Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 08072020 20240712

Moratorium on evictions during the coronavirus pandemic. Later, the moodys analytics chief economist joins us to talk about the state of the u. S. Economy. Host the house and senate are one week into what should be there august resource recess. Negotiationsld and between Democratic Leaders and the white house appear to have yielded no result, certainly, no agreement on additional coronavirus pandemic relief measures. Good morning. It is friday, august 7, 2020. This first hour, we will ask you your message to congress, in particular, congressional leaders on pandemic relief. Here are the lines. We welcome your text messages. Make sure you tell us your name and where you are texting from. Ur handle on twitter we also welcome your comments on facebook. A very similar sentiment expressed in headlines and reporting of capitol hill publications and other publications on those negotiations which ended last night well into the evening. This is roll call. Show you the report just out from the Associated Press. Virus aid on brink of collapse. Sides are very far apart. From politico, covid talks going nowhere as deadline nears. They write that negotiations between the white house and Democratic Leaders on a new Coronavirus Relief package were on the brink of failure thursday night. Both sides said after a fruitless threehour meeting, they write the apparent deadline and the highlevel talks shifts the focus back to President Donald Trump, who warned earlier in the day that he will issue a series of executive orders to address the economic crisis facing millions of americans if no deal can be reached with congress. Friday, Senior Administration Officials Say he could put a stop to all of this. Covering all of this for Bloomberg News is stephen dennis, a Senate Reporter for bloomberg. Good morning. Like it doesnt look things are going so well, does it . Host today was supposed to be the day i thought the President Senate deadline. He wanted major differences to be resolved. Steven it does look more likely. There is still the unemployment report coming out later this morning. We are going to find out just how bad the jobs picture was last month. I think there are still a few more news nuggets that could nice things one way or the other before those final actions are taken. Bere is still talk there may phone calls today between the negotiators to see whether it makes sense to continue negotiating. At some point, the administration has been talking about walking away. That is going to be really hard to sustain. You have got tens of millions of people without these unemployment checks that they had been receiving, the 600 bonus checks that democrats wanted to extend to the rest of the year. Republicans thought that was too generous. You have all of these little fights that together, became a very big fight. When you have hundreds of billions of dollars, and trillions of dollars in differences, it is really hard to negotiate that between four people. Host have they agreed to extending the 600, or is that still a sticking point, and from your reporting, what are the other key sticking points . Steven the republicans were willing to go along with a week or two weeks or so of the 600, but they really wanted to reduce that number. The last we heard about what the administration was offering was a 400 a week bonus. Democrats want a whole host of things that the republicans criticalt, including aid to state and local governments. This is aid for things like firefighters and Police Officers and maintenance workers and all the rest who potentially could get layoffs or furloughs as state and local governments look at the revenues, which have plummeted across the country. Governments cant borrow lots of money to pay these workers. This is an issue in pretty much every state. It is spreading more to republican states that have seen the virus sort in recent weeks or in recent months. You do have republican senator senators like Susan Collins and bill cassidy of louisiana who have said we should give these a state and local governments 5 billion and that would tie them over. Say look,epublicans that is not our job. Lets give them some aid for the virus, but lets not replace their lost revenue. Ideological a big fight and one of a whole bunch that are complicating these negotiations. There are sweeping things that make it so that Business Owners would be able to force their workers to come back to work and then in an unsafe environment. Asksave these fights and that are really complement complicating what is already potentially one of the biggest, most complicated bills in the history of congress. We will remind our is that taken off the table . Steven that was taken off the table by republicans in congress. Republicans have not been eager senators like Chuck Grassley who chairs the finance embraced, has never this idea of a payroll tax cut. You have senators like ted cruz or josh hawley that proposed various versions of a payroll tax cut. Payroll tax cuts are very expensive, about 100 billion a month if you have a total pay tax holiday. It takes a while for that to really show up in the economy because peoples paychecks grow 10 or something. That doesnt necessarily solve the huge hit in the economy right now. That is where the administration and the democrats have a point of agreement. They both want to send out another round of stimulus checks, 1200. There are these things that they agree on. What is really interesting and they are not willing to go along with just a few things that they agree on. The democrats are very worried that on things like alexion security and the post office, that if they dont get those in this package, they are just going to lose and they are just not going to have those in that package down the line. Host and to be clear, are the negotiations off for now . Steven they are going to have a phone call. What they said last night is that they would have to talk to each other on the phone about whether to have additional negotiations. It is possible that they revive negotiations, try to come up with another avenue out of this. It is lookingw, more about both sides going back to their corners for the weekend. You will see more blame game on the sunday talk shows. Host follow all of this with Steven Dennis on twitter. Thank you so much for the update. Our opening question for you this morning is your message to congress on the pandemic relief measures. Lines for republicans, democrats and independents and others. Quick headline this morning, front page, the Washington Post. There take on relief bill meeting fails, next steps are uncertain. On the republican line, walter from butler, indiana. Caller good morning. The premise where we start is it is a pandemic. It is not a pandemic. People die all the time. Is it a pandemic of cancer or abortion or people drowning in swimming pools or driving in cars and get killed . Host it has been determined to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization and our own centers for Disease Control and prevention. The major Health Organizations in this country have determined that it is indeed a pandemic. Caller when you say the World Health Organization, these are the people that turned around and said you dont have to wear it anyway, i dont want to get off on a tangent. Host what is my message to congress . Caller please do not do anything. Stop spending money you dont have. My brotherinlaw sits at home with a big smile on my on his face and makes 1100 a week. Why would you give people more a pandemic where you not driving a car, not going to the stores, not going on vacations the whole thing is crazy. Stop it. If people are worried about people dying, shut the abortion clinics down. We dont have the money and we cant keep just printing money. The myanmar republic did it. We are 23 trillion in debt, when is it going to end . If estate state is bullish enough to force their citizens not to work, it is the states responsibility, not the government. Host joseph from maryland. Your message to congress. Caller good morning. Big message for congress is a very important message. Americans, 5 will test positive if we test everyone. 5 of those will die. Positive, 75 test percent will have severe heart problems when they survive, according to a german medical community. If we go to the schools, 76 timesn times 0. 05, 109,000es you students dead. My grandmother was in the 1918 flu. I know a lot about flus, keep everything clean and thank you. Host joshua in georgia on the independent line. I am really seeing a lot of people going back and forth about the pandemic. It is a pandemic. It is very, very serious. I know a lot of people that are old and younger that are afroamerican. Once you have the coronavirus, your body cannot move. That is serious. My thing for congress is this. Why dont you guys come together and come to a resolution for health care and wellbeing of our vulnerable citizens . Everybody cares about this person and that person, but they are forgetting about the vulnerable citizens of america like the mentally ill, Senior Citizens, people who cant function for themselves. I see them walking up and down the street homeless at high risk of dying of the coronavirus because they dont have the assets and tools of getting to the Health Care Facilities or facilities are turning them down or turning them away without treating them. Dont that bother you . Host the key the principal negotiators currently are the democratic leader in the senate, Chuck Schumer, house speaker, nancy pelosi, Steven Mnuchin and mark meadows, the chief of staff. The headline from alexander boltons report this morning, wary gop eyes meadows shift from brick thrower to dealmaker. As a conservative lawmaker in the house, lambasted congressional dealmakers from the outside, now the guy in the room where it happens that republicans are depending on to crack the Coronavirus Relief package. Meadows, the former chairman of the House Freedom caucus is in a difficult spot. Heres what the speaker set earlier in the day yesterday before the conclusion of the negotiations. Have been making some progress, proceeding in a positive way. We are not there yet. I have said i see a light at the end of the tunnel. We just dont know how long the tunnel is. Move more quickly because the light at the end of that tunnel may be a Freight Train of the virus coming at us if we do not act to contain it. We are concerned because we think that this administration and the republicans do not understand the gravity of the hence, have not taken the actions to stop the to again,the virus open the economy, have our schools open safely, and have us return to some normalcy. Host your calls and comments, your message to congress. Pete in west virginia. Caller good morning. It is the same old thing almost , theantly with Congress House of representatives, to a lesser extent, the senate. Whate said this before, they do very well is naming post offices. Anything else beyond that, they seem to have an issue. To tell the people that they are going to have this and they are going to guarantee it and it is going to happen, and to waive the money around in the air, there are people out here that are unemployed, lower employed. Why should we push back the rent , and then, when are you going to release them from that . Re is a lot of information i dont know what bill the republicans are trying to reach on the Mitigation Fund for people who are going to sue for losses, that sort of thing. Too many packed groups, i would imagine. The same oldnough, thing over and over again read they cant get along. This one might because they waive so much money around during an Election Year and throw their noses and people who are going to vote. This one might really bite them. Not so much in the senate, but i think the house is going to have some switches in the seats. Host we moved to alabama. Caller good morning. I was calling about your first caller and how that first caller is a microcosm of what is a the size that is also of the coronavirus, that is ignorance. In the state of alabama, there are thousands of people Walking Around without masks and thatands are protesting you are stomping on my all my light on my rights. I have a right to live. You have a right to protest, i have a right to live. If you are stomping, he was going to make those things equal . Congress the house of representatives does its work, as far as i see it. They do what they are supposed to. Dont get me wrong, there is something wrong with them too, i just dont have time to get into it. It gets over to the senate and Mitch Mcconnell actually went casting one vote last week. He went home. In other words, he says to his constituents in kentucky, you can wait. Going, but youre will find a way. We always find a way. Voter,africanamerican forget about it. He doesnt even pretend to care. Host here is some of what some of here is some of what the majority leader had to say on the senate yesterday. [video clip] so this is where we are, mr. President. Another week that the speaker of the house a democratic leader is stonewalling the president s team and holding out for ideological pet projects with no relationship whatsoever to the covid crisis. Result, struggling americans are facing another cliff, with another important form of relief on its last legs. A second straight week of political theater from our democratic colleagues with no result except more pain for families, more and certainty for workers, and more evidence to suggest that perhaps Democratic Leaders were never serious about getting something accomplished in the first place. All across america, small Business Owners are hurting and hoping democrats get reasonable and allow another major package to move forward. Need theseamericans endless talks to finally bear fruit. So do School Principals and working parents and Senior Citizens and nurses and doctors and University President s and students of all ages. That is why i will not be adjourning the senate for our august recess today as has been previously scheduled. I have told republican senators they will have 24 hour notice before a vote, but the senate will be convening on monday and i will be right here in washington. The house has already skipped town, but the senate wont adjourn for august unless and until the democrats demonstrate they will never let an agreement materialize. Hopes, a loticans of americans lives are riding on the democrats endless talk. I hope theyre not disappointed. Host an article this morning in the Washington Post writing about how deep some of those divisions on capitol hill are. The headline in a divided capital, lawmakers hit an impasse on health and safety protocol. They write that congressional leaders cant even dig agree on a type of thermometer to use. Many businesses and doctors offices use a touchless forehead model, but some lawmakers say they are not accurate enough, meaning only oral or ear thermometers are used sporadically in the capitol hill complex. Question for you this morning this first hour, your message to congress on pandemic relief. We welcome your text and tweets as well. A couple of those here. First one from cynthia, shameful only the democrats care about the Election Security between the neglect in congress and helping a mentally ill man get on the president ial ballot to hurt joe biden. The gop is making a mockery of our election. Stu, congress is helping everyone except retirees who rely on interest in their savings to supplement their Social Security. My income is down 60 with no help in sight. The pay the people, i think country should be shut down for six months to get control of this virus. If we do not shut down the virus and get control by the end of 2021, we will have no country. This is the result of playing catch up when you screw up the initial opportunity to nip this virus in the bud. Stop playing games, mr. President. Another, i would like the republicans on the how to answer one austin. If we could take question. If we could take 600 from your pay, without incentivize you to get something done . Says, mitch only cares about his major donors. This one from richard in florida. Increase some tax or cut spending. One dollar for every one dollar you send out for stimulus relief. Stop the printing press. Dr. Calls. The independent back to calls. The independent line. Louisiana. Caller ive got to Say Something about what mitch went through. He has neglected to talk about the white house trying to put money in to rebuild the fbi building. Was that people calling in and are upset that these people at the bottom are receiving money, and im not at the bottom. Dont say a word about giving 25 billion to boeing, which they were going broke because they built airplanes that couldnt fly. They should have went bankrupt and somebody else started building airplanes. I wished you all would do a program at least a couple of times on what authority does the in thent have constitution, what Authority Congress is supposed to be regulating and the Supreme Court ruling law a constitutional or unconstitutional. Asked where in the constitution do you have the right to rule a law unconstitutional, his answer was, it is not in there. We just took it. Thank you. Host jim on the democrats line in new jersey. Your message to congress. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. I am a am a democrat, diehard democrat, i am not in agreement. To thei am not entitled 600 over and above the unemployment. As far as the 1200 goes per person, i am in agreement with that. Concerning the unemployment, i have been trying to get through the Labor Department here in new to apply for unemployment. I havent been able to get through. That is my disappointment. Host you are trying to get through on the phone line or online . Caller on the phone line. Host and they are just not answering or putting you on hold forever . Think they are there, to tell you the truth. I dont think they are local. I dont think they are operating. Host a republican view here, william in florida. Welcome. Unemployment, i have been laid off a lot throughout life. If you get laid off, then you get called back to work, if you dont go back to work, you lose your unemployment automatic. You canerstand tell they have never been laid off in congress because you are always in fear of losing your check because you have to actively look for work. If they call that, you have got to go. Host do you think the extended benefits, enhanced benefits, the 600, should be included in any new pandemic package . Caller yes. It is going to take you probably one month or two months, my friends that did get laid off, it took them two months to get there unemployment even started. They got called back to work by the time they got their checks. They need the money just to catch up. Host how easy is the unemployment, the state unemployment system to use in florida . Caller its tough. They couldnt get online. In right wirte in. Companies use to help you when you got laid off. His boss, it was up to him to even get it going. They have made it worse over the years. Caller some news from the campaign trail, such as it is. The Latino Company community is diverse. Unlike the africanamerican company, President Trump quickly attacked whited over the remark. Here is the former Vice President s remark before the group of black and hispanic journalists. [video clip] you all know, but most people dont know, unlike the Africanamerican Community, the Latino Community is an incredibly Diverse Community with incredible he differ now to to do about different things. You go to florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you are in arizona. It is a very different, a very Diverse Community. Host that is the former Vice President. Later in that event, he went back to those remarks and clarified them some. Here is what he said. [video clip] week we can build a new administration that reflects the full diversity of our nation and the full diversity of the latino communities. Unlike africanamerican kennedys and many other communities, you are from everywhere. From europe, the tip of south america, all the way to our and in theico, caribbean. Backgrounds, different ethnicities, but all that he knows. Latinos. We are going to get a chance to do that if we win in november. Host that is former Vice President biden speaking before the leo. Heres what he treated yesterday about his earlier remarks. He said earlier today i made comments about diversity in the africanamerican and latino communities that i want to clarify. In no way did i need to suggest that Africanamerican Community is a monolith, not by identity, not on issues, not at all. Throughout my career, i witnessed the diversity of thought, background and sentiment within the Africanamerican Community. It is this diversity which makes our workplaces, community and country a better place. President trump was on the road in ohio yesterday talking about manufacturing. One a headline on that. The Washington Times this morning about that trip. President rails against biden during ohio trip, reaches out to labor voters by announcing a tariff on aluminum. Here is some of what the president said as he was heading for that event in ohio yesterday. He supported every single globalist attack on american workers. Joe bidens policies put china first and america last. That is what he will continue to do if he ever got the shot. You will have a disruption in the markets the likes of which our country has never seen. You will have a crash in the markets because he is going to double and triple your taxes. He is going to do things nobody would ever think even possible because he is following the radical left agenda. Take away your guns, destroyer Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the bible, hurt god. He is against god, he is against guns, he is against energy, our kind of energy. I dont think he is going to do too well in ohio. If he did, we would have a big story. He has not going to do well. I was in texas the other day and said wait a minute, the other side is against guns. They are against oil and gas, they are against religion, the bible, god. How is he going to win texas . To win texas, he is not going to win ohio. Host some of the reporting on that from the Associated Press with their headline on the trip, trump claims biden opposes god. Our opening question for you this friday morning is your message to congress on pandemic relief as talks have apparently stalled on negotiations between Democratic Leaders in the white house. Lines for republicans, democrats and independents. We welcome your texts as well. On the democrats line, this is lily in california. Caller good morning. Tellt want to say, president trunk to leave Social Security alone. It looked like every republican that gets in the office always wants to steal from Social Security. Ony have Social Security this stimulus package. I want to know why. Another thing i want to say is, tell President Trump to leave god out of the politics. God dont need no help. He dont need any help from anyone. He is a good god, he is the creator. Nobody, biden, myself and anyone else could come against god. Host to louise in florida. Caller good morning, how are you . Host great, thanks. Caller i have a couple of ideas. I have been thinking about the stack the package and it feels like both sides are running up against the wall. Stop,k they need to just look at the people. This is what is the most important. Not Everything Else. Forget rebuilding any buildings. Worry about the people. One side is worried about paying too much for the unemployed. They are never going to go back to work. Instead of going with the 600 a month, i say knock it down to 300 a month. Go with the stimulus package and give everyone 1200 per month right through the end of january. Have the unemployment go straight through january. Whoever is president , we can run through that mark and not have to worry about it until then. This way, the ones on unemployment will still end up 1200, i mean 600 a week, but it is also going to help everybody else because everybody is in a bad boat right now. We all need help. I think this would be a great compromise. There has got to be some different ideas out there. I dont think anybody should be going on any vacations because right now, this is essential work. They should not be let out of washington until this is taken care of. Host thanks for the idea. Rob portmanenator argued the 600 was higher than most wages made weekly. Here is what he said. [video clip] recall back in the cares act, there was an extension of a federal supplement to Unemployment Insurance. We put in place a 600 federal benefit on top of the state benefit. At the time, there were concerns about whether that would lead to people on Unemployment Insurance getting more money than they wed at work. Was an amendment on the senate floor regarding that. Although it did not pass, i think pretty much every republican supported it with that concern. If you look at what has happened over the past couple of months, as the 600 has been put in place, it clearly has led to people making more on Unemployment Insurance often then they can make it work. The congressional budget office, a Nonpartisan Group here in the congress that analyzes some of these economic issues, has said that if someone is on Unemployment Insurance today, they are likely to be making substantially more than someone who is not on Unemployment Insurance. People are making more not to work then to work. Roughly, and i quote, five out of every six recipients would receive benefits that exceeded the weekly amounts they could earn from work during those six months if you are to extend this through the end of the year. They are saying 80 of recipients would make more on Unemployment Insurance than they would have at their old jobs. If you followed where the democrat negotiators are in keeping 600 in place until the end of the year, that they would be an unprecedented disincentive to go to work in this country. Host on that 600, the how 600 inost, extra a became a sticking point. How many people are affected by the cut . Of americans were receiving unappointed benefits in july. Who is to blame for the eight getting cut . They write the democrats pass a package on may 15. Trump and Senate Republicans dismissed it. Republicans made a aunterproposal on july 27 for 1 trillion package of additional aid just as the extra relief for unemployment was expiring. Plans plan calls for workers to receive 70 of their prior wages starting in october and a 200 per week bonus until then. They say it would take most states eight to 20 weeks. State unemployment offices have been overwhelmed by millions of unemployment claims in recent weeks. Does unemployment numbers for july coming out in under an hour, 8 30 eastern. The first hour here, your message to congress on pandemic relief. A couple of comments on texts. Henry says, let banks and lenders missed checks first. Reduce unemployment to subminimum wage, stop all spending except dod and dhs. I am a republican voter, but senator mcconnell was too late to the table. You cant say they are stonewalling when you were two months late to the party. My party never seriously considered the option of a second stimulus and didnt have the foresight of a second wave. Democrats look hungry for a big election win in november and they will probably get it. My message to congress is to check the price of Health Insurance on the individual market. This justifies the extra 600 a week. This one says i think congress should get money each week to help laidoff workers. Why would anyone who has recovered and immune return when they can stay home and make more . To your phone calls we go. Barbara on the republican line in maryland. Caller good morning. Thank you, cspan, you are doing a wonderful job. You have a bunch of people who are parttimers who do not have Health Insurance. You are asking them to go back to a minimum wage job that doesnt provide Health Insurance during a pandemic. What is the motivation for them with the 600 to go back to work that they have no health care for . Getting to is why wont they add some sort of insurance andntive to the package compromise on Everything Else . Host ok. Tony in orlando excuse me, orlando in georgia. Democrats line. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host doing fine, thank you. Caller it is clear that host we lost you. To bernard in elk grove, california. Good morning. Is help thehing people, Congress Needs to help the people. The gop keeps complaining about the 600. Itis a stimulus package, stimulates the economy. Congress needs to focus on that and just help the people. Dont worry about all of these corporations. The gop is having a fit about that, but they are not worried about trump trying to have money for the fbi building that he says is corrupted. But he wants to give money to package, but yet he has a hotel across the street that the gop told him he needed to sell that he hasnt sold. That looks nefarious there. Want to worrycans about something so much, have the cdo look at that and just help the regular people out. They need the help. Host to the democrats line in shreveport,siana louisiana. Caller i think you need to leave judging god alone. Leave him out of that picture. Everything is republican has to be good and everything democratic has got to be bad, this is what is being portrayed. Republican line in south carolina. Caller hi. I think that Congress Needs to realize that the American People are struggling. Congress itself, we see it is basically a democrat and republican battle. We need our congressmen to come together and do something for the American People. Asshouldnt be so political these men and women need to be worried about bringing our country together. Everyone needs help. I just wish that they would come together, get this issue resolved and get america back on track. Host i appreciate that. Headline in the wall street journal this morning. Democrats criticize trump as age talks stall. Democratic negotiators dismissed the idea that President Trump could unilaterally provide new jobless aid and cut taxes in the absence of a deal in congress. Has said he is considering executive actions to provide jobless aid, suspend the payroll tax, impose a partial moratorium on evictions and assist with student loan repayments in an effort to pressure democrats to give grounded negotiations. The white house hasnt disclosed details on how such actions would be put into play. The president told reporters, they write that he could sign executive orders as early as thursday or friday if negotiations dont show signs of progress. Here is what senator schumer, the Democratic Leaders said yesterday about the negotiations. [video clip] republicans have badly mauled the body politics, the American Economy and health care. We believe the patient needs a major operation while republicans want to apply just a bandaid. We wont let them just past the band just past the bandaid, go home and leave america bleeding. It is that simple. That is the difference. There are huge problems out there, but so many of the want to do dont anything. Lets not spend any government money when people are hurting so badly. The president just to others. This is the greatest crisis we have probably had in so many years. There is no leadership from the president. He says one thing one day and another thing another day and another thing another day. He is not focused on this. No leadership. History will regard this as one of the most appalling performances by any chief executive anywhere in the world in all of history. Its true. Its that serious. Witheason our negotiations the white house have been so arduous, is they just dont see the needs out there. They dont want to do anything about them. They want to get away with as little as possible so their rightwing ideologues who dont want to spend any government money, will not be angry with them. Host a couple of late results from tuesdays primary in tennessee. This one from u. S. Representative jim cooper who holds onto the congressional seat in the first contested primary in a decade. In the senate, the primary in tennessee, this is rollcall with their headline tennessee republicans pill pick bill hagerty for Lamar Alexanders senate seat. Democrats line, your message to congress. Caller good morning. Im so glad to hear there are people trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess we have got. Mcconnell has really given all the power to the president instead of doing his own job. Before, ithe lady dont remember where she come from, but she was talking about an fbi building, which should not be in that pandemic package. What i feel, they should go ahead and do another 1200 stimulus, go to the regular it is a big because thing on the states to try to get these computers right to get that done. If they go to the 1200s again host a direct payment . Caller yes. I think that would help a lot. As far as the president talking about slowing down testing, i dont get it. I dont get it. Work inyou go back to the schools when you dont know if people are safe or not . I think there should be more in also for personal protection equipment. I just wanted to say that. That is what i like about cspan. You get to voice your opinions and come up with some solutions that might would help. Host glad you got through. We will hear from eric on the republican line in rockford, illinois. Caller good morning. My whole issue with the stimulus package and stuff and we are not hearing too much about it is the 1 trillion they want to use to bailout states. That is unnecessary. You might as well buy lottery tickets with it because the broke states like the one i live in in illinois will just spend two dollars for every dollar they get in relief, and they will still be more bankrupt than they were to start with. California is no different. That is all, thank you. Today, new yorks attorney general to dissolve the nra. The leaders of the powerful National Rifle association were accused thursday of participating in a massive fraud that skimmed at least a 64 million from the group to finance lavish lifestyles featuring private jet travel to exclusive resorts. By theng to a lawsuit attorney general who seeks to shut down the organization. [video clip] myjust a few minutes ago, office filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle association to dissolve the organization in its entirety. For years of selfdealing and illegal conduct that violate new yorks charity law and undermines its own mission. Association,rifle or the nra, is the largest and most influential progun organization in the nation. 1871, thefounding in nra has been a registered notforprofit Charitable Corporation in the state of new york. The Attorney Generals Office has a wide range of regulatory and Enforcement Powers over Charitable Corporations and their trustees, including the nra. The nras influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets. Years, the nra diverted millions and millions of dollars away from its Charitable Mission for personal use by senior to award contracts to the financial gain of Close Associates and family. And appeared to dole out lucrative, noshow contracts to former employees in order to buy their silence and continued loyalty. From the response National Rifle association yesterday in a series of tweets, the nra president saying that this was a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization and Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend. You could have set your watch by it. The investigation was going to reach its crescendo as we move into the 2020 election cycle. It is a transparent attempt to attack the leading voice. By ahas been a power grab political opportunist, a desperate move that is part of a rank political band data. They say that our members wont be intimidated or bullied in their defense of political and constitutional freedom as evidenced by the lawsuit filed by the nra today by the attorney general. We not only will not shrink from this fight, we will confront it and prevail. Lets hear from david in south line. Na, independent your message to congress on the pandemic relief. Caller good morning. Say to the senate and house of representatives, promote the general welfare as the constitution directs. The people are in need. Help them. Dont ignore them for your own political gain. Also, i would like to say that the fear over this 600, everyone living the life of riley because of it, what it showed me more than anything else was how many people in this country are working for slave wages. That is how bad it is. If it is all right to bailout bangs and it is alright to bail out wall street or while street wall streeters, why can you not bail out the citizens . Host robert in south dakota, go ahead. South carolina, im sorry. Go ahead. Caller i want to know about that one of the democrats got saved on the 700 club. He said he took 29 million kickback money from china. I want to know how many of the republicans get this because they wont do nothing about it. That is enough money to pay our debts down. Much less worried about covid giving all the money back on covid. Thatoorest are the ones have done paid all their money like myself, so scared that you give us 12 a month and you are giving them 600 a week. I dont want the money period. I want the government to pay our debts off with it. Host congress is in today, albeit briefly. Our producer craig kaplan tweeting about that. House this morning holds a brief session, but no rollcall votes are scheduled as covid19 relief talk continue. Members will be given a 24 hour notice to return to d. C. On a vote. If reached, the house session should be right after that. We will take you to a hearing underway. The Congressional Oversight Commission, a five person Panel Established by the cares act holding a hearing today on lending to main street businesses in response to the pandemic. Be here on cspan and you can also watch it on the cspan radio app and online. Republican line, go ahead. Caller i would just like to say are our elected leaders failing the American People in a big way. Life is about compromise. I dont think that standing on the confirmed amount of 600 and refusing to bend or compromise is in the best interest of the American People. We cant continue to pay out 600 a week every week. To 400,d be cut back 300. That would still be helping the American People to survive. Also, just a message out to everyone, lets take a good come along look at who you have elected in those positions and what they are truly standing for. Is it the American People or is it just to use these topics for their own political gain . Thank you so much for allowing me to speak my opinion. Host jim on the democrats line. Caller morning. Unemployment insurance was designed to keep you desperately hungry so do go out and find a job as quickly as possible. 600 maybe would have brought my wages up had i been on unemployment to what i was actually making before. I could have stimulated the income. With my regular i have a friend working at lowes. When the 1200 checks went out, they recorded black they reported black friday numbers. People had money to spend and ran to the stores and spent it. Ising to open businesses kind of like supplyside economics. Yourpen your business, overhead continues and you may or may not have any customers. We need to control the pandemic. Before that flu vaccine we open the stores, before we open our businesses. If you dont feel safe, stay home. Thank you. In clemmons, north carolina, republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to comment on the stimulus. I feel like the holdup is the toats wanting to add this bill. It seems like every time there is a bill brought up where you pay out money, they want to add something to it that has nothing to do with the basic bill. Thank you for taking my call. Host thank you, carolyn st. Louis, democrats line carol in st. Louis, democrats line. Caller i think a great compromise would be to continue the 600 stimulus but eliminate the rest that way it pays out the people and also the landlords. Host a couple of comments on texts. My message to congress, if you must find a local and State Governments. Thousands of teachers and First Responders will lose their funding. This is true for both red and blue states. Letsays my idea is and not pay congress with the senate, lets take away all of their benefits and have a level playing field. Camps. To two warring imagine please that all of the suffering people are your own children and your own aged parents and then feel how ashamed you are at your trivial political affiliations as they have kept you from coming to rest to their aid. Let compassion be your only political label. Headline on part of that aid from the New York Times partisan stalemate has stymied aid for pandemic stricken schools. Larry. Homa, caller about the stimulus package, congress and senators up there, i have watched cspan for the last three or four months, seem like they dont really care about the poor people say nasa the 1200 a month. People will go in and see who they are voting for, who their representatives are. People,dont help the democrats or republicans, they ought to find out who they are and if they are not willing to help support people and the people of the United States, they need to vote them out. The only thing the senators and republicans are scared of is people voting them out. Tothey knew they was going lose their jobs, they would vote the right way instead of doing all of this bickering and stuff. Out. Need to vote them here inthe republicans oklahoma host birmingham, alabama. Democrat line. Caller good morning. To know what, when i listen cspan, i dont know if you have to make an opinion or say anything, but people need to be corrected. The democrats already had a bill passed in the house and it was sent to the senate. Mitch mcconnell had it on his desk and did not do anything about it. Getas so busy trying to judges on the bench, he did not have time to think about the American People. Daughter is a single parent. She was working at the airport in birmingham, alabama. They closed a small restaurant she was working at. She depends on this money. These are people that need help right now. We dont need to be playing games. I dont know what is wrong with some people in the Republican Party, i am not trying to put people down, but why do they vote against their best interest . I live in alabama and i see how some of these people live, and they still put republicans in office. It should be about helping the American People. They are playing games with peoples lives. People are dying from this covid africanamericans, native americans, latinos, we are dying faster than any other race. About political parties, it is about helping the American People and the republicans are playing games with our lives. Host still more about this coming up in the program. We will take a look at the federal moratorium on evictions, which is about to expire. We will be talking with diane yentel of the National Low Income Housing Coalition about what is at stake on potential expiration of that moratorium. We will be joined with an economist who will walk us through the july jobs numbers that will be released in about 30 minutes. Sunday night on q a. He examines the question on whether another exodus is ahead for u. S. Cities due to the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest. To 2020,r is from 1980 when you saw tremendous prosperity and a number of major urban centers. 2020 beyond, if we dont approach this in a thoughtful and careful way, could represent the reversal in which Economic Activity and talent that flooded into our cities starts to flood out. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. The perjury case against President Trumps former National Security advisor Michael Flynn will be reheard by the full u. S. Court of appeals in the d. C. Circuit judge thursday. The panel of 10 judges will decide if a judge needs to dismiss charges against Michael Flynn as recommended by the justice department. Here the case live on tuesday on cspan or cspan. Org, or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Host we are joined by diane yentel, who is president and ceo of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Talk about the federal moratorium about to expire on evictions in the u. S. Diane yentel, thank you for being with us this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Your groupis it that does . Caller the National Low Income Housing Coalition is a membership organization, our work is about advancing federal policy solutions to ensure the lowest income people have affordable, acceptable homes. Host give us an idea of how many renters there are in the United States, currently. Guest there are about 43 million rental households, over 100 Million People in those households who rent. Host since the pandemic, an idea on evictions typically in the u. S. In a month, how many people are evicted from their apartment or home over failure to pay rent . Since the pandemic, how has that problem increased, or has it increased . Guest the risk of evictions has certainly increased during the pandemic because of a financial fallout as a result of the pandemic. In order to understand the crisis, the eviction crisis we face right now, we need to recognize where we were before coronavirus came to our country, and that was in the minutes of a severe Affordable Housing crisis, where we had a shortage of 7 million homes, affordable and available to the lowest income renters. For every 10 of the lowest income renter households, there were fewer than four apartments that were affordable and available to them. Acause we have such a shortage of homes available to low income people, there was a shortage of low income renter households paying half of their income to rent each month, many were paying more 60 , 70 of their income just to keep a roof over their heads. When you have limited income to begin with, and you are paying so much of it toward your home, you are always one financial emergency away from potentially missing rent, being evicted, and in worst cases becoming homeless. For many of these same renters, the coronavirus has been the financial emergency. They have lost jobs, hours at work, wages. It is harder than ever for them to bring together what they need to make rent. Host when was the eviction in congressassed and windows it expire . Guest the cares act, which was passed on march 27, included limited federal Eviction Moratoriums. Those moratoriums covered 30 of renters around the country. Renters who live in homes subsidized by public housing, tax credit units, or renters who live in properties where the mortgage is backed by fannie mae or freddie mac. Altogether, that is about 30 of renters that were protected by this federal Eviction Moratorium. That has been there has been a patchwork put in place in the early months of the pandemic that protected more renters from eviction. All of these moratoriums have been expiring rapidly. The federal Eviction Moratorium expired two weeks ago. Julyat time, starting on 25, landlords could begin to give notices to evict to their renters and they must give a 30 day notice to vacate. There is still a closing window to protect those renters and those properties. It is toward the end of august when they were literally be pushed out of their homes. The moratoriums have been expiring rapidly. There are 24 governors who have allowed their statewide Eviction Moratoriums to expire, and in 30 states, renters have no protection against being evicted for reasons related to the pandemic. Host we are talking to diane yentel, president and ceo of the National Low Income Housing Coalition about the moratorium on evictions and its expiration. Line to88000 is the call if you are currently renting your home. If you are a renter, the line is 202 7488000. For those of you who are landlords, 202 7488001. All others, 202 7488002. Diane yentel, let me ask you about the other side of this. A headline says President Trump is calling for another moratorium on evictions, landlords are pushing back. This tweet from a viewer in florida does anyone stop to think what the moratorium on eviction rent means . Where is the money for landlords to pay taxes and the mortgage on their property . Guest of course. We need more than one solution. From the beginning of the pandemic, we have been calling for a National Uniform moratorium on all evictions for nonpayment of rent for the duration of the pandemic. At the very least, the federal government should in the middle of a Public Health emergency assure each of us we should not lose our homes in the middle of it. Eviction moratoriums on their own are not enough, because they create a financial cliff for renters to fall off of windows moratoriums when those moratoriums are eventually lifted. Landlordsn, small cannot continue to maintain and operate their properties without rental income coming in. Paired with a national Eviction Moratorium, Congress Must also appropriate at least 100 billion in emergency rental assistance. This will prevent low income renters from being saddled with more debt than they can possibly pay off, and it will allow small landlords to have rental income coming in so they can pay their bills and continue to maintain their property and hold that essential housing stock. We dont want to lose any of our countrys essential housing stock. Host are rental properties governed by state and local regulation . Are there any federal protections in place for renters nationwide . Guest the only federal protections that were in place, protections against eviction, were the moratoriums put in place by the cares act. Those were limited. They covered only 30 of renters nationally and they expired two weeks ago. There are some state and local Eviction Moratoriums in place, but they are expiring rapidly. Host we have plenty of calls waiting for our guest, diane yentel. Betty from florida, good morning. Caller cspan, thank you for taking my call. I did not have insurance. I have been having a hard time. The worst department for low income people. The only time the black community in florida got any us on errorople put feet. People putennedy us on our feet. Help and weonly miss it so bad. I cant find a place to live. I have been trying to get help from the hud department. My husband died in 2004, i turned 88 years old yesterday. What do we pay taxes for . I dont know if i will get back in my house because i did not have insurance. Something is going on in nobody wants to help nobody. Whites, no the income, nobody. It is pitiful. I have been paying taxes for a old time, i turned 88 years yesterday, and i feel like i am homeless. I cant get no help. I just thought i would convey that to you. I am not a renter, i am homeless, and you cant get no help even if you pay your taxes. It is pitiful the way black people are treated by hud. I called fema, no, you cant get it. Host any thoughts, diane yentel . Guest i am sorry to hear about the loss of your home. I hope you are able to find some assistance locally, someone who can help you get back into your house. This tremendous housing eviction crisis we are facing right now is on top of a longstanding pervasive shortage of homes for the lowest income people. We have that shortage in large part because the federal government has underfunded solutions to house and keep people housed for the longterm. We have a system in our country where one in every four households that is eligible for and in need of Housing Assistance receives any. People who need Affordable Housing assistance, like betty and millions more like her, do not receive any. The have to add their names to decades long waiting lists to win what is essentially a housing lottery in our country. We see tremendous challenges that that creates when we face disasters, whether it is our homes burning down, which unfortunately happened to betty, or in natural disasters like hurricanes or wildfires, or a disaster like covid19, which exposes the tremendous shortages and shortcomings of our countrys housing system. Lab at a eviction university rates how your state is doing in terms of handling evictions, particularly during the pandemic. , the statele of 15 5 florida ranks 1. 58 out of in measures to prevent evictions. Our line for landlords is 202 7488001. We are joined on that line by kenneth in albany, new york. Caller i would like to say as a landlord that i have tenants that have not received the stimulus or rent assistance money and over five months. These are families. In new york. They are on the brink of being homeless because our government and our system is failing them. Athink we need to really take close look at how we are dealing with our american citizens in this country. And overall system. A system that is more efficient, so people dont have to raise families under this kind of threat and pressure. Appreciate your comment. I appreciate as a landlord you being as concerned as you are about the renters in your property and their inability to pay the rent. There are tens of millions of people facing the same challenges across the country. Rent is due and i cant afford to pay. There were some protections and resources put in place under the cares act and the Eviction Moratoriums that we talked about, some of the resources were expanded Unemployment Insurance and stimulus checks. Those helped millions of renters continue to pay rent and it is part of what has kept us from seeing a tremendous wave of evictions across the country yet. Many of the people who need those resources have not received them, and millions more maybe they did not lose their job entirely, but they have lost hours at work, and these are lowwage workers where every dollar matters. They are not eligible for Unemployment Insurance. Now, it is nearly impossible for them to pay the rent, especially with increased costs for child care, health care and food. It is why it is so essential that congress act sued immediately to prevent this eviction wave by continuing expanded Unemployment Insurance, that is very important. It is so essential that congress act soon immediately to prevent this eviction wave by continuing expanded Unemployment Insurance, that is very important. Host how closely are you keeping an eye on negotiations . How certain are you that million,m fund, 100 will be kept in there . Guest it is 100 billion. We are following it closely. We have been actively engaged with members of congress, the house and the senate, urging them to pass these housing protection spread the house of representatives passed these twice already, once in the heroes act and once in a standalone act. The house already passed a bill to pass a uniform moratorium on evictions to provide 100 billion of Emergency Assistance and 11. 5 million for people experiencing homelessness, to get them quickly and safely housed. There are multiple bills in the senate that would push forward the same provisions. Now, negotiations have stalled. I am certain that part of the negotiations, at the very top of the negotiations, our conversations about how to prevent the evictions wave. Democrats Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi are keeping these at the very top of their priority list. That we get a National Moratorium, 100 billion in National Rental assistance. Republicans are beginning to come around and recognizing something needs to be done in their states to prevent evictions. Aeve mnuchin has talked about Eviction Moratorium. Emergencyomise on rental assistance. I dont know if a final bill will be enacted, i dont know if congress can muster the will. I am certainher there will be some protections, but i dont know if it will be enough. Host a renter in dayton, ohio. Good morning. Caller these people who are republican, i am a i live below the poverty level, i get 896 per month, my rent is 650, i still survive. My rent keeps going up every year. I cant find any housing. Havebasically impaired, i copd. These people using drugs like crazy, it is getting out of hand, i cant find a place to live. You have to make at least 1600 per month where i was looking. I cant qualify for that. All of you people are complaining. Really . That is all i have to say. Guest i appreciate that. What a tremendous challenge you have. In 850 perringing month and your rent is 650 per month, that is outrageous and you should be receiving help. The thing about the Housing Market is it is not possible for landlords to maintain, to build, to operate properties at a level to extremelydable low income people without government subsidy because extremely low income households are on limited fixed incomes. Income you can afford to pay is not enough to cover what it costs to maintain and operate a property. This is a basic market failure. It is essential for the federal government to step in and correct that market failure and ensure housing is affordable to seniors, people with disabilities, working families with young children. The federal government does to some degree through section 8 vouchers, some programs to produce housing affordable to the lowest income people, but they do not do it nearly at a scale that is necessary throughout the country, and that is why we have so many people homeless, sleeping in shelters, sleeping in their cars, are right on the verge of becoming homeless because they are paying high rent with limited income. This is why Congress Needs to do much more to ensure people like you and millions more across the country can have a safe, stable, affordable home during a pandemic and always. Host comments on twitter, this one about our first caller, betty in florida. Betty is not alone. The federal government has been undermining the ability of black americans to find housing since reconstruction. Covid19 is being spread in america. Some shelters for homeless have had to close when workers died of covid19. Inassive Homeless Population america is a crisis. , whatlk about evictions about other countries . Undergoing a severe case of the pandemic, are they experiencing evictions, as well . Countriesre are other where when the surge of coronavirus was worst, the country did implement some protection against evictions italy and canada come to mind. Those cases those countries have far lower cases of coronavirus today. The United States has one of the worst outbreaks in the world. It is essential that we have similar protections in place. We have never put into place yet the kind of protection against any evictions that some other countries did. If i can address a couple of comments that came in via twitter, they are important, one on racial inequity, it is important to recognize this wave of evictions that is coming if congress does not act, black and brown renters will be this disproportionately hurt by this. Purposely put housing out of reach for black and brown house outspread today, the average white family has 12 times the wealth of the average black family. Disproportionate data in the housing system. They are much more likely to be extremely cost burden, much more likely to be homeless. Now, the covid19 is really compounding these inequities. If congress does not act, it will be predominately black and latino renters who will be evicted in the coming months. Homelessness is another critical issue. The commenter is absolutely right, people experiencing homelessness are tremendous risk of covid19. Studies show people who are homeless are twice as likely to be hospitalized if they contract covid19. Times moreo to four likely to need critical care. In other cases, implement social distancing in shelters. Much more is needed. We are urging congress to provide 11. 5 billion in funds to allow shelter and Service Providers to keep people experiencing homelessness safe and alive and give them quickly house. Int lets hear from kenny dodge city, kansas. Caller there is one thing i wanted to ask the lady, if you dont mind. Peoples wages that you consider low income, i already know what low income means, but can you tell me in terms of what you mean per year. Let me give you example 10 , 21,000 per year. Does low me, what income mean in dollars . Guest when we talk about low income, related to housing areass, compared to the median income. If somebody learns 80 or less of the area median income, they are low income. 50 or less is very low income. Medianless of the areas income, they are extremely low income. Extremely low income, i am talking about a family of four with two working parents bringing together less than 24,000 per year. An individual senior or a person with a disability who is on very limited fixed income and they are bringing in less than 12,000 per year. We are talking about extremely low income people. Host i am sorry, go ahead and finish your thoughts. Extremely low income people are most at risk of eviction today. In new yorks line city, bill, hello. Caller good morning. A very good conversation. I want to thank you. I cant see the screen right now, but the young lady speaking. I would like to say you stole my thunder with the wealth gap that americanated the black who are descendents of slaves. I would like to suggest for everyone who is saying, we should not be trying to help people, that is not american. If we really want to look at the word american. Black americans have gone slavery,65 years of jim crow laws, they have really only been free for 55 years. We should all be trained to assist as many people as possible. Spoke,yearold woman who she is africanamerican. A lot of people want to not recognize them for what is owed to them. Have a great day, everyone. Justice, strive for which means no one is mistreated, and the ones who need help should get the most constructive help. Host diane yentel. Guest you are absolutely right. We have at centuries of systemic racism in our country and housing policy has driven much of that for the last several decades. For a long time, it was purposeful federal housing policy to restrict access to programs that make homeownership families, andack to make it possible for white families to access through the fha. There have been many decades of racist housing policies, whether to todaysning, restrictive zoning that has created this wealth gap that creates between black families and white families and has created todays segregated communities. It will require purposeful housing policy, homelessness policy, and policies that go beyond to undo the harm that has been done to black and brown people for decades. Centerquires us to Racial Equity in the policies that we push forward to ensure that we are not only not exacerbating racial inequities, but we are actively working to achieve Racial Equity, and undo the harm that has been done for decades. Oklahoma on the landlords line. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to point out, placing everybody into a racial class or an economic class is counterproductive. These things are patronizing and condescending to the individual. They know this people who speak this way know this. Life aates their lot in lot higher to reduce people into these basic classes. When you use these terms and you constantly place individual people into economic classes and racial stereotypes, essentially what you are doing is you are using a stereotype to further your ideals in life. The reason people are segregated is people who believe these terms refuse to integrate with people, because they believe you are constantly helping them government needs to help these people, they cannot help themselves. What you think about this this kind of language, this kind of thought is dividing us in the country. Guest eiffel he disagree. I fully disagree. I am speaking from what data makes clear. There are tremendous Racial Disparities in housing and homelessness. For example, africanamericans 13 of the general ofulation, but they are 40 people experiencing homelessness, and 50 of homeless families with children. This disproportionate impact does not happen by accident, any more than segregation did not happen by accident. Segregation and the disproportionate impacts of people experiencing homelessness is a result of deliberate public policies. We can only understand those outcomes if we are truthful and look at the data and think to what the data shows us, and then work to compensate for the harm that has been done. Datadriven solutions to housing and homelessness are essential. What thee do not like data tells us. Host the new unemployment numbers are out for july. The july Unemployment Rate falling nearly one point, it is down from 11. 1 to 10. 2 . The number of jobs added in july 1. 8 million. Our guest is diane yentel, the president and ceo of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. A picture shows not one more eviction, a protest in brooklyn last month. Crisis, private equity firms see dollar signs. The wall street journal reported investors are preparing for what could be a once a degeneration opportunity to buy distressed Retail Assets at bargain prices. It is straight out of a private equity playbook during the 2008 financial crisis. Want to play you the comments of senator warren from the senate floor yesterday on communities most impacted by the pandemic. [video clip] how bad is this problem . Renters say of all today they have little or no confidence they can make their next housing payment. More than 40 of black and latinx renters are not sure they can make their next rent payment. Nearly two thirds of renters that are not confident about paying the rent earn less than 35,000 per year. More than a quarter of black and latinx renters could not pay last months rent or had it deferred think about that. Blacks one in every four or latinx renters that are behind on their rent. Add to that, the high Unemployment Rate, the number of workers across the country that have had their hours and income cut, and the number of Small Businesses that have shuttered and may never reopen, and it is clear the number of evictions will continue to rise. Experts are predicting an avalanche of evictions if we do not Institute New protections. We are already seeing a rise in evictions in cities or local eviction bans have lapsed. This is a crisis we can avoid. Host diane yentel, that uncertainty on the ability to pay rent. Has that swelled during the pandemic . Guest she is absolutely right. We have Research Analysis out asay that estimates as many 30 million to 40 million renters are at risk of being evicted through the end of the year. It is a tremendous number of people who are doubting whether they will be able to pay the rent. They had challenges paying rent last month and they are very uncertain they will be able to pay it next month if congress does not act. It is really important that we recognize just how destabilizing evictions are and just how much harm they do to individuals and communities, and to our entire country. And harm can disrupt all aspects of life, from physical and mental health, to kids education to implement. Evictions drive families further into poverty. Evicting families in the middle of a pandemic is not only cruel is immoral, but it shortsighted and senseless because it risks lives. We risk further burdening already overstretched hospital systems. The potential for tens of millions of people being evicted would make it nearly impossible for our country to contain the virus. When our collective Health Depends on our ability to stay in their home, we all have a stake in making sure that millions of families do not lose theirs. Host new jersey, go ahead. Caller good morning, everybody. I just want to clarify a few misstatements that this woman has made, ok . One, when the woman called about not getting a check for five months, that was not because of the federal government, that is because of the local governments who are not paying their unemployment checks. People have been suffering because of the local governments because they cannot suit one Million People. Their equipment is not suitable and people are not getting checks. Please, please clarify that is not because of the federal government. Number two, didnt President Trump pass a law, he is trying to help the black communities by doing all the things he is doing with these opportunities and all of the things he is doing. I know he is trying very hard to help the african communities. Please dont said nobody is doing nothing. The other thing i want to say to you is, when you keep talking democratstions, the should do separate bills. Lets do unemployment, evictions, which trump says he will sign an executive order if congress cannot come together. He will handle that. The democrats will be the ones to screen you. Host a couple of points there. Diane yentel, do you want to respond to any of that . Guest President Trump has said he plans to implement an executive order to prevent evictions. The details of that will be important and we will see what it includes and who is protected under that moratorium. If he can, he should. We should have a National Moratorium to prevent evictions. We have to recognize the moratorium on its own is not enough. There are still tens of billions of dollars owed in back rent, and tens of billions of dollars needed in the coming months to cover rent, that is for the low income renters and the small landlords. It has to be paired with 100 billion in emergency rental assistance. For that, congress wanted to act. President trump and secretary carson worked to undermine housing from the day they took office. Actionsve been multiple taken by secretary carson and by President Trump to undermine fair housing, to rollback the clock on any kind of progress for integrated communities and Racial Equity. They have done quite a bit of harm to low income people of color, in particular. Thesee tried to stop harmful actions from going through. Inaccurate toly say this president and this secretary have in any way helped low income people of color, when in fact many of their actions have harmed or attempted to harm low income people of color. Host one more call, bill, goodyear, arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to know for those covered by the Eviction Moratorium, at what point will they be expected to pay or make up the rent or mortgage that has not been paid . Thank you for that question. When it comes to the federal Eviction Moratorium that renters, thosef protections expired two weeks ago. At that point, the landlords could issue a notice to vacate a 30 daytenants, with notice required. They cannot evict renters until the end of the month. The state and local Eviction Moratoriums differ in terms of when they expire, when the expired, and when back rent is due. There are many landlords that have been working with tenants and properties for months. I believe many of them will continue to work with renters to find a solution to implement a payment plan, to look to state and local governments for assistance programs that might be able to keep those renters house. It does not help landlords especially in this economy with this level of unemployment and evictions, it is not like there are a lot of people who are ready to rent that apartment if they evict the current tenant, that think a lot of landlords realize that. A lot of landlords are beginning to struggle. Landlords dosmall not have access to credit. They are not able to borrow the money they need to continue paying their bills. It is the small landlords that are more likely to be housing lower income renters, so they are most challenged right now. This is why it is so essential for congress to act soon to assist low income renters. Host we have been talking with diane yentel, the president and ceo of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you for having me. Callsmore of your phone ahead as negotiations between Democratic Leaders on capitol hill and republicans stall on pandemic relief. We would like to know your message to congress on the process and what you would like to see innate relief package. Epublicans, 202 7488001 democrats, 202 7488000. Independents and others, 202 7488002. Binge watch book tv this summer. Saturday evenings at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, watch several hours of your favorite authors. Saturday, we are featuring books written by former first ladies, including hillary clinton, michelle obama. Watch next saturday, august 15, as we feature the author toni morrison. Summer,tch book tv, all on cspan2. Months,g the summer reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all the Contact Information you need to stay in touch with members of congress, state governors. Ater your copy online cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host the unemployment numbers are out for july from the bureau of labor statistics. The reporting from politico, the Unemployment Rate fell to 10. 2 in july. That is down from a peak of the in april, but far from 3. 5 in february before the coronavirus led to massive economic shutdowns print the economy added 1. 8 million jobs in july. Talking in the next half hour or so about congress, where they stand on pandemic relief and your message to congress. Ore lines are 202 7488001 f republicans, 202 7488000 for democrats. For independents and others, the number is 202 7488002. Brinkaid talks teeter on of collapse, unsure if negotiations will continue. Officials from both parties say they are far apart from the scope, size and aid of the package. Talks began to fall apart thursday night following a threehour meeting, putting another Coronavirus Relief package in jeopardy. After two weeks of discussions, it is unclear if treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer will meet again on friday. That is the deadline Administration Officials set for a breakthrough in talks before President Donald Trump attempts unilateral action for temper it. Lets first go to our democrat line, sharon is in washington, d. C. , good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to say to congress to wake up. A package, there is only one more needed, just pass the same package. 600, what is that with the Millions Congress makes every year . My back rent, pay my information, my Social Security card, now they tell me i have abandoned my because of a Social Security card. We have to Work Together to save this country. Host the house has passed its heroes act back in may, with the 1 trilliong up a Senate Republican proposal introduced on the senate floor just last week. Axed, 202 7488003 michael in portland says advice, imagine that all suffering people are your own young children, your own parents, and then feel how ashamed you are that your trivial political feelings have cap you from rushing to their aid. My message to congress is you must fund. First responders will lose jobs without the funding. This is true for red and blue states. Ocean shores, washington on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I will be brief. What i would say to congress is, if you look at the last segment and what the topic was, why would it not work to have a law signed by the president that would suspend the collection of mortgages from banks . We regulate the banks. Stop them from collecting mortgages spread require that the landlords stop collecting rent, we could make it six months or a year, we could make the law that if we get a resolve to the virus medically, it would vaporize and everything would go back to normal. It would not result in the Federal Reserve spending 6 trillion of your grandchildrens money to give us money today. If you did not have to pay rent or your mortgage for six months to survive, you pay your bills and go to work or work out of your home. Why dont they use their hands and create a lot. The banks dont lose money. Everything moves out until the end of the term of the loan. They will still collect their money. I bet you it is because of the banks. They have too many lobbyists for that to work. Host atlantic city, new jersey, democrats line. Caller i think congress, because of this pandemic relief, pass the heroes act, help the people. Pandemic to get the relief and let the president know to tell people to wear masks so this pandemic will be nih,with the help of the dr. Fauci, and all the doctors who know what they are talking about. We are under a siege in this country. I used to be proud, even though knows ack woman who this is the worst that this country has ever experienced because of poor leadership and rich Senate People who dont realize that poor people need help. Host other senators on the negotiations going on. Chris murphy of connecticut tweeting this i thought about it, he said. Democrats passed a bill in may extending Unemployment Insurance, we beg republicans to negotiate, they refuse. Now Mitch Mcconnell is boycotting lastminute talks. Grassley, i chuck will get to that momentarily. Florida,argo, republican line, go ahead. Caller i just want to say republicans and the democrats should stop worrying about battling each other and worry about taking care of the people that need help, it is getting embarrassing watching on the news every night the back between parties and it forget about what is important the people. People need help right now and they are missing the message of who really needs help the American People. Host here is the tweet from senator Chuck Grassley of iowa i dont blame President Trump of talking about executive orders to help the unemployed and get the economy running. I imagine he is fed up with how democrats are not negotiating in good faith, instead of sticking with an unreasonable 3 trillion bill, democrats should prioritize needs of American People and not electionyear politics. Independent line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my phone call. My comment is a lot of people anymore are thinking that the 600 or the increased Unemployment Benefits that was for the economy are young, young people. They are abusing it. I would like them to look in their neighborhood and realize that they are usually families. They are families are returning back to work parttime. More importantly, that additional money keeps your local community. You want a local community healthy, your local momandpop, your local bakery, farmers markets, i would like to remove the hatred a little bit from the additional income that people seem to be overlooking that what it is really for. It is not just for young, Unemployed People who have lost their jobs through no reason of their own. Congress, it makes the economy work. It has worked. You can tell your local communities are somewhat thriving. Your meals, your restaurants, your momandpops are trying to stay open, they just need a little more help. Most of these people, families have paid into Unemployment Insurance for years. Host thank you for that. Rashad is in washington, d. C. , go ahead. Caller Congress Needs to stop pulling in two different directions. One says they want to extend, one said they wants a deal for less money. It is nobodys fault that there are no jobs. These factories cutting jobs, people cutting corporate jobs. The rise oflone, unemployment i feel it right until you canbill come to agreement to figure out who is in charge. It is a big chess match and you have lives at stake. Tighten it up and lets get things done medially. Host the house is coming to session at 10 00, it will be pro forma. When they come back from a roll call vote, whether it is a pandemic package, they will continue with their proxy voting to allow members not on the floor or not in town to vote. This from the hill, judge throws out House Republican lawsuit over proxy voting. A federal judge throughout a lawsuit, alleging the proxy Voting System approved by House Democrats is unconstitutional. The District Court judge ruled the constitutions speech and debate clause prohibited lawsuits over legislative efforts. On twitter, billy house, who covers congress for bloomberg, tweeted this about a meeting this afternoon with House Democrats. Call pelosi holds caucus at 2 00 on where things stand on stimulus bill talks. Trenton, new jersey. Democrats line. Forer thank you, cspan, taking my phone call, first of all. Mannd of all, the ordinary does not make enough money to pay all of these bills that the economy puts on him. He is not making the Gross National product, or adjusted per inflation. For him to come out and have this pandemic put upon him, it is no fault of his own that he has this problem with the government not supporting Health Insurance. They would rather start paying millionaires on parade, trying to rob and pillage and deplete greedynomy so their little fingers can grab all the money they can. They are dipping into the welfare money now. Is the man does not make enough money to pay his bills. He should have an adjusted per inflation account for this government. This government is not by the rich, for the rich, it is by the people and for the people. Thank you for your time. Host thanks. Philadelphia, democrats line. Caller good morning. I just want to say the senate that was put through a few months ago. I i wish cspan would put a list of all the people who got money from the cares act. Trumps kids goton money from that cares package. Thats why they refuse to pass this because they collected all the money they need right now. So they we got ours out of that package. I would appreciate it if cspan would put names up there that work for the Trump Administration and how much money they got from that cares package. Host similar concern on this text from sue in whiting, new jersey. Dear congress, i appreciate all the financial help you attempted to provide American People thus far. Before allocating anymore funds. Please fix problems with the first round. Business loans were gobbled up by, in some cases, those who didnt need them. Unemployment claims due to covid19 still remain unresolved. And there will be a hearing coming up this morning, the house comes in briefly at 10 00. And shortly thereafter well join in progress the Congressional Oversight Commission. A fiveperson Panel Established by the cares act holding a hearing today on lending to main street businesses in response to the pandemic. Thats live here on cspan at 10 00 a. N. Eastern. We are continuing a. M. Eastern. We are continuing with your comments on the pandemic relief. Republican line, hanover, virginia. Caller good morning. Thank you so much for cspan. May i please be a big advocate if you really want to know whats going on and keep informed, watch cspan. Watch it live. Make sure you are really paying attention. Am a senior caretaker for medicaid recipient patients here in virginia. I get paid 9. 87 an hour. I have had to covid restrict to one employee during this. I am not eligible for unemployment. But i am watching this. If i was able to get unemployment, i would be drawing more money in unemployment than i do working my job right now. So i do understand that side. I would be making a lot more. Enough more that i would feel more comfortable. More comfortable to pay all of my bills. I do live very modestly on the income that i make, and i have my senior that lives with me that is on Social Security alone. So i do understand the hurt that a lot of us are going through that are essential workers that are making a lot less, and then hearing people that are able to pull unemployment that are making more than us. On the other side of that, i have watched the republicans come down for two weeks and ask to extend what was currently there. And the first week Chuck Schumer immediately stood up and objected to it. Objected to just extending what was out there to give those people the relief that they eeded while congress to come upon a decision and then they ried to do it again yesterday. Went down on the floor and asked for the same extension. Nothing new. Nothing different. Just extend those benefits to allow for those people to get the relief while Congress Stands up there and does their posturing. And they the democrat ron wyden came down on the floor, gave a big huge speech about how they need this big package. They need this and then objected to extending the relief to the people that are currently getting it. So please, people, pay attention. Go on your cspan. Cspan one for your house meetings. Cspan2 you can get all of your senate hearings. Really pay attention. Host how often do you it sounds like you watch often. You watched the senate yesterday. Typically in a day how much cspan do you watch . Caller i am a senior care taker in home and i spend about 85 of my time on cspan until youall go to reruns. Host glad to caller i love watching the senate hearings. If no one has ever watched a true Congressional Senate hearing, please do that. It is so fascinating. Because sometimes everybody gets so caught up in the national media, and i was one of them for years. You get stuck on one national because you grew up with it. Maybe it was your local station that put you over to that national station. Please in Todays Society open your mind to everything. Host well let you go there. Keep watching, sarah, thanks for that. This is from the american independent picture of the majority leader. And the headline, head of u. S. Elections to mcconnell, fund this election now to avoid a devastating failure. They write that mays house passed Coronavirus Relief bill includes 3. 6 billion for election assistance, but Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell refused to take it up. Federal election commissioner Ellen Weintraub called on donald trump in congress to provide Adequate Funding for the 2020 election in a sharply worded Public Statement released on thursday. Quote, mr. President , members of congress, should you fail to provide the funds America Needs for its elections, you will be derelict in your duty to the country. A lack of federal funding, quote, would be a devastating failure to protect our democracy in a moment of historic need. Eugene is in jacksonville, florida. On the independent line. Eugene, mute your volume for us then go ahead with your comment. You mute that volume or feedback. Caller i turned the tv off. Host ok. Caller this is my one comment. I got informed my Insurance Company i have seven or eight rental houses and they stopped paying rent. And they paid a law so you dont have to pay anymore. Now the Insurance Companys going, my insurance has gone up from one third to 100 per house and im not getting anything. What are they going to do about that . The Insurance Companies are in for a cash grab. What do you do . Thats my comment. And thats all i wanted to say. Host kentucky, matilda on the democrats line. Go ahead. Caller hi. My message is for the American People. My concern is that the reason that there is no agreement is that right now the mark meadows is a coke industry errand boy in the white house. The Republican Party is basically owned by the coke libertarians. They dont believe in helping the American People. They basically have no interest in helping the commons. , they argue over 600 wanted to tax they have this tax cut that gave jeff bezos, he had 11 billion profit on amazon and then he got a check for 125 million in the tax rebate. I just do not see them wanting to come to a resolution for the American People. And thats just my comment. I am sorry. I just do not see them wanting to work for the American People. Dont see them seeing the suffering. I see them answering to the people that own them. Host this is a text from sheila in proctorville, ohio. She says republican Congress Needs to be pressed about wanting to reduce unemployment numbers to a percent of wages. Not only were jobs lost but the cost of cobra to continue coverage is 686 for individuals. One income households cannot make it with cut and added insurance coverage. Yesterday we spent three hours on this Program Marking it the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of hiroshima, a headline re on the ceremony held in hiroshima. Abe resists public pressure to sign treating renouncing nuclear weapons. A pick tuferte Prime Minister in front of the hiroshima memorial. Well continue our coverage, special coverage on sunday marking the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the second atomic bomb on nagasaki. Well be back on washington journal here on washington journal for more discussion with you and calls with richard frank, the author of downfall, the end of Imperial Japanese empire. And peter from american universitys Nuclear Studies institute. Live sunday. Its a simultaneous cast here on cspans washington journal. And on American History tv on cspan3. Brad is in international falls, minnesota. Republican line. Caller good morning. We are talking about what we actually should do and need to do for this pandemic. And i think its really important for people to really understand that its never going to go away. The virus is here. Its here to stay. But the most important part that we have to do and understand is that we have to protect the elderly and the people that have underlying issues. And Healthy People do not die from this wuhan virus, ok. They dont. So we have to explain to people that you cant let fear get into your minds. Healthy people do not die from this virus. But we do have to help people that are struggling and hurting now. As your caller says, we have heard, a lot of them are. Its terrible to have that. But we cant it force this for a political purpose like the democratic partys done and to manipulate the people. You can really tell if people are listening to msnbc and cnn. They might as well pick up the National Enquirer to learn more than what they are getting from them people. Please, people need to understand Healthy People are not dying from this. Period. Host to matty in houston, texas. Democrats line. Caller yes. Hi, im glad you take my call. I just heard that gentleman. That will is young people and Healthy People is dying from this thing, too. Because i have a nephew that did that. He was only 18. He was healthy. Its because people dont wear a mask. This little thing they keep on saying the republican nine out of 10 of them have money. Which tle 600 a week, is 24 a month. A lot of time the rent, like this man, he had all these houses and everything. I bet his rent is 1,000 or 1200 a month. People still have to eat. They still have to pay the light and gas and everything with that. And the democrats been asking for that. They could extend that. And they he was some of them not getting hurt. There is a lot of people that. Eally is hurting they are scared with their family. A lot of people not wearing a mask. The kids is getting the thing. I heard there was even a 5yearold that had passed with this virus. They need to wear a mask. Not open up schools. And to help these people in the end of the year. Then they can they are going to be spending that money with that. Host the state of georgia just reported its youngest death by the covid19, a 7yearold child in the state, according to the hill. This is front and center, front page of the New York Times. Their headline, u. S. Is alone among peers in failing to contain virus. Two major cause, individualist tradition, and Trump Administration missteps. Outsized epidemic is their chart. Over the past month about 1. 9 million americans have tested positive for the virus. Thats more than five times as many as in all of europe, canada, japan, south korea, and australia combined. Areas that have more than twice americas population. Elaine is in walnut, california, republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host fine, thanks. Caller listen, ive been watching congress. I love your station, by the way. I try to tune in. But i especially watch what goes on in congress. And you know, it seems to me all the time that all you get is rhetoric from the democrats. They dont want to cooperate. They dont want to do anything. They criticize. And frankly im kind of getting sick of it. A lot of my friends, even some of my Democrat Friends are now voting republican because they feel this nation is going in the wrong direction. You know, they are pushing black lives matter, and making all other races feel inferior. I could tell you a situation thats happening to my girlfriend in massachusetts and its appalling what is happening to her. I cant go into it because its too long. But its happening everywhere. Host thats elaine in california. There is more ahead on the program. Here on washington journal, up next well be joined by Moody Analytics chief economist, mark zandi, will walk us through the jobs numbers Just Announced for july. And the overall state of the u. S. Economy. Book tv on cspan2 has top nonfiction books and authors. Every weekend. Coming up sunday, msnbc political analyst, maxwell, with her book the end of white politics. On identity politics. And how to create a more inclusive democratic party. Shes interviewed by votto latino c. E. O. And founding president , maria kumar. At 10 45 p. M. Maryland republican governor larry hogan on his life and career with his book still standing. Watch book tv on cspan2. His weekend. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, sunday, marks the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of nagasaki, japan. Three days after the bombing of hiroshima. An American History tv and washington journal live at 9 00 a. M. Eastern well look back how the bombings ended world war ii and the aftermath in the decades ahead with racheard frank, author of downfall, the end of the Imperial Japanese empire and peter kuznick. Well take your calls, texts, facebook questions, and tweets. And at 4 00 p. M. Eastern on real america, the 1946 mill film, effects of the atomic bomb own hiroshima and nagasaki and 1,000 cranes documenting the origins of hiroshimas peace park. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern on the presidency. The potsdam conference, where the president harry truman informed stalin and churchill about the new u. S. Weapon. Watch American History tv this eekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host from the studios in pennsylvania, the chief economist of moodys anal analytics,k zahny mark zandi. Start out with the jobs number that came out for the month of july. The Unemployment Rate falling from 11. 1 in june to 10. 2. Antinumber of jobs added 1. 8 million. In perspective whats your perspective, mark zandi, of those numbers . Guest its nix mixed. The good news is the job gain. 1. 8 million. Thats solid. We saw a lot of job growth at restaurants, clothing stores, health care industry. A lot of the industries that got hit hardest early on by the pandemic continue to hire back. You mentioned the Unemployment Rate, thats good news, it declined, 10. 2 . Although there are measured issues there. We got a long way to go. Despite the solid job gain last month and the past three months we are still down by my calculation about 13 million jobs. We have still not recovered about half the jobs that we lost. And 10. 2 unemployment is pretty tough. Just for context you go back into the financial crisis, a little over 10 years ago, the highest Unemployment Rate was 10 on the nose. That was one month in 2009. We have a long, long way to go. The other thing id point out which makes me nervous is that the rate of improvement has slowed. If you look at the june job number, we saw 4. 8 million jobs added. The rate of improvement is slowing. That means its going to take a long time to get back what we lost back in march and april. Host do you think that rate of improvement do you think the numbers we are seeing are not showing the effect of some of these states having to shut down again or shut down partially for the first time at least . Guest yeah. Im not sure fully reflects all that. It reflected in part because we saw a pittsburgh gain in june. We saw a much bigger gain in june. So the july numbers, july slow down does reflected it in part. Only in part. I think we need to be very caution here. With the virus continuing to be a problem. And infections at a very high rate. And the potential for states, other states having to pull back on their reopenings. Pausing their reopenings. Its going to be slow go for a while. Host we have been talking to our callers this morning about the pandemic relief discussions going on. In congress and asking them their message to congress. Specifically on that 600 enhanced benefit, whats your message, mark zandi, is that too much . Not enough . How long should it be extended . Guest give me a week, i would keep it at 600 a week. At least until unemployment is firmly below that 10 threshold. Being under 10 we are deep in crisis. I think the folks that are unemployed are really struggling. There arent a lot of job openings. There are some concerns about that being disconsecutive to go back to work. Its 600 is a significant amount of money for many of those workers in some parts of the country. But theres very little theres anecdotes. Im sure you can find cases of people not going back to work because of u. I. Those are anecdotes. There is no evidence and the studies are starting to come out that do a careful look at this question are not finding any of the significant disconsecutive effects. At this point i would keep it at 600 bucks. It depends on what Else Congress and the Administration Come up with. If they can come up with other support for these folks. Then we can scale it back and they can get the help in other ways. It does depend on the package of things that lawmakers come up with here. Host on the enhanced and unemployment benefit in particular, seeing one of your moodys analytics charts in the wall street journal, the effect on the gross domestic products if the enhanced benefit is increased, and that effect on the gross g. D. P. Is obviously more as that number is increased, enhanced benefit sin creased, according to that chart. What other areas of the economy are you concerned about in terms of its effect on g. D. P. And future growth in the u. S. . Has well, the pandemic really bifurcated the economy. We have several industries that got completely hammered here. They are obvious. The leisure hospitality, restaurant industries, retailing, particularly brick and mortar, particularly small brick and mortar retailers. Anybody that has anything to do with recreational activities, movie theaters. The Transportation Airline industry. They got hit really, really hard. And the problem is a lot of those jobs probably arent coming back. Business models are going to shift here. Those folks are going to have to move to different parts of the country. Get retrained, reeducate, hopefully get help from lawmakers to do that. So its going to be difficult to get those workers back. The other part of the economy that didnt get directly hit, financial services, and professional services, highend jobs that employ a lot of higher educated skill workers, those industries have navigated through pretty well so far. They have not had to lay off. Those workers are doing just fine. We have really two economies here. Unfortunately, the economy that got hit hard by the pandemic its going to be a struggle. Host our phone lines are divided regionally. 2027488000 in the eastern and central time zones. 2027488001, mount yanch pacific. For those whose job has been affected, impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, if you lost your job or had to change jobs, 2027488002. Our guest, mark standy, chief economist for moodys analytics. You were quoted in the New York Times a while ago that the jobs market is not going to get kicked into hire gear until there is a vaccine. Elaborate on that a little. Guest i think its going to be very difficult for the economy to get back to full swing until we have an effective vaccine thats widely distributed and adopted for a range of reasons. Ill give you two. The first is consumers. You and i, baby boomers, folks like me in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, and obviously nervous about the health risk posed by the virus. They are not going to do the things they had done typically. They are not going to travel as much. Eat out at restaurants. Go to movies. Go to concerts. They are just not going to be able to spend, want to spend. They are going to shelter in place more. Thats a big weight on economic growth. Just to give you a sense of that, boomers, that 50s, 60s, and 70yearolds, they account for almost half of the spending done in the United States. Thats a big cohort. Second reason, is businesses themselves. Businesspeople by nature are cautious and they are not going to take any big risk or chance if given the uncertainties here. They may not lay off workers, but its unlikely that a business is going to make a big Expansion Plan to go out and invest and higher aggressively because they dont hire aggressively because they dont know how this will play out and take a lot of risk. Given those two things, and other factors, its hard to see the economy really getting into its groove until we are on the other side of the pandemic. Until we have that vaccine thats widely adopted. Host a news story perhaps earlier this week about new york sit iy and the mayor saying that without additional funding in the next several months theyll have to lay off some 2,200 new york city employees. Other cities and states and localities having similar issues. How important is it in this next round of pandemic relief that state and local funding be added to that package . What do you think that level should be, at least for the short term . Guest critical. I think its absolutely critical. The state and local governments get some support from lawmakers in this round of the fiscal rescue. State and local governments acrosscountry, whether you are a d state or r state, they are hemorrhaging red ink. They have no choice because they cant borrow to fill that budget hole. They have no choice but to cut payrolls, cut jobs, and cut programs. Think about the jobs that are being put here. These are teachers, fire, police, emergency responders, health care workers. The kinds of folks that we need at any time, but clearly in a crisis like this they are absolutely essential. These are paying jobs. The average wage for state and local government worker across the country is 65,000 a year. Thats right down the middle of the income distribute shufpblet these are very key middle distribution. These are very key middle class americans. We are going to lose hups of thousands if not millions of those workers if state and local governments dont get help. How much . By my calculation they will need close to 500 billion, this is both state and local governments, to fill the budget hole that they will face over the next their next two fiscal years which would take us through june of 2022. I dont know lawmakers need to fill that it would be nice. If i were king for a day i would fill that budget hole now. It would be nice if they did. But a compromise might be Something Like half that so it covers the budget hole through the end of their current fiscal year, which is next june. That would be very, very helpful. Absolutely critical to the economy. Host one quick question before we get to callers. Headline the philadelphia enquirer says moodys mark zandi says u. S. Needs to spend big and fast to avoid falling back into recession. So counter that with the number we see on the u. S. Debt clock, the current u. S. Debt, 26 trillion and counting, which is the bigger threat . Not spending big and fast, as you say . Or 26 trillion number . Guest yeah, unfortunately, they are both a threat. The most immediate threat, the one thats right on top of us now is the crisis and the impact its having on our economy. So we dont really have a choice here. We have to be very aggressive in providing support to the economy through the Unemployment Insurance and help the state and local governments and more Paycheck Protection Program money for Small Businesses and all the things that congress and the administration are now debating to keep the economy from going back into recession. If the economy goes back into recession, unemployment goes up as opposed to down, our fiscal problems will be worse. Well have even more red ink. Bigger deficit. And debt load. That means less people are working. Less tax revenue. More people are unemployed, need more help. Its a socalled hobsons choice. There is no good choice. The least bad choice at this point is to be aggressive. Go big, get this economy moving. Get it through this pandemic. Try to get us back to full employment as fast as possible. On the other side of this pandemic, as the economists say, there is no free lunch. We are going to have our fiscal problems. Our debt load will be higher. Theres no way around it. Well have to really focus on becoming more fiscally disciplined. I wouldnt make make that my top priority 2348 we are back to full employment or close. Until we get that Unemployment Rate down below 5 . We are at 10. 2 . We have a long way to go here. Once we are there, once we are back to full employment. I do think we need to really think about how are we going to rein in Government Spending and how are we going to raise taxes to fill the budget holes that we have and get that debt load down. Host lets hear from our callers. First from sheri in davenport, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you today . Host fine, thanks. Caller comment on the state and local governments that need help. If our government hadnt gotten us so badly into this pandemic to start with by not acting when they should have, these state and local people wouldnt have this problem. Because the pandemic would not be as bad. And also on the outlooks for the unemployment, i would like to see the senate go without pay for as long as these people have gone and have people, the government say, we cant help you. I mean, they have to start looking at it from the little guys point of view instead of all these rich people that say, they dont need money. There are a lot of people out there that are hurting very badly. And what 600 at this point in our country . 600 a week to help these people pay their rent, their utilities. It just doesnt make any sense. I dont as a normal human being, doesnt anybody have any sense of cant even think of the word. Of helping out people. I just cant understand it. Host ok, sheri. Guest yeah. Youre right, sheri. I think if we as a nation handled the pandemic better, managed the Health Care Crisis better, much like what the europeans have done and many Asian Countries have done, we would be in a different spot. Our economy would be doing much better. Unemployment would be lower. The fiscal situation not as dire. Including for state and local governments. There is no doubt about that. We did not do a good job to manage the Health Care Crisis. At least certainly compared to many other most other if not all the other developed economies across the globe. Youre saab lutely right about that. Here we are. This is the hand that we now have. So with that, i do think it is very important that we that the federal lawmakers, congress and administration, provide that support to the state and local governments so that they can provide those essential services and ensure that there arent mass job loss of those critical workers that we need in this time of crisis. Go ahead. Sheris second point. Im sympathetic to that argument. There is costs and benefits of any policy action you take. But in the current context with doubledigit unemployment, an economy thats really struggling, pandemic in still full swing, seems to me that you would want to err on the side of helping even more than is necessary. I would err on that side. I would reinstitute the 600 per week plus up on Unemployment Insurance through the remainder of the year until we are own the other side of the pandemic, hopefully. And the crisis is abating. Then we can start worrying about some of the other costs of that kind of policy. Right now at this point, in the middle of a crycy, a pandemic thats raging, im sympathetic to what youre saying. Host daring next. Louisiana. Darell is next. Louisiana. Caller i work at a call center where we are doing the most social distancing as possible with the current regulations. Yet my call is in regard to the members that we serve. Our members indicate that they need extensions and Payment Options due to the hardships of covid19. These are heartfelt messages that show the disparities during this crisis are a national disaster. I feel that the only way well overcome this pandemic is if we Work Together like our efforts in world war ii 1. To that i say yes, we world war i. To that i say yes, we can. Guest great sentiments. Totally agreement the lawmakers in previous fiscal rescue packages, the cares act passed back in march, that was the first major rescue package, they did provide fore forbearance for people with Mortgage Loans. First Mortgage Loans that are guaranteed by government backed institutions. Fannie mae, freddie mac, v. H. A. , v. A. , usda. Those institutions account for almost 70 , 75 of all Mortgage Loans outstanding. Many homeowners have the option to get that forbearance up to a year. And many have. If you look at the data, 8 , 9 of all First Mortgage borrowers now are getting forbearance. Meaning they dont have to make their mortgage payment at the current time. They can wait until they are out from under from the covid19. Student thrown borrowers got some forbearance as part of the bears act. That does expire i believe at the end of september unless lawmakers get it together here and pass that next fiscal rescue package and extend that. Even banks, the private creditors, Financial Institutions, unrelated to the government, have provided accommodations to different borrowers because they do need help. People have gotten some help here. Youre right. They need more. And as long as unemployment is, again, in the double digits, i think we need to be very aggressive here and continue to provide a lot of support to these hardpressed households. Host last month you coauthored an opinion business at cnn business. The headline of which says to sambt u. S. Economy we need to save jobs. This program could do that. You were writing about advocating an Employee Retention program. How do those work . Was that included in any of the relief passed so far . Guest an Employee Retention tax credit. Your business, all businesses, all sizes, microbusinesses to larger businesses, if they have suffered a significant decline in their revenue because of the crisis, then they get a refundable tax credit if that money is used the money to support their payrolls, to pay their workers, to keep them on payroll. There is an Employee Retention tax credit as part of the cares act, but it was the eligibility requirements were very stringent. So the take up on that by businesses was relatively small. What i was advocating with a couple of other colleagues in that oped was to expand that Employee Retention tax credit out to make it more effective and allow more businesses to take advantage of it and keep more workers on payroll as opposed to going on Unemployment Insurance. To keep them off. His is a very effective policy overseas. Europeans in particular, countries like germany and france and the british, Asian Countries have used this very effectively. They kept their Unemployment Rates much, much lower than ours. If you look at the british Unemployment Rate, for example, its Something Like 6 to 7 . Ours is over 10 . That economy was hit harder than ours. Our g. D. P. Has been crushed, but theirs was crushed more. They were able through these programs to keep people off of the unemployment rolls. That was helped to smooth things out. Helped people out during this very difficult time. There are some efforts in the current fiscal rescue debate, negotiations between congress antiadd m. , but its not at the totcht agenda, unfortunately. From my perspective. There are a lot of things lawmakers need to get done and done quickly. Its understandable. I keep saying if i were king, i would be focused more on that because i think that would be a very effective way to help people. It would address these concerns we have about the Unemployment Insurance program and getting people on u. I. It would address the problems that we have had with the Paycheck Protection Program, which is getting money to Small Businesses. It addressed a lot of the issues that we have had with the programs that have already put in place. Unfortunately its kind of at the bottom of the list things they are negotiating right now. Host online for thofse you who have had an effect the pandemic your job. 23027488002. In washington, d. C. , joanne, good morning. Caller good morning. I want to speak to the unemployment support. I would like to recommend it be a permanent fix. For the federal government to support this. Whether its a pandemic or not. Im a fulltime, then furlough, now im parttime. Which is 20 hours. Dont qualify for the state unemployment. Dont get the 600. Its still a challenge to pay bills. I would recommend yeah, unemployment be permanently 6 o to 70 of ones u. S. Salary. A permanent safety net. Germany doing Something Like this. With or without pandemic, if you your employer has financial difficulties, through no fault of your own, you get laid off and youre trying to survive with a couple hundred dollars, thats difficult. I would just like to say how about a permanent safety net with enough to live on . Host mark zandi, your thoughts . Guest the u. I. Program, Unemployment Insurance Program Needs a real overhaul. It was put in place in the great depression. And really is not undergone any significant reforms since then. There is a lot of good ideas and approaches to improving that safety net. You mentioned germany, they have whats called a work share program, employment insurance program, where instead of adding to get laid off to get the u. I. , a business can cut peoples hours across their entire business, keep them on payroll, deep people working, those people still get u. I. As part of the cares act that reform was partially implemented. We are moving in that direction. I agree, that would be an example of something that would be very effective and very helpful. Theres other many other proposals. Research has been done to think about how to make the program work in a more effective way. One other issue with the program is, obviously its implemented at a state level, and every single state has a different level of benefits they provide. And the quality of the institutions, the government institutions, State Government institution that is implement the program, the u. I. Program, some states are really good at getting those u. I. Checks out. They are efficient. Some states are not so much. Not very good at all. I do think it would be helpful if we spend some time, energy, and rear source to upgrade those systems and make it more uniform across the country to make it more of a safety net for households. I agree. Thats a program that really needs a good hard look. Unfortunately we have never been able to generate the political will necessary to do that. Host how effective do you think the Paycheck Protection Program has been . Tomorrows the last day that business can apply for part of that. At least 60 of the proceeds from those loans has to be applied to payroll in order for those loans to be forgivable. Has it been a success . Guest its been ok. I dont want to be too critical because lawmakers had to act very quickly back in march when things were falling apart. Completely falling apart. Had to get something done. You have to give them credit for get being getting for getting it together as well as they did. The program has been ok. Lawmakers deserve credit for that. But here we are now, i think we ve had time to see how effective its been. And i think we should make some changes, some adjustments. That goes back to the Employee Retention tax credit i talked about. That would be a better approach to entrusting this issue. Its been ok. Give you a number. There is a lot of debate around this and well see a lot of studies come out as we get more information, more data, people have time to look at the program carefully. By my calculation the program at its peak benefit, back in june, mid june, it was responsible for about 1. 3 million jobs. Which thats a lot of jobs. Thats great. But remember we lost 22 million jobs in march and april. We are still down 13 million jobs. Ok. But certainly at this point we probably can do better than that. Host back to calls. Santa fe, new mexico. Tony. Caller good morning. I got so many issues. First, how can whats the endgame of this . Its the economy, stupid. Who gets to drink the last drop of clean water . Eat the last morsel of real food or breathe the last breath of fresh air . Because thats where we are going. Its never an economybaseed with you cant have an economy without an environment. Somebodys up there making some money. Stock markets going real goofment are they just shuffling the money around . All their profits around . If you want to have an American Flag flying in your company, you better start investing in our country, provide p. P. E. If you want kids to go to school, if you want workers to go to work. None of this liability that mcconnell wants. Of course its not hard to understand washington. We got a confederate presidency that likes praises Abraham Lincoln but supports the onfederate flag. Coconspirators that shot the president. Host let you go there. Quick check of the markets this morning. Mark zandi, cr nbcs headline, slips 100 points as u. S. China tensions and stimulus uncertainty offseds strong jobs report. To tonys point, why has the stock market continued to do well during the pandemic . Guest a few things. One, the most obvious is the Federal Reserve has been very addressive in supporting very aggressive in supporting the economy. Lowering the Interest Rates to zero. Buying longterm bonds, to get longterm Interest Rates down. Setting up various socalled Credit Facilities to allow banks and other Financial Institutions to continue to provide credit to businesses and consumers. That support is a backstop to the Financial System and to investors in that system. Including those that are buying stocks. Equity. An investor in stocks feels like the fed has their back. They dont have a lot of down side. Theres still potential down side, but they dont have they have that backstop. Its not that tail risk is diminished. If you are and vestor and seeing the fed the fed is telling us. Telling everybody pointblank, they are not going to raise Interest Rates for a long time until unemployments down below 5 . Until we are back to full employment. Thats a long time down the road n that kind of world thats a good one for buying stocks. Thats driven stock prices up. Its also helped the broader Financial System and kept credit flowing and keep the economy together as best as its been kept together. The second reason is the market is really become a market for winning companies. Its not a window increasingly its less of a window on the broader economy. Its being driven, the stock markets being driven by a dozen, maybe a couple dozen companies. You know the names. Amazon, and apple, and facebook, and netflix. These are companies that i think the top five companies, the ones i just mentioned, google to round it out. Those five account for 25 of all of the stock market valuation. Its very top heavy. Finally ill say, can i go on and on here, but finally ill say, do i think one of the i do think one of the fallouts from the designate, longer term fallouts, i dont think this is a more of a darker fallout, is that its concentrating power in the hands of a few companies. Almost in every industry. Think about retailing, for example. You see all these mom and pop smaller, even midsized retailers going bankrupt and failing. And you have these big retailers that Everybody Knows that are benefiting from that. They have a lot of market power now. Of course if you have market power, then youre probably worth more as a company. I think thats an issue that lawmakers may have to face on the other side of the pandemic. All those things are coming together to conspire to drive up the stock market. Of course the stock market is, you know, it goes up and down and all around. At the moment its up. Can easily be down. Stay tuned. Host 10 more its minutes with mark standy. U. S. House coming in for a pro forma session at 10 00. Phil in la plata, maryland. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller do you hear me . Host if you are on a speaker phone we cant hear you very well. Can you pick that up . Caller my question for mark is if the democrats and republicans cannot come to an agreement, does trump have powers to do executive orders for rent protection and extend the benefits, the u. I. Benefits . Host ok. Bill. Mark zandi. Guest no. I dont think so. I think if he went down that path, the president went down that path and uses executive order do these things, he would be challenged in the courts very quickly. I think he would lose. Obviously it will be a court se, and debate and can go who knows how that will actually end up. My sense of it is that he does not have the authority to do that. So he has to go through congress. Tend of the day, the constitution established three branches of government, congress is there to control the purse. Socalled pursestrings. What does government spend its money on . If President Trump went down that path he would be abrogating that responsibility congress got under the constitution. I dont think that would be legal. Again that would likely be a court case. My guess is the president is using this as kind of a negotiating gel, ploy to come to some kind of resolution here. I think he wants to come to a resolution. Purely from an economic perspective, the lawmakers need to do this. They should do this. They absolutely have to do this. It makes perfect economic sense. I think it makes political sense. The election is three months away. The last thing he wants or anybody wants to see if you are running for election is an economy thats not doing well. Thats certainly what would happen if they cant get it together and pass a piece of legislation quickly. Economic, logic, and political logic would argue they are going to get it done. I think talk around the use of executive order is an effort to push those negotiations long and come to a resolution. Host you were the Economic Advisor to john mccains campaign in 2008 in the midst of the financial crisis happening then. In the shorthand version, if you were the Economic Advisor to the joe biden campaign, what would you recommend . Guest look, i think when you have an economy that is with doubledigit unemployment, youve got 30 Million People that are unemployed and tense of other millions of people that are underemployed that are seeing hours cut and their pay cut back. Thats a lot of stress. A lot of pain and suffering. Its no good for anybody. Its no good for fiscal situation or anything else. We need to get back to full employment very, very quickly. As fast as possible. I would advise to be very aggressive. Use all of our resources. Lets get back to full employment as fast as we possibly can. Wreef got the resources to weve got the resources to do t there is never a good time do it. There is never a good time to have deficits and debt, but when Interest Rates are at zero and inflation is very low, and below the Federal Reserves 2 inflation target, this is the time, very aggressive and get those people back to work. That means all that income support we were talking about, but on the other side of the pandemic it means things like large infrastructure program, across the country. Lord knows we need better infrastructure to help everybody, every business, everybody make us more productive. Get people back to work. Particularly in parts of the country that are locked out of the success of the economy. Over recent decades. I would really be focused on trying to unlock the potential of our work force and getting people back to work. We have a lot of people that are taking care of their elderly and people and their families that need help. We can get them doing the same thing, but have them getting paid for it. The socalled cares jobs. Those are the kinds of things i would be focused on. But bottom line, we need to get back to full employment as fast as possible. Otherwise we are going to have large economic problems and a lot of significant social ills as well. Host hear from bloomington, indiana. Good morning. Caller thank you for cspan. Thank you for taking my call. I think one of the problems is theres no oversight on the last cares act they passed because the president came out at the very end, they had it planned to have oversight, and know who gets the money, but the president said no. I just think that i keep hearing people say that people wont go back to work because they are getting so much more money than they were working. Well, the truth is, once you are offered your job back, that discontinues, i believe. That is a question to you. And somebody else took one of the questions about the president signing executive order. And also that mcconnell and a lot of the senators just dont seem to care. They passed a tax bill a couple years ago for themselves. Of top 1 got trillions dollarserer rp i dont understand why i understand they just dont care. They dont want to help the American People and help our economy. Host just to your point on the oversight. Well be covering shortly the Congressional Oversight Commission just after 10 00 this morning meeting on capitol hill to review some of the spending lending thats going. 10 00 a. M. Right after the house pro forma. Mark zandi, do you want to respond . Guest i do think she has a point about the oversight. There are mechanisms for oversight in the various pieces of legislation. You mentioned the oversight committee. I do think those are ernest people, both on the republican and democratic side. My understanding they are working well together. It may take longer than anybody would like, but ultimately i think they will provide the kind of oversight thats necessary to ensure that we do a Fair Assessment of how effective we were in addressing the pandemic and help us design better policy going forward. I think all lawmakers are they are well intentioned. I do think they want to help the American People. They have different perspectives on things and different approaches. Everyone comes to the world from a different prism. That affects the way they think about things. We need to respect that and work through that. I think at the end of the day that leads to better outcomes. Im going to butcher this a little bit, bill, there was a Winston Churchill quote that said americans they try everything, and then they ultimately do the right thing. Thats how i feel whats going on here. We try everything. But we will ultimately do the right thing. Its part because we have these debates and these conflicts and we battle it out. And the result is we get a better piece of legislation. I any there is a therapeutic dimension to this. Having said that, lets get the battle over here and pass a piece of legislation. Lord knows the economy needs it and we all need it. I think they will. We should give our lawmakers credit. Host one quick call here before the house comes in for the brief session. Doug in wilmington, delaware. Caller yes. Thanks for taking my call. A couple points id like to make. In reference to the stimulus package that congress is trying most of ut a deal, these democratic states have mismanaged mostly all their budgets over a number of years. D now ms. Pelosi wants the government to bail them out. I can understand that they get stayed aid for emergency services, fire, police, and all the necessary services. But to bail out these people out for mismanaging their economies over the number of years is ridiculous. Host short time here. Mark zandi, final thoughts on his comments. Guest yeah. I dont agree. If you look, and i have looked, the budget situation actually coming into the pandemic across states was uniformly good. There were a handful of states, some r states and d states were in more difficult situations. Didnt manage things well. For the vast majority of states, they did a very good job. They had big rainy day funds coming into this. No, i think the problem with state and local governments are facing is economical in terms of political party. Host mark zandi, chief economist with moodys analytics. Thanks again. Guest thanks for having meefment host that will do it for the program this morning. Washington journal returns tomorrow morning, 7 00 a. M. Eastern as we are every day. Hope you have a great weekend. The u. S. House coming in next for a brief pro forma session. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]