Welcome to matter of fact. Deficit hawk is a political term you dont hear a lot these days. Its political slang for people particularly politicians who want to cut our deficit and our debt. Between the money the rn kes and the money it spends. If the government spends more than it collects, then its running a deficit. The federal debt is the running total of the accumulated deficits. And the gop once had a lock on the term. President trump campaigned on reducing the deficit and debt. And former House Speaker paul ryan of wisconsin made a career out of being a deficit hawk. Then he helped pass the president s tax cut for the wealthy. The federal deficit has soared and is on course to cross 1 trillion this year. Joelle gamble is an economist th 101. I just gave a brief description of deficit versus debt. What are people more focused on . Joelle to think about, which is more important terms of the deficit and the debt, you actually have to think about what the economy is like right now. To pay all their bills, if were not too worried about people being able to pay for education or health care, then, you know, were in a situation where wed may not need to be running deficits or have a lot of debt because the economys doing well. But if the economy is not doing well, running a deficit is not such a bad thing. It can be a sign that the government is using its power to be able to grow the economy in a way thats actually helping people. So while some deficit hawks are just always saying the deficit is a bad thing, its a bad thing, it actually ignores the fact that the deficit are actually just a way of of themes priorities stes of how it wants to run the economy. Soledad so there was a poll that was done, i think, by gallup, and it said 59 of americans said that they are better off financially today than they were a year ago. And that number is the highest polled said that they feel like next year theyll be doing even better. Thats a thats an optimistic reading. That surprised me. Does it surprise you . Joelle it doesnt surprise me when we think about the numbers that we we put out there about how the economy is going. So often, the strength of the economy as measured by the stock market. Yet less than half of americans own stock. Its measured by the unemployment number. Yet a recent Gallup Gallup poll that the Omidyar Network put out actually shows that less than half of americans think theyre actually in good jobs. And so while relative to the financial crisis, people may be doing better, the reality is, you know, corporate profits are the highest theyve ever been. Meanwhile, wages are only just now picking up. And if after the financial crisis, corporations can do well right off the bat, but it takes 10 years for americans to finally feel a little bit optimistic, something is still fundamentally wrong in the economy. Soledad i want to talk a little bit about spending. Tak that money and pour it back into their companies, hire more people, pour it back into the economy, that thats what was used to justify the tax cut. That didnt happen. Joelle you can think of it this way. So tax cuts are kind of like a 9 year old who gets a little too much candy. They get a sugar high. Theres a little blip. But then you see a huge crash. Thats actually worse than what we started. And thats kind of what the tax cuts did to the economy. They gave a lot of money to people who already have a lot of money. And for a brief moment, they spent it. And then after a while, it just went back to creating more wealth for those who already have wealth. Soledad walk me through the Historical Context of the last handful of president s. What was the deficit like under clinton, under george w. Bush, under president obama and under trump . Fedel congress does, in terms of cutting and spending, we actually miss the whole picture of what was happening in the economy. Clinton presided over a boom like a true boom in the economy. And george w. Bush, instead of taking advantage of that boom and and reinvesting in things on snd things that dont actually produce returns to the economy. So wars. Right. Tax cuts that go to people who actually arent stimulating job growth in the way that they should. And so you saw the deficit grow and you saw the debt grow. Same thing under obama. The economy wasnt doing very well. Obviously, there was a great financial crisis that happened. But in that case, the you know, the recovery act actually stemmed us from going into a depression. And so the deficit there, while it was growing, it was growing because obama was essentially trying to stem stem the bleeding. To actually keep the economy from going into a complete spiral. And so, yes, it grew, but it was under different circumstances. Soledad under trump then. Joelle while you would expect the tax cuts according to this trickle down theory, to just suddenly release a huge boom in the economy, the reality is the deficits growing because were just losing revenue. Soledad joelle gamble with the Omidyar Network. Nice to have you. Thank you so much. Atoftheart a mission to make the economy for more inclusive. Gives them a place to earn a salary and live on that salary. And words of wisdom. Have dr. Martin luther king jr. Defined love. hey there im lonnie from lonnies lumber. If you need lumber wood, lonnies is better than good. We got oak, cherry, walnut, and more. And we also have the best selection of plywood clattering in the state. Hey highpitched laughter man dang woodchucks wood clattering stop chuckin that wood with geico, the savings keep on going. On car insurance. Oh. Oh, darn wha let me help. Here we go. Lift and push and push there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Hey joshie. Help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. Hey bud. Hey, pop pop so you wont get caught with wrinkles again. [woman laughs] Soledad Jackson hole, wyoming is known for its stunning natural beauty. Its a popular destination for adventurers and skiers. So much of its employment revolves around tourism. Many locals leave town in searc. 70 of people with disabilities in jackson hole are unemployed. But vertical harvest is slowly changing that. The farm opened in 2016 and now more than half of its workers are people with disabilities. In partnership with the Economic Hardship reporting project, our correspondent leone lahkhani shows us how vertical harvest provides upward mobility for people with disabilities. Leone daybreak in jackson hole, wyoming. A winter storm is brewing but mycah miller is heading to work at vertical harvest. Shes prepping for a shift in the packing room today. And shes eager to show me around. So these are your lettuces. Y tas micahs perfected since joining the farm, soon after it opened in 2016. The farms goal was to grow lettuce, microgreens and tomatoes for the community. But with one special mission in mind. We have 39 employees at vertical harvest, 19 of whom have a different ability. So they have some form of intellectual, physical or developmental disability. Leone Caroline Croft had long worked with young adults with varying abilities and found little opportunities for them beyond school. Cofounder nona yehia decided she wanted to create a vertical farm. Growing different kinds of crops also accommodates different kinds of abilities. So weve been able to pair that individual with the job and the job to the individual. So growing lettuce, its something that you do over and over the same thing. And so its really well suited to people who really like to be able to concentrate on what theyre doing and be able to really be perfectionists. Leone shes finished sorting the leaves and onto packing them. Elsewhere, pruning and planting. Before, few had prospects of any kind of career, much less in a stateoftheart farm. I used to be a housekeeper. I had to fold towels. I even had to water the plants every morning. I got sick of it, so i quit and applied for work here. Leone and he hasnt looked back since. Johnny started as a trainee, but now manages other employees and even conducts tours of the farm. How is it going . Leone what are you up to . Sunflowers. Leone this is a hydroponic farm. Plants grow without soil through nutrients dissolved in the water. It is cutting edge technology, which means th e ilfarming. Its such a nascent industry that there arent many people our employees will be our teachers of tomorrow. Leone it is about midday and finally theres a break in the weather. This winter has been brutal, but it is far too cold here much of the year to grow anything on this land. Which is why one of the goals was to grow food more regularly. And they do. 365 days a year despite this climate. Ty has been part of this farm since its inception. His training was customized for his needs. His father says there a structure in place with lawyers of support. It is a skill Building System and also allows ty to move at his pace. Ty will not learn on the first 10 tries. It might take him 10 times0 o wm here. Leone a system, bill says, that gives ty independence. This gives him a place to earn a salary and live on that salary. Leone they dont take that for granted. It is hard to show up for work in a bad mood because i spilled my coffee when im watching kyle, who just walked half a mile to get here with a smile on his face. Leone with determination on her face, micahs shift is coming to an end. But the staff here are ever ready to keep on going. Because as johnny says, plants never stop growing. Leone lahkhani, matteroffact, in jackson hole, wyoming. When we come back, meet the Woman Working to stop the spread of misconceptions about the census. Zee one of those things that will not be on the form is the Citizenship Question. But is the damage already done . Plus soledad tom steyer listen, every democrat running for president is better than the criminal in the white house. We all have progressive plans to address the big challenges facing our country. What makes me different, is ive been working for ten years outside of washington, to end the corporate takeover of our democracy, and to return power to the american people. I started need to impeach to hold this lawless president accountable. Im proposing big reforms like term limits. A national referendum. And ending corporate money in politics. As president , ill declare Climate Change an emergency on day 1. And, use those powers to finally address the climate crisis. And, ive spent 30 years building a Successful International business. So,p on the economy and beat him. Im tom steyer and i approve this message because there is nothing more powerful than the unified voice of the american people. Soledad welcome back to matter of fact. Back in 2018, the Trump Administration wanted to include a Citizenship Question on the 2020 census. The courts blocked that move. And despite the fact that question is not appearing on the senses, a new poll shows 73 percent of latinos think the Trump Administration will use the census against them or their family. The federal government conducts the census every 10 years to determine how many people live in the united states. The survey asks how many people live in your house, their ages, race, gender the population count determines how many representatives each state gets in congress for the next decade as well as how much federal funding communities receive for roads, schools, housing and social programs. Lizette escobedo, the National Census director for naleo, the National Association of latino elected officials. She is in los angeles this morning. Its so nice to have you. Thank you for being with me. Is it overt y to everybody but maybe latinos census Citizenship Question does not exist on the census in 2020 . Leone well, one of the things that we learned from our study is that about 50 percent of the latinos that we surveyed actually thought that the Citizenship Question was still on. So one of the things that we learned is that we have a lot of work to do and this is across the board, not just with immigrants or noncitizens, but also with latino citizens and Latino Millennials specifically. Soledad what do you do in the trainings . How do you train people to deal with people who might say, listen, im not going to answer the census because i am concerned maybe not for myself, but for family members who might documented. And this could open a whole world of trouble for them. Leone absolutely. So one of the things that weve been doing is we have this comprehensive ambassador training that weve been taking across the country. And one of the things that we instruct the leaders in our community to do is, one, understanding that them as Community Based organizations. And latino organizations. They are one of the trusted messengers on this issue. Two, making sure that they inform the community what will be on the form and what will not be on the form. And one of those things that will not be on the forum is the Citizenship Question. Soledad what was the level of participation back in 2010, the last time the census was done . Lizette we had a low self Response Rate and a low nonResponse Rate. Although it was low, our communities did make themselves count. This is when we learned that there were 50 million latinos in the country and this is where we had an opportunity to gain seats in congress, in particular states that had growth of latinos. And this is an opportunity that we had to get the funding that we needed for our communities. However, it should be noted that in every census, hard to count communities or hardtoreach communities, specifically latino communities have never been accurately counted. So every time that we have a census, its kind of adding up the undercount of every 10 years. So we have to make sure that the other thing that we talk about less in terms of an undercount is also getting a clear picture of how many latinos are in this country. We learned in 2010 that we are no longer a minority group. We are the second largest population in the country. And so making sure that all of us are unafraid and come out and say we live here, we will be counted here is absolutely important and critical now more than ever. Soledad this is the first time that you can complete the census information on an app. Do you have concerns with that . Peonrned aboutre going back to giving out information. Sometimes i think an app can either make those fears even greater or kind of rule out people who might not be particularly technologically savvy from even tackling that in the first place. Lizette yes, so the folks will have the opportunity to fill it out online for the first time. At the census is not an online only census. While folks will have the opportunity to fill it out online, initially, they will continue to get mailings reminding them to fill it out online. If they still dont fill it out online, in one of the mailings, they will get a printed form that they can fill out and mail back in. If they dont want to fill it out in print and they dont want to for let out online and they feel safer filling out on the phone, they will have that opportunity as well. Soledad when did the census become politicized . I mean, this is the first time that i remember. But maybe im misremembering it that the census sort of became a political football. Lizette exactly. The census became politicized when the Trump Administration decided that they wanted to add the Citizenship Question. However, the census is not really a political issue. Its an issue about communities having the resources that they need. Its about making sure that we all count, because if theres an undercount of latinos, theres an undercount of every Single Community in the country, because were everywhere. Its 50 million of us, if not more. Soledad Lizette Escobedo is handling the census for naleo. Its so nice to have you. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Coming up next, a mysterious dropping in the temperature. Not outside, but in your body. Is this the new normal . Sodad now to a weekly feature we like to call were paying attention even if youre too busy. Youre not as hot as you think you are. Stanford University Researchers found the average human body temperature has dropped since the early 19th century. Most of us grew up learning our normal temperature is 98. 6 degrees, which was estab modern studies have found that our temperature is around 97. 9 degrees. So whats causing us to become cooler . Scientists point to the changes in our environment over the past 200 years. We use less energy because of modern medicines improvements to treat inflammatory conditions like tuberculosis, syphillis, and dysentery. That means the body is freed from heating up to fight off disease. The goal isnt to find another universal normal temperature for everyone. Scientists want more personalized temperature readings that take into account a persons height, weight, age, time of day, and the temperature outside. Next, message from the past resonates in the present. Dr. Martin luther king jr. Explains the meaning of love in a rare note. My skin is dry. Its always been dry. Ive tried everything. The 200 creams, the 400 creams. But, this jar works for me. And soft and silky and hydrated. Incredible. I love it. Im busy phillips and my skin is confident i can face anything with my olay. And my latest beauty secret. For bright, smooth skin. Olay regenerist cream cleanser. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Solend finally, an artifact celebrating a civil righ iittenote by the reverend dr. Martin luther king jr. Is priced at 42,000. According to the memorabilia company, moments in time, the note is believed to be from the mid1960s. It was authenticated by comparing it to other samples of kings handwriting. The note was written, apparently, after someone asked him to define the meaning of love. King responded, quote, love is the greatest force in the universe. It is the heartbeat of the moral cosmos. He who loves is a participant in the being of god. The sellers say other than inscriptions in typed letters and books, finding a handwritten note by dr. King is rare. And the message, they say, encapsulates the philosophy of kings life, which is why its so important. Matter of fact. We will see you back here next week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] robert handa hello, and welcome to Asian Pacific america. Im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area and cozi tv. We start off with a very important weekend coming up in the bay area, a time to remember a turning point in americas history that is still relevant today. Films of remembrance, the annual showcase for films commemorating the japaneseamerican internment during world war ii has showings in San Francisco and san jose. Joining us will be the driving force behind films of remembrance and an awardwinning filmmaker. Then Something Different from our usual spotlight on artistic and cultural performances, a magic show with magician daniel chan. Hell show us some of his magic skills and talk about how an asianamerican got into such an unusual profession. And we wrap up with a story about e