President of the Vice President making a bid for the white house in 2016 . You can make your thoughts known on the phone lines you can tweet us if you want. Is on our poll facebook page. You can also email us at journal cspan. Org. An interview took place not long ago. State isr secretary of widely viewed as the democratic frontrunner to succeed president barack obama but the Vice President is not foreclosing any options on whether he may seek white house for a third term. The interview was broadcast on cnn. The Vice President said he would make a decision by the summer of 2015. Not only can you leave comments about if joe biden should run for president but you can also participate in a poll as well. Those saying yes, for people. Those saying no, 63 people. You can make those comments and post them. Some did. John saying if you want to make your thoughts on the phone know, the linese divided by party. If you want to tweet us your thoughtsss your it is cspanwj. Make your comments knownw there. Known there. The Washington Post saying how much evers calls from california on the republican line. Our first call is from california on the republican line. Caller obamas not doing a good job, that dirty socialist piece of host stephanie is next. I believe Hillary Clinton should be up for the party. Host why her and not the current prep not the current Vice President . Dont think he is qualified in his career in this particular time of his career. Host what makes you say that . See i would what i vote for Hillary Clinton. Thomas from michigan on the democrats line. What do you think he echo what do you think . Should i believe hillary run. If joe biden has been around for a long time. I think she has more respect. . Ost domestically internationally . Caller both. And even with the womans vote she would carry it better than joe biden. Is thomas from michigan. Some of the opinions you have heard about joe biden and if he should run for president. The phone lines are on the screen. Two comments from facebook this morning. You see the tallies there as far as the yes and no categories. Patrick from los angeles, california, democrats line. My attitude is it doesnt matter. This country is being hijacked by israel. The unholy Alliance Host deborah from cincinnati, ohio on the democrats line. I think joe biden should run for president. Perfecthe would be the candidate to endorse the things president obama is trying to do. President obama is doing a wonderful job. Host you are probably one of the few who wholeheartedly endorse him. Why him over her . Joe biden has stuck closely to the president. He knows the things hes trying to get on the front plate. Is there a strength he bring he would bring to the presidency echo to the presidency . Caller i think joe biden needs to continue to do what he needs state the things the host this is randy from troy alabama on the republican line. Good morning sir. I dont think joe biden should run for the presidency. The democrats have taken the constitution and toppled it over with the executive orders. Host if not joe biden, then who he echo then who . Caller the guy from texas. The governor from texas. Do you know who believes in the sanctity of marriage and medical data that our country was i just take that office and to with they want to. This country was built on hardworking people who believe in god and the sanctity of marriage. Believe that that is what theyre going to try to run with. President obama said he is going to save america. He has taken the Civil Liberties of the country and taken peoples religious freedom and thrown them to the wayside. He said if i cant go through the constitution the way it is set up i will just buy back i will just bypass congress. I am going to run at the way i want to breathe that is my comment. Host back in january the Washington Post asked democrats if the 2016 primary were held today amongst the candidates 73 would vote for hillary president joeor biden, and a percent from senator elizabeth warren. That is a poll that took place in january of this year. From twitter debbie. Ar from Vice President joe biden is not qualified. He is destroying her country. Destroying our country. Put jesus and we are doomed. There is no climate changed. Climate change. We are being judged. Host who would be your lead candidate . Caller when i see Barbara Ochsner and nancy pelosi, they are communists. There is no candidate, they are all 100 years old. When hillary was supposed to testify about benghazi, she was so sick. There is no candidate for the democrats. Robert from twitter says you can make your thoughts known on the phone as well. The Vice President spoke to democrats at their meeting that you saw. Part of the conversation was the Vice President talking about how american sentiment was reflecting Democratic Values and what that means for the upcoming election this november. [video clip] the American People agree with us. They agree with us on pay equity. 55 is all the difficulties youre facing now with the aca. 55 dont want to see it repealed. I cant think of a time when the issues most affect the middle. Lass overwhelmingly i wish there was a Republican Party. I wish there was one person i can sit across the table from, make a compromise, and know when you got up from the table it was done. That is what the president is able to commit to. Is look ate to do the response of the state of the union. I think we should get a little focused here. Focus on all we have going for us in the selection. We are asking your thoughts on the Vice President and if he should make a run for the presidency. The phone lines next call is joe from connecticut on the independence line. I am tied over that whole washington bunch. Those are the ones who are going to be be elected. The reason i like biden is because he is different. Changean with a platform. He kept the same people recirculated. Differente is presents a new opportunity. Host what makes them different he echo what makes him different . Caller he tells the truth. I am tired of these guys that lie all the time. Biden is really the real deal. Host brad is from moreno, michigan on the republican line. Vice president s always come along as a second stringer. As far as biden, i dont think i would ever vote for the guy. It was just ridiculous. They made him view to video showing how ridiculous he was. He doesnt have everything there. Think after the november elections, hillary has a lot to make up. Couple of other stories,. He president in california immigration was the topic, ng i think sending a strong message to them that this is the right thing to do, a fair thing to do, and it will improve the economy and give people a chance. The president hopes to take executive actions if the republicans dont move a bill. Delaware, democrats line. Hello. I met joe biden personally and had a good conversation with him on a sunday afternoon. I like him personally. I think throwing himself into the ring is going to cause a bunch of contention and division in the Democratic Party. Believerican american i Hillary Clinton should have run the first time. I wanted her to win. I felt caucasians dont like to work with black people all the time. Obama would have a hard time getting his agenda through. Run andlike to see her i would like to see joe biden step back. As far as causing a distraction, can you expand on that he echo on that he echo caller can you expand on that h . Caller host sandy is from fairport new york. Caller good morning. I would have to commend him on more than 30 years of service, that is for sure. I am not sure he is the right candidate. Hillaryill most will most likely not run after the primaries. I also believe the Democrat Party will definitely come together, as they usually do, especially with the Republican Party not being good. Is there anyone out there on the democrat side . Im sure we will see that. His or someone in mind to that role he echo caller to fill that role . Caller i would really like to see hillary run. She has a lot to offer. She has a lot of expertise. I am not really sure. Think after the 2014 election she wouldnt run, why is that he echo why is that . Caller it seems that she is set up. The democrats have come together well. Awfulre good at problems problem solving. There is a story looking ,t the democratic parties especially House Minority leader mansi pelosi. She raised that he Million Dollars for the Democratic Party in 2015. In 2013. She finds herself with fewer and fewer peers and the house. Our next caller is from mississippi on the republican line. I personally do not think joe biden should run. Neither do i think Hillary Clinton will win. Change for the a democratic and Republican Party. Uphink americans are fed with the things that have occurred in office. We want anyone else associated with barack obama. We are hoping somebody will come forward with a freshness. It is really for the American People. Host could you think that somebody is he echo that somebody is . I would vote for al gore at this point. I havent seen anyone who has impressed me as of yet. I think everybody was so excited when barack obama won a second time and gave him a chance to make right from wrong. I think we want to see something real. As of now i cannot say for certain. Comehoping somebody will and it will be real for American People. I would vote for al gore. Host i am interested in why you would do that. Caller al gore was a genuine person. I really do feel as an american the whole mistake about how george got his office, i feel like you was a great candidate. I think he wouldve made Great Strides in helping the American People. The president in california, stopping at a farm to talk about environmental issues. Mr. Obama ing here is what he had to say. [video clip] meansnging climate disasters like droughts. Droughts have obviously been part of life out west since any of us were around. In california has always been complicated. Scientific evidence shows a changing climate is going to make them more tense more intense. Undeniable is is that changing temperatures influenced drought in three ways. Inber one, more rain falls extreme downpours, some more water is lost to run off and capture for use. Number two, more precipitation in the mountains falls as rain rather than snow. Rivers run dry earlier in the year. Reservoirs lose more water to evaporation yearround. Until we do more to combat the pollution, this trend is going to get worse. Carbon pollution has built up in our atmosphere for decades. The planet is slowly going to keep warming for a long time to come. You can see full comments at cspan. Org, part of the ongoing trip in california. Syrian refugees part of the discussion. You can find that and other information. Theave recently redesigned website. Kim from columbus, ohio on the republican line. Caller i never thought i would get on here. I know is going to be the next president , i can tell you that right now, that is going to be Hillary Clinton. I hear these black people call woman saying she wont she wanted go all the way back to al gore. Hillary will be the next president. I will tell you exactly why. Have people feel like we like we let hillary down. When we vote for barack obama we kind of let hillary down. I am predicting right now hillary will be. Host why not joe biden . Caller with everything republicans are doing for women. Why not joe biden . Caller i love joe biden. Dont misunderstand it, but you cant have two president s. We feel like we let him down. Mark in new york, independent line. Caller i dont have a problem with biden. Hillary, billver clintons presidency was a disaster. Host why not biden in more than just comparing it to the Clinton Presidency . If hillary is anything e bill clinton in the past bombs iraq continuously, went to war against yugoslavia, got rid of glasssteagall, the list goes on and on. He did a lot of things that led to the recession we had. It goes back to regular and all ronaldngs they did to reagan and all the things they did. What do you support in joe biden . Caller i just prefer her over hillary. I dont really like him. I would prefer Bernie Sanders or ralph nader. On the republican mine. Caller good morning, i think you should have another line. Pendantsd have the that she should have dependence ts,you should have dependen because that is what this country is running into. You heard the last caller talking about groups. I dont care about groups or minorities whether it is latinos, women, white, men. Bill clinton is the person who brought all those desperate groups together, the unions, the environmentalists, the liberals. They all bought into each others a poor and agendas and now we have each others abhorrent agenda. I think biden is not equipped to but it ist post. Easier to run against a republican when you promise everything and every promise everything and someone is going to mysteriously pay for. Dont think he has the ability to run the office. I think hillary does britain i think we need continued people who know how to run a government or run the foundation of one. This guy just things of the 500,000 people that voted for the for our present this dont count anymore. Charles from jacksonville, florida, democrats line. I think joe biden would be a very good president. He has been in congress quite a few years. With thehow to deal tea party. I think you would be a very good but that very good Vice President. Would be a very good Vice President. Host caller joe biden has plenty of experience. The president we have now is feeding off of joe biden. He is a very highly intelligent person. I think he has been disrespected. This man is a very good president. He just has had not any cooperation. Host the topic of a wall street it remains unclear whether the agency will move a database that tracks phone calls and other communications as part of the Obama Administrations efforts. Operators have expressed reluctance and are where of the data and transfer to a third Party Stephen up next from point pleasant, virginia. I dont think joe biden should be president. I dont think hillary should be either. I think tom cruise should run for president. I do agree with most of his ideas. You mean ted cruz . Caller yes, sorry. Host target and data breaches, the headline says target staff had warnings. Here is angela from devonport, michigan. Caller im i am completely against anyone from this administration running for presidency. This is completely against anything our military stands for. This completely overseas everything the legal system stands for. I dont see anyone coming out of this administration that would be even competent to stand for president. Who would you look towards . Caller right now the Republican Party is in the process of rebuilding. Beverly from south carolina. Thank you for holding on. Im really from north carolina. I love your program. It certainly shows a lot about americans. These people are calling in about their opinions. Open onlyis should be to democrats. As far as hillary and joe biden , the women will vote for her. Joe biden has so much experience. It is a draw. We would have to have a primary. I would have to vote for hillary because i think she would win. These people who are calling in, these republicans and some of the democrats, god help america. I wanted to point you to some programming taking place on our Sister Program that on our sister channel. Weekend programming taking place on our sister channel. Tv, we will show all literary offerings from the city located near the middle of the state. He is talking about his book on civil rights activist fred shuttlesworth. He was a black baptist who became the nerve center of the Civil Rights Movement in birmingham. He was one of the original of thef look leadership conference. It is often said people around king are referred to as kings lieutenant. Although he was less known the major demonstrations of 1963, which arguably are the watershed events of the Civil Rights Movement. Those five weeks of are based ons seven years of work shuttlesworth did in birmingham. We focus on macon, georgia this weekend. For more information, go to our website. Thefacebook page has a pull we are asking folks to participate in. 168 people saying you joe biden shouldnt run for president , 38 people saying yes. Albert from long creek, south carolina, independent line. Hello. Let me push the button. Caller good morning. I think joe biden is probably the best Vice President in my lifetime. He doesnt get credit for all the things he does. I voted for. Iden hillaryprefer him to but i am not sure he could win. Americans focus on emotions rather than qualifications. Is nots problem washington, it is americans. Host when you are thinking about if he runs for president , what do you think he runs to the office . He brings to the office . Caller experience. He knows the players, he knows how things work, he knows how to beenhings done, hes around internationally. I dont think he gets the credit he would deserves he deserves. Some viewers say it is a disadvantage being in washington all too long. Caller it is. And notote on emotion on the qualifications. He is extremely qualified. I agree with most of what he says. At theed his speech conference yesterday. I think he is very knowledgeable, he knows the issues. I think the press doesnt treat him with the dignity he deserves. I think he is a good man. Host on twitter bob from florida, democrats line. He has to go through the primary process and get elected. A Clinton Biden presidency would be an outstanding presidency. I would be very pleased with that. As far as bidens qualifications, he has gone through travel. He was in congress. It was obviously overblown or underutilized. Arent even aware of the amount of work he does for congress. It is tremendous. Of course he is an insider. Has been in congress and he is Vice President. A logical conclusion. She would be a great candidate. I think we should let him run for the primary if he wants to. Earlier in the program we talked about that Washington Post abc poll. A couple of questions about when asked about if you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of joe 48 say favorable, 37 said unfavorable. You ask about Hillary Clinton, 67 had a favorable reaction. ,erry from indianapolis democrats line. Caller god bless everyone i got bless our country. I will vote for joe biden because joe biden is good to the world. He traveled all around the world like jimmy carter. Our country was in trouble last year. We have had problems. The Republican Party fell away. Like Eleanor Roosevelt said, we dont bash people. Come on democrats, fight together and stay together. We are all one nation. Everybody around the world does a good job. Got bless our country. A federal judge striking down virginias and on gay marriage. A piece in the New York Times takes a look at that. In striking down the ban, bill from baltimore maryland, talking about joe biden and if he should run for president. Caller it is bob from baltimore. It is getting bad when joe biden will be considered a better she is just criminal. What about Social Security what aboutcho Social Security . Host would you support joe biden . Caller no. He is part of the establishment working for international bankers. Robert on the independent line from virginia beach. Caller i consider myself independent. I would support biden, i would not support hillary. Be governor would theo from new york versus senator from pennsylvania. It is time for a social conservative president. This country needs to go back to jesus. That the original statement of why you would support joe biden back to the original statement of why he would support joe biden has the experience. He was a part of this administration, which i dont think is doing that bad of a job. If the democrats are going to keep the white house, they need to continue with this administration. I dont like the dynasties like bush. I dont think families should have multiple members in the executive mansion. Host is that the only reason you would not support her . I feel like she is a little too liberal for me. I dont think joe biden is quite that liberal. He is a catholic guy from. Orkingclass he is easier to identify with. The only thing that has kept me democratic so long is the support of the unions. The Detroit Free Press writing about the situation in tennessee jeff in south carolina, good morning. What i would like to see is someone who has ran a business and is a good economic person, someone who can move the country forward. That is something we havent seen in a long time. I think that would be great for the country for someone to step in. We are in a real bad shape. Host who was that person . Caller i think it is going to have to be a really strong business person who has moved up through somebody who has worked in a mailroom and work their way up. Is there somebody specific in mind you are thinking about . The way that we are now with people, i would like to see somebody new common. I cant say democrat or republican. Caller i think Joe Biden Biden would be a wonderful president. I think resident obama is brilliant. I think this country needs to vote for people who have ,ntelligence and understanding such as a tea party or the spews stuff that does not make any sense. We need people with intelligence who can run this government and have ideas and move us forward like the roosevelts. Man. S a brilliant we voted for eisenhower because he was a war hero. We have to vote for people who want to move this country forward and have the sense to do what is right into not what is in the vision of the Koch Brothers or the fox news. People have to read the newspaper and understand both sides of the story and come to a decision. Host as far as the vice concerned, what would you think he would bring to the white house . Caller he has a tremendous background. He is so articulate when he speaks. You understand him when he speaks. I think he marvels at the president s understanding of issues. I think they have a camaraderie between the two of them. I think he is right up there with brock. With barack. Joe biden has an understanding of the middle class area he really would have made a great president. The democrats just seem to have it together. Host one more call from waterloo, iowa on the independent line. Caller i dont believe joe biden isnt president material. I dont believe hillary is there as being a president. I believe the person who is make the best next president is the mayor of chicago, mayor in that mayor emanuel. Rahm emanuel, why is that t echo why is that . Caller he is president material. I believe the reason he broke away from the cabinet in the first place is to seek president ial run in the first place. There is an article looking at the future. It is in the financial times, ft. Com online. Ofmove onto our first topic the morning, the Affordable Care act. Announcedome delays this week but some new numbers. Joseph antos and ron pollack from families usa will join us. Program we Will Caldwell fromcia the Associated Press. All that and more when washington journal continues. The new cspan. Org website gives you access to an Incredible Library of political events, with more added each day with cspans nonstop coverage of politics, history, and nonfiction books. Axis more than 200,000 hours of archived cspan video. Everything cspan has covered since 1987. Our video is all searchable and viewable on your desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just look for the search bar at top of each page. Cspan. Org makes it easy to find people and events from the past 25 years. It is the most comprehensive Video Library and politics. Tuesday night, our conversation with tennessee senator bob corker with his early career in business. I started working, like most folks, when i was 13. I migrated to being a construction laborer and rough carpenter. When i graduated from college i ended up being a construction superintendent. For about four years i had built some regional malls around the country. When i was 25 years old i went in business. I started doing a lot of repeat works. The company grew 80 per year. We ended up building Retail Products in 18 states. It was energizing. It was a great place to be. Come in thewhen you front door, would almost knock you down. A young man had worked with me for many many years. He did several things sense. I ended up acquiring a good deal of real estate through the years , and portfolios of other companies. Later we will talk with democratic senator amy cobo shaw amy cobo shaw Amy Klo Buchar about being in the senate. Meshe ended up coming up to saying we cant wear bikinis at the pool party but we can end up wearing tankinis. And dad did not understand the difference. I said get him on the phone right now. I ran right into Lindsey Graham and nearly knocked him over. I thought, i am not doing this balance very well. A nursere a mother or trying to balance family and work, you never do it perfectly. Isone who says they do di lying. Starting at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host the we take a look at Affordable Care act. Two guests joining us to talk about it, both longtime followers of the Affordable Care act, we are joined by joe antos. Ron pollack served as the executive join as the executive director, joining us as well. Talk about the numbers that came out this week, get our audience a sense of the big term numbers and break down what you found most interesting about what came out. The numbers showed an acceleration of people getting involved. We now have over 3 Million People who have enrolled. It is getting larger. The increase in just the last month over the previous several months the increase in the last month over the last several months was 53 . So thats a big deal. The other things that were interesting is that the majority of people who got coverage are now getting subsidies. Emium these are pretty significant. Withe who are living alone incomes below 46,000. These eligible for subsidies. Families of four are eligible for the subsidies if their is below 94,200. By ost of the people substantial majority are getting subsidies. Really r thing thats interesting is we seen an uptick people ercentage of the getting enrolled who are young adults. That is significant. Were going to continue to see an uptick in that. Thats helpful in bringing the down. You can cut the numbers all sorts of ways. So the problem is that yeah, the up. Bers have gone yeah, especially compared to october and november where the basically close to zero. Is nother way to look at it there was a big surge of enrollment in september. You kind of have to meet it. That pressure is now passed. I think the interesting question whats going to happen over the next several months when feel that pressure. In fact, i think in january, the bit ase was a little smaller than it was from december. Course, that has something to do with just how bad it was in october and november. So well see. Olderher fact season that people represent a higher proportion of people signing on exchange, not surprisingly, than in the general population population. Ured thats a real issue for the health care reform. One of the things i would say. History of at the comparable programs, were pattern, iry similar cite three different examples for you. Passed a ongress Childrens Health Insurance Program chip. Kids to while for actually get enrolled. W. President bush, george bush, wasf able to push through partription drug coverage, d of medicare. That didnt go quickly. Glitches. Ot of in mav maa where massachusetts where governor held pushed through reform, it took a while for people to learn and get enrolled. Closer in march, were going to see a spike upwards. The first Enrollment Period ends on march 31. People who need to get coverage march 31. Enrolled by the other thing is theres a requirement for people to get they dont get enrolled, they have to afford they have to e, pay a penalty. Health h better to get coverage than to pay a penalty. So my suspicion is theyre going see a much larger number of eople in february and in particular in march and that corresponds with the histories of the other programs. Program notary publics the past and their enrollment, oes that model apply today in your opinion . It applies. The question is, how much does apply. There will be a serge in enrollment in march, again, deadlinef this sort of effect. People respond to deadlines. But when you get right down to it, a 95 penalty compared to couple hundred a younger premiums, for people who might not have Health Insurance and might think theyre going to live forever. Those are the people who want a program. Nsurance those are the people who probably miss them this time. Think theyre largely out of this game. Let me tell you why were going to see young adults involved. Young adults are the age group that does the best with respect to the subsidies that are provided. The reason for that is that the subsidies i said eligibility is up erson living alone to 46,000 annual income, afford, 94,200. These subsidies are provided on a sliding scale. Is the lower s our income, the greater the subsidies. Adults seem to be in one of three situations, they may be continuing their education. A job yet. T have if they have a job, theyre in an entry level position which less money. As a result, the income is less than people who are older than they are. Going to get a significant subsidy, a subsidy. Tionate i think that changes the equation. Thats right, a lot of young they feel theyre young invincibles and they dont coverage. Need health but the real thing, theyre looking for the value deal. The value is a whole lot better youre getting a substantial sunsdy. One of the things that came noted by louise, 25 of all of the people were between 18 and 24. So 25 unenlolment rate if im correct. Its hard to know precisely. The government is having hard time coming out of the government. 25 isnt bad. Theyre hoping for a higher percentage. Higher likely to have a percentage by the time they get to the end of march. Boils down to, what happens with the premiums, this premiums are locked in concrete. Theyre disappointed about who enrolls. If the cost experience is good. F the number of people who pay fullyear premiums is lower than expected, thats absolutely going to be the case, then a lot people are going to be signing up late. Theyre not going to be paying premiums for 12 months. Theyre going to pay premiums for nine. All this adds to what the next year will be. Because this adds to the cost of the coverage. Significancee real of all of this is whats going to happen in the fall when these choices again. So talk about the status of speak. K pool, so to thats right, thats right. And thats why it is important to include as part of risk pool, younger and happier people, i think thats going to happen. Adult and yourng premiums are really rock bottom low out of the terms of what you out of pocket because youre getting the substantial an idies, this makes it attractive proposition. You heard from our guests ant signups dable care act or exchanges. You may have questions about other issues, 2025853881 for republican, 2025853880 for democrats. 202553882 for independents. Tweet uh or email us. Start with emma from ohio. Democrats line, good morning. Good morning. Confused about the the thats going on with American Enterprise gentleman. Why isnt it tand possible for everyone to have insurance. Why is everyone always fighting this. Go to t in a you emergency, that is high cost. And then all they do, if you they have insurance is stabilize you. And once you leave, youre on your own. There is no followup. Doctor if o to the you dont have insurance. Ere the only industrialized nation that dont have the universal insurance. So why do you want you dont care about them. To get the language out there. Our guest respond. Guest certainly, people should take care of their health. Insurance doesnt make you healthy. Insurance is there to pay for Health Services after youve had a problem. Do a lot for our health before we get to the doctor. Hat said, you know, the Affordable Care act did do a few are very t i think important. Rejectedn no longer be by Insurance Companies if they have preexisting condition. Thats a good thing. Not going to go back on that. But but the Affordable Care of raised the cost insurance. It posed higher costs on people ho were buying their own coverage without any subsidy at all and many of those people much of a not get subsidy, it will be more expensive for them. Not guarantee that you have good access to coverage. Frankly, lookplan, a lot like medicaid plus, where the access to doctors is limited. The access to hospitals is limited. All of this costs money. And so inevidentably, there will be some restriction, but i think we could have done better than what we did here. Guest i would say joe is have ing to the policies changed somewhat. They have, thank goodness. A lot of people had insurance in the past was lousy insurance. Cheese policy. Insurance that didnt insure. Affordablethings the care act is requires real coverage. Let me give you a key example. Of insurers placed caps on how much they would pay out in ny given year or how much they would pay out over a lifetime. So if somebody had a major or a significant accident, all of a sudden, even hough they paid supreme williams, they would find the insurer was no longer paying for their care. Longer is possible. The Affordable Care act says there has to be insurance that insures. O longer can there be lifetime caps or annual caps. Thats a good thing. One of the things i thought was reporturaging about this that we heard this week in terms of whos enrolling is more than the people five of who have enrolled are getting subsidies, which means theyre help they never received before. Nd these subsidies are essentially in the thousands of out rs, thus reducing the of pocket premium costs and thats making it a much better than people had before. Guest lets be clear. Still the case for people above about 250 above poverty theyll be paying substantial out of pocket ayments, the deductibles for silver plans run about 2,000. 300 of poverty, you dont have 2,000. Around whereifting the out of pocket costs lie. It is true, ron, i agree with you, that very low income people are going to get a better deal access to de whether care is really improved over medicaid. But theyll get a bert financial deal in any event. But a lot of people who are lower and middle class getting a worse deal. Let me Say Something about joes comment. Hes referring to the people poverty. Thats a significant income for family of four. 250 of income is over 50,000. Folks not only get significant subsidies, but they ofo get protections in terms out of pocket cost, like the deductibles and copays. Not if youre high income, you dont get the subsidies. But it is significant for middle lass people for the first time to be receiving subsidies, not just on the premium side, but outof g down the hot pocket costs when you get care. Enrow lees have made their first Premium Payment . With the story, 1 5 of the new enrollees failed to pay the first premium. Is there a problem with that . Guest well, that needs to be corrected. One of the things that we know about is there eve been glitches and getting of information information. One of the key problems that persisted for quite a while is from formation going website to insurers. So there have been delayed. Fixed. Going to be thats something that needs to correctled, but it will get fixed. First hey dont make the payment, they will get insurance. They probably have coverage and they probably seek care are coverage, but they are going to have to pay. Trying to be as flexible as possible. Insurers, this is a big deal. More enrollees. Insurers by in large are trying to work with us. Working with some of the glitches to help people. So those who havent paid, pay over time host only one in five not the payment. Guest yeah, thats true. If youre in the business, you pay. Everyone to the big question is what happens to the bills that are accumulate months when or theyre not paid when people may think they have coverage. Wouldnt call it a glitch, i would call it a systemic error in the way the program was set up. The mply didnt look at back end as they call it with processing. So there were some problems in january. January. Some insurers said well, get the of ium to us by the end january, well cover you. Theres going to be some i signed up, at why arent they paying my bills . Athens, tennessee, independent line. Hi. Caller good morning, obama care, health care, Affordable Act is a complete failure. He lied. The democrat kralts lied. Premiums are high. Democrats lied. Get to keep our insurance or doctor. If you want proof of it, how any democrats are rung supporting obama care this time around . Him. Theyre running from its pretty clear. Of view has a point about this. He was referring to democrats running from this. They are not rung from this. There are democrats who do want to see changes. Likely to be are changes over time. Know, we have had over 40 efforts to try to repeal this legislation legislation. Its been a partisan debate. Im sorry about that. If Affordable Care act is going theres no way this is going to be revealed. President obama is in the white house through 2016. This is not going to be repealed. As more and more people get subsidy, it changes the policies of this, it changes it in the following way. Im going ing to say to withhold from you something that youve never had before. Its another thing when millions of people have coverage and have subsidies and for a politician to say, im going to take it away from you. That is not going to happen. Reality to have he Affordable Care act, what ways does it make it better. Guest as a matter of fact, the making changes every week. When ron says its here to stay, he big question is what is it thats here to stay . His week, he said, well, the employer is important but well put it off for another year. To make ould you do things better . No, i think the heavy hand of regulation is a little bit too heavy. Insurers accept people regardless of their of their condition. We can put some real essence a what is in nonexistent penalty. If people standard republican proposal which i think is reasonable is that you should should have , you coverage that that you maintain continuously. If you fail to maintain it, aside from, you know, reasonable might not be u able to continue to hold coverage, then you should be real penalty. You should be subject to higher while. S for a thats the kind of penalty 95, that n frankly will get peoples attention. So, you know, have insurance their es deal with customers. Theyve been doing that. Theyve been doing it in a heavy handed way. Way to hand this will that would improve the enrollment process. Sell. Nsurance companies the federal government is lousy at selling a product. Xant sell very well. Guest i have to say is one of like joe a great deal, we have somewhat different viewpoints, hes rather creative in his thinking. One of the few on the conservative side who say we higher penalties. Lot of critique on the conservative side is to say, oh penalties. Have this is terrible. You talk about the changes. E talked about the significant change. The administration announced it was delaying the employer mandate. Three things that need to be said about it. First, the employer mandate does businesses, all does not affect those businesses with fewer than 50 workers, businesses get help by the Affordable Care act. They sflou a new marketplace in businesses can get subsidies. Should be saidat is that of the Large Businesses that are subject to the mandate, overwhelming majority of them are providing coverage today. Have its not going to that much of an effect. For example, for those workers up toh 50 199 workers, 91 provide today. Ge for those bigger businesses, 99 200 or more workers, are providing coverage. Its not going to have a big impact. That said, i would have mandate not t the be postponed because there are larger ple in these businesses for whom i think coverage would have been helpful. Get ld like to see them that help soon. Gary from rogers, minnesota, republican line. Waiting, good morning. Good morning. I would like to say in tougher and itbe doesnt matter much. But, when the mandate delay goes a lot of people say those companies are just going to drop send their and people into the government market. It seems like a good guy with better cause of trying to get everybody better insurance, agrees with, y republicans and democrats. The problem, is this vehicle, hich by your own statements, you know is kind of a scam. You say once we get everybody igned up, then we cant back off of it. Youre saying we dont care debt. Pulls up public we dont care that the policies are all wrong, we have to get everybody signed up and then them the scam. You remind me in george c. Scott flim flam movie the man. Host you made your point. The editors of the wall street add when it comes to delays the two roads not taken the real goal to mandate delays is to funnel as many eople as possible into the obama care exchanges. I dont think thats the case. I was not thrilled with the delay, even though i dont think of an effect. Uch were not going to see the large employers who are impacted by moving people out of Health Coverage. Remember, these employer, the employers decided to provide Health Coverage for their workers well before the care act was a twinkle in anyones eyes. They decided to do it because its good for their business. Its good to attract the best earles. Since they provided coverage reason ily, theres no to believe theyll drop coverage. Host mr. Santos . Guest to the large extent, thats right. Not so much the really big employers. Its the smaller employers. Many of them never offered coverage. Few of them were going to take subsidies. F the its complicated. Theall company doesnt have hr or Legal Department to figure this out. I dont think the subsidy is impact. O have much of an so all of those folks, all of those workers are going to be in the exchanges. Fraj frankly, thats fine. Larger firms. The hhs expected in the they tion back in 2010 expected more than half of the smaller firms, less than 100 to drop their coverage and have employees sign up with the exchanges. Think for two reasons, oftentimes, itss a better subsidy. Other reason is for a small firm, its difficult to an Insurance Program. Big firms, i dont think theres much of a, proalthough theyve pairing back their coverage, theyve been cutting back spousal benefits. Weve seen all of that. Thats going to continue on. Were going to have a much ighter, leaner set of Health Benefits for everybody in the Employer Market as a result of ace requirements. Joe and i disagree with that. O in the market that joe is over g about, those with 100. Mployees and below we said in the group of 50 plus, coverage. Roviding no requirement for them to do so. Theres no reason to believe theyre going to change that. That the things Affordable Care act does is instead of degrading coverage, improves coverage. I gave an example of that. Capss no longer arbitrary annually or lifetime. Thats very important. I think the concerns expressed evidence with that. Is joe pollockus and joe antos. Hi . Ocrats line, caller hello . Host hi, youre on. Im not in new york. Host sorry, my mistake. Go ahead. New hampshire. I was in the New Hampshire highrisk pool, which means i not get Health Care Coverage from anybody but the high risk pool. It took me two hours to fill out the paperwork to have anthem lue cross blue shield turn me down. Meanwhile, i have paid 541 a 10,000 copay, and deductible. Affordable care act. My deductible will now be 4,000 a year. Monthly payment will be 481. About a new engineer, doesnt have a job is waiting or me to sign up so that he could then sign up until he gets a job. Things dont go quite how you gentleman portray them. Individual case, but its real. Host one individual case . Shes making a very important point. People, i think, had the idea insurance was going to be a very inexpensive, maybe close to free. Of people had unrealistic ideas of what the cost of Health Insurance really is. Had a very unrealistic ideas about the level of subsidies. The hey had no idea about cost sharing. So heres a lady who is saying gained s shes something because compared to the plan she was in, the premium the deductible is less. Class 000 most middle people dont have 4,000. You uh have to pay that before you start getting your bills doctor and so on. So this is what it basically is that the idea that people had that was partly saying by politicians really hat were not true, theyre now being disappointed. I think a lot of people are disappointed in this. This is one of the reasons in addition to the we haventblems that seen a big surge. But if it were a really big deal people, wed see a lot more enrollment. Nobody was saying the care act was perfect. Its a big step in the right direction. Hings are going to change and improve over time. Is the caller, i think, people on the Affordable Care act. The only way for her to get coverage is by going to the highrisk pool. The high risk pool of people who have illnesses or Chronic Health conditions. Course, when you have a risk pool only of people who are have Chronic Health conditions, guess what that means for the premiums, theyre much higher. What she experienced. The Affordable Care act, if you have a preexisting Health Insurers cannot turn you down. They cannot charge you a higher premium. Cannot all of a sudden cut you off even though youve paid youre sick. These are significant protections. The caller now, instead of going highrisk pool will now go to a broader pool that includes healthier people. Shes going to have lower premiums, lesser deductible. Perfect. O means its a huge step in the right direction. Look atn usa today, a them, when it came to signup, 6 million were needed, 3 million received insurance through exchanges, 9 million gained insurance through medicaid. The initial signups was 7 million. Million. To 6 why is that . Guest arithmetic is a dangerous thing in the hands of politicians. Anyway. Guesswork the 7 million came from the National Congressional budget office. Doing analysis of the distribution of costs in the market. D the 6 million means as little as the 7 million meant. Bottom line here is that you do need a substantial withr of people signing up the program. Otherwise, just for reason of sheer volume, the Insurance Companies will not be able to make it. You need a reasonable distribution of Healthy People people. K i would argue the numbers are largely false. The 3 million, first of all, we know how many people actually have an insurance card. We dont know how many of those people are in the system so when they go to the doctor, somebody says, oh, yeah, youre in here, mrs. Jones. As far as medicaid is concerned, the 9 million, a Consulting Firm in washington made a very good point that theres a huge amount turnover in the Medicaid Program. So the 9 million or the 7 to be 1 s more likely million or 2 million in medicaid as far as new enrollees. Affordable care act is a long way to go. The numbers you cited, those thats not what we have right now. We will see what the actual numbers are going to be. There are three different groups thats important for viewers to understand. First youve got the number of people who are signing up through the new marketplaces. Getting private coverage. And right now, its over 3 Million People. You have folks who are really low income who can enroll medicaid anded progra program. This is a state option. Not every state opted in. Of tates plus the district columbia have decided to do it. I think over time the other in. Es will come but theres a significant number of people who will enroll that way. Group, the young adults who wound up staying on their parents policy because Affordable Care act enables that to happen. I think when you aggregate all well talk ether, about a much smaller number. These are projections, these are not real numbers. Projections by the congresses Congressional Budget Office are much, much higher in the later years. Knows whether theyre going to be rate. But the congressional budget changed the t estimates about how many people will get enrolled in future years. Were going to see really huge numbers of people getting enrolled. Maybe, lets clarify something habit the 3 million who are enrolled through the exchanges. Million. You the 3 the questions is, how many of insured . Newly again, we dont really know. Heres an estimate that says 90 of them previously had coverage and had their coverage just shifted aybe over because they thought they saw a better deal. Which we dont know yet. Guest we dont know yet. That the ainty substantial portion of the 3 million are people who had coverage. Companys insurance standpoint, to make it in this new market, they need new ustomers, they dont need old customers, they need new customers. Thats a real problem for them. Premiums slates to next year. You know, joes joe is right. For the ery important insurers. Wellpoint has been doing its largest insurer, all of the reports are wellpoint has done extraordinarily well. I cant confirm this. The advertising budget in order people is somewhere close to 100 million. Thats significant. Obviously they feel that this is a great opportunity and theyre trying to get as large a share as possible. So dont crime for me, insurer. K or swim moment. Invested. Re fully they have to make it work. Dollarstion is how many per new enrollee has well point spend . Host madison heights, hi. Igan, independent line, caller hi. Host youre on, go ahead. Caller first time caller, tv show e to call any or radio show. Im 76 years old. A beneficiary of ocial security disability, Social Security retirement, part d. Medicare which was instrumental of me afford le to prescription medications. However, i do think that the Affordable Care act will have to be completely redone. I think there are great intentions there. Nd its been something thats needed to be done to improve the medical care system and insurance system in the United States. And its been on the burner for a long time. Not the answer now. My i get a lot of information from on the on Affordable Care act from watching fox news. Now, they are quite prejudice against it. And i always have to keep that in mind. Roger ails and Rupert Murdoch are very proud of their presenting theyre not a fair and balanced television channel. Well leave it there. But as far as the complete redo the Affordable Care act . Guest the law is the law. Keeps changing on a weekly basis. But the instruction is there. He Insurance Companies have changed the way they operate, permanently. Many of the things are not going matter around again, no what any politician says republican or democrat. And so, absolutely. The changes need to be made. I think we agree on that. On what sagree exactly the changes ought to be. But i think you know the next president , whether its a republican will have a lot to do. I think this president will be making changes through executive orders, but probably not getting great political consensus. Guest i want to respond to something that the caller said. He was 76 years old. Hes getting medicare and he socalled ut getting Medicare Part d, which is Prescription Drug coverage. Affordable care act helps people like the caller in two very important respects. The Affordable Care act provides Preventive Care free. Es for no deductibles, copays, thats a big deal. So that people can get annual checkups and different tests. Thats an important improvement. Mentioned part d that he participates in. Gap in as a huge Prescription Drug coverage which we here in washington euphemistically called a hole. Ut and that coverage gap, after like 2700 omething annually in Prescription Drug sudden, your a coverage is eliminated until you out ofousands of dollars pocket. But the Affordable Care act does in t closes that gap coverage. Right now, people when they fall into that gap are getting on brand name drugs so the costs are being subs dietzed. By 2020, this gap in coverage be entirely eliminated. So people like the caller, if he m s significant numbers of medici medicines, hes no longer going be at risk of falling into that coverage gap. We talked about the system thats built on volume and the signups happens, if the volumes not happen and changes have to be made, would you see a reduction of subsidies to those ultimately them or higher premiums on the insurance side being paid by those who are the program . Guest i dont think the change i think theyll be updated somewhat, which is good. Thats in the prospect at all. So the question that joe has youre raising here up . Ill premiums go my own belief is, no, they wont gr in any significant de degree. The act were e rising quickly. What weve seen in the last few ears the deceleration in premiums. How much of that is due to the Affordable Care act . How much of that is due to the recession. How much of it is due to other factor, weve not yet been able parcel out. Not going to re see an acceleration of premiums. Actually want s to keep the premiums down, because they want to attract as many customers as possible. So the payments are so low his year for a couple of reasons, certainly your comment, absolutely right. When you cut the ribbon and open the store doors, you want a lot walking in and ideally buy stuff off of the shelf. Insurers es sense for to have in essence underprice their product. Underpriced because they actually expected the Exchange Site to work and theyre greatly disappointed in that. Its underpriced because in most states, the insurance is typically a olitical employee, used the Regulatory Authority to push down the initial bids that insurers offer. Have a lot of artificial reasons that are going to not one, but the other reasons are going to largely disappear in the next year or two. A jumpup ing to see in premiums. Lets face it if youre going to control costs, you only have a couple of levers. Cautionary, which is restricted. Its premiums, or Getting Better customers. Better customers are already in employer sponsored covered. Its really a tough call here. Except for political reasons, if e dont see substantial increases in the fall, 20 or surprised. E but given theres an election, ell guest a place joe and i will agree in the future. Dependent on the cost of health care. Once we get over the intensity f the debate of the Affordable Care act, im hopeful that the conservatives and liberals are oing to say, you know, weve the o do something about where the Health Care Costs are way that do it in a its going to affect quality of care. Lets make sure the care people that makes sense for them. We need to make sure that we have Better Research about what work, what doesnt work. And make sure that doctors follow that research. Think we want to move away from what we call a fee for system, which rewards volume of care, even if its not necessarily care. Affordable care act moves us in that direction. We need to take additional steps that. Once we get over this debate about the Affordable Care act nd we come to the realization that its here to stay, i think we can fix that. Make some want to immediate observations. Affordable care act actually requires that insurers now spend he overwhelming portion of the premium dollar on care, not on overhead. Fees, w, agents administration, marketing and advertising and profits. Insurers have to spend at least 80 cents out of the dollar on care for the larger plans, 85 cents out of the dollar. Keep going to help to premiums down. That e other thing is significant res a effort to get as many plans providing coverage. The w a good number of marketplaces have not been as active in trying to make sure that premiums would stay down. Were going to see more active efforts on the part of marketplaces and they might only some of the plans that are providing good values. So i think over time actually it will improve, not get worse. Uest a quick point about better value. We always talk about having coordinated care. Hat means organized health plans, traditional medicare, which enrolls 50 Million People a totally disorganized health plan. This administration did not want to organize the medicare program. Thats one of the Major Barriers to having Better Health care in this country. Medicare essentially leads the way and unfortunately has led us road to inefficiency and lower quality. Host take a call. Indianapolis, indiana, republican line. Good morning, gentlemen. Good comments. I have a couple of questions and comment. But we point to the medicare and Medicaid Program as examples. We they also talk about how theyre disorganized and designed that program for the fee for service. Ut there were several comments about the subsidies and people costs. Rprised about the gentlemen, i he would like to know who they perceive to be paying the that aes and how long is sustainable model . Antos . Mr. Primarily by taxpayers. The government is not just irs is therey, the to relieve us of some of our dollars. Ed its also true that theres this subsidization in market. Because the people who are buying their own insurance are now in this plan. A fair number of them are not getting subsidy. Theyre paying higher premiums. And the higher premiums are to subsidize lowerincome people. But were talking about a Market Income largely lower people. So we have a subsidy subsidy a set of subsidies in aca that is not terribly sensible. Health care, it really is a shame. Orsubsidizing higher income people and under people. Zing lower income we agreed on that. Its interesting, the caller a thoughtful question about whos paying for it. Its no doubt when you pay subsidies and the federal is paying for it, but, oneoney and of the things that the caller may not be aware of and others aware of, if you look at the composite of the back able care act going to the Congressional Budget Office, the official referee, they said that the affordable in totality, when you look at all of the provisions, reduced the federal deficit in the first ten years by approximately 135 billion in the next ten years, by over 1 trillion. Thats because there are savings in the legislation. I mean, for example, companies have to provide rebates. Are actually getting some what lesser payments. Were getting a windfall payment in the socalled program, 14 ntage wind fall. Thats been eliminated. Nd were seeing some improvements on how coverages are provided or care is provided like Accountable Care organizations that coordinate care. Only look e, if you at the subsidies, thats a cost item. But when you look at the Affordable Care act, it reduces the federal deficit. Those numbers have changed in the last six years. Changed g hasnt most of the savings, more than medicare from cuts to providers. It assumes that physician fees will be cut but 25 . That was the assumption. It assumed that hospital at a leveluld be cut that the chief actuary for completely d is unsustainable after 2019. Congress will go on, congress is itching to raise physician payments. Do that. Ight to theyre going to be itching to reverse a lot of those savings in medicare. Not going to see savings out of this program. Were going to see costs. Going to pay for it. Host we have to leave it there. The conversation will continue as it goes forward. Were joined by joe antos, policy s a Health Scholar and ron pollock, the executive director to both of gentlemen, thanks. Thank you. Ost up next, Alicia Caldwell join us for a conversation. Washington journal will be right back. One of the things we worry about is cyberattacks and physical dangers. Keeps me up at night when i think about what could happen next . Your greatest fear is as to a physical attack in our country. General . Things. Wer it by two on the cyberside, i think an attack against our Critical Infrastructure that would have potential damaging effects. He Transportation Health care, clearly financial is an area that you have to pay close attention to in the energy sector. On the kinetic side, theres a up e of things that keep me at night. I mean, when you see the textile ttacks, what happened in the mall in nairobi, i mean, you know, what happened during the marathon. I mean those are the kinds of things that we have to continue o Work Together in the Intelligence Community to make sure that were working as seamlessly as possible to share have, not that we only with within the defense side, the national side, but federal, state, local, and tribal level. Think thats a really important aspect of what were trying to do in the Intelligence Community is work on an integration of the system. This weekend, the Senate Armed Services committee looks at terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. This morning. And on book tv, live day long the savannah book festival. That starts this morning at 9 00 cspan 2. As part of the president s day history tv, erican tour portraits of power, the merican president s and the National Portrait gallery, monday night at 8 00. Atch our program on First Lady Michelle Obama today at 7 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Monday night, we conclude our series with a twohour program, from Martha Washington obama. Lle brings Financial Resources to as well as her managerial skills, makes mt. Vernon a Successful Operation possible frp washington to be away for eight years fighting a war. Abraham ing about lincoln she saw the potential helped uraged it and develop it. Lessons in the dining room to polish him up for washington the Political Parties invitedy had where they a lot of very important people. Power, botha lot of over mr. Lincoln and both over going. E was the involvement of mrs. Roosevelt in the political Franklin Roosevelt is ripe from the beginning but becomes much more active in her after 1921 when Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio. Him to d encourage continue with his political ambitions. Influence and , image, from Martha Washington to obama, monday night live on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Us is Alicia Caldwell. Were here to talk about the department of Homeland Security. Theres a new leader there . There is. He . who is guest jay johns has come over, he was the top lawyer at the pentagon. Tapped by the president know poll at a know decided to leave before the term was out. Ut system in northern california. Johnson took over the reins expanding. And hes number a four in a brief history. Theres lots of change, developments, footing, if you will, to be laid. Why did the president choose him . Meetings. Wasnt in the but hes a wellrespected attorney. Hes been in government for a number of ears and a different positions. Hes a top attorney for the air force before going to the department of defense. By all accounts, he is a well regard e regarded smart guy who knows a lot about a lot. Essentially the Legal Operations for drone strikes and been ininvolved and has National Security. So Homeland Security kind of akes it a nice transition or a relatively easy transition. Hes not coming into something ompletely unknown to him, though, again, there are 22 plus omponents and multiple tasks for the department of Homeland Security, not the least of which is, of course, National Security. Host does he bring a certain hilosophy when it comes to how to minister this department . Guest i think its yet to be determined. Him iswhat we heard from a little bit of twofold. In his testimony before the enate confirmation hearing, he said, you know, my priorities are the top priority was vacancies. Before his arrival, the top third of the department i think vacant, the secretary and at the time the deputy. Huge vacuum of power, permanent power. In temporary positions or jobs not filled. Thats come along since he was sworn in. So his second address or second morale. Mentioned was it has one of the lowest morale rates in the government. No secret. Trying to address it for a number of years. National security, immigration, all of those y, things kind of fall in line. Last week, he gave a first major the first topic of discussion was tearism. Syria being a Homeland Security issue today, which is a little it of change from what weve secretary nop cretaon nopolitano, it was immigration. He seemed to remain there in the first term. We saw a slight switch. Too early to see how significant the switch will be. National security is on the list of top priorities. Things that the struck out is because he mentioned morale and nerls. When previous folks have gone up to the hill. The first thing out of their counterterrorism. They made issue of that. Guest there were a lot of questions. That was his top priority and there were a lot of questions raised by that. Listen, this were, is my top priority. To the job, does that change . Have. Pears to hes number two, filling in the rank, the customs and border nomineeon has the first in many, many years. Theres not been a permanent end of the Bush Administration. The nomination is pending. Ou now have an empty directorship at uscis because mayorcas whos now number two position. Suzanne spalding has come onboard. Science and technology, youre all of thea cyberand other vacancies. So thats less it appears to a concern today, though theres still high including s empty, immigrations and customs enforcement. Acting director announced his resignation yesterday. Theres things to juggle in the department of that. A huge department. So lots of ball unless the air sense. Will in that Alicia Caldwell joining us to talk about the future of omeland security, a new leader there. Jay johnson, we talked a little bit about that. About the questions future of it, 2025853881 for republicans. 5853880 for democrats. Independents. Cspan. Tweet us at jeh johnson in this month talkingabout terrorism, about the idea of lone wolves in the United States. To give you a flavor of who the is, heres what he had to say. We face threats to those who violence, thee to socalled lone wolf who did not or n at an al qaeda camp overseas or became part of an nemy force, but who may be inspired by radical violentology violent ideology to do harm. Respects, this is illustrated by the Boston Marathon bombing that i worry most. The it may be the hardest to detect. It involves independent actors midst with easy access to things in the wrong hands become tools of mass violence. Must remain vigilant in detecting and countering all of these threats. In the department of defense, i was witness to all of the efforts in the military and the International Security and intelligence components of our government encountering overseas. Threats from ere at home, giving the evolving and diffuse threat, i believe its critical in the dhs several years that continue to build relationships with state and local governments. Responders in those governments. We must also continue to ncourage Public Participation in our efforts on their behalf. Away as far as e philosophy, the way he might that . His department from it perhapses a bit too early, we have a dramatic change eventse first big public nopolitano held. Now it was immigration, its counter terror, lone wolf, security being the issue for the homeland. Significant changeover from what weve seen in the last several years. The er, the idea of the lone wolf is something that weve heard for a number of years, particularly in the last the Boston Marathon attacks. O will he focus more on Homeland Security from a terrorism perspective . Perhaps. Thats his background. Coming from the department of defense, he was national ed about security than say immigration issues at uscis. Balance all of those and time will tell. Ut so far, his big talking points have been on a counterterror to protect the omeland front, weaving all of those components in, including but not limited to, of course, border security. Handful of ed a times now the idea of Immigration Reform needs to happen. Also is a Homeland Security concern in miss view. Now, did he mention syria first . Yeah. Does that hold greater weight . Yes. Ould argue we will see. So far, he seems to be taking it fairly balanced approach. But again with a big talking point, big push on, listen, counterterror, lone wolves, these things are serious concerns. We apparently have folks from u. S. Going to syria. They have to come back at some point. So what are they going to do t do we even heard that do we hear the term from him the war on terror . Is that still a philosophy of Homeland Security . Guest he has not mentioned that phrase. He appears to be looking at it from a much more holistic perspective inside the u. S. Lets prevent a boston type of event and that seems to be the that the threat is more diffuse today. Its the same thing we heard from his predecessor. There is a greater potential for these individual actors, some who have been radicalized on the internet or perhaps self radicalized. But we have not heard the phrase war on terror. Hear from this administration. It did not catch on as much as with those who first started it. Say that he is sort of gung ho war on terror in the United States so much as there are people in the United States potentially who want to come here to threaten the security of the inside of this country. Host our guest is Alicia Caldwell and this is a call from florida, republican line. Caller good morning. I have been to the Mexican Borders. One end ofit from arizona to another. Our borders are wide open. Dangers are not being addressed because the fence is not the discussed, the exit system is not being discussed. It seems to be held hostage in order to bring in all of the image it illegals that are here. Based on that, we will have border security. And now weve got an attorney heading up Homeland Security and has never been in security before and they have hired, im not sure if its 100 or 500 Immigration Attorneys to be on staff at Homeland Security. Muslims influx of the that obama and Hillary Clinton have brought into this country, maybe 30,000 syrian refugees, i have a report that 80,000 muslims were brought in in 2011 and all of them are going to be in islamic centers. Dallas is building a big one. They will go on federal benefits. Citizen,lar american that we, the me people, are not getting our constitution or our laws enforced. I worked on the Mexican Border for a number of years. I am very familiar and i grew up in arizona. Is a big, wide open place in many areas. They are fencing in some areas and not others. Secretary napolitano has said in 15es i will show you a foot fence and i will show you a 15 foot ladder maker. I have seen ladders and bungee cords going over the border. Those are pieces of security that the department over the last 25 years has put in. The government put up fencing in san diego and no gals, arizona. Some of it works and some of it is viewed as not as effective. Order patrol it tells you it slows people down. The apprehension rate at the Mexican Border is at one of its lowest rates in the last 40 years. We are still only talking about just over 400,000 apprehensions this year which accounts for 320330,000 individual people. We are at historic lows. Does that mean the border is secure . Thats for someone smarter than me or an elected official to decide. The reality is the numbers are down. You can say the numbers are down because security is working or they are down because the economy is bad. Playsn make a number of on those numbers but the numbers are what they are. Of peoplel rates living in the United States illegally are in the 400,000 range. You can make arguments over who those people are and how many more should be removed and so on. We are still talking about a ofatively net zero gain mexican immigrants which assist or could the Largest Group of immigrants coming across the Mexican Border. We now have an influx from Central America for various and sundry reasons. There is also drug cartel fighting and the economy. Is the border secure . Well, is it sunny today . Not right now. Fun standing on the porter southern arizona, i might not view the border is secure. If im in el paso, texas and looking at the fence in a concrete gully where the rio grande is, the border is secure. There are towers and sensors and cameras sure, it is secure as its going to get. It is in the eye of the beholder. Host i would say it is somewhere in between. There are many people who compare the department of Homeland Security to the department of defense. To get 40 years for dod everybody on the same page. It is not a fair comparison. Dod has five components or four components. They all kind of do the same thing. One does on water and one in the air and one on the land. The marines to it in all those areas. Homeland security has tsa,ustoms and Border Protection which includes the ports, then you have immigration and customs enforcement. There are all these other components doing a variety of jobs. Seemgel together and some out there on their own including federal protective service. I think they are somewhere in the middle so far which is yet to be determined. Its better today than in 2002. Nobody would argue or contends that it is not. Does it have functionality issues . You bet. Those things are still being worked out but it is the largest restructuring since the creation of the department of defense. Lets give them a little less like on that. Host democrats line, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I was wondering if you could address the serious question. Im sure most people have taken notes about the fact that secretary johnson addressed syria. Andd you comment how dhs its partners will be working to combat that with the new secretary. Secretary napolitano focused a lot on immigration. I was wondering if you can comment on how secretary johnson will change that dynamic. I dont know if it is a changing dynamic so much as a topic he chose. Up in recent years praise secretary napolitano dealt with the start of this issue. Airplanes do go in both directions of people can come and go. If you are a u. S. Citizen, short of putting you on the nofly list, its rather difficult to keep the u. S. Citizen out of the United States for obvious reasons. When one returns, a variety of Law Enforcement and intelligence ofncies may be keeping track your travel or what you are doing in the United States. Thent cover as much of intelligence or National Security side as it pertains to foreign travel and things such as syria other than the crossover in recent days. Isthe degree that someone considered a concern to the government, there are a variety of databases in which their name can be added. Government, it sounds like big brother, but they can keep track. If you are entering the United States on a visa of some sort, there is a paper trail to you and there are background checks. Some would argue that they are not as successful or complete as they should be. They do exist and the systems are in place. When you travel into the United States on an airplane, your information, your name, is provided to Homeland Security in advance of your flight. If you fly in from london, two or three days before your flight, that airline will notify the department of Homeland Security with their manifest. On the day of the flight, they will get an updated manifest and continually check that to say we want to talk to this individual. Jfk, i have been in afghanistan and turkey and potentially syria and we would like to talk to her. I may end up going into secondary inspection. Then it gets into the weeds as to what they will do and how they will talk to me. As a u. S. Citizen, i will be able to come home. Short of being on the nofly list, im basically going to be able to get in. They may talk to me extensively and i may miss my connection out of jfk because i will be with Border Protection. There are a number of layers to security. Some are obvious and some are less obvious. Well mostot the wellversed in those areas. I cover immigration and Everything Else that happens in the u. S. But there are a serious number of layers that are designed to catch folks. Host next up is georgia, independent line. Caller thank you all. Let me see if you can clarify a couple of things. And dronescurity started up under the Bush Administration. House and in 2006, it was found out that the Bush Administration did not want the wiretaps. We recently found out that snowden had help. All these practices started in he Bush Administration and owns the Contracting Company that snowden was working for. The terrorists we should worry about the most is the right wing neonazis. Host you put a lot out there. Wiretaps, imless not the most educated on that so it would be silly to go down that road. As far as snowden, yes, there are reports this week that he aps trick to college colleague into providing a password. Who started those programs and the legalities and so on . Thats not something i can really address in an educated manner. I know what you know. I read the newspapers every day. I dont have the most detail on that. Mentioned a lot of things started under the Bush Administration so how many carry on in this administration . Guest a lot. Under the Bush Administration, 9 11 occurred. Thats a timing issue. You had the patriot act. That the department of homeland set up andat was with that, a lot of changes in Border Protection and customs. Less ins. Border patrol left ims. Ins. Now youre dealing with one agency. In terms of drones and the nsa, thats not something i could directly address. Those are largely programs run by other component agencies other than the Homeland Security. The nsa and other agencies run those programs. Homeland security has a significant role in the Intelligence Community but they are not the lead in addressing mr. Snowden. I could not intelligently go into how he did what and under whose guidance. Had to bejohnson approved by congress. What are relations between him and congress. . As far as the nominating process, what can you glean from that . Guest he did not have a lot of detractors. If you aree change out there in Middle America thinking that finally there is somebody who has been selected who is not being harassed on either side. Jeh johnson to quote. He said i love congress. He popped in on a number of offices and surprised some lawmakers pleasantly. He appears to genuinely enjoy the interaction with lawmakers. We will see if he enjoys the interaction with 122odd committees and the like that claim ownership in some capacity over the oversight of Homeland Security. It is the most overseeing department in the government. As a comparison. They have a handful of committees that has some oversight versus 122. Give him six months or eight months and we will see if he still likes congress. So far, its an amiable relationship. We saw more contentious back andforth with secretary napolitano and the senate, particularly senator mccain. We will see if that happens. We are only 1. 5 months in. He is just getting you to the office and getting his arms stretched out a little bit. Time will tell but so far, so good. Host initially, people like senator mccain and senator graham, any sense guest everybody seem to say welcome aboard, you seem like a good guy from your work at the pentagon. You dont come into this with immigration experience which secretarya knock on johnson, it was the lack of immigration and Law Enforcement experience. He brings that National Security and intelligence side of it. You are marrying those. So far, there has not been much criticism. His deputy facing ordinary criticism. There was the Inspector General reviewed thats still out there from his time at uscis which is the functional agency of administering immigration benefits. Butad denied any wrongdoing members of the senate said to hold this up. He has been approved and been in office now about 1. 5 months as well. Differentompletely nomination process and completely different confirmation process. Some republicans did not arrive for his confirmation hearings. Secretary johnson had the exact opposite experience. They went through some formalities and they liked what they heard so far. Things change. Six months or nine months or one year down the road, will everybody still be friendly . We will find out host michigan, democrats line. Caller good morning. I dont know if you can answer my question. Our young black men are being recruited for terrorism. Whats the difference between terrorism in america or in other countries . I think of all the murders that have happened to young black men either by the Police Department or White Supremacy groups. Thats what im more concerned about. There is a violence problem in the country and a handgun problem in the country which is an issue i also cover. How the department of Homeland Security plays into that is murky. Youve got more in terms of Domestic Crime for the fbi and the atf at the federal level and then you go down to the local and state level. Secretary napolitano several years ago warned that one big threat is this homegrown right wing extremists. She backed of the considerably after some fallout. That affects the Domestic Community is more of a local issue. It gets to the Justice Department to some degree and we have seen the Justice Department get involved in a variety of cases across the country at various times. Civil rights a doj Justice Department issued. Isre homeland gets involved like muslim communities and the concern that by creating a divide or creating a suspicious community, you potentially get folks to not come up and say my neighbor seems to be doing something a little screwy. They started the season on thing, Say Something campaign which they say is widely popular and successful as it prevented any significant events, none that i am aware of, but you dont know what you dont know. Dont know what has not happened. Outreach is a big issue. What the caller was referring to is more of a local police and state police and department of justice concern. Host rainbow city, alabama come republican line. I have something to say. I came into this country 45 as a political refugee. I escaped from a communist country. I have traveled to other countries. What i dont understand is why the United States has a civilian of itsuarding the border country when there is a military. We are guarding the borders of afghanistan and we were guarding the borders of a rack of iraq and we cannot guard our own borders with the military . If they put the military there on the border, there is people a canal a, dead in oka now in oka now a in okinawa. They should put the military there and forget about the civilians. Guest thats a pretty good question. The military cannot operate within United States and a Law Enforcement capacity. You dont get to do it. You can authorize the national guard. We saw that after Hurricane Katrina and hurricane irene. They can be there in disaster situations. Es have seen patrolling humve and society but they me\ a literary but the military does not offer that. I have hung out in the desert with the Border Patrol which is not the most fun or exciting thing to do. They cannot function as Law Enforcement or Border Police because the law just does not provide for it. They were there is a backup and i do a lot of drug interdiction down in Southern New Mexico and parts of west texas and arizona to a degree. Putting the military there, youve got to change a whole bunch of laws. So far, that does not appear to be something anybody wants to do. There are at least 22,000 Border Patrol agents and the vast majority of them are at the Mexican Border. There is talk in the newest immigration incarnation in the senate of doubling that to about 44,000. It is anybodys guess whether that will happen. Military, the law does not provide for that ability. Host ray from twitter guest i have not sat in meetings with these two gentlemen but a secretary serves at the pleasure of the president whether it be president bush or president clinton or president bush before that or president reagan. You serve at the pleasure of the president. Will you tell him no, you will not do what i want what you want me to do . There may be discussions like that in certain instances but the white house has the privilege of dictating the general policies and procedures of the department. We have seen the Justice Department act independently because its the Justice Department and thats what it does. Laws that have been established in various administrations and so on. Securityt of homeland has a series of laws to enforce. This administration has decided how we will enforce these. There is a giveandtake of certain things that you have to do. Is the fundamental function of government. The department of defense cannot decide to go to war because they feel like it. They have to go through a series of hoops, not the least of which is the white house and whatever administration happens to be occupying the building. To a degree, secretary will do what the president asks. Does he have a reputation of being forthright and honest . Guest im not certain. We have not heard anything negative about him. No one has come out of the woodwork to say that jeh johnson is this or that. They say he is well thought of within the department of defense. He appears to be well thought of within the department of Homeland Security now. It is new so we will see how that works out. He is a thoughtful guy. He was in charge of the countries legal processes for executing a war largely over the drones. That is a lot of responsibility. He was entrusted with that and is now entrusted with one of the largest of not the largest departments i think its second to the department of defense running that entire department. Multiple somebodies have a lot of trust in him. He was well regarded by the and passed confirmation easily. He appears to be a guy so far that people take his opinion and his direction seriously and they are appreciative. Time will tell if he finishes his term with a stellar reputation and a stellar history or if he goes down is just of as just another guy. The jury is out so far. Host does he have a role in the current drone strikes . Guest thats a department of Justice Department of defense issue. Just saw a story from a colleague of mine from the Associated Press discussing the thought pattern behind the potential strike of a u. S. Citizen abroad who is plotting or is believed to be plotting attacks against u. S. Troops abroad. That is not something to department of Homeland Security would have any purview in. Are they asking him aside in a Cabinet Meeting . I certainly could not rule it out. They dont invite me. I asked them is just one of those things. Host california, democrats line, hi. Caller i like what youre guest said about build me a 17 foot fence and i will build you an 18 foot ladder. Guest i stall that. I stole that. Our latin immigration is less than 50 of our problem. We have people flying over to the United States that come here on a oneway ticket with their passport and stay. I think this is a racial issue. Patrol is a federal issue, not a state. States that try to take on this issue are breaking the law because it is federal. Federal employees take your very immigration problems. I wanted to voice my opinion. Californiaouthern and i have a lot of spanish friends. I have a couple of spanish roommates. That we are cherry picking. That was my comment for today. The 11 oddt half of million estimated immigrants living in the country illegally are thought to be visa overstays. That means you arrived here on a visa and we said, on and then have fun and go to disneyland and then leave when you are asked to. Not everybody does, obviously. The question becomes how to find them. No one has come up with a great answer is yes. Congress has said for years now to create an exit system so that you know who is leaving. When alisha leaves, we should know she left on time. We dont have that exit system yet. The department will say and has said that we have a pretty good handle on visa overstays. They say we have looked at and generally know who is here and who is not. Congress says that is not the case. They say you dont have an exit system. Thats in transition. His starkly, it has come down to the department of Homeland Security has said time and time again that it is too expensive to create a physical exit system. Your fingerprint and literally check out like i would check out of a hotel. The argument is that you would have to redesign airports and so on. What they are trying to do is keep track with high manifests with flight manifests so the department of Homeland Security knows who is flying and where and when. So if you dont pop up 62 days after your visa was first checked in, you might still be here. Are they going to hunt you down and deport you . Thats a different issue. The department has laid out a series of priorities primarily those who pose a security threat. If youre being arrested for serious crimes, they will certainly catch up with you at some stage. Working under the table and doing your thing as you are not breaking the law and you have been here for number of years even though you are here on a visa overstay, chances are you have more leeway. There are some programs in development within the department to apply for potentially legal status or temporary status. Of visa overstay is one that has plagued the department for a number of years. It has plagued the country for decades. Folks you keep track of who got here on a visa and came here illegally and then overstayed . Its not like disneyland where you can close the gates. Host time for one more call. Republican line and we just about out of time so go ahead. Of the first of all, seven or 8 million illegal aliens in our country that hold jobs, over half of them got those jobs i presentation to their employer of forged Social Security cards and then by lying on their employment forms that said they were able to legally work in United States. Very few of the people are being prosecuted for these felonies. Would jeh johnson move to prosecute them . If you did that it would be a big to turn for more illegal aliens to come into the United States and take american jobs. Now called just a civil infraction. It should be a crime. Those are the two comments. Secretary johnson has not that he willally direct u. S. Customs and immigration to go after employees who are working. What they are doing is more employer verification, everify is out there for employers to determine if your legal authorization to work. I9 in the audits of your and it verifies we are a u. S. Citizen, if your paperwork is not in order, the they are going after the employer more often. States including arizona have verify their own e requirements to punish employers and target employers. The ideas is if you take away the magnet come you take away the draw. Yes. Nt have any stats it is relatively early so we are mexicot zero gain for border crossings. They are the lowest in the last four years but they are up last year they were up this year from last year. We try to figure out who is working. You target the employer or the the department has taken the approach to go after the employer. We might see more employer verification. We have gone away from the days of raids. You can remember pottstown iowa, on meat packing plant with the rest of the number of workers. And they prosecuted the people who ran that facility. Those days are a little over. We are not seeing the raids of employers prayed we see more of people verifying i9s. Alicia caldwell, thanks for your time. In our final halfhour or so, we will go to open phones. If you want to call, here are the numbers cotton avenue serves as a history. For macons when the town was first laid out in 1823, related evidence nice square blocks with or donating with alternating wide boulevards, wider than washington, d. C. Boulevards. Savannah has squares. Anyway, as they were laying it out, a farmer with a load of cotton on his wagon headed toward the river to market it downstream. The stakesht through that the engineers had laid out. Theengineers simply wove angled road into the layout of macon, georgia. This weekend, booktv and American History tv look behind the history and literary life of at noon ongia today cspan two and sunday at 5 p. M. On cspan three. Theyre coming in close and in on me and im still thinking evade. When i went through survival school, they taught us that the people who capture you are probably the least trained to capture pows and maintain them. Your best time to escape is right then. I thought these guys are rookies so i pulled up my 38 p senna had two rounds and i told them to get away and get back. I fired a round of that tracer over their head. They did not flinch. They just raised their rifles like this and one of them reaches his pocket and pulled whichlittle pointy talkie is like a comic book. There were drawings on one side and vietnamese fanatics on the other. The drawings show them capturing american pilots. He had his uniform and helmet on and has his hands up. This one guy said charinda, no die, hands up. Am facing about nine long guns. I decided thats probably the best advice i was going to get that day. Former air force pilot and vietnam pow lee ellis sunday night at 8 00. Washington journal continues. Host we have open phones for the remainder of our show today. A political analysis piece in whichinancial times, comes out of the debate of the debt ceiling. Your thoughts on this and other things related to our program for the next 20 minutes or so. Here is hernie from mississippi, democrats line. Caller i want to speed to you about immigration and one is going on with immigration in the black amenity. We are allowing immigrants to come over and break laws and be able to free after breaking laws but they are locking up a lot of lack people in the United States for any law we break. We are a majority of the people in prison. Illegal immigrants are breaking laws and they are not in jail for it. Why are we being jailed for any crime that we do . It seems to be like a holocaust. The mexicans can come over here and have a baby in the United States in order to stay. Theyre locking up our young teenagers and giving them 10 years or more. In prison, they are not having kids and they recommend earth control and abortion to black females. Host raleigh, north carolina, independent line. Good morning. Illegalgood morning, means it unless they change the definition. If he is arrested illegally, send them back. Company and the mexicans laughed about it. If we found out they were here illegally and said something to them, they would come back in two weeks and have a whole new ids. s they are just not being controlled. I dont understand. Host new bedford, massachusetts, democrats line. Im ed from new bedford. Building seven is not a topic over there. Can you guys answer that . Jerry is from jacksonville, florida, independent line. You had amanda called earlier, black gentleman, who said he was worried about white people and the police. Fbi report says there is more crime by blacks against whites then there is Violent Crime by whites against blacks. Thank you. Host from the Washington Post this morning, taking a look at syria rasheeda, brooklyn, new york, democrats line. Caller peace be upon you and i love your show each and every day. I would like to remind everybody that its a spiritual thing and not to get sad or depressed about it. These things must come to pass. If you look at the weather, it is predicted on the west coast its radioactivity readings because of fukushima and the dolphins are dying. Then youve got flesh eating bacteria along but coast all the way up to georgia and south carolina. We have had all these environmental disasters on the east coast. The waters of virginia will be spoiled by the coal spill in north carolina. Jesus said there would be wars and earthquakes in diverse places. In the old testament, it said the seat of ishmael would be let into a land not of their own host a followup story in oak quote the New York Times in oak quote the New York Times about syria lake placid, florida, independent line. Caller good morning, pedro. I want to talk about hillary and biden running against each other. If hillary becomes president , we will go back to all the scandals we had before when clinton was in the white house. Them was ever resolved. If you remember, they started with travel gate where they brought in the irs to investigate, i think his name was bill daly and they could not find anything and they put him in handcuffs and kicked him out. The trial went on for a year. They finally exonerated the guy and found guilty of nothing. Him guilty of nothing. Hillary brought in the two guys who made the hit list p. After months, they found out that hillary hired craig livingstone. It sounds like they made a hit list for their enemies. Million of 60 taxpayers money that disappeared into a program. Host who would you like to see run for office . I would like to see ted he would be my number one pick. Newsmakers for tomorrow, the guest is david medine, the Civil Liberties oversight chairman. The government created board recommended the nsa program for tracking phone records be ended. Heres a little bit of that interview which you can see tomorrow. [video clip] we operate in an area where there is a lot of classified information. Itcan urge declassification with think it is important for the American People to understand the program. This or other programs, if we find assets of a program or the entire program where rethink there would be public benefit, we would consider going to the Intelligence Community and say pleased declassified part or all of this program. Have forward, we recommended Greater Transparency and the laws that authorize program so there is no secret law where the market people cannot determine whether program has been authorized for it we urge the government to report more on its Information Collection activity to offer private companies to let their customers know more about what kind of government requests they are receiving. As you know, the Justice Department is some of the Tech Companies recent agreement now as to how those companies disclose more about what kind of requests they get from the government. Host more of that interview tomorrow. He is the chairman of the privacy and Civil Liberties oversight board. You can see that program at 10 00. Has aall street journal story on Data Collection linkin park, new jersey, democrats line. Caller good morning, pedro, great show as always. Im calling about the flood Insurance Program. You had a reporter talking about Homeland Security. My understanding is that fema is under the auspices of the Homeland Security. We went through hurricane irene and hurricane sandy. I have been waiting for the past that Congress Wants to stop subsidizing any payments. They feel it is a subsidy to keep the federal flood Insurance Program going. You can only buy Flood Insurance through the federal government and the rates have gone up tremendously. Thats ever since katrina. It seems to me that all of the people who were against supporting Flood Insurance do not live in areas that get flooded. Looking recently at what happened in West Virginia with 300,000 people in water, we should be more aware of disasters. We should support these type of things. Assume the cannot personal responsibility for a catastrophe. This has to be a shared responsibility. The government should continue Flood Insurance is not cheap by any means. You have to pay it in a oneshot eel and you have to pay upfront. It keeps on going up. Host galveston, texas, republican line. Caller regarding the debt ceiling passage by the house and senate, the republicans complained for years when the democrats controlled the house is that is it was being passed strictly on partisan lines. Both john boehner and Mitch Mcconnell have proven that they are nothing more than Establishment Republicans who care nothing more than keeping the status quo in place. The other situation i want to discuss is syria. I think its a failure of the Obama Administrations foreign policy. It is turning into a Training Ground for terrorists and other radical groups. It is a complete failure and we will pay the price down the road. Host there is a story in the hill looking at senator ted cruz. Joan from rochester, minnesota, democrats line. Caller back in 2003, after bush invaded iraq in the fall, i called air america and talk to and asked when we would be going into syria and iran and they said thats never going to happen. This has been planned from day one and we are doing a very great disservice to the people in the middle east. Thank you. Host next is jack from indianapolis, indiana, republican line. Caller how are you doing . I happened to see attorney general holder on tv last week. What was he talking about as far as gay marriage . Is that part of his responsibility . Wamsetter, wyoming, democrats line . Caller im from vermont. Lamont, florida. Comment is about the raising of the minimum wage. The republican conservatives seem to be against raising the minimum wage but at the same time they want entitlements to be reduced. Understand is to that your actual income is directly related to your eligibility for the entitlements which they want to reduce. They want to keep peoples income low and they will remain eligible for the entitlements. Raise their income and you will reduce their entitlements for the entitlements. Its directly related to income except for maybe Social Security or disability. Other than that that, the majority of housing and food stands and everything is directly related to the amount of income which you have. They need to understand that. Raise the minimum wage and reduce peoples dependency on the government which is what they want and what the people want as well. No one was to stay dependent on the government. Its the misrepresentation that people are out there working hard. I work with people everyday that do this. They are working as hard as those who have a lot of money in their pockets. Host washburn, illinois, republican line. I am suzanne from washington, d. C. Good morning3. With obamacare, my friend at va pays 16 per month for insurance and the budget is 80 for medical care. If he goes ahead and takes 16 insurance andthva uses it for obama care that will take the budget from 80 down to 57 and with corporations, their main problem is medical insurance. If they have it for 16 per person, they can afford to go ahead and work in the United States. Instead of going to other countries. The main Problems Health care. With the rest of the united peres, we can afford 16 person for medical, dental, and optical and seeing the doctors they want to. Host our independent line, good morning. Are you there . Amanda from snyder, texas. Lets try hazell from birmingham, massachusetts, republican line. Caller hello . Listening to the tv and go ahead with your question or comment. Caller i was just calling to should haveh sides lived during world war ii when we had no tv or radio to fight over what was going on in the country. Its just so sad that they are ruining our country and have all the other countries laugh at us. I think its time that all go on their knees and thank the good lord that they live in such a wonderful country as the United States. That is all, thank you. Host part of the programming we offer here on cspan is coverage of the white house Correspondents Dinner. The host has been selected to cover this years event. His name is joel mchale. Withs been charged bringing the fun to the Correspondents Dinner area it is scheduled to take place on may 3. Chicago, illinois, good morning. Whyer i would like to know long time unemployment was just held up by one person in the needed onethe vote willn and that vote they ever bring it back to the floor for another vote . Host why are you concerned about it . Because there are so many people out of work. Its not the jobs, its for the people. There are not enough jobs. They want to cut them off. They got no other choice. People have worked 30 or 40 years and they have for the same job training, they have no other experience and they want to leave them out in the cold. Host alice is from winter springs, florida. Because of calling alicia. This was about Homeland Security but she said it appears to make sure that we understood that the new attorney is working with Homeland Security and he will not enforce the laws of this land. This seems to be protocol. I wonder if the American People are these obama operatives . They believe what he believes. They are lawless. Host thats the last call on that topic. Or to mars program, you will bbe withm matt ki Freedom Works and we will talk about privacy rights in america. This stems from a classaction lawsuit filed last week by Freedom Works. It was senator rand paul against the Obama Administration. Perez joins us on the topic will be attorney general eric holders decision to reform felony disenfranchisement laws. He will discuss the ideas for reform. From 910 with Christopher Anders and charles blanchard. There were reports last week of the Obama Administration considering using drone strikes against american citizens abroad. Guests will talk about that all that, your phone call, and a look at the papers. That is tomorrow. We will see you then. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014]