If you are a current student or graduate of college, call 202 7488000. If you have student debt, we have a separate line for you. That is 202 7488001. A couple of other lines, one for Vocational School students and graduates, 202 7488002. Everyone else, your number is 202 7488003. You can also weigh in by social is our twitter handle and you can also post a comment at facebook. Com cspan. We wanted to start some basic facts and figures about the cost of College Education these days. Known asm an outfit value penguin. The average cost of public colleges today, 25,300 in state , and about 41,000 if you are an outofstate student at a college. Aboute colleges, running 51,000 dollars now. This is tuition, room, board, fees, and the majority of students are paying between 6000 dollars and 15,000 on tuition alone. This is an updated look at the cost of College Education. Adam harris said that Congress Might finally overhaul the Higher Education act. Part of the piece reads this way. One of the reasons lawmakers are so keen to update the law is a near universal belief that college, the affordability of it, and access to it is in desperate need of repair. In recent years, students, parents, and policymakers have been questioning whether college is still worth the astronomical costs. Recently, the House Committee on education, led by congressman bobby scott, released a new report, arguing that although Higher Education has its issues, a College Degree still packs significant value. So one big opinion there from the committee on education in the house. On yesterdays washington journal, we had a guest from the Heritage Foundation on, and she touched briefly on the College Scandal that broke last week, but also talked about the worthiness of a College Degree in general. Take a look. It is certainly very concerning for all americans watching, but it should not be shocking. We have long had a Higher Education system that favors the elite in our country. If you look at the Higher Education policies coming from washington, it also indicates what our obsession as a society is. Option fore have one students after high school. We are telling them to go to college. But we are seeing now that the College System is really ingrained in a lot of these scandals that we are seeing and we are seeing a lot of kids graduate without the skills necessary to obtain different jobs. We might be thinking about options that create a streamlined between high school and work, and college might not get students there. Guest fromwas our the Heritage Foundation yesterday on washington journal. Calls coming in about whether college is worth the cost. We will get to those points in just a moment. A little bit about what is happening in washington, forbes tell us President Trump opposed to end the student Loan Forgiveness Program. They write he plants some major changes to your Student Loans, according to his 2020 budget. The budget that just came out recently. Here are some of the details. The white house released froms 2020 budget proposal, which contains important and locations for Higher Education and Student Loans. The budget includes 64 billion in funding or the u. S. Department of education, thats a 7. 1 billion or 10 decrease compared to 2019 funding. The budget as it relates to Student Loans is built on several stated goals, among others. Strike a balance between Student Needs and taxpayer interests, insured is will discipline in discretionary spending, reduce the role for the federal government in education. They also want to reduce student loan debt, increase accountability for institutions of Higher Education, make Higher Education more affordable, and investing super bowl investing in technical and career education. We will take a look at what congress is doing as well with Higher Education as we wait for those phone calls to come in. Inside Higher Education, House Democrats vision for a Higher Education act, they write that the Education Committee of the democratic led u. S. House this of five begun a series hearings. One of them we covered recently on reauthorizing this Higher Education act. This is the law that covers federal Financial Aid. They describe their vision in this piece more than 50 years after the initial passage of the of its falls short original promise to open the door to an extend the benefit of Higher Education to all students. They are pointing out that here in this report. The next reauthorization of the Higher Education act should aim to finally close those gaps in access, affordability, completion, that continue to prevent so many students from the billing from fulfilling their potential. You can read about that at inside higher ed. We covered hearing this week at the house Education Committee. This is what one of the witnesses said about College Affordable he. Heres affordability. Heres a look. [video clip] american colleges and universities are nearly unmatched in their potential to create opportunity and raise living standards. But over the last generation, we have had a sea change in how we pay for college. States have cut funding for public colleges and universities , and that drives up tuition for the three quarters of students who attend public universities and community colleges. Higher cost means many students do not enroll. There was a long line of research that suggests that each additional 1000 in costs reduced enrollments by 3 to 5 by three Percentage Points to five Percentage Points. Some students go hungry or homeless. Students earn a degree within six years. The most common reason they get for dropping out is to earn more money. With all that background, we go to calls. Joe is calling from indianapolis, on the line for all others. The question is College Worth the cost . Caller no, i dont believe it is. I was a Political Science major a few years ago, and i got through my sophomore year and it was just ridiculous. And i started my own plumbing company. You learn about our society through hard work, and i look at it i have a daughter, her friend is womans studies you know, and the environment on the College Campuses does not give kids enough of a background of how america actually works. Look at this current scandal. Elitists in this country have made such a turn to the left that the environment on College Campuses is nauseating. Then you throw in the coaches, and if a kid is bright, right out of high school, he should really take a look at learning the system, getting, going to extension college. Ive got friends i would never give to my endowment host how come . Joe, how come . Caller excuse me . Host how come when you not give to your College Endowment . Caller i have looked at economics professors, and most professors are socialists. When you look at the political spectrum of 90 of the instructors, they are all lets tear down America First and give you an example and how can america work if these elitist colleges have an attitude that number one, we were a decadent society to begin with and number two, lets spent 6,000 giving you an education, and most of these professors are tenured you can do anything about them, and the universities have these billiondollar endowments look at harvard. Its just rot. Host ok, first call from joe from indianapolis. Out west to tacoma, washington, also on our line for all others. Its janet. Your answer to is College Worth the cost . Caller i think nowadays, Everybody Needs to get to college because it is very hard to get a job without one. I think they should begin the chance to go. If they are millionaires, come from a millionaire family, they can afford it, maybe. Everybody cant afford it, and i still think they should have a chance. My daughter, she went to college she is a pharmacy technician. But she always wanted to be a radiologist and she did not have the money to do that. 27,usband died when she was and i did not have money you know, she has a job that she graduated from college, you know since she went, it has been probably 12 years. Justhe didnt get what didnt get to be what she wanted to be, but she was able to get a job. Host so it is a good idea in your due to pursue college, but what about the debt factor . So much as talked about, the large amount of debt students carry. Where you strike that balance . Caller well, i think that should be dropped. They cant afford it. They shouldnt have to be my to engineering and electronics, and he couldnt afford it. Into air go conditioning and heating and is paid upd at it, but he his college sometimes people maybe able to pay off and they have bills and everything. I dont think they should be responsible for that. I think it should be dropped. Thank you for calling, janet. Inant to hear from sheila, oklahoma. Are you a student or a graduate . Caller i am a graduate. I graduated several years ago, but i think any kind of education, sir, is worth the cost. Abouti graduated third of the students go to college in oklahoma, and i think you can push college, but there are some that will never go. I think we should have more vocational tech systems. Oklahoma has a wonderful occasional tech system, and they let the students go free until they are 22, and you can become a plumber, an electrician, a welder, and you are going to make more money than a lot of people that graduate from college. Opportunities, i think, out there, and i think people need to be educated. Education is worth the cost, no matter where you go, no matter what you decide or how you decide to be educated. Host sheila, thank you for calling and mentioning Vocational Schools. We have a separate line for those who are from Vocational Schools, so we welcome your calls. One of them as carl, from beaumont, texas. Tell us your situation that thought on whether college is is worth the cost. Carl, are you with us . Caller yes, can you hear me . Host yes, go ahead. Caller i think with colleges, the problem is a lot of people coming out of college after they rack up all that debt, they when a lot of these companies are going overseas and pulling people there. Of school with maybe 100,000, and someone offers you a 50,000 job when it was 100,000 a year when you went to college. Foreignng in these people and they can go and do the job for 50,000, but how can you do it . So clearly the cost of the education isnt working. Complete and then try to get a job that is going to get you the money to pay those Student Loans off, i think that is where the difficulty comes in. I need to do something about that. Is calling from california, on the line for others. Your answer to our question . Caller is it worth the cost . Boy, i would have to say no after thinking back. This phone call is going to make me feel very old. I am 64 years old, and my first semester at college, which was at the university of connecticut , a great school, in the fall of 1972, i paid 675 total, and that included room and board. It makes me very sad that the students today dont have the same kind of freedom that i did. What i mean by freedom is when you get out of college, say you are 21, 22 years old, you should be able to take a risk. For example, i moved across the country from connecticut to california with no job, 200 in my pocket. If i have 80,000 in student i could not have done that. I wouldve had to take the safe right out of college. That is the time you are supposed to take risks. Host what are you doing now, john . Caller i am about to end a career as a Television News writer. Host a local station of their . Caller very good. Host do you have kids . Caller no, i am a single guy. Host nieces or nephews . Caller a lot of them, and they are spending a lot of money. It is very sad to watch. In addition to the kids having to take out the loans, the parents. For instance, my brother. He paid i think it was 40,000 a year for his stepdaughter to go to boston college. So much money. Thanks for calling, john, and sharing your situation. I want to go back to the hearing we covered this week on College Affordability with the house. Ducation and Labor Committee one witness talked about the issue of public student loan forgiveness. Here is that exchange. [video clip] the most glaring, perverse incentive that exists in the Financial Aid scheme is that borrowers who anticipate that they will be eligible for student loan forgiveness at the end of either 10 or 20 years, whether they are in the public or private sector, dont face an additional cost for the borrowing. I have an understanding of what might career half will be after i finish, maybe because i am in law or medicine, where earnings are relatively wellknown. I may reach a point in my borrowing, if i am at a high cost institution, where every additional dollar that i take on in debt to support my lifestyle, for instance, will very likely or will almost certainly be forgiven. In a case, i have incentive to borrow as much as i can borrow. What is the solution to this . We should consider limits on the eligibility for loan to for loan forgiveness, including idr, paid as you are, reducing those would reduce that incentive. Host if you want to watch that hearing, go to the search bar on cspan. Org and type in College Affordable it a pure it back to the forbes piece, one of the president s tellers, in his budget, would eliminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, a program created by president george w. Bush that forgives federal Student Loans for borrowers who are employed full time, more than 30 hours per week in an eligible federal, state, or local service job or 501 c 3 nonprofit job who make 120 eligible ontime payments over 10 years. This proposal would impact borrowers who borrow a new july 1, 2020, excluding borrowers completing their current course of study. So if you borrow or have borrowed a student loan prior to that date, you would presumably still be eligible for the student Loan Forgiveness Program. The potential rationale, writes forbes, saves the federal government money. The potential impact while the federal government would save money, ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program could deter student borrowers from entering Public Service jobs and could adversely affect Public Services, including members of the armed forces, firefighters, first responders, prosecutors, and public defenders, along with others. We have james on the line, in georgia. James, are you a student at a Vocational School right now . Caller no sir, good morning cspan. I am a graduate of Central Georgia Technical College down here in georgia. Host what did you study and what happened after you left . , when well, looking back president obama was elected and he was encouraging Older Americans to go back and get their degrees, my wife and i both decided to go back to school. I graduated two programs, electrical and mechanical, and and mechanical repair, i am making more money now than i ever have in my life, and actually more than 60 or 70 of the people i graduated high school with 20 years ago. Host how did you make the decision, or was it much of a decision, college versus high school . What was that time of your life like . Caller well, i am a former military man. You know, it was a lot harder to make ends meet. I knew i needed more education, tuitionew that college was just off the radar screen for me. Tech school was definitely the answer. Can ask, how much did it cost to go to tech school . Did you pay for it . Theer in georgia we have hope scholarship, which diverse some of the cost, and it was very reasonable, i would say less than 5,000. Outofpocket. Right, thanks for calling, james. We have victoria, on the line from fairborn, ohio, on the line for all others. The torilla, is College Worth the cost . Is College Worth the cost . Caller i think the price of college now has become a four to has become unaffordable for a lot of people, but it is definitely worth figuring out how we can make college more affordable for our young people. My son went to stanford university. We are on low income. He received a fulbright scholarship, all expenses paid. The cost to go to stanfords outrageous, if you were to pay for it or to get loans. But we were fortunate enough that he had the grades and was able to get accepted and get endowment money so that he can go. And he is not going to have any loans when he is finished. The benefit to that education is almost priceless and that he is going to have doors open to him that he would normally not have need to bei think we able to give that opportunity to more of our kids, but not everybody is meant to go to a four year or get a graduate school program. I think there are a lot of kids that should be going to Vocational Schools. That is where if that is where their gifts lie. We need to make it all open to kids for choices that work for them instead of just tracking all of our children into one place. As far as being able to pay for college, i think that we need to do more. Our states need to get more money. Since the Student Loan Programs were expanded, the states started to cut back their money, which made students need to take we more loans, and definitely need to do something to correct that issue. Victoria, what do you make of some of the Free College Plans that have come out by some of the president ial candidates and members of congress . Is that kind of thing realistic . Caller i think that that is what we should work towards. I think our goal should be for some state schools to be able to be free tuition for students. I dont think that all universities should be that way, but i do believe there should at for somethat cap students so they do not come out with this crippling debt. It is just crushing them and the way that the Student Loan Program works is that you will never get out from under that debt unless you have these programs that trump is talking about cutting, paying on it for 10 years and working in Public Service. We need to get people out from underneath some of this debt because it will follow you forever. Host we want to get some more calls in. We will do this for about 35 more minutes is College Worth the cost . Yes,ny writes on facebook it is worth the cost, but the cost of an Education Needs to be addressed, not the need of an education itself. Also, college has gotten up certainly expensive, writes julie. It has only been 15 years since i went and the cost of the same degree has nearly doubled, but entrylevel job salaries have not. They are the same level when i graduated from college. From facebook, not anymore. College is not worth the cost unless you are going into health care or engineering. I will encourage my children to learn a trade and never borrow Student Loans other than in very small amounts if needed. Post comments to facebook or twitter, we will go back to calls now. Frederick from port allen, louisiana. Frederick, you have gone to Vocational School, correct . Caller thats true. Host tell us your situation. Caller i am 69, but i went to basically job corps, i wanted to go to college, but i have met quite a few people who have went to college and most of them have social degrees and they come back out and go back to trade votech. I think this is great, but also, when you get out of high school moreake a trade, you have success. My flight would be if you go up learn fourschool, years of trade versus the time you have spent on the job training and the cost of college, you almost come out a lot better because the salary, but at the same time, more trade is what the country needs. Compared to trade and compared to salary, four years of college, two years of trade and two years of onthejob training, but you come out salary wise doing a lot better. I wonder why they dont put a lot of emphasis [inaudible] at the same time, you have a lot of trade experiences in whatever your trade may be. Host mike is in port charlotte, florida now, also a student at a Vocational School, or graduate. Mike, tell us about your story . Caller hi, thank you for taking my call. Thank you. I actually graduated from a trade school. I went to work i dont know, for a decade. Went back to college as an engineer, engineering degree. It was a good thing, and i realized over time that in was case, the price priceless. I cannot describe to people who dont go to school how valuable it is. Either salary wise or intellectually. My my daughter daughter is just 18 now. I had a daughter late in life. She is going back and she has a mind, her dream of what she wants to do. That is what you need to do. You need to have a goal. You cant go to college to think you will get smart. Also, going to school is simply getting getting education is simply a good thing for the sake of getting education, to see both sides. In this society, we have to learn to work. We cant just sit around and think about stuff. You have to learn to work. I agree with the last caller that was talking you have to learn to work, and this society, to make other people money. That is how you make money. It is as simple as that. I cant emphasize that. Host mike, thank you for your participation in the program. Taylor writes on facebook, the question is whether college is worth the cost. It depends on your major and its relevance to the current job market. Sandy writes yes. Started with a twoyear tech degree, worked full time and got a fouryear tech degree paid for by employer. Now comfortably retired. But you have to make good decisions along the way. U. S. News posted this article about the 10 College Majors with the rest starting salad the best starting salaries. This is college, not necessarily law, medical, or business school. Most of them are in the engineering field. It down from 10 to 1 mechanical engineers, earning 65,000,000 dollars median salary. Materials engineering on the list of the top 10 paying College Majors. Aerospacegineering, engineering. Electrical engineering, median starting salary, 69,000 dollars. Computer engineering, 70 thousand dollars. Chemical engineering, 72,000 a year. Nuclear engineering, medium starting pay 73,000 plus. And number one is petroleum engineering, 97,000 plus dollars, just under 100,000 as the median starting salary. That is the u. S. News world report. Ray is calling from clinton, pa go ahead, ray. Caller good morning. The cost of college you just mentioned one area where the cost is worth it. There are a lot of kids going to school, getting these sociologist degrees, but lets look at the cost why it costs so much. I was listening to a Radio Program a couple years ago in pittsburgh, and they had a guy on there who did a study listen to this, this will make your head spin around. I dont think you or anybody else knows these facts. Theent and looked at retirements for College Professors. He did not give up the names, but he found in Penn State University, a big university, one of the professors retired was making 438,000 a year. Another one was making 423,000 a year. Another 1, 300 83,000 a year , after,000 a year retirement. The president does not even make that after he leaves. This is ridiculous, i dont know who sets these retirements u p, but it is being controlled by ponzi scheme ors. Do you know how many kids, how many tuitions, just to support one . How many College Professors are retired across this countrys from bigger universities . That is what you ought to do, do an indepth study i bet a lot of your audience out here, most of them, were unaware of this, of what these people are making. This is public information, but we never talk about the cost. That is the cost. I dont know how you can justify 438,000 a year. Host you mentioned the public inool and a private school your remarks. Is there any difference, in your opinion, on what those professors should be making . Guest privates caller private school, sure. You have to have the money to go to private school. But the cost is paying these people least salaries, and is it worth it . Thanks for calling. Thomases in pennsylvania as well, northeast pennsylvania. You want to talk about student debt, thomas. Correct . Yes, i do. Thank you for taking my call. I have two daughters that both graduated from college, and the problem they had was not so much the money was ridiculous, but there are four or five different colleges close to where i live, and their friends and then included could not find any jobs. They could not get any jobs. My wife, who is a bachelors degree in hers, went and bachelors degree nurse, went and got her masters degree. That step was 40,000. I did 49 not 49, 39 years in a trade that was a National Plumbers and pipefitters trade, and i never had a problem having a job. I could work anywhere in the world. Our apprenticeship was five years, not 2, 3, or a couple of months, and the skill level is very high. It is not that hard to get into. Along with the electricians and the rest of it, but the point that i am making, the college cost is ridiculous. With the cost as high as it is and then having the problem a lot of my childrens friends are moving to bigger towns pittsburgh, cleveland, buffalo, because there are no jobs right here for whatever their degree was in. And i have been really struggling paying both Daughters College and my wife is taking care of her own, but the whole thing, in my opinion, the traits, they cant get enough people. There are big jobs going down near the pittsburgh area, 1200 construction workers down there, and they need that many more. I have a soninlaw down there working, and they are making very good money, but they are working outside all day long. None of them are sissies. With the refineries and everything that is going on in this world, they cant get the trained people and these kids dont want to do that. They just wants to go to college and play and have fun and let their parents pay for it. Host thomas, thank you for calling in. Here is there a voice of german lamar alexander, leaving congress after his turn is up, one of the ones hoping to get an update on the Higher Education act after more than a decade. Act in february, he spoke at the American Enterprise institute about his Higher Education reform proposal, including what he calls a new accountability system for institutions. Take a look. [video clip] accountability system would measure whether students are actually paying off their loans. The students who attend that college. The proposal would simplify and expand the socalled gainful employment rule, proposed in 2014 by the u. S. Department of education. What is different about this proposal is that it would apply to every program and it would apply to every college. Public, private, and nonprofit. The major would be much simpler. This wouldograms, provide college with an incentive to lower tuition and help their students finish their degrees and find jobs so they could repay their loans. Senator lamar alexander. Following up on the education scandal that broke this past week, the wall street journal has this headline admissions scandal is drawing scrutiny here in d. C. They write among the matters drawing washingtons attention are the taxdeductible statuses of donations to schools and the binding early decisions admission. Critics say the donations give wealthy donors an unfair advantage at admissions and say binding Early Education policies require that applicants attend a school and is excepted early, depriving students of a chance to weigh different Financial Aid offers and benefiting those who can afford to pay full tuition. You can imagine we will see more in this area and congress. The New York Times has this headline this saturday morning after admissions scandal, student shocked and fury. There is a picture of Trumbull College at yale university, and the cut line says students across campus embroiled in the scandal railed against privilege and greed. But they write that rarely is there a single conversation that dominates the College Campuses of america. A backandforth that extends from palo alto to winstonsalem and new haven to los angeles. There was one this week, writes the times, and classrooms and dining halls, a similar sense of astonishment. How could they . Believe it . United by an admissions scandal that has touched so many of their campuses, students seized in unison. They railed against privilege and greed, they worried that their diplomas might have been tarnished even before they have been handed them on stage, writes the New York Times. They go around to various with students,ak getting their reactions to what happened this past week. Norfolk,lling from virginia, another Vocational School student. Dan, welcome to the program. Hi, thank you for accepting my call. Good morning. I am a Technical School graduate. Initially andege i just couldnt cut it. And i went to a Technical School. I went to a page technical technical paid school, which incorporated two years of academics with the training. It was excellent. However, it did not lend me the flexibility of my career transferring to other industries when our industry had downturns. So i felt kind of stuck. I decided toort, educate my children privately. Finish highout to and i once saw a Bumper Sticker when i was a young man, 20 years old, that said if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. I think that there is no doubt that education is worth the money. However, i think it is disingenuous the way the paying for education is, the industry gets to get the benefits of the labor but the labor does not get but the laborer does not get the benefit of being able to transfer his skills, meaning his skills are so specific to the industry that they dont transfer. So i think that somehow, even with apprenticeships, that they all must incorporate some level of education, associate degree or Something Like that. Host dan, thanks for weighing in. William is in cleveland, on the line for all others. Is College Worth the cost these days . Caller i believe that college there arehe cost, but things i have to explain to you with regard to how it applies for persons with only a general education diploma and things of that nature. I myself had some College Credits through a community college, which i thought would be transferable or whatever. I had left my employment and went into active service. I had a ged. You know, i thought that was fine. I was not offered by my recruiters or anybody any kind of additional educational benefits or anything. So i find myself in basic training, and i am in basic training with gentlemen, some who had a little bit of college already, out of Penn State University and things of that nature, and they wanted to further their education. Upon our graduation from basic training, these gentlemen in 5,000ontracts, they had for completing basic training because they have high school diplomas. I got nothing. A pat on the back and my certificate of completion and graduation and a highend military unit. So during the course of my military time, they offered what they called the better educational savings program. Talking with some of my friends who got those big checks, now they have cars and this kind of additional,also had in their contracts, one character had something to the 248,000 to go back to uponState University with his completion of his military service. Intostarted putting money the veterans Educational Assistance program. I built up a little bit of money, ok . A majorfather had coronary and my parents are struggling to pay their mortgage and we ended up having to take all the money that i put into i putand i only got what in, because the other two thirds that the government offered, they keep that. So i sent the money home. It is time for me to come out of active Duty Military Service from what i was doing, and i was offered a position, but i had no car and no job, no guaranteed job or anything. I am offered a special services ohio,zation in ashland, which i was not familiar with where it was. Not having any car coming home, not really having any serious job prospects, my mother started sending me things through the mail. I started filling them out, job applications, this, that, and the other. At the tail end of my active duty service, the recruiter says well, we can give you this year and fulltime reserve in the special forces group. Host thank you for that background. What does that mean moving forward . Caller what it boils down to is this. I ended up signing in the contract and agreement with the Ohio National guard unit. At least i would have some kind of job when i came home. When i came home, because it was close enough for me to get to by bus when i came home, i submitted my paperwork, but part of my contract was that i could only attend a State University. The nearest State University was cleveland state, and they would not allow Technical Schools, no community college, no nothing. Host william, thank you for sharing your situation. I want to get more calls in. We are down to 15 minutes left for this segment. We are asking about whether college is worth cost. Of course, including the mass shooting in new zealand, there is a lot of other news out there. The Washington Post headline, 49 shot dead at social meeting at new Zealand Mosques. The massacre stones new zealand they talk about social media, social sites failed to block attack video in the wall street journal. Here is a piece in the New York Times this morning with heavy hearts, american muslims answer calls to prayer. We take a look at some of the photos that are part of this piece while we read some of this piece muslims in cities across the United States now walked past heavily Armed Police Officers to attend services on friday. Hours after the gunmen killed at least 49 people, two mosques in new zealand, they poured over news reports with a mixture of grief and discussed, feeling familiar fears of being targeted for their religious beliefs. Throughout the 10th day yesterday, Law Enforcement and political leaders promised muslims they would be protected for friday prayer, the very same things the victims had been doing when they died. The pictures are there in the wall street journal. There is an editorial piece, an editorial in the Financial Times today that the rise of the far right has been ignored for too long. The Financial Times writes that this way, halting the resurgence of the radical right will take action by multiple parties. Those politicians who trade in as llama phobia, bigotry, tacit or explicit, must move beyond proffering condolences, stop pandering to extremists. Big tech should better support modernization and support algorithms do not aid the radical right. All Tech Companies, which have all too often used free speech arguments as a Carte Blanche to carry extremist content, may require regulation. That is according to the Financial Times. We will take your questions, or your comments at about 8 30 this morning on the story out of new zealand, and whether the far right has been ignored for too long, as the Financial Times says in its headline for the editorial today. There is also President Trump, who vetoed the resolution that blocks the Emergency Declaration at the border. That is setting up a veto override attempt the week after next, but here is what the president had to say about it yesterday. [video clip] President Trump yesterday, Congress Passed a dangerous resolution that if signed into law, would put countless americans in danger, grave danger. The democrat sponsored resolution would terminate vital Border Security operations by revoking the National Emergency issued last month. It is definitely a National Emergency. Rarely have we had such a National Emergency. Therefore, to defend the safety and security of all americans, i will be signing and issuing a formal veto of this reckless resolution, and thats what it was, and i have to in particular strong,epublicans runner full people strong, on the side ofe Border Security and on the side of doing what we have to do to keep our nation safe. They were very courageous yesterday and i appreciate that very much. Congress voted to deny the crisis on the southern border, a vote against reality, against reality. It is a tremendous National Emergency, it is a tremendous crisis. The key date is tuesday, march 26, when democrats are preparing the next steps after the president s veto. This is the story in the hill on all of this Speaker Pelosi made the announcement yesterday. Immigrants are planning about that aims to override the veto, and a two thirds vote would be needed to block the Emergency Declaration. They point out its an effort that is all but certain to fail, but they will hold this vote on the 26th on a shortly after lawmakers are back from a recess. It is unlikely to garner the necessary two thirds, given only 13 House Republicans joined with democrats in support of the resolution last month to block the declaration. They point out in the hill that even if they cant force trump it, democrats are hoping to highlight the constitutional questions surrounding the declaration and infighting prompted within the gop. The hillsd that at website. Congress is gone for a weeklong long break. Both bodies are out. The are backed the week of 25th for this veto override vote, then work on disaster aid. The senate also plans to take a vote, we think the week of the 25th on the green new deal. It is not a legislative vote itself, but it is a procedural vote on whether the green new deal, as it is called, should be pursued. You can watch the house on cspan, the senate on cspan two. David from hartford connecticut, you are calling about debt, right . Yes sir, i have 30,000 accumulated in student loan debt. Thanks for cspan. I changed my mind about the issue since my first semester at james madison. I was upset and surprised that i needed loans to attend college. I left after my freshman year, but exposure to civic organizations created a lifelong bond of friendship there. That being said, i returned later and attended a college for paralegal studies. I would call it definitely worthwhile. Host so you are paying the debt now. Caller yes sir. I have been accommodated for now. I am not actively making payments, but i do have to pay. Host what else would you tell young folks and their families, their parents when it comes time to decide on that price tag and sign a piece of paper, alone paper regarding debt . What should they be thinking . Caller i think the answer to that is that landing the dream job right out of school is entirely possible, and that is my honest answer. Well, it is good to sit down and talk things over ahead of time i was surprised. I thought the money was in the bank. It is in the bank, but you need to sign for that time. Host thanks for calling, david. We mentioned the top salaries for College Majors in u. S. News. Ofe is u. S. News list majors with the lowest starting salaries. Biblical studies, median starting salary, 38 housing dollars. Animal science, about 38,000. Parks, recreation, and leisure studies, 38,000. Education, 38,000 as well. They keep going on to gerund 37,700. 700 theological and ministerial studies, 36,007 hundred dollars. Ial work, 36,000 400 36,000. Work and family studies, 35,000, just under 36,000. Childs development in psychology, median starting 54,000. You can see higher, mostly engineering, and lower here. Lets go to randall. Randall is in oklahoma city. Hi there. Hi, i am working in Cyber Security and it is one of the best Technical Schools in the United States. I started college 41 years ago and it was literally 400 a year, tuition and books. Books were 12. The fee were five dollars a year, plus a 10 parking ticket. It was worth it then. It is certainly not worth it best windeve got the in the world in oklahoma, and a nine week program which costs about 650, you can get a job being a windmill technician, a turbine technician. Pays 45,000 a year. You can work all you want because there is not enough. Anyway, 5,000, two years, and you could do that in high school , a lot of those things you can do it in high school. You could graduate high school and become a machinist when you are 18. So technical is the way to go. 41 years ago, college was so cheap it had to be college, but anyway keep up the great work. Steele host thanks host thanks for calling, randall. Joyce is calling on the line for all others. Theollege worth the cost at cost . Caller yes, i am on the phone. Host do you think college is worth the cost . Caller i think education is worth going to college, because that is how you put on your resume. But the cost . No. There is so much stress involved. I have a daughter that has been paying on her colleges tuition for 10 years now, and some of those quotes about the low income, she finally went into teaching because it was in but she missed payments, and if you miss any payments, it bumps you out. You cant buy a house, you have that credit. One of the callers you have bad credit. These loans follow you pretty much for your lifetime. And then they are talking about the Vocational Schools i think also that i am an older woman, i own a home, and i have had to remodel my home over the years because i have been here for 35 years. Theye that come in now, dont have the jobs [inaudible] for technical, some of them, because of the fact that a lot contractor, he is these out vocationally in Technical Schools, but they are hiring low wages that are not coming out. And they are learning on your home. So i have a gray area about tech and Vocational Schools. Host joyce, thank you for sharing your thoughts. We will get a couple more calls in. A couple more stories about college. New york post, the college scam , some fakes the ethnicity of students according to documents. They are talking about William Rick Singer here. He said he wouldnt just take ater polo skills, he could also fake your kids race. Some of the details, little reported details so far from his guilty plea include how he would entrance load up essays to fake references to awards and extracurriculars, but in a scheme reminiscent of the 1986 comedy flick soul man, he led officials to believe that some students were worthy of affirmative action priority, even when they were not. He was guilty of lying about students ethnicities and other informations in order to take other information in order to take benefit from affirmative action and other programs. Thiss in the New York Post morning. The New York Times writes about one more college edge no need to pay bribes, for the rich, merely paying full tuition can open the door. There is another edge at many prestigious private colleges and universities that is not readily apparent, and it is open to those who are even merely upper middle class. If you can pay four years of tuition, room, and board, up to 300,000 without needing Financial Aid schools dont talk about this much. Its not a great look, at least at first glance, and it runs the risk of scaring lower income applicants away from applying. Still, savvy guidance counselors, private consultants know all about this advantage, one that is available at most private schools across the country, including selected institutions. The New York Times there. Maine . Ate in hello, where you calling from . Caller im calling from york, maine. Host oh, ok. Tell us your name . Caller my name is beanie. Host thank you for calling, beanie. What are your thoughts . Caller well, i graduated from high school and i was tracked back in the day, and i was tracked to go to college. So i went to college, and i had a National Student defense lo an. When i graduated college, each year i taught school. My loan was cut in half. After teaching for maybe four or five years, i did not owe couldy any money, and i do whatever i wanted to do, and of course i got my masters and my specialist degree, and went on to teach overseas, and i had a wonderful, wonderful career. I think we have to revamp the educational system, and give all experiencechance to education, because education is paramount for the survival, really, of our whole universe. We need to educate our children, and we need to track our children. From the time they enter kindergarten. We dont do that, and we dont guide them into career paths anymore that will help them earn a living. That is all i have to say. Host thank you for calling. Harry is on the line from georgia. Harry, you went to Vocational School . Went tono, actually i the university of new mexico, 1971i started. 445 dollars a semester. 500 a month rent. Tell us more about your story and whether you think college is worth the cost to today . The cost caller it is insane today. I was paying instate tuition, and had to live in the state for a year before i started. My daughter went through the university of North Carolina, and she had to live in the state for a year and work before she had instate tuition. Went through four years well, she did her first year at Georgia State under the hope grant, but went three years in the university of North Carolina in wilmington, and i think i spent less than 5,000 or 6,000 altogether. That was in the late 1990s. 1990s. 300,000 to goay through a State University is insanity. 300,000, you could put that in the stock market and live the rest of your life off of it. It is just absolute insanity. Host last call, charles from norfolk, connecticut. You want to talk about student debt. Caller student debt. I am curious as to why student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy. It would seem to be an unsecured debt, secured by education, which we all agree takes a variety of forms. Credit card debt, which is also unsecured, is discharged in bankruptcy. Im wondering why student that is not. Host thank you. Streetin in the wall in the past writes decade or so, i have observed a particular parenting style growing among the uppermiddleclass and wealthy. It is intense. They love their kids and want the best for them. There is a degree to which one wonders if they dont see them as narcissistic extensions of themselves. They are hyper attentive, providing meticulous academic grooming, private tutors and coaches. They dont want their children fat, by which they mean not attractive. They communicate the best opinions of civilized people. They aim their children at the best colleges, which are to them delete brands. Colleges market themselves that way. We are harvard. Branded,nd you are too. Creatingstatus monkeys success robots. Thank you for calling in this first hour of the saturday edition of washington journal. We will take a quick break. When we come back, we will get to our guest segments. We will talk first to Robert Dunham about the Death Penalty in the United States following Governor Newsoms moratorium on the Death Penalty and california. Later, the discussion on something known as the wealth tax. We will talk to Mark Trumbull of the Christian Science monitor kudlow Christian Science monitor. Larry kudlow, the relationship between boeing and why United States reacted to the if the above airlines crash. Maybe they should have moved more quickly . I happen to be sitting in on the phone call between the president and the head of boeing. I dont know if you have ever potuse experience of a crossexamination. I am in and out all the time doing policy stuff. You better be ready. He had a lot of tough questions for boeing. I am not going to go to the details of private conversation. , i fact that we waited today read anything into that. The decision was made over at department of transportation. Secretary elaine chao working with the faa. Were still trying to find the black box. We had some trouble with the ethiopians. They wanted to go to a third party. It will get squared away. We will learn many more facts. It has nothing to do with commercial considerations as far as were concerned and everything to do with safety considerations. I would not read anything into that. Do you think it will take a long time for them to sort out whether these airplanes are safe . Is it safe to get on one . Will it be fixed in a couple days . I cannot answer that. I am not an expert in that. I am not directly involved in that. Faacan be sure that dot and will not reopen the boeing route until we are 100 satisfied with safety. From what i understand, boeing has come forward to make adjustments in flight plans and software and pilot training. I am not blaming. A narrative. Ou they will not be back on the runways until we are 100 satisfied they are safe. Washington journal continues. Host at the table is Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you for having me. Host what is the Death Penalty Information Center . Guest it is a National Nonprofit organization. We provide information and analysis on Death Penalty issues. We dont take a position for or against the Death Penalty itself. Host one story that got her attention recently is this headline, governor kevin newsom from california has suspended the Death Penalty. What is going on . Guest california has the largest death row. They have not executed anybody in a decade. There have been a lot of voter referenda to figure out what is going to happen. The governor was faced with the decision. He was being asked to approve a Death Penalty protocol, the manner by which people get executed. He went from having an intellectual issue to an emotional issue. Am i going to preside over the executions of 25 people whose appeals have been exhausted . Host lets go to Governor Nixon. [video clip] opportunity inhe that spirit to reflect on the Death Penalty, on its purpose and the passion that arises when we debate the issue. I had the opportunity over the course of years to listen to people on all sides of the aisle , visited san quentin, met on death row a young man that i went to high school with. He said, the remember me . The warden says he is a pretty good kid, but he killed his mom. Understand the racial disparity, five year mandatory minimum for crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Sense of the many disparities in our criminal justice system. Andve heard from experts have laid claim to what i think is a Fair Assessment of our criminal justice system, which is it is a lot better to be rich and guilty then poor and innocent. Host what is next . What does the public think about this in california . Next is the key issue. We dont know. If it is just a cause, it is largely pause, it is largely symbolic. We know that the 25 people whose appeals are exhausted are not going to be executed as long as wsom isr knew some nes in office. Remove thelity to Death Penalty and sentenced to to lifeeople without parole. The governor would support an amendment that would do away with the Death Penalty in the state. Host Robert Dunham is the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. If you support the Death Penalty, call 202 7488000. Is 202 pose it, it 7488001. Lets move away from california for a minute. What other states around the country have been most active in changing the way they deal with the Death Penalty . Guest there is a lot going on right now. New hampshire just pass the bill sed awould abolish pas bill that would abolish the Death Penalty. They just passed a bill to remove the Death Penalty with a veto proof majority. New hampshire may abolish. There may be abolition in colorado. Theington state declared Death Penalty unconstitutional last october. In oregon, they are looking to redefine capital murder so that it only defines to acts of terrorism that result in more than one murder and takes everyone off of death row that is currently on death row. Host the number of executions since 1976, just under 1500. Peaked around 1999 with around 99 executions. It has consistently gone down to about 25 last year. Why has it gone down so much . And are individual states governors and legislatures deciding about the Death Penalty . These are the execution numbers. That is a lagging indicator. New debt sentences have fallen even more. The fear of crime is not as great as it was in the 1990s when we had the false myth about super predators. Murders have dropped by 30 . Executions have dropped by 75 . New sentence is have dropped by 80 . 184 people who have been exonerated after being wrongly convicted to death. Folks have become more aware of how frail some of the evidence is that people have been sentenced on. Dna, which is available in very cases, all the other evidence was wrong. There is no reason to believe that evidence was any more reliable. Host that is part of what Governor Newsom said. He says if he were to sign these executions, he would be executing people he knows are not guilty for one reason or another they would find out later. Lets go to our phones, an opponent of the Death Penalty. You are on with Robert Dunham. Caller my name is kim. Theard you guys express beingpenalty is actually i just oppose it. I oppose the Death Penalty because sometimes there have been many individuals that have been incarcerated under the Death Penalty and have been sentenced to death but have been innocent. You could beeve taking innocent lives, and i think i heard you guys expressing their been many executedat have been and have been innocent. Why iare my reasons oppose the Death Penalty. Host thank you. Guest philadelphia is an interesting place to look at with the Death Penalty. Philadelphia has the Third Largest death row in the United States. In 2001, more africanamericans were sentenced to death in philadelphia than in any other city or county in the u. S. Sincee been tracking this 2001. Debt sentences have dropped precipitously, down to fewer than one per year. General ranattorney for office saying he would not seek the Death Penalty. The city of philadelphia have no capital prosecutions last year. Host we talked about california, in purple there. Pennsylvania, 160. Florida 353. Alabama 185. Texas 232. Guest one of the things that is really interesting about what gavin newsom did is not just the largest death row and executions are suspended, but two of the five largest Death Penalty states in the country have moratoriums. When you have the largest practitioners of a policy abandoning it, that tells you there is something wrong with it. It gives the states an opportunity to step back and take a breath that examine the policy more carefully when they are not under the threat of imminent executions. In pennsylvania, there was a commission that just issued a report that essentially validated all the criticisms, saying the Death Penalty system is badly broken. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is now considering a case. They asked for briefing in a case that has the potential to declare the Death Penalty in that state unconstitutional. Host go ahead john. Caller good morning, cspan. I believe in the Death Penalty because i believe the Death Penalty puts fear in people that might commit a crime, and they wont because they dont want to be executed. If we keep these people in prison for all these years, the taxpayer ends up paying this horrendous amount of money supporting a killer to rot in jail. There is no redemption. Host thank you for calling. To specific points. Speak first about his point of this putting fear in wouldbe criminals mines. John, your reasons for supporting the Death Penalty are classic reasons. What is interesting is they are both mythical. The question of deterrence, there is no evidence that the Death Penalty deters. We did a 31 year study. We took a look at homicide rates across the United States for the past 31 years. We wanted to find out does the Death Penalty make police safer . If it does, it is a useful Public Policy 20. What we found is that tool. What we found is that murder rates are higher in states that have the Death Penalty. The rates at which Police Officers are killed is higher in states that have the Death Penalty. Then we look at trends. Maybe there is Something Special about states individually. The trends were the same. When murder rates went up in the u. S. , they went up in Death Penalty and nonDeath Penalty states. The Death Penalty has no effect on murder rates. Host what about cost . How much it costs to keep somebody alive. Think the Death Penalty would be cheaper. It is not. Every study shows a system of justice that has Capital Punishment is far more expensive because the cost of the Death Penalty is not just the cost of an individual execution. It is the cost of all the cases in which the Death Penalty is pursued not returned, in which the Death Penalty is returned but overturned. The single most likely outcome of the capital case in the u. S. Is not that he gets carried out. Fewer than one in six get carried out. The single most likely outcome is that the Death Penalty is overturned. Host michael is on the line. An opponent of the Death Penalty. You are on with Robert Dunham. Caller good morning, sir. Host what would you like to say . Caller i oppose the Death Penalty because to rights dont make the wrong. Be innocent of the crimes. Know, i just oppose it. Host anything you want to respond to . Yes, do two wrongs make a right . I think everyone agrees the answer to that is no. One of the overlooked questions in terms of alternatives to capital is there a way of carrying out punishment so that you dont have a second wrong . We have a natural experiment the u. S. 20 states dont have the Death Penalty. 30 states do. The 20 states that dont have the Death Penalty dont seem to have substantially worse problem with Law Enforcement. That is an interesting issue. Hadhe olden days, we gruesome methods of execution, firing squad, hanging, electric chair. In the 1970s, we saw the movement to lethal injection, which was supposed to be much more humane. As time has gone on the pharmaceutical companies have said they dont want their medicines used to kill prisoners, states have had difficulty in obtaining execution drugs. They have been using inappropriate drugs. Those executions have been described as torturers recently. Described fusion as akin to waterboarding followed by exposing the prisoner to chemical fire. What do you do with her method is torturous . Some states have gone back to other methods. Utah is back to the iron squad. Tennessee the electric chair. Oklahoma, mississippi, alabama adopting a gasp nitrogen gas. Host good morning, richard. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I missed the beginning of the show. If i Say Something factually incorrect, you can correct me. I understand the voters of california had the chance to overturn the Death Penalty. They did not do it. This is Governor Nixon imposing wsom imposing his view on the voters. Just to a process of reviewing those cases rather than stopping executions altogether. Killer, issens remember how awful he was to his father. Do you want to tell the man that killed his daughter did not deserve to die . Guest there are three interesting points. Did the governor to find the will of public to five the will of defy the will of the public . California, the repealrejected referenda the Death Penalty in 2012 and 16, narrowly. Adopted reforms to speed up the review process. That is not worked. Withnor newsom was elected one million more votes than was voted to speed up the appellant process. The situation on the ground has changed. When people voted for governor they knew this position on the Death Penalty. The people of california will sort out if they think that is appropriate or not. Does whatson we elect he said he would do, i think it is hard to say that is defying the will of the people. On the question of individual justice, i think there are a number of people on death row that most people who support the Death Penalty in principle would say want to be executed. The problem with Capital Punishment is not that it can be justified in individual cases. The problem with Capital Punishment is it is a policy. It is something you have to be able to get right over and over again. We dont. That is the problem. You see with all the generations, and virtually all of these cases, these prisoners who did not commit the offense appealed their convictions and were told by the appeals courts there is overwhelming evidence of your guilt. If you look at the record at trial, you would think everyone of these prisoners did it. Unfortunately, the legal system has been very poor at being able to differentiate the two in the ones who did it and the ones who did not. What families of murder victims have to say about newsoms moratorium. Her and lighting her body on fire in front of her children. I said, are you kidding me . I was angry. I have to live with this every day of my life. Theres one question i would ask the governor, what if this was his daughter who was brutally murdered . Guest there are a lot of horrible crimes. That people are unimaginable. S the sad reality is that the Death Penalty further victimizes surviving family members. Has you have a system that ,ppeals that go on for 30 years and 30 years are necessary. Most people that have been exonerated are not exonerated for decades. If you curtail the appeals process, you are more likely to execute innocent people. It reopens the worms every time. It is wounds every time. It is one reason more victims family members are opposing Capital Punishment. They dont want to be subjected to this process over and over. There is a myth that the Death Penalty will give these families closure. In fact, that does not happen or happens rarely. You have to feel deeply. In thenot put yourself shoes of people who have suffered terrible loss, but the Death Penalty has not been good for families of victims. Mr. Er i would like to have what, davis or durham host donna. Caller answer the question, twice california voters voted to keep it. Come in anddictator override the votes . That is my first question. Hasnd, how many rape kits california not done . They dont do their job. What they are trying to do is save money, and it is just like the illegal aliens. Lets not do for them. Lets not do anything about it. Lets let them all out. This is becoming ridiculous. He doesnt show any statistics. He talks about 30 states, 20 states. What are the stats . You want to talk about brutalizing the victims. It istime it comes up, brutalizing the victim because they did not get death because their family can never see another individual again . They deserve to live . This is ridiculous, crazy. Againstwsom is going the will of the people. This is not constitutional. That is in the california constitution. My correct . Host thank you. Guest you are not correct. The governor has the power to issue reprise. That is the constitutional power afforded to him. Far from being dictatorial, he was elected with more than 7 million votes, one million more votes than proposition 76 received. History changes over time. Public views change over time. The public support of the Death Penalty, while a majority of americans if you ask the abstract question do you support the Death Penalty was say they support the Death Penalty, if you ask the policy question, what is the appropriate punishment for firstdegree murder, more californians say life without parole is a more appropriate punishment. Host you oppose the Death Penalty. Tell us what is going on in your state. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Example. N obvious whatever crimes the person has committed can be a reason we and someones life for whatever need. The solution is not to kill them. Societies. Rove our thank you. Interesteds actually in talking about what is happening in ohio. Couldi want first if you address what she said. Then we can speak about ohio. Guest on the question of what the appropriate statesent is for murder, that have life without parole is the most harsh punishment dont have higher rates of murder or recidivism that states that have than states that the Death Penalty. Countries that dont have the Death Penalty dont have were smarter problems worse murder problems than the United States does. You may want to have a Death Penalty, but if you are going to have it it is not for costsaving, making the public saver. It does not do that. Ohio, ohio is one of the few states in the u. S. That has carried out executions in recent years. It has had a lot of problems. T had one botched execution it had a second botched execution where a man who was terminally ill was scheduled to be executed, and the executioners are not find an execution vein. He died of natural causes. There was a federal judge who said executions are akin to torture. General took a look at what was happening and said we are not going to turn for people to death under my desk torture people to death under my watch. He has been granting reprieves. Ohio has executions scheduled through 2022. It looks like most of these executions will not take place until the governor is satisfied that they have a method that is not torture. Host kirk, go ahead. Yes, do people that were shot and killed or run over, do they have time to say goodbye to their family for the next 30 years . Guest i think that is a rhetorical question. The answer to that is obviously no. That is the case whether someone gets sentenced to death or sentenced to life. Host we have been talking about the states. What should we know about the federal Death Penalty . We think of the Death Penalty, and many think of it as a national policy. People on0 2700 death row, only 62 are on federal death row. 2 of the Death Penalty in the u. S. Many people think of it as being reserved for acts of terrorism. Rowpeople on federal death have committed offenses that are typically punished by state law. It is a must a lottery who on federal death row, the federal government prosecutes for capital murder. You can understand it if it was a crime committed on federal land or in acts of terrorism, but what we see a lot is just using things like the interstate Commerce Clause is the justification for seeking the Death Penalty because the crime involved a bank or the use of the weapon that was purchased in interstate commerce. Host there is a Supreme Court case coming soon on the Death Penalty. Guest yes. It is flowers versus mississippi. This is a case in which curtis flowers, an africanamerican man in mississippi, has been tried six times by the same prosecutor for a quadruple murder. The community is split whether he committed the offense or not. The white residents almost universally believe he did it. The black residents almost universally believe he did not. It is a divisive case. Prosecutor doug evans has struck almost every africanamerican juror in these trials. The only time in which he did or 11ve an all white jury whites and one black have resulted in mistrial. The question is whether the prosecutor has engaged in race discrimination. His office was 4. 5 times more likely to strike a jerk who was black than major who was low white was white. Host good morning. Caller i am actually from new york. My question is whether or not you are aware of the conditions of confinement for those on death row. I am aware there have been court cases about those on death row who are in solitary confinement and very harsh conditions. I have read about other states who have those on death row who actually have not so severe or restrictive conditions. I am curious to what extent you are aware to the conditions of confinement for those on death row and how they differ among the states. Guest the answer is they differ among the states. There is no such thing as the death row per se. Differentlyreated in different states. Typically the people on death row are in what is called administrative segregation. Solitary euphemism for confinement. Typically, you are looking at somebody in a six foot by eight foot cell, about the size of a parking space. 22 tore in that cell for 23 hours per day. They can come out of the yard for an hour. Maybe they can go to the law library. Some states you have no contact visits with family members. Everything is done through glass. Others, you have personal contact with family members. There have been lawsuits filed in a number of states saying it is cruel and unusual punishment. The outcomes of those have differed from state to state. The general mood will be away from harsh solitary confinement. Matter, itectional makes things worse. Solitary confinement will drive you crazy. With the majority of cases being overturned, it may pose a have futureazard in the for those that will be turned over to general population or in the case of people that may well be released into society. Robertur guest is dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Hpenalty. Org is the website. Guest thank you for having me. Host the Financial Times writes that the rise of the far right has been ignored for too long. Extremists today are tech savvy and emboldened by popular leaders. If you agree with what the Financial Times is saying, that the far right has been ignored for too long, call 202 7488000. If you disagree, 202 7488001. We will be right back. Watch American History tv live this morning starting at 9 00 eastern from historic ford forter in washington, d. C. , the Abraham Lincoln symposium. It brings together lincoln scholars to highlight the 15th president s life, career, and legacy. Lincoln and the natural environment. Sense of humor. How lincoln was remembered in new deal america. Lincolns relationship with abolitionist frederick douglass. Lincoln as president elect. Tv thiserican history weekend on cspan3. Q a. Y on tragically, i had no expectation that we would be sitting here in 2019 talking ,bout this war in afghanistan the way it has been escalated, the way it has escalated every year, the countless lives that have been wasted and the continuous suffering. Iraq war veteran and state Department Official matthew hope on his article, time for peace in afghanistan. The same as i had seen in 2005, 2006 andd 2007. I work in the state department. There was no difference in the administrations. Their desire was to win politically, for domestic political reasons. Everything else was secondary. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on q a. Washington journal continues. Host here is one of the many headlines on the mass killing in new zealand. Financial times weekend, gunman kills 49 in new zealand. An australian has been charged over the mosque attack. 2011 killing in norway. If you go to the editorial page, they have this opinion, the rise of the far right has been ignored for too long. Halting the insurgents of the radical right will take action by multiple parties. Those politicians that trade in islamophobia or bigotry must move beyond proffering condolences. Extremists. Ng to all Tech Companies that have often used freespeech arguments for Carte Blanche to carry extremists content may require regulation. Cannotditional media allow the drive for clicks to harm of the potential giving terrorists the attention they crave. Another headline about President Trump. Washington post, White Nationalism is not the rising threat. This is according to the president. He was asked about that yesterday at his veto signing event at the white house. [video clip] is White Nationalism rising threat around the world . I dont really. I think it is a small group of people that have serious problems. If you look at what happened in new zealand, i dont know enough about it yet. They are just learning about the people involved. This is certainly a terrible thing. Zzzzzzzzz host lets get a call from tony, santa fe. You agree with what the president said. Caller wholeheartedly. M also a prolific pro lincolnist, who agrees with divided speech. It will be all one way or the other. Either people will be secure in the knowledge that slavery is on the brink of extinction, or it will go the other way. We had the civil war over this stuff. These are attitudes of the slaveowners back in the day and the nationalists. I dont care if it is a White Nationalist or religious nationalist or whatever kind of nationalism. We live in a democracy, a republic democracy. We have a president who is unfit for office. He is unfit. He keeps saying for the american people. How about the children and their future . How can you be for the people when you continue to allow more poison to be put in our air, water, and food supply . This is basic. It is not the economy, stupid. It is stupidity. The point. T we want to get another voice, josh from connecticut. You disagree with what the Financial Times is saying. They are saying the rise of the far right has been ignored for too long. Right they are using far as a euphemism for republican. We know what that means. If anyone cared to actually read hello . Yes, actually if anyone cared to read the manifesto them and he was more of an ego terrorist who thought immigrants were over populating the earth. If anyone is going to comment, i suggest they read it first so they know what they are talking about. Host more from the Washington Post. Not write that, said he had that donald trump said here not seeing the manifesto. Response divided heavily along partisan lines. Many republicans deemphasized the role of White Nationalist ideology. Some democrats suggested directly or indirectly that Donald Trumps history of antimuslim remarks contributed. Here is Kirsten Gillibrand of new york, seeking to challenge donald trump in 2020. Time and time again, this president has embraced and emboldened White Nationalists. This is not acceptable. Jim in brownsville. Caller good morning. Rhetoric ofn to the this administration and listen to what that young man said why he did it, and then you go back shole that this administration called the , i know you have yet, whyto the plane did it take so long to respond to it when the rest of the world did right away . Planes for lesser reasons. We, the leader of the world, should be we are no longer the leader of the world. I think that is obvious. What other countries did, we should have been the first once the ground those planes. We were the last one. I think it was because of the rhetoric. We have wonderful people in this world. And we have leaders at the top, are basicallythat spreading all this stuff, then these people who are weak pick it up and agree with it. Host we are going to pose a in california. Jose in california. Caller i definitely agree with that article. Anyone who says far right is code for republicans, have we forgotten the republican bomber that sent 12 bombs to enemies of President Trump . Everything he says is in dog whistles. It is not even with dog whistles anymore. It is with april. Anyone that does disagree, a bullhorn. Anyone that does disagree, maybe she should look in the mirror. Host the terror attack on to new Zealand Mosques that killed muslims, the attack is above all an immense human tragedy, live streamed by the terrorist himself. The radical right is resurgent, empowered by politicians in western democracy who has shifted the boundaries of acceptable discourse. Nationalists have also weaponize media. That is in the Financial Times this morning. Taking your calls on whether you agree or disagree. We will get to more of your calls in a moment. A little more from the news. The leader of turkey says the new zealand attack shows a growing hostility toward islam. Condemnedn on friday the deadly attack, saying it shows the growing hostility to idly watched by the world. He said at the funeral of a former turkish minister, it is clear that the understanding represented by the killer also targets our country, our people, and myself. It has started to take over western societies like cancer. We go to maryland. This caller agrees with what the Financial Times is saying. What is your name . Zame. host doing it. Caller i agree with that article. Ever since our now president came down that escalator and made all those accusations against the hispanic, latino population, ever since then host we are listening. Finish up. Caller ever since then, the rise of the White Nationalists has grown tremendously. Threatenedent even democrats and his enemies that he has the police, the bikers. He has been threatening people ever since he has been in office. Are listeningople to this and acting on it. There are good people on both sides of the issue in charlottesville. He is just saying it loud and clear. He could care less. He says the central park five are guilty. He is a horrible person. He needs to go. This country is suffering because of him. Thank you. Host moving on to david in texas. You disagree with the Financial Times. Why . Caller because Steve Scalise was shot by a far left bernie supported. The cops in dallas were shot by a black man. It is both sides. If they are going to blame trump for all that, obamas responsibility for every bit of the other. Host writing what has changed is open support to groups by political groups. I assume that since the far right is a problem, we should also be on the lookout for the far left . What would they look like exactly . Emmanuel is in denver. You agree with the Financial Times. They say the far right has been ignored for too long. Manual, turn the sound off. That would be much better for everybody. Caller it is off. Can you hear me . Host yes. Caller thank you for taking my call. Because it seems that it is not just donald trump to say it is his fault along. Im 64 years old this year. On flyovertantly radio, this constant barrage of people pointing at other people, claiming they are coming to get you. The wall, they said an invasion was coming when it was people escaping hardship. They tried to turn it into scaring people. Inis like what happened prenazi germany during the rise of the brownshirts. It is not just donald trump. Pins the head of the because of his position. If you listen to limbaugh, they are the ones trying to incite this hatred. I hope there are more good people in america than bad. We have to be together, or we will not make it at all. Bill. Next is what time are you in in florida . Ma. Ler i am in naco host tell us your thoughts. Specificallyg to select a group and trying to blame them, for example in the 74 page manifesto that the shooter in new zealand had written, there was substantial information about communist china and liking communist china about an ideal state. West, reporting of the they link a liking to donald trump. This is a lack of Critical Thinking on a path of journalists. Informationggets of that echo their predispositions. I would hope the journalists would be far more skeptical of these kinds of claims and analysis and do far more factfinding before they come out with these positions. I think journalism has become skewed. I would urge the journalists become more self reflective before they begin to create an echo chamber of police and then andget this and beliefs then you get this preponderance of what ratifies their own thinking. Host rampage in new zealand. The murders could also stir up more area hatred around the world. The turkish president was among the first to fan muslim fears. The understanding represented by the killer that targets our country, people our country and our people, myself. Leaders for the most part go out of their way to associate jihadist attacks with individuals or radical movements like al qaeda where the islamic state, not with all of islam. Mr. Erdogan seems to want a clash with western civilization for his own domestic political purposes. Carolyn is calling from virginia. Caller good morning. Let me start off by saying regarding donald trump. He has the intelligence of a throw rug. You cannot expect you will hear anything positive out of him. Stopwe need to do is cowering to the reality. There has been a rise in extremism. It has been going on and happening here. Not long ago, i called in about the situation on the jewish synagogue. This has happened quite a few times in america. We say there is no rise in extremism, and we know if that was not an islamic terrorist, we know that if that was a minority, it would be an act of god, and there would be a moratorium on america. We need to stop playing games and realize there are weak minded people that will follow any idiot with a cause. Not everybody is as stable. We cannot blame it on the media because the media does not force people to say stupid things. We need to understand this is going to be a bigger issue if we dont start to tackle it. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I agree with the past few cars you had that really we have a problem on our hands and i would encourage the press at all Different Levels to think of their own practice and understand they are a powerful force necessary because we are lucky enough to have a free press. But their job is to educate the masses, and we have to help each other with our strength to understand what is happening. This is global. It is not just american. We see it is global. It is the 21st century. People can join like never before. We have the chance to make a difference on this planet. Host you mentioned the media itself. Stretch that into social media. What is the responsibility . Caller when Facebook First came out, i said i dont think so because i did not feel the need to tell my life to other people. I have my own circle of friends. I can pick up the phone and call somebody. I think social media also has a role. It is a tool. When there is a flood, people can use social media to get help. We have to decide how are we going to behave . Who are we as americans . We need moral authority. It comes from within. People who want to do good in the world need to start speaking up. Think of mussolini. Think of heller. It is happening. House isn in our white a shyster. I come from new york. I knew what he was doing in the 1970s. We have been full. We have to empower each other. Lets agree to disagree. Host thank you for calling. The lead editorial in the washington today, they write that President Trump is not to blame for the strategy the tragedy despite his history of the travel ban for muslim nations. , and, he should go further he has for condemning the rhetoric. On friday, mr. Trump cited an invasion, to justify his National Emergency at the border. Mr. Trump who could not bring himself to criticize the White Nationalists in charlottesville come on friday, he said he does not regard White Nationalism as a problem. That is the wrong message estates of the Washington Post. That is the wrong message, states the Washington Post. One last call from newark, new jersey. Caller yes. Thinking andly anybody that critically thinks is being censored today. I have survived all of the traumas. The only thing that helped me to survive was having a relationship with intimacy where instead of being private, i was able to be vulnerable. We need to have love, and other in order to have the kind of life where we can live simply instead of excessive money, fame, and power, we can have bliss and our relationships. We we can only do that as are free from the need to be secret and private. We need to transcend our secrecy privacy in order to be have the bliss that is better than excessive money, fame, and power. When we do that is, we can be open and honest. What is happening today is anybody that is critical that is a critical thinker and thanks for themselves, they are being censored. What actly what whats her name, Heather Mcdonald writes about the delusion the diversity of delusion that we are using we are identifying as a person instead of a human being. Host thank you for calling, we do understand the point. Left in thehour saturday addition of the washington journal. When we come back, we will have our weekly spotlight on magazines. Will join us, and later we will look at drug driving prevention and overall safety with Joan Claybrook, a board member for a group called advocates for highway and autos safety. We will be right back. Sunday night on afterwards georgetowns University Professor examines rush up on examines russia. She is interviewed by congresswoman who serves on the house senate committee. Thate you more optimistic we find some Common Ground on arms control, we can be a good partner with russia . Lost popularity has fallen about 40 points since he was reelected. Russiaopinion data and shows that the majority of russians now do not want stability. They want change. They want a better economic situation. People understand that having an antagonistic relationship with the west is not the way to go if they want to have greater economic growth. Onwatch it on sunday night cspan2. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. 9, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television company. Today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events in washington dc and around the country. Cspan is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host our guest is Mark Trumbull, economy editor for the Christian Science monitor. Here to talk about the wealth tax. Thank you for being here. Guest thank you. Host what does the wealth tax look like . Guest good question. A wealth tax would be the idea that instead of paying taxes on the income that you are in youre earning each year, would pay taxes on the assets that you own. Payproperty tax that people would be similar to a wealth tax. What Elizabeth Warren is talking about when she proposes one, the senator is proposing that wealthy people, people who have millions of dollars, pay a certain percentage of their wealth, their Financial Assets that they own including all kinds of things. This would be in addition to the tax on your annual income. Does thater . Help answer . Guest yes. Host yes. Only about 20 of the nations by 2016, those top 1 owned 40 of the assets. Warrens plan would replace 18 annual tax on the wealth of americans with 50 million or more in assets. 3 tax with those on 1 billion or more. What is the idea or purpose . Guest the purpose goes straight , that numbers you cited income inequality has risen. Wealth any quality has risen since 1980. Inequality has risen since 1980. A graph that was using back in the air of world war i, it was the same where the wealthiest americans held that much of the nations wealth. Greater equality happened with the new deal for instance and just policies that had higher taxes on the very rich for a while. Around 1980, things changed and asset started moving back to be more heavily concentrated with the top 1 . Elizabeth warren and others are arguing that that is bad for the society, bad for the economy. It is hard to grow in you do not have a thriving middle class, they argue, so the ideas that inequality has gotten out of control and it is time to do something. Host i invite the viewers the phone in for our guest Mark Trumbull of the Christian Science monitor talking about the wealth tax. Democrats 202 7488000, republicans, 202 7488001, independents 202 7488002. Economy editore at the Christian Science monitor. As other nations back away, u. S. Considers the tax on wealth. What are other nations doing and why the conversation ramping up in this country . Nations inooked at europe that many of them tried wealth taxes as of the mid1990s. I think it was 14 nations in europe that had a wealth tax and the now it is down to four. Taxce modified its wealth this past year to kind of scale it down and part of that is the idea of found that when you raise taxes on wealth, it does not necessarily earn as much income for the government as you hope or expect, because people very wealthy people find a way to shelter their assets. How much support is Elizabeth Warren getting on the campaign trail from the citizens of the country and how much support is there in congress for Something Like this . Congress, i doin not know exactly but it clearly divides on party lines. Republicans have been cutting taxes for all levels of income and are not eager to change that. Ivisive very d issue. Idea, americans probably support the idea of raising taxes on the rich. As far as raising taxes in terms of her plan, there was a recent poll by cnn that found 54 of americans in favor, 39 opposed. Fairfax, virginia, john. Democrat you are up first. Caller good morning. Called in several years ago endorsing the wealth tax. Wealthyon i do is the have been able to manipulate the tax system so they pay less and less. They hide their wealth and the pay way to fairly make them their share is to go after their wealth, which they protect with legislation paid for by the congress. So, yes, lets start taxing wealth. Thank you. Guest thanks for that comment. People motive a lot of feel the same way you do and one of the challenges that my colleague who reported this is wealth tax can be harder to administer, harder to wealthy, well how much people have, where is it, how can we make sure we tax it. There is always the problem of Healthy People finding ways to shelter their income from taxes in a degree to average people may not be able to, but it is argue, harderle with the wealth tax, and other people come back and say, it is worth trying. We have to do something. Host there is an issue regarding the u. S. Constitution guest it bars in a National Direct tax, and the wealth tax is not considered a wealth tax until 1895 when an antipopulist Supreme Court used the language to strike down the Supreme Court. Amendment 16th you want to tell us more . Guest that is the legal backdrop and the whole other question, even if you could get congress to pass this, it would be challenged in court. Ares not clear there people who have arguments on both sides whether a wealth tax would pass constitutional musters. , no, due to the constitutional language. Others say, its mike and they have their argument. It might, and they have their argument. Host fort lauderdale, independent caller, it is martin. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am a tax lawyer and i get involved in tax policy. We had in florida a wealth tax. It was called the intangible tax. It was here for decades in florida and then governor bush had it repealed because it was andraising that much money there were many smart tax lawyers who were putting it in trusts to avoid it. You may have the same problem with this National Wealth tax. Also, i have asked a couple of reporters for them to calculate how much money actual money would be raised if this proposal given by senator warren went through. Guest those are the questions that need to be wrestled with anytime you try to do a big tax hike. There is the risk of the money flowing offshore or a people ceasing to comply. Finding ways to avoid compliance. Ande are tough questions, that goes partly to what is your motives . Is it to raise more money from the government . I think senator warren wants to do both. She wants to raise money for some of the programs she wants to enact that would help people at the lower end of the spectrum, or is the motive just level the Playing Field and have fewer ultrarich in the country, whether it is by taxing the way some of their wealth taxing , or some of their wealth feel so uninspired with life in america and move away i do not think that is the motive, but that can happen. That is what some people are worried will happen if you raise wealth taxes. Talking aboutbeen senator warren, but you did say others on the campaign trail or perhaps in congress are putting forth the same idea. Who are some of the bigger names we should be watching . Guest i am actually not sure. Alexandra ocasiocortez has raised a whole different way to raise the income tax on people who make 10 million or more up to a rate of 70 . That is similarly a very high level that would cause worries about are you really going to be able to collect this money, will it be a this incentive a dis incentive to raise capital in america. The difference can sound pretty big between a 70 tax on income versus a 2 or 3 tax on wealth, but those are similar rates. This is a useful point to share. The example we give in the story are ayou have a bond, you person who owns Treasury Bonds and one earns 3 per year on the 70 percent tax on that income is taxing away a lot of that and, if you tax the wealth at 2 or 3 of the value of the bond, you are kind of taxing the way all or most of that income. Either the wealth tax or the high income tax, you are really taking a big chunk. Host moving on to mike in charleston, west virginia. Democratic line. [indiscernible] mica, ill ask you to hold on for a second. Can you try to turn the sound down on your set or speaker . Caller yeah, right here. Host much better. A quarter of my income is earned with parttime employment, so about three quarters of it is unearned income, i suppose that is wealth. And you are talking about the ultrarich. To that,are that does this wealth impact savers that struggle with an earned income . And the other comments, it would be the Corporate Tax rate. Thought i recall an editorial where sweden or the like to does not surprisingly tax wealth, but has a higher Corporate Tax rate. , the republicans campaigned on lowering Corporate Taxes, but what percentage of each makes up the national . I believe Corporate Tax rates would dwarf the revenues the wealth tax would bring into our national budget. That is my comment and question. Crunchedah, i have not the numbers or seen them on the wealth tax compared to the Corporate Tax. You might be right on that. But i do not know. I am trying german for the other part, oh i am trying to remember the other parts, oh, someone that is not ultrarich. I do not think the wealth tax would affect you. It is arguing that more money should be paid by the federal government by the very rich. Host we have eddie for massachusetts. Caller good morning. You have not talked about sales tax at all. Canada, ireland, england they have as much of 15 or 20 sales tax. As far as Corporate Taxes are allerned, 35 we lost three of our major Beer Companies and they went overseas. But it is because they have a 15 Corporate Tax. The consequences is they will be wheat, can, and bottles. We are losing. Good point that they are actually many kinds of taxes if your goal is to raise more revenue for the government which many say the government could use right now. We have a chronic imbalance between spending that is always higher than the taxes we bring in and it does not look like that is going to end. You could try various means, the wealth tax is just one of many options. Doing as the tax law year after it took affect . Good points and bad points. What has been the practical effect so far . Guest the good news for a a lot of americans is generally lower taxes. Some people are paying more for various reasons, but the general trend is it is a tax cut. That feels good to a lot of , and polling when the law was first enacted, people did not like it been did. More people did not like it than did. A recent poll shows more americans liking it then not like it. Imbalance on the budget, the tax cut brings in less revenue than before. That challenge to me is a big one and a lot of americans. They are worried. Host are there changes that congress is working on following up . Are, butthink of there i am not up on the details, but i think some saw as being given to that. Tot before we get back calls, i headline says in blue states, tax is not simple anymore. Phil murphy in new jersey, cuomo in york. They are taking different approaches to taxes on the wealthy. Tell us what is happening in new jersey and new york. Guest i wrote this story a while ago, so i am not a up on the latest details. The interesting challenge when trump passed his tax reform, it changed the way the policy for deducting state level taxes. Butp cut overall tax rates, he said you cannot do duct many things from your taxable income. People usedtaxes, to be able to do love the state taxes and now that is capped that 10,000 a year. If you live in a relatively high tax state where people are in pretty good income new york or new jersey, you can no longer deduct as much of that from your taxes. In effect, it feels like a tax hike on many people in those states. Worried peopleis will move out of new york because state taxes feel more burdensome now than they used to create they no longer have part of it offset by a tax cut in the federal level. In new jersey, governor murphy was saying that that may be true, but we are still talking about upper income people, and our goal should be, as democrats, our goal should be to try to address any quality inequality in statelevel policy. Is a democratically controlled ones that have taxpayers with higher incomes. The factor the calls on notion of the wealth tax and the idea being put forth by senator warren. David in silver spring, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think we need to educated people what the taxes due. People want good services, roads, ambulances, polices, but they do not want a tax. This is the only country where the wealthy people want to take the money and put it somewhere else. A gentleman by the name of Grover Nourse who controls our lawmakers. We do not even run our own system. What is so sad is when you talk about the poor people who get benefits from the government system at the same time saying, we do not want to pay more taxes. The richo make sure people pay their own taxes because one individual owns billions of dollars. It is insane. As long as we have Grover Nourse, this country will not have a tax system because he is trapping our politicians. I would like to ask of the guest what he thinks about this. Has been on north this program for the education of the tax reform, very happy for what happened in congress obviously, but what is your reaction to what the caller said. Guest you raised some good points. Any nation needs a government and the government needs revenue. Funding roads, statelevel governments, education, schools, federal governments, Funding National defense, social ,ecurity, medicare, Medicaid Programs that americans of all income levels really draw on, and with some of the ones that peoplegeted at the poor, can move from middleclass the at middleclass to poor some point. It is important for the government to have revenue, have ie revenue it needs, and think it really, the rhetoric in the country can become very polarized. It can sound on the left like people are saying, we hate wealth. We hates billionaires. I think what senator moran is talking about senator warren is talking about is not getting rid of wealthy people, but saying it is the art of change that should become one where everybody is benefiting from the economy at the same rate rather than having the rich perpetually pull away from everyone else. To our independent line, normal, illinois. John, good morning. Caller good morning. Host what would you like to say . Caller i think through our history, we have used the tax structure to benefit and cause prosperity to the american people. Think that can still be done by using the tax structure in capitalism to finance a socialist priorities such as better streets, free health care, Free Education all of those things can be financed by capitalism. Host any thoughts . Guest thank you for sharing that. A very interesting way to put it, because i think there does the baybe a lot of about socialism and capitalism. Republicans trying to defend capitalism against what has been it is on the ropes these days. A lot of people are saying that capitalism has been failing america lately. As the same time, republicans attacking democrats for socialist policies, they called, on the left. But the basic ideas underlying that are very important. As a nation, we do need to reckon with good evidence of has free Market Economics caused a law of economic caused a lot of Economic Development and growth in this country. There is also evidence that as we have been talking about that income inequality has been expanding and the question of whether that is good for society. As the caller points out, there is a lot of popularity for programs are social welfare programs. Social security, medicare, and the like. So there is a tall so that is going on politically and it will keep going on. Going onis a tousle politically and it will keep going on and we need to figure out the right balance. Trumbull is the economy editor for the Christian Science monitor. Esmonitor. Com. He is economy editor, thank you for joining us. Guest thank you. Left ine more segment this addition, and were going to talk next with Joan Claybrook who used to head the national highway traffic and safety administration. I want tontime, remind you that this weekend, our cspan cities tour explores the american story in cedar rapids, iowa. Coming up today at noon eastern on book tv on cspan two. All of our literary programs from that city, cedar rapids, will air together in one time block. Jane lynch talks about the history of iowas first in the nation status in terms of caucuses. Caucuses have not been great in selecting the next president. In 2016, ted cruz won of caucuses and the donald trump was behind. Hillary clinton won the democratic caucuses. Santorum, john mccain, mitt romney one republican primaries. Barack obama won the democratic so it is sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not. It seems that the caucuses really, their highest function the field. He if you cannot make it here, you are probably not going to make it somewhere else. Tickets outt three of iowa, the top three finishers in the caucus can move on. That is not always the case. Did not go on to get the nomination. Ted cruz did not get the nomination. Winning in iowa is not a guarantee of getting your partys nomination, but it is a sign of organizational strength that you can put together a campaign that delivers people to the caucuses in the same way that you are going to have to deliver people to voting booths. It is a good test in that way. The only thing we have two fear itself. S ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Not he people are cspans newest book the president , noted historians in best chief of staff to worst. Explore the life events that shaped our leaders, challenges they faced, and the legacies they left behind. Published by public affairs, cspans the president s will be on shelves april 2030. You can preorder it april 23. You can preorder it on cspan o host at the table now for Joan Claybrook who is a board member andthe national Highway Safety. Good morning. Guest thank you. Host heres a talk about drunk driving. How prevalent is drunk driving in this country . Third it kills about one of all the people in auto crashes and that is a lot. 11,000 people and many of the People Killed are innocent. Host some of the facts and figures to go on, this is from fidelitys in motor 10,874 fatalities. It accounts for 29 of all traffic fatalities for the year. Drivinghol impaired fatality occurred every 48 minutes according to the national Highway Safety administration. Some serious numbers and you are at a hearing this week, and you testified before the house. What was the purpose of the hearing and what was the takeaway . Guest the purpose was to look at devices that would automatically stop people from driving if they are drunk. There are two different systems. One, a system put in your car and you have to blow into it. If your alcohol level is too high, you cannot start the car. Host this would be all of us guest right now, it is only used when you have been caught driving drunk and you have to retrofit into the car. What i think we ought to have is built into the car and every single car in the United States. It is important to have the security to know that people are not driving drunk on the highway. If that happens, we would reduce ,eaths by 7000 or 8000 a year which is huge. The cost is minimal. There is another system called dds, which is sensitized to your touch. Steering touch the well and youre out all levels in your body, the car will not start. Host but the numbers on our screen. 202 7488000 free democrats, 202 7488001 republicans, independents 202 7488002. Joan claybrook is former administrator for the national Highway Safety administration during the carter administration. Successful for passage of the nations first auto safety laws. What were times like back then and what have you seen up to present time for Vehicle Safety . Nader hit thelph news in 1966 and said that members of congress were shocked at the opportunities to save lives, so they passed a very tough law in 1956. That is where the national Highway Safety entrance rotation administration was created. Today, there is still the same sympathetic concerns about. Raffic deaths everyone is on the highway and everyone is going to be submitted to the possibility of death and injury. Anything we can do that really makes sense. The autorn is that the national Highway Safety traffic and administration are very slow. What i would like to see is a thethat is passed requiring systems and the cars, and with a sanction if they are not made available. That is the way it is really going to be solved as if congress acts. Host one headline, Congress Considers devices on cars to prevent drunk driving. If you want to see that entire committee, go to cspan. Org and to type in drunk driving. The is my question, if technology has existed, why has it been so slow . Guest the Auto Industry does not want to put it in. That is really unfortunate. Host why . Money and yets another complexity. I think they ought to put it in. There are a lot of ways to make that happen. Congress could make them do a rule. Another is to encourage states to require them as retrofit, but only after death or injuries. Host what are the pushback from the Auto Industry, what are those types of people are grouped because this would affect all of us . Guest all of us. Host what other pushback are you hearing . Guest none. People want to stop drunk driving. Amembers of congress very interesting republican thoracic surgeon on the committee and he was very sympathetic. Most of congress, drunk driving is a neutral issue than some of the other regulatory issues. That issomething feasible, there is testing going on now for the systems with the touch that automatically will not let you drive. You cannot complain about it because it is automatic. You do not have to do anything, you touch sheared steering well, you are drunk, you cannot drive. Host lets go to california, good morning. Caller Joan Claybrook, thank you for your years of service to our country. People probably do not remember your background, but i do. You have a fairly good idea, but it is a little more systemic. The deaths of our highways are little more systemic then just run driving. It is speed, road conditions, and whether. All of these factors and weather. All of these factors come into play to make people die. We did some studies on that, and half of the patrol officers die every year because they are pulling over someone who is violating a traffic violation, and they are hit by a double truck and trailer that is not paying attention or someone but. Somebody else these are deaths that are unnecessary. Drunk driving is something that should be added into when you buy a new car so that if people want that, they get a discount on their insurance rates. That is simple and a very simple to do. Right now, you lane has a something that is going to control all of our vehicles. That means be limits, performance, and disabling the vehicle. That is selective enforcement to which is terrible. It should be based on probable cause. System, in other words, if someone is drunk and they are driving to, that is obviously probable cause to do that. But it is terrible, the 302. Elaine chao is coming out with is a scary stuff. Host thank you for calling. Guest it is much cheaper to put them in every car than to add them after the car has been ma nufactured. Complicated if you wire them into the car. You want to wire them in as a part of the design. Secondly, it is going to save officers lives because if they are not having to stop drunk drivers, they do not have to get out of the car. I completely agree with that. I believe in designs and safety. Expense of this is probably 10. Who would not pay 10 to make sure your kid cannot drive in your car when they are drinking and driving or trying to drive . Everyone else on the highway, too. It is a miracle solution. The key issue is you have to get the Auto Industry to hurry up. The only way we can do this is by legislation or regulation. We need to give them a big fat push. Host are other countries using this . Guest yes, the other countries are working on this and they have very tough drunk driving laws. They are tougher than ours. , other countries are. 05. 05, i think we would save more lives. And remember, even if we mandated this, it is going to be 10 or 12 years before the whole fleet turns over. It is important to move quickly. Host joe is in vienna, virginia. Caller good morning. This is a much more moderate point that than what we originally expected hearing. This sounds like something that could be implemented on a small level and see how it works from there. My concern is disadvantaged communities. There are a lot of new things that are breaking and you have to go to the shop to fix them, and that is a concern for me and how that might affect people who do not have it as easy as everyone else. To go into are going brandnew cars, and most this it vantage people do not buy the brandnew most this people disadvantaged are not going to buy brandnew. I do not think that is a real problem. They are simple devices. They have to be wired into the car. The amount of repair is probably minimal. Host sandy from ohio, good morning. Sandy, you there . Caller hello. Host hi, there. Caller what would you like to say . I disagree with her. Is another attack on our freedom. Host what do you make of the point that drunk driving deaths may be lowered as a result . Caller drunk driving deaths made the lowered, but you are i just disagree with it. It is just like the gun laws, you are talking about taking away all of the guns, but the criminals can get the guns. Host lets hear from Joan Claybrook. Guest this is such a minimal piece of regulation. A lot ofon airbags, people said, i do not want any big air bag my car, but it saves lives. The families of those people, that is huge. And so is true for the victims of drunk driving. The what do you make of point that anybody that knows anything about cars can get around this . Guest that is true. They could do that with anything in the car, but it is a violation of law and you could enforce the law against them. If a policeman stops them and they are drunk driving and the device is not working, they could cite them for a penalty. Host would that be a part of an inspection process further cars . Guest we do not have a big inspection process, that as a statelevel issue. I do not think that would happen. I think it is more likely if your car gets stopped. Host john is calling in oregon. Good morning. Caller good morning, joan. The hearing yesterday and i always wondered why it was not an option in vehicles for years. You have all of the screens that d, and to me, it seems like an option of people wanted, and they should be able to get it. I was waiting for a question as far as the patents on the existing devices. Is that holding up . There is some type of lottery or Something Holding up on the patent end. Is that true . Guest no, i do not think so. The patent is not a big issue. I do not think it ought to be in n option because everyone in this country is subject to being killed by a drunk driver. The ability to be saved by a device like this is so simple. So inexpensive. Know if it is on your car if you are not a drunk driver, particularly if it is the touch system. This is such a unique opportunity to save lives, and they are often and is not the opportunity to save lives. Host here is one twitter opinion, if dui lives were tougher all over, it would send a better message. Guest while dui laws are pretty tough. You can go to jail for drunk driving. The problem is, people are not caught, so they think they can get away with it. We do not have the money and resources that police on the street looking for drunk drivers all day and night. Is a have already said, it risky thing for an officer to stop cars. So this would also save officers lives. Even unlike seatbelts, seatbelts, you have to actively put them on, and here you do not have to do anything. Host lance calling from a walkie. Caller didnt lance calling from milwaukee. Caller the morning. It sounds like we are trying to over regulate. Howd you eliminate pot and pharmaceuticals and all the Different Things we live with, and in the mobile society so everybody is driving. Insounds like our laws are place right now for a good reason, and how many drunk drivers are there . I do not know anybody that drives drunk, but there is designated drivers, there are mobile telephones when somebody sees somebody driving funny back to the figure we talked about, almost 11,000 people die from drunk driving last year. Host and caller i have never seen one and i drive about 50,000 or 60,000 miles a year. Host you are very privileged. You are very privileged because drunk driving is prevalent in this country. The question is for the innocent people to be killed by a drunk driver, if there was something simple that we could do to stop that, and this is simple, i think the issue you raise about pharmaceuticals and pot and , wee kinds of illicit drugs have not got the technology to determine them and to discern them in the same way that we do for alcohol. Pot separate alcohol from or driving while high as some people refer to it. Do you have a sense of how much of that is going on . Guest we really do not know. We do not have statistics. We know it occurs, but not how much. Aspect in a the troy gazette, in a regulations where congress them, requirements on they could result in unacceptably high costs. Industryt out that the is heavily invested in Automated Vehicles which could make the problem of drunk driving virtually disappear. Host well, it guest well, and 30 to 40 years, it is a potential. We have a caller on the line from missouri. Caller yes. My dog. I lost he was 19 years old by a drunk driver. He was late 50s to early 60s. He had his life taken away from him six times when he killed my son. Wondered if this would help these older people because there were six boys that went to high school at the same place my sunday. That was killed by a drunk driver. They are all in the same cemetery. Any wondering, is there thng, would this help these older people that get in behind the wheel and kill these people . Host thank you for calling. Guest absolutely and i am so for what you tell us. That is the reason i am pushing this so families do not have to face this terrible tragedy. Innocent people being killed on the highway by selfies drunk drivers. It is an incredibly important that we understand that that is why we want the system. It is random, we do not know who was being hurt, but we know that people are being injured and killed, and families to suffer the rest of their lives from it. For calling and reminding us of why we want to have this kind of device in a cars of people cannot drive. Dale is calling from ohio. Caller good morning. I appreciate watching your show. Ive been repairing cars for well over 35, 40 years. Nowadays, the Technology Already exists in cars that are being built for the past 10 years that have gpss built in. These vehicles can be monitored easily for speed limits, wrong directions on freeways, by the existsnd the technology that they could shut the car off if they exceed their speed or they are going the wrong direction. It could even be as far as radical driving and there would be no additional work to be done basically except for programming. When the cars manufactured, they just change the programming to hook into the gps, because the technology is already in these cars that it can prevent them from going wrong ways. Even speed limits, you do not need speed traps because the cars and a 35 mileperhour zone, it is being monitored by the satellite, it can prevent that car from hitting 35 miles. It exists today and it is in the cars that have gpas capabilities. Host thank you for calling. But tear from the administrator. Kind of monitoring is not going on, and i think a lot of people would be very concerned about their Current System every single day being monitored about where they are driving and how they are driving. I think it is a much less invasive system been monitoring by gps, although, it could be done. Host congress is studying the issue. We talked about the house, when do you expect to see a bill . Be a lotere seems to of agreement in the committee on both sides of the aisle. I am hoping they will do it quickly. Atalked to the chair and senator from illinois, and she said they want to move forward. Host what do you see in the senate . Guest i see a lot of sympathy and i think there is a possibility. I am not exactly sure. Married to the majority leader of the senate, and if she does not want it, i think it is harder. But we persist and pursue. Host remind us of what the secretary has said guest she has not spoken remind us of what the secretary has said. Has not spoken on this specifically, but what i would rather see is a law rather than regulation. Says issue a rule and it do it by a certain date, that is going to make it happen and there will not be this maybe we should, and maybe we shouldnt. It will be settled. Host are any of the individual states working on these types of laws . Guest there are. 32 states have if you are caught as a drunk driver, you have to pay three dollars a day, so for six months, you have to pay to put these systems where you breathe into it into a device. Host what abound the front end where people have not been convicted yet . Guest no, that is more of a vehicle standard. Vehicle standards are under the federal government. Host thank you. Ellen from new hampshire. Caller good morning. I was always taught that when you have a right, you have a responsibility. Andeople are using guns drinking and driving, i do not care how much it disrupts them they havehem angry a responsibility. Guest to behave. Caller i cannot think of what im going to say but they have a responsibility to do what they can to make sure they are operating safely. Guest i agree with that. Inre is an element responsibility in every driving task, but the question is, when people are drunk, they do not have good judgment and both their driving and their decision to drive drunk. Question is, should we ignore that are should we do something about it . We should do something about it in my view. And the thing to do about it is to put a system in the car that does not allow them to drive drunk. And whether it is a retrofit, which eventually will not be necessary because i think they should be built into new cars, then everyone is protected. Host here is one tweet, the dirty little secret, they write, that many logan Law Enforcement do not want to eliminate drunk driving completely. They make too much money from duis. Guest i do not know the answer to that, but offices are killed. There is no question about it. Officers are killed. There is no question about it. Host we have dave are from california. Caller hi, how are you. I will try to make this makes sense. ToHighway Safety, i used drive for living, but i do not understand why and i know everybody wants to get there fast, but the cars only holdup to 40 miles an hour in crashes, and the speed limits are way too high. When the speed limit was 55, still,ved lives, but cars only holdup to 40 miles per hour. Why the speed limit so high . People died because of the speed. Make of great point. You make a great point. Years to keep it, and congress of eventually overruled the and said we going to have that limit. Some states have 70 or 80 mile per hour limits. So you are right. Do not really protect you above 40 mileperhour direct crash, maybe a little higher in some cars. We are a nation that wants to get where we are going pretty quickly. It is not the horse and buggy days anymore. My view is, we should do everything we can to make the cars feel safer with things like airbags and also to make sure that they do not have these host our guest has been Joan Claybrook, the former administrator for the national Traffic Safety administration. Thank you for talking to us. Thank you for your calls, questions and comments. That will do it for us. We will be back a tomorrow at 7 00 eastern. Enjoy your saturday. We will see you tomorrow. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] house debate on the resolution calling for a public release of the mueller report. Then hearings on the president s 4. 7 trillion dollar budget request for 2020. From steveimony steven mnuchin. Joe biden will be speaking at delaware democratic fundraiser in dover. He will speak at 7 00 eastern on cspan. You can watch live online on www. Cspan. Org and listen on our free radio app. Sunday on q a tragically, i had no expectation that we would be sitting here in 2019 talking about this war in afghanistan the way it has been escalated, the way it has escalated every year, the countless lives that have been wasted and the continuous suffering. Article, timeis for peace in afghanistan and and lies. The when i worked on iraq issues at