Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160606

We are asking our viewers to tell us about your experiences with it loans and if you think you regulations are needed. Phone lines are open if you want to start calling in. You can catch up with us on social media. Morning. Od monday we are talking about payday loans. . O they need more regulation after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau came up with a slate of new proposed rules last week, here is the New York Times story about the payday loan industry which is vilified for charging Interest Rates on shortterm loans that Many Americans depend on could soon be gutted by a set of rules that regulators plan to unveil last week. The Washington Post in their story goes over exactly what those new rules would do. If enacted, the rules would require lenders to verify that borrowers can afford the loans and cap the number of times people can take up success of loans. The Washington Post talks about why this is happening. The bureau says because of the way the loans work now, borrowers who use them can be overwhelmed by fees and be trapped into a cycle of debt that forces them to skip important bills. The agency found that 80 of a loans are rolled over into a repeat loan, causing fees to pile up. 45 of any customers take out at least for loans in a row. Borrowers that payday pay 15,000 in fees for every. 100,000 they borrow as he said, we want to hear your stories about how dealing with payday loans, how you have dealt with them, how you paid them back. Where the guests do you think more regulations are needed . Several members of Congress Last week believed more regulation is needed, including congas meant richard blumenfeld, democrat of stating that payday loans are predatory, abusive and that they take advantage of this event its borrowers of disadvantaged borrowers. Connecticuts attorney general and i have fought to protect consumers from the worst abuses of industry that specifically targets those that can least afford their scams. I applaud the csfb for taking a stand. My colleagues in congress to finalize protection for working families. Another of those that cheered on new regulatory proposals from the cs pb, senator elizabeth warren, also a democrat. Crackdown on tricks that payday lenders use to generate thousands from people trapped in cycles of debt. She went on to tweet that the lending rule is not perfect, it could do more. The payday industry is already firing back. Payday lending is a 7 billion a year industry. That buys a lot of influence in congress, not only with the gop but also some democrats. If anyone tries to block or delayed the cfp be payday rolls, it is time to fight back hard. We want to hear what you think and your experience. The numbers tim wrote in forbes about these new rules after they were proposed. The headline on a story, they are not regulating payday loans, t is abolishing them. That is not what theyre saying of course. He writes that is the practical effects that they intend upon issuing. It is not obvious that this is a good idea as the Federal Reserve has pointed out. People use payloads because they choose that payday loans are viable for them. He goes on to write we want to hear your stories this morning. We want to hear your experiences with payday loans. Eric is up first in atlanta. A democrat. Good morning. Sayer what i would like to the worst thing that happens to washington, dc p we have both parties pushing for the same issues, what you have, is deregulation of the banks. Bill clinton, this is what you get it you got the republicans, the worst politicians they can such as brown rudman and what it allows it allows the banks to go to a casino and gambling our money away. They dont worry about Interest Rates. What they are doing, and then they put it back to the stock. Host bring it to the payday loan industry peer to have you had an experience with taking on a payday loan . Caller they get the money that quick. It is just a hustle. These people are ingested are in short. A lot of these politicians own these banks. They receive these types of loans. Thank you. Host lets go to omar in gaithersburg, maryland. An independent. Caller good morning. The way i feel about this, the reality is people do need these small loans. The majority of the time it is low income people. It really helps them pitted issue comes with these exorbitant Interest Rates. That itself is unethical and wrong. A perfect world, it was up to me, the way these loans would come out is it would not be 300 Interest Rate, it would be a flat fee upfront. Lets say for every 100, it is 10 , right . F 10 or that way people would not be basically tied into that flavoring with these ridiculous Interest Rates. The entire industry is unethical and should begun it. Host do you think that people should have to pay off one of these shortterm loans before they can take out another one . Bere is concern from the cfp that people will take up another loan to pay off the first one and after they get stuck into this cycle of loans. It is hard to say because someone to regulate and say that is the rule, you might make that the rule with good intentions but but it might harm someone who has no other choice, i will think the government should make that a rall a law or a rule. It is hard for anyone entity to say this is how supposed to be. Feeling i know is these Interest Rates have to go. Host i appreciate the call. Should the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau step in here and finalize these regulations, make these regulations in the books . Or should they allow people to take out these loans and deal with them themselves. Here is what the regular should we do, to break them down. Payday lenders would look into borrowing finances. Make sure they could afford loans. Exceptions to that test, looking into their finances, would be made for loans under 500. The number of times and borrower could roll over a loan into new loans could be curtailed. There are other parts of the rules but there are but but they are the main parts going off the Washington Post story we showed you earlier. As for when these rules were going to affect, the proposed rules need to go through a comment. A comment period. It may not be until next year before the process is over. We want to hear your thoughts. We are looking for your comments on the washington journal. Good morning. Caller thank you for having me. Yes, host go ahead, alan. Had he taken out one of these payday loans . Caller i use them to get by with daytoday i am on Social Security disability. Paye those things to help for regular bills and things like that. I completely agree with your previous caller. The Interest Rate on those are extreme lehigh. I understand that businesses need to have a set way to have a profit but also at the same time these Interest Rates are exuberant and predatory. Host have you ever taken out one payday loan to pay off another payday loan . Caller yes, i have. Host when did you stop the cycle . How many did it take for you to stop doing that . Caller i am currently still in the cycle. To two loansown now. I was at 1. 3 of them, so i was at one point, three of them, so host how do you get by on a daytoday basis . Caller i tried to make adjustments on my payments, to make it easier, but i know it would take longer but it is the way to go to make it easier. Host thank you for the call. Kevin is in dubuque, iowa. Line for democrats. Just like your guy in janesville. , i did use as ago payday loan. I was short oneweek and stopped so i went there and got some money. The thing is, like your last caller is the Interest Rates were so high, and you come in there with your paycheck that i was short every week, that its just a Snowball Effect that every week i was going back and back. That is how they bill you is orause if you are low income you dont have much in your ,aycheck, you did it one time then you have to keep going back because you are always shorthanded to keep on getting the loans and the only reason i haveed is because had to appendicitis surgery. I had to have a Family Member pay it off and the Family Member said dont ever do it again. That stopped the cycle host . Host atight of it, the head of it, how much did you go . Caller i cannot remember. I was not going in and getting adjusted amount. I was getting the minimum. It wasnt a lot. I wasnt that far out. It was just the minimum thing i could get it get from them or whatever. Yeah, like i said it was like every week i was going in there. It was a terrible cycle. Never think i was going to be up to stop. I was hoping to stop sometime but like i said, i couldnt because i was always short on my paycheck. I needed to go in there and pay bills and all that stuff. Because of the Interest Rates so high, that they took so much money for my paycheck, i was always short so i had to keep going back. Host you mentioned about people with low income taking out these kind of payday loans, here are some stats from the consumer by natural Protection Bureau from 2013. 56 of those who took out payday loans in 2013 earned between 10,000 and 40,000 year. Only 8 earned more than 30,000 a year. Onwant to hear your stories dealing with these payday loans. We will go through them in the first 45 minutes. Whether you think this Industry Needs more regulation. You can keep calling in. The phone lines for republicans, democrats and independents. I also want to check in with neils lesniewski. What is on the agenda today . The agenda is that we are going to get back to work on the or get to work to begin with on the Defense Authorization bill. The senate is going to proceed to that measure after a bit of a traffic jam on the senate floor, before they left for the memorial day recess. We will see the First Amendment votes in their after this this afternoon on the fiscal 2017 Defense Program bill. This week could be the one where see a lot of the debates that we need to see every year on Defense Programs, ranging to allegationsse of Sexual Assault in the the status of guantanamo may Guantanamo Bay and the facility down there. All of those policy issues that viewers are probably familiar with if they have seen a defense bill before. Recently been through the same process. That is one thing the senate is up to. Beyond that, it is going to be back to a appropriations whenever it is it gets through the since authorization host . Authorization. Host the puerto rico debt crisis and the airport wait lines. Is the house picking back up on those issues . Guest the house is back or they were when they left off. There should be something moving very quickly to try and do something about these wait lines that people have been in theering at airports tsa screening process. Thatld note as a side there was also a reprogramming request made by the head of the department of Homeland Security just before lawmakers left town to get some extra money into and to be able to convert some fulltime some parttime employees into fulltime employees. That is separate from the legislation in the house but actually might have an immediate impact. Yes, it looks like we are going to see moving forward on the puerto rico debt crisis situation, at least in the house, it is not cleared yet. The folks in the senate have been very quiet about the extent to which they support that bill. Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell and speaker ryan and the House Republicans are taking the lead on that measure. We will see where that one goes. The one that you did not mention on your list is we need to figure out how to resolve the issue of getting funding to fight against the zika virus. That still needs to be conferenced and reconciled, because the two different chambers have different plans. Host amid all of that, the first joint meeting of congress under a speaker paul ryan, the Prime Minister of india showing up at capitol hill this week. What is this going to mean for speaker ryan . Guest it is always a momentous occasion when there is a visit that leads to a joint meeting of the house and senate. Obviously, ryan will be in a and thenof presiding gaveling the house into gaveling intercession in the joint meeting in the house chamber, excuse me. Will give an being aity, i think, to fellow from india that is visiting, it is going to give us all a push on trade. We are probably going to see abouta lot of discussion trade issues resurface which could be somewhat compensated for the republicans, given where their president ial nominee, donald trump, is on trade issues and how far apart that is from people like speaker ryan. Host when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the least these proposed rules that we have been talking about, about these payday loans, and you talk about the reaction you saw from the officers that you check in with . The members of congressman the memos of congress . Issue,the payday loan what i would be looking forward to see if it happens, based on what we have heard while members is if theres going to be action in the house to try and delay the implementation of these regulations, which i think, might be a partisan maneuver if it were to go on, the changing of the delay, rather than the rules. The other thing is, given how long this timeline is, remember these rules may never be implemented if you manage to get through a resolution of disapproval that could actually carry over from one resident to the other. If a republican were to be elected. Host always appreciate the insight and scheduling update on capitol hill. Neils lesniewski with roll call newspaper. Have a good week. Back to the calls. We are talking about the payday rules. The proposed regulation that neils lesniewski was discussing. Towill force payday lenders look into barbers finances to make sure they can repay and afford loans before they take it out. There would be some exceptions for loans that are less than 500. Rolling loansf over into new loans would be curtailed. We are talking about them and your experiences with data loans. Carlton waiting in dallas texas. Caller how are you today . I wanted to speak out a little bit. In the affirmative for payday loans. They provide a service for people who are in financial need. A lot of times these are people otherwise they could be on the street without access to this money, because they were not have little access to credit cards. They have bills to pay, perhaps they have a car or medically experiences medically experiences medicals expenses. They couldve incurred new expenses. This is the only alternative they have with the alternative being a poncho. Thatey need that are want they should be up to get that payday loan. Host youre not on the one that feels that way. The payday loan industry has their representation here in washington. The president of the ceo president and ceo here is his Statement Last week after these rules were proposed. That was the Statement Last week. We want to hear what you think here on washington journal. Jimmy is an alabama. The mccracken. Idleexperience . Caller see anything wrong with payloads because if you cant go to a , so to get a payday loan people go to payday loans because that is a way of life. They dont have the money. Host you see this as a needed service that has to be available for people . Caller yes, very much needed because like the caller said money. People need this they get it quickest way they can. It seems like a predator but you cant help it. The world needs it. Host when the Consumer Financial Services Bureau says too many people heard here. Too many people are being roped into the cycle of debt, what would be your response . Caller my response to that is they cannot help it. Host they cant help it . Caller they can help using this payday loan over the television or go to an office. People need that little money. I dont know why Congress Wants to cut it off because people needed. Host lets go to carl, neptune beach, florida. Also a democrat. Caller hi, thanks for cspan. Shark. One word, loan that is the word, loan shark. Loan pretty innocent enough. Hello . Host i am listening, carl, go ahead. Caller i was only going to do it one time. That one time turned into about three, maybe four years that i got into it. It became a part of my finances. Host what was the original loan amount . Caller 500. Host what did you end up spending over the course of the years yet go years . Caller i cant even imagine the Interest Rate, or whatever they call it. It was ridiculous. I ended up not only doing that borrowingi started from another payday loan company. So i had two of them at the same time. I always thought i was smarter than that. Wrapped it i dont even realize how it happened now, but i got into it and became a part of my finances. Upry month, i would end doing it over and over and over again. Host if these rules were in effect that you would not be up to get that original 500 loan that you are looking for, because the Consumer Financial bureaus rules say that the company had to look at your finances and that you could not be paid it, what would you have done . Is it money that you needed . Or was it money that you couldve lived without . Caller i would have found a way. That is what i would tell people. You will find a way to get by. Dont get into that dont get locked into that system. There is always a way to do it. Host thanks for the call. Shark. He term loan super tone on twitter uses the same term. Radical taos also writes. Smitty, good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. One thing that has been missing. Rom this whole discussion if a payday lender loans money, they have to have some kind of expectation to get paid back, otherwise they would not make the loan. As i was sitting here thinking about this, people take their predatory and their Interest Rates are too high, the Interest Rates have to be for the market or the market would not be there. If the banks could loan money to people and they were pretty sure they were going to get their money back, they would do it at a low rate. If you have a supermarket and they are selling one item in their, it is serial. If they are buying 10 ox is of wheaties and putting them on the shelf and they are pretty sure that five of them are going to be stolen without getting any money for them before 10 are gone, they are going to have to double the prices of the boxes themselves, if they are going to make any profit. That is just common sense. Host currently companies that issue payday loans and shortterm loans may ask for proof of income but they are currently not required to prove a borrowers ability to repay a loan. What the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the main rules would be that they have to require proof of ability to pay. Do you think that is a good thing for the company and the borrower . Assure you these companies are looking into their ability to repay the loan, otherwise they would be losing two to four times as much money. The bank is going to loan money out with the expectation that not so much of it is going to be paid back somebody is going to claim bankruptcy. Host shouldnt the ability to repay the loan be to take out another loan . They makem sure when the loan, they are not expecting a person to have to take another loan out. The person has to becoming in their, showing them some source of income. The person i called in a while ago that was on Social Security, disability. He has an ability to show his get income to pay that back, whether he doesnt not is a whole other story. Host the bureau has some think theecause they Loan Companies are try to trap these people into these cycles of debt. That is why they have also proposed capping the number of loans they can take out, so they do not take out a second loan to pay off the first and a third to pay off the second. We want to hear your thoughts this morning. Phil is in addison, texas. Caller thank you for taking my call. My concern is these people on , those people, im wondering how many of those people have taken out payday loans . Those people are the habs. They make a lot more money are the have his desk they are trying to tell us on the lower rung of the latter, what we can do, where we can get a money. They have never done that. They have not been in that situation. I wonder how many of them actually have had the experience of what we have . Having to go to the payday lenders to get some money so we can pay off a bill . Or buy groceries . I concerned about that they are doing something that they have no idea what they are doing. They have never been in our position. Host a congressional salary of over 100,000 is not likely many have. In 2013, only 8 of those who earn more than 50,000 have ever taken out a payday loan in the year 2013. Cindy is up next in illinois. A democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host yes maam. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. My experiences with my son. 2500 and wasd paying back almost 800 a month. After five or six months, he had already paid back over 5,000 and he still owed 2500. Rate, when i found out about it, five or six months into it, i offered to pay it off for him to get him out of that cycle. I did that. That itfirst told me was 300 interest, i was shocked, appalled, i cannot believe it. I had to go on their website and see that their Interest Rate is over 300 . That is loansharking. A previous caller mentioned the word loansharking. I totally agree. I wonder why there isnt some sort of cap . Host cindy in illinois with her story. Wrote last week. Want to hear your stories. We got timmons left in this segment. Thats we got 10 minutes left in this segment. On the independent line, k from missouri. Good morning. Go ahead maam. Caller first, i would like to recommend that every american citizen read anything howards and has written howard then has written to find out all kind of things that are going on that you will never be told. Believeion to this, i that this payday system including the whole system in the United States is a continuation of slavery, just using by other means. It is that slavery that every american is encouraged and forced into. Think youve just got to sort ,f turn things around somehow or the goose that laid the golden nag is going to be golden egg is going to be killed. It is in the process of being killed by what is being done the middle class and the lower classes of course. Have no hope whatsoever. Host sam is in michigan. A democrat. Good morning. Caller i agree with the last color. It is a form of slavery. It is a scourge on our society. It keeps people under the thumb of the money class. It is like the Student Loans keep those poor kids under the thumb. Cant get loose and expand themselves and make changes. The money class wants to keep it in their pocket. Thank you. Of North Carolina, an independent is up next. As one of comment is the colors mentioned, he was bc,ering people who work in if they have ever used a payday loan. That is an interesting question but i dont think i have used a payday loan when i was going to school, and i was struggling. It was very useful. I understood what it was. I understood the interest was astronomical and if i wasnt going to get stuck in a cycle, i had to pay it off and i did immediately. And one is not able to do that. Now, i have a pretty decent income and i think when i think about these things in the longterm, while people do need these, and i dont think they should go away, i think they should be available. I also think there should be some level of regulation. People are getting hurt. Host what is the level of regulation that is appropriate . Lenders should look at a Credit History and make sure borrowers should be up theoff the rates loans that they take out. They are looking to cap the number of loans that can be taken out over a certain time. Do you think that is a fair level of regulation . Caller in the same way that the fda regulatory food and making sure things are labeled in our food and being processed. The Consumer Agency has the same type of level of responsibility for the consumer and what they are given access to good if someone is taken advantage, that is why they exist. They should put policies in place to protect the country. That is their job. Host a tweet on twitter. Should say it is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is proposing these rules. It will take a euro more for them to go through the regulatory process before they can finalize these rules. Neils lesniewski pointed out that congress could step in and try to hold up or block some of these regulations coming down from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That is what is going on right now. These rules came out late last week it we are talking about them this morning. Next. In arkansas is up good morning. Caller i think they are have a payday deal because if you dont have enough money from monthtomonth to live on. You turnes, make sure your tv down next time you call so we can you clearly. He did this in jamaica, new york and an independent. Caller i believe this is usury. I dont believe the government should spec should regulated. It is legitimizing our banking system. It is what happened with our housing. A legitimized shadow banking which allowed them to get into the real system which caused the downfall. If people need money, then that is what they have Credit Unions for all you need is 200 people with some common interest and you can have the same loan at a low cost. That benefits your community. You can even do bank account at five dollars a week. There is no reason for this. I do not believe the government should legitimize it. No. Time for a couple of more calls. I will to point out a few headlines in case you missed them. In the Weekly Standard, david french announcing that he is not going to be running for president. A name that was floated by the editor of that magazine last week. He said after reflecting on it, the former military lawyer, the colonists with the Weekly Standard saying he will not run for president as an alternative to donald trump. Crystal tweeting out yesterday that david french wouldve been a fine alternative to clinton and trump. The path is open and a better choice remains necessary was between he put out late yesterday evening. One other story looking ahead to tomorrows slate of president ial primaries. The story in the New York Times int tuesday primary california and five other states are happening. Bernie sanders repeated his pledge yesterday not to concede, even if Hillary Clinton acquires enough delegates for securing the nomination. The times noting of course, on tuesday, so you know, the states that are holding their primaries include california, new jersey, new mexico, montana, south dakota, north dakota. The wall street journal noting that want to get in a few more calls before this segment ends about 80 loans. Went to hear your experiences. Franklin, tennessee, a democrat. Good morning. Caller hi. Involved in those payday loans. One of the things they do is they get you to write a check and if you dont have the money to pay it, the courts step in and take care of the business. I had to go down there and pony up 400 so my son would not go to jail. At least the mafia, they took care of the own business. He did not have to let the state do it. Host you think your son would take out one of those payday loans again . You think this is a lesson . Well, he did a lot of those things. He was one of those ones that one from a loan shark to loan shark to pay off the loans. Now he has a pretty good job and he is doing really great. I dont think hell be taking any more of those payday loans, but they prey on the people that are desperate. Somehow, they need money, but somehow we have to regulate them to get dont cause them further and further into debt with these fees and Law Enforcement, things of that nature. Host here is something that might apply to your son, this is something that was on the list of post rules that came out last week. Money payday lenders have access to their customers checking accounts so they can automatically collect payments but unsuccessful withdrawals on accounts can trigger massive fees for both the debtors bank and the lender. One more call. Davids been waiting. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. There has been a thing in the common law even before the United States was officially recognized. It was called usury. Caps on what can be charged for interest. I think of Congress Gets in involved desk gets involved, there are too many unintended consequences. Usury seems to be dictated by the state. A lot of states dont seem to really care about it at all. In, in thatstepped manner, i think it would do a lot for Interest Rates on credit cards which have become outrageous as well. Host two more tweets on this topic. On twitter as weve said, there is plenty of time to continue to talk about this. These were proposed rules that came out like last week and not expect came out late last week and not expect be finalized until a year or more. That is it for the first segment of washington journal. Well talk to Linda Rosenberg for the National Council for Behavioral Health for discussion on Mental Health. Legislation that congress is considering to expand the Mental Health act. Will join us to discuss her story from the may 30 edition of the magazine that explores the donald trump president ial campaign. And asked who are republicans now . That is coming up. We are going public. We will be watched by our friends and people across the country. I would hope as i said before change notnate may as an institution but may become a more efficient body, because of televised proceedings. The proceedings of the United States senate are being broadcast on television for the first time. Not that we have operated in. Ecret until now millions of americans have set in the galleries and observed Senate Debates during their visits to washington. Today, they can witness the proceedings at their own homes. The senate floor has been a stage. The senators have been acting on that stage. The audience is in the galleries. By our action today, we havent really fundamentally honored that situation. We have enlarged the galleries. We have pushed up the walls to include all of the american. Eople who wish to watch commemorating 30 years of coverage of the u. S. Senate on cspan2. Washington journal continues. The National Council for Behavioral Health is on capitol hill for it annual effort to talk to members of congress about Mental Health funding and legislation. Linda rosenberg is the president and ceo of the group. For those familiar dish for those unfamiliar with the group, what is it . Guest the National Council is an association. We represent 10 Million People suffering with Mental Illnesses and addiction. We have member organizations in every state that provide those services to children, adults and families. Host one of the programs you run is the Mental Health aide course. Some viewers may be familiar. Guest 600,000 americans have taken a Mental Health course. It is equivalent to cpr but for the mind. It teaches you about Mental Illnesses and addictions. It teaches you what you can do to help someone you care about, a colleague, a friend, a Family Member. Because it is taught by local instructors, they also know where people can go for help. You can go to www. Mentalhealthfirstaid. Com and find a course in your community. Host when you go into these officers, what are you going to be a asking for . Guest members of congress have been very active this year on legislation both to address Mental Illnesses, as well as addictions, particularly the opioid crisis. We will be going in to support several bills that are out in committee. Not only to ask the bills to be passed. One of the things i learned here in washington, dc, there is a difference between authorization, passing a bill and then funding it. We also asking for money. Host if you had to say the state of Mental Health, where are we now . That old many ways, adage, it is the best of times and the worst of times here at it is the best of times because people are talking about Mental Illnesses and addictions and their families and in their friends in ways they never did. When i was little girl, we still whisper about cancer. Mental illness has been that way for many years. That is changing. When people, one of our partner organizations, our young people in recovery. It has been underfunded, under attended for generations. Now we have an opportunity to really meet the demand. People want help and there just isnt enough. Host we will take your calls during the segment. Just regionally, if youre in eastern or central time zone if youre in a mountain or pacific time zone you can call in now. Linda rosenberg, if there is a metric to talk about advancements in Mental Health, what should it be . Is a number of beds available for patients . Is it the funding number . Guest the metric would be beds unnecessary that they are not enough. The magic is that every community has a place where people can go for state of the science treatment. When you go into the hospital and when you come out, youre going to get the services you need. Very often mental are company by this Mental Illnesses are accompanied by poverty. About numbers, some numbers from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. There are 43. 8 million adults experiencing Mental Illness in a given year in the United States. Adultsne and a hundred linked to schizophrenia. 2. 6 live with bipolar disorder. Adults liverican with anxiety disorder. We are talking about the state of Mental Health in america. Linda rosenberg is our guest, the counsel for we are going to start with susan from massachusetts. That morning. Good morning. Caller thanks for having this topic. I am wondering, given the decades of underfunding and no parity for metal health, there is an extreme shortage for caregivers. The Addiction Specialists you can bring up through the ranks of people who have suffered from addiction themselves, but licensed clinical social worker and psychiatry, even though they are difficult, rigorous programs of study, and i dont think the a lot have not been paid well. Even if you have a rollsroyce ,latinum Health Insurance plan even if you lived in a project called to an area like boston were do have a plethora of doctors, it is almost impossible to find a therapist. Either a social worker we need to have massive, also like a Marshall Plan to get people fast. Reatment, still maintain the quality of degrees. With such a shortage of caregivers, the whole discussion is really moot. I totally agree with you. I am a social worker myself. I worked as a clinical social worker. I was aware of the shortage, including psychiatrists. One of the things you did not say but i know you know is that many psychiatrists, because we dont have enough, dont accept insurance. Even as you said, if you have a platinum plan, how do you find somebody that go we are trying to somebody . We are trying to do that. There is a bill that we will be supporting over the next few days to expand the number of sessions that can be reimbursed. The other is technology. I dont know that they will ever have enough people. We have supported for number of years telemedicine, the ability for providers in the Mental Health and addiction space to have Electronic Health records and technology you need to treat people remotely. I think the Loan Forgiveness Program that hhs has been expanded and focuses on these processions. We have only just begun. It isnt going to be easy or quick. We have an opportunity to start. Host you mentioned legislation that you are going to be pushing. For those who want to track the legislation, what is it . Guest it adds Mental Health counselors, family therapists to the array of their kiss they can be reimbursed by medicare. What is the name . Guest i will have to get back to you. Host we are talking about the state of Mental Health. Linda rosenberg, our guest. Timothy is in horseheads, new york. Caller i want to say in the past several decades, as a result, it results in a ballooning population of the mentally ill. Guest timothy you ask a good question. One i am familiar with. Those who can tell, i am from the downstate new york area, new york city. I was a part of that movement to close estate psychiatric hospitals. Psychiatrice estate to close state psychiatric hospitals. They were warehouses with hundreds of thousands of people never wind up in very good care. We blocked the bowl on the promise to create Community Treatment that is desperately necessary. We want to fix that. I think people are in jail who really could live successfully in the community if we had the right resources. I think there is something called the excellence in Mental Health act that would create those resources in every community. We need beds and community services. You are right on the money, timothy. Host the excellence in mental is trying to do mistreat a better way of dealing with Mental Health patients. Why only eight states that geoeye no there are more that have signaled they will like to be a part of that. How would that the magician work . Guest eight states, because that is the amount of money that was to be allocated. It had to stay under a certain amount. Eight states fit into that number when the legislation would pass the devastation project. There is nothing in that legislation or in the centers that is a demonstration. What would be delivered his care that is proven to be effective. Now it is about expanding the funding and making sure that all 24 states that would like to have Certified Community Behavioral Health clinics have the host why do you think this will work so well . Guest the work and services that will be provided have years of Research Behind them. One of the ways that you dont fund something is you say we dont know if it will work you in cancer, diabetes, we know what works for me no Mental Health treatment and treatments for addiction work. We know the services that are a effective a mess with these clinics will be using. Host lets go to your home state of new york where robert is waiting, good morning. Caller i would like to know how what involuntary commitments would be handled . Guest there is no change i am aware of two involuntary commitments. If i am correct, its a state issue. I have not heard about any changes. Something we will be talking about over the next few days. Why the concern about involuntary commitment . Caller just as a person who is someone who prison, is sent to a Mental Hospital involuntarily is deprived of his freedom. Afforded totections criminal defendants be also afforded to involuntarily people i dont know how to say it guest i think i understand what you are saying. As i said, there are protections. People cannot be kept for long. Periods of time without the court involved and there is no move to change that. That were people that feel some should stay in hospitals longer but i dont know of anyone who was arguing to take away people due process. Host up next, minneapolis, minnesota, good morning. Caller how are you doing . Guest good morning. Caller i have three questions. First, if you can talk more about Mental Illness and people with chronic conditions. Is it was hardg for me to find professionals who were willing to work with me without promoting meds. I feel its important for me to get better but i dont know that medicines are always the answer. The other thing is i was thinking about reentering work and working with other people in Mental Health. I was thinking are they talking about providing work experiences for people who are in recovery and working in the profession . I dont feel i should be viewed as a regular worker. Do you know what i am saying . Guest i do. Caller i have experience as i can offer but i dont want to enter into a stressful situation area guest even while you are in recovery yourself. Let me start with the last question. One of the things we have learned over these last several probably 10 or 20 years, is the effectiveness of what we call peers in the workforce. In Mental Health terms, its someone who has been ill or is ill and is recovering and helping each other. Many organizations that provide Mental Health services now employ peers. You are right on target. It is a way of giving back but a way of entering the workforce. Your first question about Mental Illness is important. Mental illness is a little bit like the word cancer. There are many Mental Illnesses. There is everything from schizophrenia which is usually late teens or early 20s to depression, bipolar, anxiety which can be childhood as well as adult illnesses. Each of them are along a continuum in terms of a disability. In all cases, treatment can be effective. The second question was about medication. That is an individual decision. It sounds like you have made a decision to because is about medication for other people, it has saved their lives. Whenalways a risky benefit you decide about medication for any illness. You have to talk to a prescriber, a psychiatrist, a physician and think about what those risks and benefits are for you. Host in terms of the legislation this week, one member of congress that has been a frequent guest on this row graham about his Mental Health legislation is congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania. He has aepublican and helping families and mental crisis act. Do you support that . Actt we are supporting the and it is in process as i understand it. We may see a new draft of that in the next several days. It has been in evolution. One of the things the congressman has been willing to do which is important is to listen to input, to modify and change as he gets more information. I think that is whats going on right now. I think we will see a ill but it may be different than the original legislation that was offered. Host what is the concern with the legislation . It was brought up in the Huffington Post about a survivor and Mental Health advocate writing about the bill recently. She was concerned about the involuntary commitment aspect. Guest we are talking about a package of several Different Things that were in the original bill. One is something called assistant assisted outpatient treatment which is getting treatment in the community under the auspices the court. The other piece she is referring to has to do with hipaa which our privacy regulations. The original bill tried to make it easier for families to get information about relatives in treatment. There is a lot of misinformation about hipaa right now. When the privacy laws were created, we created an industry that has frightened pratt and ours about what they can on frighten practitioners about what they can and cannot say. The third thing is the addition of beds. And changing that so medicaid will pay for inpatient beds for people between the ages of 1864. Like any legislation, there are difference of opinion. Is this a good thing or does it punish people . Host lets focus on the privacy aspect. What is the proper balance question mark some would say that Family Members can be the ones who know people the best. So if they are concerned about somebody, should they be able to find out if they are seeking treatment and are on medication . Where does the law where the line need to be drawn . ,uest i am someone who thinks having been a practitioner myself, we take the easy way out. At the National Council, we sometimes call it hiding behind hipaa and we dont spend time talking and listening to families when we can, when the patient wants us to. In some ways, the Way Insurance pays makes that difficult because the time you spend with family, sometimes it cannot be built. You are really forced to limit that to medication. I think families have the major burden when it comes to serious Mental Illness and chronic addiction and they need to be part of the process. Almost all Patients Want you to talk and want to be involved with their families. When push comes to shove and someone is in trouble, if the family that is there for them. I think congressman murphys bill represents the pain of families and they have supported those changes because they feel they have been left out. Host princeton, new jersey is next. Caller thank you. You mentioned something before. I heard you Say Something about loan forgiveness and ssa. I am familiar with student loan forgiveness. I am curious to hear about this process and where to turn to. Guest the program i was referring to, the Loan Forgiveness Program, is administered by hhs. They have a Loan Forgiveness Program for certain areas and certain professions in health care. Years, alast several lot of those Loan Forgiveness Programs have been focused on people who specialize or are in training around Mental Illnesses and treatment. That was the program i was referring to. I would advise you to go to their website. Host is this a career youre looking to get into . Are you still with us . We will go to plainview, texas. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller can you hear me . Host you are on the washington journal. I wanted to know what steps you will take to make it that are. Host to make what better . Caller like how people treat Mental Health. My brother and his wife are both psychologists and they have their own practice in texas. I feel like you are we are putting people that need help into a prison system where they are not getting any help. Jails andple being in prisons who need treatment, not punishment, is a major issue in this country. There is something called the stepping up initiative which is run by the council of safeguard and the counties and they are about reducing the number of people in jails and prisons. We support that initiative and we believe that Behavioral Health clinics that are certified that will be expanded will be a place where people can get help 24 7. Statistics on treatment in america from the National Alliance on Mental Illness what are your thoughts . Omi is an organization i have been a member of many years and they are one of our partners and are here this week for hill day. They do an amazing job at getting that word out. I think we have a long way to go. I think its why we are here. We know people understand now the toll it takes financially and emotionally on our country and the people in it. I think we can make a difference if we can pass legislation and begin the process of making sure every community has the services they need. Host if you want to call in for the next 15 minutes, we are talking with Linda Rosenberg for the National Council of the a Bureau Health and we are talking about Mental Health and america. In america. Dublin, virginia, good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for the opportunity to call. I want to bring up an issue that i think is a little ignored. This one is personal for me. Without a doubt, people with Mental Health issues need to be protected as patients and human beings and citizens. There is no doubt about that. What happened to Mental Health services during the Reagan Administration is legendary. There is another side to this. Who protects the rest of us from the Collateral Damage that people can do who have Mental Health issues . Personal and me as a 60 something single male, i the situation of running into a borderline. My attorney, all she could tell me was this person could destroy everything i have ever worked for in my life. There is nothing i can do about it because we live in a society in that all that matters is the allegation. Im talking about someone going to a lovely person to a raging and screaming person that could throw me in jail in all i did was cooked in her. Was cooked dinner. So im policy shop familiar with a lot of this shop. Internet is full of forums and boards of people who have been victimized i people with Mental Health issues. Guest i think what we have to be careful about is assuming that because someone does something that or act badly that they are mentally ill. There are bad things that happen. I am sorry because it sounds like you are victimized. I dont know the person and i dont know the situation. Careful,e have to be obviously. We do have laws that are used when someone needs to be hospitalized him a when the police need to intervene. I dont know the specifics of your case but it would be hard to say that all bad things are connected to Mental Illnesses and we can solve all of the problems that people face. Host here are a few tweets guest yes, that is a huge issue. Often, Mental Illnesses start at a young age in the person who is referred to having childhood autism, it is difficult because at that point, whats important is working with the whole family. Is, again, the family that is the caregiver. How we pay for services does not allow us to go into ases and work with families effectively as we know we can. Unfortunately, there are good programs out there but there there are just not enough. If its hard to find a psychiatrist, its more difficult to find a child psychiatrist. Lets go to taylorville, illinois, good morning. Caller good morning. I dont understand why we when you are in a Group Home Like i was where people have the right to say that you cannot be friends with the people who are working there. I dont agree with a lot of the rules. A person should have the right to be friends with those people. I think it puts a patients back. Mentally, it puts a person back because a person should have the right to be friends with people who are professionals. Guest i totally agree with you. Host what is the rule she is referring to . Guest it may not be a specific rule. She may be referring to a personal situation with staff in a group home where she was living. She was also friendly with them and there are rules that organizations have about how friendly you get with someone you are also caring for. It would be as if i was in the hospital with a heart attack in my nurses caring for me, do i give that nurse personal gift or does she give me personal gifts . There are rules on boundaries and that may be this situation. I dont know that. Host lets go to holyoke, massachusetts. Caller thank you very much. Of the publiciety running around with smart phones that dont to the research. This is what happens when international globalists take over your government. And start buying everything up and they set up these that falls with people where we used to have asylums a long time ago which Ronald Reagan closed up camps. We have fema we are now using religion, waste, economics, take analogy to basically confuse the masses and enslave them with the very technology we pay for for research and development. With got these families that have been around for centuries under the circumstances of corporations and companies saying they will make ends better bike giving us the technology and telling us about Mental Health. These are the global lists buying everything and turning everything into a ponzi scheme that you have already paid for. Guest i understand. Host on the issue of technology, are there breakthroughs that you are looking at that you support that could help change Mental Health in america . He was referring to technology can be misused. There is no doubt about that that it is a very effective tool. Like any other industry, technology has changed. When was the last time you saw a bank teller . We use atm machines and i think you see the same thing and health care. One product that comes to mind is an online product which can support you in your recovery and give you information and give professionals information. Electronic Health Records are away you can be sure that all of the physicians you see or all the health care per vision is can communicate with each other by having one record thats open to you and you can control. I think smart loans can remind you if you are in recovery from an addiction, you dont go to the neighborhood where you used to get high. We have new Technology Every day. One thing we are seeing is investors move into the Mental Health and addiction space in ways we never thought would happen. Some on dating some good things can come out of that. Next, you washington, are on. About parkinsons, alzheimers and old age. Its simple demographics. They will need more Mental Health care as they get older as they deteriorate. How does that factor in . Guest you are talking about other brain diseases which is a big category. Sometimes, what comes along with other disorders like the ones you mentioned is depression and anxiety. Its one of the issues around demand. We see suicide in the elderly because Mental Illnesses are not treated and i think the vision of the future is when you go in for a checkup and they take your blood pressure, they will also screen you for depression and anxiety and for suicideality. I think we are in a position where we will see lots of change in how care is delivered in a much more coordinated way. You make a very good point. Host five or 10 minutes left. Linthicum heights, maryland, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you very much for your help on this. Bipolar 2. 5 years ago and went the nonmedication route and i consider myself a success. Guest congratulations. Caller thank you very much. Workentioned peers in the lace helping others, its something i have been trying to get going in my company. If you have any resources on how i can help . Guest if you go to our website, council. Org you can find all sorts of information. You can even communicate with us if you have a connection if you have a question and we can connect you and maryland has been very active in the use of tears to help other people with Mental Illnesses in the use of peers to help other people with Mental Illnesses. Host you can also follow them on twitter. Here are a few more tweaks tweets sest i dont know what ara5 are. Host those are rifles. Guest if you look in yesterdays New York Times, there was an article about murders over memorial day weekend in chicago. It had nothing to do with Mental Illness. I think we have guns in his country and crimes being committed but very often, people with Mental Illness are victims, not perpetrators. Is there anything in the different legislation that has to do with none ownership . Guest there are things in the legislation like registries. There is legislation to make sure that peoples histories going to those registries. We also have to understand that because you get treated for a Mental Illness does not mean you dont recover. Often, we begin to say that you had a Mental Illness and got treatment and now you cannot have the right the rest of americans have. We have to be careful not to do that. Host back to your home state of new york, good morning. Caller i would like to say to the people listening in that i feel the lady means well but i ld like to say that i feel i have had Mental Illness and my family and theres too much reliance on the medical models stresses the use of drugs. The drugs are very powerful. Even in 2016, we dont really understand the effect of these drugs have on the mind. For people listening in, i would like to say everybody should research your particular case and problem. If you want to use these drugs, use them. You are free to use them. Also seek out alternative treatments. Maybe some people say vitamins or acupuncture, maybe a friend to talk to. Some people say walking a dog gives you u a reason to live. Guest i agree, youre making a very important point about alternatives and people recover using various kinds of intervention. One of the reasons were interested in melville and Mental Health is for people to help each other. Medications are important. People choose to use them but they are not the only treatment. Nomi ishe things in that we have chapters in every community for a Family Member to go there. They can get information about what else families are doing to recover. Host one topic we have not just dust is Mental Health treatment among veterans. M the military times in this legislation that you will talk about with members of congress this week, what is in there specifically for veterans guest . We are talking about the Certified Community Health Benefit and that will be available to veterans. Its one of the target populations and we oh veterans not only effective treatment but we owed them a tremendous debt of gratitude for bringing ,ttention to Mental Illnesses to ptsd, depression, anxiety, Substance Abuse and most of the legislation includes this. I am serving on the board of a is opening that clinics specifically for veterans and their families and communities across the entry. I think we are very active in this space and its something we oh people in need to do well. Host illinois is next, good morning. Caller good morning. Person with some Mental Health issues in my family, i have a chance to do a lot of research on my own. It seems that there is a new paradigm emerging. It may not be absolutely be so new but its new to most of us. Since we were talking about alternatives to drugs, what about the model of Mental Illness as the result of one Infectious Diseases in the brain and or, number two, allergies. I have a book that is 35 years old called rain allergies. It talks about how brain allergies where it talks about hani how any Mental Illness can be triggered ryan environment or foods or reactions in peoples brains. Wheres the work being done on that . It seems that kind of information still has not made it to the mainstream. Guest i did see an article recently about viruses. You bring up an important topic. The National Institute of Mental Health is research around Mental Health. I am not a scientist or researcher but i think there is work going on. It is not yet at the point where it is offer generally in every community. You doing theud research you are doing. We have lots to learn. Host we will try to get in kde in sunset, texas. Go ahead. Mhr has uphink the a problem ass diagnosing people with Mental Illness too much. It does not use the system. They make money off of it. They make a lot of money off of it and they get one patient in their. They prescribe them for depression. They make 3500 a month off of each patient. There is nothing wrong with that except they want them to get on disability or they want to use the system for something they are not even they dont really have a mental problem. Guest now you are talking about peoples motivations. I cannot really speak to that. Its unfortunate people claim Mental Illnesses who dont have one. Enough people need treatment. I know the Mental Health and mental retardation system in texas and i know they are very dedicated to helping people who are indeed suffering. Linda rosenberg is president and ceo of the National Council for Behavioral Health. Its easy to find on the internet. Thank you for your time this morning. Guest thank you for having me. Host we will next be joined by linda fellman who is a Political Correspondent at the Christian Science monitor and will discuss a recent story which explores the donald trump president ial campaign. Later, we will talk about the nearly half 1 billion to go to supporting the pentagons 130 military bans. Thats coming up this morning on the washington journal. Our live coverage of the president ial race continues tuesday night with primaries in six states, california, montana, new jersey, new mexico, and north and south dakota. A more different vision for our country than the one between forside of them i kratz progress for prosperity, fairness and opportunity than the presumptive nominee on the republican side. On progress and education, no more common core. Bring it down. We wanted local. We will win with health. We will win at the border. We will win at trade. Weve got to redefine what politics means in america. We need people from coast to coast standing up, fighting back and amending a government that represents all of us, not just the 1 . Join us live at 9 00 p. M. Eastern for Election Results and candidate speeches and your reaction and we will look ahead at the fall battleground states, taking you on the road to the white house on cspan, cspan radio, and www. Cspan. Org. Continues. Journal feldman is the chief Political Correspondent for the Christian Science monitor. Recently, she took on the question of who the republicans are with donald trump as the standardbearer. One question at the top of the story is he rupturing or reinventing the gop . Could it be a bit of vote . Absolutely, the answer for right now is that he is rupturing. Massive split in the party particularly with Republican Leaders who very tentatively and unenthusiastically have endorsed him in the name of our to unity and in the name of defeating Hillary Clinton who they say would be worse. They would be the first wet knowledge that we dont exactly know what we would get with him will trump. There in lies the existing question of where this party is going. It is wandering now and is in the wilderness. If donald trump wins, it is his party and he can reinvent it. Loses, maybe they can go back to the way they were but probably not. This primary season has been a huge wakeup call for the party. Host now that he is the percent of nominee, what is his strategy for uniting the party and is he interested in making sure every person in the party is united behind him . Guest given his recent comments come it doesnt look like he is into uniting. He pushed the nomination effectively and made nasty comments about the let tina turner of mexico the latina governor of mexico. Party leaders are distancing themselves as much as they can from him. His style is to keep doing what he has been doing because if he says it, its working. He is going after hillary without really changing the tone of his rhetoric area that makes Party Leaders nervous. Host and yet paul ryan indoors tim last week. 85 of republicans are ready to back donald trump as their nominee. Is it working . Guest its working sort of. Donald trump needs to win more than just republicans. The republicans are a small minority of the National Electorate area he needs to bring in people who are not quite sure where they stand. There are not a lot of people who are truly undecided or truly independent. Most independent voters lean one way or the other. Hiseeds to really change own and his style very soon. Otherwise, as we saw with the Hillary Clinton speech last which was a takedown of donald trump, she will go after him and define him as somebody who does not have the temperament to be president. Host we are inviting our viewers to join in as we talk about the recent story with the Christian Science monitor. The headline is who are the republicans now . There is a picture of donald trump at the top of the story. These are the phone numbers we will take your calls for the next 40 minutes or so. Take on thet your david french potential candidacy and coming out late yesterday and saying he will not be the standard bearer for the never trump movement. Guest it has utterly failed. They tried hard to get a namebrand republican to step lowered and run as an independent candidate. They tried to get mitt romney and the senator from who pet has been opposed to trump but none of them are willing to do it. William kristol from the Weekly Standard went to a colleague, david french who said he would think about and has decided not to. Even of david french had decided to do it, it is highly unlikely that he could have made any kind of dent whatsoever. The amount of money you need to run for president is prohibitive as an independent candidate. Also to get valid access. You need to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures and all 50 states. It was already too late. Host bill kristol wrote last night after the announcement from david french you agree . Is the path still open for an independent candidate . We have one and he is gary johnson the libertarian nominee. He is polling at 7 on average. In general election polls. Halfwayhe is about between donald trump and clinton in terms of policy. Its very difficult for him to win any states but he could mostinly, if he holds onto of what he is getting now, he could deny somebody. Johnson have a home in the Republican Party before donald trump . Was there a place for his views . Guest yes, hes a fiscal conservative and liberal on social issues and i used to be called a liberal republican. About who feel strongly those for gary johnson, legalization of drugs is his top issue, the party does not stand for that. He was governor of new mexico as a republican but has been a libertarian pretty much ever since. Host we are taking your calls. Matt is up first from florida, a democrat. Caller good morning. I am calling about donald trump and the gop. I believe the gop is coming out their closet and showing true face about racism. And stuff like that. Race as a topic and the concerns about racism in this primary . Guest its very much a concern among mainstream republicans that donald trump says things that are construed as racist. I interviewed pat buchanan which was a who was a precursor to trump 20 years ago. I asked him about the racism issue. He is a big supporter of donald trump and is very proud and believes everything he has predicted has come through. Trumpism godfather of is the headline. Guest he said some of his rhetoric is problematic. Some of the racially charged stuff he has said. Donald trump does not instantly disavow the support of david duke, the white supremacist is a big problem. Does he think its something other republicans need to push donald trump on . Is it something democrats are trying to push to take down that nominee . Guest for the republicans, whenever something comes up that strikes them as a kind of bias or antiminority sentiment like his comments about the Mexican American judge or the governor of new mexico, for sure, we saw a huge push back. Saidaul ryan who finally he would vote for donald trump, for donald trump to come back was a hard on ethnicity kick in the teeth, frankly. Host from the Washington Times we are talking with Linda Feldman from the Christian Science monitor. Good morning from the independent line. Caller good morning. Engages inald trump interviews where he would like to talk about thinking and figuring things out and the interviewer wants to trap him so that it contradicts what he says. Donald trump should not get involved in those conversations. Everyone of these interviews that seem to indicate he is a racist, he is not a racist at all. What they are doing is trying to make him look stupid. Himself by getting involved in that kind of conversation. There are several kinds of conversations. I can tell you that i think i would like to do this or that. Other conversation say i will deftly do this and he is getting guest trapped. Guest i think he is being trapped with his own words. He says things in the next day he will say the exact opposite. He might claim he never said it. You can call it a trap or you can call it a fact that when you present him with a clip of him saying what he has said before, he is caught but he will at never admit he is wrong. People who are sympathetic toward him are frustrated. By that. A political consultant would tell him not to talk so much and be more strategic in the way he talks to the press. I dont think he listens to anybody but himself. He has been winging it from the beginning and will continue as for as we can tell. Succeeding in so far as he will get the republican nomination and he has a shot at winning the presidency. Host here is the former white house spokesman Ari Fleischer talking about this moment for the Republican Party. Ask charles in charlotte, North Carolina, would you agree . Is it a hinge moment for the party . Caller i think it is. I think the democrats are having the same issue. Bernie sanders is driving them to the left and the democrats are standing for essentially , thereligion, proabortion transgender issue where 11 states are suing president Obamas Justice department as they try to force men into womens restrooms. We have a crisis in the democratic side. Calls interesting that you Hillary Hillary but donald trump trump. You call her by her first name and him by his last name and it partly because the northeastern and west coast side of the political and media machine has always loved the Democratic Party. If donald trump has all these warts, h tells it like it is. Hillary is trying to hide her true intent but Hillary Clinton but donald trump never does. For callinglogize Hillary Clinton by her first name and donald trump by his last name. With Hillary Clinton, to say clinton, i still think of will clinton. Host maybe because you have been covering president ial campaigns since 1996. Guest i think both parties have a problem. You see the rise of donald trump and Bernie Sanders tells us theres something afoot among the electorate with a populist wave and it has affected both Party Nomination battles. I would argue that the republican schism is bigger than the democratic schism. Donald trump stands for positions that are completely anathema to republican orthodoxy. He does not believe in free trade. An isolationist on Foreign Policy but he says he would crush isis and you cannot the an isolationist to do that. Stancean antiimmigrant and that is anathema to what the party had recommended including Ari Fleischer who took part in a in 2013 after they lost the president ial race in 2012 more outreach to women and more outreach to voters in the party has not done that under donald trump. Host lets go to herndon, virginia, a democrat. Caller good morning. I am listening to these republican politicians who say we were support donald trump. When you ask if they support if he is building a wall, they say no. If you asked them if they support barring muslims, they say no. At the same time, they will tell you that we support him. This is the policy he is running. How do you support something you dont support . Confused about someone like paul ryan or Mitch Mcconnell. If they are saying all the things he is saying they dont support, why are you supporting him . Party leaders, their support for donald trump is in the name of party unity and an effort to defeat Hillary Clinton. Its not about endorsing his policies. You are correct that they say they will disagree with him. Even voters will say they disagree with some major point likely muslim than and they dont think he will build a wall. They may like the idea but they see that as more symbolic, a symbol of how eager he is to help illegal to halt illegal immigration. When you hear from average republican voters, they hate the system and they hate washington and they say the system is corrupt and they hate the establishment and its time for a change. They say donald trump represents change and they like his business background and his ability to get things done. This election in some ways is not about the specific issues. I think the trade issue is huge for both Bernie Sanders supporters and the donald trump supporters. Its about an economy that is not firing on all summers left a lot ofis people behind and donald trump and Bernie Sanders are answering those concerns. A lot of republicans do not love everything donald trump says but they love that his rash persona and the fact he has come in and completely disrupted the system. Host the cover of the Christian Science monitor that has your story in it has an elephant looking in the mirror. In new york, a republican, do you think the Republican Party is having an identity crisis . Caller quite the opposite. Out butver figure him im in marketing and he is an incredible marketer. Just when i dont think i dont understand what he is doing, he teaches me something. If you told me there would be pundits that would cite newt sanity, as a source of no one would have ever believed it. He is making the other republicans actually look human. Thing how heng spins the press. Guest its incredible what donald trump has done. Its been a fascinating election cycle. He has pulled the curtain back on the process in many ways and look at how we come up with our nominees. For loyal activist republicans, it is immensely frustrating and they feel like a party like their party has gotten away from them and many people are voting and open primaries with no allegiance to the Republican Party and they are selecting a nominee who they dont agree with. You can argue that donald trump himself is not really a republican. I can imagine a scenario in which he ran as a democrat and would have done the same thing to the Democratic Party. In a way, i view him as renting the party. Willns it right now and he own it if he wins the presidency. If he loses in november, i dont see him sticking with the party and trying to reshape its platform. He says he does not really care about the platform. We will see that before the convention in july when they have a platform meeting. Jostling goingle on there to get the message right. If you have a platform that says one thing and a nominee that says something else, that leaves us scratching our heads. Host to the question of how lasting the impact will be, here is another quotation from your story i wroteve not this piece over a month ago. I should talk to him again and i am curious what he would say to the prospect that of donald trump is elected the Republican Party literally split in half and you would have the donald trump wing dominating and then you have the people who believe in a truly conservative program go off and form their own party. This party is habitually a thisarty country country is a twoparty country and im not sure that would work. It is certainly a live prospect to see the party possibly splitting and have if donald trump wins. Haley barbour was the rnc chair . Guest and governor of mississippi. Host up next, fitchburg, massachusetts, independent. Caller good morning. I wish i could run for president. I dont have to talk for half an hour and people would see the truth for once. The republicans will bring up gays and stuff like that but they never bring up adultery. Poverty andmore more problems in this country than anything. They never talk about that. When the democrats run, they dont say anything either. They are told what to say. There are certain things they cannot say. He says he will build a wall and that will only stop the animals from getting a drink. They will just walk around it like they do in california. Double walling californian california and half the population in california is illegal. They let 50 Million People in the country on temporary visas in the last x years. In the last six years. There is no work for the poor coal miners. If they did not have 50 million uneducated workers in the country, manufacturers would build Manufacturing Companies where the workers are like coal miners. Host robert is an washington, d. C. , a democrat. Are you with us . Go ahead. I had one real important question. I am a republican and an africanamerican. I want to state that the real there hashat somehow been ignited racial fear. I have not seen more fear between the races than is now presently continuing. Trump as ald Television Personality and as an entrepreneur. That hehis fantasy would be able to go to the Republican Convention and talk about the civil war and the Confederate Flag and say there is honor with the people who fought but they may have fought for the wrong cause. They still need honor and he may be able to bring the country together. Likee may say they dont black people in my neighborhood or spanish or mexican people and i dont like half breeds but we have to Work Together some way to cooperate and make each other economically enriched3 d. I wish he would say he is donald trump and he can do that. Host you explored africanamericans support for donald trump in your story. Guest i had a chance conversation with an africanamerican gentleman standing behind me in line at the bank. There was a long line and only one teller and we were both complaining that the banks are not hiring enough workers to serve the people who had to deal with a live teller. That automation is taking over and thats whats wrong with the country and there are not enough jobs. This guy is a bus driver. He says there are not enough jobs for people in the black community. If he minded telling me who he was going to vote for and he said donald trump. I asked if you have ever voted republican . He said we really need a change. There is a lot to criticize about donald trump. There is some positive there. There is a way to reach people and deliver a message that resonates. Nobody else except for Bernie Sanders has managed to do that in this cycle and he is being rewarded for that. In andald trump to come wipe out a field of 16 of the republican candidates is quite a feat. Host the first time republican voters, do they stick with the Republican Party after donald trump . Guest thats a huge question. Will sayn activists hes bringing new voters into the party, bringing in millions but thats not proven. Its possible they stay with the party or its possible that of donald trump loses in november, they feel they have been shafted and they have lost their voice and they will just go back and give up again. I should also say that in terms of this idea that the Republican Party could literally split, another possibility which pat buchanan raised is that the donald trump wing of the party is another category of voter that those into a vague republican tent. You have the donald trump wing, the ted cruz wing which are the conservatives and the tea party, and then you have the moderate establishment conservative republicans, the oldstyle im thinking of rob michael, former Republican House minority leader who was open to compromise and working with democrats. Party can holdan up together with those three wings, thats a formidable coalition and to make the democrats nervous. Host texas is up next, republican line. Caller good morning. Trump is a strategist and his strategy is working. About regulation, if there wasnt regulation on the highway, i could not drive my little car against those mack trucks. Host on the issue of regulation, is it an issue for you in the president ial race . Caller well, yes. I am kind of antiestablishment. Did you want to pick up on any of that . Guest no. Host next is a democrat from pennsylvania. Caller thank you for taking my call. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Im not sure if this question is really related to mr. Trumps influence on the gop. Regarding the controversial entry ofban on the muslims into the United States, how would you identify someone as a muslim . Isnt that a religion . Isnt a muslim someone who practices as long as opposed to as opposed toam someone who comes from a part of the world . How would you identify that . Guest very central question about that proposal. It is simply not doable if he is elected and tries to implement that. I would agree with you. Host if you look to the history of the Republican Party, what are the other moments where this has happened where the party has looked itself in the mirror . Guest there have been plenty of examples. Star with the beginning of the party with abraham lincoln. Had dissipated over the issue of slavery. Abraham lincoln rises, becomes president. The first republican president obviously against slavery, freed the slaves. Move forward into other in johnson you had lyndon who brought about the civil rights act. Republicans against that. That was sort of the turning point for the party on that issue. There have another we had robert taft, the Senate Majority leader back in the 40s and 50s. He was isolationist and very prominently so. That was subsumed by Dwight Eisenhower was very much who was very much internationalist and believed in keeping the country involved in the world. The Republican Party used to be arriff party and tw they are for free rade but donald trump is trying to bring that back. Host is there a tradition of evolution . Guest yes. The parties are constantly changing. They are absorbing strains of thought that are out there. We had the pat buchanan moment 20 years ago. Moment whoross perot was all about deficit reduction and that became a major goal of the Republican Party. These independent movements rise up and then the parties absorb them. This is what we are seeing now. We are seeing the Republican Party try to figure out what to beliefs of trump supporters. You have the same with the democrats. The more leftwing Bernie Sanders trying to pull Hillary Clinton to the left and succeeding in some ways. Can the party absorb donald trump or will donald trump absorb the party . Guest thats a huge question. The Party Leadership will hope to go back to business as usual. While learning those lessons. I think it is safe to say we will see another report on the way forward for the party after the trump experience. And the democrats the same. Host about 10 or 15 minutes left. Na is in delaware on the republican line. Good morning. I am just so sick of all the free programs that the Obama Administration has. I think that people realize we have like 20 trillion that we are in debt. They dont realize that one of these days some of this money has got to be paid back. I think if we could cut out the welfare, food stamps, snap, chips, medicaid, subsidized housing we would have some money to build some roads and so forth. Just sits offe wherever he wants to go and goes on vacation and millions of dollars it costs the taxpayers. Host all right. We got your point, anna. Guest i guess the question is what to do with all the Government Spending that is mostly called entitlements. Certainly thats a big issue. Is an area of Division Within the Republican Party. You have paul ryan who is very much about reining in spending on some of these programs whereas donald trump has promised flat out no cuts. If you point out to donald trump budgete entire federal is about to be subsumed by these thatatic spending programs it would bankrupt the country and take the entire budget, he deflects. He doesnt really have an answer to that question. Host we will show our viewers the u. S. Debt clock. Trillion. 3 joseph is on the independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. To follow up on that previous caller, heres the problem. People are misinformed. Budget of theual United States has been going to the 1 . 50 right now of the 10 of our annual income in the United States goes to the 1 and the 10 . They get all the money. Being fought pie over by working poor and middleclass families. They talk about getting rid of social programs. The rich get more social programs than anybody else. The bailout is nothing but a big social program. The richams is 1 get the social programs. Host who are you supporting in this election cycle . Caller right now Bernie Sanders actually is the one that actually dealing with that 1 issue. That is a real problem. The programs in our society, dealing with social programs thinkocial security, about roosevelt, the new deal. That brought about middleclass america. Those benefits. There are talking about taking away those benefits. Those are the same things that got america to have the first middle class in history like no other nation has ever achieved. Host thats joseph in texas. If donald trump was not running this election cycle, would you have written a story, who are the democrats now . Guest absolutely. The democrats should thank donald trump for masking the big problems they are having split between the Bernie Sanders movement and the regular democrats who like hillary and see her as more qualified and more prepared through her resume to be president. The democrats another element of their crisis is they dont have much of a bench. Republicans have a majority of the governorship. They control the senate. By a narrow margin. They control the house by a wide margin. During president obamas eight years in office the democrats have lost over 900 state legislative seats. Much needats very their own autopsy to figure out how they can rebuild their bench and look ahead. If Hillary Clinton loses in november, who runs in four years . And even if she wins, who runs in eight years . You know there are republicans already getting ready to run. Host are people saying that benches dont matter so much . Donald trump walked into the gym unannounced. Guest thats right. You can argue that. Donald trump is highly unusual. He has pulled off something that frankly nobody or almost nobody saw coming. That he could come in having never run for office before and march all the way to the republican nomination. We may see that next time. We may see all kinds of people who have never run for office say, i can do it. A tv celebrity and owner of the dallas mavericks, he has talked about running. He is sort of cut from the same cloth. Kanye west talks about running. Host we had a caller who said he should run as well. Lets go to norman in oklahoma on the republican line karen in oklahoma on the republican line. Caller that lady that said about the food stamps was right on. Trump supporters dont believe they need to be completely cut. We need to get in and have a businessman to find the waste and fraud. Quit paying for illegal people. Democrats wake up. There is not going to be anything left for anything and then was everybody going to do . You get people like Dianne Feinstein saying on hillary tonton theres nothing see here. Everybody go home. She didnt do anything other than colin powell and condoleezza rice. And that is not so. Neither one of them had a private server in their home to cover up for all of the crooked stuff she was doing with her foundation. Blacke brings up two ones. Condoleezza rice and colin powell. Very accomplished. And she brings them up every time. Either Dianne Feinstein doesnt know what she should know for the money we are paying her or she thinks we are stupid. Host portland, oregon is next. Democrat line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I dont understand why the republican he lost. Mccain was up there and he lost. Why cant we have a winner . Im black and im going to vote for donald trump. He isnt racist. He isnt a racist. Africanamericans supporting donald trump. Dont think donald trump is personally racist. He just says things that sound terrible. In a way its hard to know what donald trump thinks about much of everything except that he loves his children and he loves his wife. I think he says things for a fact. I think he says things without thinking. Is an inexperienced politician and hasnt thought through all the issues or all his positions. Heart and read his know how he feels about Something Like race. He has hired plenty of andrities in his businesses people who know him say hes not a racist so i will take them at their word. Host margaret is on the independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just had a couple points. I am not a fan of donald trump at all. I am shuddering at the thought of him. I believe he did not come out of a vacuum. Some people of bill clintons presidency. I think what has happened in america im 54 years old. We have gotten so low in the gutter when our president that awful, awful thing that went through with monica lewinsky, the awful things that were on the news. Had barack obama, i would remind people barack obama referred to americans clinging to their bibles and their guns talking about racism in our dna. I think donald trump is simply a result of the dumbing down of america that now people i believe he has some good points. He is talking about what people think about which is raining and government, immigration. I am married to an immigrant. We got married in 1986. You had to follow the law. ,y husband spoke english learned english and assimilated. I dont believe he is a racist i believe he doesnt articulate well. And i dont want him as president. But the idea that he is the cesspool while the democrats say nice shiny things and drag us through the mud Hillary Clinton right now. We have a candidate who could be indicted who talks about both sides of her mouth, who refuses to let us read or hear what she said to the wall street bankers. But you have an electorate that just hears three or four things and thats where they go. Nobody pays attention. I have three children and im constantly telling them they have to dig, read, know whats going on. Thats why we are where we are. Its like a bunch of sheep walking to the election polls. I think this caller very clearly articulated the issue with this election. This is a historic election in many ways. A novice politician like trump getting the republican nomination. The first woman nominee for a major party. Both with very high negatives. She has laid out the problems that both candidates have. I wonder who she will vote for because she doesnt sound like she likes either one of them. This is going to be an election where you have a lot of negative voting. People voting against the candidate of the other party more than for the candidate of their party. As for hillary and the emails, this is a huge cloud hanging over her head. We are waiting for the final judgment of the fbi investigation. Host we hear about a lot of handwringing on capitol hill over the positions on donald trump. Have policy positions mattered much in this election cycle . Guest they dont seem to have. I think donald trump strength is his style and brashness and bravado. His ability is to capture attention and say things some of the policy does resonate. His position on immigrants for sure is important and his railing against free trade agreements is absolutely central. This was central to cap buchanans Pat Buchanans popularity, ross perots. This issue of trade and jobs and the future of the economy. A very involving economy in terms of the Jobs Available in the wages. That is a central issue. Trump is the overarching aspect the overarching aspect of trump is his style. A democrat in riverside, ohio. Good morning. Caller i have been fascinated since last fall following trump. Like your guest said. Capture in a way i wouldnt vote for him in a million years because he is too unpredictable. You have no record to go on or any kind of voting record. I am fascinated with the media, how they promoted him. And now they are digging into him prior to this. Go over every ridiculous thing he said. I am also taken with how the media for instance recently with hillarys foreignpolicy speech there was no one hammered her on her own foreignpolicy speech. You had Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews fawn over everything she said but not nail her on her own history. I think the media is doing the public and incredible injustice by not really digging appropriately on real issues. In california the electorate has a real opportunity to show the world by voting for sanders. He wont win, but hes really bringing out solid important points. California voters have the opportunity to show the world that we have a conscience. We have a soul. We have morals. I questioned both trump and Hillary Clintons morals and standards quite frankly. Host priscilla is in california , where the primary is taking place this tuesday. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just called in. I couldnt help but call in. I hear so many people talking about donald trump being a racist. Im a person of color. Black. Im not africanamerican. Im just an american who happens to be black. I trust donald trump. I dont think hes a racist at all. I will be voting for him. I dont understand why any time hes something the whole world aims to be against him. Hes not a racist person. He just wants to get this country back again. In fact its a demotion for him. Reallys a person who loves his country. I look at what happened in san jose and the way people were burning the american flag. That angers me. And waving the mexican flag. A lot of people were saying they do not believe in our laws. Its not right. Its not racist because donald trump wants to fix that. What you are seeing at these rallies, at the protests outside these rallies. Does it compare to what you have seen in previous election cycles . This is my sixth president ial cycle and i have not seen anything like this. Some people are raising the specter of 1968. Who knows . We could have mass unrest outside of both convictions conventions. I think police are preparing for that possibility. Your point about trump not being a racist is an interesting one. Of black americans have felt taken for granted by the Democratic Party. I know people who are willing to play along and that way. Even under an africanamerican president black americans continue to struggle in all categories. It has been tricky for president obama to address issues. Seen ast want to be the president of black america but the president of all america. Notas taken some knocks for being more aggressive about dealing with problems in the black community. In terms of how the Democratic Party of addresses minority theys, they really that theyneed to show have ideas for addressing the issues. I cant take any vote for granted. Democrat line in miami, florida. Good morning. Caller i was a little bit aggravated by the person who called before and said that we should just cut out welfare and Social Security. They were just going down the line saying cut it out. Is there a solution that could solve in between both parties where the democrats can be happy and not have things taken away because they know that thats toward the Republican Party when that person is there any kind of solution where you dont just go hacking and chopping away at things that in a fit millions of americans . Questioning with a about the parties working together to pass reform on budgets. Something you have been covering for a long time. Guest this is the holy grail. Can the parties Work Together again . There are think tanks in washington who think about this. There was a moment where president obama had his im blanking on. Heir names they made their proposals and president obama said thank you very much and put the report on any type of bipartisan effort to solve the issue of entitlement. This is now up to the next president to address this. Donald trump says he will not cut anything but we dont know what donald trump would really do as president. In someit of a cipher ways. He says one thing one day and another thing the next day. A deal maker so maybe that bode well that would bode well for his ability to we may not find out what a Trump Presidency looks like. Host Linda Feldmann with the Christian Science monitor. Thank you for your time this morning on the washington journal. Up next in our weekly your money segment, we will be looking at the pentagons budget for military bands. We will be joined by defense reporter Alan Mitchell of politico Ellen Mitchell of politico for that segment. Tonight on the communicators. The 30yearold electronic medications privacy act for wires the government to get a warrant to search email that is less than 180 days old, written before most americans used email and cloud storage. Expands wants to protection to those forms of personal data. The house passed the email privacy act in april and the senate is now considering legislation. Aclulative counsel for the and the commonwealths attorney in alexandria have different perspectives on the legislation. They are joined by a Technology Reporter for the morning consult. Unfortunately the laws that govern when police can access Digital Content have not been updated since 1986. In the interim there have been court that said police have to get a warrant before they get things like emails or private facebook messages. What this would do is put that protection into the law. Investigative and Law Enforcement field that is what our main concern is. To make sure electronic indications are provided with the same level of protection, not an level of protection beyond what you would expect in your home or your bank account. Watch the communicators tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Host thats the United States marine drum and bugle corps. 130s one of more than military bands funded by the pentagon to a yearly budget of about 437 million. It is our topic of discussion segment the your money of washington journal. Joining us is Ellen Mitchell, defense reported from politico. The first question is why does the pentagon made need 137 bands . What are their jobs . Guest almost every base as a military band. They have been ingrained in the military since the very start of the country and the revolutionary war. It has kind of grown since then. The money is mostly going to travel, their instruments, their uniforms, any costs related to that. Host and the story by Ellen Mitchell of politico is the pentagons battle of the bands. Say 437 million in yearly spending is too much. Bands. Y has 99 4400 band personnel in the army. The air force 15 with 800 personnel. Witharine corps 12 bands 750 personnel. Navy 11 bands with 600 personnel. Is a fight going on in congress about this money. Where does that fight breakdown . It is not necessarily a long political partisan lines. That the main politician has spoken about this is representative Martha Mcsally. She is a retired air force colonel. She has been taking a look at bands. They dont want to outright cut any bands or money. They just want language that says the government doountability office has to a review of bands and see if there could be any slots that can be moved into combat units. They also want defense secretary of carter to do a review whether the pentagon could combine some. Host the national Defense Authorization act says how the military can spend its money. Who is on the other side of this debate . Who is defending the bands . Representative john carter has spoken about this in the past. Host a republican from texas. Guest in 2011 representative Ellie Mccollum proposed capping bands. That was shot down. Representative carter spoke out against it very passionately. He said, this is a very cheap way for us to have goodwill for the public. They play funerals, they play parades. They play overseas. You mentioned the cost has gone up by about 100 Million Dollars in just the past five years. What accounts for that . Guest they cut some units but they are still performing at the same rate so they might need to travel more. Higher toeed salaries cover that. Are taking your calls in this segment of the washington journal as we focus on military bands. Its our weekly your money segment. Itsu want to call in, 202 7488000 for eastern and central time zones. Mountain or pacific regions, 202 7488001. A special line for members of the military, 202 7488002. This is not a new fight for band funding. How long did you track it . There have been moments in history where they have tried to cut the bands as far back as the civil war. In 1861 the u. S. Department of war thought if they could cut bands they would save about 5 million which was a lot at the time. That was shot down by officers and soldiers. 1992, senator sam nunn had proposed cutting the bands that supported the u. S. Military academy. Annapolis, west point. He thought that was unnecessary. That was also shot down. Host are all been them members bandmembers exclusively musicians . Guest not all bandmembers are exclusively musicians. Every band member has to do an audition and enlist in basic training. With the exception of the u. S. Marine corps band which is also known as the president s own. There are five different types of bands in the army, three of which do not deploy. At the Division Level and the corps level they are deployable. They mix combat duties with performances. Host we are taking your calls and comments. It is our last segment today. In california is up first. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the military band, but i am concerned they dont have their own airplanes to shuttle them here and there. Incant get our own children our high schools to get that much money or any money toward their own band. This is a profound amount of money thats being asked for that. Is there any other way we can change that and have them go seasonally instead of yearround . Thank you so much. Host there have been efforts to cap spending in the past. One of the numbers that was proposed was 200 million as opposed to 437 million. Guest its difficult to cap the money because it goes through operation and maintenance spending. Its at the discretion of the services. There has not been any wider Defense Department mandate that says maybe we should curtail this. Jeff in minnesota. Good morning. You are on the washington journal. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Im a retired army major. Yearsenlisted for several before i became an officer. Army bands bands from military services are absolutely essential. They are morale boosters. When they bring their soldiers , they foundcombat that the concerts that they give reduce the incidence of posttraumatic stress. A lot of the army bands have a where they are on a mission to decontaminate, and chemical warfare. Theses countless things bands do and we are ignoring them. Thanks for the call. On what these bands do i want to bring in major brian dix, former director of the United States marine drum and bugle corps joining us by phone from mountain view, california. The last caller talking about with the bands do. How did you see the role of marine bands and military bands when you served . Caller allow me to eliminate. 9. 9 soldiers. 9 soldiers this past weekend from ft. Hood down in Central Texas died horrifically. And it was very tragic because of mother nature. Unexpected floodwaters overturned a vehicle during a training exercise. 9. 9 of our soldiers. 9 of us. Welleducated, physically fit. Divers in skills. Soldiers, determined who simply wanted to support and defend this great nation. 9 soldiers. Soldiers need to be honored properly. And i am confident. Im unaware of any type of strategy or plan, but i am confident army music is going to take care of those 9 soldiers. Army music will be aboard probably for a Memorial Service. And in that Memorial Service there will probably be an 11,000 flute. And there will be a 12,000 to uba. And by chance of it is in a chapel, a piano will be playing. This is an all hands on deck approach for military music. Army music will support. And now we have 9 brave men and women that we have to make sure that army music follows them to wherever there internment is. To their final resting place to provide music. Host when we talk about the debate in congress thats happening now that congressman andha mcsally brought up Ellen Mitchell of politico has written about this is a new topic this is not a new topic of discussion. You have seen these debates before. Guest this is the american myth. If theres a problem with any type of budget, blame the performing arts. This is not ingrained totally in the military. This happens within our Public Schools and other community institutions. We need to take care of all of our soldiers. Just like army music is going to. And they may extend budgets just to make sure army music is supported throughout this country. But it is important. Sure important to make met withdiers are expectations. It is part of the healing process to those families. Host major dix, can you talk about deployments for musicians and what their daytoday job is . What was life like for you and those who served under you when you were deployed . Deployed unit normally solely as a representation of the United States marine corps and the armed forces in the United States. There have been times that we had to ship out to the middle east to represent marine corps interests. One month after the uss cole was struck. Own was in thes middle east. The commandant at the time general jones needed for the marine corps. But more importantly is that the uss sergeanthe darrell cole. The only navy ship named after a musician. The fighting field music. Music has a long heritage. Its part of our dna in the armed forces and it is our job in military music to make sure that those traditions are upheld and that we take care of not only ourselves, our country and especially our veterans. Retired major brian dix was the director of the u. S. Marine drum and bugle corps until 2014. Thank you for joining us on the washington journal. Guest thank you. Host we are taking your calls this morning on this topic. Ellen mitchell of politico wrote this story for politico. We want to hear what you think this morning. Daniel is in florida. Good morning. Caller such a pleasure having the opportunity to speak to you. As i told the young man that was answering phone calls, i say if they got 500 million a year to ear American Children out of their mommys wombs they should at least have that money for the bands. But maybe instead of playing hail to the chief, with this clown in the white house why dont they go to garth brooks and go, im shameless. Im shameless. Host bill is in virginia beach. What do you think . Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Yesterday im retired. I was in the band in high school. I was not in bad in college. I wish i had been. I dont think i was good enough to be in the band in college. Last night for the umpteenth time, i saw the movie mr. Hollands opus. And again it brought tears to my eyes and rolling down my cheeks. I tell you what, a parade without a band, without a military band, and see how many people show up. Have a funeral without a military band and see how the family feels. There are a lot of places that we can get rid of. A lot of waste in our federal government starting with health care. Coffins. Theres a lot of unfortunate situations and a lot of waste in government. Congress votee in themselves a pay raise. Whos going to stop them . Nobody. We cant vote ourselves a pay raise. Million really is a drop in the bucket compared to Everything Else that is going to our national debt. Host can you jump in on that . How that compares with the actual overall pentagon budget . Budgetoverall pentagon 437 million would be about. 09 roughly. The budget is in the billions now. Necessarily the parades or the funerals that are the concern. She expressed other concerns about how the bands are used. Guest she said they are very useful for funerals, parades, moral support. But she gave me an example of she was at an officers house. They had a military band come in and perform for them. She said, thats not really the role of the military. To perform in this private ceremony for us. They should be more useful out in the field. Host are there rules about where they can and cannot perform . Guest i was not able to find out about that. Not to my knowledge. Host lets go to robert, retired member of the military. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to weigh in as a retired nco. 22 years service. There is a place for the military bands. Funerals and things of that nature. I think they are really overused and theres too many of them. It is more of a pr thing. I dont think todays military really needs the pr. Perhaps better usage would be Regional Military bands. Marines, sailors, soldiers and airmen can combine together and would travel throughout certain regions for various ceremonies and funerals and whatnot. That would eliminate some waste. It would make a much better use for our forces. Deployable but they really dont get themselves dirty and go into combat, which is where we need military people to be placed. Host if there are fewer bands, does that increase costs in other places . There will be the same number of events or funerals or whatever that band members need to get to. Actuallye military is lost a few bands in the last 80 years and they have not made a dent in the cost because they are still performing the number of events and funerals and coming home ceremonies and parades. I dont think that would really cause anything. Jenny in North Carolina is on the phone. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller i think military bands are very important in our society with the military. Our National Anthem is a military song. The starspangled banner. We have had lots of wonderful musicians. Marcve lots of beautiful hing bands. My father was in vietnam in the 60s. Several of his squad members were killed. We went to a military ceremony and they had a bugler playing taps. It was lovely for the people who went. Now when somebody dies they send a tape recording of the starspangled banner. I think military marching bands and parades and the music and the spirit are wonderful. I think its very important to have this music in our society and to pay for. Host we are talking about military bands. Someone on twitter right, how much do the blue angels cost . Militarism is a dangerous folly for the citizenry to cut military industrial bugler wealeats our wealth. Politicochell is with and wrote the story about it. We are talking about it for the next 15 minutes or so. Mary ellen is in dayton, ohio. Caller i think we should keep them. I think we should even do more for them. What are you going to give them . A bullet to shoot at somebody or a bullet to come back at them . Is that all they are going to get . Neede it. Milies host how much support is congresswoman Martha Mcsally getting for her effort to try and cut some of the costs of military bands . Guest i have not heard much on that. I expect there will be a lot of pushback just because this is such a passionate suspect subject for many people. This legislation would not outright cut anything. She might get a little more support than past efforts. Her legislation is more for a specific study on cost . Guest two studies. One for the Government Accountability office to look at the bands and see if they could move some of those positions into combat slots. Would be a second study that defense secretary ash carter would do looking at them as well and whether some can be combined. Host is this standalone legislation or was it debated in the ndaa discussions in the house . Guest this language was offered in the report accompanying the house ndaa. There was not a lot of buzz about it. It was slipped in. Host travis is up next. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me. Host go ahead. Im an hvcu College Student majoring in music education. These bands are essential. The travel is very important especially for students who have not tapped into his musical abilities they are not even aware of. If they findalents out that they have potential or these talentsc, often affords students careers and even education when they are allowed to see the bands that come and perform at their schools or perhaps they go to a parade and they see the bands in the parade. Its really important. Even in college. We have had several bands come to our school and perform. Its just an enriching experience. Especially in rural areas like the area that im from. They dont know what they are good at. Host what school do you go to . Thats Elizabeth City State University in Elizabeth City North Carolina. Go back to our line for members of the military. John is a retired member in jacksonville. Go ahead. Caller hello. My opinion on this is if they are looking at dealing with the money with the marching bands, which are absolutely necessary. There is no doubt about that. If she wants to look at the money than she needs to stop looking at the cost of the individuals. Because like i said, they are necessary. Funds. Ed to look at tad host tad . Caller temporary additional duty. When you leave your base and go somewhere else that is called tad. Temporary additional duty. When you do that and lets say there is no military housing available. It personnel who are going to be in that area for a temporary amount of time. If there is no available housing for these people they have to go out in town and get hotel rooms. Say that theres a certain amount that you have to pay for those rooms. There is no negotiating. You have to put of your band in a hotel that a normal person would pay like 91 a night for the room. Pay 270 aent will night for the same exact room. Host because of the set rate . Caller exactly. Host Ellen Mitchell, is this something you looked into . Guest this is not something that came up. I was not aware of this. Host when you go on these tads, is there concern by the members of the military who are there about this . Do most people know about this . Knows about it. Its only if the band is going to they will put them up in the transient barracks if they are going to a military base. When the band is going to someplace where there is no military base a funeral, a ceremony or something the band gets put up in a motel. Or if the transient barracks is full they have to go out in town. They have to pay the government rate thats what everyone calls it. Host we appreciate the call from jacksonville. Ellen mitchell, one of the things you look at is military contractors. Major dix referred to some of the numbers in your story. 11,000 for a flute. 12,000 for a tuba. Is there a way to lower the cost of these items . Argument i was given when i asked why these items were so expensive was, these items could be used throughout the lifetime of the Service Members in the service. Flute could be used for 20 years. Host so this will last longer than other military equipment. Lets go to mike in massachusetts. Caller good morning. My son is in the marines. Hes going to get deployed into june toiddle east in the middle east. He is not fired a live round since february. Naturally we need bands. They are inspiring. But do we need 130 of them . Thats my comment. Host thats the question that some members of congress are looking into. The army has 99 bands. 350 personnel. The air force, 15 bands and 800 personnel. The marine corps 12 bands and 750 personnel. The navy 11 bands and 600 personnel. This is in the may 22 issue of politico. You can check it out on their website. Ellen mitchell is the reporter on that story joining us for the last five or 10 minutes of todays show. James is a retired member of the military. Your thoughts on military bands . Caller thank you for taking my call. Im a little puzzled why we are spending so much time and energy talking about. 09 of the federal Defense Budget when year after year we get reports of hundreds of millions and millions of dollars being spent on Weapons Systems that the military doesnt even request that they continue to get authorized and appropriated because members of Congress Want to protect the industries in their district. It just seems ludicrous that we are expending so much energy on something even if you eliminated every band and every dollar from the budget its not going to create any kind of dent in the budget or debt or any of it. Host Ellen Mitchell, you have covered these other debates as well. Other equipment purchases. When we go through this ndaa process in the senate what do you expect the big debates are . Guest its hard to say. The biggest debate is always lc s. Items that some argue we dont really need. There are some problems we should go back and test them before we buy them. I think those will be the biggest ones. Isnt congresswoman Martha Mcsally a big defender of the a10 . Guest she made the argument, how can you say you are at this crisis and you need to retire the a10 when you have always military bands . That was her argument. Host brian from massachusetts. Good morning. Thanks for listening to me. I have a couple comments and questions. Number one, look at the history of military bands. Sousa fromn philip the 1890s. We have glenn miller who lost his life as a bandleader in world war ii. The Music College graduates who get positions in military bands. I think its a wonderful opportunity for them. Someone mentioned that a tuba costs 12,000. Isnt that probably the going rate for a tuba . Thank you for listening to me. Host Ellen Mitchell, how much should you look into the going rates for these items . Guest i looked into it a little bit. I dont think tubas are quite that expensive. I myself played the flute in middle school. It was under 2000. Thats why was so surprised that a flute could cost 11,000. Tot a user on twitter wants know how much the studies on military bands are going to cost. Musicr user says, i love as much as the next guy but would never spend a dime on military bands. Lets cut the Defense Budget top to bottom. Time for a couple more calls. We are talking about military bands in this segment of the washington journal. Tag, 437 million a year over 130 military bands. Barbara is in iowa. Good morning. Caller good morning. My husband served in the air force for 20 years and retired and then served 20 more years on air force base here near western iowa. During that time our family was with him overseas at nato and u. S. Air force bases for 13 years. I want to say that having our military bands was crucial to representing the United States in a foreign country. It gave us pride. It just made our chest swell with pride. It also was important for morale. We still live near a Large Air Force base with reduced numbers of bands due to previous budget cuts. When they perform off of the base and on the base, there is a large turnout because people value them. Most of them are ncos. They do not receive officers pay. Yet they have in many cases graduate degrees in music. They are extremely talented. They serve our country in many ways. Experienced we just memorial day on monday. My husband and i attended three different services, one involving a military band. One also involved the civil war reenactors at a cemetery which included another military band. Whichs a strong tradition means a great deal to those of us who served and to those in our communities. I cant tell you how many people turn out when our air force band performs in our area. We dont have a lot of bands. Maryland mayy in think they do, but they are around the capital and a multitude of basis. Here in the heartland, whether its in performance or at a time like memorial day, its very important to us. I dont really think the amount of money you are talking about is critical. It means more than that amount of money to many of us and to our communities. Thank you. Host thanks for the call. We have a line for members current or retired members of the military. Dave is on that line in michigan. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. To find out ifs the ncaa and nfl reimburse the military for any expense is from performing at their games, number one. And if not, why not since they make aliens of dollars every year billions of dollars every year . Military bands are crucial for controls. Im tired of hearing about all the people i know that are in the military passing away and there is no representation from the military other than a tape recording. Bandsd rather see the perform at funerals than at ncaa or nfl games. Host thanks for the questions. The expenses for performances at sports events. This is something senator john mccain has looked into. Where does that stand right now . That i did not look into for my article but as i understand the military sees that as pretty valuable pr to play at these sporting events. But i didnt really cover that in my article. Reportsose senatorss are available on their website, the amount of military spending about those different performances. Time for just one more call. Robert in maryland. Can you make it quick . Caller i sure can. Im a u. S. Taxpaying citizen and i was wondering why it we are doing all these budget cuts on our own. Why cant we cut aid going to Foreign Countries a couple billion dollars . That would pay for the bands and much else. Our last caller on todays washington journal. I want to thank Ellen Mitchell of politico for joining us. Live to the you now center for strategic and International Studies holding a summit today on u. S. India economic relations. That summit coming ahead of the Prime Minister of indias visit to a joint meeting of Congress Happening later this week