Morning is representative john faso, republican representative from new york. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host with issues on the budget being currently discussed, how will that play out with the issues currently happening at the White House Level and pending in congress . Guest we received the president s budget about two weeks ago. Congress is now working on setting the budging budget targeting for the different committees. We are try to come up with a number that we can pass in the house. The key here is to get 218 votes in the house. I am working with my colleagues and chairman black to make sure we can fasten something that will win broad support. Host what is the biggest hurdle . Guest the biggest hurdle is the nondoess number for nondefense discretionary funding. Basically, what he is doing is taking that savings and applying it to defense. Most of us on the republican side believe we need to rebuild defense, especially in readiness and capacity. If we have a situation in one part of the world, we have to make sure that the United States can respond in another part of the world to make sure that potential adversaries do not take advantage. We have to rebuild our navy and military strength generally, but many of us also want to make that we getting are spending the dollar wisely in defense. A number ofeen defense procurements that i think are excessively expensive, and i think we need to streamline the process. So, we try to figure out how like anyneed it is kind of budget planning. You trying to decide how much money you need for a car or vacation, and that is what we are trying to do with the government. There are things that i do not think would get support in the house, so we have to do is, with a number is come up with a number. What are your biggest concerns about the budget . Of other terms mandatory spending and entitlement spending, he did not touch them. I think there are other mandatory spending items that we could be looking at besides that it care and social besides medicare and Social Security. The president did not touch those, and i do not think we are going to touch Social Security in any event due to how the senate rules work. However, i think there are mandatory spending items besides medicare and Social Security that we cant be looking at we could be looking at. The country right now i know get thrown about, the one thing they are very good at is telling us what is our projected deficit and what is our projected National Debt. They told us earlier this year that our National Debt is currently 19 trillion and counting. Years, it will be 29 trillion. We need to get more Economic Growth going, and we need to spend tax dollars wisely or as we are going to bankrupt our next generations. You would like to call in and ask a question, 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. 2027488002 for independents. What are those other programs we can look at . Guest you hear about the food stamp program. On the agricultural committee, we are looking at a program that could be spending billions of dollars a year. There are certain aspects of food stamps spending that are unwise. This is called the supplemental nutrition assistance program, and what we spend on food stamp purchases includes 3 million on soda. Us,ad experts come before and i asked them if they could tell us there is any nutritional value to soda. Naturally, all of them said there wasnt. So, should we be spending 3 million . We should try to make sure that a Nutrition Program is focused on nutrition. So, i have a big dairy district in upstate new york. Milk costs about 60 of what soda costs. Think about it. There is no reason in my mind that we could not reduce the expenditure on food stamps, and we could get 20 billion in savings. We can tell recipients that milk is a better alternative for you. ,ere not trying to be punitive but let us be smart and sensitive about this. When we were kids growing up, we had about five kids in our family and soto was a rare commodity. My mother would only by and soda was a rare commodity. Whenther would only buy it it was someones birthday. So, spending that much money on soda seems a little absurd in my opinion. Specify what food stamp purchases can be made on . Guest we should. I do not want to be the food police here, but, on the other hand, it is so obvious that soda is not a personal benefit. Not auld get nutritional benefit. We should get rid of it in the food steps program and allow recipients to buy something that is more nutritionally beneficial like milk. Host our first caller on the line. Pat, go ahead. Caller good morning. I want to say that i am a supporter of President Trump. Be ourhe would president , because of the facts he was laying out about our country in the world. I do notbout food, think the government should tell me what i need to put in my mouth. Im a 72yearold woman. I have sense enough to know. Im not on any medication, but should i have diabetes or other diseases, i would not eat those foods because it is common sense. It is common sense that a mother would know what to feed her children. Gravy, fried chicken, and the pastor would come over every sunday and we would sit around. It was food like that we would put in our mouths. It was not any kind of. Today, people are on these diets and rigging diet drinks, and that is causing all of our problems. I applaud the president for what he is doing with the the a the va. My husband had to go see a doctor, and his records were lost host pat, we got it. Thanks. Weap was saying that got it. Thanks. Pat was saying that the government should not tell people what to put in their mounts. She made a good comment about the veteran affairs office. It does not make any sense for us to go out and go through a whole new expenses procurement to acquire the same capacity in the v. A. The we are getting now in the department of defense. That is a way that i think the Trump Administration has been a good thing for taxpayers and veterans. Host on the democrats line. Robert from arkansas, though ahead. Caller thank you. I am on the postal revelatory career webpage. Postal regulatory career webpage. They list their compensation. It goes immediately into their benefits, Health Insurance paid by the federal government, a federal retirement program, a savings plan, Social Security, medicare, Life Insurance policy, flexible spending accounts, longterm care insurance, supplemental vision and dental, sick leave, annual leave carryover 560 hours. Leave exchangel host what would you like our guest to address . You talk about entitlement programs, there is a limit. Arkansas recently changed the limit to 100 over poverty. You, yourself, get compensation and then get right into benefits. Should the discussion be about how much money you can make a year and get no subsidies . Broad the caller asked a question, but i think this is the cracks of what we are going to do when it comes to fixing our financial situation as a country. We are demographically all living longer and getting older. That is some good news, but it also means that entitlement programs are going to be financially stressed. Sociallook at your security statement, you will see socialstatement that Security Administration trustees advise within 17 years from now that the system can only pay 79 of the promised benefits. That is only 17 years from now. Similar to what Ronald Reagan did back in the early 1980s, come together and create a bipartisan, nonpolitical panel to give congress and the country and analysis of how we fix this problem going forward. This program is too important. Formany people depend on it it to become a political football. The longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to fix the problem. S over 55 years old to not have much to worry about, but it is the folks under 50 years old that have to worry about financing Social Security. This is a perennial issue. How much should the government spend . How much should we tax . Who gets the benefit . Host catherine from michigan on the republicans line. Go ahead. Caller going back to the food program, i do think we need to look at what people are buying. We had something here in michigan where they found out that bridge cards which used to be the food stamps program, and program, am i correct . Im not familiar with it, but that may be the way it is done in michigan. Caller they have a card and they swipe it. Tol, it was being used to go a casino. They were not even using it on food. I do not know how long this was happening until they discovered that the people getting this benefit were using it at the casino. I think we really need to take a closer look and monitor people. Once they do Something Like that, i do not think they should ever be able to get any benefits after that. Point. He caller raises a guest it is a point i hear often from constituents. One thing i hear often from my constituents i heard this from a sheriff in one of my districts, we are being overrun issues inne epidemic upstate new york. In every instance where they arrest someone for doing heroine prescription painkillers , they find that in every instance these folks have benefit cards on them and they are receiving government benefits. One thing led to see is that the ablebodied people receiving efits like food stamps ablebodied people should have some type of work requirement. Not the disabled or elderly, but ablebodied people. It is not in a punitive way, that we want to make sure they get the Work Experience punitive way, that we need to make sure that they get the Work Experience they need to get back onto the workforce. There are people between the ages of 18 and 64 years old, people who should be working, and only 62 are. This is one of the lower this is one of the lowest numbers in our nations history. In many parts of the country, you have workforce participation rates lower than 62 . This is something we need to address, and many of us feel that the ease in which benefits are provided and the lack of requirements for work are one of the reasons why many people are not in the workforce or seeking in employment seeking employment. Host presented john fassett you to speak with you speak with us on a variety of topics. James comey will testify on thursday. A lot of investigations going on into russia. What does that mean for gop house members and try to get an agenda done . Guest it does not mean a lot. Now that we have Robert Miller muee have former director ller leading the investigation, and i really applaud that choice , i think let director mueller do this investigation. Let the chips fall where they may. I want to find out what happened, but i think a lot of this hyperventilating going on in this wiki for seven new cycle is going on in this 24 7 news cycle is unhelpful. It is a diversion for a lot of people, and i think we should be focused, as elected officials, on the things we need to do. Fix the health care system, get a budget passed, fix the debt ceiling, to a transportation and infrastructure bill, and hopefully we can get some type partisan support undoing tax reform. What is the chance that a debt ceiling could come and go with no decision made . Feel we should just handle the debt ceiling without conditions and get it done. Markets asury and give them the certainty that we are not playing with fire in this regard. It has to be done. The country is already committed and accumulated. I would like to see more spending reforms. I like to see us go after some of those mandatory spending requirements. I would like to see more efficiencies. All of that is true, but we still have the matter and we have to do this. Host what you think about the whole instance of director firing . Comeys think it was mishandled. I do not know what we are going to find out from former director comey tomorrow. He speaks very carefully, so i am not sure what we are going to find out. I will not be watching the testimony. I will be focusing on the things we are working on in the house. We have plenty of stuff to do. Let the investigators get to the bottom of this russia affair, and lets get all the facts out on the table. But for me, it is almost i would not say it is irrelevant, but it is not a focus for my attention. In washington, i am sent here to work on the committees and get things done for my district. One thing that is big in my so, ict is lyme disease, am working on specific issues for water issues in my district. I had a district going from vermont to pennsylvania. It is the second largest district in new york state. Those are the things i am focused on. Host should you watch the hearing it is going to be at 10 00 on her stay. Guest i think i have a Committee Meeting going on, so i will not be watching. Host we have a tweet saying that Christopher Wray will be nominated to be the new director of the fbi. Guest i have read a little bit about mr wray, and he has a great reputation from what i understand. Host lets go to our next caller, joe on the democrat line. Caller good morning. I am from the bronx, new york. What i want to do this morning i wante people what to do this morning, when i speak with the people on the street about what i should say to the politicians, one of the things i heard you say this morning is that you want to put more money into the military. That is one thing. When it comes to social programs like food stamps, you want to limit and cut that. At the same time, republicans always said that you are against abortion, that you want people to bring their children here. There are people who say they are not ready to bring their kids here. I take it as your responsibility when you say you want people to bring them here, to put money there to help them. You are not doing that. Guest joe, you used the phrase you say but you raised a number of issues i have not even discussed this morning. Our military does need to have b readiness,super and that has waxed over the years. Over the years. However, we also need to make sure we are not wasting money on defense procurements. I think we part company on a number of issues, what of issues, but to me it is not a cut on food stamps. To me, it is a waste to spend money on soda. It is not nutritionally beneficial. It could be set aside by milk which is nutritionally beneficial. Our next caller from rockport, new york. Steve, go ahead. Caller when i was a kid, families got a box of u. S. Government surplus food. Why cant we go back to that . Guest actually, what we do is that we distribute surplus commodities, whether it is butter or cheese or other things, to food banks and food pantries around the country. There are a lot of food pantries. I helped out as a private attorney, i helped a local food pantry get incorporated as a nonfor profit organization. Work, and they are volunteer run often out of churches. They have a School Backpack program where they try to make sure that kids have nutritious foods at home on the weekends. Outt of people are hurting there. Lets not make any mistake about it, but at the same time we have to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and not being wasted. I just feel there is a happy medium here between being sympathetic and charitable and getting a helping hand to those in need. Especially disabled children, expecting mothers, lets help them if they needed. At the same time, lets not make these programs into a hammock where people rely upon them. A i said before, when sheriff in my county will me that every person he arrests for opioid and benefit used in his pocket, he says it annoys him to no end. I know those are the type of people we could weed out with a work requirement. It work have requirement for ablebodied people receiving public assistance. Next on thel is republican line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. , you do not say that food stamps are a problem. Most people work at walmart and they are low to moderate income individuals. If you say that all people should be cut, i think you should get more jobs paying higher wages and then more people will not be on food stamps. On infrastructure, you are pushing natural gas. You did not come to our community to talk to our people or organizations. We want you to be in our area and support we are doing. Guest thank you for the call. I will put him down as undecided. Primly ins i am kingston, meeting with constituents there several weeks. Assistance generally, we should have the helping hand for people who are truly in need, but we should also have responsibility. We talk a lot in our country today about rights. We do not often talk a lot about responsibility. Personal responsibility is often something that is lacking. Certainly, someone who is a working poor person who may need do distance is need foo assistance, i am all for that. But i am not for people taking advantage of the program, and we know there are a lot of people doing that currently. Host there is a story in the the gton post by about the president working with private individual private industries to get infrastructure done. What do you think of that approach . With we had a meeting officials from australia who do these private partnerships very competently. Vendors ands from parking to other things in an airport, you could convert a government owned facility to a private facility with either an outright sale or a longterm lease. Aan receive infinite substantial amount of money from the private investors. Structured properly, it could be a benefit to taxpayers as we get private capital in. When you do these kind of private partnerships, the government takes those proceeds and applies it to infrastructure spending. What australia has done and i think what President Trump is tried to do is create a bonus system where federal dollars would provide a 15 to 20 bonus to state or local governments that do a private partnership that convert a public asset into a private asset and gets a substantial return from that. The bonus of 15 to 20 would then be additional infrastructure. The idea is how do you leverage capital and other countries to the successfully. Australia, canada, leverage the private sector capital so it is not taxpayers dollars going in, and give for the localities and states to do these arrangements so again can get the info structure built. The problem is the country is going broke. We need private sources of capital into the infrastructure to get the maximum benefit for these projects. Host new york, democrats line, janet. Caller im a librarian, i have i have beenegree, working my whole life, i am 54 years old, and im currently poor because of my personal situation. Of anded after years abusive marriage, to leave it much happier year now happier now. I live on long island, and expensive place to live. I am currently familiar with being poor and i stand in the food lion, a thing i do, to help reduce my bills. Who arewith poor people like me, they have been working their whole lives and the situation has changed. I really do understand what it is like to be poor. I think focusing on will how poor people are misusing the money they receive, you know, it is a distraction and it is shortsighted. It is not easy to be poor in america. It is a hard job. I think maybe 10 of people are abusing something and wasting are wasting time focusing on that when we should be focusing on people getting jobs that allow them dignity and dental insurance so a few work for walmart 431 hours a week, you can afford to go to a dentist. Or if you work somewhere very hard, you can i apologize, caller, the line got cut. Go ahead. Guest i sympathize with what the lady is suggesting. No one is out lies people striving or working hard or who are down on their luck and they are poor for a variety of circumstances. That is not what were talking about. Raises here overall, she a cycling, how do you get more growth in the economy. Have one of the slowest economic recoveries in postworld war ii economic history in the United States we are growing at a rate of 1. 6 . We are going to do the choice act, which will repeal many aspects of. Frank legislation that really destroyed local andunity banks in america made it much more difficult for Community Banks to land small businesses. Come from small businesses. Toll business cannot go local Community Banks, because they have been overcome with regulation. That is what we are trying to do ithe choice act as we call we used to have eight banks before this and now we have four. Too big to fail is now enshrined into the water into the law. No more bailout for banks and strict penalties for people who worked in the institution to might abuse public trust, etc. It is something i see all over new york in particular. Kids and grandchildren cant stay because there are no jobs. Economicot to get more growth and tax and Regulatory Reform and spending at all levels of government is key to this. Tell us not only what is going on but your resolve. There is good funding. My predecessor served admirably it is a critical portion of Getting Research and there is incredible Research Getting done now in places like the us is to look in my district where they are doing a five year Scientific Study on how to control line disease, spread by white footed mice in wooded areas and areas in our state. The epidemic of lyme disease is. N the whole country greene county, these places are really afflicted by it. Many people are affected by longterm health consequences. There is Research Going on and i support funding for the research. It is now spreading to other parts of the country. I encourage people to get information about line disease. You are outside gardening and walking in a wooded area. You would be susceptible to tick that would carry this disease and it is something we should all guard against. Joining us for this conversation. Thanks for your time. Open phones is next. Potentially what is going on with the russian investigation, james comey, set on set aside on thursday. Can see that on cspan3. We want to get your thoughts well be right back. This sunday, q as in new ark where we go inside for rare look at fdrs personal office and collection of artifacts with the museums director. In 1940 one, he was still the president of the United States. Fdr had an incredibly inquisitive mind. 914 books in this room alone. Every book was selected by fdr to be in the room. Nothing has changed. Watch q a from the president ial library and museum in new york sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cabletelevision companies and brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host again, we told