Transcripts For CSPAN Washington 20240703

Host good morning it is friday, september 22. Night is left and no agreement to fund the federal government bill. They make the case for continued support and funding for congress. We are taking your calls on those issues the looming Government Shutdown and the support for ukraine. Democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001, independents 202 7488002. We have aligned set aside for current federal employees that number is 202 7488003 you can also use that same number two text us and we are also on social media at facebook and twitter. Host we start with the funding issue in the washington post. The funding plan is upended. House republicans for the second week in a row failed to move forward in legislation related to funding the government. The Government Shutdown looms next week. The status of negotiations on the shortterm funding solution and longterm appropriations legislation inclined so severely thursday that lawmakers returned home with no schedule for the rest of the week. Republicans inability to pass a funding revision since returning to washington last week including failing to start debate on a Defense Department appropriations bill is the latest embarrassment for the, Congress Whose direction is being dictated not by leaders but by a handful of governance fallouts. That is the washington post. And here is the latest on zelinskis visit. The headline is zelenskyy pleads for aid. The article starts when ukrainian president last visited washington it was the topsecret trip and his first time to leave ukraine. He received a wacom a welcome at the white house and capitol hill. Compared to Winston Churchills visit to washington in 1940 werent. 1941. The most recent visit is vastly different. Kevin mccarthy decrying declined the joint meeting of congress. He was unable to have any major breakthroughs in his military current counteroffensive against russia. And president zelenskyy was speaking in washington yesterday he gave a speech at the National Archives last night. A metal for every ukrainian inch left. Every day of this war ukrainian soldiers hold on with the grit of a bulldog. They chew and choke their russian pocket buyers russian occupiers as much as possible. Never for did russian dictatorship have such strong resistance and never again will russia managed to destroy any other nation. [applause] putins list was long just recently after ukraine half of europe again would be in danger of being in moscows sphere of influence, but american influence of Ukrainian Security and Global Freedom is working 100 , every cent. [applause] now putins list of goals is different. Instead of kicking war to america, europe, and the whole free world, where it is possible to humanize himself by personally taking litigation from others and trying to find favor with integra. This is his career weakness. Ukraine pays a high price for detaining freedom and global security. Every day, every night, our soldiers sacrificed their lives holding their ground in the trenches on the frontline. They lose their comrades in battle, they lose limbs tripping russian mines every day, every night russia continues with missiles and drones. But every day and every night our unity stay strong. You support us and we know we should move forward. Host that was president zelenskyy last night making a case for additional hunting funding. We are taking your calls about that and the possible Government Shutdown in nine days. We start with john, a democrat, good morning. Caller hello i am john. I want to do two or three quick parts out here then i will be hanging up. The republicans do not like ukraine and not supporting it because trump told them not to because he does not like the president. Because the president there wanted to dig up dirt on biden. Im a vietnam veteran. To see ukraine with the strength and stamina they have and the education they have to to fight their own war, i was in the vietnam era wrote war, i saw american troops on the ground died. They fought in the war for us. All weve got to do is give them weapons and support, truck dont like it. When trump republicans dont vote for the money, they cut it all. The speaker of the house, he does what trump says to do. All of them do because they think about trump being reelected. Let me speak about, what else do i want to speak about . President trump would like to speak about the shutdown. Well, you know that makes the economy bad. That is what trump wants. Because we suffer, our credit was down a few months ago, our credit went down, so the republicans do things to be elected. So be smart. The republicans will not, they do not want democracy, they dont like it and the idea is to turn the policy down and they are doing it everywhere they can. Thank you very much. Host lets talk to linda in california. Independent. Caller hi, there is so much to say. I will stick with what the lenski said in saying no more will russia ever destroy another nation. How can any decent person stand up there and Say Something like that after the United States destroyed iraq civilization, destroyed libya, the highest bidder and the wealthiest nation of africa and tried to destroy syria and it was the russians who went in to preserve the government of syria. It was the russians who got the case of the ukraine civil war following Victoria Nulands orchestrated pool of their elected government. It was fresh as got that civil war over to the ofce that is the organization for the security of europe. It is russia they got there and got them that agreement. They have all sides are signed and now we learn host so why do you think russia invaded last february . Caller they invaded everybody who should read putins speech of 224 2 24 22 he was going in there to stop the people from the attacks of kyiv. So you say it is justified, the war that is ongoing . Caller not the ongoing war but the initial donbas area going in there to defend the ethnic russians. Host but right now, linda, right now do you think it is still justified or that the russians should pull out and in the war . Caller the United States, russia, Everybody Needs to be at a table talking peace. United states and United Kingdom have staffed near peace agreements. Host ok. Randy republican in kentucky. Good morning. Caller good morning. And what the old lady said there , she is probably correct about the things she said only the ukrainian situation i think that we cause that invasion. Everything that history has told us is that biden wanted to do that. The United States wanted to do that, the military wanted to do that, lindsay garin Lindsey Graham wanted to do that, and warmongering they wanted to do that. I think at the beginning they should pursue peace and not antagonize the world like we always do. Also, you have the immigrants this morning they were showing that on fox news. Fox news just went blank and it stopped. They have an illegal lady on their talking and she was talking about how terrible the border crisis is at somebody i guess it is a conspiracy, i believe in all those things now. Of seen so many things but they shut fox news down this morning because they had a hispanic lady on their talking about how terrible the border crisis is and how many are coming across. Her husband used to be, probably still is a border agent. It is amazing. And also another thing i hear a lot of black people calling in i guess and you can distinguish between the races in the way they talk as far as the accent they have but i dont where to these people get their information . Just like me [indiscernible] host ok we are getting off the subject. Lets go to florida, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning how are you doing today . I wanted to mention ukraine. Dont nobody remember world war ii, we hit the runabout that he got so powerful that he it took the whole damn to stop him. And if we do the same with russia do not call me, because this is ridiculous. Are you ignorant . Have a good day. Goodbye. Host good fight goodbye. Caller good morning. You look greta, you look pregnant. Host no this is mimi. This is not greta at all. Caller well anyway they need to shoot rockets into moscow to end the war. Then the war would be over. I do not see any reason why we should be spending more money there. Joe biden got billions of dollars out of ukraine and now he is trying to repay ukrainian taxpayer money to fund the war. It was a military man i know a little bit about war and politicians in war, you will never have the in of it. Politicians have no reason to be in a war. As far as the border goes, im 150 miles from the border and we have illegals running free all over our counties. It is time to stop the border. Time to close the border. Host lets take a look at after the closeddoor meeting with the ukrainian president zelenskyy, the chair Michael Mccaul told reporters that ukraine is in need of more military assistance and the country would ultimately get it to cite despite threats. Asked what is your plan for victory . Two things, air cover with the f16s and a long range artillery. They need one that will hit crimea or the drums that are coming out. They are going with no air cover. They have to take on minds by hand at nighttime. We need to give them everything they need. If his administration will not give it to them i submit we write it in our appropriations bill and we write in what he asked for that the administration will not give that we write that in the reparations bill. [indiscernible] we all agree on this. Did he say anything about the 24,000,000,008 package and what it would mean ukraine . Of course they needed and they will get it. About the package and what it would mean for ukraine . Of course they need it. And they will get it. They need it and we will do it soon. Host we will pause on our phone calls. If youre on the line we will talk to a reporter now for a few minutes if youre on the line wait for a few minutes. We will talk to our order now. What are the main reasons republicans could not come together on a continuing resolution . This is with too many House Republicans for continuing resolution. It cannot be get past get past the floor. Theres a coalition of at least seven republicans that say they will not under any circumstances stop this. And House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy really can only do to get anything passed. With seven or eight House Republicans standing their ground saying they will not have a continuing resolution there is seemingly no way to get through. Host what is the strategy going to be for Health Leadership . Starting yesterday there were several meetings where House Republicans were closing floating a couple different ideas for how they want to keep government funded. There are several backup plans if that does not go through. As of right now, lawmakers came out of a meeting yesterday saying they want to go through all creations those separately. Have each of them come to the floor individually for votes. They say they will start with a combined group they will try to get for appropriations will on the floor together and tried to get the all rolling on that this weekend. It is not clear if they can get through all 12 for the Government Shutdown deadline which is just eight days. They may have an appropriations bill they still have 11 to go through. That means they will try to go through each one individually, send them to the senate and start negotiations from there. Host you say there is a possibility of the votes happening this weekend . The initial plan was they would have votes today and saturday but when things started to derail it yesterday and otis went out to members that it it will be essentially canceled and the number is on standby but it looks like now they will today and they have for Appropriations Bills. They look at homeland security, stateboard operations, defensive agricultural appropriations bill. That is the first combined one on the floor. It does not look like they will have a vote on that yet because so many members did go home for the weekend. They do not have a numbers to bring anything to the floor but monday we are looking at that at the earliest. Host what is the strategy of Freedom Caucus members. Are they providing alternatives as far as a stop gap funding bill or anything like that . It seems that a lot of the house and caucus members they are saying no stop gap measures. They will not report it. Then that will either be individual spending ills or have a shutdown. They been adamant about that. There have been some republican and kratz have been discussing democrat discharged and whether they will continue on the floor with work. But Freedom Caucus members do not want to continue this resolution under those circumstances. It is an interesting balance to see if they will avert a shutdown. They are ok with forcing that enforcing that if it means taking control. They see this as the only way they can have influence over congress. Host what is a likelihood of Speaker Mccarthy working with democrats to get things done . When i spoke with republicans yesterday coming out of their meeting, they said a lot of the talks included mccarthy. Basically saying that mccarthy could work with democrats if you wanted to but the minute he does that he could trigger he is it stuck in the balance where he is trying to please all corners of the caucus. He wants a plan that can unite parties but he said to do that it is unlikely to avoid a shutdown raid we only have eight days until the government has a collapse on its funding. There are a couple republicans talking to democrats to figure out a plan. Its not clear or theism of the talk. If mccarthy is not is part of this talk. Things are looking precarious in that area. Host as mccarthy said anything about the future of his speakership and the concerns he has for that . Weve been trying to talk to republicans and mccarthy about whether that is something they are focused on or in the back of their mind. A lot of them say spending is at the forefront right now area mccarthy says he is confident in his eager ship. Last week he was saying they will if youre going to vacate. Then bring it. He is already on the debt that he could get speakership. It is not clear if jim thats with him or back him. Mccarthy it seems like he is trying to keep his party in line and he is confident for now but i guess we will see how things play out. Host what are you looking at as far as the schedule for next week . There may be votes awesomely monday were likely tuesday. What is happening the rest of the week . This is still in flux. When the notice yesterday telling speaker members to be on standby for the weekend, they are supposed to be on all next week but that is still unclear. It is looking like a possible vote monday or tuesday. Hopefully there will start getting the Appropriations Bills through. Once they do get them through, if they get them through they will be sending them at numbers that are lower than what democrats want. We will start this volley back and forth between the chambers. Unless theres a backup plan somewhere for a continuing resolution the Government Shutdown deadline is looking pretty possible. Host that was washington reporter kami mondo. You can find her work at washington journal. Com. And we have your calls about the possible shutdown for of the government in nine days and we go to john in cleveland ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning i think the American People are brainwashed by the media in this country. I have developed kind of a personal search phrase called c ia controls media and movies to demonize countries for u. S. Wars and attacks against those countries. And if you just see the information that phrase will bring up. It will bring up the Church Senate committee the otis Plate Commission go curb Congressional Committee that put the cia under oath and got them to admit under oath that they had many cia propagandists psychological war for experts and journalists on the payroll of the cia to put their names on the cia written propaganda. Host how is this related to ukraine . Caller it is related because all of the media, fox, and others, all of them democrats and republicans are completely acting as vessels of the military and dust real cia complex. It started in 2014 under the Obama Administration which is now ongoing under the Biden Administration. They hold true to vicious nazi spearheaded coup and they put nazis and fascists in the power of her ration of the military and government and the parliament. They have been killing and assassinating anyone who disagrees with this dangerous escalation. Supported by the United States military industrial cia complex they could lead to a nuclear war because host quinn in maryland. Democrat. Caller yes, i am calling on the ukraine war. It is just strange to me that a lot of people seem to be grasping at a lot of complex answers for something that is quite simple. Russia invaded ukraine in 2014 and they been illegally occupying and it is condemn ive pretty much every country that is not actively working with russia. And pretending the United States is kind of inferior in power for the more and in afghanistan and iraq. Im sure theres disagreements to be have and i personally have my own about what happened in those days, and pretending that russia has never done the same thing seeing the soviet union invading afghanistan or the deals with other countries in the union rather than taking the information that russia is simply vying what atlanta will deposit resources russia lots. Edition to that, having were access to the black sea. Host the port or aid for ukraine . Caller of course. We trillions in iraq and afghanistan. We do not have blood on our hands i did not see why this is so contentious. We spent way less money than we did in other wars and we see way more success. Host all right here is another view on that. This is a republican progress moment congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene. She said defense funding should be focused on securing the southern border and not for support in ukraine. Today in washington dc we have president zelenskyy visiting the capitol and talking with leaders of washington wanting billions and billions of more dollars. For this to go to a war in ukraine defending ukraines border while at the same time washington dc is completely ignoring the invasion happening in our order. Theres been over 10,000 people invade eagle pass in the last 24 hours. This is on resident in. Our country is under attack, who is leading the attack . The mexican cartel. I am announcing on your sure show that i would like to get washington to realize who our real enemy is as American People. We have americans dying every single day from fentanyl and they are responsible for the drug tracking trafficking and Human Trafficking industry. That is the mexican cartel, not the Mexican Government or the mexican people. I am currently drafting a declaration of war against the mexican cartel. I would like to challenge anyone in washington that beats the drum of war and beats their chest about fighting russia. They wake up and realize the oath they took was to the United States and our people and to defend our borders. If they want to talk like that they should defend our country and that is what the Defense Department is all about. It is defending america, defending americans in our state. They are failing on the job poorly. Very orderly. Host that was very poorly. Host that was Marjorie Taylor greene. Yesterday and here she is on x she says this. I voted no to the defense bill because they refuse to take more money for ukraine out and in a separate bill. 71 of Republican Voters agree with me that we should stop funding a war in ukraine. Heres a post we got from i cannot believe what i am seeing. This is not with the people ordered. And a text from frank in oregon. I am a moderate conservative the who feels that supporting ukraine is vital at this time. Biden should not continue to run this failed administration. Shut down the government the fbi and impeach biden and other democrats. Aaron is calling from georgia. Republican. Good morning. Caller hey how are you doing . Host good. Caller that is good. I want to take it back to two calls with john. I believe i agree with the media that the media is lying. I do not trust the media one bit. And i also have an issue with every time something happens trumps name just brought out and i think it is by design. I think many people know if he gets in office he will will the log on that plan. With the war effort in ukraine and russia and focus more on our Mexican Border and shutting that down and stopping the it is by design, i believe the influx of people and the drugs that are chilling americans. It is an inside job to make america weaker. I think biden should be and harris should be impeached. I know its not going to happen, however i do think the war in ukraine with russia, we should just i dont think right now we should stop funding it. I wish we could. That is all i have to say. Host president zelenskyy made the argument that if the u. S. Stops funding they will lose the war. What do you think of that . Caller i dont trust that. For one thing, i dont trust that country. That country itself is a very corrupt country. That is known. That is known. He says that, but to be honest just to be honest, we have a choice either to stop the invasion of our own border or help them with their border. That is an easy fix for me. Host do you think we could do both . Caller apparently not they say we do not have the money to do both. Host got it. Michael ended in massachusetts, good morning. Caller good morning i agree with the previous colors regarding the media. They have been a war with the public that is for sure it is very obvious area and speaking of you rain, the United States of america seems to have a double policy. To me there are specifically talks about ukraine and the war day in and day out. In the United States has made use of dollars to ukraine, find, is not whether i agree with that or not. But on the other hand there is 120,000 people in and theres genocide committed as we speak. Not even one sent sit there for the country. That is not fair. This is why essay it is corrupt. They just tried to amash the people and they should it is not even one media in the United States that mentioned this and the genocide that is being committed as we speak. What is the United States of america, why does it help ukraine and give money . Why can they not help this other country with the genocide committed. That is not fair nsa this is a very bad policy. Host our atlas talked to matt next in mall area, maryland. Good matt in mount area, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning people need to do their jobs. Everybody that approves of the administration and the government and the bad part rather than the good part, what they normally do they normally approve of everything. It is not a big deal and i think they will have a shut down and i think they will get it done. The Russia Ukraine thing the last major war with seven russian guys that was through invasion with ukraine. Russia started the war because they were encroaching ukraine. It is not that hard and it did not have anything to do with us. They are giving them all their tanks and buying new ones and giving all the military and buying new ones. Spend the money at home stop going in debt. It is all about the economy and immigration. Host oh the far right House Republicans have been spending more than they agreed to in the Bipartisan Legislation this summer. The members of the house are problem solvers caucus. They issued a statement saying the group voted to endorse the temporary measure that would run through january 11 of next year. The stopgap funding to keep the light on throughout the federal government would also grant president for his new round of funding it for emergency in ukraine. Add new money for helping u. S. Communities recover from natural disasters. John is next. Republican. Good morning. Caller good morning i would like to respond to a couple callers. You keep putting this guy, d. C. Venice he is an angry person who has nothing to say. There was another call saying the war was a success but it is not a success when you will people and pollute the world. This war is polluting the ozone layer, all the bad things about pollution, this war is, my comment about the war is this. When the war first began, though oil rises went up to 120 a barrel. And biden said this increase in oil is a direct cause of the or in you rain. And then nothing, his son is on the border of burisma. An burisma oil is to be making a fortune. Oil is 95 dollars a barrel right now they must be making a fortune. My question is is the biden family fitting from this war. His hunter biden making money from burisma because oil prices are so high we keep the war going and we keep oil high. What is going on here . Is biden making honey off of this russian mark that is really my question. If so, then this is a very serious thing. Host real quick, hunter biden is no longer on the board of the burisma. He left in 2019. Go ahead. Caller ok, fine. Does he get royalties . Does he get any residuals now . We do not know. Is he making money . Is biden making honey off of the war . We dont know. I will tell you what is happening my gas prices have gone through the roof. If you buy premium it is like really expensive. And we are suffering because of the war because the gas prices are high. The only person that i think is benefiting could be the biden family because they are related to it. Ukraine is a corrupt country. You go into a corrupt family and corrupt country. Your they are making money somehow. They have the Shell Company set up so who knows what the biden are doing . Host robert in fayetteville, north carolina. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning my name is frank and i want to say i served already for years in the military. I have the opportunity to travel around the world and i really think that what we need to do is have a dashboard a lot broader and see how we fit within the world. It is best for the ukrainian and we should help them because we defend freedom as much as possible. This reminds me of 1939 fortress America World war one fortress america. Every time be do this fortress America Thing we wind up having a fight with the world war. If we do not support these people like russia going into ukraine then china is going to look and say we are going to taiwan and take taiwan over. If they take taiwan over here we are. If we do not want to give them money look at the children and say they are not willing to let you go fight and die for freedom. In terms of fentanyl, i would say there is an appetite here in the united dates of america that once that United States of america that want that. To shut down on the appetite southern american countries are failed states down there. It should not lead into the United States like they did in rome. Everything that we are repeating again. We are repeating third repeating 1939 again. And in a few years we may go into a war if we do not get the federal government to stand down. Thank you i appreciate it. Host alright in a new conference yesterday picking jeffreys said there is a picking jeffreys hakeem jeffries, spoke. House democrats said from the beginning we want to find Common Ground with the other side of the aisle whenever possible. We are able to continue to do that. The Democrat Appropriations Committee has made it clear from the beginning that they are willing to sit down in a room anytime anyplace and have a discussion with our colleagues on the republican side of the aisle along with our partners in the senate to be able to move the appropriations process forward. There is a clear pathway. We have indicated this publicly and privately area one after continuing resolution. Fiscal year 2023 levels. Two, get rid of all the extreme partisan right wing ideological writers that the American People do not support and three make sure we provide the needs of the American People by addressing things like support for states to addressing extreme weather events and addressing our National Security can earns in the context of the any of or effort. If we were to do those things we would create the condition where the Appropriations Committee members continue to have a four corners discussion about arriving at a spending agreement at the end of the year that meets the needs of the American People. This is not complicated. Particularly when a bipartisan agreement was reached in may. The extreme mega republicans themselves negotiated and a majority of them voted for on the house of representatives. Why are we here . Host that was taking jeffreys from yesterday we are taking your calls and 8 00 eastern danny in south carolina. Independent. Good morning. Caller first part of the year and by that another caller said the biden family and the trump family entitled to saudi arabia. Thank you. Host butch in virginia, republican. Hello. Caller yeah, i am calling to see i am watching things on tv, does Social Security get paid when the government shut down . Host yes, it does. Caller it does because i want to make sure that if i hear on the tv it says it dont they would shut it down republicans would shut it down we want to know because we vote today and i am a senior citizen. And if they were shutting Social Security down we would voting democrat. Host take a look at this. This is the committee for responsible federal budget area there is q a here about what happens for a Government Shutdown. The russian here, what services are affect did in the shutdown and how . It says every federal agency has its own shut down land and that land identifies which government may not continue until the creations are restored. Requiring furloughs in helping many of the agencys activities. Essential Services Related to Public Safety continue to operate. With payments covering including in prior shutdowns order protection, inhospital that a cool care, traffic control, and law enforcement. And they are classified as essential while some legislative judicials staff have also been protected. Manual spending is not subject to appropriation Social Security, medicare and medicaid continue. Other examples of activities that continue are those ended by permanent user and they are not subject to appropriation such as immigration services. It says that although many people programs, they are likely to feel the impact of a shut down in several ways for example social purity Social Security checks are still sent out that issuance likely to happen again in the 1995 and 96 shut down more than 10,000 medicare applicants were temporarily turned away every day of the shutdown. It includes a couple other things that are going to stop environmental and food section. The national park, air travel could be strained it says. As a result air Traffic Controllers and tsa agents are working without pay. There are other things here if you would like to look again. That is at crmc. Org. Sharon is calling from eau claire, pennsylvania. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning how are you today . Host good. Caller one thing i would like to add to what you just said. Social security payments will go out, but if you do not receive them there will not be anybody to answer your call or do anything about getting your name it out to you your payment out to you. Also im ukraine, something that none of the media ever talks about is that we made a promise to ukraine when they gave up to protect them from countries like russia. We are just living up to the promise we made when they gave us the news so all of the defunding ukraine it would allow putin to take over ukraine and then you have poland like was said and nato territory. They already got the backing of china and north korea. All that will do is cause another world war. We are trying to prevent that. Host senator rand paul disagrees with that. He says this on x he says i will oppose any effort to hold the federal government hostage for ukraine funding. I will not provide more u. S. Aid to ukraine. And here is the leader Mitch Mcconnell the minority leader in the senate saying i was out to welcome president zelenskyy to the capitol this morning and hear firsthand about the data severe any of the. American supporting ukraine is not charity it is in our own interests. Degrading russia helps deter china. Here is Senate Majority leader chuck schumer. And welcoming ukrainian president zelenskyy to the Senate America must stand with our friends around the world including the people of ukraine. I commit him for his leadership and i will make sure we continue supporting ukraine. And the democratic senator said todays ellen ski delivered a clear message to the u. S. Senate. No time to waver in our so work for you rain. We are at a little white in the war Pivotal Point in the war. Our support is critical for the ukrainian people and democracy around the world. Taking the next caller. Hello. Caller yes maam i think you need to look up 2014 when one was overthrown from the state department and ukraine using the same techniques we did in most of 53 and that turned out real well, didnt it . I mean, if yall, somebody that would not walk to see that Victoria Nuland looks through ukraine and put our puppets in and that is exactly what we did before and weve done it dozens of times. It is shameful that yall dont tell the whole story. I dont blame you, but it seems to be that no one wants to hear the whole truth about this situation. Russia only went in after they had been shelling the russian people that have been in ukraine. That was going on and on and on and they had to do something. Thank you maam. Host and chance in luverne, minnesota. Republican. Go ahead. Caller how are you doing . Honestly the Government Shutdown thing in ukraine we are using way too much money. I served in every in the army under obama and it is just shameful to me that we are spending all this money over there will be helping our own people. There are people in the streets, veterans, people, you know they need our help at home and it is ridiculous that no one cares about that they just care about their own rocket book. Pocketbook. A few colors back one was saying that biden might take money from all of this. And they are dirty the republicans are dirty they are all dirty. Thank you for the call. Host good morning winstonsalem, democrat. Caller good morning. Good morning. Praise the lord, everybody. Praise the lord. What i have to say this mornings we need ukraine to do their war because if they do not do at the United States will have to do it in the end. That is why keeping the war, they are keeping a war from starting we do not need a third world war and we need to help. The funny thing with this order opened all of a sudden it was a room there. They transferred so much on President Biden weve got a strong resident and god is behind him. Anything that he can do to help the people he will. The border is open. A rumor was told. I wonder where that rumor came from . It if they dont keep trying to put so much bad talk on the president you do not talk about your own resident of the United States. You never do that you never hear other countries doing that but the United States. Do not do that, it is wrong. And he is a smart man doing exactly what he is supposed to do. He is smart. And i love the way he is working and if ukraine dont keep russia from over here it will be a war. The war is for him. Ukraine to stop the third world war. They need to do their research before they be talking about him the way they are talking. It is bad. Host lets go to the republican line next. Mary, hello. Caller this is actually i am an independent color. Host ok independent call. Host ok go ahead. Caller i want to respond to the caller from ohio. Talking about Frank Churchill establishing a nationwide began toll involving the cia, the fbi, the government hallie, the media. Frank church died in 1984. He was a great senator and was a man who stood up for openness and sunlight and government. These people were calling our fellow powerful who told the internet to find anything they wanted to find and then just repeated it. They are not educated or knowledgeable. Thank you. Host june is in wisconsin, indent independent, good morning. Caller good morning. Regarding the government shut down they were saying that our representative cares nothing about us they care about themselves and im told they do not get paid for all the days they are away from the office. They need to get it together or get out of office. The people who vote for these republicans are insane and god help them because we need it. We are in big trouble. Host alright. Take a look at this, this is from a site called governing. Com it is federal employees by state. You can see the map here at the United States with the number of federal employees in it. The federal government currently has about 2 million fulltime employees that they include exclude Public Service workers and they stay with the most federal civilian employees as june 20 18. California, district of columbia, virginia, maryland, texas. About 90 work outside of the d. C. Region. Dale, birmingham, it alabama. Democrat. Caller good morning. Hello, good morning. I was calling to respond to a lot of things that i have heard especially about the shutdown. A gentleman called in and ask about the Social Security check, yes, he will still get it, but there are a lot of militaries that will not get that. They will be out of work. They will not get their pay. And they need their money just like we need our Social Security check. So i think we all need to come together it is not a shut down and number one a would also downgrade the rating of the United States and stop being so selfcentered about yourself. Everybody needs their money. It is only fair that we try to get some together. I hope that solution and when it comes to ukraine i do agree that if it needs to continue and if they do not continue and russia win they will not stop there they will go into turkey or somewhere else and then china is sitting there waiting to go into taiwan because they feel like the United States is mad now. That is all i have to say and i hope everybody has a good day but we should all need to be thinking about, democratic, republican and independent less think about love for our country and each other. Thank you so much. Host greenville, south carolina. Greg. Hello. Caller good morning. I just want to comment, on your callers and the republican congressmen and senators who keep talking about defunding ukraine and then they say, we have all these people here at home that we need to take care of. While taking care of people here at home according to them is socialism. They are not going to be taking care of any people here in this country. They have no Mental Health care and, no agenda for anything except hunter, hunter biden, hunter biden. If you really want to take care of americans vote democrat. They are more into eliminating prices with drugs, they are the ones who really want to take care of americans. If i hear another person say lets take this money and help homeless, the republicans do not have any social problems whatsoever. That is the biggest hunch of nonsense i have ever heard in my life. Vote democrat, people because donald trump is insane. Host virginia, republican. Go ahead. Caller why is the u. S. The only nato country supporting ukraine . We provide all the support. The European Countries do nothing. Host i am not sure that is true. A lot of nato countries are supporting ukraine. Caller second, if we were not spending billions and billions and billions of dollars supporting illegal immigrants, we would have money to give to ukraine. It is not rocket science. Host ok. Lewis in salisbury, north carolina, democrat. Caller top of the morning to you. Didnt we tell these maga people and this and that that the republicans cannot govern . This is a prime example. You are going to have people talking about the gas prices are so high. They act like they do not see them running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You heard a gentleman say if you want something done, you are going to have to get around this gerrymandering and put a person in that is going to look out for your benefits. You are crazy people you still want to talk about republican is the way to go. I appreciate you. I love you. I am just looking at this clown show because god got me and my family. You have a blessed day. Host yesterday, reporters questioned National Security advisor Jake Sullivan about the white houses confidence that the u. S. Would ultimately stand behind ukraine despite the politics playing out. [video clip] ultimately, there will be money provided and that is the understanding of the white house. How do you explain all of this to zelenskyy or other World Leaders that might be watching this domestic fight and thinking, should we really believe the United States is on board . How do you explain . One thing you do not need to explain to democratically elected leaders in europe, frankly, even to autocrats, his politics. Leaders know politics. President bidens counterparts understand that budget negotiations take place and there is difficult give and take. That is in the nature of a democratic system. So, president zelensky is not coming here not having any understanding we have to work through funding for the government going forward. He recognizes that is going to be contested. What he wants to hear from the president is kind of similar to what you are trying to elicit from me, which is what is the degree of confidence we have that we can deliver in the end . We believe we can. Which does not mean the road ahead is entirely straight or i can predict how this is going to play out. What i believe is when all is said and done the support will be there. Host that was National Security advisor Jake Sullivan. Here is the help with an article that says, the Biden Administration announces 325 million in military aid to ukraine with a picture of President Biden and zelenskyy at the white house. On thursday they announced an aid package for ukraine with a value up to 325 million for critical security and defense needs. The announcement came after president zelensky was in washington, d. C. To meet with leaders, including joe biden, House Speaker Kevin Mccarthy. The package includes missiles and machine guns to help ukraine in its fight against russia. Here are what gop lawmakers broke to the white house budget director. This is printed in the wal street joual. They said,he American People deserve to know what their mon has gone to,ow the coffenve is going, are the ukrainianclos to victory than they were six months ago . What is our strategy and what is the president st plan . What does the administration define as victory inne . It would be an absurd request without knowing the answers. For thes reasons, and certainly, until we recve awe to the questions above, we oppose the expenditure to ukraine included in your request. That was signed by 23 house numbers and six senators. We are going to continue to take your calls on this topic of the ukraine war, support for that war, and the Government Shutdown that might happen in nine days. Michael in detroit, michigan, democrat. Good morning. Looks like we lost michael. John in florida, independent. Are you there . Caller good morning. How are we doing this morning . Host doing great. Caller as far as ukraine, we have given them i think 117 billion, 120 billion already. We have nothing to show for it. Between the Ukrainian Army and russian army i think they are estimating over 400,000 dead. Ukraine has made no advancement in this counteroffensive they said was going to be fast and decisive. I Pay Attention to the war quite a bit as i am a military veteran myself. The Ukrainian Army is bogged down. They will not win this war without airpower. Frankly, they are never going to be able to win this war. What is the exit strategy from biden . Is anybody talking about peace . As far as the talking point of russia beads ukraine and they go right into poland, it is ridiculous. Certainly, they would not do that. They know poland is in nato. A lot of the talking points of the russian army is terrible because they cannot get through ukraine. It has to be one of them. It cannot be both of them. I do not think russia is going to go into poland. That is silly. This war has been going on two years and russian positions are dug in. The Ukrainian Army cannot break through the first defensive line. Now you have the u. S. Media saying they will celebrate if they take a Little Village of 17 people. This is a waste of money. Host that is all the time we have got for this segment. Coming up, delegate Stacey Plaskett of the s. Virgin islands discusses the Congressional Black Caucus foundations conference in washington this week. She will also discuss the risk of Government Shutdown and how democrats are strategizing around republican disagreements on spending bills. Later, another perspective from republican congressman andy biggs of arizona, a member of the Freedom Caucus. We will be right back. Announcer monday, watch cspans new series in partnership with the library of congress, books that shaped america. A compilation of essays written in 1877 and 1888 by Alexander Hamilton and john jay, urging for the ratification of the new constitution. The director for graduate studies at the school of civic and economic thought at Arizona State university will be our guest to discuss why the essays are considered one of the most important references for understanding the original intent of the constitution. Watch books that shaped america featuring the federalists monday, live at 9 00 eastern on cspan, cspan now, or online at cspan. Org. Also, be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast where you can learn more about the authors of the book featured. Announcer eric smith is the associate professor at york college in pennsylvania. He is also the cofounder and coeditor of his own paper. He says, we hear endlessly about systematic racism, white supremacists, and police brutality. So powerful an ideology has this narrative become, he says, that those who pose a counter narrative frequently find our words being misconstrued in an effort to stanch their impact. Eric smith on this episode of book notes plus. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Announcer healthy democracy does not just look like this. It looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work and citizens are truly informed. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. The opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Announcer washington journal continues. Host we are back with delegate Stacey Plaskett. She is a democrat of the u. S. Virgin islands. Welcome to the program. Guest good morning. Thank you for having me. Host this week you are participating in an annual conference hosted by the black Caucus Foundation and you are a member. Can you tell us the mission of the foundation . Guest thank you for allowing me to share the tremendous work the black Caucus Foundation is doing. This is a nonprofit arm of the black caucus. We are leading Education Training in washington that seeks to advance the global black immunity by developing leaders, informing policy, and educating the public. One of the major things we do during the annual legislative conference and this is the 52nd is to have a convening of family discussion. We come around the table and have robust discussion, argument, sharing of information on the issues that affect the black community, which affects all americans, because if a portion of our country is not doing well, the country is not doing well. We raise money for these foundations, scholarships, programs where we have interns and fellows that come from around the country to work in members of congress offices. They have their own classes and it is a tremendous time here every week. It is about 10,000 people that participate. Last year we raised over 9 million for the foundation and the work of really enriching our young people. Host the theme of the Conference Centers on democracy, freedom, and culture. Can you give me more specifics on actual items on the agenda . Guest well, when you talk about securing our democracy, it is ensuring that we as citizens, as people who are engaged in this conference, are doing all we can to make sure that democracy is safe. We know there is an assault by a group of individuals not all americans but a small group to try to chip away and pull apart that fabric, that thing that makes us great, the underpinnings of what allows us to be americans. That is our democratic process. We are here to talk about securing that. There is a range of policy discussions as well as panels on that topic. We are talking about protecting the individuals right to vote, the right to work, the right to be educated. Finally, uplifting our culture is really important right now. We have seen an assault across this country in banning books. Many of the books that are being banned are about black people, the black experience, about our history in this country. I was a history major at georgetown. History is not always pretty, but it is important to inform us so that we can know how to move forward into the future. Host on tuesday, delegate plaskett, you hosted a discussion about black prosperity and innovation. Why did you choose to focus on that . Guest thank you. When i came to congress representing the people of the Virgin Islands, people in the Virgin Islands are very pragmatic. We want a robust economy, but we are also very creative and innovative. Having to live on an island you have to come up with new ways of doing things. We also have in the Virgin Islands one of the hubs of broadband being laid throughout the United States and around the world. Myself, Marilyn Strickland who is from washington, and richie torres, got together and realized that black innovators, black creators particularly in the tech space were not being supported. Whether it was through federal legislation but more so in the private sector. Over 200 billion last year was spent on Venture Capital money to support innovators, to support startups. Less than 1 of that was given to black innovators, black creators. We know that disparity shows a stark reality as to the number of black people who are starting businesses, who are trying to develop new technology, new ideas. Every black History Month we go through the litany of things americans really have been the innovators of that were done by black people. Whether it is the filament in the lightbulbs to the mechanisms for refrigeration to our red, yellow, and green lights developed by a black individual. When black americans are not given the support to innovate, america loses out on innovation. We had a convening of both startups, Venture Capitalists, large investment banks, as well as people in the Technology Space to talk about how do we come together to ensure these innovators get the support so america can benefit as well . Host i will remind our viewers if you would like to call in for delegate Stacey Plaskett, you can start calling in now. The numbers are democrats 202 7488000, republicans 202 7488001, independents 202 7488002. If you are a current federal employee, we have a line set aside for you at 202 7488003. You can also use that line for texting us and we are on facebook and x. Delegate plaskett, as you know the government funding deadline is fast approaching. We are at nine days from a possible shutdown. What are your thoughts as far as how probable a Government Shutdown is at this point . Guest well, we know in discussion democrats are ready to work. We are ready to come to the table with reasonable ideas about what should be done. House republicans are an island by themselves. They are the only people in washington pushing hard to cut investments that families count on, including health care, child care, education, food assistance, Public Safety. Even Senate Republicans opposed the House Republicans plans. The continuing resolution introduced this week makes indiscriminate cuts to programs that millions of hardworking americans count on. Which is a violation of the agreement the speaker negotiated with President Biden. The speaker said he was going to do something quite some time ago when there were negotiations that went on in the past and he is now a hostage to an extreme portion of his own party that does not allow him to get anything done. I dont know what is going to happen. I pray we do not have to go through 15 votes like we had to do to be able to vote who was going to be speaker. But it seems Kevin Mccarthy does not have the votes to be able to pass even a continuing resolution. We will see what happens at that point. Host have you heard anything new this morning about a possible without happening this weekend or anything imminent happening on the floor have you heard anything new this morning about a possible vote happening this weekend or anything imminent happening on the floor . Guest they are going to vote on the rule which would then be put on the floor. Which portions of a continuing resolution have to be placed into a rule that is voted and we can vote on amendments and then the bill is adopted. We have seen two rules that came out of house rules which is run completely by republicans come to the floor and not pass because republicans could not agree. I do not think anything will happen this weekend. We are hopeful whatever it takes we will get something done. But the continuing resolution that they have put forward thus far is not one that democrats can agree on, because it is reviling so much of what we agreed to be able to do. It makes tremendous cuts and the 8 proposed cuts would be extended for some time. That means a tremendous amount of loss to services to 65,000 children that could lose access to health care, to over 60,000 seniors robbed of meals on wheels. The republicans talk about their concern over the border but that cut would mean there is almost 1000 fewer customs and Border Protection agents and officers to do the kind of border Immigration Enforcement that we need. Host lets talk to viewers. Eddie is up first in los angeles, independent. Caller good morning. Mimi, i o you an apology. A couple of months ago you asked who i would vote for and i can tell you now. I would go green. If you keep putting the same thing in and expecting a different outcome, that is called insanity. To the representative, as a black veteran, i would never vote for another black person to get into office. The black caucus has become a carcass after the turkey has been eaten. There is nothing there. You have allowed our communities to be invaded. Our schools have never been up to par but now you are building new schools for illegals. You forgot who you working for. Black people out here being beat down and you are having a party. I dont get it. What did we send you therefore . I would rather vote for somebody who i can put their feet to the fire because you are dancing with the devil. Host what do you think, delegate plaskett . Guest that is his opinion but i would ask that veteran i would thank him for his service to our country. We are also serving our country and our community, because we are holding the line. You talk about black people being beaten in their own community. We are the ones requesting additional officers for training, Additional Police officers who are about enforcing the law and not terrorizing our community. If we were able to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing, a bill that we have proposed, a bill that we are fighting for to get support from the republicans to do what is right in our community, that would be helpful. We are the ones asking for additional support, additional funding to headstart. You talk about not voting for members of the black caucus. We are the ones pushing their not be a Government Shutdown. We are servicemen and women who do not get a paycheck if there is a Government Shutdown. I dont know who you think is dancing in washington. I am working here in washington and i can assure you that the 58 members of the Congressional Black Caucus are holding the line and doing what is right and have not forgotten their community. Host greg is a democrat in texas. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you, mimi. I see what he is trying to say the same thing we are saying. You all say you are for the black and the brown. This is a culture war going on. These people not thinking about us. I have no problems with that but we try to support everybody. But we are not getting supported. These people coming into our Community Get all the benefits and they taking care of their own tribes. We should help everybody. Those people telling us they want nothing to do with us conservative white people are not going to support us. We have been attacked. Listen to me now. Listen what happened in texas. An 89yearold black man is being pushed off his land by realtors. You are not trying to support that. The same thing happened in colorado. A black mans land has been taken away from him. You hear me . Host we hear you greg. Caller this is what is going on. You wonder why we tired. These people are not working with us no more. They say, we do not care if you vote or not. We are doing things the american way but the mexicans are taking care of mexicans, the koreans are taking care of koreans, the indians are taking care of indians. We take care of everybody but our own. These people dont know what they talking about. Host lets get a response. Go ahead, delegate plaskett. Guest i hear the frustration you have and i also am concerned about what is happening in our communities. Sir, you would need to look also at who is running the places you are talking about. When you talk about what is happening in texas. That is a super majority republican jurisdiction. That is the place you are talking about in arizona as well. These are the things that we as black people need to do. I am not just talking about congressional races. We need to be involved in those local races as well where many of the laws that are affecting the issues you are talking about, whether that is ability to support land, are being done. I know right now at the Justice Department they are looking at issues of rights for black farmers. That is because the black caucus pushed that and are holding the department of agriculture as well as the department of justices feet to the fire. There are so many areas behind the scene that we are making sure black americans have a seat at the table. There are many individuals on the others of the aisle you look at the governor of florida and other places that are trying to take those rights away. We are the ones at the front lines with individuals like you, who are Holding Us Accountable to make sure black americans and our communities are foremost in our minds. I see the hard work. I see the pushback that black members of congress have been putting forward in each and every one of the committees they are in. Host kyle is a republican in truth or consequences, new mexico. Caller good morning, mimi and delegate plaskett. Guest i love the area where you are from. That is a great name. Caller yes. The name is actually quite controversial but i am glad you like it. I have a couple of quick comments. To the first caller, the veteran gentlemen, he said he would be Voting Green Party i believe. Guest that is what he said, yes. Caller i wanted to point out to delegate plaskett the black caucus of the green party was the first caucus the first part of any party to come out strongly against the vaccine mandates. The black community was very hesitant about the vaccine. I was wondering if he knew that and what delegate plaskett thought about that. That was a pretty intelligent move altogether and i am not sure it was echoed throughout the democratic party, or that desire of the black community was heard. Please do not cut me off. Does representative plaskett have anything to say Business Insider reported on this as soon as july 2023 about meeting with Jeffrey Epstein in 2018 and receiving 30,000 of Campaign Contributions . Third and last, i would like to ask representative plaskett, is matt tahiti a reporter . Guest lets take those backwards. Matt tahiti has done some reprehensible reporting. Lets talk about the time he was in russia spewing misogynistic, vitriolic, and talking quite openly about things he was doing to women who worked for him. I was asking information about his discussion with elon musk. Elon musk in his then twitter and now x said he was not the source. He validated my request about his discussions with elon musk because elon musk was not his source, which he said he was protecting. That was not truthful on his part. As for Jeffrey Epstein, Jeffrey Epstein was a resident of the Virgin Islands. He wanted to make contributions to the democratic party. He made contributions to my campaign. I believe he was a reprehensible person and after finding out what he had done, i gave the money he contributed to my campaign to nonprofit organizations dealing with supporting women and children in my community. As to the first question that you had, which was regarding the covid information that is going to the black community, i also sit on the Intelligence Committee. I am very concerned about misinformation that is specifically targeted to black people to make them hesitant about all vaccines. And we know from research that much of that information is disinformation. It plays upon the fears that many black americans have about the government and government distrust, as well as during the teske experiment tu skegee experiment where they were already had diseases and were not given treatment so they could see the progression of diseases, especially syphilis, in black people. Those are my responses to those questions. Host delegate Stacey Plaskett, democrat of the u. S. Virgin islands. Sits on the Intelligence Committee and Ranking Member on the select subcommittee on weaponization of the federal government. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you for having me. Host next, we continue our conversation about the september 30 government funding deadline with republican congressman andy biggs, member of the Freedom Caucus. We will be right back. Announcer American History tv, saturdays on cspan2. Exploring the people and events that tell the american story. At 9 00 p. M. Eastern, George Washington University Lecturer talks about american poverty policy and how the johnson administrations Great Society program sought to provide Economic Security to the poorest americans. At 9 30 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, how president s are portrayed. The White House Historical association and library of congress hosted the discussion which included movies such as kisses for my president , the man, deep impact, and lincoln. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv saturdays on cspan2, and find a whole schedule on your program guide, or watch anytime online at cspan. Org history. Announcer the cspan bookshelf podcast mix it easy to listen to all cspans podcasts that feature nonfiction books. You can discover new authors and ideas. Each week we make it convenient for you to listen to multiple chapters. From our signature programs about books, afterward, book notes plus, and q a. Listen to cspans bookshelf podcast today. You can find the podcast and all of our podcasts on the free cspan now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts. And on cspan. Org podcasts. Healthy democracy does not just look like this, it looks like this. Where americans can see democracy at work. When citizens are truly informed, our republic thrives. Get informed straight from the source on cspan. Unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. From the Nations Capital to wherever you are. Because the opinion that matters the most is your own. This is what democracy looks like. Cspan, powered by cable. Announcer washington journal continues. Host welcome back to washington journal. We are joined by representative andy biggs. He is a republican from arizona on the judiciary and oversight and accountability committees, as well as a Freedom Caucus member. Representative biggs, welcome to the program. Guest good to be with you. Host can you give us an update on what is happening in the house . You put out a posting on x yesterday with the words shut it down. Guest [laughs] this is what i am observing happening. Myself and a bunch of other people met across the spectrum of our conference yesterday. What you are seeing now is the rules committee has been meeting. They are talking about doing what we call combined rule. I will not get into the weeds but they are going to do combined rule on four Appropriations Bills. They are then going to approve or authorize the amendment process on those four bills. They will vote on that sometime this weekend and we will begin debating the amendments proposed for those four bills, and at some point, i anticipate next week i do not know if we will pass out but we will vote on those four bills. The problem is we are supposed to do 12 appropriation bills. That means two have not even been through committee so that means you are looking at three possible scenarios. I am going to provide a prediction to you and i have provided it to other media. I think what is going to happen is some point before the end of next week you will have there will be a procedure that several republicans are going to support with the democrats and actually provide their own version of a continuing resolution. In the meantime, everybody else will be working on those 12 appropriation bills. Host do you support a stopgap measure . A continuing resolution . Guest i do not and let me explain why. There is multiple reasons why but first of all is that people typically continue spending at current levels. You add that with over half 1 trillion in interest. What a continuing resolution does is basically something that congress has done for years to avoid actually doing the 12 Appropriations Bills. The result has been massive structural deficits, continued growth in the national debt, and that problem is part of the reason you are seeing the Inflationary Pressure you see today. My solution has been you should be doing Something Like pass if you are going to do a shortterm measure, continue funding military personnel, ice, and the vast majority of the rest of the government is already funded through other mechanisms that have been passed to ease the pain of potential government pauses over time. Medicare, medicaid, Social Security keeps getting paid. That would then provide you a little stopgap and still provide incentive for members of congress to do their job for a change. Host and you are calling it a pause as opposed to a shut down. You wrote in an oped here for the hill, because federal spending to save our nation. What kind of impact do you think that will have not only on federal workers, people that rely on federal services, and also the u. S. Economy . Guest the vast majority of federal services are covered and paid for an ongoing. We have taken care of that through passed legislation. Medicare, medicaid, Social Security keeps going. There are other necessary employees that keep going. But everybody lets say, you are a nonessential worker or deemed nonessential. Everything you get at the end of that shut down, you get paid back everything. You do not actually forgo anything. The problem you want to ease as much as you can that difficulty upfront. But we are talking about that, but lets talk about the negative consequences if you continue with a continuing resolution. That is the way this congress has chosen to govern for many years. The last time they passed a balanced budget was 1994. What you are doing is keeping the high spending of government in place instead of actually addressing waste duplication and areas where you might otherwise try to bring your budget back into balance. You perpetuate this generational theft because you are borrowing more and more money and a few years from now if we keep going on this path, interest is going to be higher than we spend on military spending. Host what are the areas of cooperation, compromise you would be willing to see . Where would you compromise with other republicans and other democrats . Guest well, right now we are trying to do the 12 bills the way the law requires us to do and go forward. Host but if there is no time for all 12, where would you compromise . Guest there is no time for all 12. I am telling you now. [laughs] it should have happened months ago. Where i am willing to go is say, the essential people like the military, like Border Patrol which is being overrun right now you make sure they get funded for their salary, and then you have to basically take the bitter pill that we are going to have to shut down temporarily. That is why it is a pause. It is not a shut down because the vast majority of government keeps going. You basically say we are going to have to pause. Everybody is going to get their money back. It is not a shut down. It is not a reduction spending because everybody gets paid ultimately. But if you go full on and say we are going to have a clean cr, you do not affect policy, you do not affect any spending, and everything keeps going on in the current way it is. I would say from the left and right there is disapprobation in the way things are being run and spent. Host we will start taking calls from viewers, but before that, i want to ask about this article in the hill that says, senate gop critics mccarthy will go to democrats for a vote. It says that Senate Republicans are predicting the speaker will reach out to House Democrats to get the votes to prevent a shut down at the end of next week. What do you think about that . Guest i dont know who the Senate Gopers are who said that. But i think it is a number of people in our conference that will reach out and that is what i was saying earlier. There is a mechanism they can use. It is too late to do a discharge petition, but under certain procedural moves they can still delete and replace on a bill and do a cr. Who knows for how long . Who knows what that would look like . But i dont think Speaker Mccarthy would necessarily do it but we do have some that would. Host what is the likelihood or possibility of a motion to vacate the chair on Speaker Mccarthys speakership . Guest i dont really know. I know there has been a couple of people who have been adamant and outspoken about it. As you know, a lot of people indicate they are going to do something in congress and maybe they change their mind. I really dont know. Host is there anything that would lead you to do that . Guest i have heard people talking about it. Sorry . Host is there anything that would lead you to do that . Guest no, i am not going to make a motion to vacate. I might vote for one but i will not make the motion. I view the speakers tenure that is for somebody else to try to make their case to see if that individual can get enough people to vote for or against. Host lets talk to viewers. Joe is first, a republican in Point Pleasant beach, new jersey. Caller how are you doing, mr. Biggs . Big fan. I grew up in new york city, republican which is not easy but i was watching the hearings the other day. I am upset with the republicans. They were talking to him like he was an old grandfather. You are the only guy, you and the guy from wisconsin, you are tough on him. Nobody was asking him questions. I feel like it is 1938 germany and this guy is looking for conservatives. He is going after the guy i like, President Trump, and nobody stood up to the guy. This guy is in the Freedom Caucus, right . Guest he is. Caller why isnt he removed but you have the girl from georgia, Marjorie Taylor greene, who has more guts than half the guys up there, they kicked her out. I think i am done. I like you but President Trump is not getting support from the guise of their. Host lets get a response. Guest i appreciate your response. I dont know what mr. Bucks theory of the case is but my theory is he has taken the department of justice and put more fuel on the fire for weaponization and politicize asian of government. An example is i had a constituent i should not say constituent. Someone from arizona. This guy should not have been there. No allegation of violence, no allegation of vandalism. He turned his cameras over to the fbi so they could prosecute others based on his video. They are asking for this guy to go 21 years in prison and it is so disproportionate. That is what i was trying to get at when i was asking Merrick Garland questions. You have got a guy that has set quotas on what he is going to do, the number of people he wants to prosecute, or believes he is going to prosecute, and it is disparate. If we are content with that in the United States of america, than i dont know how we ever recover what we believed were freedoms and reliance on due process for everyone. As both a prosecutor and defense lawyer, you cannot have judges that imply to jurors that some but he is guilty. A judge is supposed to make it very clear, for instance, that there is no evidence of guilt or innocence. It is merely what the state is asserting and the burden of proof never shifts. From my observation of some of these cases that have gone on, i am not sure we are adhering to those longstanding impartiality notions that go into due process. Which is why i was attacking the attorney general who never really gave me a straight answer. Host moses is next in greenville, mississippi, democrat. Caller good morning. How are you doing . I sit back and i watched this political mess unfolding and i view it as endangerment and indoctrination. Everybody else is supposed to be working for the people and the country but it is apparent people have ulterior motives. If we keep going down this road, we are going to be in a world of trouble. They shipped all the jobs overseas. They reduced the taxes on the corporations but the Republican Party sit there and want to cut these programs. Where are we headed . That is all i want to know, but remember, this is dangerous indoctrination that is manifesting itself in the current political environment. Thank you. Guest thanks, moses, for the question. I want to tell you that i agree with you on multiple parts of your question. I might disagree on a couple of parts but let me try to address them. You did what i used to call a compound question. Lets talk about shifting jobs overseas. Yes, we have got to incentivize jobs to come back to the United States. We have to because when that happens, we create more Economic Activity, we create more jobs, and we become less reliant on the whims of other nations political leaders, such as china and its ability to control Critical Minerals. Whether you are an environmentalist or not we need Critical Minerals in this country for everything from our technology to electric vehicles or whatever. You have got to have Critical Minerals. We do not produce Critical Minerals in this country anymore. That is why we have got to start bringing this back and become more independent. That Economic Activity actually gives us more revenue for government to support the programs like you indicated, that you want to see continued. Well, i want to take a little bit of issue there. I am not seeing a lot of my colleagues willing to make reductions in spending right now. But what i want to go back to is something i said to mimi early on. Here is the way to think of it. I am not going to give you exact numbers but right about now we will bring in, in revenue in the federal government, 5 trillion. That is just an incredible amount of money. Every year the federal government spends about 7 trillion, maybe a little above with interest. That requires us to borrow more money and that is a bad cycle. It causes us to keep spinning further down and that causes us to have inflation and it causes massive squeezing of people in the economy. I will tell you two things that i think need to happen and i hope you will agree. We have to become Energy Independent again. We have got to stop importing and trying to import energy from people who do not even like our country. If we are Energy Independent, that alleviates a massive amount of cost increasing pressures in our economy. You would feel a reduction in prices fairly swiftly. The second thing is when we get involved overseas because i take it you want us to take care of home first i agree. This notion that you are going to send billions and billions of dollars to ukraine really is a problem for me. We are now involved in a conflict that has the potential to become a regional war. There is no plan to get out of it. There is no plan, no exit ramp, nothing that says victory for the United States. All of these things are wrapped up into what you are saying, moses. I hope i answered your questions. Host david in virginia, independent. Caller good morning, mimi. Thank you, cspan, for washington journal. I have got a couple of questions and comments for representative biggs. Number one, in terms of having a balanced budget, you mentioned spending outpaces revenue by about 2 trillion a year. One thing i think you could do is there is 640 million acres of federal land, mostly in nevada, california, and alaska. You could take 1 of that, which is 6. 4 million acres, and lease it out to companies that provide energy. I think that would be, for that area, solar panels, maybe wind, possibly nuclear plants, and generate electricity in those areas of california. California is going to need more energy as they get electric vehicles. That would raise a lot of revenue, it would create jobs, you would not have to raise taxes, you would not cut any programs, but it would be a way for the federal government to take unused assets and generate something positive with it. Host what do you think, congressman . Guest thank you for that. I have advocated a long time for the federal government in my own state of arizona, the fifth largest state in this nation, and it is huge, only about 18 to 20 is in private ownership. There is nothing really productive going onto that land. It is worse in nevada. It is worse in alaska. It is not the same in california. California has a higher percentage of private land because of when it came into the union. Do i think you should do what you are saying . You sound like you are supporting conservation easements, which i do not, but if you are talking about actually leasing the land to individuals or businesses that can do some thing productive on that land without causing damage to that land, then yeah, i would support Something Like that. In fact, i have advocated that. I am part of the western caucus where we actually advocate for those types of things. But i support fossil fuels. I totally support fossil fuels. They are essentially boundless and more easily distributable and available consistently than solar or wind, even in places like arizona and nevada where we have massive solar and wind farms. Host the house will be gaveling in very shortly. We will show that to you when that happens. In the meantime, we will talk to fred in north carolina, republican. Caller mr. Biggs, i would like you to sit down like nancy pelosi did. She set rules and she set precedent and to deal with joe biden. He should be brought up on charges. I appreciate your answer. Guest thanks, fred. That is what the impeachment inquiry is doing. It is different than r. I. C. O. Charges. Our authority is not police power. We have the authority to impeach, the senate has the authority to convict and remove, but the founders gave us and this is part of the budget process that we did not get into. The founders gave the legislative branch the pursestrings. That was meant to be a check on the government. Even