Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150526

Defense secretary ash carter laid the takeover blame securely on iraqi forces saying they had no will to fight. It will not only talk about the statement made but will also ask you in the first 45 minutes to talk about iraq and what the u. S. Should be doing their whether they need more u. S. Forces, doing the same or less. You might have a lot of opinions and you can give us your thoughts. 202 7488000 four democrats. 202 7488001 four republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. Join the conversation on facebook. Send us an email. The Washington Post picked up the statements of ash carter talking about ramadi and the state of Iraqi Security forces. For the full interview, here is a bit of it. [video clip] the iraqi forces showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. They vastly outnumbered the opposing forced and yet they failed to fight. They withdrew from the site. That says to me and most of us that we have on young issue an issue with the will of iraqis to fight isil and defend themselves. We can given training and equipment but cannot give them the will to fight. If we give them equipment training, support and some time, i hope they will develop the will to fight. Only if they fight can isil remain defeated. A lot of people in washington that you deal with are saying, put in Ground Troops and Forward Air Controllers and airstrikes, are not working. What is your view of this . They are effective but nothing they or we do can substitute for the iraqi forces will to fight. They are the ones who have to beat isil. Host those are the statements about iraqi forces. If you want to comment on any of those things, here of the numbers. When it comes to the statements saying they have no will to fight, 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans and for independents 202 7488002. This as the Guardian Newspaper announces this morning that in iraq there is a counterattack being launched against isis near ramadi. The launch of the military operation to drive isis out of the and bar robbins anbar province, the military operation would be to drive them and backed by shia and sunni Paramilitary Forces but did not provide whether details. Ahmad all a saudi told reporters that the new weapon ahmaad, alasadi, told reporters that the new weapon first and foremost, what did you think about the statement . Caller the secretary of defense is correct saying they did not have the will to fight. But i want to emphasize that isis is a product of the late dictator Saddam Hussein. [inaudible] it is a sunni radical islamic killing machine that is decapitating their involvement in syria and iraq and they want a caliphate. But iran is more dangerous. Hegemony both iraq of iraq syria and lebanon. The saints made the mistake of reducing forces in 2011. Civil war in spain led to world war ii. Were coming to world war iii. Obama needs to reach strategize. Pinpricks will not do the trick. Host does that mean more Ground Troops in your mind . Caller we cannot use diplomacy. America has advanced military power. Use it. It makes sense that america doesnt have the will. They have all this military firepower, crush this second rate isis. If he is sitting or just talking diplomacy but we will talk ourselves into a thermonuclear cataclysm. Host daniel, go ahead on our independent line. Caller i appreciate you taking the time to hear this call. The gentleman before me maybe determined that anyone from washington can stop the average sociologist approach in trying to determine what is best. I think Ground Troops are a bad idea. The word is that airstrikes are working and there are several other options available. Diplomacy works. Washington will have to realize that in time theyll have to listen to the American People. We have proven time and again that the war we went into twice was off of faulty evidence and i really think in the idea of a sociologist approach, this idea of isis being disgruntled on the idea of United States occupancy and other things are vindicated reasons to want to continue to escalate violence. Unfortunately, the United States has the back away. This will be the one time that the sociologist approach is going to work. Host jim is in baltimore md. Talking about iraqi forces recently in ramadi. Caller yes, one of the things i cannot understand, a comment was made about the soldiers running out of ramadi that were fighting isis. One of the issues was that they were not eating paid. Since they are not being paid where is all the money going that we are sending this country . We are sending them billions of dollars per year and in the soldiers cannot get paid. Host before you go. Is there a connection between not getting paid and the effectiveness on the battlefield . Caller according to the statement made yesterday because they are not getting paid is one of the reasons that they were running away. I thought they had strong leadership but i can imagine the higherups are getting paid. Why arent they getting paid. Sending millions of dollars over there to support them including weapons. Host next on the independent line. Caller the blaming the iraqi army is an easy way out for americans. We are breaking up this country into different zones. Kurdish zones, this and that. Now we blame the military. Why should the military fight for politicians who have no vision. We failed, we went there and lost many lives and trillions of dollars so now we start bringing thousand blaming thousands of the army who have nothing to do with it. What should they die for . For this sewn or this sector zone or this sector . We destroyed one big country called iraq. We are to be blamed for that, not the iraqi army . Host the topic of the defense secretarys statements. You talk about that or the strategy overall. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. Taking a look at military tactics. New weapons, tactical sophistication and prowess. The group displayed a high degree of Operational Security by silencing social media propaganda teams and churned out dozens of formidable new weapons by converting captured u. S. Military Armored Vehicles designed to be impervious to small arms fire into mega bombs with payloads equal to the force of the Oklahoma City bombing. Eric is from antioch california. Caller i would like to say to everyone to be patient. I believe his comments were as much for isis as everybody else. It might just be that they wanted them in ramadi. They have to be beaten by the iraqis. If we are the ones responsible for losing then it will just get more recruits. With the iraqis on their own they can hold their own country. Everybody be patient and give things a chance. Host when you say we wanted them in ramadi, what do you mean by that . Caller to sucker them in. Isis will think all we have to do is attack and these guys will break. That might be what they want them to do. They cannot allow isis to slip away. A lot of times in the middle east when a battle is not the one you put in your weapons down and disappear, but they cannot allow that to happen. Host you spoke about patients, what is your confidence level in Iraqi Security forces . Caller i like everybody else, i do believe from the things i saw there was no direct fleeing of the iraqi forces. They just withdrew. They have already regained 25 of the territory lost previously. I think Everybody Needs to be a little patience. Host branson, missouri up next don on the republican line. Caller probably my geography is not very good. It seems to me that the only people willing to fight are the kurds and the peshmerga and we are supplying money to iraqis. I hope somebody out there knows why are we not backing the kurds 100 . Host the statements by the defense secretary cut the year of the iraqi Prime Minister who talked about what he said in an interview with the bbc. Here is the reaction that the bbc got. [video clip] i am surprised why he said that. He was very supportive of iraq. Im sure he was fed the wrong information. Ramadi was a disaster, wasnt it . It makes my heart lead. But i assure you we can bring it back soon. Host that is the Prime Minister and there is ramadi, a map in the center of iraq. That is the current counteroffensive taking place there. We are getting your thoughts on that. The Vice President ended up calling the iraq Prime Minister talk about the statements he had heard and to smooth over concerns. The readout from the white house saying the Vice President had confirmed the report against isil in the Vice President recognize the enormous sacrifice and bravery over the past 18 months in ramadi and elsewhere. The Vice President welcome to the council of ministers unanimous decision on may 19 to mobilize additional troops honor those who a fallen and prepare for counter attack operations. The Vice President pledged full u. S. Support in these and other iraqi efforts to liberate territory from isil. Rick, you are next. Caller what is amazing about this conversation is the iraq war am i on the air . Host go ahead. Caller the iraq war was based on lies and brainwashing. You go back and the reality is for me to speak about this, you have to give me my freedom of speech. The reality is, this is the self. South. The south in this country relies on oil and war, that is there economy. Then you talk about the brainwashing. The media is controlled through the state of texas with Clear Channel radio 1350 radio stations. Then you have georgia which was time warner which was just bought by the company that used to own nbc and that is new york state and connecticut. That is wall street and the Banking System and then the jews. Freedom of speech here. If the last five wars were started by texans, the vietnam war and gulf wars and both afghanistan wars and if the Largest Military ace in the world is in texas and the Largest Military contractor and Oil Companies are in texas, then how come the conversation i am in ohio. Texas steals money from michigan ohio, illinois and pennsylvania. Host ok, tom. Final thought. What should be done now . Caller we need to have take back our media so we can speak the truth. Host tom is from knoxville tennessee, independent line. Hello. Caller the secretary of defense probably has a lot more defense than me or the average person on the street, but i listen to news feeds all weekend from all over the world and a lot of the tribal leaders in that province are saying we dont have the weapons, we didnt have the weapons. A lot of people are saying that Security Forces ran out of ammunition. To me it seems more in line with what has been going on the last eight years in iraq. The shiite government putting much just disowned the sunnis. They dont want to arm them because then they would have to listen to what they have to say. As far as breaking iraq, all we did was take the lid off the pot. It is a pot that has been boiling for 300 years. Are we responsible for taking the lid off . Yes. Are we responsible for how they behave . I dont think we are. We spent a lot on equipment and lives and shattered lives to give them a shot to work it out to Work Together and they have not. That is not something we can force them to do. Host that is tom and tennessee your thoughts on Iraqi Security forces. The defense secretary said they had no will to fight. You may have thoughts on that or anything else. Host a crowded field as far as those on the republican side that field will be joined by others in here to help us go through what is going on is robert costa of the Washington Post how are you . Are you there . We will go back to him as soon as we can but back to your calls. John in new york, go ahead. John in new york, are you there . I dont know if we have john on the line, but again if you want to give us a call 202 7488000 hour line for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independants. You can speak to us on facebook, twitter or send us an email. Here taking look at cleveland and the deal they reached with the Justice Department. The front page of the post saying the city has reached a settlement but the latest case in which the Obama Administration has investigated excessive use of force and the violation of Constitutional Rights by a local department. The Justice Department issued a scathing report that accuse them of illegally using Excessive Force against citizens. The civil rights decision found the engage in a pattern of unnecessary force including shooting resident, striking them in the head and spraying them with chemicals. In one incident an officer used a stun gun on a suicidal, and deaf man who committed no crime, posed minimal risk to officers and may not have understood commands. Also in Washington Post, robert costa covers political events. Tell us about what to expect in the next couple of weeks. Caller we will see a lot more people get into the president ial race. With the new filing. Starting in june you will see a whole crowd of people jump in. On the democrat side, Bernie Sanders of vermont get into the race and on the republican side, Rick Santorum. And then in the summer the debates start and that will be a competition in a large field to get momentum and buzz. Host George Pataki showing interest in this . Caller he has been off the stage for quite some time but i was with governor pataki in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago and he is making a dogged effort. He doesnt have much momentum. People seem to have forgotten him. But he served multiple terms in new york and leaves he can offer a record of experience. It will be a difficult task for him because he doesnt really have the money that you need to compete. Host you talked about the debate. Some television stations are planning who to invite to the debate, give us a sense of what the strategy will be. Caller it will be fascinating to watch how this all unfolds. The Republican National committee has tried to have more control over the process this time. The rnc is not taking the lead role in dictating who can be at the debate. Instead it is the networks making these decisions. They are going to have 10 people on stage. 10 candidates. You will have to be declared and in the top 10 of pulling according to the last five national polls. Cnn hosts the ensuing debate. They will have two tiers. There is not really a process that is uniform. It will be based on the network s own decisions. A lot of these candidates who are perhaps not going to make it will be frustrated. Caller host they include a number of polls about who is running where. Robert costa, look into the future a little bit into the primary process. Does this envision a long primary process and does the gop want that . Caller it sounds almost fanciful to say it but because the field has more than a dozen contenders this could go all the way to the convention. This is something that Top Republican officials have relayed to me privately. It is a thought not seen as something that could happen absolutely but is definitely a possibility. Because the process has been elongated, they will have all of these debates and the primary itself will have a lot of contest together early next year. Because of the super pac and the way a lot of candidates can get an angel benefactor and survive for a long time the weight Newt Gingrich did and Rick Santorum in 2012, you could even though you are not winning primaries stay in the race. The Media Coverage that a strong debate performance provides is fuel. This could go long and could be a long contest. Caller you mentioned Bernie Sanders, tell us about what to expect in burlington vermont. Caller this is a selfdescribed socialist and proudly so. A true progressive. Someone who will be a competition and threat for Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state is wildly popular but she has some skeptics as well. People who wanted Elizabeth Warren to run. Bernie sanders is the next best choice. Look for him and iowa to try to connect to the grassroots and the progressives and liberal voters who are antiwar and antibig bang. In New Hampshire, neighboring vermont, he could be someone who could put up significant support. We will see if he will be more than a fringe candidate and i think he will be as at this moment he is the only real alternative to Hillary Clinton. Host you called him a threat . You think that . Caller not in terms of winning iowa or New Hampshire at this point but think to 2004. Howard dean with his momentum and message and a lot of young people who supported him was able to become a threat to john kerry. Iowa has in the past gone to far left candidates. If he can get 35 in iowa and then go to the hampshire, he can provide a problem for clinton. Not for the nomination but he could easily pull her to the left and become a threat eventually. Host robert costa who reports on these things for the Washington Post, thank you for your time. Iraqi forces and the pullback strategy. That is the topic for the remainder of our time. For independents 202 7488002. If you want to join in the conversation pick the line that best represents you. It was a few days ago in the Los Angeles Times that the columnist writes about the iraqi strategy overall. You hear some of his thoughts on what the u. S. Should be doing saying a large portion of the blame clearly does belong in baghdad, especially the shiite factions, but plenty of proamerican iraqis and americans who have spent time in the country believe that the obama admits ration could do more without putting u. S. Troops on the ground. America can help. Said the former deputy Prime Minister, he called on Obama Administration to set up joint committees and sunni provinces to get aid and weapons flowing. Direct financing from the american side encourage people to defeat al qaeda in 2006 and 2007. He said there hasnt been enough political engagement. Where are the visits to iraq by the secretary of state and the secretary of defense. Where are the phone calls from the president . It is not happening. Patrick on the independent line. Caller good morning. Isis is fighting an unconventional war. Iraq has a totally confused and incapable army. They are trying to fight them conventionally and that is a big mistake. Another issue, saudi arabia are going into yemen full force. Why are they doing that with iraq and isis . Why arent their boots on the ground . Host that is patrick calling with his thoughts, from lewis in louisiana. Caller good morning. I have a concern, since they say we are in debt to just about everybody, my concern is we should cut back on how much money we are giving to foreign countries, especially countries we are trying to help and all the are doing is trying to get as much as they can from us. I think we could use that money in education infrastructure and stuff like that. Host so in iraq, what should be done. Caller in iraq, our president is trying to do the right thing. He is not selling our young peoples blood or lifes. He doesnt want to sell that. I think he has the right road in that. The powers that be that want to make money on the lives and blood of our young people are the ones who bring and hollering whooping and hollering for war. Our president needs to say our young peoples lives are not for sale. Echoing concerns of secretary Ashton Carter who said the iraqi troops have shows and not the will to fight. Many men and women have expressed frustration over their ability to defend the nation and burying views on how u. S. Engagement is the right way forward there you forward. We gave up a lot to be there and the problem right now is that at the end of the day the iraqis need to do it themselves. We have done so much for them and if they dont stand up and do it them selves it is not going to happen. After leaving the army as a Staff Sergeant in 2011, mr. Madden earned his College Degree and got a job at rally point and that is part of the coverage you can see. If you would go to the front page of the Washington Times this morning some of the photos that were featured from the memorial day coverage, a photo on the fun front pages there of an event that took place at Arlington National cemetery. If you want to give us a call and not only give your thoughts on statements made by the defense secretary but also what you think should be done in iraq and if there is more we could do or less. If you give us a call, pick the line that best represents you. Lets go to maria from connecticut. Thank you for calling. Caller i am just calling because my concern is this. Because of the fact that we have become involved with iraq and now with isis growing bigger every day and the atrocities involved with isis, i believe that regardless of whether we pull out now, it does not matter. I think were pretty much fd up with what has happened. [indiscernible] isis is the devil on earth. What they are doing to little children, beheadings and so forth, it is awful. We have our guys over there. Get them out and get them home and we had better hunker down because i think we are in for a longterm on our own blade land, call me negative but i am petrified at this point. Host do you think efforts need to be made to expand the efforts of Iraqi Security forces . Caller not at all. Total opposite. Why are we putting our young lives out there. It is getting bigger and worse day by day. We need to get our guys back home and hunker down. By that i mean taking our own Safety Measures and being proactive so we can perhaps bear arms. Is that the right thing at this point . Maybe it is. Host frederick, go ahead. Caller my name is frederick and i am from virginia. I want to ask my congressman a question. I want to know any of them willing to send their own sons and daughters over there. The shiites [inaudible] [inaudible] when it comes to the sunnis they dont want to defend it. I want to know why you cant [indiscernible] if he wants to send his son or daughter, we are not going to spill blood anymore. Entitlement. Host the previous caller had said as far as pulling out of the u. S. Completely and concentrating efforts on defending things here at home, would you agree with that . Caller [indiscernible] we need to help ourselves instead of helping other nations. Host gordon from clinton maryland on the democrat line talking about the iraq forces. Go ahead. Caller as far as iraqi forces having no will to fight, i dont blame them whatsoever. We came over and bombed their country and dismantle their government and now we are pointing the finger at them. We call the people who fight over there terrorists. As far as isis, there is a lot of fear being pumped into america via the news media about isis. The only thing different about isis is a televised their killings. There has been ethnic cleansing and mass murders going on in war for years. Rwanda bosnia and all of that nobody has been pumping fear about that. Nobody cares too much. Isis is no different than any other warring faction, they just televise their killings. Host do you think isis is a threat . Caller they are a threat to the people over there, not to the United States anymore than anybody else. The United States government needs to put more emphasis on protecting our borders. All these news Media Outlets keep acting like we are in such danger but when was the last time something attacked us . It has been at least 14 years. Host from greensboro, North Carolina am a you are up next. Caller i agree with what ash carter said. If they dont want to fight, we dont need to be over there. If john mccain and Lindsey Graham and all of them want to send more Ground Troops, we have boots for them. Host when you hear some people say they are a threat, do you believe that . Caller no. Host why not . Caller i just dont. Host joe is up next. Independent line. Caller i was over in iraq in 2004 and 2005. I did 22 hours to tours. My son is over there now and has trained twice to go to afghanistan and is ready to come home in july. I dont want him going over there anyway and i just want to state that i dont think we have a say over there. The people of iraq have to take care of their own country. Host did ramadi show they have the ability to do so . Caller well, i think they have the ability, they just dont have the will. The reason is they are not getting paid either government or whatever and if the government would step up and do the right thing are think they would do the right thing. This sunni shiite thing is a bad war over there and it will be forever. When we took out saddam, it was a big mistake. Host what did you do in iraq . Caller i was in it scout unit. Host you talked about the will of the iraqis to fight. Talking about money. What else to you think the u. S. Could do to improve their desire to stand up for their country . Caller i think the u. S. Should get the hell out and let them stand up for their own country. We can offer support financially, maybe some air support but they should take care of their own, that is what i think. I think we spent enough blood over there. Maybe put in some special forces and let them take care of these isis characters. We do not need any ground support. Or in afghanistan either. We should just hold the hell out and let them take care of their own business. It will happen eventually anyway. If we come over here then we will take care of them. Host that is joe in south carolina. Alan from philadelphia is up next. Caller i just wanted to say, in reference to our Ground Troops being over there, those iraqi soldiers not wanting to fight this is a much bigger picture. With iraq not paying their soldiers, not only do they not want to fight, but there is more to this picture in reference to money being shifted around between iran and iraq and between shiites and between our country. It is a lot of money being made in this country for isis over there being shifted their money being made in iraq and ship to yemen and a lot of people dont understand that. It is a shame that this money is not getting traced to be stopped. To not worry about whether we have troops over there the whole thing about this war is to destroy israel. We have to protect israel and protect our values toward israel. If we are do that this whole fighting is for nothing. Host aside from the money you think there is a way to improve how they fight . Caller i think it is better to put what you call the diplomatic forces they go train iraqis . Host some are military, there is a diplomacy corps. Caller if you train them and they dont want to accept, we have to figure out another way to stop all training we do have to concentrate on this country, there are a lot of businesses over here. The foreigners who come over here and learn a trade and learn our system, then they infiltrate our Business Systems to send back money to fund those particular items. The troops dont matter. The training stops and starts when you infiltrate where the money trail ends or begins. Host we will hear from frederick and orange virginia. I have been watching a lot of cnn, i recently saw Frederick Kagan and he suggested host are you there . Frederick, are you there . Go ahead, you are on. Caller he suggested that to have a will to fight it is so independent on actual successes itself. Isis takes a city. Host are you saying if they saw more success that would build their confidence . They would have more success . Caller that too. There is a lot of feelings that we dont what to send troops over there. Even in iraq there is not necessarily a lot of will. Host we got you frederick. In orange, virginia. That is the last call we will take on that topic. We will change gears to look at the Supreme Court. Theyre expected to hand down opinions even today. There are other cases on the courts docket looking at free speech redistricting and lethal injection. Those could come down at any time and walk through what is left for this court. Kimberly robinson will be here to talk about what is left. The guest leader on the program says it is easier to understand economics when you think in terms of basketball, television and even rock n roll. John tammany, or the author of Popular Economics will be a long later. Washington journal continues after this. These sons and daughters, these brothers and sisters who lay down their lives for us they are our children, too. We benefit from their lives their positive influence on the world, it is our duty and internal obligation to be there for them. To make sure our troops have what they need. To make shortly care for all those who have served. To make sure we honor all of those who we have lost. To make sure we keep race. Base with military families. We are grateful for families and uws and mias. This may be the first memorial day since the end of the war in afghanistan that we are acutely aware that our men in uniform still stand watch and still serve and sacrifice around the world. Several years ago we had more than 100,000 troops in afghanistan. Today fewer than 10,000 troops remain. We will continue to bring them home and reduce our forces further down by the end of next year but afghanistan remains a dangerous place. As somebody families know our troops continue to risk their lives for us. Host that is president obama from a memorial day observance ceremony yesterday. You can see the full presentation on our website cspan. Org. That is what you will see on the front page and you can see his full statements on the website. Joining us now, camberley robinson of Bloomberg Kimberly Robinson of bloomberg. On the days remaining of the court session, what happens between now and then. Just decisionmaking . What happens . No more oral arguments that will be heard this term. The remaining six weeks the judges will still conference about cases they could hear next term. They will be hammering out the opinions they have left. Host as far as cases about samesex marriage or Health Care Subsidies have those decisions been made . Guest the justices are likely still working on the exact wording of those opinions and some might still be deciding what they are going to decide. Host lets go through some of the big ones. Over fell versus hodges and others, dealing with samesex marriage what do the judges have the question and tell us about the back and forth going into it and what the sense of the justices were. Guest the issues in the case are two questions but the main question is about whether or not states kanban samesex couples can ban samesex couples from getting married. This is an issue that millions of americans have voted one. The states say that nine elected judges of the Supreme Court should not touch these laws that the majority think. On the flipside, opponents say the constitution protects minorities, no matter how badly the majority might want them. Host the tugofwar between the justices themselves comes down to two, Anthony Kennedy and Justice Scalia. Guest i would also say another potential . Is chief Justice Roberts. We already kind of know how they are going to vote from their decision a couple of terms ago. Justice kennedy seems to be the big . In general arguments he had questions on both sides of the issue. Host can you tell us what windsor was about . Guest in 2000 10 it struck down the defense of marriage act. The Supreme Court said the federal government cannot do that. The Supreme Court in this case is whether or not the states can do it. Host the windsor cases on must a tell in the current argument. Guest that is correct. Host Justice Kennedy, and always comes down to him. Where does he stand on samesex issues and states issues . Are those things an agreement for him personally . Guest in this case these two issues are in conflict. Justice kennedy has written three of the major gayrights decisions and many expect he will continue that legacy in the samesex marriage cases. He is also very concerned about the relationship tween the federal government and the state. In windsor he wrote how the federal law has really trampled on the states rights. That means Justice Kennedy could go the other way in this case. Host if you want to ask our guest questions, we are talking about the issues still before the courts. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independence. Kimberly roberts from Bloomberg Joining us for today. Taking a look at health care. We will look at this headline. Painting the picture of what the case is concerning before the court. Guest it isnt actually a challenge to the Affordable Care act but it takes aim at one of the major premises which is making health care affordable. The issue is up to subsidies for up to 8 million americans. The federal law says that subsidies are available to people who purchase their incomes on these health care exchanges. President obama has likened these two amazon. Com for Health Insurance. The issue is whether they are available for people who purchase them on federally run exchanges and state run exchanges which is much fewer people who purchased on the federal exchange. Host taking a look at what happens to prices and individuals if subsidies go away. Does the court consider those factors socially or do they specifically look at legal ramifications . Guest we know that the justices are aware of this. They have written about these death spirals whenever it you take these subsidies away. It is controversial whether the justices should consider it. Justice scalia said it really doesnt matter whether or not the law will create havoc. It is just his job to interpret what the law actually says. He cannot make up his own law, that is for congress. Guest if host if Justice Scalia says that im sure there were pushed back from the others. Guest they say if we look at the slot as a whole it does say what the government says that these are available to purchase from federal exchanges and you cannot just look at a single sentence. You have to look at the law as a whole and it was meant to make insurance affordable for all individuals. Host cases facing the Supreme Court. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. How often do decisions get released by the court . Guest it doesnt mean we will get opinions today but as they get closer to the end of the term in june we will start to get the more frequently, possibly every day except friday. Host what is the likelihood we hear about the major cases . Guest very unlikely. They typically the last day of the term or the last week of june. Host how many cases do the here and a session . Guest they heard less than 70 this term so we are expecting about 28 more decisions this term. Quite a bit of work. Host talking about a lot of Different Things and a lot of different topics and if you wouldnt mind painting the picture of the cases involved in some of the things that happened in deliberation. This one deals with lethal injection. Guest this is a challenge to the oklahoma three drug cocktail. This drug cocktail came to light after oklahomas botched execution last spring. It came too late for the former leads point if. The Supreme Court plaintiff. The Supreme Court refused to hear it until the week after he was executed. But the case does not involve a challenge to the Death Penalty itself, it is just about these specific drugs. The history of the opposition to Death Penalty was very much on the minds of some of the justices. Justice kennedy, scalia and alito have said Death Penalty opponents were kind of boxing the state in by urging manufacturers not to make certain drugs available. Justice alito accused the drug penalty opponents of engaging in a guerrilla war against the Death Penalty. Host our first call. Clinton quentin from alabama. Caller the question is, could you highlight a little bit about the justices views. I remember hearing about love being the foundation of marriage. There was discrimination and it came to love if someone loves some they should be able to marry them. Can you give me some of the arguments of the various justices on that . If iran were correctly, if there was if i remember correctly they could marry one people, two people, three people come a dougs, cats people, dogs, cats. Could you give their opinions on that . Guest one of the issues is the purpose of marriage. The states argue it is not about love or commitment between adults but rather it is about trying to encourage adults to raise their biological children. Some of the justices expressed a concern that this idea has been ingrained in marriage, Justice Kennedy put it, millennia plus time. He wondered about the wisdom of changing that definition or requiring states to change that definition. Host ralph is up next. Caller could the young lady please explain how this Affordable Care act got to the Supreme Court . Guest the individuals here are available for subsidies. They are challenging the requirement that with the subsidies they are now required to Purchase Health care. They say without the subsidies they would be exempt from the law. Guest the subsidies themselves depend on language in the original law. Guest it is not technically a challenge to the law but a challenge to the irs regulation interpreting the law. Host bill king ways in on twitter saying after united citizens and hobby lobby can we trust them with Marriage Equality and the Death Penalty . This concept that they see themselves as decisionmakers, is that effective at all as they are weighing these decisions . Guest they are ready talked about how Justice Scalia views outside pressures on the court. Chief Justice Roberts had strong opinions about how he wants the court to be seen. That plays in different ways. Host does that factor in the decision he made about the Affordable Care act law itself . Guest that is something that they have speculated about. Caller i just wanted to call in and give my two cents. I am a gay man in california. I feel that the situation regarding what marriage is, i think the Supreme Court should be making a decision, not the states. There are so many states like down south, there are so many people including politicians that are very selfish and cannot see out of the box. They dont care about free rights for everyone. It impacts everybody. I cant even move back east down south and have a good life and get married because of the attitude of the people down there. Why should they be able to make decisions . There are a lot of gay people im sure and minorities that are just miserable and their lives are uncomfortable because of the way that states the states feel and act out. Host thanks. Guest you hit it right on the head. That is the courts debate. Does the majority get to decide this issue or is it something that the court steps in and interprets the lines. Host this is cedric. Hello. Caller this is cedric marx. I am talking about the issue of gay marriage. I believe that the individual has the right to marry whomever they want. Its freedom of choice. Host should that the estate decision . Caller that should be a state decision. I think the state should have the right to make the decision. Host if thats the case, should the court be weighing in on this at all . Do you believe if its a state decision, so the Supreme Court weigh in on this at all . Caller i dont think the Supreme Court should get involved. Host another case to consider, the issue dealing with free speech on social media. Guest this is the case of a pennsylvania man who was convicted for ranting about killing his wife on facebook. He was talking about massacring a kindergarten class. He was having a bad year. His wife left him and he lost his job. It was not intended to put people into fear, it was therapeutic for him because they were often in the form of rap lyrics or satirical. He said he did not intend to threaten everyone he should not go to jail. The government says that does not matter. What matters is if a reasonable person would think someone would be put in fear. Host how do they wind up with this case in the first place . Guest the defendant says that the constitution protects his rights to post these graphic rap lyrics or citations to satirical matter. He says this is something that the constitution protects. Host they had to consider the implications of this decision. Guest they were trying to grasp the new technology and how they should view the governments idea of a reasonable person. The government attorney made a joke that is there a reasonable teenager on the internet . Host union washington, r is on theeedeed is on the republican line. Guest i hope the Supreme Court rules in terms of liberty. There is procreation and there is marriage. Children and such, procreation is between a man and a woman. Marriage could be anything. You could want to go fishing with your buddy. That is a civil arrangement. I am for people like rand paul. He is more libertarian it. If our conservative Movement Needs to get on board. They need to get out of the bedroom. I want to see the Supreme Court ruled on liberty. Guest that is exactly the issue that the justices have to tackle, if this is something that the states should be in the business of regulating. Host joshua is up next. Caller thank you for taking my call. Marriage is between a man and a woman. You can google it and look it up in the dictionary. To keep it that way, the religious side two appease the Gay Community and make sure they have the same rights as married people as far as tax incentives and seeing their loved ones in the hospital, make sure that they can be included in civil unions so they get what they want and marriage stays between a man and woman. That is just my opinion. Host the you think they should be weighing on this in the first place . Guest just to set the tone for the nation, to say that marriage should be between a man and a woman and states can decide about civil unions between samesex couples. Guest i know that the opponents of the samesex marriage ban have argued that civil unions are not enough. They dont provide the same kinds of social acceptance and providing two separate institutions is a secondclass marriage. Host our line for democrats is open. Lets hear from nancy. We are talking about cases that are in front of the Supreme Court. Caller i just want to say what gods says in his bible. We will be judged. God will judge us. It should not be the Supreme Court, they are not supreme. God is supreme. Samesex marriage does not produce children. Guest that was something that Justice Scalia mentioned. He was concerned about forcing a definition on a population where so many people find it to be unpalatable from a religious standpoint. That is on their minds. Host that entered into these the liberations . Guest they are what the protester who interjected he was taken out of the courtroom. Host this is william. Good morning. Caller how are you doing. My question is this, what do you think about free speech . Is it free speech when somebody if your name appears in a press report 10 years ago and every time somebody googles your name that story is republished over and over and over. Its a negative story. Its something that was not serious, it is something that you dont want people to read. What do you think of that in terms of free speech . Every time your name is googled this story gets republished and republished. Guest the right to be forgotten is a new topic right now. Its not something that is before the Supreme Court. Whether or not that has First Amendment value and should be protected is something to think about. Before, it was the facebook rant. The justices did not have a concern either way about these rants. They did have certain circumstances that they wanted to statute to capture and they did want the statute to capture and criminalize. That is something that they think about, whether or not specific speech is entitled to protection. Host is at the first time they have heard something concerning free speech and social media . Guest i believe so. It was entertaining to see some of the justices struggling with the new media are talking about the new media. Justice alito was talking about one of the comments that the defendant receiving a thumbsup from somebody. Host does that go to their general awareness of the media itself . I assume they dont use those things. Guest they have public facebook accounts. Maybe they are trolling us all. Host go ahead. Caller i was wondering if the present Approval Rating of the Supreme Court is at its lowest ebb ever. It seems it has become totally politicized. Before Arlen Specter left the senate, he was highly critical of the court. We have Justice Alito saying he was going to uphold past precedent. He has done nothing but upset past precedent. How is the opinion of the Court Changing under this conservative Roberts Court . Guest the Supreme Court has been in the spotlight a lot over the last couple of years with some hotly contested issues. There was some speculation that the court was going to try and stay out of the controversy all issues. They wanted to stay out of the spotlight, they are not all comfortable there. They denied to hear challenges to several state bans that had been struck down by federal court. Because of the decisions came down conflicting with other decisions, they felt compelled to step in, even though they may not one to be in the limelight. Host the recent polling of the Supreme Court says 48 disapprove and 44 approve. Guest i imagine that will change drastically by the end of this term, depending on how the court comes down on samesex marriage and the obamacare case. Host how long has chief Justice Roberts been chief justice . Guest 10 years. This is a historic term for him as well. Hes got these huge issues on his plate. Host what is the opinion of his management of the court . Guest i think most people think he does a great job. During the Affordable Care act challenge, we did not hear a lot about him except to referee the conversation between the other justices and the attorneys. That was a controversy all issue. He tends to keep the decorum in the courtroom pretty well. Host lets hear from lily in pennsylvania. Go ahead. Lets try gordon in florida. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller i was just listening to these people colin on the libertarians colin call in about libertarians. There is no absolute freedom. You cant shout fire in a crowded theater. That has already been part of our law. That you can have rules and regulations like marriage by a man and woman is ridiculous. Guest that is the issue that the justices are considering. Whether or not this is something that is reserved to each person personally or something the majority of people can weigh in on it. Host henry in boston on the democrats line. Caller there was a previous caller who wanted to know how the Supreme Court decides to take these cases. The other question i have is the voter id. Is that on the agenda . Guest we normally have opinions from both the district short court and an appellate court. They are asked to weigh in on thousands of cases. They only agree to hear about 70 cases each term. Its a very small slice of the issues that are traveling through the court system. To your second question about the voter id laws, they are not, but they could come into question by another law that takes aim at an arizona law that took redistricting out of the hands of the state legislature and put it with an independent redistricting commission. The question is whether the legislature alone can be involved in these laws or if it is the process including the voter initiatives and things that are done through popular vote. A lot of these voter id laws are done through popular vote. The way the court comes down on the redistricting question could shed some light on how they would view a popularly enacted voter id law. Host is a 54 decision expected . Guest a lot of redistricting has to deal with a challenge to the merits of a plan. This is more about process. Oral arguments did not really show how they were leaning either way. We just going to have to wait and see. Host linda is up in connecticut. Caller it baffles me that the Supreme Court has to weigh in on marriage when we have a constitution that says individual rights. I dont see how we can take individual rights constitutionally. The irs determines peoples tax status and then turn around and say to any individual you are not allowed to get married if we call it a closing like we do when we buy a house. I can walk into a church and say im married and say i am married but i have to register with city hall. It is an individual right. I dont understand how the Supreme Court could possibly look at it any other way. It is a Government Entity approving citizens actions. I dont think the justices that are considering to church can consider the constitution. I do understand why that line is blurred at all. Thats all i have to say. Guest its interesting when you talk about government recognition. Lost in the discussion of the samesex marriage case is the second question that they considered, whether states can refuse to recognize marriages between samesex couples that were validly entered into in other jurisdictions. That is also an issue that the Supreme Court is presumably going to answer, the idea of whether or not states have to recognize other state marriages. Host this is long beach, california. Caller i have a question this morning. I wanted to get her feelings on which way the Supreme Court will rule, as the executive action winds through court and the decisions are rendered by the court in texas, will they uphold it or will they override the will of the people like that liberal court in the Western District court back when we in california put our money and our time and effort into voting to deny benefits to criminal or illegal aliens in this country . What is your opinion on that . Are these judges political or activist judges . Guest the issue of these immigration regulations and rules are Something Likely to come to the court and something the court is considering right now. One of the courts cases is an arizona law that denies bail to undocumented citizens who have been charged with some offenses. This issue is in the court. They are considering this for several weeks. It is an issue that the justices have on their plate. Host have they ever weighed in on executive action by a president . Guest i am not sure of that answer. I can say that the push and pull between the executive and congress is a frequent player at the court. They are considering a court case right now between the power struggle between these two branches over what Justice Kagan called jerusalem. Host mark is in florida on the democrat line. Go ahead. Caller thank you. When truman took over the steel industry, was that an executive action . My question is about politics and the Supreme Court. I know that we feel they should be on a pedestal and deciding things in the most solomon like manner. These people all have political backgrounds. Judge thomass wife works for causes on one side. Should he recuse himself . Is that just part of life, the neighborhood he lives in a . To be fair to the other side, some justices could recuse themselves if they have decided in the marriage ban. All these people go through a political process to get there. They play politics to stay in power. Rehnquist denied authorizing an opinion when he was clerking for a judge. We would like to think that they are solomons. They work in neighborhoods where certain opinions prevail. They dont have any experience otherwise. Does that do a disservice to the people . Guest you mentioned recusal which has been controversial. There were a number of calls to have justices kagan and ginsburg recused because they had officiated samesex marriages. Justice ginsburg had done that as recently as this month. The justices dont typically recuse themselves from these kinds of cases. They do have their own political beliefs. That is why we have nine justices decided these cases rather than just one telling us what the right or wrong answer is. Host the story from Justice Ginsburgs coming out of her recent officiating of a samesex marriage. Guest i would not say the Justice Ginsburg is in question. I think she is an easy vote for the opponents of the bands. Host go ahead, you are on. Caller i dont think the Supreme Court should be listening to this. They are trying to hijack the law. Sentences make paragraphs and paragraphs become multiple paragraphs and a context given to a legislature. Its past as a law. It has to go to a court or a judge to solve a problem. Polygamy is not a marriage. These all means something. They are definitely up to something, just like the separation of church and state. Guest deciphering what the words mean is a lot of what the Supreme Court does. The issue is how narrowly or broadly they should look. The challenge to the Affordable Care act is a perfect example where both sides argued that the case is very easy, all you have to do is look at the law. They are looking at different parts of the law and the justices have to decide which sentences they should be looking too. Host danny is up next on the independent line. Caller hello. I would like to talk about something i dont understand about the Supreme Court. You have so many people looking at 70 cases a day . You have millions of americans i mean millions of them. These guys are going to die before they are even heard on death row. I cant understand it. Guest they hear about 70 each term. A term goes from october to june. That may be exacerbating the problem that youre talking about. As we mentioned before, the Supreme Court has to agree to hear lethal injection cases, but it refused to stay the case before they heard it and one person was executed. Host how does the caseload get chosen . Guest thousands of cases are brought to the justices each year. There will be a petition, the respondents will file a brief and sometimes the government will be asked to weigh in on it. The justices will conference about each case. They will decide whether or not to grant the petition and hear it or deny the petition. The ones that are granted, that is typically what you think of when you think of the Supreme Court. Eventually, there will be a decision we will be talking about on television. Host what is it about a case that is interesting to the court to take it . Guest its a split between the lower courts. As Justice Ginsburg has put it, if the lower courts know how to rule on it, there is no reason for the Supreme Court to rule on it. That is something emblematic of Supreme Court review. We sought with the samesex marriage cases. They refused to hear the issue on the first day of the term. All of the federal Appellate Courts agreed that states could not ban a samesex marriage. It wasnt until the sixth circuit said they can do this that the justices decided to step in. Host there were petitions to have cameras installed to televise the proceedings to let people see how it went. What is the thought on the court when it comes to cameras in the courtroom . Guest there seems to be a hesitance. Justice scalia has said that he is concerned that it would become more showboating and less about the legal arguments. He talks about the attorneys appearing before them and the justices themselves. Justice roberts has pride tried to defend the decision by saying their branch is the most transparent of all three in the government because with each decision, you get a very thorough decision which outlines what they were thinking and which arguments they thought were persuasive. Host today is the decision day. How will people find out what happened and how you go about your day on these days . Guest there will be orders at 9 30 a. M. We may get some grants and some denials. At 10 00, they will issue the opinion. We dont know how many opinions they will issue. We have some clues based on how many boxes are available in the press room. The press is kind of in the dark as well. People can find out about what opinions are announced by going to the court and listening to the justices. There are a number of press like me that tweet about the cases and all of the decisions are put on the Supreme Courts website after they announce in court. Host if you are interested in some of the cases that are being decided, we have audio of the cases, that is on our cspan website. You can read the writings of Kimberly Johnson on the bloomberg website. John tomny about Popular Economics. He will join us next to talk about how economics works especially with pop culture references. Washington journal continues. The new congressional directory is a handy guide to the 114th congress with color photos of every house and senate member. Also, district maps, of foldout map of capitol hill, a look at committees and the president cabinet. Order your copy today. It is 13. 95 plus shipping and handling to the cspan online store www. Cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host our guest wrote a book taking a look at the topic of economics. It is called Popular Economics. John tomny is our guest. Good morning. And we get a sense of your economic philosophy question mark question mark guest . Guest the economy is a question of individuals and they have once in need. The government should remove the natural barriers to their production. Rather than looking at the broad economy, i look at the individual. Had a we let them be productive . Host how would you characterize that . Guest i would almost say that supplyside is, logical. Had you stimulate demand . You stimulate the supplyside of the economy. How do you move the barriers so that people can produce so that they can consume . Host im sure you know that has a perception. What do you think the reality is when it comes to that thinking . Guest the perception of free markets is markets run rampant and corruption. In reality, all of free market is is buyers and sellers and people with differing viewpoints. I have something i want to sell and someone once it and they enter the market with something else. Individuals turn scarcity into abundance. Host john tomny, the book you wrote, one of the things that you write about economics is there is nothing mysterious about economics and you add that it is all around us. Im sure those who took economics classes might not jive with that kind of thinking. Guest thats a great question. Thats why i wrote the book. It bothered me so much that economics has been taught in terms of percentages and graphs and charts and demand curves. That is not what economics is about. It is about human action and people. My basis for this is i think americans are missing out on enormous amounts of prosperity because economics has been miss explained. If you want to understand taxes follow the Rolling Stone migrations. Lets look at lebron james for free trade. If you want to understand this expertly, look at the buffalo chicken wing it. It is not up scare. Host if you want to ask questions for our guest, we have divided the lines differently by income brackets. Lets start with the Rolling Stones. They are a prime example about taxation. Guest lets call taxes for what they are, they are a penalty placed on work. Its hard to imagine that the top income was 83 in the 1970s. As Keith Richards pointed out that was the equivalent of being told to read the country. They moved to the south of france to make one of their great alltime albums. The rich are fairly mobile in avoiding taxes. They can legally get away from that. What about the sound engineers and the drivers . What about the middle class workers who go into the making of an album . They could not move with the Rolling Stones to the south of france. The people who really pay that penalty are those who are not rich. Host because they left, they could not get access to their incomes if they stayed in england. Guest the Rolling Stones could leave england, but those middleclass workers could not. They missed out on a job. Most are familiar with how hollywood is very protaxation. They vote for the candidate that race is the income tax on the rich. Hollywood is one of the biggest tax of reuters. Its the same idea. Ben affleck can leave california and make a movie in georgia. The gaffers, the studio technicians, the camera operators, they cant move with them when they make a movie out of state. Its the middle income earners who suffer the most. Host are there lessons to be learned in terms of taxation as we move into the 2016 season . Guest i hope its part of the discussion. Lets stop talking about taxes and start calling it a price penalty. It raises the cost of work. The people it hits most often are people who are not rich. The creation of uber it has created 20,000 middleclass jobs. It was the result of jeff bezos directing some of his disposable income at this business. Imagine how many more businesses could be created if were not taxing the rich so much. They cant sit on their wealth. Host the book is Popular Economics. That is the writing of our guest john tomny. Derek is up first. He is in minnesota. Good morning. Caller good morning. Ive got to tell you, this is a breath of fresh air. You are exactly right. I was an entrepreneur for 22 years. In minnesota, if you are not a large corporation, it is so hard to compete. Everything is steered toward the Big Companies. We are going to have Big Companies and government and everybody lives off the government and buying the big company products. That is what we have if we dont have access to capital. I am looking forward to reading your book. Guest thank you very much. You are describing something that there are no entrepreneurs without capital and that is what you said. If we want to have new business formation, we need capital. The quickest way to have the economy of all is to leave wealth with the rich. They are going to invest in microsoft and intel and google. Its people like you that powers forward. Lets free up the economy so more of you can flourish. Host kyle is in New Hampshire. Go ahead. Caller i have a problem with the big wealth. They use their money against us. They go into the commodities markets. They buy up companies and usually when they do that, there are a lot of jobs lost. Companies moved overseas so they dont have to pay taxes or pay wages. There are a lot of things that the bigmoney people do that the Little People cant do. They skew the laws in their favor. I would like to hear your comments. Guest on the commodity question i think what has to be stressed is if you want to blame anybody for the commodities spike in modern times look no further than the United States treasury. The Bush Administration and the Obama Administration wanted a week dollar. With the dollar in decline, oil and commodities spiked. That had a very little to do with rich people entering the markets. In the 80s and 90s, the strong dollar was pursued. Ronald reagan and bill clinton were strong dollar president s. President nixon was explicit in his desire for a week dollar. I dont think its fair to blame the wit rich. It had nothing to do with the rich hoarding commodities. In a broader sense, what happens when the rich get their wealth . What happens when Michael Bloomberg holds onto his billions . They are redistributed to those who are not Michael Bloomberg through loans. If he invests in the stock market, he is providing capital for the very businesses that expand and create jobs. If he wants to invest in private equity, he is providing capital for businesses that are trying to turn themselves around with Venture Capital. Without the rich, it would be a cruel world and one that would mean much less capital for those of us who are not rich to pursue their dreams. Host what about people buying up companies and moving overseas and jobs being lost in the process. Guest is it wrong for nike to have an office in new york . I dont see the difference between having an office in new york or overseas. Businesses are in the work of creating process. There are 8000 jobs in oregon. They have profitably made their products overseas. Look at the jobs in the portland area. If we dont engage with the world, other companies will and there will be no companies and no jobs. Host they are making shoes in vietnam. Guest they are paid a lower wage, but look at the result of that. They began by walking to work and now many of them drive cars. Its a beautiful story of capitalism raising all boats. Lowwage workers are very expensive. The vast majority of Venture Capital still flows to San Francisco, boston, and new york. If they were solely attracted to low wages on the other side of the earth, then San Francisco new york and boston would be bereft of people. What this tells us is the u. S. They have high skilled workers and thats why its such a lure for Investment Capital around the world. Host john is up next from missouri. Thank you for holding on. Caller i am wondering, did you forecast the collapse of the Housing Market and the stock market . I am calling on the line for under 25,000. I was able to forecast it simply by walking out to the mailbox each day and turning on my television every night. I walked to the mailbox every day and there were six or seven credit cards in their for me making less than 25,000. When i turned on the television, there would be 25 people wanting me to take out another loan on my house. They know i dont have any money but they what me to borrow some from somebody else. I dont have a degree in economics, but i was able to forecast it. What you think is been best for the United States . Trickle down economics or voodoo economics . What you think is done the best for the working man in the United States . Guest did i predict the meltdown . No one did. I had my misgivings. You can look back to 2005 and 2006. The rush on housing was a negative economic signal. Resembled the jimmy carter economy of the 1970s. No one predicted the meltdown because it was created by the government. What youre describing is a surge of credit available to people who wanted to buy a home or who wanted to take out a mortgage on their home. This was the creation of government and creating a week dollar that made assets more attractive. It was a creation of the government bailing out the banks. There wouldve been a very healthy creation in the economy and no crisis. The intervention created an unnecessary panic in the marketplace that would have never revealed itself if the Bush Administration had sat back and said bear stearns is no business and we are going to let this run its course. To your next question, you could argue that they are a mash of the same thing. Reagan basically was of the view that the individuals are the source of economic growth. Its not the government. Lets remove the monetary and regulatory barriers. Reagan got taxes right. The price of work was reduced. Deregulation began under jimmy carter with railroads and airlines and continued under reagan. Reagan was not as good on trade. Tariffs went up. That hindered him. If you look at the dollar, a Ronald Reagan ran on returning to a Gold Standard and a stable dollar. The dollar was much stronger and this drove investment. I think reaganomics and supplyside are very similar. When people are allowed to prosper, the gains flow down to everyone. Host we have divided the phone lines by income levels. Steve is in oklahoma. You were on. Steve from oklahoma . We will move on to john from ohio. Caller can you hear me . Human nature existed before adam smith. There is a certain amount of greed and selfishness. However, there are unbridled free markets all over the United States. If you want to domesticate them someone has to rope them. Some compromise is not a dirty word. We created a monopoly. There are other problems along the way. You can move the goalposts all over again. You can change the game. Level playing ground we are not looking for heaven in the free market. I am all for capitalism, but look at what happened. What did we learn from the savings and learn loan fiasco . Since globalization, the worst financial crisis, what did we do . They ruined the world economy. I have nothing against the free market. Lets have some regulation. Lets do something. There is no perfect solution. Host we will let our guest respond to that. Guest who is going to be this regulator . Who is going to be this genius that can see and do the future and for tell whats going to be a problem . Evidence supports the claim that no one exists like this. They would be earning billions in the private sector. The free markets themselves are great regulators. It was said back in the 1960s that if gm is not restrained, it will be the only company in existence. Fast forward 40 years and they had to go to the taxpayer to remain in existence. But reminds us is the profits are the surest signals that new interests will compete for those profits. Gm was not the sole company in the auto company. Cocacola was once thought to be too powerful. You saw how quickly consumers slapped them into reality. That is the norm. You see this all the time. Markets figure these things out much more quickly. One of the examples i use in the book is monday night football. Its in an institution. When it was rolled out and presented as an idea, one of the greatest television men ever said i have zero interest in this. You see how wrong he got it. Anheuserbusch advertised on monday night football. They turned it down. They lost a lot of market share. Markets are a much better way of officiating what he describes for reducing the power. Host would you call for no regulations . What degree are we talking about . Guest i would call for no regulations. I hope this is not taken the wrong way. We are talking about the people who could not get jobs in pharmaceuticals and aerospace trying to overseas those who could. They are going to get it wrong because they dont have the skills to do it. It presumes that some bureaucrat knows the future of the marketplace. I think thats wrong it easily disproves will. This provable. The best minds in movies turned down gone with the wind. The suits at paramount did not want Marlon Brando for the godfather. Lets point out the movie the terminator, o. J. Simpson was up for the role. They said there is no way the American People would believe this guy could be a murderer. They chose Arnold Schwarzenegger instead. Regulation presumes that people who work in government can see the future. Even in the Business World, they dont have a good sense of what the future is going to be like. Host Popular Economics is the book. For those who make over 100,000, you are on with our guest. Go ahead. Caller can you hear me . Hello . Host go ahead. Youre on. Caller can you hear me . I am sorry about that. I wanted to talk to. There are some things you have said that struck a cord with me. Taxes, you keep talking about this as a penalty. I dont see it as a penalty so much as paying rent to use the roads, the police that protect you. Im not going to dwell on that. Number two, you talk about how high taxes were in reagans time. It was 90 back in the 60s. You are talking about the gross tax rate and not the net tax rate. The net tax rate today is 14 . I dont know how much lower you want to go. There are some corporations in the United States that are paying zero taxes. The momandpop shops, they are not afforded those sames tax breaks same tax breaks. They are paying a lot of taxes. It bothers me, you are a libertarian and that is very obvious. I would love to live in a libertarian world. I have to put on rosecolored glasses in order for that to work. If you dont have regulations people die because of greed. Guest there are a lot of questions there. I am a libertarian and i would love to live in a libertarian world. Like you, i like the idea that momandpop businesses pay high rates of taxation, that i dont like that businesses pay 14 . I dont see why one should be penalized for being successful. What they do is great for the economy. I think they should be taxed less. What needs to be asked is who is better at allocating the resources . You talk about how we should have these taxes and that its a form of rent, do you want john boehner allocating your rent money . The you want Mitch Mcconnell and harry reid allocating rent money . I dont. In my perfect libertarian world it would occur on a local level. If you want to live in a city that has a bunch of regulators that is your choice. Each state was supposed to be a laboratory of ideas. The federal government was supposed to do very few things. I would choose a state where the government offers less and we would all be happy because the disputes would be local. I think we and a sense of greed. I just want Less Government than you do. You might choose a lot and i think we should choose less. Host the line for those who make over 100,000. Charlie, hello. Caller a lot of what was talked about i agree with. Everything the writer has been saying. In the wealth of nations John Adam Smith talks about how you have to tax. You have to get money away from the people who are earning all the money or else they will end up with all the money and you have to have estate taxes. Not let it go generation to generation or you end up of a monarch. That is the way things are. We elected officials with those taxes and have a government that sets regulations and make sure air is clean and water is clean. We will roads, superhighways. We take care of our elderly and make sure parents and grandparents can live a decent life as they and their days. We let children get educated. Taxation is what we pay for a civilized society. Were supposed to be progressing. Were not like wild west gunslinging animals. We have to be moving forward and to be thinking this libertarian nonsense is doable, youre going to end up with an islamic state. Thanks a lot. Guest i would say, does anyone really believe that if the federal government work building roads that we would be all sitting in the different parts of the u. S. Wishing we could get the florida and new york but for government not building the roads . I think that is a bridge too far. Assuming the government did not build the roads, we would have them. We have got shoes and we do not have them because of the federal government. We have them because market actors decided people wanted shoes and fulfilled a need. That is a more obscure argument. Lets address charlie plus point about how would if we did not have taxes, the rich would have it all. Imagine what happens if paris hilton gets to hold onto all of her millions. She cannot spend it all so she puts it in the bank. Banks arent lending it out to people who need a new car banks are lending it out to people who need a new car. Her wealth is being redistributed to companies that need wealth to expand. Private equity for companies that need to turn around. Redistributing wealth to intels and microsofts of the future. By definition, they are redistributing it. Dealing difference is john boehner and nancy pelosi are not allocating it. I would trust the best investors in the world over boehner and pelosi any day of the week. Charlie brings up the idea of a World Without an estate tax. What happens when governments tax away estate wealth . What they are doing is robbing the economy of capital that will fund the dreams of those are do not have an estate. One of the examples i use is espn. It was a joke in the 1970s. It nearly went under but for a 10 Million Investment on the getty oil trust. John paul getty was the richest american in the 1970s. Not about the ritual and onto wealth, ask yourself about all the businesses that are not funded because the wealth of the rich is being taxed away. If you want to keep monarchs down, let the rich hold onto their wealth. They have to invested in new ideas. Host lets hear from charles in North Carolina. Between 26,000 and 50,000. Caller i like with the caller before said. It is impossible to tax the rich out of their money when they can take businesses overseas and paying less taxes. You said that investors create jobs a man create jobs not investors. If there was no demand for things, investors will not put money into the economy. I like with the caller said about libertarians. The thing is, if things were left up to the states we would be in a world of trouble because each state is different. Different types of people in different states. Some states practice racism against other people. There are some states that put money in some parts of their states and other parts they put very little money. For instance, some parts of the urban community, very little money put down. The same thing in some of the rural areas. The state i come from, most of the money in states go to people who are already fortunate with their money. That is pretty much what is going on all over the country. When the economy fell, you said that thing about rich folks having all their money, they would have to give their money up, very little. When the doddfrank bill glasssteagall if there was more regulations, the wealthy would do if there were less regulations, the wealthy would do with the want to do. Guest an interesting point about how states can be racist. That is the point. If you look at the law throughout history involving race, they were put down by governments. It is hard for a business to discriminate based on race because businesses are in the business of profit. They almost by definition have to be more colorblind in what they do. Im calling for reduced government because if you look throughout history, governments have killed a lot of people. They have force and are able to do things a business cannot do. A business must please you to get your business. Governments do not have to do that. In terms of wealth and how it gets there, who do you trust . Would you trust john boehner and nancy pelosi . Have they done a good job of redistributing wealth created by society . Do you trust more the free markets . Lets look at what the free markets of done throughout history. There was a time before John D Rockefeller that when night fell it was bleak. He literally lit up the night by making kerosene broadly available. Henry ford, it is to be that only the rich had access to automobiles. Henry ford got rich by virtue of turning the automobile into a common good. Michael dell is worth the liens today precisely because he took a computer that in the 1960s cost over 1 million and made it broadly available. Where does abundance come from . It comes from the private sector. When government is taxing away limited wealth, it is taxing away future Dell Computers future ford motor companys that if allowed to produce could transform our lives. Countries were governments tax away all the wealth, people do not get to enjoy these things is much. Host youll probably hear from Bernie Sanders as he announces resolidifies his commitment to becoming the democratic president ial candidate. He idea of income inequality. You said inequality of income and wealth does not matter in a capitalist society. It is nondiscriminatory. The 1 club is always open. Guest i begin the chapter with inequality with income inequality is beautiful. When income inequality and wealth inequality is rising, that is a signal that the lifestyle gap between the rich and poor is shrinking. How do people get rich . They take what was once formally only available to the very few the very rich, and they make it broadly available to people of all income classes. Henry forgot rich because he turned the car into an item we could all own. The cell phone cost 3995. You want to to make a call from washington, d. C. To baltimore, it would cost you a fortune. Nowadays we have phones the call around the world and cost next to nothing. The result was more and more americans had access to things wants only enjoyed by the rich. Wonce only enjoyed by the rich. Economies of individuals. Are we as individuals made worse off when we get to pursue that which animates our individual talents the most . That which makes us most unequal to our peers . I think we are better off. Imagine what a world it would be if we could not pursue what makes us great. Is the world worse off because the beatles became very rich making music that everyone could enjoy . Is the world was off worse off because Michael Jordan was such a better basketball player . Business is no different. We are better for people like steve jobs getting rich and improving our lives. If the world were more equal but they had chosen to be layabouts. Host would you make the argument that those at low economic scales, it is more difficult to pursue what animates them . Guest i think the inequality we describe makes it more likely they will be able to pursue that which animates their skills. If we freed up the economy more, getting to pursue that which elevates their inequality would be greater. Over 100 years ago in the u. S. , one of your only options was to work on the farm. I can tell you with utter certainty that if i wouldve lived a life of poverty and people would of called me lazy. A would have because i do not have a clue about how to do that. I cannot think i wouldve been good on the farm. Thanks to economic growth, ive gotten to choose what i wanted to do in life. This is kind of unique around the world. Americans get to think about when we are young, what we will do when we are adults. For most people it is about survival. This inequality, what it is signaling is the process by where americans at least get a chance to pursue that which animates their talents. In other parts of the world it is about survival. Host john tamny, our guest. Allen, from east chicago indiana. Caller thank you for having me on. I appreciate it. I guess you got the county our best the comedy hour. The comedy hour. It is cracking me up. This is the whole argument i heard before. It is reaganomics. It is boo to economics voodoo economics. It does not work, has not worked, will never work. By allowing reagan thought freeing up more money corporations, yes it would trickle down to the rest of the people increase more jobs but the exact opposite happened. They would give the money away. The only create more jobs if there is a demand for your product and you need more people to work at it. The people require rich do not go out and create jobs out of the goodness of their heart. They are there to make money not to give away. This whole thing about the voodoo, it has never worked. Reagan instituted two of the biggest tax increases in history of this country at the time in an effort to turn the economy around. As bill clinton once said, it is the economy, stupid. I know im talking over you. Ive so much to say. This income inequality stuff. Since 1979 to maybe 2005, the top 5 saw their wealth increase from a trillion dollars to 40 trillion. Only a certain amount of money flowing around the united rates. Flowing around the United States. The government regulates. Thats another thing. Regulation. Host we will let our guest respond. Guest to some degree, allen is right. Businesses are not in business because a charity. People do not get rich out of love. They do not hire workers out of love. So what . I talk about henry ford a lot in the book. Henry ford raised the wages of his workers in the early part of the 20th century to well above the market average. It is taught in history class in school that he did this so people would buy his cars. The reason henry ford raised the wages was because he was too expensive not to do it. He was experiencing 370 annual turnover at the factories. It was too expensive to continue losing workers, he offered a higher wages so they would not even. They would not leave him. Capitalism does not necessarily bring the kindest people into the Business World but it makes them kind in actions. Ford paid extra because he was tired of losing workers. We see this with Companies Across the income scales. Starbucks offers Health Insurance because they want to keep good workers around. You look at the higher end, a company like google. I offer free lunch, free massages, also its of things to make it exciting for the workers to come to work every day. It is not for love that capitalism creates such abundance and opportunity and high living standards. It is often the profit motive but that is a good thing. Thank goodness for the profit motive. We have phones with computers on them and we can watch tv that fit in our pockets. We are close to cancer cures. We are able to fly around the world. The profit motive has shrunk the gap between rich and poor in this best their lifestyle the lifestyle gap between the rich and the poor. The Country Music single singer glenn campbell. He would literally dig his fists into his stomach each night because i would feel better than the hunger he felt. The talk of this country is that we have an obesity problem across income classes. Look at what the profit motive has done for all american. Host would you apply that same line of thinking for a minimum wage of 15 . Guest i think the ford model tells you why you do not need that. In a city like seattle, 15 is probably not enough. Such demand for workers they will pay more than 15 because it is too expensive to continue to lose workers. All the minimum wage does is rob those with the least amount of skills of opportunity. When you are young in particular, who do not have work skills, nothing to recommend you to the business you want to work for. I tried to get lots of jobs in high school but i could not get them. If i could have worked for less, i wouldve been highlevel. I wouldve been higher reable. Businesses have an incentive to pay you well. Host heres patrick from new jersey. You are on. Caller thank you for taking my call. I would like to address john with his regards to history. He is been looking at history with blinders on. When mr. Ford was building his business, taxes were at the 90 range and our economy was best between the 1940s in the 1960s were taxation was 90 . I think you have blinders when youre looking back at history. Regulations are put into place due to the ineffectiveness of markets to regulate themselves. Markets have proven themselves not to be able to regulate themselves. Take a look at what happened at the depression. Glasssteagall was instituted and in 1999 it was dissolved. It resulted in another crash due to the fact that banks no longer were loaning to people with good credit because all the good credit people were gone. They had to go to bat credit. Go to bad credit. Credit default swaps which were doomed. If you cannot predict that, your problems with your economic views. I think you think Big Government is not the answer. If a corporation becomes more complex, you hire workers to handle that complexity and the workers. Big Government Myth is also debunked. Guest lets look at the for example. My history is correct. Ford was incorporated in 1903. There was not an income tax at all in 1903. The top tax rate is describing is from the 1940s to the 1960s. Henry ford was able to turn it into a global behemoth before there was an income tax rate and for corporations were tax very much. He was able to push his limited profits constantly back into the perfection of the manufacturer cars that made it possible for more people around the world to own cars. The argument is that markets cannot regulate themselves. 2008. Wasnt regulators who foresaw the problems in the banking is them . The Banking System . The banking the Banking System is the most regulated in the united date. The office of thrift and chew provision, the list goes on and on. Regulators did not have a clue about the problems within. It was private investors like john paulson who had a clue. Any number of people who actually saw there was a problem in the system and made an investment against it and were rewarded for doing this. These problems in the banks were not discovered by the government. They were discovered by profit motivated private investors. In terms of glasssteagall, the simple truth is glasssteagall had nothing to do with what took place in 2008. It was faulty lending practices among the banks. They were legal to do that. Which banks were the ones that were able to come in and save some of the errant ones . Hybrid banks that the erasure of glasssteagall made possible. Wells fargo, jpmorgan, bank of america, hybrid banks made possible by the erasure of glasssteagall grable able to come in and save the banks that were in trouble that were not hybrid. Host on the cover of your book there is a picture of lebron james. What does he teach us about economics . Guest the wonders of free trade. Lebron is easily the best basketball player in the world. No one would debate that. He is such a good athlete it is widely agreed in the nfl that he could be a pretty good nfl tight end. If he played in the nfl, it would be at the expense of being the best fastball player in the world. He could not do both the best basketball player in the world. He could not do both. We try to get all the things that we do not have. If lebron did both, he would earn less. Instead, he focuses on what he is best at and it gives him the most market power to go into the marketplace and import from across the street and across the world the close he wears, the food he eats, the houses he lives in. Focus on what we are best at, that is the beauty of free trade. Not only does it mean that the world is buying to serve our needs, the most powerful the most talented people in the world by to give us bargain. And maximizes the possibility that the will the possibility that we will do the work that most animates us. If we tried to so our clothes manufacture the computers we type on, if we tried to raise the food we eat, we would live lives of unrelenting drudgery. Host you can see successes played out in Something Like nafta . Guest free trade is a positive does it signals the process whereby not just people in the city we live in but around the world are buying to serve our needs buying to serve our needs. Free trade is undeniably brilliant because we have more people vying to serve our needs. People will say that free trade kills jobs. If you believe that, lets not only put up borders to foreign goods but lets abolish the computer, the atm and the car because those are easily the biggest job destroyers in the history of mankind. They expanded the work we could do. Host what about manufacturing and textiles unaffected by trade deals . Guest markets have said those jobs are not very valuable. Theyve also said farm jobs of not are not very valuable. Manufacturing is the same way. And manufacturing job in china pays the equivalent of a starbucks latte. What the markets are saying is to americans, your work is too valuable. We cannot afford you in a manufacturing role. We are to push you into higher wage jobs. Jobs started moving overseas long before the present. We have experience some of the lowest unemployment in the 80s in the 1980s and 1990s because the economy was growing. You grow the economy by adapting the basics to growth i described my book. Host judy on our line for those who make under 25,000. Youre on with our guest. Caller what is to stop the rich from using overseas labor putting all their money in overseas banks and selling to overseas people and completely bypassing us . United states citizens . Guest nothing is to stop them. Businesses are in the business of profit. If you look at a company like nike, is it worse off because nike employs people in vietnam . Obviously not. One of the most profitable brands on earth. Portland possible as a result of nike employing people around the world. In your daily work constantly outsource. Businesses are merely doing what we individuals do. They are farming out work to people around the world to ensure the greatest number of profits. That leads to more job creation through investment. Nike would not employ any americans if it did not employ people around the world. If nike puts billions of dollars in a bank overseas, where does that money have to go . Generally it is going to be let back to some Business Concept or some small individual who needs a car loan or College Tuition in the United States. The money is invariably flowing back to the United States. What you want to maximize is the possibility that businesses are earning a lot of money. If they do, that money is being redistributed to people like you and me. Host this is todd. Makes over 100,000. Caller i wish this was not part of your broadcast your announcing people plus income. People plus income. When he made the comment about the banks being heavily regulated, as well as should be it is because banks are so regulated that the free market is available is able to operate the way that it does. The more banks are regulated the easier it is for the free markets to operate the way that they do because their protection is from the regulations of the bank so that they can move freely. When he brought up lebron james and talked about what he does best and how the how our system has made a good for him it is not what you do best in society as much as it is most profitable. That is the thing that helps you move along and that is what is helping lebron james. It is the thing that is most profitable for him. I think you over praise capitalism when you say that even the poor in this country are having a problem with obesity and you are implying because of the abundance of access to food. Capitalism might really be the problem that causes the obesity because highquality food is very expensive in comparison to cheap, just keep you going from daytoday food that is not really good for your system. If time permits, i would like you to go back to what you said about reagan being poor on trade because although you may a lot of sense to me, you moved over that one to quickly. He said reagan was poor on trade, he should have hammered out how that has been such a negative impact on this country since reagan possibly. Im with you. Im listening. Guest in terms of banks what is the least regulated sector in the United States, Silicon Valley. Just about every business in Silicon Valley fails. There is no regulation or safety net. That is why it is the most wealthy part of the United States if not the world because when you do not have regulation you can have the failure that leads to perfection and success. Imagine how much healthier the Banking System would the if we had more failure and less regulation. This was said by the former ceo of morgan stanley, your number one client is government. That is what has become of this overprotected Banking System. It serves government more than it does allocating capital to businesses of the future. We would be so much better off and capitalism would have a better reputation banks were allowed to fail in the way that Silicon Valley firms and movies and all that are allowed to fail. If we love the banks, we should deregulate them and let them fail. In terms of lebron, fairpoint. I think in general, when people do something they love, they are far more productive and it ultimately leads to profits. You have a point but overall, in society, pursue would you are best at and at some point youre going to find a path to income doing that. Over praise capitalism, you talked about how that food is what is causing the obesity. Arent we lucky to live in the United States . What highclass problems we have of too much food . If that is true, if in fact it is the higherquality food enjoyed by the rich that is going to reduce obesity, that is what you can predict about the future. If you want to see with the future is going to be like for the middle west and poor, look at what the rich enjoy. If it is food, that is the next thing some entrepreneur is going to make broadly available to those were not rich. Reagan on trade if you look at freetrade overall it has been undeniably good for the United States simply because it means that every day america opens its market to foreign goods the American People get a raise. Economy is a collection of individuals. We are made better off in the world when the world is competing to serve us. Host john tamny, popular of the best author of the book Popular Economics. Thank you for your time. For our final halfhour. If you want to call, 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 four republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. Washington journal will continue after this. The new congressional directory is a guide to the 114th congress with color photos of every senator and house member plus bio and Contact Information and twitter handles. A foldout map of capitol hill and a look at congressional committees, the president s cabinet, federal agencies and state governments. Order your copy today. It is 13. 95, plus shipping and handling at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host the lines for open phones. 202 7488000 for democrats. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for independents. This deal between Charter Communications in time warner cable. Usa today saying a cash and stock deal. The prospective merger of the nations Cable Companies could create a newly strengthened that is the story in the usa today as well as others this morning. David, your first you are up first. Caller that guest was articulate with what he said, it also is good on paper. In fact, it never did work. Caller from indiana pointed out reaganomics really never did work. It did work for rich folks but it never did trickle down. It helped out it was supposed to trickle down but it did not. People used the money just to move overseas and they did not do things they were originally going to do when it first started. The glasssteagall thing, he scoffed at that. That was created after the depression and the banking thing. For 50 years, the glasssteagall worked to keep the commercial banks separated from the investment banks. As soon as that firewall was taken away, that is what happened. Thanks used taxpayer money to bail themselves out of risky things they knew they were engaged in. For him to scoff at those ideas he sounded articulate but in reality everybody called in who said something he disagreed with was correct. Thank you. Host dan from Santa Barbara, california. Republican line. Caller actually i am an independent. This does have to do a lot with the republican party. The Reagan Ranch Center is here. I wanted to talk to john tamny. Hopefully he can hear me. You gave a speech at the Reagan Center a few weeks ago promoting your book, preaching ideology of deregulation and free trade. It has become an ideology and religion the same way that reagan has become a deity and all of this has become a belief system. You did that a few weeks ago and between then and now there was a large oil spill in Santa Barbara , literally down the canyon from reagans ranch. The oil Company Whose pipe broke the news is come out that every pipeline in Santa Barbara county has had environmental regulation except this one. They did not have the regulation where they needed an automatic shut off valve. I do not how they got an exemption. They did not have to follow regulations. Now we have an oil spill down the canyon from reagans ranch. The godfather of deregulation ideology. My question would be, would you be willing to put your money where your mouth is and go down to the beach and give your talk on deregulation ideology to all the people who are down there shoveling up oil and tar off the beach . Thank you. Host joe from florida independent line. Caller i want to say that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton should join forces to beat the republicans. The republicans or destroy this Country Little by little. Thank you. Host why do you think they should join forces rather than compete separately . Caller look what happened we need the votes. Democrats and independents need the votes. That is the only way were going to be the republicans. Everybody knows that they cheat. I mean, we need to beat the republicans. The republicans are destroying this country, bigtime. Thank you. Host are you a Barney Sandor supporter or Hillary Clinton supporter . Caller i like Elizabeth Warren but she said many times she is not going to run. Bernie sanders is my first choice. My second choice is Hillary Clinton. Hillary clinton is way better than any republican. A lot of people like to i like to call them doubledecker bus. Those big buses from england. Hillary clinton is way better than any republican. She has more experience. She cares for the people. In many countries putting money on her. They want to see a democrat because republicans want to go to war. Look what happened in iraq. Who profited . Dick cheney made like 54 billion. Dick cheney does not care about American People. All he cares, his wallet. We have a lot of people working for minimum wage. Host i want to let you know that because you expressed interest in Bernie Sanders there is an event in burlington, vermont featuring senator sanders to talk about his president ial campaign. Look for it later on this afternoon, scheduled to take place later on. If you want more information that will be later this afternoon. Go to cspan. Org for more information. The Burlington Free press highlights at today. This is the Burlington Free press. Ben from oakland california, youre up next. Caller i caught the end of tamnys talk. Free trade is good for you and me and i sit there and think about all of the graphs i have seen in the past years that if shown in the 1970s and 1980s how the average guys wages have gone down and how 90 of the profits that have been generated have gone to the top 1 . I sit there and say, his ideas of you and me are different from mine. It is this kind of disconnect between republican talking point he is pushing out again and again but says that free trade is good and free trade is creating a better world. It sounds truthy, but none of the facts have been put out last 30 years truly support that when it comes to the average person. The other part of it is that when you have this is connect to the average person and the people with liens of dollars, billions of dollars, they use it to embellish their own power and position in society and are trying to take control of the government with their billiondollar Campaign Funds and putting people into politics and what should be Public Places of power where the government is supposed to take care of the people. Even jefferson says the main job of government was to do the good and happiness of the people in the republic. That is not with their money is being used for. Their money is being used to put in people who will be their cronies and people who will do their bidding instead of looking at the good of the country. Host lets hear from charlotte in delaware, republican line. Caller i am listening to this. I have to tell these people that are talking what they really need to do is to watch the cspan with congress and the senate in session. Watch what is going on. All they are getting and hearing and repeating our political points spewed out by the democratic already. The democratic party. I idolized kenny i idolized kennedy as a young adult. One summer of listening to congress in session and i would see Daschle Gephardt and all their cronies come out and barefaced lie about what was said in session that day. All these people that are following democrats are being lied to. Do your own research. Dont listen to the speak words that are going to direct your mind. You need to go to movie rental places and find the movie 1984. That is the direction the democrats are taking a stand. Are taking us in. For the gentleman who thinks the Koch Brothers are so awful, do some research on george soros. He is crashed multiple countries in europe to take control of them and hes backing hillary. Host that a charlotte in delaware. Cnn reporting iraq forces have launched a mission to liberate provinces from isis. A little more than a week after the militant group overran rome aday ramadi. That is according to the media office for the militia. An update from cnn. Tilton terry, democrat line. Caller im fascinated by the fantasy libertarians. One of the first things i do that tamny talked about, get rid of the fec. If people want to invest in the ponzi scheme that is our stock market and programs like aig which committed Insurance Fraud where else in this world can you sell insurance that you cannot cover and not go to jail . We will never have free markets until we have a flat tax and term limits. Right now, this is not a free market when one company gets a tax break and another company does not. That is how the republicans and their lives, they talk about the entitlement society. A business and corporations have their own entitlements, tax breaks. That is how republicans give our money away. If we are going to get down to it, a free market is a flax tax a flat tax, lets get rid of republican and democrat at a been there for more than 12 years. 12 years in the senate, 12 years in the house and go home to your regular job. No more career politicians. They keep telling us Mitch Mcconnell, patty murray, jim mcdermott, theyve been there for over 20 years. We keep reelecting them and they created the mess. Flat tax, term limits and his Citizens United says corporations are a person, no more corporate tax. Tax them as individuals. They are people. Thank you. Host tom in san jose california. Caller this is thomas set in. Your guest did not address the issue with aig like a lot of callers are calling in right now. The reason aig got away with what they were doing is because the Rating Systems were getting paid to raise them by aig. The old saying. He also said let the banks fail. That means my money is going to be lost. He did not bring that up. When i was growing up in the 19, you can raise a family on one income. In the 70s, i put myself through college because i had four checks a week and one check paid my rent. I live in Silicon Valley, rent right now is averaging 2300 a month. The average employer pays employees about 60,000 in year so you are taking over two weeks rent two weeks income to pay your rent. Why is that happening . Incomes have not kept up with the cost of inflation. I wrote a book called 2199 about this. I think your guest was misleading the people. Thank you very much. Host in the Washington Post, a story saying senator that cochran married a long time 81 year after his office swatted down rumors amid criticism of their taxpayerfunded travel. An executive assistant who joined his office in 1981 in a private family ceremony in gulfport, mississippi. His issue his Office Issued a statement on monday. Weber had joined cochran on public funded trips costing more than 150,000. Critics also pointed to records that showed the six term senator rented the basement apartment of webers 1. 6 million house as proof of an untoward relationship. Weber was said to attend social functions with help of the senator. It also says that cochrans wife died in december after 50 years of marriage and 13 years in a mississippi nursing home. She had dementia. Ron, from pennsylvania. You are up. Caller i want to say that in 1992 when bill clinton beat george bush the first, george bush was in the background of the camera, he said we are entering a new world order. He said that. In his first term in office, obama was in mexico and he said nations are no longer defined by their borders. I would like to say that is a consistent agenda that is continuing and no one is referring to it. What is going on with the economy is incidental. There is an agenda being followed as far as the middle east goes. I think we have to tell you it by the tail. I think our interest in iraq had nothing to do with this new world order. If were stuck. I think i think were stuck. I think it had to do with turning the u. S. Reserve currency upside down because Saddam Hussein was working on a treaty with france. I would like to say that there is an agenda we are following in this country and nobody is addressing it, certainly not the media. Host dudley from kentucky, hi. Caller im a first time caller. Ive been watching you for over 40 years. My comment is, we have let Multinational Companies different people, soros, the Koch Brothers, the ones that are running this country, we do not know who they are. Every president we have had since kennedy was shot. The talk about reagan. Reagan started this group. He had them go down into mexico and told all these groups we are going to pillage this country. To set you free to do what you want. We are bought and paid for. We talk about terrorist groups. We should label the republican and democratic parties as a whole, terrorist groups. Theyre the ones were being bought and paid. They go in office and out of office to work for companies. Theyre all connected. The stock market is a ponzi scheme. Mercantiles, the trade, whether it is oil, soy beans energy they make a profit period. This country we have already lost the war in this country. We are going to have to i would say everyone get out of the g life force. Do not buy anything. Easily protest and for one day shut this country down. Let these people know we are going to put up with it anymore and do not vote these people back in. Do not vote for any democrat i will say Bernie Sanders, he would be a good president. The one we missed was mr. Ralph nader. Every time i mention ralph naders name, people go nuts. Thank you. I dont know what else to say. Host Bernie Sanders later on making an announcement to talk about his president ial campaign this afternoon. Watch for it on cspan. You can see it live on our website for more information. Your been watching 40 years. What do you learn most from cspan . Caller i like to listen to everybodys opinion. Everybody counts. When this country was founded we all had the right for free speech and to talk. Our rights are being taken away. I think it was ben franklin possibly that said, you cannot give up your freedom for security. You cant let these people listen. I cant walk out here and walk downtown in kentucky where i am at and hold a sign up and say i like this or i dont like that. I have to get a permit to protest. No american should have to get any permit to protest. It is like what happened into cuddy part in zucati park. The powers that be, we do not know who is running this country, it is not bush or reagan, there are people behind all these politicians, whether it be Mitch Mcconnell or harry reid, these people are evil. We are going to have to peacefully, just like Martin Luther king tried to do peacefully protest. Were going to have to get out on the street in mass and not be afraid of the police force, the military forces theyre going to put on us. Host dudley from kentucky. We appreciate your comments. Oxford, michigan. Andrew. Caller im calling in regard to the previous libertarian guest. My problem is that i see this is all related. We need to repeal nafta. We need to create a flat tax. All this deregulation has created is the ability for the billionaire to go overseas and find employees to make sense of the dollar. When he to put up the trade wall and have regulations that are here imposed everywhere else by creating, if youre overseas and you dont have any rules, yet the pay a tax to sell products here. It will create jobs and infrastructure by applying those taxes to roads and schools. He did not touch on the fact that steve jobs, im from detroit, steve jobs does not come from School Systems like detroit. We deregulate, we dont pay taxes. We have bad roads and no education. We need to create an environment where steve jobs can be created. Thank you. Host bob from pennsylvania. Democrat line. Caller i wanted to take a second to say i dont understand what is wrong with this country. It depends on who you are. I dont understand it. Host shirley from emmitsburg, iowa. Democrat line. Caller look up these facts. In the United States. We have harsh drug laws. In portugal, theyve decriminalized all their drugs. They have no more problems. They are very happy. They did that about 12 years ago. In iowa, there are about seven women in prison to every 100 men in prison. It is twice as many as it used to be after we put in such strong drug laws. Wheres our freedom in this country . If you look up my facts, you will find that we use so much more sugar in this country than what many other countries do. We have a lot more alzheimers and a lot more diabetes. Why dont we do something about that . We harshly talk against our va hospitals read Consumer Reports said our private hospitals are almost half a Million People are accidentally killed each year. Just by mistakes that are made. Arent those worth going into some detail with your guests . Host that is surely in iowa, offering suggestions for future topics. Usa today takes a look at the president s success rate when it comes to what is happening. At least six major cities have passed paid six lead laws sick leave laws. 17 states and six major cities of taken action including los angeles last week. It can read more of that in the usa today. Camera, independent line. Cameron, independent line. Caller the pursuit of happiness cannot happen without creation of wealth. Since we live in a global world today, this can only happen if there is a healthy flow. I think deregulation is a stumbling block. It prevents the flow in reality and it does not achieve what those people think that it does achieve. Too much bureaucracy creates stalin and mao with a different name. There has to be a formula for not blocking the flow. The flow of wealth, the flow of momentum which brings about the healthy environment for the creation of capital. I think that is the bottom line. Taxation is about bringing more money for Public Service etc. In reality it does not help the flow. The same question is about deregulation. Does it help the flow . If we keep that perspective, it might ring to life a lot of new questions and answers. Host lets hear from randy in eastland, texas. He will be the last call. Are you on . That is it for our program today. Another Program Comes at 7 00 tomorrow. An event that is just about to take place at the Atlantic Council that takes a look at the topic of the iran nuclear deal. It also takes a look at how european nations have to deal with what will eventually come out of this deal. This is in washington by the Atlantic Council. [indiscernible]