Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140912

What the president had to say. Are 5853881 if you opposed to to it. You can also make a comment be a social media on twitter cspanwj facebook. Com cspan, and send the email to journal cspan. Org. A debate over airstrikes is the headline in the Washington Post this morning. Host a little bit from the Washington Post this morning. Here is the New York Times the house in rare unity with obama will lead the trail for an vote. Weisman writes host 202 5853880 if you support what the president announced on wednesday night. 202 5853881 if you are opposed to it. We will begin with cliff and essex, maryland, oppose line. Hi, cliff. Caller good morning. I want to say first thanks for cspan. Let people get their voice out there. Yes, i am opposed to obamas plan just as i was to bushs plan. I really see no difference between the two of them. Only obama is a little worse i think. But the whole problem is for a country that is supposed to be by the people, of the people, and for the people, the people of the country really have no say at all in what goes on in this country anymore. The politicians simply dont care what we think. As far as the war on terror goes, i believe it has all been manufactured. We invaded iraq on a lie host cliff, do you think that isis is a threat to the u. S. . Caller i believe that the largest, most wellfunded terrorist group in the world is the United States army. Host thank you, sir. John is in springer, texas. What do you think about what the president announced on wednesday night . Very disappointed republicans, dick cheney say that anybody would agree with. He is a disaster. I think this president did a pretty good job, got the troops , and then for dick cheney the day before the president gives a speech is out outrageous. Host john, im going to leave it there. It is a little bit of a tough connection there. New york times lead editorial Legal Authority for fighting isis. Host this is the New York Times lead editorial. He was the conclusion some lawmakers in congress have suggested that they may be open to approved the president s plan to have the petting on train Syrian Rebels host phil, florida, you are on the line. Caller good morning. I want to agree with the first caller. Country, peter, when a attacks another country, it used to be called an act of war, much like pearl harbor. Our country is bombing other countries. It is an act of war. We are the ones that know that world war ii set the standard for war crimes. Azisreason why the non were sentenced to hang in nurnberg following world war ii is because the nazis were determined to have determined crime against peace, the ultimate war crime, which is attacking another country that did not attack you. So realistically, and what the American People are responsible for doing right now, is to call for the impeachment of the sitting president , obama, much like the lefties in the antiwar people did when it was the republican bush, but we have been so politicized as far as the people having our identity democrat calling on the republican lines on cspan that we do not even know our responsibility as citizens. Host lets leave it there. Stephen in richmond, virginia. What do you think . Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Yes, i support the president s plan 100 , and the reason why i say that is because, you know, he went to the Islamic States, and they will be the foot soldiers. And the strategists will be american, ok . The reason why i support this, terrorists e the only way you can meet terrorists is with force, and you just pray to god that innocent people wont get killed. But this is the only way you can meet them, and you have got to attack them the way they attack arebecause their beliefs like women have no rights, and they are the only right. So nobody else, no religion, they just believe in their way and their way only, so you have to meet them with force and kill them and kill them dead. That is the only way youre going to win this. Thank you. You, sir. Hen, thank buck mckeon, chair of the Armed Service committee in the house, spoke yesterday about the president s strategy. [video clip] we heard good things from natorn allies oat the summit. Now is the time to match words to action. They have a stake in this fight, too. We are holding the starter pistol. The time to pull the trigger was yesterday. Now most of us cringe at the term boots on the ground, but we need to talk about what boots on the ground means. Armedave taken it to mean forces in a hostile land. That is a red herring. The only way to not drop an entire maneuver court in iraq is to be smart about using the right boots on the ground today. The president may not admit it, but he has already made this distinction. Special forces, trainers, advisers, and security forces. This is the right decision. Dale, you are on the washington journal. What is your opinion on what the president is a wednesday and his isis strategy . Caller first of all, i think it should be a no go. I want to put a Historical Perspective on this. For 3000 years, europe was in turmoil. It was not until world war ii and 85 million casualties hey got together and formed nato. Same thing in the middle east. They have been fighting for 5000 years. The cost of work is too much, and i come to an agreement, for example still we fight it. We put 10 years of our efforts in that war area for absolutely nothing, i do not want to get in there again. Sorry. Thank you very much. Calling in is comin from oklahoma city. Pollock, what do you think . Paula . Last chance for paula. Moving on. Greg is down in north carolina. The president proposed additional troops to iraq, airstrikes in syria, support for opposition groups in syria what do you think . Caller well, i support the president. I think it would be wise not to put troops on the ground just the basis of any campaign is a strong economy, and if you only have 1 of the people with all of the money, i a strongis that economy . You are not the ones doing the shooting. So we need to take care of things in the United States and do what we can s far as airstrikes. Thank you. Host i want to show you a couple of headlines. This is the Washington Post on airstrikes. And arab states back obama against isis. And in the top story in New York Times arabs give tepid support in the u. S. Fight against isis. Host lead story, New York Times this morning. Democrat froms a california. He spoke about the president s strategy on the house floor yesterday. [video clip] thatericans want a plan guarantees the immediate and total destruction of isis without significant american casualties. And so hyper partisan republicans can constantly the the president because he does not have a guarantee. He is not offering immediate and total destruction. He does have a plan designed to avoid american casualties. Instead, we get a suggestion that somehow this guaranteed, no cost, and media, total victory would be achieved if only we had a different president. Time for congress to stop harping about whether the president has a plan. He has put forth a plan. Now Congress Must exercise its constitutional role in defining what authorizations the president is going to be granted and what portions of his plan are going to be authorized. Host bill is calling in from newfield, new jersey. You think about expanded military operations in the middle east . Well, i disagree with the way the president wants to go about it. If you think about it in another frame from just the action is going to take, if the president s in, he is not a he isan act of war going in there i do not know what you want to call it but how are you going to handle things when it comes to when we had war, we had military committingor people humanitarian atrocities and things. It seems like him and eric holder want to do everything in a court of law where the court of law does not apply to the situation. When he goes in there now, like when we captured Saddam Hussein. If he goes in there and he captures the leader of this organization, what is he going to do with them . Bring them to new york and have a trial . I mean, the man is out of his mind. Host gabriel calling in from hawaii. Go ahead, gabriel. Caller good morning. I agree with a number of your previous callers, but i just want to state first off that i am one of the younger viewers in college, im 25 years old. For somebody that voted for campaign,ng his first and it just seems to me that ,ver since he became president and i did not vote during the second time because i was just termsgusted with his first it seems to me that he has gone back on so many things that he said he wanted to do, and he is like the bush light, so to speak. I think this military campaign that he wants to launch in the middle east is just an extension of previous campaigns that we have been fighting, including iraq. He needs to just be honest with the American People about what is actually going on there and talk about the fact that our military intervention in the first place is what is causing these problems. Although that may be americas fault that that happened, it is not necessarily our up thisbility to clean giant quagmire that we have gotten ourselves in, no more vietnam ors in the a any other military campaign after world war ii. Needless to say, obama is in the wrong, and most people my age are here in hawaii agree with that. Thank you. Host thank you, sir. 202 5853880 if you support the president s isis strategy to bring more troops to iraq. Airstrikes in syria and additional Material Support to the opposition in syria. 202 5853881 if you are opposed to that strategy. Washington post lead editorial the missing piece, committing the u. S. To the pursuit of terrorists is not enough. This is how they conclude host some of the tweets we are getting this morning. This is from park storm first caller was correct no difference from obama and bush when it comes to perpetual war. Here is letti to trust or not to trust the moderate Syrian Rebels, that is the question. Airstrikes in syria lead to war with a thought. Hoo thoseyoo ful full is politicians who are arming the rebels are arming the enemy. Aerialbomb says bush ruin the middle east, obama stuck in a mess whether he likes it or not. I dont think obama likes what he has do. And the rom back report not unless present obama goes to congress and asked for debate and declaration of war against isis. And finally this tweet from beverly absolutely support potus. His sustained counterterrorism thinkr against isis arming syrians problematic need rethink. I love the president s strategy. I honestly believe that it is important that the middle east stands on its own. We cannot keep going in there, killing people, dying, coming home for it to start all over again. Second of all, these people have a different moral system than we do. It does not make it right it is prehistoric but they have their own moral system. At what point do we allow people to live their own lives . The part that i really dont get, yeah, it is the middle east, it needs to be stabilized, but it needs to be stabilized by the middle east. I do not feel that it should be stabilized by the American People where we have to go in and die. Host thank you, sir. Bob in new york city. Hi, bob. Caller i would like to say that i support attacking isis, but only if we can also attack israel as well, and perhaps the Federal Reserve and any other institution that has served to undermine the u. S. Economically, politically, socially, and culturally over the past 100 years. At this point host that was bob. Chris, virginia, independent. What do you think of the president s strategy for isis . That the believe president has a well thought out strategy for isis. I believe in these terms that war is not the war that people are used to like world war ii or even in vietnam, but it is a different type of war, so you have to have a different type of strategy. At the root cause of it is idealism, and you cannot defeat idealism with bullets. You have to defeat it with education. So that is a need of a coalition not only in terms of force but strategy to prevent you from not the neighboring countries in the middle east to help us defeat the terrorists who are also in it enemies of te states as well. I wanted to speak about John Boehners statement. Continuously the republicans like to pound it into obama that he is doing everything wrong. Boehner specifically said that this is a strategy that will not work without boots on the ground. However, it seems like they are trying to set the president , hang him out to dry by saying you have got to put boots on the ground, but as soon as boots are on the ground and more lies are lost, then it will be against him and his democratic partners in congress to try to get their numbers up. No one is stupid in america. They see what they are trying to do. These are american lives that are on a line, so its someone is going to send them into congress, then the congress should have an up or down vote. Bootsy believe should be on the Ground Commission be by congress and the president , not just a political move by one party or the other. If they want to put boots on the ground, then that is what they think is the necessary strategy to beat isis. Host that is chris in virginia. We are using the acronym isis Islamic State in iraq in syria. The present use of the acronym isil, the Islamic State in lavon, which refers to a larger area in the middle east, and then there is just Islamic State, it all of those terms are entertain a are interchangeable, so do not let that throw you at all. John mccain spoke on the senate floor yesterday about the president s strategy. [video clip] the present compared his claims to the counterterrorism approach he has taken in somalia and yemen. That is so disturbing to think that isis would be the same as against al qaeda in somalia and wilyemen. Yes, we have been killing withdraws, but we have by no means defeated them, and to compare what isis has done as achieving and the slaughter that isis is carrying out compared to the terrorist organizations in somalia and yemen reflect a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the president of United States to the threat we face. Hillrom the newspaper this mind as confusion surrounds obama request host muriel in new haven, connecticut, what do you think . Caller hey, peter, how are you today . Host i am fine, how are you . Caller fine, thanks. I know it is just my opinion, but i do not think the United States at this time should be in the business of arming any rebel troops in the middle east, whether it be in iraq or syria or yemen or whatever. We should not be in the business countries civil war. I feel that our president is correct in assuming and is ating that isis cutthroat out fit such as what you would find in yemen. They are identification of someone who is doing something peopleen you behead two from a foreign country, you are in the business of being bad, and we have to identify people like that. I am getting, i think i will not speak for anybody else in this country, i am speaking for myself. I am getting very tired of people in our congress, whether they be democrat or republican, criticizing our president for whatever he does, and now in particular in Foreign Policy. Here is what i say to them if you are so inclined to feel that our Foreign Policy needs to be in a state of war, and you are so inclined to send Young American troops to fight in a name onr, then put your the paper loud and clear. Let the whole country know that you voted for this because our troops will not be in a position to vote for anything. All they do is obey the command, and if the command says you have to go to this country, and you have to fight for host all right. Thank you for calling in this morning. From politico host speaking at a 9 11 commemrarkse he made a forceful militants controlling that part of the nation. Good morning caller. Caller i was upset with the way congress doesnt want to take the time to let the Drone Program do what its designed to do. The Drone Program is designed to stay above your head where you cant see it. Its up too high to see it or use a noifl come try to find this little thing. It can drop bombs and missiles. You leave it up there for over a year. People are sick and tired of having that thing up there. At this moment they cant move the army from theory turkey or wherever they are to turkey. They cant go to iran or anywhere because the drones the drones will destroy everything on the road. They can be seen at nighttime. Nothing they can do with the Drone Programs above their heads, and now the republicans want to drag human beings over there. Theres no reason for it. The aircraft alone will keep them from becoming an army. As far as the terrorists go. Sure, they can try to sblow blow up our airplanes and blow up a bomb, weve been going through that for the last 15 years but thats not an teerm destroy. Its mostly a bunch of uneducated people looking for some food and will do anything including kill people to do it. Host thank you edward. Retired general marine al thrown coordinate a response to al iciss. Etired marine general al thrown coordinate al franken lied response to isis according to the associated press. Host john mccain. He is quoted here. And of course now, i cannot there it is. I found it. An article about john mccain from the New York Times. Mccain fights falsehood on lying that wrongly link him to isis. This is rick glad stone, and mccain one of the earliest advocates for one of the ilitary mccain has been having to battle false rumors that he not only helped invent the group but helped proclaim the leader and americas latest public enemy number one. The rumors are based partly on i78ages of a syrian fighter resembling him seen in a photograph with mccain during his visit in 2013 to Northern Syria and met memberings of the Free Syrian Army and in a speech wednesday on the president s strategy has vowed to strengthen. If you are which you ared by onspiracy bloggers and photo altering trips, the pictures and rumors have taken on a life of their own. Heres the photo that the New York Times has in this article. So you can see, and if you want to read the whole thing, the full article is in the New York Times. Jim in franklin georgia, republican line. Good morning, jim. Caller good morning. Look here, our problems in the middle east started in 1948. At the end of world war i and 1948 they made these phony borders, the british and the french, and we supported what happened in 1948. Why dont we just them people been killing each other for years. Shias and sunnis. You know . They are not going to quit killing each other. Nothing we going to doy, going to keep them from killing each other. As far as the grand coalition, im 60 years old and spent 60 years in nato. They dun bailed out. They are not going to do anything. I guess its going to be us again. We keep getting our nose involved. We wont learn. Host hendersonville, north carolina. What do you think of the president s strategy . Caller im glad were going to get in there and do something about isis. I feel like a lot of people in this country dont do their homework or dont do their research on this organization. They control more land than al qaeda ever hoped to. They actually have somewhat of an army. In my mind they are the biggest terrorist threat we have ever faced. And if we dont do something about that, its not just going to dissolve and go away. I think air strikes are a good start. I was happy to see he is sending advisors. But in my mind theres no way to stamp Something Like that out unless youre putting boots on the ground. I dont think im at the point where i would support a major invasion. But at some point you have to have the Human Element ground hunt these people out where they live and sleep and take care of that. As far as arming the Syrian Rebels go. Thats nuts. That, to me, is scary just because of the past, our history with arming rebel groups. In order ou know, for one to be removed from power, youre going to have another power vacuum which is going to eventually going to bring to power another so i ould suggest everybody look at pbs how this group rose to power. So people have opinions but no basis or education on these people or this event. Host from georgia, what do you think about this . Caller a few things. I call yall as soon as i can and get to call once a month. I was with the feign tridivision doing cowboy escorts to syria and the jordan border right there on the syrian border. I called yall last month from do mas cuss. Youve got to get rid of damascus. The president needs a new speech writer. He could be just an awesome black president , especially for the africanamerican community. We need somebody like ben carson, a black man that really knows what is going on. And somebody new and fresh thats not in d. C. And just one final point, when you see these Young Children in the middle east, i went to bed crying every night. And when you see the hopelessness and sadness in their face, you will understand whatval is. And boots on the ground, im sorry. Were going to have to lose soldiers. Thats what war is all about and our men and women in uniform are willing to accomplish every mission given to them. And i just want to thank everybody, and this is the greatest country in the world. Thanks. Host from the hill newspaper, boehner predicts vote on stopgap spending measure next week. Boehner said thursday the house is still on track to vote next week on a bill to astrert Government Shutdown but didnt say whether government obamas request would be attached to the measure. Boehner said the g. O. T. G. O. P. Letters would punt the decision to next week but thinks they could wrap up work before the lawmakers gitgo back on the campaign trail. Some g. O. P. Lawmakers suggested the house may have to come back the week of december 29th to get their work done given the unresolved debate and boehner said some were uneasy with the thought of aiding rebels and deploying 475 additional Armed Service members. 1078 feel strategy doesnt go far enough while others are worried about putting arms in the hands of the Free Syrian Army. Speaker said frankly, we ought to give the president what he has asked for. Thats in the hill newspaper. Three op ends in the Washington Post this morning. Charles krauthammer and Gene Robinson, one paragraph from each on the president s strategy. This is charles krauthammer, the headline, obamas uncertain trumpet again. The speechs only news was to promise to expand the campaign in syria and seriously arm the secular opposition but this creates a major problem for obama because a month ago he rid called the nonjihaddist rebels as nothing but a bunch of doctors, farmers and farm drists and so forth and now he dep tices them as our syrian shock troops. So he seems finally to have found his syrian strategy. And a another oped. A final advantage for obama that he seems to understand the historic moment of which the nightmare of the Islamic State has arisen. The old order is collapsing and the newest one hasnt emerged, and this creates space for religious fanatics. Amid this anarchy obama is seeking to prevent the worst outcome without the false happy new order, ting a a and finally Gene Robinson this morning, why does he think this will work . The biggest winner is assad who must have broken out the champagne when the president finished speaking wednesday night. Obama stated policy that assad must go but u. S. Military action now makes it easier for him to stay. Expanding the u. S. Bombing campaign against the Islamic State into syria isment to inflict serious damage on the most capable rebel force seeking to oust assads brutal regime. They now hold assads army will move in. Barbra in los angeles what do you think to have president s strategy and what do you think congress should do . Caller good morning, peter. I think the president s strategy is all that he can do at this particular point. You know . He is fighting a war he did not believe in, in the first place and two, those people need understand the number two and number three officer in iciss war are the baathists that we kicked out of the army when we took over, when we did the shock and awe. This isis is the answer to shaw shaw. To shah shah. To shock and awe. With no electricity and no water and expect these people not to hate . This is what is born out of this. And these people didnt just come one this last year or the year before. This has been going on since we went into iraq and these soldiers, Saddam Husseins soldiers that basically are taking over, and they want a state. We can say we are at war because were not fighting a country. So it is terrorism that we are fighting. And this is their form of shock and awe. Host some quick polls here. Usa today both the michigan governor race is a statistical tie, and the senate race has the democrat, gary peters holding a ninepoint lead over former secretary of state of michigan, terry lynn. And Los Angeles Times Governor Brown holds tight over to the his lead over his republican opponent a 21point lead at this point. Theres a denver post. Showing the senate and gubernatorial races. Republican 45 , bob opray, 43 . And Corey Gardner the republican for senate is currently a congressman, 42 . Mark cue doll, 46 . And this political article from politico, Chris Christie and mitt romney hold court. Chris christie and mitt romney held court at a private fundraiser with nearly two dozen highprofile bundlers and donors and the former g. O. P. President ial candidate appeared at a larger fundraiser and donors kicked in 25,000 to be invited to the smaller event. Now, Hillary Clinton is going to be in iowa on sunday at senator harkens annual steak fry. And this article is in the wall street journal. Clinton faces skeptical iowa voters. Cspan will be covering the steak fry. It will be live on sunday beginning at 3 30 p. M. Eastern time. Bill and Hillary Clinton be both be there along with senator harken. So you will hear from all of them and get a flavor of what its like to be at this steak fry. So 3 30 p. M. Eastern time live on cspan. Finally guide on the follow clinton to iowa. Ter the secretary of state attendses the steak fry biden will be there to kick off the we the people, we the voters for the group called nones on the bus. Called nunns on the bus. What do you think of the president s isis strategy . Caller good morning, peter. I totally agree on the president based on Congress Background as far as what they do. When something is presented to them. They do nothing. They are going to do nothing they are the donothing congress ever since the president has been in office. If this in fact he did not take the position he has, they would that would give them an opportunity to block i have the until the elections are over, the november elections. You know . They dont get him credit for getting Saddam Hussein or osama bin laden. They act like he doesnt know what he is doing. Boots on the ground is a mistake. Because what it really does is it makes the people who make war machines and war materials richer and richer and richer. They are giving away millions of dollars worth of military equipment to police departments. And yet if we have this what the congress wants, it will be millions and millions of dollars going to the contractors. A lot of those military guys are not army military. They are exarmy and contract workers and they make a lot a lot of money. Host thank you. From charlotte, north carolina, thank you last word on this topic. Caller thank you. I allow your smile. I just wanted to share with you a couple of things. Mr. Mccain is a really great man and needing more people like him of which he was an independent. Second of all i believe assad is receiving too much publicity. We have a troop of 30,000 people and youre turning around where he got exposure over a nation that fought vietnam, world war ii, huge wars where there were a lot more than 30,000 people and the publicity of assad getting to the United States really should be kept in the white house and not necessarily in everybody elses house and the other thing i wanted to say was that i support obama, because obama did decide to cut if you finding because of the military efforts and the reason being because cooperate america benefits from using the word war. War on women, all of a sunday its time to pour money into Corporate America. We use the word war on crack now its time to pour more money into Corporate America and now we use the word war for a group of people that do have access to some military, but these people dont have access to reach the United States from missiles and all that stuff. We need to keep our troops here in the United States and we need to have those people infiltrate here in the United States and protect our home. Were spending too much time worrying about whats going on in other places and not protecting our home, peter. Host thats detail in charlotte. Coming up we have three guests. Michael barone will be here with the Washington Examiner, longtime political analyst will be chatting with us about the future of the Republican Party and what the Republican Party is today. Lee hamilton, former 9 11 commissioner. Longtime member of congress will join us from bloomington, indiana. Where he teaches from the Indiana University and finally out to iowa as we continue our big ten bus tour, the president of the university of iowa will be a guest on this washington journal sally mason, this weekend on our news makers program, the democratic whip, steny hoyer is our guest on this program taped just yesterday. Heres a little bit of what congressman hoyer had to say about the president s isis strategy. I believe that the twostephen step process is what we will, i think pursue. And that is that i think there will be a consideration of the president s request to train and equip regional players, that is people from syria and iraq and other middle eastern countries, arab nations who i think will be the boots on the ground that people talk about. I think that we will be the facilitators, the supporters and yes, help coordinate a Large Coalition which the president and secretary of state are now putting together. We have some significant number of nations who have already indicated that they want to participate which that they want to participant. So i think that will be the first thing we will consider probably early next week. Thats authorizing the president under article x to we quip and train in an overt way as opposed to a covert way, people to take on isis. Yes, we have air and other assets. But the boots on the ground are going to be the boots on the ground who live in the neighborhood and who have a vested interest, and now that we have an Iraqi Government that is trying to and hopefully will represent both sunni and shia interests and sunni and shia will feel they are in this fran confront isis, a terrorist criminal element within their midst, i think we will proceed on that. Secondly, i think at some point in time, when we come back, after the elections. I think there will be a consideration of a larger authorization for the use of force. Washington, d. C. Continues. Washington journal continues. Host Michael Barone joins us. Longtime political analyst from the Washington Examiner and the cohost of the author of american politics. Recently wrote the piece. How the g. O. P. Got this way in the Washington Examiner. But Michael Barone, what does the Republican Party stand for today . Guest well, the Republican Party stands more for markets than Big Government as compared for the democrats that stand more for Big Government than big markets. It stands to some extent for traditional values. Both our Political Parties over our history have been somewhat ambiguous about what they stand for, because they are trying to do something that parties in parliamentary democracies dont have to do, which is get 50 of the votes. And in our highly, culturally diverse society. Some people say we are suddenly culturally diverse, we have always been culturally and economically diverse in many ways. But its something both parties struggle to do, and to put that stone up that mountain like sis fist and then sooner or later the stone comes rolling back down the mountain and the work begins again. Host ronald ragan used to talk about the big tent. Are the parties big tents today . Guest the hearts are pretty big tents today. One of the phenomenons we see going on, and we see it in both parties, really. Something that i call the wingers secondterm revolt. I mean, over the past 100 years of american political history, you can see a pattern. It doesnt invariably obtain, but it tends to. President comes into office. He and his party are united on a platform. They have some legislative achievements. They are somewhat successful and get some support from the other party. The president is reelected. Usually, though he wasnt in 1932, 1980 find the 92. But usually is, and then the second term, theres a lot of discontent. The left wingers in the Democratic Party and right wingers in the Republican Party have some gets about some of the compromises their party and president s have made and the roads they have not taken or reforms they have not gone far enough to satisfy these people in particular ways and the president s popularity starts to flag and you get some sort of revolt that has ramifications that has ramify innings can as on the election of the next president but then the other party gets presidency. It can flare out into rebellions against the Previous Party leadership. And i think thats what we saw and are seeing in the socalled tea party momentum in the Republican Party. They started off like the peace momentum in the Democratic Party saying that they were not going to be concentrated on one party. They were multipartner but they really consciencen traited their move in the Democratic Party and Team Movement in the Republican Party. And their discontents were not just with the current president of the other party. He team tea party was discontent with president but they were also discontent of the policy of the president of their own party who had been in office before. President Lyndon Johnson on the vietnam war and president george w. Bush in the republican parties. So when you listen to the tea party folks, they are not only come playing about the obama stimulus package and obama care. They are also unhappy about the Medicare Prescription Drug bill of president george w. Bush. The no child left behind, the bill passed by congress in 2001 signed bipartisan. Signed by president bush in 2002. Of there were grievances going back to the last Republicans Party program. So thats one of the reasons for the anger of the tea party for the success that they have had in nominated and in some cases electing some candidates and helping the Republican Party win house jorts. Interestingly were seeing the beginnings of an analogous thing going on in the left wing of the party with the left wing of the Democratic Party now in the second term of president obama, discontent with some of the things he is doing. I think you saw this in the comments just recently on the president s speech wednesday night about isis and military action in the middle east. Their discontent right now that he hasnt followed through on his promise to provide amnesty or legalization to a lot of illegal immigrants, and so theres some discontent in the Democratic Party as well. Host you write in how the g. O. P. Got this way when you have a rush of hundreds of thousands of previously uninvolved people into electoral politics, you get a ertain number of wackos, weirdos and witches but you lso get people that turn out to be serious citizens. Guest i watched in the Tea Party Movement today a lot of oline members of the press 40 years ago were saying those peace people are all crazy weird ose. And indeed some of them seem to be and the liberal press are saying the Tea Party People are just racists and wackos and so forth. Well, you get some odd ducks in the Tea Party Movement, but some gotten in the that get into politics and they actually have pretty good political instincts. They are intelligent people who have strong views. The Tea Party Movement like Peace Movement was concerned not about peripheral matters but the issues of war and peace. The issues of the size and scope of the federal government. Those are pretty fundamental issues. And the views that they took on that are now pal ably ridiculous or uninformed by the facts. You hood people with genuine causes. And so as i look out over the coverage of the Tea Party Movement versus the republican establishment. I think i see something that looks like a familiar phenomenon. I think it sometimes gets exaggerated. We can point to some republican candidates for the u. S. Senate, for example. 2010, 2012, who made unpopular, in politics, statements that were loss or winnable statements. We can look in the future and see the same phenomenon in history going back to the 19701972 cycles. And weve seen this year, mostly the socalled Party Establishment people winning elections. But the Party Establishment now has pretty well internalized by the Tea Party Movement. Its affected with the potential 2016 republican president ial candidates are talking about. And once again, the Peace Movement reshaped the Democratic Party. The Tea Party Movement has done a lot to reshape the Republican Party. Host wild and wonderful tweets into you, the center always holds evently. Why do we give so much attention to the extreme wings and the fringe . Guest well, they sometimes reshape what the center is. Vietnam look at the war 40 years ago. Was the Peace Movement totally crazy to be concerned about the vietnam war and the american role in it . I think you have to say no, even if you think that fundamental effort was waged. No war ever is. If youre looking at the concerns of the Tea Party Movement, the center had a pretty rough time in september of 2008. When we had a financial crisis. Policies that we had followed. President s of both parties had encouraged had encouraged homeownership and incentiveized people to give to people who were not credit worthy. Repaysaid well be able to anyway and the housing prices will never go down. The center was wrong on that. President ut that clinton and bush were wrong n retrospect to encourage giving mortgages to noncredit worthy people. Turned out housing prices can go rush. Ationwide with a so sometimes the senate needs a little correction from the left or from the right. Though the left of the right ostemperous, deluded, or polarized. They have something to contribute to this. Michael barone is our guest. Ere talking about politics in general. And specifically about his recent Washington Examiner piece. Gop got this way. From south g in carolina, democrats line, danny, go ahead. Danny . Caller yes, hello. Air, pleasee on the go ahead. Im a im talking to democrat all the way. Need a higher a person going to 7. 25. N should be 12. 15. Some dont want to get it to 12. Thats why i never vote for for no reason. They dont care nothing about the poor people. Thank you. Guest the minimum wage is in my view one of the old chestnuts that comes back again and again. The First Federal minimum wage law was passed in 1938. Quite a now running on long time ago, nearly 80 years ago. You look at who gets the minimum wage, what you find s the majority of minimum wage earners are not in low income house holds. Be second, third, fourth workers in multiworker house holds that are not in the category. I think if youre looking at ncreasing the incomes of the working low income people, there are more effective ways to do it. Called the earned income tax credit. In part pioneered during president reagans dministration, increased significantly in president clintons administration. It has bipartisan support. Earned income tax credit has a refund to some tax earners when theyre paying their taxes. Money, ant to channel the earned income tax credit or marco riance there on, rubio has been talking about it, has been more effective than wage, which,inimum by the way, doesnt apply in half of the states now because have minimum wages that under state law are higher than the federal minimum. So why do we hear a lot about democratic wage from Party Leaders . Because it polls well. To a put minimum wage slinky. Ill resist that temptation. It kind of raises an interesting question to me. Havent seen i addressed very much by people of either party. Foraps its appropriate now historians instead. 2002, 2003, back in assume president bush that Saddam Hussein was seeking weapons of mass destruction. Answer is he had done so in the past, he had given signs of doing in the future. Not cooperating with things. Tional it wasnt just president bush that did that. Of johnead the comments kerry and previous secretary of state Hillary Clinton, they were thing. The same so was the french and british intelligence. Irresponsiblebeen of any political leader in 2002 that to be assume assured that Saddam Hussein was not seeking weapons of mass destruction. Leaves the question of what should you do about that . Cane are arguments that you dvance from assuming that Saddam Hussein is seeking weapons of mass destruction. You can advance arguments for against action and military action. There are rational ways to make at that e arguments time. But a lot of opportunists in the took up bush lied about weapons of mass destruction. Well, he did not lie. Made the assumption that was made by most people, a essimistic assumption because of the behaviors of the things that we did know about saddam time. In at that it would have been unsafe to assume that there was no drive weapons of mass destruction by that regime. Remains a difficult question just what you do about it. Obama saw president wednesday night grapple with this difficult decision. Is not t obama clearly interest in taking military action in the middle east. Happenis ordered that to anyway because of the events there. Will you comment on the gop leaning out the ron paul, rand paul, tired of roaring supporters from their ranks. Its a good idea for either party to clean out people from their rankles. Liberals in the Democratic Party clearing out people from 40s, that was a good idea. Buckley cleaning out the john Burke Society from the early ranks in the 1960s. That was probably a good idea. Of the interesting phenomenon in the republican been the reemergence hen you have a democratic precedence of shall we say an isolationist, a noninterventionist, a wing of of party that is skeptical military interventions. Ron paul t of the campaign that sparked more in 2012. Democratic president s. The 1990s whenin you had the opposition in the party to the military action of president Clinton Kosovo in the former yugoslavia. Denny point, speaker hastert sought congressional approval, a House Resolution approving that bombing action. And he was unable to get it efforts. His greatest republicans would many republicans would not support it. Think the problem that rand paul faces or ron paul devotees Republican Party right now is that actions in the others, ast taken by taken by enemies of the United States, have weakened for the general public. The argument that you shouldnt there, wheny action persecutions of the iazidies and christians and iraq places, when you see the beheadings of american youtube, on n videotape, an awful lot of mericans will say, this is something that we really cannot put up with. We have to take action against. You notice that senator rand point ofally took that view. The reminiscent of nalysts Walter Russell meads depiction of the jacksonians jackson. Drew the jacksonian strain in the American People consist of a lot of people, the appalachian chains and going to the southwest. The minated throughout country as well take the position they dont want america to intervene. Foreigners are doing this, that, the other thing, they dont care. But if our country is attacked, you. Ll destroy thats the attitude that they have. What interesting senator rand paul seemed to voice in his comments. Host gene calling in from sicklerville, new jersey, line. Ats youre on the air with mr. Barone. Aller your comment about the republicans, one thing ive noticed in the obama the istration is republicans have acted as obstructionists to almost everything. In the e blocked votes house and in the senate. Im very disappointed in the pin that we get from a lot of our commentary. And as a result of that, i chose research the various conservative promises since ronald reagan. Documented the results of those promises in my new book, broken promises of the conservatives. I was astounded to learn just how many things that were being told by the conservative movement that when you look at use acts, and i did not political sources here, i have kept or not en produced what they said they would produce. Well, i would be interested whoee if many conservatives are interested in taking a look at your book. Because you certainly hear from of conservatives that politicians have promised things and they havent delivered. Lot of that from a liberals these days who are most of the frank sherry National Immigration forum who ays president obama told our groups in june that he was going to legalize substantial numbers currently illegal immigrants. And hep hasnt done it by the deadline that his people gave going to do it. So well see about broken promises. On the question of whether or not rep pubs have obstructed verything, you can make an argument along those lines and you can support some you can find some cases to support your proposition. I think that on some issues that are coming up, its really the that hasnt moved very far. The issue of inversions that about, earing corporations merging to others nd seeking domiciles in other countries with lower Corporate Taxes, the president himself identified that problem. On record as saying that states, 35 corporate profits tax, the highest are a least of world, or at any advanced country, needs to be taken down. We need to eliminate some of the irrational exceptions, loopholes had to that Corporate Tax and get that down. Hes head charment of the house ways and means committee. Dave camp, the republican finance of the senate bachus democrats, working towards the goal, weve anything from treasury, the white house, in terms of the negotiations for the move for this. Weve just see trying to pillar company for ng merging with the canadianbased canadian taking domicile. It has about the same dollar forth as sales and so i understand it or by some criterion its about as big a burger king. He were going to somehow punish Companies Going back to 1994 who did these transactions . Well, the constitution bands ex post facto legislation. We cant tution says really go back to you and say, actually, were going to tax higher 4 income at a rate. We want more of your money now. So i think thats been the part of the president. Irresponsible in terms of the goals that he set for Corporate Tax reform. Is calling in from erie, pennsylvania which, republican line, laura, go ahead. Good morning, gentlemen. I just wanted to ask mr. Barone of the lt that one highest priorities should be for 2016 to attract hispanic votes. Dohink the number one way to that is to get a conservative marco c candidate like rubio and ted cruz and just conservative values can attract hispanics, its not good for only hispanics but blacks and whites and everyone. Mantra if hillary is going to be the first lady candidate to run in 2016, we conservative he view that hispanics can be rallied around. And we need to do that. Limbaugh said on his program earlier this week something about the democrats to run hillary. Then theyre going to run an hispanic in 2020. To trump that and say weve got excellent hispanic. Our party wants to do this reason they won in 2008 and 2012, theres a wide spread of the country that general proposition would be a good aing for the company to elect black president. Theres some americans who would not vote for a black under nip circumstances. My judgment i dont think you can find a quantification, evidence that either refuses this or supports it, totally. My judgment is that it worked in president obamas favor. Not sure its going to work as someone who te, would be the first woman. Im not sure if it will work for somebody who would be the first, quote, hispanic. Have national plausible leaders of the cruz of background, ted texas, marco rubio of florida, two of the four largest states. Youve got the republican and ispanic governor, nevada and new mexico, two target states in president ial elections. Poll data doesnt suggest that cruz or rubio in that home states ohher matter Brian Sandoval in nevada are doing e state particularly better than other republicans among, quote, voters. C not sure why thats the case exactly. As some to say conservative analysts do that are conservatives. The argument is theyre catholic, theyre going to be abortion and so forth. Think thats not really an accurate de description of the voters in this country whom we label e under the hispanic. And people come from various different backgrounds. People are mexican or puerto rican backgrounds are not ecessarily going to be attracted by somebody like ted cruz or senator rubio, both of from cuban backgrounds. Have families with quite a different history of involvement in the United States and immigration there too. I dont think no, maam nalting an hispanic candidate is much of a cureall for republicans as the caller suggests. That might be the case. The data suggests to me now that its not. Host from how the gop got this writes, a l barone Republican Party that goes beyond being transfixed by past has a the chance to search cooperatively and with respectful disagreement along the way with policies that address genuine problems in line conservative principles, policies that can prove politically attractive, legislateively feasible, and effective in governance. Guest thats ive given them a hard task to perform there. Often said that, you know, im looking for candidates for resident, candidates for governor. Some extent, candidates for congress. Candidates for position. Its hard to do and what few of them do successfully is come up Party Platform that are things that they believe in, or most of them are issues that voters believe are important. They can set and issue positions that can work for they will in the primary, work for general election, work for them governing. To do. Hard i can make the case that president bill clinton did that cycle and there after, though there were bumps in the road. Clinton Health Care Plan being rejected and not being successful, for example. A case that george w. Bush did that with the education the bush tax cuts, which were substantial and had bipartisan support. Max bachus, the chairman of the supporting ittee them with the Medicare Prescription Drug bill that parts of markets in health care and financing in be interesting precedence for further changes in health care legislation. The argument e that both president clinton and resident bush did that to some extent. I would make the argument that president obama has not done as that. Job of elected with a larger majority and percentage orn either president clinton bush but less specific in the way of the program, more in the uplifting irational rhetoric which is not is successfully into Public Policy as the preceding two president s did. May disagree, but thats how i see it. Hats i think the republicans now have an opportunity you might say an obligation to the voters to of the United States to come up with policies. Candidates that can present policies that work in the primary, work in the general enelection. Governing policies. Marian in chicago, thanks for holding, youre on with Michael Barone. Make one want to statement and one point. As far as the minimum wage is what i dont understand is Everything Else is world. Up in the prices, everything. Should go imum wage up too. And the congress always gives themselves raises. Make a lot of y money. So i dont see whats wrong with mproving on the minimum wage that it would help middle class too. Le a lot guest the minimum wage, the caller is correct in saying it middle complasz house holds because most minimum are not low income house holds. Second or third or fourth higher income house holds. Raising the minimum wage is not efficient way to channel more oney to low earners, to lower income house holds. She raises an interesting isnt there t why an inflation adjustment in the wage . Um chi isnt there a why doesnt he minimum wage automatically go up with by some inflation factor. Indexed. It some state minimum wages, i believe, are indexed to inflation. Up automatically. I think one reason it isnt is hat the politicians mostly but who back mocrats minimum wage increases want to get credit for increasing it themselves. If they put it on index it to then they wont get credit the next time it goes up. Polls at a 70 positive level. So you want to look around and 70 positive rating, particularly when your party is otherwise not doing well with the voters. Have the 70 issues theyll try to tap into when they get desperate for something. Caller know, the the said its not going up. Were in a period we havent had a lot of inflation. Weve had some increase in the food costs. No distressful inflation currently. But weve had a period where wages have not been rising very substantially. Before the ck even financial crisis of 2007, 2008. Something that some that some democrats have been talking about. Ts something that some republican potential president ial candidates have been talking about in trying to look for public policies. That would encourage wage growth people who are making low, so that those wages robust growth than they have in recredibility years. Host a republican in hudson, ahead, george. Caller good morning, how are you. Host good. Admirer of a great yours. I read all of your articles that ome out in the examiner guest oh, terrific. Caller i got one question, one statement. The fellow who wrote the novel, sure it will be in the fiction section. My question, the 2012, i saw karl rove go crazy. That romney was going to win the election. Something went drastically wrong. Working for him and the crowds that came to see him around the area was amazing. Well, biden biden, couldnt get any crowds. Just wondering, what deep what in the figures that you found, what do you think has that election that was something that went drastically wrong. I dont understand. Im one of those on record who predicted that mitt romney would be elected president. In recent years. 2004, turnout d went from 105 million in 2000 to in 2004 with the ame republican candidate, george w. Bush, with two democrats that were similarly positioned on issues. Al gore and john kerry. Saw it go up in 2008. A lot of that is turnout by the machine or spontaneous enthusiasm for the first black president ial candidate or on other obama grounds. Goes down to 126 million in 2012. I wonder whether were going to decline and turnout in the off year elections, 2014, weve primaries. S in many the question is who turns out. Enough Republican Voters turned out in 2012. That might have been an organizational failure. Looks to be like there wasnt the inspiration for them 2012 as they n there had been in 2004. From how the gop got this way. Michael barone writes theres no apparent for the Republican Party. Guest there isnt. Theres a proposition that republicans nominate the next line. N you know, its Richard Nixon nominating as dwight eisenhower. Nixon is the vice president. Gerald ford is nominated. The incumbent president. Ronald reagan, second. In 1980. Nated george bush came in second in 1980, nominated in 88, etc. , etc. No number two y candidate right now. To the e looking back santorum ran, rick some close races against mitt romney in 2012. But i dont think anybody really thinks Rick Santorum is the next in line. Ccain is not running. Mitt romney is not running. Race for the republicans has been since 1940. They had few Seasoned Office holders because the Republican Party lost most this countryons in n the 1930s, unlike 1940, the republicans had quite a few eople in government, few responsibilities in a have been advancing intellectually serious Public Policy positions. The battle of ideas. Many potential president ial nominees. See how the contest goes. Beverly,call comes from herckford, north carolina. Caller mr. Barone, listening to your Opening Statements concerning the tea party. Are really a true cheerleader for the ultra conservative group. A me, the tea party is just continuation of the ku klux klan. At least i see that here in north carolina. They ride around with the flag and whatever. Tea party group are for a State Government because the tates views toward race equal theirs. Look at all of the tea party to do with race. Theyve become very obvious, not but after the election of the first black president. Host we got your point. Response from Michael Barone. Ku klux klan was an offshoot of the Democratic Party. F you go back in history, the Democratic Party opposed Abraham Lincoln in the civil war which the freeing of the slaves, which launched the ku 70s,lan in the 1860s and and president ulysses s. Grant, president , sent federal troops to the south to protect the rights of black citizens. My view, he from was unsuccessful, the democratic substantial pluralities in elections in 1874 76 and the troops were removed and you had democratic arty politicians removed black voters from the voting rolls, prevented them from voting. Law the segregation laws that not only existed in the south and protected those long time. The 1920s, the 1924 democratic ational convention, one of the most divisive issues there was a platform plank condemning the ku klan. Decided by Something Like four votes oh it of 2,000 votes. The Democratic Party was split ku t down the middle on the klux klan. Any serious favors person in american politics. Avors segregation like George Wallace of alabama, the Democratic National committeeman who sicked the Police Officers and fire hoses on the peaceful birmingham in n 1963. No one favors that kind of segregation in american Politics Today. The tea party doesnt favor it. The left wing of the democratic it. Ty doesnt favor nobody does. A good thing segregation has passed way from the political scene. Of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, its good and i think hen its good legislation now. Nd the Voting Rights of 1965 was hugely and successful in obtaining drastic legislative needed to enable black americans to vote in every jurisdiction of the country. Steps forward and i dont see anybody on the scene that wants to take a step lived in to where we the past. This way. The gop got this is Michael Barones recent examiner. Com. Ton thank you for being on the washington journal. Thank you. Were going to go about an hour south of indianapolis and be joined by lee hamilton, of the 9 11 hair commission. Longtime member of congress. Foreign hair of the affairs committee. While in congress, he teaches at ndiana university where hes the director of the center on congress. Hell be joining us in a minute. Sally mason, president of the university of bus continuesspan the big 10 tour. Youre watching the washington journal on cspan. Were excited to announce its launch week for the 11th nnual student cam documentary contest. 100,000 in cash prizes will be middle and year to High School Contest winners. This years team is the broadest and the three branches you. Wed like for you to tell a story that demonstrates how action by aw, or an either the executive, legislative, or judicial ranches of the federal government has affected you and your life or your community. Ompetition is open to students 6 through 12. Students may work alone or up to three. 5 to e asked to produce a 7minute documentary supporting heir topic and to include some cspan programming. The 100,000 in cash prizes will to 150 students and to 53 teacher and the grand prize best overall e entry will win 5,000. January 20, 2015 and winners will be announced in march. Www. Studentcam. Org for more information on this years the three branches and you. Host served as the vice chair of the 9 11 commission and runs on congress at Indiana University. Congressman hamilton, when you watched the president on as a former ht, member of congress, did he make your view that we need to take action against isis . Guest i think he began to make the case. A complicated question, of course. Out with positions that were quite clear in some areas. Military strikes, for example. I still think there are a lot of questions to be asked about the strategy and how its going to implemented. One component of a strategy that i think was entirely missing. That seems to me to be the ideas. Led war on isis is fundamentally an ideology. It will be hard to destroy. Have destroyed ideologies in itsast, naziism, fascism, taken a lot of effort. It has to be accompanied by an affirmative message that appeals to the good judgment of the vast muslims. Of i want to see not just a military component, an ntelligence component, and economic component, but i want to see a strategy that has an appeal toe message to the good instincts of so many people in that part of the world. Youve got to fight an ideology with a better ideology. We clearly have that when you about isis. Host its been 10 Years Since Commission put out their report. And one of the recommendations the u. S. Does not act aggressively to find itself in the islamic world, the u. S. For us. Do it have we been successful in identifying ourselves . Guest weve been successful with good people, moderate democratic, small d minded people in that region of the world. Voices have not prevailed. They have not been successful in appeal. Isis an theyve been remarkably successful, really, in their extremists. E and getting their support. They seem to have an unending supply of those people coming to their banner. To dove got a lot of work in this area, i believe, in order to prevail. Militaryrly you need a the financial is component is very important isis. G to cut off theyve been success informal that area as well. The diplomatic political side of is important. Were trying to put together this coalition now. And as the papers are reporting morning, were having some trouble with that. Its an important part of the strategy. Dont win a battle or by other steps, youre going have to have a coalition of forces on the ground. Its not clear to me at this whos going to be putting on the ground for combat purposes. Were going to have to do it but nobody seems to be stepping up point in te at this time. Host if you would put on your congressional hat for a minute, a role for congress has the president consulted enough with congress . On ld Congress Take a vote this . Or can the president act unilaterally . Guest my position is extreme here. The thought to go to war should e shared by the president and the congress. Of course, in the past, that preference of mine has often violated. Today, the congress has been so timid and deferential to the regard to the use of military force, not just today, but going back for a good many years. Hat congress has not been playing major role in the the ous decision that president makes, to start fighting. I think youre better off in the acts in a the country united way that the president and Congress Comes together. You can argue that either way. You can argue it around and you can argue it flat. President s in the end are going to do what they want to do, what they think is the best protect the o National Interests to the United States. To congress ought to get in the action. When you have a situation like a little time to figure it out. Robust ress should ask questions about exit strategy and how to put the it together and all or the rest of it. Out of that i think will come a better policy. Thats the whole idea of debate and discussion. Thats why we ought to proceed the way the s congress ought to act. And it should act on this decision. My guess is that the president will argue that he has the he ateral authority, which probably has. Hell see a lot of problems in going to the congress. Congress will find reasons not them dont want to cast the vote for a variety of reasons, so well go back. Recent ve done in the past which really lets the president decide whether or not militarily and how you intervene. I think thats getting away from the constitutional idea of a shared decision by the congress and the president on this on this question of intervention. If youre a democrat, 3881 for republicans, 2025853882 if youre independent. We try to educate the people on the role of congress and a Representative Democracy. Have a Representative Democracy unless the congress lives up to the responsibilitieses so im very oncerned about the deferential attitude about congress on the questions of war powers and on things. Nd many other so we want to strengthen the congress by, i hope, being a onstructive critic of the congress and letting people know how important this institution f the congress is under our constitutional system. Virginia, y, mclean, on with lee hamilton. Mr. R first of all, hamilton, i admired how clearly discussed ately you issues. I love maybe an academic like the ideaat i of a war of ideas. Isis e given that the people are enraged and all. Would wonder what placate this. In that i believe its true that the borders of syria and iraq artificially created after i mean, it just father used to say was being ever mindful of needs of others. The sunnis and the shiahs have hating each and other for thousands of years. Be possible for them to just let let the sunnis have their areas, the shiahs their areas. Lucy, thank ght, you. Lee hamilton . Guest well, i think the she ioner is correct points out that the conflicts in are deep seeded. They go back not years, centuries. Shiahs, the sunnis, the the kurds, and so forth. But its a multiple sectarian divide in the middle east that makes things very, ery complicate in that region of the world. Me this argues for some restraint in what we try to do. I dont want to pull back and go isolationist mode here. On the other hand, we have to act with great, great caution. Much, no ly do so matter how strong, no matter how good we are. Er how in correcting the problems of the middle east. And as she suggests in the call, fundamentally take responsibility for resolve their own problems. We want to help to the extent that we can. But we cant solve these problems for them. Deep seeded with deep animosities in the region. Host jack, democrats line, go your question or comment. Caller yeah, i would like to know from the representative, ive not heard from anybody but maybe john mccain and graham, what exactly do this count stand in country or our governing body, winning a war . Not understand the mindset of the muslims, i dont care if theyre an individual group or they want to annihilate christianity. Thats what it boils down to. In ancient ook back ruling you see where didnt sit around and say maybe, and if. In to re directed to go annihilate and the same attitude that the muslims have taken. Any way you them muslims ists or no, it doesnt look that way. Its no different than vietnam war. The gulf you commit to a belief, you stand behind it. Host congressman . Guest the president has said we want to destroy isis. Now, its fair to ask the question what kind of instruments tools is he going to use . What kind of resources is he prepared to spend . Lives is he prepared to put on the line in order to destroy isis. Had great military victories in world war ii and preceding. Had since that time have ambiguous results. Partially this is because as the said, we havent rought to bear the full military power of the United States. We have held back, we have used way. Tary force in a limited thats been the choice of all of our president s. For multiple reasons. To destroy is how isis. Thats the operative question today. Ne thing is we have to make clear what kind of resources we are prepared to bring to the achieve the objective of destroying isis. Whats that going to take in military action, in terms of diplomatic action, in erms of propaganda, public relations, if you would, fighting the ideological war. Prepared to do. And what are others prepared to do to defeat and destroy isis . Thats the big question on the table for me at least right now. By no means clear that we are resources he put the in, needed to achieve the if you e of destroyingf look at the press today, its a lot of the at arab countries have drilled down the strategy and giving lip Service Support but not forward. To come even our european friends, germany said theyre not going to engage in air strikes. The uk is saying theyre going to consider it. Is you see this phenomenon once again of the United States being eft out there by itself to carry the full burden. Now another aspect that needs to carefully. At thats the socalled backlash problem. Has the power advantages, becomes necessary very, very often in conflicts around the world. A backlash to it. Hen you bomb an area, you may destroy a lot of facilities. People, kill a lot of but you also raise a lot of nger, very deep seeded hate rhe atred of the people doing the bombing. That has consequences down the road. One of the reasons that the isis been so popular in getting the extremists to come to their anger because of the that exists against the united west. S and the reasons. Iety of you have to be conscious of the military power. It sounds easy that you can solve the problem with the military power alone. Cannot. It takes more than that. Host lee hamilton served in 1965 do 1999. In that time frame, he was chair f the Foreign Affairs committee, chair of the intelligence committee, chair 9 11 the vice chair of the commission. Hes also a cochair along with iraq study of the group in 2006. Mr. Hamilton, would we be this today if we had not invaded iraq in 2003 . Knows . Who you can argue it any way you want to. If there had been a decision in the United States not to try to itself militarily in these regions but to let them sort out their own problems, my be but its nothing more than a guess that we would not be facing the kind of problems that we had today. We might be facing a whole other et of problems, but not the precise kinds we have today. I must say, i get a little maybe mpatient and probably i should not, but i get a little mpatient with the analysis of the recent past because you can either way. Whats important at the moment is to figure out what to do with isis and to try to think forward to move ahead on that question, learn from the we can, but focus on the future and the resolve the isis ems of the future and is certainly in that category. Host alvin in brooklyn on our line. Ndent thanks for holding. Youre on the air with lee hamilton. Morning. Good thanks for your broadcast. I wonder, why couldnt we if done, have eady intelligence among isis, even as they are, and also isnt there a continuum of the religion theyre fighting for in a continuum there down to more moderate moderate elements of that religion. Theyre destroyed, isnt it like cutting off the rainbow at the blue. Ost i want to flow up that callers comments with lauras tweet. She asks war on terror kill diplomacy . Guest i hope it did not kill diplomacy. I want to go to the callers about intelligence. Because i think intelligence is the key to so many things that we do now. Years ago, our intelligence was limited, what was the power of the soviet union to do this, or the other. Today our policy makers want to know everything about the enemy friends we spy upon as we learned in recent weeks. Broadly used. E is isis presented a very tough target for the intelligence community. Of them an keep track with a lot of fancy technological devices. Get the movements and all of the rest of it. But penetrating an Extremist Group is very, very hard to do. You cant do it with a guy like me. Midwesterner with a crew cut and so forth. You have to use people who are who look the language, like they look like, whose may not be in all respects perfect from our point of view. Tough intelligence target. We have had some success. Were getting better. Keep in mind, in the middle groups that e many do not like the United States and wish us ill. Easy to not always identi identify through intelligence is going to rise to cause us the most trouble. Look at isis. There arent Many Americans that isis. Ell you the leader of we learned about it a few weeks ago. Its been in the paper a few or on television. We cant even decide what to call them. We have a debate going on on the over here whether its isis or isil or some other name. Very new group that is suddenly popped up here and verybody says, why didnt our intelligence let us know about this . Have a lot of groups to keep their eye upon. Number of assets in the intelligence communities. Very tough targets. Easy. Things are not now, diplomacy is going to have to play a big role in all of this down the line. I hope there are always as ersations Going Forward to how you can minimize conflict. To ooks very hard right now see any way to negotiate a with isis. I cant see how that can be done given the positions they have taken. Doesnt mean you give up on diplomacy. There are groups out there that ill have more influence with isis than we have. Nd we may have to work through those groups. May be possible that some kind of a diplomatic resolution opens up an avenue. Now that has to be used in military force. Military force and diplomacy have to go handinhand and they to work together. One, probably, by itself can solve the problem. Necessary. E host fred, auburn, new york on the republican line. Go ahead for your question or to lee hamilton. Caller thank you for the program. T seems to me and reminded yesterday that people forget in people tes over 3,000 thousands of jobs were lost. And everybody says we dont know who to fight because we didnt know what to call them. Isis. Ou said, its now theyre still muslims. Theyre still the only thing somebody thatd is teddy nger and like roosevelt said, speak softly, but carry a big stick. And someone ready to use it. Think were ready to use it any longer like we did in germany. Ike we did in the only thing they finally nderstood was somebody thats going to stop them and stop them now. Hamilton. Guest ive indicated of course that the caller did that the military force is an important of the equation here. Have some considerable her hesitation, however, in condemning the entire islamic of d as some of the words the caller suggests. There are many wonderful muslim the e, islamic people in world. Itss be in large a very attractive religion. I dont know what the numbers are. But they have an enormous following. Ell over 1 billion people in the world today. Its been a peaceful religion for many aspects of it. Al qaeda asisis and being an extreme fringe of the by most not followed of the adherents of the religion. Fringe, its tant caused great problems. Isis, al regime, committing some horrific acts, and something we have to respond to. But i dont think it represents main stream islam today. We have to be careful. This , i think to solve problem, we are going to need down the line of some of the islamic muslim world. Some of the friends in the weve had many and have had over the a period of years. Hamilton, been years since the 9 11 commission released the report. What changed in the world for better and not so much for the better . Guest lets look at the success weve had. To success lots of ways measure whats happened since 9 11. Important way to measure casualties have we had . Weve had nothing to compare with the 3,000 people that one mentioned a s moment ago that were killed on that horrible day. Traumatic day st in the history of our country. We have been successful in blocking, defeating mass attacks United States. The record is good. The record is not perfect. The Boston Marathon case, the hood shootings, other instances, and a number of close calls of much lesser strikes. So people kind of forget that of the efforts that we have made, reorganizing a new ent, creating department of government, making screening go through at airports. Every state and local government focused on homeland security. We spend millions and millions of dollars. Maybe its not well spent. Weve been reasonably successful in our efforts. Now, have we made enough terrorism . O fight no, we have not. There are some things that deeply. E or example, at the site of the disaster, the First Responders must be able to communicate with one another. Thats common sense. The police have to talk to the Fire Department and the Fire Department have to talk to the Health Care People and all of rest of it as these heroic to the sponders come scene. They cant do that. 9 11. De progress on complicated, technical in nature ometimes, but we have not developed a seamless way of conversing by the first esponders at the scene of a disaster. Likewise, someone at a disaster has to be in charge. A commander. O have that commander has to make decisions fast. Relating to all kinds of things, people, ood to sanitation, security, transportation, housing, the list goes on and on and on. Whos in charge at the scene makes all of the difference. Some of the decisions will be made wrong. They will have to be made quickly. We do not have to resolve the whos in charge. Metropolitan areas in the scene of the disaster. Intelligence is better. Being shared better. Eve opportunity a lot to protect our transportation ystem and other key systems of our society. But the people of the united safer than nk are they were on before 9 11. Not safe enough. Needs to be ress made. We live in a dangerous world. Host lee hamilton and tom ccain who served as chair wrote who appeared in the wall street journal and the threat of cybersecurity. Threat of the wall street journal. Dave tweets to you, mr. Lee hamilton ank trying to get r 911 Commission Reports declassified so the public can be informed. Guest mmhmm. Thats important to us. The commission didnt control the question of classification of the materials it collected. Thats done by the executive branch. I want all of the 9 11 materials record. N the public they should be. I dont see any reason to classify him. Host chris, buffalo, democrat, ahead. Caller yes, it seems to me that actually want a kuwait. The first war in and we actually paid for that war. Bush senior raised taxes. Voted out of got office. Do you think the republicans the congress now would actually want to pay for do now instead of running us back into debt . Guest well, im a Firm Believer of paying bills on a current basis. That. Ent done we like to get into the wars, pay the battles, not bills and let the debt pile up. Thats not a good way to run the country. We should run way the United States. So if youre going to fight a out and pay for it one way or the other. A very important component of the strategy we were talking in the program. How do we pay for it . Shared the burden of doing the fighting. A easy thing for anybody to sit back in the armchair. Vote for militarily intervene. The people who bare the burden decision are very, very few people. Volunteers for sure. Percentage of the American People so that the burden of fighting war in terms casualties, in terms of fatalities is carry bid a very few people. The question to of military intervention, sometimes its an easy political vote saying thats for the American People all for the exercise of military power. The defeat tore win or whatever they were doing. Votes with the heavy heart. Because i recognize that while lee hamill top was silting in chambers in the United States house of conditionedves, air and nice office and all the rest, good meal every night, go to bed in a nice bed and getting a solid dinner going through all of the comfort of america like voting to send people into war and even then they were there voluntarily. Caused me a deep concern. No matter what the International Equities may have been at the time. And you can make a strong case of intervention. By the peopleried on the battlefield is highly significant. Nd we have to have a consideration when ever we make the decision. Were going go to war, were militarily intervene, lets think about the people out. Have to carry it host are there similarities to the vietnam era when you first in the iraq era when your service ended . Similarities and differences. As the media began to report from vietnam, you saw the fullbright hearings and the congress begin to make a full active role in that war. People turned against the war. And eventually we pulled out of vietnam. A very, very different situation for sure. Every war has the similarities, previous wars in some differences. Went in to thewe under george bush after why they were still fighting with afghanistan and we went in in a powerful way, made a lot of progress in a short period of militarily. Ground but, of course, did not begin to resolve the internal problems on ground there. Both instances, they played a executive ole in the branch in making the decision to go in. Centerville, massachusetts, five minutes with our guests. Go ahead. Caller good morning, representative. Two questions. The first question is and im birther, a 9 11 truther. I just want to know the Building Seven, did hat question come up in how it collapsed during the commission . Didnt, why not . Guest Building Seven was a ajor focus of our investigation. Building seven was not one of it really big towers, but was a substantial building, i think, 30, 40 stories high. Collapsed, not hit directly by the airplanes. And there was a huge debate, debate as to why that building collapsed. We on the commission were not engineers. Certainly not experts on why buildings collapsed. We consulted s with the engineers of the country. Besthey came up with their judgment as to why that building went down. I dont remember all the details. Was an basic part of it intense heat developed within the building. Sprinkler systems did not work. And such intense heat buildup eventually lding collapsed. Now a lot of people have been 9 11 ng into that since commission reported. They had a lot of criticism of the commission because they we explored it properly. We did what we could do. We consulted the exports. Experts. And experts often disagree with each other. I think that debate continues. Explanationsnds of as to why Building Seven collapsed. An expert tend to be on that. Some of the ideas put forward dont make a lot of sense to me. No engineer and i dont know much about architecture. But we took the word of the best advice we could get and they gave the reason we spelled out detail in the report. Host whats your response to those folks. Segment on this program on Building Seven and some of the conspiracy theories 9 11. Ding but whats your general response to folks who think 9 11 was an preplanned . R guest i just dont think theres very much evidence for it. Good bit of evidence for what we found. Charged with the responsibility of determining how this happened. And the rest of it. We wrote it in a best seller in this country. I think that story has basically held up. There are a lot of people who the agree with all of facts of it. At the end of the day, you cant just theorize here. Have to bring forth hard facts. Every morning, hundreds of would come in with suggestions of what should be done, what should not be done. Things best h the you can with limited staff and the best uggestions you can based on the circumstances. I think we got it right on the evidence we had. Evidence may develop in years ahead to change some part of our story. I dont think it has thus far. We basically got it right. To get hard facts as to what happened on that day. Vista, eorge in belle california. Go ahead. Caller you talked about the ate thats brought about by bombing. What i dont understand. Live with ople who you have a group that you either join, submit to, or youre going to die. If you bomb that group or other people are killed, how can you to the fact that dresden, hiroshima, were ki, those items brought about by the bombing. Those wars and stopped them fast. And you were doneught there. Go ahead, congressman. I think everybody favors air ing the damage done by strike strikes. Powerful s can be tools. They do sometimes. Have unintended consequences. He United States military goes to great extremes to try to damage casualties of innocent people. You dont want to i dont caller t least, the disagrees, you dont want to kill hundreds and hundreds of after t people as you go 10, 15, 20 bad guys. The military force has to be with discrimination and not just with abandon. Host if so many are unhappy why do they , continue to reelect their congressman. Guest because the members of congress have all kinds of advantages. Advantages are innumerable. They understand if people dont like the congress so incumbents against the un congress and separate themselves from the congress. Any voices speaking up to favor the congress at all. Sport e favorite indoor of america to criticize the congress. But members of congress have massive mailing privileges. Kinds of staff to work and help develop in district. Of their a lot constituents. They have great advantages with media. To the use of the and so you always have these olls showing the people dont like the congress and they reelect the Congress Almost yearafteryear. They do it again this year. Its because of the advantages incumbent has. I think it needs to be equalized myself. But not everybody agrees with that. I want to see more competitive elections in this country. Had nk the reason weve this extreme polarization in merican politics because so many congressional districts and ven states have become noncompetitive. And i think the election, the the the middle rather than extremes of the american electorate are represented. In the great question takenan Politics Today is over. Thats why you have the polarization of the congress today. Lets get back to the system where the representatives represent all americans. Not just a few of them. Have you invited them to come out and speak to your center. Guest be glad to have either one of them. Ost lee hamilton, former representative, former vice chair of the 9 11 commission. As always, we appreciate you being on the washington journal. Guest thank you. One more segment. This is from iowa. Going to iowa city to the iowa in a minute as the cspan bus continues its 10 tour. This is the washington journal. Here are a few of the comments that we have received the viewers. Caller im an owner. Cable recall on the Steering Wheel can air bag to come out and hit me. I am nervous about it. They put my v. I. N. Number on the letter. No dealership knows about it. Watched the question iing ms. Barra, mary barra. Its very interesting. Is mentioning my problem problem. And i am looking for help on this. Caller ive been watching this on this gm starter. Its sad that gm keeps making products, their products. Mr. Bruton asked that question, how many parts are out there not the specs and theyre still letting it go. How a ceo cannot they danced tion around the question. So i think youre doing a great job. Caller switching the channels around. Noticed the gm ignition switch recall. Nd first of all, they had ms. Barra on, the representative from gm. I thought it was over with. Nd i came back and i found out they were now talking to david highway National Traffic safety administrator whos the acting administrator. To me, sitting on my sofa seeing two s, im people who were basically set up. The s far as representatives go asking these for ions, i feel so sorry them. They are note getting the answers that they need and its simply because theres a coverup. Gm should be fined. Hey have proven that theyre liars. They have proven that money was peoples rtant than lives. And the same with the highway traffic traffic. People are inhese charge of watching over us and making sure were safe. Let us know what you think about the programs. 2026263400. Email at comments cspan. Org. A tweet cspan comments. Follow us on twitter, like us on facebook. Wa joufrnl continues. Washington journal continues. Host interviewing University President s giving you a chance to talk to University President s. This is a cspan bus tour. Morning the cspan bus is in iowa city, iowa at the university of iowa and joining from the bus is the President University of iowa, sally mason. That been the president of University Since 2007. President mason, begin by whats the budget for the university of iowa, the annual budget. Revenues derive from . The total budget for the iowa is 3. 4 million. We have a Large Medical Center includinge operation, a big hospital. Its a big budget. Absolute ly absolutely. Its one that continues to grow Natural Disaster in 2008, a flood that impacted us significantly and were from. Ring were recovering in fine fashion with nearly 1 billion of construction going on in iowa right now. The education budget is 680 million and 220 million of this come trillions the state of iowa and the rest comes from tuition. Resident is going to pay about 8,000 a year to attend the university of iowa. Resident going to pay 28,000. Hy that discrepancy between instate and out of state . Instate bviously the students are subsidized by appropriations from the state of iowa. Always s in iowa have valued education very, very highly. Here in this state and were pleased and proud of that. And that continues to be the case. Or out of state students, we know, as a state university, out of state students need to pay the full cost of their education, hence the difference between the in state and out of state rates. Host you have proposed a degree, back laureate degree, havent you . Instead of a fouryear bachelor . Guest i have. Words about few that. One of the things that we ocused on in the seven years ive been here are Student Success and affordability. Priority ts a high for me. I was a first generation of college student. To t student in my family attend for college. It was a stretch for us to pay for college. Have a great deal of sympathy for students who are struggling and looking for ways to attend cost them t dont everything they have. So in terms of trying to make college affordable, we know are a number of ways we can do things. Degree. Year a threeyear degree not going to be for every student. Highly motivated serious. Include Summer School and we have a summer hawk tuition allow students in this threeyear program to attend Summer School for free. This will hasten their progress hope. Ds their degree we obviously complete in three years and be able to join the orkforce after that time or perhaps go on to graduate and professional school. E have a lot of great graduate and professional programs here that we encourage students to consider. Whats been the response so far for students, parents, faculty . Guest we Just Announced it this week. Were still in the process of the degree programs that this likely applies to. E want to make sure this applies to degree programs that are quite sought after by students. Degree programs that will likely be included for this the tunity for students in future. Host going to put the numbers up. K we divided the numbers against students, parents, and educators. You can see them there, theres the university of iowa, 2025853880 for students. 5853881 for parents. Educators, 5853882. We have set aside our fourth line this morning b for iowa especially you graduated from the university of iowa, weed like to get your perspective as well. 2025853883. An y mason, how i read rticle that youve secured or come to the agreement with the State Government to put a tuition freeze on for a couple years. How much work how much influence does the state of iowa and that government have on how how you function . Of well, the state board regents which governs all three of the public universities in the governing s authority. They have a great deal of authority when it comes to and policy and so forth. Theyre an important governing state obviously. Theyre appointed by the governor. Citizens of idual the state of iowa generally that have a great deal of interest in Higher Education and a passion for helping us maintain a very here educational system in the state. Its its always something on. Always something going i have to say, theyve been of our ry supportive moves towards threeyear degrees. Maker continued efforts to colleges affordable as we can, especially for iowa residents. Host is it worth a College Education to come out of four college and have 50,000 in student debt . Thats a lot of student debt. I have to say our students of our egin with 40 students graduate with zero debt, which is something that pleased and proud about. And then of the remaining tudents who do graduate with debt on average, their student debt might be in the 25,000, 26,000 a year range. This is this is something that we watch very carefully. Can actually monitor that amount of money and know how we of that debt is what call true needbased debt versus how much of that debt might be perhaps life style. And about half of that 26,000 needbased debt. Thats actually what the students and their families need be able to attain that College Education, that college degree. Now, is it worth it . That price, its absolutely worth it. I can remember graduating from 1972 with about 3,000 in student debt, which at that time was about the price of a car. An average car. Again, our students are graduating with a debt level for the most part that is very manageable. Counselors here. We encourage every student and family before they enroll to sit advisors our financial and our Financial Aid officers a plan that would allow them to go to college, not occurred debt that obviously would be impossible for them to deal with. Thats not the way we should do Higher Education today . What is the career track . Phd. In n purdue, a cellular and molecular biology at the university of arizona. Whats the career track for a College President . Uest well, im not sure theres a career track for a College President. Ranks as a the professor. Once i got to college, the joke was once she got there, left. Ever my familys concern, still there, still there. Still in t im college. It doesnt cost anybody any money anymore. Good thing. Bly a my career track probably would ave been what would have been typical for a College President. I came up through the ranks assistant an professor. Ook on administrative jobs ape long the way including serving as a department head, dean of a and provost at Purdue University before having the privilege to serve now in last seven plus years as the president of the university of iowa. My big ten roots are strong. Perhaps that comes from my mothers roots from going back to indiana. Job. Sally mason, your how much time is spent fundraising. How much time is spent being the administrat administrator, etc. , etc. . The job of a College President today is very, very different from a couple of years ago. Midst of a Large Capital campaign, the largest in the history of the state of iowa, certainly the largest in history of the university of the process of raising 1. 7 billion in the state of iowa, forever more campaign. About 1. 3 billion on the way to 1. 7 billion. A lot of that money is being raised to provide scholarships students, to provide professorships, infrastructure, the excellence of the university of iowa to continue well on in to the future. It. Joy to be able to connect with so many alumni, literally all across alumni the country and around the world who have a passion for the who have of iowa and been so generous in giving back to us. I spend probably half of my time fundraising and half of my time in administrative activities, in activities. I try to remain active in the number of organizations that are to Higher Education. Important to the university of iowa. Its important to be important world. Rest of the attendees are ge women. Of College President s are women . Uest we have room for improvement there. I tell the story of young women the chance to interact with today when i was coming through college and a ophomore in college taking organic chemistry, i was one of organic en in an chemistry class. One or two students in this class. We were obvious. Row d to sit in the front all the time because the instructor would know if we were there or not there. Us by name, not surprisingly. Today, you wouldnt see that. Chemistry rganic class would be much more heterogeneous in terms of the of gender, in terms and frankly in terms of diversity. Diversity is really what a lot focus our attention on. Theres r of women, still room for growth there. Opportunities in a we miss sometimes with women and the talent that they can bring to workforce in virtually every freshman. And Higher Education is no different. Its great to see the number of young women pursuing Higher Education today. Excites me a great deal. We have wonderful engineering programs here in the University Iowa and im proud of the engineering programs having spent a number of years as at Purdue University known for the engineering, the ngineering programs here, almost a quarter of our students are women. Thats actually unusual in the engineering programs today. If i look at the the of the young women, our retention rates and our etion rates as wellals placement rates for the young omen who attain those degrees are very, very high. 98 . Rds to 92 to that is tremendous. Bodes well for the future. Well be well served if we continue to grow these numbers, it be minorities or women in the underserved areas. This is your chance to talk with a major University President. We divided our lines a little bit differently. Were going to put it up on the screen. Students, parents, and educators. 2025853880. Students, 3881. 3882. Rents, for educators and iowa 2025853883. And the first call for sally mason, president of the from anty of iowa comes iowian and a parent. Iowa. In west liberty, hi, paul. Caller hi. Good to speak to you this morning. My son is going to be enrolling in iowa next year and engineering. Wondering if engineering would be include in the threeyear program. Aisle take my calls there. Thank you. Great, good , question. I believe there are portions of the engineering degrees we can years. Hree if hes highly motivated. He knows about this. He knows what he wants do do. On a good eye, hes track to complete in the threeyear period. Were going to do everything to including allowing him opportunities to attend Summer School for free. Host dee dee tweets in to you, does iowa project out a decade jobs will be in demand in the future and adjust programs accordingly . Your question ar appropriately, youre wondering about jobs in the future. We look at how we best prepare students for what we think the future might be. None of us has a crystal ball. I can tell you that. But as we look forward, one of he things we learned with our students is having that opportunity to earn that degree in a chosen major is great. A little bit further. One of the things thats familiar to our students entrepreneurship. Lets offer the student an opportunity to couple an entrepreneurship certificate a degree. Whether its art, engineering, might be. T we see students with the entrepreneurial spirit with the with ng we provide them are often deciding they can make their own careers. There are often great jobs out there. The Health Care Industry is just going to continue to boom. We have great strengths in ealth care here in the university of iowa training a lot of students for the Health Care Industry for the future. Have r the students who that extra Creative Edge and want to go on and do something different. Little nd perhaps a driver for future technology or future job pportunities that might be out there. We think learning and entrepreneurship, one of my top in entrepreneurship programs the country exists here in the university of iowa. Weve grown that program so that and every student here if the opportunity can have it. Atching our students start their own company is an exciting thing for us as administrators too. Host you mentioned the flood that hit iowa city. Out of that grew the Iowa Flood Center, which is what . Yes, thank you for mentioning the flood center. An educational institution. Have to say that in 2008, id been president for hit. Months when the flood and it was certainly one of the worst Natural Disasters in u. S. To watch in eastern iowa during that time. Campus has sustained 1 illion worth of damage including two square feet of space impacted by that. Event, i at particular have to say the world famous decided this up was the best opportunity they could think of to begin to study disasters like floods and create the flood center. The Iowa Flood Center not only butnown now throughout iowa across the nation. And even around the world for he research on floods and flooding. Theyre doing Ground Breaking things with technology to help understand how and when and why floods occurred. Us to iously helping nderstand how to mitigate and the these things from being Natural Disasters do to us in 2008. Priorities tohest make sure we fully recover from can begin to we grow. Host sally mason, the resident of the university of iowa and allen is an educator in washington. Youre on the air. Caller im a student advocate called studentloan does justice. Org. Questions gine my regarding student loan debt. The presence of the colleges have been very unwilling to iscuss this issue at any length. So im sort of glad i have you here. So i apologize in advance. But im not sure if youre but almost half of people out of college are unable to pay loans. The lifetime default rate for all colleges in federal student in excess of 30 . You know the other big numbers, on and so forth. What i found after looking at question for quite a long comes w is systemically, down to the fact that Student Loans are the only type of loan country to be exempted, standard bankruptcy protections. Statutes of limitations. Heard other Consumer Protections that are soon there. T provides adequate warning to the students. The students never know these things before they sign for the debt. Host weve got a lot there. Ets get a response from dr. Mason. Guest thank you for the question. I think its an important issue. Iowa that oure at student loan default rate is about 2 . Its quite low. Theres certainly great examples out there of abuses of i dent loans, and by abuses, ean people really not know iing what the student loan businesses are all about. We try here on the front end enrolling for are the first time to sit down with hem and their families to make certain they know what theyre getting into if they decide to go the route of a student loan. We try to steer folks away from of loans that we dont think are really good for them in the short and the long that o make certain theyre not getting into situations that would ultimately ultimatelyefault and affect their lives negatively for a good long time. An issue we should be paying attention to. Look hard at the default rates schools out there and make certain that the institutions themselves are doing everything consumers. O help the in this case, our students and their families making certain hat they know exactly what theyre getting into when they that they ent loan need for college. Host jenny in rainbow city, alabama. Line. S go ahead, jenny. Caller yes, this is dr. Dresden. I wanted to comment on i had a son that graduated from the university of iowa. Got a degree in international relations. Model one of their best un students that got an Outstanding Award from harvard. And he went to china for three the economy was bad enough there were no jobs for people his age in this country. I didnt want him going to china. China was him that not what he thought. The the idea that all ultures are full of great people, they all are full of great people. All people are the hand work of god, all people are great, all governments are not equal. Of socialist government china is very, very not like er host what would you like sally mason to respond to . What i would like her to respond to is the college aught him that all of the governments were equal. He was over there three years, started his own business. Pictures at a tourist area. There was a battleship way in the background and a citizen taking im in for pictures there even though its a tourist area. Nothing said no pictures. He spent seven hours in the basement of a Chinese Police tation with three counterintelligence people interrogating him. Host again, is there a do ific question there or you want her to respond to your story . Not r education there was accurate as to reality. Host okay, we got it. Thank you, sally mason . Guest im sorry. Im trying to understand her story. Me like her son had perhaps overseas that might not have been the best. One of the things we try to do is help our students have International Experience with are vision, with folks who very, very skilled in helping understand the different cultures, different parts of the orld that they might be going to. And i think the study abroad experience that students can get today, especially at most of the universities in the country today are just amazing. Theyre wonderful. I did not have that experience as a student myself and i would every student who can to try to take advantage of the tudy abroad to immerse themselves in another culture, to learn what its like to be in very, very different situation with a different government, with different people around perhaps very different language being spoken. Nd maybe not one that they fully understand. First experience is one ways rows up in different and quickly its always life changing. With a little bit of help, on side, with the First Experience that they have would them to navigate the world well and go on to take them to world and in to different cultures. Good system. Ure a and should it be kept as is . Guest tenure just allows them ability to do the kinds of things that are necessary for all of us. Freedom of speech, free tom of ideas. Freedom of ideas, freedom to do work that perhaps isnt going necessarily appreciated by everyone. Nd in a particular case of the tenure a long time ago now in biology and i work hard to do so. Prove that i could do everything that was expected of a faculty member and some. And it was, to me it was a real honor and a privilege to say had accomplished that goal at a point in my career i was still quite young. And it is really about hard work as anything. And the reward for hard work is to know that you have a sense of job security. You have a sense that if you ere to do some research that turned out to be controversial that, in fact, that research disseminated out to the public and valued, obviously, by groups that want at this research and not have to worry so much about that. That. Appreciate i can understand it. I can see the pluses and the minuses as well. milo is calling from let me get milo on the line here first. Milo is calling from jefferson, iowa. Hi, milo. Thank you for having me on. Theres been serious questions good ones. Ive been an iowa fan my entire life as long as i can remember. Im 63 years old. But iowa city is awesome, all of facilities, just a great place. And but i have a very serious question. If you have to know on how de information many, not if, how many points the cyclones tomorrow ask coach to let ark wiseman run the ball a little bit more. Thank you very much. I want to say were proud of you very much in iowa here. And its just been a pleasure. Thank you. Guest you just experienced love about my job. Hawkeye fans. Theyre great people here in the country. Around we had a rivalry game with the instate rival. We were here this morning. We didnt try to predict the score. But i did ask them, my fans will this, i did ask him not to make this one quite so dramatic. For the less drama football games, concluding these would be a lot better. Pass the d certainly word along about allowing mark wiseman to run the ball some more. Host surprised he didnt ask for tickets. Guest im sure he has tickets. Host how important are sports to fundraising . Revenues for the university . Maybe you were looking for potential donors . Guest at the university of iowa, were one of the fortunate pays forhere athletics itself. Again, the testament meant to the fan base we have, the loyal the ase that we have, support they give to the athletics department. Our athletic students who are on scholarship here. These. Are 500 or more of they pay the full tuition back to us for every one of those that weathlete scholars have. That contributes, obviously, to of the om Line University when it comes to the academic mission. Taxpayer ay any dollars, no taxpayer dollars goes to athletics at the university of iowa. Way, were hat fortunate to be a part of the big ten conference. Were able to get from ticket sales, from tv contracts, all of that is we were able to pay for everything athletics. In on the fundraising side, obviously, its a big plus. Fundraising side, our loyal hawkeye fans. Many of them not only loyal to teams. Letic but theyre loyal to our academic teams as well. Ere blessed to have some amazing, amazing donors who have really stepped up in a big way. Wo especially that are unusual for us to support our medical operations. We have a great diabetes here from a fern order who made an incredible gift. We were able to name the Center Director world class for this center assembling a eam around him with the ultimate goal of curing diabetes. Similarly, in the Vision Research group, the Wind Institute for Vision Research stone was funded again by the generosity of steven winn. Blessed because mr. Winn who he himself has an eye committed to helping s, our researchers, cure blindness here. On the fundraising side, great support on the athletic side. Spills over that on the academic side. Lot of fun. E a host always chair of the big chancellors. S and theres been movement one of your fellow universities, northwestern, about unionizing athletes. Whats your take on that . Would hate to see that. The student athletes here erform well above not only the School Average when it comes to but also and gpa, well above the national average. They take the study and the piece here. Athletes needs to stay amateur. We need to provide a great environment for the student make sure they have all of the support they need. Whether its support for them ics or to keep healthy. Im all for making certain that benefits e to add to from them. That we provide the highest quality opportunities for them. Would really hate to see them think of themselves as than as student athletes. Think that really is not what i looked to College Sports for. Robert from tampa, robert, youre on the air. Mason. thank you, dr. Thank you for the opportunity. My question to you is can you arek as to why universities intentionally gouging nonresident students . Incurs higher student load debt as one of the largest reason for higher student debt. Host sally mason. Guest yeah. Thatnow, im sorry to hear you think were gouging. Were charging them the full cost of education because the of the state of iowa who made huge investments in the theyve cture here, done so because they want iowa opportunities in iowa, were able to provide them er tuition needs than we are from the out of state students. We have to really in good the full rate e for the out of state students. E believe we provide an outstanding education at any price. Our out of state tuition, seem high is y actually still quite reasonable. Aid. T of financial half a billion dollars in Financial Aid a year. Iowa student and you meet the minimum requirements, the basic equirements that the board of regents set for the admission to the iowa public universities, admitted. Every iowa student who applies that meets those requirements from out e can select of state students. We select, obviously, from out f state students and we try to help them as well from Financial Aid. Cholarships for all kinds of students. The donors were willing to iowa e dollars for students as well as for nonresident students. Put together n good Financial Aid packages to doable. Not for in state students, especially for in state students also for nonresident students as well. I hope people understand that. To ask you t something the viewers across the nation have heard of. Iowa writers workshop. What is it . Do you get start . Guest yeah, its world famous as it should be. Have had the best creative writing programs here for a long, long time. We live in the only city of north america, iowa city, iowa designated unesco in 2008. Proud of that designation. Ere embed in what is known as the creative corridor here in eastern iowa. As well. Ud of that we had tennessee williams, everyone hass that heard of come to the workshop. We have writers on staff of names. Who know the were known for an International Writing program, which was an of the writers workshops named paul again, one the directors of the iowa workshop retired from his job as workshop. That weve had s wife writers of the writers from around the world who have participate in that program have gone on to winnow bell prizes in literature. Of the tradition of the arts, humanities, literature, here in iowa, in were so proud of that because we were thedegree. In essence, it was invented here and it was in response to our creator writers but also to our artists. You may be familiar with the painting known as american gothic. Painted by grant wood. He was on our faculty many years ago and was part of the source for this idea of giving academic credit for creative work. Whether it is writers, artists, musicians, we have a long and proud tradition of supporting the arts and humanities here in iowa. Sally mason is the president of the university of iowa. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you