Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160525

To allow puerto rico to restructure its debt. We begin this morning with the debate on capitol hill on whether to impeach the irs commissioner. Republicans held a hearing yesterday where the commissioner declined to show. Republicans laid out their arguments for impeachment. We want you to tell washington what you think. Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. You can also go to twitter or cspans facebook page. Lets begin with yesterdays hearing before the Judiciary Committee, which would have the oversight, the authority for impeachment. They heard testimony from the government oversight and Reform Committee and its chairman, Jason Chaffetz p. Chairman toldhe the Judiciary Committee. The irs targeting scandal was unamerican. The most powerful and feared entity in the United States, the first him and meant rights of citizens were trampled upon. The chairman was not there for the initial targeting. He worked handinhand with congress to fix the problem. She did not fix the problem, he made it worse. Compliance with the subpoena is not optional. Dividing posttest money comes providingsequence false testimony comes with a consequence. He could have prevented evidence from being destroyed, but he did not. Americans are rightfully frustrated about the targeting scandal and the lack of accountability. The case before us is about mr. Koskenin. There cannot be full accountability because the evidence was destroyed on his watch and under a subpoena. The remedy given to us in the constitution is impeachment. Host that was the chairman of the oversight and government Reform Committee yesterday laying out the argument for republicans on why they want to impeach the irs commissioner. Rick is up first in florida. A democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I believe this is a complete scam cooked up by the republicans to once again this marriage anything that has to do with the Obama Administration. Ofbody that watches any kind of any kind of integrity knows there are just as Many Democrats who were targeted because of certain parts of their name or certain words that were used in their name. Leaning mocratic they did not get their Tax Exemption because of what they were doing. I also dont believe anything should be chaffetz taken with nothing but a grain of salt after the battle that was the planned parenthood hearings. Was not atkoskinen the irs when this investigation first began. His biggest stumble was when congress was trying to look at the former irs Senior Executives emails as part of their targeting probe. Informed the committee that a computer hard drive crash lost thousands of messages that were subject to a subpoena. Rick in florida. Democrat. Good morning. Rick. Let me go to lacey in texas. A democrat. Caller i dont think he should be impeached. Politicalt to be a supporter, be that. Of an want to be a chair operation helping people, be that. You cannot be both. If they took their time to figure out what who was doing what, thats what they should do. They hate president obama. Host lets hear from a republican. Maryland. What do you think . Caller of course it is impeachable. Since day one, its been blame bush and attack republicans. These families have been affected, theyve been ruined, businesses have been ruined. Hes used the power of the irs to go after his political foes. Like itsers act nothing, these are violations that would put anyone in prison. Regime destroys i never would have thought 20 years ago that this would be allowed to happen, ever. Let alone be able to get away with it by people turning their heads and just saying it is the mean republicans. You and i would be held accountable if we did anything like that. Lets listen to the top ranking democrat on the Judiciary Committee bid he argued the resolution to impeach the commissioner was without merit and would likely not pass the senate. [video clip] resolution every measure i have learned in the maine of hearings in this vein overears the years. It arises from the worst partisan instincts. It is not based in the facts and it is virtually no chance of success, in my view, in the senate. , from whatr koskinen i can determine come is a good and decent civil servant. He took office months after the socalled targeting scandal had concluded. Massive evertook a to respond to each of the investigations under the matter. Are here today to consider the allegation that the commissioner deliberately misled congress as a part of those efforts. The claim is not that we oragree with his decisions that we question the speed and completeness with which is agency provided answers, but that he knowingly and intentionally supplied us with false information. Colleagues, and my the record simply sa does not support this charge. The top democrat on the Judiciary Committee laying out the argument that democrats are making, the charges against John Koskinen do not rise to the level of impeachment. E Washington Times says tracy in nevada. A democrat. Thank you for calling in. What are your thoughts . Caller congress has Better Things to do. This is what people are angry about. Congress wastes it time its time. Congress it should be seeking paul ryan outcome acknowledging that he should not endorse donald trump. Is showing up in Donald Trumps actions. Host tracy mentioning what we here,ned at the top bloomberg reporting that paul ryan is ready to end the trump standoff. Ryan aides say nothing has been he expects ryan to endorse the nominee as early as this week. William, a republican. Good morning to you. What do you think about this . Caller this reminds me of the meet old who boss playing as the old boss. Old boss playing as the new boss. Whoever runs the house or senate, they will be doing the same things. You need someone who is independent to get the facts out. Like the vaf hospital this is all on obamas watch. Other,fter one or the theres too much bureaucratic red tape. Sort of like Lyndon Johnson trying to run the war over the telephone. Re. Ope trump gets in the host you mentioned the veteran affairs secretary. Ead urged to resign after his blunders. Times at veterans wait v. A. Clinics to waiting for. Ides at disneyland ator blunt said he was joined by senator david vitter of louisiana. What do you think about these efforts to impeach the irs commissioner . I think our country is in real trouble. Look around, just look at what has happened over the last couple of years. Republicans to go into office into the house and the senate and nothing was done. This is why people are up in arms. The irs is targeting people of conservative conviction. Organizations that are conservative, like the tea party. Whatever happened to rule of law . To sendyou ask people their children to the military to defend this country when they are doing what they are doing, targeting conservatives over democrats . I would like to ask a question. I understand that 90 members in the democratic legislative body of fully signed on members the communist party of the usa. When you look at the rhetoric, look at how young people are , youcing Bernie Sanders begin to wonder come is our country becoming a communist country . Teach said if we do not our young people, we will wake up one day to find out we live in a communist country. Commissioner did not show up to yesterdays hearing. The Washington Post report says he said he would not return time he did not have hewould not attend because did not have time to prepare after returning from china. Dave brat has his own poll on twitter. Ou can see the results there 89 of his followers are saying yes. We are asking you the same question. Larry in mississippi. A democrat. Caller this is political. He should not be impeached. This is just them trying to make president obama look bad. They came out and told you the truth about benghazi, why they were trying to stop Hillary Clinton. Its no different. Thereafter the president. They are after the president. Host kathryn in cleveland, ohio. A democrat. Caller good morning. Im a big cspan watcher. Heres my two statements. You hired an irs man to do a job. When he does a job, you get angry and matt. Check thet you status of those that are making the claims . Formerhat accused president clinton and tried to impeach him, we have one in prison for child molestation and the other one admitted that he was a warmonger. The peoplet to vet trying to impeach this man because our history is we allow people to do things to other people when they are a bigger criminal than the person they are accusing. Host lets look at supporters from capitol hill. Odlatte. Tative good jordan. Tative jim congressman huelskamp. Desantis of florida. Alters. Lte those are republicans on capitol hill. Wikipedia with some context and background. In 2013, the irs revealed its elected political groups applying for taxexempt status for intensive scrutiny based on their names are political themes. This led to why condemnation wide condemnation of the agency. Liberal groups like the occupy movement also trigger scrutiny, but at lower rates. In january of 2014, the fbi told foxnews its investigation found no evidence so far warranting the filing of criminal charges in connection with the scandal as it had not found any evidence of any enemy hunting. Thoughts . Our , republicanser would want to impeach mr. Koskinen. On the House Oversight committee, no evidence the house hid or destroyed info. Dems house judiciary sayingse oversight dems s as well what do all of you think . And in louisiana. Independent. Good morning to you. Ed in louisiana. 501 c three status is given to these charity so they can launder money for these charities. It is a cronyism issue. Its not about who deserves tax exempt status and who doesnt. Its cronyism. This is nothing but a witchhunt. Im not a republican or democrat, but im a person who someves there should be kind of oversight on the oversight committees even looking at these issues because its not about the 501 c three helping any charities helping people, its about laundering money through the system. Impeachment,of republicans also want to slash the irs budget according to the Washington Times. What do you all think . Misty in texas. A republican. What is your message to congress . Caller i watch every hearing, thanks to cspan. Ive watched the irs hearings, the Hillary Clinton hearings. When you see the divide between the republicans and democrats, why cant we all just be americans . The trial yesterday were talking about mother wasnt even democrats hardly representing at the end, it was all republicans. This is about lying and covering up we should get rid of the irs. They treat american citizens horrible and we pay them to do that to us. You mentioned who was in the hearing yesterday. A columnist for the washington t reports koskinen blew off the panel. Lets go to fred in new jersey. Democrat. Caller good morning. Witchhunt. About cutting all government funding. They cut staffers of that agencies do not perform when they should. I worked for the federal government for over 30 years. I know what this is all about. Host paul in fort lauderdale, florida. Republican. Caller good morning. Im really disappointed about the calls coming in from democrats trying to turn this argument. Itical they defend president obama like he is a mother defending his son. Let this whole thing stand up against the facts. This is tyranny. The irs can figure out the reason to audit you no matter who you are. If they are allowed to do that, we are all in danger of the tyranny of government. , i think the irs was at fault. Lois lerner take the fifth amendment and refused to turn over her emails from the very beginning. Person recover allowed thosenen to be deleted. There is something very bad going on here. Im disappointed in the American People calling into this program and trying to up escape the whole thing by turning it into a political defense of the administration. Forget that. This is a dangerous thing for our society. Host you mentioned the lois fifth, allding the if you missed those or want to go back and look at what was happening, go to www. Cspan. Org. Reporting that dems are discussing dropping wasserman schultz. Democrats backing hillary she has become too divisive a figure to unify the party in 2016. Which they say is crucial to the feeding donald trump. Defeating donald trump. Here is the New York Times this morning. Gop is weighing primary changes after 2016 chaos. Have begun internal deliberations over what would be s to the waychange its president ial nominees are chosen. President ial nominees are chosen. Youve probably seen the video, but here is the story in new mexico, trump protests take a violent turn. A protester holds a burning tea tshirt in albuquerque yesterday. News,some campaign 2016 john kasich is urging his delegates to stick with them throughout the gop convention. Want to rollers with the Party Platform and rulemaking and see cruz delegates sitting on those panels. Republican primary in Washington State yesterday, donald trump securing a victory there. Run,nal review is saying mitt, run. Mitt romney, run for president. How we in philadelphia. A republican. Wie in philadelphia. Caller we should impeach. We should abolish the Internal Revenue code of 1986 and 1939. There thatybody out is catering to it seems like libertarians, theres nobody representing. Voter, i dont think its fair for donald trump this way. Ted there is so much going on. Im losing my train of thought. Host jesse in texas. Independent. Caller we need to hold our government officials accountable. At the irs should be held accountable. Why . Formation was deleted, who did it . Hold those people accountable, at least. People have not been held accountable. The people say we need answers and we want to get to the truth. Lee in new jersey. Caller i dont think the commissioner should be impeached. , the tea party was all over television. There would be claims about workflow change we had to figure out how to handle them. All this about truth and conspiracy, it was a matter of have handled claims or information coming in from nonprofits when they were indeed affiliated with a political party. Didnt they receive funding anyway . The ones who were really denied were the ones such as the. Emocratic ones anyway host let me show you this exchange yesterday between a democrat of texas and Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the oversight and government Reform Committee. Cspan covered this hearing. [video clip] that me just say this. No evidence was uncovered that irs employees had been directed to destroy or hide information from congress. Do you want to quarrel with that investigation . You are conflating two different topics. Aboute are most concerned is mr. Koskinens actions under the subpoena. The all theof information and charges made about discriminating against conservative groups, are they not . The underlying need came about through all of that. Basis of the investigation found no evidence to suggest any crime. ,n respect to the commissioner his answers cannot be part of a crime. Answering to the best of his knowledge, he cannot be attributed to an impeachable offense. I disagree with that. You you asked said yes. If that turns out to be untrue, have you given them full testimony and should you be removed from office . I hope ive given everything as accurate. If i find there is something inaccurate, i have a duty and obligation to correct the record. In this case, mr. Koskinen still stands by all those statements i showed you. Hat is the difference host in exchange yesterday chaffetz wasson testifying. Postumn in the washington says also up on capitol hill today, tsa administrator set to testify at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. We will have coverage of that on cspan3. The tsa administrator saying action will be taken to fix the crisis. The head of the tsa said the agency will post up to the minute wait times by mid june nnd will test an automated bi removing system to get travelers through checkpoints faster. The volume of carryon bags has quadrupled over the last three years. It is the number one thing that slows the checkpoint. Cspan3 at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time. , it is the 30th anniversary of cspans gavel to gavel coverage of the senate. senate30. Cspan. Org years. You can watch all of our Current Senate coverage on cspan2 and online at www. Cspan. Org. Speaking of Senate Coverage and the National Defense authorization bill is being voted on this week. Rand paul would like to tie the release of the 9 11 documents to the defense bill. The release of those 28 pages that congress has been debating they should be released to the public. Roger, thank you for waiting in new jersey. Independent. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I wanted to say that the house this is onee more example. They are not contributing anything. They have other decisions to make. There are serious issues. You mentioned the 20 pages. People want to know the reality about saudi arabia and all that. We need to understand that the time we have is very significant. We are in a time when justice and security and huge debt surrounds us. A new president. Maybe we should try to think about impeaching president obama. Given out threats, he has treated isis, Hillary Clinton has been helping him. We need a true president to make this country great again. Should Congress Impeach the irs commissioner John Koskinen . Claim he destroyed evidence and testified falsely before the oversight and government Reform Committee. Says he did not have any knowledge of the emails being destroyed. Back 4. 5 years to the investigation done by the fbi and oversight and government Reform Committee looking into targeting by the irs, led by lois lerner. We have about five minutes or so left in this conversation. Primaries yesterday in georgia whotexas a breakdown of won. Dorothy in baltimore. A democrat. Good morning to you. Caller no, he should not be impeached. Taxexemptould have status because they are not a charitable organization. Congress created the irs. They could get rid of it anytime they want. Rulesngress gives the irs one more thing. Was beingrson who charged with something i did not do and congress did it to me. There was a lawsuit because when you put someones reputation on the block, you have no evidence. Would be all over every newspaper if this man had destroyed evidence. He would have been arrested. This is foolishness. Host a couple more calls here. New York Times International section. Obama met with human rights activists in vietnam. Some were blocked from meeting with the president when he was in hanoi, vietnam. He is now on his way to tokyo for a g7 meeting. Puerto rico debt restructuring bill will get a markup before the house resources committee. Supporters of the bill say it is not a bailout. Also, the house yesterday, front page of the wall street journal. In ahemical safety rules rare bipartisan action. In the New York Times, partisan mistrust as complex as adds complexity to congressional funding to fight zika. Almost four months after promising 1 million of his own money to veterans causes, donald trump moved to fulfill that pledge monday evening, promising to a charity that came under intense scrutiny. When donald trump was contacted and was asked whether he had given the money this week you know, youed are a nasty guy, a really nasty guy. I gave out millions of dollars that i had no obligation to do so. Bob in texas. Republican. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I am a partisan on this, but going back to mr. Koskinen and the destruction of data and information, i think it is rampant in this administration. Hillary clinton, the destruction of her data, number of the cabinets have been called up for the destruction of information, it is horrible. I dont understand why people will support an administration trashs and keeps it from the American Public. Victoria in texas. Good morning to you. Caller thank you for taking my call. Impingement the impeachment, it depends, but both parties have been acting irresponsible. Their conduct is deplorable. We were promised accountability and transparency and we are not getting that. All weve got is evidence of people walking away with big retirements. People need to say enough is enough. There should be some accountability. Thank you. Host you might be interested in this piece by Margaret Sullivan times stylengton section. The Obama Administration has been part of a different know nothing problem. It has kept the public in the much over the last seven years. Also from news around the country this morning, detroit legalress, the governors bill is 6,500 per day. The water crisis costing taxpayers close to 6,500 a day. Theres also this in the courier , in new jersey, transgender policy okayed for area schools. Also this morning from abortion rights rallying outside the state house in South Carolina. Supporters want nikki haley to. Eto abortion bill there is also this from the wall street journal. The government is investigating senator bob corker of tennessee and a tennessee headquartered real estate firm. Ftc have separately asked questions about the relationship between the company who has mader millions of dollars in profit Trading Company stock in recent years. We are going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will talk ,o representative buddy carter the only pharmacist in congress. Later, jim mcgovern of massachusetts is here to talk about food policy and food waste. In addition to the graduating you will beh graduated into a world of peace, light and love, but that is not the case. Ofall live in a fairytale the 1 . Watch commencement speeches in their entirety, offering advice and encouragement to the class of 2016. Ellison at the university of Southern California and the administrator of the Small Business administration at whittier college. You can count on yourself. What makes you special . What distinguishes you from others . In business, we call it your unique value proposition. Figuring out yours is key. And senatorions Barbara Boxer and governor mike pence. To be strong and courageous and learn to stand for who you are and what you believe. That will carry into the balance of your life. Vice President Joe Biden at the university of notre dame. Loretta lynch at Selman College and president barack obama at rutgers university. Is it any wonder that im optimistic . A new generation of americans the arc of history in the direction of more freedom and more opportunity and more justice. The class of 2016, it is your turn now. To shape our nations destiny as well as your own. Commencement speeches this memorial day at noon eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host at our table this morning is congressman buddy carter. A former pharmacist. Why did you go from pharmacist to member of congress . Guest ive always been involved, even when i was and in up in high school college, i was president of my freshman class in north georgia. Always felt the need to be involved with public service. On when i first 1988. My business in i knew i needed to get involved in my community. I became mayor and a state legislator and served in congress. You are lending that experience to this debate on capitol hill about what congress does to address the opioid crisis. Youve been appointed to the housesenate conference. What are you telling members of congress . Guest theres no question that there is an Important Role. Opioid epidemic reach proportions where it is really impacting lives. A great class of medications and work great when used properly. They have a large potential for addiction. Ive seen it ruin careers and families and lives. It is very sad. Host does a pharmacist have a responsibility to determine and have you ever determined in your years of practice this person seems to be going down that road . Guest we do have a big responsibility. If we are going to ever get this under control, it will have to be a team effort and the pharmacist will be an important part of that team. Andill take the families doctors and nurses, everyone involved. They will have to do their part. Pharmacists on the forefront of this battle here, you never want to profile. That someone is pain . Pain . Is not in yet, there are warning signs. There are times when people are crying out for help. That is when the pharmacist has the opportunity to intervene. Host there is a database that exists kentucky became the to require doctors to search and patient a patients drug history. How does it work . Could it work nationwide . Guest it is a very sensitive subject. People dont want you in their medicine cabinet. It is an important tool in our tool chest and it is something we have to utilize. I sponsored the bill that said monitoringption program. There are things we can do to enhance that program and make it even better and it means sharing that information across state lines. Its one of the things we are trained to do in the state of georgia. It would help us tremendously. In savannah, georgia, we are very close to South Carolina and not too far from florida, so we have a lot of patients that come from both of those states and we have to have the ability to see, are they pharmacy shopping . It is an important tool that can be very helpful. Timesthe new york week on on opioid capitol hill. Passed and president obama signed a very different measure last month that curtailed the Drug Enforcement administrations powers to pursue wholesalers the agency believes contributed to the epidemic. It goes on to say it was the lobbyists by these big Pharmacy Companies that were able to secure this provision. Guest right. This is going to have to be a team effort. Get this ever going to under control, it will take everybody participating. The dea will play an Important Role. Pharmacies and wholesalers have to play an Important Role. Weve had limits put on how much we can actually obtain from the wholesaler. That is a good thing. That is a selfinduced way of making sure that we are not dispensing too many medications. We have to be responsible with this. We have to be aware of the danger. You dont want patients suffering who truly need that medication. ,ne of the problems we ran into we would run out of the medications people needed because the abusers were getting itfirst thats getting first. That is not a good situation. There are bad actors in every profession. In journalism come in medicine, in every profession. For the most part, you will find a professional pharmacists are very concerned about this problem. The wholesalers, ive seen them doing their part. We will get this Problem Solved by working together. Host robert is waiting in pennsylvania. Independent. Caller i would like to ask the thing iman, the one noticed with congress is they dont do anything unless they get pressure from groups, lobbyists and other groups. Who is funding this drive to demonize the opioid users in this country . Ive heard my doctor is getting pressure from the fda to cut back on people he prescribes to. Who is funding this . I dont think congress does anything without people pushing them. The only people that could be pushing for this is the people who could benefit when people are denied Prescription Drugs. Cartels in mexico. Thats my question. Drug cartels in mexico putting pressure on our congress to get people pushed off their medication. Guest i would respectfully beg to differ on that. We are not being lobbied on this. The leading cause of accidental death in america is opioid use. It has surpassed automobile accidents as the leading cause of death. It is something that has evolved into an epidemic. We are losing 77 people every day to opioid addiction. They are going from opioid addiction to heroin addiction. Representative hal rogers from kentucky sponsors a Prescription Drug abuse conference in atlanta every year. Now that we have expanded, he has added on Prescription Drug abuse and heroin abuse. That is how bad it has become. I would disagree that this is being pushed by lobbyists. If this is doing anything, hopefully it is hurting the drug cartels. That is exactly what we are trying to do. Host how does a doctor determine pain and efficient and in a patient and what role does the patient play in this overprescribing of opioids . Guest the dr. Plays an Important Role in that is one of the things that we have addressed in some of the legislation that we have passed. It is something the cdc and nih have also addressed and that this protocol for doctors to follow when prescribing for pain because this is one of the things that we really need to address. That is making sure doctors understand and are being taught in our medical schools how to prescribe for pain. Pain is very difficult. What is painful to me may not be painful to you or to someone else. There are different degrees of it. They use a scale that helps them very much to determine how much pain someone is in. Even then, you have to keep in mind that opioids are such an addictive class. You can become addicted to opioids and almost no time. Instances of people who are gone to have a dental procedure and they are prescribed opioid and they are addicted in a short time. Host how quickly can happen . Guest it depends. Some people have a tendency and are apt to be more addicted than other people. Im very blessed because ive no desire to take medications at all. I dont even take my lipitor. [laughter] anyway, some people are more susceptible than other people. That brings up another point i want to bring up. There is avoid out there between ibuprofen, acetaminophen, prescription pain relievers that you can get without a prescription and then opioids. Once you get past tramadol, there is not a whole lot there for us to use. In my years of practicing pharmacy, im a big fan of big pharma. I have seen your calls, literally miracles in drugs. Antibiotics that when i first started practicing in the early 1980s that you had to take 40 tablets over 10 days and now you can take five tablets in four days or six tablets in five days and you are done. Andan treat illnesses diseases with medications now thanks to the research and development that has been done by the pharmaceutical companies that before we couldnt do. Look at hepatitis c. We queued it with medication. That is phenomenal. For that reason, i feel like the pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to help us with this problem. We need something besides the opioids. We need to fill that void. Im confident that they can do it because i have seen them perform miracles here throughout my career. Host what is the jump . Explain that more from what you can get from the pharmacy without a prescription to, i guess, described the strength. We are going from what to what . Nowt you can get ibuprofen , a seed of medicine without a prescription acetaminophen without a prescription. Fair or unfair, people do not believe it works just as well that you can buy it without a prescription. It is not fair and it is not true, but its just the way the people feel. I want something you have to get from behind the counter. And that is what i want for my pain because it is my pain. That is where we run into a void. Once you get past tramadol, you go to the will b opioids. They are great class a medication that truly relieves pain, but you have a great problem with addiction. Host you believe in big pharma. You were a pharmacist for 30 years, but you yourself do not like to take drugs. [laughter] explain that. Guest i dont know i. [laughter] host ricky in jacksonville, florida, republican. Caller good morning. Host question or comment . Caller i have a question and a comment. They were talking about how do they know when a patient is in pain and how they prescribe. I want to ask the congressman im a veteran and i had a knee operation three weeks ago. The doctor gave me a prescription for Pain Medicine and i took it to the v. A. And they would not give me. I had to take a voucher to get to outside pharmacy. I was truly in pain and i am in pain. The determination for who gets pain medication is are you going to get addicted . How can you make that decision for me . Guest that is a great question and a great example of what we are talking about. Pain thresholds differ with different people. That is where again we need to make it we need to do a better job of educating and training are physicians before they come out and start practicing as to how to do this. Most physicians, the vast for majority of physicians are great at this, but there are some that prescribe too much. There are bad actors in every profession. This is a good example of someone who is truly in pain and needs that medication. We want to make sure they get that. That is a professional responsible the i have a pharmacist and the professional responsibility that dr. Has that the patient should not be a pain. Where do you draw the line . Where does it become they become dependent on it . Host we are talking with buddy carter, republican of georgia. He is also a pharmacist of 30 years. Guest started when i was 10. Host [laughter] he is here to take your questions and comments about the opioids situation. If you have stories to tell us, call in as well. Hinesville, arkansas, democrat, are next. Our caller i kind of wonder why this opioid medication drug i go back to the 1990s when crack n of the damage an epidemic in congress was not trying to save people from the drug. Im wondering if this is because opioids are taken by a majority of white people because crack has really destroyed the black community. You through people in jail. Well, not you, but people were thrown in jail. Benefitse losing their and their kids were taken from them. Opioids just seem like its a different issue. Host we will have the congressman respond. Guest look, ive had patients who are africanamerican who wear addicted. I have patients who were caucasian that were addicted. I do not think it really discriminates against one Certain Group over another. If you are susceptible to it, you are susceptible to it. There may be information and data in the literature that proves that one group may be more susceptible than another group, but when i say that i ofe seen this type medication room careers, families, and lives. It has ruined black lives, white lights, and hispanic lives. I am proud of congress for addressing this. This is a National Epidemic and something we need to get under control. Im proud that congress stepped up and has taken the lead, along with the president. Give credit where credit is due. I applaud the president for bring this to light in his budget this year. This is something that all of us have to Work Together on. On theou are housesenate conference that will iron out the differences between the two chambers. What is your timeline for getting this done and when do you expect to send something to the president . Guest we hope to be done in the next few weeks. It should not be that long. There are some differences that we have, but they are not major differences. We are all committed to getting this done. Hopefully you will see within the next 34 weeks. Host robert, republican. There i just want to say were laws that protected opioids and therends years was alcohol. Imperial countries in asia since the 1500s have failed to do that. China has always had opioids, but the usa will say alcohol only and now marijuana. Each country has her own favorite new creation, but that is all i have to say. Guest he mentioned a pet peeve of mine and i would be remiss if i did not bring about. It up. Im not a marijuana fan. I feel like it is a gateway drug and im not in favor of states who have legalized it. I do not find any value whatsoever. This is a personal belief that i have and a very strong belief. As i said, i think it is a gateway drug that leads to more drug abuse. The point that he was making as far as other countries may be having a drug of choice if you will, perhaps that is right. Im not familiar with those other countries, but i can tell you that when we are talking about the leading cause of death killing 77 people every day, i believe we will be shunning our responsibility in congress if we were not responding to this. Limbaughtwitter, rush got his opioid drugs by dr. Shopping. What has been done to stop it . Guest that is a Great Program to where every state is different, but i know in the state of georgia, they are required to go and look before they feel that prescription to see if that person has gotten another prescription filled somewhere else. That is a great will that helps us to see if someone is in trouble and needs help. Host do you have a legal response ability as a pharmacist . Guest a legal and a moral responsibility as a pharmacist. Host how could you be held accountable . Guest by the state board of for obviously and recklessly dispensing medications and not living up to your professional responsibility to make sure that person first of all, its a legal, legitimate prescription and that you are doing everything you can to protect the patient. Host and your license revoked and jail time as well. Guest absolutely. When we passed that in georgia, we had significant penalties in their. Re. We are talking halfmillion dollars in fines, i have year in jail, and we are serving that without looking for a specific patient. You cannot go see what your neighbor is taking. We put some very strong reforms in that. Host lila is next, an independent. Good morning. Caller can you hear me . Host yes, we can hear you. Caller i totally agree with everything that you guys are saying this morning. I appreciate it so much. We the people of the United States need to recognize our responsibility in trying to make this a better place instead of pointing fingers all the time and saying it is somebody elses responsibility. It has got to start from the homefront. People thatered to got onto heroin in my life in the last year. These were coworkers and they both i did not know what was going on with them. They were very likable people, but as they got deeper and deeper into the drug, there was evidence that something was bad. None of us knew what was going on. They ended up losing their jobs because they became so irresponsible. Both of these people had families. They hit it from their families. They hit it from their coworkers. When i asked them why, it was because they were ashamed of what they were doing and it was embarrassing. When we get down to it on that level and start recognizing that if you are in pain temporarily because you got injured, you have to be very careful with the drugs you are taking because it will steal your life. It is a beast. We have to recognize that the people, that we have got to do on our level are part and create whatever legislation and whatever system we create to correct what is going on. Host congressman carter . Guest i think i like lila a lot. Im a big person who believes in personal responsibility and it does take personal responsibility. She is exactly right. When you are addicted to this medication, you are not yourself. A lot of people are crying out for help. Ive had so many expenses with this. Ive had a father bring in a son and say i think he is addicted. The sun is just bawling, crying. The doctor told me to take this and i took it like you said. I do not want to be addicted. It is so sad. As lila pointed out, when you see families reeling because of this. Host what is the alternative and what can you come as a pharmacist, if you are standing , ise and someone admits there a drug or something you can offer to get them off the opioids . Guest there is, and thats a great question and a great point. We have a responsibility and a great opportunity as pharmacists because we are right there at the firing line. We have the opportunity to help these people. Some pharmacists really aggravate me and say, im not going to. Get out of here, youre addicted. Youve got to help these people. Because someone comes up to my counter at the drugstore and they have long hair and tattoos, oh, its an abuser. How do you know hes an abuser . You may be in pain. It is very difficult and theres no question about it. We are professionals and we do this. We want to help them get the help that they need. That is what we are trying to do in congress. I do not think ive any we got here where i was more proud of being a member of congress that i was during the opioid week. It really made me proud to be a member. Host maria is watching here in washington, d. C. , on our line for democrats. Caller i had a few questions. When they order prescription opioids to the patients and they combined with tylenol, it is pretty deadly. Isther thing i am saying esoteric is a little better. Some sort of rehab needs to be offered because they become dependent on this particular medication for pain. They need to be in rehabilitation. That has to be combined in congress. Because theres always pointing fingers. You cannot point fingers to everybody. Guest she is absolutely right. That is one of the things that we have tried to address in this opioid legislation, getting people that help. One of the points that she makes is that and we mentioned juster people feel like because you can buy it without a prescription that it doesnt work as well. There was kind of a pink pill and i remember my patients coming in and we had a generic that was white. We would give them the white and they would say, no, the white one doesnt work, only the pink one works. They truly believe that. We tried to convince them of that, but you couldnt do it. Can be a psychological dependence. Many times it is. It is a physical dependence as well. Its not easy. Listen, if you are struggling out there with opioid addiction or any kind of drug addiction, we want to help you. We want to get you the help that you need. Go to your pharmacist and confide in them. Let your doctor know. Host what drug alternative is there for somebody try to get off opioids . Some drugs that keep you from that addiction and keep it under control. Host duncan, South Carolina, david, republican. Caller good morning. On1996, i had been hydrocodone. I had next surgery and they my neck bones, the vertebrae. I had been on this medication all this time. I also have crohns disease. I take my medication once in a day, four times a sometimes i need it, sometimes i dont need it. A couple years ago, they reduced the acetaminophen down from 500 to 325 milligrams. I know other people that are complaining that we need more pain medication and i need this and i need that. Im kind of happy where i am. Ive been on this for such a long time. I want to say it 16 years now, a little more than that. I kind of regulate myself. I admit that sometimes i take five pills a day, six pills a day, but then there are other times where i am hurting and i sit back and take a pill and will not do anything. Host ok, congressman, the difference between david and somebody who can become quickly addicted. Guest i mentioned earlier that some people are more susceptible than others. Scalec has come up with a with a test to actually see how susceptible people are. It works pretty well. Again, it sounds as if he has got it kind of under control. So many people cant. We get back to the pain factor. When i first started practicing pharmacy, i would have people coming into the store and they would say, ive got pain and i would look at them and say, sure. I hurt my back on a trampoline once and i said that changed my view of it quick. It was in excruciating pain. I can empathize with them better as to what they were suffering from. Host in michigan, a democrat. Good morning, youre on with the congressman. Caller good morning. I want to relate back to the black german who called about the drug activity gentleman who called about the drug after epidemic with crack. We are locking up young black men, throwing them in jail. I had an fbi informant who told that during that drug academic back then, the crack himine phase, the fbi told that if you put crack in white neighborhoods, you would be killed. We are going to have this drug thrown into the black neighborhoods. With these young men, were going to put them in jail. We know thats the truth. We know it. Guest look, this is a legitimate point. So many of our jails are filled with people who need rehabilitation, drug rehabilitation. We recognize that. I know in my hometown when i was in the state legislature that this was something we struggled with. The share for tell us all the time that im not a drug rehab facility, yet you are expecting me to be that. That is what we are trying to do. That is what the president s budget try to do. Im not a fan of the president , but give credit where credit is due. We need more rehabilitation. Put them in jail without rehabilitation is not the answer. We need to get them rehabilitated and back into society as productive members of society. I cannot agree more. Host he represents the First District in georgia. You serve on the Homeland Security committee and also on educational workforce as well as oversight in government reform. Before the home as security and tomorrow,y the front page of usa today says the tsa has taken action to fix the crisis. That action will be posting up to the minute wait times by midjune and a new system designed to get travelers through tec checkpoints faster. What are you looking for today . Guest we are looking for answers. Im glad to see initiatives, but we need to see more initiatives. We will hear from messenger today and we will ask him, what is your plan . Was your plan to get rid of these long lines . Make sure we are utilizing everything available to make sure that it is safe and secure. They have a 95 error rate. That is unacceptable. That is something we have to do a better job with. All those things are important. We live in a different world now. We all accept that. 9 11 changed our lives and we will never be the same again, but we can do better than what we are doing right now with tsa. These long lines, theres no excuse for that. Host cspan cameras will be there at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3 for all of you following this issue and want to listen in. Reid in sacramento, california. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am a longtime Pain Management patient. Ive been seeing a doctor for pain since 2010 when i originally had my neck diagnosed with cervical spondylosis. Enpinchment. In nevada, it seems like they were more liberal or this was before the cdc past their guidelines. I was on high doses of oxycodone. I moved up here to california and out this time, i am on the lowest amount probably possible in order for the doctors not to get into trouble with the cdc, but my pain has steadily gotten worse. On my been complaining paperwork that the pain has gotten worse and the doctor does not want to seem to do anything. I had a steroid epidural shot guided into the cervical neck bones. That has not given me any relief. The last time i went in, i told them, look, my pain is getting worse. I also have scoliosis. He flat out told me, i cannot increase your medicine because the cdc gives us guidelines and they only want us to be 100 milligrams. I am up against a brick wall. To doctors now afraid prescribe anything more than the cdc has given as a guideline. Congressman, swing carter . Guest this is a common problem. We do not want to keep doctors from doing their part. But may control my pain may not control your pain. This is something that he needs to talk to his doctor about. There are other therapies available, too. Lee always think that the only thing that will control our pain is a tablet or a pill. That is not necessarily true. There is physical therapy and other ways to control your pain and those are things that we have to try to do as well. I never want to get to the point where a doctor cannot practice his art and cannot practice medicine. This cookiecutter philosophy that a patient can only be on this amount of medication that is not going to solve our problem. Host how does a persons weight factor into how much pain medication they should be getting . Guest it factors into it significantly and makes a big difference. , that is body mass something you have to calculate when you you are calculating a dose. I would have to say genetics. Oney be able to take just hydrocodone and all the sudden i whereas someone else could take it and it does not do anything at all for them and they have to have four or five of them. Over time, you build up somewhat of resistance to the medication and that is where you get into a lot of problems. Done is research being about genetics and how you prescribe something based on genetics . That is something thats hard for a doctor to figure out. Guest it is. Thats cutting edge therapy right now. We actually had someone a few months back in office who that is what theyre doing. They are working in genetics and are trying to see how they can improve jerk there. Drug therapy. Host gainesville in indiana. Caller good morning, mr. Carter. You mentioned the responsibility part in regards to pharmacists. Hereminds me of a story where long story short, we have young men who is in the pharmacy and he abused prescriptions by filling out drugs for himself and he got weeded out. That such an unfortunate and dismal happening when that occurs. Drug abuse is so rampant that we lost a lot of great musicians like kurt cobain and it rips my heart out. Thats all i want to put out the. Host also, prince was dr. Shopping. Guest he mentioned professional addiction. Ive had pharmacists who are ive worked with and they cannot control it. Its like a kid in the candy store. If you have the income to be successful with it, you have that inkling to be in trouble. Its a tough degree to get and its very difficult. All the sudden you get into it and you realize you cannot handle it. Ive had some instances where i shared this with some of the other day that i had a pharmacist one time, theres a drug that you take for diarrhea just so you dont abuse. All of a sudden, were missing bottles. I cannot figure out what was going on. This guy was extra taking it home and heating it up and separating it out and abusing it. I thought, wow. Ingenuous that he would be able to do it, but how sad at the same time. Host janet in kansas, the republican. Caller i hurt my back back in 1994. I went through four back surgeries. I have fibromyalgia. I have neuropathy in my feet and legs. I have a fantastic chronic pain doctor who is highly educated. It is 22 years of being on Pain Medicine. Ive been on more physical any onethan anyone person should have to go through. A lot of the physical therapist did not know what they were doing. At one point, i was paralyzed from seeing a physical therapist. Now in the state of kansas, they have required that i go in and see my pain doctor everything months to make sure that im not abusing my drugs. Im 63 years old and i was 42 when i hurt my back. Like a said, i have to go in and see my doctor every three months to make sure im not doing any illegal drugs. Host janet, we will have the congress and respond we are man respond. Guest she has a need for medication. Fibromyalgia by itself is a painful disease and condition. That is a problem. A lot of times, when you try to correct something, youre going to hurt some people that truly do need it. If something she truly needs this medication. Obviously with all the surgery and diseases that she is suffering from, but again i want to point out for those people who are out there and need help that we want to help. I encourage you to go to your doctor and pharmacist and to share with them and let them know that i do not want this to control my life anymore. Congressman buddy carter, thanks for the conversation. Come back again. When we come back, we will talk with representative jim mcgovern, a democrat from the massachusetts and we will hear about todays hearing on food waste and a discussion on food policy as well. We will look at the cost of the war on terror, which according to reason magazine has cost the u. S. Over 4 trillion since 2001. We will be right back. On q a, day night that he co that talks about ther office does. June 1998 as a newly minted historian and my colleagues said to me its going to be nice and quiet. We have and election coming up any o and you have time to read and settle into the job. In a few weeks, the house decided to impeach bill clinton and we had to do a good deal of research on impeachment trials. We had not had a president ial 17 eight andince they wanted to follow historical president as much as they could. That sunday night on cspans q a. Secretary, we probably give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the United States. Announcer washington journal continues. Host we are back. Congressman jim mcgovern is at our table this morning talking about the policy in our country. The House Agricultural Committee is holding its hearing about food waste from field to table. What is happening and how much waste is happening in the United States . Guest up to 40 of all food grown is never eaten. We are told that 4050,000,000 tons of food is sent to a landfill every year. Thats not to mention we have a hunger problem and United States of america. Millions ofs of people who go hungry. We have to solve this issue of food waste. This food is fine to eat and discarded for a number of reasons. When you look into it, they are r reasons that do not justify throwing away good food, yet we do. We should help solve our hunger problem here. Putting food into landfills is bad for the environment. It causes all caps of problems that contribute to Climate Change and global warming. There are better uses of even bad food, food that we cannot eat anymore. Putting it into energy, putting it into composting, animal feed. I could go on and on. We waste an awful lot in this country and we ought to figure out a way not to. Host wear is most of the waste happening along the chain . Guest it happens in many different places. Oftentimes on farms, a lot of things that are grown are discarded. As consumers, we only go out and buy the perfect apple or perfect tomato. Has to look like its out of a picture book. If something is grown and imperfect, oftentimes, it is discarded. Foodmarkets, a lot of the at supermarkets will see dates that say sell by a certain time. We all think that after that date that it is no longer any good. The reality is that it is oftentimes probably good after that date and for a long time after that date. I just saw a movie called just it and they searched garbage cans at the back of supermarkets for what was discarded. They found not only enough to eat for six months, but they actually gained 20 pounds by living off discarded food. All of it was good. All of it was perfectly healthy to eat. It was just that there are these arbitrary dates sometimes put on products that i do not think are accurate in terms of whether the food is good or not. Host a scientist for the Resources Defense Council had this to say. Our whole food system is based on maximizing profit. Its not based on maximizing food use. Explained. Guest the fact that we discard so much of the food shows that we are not focused on using that food properly and we do not have the if a structure in place to do a lot of what we need to do. We talk about farms that have x excess produce or whatever. We need to have infrastructure built in place to help farms bring whatever is perfectly good to eat but may not look perfect to food banks. We ought to help provide the resources that build anaerobic digesters to turn some of that into energy. There are Companies Like starbucks and Campbell Soup that are leading the way and trying to take some of their food that is perfectly fine and rather than throwing it away after it says sell by a certain date, knowing that its still very good, what they are doing is they are providing vehicles to bring it to food banks and help feed those who are hungry in this country. We are shown fears right now that in 2015, the epa and usda called for a 50 reduction in food waste by 2030. What can the government do . Guest the usda has actually made this an issue, but there are other things. We can reform the best buy dates to give consumers more Accurate Information. When you go to a supermarket, you actually know how long food is good for so we are not throwing it all away. The other thing is that we need to provide some incentives to help our farmers be able to take the excess food on their farms and get it to places where it can help people, whether its our food banks or into our schools or help them build infrastructure to create anaerobic digesters to produce energy. There are a lot of Different Things that we can do. It should be able to give guidance to consumers so we know with accuracy what you are eating and whether it is good. Host how to prevent liability with people getting sick from e. Coli . Guest nobody is asking that we give people food that is somehow filled with bacteria and will harm you. We all think that these dates on a lot of Food Products are there to prevent us from getting something that. , with they is exception of infant formula, there are no federal regulations governing these dates on these products could that i. That is mostly a statebystate issue. We do not want people to need food that has gone bad, but we are throwing away good food. Its perfectly fine to eat and its healthy that could help deal with our hunger problem. Even the food that has gone bad, we can turn it into Energy Rather than putting it to landfills or composting. We need a National Policy to deal with this because quite frankly we are wasting so much and the need is so great. Host lets go to calls. Rachels up first in South Carolina, a democrat. Caller how are you all doing . Cityve the people of the of philadelphia. I was in a coma and that is why i had to come home, but i worked very well with the farmers. Also, they have food businesses. We work very good with them, but the waste is unbelievable. I would like for him to talk about i know this is going somewhere else, but we have found a lot of dead people. Even women that are pregnant. They can get into the wrong food. That is why i had to go and take a government Internal Revenue test to know what im doing before i serve people out the food because i work from the church. Guest and we want to have high standards in terms of making sure we are feeding people food that is actually saving good for you. That goes without saying. I guess when the point of this hearing that we are having in the Agricultural Committee today is that there is a lot of very good food, healthy food, nutritious food that is discarded, that is wasted. Even when we discard it, we discard it in a way that does not make sense. The vast majority ends up in landfills, which crates all caps of the bar all caps of environmental issues. Lets make sure we recapture the good food. We have a hunger problem in this country. We have the richest country in the history of the world, but we are hungry. We ought to take this good food and help you people. Help feed people. If it is no longer fit for consumption, we ought to find ways to better utilize it whether to put it into energy or composting or whatever. That is a better use than what we have been doing. We need a National Approach to this. We need to think outofthebox. There some opportunity here. My grandmother used to say to me, dont leave any food on your plate. Do not waste anything. It is a sin to waste good food. There is some wisdom in those words. Food is a precious commodity. Yet we take so much of it for granted here as evidenced by the fact that we waste so much. The Agriculture Committee is going to be debating this issue and solutions on what to do with food waste in this country. Intoure interested, tune our website at cspan. Org at 10 00 a. M. This morning. David in georgia, independent caller. As an i have worked independent operator and delivered to food banks, food that was put up to be sent out because the head overages. The food bank had to pay my expense to get it transported to the food bank, but they left what they got. Loved what they got. What we really need in our Food Industry is an infrastructure to handle 500 million tons of waste of food that is thrown away that people could be eating. We do not have an infrastructure to get that people. The farmers will push that into a compost pile or feed it to some of the elses cattle. If we had an infrastructure and a way to keep the farmer from having to go out, because he is spending money to do that and he cannot afford it. If there was an infrastructure for people to go gather food and bring it to the food banks, do all those things. Guest i agree with what the caller is saying. There are tax incentives right now that you can get a benefit from donations, but it gets more complicated when youre talking andt lots of excess food putting it into a truck and transporting it to a food bank or to a school or someplace else. A tax to go beyond incentive. I think the caller is right. In washington dc, there is a truck back goes out that tries to recapture a lot of the good food, but that means they are putting resources into that as opposed to a lot of other things that need to be done. Ost he says he worked in fast food and we were not allowed to eat food for trash. It was a cost right off. Perfectly good food, too. Guest thats ridiculous. Million peoplele in th in the United States who are hungry and we should all be ashamed of that fact. Unfortunately in congress, we have debates over how we cut snap, which used to be known as food stamps. How to make it more difficult for people struggling with poverty to put food on the table. It is frustrating to me, but as we are having that debate, maybe we can come together on this. For is not a substitute snap by any means, but upon the matter is that we are throwing away a lot of good food that could feed a lot of people in the country. Host that reminds me by the way of the divided lines. Their snap recipients with a fourth line to call in on. James in new york, new jersey. Caller hi, James Mcgovern. Been following you. Im a moderate and ive been a d. C. Insider since 2002. I kind of know things a little bit. My suggestion for you, james, is this. Show the film, just eat it. Guest i have seen the movie. And ia fascinating movie will definitely look in to trying to bring it to capitol hill to show to my colleagues and staff because i think they can learn a lot from it. I certainly did. Host we will go to david in washington, d. C. Are you there . Caller good morning. Host turned on your tv or whatever is in the background. [laughter] caller sorry, it is on. Because aing synonymous phrase for the country right now is america for profit. We have got to rethink that. Our whole food supply system is forprofit. It is commoditized and it is not about feeding people, which is what the congressman said. We have to fix that. We have the Republican Party that wants to cut people off of eating. We have a Democratic Party, which is really republican light that wants to make money off of everything. If you try to solve a hunger issue by Incentivizing Companies , thend people for profit the incentive is to have more people hungry so they can make more money. It is like a messed up prison system. Host i will let the congressman response to what you said. Guest that is not what im proposing here. Ive talked to lots and lots of farmers, for example, who would like to be able to donate their food to food banks and to schools and senior centers. That they dont necessarily want to put it to a landfill or they would put it into composting or animal feed. When its still very good, they would like to mix her people could benefit from it. A lot of these farms are small to mediumsize farms. They do not have a lot of extra staff were extra money to transport and gather all the food and get it to wherever needs to go. When we have incentivizing, its really to help those farms. Look at a lot of these farmers that are making zillions of dollars. There are some in the Food Industry quite frankly who are more interested in profits at whatever cost. Whether they are environmental or dealing with hungry people, its not at the top of their list of concerns. More and more, i think we are seeing some in the industry realizing that they can play a part in helping to solve our hunger problem. We ought to find ways to encourage that. Good samaritan laws we have some on the books. A lot of people do not give food because they are afraid they will be sued. We have protections in the law already. Maybe those need to be enhanced to take away that disincentive. That everything is about money. It is about providing information and reassuring people they are not liable if some of the get sick necessarily. We want to make sure the food is very good, but issues of liability are always a concern to people from restaurants as well as farmers. Host brunswick, ohio, independent. Caller i would like to ask a question about china, when they deliver the food from overseas. They not inspected . Guest i think they are inspected. Let me say this. Im somebody who believes we ought to support our local farmers. We ought to have a 50 state farm policy in the United States. Have a to make sure we strong, sustainable supply of food here in this country. I think its a National Security issue. I would much rather buy food that was grown in the United States because we having a knowledge have more knowledge of the things that are done to the food and how it is grown then we do from getting food from other countries. Im not talking about putting up a wall around the country. Im simply saying that we all can influence where most of our food is bought from if we make the conscious decision to actually support our local farmers. That is something that is beginning to happen and we ought to do more of. Host we are talking with congressman James Mcgovern about food policy in the United States , taking your questions and comments ahead of the hearing before the Agriculture Committee this morning on the straight issue. We will have coverage on it on cspan. Org. It little politics to talk about as well. Some democrats on capitol hill are discussing dropping Debbie Wasserman schultz as a democratic chairwoman before the july convention. Guest we have to focus on how we beat donald trump in november. Changing leaders a couple months before the convention does not seem to me to make a lot of sense. I understand people have concerns about the process, but lets fix the process. Lets change some of the rules on how we nominate. Im a superdelegate. Do you want to get rid of superdelegates . Lets get rid of superdelegates. I think we should get rid of caucuses quite frankly. We should insist that when we have elections to elect a democratic nominee that many people should be encouraged to participate as possible. Particular point, so soon before the convention, does not make a lot of sense to me. Im not saying that people do do not have legitimate concerns about the process. I do myself, but theres a time and a place to do with that. Winave to figure out how to in november because i think donald trump would be a disaster for this country. Host even doors to learn clinton you have endorsed Hillary Clinton . Guest i have endorsed Hillary Clinton. I agree with Bernie Sanders and support a lot of the issues that he has championed. I am glad that he ran. Its good for the Democratic Party and for this country. He has every right to stay into the very end. Its a competitive process to the very end and thats a healthy thing. I think we need to understand if donald trump was president of the United States, that would be a contest of the a catastrophe. I know a lot of republicans feel that way as well. Host we have radio listeners as well. I did not remiss if mention that the hearing will also be on radio. You will be able to hear the hearing on cspan radio. Republican. A caller good morning. , inhe topic of food waste russia, there was a famine where 30 Million People died. It was not until the communists took over where people start having food to eat. In postworld war i europe, in germany, half the country was starving to death. In the present day, what this with this food be used to see the others . We have a candidate who is a socialist. People should Pay Attention to the kind of Party Leadership that will be affected. Guest im not sure about the question, but what im here to we ought to understand that we waste an awful lot of food in this country, an awful lot of good, nutritious food. To the extent that we can recapture some of that and help make sure people are better fed and have access to nutritious food, we ought to do that. To the extent that we can take that and turn it into energy thats good for the environment, we ought to do that. To think on this issue that may be and republicans might find common ground. We are having really bitter debates over issues like snap, which i think is unfortunate we ought to think be committed to making sure people have enough to eat in this country, especially those were struggling. My republican friends seem to have a problem with that. Maybe we can come together on the issue of food waste and actually do something and it would be good for dealing with the issue of hunger, but it also might be good with dealing with some of the Environmental Concerns as well. Host julian, atlanta georgia. Caller im more interested in the ingredients that go into the food. That doe 21 countries not even accept american food. If people would google it and find out all the negative things that are in our food, they would have a change of mind for why what you call good food is poisonous food. That is why we have cancer and many more diseases because what the corporations are putting in our food. There are countries all over the world that do not accept american food. Host congressman . Guest for our consumers, we ought to have the adequate labeling and it ought to be clear labeling as well. One of the problems is you go to the store and you buy things and try to figure out whats in it. Theres a lot of deception, if you will, and a lot of confusion as to what is in the food or how many calories are contained in a particular package. I believe in full transparency. People ought to know what they are eating. Number 2 a lot of the food that we are talking about is food directly off of a farm. , i know, apples, celery could go right down the list of things that are grown on farms. A lot of these things are discarded or wasted. I think they are all healthy for us. We are not talking about candy bars grown on farms. That is not what the focus of this discussion on food waste is about. Is about things that are good for you, that are nutritious to eat. What we are trying to say is lets recapture as much of this as we can. It is good food. We have people who do not have access to food and when they do have access to food, they do not have access to nutritious food. A lot of what we are talking about is nutritious, stuff thats good for you. Host you are calling on the Ag Department to rewrite rules for snap recipients. Why . Rules keep referencing some retailers from accepting food stamps. Problemes, part of the is the usda has come up with a rule that could really limit the ability of snap recipients to use snap benefits to buy food at some of the Smaller Stores, the 7eleven, or what have you. The effort by usda was a noble effort to drive people toward more nutritious food. The problem is that a lot of people dont have access to supermarkets. A work odd hours, so sometimes the only store that is open at night are some of the Smaller Stores, and we have to work with those Smaller Stores to try to help them provide more nutritious options for people. If you have a rule that makes it impossible or very difficult for people to be able to shop at those stores, you will block out a whole bunch of people who are struggling in the country. I wish every community had a big to a widet, access variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, but that is not the reality. There are food deserts in massachusetts, rule areas where there are food deserts, so sometimes people dont have options. A car, if you have a car, and driving many miles to supermarkets is an expense as well. We have to make sure that we are not creating another problem and that was my critique of the ruled that the usda put out. Host debbie in north carolina, democrat, you are next. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. So manyu for covering issues. We just on have enough time, but my question is, the department of agriculture is pulling back on the farms, so they cannot sell their surplus, if you load, which is causing hunger in the insecticides i mean, i wash every vegetable and fruit very three, a lot of the food banks and not so much the food banks but the pantries are actually giving food to people who are in need. A lot of the food is outdated. What are we doing about that . Guest again, some of the food be considered to be outdated may not be outdated, and that is one of the things we will talk about today because just because it says sell by a certain date, that does not mean the food is bad the next day. We need to provide more Accurate Information to consumers and how long the food is good for. Im not sure i understood the first part of the question, but if people are worried about pesticides and chemicals being used on crops in all these other things that have become controversial, i would tell people, consumers can drive the debate. What drivehabits are the Food Industry in many respects, so if you want organic foods or you want foods with no gmos or other kinds of foods, i consumers focus our attention on supporting those things, the markets will readjust. We also need to have a discussion about our agriculture general and what food we subsidize and what good we do not. Im a big believer that we have to subsidize fresh fruits and vegetable and make them more affordable and to make them more available for people that some of the other crops that we have subsidized over the years, but that is a big discussion. Hearing, we are focused on the issues of food waste and there is a lot of food place. The way we describe that food waste is that for our environment, and it denies a lot of people who could eat that food the ability to have access to it. Simpsonville, republican. I am a retired teacher, i still work as a sub and we have so much food waste in public schools. I do not understand why food baskets are not allowed on the table, where children do not throw away apples, bananas and oranges that they did not eat and put that extra food on the table. The children that are still hungry or brought their lunch, you know, allow go ahead. Guest i agree. Maybe we should have a sharing table. I do not want to see apples and other fruits discarded or vegetables discarded when they have not been touched. We need to make sure they are clean, but you ought to be able to have Something Like that. We have to figure out how to do it. One of the things i have learned about in terms of waste is that often times, the lunch period that we give to kids is unbelievably short. I have than to schools where they have 15 minutes to eat lunch. As a result, theyre given an apple and can take one bite and that is all they have time for because they are told they cannot bring it to the classroom because it makes too much noise. We have got to give kids enough and digest their lunch. Food is important. It is medicine and keeps us healthy. Food for young kids helps them learn. We have a lot of kids who show up at schools and that not eat no weekend. When you are hungry, you cannot learn at school. Essential toit as learn as a textbook. We ought to appreciate that fact and make sure kids have access to nutritious food and have the time to eat it. One of the bad things happening right now in congress, but my republican friends are rolling our nutrition standards on school food programs. It is outrageous. Every kid who gets a meal at to feel we ought confident that that meal is nutritious and good for them. Rolling back those nutritional standards, you know, that does not make sense. Kids who have bad diets and up with diabetes, battling with obesity, high blood pressure, later with heart disease. We have to we should appreciate that science that tells us that Good Nutrition results in the bunch of other good things and not rollback nutrition standards. Host brian, new hampshire, independent caller. You are on the air. A quick back and forth. 100 years ago, america had enough cultural farmers to feed the world. Food. Are importing more we cannot make enough food in the country to sustain us. About subsidies today and how it feeds to the destruction of independence . That was normally used for food is now used for genetically modified types of food. Food and it ought to go into your belly. To the extent that we can use food for energy and go back to what i was saying before about discarded through that is no longer suitable to eat and be digesters torobic produce energy, but i have never thought that subsidizing the corn Energy Industry for ethanol was a smart idea. Feeds raised the price of for animals, which has raised the price of meat and other things, so i think there are other ways to deal with these energy challenges. The other thing is, i believe if we subsidize food, we ought to subsidize fresh fruit and vegetables. We ought to be talking about investing in infrastructure to recapture a lot of this food that is perfectly good to eat. I think if there is a little bit of good news, i am sensing the kind of renaissance on your appreciation of local farmers all across the country, and i see the massachusetts and there is much more of an appreciation for local farmers then there was an i was a kid. I see more and more consumers going to farms to buy a lot of their meats, fruits and vegetables, and i see a lot of people going to farmers markets, and when they go to Grocery Stores looking for something grown locally and the United States, so i want a 50 state supporticy, i want to our farmers and i want to see agriculture grow and not shrink. Host on the line for democrat. That, ihaving said wanted to know if you would be open to may be making the federal land available for farming and if the term for that, would it be percentage of that crop said for snap participants or whatever to help feed the hungry . On whatt would depend federal land we are talking about. You raise an interesting point, i talk, a loten of people when they want to get into farming say, unless you are kind of torn in two of farm, the cost of acquiring land and getting all the claimant you need to start a farm could be prohibited, but we are working with a lot of current farmers right now, trying to get them to put their land in a situation it will always be used for farmlands, so we will have enough space for people to farm, but i think we ought to explore to look atf ways this issue. I would say one thing. If we really want to deal with the issue of people who are hungry in this country, we have to understand that it is about making sure we have enough food available, but also making sure people can afford the food. One of the problems i have for what is going on in congress is there is this attempt to consummate aaa at the social safety net. The average snap benefit is 1. 40 per person. That is it. You never know that if you listen to the debates in the United States congress. You think it is an extravagant benefit. People say that people on snapper on it for [indiscernible] the median time a family is on we are toldyear and that the snap rules are exploding, which i hear from a lot of my republican friends. The reality is that as the economy gets better, millions and millions of people are now coming off of snap. I am so the issue is used to get people to work, but the majority of people on snap our children, senior citizens, people disabled and the majority of those who can work do work, so people who are working are earning so little that they do qualify for snap. Raise theught to minimum wage to a livable raise in the country and invest a little bit more in job Training Programs that people can make transitions into jobs. Right now, the speaker of the house in order to get the republican budget passed, which has thrown aap and whole bunch of people off the program, but it is not radical enough for the majority of republicans to support it. If they threw in more sweeteners, one is to deny the to waive this provision that says that if you are been can to buy the adult, you only be on snap for three months during the 36 month period unless you are in a Job Training Program for working. Into a jobople get turning program and may not have found a job and then they will essentially be [indiscernible] i dont know how that makes sense, but that is what the republicans propose and i think it is a bad idea. A lot of these people who follow that category are veterans. A lot of them are coming back from afghanistan, iraq, trying to reintegrate into society, and what the United States congress is saying is we will throughout the snap. Help the hunger problem in this country, the person react to do is stop beating up on poor people and actually tried to come together with the hope issue and solution is called host the problems involving poverty. Host walter in michigan. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Is pretty broad to accomplish in this conversation. I commend you, congressman, for stepping up to the platform. I will try to keep it brief. Just piggybacking on one of the other callers comments, i do disregarding this at the level of congress, i have been to numerous Grocery Stores and if there are some things going on that people are not aware about, nothing is going to change. I think that should have something to do with policy and what corporations are allowing. To feed for the animals, i think it is Common Knowledge that cows naturally eat grass. For cows that consume corn with other ingredients as its main diet, what does that do to the human people . Guest i believe it is much transparency as possible. I think consumers ought to have the information to make their own choices. Want to buy only certain things, then they ought to know what is in the product and what is out of a product. I think transparency, labeling and giving consumers what they want to know is the way to go. Try, an an attempt to attempt by some to try to mandate gmo labeling, which i favor. There has been an attempt in congress to try to block that attempt. Luckily at this point, it has failed, that Consumers Want to know, so whats wrong with giving consumers what they want to know . Scientists say there are no problems with gmos, yet, the Health Organization did the Scientific Study that says gmo are possible carcinogen. We can debate the science all we want. I eat gmos, but if i am some of the studies i have read, they already know what im eating. I think whether it is gmos or whatever else, people ought to whatt exercise pesticides are used on the crops, what kind of feed animals get to produce the meat they will purchase, so letting the sun shine in in a practical way i think is a good thing. Host if you want to learn more about the debate, tune into www. Cspan. Org at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time for the house Agriculture Committee. Congressman, thank you for your time. Guest thanks. Host coming up, we will talk to reason magazine contributor james bovard on his piece looking at the 4 trillion cost that the war on terror. We will be right back. In addition to the graduating classes all over gods planet, i wish the graduating world of peace, light, love, but that is not the case. ,e all lived in the fairytale but i guess the 1 does. This memorial day, watch commencement speeches in their entirety, offering advice and encouragement to the graduating class of 2016, from racist leaders like michael powell, founder of oracle Larry Ellison at Southern California, and really a country heiress, administrator Maria Contreras at whittier college. You can count on yourself. What makes you special . What distinguishes you from others . In business, we collect your unique value proposition. Figuring out yours is key. Politicians at the university of alabama in huntsville, senator barbara at the university of california berkeley and governor mike pence at indiana west lane university. To be strong and courageous, and to learn to stand for who you are and what you believe is a way that you changed here. Kerry into the balance of your life. And white house officials, vice President Joe Biden, Loretta Lynch at Spelman College and president barack obama at rutgers university. Is it any wonder that i am optimistic . Throughout our history, a new generation of americans has reached up and bent the arc of history in the direction of more freedom, opportunities and more justice. Class of 2016, it is your turn now to shape our nations best of the, as well as our nations destiny, as well as your own great get to work. Commencement speeches this memorial day at noon on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host we continue with their ongoing spotlight magazine spotlight on magazines series featuring reason magazine with the high price of theater. The 4 trillion war on terror. Where did the money go . Talk bovard joins us to about this piece that he wrote. Lets begin with this for chilean dollar price tag. How did you come up with that number . Guest the total cost of atmeland security, the war o home and abroad, the past years, it has killed a huge number of it is not corrected for keeping americans safe. Unfortunately, our political policy has changed and people have become more deferential in washington. It was almost as if people like to maintain faith in the government are keeping us safe or we will all be killed. The government has been far more secretive. Both the bush and Obama Administration have acted like constitutional laws do not apply ad part of the result was torrent of government spending, most of which is wasteful and some that destroy our freedoms. Host there hasnt been another attacks01 terrorist since 2001, so is it money well spent . Guest there was not a major attack like that before 9 11, so i mean, simply because there has not been another massive attack does not prove that all this that the government is doing is justified because you know, a lot of people tend to look at the war on terror abroad as overview, but when i tried to do this, i walked to the details, the absurdities, some of the details like Homeland Security around theg Centers Country better creating databases of suspicious activity, and los angeles, the database was keeping track of people that were hanging around on the cell phone too long or joggers hanging out, and there were other databases targeting gun owners libertarian types of people that are antiimmigration. You have these huge garbage bins , federal garbage bins, which all these different agencies are taught to put unverified information and it builds up millions of dossiers of americans, and this information can and will be used against people. It is not simply a laughable [indiscernible] these are peril to our liberty. Host 1 billion since 2001 spent on these centers. Great reportwas a on this. Him and simple questions of Homeland Security and they said, we do not know. Thatgave them estimates varied 400 . This is not a difficult question. Not only that, the feds did not even say how many different Fusion Centers their work. At one point, they said 71, 77, where are the others . They are secret. It is amazing how much secrecy the government has gotten away coversen many times, it official lives. We have seen that in iraq, obamas growth program, some of the shifting rationale for the bombing of libya, and yet, folks do not realize that the government allows the and then selfgovernment is surely. Host the biggest price tag in your piece is worth spending, 3 trillion, so of the 4 trillion that has been spent, 3 trillion has been spent on the wars. Explain. Guest the most single expensive issue has been the war in iraq and afghanistan. The war in iraq was justified as response to 9 11. Workedh administration very hard to give the impression that Saddam Hussein had a link to 9 11. Three years before years, they backed out for a while and they said they were bringing democracy to iraq and that has not worked so well. They also said they are trying to get [indiscernible] that has not worked well either. Same thing in afghanistan. It is understandable that the u. S. Would go after the taliban after the afghanistan was used as a base for the 9 11 attack, but there was only to occupy the country. We have spent last amounts of money and thousands of americans were told lies in this charade of making afghanistan a democracy. They have had two major president ial elections, both of which were defined by [indiscernible] and then the u. S. Government admitted and said, well, it is still kind of legitimate so we will prompt the government up. The war on terror, the cost according to james bovard is 4 trillion. We are taking your comments and questions. 202 7488000 for democrats. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independent, 202 7488002. Start dialing in. Also, one of the other big price tags is the fbi, 30 million. Where has that many gone . Guest the fbi has a huge increase in the budget, even fbi was a major reason the hijacking succeeded in 9 11. They slept this under the rug after 9 11, but the cia and fbi failed massively as far as keeping track of the people that apparently carried out the 9 11 attacks. There were so many warning signs, but the fed were simply incompetent. Their incompetence, there were huge increases in the budget. One thing the fbi has done has massively engaged in trapping and setting of people all over the country. There are some people who are actually dangerous, but what the fbi has done is persuade them to kind of do some babble about the number of times the fbi has given them fake things and then bust them, it works out great for the fbi, two or three days, great headlines, and everybody says, thank god for keeping us safe, but then later, the details come out. You have the case down in liberty city in miami, where you have a bunch of guys roped into this fbi informant, and those guys asked the fbi guy for a terrorist uniform rate ok, we do not need protection against terrorists who asked her uniforms, but this works out great for the fbi for their pr, unfortunately, this people have been utterly servile, both on the fbi and on federal agencies. Oversight and they have most of the group lined up on the war on terror. Host you note in the story, inside the fbis manufactured war on terrorism, there is only about 1 of the people charged in the decade after 9 11 for bona fide threats. Yes, and his book is one of the best analyses, one of the most thorough breakdowns. Here is another thing. A lot of the trouble of the war on terrorism is very vague and also very it works out well for the government because if some american spends hundreds of dollars to groups in syria, that american would be sent to prison for five years for Material Support for terrorism. If the u. S. Government decides to send the same group of budget but bernie, that is not a problem. Our policy in syria is irrational and l. A. Times reported a month or two ago that in right now, there are cias fighting pentagon backed rebels. Do we really need to have this . Intervenedment has so often on every side of the issue, and that these kind of things occur but because of the l. A. Times and on the Washington Post, people in washington say, i did not hearbout that. Is poorly informed on the war in terror, as well as being servile. Host tim is up in california. Independent caller. Hi. Caller hi. I am very concerned that the constitution is not the, what do i want to say . They gog held up when and do an assassination on some of bin laden, which is actually what did Seymour Hersh say . Was just sitting there as prisoner of war . I feel like our congress is criminal. Why wasnt bush ever put in jail, cheney put in jail . I do not understand any of this. Guest a really good point about the constitution. It is frustrating to me because i was raised and told that america was the nation that for the warw, but on terror, it is almost nothing but sovereign amenity, meaning the government can do whatever it wants. As far as the constitution, it prohibits torture, as well as ,ederal law, yet, you have starting in 2002, the Bush Administration embrace that and then obama came in to office and he shows to prosecute the people involved in torture, except for the one cia guy who blew the whistle. He was the only cia prosecutor, even though he was the hero. The fourth amendment, which protects through unreasonable seizures, that has been shredded in the war on terror. If you look at what edwards noted courageously brought out, in washington where they circled the wagons and it doesnt matter how many rights, how Many Americans rights have been trampled or shredded. Bill in new mexico. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning to both of you. Have anou need to interview with morgan reynolds, a top economist under the Bush Administration, george Bush Administration, and is now a professor at a m in texas university. U. N. J brought to interview this individual. Guest i know morgan. Discuss his and book. Thank you for your time and effort, james. Guest thank you, sir. Host tell us about who he is talking about. Guest he has done very good work on Government Intervention and ways for free market land. Thes very skeptical of story on 9 11. It was basically a vast number of government screwup, which the government does well, one of the few things they do well, but it is understandable to me that a lot of people who thought 9 11 was a conspiracy, because the governors changed their story so many times. If you look at the 9 11 commission, when they report came out in 2004, which was timely for bushs reelection, it is basically finding but with the government. Often on out Government Commission and the came from torture. The 9 11 commissioners were actually sending request to the cia to find out more information about this and that, and so many of the details that they provided in their official story line of the 9 11 attacks came from torture of some of the suspects. The New York Times has done excellent work, not just me. You have that look in your face, where is he going with this . Host not at all. Finish your thought. Guest i was just saying, it if this [indiscernible] on how it is written in washington, d. C. , but you have this panel for which largely absolved the government and it relies on torture. That fact comes out three years before years later and people say, this is how history is written these days. Host what i wanted to add to the conversation is this debate of the 28 pages of the 9 11 Commission Report because senator rand paul once added an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that they have been voting on this week that would release those 28 pages. Guest i am all in favor of that. I wrote a story last july on this for usa today, and there is a group called 28 pages and they do great work. No sense for the u. S. To be covering these key materials, Key Information on what happened in 9 11, especially the fear that the saudi government or the people in the saudi government financed and carried out the 9 11 attack. 16 of the hijackers were saudis and then you have the Bush Administration and others that were anxious to sweep this under the rug. A former senator has done great work with the issue. Host we are talking about james bovards piece in reason magazine titled the high price of security theater, the 4 trillion war on terror. Where did the money go . Martina, you are next. Caller i am an independent, but i would like to speak to the , beingf the sale of arms big business, profits, and tied into the issue of war in the fearbased culture we live in. President obamas visit to vietnam lifting the arms embargo , my question would become a requirement going around the world selling arms, adding to the mayhem . The armed sales, big bucks, big mayhem. We give them another [indiscernible] think take it away and i james is a voice of reason and many of us need to get on board with practicality, common sense. Quietly arming up all of these people, all of these whatever you want to call them and wondering about what happens after the fact . Guest thanks the question. It is a good point about how all these arms sales, and i think there are a lot of parallels if you look at who donated to the Clinton Foundation. There has been a big increase in the approval of foreign sales since obama took office, especially when Hillary Clinton [indiscernible] there was an article that broke down some of the parallels between a lot of the big military contractors that have donated to the Clinton Foundation and they had done very well. In this country, we have that culture because basically what we have is a lot of fear mongering. There has been a profound change in the American Public last 15 years. It has made it easier for the government to push the arms and make a lot of people a lot more dos file. You see that with the tsa, folks wanting to do anything. How theyzing to see have become so much more inclusive and i have written a lot about tsa. I was hurt deeply. It is interesting to check folks up and say, what do you think of this . Saying, i am glad that they are keeping me safe, and i have a bridge in brooklyn i will sell you, but that is life federal debt is skyrocketing. Host the congress will hear from the tsa administrators today to testify about what is going on with long Airport Security lines at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3 this morning. You write about the tsa in this piece that we are talking about and how much money has gone to them since 2001. 70 billion for the tsa. Another one billion for the officers. He calculatedng, that at 8 billion. Guest that is low. Host [laughter] ok, tell us about tsa. Guest basically, people need to get to the airport earlier than the pre9 11 era. The tsa is telling people to get to the airport three hours early. Thaticago, they get there early and they are stressed out forever. That is a real problem and something that changes. You mentioned the kbr section. Tsa has thousands [indiscernible] wondering around airports and theyre looking for microaggressions in peoples faces that would give away the fact that they have a terrorist attempt. For instance, if someone is yawning or someone seems nervous or swim become a that is a sign you might be a terrorist. The tsa is the only Security Agency in the world that considers this a terrorist warning sign if someone has complaints about Airport Security. Hearing the way, this also on cspan radio, so you can tune in if you are in your car but also if you have your cell phone or mobile device. There is a radio app to listen to what the tsa administrator has to say. Doug, agenda, independent caller. Hello. Pleasure to talk with you. I have a question about the budgetary concerns regarding the wars. Senator Bernie Sanders is opposing that people are talking about free college but he is proposing college reimbursement for state dollars tuition. Anybody who has gone to college understands this tradition and part of it is room, board and living expenses. The cost of the war in afghanistan, would that be able to pay for people to go to college under this program . Guest i dont know the breakdown of the cost in afghanistan. I am not exactly sure what senator sanders was proposing. Certainly well, it is fascinating to see the details because there are reports of hundreds of billions in the topand Military Hospital in afghanistan, there was so much and Wounded Soldiers start to death because they cannot pay. Greatngton post had a story about how the afghan army does not have food because they get all the parts [indiscernible] this away andd made afghan more corrupt place because of it. Host paul from arizona, independent. You are on the air. Caller good morning. I would like james to may be address the subject of terrorism and it did not start in a vacuum. The creation of the hate of our way of life was due to our own actions, and now we are spending for chilean dollars already of fighting something that is an idea and the reaction to our past policies. Host james bovard . Guest excellent point. , therelook back at 911 are three primary reasons. One of which was the u. S. Was stationed in holy land in saudi arabia. The other one was the embargo on iraq, another at the port of israel. Especially the troops in saudi arabia, they know this and they [indiscernible] what we need is a supply side antiterrorism policy. At this point, the u. S. Government has done so many things. People will hate us in the future. For instance, obamas john policies. They write about how many people they have killed and there are a lot of civilians who have died in the attacks and we do not know how many. The Obama Administration has some hope that if it was a military age males, between 16 and 50 or 60, then we are going was aume that he terrorist. This is absurd, but this is how the government looks at this. We are seeing this forever in the war on terror. Secrecy, and the only consistent think is the government always wins, so host how does it come about that transportation security administration, he put the price tag at 70 billion. How did you come to that figure and that the tsa would get more money than the fbi on the war on terror . Guest you have to keep in mind that after 9 11, transportation secretary [indiscernible] that is why they have gotten all the money. I added up their budget from 2002 and onward. It is interesting. Is moaning and groaning about budget cuts, but the tsa has more agents and a larger budget in 2007 them what it has right now. These huge delays are larger because tsa is more inclusive. The whole body scanners are working with gallons of spoiled milk and yet you have them be much more progressive. I was flying back from portland on thanksgiving and i got to the should havey and popped out and so the going to the body scanners and the tsa did the pat down, and then he takes it over to the explosive and it Shows Positive alert for explosion. What explosives . I dont know. How often do you get this . Classified, ok, well, they take me to a private Screening Room and the pat down is a lot more rigorous and aggressive and it concludes with the tsa guy basically grinding , tried tonto my groin tell my family into pancakes, so i have filed a full request and got the videotapes for one i went through the checkpoint. Has all the different segments except for when they take me behind closed doors when they were graphic. This is like a metaphor of the entire war on terror. It seems bad, stupid, and then they take you behind closed doors and yet, very few people on capitol hill have turned up the heat on tsa. There have been some people, host he was on our show yesterday. Guest yes. For instance, i think it was a congressman host James Clyburn . Guest yes, he said he has problems with tsa and doesnt realize that this is a special class amalekite to see how many congressmen get a pass and do not get padded by tsa because president obama said that nobody would say that tsa was an example of how people were [indiscernible] tell that to the people in lines in chicago, atlanta and there to have beenwomen horrendous slate of used in pat downs. It, for a lot more of woman than for a government. It is unjustified and it is share harassment. Host ron is next, republican. Caller thank you. Good morning. What has got us in this mess is our eight year lameduck. We really do not need hillary to follow that up. Sean in will go to rhode island. Democrat. Caller greetings. Certainly i appreciate cspan. Can you hear me . Host we can. James is a very bright guy with pointed knowing, and my question is, what would you replace it with . Your description during doomsday, i appreciate it fully, and it is no one can really be disappointed with our government, but what we do replace it with . Vision do youorld have that would be much more successful in terms of enabling people to live at somewhat peacefully . Guest thanks. I worked in free trade a lot in the last decades and i did a book. Free trade is one thing, but if you simply minded your own business, it is not a panacea. People will hate us, no matter if we do not bombed the country or overthrow the government. That would be a great first step. Of ae home front privatized Airport Security, it would be a huge step. I mean, you had the ig report tsa make out last year and failed 95 of the time. It did not fail 100 of the time, but that almost cannot be worse. A fundamental change between 9 11 and now is going to the airports now, they have sovereign immunity, they can harass you, sexually assault you, steal your things. The fbi has hired more than 500 agents from passengers and that is probably only the tip of the iceberg. Than 70,000 people have complained to the tsa about we need togage, and put the Government Back on a leash and that is the government a fundamental problem. The government has been out of control since 9 11 went george w. Bush promised he would rid the world of evil. On tv when he said that and i said, ok, now people are going to laugh and they have. That is a great idea, lets rid the world of evil and the first thing he does is unleash [indiscernible] the Founding Fathers realized that the most basic step is putting a leash on the politics because otherwise, it would distort our rights, freedom and prosperity. Host a tweet from stephen who says, attention, death to democracy, that is a line i will reuse. It is also the title of your book. But do you focus on because you are writing in usa today as well about corruption, but what are you focused on . Where is most of your research and writing . Guest basically, i tried to stay on topic with the government. [laughter] host your sarcasm is coming through. Time iok, what the last was on cspan, the host asked, well, what is your view . I said, well, im a moderate. They said, you do not sound like one [laughter]. I have tried to write about things that will help people understand how the government has far too much power. It is not democrat or republican. Ive attacked bill clinton, george w. Bush, but it has far too much power over the rest of us. Ourgovernment is a peril to rights and liberties and this is what americans need to understand. Friendly notion of government that we are supposed to presume that the government is going to be some kind of Guardian Angel and it does not matter what we do or where we go, the government will take care of us. Again, i try to focus on the nuts and bolts of what the government does. To help people recognize how much of their lives they have lost and make them laugh at times because laughing at the government is a badge of freedom. Host san francisco, david, independent. Good morning. Caller i agree and disagree with him. I suspect that operation coined 9 11 and this situation, but as far as you calculated the topsecret budget, basically, the taxpayers are supposed to have taxation with representation. For it is against the law the congressman to even know how the budgets are being spent, much less, it is against the law for them to tell us how the budgets are being spent. Host you are referring to the intelligence budget . Guest he is caller he is talking about before chilean dollar spending campaign, host we will take that point. Werentelligence budgets not known, secret, not a lot to be public and in the past ideas or something, Congress Guest snowden. One word snowden. Host we will let you know the top line for intelligence. Guest rights. I appreciate the caller. This is a good example of how secrecy is covered up. Saying thet they are intelligence Budget Agency is on 56, 59 host billion. Guest yes. If you need to have around number, it is like going to a part and they say, 40000 and what do i get for 40,000 . We cannot tell you. This is what we have with the federal agencies. The nsa basically screwed up the map before 9 11 and the budget has greatly increased. But a lot ofple, these other intelligence agencies, we have no idea what they are doing. I wish there were a dozen more. There are other agencies like the state department. The state department has so much difference on foreign aid. We have little idea on how much we have spent. Is d saying goes, it foreign aid is money from a government, to a government host and that is what you write about today. Guest yes, part of it. Corruption is breeding around the world. It is a paradox. Host when it comes to surveillance on snowden, you say 5 billion in your story. That is a price for a lot of the surveillance stopped since 9 11. Broken out, but there is a huge increase in that. I was reading last night some of the other details and i think it was in 2011, he obama trying totion was keep track of everyones cell phone movement. It is like, they have a lot of time on their hands if they want to do that. You get a lot of false positives, but because the budgets have been almost unlimited, we have been able to pull in all this money and they resthis information on the of us, but it is important to have balance between the citizens and government. With this surveillance, people have become more afraid to criticize the government. Of thes a mockery government. Host in north dakota, republican. Caller how are you doing, james . Guest good. Disagree. Agree and i voted for bush and made a mistake. Me, i try to laugh to keep from crying. One of the things is i pretend sometimes i am in an orwell novel as it seems that we are told one thing, yet deep down inside, we remember the past. I am 52. I got called one time before i recall jumping onto the plane was innocent and fun and why was that . Because we were homogenous. One of the most beneficial things about homogenate the, trust. The government knew us, we knew the government and we had we were not a perfect country. We had a lot of problems between black and white, but we did not have this mistrust read the government does not trust us. That is what is going on and the government refuses to say who the enemy is. We are all basically guilty. Host any thoughts . If you go to a place like holland, you have a wide variety of nationalities there. The government to extend all like they are terror suspects all the time. It is interesting. It would bes easy for the government to focus on real threats, but they chose to do that instead and the government gets a lot more powered by treating almost everybody as a threat. That books are somewhat homogenous, but my experience with tsa, tsa does not like me enough and i wanted to have a secret profile on roughneck in rednecks or people that radiate that this is a bunch of crap . Host mike, independent caller. Caller thank you so much for being on the program. It is really refreshing to hear. I wanted to ask you how much of a factor is like what rhetoric in all of this, phrases such as war on terror . Guest excellent question. The help for his war on terror, well, what is terror . Government,e on [indiscernible] is almost that absurd, but if you look at some of the government support, i can pakistan, which i guess [indiscernible] falling known for residents of alive and threats of oil, but they some get u. S. Foreign aid. If you look at haiti, utterly corrupt. Are oppressing their own people, but that is not terrorism. It is a pandoras box. The government can commit so many more tragedies. If you look at the Bush Administration, you have judge after judge saying, they need to hold the government liable for and you know, you cannot have a free society and said people have the license to torture other people. Host lets go to john before the house gavels in in new jersey. Independent caller. Caller good morning and thanks for cspan and this terrific guest. Aboutent obama is selling hundred billion dollars of weapons to saudi arabia in light of the 28 pages. Host i dont know what happened. Sorry. Saudi arabia, weapons . Guest thanks for the call. President obama has worked really hard to cover saudi arabias to cover for saudi arabia. They seldom a lot of weapons. Saudis. Has provided support for the war in yemen. They are causing horrendous problems in that country. There is no good reason for the u. S. To be backing up the saudi. Perhaps the primary funders of the isis terrorist group and other extremist groups, there was a story, i think the New York Times to that story about extremist muslim clerics and encouraging people to go to the no,le east for jihad, in there are a lot of good people in saudi arabia. It makes no sense for us to be covering for them. Host with tsa administrator, what do you want to hear what are you watching for from the administrator . Assume that tsa has been having hearings like this going back to more than a decade. I assume that they will make vague promises and they will fire this person and we are supposed to pretend it is better. It is a hoax and will not get better. Host thank you very much. James bovard, find the piece on reason. Com. Like we said, house will gavel in. We will bring you up to their chamber with live coverage on cspan. [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. May 25, 2016. I hereby appoint the honorable keith j. Rothfus 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, the chair