Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20130306

Yesterday. Here are the numbers to call you can also find us online. Send us a tweet. Or join the conversation on facebook. You can also email us. Here is the headline in the Washington Times this morning at the dow jones hit a record high. Here is the headline in the Washington Post. Heres an image of the floor a couple other articles are looking at this equation of the stock market. How it relates to the economy overall. In the Washington Times, this man was the secretary of labor during the Clinton Administration. He says we would like to get your thoughts on this. Joining us now to talk more about the markets is Suzanne Mcgee from the fiscal times, a columnist. Thanks for joining us. Guest thanks for inviting me. Host here is the headline in your piece what are you going to be watching for today . Guest its taken us a long time to get this high. We finally managed to retrace all the ground that was lost from late 2007 up until today. That is five years. Its not the longest in has taken us to recover from a trough, but it is not too shabby. I will be looking for signs of a buyers remorse today. Some may feel they have to push things a little too far too fast this year. This is a big gain to start the year with. Each of the last two january through february perioeds, some big gains have evaporated. Host she writes what would happen if there is a bit of a selloff . Guest i think that would just restore some common sense, some normality to the situation right now. There are some people who are celebrating this and other is just taking a look at the markets and saying it cannot continue at this pace, its just not logical, not reasonable. No one really expects the s p 500 or the dow jones to end the year with gains of more than 10 . Have come nearly that far already. If we pause and retrace some of that ground and then move forward after the companys First Quarter earnings, then we will gasx a little more fun and with that will give us more fundamental good news to move forward whith. Host whats the relationship to the stock market . Guest it boils down to corporate profits. You mentioned earlier one view of the situation. It is true. Companies in the u. S. Have focused very intently on boosting their profits out of obligation to shareholders. They have been intently doing that. The way they chose to do that in a slow to no growth the economy has been to cut costs. One of the biggest ways to cut costs is by cutting payroll and or holding down any wage increases, which is why we have managed to have a picture of an economy that is not moving, job growth and thats very sluggish, and yet prospects in the stock market is gaining ground. Host here is another article do you see that and what does that mean . Guest i dont want to go there. As long as i have been looking at markets, there have been people willing to project astronomical levels for the dow jones. Im sure wannabes will get to 20,000. I would been hesitant to predict that any time soon. Given whats going on in europe and the fact that china may still not be out of the woods, that the imf is still predicting Global Economic growth in the low single digits. Host why are these companies the ones to watch . Guest they are blue chip companies. They are established businesses that have been around for a long time. It is an equally weighted index, so it does not matter how large or small they are relative to each other. Right now they are talking about the difficulty the s p will have to fully retraced its weight because apple makes up such a large portion of that index and apple has been under so much pressure. What is interesting is is a good mix of companies. We have telecommunications companies. There are industrial companies. Pharmaceutical companies, would have been plodding along. You will not see the big spectacular Growth Stocks in there until they have proven themselves. Host we also wanted to ask you about your other experience beyond the right thing for the fiscal times. You are the author of the book chasing goldman sachs. What is your reporting in that . What lessons are there as you look at this right now . Guest its been interesting for me to what the bank stocks comeback over the course of the last year. As the banks have gotten right back on their feet, to some extent they have been restrained in risktaking both by what is going on in the Broader Market and buy new regulations. We saw the scandal at j. P. Morgan around this time last year emerging, london whale. At the be looking extent to which the market gains confidence and solid Risk Management going by the boards. Host thanks for joining us this morning. Guest thank you. Host what do you to think about the dow jones hitting a record high . Ryan is our first caller from texas, democrat. Caller i would like to say its a good thing that the dow jones is that high. But, to the United States of america, and to texas and all the other Southern States that think we cannot survive without you all, it shows that philadelphia and new york, these people are still producing. Ohio and indiana are still producing. I would like to say to the Southern States, dont think we need you, because the rest of the United States is going to stand up. Host talking about the down jones hitting a record high. Mark in illinois, independents. Caller i relate this all to the game of monopoly. These corporations, the price of everything is utterly ridiculous, so the corporations are making profits, but it is not trickling down to the people. The higher the stock market goes, the worse off we are. When you play monopoly, however gets boardwalk and park place, they are the winner because a white everybody else out in the game and thats what the corporations are doing. The amount of money thats in the economy, theres nothing left for anybody else. Host are you invested in the market . Caller i am not at all. I had a mutual fund, an Oppenheimer Ira for 14 years that ive purchased in the 1990s. Last december, after 14 years of not making 1 cent on it. This whole thing is good for people with inside information. Not for the smalltime investors. I was not able to make 1 cent in and 14 years. [indiscernible] smalltime people made nothing and others made a killing. Host looking at three investors and the approaches they took, in the wall street journal it profiles three individuals dealing with the frustrations of the market. One gentleman got back into it. Also, looking at the Huffington Post. The dow jones hit a record high. Heres why it does not matter. The piece says the best known stock market average dale is our next caller in defiance, a democrat. Caller this is what happens when you give trillions of dollars to bankers. It has not benefited the American People. Its nothing but a giant ponzi scheme. But i dont even know what we are celebrating. I lost my good job in 2008. I have been working parttime since then. It does not benefit the people of america. It is agreed upon the scheme and it ought to be wiped out. I dont know what you are smiling about, like its some kind of great thing. Its not a great thing. It shows how terrible this dam country really is. It means nothing. Host lets look at the Huffington Post graphics, which relates to what you are talking about. It shows the average Hourly Earnings of production and non supervisory employees. You see the corporate profits after tax. And on the highs line, the Dow Jones Industrial average. The headline is that the stocks and corporate profits have skyrocketed while wages have stagnated. Sounds like thats been your experience. My wife has not had a raise in four years and shes been on the job 12 years. Its crazy. Host bob in baltimore, maryland. What are you thinking . Caller we should be celebrating a lot. The president s policies and more importantly the Federal Reserve policies are forcing money into the markets, so people are going to invest. People that have money are going to invest. Host what does this mean for you . Are you investing . Caller i dont have a lot of money invested. I do have some. The point is that the Business Community is reacting to the policies of this government and to the policies of the Federal Reserve. Host you are a republican, but it sounds like you approve of what the fed is doing right now. Caller i dont approve of what the fed is doing. Part of the reason why the dow jones is so high is because the dollar is inflated because of all the money they are printing. Host herald joins us from ohio on the democratic line. Carol joins us. Caller the dow jones hitting a record high has nothing to do with where we put our money. In 2007 my husband put everything in bonds and we did not lose a penny. On taxes, when someone was running for president , he had just sold its company and he said he would not hire six lawyers to get him out of paying taxes, that he makes the money, so he pays the taxes. When i had to sign a big check when we signed up for the gas lease, about doing it, we are glad to do it, because i think it is patriotic to pay what you owe. When jesus said to the pharisees, dthey underseas for what is owed cesar pay unto ceasar what is owed. I think about it the republicans, i think about the pharisees. Host look at this graph. Its a 17 months to plunge from the 2007 high to its 2009 low. Bennett propofol your years to reach new heights and recoup the losses. The dow jones took four years to recoup the losses. Caller the huge disparity that you see in the wage increases is a definite indication that the dow jones is not a good thing for all people. The increase in the dow jones is great for those that are in it and its mostly the owners of the companies and the shareholders. But the money is not trickling down or it is trickling out. Theres no growth anywhere but the dow jones. It is a cycle that stays within the dow. Its not helping the greater part of america. Host are you invested . Caller yes. Host one of our callers talked about bonds and other investments. Are you try to play it safe . Are you making more aggressive steps with your money . Caller playing it safe. Im a longterm investor. I am a little untrustworthy of the dow jones. Host on twitter in pennsylvania, a republican, janie. Caller good morning. I have been listening to what the people have been saying. I think they are right. In the think anything lives of average people is changing. I am sick and tired of them laughing and clapping. It is so artificial. The rich people, corporations, thereby and selling from each other to increase the value of wall street. They succeeded. As far as we are concerned, average people, we cannot afford to do anything. We cannot even buy food. The food prices are foodup. You cannot buy a pound of ground beef for 5. Who can afford to feed their kids . [woman laughing] i am really mad. Host are you speaking from personal experience . Caller yes. I am one of those persons who never misses the news. I read newspapers. I watched cspan all the time. Mrs. Obama is suggesting people go and eat fresh fruits and vegetables. How can we afford to buy an orange for dollar . An orae has been a dollar for fi years. You cannot afford to buy apples or is ke. Wall street numbers going up it does not mean anything. Host heres the usa today money section troy in west babylon, new york, a democrat. Caller you have a pretty smile. I will give you some solutions i have heard on cspan from people a lot smarter than me. The dow jones had a recent high, so they should impose a 3 cents per 100 fee on all purchases on all the markets. Thats what theyre doing. If they did that, we would end the deficit in 10 years and probably be able to take care medicaid and Social Security by 2030. If you guys are worried about food prices, maybe you should stop shopping at certain food chains and go to places Like Price Club where you get a lot more for your money. Host are you invested in the market . Is this something you want on a daily basis . Caller after cspan, i turned to cnbc and fox business. Even though i am broke, my parents were involved in the stock market many years and are both retired. They paid a lot more into Social Security than they will ever get back. It makes me kind of angry. All of you nice people in rural areas in the south and you complain when you see people on welfare or food stamps, why dont you complain about all the foreign nationals that will work on wall street that come into our country and they live in new york and dont pay any city, state, or federal taxes. It has been on 60 minutes hands on dateline many times and on dateline. There are plenty of ways to find out what is wrong with this country. If we all stood up together, and we would get the present per 100 fee and there would be a lot more economic growth. The stock market shot up 250 points when they passed it. Imagine if we had really serious things, a serious plan on reducing the deficit instead of just republicans try to make obama look bad. Host on Facebook Whats your perspective, jerry, in maryland, independents . Caller it is scary, actually. Gary, actually. Its a ponzi scheme in that the bankers own wall street, but they also own the federal government. The glasssteagall act was eliminated during the Clinton Administration so that things like this could happen every 10 years. Theres another crash coming. It is like a parabola, a mathematical curve. Its one to fall again purposely. Its coming. They all said we could get super deeper rift every 10 years and look out, because here it comes. Host on twitter david in new york, independents. Caller good morning. I dont know if this could be a solution, but it seems wall street should have some kind tax for every share traded. I would like to think there could be a lot of money made. If you look at the bottom of all street, its always in the millions of billions of shares traded daily. Another thing, this is an example of trickledown economics and a gigantic failure and the herding they put on the American People since 1980. If you look at real wages in this country, americans have not gotten a raise since 1980. We are scraping the bottom. That needs to be examined. The wealth im not saying steal from the rich, but lets look for a level Playing Field and allow the middle class to get their share. Lets free up some money regarding wages. Thats all i have to say. Host you consider yourself middleclass . Caller yes. Host are you invested . In invested markets call . Caller i have certain things. In 2008, some of the things i had, the money was in the wrong place so i got slightly hurt. I have tried to recover somewhat. Host are your investments for your retirement . Caller yes. I was selfemployed for about 30 years. I used to take every we can put something away toward retirement. Between bonds mostly and some stocks and i can retire. Its not much really. Host thanks for sharing your perspective. Mike in madison, indiana, a democrat. Caller good morning. I dont think the market is indicative of the actual economy. Most workers have 401ks and theytanked numerous and they have tanked numerous times and it will again. People have invested their life savings. I think time has proven that when it rises so high, it tanks. It seems like just a concerted effort on the part of the corporations to bring wages as low as they can, Union Busting activities and that sort of thing. So i really dont think this is indicative of the actual economy. Host do you follow how the market reforms . Caller i tried to keep an eye on it, but i dont play that game anymore. Host on twitter some other stories in the news. Heres the front page of the miami herald today, courtesy of the newseum here is president obamas remarks on the death of hugo chavez. The papers from local to regional to National Park covering his death. There are some op eds also in the pages of the editorial section of the newspapers. The wall street journal and looks at hugo chavez and says the lesson is to be where the rule of charismatic demagogues. And the Washington Post looks at ath. Desk a couple other stories in the news, new jersey looks at the situation of senator robert menendez. One of the prostitutes now claims that she was paid to make up the story. The Washington Post has stood by its story, which is based on an affidavit from a prostitute. Looking at politics, jeb bush is back in the spotlight and thinking about 2016. This is from the Washington Post. The former Florida Governor has remained on the sidelines since his older brother left the white house, and hes jumping back into the fray this week with a new book, walltowall tv interviews, and engagements, and he has taken some positions on immigration that are gaining attention. Lets hear from florida. Boe is in orlando on our independent line. Bo. Caller i appreciate cspan. You have these Large Companies like mcdonalds and home depot. They are having higher profits because they cut their workers pay so much that these workers sometimes have to go on food stamps that i as a taxpayer have to pay for. They get high profits in order to pay out dividends. I dont think its right. Host what would you do to change springs . Things . Caller i dont know. There has to be some type of control over the stocks. How many stocks you put on the back of a worker in the United States is the only thing i can think of. Host are you invested . In the invested . I got out in 2004 because president bush repatriated and increased the visas. They got a bunch of people over here and they train them how to do the work and sent them back to their countrys. Countries. Then they were able to bring the money back at cut rate, so we did not have anything to lose. They make money. They sold their products here and made money. Host heres a tweet lets look at stories about how the sequester is kicking in. This from the Washington Post you can see travelers waiting in a security at j. F. K. Because of federal cutbacks. Long waits. And this story from Washington Post the store says the nations Weather Services and Emergency Response agencies will not yield immediate sting of the automatic spending cuts, but federal officials have said its just a matter of time. We will talk with two members of Congress Later this morning about the sequester and will become a democrat and republican, what ideas are for moving forward. A couple other stories in the news. This from nbc. Attorney general eric holder has said no drone strikes in the u. S. Except in extraordinary circumstances. The administration has no intention of carrying out drone strikes against suspected terrorists and the u. S. , but could use them in response to an extraordinary circumstance such as the 9 11 terror attacks, it says. According to a letter from the attorney general. In the New York Times National Page this was after the white house agreed on certain points. We want to hear your thoughts on the dow jones. Does this reflect your Economic Situation . On twitter dan in new york, democrat. Caller good morning. If you spend little time searching around on the internet, you will find most of the rise in the stock market is due to all the moneyprinting on the federal level. Mr. Bernanke is purchasing 85 billion per month of Mortgage Backed securities and treasury notes. That is what is driving the market now. If you look at the bluechip stocks such as g e and alcoa and ford, look at where they are and dont you today and where they were in 2008 before the last crash, and you will see their stock value has been cut in half, get the market is at all time highs. Thats because of the money printing. Go through usdebtclock. Org and see whats going on. Its unbelievable. This is why they are buying 2700 vehicles to put on the streets of this country. Host heres a story in the Washington Times john in savannah, georgia, democrat. Caller hi. I have a question and comment. [indiscernible] foreigners coming to this country and not having to pay state or federal taxes, that is like leaving a gap for the country to be in more debt. Host what are your thoughts about the dow jones . Caller i feel good about that, because i have investments. Host how big a part of your economic portfolio is that . Is it Retirement Savings . Caller yes. Host how closely do you watch it . Caller ever so often. Host does it make you feel more optimistic about the economy in general . We have heard from some callers who say they dont feel a connection between what the stock market is doing and their own personal circumstances. Caller i agree. Host in arlington, virginia, republican. Caller good morning. I think it is a sugar high. Host tell us why you think so. Caller because the Federal Reserve has been giving a lot of liquidity in the markets. What we are seeing is a tremendous money flowing into markets and not trickling down to the real economy. It is getting stuck on the bank balance sheets. The people out there working are not seeing this in their paychecks because it is a globalized economy. This market is a trap. Host here is a headline in the New York Times are you still with us, paulie . Caller i would go back about five years and i would go back to 20012002. We had a stock markets and highs and then it came tumbling down. I think we have a little of the same situation today. What one can do is look at your portfolio. I really thing we have a couple coming in the bond markets. Host missouri on the democratic line, welcome. Caller i agree with the earlier caller from where i used to live in new york. As far as placing a fee on or a charge like a penny per dollar of volume as far as trading is concerned. It does not matter. Total volume of trading each and every day. That would be sent directly to lower down our debt. If they wanted to increase a little more, they probably also put as a back cushion in case theres a crisis. I used to be on the floor of the exchange in 1981. With my friend who was the treasurer. I was offered a job for 25,000 to start. To give you an idea of where we came from stars income as far as income. I decided to go in the military instead to serve my country. That is what i wanted to share with you so you get an idea and the people get an idea, starting at 25,000 and making 100,000 the first year. That was initially a, what they had given to me. I turned it down. Host were you tempted to stick with it, victor, to take the offer . Caller i was tempted, sure. But i have already made up my mind to serve my country. I believe that if people around the world or in the United States would place back in their heart of hearts, if they really believe in this country, pay their taxes, their fair share, whether they are millionaires, billionaires my friends were millionaires at the time and , you know, and some of them are probably worth a couple hundred Million Dollars at this time. Now i am totally disabled and i am living on over 800 markper month. It is a shame. I see this nation of extreme wealth where it was, you have a caller not long ago talking about 1980 prices back in 1980. 1981 s the crucial year was the crucial year that our whole Economic System changed as far as employment, as far as everything is concerned. It is unfortunate. Host thanks for sharing your perspective. On twitter and on facebook you can join that conversation by looking for cspan on facebook. On twitter mike in vermont, independent. Caller hi, libby. My only comment is whether the stock goes up or down, how does it affect the average family . You have people working minimum wage that dont have much investment in. The stock in i feel you put it on the news all the time, not you, but they put it on the news all the time and its almost like it really is not a real world for the average american. What do you think about expert . Host im here to hear what you think. You consider yourself an average american . Caller probably a little less. Im a little older and live on a disability check, like the guy who called. So i am not out there working now trying to raise a family. I just feel for these younger people in your age bracket or even younger that are getting through college and have a huge debt, not making a good wage. I just dont know where the country is going to go in the future, if we keep not supplying a good wage for the average american. When you work 40 hours and still cannot pay your bills, that is not very encouraging for the young people of today. Host has it gotten worse since you were young . Caller ohk, yes. I am not 100 years old. Host you dont sound 100. Caller and you dont look 100. Host do you watched the stock market as part of your daily news . Caller not really. I dont its anything for the average american to do. Not unless you make at least 100,000 or more per year. If you dont have a 401k plan or anything into it. I dont think the average person cares about the stock market. Host thank you. On the democratic live in massachusetts, don. Caller i think theres no stake in the game for the average person in america today. I think that when push came into office bush came into office and took away glasssteagall and all these regulations, thats all they talked about, the republicans, talk about deregulating. Now they are talking about a global economy. Theres only a stake for people who are making 200,000 and above. Anybody thats making 30 cows and dollars per year or 15 cows and dollars per year 30,000 or 15,000 per year are suffering, having to pay for gas and everything. If you look at the cost of living for average people and the amount of money that the stock market is making, the average person does not have any stake in the game. Host on twitter thanks for all of your comments so far this morning. Coming up, two members of congress. Representative Linn Westmoreland will join us to talk about republican plans to avoid a Government Shutdown. Lynn. And then jan schakowsky, we will ask if the grand bargain on deficit reduction is in the cards. We will be right back. [video clip] abigails letters have been in print and since 1841 grandsons First Published an edition of her letters which went through four editions in the 1840s. She was a bestseller through the 19th century. People knew her. She has always been famous. Id conversation with historians about Abigail Adams is now available on our website. Our conversations. One of the things i dont mention in the book that always grabbed me was a report a paragraph in the report of a focus group where they interviewed a guy named mark k. He encapsulated the mentality pretty well when he said, i dont do research because i know charities will do some good. Where i put my time and research is things like products, like around by microwave, i will do research, but i dont need to do research for charities. That captures the prevailing ethic right now among donors. Part of my book is a plea to the Donor Community to rethink that all charities are not alike cabal. Are not all alike. We have to get money to the best and if the others dont survive, so be it. At the world of nonprofits, sunday night at 9 00, this weekend on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host congressman was more westmoreland is joining asked. Guest thanks for having me. Host were looking at essentially a republican plan. Guest its important our leadership saw the necessity to do something early. The cr is not up until the 27th of march. In washington what we find ourselves doing is waiting until that last minute. You make bad decisions. So what we are trying to do is put this proposal on the table. It would be a cr for 10 of the Appropriations Bills before the Veterans Affairs and the dod, it place theput in Appropriations Bills that we passed for 2013. It gives the military and the pentagon a little more flexibility. It does not change the sequester number, but it gives them a little more flexibility on what they can and cannot do. Host what do you think about the gop strategy to take the threat of a Government Shutdown off the table . How does that change your Bargaining Power . Guest i dont know that it does. We put the debt ceiling back until the end of may, because we felt it was going to be very important. Then the sequester came up. We are going to be doing the budget in the next couple weeks, that is a point to come out of the house as a nopass noplay plant. Plan. The cr allows us to concentrate on what were going to do for the budget. We feel like if the government runs well, as our households or businesses do, we are trying to get this out of the way. The number is probably 985 for the cr. The sequester kingpin. I think we are going to get used to it. It has been hard on some people, but i dont think it has been near the disaster that the white house and some of these agency heads portrayed to be. It is important that we get out from under the gun and dont have to make bad decisions. Speaker boehner said, and so many members want to do, is to go back to regular order. Let the senate come back to their version and then go to conference. Host lets talk about sequestration. First i want to remind our viewers and listeners of the phone lines. Some headlines about the sequester, from the Washington Post theres another story that says the sequester could hurt weather forecasting, something a lot of americans are watching right now as we see this storm potential leading the washington, d. C. Area today. The Washington Post is asking what happens when the sequester meets a snowstorm. It raises questions about whether the expanding cuts last week will impact the nations forecasting and Disaster Response capabilities. Guest if anybody called 2. 4 a drastic cut, they may not understand what the American Families are going through right now. Is up abouts budget 41 . Flights are down 27 . To say that the to 0. 4 across theboard cut in the sequester is killing them. Is. When i went through the Atlanta Airport on monday, it was the fastest i have ever been through the screening. I was talking to one of the tsa agents. As i went through, i said, has been slow this morning . She said, not really. Then there was a remark made, we are so topheavy and that we can stand to cut some of the top out here. We have roughly 3200 tsa employees in d. C. To say that you have to stop the screeners and things like that, i dont know. I think these decisions are being made to create the most political pain. Host 1 more headline. This is the editorial page of the Baltimore Sun are you concerned about cuts that hurt needy americans . Guest sure. But the government has taken the community out of helping people in the community that need help. Anytime the government steps up, communities and families back. If a person gets on government assistance, the family does not take care of them. The same thing as far as churches and other community groups. When the government takes over, they step away. The president made a statement, went thousand upstarts students would lose the ability to have head start. I dont know how many hundreds of thousands of students do get a headstart. Ive been to head start programs and there are some very good ones and some that are not so good, just the same as it is in everything. While we want to help those that need help, we want to give them a helping hand. To me, the community can step in if theres really that kind of need for some of these people. Host the congressman is on the Financial Services committee and the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence and he serves as vice chairman of the National Republican congressional committee. Our first caller, louise in fredericksburg, virginia, republican. Caller good morning. I hope that the republicans to hold their guns. I am from a large family of 17 in west virginia. I was born in 1950. I have listened and watched for decades. I know that republicans are not for cutting everybody and i know what republicans do. I hope you stay into it. I want to ask about the cftc. Why are they not doing something about the speculation in commodities prices . Why is senator ins winsworth st . I understand that this crisis is 10 trillion. But george bush did not make a great fuss over it, he just gave us a tax break and smoothed things over. I hope the republicans do the right thing, take care of the people. I dont want anything to from the government. I have been working all my life and so has my entire family. I hope that you guys stick to your guns, no matter what the cost. And please bring us back from the brink of disaster. Set up the chained cpi did the president wants. And will you explain that a little. Thank you. Guest the Consumer Price index is based on several different things. The cpi is basically made up of something that a lot of people dont use. If you look at the Consumer Price index and the cost of living and stuff. I want to go back to one of the things that you were talking about, the 401ks and the savings. Thats the things that really need to look at, because we need to encourage savings and not discouraged it. With the bonds the way they are right now, youre not getting any returns on them. So a lot of these older people that have bought government bonds and stuff are not getting any returns. We do everything we can to discourage savings. You can only put x number of dollars into an of savings accounts. You can only put x number of dollars into an ira. You are penalized. We should not do that. We should do everything we can to encourage people to save, to let them look after their own future and your own destiny. But thank you for the call. Host in lakewood, ohio, democratic line. Caller i would like you to explain how one of the things that is missing here is the reality of you keep talking about tax rates and tax rates is not the whole explanation of the problem. The problem is the real money that comes to the treasury from taxes after all polls are taken out. Would you like to talk about that . If you are a point to a couple loopholes, how can you do it when they say can i give money to . Your next for the next campaign . Guest loopholes are very interesting. Some of the loopholes that this president has talked about and others have talked about, such as the Corporate Jet loophole, if you cut it it would actually account for about 10 minutes of spending that we do. We spend about 10 billion per day. We borrow 4. 2 billion of that every day. Cutting some loopholes that they last 10 minutes, 12 minutes, and our, in fact in arizona they did a chart one time of all the loopholes that this president and this administration was talking about closing and in fact the president came up with this Corporate Tax rate for jet to get people to buy them. What wound up happening is that it would have lasted about 1 1 2 hours. Think about that, all of these tax loopholes it sounds good, and this administration is great at this, great at coming out with sound bites and getting everyone to read their headlines and they are back doing their work on page 2. They bring attention to a lot, but we have a spending problem. We want to bring in 2. 7 billion in taxes, the highest in the history of this country, yet we will spend 3. 70 trillion . That will not come from a loophole that lasts five or 10 minutes. Prioritizing what our spending is. Congressman paul ryans budget will show how republicans can balance host congressman paul ryans budget republicans have been arguing for two years that they would be taking coverage from anyone older than 54. The paul ryan budget plan is drawing gop flack. What do you think about it . Guest as i get one year older every year, hopefully, this is the same group of people. It was not really age, it was how many people would be on Social Security. We have been through the baby boomers. There is more and more and more people. Ok, anyone born in 1956 or before would not be affected. This year it will be 56. If we do not fix it this year, and attempted to balance the budget, next year it will be 57. So, we do not get any younger and it is really the same people. If it was not going to affect the last year, it is not going to affect you this year. If it was going to affect you last year, it is going to affect you this year. That one number it is hard for people. We did campaign. Nothing will happen to 55 or older. The other thing is if you are 56 or older or 55 and younger and want to stay in the old system, you absolutely can. I think it is much to do about nothing. What do you say to the critics, the republicans and democrats to raise concern about this host what do you say to the critics, the republicans and democrats who raised concerns that this is breaking a promise . Guest if you cannot explain to the people over 55 that they are now 56 and had nothing to do with age and it had to do with the numbers of how many people would be coming onto medicare and Social Security, that it had nothing to do with some magic number of age. Host leonard, independent line. Caller good morning. How are you this morning, gretchen . How are you, representative . Anyhow, my question is with the Federal Reserve, wondering where to go through with cutting this, cutting that with the sequester and all, doesnt congress within the constitution hold that within the election the parties, the democrats, republicans and independents, you should all be as one and do away with this . Getting it figured out . Stop spending 240 million for Foreign Countries and infrastructures . This money the u. S. Sending, who is representing it . Guest i think that secretary of state carry kerry said that he was going to release another 400 million out of a total 1. 6 billion package. He said that he did that because of the needs of the egyptian people. I have got needs news for him, we have needs right here at home. There are a lot of areas that we can cut. All foreign aid, you are probably only talking about 1. 7 of the budget. That is a cut that we need to do. I am looking at these conferences, there were 268 million spent on government conferences last year. You look at foreign aid we give away, there are a lot of decisions that can be made to better make these cuts and utilize the cuts to get rid of the wasteful, frivolous duplicates. Like saying no more tourists at the white house. I do not know if everyone has been to a tour of the white house, but it is a selfguided tour. We have got some things to do with, both republicans and democrats. One of the things is we need to just be very honest about it. There is a trouble in how people perceive it on both sides of the aisle as quite different. Host this is from fox news. Secretary kerry announced new news, but Obama Administration will provide the Syrian Opposition with an additional 60 million in assistance and medical aid for the rebels. What do you think about that . Guest who are we supplying . Who are we sending this money to . Our intervention in libya, we sent a lot of weapons there and trained a lot of people. Some of these could have taken part in the murder of the four americans in benghazi. We do not even know what happened in benghazi. We do not even know what really led to it. We do not know what operation funded it. We spent millions, billions in libya. Same thing in syria. We do not really know who these people are. I know that some of them belong to the terrorist groups and it goes back to the thing where your enemies are my enemies. Once they get rid of assad, who knows what is going to happen . I am very leary of giving aid to these people, even humanitarian aid. Host what would you do instead . Guest i have probably better not say what i would do instead. Look, they will be fine. They know the sides. Let the arab countries settle this out. The arab countries are some of the richest in the world. Let them decide the outcome of this. We have got our own fish to fry. Host carl, west virginia, republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Senator reid is a sly old fox. He does not want people to make the tough votes that it takes to come up with a budget. People like paul ryan coming up with a budget, they tear it apart. If people out here cannot see that, you know what . If the government would step back, the people would step in. If my brother is struggling, and i know the government will step in and take care of him, i will say let the government do it. I believe that if you give a man a fish, he will leave for a day and if you teach a man to fish you eat for life. A lot of people here do not understand that. It is on real. Our constitution has been turned on its head. It is supposed to the job of the state to take care of the people, but it has turned around 180 degrees. The federal government takes the money from the state. They take care of it. It is ridiculous. Host that is a great point. In fact, when medicaid and medicare were passed in 1965 under Lyndon Johnson and the great society, medicaid continued to be for the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor. The federal government was going to pay 80 and the states would pay 20 . Now it is probably something like. I believe in georgia 20 of the people qualify for some kind of medicaid or government assistance. That is crazy. You know, if we were really treating what this was intended to do, the sickest of the sick and the poorest of the poor, we would be giving those people the medical attention and assistance that they need. But we have so many people on these systems with fraud and waste, the money is not able to do what it was intended to do. That is the same thing as Social Security. I am not condemning Social Security disability, but you look at how many people are on Social Security disability now, it did not start that long ago. Once that happens, they cannot go back to work. I mean, they could, but there is no incentive. The money that was paid into Social Security for the people who might not be able to get their benefits because there is so much waste, fraud, and abuse, we need to look at these programs and see if we can figure out who really and truly need the services. No one knows that more than the communities themselves. We ought to turn it over to some big federal agency where they are the ones who tell you that you cannot get the disability . You can get the disability . You can get medicaid . You cannot get medicaid . We need to get that under control where people are aware of exactly what is going on in their communities. Host congressman Lynn Westmoreland is on the Financial Services committee, in his fifth term, and he is the vice chairman of the National Republican congressional committee. The latest story from the Washington Post, it says gop fears retirement cuts. It says host is there a danger, in your opinion, of becoming the party of austerity . Guest could do. I do not think so. You know, when you get ll, sometimes ill, sometimes the medicine they give you is not very pleasant. From the people i have spoken to in my generation, the people i have spoken to with children and grandchildren, i had rather take some of that pain myself. If you look at the book the greatest generation those men and women sacrificed a great deal for us today. All we are doing is kicking the can down the road to our children and grandchildren. I would say that even then our great grandchildren. And i do not want to do that. I would rather take the pain now. I think that most americans have. Especially those with children and grandchildren. We do not want to kick it down the road. These are some hard choices. You know, if you have a cut the first thing you will do is clean out the cut. If you do not clean it out, it is never going to heal. You do not just put a bandaid on that. The federal government has never been willing to put the most painful on. Because there are politicians. You want everyone to like you and you want to try to help everyone, but we have to move that big stack of bandaids and clean some of this stuff out and start over to start the healing. One of those things, to me, is the spending. Host lets go to bellevue, ohio, like the democrats. Good morning. Caller corporate greed, i retired three years ago and was making almost 23 per hour. Now the company i work for has cut their work force. One person working pays more taxes. That would help more in the government and i was wondering what you could do about things about the gap between worker and employer. Host thank you. Caller mike, you know i have worked i own my own business, but i have also worked for people. The gap between what my bosses make and what i was making, you know i did that ever really worry about it. Because i was working for something that my boss and i agreed i would work for. He gave me incentives to work harder, which i did. And then i was rewarded for the hard work. But i never really worried about, you know, what the difference between my way and his pay was. He was doing his job and i was doing my job. Had i not been, i could have gone to work somewhere else. We do not need to be worried about what someone else is doing. We need to be worried about what we are doing and doing the best we can, working as hard as we can. If you will do that, i think that Everything Else will take care of itself. Host as we look at the record dow jones average yesterday, this is from the Huffington Post. Corporate taxes afterwards, this is the average elderly workings of production and non supervisory employees. As the disparity concern you . Guest know. The people have their money in government bonds, the dow is going up, a pretty secure investment. That return is what, less than 1 . So people are putting their money in stocks and taking a bigger risk with it. Corporate growth is good because, you know, block, i do not hate the word profit. I was in business. I like the word profit. If companies are not profitable, then they cannot expand and employ. You know, we are in an international competition. We have a lot of states now that our right to work states. We have had them come down from caterpillar. We think it is a Good Business environment. If we are going to invite someone to our state, should be questioned how much money they make . Host as mentioned, he owned a business in his home state of georgia, and he served in the state house there before being elected. Lets hear from tom in little elm, texas. Caller good morning, the all yall. The guest yall, i like that. Caller i have looked at this over the years. What has gotten us to where we are now is everything. If you go back to the 110th congress, this is directly for you, representative, if you go back to the 103rd Congress Second session and look up hr 5110, the uruguay agreements. If you study it closely you can see where people have been losing money in their retirement plans since the retired retro in that bill all the way back to 1992. I tell you, i figured it out in calculation. I invented it. I also have a degree in just about everything you can imagine, masters degree. Doctor, that took me 30 years. I never went to college, but i bought the books from the students. I have quite a library. Anyway, getting back to politics, since the age of 5 i was in the city council in baltimore, md. , the democrats just about ruined the place. That is why i moved to texas. My mother came from tennessee. She moved out there during the war. Host i think you have given the congressman enough information to weigh in. Guest it sounds like you are a very intelligent guy and to get those degrees without going to college, my hat is off to you. But you know, the Retirement Systems and the fact that our 401 ks or whatever, those are investments. Like you said, your knowledge of math, you should be able to figure that out, but we are really doing things to try to pick up some of these investments from the banks with individual people that they advise on investments. As far as our retirement goes, we need to be doing more things to encourage people to invest in the system and get the rewards of the system. Host congressman, your home state of georgia was in the news last week. They took up section 5, shelby county, alabama. We saw some reporting afterwards saying that if it goes between the supreme court, a majority of the justices seemed inclined to strike down or curtail key sections of the Voting Rights act and even if it does move in that direction officials in some states will have more leeway to change procedures. Voters in 2014 will not suddenly wake up in 1964, writes, hurry. What do you think . Guest it has been questioned for a while. Basically, section 5 is the pre clearance part of it. If you are going to change it voting precincts change your voting precincts, you have to have the number of ballots approved based on the number of registered voters. It is based on a president ial election that happened 50 years ago. So, we are not ever want to change the outcome of that election. We are not ever going to change the outcome of who voted and who did not vote, who registered and who did not register. You have got to remember that in 1965 it was passed for five years. In 1970 they review it again for seven years. And then it was renewed for 25 years. And now in 2006 you can put another 25 years. We are going to be under these same things, procedures and numbers that we were under in 1965. So, what we offered was an amendment to update it. In other words used the last three president ial elections and after the next the oldest one will fall off. So, we put that in as an amendment and it did not pass. But a texas case from 2009, they did not assume to action section 5, but the courts in a general way said that you need to update the criteria on this under the preclearance. We did that do anything. I think they can throw it out and we will take our time and do something to come up with something else. Host leroy, louisiana, democratic line. Welcome. Guest [indiscernible] ratio, 725, a big gap in between the four and the rich and you do not want to close any loopholes that last 68 minutes everything counts. They do not need any help. Host what are your solutions . Caller close loopholes. They do not need the help, the poor need the help. Guest how do we get the money from the loopholes to the poor . Host i think we lost them. Guest ok, my point is that if we are wont to do something, we need to do something that is going to really matter and is not just a good sound bite. We need to restructure the whole tax system. Why would we want to look at closing 10, 12, 30, 40 loopholes when we need to restructure the whole tax system . I wish we could go to a fair tax. The thing that scares me about the fair tax is that we would get so much money it would probably expand government. We need to look at some different ways we pay taxes. Billions of dollars for the average american to fill out a tax return . Closing loopholes is not one to solve a problem. If i thought it was, i would be aboard. Closing the loophole for gas and oil companies, they do research and development with it. If you do exploration of research and development, a few things, the price at the pump will go up. I do not know how that helps to close the gap. If they do not do research involvement, we will not be getting more gas mileage for our cars. If they do not do the research in trying to find more oil reserves, we are not going to have any energy. I do not have a problem of closing loopholes, i am just saying that we need to do some real reform if we want to get down to really and truly being able to handle our fiscal crisis. Host there is a story here from the pentagon the reports that a cyber attack could turn u. S. Weapons against america. What this Congress Need to do to protect against Cyber Attacks . Guest we need to pass the house cyber bill. But this is something we had last year that was passed out of the house, but we could not get the senate to go along. The president has an executive order in place that we think is a good starting point. But we hope that we can work with the administration and the senates to get the cyberbill passed. Ours is a volunteer basis between the business of the house and businesses that Work Together against cyberattacks that allow for the government to maybe point out that some businesses, some potential attacks we desperately need to pass that bill. People do not really understand the cyber. Especially people of my generation. All of the technology that is out there. Trying to break in and get the coke formula, the chinese were, and being a georgia guy, that was the bottom line for us, when you try to steal the coke formula. We have ways where we want to be able to help these businesses. But we wanted to get this bill passed before we actually did that. If people ask me what i am most afraid of, on the Intelligence Committee i would have to tell them it was cyberattacks. I think it could be a lot worse and you have ever seen in this country. Host congressman Lynn Westmoreland, good luck getting home and getting to work in the snow. Thank you for being with us. Coming up, congressman Janice Schakowsky of illinois. She will talk to us about averting a budget shut down and the budget battles to come. Later on, hollywood, a look at violence in the Entertainment Industry. We will talk to an editor at variety magazine in our weekly magazine highlights section. We will be right back. [video clip] sherman did not want those thousands of freed slaves behind his army. There is the infamous and terrible case of him pulling a pontoon bridges during the march to the sea. He had as many as 20,000 black rappers refugees. He wanted no black troops in his army and they had no black troops. They reached liberty county, a county south of savannah. If you go there today there are people that will readily tell you that this is where sherman turned left. He did not know what to do with these people, so he let his generals put out the word and invited black ministers to come in and talk with them. Out of it came sherman who decided to set aside 200 miles along the coast of florida for the exclusive settlement of freed people with commissary notes and a piece of land. Which was the dream of all of them had. It will not last, andrew johnson, a successor to lincoln, will remain the order. Civil war scholars on the contributions and sacrifices of africanamericans, many who work for and served in the union army. This weekend on cspan 3, history tv. Washington journal continues. Host rep Janice Schakowsky is a desperate democrat from illinois, in her seventh term excuse me [laughter] representing the ninth district, including the chicago area. Thank you for being here this morning. Talk to us about what is happening in the house today. We will see conversation and debate. All family we will take a boat, the continuing resolution to fund the government through september take a vote, the continuing resolution to fund the government to september. What do you think of that . Guest it is rearranging chairs on the deck of the titanic. As predicted by the fed chairman, 750,000 jobs lost in america. I got an email this morning from a 14yearold who i email back to said that in school they had to do work on when and why and when she got to the why she had a big question why are we doing this . We are absolutely right she is absolutely right, we do not need to be doing this. Host what do you want to see moving forward . What power do House Democrats have . Guest we have introduced an alternative that would end these ridiculous meat ax cuts and replace it with a balanced approach that includes raising revenue, as well as making some cuts in spending. Those people will but even consider. Hurting people is unfortunate, but it has to happen before republicans will come to their senses. Host House Democratic leaders decided against trying to unite their party in opposition to a republican spending bill. They are not officially a whipping members against it. Guest do you know why . Republicans put these poison pills in the bill that says that if you vote no, you are essentially voting to increase your own pay. This strategy is done over and over and it is a set up so that when a person runs for reelection, what you get is a 32nd ad where so and so voted to increase their own salary. We get that. Rather than voting no on something that we know is going to pass, some of our mom some of our members are going to vote yes. I am a no vote. This headline from the bought the Washington Post. Turning to other senators. What you think about the president s approach . We see that he is planning to meet with members of congress not in leadership. Guest the president is an old friend of mine from chicago. I have known him as a long time for a long time as someone who really believes in compromise. If the top leaders say no, maybe we can find some other members who said that the fed of gridlock that we are causing right now is not good for anyone. I hope that there is a willingness to sit down with the president. Anyway, they will get a good dinner at the white house. Host one of the chief deputy whips for the 113th congress, a member of the steering committee, she sits on energy, commerce, and select intelligence. In addition to your resume, you served on the National Commission of fiscal responsibility and reform. Host guest i offered my own plan. I did not like the one offered by the cochairs. That may come up again in a more balanced way. I do have to say a couple of things that they did put on the table that are important, they understood that there are two ways to spend money. What mr. The budget, and anothers through the tax code. When you give a tax break to big oil or to Hedge Fund Managers or companies to ship jobs overseas, but you do it through the tax code, bad is spending nonetheless. We call them tax expenditures. There are over 1 trillion every year that often go to the wealthiest americans or to agribusiness. We need to look at that as spending. Even the most rich people look at that and make cuts there. Host another headline looking at what the house is facing, paul ryan and his latest budget plan with the cut off for medicare. Some members are opposing the idea he is floating to change the age cutoff. Changing it from 55 to 56. Your response . Guest i even heard as high as 50 yearolds. The question is why. 58yearolds. The question is, why. We do not need to cut when they get older. We are talking about the Median Income for people over 65 years old. 22,000 per year. People are getting older. Private Pension Plans of disappearing. Employers have stopped funding retirees for health care. These programs are even more important. There is no reason our country is not for today. Poor today. It is a matter of equality and a scarcity of jobs. To go after medicare, medicaid benefits, Social Security, it is greatly and necessary. We can make the programs more efficient and cut costs, but turning it into a volunteer program is another way to make it die and the vine. Host charles, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I wanted to ask the congressman, i would like an explanation as to why [indiscernible] we are going on better than four years. Guest i do not know the you will like the budget that is passed. Do you want to see a budget that will pass the house of representatives but go nowhere in the senate thats cut medicare as we go forward into the future . That does not lay a finger on the wealthiest americans for tax breaks that we give to corporations that ship jobs overseas . Really . What are the priorities of this country. You will look at that budget and say is this the america i grew up in . The one with a balanced approach . I do not think so. Host bob, california, republican. Go ahead. Caller why does the federal government think that we can spend the money that they can spend the money better than the American People. There are no more sure words. Why does the federal government think that they can spend our money better than the American People. Would you comment on that . Guest i do want to comment on that. 94 of americans think that under barack obama that the debt has gone up, that the deficit has gone up, that we have been spending more and more money. Do you know that as a percent of the gdp that the deficit has been cut in half . That we now have domestic non defense spending . At the lowest level with the biggest cuts since the end of world war ii . Now we are into cutting bone. The cuts have not been made. This is a very lean budget that we have right now. But we had needs in this country. If we would spend some money, helping people ahura get back to work and making investments that we need, that growth and job creation would get people off of federal assistance and into paying taxes, reducing our deficits. I do not agree with that premise at all. We might be losing money and the tax breaks that we give to the wealthiest americans are Companies Making record profits and are still getting tax breaks like oil companies, but i just do not buy the premise. Host john boehner spoke yesterday about spending cuts and not shutting down the government in advance of todays vote. Lets take a listen to what he had to say. [video clip] we are not going to shut down the government and are moving to take this bill up and improve approve it quickly. The president agree that there was no reason to get into some debate about shutting down the government. It is not a smart thing to do. I will not predict what the senate will or will not do with our bill, but i would hope that they would take it up expeditiously and pass it. Host your response to what the speaker is talking about . He said they are not shutting down the government. Guest they may not be, but losing 750,000 jobs, lack of growth, that is meaningful in this country. It takes us in the wrong direction. Continuing to hover at 7. 9 unemployment, may be going up to 9 , this is not a good way to go. We could get down the regular order and come up with appropriate cuts, where there are even more appropriate ways to raise revenue from those who can afford it. Corporate profits are at a record level. We are not a poor country. We can do this together. Host cincinnati, ohio, charles, goahead. Caller good morning. Firsttime caller. Thank you for the call. I am a retired lawyer. After having my own business, procuring the problem is changing taxation from 5 to 20 . I agree with the congress. Excuse the expression, but we need to get rest. Small government and high businesses. [indiscernible] guest the engine of the economy is the Small Businesses. Among the savings that will be cut in the sequester are about 1 trillion, 900 billion. A day does not go by that we do not hear from Small Businesses who lack access to the credit they need to expand their businesses. The sequesters point to make the decision lores. We want to do everything that we can to help the businesses who are doing the most tiring. The ones sitting out there with record profits and not hiring, we want to death of a help the Small Business sector. Host what do you think of radically changing the tax structure . Guest right now i think that if you make 350,000 or more or more, you pay the same rate as 350 million. I have actually suggesting suggested adding tax brackets. Hedge Fund Managers that just got a 1 million bonus each in this country not everyone is struggling. Those individuals should pay a higher tax rate. They are benefiting from that sector of the economy. Host mike, republican line, pensacola. Caller i had a few questions. First of all, when you look at the federal budget, you have to look at it one segment at a time. If you could eliminate any one level of management, any one physician, if you had five small apartments with divisions, if you could change that to four, one person is a fulltime Million Dollar expenditure. That is not just for this year, it is forever. Best make it 50,000 for year. That will add up to 2. 5 million before the person dies. Secondly, the federal government, with medicare and medicaid and Everything Else, where i am from in florida there is a history of sales tax at 4. 5 . We had a hospital for indigent care. We did that at 4. 5 . State sales tax. Response. S get a guest it turns out that the federal work force, because you are going to pay for some of the effects of the layoffs on sequestration. We will be laid off certain sectors. Kindergarten teachers. 70,000 children are going to lose head start. White house tours are closed. Not out of spite, but because we are cutting back on the secret service. We are having snow in washington. The Weather Service and even first responders, the federal work force, we have been looking carefully at that. We have been making the cuts there. I hope that things are not i have gone to, beach, by the way, which is right in your area and one of the most heavenly places on earth. You need the federal government to help with your roads and your road repair. So, when we ask people what we think you should cut, they are certainly not saying medicare and Social Security. 80 of people think that we should not cut those programs and i agree. Host congressman Janice Schakowsky, top democrat on the Oversight Committee and a member of the steering policy committee, one of the chief deputy whips for the 113th congress of the democratic side. She is in her eighth term. Here is the story about sequester from the Washington Times. U. S. Commander confident, despite sequestration. Host is that true . Guest we certainly hope that it is true. I will not contradict that. The security of the United States is important. But there will be a number of civilian defense employees that will be laid off. I hope we will be better for military families. Still, the 1 amount that is set has not been changed and some of us are concerned that it could affect national security. Both commissions were focused on many of the bloated parts of the defense budget. I am not saying that we cannot make big cuts, but they have to be smart. Host the Defense Department will cut 46 billion from its current budget by september 30. They might have to cut as much as 5 billion from the 10year spending plan. The commission that you sat on talk about military reduction in places with actual cuts to be made. How would you move forward on that . Is there a way that he would turn the sequester into something more proactive . Guest even in some symbols of some of the things that were cut were military health care. I am not really for that. Simpson bowles, some of the things ever cover military health care. I am not really for that. I do think we can make some smaller cuts. We have to look at the 20th century Weapons Systems that are still being built, that are still being marketed that we do not need. We are changing the face of how we conduct war and conflict now and do not need to be building some of these things. We need to look carefully at that. We have to turn those jobs and to other productive areas. There are millions of jobs in the Defense Department. Clearly, we need to cut the bloated budget. It is not even able to pass an audit, as we are just kind of spending guarantees on the oversight. Host as our guest mentioned, she sat on the Simpson Bowles commission, but offered her own program. Good morning. Caller good morning, i was reading an article, obama has 800 billion where if they had just done the right thing, it would have gone to everyone in the United States. Is rightt be where it now. Everything would be taking care of. Host they would have liked to see every american . But caller every taxpaying american receiving 1 million. That would have been less than the 800 billion that he gave to all of those big wigs up their. Host ok. Guest our economy was in free fall. There will little in the bush and administration where the first bailout was done during the bush should ministration. I would agree that in retrospect we should have added more strings saying that we were not going to abuse the country with that money that they got. We would have been in another Great Depression and not a recession. So, we did what had to be done in order to at least get the economy back on solid ground. We could not have given money back to taxpayers because at that point we were hemorrhaging jobs, we were hemorrhaging dollars. It has become stabilized. After months of job growth, we are crawling out of the recession. Now we have sequestration of automatic budget cuts. I am on the side of ordinary taxpayers, but i think that what we did when the economy collapsed is unfortunately something we had to do. Host our guest has a companion bill to another bill in the senate. Their legislation would stop from sheltering islands, putting an end to tax breaks for shipping factories overseas. If you could offer a single smart cut they had in mind, bring in some revenues. Guest let me give an example that a lot of people talk about. Remember in the last election democrats were criticized for cutting 760 billion from medicare . They always accused the democrats of wanting to cut medicare. We did that with smart cuts that never jeopardize this single benefit in medicare. We have made medicare more efficient and stop subsidizing private insurance companies. I think we can make cuts to the subsidies that we give to agrobusiness right now. As i mentioned, i think that we can make some smart cuts to the business budget. The president of the United States has already made three one cuts in spending to increases in revenue. We are not against making cuts. We have endorsed some of them i think have been harmful. I think we should not have made has i think we should not have made some many, but we understand the need for a balanced approach. Right now republicans are not for balance. Even though these preparations are at corporations are at their alltime richest, setting up their corporations to avoid taxation in the cayman islands, hiding their profits overseas so that they do not have to pay u. S. Taxes, some of them are not paying a single penny and are getting billions of dollars in additional tax breaks. We just want to even the Playing Field. Host john is a democrat from lake land, florida. Ahead. Caller how are you . Guest well, how are you . Caller good. After 75 years there has not be one democrat who put Social Security on the block. Why does obama feel that he has to put Social Security on the block . We pay into that. I have paid into that since i started working at the age of 15. Now i am 68, retired. Disabled, retired. I spent all that money, putting it in nascar . Hollywood . Sending it overseas . I do not know what is the matter with these things. The republicans had like four years to do something and did not get anything done. Host when you talk about nascar, you are talking about [indiscernible] host im looking at a story from early january that talks about the final out the scope of bill. It looks at everything from nascar to taking the subway to work. Most of these already longstanding provisions. Congress is just working to renew them all year long. Guest here is the picture of older americans. I said earlier, 22,000 is the Median Income. The average Social Security benefits, 15,000 a year. For women, actually, it is lower. Is this really where we want to go to do any savings . Do we really want to cut Social Security benefits . There is a great way to make sure that Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. We can raise the cap for how high the income is that continues to pay into Social Security. Right now, it is about 113,700 per year. After that, if you earn more. Do not pay a penny into the Social Security trust fund. If we were to raise that cap, or scrap the cap, rather than cut any benefits. Some people were talking about the change in cpi, which is essentially lowering the cost of living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries. You may be saying, what . Because for two years we did not even have one. I agree, i think that is not the way for us to deal with either the longevity of Social Security, and certainly not the budget issues, because Social Security has not contributed a penny to the deficit. We should not be discussing Social Security cuts in the context of deficit reduction at all. Host randy in kentucky, and independent caller. Go ahead. Caller the reason why this cannot be resolved, you had all this time to take care of things and you have not. And i moved from illinois to kentucky because of the corruption in springfield and chicago. I would like to know when governor craine is going to pay back the money took from the as far as food banks and stuff like that. I might as well forget that, he is not going to be that back. It is just corrupt over there. Stop sending them money. John kerry just got in there and hes already giving these other countries American Peoples tax money. They have not paid in to support this country. Guest let me address that, because i know you are reflecting their view of a majority of americans who think that we ought to cut foreign assistance. You may not realize that the foreign assistance budget of the United States of america is less than 1 of our budget. I would say that peace is cheaper than war. And sometimes, when we give assistance to these other countries to help them with their economic development, to help build hospitals and i know we need to do things at home, and i agree that is the top priority. But it is also a priority for us to make sure that we have stability in countries around the world. It is not just a handout. It is also in our own self interest, i think, to help keep these countries more peaceful and prosperous. It is not a lot of money in the face of the whole budget. Most americans think it is between 15 to 25 of our budget that we give away overseas. Not really, it is a tiny amount. Host years a story from fox news in the past week. Secretary carey announced that there will be a new aid, a shift in u. S. Policy. And for the first time, nonlethal aid like food and medicine and supplies will be going to oust president Bashar Alassad. This morning, he said that the region should take care of its own, the countries around syria should be the ones who come to the aid and make decisions about the future. Should we be involved . Guest it is a very volatile area of the world, for sure. Here is the threat to the United States. The only ally that iran has in the region is syria. And certainly in and of itself, syria, bars are outside Bashar Alassad is killing thousands of his own people. The instability risk the entire region. The other countries in the region are contributing. The problem is, we want to make sure that none of the aid is going to go to radical islamists who will be anti u. S. If they become the next rulers of syria. It is a complicated to tuition. But the u. S. Has a self interest it is a complicated situation. But the u. S. Has a self interest in the ousting of Bashar Alassad. Host janice chicago Janice Schakowsky is serving her eighth term. She is a member of the steering and policy committee and one of the chief deputy whips in this congress. She sits on select intelligence and its ranking democrat on oversight and also sits on the energy committee. Prior to her service in the u. S. Congress, she served on the Illinois State assembly for eight years and was the Program Director for illinois public action to on the states largest Public Interest organization. She also directed the Illinois State council of senior citizen. The energy lost him. Lets go to janette jeff in pennsylvania. Caller i want to thank the congresswoman for being there. I am a tenet a ted kennedy democrat. He was the first person i voted for when he ran against carter for president. I know the issues at stake. Im from westmoreland county. Glad they were there, really. Ilets hear from keith in minnesota. Good morning. I think we guest well, thank y. There is such a difference right now in philosophy, whether or not were going to be a government that supports the greatest income inequality in our country, and actually, the sequestration is going to make this worse because the cuts will fall on ordinary americans. Whether or not we will be a country that is really interested in creating jobs, that sees growth, not just spending cuts and not just increasing revenue, but growing the economy by growing jobs. Yes, a democrat. Im from the Paul Wellstone wayne of the democratic party. And the ted kennedy wing. Host what is the importance to you of passing the violence against women act . Guest that was a big victory that were able to pass the senate version. The congratulate speaker better for calling the bill and getting it passed. I congratulate Speaker Boehner for calling the bill and getting it passed through and it has never been controversial, but having said that, im glad that it has finally been passed. Women in that country of the United States of america are doomed are victims of domestic violence. And that includes the immigrant women, tribal women, lgbt women. Theyre all protected now under the expanded violence against women act. It is a really good victory. Host lets hear from a caller in an indianapolis, tony, go ahead. Caller i have been watching c span for a little while and, to me, it does not matter. Democrats skew the numbers the way they want to to make them sound good and the republicans probably do the same thing. It is not a reflection on a representative there right now. But she was saying that 1 of our tax money went to foreign aid. Guest is correct. Caller but only 2 go to the cuts right now. To me, it does not make sense. It is ironic to me that we have someone from illinois talking about the economy. I just took my company from illinois to indiana because of the corruption and high taxation in illinois. I have another company of there, a Small Company like mine. I only employs 75 people could buy another are the people thinking the same thing due to the 75 people. But i know there are other people think in the same thing due to the corruption and high taxes. The president has not done [indiscernible] guest the average american, ordinary americans have not seen a race. In other words, their income has not gone up in the last 20 years. But we have seen this Enormous Growth in the income of the wealthiest americans. Right now, the United States of america leads the world in income disparity. If you look at the average our country has continued to grow. There has been growth in gdp. We are getting richer as a country, but we are seeing more and more americans struggling to make ends meet. We need to do something about that. These are not made up numbers. That is just a fact. And in terms of the less than 1 that goes for our foreign assistance, even republicans as well as democrats agree that money is well spent. Not every penny of it. You could pick out certain things that maybe we ought to cut back, but well spent in terms of the United States being a leader in the world, playing its part in the international world, because it is getting smaller and smaller. But i would say that we need to do something to build the middle class in this country, to create jobs, and so that we do not just have the stock market going up, benefiting mostly wealthier people. But we see incomes rising, and polymerizing in the United States, that is our goal. Host congresswoman schakowsky is on the select Intelligence Committee. The pentagon has a new report out. Cyber attacks could touring u. S. Weapons against america. And it goes into detail about Cyber Security and cyber crimes. How concerned about this are you . Which should congress do . Guest this is a major issue. We have a Cyber Security bill that still has not been passed. We do need to authorize it. One of the concerns are continually raised as we go for Cyber Security is that we also need to protect the privacy of all americans. But we can do both. In order to get ahead of the chinese, or maybe some of the nonstate actors that would want to hurt us when it comes to our Business Community and the chinese, we know there are some concerns about Cyber Security. We need to address that issue in terms of the Technology Behind a game here. Host and the white house put out a directive in the state of the union address. Did that go far enough . Guest the current legislation . Host the president s executive order regarding Cyber Security guest we have legislation pending before congress. That is what we need to do. Host many businesses are resistant to the government telling them to share information guest and consumers are concerned about the governments sharing information with businesses as well. We can set up as the kind of fire walls that are necessary, the kind of processes that would make personal information, not just email address, but the content is protected. We can do it. Directive inhost congressman e schakowsky of illinois, as i mentioned, she serves on the select Intelligence Committee in progress. Thank you for joining us. Guest it has been my pleasure host . Coming up next well have our regular spotlight on the environment. Tim gray from variety magazine will join us to talk about their special addition to focusing on violence in the Entertainment Industry. We will hear from a variety of people, including senator Jay Rockefeller, as well as people who have served in the media from both behind the lens and in front of the camera and get their perspectives on how violence and the media mix. That is coming up in a moment. But first, cspan brings you this very special announcement. Todays the day that cspan is pleased to announce its winners in the 2013 studentcam competition. It is the annual student documentary contest where we asked young people to use video to tell us about issues that are important to us. In their entry, they must include a bit of cspan coverage along the way. This years theme was a message to the president whats the most important issue that you think the president should consider in 2013 . We received a Record Number of entries to almost 2000 from 40 different states and were giving away a total of 50,000 in cash prices. What is interesting is to see what is on the minds of young people and hear some of the top issues this year the economy, education, environment, pension troll, and immigration gun control, and immigration. Our top winner was related to the economy. His issue was on unemployment. His name was josh stokes. He attends highschool in connecticut. Here is him getting the good news earlier this week. Hi, josh. Im calling from cspan about your documentary, unemployment in america that you submitted for this years studentcam competition. We received a Record Number of entries and after the many rounds of judging, you have been selected as this years grand prize winner. Congratulations. Thank you . Thank you. And as this years grand prize winner, youll also receive 5,000. Oh, my gosh. Can you tell me why you selected unemployment as this important topic for the president to consider . I think i chose it because my dad knows a lot of people who are unemployed and it was easy to find someone to do a documentary. We were very impressed with your coverage. You did many issues many interviews. And you also interviewed an unemployed man who illustrated the affected can have on people in this country. Can you share something that you learned about unemployment through the entire process . I think i learned that it affects more than just not earning money, like, your self esteem and everything that is good. What was your favorite part of creating the documentary overall . I think the whole process, like, filming, editing, and friends helping out. Great job, once again, congratulations on being this years grand prize winner. Thank you. Thank you, josh. Have a good day. And here is a flavor of the documentary that josh stokes put together on unemployment. Come to my home town in connecticut and you might find it hard to believe that unemployment is one of the biggest problems facing america today. However, just a twohour train ride will take you into the heart of the nine states, downtown manhattan. Population of about 1,600,000, 136,000 of which are unemployed, a staggering 8. 5 . This is the worst economic recovery in years. The jobless rate has leveled out just over 8 . The United States has lost 42,000 factories since 2001. And our congratulations once again to josh stokes, for its top prize in studentcam this year. And now to the high school and middle school entry could burst price of the highschool level goes to alan shimp. He is in the 10th grade in midland, pennsylvania. He chose as his topic, the national debt, and his video is called free candy. He will be receiving 3,000 in prize money this year. And in middle school, it goes to 18. There topic was on public transportation. They tend middle school in . Bill, tennessee. In at knoxville, tennessee. They will be sharing a 3,000 prize. Among the nearly 2000 entries, there were 75 winners and all of them are available for you to see at our website at studentcam. Org. And in the month of april will be is showing the top entries on the cspan network. Host on wednesdays at this time, we turn our spotlight to magazines. Today, we look at variety magazine. They have a special report on violence in entertainment. Here to talk about it with as from los angeles is friday magazines chief international answer, tim gray. Thank you for being here so early this morning guest im very happy you asked me. Thank you. Host you started this special report with a message of why youre doing this. Why did variety jump in . And maybe tell us what variety is for those of us who are not as corrected to the hollywood scene. Guest is a trade paper for the hollywood scene. It started in 19005. Over the years, we have evolved and covered film, a digital, music, all aspects of it. It is not the red carpet coverage, but the dollars and cents. You ask why we would talk about violence. Variety has always had a need to talk about social awareness, because people in the Entertainment Industry need to know what is going on in the world, because that is where their readers are. I wrote a book and you just showed a copy of the book called variety illustrates the history of the world. That is how we cover world events, whether the sinking of the titanic or the arab spring and everything in between, because readers have to be aware of more than dollars and cents. Ande having a meeting talking about moving forward because we have a new owner, jay kenduskeag, who bought as in october. J penske, who brought us in october. We were looking at what were doing with their website and with the print version. And people were distracted by sandy l and a couple of the parents for talking about worrying about their kids at school. And he had this light in his eyes and said, lets do an issue on just the violence and we will cover it from every aspect and get everybody to weigh in on both sides of the issue. In 35 seconds, he bought the whole issue he evolves to the whole issue. Jay wanted no advertising, because he said he did not want this to be a commercial venture. He said he did not want people to think that we were capitalizing on this. I wanted to get people in the industry to think. The readers in the industry, they are responsible for content that goes around the world. And we want that to think about whether they were contributing to this violence. Host and your point out that the chairman and ceo conceived of this issue. There were more than 40 contributors from within the industry and without. Five people on both sides of guncontrol, as well as the video Game Industry working on this issue. Every question led to forde further questions about domestic violence, Mental Health, pharmaceutical, censorship, and technology. Many were eager to weigh in, others were too timid to go public. What has the conversation been like in the industry, in hollywood, in terms of violence . Is this something you feel you have talked about a lot . Guest it is talked about a lot. One of the goals was not to let people off the hook. Entertainment is always attacked for its content. A lot of people say, it is not our fault, it is guncontrol or it is Mental Health. I say in my introduction an old 1960s craze, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Maybe entertainment cannot be solely blamed for the problem, but this ask the question, are you contributing in any way . The American Academy of child and adolescent psychiatry as these statistics that i find shocking. The average child every year watches 1500 hours of television, but only spends 1000 hours in the classroom. It is more television than classroom. What does that affect . What are they watching . And what effect does that have on those lines . We wanted to raise a lot of questions. Host if you like to weigh in, youre the phone numbers to call. Here are the phone numbers to call. Who are some of the notable contributors in here, tim gray . Guest Jay Rockefeller was one of the notable contributors. He wrote a great piece. Vince gill again, who created breaking bad, he wrote a piece. I was practically stalking him because that show has violence, but it is very thoughtful. He wrote an essay saying, of course you can detect violence, but there have to be consequences. A lot of times you will see the hero shoot somebody, they fall dead, and the hero makes a wisecrack and a walk on. And theres never any awareness of whether it affects the hero by shooting people, and the victim, did he have a family . He was saying there ought to be consequences to the violence. When you talk about violence in the media, you could be talking about the passion of christ, because that was a very violent film, or the three stooges, or video games. The longer we worked on this, the more complex it became. It was really interesting to work on. I host what is the history of violence in his host what is the history of violence in cinema . You talk about everything from fistfights to some of the first images hundreds of years ago. This is a picture from the 1903 film, the great train robbery. The film concludes with shooting at the camera and it was so realistic to audience, some to audiences, some doctors they had never seen anything like it before. Some ducked. They had never seen anything like it before. Guest guns in film have always been part of our history. Nfl, there were reports of some pulling out guns in that film, there were reports of sampling of guns and shooting guard at the screen. I do not know if that is true, but it is a good story. A lot of these images of violence are just part of our culture. James cagney shoving a grapefruit in that womans face. The wild bunch from the 70s, all of these movies are part of our heritage. What is that heritage . It is fascinating. I love jay penske for thinking of this idea. Host lets go to the phones. Gerald in newcastle is our first caller. Cheryl in newcastle is our first caller. Caller guest i call myself no a mom. Many years ago i chaired an old pta mom. Many years ago i chaired the pta council. At the time, the national pta had developed a Wonderful National program looking at violence in video games and on television and in the movie industry. When sandy hook happened, and of course, for many years ive worked with children and for the last 25 years as an advocate in my job i work for children, so what happened at sandy hook especially touched me. It was the most extreme case as far as what we have seen in our culture here in america. I talked to my friends and said, is no one listening was no one listening 25 or 30 years ago when we were talking about the fact that we were just becoming more and more accepting of the violence in our culture . I know Joe Lieberman and a few other senators for years sponsored a conference out and washington, d. C. On violence in video games. And the entire time is on television, they have something streaming on the bottom talking about how violent the content of what they are showing is. I have two young grandchildren. Im very disturbed by what i see on television. Even the promos for some of the movies, i put my hand in front of my face, because im 62 years old and the violence has increased to such a place that it is something i cannot even stomach any more. I am concerned about our young people being fed a constant diet of this. And one wants to take responsibility. It is not the movies, the music, the television, the video games. It is maybe not one of those, but i believe in my heart that it is all of those. Guest i totally hear what youre saying. In the issue that we have, we printed an ad from 1968. A man took out a fullpage ad after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther king jr. And said, ok, we have to do something. I do not want to just be a voice in the wilderness and we ought to solve this. That was 1968. Have we solve this . I dont know. We have people weighing in on movie, tv, video games, but also Mental Health, domestic abuse, child abuse. All of these things are contributing. I agree, the worst thing anyone can do is to not do anything, to just assume someone else will solve the problem. And the second worst thing is to pinpoint one area and say, that is responsible, whether it is gun control or video games and to say, once that is resolved, everything will be solved. It is all contributing. And i said in my introduction, do something. I do not care what side you are on, but do something to make a difference. Take action here. I do not wait for other people to solve the problem. Film lets look at the Rating System. We see this from filmratings. Com, the way that i movies are rated so that families can know what to expect. How does this play a role in the making of movies, and also in the portrayal of violence . Guest the movie Rating System was started in 1968 to prevent government censorship. Because a lot of local boards have their own standards for the local community. And the studios were trying to chase down because in 1968, a lot of things were changing. They could not be involved in 20 lawsuits at any one time. It is a standard, a guide for parents. It is helpful. I think it does help people. But for me, the question of violence in entertainment is the question of the pervasiveness. If you go back to the bible, or to greek plays, or to shakespeare, some of them are very violent. You see violence for three hours, maybe in one week in those instances. The American Academy of psychiatry says the average child sees 200,000 acts of violence by the time he is 18. Even if it is only 10 of that, that is still 20,000 acts of violence by the time they are 18. Again, if the child is loved and well adjusted, that will make a difference. We interviewed a man from the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department who said, look, there are no easy solutions, but it all starts at home. I think theres truth to that. Host lets hear from carl in danville, ky on the republicans line. Caller hello. What i wanted to comment was, i fear that your guest is spotting the old liberal line that exposure to violence and of course, the end game for these nice folks is disarming the public. But as far as exposure to violence, even tremendous amounts over and over leading to an individual become a violent individual, i think that you are really stretching the logic there. For example, combat veterans are some of the most peaceful people if you have been exposed to an extreme amount of violence, youre probably less prone to violence than someone who has led a peaceful existence in their life in some ways. I feel like its all politics, just to disarm the public, and they keep using these lines like, well, if you would just save one childs life. And if we would outlaw vehicles a good example of what im saying is the drunkendriving schools that they send a nice folks to when they get their duis. They end up with little effect on these people out, even though they are exposed to all the films with horrible wreck on the people and they know that can happen. They go right out and it does not change their behavior at all. That is all i would like to say. I will go off line and this is your lovely guests retort. Listen to your guest lovely guests record first, thanks listen to your lovely guests retorted. Guest first, thanks for calling, and thanks for calling me lovely. One of the things that my boss said to me is, dont let hollywood off the hook. And make them think and make them think about everything they do. We tried to get all sides of the issue. We could find a lot of people in hollywood that were in favor of gun control, but if we have five people in favor of gun control, then we need five people who are against gun control. Sometimes it was hard to find those. The nra never returned any of our phone calls. This was run after santillo, and they might have been feeling vulnerable. Right after sandy hook, and they might have been feeling vulnerable. But also, because we are a hollywood paper, they might have thought we were just. To make fun of them. But there is were just going to make fun of them. But theres a big range of what people in hollywood think. The person who wrote thelma and louise and is working on the tv series natural now, she said the myth about hollywood is not true. They will go wherever theres money. Again, if i seem to be espousing a party line, i apologize. Im trying to get people to think and be aware. One of the contributors is peter reagan. He talks about antidepressant and young people who are described antidepressant and nobody monitors them and it changes their behavior. Who are prescribed antidepressants and nobody maters then and it changes their behavior. The young man in the shooting, was he playing video games . Yes, he was, but he was also one antidepressants. We put this together in a month, and the more complex and more fascinating and upsetting it was. I did not sleep well for a month. I was having nightmares, because you just keep hearing these statistics and these facts. Im trying not to espouse a liberal viewpoint, or any viewpoint. Im just trying to get people to read it. Go to variety. Com violence. You will see these 40 contributors and their pieces. If you have time, read them all. They all make interesting points. Host here is an example of what you will find in the report. You see here,. Encounter. , you see here point and counterpoint. Ned in huntsville, alabama as our next caller. Caller good morning to you. The gun issue that we have at present, guncontrol is not going to solve the problem that we have with violence in this country. But im not against it. It may do some good. The reason is, ours is a Violent Society. We live in a Violent Society where violence is glamorized. Look at our sports. Look at our commercials for the movies. Look at the way we fight wars. Our soldiers are really more like actors than they are soldiers and fighters. I dont know what to do about this, and i do not know if i have a suggestion for you, but as i was the president and wanted to address this, my first visit would be to hollywood. I would talk to the Hollywood Community and talk about toning it down a bit. And violence in sports, we should do something about that. He could talk about that, too. Host lets get tim grays thoughts on that. What is the role of congress . You mention that senator Jay Rockefeller to contribute to this publication. What about congress and the white house . Guest i think they need to study it and be aware of it, but i also said to the readers, especially in the Entertainment Industry, dont wait for congress to do anything. Things can get bogged down in legislation. And First Amendment rights, it is very difficult for them to legislate what content a film or tv show can have. I would say to work on the community level. Earlier, i said if you are not part of the solution to my your part of the problem, it is an old 1963, but i think it is true. The other one is, think global, but start local. Work with the Mental Health facilities, do that. Work with the sheriffs department. We had someone from the sheriffs department, paltz menachem. Paul tenaka. I think that is the way to go rather than wait for congress because they will get bogged down in many cases, there are instances where the community took action years ahead of what congress did. I would say, follow the model. Host here is a twitter comment. Maverick writes in and says with a 247 violence and in many cases violence has been glorified. Another tweet, yes, violence is a problem and should be eliminated. Lets go back to the ozzie and harriet days. What do you think . Guest it sounds nice. I do not know that we can never go back to the r. T. And harriet days. But again, the thing with violence, the public liked it. Go back to the ozzie and harriet days. But again, the thing with violence, the public likes it. After the issue came out, i got so much positive reaction, and yet the walking dead, which is the most popular show on television and has huge ratings, it is very violent and the public is watching it. Django one change, which is a very violent film, i think it is 350 Million Worldwide and it won an oscar. The public likes it around the world. It sounds nice to say, lets eliminate violence, but where do you draw the line . That new miniseries, the bible, you could not show that because it is violent. You could not show the passion of the cries. You could not show a three stooges episodes. Theyre very violent. There are many times that i wish we could go back to the old days, but i think it is not going to happen. We have moved. An actor, Chazz Palminteri, he says, and the audiences just cant wait for the big fist fight on the daytime talk shows on the jerry springers and the maury povichs. They just cannot wait for people to start swinging at each other. A lot of people watching this are probably against violence, but a lot of the audience does like it. And that is a little distressing, too. Host you mentioned Chazz Palminteri and he writes an essay. He writes he ended up turning his witnessing a violent into a story about growing up in the bronx. Do your writers differentiate between violence for greater good and violence that has another purpose or mission . Guest i will say that his peace was one of my favorites in that issue because we asked him about being an actor playing scenes of violence, what goes through your body, what goes through your mind when you are building up to that. He was not interested in that question. He just wanted to talk about the the sensitizing of society in general because of entertainment. And he also talked about witnessing a shooting. His father took care of him and major he had a perspective and knew what that was about. Also, Ronald Reagans children talk about watching old westerns with their father, and he would always say, if that guy was really shot in the shoulder like that, he could not just get out and shoot the other guy. This would tear into his muscle. Here is the effect of a bullet. It is good parenting. That makes a big difference. People in hollywood, theres a wide range. Every day, im surprised at how smart and often some people in war in hollywood are, and every day, is horrified at how sensitive and selfish insensitive and selfish some of them are. It is like any industry. There are some good people who really think about the effects of what theyre doing. Again, vince gill again with breaking bad and kurt sadr with sons of anarchy. They are very thoughtful about violence and its effect on people. Other people are out for a quick buck. It is hard to generalize. Does that answer your question . Host it does, thank you. Two other contributors in here, patti davis and ron reagan talk about the violence they sought in television and movies. Lets go to virginia, mark, republican caller. Caller good morning. As i look at the gamut of things im trying to solve here, the video games, the violence on tv, it is there. And i do believe we did to sensitize children desensitizes children, because that is what they see. There are those family comedy shows on tv. At one time, we have for five films where they are showing bodies being autopsied on television. I do not really think that is what the American People want to see, but i believe when you flip channels and you are seeing on channel after channel after channel, that is what you get. And the music we see the music, we see kids coming from the get as and glorifying shooting or slapping a woman, and the next thing you know, this guys a billionaire. When will we get real and see that these young minds out there i do not know exactly how to put it. They are seeing this and theyre acting it out. There is no normalcy to it anymore. Guest youre making an interesting point. Again, people in hollywood, theres a wide range of reactions. I have talked to some people who say, ok, but violence in entertainment, it goes back to a dozen years at least. A little bit 2000 years at peace. A little bit is inevitable. They would single out video games, because to them, look, youre sitting in a Movie Theater with 300 other people watching an act of violence. That is still a social setting. A video game, is pretty much oneonone, and especially the First Person Shooter game where the person playing the video game gets points by shooting people. In theory, the person they are shooting is a villain, so in theory, they are doing good. But several people i talked about talked to in hollywood said they worry about that concept because here is someone sitting alone at home, in the dark, maybe four hours, and the screens are very sophisticated and well done, so they look kind of realistic. They worry about the effect of that. But again, because we are a variety and we talk a lot about the Entertainment Industry and their role, i was also struck by a lot of the facts about Mental Health, for example. A woman named doris fuller was saying that in the past 50 years, 95 of psychiatric beds have been eliminated. We just do not give Mental Health care to people anymore. And. Tanaka and charaf tanaka also made that point. You want to get people off the streets of they do not harm people. Again, domestic violence, child abuse, all of that kind of stuff, it can be overwhelming when you think about it. When we started working on this issue, we had an idea of what we wanted to cover. When we started working on that threat it was like, oh, my god, this is widespread and pervasive and scary. Aboutwere talking variety, a special report on violence and entertainment. You can find an online by going to variety. Com reilich. Here are a couple of weeks for you. One writes, it is plain to see that violence is more inyour face than ever. Kids are impressionable. Some kids think reality is video games. And another one said another way to look at it is the entertainment verses from the games. Do they equal or not . Our guest served as editor and chief of this special report on violence in entertainment. His work also includes the book rit rit an illustrated history of the world from the most important magazine in hollywood. Hear from herald in east st. Louis on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I want to respond to the republican that was trying to blame ghetto people for the violence. As far as i can see, most of the people committing these this violence is a white man. I have been around violence and lived in the ghetto all my life. Ive never had the impulse, or known anyone who wanted to go into a schoolroom and shoot anybody. We always want to put the onus on the onus on the wrong people the young the wrong people. The young white man who decides he wants to take a gun from his mother and go into a schoolroom and shoot a people, what does that have to do with laws . You can make a lot, but if you do not get to the right people and get them help, you will not change anything. I went into a Sporting Goods store yesterday, i went to three of them to buy some ammunition. All of the shelves were empty. There is something getting ready to go on. What i think it is is that people are fed up with the rich having everything in the port having nothing. There will come a time when the people will get fed up and tired of being without, and struggling, and being on the street. People are coming back from wars that they have fought for 10 years and there are no jobs and theyre homeless. You better wake up. Host you brought up a lot of issues there, but before you go i think we lost him. In terms of the economy and other aspects, feeling disempowered, and things are not about violence, but we lost in, so maybe you can reflect on some of the issues he was bringing out. Guest first, i agree with him. There is no easy solution. That is what a lot of people, including people in the Entertainment Industry and elsewhere are guilty of, looking for Fast Solutions to this. Sandy hook happened after the iran shooting, and after, mind and after the Aurora Shooting had after columbine. Lets get this fixed. It will take rethinking these things. And what he was saying about the thing that was scary about peoples anger and guns, i think on sales have gone up significantly since sandy hook. I think people are scared. But again, when you talk about gun control, a lot of people that we talked about in this issue made a very clear distinction between handguns, rifles, and automatic weapons. I personally have a lot of friends and relatives that own guns. You cannot say, lets eliminate guns in the same way you cannot say, lets eliminate violence, either on the street or the screen. But i would say to the caller, thanks for calling, and i hope it does not get as bad as he is predicting. He should get involved at the community level. Talk to the police department, the sheriffs department, a Mental Health department, and say, how can i help stop the violence . You will not see results by the end of the month. You will see results hopefully soon, but it could take years. Host lets hear from craig in ofallon, missouri, and the republicans line. Caller good morning. I would like to make reference to the individual but spoke earlier who spoke earlier, when the reference our military soldiers acting more like actors than what they are really supposed to do. I am a former marine of eight years in the middle east. That could not be further from the truth. I think that we, as a nation, hold up a lot of our values. I grew up with a grandfather, great uncles, great hands that have served in world war ii. It was a very large family. The support and loyalty that they had as americans was phenomenal. That was the basis for me entering the military, because it felt as if it was a duty and an honor to serve. Host one of our callers earlier said that he would actually be less inclined to engage in violence and see violence as fruitless unless they had actually experienced if they have actually as frivolous if they have actually experienced it themselves, do you agree . Guest caller absolutely. Caller absolutely. All i can do is speak for marines. I cannot speak for anybody else. We take our oath extremely seriously. And that is, to defend and protect the constitution of the United States. Political correctness does not go well with us. We do not like to feel like we are pawns by any means. The rules of engagement that our marines and soldiers have had to deal with in afghanistan and iraq basically tied their hands. Understandably, theyre going through serious things. Coming back to the United States and start having been called potential extremists it extremely offensive. Host thank you, greg. Any comments . Guest a lot of the callers are making interesting points. To me, they all underline the thing that people in general are you are looking for easy solutions. If somebody shoots somebody and this person was in the military is like, oh, that is what happened. Their mind snapped and theyre good with guns and that is what they all do people are looking for easy answers. That does not take into account the people who were not in the military when shooting. For me, this whole discussion today, some of the things that the colors are bringing out our evidence that this is a complex issue. There are no easy answers. I would encourage people to continue looking into this and not forget about it. Like the person who wrote the letter in 1968 who said, lets hope im not a voice in the wilderness i want to call the person and say, you were a voice in the wilderness, but lets carry on with this and keep it moving and take action, and try to resolve this and not look for easy answers. To alex on the democrats line in los angeles. Caller i want to comment on a lot of things that people have been mentioning with violence in society. Much of the Research Shows it is a mixed effect with violence. Entertainment has been shown to be to have a large effect on the youth, but what has been left out of the conversation is the lack of Mental Health resources, as well as the lack of influence is that can offset the violent influence, such as parents getting involved, such as schools doing better at addressing the balance. And much of the Research Shows that kind of involvement would help this violent culture that we have. Host alex, do you work in the Entertainment Industry . Caller i do not. I am an undergraduate student in a kogod to sites. Kogod to science. Anything that has to do with the cognitive science. Anything to do with the mind interests me. Guest there are several people weighing in on the Mental Health aspect, which i do not think its the only solution, but a very important part of this. And in the discussion since sandy hook theaurora the discussion has focused on gun control and video games, but the importance discussion on Mental Health, you cannot ignore that. Host you can find his special report add variety. Com violence. And we look at this last image here. Tim gray, thank you for talking to us from los angeles. Guest thank you for having me. Host that is all we have. Thank you for joining us