Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150126

Bill in the senate today continues work on the Keystone Xl Oil pipeline appeared they will vote this evening starting at 5 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. It will affect oil drilling in blow to Alaska Oil Production is one of the headlines this morning. We want to get your reaction. If not by phone, you can contact us at twitter. You can post a comment facebook. You can send us an email. This is the front page of the newspaper of the alaskan newspaper. It would be the approval of congress. The president is proposing to designate the majority of the Arctic National wildlife rigid as a wilderness area. This drew an angry response from elected officials is yet as a land grab by the federal government. That is the front page. The announcement came yesterday through youtube and a video that the white house. It runs about a minute. Alaskas wildlife refuge is an incredible place. It is pristine and undisturbed. It supports caribou and caribou and polar bears. It is very fragile. I am proud that the department of interior before eight plan to make sure that we are protecting the refuge. We are designated new areas for preservation. Im going to call on congress to make sure that they take it one step further, designated as a wilderness so we can make sure that this amazing wonder is preserved for future generations. Host also in the paper this morning, a quote from usa today. The reaction has come in harshly and swiftly. This is from bloomberg. Com. This is many stories on this. She is the new chairman of the Senate Energy commission. More reaction coming shortly. We want to get some information from mike lewis. He is a capitol hill reporter. There is a process that would have to happen. This would need congressional approval. What happens next . This is not a surprise. This is something that obama has pushed for for many years. He campaigned on it. For it to happen now is not surprising. We are in the middle of this keystone xl debate. Oil is on everybodys mind. This is an opportunity with a gas prices so low, there isnt a financial incentive to develop new gas pipelines. He thinks an Economic Opportunity because gas prices are low. This is going nowhere. You read some of the reaction. Congress controls and they hated. This is not anything thats going to go anywhere. Because this is the debate in the news right now they will start working on this for a fourth week. He sees an opportunity. He wants to remain relevant. He wants to fire up the base ahead of 2016. The timing of this plays out. Host you mentioned the keynote keystone in the senate. Where did they leave off last week . It was tense on the floor thursday night. Walk us back to that and move us forward. It was tense. It was the end of the third week on a keystone. The amendments were coming. There did not seem to be any end in sight to the democratic amendment. I think Mitch Mcconnell realized that. He said that he promised amendments and a debate, but this will i define the year. He did move to and debate. The six amendments that are left on the schedule will be voted on today. Final passage is expected by the end of the week. This is just timing. They have other things that they want to do. They have this funding will that theyve got to do by february 27. Otherwise, the Homeland Security department runs out of money. That is a month away. I think mcconnell gazed ahead and knew they had to turn off the keystone debate. Host take us over to the house. A Border Security bill is coming up on wednesday. There are battlelines drawn with that. Its mostly about executive action on deportation. Mcmichael is the chairman of the committee. He had gotten together with Bennie Thompson and they came up with a Border Security bill that passed unanimously. There was cooperation then. I think the executive action has angered the republicans. They see it as an abuse of his power. His First Response was to write his own order security will without any democratic and but. It is designed to block all illegal immigration inside the operational control and penalize political appointees if they dont meet those goals. It adds metrics that the old bill did not have. Its not going to go very far. The house will pass it this week. Its contingent on both sides. J johnson has said its extreme and unworkable. This is not something that we can meet. The democrats hated. Youre going to look for Law Enforcement area generally. There are a lot of cyber attack questions which he will get. This is not without a lot of questioning. For a long day of testing. Host it is a busy week coming up. Caller thank you for having me. Host i want to remind you of the phone numbers. Usa today has this headline. This is a quote from the newly elected senator from alaska. This is akin to spitting in the faces. This is the front page of the Washington Post. It sets the announcement is just the first in a series of decisions by the department of interior that will affect oil and gas production. The department will put part of the arctic ocean off limits to killing. This is a fiveyear leasing plan. It will have limits on oil and gas reduction. The move marks the latest instantce to adopt priorities. Once the government sees a designated area, it receives the highest level of protection until Congress Acts or a future administration adopts a different approach. It reflects the influence of john podesta. Some early reaction coming in from facebook. Joyce writes. We are looking for your calls on the move to ban drilling at an wwar. There are a lot of papers following up on this story. This is the Los Angeles Times workout. Republicans call it an attack on alaska. We have a little bit of video. We want to show you from a 60 minutes segment last night with john boehner and senator mcconnell. They talked about relationships with the president. They talked about the potential for the president to be vetoing bills. We know keystone is one of those bills. The president has vetoed two bills in six years. The reason was the senate never sent them anything that caused him any discomfort. Its going to happen occasionally. President s veto bills. There are differences of opinions. Thats not unheard of. His job Approval Rating is 46 . The job Approval Rating for the congress is 15 . What do you say to the 85 of the people who think youre doing a lousy job . I would say they are right. From a senate perspective, i can tell you the senate has been dysfunctional for four years. Its been shut down. The house has passed lots of legislation. Nothing would happen. Absolutely nothing over the last two years. We sent 400 bills that never received action. Almost all of them passed on a bipartisan basis. The previous Democratic Senate leadership used tactics to hamstring bills from the republican house. With both chambers in republican hands, more bills are going to get a vote. Host more of the flavor from the hill. Our first call is in langley kentucky. Caller i have been following the news for quite a while. I wonder if you know the answer to this. Why does john boehner not brought up on charges of treason to overthrow the government. Its clear what they are doing. Host what are they doing it . Turn down the sound on your set if you could. Caller you know what they are doing they are trying to bankrupt the country, favoring the millionaires, not passing legislation they should pass. It goes on and on. They have done it enough in the time that president obama has been serving the United States. Host thanks for your call. Caller new jersey. Host go ahead. Caller i am happy that he is making this move. We need to preserve this planet. It is the only one weve got. Host what do you make from the argument from the people in alaska. It is hurting them commercially to drill oil. Caller i think we have enough oil today. I think there will be other industries that would support alaska. Host ok. George is in maryland. He is a republican color. Caller i am a republican. I am a conservative republican. I am also a conservationist. I believe the federal government needs to keep his nose out of state business. There should only be state forest. When you go to a state park, the state park is always better. I am not opposed to its sad if the resources of their keeping people from having jobs, they should be able to access that. The state epa needs to keep a tight rein on that. There should be a lot of oversight and regulation. Business and industry, they dont always choose to do the right thing. People feel guilt only when they are caught sometimes. They are only sorry when they are found out. I think im all for them utilizing the resources here in. Host obama uses executive power again. This time in alaska. You can see the map here. This is the northeast corner. The president made his move yesterday. And is subject to congressional approval. It gets immediate protections in the meantime while the president made his announcement. And is in maine. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I cant see why there isnt anything president obama wont do to hurt us. Its just like the reverend wright home said. I just wish he would say things differently. Host some other facebook comments. Richard is on the line from connecticut. Caller thank you for your program. How can i trust the president when he came out and said you can keep your doctors. There wont be any copays. The premiums will not go up. He said that we dont have to have any problems with russia because that his past history. In ben ghazi he said there wasnt a terrorist situation. In yemen when he allowed the terrorists to leave from gitmo. They are in yemen. We are having problems with yemen. How can i take this person seriously . He talks about transparency. This administration is not transparent at all. Host i just want to jump in can you tie it back into the question . Caller i cant believe anything he says. Host and is in iowa for independent. Caller i just need to mention only one of those candidates mentioned the 10th amendment. Its time for the 10th amendment. Host a New York Times lease on this. They point out that environmentalists cheered the proposal. That these goes on to point out that the administration will release policies on conservation soon. Norman is in new york. Good morning. Caller i just wanted to say that i agree with obama about fracking. A lot of companies go down to south america mexico, while canal. While canal. Let us make a silver mine or a gold mine and you will be rich and have jobs. After they asked like the gold mines and the silver mines, they leave the water polluted and the land polluted in the air polluted. They walk away from everything. The people are worse off than before. The same thing will happen here in alaska if they allow fracking. Host this is the front page of the alaska dispatch. This is bill walker announcing. We have brent on the line from california. Caller i fully agree with the president protecting that area. I was stationed in a remote site up in alaska when the first pipeline was explored. The army corps of engineers had gone through. Even back then, it didnt seem there was a lot of interest protecting the environment like that. That wasnt the idea. The idea was just finding oil. Consequently, they did put in the first alaskan pipeline, you could see where there were leaks and erosion. That is a very sensitive area. There is a very delicate balance. The president protecting that area especially in canada, that is a very wise decision. Host pete is calling from michigan. Caller i am just wondering why cspan doesnt get rid of the labels. The labels of calling in, democrat republican. There are progressives and all of these other wins. I think we get rid of all the labels. Labels sort of partisan competition with a common cause for making universal communities. Host anything to say about the oil drilling story . Caller i think we ought to reserve it. I go along totally with obama on this. It sounds to me like we are saying there is something we can get for us now and we dont think of the future. I think we ought to hold off. We need to get a better hold of renewable energies. Oil tends to pollute. We can have it just as a reserve. If a crisis comes, you can always get congress to act. We can wait until we need it anymore critical time. Host thank you. We will do this for about 15 more minutes. Some of this goes under immediate protections. This is a request for congress to make the change. We have one reporter on earlier saying it is dead on arrival. We are hearing lots of harsh reaction from people on the hill, especially the people from alaska. Joseph is in new york. Caller i have two things to say. We stole all the oil from all the other countries. When we run out of oil, we should use ours. Thats what i believe. Host thank you for calling. There is a lot more in the news today. If you are following the story of harry reid, he is having surgery today. You can see the photo of him. He held a press conference about his condition. He was asked for what the future holds for him. He said he is going to be doing fine. This is one of the most of the leads in his personal life. Debbie is calling from lorna. Thank you for waiting. Caller hi. I work with endangered species every day. It amazes me you will hear a shotgun from the hip approach to dealing with these issues. They dont give you statistics or data for what has already been done and what the Oil Companies have done. I am neither for nor against. I am for the animals. Watching what people dont do and what they dont tell you is just like alaska. They are going to be out jobs. They will tell you what is working and what is not. I think winning big brother takes too big of a role is when we get into trouble. We cant even see that out of the white house. This is alaskas problem. Let them bring all the data. I dont even see that happening out of the white house. When it comes to endangered species in environments, lets see the statistics that already have been done. Host james is in georgia. We lost him. Lets try ashley in a houston. Go ahead. Caller i agree with the president. Youve got to preserve something somewhere. You cant drill everywhere. I was agreeing that some things have to be preserved. They will drill in your backyard if they thought they could do it. I agree with the president completely on this one. I thank you. Host thank you for calling. More of the news on this monday morning. This is one of the stories in the Washington Times. This is a shot of the president and the indian Prime Minister sitting for tea. The president is on his way home and will stop in saudi arabia to pay his respects to the late king there. This is the lost a wall street journal of greece. That is in the wall street journal this morning. Christian is hanging on from arkansas. Though ahead. Caller thank you. I applaud the president s decision. The fact is the senators and representatives here notes the or the majority of alaska and. The majority of alaskans dont vote. Alaska has benefited from the drilling and the oil production. The people that have made out have been the corporations. The majority of alaskans were depending on these jobs. That would be fine. The majority of the jobs are not in filled by alaskans and other Renewable Resources could be utilized. We have a National Petroleum reserve in this state. Why are we going after a National Wildlife reserve. Host larry is in boston. Good warning. Caller a woman just called and said that this was alaskas problem. She said that is what her teaches her students. I would like to contradict that. This is americas problem. This is a problem that we should all be concerned with. We are destroying our national resources. This is something that we need to pay close attention close attention to. Conservatives want to keep pushing this oil agenda when we should be looking to the future with more Natural Sources of energy. Host the Washington Times reminds us of a senate vote from last week. The degree differs on human blame. They were put on record by an amendment. Pope francis is featured. There is a picture of the pope. The popes visit will give him a stage to push for Climate Change policies. Troy is calling from new york. Hi, troy. Caller ive got some information. What is going to happen when they put these oil rigs in alaska . They are losing money right now. They have to make at least 100 a barrel to make break even. There are oil rigs that are not in use right now. Saudi arabia said that they are going to start investing money all over the world. They are going to go bankrupt. While ive got you on the phone stop investing in coal. Leave the oil alone. Invest in wind. Host the benefits to the nation are obvious. Caller i am out of alaska. If youve never visited alaska, is hard to explain how fast it is. The space to these few rigs are taking up is just miniscule. It would be Something Like a dime on a pool table or something. That is probably exaggerated. They only drill in the winter because the epa is so hard. Its easier to drill in the wintertime. They dont drill in the summer. You wouldnt be able to walk out on the tundra and see a drill site. Host are you still there . I think we lost that call from alaska. Mike is calling from montana. Caller how is it going . Host what you think about all this . Caller we have enough oil according to the scientists. We dont need to be looking anymore. We chased oil into the middle east for halliburton and dick cheney. We have isis from it. We dont need any more oil. We dont need to mess of our environment for it. What we need to do for jobs is rebuild our infrastructure which would create more jobs. I am an engineer and 20 years ago, 60 of our bridges were under standard. Why do we need to chase oil into areas we dont need to be chasing. We have enough oil. We need to be moving our energies into alternative sources. Host those are the words from mike. He may be forced to accelerate oil and gas permitting on state land to compensate or the federal restrictions. That is in the Washington Post this morning. The New York Times has a piece about alaska. The headline says as oil falls alaskas facing a goal. Debbie is in massachusetts. Caller thank you for putting me on. I think obama knows what hes doing. He wants a pristine alaska. Drilling oil is not keeping it clean. Its like a National Park in it wants to keep it so it is natural. It needs to be kept clean. Host thanks for calling. We will take your calls purchased a couple of war minutes. You will Start Talking about other matters, including defense and terrorism. Nathan is calling from alabama. Caller i was going to ask, why cant they drill holes in alaska . Host are you for it or against . Caller i am for it. Michele flournoyi just dont see why they cant. As long as they dont have another oils will like they did in the gulf, they should be perfectly fine. Host thank you for calling this morning. We appreciate your input. Back to some of the other front pages from around the country. The Richmond Times dispatch has a couple of national stories. The United States and india are setting a deal. They also had that greek story on the front page. They were rejecting austerity in greece. Our last call is bernard in oregon. Caller hello. Good morning. My comment is the oil is always going to be there. The efficiency and extracting keeps going up as decades past. I feel of the oil should stay there. Why dont we just start focusing on a solar farms . We can solve this energy problem. It has always been a matter of cost. I believe that solar farms would solve this whole thing. Host thanks to everybody who called so far this warning. We wonder some comments on the floor of the senate and house this week. We will show those to you as well. We will take a timeout and get our first guest in here. The question will be about al qaeda. It will be about yemen and iran and other issues. Our guest will be michele flournoy. Later, the irs is predicting that budget cuts will cause problems. That will be later in the program. John kerry challenged World Leaders recently at the World Economic forum in switzerland have a longterm commitment and a plan in fighting against terror groups around the world. This is a look at what he had to say. In nigeria last month, a video showed phones shooting defenseless people on the ground. The narrator said from now on, killing and bombings would be our religious duty. On december 16, authorities intercepted a radio message in pakistan between a gunman and his boss. We have killed all the children in the auditorium, what do we do next . The answer, wait for the army to arrive and kill them, then blow yourself up. A few weeks earlier, before pulling out of the town in somalia, a young woman was buried up to her neck and they smashed her head with rocks. In syria and iraq, little girls are sold into slavery. It seems like every day i am asked what makes someone decide to do some of these things . Why do they join a group like that . Why do they fight with such a collection of monsters . There are a lot of explanations. Some say its because of longheld cultural grievances that someones creed is under attack has been treated unjustly. Money many think people see the world in black and white terms and they alone possess the truth. Others are lured by material considerations, the promise of regular meals, a paycheck plunder and looting. Then there are the personal choices to escape boredom, gore the action is, the lord by a false sense of success. Trade anonymity for notoriety at least for a few hours on the internet. Host you can watch the entire event with secretary kerry on cspan. Org. Michele flournoy is a former secretary of defense undersecretary for defense. Thank you for coming. We have lots to talk about around the world. Lets start with yemen. The shiite to in yemen is seen as a big win for iran. What is your perspective . Guest the minority in yemen has taken over our in yemen. I think the jury is out as to what that really means. Their rhetoric is very strongly antiwestern. In practice, they are willing to work with us dealing with a terrorist threat in yemen. That is an open question. The thing that the United States is most worried about in yemen is al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. This is one of the most potent al qaeda affiliates. Its one of the few that has active plots against the u. S. Homeland. Its important to keep a focus on disrupting their plans and operations. Host how are we doing right now in that area . Guest we had a very close partner in the government that was just the posed. Just deposed. We dont have a clear partner in yemen right now. How the government will approach terrorism cooperation with the United States is an open question. Host our guest will be with us for 45 minutes. The phone numbers are on the bottom of the screen. As soon as we get calls coming in, we will be happy to get to them. We do want to show a clip from the white house chief of staff. This was on cbs yesterday. I think its very important to record highs that governance. We have a political agreement that we can work with them to keep on the offensive against al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. We cant be responsible for every government in the region. They have to do that themselves. Were we surprised that this government collapsed . We knew that this was an ongoing challenge over the last several months. We have been pressing on all the actors to take important steps to address the situation. We continue to do that today. The president said this morning that the joint terrorism efforts that we had going with yemen have been curtailed. He said that is not accurate. How can they not be . The government we were working with has just fallen in how could that not affect our effort . Important counterterrorism efforts continue. We will make sure that we have the intelligence that we need to see threats as they manifest. We will work on the political situation because we know that al qaeda hides in these dark, tumultuous situations. We will continue to do that. We will need our partners in the region help us clean up those aces out. The best way to do that is strong leadership. We are continuing to look for that. Host reaction to what you heard . Guest right now, there is a lot that needs to settle out in what is going on in yemen. The u. S. Does have unilateral capacity to use against al qaeda in the arabian nights look at the preferred approach is to work with our partners in yemen. That partnership is a bigot . In question. We want to get to a powersharing arrangement in yemen. They are a minority. They have always been strong in the north. Yemen historically has been divided int two. Whether this government holds only go to a powersharing arrangement, the country may split. Host what is your take on the current fight against isis . The video over the weekend show the decapitated body of a japanese hostage. They were asking for 200 million. Your thoughts . Host they continue their brutal tactics, showing themselves to be what they are. I think the battlefield in iraq and syria has reached a stasis. There are still tactical movements owing on, but the lines are drawing. The momentum that ices had has been thwarted. The challenge is rolling them back. That is going to take a significant amount of time. The United States is starting to held up the Security Forces in iraq so they can push back in iraq. We went to the treasure on isis pressure on isis. This is going to take years to reverse. Host we have headlines out of nigeria regarding boko around. They attacked the city. What is your take on whats happening there . Caller they have had a lot of momentum in some parts of nigeria. They are taking advantage of the fact that nigeria is heading into a hotly contested election. The Security Forces have been plagued with corruption. Its very important that the selection, this election,. Is not going to be corruption free. Its important that the results be seen as legitimate and the government needs to start focusing on this. Host there is one passage on the state of affairs, it talks about risk between the u. S. And nigeria. I want to get your reaction to this. The pentagon often bypasses the nigerians altogether, working with said Security Forces in other countries. This cant be good. Guest the Security Forces have not been a capable or willing or. Partner. This is because of the larger political situation and lack of certainty about the future. The u. S. Has ended up along with others partnering with the other neighbors in the region that border nigeria. They have proven to be more willing and capable. That is critical that nigeria step up in the future in deal with this threat. The hope is a successful election will enable at the happen. Host lots to talk about with michele flournoy. We went to get your calls in red owl is up first in rhode island. Caller i have a couple of questions that i think are important. I believe it starts with iraq. Our bumbling of going in there and dislodging the sunni in there was the biggest mistake we ever could have made. Should we try to talk with the sunni . I believe they are the buffer. Number two, i think its evident with all the problems all over there, the president really has his head in the sand and doesnt want to be part of this at all. Not backing up our troops, not leaving troops in iraq. The mistakes are just too many to listen. Guest i would agree with you area the biggest mistake that the United States made was going into iraq without thinking through the strategic consequences of what would come after. The easy part was taking down saddams in. The key is to ensure that iraq has government that is representative. We have a new Prime Minister that is saying all the right thing about being more inclusive of the sunni population area. Hes got to follow through on those commitments for iraq to hold together as a state. The sunnis did to step up and do their part in addressing isis. I dont think its likely or feasible that the sunnis will take over the country. I think a viable powersharing arrangement is the right answer. That is what the u. S. Is pressing for. Host this is from twitter. Guest thats a great question. I think post9 11 its still one whose answer has eluded us. This is going to be a generation long struggle. We are dealing with an ideology that is inspiring thousands of people across the islamic world. I think is going to take not only this intelligence and military measures that we focus on, but political and Development Measures to address some of the fundamental grievances that are fooling caller certainly. I think one of the things i think is most sort of overlooked during these conversations is that the president is in a vacuum. It is just president obama versus the terrorists. And that is not at all true as to what is going opbn. It seems to me that a lot of the callers act as if president obama should be able to do a b and c. And if he does a, b and c then all of these problems will be resolved. That is far too simplistic. The situation in the middle east this situation about global terrorism, is far, far more complex than that. And i think the president is doing the best job he can possibly do. I think that his how should i say the diplomatic route he is taken or trying to take in terms of putting together a coalition of Different Countries who the impact of these terrorists although we in america say they are a threat to our National Security security, they are more of a threat to the impact of those countries in the middle east. I think that his efforts in trying it build that coalition should be commended. Guest i agree with you that to deal with the threat of terrorism around the world weve got to do it in coalition with other likeminded states. It is fundamentally a fight within islam between more sraopbt violent extremist elements and moderate elements. The United States has a key leadership role but we cannot remake governance in the middle east fundamental Economic Conditions in the middle east and so forth. The u. S. Leadership role is key but it has to be part of a coalition that works on the problem and manages the risks over many years to come. Host senator mccain the new chairman of the Armed Services committee was on cbs yesterday and asked about the administration as handling of the situation in yemen. [video clip] iran is on the march. In yemen it is not aqap it sis the ones supported by the iranians. The iranians are now dominant or extremely influential in iraq, lebanon, syria, yemen, on the move in bahrain and they are winning. I did not hear mr. Mcdonough articulate a strategy except we will fight against these people, which is nice to know but when you look at the map the iranians are on the march aqap and isis in both iraq and syria are doing quite well. There is no strategy to defeat them. For example, in kobani we have been bombing kobani nor months with the u. S. Air power and they are still there. Isis continues to consolidate their position and attract thousands of young people from all over the world. And, believe me, i agree with the director of British Intelligence mi5 who gave a speech last week saying these young people mainly from other countries that are now in iraq and syria will are a direct threat to the United States of america and great britain. Host back it our guest. He says iran is winning. What does that speak to when it comes to the broader relationship between iran and the u. S. . Are sanctions being considered, further sanctions being considered . Guest i think we have to be worried about the increased influence of iran in the middle east. Iran has traditionally been a very destabilizeing influence supporting terrorism and militant movements into have sought to destabilize a range of countries. So we have to be worried about this. That said, i think that the administration has had the right focus, primary focus on getting to an agreement with iran to prevent it from acquiring a Nuclear Weapon. That is the number one interest from the United States. That said, even if we get a good agreement we cannot ignore their destabilizing activities. So i agree with senator mccain, we need more of a strategy it counterpwal counterbalance the rise of their influence in places like iraq yemen and bahrain. Host you covered this oped piece with an advisor to senator mccain, former Foreign Policy advisor to the senator united agenda for National Security. I want to show that headline. We have more calls then we can walk through some of the points in yourkwraouryour piece. Glen joins us from tennessee independent caller. Caller im backing the president 95 of the time on the way he is running the government except for us being in iraq and fighting this war. I think we need to put more emphasis on our own country and building it up. Weve lost billions and trillions of dollars trying to fight the war over there and we should let them do that. I think this is a religious thing and something they need to do. We need to just deal with the United States, britain, france and those countries that just want to help themselves. Host lets hear from our guest. Guest i think the president s approach in iraq at this point is somewhat different. It is really a train advise, assist approach that is trying to put the iraqi forces in the lead and it wont succeed unless the iraqi forces step up and take ownership of the situation. So i think it is trying it enable them to be more effective to be beat back isis. I think that is a reasonable approach. I think overall your point is right that we need to calibrate the blood and treasure we put on the line to the interest we have. Host todd an independent caller from pittsburgh. Caller thanks for taking my call. I think the most misused word is we when it comes to Foreign Policy because we is spread all over hells half acre. I would take a comment from john mccain as seriously as i would take a rumor in the local saloon. He hasnt been right on anything in 25 years. And for us to consistently interfere in the theatre that has confusion running amuck, whether our special interests we are using drones to blast these pathetic little huts with no indoor plumbing and dirt floors and to win the hearts and minds of these people is just a policy that is based on absurdity. This is not i guess what waobgd do would be to what we could dont is put something in the water so that the countries couldnt impregnate the females and eventually killing a couple of thousand people as john kerry mentioned so fastidious lyly with to logical sequence associated with it host we will hear from our guest. Anything you want to respond . Guest not sure how to sound to that but i would say the United States does have interest in the middle east. One thing we have to worry about most is some of the terror threats that could come to the American Homeland in the form of aqap plot or returning fortune fighters. It is something we cannot avoid. The question is how to be engaged in a smart manner. Stkpwr united underfor National Security it is pretty broad based set of plans here. What are you saying in this piece . What are the most important elements to improve National Security . Guest richard advised president ial candidate mccain. I worked for president obama. What we are trying to say is just because we have divided government Democratic Administration and Republican Congress doesnt mean that we cant agree on anything. There are real threats to the United States and there are real opportunities for the United States in the world and we need to keep our foreign and defense policy moving forward. What we tried to do is outline a half dozen practical steps this administration and this congress could take together to move America Forward that make sense for the country. Host you talk about passing trade promotion and t. P. P. Transpacific partnership. What is trade so important to National Security . Guest this trade agreement is critical for the United States not only as an economic agreement but strategic step in asia. You have asias bear dime changing with kind. They are the dominant trade partner for much of the region. It is important the United States seen as a critical partner not only medicalilitarily but economically. No region will drive our economy more. T. P. P. Will ensure we have that engagement, that foothold under competitive advantage when it comes to others in the region. So it is a strategic signaling issue. If we fail to do that the area will read that as the u. S. Pulling back and that would be detrimental to our interests. Host you write with reversing sequestration and sweeping reforms in defense. Guest look at what is happening in the world. We cannot afford to be straitjacketing ourselves with sequestration. Given improvement of the economy and very real needs we have for a strong military, we need to lift sequestration, invest smartly in defense but im the first person to say in is a lot of waste in defense. We are carrying more infrastructure than we need. We need base alignment and closure. We need to align the workforce. We need it overhaul and adopt best practices in the way to deliver healthcare to improve the quality. There is a lot of room for reform in the Defense Department and pursuing that agenda is as important as lifting sequestration. Host one other point in the piece rescind the deadline for withdrawing u. S. Troops from afghanistan. How come . Guest i have long believed that although deadlines are a very good away to communicate political will and intention the fact is we have to calibrate our presence on the ground our policies in afghanistan to what is actually happening on the ground. So especially in this phase where we are transitioning, we have transitioned to an advise and assist mission u. S. Forces locker roomily out of combat it out of combat it is important to give them what they tphraed to hold their own and hold their ground and not pursue a timetable driven draw down. Host mike is calling from san antonio. Independent caller. If you can turn the sound down we will hear you much better. Caller im hear. Host mike, turn down the sound if you can. Caller it is down. My question is how much money does an isis fighter make as opposed to an iraqi soldier . It seems that is probably one of the few Jobs Available in that part of the world. Guest i dont know the exact answer but i can tell you that isis has attracted many fighters from other groups because they are better resourced and they are perceived as having the momentum. The militants want to go with the winning side. So part of our part of what the International Community has to do is blunt that momentum set them back on their heels so they are not seen as the inevitable winner. We can disrupt some of that recruiting that is going on. Host we have lee on the gone from huntington beach. Hey, lee. Caller yes, hi. When i look at this stuff it is not even reality. Bush got it completely wrong. There is the axis of evil in the middle east is Oil Companies, the israelis, and the war profiteers. When i watch these people and i hear what they say, i put them in categories like john mccain and Lindsey Graham they are agents of israel. They are getting lots of money from israel. Israel wants to destroy every arab country surrounding israel. The war profiteers want to drop a lot of bombs and make a lot of money from it. And the oil people want people that will give them the best deal in oilproducing countries. And that is what this is all driven about. Im not worried about terrorists at all. And these people try to beat the drum and there were no terrorists before we took out hussain. The United States killed so many hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the middle east because of those three interests that this will go on forever. It will never end. And these people, instead of trying to make it better, they are trying to make more money out of it. I feel that this person who is here more represents the war profiteers. Host lets hear what she has to say. Michelle flournoy. Guest hard to know where to start there but i can say the kid and terrorist groups have been targeting the United States had nothing to do with hussein. This threat is real. I think we have to have a smarter calibrated approach to taking it on and that do not involve invading every middle eastern country. I also really object to the characterization of israel and israels Foreign Policy. Israel is struggling to survive in a very bad neighborhood. It is not an aggressor visavis other states in the region. And i theuink that characterization characterization, the kind of Conspiracy Theory that you have outline, the fact that i have seen both inside of government and outside running a think tank just dont support that. Host here is the president back from his state of the Union Address calling on congress to approve a new authorization for use of military force. [video clip] instead of being dragged into another ground war we are leading a Broad Coalition including arab nations to destroy the terrorist group. We are also supporting a moderate opposition in syria that can help us in this effort and assisting people everywhere to stand up to the bankrupt ideology of violent extremists. This effort will take time. It will require focus. But we will succeed. Tonight i call on it congress to show the world we are united in this mission by passing a resolution to authorize the use of force against isis. Host back it our guest michelle flournoy. You write about this as well revising the authorization for use of military force in your oped piece. Why is this so important . Guest debating the authorization and getting that right, revising it to include the fight against isis is critical because we need a united united bipartisan strategy it sustain this effort over time. We need to make sure we have a Clear Strategy that people have bought into it and we are going to consistently keep at it over time. That is why i think the debate is a surrogate for having the strategy debate. Host back to the earlier callers point about oil you write about oil as part of the agenda for National Security. You write we should permit crude oil exports, expand like question fade permits and leverage the new found Energy Position. Plug that into the equation. Why would that be so important. Guest theres been this very persistent and i think erroneous narrative of u. S. Decline. As the economy picks up and as we are as our Energy Position changes, energy is not only a positive economic development, it is actually, it changes our statecraft around the world. As we become more Energy Independent and more of an Energy Exporter that gives us the ability it to influence particularly regions like europe and asia that are so dependent on energy currently coming from places like russia and iran. We should be using our Energy Position to try to shift some of those dependencies and shape our policy going forward. Host dave is calling from hammond, indiana. Independent caller for michelle flournoy. Caller good morning. My whole problem with this discussion is people like you dont really want to fight a war. When we fought the japanese we gave them two choices. You can either unconditionally surrender or your entire culture can be wiped out. Here is a plan that wont involve not one American Life being lost. We take our b2s and load them with pamphletses and tell them bring us the heads of isis fighters and we will give you 500 in gold, silver, goats, waver you want and that waver you want and that will turn the whole nation of iraq in bounty hunters. There is no way they will fight that. I got stuck like there in valley trying to figure out how the good guys and bad guys were and the only way you know who is a bad guy is we you see the muzzle flash. Then your buddys head explodes and you are in a village and you dont know. The whole village knew he was there shooting but you have to protect the good guys. We need to give them a choice. You are going to be totally wiped out and i dont care it we have to kill every muslim. Im a christian. This is about muslims killing christians and jews. So taking the good guys from bad guys is nonsense. Guest i think the way it deal with isil is to create capable forces that are local and can take them on and take back their own territory and hold that territory going forward. The only sustainable solution is for the iraqi to take carjack and take charge and drive isis out and have viable Syrian Opposition that can take them on. This is not a problem the u. S. Can solve through air power or its own military action. Host here is a tweet. Guest i think that iran has long stated its desire to wipe israel off the cspan. I think the thing that worries off the map. I think it is their pursuit of a Nuclear Weapon and potential to be a nuclear power. That is kwrwhy i think the United States has put so much time and effort along with others in europe and russia and china even at the negotiating table to try to get an agreement that stops Irans Nuclear program. Whether we can get a good deal out of the negotiations is still an open question. We will learn more the next couple of months. Host there is this headline in the Washington Post u. S. Saudi band tested in the transition following the death of king abdullah. Will things change and how between the u. S. And saudis . Guest i think there will be more continuity of policy. This is set up to keep things stable inside the kingdom and in terms of their regional influence. But there have been tensions in recent months and years between saudi arabia and the United States because we responded differently to things like the arab spring and to what happened in egypt and it other challenges. So, i think that this is a relationship we will have to keep working at. Saudi arabia is a very important part of the antiisis coalition and they are an important partner in other areas of the region. And finding a way to work with them and engage them as a partner while also pushing the reform agenda in the region is the needle that this administration and any administration has to thread. Host as we take the next call we will look at a photo in the wall street journal from egypt. Egypt protests turn deadly is the headline. It is a protest in cairo marking four years since the prodemocracy against hosni mubarak. Caller i would like to comment on the strategy that we are using in iraq. The vast majority of the people over there that are cutting peoples heads off and Everything Else they are really nothing. They have a cell phone and a knife and are for torturing people in the United States just by looking at this stuff. They ought ittit send a couple branches of service in there and wipe them out. I dont know of one american went over there back in this country get tough with them. We are coddling them. They dont like christians and they dont like this country, so good. We dont like them no more either. So just wipe them out and you wont have no more problems with them. That is all i have to say. Guest i think that there does have to be a military counteroffensive to go after isis. But if it is american only it is like you can the metaphor i heard is you mow the grass and it depress back grows back. The only way to sustain pressure and defeat it is to have local forces take ownership and hold that ground. That is why we are working with reaction and build a viable Syrian Opposition because u. S. Forces might be very successful initially but they cant maintain that over time without local partners who really take ownership of it. Host do those countries have the will, the staying power, in that area . Guest i think that is an open question but i think that the Iraqi Government certainly wants isis out. The question is do they have the political will to bring their own sunni population into an inclusive government and help that population turn against ices is. Host we want to get your take on this opinion piece in u. S. A. Today by tom kane and lee limit former chair and vice chair of the 9 11 commission how to halt the next terror generation. Policies are not enough we must tkwaoeft extremist ideological though the u. S. Can promote moderation it cant ensure it. This is beginning to happen. U. S. Should support government, organization and people taking active measures to defeat identify kwrols such as cat liesing with Media Channels to produce programming that fosters moderation. So they are talking about getting a hold of the ideology there. Guest i agree with that argument. We have to go on the offensive and the way to do that is put resources hyped resources behind the moderate forces in the ream and islam. The moderate forces are more numerous than the extremists but the extremists are louder so we have to put money behind those who are on the right side of the battle without making them seem like an american puppet. We dont want to undermine their legitimacy but weve find ways it support the voices that are speaking to moderation and speaking out against terrorism. Host lets hear from kelly in rome, georgia. Republican caller. Caller thank you for taking my call. I find it very funny that everyone seems to be bash inging the jews. Very antisemitic. One thing that i found out funny is that does anyone know we keep kicking the can down the road toward iran and does anyone know that Valerie Jarrett has family in iran and i had one other question. Is it legal or illegal to take your oath of office on the koran and the liberal media things seem to keep saying that for some reason this within religion that we continue to hold up on high seems to be the one religion that we continue to hold up on high . Host kelly lays some points out there. Is there anything you want to respond to . Guest im not sure how to respond. Host lets go on to mary in elizabethtown, pennsylvania on t the democratic line. Hi mary. Caller gardening. Ood morning. Host go ahead with your questions or comment. Caller we eisenhower became president warned the public that we should be leery of becoming a military state and having our economy run on military budgets. I think that is where we are headed. I think we have roads and bridges and schools and a lot of things that need to be done here in this country including we need desperately to form a policy on how we are going to handle jobs being turned to electric jobs instead of man jobs. And help the middle class. That is my comment. Host ok. Go ahead. Guest i think that the foundation of our National Security is the strength and resiliency and health of our economy. So i do think investing in the 21st century economy for the United States is absolutely critical. But i also think that given what is going on in the world we see every day in the news weve got to have a strong military. That said, im the first one to say weve got to reform how we produce capability. We have to make sure the money is going the right place and we are not wasting as much as we currently do inside the defense budget. Host here is a tweet. Guest i think that there are areas of the world that are failed or failing states that tend to attract terrorist groups as fertile soil. Part of that is lack of economic effort effort, lack of jobs and so forth. But it is more than that. The ideological component is probably the biggest driver. We see manywe cities fighters are relatively privileged in their own societies in many have Done University and so forth and they are still attracted to the ideology. There are a mix of factors that there should be an economic component of our strategy. One more call from freddie independent in georgia. Caller thank you very much. Good morning, calling from georgia and how about all of the vietnam vet who are still living . I just want to say to cspan [indiscernible] people have never been in combat and they dont know how you feel and you come back home and they call you crazy. Look in the mirror. Host thank you freddie. We have time for one more thought from our guest about policy in the world. It is a very is a place right now in the news is not always good, what is your sense of the future . Guest i think the fundamentals of u. S. Leadership are sound in terms of our economy and moral leadership and our alliances. If we dont lead the world, nobody can in the way we can. We cannot do that unless we have a more united approach at home. There are practical smart things that we can do on a bipartisan basis. We try to outline some of them in our articles, but that is really the starting agenda for this new congress and administration. To try to take some smart steps for the United States. Host our guest has been michelle flornoy she was the chief executive officer of the center for a new american security. Thank you for your time. We are about halfway through this monday addition edition of the washington journal, we will take a brief timeout and that we will talk to the irs National Taxpayer advocate, nina olson. She will talk about how filing might be different those getting insurance under the Affordable Care at. Act. Tonight on the communicators, on Net Neutrality and reclassifying broadband and other issues facing the federal communications commission. I believe the bipartisan consensus that has been in place for almost two decades has served us pretty well. Clinton decided that the internet would be an Information Service not a heavily relative regulated telecommunications service. There were chairman of both parties who recognized that light touch regulation was the best way to incentivize broadband deployment. I sympathize with members of both party who recognize that light touch regulation is the best way to go. But as the debate is taking a turn, starting with the president s announcement in september, we stand noise to consider title two, common carrier resolution. If that had been developed decades ago, it would be a tremendous mistake or it mistake. Tonight at 8 00. Washington journal continues. At the table is nina olson the National Taxpayer advocate to talk about budget cuts and Customer Service. Remind us what your job is. What does a National Taxpayer advocate do . Guest the National Taxpayer advocate leads an organization within the irs that is start with helping taxpayers solve problems with the irs and make administrative and legislative suggestions the congress. To congress. Host how long have you done this job . Guest since march, 2001. You put out this annual report to congress so we can take a look at it here. One of the headlines that came from it is from the New York Times. Need help from the irs . It may take more patients this year. What does it tell us about the conditions this year in taxis and . Guest what we have tried to identify is the impact on funding cuts to the irs on the Taxpayer Service side. The way most communicate with the irs is by phone or correspondence. What the irs is projecting this year is that it will not be able to answer about half of the phone calls they are trying to get through to talk to a live a sister and they are so far behind a live assistor, and that they are so behind in their correspondence that it is over age in terms of being answered. If they get through on the phones they are likely to have a ready minute wait. 30 minute wait. Host did you expect it to be this severe . Guest i did because i have been projecting this for years seeing the trend on the taxpayer side. There isnt a solution other than having more human beings to answer the calls. The irs gets about 100 million calls per year on average and 10 million pieces of correspondence for year. Host the piece points out that callers who managed to get through are expected to be on hold for an average of 30 minutes, that is a decline by 61 from 2013. When the weight is too long, the Agency Offers what is called a courtesy disconnect, otherwise known as hanging up. Guest in our report we have a flowchart, we try to make a phone call and get through to a particular part in the irs after six minutes and nine seconds my staff received one of those courtesy disconnects. Which is polite saying we are unable to handle your call at this time, please call back. I think the diagram shows the craziness of what you have to go through to try to find your way around. Our guest will be with us for 15 and its. Nina olson, the National Taxpayer advocate. , we try to make a phone call and get through to a we have lines on the bottom of the screen. Im sure we will have lots of calls coming in here but tell us more of the takeaways from the report. Some of the things we have been trying to say is that i do recognize that congress is very unhappy. Taxpayers have a high distrust with the irs. I think not giving them sufficient funding actually harms the taxpayers themselves. I dont think people recognized when i say Taxpayer Service it is not just answers to tax law questions which the irs is no longer doing in any significant fashion. Also people getting notices from the irs that says you own money the same number you are calling and the same people are answering answering to help you unwind that notice to stop something bad. You want a penalty abated, you have a notice saying the Social Security number for your child is incorrect, you are to give them the correct number and you cannot get through and the irs will disallow your dependency exemption or any refundable credits. That is harm to the taxpayers tangible harm. Here is a picture from one of the business publications. And difficult taxis and lies ahead. Tax season lies ahead. It will make you want to ask about collections and the conditions were setting. Guest i think people need to not give up contacting if he irs sends a letter. The worst thing you can do is ignore it. I honestly think you have to be prepared to wait and get through because the consequences mean that the irs will assume that you agree and they will start taking money out of your account or paycheck. The irs says they wont be able to do as many audits or as much collection. This is where i make a distinction between Taxpayer Service or enforcement. I spent my life examining the irs and that is my job. Four years, i have been critiquing the way the irs conducts audits and collection activities. I view this as an opportunity to see how we are doing it and get revision and some very taxpayer friendly burden off the taxpayer on the enforcement side. On the service side there is no substitute for having more people to answer the phone. Last year, the irs limited the scope of tax law questions it was willing to answer. It said it would only answer simple tax law questions. It would no longer answer a question like, my child has a bank account, how should i report the Interest Income . That is too complex for the irs to answer. When you get to that level, that is just absurd. To ask taxpayers to continue to comply with the laws when we are not giving them that kind of assistance you have to rethink what youre asking. What has the head of the irs said about dealing with the service . He has said, the patient. Be patient. He has said, this is where we are. I am concerned the message is to go out and pay for assistance. We have a lot of qualified return preparers but there are a lot of unqualified preparers. I am concerned that what will happen as a result of these cuts and the consequences, is that taxpayers will go to people who are not qualified to give them advice and they will do things wrong. Before we get to calls, one big thing we are talking about is the Affordable Care act. How will this complicate tax Filing Season . Guest this year is the first year that people who have got the advanced premium tax credit, the subsidy to help a for Health Insurance, will have to file and reconcile the advance payments they get with the actual payments they should have gotten based on their actual income. When they qualified these advance payments they are using old income information from their 2012 return. You really dont know until the end of the year when you file your taxes what you should have gotten. That is a complicated process for taxpayers and the irs. This is also the year where we will be issuing the first individual shared responsibility payment, taxpayers who should have got Health Insurance and did not or who may have had enter exaction but did not claim it in advance, all of this is happening in the crunch of the Filing Season when we are short staffed as it is. It will take a lot of patience to get through the Filing Season. Nina olson takes calls now first from bob. Not a subject to the individual shared responsibility payment either. You dont have to worry about that. Caller good morning, i just want to say i think you do very good work and i read your report year every year, but im curious with the recent budget cuts that have occurred, i see their funding keep going down. Generally every year i see reports that x number of billions of dollars are lost or fraudulent returns. What is your take on that as far as the resources being used to combat fraud with tax returns. Returns . Guest there has been an explosion in two areas. Let me say that one of the reasons why that is occurring is because the government enacts laws that run a lot of social programs through the Internal Revenue code programs. Like the earned income tax credit, the number of credits on the business side that makes it very attractive target for organized crime or even random criminals who think they can try to game the system. There is that aspect of fraud and then there is Identity Theft which we have seen an explosion of in thecriminals who think they can try to last few years. The irs has spent a lot of time building filters in their Filing Seasons and systems so that every return that comes in asking for a refund moves through that system and tries to identify characteristic fraud. Over the years, i think we have done a very good job in identifying fraud. Having said that, criminals are very clever and are able to move very quickly and there always be stuff going through the system. What i am concerned about is, there will always be some false positives, when you free up refunds and the taxpayer is entitled to that refund or there is an legitimate taxpayer whose refund as been frozen. If you dont have the right staffing to help those victims then you are revictimizing those victims and the have to wait up to six months or even longer. We are seen that in my own organization, refund fraud is the Fastest Growing category of cases that we have for helping taxpayers with significant hardship. Identity theft cases make up 20 of my 240,000 case receipts per year. Host what can people do to prevent fraud . Stolen Social Security numbers are used to file stolen tax returns, how can folks protect themselves. First of all checking your Credit Report on a regular basis is very important. Secondly the irs if you have been a victim, once you get through the process, the irs will give you what they call an ip pin which is a separate number. That will let your return move through quickly. Theyre doing a pilot this year and several locations including the district of columbia. Not only will you have your Social Security number but also this unique number that you can put on that the identity thief would not know. Host payback from the irs. The irs screens but not being at issue your refund in a timely matter for answer phones or provide easy access for the elderly because they want their 350 million back, i can stop wasting billions of dollars every year. In 2013 the newspaper reported that the irs paid 13. 6 billion in bogus claims, the income tax credit and as much as 132. 6 billion over the past decade. Guest i will talk about the income tax credit but i will say that i do not scream, i am a moderate voice and i try to make clear what the impact is. It is an asset for the working poor which comes out out of the very first dollar that you earn. Over the years with bipartisan support, it has been expanded to the major Antipoverty Program for the working poor in the United States. So, the idea of running it through the crowed was if you dashcode was code was, if you work but didnt pay anything in it would raise you above the federal poverty line and ensure that able did not pay income taxes. The issue is that there is a lot of over claim. It is a very complicated law. I am a tax lawyer with several advanced agrees in taxation. It is right up there with advanced trade for pricing. It deals with language mobility, trans and see, that population is transiency that population is unregulated. A lot of it dealing with repairers who are facilitating fraud. Let me make one other point which is that the earned income credit, as a benefits program that is administered through the Internal Revenue code, the Inspector General has estimated that it really only has about 1 . Youll see very high administrative overhead costs because they are dealt with appointments and persontoperson. Some fraud and very low dissipation rates. I would suggest that we will not just you and over claims with the cost of administrative when we decide it is a successful program. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Miss olson, i commend you for the job you have been trying to do sincerely. I must tell you that all of this makes a strong case, a really strong case for radical tax reform in this country. Specifically the flat tax which would eliminate the irs and you could retire. [laughter] just amiss olson, i commend Staggering Number of calls, millions of calls annually and correspondence that remain ready much unaddressed and the frustration and aggravation to taxpayers who want to do the right thing. And are unable to. That is my comment. I wish you well. Guest i agree with you 100 that the need for comprehensive tax reform. In past annual reports that has been the number one most serious problem for taxpayers. I have testified before any number of panels, president bushs panel on tax reform and on and on about the need. On my website, we have a place where people can make tax reform suggestions because i felt taxpayers themselves really have a sense. We asked what tax benefit would you be willing to give up in exchange for more simple tax code and what do you think is really unfair . Sort of two questions that yet to the heart of it. I would make a comment about the flat tax. I dont think it gets rid of the irs, with the flat tax someone will have to collect it. There has to be a collection mechanism so there is someone or some agency that will be around whether you replace it with value added tax or just have a flat rate proportional i will note that most of the provisions really are not flat because they give an exemption they might say the first 20,000, a first 50,000. The minute you have entered exempt and rate you have something that is not a flat tax. There are two rates in that at least. But something that is far simpler and i think what most people are saying is get rid of the deductions and exemptions in the code. Once you do that, you have to be willing to give up your mortgage seduction and local sales deduction and have your Health Insurance premiums paid by your employer taxed or have your taxsheltered Retirement Savings tax. Those are Big Questions that so far there has not been any political will to address. Host we have howard from new jersey on the independent line. Caller i have a solution to your problem. You can hire all the people you want in the irs, reduce the compensation that all Public Employees get. Especially their benefits, their weight out of line. Nothing like the private sector, you get in trouble and cannot provide services, you reduce pay that is here in new jersey which is a very high tax state it would solve your problems and have all the people you need to answer the phones and i wonder what the womans background on the show today, i wonder does she work for the government . Did she come up in the private sector . I wonder what these lobbyists backgrounds are . Host two pieces. Howards ideas. Guest federal employees are paid on a government pay scale that congress and personal management have designed. There have been many panels and commissions that have looked at the pay of Civil Service employees. I think that the findings are varying. They find that at the lower pay levels of the federal workforce that the benefits are much higher and the pay is higher than at the higher levels of the pay scale compared to the private sector. I would also say that for every study that says that there is another one that says the opposite so i personally do not have a position. Those decisions are made by congress and the executive branch. As far as my background, i started preparing tax returns as a soul proprietor in 1975. And individuals, i did return preparation boost us decided to go to law school at night and raised my son and kept my tax preparation is this a float. In 1992 i created a nonprofit that was the first low income taxpayer front in the country serving low income taxpayers who had disputes with the irs. It wasnt affiliated with the law school and i funded that nonprofit and volunteered my own time until he could get on my own two feet. Until i was appointed as a secretary of treasury. The Internal Revenue code charges me to speak up and be the voice inside the irs. My agency by law is separate from the irs. By law, the person who serves as a National Taxpayer advocate cannot serve or work for the iris for two for years before taking the position and five years after taking. I have no career path inside the irs. Once i finish this job, i am out of their. I try to maintain my independence and i think i do a fairly good job. Host when does your term of service and . End . Guest i have no term of service, i serve at the pleasure of the secretary, i served the democratic and republican administrations. Host we have about half an hour left. The annual report to Congress Israel here and folks can read this themselves where . Guest they can get it online, there is a whole page dedicated to it. We have entered executive summary that summarizes host you dedicated to dave camp who retired from congress. Tell us why. Guest congressman camp, from the very beginnings, announced that tax reform would be a major focus. What he put forth this year and his tax reform bill was really a movement for the need for comprehensive cap tax reform. It was a starting point in a conversation that shouldve been picked up by democrats and republicans. Any bill that comes out first is going to be modified. I really viewed chairman camps bill when treasury put out a blueprint for tax reform, it came after several years of going backandforth over visioning. The 1986 Tax Reform Act that was really the last Tax Reform Act that brought some publication to the code. We are in desperate need of that. I thought it was a heroic effort on his part to start the dialogue running. Host quincy from chicago illinois. Democrat. Caller the reason im calling is because im 70 years old. I worked for 40 years. The i rest the irs has been taking out for my Social Security. Theyve been taking 300 a month from my checks in the past three years. Im really upset about that. This is all i have to live on. I can barely make it. Im waiting and waiting and waiting on the phone. It is because of some kind of tax conflict i have three years ago. 300 a month from my Social Security check. I paid in a lot lot of money in my 40 years of work. Guest your story breaks my heart. Im going to give you some advice in a way to get some help. Heres what you need to do. You need to call my organization the Taxpayer Advocate service. We have an office at least one office and every single state. That is required by law. My employees are there to help you. This 300 a month coming out of your check is causing a significant hardship. The phone number is 1877a s k tas one. 1877asktas1. We will assign a case advocate to help you and you will have that one persons direct line on their desk to get through to them. Let me tell you what this program is which ive really disagreed with four years and have written a lot of about. Congress authorized the irs to take 15 of Social Security benefits monthly if a person has a tax debt. I am trying to institute a low income filter so that person to rely primarily on Social Security will not have this 15 taken away from them. If you have a back tax debt, you may not. Your case advocate when you call that number will help you figure out what that is. You also get a release of the levy because it is causing you Economic Hardship in getting your 300 back. What you may also try if you have been trying to talk to the irs all this time, we can look at the records and see if we can get some of the money that has been levied on you already. This is a very serious problem and i very serious concerns about this program. Ive written about it for the last seven or eight years and made legislative recommendations to fix it. Host we have brenda. Thank you for waiting. Caller this is brenda. My question is illegal aliens will be able to remain legal as long as they pay their taxes. They will earn less than 25,000 daniels 25,000 annually. Will they apply for the tax credit . This will never work because of the tax payers who pay these credits. Guest undocumented people or im going to say this this way. Anyone who resides in the United States for over 365 days on average over the last three years it is a very complex formula. Or if they have a green card and are committed to reside in the United States is taxable under the Internal Revenue code under worldwide income. We are the only country there may be one other and the entire world that has that approach to taxation. When you hear legally or illegally, you have an obligation to file and pay your taxes. That is a bedrock of the Internal Revenue code as the congress wrote it and the iressa administers it. They can get and i10 so they can file their income tax returns today. If they have and i10, they are not eligible for the income tax credit and they are generally not eligible for a lot of other credits because those are limited to persons who have Social Security numbers. It is not clear to me under the ministrations proposal whether folks who come in under the new program that the administration is proposing whether they get a Social Security number or not. Then, they would be eligible for the various credits. In terms of who is paying for what all the social programs that are run through the code are no different than direct spending programs. They are no different from welfare or food stamps or military authorization or grants to communities for floods or disasters or infrastructure or anything like that. They are the equivalent of direct spending programs. They are called tax expenditures. For any spending, it is for all the taxpayers who are paying for it. You really do not want the irs in that conversation. That is a conversation between you and the administration and congress to describe what as a populist you want tax dollars ascribed to. You do not what the iressa ignoring it and picking and choosing what it chooses to administer. Host one tweet for nina olson. Do you see evidence that the irs is acting to further the political agenda of the Obama Administration or any politician . Guest it is hard not to have the appearance of being politically involved. Congress passed the Affordable Care act and we have a duty to administer it as best as we can. Some may view that as furthering the Obama Administration agenda. I would say it is in the Internal Revenue code so we have to administer it. There is scrutiny of political organizations. I am not conducting an investigation of it. There are six congressional investigations going on and they have subpoena power and they will publish their reports about what their findings are. Host this question points out that congress cut irs funding and december. Does that mean irs will go after people fraud but not the complicated nonprofit and forth forprofit fraud . Guest i do think the irs will do whatever it can through automation. That means that we will probably miss a lot of things. I am very concerned about that. I will also say that it would be very hard for people to be able to communicate with the iressa during audits. We do a lot by correspondence and that is not the best way to do an audit. They have to appeal it and go to tax court to get answer. That is a burden on the taxpayer. I do think that there is a lot that the irs can do to identify the right places to audit and have the most indirect effect of those audits. It needs to really improve its auditing. Host let us hear from trudy now. Trudy is a democratic caller. Welcome. Caller speaking of political lines, it seems to me that the cut in the irs funds is a result of the Republican Congress due to the loud squawking of the tea party. That stance for taxed enough already. If i were irs agent, i would take a look at peoples tax reforms of members of the tea party. Thank you. Guest some of these cuts the irs is budget increased in 2005 to 2010. Some of that has been directly attributable to the sequestration that impacted the entire government. The problem has been that on top of sequestration, we have had these cuts. It is very clear that a lot of what has driven the most recent cuts is the distrust of the irs on the part of many people in congress and certainly many people on the United States as far as what happens. To the tea party groups, i think it is a very difficult one. The law is very unclear. The law says that these organizations have to be exclusively organized through social welfare which would imply that they can do nothing else except social welfare. The United States Supreme Court said that you could basically have an insubstantial not exempt purpose. So clearly something less than 100 . It is not really clear what is that threshold amount of political activity that you can do and still qualify as a taxexempt social welfare organization. Because folks have been organizing, which is their right and i and kurds that, the irs has had to look closely. The problem as i see it is that employees were not given guidance over a year and a half about how they were supposed to look at these organizations and they held these entities for very long periods of time. They didnt get the scrutiny because they did have the guidance did not have the guidance. That stopped a high have it and people are outraged about that. I understand the outrage. My point is that it is a small part of the work of the irs does. It affects the 150 elses 150 million taxpayers and enforcement on a daytoday basis. That is being harmed because of where we are and that budget. Host if you miss the earlier part of that segment, we read from the report talking about budget cuts and delays in service. This report says that 35. 6 of phone calls went unanswered by Customer Service representatives. 50 of pieces of correspondence were not handled timely. Virtually, zero tax returns were prepared by irs walkin sites. Are some parts of the country more affected than others by these cuts . Guest one of the things that we did in this report was taken a look at the irs local presence. They have been accumulating people to several Large Service centers that are scattered throughout the country. The actual physical presence of irs employees in a geographical accounts has shrunk enormously. There are today 13 states that have no human being responsible for reaching out to the Small Business and selfemployed population and educating them and helping them not get into trouble on the enforcement side. That is a quarter of the states in the United States. That is astonishing to me. There are 12 states that do not have appeals officers or in appeals officer that deals with collection issues in the state. Why that is important is because every state is different and its economy. Some states have an economic downturn attributable to anothers kind of disaster. Other states the commodity that they are working with the most has gone under. Like cold cole goes under. Each states have their own culture. Taxpayers will not be served in the people that are trying to help them may not understand the economic and geographic conditions that they are facing and why they wont be able to pay their tax bills. That is why Congress Said as a Taxpayer Advocate service, my 1900 employees have to have at least one office in each state. And my report, we pointed out that the irs has to get asked back a Geographic Presence to understand the taxpayers. That in the long run is much more effective. The highlighted the report tuesday that in wyoming, which is not a populous state, but a large state geographically. Then we looked at the city of manhattan. The number of tax papers taxpayers and those locales increased significantly i doubled agents. By double digits. In one instance, irs presence decreased, and one instance, by 15 . That is a recipe for disaster going forward. He will not have people understand conditions on the ground. Host mark, you are on with nina olson, a Taxpayer Advocate. Caller good morning to the both of you. Ive seen nina also on used nina olson on your show a couple times over the past couple of years. What seems to be not focused on enough is her Actual Office of Taxpayer Advocate. At the turn of the millennia, i had problems with the irs. The employer i had was not sending the taxes in like they were supposed to any irs held up a sizable chunk of the refund. The taxpayers advocate took a long time. They actually got that money that for me with interest. I think it is a shame that when this lady shows up that she gets all these political questions from people saying how much they hate the irs and that we need to have a flat tax and this and that. People can learn a lot from her particular department and what she can do for people like us. It is unfortunate in a situation where they cut the budget. I do not know if you can screen the calls better or people should realize not to look at this lady as just being a general representative of the irs when she is on your so show. She has a really useful office and a useful purpose there. I o them a thanks. So, basically that is what i wanted to do. Host thank you for calling. What is the job . Guest i really appreciate the caller calling in and saying that. And i run the Taxpayer Advocate service. We have 74 offices around the United States, at least one in every state. And some of the most popular at stasis and some of the most populated states, more than one. They have spared my office is some of the budget cuts. We have helped taxpayers who have had significant hardship. That means, if the irs is not doing Something Like in the gentlemans case where the irs was not getting his refund, something that the iris is not doing we tried a work through the process and get the issue resolved. That is a sick to systemic problem. We assign a case advocate and have a tollfree advocate extension to call. We get up to 3000 cases a year. We do get one person who sticks with you through the whole process. As the caller said, it sometimes takes years to get things resolved. We also have issues that involve multiple parts of the irs. I do have a very important to that Congress Gave us which is a taxpayer assistance order. That allows me to order the iris to stop doing something, do something, or not do something that it is about to do. We can order them to do it within a certain amount of time. If they do not agree, they can appeal it. Once it is appealed all the way to the commissioner and it lands on my debts only the Deputy Commissioner can overturn it. From there, i get the last word. I tell them about any taxpayer order that ive issued that the irs has not cited with. If theyd do not like the results, they can intervene. What we are seeing is that some of these issues are very difficult. My own employees are having a hard time finding the right irs employee. Irs training has been cut by 83 since 2010. Whereas in 2000 2010 or so they were spending 2000 of training per employee, they are now spending 373 or something that range. Were finding people in the eye rests saying that this needs to be done and that we do not know how to do it. Im seeing more and more of that. Host we have a few more calls in here. Carrie from arlington, virginia. Caller i think theres more to tell of of the irs does and how people complicate things by filing papers for foundations. Theres 29 categories of nonprofits that people qualify under. The people at the irs rely on the documents that they are given and they are considered truthful until someone comes along and says it is not a real foundation. The irs has a program for which people can provide information on. For all these false foundations or these foundations that have failed to file, there pulled away from the system. That frees up manpower. There are good. Full there are good people working at the irs. Host thanks. Nina olson . Guest i thoroughly agree. And some ways, what is sad about that sample is that there is a verys mall unit of the irs and that there are very few and flurries involved in it. There are 82,000 other employees that are working on lots of things that impact taxpayers every single day including trying to get to taxpayers even in this environment. Host we have mark from huntsville, alabama. Caller ive to questions will quit. I have two questions real quick. I never had insurance. My employer provide insurance. I went to a navigator from healthcare. Gov and they walked me through it. I cannot find a plan that i could afford. I didnt have Health Insurance in 2014. My first question is, when i go into a couple of weeks, are they going to take like a 95 penalty is that going to come out of my refund this year when i final file my taxes . Guest there are a couple of things. You should go today to look online to see if you can qualify for a hardship exemption. You do have to apply for the hardship exemption through the exchange. But if you apply for the hardship exemption, when you file your income tax return, the insurance and say that you can write on the income tax return and they might even be a box to check, im not sure about that. Say that im applying for a hardship exemption. That way, it would not automatically apply the penalty until the exchange has done its evaluation of whether you really do have a hardship. That was a planned that is available to you. That is a plan that is available to you. That is built into the law and you should look into that today and then gets her application and for hardship exemption. When you file your return, you can write that on their. Host quick question from twitter. How does Electronic Filing and programs like turbotax affect the irs . Is there a change . Guest what we city was a code and edit. The more information that we get from Electronic Filing, fewer people are typing in the entries and checking to make mistakes. We do have a vast majority of the people now electronically filing which is good. I can say one thing about turbotax. There a little unattended talk consequences. They make filing taxes eight easy. The machine does a lot of country. A lot of country crunching. If people were able to do it, they would be more adamant on tax or form. Tax reform. We have lost the reality of just how complex our law is. That is an unintended consequence. Host let us hear from a caller in fort lauderdale. Caller thank you, miss olson. I have been pleased with the work that she does. Issue wants to advocate for us taxpayers, she should try to inspire confidence. I have a problem with the irs. I cannot reach them by phone. Im a disabled person. It took almost seven hours to see somebody. I told the irs that ive not filed it. Ive been disabled since 1997. In the three weeks, i got a check from them for the full about plus the interest. It is incredible to me that i went down and call these people and proved with three different kinds of identification that i was in need. They paid me the interest on it as well. You run into this and every bureaucracy that you have people that are just incompetent. Maybe the others would actually do their work. I like to see you advocate for that. Thank you for the good work. Guest first of all, im really sorry that you had to go through that experience. That is a Good Opportunity to call the Taxpayer Advocate service for Something Like that. If that happens, at least we can have a case advocate monitor the account and make sure that fraudulent refunds do not go out while youre trying to resolve the problem. Ive felt for a long time in this annual report, actually recommend that the eye thinks that it is more efficient to let things go to the next available sister. A sister. There are just some areas where you need to assign work to one person and hold them accountable. That would be the kind of thing that you have right there. One of the first things that you should do is basically put a marker on the account when you come in to make sure that no erroneous refunds go out. You can stop that right then and there. It would be really hard to trace back who took in your concerns and do not do that. I can point the finger in my own organization has people are assigned to a case and i know who is doing what. And i encourage the irs and i asked congress to hold the iris accountable by assigning people. Youre waiting so long right now. What is a little bit longer if you have somebody accountable for the decisions being made . Host one more caller from little rock. Caller i need to report someone who is not filed a tax you know what im talking about. Guest please and i give that persons name out online. Caller i need a name to contact the office to talk to. Host thank you, caller. Guest you can call our 877 number. 1877asktas1. Although that would not be a case that we would taken, we can refer you to the right office. Tell them that you called in to cspan and i referred you to them. Host our guest has been nina olson, a National Taxpayer advocate. You can read more at Taxpayer Advocate that i rest i go. We have a half hour left of this edition of washington journal. We want to do some open phones coming up next after a short break. Here are the numbers to call. You can talk about anything that we are like in the next half hour and we will see when a minute. Flex tonight on the communicators, reclassifying broadband and that neutrality. Cracks i i believe that i partisan has served us pretty well. The fcc decided that the internet would be an Information Service. It was chairman of both Political Parties chairman camara canard that realized that regulation was the best way to incentivize appointment. I asked members of both parties to recognize that potential regulation is the best way to go. It has taken a turn starting with the president s announcement in december. We are now asking them to receive common carrier regulations. We think it would be a some of this mistake for the american consumer. Tonight on the communicators. Announcer washington journal continues. Host as we get started on open phones here, you can talk about anything that youd like you. I want to get to one of the big items. It is one of the Border Security bills. The Washington Times has the headline Border Patrol rebuffs gop immigration bill. They are calling it a windowdressing and adding further obstacles for a pumpkin leaders who at helping to pass the bill in a vote this wednesday. The bill added fencing along the border and would give dhs officials a five year window to devise a strategy to prevent 100 of illegal bordering crossings as smuggling attempts. This legislation speaks about metrics, but prickly does not provide even a strategy or the resources necessary to achieve them. Code that was sean moran. The Senate Continues work today. They are back at 4 30 on the keystone xl pipeline bill. The lithic another busy week here in washington. We will take your calls for this next half hour. You can talk about any topic that you would like. While we are waiting for you to check in, well let you know that the senate this week is set to question the attorney general nominee. Her confirmation hearing starts on wednesday. Usa today says that a scrum of reporters and photographers have gathered early outside of senator schumers office. It was the demure woman in the dark suit who glided through the prescott went, seemingly oblivious to the spotlight and the questions being shouted. 30 minutes later, Loretta Lynch was gone out a back door, gladly seeding the talking in the public stage to the senator. While at she is no stranger to the Justice Department where she has served as chair to the generally Advisers Committee her profile is less familiar to many in the senate. They will decide if she moves from brooklyn to d. C. To oversee the departments sprawling mission. She is a career federal prosecutor with their reputation. The life represents the American Dream says ted thompson. She will be but up on wednesday before the Senate Judiciary committee. We will have that live on cspan. They too will be a panel of another witnesses. Theyll be on cspan because the house is in session not in session thursday and friday due to a retreat that the democrats are holding. I want to show you just a little bit of a piece that the white house put out yesterday. And has to do with the National Wildlife refuge and i will in alaska. Many headlines talking about what the president wants to do. There was a video from the white house youtube yesterday. It is about a minute. Take a look. [video clip] the wildlife refuges and incredible place. It is pristine and protects polar bears and all manner of marine life and all manners of birds and fish. It is very fragile. That is why am very proud that my department of interior has put forth a comprehensive plan to make sure that we are protecting the refuge im going to be calling on congress to make sure that they take it one step further, designating it as a wilderness so that we can make sure that this amazing wonder is preserved for future generations. Host there is one of the headlines today. Journaling to be banned in arctic refuge. Drilling to be banned in arctic refuge. The republican from alaska tweeted this the white house of walking away millions of alaskan acres from responsible development. And ignores the promise made to us at statehood. We have a caller from seaside. Caller good morning. How are you . Host im doing fine. Caller im china to figure out if ted cruz out of texas im trying to figure out if ted cruz out of texas can run for president of the United States. And i want to know donald trump can get his birth certificate. Host why you raising these questions . Caller because i want to know why arent you raising them. Host we have a call from jenny. Caller this is jenny. I watched the republicans debate all day the other day. Host the iowa summit. Caller i do not see anyone that i thought was capable of handling to be president of the United States. Donald trump was all messed up. I noticed that during all the conversations that the republicans have that they never mentioned the name of george bush. Because he got us in this mess. I thought bin laden was in afghanistan and not iraq. Host was there someone not on that stage and i would that you think would be a good president . Caller anyone on that panel . No, no i did not. Host who do you like . Caller at the present time, i am 92 years old. I have voted ever since i was eligible to vote. I cannot think of anyone. I know that i do not what another bush and their because he started that mess that we were having. I will not say all that. Why did he go to iraq when bin laden was in afghanistan . Host thank you for calling. We do understand the point. We have read from ohio. What is on your mind this morning . Caller i was listening to obamas the other day. He said that item was responsible for making sure that people are trained and find decent employment. My sister is having issues down in georgia that she feels that she has been age discriminated against because her husband passed away a few years ago and left her with two kids. It has been hard on her trying to get work. It has been raising some issues. Im afraid that shell be put out on the street. Im trying to be controlled about this. I just wonder what is biden doing to try to get these folks back into work so that they can find decent employment . Host thank you for raising the question and sharing your family situation. We are doing open phones and you can talk about anything that you would like. Anthony from new york. Caller thank you so very much for the opportunity to speak. I would like to every 30 days, you allow us to call into cspan and voice our concerns. At most times, it is just complaints. You do not have to do that, but you do. I am very grateful for the opportunity every 30 days to state whatever it is that i care to stay. Im very thankful to the highest. The quality of the production of cspan whether it is on your website what have you. Theres just so much abundance of information. Most of the people that call in with base criticisms and complaints to cspan i do not think that they realize the waterfall of information that you folks have to deal with on a daily basis. To make sense or heads or tails of any of it is quite a difficult task. Host is there a particular issue on your mind this morning . Caller the list goes on and on. The most major concern is what is going on in japan. This general election has basically created this monster. The Nuclear Industry that is just running the destroying the planet. By far, the greatest threat to Homeland Security is melted reactors. There is no mention in the Mainstream Media about it. Even the one for south carolina, the problem is that we allow people with different interests them what is really the American Peoples interest. When dick cheney and bush came to power, the reason that we went into iraq was that bush was salivating over his oil. They came to office with an agenda and that is why they went to iraq. It was a sinister plot by their part. The list goes on and on with problems. Im so grateful to cspan. You are the only place that we can come to for knowledge and for wisdom and education. I just miss brian lamb on friday. I do not know if they are still behind the scenes. It is just not the same. Just to be able to call in and speak with brian lamb was such an honor. Mrs. Wayne as well. They were family to the people that watch. It is almost like they were the Walter Cronkites of their time. I do believe that they have done more for the American People than any other media outlet. Host thank you for the comments about cspan. I hope you will call back in 30 days to tell us what might be on your mind. Victor is on the line. He is from florida. Victor, democrat. Welcome to the program, victor. Caller thank you. I have a comment about the congress. They have a 15 approval right now. The reason why that those people do not trust congress is because they are taking money from special interest. They are taking money from wealthy people like the Koch Brothers. They are ignoring the will of people. In the first day of office, they are not deal with the priority of jobs. They do not deal with the priority of the deficit. They do not deal with the priority of the balanced budget amendment. Then, they have a 15 approval relevant rating. Mcconnell comes out on television and complaints of the president is going to veto his bills. It is all politics. Theyre not getting anything done. They have a 15 Approval Rating and they refuse to it stop taking legalized bribes from special interests and people. Host what is the answer . What should happen . Caller repeal the united decision and limit the amount of money that you can donate to a person. That would get the Koch Brothers and the soros is out of politics. Then the we could get a jobs bill possibly. Then we could get a balanced budget amendment. Where 18 trillion in debt and have no plan and congress. They cannot agree on anything. All they want to do is make the president look bad and that is all they are there for. Host we should point out that the summit comes in at 4 30 today. They will look at the Keystone Pipeline again. More debate and more votes. We are not sure how this weather in the northeast will affect travel plans. We will see about that. We also plan to cover the rules committee on cspan3 during the 5 00 hour. Theyre taking a look at the Border Security bill. Robert is on the line from huntsville, alabama. Hello, robert. Caller just a quick comment on the iowa summit. Ive not had an opportunity to look at it. As an independent, it gives me a great way to look back at both candidates regardless of party. Pardon me if im not pronouncing heard her name correctly. The most sensitive type was scott walker. The one with the strongest delivery who us, a long long way is rick perry. The only problem is that they continue to slam and break the president. My gosh, barack has only 18 months left in office. What is a new plan host robert mentions to folks who are french who are mentioned in the Washington Times. They seen as improving their position among i will voters at the summit. We cover that live all day. You can watch the speeches at cspan. Org. And we will air some of them after this program. We have can in miami, florida. Caller my name is kenneth. Im from amy, florida. I am observing that in terms of politics and in the United States of america, i was wondering why so many people really do not like discussing politics. I think what it has to do with is really a lack of respect and love. If you look at the problems facing this country, the solution is really a combination of conservative and liberal. If the two parties focus on their ideologies and they only want 100 of each ideology it is not going to work. For instance, in the Immigration Reform there is nothing disrespectful where you have 20 laying 12 Million Immigrants here a want to figure out a way of solving that problem. Theres nothing disrespectful for the Illegal Immigrants this is a country of laws to resolve the problem. They have to pay taxes and learn english and go behind the line. When you have these people running for president , you want them to have experience. You want them to be a leader. You want them to be able to trawl from the people and resolve problems. It is a combination of conservative and liberal. If you can leave the ideology, it does not mean it is ok to have certain believes. I think it has to do with love and respect. If there is more love and respect in american politics, i think that more people would be willing to there would be less cynicism. A good dose of skepticism is healthy. When you get to the level of cynicism, then it takes you back. Thank you. Host anna and columbus, ohio. Hello there. Caller i was calling because i have withdrawn my vote from the democratic party. Ive never met and my life never in my life voted for democrats. Ive had the most for horrifying experiences in my life voted for the democratic party. Host tells about one of them. Tell us about one of them. Caller ive had many a problem with these two organizations here in Columbus Ohio to where ive reported it to the federal government. Ive reported it to the Columbus Police department and the ethics department. Everything i can think of because of the rate that they have done to me. It was in my personal life and just as well my family. When they went into my Voters Registration record, i was horrified. I was appalled on what the democrats had done to me. Barack obama and then i am not pleased with them at all or their organization. As been such a horrifying experience for me and my family just as well as my personal friends here in columbus, ohio. I would never advise anybody host that was anna from ohio. We have lynn. Caller good morning. I like to make a comment about romney and ted cruz. They are both born in foreign countries. Hello . Host we are listening. Caller they were born in foreign countries. The constitution is really clear on the fact that if you are not born in the United States, you are not eligible. Nobody is bringing this up. Host you are saying mitt romney and ted cruz. Caller ted cruz was born in canada. Romney was born in mexico. They are not eligible to run. I do know that somebody said that they passed a law that if one of their parents as a citizen, then they are ok. That is not true either because the constitution is clear on the fact that anything that goes against the constitution is not a legal law. That is all i have to say. Host from the Associated Press we start of this we started this program about maybe a drone device on the white house lawn. They found what they called a quad copter device witchcraft which crashed at the white house complex. We are looking at a picture of a quad copper. Quad copter. We will bring you any information that we can. We now have carlton from oklahoma. Caller i want to make a comment on government versus private sector debt. In my research, i note that the Federal Reserve says that the private sector debt is 45 trillion. The private sector was burning four to 5 trillion a year prior to the 2008 recession. Government debt is just a fraction of that at 17. 5 trillion. In my research, when Government Debt has grown is then when we had had to bail out the economy. Im wondering where is all the focus on the largest portion of debt in america which is private sector debt. This is why the market is so fearful about raising interest rates. That is my comment. It seems like our largest debt and what actually causes us to go into a recession is the debt that is in the private sector. What happened in 2008 is because of the leveraging in the private sector. Not taxes in revelation regulation. Host we have is theyll a republican from texas. Caller thank you for taking my call. What is on my mind is my neighbors are all from different states. Back in the 80s, when Ronald Reagan was the president , the economy was so good. A lot of them tell me that the reason why they come to texas is for opportunity. The economy is not very well from whatever state they are from. My main concern is what is going to happen in the future as far states. And a lot of people from california come down here to live. They come to seek more better opportunities. My main concern is with the future generations younger generations. Hows that going to change for the coming years . Host thank you for calling. Senate minority leader harry reid is having surgery today. Surgery for an accident suffered at home in nevada. He held a News Conference late last week. If you want to watch that News Conference, he was asked about his prospects for running reelection and his prospects for staying on. He sounded confident from all the writeups. His surgery is happening today. If we hear any more information we will let you know. Damon david is calling from michigan. He is a democrat. Good morning, david. Caller i am a democrat. I watched both sides. I will i listen to the beginning of that Freedom Summit. I agreed with everything that victor said. He said it really well. When i watched the Freedom Summit the other day, i heard esther david the glossy mr. David the glossy. He was blaming everything that he said about the Current Administration is what shouldve been said about the previous administration. They do a lot of that republicans. They point the finger at the Current Administration when that finger shouldve been pointed at them. Even back to jeff duncan let us go back to Ronald Reagan. Fill the gap that he caused by reducing spending. He reduced taxes and then tried to fill the gap with Social Security funds. Anyone of these republicans that i watched in this Freedom Summit anytime they pointed a finger , it shouldve been pointed right back at them because they were the ones that got us here first and no one knows that. Everyone wants to turn around and blame a democrat or some of the health. Host we have one last caller before we wrap up. Caller i just wanted to call about the Keystone Pipeline. Host what do you think about it . Caller when you look at some of the disasters that happen with the oil spills you know that we have the oyster Ocean Oil Spill and how the oil is so devastating to the environment. You cannot find anyone to help clean it up. I think the president is right on this issue. Sometimes, we have to look at some different alternatives for energy instead of depending on oil all the time. Host thank you for calling. Im not sure if it visible it is visible here. They will possibly be voting on seven amendments as well as debates on measures. They will open at 4 30. They will talk a bit and then we understand that they will take some votes. Perhaps, debate and a final vote by the end of the week. We will see how this all plays out. That is that for open phones and this mondays edition of washington journal. Im glad that you could make it and take your calls and tweets. We are glad to hear from you. Youll be back at 7 00 eastern time tomorrow as we are every day with another edition. Enjoy the rest of your day and we will see you right back here tomorrow. President obamas nominee to be next attorney general goals of four the senate for a hearing this week. Potential 2016 president ial contender jeb bush gave a preview of some of the issues that his campaign might focus on. He was in San Francisco last week at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention. He gave a speech and took some questions for about an hour. [applause] thank you. Thank you for that great introduction. Since ive been here, a lot of members have asked how my family is doing. As i