacific. The hill highlights the fact that on the republican side they are highlighting their own proposals for spending, with two proposals emerging, litigation shields for businesses that reopen while the pandemic goes strong and a reform for beefedup unimportant Unemployment Benefits in march that critics say make it tougher to hire lower and middle income workers. John cornyn has been passed with litigation Reform Efforts and say the plan that says the plan could be revealed in the next several days. Seeblican monikers dont legislation moving until june at the earliest. Mitch mcconnell yesterday commented on the package proposed by the house. [video clip] we are taking a look at what we have already done, added 3 trillion to the national debt, assessing the effectiveness of that before deciding to go forward. We are all in discussion with the administration. If we reach a decision along with the administration to move to another phase, that will be the time to interact with the democrats. House,u see in the nancy, is not something designed , butal with reality designed to deal with aspirations. This is not a time for aspirational legislation. Its the time for practical response to the coronavirus pandemic. So, we are going to insist on doing narrowly targeted legislation, if and when we do itislate again, and we will, addresses the problems, the needs and not the aspirations of the democratic majority in the house. To your comments, edward starts us off in washington, d. C. Caller thank you, cspan. From theired scientist nasa space flight center. The Vulnerable People need the fact. We need to get away from the political aspects of this thing. Are innerable people danger without the facts. Host so, what do you think about the proposed ending . Caller i think it is worth it because the Vulnerable People need to be protected. Protecting the Vulnerable People, the people on the front lines, you know, the people out there fighting for our lives and their lives, you know . Without that, america is going to perish. Being a scientist, we need to take the politics out of this. Philadelphia, pennsylvania, good morning. Calls i was watching the from last night. The one where no illegals in necessary employment are to be deported, they are to be paid what american citizens are being paid from the government and they shouldnt even be in this country. They are going to increase the number of visas for foreigners to come fill the jobs. I would like you to have someone on, page root pedro, to go into whats really in the bill so that the United States people can deport all the people. Host what do you think about that being added to the spending bill specifically . Its a terrible injustice, paying the people who break the laws, paying everyone in the country the same no matter what area they are in. It will ruin the economy. Somebody is profiting from this and we ought to look at bill gates and the it Imperial College of statistics. Ok, gary, sterling, virginia. Thank you very much, pedro, i think you are essential personnel. 100 with what nancy pelosi said, but ive got a bone to pick with you all. Host lets start with why you agree with nancy pelosi and the spending figure. Like the gentleman said before the past lady, a lot of people are really hurt on this. What, 4 trillion, 5 trillion in iraq. Few trillion for the United States . Previoushave had spending bills in the trillions. You are saying it is not enough . Caller it might not be. Results wesee what get. Host republicans are making the argument to hold off and see. Do you think that is a valid argument . Caller no, i dont. Because we have people that are already hurting and dying. I never thought this guy was wrapped too tight. A bone to pick with yall. Yall let people come on your radio, your television and say that back in the 70s, everybody are going to have another ice age. You let them go on and say that. Everybody was not saying we are going to have another ice age. Good morning, mark. Caller the Unemployment Benefits they are discussing extending, i have been able to take advantage and it has helped to give me solvent. I am lucky enough to be job attached. I work with a company that operates out of Yellowstone National park here. We are set to go back to work in about a week. I think some of the republican comments on giving people Unemployment Benefits, then they will want to go back to work, its a fallacy. My job starts in a week, i have to take that job. Im job attached. I cant sit at home and collect unemployment until it runs out. Even if i wasnt job attached, most states have, the way that their unemployment systems are set up, you have to look for three jobs to five jobs per week and if you are offered a job, you have to take it. The Washington Times, highlighting what the caller brought up, extending federal Unemployment Benefits would go through january if it were passed with extra benefits that to expire the 31st. We will hear from matt, next in louisiana. Go ahead. As i looked through the stuff that you had and that i saw last night, releasing prisoners again , black minorities getting marijuana shops, extending the weekly unemployment through january, giving lobbyists Small Business funds, immigration getting, immigrants getting billion toing out 3 blue states for their pensions. 20 million for arts and humanities. I could go on and on. Areust seems like we putting our kids future into debt and the democrats want votes this year and it seems like we are just spending money that we dont have. If i got five credit cards and maxed out to 10 each without the money to pay for it, i dont think i would have a house to live in. I would be homeless. You would call for no more spending or a different type of spending . Caller no more spending, no more spending. We need to get back to work. I understand some people will pass away if someone gets sick, but we are built on, we make products and people buy them. If we dont and we just stay home until january to collect unemployment, you know, we wont have any military pensions. We wont have state and government pensions, no medicare checks to pay out. No more 401 k . No one is using any almond sent. Host matt brought up a couple of things in the bill in the piece, one of them being a provision for positive assistance within the democratic package, aiding the marijuana industry, a secure and fair enforcement inking act passed in the house in september allowing cannabis businesses and buyers, many of which were made open, to work with federally backed banks and ensure that it would take care of utility shut using general Infrastructure Spending as a midtent midpandemic stimulus. One of them, the expansion of was widely expected. Another, a ban on utility during the crisis flying largely under the radar. The last oil in the piece was that republicans mocked the first cares stimulus act edged to help the Kennedy Center for performing arts. They have allocated 10 million more of the National Endowment artse arts for regional organizations and an additional 10 million for the humanities grant. You can see those breakdowns and more at the hill. Com. Eddie is next. Hello, you are on. Im looking on the screen, but im on with you on a different station or what is that all about . Host there is a bit of a time delay, if youre looking at the screen, simply Pay Attention to the phone call. Caller yes, sir, yes, sir. I would say this. I dont really think that we need any more stimulus packages. What i really think we need is for mr. Trump to address the nation like he did when he closed down the country and tell them im opening up the country, even if i have to act the u. S. Constitution to do it. Ladies and gentlemen, its order. Over. You have got to go back to work. We can take care of ourselves, we dont have to be safe. 200 countries around the world are being shut in. I just talked to a gentleman in the philippines, the poor kid cant even go out twice a week. What kind of a game are they playing, sir . What are they doing . Aboutas you said that opening up you probably saw the story on capitol hill with Anthony Fauci expressing his concerns about opening up the country too soon. Caller hes the guy working with the wb who and the chinese. Im saying he has expressed concerns about opening up. Caller who the hell is see, hes nobody, just a man from brooklyn. Who cares about what he thinks . Leadr hes the epidemiologist. Hes the lead every on the task force. Caller someone is at the door. Who is that . Host ok. Taking a look at states opening up and the liking, this is what dr. Fauci said yesterday. [video clip] as i said many times publicly, what we have worked out is a guideline framework of how to safely open america again. There are several checkpoints there with a gateway first of showing, depending on the dynamics of an outbreak in a particular region, state, city or area. That would really determine the speed and the pace with which one does reenter or reopened. I have been very consistent with this, i get concerned, if you have a situation with the dynamics of outbreak in the area the that you are not seeing 14 day decrease that would allow and ifgo to phase one you pass the checkpoints of phase one, go to phase two or phase three. I have expressed then and again that in some areas, cities, states, and what have you, if they jump over the checkpoints and prematurely open up without the capability of responding effectively and efficiently, my concern is that we will start to see little spikes that will turn into outbreaks. Therefore, i have been keeping tovery clear in my message try to the best extent possible to go by the guidelines that have been very well what out and the lineage did. Of a community, state, or region doesnt go by the guidelines, consequences could be dire . They could be serious and this is something we should Pay Attention to. States that do it at an appropriate pace, which many of them are and will, a pace that is commensurate with the dynamics of the outbreak, they need to have in place already that when there are cases, there is no doubt, even under the best of circumstances that when you pull back on mitigation you will see some cases appear. Its the ability and the capability of responding to the cases with good identification, isolation and Contact Tracing, that will determine whether you can continue to go forward as you try to reopen america. It at thenly doing appropriate time, with the appropriate constraints, but having in place the capability of responding when the inevitable return of infections occur. Host you can see more of his testimony at the hearing on our website, cspan. Org. Assess, virginia, talking about the latest package unveiled by House Democrats yesterday. Caller good morning, how are you . Host well, thank you. Go ahead. Caller as much as i like free money and i would like a stimulus package, actually dont agree with it. I agree with some of your other callers and i think that we need to open the country back up and we need to go back to work. I dont want to work three jobs in the long run. I feel like the government will get their money back some way and raise taxes out the roof. Probably wind up taking away Social Security like in 10 years to get this money back. I just feel like its going to affect a lot of people in the long run. I would rather just not get any more free money and i would rather them just open the country back up and everybody go back to work. Thats my opinion. Joins us from buffalo, new york. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. I agree with the new stimulus package, ok . I didnt even receive the first package for stimulus. , tryingng 1100 a month to buy medication, i havent even got my check. Theres no one i can call to find out why i am still unavailable on the computer every day. I call my bank. President trump is nothing but a con artist, ok . Nothing but a con artist. Take a back pack with an American Flag and walked him out of that office, the man is nuts. He doesnt care about the American People. He cares about the dignitaries hes dealing with, his family making money, and when he leaves the white house is going to be set. Saying you have not received the initial 1200 . Caller no, sir. My children have got it, im 65 years old, i havent filed taxes. This man has done nothing for us for testing or helping people or people into Nursing Homes where they know the people my mother is in a nursing home right now, ok . ,here are four cases there caused by the people being sent there to the hospital because they said as long as they are not having trouble breathing, thats where they go. To the idea of the latest in previous round of stimulus payments, theres a deadline for those of you who might try to get that in a faster manner, saying it was the irs on friday said the number of paper stimulus checks flowing into mail back mailboxes will increase sharply this month and new wednesday it is designed for those who want to avoid waiting weeks and months to get a check people irs wants to have check on their payment status on wednesday and when available provide direct deposit information online. For many taxpayers the last chance to get the Economic Impact payment rather than a paper check is coming soon, according to the irs. Story this has that morning. Lois . Caller hello, good morning to everyone. I want to address couple of things. First of all, addressing the previous stimulus that a lot of people are waiting for. A lot of people were short concerning their child. Was covered by that aspect of the irs and even if they pass the new stimulus bill, what i like about it is they are addressing the frontline workers , they are addressing hazard pay. When you start looking at the people working on the frontlines , many of them do not have insurance. Those that do have insurance are afraid to go to the hospital. Documented, some may be undocumented. Some may have the fear of if i go in there is nothing wrong with me, i may catch covid19. I do agree with some aspects of the new deal. What i do not agree with is the aspect of the bill allowing people that can go back to work to still draw unemployment. There are some people that will not be able to go back to work. We have over 30 Million People that have filed for unemployment. Many of those jobs wont come back because they couldnt make it through the shutdown, even with a partial opening we still have businesses that are saying hey, i cant do it. I can do what it would take to protect my employees, let alone the, my customers. So, a lot of the Customer Companies are not going to have those jobs. Host that is lois from Oklahoma City giving us her thoughts. Bill is next. Good morning. I feel they are going to overdo it with the last bill. 3 trillion . The country will be totally bankrupt. Ourhis an effort to destroy country . Who wrote this bill that pelosi put out yesterday . Its just ridiculous. Thats all i have to say at this time. Thank you. Host to the financial underground of the issues taking place on capitol hill, the wall street journal published today about a budget deficit that sort to a record 1. 9 5 trillion through april as the u. S. Ramped up spending and cut taxes to counter the economic slowdown and revenue dropped, the Treasury Department showed on tuesday that spending climbed to 900 and 79 plus billion in april. Government aid to businesses and kick in andegins to buy can spit comparison monthly spending with 384 billion in the previous year, at the same time revenue plunged 20 19, leaving a deficit of 700 and 37. 80 5 billion for the month. There is a bit of an explanatory story in usa today, talking about the Federal Reserve and how they dont literally print paper dollars, thats the job of the treasury. They collect taxes for congress and at the time of the crisis they make large asset purchases on the open market by adding newly created electronic dollars to the reserves of banks like wells fargo, goldman sachs, and morgan stanley. They received treasury securities and Agency Securities backed by bundles of home mortgages and since midmarch the fed has bought 1. 6 million in treasury. Markets had frozen because of the Current Crisis according to oxford economics. They do purchase them directly from the treasury with securities for commercial banks. It goes on from there, explaining the Federal Reserves role during this time. Back to the bill that is being debated that is expected to be voted on by friday. Linda, staten island, hello. Day, sir. Od thank you for allowing me to speak on the broadcast. I think it is an incompetent spending bill proposal. My philosophy of the whole pandemic and state ordered policies are economic and tax base every way, but in the biblical sense of these matters many have five rated the 10 commandments. Lying, stealing, coveting the neighbors property, killing. Constitutionally we have resorted to a hatfield versus mccoys view. The gold rush involved into free government money. So, how does that go back to the building you described as incompetent . We will have to wait until our congressional patriots straighten the matter out. For me as a citizen, i cant do much but complain about it. We have to wait until they straighten these matters out. We have to find out where the original money has been spent and make sure it is allocated appropriately. Part, the white house yesterday at the press briefing responded to a question about the relief bill offered by House Democrats and the bill, according to what happened yesterday, could be a nonstarter for the president. [video clip] i wont get ahead of the president on negotiating or set any conditions, but the president has noted that payroll taxes are something he has looked at, it is something that he desires to see and it is smart policy. It means that every worker in america would get a substantial pay raise. What is so promising about payroll taxes that it is regressive, lowest wage workers would be the most helped. They pay more payroll tax then income tax. It is something the president has mentioned, but not as a condition i will negotiate with Speaker Pelosi. I encourage her to work with the president to help these individuals get the tax cut that they deserve. Host this from dave host again, if you want to text us, it is 202 7488002 it is 202 7488003. For the next halfhour we will continue with calls, get your thoughts on the latest spending package proposed by House Democrats. This is from km, who starts us off in fremont, michigan. Hello. caller i think the spending bill is largely moot, no one is addressing the real elephant in the room, antibody to commend and enhancement. This,uci hinted at talking about vaccines yesterday in his testimony for the commitment. Host how does echo back to the bill . Theer i dont care about bill, antibody enhancement could kill us all. It is when a virus uses your own antibodies from your first infection to reinfected view and worse. Host ok, pete, virginia. We need to isolate the people who will be most critically affected. Prior selections that would isolate them and let america back to work. Her you go again, people of america, im a vet. They throw the threat of daca in there. Im in construction, im a vet. These people do not belong here, them and their parents need to get back to wherever they came from. Americans need the jobs first, whether it is labor or not. These graduates from m. I. T. , they are labor in the markets and they drive american wages down. Host there are several senators working on the things they think should show up in the next bill, diaper assistance, it was called for in a joint letter to Mitch Mcconnell and chuck schumer, saying that families that could not afford a steady supply before it began, low income Family Spending 14 of their income on disposable debut products. Nonprofits helping by distributing 80 million per month. Even before the covid19 pandemic, nonprofit diaper bank distribution, most diaper banks were already oversubscribed. They are facing severe supply shortages due to the demand increases as families experience job losses during the pandemic. Next we will hear from rob, who is from North Carolina. Seems like a good morning there in washington, clear. Give me a minute please. I think this is pelosi, a parttime employee now, sitting at home in her mansion, she has got a private jet that she flies to washington, d. C. And she has got her full sound array, working parttime or none, just teleworking. You ever heard about the walking anund money the democrats do election . A month now, you have got 1200 and a limit of 600 per person and we will pay your mortgage, pay your rent, it is when the new president , whoever that is going to be gets inaugurated. And by the way on this hill we will have forgiveness of College Thing forney banking the industry. And you know, some more arts money and just a lot of other things that is like people say, its on there were their wish list. Its rich when you have someone like mr. Fauci and miss pelosi working from home, getting their full salary and their expense accounts. This is just the democrats trying to buy votes to throw into the next election. Thats what it amounts to. Host ok. Rebecca, california, hello. To make awould like couple of comments and state my opinion. Heardl eventually be immunity and we will have spent all this money when eventually it is going to end up as survival of the fittest. The other comment that i have, taking people out of work for that many months is not good. It gives them more time to automate everything. A lot of jobs will be eliminated. That part is unfortunate. Fossey comment is to dr. No good deed comes unpunished. That is the way of the world. Thank you for letting me make my comments. In california there was a special election, saying that mike garcia maintained a lead early on wednesday over kristie smith. 44 ,g 56 to smiths concluding on wednesday morning that the Associated Press would not protect the winner with the unknown number of dollars left, telling supporters that the campaign was in a position to declare victory as soon as the returns came in and i wont give a victory speech yet, we will say that hopefully for tomorrow night. In wisconsin, saying, the Associated Press saying that they declared tom tiffany the winner in the seventh Congressional District over trish is unfair, one hour after the polls closed with 99 of precincts reporting at 10 30 in the evening, taking the race with 57 of the vote and sean duffy having won the seat by 20 points in 2018. The District Voted for trumped in 2016 with a similar margin. Dave is up next, hes in indiana. Hello. You doing today, pedro . Host well, go ahead. I dont think we should open up the country yet. We should keep funding everybody until this is done. I will be right up front with you, i will have been following dr. Fauci. These the best authority in the world. Didnt he finance the coronavirus withdrew him for four years . With wuhan for four years . Host we will have to look that up for sure, but spending versus not spending, you are saying go ahead and spend it . Caller let me tell you something, spend everything. As far as teachers and closing schools, Everyone Needs to take a delay before we until we find a cure. Whatever it costs. If not its going to wipe out. I dont want that to happen. Yesterday during the Senate Hearing there was a backandforth exchange between dr. Fauci and rand paul about the issues of reopening and related matters. Heres a portion of the exchange. [video clip] onesizefitsall, no one goes to school, is ridiculous, we should be doing it School District by School District, people do make wrong predictions and the history of this when we look back will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction, starting with ferguson in england. We ought to have a little bit of humility in and that we know whats best for the economy and as much as i respect you, dr. Fauci, i dont think that you are the one person who gets to make a decision. We can listen to your advice but there are people on the other side saying that there wont be a surge and the facts will bear this out, if we kick kids out of school for another year, what will happen is the poor and underprivileged kids are not going to learn for a full year and we have to look at the swedish model and our kids going back to school. Its huge mistake. Can i respond to that even though there are only 32 seconds left . You might make it clear whether or not you suggested we shouldnt go back to school in the fall. Well, first of all, senator paul, thank you for your comments. I have never made myself out to be the endall in this. Im a scientist, physician, and Public Health official. I give advice according to the best scientific evidence. There are a number of other people that come into that and give advice more related to the things you spoke about, about the need to get the country back open again and economically. Advice about economic things or anything other than Public Health. I wanted to respond to that. Shouldd the word that we be humble about what we dont know. I think that falls under the fact that we dont know everything about this virus and we have really got to be very careful. Particularly when it comes to children. The more and more that we learn we are seeing things about this virus and what it can do that we didnt see from the studies in china or europe. For example right now, children presenting with covid19 who have a very strange inflammatory syndrome similar to kawasaki syndrome. I think we have got to be careful that we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects. Again, you are right in the numbers that children in general do much, much better than adults and the elderly, particularly those with underlying conditions. But i am very careful and hopefully humble in saying i dont know everything about this disease, which is why i am very reserved in making broad predictions. Callerhe previous mentioned the backing of the lab , it was the Fauci National institute of allergy and Infectious Diseases that shelled out a total of 7. 4 lab, theo the virology focus of conspiracy. About covid19. They shut down funding to the lab last week, at this time they do not believe that the current process aligns with Program Goals and agency letteries, that in a sent by politico. Most emerging human viruses come from wildlife and present a significant threat to Public Health, Scientific Research indicating there is no research that suggests the virus was created in the laboratory. From john bridgewater, new jersey. I was very happy with the first couple of packages. Im a republican. In theory, conservative fiscally. I think this is the time when we have to spend money, more rather than less. There may be things in the bill that are ultimately is objectionable, but if we had Something Like this back in the great depression, the government did not have the resources to do what it has been able to do. That is the strength of our country, in spite of the political sniping and everyone looking for advantages and conspiracy. On both sides i cant believe what i hear from the republican side about fauci. Why go the spending route this way as opposed to what others have suggested about opening companies and businesses up . We would love to get back to work, thats easy for me to say, i have my pension, my money is coming in and i dont have to do anything. I have family, my son has three daughters. My other, you know, relations, the if they go back to school, we still dont know. Its great to get a vaccine, i think that the ultimate goal. Longterm. Why not fail out the country . We might be facing huge debt. We are obviously facing huge deficit. We are beyond anything anyone ever imagined. But maybe it is not so bad. ,hibboleth on both sides deficit spending was always a political issue, generally lately with certainly the democrats and the tea party people. But you know, maybe they are not right. That the thingy about america, we have a lot of assets. If the chinese want to call in their debt, just sell them the grand canyon, all right . What the hell. In newhat is john jersey. Speaking of china, the foreign minister and hong kong has an oped. The world to fight coronavirus, he writes that they were the first to identify and share the genome sequencing with the rest of the world. They have been accused of coverups and delays and at the same time those who failed to test and report in a timely fashion are passing judgment on others, which is ironic as the timeline changes and cases work discovered in other countries that predate those in china, some are anxious to shift the blame from the early days of the virus. Did they lack a sense of responsibility, could there have been a coverup . Should a country labeled as the origin be held accountable similar because it was the first to report what it found . What country would be willing to test people and honestly report the findings in the future . More there if you want to read the thoughts in open of the wall street journal. Ernest, maryland, hello. Thank you for taking my call. I agree that America Needs another stimulus package. The rich got the money from the first two. Andpeople who are working put their lives on the line, the poor people, they got screwed. So, now they are trying to make amends. Yes, just let the people get some money. Got a good swath of people 1200. I dont know if it is a rich person poor person thing that you are saying, but go ahead. Saying is imm retired, retired military, retired from the Postal Service, all right . I got the 1200. Im a disabled that. Comes home care that here. Some of these young babies that are not rich have not received their stimulus package. I have some cousins and one of my daughters that just received it last week. Host what about the overall impact on spending debt and deficit, which other callers brought up, does that concern you . Caller no. Not one bit. This is america. And as, you know, when there is a vaccine and people can go back to work, i am sure that it might take a few years, but we will be back. America will be back. Host the cori a, pasadena, maryland, how are you . They torilla, pasadena the victoria, pasadena, maryland. Caller im against it. If these governors hadnt abused their money, we wouldnt need all this. The hardest hit are the Small Business is getting the least amount of money. Small businesses are what make the country worth living in. The people in the homes that have been out of work and have no incomes question mark 1200 theirpaying their rent, childrens food, we can even get food. You are worried more about the government and the people that have been hurt through no fault overeir own by people reaching beyond their authority. We dont even have an Emergency Operations center in maryland. People on the phone dont even know what they are talking about. You have absolute chaos, no accountability, and a governor who pays 9 million for testing kits from korea the cant even be used and hes hiding them. Wheres the accountability . Wheres the accountability or new york . We need money whether people were hurt most. Small businesses are devastated. Most wont even survive and you are giving 10 billion . Thats it . Give the post office 25 million . Thats absurd, the post office cannot even deliver mail to my house. Speaking of governors, several of them writing a letter calling for support on east and west coast calling for the government to provide health and safety services. It will be impossible to make decisions about critical Public Health care that will help them with layoffs, teachers, firefighters, and other First Responders. Those are governors and in western states. When it comes to governors there was a poll taken at how individual governors and states are doing handling the pandemic in their state. Most getting good marks, overall state governors getting 71 versus 27 tes disapproval. Ohio topping the list, Governor Mike Dewine with 86 . California, 70 9 . Virginia, 78 . Respectively. Last on the list, its georgia. Allen, manassas, virginia, you are next up. Alan inoing to virginia. High. Caller they call this a stimulus package but the problem people are not spending their money. Caller, ish the about getting money to the people who really need it. Not just these broad brush strokes of putting money out there. It just is not working. It is not like the great depression. People are not going into stores to spend money. They are spending money on groceries and on a few other things. Unless you save the Small Businesses, this is where it has to be focused. Host jesse, florida, good morning, you are next up. Caller people did not make this decision on their own, it was shut down. Lets get one more call from gary and broken bow. Caller throughout history money does not trickle down. If you want to help, give more money to the individual people here, instead of 1200, a lot more. They will spend that money. Money goes up, not down. Last call on this topic. As you have known for the last couple of weeks, the Supreme Court has been holding live telephone hearings, looking at various cases they are considering and we have been following them, not only following them, but you can see them as they play out. Great store of bloombergs us. Good morning. Alongs case is something the line of faceless electors. Can you describe what that means . Caller there is a broad guest there is a broad expectation that when people cast their vote for president , the candidate who wins the states will get the state votes in whats known as the Electoral College. Those are individual people who vote in the Electoral College and the question in this case is whether those electors, even though one of the candidates might have been the winner of the statewide vote, can they go to the Electoral College to cast their vote for somebody else . We have two cases at the Supreme Court, one of them out of washington, one of them out of colorado, where states are attempting to require people to vote for the candidate that was the winner of the statewide vote , where the Supreme Court decades ago said that states can require electors to sign a pledge. Since it is arriving at the Supreme Court, how do the lower courts deal with the cases . Went one in each direction, no doubt a big reason the Supreme Court agreed to take it up. They said in a case in a washington case they said that could find electors 1000 each if they voted for somebody else. That case they voted for colin powell than hillary clinton. A oort considering the colorado case rather than the other direction, they said it went too far when they removed in a lecture other than hillary clinton. They canceled his vote. Will be making the presentations for these states and who will be making the in these casesr the lawyer in both cases is a harvard law professor. He is representing the same people. He is somebody who is opposed to the Electoral College and is hoping that the Supreme Court case might prompt some big changes in how the electoral. Ollege works state officials in washington and colorado will be making their case for efforts to implode to enforce the pledges. Host whats his main argument . Caller the constitution gives electors the right to vote as they please. The 12th amendment is the amendment put in place after the 1800 president ial election. He notes that the 12th amendment you that uses words like vote and ballot suggesting that this is not just a formality, that electors actually do have the ability to think for themselves and he points to one of the federalist papers in comments made by Alexander Hamilton that suggest the framers of the constitution wanted them to be able to use their own judgment. Host for those making the case for the states, what is their a big part ist tradition and the broad expectation that we have when the voters of colorado say vote for hillary clinton, that is how state votes will be cast in the Electoral College. They also make the argument that even though Alexander Hamilton may have felt that way about the electors, that wasnt the view of the framers as a whole. Might have been largely speaking for himself in that excerpt from the federalist papers, they argue. So, we are going to have potentially a very interesting thement about whether original intent of the framers of the constitution and the 12th amendment, whether those views should carry the day, even might over time someone have a next dictation that these electors might not have that kind of freedom. Much of these arguments are based in the 2016 election . Does it go further . It goes further than that. There were 10 electors that voted for someone other than the candidate that was the winner of their state. More than the previous century combined. No doubt know but be on the minds of people. It is noteworthy that the court agreed to take this case up when it did, before the 2020 election. That is what professor les x wanted them to do so that the court could decide this outside the context of an actual president ial election. The fear has been that if you had a very close election decided by one or two electoral left, that this question in the air might bring great uncertainty and a lot of pressure on electors to switch. Heir vote ultimately the court would have to decide the issue in the context of a president ial election, so the art will try to get this out of the way now so that we know what the rules are. You are not a mind reader, but you get a sense that there are people to watch for particularly . Guest it is really hard to tell. In part because even if you agree on the original meaning of the constitution and the 12th amendment prevailing, there is evidence that goes in both directions in terms of whats being expected. I think from my standpoint it will be a tough one to anticipate in advance in terms of who is going to go in what direction. Bloomberg news supreme , whateporter greg stohr has it been like it, the experience of doing it by telephone . Guest certainly very different, in part because we are all trying to write stories as the arguments are going on. But the questioning is very different as well. We get the chance to hear Justice Thomas asked questions, which is unusual, and the fact that justices are asking questions in seniority order changes the dynamic, changing the way the conversation goes. Thank you very much. Dont forget, you can hear this play out and follow along when you tune in at 10 00 this morning for those cases, you can see that on cspan. Coming up, we will be joined by reformore doc, who will be and other issues from government surveillance. Later in the program, dr. Joshua gordon, director of the National Institute of Mental Health will look at the covid19 impact on Mental Health and the nations Mental Health care system. It was a Washington Post interview yesterday where the Virginia Governor was asked about criticism that he has been too slow to reopen the commonwealth. [video clip] when you say it is a new day and we have to realize, you have seen the protests in the criticism from conservatives in your state who say you are moving too slow to reopen the economy. You have seen the tweets from President Trump, liberate virginia. What is your message to your critics who say you are crippling the state economy by moving too slow . First of all i have a consistent message. We have been receiving mixed messages from washington and you just touched on one of them. Ago,thursday a few weeks the president of the United States and i were in a meeting via video conference. Cdc guidelines, trending 14 days of lower numbers before lifting restrictions. Two days later, he was talking about liberating virginia. He was encouraging protests. We have had several of them in virginia. I would say from a messaging perspective, that is a significant mixed message. It is also a mixed message to say back in february that this virus was going to disappear. Guess what, it didnt disappear and now we have had over 80,000 deaths. It was also a mixed message to say everybody can get a test, a beautiful test. That is what came from our president s mouth. That is far from what is accurate. I have stuck to a message. I have stuck to using data. The data every day, i follow the cdc guidelines and those the guidelines we are adhering to. Not flipping a switch, it is a dimmer. We are trying to open up some of our businesses but doing it in a safe and responsible way and i have the tools in place with testing capability, tracing and tracking. I have a massive amount of ppe so if we see flareups, we can box them out. If things get away from us, if the numbers are going in the wrong election, we will put the restrictions back in place. That has been my message from the beginning and it is going to be a consistent message. Washington journal continues. Host our first guest of the morning is jeff mordock of the Washington Times. He covers the Justice Department. Guest thanks for having me back. Host in the senate this week, the senate will look at pfizer. Fisa. Can you explain what the senate is about to take up . Guest it is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and it gives the fbi a broadway just powers a broad range of powers to spy on Foreign Nationals they believe might be a threat to the u. S. But it has come under fire because a lot of allies have been arguing that the fisa process has been abused to fulfill some political agendas by the Obama Administration to target members of the Trump Campaign. For example, carter page, Michael Flynn. They have joined in with some civil libertarian groups on the left to try and push for stronger reforms and definitely tighter restrictions on how this can be used to spy on americans. Host walk us through what the senate will take up and what changes could happen if it passes. Guest the senate is expected to take this up today. Ometimes things run longer it is likely we will see debate and get a vote today. They are debating a house bill that makes some changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Is stricterhings penalties for people caught lying or withholding evidence from the fisa court which was an issue in the carter page wiretap. They want a neutral thirdparty to argue against reasons why the fbi says they need the wiretap. Right now the fbi can go into the fisa court and tell the fisa because need a wiretap we believe this person is involved in various acts and there is nobody there to challenge them. This goes against our Constitutional Rights of innocent until proven guilty. That is another thing they went and put in. And privacyarians groups on the right and left say that does not go far enough. They want to see a more stringent advocate. They want to see that if you are going to get a wiretap on an american, you need to go to a traditional court, not the fisa court which is secret but a regular u. S. Court where this information can be unsealed. If you are wiretapping a Foreign National and they are talking to an american and there is evidence that may come up about the american, they want more stringent controls on how that information is used. That is an issue that came up in the Michael Flynn case because weve got wiretaps in and Michael Flynn is talking to the Russian Ambassador and we caught Michael Flynns conversation with the ambassador and that led to the whole fbi investigation. Host when it comes to the larger issues, i suppose one of the issues is about this idea of transparency and what goes on. By the senate passed, will people have a better idea of what happens in this court . Guest yes because one of the things the privacy hawks are advocating for is that we have, at some point, these fisa forms become unsealed. Right now we dont know what is in any of these forms. We literally know nothing about what goes on in the fisa court because it is so secret. That is where the privacy hawks object because you have the fbi going in, unchallenged, asking the court to grant them a warrant to spy on an american and there is nobody there to counter what the fbi is saying, nobody there to challenge. People could be spied on and they dont even know about it which is raising alarms. That has been so concerning. It has brought together conservative groups like freedom works, leftleaning groups like the aclu, conservative senators like mike lee and rand paul but liberal senators like patrick lakey. Instrange bedfellows here pushing for reform for the senate. Host our guest is with us if you want to ask questions,. 202 7488000 for democrats. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Voteu look at the house that took place on march the democrats and 126 republicans. Of those voting no, 75 democrats, six republicans. How bipartisanws support the house bill had. The house bill was endorsed by adam schiff and bill barr. We will rarely find them agreeing on anything else. That shows one of the things that i thought was interesting was back in march, i was on the hill and matt gaetz and congressman powell were having a conversation and they were both complement each other on their ideas for fisa which goes back fisa reform which goes back the further right in left where this is the only issue they can agree on, they object to the spying of americans. Host do you think this will get safe passage in the senate . Guest i think it is going to be highly contentious because you have leadership coming out and supporting the house bill. Mitch mcconnell has offered support for the house bill. But you have mike lee, patrick lakey, rand paul, all of them want stronger reform and all of them are willing to go to bat for strong reform. When the extend this, it is going to be for a couple years. Extension is over an that was last fought in 2015. They really only have one bite of the apple to try to get this right and get the reforms in that they want to get in. I do expect them to go to the mat and try to make sure they can get as many reforms implemented as possible. Host jeff mordock, a viewer tweets us this morning, asking what are the penalties for fisa abuse for those who have abused it to the detriment and destruction of innocent people . Guest right now, if you can prove there was a fraud put on the court, the penalty is five years in jail. Under the house bill that will go up to eight years. Host i suspect that since you brought it up, this largely intersects with what has been going on with Michael Flynn. Talk about those intersections and where we are at this point. Guest it is interesting. It very strongly intersects with the Michael Flynn case. Mike lee and rand paul have been going out to the media and making speeches in the senate, saying that the Michael Flynn case is exactly why we need fisa reform. One of the crowns of fisa reform is it sort of operates under the belief that the fbis going to take care of everything. The fbi has got this, they will do everything aboveboard. Theyre going to push for a probable cause warrant. They must have probable cause. What we are shooting to see with Michael Flynn and we saw with carter page and two very stunning reports which are very , the fbi, there are a lot of questions about their credibility and whether or not they can be trusted to act independently without political bias or even without making simple mistakes. Reports that came out, since back in march when the senate decided to kick the can of the fisa debate to may, since reportso very damming came out. An average of 20 errors were found in 29 fisa applications, including four where the socalled procedures and evidence that prove there is probable cause for a warrant, they were completely missing and the fbi didnt know where they were and there is another report that came up by the Justice Department and in that report, the Justice Department said they looked at two separate fisa applications from 2017 and they found that with material errors, they were riddled with errors and material letters serial errors mean they could have tipped the scale in probable cause. Because we dont know anything about the fisa court, we dont know what they are approving, we cant say with we cant say with certainty. Host a couple calls lined up for you. Lets start in kentucky with brad. Our guest is jeff mordock of the Washington Times. Think we havet any business extending the powers or tenure of a secret court. I dont think anyone agrees with that. Everyone would be aware that does not agree with the american idea. A secret, and not only do we have one but it operates very badly. If you are a powerful political fbi person, you can flout it for an extended time. Talk about undermining the rule of law, that is pretty egregious. Stain and i dont know how we can a gnocchi we can unyoke ourselves. Guest to his point about the fisa Court Operating badly. Is theory is that the fisa just accepting whatever the fbi submits to it as fact. They issued two very scathing orders demanding more transparency from the fbi, but this court has been operating since 1977 and now we are in 2020 and they are finally demanding more transparency and more accountability from the fbi which makes you wonder what has been going on for the past 40 years. Host chris in virginia, you are next. Caller hi. Is a hardcorey conservative person but it was they wentt act that along with and now it is fisa. , it has toi does it be approved by the doj when it goes to the court. The judge is going to ask but people make mistakes. , youer, in an open court have to reveal the source. If you suspect a terrorist of , this personattack this person will flee. We dont spy on americans, we spy on foreign agents, people must people make mistakes but we do things to protect this country. It cannot be left in open court. Guest a couple points on that. Onut is not spying americans, carter page was spied on with the fisa warrant that was renewed four times. To his other point about bringing it into open court and you will start having to reveal sources and documents being made public, that is what the fbi and the Justice Department, that is the concern they have raised, that these tools and this fisa process is critical to stopping terror attacks and it is critical to tracking terrorists and they say they have used it to foil terror attacks because of the benefits of the fisa and that is why attorney general bill barr has been strongly advocating for it to be renewed. Host the caller use the phrase people make mistakes. Does that apply at all to what you are reporting on . Flynn it is hard to know what happened here because we dont have all the answers just yet. We know that documents were not turned over. His attorney has argued that was prosecutorial misconduct and they deliberately miss withheld information and she is arguing that is on par with the ted stevens case from a decade ago when prosecutors withheld information. We dont have answers from the Justice Department yet on why this information was not turned or turned over almost two and a half years after the case was brought and we are still kind of waiting for what the Justice Departments answer is. A u. S. Rr had tapped state attorney to review the case and i dont know if he is going to issue a report or not. It doesnt look like it but i think some things will start to come out on why we have not seen this information that was favorable to flynn until almost two years after his guilty plea. Host the Justice Department dropped the case against mr. Flynn. Does that mean this is over . Guest no it is not because the judge has to approve the decision. He is the judge overseeing the case and has to approve the decision to drop the charges. Late yesterday, he filed an opinion inviting inviting third parties to comment on the flynn case which is interesting because it is unusual to see a judge do that in a criminal case. Usually third parties only way in on civil cases because the harm in a criminal case is the alleged perpetrator and the alleged victim and usually nobody else is impacted so civil cases where they are more widespread, you may see third i es way in weight weigh in. It lets him hold on a little bit longer. Int lets hear from tyrone new york, democrats line. Caller thanks for taking michael. The flynn case is another corruption of our legal system. If we sacrifice our rights for security, we deserve neither and this is what has happened to this country. We knew that this fisa situation was a problem when we first introduced it as the patriot act and now we are realizing which was complained about from the beginning, that this was giving too much power to people that dont know how to handle it. We are investigating people, we are using this as a scapegoat to call people that are not terrorists terrorists. We continue to corrode our Justice System and tear our country apart and we are going to get what we bargained for. Mr. mr. Moore dock mordock. Guest to his point, we see 70 mistakes with these fisa applications and they are riddled with errors. It does make you wonder what is going on, if it is just wrongdoing. If you could not find any evidence of political bias, but we also couldnt prove it wasnt the reason for those mistakes and that is a real concern. We are seeing so many mistakes by semi people who shouldnt be making those mistakes. It raises questions of it is of if it is sloppiness or if it is Something Else but the fbi should not be making the mistakes that they are making and then that is costing people there civil liberties. Look at carter page. His life was torn apart. He spent most of his money on Legal Defense and at the end of the day he was not charged with anything. Host a viewer off of twitter. When it comes to attorney unmaskedike flynn, who his name . What does that mean and as far as the question, go ahead and expand on that. St we may not know who unmasking means to sort of reveal if you have some of the working in intelligence in secret, the unmasking means you would reveal that and kind of bring their name in public and talk about what they are doing with other intelligence agencies and in terms of who is doing that, we dont know. The acting director of National Intelligence is looking into d classifying, unmasking the Justice Department because it will expose confidential Justice Department sources and part of how the justice depalma and operates we may not ever know the answer. Host john is up next in North Carolina on our republican line. Caller i have a novel idea. Lets start prosecuting these people who abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act s abuse people who abuse the fisa. They all abused the system. Lets put these people in jail. That is what we need to do. That is all i have. Host is prosecution possible under those terms . Atst especially if you look of 20nt about the average , even in 29 applications, the biggest deep dive into why there were so many mistakes did not reveal any deliberate wrongdoing. Say that it was a possibility but he didnt find any wrongdoing either. His investigation was limited. It would take a deeper investigation. The republicans are on the fbi director, chris wray to launch his own invective investigation and they have been pretty aggressive about prodding him to do something. Lindsey graham has been calling for hearings but he has also been calling for hearings for about a year and a half and hasnt had any yet. Where i think we are going to going torosecution is come from the john durham investigation that we havent heard any evidence that john durham has uncovered any wrongdoing. We hear he is talking to bill barr. Totripped down to washington keep his investigation on track amid the coronavirus pandemic but we are not hearing that he has uncovered a specific crime or set to bring charges. Evidence there is no he has charges he is ready to file. Host jeff mordock you will see the phrase obamagate. Guest that is President Trumps push to investigate president obama and members of his administration. That has gained steam since we have learned things about the Michael Flynn case. We had bombshell Court Filings two weeks ago where they revealed a lot of things that really cast doubt on mike flynns guilt. Ce then, President Trump especially it goes back to the fbi because one of the things that was interesting was when s came out, at that time, the former acting Deputy Attorney general was unaware of the fbi wiretapping Michael Flynn. That points to the fbi being out there on their own. Something like that should have been approved by the justice and the fbi under jim comey was practically acting rogue, on their own. Host is there anything else to suggest a direct line from president obama . Guest one of the things that came out was president obama was aware of the wiretap and the monitoring and surveillance but the Deputy Director wasnt and that has raised a lot of questions. We have seen a lot of President Trumps allies point to that as as thoughoment president obama may have been in on it and may have been complicit but to what they are saying, we see democrats raising the point that it is a counterintelligence operation and a counterintelligence operation into the threat russia may pose to the United States and specifically if they helped the Trump Campaign to subvert the election of 2016. It would be weird if they didnt tell the president that they were doing a counterintelligence operation investigating a foreign powers influence. That is something that would automatically be kicked up to the president. When it comes down to rather than those two issues is what toldormer president obama about the purpose of the investigation . Why was it approved because it was a legitimate counterintelligence operation or was it a function of this political sabotage . Those of the questions we need to answer. Think president obama knowing that there was a counterintelligence operation going on really points to a aha moment. Host our next caller is in florida. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I am no expert so allow me to stumble over some words. Comey and obama beingsical, decent human and not everyars sentence out of their mouth is alive. An investigator for insurance for over 40 years. I have taken thousands of statements on insurance matters. Investigation is the same. You have to be thorough. You have to stick to the facts. Dragnet, the facts maam. Idea of an investigator the facts is absurd. I will tell you from my years of wouldence, and i wish you give me a chance to respond to whatever comeback this gentleman will have. He does not have my work experience. Host we are running out of time. Cannot an investigator bend an investigation. You have to do the work. Facts,t start bending inventing facts. It doesnt work that way. Host thank you caller. Guest i have two points on that. One is, we know that this investigation, to his point, it would be hard to bend facts if you followed proper procedures but one of the things we have discovered is proper procedures were not followed and it seems talk onre was a long the seventh floor the fbi certainly if was not bending the rules, making mistakes. A whole slew of mistakes were found in the carter page fisa application. Got with mike flynn, you have things being held or concealed. Or makingngdoing mistakes, then it is extraordinarily sloppy, and maybe that is it, maybe these people just made some serious mistakes but i find it hard to believe this many mistakes could be made by this many professionals. It raises a lot of questions over who could who should be monitoring what. Host we solid the process was for Michael Flynn. Part of that is that he ultimately pleaded guilty to lying. How do you square what is going on with those two things . Guest that is a great point, that he did plead guilty to lying. As his attorneys argued, they didnt have access to all the information and at that point he sort of they have raised an element that this claim is unsubstantiated, that prosecutors with Robert Muellers team threatened to indict flynns son had he not pled guilty and that is part of the prosecutorial misconduct they are alleging, that they really put pressure on him and he was willing to plead guilty to protect his son. That is the story his attorneys have been offering as his reason. Host jeff mordock is the Justice Department reporter for the Washington Times. You can find his reporting including several on the senate and the cases involving Michael Flynn, available at washingtontimes. Com. Thank you. We will continue on with your calls and comments. Dr. Joshua gordon joins us later on in the program. He is the director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He will discuss the covid19 impact on Mental Health in the nations Mental Health care system. First he want to show you a portion of an interview conducted with the arkansas his decision not to issue a stayathome order and how it is working. [video clip] you have been a former congressman, a federal official at Homeland Security and now governor of arkansas, and you have drawn a lot of notice in your decision to not issue a stayathome order. How is that going in arkansas . It is going very well. We made the right decision. Every governor has to make a decision based on the unique circumstances of their state but yes, i had enormous pressure from the national media, the National Dialogue that everybody has to shelterinplace and i had talked to our Public Health Public Health professionals and i realized we would be adding to the unemployment roll hundreds of thousands more weple and steep and wouldnt be making a significant difference in the number of cases. We targeted our approach. We did close bars and restaurants and inservice dining. We closed some of the persontoperson does this is. We didnt close every establishment. We really emphasized social distancing. The result is all the National Pressure has opened up. We have also resisted the pressure of doing it all at once. We have had a phasedin approach to reopening and the result is at think you could look at our statistics and we have done as well as anybody if not better. Butorry about it every day are number of hospitalizations which they projected into the thousands is less than 100. Whenever you look at the number of cases, we beat the projections. The number of deaths has beat the projections. We have managed well and in the right way for arkansas. We are not taking it lightly and we will continue to look at this very seriously. Washington journal continues. Host we will be joined by two representatives through the course of this halfhour. We want to hear your calls about the 3 trillion package being introduced in the house. 202 7488000 for the eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. You can text us or tweet us or post on our facebook page. Withd the chance to talk several legislators over the past few weeks about their experience with the pandemic. Joining us from missouri, representative blaine mick meyer. He is also a member of the subcommittee on Coronavirus Crisis. Could you start by talking about this subcommittee . What do you hope to get out of it . Guest Speaker Pelosi says it is supposed to provide some oversight on the activities going on around the coronavirus situation, the pandemic and the but we already have eight other committees or entities or individuals that are doing oversight and the very first thing she did when she put the committee together was to immediately go after some Small Businesses that applied for ppe loans under the auspice of the heading of this committee. I think it is a political exercise that she is trying to go to. Into why is the who asleep at the switch, why did the cdc fumbled the ball on this, why did you go after the president and then apologized to him when he was the first one to respond to the situation by closing down travel . My fear is and so far has proven correct, that this is nothing but a political exercise. Our job as the minority on the committee is to make sure the real truth gets out, the real facts are out there so the American People can judge what is going on. Host how do you and other republicans hope to accomplish that . Guest we asked some very good questions during the hearings. We will certainly have press conferences and press releases, getting the information out, documenting what we say and the studies we point to. The facts from different individuals that show they are not wrong. We will make sure the facts point to their sources and that the ideas of all of this are incorrect. Host what is the breakdown of the republicans versus democrats on the committee . Guest it is sevenfive, democrats to republicans and our First Virtual hearing is this afternoon. Host what is the topic . Guest weve got some doctors to begin with. Altogether. I assume we will get a briefing to theem with regards seriousness of the virus, how it originated and how it spread and there are thoughts on how this took place. It will be interesting to see how that all transpires and what their thoughts are for reopening. We are certainly open to listening to their suggestions. That is one side of the argument. Debtor side, the other part of our society that is drying up from the standpoint of economics and health of the rest of our society being damaged almost to the point of being damaged more than what covid is doing to our health. I think we need to be weighing those things and keep a perspective on how this all works out. In my state, we recently had a conversation with the Missouri Hospital Association and i asked the question, what is the total number of deaths with regard to flu and pneumonia in our state versus covid19. We had four times more deaths in the state of missouri so far this year at that point in time when i had this conversation versus covid19. I think covid19 is a serious. Llness, a serious virus i think we need to keep perspective of this. Whenever you have that sort of situation where you are losing more people to other diseases, and i could go on here with regards to the suicide rate. I have a mortician in my district in Central Missouri where i live. Behold, he calls once a week trying to get us to open up more quickly because he is dealing with more suicides than covid19 deaths. He knew this and saw this early on. We have another problem here, the Mental Health aspect of this. Lady that deals with a lot of Veterans Issues and she said, i am no longer a caseworker, i am now a counselor. All of these veterans are calling and i have to talk them off a cliff. If you have ptsd and you are used to a support network of going to a local shop or a cup of coffee and talking to your friends or walking the mall, you cannot do that anymore. Suddenly they are sitting at home doing too much thinking and as a result, they are in trouble. The Mental Health calls have increased substantially. We have a huge problem on the other end of the Health Spectrum here. I am not sure we are considering it. I am anxious to get that part of the discussion going with the doctors to see at what point they think we need to be considering that part of the health of our citizens. Host the house is expected to vote on friday on a new package of spending directed to states and localities and a large part lidded to covid19. I know it is just introduced but where do you stand on this package . Guest i cant support this. This is a democrat wish list. They call it that. They were calling at that for the last week or two, talking about it in terms of a wish list. That is what they called it. There is stuff in there that has no business being there from the standpoint of election money and other things that have nothing to do with covid19. I am supportive of trying to find dollars to help people get through this pandemic. Either the cities or counties or states or the individuals or the businesses, whatever it takes, but we are not going to be bailing out the states that have been bad actors in the past and cannot manage their money. We are not going to the top of the building and throwing the money down. We have to have some targeted relief to people. I think the president is taking a good standpoint. We need to wait for two or three weeks to see how are our economy is reacting to opening up as well as the dollars that have been out there. We passed almost 3 trillion in congress and you can leverage a and as aat money result you get 7 trillion floating around in the economy. We need to sit down and see where that money is being used. I have talked to some bankers and the Savings Rates are actually up right now. The people are not necessarily spending the money they are getting. It is a good thing they are saving but we need to get our economy up and going so hopefully they get out soon and start spending and spreading the dollars around. From the standpoint of the package, it is not practical. Host you referred to states and bad actors, what do you mean by that . What states are you looking at and what have they done that makes them a bad actor . Guest i can point to our neighboring state of illinois. They have a retirement system that is a disaster, pulling the entire state and its budget over a cliff. I know they want to be bailed out. Around st. Borders louis and Central Missouri but i can tell you from talking with my colleagues who i work with all the time in illinois as well as the folks who go back and have across the river, we a big problem. They want us to bail them out and that is not going to happen. They have to get their own house in order. This is a problem that occurred prior to the pandemic. We will find some relief. A lot of states are going to have their Unemployment Insurance decimated by all the unemployment folks are applying for and it is through no fault of their own that their funds are going to be drying up. I would certainly look at trying to help replenish some of those unemployment funds to help get states over the hump as well as the citizens. To go in and bail out the pension fund, no way. The subcommittee for Coronavirus Crisis, a member of that committee and we thank you for your time. Guest my pleasure. Host we will be joined by another member of that committee and just a few minutes. We will take your calls until then. Shareen, thanks for waiting. Caller thank you. It is sharon. I read in a forum there were 43,000 people who made more than 1 million and are set to get an average of 1. 7 million out of the previous stimulus packages that was buried in there. I dont understand why these laws had to go through banks loans had to go through banks. If an individual was able to get the stimulus money based on our income taxes, why werent Small Businesses . Why wasnt that money sent directly to them . I disagree with the gentleman that was speaking before. A byproduct ofis covid. If there are people who cant or wont go out to vote, and i am in that group, i will go out if i have to but i dont understand why there is the separation in thought. Host lets go to stephen in maryland. Caller hello. Gladmment is that i am to see their continuing to work on Unemployment Insurance and i think they should shore up pensions because people are living off of them. We need to help hospital workers and frontline workers and make sure people get health care as well because the Biggest Issue right now is people have a lack of health care, so they are succumbing to covid19 due to their previous conditions and a lot of these people that make 30,000 a year cant afford health care. Lets go to stuart in florida. Caller good morning. I dont understand why they want to give another 3 trillion. I dont understand how in any sense you would give a 16yearold 2000 a month. Countryyearold in this works 40 hours a week and makes close to 2000 in a month . I think it is outrageous. I think they should step back. There are things that need to be unemployment, with , the unemployment funds for states but states should not be bailed out with this bill. I think it is outrageous that the Democratic Party does not want the American People to start going back to work but let them but we will take care of you, dont work. Host lets go to our next caller out of brunswick, georgia. Caller hello. I think the American People should get more stimulus money. The big banks have been getting the money and i think Small Companies should get money because they are the ones who are suffering and the American People are suffering. Account forill not the lives that have been lost. The front workers need more money. I think the American People should get more money. Host lets hear from sharon in West Palm Beach florida West Palm Beach, florida. Caller hello. I just want to say that the last package because it went to people with a lot of money, we need this package, we need it for health care workers. People are starving. I do believe that it is the democratic process of the American People to help them out and not give to the rich people. We need another relief bill. Is not going to go to pensions it is not going to go to pensions. Host eerie, pennsylvania where the president is expected to travel to pennsylvania later this week. Hello. Caller good morning. I feel that the money that would go towards this bill that pelosi is trying to institute, that they are using it for the poor and the immigrants and they are robbing us for their goal. If they really cared about america and sticking to the they and the constitution, would clean up the homeless in california. It really proves that they arent for the little guy, which the democrats and pelosi claim they are so shes got to go. Host loretta is in texas. Thanks for calling. Caller i am calling about the relief bill because we are retired. I have no understanding of why people who are retired received a check for 1200 or 2400. Our expenses havent changed at all. We are spending much less. We dont go out to dinner or vacations. People our age got money under this. I also dont understand why there was an increase in the Unemployment Benefits because those peoples expenses if this were any other reason to be laid off, you would not have had an increase. I was reading an article about europes plan. They help the workers, they helped the workers with their but so manyxpenses people who didnt even have a moneyfore this crisis got and their situation hadnt changed. If you didnt have income coming in, why would you suddenly get more money now . Why was there more money for snap benefits . The prices havent changed on anything. That just seems like we are throwing money just to get votes or for some reason but it should only be the workers who are entitled that is a terrible word, who are receiving benefits. It shouldnt be to anyone who hasnt been affected. Host that is loretta joining us from texas. The house is expected to be voting on that bill this week. We have another member of the subcommittee on Coronavirus Crisis, a democrat from maryland. Good morning and thanks for joining us. Guest thank you for having me. Host our previous guest talked about the goal of the ,ubcommittee, about oversight other committees that look at oversight. We are about to spend trillions of dollars to try and get america through this nightmare. That is money through unemployment, Small Businesses, likec health, Industries Airlines and hotels and so on. We need to have scrupulous accounting and review of every expenditure going out the door in order to avoid the corruption and waste and abuse that has taken place in other points in american history. We are modeled after the Truman Committee to prevent in real time these kinds of scams and ripoffs. Truman said after world war i we had a dozen committees trying to look at everything happening and it was too late so we have to do it in real time and that is the point of this committee. We want to make sure the money is well spent. We have to make sure america has a real plan for reopening in a way that is safe and durable so we are not thrust back into further outbreaks and shutdowns which is what dr. Fauci and the scientists warned us of yesterday. If we are led by magical thinking and propaganda we are just going to start reopening everything and we will see these dramatic spikes again in the coronavirus rate. We have already lost 80,000 americans. We have more than 1. 3 million cases and 33 Million People thrown out of work. Intense congressional oversight over this process to make sure we can get out of this terrible crisis. Host how do you achieve those goals through the subcommittee . Guest the subcommittee is going to have its hands full because we have to break down all of the different expenditures to make sure that the money is going where it is intended to, the neediest and not the greenest not the greediest. We sent letters to large publicly held corporations which had gotten money and we said we are going to call you into look at all this and see if it is on the up and up unless you decide to return it. One of them within five hours returned 10 million. Let the oversight will sunshine in and it will act as a kind of disinfectant for the corruption. We have to make sure this is a total ethical con concept. Becauseout reopening the president seems to think you can just cry out a date, april 1 or easter or fourth of july and reopen everything. That is magical thinking that is going to get people hurt and killed if we do it like that. That is what the scientists warned us of yesterday. We need a real reopening plan based on science to make sure the hospitals can meet the demand and that the infection rate is below one. If it is more than one, then you are back into a pandemic situation. The states should be cementing reopening plans to the secretary laid out in the reopen america act. They can hold a caucus with them to improve the plan under the center for Disease Control guidelines. Unfortunately President Trump has suppressed the cdc guidelines and killed the report theyre going to issue on what a proper reopening plan looks like. We want to get that plan out to the public. He will demand the cdcs findings be released to all the governors and mayors across america and the federal government should be a partner with the states. We should be having a medical equipment production board like the war production board in world war ii, rather than pitting the states against each other and pilfering materials from the states, the government should be coordinating logistics to make sure every state has the ppe they need and the ventilators they need and that every state has the testing they need because that is the critical component we need, dramatically expanded public testing with vigilant Contact Tracing for any of the contacts people who are positive have had. We have a Huge Population of people who can do it because 33 Million People have been thrown out of work by this and are looking for jobs. We have an army of people who could join by directly being hired or through a National Service program to do the work and do the Contact Tracing we need. We know how to get out of this crisis, it is just that there has been lethal mismanagement and chaos by this administration. Host to the end of reopening states closer to home, your governor is expected to reopen parts of the state. Do you agree with that move or do you think he is approaching foul play . Guest Governor Hogan has been doing a good job because he is listening to the scientists which is what the politicians need to be doing. We have to be listening to the scientists. There may be certain things that are ready to reopen and lots of things like Public Schools and colleges and most workplaces that are not ready to reopen. The point is we have to be led by science and not magical thinking and superstition and just political win where we spout political whim where we just spout out lets reopen this or that. Look at the meatpacking the meatpacking places in missouri or nebraska. Hundreds of cases and they have become a hotspot and they begin to radiate out the virus in all directions in the community. Meet factent declared meatpacking facilities part of the Critical Infrastructure in order for them to reopen. The ordered all of these workers back to work without doing proper social distancing, without making sure they had ppe and that has been a Public Health nightmare. That is the wrong way to go. We have to listen to the cdc, stop suppressing their findings and instead share those findings with america. We have to listen to the scientists in the Public Health people. Can you imagine what they would be saying if all of this was happening under president obama . They attacked obama for wearing a tan suit for two weeks. Could you imagine if 80,000 people were dead under president obama and 33 Million People were out of work . They have to get serious about the situation that we are in. We need a plan and a start a g in america does not have one under this administration. It became very clear in all the testimony yesterday. Host one of the things of the plan is expected to take place on friday, a 3 trillion economic package. By some republicans that it pulls the money away from state and local governments. Guest there is overwhelming need in america right now. Part of the heroes act is to get money to the states and counties and local governments for the firefighters and cops and First Responders and doctors and nurses and hospitals and people on the front line of this crisis. There is great consensus about that. In the legislative process there is going to be negotiations and push and pull and all of this happening very quickly under not ideal circumstances because people are not yet back in congress because it is so dangerous. Look at what has happened in the white house where several people have been taken ill with the coronavirus and they are testing every day. People are being extremely cautious, as they should be, because of their constituents and families, about coming back and making sure Health Protocols are instituted. We will get there and we will pass legislation to get aid to the American People to get us through this nightmare. Includey does that money for the Postal Service, and for dhaka, why are they necessary daca . Caller guest the Postal Service is vital to keeping the wheels of commerce turning and making sure people are connected. ThePostal Service has been lifeline of america since Benjamin Franklin was the first postmaster general when the country started. That is why most of the newspapers are named like the Washington Post. The post office has been what connected us. I think it is the most popular federal agency in america. Other people are hiding out in their basements and living rooms trying to stay safe from this, we have postal carriers going doortodoor and connecting us. It will be especially essential with the election in 2020 because we will have to moved to state voting by home by mail. That is what we tried to do in the first cares act and we were only able to get 400 million past. We need 4 billion. We are hoping we can make up the rest of the money. We need to make sure the post office is working efficiently and effectively so we can have a real election in 2020. I am afraid the attacks on the post office are from people who dont want to have an election by mail in 2020. President trump was quoted by saying if they have voting by mail we will never win another election again area thats a totally undemocratic and unamerican way of thinking about it. We dont decide if we want to let people vote based on how they vote and how we predict the election will come out, but we try to make sure every american has the right to vote area thats what we have to do in 2020. Host he is a member of the subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. They are holding a hearing today. Inc. You for your time. Guest thank you for having me. Host in our final segment we will hear from dr. Joshua gordon, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and he will talk about the Pandemic Impact on Mental Health and the nations Mental Health care system. First you will hear from Governor Brian Kemp of georgia. He discussed a new executive order on the opening of certain businesses and ongoing restrictions. Gov. Kemp today i have issued a new executive order to extend several provisions. Clarifying existing guidelines for certain businesses and providing guidance to other operators in our state. Covid19r is issued as positive hospitalizations, ventilator use, and percentage of positive cases continues to drop. It is based on data, science, and the advice of Public Health officials. Many have warned of a second wave and asked if we are willing to change course if conditions decline. We will continue to track the heed thend continue to dr. s advice. We will take whatever action is necessary to protect the lives and livelihoods of all georgians. In light of this new executive performance venues, bars, and nightclubs must remain closed through may 31, 2020. I know this extension is difficult for many georgia Business Owners and communities that have music venues. Littleeve that waiting a bit longer will enhance Health Outcomes and give us the opportunity to prepare for safe reopening in the near future. Georgians must continue to follow social distancing and gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned and less there is at least six feet between each person. Applies to allan nonCritical Infrastructure businesses, local governments, and organizations of all time including social groups and formal gettogethers and recreational sports to name a few. We continue to strongly encourage people to wear a Face Covering when out in public and we thank everyone for their willingness to do the right thing. The shelterinplace provision for the medically fragile olderans, age 65 or remains in effect through june the 12th 2020. Washington journal continues. Joshuaur next guest, dr. Gordon, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Thank you for joining us. Dr. Gordon nice to be here. Role what is the federal when it comes to Mental Health issues . Dr. Gordon the National Institute of Mental Health is the primary federal Agency Responsible for conducting research into medical health issues. Mental health issues. Everything from neuroscience, novel treatments, and how to get those treatments to those who need them. Host in light of the pandemic, does this open up new avenues of study as far as how people are reacting to covid19 mentally . Dr. Gordon absolutely. We know from previous disasters what to expect, there are specifics relevant to this covid pandemic that we are very interested in studying. One area that we need more research in is the area of interventions to help reduce the Mental Health impacts of disasters and pandemics. That is something we are interested in pursuing in the coming weeks and months. We have gotten a lot of Fast Track Research proposals we are working on to try to encourage how best to respond. How do you gather that data and what are the questions to be asked . A lot of questions to be asked and a lot of ways to gather that data. One of the things we are very interested in doing is combining administrative databases with scientific and medical databases. Arenow already that there lots of different mitigation measures for the pandemic that are being tried in different localities, be they states, cities, or counties. We know those mitigation factors wee Different Levels of what call adherents, people are listening to them to different extents. Those can all be measured. They can be measured through lots of different sources. We would love to be able to combine that with studies of Mental Health outcomes to understand the impact of mitigation measures. Is other thing we want to do take interventions that have been shown to work for reducing the impact of traumatic events and reducing the impact of and deploydversity them. Especially in underserved areas. Orces like Rural Communities minority communities where there have been challenges in access to Mental Health care and study how to deploy them and how they work in the current circumstance. Those are just a couple of ideas but we want to encourage researchers to get on top of this quickly. We are trying to make resources available. Host does the research only extend to the average citizen . Workershose frontline factor into the research . Dr. Gordon we know from Prior Research that frontline workers are at tremendous risk. Particularly those who have been working in icus and have been witnessing people succumbing to the pandemic, they have been having to service conduits between those people in the icus and their families. They have been in for a rough time, they are working long hours and dont have a ton of time to build themselves back up before their next shift. We know from previous disasters that they are at high risk. What we are focused on is trying to understand how interventions help frontline workers. Healthto mention the care workers are the one everyone is most concerned about. There are other frontline workers in this pandemic that we also want to study. We are talking about grocery clerks, delivery folks who are delivering from restaurants and warehouses and companies who are maintaining some degree of opening. Are alsontline workers at risk and what we would like to understand is, what are the that affectors Mental Health. We know underrepresented communities are a target because they are being infected by the virus, higher rates of dying from the virus. Understand the particular Mental Health consequences in those communities. And again, test interventions in those communities that may help them weather the storm. Ast our guest can be asked question on three lines. In the central time zone, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Mental Health Professionals you can call and ask your questions at 202 7488002. The Kaiser Family foundation put out statistics taking a look at this issue, saying 39 of americas have lost a job or income. Saying that covid19 stress is affecting their Mental Health. One in five saying there is a major negative impact. How is that manifesting itself among those dealing with this . Dr. Gordon if you are talking about Mental Health professionals, we are seeing greater demand for hotlines, greater demand for crisis talk line services. We are seeing people reach out more and more. A lot of our Mental Health professionals have made the transition rapidly to telehealth consultations. That has been a challenge for some but i think most are meeting that challenge. Host how is the average citizen dealing with this stress, what are they doing to cope . Dr. Gordon everyone is doing something different. One of the things we are seeing a lot of and that you are familiar with yourself is social connection at social distance. We are recognizing that the tools that have been developed over the past few years, a especially videoconferencing tools like facetime and the like, these are wonderful ways to stay in contact with each other. Arenow that social supports on incredible resilience factor. The more people connect with each other socially the more they are able to respond to the challenges of the pandemic. Tremendous confluence of risk factors that we are concerned about. You have mentioned them already, but the threat of the virus distancinghe social which can if we are not careful lead to social isolation, and the economic effect. What we have learned from past disasters is those at greatest risk for adverse Mental Health consequences are those who face multiple threats from various sources. People who have lost their homes oneobs or lost a loved coupled with preexisting conditions, coupled with exposure to specific traumatic events. These are the folks who are most at risk. Ins most everybody in the u. S. Is exposed to at least three things, the virus threat, social distancing, and the Economic Impact, we can anticipate a tremendous demand. Your institute gives us recommendations and things to look out for, signs of stress include a worry about the health of your your own health or the health of loved ones, worsening of Chronic Health , increased usage of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Does suicide factor in it all at this phase . Dr. Gordon suicide can factor into it. We are not yet able to measure whether there is an increase in suicide rates. A Later Development when we look at the time course of events or traumatic events after economic downturns. Sometimes it is not that substantial an increase in the suicide rates, but a shift towards the effect of the pandemic as increasing rates. Athink we are worried about potential increase in suicide, but we have not been able to measure it. Concernedare always that an increase in Mental Health risk factors and increase in Mental Illnesses that we can predict from the pandemic will eventually lead to increases in suicide rates. Suicide rates in the u. S. Are already high. We are preparing for that possibility and trying to get the word out to organizations, whether they are Health Care Organizations or federal agencies that this is something we need to watch for and have resources ready for and be able to rapidly expand Mental Health care access. Ant we have already had issue in this country with opioid abuse. Thateasurable increase in or concerns about increases as further data comes in . Dr. Gordon i would say it is the same as with suicide. We have reason to believe that there may be increases in rates in addiction. We have reasons to believe that may be leading to increases in overdose deaths. The data may not be coming in so rapidly. It takes a couple of weeks to months to be able to get that information. There is a special factor in regards to many Addiction Treatment regimes. Thef the mainstay most effective treatments for isstance use disorders facetoface treatment, including facetoface delivery of medication. Medication is the most effective way to combat opiate addiction. It is the most effective way to combat alcohol addiction and other addictions. Some of those medications require either daily or weekly observed therapies. Challenging when we are engaging social distancing. We are very concerned that many people who rely on these forms of treatment may have challenges obtaining them during the pandemic. I know my colleague of the National Institute of drug abuse is very active in terms of trying to make sure that those treatment programs are available and there are evidencebased ways of delivering the medication safely. Gordon is dr. Joshua joining us from the National Institute of Mental Health. Here to take your questions about Mental Health and issues related during the pandemic. For those of you in the eastern and central time zone 202 7488000. 202 7488001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. 202 7488002 if you are a Mental Health professional. In about 15 minutes we will go to the house of representatives for their pro forma session and continue on with our conversation with dr. Gordon on this topic. Of, you mentioned the idea telehealth and telemedicine. I read an article yesterday about apps offering those types of services. Would you put those in the same category of telemedicine or telehealth . Dr. Gordon they are within the category of what we might call Remote Health care delivery or assistance in delivering health care remotely. Digital apps have taken off in the last several years in the Mental Health space. While there is plenty of evidence they can be outstanding adjuncts to a Mental Health treatment delivered by professionals, there are a lot of concerns about many of the apps out there, not necessarily because we know much about them, but because we dont know a lot about them. There are a number of apps which are marketed as Mental Wellness apps that dont have to go through the usual fda testing for software as a medical device. The efficacy for this is unknown. Many of these apps collect information about those people who participate in using those apps. The uses of that information are not always made clear and if they are made clear they are varied as is often the case buried in a long disclaimer notice when you signup for use of the app. Individualsourage interested in using these apps to work with their Health Care Providers to find an app that has been tested and shown to be efficacious and treat the user information with the privacy that is deserve it of health care information. The fda does approve software as a medical device and there are some of Mental Health apps that have gained the fda seal. There are some minimal standards of efficacy that are required and you must adhere to some privacy rules. Recommend the fda supported apps and devices. Consumers can find information at various places on the web about apps in terms of which ones are approved and which ones are shown to be efficacious and which ones are treating their data with privacy. I encourage consumers to do the research but Health Care Providers can be a source of information on this. Prussia,g of pennsylvania, and Mental Health professional. Dr. Are on with joshua gordon. Caller yes, hello. Are you talking to linda . Host you are on with our guest. Caller i am a frequent viewer of cspan. I want to give a kind of recognition. Licensed professional counselor, i am a therapist. We have been working really hard. Itcaseload is as full as ever was because people need a lot. Different styles of therapy that are effective in general. One of my favorites is muscle relaxation and meditative breathing. I see that some Large Insurance Companies are doing 30 second spots on tv and other places. Sometimes it is good to get a sense of what the client wants. If i ask the doctor what kind of therapeutic intervention do you think is most helpful, thank you for the call. Dr. Gordon thank you, for the question and the reminder that there are many forms of treatment which can be useful to help individuals who are suffering in the context of the pandemic. The methods, especially to help with anxiety and worry can be meditative relaxation and either staying in the moment and or relaxation. Youpecially appreciate that point out that it is important to listen to your patients. The data on different kinds of psychosocial interventions is really interesting. There are some interventions that have been shown to be particularly efficacious for a particular variety of mental distress. For example, obsessivecompulsive disorder. There is one particular psychosocial intervention that has shown to be superior than even medication for ocd. For patients with ocd that is the standard of treatment, but not every patient can tolerate that form of therapy. That may be other things benefit some patients with ocd. With generalized anxiety or with depression there are several forms of therapy that have been proven to work and there is not good evidence of superiority of one over the other. We recommend that therapists use evidencebased therapy like the hot Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or supportive psych of supportive psychotherapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, its a good idea to discuss with the patient the requirements of these kinds of therapies and form a line with the patient informs of what they think might work fast. Eventsagain any clear that one is better than any other. Host alex in los angeles, california. Before i ask my question let me talk about a reminder. If you remember at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, [indiscernible] ownsnated and he everything behind the scenes who, how, and for what purpose has created through the virus to shake hands over and over [indiscernible] a little too far afield for what we are talking about. If you have a question directly for our guest. Caller my question is about the [indiscernible] from those who survived covid19. I want to know what these consequences are. Dr. Gordon thats a great question. The question is what are the potential longterm consequences of infection by the covid virus. Much too early to know that. We know that patients hospitalized with severe cases of the virus can take a long time to recover, weeks or perhaps even longer in some cases. There are individuals that have been infected with the virus who have strokes, and other systemic effects in other organs beside the brain. We anticipate there will be some individuals infected with the virus who will take a long time to recover and who may have longlasting facts. Longlasting psychiatric effects of the virus it is too early to tell. We can anticipate from studies of other pandemics that a certain portion of those individuals who are acutely affected with Mental Health conditions in the context of the pandemic that a certain proportion of them will go on to develop chronic Mental Health conditions as a result of exposure to the pandemic. Given the differences between the Current Situation and previous disasters and pandemics we dont really know how many people that would be. Host our next collar. Caller i was wondering if you could talk about when till Mental Wellness and the power of meditation and positive thinking instead of going down the rabbit hole of negativity. Dr. Gordon thank you for that question, a great question and it allows me to point out that for many of us, hopefully most of us, the experience of the pandemic is not only a risk factor but an opportunity to build resilience. Resilience is not something we are born with. Resilience is something we can learn. One of the ways we can help build resilience is to exercise appropriate coping strategies during the pandemic and utilizing those coping strategies can allow us to emerge from this adversity with a sense of mastery over them that can really help us maintain our wellness in the future even in the face of her adverse events. Suggest,s such as you active meditation, yoga, and other relaxation techniques can be one part of a comprehensive strategy, that strategy includes making sure you are informed about the facts of the epidemic but avoiding the opinions. It includes paying attention to the news but also taking breaks from the news for enjoyable activities. It means staying connected with friends and loved ones virtually if necessary. It means taking care of your body in terms of eating right and sleeping right. When youreaching out are experiencing adversity to when you find that the stresses of the pandemic are interfering with your ability to do what you need to do and reaching out for help from loved ones or family members. Helpf those strategies can build a more resilient person inside of you and that can help you emerge from this pandemic stronger than when you began. Beforeust a few minutes we have to take the break from the house. Caller good morning. Gordon, thankdr. You for cspan. Dr. , i would like you to address the fear factor involved in. Ovid we know there are various ways to die, from an illness, spiritually from lack of faith, mentally, and emotionally for lack of moral concepts and values. Onn i think of what has gone with the fear mongering from the Mainstream Media and the politicians in washington that have affected people so severely , it is unconscionable. I live in a senior building and i see the way this has affected i live with. I go to a Grocery Store and i people andhe eyes of they look so distraught like they dont know what to do. What would you say about helping people to control aspects of fear . This is getting even worse than the virus itself. Host caller, thank you. Dr. Gordon i will answer briefly. The virus is a threat to life and our communities. Focusa threat, but if we on the facts of the situation and on realistic measures we can take like Wearing Masks and keeping social distancing to take control of that threat that can help reduce the fear. This is dr. Joshua gordon with the national into the suit of Mental Health and he serves as their direct air. If you want to find more about the research they are doing particularly in light of what is going on with the pandemic you can go to their website at nimh. Nih. Gov. Dr. Gordon will be with us until the top of the hour. We will take a brief break and go to the house of representatives. The house is expected later on this week to vote on a coronavirus related package, 3 trillion. Until then they are supposed to come back into town on friday. During the week and as congress is gaveled out they have the short pro forma sessions. They come in and conduct short amounts of business. When they gaveled out of this session we will go back to our conversation with dr. Gordon. We take you to the house of representatives. Jersey. Caller the question i have for the doctor, as far as eating right we can do that and i have been doing that. As far as Mental Health, this has plagued a lot of people i have talked to. Apparently this will be going on into the fall. I dont see any magic bullet coming forward to speed this up myself, i have been having trouble sleeping. I have cut back dramatically on coffee. I have nightmares and i have never had nightmares. I think a lot of this is, you get up in the morning and go through the routines of the house and there is only so much you can do. As far as socially interacting with people this is what we need as human beings. People, ay a lot of lot of seniors that stay isolated have episodes of alzheimers and dementia. This is what we need, we need interaction. This is starting to plagued people mentally. With a lot of violence or opting in this country i think that has a lot to do with the lockdown. Upple want this to open tomorrow. That is not realistic. Spreading ands there are hotspots all around the country. Host we will let our guest respond. Dr. Gordon thank you, andrew for raising the notion that this pandemic can be challenging to deal with. I feel for you in terms of the challenges you are having sleeping and coping with the uncertainty of what is to come. Besides that coping measures that i mentioned before it is that,ant to recognize despite those measures, we are all going to feel some continuing degree of distress. That can cause difficulty sleeping and can cause it can cause worries and depression. Is,question you might have when should you recommend to your friends to reach out to a professional or when you might want to reach out to a professional. Those sleep which problems make it impossible for you to do what you need to do the next day when your feelings of worry become overwhelming that you cant go out and get the food you need so you can make the healthy meals. When you are unable to derive comfort or enjoyment from getting on the phone or on zoom and talking with your friends. In general, when these symptoms prevent you from functioning on a daytoday basis, that is when you want to reach out for help. Some ofus, and maybe your friends, are still overwhelmed by the symptoms that we cant reach out for help ourselves. I would encourage you to help them reach out. Reach out to your minister, rabbi, or other clergy who are often experienced with helping people post with adversity. They might reach out to their Health Professional or primary care doctor. If they have a psychiatrist or therapist they might reach out to them. All of that can be done virtually today. Most of the people i mentioned are now skilled at using the telephone and using videoconferencing to help clients. We must acknowledge that some to feelre beginning thoughts about wanting to hurt themselves or attempt suicide. In those cases we suggest people reach out urgently. There is a National Suicide at one 800hotline 273 talk that people can call. There is a disaster distress helpline. Maybe you are not thinking about harming yourself but you are overwhelmed and dont know who to reach out for or have a primary care. Your or somebody else you could reach out two. Mentalstance abuse and Health Services administration disaster distress helpline, they 985 59 90. 800 one more resource that is easy for people to access. The crisis text line that can provide services and refer you to services. That is easy to access. 41741. Ello to 7 that is an interNational Service. Those services are available to people who are struggling. Carolina,h smithfield, jessica is next. Caller i am a teacher from North Carolina who works closely with middle, high school, and higher education. I am concerned about, when they do get in trouble and they know they are in trouble, how can they contact someone with the facts . They have misinformation from social media with an easy number for them to remember. When you get all stressed out they never know who to call. Dr. Gordon i think teens and middle schoolers, they are usually pretty adept at texting. I would recommend that crisis text line. Somewhere where they can go and talk to trained peer counselors who can help them access the resources they need. In terms of information about the virus, the crisis text line is 741741. Just text hello and they will start a conversation. The crisis text line has seen a tremendous increase in calls, they have also seen a tremendous increase in the number of people volunteering for them. It takes a few days or weeks to be trained as a volunteer. A great opportunity for people to help from the comfort of their home. Are you doing any specialized training to become a helper . Dr. Gordon its a peer Counseling Services you have to be trained in how to respond. A lot of people try the training and dont make it through, but a tremendous uptick in the number of volunteers. One thing for schoolaged kids, it is important that they get the fact. I think pointing them to the cdc website at cdc. Of and the nimh website, these are reliable resources for reliable information. Helping people get to those places, helping your students get to these sources of reliable information is going to help you encounter some of that social media stuff. Lets go to robert in indiana. Caller thank you for letting me call in. I am 83 years old and the last two months i lost my son last month to ,ancer, what people need to do i put my strength in god because he made me and made everybody. Ple will use common sense these things are going to come upon the earth, god says that. They cannot cop the hand they will be blinded to the truth. Look what we have in our government. These people are so stupid that they cant decide if you give people money they think money will care everything. Get on your knees and hope to the good lord who made you. Host robert in indiana. Dr. Gordon thank you for that, robert. Faith can be a powerful assistance to maintain psychological stability during these trying times. Who do participate actively in a religion, maintaining that participation can be helpful. Synagogues, churches, mosques around america are doing virtual services. They are doing virtual social events for members and reaching out and staying active can be helpful. Kansasn leavenworth, caller mark is next. Caller think what bothers me more [indiscernible] no uniformity about Wearing Masks or protective year there are all these different states that do different things. I think we all need to get together and do the same thing, where the mask, where the clothes, where the ppe, social distance. It is so special because you t know our government is putting out they have no idea what they are doing. Hanging out byl ourselves. I have three grandchildren that worriedolaged and i am about sending them back to school because nobody knows what we are going to do. High anxiety levels because our government has not put out any kind of uniformity with what we should be doing. I appreciate those comments. Thate acknowledge uncertainty and not knowing what to do, not knowing how to respond to a situation like this pandemic is distressing. It is not helpful when we dont know what to do. We as human beings like to have plans and make plans. We like to be sure that those plans will help us through tough times. What are the places that we look for to make those plans . Our leaders. We hope our leaders will give us clear messages on what we can do to respond to the situation, even if that means we cannot do much at least we know what to do and that can help us gain control. I would recommend for those who are experiencing what you are experiencing that you try to maintain control of what you can control and developing that ability can help a little bit. That ifdoes recommend you go outside out of your home, and you cannot maintain adequate social distancing, that you wear a cloth mask. You, mark can wear a cloth mask when you are out there. The more people that do that the more comfortable you will feel. We are Wearing Masks not to protect ourselves but to protect other people from the virus that we might be carrying. Maintaining social distancing, Wearing Masks, these are consistent messages being sent out. You can adopt them for yourself and at least control that little bit of your experience. Gets frustrating when we different messages from different leaders. Whether they be government leaders or celebrities that we Pay Attention to or sports figures that we look to for advice. At least control what you can control and get some sense that you are contributing to what you can do to reduce the impact of the epidemic. Help a say that can little bit make up for the fact that you might not always be hearing consistent sitting from the people you look to for those messages. Host brad in plymouth, pennsylvania. A Mental Health worker. Caller i have a question. In my office there are meetings. We have clients who see the clientsrist, we have refusing to wear the protective face mask. I dont know what they are doing when they are in stores as far as distancing. Of peoplee psychology who are refusing and do you have any advice on the best way to approach them . Thats a great question and i wish i had a better answer for you. Myself, i usedto to see patients before i took on this job. Itould probably approach it any time ah patient or client is not taking my advice to try to understand why they are not taking it area some may feel claustrophobic when they wear a mask. Some may be wearing it or not wearing it as a statement of religious or political beliefs. Understanding why and helping them to understand why it is important to you that they wear a mask. In this case, masks protect others, not the mask wearer. The patient walking into your Office Without a mask is putting you at risk. Healthcare care workers take all sorts of risks to maintain their important work in order to be able to help people. Mental Health Professionals take those risks as well. We have always taken risks. Our patients are prone to all kinds of things that can put us at risk. Case where each practitioner has to make a judgment call about what risks they are willing to take. Some are saying, if you are not going to wear a mask i cannot see you. Just as they would to say to a patient who was outwardly violent, intoxicated, or otherwise placing the therapist at risk. I respect a therapist that feels that way. If there are ways you can see the patient safely at a distance of greater than six feet or over a television or if you can persuade them to wear a mask for your safety i would think that is the best way to go in this Current Situation. Host frank in new york, good morning. Caller giving a quick perspective. I am not discrediting Mental Illness. I do suffer from anxiety and depression and i know Mental Illness all too well. Pandemicg it with the and what we are going through. People are depressed, lonely, they are in their house, the perspective i try to tell people is that, just google third world Country Homes and look at people that lives in hotz with no electricity. There for sixe weeks or six months, they lived there their whole lives. And it isa pandemic very frustrating and sad. I try to encourage people, put a lawn chair on your front lawn. If everyone sits in front of their home we can talk to each other from our yards. I think we need a little more perspective. It could be a lot worse. Is it is. T we still have it good. I have a tv to watch and i watch cspan all day. I have a couch, a bathroom. End of the world for what we have in this country. I think it is important to maintain perspective as much as one can. Fortunately, many of us myself included, i have all these wonderful books, i can have the computer monitor to surf the web and i fortunately have a job to put food on the table. Its important to remind ourselves of what we have. That can be an important coping mechanism. It could be worse for many of us. We have to recognize that whatever restrictions, even if someone has not lost their job but cannot see their grandchild or cannot engage in the activities that normally help them stay comfortable and well and happy, that they can be experiencing distress. I think you are right, perspective can help a lot. It does not help everybody. It is important to try to use that as a tool but it is not necessarily going to help everyone. Sam from staten island, new york. Caller one question is, what has been the percentage increase of suicide rates as a result of the virus . Work with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. But data they are having a tough time with this. We have residential programs. Are there any good links that we can go to that might be able to give us some ideas about how to withthis population understanding what is going on with the virus and what they can and cannot do . Dr. Gordon great questions. With regard to suicide rates we have not been able to see an increase in suicide rate as a result of the pandemic, neither has there been a substantial increase in the number of calls to the suicide hotline. Other hotlines are seeing increased calls, but we are not seeing a big increase in calls to suicide hotlines yet area it is too early because we dont get suicide death rates until a few months later then they are occurring. We wont know for a couple of months whether there is an increase in the rates of suicide the second question brings up an outstanding and important point. The pandemic is affecting different people differently but people with intellectual disabilities and people with autism, these are folks who are at greater risk. Any of them are in group homes and at greater risk because many dont understand why or how to use things like social distancing and masks and other personal protective equipment. They may be at greater risk because of the jobs they have that maybe or the grocery stocking or delivery or Something Like that and they cant telework. There are lots of reasons why individuals with intellectual disabilities might be at greater risk. There are a lot of resources on the web that are aimed at helping people with intellectual disabilities and their family members and community members. I dont have any off the top of my head. As part of my job i share the interagency coordinating ammittee and the iac c has website that links to a lot of resources for individuals with autism and individuals with intellectual disabilities without autism. I encourage you to go to their website. I think it is iacc. Gov. If you google them you will find their website and a lot of resources. Iacc. Hhs. Gov. Deed jocelyn from maryland, jump in. Curious as to when schools are going to start up. My daughter is a type one diabetic and she has been one since 18 months old. She was diagnosed at Childrens Hospital in new haven, connecticut. Now we are in maryland. It is common sense. We have been practicing social distancing and washing our hands since she was a baby. I put her in day cares, my daughter has never gotten the flu or anything. She got the stomach flu but never the actual flu with fevers and all that. Going back to school, she is scared. The kids, they dont wash their hands, she tells me she is always staying away from the kids. It is common sense. I tell her i dont know what is going to happen because kids dont like Wearing Masks. My daughter likes wearing a mask. I am in the medical field. The cdc recommends the mask, but only gas masks work and nobody is Walking Around with a gas mask. You for that,ank jocelyn. A couple thoughts. Todont know what is going happen with schools in the fall. I dont know if the state of maryland has decided to Cancel School but new york has decided to Cancel School for the rest of this academic year. We dont know what will happen in the fall but we know we need a plan to make sure the schools are not the source of infection. One reason is for children like ears who might be at greater of a preexisting medical condition. The virus bares most but not all children and can cause significant problems for many kids. We need a plan for opening the schools and i know School Systems across the United States are hard at work. I will say what i have said to other callers. You cannot control what other people are doing but you can control what you are doing. Ensuring your child knows how to wash their hands and that she should do that a lot and more often now than in the past and certainly before she eats and after she uses the restroom, maybe giving her some hand sanitizer, hope way it will be available by september. Making sure she has the opportunity to do that. We can controlling what can go a long way to reducing the risk. Masks do work. They are not perfect, but even a cloth even a homemade mask can reduce the chance of viral transmission. We do think that masks are helpful. They are not perfect and should not be used instead of social distancing, they should be used in addition to social distancing , but masks can be helpful. Host dr. Joshua gordon talking to us about issues related to Mental Health and covid 19 area the work of the National Institute of Mental Health can be found at nimh. Nih. Gov. Dr. Gordon is the director of that organization. We thank you for your time. Dr. Gordon thank you for having me. A great opportunity to get the world get the word out about the effects of Mental Health. Host the Supreme Court has been airing live oral arguments via telephone. Those are continuing and you can see them on cspan. Today the Supreme Court will continue those arguments. The arguments are historic because for the first time the audio is live to the public. When it is live to the public we make it live to you. You will hear some of those oral arguments at 10 00. If you joined us earlier you know that some of them deal with state decisions, especially when it deals with the topic of faceless electors, those Electoral College candidates who failed to vote for the candidate they pledge to support. At issue is whether they can punish those electors to ensure the electors accurately represent the vote. After the session stick around for a discussion about the arguments with experts at the National Constitution center. Those oral arguments are expected to start shortly. The honorable, the chief justice and associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. All persons having business before the honorable, the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to give their attention for the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court. Will Justice Roberts we hear argument first this morning andase 19465, chiafalo others versus the state of washington. May it please this