That is the change that were bringing about. When they introduce the 50 p they lost 7 billion pounds in tax revenue. Order. Youve been watching prime ministers questions from the british house of commons. It airs when live on cspan2 when the house of commons is in session. Watch any time at cspan. Org where you will find video of past prime ministers questions and other British Affairs programs. Next, Actress Ashley Judd talks about womens reproductive rights. Next a look at automatic spending cuts and then a discussion on the proposed merger between American Airlines and usair ways. After that a hearing on jobs and the u. S. Economy. You find washington and Silicon Valley are on two different planets . I think that is fair to say. I think the thais are getting closer. There is a lot more interaction than there was before puree good in many ways the folks in Silicon Valley did not care there was before. In many ways the folks in Silicon Valley did not care what was happening in washington. Follow the Technology Columnist as he tours the Consumer Electronics show monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan 2. Now discussion about politics and public debate surrounding automatic spending cuts. This is about 45 minutes. Welcome to our sunday round table. We want to welcome will. He is serving as deputy editor. His political reporter. Thank you both for being with us. Thanks for having us. We were asking how you would define the sequestration. Meh. I am going to go with unnecessary. It is difficult to predict at this point of time. At the same time, it was designed to force congress to act, and congress has not acted. We are facing 1. 4 trillion dollars in cuts, and they are indiscriminate. They are not targeted, and that is completely unnecessary. Here are some of the words and phrases on a gallup poll. Not surprising failure, ok, expected, scary. The larger the word, the more often it was used. Disappointed, good, disaster, and bad. There seems to be a lot of negativity. I would like to know who says excellent. As the person truly understand what is behind this . This report is as the cuts will achieve the deficit goals set over the next decade, but it is too high, but it did not result in a grand bargain, but the president and congress agreed to. These cuts, we are going to see how severe they turn out to be in the next coming months. It is roughly a 2 cut from rising spending, so it is not exactly a real cut. I think we are going to see various gimmicks from government agencies. It could be washington for a few days. How severe this is going to be . I think that is an open question for a lot of people. This is a cartoon. It is one issue a lot of people have been talking about. It is the president in the oval office. Call 911. He is going to die. One aide says, it is just a paper cut. The other says, i think it is exaggerating. The sequester has gone to his head. Theres a lot of attention. The white house has been sounding the alarm for several weeks. You saw the president essentially campaign about it. He was warning about the consequences. Over the weekend and on friday i would not say they are walking into five. They were trying to say the impact would be more gradual and not a media because everyone poked fun and said the white house and Obama Administration made it seem the sky was going to fall on montforts on march 1. There were predictions for job losses. There were a lot of concerns over job losses, and these cuts were across the board, so you cannot differentiate between high priority and low priority and which ones have funding and you cannot differentiate between those the current trend and those but could not afford to be trimmed. One of the viewer says, why didnt the president take the opportunity to target the cuts when he was given the chance . That is criticism that he has trouble answering right now. There seems to be a distance the president has created between the problem and solving the problem. He talks a great deal about it, but it does not seem he has the same urgency in his words would imply. And when they were reporting sequestration could take months. There is no shortterm solution. It depends. The next pressing deadline is for the government, which expires on march 27. At the moment it does not look like there is an appetite to replace the sequestered. They could pair it with a temporary replacement bill, but the likelihood of the both sides coming together in the next three weeks to do it, it looks unlikely they will be able to achieve that. We could see this drag out into the summer. We could see debt ceiling negotiations. It is worth pointing out a pass the debt ceiling extension, so the discussion will start again in may. We could see this prolonged into the summer. But as when the effects will be felt more. The administration is not helping people are going to suffer, but in terms of matching the concert sequences rigid the consequences, they are hoping as people start to feel pressure, the republicans will come to the table. Why isnt john boehner being held accountable for rejecting 400 billion in entitlement cuts the president put on the table . One thing about sequestration is the fact that entitlements go essentially untouched, and it seems to have been the consensus in washington that we need serious entitlement reform. I think the question from the speakers office, the report should be Something Like these are not serious cuts. They are reforms and entitlements like medicare that are not so dramatic that pairing wouldwith a tax increase commo not be sufficient. Lets go through some of these numbers and put them in perspective, because if you go to usdebtclock. Org, it is 16. 6 trillion dollars, so we have added significantly in the last two months to the debt. We are talking about 85 billion in budget cuts. That is only about 2 of the federal budget. We hear about the potential these cuts will have across the country through september. I think that is what the debate is about. Both sides do not like these cuts, and that is important to point out. It goes by two away when they were designed, and they were designed to be devastating. Nobody would want to see the deficit trimmed in this way. I know it is divided equally between defense and domestic spending. This impacts military readiness. You hear a lot about defense cuts and and the furloughs, and on the domestic side it is everything from nutritional assistance to other lowincome programs and rely on government spending. They do not have the funds to be trimmed. I do want to say one thing about why speaker dinner is not being held accountable when he was offered some entitlement reform. It is going back to fiscal cliff negotiations. I was curious to see if we had a reaction to the idea that the offer put forward by the white house was the one to one ratio requested in terms of revenue to spending cuts and included not just medicare and other cuts, but was unpopular with a lot of democrats. That is where there are some questions to be raised around republicans saying who is the president is not willing to compromise, and some of them say, why can we change the c. P. I. . The speaker walked away knowing he could not get the majority of his caucus behind that going towards tax increases. That is what it comes down to, the reality of politics. I think speaker brainer would have taken that deal or a deal similar to it. There is a political question of forcing something to your own body, and there is a lot of republican resistance to the tax increases. We welcome the Radio Audience as well. Rich is joining us from Virginia Beach virginia. Good morning, republican line. Caller how are you today . Guest very good. I am upset by the folks who are supposed to be representing us. I think they forgot who they represent. They seem to want to make cuts that are going to affect us, but nowhere have i heard anyone say anything about cutting their aid for other countries around the world. I did not hear countries sending money to us. However, the new secretary of state said, we need to start sending aid to other countries such as syria. I think they need to face reality. If we do not have funds to pay the taxes, maybe we need to cut back on helping other countries until we do. That is about all. Thanks for the call. I think you raise a good point. That is something to be looked at. Coming from a realpolitik stance, and in build up a real friendship that makes other countries dependent on us, which we can use as negotiation down the line. If there is somewhat a lack of accountability of where the money goes and how often the money winds up in the wrong hands. I am generally pro foreign aid. I think pros outweigh cons, but these are the kinds of cuts we need to be looking at now as we move into the future. We need a discussion to make the hard choices about what gets cut and what does not. This says the Mainstream Media continues to play the pipeline of sequestration, talking points, and the blame game. Have you seen this . I would not necessarily agree with that. I think the blame game was two sided. The republican strategy was to emphasize this was the obama s idea, theon costs ide budget act was a resolution to the debt ceiling crisis, and republicans have amended its that spending cuts must be included to extend the debt limit. In terms of the media, i think there has been scrutiny over to what extent the administration is telling the truth about what the consequences would be. You just saw the white house was pushing on how the white house could make it seem as though the sky was falling. They went after him for a briefing with arnie duncan, the education secretary, where they talked about a pink slips going out to teachers and it was found to be not entirely accurate. There is Fact Checking going out on both sides. The question the media had, we know the president s strategy. It was unchanged. It was a little more confusing for people to try to understand the republicans opposition. It seems to be no tax revenues under any circumstances. Its both sides talk about compromise, if that is the position, there will be no compromise. I do not believe that. I believe most American People see it that way. They support a combination of cuts and tax reform. It looks like they have to reach a longterm scheme. John quotes the president from a while ago. I will veto any opportunities to get rid of spending cuts. He says sequestration will not happen. That turned out not to be the case. Even in washington we can lose sight of how inefficient our congress can be. It did come to pass. This is the question of who is responsible for i have gathered it is not really a question anyone in the country really cares about. They are blaming all of the leaders. The real question is if this is going to be below by four republicans or for democrats. Low back for republicans or for democrats. Our phone lines are open. You can join us on facebook. You can send us an email or send us a tweet. To follow up on one of the questions the president received, he met with reporters. To understand this is a republican problem and not when you bear responsibility for. Give me an example of what they might do. I put forward a plan that calls for a serious spending cuts, serious entitlement reforms, goes right of the problem that is at the heart of our longterm deficit problem. I have offered negotiations around that balanced approach, and so far we have gotten rid of because of what Speaker Boehner and republicans have said. What more do you think i should do . I just want to apologize. If people have a suggestion, this is a roomful of smart folks. Your reaction to that e . Change feminin it was a little testy from the president. I think his reaction in recent weeks seems to be the media seems slightly less enamored with his strategies than they have in the past. I think it is an awkward thing to ask a member of the press what should i be doing more, but as the president rightfully pointed out, you can sit down and negotiate with congress. You can sit down with john boehner. You can talk to him. He goes around. He makes speeches. He goes on radio show and says the republicans are just about raising taxes right now. There was a deal to raise revenues, and that was made a few months ago. That was a huge moment for the Republican Party to agree to any kind of revenue raising, but right now this is the sequestration deal our representatives in Congress Worked out, and this is the one we have to live with. Two takes from the press coverage. This coverage of the flareup between bob woodward and the white house evolved into granular parsing of words and implications. She says there is pressure the white house feels when dealing with the Obama Administration, and the former white house advisor says it can backfire. Good he points out that it continues to reside in the basement along with respect for congress. There is a picture of president nixon and reference to his own enemies list during his tenure as president. This question is highlighted by the incident why bob woodward. At the same time, most people who read the email exchange concluded in no way was it a threat. They focus on the wrong side of things. The reality was this is the practice of many at the administrations, many of those prior to a. They wanted to try to explain what their perspective is or why they believe they are not representing what the story is. I do not believe any administration should be telling reporters what they should or should not right. I do not believe that was happening here. I do not believe they were being told how to record this. It is a question of the fact that it is about presenting both opinions and making sure both claims are fact check. The Obama Administration is warning about the consequences. The press is free to see if they are accurate. Do not just take the report they put in your hands. Republicans are saying the president is paying money to buy video games. As the with the government is spending money on salmon and and why would they do that is that what the government is spending money on . Why would that do that . You should not accept the administration to tell you how to do your job now. Ron is the deputy editor. Sequestration has materialized because the twoparty controls congress. Welcome back to the issue of the press in a few minutes, but lets go back to fill in florida. Good morning. Good morning, steve good morning to your guests. The word i have is misdirection of the American People. You mentioned and Woodrow Wilson earlier, and you also showed the debt clock of 16 trillion dollars. They are directly related. Bemis direction is the national debt. Where do they come from belmont they are keeping their eyes out for that. There is a great short video about conquering the spirit of debt. It is about 45 minutes. It explains how this government gets its money from a Private Banking cartel called the federal reserve. The government just spends and spends and puts us in debt and then youve got people coming home from work and half of them plugging into msnbc or Huffington Post the other half goes to fox news and yet theyre talking points and in the morning, you turn on cspan and you have a republican line and a democrat line. They just repeat what they heard the night before. I am talking to all americans right now. Wake of the heck of because the fact that we are going back and forth with each other is were all getting screwed. It is time to grow up and wake up. Thank you very much. Host let me put his point on the table. This is from Ann Mark Williams says on all these points, your thoughts guest we will see exactly where the blame winds up for sequestration once we start seeing the effects. You will see longer lines at airports as tsa workers are furloughed. In terms of where the blame goes, it is hard to say right now. It could go right or left the Republican Party is in such poor shape and there messaging is in such poor shape, there is little room for airport for president obama and the democrats. I dont think he has been handling of this process very skillfully. He has been going around the country saying doom and gloom is coming on monday and large segments of the press which are often sympathetic to president obama, are ridiculing him both in the newspapers and the opening in journals and online and on twitter. It was in the president went a little bit too far with his warnings and people were not buying i. It. Host lets go to fred joining us from pontiac, mich. , democrats line, good morning. Caller good morning, might one word would be predictable because it seems like whatever the president does, the republicans in congress will rebuff him. You can use the analogy of lucy with the football and she pulled it away from charlie brown. How many times can you offer compromise when they keep saying no. Guest if republicans effectively declared any tax revenues of the table, it is unlikely there will be any compromise in washington on any of these fiscal debates. I mentioned the deadlines earlier but the feedback from the callers and readers emphasizes the frustration with washington right now. Sequestration was probably one of the ugliest showcases of politics in terms of the blame game, so much time was spent pointing figures to determine whose idea sequestration was when the reality was everyone agreed to end the majority of them voted for and the president signed into law. Americans dont care whose idea it was. They want to see both sides come together and come up with a solution even temporarily to avert sequestration. That could have been a temporary replacement package. Perhaps the president could have met with congressional leaders. That meeting on friday that he had seemed more of a a getting together of leaders on the day a suspect sequestration. It was less than an hour. That could have been a couple of weeks ago but during these meetings, the question remains will they be able to negotiate . Speaker john boehner has been asked about the issue of tax revenues and he said no and the president has said any long term approach must be a combination of spending cuts and tax revenue. It was the republican position to close the loophole floated by ms. Brown may flooded by mitt romney floated by mitt romney. The white house strategy is to turn their words against them. Republicans want to close tax louvre locals but on not in loopholes but not in the context of sequestration. I think they can meet and discuss but if the lines in the san continue to be drawn, there might not be much point to these discussions. At least one side needs to be willing to compromise here and that is not happening. Host this is our sunday brunch with brunchsiddiqui. Sabrina siddiqui. She has worked for bloomberg and businessweek and will ron is a will rahn is a co author of the lizard king. Guest it was a satirical book based on the obama white house. Host you were on another morning program. Guest Joe Scarborough is a fantastic guy who is smart and dedicated and as one of the greatest work ethics i have ever seen. Host the you take away from that program . Guest i would say is one of the better morning programs out there on cable news today. Host lisa is joining us from pittsburgh, okla. , republican line. Caller i would like to discuss the definition of sequestration. In the dictionary it is interesting. We already cannot afford insurance and are budgets are cut for grocery and we cannot afford our utilities. You tell me where we are supposed to cut back as far as the efficiency of our government officials. You take a group of democrats, republicans, and independence and you put them in a factor in your their boss and you tell them to straighten up this department and run it right. If you walk in at the end of the week and that department is in chaos and they are pointing fingers at each other, you are going to and everyone of them pink slip. I think that is exactly what needs to be done. Guest yeah, the fact is that both sides know i saw a liberal commentator this week about this both sides are aware there is simply huge amounts of waste going on in the government. There is a lot of fat with muscle and we can cut some of that away. The fact that half of the cuts taking place right now are on the defense side none of us seem to be worried that the taliban will come and occupy washington, d. C. Or the mexican army will come across the border even though we will have to par back a great deal really says something to the fact of how much money the government uses and, in many cases, waste every day and that includes the domestic side. Going forward, it is very hard to imagine the government operating at this size for the long distant future. They are going to find the cuts and that means you have to furlough workers and eventually, you will probably have to close down certain departments and figure out a new solution to deal with medicare, whether it be trying to cure the diseases themselves or some sort of privatization scheme that people on the right have fondness for. We have reached a point where something must be done and it will have to be dramatic. Host scott bird has a new book out on Woodrow Wilson. He points out that Woodrow Wilson was the one that returned to capitol hill to deliver the state of the Union Address and even the lawmakers in his own party called it an arrogant speech and a maneuver. The essence of the story is that Woodrow Wilson traveled to capitol hill on a number of occasions to work through some of his budget and a legislative deals saying this president needs to do more of that. Guest i think the president could come to capitol hill more if he would like to or invite congressional leadership more often to the white house to hash of these things out and discuss where they could see eye to eye and where they could foresee a compromise. There has to be a point to these discussions. Cannot be an endless series of negotiations that are not really negotiations. We saw that with the fiscal cliff deal. That is the best example i have. Yes, ultimately republicans voted to raise taxes and the president did not get exactly what he wanted at the outset a bad deal. There was compromise on both sides but he and Speaker John Boehner tried to negotiate in earnest. When there is an issue of lines that have been drawn the sand that dont appear to be disappearing, i am not too sure what can come of these discussions. With 2014 around the corner, the majority of lawmakers on capitol hill are thinking about that. Republicans want their fingerprints a new tax revenues and there are democrats who would be concerned about the politics of cutting popular entitlement programs. Host this is referring to your time with Joe Scarborough guest ok, i will let joe field that one. Host the definition of sequestration this was set back in the 1980s under the grammrudman plan and has become a part of the political lexicon in 2013. Guest this goes back to how this has been designed. It is early to tell what the actual consequences will be. You do look all of these agencies who have to furlough hundreds of thousands of employees and you look at School Superintendents who say will affect special needs programs and theyre not making that up. One of the things on friday is when the irs announced it would not furlough employees until after techs season. Tax season. That is somewhat of a blow to the Obama Administration in that it is good that taxpayers will receive their refunds on time but americans will not feel the consequence of the sequestration in the time line the white house is hoping that would put pressure on republicans. Republicans look poised to take the blame for this but if the consequences do not unfold predictably, the administration will probably take more of the blame or be blamed for over hyping this. Host let me go back to the story about bob woodward and the exchange with bob henry and j kearney. Guest when youre telling jessica about the tone of that evil was respectful last night a Senior Adviser of the white house put out a tweet that compared bob woodward to an aging baseball player and the little them. And belittled him. Is that respectful . Does the white house support this . Guest there was an accusation that gene had been threatening and everyone who knows gene knows that is hard to believe. Gene has been working on these issues all his life and work 20 hours per day. The president will continue to help middleclass americans. I have enormous respect for the work that bob woodward is famous for. Many of us probably got into the business in part because we read all the president s men saw the movie or both. We have a factual disagreement that we stand by which is that the president was very clear from the beginning that he would push balance to deficit reduction. How can that be a mud and a mystery . That was his position when he signed the budget control act. The phrase moving the goalposts is not one we agree with. It is just a disagreement about the facts. Host here is a headline from a former adviser to george w. Bush what is your response . Guest from the beginning, this president has not had to do battle with the press. This is very much a nonissue. This is something we like to talk about in washington and bob woodward likes to talk about it. Maybe he was sensitive about it or just trying to sell books. I dont think we should read that much into this media tour that he is going on right now. It speaks to the relationship with the press that i think is getting a little bit colder. I think it can be related to what is going on with sequestration and the president s persistence that the sky is falling that did not seep into the consen andsus. Steep into the consensus. You dont hear the phone calls and the emails from congressional offices. This is being met with the kind of giant yawn by the american populace despite the president s attempts to gin it up. The president has a bully pulpit and a tremendous amount to move legislation like this forward. You look at what Lyndon Johnson was able to do and he was just leaving the senate in the 1957 soberride he worked people constant civil rights act. He worked people constantly. You find the guy and you find what will be a good deal or a trade that will make it happen and the president , from the beginning of his term, has seemed completely not interested in moving legislation that way. It does not like to own any of it. I think people are picking up on that and that could be a problem going down the line. Host the white house announced that he will be attending the gridiron dinner later this month but it is closed to cameras. Were joined from detroit michigan on the independent line caller thank you for receiving my call. If youre a democrat or republican, you are running for office. Once you become a senator or congressman, you become a u. S. Congressman or senator. You should be working for the people of United States. The 55,000 pound gorilla in the room is that you have an historical example. A black president in the United States. Everybody seems to be falling short of recognizing that he has been the most disrespected president in this country and it is a shame. Youve got two mines youve got a mind that is going out and youve got the new mind and we see that. Youre not reporting the fact that they would not do anything this president put forward. They have dug their heels in. We have seen a president who he vents his policy and the congress and the senate carries it out. Guest i think that is what the issues that the Obama Administration has raised several times in its defense which is that this president has faced overwhelming opposition from congress, certainly when republicans took back the majority in the house. That is one the reasons why he feels limited in terms of his ability to meet with and discuss a deal. Does that mean he should stop trying . Of course not. With sequestration, he did not reach of and try to negotiate with Speaker John Boehner. It remains to be seen that they would have been able to negotiate on the fiscal cliff. Speaker john bennett said he would no longer negotiate with the president. Speaker john boehner said he would no longer negotiate with the president but i dont know if he was serious. But point about being elected into office and now representing the people of this country and not drawing party lines, that is how everyone outside of washington sees it. Sequestration indicate playing to ones base. With the of the relationship within the republican conference, that is an area that it has hindered the possibility of a compromise. We saw a light of the tension that john boehner face from his conference during the fiscal cliff talks. Some have accused him of delaying a fiscal cliff deal for his own reelection and the called off the Hurricane Sandy relief on the last day of the 112 congress, two days before his reelection. Do you think on these fiscal issues, is there a possibility that the speaker could rally his conference over some kind of compromise . Guest i think it would be exceptionally difficult for the speaker to control his body like that. I think there is more opportunity, given the divisions within the republican caucus, for the president to take advantage of those divisions. There is a lot of splits in the big 1 10 that is the gop and big tent that is the gop and there is a lot of weakness and figuring out a basic message for the future has elude them so far the president has a fantastic opportunity to really push for pieces of legislation, ideas that he has given the weakness of the Republican Party. We are going to see if he is able to muster up the political talent and the desire to do that in the months ahead. Host host we will conclude on this point from the washington post. What are you expecting this week . Guest i would have to say that there is not going to be much different than last week. Guest this week, House Republicans are moving on a bill that would be a clean six months funding of the government. They are attaching military preparations to that to give flexibility to defense to adjust sequestration but they want to keep the top line. Will see if the president and democrats are open to that. Host thank you both for being with us. On the next washington journal, we will talk about sequestration and its effect on washington workers. Followed by a discussion on rising gas prices, oil and gas tax credits, and Climate Change proposals. Our guest is john felmy. Then a look at federal contractors and Services Affected by sequestration with Paul Reichmann reich. Live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on c span. Next, a discussion and house hearing on the proposed merger between u. S. Airways and American Airlines. Then a joint Economic Committee meeting on jobs in the u. S. Economy. Then q a with bill steigerwald. I was fascinated by her eminence, beauty remember the ladies, or you are going to be in trouble. I am paraphrasing. She warned her husband, you cannot rule without including what women want and what women have to contribute. This is 1700. Abigail adams, this monday night on cspans new history ies influence lady and image. As one of the most prolific writers of any first lady, she provides a unique window into colonial america and her relationship with john adams. Join in the conversation alive at 1 tonight at 9 00 eastern on cspan at 9 00 eastern on c span. Day think that washington and Silicon Valley are good for the planet . The ties are probably getting closer. And theres a lot more interaction these days than there was before. In many ways, folks in Silicon Valley did not really care or want to know what was happening in washington. Likewise, the folks in washington have sometimes been tone deaf to what is going on in Silicon Valley with the technology industry. Our guest tours this years Consumer Electronics show, monday night on the communicators. On wednesday, there was a house subcommittee hearing on the proposed merger between American Airlines and u. S. Airways. Well show you that right after this discussion about the merger from saturdays washington journal. Host you are looking at the main concourse at Reagan National airport here in washington, d. C. We will be showing you activity at the airport as we continue our program this morning. We will be talking about the state of u. S. Air travel. Here to talk to us about that is karen jacobs. She works for reuters and covers the Airline Industry. She comes to us live from atlanta, georgia. Good to have you here. The faa will announce on monday which airTraffic Control towers will be closed in april due to sequestration. What should travelers expects regarding how they are going to get from one place to another and how that will be affected by the sequestration . Guest the sequestration can have a disrupting affect on u. S. Air travel. The faa has said that it would be forced to furlough air Traffic Controllers, which would mean there would be flight delays. Secretary of good has mentioned previously that there could be secretary lahood has mentioned previously that there could be delays at some of the nations biggest airports like laguardia in new york. We have host we have a headline here from cnn. Com. The federal Aviation Administration has informed contractors that, lacking any lastminute agreement, the agency will move monday to close one under 68 contacted staffed 168 contractor staffed air Traffic Control towers nationwide on april 1 and another 21 towers by september 30. All of the control towers are small and mediumsized and handle 8 of all commercial Airline Traffic and considerably more business and private Airline Traffic. The cuts will not force the closure of the airports because an aircraft can land without air Traffic Control health and help and operations can be switched to other faa facilities. It will be the smaller airports that will be affected, but not necessarily ones like Reagan National airport, which we will be showing folks throughout this interview today. Guest yes. There are plans to furlough airTraffic Controllers at some of the smaller airports, which are important airports for making sure people can get from one place to another. It does not seem as if the biggest airports will see a whole lot of furloughs. It still does not mean flights will not be affected. You have to remember that the u. S. Travel network is connected. The smaller airports sea traffic into the bigger airports. Feed their traffic into the bigger airports. If you do not have Traffic Controllers seeing how tough it how flights is coming in, there is a possibility of delays. Even if you are flying into a bigger airport, you could be looking at a significant possibility of a slight delay. It is a serious issue for all travelers. Host there are also projected tsa staffing cutbacks cutbacks due to sequestration. Talk about how the cutbacks will affect going through security checks that checkpoints. Guest the Transportation Security Administration would be forced to lay off some of its employees that man there for security checkpoints. The Airport Security checkpoints. That means that you can have longer ways to go through security checkpoints, which would mean travelers need to allow much more time to get through the checkpoints to get to their airplanes. Even here in atlanta, home to the Worlds Largest airport, the airport manager said sequestration could force the closure of one of that airports five runways, which would have a significant affects on the traffic flow. Host we are talking about the state of u. S. Air travel with karen jacobs, a correspondent with reuters. She is joining us live from atlanta, georgia. If you want to join us, call 2027370002 for democrats for 2027370001 for republicans or 2026280205 for independents. You can also send us emails or tweets. One of the articles we picked up the two weeks ago written by you, karen jacobs, american to unite with u. S. Airways to create number one carrier. Airlines have leeway to increase fares. The type could be a net plus for corporate passengers, who will have to pay higher prices, but will benefit as the Biggest Airlines seek to improve their services to win more of these lucrative customers. Tell us from a consumer perspective, what can we expect regarding the creation of this new airline featuring american and u. S. Airways . Guest there are many affects for consumers. Some of them good, others might be considered not so good. One of the first is that consumers will have more choices, especially if they are flying on one of the two carriers. American passengers will have more flight choices because of the combination with the u. S. Airways network and u. S. Airways passengers will have more choices as well. The consumers might see higher fares because mergers tend to lead to higher fares. There is Government Data that shows that. Once you eliminate a competitor, it gives the carriers that are left more room to raise ticket prices. Host you mentioned more destinations as a result of this merger. Was that the key factor in bringing this merging together was there Something Else behind it . Guest there had been a move toward consolidation in the industry. Most people who watch the industry and care about the industry think it is a good thing. The industry becomes less fragmented. The industry is put on a more secure financial footing. The industry, including the americanu. S. Airways deal, we have seen that one deals since 2008, when consolidation starting with delta and northwest. This particular deal, the americanu. S. Airways deal, is one that the market has been excited about because of the possibility of combining the two networks and because it moves the industry toward better financial footing. Host our first call for karen jacobs of reuters comes from angel in plano, texas. Caller thanks for taking my call. I was listening to the caller regarding the airports and the control towers having to let go of some people. When reagan fired all of the federal controllers, the skies did not fall. Hear traffic did not come to a standstill. I travel to major airports like dsw and chicago. I saw people just standing around. They could be more efficient. Host karen jacobs, go ahead. Guest the caller seems to suggest that perhaps the potential disruptions from sequestration that have been discussed may not be as great. It is true that, should see bush sequestration be prolonged , furloughs would have more of an effect over time. If you are traveling through an airport and there are personnel that were there that are not there, that can have some significant effects on your travel. The wait times, longer waits times wait times, making sure your flight arrives on time, all of those things are at risk. Host we have some people going to the security area at Reagan National airport here in washington, d. C. We are talking about tsa and how it is going to affect the operations there. The previous caller said something about seeing a lot of folks standing around. I know it is fairly early in the morning, but it does seem there are awful lot of false can their an awful lot of folks there and not a huge crowd of passengers trying to get through the security screening. Is it possible for a seat for tsa to save money by paring back the amount of people that have early in the morning and late in the evening . Guest saturday is an offpeak day. U. K. You need to consider what your needs are at peak flight times. There could be opportunities for money to be saved simply in the timing and scheduling of people. If you make sure you have the personnel on hand at peak flight times, that is what is important. Host our next call for karen jacobs from warders from reuters comes from mike in west virginia. Caller a lot of the control tower operators are federally funded. I am sure they will have to do something. My concern is, we are having all of these cutbacks to air travel and stuff like that. I have never heard it mentioned in washington, d. C. We are cutting back on these things in the United States that are federally funded, but we are not mentioning if we are cutting that foreign aid to these foreign countries. Are we helping our own Country First to get us back on our feet. Are they going to cut any 80 aid to them . Host we are going to focus on the air travel industry. In your article, americans unite with u. S. Airways, is says that leisure travelers are likely to feel the pinch of higher fares more than business passengers. Why is that . It seems like Business People do they buy tickets at a lower price . Why would they not feel the pinch as much as leisure travelers . Guest business travelers do not buy tickets at lower prices. Business travelers are the bread and butter of the Airline Industry. Part of the hope in the americanu. S. Airways deal the two carriers have said they expect to win more corporate family. That will enable them to go after corporate travelers and some of their rivals. Delta acquired northwest in 2008. Business travelers do not pay lower fares. I do want to focus on the potential effect on leisure travelers. Laser travelers tend to look for lower fares. Leisure travelers tend to look for lower fares and might have difficulty finding them. That is not to say it when not be possible to get lower fares. They will need to have more flexibility in their planning. They will need to make sure that they are looking for their flights a month or even more out and that they are tracking flights over time. They will need to try to schedule their travel midweek rather than traveling on a sunday or a friday. There will be ways for leisure travelers to still be of a to get lower fares. However, longerterm, the fares are likely to increase. As the Airlines Continue to rationalize their flying, what we have seen in recent years is that the airlines have cut back their most unprofitable routes and they have tried to match their flying with demand. What that means is that there are seats that were super discounted. There are not as many of those seats being sold now. It does present a potential problem for leisure travelers who want the lower fares. Host next up is joe in massachusetts on our line for republicans. Go ahead, joe. Caller over the course of the last several years during the tough economic times, corporations have dealt with cuts in the labor force. It surprises me that if you let that sequestration and the percentage of total costs that we are talking about that i am hearing things the there will be interruptions in the services that appear to be minuscule cuts. I am stunned that there cannot be a program to the fact this in an efficient way. We are talking about a minor or a modest cut as a percentage of total spent. I will take my answer offline. Thank you. Guest the caller is expressing a concern that has been voiced by some people. What i can tell you it is that immediately there will not be very many disruptions. The furloughs that will have to take place will likely start taking place in april. Once that does happen, there is a possibility for an air travel disruption. We talked about how the government will be furloughing air Traffic Controllers and how that can affect how that can lead to flight delays at the airport. We mentioned that there would be furloughs of workers who do the Airport Security screening. When you think about the way our nations travel system is run, how interconnected it is, if sequestration is prolonged, there could be significant disruptions to air travel. I also want to add that the timing of this could not be worse. We are in march now. But the schools will be letting out for School Spring break. A lot of people take advantage of spring break to do some traveling. Deficiencies in his right around the corner. If sequestration is prolonged, vacation season is right around the corner. If sequestration is prolonged, we could be looking at a disruptions to air travel. Host next up this bill in pennsylvania on our line for democrats. Caller i am going to grease on the 19th. I do not want to go i am going to greece. I do not want to go. I will cry when i get there. The merger is the worst thing they ever did. Our government is getting to be like a little boy, scaring people. Every little thing. We are going to let the criminals out. We should stop doing that to the American People. They do not deserve that. The American People work hard. I am 68 years old. I work hard for my money. I came from greece and i had to work for a living. Everybody should start stop worrying and stop criticizing. And the this country is built but the most Beautiful People in the world. Host is there anything you have heard about sequestration that makes you afraid of flying in the future . Caller i will tell you something. The whole world is scary. If you are going to be scared to fly, you will be scared to drive horse here to drink. I am sorry. Host karen jacobs, go ahead. Guest the caller is facing expressing frustration about the effects of sequestration, particularly regarding air travel. That the concerns about air travel might be overblown. The fact that the government would have to cut these employees, that is something that is real. The cuts will have an effect on the services that we see. Host gregory in pennsylvania is on our line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller regarding air travel hello . Host yes, go ahead. Caller might comment about air travel has to do with the feeling my comments about air travel has to do with the feeling of deja vu. The administration is addressing redundancy of some sort that reagan addressed many years ago when he shut the air Traffic Controller situation down. The government has grown out of proportion and it is unnecessary and redundant. There is to been much confusion in the cockpit and the towers and Everything Else that grows along with air travel. Simplicity is probably a good thing. I applaud the affect of sequester on the air travel and the controllers. Can you confirm or deny my feelings on this. Thank you, maam. Guest the caller is expressing a view that sequestration will force of government to take a look at what can be cut and what cannot be cut. I think that is true and that is what we have seen happening. It is important to point out that there are services that will be cut back that would not be so good for air travelers. Host we have a tweet, session between jack hutton and American Hero joe. U. S. Airways and American Airlines officials testified before congress on tuesday. If approved, it would make the Largest Airline carrier in the country. A house subcommittee heard from the officials and antitrust law analysts. This is about 2 1 2 hours. Good morning. The judicial Judiciary Committee on antitrust regulatory reforms and Administrative Law and bankruptcy is in session. By way of introduction, this is the first hearing of the year for this subcommittee. Chairman goodlatte has given me the great honor of chairing this subcommittee. Under his jurisdiction, the Judiciary Committee has intended to examine the competitive impacts of significant transactions on the marketplace. It is a responsibility that i take very seriously from the standpoint of Consumer Choice and the functioning of free markets. Todays hearing is specifically to examine the proposed merger between American Airlines and u. S. Airways. The resulting airline with a 24 market share would be the largest of the four legacy u. S. Carriers. The department of justice will conduct a detailed review of the proposed merger. Therell be several other layers of scrutiny here in the u. S. And europe. This committee is intended to provide information to the public, not to set a policy position, although i think there will obviously each member will have independent opinions and are free to state those. The Airline Industry has been in a state of near constant change since federal deregulation in 1978. We have a marketplace in which familiar names that most of us grew up with, like panam or twa, in the southeastern republic in the south they no longer exist. They either merged, were bankrupted, or have gone out of existence. We have also seen the emergence of new carriers with different Business Models like southwest and virgin. The embrace of Electronic Technology has created Online Booking and instant Price Comparison tools that have benefited consumers by expanding choice. That is a competitive Free Enterprise system that works and is a cornerstone of our economy. However, there are questions that arise during Airline Mergers and issues that have confronted some of the murders. Mergers. Todays hearing offers an appropriate forum to address the issue that many consumers would be interested in knowing about to the extent it could be answered the potential impact on the cost of flying. Service routes are also concerned, as are the levels of service that will be offered postmerger. From a broad competitive perspective, there is the issue of Airline Market share at individual airports, the overall market share held by major carriers and the prospects of future consolidation. Our goal today is to facilitate discussion, just as consumers are served by clear and transparent pricing when they shop online for a plane ticket. So are they served by good information by comparing different points of view. We welcome all of our witnesses. We look forward to your testimony. I now recognize the Ranking Member for his opening statement. Thank you. Either one. I yield to mr. Conyers. I always yield to mr. Conyers. It is an honor to serve with mr. Conyers. He is mr. Rosa parks. I have served with him too. I would recognize him first. I think you both for your thank yo uboth you both for your generosity. We come here today looking at a very important part of the Economic System that has guided this country. Ive always worried, during the previous Airline Mergers, and without prejudging the merits of the one that brings us here today we should recall that both parties to this merger bear a high burden in demonstrating that further consolidation in the Airline Industry is warranted. One of the arguments advanced in favor of some past mergers, deltanorthwest, united continental, was the claim that there was too much capacity in the industry, which led to excessively low fares, that prevented carriers, particularly socalled legacy carriers, with their higher costs from earning a sufficient income. We ought to consider whether this is still the case. While american is in bankruptcy, it is poised to successfully reorganize with billions of dollars of cash and reduced costs as a result of reorganization. Moreover, u. S. Airways posted record profits. These facts suggest that both airlines are perfectly capable of surviving, even thriving, as standalone companies. Industry consolidation may benefit the airlines that remain by giving the power to raise fares and fees, but it comes with costs to the consumer. As has been noted, it may result in higher fares, your consumer fewer Consumer Choices, particularly in hubs and cities where two carriers overlap. In retrospective studies of the effects of deltanorthwest, unitedcontinental mergers, it suggests that, in fact, there was a big rise on some routes where the two merger partners used to compete. Given the size of the big three Legacy Airlines that would remain after the merger, it is not entirely unreasonable to suggest that they would have even greater power to tacitly agree to raise prices, thus undermining the price competition and harming consumers in the process. Indeed, if american and u. S. Airways were to merge, more than 70 and by some estimates, as high as 86 of the domestic Airline Industry would be controlled by just four airlines. I fear that the flying public will see relatively few benefits while bearing much of the cost of this potential merger. Another related issue is whether the lowcost carriers can continue to provide effective, Competitive Pressure on what would be the big three Legacy Airlines, should this merger occurred. Occur. One of the arguments i hear most often in prior Airline Consolidations is that the industry would remain very competitive after consolidation because the competition against large carriers, which were able to offer lower fares because of their lower operating costs, but of the lccs, however, only southwest is large enough to compete nationwide against the large legacy carriers. There is reason to wonder whether southwest will continue to play the traditional role of an lcc and compete on prices now that it is part of the big airline club. Finally, we must consider the impact this might have on workers at the two carriers. In stark contrast to previous Airline Mergers, the unions representing american and u. S. Airways, with the exception of the machinists, have come out in public support of this merger. The machis