Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140409

Other proposals. We will begin there this morning after the white house yesterday and democrats marked equal payday, hoping to make it a political issue in 2014. We turn to women only this morning. If its an issue for you politically or personally, we divide the lines by party. Republican women, 202 5853880. Republican women, 202 5853881. Democratic women, 202 5853880. You can also email us. Women only this morning 30 want to hear your story and get your thoughts. President obama yesterday at the white house marking equal payday. We will show you what you had to say yesterday at the white house. Democrats also talking about it up on capitol hill. And republicans responding. Here is roll calls headline. Democrats and republicans using women as ponds in payday. The Senate Republicans pushed back again tuesday against the notion the gop is waging a war on women. Gop leaders accusing democrats of using women as ponds to score political points. They will say whether they bring their own legislative solution to the floor. Focusing instead on rebutting democrats equal payday criticism that the gop is antiwomen. Heres a tweet put out by the white house yesterday. It is long past time to ensure equal pay for women. Equal payday 2014. That is what the white house yesterday had to say on twitter. Here is democrat, rosa delauro that is what the democrats are saying. Under the leadership on the house side said all people deserve equal pay for equal work. Period. Also tweeted out some more the administration touts its policies as a compliment for women. How are women really doing under obama care . How to its policies as accomplishments for women. 2. 6 million workers at risk of having their hours reduced because of obama care. 63 of those most at risk are women is what republican congresswoman lynn jenkins had to say on twitter. Mary is up first from virginia. What do you think . Caller im a democrat. Host what do you think about this page quality issue . Caller i think its a great idea that the democrats are doing this. I dont think the republicans are declaring war on women. I think their priorities are basically for Upper Echelon incomes which is usually white male. I dont think we should vilify the republicans. I think this is a really critically important issue. If the republicans are smart they will get behind it instead of trying to fight it. In my own situation im an attorney. I worked hard all my life. The general field, ive been compensated. I have seen many examples in the workplace where i dont think that is the situation. It is an important issue, not just for women lets start with women but make sure they is pay equality for everybody based on what they bring to the workplace. Host have you been paid the same amount as a male attorney in that same position . Caller thats an issue. You never know. Disclosure of pay is an important issue to consider. You dont really know until you can see for yourself in black and white what your other colleagues are making. Im glad you guys are talking about it this morning. Host we want to hear from women only this morning. Is this a political issue . Whats it like for you out there . Heres what the president yesterday had to say at the white house. [video clip] today, the working woman earns . 77 for every dollar a man earns. Thats an embarrassment. It is wrong. This is not just an issue of fairness. Its also a family issue and an economic issue. Women make up half of our workforce. They are increasingly the breadwinners for a whole lot of families out there. When they make less money, it means less money for gas, less money for groceries, less money for child care. Less money for College Tuition less money to go into retirement savings. Its all bad for business. Our economy depends on customers out there. When customers have less money when hardworking women dont have the resources, thats a problem. Host president obama yesterday at the white house making the economic argument for paid quality. We want to get your thoughts this morning. Women only. Dialin now. You can also join the conversation on twitter, facebook and send us an email as well. Heres jonathan weismans piece today in the New York Times on this. He writes, democrats trying to recap the midterm elections focus away from healthcare and reach out to the constituency that is delivering them the last two president ial elections. Women. In a cordon it effort on tuesday cordonordinated efforts on tuesday on wednesday morning, the senate will vote on whether to take up legislation that would make it illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who discussed the salaries expose employers to civil action for such recalibration and require the equal Employment Opportunity commission to collect information from employers. Democrats know the legislation will fail. That is part of the plan. He says republicans were dismissive of the tactic and pointed to the root problem for democrats and econom economy under president obama. The newark times also reports this morning. Democrats cut through the headwinds against them in the midterm election, must revive the gender cap that has sustained them in campaigns regeneration and expand their political pitch to a broader middleclass audience. Charles schumer paints the effort as an assembly of the electorate. Incoming push on Student Loans is and at 49 Million People 40 Million People either in Higher Education or struggling with student debt. What the white house and democrats are trying to do. The Washington Times this morning in their story reports this. In a study last year by the American Enterprise institute found that male white house staffers earning median salary of while female employees earn 65,000. The ministrations explanation for the discrepancy is that lower paid positions may be filled by more women than men. But those who hold the same jobs are paid equally regardless of their sex. Women are paid on average . 77 for every dollar a man earns. Critics say that measure fails to take into account government figures showing that men are almost twice as likely as women to work more than 40 hours a week, are much less likely to interrupt their work history to have or raise children and have other differences in labor market participation, including concentration in higherpaying fields. There is criticism of that figure that is often cited that women make . 77 for every dollar a man makes. Tina in mississippi. Republican. What do you think . Caller this is just another excuse for the president to sidetrack the real issue that there are no jobs out there. Here we are worrying about equal pay when there are no jobs. Yes, there are instances where women do make less than men and they should not. It men do harder, more dangerous jobs. Why dont we stick to the issue here . There are no jobs and this president just wants all of us to vote as single women. Lets be honest. Thank you. Host we will go to mary. Democrat from houston, texas. Caller we do need more jobs and we need to educate our children more. So they can get those jobs. Im a nurse. This is my experience. My boss, who is a woman me and this guy went to the same school, have the same educational background and also have the same experience as nurses. At the same job she hired me at four dollars less than our than him. I have a problem with that. Its not only men that do it. Women do it to. Thats women do it, too. We dont value each other. We dont have enough selfesteem for women over men. We have the same parents with the same jobs. He makes four dollars more per hour. I have kids. He has no kids. I dont understand that. It needs to be something in place to send a message on to everybody that hire somebody that we are valued. Women are valued on the same level as men. Host is this an important enough issue for you that you will go to the polls in november and vote . Caller i go to the polls all the time because America Needs to change. We need to stop not valuing people. I get tired of Homeless People on the streets. I get tired of dealing with men and women issues. I get tired of dealing with people who are so uneducated im in a profession where you have all levels of education and people dont even know that they need to vote. They need to start educating the public why its so important to participate in our democratic society. If you dont vote and you dont show up for your candidate, your issues are lost. Dont forget about the last Supreme Court justice decision that said, we can put money if its 435 house members, they can invest their money in 435 house members to sway their opinion. George washington said that Interest Groups would destroy this country. It is destroying our country. The issue is not about people. Its about big corporations. When roosevelt passed those bills and eisenhower came, he said, you cannot put our government in the hands of business. Business does not have interest in the people and the government. They are interested in the bottom line, which is profit. Host we are income women only this morning. We are hearing from women only this morning. Is this issue a political one for you in 2014 . How does it impact you personally echo republicans . Republicans, 202 5853881. 202 5853880 four democratic women. Independence, you can call at 202 5853882. Employment among women is higher now than before the recession. Thats not the case for men. Women faring better than men during this recovery. Its not a womens only issue. It is a National Issue and the need for fairness and equality. There is a tweet whenever viewers, karen, who says, of course. It should be an issue for everyone. Men and women. And in new york. Are you a democrat or republican . Caller im a conservative. I feel equal pay for equal jobs i worked as a nurse for 40 years. It was equal there. Men came in and women came in and it was no problem. If i had a company myself, i would want if the woman did the same job as the men, i would give them same pay. Sometimes is not equal. Maybe women are parttimers and you can give them as much as may be a fulltime man. Its not an issue of one thing for all. You have to look at it individually. Thats all i can say. Host miami, florida. Republican. Caller good morning. What i wanted to say is, this is just a game by the democrats. Look at the white house. Most of the women there are being underpaid. That is not being reported except for a few newscasters. It is all a game because they want us to forget about obama care. They want people to forget about whats going on. They want people to forget the economy. Its just a game. Host some numbers on this issue. This is what they reported. Womens paid work increased during the past four decades. Heres the percentage of women and men in the workforce back in 1970. The blue line is men. Women were 40 of the workforce. In 2011, 70 of men made up the workforce. 58 women. Also from the pole, some other numbers. This is what they say daughters work more hours and earn more than their mothers did this generation. Mothers in the labor force, 53 , daughters in the labor force make up 85 . Here is one other caveat to that. They report that, despite daughters large wage gains, every wrong on the economic ladder, they still earn a lower hourly wage then did fathers on the same wrong more than 30 years ago the same rung more than 30 years ago. Here is another story that made some headlines yesterday. The new stayathome mom surge is not who you think. This story on the todays show website. More moms are stinging home with the kids fulltime and those moms tend to be younger, less educated and more likely to be poor than women who work outside the home. The picture of stayathome motherhood may be at odds with the stereotype Many Americans have of wealthier, more educated mothers who choose to stay home with their children because they can afford not to work. It goes onto say, that is still true of some moms. Researchers also argue that many women who stay at home are doing so at least partly because they cant afford Childcare Costs and other expenses associated with going to work, especially if they cant get a job that pays well. There is a new surge of stayathome moms. Marie in florida. Democratic caller. The morning to you. Good morning to you. Caller i would like to say that there is an air here in the u. S. That the people are no longer import and. That came about in the bush years when mr. Bush decided that we needed to go to war in iraq. The government from that point on became the government and the people were totally left out of it. The United States overall did not want to get involved in that war. Mr. Bush did his best to whitewash it. He convinced 95 of us that maybe had a point. From that point on, with the telephones being cap, we started losing that freedom. At the present time, the Republican Party are all behind, wasting our money by trying to defeat the Affordable Care act. 50 times they have voted. How many millions of dollars have they wasted every time they have to go to a house vote . How many millions of dollars of their taxpayer money are they wasting . Host ally in pennsylvania. Republican caller. Caller hi. To the issue of the quality of pay raise, i am a Small Business owner and prior to that i was a professional in the workforce. I would say that there are pockets you can tweak numbers anyway you want. In terms of the numbers the democrats are looking at, its a smokescreen in my mind. Theyre trying to define Republican Party. That is a big mistake. The Republican Party has to not allow u our opponents to the finest. Icf be in pay i see equity in pay. It should be performancebased. If you are performing, you should be paid accordingly. Perhaps women need to speak up in the workforce if they feel they feel theyre not getting paid equitably. It did need to go to their manager and discuss it. Host has that happened to you . Caller have you had women come tocaller we have reviews. They know we set goals within the workforce. They know how they need to perform in order to get to the next step in their pay raise. Host let me bounce this off of you. The Washington Times frontpage story on this. They report that president obama used a moose on tuesday to close the pay gap between the sexes before federal contractors to force federal contractors businesses fear the orders will a ground for the government to take legal action against them. As a business owner, what if this was in the private sector . Federal contractors you had to tell the government what your employees earned and break it down by race and gender . Caller you have a lot of information there. It sounds to me like more regulatory control from the federal government. I dont think that is what Small Businesses need. Its already a huge burden. I am a government contractor. Putting more burden on Small Businesses for paperwork to meet some government requirements is necessary. There are already pay rate schedules that come out in contracts that you have to abide by. Thats the numbers you have to look at it in the evaluation not come principally and mixing it all together. It needs to be targeted by particular job segment areas. One caller did comment that there is a lot of lower paying jobs that women seem to be attracted to. I would look to see more women be doctors. Its a pretty tough job when you cant be with your family. Thats a choice that a lot of women are making. I make the choice of earning less money because i wanted to stay home with my children parttime. That was my choice. You can replace i cant put a value on being home with my children. I got paid less. But that was ok with me. Host do you mind telling us what federal contractors you have been on . Whats your business . How much do regulations like this cost you . Explain that to people who dont understand. When Small Business owners say regulations hurt our bottom line, what does that mean . Caller you usually have to have additional staff to handle the work. When there is more administrative requirement to manage a job or to minister grants there are certain hours that you cant bill on the contract. It is more overhead work. If you have certified payroll requirements, it takes a person that understands payroll and certified payrolls. For Small Businesses, you dont always have that special payroll. It is more regulation its tough. I would like to think that businesses do a pretty good job of managing themselves and Work Together withr to help each other out. Host the Los Angeles Times has the story. The front page medicare lifts the veil of payments. New data shows more doctors got more than 10 million in 2012. Officials warn them not to draw conclusions. Here is a picture of one doctor in florida who received a 26 million in medicare payments. That is the story from the Los Angeles Times. The New York Times says this this huge amount of health data is disclosed and 21 million for one physician in 2012 says that 100 doctors received a total of 610 million, ranging from a florida ophthalmologist to dozens of doctors. They received more than 4 million each year. This data coming out now, hoping to limit or decrease fraud in medicare and giving consumers more choices seeing how much doctors charts for different procedures doctors charge for different procedures. Most of it was for expenses. Here is how it broke down. You three percent of those made up 43 made up office overhead. Working percent for 13 for drugs and other expenses. On the Affordable Care act from the wall street journal, employers are counted for much of the increase. This is what they put out yesterday. The nations uninsured rate dropped to 15. 8 in midmarch from 20. 5 . One of the senior economists said employers accounted for much of the game in coverage by providing about 8. 2 million more people insurance. Of those, 7. 2 million previously were uninsured. These people the new numbers show that those who signed up on the exchange were not uninsured before employers and accounted for much of this increase. Of those headlines on health care issues, which continue to dominate the new cycle. Backed women only. We are talking to you about the issue of pay quality. Alice in new york. Democratic caller. Caller i was collecting unemployment and they cut it. The doctor diagnosed me with a bad disease. What are we supposed to do . I cant go back to work. I cant go back i have to take care of myself. Why is government they bring immigrants over here. Theres nothing wrong with that because it is a better life for them. Do we have to suffer for them . Its not fair for us. I have nothing coming in. I cant go to work. If they cut my unemployment. Its not fair to us. What are we to do . Host we will go to marsha in texas. Democratic caller. Caller i have to tell you about what happened to me. I had 12 years in the workforce and i was 30 years old and i knew that if i did not go back and get my degree that i was never going to be able to move up. So i did. I quit my job and went back to school and as soon as i got on campus, i looked around for campus jobs that i could work part of the time while i took a full schedule of classes. I found one in this Research Center that was a combination of physicists and chemists u. I was a speed typist. I spent a couple of years there typing their manuscripts for publication. Then they hired another guy that would come in and type for couple of hours before i came in. It when i would arrive i would have page after page of his stuff that i had to correct or sometimes retype. It was so bad. The kid was a freshman and he was not all that well versed in filling out a timesheet. He asked for my help. On his timesheet was his hourly pay. I had already been there for two years. 14 years work experience. He was making . 63 an hour more than i was. And he did not have any experience in an office. Host you had to sue . Caller i hit the ceiling. I went to the boss who hired me and i said, how much do you all like me . He said, i love you. If you love me so much, why are you paying this kid . 63 an hour more than im making . Heres the deal. If you want to keep me, youll give me a raise and he will make it retroactive to the beginning of the summer when you hired him. And they did. But i have to Say Something about women getting low pay. It hurts us in our retirement. The less you make when you are working, the leslie you wilss you will have coming in from retirement programs. You have less of an opportunity to save for your own retirement because you are so underpaid that you cant save. You are barely making it. Host republicans responded yesterday to democrats charges that the Republican Party is antiwomen. Cathy Mcmorris Rodgers talked about it at tuesdays press conference. Heres what she had to say. [video clip] on this years equal payday, i wanted to celebrate and highlight the Important Role that women are playing in our economy. When you look at the fact that 47 of the workforce now are women, that they make most of americas Consumer Spending decisions, two out of three Small Businesses right now are being started by women, they are the majority of our Health Care Workers as well as 85 of Health Care Decisions being made by women. Women understand the direct impact of the policies and the impact they have on them. On this equal payday, i would urge us to stop politicizing women and let start focusing on the policies that are going to help women and everyone in this country have a better life. Lets focus on the policies that are going to move forward on a jobs land that will create a higher paycheck, more opportunities and that opportunity for a better life which we all want. Host cathy Mcmorris Rodgers. Part of the Republican Leadership in the house yesterday talking about the democrats and their charges that republicans are intent women. Are antiwomen. Had to go back to work because medical expenses. Es. Many women tend to work fewer hours. If you go to the Labor Department website, they mark this on the equal pay page. What women want equal pay. 50 years ago today, president kennedy signed the equal pay act into law. The u. S. Workforce included tony 5 million women. Yet, women earned an average of . 59 on the dollar only 5 million wome25 million women. Were going to keep talking about it. Women only here for about 10 more minutes. We want to share some other news with you. The three generals up on capitol hill yesterday made some headlines. Here is the Washington Times. House republicans hold feet to the fire. He was pressed in a number of issues. He is onere is one exchange he had with the republican from texas. [video clip] what we promised to do was to provide you and your staff with i read what your department promised and its inadequate and that relies that contempt is not a big deal to our attorney general. It is important that we have proper oversight. You dont want to go there. I dont want to go there about the contempt . You should not assume that is not a big deal to me. I think it was inappropriate and unjust. I would neverdont ever think that. Im looking for evidence. There have been no indications that it was a big deal because your department has still not been forthcoming in producing the documents that were the subject of the contempt. They have been other questions asked the documents we were prepared to make available than anna prepared to make available now this was all about the gun lobby and a desire to have we have been trying to get to the bottom of fast and furious where people died. A couple of hundred mexicans died and we can get the information to get to the bottom of that. I dont need lectures from you about contempt. It is difficult to deal with asking questions. I have never asked questions of someone who has been held in contempt. Host a tense moment between the attorney general and eric holder. Go to cspan. Org and watch it there. Congressman james, republican of wisconsin here is from the Washington Times. He asked mr. Holder why he was not pursuing the prosecution of for perjury for his testimony denying that the government was collecting massive amounts of data about american electronic medications. He said the departments inaction raises doubts about whether congress will pass any new intelligence ill this year. That in the Washington Times. Also dealing with the attorney general, here is usa today. A former irs officials could Face Criminal Charges since todays meeting of the ways and Means Committee could reveal new evidence. The committee will vote to refer and request for criminal prosecution two attorneyo attorney general eric holder. On the issue of ukraine, frontpage of many papers this point. Here is the Washington Times. John kerry was up on capitol hill on the senate side yesterday, testifying about the state permits budget as well is ukraine and mideast peace. Back ensued there between the secretary of state and senator john mccain. Take a look. [video clip] secretary kerry, i watch with great interest some of your comments. I think you are about to hit the trifecta. Geneva 2 was a total collapse as i predicted. The only tangible result is that people went to geneva for their Free National council. The israelipalestinian talks are finished. I predict, even though we give the iranians the right to enrich the which is unbelievable, those talks will collapse to. You can talk about other places in the world but on the major issues, this administration is feeling very badly. On the issue of ukraine, my hero, Teddy Roosevelt used to say, talk softly but carry a big stick. What you are doing is talking strongly and carrying a twig. Host john mccain talking to john kerry yesterday. If youre interested in that exchange, go to our website, cspan. Org for more. Front page of usa today says that the secretary of state kerry says that russia is feeling the unrest as protesters are paid to set stage for ukraine invasion. This was a tweet put out by the wall street journal this morning on the situation in ukraine. Its interior minister had said that the government building standoff will be resolved in the next 48 hours. Whether that is peacefully or violently, we dont know. That coming out of ukraine this morning. The Washington Post editorial ways in this morning saying that congress and the white house need to increase the pressure on russia. Only tougher sanctions can keep russia from going into ukraine. Also in the wall street journal there is the story Kremlin Energy giant feels the biplane pushed back. Russias energy giant wants to build a 22 billion pipeline to send natural gas from russia across the black sea into italy. To avoid ukraine, through which in the wake of russias annexation, that pipeline has become another political flashpoint between east and west. And full of large European Companies all partner with the state run russian company. Theyre walking a fine line between the two sides. That is going on as well amidst this turmoil between russia and ukraine. Then there is this headline this morning gm faces fine of 7,000 a day in this you investigation. Regulators said they will charge gm 7,000 a day until it complies with this demands for questions about its slow recalls of cars. Also this morning, toyota announced it is recalling 6 million vehicles as well. That announcement coming from toyota this morning. Back to our calls. Donna in st. Louis, missouri. Independent caller. What are your thoughts this morning . Caller wall street thinks mccain lost and he asked like hes out for revenge. He really annoys me. Most women dont see the paychecks of men. And they dont know if they are being paid the same because employers will always tell employees, dont talk with each other about your paycheck. Most people know they will get rid of them if they do. Most women did not know they were paying 40 more than men because we dont get pregnant for their Health Insurance. Most women didnt really realize because the media do not talk about it much before obama care. Women are paying 40 more for their Health Insurance. Lastly lots of men have daughters and wives. If your daughters and wives are getting paid unjustly for what they do, that affects the whole familys income. Not just women. There are a lot of women that are the head of the household. If you are part of a family, it affects the whole family. Thank you. Host as we told you earlier the New York Times reporting this morning, the senate this morning will vote on legislation to make it illegal for employers to retaliate against him please discuss the salaries come and require the equal Employment Opportunity commission to collect information from employers. Democrats know the legislation will fail. If that is part of the plan. That in the New York Times this money. Emails from sue who says this. Im 51 years old and happen working since i was 18 fulltime before having a family. Mostly parttime since. He should be based on performance and ability. I have a good work ethic and ive always been treated fairly by employers. I wouldnt last a day in the heavy construction job my husband does. I honestly feel all editions have bigger Economic Issues to worry about. Harbor, what do you think . Barbara, what do you think . Caller if we had a fema president , what would people think . If we had a female president what would people think . As far as congress in the beginning, all congresspeople were males. In the budgets, they would set salaries for senators and congressmen. When women started entering they automatically receive the same pay. They are above the fray. These republican women who say there is no war on women get the same pay as their male cohorts. I dont think they would like it if they found out their pay was 25 less just because of their sex. It is ridiculous. The woman that called about not talking about your pay is correct. Companies say outright, do not discuss your pay. That tells you right there that there is a discrepancy. This has been going on my entire life. It is totally unfair. The Family Status is irrelevant if youre married or single it should depend on the job youre doing. Not whether or not you have children and a husband to take care of. I would like to see we have had a lot of revolutionary changes. This would be one that would be beneficial to everyone. Host roanoke, virginia on this topic. We will turn to budget issues with two members of congress who serve on the budget you may. Marsha blackburn of tennessee and then bill from new jersey. We will be right back. These come forward and take the oath of office. Do you solemnly swear that you will adhere to and support the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and that you will bear the faith and allegiance to the same that you will take this obligation freely without any mental reservations and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of office on which you are about to enter so help you god . I do. Thank you. Congratulations. [applause] find more highlights from 35 years of house for coverage on our facebook page. Cspan. Created by americas Cable Companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a Public Service by your local cable or satellite provider. I think what we need is something akin to the Grace Commission during the reagan or the brack commissionbased during the clinton administration. An outside group with integrity, former members of congress, no current elect politicians to come in and do a complete audit of government from top to bottom. Every agency of government has a piece of legislation or a charter that created it. It has a purpose. If its not for filling the purpose or not doing it within a reasonable budget, it should be cut or eliminated. Lets take headstart. This came in with the highest motivation. Do you know, there are three has starts . Early head start advanced headstart why did we have the other two . The first wasnt working. Cal thomas on fixing a broken washington. Saturday night at 10 00. Following, a Heritage Party for mr. Thomas as he signs books and chats with guests. This yearss National Black writers conference, saturday at noon with panels on race, power and politics. Literature and shifting identities and africa. Sunday 2 00, strengthening communities. The historical narrative. Plus, a panel on television. Book tv. Every weekend on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome back congresswoman marsha blackburn. She sits on the budget committee. Budget issues, health care, all on the table this morning. Lets begin with the house taking up the republican Budget Proposal for 2015 put out by paul ryan. Democrats have put out their own budget. Where do you think there is Common Ground . Guest what i would like to see is getting the debt under control. The deficits that have run up through this administration the amount of debt on the books is one of the reasons that the republican budget cuts 1. 1 trillion dollars in spending over the next 10 years. Its an important step to take for the future of our country and for our children and grandchildren. Host what does congressman ryan want to do on medicare . Guest what we would like to do is preserve medicare and make certain that we back those cuts that have been made to the program. The president has been stepping up this Health Care Law and seniors are very frustrated with the way medicare has been treated. We hear a lot about that. I think thats why you saw the president this week come around with another delay to his Health Care Law. That was to delay the medicare cuts for this year. Seniors this is the way it generally comes up in our town hall meetings. They will remind us that they have prepaid this medicare. The government has first strike of refusal on your paycheck. If they take what they want first. Senior say, this is not an entitlement. Dont call this a federal benefit because my medicare and Social Security is money you took out of my paycheck. Now, i am drawing that money back out. Theyre very frustrated with this administration. Host democrats have said the cuts to medicare that have been put in place under the Affordable Care act have been recycled back into the program. Invested back into the program too short it up. Guest what they have done is to take that mooney out and move it into the broaderbased obama care programs. Thats why he saw the extensive cut to medicare advantage. Trying to go back in and patched the sgr. What we are saying is, look this is irresponsible to keep kicking the can down the road. What you have to do is solve these problems. Begin shift that focus and have more of a longterm view. It is really interesting when you look at the longterm budget outlook for us as a country and you look at where we are going. There is a chart that you may have seen that congressman ryan had. You can see what happens if we dont get this debt under control. You look at the obligations that are there through the entitlement programs and through trust funds. It is time for us to be adults in the room and to say, these are systemic problems. They have to be addressed. Lets look at a way to start bringing this budget into balance. That is what we as House Republicans have proposed. What we are putting our emphasis on is turning down the growth curve on that debt. Host path to prosperity is the name of the rubble to budget. Guest that is correct. Host people have said that the House Republicans lands for medicare is to turn medicare into a Voucher Program. Guest not at all. That is the important thing to show that there is a difference. It is about giving choice and options to seniors, allowing them to have more choice and options in how they would like to receive their medicare. They have prepaid this. They dont want to be in a onesizefitsall type of program. Different people have different needs. They want different opportunities to manage their health care. I think another thing that we need to look at is what the states are telling us. There are many of the states that are saying, look, it would be better if you would give us more flexibility with medicaid in how we run our programs. Maybe look at some block grants for some of these benefits and let the states run them. At my state general assembly, visiting with our legislators there were great visits with them and they said, look, you all have so many mandates and somebody rules and regulations it makes it almost impossible. Lets start looking at our state legislatures is right. Host Chris Van Hollen when debate kicked off he came and argued against the House Republican rapoza. You what he had to say. [video clip] the chairman mentioned the economic benefits of this budget. Our economic competitors around the world will eat our lunch if we pass this republican budget. It provides perverse tax incentives that ship american jobs overseas while shortchanging investments and jobs right here at home. As we will see over the next few days, it gets important investments that have helped power our economy. The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells us that, in the next couple of years, this will slow down Economic Growth. It will slow down job growth. One estimate puts the job loss at 3 million jobs. Host congresswoman . Guest what he needs to do is look at what the cbo did say about the budget. It said that when you looked at the reductions in the deficit that we do and that the budget would promote Economic Growth in 2024, you are looking at our Economic Growth being a couple of Percentage Points higher than if you stayed with what they are doing in the democrat budget. We hear this term investment, our colleagues across the aisle are seeking to raise taxes. The amendments they brought forward and committee would have raised taxes one point 5 trillion to pay for these socalled investments. We talked to innovators across the country. I do talk with a lot of them a lot. People that are working to innovate the next great product. Whether it is something that would be manufactured or something that is a Software Product or an application for broadband use, they will repeatedly cite a few things that a robust roadblocks. You have a bureaucracy up here who has an ineffective archetype. The third thing is the litigation and the ways to look to litigate or patent trolls that are trying to take your patent and product an idea that youll come forward with. We know that these are problems for feeding Economic Growth. Anytime you can reduce taxation and reduce litigation and reduce regulation, you will see more innovation and job creation. That is what this budget document does. Host bill king on twitter how many ryan budgets and a road is this now without any new revenue . We needed new revenue from the top one percent and corporations. Guest washington does not have a revenue problem. They have a spending problem. We are spending so much more than we take in. Is it fair to your children and grandchildren to not be living within the federal governments means and borrowing . 30 on every dollar . Would he run his business that way . Would he choose to do that . Probably not. He wants that business to be sustainable. Maybe for more than one or two generations. You have to manage the resources that you have to build that entity. The federal government is the same way. It is not right for taxpayers to struggling to be live within their means. Host steve, you are on the air. Caller i believe in the paul ryan plan. Then democrats the democrats do not want to compromise. Harry reid will block anything the republicans vote on. I was that fair to the people . How is that fair to the people . Guest the point is well made and well taken. It is not fair to the people. The people across this country are sayionng by a large majority that the size of the federal government is a problem. There was a poll that came out recently and you probably saw it. 80 of the people say the biggest threat to our Nations Health is our debt, Big Government. The government is the big threat. Big government is the big threat. 56 of democrats said Big Government is the big threat. When you have that, you have government that is way too big and bloated. This is what you hear on a bipartisan basis. You have got to get it under control. Host on twitter guest i think that what he needs to look at is what came to our states and Innovation Centers by reducing those taxes. You can go back at look and look at 1986 with ronald reagan. You can look at the Economic Growth that came from reducing taxes. When you leave more money with individuals who are working to create jobs and when you are able to give them some certainty in the tax code, people know what they are dealing with, you will see innovation. Host frank is in West Virginia. Caller two questions. What the Social Security have to do with balancing the federal budget does Social Security have to do with balancing the federal budget . My wife is a postal worker. Representative ryan wants to cut postal wages to balance the budget. Would to postal wages have to do with the federal budget what do postal wages have to do with the federal budget . Guest Social Security should function as a true trust fund. It is quickly running out of money and it is taking every dollar that comes in plus some of the general fund, to meet payments. I continue to push, as we look at budget reform, holding that Social Security money into a true trust fund in a true trust fund. We want to stabilize Social Security and give it a trust fund based process. When it comes to the post office and the way the post office is treated, there has been, as long as i have been in congress there has been talk of bringing the Postal Service in line with other federal workers. They have more Generous Health benefits, a more generous pension program. Host brenda is in petersburg virginia. Caller i am independent. I happen to be born female. I did not have any choice in that. I am 65 years old. I was born black. I did not have any choice in that. Now, it is all about womens issues. I had one illegal abortion and one legal abortion. I handled that. I do not regret either one. I happened to be working. I am a retired Sergeant First Class. Everyone who was Sergeant First Class got the same pay, regardless of whether you are male or female or what else. I was a schoolteacher. Somehow, all of the men were coaching something and they got paid more. I was at school everyday, regardless of what the weather was. I did not get paid for that. I do not know where these republican women come off saying that women have not been discriminated against. I do not know how in the world they say that because i happen to work in jobs that i was not discriminated against because i am a woman, but because i am black. I live in a neighborhood because i thought the children in this neighborhood needed to see somebody getting up and going to work every single day. That is the only reason i live here. Guest first of all, thank you for your service to our nation and our nations children. You can tell she is a go getter and has a lot of get up and go and a lot of spunk. I think her for that. Secondly, i think where she is going is with the equal pay and equal treatment issue. I think all of us that have worked in the work lace place, many times, you feel like you were given the leftovers is a woman and the crumbs. Someone who has worked in a male dominantated industry most of their lives, i realize that. I started my career at 16 years old working in a dress shop. I realized how quickly my limited i realized quickly how limited my opportunities would be. I quit my job and started selling books doortodoor. I had to quit my job at a company due to a nepotism rule. I was the one who had to give up my job because i was marrying someone in the company. You feel like you perform to the best of your abilities, you do a stellar job, but still because you are female, you are the one who had to give up the job. I remember going in and buying a washer and dryer and was told i needed to take the paper home and have it signed by my husband. I said, no, i will go somewhere else and pay cash. Those are the types of things that many of us and brenda has lived through this and i have lived through it being condescended to, being talked down to, being pushed to the side. Women are tired of this. I am too. Host should the Administrative Administration have signed an executive order yesterday about paying employees based on race and gender . Guest the administration and white house need to pay women the same thing they do men. Dont you think that would be a good thing . Host do you think legislation is a good followup . Guest i dont know if legislation is necessary. Quite frankly, there are days when i think legislation is necessary and there are other days when i think, what women will tell me they want is, you need to be looking at how we level the playing field, how we open doors, and access to capital. They are trying to start businesses and innovate concepts. So many times when i am talking to women Business Owners and women that are working two jobs one that pays the bills and one is where they really want to go in their career with developing something that they own, they will say, the talk in passing bills and signing paper in washington does not get us where we need to do. There needs to be more on raising awareness and more that causes companies to fulfill the responsibilities of going in and doing the right thing. Getting it leveled up, i am all for it. I have worked my entire life to be sure that there is equal treatment and that women earn dollar for dollar what men earned. Host leon is on the line. Caller hello. It is so nice to speak to you. Could you tell me why it ois ok for the people you represent not to have health care while you have it . My people in tennessee are watching you now. Please be honest. Host what do you mean ok not to have health care . Would you getting at . What are you getting at . Caller because you are against obamacare. You are keeping hundreds of people from tennessee from having health care, while you have it. Guest my goal is to preserve access to Affordable Health care for all tennesseans and all americans. What we are finding out is that the Affordable Care act is wokrrking at cross purposes to that. It is really not working out that way. This is what we know from what happened in tennessee. The program was too expensive to afford. Within five years, it had quadrupled in cost. The program had reached 35. 3 of the state budget. They alter the program. Altered the program. When you drive up the cost of Health Insurance, fewer people are going to be able to afford it. We also know that when you expand the medicaid services, as it was in our state and you give people a card that says you have access to health care, but you do not have doctors to see the individuals, that is if also. A false hope. Look at the kaiser 2012 study. 30 of all doctors are not taking new medicaid enrollees. That is a problem. The president s healthcare law once were able to figure out where the 7 million these 7 million, then we will hopefully be able to address some of these issues. Right now, it is a problem. We are very concerned about it. Tennessee is a little ahead of the curve. Host let me show you a couple of headlines this morning. The first one is the chicago tribune. It says that women are the ones winning out in the end because of the Affordable Care act. Guest we have got to realize that access to the queue and access to the doctors are different things. One of my constituents got a call from her Health Insurance company and they said, we will pay for your contraceptives, but we will not pay for your Blood Pressure medicine. She said to want to that in writing to show her congressman. People are not getting what they need. Health care is being able to get what you need. Host this headline from the wall street journal. The rate of uninsured is going down. Is that a good thing . Guest we would love to see the rate go down. We want to see it go down where it is affordable. Some of the individuals who have preexisting conditions it was going to be, everybody has insurance what they are being forced to do is signing up for the most expensive plan and then their outofpocket is going up and they do not have the flexible spending account. They are spending a whole lot more money for an insurance product. We have concerns about those and medicaid if they are not we have concerns about those enrolled in medicaid if they are not in an area where they can see someone who sees medicaid patients. Dont we all want to make certain that we get in behind the waste, fraud, and abuse . That has been a source of frustration for a lot of us. Whether it is medicaid or medicare. You are having such a difficult time following it. Moving on the coding would be helpful. That has been delayed. I hope we will do a revisit of that. Host that is reimbursement for medicare to doctors. Lets go back to our phones. John republican. Caller some numbers. I hear people saying we have a revenue problem. In 1968, the federal budget was 135 billion. We are a 3. 7 trillion. We have a debt in this nation th at is beyond our gmp. Representative blackburn, why do you keep this narrative going about cuts . These are reducing the rates of increase. Nothing in washington ever gets cut. Ronald reagan said this in a speech in 1964. Republicans cannot get it through their heads and they cannot create their own narratives. 1. 45 is what gets taken out of medicare paychecks for medicare. People have not paid into their health care if they are seniors. I am sorry to burst their bubble. When my father retired, he had put roughly 7,000 into medicare. He had over 400,000 of medical bills 15 years later when he died. There is no way we will be able to sustain this spending. We will have a collapse. If the republicans cannot change their narrative you are intelligent people. Why do you have to keep going with this cut thing . You know it cannot sustain itself. Guest that is pretty much what i was saying when we were looking at a choice of two futures. The chart you started off with. You cannot keep thats up this up. Beginning to push back the spending is something that we have done, will continue to do. Making a 5. 1 trillion reduction in the budget. Democrats wanted 1. 5 trillion in new taxes. You can start to get in behind it and come to balance in 10 years or you can let it continue to explode. We are not willing to let it continue to explode. The debt to our children and grandchildren is not fair. You do have to bring it back under control. I would think that john would support what we are doing because the way to really make some cuts and he is right about talking about the difference between reducing the rate of growth and the increase and making cuts into the baseline in discretionary spending, you Better Believe you need to make cuts. You need to get rid of federal positions and reduce the size of the bureaucracy and make it more responsive to people. This is why are states want us to send programs back to them and reduce the hope of the federal government here. As we go into appropriations, and i want to invite john to follow what we do he can go to my website or my facebook or twitter and follow this we will make further reductions in spending or cuts,. We would hope that the senate and harry reid will take these up and not continue to hold the bills and not take them up. That is what the senate is doing now. They have 195 house passed bills. Host this graphic we are showing you comparing the path to prosperity to the current path and history. The choice of two futures. The path of prosperity to prosperity is on the house floor for debate today. Here is an email from minneapolis. Would you prefer we put another war, tax cuts, and Medicare Part d on the government on the credit card . Guest what she needs to realize is that if you go from George Washington to george bush, every president we have ever had, you would have been right around 10 trillion in devbt. You can look at this as a bipartisan problem. Getting that debt under control is something i have worked on every day i have been here. What has made it worse we at 18 trillion worth of debt if you go from 10 trillion to 18 trillion five years into the Obama Administration, it is a spending problem, not a revenue problem. On a bipartisan basis, people are saying you have to get the spending under control. Admiral mullen said the greatest threat to our nations security is the debt. This is not fair to our grandchildren and children. I do not want them having to pay the bill for programs they dont want for money they have not made with money they have not made. This is not fair to these children. We are capping these childrens futures and we are trading it to the people that own our debt. It is horrific what we are doing to the children that are in school today, that are looking forward to graduating and having jobs and open careers and innovating having careers and innovating. They are looking at fewer opportunities because we will not deal with the growth of the federal government. We do not have the willpower to say no to some of these bureaucrats that are you know , they are overpaid, underworked. We have too many federal employees, too many federal agencies, too many federal programs. We need to skinny it up. We need to get rid of duplications and redundancies. Host back to health care. Guest we have a great one. The American Health care reform act. A big part of it is a proposal i have had for several years now. Across state lines purchase of Health Insurance, freeing up the health care marketplace, taking down the borders at the states letting you have control of your health care and buying a product that suits your needs at a price you can afford. That is the way to get people insured. Let individuals be in charge of it. Host i want to ask you about a technology issue. Internet governance. The u. S. Plans to relinquish control. What is going on here . Guest it is not healthy. That is what is going on. The department of Conference Commerce with ican, that oversees domain names and uses they have said, lets push this out and let it be a standalone entity. They would like for the you when to have governments the u. N. To have governance of this. We do not want the department of commerce to turn this over the United Nations and that have countries who do not wish us well in fringing on our freespeech. Infringing on our free speech. We have a bill that is filed. We will market up in energy and commerce tomorrow. It says, you have got to do a study on this and come back to us and commerce, you cannot take an action until we get the study back. Host do other countries have their own governing body over their websites and domain names . Guest primarily it has been through ican. You have other governments who have the departments. They will we strict what people have restrict what people have the ability to get. We also oppose the fccs push for Net Neutrality rules. That is an appropriate. In our opinion. We think that congress having told the fcc no to implementing Net Neutrality, the courts having struck it down, that the fcc needs to get back to focusing on its core mission and look at spectrum and auction and enforcement and stop trying to expand their reach and regulation. In regulation. Host one last phone call. Rodney in indiana. Caller good morning. I am 68 years old. Im on medicare on a humana plan. My premiums went down on both. I pay little or nothing on medicine. I can go to any doctor i want to. I would like to get back to president reagan. His first act as a president was to destroy the air Traffic Control union, which has been a demise to the middle class ever since. President bush came along in 2005 and destroyed my job. I was forced into retirement at 59. He also killed my nephew with the iraq war, which was a lie. I owould like to tell the Congress Lady that this Affordable Care act and we are talking about president obama. Show them a little respect. I know you dont like to talk about race. It seems to me every time one of you white republicans gets on utah you call him obama obama, obama. It is president obama. Host do you care to respond to rodney . Guest we are sorry for your familys loss and for all of our families that have lost a Service Member in the line of duty. We know that that is a very difficult time. We thank you for your sacrifice and your service. Those of us that represent Major Military posts see firsthand the significance of that loss to these families. Rodney we do, we share in your sorrow. We thank you for your service to our country. You know, other than that, i think that he has a host of issues there. It is what we see so many times in washington dc with the partisan divide. What we would like to do as we move forward is find a way to get some find some Common Ground and make sure we put this nation on a firm footing and that we are making certain that is t is here for future nations. Host thank you for your time. We appreciate it. We will turn next to the democratic congressman from new jersey. We will talk about the democrats priorities. Then we will talk about the fallout from the major Chemical Spill in West Virginia earlier this year. All of that after this news update. An update on the missing malaysian airliner. New signals of been discovered today in the indian ocean. They do not want to send anything down to look for the plane yet. They want to continue to get a better fix on the location. Transportation issues in the u. S. Senator patty murray says that the threat is growing of a bankruptcy and the department of transportations highway trust fund. The coffers are normally filled by revenue collected through the federal gas tax. That tax has not been increased since 1993. Infrastructure expenses have outpaced receipts by 20 billion per year. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the trust fund will go bankrupt in the fall without additional action. The secret service has reassigned agents from its special operations division, including the top agent. In addition to transferring the agents, anyone assigned to the unit is barred from drinking within 12 hours of starting a shift. They are not allowed to drink within 24 hours of a president s arrival on a trip. Three agents were sent home from the netherlands last month after one was found intoxicated in a hotel before president obama arrived to meet with foreign officials. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. If you continue to send people here who have no real world experience, no real hardship no real difficulty, no real successes in life outside of politics, you will continue to get the same results. That is why we need a Constitutional Convention that will put term limits. Once you put term limits you eliminate the careerism that goes on here. It will open up more seats for people to be competitive. That is only one part of what you can do to fix the government. You will not fix it in washington today. I am convinced of that. I will have spent 16 years in congress and i continue to be disappointed every day at the lack of foresight, the lack of judgment, the lack of longterm thinking, the lack of critical decisionmaking that occurs in congress. Senator coburn on his career and retirement from the senate at the end of this session. Sunday night on q a. Washington journal continues. Host congressman Bill Pascrell is back at our table. We will begin with the budget. What do you like about paul ryans budget . Caller as eisenhower said guest guest guest it is a duplication of the 2012 budget which they ran on and you saw what happened with that situation. It is heavy in providing relief for the upper 5 of americans. It divides americans more than they are divided right now. Host our previous guest said that investments means tax increases. Guest education, food stamps, which are necessary. That is a very Important Program that has been proven to help a lot of americans over and over again. We are trying to get any fraud out. Doctors have gone to jail, people have gone to jail. We are not for fraud. We are trying to reduce fraud. There are certain things the government has a responsibility to do. That is why we pay taxes. We respond to the needs of americans. We have really turned our backs on the longterm unemployed. We have said, you are unemployed because he wanted be unemployed. I dont think that is the case. Most of the people in my district do not want to be unemployed. They want to bring bread home to the table. During the time that you are and you were laid off after 1520 years, who do you turn to after your benefits run out . Investments are very critical. We are not asking for an increase in taxes for 98 of the American People. We are simply saying that if you are making a lot of money, over 1 million, you should pay a few pennies more. That is the nature of the beast. That is so america developed the graduated income tax. If you look through the republican budget, what you do see is that the benefits go to those people who they say develop the economy, those people who invest in the economy. We tried that in 2001 and 2003. She was asked about those tax cuts. We lost the balance that clinton left us when he left the white house. He did not do it himself. I am just saying that when you look at the numbers, there is no proof that the republican agenda , which is based upon make the top strong and the rest of us will be stronger, that has not worked. Host we have heard from the congresswoman as well that washington does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Guest how many times have you heard that . Come on. Host that is what republicans are trying to do in the house Budget Proposal. Deal with spending. Guest lets start with what has happened over the past few years. There is been the sharpest decline in our deficit yeartoyear than since the second world war. We have cut the debt in half. The deficit in half. We have the debt. The war debt was unnecessary. President obama becomes the president. He becomes the president not in good economic times. He becomes the president which a large death with a large debt and an obligation to people out of work and a Financial System without regulations. When you are sitting here and telling people that we are the place we are because there are too many regulations and too many taxes. Look, nobody likes to pay taxes. It is our responsibility. We should be concentrating on having our tax system be a fair system. We have cut the deficit in half. I think we are going in the right direction. That does not mean we have no obligation in investing in our infrastructure and education. If we have to put a few more pennies into taxes at the gas pump, what our roads going to do . Theyre going to fall apart. They do not fall out of the sky. You have to have the revenue theirre to do this. We are on a trajectory to bring down the deficit and reduce our overall debt. That is the agenda i want to see. Host one of the spending areas republicans want to address is medicare. I want to show you what paul ryan had to say on the floor yesterday. [video clip] we end the raid on medicare. The other side will not want to talk about the fact that they turned medicare into a piggy bank for obamacare. They rated 716 billion from medicare to pay for obamacare. We say that those savings from medicare need to stay with medicare to make it more solvent and if some of those savings from medicare are doing damage to the medicare Provider Network , like reducing access to medicare advantage, that we have a mechanism in here to make sure that we can fix that, just like we did for the sgr. We think we need to save and strengthen this program, not only so that it is there for those near retirement, but also those in future generations. Second, we dont the safety net. We dont slash the safety net. We strengthen it. This administration has made also to promises that it had no way of keeping. It has made all sorts of promises and it has not told us how they will keep them. It has promised major expansions and medicaid and pell grants. How they pan to play for it plan to pay for it, we have no idea. Guest paul ryan lives in an echo chamber. I personally like the guy. I think he is bright, but i think he drank the koolaid. This demonstration, which you just showed your audience, he is looking into the camera while he is speaking on the floor of the house of representatives. He is not telling you that they want to dismantle the Affordable Care act, they want to repeal it. They are going to take the savings in the Health System and use it to fix their budget. Their budget does not balance without the Affordable Care money. That is hypocritical, it is total nonsense, and the American People saw through it in the 20 to elections and they will see through it this year. Host lets go to charles. Caller did you happen to hear tom from florida call and while you were waiting to get on . Host remind us what he said. Caller everything he said was spot on. There is no way we are going to get out of debt with the attitude of the democrats. The republicans put us in debt, but when they do want to stop spending i will give you an example. I am 80 years old. When i retired, i received all of my Social Security back and six years. The kids have been paying my Social Security ever since those six years were up. Everything that the government has run, has run the same way. Johnson took the money from Social Security and put it in the general fund to do nothing but make the books look better so basically he could get a vote. The top 10 states are run by democrats. New jersey. The state that you have been in is in debt up to its ears. They cannot get out of it. You people will not let anything be changed. Guest first of all we have a republican governor in the state of new jersey who is ringing up the debt just like other governors. He inherited a terrible situation. It is not all his fault. It is not a simple either or charles. We are trying to reduce the increase in programs which we think are vital to america. We care about the debt just as much as anybody else. You are not going to scare people in america simply because of doomsday just around the corner. Your guys want to privatize it. Your guys want to block medicare. Who knows what they really want to do with it. We need to change both of the programs and we have in the past , under republican and democratic president s. We can do this together. It is not the one side has all the answers, it is that America Needs to come together and resolve its problems. We always do better in a kind of a situation, dont you think . Host steve is next. Jersey shore, pennsylvania. Caller i am calling about this unemployment problem. I have a job. I work on construction roadwork. I have worked there for 10 years. I have not got any unemployment this year because pennsylvania started some 49. 5 and you take her highest quarter and the other two quarters you work in the year and it has to equal up to your highest quarter. If you dont, you do not get unemployment now. It is something new they started for pennsylvania. I fell into that category. I have a job to go to and everything. I work every year and i cannot get my own money that i paid in four. In for. Guest longterm unemployment is a very difficult situation. Republicans cut it off and stopped it. So many people in my district in new jersey were unable to get any benefits. These are people who have been working like yourself. These are not people wandering the street looking to get into trouble. The people who are longterm unemployed, we have a longterm obligation to. I support extending the program for at least six months. Give people a little bit of an edge. This is what government should be doing what folks cannot do it for themselves. If you have a job, you are not thinking about the person who does not have a job, probably. That person paid into a system and he should be able to take advantage of it when he is out of work. I agree with you. Sometimes we are helping the wrong people. When people who most needed to not get anything. Host this from the New York Times this morning. A new study looking at the earliest of the healthcare law and rowley is enrolleses. The study is to be released today. The study showed a higher use of specialty drugs. What do you make of that . If these people require expensive drugs . Guest the demographics are such that, in the beginning of enrollment which did not go too well in the beginning of the enrollment, older folks got involved in the aca. As the enrollment process evolved over the last part of last year and into this year then we saw the demographic spread out. When folks need drugs that are lifesaving and are more expensive and more arrare, which is a serious problem i think the government has to step in and try to facilitate with the private sector those drugs to make them less expensive. I think the aca is on the right track. It is going to change. Social security changed. Medicare changed. This is going to change. Host do you think premiums go up because of this type of person who got insured . Guest it is interesting that you ask that question. Premiums have been leveling off in the last two years. When you look at the graphs, the premiums are leveling off. They are still too high. One of the purposes of the aca was to bring down the cost of health care. We cannot afford to sustain the system, which is too expensive. That is why you are moving away from a freeee for service to a resultsoriented health care system. Host brian in gilroy california. Caller thank you for good program this morning. My 17yearold son just walked in the door. He commented, who is this gentleman on the tv . I said, it is a congressman from new jersey. He said, he is talking like there is nothing wrong with this country and that congress cannot do anything and on and on and on it goes. I said, i appreciate what you are saying. This congressman, he is the epitome of every problem we have in the congress and the senate and with the president today. They are lying to us 100 . Everything this man has said. Everything he has said has absolutely no truth. Host can you be more specific . Guest what is not true, sir . Caller you made a comment about why are the americans paying taxes . You commented about it in such a flippant way. The government, you pontificate that the government has all of the answers. Guest i never said that, sir. Caller you sure imply it. I will speak and then you can speak. Guest i want to talk to you. Caller i dont have much to say to you and your response. In reality i am assuming at this point that you must be up for reelection because you are here talking about specific things that are these grandiose things. The answer of the government is to give them more unemployment . How about we give more jobs. Come on, dude. Guest what is the question . Host when politicians in washington are talking about all of the issues we have discussed and not talking about what he cares about guest he used the word lie. It is dropped on the floor many, many times when you do not agree with someone. That is a lot of baloney. He cannot give us one instance. About the unemployed . I have spent 18 years in congress fighting for those people who do not have, trying to make them, provide them with the opportunity so that they can make it for themselves and their own family. That is my mantra, that is where i come from. I come from a city that is poor. Patterson, new jersey. People have problems. If they do not have an education, the opportunity for education, if that is a lie, i will stand for it. Host why extend Unemployment Benefits rather than trying to create jobs . Guest you ask this republican majority the same question. They have not had an idea on the floor of representatives that we voted on to help jobs. They stopped all the programs most of them anyway, that would by trading for jobs. This guy better take a lesson and start looking at what is happening in his own government rather than just pontificating about what he hears and tell us. We do not have all of the answers. We know the deficits are not good. We are not going to be scared by the deficits to stop with the responsibilities to the American People. Host richard, myrtle beach South Carolina. Republican. Caller i will not call you a liar. I will talk about your deceit. Tell me if 10 of the United States population does not pay 51 of the taxes . I dont want you to interrupt me. Tell me if Social Security and medicare combined are not the debt . Tell me about the Health Care Plan that you had . You make 171,000 per year. You also get a cadillac that i would die to have for. You have patted yourself up there for so long. I have a solution. Everyone of you on both sides of the aisle have to go. You tell me that i dont know what i am talking about or what i just said is not true. You people have padded yourself for so long. You have deceived people for so long. Dont hand me any crap about, i am going to do this and do that. You have been selling that koolaid to people for so long you have it are believing it yourselves. Guest i do not participate in the government plan. I am 77 years of age. Im on medicare. Congressmanen are not padding themselves. Many of these folks in the last four years who have come to the congress are trying to make a living and serve their country at the same time. They do it every day. They work hard everyday. I have disagreements with the other side of the aisle. There is not one that i know of who does not work hard for the constituents in their district. I am not on that. Check your facts before you accuse people. You are right. There is wrong on both sides. There are mistakes on both sides. Go on the website and see what my record has been. I have tried to fight for better environment, regulation when we need it, less regulation when we do not need it. The point i am trying to make i do not think it is wise. Host the house ways and Means Committee is going to be taking a vote on charging lois lerner with criminal charges. What will you be doing . Explain this vote. Guest this was put upon us at the beginning of the week. We had hearings on this, and to whether the irs was biased into whether the irs was biased during the what he 12 elections. Teh 2012 electionhe 2012 elections. We are looking at classified documents, her own words, and we will make a judgment. Host have you seen these documents . Guest not all of them. We are talking about a lot of pages of documents. There was a lot to go into here. I have not seen anything, so far, that would indicate that criminal charges are going to happen. Host should she be held accountable in some sort of way based on what you have seen . Guest i think she should be held accountable. I have found no prejudice in the irs response. Look at both sides of the aisle, organizations that call themselves tax exempt, that are involved in campaigns. This is the kind of political system we have. This is what the last two folks should be talking about, money in politics, where it is coming from. Whether organizations that are exempt and that providing dollars for candidates, be they democrat or republican, have no accountability. It might be foreign money. We dont even know. This is how wideopen the system is. She is in the middle of it being the head of the irs. We are looking at it and we will look at it objectively. We condemn the democrats the democrats on the ways and Means Committee have condemned anyone, regardless of the politics, if they have committed wrongdoing. Host how will you vote . Guest no, from what i have seen so far. Right now, it is a no. Host democratic caller in virginia. Caller i had to comment after the last two callers. I forgot what i was thinking about. It was disturbing how they treat people. Anyway. I have been unemployed for the past year. I worked at a Small Business for 20 years before they shut down. They had been in business for 70 some years. My boss tried to get us insurance and health care and could not afford it. I would like to know when they are going to get this unemployment thing settled . I have been watching cspan and i can see with the democrats are up against it i always try to keep an open mind and not just go for party but after watching cspan, and it able would watch cspan more they would say exactly what the democrats are up against and who is for the American People. I had so many comments but after the last two callers it puzzles me how people think. But i just want to thank the congressman and the democrats for what they are trying to do and some republicans. It is not just the democrats. But we just need to get along and try to help one another. But i can see now it is not going to work that way. I had a lot more comments but like i said, after the last two collards it is amazing how people think. Host all right. Guest as you know, there are Many Democrats and many republicans because, dont forget, this passed in the senate and they needed republicans to pass it in the senate. So there are moderate republicans, believe it or not. There are few of them. Fewer of them than there were. Your boss a very interesting what you said about your boss. About affording health care. Do you know that 40 or close to 50 of businesses that went bankrupt in the last seven years went bankrupt because of Health Care Costs . We could not sustain that system. And that is why we pushed and finally voted on the aca. But unlike what happened 10 years ago when we passed pland for prescription drugs democrats, most of them voted against that plan because there was the doughnut hole, as the coldest, a huge area where people were paying premiums and not getting benefits. We changed for the aca. That is not the reason why i brought it up. What we did after we lost the vote is go back to our districts and help and educate people to sign up for plan d even though we voted against it. When you compare that, the last two callers, god bless you, but when you compare that to what the republicans did this time the governors, most of them did this time, this is a total disgrace. So when you talk about compromising, when you talk about coming together, that is a perfect example. We did the right thing. Many times we dont do the right thing. But we did the right thing there , and we would have a very different system right now. And i will push as much as i can for us to make sure we have longterm Unemployment Benefits for our citizens. You worked a long time. You deserve it. That is the role of government to do for people but they can do for themselves. Host dana on twitter asked what is the democrats budget . Guest i am glad you asked that. Infrastructure, that will create about 700,000 jobs. 76 billion for Early Childhood education. Dont talk to me about what we are giving our children and that 20 years from now if we can find opportunity right now. Protect the middle class tax players. Taxpayers. Expand critical tax breaks including enhanced earned income tax credit. Something started by enhanced by reagan. Very important. These guys on the hill want to change that. Then, of course, immigration reform. Lets talk about that briefly. Very much a part of what our budget is. Lets stop hiding under the covers. Lets come out and open and lets have a real transparency. Lets have a good comprehensive immigration bill as the Senate Passed with republicans. Host frank is next. Ohio. Independent caller. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Host you are on the air. Caller i want to tell you what is wrong with medicare. I am a world war ii disabled veteran, 100 totally disabled. I used to go to the da for all kinds of different problems. The v. A. Paid for everything. But now because of Hillary Clinton having to reevaluate the welfare system, there are more nonveterans in the v. A. System. I go to the v. A. Now to get help for medical any other reason, and medicare is the one to pay for it. The v. A. Dont pay for nothing. I talked to the doctor, i needed a new pair of shoes and the doctor says, medicare will not pay for that. I says, wait a minute, this is v. A. I am a disabled veteran what does medicare have to do with this . Hillary clinton did this. Host can you explain that . The title Hillary Clinton . Tie to Hillary Clinton . Caller clinton appointed her to reevaluate the welfare system and she put off the dead pete deadbeat fathers into the v. A. System. Right now when i go to the v. A. They have services they dont pay. Medicare pays it and that is what medicare is going broke. Host congressman . Guest no question medicare needs to be tweaked as it has been in the past, by democrat and republican administrations. I will say to this gentleman if you are living in my district, call your congressman, call me if i am you are in my district. But i dont think you are in jersey. Call your congressman. There is no reason why your services cannot be responded to. Shoes . I am not sure about, by the way. I am a vet myself, and i am not sure if they are special wear shoes that you need in terms of your health, thats a different story. But i would call my congressman and get on it. Call my office in new jersey, even though i am not your congressman, i would arent well be trying to help you. Because i am very close to the veterans. You serve. We thank you. And you need more than a thank you. Host any chance of adding high deductible savings accounts to medicare . Some of us like shopping for procedures and i keep down costs. Guest i think it is a good idea. We are looking at that. One medicare comes on the table as an entitlement and we examine it, there are a lot of aspects we start to talk about. We find many agreements between democrats and republicans on revitalizing medicare. As you know, before the congress right now, mr. Ryan wants to raise the age on medicare. I would be very careful to do that. That is a temporary solution. He referred to on a speech on the floor on the sgr we didnt fix that. It is a temporary patch. We had an opportunity to fix it permanently. Get it out of the way. But we chose not to do it. Why . We dont want to find how to pay for it. We need to pay for these things. We are in the battle of tax extenders. 50 of them around. Which ones are we going to continue and which ones that already expired that we will bring back to life . Which ones are about to expire that we are going to keep going . A very difficult question. Interesting, the ones we are putting up before the congress right now is involved in the ways and Means Committee, they are all dealing with those in the one percent and two percent bracket. They are set to reduce your ability to place on your tax form the property tax, estate taxes that you pay. That is a deduction. They want to take that away. They want to take away the deduction for your mortgage income, the mortgage that you pay for your house. We are going the wrong way on that. Host how is that part of an extender package . Guest it is an extender. If you are able to deduct that it means revenue it hasnt expired yet. We are just talking about that in terms of what the future will be, which taxes we should continue, which deductions we should continue. Very important part. Not giving them much publicity but it is a very important part of what we are doing. Host when might the tax extension package come to the floor . Guest we started to discuss it. We did seven of the deductions yesterday, whether they should be continued or whether they should expire. We didnt vote on them yet. So we are right there. I have to give camp a lot of credit, chairman camp of the ways and Means Committee. At least he has put before the floor. Of course, it has a tilt to it. But i think he is doing a good job in putting in front of us to decide just because now, weve got extenders to get deductions for guys sports boats, forces. Give me a break. I want to help those people who need help and that those people who dont. Host the mortgage interest adoption, a big one. A loss of revenue for the government the mortgage interest deduction. Guest and i do not think that is the way to give the government more revenue for what is needed in other responsibilities. It helps a lot of people. It is not the reason why you buy a house but it is the reason why you sustain yourself in a house. Host harry, pittsburgh, pennsylvania. Republican caller. You are here with bill pascarella. Caller one of those got forced on obamacare. You may terry meet harry reid calls people like me a liar. He says we are all lying. He makes statements about Tea Party People being anarchists and traitors and obama does the same thing. Calling Tea Party People tea baggers. Can you see how despicable the people are becoming with this kind of language and you have the nerve of calling people saying lighter to you that they are hypocrites and cant do that. What is going to your brain . I am watching. I have seen you before. You are against drilling for oil in alaska, the pipeline coming down from canada, we can get it down there because he will not bill for oil here and will not bring the oil down. People are seeing this. I know personally how many people are offended by the language by obama, harry reid and nancy pelosi and you are going to get offended when somebody says liar to you . Host i will have the congressman respond. Guest all i can tell you is you are singing from the same songbook as a few people today which is what america is all about. That is your prerogative. I will protect that to the end. But, sir if you are talking about the keystone line, i have not made a final decision on it but i already voted for it on the legislation that was put before us. You are talking to me. I dont like calling people names. I like debating people. I like controversy. I think that is good. It is important. You try to come to some resolution to the problem and not just let it fly up in the air and move people to the extremes of situations. I get republican, independent as well as democratic votes. Why . Not because of what i look like not because of my name. Because i am willing to sit down and compromise. That is what i believe in. And that is what i believe you can believe in also. Host a few minutes left ear. Wayne is next. New jersey. Independent caller. Caller how, ill how are you . William paterson graduate and cut my Political Science degree there. I would like to enlighten those folks out in california and also where i happen to be right now. I him in South Carolina. I am in South Carolina. If you want to create a million jobs in each state, bring back the gas station attendant. We have them in new jersey. If you gave me an opportunity to be a part of your party, i am with you. We could pass a bill called the wawa bill. Wawa pays their gas station attendants 12 an hour and also gives them health care. Can we do that you california . Can we do that here where i happen to be in South Carolina . That would be great. Guest wawa is a responsible proprietor of their people who are not. I am glad you brought up the subject of minimum wage. You know the minimum wage, would it is right now, trying to bring it to 10. 10. That is not a radical idea. We need to help those people hold onto the few dollars they are earning right now. Why do we have this dramatic gap in terms of where we were 20 years ago with income and productivity and where we are right now . The income level has changed. The rich got richer. I am not saying that in terms of being jealous. And the poor got much poorer and the middleclass is evaporating. That is the things we should be addressing. I dont say there is a government answer to every one of those problems. But i think the government has some darn responsibility. The rails maybe get rid of the congress. We dont need a president , we dont need the congress, we dont need anybody. That is not the country i know. Host democrats. Tim from beaver falls, pennsylvania. Caller hello, mr. Pascrell. I dont see how anybody could call you a liar when you have been so honest. The thing that bothers me is the lack of knowledge of the American People. It is not the congress. We dont seem to understand that what one president does affects the next president. It is like they draw a line obama is horrible because bush left him a mess. I dont understand this kind of thinking. Our schools something something is wrong. I had a lady say to me the other day that obama is going to change the constitution so he could run for a third term. That is a complete lack of knowledge of how this government works. That is what is wrong. It is not the congress. It is not the president. It is the people. Guest tim, we need to educate people on all levels. Whether it is health care. People have crazy ideas about what health care is all about. It is a complicated story. It needs to be addressed. People need help. People should be ensured. Everybody has to be in a situation where we are trying to reform the entire system, trying to change how health care is delivered in this country. It is fine for me if i get it all the time and i am covered. What if you cant get the insurance . Its not fine for you. But what you do is going to affect me because when you go to the emergency room i used this as an example who is paying for this . The money is not falling out of the sky. We need a system which is more on a level playing field. The president would be blamed for the next play. You know it and i know it. There is nothing he could do about it and nothing i could do about it except folks educate themselves. I am trying to educate myself on the issues that i have to face every day. The average congressman faces about 28 to 30 issues every day. We are trying to stay on top of them. This is in defense of the congress. I have seen nothing but negative things whether democrats or republicans the past three years. People joke that the only thing we are more popular than his cancer. That is not a joke to me. This is an institution am i have a Great Respect for the institution. It is a place for government. It cant solve all of our problems but dmamn it, dont knock it down just for the sake of it. Always a pleasure to be with you. Host thank you for talking to our viewers. We will see you back here soon. We are going to continue next in a magazine series with marin cogan, who wrote the cover story for National Journal what if it isnt safe . A long wait for answers in West Virginia. We will get to that next after this news update from cspan radio. 9 17 eastern time. Ted kennedy, junior, in the memory of his father in announcing he is running for the state senate in connecticut. The son of the late senator ted kennedy of massachusetts said last night that he intends to seek the democratic nomination for the 12 senatorial district. The 52yearold Health Care Lawyer lives in bradford and has long been an advocate for the disabled, this after losing a leg to cancer as a child. There are no other declared candidates in the connecticut race but republicans are vowing to vigorously contest the seat. In nearby and massachusetts, Vice President joe biden will attend a Memorial Service next week in boston to mark the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. April 13 april 15 marks the oneyear mark when the two bombs exploded killing three people and wounding hundreds. President obama traveled to boston shortly after the bombing in 2013 to offer condolences to victims and others. And today, the president will be comforting other families at fort hood, texas. This after last weeks shooting where a soldier opened fire on fellow soldiers, killing three people and wounding 16 others before killing himself. It will be president obamas second visit to fort hood to mourn a tragedy. In 20 2009, an Army Psychiatrist opened fire on fellow soldiers killed in third team and wanting others. Thats killing 13 people and wounding others. Those are the latest headlines on cspan radio. Page is interviewed in 1942 on the questions of in a in the gratian of baseball. And he said, they were interesting. I read all of the accounts of what he actually said. It is clear to me that he had serious doubts about the integration of baseball. He said because what will happen is and i think what they want, they want our fans. They want our fan base. We are out drawing the major leagues in games. We are packing them in. We think they want our fans. He said, if you want to integrate, take hold teams whole black allstar teams in the majors. The other point paige said was if they were really interested in increasing the talent of the team, they wont just maybe someday take one or two players because we have bunches of players who are good enough to play major league baseball. Satchel paige and integrating professional baseball saturday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern part of American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host on wednesdays in the last hour we take a look at magazine articles and today the cover story for National Journal, the headline is the water safe . Marin cogan, who is writer at large for National Journal travel to charleston, National Journal. Thank you for coming here to talk about your piece. Lets remind viewers what happened more than 60 weeks ago and charleston, West Virginia. Guest on january ninth residents woke up to a strange smell all around town. Sort of a saccharine licorice said. They are used to strange smells because there are a lot of chemical plants. It is sometimes known as the chemical valley. No one thought much of it at first, but by midday investigators were on site at the chemical storage tank firm called Freedom Industries and they were beginning to suspect something was really wrong. By that evening, the governor was on tv telling people dont think the water, dont aid in it, dont cook with it, dont wash with it, dont do anything with the water except flesh. Suddenly these people were thrust into a situation in which we are not used to is the United States, where they didnt have access to their public water supply for upwards of a week. Host what was billed . Guest the chemical called mchm, too washed coal of its impurities before sending it to market. What people quickly is covered discovered is they actually knew very little about with this chemical was or what it did or what its longterm Health Effects might be. It is one of 80,000 chemicals in this country that we know next to nothing about. This event sort of highlight it to people just how little the officials knew. Host wide old we know much about this chemical . Guest there is no longer requiring we have to know about the chemical. It sort of falls under Toxic Substances Control Act hast in 1976 sort of a catch all law. It was a chemical that was not going to be regulated by the fda. It was not in cosmetics, food or pesticide. It was meant to encapsulate all of those chemicals. But they had this thing called unreasonable risk and they determined mchm lexically to other chemicals do not pose unreasonable risk and therefore do not require any testing by the government. We have thousands upon thousands of chemicals would come into play with everyday, and we might not come into play with them all the time but there is a real possibility in this case, that we know next to nothing about. Only a few studies from the manufacturer of the chemical like we did in this case. Host inside your piece, this is what you write under the 1976 toxic substance control act, the eps epa must present evidence that a chemical poses health risks before it can request Safety Information from the manufacturers. Host explain this. Guest this bill, i would say there is bipartisan agreement in congress that this bill is in need of an up date. It was passed in 1976. So much has changed. So many new chemicals on the market and many chemicals we dealt with maybe a little bit that have become ubiquitous now. There is a sort of a new set of challenges and needs. And Congress Worked on up dating it and the last congress. Senator lau berg was one of the people who cosponsored the bill and it sort of stalled out after he died, but this has been an opportunity to really be examined. In the case of mchm, they did not think it would pose a risk but thats because they never intended it to leak into the water supply. They were totally caught unawares and often cases of falls upon the states to regulate. And West Virginia did not have the regulatory structure in place to make sure Something Like this did not happen. Host this Chemical Spill who was responsible for making sure that that could not happen . Guest that is a really good question. The state department of Environmental Protection is technically sort of the one that would be interfacing with Freedom Industries on a daily basis. They had only been out to the site of this bill once or twice in the preceding decades and it was to maybe a neighbor complained about the smell or to make sure a permit was uptodate but they did not really come out and do serious inspections of the tanks. The tanks were six decades old and they were sort of getting a little rusty or, a little bit older, and that is what happened in this case. There was sort of a wound in one of the tanks and the lost 10,000 gallons of the chemical. Host what did the manufacturer of the chemical say about the dangers . Guest the manufacturers, at first after it happened, they didnt want to release a bunch of information about what it was because they knew that there was mass confusion about the event. But if you look, they have a chemical safety data sheet that they submitted for people to look out look at. They only have a couple of studies done on rats in the 1990s, a lot of which Scientists Say would not pass the smell test these days. But we know it is hazardous to humans, potentially harmful if swallowed. As a warning on the sheet saying seek medical attention if you have ingested this in any way. But what is interesting to me is that it says for some in the different Health Effects longterm, reproductive, neurotoxicity no Data Available 52 times. Host no Data Available experiments only done on rats. You write in your piece of any human experiment is taking place in trust them, as virginia. Guest in charleston, but West Virginia. Guest i went around and met with people and several of them saying we are now lab rats in the largest human chemical experiment in the country. They were unwillingly subjected to this thing. It is interesting to hear people i talked to one pastor who talked about the inhalation of the chemical in the shower and that is what scared him. He referred to his shower is almost like a gas chamber. I looked at him and i said, would you ever before this happened have thought of your shower as a gas chamber . He sort of looked at me and said, no, of course not. This is the way that people had to think. Host more than six weeks later our people drinking the water . Guest no, they are not. People are doing what they can. Everyone has a different level by which they can decide whether or not they are going to drink it. I think some have probably gone back to drinking it by now. A couple of months. In the case of a family i focused on, a lot of their friends and the people they talk to, they are still not trusting the water. The family says to me they will never trust the water again. The information they got was so confusing and conflicted and they feel like they dont know and they dont want to take that risk so they will never drink the water again. Host talk about what the family does every morning. Guest interesting. The man of the family has an engineering background. And he is sort of a creative type, someone who would survive in a situation like this and come up with his own way of doing things. The family immediately went and got a giant water tank. They drive at 20 miles away to fill up on a different water supply. Then every night after dinner he will haul buckets into his house. Heat it at 5 30 a. M. In the morning. Some of it will be used for washing and doing the dishes and cooking and the other buckets of water will go upstairs where they are showering in it. He has come up with an elaborate set up for his kids. He has a fountain pump he drops into the bucket. You plug it into a wall and you attach it to a hose. His kids have almost resembling a real shower. He and his wife use something much simpler. A water drug a judge that they cut the top off and poke holes and they hold it over each others heads. I know it has been a couple of months and they are eager to get back to their lives, so they are trying to experiment with towels and maybe jim close, washing them and seeing if the smell is there. But the situation has gone on for months. Host we want to hear from West Virginia residence this morning so we have a fourth line for them 5853883 host before we get to the first phone call, marin cogan, is the city, is the state saying it is ok to drink the water . Guest they sort of adopted this interesting legalese to describe it. I think now they are starting to the governor, to his credit, funded a group of independent scientists who came in, who the public really one of there because they do not trust the officials. They brought in scientists that are starting to release results not indicating that the level of mchm in that water is very low or nonexistent. So they have been responsive but throughout this crisis they said things like, am i going to say 100 it is safe . No. I will say do what you feel comfortable with. That was also pretty unsettling for people, but it was a response to the realization from the public that they really didnt know what was going on. Host lets go to georgia where amy is watching us. Democratic caller. Guest i just finished reading an article in the new yorker about the same subject and i was left with the impression that the residents of West Virginia really voted for this environment. Their politics is antienvironment antiregulation, and they are really protective of these industries. Is it the government that is the issue where the people who voted in this government . Guest yeah, that is sort of a great question and it is sort of a chicken and egg question. Certainly the region of appalachia under the Obama Administration has gotten very conservative. West virginia has a new motto open for business. The are very protective of those industries that they think have provided jobs for them. That new yorker article was great and i think it did a good job explaining the dynamic of how the industry has sort of worked to create this sort of cultural debate, right . It is a cultural war where protecting industry means protecting the West Virginia way of life. That is sort of how he explained the very conservative culture that you describe in your comments. Host if you were says a viewer asked was this chemical required to burn coal now . Not a natural chemical . Is it required today to wash cold . Guest i think it is. These are like the specialized industries. Almost acts as an intermediary for other large Coal Companies and industries in that area. They are sort of a middleman where they take these chemicals and they store them and then they buy them from the Chemical Companies and then they store them and sell them to other industries. It fits into this very smallniche industry that most of us dont think about when we are thinking about how to regulate this stuff. Host another tweet is this company being investigated . Guest they are being investigated right now by a u. S. Attorney in West Virginia. He has been very quiet about what exactly is going on other than to say that there is an investigation underway. We will have to wait and see what happens. Host is the fbi involved . Guest the fbi has visited both the site of the freedom tank farm and the company charged with cleaning it up, they were just there in march. It will be really interesting to see what becomes of this. As of now, all of that stuff is being held close to the vest. Host jeff and spencer, West Virginia. Where is that in relation to charleston . Caller in between charleston and parkersburg, about 45 minutes away from charleston. Host were you impacted at all . Ill echo no, i wasnt caller no, i wasnt. First of all the woman from georgia, she hit the nail on the head right there. This kind of stuff has been going on in West Virginia for years and it is not just the chemicals. Go down to charleston, all along the river, lined dupont Chemical Companies. The coal industry, said larry slurry leeching out. No way i would catch any fish caught in a river or stream in the state of West Virginia. The funny thing is, i think the second week after this incident happened, Friedman Industries filed for industries. Filed for bankruptcy have filed for bankruptcy. The state, like your guest said, West Virginia, we are open for business, we will be your dumping ground. And the politicians with it up, this is good for West Virginia, creating jobs, and the folks around here buy it hook, line, and sinker. When i go to charleston, about a half a day or three quarters of a day there, my eyes start to burn. It is a different atmosphere than what where i live just 40 five minutes away. By the time i leave charlestown, my eyes are watering. Until the state gets it self together, the stuff is going to keep on happening and happening. You could write a whole book on some of the stuff going on here in the West Virginia. The local news hardly even covers it. There was Waste Management was dumping some of the cleanup the cleanup of the tanks was dumping it in a dump in a small town and the mayor didnt even know about it and it only got broke out because the people started calling the local news channels complaining about the licorice smell. Host i will leave it here and let marin cogan jumping. Guest i am glad he mentioned it is not just charleston. What this Event Highlights is people in other parts of West Virginia has been dealing with Drinking Water issues for a long time. It is something that i think is really hard for the rest of us to imagine because that is a unique culture that they have there. I think if this had happened in northern virginia, you would see a very different reaction nationally to this event. Host how did the federal government react when this first happened . What did the residence there here from our federal government . Here is a tweet guest the National Guard did come in after obama declared a state of emergency. The National Guard did come in to distribute the water. At which point the cdc set about determining what is the safe threshold for Drinking Water. The problem is that became very controversial. Because they didnt have a ton of scientific data, there are ways scientists can calculate to make the most educated guess about what would be safe. He came out with one part per million. Immediately, a lot of scientists watching this closely criticized it and they said this was not a safe threshold at all and they have come up with something much lower. This was exacerbated by two days later the cdc by the way, if you are a pregnant woman you might not want to drink it at all until it is completely gone from the water. The public free out. They are saying, if it is not safe for pregnant women, why would it be safe for my kids or me or my parents . Host the centers for Disease Control and prevention, what did they base their recommendation on . Guest they basically took the studies provided by the manufacturer and they sort of ran it through a computation that scientists will sometimes use to try to figure out what the appropriate level not contamination, but the appropriate level of the material in the water would be where people could drink it and not suffer. It is a scientific calculation but again, based on a couple of studies from the manufacturer then in the 1990s which serves to highlight how inexact or imprecise the science is. Host mary from lapier, West Virginia. Caller i am a documentary filmmaker and we were filming our coming our upcoming film and i was down there and filmed the entire water story. The point that is so important to make in my film is this is 150 years of this. Ever since West Virginia was created as a state, it was created during the civil war and given to the union to preserve the union, the United States of america. In the turn in turn, we were a minimal rights colony. People have been powerless. They have been forced into this powerlessness. All the disasters Buffalo Creek and on and on. The chemical that killed so many and disfigured so many in bophal was still made in charleston, West Virginia, and so protesters finally stopped that. People are not only so afraid of the water still, they are so afraid the cost they know what has happened in 150 years of the past. We are the canaries in the coal mine and the fact that this country does not even look at us. If this happened in any other part of the world, there would be outrage. Host we will leave it there. Guest yeah. She is one of many West Virginians i have spoken with who referred to the state as an energy colony. Senator rockefeller has talked about this too. A fatalism. This idea that there is this powerlessness there, that they cant change politics. One of the facets of the new yorker article i found interesting was that the klein in voting there over the last several decades. Gone from 75 , which was huge down to 43 , which is not so good, of eligible voters participating in elections. There is i think they can tell you, the sense of fatalism where people feel like they cant stop this sort of stuff. That actually, in talking to a lot of people i talk to before i picked this family, which i felt was representative of the broader story, i probably interviewed 30 people looking for the right family. Several of them spoke to me about the feeling of fatalism and this being a wakeup call. Hitting this close to home. Host let me pose this question from American Hero what is the option not living in the modern world . Guest are you never going to interact with the water again . Imagine when the water goes out for an hour or two. Stretch it indefinitely. Even if they do not drink the water, are they not going to believe . You are faced with impossible choices. Some of the broader questions like, do you consider leaving, almost seemed moot at this point, because they are like whos going to buy property here and how can you just pick everything up . Host has it had an impact on the local economy . Have housing prices falling . Guest i think it is a little too soon to say about the housing market. Most of what i hear his anecdote and the total. People in the Real Estate Agency saying they had been hit. But the Restaurant Agency everybody had to close for a week so you had all the rest of unemployed youth and may at the School Canceled for a week. You cant serve them lunch, so now they have the kids home. Now they lost a weeks worth of work and they are trying to feed their kids with tony five percent less income. 25 less income. Mark tell us the story. Caller mcgrath you showed of the tanks, with the river in between the photographer and tanks is u. S. 119 and my house is right off of that. I could be there. If i got my car started right now i would be there in about three minutes. I am very close to the tanks themselves, however, when it comes to the effects of the disaster you dont have to live that close. In any rate, you just have to be on the water supply of this particular plant. First of all, let me just see say this this pitiful me routine being pushed just dont get me wrong, i watched cspan all the time but the slant of the poor, poor pitiful me West Virginians. This guy with a burning eyes this kind of thing goes on all the time. I am not saying his eyes dont burn. Come on, guys. I have lived here i am a military brat and i lived all over the world and ended here for the last 30some years. Yeah, it is called a chemical valley and there are inherent dangers in that. Any township or place that has chemicals being transported by water, rail and by the way automobile they are exposed to the same dangers. The story that needs to be told is these tanks were built back in the 1940s 1930s or 40s, and these are old tanks. The responsibility should lie with this company. And its company clears bankruptcy they ought to jill down paper and find it where the money comes from and if you require regulations make sure the people who handle these tanks or any these companies have the insurance to cover these things, bankruptcy or no empathy. The responsibility is the companys. As far as the state and federal government the responsibility who is responsible for this, your guests implied the government was. No, the owners, they are responsible. The government is responsible to see that the owner is responsible. Those tanks were built so long ago, just up screen upstream i tell you if you rent a small motor boat would just take a minute. Somebody should have picked up on that a long time ago and with an alternate plan to deal with that kind of thing, but nobody did. Hindsight says they probably should have. Drinking the water. We are still using i never drank a lot of water from the tap anyway. We have been showering and washing with the water to no effect. I would question the engineer used as an example. Ask him if he did Water Testing prior to the incident to make sure if his water was up to the specs before that. Because, you know, there are a lot of things we found out even some of these bottled waters we get off the shelf right now. We found some pretty hideous things. Some of the Water Companies were taking tap water and calling them pure and it was not quite as pure as we thought it was. There are a lot of things we ingest as humans. This was a tragedy, no doubt and the one thing i learned from it is, number one, you cant necessarily trust your supply of water. And i now have a lot of water stopped in my basement, because it is not just from this plant. The first thing that happened when this went down is you could not buy water. It went so fast that my reaction was to get my truck and i drove about 90 miles away from here and i got as much water as i could possibly put in my truck. I can hardly drive it back. Host how much do you have in your basement . Guest probably about 8 to 10 cases right now and i will be slowly putting more in. And i brought the water back in mr. Beaded among friends and people i thought needed it for the immediate period of time. I did not accord all the water. When i brought it back my intention was to pass it out i did not hoard all the water. And then after a while it was plentiful. It was quite a crisis. But, you know, i think there is a lot to be learned but this poor pitiful me, West Virginia. We have been a Democratic State for years and i think as far as voter precipitate participation, wait what the Participation Rate will be. They will not just be the water i think people are waking up to what we have seen in this state from democrats. It is kind of a funny dichotomy. You have the water issue and then the epa on the coal that destroyed the economy. Host what do you do for a living . Guest i am a corporate pilot and Aircraft Mechanic and i work as an independent. Guest he raises a couple of points. It does highlight that people just dont know what is in their water. The point is, we dont think about it that often. Everyone in West Virginia, the call included, are forced to think about it. He keeps eight to 10 cases in his basement all the time. Something you and i probably do not do but if you had gone through this experience. There is an irony that is not lost on the family i talked to or any of the other people i talked to who were not taking the water which is, if it had not had this attitude additive that made her smell they would not know. It raises questions about what else is in the water that was not detected because it could not be smelled all over charleston. As for the issue of responsibility, i dont think anyone would disagree with the callers point that it was the responsibility for the company involved. The fact that they went into bankruptcy, which is a did do a week after the spill, they went into bankruptcy and then disappeared, evidence to people they could not trust the company to be responsible, and therefore the government needs to step in for them. That was sort of the broader country critique. Host are they seeing at hospitals, clinics the impacts and effects of this bill . Guest they were. In the initial phases, people were coming in and reporting nausea, vomiting, dizziness, burning. And people were getting these lesions that looked like sunburns. This was during that time of the polar vortex and it was cold and it was not the issue of people out there sunbathing. Nothing more serious than that. So the concern for a lot of these people is not that it was going to hurt them right away but what is the longterm effect of the accumulation of this in the body what does it do over the long term. For that, we just dont know. Host the cdc does not know, epa does not know . Guest the manufacturer, no was. Host jane in miami, florida. Republican caller. Caller thank you for cspan and this wonderful show. A little bit of a reality check. Miami we had a similar situation with rock mining and we were drinking benzene and we were failed by the Florida Department of environmental reduction the epa and the army corps of engineers. There is that. I think disclosing what is in the water is important so at least you have the choice to use it or not or take a cold shower instead of a steam shower. The other thing is a story i had on a fellow who used to make agent orange. He was a chemical engineer. Got into the conversation and he said one of the things that will happen is when a chemical is banned or deemed to be very controlled because it is dangerous, but the Chemical Industry will do is they will take that chemical and they will bind a molecule to it and they will change it slightly. And then they will go through the process of getting that back on the market again. So, you know, i think that these are reality checks about the challenges with chemicals. I just wonder if you might comment about any of that. Thank you so much. Guest i am glad she mentioned the situation in miami. The point is that these things kind of happen everywhere, all the time. They are often not as drastic. This was unprecedented in terms of how many people were affected and the fact they could not use their water at all for a whole week. But we have seen in recent weeks and months that this is not the only sort of environmental issue of its kind. As for her anecdote about ancient orange agent orange and chemical manufacturers, i dont know as much about that but i do know in general in this country and i do not think this is a controversial statement chemicals are considered innocent until proven guilty. We have to have a mountain of data suggesting it is really detrimental to peoples help help to get anything done. Even then it can be very hard to get legislation to happen. Host talking to marin cogan who wrote the cover story for National Journal. Is the water safe yet is the water safe yet . Floyd from West Virginia. Where are you in comparison to trust them . Caller the other end of the state. I was a wastewater operator for about 25 years. For years, the water plant operators in the state has been throwing a fit about these tanks not being inspected. This is nothing new in the state of West Virginia. The problem of it is, their organizations in this state that went there and lobbied and tried to get the state to pass laws. I think most of West Virginia was really surprised to find out these tanks were not being inspected. They allow in this state a sewage plants to be built above a water plant. Stuff like that. They do some real stupid things. The problem of it is, the legislators dont care. They are being paid by these corporations and these companies to get elected. Just like our national politicians. They are all paid. Until you get the money out of politics, i dont care where its at, what state it is. Look at North Carolina and look at the spill that they had. We have the same thing in this state. They never do anything until after something happens. And then they jump through all of these hoops. The only thing they have done this year in the state legislature have talked about it. They have done nothing. For us to find out that our departmental Natural Resources are not inspecting these tanks and dep are not inspecting these tanks. You go along the river all the way through West Virginia, especially up around st. Marys you can look on the other side of the river at all of these chemical plants and you can see chemicals laying on the banks. It is not just West Virginia. It is ohio. Youve got to stop the money coming from the corporations. Host you say these plants tanks are not inspected. Not inspected at all or how often . Caller we found that these particular tanks had not been inspected in years. The state knows what these tanks hold. You have to report this stuff. Under the federal law, you have to report whatever chemicals you have on hand. And even the Water Systems and the wasteWater Systems have to do it. So for the state of West Virginia or anyone else or the epa to save a new nothing about this, they knew nothing about it because they closed their eyes to it. Host marin cogan . Guest he is right. They really were not inspected. Dep visited the site i think twice the preceding 10 or 20 years. One to check on a permit any other about a neighbor complaining of smell. It seems crazy in retrospect. A were 60yearold tanks. They were old. They were sitting a little over a mile up from the water intake site. But he is right they really had no inspection. The legislature has passed a bill now to mandate the inspection of the aboveground chemical storage tanks. But the implementation of that is coming now after this event. The effects of which remain to be seen. Host florida. Democratic caller. Mike. You are up next. Caller this incident here is kind of a one off thing. I am an independent journalist myself and i have done stories related to the mountaintop removal issue which is basically this kind of thing taken to a whole other level. You go not too far out of charleston, and i spent time with people my cold river valley amid cancer rates are tremendous down in that area spend time with people in the coal river valley and the cancer rates are tremendous. And people no longer being able to use the water. To get the National Consciousness they are great documentaries. Will love to see local and other films about this. It seems to be does all the way things are in West Virginia. Everyone in that area are throwaway people more or less. Spreading those things in West Virginia. Not just here but it is terrible it happens the wait seems to be in the extent in West Virginia. Host tracy in salem massachusetts. Democratic caller. Caller i wanted to call in and say we lived in West Virginia our entire lives. These issues happen everywhere. There is pollution in the air and the water. And it does open your eyes when it happens in your state. And it was scary. We took food and water and donated to people in the southern part of the state because we understand that that is how we respond to things. But even your guest said just a few minutes ago and i rewound to listen to it again said, well, if this had happened in northern virginia. West virginia is a state. West virginia faced great state. And we have a great place here. And i know people are scared. But when it comes right down to it we are a great place. Accidents happen everywhere. And i hate it for our friends in charleston. I have been there many times. My eyes dont learn from the chemicals. It is a wonderful and lovely place to be. And i think when it comes right down to it, we have to realize it is not a West Virginia issue it is a National Issue. Tank you for taking my call. Host all right, tracy. Heres a tweet from one of the viewers. Who will pay for the cleanup and will the water be poison for the longterm . Toys and his word, not mine. Guest poison is his word. Guest the state ordered freedom dismantled the site and freedom hired another firm to help them do the cleanup. As for the longterm effects on the water, we just dont know. That is the real problem and the real issue and the thing i try to get at in the peace is just the uncertainty of just never knowing what is going to happen. Host will there be timelines put in place to check the water and to check on the residence . Guest part of the aboveground storage tank bill mandated that the Water Company come up with a plan. Basically, with a backup plan of what it will do if it happens again and also look at existing threats to the water supply. Host you can readj nationalournal. Com, the cover story for the magazine. Marin cogan travel to West Virginia to take a look at the place to suffer the chemical leak. Thank you for your time for this morning. Appreciate it. And now, live coverage of the house here on cspan. Coming in right now for the legislative day. Thanks for watching. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room washington, d. C. , april 9 2014. I hereby appoint the honorable john j. Duncan jr. To act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2014, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Jolly, for five minutes. Mr. Jolly thank you mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Jolly thank you mr. Speaker. I rise today to discuss an issue of critical importance to my community, to floridas 13th congressional district, but also to coastal communities around the country. The issue of beach renourishment, and there is an urgency that i want to express today on behalf of communities like treasure island, florida. The federal government has invested in beach renourishment for the past 50 years and it has done so alongside state and local municipalities and state and local governments who have also made a priority of investing in beach renourishment. Theyll likely invest nearly 100 million in beach renourishment projects, and it is for good reason. Beach renourishment addresses a very critical issue of prestorm mitigation. It protects communities from flooding. It protects communities from losses to property, from losses to critical infrastructure, and it ultimately reduces Disaster Assistance when such assistance is needed. Beach renourishment also protects our environment. It protects against damage to habitats to critical environments. It encourages stronger environments cleaner environments. And perhaps most importantly, beach renourishment programs invested in by state and local governments and our federal government, contributes to jobs and Economic Growth in communities across the country. We have industries that exist in communities in my district like Clearwater Beach and st. Petes beach, communities across the country whose jobs and Economic Growth, local economy relies on International Visitors and visitors from around the country. In florida alone, we will more than double visits to our beaches as compared to visits to all u. S. National parks combined. It takes jobs and employees to support those visitors, and it is critical to our local economy that we continue the investment in beach renourishment projects. And so i rise today with a sense of urgency. When this house, this body considers the Water Resources reform and Development Act, it passed a responsible bill but one that did not include continued authorization for important beach renourishment projects. That legislation is now in conference, and i am here today to ask my colleagues that we not let this provision slip by. We must reauthorize these programs. And so i would urge the conferees on the Water Resources, reform and Development Act to strongly consider bringing back language that reauthorizes programs or at least allows for the reauthorization of programs that is soon to expire. I ask my colleagues to be receptive to that language should it come back, and id like to thank today my chairman on the transportation and Infrastructure Committee for allowing me to work with him in the very few weeks i have been here on this issue that is of critical importance to my district but also to districts around the country. I appreciate your consideration. I appreciate the opportunity today. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from maine, mr. Michaud, for five minutes. Mr. Michaud thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to commend the members of the American Volunteer Group known as the flying tigers for their Heroic Service to the United States of america during world war ii. The flying tigers consisted of expersonnel from the navy, marines and the Army Air Corps operating out of china, they trained in secret and shortly after the attack on pearl harbor began a series of heroic battles against the japanese aircraft squadrons. Working together japaneses aircraft squadrons. They drove back attacks on burma and became celebrated for their tactical victories. On july 4, 1942, the flying tigers were absorbed into the 23rd fighting groups, and their distinctive shark face planes remain the most recognizable of any aircraft from world war ii. Mr. Speaker, i hope my colleagues will join me in honoring the members of the flying tigers for their brave service to our great country. Thank you, mr. Speaker, and yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from north dakota, mr. Cramer for five minutes. Mr. Cramer the author henry miller wrote, the ordinary man is involved in an action, the hero acts, an immense difference. Mr. Speaker having grown up the son of a Rural Electric lineman im more than a little familiar of the notsoorder action notso ordinary actions of these ordinary people. They often put themselves in dangers way as they carry out their duties in all kinds of weather conditions. They earn a paycheck for their work, for sure, but their contribution to the quality of life of Rural America is to the benefit of millions of people, but today mr. Speaker, today i rise to recognize the extraordinary efforts of two Rural Electric linemen from north dakota who stepped beyond being involved in the action to act. Jody bruce who works for an electric cooperative and josh hoffman from carrington who works for Northern Plains cooperative left the comfort zone of Middle America to facilitate the advent of safe, reliable and affordable electricity in a community in haiti. Their service and sacrifice will improve the lives of many people. Because the electricity is a critical element to improved quality of life, health care, education clean water and other vital services. Volunteering their time and expertise, they both spent two weeks in the town of caracao, helping local haitian linemen. They enstalled power for residence next to a park. After being fully functional, it can employ 40,000 people. Jody and josh are the only linemen in north dakota to ever participate in a program in haiti, are only 15 have electricity. The national Rural Electric cooperative foundation has been working on an u. S. Agency for international developmentfunded program to bring electricity to the ,000 of curacao and nearby areas. Today, more than 1,200 consumers in the town have access to reliable electricity. Now, some homes now have antennas for their tvs. In fact, some businesses are springing up things like internet calfas that have been established cafes that have been established and Water Treatment plants are in full operation. While we often take for granted such basic amenities as safe, reliable electricity in this country, we should pray for the men and women who ensure that the lights are always on for us. In the case of jody bruce and josh hoffman well, they deserve a parade. They mr. Speaker, are International Heroes and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from the District Of Columbia, ms. Norton for five minutes. Ms. Norton thank you mr. Speaker. I began a series of remarks yesterday as the district prepares for emancipation day, april 16 when lincoln freed the slaves in the District Of Columbia before the National Emancipation proclamation. I began with a status all the citizens of the District Of Columbia today is taxed without representation. The slogan the founders of our nation and the framers of our constitution used to start the revolution that created the United States of america itself. With those taxes should come statehood, but if there is any issue with greater command, then taxation without representation for statehood for the District Of Columbia it is surely fighting and dying for ones country without representation. Securing the vote for the people of iraq and afghanistan only to come home with no vote of your own in the congress that sent you to war or not coming home at all. D. C. Residents fought and died in the war that created the United States of america itself and have served in every war since, often suffering casualties well beyond those of fellow americans. Casualties that mounted in each of the major wars of the 20th century. World war i, more casualties than three states. World war ii more casualties than four states. The korean war, by then more casualties than eight states. And the vietnam war more casualties than 10 states of the union. Not only have thousands fought and died without the vote, many served with distinction and many in the segregated armed forces, although africanamericans were outnumbered by whites until recent years. Yet, the district produced the first africanamerican army general, benjamin o. Davis the first africanamerican air force general, benjamin o. Davis jr. , graduate of west point and commander of the tuskegee airmen. And Charles Vernon bush, the First Air Force africanamerican air force academy graduate. And the roster continues today. Todays deputy commandant of the u. S. Coast guard, manson brown, and the first africanamerican aviator d. C. National guard First Lieutenant demetri olicibo. They are denied their basic rights at home. Today we ask the congress, draw the line on service in the armed forces. In the name of those who have fought or died in the nations wars grant the District Of Columbia equal rights with other americans. Grant the District Of Columbia statehood in the union. Thank you mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff, for five minutes. Mr. Schiff an open letter to the turkish people. Today, i write to you on an issue of great importance to both our nations. It is on a subject that many of you especially the younger generation, may know little about because it contains a chapter of World History that your government has expended enormous efforts to conceal. Turkey has been at the center of human civilization and your arts cultures and science have enriched the world. But interwoven with all of turkeys remarkable achievements is a dark chapter that too many of todays turks know little or nothing about. Were you aware that your grandparents and great grandparents had many armenian neighbors and friends, that 20 of the population of todays istanbul was armenian . Did you know the armenians were well integrated into turkish societied as intellects, craftsmen and Community Leaders . Have you ever wondered what happened to the armenians . Have you asked your parents and grandparents how such a large, industryous and prosperous people largely vanished from your midst . Do you know why your government goes to such lengths to conceal this part of your history . Let me tell you part of their story. The rest you must find out for yourselves. 99 years ago this month in the dying years of the Ottoman Empire the young turk government launched a campaign of deportation, starvation and murder against the armenian citizens. Much of the armenian population was forciblely removed to syria where many succumbed to brutal marches in the heat. Many were massacres by soldiers, even their own neighbors. By the time the slaughter ended in 1923, 1 1 2 million armenians were killed in what is now universally acknowledge as the first genocide of the 20th century. The survivors scattered throughout the middle east and the wider world with some making their way to the United States and to los angeles. It is their grandchildren and great grandchildren who i represent as a member of the u. S. Congress. Theirs is a vibrant community. Many tens of thousands strong, can schools, churches, and businesses providing a daily link to their ancestral homeland. It is on their behalf i urge you to begin anew, a National Conversation in turkey about the events of 1915 to 1923. As a young man and woman in turkey you might ask, what has this to do with me . Am i to be blamed for a crime committed long before i was born . I would say this yours is the moral responsibility to acknowledge the truth and seek a reconciliation with the armenian people that your parents and their parents could or would not. It is an obligation you have inherited one from which you must not shrink. For though we cannot choose our own history we decide what to do about it, and you will be the ones to shake turkeys future. At the end of world war ii germany was a shattered nation, defeated in battle and exposed as historys greatest war criminal. In the decades since the end of the war, germany engaged in a prolonged effort to reconcile with the jewish people who were nearly exterminated by the nazis during the holocaust. The German Government has prosecuted more criminals, returned exproperty, and made countless apologies to the victims and world, most important germany has worked to expunge the cancer of dehumanizing bigotry and hatred that gave rise to the holocaust. This path of reflection reconciliation, repentance must be turkeys past as well. It will not be easy. The questions will be painful, the answers difficult, sometimes unknowable. One question stands out, how could a nation that ruled peaceably over a diverse multicultural empire for centuries have turned on one of its own peoples with such ruthlessness that an entirely new word had to be invented to describe what took place. Genocide. As in judaism and christianity, the concept of repentance is central to islam. Next year will mark a century since the beginning of the genocide. And armenians around the world will mourn their dead. Contemplate the enormity of their loss, and ask why. Answer them, please. With words of repentance. Sincerely, adam schiff, member of congress. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. Maffei for five minutes. Mr. Maffei thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i rise today in strong opposition of the legislation h. Con. Res. 96, the budget proposed by the chairman of the budget committee, the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. Ryan. Unfortunately this years ryan budget is more of the same recklessness and extreme partisanship we have seen year after year from the house Republican Leadership. Under ryans plan, middle class families in my district in Central New York will pay an average of 2,000 more each year according to the democrats on the house budget committee. Once again the ryan budget ends the medicare guarantee as we know it. And would turn medicare instead into a privatized Voucher Program and shift Health Care Costs to seniors. It threatens to cut off critical investments in job creation and infrastructure. And it slashes education at a time when local School Districts in Central New York are already struggling to find the resources necessary to provide our children with a high quality education that they deserve. This is not a balanced approach and its not a responsible solution. And people in Central New York and across the country need better. Congress must get serious about balancing the budget and reducing the National Debt and deficit. But not on the backs of our seniors and not on the backs of the middle class and certainly not on the backs of future generations of americans. At a time when many Central New Yorkers are still struggling, as the economy recovers, we simply cannot accept the irresponsible policies of the ryan budget. I call on my colleagues to reject the ryan budget and Work Together to create a bipartisan budget that gets our fiscal house in order and promotes Economic Growth, creates jobs, protects our seniors, and strengthens the middle class. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. Foster, for five minutes. Mr. Foster thank you. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to take note of a recent scientific discovery, a result which if confirmed and understood in its full theoretical context has the potential to change the way we think about the beginnings of the universe. Before coming to congress i was a High Energy Particle physicist and a particle accelerator designer for over 20 years. And while i sometimes miss being back in the lab, im very pleased when i have the opportunity to advocate in congress for Scientific Research and development. Twice in my life i have had the privilege of participating in a fundamental breakthrough in science. The first was during my ph. D. Thesis work when we observed that a subatomic process known as proton decay, which was confidently predicted by many if not most of theoretical physicists at the time, was in fact not happening. The second time was at the lab where i was part of the team that discovered the top core, the heaviest known form of matter and quite possibly the heaviest subatomic particle that will ever be discovered, or not. So like scientists around the world my pulse quickened with the announcement that the First Independent confirming evidence for cosmic inflation in the Early Universe had been discovered. Humans have wondered about the origin of the universe for thousands of years. Now thanks to a team of hardworking scientists an federal investments in basic science, we appear to be at an important step closer to the understanding closer to understanding the birth of the universe. Immediately following the big bang, the moment in which the universe burst into existence, scientists have hypothesized that the une first underwent a period known as inflation. During inflation which lasted for only a tiny fraction of a second, the universe expanded at an exponential rate. Now the bicep two team, a collaboration of 12 institutes, including universities, the National Science foundation, and department of energy and nasa laboratories, has found direct evidence that appears to verify the theory of inflation. He they werent able to study the very first moments of the universe. Atless than a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, after the big bang, and to obtain direct observational evidence of inflation, which until now has been mainly based on theoretical work. To do this the team constructed a telescope at the National Science foundations u. S. Antarctic Program Research station at the south pole to observe the cosmic microwave Background Radiation. A faint glow left over from the big bang. They observed a pattern in the cosmic Background Radiation that was consistent with being left over from inflation giving us a glimpse of the universe over 13. 7 billion years ago. They were able to detect this in large part because of recent advances in highly sensitive detector technology. This project was primarily funded by the National Science foundation and received generous support from nasa and the department of energy, as well as private industry, and is an example of the importance of federal funding for basic science research. Its also an example of the interplay between technology and basic science. How new technology will lead to even greater advances in basic science and vice versa. Additionally, study after study has shown that there are few investments our government can make that provide as high a return on investment as Scientific Research and development. Despite this, federal investments in research and development are at a historic low, comprising merely 3. of the federal budget 3. 8 of the federal budget or 0. 8 of g. D. P. Over the last three years federal research and Development Expenditures decreased by 16. 3 , which is the steepest decline over a threeyear period since the end of the space race. These results are an important reminder of the value of federal investment in research and development. Without proper investment in Scientific Research we must expect fewer of these groundbreaking scientific discoveries, at least in the United States. The greatest longterm threat that our country faces on both the military and economic fronts, is the threat of losing our role as World Leaders in innovation and science and technology. Nothing is more crucial to preserving that role than Adequate Funding for fundamental and applied Scientific Research. The recent advances in cosmology are just one of many examples of the breadth of intellectual capital and stateoftheart technology that the u. S. Currently possesses. So as congress determines how to allocate funding for these agencies in the coming year with many proposing budgets that will cripple future investments in education and research, i urge my colleagues to capitalize on these discoveries and ensure that we are investing enough in research, science, and education. Because of federal investments in science, we have just looked significantly farther into the Early Universe than anyone has done before. This not only tells us about the birth of the universe but also gives us insight into our fundamental understanding of the laws of gistics physics. This discovery has been globally recognized as one of the most important fundamental breakthroughs in science in our lifetimes. A landmark of American Academic achievement that will live in the science textbooks forever. Thank you. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from michigan, mr. Kildee, for five minutes. Mr. Kildee thank you. On monday night i introduced legislation to provide an extension of emergency Unemployment Benefits that would extend the important safety net of Unemployment Benefits, Unemployment Insurance to over two million americans who lost their benefits on december 28 and thereafter as a result of the failure of this body to act to protect those benefits. We all would have preferred, many of us, particularly on the democratic side, and i know some on the other side as well because they have expressed it, would have preferred that we had dealt with this question as we were dealing with the budget issues and the budget question that we faced at the end of last year, but we did not. So we are left now with the fact that we have some unfinished business. On monday evening, in a bipartisan fashion, the u. S. Senate enacted similar legislation. In fact the bill that i introduced on monday night was the precise language enacted on a bipartisan basis by the u. S. Senate. Two million americans that are living right now with the fear of losing their house, losing their car, having their families split up because they dont have that basic need being met, roof over the head, food on the table, between their last job and their next job. For the typical worker in america when they lose their job, it takes an average of 37 weeks. I know in my own state its probably longer before they find their next opportunity. But in michigan once one loses their job they have 20 weeks of Unemployment Insurance. What happens to them after that is what we are dealing with today. The fact that people go from one week to the next not knowing if they are going to be able to keep their family together and keep a roof over their head is something that this congress can do something about if it chooses to. I know there are members of the republican conference that are anxious to see this enacted because several put together a letter to the speaker asking that this issue be brought up immediately. And thats what i hope my colleagues will do. Bring extended Unemployment Compensation Unemployment Insurance to the floor so that we can protect those workers who are trying to get from their last job to their next job without starting a cycle of poverty that could last generations. There are some who say we dont need this because, number one, workers who are on unemployment dont want to work. Well i suppose there may be an exception or a myth that we could conjure about an individual who is receiving Unemployment Compensation that doesnt want to work, but for those of you who believe that, come to my district, or better yet go to your home district and go talk to people in the unemployment line and ask them if they would trade their situation today for meaningful work. And i will assure you that the vast majority if not all of the people in that situation would trade in a minute their situation for a real job with a decent wage. There are some also who say that we shouldnt do this because its not an emergency, that these are supposed to be emergency benefits. So far as far as i can see its only not an emergency here in washington. If youre about to lose your house, if youre about to lose your car if you dont have enough food on the table to feed your kids, for you its an emergency. We represent those folks and we ought to be thinking about them and we ought to take this up. So why is it that we need to do this in the first place . I think the republicans and democrats could agree that will the economy is not growing at a rate to put americans, all americans back to work. We will acknowledge that. We will stimulate that while there has been growth and theres been private sector job creation, its not enough. Well probably disagree on the reasons behind that, but we can agree that the current economy is not enough to put these folks back to work. We should help them. But we should also do the things that it will take to get america back to work again. Unfortunately, what we will deal with in the next couple of days is a budget that undermines Economic Growth. That undermines the kind of investments in the skills of our work force by cutting job training, cutting pell grants cutting Early Childhood education, programs like head start that actually change the trajectory for those individuals, make them more capable and more able to get into the work force in this competitive economy that we are in rather than investing in our people, what this proposed ryan budget would do would be to cut those essential programs, would not contribute to Economic Growth. Democrats and republicans areich agree that we need to remr. Our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our rail systems and our ports. This budget takes us in the wrong direction. Mr. Chairman, i hope that the congress can come together around this question a