Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20151213

You can also send us your thoughts over social media at j, facebook or send us an email. The news is that ted cruz has overtaken donald trump and thats according to the latest iowa poll from Des Moines Register from Bloomberg Politics. Ted cruz has surged ahead to become the latest frontrunner in the campaign for the iowa caucus opening an impressive lead over a stalled donald trump. When first and second choices are combined, cruz has the support of 51 of likely caucus goers. Bloomberg also has these charts that show who is on top, who is leading, who is moving around. You can see ted cruz with 31 of likely caucus goers staying its their first choice. Thats a substantial lead over donald trump who has 21 of those calling him their first choice. Ben carson is at 13 . Now, some of this spore is coming from evangelicals. The New York Times reported recently that ted cruz received the endorsement of an influential iowa conservative. Here is how they reported the story which occurred earlier this week. They said that senator ted cruz on thursday run the endorsement of an influential leader of yays christian right calling on conservatives to unite behind mr. Cruz. He is the president in chief executive of the family leader. And he backed the winner of the past two Republican Caucuses, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. In both case, the caucus winners were too conservative and underfunded to capture the nomination. This time, mr. Cruz is better in position be the nominee because he has a National Grassroots revolt against republican establishment. We all will be going all in for senator ted cruz. He spoke in the rotunda of the state capital. We will turn to the phone lines where our first caller comes from beverly, massachusetts. Matt is calling in on the independent line. Good morning, matt. Caller good morning. I just wanted to say i think it would be interesting and intellectually consistent if the republicans had kind of a inquestion sis by one another and trump on cruz because he had some foreign ties and i consider a lot of troubling questions there. So thats my comment. Thanks. Host all right. Thats matt from beverly, massachusetts. Next up is nick from fairview, tennessee, on the independent line. Nick what, do you think this morning . Caller yes. I have voted republican mostly for years and years, but i nine out of 10 times, i have actually submitted an application to be a volunteer for ted cruz. This is the first time ive done this. If we get eight years of hillary, the countrys over. Theres no country in my mind, absolutely. Shes totally corrupt. And everybody has faults. And i dont really i admire trump to some dream. Hes a good man. Think he really means well. I support trump. He loses the nomination, please dont support him if he becomes a Third Party Candidate because thats what hillary is dreaming of. And we need to put the country first. And ted cruz is a rebel and all the way. He had the audacity to move further. Mitch mcconnell is a liar. And so host nick, when did you decide to support ted cruz and when did you sign up as a volunteer for his campaign . Caller well, ive been with the tea party to some degree off and on for quite some time. And im a political animal. Ive been fighting this all along for a long time. And i know that unfortunately, the democratic philosophy is not a political philosophy anymore. Its a religious philosophy. Thats why its frorging some corrupt people. And thats why ted cruz his family has suffered. Host all right. Thats nick from tennessee. We hear your thought this morning. Our next caller is from florida, rick. What do you think of the shakeup within the Republican Party . Caller to tell you the truth, i am watching it with a great deal of delight. To tell you the truth, if ted cruz cancels out donald trump, youre still going to get a president if elected, that obody is going to work with. They keep proclaiming they are going to do this and that, but they still have a congress to go through. Thats why we have checks and balances. And these socalled evangelicals, if you would listen to what ted cruzs father has to say when he is in a church, it is indefensible. There is absolutely no way that these people are evangelicals. If you go to a church that spouts hate against any person, youre not in a church. Youre in a cult. Host rick, who do you support for 2016 . Caller i support Hillary Clinton because she is by far, the most qualified to be resident of our United States. Im very surprised that bernie has pushed her in the direction that he has pushed her. I cant believe that some of these people would follow such charltons. And charlatans and they better remember if they get to heaven, theyre going have a little test of their own they ave to take. Host here is a tweet from Hillary Clinton. And just a reminder, you can call in with your thoughts. How do you see the election shaping up . How do you see this new development that ted cruz has overtaken donald trump according o this poll in iowa. Special line opened this segment or iowa residents. Here is how donald trump responded to these latest poll in a Campaign Stop on friday. Des id that the dinkins Moines Register is not being fair. Every time the des moines does the poll, i always do badly. Im only doing this that they dont sue me but i dont mind. I hope they sue me because they dont have enough noun sue me. Thats the good thing. [applause] im sure its my opinion that they dont do it properly because you know, they poll like 300 or 400 people. But i really believe if they lose 20 people, boom in the pocket. Trump . Forget that one. Forget that. I dont know if they do that. Do you do that t Des Moines Register . Every time i have a Des Moines Register poll, i do poorly. I also do poorly with the bloomberg polls. I dont know why. But we have a great poll come in. Cnn the last couple of days where were leading by 13 points in iowa. In iowa. [applause] and somebody say its coming out ometime. Host he sent out this tweet. Trump 33, cruz 30. Were taking your calls. And the next one comes from new york on the republican line. Its robert. Robert, good morning to you. Caller hi. Good morning. Ive been disputing Barack Obamas eligibility for presidency for the last seven years and now im disputing the eligibility of ted cruz and Mario Marco Rubio on the same basis. These two individuals do not meet the article two, section one, natural born citizenship definition. And the legal precedent is minor versus 10 . The United States Supreme Court in 1875 said that a natural born citizen is one whos born in the United States of participates or are both americans themselves. And of course, marco rubio, his apartments were both cubans when he was born even though he was born here. His parents were not american citizens. And ted cruz, he was born in canada to a cuban father. So i dont want to see the iowan voters be duped. Again, this would be the third time in our history that a usurper has taken over the presidency. Host all right. All right, robert, from new york on the republican line, concerned about the birth of several candidates and of president obama. Next up is mark from philadelphia, pennsylvania on the democratic line. Mark, go ahead. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Yeah, i just want to say first of all, my former iowa resident. What people dont realize about this iowa caucus is this represents a very minute portion of the electorate democratic republican. So what you normally get here is the most radical on the left democrat, on the right, republican people. So i dont even personally speaking, i dont think its representative. The second thing is do you know Hillary Clinton will be starting out next year with 237 Electoral College votes. Right out of the gate. All she needs is 33 more to win. She can lose ohio and florida and still win. I mean, with the what the republicans need to do is figure out that ted cruz is too right wing. He will not do well in the states up here, you know t pennsylvania, whatever. Or even ohio, i think hes too conservative. Theres only two people that could beat hillary and that is marco rubio and jeb bush. Thank you. Host all right. Thats mark from pennsylvania. And mark brings up a good point. We should note the sort of methodology of the survey. Its the bloomberg report and bloomberg poll says that their iowa survey was taken december 710 and included 400 Republican Caucus participants. Its higher for some subgroups that are better mentioned within the poll numbers. The report also shows that there were changes and Favorability Ratings as well. Ben carsons favorability rating has fallen from 84 in october to now 72 in december. Thats a decline of 12 . Marco rubio has stayed pretty much flat but ted cruz, meanwhile, has jump where had ben carson has fallen. So ted cruzs favorability went from 61 to 73 in the latest december poll. Thats up 12 points. Donald trump has stayed virtually flat. Jeb bush has fallen 11 points to 39 in the Favorability Ratings. Well turn to mark from South Carolina on the republican line. Ark, go ahead. Mark, youre on the air. Caller yes, to the last caller, i dont believe rubio and bush are going to make it to the south. I know i wont be going to the polls if rubio or bush is there. Rubio is too soft on immigration and bush is too soft on everything. A ar as ted cruz, hes wonderful choice. Hes conservative. The social media, theyre not liking that too well. Cruzs father and church how about Jeremiah Wright . Does anybody remember Jeremiah Wright . Host youre talking about president obamas former pastor . Caller correct. Now, did anybody remember what he spouted that ended the democrats run from Jerry Maya Wright and were worried about what ted cruzs dad is saying . Hillary clinton never sent a classified email. Whitewater, vince foster. How much more do the democrats need . They just want to have the first woman, thats all they want. They just had the first black man. Now they want the first woman. Theyre trying to be the heroes of everybody and just its not going to work. Were in trouble. The worlds in troubles. We dont need a hillary, a liar and we dont need bush or rubio to let more immigrants in. Thats the problem. Host ok, mark, we hear your points. Next up from marni on the independent line. Marty, go ahead. Caller hello. Host good morning, marty. Caller i just wanted to say i dont believe the polls. I believe the man from the just said just to has that out to confuse people. But he dont realize how mad people are in this country. Host who doesnt realize how mad people are . Caller the editor of the newspapers. Host ok. Ok. Caller now, hes just trying to reverse the momentum on donald trump. People dont realize how mad they are because people have he has awoke a Sleeping Giant to this muslim and mexican problem in our country. Host so marni, i take it that youre a trump supporter. Caller yes, i am and im a republican. And another thing i wanted to say. I dont know who answers your phones, but they will not answer the republican phone most of the time. I had to call in on a on the other one. Host ok. We have a couple of callers coming in. Would you support donald trump if he launched an independent bid . Caller yes. Host you would. Ok. Support him no matter what. Thats marni. Caller i think most people would too. Host all right. Oklahoma. I from next is terry. Terry, what is it like up there, the sentiment . Caller well, ted cruz is my choice for president and ill be going to the caucuss and voting for him and encouraging my friends and neighbors in Madison County and Dallas County to go out and look for ted. When the caller earlier said that rafael cruz whos a Southern Baptist bornagain christian pastor was preaching hate, ive been with rafael cruz in marshalltown, iowa in a baptist congregation and then in places in my home county. He is a preacher of jesus christ and the love and peace and joy of jesus. So just wanted all the listeners to know that individual that called earlier was the purveyor of hate. And if you want to go and hear rafael cruz preach the gospel, it would be good for everybody in america. And i hope they can put it up on youtube. Host terry, when did you decide to support ted cruz . Caller after meeting with him. I attended an event with congressman david young and steve king that they had rafael and other candidates and got to visit with ted and heard him share his faith and story and love and devotion he has for his wife and his daughters. And i want to endorse and for others to go to his website and check with his father, and theres all kinds of people that want to stay separation of church and state, but rafael cruz has a fine power point presentation on almost like the majority of Jerry Falwell where he started his campaign in liberty university. Decidedle of america they would look to their bibles and look to god and pray for the land of the free and home of the brave and god willing, will be a reformation and people can trust in god and trust in president ted cruz. Host all right. Thats terry from iowa. Next caller is billy on the republican line. Peter, what do you think this morning . Caller really . Host hello. Youre on the air. Caller ok. I dont support ted cruz. Host ok. Cruz ishis father is a bigot. He wants obama should go back to kenya. So rafael cruz was not born in america. Hes not qualified to run as president. Or ould go back to canada take his son back to cuba. Host all right. Thats peter from maryland. Ted cruz spoke on National Security during an event and he went after the white house and their approach towards defeating isis. Whether its fort hood, san bernardino, or a number of others tragically in between from little rock to boston to garland to chattanooga. President obamas approach has been to treat each one in isolation. The administration has called lone wolfs. Tors not to be associated with formal groups because they didnt receive direct orders from him. They investigate any suspects. But they ignore the reality that our nation is under attack. What America Needs today just as e needed in the late 1970s is first, a firm resolve to always protect americans freedom here at home, freedom that has made this the greatest nation on the face of the planet. But second, we need moral clarity. That starts with defining the enemy. And third, we restore americas leadership in the world through a position of strength. How do we do that . First, we protect americans freedoms here at home. Americans no longer feel safe in their schools, their workplaces, their cities. They should not be the new standard. This is to the new normal. Heidi and i have two precious little girls. They are 7 and 5. Every time i pick them up, every time i hold them in my arms, i want them to be confident that they are protected and far from any harm. And a safe america starts with a secure america. Host we are talking about ted cruz and how he has surged in a new Des Moines Register Bloomberg Politics poll overtaking donald trump as a frontrunner in iowa. You can see that ted cruz now has 31 of those who say they be likely attend the Iowa Caucuses. Donald trump has 21 . Ben carson in third place with 13 . I want to get a few more headlines for you this morning including this important one. Nations have proved landmark climate deal. Heres a story in the New York Times. Such pacts have required economies like the United States to take action to lower Greenhouse Gas emissions but theyve exempted countries like china. They have been working for nine years. Changes the dynamic by requiring action from some form from every country rich or poor. The remark from president obama were that this agreement sends a powerful signal that the world is fully committed to a low carbon future. Weve shown that the world has both the will and ability to take on this challenge. They report on the details of this pact saying the new deal will not on its own solve Global Warming at best, scientists who analyzed it say it will cut global Greenhouse Gas emissions by half to stave off an increase in at spheric temperature of two driesells you. That is the point at which scientific includes includes they world will have consequences including severe drought, widespread food and water shortage and more destructive storms. The Washington Post has this summary of what is in the new climate deal. Temperatures, it will commit nations to pursue efforts to limit an increase 1. 5 degree celcius. It will focus on reducing the deforestation. Every five years, they have to pledge to more strict limits. According to financing, nations must offensive a variety of sources and channels including public funds and they must recognize the importance of averting and addressing harms from adverse weather events. And they must track their progress and detect shortcomings. Again, that is some information on this historic pact to curb Greenhouse Gas emissions that was recently negotiated in paris. Back to the phone lines. Were talking about ted cruz and donald trump and the tries the white house. Our next caller is from albany, georgia on the democratic line. What do you think this morning . Caller good morning, young lady and thanks for taking my calls. Actually, got pretty lucky this morning. I called in and ive got one of these flintstone telephones. Its like two clam shells and a string and i cut off the first time. So i called back and got in again. So i feel very lucky. Host all right after chance to make your point now. Caller yes. Well, my point is weve got a ield of running on the republicans tickets that has a t of odd balls in it and not only mr. Trump now, mr. Trump, of course, was born a billionaire. And his father loaned him 1 million or more or less gave it to him to start out his enterprises. Hes never worked a day in his life for anything. Hes just a playboy, more or less and very, very wealthy. Im not worried too much about mr. Trump getting elected. Now, ted cruz is a horse of a different color. First of all, like the gentleman said, hes born in canada. Theres no doubt that he was not born in the United States. Not a natural born citizen. But mr. Cruz has some very, very radical views about women and womens hett issues. He endorsed a book written by a woman and a man. You cant really say theyre pro liars. Theyre pro murderers. To w a show i dont want endorse another commercial network, but i got i have to. Msnbc has a person by the name of Rachel Maddow who exposes a lot of Different Things. And rachel had a book that was written by a man who had just gotten out of the penitentiary and a woman who cowrote the book and cruz endorsed it. The book advocates attacking Womens Health clinics and endorses murder. Now, what kind of host dewy, do you think that ted cruz poses a bigger threat to Hillary Clinton than donald trump does . Caller no, man, i dont. Because like i said, mr. Cruz is too radical. First of all, he was not born in the United States of america. And i dont know why people can turn on president obama when of course, hawaii was a state where he was born. Host all right. Thats dewy from georgia. Eres a story in politico. Saying cruz is the likely g. O. P. Nominee. It reports that the Clinton Campaign handicapped the g. O. P. Race for 90 democratic donor in berkeley, california, on thursday night. Thats according to a clinton backer who is in the room. He told the crowd that he viewed cruz as a likeliest nominee followed by trump and then marco rubio. His remarks which he made sure to represent his own views came after the real estate proposed a ban on muslim. And he suggested that the resulting surge of attention being paid to trump didnt change his belief that he was the likely pick. But he did say it was an anker to drag down the rest of the Republican Party was a concerted political strategy and that the donor shouldnt expect the strategy to the crux of the argument is not that other candidates are afraid to criticize trump, it is that they agree with him. Priscilla from california is calling now on the republican line. Good morning to you. What do you think . Caller i am so glad i got on. I just want to say that i am a person of color, bornagain christian, but i love trump. I love cuz. I believe trump is like a pitbull. He is the only one who can really beat Hillary Clinton. Arumpcruz ticket, bu or but my favorite is really trumpcruz. I love them both. I wish godspeed on both. Cruz, like i say, for washington and the senate, he is a mr. Smith goes to washington. Donald trump is a pitbull. He is the one who can win. Man. A steady i believe them. I trust him with all of my heart. Country needs the of fire. What is the issue you feel is most important . Where do you think the country needs to fight . Caller the most important issue we have is our security. That is the most important. Im afraid for my kids and grandkids to go to the mall anywhere to school. Trump willlieve that build our military, and i think he will make our country great again. Host all right. Priscilla from california. Here are a few tweets now. One person writes, and independent potus bid by donald ensures that hillary will be present. Iowa shouldnt be given so much power to pick president s, it does not represent most of our country. Finally, the last time i was picked the gop nominee was when george w. Bush ran unopposed. Here is a poll of who is leading and who is falling behind. Cruz is now leading the field with the spread of seven percentage points. 7 percentage points, excuse me, over the next candidate. Poll shows cruz 31. Next up, beverly from pennsylvania, calling on the independent line. Morning. I agree with that woman from california. I know he has a big mouth, trump, and i know his past, but i think bill clinton, the gigolo that he is, he would have never married hillary if she did not have all that money. Is goinghing, hillary to raise taxes like crazy, and the poor people will be worse off than ever. Ing is as global warm concerned, that is a joke. If obama thinks that he is going to tax me, what a hypocrite inis flying around, spewing his jets. They are all a bunch of hypocrites. Host all right. We hear your thoughts this morning. Next up is joe, massachusetts, democratic line. Go ahead. Every the republicans, four years, they come out with this stuff, and pray on fear. They have done ever since eisenhower fear of the soviet union, fear of the viet cong, fear of terrorists. Obama is going around, and killing terrorists daily. He does not carry a sign called , mission accomplished. He killed osama bin laden, not the republicans. Furthermore, why would a working person vote for republicans . Let me tell you who the job creators are. Those are the customers coming through your front door. Those are the job creators, the people we need to put money in the hands of. That woman from pennsylvania was just outrageous. Thank you. Host next up, johnny from connecticut, republican line. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Was a democrat, but he is absolutely right about the job creators. That is exactly why we need a trump. He is really independent. He is running as a republican, but that is exactly right. A bigd someone this is election for this country. We just dont need another politician to go to the white made it here, i this is the end of it, why should i dirty my hands . An independent, really, and a businessman. We need someone to fight for this country, but the middleclass back on track, and make america strong, besides just protecting the border, business. He is a variety of Different Things that will make us strong again. He is not politician doing the same old thing. This is a big election. What would be the ticket for this country is trump and. Hristie, or trump and cruz trump as president , and someone underneath them that is strong. Rump can hire anyone he wants people say, he does not have experience, but guess what . The one who went and did not have any experience. Trump knows how to hire people. Host trump talked about ted cruz during a rally last night or friday night, excuse me, in des moines, iowa. [video clip] this question comes through eagle forum, directly from phyllis. This is her question. When nominated, what do you intend to do with ted cruz . Will you name him youre Vice President or donald trump he is a good guy, and so is phyllis. Or, nominate him to the u. S. Supreme court . I really do, i like ted cruz a lot. He is doing well, im doing well. I mean, there is not a contest between the two of us, just so we understand. I do like him. I would say, we would certainly have things in mind for ted, to be honest with you. [applause] me. Ke him, he likes he actually put out a tweet tonight, and said donald trump used the word,e terrific. I can tell you, other candidates are not saying that about me. Right . Host we are trying about ted cruz and donald trump. Next up is philip from massachusetts. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. The lady from california and the they from pennsylvania lady said she is a lady of color. Consider donald trump or Ted Cruz Ted Cruz is not even a citizen, as that they have been saying, but him froms stopping running for president. Donald trump, i do not trust him. He says americans are making too much money. I dont know what americans he is talking about because the ones i know are looking for money, for work. Ted cruz, he is dangerous. They are both bigots. They will do more harm to the middleclass what is left of them and the poor than hillary could ever do. I am voting for Bernie Sanders, myself. He is more of a realistic person. In this day and age, we need the people need their money back so they can do what they want to do with their money. The banks are making money. Wall street is making money. The working man and working. Oman are not making money kids in school are not making money. You have kids they graduate from college, they cannot find work. Cannotey find work, they get enough might to pay the student loans. I mean, it is just crazy. For people to even think that republicans are looking out for interests as americans, it is just it blows my mind. Host that is philip from massachusetts, we hear your thoughts this morning. Seaside, california. A good Early Morning to you, josh. Caller good morning, cspan. Frankly, i agree with this person that just got off the phone. The two women that was talking cruz both liking trump and , i do not know where theyre coming from. By the same token, the lady from california, hopefully her neighbors can sit her down and talk to her, especially because she said she is a lady of color and voting for one of those two people. Secondly, cruz has never , when he got fact up and started to filibuster and shut down the government, where to 24 18 billion billion that the republicans were talking about one time that they would pay back. They have not said anything else about that. Thirdly is the fact that donald thep wants to put up millions of dollars to verify born, youa was have to verify where cruz was born sent him back to canada, and his family back to cuba. Host kevin is calling. You are republican, what do you think about who is ahead out . Noter donald trump is qualified. He has clearly demonstrated that in all of his rallies and speeches. The man is delusional, deranged, dangerous ifvery you came anywhere near the white house. The country would be better off the sooner he jobs out of the race. He is a malignant cancer on our body politic. , that is whatump the republicans need to do. A vote for trump is a vote for hillary. Trump is a disaster for the country. Host all right. That is kevin from new york. Our last caller for this segment is jean from winstonsalem, North Carolina. Go ahead. Are you on the air . Caller im here. Can you hear me . Host we can hear you. Go ahead. Caller it does not matter who wins on the republican side in the primary. A jellyfish on the democratic side, and they will. In those republicans, they have nothing to say. Donald trump has nothing to say. Ben carson has nothing to say. Cruz has ted lose nothing to say. All they are tying about is defeating obama. He is god. He is done. Do not talk about obama anymore because he is done. In theavoided pulpit trashcan. He is done. Let them speak to some issues that we really need, really really need. This gun stuff. This gun stuff makes me sad. Host we will have to leave it there. We are out of time. We will continue our discussion of donald trump and the race for the white house and our next segment. We will be talking with the sekly standard Daniel Halper. Later on, we will have richard. Ry of the Pew Research Center first, we will have a clip from newsmakers, democratic whip steny hoyer is our guest on the show. [video clip] all, there are two separate issues. One is about funding the government and ensuring that the government has the opportunity to operate in an effective, thecient manner to serve american people, and to defend our country. We need to pass that. It is a must pass. The extenders bill is not a must pass. What the senate has done, they did a twoyear extension. Orm not for the 800 billion 750 billion dollar bill that is being discussed. First of all, i think it makes the deficit worse. I think it undermines our ability to get to comprehensive tax reform, which speaker ryan has said we need, the president has said we need, i agree with that. I think most immigrants agree with that and most republicans do. Ofo, from the standpoint funding the government, it substantially undermines socalled discretionary spending, spending on National Security and on education, health care, infrastructure, and other items which help grow our economy. The probability is that we go in if weuesday at 6 30, but have completed negotiations over the weekend, my expectation is that there probably will be a pro forma session. What that means is we will not be voting, but the house will go into session for a short period of time, and whatever agreement is reached will be filed. The reason monday is important is because that gives republicans theoretically i say theoretically because it may be as few as 26 hours, but three days monday, tuesday, and wednesday to pass, consider and pass, an omnibus appropriation bill, as well as a tax extender that is filedct at that time. I think that is what the procedure will be. We may do some suspensions on tuesday that will be relatively noncontroversial, but the big day, if in fact we are ready, and have an agreement, and the republicans believe they have the votes, that we will consider both the tax extender bill, and the appropriation or omnibus appropriation bill to fund the government on wednesday. Host you can see the entire interview at 10 00 on sunday and 6 00 on cspan. You can also here on cspan radio. Newsmakers is also available on her website, cspan. Org. By the weeklyow halper. s daniel he is the online editor. Start by talking a little bit. Bout the latest poll we have been talking about it all morning. It shows that ted cruz has now overtaken donald trump with a ad iny impressive le iowa. How much faith should we put in this poll . Guest i think it is a good representation of where the race stands right now. The race can change a lot by the time voters actually go to caucus in iowa. Host we have what, 50 days left . Guest 50 days left, and three debates left. A lot can change in that time. Also, another reason to think that paul is credible, there is another poll at the beginning of last week that signaled the shift was coming. The poll shows ted cruz 10 points ahead of donald trump. I think, right now, you have to say that he is the oddments favorite to win iowa. Lot can change. Someone pointed out on twitter last night, a poll like this was taken in 2011 before the 2012 election, and Newt Gingrich was at a 5 of the vote, mitt romney was at about 16 , and Rick Santorum had Something Like 6 . Won iowa. Orum one momentum changes in campaigns, and these things do have ways of changing. Cruz, unfortunately now that everyone assumes he is 10 points ahead, there would be a lot of pressure on him. He will have to maintain that and continue growing his base of supporters and adding on to that, or there will be an inevitable letdown, and he will disappoint people. Tore is pressure on cruz perform. There may be concerned that you toopeaking a tiny bit early. Donald trump, his supporters did not go down, but support behind cruz consolidated. I think that is an important point to make. Host i thought that was an interesting one that you just raise. Does this say more about cruz, or more about trump . Is it the case of trump falling in favorability or cruz just winning more support than he had previously . Guest there is no proof that support is weakening or less favorable. He was at 20 or so and he is a 20 or so. T meanwhile, the rest of the race is shifting. Trump has his supporters, but the rest of the race seems to be flattening. We does have a few credible candidates left at this point who can win the white house. We are probably looking at 34, may be out most of fibers and race. Ted cruz, don trump, marco rubio tophose have to be the three. Chris christie has an outside chance, especially if he wins New Hampshire. I do not think you can count on ben carson, though he is running too well to rule him out. Things can change radically. There is also 5 chance that something totally unexpected can happen and someone who we are not talking about today could emerge as a real threat and front runner. The difference between this race and the 2012 present will race, we have not seen a lot of change. We have seen some of the lord people fluctuate, but at the top tier, a lot has remained the same over a long period of time. We have not had a lot of shifts in the race. This iowa poll seems to be indicating the biggest shift as of late. We are not able to account for and do not know what that may mean. Host you mentioned that donald trump tried to bring the limelight back to himself. Are you referring to his comments on the temporary ban of muslims in the u. S. . Guest obviously that is what people have been talking about for the last week. I dont think there was any surprise. I think that was a concerted effort to call attention to himself. He is still there, he is still an important figure. By the way, it worked. In a certain way, he got of a a lot of attention for himself. A is possible that he has certain ceiling, and his numbers can only go so high. We do not yet know. His numbers nationally are higher than they ever have been. He is doing well. It is hard to discount him, and terms of a figure, who is doing well. He is consolidating support. It is a low hard to see how he pulls out a victory, especially if you go map by map. If ted cruz wins iowa, if marco rubio or someone else wins New Hampshire don trump needs an early victory to sustain his maying persona, or else you be a loser, to use a donald trump term. We honestly have no idea how it will turn out because we have never seen anything like this before. Host we want to hear your thoughts. You can call in. If you did not get your call and in the last segment, you can dial back in. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats. For independents, 202 7458002. We will take our first caller from maryland, philip on the independent line. What do you say this morning . Caller good morning. Call and Say Something about it seems to me that the newspapers, the media, they are always pushing establishment type candidates. Is a good guy. I think they are all trying to up in the and bush polls. Christie also. Christie has like 1 . What i would like to know is wan specific that cruz ts that people dont like. I would think, if you are present color, you would love to have someone like trump or cruz because they will create jobs and help people. The more jobs you have, the more money people would make. Anyway. Host all right, philip from maryland. Guest i think cruz has done a good job gathering a lot of support. A pretty narrow appeal in a certain sense that he is able to win over conservatives. I do think that appeal one thing he has accomplished, which is important, especially at a president ial level, which a lot of president candidates do not lost he has not supporters. He has only been adding to his pile of supporters. I think that helps a lot. When you are running for president , do not lose people who like you. I do not think other candidates, jeb bush for example, have been able to do that as successfully as ted cruz has. Host we are speaking with Daniel Halper of the weekly standard. I want to ask you about this what does it mean and why are they even considering this idea . Guest there was talk last time of a brokerage convention. Theres always talk about this. Hardly, in modern recent times, it has not come to fruition. Party should be prepared for what is going on. Host what is a brokerage convention . Guest when you go in the convention, and there is not a clear winner. You go to the floor and try to win a nomination through delegates and a pairing of the field right there on the convention floor. It could happen. I think, in a way, this time looks more ripe for it than any other time because ted cruz will not go away. If ted cruz wins iowa a lot of the delegates will be divided proportionally, so do not have to win a state to win a certain amount of delegates. It means you can stay in the race for a while and gain support, even if you are not winning states. Obviously, you would have to win some states, but if donald trump is in it for the long run, and decides to invest a lot of his own money in the race, and ted cruz days, and marco rubio is able to use a lot of money in his own bank, you can see how it could go a long time without a clear winner, and could go to a brokered convention. It is not very likely, but if you are a party, it would be irresponsible to not plan for Something Like that. It does not seem to crazy to me that they are doing that. ,ost next up from pennsylvania barry on the democratic line. Caller good morning, cspan. Downnk people need to calm. Ed to one of your callers on thursday or friday from new york or massachusetts, i think, and he was saying that he is concerned about the political iq of people. I could not have worded it any better myself. They interviewed donald trump and said, we are looking at things, we are going to do things nothing is for sites precise in what he says. He is an entertainer. We need to get serious. We need to listen to cspan and free speech tv. I know the republicans complain and say that cspan is biased that is not true. You put republicans on the i do not want to listen to, by listen to them. Breath, quit arguing with each other. That is all i have to say. Thank you. Theory of thes a race that once people do get serious about it that donald trump cannot be supported. People say, the guys a reality tv star, and not a serious political figure, and so therefore his support will a erode. It is possible, what the caller is alluding to. Obviously, if youre another candidate in the race, that is what you are hoping for, but there is not proof that his supporters would just about of the operate even aporate. Host how easily do you think his supporters would shift allegiance . Usa today poll found 60 would follow him out of the gop. Guest Donald Trump Tells his fans think you have to support for cas he is better than Hillary Clinton would be and thats why i would support him. That is how it could work. Donald trump is not a predictable figure. We dont know what he will do. We dont know if he wont run as a third party. I know i am so those to come here and appear and pretend i know what i and know what will happen. I think it is careless. There are a different a couple caperilous. T is they are saying the Republican Party could be over, especially in donald trump wins it. Win, itd trump doesnt could still change the Republican Party so much. The things that donald trump stands for is very different than what the Republican Party has stood for. He is not a republican in the traditional sense. , in many ways, a nationalist. E clearly has supporters the Republican Party may not survive. It could be a very different party. This is a concern. This is something people want able to see coming. On the democratic side, if someone ran this kind of campaign on the democratic side, they could break that party up as well and show a certain agility toward american politics. The reason it has been so productive in certain ways force for so in certain ways long, people do tend to play by the rules. Here, we have someone not playing by the rules, and it is exciting. Sonny is up next on the republican line. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I want to make a comment about ted cruz. Him andl for voting for then i heard he was planning on shutting down the program for hud. There are lots of people, including myself, that are disabled, or cannot afford apartments, and he doesnt islize so many people he going to put out on the street if he does this. I will be voting for someone else if he does this. Host all right. Guest that goes against my point that ted cruz had lost any supporters. There are supporters, or at least one, who had his support in them off it. Has lostpoint, he many. Obviously, when government benefit people benefit off some government programs, ted cruz can make the case that they are not benefiting enough and not the best way to solve these problems. There are other ways, some private, to solve a lot of these low income problems. , people are upset with their benefits are cut. People tend to vote their interests. Sunny, is one of them. We havent talked much about jeb bush. Here he is at one of his super pac adds. When the attacks come here, the person behind this desk must have to protect your family. [video clip] capturehave voted to terrorist surveillance. 27 generals and admirals promote jeb bush. That was an ad for one of jeb bushs super pacs. That he has about 6 of voters in iowa. We are talking with Daniel Halper. What is it going to take for jeb bush to climb back up in the polls and regain momentum . Guest i dont think its possible. [laughter] i think the race has been over for jeb for a long time. I think the chip theory of the race at this point i think the jeb bush of the race at this point people want people more sensible than him. He is a lot softer or a lot weaker than the numbers are suggesting. I dont think this is the year for jeb bush. A lot of things are not in his favor, particularly, hillary and 10 as the democratic Hillary Clinton as the democratic nominee. I dont think that is who Republican Voters want. While,n politics for a he was last elected 10 years ago in florida. Has done a very good job making a case for himself. I dont the a pathway for jeb. Inconceivable way marco falls apart. There is a ted cruz and donald trump war, and may be jeb bush can regain supporters. It is hard to see it going anywhere. Host and you see a possibility of a topcruise tickets. Warfare, battling about and jump and jeb bush would want sensibility. Ast is there a potential for jeb bushted cruz ticket . Guest i cannot imagine that happening. Who am i to say. Alice calling on independent line. Go ahead with your question for comment. Caller thank you for excepting my phone call. Trump to say about donald he is a businessman. Something i learned in high school about businessman, the harder the cell, the cheaper the audit. That is donald trump. E has been outlandish it is almost like he is a plant by the democrats to totally sabotage the Republican Party. I believe the Republican Party is doing that to themselves. Each candidate in the Republican Party is really saying that anybody who doesnt eat like they did is their enemy. Who doesnt think like they think is their enemy. I will vote for Hillary Clinton. I hope the country is more unified under the democrats right now. Politically, with a republican president and a republican congress, we are to havea serious programs shoved down our throat. It thenkrupted us there republicans almost bankrupted us with the economy. We became close to total collapse. Wars. E had two unfunded i was in vietnam and i saw it coming. Win these wars. Host all right. Daniel halper. He dismissed donald trump and then made a case for donald trump. The republicans and democrats have all screwed this up. That is the attitude that is fueling a lot of this. There is this crisis and idea that the elite dont know what they are doing. That isis is running rampant in the middle east and you are at and here at home and in europe. And president obama isnt doing anything. That is why when donald trump calls for a ban on muslims, he can gain ground and some people are willing to air on the side of doing too much. There is this contradiction. There are plenty of people he turns off. The reason he is doing well is there is a lack of confidence in other people. Even though this caller doesnt by the donald trump sales pitch, buyoes, in fact, by into o the disbelief that the politicians are doing anything. Host alvin is next on the republican line. What i wanted to talk that the man said he little bit ago that ted cruz got would ban welfare. If they had listened eight years ago, they were going to cut it all out. , he was just like reagan shut down the nursing homes. He said to take care of your own. They are not for the working man. Host all right, alvin, from texas. Guest republicans are more likely to cut benefits and democrats. I think they can make the argument that republicans are more likely to ensure benefits are around for much longer. Medicare andhat social programs are not sustainable and cant are too to figure out some way to pay for it, they have to be reformed. Social security was designed in a different era when people lived a lot shorter, Smoke Cigarettes. Of the Smoke Cigarettes because we are not allowed to anymore. Kept thearettes lifespan shorter and people died earlier and it was cheaper when people died earlier. It is expensive to keep people around longer. How are we going to pay for these things . Republicans, to their credit, are at least willing to talk about it and not made inroads in dealing with those come but are talking to democrats about this. You dont get the sense they understand the math just up. T hold eventually, you become europe, or worse, and not able to sustain yourself. Host there are still a number of debates left to go before the Iowa Caucuses on february 1. The next one is on tuesday. What you expect to see out of that . Do you expect to see a renewed ted cruz . Guest ted cruz has always been a good debater. He was a collegelevel debater. Rubio seems to give polished answers that the pundits seem to like. That is helpful. A lot of ice are going to be on donald trump. What does he do . How does he act . He hasnt been such a strong debater, but that has not hurt him. Will be who wont be on the stage. There is an article in the boston globe saying that if join the does not debate, he will drop out. There will be a lot of those stories. We are going to start seeing campaigns coming to an end in the next six to eight weeks. That is going to dominate the story. Trump, think donald with his poll numbers started slipping in iowa, he had this disruption. What is to say we wont see more ,f that, namecalling successful swipes against marco rubio and others . You can get interesting. I will tune in myself. I think there may be fireworks. Host what you think is behind ted cruz is ted cruzs moment time . It the narrowing of the field . Is there something driving the momentum . Guest he invested heavily in iowa for a long time. He has been there for years visiting and building support. As other candidates become less serious, there is a certain amount of momentum. There are people who will endorse with a candidate is gaining momentum, or will not endorse when a candidate is not going anywhere. Makesements are meant to the people endorsing look favorable, not just the ones receiving the endorsements. I think we see a lot of people taking advantage of ted cruz as well. It is normal and makes a fair amount of sense. Will come under slightly more scrutiny, but he has been under scrutiny for a long while. He will probably be able to whether its all right weather its all right. Pitches is that i have a backbone. I think a lot of people believe that an buy that. It is very believable because a him onpeople dont like capitol hill. A lot of this fellow republican senators absolutely hate him. Floridaorge from all, george from florida. Good morning. Think the reason well isrump is doing so that he is flying in the face of political correctness. Money. So much it never works. They talk about the love of money and corruption of all evil. Socialists told us they were going to build us a utopia since 1960. They were going to cure the sins and ills of mankind. So far, everything has worsened. Now the president here has wanted to make it more socialistic, and people were scratching their heads, saying that the whole world has turned capitalistic and you want more isolationism. I have heard a lot of people say, why would the working man, the 40 in the middle who decide elections, want to vote republican . Its big business. Socialism is out there to give money away, which by the way, they do by the vote. I got to tell them why they are not aware of it. The same socialists, these liberals, or everything about below the waist. Host that is george from florida. Trump, sure, maybe there is political correction he doesnt buy into. Elites. Reaction to the we can call it Different Things. Regardless of whether donald trump stays in it for in it for changed haul, he has american politics. Future in of his there needsitics, to be a grappling of how to deal with these problems. There is a believe that there is preferential treatment to those connected. We see this time and time again. Leader would be prudent to address these issues. Crestwood,n from kentucky is up next on the democratic line. Go ahead, sharon. Caller good morning. I have been a diehard democrats my entire life. That is how i was raised. But i am changing, i am going to the republican side. Believebecause i truly in donald trump. I believe in the things he is telling us. He is an extreme the smart businessman. He couldnt have built and have the impact that he has if he wasnt. Toneed someone that is going stand up for this country. Obama is doing absolutely zero to help us. Iran and trade with not even get that the prisoners we have was just wrong. Wrong in so many ways. And i am moving to the republican side. I truly hope that donald trump wins the nomination. Thank you. Host sharon, we hear you. It is so interesting. Daniel halper, bucking the traditional wisdom that Donald Trumps success may actually hurt them across. This tweet from jeb bush saying that maybe donald trump continuing that come up trumps is negotiating with his buddy Hillary Clinton. What impact is donald trump having on the Democratic Party . Sucked he sucked all of the attention to himself making it easy for Hillary Clinton. Hard to have a competitive race when someone is not challenging you for that position. That has probably helped Hillary Clinton not being in the limelight all the time. I think with her poll numbers her poll numbers tend to go down when there is a lot of focus on her. They stay pretty stagnant when there is less. Clinton. Helped hillary to sharons point, donald trump isnt a conservative. There are certain things he appealingh, but he is to something that is not conservative. It is the nationalism and these which have, residents, not necessarily strictly among conservatives. That it is why there is a fight for the future of the Republican Party. It makes sense. He is not like the other republicans. He is not like other republicans ideologically. Here is a guy that leaves an Eminent Domain and taking other peoples property for his own. Money to Hillary Clinton because he is a businessman. This is not your traditional republican. Anybody can join these parties. Host how do you see the Republican Party potentially fracturing under this process . What would be the dividing line . Guest it donald trump gets elected, that is a pretty straight fracture down the middle. I think at least half of the republicans can support this guy cant support this guy because he is against everything they believe in. 68 percent of his supporters would go with him. He would pick up other supporters who may not support the republican nominee like sharon. I think he would do well. The outcome of the president ial race, but it would be a smaller side fracture. [laughter] i am not equipped to talk about fractures. If you we should drop the analogy now. , obviously, the whole Party Changes dramatically. That is a big appeal for a lot of his supporters. They the party to change radically they want the party to change dramatically. That is one of the main reasons they want him to win. Richard, independent caller. Go ahead. Caller thank you very much. Antipathy, it is very clear that such a dramatic switch and the results of polls tell us that these polls have skewed and very easy to skew a poll. Go to your files and find the right people, get the right answer, and youve got something to use against trump. Polls fromt rely on the National Media because they are always trying to shift attention to what they want. Thats it. Thank you. Guest yeah. We dont know how good the polls are going to be. There have been a lot there has been a lot of bad polling lately. The whole totally wrong . Race, thosernors polls were totally wrong. Donald trump says that polling validates his candidacy, and therefore, he should be the nominee. Of course, the tv networks and Republican Party have validated by forming the rules around the dates with using a lot of the poll numbers. But look, people will get to decide. Decided byns arent the polls. People do actually get to vote. Caucus in their primary, and people get to vote in the general election and that is what will decide the election, not any poll numbers. The poll numbers just get us a little sample as to whats going on in the race because sometimes it is hard to tell. Obviously, it is not the end all, be all. Host next up will be diane, republican rum de soto, kansas. Caller good morning. I have been a rubio supporter the whole time. I am starting to lean towards ted cruz. With that in mind, i have two things i want to ask. Number one, a lot of earlier callers refer to the fact he was born in canada and not qualified to be president. I would like that clarified your number two, i would like to know what is well, what is the ted cruz to the Hispanic Community and the establishment . With a stick with him if he was getting momentum as the favorite . Thank you. To teda couple of points cruz. He was born in canada. Because the tuition states that ones you are a the constitution states that one becomes a natural born citizen if your parent is an american citizen, it doesnt matter where you are born. John mccain was born in panama and he was enough for born citizen because his parents were american. Is cruzs mother american. This has been tested in court. Seems reasonable to me personally. It hasnt been tested in court. We are going to be hearing a lot about that. Hat is probably Donald Trumps of attack that ted cruz is it really american. That is probably donald attack that line of ted cruz isnt really american. And how does ted cruz appeal to the establishment . He doesnt in a certain way. Tohas gone out of his way make a lot of enemies on capitol hill, including members in his party. If it becomes a Ted Cruz Donald trump battle, i would much rather most people would rather go with ted cruz then donald trump. Liking marco rubio. He is a strong candidate. He lead in the top three. Perhaps he could go to the wayside. We are not really sure of his viability. He could be the strongest candidates, but we dont know that yet. If it does become a donald thinkted cruz battle, i people would rather have ted cruz. It would be an interesting battle. All, of course, theoretical. Host on the democratic line, ray from louisiana. Go ahead. Caller good morning cspan. Good morning daniel. Guest good morning. Caller i am an old man. I have watched the Republican Party since eisenhower was president. He is the only republican that help the middle class in america. I have watched ronald reagan, all of them, they diminished democrats, they blocked this president from everything try to pass, even unemployment extension for the working man. Now, it is election time, they bandwagon and the want to blame president obama for everything that has gone wrong. The only care about the ones their pockets. They are nothing but prostitutes for the rich. Ray, i do encourage you to stay tuned for the next segment. We will be talking about the middle class. We will let daniel have the last word. Guest i think republicans see it differently. They see democrats as the party of hollywood, and liberal, new york elites, california elites. Full of their own rich people. They get a lot of corporate welfare that does not do much good for the poor and the middle class. That is obviously a core tenant of this today, this president ial , imion, and we will sure, see the candidates battle it out with Hillary Clinton over these issues. For thank you so much taking the time this morning. Up next, we will talk to the pew s richardenter fry about a new report that shows the middleclass is shrinking. Later, we will speak with Bryan Doerries and actor paul. Iamatti we will be right back. We come into this house and there is so much to do, so much at you tha there is no time to think or reflect. Digging up soil because we are going to dig up a garden. I will not be satisfied, nor will my husband, until every veteran and Military Spouse that wants a job has one. At the end of the day, my most important title is still mom in chief. [applause] in 2008, Michelle Obama became the first africanamerican first lady when her husband barack obama was elected our 44th president. As first lady, her focus has been on current social issues such as poverty, education, and healthy living. Michelle obama, tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans original series, first lady is , examiningd image the public and private lives of the women who fulfilled the role of first lady. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan 3. She was such an authentic worsen. I have always thought there was more to the story of lady bird than anybody had covered, certainly then i wrote about. She became, i think, the first modern first lady. Bigther words, she had a stuff, a very important project, she wrote her book as soon as she left the white house. She really invented the modern first lady. Q a, a history discusses her book, lady bird and lyndon, giving an inside marriage of lady bird and lyndon johnson. Those women saw something in those men the ambition, the opportunity to really climb and make a mark in the world, and ofy married them in spite parental objection. She is a good example of that. That is why i decided i had to find out more about her. 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host i guess now is richard fry. He is a Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Guest a pleasure to be here. Aboutyou are here to talk a report that shows the middleclass is action shrinking. Tell us what you found. To finding middleclass, we can get into that, on the theis of Household Income share of adults in 1971 was about six in 10, 61 . As of 2015, the most recent government data, it has fallen to about exactly 50 . The american middle class is no longer the clear majority. The number of americans, both roughlyd above, now equals the size of the american middle class. The middleclass is no longer a majority. Host here, we have some charts that you all compiled that show exactly what you are talking about in graphic form. You can see, in 1971, there were 80 Million People who were considered the middle class. That is larger than the amount of people in the upper and lower class. Now, you can see, the middle class is roughly equal to those in the upper and lower class. Why does it matter if the middle class is getting smaller . Matters inink it what way it is getting smaller. The we see is that both share of adults and lower income households has risen it is now 29 . Abou the bottom portion is growing. There is some good news about the shrinking of the middleclass in that we also have many more adults in what the upper income. That share went from 14 of adult in 1971 to about 21 . The halloween out of the middleclass is not that all of the adults are going downward. Rather, we have significant growth, particularly in the upper income households. Growthas been nontrivial in the share of adults in the lower income. Host how are you defining upper, lower, and middle income . Guest there are many different ways to divide the middle class. The way we do it in this report is solely on the basis of two income in household the size of the household. In this report, one is in the middle income if your Household Income, adjusted for the size of your household, is between 126,000. D what are those numbers . An take the media natio nationally and we do two thirds to twice the median. We apply one National Standard in this particular study. What is happening here, over time, is that, over time, median incomes particularly relative to 1971, have got up. What you need to qualify to be in the middle income household has gone up over time. Not ansort of using absolute standard overtime, but seeing one is middle income, as Living Standards have risen a bit. Host when you look to this trend, what did you find as the primary reason that the middleclass is getting smaller . Why are people moving lower and why are people moving higher, in terms of Household Income . Guest there are a friday of explanations. I think the key want to point out, the fundamental one, is that for most households, it depends on their jobs, their earnings, what is going on in the labor market. Generally, what has happened over the big sweep of the last 45 years is there has been greater computerization, advances in technology, and that has affected different workers differently. There are a group of workers who used to be high school educated, who would do repetitive tasks. A very good example is bookkeepers, payroll, as well as a something line workers tasks that are repetitive in nature. As computers have become more asks that can be easily programmed, that follow a repetitive nature, computers not do those tasks. These are thought of as repetitive, middle skilled operations. Those have been hit particularly hard by advances in information technology. As opposed to that, there is growth on the bottom and because lower end workers do less. Epetitive, less skilled tasks there has been growth on the low end of the labor market. At the high end, the high school functions,manager creative task, managing networks. Those kinds of things are complementary to computerization. We have this halloween out of the middle. Whereas there has been growth in the labor market in the low and andy highend. There has been a polarization in be labor market. That is now playing out when we look at peoples Household Incomes. Viewers knowto let that they can use your calculator to figure out if they qualify for middleclass. You can find it on pews website. We are also breaking up our phone lines this segment by income. If you make under 24,000, you can call us at 202 7488000 and share your experiences. Those making between 24,000 and 50,000, the number is 202 7488001. Over 50,000, give us a call at 202 7458002. We are talking with richard fry, a Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center about their new report on the shrinking middle class. Does this matter to the economy . Is it ok for our country if the middleclass is smaller than it used to be . That is a normative question which i cannot provide an entire answer, but i think there are at least two vantage points to think about. There are two ways, over the next year, as the President Shall campaign unfolds, which are the following. First, we have a greater proportion of the population in the lower end. We clearly have a segment you regardless of what is happening to the middle and top. We have a growing share, three in 10 americans, in the lower income range. The second perspective says, no, it is not just what is happening on the lower end, but it matters how the better off, how the upper income households are doing, relative to the lower and middle income households. This is more of an inequality perspective. What the report shows is if you look at either the typical Household Incomes or the report also gets into wealth, the trends are the same. Each group of americans, lower income, middle income, and upper income, has done better over the whole 45 years. Remember, Living Standards have risen. Particularly, the outcomes for the upper income have really pulled away. Yes, there have been gains for all three groups, but the gains have been particularly large for group in the upper income. That not onlyws do we have more upperincome americans, but theres greater inequality among the group. Upper income americans have really pulled away. Host here is a chart that shows what you just explained. The upper income group has gone from holding 29 of Household Income to 49 of Household Income, the amount held by middle income has fallen to 43 , and the Lower Income Group has. Emained relatively flat we will turn out to our first caller which is jim from florida, who is in the middle income group. What is your experience or thought . Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Caller ok, im ready. He says nothing about the loss of jobs to china and the philippines, and mexico, and places like that. That is why the recovery was so slow coming back. Even in bad times before, the thef that might close, once crisis was over, people would always go back to these jobs. Most of these jobs were held by the whites, making 25 30 per hour. The black people who worked for those places were probably these 10 15 per hour people have no idea how to live on 12 per hour. Host all right. Your thoughts struck guest i concur. You are pointing to globalization. A more. Has been globally integrated economy over the past 45 years. I do not disagree that some manifestation of, again, this change in technologies, which workers get impacted by changes in technology, i agree. Globalization, greater trade has had different impacts on different workers. Host next up is lewis from maryland, calling on the over 50 k line. Go ahead. Caller i wonder whether the increase in income and upper class is due to the increase in productivity of the auto. The middleclass is not sharing in the increase in productivity and earnings that computers give. Why not put attacks on computers and automation. Since corporations are considered people, why arent computers and robots considered their children, therefore, putting Social Security tax and putting this tax into the fund so at least the guys losing their jobs may have a retirement that is reasonable. I think that we can look at this income distribution, and their many ways we can increase the salaries of middleclass by giving them health care. Put attacks on all of these , back and computer going to Social Security and health care. The way of looking at the budget and the distribution of money, i dont think anyone wants to sit down and look at this. We do not care how many robots you put. If you want to give me health care, you can have all the computers. I can sit home and watch television and watch the computers work. Host we hear your thoughts this morning. Guest i concur that there certainly are questions as to, given the benefits of greater automation and productivity in information technology, it is size of the total american pie. Workers have become more productive. I certainly agree that there are questions as to whether the gains and benefits, how widely they are being shared, and whether they are being shared and inequitable manner. Think that the gains are not being equitably distributed, what are the best ways that policy could indeed change the sharing and those benefits. I agree, the pie is growing, and there are questions about the fairness and equity of how it is distributed. Host we are talking all this money about the race for the white house and the persistence of donald trump, the rise of ted cruz in the past few months. In the Washington Post today, this analysis those without College Educations have regressed economically. Trump has tapped into frustration of those who have suffered economic maladies in the past decade and a half. You see the shift in the way that the American Economy is structured having little implications that could affect to becomes the next president . Guest given my background and expertise, i should refrain from foring what this means persuasion,e popularity of candidates, or even what the voters are interested in. Im not political scientist. As a labor economist, clearly, over the long call, since 1971, the American Economy and labor market has increasingly rewarded College Educated adults on average. By that, i mean workers with at least a four year college degree, a bachelors degree. It is very clear in our analysis in the report. Workers without a high school education, those who stopped their education at high school, or even those with some college or associates degree, those less educated adults have not made iersress of income t like their College Educated counterparts. There are a variety of explanations. It is very clear that over the decades, typically, on average, those with bachelors degrees are getting paid more, where those without bashers degrees are either having stagnant earnings are falling. Yes, it is clear that the labor market increasingly rewards education and the increasingly determines who gets what. From next, carol connecticut, she makes underage way 4000 per year. Go ahead. Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Go ahead. Caller i would like to ask richard if he has ever interviewed a real person. I know you are saying, im an expert at this, i have a bachelor, a phd, all of that, but do you know how hard it is these days just go i used to make 50,000. I was working for a Financial Company in stamford, connecticut. After 20 years, i lost my job. Last year, i had stage three cancer. I did not work the entire year. I went to make 9,000 before taxes. Irs 4000 for the last four years. I was not working. I was going through cancer, stage three. I am alone. My house went into foreclosure. Nobody wanted to help me because they said i did not have an income. How am i supposed to go to work here and im 57 years old. Nobody wants to hire me. Nobody. Am i supposed to kill myself . Host all right, carol. We know you are very emotional, and we do hear your thoughts this morning here we do hear your points. Beer talking with richard fry, a Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center. The caller brings up a good point, the impact of the recession, and one that has done for many of the workers who make previously have been middleclass before 20072 thousand eight, and the state they find themselves in now. Guest this is a really good point. So far, and most of my remarks, i have done this long haul, going back to 1971, and talked about how things have improved. The report also shows that, if we go over the shorter horizon, and talk about how our American Metals fairing from 2000 to 2015, what we get is a different picture. From 2000 to 2015, for all groups, income has fallen a bit. That brings us to, why is this . The fact of the matter is the Great Recession, along with the sort of historically modest recovery that we have experienced since then, has not restored american incomes to what they were at the 2000 levels. Rather than saying, we are better off than we were 4050 years ago, it if we ask the question, our american incomes higher than they were 15 years ago, the answer is no. The case is particularly stark when we look at middle and low income wealth levels, not income, but wealth. For most americans, their wealth is in their houses. With the housing bust, beginning in 2006, the Housing Market has made only a slow recovery. Incomesome and lower recoveredels have not whatsoever from the housing bust of the Great Recession. Upper incomes, most of their wealth is in the stock market. The stock market came back much quicker. There has been some wealth recovery a long upper income. Mericans the Great Recession and must recovery have not restored middle and lower income americans incomes. Host have you looked as well at demographic factors and how racial and ethnic groups performed within each tier of income . Guest yes. We look at which groups have tended to move up the tiers and which groups have tended to move down. Generally speaking, and i will revert back to my long call perspective this is not showing which groups are presently doing well. What im now going to describe is which groups have moved up your you can still move up and be disproportionately in the lower income. Groups that have moved up a lot. Nclude the nation seniors also, african americans, relative to whites, hispanics, and asians. Africanamericans have had a lot of gains. Both of those groups, older americans, as well as africanamericans, they tend to still be disproportionately lower income, but they are less likely to be lower income than they were back in 1971. They have made gains, progress, but that is not to say that they are presently well off. It is to say that they have made gains. As far as demographic groups that have lost ground, it is very clear. Less educated americans. Hey have moved down less likely to be upper income, less likely to be middle income. Hispanics have also had movement down. Another group, whose Economic Times has diminished over is young adults. 1829yearolds. They are not doing as well relative to their status back in 1971. Yes, these changes in status have played out differently across different demographic groups. Host lets hear now from minneapolis, minnesota, michelle is calling. She is calling on the over 50,000 line. Good morning to you. Caller thank you for taking my call. First of all, i want to complement the show. I think youre doing a great job explaining and answering the peoples questions. Just sitting on the line, your heart goes out to these people calling and hurting , but i want to focus on education. People jobs go to people who have skills. Companies have a need for skilled people. They talk about the Great Recession. A lot of people got laid off, but a lot of people were then waiting for somebody to come give them back the job they had before. That is done. Those jobs are gone. They are never coming back. You have to get new training, you have to move forward with your life. Frankly, once you get some skills, dont wait for somebody to give you a job. If you cannot get a job, you go create your own. Use that skill to start your own business. It is all skilled based. 20 years ago, we already knew that a College Education was then going to replace a high school education. That was like 20 years ago. Were still talking about it today. That is crazy. We have kids who cannot even graduate high school. 60 of the kids graduate high school i know some of them, and they cannot be properly. It is crazy. We need to correct the education system. We need the money to follow the kid. I live in minnesota. We have a minority gap. The schools are getting twice thousand dollars per p upil, and minorities cannot graduate. Host we will hear now from our guest, richard fry. Guest i agree with you that increasingly we look at the broad contours of the american who is paid high wages, and who is paid lesser wages. The story since 1980, over the decades, is employers increasingly, on average, pay earnings based on formal education and skills. The flip side of this is increasingly students and their families, and think about whether to finish high school, go on to post secondary education, the good news is, to some extent, students and families have responded to these rising rewards to college, and increasingly greater shares of our young adults are finishing high school, going on to college. I do think that students and their families increasingly understand how rewards and incentives in the american workplace, and the greater formal education does, on average, 10 to pay off tend to pay off. Host linda from ohio, you are up next. You say you make less than 24,000 per year. What is your story . About, i was calling mainly, food, how the prices of food has raised. It is never even mentioned. It has tripled. Everything that you buy has tripled. Host guest well, we do in the study, using conventional measures, to protest for the cost of living do adjust for the cost of living. That the case since 1971, each group of americans, on average, is better off, particularly the upper americans better off than they were about 45 years ago. Households are smaller, many more women are working, womens have risen, so adjusting to the cost of living over the long called, americans economic rewards have gone up. Host next up amy from georgia. 24,000 a yearen and 54,000 a year. Go ahead. Caller it was in the 1970s that lower middle class rights were presenting that unions were bad and that they should vilify the unions, [indiscernible] role of thek to the demise of unions in this country and how that to the fall or the demise of the middle class . Thank you. Guest you are welcome. Discussion talks about how the labor market has hollowed out, but i agree that if we look at the share of American Workers who are unionized, particularly in the private sector, it has markedly fallen off. And there is some evidence that indeed that has had a bearing on the fortunes of middle income adults. Directly looked at those connections, but i certainly think the waiting of union power and workers Bargaining Power may have some role to play. Host question now from twitter areertain industries are certainted industries over presented in the higher brackets . Guest we did do an analysis, and you will see that, yes, Certain Industries tend to do better than average in certain occupations. Beupationally, they tend to the managers and professionals and technically trained. They tend to be doing this proportionately well. In terms of industries, higher, insurance and real estate jumps out as one that over the long long call over the 50 years, has improved. The share of adults that are upper income that are in fire, finance and real estate has increased. Host timothy is calling from North Carolina. 50,000, whatover is in question or comment . Caller i want the gentleman to comment on this. Please, let me finish like the other callers. I think the biggest thing that george bushs father, when he the father, he spoke of a new world order and he was pushing for the free trade and to make it a world market. Thought we were doing really good up until then. And then george bushs son came in and he let companies go overseas with this freetrade, and shipucts 50 cents them back and sell them taxfree, and he even gave them tax breaks to go overseas. We are doing the time where we lost all of our manufacturing. Ays a those guys went overseas in return, that forced the American Worker to have to drop their wages to compete with those guys overseas, so people have to get to jobs or three jobs to make ends meet. Women have to go to work and all of that to adjust to make ends meet. I agree. Up, but ity did go does not mean more money is coming into the economy. It means the worker is producing more. That forces us to have to produce more and forces a lot of people to have to go on welfare, food stamps, public assistance in some kind of way, which in return, the government has to subsidize which comes out of the taxpayers pocket. At the same time, these countries are getting richer. If you look at the Big Companies and all these guys, they have gone so much more richer. The prize is only so big in america, and went all that money goes through goes to a certain percentage of the people and not filtering to the others, you lose your middle class. That is what Bernie Sanders is trying to get the people to understand. Host we will have to leave it there. Caller guest in terms of our basic measure of what share of American Adults are in our dle income group, it is during each decade, at the end of each decade, a smaller share of American Adults was in the middle income category. It was 61 in 1970 and it is now 50 . In each decade, they were fewer adults. Each decade has contributed. Having said that, i do agree that there is great amount of debate about the role of trade, free trade and americas increasingly sort of global position in the Global Economy and how it has played out across different groups of American Workers. I do not disagree with you that globalization and greater exposure to trade a be playing a role. Noel from dallas and she makes between 24,000 and 50,000 a year. Go ahead. Caller good morning. You for taking my call on cspan. The question i agree with the previous callers in terms of education. Havegoing over seas created the crisis in this country in the job industry. Hasof the other items created controversy and a death sentence in the job industry has been, in our state, illegal immigration. I grew up in the 1970s. As a teenager in the 1970s, your afterschool job was working in restaurants. Now, there are Illegal Immigrants who have made that industry fulltime job. You have a lot of teenagers unemployed, a lot of time on their hands, and i also want to know when did the numbers for the middle class drop . When i was growing up in the 1970s, middleclass was pretty much over hundred thousand dollars. Then they started lowering it so when you may 20 5,000 you are middleclass. Believe me, at the bottom, that is not middleclass, that is the struggling class. Host noel from texas. Guest let me sort of address. Our last remark first in terms of defining middleclass, each has their own conception about what it takes to be in the middle class. Analysis, wecular test about your works, assets, we dont talk about occupation or education, but stickley on the basis of Household Income and size. Having said that, because Living Standards have been rising, what it takes to be middle income rose from 1970 to the 1980s, to the 1990s, to 2000 because generally, income is rising. Since 2000, as typical income has fallen, that it takes to be itll income has fallen. To be gotten easier middle income in two thousand 15 then it was in 2000 because incomes have declined. Than it was in 2000 have declined. I do concur that illegal immigration could be impacting certain, particularly unskilled segments, of the american workforce. Generally, undocumented immigrants have low levels of competen so they only with a segment of American Workers. I agree with you that the fortunes of those, particularly in our Lower Income Group, some of them could be affected by undocumented immigration. Fromcale of it varies state to state. I think for the middle income and upper income households, undocumented immigration probably has no direct impact in terms of their earnings and outcome. I think there is economic evidence to support that. Really the only segment that directly competes with undocumented immigrants. Host another caller from minnesota, adam says he makes under 24,000 a year. Go ahead. Caller i would like to thank you for taking my call. I love. Research. Research. Pew i am a college student. I was wondering in what ways richard could expand on how the rising cost of college and the debt burden that students have us, taking on has affected especially when it comes to the middle class . Thank you. Study,in this ridiculous what we call the middle class or middle income is strictly on the basis of Household Income and size, so wealth, assets and debts that maybe its related, they directly plate no part in they directly play no part in the analysis. Regarding student debt, i have done quite a bit of work. I think it is rate that you are trying to further your education and skills. I think it is great that you are trying to further your education and skills and taking on student debt in order to congress that may be a wise way to finance your studies. Typically, the earlier generation, we compare students today to students back in the 1990s, it is the case that increasingly, in many states, or are students are paid having to foot more of the bill for their education. The way they do that is they are borrowing greater amounts. I agree that sort of limits it to a generation ago, students pursuing college, more of them and their families, have to plan the cost of education. Says anthony from arizona he makes over 50,000 a year. Good morning. Cspan,good morning, and good morning to those glistening around the globe. Merry christmas and happy holidays. To the guest, i would like to give them a comment about his the government providing product for the citizens . The reason i reference that is i recently moved from North Carolina where we have the most deployed forces in america, and there is a series entitled poverty and [indiscernible] i grew up in one of those six areas identified. My mom never made more than 12,000 a year. Retired, she only had 500 a month. I am making 15,000 a month in retirement on my disabled pension, but i have never worked less than one job. I have always had two or three. Drop oned i needed to of those jobs and focus on my education. I graduated as an army officer and retired as an army officer, but the end result in the question to your guest is if you provide a product, you can provide a service, but if the product is better, you can [indiscernible] our government provides that which are people become poor servants. Host lets pick up one more caller and that we will hear from richard fry. Steve from michigan is our next color. Next caller. Caller i would like to touch on a couple of subjects with the disparity between the working that are individuals maybe more professional. Of them the disparity making three times what the and iline are making, know education is critical, but it is almost that hourly workers are considered secondclass citizens now. I have worked in security previous to going into detention and forwork example, where worked at pharmaceutical company, they had an olympic size pool, a tropical fish tank that they would not have had the fish tank and they could have given us benefits. They had a great just they had outrageous amenities. What is happening to the hourly worker is really sad. I went into detention and it gave me a heart condition. Host we heard your thoughts. Richard fry . Remarks,e callers what they bring to mind for me, is that you are right. There are quite a bit of discussions about the compensation of what is sort of smallery sliver of American Adults. The compensation of ceos versus the workers that work for them are getting paid. That is sort of one discussion. In this pew research analysis, it does not stick to that because what we see here, again, we are now up to one in five adults are in an upperincome households. That is 20 , so what this report points to amaze the landscape is if you are interested in inequality in america, it is not the 1 versus the 99 . What we have seen over the last 40 years or 50 years, increasingly, it is not a small sliver. We are talking about going from 14 of adults to 21 , so one in five, relatively large sliver, and they to support shortly have gotten greater gains. Inequality can be the one versus the 99 but also brought about more probably ask versus a significant segment of American Adults pulling away in their fortunes relative to the 80 . Host we have time for one more caller. That would be mike from alaska. He makes between 24,000 and 50,000 a year. Make it quick. Coder actually, the tax i want you address the tax code and what i mean by that is back in the 1970s, they had 90 of your income in taxes, but you are not really paying 90 . Could write off this and that, and that was the economic engine to keep everything going. Host unfortunately, we have to leave it there. What impact has tax cut on economic mobility . This study, we do not look at the impact of the american tax code in changing the distribution. What i would point to is there has been a series of very Good Research reports, relatively readable, from the Congressional Budget Office and they will sort of block the reader through how much or how progressive the federal income tax code is and how much it does change the distribution. When you look at aftertax, it is not as unequally distributed as what we show in this report. One could argue as to what it is should be greater progressivity and of the tax code can redistribute the gains even more. Host richard fry Senior Researcher at the Pew Research Center. Thank you. Up next, we will be talking to Bryan Doerries the writer, director and author of theater of war, and he will be joined by actor Paul Giamatti. They will discuss dramas to help heal american veterans. Monday night on the communicators, michael powell, president and ceo of the national and Cable Telecommunications Association Joins us to discuss challenges to the fcc open internet boxes,or orders, cable the upcoming spectrum auction, and the impact of technology on wifi. He is joined by john mckinnon, Technology Reporter for the wall street journal. Forcefully quite that the Commission Dedicates some effort and attention for wireless years. It is always over how much, and the same thing goes on in congress. The other thing that goes on, are the things happening that could destroy the effective use of wifi . Whereit runs in the space you are not guaranteed the same way that a licensed carrier is guaranteeing exclusive loose exclusive use, but they would have a hard time explain to the American Consumer if wifi stopped working in some significant measure. Watch the communicators monday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. She was such an authentic person. I always thought there was more to the story of lady bird then was covered, certainly been ive learned about. The first, i think, modern first lady. She had a big staff, imported project, she wrote a book as soon as she left the white house. She really invented the modern first lady. Boydnight on q a, betty discusses her book. She incorporates recently released pages of the first ladys diary, giving an inside look at the marriage and partnership of lady bird and lyndon johnson. Lady bird johnson is a perfect example of the conclusion i came to which is those women felt something in those men, the ambition, the opportunity to really climb and make a mark in the world, and they married them in spite of parental objections, so she is a good example of that and that is what i decided i had to find a more about her. Andonight at 8 00 eastern specific on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host our guest are Bryan Doerries, the cofounder and director of outside the wire and author of theater of war. He is joined by Paul Giamatti, an actor and part of the theater of war production, and winner andden globe oscar nominee. Thank you for being here. , can you tell us what theater of war is and how it works . Guest it is a Theater Project that features ancient greek tragedies and workplace written as a catalyst for powerful and open discussions in military and other communities about the invisible and visible wounds of war over the last war. We have been traveling all over the world studying ancient greek workplace to audiences who have lived some of the experiences they described and asking audiences to reflect on what they recognize of their own experiences in the ancient plays. Host bryan, what was the inspiration . How did you connect the place to what is happening today . Guest i wasnt the first person to make the connection between ancient greek drama and storytelling in the western world a military. There has been a theory that storytelling in the west was born from a need to hear and tell the veterans story. Week drama are artifacts greek drama are artifacts of democracy or a country and nation that were thousands of years struggled with military conflict. I was the first person crazy enough to put great drama in front of temporary soldiers and marines. What awakened me is the walter reed scandal in 2007. The story broke about our nations flagship Army Medical Center been under resourced and veterans returning had substandard care. I recognized in that story some of the themes of sophocles plays with themes like the iail, shame, guilt, loss, and did not know a Single Person in the military when we got started but i have this belief that these ancient stories would have something powerful and healing to say to military audiences and veterans returning from the current conflict. Host we went to show our viewers a clip of theater of war performance to give them an idea of how the plays are done. Son,agine my surprise, when i awoke. The tears i shed, the sound of my sadness. All of the ships in the fleet vanished. Alone with my infection, i only knew pain. Now, i must care for incurable ajax. His mind infected by divine thoughts,aught up in he unnerves his friends. As we watch his greatest act of bravery slipped through his fingers, only to be forgotten. Host that was a clip of theater of war and they want to bring in Paul Giamatti. Of have performed in some these productions. How did you prepare for this role and how different was it to connect with an audience that was primarily made up of military members . Guest one of the interesting things in it doing this the way bryan does it is we dont get a lot of operation. Part of the excitement as an actor is attacking it and letting it work on your in a visceral way. It is immediate, raw, and in some ways, one of the best ways, bryan had the idea to put something incredibly rock across. Something that now does to her find her work down. It is the point to be a bit of a punch. There is not a lot of perforation. Host what was your part . Onei did select tds of the characters and a Different Event in missouri where we read the book of job and i read job, who is not that different from a lot of the greek tragic heroes. A guy who was suffering and seemingly irrational stuff. A lot of preparation and part of the pleasure and high wire act of it is not being prepared. Walking in to a situation where youre not prepared, you dont know what will come back at you, so it is anxietyinducing in a wonderful way. You felt this kind of ancient sense of greek anxiety. A sense that this could go horribly wrong, so it has there is the kind of daring that was fun. To let our viewers know that they can join in on the conversation. We have a special lines. The lineup and for veterans and Family Members and it is 202 7488000. The rest of the lines will be regionally, eastern and central, 202 7488001. Mountain pacific time zones, 202 7488002. We are also reading your tweets facebook or anon journal. Org. An you mentioned the audience gives back to you. What was their reaction . Guest one of the interesting things in the way it is set up, for the actors, we perform it and we get out of the way, in a sense, and there is something very pleasing where you feel like you fulfill a function of putting the play across and the real experience against after we go away. The audience against to talk to bryan that people that brought up and hopefully it generates conversation and the actors go away, so when i get back is the pleasure of having given them something that gets them talking to each other, hopefully, and it has never failed. You go into it sometimes thinking, this is not going to work. The one we did with job in missouri, i was convinced it was not going to go over and all but it went over to spectacularly well. There is a pleasing way for the actor that it is not about you just delivering performance. The pleasure is just inspiring conversation. Ist our first caller michelle from wisconsin. You said you are either a veteran or a Family Member. What is your story . Caller i am a Family Member of a veteran, and i was just calling because i think our veterans are having a hard time getting the cares that they need. Andt of them come back anxiety, posttraumatic stress and doctors feel the best way to deal with that is to keep prescribing medications. Well, Family Members taking a look at this and finding out that they are being over sedated and their brain is not able to function right and stuff, and here at the v. A. There is a lot of Service Connection related to that depending on how much you can get and it is related to your Service Connection. I do not think that is right. I think every veteran who serves for a country should have total access to Mental Health and other issues that they may need to have addressed. I wanted to thank Paul Giamatti for all of his fine work in theater and everything. I love all of his plays and his movies. Our governmentt can get to the point where these people should not be based on percentages and that they should be able to get the care that they need right away and not be put on the waiting list. Host bryan, do you want to respond to that . Guest there are several things to respond to the callers comments. One is that the frontlines of caregiving or helping our veterans, as we have learned, having done more than 341 performances of this project all over the world for military audiences our Family Members and loved ones and spouses need as much supports at support as a veterans do. I think of military has come along way since 2007 only get started when we got started and ive hope we have been part of the culture change. Our country has served in the recent conflicts and there is a natural disconnect between those who have and havenots and we often forget about the caregivers. Ajax,cles play, sophocles takes a woman and puts her center stage and gives her almost as many lines as her warrior husband and he shows, to what would have been a mostly male audience, that the effects of four and Collateral Damage of effectsnot only of war and Collateral Damage of work but not only the family, but the community, chain of command, neighbors, troops. This is not something that we has civilians, because we did not serve or a great with the foreignpolicy decisions that led us to the conflict, wash her wash our hands. It will affect us all. This project is based on the notion that we have a moral responsibility to do whatever we ourask citizens to help veterans and their families reintegrate and heal. Host Paul Giamatti, did you want to add something . Guest no, nothing more than just agree to the fact that these place are extraordinary because they are about connectedness and consequences of things rippling out words. It is not often well, it is one guy going through the agony, but everybody is affected by it and that idea of Collateral Damage is powerful. We have a clip of an actress portray one of the Family Members of ajax and one of your productions and here it is. Night when the lambs no longer burned, ajax found a sword and moved to the door. Naturally, i objected. Where are you going . The messengers kept calling for help, all of the soldiers were asleep, please, come back to bed. He turned to me and firmly said, woman, silence becomes a woman. I have heard that before, and i know what it means. I quit asking questions, and he left without saying a word. Whatever happened, and i cannot say. Host powerful. We will turn to the phone lens. Gerald is calling from california. He sate you are a veteran or Family Member, go ahead. Retiredi am a Lieutenant Commander in Naval Special operations, to combat tours in vietnam, one in the gulf war, and what i want to mention. When i went to mention, there is talk about improvement to the v. A. , but they are more worried about the workforce and serving the veterans. The workforce there, not the doctors and nurses, but regular workers, has an entitlement attitude. It is disgusting. Nothing ever will change the v. A. I do not know what will have to happen. Flash in the pan issue in the negroes goes on about something else. And then goes, on about something else. One more issue, if you brought back the draft, you would have less wars because everybody would be biting the bologna sandwich. You have less than 1 who have ever served, so until we bring back the draft, you have prolonged wars that last a long time and nobody will be able to dissipate in a full fashion and i think everybody should have to go. Women should sign up for the selective service, everybody. Host theater of war Bryan Doerries, Paul Giamatti would you like to respond . Guest sure. One of the things about these ancient greek plays that are so pointed when you look at them the entire audience in the ancient greek world, all the citizens would have been soldiers because being a citizen meant being a soldier in age of athens. These plays were performed in the center of the city for as many as 17,000 citizen soldiers in a century when they sought nearly 80 years of war. Then it comes as no coincidence that these plays that have survived these thousands of years state to topics that really only those who have into war or cared for those who have been to work intrinsically understand. I think to the Lieutenant Colonels, and Lieutenant Colonels comment, this notion that we send people to work and not care for them properly is something we should all be concerned with, especially given the divide that exists only cap about the mention of war between the cultures. There is ant, growing military divide that exists in the country and it would be solved if we had a draft worth people had more to skin in the game. We are not suggesting that the reader is the answer, but it is one way of having a conversation that we as a country need to be having about the human cost of these decisions. If there is anything a great tragedy can deliver, i think it portrayal ofling the consequences of these and by hearing from real people who have had these experiences, these experiences are brought to life. That is part of what we are up to. We do performances before next military and civilian audiences so people can have this conversation, inc. About it, not in theoretical or logical terms, but think about it from that gut. What does it mean to send people to war . Are these performances very powerful. What is the reaction from Service Members when they are presented with some of the scenes that might touch them personally . Guest after an early performance, a vietnam veteran stood up and said, that ptsd makes me feel less alone in the world. Ways, that is one of the Public Health messages of the project. Ande psychological invisible wounds are thousands of years old, old as humanity and warfare. Many of our audiences, although there watching tragedy, they seem to take relief in recognizing they are not alone. Not alone in the communities or across the country or across time. Had ar performance i soldier stand up and said, i think sophocles might have written this play to boost morale. For me as a civilian, i could not think of something more morale boosting in the case of ajax lose his best friend, glued and take his own life, and before i could fast, he shot that, because it is the truth. Because we are sitting here as the community and acknowledging it. For me, as a civilian, this is a major elevation that it could joy, hope, camaraderie, connection to sit together as the community for two hours and bear witness to some of the darkest aspects of our humanity and collectively shoulder the burden together. The most powerful comment came from a general who took on the question i ask all audience, why do you think sophocles wrote the play . This general said that band as a funeral general, she said, i think sophocles wrote the pla ys to comfort the afflicted and inflict the uncomfortable. I think people are comforted by what they recognize in the ancient stories because they are not the first to have had experiences, and we are all inflicted by the reality of how much work is done to mitigate the suffering of people who may be sitting to our left or right, who might be struggling these invisible wounds. From next up is greg washington, d. C. Caller Paul Giamatti, you are one of americas greatest actors. Your role in john adams is one of the best there ever was. You, paul, for being involved in this project and helping us veterans out there. Host next caller is joe from ohio. Good morning. Guest good morning and thank you. I am an 85yearold korean war veteran that i have background in theater. Cleveland, ohio, is putting on 10 movies or 50 movies and i tried to get there to use some of veterans as extras and involved to start with the Optical Program for veterans to release a lot of their energies and they want no part of it. I find it via a to be close mind. A. To be closed i wish they would hire more medics that were in the military that could work with these veterans, but i think the theatrical plan through the v. A. To help veterans express themselves and teach them reader teach the theater, and you know how they can release themselves on stage. I think this would be a great attribute. I would love to see that. Cap blessing both. God bless you both. Host Bryan Doerries, how did you end up working with the military to create some of these plays . At first, i do not know a Single Person in the military but i had this idea. I had this idea if i could do the plays at walter reed that something would happen powerfully and i was a bit naive given radioactive how radioactive it was when i got started. I started knocking on doors and making phone calls. In the military, many of the Senior Officers still study the ancient historian in war college with war strategies and other strategies. Also, the story of the 300 spartans at the battle of thermopylaes at is still very strong. It took me a while for someone to take me seriously and it was not until i read about a navy inchiatrist named bill nash the New York Times who worked with the marines and said in the article i read in january 2008 that he begins every discussion he has about combat stress with the agent story of sophocles and ajax and i found a way in. Bill gave me my first audience, 400 marines in hyatt ballroom in san diego along with theres thousands and we performed the scenes from the play and we let it rip and hoped something constructive with happen. Of course, we scheduled a 45 minute discussion afterward and it lasted 3. 5 hours and have to be cut off close to midnight. It was then that we discovered that we had stumbled across this powerful tool. I would contend that other under scholars who can articulate it better than i that this tool was designed by a highly militarized democracy for the very purpose we are using it now, which is to create the space for open dialogue and make it permissive and safe for people to express their emotions, give people who have experienced trauma and loss and opportunity to express their grief and connect with others who feel the same way. Shortly after that, i found myself a few months later sitting around a big table with a general and several kernels and the general was saying, i think we should be doing this 40,000000 shoulders soldiers at the time or asset, we went to have intimate discussions, but the general was right because that is the scale where it occurred in the ancient world. Over a series of months, we hammered out one of the most ambitious collaborations or partnerships between the department of defense. In that first year, we did 100 performances on more than 50 military bases all over the world. We have done them for 65,000 Service Members and veterans. Host we want to remind our viewers that they can call in with their thoughts. If you are a veteran or Family Member of someone in the military, call us at 202 7488000. If you are in the eastern or central time zone, 202 7488001. If youre in the mountain pacific time zones, 202 7488002. We are talking with Bryan Doerries, the creator and director of theater of war, and also joined by Paul Giamatti , an actor who has performed in some of the place. Paul giamatti, how did you get involved . Guest i was working on a plate with another actor on the play with another actor and he was telling me that he had been doing these. With the firstut stuff they did. He is a great actor, wonderful guy and he was talking about it. I love these plays. I have done some, in less good productions, so i love the plays and im interested in the culture and i thought it sounded amazing. I said, i wish i could do that and david told bryan and he asked if i could do it. Margaret. Tennessee, you are a veteran or family number, what are your thoughts . Caller i am the spouse of a veteran. My thoughts, one thing, my father, when i was born, my father was in the korean war and i married a man who was drafted and set to be a foot soldier in vietnam. He is very interested in anything that has to do with the fall of the roman empire, greeks, anything. My specific question he has finally gotten help from the is, how doquestion you get the individual vendor and involved to see Something Like this because that is the problem we have allowed as spouses. Trying to get them involved because this would be something he would be interested in. Thank you for doing it. Guest thank you. Is a principal challenge we face. Quickly we perform on military bases, that is promised by generals who make it mandatory for the audience. Could make people w up for broadway plays one of the reasons we work with actors like hall, david, and others, wedavid, and hope they will drop the crowd. I would like to see Paul Giamatti or bill camp to do one of these plays or hear what they have to say, and that usually draws a crowd. We also find this may not ve the callers problem many military families to come to our performances, especially if they happen on weekend nights as dates and it is strange, lets see greek tragedy as our friday night to date, but a lot of spouses to bring their husbands and wives to see the performances because they are free. That is an ideological position that they should always be free, and because sometimes it is rare to have something culturally uplifting and that speaks to us socially in this way. It is a problem for us, how to get people to show up. A lot of it is wordofmouth. Once veterans have experienced it and have had this conversion experience of thinking something is terrible and coming to believe it is great, they tell their friends and that results in more people. You tend to come back to the Sun Communities over and over again to the same communities over and over again and more people show up. Eventually, we wear away defenses and people come. From pennsylvania. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. Veteran and i wanted to mention that as far as the film, metaphors are all clip that showed the lady that was hapless that was helpless to the veteran, that occurs a lot. The family is helpless toward the veteran that came back from the war with injury. Therefore, i think that when they come back from the war, this should get a years worth of paid accommodation with food donaldand the republican trump, he wanted to donate 5,000 after a debate toward the veterans. He is the only one that i can tell that actually pointed out that he wants to make a difference in veteran lives and Everyone Wants to send these soldiers to war and nobody wants to take care of them when they come home. The republicans really want to go to war and they do not want to take care of the veterans. Host all right, we hear your thoughts. Lets grab one more call. Mike, what do you think . And ii on the air on air . Host you are on air. Caller americans do not know what it is like to be on the front lines. [indiscernible] mostare working under the horrible conditions. [indiscernible] in the battle of britain, they had thousands on the front line and it was building up against the enormous odds. [indiscernible] they did nothing to help them. What can i say . These guys are a bunch of cry babies. Host that is mike from new york. Can you remind us the story of sophocles and the story of the play of ajax . What happens and how does that translate to the experience that military members are having . Guest it is a story about the great decorated warrior who in the ninth year of the trojan war loses his best friend achilles and comes unglued after a nineyear deployment. He is then passed over for an award for the armor of his friend achilles and it strips of of his sense of identity, manhood, his ability to grieve, and he flies off into a blind rage which he actually attempts to kill his manning officers who he feels the trade him. He enters into this associated state of mind this dissociated state of mind where he sees animals instead of the man he killed, and when he wakes up covered in blood and shame, he enters into this spiral of thought where he believes that taking his own life would be a good thing. The play tells the story of his suicide and it happens onstage and sophocles stages his suicidal thoughts, ambivalence in taking his life and the actual act itself and it explores the impact that suicide family, his wife, son, brother, the community. Many points of residence for military audiences, as i am sure many of your viewers know with the statistic released two years ago that on average, 22 of our veterans take their lives each day. Epidemic inicide the military on her hands and their arguments about what the figures actually are, but one suicide in the military is one too many. The play is about that, but it is also about, as we talked about before, the collateral impact that all of this has on lovedmily, caregivers, ones, so people in the military, when they see this play, they often lean forward in their , usually they respond with lines from the plays that resonated with them. One of the first person to speak was the Military Spouse and she said, my name is marchelle, my husband went away four times toward and each time he came back, he came like ajax, dragging invisible bodies into our house. The quote from the play, our home is a slaughterhouse, and when she did that, she gave permission for other audience members to speak their truth and it has gone onward from there. The plate resonates in many different ways for contemporary military audiences. Next, gordon is calling from wyoming on the bed during an Family Member line. Go ahead. Veterans ande for Family Members. Go ahead. Caller i got into the show a little late. I am a retired coast guard and army and i would like to recommend a couple of other books. , and then be a vietnam hells of fire, and maybe you could give korea, the frozen chosen, those guys suffered a lot. Host Bryan Doerries . Paul giamatti . About theemoir pacific and the marines, it is a brutal and expressive in a lot of ways. In memoirsow offhand about the korean war, but i do have one book i do know. Guest i am not in i am not an expert. This whole world has been you to me and i have absorbed a lot, but there is so much out there. There are great pieces written about the korean war. I do not know anyplace offhand. Although, any plays off and. There is a play we do and for those of you who know the production, stanley is a korean notran, and it was [indiscernible] point of the play, but one thinks about how this character reintegrate aiken to his world after tash reintegrate back into his world reintegrate back into his world. It is a play we do about the mystic violence and we perform scenes for audiences that want to talk about the mystic violence. Domestic i am sure there are many stories written about the korean war. Host david from illinois is on the veterans and Family Members line. Caller thank you for your work. Enoughrson who is young to not have been drafted in the , but had many older friends who had gone, i look at and your age has so much to do with where you are in the litany of wars that america has been in. And my fatherles was in the navy, my uncles were in the army. Anddy ever sat around told stories about what happened in world war ii, but now is my uncles, who had passed away, you hear about their life story in world war ii and it is amazing some of the stories you hear. It all as an adult, i start to realize all the pain and trauma these people came home with. Friends who served in the vietnam war and to hear the think thatd i just america nowadays, they do not islly realize that now it a volunteer army and that drafting everybody is so much different than having a select few who go into the military. Mainly because lack of opportunity and where they are at. Host we will have to leave it there because we are just about out of time. We will let our guestss have the last word. Guest thank you. I think twoyear caller i point, wehe callers have generations of veterans in our country who were never afforded the opportunity to come forward coming only an express conveniently and express what they are going through. We are doing with the repercussions of what happened when in many ways politically country turned against veterans. Perspective, it is all the more reason why it it moves us as citizens to create spaces for this dialogue can take place. Greek tragedies is one tool. There are many other ways to incite these types of conversations. What i have learned from doing this work, political discourse has gotten so shrill and cynical in this country that we are practically shouting across each other. There is something about watching a story that is 25 hundred years old about human suffering, the consequences of war that creates an even Playing Field where we can relate to each other no matter our beliefs, ideologies on the human level and have a discussion where we hear each other check bank is a rare experience. Guest it is why they are so powerful. They cut across and they have naked, raw truth. You hear Elizabeth Marvel doing them, and who cannot feel something from the opportunity to talk about this like this. Because these things are incredibly powerful. The whole idea is very effective. And million other ways to do this stuff and hopefully just one of them will