Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20090916

we will discuss health care with johns hopkins medical faculty dean, edward miller. "washington journal"star now. -- starts now. . for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. for democrats, 202-737-0002. or if you are a twitter user, you can comment on our twitter page, twitter.com/c-spanwj. we start this morning with a piece from "the philadelphia inquirer." "rage underlines obama presidency." despite this nagging feeling in my stomach as i watched people screaming at so-called town hall meetings, seeming that some were allowed to travel with handguns, and when representative joe wilson yelled "you lie!" it is designed -- it is time to decide that what i have been watching is what it is, racism. the level of rage being expressed is out of sync with what i know from the past. racism is far from dead, but in this era after the election of obama, we are evidently not supposed to talk about racism. and not mentioning it does not mean it has gone away. -- gone away." savannah, georgia. good morning. caller: racism is a factor. it is everywhere. it is that the town hall meetings. john wilson should be reviewed and removed from office. you have these closet klansman descending upon america. nothing that manifest itself, it was always there. they have always been racist and prejudice. they are being exposed. rush limbaugh and all the others are feeding their racism. host: akron, ohio. caller: good morning. as i have told your screener, i have been a republican my entire life. i have to agree with your first caller. essentially, after watching that mob, we have become nothing but a group of racists, fascists, and fruitcakes. racists like glenn beck, fascists like dick cheney, fruitcakes like sarah palin. when they put up signs saying welcome to our plantation, derogatory things about the president, this is screaming out for the fairness doctrine. they are inciting violence. god forbid, it will be on the republican party's head if something happens. host: representative -- host: ex-president jimmy carter said that he sought the act from jo wilson as an act based on racism. "there is an inherent feeling amongst many in this country that an african-american should not be president." the next call comes from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling saying that it is not racist at all. there are so many emotions amongst the people in the country today, it was an emotional outburst. i am tired of hearing about all of this. i wish that we could be americans after the election. not republicans, democrats, and independence. i hope that we remember the waste of time that we are using now. i will remember that at election time. there are other times when we do not enforce the laws. i will remember. that is all i want to say. host: next caller. caller: good morning. jimmy carter was right. i was born with all of my rights, but any breaks that i ever got, it was at the hands of someone white. there was a tour bus sightseeing downtown yesterday. this black guy said that he would rob all of them at it was dark and up. i wish that this would stop. i am a mother. my parents have told me some horrible stories, and i never witnessed none of it. but i am saying please stop this. host: we have a clip from president carter's comments yesterday. let's take a look. >> an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards president barack obama is based on the fact that he is a black man. i live in the south. i have seen the south, a long way. i have seen a country that share the south's attitude, particularly african-american. that racism inclinations still exists. i think that it has bubbled up to the surface because of a belief amongst many white people, not just in the south, but around the country, that african-americans are not qualified to lead this country. it is an abominable circumstance that reuse me very deeply -- reeves -- grieves me very deeply. host: at california, good morning. caller: we have a presence in with a white mother that raise tampa. he is black on one side. probably not even 100%. i have no problems with who is president. did i vote for him? because he is black? nope. he is too liberal for me. i would vote for a black man in a heartbeat if he was a person like alan keyes, you bet. this race deal, i was never a racist. i am of portuguese culture. i do not care if you are a red head or black or orange, you are still portuguese. that is the way it should be here. we have problems here. now, because the news media is playing this race card back and forth, people like jesse jackson and al sharpton, they go around in three piece suits making money off of their deal, preaching discontent and hate. host: atlanta, georgia. independent line. caller: is refreshing to hear someone call it what it is. the person that called in was a breath of fresh air. one of the things that america has never been able to do is to admit [unintelligible] it was father and on genocide and enslavement. -- father ded on genocide and enslavement. if anybody white had been president, joe wilson would never have done that. i have a body that lives in south carolina. he told me about this web site. from t party to a new world order. i purchased their book, everyone should read it and get a grip on it. kudos to jimmy carter for having more courage than just about all of the ex-president's combined. host: also in "the new york times," steny hoyer was asked about the remarks. "i think that there are attacks being made around the country that are unusually harsh." lakehurst, new jersey. caller: good morning. i believe that the movement against president obama is racist. i will tell you where i think it started. i think it started last year during the presidential campaign, with sarah palin and her provocative remarks about different parts of the country being more patriotic than the other, trying to undermine president obama, calling him socialist, stirring up feelings that he was not born in this country. i believe that it stemmed from her remarks. if you look back, john lewis called her out on it. he predicted that some very untoward events might occur if she continued in that vein. i think we are seeing the results of that. host: ohio. caller: good morning. i did not vote for the president, but i vote on the policy, not the color of the skin. i think that reporters have an agenda to get flared up about this. as far as racism, that works both ways. i think that it is funny that 90% of the black populist vote democrat. the saddest day in jesse jackson's life, al sharpton and all of them, would be of racism ended, they would be out of business. it is a shame that the race card is always pulled as a distraction. no one knows if joe wilson is a racist. people ought to stop categorizing people whenever they disagree with people. host: next caller. caller: i think that the tea parties and the town hall meetings have nothing to do with racism. i think that there are elements on the left that are injecting racism because they are trying to divide this country up. wake up, do not far -- do not fall for this. host: martin, democratic line, branson, missouri. caller: i do not believe that there is anything racist about this. i think that if there is any racism it is on the black side. they are the ones always calling it up. the clue clucks klan was founded by the democrats in 1865. it has always been the democrats against the blacks getting any further up. i do not understand why they are calling it racism now. host: margaret, republican line. caller: i do not think it has anything to do with racism. i think that the racism is more on the black side. they are trying to keep it more up front and stir up more problems. it is more about philosophical opinions of obama. i feel like they have pushed it too far, bringing about every time anybody has a complaint. it is not fair. as far as jimmy carter is concerned, he lost his reasoning and long time ago. host: thank you. portland, oregon. caller: jimmy carter should not be saying anything about this. he is kind of anti-semitic himself. is it not racism when you accuse someone simply because the president is back -- black, and after no racial epithets suddenly it is racist? the other thing, which i believe on this issue, it is a distraction from the fact that right now obama has connections to acorn and everything that is going on. and he knows. so, there has to be this distraction. this guy is connected to all sorts of corruption. host: maureen dowd goes over her vote -- her article yesterday, talking about "over the years, cliburn tried to look past things that bothered him. joe wilson's defense of the confederate flag. cliburn said that he was bothered by the nasty things he said about the black woman that turned out to be strom thurmond is daughter. -- strom thurmond's daughter. "he was being confrontational and combative." wednesday night he brought his town hall meeting antics to that house of representatives. the black members of congress were fed up. maryland, democratic line. caller: i really believe that race is a part of the people that are opposing our president. most of them are republicans. the ones that listen to glenn beck, sean hannity, and bill o'reilly. those are the people that are out there with the t baggers,. they have a sign that says bury obam with kennedy. that is nasty. i believed everything that ex- president carter has said. this is nasty. >> -- caller: our cheap on the reservation would say that racism is an excuse to fail. these people coming out and saying that this is racism, that is the pot calling the kettle black. they are an alligator, all-out with no bite. thank you. host: georgia, linda. caller: i believe with the last caller. i have a great respect for the native american culture. they were wiped out. it does not get addressed in schools or anything. also i think that there are some early racist people in the republican party. i have a neighbor that walked by my house monday, he said he hated obama and wanted to kill him. that shocked me, because i had an obama sticker on my car. i am getting to the point where i am getting fed up with all of them. he said that he wanted to get the lobbyists out of the white house, but they are still there. senator dick durbin has been the voice for the working people. the democratic party is now in the place where the republican party was. i have heard the saying, and i agree now, the republican party and the democratic party are two wings of the same bird. i am changing my party affiliation to independent. i have been a registered democrat my entire life. giving all of the money to the banks that was a big mistake. that is one reason that a lot of people are angry with obama. host: gregory, democratic line. caller: i think that racism may have something to do with it, but it seems that during the last eight years there has been this call to hatred. there is no question that there is racism. we were motivated by hate the islamic people. that was very clear. -- we were motivated to heat the islamic people. that was very clear. -- we were motivated to hate the islamic people. that was very clear. madam -- madeleine albright spoke to -- sorry, i forget -- she talked to miss rice, uh, condoleezza rice, and asked her to help on some project. condoleezza rice came back and said i cannot, i am a republican. there is a motivation in the republican party, and it is these people that are stirring up hatred. this is a very biting thing. we should see it for what it is. we need to get around this. president obama would have had an easier time making clear decisions. host: homestead, fargo. caller: what a wonderful job you guys are doing. the race card is always going to be played. florida, i have lived there. a heavy african-american area. i am a native new yorker. we have got to go beyond these racist problems. we have got to really see the agenda that is going on right now. we have to, you know, for the first time we do not know how many went to washington. but these are not terrorists. these are not people with -- that sign, barry the health care with kennedy? -- bury the health care with kennedy bellow we should have not mentioned kennedy, but i do believe that we have to fix the health care. it should come from both sides of the aisle. i believe that what this man did, calling the president a liar, it was about frustration. ino's, he lives there. he is fighting for something. you know? to use the race card because someone is saying obama, please look at what is going on. host: arkansas, cindy. caller: it is definitely frustration. i am ashamed of the disrespect of we're showing towards the current president. i am ashamed of the disrespect shown towards president carter. i think that it is time that these things came to a halt. i believe that this is racially motivated. it is shameful that we live in a country with those factors. host: joining us now, [unintelligible] gives us a preview. what do you expect senator baucus to announce in his legislative draft today? caller: this is a big moment that many of us have been waiting for. lots of my colleagues have been camped out of sight of his office. this legislative draft is going to be the result of three months of negotiation among the so- called gang of six. a lot of people think that this will provide the template for a final agreement that helps the obama administration move towards a more interest- oriented health plan. it is either going to be a compromise-laden package, and if he cannot and the democrats go alone, it will be a pretty democratic bill. it is likely that the leadership will push it through the senate, as they only need a simple majority. >> the referenced the gang of six. are all six senators on board? >> certainly not. -- caller: certainly not. chuck grassley strongly indicated that he could not support this. he felt that the finance talks were going fine, but now the democratic leadership had commandeered the the talks and was trying to push things through on an accelerated timetable. the only republican involved in the talks is a olympia snowe, and even she is insisting on some minor tweaks that would drive up the cost of the bill. tentative talks, there are a lot of seasons -- a lot of things still in play. host: what is the senator's view on the public option? caller: a lot of people think that it is a good idea in theory, but they would never have the votes in the senate. a lot of people i have spoken to think that the public option has taken this huge house size role in the debate. it has created this perception that cost savings can be created by having insurers competing against each other. people on both sides of the aisle think at any cost savings from health reform will come through changing the way the payments are made, looking at medical outcomes and rewarding better types of care. it has taken an outsize role in the debate. host: how controversial is this concept of using reconciliation for a healthcare bill? caller: very controversial. basically, democrats are saying that the republicans do not want to play ball, so we will play hardball and ram this through. it limits their options a bit, us as they can essentially push things through, but there are policy changes they cannot make in that process. it is a bit like the fight over judicial nominations from a few years ago. then again, democrats would argue that most of the republicans, if not all of them, are intent about -- intent on voting against this any way is. you can keep talking or do something now, that seems to be the attitude. host: what about the talking? it will be introduced today, then what? caller: they keep talking. we could have potentially key floor votes in early october. host: thank you for joining us. caller: my pleasure. host: coming up next, we will be talking to alex -- alez isenstadt. we will be right back. ♪ >> ron paul wants to hold the federal reserve accountable for the economic crisis and he wants to end the fed. sunday he talks about his new book on c-span 2. >> next month, takes a rare visit inside of the supreme court as we talk to the justices. >> justice brandeis said he would not come in there because he said that the building was so elaborate that it would go to our heads. maybe he was right. it has come to represent stability and the need for a rule law. >> supreme court week, starting october 4. as a complement to this original production, we are offering free teaching resources or teachers, bonds c-span.org -- on c- span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is alez isenstadt from "politico." what does this resolution say? what does it mean? guest: basically it said that joe wilson, during the president's joint session of congress last week, basically there was a breach of protocol during the session. this was a formal reprimand for those remarks. host: why did this get to that level? guest: there was significant anger from some member of congress -- members of congress that felled formal action was necessary. that it drew a lot of attention and that some democrats thought it was needed. host: what house rules did it by late? -- violate? guest: that it was not allowed to call out in that way and that something needs to be done about it. host: did any of his republican colleagues voted to disapprove of him >> a small handful of republicans voted with the democrats on this bill. also, we saw one of mr. wilson's south carolina colleagues, not known to have the closest of relationships, he said that prior to the vote he thought that mr. wilson should have apologized and that this matter could have been done with. host: one more question about wilson before we go to calls. now that the resolution has passed, does it carry further penalty? guest: no, this is just something anchored into the congressional record. after this in the matter will be dropped. we heard that this would be the end of it. this would be the entire interaction. they wanted him to apologize, they said that he did not do that and that a formal reprimand was needed. host: what was the atmosphere like on the house floor? guest: a lot of republicans on the floor were trying to comfort him. they saw him put his arm -- dan colburn put his arm around him. mr. wilson seem somewhat nervous, shuffling his papers, seemed to be chatting nervously with his colleagues. when mr. wilson got up there, he remained defiant. host: we have a clip from the house floor. let's take a look. caller: it is clear to the american people than that -- that there are far more important issues facing this nation than what we are talking about right now. the time for games is over, according to the president. i agree. he graciously accepted my apology. this action today will do nothing for the taxpayers to rein in the growing size and cost of the federal government. it will not help americans. it is the democratic leadership and their rush to pass a very bad government health care plan that is bad medicine for america. it has muzzled the voices we have -- we represent. when we are done today, we will not have taken any steps closer to helping more american families afford health insurance, for helping small businesses create new jobs? -- new jobs. the challenges faced by this nation are far bigger than any faced by this house. host: vincent, fort lauderdale. caller: i used to be a c-span junkie. but you are the left arm of the democratic party. you talk about this young man that made the remark that many of us would have yelled out. i would have. the president lies every time he speaks. secondly, when are you going to have a program on -- charlie rangel, john murtha, all of these democrats that should be investigated for their wrongdoings? you never see them on this show. this show is for the democratic party and to help it democrats elected. host: what is the status on charlie rangel? obviously one of the issues that members have pointed to in the debate on the floor, democratic members with their own problems. guest: you would actually hear republicans talking about that in hushed tones. there was a handful of new york democrats that decided to vote against the resolution, could that be because at some point a charlie rangel resolution could come down? and they want some leeway? the situation with charlie rangel just hangs in the future. the way that it will come down is not clear at this point. host: little rock, next caller. caller: the reason i feel that he should be reprimanded is because there have been people who have done even less that that. people coming with t-shirts, making statements, holding up signs, and they have been ordered out and taken out. i mean, if he does what he does and the american people come in with teachers on, holding up signs and they are escorted out, he should be as well. if he can do it, why can they not do it? guest: clearly, there are a lot of -- one of the things that we saw this weekend, tens of thousands of people coming into washington to protest white house policies. many of these people were very conservative, they thought joe wilson had the right to do what he did. one of the things to look for in the future, to what extent does joe wilson become a symbol of discontent? host: jim, independent line. caller: the media has done a very bad job finding out about these hypocrites like joe wilson. how much money has he accepted from the insurance industry? how much money has he accepted from the pharmaceutical industry? no one explores these things. what does he think about flying the confederate flag over the capital in south carolina. no one approaches this. how about these tea party people? paying too much tax? how much are they paying? why is it too much? what programs with a cut? the media has done a very superficial job of interviewing these people with all of these complaints. that is my comment. host: alabama, next caller. republican call. caller: i want to comment on the democrats graining the republicans as opposed to being a racist. the democrats have a whole deck of race cards. 52 cards in a deck for 52 weeks in a year. i want to say this, the most brilliant critic of the obama agenda are columnists like murdoch, parker, ines, a brilliant black people who are very much opposed to the obama agenda. we are not racist at all. thank you. host: are we going to see an aftermath? guest: to what extent were his comments motivated by race? a couple of democrats came out yesterday. hank will send came out very strongly, evoking images of white men riding around with white hoods. a white democrat from a heavily black pigment -- district, suggesting that race might have something to do with that. democratic leaders seem to have removed themselves from that kind of talk. to what extent is the criticism towards the president's s affecting this? host: let's take a look at the comments. >> this is not a partisan stunt. i do not participate in partisan stance. i think that every member here knows that. this is about the proper decorum that should take place on the floor of the house of representatives. host: "where with the reprimands leave those who called bush a liar with prepared remarks? guest: john maynard, yesterday, pointing out that there was a whole host of behavior on the house for that could arguably deserve reprimand, and we are not seeing it. we have seen democrats in gauging in some action, including harsh action against president bush. why are they not subject to a formal reprimand? that is part of the republican argument yesterday, the democrats are engaging in political games. host: yesterday stark did go to the well of the house and apologize for what he had said. the issue here was that wilson refused to apologize in the clubhouse? guest: absolutely. cliburn, who especially took the lead in bringing the resolution to the floor, he said that all the wanted was for wilson to go to the bottom of the house and apologize. host: next call, philadelphia. good morning. caller: this is like going back into the 1840's. this is like a disrespect. not of the man, but of the office. i have never seen such disrespect to the presidency as happened last week. he apologized to mr. obama, and mr. obama of course accept that. but i believe that he deserves a reprimand for an outburst. every president we have ever had has had problems. nixon, iraq, iran, everything else. these are not lies, but they are trying to get their point across. when a man has the floor, if he is the president or representative, or a senator, will whoever he may be, he deserves his time. i think it was a giant step backwards. guest: that is what a lot of democrats are saying right now. look, a lot of democrats say that president obama was this respected during the speech. -- disrespected during the speech. host: independent line. caller: for hundreds of years they have passed these kinds of gatherings. what makes jo wilson so special that he feels that he can say this and had not be seen as a rude thing? he not only needs to apologize to the president and the congress, but also to the american people. so, i just feel that that was really rude. i feel a lot like the previous caller. host: lucille, indiana. caller: obama never apologized to the police department or calling them stupid. pelosi did not apologize for saying that the cia had lied. she did not apologize for calling people on american. they booed president bush in congress. and our president is by racial, he is not black. race has nothing to do with this. guest: there are a lot of emotions here. democrats are playing political games with this. that is the argument they have made. i think that both sides want to move on from this, health care is likely to take front stage today. clearly, as the wilson matter has dominated the headlines, the question about race, there are big questions about whether he had apologized efficiently. republicans very much feel the democrats are playing political games. host: one leader notably not on the floor yesterday, nancy pelosi. she did not speak on this resolution. guest: if you look at the actual speech, when wilson said what he said, you saw a lozi behind a bomb up. -- use on nancy pelosi behind obama. she said it was time to move on health care. she did not want to have anything to do with this. she has left it to jim clybourn. host: east point, michigan. caller: good morning. i have to say, when obama ran for the presidency, it was just a little bit about race. you could see, during the rallies, the republican side was a bunch of southern white people. the democratic side was like a rainbow of people. a lot of this has to do with race. i do not care what anybody says. joe wilson, it just shows the education level of the south, i believe. that is about it. treat the president with respect. especially -- during a speech like that. host: "partisan heat shows no sign of cooling. there is anger and then there is anger about anger. at any given moment, someone was expressing outrage or counter- outrage. some thought he should not be reprimanded, democrats took a turns hammering his behavior, others calling him a patriot, citing his son in iraq. meanwhile, 45 conservative radio hosts gathered to blame black members of the congress for not doing more about immigration." guest: absolutely. a lot of partisanship right now. hard to see how it could subside any time soon. we are moving into a ball that is going to be dominated by health care, which has proven to be a heated debate. i do not see that subsiding anytime soon. both sides are very far apart here. look, president obama camp office saying that he wanted to change the partisan tone in washington. that is proving to be a much tougher task than he expected. host: md., independent line. caller: good morning. america has got to get the point where not everything but a lot of what goes on with the president is clearly racial. we are going to reform of sticker shock right now. people were excited during the election. but now there is a segment of white americans that are saying, what happened, we actually elected a black president? this is 2009. we go to the same schools. we get the same education. and i am an independent, like the caller a few back said, a republican and democrat, they are the same thing, rich people that go into these parties for their agendas and interests. time to talk about the interests of the country and all of these things we have got going on right now, causing an economic problem. we have to look at what created the race card. racism. we have got to become strong enough as a united country to deal with the issue and move forward. host: what is the white house saying about this? guest: the white house does not want to have anything to do with this. clearly they do not want to talk about the issue of race that much. they want to distance themselves from it. they have very much let house leaders take the lead. host: anne, florida. caller: all of this talk about racism, then how did michael steele get to be the republican chairman if we are not going to vote a so-called black, the president, which he is not, he is half white. if he continues to get his way on this stuff, all of these people calling him a black president will not be so proud of him after the country becomes destroyed if he gets his way of all of his policies that he is trying to implement. i also heard that there were some congressmen, the same ones wanting to reprimand wilson, sitting on the other side of the aisle on the republican side, blocking some of the republicans, lifting up their arms like heil hitler, mocking them. this is like a double standard. they do not seem to mind teasing their fellow congressmen. if they are so concerned about their manners, where were they when they were doing president bush? they could go on and on about this. guest: clearly, a lot of anger from republicans and democrats on this. you asked about the partisan tone in washington, a lot of the questions being posed yesterday were democrats on the move. president obama, why are they moving forward with this resolution, that was a key part of the argument yesterday. that this was a partisan exercise on the part of democrats. host: washington, maryland. caller: i wanted to make a couple of comments, actually. i agree with senator clybourn. it did not have to do with most of what the callers have said. when the house and senate is in congress that have to yield to the next person. it is called respect and manners. when the president's of the united states is making an address to the house and senate -- when the president of the united states is making an address to the house and senate, joe wilson spoke out. probably not alone, i heard some others behind him. he was the one that was heard out. that is what people are missing. do not get it twisted. yes, president obama is by racial. but his skin tone is from african descent. if it was the other way around maybe he would not go through this. people get it twisted. just because he is biracial, if it was not racism, the people that came to the tea party on saturday would not have had a mean and ugly things to say on the signs that they were holding up, which fox news is not showing, all of the ugly things that they said. on cnn, they called it an indonesian -- let's call it for what it is, racist. he is a great man that is above all of that. that is why the white house is dismissing it, they are above all of that. thank you. guest: i think that the joe wilson comments were superseded, if anything else, getting more attention than what president obama said in the end. clearly it was wilson who spoke the loudest. host: last call from spokane, washington. caller: i am a conservative. the real issue is, and this is something that the rest of the media has overlooked, rep wilson is still an active colonel in the army national guard. what he did is against the law. he violated the code of justice, of being disrespectful to the american commander in chief. if i did something like that to mr. wilson on a base, i would be thrown out of the service and removed of my rank. the office of the president is bigger than just one man, it is a symbol. like the american flag or the liberty bell, these should not be this respected. when these representatives get up on their soapbox, it would be nice if these -- if you would do some investigating to see how much money they are getting from different interest groups. i will get off of line. thank you for c-span. guest: the caller brings up an interesting point, campaign contributions. a point that i would like to make, joe wilson took in $1.5 million over the past week in campaign contributions. he basically put out a fund- raising video saying that he will not be muzzled and he is looking for help. of course, he has a democratic opponent that also raised a slew of money from this incident as well. it will be interesting to count the change and see how much money he raised from this. host: we will have to leave it there. coming up later, we are going to be talking with a medical doctor and candidate for the wisconsin senate race, as well as dr. edward miller from johns hopkins university, on health care reform. . cuff this year has been the deadliest for u.s. and nato troops since the 2001 invasion. >> the fbi director is on capitol hill this morning. he is before the senate judiciary committee for an oversight hearing. nasa officials testify this afternoon on the future of manned space flight at 2:30p.m. it will also be available on xm satellite. you can watch both live events on our website, c-span.org. >> next month take career visit inside the supreme court as we talk to the justices about the role and history of the court. >> he said he would not come in here. he said this building is so elaborate that it would go to their heads. maybe he was right. over time it has become a symbol of the third branch of government. the need for stability, rule of law. supreme court week starting october 4. as a complement to this original production, c-span offers teachers free teaching resources. "washington journal" continues. host: we return to the war in afghanistan and the the debate about troop levels. >> i share your view that larger and more capable afghan national security forces remain vital to their viability. i share your view and have stated publicly that the path to achieving the goal is through our training efforts there. we must rapidly build the afghan army and police. i agree we must develop more and better ways to peel away those not ideologically committed to the insurgency and put them back into society. we cannot achieve the goals without realizing their manpower and time intensive. more important than the orders they follow is the leadership they exude. more important than the numbers of the taliban return are the personal lives they turnaround. sending more trainers more quickly will give us a jump start. host: we want to hear where you think about the war in afghanistan, particularly the proposal to increase troop levels. the front page of the "york times" -- they write him that the nation's top military officer pushback tuesday against democrats to oppose sending additional troops to afghanistan. we'll take a first call from baltimore with rachel on the line for democrats. caller: i really think it is a bad idea because troops are dying over there. i think we should stop this and let them come home. honestly, i think it is a bad idea. host: in "the washington post" there is an op-ed writing about afghanistan. he writes that the issue today does not concern was worth the trip in eight years ago. the next call is from indiana, walter. caller: good morning, being a republican and been strong, pradesh military, i have been appalled against all the innovations others have done -- this country has done towards others. it is a corrupt, a tribal government over there. we would not think about destroying their of the fields. it is imperative for the u.s. to realize we're not a policeman or the guards of the world. we do not have the audacity to dictate how country runs, who is in charge. we have not learned since the 1950's. the only time we should go to war is when we are attacked. 9/11 came from people from saudi arabia. you cannot destroy millions of lives because of an knuckleheads on a plan. looked at israel. it is the same thing. it is terrible we are losing lives of all races over oil and power. this is all about controlling the world. host: from ohio on the independent line. caller: it was fdr who wonders about the military-industrial complex. we are spending billions on minding everyone else's business instead of keeping our house intact. instead of protecting our borders and ports, not letting these people into our country, keeping an eye on them, they took away our rights. this is a waste of money. if anyone thinks this right and left, liberal, it is baloney. just follow the money in washington, d.c. the last caller was right on. this is just sad that we are in all these countries, blowing all this money. host: california, steve, on the line for democrats. caller: i agree with the last two colors completely. i think it is a huge mistake as obama supports and goes forward with this. it was president eisenhower who tried to bring to light the military-industrial complex. and the problems that we face with corporations. we should keep in mind that the taliban and iranians are enemies. let the iranians deal with this. that is how we should combat this religious fanaticism. this war is wrong. obama is making his hugest mistake as he goes forward with this. caller: good morning. i would like to ask the question as to the exit strategy. i also want to recommend to viewers if they would use their record button they would not have to turn down their television button. they can listen to themselves afterward. i would like to suggest a website that seems to be dealing with the c-span. c-stamm.com c-spamm.com as what it is -- it seems to be an alternative forum to speak to the topics of c- span. my question is when will we see the exit strategy put forward? host: the front page of the world section of "the washington times" -- the right about mullen's testimony. he has made no recommendations as to how many more troops might be needed. he will submit his request very soon. strengthened, virginia? caller: yes, good morning. i completely agree with the first two callers. it is time for the u.s. to stay out of the business of other countries. if they want to become a democratic society, it is up to them, not the u.s. that is all i have to say. host: manhattan, ted? caller: thank you for c-span. i'm a democrat, but we are sunk into afghanistan and iraq. there's a degree to which we have to listen to the general. we have a tremendous military colleges and offices and hierarchy. yes, they're part of the military. i am a democrat. they are part of the military- industrial complex, but they are very educated and smart. there were a number of generals i think were originally forced to resign when we were first going into afghanistan and iraq during the early bush years and go i do not remember all the names of those to resign. now that we are already there of love to know what some of their thoughts are in the present state we find ourselves. again, we have to pay attention to our generals. host: on our twitter page -- the next call comes from jackson, mississippi. george? caller: yes, this is my first time to get through. i am a conservative republican. i have two comments. the person talking about the u.s. being a policeman of the world, going back to ninth grade history, american history, the monroe deck and was the first thing enacted to give the u.s. power over the people -- that was the monroe doctrine. then the woodrow wilson corollary was the second thing that really did make the u.s. the policemen of the world. this is where we have really gone wrong. we cannot police everyone. it is not our responsibility unless we are attacked. the other comment was about he joe wilson. -- it was a bulk joe wilson. people have missed the point. when joe wilson said the president's allies he was telling the truth. -- when joe wilson accused the president of the line, he was telling the truth. it clearly says that $500 billion will be taken from medicare to fund this program. the medicare advantage plans will be done away with. that is where the money is coming from. anyway, when he said would not cost a penny -- it will cost $2.30 trillion. host: two key players and how they may be facing off in the war and of guinness and. the paper writes that the committee chairman of armed services argued strenuously today against the deployment of any forces. senator john mccain said the delay in sending more would repeat the nearly catastrophic mistakes that occurred in iraq before the bush administration increased troop levels. the next call comes from ohio. caller: the morning. i am an independent. i do not know what it means to be a republican or democrat anymore. the lines are so confused. my comment addresses the issue of the ongoing war as we have been in since the korean war. beginning back in the 1950's. it was korea, then advisors sent to vietnam. then, that troops sent to vietnam. then it was iraq. then it was afghanistan. then we are now pulling out of iraq and going back into afghanistan, supposedly with more troops. we have sacrificed so greatly with our young men and women in these conflicts, tens of thousands who have been killed and wounded. our coffers are empty. we are borrowing money to make our country run. it is time to put an end to these complex and bring these trips home where they belong with their families. create through a reinvigorated united nations and allied force to take on these challenges in foreign countries. this country can no longer carry the burden we haven't faced with for so many years. host: antonio from tennessee. caller: i feel like this about that war. we have some smart experts in the cia and everything. i feel like we need as many troops as possible in afghanistan. if we do not stop them to keep them over there -- they will definitely be over here. that is all i have to say. host: mich., michael? caller: i believe the war is a trap. i do believe that iran will attack our troops. i believe that russia will also be involved with them. they are allied with iran. this is all part of the plan to set up world war iii. since both bush and obama -- have the worst interests of the u.s. at hand, not the best, that we will facilitate this trap. the main reason is because we are the 50 colonies of the state of israel. israel controls he this country. we do the bidding of israel. that is why we are over there in the middle east. the new at -- the new election is central to our ability there. that is where the taliban and al qaeda are right now. i would rather fight them right there. the majority at the united states people unfortunately is being pummeled by an irrational press that is not reporting facts. no one is really getting any good information or fax. that really does not give us a very distil picture of what is going on. it is very prejudiced because we have a very unprofessional press right now. host: there is a story that mandated health insurance squeezes' those in the middle. one of the toughest challenges will be trying to cover like ron norton, 49 years old, who is a professor at the local community college who earns about 40,000 per year. i cannot use up all of my savings justify mandatory insurance he says. as lawmakers hammered out legislation, one of the most sweeping proposals has so far stoked relatively little debate. all of the major bills winding through congress feature so- called mandates like the one in massachusetts. next call is ed from louisiana. caller: good morning. i have a comment about the health care issue, but the afghanistan issue, what i want to say about that is i have a national geographic that explains that the taliban was banning -- was growing in afghanistan. as it would have, after the attack afghanistan, the production went up by about 14% sen. it is apparent that whoever runs the poppy production is also running our military. also, about the health care issue, it does not make any sense. you look back over the years all the way back to win the blacks were the slaves, they do not deserve health care. what kind of sense does that make? why give slave class health- care? let them die. do not get them health care. that do not make no sense. host: there is a headline that the recession likely over in u.s., says bernanke. the roller-coaster ride in equities markets and rising unemployment could continue. next call from florida. abraham on the democrats' plan. caller: my name is abraham and i am watching the c-span show, which i am a fanatic of that. i am speaking about the entire situation about economics. economics has been destroyed when people start tapping -- stepping on our constitutional rights. as for george bush and his cronies, who infiltrated our government on the secret agendas, from the standpoint i can see that we stand for hidden agenda as governments that we have no knowledge of and we pay our -- and we're paying the high price for the bush family and all of the hidden government officials going to the point that we need a smokescreen and the smokescreen as the twin towers. we are the slaves of the jews, because we are not being informed by our government by the hidden agendas, so we are paying for it. host: take on the democratic line. caller: independent. i would like to call in about sentiment coming in today being that democratic and republican parties are largely acting the same. afghanistan is the topic and that is a good example. fiscally their blowing a lot of money. -- they're blowing a lot of money. what do you do about that? there are very few independent politicians. we need a third party. you need to look for people going against the grain. ron paul voted against the iraq war. of course the democrats were against the iraq war because that was the popular thing to say, but in the republican party that was not the popular thing to said. you need to look for independent thinkers. i hope that you asked ran paul about his independent foreign strategy. he is a politician. we need to look for people that cut across the grain. i hope you can ask him about what she will support and oppose and foreign-policy. -- about what he will support and oppose and foreign-policy. caller: i would like to talk about some of the things you're talking about earlier this morning. i had trouble getting on the line. i were first president, george washington, was the only president who made any sense. he came over here and we had 13 colonies formed. he had been through a lot and learned a lot. his view was that we stepped on american soil we would be much better off. a little lesson on history. now i want to talk about a little past history. as far as joe wilson standing up and saying that obama like, i will have to say to all the american people around the world that bush stood up and lied when he said he was not going to use taxpayer dollars to pay for the iraq war, much less a rebuild iraq with taxpayer in dollars. -- with a tax payer dollars. then he said that iraq does not have enough resources to pay us back. i honestly feel that there was some way we can get the money back that was spent over there when we were lied to by bush, we would not be in the shape we're in right now. we would have a good economy. that bothers me. i cannot understand why we cannot get back what we put in over there. host: our last call from pennsylvania. caller: i am a first-time caller. i was just listening to this fellow that was just on there. everyone talks about where we should be in iraq. the gentleman was talking about needing more troops. he needs more troops because she makes claims, guns, bombs, if he didn't use them, then the military complex does not get to make anything else. every time we go somewhere the drug problem gets worse because some form of the government is bringing the troops in and out. we do not need troops over there. we do not need to be trying to police the world. host: coming of next, we will talk to as the seattle mayor. we will be right back. >> robert muller is before the senate judiciary committee for a hearing this afternoon. nasa will testify at the house at 2:30 p.m.. both of those hearings on c- span 3. you can watch both of today's life events on our website, c- span.org. >> congressman ron paul wants to hold the federal reserve accountable for the country's economic crisis. even more he wants to end at the fed. he talks about his new book on both tv. all of us on twitter for the latest schedule updates. -- follow us on twitter for the latest schedule updates. >> he said he would not come in here. the reason he would not is because he said this building is so elaborate it will go to their heads. maybe he was right. it has become over time a symbol of the courts and the third branch of government and the need for stability and rule of law, which is what america stands for. >> supreme court week, starting october 4 on c-span. c-span offers teachers free teaching resources on our judicial system. >> washington journal continues. host: we have the mayor of seattle joining us. who argued here with and what is the purpose of your trip? -- who are you ehre wihere withd what is the purpose of your trip? guest what specifically are you advocating for? guest: 1 the protocol went into law in 2005 and 141 countries it became law but not the united states, i stepped forward and suggested that seattle would reduce emissions by the amount called for in the treaty. i challenge mayors to join with me across the country. about 1000 mayors had joined me. and we think the issue is a very important one for our cities and the world. secondly, we think that because of the leadership we have shown and the grass-roots action we have taken that we are an important partner, the city's are where the economy takes place. most of the fossil fuel that is burned is burned in our cities to create that economy. missions and reduce the dependence on foreign oil, you're going to have to work into the cities and work with us as partners to be able to show people in our communities that they can take individual action. host: al green is seattle? -- how green is seattle? guest: seattle is a very green city. one dozen other mayors have followed suit and that amazes me. they are from every part of the country, every political party. it is something that people recognize is a huge problem. it is a global problem, and yet they are willing to take local, individual action to try to deal with it. host: what is an example that seattle has done for other companies predict that other companies could do? -- what is an example that seattle has done that other companies could do? guest: we are not a whole state. -- not a coal state. when you flip on a light switch in seattle, you are not testing the planteet. we have, as one of the ways we all set emissions, we have a large cruise ship activity. now they no longer run diesel engines but they turn them off and plug into our green and electric power. we tried to take actions and individual homes, businesses, and in the behavior's and practices that we have that will reduce emissions hos. host: i want to get your reaction on some bad climate news and some good. the white house and the senate leadership have pretty much agreed to keep controversial issues on the back burner until the health-care debate is resolved. referring to an international summit coming up. guest: that is in copenhagen. the word that we got yesterday is we went around to different members of the senate and that there is a lot of work going on. it is going on behind the scene. the public's focus and the senate's focus and the president's focus is on health care reform. obviously that is an extremely important issue. " we hope is that this hard work will be done and the compromises that are necessary will be found and put into legislation that can be put forward relatively quickly. it is heartening to me that it is at least on the table and on the agenda. in 2005 it certainly was not. the united states was a real problem internationally in terms of climate change conversations. for us to be able to go to copenhagen and be a voice, not only going along with the rest of the world but helping to lead the rest of the world is important. . . caller: yes, it's muted. host: you have to turn it off. caller: i am a retired coal miner from southern west virginia and realize that coal is part of our future down here, but people do not understand what is happening in southern west virginia. it has had a circle drawn around it to be destroyed so the rest of the world or the u.s. can enjoy cheap energy. 62% of our streams are now contaminated. that is with heavy metals. we produce water to send to the entire eastern half of the u.s. over 1 million acres of one of the most diverse ecosystems has been destroyed hear from mountaintop-removal money. our people are suffering severe health effects from this. "the new york times" in monday's paper ran a full-page article on this. the coal companies are violating the u.s. clean water act. one company violated its 4600 times in a quarter-year period. they did not even receive a single citation. they did not even have an employee who looked at thousands, thousands of clean water act violations that coal companies reported. it is not fair the west virginia is paying such a desperate price for the rest of the u.s. to enjoy clean energy. if they can do this in washington, i can we at least -- coal does not have to be produced with all these contaminants. when you burn coal your leaving these ash filpiles do not have o occur. there is technology from other countries, especially in england, like in france, germany that do not use or leave slurry behind. guest: there are a lot of practices we will need to change. a lot of habits we need to change personally, in our own homes and businesses if we will reduce emissions, keep the promise, to leave a planet that children and grandchildren can enjoy. we need to change our culture, outlook from one of conspicuous consumption to one of conspicuous conservation. the mayor has been talking about the real opportunity created by that. it is not just sacrifice. people in coal states are very concerned about what cap and trade will do to their economy. we need to recognize that and address it in any bill. there will be opportunities created in jobs in retro- fitting buildings to make them energy-efficient. in seattle we have a goal of 20%. we think there will be over 1 million jobs per year created between now and 2038 just in that retrofitting. we will build new buildings with new technologies and techniques. we will be building new power plants based on renewable resources, solar and geothermal. wind. those will create new jobs and opportunities as well. that is the kind of economy we should prepare for and trained people for. -- and train people for. make sure that the practices we use will leave yours and my states in the condition we will be proud of. host: good morning. caller: the whole theory which is quickly being proven and to that co2 is causing energy rise is junk science. i suspect you are a lawyer. guest: i'm not, but thank you. caller: i will give you four points. there is no greenhouse issue. carbon up so levels go up -- carbon dioxide levels go up and for the last 89 years the temperature has not gone up in this country. so, why do we keep intruding into carbon dioxide? some scientists feel that it has done little warming comibut cant do much more. i have looked at the issue for 20 years. then when our government says that a natural part of the atmosphere is a pollutant i feel like i'm moving in a george orwell novel. how can something naturally part of the atmosphere be called a pollutants? i would like to respond, sir. guest: let me just say i'm not a scientist. i'm a local politician. i'm not really in the practice of involving myself in global of issues. for me it is making sure that the streets are safe and services are delivered efficiently. i got involved in 2005 when seattle had a warm and dry winter. the ski season was canceled because there was no snow. it was of particular challenge in our area because we rely on the snowmelt for water into a tizzy. the mayor of to, and i had to urge people to start showering together which even in the northwest is a more radical. -- that was the mayor of tacoma and i. the trend has been downward since the end of world war ii. vast majority of opinion supports the idea that carbon dioxide is having an effect. other greenhouse gases as well. the effect is also caused by human behavior, the changes we have made in how we power industries and transportation. to me as an elected local officials, human being, and we have a responsibility to look at those practices and behaviors and change so we don't destroy the environment that has nurtured a human life and hopefully for future generations. for me that is the driving force. we need to ask people to sacrifice. we need to get creative and innovative. not only would we provide an environment, but also an economy to support the quality of life we are proud to pass on. host: the next call from washington comes on the line for caller: democrats yes, mayor, this is your back in port townsend. guest: it is early there. caller: yes, i wish that you would address blue energy. at that one place it was one of the greatest opportunities for that kind of energy in thewa world inve technology would allow us to get rid of the dams and to power our state and others. it would not hurt the fish. guest: one of the exciting things about this issue is that it will encourage him and innovation. port townsend is at the northwest portion of washington state. in the southeast corner we have a small city called a walla walla and on the outside of that city we have mountain ridges with very high wind. i saw the construction in august of some huge wind turbines going up on those bridges. we have people who have figured out how to extract energy from algae. -- there are some huge wind turbines going up on those mountain ridges. we have a limited supply of fossil fuels, particularly oil. the political ramifications of getting additional oil are very high. we will encourage that innovation, have renewable energy resources to create jobs. that will take us to where we need to go to protect the planet. it is an exciting time and opportunity. host: the call referenced a blue energy? what does that mean? caller: i'm not sure. the tidal energy sector is in its infancy. i know that there are utilities. the seattle city of light has looked at its. it is one of many exciting opportunities out there. host: the next call comes from detroit, michigan, steve. caller: you politicians all say the same thing. we need to do this, have to do that. you look like you are well-fed with a nice cut and jacket on. i don't know how things are in seattle but let me tell you how they are in detroit. one of three are out of work. unemployment is running out. we stood in lines for four hours yesterday for food. we do not want to hear that we will create jobs two years down the line. people need jobs now. c-span has all these diverse topics. everything except for the fact that nobody is working. we cannot even make an economy work and upgrade people's standard of living with fossil fuels. how we do this right now? you cannot. when your basic needs are in jeopardy like your rent, food. we do not want to hear about what you will do and say. it is time to stop the crap and start creating jobs today, right now, this afternoon. guest: i certainly agree with that. the city i'm proud to be mayor of is suffering along with the rest of the country. when i came in as mayor in 2002 we were being hit by the recession after 9/11 because boeing laid off 11,000 people. i understand that people need to work. they need to take care of their families. one family's struggle we as a community need to step forward to help them. -- when families suffer. i think all the country understands that detroit has suffered cruelly. it will not be business as usual. that has gotten us where we are today. i think that detroit will become the green automobile capital of the world, to figure out technologies for electric vehicles or other renewable sources to power them. so that we can break our dependence particularly on foreign oil. we can stop putting all of this poison into the atmosphere. we can put people to work building clean, green cars in detroit. you know how to build them better than anyone else in the world, just build them differently. host: jamie on the republican line? caller: good morning. i was wondering if mr. nickels had heard of a scientist who came over from czechoslovakia and he worked for edison. are you aware of guest: him no, i am not. caller: i urge you to look into his history. it has been mostly buried. he was in the service of edison and then went out on his own. his money came from j.p. morgan. he gave us the alternating current. when he turned on niagara in new york he walked away and said that any type of fossil fuels and coal-burning was against nature. he developed a the tessla coil which many of our physicist use. it is renewable, clean. i suggest you look into this. we have had the technology for about 100 years now. i will listen to you offline. guest: thank you, i am not familiar with the particular scientist. i'm familiar with a lot of great ideas out there. there are a lot of technologies both new and old we can put to work. we are capable of meeting it. the challenge here in washington, d.c. will be for congress to focus on it, get legislation through so that we have a framework, a market for innovations to come forward and be capitalized. host: virginia, on the line for democrats, leah. caller: i am so glad to be on the show. right now because of the economy at least we can take energy [inaudible] as a blessing. at least we have ways to save money on energy. a lot of people use more energy than we need. for example, i will buy a lot of 7/11's and it seems they have their lights on during the middle of the day. they have the lights on the outside, right above the gas station. it does not even compete with natural light. people turn on their heaters 24/7 even when the temperature is perfect outside and while they are at work all day. it is being overused. we should take advantage because it is the perfect time to start saving money since we do not have it. guest: the reason the mayors are here in washington is that we are lobbying for a block grant program. it would allow us to do three things. reduce emissions, to reduce energy use which means that you as a homeowner or business-owner would have lower energy bills. and thirdly, to train people to install these energy-saving devices and measures and create new, green jobs. it is a great time for that. those jobs are badly needed. the bills need to come down so people can afford to stay in their homes and in business. that is why we are here to get the attention of congress on the large global issue but also on local opportunities. host: this is from an e-mail. guest: i have not had a chance to talk to the senator on this trip, but have talked with his staff on past trips about transportation and other issues. we have approached this issue. the senator and i fundamentally disagree on whether this is a challenge we need to me. he believes it is not. i believe the overwhelming scientific evidence shows is. we have a moral responsibility to act. host: who are you meeting with while here? guest: senator boxer, senator kerry, the two senators from my state, senator luger of indiana, and also another senator, and individual members who have met with their own centers across the country. host: the next call is randy on the independent line. caller: good morning, i agree with your statements about the need for conservation. one of the things i'm very concerned about is using an electric vehicles. many do not realize the tremendous pollutants that come from most forms of electrical generation. nuclear has the same problem. but there is the case where most do not realize in the process of combustion using air, there is a reaction that occurs where the nitrogen and another gas react to create another gas called nox. this product is known and agreed upon by everyone to caused smog. it mixes with the hydrocarbons in the air and sunlight to make smog. this happens anywhere in the world at any time. everyone agrees on it. for conservation whether you believe in greenhouse gases or climate change, nox has an absolute affect on the process. anytime you are involved with the point of trying to do conservation for any kind of energy you will inherently have a significant reduction in the amount of pollutants being produced beyond "the greenhouse gases." guest: one of the big areas of emphasis needs to be transportation. right now is 90.5% dependent on fossil fuels. to the extent we can move to electrify the system and encourage mass transit -- we just developed our first light rail line in seattle -- and also individual vehicles. we are welcoming electric vehicles and creaking infrastructure for charging stations. we will be a good market for the introduction of those. in our area because of hydropower that will be particularly affected. -- it will be particularly effective. other areas more dependent on coal will find it less effective. we're trying to replace coal and other fossil fuel-based energy with chernobyl, wind, geothermal. -- replace fossil fuel-based energy with renewaables. caller: the u.s. is one of the few first-world countries that does not produce most of its energy using nuclear power. the vast majority of europe and japan and a lot of first-world countries give great -- they have high opinions of using nuclear power. it is safe and clean. we do not use it because people are techno-phobic which is a terrible reason to continue. continue or spending taxpayer money on in practical ways to produce electricity. -- being phobic is a terrible reason to continue putting the planet. someone earlier mentioned using tides and blue energy which are not yet practical energies. we cannot afford to use taxpayer money to develop them. guest: i think we do need to follow a number of different paths. these very innovative technologies are well-worth resurging, demonstrating, and hopefully some will be successful as part of our future. i will acknowledge that i think nuclear does need to be part of the conversation. in our part of the country there are two issues that will need to be addressed before will be embraced as a realistic alternative. one is the financing. in the 1970's in our area there was the largest municipal bond failure in the country's history as part of the five-nuclear plant development. how will these plans be financed and kept on budget? the second issue again reflected in our state, how do you deal with the waste created by the nuclear power plants? i do not know the answer. that is certainly something long term you have to have resolved before jumping into that as a long-term option. financing from a safety, and the waste issue. host: let's leave it there. thank you for joining us. we will be right back after this news update. >> the labor department says the consumer price index rose last month after a flat reading in july. wall street economists expected less of an increase. the report that the deficit in the broadest measure of foreign trade shrank in the spring to the lowest level in 18 years. the treasury department says it will begin to wind down one of its emergency programs to give the government more time before it hits the national debt limit. by reducing the size of the supplementary account, the will be six weeks of maneuvering room before his the current limit of $12.10 trillion. congress has yet to agree from the request by timothy geithner to increase that ceiling. . . >> the left-of-center party takes control after more than 50 years of rule by conservatives. speaking after the proceedings, he says he will like to build a relationship of trust with president obama. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. host: 20 now is dr. rand paul -- joining us now is dr. rand paul. as both a senate candidate and a doctor, what is your view on the health care debate? >> the first thing you have to ask with health care, we do have a problem, but where does the steproblems stem from? i think most of the proposals in washington assumed that capitalism has failed or that capitalism does not work in health care. i would argue that we do not have any capitalism in health care now, and maybe we should go the other direction. instead of more government, let's look at how the marketplace works for cellphone s or contact lenses. things that you pay cash for, the price has been going down for years. there are other ways to look at it then asked if we need more government. how do we install the great engine of capitalism into health care? host: how effective do you view the u.s. health system now? guest: the problem is that you have private ownership. you do not have price mobility. part of capitalism is private ownership and profit. it only works for the consumer if you have price mobility. for example, 50% of what i do is medicare, 5% is medicaid paid over half of what i do is paid for by the government. if you're over 65 and you get cadillac surgery and you're in the country, you pay the same price -- you get cataract surgery anywhere in the country, you pay the same price. there is no marketplace. nobody knows what the price should be for that surgery. any time you go to private insurance -- that is 40% of what i do. the prices are still fixed. all the doctors in my count charge the same rate because we make a deal with humana. there is no consumer is some. that is what we need. to get there, we have to have higher deductibles. people say, i do not want a higher deductible. if you have a higher deductible, you have a lower premium. i have a $5,000 deductible. i pay a lot less. i saved $7,000 per year by having a higher deductible. then you have a marketplace for people paying, which would drive prices down. host: what do you think congress needs to do in health insurance? guest: there are two problems, health care and expense. the whole debate is driven by access. the say there are 46 million people without insurance. that is driving the debate. they are counterproductive. if you increase access, you will increase expense. the 46 million people who do not have insurance, about 1/3 of them make more than $50,000 per year. about 1/3 of them have been without insurance for less than three months. about 1/3 of them are eligible for medicaid but they do not sign up. why do they not sign up? because they can't show up at the emergency room. -- because they can show up at the emergency room. i can't afford my insurance, but my insurance has gone up $17,000 per year. the expense side of the question is out of control. that's what we have to look at. then we have to say, what do we want to do? have more price controls? most economists admit it is not good to control the price of cellphones or tv's. why would it be good to control the price of health care? i would say, how do we make health care more like cellphone s? you can go to wal-mart and get a cell phone 4 $14 now. there's incredible productivity in the marketplace. if you believe in capitalism, why not introduce capitalism in health care instead of introducing european socialism to health care? host: you have described yourself as a career doctor, not a politician. why are you running for the senate? guest: i'm worried about the direction our country is going in. everybody would say, why would you want to go into politics? doctors are universally respected and talpoliticians are almost universally this respected. our deficit is enormous, 13% of our gross national product. when the republicans were in charge, we doubled the dead from $5 trillion to $10 trillion, and now the democrats are in charge and there is celebrating the deficit is not just our kids and grandkids. we will pay for it through price inflation. you will see significant rises at the pump and at the grocery store. there will be a huge debate in our country. host: let's go to our calls. caller: i wanted to ask a question. he is talking about needing more capitalism in the health-care system. i understand that. i will not say republicans. i will say politicians. they are giving billions of dollars of tax breaks to move jobs overseas. we have 30 million now that do not have health insurance. two years down the road, we may be talking about 60 million. it is because their jobs have gone overseas. hiring millions of chinese and indians. their companies are booming. american companies are lagging. the deficit was already started years ago. democrats have to spend money to try to reverse the deficit. no one is going to take the tax breaks back from the companies because they are lining the pockets of the politicians. when it comes to america, can we not just get something out of government besides capitalism? we do the most, yet we received the least. look at china. china is basically getting it free. we are paying sky-high prices. host: good question. i would not subsidize big business to go overseas. direct subsidies from government to business are a mistake. you talked about people losing jobs and having trouble affording insurance. that is exactly right. the problem is the expense, not so much the access. the way that you reduce expenses is by changing our philosophy on insurance. you need health insurance that looks more like term life insurance. if you get term life insurance, you get maybe a 20-year contract. when you get sick during your term life insurance, the rate does not change, and the amount does not change. you need something more like term life insurance. it would be much less expensive. it would not be associated with your employment. instead of eight hundred dollars per month, you might be looking at $800 per year. the advantage would be that it would drive down prices. you would have competition. competition does work. when i say capitalism, also think competition. to have troop capitalism, you have to have competition. host: massachusetts on the republican line. caller: i thought he was a senator. he is a candidate for senator. he would not know. i wanted to know if the social security is dead or what. i want to know because i'm 81. i just lost my husband, which was a veteran. i am here trying to figure out if i am going to have social security to pay my bills. i am 81. i took care of him. i did everything i could. you are sitting up here trying to run for senator. if you ever get in, tell the truth. is social security dead? i am depending on it to live. i cannot get a job at 81. guest: that is a good question. social security is running short of money, and so is medicare. we used to have seven workers for every retiree. now we have about one retiree for every one worker. the demographics are difficult. it is not that they are dead. they will eventually run out of money because we do not have enough workers for retirees. that's why we should not increase or add to the benefits. during the eight years administration of the years, we added the medicare prescription drug plans. there are senior citizens that cannot afford drugs, but when we gave all senior citizens' free drugs, we sped up the demise. that should be driving the debate now. they're talking about adding 46 million people. some of them are not citizens, also. they are talking about adding these people and having the taxpayer pay for it. we are running short of money. you have to realize that nothing in life is free. you think health care is expensive now. wait until it is free. nothing is really free. you will have to pay taxes. will social security and medicare continue to exist? yes. you have to ask, if we have him% inflation and you only get 2% cost-of-living raise, will you be able to buy anything at the grocery store with your social security check? that is the real question. host: on the independent line, gary from texas. guest: i'm a medically retired postal worker. i'm medically retired because of military disabilities from the 1970's. i spent over 25 years at the post office. i have seen all different kinds of stuff. i guess i have what they call the cadillac health insurance. in texas, have seen some of the doctors that have dropped some of these from the federal employees benefit because they cannot negotiate a price for ppo and stuff like that. they will not accept the price. in the 1980's, we had to fight some of the insurance companies. they would not pay for some veterans because they called it pre-existing conditions. the way i feel and the way other veterans feel, if there is a company in this country that says we will not do this because he has pre-existing conditions, they do not deserve to do business in this country. guest: i have always joked and said that the congressman should go to the veterans administration for their health care and that might shake up the system very quickly. i think you are right. if you have declining rates of payment for physicians, there will be a breaking point. there are already some who will not take medicare because the rates have become so low. all of the health care proposals now -- when they say they will get efficiency or squeeze more money out of the system and somehow it will not cost us anything to add 46 million people -- it will cost. it will lead to rationing or reduction in payments to physicians. if you do not pay doctors to do the work, they will not accept the insurance. that runs into more problems. you do not want more government involvement. think about fema distributing water at the superdome. they could not do the most basic things. why would you want government to be involved in your health care? we have medicare now and it sort of works, but it is chronically short of money. why would you want to make medicare bigger or may government run health care bigger? they are chronically short of money. who do you want to make the decision? do you want government making the decisions, or you and your doctor? how much are you worth? if you have six months to live, are you only worth $20,000? that's what happens in england. they decide you only have $25,000 worth of medicine. do we want government making those decisions? do you want the individual sitting in the room deciding what you or your grandmother or your mother needs? or do you want government making those decisions? i think americans will tell the politicians they do not want the government making their decisions for health care. host: bill smith wrote on our twitter page -- guest: i am pro-life. i think it is wrong for the national groups to get involved in state races. in my race, the big deal is -- i am steadfastly against the bank bailout. i tell every republican voter i meet in kentucky. our platform says we do not believe in bailing out private businesses. yet half the republican leadership voted for the bank bailout. a lot of the people who voted for the bank bailout are coming to kentucky and giving buckets of cash to my republican opponent. i wish they would stay out of my race and let the people of kentucky decide what is best for kentucky. host: next call from virginia of on the democratic line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i think that the candidate raises an interesting point about the lack of capitalism in health care. i truly an analogy to telephone service, i think you're missing the very important element that most of us all know. that is that health care is not a cellphone. if i do not have a cell phone, i'm not going to die. if i have a heart attack, i need health care. if i do not have that health care, i may very well die. health care is not a commodity that you can buy and purchase and sell. it is far closer to a life, to which all people should have access. you cannot buy and trade on the open market. people cannot walk away from health care without walking away from life. guest: it is a very important debate that we should be having in washington. if you say health care is a right, you have to then argue that you have the right to someone's labor, that you have a right to involuntary servitude. it is a janitor at the hospital, the nurse at the hospital, the administrator at the hospital, the people who built the hospital's -- do you have a right to their labor? you cannot have a right to something like that. you can have a right to an abstraction, like the pursuit of happiness. can health care be like a cell phone? maybe not always, but about 90% of your health care is elected and done on a reasoned and slow fashion. even a heart attack can be pre negotiated in advance, and is a lot of times through health insurance. yes, you do need capitalism. you do indeed price stability. -- we do need price mobility. what most of us are complaining about is the expense. if we love all these people in, the only way to control expense is through top-down regulation and rationing of health care. most health care is not on a merchant. for the emergence part, we have 100% access. that cannot be emphasized enough. 100% of americans have access to emergency care. it has been that way in the area of government and also before government. we have 100% access. if you break your arm, every doctor in the country will see you regardless of your ability to pay. host: daytona beach, fla. on the republican line. guest: good morning. i would like to suggest that we do have a problem with health care in this country. we do have many people that need health care that do not have it. my husband and i have never earned more than $50,000 per year. we raised three children. we had insurance for the children. we did without insurance ourselves. i think the biggest problem in our country is -- we are not paying attention to preventatives. our children do not have to take gym class. they talk about the obesity problem in our country. partly it's because our children are in schools eight hours per day not getting physical exercise and proper nutrition. and not getting enough attention to make sure that they have what they need to fight the flu and what have you. if you start on the basis of making sure the children have what they need, and then the emergency care that is needed along the way is taking care of, our nation would be healthier. this problem would not be as bad as it is today. thank you. guest: those are good points. preventive medicine, being healthy is very important. anytime government is involved -- i would not have the government pay for a healthy thing. if the government is deciding what food is sold in high schools, there's no reason you should have sugary drinks. you should have exercised as part of the school day. when you receive food stamps from the government, those should not be going for soft drinks and chips. we should restrict where they go. at the very least, it should be going toward all the very healthy foods, the staples of the diet. we should not allow people to use food stamps to buy coca-cola and chips. host: next call on the independent line. guest: i am not a callphone or a tv, which by the way, we do not make in this country anymore. capitalism is a total and complete failure. if it wasn't, the rich would not be running toward socialism. down here on the bottom, we get 24/7 capitalism. we know it does not work. i do not understand why people like you do not know it does not work. the rich know. ask them. they're all very socialist. down here, we do not get any socialism. thanks to you, we will not have health care. thanks to you, we will not have jobs. thanks a lot. guest: as far as capitalism being a failure, there's a great story in the early 1980's, the soviet union wanted to run a propaganda film to say how horrible capitalism was. they showed a video. it was one of the not so great looking buildings in new york city with broken windows. it backfired on them. they showed the poorest people in our society. they found color television sets in every window. the poorest people in our country, compared to the middle class and the rich and most of the rest of the world -- capitalism is without argument the engine that has brought the greatest wealth and the greatest humanitarianism to every strata. we average people in our country. we have a country where bill gates became the richest person in the world and his parents were both teachers. they were middle class. we have mobility. most countries do not have that. we have an incredibly free and mobile society. it is not perfect. there are poor. the poorest in our society are richer than in most countries. we should understand capitalism and see how it brings great wealth. host: to. on the democratic line. caller: my question and comment for mr. paul, i will like to ask, if his party had the control of the house and senate 15 years ago, why was there not a call for health care reform then? why is there such a resentment now that barack obama, the first african-american president in office, is trying to do something for the people? why aren't you rebuking any of these tea party meetings that are calling obama racist, obama hitler, and everything else. guest: i do not engage in anything calling the president racist or hitler or anything like that. i do not think that is good for this country. as colette's calling for health care reform, he made a good point. the republicans did not do anything for health care. you are doing a good job of pointing out the problems with what president obama is proposing to european-style socialism is not a good answer for us. government run health care is not a good answer. we're doing a pretty good job of proposing how your choices of insurance will be restricted. you may not be able to buy health savings account is the democratic plan gets passed. we need to understand that there's a problem in our country. there's an access problem and there is an expense problem. my question is the basic question we started this interview with. do we want to go toward more government or less government? do our problems exist now because we have too much government involved in medicine, or too little involvement? we as republicans need to promote a plan, yes, we need to have an alternative. there is an alternative. we need to make health insurance more like term life insurance. multi-year plans that would get rid of pre-existing problems and it would get rid of expense problems. you would have higher deductibles. when you have higher deductibles, you have freely floating prices and competition drives down prices. competition works in every segment of the economy. healthcare has some unique aspects. it is a service industry. we need to figure out how to get competition to work in the service industry. you cannot negotiate for your heart attack, but you could if you need to get an eye exam once a year. we have none of that. that's what works in all of the rest of the marketplace. nothing in health care is driven by price. you have an intermediary. you have the insurance company. does not work. it is not working because we do not have enough capitalism. we need capitalism, which means competition, which means mobility of prices. caller: when president bush and president clinton were in office, the democrats said the republicans are trying to get in her bedroom. when i hear the democrats say we need preventive care -- i cannot help but think they're trying to get up in my asshole. host: new york city on the independent line. caller: i think it's a little unfair for the candidate to say that the government involvement is always bad. we have the armed forces. medicare and social security have certainly worked. he is in congress for goodness sakes. that is a government run program. as far as the statement about non-citizens getting care, that is the situation now. if an illegal alien is in a car accident, i do not think there is a canada that we expect that person should not get care. the obama plan does not change that. my final point is, if he wants capitalism to work in health care, then he should be in support of the democratic plans. that is essentially what they're trying to do with that plan. guest: i do not think the democratic plan is injecting capitalism. almost all of the plan involves mandates. they will also give you a big penalty if you do not buy insurance. they'll also tell you which insurance you can buy. we did it in kentucky in 1994. we have health care reform similar to the obama plan. 35 of the 37 insurance companies left the state because they. cannot make. -- they left the state because they could not make a profit. i have they held savings accounts. it is the only part of health care that is working because it drives down cost. i have to pay when i go to the doctor. i'm only covered for catastrophic illness. that is what works. that is capitalism. under the democratic plan, if i lose my insurance or have to buy another posse, the health savings accounts will likely not be approved by the democratic committees. host: we have to leave it there. thank you for coming in. next we will talk to dr. edward miller of john hopkins university. we will continue our talk on health care. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> the fbi director is on capitol hill this morning before the senate judiciary committee for an oversight hearing. that starts at 10:00 a.m. eastern. nasa officials testify on the future of manned space flight. that is thaat 2:30. and you can watch both of today's live events on our web site, c-span.org. >> congressman ron paul wants to hold the federal reserve accountable for the economic crisis. he wants to end the fed. he joins us on booke tv. >> take a rare visit inside the supreme court as we talk to the justices about the rule, tradition, and history of the course. >> he will not come in because he said the building was so elaborate that it would go to their heads. he was right. it has become a symbol of the court system, the third branch of government, and the need for stability, the rule of law, which is what america stands for. >> supreme court week starting october 4 on c-span. as a complement to this original production, c-span offers teachers free teaching resources on our judicial system. host: joining us dr. edward miller now edward of johns hopkins university. he joins us to talk about low income and the uninsured when it comes to the health care debate. thank you for joining us. who are the uninsured? guest: often the working poor. people love not signed up for medicate -- people who have not signed up for medicaid, and illegal immigrants. host: what is your group advocating? to? guest: one thing missing from this debate is the delivery side of care. we think we have the mechanisms where we can ensure that we can take care of the uninsured better than we are doing right now, if we have mechanisms in place to make that happen. talking about the populations that come into the system, and ways that we can treat those that are high cost. preventive measures that we have in place. if they are admitted to the hospital and then discharge, that we have services in place to take care of them when they go back to their homes. host: is there anything in the current health care debate that would specifically affect low income? guest: we are concerned about the reimbursement rates. everybody wants to pay for this in some way by insuring the cuts. in that way, there will be less physicians that will care for these patients. we do not want that. we want to have mechanisms in place. there are ways to care for them in their homes so they are not admitted again or come back to the emergency rooms. host: what about geographic disparities? guest: the whole issue of geographic disparities and the study the people of talked about -- if you take out the cost of living in cities like new york, baltimore, or washington, if you put in the cost of indirect medical education, and the fact that we take care of a disproportion of the uninsured, you find there's not as much cost variation. host: harmony of the uninsured -- how many illegal immigrants are a part of that? guest: it is a significant factor, but it is very different in different parts of the country. in baltimore, we see a significant number of the spanish population better coming in and having their babies in our hospitals. in san diego, there have been a significant number of people ending up in the emergency rooms because they have no care. in other parts of the country, it is not as big of an issue. it is an issue that needs to be addressed, but very different in different parts of the country. host: what about people who choose not to have insurance? a lot of it is on the young people and the country who actively decide not to have this. guest: i think it is unfair for people who can afford to buy health insurance not to buy it, and then show up and say they have free care. that is a real problem. insurance only works if everybody is in it. that's what insurance is about. host: first call from richmond, va., jennifer, a medical professional. caller: do you agree that the senator from kentucky said he would agree to a high deductible payment. i totally disagree with this. it totally stops preventive care for low-income people. the last doctor from kentucky did not understand that for people do not have the money to see the doctor. they have a whole opportunity of preventative maintenance that is gone. they have to wait until it is a big problem. i have been in the medical profession for almost 20 years. if you do not address the prior authorization process, and if you do not stop poor people from getting access to it -- the last doctor said he wants to see people takpay. it will not matter if there is a public option or not. guest: i agree. having a high deductible for for people does not work. they will not seek care. they will not get the medicines that they need. i could not agree more. host: venice, calif., cynthia. caller: i would like to ask how you felt about medical care for profit, and the way the medical industry is in place now seems to care about that so much more than they do caring for their patients. the president is being so criticized about this in terms of his plan. i wanted to know how you felt about that. guest: i have only worked in a non for-profit system. the small amount of profit -- those dollars get pushed back into the system to try to deliver a higher quality of care and to educate the work force of tomorrow. there are some very responsible for-profit health care insurance companies. there are others that are not. you cannot painted them all with a broad brush. i am concerned that sometimes the concern is making sure that the shareholders' value is increasing versus delivering the highest in health care. host: do you have a personal opinion on public option? guest: my personal view on public option is depending on what it really is. by that, what is the reimbursement going to be? if the reimbursement will be set at the medicaid rate, i'm not in favor. if it is better than medicare, i'm more in favor. because it will bring in people. it will allow a significant number of physicians to provide care. in the medicare and medicaid system, as the reimbursement remains low, fewer physicians are willing to accept medicare and medicaid. host: some critics have said that if you ensure everyone, the demand to go to the doctor will be so high that doctors will not be able to see their patients. guest: once you give someone an insurance card, the use is very high. we have seen that in maryland. the state of maryland recently increased the ability for people. 20,000 people came into the system. i can assure you they use a tremendous number of resources in the first couple of years there in the plan because they have not have health care. you see the same things in medicare. when they become a medicare recipient, they use a disproportion number of services. host: next call from new jersey. caller: i look at it this way. we live in the richest country in a world. everyone is talking about abortion in this and that. if you want to save a life, save the living. when i went to have my first child, my husband said to me, if it came between me and that baby, let the baby go. i need you. i'm going to tell you something. we cannot save lives in our own country? something is wrong. host: next call, pittsburgh, pa.. caller: i was calling to talk about medicaid versus insurance companies. i am an emt. i have seen a decline in how many patients we have been taking to the hospitals. i believe that the insurance companies and medicaid should have their fight outside of the actual care for patients. over the last 10 years, the "value of life" has diminished. it seems like everyone from dispatchers to nurses to insurance companies -- everybody wants their own version of "the value of life." i believe that should be between the doctor and patient. how it is paid for should be separated from that. i do not care if you're young or old or have no money. everybody has value of life. that should be separated from this money part. guest: i have been a physician for 40 years. i agree. every patients life is valuable. i think academic health care centers have value to that over the years. i have seen no change in that. we take everybody who comes to our door. in the emergency room, we try to provide them with the best care. many of the places in the country do this. i agree there has to be a mechanism in order that we can continue on that course to provide care for people that come to us. we do value life. we have to find a mechanism to pay for its. host: east orange, new jersey. caller: in regard to low income people, i think low income would be anybody who makes $50,000 or less. i'm understand there's a problem with payment. we have ways to pay for things on the internet. i'm wondering if there could be a central database. . when someone is admitted, they can be tracked, and the physician can be paid immediately electronically. this way they can track who is using the system. they can even track people who are here illegally and get them the assistance they need to either become legal, or at least save money. guest: i think you're correct. i think there are mechanisms. if you get them into some kind of insurance plan, you can't do exactly as you stated. you can start to track them. those that come in without insurance, you should find a mechanism to get them insured. for example, if we have a patient that might be eligible for medicaid, we immediately get them enrolled. to be able to attract the population, and at the same time, be able to identify those who will be high users of medical services, and then to put mechanisms in place to take care of those -- we know how to care for those in a continuum. it can be much cheaper than episodes of illness. host: he raised the point about what constitutes a low income. who qualifies as low income? guest: about $50,000. i think the number is higher than that. we can ensure the population that are above medicaid limits, which is about $30,000 -- those are the working poor. we should find a mechanism to be able to ensure those individuals at a rate that they need to have some skin in the game. they need to pay something for the premium. we should be able to figure out how do we partner with the government. how do we partner with blue cross blue shield and others? if we can get those working for into the system, they're generally pretty healthy. we can care for them and make sure they do not get illnesses the ndp in our emergency rooms. host: next call from kentucky. caller: good morning. i am a 50-year-old woman. my husband was injured in an accident. he is on disability. he has medicare. i have some health insurance. i tried to apply for medical card and in kentucky. i have no kids over the age of 18. where does that leave me? i feel like sometimes people think because i'm a wife and that i am at home that i do not contribute. i take care of a disabled husband and a disabled grandson so my children can work. i do contribute. i can go to the emergency room if it is that bad. if they say, you need more test run, you need to go to your family doctor. i cannot even afford to go to the family doctor. guest: unfortunately, i think you make a better example than some of the examples the president made in his speech. you are in the exact person who needs that kind of health care insurance. right now it is so individualized to each of the states. the states make these decisions. you fit in the category of people who should have health insurance, you should have access to doctors. it should not ruin you financially, you are doing a service to your family by taking care of your husband and a disabled child. that is very important. this is why i think some kind of population health, where you can be cared for by the system. host: are there any models on the state or local level of covering the uninsured that work? guest: we take care of a lot of the uninsured. i do not think there's a good model for this yet. host: next caller. caller: i have worked in the health profession for last 10 years. i have watched the cost the that is reimbursed from going to $60 to $145. the real concern with all the changes -- i do not know who to believe. i think it's wonderful this gentleman is on television. it is nice to hear from someone who is in the nonprofit industry. i look at all these cost increases. i'm wondering. the reform needs to come from every level of health care. i have dealt with johns hopkins directly. we send patients from the rural area who have no insurance. we watch what congress is doing. congress is, we just need to put everybody in. i agree that is not going to work. i have watched the poor people in my area that have no coverage that cannot afford to go to the doctor. we sent them through the system. they may be $1 over, and i cannot treat them. in my industry, i have watched salaries. i work for a big group of physicians. nursing went from $10 per hour to $14 per hour. everything is going to have to change before you can really change health care. guest: there are multiple areas where things could be improved your comments about the cost of doing and so forth is a great example. we deal with 600 different insurance companies at johns hopkins. every insurance company can have its own. . it can have its own eligibility requirements and so forth. we have hundreds of people that only spend their time trying to sort out the insurance issues. secondly, take a look at the issue of tort reform, the cost of malpractice insurance continues to climb despite our best. . -- despite our best efforts. that is another piece of the puzzle that needs to be addressed. the way to solve this is not one thing that will solve the problem. we need to pick various areas where we can see real cost savings and real improvement and value to the patient. the patient has got to be the center of this. we got lost in the insurance companies and tort reform. we need to figure out what is the best thing for the patient. host: larry from the virgin islands. caller: i was just one to say -- i do not think the argument against the public option is valid. host: why not? caller: i am undermine wife's policy could is up to the insurance company which doctor or dentist i can have. i don't think there's any difference if the insurance companies choosing, or the government. the doctors will be so overloaded. thank you. guest: the whole issue of work- force development has not been in this discussion. there are many places in the country, and i think massachusetts it's a good example. when they opened up health insurance for all of massachusetts, individuals could not find it provider. unless we address the workforce issue -- it is not just the positiophysicians. that has not been at all the debate. but we are here in washington to discuss with congress is to discuss this specific issue. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions. one of them is about who qualifies for medicaid. i've been diagnosed with congestive heart failure over one year ago. the first doctor i saw thought i had an infection. i got to the point where i could not even brieeath. he said, you better go to the hospital. i went to the hospital and they diagnosed me with that. i have seen two cardiologists. i have applied for medicaid and denied three times. i saw and cardiologists last week. she said i had congestive heart failure could i have been denied. the previous guest said 1/3 of the people who are uninsured qualify for medicaid and do not know it. i think that is basically the republican handbook that says they're just using smoke and mirrors to try to sway the public. who qualifies for medicaid? should a person like myself qualify for medicaid? how can the viewers not see that this is a monopoly that the health-care system has? guest: the issue of medicaid is by each state. every state can set the limits. it's usually based on income. every state is changing all the time. the state of maryland increased the eligibility requirements. they did that by increasing how much over the poverty level in come was necessary. i cannot specifically answer your question for your state, but each state has requirements. host: next call, buffalo, new york. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i am calling to talk about efficiency questions. i am in the medical field. i am involved in emr systems. that is creating a lot of deficiencieefficiencies and redt of the error. a single payer system would be a lot more efficient from what i've seen fit i have dealt with all the insurance companies, the government, medicare, medicaid, and all those things. from my experience, it is very painful working with insurance companies. they're very inefficient and have a lot of overhead. it is very complicated to set up medical billing with those organizations. they do not want to take a i imagine there would be a lot of savings if we simply switched everything over to a government run system. simply because there's so much easier to deal with. there's much less overhead. the whole billing process is a lot smoother and a lot more efficient. rates are lower, but they get paid more often. guest: it is a real political issue. i do not think the insurance companies will go away in this country. if you take a look at some of the foreign countries that have a government controlled system, those countries then start to develop a separate private insurance system. everybody is enrolled in the system is not happy and they want another option. i'm understand that there are ways to improve the efficiency. there are ways for the insurance industry to be regulated in such a way so the issues you're talking about, requiring everybody to be electronically build, we would agree. many small insurers do not have the capability. i do not see the private insurance industry going away in this country right away. host: and your e-mailed in -- guest: i do not know the exact answer. it depends. for every private insurer who has a layer of private insurance -- it policy is different. -- each policy is different treaty cannot answer that with one question. for some, it's better to of medicare. for others, it is better to have your primary to be private. host: next call from louisiana. caller: do you know if there is going to be any cuts in social security disability? everyone please listen to this. i do not care if you are white black, orange, yellow, pink, or red. we cannot keep rewarding people for having illegitimate children on welfare. it is killing our health-care system. if that does not make any sense, policlease -- where are e going with this? we cannot reward illegitimate mothers to have a dozen babies. if i'm wrong, tell me i'm wrong. guest: in terms of your first question, i do not know the answer about social security disability benefits. there are major decreases in some of the bills by in medicare spending, which could affect that. hospitals and health systems cannot really take care of all the social issues that this country has. we often end up the providers of care for social problems, whether it is unwanted pregnancy, drug addictions, but there's another element of society that needs to deal with that. caller: thank you for taking my call. a woman called earlier and spoke about being uninsured and taking care of her disabled husband. i have been without health insurance for almost two years.

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