Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160111

And whether we should abolish citizensarned born as president. You can weighin by social media. At can post a comment facebook or leave an email. Here is the piece in the writes. On post. She we will read more from this piece. We will take your phone calls as soon as they start coming in. Citizenhe natural born test the abolished . A couple of comments here. Lots more comments are coming in. We will go to calls. Good morning. Are you there . We can hear you. Caller i learned you had to be a citizen of the United States, born in the United States to run for president. It said you had to be born in the United States. You had to be a citizen of the United States. Thats what i was taught. I mustve been taught wrong. Ahmed writes from twitter this morning. Write rcus goes on to we have marked on the line from ohio. You should be a natural born. His only in issue because ted cruz made such an argument about president obama. At least he was born in the United States. Sorry, rules of gatsby changed when its a white person. Person is a black pointed toward them, its fair game. Its not fair game because its a white person. The rules always change. We live in the most bigoted country in the world, whether white people want to minute when. Ad read votes becauseed children in the Republican Party are mad because of black man won an election. Bigoted, theye so will never win another election as far as president is concerned. Virginia, a democratic caller. Hello . I just wanted to point out some of the hypocrisy dealing with ted cruz. He was born in canada. With that cartoon that was on about him and his daughter. He used his daughter to attack hillary that he uses that same cartoon. Him into the law or the Second Amendment they way they want. Thats what i want to point out. Host thank you for calling. Carol writes a couple of colors are mentioning ted cruz. The big discussion continued over the weekend. As the headline in the wall street journal this morning. Reflects cash him, its a real question mark. He is with the great authorities on the subject. From teds standpoint, he has to solve this problem. The democrats will sue him. If he is the nominee, he will be sued by the democrats. One of the great lawyers at harvard with strong opinions on been it has not determined. I am talking about your opinion. I would want the Supreme Court ruled. We will hear from ted cruz in just a minute. That was published yesterday. We do have george on the line from ohio. Should same. Nk it i think it should be the same. As what obama had. Obama did his. Is it because hes republican . Caller georges calling from ohio. Well do the numbers up on the screen. If youre a democrat, taking comments by social media. Bruces on the democratic line in florida. Caller how are you doing . Let me tell you something. The only reason that this is coming up is because its a republican running for president that is not a citizen of the United States of america area thats the reason they are trying to change the cost of tuition. Republicans tell you weve got to follow the two shouldnt. Now they are trying to change the constitution because they want to elect somebody thats not a citizen. Have a good day. Host we have more from facebook. Brent in westm virginia. Caller good morning. I turned on the television and heard all this race baiting. It to the issue. One pest, the requirement a natural born citizen to be the president does not need to be abolished. It is not an issue for ted cruz. It never has been. This is everybody is forgetting in all of this nonsense. Anyone who says this birth issue is an issue is either ignorant of the law or they are willfully trying to lie to the American People for their own gain. Its not a question. Donald trump is 100 wrong. Mother was an american citizen. Cruz in birth to ted 1970. He is an american citizen. That is the end of the issue. The majority of legal experts in this country agree on that. Minority sayook there might be a question. Was running for president and said the Supreme Court may need to settle the issue. Is that your view . Caller i dont think its necessary. I am certain how they would rule. This is a settled issue. This business started when 10 rooms took the lead in iowa donald trump. This business about hypocrisy, i never believed the birther stuff. I dont believe it of ted cruz. I believe barack obama is a citizen of the United States or n. Host we want to remind you that the president delivers the state of the union speech tomorrow night. We will have live coverage at 8 00. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. This is the headline for your piece in usa today. Guest he has been telegraphing that this is going to be a nontraditional speech. They are being cryptic about what that means. They suggest its going to go beyond the laundry list of proposals that president s usually give. I think there are a couple reasons. He is in the last year of his presidency. Would gett a lot he accomplished legislatively anyway. Its his last state of the union. To talkts use that about where weve been in the past year. How far weve come from the recession and the housing crisis. Hello . Let me jump in and ask you about looking ahead versus looking back. What is the history with that . Reagan askedt recently at the beginning of his last state of the union said hes not going to talk about his legacy. Put on yourwas working shoes. We still have work to do. President clinton in 2000 had a lot of futuristic rhetoric. Technology and where the United States is going. Checked al gore a few times in that speech. He talked about the things that the Vice President had accomplished. He was running for president of the United States that year. President clinton was trying to give them a boost through his stated the union speech. Companionhave a piece. Tell us about the history of these guests in the gallery, this particular list. Guest there are 23 invited guests in the first ladies box. Usually 24. Seatare leaving an empty to symbolize the victims of gun violence who cant be there. Thats an interesting innovation. It goes back to president reagan again. Remember, he was the hero of the potomac air crash in 1982. The plane crashed into the potomac river. He rescued a lot of people from that plane. President reagan invited him to sit next to nancy reagan. Ofput him out as an example american character. Every president since then has invited guest. Out heroes and wrecking dies them. They talk about certain themes in the speech. Year, we have the victims of gun violence. We have veterans and immigrants and Small Business owners and people who have gotten health care. You can expect the president. Ill point them out host thank you for the time this morning. Again, it 00 eastern time we will have our preview program. The speech starts at 9 00. We will hear the response from Governor Haley from south carolina. We will take your calls. Calls on ang your piece ruth marcus wrote in the Washington Post. It has to do with the 14th amendment and whether the natural born citizen test for the presidency should be abolished. We are getting varied views on this. Lets go back to the phones. Thank you for waiting. I am so fascinated how the Republican Party is talking about natural birth. They asked obama about his citizenship. Now they want to say its not relevant. This guy was never born on u. S. Soil. His mother is a citizen. She had him. Hes a citizen. But hes not eligible to be president. Liken run for governor arnold schwarzenegger. Thats it. I am just loving this. They are destroying cells because they are evil. Caller good morning. When obama came , they raised so much. People, ity of the does not matter to them. Trump, he would be one of the worst things to happen to this country. , he was all over president obama. He had a kenya. Everything the president obama. Dden, ted cruz i am mad because of the way they ran president obama down for eight years. Here is another headline on aspects of the story. This is the Washington Times. The substance of the issue is clear and straightforward as a legal matter. Child of u. S. Citizen abroad is a natural born citizen. Interesting, three weeks ago every republican candidate was attacking donald trump did today, they are attacking me that suggest something has changed in the race. You are leading and i will. Odd thatrina said its it wasnt until 2014 that you announced your total citizenship with candidate did you said you did not know about it. Back and try to find out more about your parents . Did they vote . My mother did not because she was a u. S. Citizen. Theories. Et has my mom was born in delaware. She has been an american citizen all 81 years of her life. The law is simple and straightforward. Its come up much of times in our nations history. John mccain was born in panama. He was born on a military base. George romney was born in mexico with his current mormon missionaries. Pretty goldwater was born in arizona before it was a state. Goodarents were citizens this question is straightforward. , theits designed to do focused on real problems. Host back to your calls. Caller good morning. Set thesince obama has president of not having both parents be natural born citizens, we must let ted cruz have this pass also. I think john j was correct to be foreignd about interlopers. If youre going to allow obama to be president because his subject,s a british you have to allow crews to run for president. His mother was from up the road. I think the cat is out of the bag. Your parentsboth had to be born american citizens. Apparently obama got a pass. This. Let me ask you some of say this is not a relevant question. Is this a legitimate issue to talk about . Point, probably not. We have changed the precedent with obama being president. It probably is the republican establishment who doesnt like ted cruz because of his act remedies in the tenant. Senate. Askld trump is going to questions about this. Host thanks for calling. Write that while its a felting topic, people president obama had been unfairly attacked by bursars. We have steve on the line in virginia. I want to weigh in as a naturalized citizen. I came i am from the czech republic. I came here i became a citizen in 1989. I believe this provision is in the constitution for a good reason. To prevent it was britain from regaining control over its colonies, but thats something happen now. Now. T going to happen somebody who comes here and becomes a citizen has to pledge of allegiance to the constitution and swear off allegiance to other countries. , you know, this person, even though he is an american and may have lived most of his life here ive lived here more than 30 years. This person will always have a special place in his or her of hisor the country origin if they live there and while or even if he didnt in some cases depending on how he or she grew up. Wantuestion is do you this country to be a melting pot or a salad bowl . Thats a rather interesting topic that you might consider one day. , theyildren of immigrants went through the melting pot process. Generation immigrants, in most cases, they will have their feet in both places in both countries. Going to regain control over its colonies, but i think this provision should be and unless it is changed the constitutional provision is changed. Host what do you think of ruth losess point that we potentially people in the United States . Dealing with results that are both bizarre and selfdefeating. Caller i read it. She is right. It is unfair. But life is not fair. Danger of a u. S. Givingnt whos preferential treatment to, i dont know, germany, china, or australia is real. We have to weigh that unfairness that ruth marcus is writing about in the Washington Post against this issue that is real. Host thank you for calling. Ruth marcus did write that this as the 14thult amendment results both bizarre and selfdefeating. A chinese born grad student studying in the u. S. Would be eligible to run for president as long she met the 14 year residency requirement. Adoptedchinese born citizen who live her life in the u. S. Would be barred. New jersey now, democratic call er. Caller thank you for this opportunity. Secondly, president obama does not need a pass because president obama had one citizenship and that is in the United States of america. Im glad i got to see that interview before i got on. Because its about how ted cruz thinks. Citizenshipdual until 14 months ago. Until 14 months ago, he saw himself a citizen of the United States and a citizen of canada. Reportertigative asked, what was your parents involvement in canada . Did your mother vote . He said no. The question to ask everybody in the United States who is listening to this program today is to ask ted cruz has he voted in canada . If he thought he was a u. S. Citizen, he would have renounced that Canadian Citizenship many years ago. Thank you and god bless america. Host thank you for calling you. Jeremy writes, no, it shouldnt. I dont want the prince of saudi arabia to come to my country and destroy the constitution anymore that it is being destroyed right now. Phillips says, no way. Jim says you need to be born here or to u. S. Citizens. Havesays they should received the Early Childhood and secondary education in this country and Higher Education as well. Be required told pass a confidence of civics exam to even run for any office at council, from city county commissions, and on up. In usa today this monday morning, the trouble with a trunk and ted ticket. With donald trump topping most polls, activists contact my readership radio show to suggest that they join forces and run as a team. There is an insurmountable obstacle. Aside from the fear that any chief executive installing the ambitious ted cruz would make him of the might find it difficult to secure a Life Insurance policy. The biggest problem remains the donalds embarrassing obsession with president obamas birth certificate in his abortive campaign of just four years ago a fixation that should lead him to count ted cruz is ineligible. Nathan is calling from baltimore. He is a republican. Good morning, nathan. Caller good morning good first o. First of all, i would like to give kudos to donald trump and the Republican Party and a lot of these burglars for not discriminating with their scrutiny of individuals who are running for the highest position. They gave president obama the blues a few years back and now they are giving senator cruz the blues. I think that goes to say that they are consistent in their actions. Host what you think about this question . Caller in terms of the question, i think this is a serious, legitimate issue here. It is being used as a political monkeywrench. There needs to be some clarity here so individuals who are voting are interested in the clinical process need to move forward. Its been brought up as a distraction. Occupying the is american citizens tabletalk. Needs toely think this be reconciled so that a lot of folks can move forward and make some prudent decisions. Host thanks, nathan. , massachusetts, hey bob. Caller good morning. Host what do you think about all this . Caller im not too sure. As long as the parents are from this country, they should be allowed. The thing that really comes across to me very strange is and all these Illegal Immigrants coming across our southern border come over here and have a child and that baby is part of our country now. Its a natural citizens of this country. The other people around world have babies on the other side, they are american. Why is there a double standard there . Why arent you a citizen of the place you are born in . Says the New York Times this photo of a man at the organ activistsccupied by is seeking political actions of possibly reshape some of the land of the west. That is in the New York Times this morning. Thethe Washington Post, extradition of el chapo to the u. S. Would take months at least. Mexico must ensure that the escape druglords stays in prison. The Rolling Stone piece published over the weekend and altered by sean penn is making news about journalism ethics. One of the lead items in usa today says Rolling Stone is stirring up a big ethics debate here. There has to be something wrong with this picture. Rolling stone still bruised from erroneous reporting on a campus rape scores an exclusive interview with el chapo. Misgivings andal editors note that through his given the right of first refusal after reading a finished version and some names have been changed. Seating such control to guzman was professionally inexcusable rights andrew seeman. Piece, down in the journalist say that the guzman interview was a bona fide scoop and could help restore rolling image. Tarnished tony is on the line. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I would like to be corrected if what i am hearing is wrong. What im hearing is that an american womens can go over American Woman can go overseas, mary, or have 80 by a member of isis, a baby i am member of americaing that baby to , and have that baby grow up to be president of the United States i would like to be corrected if im wrong and what im hearing. Host why are you thinking about it in those terms . Caller because you are saying that its ok for ted cruz to do this, so why isnt it ok for someone else in a different country with a totally different believe that we have that has a child by an American Woman . What would be the difference in having her child become president of the United States . Host moving on to georgia, republican, eric. Caller good morning. Host what would you like to say . Inler i would like to weigh on this ted cruz birthplace nonsense here. Ted cruz has served in office for some time now. Donald trump is a businessman. We all know. Donald trump knows nothing about Public Office work. Therefore, if we give donald trump a chance to become president , we are doomed. The whole world will look down on us because donald trump has no clue on what to do in terms of president. Cruz is a very qualified persons to be the president of the United States. Host thanks for calling. A couple of other headlines this morning. He Washington Times congress lurches back into legislative session. The senate still sluggish in the times index. They did a futility index and talked about the fact that congress is beginning to pull out of the legislative doldrums last year. They still have a long way to go to return to full health. They did a little chart here with a little chart here with you talk about how many bills were signed into law. 113 last year compared to some other years. They also talked about the number of votes on the floor. They set the senate is still slowing things down a little bit. Bernie sanders in the president ial race starts direct attacks against Hillary Clinton and sees gains in the polls. Theres this wall street journal headline as well clinton faces a test as the iowa race is tightening. Hillary clinton was on face the nation to respond to attacks by donald trump. Heres what she had to say. [video clip] if he wants to engage in personal attacks from the past, thats his prerogative. So be it. I want to drop the distinctions between where i stand and he stands where comes to equal pay for women, raising the minimum wage, which affects two thirds of the women who are the ones receiving the minimum wage, protecting a womens right to make most personal health care decisions. That is why im so proud to have the endorsement of the planned Parenthood Action Fund that i will receive today in New Hampshire is im going to fight as hard as i can against any effort to defund planned parenthood, something he supports. So there are very clear distinctions. He can say whatever he wants about me. Let the voters judge that. Im not going to let him or any of the other republicans rip away the progress that women have made. It has been too hard fo fought for and im going to stand up and make a huge difference between us. Host you can watch that at cspan. Org in addition to all of our recent political programming. Fran is calling from jacksonville, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im calling because of the comparison that people are making between president obama and ted cruz. There really isnt one. Rn citizenal bo thing didnt come up with the president was running since everyone knew his mother was a citizen. He needed to be born in the United States and he spent countless months trying to convince people that he was born here and that was the key. He needed to be born in the United States. Everybody felt that way. They knew it. The constitution set it. He had to produce his birth certificate. Ted cruz can easily produce his birth certificate from canada. His american mother, the same as obamas american mother, but the difference is that he was not born here. There is no comparison there. Host lets do one last call for the segment. Shannon from north carolina. Caller thank you for taking my call. I really do think we ought to inp all of our statutes place as far as having to be a natural born citizen. In thiswith trump case, but i agree with ted cruz. It will cause problems if he gets the nomination. Opinion, Hillary Clinton is a murderer. She may not do it herself. She is promoting the murder of millions of children in the country. 40 of those children are African American and its a shame. Host thanks for calling. We will take a break and come back with more of your calls on a separate topic. We want to remind you that president obamas executive action on guns also includes several efforts directly related to Mental Health. We will be joined by paul from Mental Health america. Later, Douglas Brinkley will join us, the president ial historian at rice university, to talk about the significance of a president last year in office. We will be right back. As president obama prepares for his state of the Union Address on tuesday, he released this video on twitter. Im working on my state of the Union Address. Its my last one. I keep thinking about the road that we have traveled these past seven years. What makes America Great . Our capacity to change for the better and come together as one American Family and pull us closer to the one america we believe in. Tough to see sometimes in the daytoday noise in washington, but it is who we are and its what i want to focus on in the state of the Union Address. Cspans coverage starts at with james arkin looking back at the history and tradition of the present any one and what to expect at this years address. At 9 00, our live coverage of the president s speech followed by the republican response from chapter 11 government nikki haley, plus your reaction by phone, facebook, tweets, and email, as well as those from amber of congress on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Of the reair our state Union Coverage and repulsion response at 11 00 p. M. Eastern and 8 00 p. M. Pacific. Live on cspan two, we will hear from members of congress to their reaction of the president s address. Announcer washington journal continues. Host joining us at the table now is Paul Gionfriddo, president and ceo lead organization of Mental Health america. Thank you for joining us. Guest things are having me on. Host start off by explaining Mental Health america and what are its goals. Guest we have been around 107 years. We stand for Early Intervention ,nd prevention for all at risk Behavioral Health services for those who need them, and recovery as a goal. We are the nations oldest Mental Health advocacy organization. Host our guest is also a former connecticut state legislator. Comes as this entire story an issue of Mental Health from a very personal standpoint. Can you explain . Guest i wrote a book about losing my son timothy a who showed signs of schizophrenia, but he has been trapped in that revolving door of homelessness and frequent incarceration as a result of his schizophrenia. As a policy maker back in the 1980s, its a lot of policy mistakes we made in the 1980s that have led to people like tim being homeless today. Speaking of policy, the president spoke about this at length last week, but we are here not just to talk about Mental Health, but the connection to gun violence in this country, which a lot of people and a lot of lawmakers are mentioning. What do you see as the connection . Guest there is not a strong connection between violence and Mental Illness. Some people with Mental Illness are violent. Some people who have violent tendencies have mental a. There is an intersection and there is an intersection that we need to be concerned about and deal with. Violence and Mental Illnesses often have many other causes. When you think about posttraumatic stress disorder, the cause of that, the most ommon Mental Illness is exposure to violence. The other thing to keep in mind is that the most frequent use of guns for violence related activities is for suicide and death by suicide. We really need to think about that as well where violence and Mental Illness are connected. Host here are some of the numbers back from 2013. U. S. Firearm deaths all 636. Arm deaths, 33, homicides makeup 11000 and firearm suicides makeup 21,175. We invite our viewers to comment about Mental Illness and violence. We have lines for democrats, republicans, and the independencets. Our guest is Paul Gionfriddo from Mental Health america. Tack in 2013, he was appointed by the Health Secretary to had a fouryear term on the National Advisory council at the center for Mental Health services. I want to play a clip of president obama from last week talking a little bit about his executive action on guns. Then we will talk. [video clip] sure thatw made treatment for Mental Health was cover the same as treatment for any other illness. That is why we are going to invest 500 million to expand access to treatment across the country. [applause] it is also why were going to ensure that federal Mental Health records are submitted to the background check system and remove barriers that prevent states from reporting relevant information. If we can continue to destigmatized Mental Health issues and get folks proper care and fill gaps in the background check system, then we can spare more families the pain of losing a loved one to suicide. Host reaction to the president . Guest the president made a number of important announcements. The 500 million for Mental Health services and programs are really going to be very important, critically important. There are bills before congress right now that would need additional funding. House resolution 2646, senate bill 1945, both of these things carry a lot of positions provisions in them that would promote prevention and identification, but they need funding. That funding can help do that. As far as some of the hip of president hat the raised, i think they did a really good job balancing the interests of people and the rights of individuals to have their Health Information remain private. At the same time, we make certain that one of the loopholes at least in the brady act from 1993 as close. Host i want to run this headline by you. It is a recent story coming from last weeks news. Doctors can report some mentally ill patients to the fbi under a new gun control rule. Is that a good idea . Guest the headline is a little different from what the rule is. The rule is a good idea and that is already unlawful under the brady act for you to have a gun. If you have been found to be incompetent or have been involuntarily committed, some of the extreme conditions that have to exist, what this says is that if your Health Advisor instead of the court to make those determinations and instead of the judges has effectively done that or you have the repository information. Ahere was a concern that hipp did not let you report the name of individuals. It does not add anybody new to the list. I think it is probably a good idea to make certain that we all know that. Host lets go to our calls for our guest, Paul Gionfriddo. Jackie is on the line from virginia beach. Good morning, jackie. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Im concerned about this issue. Im a retired special needs teacher and ive taught for nearly five years. Its important to look at the environment at this time, the current political environment. , the Political Party actually lavrov the republicans are looking more at the area being involved in the election and not looking at the individuals here at the grassroots area. Very upset about the idea issueslooking at the related to gun violence, but also using the environment as liars, less being manipulators, and also not as ang at our president person who has dignity. Im just calling because this affects most of the entire environment and being able to elect a president of the United States. Host jackie, thank you for calling. Lets hear from our guest. Guest i think its really important to recognize that members of both parties are interested in doing something about Mental Health these days. That is different from the environment that has existed for a long time. And so that is one thing that i think we need to support members of both parties who want to do something to improve our system of Mental Health services. That will improve our environment overall. I think with respect to understanding that, there is a need to manage violence in america as well. I think again that nobody has got the answer to that right now that everybody can support. That should not prevent us from moving forward with reasonable Mental Health reforms. Host we move on to detroit now. Glenn, youre on with Paul Gionfriddo of Mental Health america. Caller how are you doing . Thank you for taking my call. In a way, it does have to do with guns, but i listen to a lot of the commercials about a lot of the medicine that they have out and the side effects. And a lot of them like if you feel depression or you feel like you want to commit suicide. I dont understand why so many of them have that type of effect. I know that theres only maybe a few major drug companies. It, myr you call suspicion is that theres a certain drug being put into the medicine. I know that sounds far off, but why would they all have that effect . Theres some type of drug causing people to feel this depression. If you say dont stop taking it unless your doctor tells you, and then you find out that people didnt take the medicine host Paul Gionfriddo. Guest people often have side effects from medication and not just patients dealing with Mental Health issues but any medication. If people are feeling those kinds of side effects, they should talk about it and take action as soon as they can. At Mental Health america, we have a Screening Program and people can screen anonymously. If they are feeling depression or anxiety or side effect of the medication or not, they can go there and find out more about what the circumstances are for them and then do something about it. Talk to a doctor, talk to a family member, somebody. We do not want crises to occur here. I think that is the issue that we are all concerned about. If we wait until a crisis occurs and we wait to intervene until after a crisis, that is like waiting until stage four for an intervention. Weh Mental Health concerns have to act before stage four. That is one recovery occurs and that is when we can make a difference in peoples lives, not after the tragedy. Not after the crisis. Takesyou write that it sometimes 10 years for someone needt on someone who might help t. Explain what you are writing there could guest. Guest half of all Mental Illnesses occurred by the age 14. Three years passed from the time symptoms of march by the time people get treatment for those. Those are 10 years that we couldve intervened and 10 years that we couldve changed the trajectory of peoples lives. When people wonder why the suicide rate is not going down the dust from all of their chronic diseases has not been going down is because i like to say that suicide is the ultimate stage for event. Day beforeuntil a someone is want to die from cancer and then say come lets intervene now, thats not how you promote recovery. That is not what we have done to limit the death rates from cancer and heart disease. It is the standard that we have kind of set for china to lower the death rate from Mental Illnesses and we are failing at it largely because we have not intervened during those 10 years when we couldve made a significant difference. Host stephen is calling from st. Louis, missouri. Good morning to you. Caller good morning, gentlemen. I want to commend you for having an expert as her guest to talk about Mental Health. Thats instead of the programs that do things that are discussing. Ive a question. Im a 68yearold vietnam veteran. For 47 years, ive battled anger issues, etc. , etc. , and went to the Veterans Administration and psychologist. With diagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder. When i came out of the service, i swore to never touch another. Eapon its my personal belief. I know what weapons can do. , ive been told that post somatic stress is a Mental Illness. I dont have a weapon that could if i chose to get a weapon in the future, i feel that i may not be able to. Can your guest perhaps talk about posttraumatic stress . What is his understanding about all his gun things that we are now speaking of and is there any correlation perhaps between andtraumatic stress suicides . I know ive read enough on that. I would just like to know since it has been designated as a mental disorder. Host we will get an answer. I want to ask you first. Could you describe the quality of the care that you got along the way . Anything about the system . Caller i got excellent care here in st. Louis. Very professional. I have no complaints, no waiting lines. They took me an answer my phone calls. The v. A. Has treated me very well. Host very professional. Thanks, stephen. When i was in the state legislature in connecticut, we barely knew about posttraumatic stress disorder. It was actually the vietnam whorans who came back would testify before committees and talk about the importance of dealing with that as an issue. What we learned subsequent to that of course is that really in some studies, the vast majority of Vietnam Veterans at some point in their lives had symptoms of posttraumatic stress , maybe 80 or higher than that. At is thatw from th very few of those people have violent tendencies. Stress does not mean that they will become violent or that they themselves are ever going to be a danger to themselves or somebody else. Especially if when the symptoms are recognized, they are dealt with immediately. Believe it or not, in america today, the people who are most likely to have posttraumatic stress disorder our kids and of thes because neighborhood sometimes in which they grow up in and the violence of a witness and are subjected to. That and weeal with need to deal with it today so we are not dealing with it years from now. Host joseph, republican. Thank you for waiting. Deaths two thirds of gun are attributed to people that are committing suicide, so they distressusly in mental to a point where they are going to hurt themselves. My question is and im sorry. I listen to these others callers and my thoughts go to Something Else. Host take your time. Caller thank you for having me on the show and listening to my question here. Thirds of the people that are dying by gun violence are in the mentally handicapped im sorry. I shouldnt say that. Having some kind of Mental Illness and hurting themselves, and iis it that understand the law republicans third of point to one the violence being like criminals. If somebody buys this is what i was want to say earlier. And i donta gun have any kind of record or anything like that. Like the guy at newtown, his mother bought the guns, but he was mentally deranged. He went and shot up those little kids. We have current laws that restrict that, but they are not being enforced. Ithe president tries to watched his speech the other day and he went to Great Lengths to explain how he is not going to try to take anyones guns from them. He is for the Second Amendment and that anybody that passes a background check can get a gun and he is alright with that. He is just trying to keep people that shouldnt get a gun like a mentally deranged person that shouldnt have a gun from getting a gun. Host thanks for calling, joseph. A response to that caller . Guest sure. First of all, the law that the president is referring to has been in place for nearly a quarter century did that the and thatople defines the people for whom it is unlawful to have a gun. Sayingsident was right im not try to expand that group of people. Im trying to make sure those names get reported properly as we expected they would back in 1993 when the brady act was passed. The other point is terrifically important and that is that two firearm deaths are deaths by suicide and not homicide. The way to do with that is to before those concerns they hit stage four, before they become a crisis. We go back to something the president supports, something the democrats supports in the house and senate, the republicans in the house, and thats prevention. Lets put some money where our mouth is. Guest congressman ted murphy has been on the program many times. Host 2016 he writes must be the year of Mental Health reform. We have heard about various ideas in congress and the Mental Health bill is going through the committee to what is your understanding of what this bill will do and can you see it becoming law this year . Guest i hope so. There are two bills going through could theres tim murphy and Eddie Bernice johnson the senate intheres the addition to lamar alexander, patty murphy, and a whole bunch of others. That is one of the reasons why i think 2016 could be the year because there are a lot of people in both parties to understand the importance of doing something. I think in both of those bills are some emphasis on prevention, early identification, and Early Intervention that has never been there before. There is some emphasis on using ofrs for support recovery people with Mental Health concerns. There is more parity Law Enforcement now that we have those laws. Their innovation grants. There are a lot of things put into those bills in the house and the senate that i think should enjoy at bipartisan consultants. They should have attracted the interest of advocates across the board to say we need to support these things. All of us agree with every single provision in every bill nor would you expect everybody to, but a lot of us have been able to say, look, we can put our differences aside if the members of congress can put their differences aside. There are a lot of members of Congress Want to put those differences aside and make sure things get time. I think it can happen this year. Host we mentioned money several times. One viewer on twitter has a question about the money. We are struggling with health care debt. Do you think america can afford Mental Health care . We cant afford if we can continue to wait until stage for to treat it. We certainly can afford to do more early and to intervene early because that is what leads to recovery. That is what leads to productivity. That is what leads to lower costs. Illnesses inntal america cost about as much as all caps is in america costs. Cancers in america costs and that is not counting the Public Safety dollars that we spent could we are so erroneously thought of Mental Illness as Public Safety concerns and not Mental Health concerns. If we do, we can realize the vision and the house bill to end the incarceration of nonviolent offenders with Mental Illness within 10 years and redirect post dollars into the Health Care System and actually save a bunch of money in the long run. Host what is the impact of video games on the Mental Health of minors . Guest it can be positive or negative. Thats an adjusting question because people are finding out that if you give minors the right video games that you can actually help improve their Mental Health. It may seem counterintuitive, but theres not. Onir science developing this. The right video games are great biofeedback mechanisms that can bring benefit. Host tony from waterbury, connecticut. Caller how are you doing . In 1995, i had difficulties getting up. I went to the v. A. And now i have been seeing a sick call just psychologist since 1995. If i do not hungry, he can override me know. If i do not agree of my psychologist, he can override me now. That, you you all say create one mental rules for person like me with mental programs. My doctor overrides me when i do not want to take my medicine. Its not that i am mental. Its that i do not agree with my doctor. He has both right to override me now because all the laws that you have passed because of gun violence is because you cannot get the gun violence laws passed and thats wrong. Host a call from connecticut there. I think that if you are seeking and getting treatment voluntarily that nothing in these proposals that the president has made the change. Would change any of that. If you are not satisfied with your doctor, the alternative is to go find a different one who you have a better relationship with. Host pleasant hill, california, democrat. Caller i cannot pronounce your name, but i appreciate you coming. My concern is about health care. Thats at the Veterans Administration and the gun Violence Associated with the youth of this toy first century. 21st century. Country feel this compared to other countries have the congress peoples who are making the policies and not getting a free ride on taxpayers. I really feel this should be a priority for 2016. Otherwise, there is no use of ,ending these same republicans control people, controlled by the richest people in the world, who have no priority in making any progress in this field. The young veterans, my father and people i was associated with in my life, have paid the price. I do not feel and do not believe that these people nationally from the state in america have any competence or any just moral values toward solving problems. Thank you. Host Paul Gionfriddo. Guest one of the reasons why Mental Health concerns crosses party lines is because half of us will be diagnosed with a Mental Illness in the course of our lifetimes. About one in 16 have a serious Mental Illness. Serious Mental Illnesses touch all families, republicans and democrats, poor people and rich people. Children and adults. As a result of that, i think this is one of the issues about which there can be a consensus. I think there is an emerging consensus in congress to do something. When something happens, i think we will all be able to celebrate that. As a former state legislator, i have a lot of faith in our elected officials. They represent us and the views of people in their districts and the concerns and needs of people in their districts. These are uniform and consistent needs across districts to deal with Mental Health issues. Now theres an opportunity to do so so im keeping fingers crossed and prayers said that something gets done this you coul here. Host you wrote that my son is schizophrenic. The reforms that ive worked for have worsened his life. You have a whole section about you entering the legislature and what happened. Tell us more. Guest sure. I will start today and move back a little bit from there. Thet of people criticize federal agency that provides a lot of the funding for Mental Health services. One of things that i would say is that we did not build it in a way that would allow them to do all the things that we expected it. That was true at the state level, too. When i was in the state legislature, i was assigned Health Issues not because id expertise in them come about because no one else wanted to do them. I did the best that i could come of their not a lot that we knew. We knew that the institutions were not going to work. We do not realize that when we built a system that we would have to focus on kids and kids in the Education System. Some my son came along at five years old and felt symptoms of schizophrenia. We started deal with those issues and what we discovered was is that they do not have the slightest idea what to do about kids liked him. One of my friends involved in the said that when they develop the special education law, the act, they were thinking of kids with physical disabilities and not kids like tim. I wrote that we basically have lost a generation of kids like tim. Some we lost a homelessness. Some we have lost a suicide. Many we have lost to incarceration. The fact of the matter is that we could of thought about this differently. We could play naivety in the 1990s, but we know this today. We cannot claim naivety today. Host where is 10 now . Guest he is an san francisco. Last month, he was off the streets. We were able to get him housing. Storys a whole another about how difficult it is to get him off the streets and how expensive it is for someone who has no resources. Im really optimistic. He is 30 years old. You always have hope no matter how difficult it gets. Right now, ive got a lot of hope for him and my other kids, too. Host our guest Paul Gionfriddo is for Mental Health america. Lydia is in minneapolis on the independent line. Caller this is a great topic is always. Thank you for cspan. I want to raise the issue again of posttraumatic stress disorder. Mostly we are talking about it visavis veterans. I would like you to go into more depth about kids exposed to street violence. Iso want to say that i think that kids who grow up in abusive homes and around Domestic Violence, even if a child themselves is not hit, i grew up around Domestic Violence. Im speaking from experience. It can have a devastating impact. Havelmost 60 years old and been doing with ptsd my whole life. The Mental Health system is totally broken. If you think of as been hard for low income people to access visit will help care, Mental Health care is darn near impossible. Only the fact that i was a curious and intelligent person and searched out support groups and could read books. I was in my 30s before i got to Access Health care after being a survivor of Sexual Assault and child abuse and being around Domestic Violence. I think the schools you just mentioned that the schools could be a pivot place for intervening have beennd youth who exposed to street violence or Domestic Violence or child abuse and to intervene earlier. Even if you do not kill yourself, and i try to couple times, but i thought so much my life was listed wasted with just hanging on. Im so glad. Bless president obama. Plus the bipartisanship that is so darn rare that we are going to take this topic on. Talk more about ptsd. It does Great Depression and can lead to suicide. Talk about a more about where we can intervene earlier as he so wisely suggested. Host thanks for sharing your situation. Very much. Ks i think your story is sadly and unfortunately such a common one in america. Exposed us to an understanding of posttraumatic stress. Veterans coming back from the middle east also have these issues. To me, those are still kids. A lot of them are in their 20s and younger than my children are. Who areen, children exposed to violence in the home, exposed to violence in the neighborhood, they are the ones in a wayeally asking for help in the schools. When they act out and do things to break the rules, oftentimes what happens is they get suspended and expelled. That starts the process of what happens to people like him when they are adults where they get expelled from housing and their job. What we need to do is try to make certain that we can keep kids in school and we can engage in kids with school. Mental Health Issues to affect educational outcomes. Get expelledids and suspended. More of our kids do not graduate from high school in kids without Mental Health concerns. Schools are in an important intervention point. Nobody says that teachers have to become doctors only talk about that. Integrate our to Education System with our Health System if were going to solve the problem for kids. Asks, what role do teachers play an early identification of students who might suffer from Mental Health issues . Guest when tim was in kindergarten, they noticed differences. They said you might want to refer him for services. It took three years to get him into special Education Services and that is typical in america. Time a teacher notices, it takes three years to get into special education. In many school districts, the have to be two years behind grade level before they become eligible for special Education Services for he is a little secret. If you let a kid with a severe Mental Illness get two years behind grade level before you give him compensatory services, he is never going to catch up. Are important first lines of people who frequently recommends the issues. Host how much training a and money is out there for teachers to spot these cases . Guest in some cases, not enough. ,o do a Mental Health screening the thq nine is nine questions. Is sevenor anxiety questions. It does not take a lot of training. You can do it online anonymously. You do not have to train teachers a lot in order to be able to recognize these issues. What we need to be able to do is , nothe services into place necessarily in the schools. Some people say they have to be in the schools. I would say they be in the community as well and just integrate what the schools are doing with the communities. We can getlong story into, but the way our special education law works creates disincentives for people like my son were being treated in the community with community psychologist. It creates disincentives for the schools to use that information and put it into the information plan for the kid. Host jeff from nebraska, republican. Caller how are you doing . Oh god, the guy that shot Gabby Giffords was reported five times by his professor. They thought he was a nut then. To hised to show up psychiatrist, who did not report it. He went off the deep end. Every mass shooting, they all have background checks. And now we are talking about trusting the far left educational system in the united , to tell usteachers whether we can have a gun or not or if this guy is crazy or whatever . Its already out of control and you can see it going that way. The president of the united everybody into combat and now theyre going to attack the people with ptsd and not allow them to have a gun. You watch. Its going to end up that way. Host thoughts from jeff . Guest its not like that right now. We can worry about whether it will end up that way and worry about future issues and problems like that we are going cap. Or we can deal with todays issues. The case that you point out is so important to think about because it was not just the College Professors who would notice this. Oftentimes what happens to me when i go on the road and talk about my sons case and you talk to other parents, what they will say is that they did see the early signs of the Mental Health problem back when the child was five years old or 10 years old or 12 years old. Just nothing got done for years because stigma might have been one of the reasons. Nobody knew who to refer people to. Think about it we would not do that with cancer. If the kid gets leukemia, we do not sit around 10 years and then were going to intervene and get a great result. This is what we do everything that they with Mental Health concerns and illnesses. Nobody is saying were going to make teachers and to doctors. Nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants the teachers to be the ones to identify all this. We can do screening in schools, but we can do it and pediatricians offices, too. We can all be screened as we are screened for low pressures Blood Pressure as adults. It is not about taking guns away from people. Host tom, knoxville, tennessee, democrat. Caller what a great show and thanks for letting on. Host thank you for calling. Nfriddo, i hope i pronounce your name right. I prayed for your son. N andbit of a omaly because i support Bernie Sanders and i am a gun holder. I work in health care. I saw a cspan show many months of imthe number bedshrasing it right, but allotted for mentally ill patients that really cannot care for themselves. We used to have Mental Health. Omes or institutions we went away from that in the 1980s. Back when the population was half what it is now, i think the population was over 300 million back when president johnson was. The cspan program, which was one of these, has an expert on and we actually had less beds allotted in the country for folks who were just severely mentally ill. Thats because of issues of people not wanting to pay for it. Health care im in nursing. I see this all the time, just people that really, god bless them, cannot function. City wee, our have a democrat mayor. We are in a very republican state. You mentioned lamar alexander. He has been a real credit to our state. I like him. We have a huge Homeless Population and a lot of christian agencies who try to serve them. But so many of them are mentally ill. They are overwhelming our police. We have seen articles about that in the knoxville news sentinel. Our Police Department are being overwhelmed by them. Urinating have them in the streets in front of a school or whatever. Or talking to themselves and scaring people. At any rate, that was pretty much my question. Does the law that the president has proposed will any of that 500 million go toward more beds . Host thank you, tom. Guest that will be up to congress. It will obviously take a lot more than 500 million to reopen thats in hospitals that mightve been closed down. I think one of the things to keep in mind is that we do not just deinstitutionalized in the 1980s as a matter of Public Policy. We laid the foundation for the institutionalizing of people. We have them in our county jails and our state prisons. We need to move people out of county jail and state prison and take some of the dollars we put and put them back into the Health Care Delivery system. They need to be in hospital beds and in community services. It is not going to get us the whole way there. Host what would you say to bobby who says the government should not be involved in Mental Health . Nott the government should set up a separate system, which is what it did. We divorced that system from the regular Health System. We need to reintegrate it. I would rather find those services myself. He did end up in the public system. Of the matter is, we should not have set up a different system of Mental Health services. Today, the solution should be integrating Behavioral Health into regular health care services. Gemma. Caller thank you for cspan. A person is mentally ill, they , what isommit suicide to stop them from getting a gun off the black market or killing themselves with knives or Something Else like that . Thanks. Thanks host guest when women look to die by suicide, they do not often look to that. Intervention, intervention before stage four. We will continue to talk about it because we need to recognize we cannot wait for the tragedies. We cannot wait for people to be in that state. We do not do that with any other chronic disease. We have to stop doing it with Mental Illnesses. Our guest is Paul Gionfriddo. Of losing tim. Thank you for sharing your time, your story. Guest thank you. Host when we come back, we are going to look at what it means for a twoterm president to have a final year in office. Our gus our guest will be Douglas Brinkley. Brian we will talk to bender. More of your calls. We will be right back. Tonight, a discussion on are operating in the media environment. How we would like these agencies to retool in order to address propaganda. He is joined by ron nixon. Reality is we started 70 years ago as a radio enterprise. Radio, but our ability to shift and put more resources behind that is there. We are no different than any other media company. That is our mission, to shift resources, energy, and the focus, to be more in the peertopeer conversations instead of the one to many conversations. Watch the communicators tonight on cspan two. Cspan takes you on the road to the white house and into the classroom. Our contest asked students to tell us what issues they want to hear from president ial candidates. Follow the road to the white house coverage. Washington journal continues. We are going to talk about the final year of a twoterm presidency. Want to start off with a piece from president obamas news conference. He talked about his expectation for his final year in office. Unfinished we have business. I plan on doing everything i can to deliver on behalf of the American People. I have never been more optimistic than i am now. Host Douglas Brinkley joining us. Good morning. Good morning. Of a the final year presidency, how do they generally position themselves . What approach to they take . And they want to build their legacy, what did we do the previous year, how can i package it. If you are in the position barack obama is in, you are trying to say what can i talk about that we have accomplished, what do i want to do this last what is my legacy piece of this . They that because president ial library is going to be in chicago. This last state of the union is a big moment that will be dedicated to gun control issues, stopping gun violence. Thing, how did they play the campaign . Talking about donald trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders. Theseem to be out of limelight. In this case, president obama saying i am not going to weigh in on Hillary Clinton yet. He has two more big speeches. It will be a major endorsement for Hillary Clinton. His farewell address, which will heur next january, what thinks America Needs to do in the future. Voting starts in a matter of weeks. How much are people listening . Guest he will be tidying up unfinished business. Obama has wanted to close the base on guantanamo. I suspect he will raise that issue again. President obama will be once he goes and campaigns, probably for Hillary Clinton. He has about a 90 percent or more Approval Rating in the africanamerican community. Bringing out the africanamerican vote, which barack obama is good at, will be relevant in the home stretch of the campaign. Douglas brinkley is in new york. His new book is called rightful heritage. Caller thank you for taking my call. That this president is going to take his last year in office to do something about gun violence in the United States. I remember meeting mr. Obama and mrs. Obama in d. C. A few years ago. Host to what extent have last years president s tackled issues like guns . A few days ago, president shed tea tears rs. I would introduce myself to somebody and someone would say i say my name and i lost my daughter at newtown. The National Rifle association is very strong. The president is starting to build a coalition. He is starting to build the coalition. I think we will see him continuing in that role. Im trying to get background checks for gun purchases made much tougher. Of the union, the symbolic moment of the evening is going to be the empty chair. If you go to oklahoma city, they have an amazing memorial done there. They have mt chairs in a park that people come to visit. The chair will be representative of the People Killed by gun violence. It will be a solemn moment. Symbolism of that that tells you how much the president wants to make reducing gun violence part of his last year in office issue. Climate change, which is popular in the american press, it is starting to get people to riled up about libel about Global Climate change, it is an issue you will see him dealing with a lot. Host you can watch our coverage at 8 00. Next call for Douglas Brinkley is very. Barry is here in washington, d. C. Caller thank you for the work you have done. What is your view about taking ton the lee circle statue robert e. Lee and confederate statues and commemorations throughout the south. Guest i have a great connection to new orleans. I am worried about the city because of the recent winter in theg that has gone on Missouri River in the midwest. I worry about flooding in the mississippi delta. Complicated issue. Think things have to be done on a casebycase basis. The Edmund Pettus bridge in alabama, should be named after john lewis. Sometimes i think those changes are appropriate. Go way too, people far. Everyone to look like they did today. We have to sloth of that down some of theous on tearing down of statues and a renaming everything. In new orleans, i am an advocate that we need to do a statue for ruby bridges. People. Onoring ruby bridges, being one of many. As a way to outrace the confederate memorials. Tearing downto statues, we have to be careful on doing that. Heritage, connect culture, what does it all mean. Lee was a great west point cadet. Host bob, great falls. I hope my mom is listening. She will not believe i got on. This is her favorite program. I know you wrote the book on Franklin Roosevelt. We are big Bernie Sanders fans. Wondering, do you think baite sanders is trying to break up the big banks, start a work program like Bernie Sanders is talking about. Would fdr be considered a source . I would like to hear what your comments would be. Is a good question. Was auld say fdr democratic socialist, although the term socialist is repugnant to many people due to the cold war concept that was used. The word most people like to use is progressivism. Who wassomeone suspicious of wall street power, when after big businesses and trust, was a Public Utilities over private use of Natural Resources and the like. Wrong tothink it is to whatwhat his message Franklin Roosevelt was saying, to the Great Depression years. He was standing up for what used to be the forgotten man and woman. Been an assistant secretary in the navy during world war i and was an activist in that role. When it gets into domestic debates, fdr was one of the most era. Iant tacticians of his remind us of what his last year in office was like. How significant . Guest 1940 four, he died april 12, 1945. In 1944, he had the big victory. The beginning of the end of hitler. We had a lot of wind in his sale. He reluctantly ran in 1944. He said i just want to go back to the hudson river valley, write my memoirs, relax, enjoy myself. He felt compelled to see the war through. Of summitless series meetings. By 1945, when he went to the summit, it took a toll on him. He met with churchill and stalin. They started looking at postworld war ii world, what it would look like. Globallt wanted to make conservation. He believed it was the basic premise for global peace. Around the standard world, which never happened. He was pushing forward what would be a straight legacy, the united nation. He died in warm springs, georgia, quite exhausted. His heart was a mess. He was prone to having horrific headaches. He is not the man he was two years olearlier. From warmas moved springs to washington. He is considered an extraordinarily successful commander during world war ii. He was remarkable in that regard. I rank fdr with lincoln as one of our two greatest president s. Caller hello. I had a comment that i think with the president is trying to do at this point in time is a good thing. Not only should they put that into law about people with Mental Health problems not aving access to guns, i have daughter that open carries and one that has Mental Health problems. I do not feel comfortable with them in the same room. That would put a lot of control, along with the locking mechanism may have for the guns where can only be fired by a person whose that gun, that would be a definite control. It should be instituted into our laws. Host thank you for calling. It is important for people to understand the second notdment issue with guns is controversial until recent times. People work around it. , the supremeoup court got more conservative. You have a key moment when barack obama is running for president , when he was getting nomination, you have the District Of Columbia versus you said it was illegal to not allow people to have a handgun. Scalia wrote the judgment on this. It was a victory for the nra. All of us know Second Amendment language is a little fuzzy. All i am suggesting is once that his whole presidency has been involved with this gun issue. He has been fighting an uphill battle. Each time, the president has had to take on this role of mourner in chief. It is going to be impossible to look at the obama years as a historian 20 years from now without looking at the role of guns, the power of the nra, Mass Shootings. It is part of the obama era. The president recognizes that. Post san bernardino, it may have been a turning point. These people did get guns in the United States. Debate is going on and i am not weighing in on which side of it. I am pointing out that president obama is going to make this a central part of his last year and a major part of his president ial legacy. In insion him weighing the public schools, Holding Town Hall forums, working to make chicago safer and use the model of what he does in chicago for other places in the United States. I would not be surprised if he does more town halls on the gun issue. In the end, we are going to vote. The president will see who wins the 2016 president ial election and it will be very telling. Our guest is professional professor of history at rice university. We found this piece in politico. They ask a bunch of history professors which president had the best last year in office. Who do you think had the best final years in office . Bill clinton did not have a bad at last year in the sense that the economy started getting so strong that we were able to, by the time he left office, we were able to balance the budget and have a surplus. He was able to survive the lewinsky scandal, people almost wishing he was running for a third term. Unfortunately, the Vice President did not realize he still had the magic in him and distanced himself from him because of the moral impropriety. It hurt al think gore. He could have won the election if he wrapped his arms around bill clinton. I would give him the last year nod. Usually these last years are tough on president s. Harry trumans last year, he run for reelection because he had a 27 Approval Rating and nobody wanted much to do with him. Consumed by be a non, almost an irrelevance in the country that had the most angry and tumultuous year in recent memory. I would say Ronald Reagan had a good last year, along with bill clinton. His vicele to get president elected. People started saying that reagan won the cold war without firing a single shot. It was starting to be clear by term, that the berlin wall would soon come down. Fact of the matter was democracy was on the march in Eastern Europe and the soviet union was stressed. Prettyand clinton had good last years, all things considered. Host eric, thank you for waiting. Caller thank you. I appreciate cspan. Prediction, what may be, of president obama with chicago efforts. I had another idea. President half went on to become the Supreme Court justice. I wonder if you might be able to go back and talk about he careerto have a positive on the Supreme Court, and what potential there might be with intellectual and common sense approach of barack obama, how he might do. What might be the likelihood Something Like that would be a positive for the country. That is an interesting question. We have had many good ones. John quincy adams left the presidency and became a congressman. He spent years fighting for the abolition of slavery. He came in second behind woodrow wilson. Taft had to find himself a political loser after 1912. The country honored him by putting him on the Supreme Court, where he did a fine job. Barack obama would make a good Supreme Court justice, but i do not know if the politics of the moment when allow him to get congressby a sent in a by a senate or a congress. Is not of faire justice, but a bipartisan one. I could see him being engaged in things in the university of chicago. The main thing he will be doing , findingg a memoir Public Policy issues he is most passionate about. Is passionate about all of them. Theck obama may try to make may try to make himself not as thin as bill clinton did. He has had to raise so much money. I do not see that he wants to become this nonstop fundraiser every moment of the rest of his life. He is cerebral, more scholarly. The gun violence issue and Climate Change are two that he will be wrapping his arms around. Ratedtaft was an underage was an underrated president. It was a good choice to get him on the Supreme Court. Rob, good morning. I was calling about the robert e lee statue. You have this guy on and he is socalled and collective in his demeanor and he is actually in agreements with keeping the statute. Was inever said i never agreed the statue should be kept. I never said that. I did not want to weigh in on it. It is a complicated issue. I have not studied what is going on there. Issue. Thats my it is not complicated at all. I equate robert e. Lee to a hitler. Host thank you. We get the point. Is a Mitch Landrieu friend of mine. I am not a honed in on that particular issue. Sometimes memorials are part of a city ordinance. They get challenged in courts. I got a random phone call about that statue. I have not looked into it. Mitch landrieu told me he is determined to make this a big part of his legacy. Statuet mind if the comes down. Au have to start having dialogue. Is going onw what in new orleans. University of texas, they removed a statue from campus. It was done in a smart way and in a way ituseum, all makes sense. In each to be done in a way that does not create unnecessary acrimony in a community. Caller i hope your new year is really good. I wanted to know something. There are two points i would like to make. You being a president ial , the big thing is, have you seen through the history of our nation, more disrespect for one president than we have had against the people on the right, some people on the left have had towards our current president. Also, i think he has done a wonderful job for the gun debate. Thing called the Second Amendment. Veteran, carrying a gun, i was in the United States coast guard, i was a lawenforcement agent. There is one thing about it. Right,f people on the even some on the left, they do not think about the first part of the Second Amendment which says a well regulated militia is necessary and the defense of a free state. All people have the right to keep and bear arms. Host that was eric. Has been tough on president barack obama. Part of the reason is that once the Affordable Care act was congress got rankled. It has been an unproductive relationship between president obama and congress. Think president obama will come out fine in his history. He inherited the great recession. We will have to see what the economy looks like when he leaves office. If it is much better, we have to wait. There is also the saving of general motors. There are going to be trouble spots. , some of that Foreign Policy problem in the hurt hisst is going to longterm reputation when we look at it in terms of Foreign Policy. I have no doubt he will go down as a successful a merit and president , even though his relationship with congress was not good. A special report on a historic presidency. When you look inside, you can bills signede 1064. That is about 740 fewer than george w. Bush signed and 720 fewer than bill clinton. Five bills, including the Defense Authorization act. Bush vetoed eight bills and clinton 35. 228 executive orders signed by the president , compared with 292 under bush. To sean in florida. Caller my question concerns his or preknowledge of the attack on pearl harbor. I predicate this on having taken the anon, the first. Ulf war my father was an intelligence officer. I asked him if he knew about it the aircraft carriers were supposed to be sent out of perl and that the Reconnaissance Aircraft flown retasked one week before the attack. He said you can take whatever you want out of that. Did he have the type of personality which would have allowed that if he felt it was safety of thethe United States . Guest i would read a book that came out last year called mantle of man. It will answer your questions much more than i can. E was no argumenta hocuspocus that scholars used to do to blame fdr for pearl harbor. What has occurred is there is intelligence information that has bubbled forth. We did have indicators of things. I would dispel that idea completely. Franklin roosevelt spent his whole life collecting ship models, had a naval library. He wanted to convince people to go to war is ludicrous. Caller good morning. I could talk to you all day. I am a history fan. A few things. The rift between president obama and congress did not start with the Affordable Care act. There were jackals on the republican side on the night of his inauguration that were going a one term president. There is evidence to suggest that al gore won the 2011 election. There has been plenty of information that barack obama chicago. Move back to will [indiscernible] lastly, my regards to reagan, there does not tease there does not need to be any revisionist history in comparison to fdr, with whom i consider one of the two best president s of all time. My ultimate question is why is there no movement to put him on rushmore . Barack obama, they will be living in new york. New york is going to be a big part of their life. Hawaii wants to get involved with the legacy of barack obama. He did not get much of a honeymoon from congress. Racism has been part of the. Ntiobama movement i agree that people say al gore won in 2000. If it were not for the dangling of florida. Were if he had picked Joe Lieberman as his Vice President to him number two, if gore would have been left stiff, if he would have embraced bill clinton, it would have enhanced that vote. It would have been close. Is an interesting thing. Fdrs facee to see added there, but it is a monument frozen in time. I know a lot about the history of the carving of mount rushmore. It is not going to happen doing active dynamiting and drilling on the mountain. Host we will try to take more calls. We will look at info from the gallup pole. Gallup poll. Clinton 66 Approval Rating. Landis, north carolina. Republican. Caller good morning. A question. I was curious to know what reading you would put on obamas fundamentally changing america. Would you give him an a on that or Something Else . You say fundamentally changing america, what do you mean . Inauguralat was his statement. He was going to fundamentally change america. I was wondering if the professor rating he would give him on the success of that goal. Guest i do not think he fundamentally changed. To kind of pull the country together in one voice. I do not think that has been successful. If you are a gay american, the ability to get married, the whole push to get married would be a big change if you were a gay american. Some of the work he has done for latino americans in trying to , the change has come. The amount of women appointed in the Obama Administration has been skyhigh. Seeing that kind of inclusive change. When it comes to partisan healing that dilemma, no, the president did not succeed in that regard. Ofis a longer conversation why not. Dave, what is your question or comment . Caller thanks. Interesting program. This is one of the more insightful programs. Enforcement, this term has bothered me for a while. Product of the truman administration. The Obama Administration has is term openly and selectively whether to prosecute criminals. Any other president from a historical standpoint has used his term decisively in speeches. Guest bill clinton did that a lot. , 1992, i am tough on crime. Moreof this idea of adding policeman to the streets, cleaning up. About billhat first two years. Everything with violence and crime in america, it comes in waves. Profile crime happens, the countrys language changes. We got the gun policy act from lyndon johnson. We are going to start doing something and you can see the rhetoric ratchet up. People forget. Ronald reagan was shot, almost died. New brady bill. It goes in these cycles. The obama years have been one where the crime rate has gone down. Murder rates have gone down under president obama. It is a headline you do not see. We are doing well fighting violent crime. The Mass Shootings that plague our country have caused to use moreama vigorous language to explain what they want to do and how they are trying to do crackdowns in organized crime. That might be what you are getting at. What are you writing about next . I am about my fdr book. It is coming out. I am interested in the dust bowl. It ind we responded to the 30s and 40s. Planted the conservation. Where in history can we get public service, get Young People Working for america, doing things like they did during the new deal years. That is my focus now. Host one last call from marisol. Caller good morning. I have a question for you. I am a proud american of puerto rican dissent. Our president has done some things within his scope in trying to help Puerto Ricans who are also american citizens, do what they need to do, all of those things. Have any idea if the president would be doing anything after his presidency to for the effort. They have been doing this for over 100 years. They cannot vote for their commander in chief, yet they can take orders. I have a couple that are still out there. As an american of puerto rican descent, i would like to see our government do more. Final thoughts from Doug Brinkley . Guest i wish our country would do more to help brenda rico also. I love going near the island. As the caller points out, puerto andns are in rolling defending our country. E need to care more whether president obama will focus on that, i do not know. It will be part of what he tries to do. Puerto clinton goes to rico frequently. She is also senator of new york, where there is a large puerto rican population. Doug brinkley, thank you for your time, the history, the insight. We appreciate it. Up next, we will focus on your money. Bryan bender on his recent story. How money is spent. Some of the equipment with that just somet that money of that money might never get used. Students are working on the student cam documentary contest, telling us the issues they want the president ial candidates to discuss. We are following students as they produced their video. Here is a tweet. Hearnts were excited to ben carson address gun control. Tweeted two students interviewed eric holder for their project. There is 100,000 in prizes with a grand prize of 5,000. The winners will be announced march 9. Washington journal continues. Host our guest is brian bender. Here is a look at the headline. Buy 7 billion of stuff you do not need . Guest this was part of a series we have done called broken by design. Work, how they do not work. This was the defense logistics ago by set up 54 years Robert Mcnamara and came into the pentagon with orders from president kennedy to change things up. He thought it made no sense that , navy, air force, were buying lots of equipment. Army would buy their version of a belt buckle and the marine corps would buy their version. He came in with this business mind. We have an agency that is a 40 billion a year enterprise. And sobecome so unwieldy big. Military doeshe not need or is buying duplicates of things. They bought parts for an aircraft, enough to last 80 years. Host what is the reaction to the situation . What is happening to audit inks . Things . Dit in 2016, the Defense Logistics Agency is the largest to go through that process. Can audit itself, if s muster,oks can pas knows wyatt bought it, perhaps the pentagon could pass the financial audit. There are a lot of challenges. One of them is paperwork, being able to track the paper trail. Host companies do it . Guest every day. Financial audits, looks at what is going in, what is coming out. It has not followed the same kinds of bookkeeping rules. It is proving a challenge to get things in shape. Let me give you a passing grade, a failing grade, maybe we need to come back and try this some other time when you are more prepared. Host they manage nearly 5. 3 , employee 25,000 civilians and military and process 100,000 requisitions per day. One of the challenges the dla has is one retired general we spoke to is that they have a terrible customer. They are buying these items on behalf of the military. Fuel, every day commodities. The army says i need xml of tons amount of spare parts for a tank. If the army does not have a good sense of what it needs, it is going to go to dla and say by me 30 of these things and dla will go out and buy it. Been a disconnect between the agency buying the items and the customer in this it doesnt have a process in place to go back to the shelves or to the depot and say how many spare parts do we already have and therefore we do not need to buy as many. I think thats one of the things that officials are trying to get at. Unfortunately, an audit will not solve that problem. Until there is better linkages between this matc massive agency and the customers it is buying far, im not sure it will reduce that billions of dollars of worth of stuff that you do not need. Host dave is our first caller for bryan bender of politico. Caller thanks for taking my call. I worked for the finance Accounting Service for 11 years in columbus, ohio, and we pay all the branches of the military. I can agree with the chaos that ensues when trying to audit an agency that is so big and spend so much money. An example would be the on the contract side, if they had a contract for a pharmaceutical that supplies aspirins, if you ran out of a bottle of aspirin in germany, you cannot buy it at the local pharmacy there. You basically had to ship it from the United States to the base in germany. The bottle might be two dollars, but the transportation cost to ship it was 200300 dollars. This was standard fare. As far as the audit goes, forget it. When i started working there, everything was paper. Im telling you when you have a billiondollar contract, there is no paper trail whatsoever. They try to audit the finance Accounting Service in the 90s and could not because the incomplete documents were just impossible. He spent a couple of years trying to audit the agency and they cant. Differentervices have payment systems. It was even a problem trying to audit me. That is why the paperwork continued when everyone else was using the internet and things of that nature. Host thank you for calling. Lets hear from bryan bender. Guest he raises an interesting point. Some of the officials that we talked to were very honest and upfront. They said, as we prepared to do this audit, and it has been taking them about three years to get ready for an outside auditor to come in and scrub the books, they said they learned a ton. A lot of it, even to them, was very surprising. In other words, how many holes there were, how much. Paperwork was in this thing. While the goal here is to pass an audit, and for the taxpayer to have confidence in congress to have confidence where you know this money is going, there means are the end. Even if the pentagon cannot pass a full audit, the process of ,rying to is worth it because by definition, it will uncover a lot of problems. For example, one case, the deputy finance director said you would think of the easy to keep track of a fire truck. It had a piece of paperwork that said we bought a fire truck for money. We dont know where it is. Maybe we sold into the private marketplace. The process of trying to pass the audit, a lot of government watchdogs would say it is worth it even if you never achieve success because to improveg to force the processes and the paper trail. Host democratic caller, hello there. Caller hello. A number of years ago, we saw some program, whether it was cspan or 60 minutes, and they were talking about a lot of army surplus. We were interested in the Army Blankets. Senator. Ed our we got the run around and a lot of paperwork. Bottom line we never got the blankets. These blankets were in a warehouse with no one using them. I was wondering if, number one, forgovernment rents space all this equipment and Different Things that they have. Could they possibly have a garage sale and get rid of something . We wanted to buy these Army Blankets for cub scouts and boy scouts. And werent doing anything they were pretty good quality. I just gave up after a while. I love cspan. Host thank you for calling. Is there a process for selling to the public . Guest a pentagon garage sale. The dla does have a role in which it dispenses of extra thes, surplus items that military doesnt need. Some of those things have been controversial. A few years ago, it was the Defense Logistics Agency that was providing highpowered Armored Vehicles to local Police Department. These are pieces of equipment that had been purchased for the wars in iraq and afghanistan. The military decided it did not need many of them and there was a surplus. They were provide to localities for Law Enforcement purposes. There are other examples where the dla is trying to get rid of extra items, things that the military doesnt need anymore. Inventorye amount of sot is superfluous is just large. A lot of these items are not everyday items. There are not the kind of things that you or i would want or need. As the caller points out, clearly blankets or other items like that that might have real good use out in the world and the military has way too many of them and might not be a bad idea to find a way to share that. Especially since taxpayers pay for it in the first was. Host in the piece, you can get a sense that 1. 3 million squarefoot distribution in pennsylvania is one of several dozen run by the pentagon Defense Logistics Agency. They have undergone a series of mock audits. Give us more of a sense of what these facilities are like. Guest thiis a facility outside of harrisburg, pennsylvania. It is as you described it very large. Facilitys primary parts outo ship spare to the navy fleet. There is a navy ship out in the pacific somewhere and it needs to get one case the one day that i was a. It needed a belt crank, a small piece of equipment, stored in a seven story high repository called the highrise for it can only be accessed by an automated lift. Place iss a week, this filling orders for military bases and forces all around the world everything from a belt crank to a canteen to belt buckles to parachutes, all kinds of things that you can think of. As you might imagine, 1. 3 million square feet is a massive facility. It is very difficult, potentially as one of the early , if you haveed out a variety of different computer tems tracking image for inventory and customer request, it is great difficult to get your hands around what you really have. More importantly, even if you know what you have, how do you know this is what we need . In some cases, we cite a lot of cases where they buy too many things. There are cases where they buy too few as well because they do not know what the forces in the field really need. Democratic caller to you are on with bryan bender of politico. Caller thanks for taking my call. I have one question. How much of this excess byentory is created porkbarrel spending through congress itself with different senators and representatives having special interest vendors to make sales with . Thats all i have. Host thank you, tom. Guest i think a lot of it is. There is no doubt that congress has played a huge role in pentagon waste and spending on items that perhaps it does not really need. I think in the case of the Defense Logistics Agency there are examples where certain items that the paragon buys on a regular basis are kind of on autopilot. By autopilot, i mean that theres Political Support behind buying this or that item, particularly if it has to do weaponh an system system. The Political Support is not justified by members of congress, but business leaders, Community Leaders back in some district or state where the stuff is built. No doubt thatis there is a role here that congress has played in enforcing the having to continue to buy some things that if the pentagon had its druthers would not buy or by fewer of. Pressure,ways that particularly if it is tied to a weapon system. It is hard to roll back the systems once they are in place and wants the Political Support is kind of embedded underneath them. Demandingress that is the dla do the audit. I think Even Congress is fully cognizant of the role that they play sometimes enforcing the pentagon to buy things that might not want to. They realize these are billions of dollars that are basically in a black hole where they dont have good visibility of where it is going and neither does the public. Host how did it come to be that congress ordered the audit . What exactly led up to it . Tell us more about the discussion on the hill. Guest the desire on the part of congress and the pentagon to go through the audit was about 25 years old. It was the early 1990s when the discussion first began and some laws were passed. It was forcing more accountability in Government Agencies and it is not just the pentagon. I think there are folks like senator Charles Grassley in iowa who has been very dogged on this. He has pushed a series of bills over the years forcing the pentagon and other federal agencies to be treated like a private sector company. The public has a right to know not just what the overall budget is, but the line items on where all the spending is going. I interviewed senator grassley for this piece and he is clearly very frustrated as he believes the pentagon was dragging its feet on this couldve moved more quickly tried to get its books in order. I think he is also very wary in this case is going to be able to succeed. Its not just a matter of also a matter of accuracy. How do we have confidence that even if they produce the data isk or that the accurate . There are a lot of cases where the Inspector General of the pentagon has found that the data that does exist is not necessarily the right data. Host the dla has its own www,dla. Mil. He quincy, massachusetts is calling. Edgardo . Caller thank you for taking my call. Im kind of disappointed. The military spends all kind of money and equipment thats never been used. How can they not even pay decent salary to the soldiers . They are taking money out of their own checks when they are here to pay. Can you answer that why theyre taking money from their salary . They dont even make enough. Host making the connection between salaries and what is going on in these depots. Guest i think the caller touches on something that is increasingly a challenge for the pentagon and for congressional committees overseeing defense spending. The Defense Budget is at a record high. If you add it all up, its about 700 billion a year. That is for every day operations, but its also to fund the war against the islamic state, continuing operations in afghanistan, and you often hear the same refrain from Senior Pentagon officials, which is we do not have enough. We need more. The nation is asking the military to do far more things than ever before. We dont have enough funding to buy all the Weapons Systems we need to support the troops in the way that we need. Thoseen i think there are who will say, that may be true, but look at all of the funding that is wasted. Look it all the ways the pentagon could achieve savings and ring out some more money to fund some of these things that they need more financing. I think the pentagon is under more and more pressure. I think it has a credibility problem could on the one hand, its saying we dont have enough money. At the same time, you see report after report showing like in the case of the dla that there are there things they donated are a lot of processes underway that could be improved, efficiencies that could be achieved. , as this getsess more underway, is in the view of many Senior Pentagon officials away for the department to Show Congress that it really is trying to get its financial house in order. Until it does, its going to be very hard for the pentagon to go back to congress, particularly to convince democrats, that it needs more money. Its wasting a good portion of it. Host bryan bender is the defense editor for politico. He is joining us to talk about your money. Billion spent on unused military equipment. Dcbased reporter for the boston globe and covered military operations in the middle east, asia, latin america, and the balkans. We have iowa on the air. It is randy. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Caller listening to you makes my question more conflic complicated, but im going to sum it up neatly i hope. The Defense Department spending and stuff this goes back to desert storm in the early 1990s. Had other, we have minor conflicts. We have had to unpaid for wars under the bush administration. Now the conservatives are more and wanting to do spend more while the Defense Budget takes up about 60 of our domestic spending in an annual year, as i understand it. Things with wanting to march to war and not accounting and not having a credible Accounting System for the wars past and not paying for wars past, the thing is how in the heck can the Defense Department put off three years for accounting . You mentioned it earlier. They have no credibility. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. Would you all have a wonderful day . Host thank you. That theres no doubt there is a growing debate in washington about whether the u. S. Military should be doing more overseas, particularly confronting the islamic state. Think the caller points out that recent conflicts not been paid for. That theto military operations themselves have been paid for. There has been a special war budget that has been passed every year since 9 11 that covers the weapons that are used, covers some of the equipment being used. Certainly, it takes a lot of fuel and other kinds of support for these military operations to go forward. What the caller is getting at is havea lot of these wars enduring costs. If you do not pay up up front, it takes years and years to kind of come home to roost. I think over the past decade plus of military operations in iraq and afghanistan and now back in iraq in a big way, it has taken a huge toll on the military. Costs like the equipment, taking care of troops and their families, is rolled into the war budget. Those costs build up over many years. As the caller pointed out, it gets to this credibility problem. I think in concert in areas, and makes a compelling case that it needs more money to pay troops that are salaried and provide Better Health care for soldiers and their families. The financialet house in order and go to ongress and conferenc with cone where its going, i think youll be difficult to get more money. Host how much money do think it will cost for the audit to happen . Itll bethink interesting to see what they award here in next month. It is certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. If you add up all the different components of the pentagon that will have to go through this, it is actually a fairly big business for outside auditing firms. There are a lot of outside auditors chomping at the bit to get a piece of this action because it is going to require a lot of independent analysts to come in and look at these books. No one trusts the pentagon to do it on their own. Just under 10 minutes with our guests. Elizabeth is hanging on in delaware. Hey, elizabeth. Caller good morning. This is a great topic. I wonder if you recall on september 10, 2001 that Donald Rumsfeld came on tv talking about 3. 9 trillion was missing from the pentagon. The pentagon was hit. Ive never heard anybody talk about what happened to that 3. 9 trillion. We know that the United States government spends more money than all the other nations combined on military. That some of the Police Departments across this country are getting some of this unused or outdated or whatever of military equipment. I remember rand paul has been pushing for an audit. That we hads infrastructure problems in this country that are outrageous. We are spending all this money overseas. What we have . 177 military bases . I remember Bernie Sanders tried to get 15 billion for the v. A. To get help to our soldiers waiting in line and cannot get help. The republicans actually turn that down. We are spending money on equipment, most of it we are not even using. At the same time, the 1 of the andlation that our soldiers our soldiers in these fort foreign words are struggling and living on food stamps. Think its an outrage and i hope Bernie Sanders wins the presidency because he is the only one i believe that will tackle this issue. Host lets hear from bryan bender. Guest there is no doubt that the 2016 presence of campaign president ial campaign ofonstrates that this debate guns versus butter debate is very prevalent in america, certainly among a very active, vocal part of the progressive wing of the democratic party, which is evidenced by this report for senator sanders, who has kind of made a career out of arguing that we are spending too much money on military operations. We are spending too much of our National Treasure try to influence overseas when we could spend that money will then, highways, creating jobs. We would create a toy for century infrastructure 21st century and for such a project. It also demonstrates the wide divide between the parties. You do not hear a lot of talk about that on the republican side. If anything, you hear the opposite, which is we need to do more in the world. We need to step up our military operations in the middle east. I think as the primaries play outcome were going to see this almost two discussions going on in a vacuum. On the left, you will have a suggests the caller over how much money should we be spending here at home versus overseas. The debate on the republican side, i think will be about how we spend money overseas. Host kodiak, alaska, thank you for joining us. Hello, stanley. Caller good morning. I just have one short question concerning the military. Is the pentagon able to account damagedof the lost and ammunition and arms that occur distributed ammunition and arms in lieu of the president s impassioned speech about gun violence . Host thanks. Guest im not sure i exactly follow the question. Can the military track ammunition weapons . I think they do a pretty good job of tracking their own equipment, particularly heavy weapons, highcaliber stuff that would be dangerous if it got in the wrong hands. I do not think the u. S. Military or government does a very good job of tracking the arms that we sell through our allies or that we provide to our allies. I think we have seen evidence of that in afghanistan. To theided tons of arms Afghan Government only to find that they have been missing or ends up in the hands of resurgent groups. We saw that to some extent with this syria train and equip program that the pentagon launched over a year ago. A 500 billion program that congress had approved. It turned out to be pretty much a debacle. Not only could they not find moderate Syrian Rebels to train come up there is some evidence that the weapons that we helped finance for those groups has now gone missing and has ended up in the hands of terrorists in syria. I think the military keeps weapons mayeir own well, but does not have a good record in terms of some the partners we help. Host theres john in new jersey. Caller good morning and thanks so much for cspan. Host whats on your mind . That we are great talking about the elephant in the room bankrupting our country, which is defense or offense, not social security. These perpetual ongoing wars that we continue to be involved countryot making our any safer. We are spending trillions and wasting trillions on weapons overseas. Isis is fighting us with american weapons. Is start to to do slowly but surely shut down those military bases overseas. We should not be protecting those countries anymore. We simply cannot afford it. This is the real crux. This is the real elephant. This is where our money is being wasted. Thank you so much for bringing up this today. Host thank you. Let us hear from dennis and we will come back to bryan bender. Caller i have two short points and what is the budgeting. Im a vietnam veteran and i paid our ships bills. We were on a quarterly basis. At the end of some quarters, we had money left over and we wondered what to do with it. The ship captain says spend it or we might not get it the next quarter. The other point would be that i kind of did some research and i believe there is only two states in the United States that dont bases not, military counting the national guard. When it comes to a vote to keep , they got in a state just about all the representatives and senators to make sure that their base does not get close. Host mr. Bender. Guest all politics is local. I think the caller is right. One of the Biggest Challenges in reining in the defense spending or at least getting a better handle on some of the waste and some of the spending that is needed is the fact that all of these programs have political constituencies. There are military facilities, defense contractors in virtually every state and congressional district. The pentagon also claims it has about tony 5 extra overhead. 5 extra overhead. U. S. Mostly here in the but also overseas. Once the president ial election is over, there will be a lot of pressure to do another round of race closures. Base closures. That is inherently political because every state and locality will fight to keep the Jobs Associated with those bases . The trick here, and its going to be a difficult one to pull off, is how do you build up enough of a groundswell to go after these wasteful programs and to be able to get over the political powers that be in order to do it . I think that spent the and during and during challenge for america for decades. Im not so sure where at a different spot. Host we have just come over republican jeff, republican caller for bryan bender. There been studies done on the difference between the waste in the government, which is expected, and the waste in business . I know from my own experience in business that that waste just happens to occur. Host last comment from our guest. Guest we did look at that as we looked at the Defense Logistics Agency and this kind of Business Model that they attempted to do back in the 1960s. We compared it to walmart. I was awarded, the pentagon has 7 billion and perhaps half of its inventory that is superfluous. The organization like walmart goes through its entire inventory multiple times a year. Everything that comes into those out 810 times he a a year. There is an inherent pressure to make money and please stockholders. That is not the case of the government unless the taxpayer demands to know what is in the books and where everything is going. Pentagon does not have a lot of incentive to do that. That is what they tried to do to give theit, pentagon more incentive to do what it private business would do every year, which is tally up everything it has got and everything and i spent so stockholders, in this case you the american taxpayer, knows where its going. Host our guest has been bryan bender, the defense editor for politico. Thank you for you time and all the information this mone morning. Thank you for your calls and tweets and facebook participation in the program. We will be back tomorrow for more washington journal. Until then, have a great day. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer washington journal continues