Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160303

Let me tell you whats happening in the campaign. Out romney plans to speak today at 11 30 a. M. Eastern time. We will have coverage of that on cspan3. Post,he washington pandemonium in the gop. Some embrace tromp while others rush to stop them. This is what they report. The stop tromp campaign found a new leader in mitt romney. We want to show you what mitt romney had to say in september last year when he was at the washington ideas. I will support the republican nominee. I dont think thats going to be donald trump. Historically nominated somebody who is a mainstream conservative. Eone who has the how foundation of Foreign Policy that gives people confidence. Weekend saidr the he thought it would be a good idea to let isis takeover syria. I thought that was absurd and dangerous. I dont think that kind of proposal will lead him to become our nominee. That was mitt romney in september. He said he would support the nominee. He is going to speak out today about what is happening in the Republican Party and the front runner. The Washington Post Editorial Board says the time is now to disavow. Voteshould pledge not to for mr. Trump. With politics on the table, we would get to some policy issues out there. Lets get some calls. Good morning. im calling about hillary clinton. I just found out there is going. O be a hearing about her people who areto voting for hillary. They should check their records. I do wish you would take a closer look at Bernie Sanders. He has a plan. He is going to raise the minimum wage to 15. I think Bernie Sanders is going to pick up more states now that hillary has the problems she is having. Host you might be referring to this story from yesterday. Wasate Department Staffer granted immunity. This is part of a criminal investigation it. The increase comes across the political backdrop in which she is the favorite to win the democratic nomination for the presidency. Whats on your mind this morning . Caller its me again. I want to Say Something about the tromp issue with the david duke thing. The interesting thing is this is a true thing for people to check out. I think black people should check it out. I was amazed. Interviewedhan was by alex jones along with david duke. With both of them. Likesfarrakhan actually donald trump. He says he agrees with tromp. He thinks it would be a good idea. The moratorium on muslim migration. Donald the tromp trump is talking about. He is on the right side of history. He is talking about temporary walls in migration. Thats all hes talking about. Host what do you make of the Republican Party trying to stop them. There lots of stories about that. They are trying to figure out the best way to stop them. Is having romney speak out . I have one of those 3 million white guys that did not vote for romney. Why should i . Theyve done nothing for me ever. I am worried about donald trump. I am concerned about his lack of specifics. Im not going to vote for anybody in the establishment. Damn thinger done a for me. Romney is a twotime loser. Why should we listen to him . Registered back in pennsylvania. I am not registered here. I voted for mccain and bush. You did not put it all in 2012 . Caller i did not vote for him. I just wanted to be clear. Now you think this is a protest vote . Caller of course it is. I do care if the party goes down. Donald trump is a nationalist. Theres nothing wrong with securing your borders. This is what every leader has done, whether its eisenhower, he did it. Perfectly the right thing to do. Host mitt romney at 11 30 a. M. Eastern time. Cspan three, cspan radio. You can watch this on your computer. You can get the app as well. You can watch the website. You can watch it many ways. What will he say today . It will not be an endorsement. Indictmentwill be an of donald trump. This is hours before republicans will take to the stage tonight for another debate. Fox is hosting this one. Mitt romney will get a response from donald trump. This is also from the Washington Post about the effort to stop donald trump. There are plans for ruthless acts to discredit donald trump. Lets go to john in all heil. Good morning to you. Me, the tax man. He has called donald duck. I was doing this for you and you should do the same. Vote for hillary. It will make you feel good. Most people out there want something with this country. Hillary is the only one. The rest are not going to be able to get it done. Host what about Bernie Sanders . I dont think hes going to be able to get what he wants. Our country is under debt already. Host this is the upshot column in the new york times. Hi there. Caller good morning. Mr. Romney had his chance. I did vote for him. I thought he would win the presidency. He did not have what it took. Mr. Cop has been open with his wealth. What mr. Trump is going to do for the country. Heres the thing. He was made to sign the letter that said he would not run independent. He did that. Now he is ahead of the republican nomination and they want to take him out. Does that make sense . Does it make sense to you . Trump i think donald will be ok tonight for the debate. Cruise try rubio and to go after them. They have been having a hard time doing it. The statesaffect that are voting. I believe donald trump will take florida. Mr. Rubio will have more mud on his face. Have little children. Host we will leave it there. You said they are not ready. I want to get in some more calls. Inre are 99 delegates florida. Donald trump is ahead by 20 points. Saidr when the caller Louis Farrakhan supports donald this is the chickens coming home to roost. They said they did not want to support obama. They were not going to work with him. Partyeyve got the teabag and the bursars taking over the party. Republicanshment of is trying to have mitt romney defend them. I think its too late. Host there is a story in the paper about that. Did ryan and other leaders not do enough to stop the Tea Party Movement when they had the chance. That has led to the rise of donald trump. There it is on your screen. That is the editorial saying that this morning. Bakersfield, california. Interesting tory listen to some of these callers. The reason i say that is years ago for the Birther Movement came in, the Republican Party has always condoned racism. Now its really come home to roost on them. They always had the clan and everybody else voted. It was and is pronounced when donald trump came along. Donald trump started the Birther Movement. What i find interesting is the fact that paul ryan, mitch mcconnell, when they had the opportunity to stop this, they showed no leadership. They went along with the program. They got together and said they were going to make him a one term president did present. They have to deal with donald trump. Host what you think this morning . Caller im pretty upset hearing about establishment trying to take down donald. My opinion is that if they try never ever vote for a republican if a plus. Ike that. The minorities voting for hillary . Look at where the minorities are right now. The lowest percentage of personal income, the highest unemployment. Hillary says she was to continue that trend. I just dont understand it. Voted . Ave you always caller every president ial cycle. Host do you vote for democrats . Caller i voted for obama because romney was a rater. Its a wellknown fact. He bought companies and broke and up to sell his pieces unemployed millions of people. Host we will get some more calls. Let me they Public Policy issue on the table. This is from the washington times. Parents told their story to the paper. It was a revolving door of failure. The lapse. They did not qualify for the most intensive level of care they denied him because he was not suicidal and had a stable home environment. It was a never ending battle with insurance companies. They treated him like the scum of the earth imagine it being a parent and going through this with your son. Died, he was in a treatment center. He called his mother. He said i love you very much and he went to the bathroom and he overdosed. Host that was a new york senator debating. Wasrepublican said there antidrug measures already in the bill. It theluctant to open amendment failed. Every democrat voted for it. Five republicans did. A portion back at the Supreme Court yesterday. Its a case of texas abortion clinics. It looks like Justice Kennedy will be the determining vote. He was skeptical of both sides in the case. Questions, a ring of the lawyers for both sides about the claim. He said the lower court needed to do more work on this. Justice scalia is no longer on the bench. Area theree on that were rallies outside the Court Hearing people were attending. One was paul ryan. He came out to talk to the crowd. Abortion, the first hearing of that select committee looking into planned parenthood funding had their first hearing. It is being headed up by marsha blackburn. We covered here on cspan. The videos revealed that something troubling is going on relating to fetal tissue and research. Aree with no voice harvested and sold. There is something going on. It demands our best ethical thinking. Fetal Tissue Research is saved millions of lives and has the potential to save millions more. Many republicans have long supported the use of fiddle tissue for research purposes. Not part of ag is serious investigation. States and three conditional committees and a grand jury in texas have found no evidence that planned parenthood is seeking to profit from the sale of fetal tissue. The only criminal acts uncovered have been those of antiabortion extremists who is now under indictment in texas for his role in manufacturing the deeply deceptively edited videos that have fueled the latest attack on women and doctors. Can watch the whole hearing on our website www. Cspan. Org. They are looking into fetal Tissue Research. Too, you can go www. Cspan. Org and follow our schedule of the Political Action conference kicks off today. Nra will bet of the speaking. We will have coverage of that 1 00 eastern time. Marco rubio will be speaking. You can go to our website and find more details throughout the weekend. Nomination,me court this is the new york times. And i would judge is being eyed for the judge. There she is. Consent frommous the senate. Thanks for waiting. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I am thinking about donald trump, he has all that money and he wants to have that power. Host sam is in virginia. Caller good morning. I want to Say Something about mitt romney and paul ryan. They are the reason that obama is president. Election andes the then gets to the speaker of the house. Its been going on for years. White. The population is they are coming out in droves. This election is over. Torick mitt romney has boost trump. If obama says he is against it, that is a boost for trump. Hillary clinton can get away with anything. Have you always voted republican . Caller no. I will this time. The problem is people lose. Bill clinton was impeached. He should have gone to jail for Sexual Assault and he gets reelected area reelected. The Republican Party is finished. Says theretory today are two opportunities for republicans who do not want donald trump to get the nomination to stop. One is march 15. Its winner take all. Marco rubio gets all of those delegates and its a closer race the other opportunity is a brokered convention. The Convention Rules will not be finalized until just before the event opens in cleveland. About two thirds of the delegates will be bound on the first out. Caller i would like to send a message out there to working democrats, especially the people indiana whodia lost their jobs. Do not forget this. Husbandclinton and her pushed for nafta after he got into office. Tim that if you back him, i hope you feel terrible today. You assisted him. He paved the way for these companies to go south area if you think if hillary is any different, you are very foolish. Conrad is in pennsylvania. Youre next. Caller good morning. I havent talked to you in a long time. I just registered as a republican. Ive been an independent for the last seven years. I voted for Dennis Kucinich instead of mitt romney. Romney represents the establishment. The responsible journalists have gone in this country. Im not sure. When i watch the video a couple times, he is turning his head to the side. I think he was having trouble hearing what was happening. You are a journalist, youre asking somebody a question. That wouldve been a fair question. He kept hammering on and on about whether he renounced him. , maybe it was a question he did not hear him correctly. The onus was on the journalist. He needed to be responsible. Host what do you think of him responding with i dont know david duke is . Caller im not sure that he does know who david duke is. The only person who knows that is him. He has renounced him in the past. I dont think the question is predicated on who he was. Who knows. Host let me give you this headline. Gop maintains big turnout. More than nine point oh you people have voted. Works the people cast ballots in the democratic contests. 2008, 9. 6 million voted in the same 15 states. Good morning. You are on open phones. I want to make a comment on planned parenthood in the voting going on. I dont feel our government should be supporting any businesses that give money to candidates. Received 20on million from planned parenthood head. If they have that much money to give away, why isnt it going toward more important things. Host couple of other headlines. Days, scott kelly has his feet on the ground. The commander is back on earth. He landed in kazakhstan from the space station. He spent more time and space than any other american. Maverick dies in a car crash. Energy in the it industry died after he was indicted. Chesapeakeceo of built the company into the second largest producer of natural gas. Whirlpoolried to the eris. According to the reports today, the car was crashed into that wall at a very high speed. Investigators say he had plenty of time to turn his car and avoid the wall. There will be more to come on that. That doesnt for open phones. We will talk to members of congress. We will talk about the efforts to stop the drawdown of land and marine forces. Electionslk with the commission. We will be right back. Tv has 48 hours of authors every weekend. On saturday night, afterwards, he discusses the history of republican politics in his book. Is interviewed by juan williams. Sunday, the investigative journalist. Her latest book is dark money. Join in the conversation. We will be taking your phone calls. Book tv all weekend on cspan2. This years Student Competition was one of the biggest yet. 100,000eted for over in prizes. They produced documentaries and answered the questions what issues they want the candidates to discuss. The students told us the economy, equality, education, and education of the top issues. Tune in wednesday when we will announce the grand prize winner. Live. Cspan takes you on the road to the white house. We follow the candidates on a cspan, cspan radio, and www. Cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. We are back with a bipartisan discussion. We have two members of congress. Congressman chris ibsen is a republican. I want to read your note terry career. 24 years in the army. Retired in 2010. Deployed seven times in iraq, kosovo, and haiti. He is also a member of the armed forces did he is the highestranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in congress did he retired 24 years after enlisting. That because i want to process our discussion with your military career. Youre trying to stop president obama from drawing down. Let me start with you first. Why . Guest its nice to see you again. Privileged to be on here with my colleague and friend. He is doing a fantastic job here in washington. I think we get faulty choices today. We get this choice between an aggressive, bomb every country type of approach or isolationism. I dont think those are consistent with defending the republic. I believe in easter strength. That requires a strong military. When you look at where we are on to have land forces smaller than before world war ii. We are talking about the 1930s. That will take on a significant risk for the country. The assumptions that were made, they are no longer valid. We saw the rise of the islamic state. Sonic north kick korea. When you some that all up, its important that we send a signal to the world that we will not continue to drawdown. We hope that will lead to allowing us to restore deterrence. We can lead with our diplomacy. What do you want the number to be yet . Guest the number the administration is looking for his 450,000. I want to echo what my friend from new york said. He is thoughtful and pragmatic. His goal is peace through strength. He is leading with our smart our. Understanding that this is an everchanging world with current threat. We are looking at what the future could be out. I think the concern is right here in we are making these numbers based on arbitrary budget decisions. We understand you have to make choices. When it comes to the ability to react, when the ebola situation military was the u. S. That stepped in. Credit colonel gibson on this. We put in a study. That came out here just recently. That is changing the debate. Force to doave the what is necessary. In this discussion, you are either right or youre not. You dont get to be close. I want to show our viewers some of the details. You have bipartisan support. Have 25 members right now. The leader of the democrats is right here. I think they are very thoughtful members. See subcommittee chairman, ive had conversations with the full committee and i have talked to speaker about this. The need for this, not only in terms of deterrence but the impact on servicemen and women and their families. When you look at the rotations that our troops are on, they are back and getting reset to go forward. Inare still largely deterrence. If we end up in a major theater troops willof our be the ploy to for the duration. Impact, think about the the issue of posttraumatic stress, you compound that with the possibility here. The datadriven here of why we need to stop this drawdown becomes apparent. Timesthe new york Editorial Board had this to say. People are saying they will make the military stronger. This is what they write. Guest i would not disagree with that. You dont give them a blank check. Sequestration played a key role. We are starting to make decisions were National Security. An arbitrary number was being paid forced on the panic on it. We need to make sure we have enough troops on the ground. You have forces deployed rapidly. They rotated back. Many of those soldiers the lloyd 22 months right after that. Our military is not broken. It is strong and ready to go. World and asanging the threats emerge, we are predicating this on where we thought we would be. These are all the things to think about. I generally agree. I have been an aggressive reformer. You will see acquisition reform in this years poll. Its critically important. When i first came to congress, the military reflected the cold war. We have to have a more agile, rapidly deployable force that reflects the information age. We dont underestimate human dimension at all. Years as a national guardsman. That we need to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars. The the army is also reserve and the national guard. Ron is in wisconsin. Good morning. Whyer i would like to know with all the technical updates that have occurred in the last we are training for our troops to go beyond what we had in world war ii. We have tanks, weapons, we have gps hitting af window in an office, why isnt this type knowledge he reason enough for drawing troops down . The onlylike advantages of having troop levels higher is the troop rotations, i feel bad about that. That was from wisconsin. Guest i think youre right. Technology has reduced the number. We have the Smallest Air Force ever. There are certain things that drown Ground Troops can do. Those are not things you can do. The Collateral Damage from smart weapons and things exacerbates the situation. It brings civilians in. Its laborintensive. I think what we are concerned about is what ron is saying. That oura belief technology alone would be able to do this. The enemy has adapted. We can drop or weaponry on them and they are still there. To dort weaponry is going this. I think what colonel gibson is saying is we need to be smart and targeted. A have started a discussion more adaptable force with not necessarily more money. Guest thank you for the call. There is a human dimension to conflict that i think is often missed or not fully appreciated. I think about 2003. We had leaders that thought iraq would be a cakewalk. As someone who spent for tours in iraq, it was anything but that. It was very difficult. When you look at our National Security policy, its important you see linkages. This will be a personal endeavor. We should have respect for this challenge. Humility ineed your terms of what the instrument of force can do for us. Libyaed against bobbing and syria. I did not want to arm the syrian rebels. We have to get the right mindset. Part of that includes keeping a robust land force that does not impact ofn the servicemen and women and their families. The lives in virginia beach. Caller i am happy to see the two guests you have. Time i was proud to cast my vote for president was for George Herbert walker bush. Time, i cast my vote with reservation. I always voted republican. By the number of veterans and retirees in the military who are running for various political offices. I would like to know what you more formergetting activeduty retirees and veterans who have seen action in both houses of congress. We need to replace these career politicians were only there for themselves. Will listen to your response here in response. Isst what i have found veterans in congress are focused on two things. Mission accomplished and serving others. There have been times ive been in the cloak room. Say this islleagues maybe too hard. Its not hard. At the end of the day, we have to get our work done. That means we have to listen to each other and state mission focused. Never forget we are serving others. Guest i agree. It became obvious to me that we had commonalities in common stories. I said this is someone i would like to serve with. We dont agree on all the issues. Service,eople who know we probably need schoolteachers here. From aonel speaks position of experience. I have talked about the troops. My job is to make sure that they are taken care of. That matters. I would encourage people to get involved. Ive spoken at different events on this. I dont care about political ideology. Thats why were coming together. Height of the veteran experience, it was nearly 80 . Today, its in the low teens. Is not to say that think its informative. It gives a sense of humility to the enterprise. This initial on kneejerk reaction to use force. Have retired a la terry calling in. We have a fourth line. Reducingking about u. S. Military forces. Texas. Go to good morning. I had a comment. Its depressing to wake up to see two of our about warn talking and people coming back dead or dismembered over a few crazy people. Host i assume he is talking about isis. You believe they are real threat to the United States . Guest i think its evident when you look at the facts. They have done everything they can to attack us. Bill that iassure believe in peace through strength. That is a principle. I was influenced by Ronald Reagan when he first ran for office. People thought he was a warmonger. 80s, we did the have peace through strength. 1983 was an interesting year. We lost marines. The culmination of that, reagan pulled greens out. We thought this was the guy. He did not want to get us suck into decades long conflict. His eyes to keep higher than that in terms of peace through strength. This is not about warmongering at all. I would like nothing more for this generation to not see shots fired in anger. You have to have a strong posture. Joel is in naples, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. Id like to ask these gentlemen with a straight face if they would look in the camera and seriously say that we are going to start a ground war with china or russia. Do they really feel that we are going to put boots on the ground . That we will seriously start around war against china or russia. Asking thatu because you see that as the only justification for keeping levels the way they are . Caller their justification is isis, china, and russia. That ii would say to you agree with the boots on the ground. There are feet and all of them. I serve on the v. A. Committee. We help author legislation. I take that very seriously. Sure we haveking the ability to be a deterrent. I hope thats not the case. I lived in china for many years. Im trying to understand the relationship with the emerging powers. Responsibility is to the security of the nation. We are at a point now were we have the smallest ground force we have had. I do want to underestimate this. This makes friends to us. The u. S. Military is equipped do that. No, we dont go there. When you look at north korea, we cant not be prepared that. Its unforgivable. We are trying to strike that proper balance. No soldier wants to go to war. No soldier wants to see this. Our hope is that its hypothetical and never happens. That we agree we dont want to see a ground war with china. If you want to deter that, you have to have strength. At peace through it can be a very complex suspect. It comes down to two aspects. If you have will, but no feasibility, you dont have it. The incredible experience of our military today is unmatched in our own history. Its not about that. Thee looked at posttraumatic stress in constant rotation. We can have the right sized land force. Impact ourng to servicemen and women and their families. Is retiredt military. It morning. To this, theding , i wasy system of the wounded 28 times. We have air support. North of the great wall, estonia. Host do you want to take that one . Guest i think part of what we deal with are the myths associated with conflict. Oftentimes, there is the belief that we can do it surgically or from the air and it has never proven out. There were National Leaders that thought iraq was going to be a cakewalk. I think it is important that we one basedpproach on on a careful review of history and the data available. From ahis next one comes retired military independent. Gentlemenod morning, and greta. Im a retired army captain, 19661967. Please dont thank me for my service unless you are a corporation or with the militaryindustrial complex. Vietnam was a criminal endeavor, as far as im concerned. Think iraq was much better. These wars cost lots of money. What brought done the roman empire, what brought down the spanish empire, what brought others was imperialism. These words are not national depends, they are neoimperialism. On our military as the rest of the world combined and most of that rest of the world are our allies. If you insist we must have this insist military force, i that you pay for it. All of this comes out of the discretionary budget for which we borrow . 40 out of every dollar and have been doing so for at least 15 years or longer. I want you to pay for what you are spending now and make the taxes as much as as what we spent in the last 1415 years. Host ok, jack. I agree with you. We need to pay for this. We are conflating two things. I think you heard colonel gibson talk about the frustration. It has now been decades. Those were policy issues made in the civilian government. American troops to carry out those policies. Not rush intod to these things. I had great reservations with. Yria as my constituents did thingsld pay for these including the veterans care after the war. This is an arbitrary decision on the size of the land force. Debate and discussion. Is whatussion on this is going to be asked in the name of policy. A wonderful system of elections if policy is wrong. We can say there are not going to be natural disasters. We cant control the situation. Lets be prepared, lets make sure we have the deterrence there. It is not an excuse for not preparing those folks who have to carry out the policy. Guest i think we agree. Onave even published a book combating neoconservatism. I waive all loyalties royalties. I dont make a penny on the book. Hill in vote on capitol my first term in the congress on a budget that was roughly based on the Simpson Bowles approach and would have got us back to the balanced budget. I get that point completely. I think it is important that we get this right. Then put us back on the right footing for the country. Host do you have an army base in your district . Guest i do not. Guest i do not. Host it is not about your constituents . Guest it is about the nation. Guest it is about troops that have been deployed. We are not asking to build the force up. We are asking to keep it at a level that we can do this. Has been a significant drawdown and we have become more efficient through technology. I listen to folks on the ground telling us some of these things are laborintensive. Whether it is humanitarian relief or a mission in iraq. Thedebate about whether iraq war was right or not is a debate that should be had here. Today, there are roughly about 480,000 troops. From 570,000o go troops down to 450,000 troops. We think that will actually and ultimatelye end up in more war that will cost us this generation, but also money we dont have. Guest we are still drawing down nearly 100,000 with our proposal. We are not asking to build a larger military. Host i want you guys to respond to the Senate Defense hearing about the army budget with the army chief of staff. Say aboutat he had to the idea of reducing the troops down. [video clip] the short answer would be, having think that increased numbers would help out if and only if we had the money to support that. That is really fundamental. Reason that this budget has us on a glide path toward 450,000 and 335,000 in the that is the size force balanced with modernization and readiness that we can afford given that topline. Etc. The budget agreement, is more money were available, that would be great. I do want to caution that numbers are not the only thing. Quality matters. When i talk readiness, im talking about units that are full up on strengths, are highly trained, are capable of sustaining and executing counterinsurgency operations. , that isis important important, but that is one of many factors to determine capability in the outcomes of ground combat. Guest i couldnt agree more. We dont want a hollow force. Monthst the next 18 taping off howitzer crews and using toilet paper rolls as charges to train. That is no way for a great nation to train. We understand that there is a tale that comes to this. You need to provide the benefits to the troops, you need to provide those things. They are welcoming the numbers. People will say, they will welcome anything if you give it to them. This is about a welltrained force on the ground to adapt to all situations. Guest we dont want to have a situation might we had in the early 1970s when we had strength, but it was not capable. That in thes with 1950s, as well. We look at this in great detail, in terms of what the number is. We have had a series of hearings that we can document toward the public record, the risk associated with continuing down to levels in the 1930s. At the same time, understanding what that would cost. We have a pretty good understanding. We think we have it managed. Margaret, an independent in oklahoma. Caller good morning. Uncle was iny pattons platoon at the battle of the bulge. We have been in every war, including the new ones. I had one son in special forces eight years. Years. In a cast 3. 5 he was supposed to have a surgery. Thank god that the lord healed him and the doctor was astounded. Areaid, it looks like you not going to have to have surgery after all. On our troops, everybody yells about the va hospitals. We need a vet card. I know somebody very well that works the emergency room at the hospital. If you arent illegal or a , theye, you can go in give you a medicaid form and they come in six at a time for every little thing like a sore throat. But a veteran who is not paid well may have a pregnant wife, maybe a couple of children, and when the gas was higher, he had to go to hundred miles in an old car, pray that they could get their, and then wait 14 hours. I have taken people to the va hospital and who was sitting across from them . If you had been fighting and im not politically correct if you have been fighting the muslims who swear to kill you and they will do with their cleric tells them to do, you do not want them giving you a shot or caring for you in any way shape or form. They dont speak english. You dont know that the muslim treating that person at the Veterans Department is wanting to do what other terrorist groups. Guest ive served alongside muslims in our u. S. Army who have served honorably. A heartfelt thank you to your family has done what was asked of them. My main goal is that members of congress have carved up places to make a difference. I also represent the mayo clinic. Folks will tell you that the poly Trauma Center in minneapolis is one of the finest hospitals in the country. Have been to one va hospital, you have been to one va hospital. There are problems and they are inexcusable. Comewe are talking about these things are all tied together. If it were up to me, you would have one budget that would include the the a the v. A. As a nation, we need to understand that the va hospital serves a critical purpose. I think there are chances for reform. I think you need to because she is giving a card. The card in rural parts of america means there are no doctors or general practitioners and many veterans want to go or they are known. V. A. E work to do in the you give them a card and we wash our hands of it the va less of ans far infection rate than the general hospitals. We have to make sure we are providing the best of both worlds. Dont think that we are just asking for in strength numbers and not having that. That is a top priority that goes handinhand. Once again, peace through strength. Nothing would make me happier. Are just reviewing history and trying to apply the lessons. I would just add that what we we have tried to improve the v. A. And we have been on them. We also did pass the more sweeping v. A. Reform in our lifetime and it did provide for access to local doctors. The point was to reduce the backlog that we saw in arizona and other places. Than 40 milesre from a v. A. Facility or if your appointment with more than 30 days, we sent a choice card and that would give a veteran access to local doctors. The choice was to reduce the backlog, have veterans seen by Health Care Professionals sooner , ensuring the highest quality. There are things kinks to that system that we are working out. About Veterans Health care in a vacuum outside of General Health care. Weve got to get rid of people who do not do their job. We have to be able to hire people and retain them into the system to serve our returning veterans. Host is there a way to keep the force at the same level you would like to keep it at while not spending more money . Other areas in the pentagons budget in the armys budget where money is being wasted . St we had this commission we did this about a year and a half ago. We asked for a look at that and the answer is yes. Canhis years bill, you expect to see acquisition reform. We are just not as agile as we need to be. We have a series of hearings on that to document how we can do better. You are looking at the private areor and ways that they able to commercialize and get things to their customers faster. That is going to save us money. We have had a significant reduction in the National Investment through National Security. We have insisted on lets be smart about this. We want to get the taxpayers the best value. We also want to put ourselves in a posture where we have peace through strength. If you make the wrong decisions, you could end up inviting a challenge. Host people who care about this topic might be interested in your report. Guest the Armed Services committee have it on their website. This is the commission for the future of the army. This is just one of the reports. Also learn more about the efforts for acquisition reform. Guest yes, there are places we can save. Anytime the pentagon wants to save money, they come after benefits for the troops, which we are open to looking at, but my take away is that should be the last place we are looking. I agree with chris on this. We can find this. We are asking them to have a smart force, to take a look at how it deals with actual soldiers on the ground. Host if you go to the house Armed Services committee website, you can find the report. I want to thank you both for talking to our viewers this morning, coming on together. We dont get that often. We hope you come back again. Guest thank you. Host up next, we are going to turn our attention to the election. We will be talking with super will bedon and we talking with thomas ask about the role of his group and ensuring access to the voting booth and implementing changes to the election process. Assistancen commission was created in 2002 in part because of the 2000 election and the issues surrounding the state of florida. Listen to than the florida secretary of state Katherine Harris following the discrepancies in voting in that state. [video clip] we will all remember these times as some of the most critical and defining moments in our nations history. A time when we, as americans, are working to ensure the meaning and vitality of our democratic system. Florida,nd, here in our local supervisor of elections, or division of elections staff, and countless dedicated have themselves to the accurate reporting of election results. Of us take this responsibility seriously, given the National Implications of this election and are statutory responsibility to ensure the integrity of our elections process. This recount is mandated by florida law whenever a final ballot puts the margin of 0. 5 percent. S than the department of state requested all of our locally elected supervisors of elections to forward their recount results by 5 00 p. M. Today. The divisions of elections reported receiving recount results from 53 counties in florida. Results inl awaiting 14 florida counties, which, by law, have until tuesday, november 14 to submit those returns to the office of the secretary of state. Official certification commenceg will not until the original signed forms from all 67 counties attesting to their certified results have been received by our office. As of 5 00 p. M. Today, the unofficial certified results of the recount are as follows. ,overnor george w. Bush 2,909,661. ,ice president al gore 2,907,877. A difference of 1784 votes. The following is very important. Under statutory law, legally cast florida ballots received bym overseas must be counted the supervisors of elections for 10 days following the general election. Is november 17, 2000. Know this, we will continue to perform a responsibilities in this process with a ensure theon to accuracy and independence of this process. Washington journal continues. Host at our table is congressman hicks, the chair of the u. S. Election Assistance Commission. Guest thanks for having me on. The u. S. Election Assistance Commission came about after 2000 with the florida vote. We were established by congress, signed by president roche. The first time that the election community, the congressional members of congress, and advocacy groups came together with a civil rights piece of legislation very quickly. We have distributed 3. 2 billion to the states to reform the election process. So that the things that happened in florida do not happen again. Host what reforms were made . Guest new Voting Systems were put into place. Right now, over half the states have online Voter Registration to allow citizens to register to vote using their computers or smartphones. We also distribute quickstart guides to aid Election Officials. We talked about things that they can do to improve the election process. Host has enough progress been made . Guest there is always more that can be made. We hope that our agency can do more to help voters and help Election Officials to improve the election process. No one wants to see a repeat of 2000. Our agency is here to do more to help folks improve the election process. We have worked together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that the elections are not seen as partisan and are moving toward better run elections. Host what are the biggest reforms that states need to do that they have not done yet . Guest i think states know what they need to do and they are still working on those issues themselves. For instance, machines were purchased 10 years ago and those systems are very old. They are more like the fact that if you have a classic car, to maintain that classic car, you change the oil, you change the brakes, the tires that car will continue to function well. Excuse me. Host go ahead. Guest what you want to do is make sure that that classic car continues to run well. That is the same thing with Voting Systems. , we have 10 tips of selecting Voting Systems and 10 tips to manage aging voting equipment. If viewers want to look at our ensure, it is there to that there is adequate information only for voters, but also for Election Officials. Host as you were talking, we were putting it up on the screen. Guest we are in the process of revamping our website to make it more 21st centurycompatible and make sure that there is more information put out to voters so that they can make sure that they get to the polls correctly. Host lets get you a drink of water. Michaelou to show what walton had to say when he was recently on the program. He is at the Brennan Center for justice and has been following this issue for years. Here is what he had to say about this issue. [video clip] the Voting Machines we have now after the debacle of the recount in florida in 2000, as you all remember, it was a tight election and the recount was a mass and we realized the machines were not good. Gave money for all the states to buy new electronic machines. A lot of people were worried that they could be hacked or votes would be stolen. It is not such a worry right now. If there is a paper record, there are other ways to make it safer. Those machines are not 15yearold computers. A lot of them are going to break. In 46 states, they are 10 years old or more. We are going to have to buy new Voting Machines over the next several years and, hopefully, they will be better and will give confidence. A lot of these new machines are better than the old ones, which were also susceptible to error and fraud. Host cut another florida happen . Guest there is always the possibility for another florida. I think states are doing their best to ensure that the equipment functions correctly and as it is designed. I believe that all americans want the same thing. Clear elections, secure elections, and that the integrity of the elections are not called into question. These systems are old and are like classic cars. If you maintain them well, they will function well. If you have a 10yearold machine, what you want to do is update the software, and sure that the hardware is functioning as planned. We have a Testing Certification program. We have three testing labs around the country that certify voting equipment and the software. We ensure that those machines, as designed, function as designed. Host we are talking with thomas hicks, the chair of the election Assistance Commission. Legislation that came out of that was the 2002 help america vote act that required provisional voting, voting , statewide updated Voter Registration databases, voter identification procedures, administrative complaint procedures, as well. I want to show our viewers voters in 2014 eligible to vote 219. 9 million. Registered to vote 142. 2 million. In this primary, we are seeing record turnout for republicans. Democrats are registering as republican and turning out in these states, many to vote for donald trump, ted cruz, marco rubio. Does the highvolume concern you about the election process and whether or not it could be compromised . We want all eligible voters to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Aidsfore, the commission in the process of registration. State has a database for registration. More than half of the states now have online Voter Registration. This is the opportunity for voters to go out at this very moment to ensure that their registration is up to date, so that if they vote in the primary, that they dont have issues at the polls or if they go to vote in november, that they dont have issues in the polls. Most of the issues we find and hear about our Voter Registration issues in voters go out now issues. Now, they canut alleviate any problems come november. Host this is the overall progress on modernizing vote or registration. The blue states have online Voter Registration and data exchange. Orange states, just data exchange. The green states, online Voter Registration. The gray states means more needs to be done. A big state like texas still has not modernized voting processes. Guest i think we all agree that more can be done in terms of the Voter Registration process. Believe that states like texas are moving toward getting more people registered to vote. I think that the election Assistance Commission can aid texas and other states in finding the best ways to do Voter Registration. Host what is your budget . Guest we have 9. 6 million appropriated by the congress and signed by the president. Host is it enough . Guest it is never enough, but we will do what we have. The president has said that 9. 6 million is what we will get and if host lets get the calls. Caller good morning. He made a point earlier about the record turnout. For my numbers, i was doing some research on the first three or four primary caucuses. Its the low turnout. People, imf concerned with the time and money being spent and people are not voting. I will let you respond to me. What do you do about people who wont vote and dont seem to find out . We are spending our cycle focusing on people who cant find the time or find out about the election. There waiting for one little soundbite to make your decision rather than trying to be more reason to. They probably spend more time on fantasy football. Guest thank you for your question. I think the constitution says that everyone has the right you have the right not to vote. People might stay away for that reason. The election Assistance Commission provides information to the states and to voters on what their rights are. Cant escort people to the polls. We have given money to the states themselves to help aid the registration process. We deal with the administration of the election. We pass out as much information as we can on the actual process. I would encourage you to be a poll worker. One of the fascinating things tout this country is we get participate in the system itself. If there are people out there who dont believe in the candidates that are out there, one of the things they can do is serviceable worker. A new putting together poll worker guide for the states. Get younger poll workers, we are going to film a weapon so that talks more about poll worker training. When you go to the polls, you can exercise your right to vote. Host we can look at the expandingor voting, options. The blue states have early voting. Have earlytates voting. All maile states have voting. What is the best option . Host i dont think there is a best way. What works in New Hampshire might not necessarily work in california. There are three states that do all mail in talent. Do of the things that we can is ensure that whatever method help itg you do, we can functions the way its intended. Ballots early. The way people voted in 1980 is not the way they will vote in 2016. We want to move to more computer assisted voting. We want to ensure that the delivery is done correctly. Maybe i can fill out my ballot home and bring it to the polls. Three things in the help america vote act talk about disabled voters. They have traditionally been left behind in terms of accessibility. On disabledstrong voters in military voters being able to exercise their right to vote and doing so independently and privately. Host andrew is in rochester, new york. Caller i was wondering if mr. , you have any way of enforcing . Philadelphia has these problems with people being intimidated at the polls by these plaque anther type groups. Do you have any remedy that you have for that . It was a huge debacle. Guest thank you. The commission does not deal with the enforcement of election laws in terms of intimidation and things like that. If you see those sorts of things, i encourage you to talk to your Election Officials or the poll workers there to ensure this does not happen. No one wants to have Voter Suppression. That goes without saying. If you hear of foresee these sorts of things, i encourage you to report them. There are people out there to ensure these things do not happen. They also ensure that those people have the right to vote. Right to have access to the polls as well her. As well. Is, if you question have a valid ballot and you put your thumb print on it, all this , its itoter fraud comes back thats not you, that would be a true case of voter fraud. That individual could be penalized. Host we will take that point. Guest it sounds like you are advocating for additional voting methods in terms of verification. We leave that up to the states. People who say they are cast in those votes are actually those people. If the congress decides they want to have additional rightards put into place, now states are using the best they can to ensure those are voting. What is the rule of your agency when there is voter fraud . Do you investigate . Guest no. It depends on the race of self. We would not be involved in any sort of recount. Race,s a congressional the house of representatives overseas its the electorate. They would send out people from the Administrative Committee to senate rules would be the same for the senate. The campaigns have plenty of lawyers. Host you are on the air with thomas hicks. Go ahead. Good morning. Atm or gas any machine, my card in and get a receipt. Why cant these machines produce a receipt to show you who you voted for and what time you voted . We want to ensure that there is no voter intimidation. Historically, there has not been we want ballots to remain secret. Thatant a receipt to say you want to ensure that your vote is being counted correctly. Systemse paperbased that go toward ensuring ballots being counted accurately. We dont tell the states how they should run their systems. We want to ensure that the elections are run the best way they know how. He will give advice on the way those are run. Host good morning to you might. Welcome to the conversation. Caller in light of the fact that donald trump and Bernie Sanders of made it clear that they have received tremendous response, corruption in our government waste on billionaires campaigns, i think whats happened now, donald trump has done a Tremendous Service for the country. He is reforming campaign financing. Adan look on tv and see an from a politician. I can see the name of the donors. I can see whos actually doing that. , you could make available a list. You could keep uptodate, who the donors are and how much. Politicianse are who appropriate money to israel. You can get that online. If you were to make available publicly on a website of some public andhe voting guess whats going to happen . When the voter decides on the person, theyre not going to vote for that night. You will have reformed the system. Thank you for your question. We are dealing with the actual financing of elections. That would be geared towards them in terms of the actual financing. The commission is here to basically give advice to the totes and to voters on how best deal with the administration of elections themselves. Baltimore. Caller thank you for the show. I have a recommendation. Should call to your board and find out how your system is working. I did this. I called the board of elections. The question was what is the deadline for registration and what is the date for the primary . Me, i have to look at up. I waited on the line for five minutes. That they cant tell you when the registration is and when the primary is. I called my City Council Person and told them the board does not know simple questions like this . These things discourage people from voting. Turn up your television and listen to the answer. Guest thank you for that important question. It sounds like you are frustrated. I hear what you are saying. We are here with election dates for federal elections. When primaries happened, when general elections occur, i encourage you to not be discouraged. This sounds like you are very passionate about elections. I want you to volunteer. This goes to all the colors out there. I want you to volunteer as a poll worker. I want you to see it from the inside. Train the states in terms of poll workers themselves. There is a vast shortage of poll workers. That,ing that will help the number of people who go out and volunteer. They can go to their local election councils. They can look at the secretary of states website. They can look at local clerks websites. Website, we have a guide for that as well. This agency was created after the 2000 recount. They made many reforms. We are talking about efforts that have been made and were the progress is. We going to continue with this conversation for about 15 minutes and the house will gavel in for their Early Morning on thursday. Keep calling with your questions and comments. Here is one from her. Twitter. Thats a good question. I talked to a lot of voters and Election Officials. Thats what the number one question that we have. Its not secure yet. We want to make sure that the elections are secure. There are states moving toward computerassisted coding. Is of the things states do send out a ballot electronically. They allow for you to bring your smartphone to the polls and have a qr code where you can print out the ballot and that in as well. Were moving toward that. To say we are not there now is an understatement. I hope people are there some day in my lifetime. There are risks involved. Hopefully, 10 years from now we are not talking about those risks. We do the voluntary Voting System guidelines. I encourage people to get involved with helping rewrite those standards. Website, theres a way to volunteer to be on working groups that allow you to talk about improving the way the systems are going to be done. Thats the election. Those standards are being rewritten. Standards we use now or written three years before the iphone. We want to move forward with that. Host your question or comment. Caller good morning. Theuestion is with all fraud questions, with all the hacking going on with the industriesand the with the companys getting hacked for information, this early voting, what assurances do people have that the information is not compromised . All of the comes down to that. What assurance do we have that thats not compromised . Guest thank you for that question. We hear that question want. One of the assurances that , go talk to your local Election Officials. Find out what equipment is being used. Those systems can be audited. Believe the way we went to ensure our elections run smoothly is to talk more with Election Officials. We want to make sure that our ballots are being counted. Host how are you ensuring security . The have guidelines that we are working on now. We are working toward talking to industry people in the field. There are lots of advocates out there who have conferences around the world. We talk about computer security. Host good morning. Caller good morning. Guest good morning. Caller i have a question and a comment. What do voters have is a takesse when our party away our choice . Congress has our lives in their hands every day. Thatmake decisions for us concern our lives and way of life. When we vote for the person we ,ant to put in the Office Congress steps in and says host what are you specifically talking about . The representatives from congress have stated that they dont like who the Republican Voters have been at the top. They are fighting this at every 10 print turn. Host you are talking about donald trump. Caller i think whoever the people vote for, they need to listen to us. Host the papers are talking about stopping donald trump and if there were a brokered convention and the establishment tried to take the combination nomination away, do you have that. Guest we have no role in who the candidates are. Our role is for the administration of the elections themselves. No matter who is on the ballot, our role is to say we are here to assist the states on how the election runs. Host it is the party of themselves the right rules for their conventions. Guest right. To the best of my knowledge. We will go to homestead, florida. Caller how are you today . Good morning. I have two questions to find out if its under the purview of this agency. One of them was i lived in florida. Not you but byd another website misinforming people as to win the elections actually were. Early voting will only go through the fifth, but this website had it to the 12th. Do you monitor things like that . My second question is we talk about these paper ballots that we shoved into the machine being a way to validate what the vote is. Is there any random counts making sure the paper ballots match with the machine . I will take my answer off the air. Guest thank you. Those are two good questions. There are audits and there are recounts to ensure the elections were counted accurately. The first part of your question early voting and people saying the wrong date for it date. If you know of Voter Suppression or fraud, toptier local Election Officials. No one is wanting to have any sort of piece of the election recalled into question. The integrity of our vote is one of the greatest rights that we have. Report these things to your local election official. Has early voting and absentee voting. The states in green are the ones with early voting only. Are thees in orange ones that have allmale voting. Il voting. Caller i have a question. We have a Wisconsin Administration that is doing everything to suppress the vote now. Primary,cent judicial my husband who is disabled did not get his absentee ballot. They say its a new computer program. I would like to know why we were spit out. They say it was a whip. Myself, it to vote saw a big pile of absentee ballots sitting on the table. Thes told according to absentee ballot, it had to be in by friday. I rushed it to city hall for my husband. I requested a ballot, which i never got. Id like to know if those ballots are going to be counted that were sitting on the table there were absentee ballots. We have a Crooked Administration here. Guest thank you for your question. I think the question about alan absentee ballots, if you see this going on, you should question it at that time to pull workers themselves. Are they supposed to be there . Pull workers are doing their best to ensure the election runs smoothly. The ballots were not absentee ballots. They could have been something else. , make have a question sure you ask that question. We dont deal with those sorts of issues after the fact. We deal with the administration of the election to make sure its the only place laid out correctly. That the votes are cast and counted correctly. If you have questions about the election,of the talked to the local election official to get your answer. George is in texas. I will be very quick. Thank you for your work i would like to say there is no security whatsoever. Withmuch easier to tamper electronic means recording. Its much easier to cover up the electronic paper trail. Host we will get a response. Commissionlieve the will deal with the overall function of elections themselves in terms of if you are using electronic means of voting. Thats what our testing and Certification Program is for. Paper ballots to do the same thing. Host im going to try to squeeze in this call. Caller i hope you can explain and tell me how did florida end , how did florida get a chance to elect the president . Host im not sure we havent time to explain that. Commission came from the issues that occurred in 2000. We will be here to help ensure that working with states to ensure those dont happen again. One of the things i wanted to talk about is our. With contingency plans for states in terms of ensuring that the election is run without interruption. Our poll worker training, our clearinghouse function, we ensure that states go out there and run the election the best way they know how. For people to volunteer to become coworkers. Host you can find all that on their website. Thank you so much for your time. We bring you now to the house. They are gaveling in early this morning. Cspan. Erage is on the speaker the house will be in order. The prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. Chaplain conroy let us pray. God of mercy, thank you for giving us another day. Give us the resolve to bring an end to hunger in our world. Quicken our spirits so that we will know the blessings of living together in unity and peace. We all have our personal aspirations and ideas of what is best. Grant that we might know the satisfaction of sharing our Common Concerns and experience the joy of mutual accomplishment. Bless the members of the peoples house with the success