Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160428

War. It drew mixed reaction from leaders in washington. This morning, we want to hear what our viewers thought of the address. Let us know about what you thought of the american first foreignpolicy that he sought to lay out yesterday. Republicans call in on 202 7488001, democrats, 202 7488000, independents, 202 7488002. You can catch up with us on social media. Twitter, facebook. A good thursday morning to you. A few of the headlines following that foreignpolicy speech yesterday. Trump to world America First. That is the New York Times this morning. For the front page of usa today, trump doctrine, dont speak softly. Times sets the scene yesterday at the address speaking blocks away from the white house. Ng ased a teleprompter telli reserved audience largely drawn from washington think tank establishments that his approach replaces randomness with purpose , ideology with strategy and chaos with peace. Heres a little bit more from the address on his approach to the use of military force. Notld trump i will hesitate to deployed military force when there is no alternative. But if america fights, it must only fight to win. [applause] sendd trump i will never our finest into battle unless necessary, and i mean absolutely necessary, and we will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital v. [applause] donald trump our goal is peace and prosperity not destruction. The best way to those goals is to make consistent and deliberate Foreign Policy. With president obama and secretary clinton, we have had the exact opposite. A reckless and aimless Foreign Policy. One that has blazed a path of destruction. Reduction the the reaction yesterday. Newt gingrich wrote on twitter, this was a serious foreignpolicy speech by donald trump. It is worth reading and thinking about. Lindsey graham, former president ial candidate, wrote that the speech is pathetic in terms of understanding the role that america place in the world. That then to write foreignpolicy speech is not conservative, it is isolationism surrounded by disconnected thought and demonstrates a lack of understanding to the threats we face. Yesterday, donald trump speech is the most erotic evidence thus far that he fails the president ial test. John kasich has assembled a member of experts. And Hillary Clinton wrote that the foreignpolicy isnt just offensive, its dangerous. We want to hear about you and what you think this morning. Let us know what you thought of policy. Ica first stephen, you are first up. Go ahead. Caller thank you for having me. I thought it was interesting to see donald work off a teleprompter and try to sound a little more president ial, is what you would call it . Ng is obviously not as exciti that way but i do think his ideas are good. I hope he can implement those. Host which ones in particular . Caller his concept of being less and inventive in Foreign Affairs is good. I think his idea of working from strength rather than weakness. I think the various freetrade agreements have been disastrous for this country. Not because the concept is wrong but because of the way they are lamented. And how unintelligibly we enter into these agreements with these other countries who are doing a better job of negotiating. Having someard to negotiators sit on the side of a america. I am a vietnam veteran and a former peace corps volunteer and have been around the world. I agree 100 that we have been out for naples with regards to negotiations. On that point, usa today talks about the vision for who he would have helped lead the Foreign Policy. In the analysis of the speech, it would leave most of the foreign forests a foreignpolicy establishment scratching their heads. But he has little use for the community of columnists, talkings and television heads who define the boundaries of americas role in the world. Thats why i look and have to look for talented experts with approaches and practical ideas rather than surrounded myself with those who have perfect resumes. Donald trump said that. We have to look to new people because the old people dont know what they are doing. York,s up next in new good morning. Caller good morning. It seems that donald trump shares in common with the republican field a serious blindside about the relationship with americas best interest and Climate Change. Even our own military leaders have made it pretty clear that Climate Change is a force. It is a conflict multiplier. It increases the likeliness of people coming across borders because of resource failure. It increases the likelihood of people fighting over resources. It increases the risk to our navy and military forces around the world as the conditions of the ocean change. Whenhe ability to wage war necessary, it becomes more difficult and expensive. And that is only one of the many reasons why she is not a professional he needs to be. He has to be able to balance the necessities of the world against the apparent interest of America First and realize that we cant serve our own interest at all face theare ready to biggest problems facing everyone in the world. Host arthur is waiting in arkansas, morning. Caller how are you doing . Those like to make a comment, if i may. This ideaple that old, white people vote for donald trump. I am an african american. He is the only one who has the guts to do what is necessary. Radical islamic terrorists to keep them from destroying our country. I can take a few insults as long as we have somebody who is tough and will get the job done. People talk about his rashness but that is what we need in the age we live in. We need somebody tough who will defend us and put America First and bring jobs back to the country. Host that term, America First, what does that mean to you . Caller looking after our people first. I dont say, dont have compassion. We just have to make sure we are safe with our jobs and our people. Jobs wont mean anything to us if we are blown up. Id rather do the right thing to protect our country. Slow this down so that people can detect the wrong people and get them out of here. That is all. People say he is a racist but i have not seen any of that. Many people wanted him to and his david duke, ideas were not helpful to us. But what if that one vote would get him across . So [indiscernible] you are saying the david duke vote is what he should accept . Caller what im saying is that it might get him across the finish line. Because it looks like everyone is against him. That means he is trying to do something good. Host we will stick to the american foreignpolicy speech yesterday. Msnbc reporter noted thathe America First name was a name of a Charles Lindbergh isolationist group that opposed world war ii, going back to the history of the term, America First. Yournt to know about understanding of fat and what it means to you and your take away from Donald Trumps foreignpolicy speech yesterday. Nick is in tennessee, and independent. Good morning. Caller lets get to the America First statement. I have a grandson and he is aspiring to be a marine lieutenant. And the thought of him getting captured and the butcher in benghazi. The commanderinchief, and my grandson being captured makes me want to vomit. Ok . Hundreds of people are going to die because of this mess. One way or another. That is America First, when you put our guys and ladies on the line. I am tired of the leftist think of a neighborhood. A childhood neighborhood. It is your family. America is your family. You put your neighbors first. Drug dealers or lilo people. Ad it is refreshing to hear possible commanderinchief say that we are going to win. This compromise means capitulation. He talksherefore about General Macarthur and that is what we need, if we are going to have foreignpolicy. My covelli had a saying. Look at Hillary Clinton and obama, they put themselves around a Climate Change fanatic where the terrorists are the ones threatening us. If we continue this trend that the liberals push, americas will be under more for 30 years. Ok . Next inrl is up delaware, a democrat. Good morning. Caller i listened to his foreignpolicy speech. We have to have peace with people. You know . Host how do you achieve the peace . World you have to have a and people in your cabinet that know how to get along with other countries. We have to have peace to save lives. Right now, they dont have no more ground troops. War is an ugly thing. The only thing to save us from the vietnam war was that it was the bomb that we dropped on them. And now the world is going to bonds and nuclear bombs. Host what happens when other otheries or groups with countries dont want to have peace with us . Caller we are a superpower. In technology, we are number one. And when you have to stretch your army thin, that is a sign of weakness. That is a sign of weakness to me. We are one with technology. We can do everything we want. We have to represent our country to take care of people in our country. We cant have people threaten us or kill us. We shouldnt be in fear of anybody. Host sherry is in georgia, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Yes, we should have walls even jerusalem has four walls. And his name is biblical. The last trump. As faro by the bible and as getting along with other people, there are only two kinds. Those who belong to god and those who belong to the devil. They will never get along until god comes back. Host jonathan, oregon. You are on the washington journal. Caller good morning. I am dumbfounded by the guy. I think he is insane. And i think america is insane. He is scary. Number one. Person, [indiscernible] host what do you specifically disagree with . Caller i wouldnt call anything that he said was foreignpolicy. He doesnt have clout or education, policy, whatever it is. We cannot use that kind of language on the washington journal. The economists column lexington took on the speech yesterday. Here is how the lexington columnist described it. Bears trumps description no resemblance to diplomacy. For an american president , world offense arrive in a rush and cannot be tackled one by one or i appointment. Nor can geopolitical and commercial rivals be dismissed and forgotten. As all mr. Trumps bravado, when he said that if america and china do not find a mutually beneficial relationship, they can go therefore and ways. Msnbcrker was speaking on and set the remarks were full of substance and he was very pleased with what he heard. If you look at the broadness of the vision, it was a major step forward. That was quoted by politico. They also quoted the written statement saying i look forward to hearing more details but in a year where every frederick is defining the president ial race, my hope is that both parties will start to focus on the problems we face and on the solutions. Plenty of reaction by those here in washington. Did you watch it . What did you make of it . Tell us what you think of the term America First. George, good morning. Caller i have a question. Donald trump is going to start world war iii. Can you hear me . Host what is your question . Going todonald trump is start world war iii. Yeah. Host all right. Independent, an odell. Caller i just want to throw into the conversation that i am iraqi freedom and anytime i see someone get on a stage and has no idea of personal sacrifice and talk about going to like it is a game won, it makes me feel like none of these people have any idea what they are asking of their military. I cant imagine somebody like that being in charge of all of these people and all of my brothers and sisters in arms. It sounds terrible. Host talk to me about how the idea of view to idea of military members viewing their commander in chief . Talk about your view of the president. Is an important person to the military. That is the guy who is making decisions on where youre going and what you are doing when you get there. So, you know, a lot of people have various views on george bush during my time but he wasnt an experienced military guy myself his self. And yet we have a guy with zero experience talking about winning like it is a game. Like we chess pieces on a board. And that does not strike any confidence in his ability to make a decision, militarily. It time for somebody with military experience to become president with the threats that we face today . Caller i would much prefer that. But at the very least, someone with a real respect for the military and someone who understand the sacrifices of the people they are talking about. Host the wall street Journal Editorial Board today called the speech a trump for foreignpolicy. They note that he will become the gop nominee if voters dont trust him with nuclear weapons. We want to hear you would describe this. Jamie is in indiana. The morning. Caller good morning, sir. I am proud to say that i switched my registration to republican specifically for this primary. I am thinking about when rush ont think it is necessary to do that. Ted cruz is doing everything he can to push him over the top. Ries toas the way he t form a bond with kasich. Host you think that will only help donald trump . Caller now that he has carly help further will solidify people behind donald trump. I think the America First speech puts in perspective for those out there who are uninformed voters that this is exactly how much this man doesnt know and how much he will be in charge of the nuclear code. Hopefully at some point, if america continues on this path, he will be surrounded by people who reach out and help him. For the benefit of our soldiers and the American People. Base their whole thought process on the by, on the bible, i dont understand. Host at the beginning, he referred to ted cruzs early Vice President ial announcement yesterday, picking Carly Fiorina as the running mate. Here is the front page of usa today. Ted throws a hail carly. Here is a bit from that announcement yesterday. Why make this announcement now . For one thing, if we have to win, number one, when the nomination but number two, when the general election, we must unite. [applause] and Carly Fiorina as a Vice President ial nominee is superbly skills and gifted at helping unite this party and bring us together. I am very proud and humbled and honored. To announce that i have accepted senator ted cruzs offer to be his Vice President for the republican nominee. [applause] you know, ted cruz could not be more right in what he says. There is a lot at stake. And this is a fight. This is a fight for the party and future oath or future of our nation. ,here are some who would say why fight . Let it be over. But i have had tough fights all my life and they dont worry me a bit. What matters, is the fight worth having . This is a fight worth winning. With your help, we will win this fight. [applause] host that announcement coming a 95 primaries and midatlantic primaries. The five primaries where donald trump picked up large amounts of and secured his path further to the president ial nomination. Making a potential ted cruz upset slimmer. We will be getting back to that but another story we want to update you on this morning is the fate of the former speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert and his sentence hearing yesterday. Joining us by phone is a federal courts reporter for the chicago suntimes. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host take us through the seat in the courtroom. He is receiving 15 months on banking charges and not the molestation charges. Explain that to us . Right. It was a dramatic hearing. He pleaded healthy last fall to breaking up his bank are also they would not raise red flags in an illegal way. But from the very beginning, we have had the sexual abuse accusations. They were clearly brought to the forefront a few weeks ago. That was in a court filing. He only faces sentencing on this one banking charge but it became clear quickly that the sex abuse allegations were going to be central to his sentencing. He has been very ill and his Attorney Says he nearly died last fall. Actually, a couple of days after he really guilty and he appeared in court in a wheelchair. He sat slumped in the chair, watched the proceedings and gave no obvious reactions. Even as some very significant things were happening. Not only is he facing is in time but the sister of a deceased victim spoke out against him in the courtroom. And also a man who had never before publicly revealed himself stepped in front of the judge and told his story in graphic detail about how he was sexually abused by Dennis Hastert. One other aspect of this which is important is that yes, he pleaded guilty to the banking crimes and sexual abuse allegations, but he tried to cover it up. He was originally charged with lying to the fbi when they asked what he was doing with the Bank Withdrawals but now it comes out that he claims to be a victim of extortion. That was just about a year ago. He even hell does she even helped the fed record conversations and led them on a wild goose chase. Reachedthe victim who 3. 5 million in hush money deals. Dennis hastert agreed to pay not to stay silent about what happened. And that agreement is what eventually began to unravel the mess. That person has now sued Dennis Hastert. With the was annoyed sexual abuse allegations and his attempt to cover them up. A 15e judge handed down month sentence and he called Dennis Hastert a serial child molester. Host can he get back into court and fight the sentence . Or is this set in stone . Guest he does have appeal rights. I think they are laid out in the plea agreement. They might be limited and i dont have that in front of you now that he does have the option to appeal. Talk about how his former colleagues in illinois are reacting to the scandal and the sentence yesterday . Guest i think everyone is taken aback and is shocked by this. And you know, speaking of colleagues. This victim who stepped forward and revealed himself for the first time is actually the brother of the former state House Republican leader and a political protege of Dennis Hastert. So this just added to the shock and disbelief. He tried to file 60 letters of support with the judge. The judge said if he was going to consider them, they would have to be filed publicly. And many of the letters were withdrawn once they realized that they would have to be out there publicly supporting Dennis Hastert. So even by his lawyers description, he has become an outcast and is alone. His portrait has been taken down from the capital and they described him as an old man in a wheelchair sitting by himself in his home and withdrawn from society. Host when will he start serving his sentence . Guest we dont know yet. They judge wants him to serve that time at a medical facility. But they need to figure out which one will be available. We will early date at another time. Host jon seidel is a federal courts reporter with the chicago sun. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host lets go back to this sestion about donald trump Foreign Policy plan. The major speech happened yesterday it washington, d. C. And we want to know your reaction. Don is in pennsylvania, a democrat. Caller donald trump is another one of these guys that has the sons of the military age behind him like hell romney did the same thing. Like how romney did the same thing. He doesnt know how to be on an Aircraft Carrier like i was. So [indiscernible] and congressnt would rather pay contractors big money then pay the military men and women they are decent solitary decent salary. Donald trump is a big talking with who wouldnt even know how to put a uniform on if it was given to him. Thank you very much. Host lets go to rick in idaho. Good morning. Caller good morning, america. I am going to open up your eyes. I was like everybody to write this down. This is called an order code 98 916. What it deals with his ford aid policy. This will support everything that donald trump has said. The meat and bones of the report are on page 31. It documents how america has been with foreign spending since 1946. The second half of the report identifies how much money we have spent. The grand total for the years that we produce a page it in spending is 66 years. The monetary amount is 1,000,000,000,738. Beat therump has subject to death about Foreign Policy. We had to interpret 550 million per month to achieve this which means we are being shortchanged. Theou go to page 20 of report, it will open up americas eyes. Host we lost rick. Andrew is in new york. An independent. Caller good morning. What it means to me is to make deals for this country. We are policing the world and it is time for somebody who has concern for us. Host as an independent, who are you supporting this election cycle . Caller donald trump. I have always voted democrat but i am tired of seeing the country being given away. I like the fact that he will make deals for this country. Hello . Host im listening. Caller im sorry. So it is time to do it for this country. It will pass a lot of people off. But i think he is on the right track. We need to think of America First. Host on that point, here is the criticism in the New York Times editorial board. They say when ones experience is limited to real estate deals, everything looks like a lease negotiation. Hearing him approach formulations, one imagines it as a group of foreign nations at a table with him while he demands policy changes in exchange for american protection, trade and friendship. And if he doesnt get what he wants, you must be willing to walk. Is that how you view it in your mind . Is that how donald trump sees the foreign diplomacy quandary . No. I think you will hire the right people. A lot of this is just campaigning. But what it comes down to is that he will hire the right people to make the right decisions. Host lets go to woodbridge, virginia. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I listened to most of the foreignpolicy speech yesterday and he still hasnt gotten into and each time on the intoign trail, he goes personal attacks. He doesnt have the selfcontrol and charisma that a world leader and president of the United States should have. He keeps on being unpredictable. But that can be dangerous. The gentleman who said he was dangerous and could lead us to world war iii. Some caller say they are frustrated that america hasnt been put first. They feel like we are losing in foreign deals at negotiations, do you understand that . Know, donald trump is a businessman and a realistic person. Is what comes across to me that those deals are a lot easier than trying to run a country or do foreignpolicy. Says i will do things like building the wall and all of that. He doesnt have the experience background. He isnt a president ial candidate. I believe that there are some programs and policies that the United States needs to back up because of the deficit. I just dont think he is the one to get us there. And for the past eight years, there have been ups and downs. So a lot of things didnt get done. For him to stand up and say, im going to do this from day one, he will not do this without help. If you tweets on this topic. Going toites, we are bomb countries to make them love us and agree with our policy. Sam writes, it doesnt matter what we think America First, it matters what he thinks. He will have his finger on the buttons. And says he wants to inspire fear everywhere and the citizens versus noncitizens talk implies torture. We want to know what you are thinking this morning. Marian has been waiting, good morning. Caller good morning. I was just wondering why the candidates never bring up the fact that Hillary Clinton has building up the military. She will not do away with obamacare. She has not been responsible. Dont really support donald trump. He has some ideas that are farfetched. But we dont seem to have anybody running who really knows and understands the position we are in. I think it will take 10 years to recover from what obama has done. It seems like we need somebody who could go into the inner city and all the hispanics volunteered to join the military and get paid a private salary and if they fight overseas for two years and come back, they should be entitled to american citizenship. You are talking about undocumented folks that this would be offered to . Undocumented, Illegal Immigrants . Caller right. If they go and serve for two years, especially overseas, they have a lot of stamina and the ability to learn and you would take a lot of them off the street. It would give them a job and maybe you send them to military bases. I have worked with millions of them before. Host all right. Now to louisiana, good morning. Caller good morning. I want to say that i heard donald speech and to me, he is not educated enough to know about the Foreign Policy. There are people trying to talk to him and give him some advice on this but we need a captain of the ship who knows how to run this from the beginning. And that comes with spending time in the house of representatives and going down the line. Donald trump has an easy ticket because they do havent got him for his tax. President obama was given much hell for trying to get his tax. He has a lot of problems. What he says really scares me. I would be scared to put him in the front of the United States. Donald trump is against women and immigrants. We have problem with this man. If he was intelligent enough to sit down and talk to foreign leaders and give good answers, i would vote for him but this is why, we are not in the business. Host news out of the white house yesterday where president obama will be next week. He is headed to flint, michigan at the response to an eightyearold girl. He will travel their next week to speak with residents concerned about the high level of lead contamination in the water. He responded to her in a letter who acquired the neck name little miss flint. She wrote a letter last month when she was pairing to come to washington to watch rick snyder. The president said, i want to make sure people like you and your family are getting the help that you need and deserve. And he wanted her to be the first to know that he would be in the city on may 4. We are getting your reactions to Donald Trumps foreignpolicy speech. Joe is a republican, good morning. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Caller i am an honorably discharged veteran. And i watched all of the speech yesterday. I found it to be very clear and concise. I would like to remind people that freedom isnt free. And so we have to reinforce the military. Wehave to take care that take care. And then, people arent going to be wanting to jump on us. Host what was your take away from the speech . When donald trump will commit american troops overseas . Caller well, my understanding is that once we have to be over there fighting, to defend our country and our values or support an ally who is absolutely supporting us back, we will just be over there fighting to be fighting. We wont see our men and women dying for nothing. Host how did you figure out where the line is . Does donald trump figure out the line is that it is serious enough . The issue of isis, for example . Caller i believe he made it clear. As soon as he becomes president , we will go ahead and take isis out. But he made it clear, he will not be like obama. Marchat we are coming on 5 at 3 00 so they can be sitting there, ready. That is what he is talking about. Being unpredictable doesnt mean that he is sitting there with his finger on the red button. It just means that there will be a time where we will have to go excuse me, i got confused. Inish your thought. Caller we will go in there and it will not be announced. Because, how are you going to be a winner if they know where you are coming and when you are coming . They can prepare for that. That is what he is talking about. Host joe was the last color in this segment. Coming up, we have republican congressman david jolly from rida here to talk about so about how members of congress raise money. Coming up, representative jan schakowsky. She will join us to talk about her call for the reauthorization of the Older Americans act. We will be right back. It is known as one of washingtons most revered events. Read together members of the press and hollywood stars. Cspan prevents live coverage of the correspondents dinner. This saturday starting at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Our live coverage includes red carpet arrivals, background on the dinner and awards presentation. Of comedyore, host central, will headline and president obama will give the final speech is the commanderinchief. Join us to watch the 2016 white house correspondents dinner. Live on cspan. Our cspan campaign 2016 bus continues to honor winners of this years student camera conversation. Were recognized by classmates and local elected officials for their honorable video, access to affordable Higher Education is the investment in the future. Then, south dakota to visit winners. And the final stop for the week included a visit to Helena Middle School where the third prizewinners were honored for their video on water pollution. A special thanks to our Cable Partners for helping to coordinate the community visit. And every weekday this month, the sure to watch one of the top 21 winning entries before washington journal. Washington journal continues. Host we have republican congressman david jolly joining us now. He has the ongoing effort of conforming the way congressman raise the lots of money they need to get reelected. I want you to explain how that process works. What is happening today . Guest it is reelection season. We know about the amount of money in politics. I am focused in on the amount of time it takes to raise that money. So understand that if you have to raise 2 million, how much time does it take a member of congress to do that . They are often instructed to spend four or five hours a day raising money. And this is important. My effort to stop this is not to criticize or judge my comp my colleagues. They are good people working hard for their constituents but i do intend to judge the system. Because how we got here has created a scandal. The fact that we have a parttime congress. Congress is required to spend more time raising money and doing their job. So introduced a bill caused called the stop act. It would prohibit lawmakers from personally soliciting contributions. It says, put down the phone and get back to work. Host how does the solicitation process work . Ch dayng several hours ea when there on capitol hill raising money, where did they go and what to they ask for . Guest each member has a different way of doing it but it is fairly standard to go across the street. Democrats have their Party Headquarters and republicans have their headquarters. It is illegal to make a fundraising phone call from your Congressional Office so members have to leave the office as their outside the office and their official work to the Campaign Headquarters and make phone calls. Be people whomight donated in past but often it is cold calling, trying to solicit new donors from provided databases that say here is a couple in indiana who has given 50,000 to multiple candidates. If you call them, they might be able to give you 500 or 1000. So you begin to call through the list and the idea is to continue to try to raise as much money as you can. I call it a shakedown. It is. My colleague calls it a firm. Rketing we have good people in congress on both sides of the aisle and i would like to pass the stop act to prohibit members from soliciting contributions and give my colleagues some breathing room to do the job that our voters expect us to be doing. Host so who would do that job if this will not stop the amount of money needed in a Campaign Russian mark how to members and they can raise the amount of money they need to keep their jobs . Guest this leaves in place the current campaignfinance construct. I am willing to work on constitutional regulations. The currentin place system. You have a campaign manager. You have a staff responsible for raising money. But your First Priority is to do your job. Let the Campaign Staff raise the money. This would only apply to sitting members of congress. Not challenges. Challengers can spend time doing whatever they do but once you are elected, you do hold trust. Host you have challengers in your effort to take over. One of your challengers has had critiques about this stop act. This stop act is an election a bill forcing members to spend more time working and less money for their campaigns after actively benefiting from the not so secret world of d. C. Dialing for dollars. That is what todd wilcox said about this. Guest i would say this. Gimmicks are tools of weak leaders. 60 minutes doesnt do an expose a on a gimmick. The universal affirmation about that this is a scandal of our time. So i dont pay much attention to what naysayers say. Everyone is trying to one up the other. N to lets pay attentio what our viewers have to say. Albert, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for being on. I remember there was a big scandal back when they were making phone calls in the offices so they put the bank across the office of people can go in. That is exactly right. We ask why congress isnt getting anything done . That would make the case that many days, congress isnt even there. If youre spending your mornings at a fundraising breakfast and a fundraising lunch and afternoons making phone calls asking people for money, its no wonder that we dont have comprehensive statute reform and we have issues with Border Security and immigration reform. We are not there. They move along but if you had , youtime raising money would get more things done. Host there are not a whole a lot of members of congress who have signed on. Guest we have seven, which is seven more than i thought we might get. [laughter] guest i need the help of the american public. This is a hard topic to talk about with your colleagues. But members of congress continue to come up and say thank you. Believe it or not, yesterday i had another member call me down and give me a high five. It sounds silly but members want breathing room because they are frustrated by this. They are frustrated by the demands of raising money. You run on issues that you believe deeply in and you get up. And you can we run into the demand to spend your days raising money. Host i imagine those members have leadership permission. Guest this is a hard topic. Host have you had conversations with the chairman about this . Guest i have not. Two years ago i introduced a resolution requiring congress to be in session 40 hours a week in d. C. Obviously, its got put in the drawer. I believe so deeply about this. I need to take it to the American People first and i need the help of the American People. If we can cultivate the constructive anger and have them ask leadership to move the stop act, i think we can get it done. I cant get the stop act passed as a member of congress. Hopefully we will get to 30 cosponsors in the next few weeks but the american sponsor can get it sold by demanding a solution. Host brett, an independent. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Congressman, i want to commend you for your work on this issue. The more the American People hear about the reality of what is going on and why things arent getting done, the more willing they will be to help you. What i understand, is with high arentn the hallway, why there more of the congressman who realize there is a conflict of interest there, why arent they more compassionate . The politicians who will serve the american public, why arent you guys up in arms and saying, no. Why isnt that being voted on as a priority . That is fundamental. Thank you again. Guest the reality is because they are staring down their own election. I did a pledge to no longer directly solicit country should sue anyone. Someone said it was politically i think it reflects exactly what the American People want, but members of congress get here and the reality of todays campaignfinance system is, you need money to run your reelection campaign, so they are drawn into that focus and it is a problem. Host how much does the senate race in florida cost . Guest when you consider all the outside money, it would be between 50 million and 100 million. Host are you on track to raise that . Guest no, i am underfunded compared to my opponents, but i believe we will out earn the nomination. Host a crowded race on the republican side and the fact that you dont have to declare until june that you are running for that or running for reelection. There is some speculation that you might want to run for reelection in your house district. Guest the pressure is certainly there. I hear from members of my community, people across the state, that they appreciate what we are doing. I dont for see any scenario that would lead me back into the se race i dont or see forsee any scenario that would lead me back into the house race. We are a one county district. I love it dearly. We have been able to work with people from beach projects to infrastructure to veterans issues. I want to continue to do that in the United States senate and do it on behalf of millions of people. Former republican governor, former independent, now democrat, running the seat you now occupy. Guest he is running for congress now and here is one complement i have for him. I debated alan grayson and it got to be about 110 degrees in that room by the end of the day and i realized the wisdom of charlie, bringing a fan to every debate. Host we are talking to the Florida Republican u. S. Senate candidate about the issue of Campaign Finance and his efforts to overhaul the system. Taking of that debate, if our viewers want to check it out on cspan, go to www. Cspan. Org. Springs,n, chester florida. Caller what can you tell us congressman that was indicted with 29 counts with campaignfinance irregularities in philadelphia. Trial. Oming up for host a congressman that just lost his memory bellow primary battle. Guest he did. Accountability at the ballot box is one thing, accountability before the law is a totally separate matter and my colleague will have to answer for that. It does speak to something. There are many reforms we can look at ahead of comprehensive campaignfinance reform and one i think wesue should begin to look at and there is a Bipartisan Coalition on the hill right now. There is legislation right now that we can reform the process, perhaps event situations like we have seen in philadelphia. You can go to the congressmans website. Randy is up next from iowa, democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. Historically, i am not impugning your credibility on this. I will bother bother to read it and if for myself on it. And inform myself on it. Andbrought up something that was that you support Flood Insurance and things like this. How do you stand on Climate Change . Guest i appreciate that question. I accept the science, but i asect the solutions and republicans, i think we should lead on this issue because i think conservative solutions are the way to do it. Lets invest in incentives for clean energy and clean your. Lets invest in research for new and alternative energy. Lets grow a new industry, particularly in florida that focuses on alternatives. Lets reject the regulations of the president that ultimately cannot be met and only drive cost and crippled job growth. There is a large distributor in the tampa bay area, on of the largest warehouses in the state that just went to an all solar roof. I went and asked them for information on how they reached the decision to do this. They said the return on investment finally came within a five year window and it made economic sense. That is a result of incentives as opposed to mandates. 10 years ago, if there had been a mandate that they had to go a all solar roof, they wouldve had to lay people off to afford that roof and in many cases, technology cannot keep up with the mandates. I accept the science, i will fight for conservative solutions. Host you have a great newspaper down in tampa, here is one of the headlines. Congressman jolly says he is sick and tired of gop positions on Climate Change. Guest i am sick and tired of not fighting for conservative solutions. Anddo we fall into the trap i believe this is political, we fall into the trap democrats have set for us to argue oversight. Scientist, i am not qualified to debate whether or not the climate is changing. We know it is changing, it has been for thousands of years. Has man had an impact on it . Of course. Every time we burn a fuel, it has an effect. I dont need to argue the science and we are wasting time. Solutionse about the because i think the president is wrong and i think conservative solutions are the right cap for the economy and the environment. Guest arlington heights, john, independent. Caller good morning and thank you for picking me up. Ago, when i lived in wisconsin, there was a congressman, maybe a senator by the name of bill proxmire and he used to he used to run his campaign on less than a couple hundred dollars a year. It sounds weird, but are there any members that are Walking Around their state or walking , ratherheir district than spending millions of dollars . Are there people that actually talk or congressman that actually talk to their people in the course of the campaign . Guest thank you for that. I think most members certainly do that and this is where i say you have members on both sides of the aisle you have good members on both sides of the aisle who are trying to stay in touch with town halls, trying to be as accessible as possible. The one thing i will tell you i learned. I am a firsttime candidate and the first time i ran anything. I ended up in what turned out at the time to be the most expensive congressional race in history. Host the special election. Guest 14 million spent in a little over 10 weeks, so it was overwhelming. To your point, at the beginning of the race, i was convinced we would win this persontoperson, that i would not need the money. It is one county, why home. My home. I learned throughout that campaign, the number one driver of elections is television. That drives the cost. You can see the needle move based on the negative ads and positive as. Ads. Tv drives numbers in campaign and their wires the high finance. The senator left office in 1989, a very different time for campaigning. Fort charlotte, democrat. Caller good morning. I would respect for all of them to not call for donations, that is set to hear and what i would like to say is over 200 republicans that are signed up with grover norquist. Does that have anything to do with sending people to do telemarketing for their donations . Guest i dont think so, i think it is driven by the demand for money for reelection. That pushes people to have to spend time raising money instead of doing their job. It is not about a pledge or commitment, it is about your own reelection. I will tell you, you mentioned members making phone calls. I have partnered with my colleague Virginia Foxx from North Carolina to add members of congress to the do not call registry. If you sign up for the do not call registry, it takes telemarketers from calling you, but members from congress are exempt from that. I think if you sign up for the do not call registry, that should include members of congress. A vacuum, iell you should not be allowed to ask you for 50 bucks. Pledgeaxpayer protection , i pledged by canadas not to raise taxes during their time in office. Norquist has been a guest on this show. You can check out his appearances on www. Cspan. Org. Jim in texas, republican. Caller good morning. I fully agree with the need for the public to understand what is election ofthis congressman and other political if your if it would help our contact and get with president ialical could make that suggestion to him. Host have you talked to president ial candidates . Guest i missed social media by about a generation and i would love to know and i think the American People would love to know, where is donald trump on the stop back . Where is ted cruz or Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or john kasich . I need the help of colleagues and president ial candidates. I need the help of every american on this issue. It is why we created those the website. Host when it comes to stop act, what is the mechanism . He said the ftc already has trouble enforcing right now. Guest it would fall into the fec and orson provisions of the code. Any current federal election violation, this would be included. When you look at the enforcement procedures, it is usually warnings and finds but in the case of repeated violations, it can be referred for criminal prosecution. It leads me to jump the next time a member of Congress Asked you for money, call the police. Host back in florida, william, a democrat. Caller good morning. I would like to talk about some more important issues, about all the pollution that you are doing to the rivers and lakes down here, about all the pollution that the orange groves are doing, doing what they say they put so many chemicals on those trees, those trees dont t or go blind. Guest those are two very important issues. I believe you are referring to the crisis that is developing around the everglades. There are multiple pieces of legislation out there. The governor is also in the legislature referring to it. One thing we have to do is secure the dyke and improve it. We also have to begin to clean the water or does south, but we have to clear away for it to go south. Strategy multidecade to address some of the issues we are facing with the everglades. It is a disaster in many communities. The good news for florida, it is a bipartisan issue at the federal level. The other thing, you may remember the state Ballot Initiatives that require a certain amount of money to go to Environmental Protection and the everglades and state legislature reached an accommodation on that. Personally, i would hope it would be a bit more, but i never served in tallahassee, so it is not my place to make those decisions. This is a real issue for florida and it is important to the senate commissioner. Everybody thinks of oranges when it think of florida. Our Citrus Industry is in dire need right now. Crisis when it comes to citrus green. There is an opportunity in the next five to 10 years to reset the Citrus Industry. We will have to make some very significant decisions in the next five years about what we do with the Citrus Industry. Host a lot of potential future constituents calling you. Tom in palm city, florida, public and republican. Caller good morning and thank you for your bill. When i watched you earlier this week talking about it, it came to mind that maybe that is why my congressman has not gotten back with me on the cuban adjustment act, since we have good relations with cuba, and i heard that there are thousands of humans coming across the Mexican Border to get in on the dole. We need to repeal the cuban adjustment act and i call his office at least once a week and on you can get repeal the cuban adjustment act . How does my rivers and of deal, Patrick Murphy who is running for senate. Now i know why he cant even talk to his aid and have them come back and talk to me because he is busy raising money because hes running for the senate. Host running for the same position you are. Guest it is and this is the heart of the stop act. We know about the amount of money in politics. There are multiple multiple Senate Candidates in florida. The stop act is about keeping people from spending money instead of doing that raising money instead of doing their job. If you had a job and you were not doing the job you are hired to do, you would be fired. This is cheating taxpayers. It might be that we end up losing an election because we are outspent. I am willing to take that risk. If im here for six months or six years. Stop act is something we can do right now to change how congress works. The American People are frustrated. If your issues are border you areaxes, is frustrated because you see a congress that is not doing any. When you pull the curtain back, they are not even there and you should be angry. Host tony, a republican, goahead. Caller i was saying you guys ought to be working it ready our work week like everybody else. Guest thats right. Caller your bill is very encouraging. I wanted to call and support you. People will send you money if you are doing a good job. You have to produce for the people. I think you are making the effort. Guest thank you. I appreciate it. Someone asked if this was political and i said no, it is good Public Policy, and good Public Policy makes for good politics. Legislature, members of our state legislature prohibit it from directly soliciting judges on the ballot are prohibited from directly soliciting contributions in 25 states. I want to apply those laws we have in order and other states to congress. There is precedent for it. Host lets talk about another one of your pieces of legislation. What is the veterans Suicide Prevention act. Guest we all know the tragedy of the numbers. Some say up to 22 veterans choose to take your life every day take their life every day. The v. A. Is doing very good things to try to address it. Most of the Mental Health services coming through the ba our Traditional Health services. I have worked with colleagues on opening up more alternative or complementary therapies. There is one issue that has the concern of a number of veteran service organizations, and that is the amount of prescription drugs, the opioids, that veterans are sometimes prescribed. As they move from facility to facility and are prescribed more and different drugs, i had a vietnam vet come in the office with a backpack the other day and he walked up to my desk and turned it over and there were about 60 pill bottles that fell under my desk. He said this is everything i have been prescribed in the past two years. With the veteran suicide bill does is it asks the v. A. To study and report back to congress on the prescriptions that have been given to veterans that later decide to take their own life. Is there a problem with the way the drugs are being prescribed by different facilities . Is there a correlation . Scientist,doctor or so i do not know the answer and i am not prejudging it, but it is a concern that the amount of opioid prescriptions for veterans later decided take their own lives might be out of balance with what we see. Host how would you respond to some of the concern that this might keep certain drugs that are helping some people out of their hands, that it might restrict their access . Guest this does not restrict or prejudge, it asks for a report. Host would it start us down the road . Guest it should not. The information would lead to either reforms or improvements or lead to no action because it is determined that there is no correlation. If we had a v. A. Report about wait times and the next five years ago, we might have prevented negligence by the v. A. That led to the deaths of veterans, so this is trying to get in front of it. Host gail is independent in rhode island. Caller good morning and thank you for everything that you do for us in keeping us informed. I would like to congratulate congressman jolly on his courage to stand up and make things count in the congress. I would like to see past accomplishments instead of fundraising be the basis on place in theny congress or the senate, and also maybe a limited time of being in either one, because i know my senators have been in congress and senate since i was a young girl, so i think there should be a limitation. Guest we get this conversation a lot and i appreciate that question. People talk about term limits and asked if i am in favor of them. One way we can accomplish term limits is by creating more electorally competitive districts. For two years, ive represented a district as a republican that obama won, twice. It is one of the fairest districts in the country, but geographically, it is not one of the fair ones. If we have more 5050 districts across the country, you will have people that must respond every day to the needs of the community before the needs of fundraising and their party, and they will be held accountable you accountable were quickly if they fail to represent their entire community. Congress arets in super majority districts of one party or the other and they are never competitive you are essentially assured reelection for as long as you wish to be there. Guest what is the best process to break up gerrymandering . State legislators are allowed to draw lines of political affiliation. In the state of florida, there was a fair district Amendment Movement that led to redistricting. Fairness is defined by that amendment by geographic that does away with the lobby squiggly lines we often see in that is a very sympathetic argument, but i would point out in in florida, as a result of their districts, three or four of the more consensus minded republicans and democrats have been drawn out and they will be replaced by super partisan, super majority districts. My colleague in the panhandle and i try to tackle issues like offshore oil drilling and another. And a number of other florida first issues. As a result of their districts, the districts that we represent are now super majority district for the other party. Host lets go to florida, a line for democrats. Joseph is waiting. Caller good morning. This is the first time i am hearing you speak and i have to say i am very impressed. I normally dont vote republican, but if you ran for governor or senator, i would think about it. Guest i appreciate it. Caller i like the issues you are addressing. Regarding the reform of the congressional funding and etc. , a congressmanwhen takes office, he or she spends 60 of their time trying to raise money. What do you think of this idea that they have in brazil, that a candidate can demonstrate that they have a certain amount of public support, they get free media time . After all, most people dont know the public do in fact own the media, we give permission to these companies to run it, so it makes sense and that would take a lot of money out of this whole situation. The would you say about toothless texting while driving law that was passed in florida . Guest i think the texting while driving law is important, careless driving is already on the books, the fact is, lets start enforcing it. It is certainly careless if a driver is looking down at their own that of paying attention to the road. If we are not there, we need to improve it. There is an Organization Called issue one and it is a number of former members, republicans and democrats wrestling with proposals from Public Financing to tax incentives and issues like the stop act and television. One of the things i had an opportunity to meet with a british member of. The british model allows contributions but the way they take the high finance out is they prohibit television commercials. You can mail, call, have town halls and she can. They prevent television commercials. I throw this out there notionally. We will not see a america where political ads are not on tv but what if the fec began to regulate or fcc regulated commercials and a different way. We currently pay 450 million as taxpayers for Public Television. What if you provided candidate hours or eligible that eligible candidates meet a threshold and you get that 60 days out . You could get true information about candidates reliably from a Public Television source and get the commercials off . It is a dream. Host patrick in North Carolina, publicans. Republicans. Caller i would suggest that two congressman that i know of that are doing walking campaigns are david jolly and david pratt, both congressman that i read a lot about on conservative report. Org. I have seen some of your work with the Veterans Administration and Veterans Health and i really appreciate that. Part of the problem that bets are having thats our cap vets are having is the money being raised is just advocating the same broken system with administrators getting more bonuses. Hey talk about the opt out choice and also can you talk about the opt out choice and veterans are acutely aware of Foreign Policy. Maybe comment little about the difference between or what is going on within the Republican Party, Foreign Policy was and how imminent domain affects both of those issues, thank you. Guest thank you. You are right, david pratt shows that money does not win every election. V. A. , i have introduced legislation called the veterans freedom act and it would do this. Everybodyoncept that can read. If you served and qualify for v. A. Benefits, then you choose where you want to receive health care. If you want to stay in that the va, thenhe the a you have earned it. You do not need their permission, there is no wait list for arming or mileage. What it would do, the last provision of my legislation were wires a report five years out of the attrition rate of how many veterans chose to go outside, because then we could isolate specific facilities that are under serving our veterans and begin to adjust reforms. It would also create greater competitions between the private sector and the va, and if they cannot continue to perform, then the veterans would be going outside. We have great people working at va facilities all across the country. We have people who have committed their careers to serving veterans. If a veteran wants to go somewhere else, lets empower them. On Foreign Policy, some simple concepts. I traveled throughout the middle east and have the opportunity in egypt, saudi, turkey, israel, to meet with heads of state and democratic dissidents and go to the Syrian Border and refugee camps. Everybody from the heads of state to the refugees are begging for American Leadership. President s Foreign Policy i disagree most strongly with his foreignpolicy. It has left a vacuum in the middle east where a strongman like Vladimir Putin can come in and coordinated with a test coordinate coordinate with a country like iran. We can decide domestically what we want our leadership to look like. There is a vacuum right now of American Leadership overseas and i think that is why Donald Trumps speech yesterday resonated for some, because he promised to take a different approach, though it lacks detail. Host i want to get your thoughts on this article that came out to where the beginning of your senate campaign. Scientology may soon have an ally in the u. S. Senate is how the story begins. Given the large footprint that the church has an your district, jollies ties with scientologists may pay dividends, but now he is running to represent the entire state of order, his connections with the church may prove to be a liability. Guest my opponents like to make this an issue. This should not be an issue. I am elected to represent 700,000 people and i am committed to doing that regardless of your walk of life, your choice of faith. My job is to give voice to everybody. Convictions, iran on certain convictions and bring them to congress. I tried to blend those convictions with a very diverse priorities and convictions of our community. If i get that balance right, then the community will reelect me in the state. I dont worry about cheap shots opponents or headlines that are used to run a political commercial. I have a job to represent 700,000 people in that take that seriously. And i take that seriously. I would say anybody who will not to a single a floridian is not capable of running for the house or the senate. Caller i have a couple of quick questions. A couple of paragraphs ago, you said that money does not always by elections. Can you give me a percentage or is that something you do not know . My second question is this, are we a bunch of lemons with commercials on tv can just tell us to vote for mr. X . Can you explain to me how it works . A Bumper Sticker does not do anything for me. Unfortunately, my comment about money does not always when elections, i think clearly in the majority of cases it can, but we have seen situations where it did not win an election. I think we are also seeing it, this year. You can look at a number of , particularly on the republican side who outraised some of their opponents, but still had to drop out. Commercials, the issue is how much information is out there and where do you get that information and im glad to hear that you reject a lot of the messaging that comes out of tv commercials. Unfortunately, that is the number one way that most voters consume information, through commercials they hear on tv or the radio and is not necessarily on long policy speeches. Is a terrible reflection of the system, but has proven time and time again the impact of negative commercials. It, it should be heartbreaking and hopefully we are beginning to reject it. A lot of the negative commercials negative commercials in the republican president ial campaign rejected out of hand and that is a good thing. Host jerry for democrats, go ahead. Caller go ahead good morning. I was wondering with your proposed legislation, when would it be enacted if passed . Guest a lot of movement by some to pass a constitutional i am sot and while pathetic to that, that is a 20 year effort that would take our eye off the ball. We can move the stop act right now. The insider trading, scandal five of years ago scandal of five years ago, it had legislation on the president s desk in a couple of. Calder representatives and senators,. Demanded change. We could move this bill tomorrow call your representatives and senators, demand change, we could move this bill tomorrow. We could pass this bill as quickly as the American People can demand a majority of congress to do it. Host harassment david jolly, republican from florida and a u. S. Senate candidate, thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host Democratic Congress woman of illinois will join us. She cochairs the senior task force and will join us to talk about the real authorization of the Older Americans act. Reauthorization of the Older Americans act. Independent media is the oxygen of democracy. It is essential, holding those in power accountable. We are not there to serve some kind of corporate agenda. When we cover war and peace, we are not brought to you by the weapons manufacturer. Journalist amy goodman hosts an executive for host and executive reduce her of democracy now talks about the book she has coauthored. It looks back at some of the stories in people the show has covered. The idea of democracy now 20 years ago, it is really not changed. Bringing up the voice of the people at the grassroots around the world and they very much represent the majority of people. I think people who are concerned deeply about war and peace, about a growing inequality in this country. About Climate Change. I think they are not a fringe minority, not even a silent majority, but the silenced majority, silenced by the corporate media. Madam secretary, we proudly delegates to the next president of the United States. Washington journal continues. Host Democratic Congresswoman Jan Czajkowski joins us now, cochair of the Democratic Caucus Seniors Task Force and joins us to talk about the recent reauthorization of the Older Americans act. This is legislation that dates back to the johnson administration. Remind us what it is. Guest a lot of people are familiar with medicare and Social Security, but the Older Americans act deals with a lot of those Wraparound Services, meals on wheels, a lot of people are familiar with that, funding for Senior Centers, transportation and mrs. , elder abuse, medicare, fraud and about 30 of American Families are doing caregiving either for a person with disabilities or rent older person in their family, so these services are important, not only for older people or disabled people, but for their families, connecting them to services, serving as for nursing home services. There are other things that affect the life and health and social life of people with disabilities and the elderly. Host all of this falling under the act which had expired a couple of years ago, recently reauthorized. Were there changes . Guest a few improvements made, more emphasis on elder abuse. It is a serious problem in all so now, more funding, more attention is being given to the problem, identifying people, helping Law Enforcement identify the symptoms and helping families understand what elder abuse looks like and being able to have the tools to combat it. Meals,n terms of the more connection to Homegrown Foods and vegetables, so that is good for local economies. Host we have a special line in this segment for those 65 and older. We want to hear your stories and experience with some of these programs. That number is 202 7488003. Otherwise, lines as normal, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. We authorization is different than reappropriation. Is this legislation going to get funded . Guest i dont know what the is, but wer amount will not see a cut in the it was sond because late, we are already moving into the 2017 reauthorization. We want to make sure these programs keep on going. I have had experience of delivering some home delivered meals. I did that on our last break. Seeing the anticipation with which these elderly people, sometimes living alone, are really waiting for them, appreciating it and enjoying that short moment of contact, conversation, support that they get from volunteers that delivered these meals. It is even more precious than you might think it is. Host this is one of the arguments for the authorization, the importance of programs like this, it is not just money that goes out but people that do these visits often become the first line of trying to catch a problem with a senior who may not have visitors very often, before they come in the medicare or medicaid system. Guest thats right and ive also been to places where we have inhome caregivers and watch that relationship develop between the person who might otherwise be isolated, lonely and at risk. Are like thes canary in the coal mine, who identify problems. Host these programs continued despite the act that the Older Americans act had expired the previous. What was the funding level . Guest it was continuing the funding that was there, but it was really important to get the reauthorization, the final stamp to make sure that these programs are not going to disappear. Jan czajkowski older cochair of the Americans Task force. We start with virgil from nevada, democrat. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan, it is the greatest thing in the world. I dont know how they got him play, that it is a great thing. Host you can check out our whole history at www. Cspan. Org. Go ahead. Problem itis a is really going to affect seniors, and that is the real id act. If you have to renew your drivers license, you will have say womenent get married couple of times and they changes change their names, they have to go back and get certified documents tracing those changes. Rick snyder in michigan charges 115 for the documents. With her to, i went the dmv in las vegas. They sent us that twice sent us back twice to get more documentation for that drivers license. Host the question is whether there is something being done on the federal level for these documents . Caller something should be done. This is going to affect 70 million women in this country. Host lets let the congresswoman jump in. Guest just to renew a drivers license which you already have, so you have been documented as eligible to have a drivers license, and yet you are saying you have to go back and prove i think real id has something to do with the immigration as well, improving your status. Im not exactly sure of the details, what i am concerned the burdens particularly on Older Americans who have to go digging and paying for expensive documentation, which may really not be necessary. I imagine you have been driving for quite a while and that having to spend a lot of money and aggravation to come up with these documents may seem unreasonable. Host the real id program stemming from some of the 9 11 commissions past back in 2005. Independent in ohio, good morning. Caller good morning. I am a registered democrat, but i plan on changing my Party Affiliation after the Democratic Party primary because of the way the democrats have been running their party. I really appreciate the care for Older Americans, but they are a voting bloc that the democrats really rely on. I need tow why understand why Young Children and younger people arent being included in these task forces . Why dont we have a task force on Young Americans or children . I think that you are seeing that right now, the upheaval thats going on in the Democratic Party, where you have division between older democrats angry democrats, and i think what is going to happen with the Democratic Party is the same thing that will happen with the Republican Party, you are going mass exodus of people leaving because you guys are only you are not even getting back to where you were in fdr times, you need to start thinking about the poor and the middle class. Host can i ask how old you are . Caller 47 years old. Im looking at social was security Social Security and retirement, but it has been a problem with the Democratic Party for a very long time. Host guest lets host lets let the congresswoman jump in. Guest we actually do have a task force and a caucus on children, so there certainly is that focus. Most people think of themselves as part of a family, and of course the Democratic Party has been focusing, certainly not just on the elderly which by the way, for many election cycles, Senior Citizens have voted more , andlican than democratic that does not mean we are not going to continue to fight for the services that affect the elderly. You said correctly that you are in the middle, so many caregivers, many people who are responsible for their aging parents are finding the kind of burdens that we hope we can relieve for them. When we do that, we may free up some money for the kids that are facing huge college debt, or may not be able to get to go to college because of the money. All of these things are on the agenda. Generational warfare is a big mistake because people within families dont think of themselves that way, they think of themselves as a unit were you have to care for the kids, the grandkids, as well as the grandparents in that family and we want to make sure that we have Wraparound Services that affect all of those members of the family. Host what do you make of her prediction of a schism in the Democratic Party, even among members of congress, younger members versus members who have been around or a long time and the leadership of the Democratic Party is not seeing a whole lot of turnover. Guest we have to look at what are the issues that are being focused on and what is the agenda of the party. Nancy pelosi is our democratic leader and has been one of the most inclusive people, making sure that we are bringing along and providing opportunities for peoplenger members, but are much more diverse and inclusive and are attracted to the Democratic Party for that. They are over the issue of going after people because of their Sexual Orientation or gender identity or religion. These are people who i think are attracted to and enrich the Democratic Party, because of their inclusiveness and they are done with all the old prejudices. Host about a half hour left. We are talking about the Older Americans act and your work on the seniors task task force of the Democratic Caucus. George is over 65 in newcastle, of houma, republican oklahoma, public and. Republican. Caller i have a financial problem and i am an older american. We bought 25,000 worth of gm bonds. It was paying a little over 150 a month. We got along fine until they saved gm and they cut the value of the stock down to 2000 and cut us out of the 150 a month altogether. We are trying to get by on a reduced Social Security check and i dont know how to get our 25,000 back. Itt it certainly guest certainly is a difficult time for a lot of Older Americans, after the recession and the loss of some of the benefits that came from your investments, it really has been tough. I would suggest that there may be some things in the community that are available, that could help you. I would check out with my local Senior Center or the areas urea agency on aging. I dont know that there is anything that can revive the kind of income that you had, we certainly want to make sure that we can improve and increase and enhance benefits, Social Security benefits which i know very well are barely able to help people make ends meet, but we are fighting to expand Social Security and make sure that those benefits are can actually be increased. I have a bill on medicare that andd include hearing aids others of my colleagues have bills that would include dental care, eye care, under medicare, which would certainly help because i know myself that hearing aids can be thousands of dollars. We are looking at ways that we can improve the general income and expenses of seniors and im hoping that we will be able to do that, soon, thank you. Host west virginia, democrats, good morning. Middleton in west virginia, democrats, are you there . Caller im here. I want to ask jan, two things and i want you to let me state it and i have been trying to get these things fixed by people in congress and you are a part of it, so you are sitting there saying all kinds of stuff, but let me tell you what the first issue was and that was over two years ago. Conditions that are allowed in the Medicare Supplement Insurance Program where they can deny you coverage if you have been diagnosed with several things and have had rings done to you in the hospital. If you want to change from one supplement to another, they can deny you because of that, that is one of them that i want you is,iscuss and the next one this is a serious problem that happened with the marketplace. This has to do with my wife. July ofed 65 years old 2015. At the first of july, you automatically all seniors automatically go on medicare. You can guess what the marketplace and the Insurance Company did that she had through the marketplace, we canceled the insurance through the Insurance Company a month before and stop the automatic payments so they would not get paid by her amount she had to pay, but the marketplace has their subsidy that they have to pay also. They blame us for not calling them and telling them that she doesnt want the insurance, so the marketplace went ahead and paid another month to the Insurance Company, the Insurance Company took the money, kept it, the marketplace penalized us, so i had to pay them live hundred so thek to the irs Insurance Company keeps their money under fraud and the marketplace got their 568 back out of my income tax. This is a problem you all need to ask, nobody wants to address this and i am so upset. Yours we get calls like in our District Office all the time. Thate one staff person over the past several years has been able to solve so many problems for our constituents. She has returned about 4. 5 million to our. That humans you need to call your member of congress who can solve this problem to our constituents. You need to call your member of congress who can solve this problem. For the issues in this program, i am not happy and i will check out about how the supplemental Insurance Company has not obeyed the note no preexisting condition exclusion. I will go right back to my office and have that checked out. The supplemental Insurance Companies are private, but still, we are supposed to protect medicare people and all others from being excluded because of preexisting conditions. I promise you, but i will look into it and i hear the anger in your voice and i want to tell you, people call my office after trying to solve these problems on their own, and they are frustrated like you are and that is why i am hoping, and you should insist that your member of congress and their staff in that office solve this problem for you, because it really can be done. Is waiting in clarksburg, west virginia, independent. Caller how are you, this morning . Guest im fine, thank you. I hope you are doing well. What it wanted to talk to you about was, people come into your life because sometimes you are by yourself and advantage is taken of you and they can literally be your total demise because maybe you are anding on Social Security maybe a little bit of subsidized income that you have not only family, but i hate to say this, in people at the office come you find out that they were there because of money and you go to Senior Centers and you have company, but the advantage that is taken, are there i know a lady who lost everything she had on this specific issue. I dont know if there is a department that handles fraud or whatever you call that, but i am curious about this and i know it has happened to a number of people and am curious to find out and will take to answer off the air and you have a good day. Guest this is a story about elder abuse that you just told me. The kind of exploitation that happens. I have seen it among the very poorest seniors who have had their Social Security checks, the modest check they get, taken away from them by someone of the opposite sex who has exploded them. This is a exploited them. This is a crime that can be reported to Law Enforcement. You can find someone who can help you do that or help this person do that. The Senior Center ought to be able to help get them to the law proper Law Enforcement people. This is a crime, and it should be resolved through the legal system. People who exploit seniors should be arrested for that. So i should be returned, want everyone to understand. This is not just something that happens because someone has been neglectful or gullible. Have mentale who Health Issues or the memory is going bad, they are so vulnerable. Mickey rooney, someone so famous and wealthy, was a victim of elder abuse and exploitation. Report it to the law of force Law Enforcement officials. Ont one of your other roles the capital on capitol hill is serving on the energy and commerce committee. It is an Investigative Panel that you have said has not been objective or factbased. I want to play a bit from this. [video clip] questions of profit and legality matter because we are talking about people. It matters whether or not abortion clinics are lining their pockets through the dismemberment and distribution of children while receiving tax dollars. It matters because we are talking about the tiny limbs of little babies that have dignity. They are broken, yet still precious children of actual mothers and fathers. Tot what was your response the sender or did you have a chance to respond . Guest absolutely. Senator Jeanne Shaheen also testified. Is the use at hand of fetal tissue for Scientific Research. First, let me say, that all of our vaccines have been based on the use of fetal tissue. Disease, Heart Research being done by the use of fetal tissue that is not being sold anywhere for a profit. Because that is the law. It has been the law for decades. It is not being sold, as suggested by this testimony. It is given this aspect that somehow planned parenthood fromwhole debate generated false, doctored tapes that were released last september that suggested that planned parenthood was making a profit by selling baby body parts. I repeat that alarming phrase because it has been used over and over again to suggest that something was wrong. Three house panels, one senate committee, 12 states looked into this and found that there was nothing done that was illegal. Host what do you expect will be the end result of all this . Guest the end result and we are seeing more and more this is a witchhunt and not an investigation. This is an effort to not only discredit the importance of fetal tissue research, particularly for zika virus right now, where fetuses are affected by the mosquitoes that we willika virus find that this has been a waste of taxpayer dollars, that there there there, that there has been no misconduct, and that this tissue that is used, donated after a woman agrees and the wants to pregnancy, donated for betterment of human health in it used to be a bipartisan issue of great support that has been railroaded by these highly doctored, thatulated, edited tapes has led to this ridiculous, fruitless investigation. Host we can talk about that panel, we can talk about the Older Americans. Congressman jan schakowsky. Brenda, good morning. A republican in oklahoma. Caller good morning. Sitting on the phone, i have quite a few questions. Host give us one or two. Caller ok. Debtska is 47 million in because of the obamacare. My mother is 84. She has secondary insurance. Cost centertion over 200. My sister karen is 63. She just had back surgery and a doctor from canada operated on her and told her to her face that with this new insurance, if something goes wrong with her back, they would rather put you in a have around hoveround then do surgery again. She also said the medication canada has is not nearly as good as nebraska. I have leukemia. Work god my husbands ensures me. Im allergic to two of the medications and i have over and000 worth of medication i want to donate it and nobody will let me donate it. Hearings, ing your went republican because the democrats dont ask questions, they just lecture. , you are the abortion misrepresenting that completely and that is the biggest reason you are going to lose this year. Guest let me start with something we agree on, brenda. That is the high cost of prescription drugs. Actually, the very same drugs in canada are a good deal less because candida does control the cost of prescription drugs. Big pharma, the pharmaceutical lobbying, the pharmaceutical industry, has really gone out of control. Even drugs that have been on the market for decades, we have seen dramatic increases in the cost of drugs. One drug going up 5000 overnight. Im part of another working group within congress that is trying to get a handle on these high drug prices, to bring down the cost of prescription drugs, which i believe is a rip off of the American People. Nowhere around the world are jugs is expensive around the world as in the United States. That, we have been lowering the cost of prescription drugs for kids because they had to pay outofpocket. It is called the doughnut hole. E have been shrinking it check the record in terms of misrepresenting this issue on the Scientific Research that is done with fetal tissue, the that has been suggested and the use of inflammatory language like they be body parts. Language used by someone who went to colorado springs, killed three people in a planned parenthood clinic, others, and when asked about what he did, he said, no more baby body parts. These are not sold for profit. It is all about Scientific Research. It is all fully legal. It had been supported by democrats and republicans and it is just a others, and shame thad of witchhunt, that is basically from antiabortion extremists, is being carried on at all. Host doug has been waiting on our line for those over 65. Caller good morning. Good morning, congressman. Congresswoman, excuse me. Guest no problem. Thanks. Caller you were talking about older people having trouble with their insurance and all that stuff and you are working with a to get hearing aids on medicare and other things. Iffirst question would be, we keep adding and adding, who pays for it . That just increases my tax burden. Claiming the gentleman that the health care that gets goods andcause of conditions, it is true that when you go on medicare the first time, you get your supplemental, there is very little to do. However, in light of United Health care saying they are going to pull out of all of about six states, i think that maybe you followed your leader miss pelosis statement when they passed the Health Care Reform act of 2010 and that you did not read it. Unitedu change from health care to Blue Cross Blue Shield after you have been in the program, yes, they can make certainmore for ailments that you may have, be it hypertension, type two diabetes. , instead of lecturing like you just did the past call, you should read it a little bit more. Yes, they are going through the roof and you can try to close the doughnut hole, but the obamacare or the Health Care Reform act of 2010 was passed by youin a closed session and may to do with the pharmaceutical companies to get it through. Therefore, you cannot negotiate with them and that is what you need to reform. Thank you. Negotiatinging of with the pharma pharmaceutical companies, you know that the Veterans Administration is able to negotiate on behalf of all veterans with the pharmaceutical companies to keep drug prices lower. Historically, the v. A. Has had much lower prices. Most democrats agree that we should be able to negotiate with the Drug Companies for lower prices, particularly for medicare and it was under the that the Medicare Part d, the drug program, was passed. Languagelicans allowed to be put into that legislation that prohibited the negotiation with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices. You are talking about who is going to pay if we add these things . The richest country in the world at the richest moment in history. If we cannot make sure that our servicesricans have like being able to have glasses, being able to hear, lack of hearing aids has isolated so many people. Come on. We can afford that 400 americans in this country that have as much wealth as 150 million others. We dont have to add to your taxes. We can do things to make sure that health care is available and affordable for all of our americans and, particularly, Older Americans. Lets head to your home state of illinois. Robert is waiting, and independent. Caller good morning. Im talking about Older Americans, 65. Her Social Security check our Social Security check did not get a raise. They told me the law was that way when i wrote them about it. My congressman retired and became a lobbyist and then he got me 7,000 per month from the lobby from the transit system. What im saying is that federal employees can get a raise, i think there should be a minimum raise because a lot of people cant make it on the Social Security check. You have to make over 50 per hour to do it. We are ray Small Business business state. We lost a lot of industrial jobs. Athink that you should have minimum amount, say 1 . We should be getting the same. Mount as the federal employees the state employees get the same thing. We dont have nobody negotiating for us. A lot of people need the raise and are not getting it. They needed for food and fuel. Im waiting on your response. I dont want to hear that you cant do this. A cosponsorctually of a piece of legislation that would, in fact, give a 6. 7 check to seniors. Heres why. Ceos in this country have received, and the last year, they saw their incomes go up by 6. 7 and we think that those of us who are cosponsoring this that there ought to be a one time payment because there is no. Ola this year of 6. 7 you have done your homework. Isillionaire, a billionaire done paying into Social Security. Fter 118,000 i agree with you. We should raise the cap. We should ask people who make more money to pay more into Social Security. The other point that you made, the Market Basket that figures out what is the cola, is not appropriate for seniors. We think that there ought to be a Consumer Price index just for the senior Market Basket, which includes more for pharmaceuticals, transportation, food, and heating your home, which would mean that you would get a higher cost of living adjustment than others because your Market Basket is actually more expensive and less diverse. Youve got it right. Things that my Senior Citizens task force is fighting for. Thatnk these are things are absolutely affordable and absolutely winnable. You have been representing your district in illinois for 18 years now, nine terms. Guest finishing my nights term. Host you are around during the time of speaker Dennis Hasterts speakership. I want to get your reaction to the sentencing and what the illinois delegation is thinking and feeling today. Guest i really cant speak for the delegation. Nothing has been brought to the floor. You. E to tell i was absolutely shocked. One of the reasons he was picked as speaker of the house was because he was mr. Clean. He was a safe candidate for that incredible office, two steps away from being the president of the United States. Im very happy that he was at least sent to prison for some amount of time. I think it would have been a travesty if he hadnt. Apologized toas the people who have been harmed by what he has done, those kinds. F things can last a lifetime as the judge said, the judges is a brother of a republican state legislator in illinois he said that he is a serial child molester. This is a horrific crime. Dennis hastert needs to pay for it, both in prison and in every way in his disgrace for the rest of his life. Host we have only a few minutes left with congresswoman jan schakowsky. A democrat from pennsylvania. Go ahead. Caller yes. I just want to put it in a nutshell. Platformlican party has always been to get out of the safety net platform. They want to put it on the free market. A lot of the republican callers and viewers is the Social Security is not just democratic, it is republican. A lot of republicans are trying to make ends meet. Things like womens issues, like the Environmental Protection agency, these around the Republican Party hit list. They are not just holding out for their own best interest. Host i want to look the congresswoman jump in. They wanted to change medicare, and it as we know it, turn it into a voucher system. It is the republicans that have long called for the privatization of Social Security. The only real secure piece of Retirement Benefits right now, which is Social Security. Pensions are disappearing and savings have gone to the wind. Pushing to create and rebuild that kind of safety net for children, for poor people with the child tax credit. They are trying to build it in for people who are trying to make it and having a hard time. Government has a role in doing that and i think you for porting that out. Democrats have been for that program. Wet we would be remiss if did not give you a constituent. Arlington heights is in your district. An independent. Caller good morning. I have a few comment in regards to illinois. Wow. Where can we start and where can we and in regards to our taxes, . Roperty tax, sales tax very, very expensive. We dont even have a yard here. We dont even have a yard. This woman here is very smug and fearng a lot and utilizing in regards to controlling the narrative. Host do you have a question . Caller obamacare was forced upon us by the government. It is a ways and means to gain more money, Insurance Companies, pharmaceutical companies, what have you. I had to subsidize other people and a lot of kids, too. That goes for the state of illinois and chicago. Host congresswoman, i will give you the last few seconds. Guest as you know, in the state of illinois, there has not been a budget for a long time. Government inr lowstate of illinois is so that many places that are providing services to our people have had to close their doors. Governor has said that unless his turnaround bustingwhich involves unions and cutting programs for people who need them so much, that he will not pass a budget. Taxes. Y taxes are local the State Government has not come through with the resources that we really need. That is why property taxes and sales taxes are going up. It has put the state in a very situation. If the governor would give up on his take an early but agenda that hurts the state of illinois. Host congresswoman jan andkowsky, the house gavels a 10 00. We appreciate your time on washington journal. Guest it has been my pleasure. Host we have a simple question for our viewers. , what is the proper role of government . We have split up our phone calls by age group. On American History tv on cspan 3. Never has this committee undertaken such an investigation. Its purpose is not to prepare the fbi and legitimate rather toement, but evaluate Domestic Intelligence according to the standards of the constitution and the statutes of our land. Over 40 years ago, a Senate Select committee chaired by Senator Frank Church was cia,ned to investigate the irs, nsa. 40thsaturday marks the anniversary of the church committees final report. Why thatot explain quantity was developed, except that this was a collaboration that we were engaged in with the United States army and that we did develop this particular weapon, you might say, as a possible, for possible use. And on the civil war at 6 00. In 1860, the United States was not old enough to have wisdom. Lees family had been living in virginia 225 years. Do not think lee anguished at all over the decision he made and i think that devotion to duty came to him in 1861. Virginians. Ad been james but robertson talks about. Obert e. Lee the film the final decision the 1968 president ial race. Presidency. He won as a result of that. His ability as the chief of the armed forces in the leading power in the world and the chief of the free world is to think responsibly about what one can achieve and to try to define ones policies and try to understand geopolitics in that light. Military historian jeremy blatt looks at the origins of the cold war and looks at dwight d. Eisenhower as a military man. Washington journal continues. Last 30 minutes, we are asking, what is the proper role of government . We have split up the phone lines by age groups. 41829yearolds for 1829yearolds. The reason we are asking this question is because Speaker Paul Ryan talked about what he believes the proper role of government is when he was addressing a group of Georgetown University students yesterday. [video clip] at the Democratic National convention in 2012, they showed this video that government is the only thing that we all belong to. I think they got it exactly backward. Government is the only things that belong to all of us. It is not supposed to manage people, but to serve them. Totalk this mindset is in think with the way that you live your lives. Cliche to say that your generation is the most technologically savvy we have seen. Netflix org on to voodoo or hulu, that is a huge win for me. [laughter] you know better than anyone that technology is not a toy or a distraction. It is what allows you to focus on the essentials in life come on your faith, on your family come on your work come on your hobbies. I would argue that government is supposed to do the same thing. , you days, with technology are so used to customizing your everyday life. It is at your fingertips. Why on earth would you want to support a governing philosophy that seeks to take away your right and your ability to things like your health care or education. You cannot say the government is of the people when it is deposing decisions on the people. Government does not impose community. The people created. The governments role is to protect it. Host house Speaker Paul Ryan yesterday. What is the proper role of government . First up, john from albuquerque new mexico on the line for those over the age of 50. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to start with thanking you for your service and thinking cspan. Always love to call cspan. To agree with paul ryan this morning that the Government Works for us, we should not work for them. That caller earlier was talking about congressman giving thems elves a raise. I feel like governments role is to make regulations favorable to the American Peoples employment. No more laws favorable to people in other countries, immigrants, people in v says getting work. When we are employed, im not talking about seven dollars per hour, im talking about livable wage, we are more than happy to purchase our own insurance. Forcing us to buy our own keepance is forcing us to food offer tables. Governments role is to make a favorable environment for us to earn a living. On that issue of regulations that are favorable for employment, what if there is a regulation that could hurt one sector and help another. Say the coal powerplant regulation that could help those in the Outdoor Community or the Tourism Community that you just talked about. What happens when the goals conflict . Caller i will tell you what. I went through a lot of soulsearching around me environment and we have Clean Coal Technology coming online. If it comes down to protecting the environment at the cost of a whole state like kentucky or ,everal states in the business they are not going to stop burning coal and china matter what we do. They are not going to scrub it through a clean coal power plant. Jobs got to put american first. We need all sources of energy at play here. We cannot discriminate against coal it is going to make everyones energy costs going up. We have to try to do it as clean as we can. Workingto put americans first. If you dont have a job and you are losing everything you long, the last thing you care about is global warming. We hope our viewers will wetinue to join us host hope our viewers will continue to join us. The Senate Armed Services committee is holding a hearing. Ight now defense secretary ash carter will be testifying. Flip over to cspan3 if you want to watch that. Michael is in baltimore, maryland. 1829 years old. What is the proper role of government . Caller thank you so much for having me on. I really enjoy watching the washington journal. I think the role of government and the perception of the size of government has really changed. The government should support common welfare of the people. I think the size of government is a lot smaller than people perceive it to be. In maryland, infrastructure is terrible. Potholes and the roads, lack of public transportation, icy. Overnments role in that i was a supporter of the Affordable Care act. I was in high school during the wars in iraq and afghanistan. Major occupations of foreign spending trillions of dollars and the Ripple Effect of i thinkat is not what of governments role is. I would like to see more of a domestic focus. Host when you say that the perception of the size of government has changed, when did that change . When did people start having a different view about that . Caller i think the commonly stated idea that in the 1980s during the reagan and thatcher administrations, there was a rates and the perception of the role of government. There has been this shift in this idea that the government has gotten too big and that it is way bigger than it ever has been. If you look at public funding of education, look at the sizes and role. I think this is not based on how things used to be. Host this is from the office of personnel management. This is total federal employees. During the regular administration, 5200 5,256,000 federal employees. 185,000 4 million federal employees. Three different data points to work off. Does that reinforce what you are saying . I think that is the case and just the collective perception of the way people and the size of government has changed a lot. People went to college and are expecting a certain kind of job and opportunity. I think people are looking for an answer, but they come from two different places. I think the governments role is to reintegrate people that have lost their jobs in mines, mills, manufacturing into the current economy, as opposed to holding jobs that are not coming back. Competitive advantage, we are not going to be able to compete with china in competitive manufacturing and coal. That is just the reality of the situation. People are not going to be able to get their jobs back. Bring up Bernie Sanders. The Bernie Sanders campaign actually cutting back on jobs. That story making headlines. Laying off hundreds of field after a tough stretch of losing five of the last six nominating contest and has virtually no chance of mounting a come back. Before the iowa caucuses, his Campaign Staff had more than 1000 people. The staff size fluctuates, but they will number about 350 Campaign Staff now. Several other papers. What is the proper role of the government . Rex is up next on the line for those ages 3050. Good morning. Caller good morning. Great discussion. The role of government, in my humble opinion, is to step in in the faceis right of what is exactly wrong. Im talking about the Insurance Companies. Their hands had to be forced on this Health Insurance issue. I think not every day that the law got past. Does it need some tweaking . Absolutely. Is it perfect . Absolutely not. , when does ask you the government decide when something is hurting enough people that they need to step in . Caller when did the government decide . Host when should they decide. When does an industry hurt enough people that it is than the role of the federal government to step in and fix the situation . Caller well, when it starts hurting the people. Host define the level of hurt. Hurt being level of a diabetic that cannot go out into the marketplace and get insurance because insurance will not be able to get around the marketplaces. Insurance companies hung the beholdp on me and lo and it was unbelievable how lucky i was. The next take him of Affordable Care act became law after i ran out. I was able to get coverage. Ive had that coverage ever since. Im a type one diabetic on an insulin pump. The Affordable Care act saved my life. And ive not alone here. Im not alone. The Insurance Companies, we had to force their hand. The president stepped in and did exactly what was right. Host i appreciate you sharing your story with us. Jim is waiting in pennsylvania on the line for those over 50. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Host go ahead. Caller this whole thing started in 1981 when they decided to get rid of all the highpaying jobs, when they started bringing in as many illegal people as they could, when they suppressed send by threatening to anybody who asked for a decent wage increase, they threatened to send their jobs overseas. What weve got to do is decide the proper role of government. In this country, the government is the people. But they turned it around. With the politicians and the money and the lobbyists and the wall street friends and the Treasury Department and the Supreme Court. Everybody is getting money except the people. I think the question you are asking is the role of government. Personally, i would like to bring back the old triedandtrue way of handling politicians. Feathering. And you find out they are corrupt, you go down there, tar and feather them. Ok, jeff. We dont support attacking and physically hurting him first congress. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Every time people are attacking. He government if you dont like the government , go travel to places like somalia and iraq and libya. Roads, we have ambulances, we have police officers. All of these things, somebody has to pay. Angry when i hear people like ted cruz saying they will shut down the irs, the department of education. It is not something that doable. We cannot have these kind of issues. Travel overseas. Host do you think people should be able to step up and criticize government when they see a problem . Caller im not saying the government is perfect, but the notion that people are saying, we can is us change the system, but the that we take the government out of the system it is a disaster. Government helps every time there is a disaster. Disasterthere is a they say, where is the government . You cant have it both ways. Let us not play the politician language. If you want more than what you have, please travel overseas. Host weve got your point. Lets go to houston texas. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Thank you for taking my call. That is a very interesting question. Host are you with us . Caller yes, i am with you. That is a very interesting question, it is a very proper question. I hear politicians on both sides of the aisle. That thes that i feel government should give to the americans in this country. I think that health care and education should be paid for by the government. First of all, how are we going to remain the Worlds Largest if we do not keep our people educated and healthy . Host should the government pay for college . Caller there is a Free Enterprise system, if you will. I think college, if you will, there are things that have been spoke about the question again . Host you said there are things that have been talked about with paying for college. Caller yes, in the political spectrum. I feel that education is very. Mperative i think it is something that can be talked about. If we are to remain the Worlds Largest superpower, education and health care are very important. A third thing i would add what about a major infrastructure package . I think that with infrastructure , that is a balance all the way across the board. We see roads, bridges, everything is crumbling in this country and all of this. I think it is something that can be talked about. If we are to remain the Worlds Largest superpower, education and healthi really think that td be able to put honest individuals back to work, if you will. Those are some of the things that can be looked at because it all goes back to our children. Children are our future. We have a lot of politicians, some who have served many years. I think that if everyone would , what about children, what about health care for our children . Jordan is up next to new york. Some of the things that callers have already said that the government should do include creating jobs, getting people back to work, stopping industry from hurting people, providing health care, education, infrastructure. Do you agree with all of those are some of those . First off, thank you for cspan. I appreciate that. I think the government should be to how they control the people of the country. If we look back to our constitution and the founding fathers, we have this defeat aion created to previous government, great to claim independence from them. The government should be limited andhe needs of the people where we should have a free keep our that we can i want to address the caller somalia. Ed about somalia was a failed government, as we see. This was from over rule and government and they government that wants to pretty much have all control of everyone and everything that they want to do in every aspect. Socialist. Ers is a pretty much, he has no idea of economics. Want to do give free college and free everything. Host how old are you . Caller im 27. College,s idea of free doesnt appeal to millennials of your age. Caller the most millennials, yes. Who understand free Market Economics undereducated, it makes no sense to have such ideas like that. When you explain your position, how does that usually go . Do they turn around to your view . Caller pretty much, they tell me, moved to somalia if you dont like it. Why should i . I have a free voice just like anyone else. Host that is jordan in new york this morning. A couple of stories to make you aware of this morning. The u. S. Supreme court could make it tougher for the government to crack down on. Ublic corruption justice across the ideological spectrum expect concerns during arguments of the Supreme Court in the case that current laws give prosecutors too much power to criminalize the everyday things politicians do. At issue is that federal law that bars Public Officials from accepting money or gifts and exchange for official acts and bob mcdonald was watching the arguments about his conviction in 2014 of accepting money in gifts and loans from a wealthy businessman in exchange for promoting a dietary supplement. Certainly, a case to watch the decision. The decision is expected later this summer. Something that has gained a lot of attention, the socalled 28 pages in the 9 11 commission report. They were trying to provide some , in usand insight today, they said that it was important to understand that they were not drafted by the 9 11 commission. Those pages were part of a prior report by a Congressional Panel investigating intelligence failures related to the september 11, 2001 attacks. Pages have been described as a smoking gun implicating the saudi government. What often gets lost in those stories is that they were based. Ntirely on unvented materials the independent 9 11 commission studied evidence gathered in years and reaffirmed the 9 11 Commission Conclusion and it concluded that there is no evidence against the saudi government. If you want to read the full piece, go to usa today. Back to the phones for the next nine minutes or so. And reaffirmed the 9 11 Commission Conclusion and it concluded that there is no evidence against the saudi government. Before the house gavels and for the day. Philadelphia, pennsylvania on the line for those over 50. What is the proper role of government . Caller yes, good morning. First of all, i would like to say that mike from maryland really restored my faith in young people. Second of all, i would like to say that we have a responsibility to government. I also believe that government has a responsibility to us. Host what are some of those responsibilities . Caller some of those responsibilities is not shipping our jobs overseas. I believe that abortion is wrong. Im a democrat. I totally believe that abortion is wrong. But i also believe that we have a responsibility to respect the law. As ahoices that we make people, as women, you are going to answer for those choices before god. That is what you should consider. If you have an abortion, that is wrong. Also, i believe that government has a responsibility to get us jobs and no, they do not have that responsibility. That is our responsibility. , government has a responsibility not to take our jobs and ship them overseas. Are we in a World Economy . Yes, we are in a World Economy. But why do we have to do contracts that make it impossible for us and lose us money . I dont get it. Host we will go to jonas in maryland on the line for those between 30 and 50 years old. Good morning. Caller how are you doing, sir . Host im good. Go ahead. Caller my main concern as far is the Financial Market is devaluing our currency. They are going to be starting to demand gold. It is an economic shift happening. Im afraid we are going to go into a major recession because there is no regulation going on. It is scary. Host if there is one piece of legislation that would restore what you think the proper role is in the federal government, you think it would be to reinstate glasssteagall . Caller reinstate glasssteagall and somehow liquidate. I dont know who is going to pay it, but i guess the American People are. I cant afford that kind of tax yet. Pennsylvania on the line for those between 18 and 20 nine years old. Good morning. Caller good morning. You know, what i think is really twisted and broken as when the founders put the constitution together, it seems to me they knew people couldnt very easily compromise and they showed it right there, the struggles that went on when they tried to put together the constitution. Before onal saying out of one many. Host out of many one. Caller pardon . Host out of many one question mark caller out of one for the good of many. Fighting forbody their own viewpoints. They dont know how to negotiate, they dont know how to satisfy to be willing to accept the best that they can get that will benefit the most that we can see. It is just like how the constitution was formed. Are there enough people that have the mentality to bring it back, to negotiate . Say the proper role of government is more negotiation . Find a middle ground . Caller yes. That is how the constitution came about. Read about it. They were it area did not like, lets all do it this way. It was not that way. They had to have this compromise. People cant do that. It is insane what goes on. Everybody is fighting and trying to destroy the other to get something done. Then criticizing obamacare im repulsed by that name. It is not perfect, but it is better than what we had. Dont see anywhere that that happens in government. I think it is broken, i think it is making the rest of these ideas are viable, it is to be able to find, what can we accept that will work for the majority of people. To beare supposed representing the majority of the people. I dont agree with all of the extremes. It is totally broken. Host all right. One other news story. Today on washington journal, an Associated Press report noting that Vice President biden arrived in iraq on thursday. Landed at midday after an overnight flight from washington. He is expected to meet with government officials. The white house did not disclose his itinerary. We will look for more reports from that visit for you on tomorrows show. Time for a couple more calls. In westminster, california on the line for those over 50 years old. Good morning. Caller good morning. Glad to talk to you. Start, you know you guys have it right when you guys do the party that the person belongs to, like you are doing now with the age. If you do the age, do the party, so that we know what their party is, so that we know if fox news is giving them their information or their findings of information somewhere else. Suggestion. Iate the we sometimes try to split up the lines differently to provide different types of information about the calls. What is your party . Caller im a democrat. Is thing is, what im saying , also, when you do that, we ofe a better understanding where that person is coming from. I can appreciate what you are saying, which is good, but let us know what the party is. I pay taxes on my life and ive never felt bad about them. They do go to good places. I work construction. The freeway work and all of that , that is put out there with the taxes. It is not going to the government employees. A lot of these jobs that are being done are private parties that are bidding these jobs at the cheapest bid they can get. Host i do me to jump in on you, but the house is getting ready to come in. We appreciate all the calls this morning. We are going to take our viewers live to the floor of the house. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers rooms, washington, d. C. April 28, 2016. I hereby appoint the honorable john j. Duncan jr. To act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, paul d. Ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2016