The role the economy will play in campaign 2020. A 9 00 a. M. , Pew Charitable Beth Connolly on how the pandemic has impacted the Opioid Epidemic. Good morning. It is july 15, 2020, a hundred 11 days until election day 2020. 111 days until election day 2020. President trump and Vice President joe biden had plenty to say on everything from the economy to the handling of the coronavirus pandemic to the environment and trade. We are washed asking you to weigh in. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Democrats can call 202 7488000. Epublicans, 202 7488001 independents, 202 7488002. You can also send us a text message this morning. That number, 202 7488003. If you do, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise, catch up with us on social media. On facebook, it is facebook. Com cspan. You can start calling in now as we show you two takes on president Trumps Press Conference from the rose garden yesterday. Here is the headline from breitbart. Donald trump tears into joe bidens entire agenda at the White House Press conference. Peterhe New York Times, baker, chief white house correspondent. The white house called a news conference. Trump turned it a meandering monologue. This was the president yesterday from the white house, talking about joe biden on the issue of the economy. [video clip] nearly 10,000t factories while joe biden was Vice President. Think of that. 10,000 factories. He wrote something today and made a Statement Today that i wrote down. Pretty accurate. Biden was here for 47 years. The last eight years, not long ago, as Vice President , he said, one in five miles of our highways are still import condition. We are doing a good job on highways, but why did he not fix them three years ago . Tens of thousands of bridges are in disrepair and on the verge of collapse. That is probably not the right number, but we have bridges that should have been fixed. Wide didnt why didnt he fix them . Why didnt they fix them . Tens of thousands of bridges. This is what he wrote. Highspeed broadband. Why didnt he get it . Three years ago is not a long time. He did not do any of the things, but now he says he is going to be president and do all the things that he did not do, never did except make very bad decisions, especially on foreign policy. President trump yesterday afternoon at the white house. Earlier in the day, joe biden rolling out a new plan about Climate Change and economic recovery, to trillion dollar plan. A 2 trillion plan. Biden announcing he was planning on spending 2 trillion to escalate the use of clean energy and transportation and electricity, part of sweeping proposals designed to create Economic Opportunities and strengthen infrastructure while tackling the issue of Climate Change. This is joe biden beginning his speech, talking about President Trumps handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout. [video clip] it has gotten bad enough that even donald trump decided to wear a mask in public. I am glad he made the shift. Mr. President , it is not enough. We will not be able to turn the corner and get the American People back to work safely without president ial leadership. Mr. President , open everything now is not a strategy for success. It is barely a slogan. Choiceshing the false between protecting our health and protecting our economy. Biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware. Both those events we showed you you can watch in their entirety on our website at cspan. Org. This morning, what is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Phone lines as usual split up by political affiliation. Democrats,. Democrats,. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Ndependents, 202 7488002 caller my top issue is the International Affairs budget. I think it is extremely important that we come together as an entire world to work together. It is important for national andrity and for the economy the countries we sent u. S. Aid to and the past, a lot of them have become top trading partners, 11 out of the top 15 our top trading partners. It also increases national the poorestause countries tend to be the most dangerous. Desperation leads to things like terrorism and political violence. Host you think International Aid is getting much attention today amid coronavirus pandemic and the economy in this country . Caller i think it is definitely taking a hit. At least the perception of it. When they are in these hard times, it gets harder to care about what is going on halfway across the world, but i think that during a time like this, during this global pandemic, this is when we need to be coming together. Pandemics do not respect borders. It is time that we stop looking past artificial boundaries we have put up between each other. Anita out of douglasville, georgia. What is your top issue . Caller i am shocked that i got through to you. My top issue host that is what happens when you call earlier. It is easier to get in. Caller my top issue is that joe biden is a rapist. I believe he is a rapist. I believe that woman who came forward. There have been other women who have come forward and said he molested them or did something. I know youre saying something, but i do not know what youre saying. He is a rapist. Also, im a black woman. He says to black people, if you do not vote for us, if you do not vote for me, you aint lack. Black. He apologized and everything for that, but the thought is still there. It is hanging over his head. I have an issue with immigration. We need comprehensive Immigration Reform in this country. I believe we should build at home that wall. Biden gets in, they are going to tear it down or whatever. Those are my top issues. He is a rapist. You should not be of the white house. Not be in theould white house. Also, we need Immigration Reform. Host robert is an independent out of virginia beach. Caller my major issue is supporting organized labor. , groceryion member worker out here every day on the front lines of the pandemic. I would like to see someone raise minimum wage to 15, 20 an hour. Right to work is a horrible law that hurts the working people of this country. They ought to repeal the tafthartley act to let Public Employees collectively bargain. I am in virginia, where if you work for the city, county, or state you are not allowed to collectively bargain. That is also the case in north and South Carolina. Is too centrist. We need someone that will fight hard for organized labor, more along the lines of Industrial Workers of the world. Host pauline is a democrat out of new york. Your top issue in campaign 2020 . Caller i think trump is unfit to be president. We need to get him out of office as quick as we can. God bless america. We need you. Thank you for taking my call. Host this first hour of the washington journal today, asking you what your top issue is in campaign 2020. Phone lines split up. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independent, 202 7488002. Gallup on a monthly basis asks a different form of this question, the mostat is important problem facing the country today . They break up the answers respondents give to those who say economic problems and those who point to noneconomic problems as the most aborted problem facing the country. Responded the economic problems are the most of what problem facing the country as of their june 2020 tracking. Problems,oneconomic 21 say the government and poor leadership is the biggest problem facing the country. Coronavirus and the pandemic. 19 say Race Relations and racism are the top problem facing the country. Those four issues group far and away from respondents saying it is the most important problem. Some other problems they get a little attention, 4 say the lack of respect for each other in this country is the biggest problem facing this country. Unifying the country, for processing that is the biggest problem. Crime or violence. 3 say health care. Moral, religious, or family decline is the top problem facing this country. Again, that monthly tracking report available at gallup. Com. Carlos, miami beach, republican. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Caller good morning. Infrastructure is a big thing. There is a big thing going on with sinkholes and bridges and a lot is not being attended to. We all need rule. To ourive more funds we need aonders and second relief fund for everybody else. We need to expand unemployment the cares act needs to be expanded as well. Weare a great country, and are a strong country. When we come altogether, that is when everything will be in place. That is all. Host and joe biden bringing up some of the issues you bring up is your top issues, including infrastructure and law and order , starting with joe biden at that event in wilmington, his 2 trillion Investment Plan over four years on infrastructure and green energy. This is a little of what he had to say. [video clip] good paying, union jobs that put americans at work making the air cleaner for our kids to breathe, restoring our crumbling itds and ports, making faster, cheaper, and cleaner to transport americanmade goods across the country and around the world. And install a network of 500,000 charging stations along our existing and new highways across this country , which not only will help america and the american Automobile Industry lead the world in manufacturing with electric vehicles, it will also save americans billions of dollars over time in the cost of gasoline for their vehicles. Lay the lines for the second Great Railroad revolution, which will not only slash pollution but commute times and open up investment in areas connected to metropolitan centers for the first time. Biden yesterday in wilmington, delaware. We will talk more about joe bidens recent infrastructure plans and Investment Plans in our next segment of the washington journal. On the issue of law and order, President Trump with that yesterday in the rose garden. Here is more from President Trump. [video clip] there has never been a time when two candidates were so different. Isave seen races where it the same exact platforms. Im even talking about essentially democrat, republican, there is not that much difference. There is a little, but not much. You choose one because he like the way they look, the way the sound, the way they talk. You like something about one and you do not like the other. There has never been a difference. This is, without question, the single biggest difference. If you want law and order, i enacted recently, when i saw what was going on with federal monuments, we do not have the right to do states, the we are trying to find it. Theythe monuments, where wanted to rip down andrew jackson, George Washington they were heading over to the jefferson memorial, if you can believe that. This has been going on and i we used and weat have many, many people in jail right now all over the country because they tried to destroy or , a federal statue or monument. We have not had anybody making a move since i enacted this. I signed an executive order a couple weeks ago. Simply 10 years in jail. You do it, 10 years in jail. The amazing part is we were able to catch everybody. Thanks to all of you on television, we appreciate it, but we have their pictures. We have the men standing on Andrew Jacksons horse. We have the men standing by general George Washington. We have everybody standing. They were going to go for the emancipation proclamation, abraham lincoln, standing with a young man being freed. Are going to do something. We cannot let this happen. Host President Trump yesterday and the rose garden. Phone calls asking you what your top issue is for campaign 2020. Your phone calls asking you what your top issue is for campaign 2020. What i called for is the fact that since this man became president the unemployment has , down to only 1. 2 3. 5 for the pandemic . Bragging about black unemployment since he became president , unemployment for black people has gone down only 1. 5 . It went from a percent to 6. 5 . 6. 5 . To he has just been writing obama coattails. Bamas he is lying. For unemployment africanamericans since he became president. Obama, africanamerican unemployment went down 9 . General unemployment went down in a recession, down to 4. 7 . Under obama, general unemployment went down 5. 8 . Since he became president , general unemployment went down by 1. 2 . He has not done anything. All he does is sit in the oval office and do nothing. To come in there with the mentality of destroying everything. Look at what he did to the farmers. These farmers work so hard for customers over the years. He came into office and with a swipe of a pen he wipes them all clean, sent them all down to argentina, brazil. Elizabeth, miami, florida. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . I am ashamed about Climate Change. We are less than one degree from disaster, as i understand it. We also have to have our constitution back. Trump has trampled our constitution. I will never vote republican again ever. He has ruined it for me and the country. Host when was the last time you voted republican . Caller i do not vote for him did not vote for him. Host when did you . When Ronald Reagan ran. Host this is elizabeth in florida. Richard is in anderson, South Carolina, republican. Good morning. I think the top issue would be the economy and the virus. Has the business experience. You have to watch what he does, not what he says. I do not agree with a lot of things he says and most republicans do not agree with a lot of the things he says. You have to watch what he does versus what he says. Virus is a tremendous problem politically for him, but i do not know how you handle this virus without a vaccine. Ultimately, trump just needs to stay on focus on the economy in these press conferences, cut back his time, and just focus on the difference between biden he had been there 42 years and basically what did he do . Host do you think you stayed on focus yesterday . It is much longer than what i would recommend. As far as the virus is concerned, it is amazing in the how smart this virus is. This virus can tell the difference between a protester and a trump rally. A protester does not carry the virus. A trump rally does. Is the weight has been presented. Presented. As been i agree everyone has the right to protest, but when i looked out at a protesters at a gathering, i looked at the young people. They talk so much about the blacks being so compromised as far as health. To be that compromised and all those big gatherings, many of these young people, black and white, go back home and they are reared by their grandparents. Those are the most compromised people. Host that is richard in South Carolina this morning, richard talking but the president staying on focus at the press pressence at his conferences. Yesterday, this is how peter baker, the chief white house correspondent, describes the press conference yesterday. An hour of president ial stream of consciousness as mr. Trump drifted from one topic to another, often in the same run on sentence. Even for a president who rarely sticks to the script and wonders from thought to thought, it was one of the most rambling performances of his presidency. Peter baker writing, he weighed in on china and the coronavirus and the paris Climate Change accord and crumbling highways and then china again and military spending and then china again and than the coronavirus again and then the economy and energy taxes and trade with europe and illegal immigration and his friendship with mexicos president and the coronavirus again and than immigration again and crime in chicago and the Death Penalty and back to Climate Change and education and historical statues and more in quoting the president is saying, we could go on for days, he said at one point. It sounded plausible. Esther in fredericksburg, virginia. What is your top issue in campaign 2020 . Are you with us . Caller hello . Yes. Issues on education, our my issues are education host you have to stop listening to your tv and listen through your phone. We go on to mark in maryland. Caller good morning. Thank you. My most important concern here is Race Relations. Racism covers so much ground. We need someone to hit his head on, whether it is making reinvestment in black and brown communities, improving housing opportunities, jobs, wages, increase wages, education. Ground. S so much i think that the momentum that has resulted from george floyd incident, that needs to be carried over. Be forced to deal with this. They are not going to deal with it on their own. Have now, a lot of people come together and seen the light in the light has come on for a lot of people. They are willing to deal with this like no other time before. I am 51 years old. I have never seen this sort of thing happen. Host do you think President Trump is being forced to deal with that . Caller no. He is a master of avoiding and trying to create his own reality. He is the type of guy who, if you repeat something over and to convincees people his reality is what is real. No, he is not been forced. As a matter of fact, it is just optional for him. Doorstep, but no one is kicking the door down, making him deal with it. He is just doing what he always does. He is a master of pretending whathing is according to how he tries to direct and control the message. Host christie getting a lot of attention from his response to a question by cbs news of y black americans are continuing to be killed by police. Here is a bet from that cbs news clip. [video clip] wire africanamericans still dying at the hands of Law Enforcement at this country . So are white people. What a terrible question to ask. More white people, by the way. More white people. Host President Trump in the interview with cbs news yesterday. Back to our phone calls asking you for your top issue in campaign 2020. Chance is in georgia, republican. Caller you always do a great job on the show. I enjoy watching you and the other hosts. Issues thatampaign are most important to me. First, it is jobs. Second, birthright citizenship should be ended. Where i live, there has been an explosion of immigration from india, and they are a charming, peaceful, lawabiding people. I have no issue with people from i, but they do seem to do not want to say the word breed, but that is what they are doing. Host how do you think we should do citizenship in this country of not birthright citizenship . Caller legally, i have no issue at all with immigration. I do not. I think birthright citizenship i cannot think of any industrialized nation that has a law where if you have a baby on their soil they are automatically a sovereign citizen. I am not aware of it and i have not researched maybe as thoroughly as i should, but i wish trump in a second term we do something about ending birthright citizenship. Host do you think President Trump has done enough in his first term when it comes to immigration . Caller i do. I think he has done the best he could because the congress had his Purse Strings tied in terms of funds for a constructing the border wall. He has done the best he possibly can. I do support the president , and im confident he will be reelected. Thank you. Businessap from insider, citizenship laws around the world. 30 countries around the world recognize birthright citizenship , most of them in the western hemisphere. They are the blue countries on that map. Rich, greensburg, pennsylvania. Good morning. Good morning to you. My biggest concern is the economy. I think joe biden of all the democrats is my choice from the beginning. I have to say that i think mr. Trump might be the best choice of the two to keep china in , returning jobs back, and certainly flexing muscle in the South China Sea as of late has been something that has been good. Although mr. Biden might be better off handling the coronavirus issue, i think some of the other Economic Issues still might be trump. I am a moderate. I think President Trumps presentation is awful and demeaning but the substance is not bad. Int that is rich pennsylvania this morning. Coming up on 7 30 on the east coast, asking this question. Campaignissue for 2020, not just a president ial Campaign Election year, also a 2020. Control up in we talked about it in this program yesterday and plenty of house programs as well. Acus on the senate races for second, three States Holding primaries yesterday, all with implications for the battle for control of the senate. First to alabama, the race down to take on doug jones, the democrat in alabama. On the republican runoff in the senate primary. Once belovedlle, and loathed as a coach in College Football fanatical alabama took a giant step toward becoming the states next u. S. Senator. Tuberville built his campaign on promises to fight along President Trump with a conviction he says is missing in washington. The Associated Press called that race 80 minutes after polls closed. Tuberville carried President Trumps personal endorsement o yesterdays class h clash with sessions. President trump tweeted about the outcomet. Uberville outcome. Tuberville said President Trump called last night with congratulations on the victory. The race to take on the republican in texas, this from the texas tribunal. Declares victory in the democratic primary for the u. S. Senate and unofficial results showed her leading a fellow democrat by four percentage points. West did not concede, saying he would make a statement early today here in his campaign is waiting for more results, with 90 of locations reporting mj hegar with 52 to 48 . With primaries yesterday to take on senator susan collins, a race that is rated by most race rating organizations as a tossup in campaign 2020. Gideonouse speaker sarah won the democratic primary for u. S. Senate and will face senator susan condon senator susan collins. The race was called at 9 06, owners old showed that gideon was ahead ahead 73. 5 of the votes, well over the 50 threshold to avoid a ranked choice runoff. Gideon will now formally go headtohead with collins and what is already the most expensive congressional race in maines history. Both are likely to be in the National Spotlight as maine is considered a pivotal state for republicans. Collins has become a target for liberals who argue the senator has failed to adequately stand up to president donald trump. Back to your phone calls as we ask about your top issue for campaign 2020. Connie is an independent. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I am 83 years old. I have never seen anything like this before. All this rioting and everything. Why dont lee democrats say enough is enough . Go back to school. Learn a trade. Make a better person of yourself. Look at these athletes making all this money. AfricanAmerican People. Look at oprah. Look at all these people that are in office. They go rioting . They go doing all these things these people are doing . Host how do you think we are doing on Race Relations . Caller not doing good because democrats are not speaking up, saying stop this, enough is enough. Look at the babies that have been killed. Look at the innocence innocent children. Are they saying anything . No. It has been kept quiet. It is not right. Kids, make a better life. I was an orphan when i was little and i was rejected from jobs when i applied, but i said i am not giving up. Im going to go and get a job and i raised five girls by myself because my husband passed away early. Life is what you make it. You cannot be feeling sorry for yourself all the time. Upish democrats would speak and say something. Enough is enough. In frontthat message of his house, black lives matter. Why does he do that . Host that is connie in california. Vero beach, florida, republican. Caller your show is great. If i can get my wife to watch it, you know it is great. Short, my wife is a native american. How do i put this the right way . Changing the Washington Redskins that is not what concerns me. Somebody put out 2 of the country is concerned about police fertility police brutality. Flip those. Native americans have no problem at all with the name Washington Redskins. It is the idea that why is the percentages so low on things we are typing about talking about every day . This country is turmoil. Old. 7 years i grew up in the middle of the 1960s. My dad was a cop in new york in the homicide squad. All the stuff we are seeing , you, except the pandemic asked a question to the lady before me about Race Relationships. I can tell you one thing. It is a help a lot better hell of a lot better than it was in the 1960s. Everybody seems to be overlooking that. It is frustrating. Host before you go, you say we are not talking about the issues were talking too much about issues not a lot of people care about. Abouting to that pole, the most import problems facing the country, or the top four issues from their june 2020 pole, 19 of respondents say it is economics problems and that breaks down into different economic problems. 21 say it is the government and poor leadership. 20 say it is coronavirus and the pandemic. Andsay Race Relations racism are the most important problems facing the country. You think that is about right . Yes. R i would say so. , im trying toy keep a cool head about it. Im frustrated because of what i saw happen in the. You cannot talk about a more tumultuous time than there was then. It had to do with the war, with race, with economy, just all the things we talk about now except for the pandemic. Who could foresee that . We have been through this before. We learn from it. Take someone who was 35 years old, whatever, and talk about the 1960s, i would think somebody that was what would say, wow. Host a lot of people point to 1968 when we are talking about turmoil in this country. How old were you in 1968 . Caller 15. Host do you think we are in worse shape as a country now than in 1968 . Caller worse. I wish i could use the right words. Know, iteally you is really sad to see what is going on. Things havee changed these past few weeks, but this whole attitude is not going to change. You guys do a great job. Im not a cnn fan. I watch fox. If you flip through the channels countryst see that this is in bad shape. I know we will come through it, but we have been there, done that. That is frustrating for somebody like me that has seen it before. I am not talking off the top of my head. I have a good memory. Anyway, i do not want to take anymore of your time. I appreciate you letting me talk my piece. Host this is mary out of seminole, florida. Democrat. Caller good morning. Thank you for allowing me to speak. I feel i am a democrat, registered. However, i do not vote my party. Issues,he candidate and and i believe that it is tragic but, not only unfortunate, that we have this pandemic in the middle of the election and all of the other things that are going on in the world. I grew up. I am 66 years young. And recently widowed. I do remember. I grew up going to school with other races, and i was taught as a young woman how to behave and how to treat others as i wanted to be treated. Thingshan to adjust some that i the way i speak or someone is referred to, i have done pretty well going by what my parents had taught me, which was treating people the way i wanted to be treated. We all have the same constitution. If some reason, it feels as i was asked to produce my tax records. I would have to produce them. I would or i would have been jailed. Sometimes the political people that are in politics are not going by the same laws that we are. You say ask you you do not vote by party and you vote by the candidate, by the issues. Caller candidates and issues, yes. Host would you be willing to Cross Party Lines . Would you vote for a republican or have you . Caller i have voted republican, and i have voted democrat. For calling in on the democrat line is because i am a registered democrat, but i do not necessarily vote my party. Host which republican did you vote for . For i havevote voted for very few republicans. I did not vote for mr. Trump primarily because of the lack of his background regarding bankruptcies. That is something i feel strongly enough. I have always paid my bills. I will not get into things that are irrelevant. They pale by comparison. For george w. Vote bush or Ronald Reagan or did you vote for caller i voted for george w. Bush, yes. I also have , believe this is the first president that i can recall and i have voted every year since i had the ability to do so perhaps the if president should go to bed and rest and stop sniping with his twitter account at night and he would probably get along better with both sides of the population, those politically focused and those that are citizens like myself. It is just an opinion. If theres anything else that you have to ask me, i appreciate the opportunity. Host we appreciate you answering the questions. You mentioned the president s twitter account. The president tweeting and quoting fox and friends this morning. The president just about four minutes ago quoting fox and friends, sing joe budden has made a lot of promises and not gotten a lot done garen the president adding his own commentary, saying that is the understatement of the year. This is robert out of frostburg maryland. Frostburg, maryland. Caller good morning. How are you . Host i am doing well. Caller i just listened to the , and eachous callers one of them, republican, democrat, whatever, they were nice group. Im a 76yearold vietnam veteran. This is the craziest president i have ever seen in my life. Weather those four people before me were republican, democrat, or independent, what i see with this president is a destruction. F the country i fought for i have never in my life seen someone more antiamerican then donald j. Trump. See how he isy to destroying my country, internationally as well as domestically. That our god almighty country will be saved from this guy. He has made enemies everywhere on the planet come with friend and foe alike. Me of it reminds thehitler transformed German Government from a democratic government to an authoritarian, fascist government. Host before we get to hitlers comparisons, have you read or would you read books about the president . There has been a lot a focus on mary trumps book. Mary trump now free from her the judicial order keeping her from talking about her book mary trump has one word of advice firm for her uncle, resigned. Do you plan on reading that book . Caller . This lady is donald j. Trumps ece, a Family Member. She turned to the state of new york and some of the things she, says to member, authorities about how crazy this man is, i love my country. I fought for my country. I see what he is doing to destroy it. Evenf our european allies, the Prime Minister of canada, would not talk to him the other day when he had an appointment. Guy out ofget this office before he destroys this country. That is robert in maryland. On mary trumps book my Good Morning America got the first interview on that book. From goodlittle bit morning america. [video clip] april 2017, you see the president in the oval office and you tell him, do not let them get you down. Did you mean that . I did. He that wash that was four months in purity already seemed strange strained by the pressure. He had never been in a situation before where he was not entirely ortected from criticism accountability or things like that. Flynn had to be fired and from the get go it had not been going well. I did mean it. I did not mean i want you to keep doing what youre doing and so much ofth it, but what has happened since then had not yet happened. Heust a member thinking seems tired. He seems this is not what he signed up for, if he even knows what he signed up for. Wereught his responses more enlightening than my statement. He said, they will not get me. Far, it looks like he is right. If you were in the oval office today, what would you say . Resign. Is too much how my family creta the worlds most dangerous men created the worlds most dangerous man. If and when mary trump does a book event, we will cover it. Back to our phone calls, about 10 minutes left asking for your top issue in campaign 2020. David is a republican out of oakdale, new york. Good morning. My topics on the campaign are basically the same,obs, foreign policies, trade order, trying to unite the country, going for change, trying to create good changes that are within the constitution and bill of rights. You have a group of politicians that do not look at the history. These politicians go against everything that was set before us by the four by the forefathers and other president s who put policies into place. Some changes,h like plastic straws, plastic bags at grocery stores. Those changes i do not see as valuable. Used. E more plastic being they are trying to create a green movement. Plastics have not stopped being created and being used. Biden talks about renewable energy. It is a good thing, but we have oil and gas in this country, and ee the government trying to create having a of change. Host this is james, a democrat. I amr my comment is what looking for in a president , to be able to go to college and not have someone else take his tests. He is not knowledgeable. He is not fit. When you cheat and someone goes to college and you have someone else to take your test, you are not knowledgeable. You are a cheater. Host you are talking about mary trumps book. Are you going to buy it . Caller i do not need to buy it because it speaks for itself. He did not even know i called the first day he was elected. Did not know where his was. Host darrell in kentucky, republican. Caller good morning. Host what is your top issue of campaign 2020 . Caller racial violence and problems as far as writing and protesting and stuff going on. And the lack of the Democratic Party addressing these issues. You see the republicans trying to stand up or at least try to help some of these issues while the republicans democrats silent onpletely anything going on and have offered no solutions to stop these problems. If you want to see economic discrimination, come to southeastern kentucky. Out of 120 counties, i live in the only county in kentucky that does not have a highway through it. You will see economic disparity here, but we do not burn buildings and break windows and destroy property. We have our problems, but we try to work them out among ourselves. That is what the nation needs to do. No one race is better than the other, but no one race is less than another. They have problems created by their own people. Some of the comments from facebook and our text messaging service. This is albert on facebook, saying the top issue for campaign 2020, a government that works more effectively with cost efficiency. Too much time and money is wasted on politics. My Biggest Issue is the radical i considerd what crazy ideas crafted to destroy our country. Viewer whos for this texted income a unity of the nation, National Debt, truth from the government, and reducing president ial power, giving the power of the people the governing of the nation congress. Making our social services excel and serving our citizens without privatization. Susan in new york. There are many issues, but my top issue is not reelect trump. In lawndale, california, independent. What is your top issue. Top issue . Caller my main issue is wellbeing, more specifically Mental Health. I was watching that guy that called from georgia and i think the other main concern is people not doing their research and just taking trumps word for granted or not following arguments with facts. Issue, health is a big especially Mental Health. About the you think conversations in this country about Mental Health, have they been lost amid the Health Conversations involving coronavirus . Caller yes. I think just health has been lost. There is a Family Member that works for a hospital that has to apply for unemployment. Weday, i had to talk have gotten sick with coronavirus. My mom tested positive. Is initely Health Health and wellbeing is a big thing i have seen in our community. The health and wellbeing of Supreme Court justices, always a topic of interest. A story today from the Washington Post reporting that Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg was admitted to Johns Hopkins hospital in baltimore early yesterday to receive treatment for a possible infection and will remain for a few days according to a release from the Supreme Court. Tuesday afternoon, the court said ginsburg had been experiencing fever and chills and was initially taken to a hospital in the district. She has been public about her ethical issues, including being treated four times for cancer. Fracturedr 2018, she three ribs. She was taken to Johns Hopkins inmate for nonsurgical treatment of a benign gallbladder condition. And last year was treated following chills and a fever. Ginsberg declared herself cancer free earlier this year following treatments for pancreatic cancer last summer. On the health of justice ginsburg. In california, you are next. Caller thank you. I am concerned about our country. We have poor leadership right now. There is cronyism, nepotism, lies. Our current president bodying up to leaders like kim jongun and putin. I am fearful we are going to lean more toward totalitarian government. I am concerned about the. Ilitarization of our employees i am also with the virus, im also concerned about our current protection taking when he speaks with large groups of people. Shocking. S all i am afraid that, in our country ofhe country, by the the people, by the people, and four the people is getting so watered down in a way that we have a countryo like we have had. Host terry, ohio, independent. With all the unrest we have had and everything that the country would start understand how taught. Was america was built on lies and maybe we can begin to really tell a story of how this country it was built how on white supremacy. As far as the republican party, i hope this is the demise of the republican party, the if they can tolerate the full we have an office and protect him and stand behind him, i do not see how anybody could ever vote for them. The holes that are in the constitution youre always talking at how the constitution is so supreme. There are a lot of loopholes and with the constitution. This guy has stretched everything about the constitution. He is getting away with it. We are sitting back saying, how can he do this . He is doing this right in front of us. I hope we have a real awakening in this country to see who we are. Host our last caller in this segment, plenty more to come including New York Times Jim Tankersley joins us to discuss the economic proposals offered by joe biden and the role of the economy will play in 2020. Beth conley of the Pew Charitable trust will join us to talk about how the pandemic has affected the opiod up at epic. Announcer cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program. By the Peoples Television company as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Announcer during the summer months, reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all the Contact Information you need to stay in touch with members of congress, federal agencies and state governors. Online today at cspanstore. Org. President s,he available now in paperback and ebook. President s of every organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst. Intofeatured perspectives the lives of our chief executives and leadership styles. Cspan website, cspan. Org the president s. Whereverr copy today books and ebooks are sold. Announcer washington journal continues. Host Jim Tankersley joins us via zoom for a conversation about the Joe Biden Campaigns new series of economic plans. The first was released last week, the second came yesterday. First, explain the pitch the biden camp is making with these spending Investment Plans. Guest thanks for having me, it is a pleasure. What joe biden is trying to do is counter President Trump on the economy. The president won the election in part on the strength of a populist pitch to americans who , and makinghind appeals to the industrial midwest about manufacturing. The first part of joe bidens new plan he put out last week is called build back better. Live laughtle like love, but for the economy. With the former Vice President wants to do is promote more of what he calls a buy American Youth host. He is going to get the government to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more on americanmade products. He is going to take other steps to make the country produce more things here so there are more manufacturing jobs, something that president s and president ial candidates for a long time have promised. The former Vice President is leaning into it here in an effort to take away some of Donald Trumps industrial midwestern support. Host 700 billion Investment Plan came out last week, followed by yesterday a 2 trillion plan linked to Climate Change and economic recovery. Dive into that. Guest it is a different topic, you might say. As anyone who has paid attention to the way democrats talk about Climate Change over the last decade knows, it is being framed by biden as a jobs issue. He is talking about making things in america. In this case, electric vehicles, overhauling infrastructure. He wants to get america entirely off of fossil fuel production and on to clean energy. Spend 2plan to trillion increasing investments in american infrastructure and creatingn in hopes of what he says will be millions of union jobs in the clean energy sector. The president s campaign and ers worn would threaten warn would threaten jobs that already exist in fossil fuel. Host what else are you expecting . Guest we expect two more big speeches. He has promised this is going to be a big bold plan. Seeingch step, we are the former Vice President being willing to spend more money. Had the comparatively smallest plan in terms of new federal spending in the primaries, but he is moving more toward the visions of candidates like Elizabeth Warren or cory booker in the way he is a federalideas like guarantee program for federal workers which would expand the federal workforce. Ftc in theike the fdr era. Biden is certainly nowhere close to the level of spending that Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders had during the primary, but he is signaling a willingness to aggressively tax very high earners and the wealthy in order to fund what his Campaign Calls investments middleclass. E of four are two out plants in and we are at 2. 7 trillion in spending. Who is going to be taxed . How much does he expect to raise from that . Where else could this money come from . Guest he had in the primaries a plan just north of 3 trillion in tax increases. That is growing now. He is talking about reversing that of the trump tax cuts benefited large corporations and the wealthy. He would raise the Corporate Income tax rates, raise taxes on Capital Gains which are largely paid by higher earning investors. I think the campaign has drawn a , people that we would consider the uppermiddleclass, or truly the lower rungs of high earners will not see tax increases under his plan. What he is promising as he can do all of this on the backs of the rich and big companies. That is something that democrats in the primary raced to see who could tax the rich more. Proposalsa lot of democrats have lying around for different ways to tax wall street, or multinational corporations, or wealthy individuals. It appears biden is going to be deploying more of those then he said in the primary, but nowhere close to a Bernie Sanders level of tax. Host the Biden Economic pland and economics in general are the topic. You can call in. The phone lines are open to democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. , 202 7488002. I would be remiss not to ask about your forthcoming book, the riches of this land the true story of this countrys middleclass. What are you writing about and why are you writing about it . Then 10 years one has an economics reporter in washington a sickly chasing this question of why the economy does not work for the middle class in the way that all americans had hoped and expected after the golden era of the decades following world war ii when we pulled millions into the middle class and delivered on the american dream. Economyound is that the has stopped working for everyone because we stopped breaking down the barriers that exist that keep talented people from getting ahead. What Economic Research and history shows us is there is a group of workers who, when they surged into better opportunities , the entire economy benefited. That includes women, workers of color, immigrants. Empowering them is the key to revitalizing the economy both overall for the middle class, and particular coming out of a pandemic recession when we know that black workers and hispanic workers and women have been on the front lines, essential workers for Health Impacts and economic impacts. Investing in them, getting them back to better opportunities, reducing racism and sexism that has held them back, that is going to help not just those workers, but everybody. It is going to help white workers in ohio. It is going to help men and women. It is what history shows us lifts the entire economy up and i think it is the recipe for another golden era in america. Landthe riches of this out just in time for your late summer reading. Derek, lake land, minnesota. Caller good morning, america. I have a couple of comments. I am not complaining about this. Washington journal i have been watching for 30 years. Times reporters on, maybe you should probably have a segment with barry weiss talking about a resignation. A newspaper that is supposed to be about the First Amendment is not about free speech. It is very bad over there in your newsroom. Your editors have been sticking up for i will get on. Host let me just say, Jim Tankersley, do you want to comment about the editorial side of the paper and how much involvement or interaction you have with that . Guest i dont. I know some of the folks who work in the editorial, but they are a Different Department than ours. Dont have a comment on what is going on on that side. Say i have always felt supported by my editors at the New York Times. I have written a lot of stories that a lot of people have disagreed with. I know conservative americans are upset about what has happened with barry weiss. I have written a lot of stories that upset liberals. They complained to my bosses and they have always supported be no matter who was angry at me. Host to your economics question. Caller i would say that there is no firewall. That tookeporters down the opinion editor in the past. Weissuld read barry resignation letter. Free presshat, the has no free speech. That is crazy. Lets talk about the economy. Bidens plan to bring electronic vehicles and electric vehicles, we have done that before with obama. Calleduld look at a book by michael shellenberger. Fantastic guy. He was the original Green New Deal guy in the early 2000s. He saw the corruption what happened. Obama brought in 80 billion and it went through a handful of people basically you invest on lobby the government and get a return of x. These guys made off like bandits. 80 billion from a handful of and it didnt do anything. In every country, look at france, germany, electric prices will go up. Host derek in minnesota. Jim tankersley, is the Joe Biden Campaign concerned that these plans are picking winners and losers . That was a part of the concern when the solyndra issue came up. Guest i think it is the concern anytime the government gets involved in trying to promote a particular center of the economy good not just the Obama Administration, it is something the trumpet ministration has tried to do. They are aware of those arguments. Their argument is that this is where the economy is going. A low carbon future is , but there is a race across the world to be leaders and technology. Governments are getting involved everywhere. The flipside to that argument is exactly what the caller said. There are choices you have to make. Electricity prices will likely go up in the event of certain climate policy. It is also true that electricity prices have been fairly muted over the last decade or so because of technological advances in hydraulic fracturing. Not all predictions have come to pass about any of it. , i used tollenberger cover energy the Chicago Tribune and i have been steeped in all of the arguments. I will say the economic arguments about clean energy have evolved. The administration the Current Administration has policy that favors particular types of energy. They very much are actively trying to help coal. That is something we have seen from president s across time, they try to promote the things that they believe are most important to the national economy. Democrats are reacting to some of that, and more aggressively pushing their own visions. Host the caller mentions the Green New Deal. 2 trillion certainly does not go as far as the Green New Deal. Were any of those folks involved in coming up with the Green New Deal involved in helping joe biden create this plan or any of the other economic plans . Isst what joe biden has had a deep veil of secrecy over who exactly are his closest advisors on the economy. There is a rule among people who are part of various some of the taskforces advising him that they are not allowed to speak to the press about their involvement. It is also true that he has had a public process, a unity process with his former primary arrival Bernie Sanders. Many of sanders allies have joined with joe bidens allies to present recommendations for policy. Those include some Green New Deal folks. I think that it is unclear as of yet just how much impact those recommendations will have. They have clearly had some. Material ofis the the campaign. Futureen staffs a administration with, what policies he chooses to emphasize over others if elected, those are the things that it is difficult to tell now, but you can look for clues based on people around him and who he seems to be drawing guidance from. Host fort worth, texas. This is evelyn, a democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. My concern is regarding the economy. How our relation is globally the way i understand, since President Trump has been in we have poor relations , European Countries countries. Especially china. I understand about china, they have been planning and make trade deals with other countries like south america and the asianpacific areas. President trump has basically isolated us from everyone else. I was concerned about that. Host lets take up that concern. That is a big topic. How much is joe biden looking to reach out to these countries . A big part of the plan he announced last week was the buy american policy, the make it in america policy. Guest joe biden is trying to walk a line wherein he adopts the things you like about the president s approach to trying to promote domestic manufacturing while also talking about trying to engage america with the world. Is a concrete policy question the caller is alluding to, the Obama Administration had negotiated the transpacific partnership. An agreement with pacific rim countries for trade. Nixedent trump has americas involvement in that. Haveiden, the last that i read although i have not talked with the campaign the last i read, the campaign would not seek to reenter that but seek to renegotiate the terms of the tpp in order to create a better deal for america. It is a thin line. He is trying to both say he wants to be more engaged on the global stage and have more influence on trading partners than President Trump has, while at the same time saying he will be just as hawkish about bringing jobs back to america. Host this is from the Editorial Board of the washington times, bidens liberal borrowing. Tip toen owes a hat President Trump whose 2017 inaugural day speech included the following, buy american and higher american. The policy over friday, the president could simply have referenced the old saying imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Charles out of fort collins, colorado. Caller good morning. I am glad you alluded to the tpp. I think they should bring that india to takede away some business from china. Put pressure on china who will put pressure on north korea. We have too many eggs in one basket in china. Besides that, it troubles me when i see americans about taxes. If you look back in the fdr years, a lot of the Corporate Taxes were 70 and higher. Roaring. My was we were doing very well back then. We are seeing with marginal rates and everything, our tax so low. It is not bringing jobs back. Maybe a little, but you are not going to cut taxes and create wealth in this nation. The supplyside trickle down, i do not see it ever working and it never has. Even during fdr. When youre they tried to and it didnt work. Greed,ee this corporate Middle America since the 1970s, the income disparity keeps growing. Now we have unrest. When people dont see hope, when people dont have jobs, you have revolution. [laughter] host sounds like a topic you might address in that book you are writing. Guest i do. Read about every day as my job as an economics reporter, i would say there certainly is a real there has been a robust debate of the last three years, but not much evidence that the president s tax cuts have brought jobs and investment back to the neat back to the United States at the rate the president promised. I would say the data are clear that promises have not come true about how much investment would return and in particular, how much new would come in from abroad. To deal not seeking with what the caller is talking about the racing Corporate Taxes anywhere near that corporate high. He was talking about going back to where they were before the trump tax cant text cap acknowledgment that the previous rate was uncompetitive compared to other countries around the world and their Corporate Tax cuts. Nerdy aboutg politics, but it shows the incrementalism that continues to dominate on both sides. President trump wiped out , but he took it from a high of 35 to 21 . Joe biden is talking about crawling that back. That is the game they are playing. That is where the debate, the terrain of the debate. Host from Corporate Taxes with visual taxes, since it is tax about thewhat we know joe biden plan when it comes to individual tax rates . Guest he would raise the top income tax rate back to where it was before the trunk the trump tax cuts. Talk aboutis rivals doing much more than that. Democrats in congress have about as much as a 70 top personal tax rate. Democrats whony were running on the primaries, has not talked about reversing the tax cuts that lower and middle income americans receive. Which were, as a share of the overall tax cuts, relatively small but still meaningful to the vast majority of americans. Thing that may be in the interest of your viewers and for california and new york, places with higher taxes, joe biden wants to restore the state and local tax reduction which would amount to a tax cut for upper middle and higher earners in high tax places like new york city under the bay area. To go back tog, the question of why the economy booms so much at different times , it can be hard to tease that out. We can look back and say taxes were higher in the economy was doing better, but we cant call that causal. There is empirical evidence about what was different in those years after world war ii and how much did it help the economy grow and help income grow. I am not going to give the whole thing away, but the answer has a lot to do with reducing discrimination and opening up occupations to people who had previously been told, and hey, you cant be a doctor. I think there is a lot for america to do that has some, not entirely to do with tax policy. Host riches of this land the true story of this countries middleclass. About 20 minutes left with Jim Tankersley. Taking your phone call. Caller good morning. Good to see you guys going to work today. I want to say a few different cspan, i am losing faith in you. I have been watching you guys for four or five years. I have been watching you since before trump. I notice you guys seem to be biased on a lot of programs shall, guests you bring on, specials about communities you put forth. Host what is an example of that . I promise if you keep watching you will find somebody who you do agree with. Caller i do. When you guys do that, it is only for about two minutes and then you put Democratic People on there for the rest of the 58 minutes. Whether it is something good or bad on any aspect, i sit and watch you guys do that. Women ofts from the the president s lives or whatnot. I dont hear anything ever about misses trump. When your new thing comes out about the first lady, you dont even mention her. Host i promise you, in the first lady series, if we can get an interview with melania trump, we will certainly do that. I promise you, stick around. I hope you do keep watching because we do our best around here to bring you all sides of the discussion. Caller i hope so. I will keep praying for that. News orjust watch one read one paper. It does seem that sometimes you guys do do that. It is better than some, but try to stay down the line. Decidesthat when trump he is going to let medical andjuana for all 50 states, American Veterans will quit passing away and committing thende, stop this nonsense , i think it will be better. Oft this is stephen out chester, new york. Caller good morning. I would like to ask a question regarding the corporate overseas fits under the biden plan [indiscernible] host guest im sorry, i had a hard time hearing that. I am have long i am having trouble hearing you too. I think the topic was corporate profits being brought back and when. That general topic. If you can talk about that, maybe that is a possible debate point in the 2020 election. Now isso, the way it is that corporate profits held overseas have been subject to a onetime repatriation tax. Then, there is a very complicated system of attempting to tax corporate profits on various types of income. It tries to be a global minimum tax, i think the easiest way to describe both what joe biden and the Democratic Party in general the bitedo is increase of that tax. I do not know that we are going to go back to the old system, even if democrats take power of both the house and senate, and also the white house. There are a lot of proposals hanging around among leading andcrats on capitol hill, within the campaign about how to more aggressively tax corporate profits that are earned and held overseas. That is obviously going to be a big flashpoint and a big for some of the plants joe biden is offering. Some of the plans joe biden is offering. Caller first, i would like to say i have been watching you guys for over 35 years. Thank you so much for being on my cable station. It is a pleasure when i watch congressional hearings, i watch the whole thing. And then i watch the news and see how it differs. Thank you very much for being one of the few out there giving us real information. Host i appreciate that. You can appreciate the Cable Companies too. Is, i my question to jim was a fan of joe biden before anybody realized who he was, about 35 years ago. By and ieeing time go am seeing the stuff he has done in office, the one thing i do bring to point when i have a discussion with democrats is that when trump got in, the democrats hated him. More or less, some republicans hated him. I believe it is because he did not want to play the game. He said things that maybe he should not, but i watch his actions. With joe biden becoming the president , possibly, what is joe biden going to do to change . He has hadse all this time to correct things. I see the good trump is doing, although not in the greatest way , but his actions are proven. How was it that joe biden is actually going to make america down a path of equality for jobs and Everything Else given his track record . Question,is a great sort of fundamental of this campaign. I have been reporting on american politics and the economy long enough to know it is something people are tired of. I would ask you quickly, what policies you think have been most effective that the president has pursued . Host i think the caller hung up. Caller im sorry. I will answer, again a good question but i was looking for more contacts context. I think what joe biden has to sell to the American Public is the idea that he can be effective with policies that he many of which he has been talking about for a long time. Both reversing longrunning of paying for americans in the middle class, or an economy that does not deliver their expectations, but also to finish the work of lifting the country out of a deeper session. One thing biden has been emphasizing in recent weeks is that he had experience in the Obama Administration. They inherited a recession, and he was the tip of the spear for Recovery Efforts. It is also true that recovery from the Great Recession was disappointing. It was slow and took a long time to filter down to hardworking americans. I think that is a big challenge he has, to basically convince the American People that this is going to be different, this is going to be a faster recovery and he has more aggressive or ambitious plans. Something new, something fresh that will help economy grow and deliver prosperity in the way that americans want it to. Does he go deeper about being the tip of the spirit and Recovery Efforts . What does that mean . Guest he was in charge of the stimulus bill they passed in 2009. Back when he was still Vice President , i interviewed him about those efforts. He was very proud of a lot of the work he had done as they had done, but acknowledged candidly it had not done enough quickly enough. He talked about his roots in scranton, pennsylvania and he talks about american workers. He was the head of president obamas middleclass task force. I think he is going to have to make that connection that the caller was talking about. How are policies this time going to be sufficient and good and effective at solving these problems . That will be a challenge for any democrat in this environment. I also think it is a challenge for President Trump. He did not inherit a recession, he inherited an economy where on employment was low and the economy was growing. He is going to have to make the case that his policies are sufficient to bring the economy not just back from pretty good to better, but from very bad to get again. Two good again. Host robert in price, utah. Good morning. Caller i would like to ask him if he explored in his book the good the g. I. Bill did after world war ii to build the middleclass. 1980s under ronald gutted the g. I. Bill was. How much damage did that do in building our itll from that point forward . I will take my answer off the air. Host thanks. Guest thank you for the question. I talk a little bit about the g. I. Bill which was obviously a very effective measure of building the american middle class for particular americans. The full benefits of the g. I. Bill were not available to everyone who had served. Black americans did not fully benefit from what it was offering. Shortcoming. Was a things could have been better. It is a good example of when the government sets out to invest in human capital, as politicians like to call it. , it it invests in people has a real shot at building productivity and economic growth. Most of all, building individual peoples American Dreams that spill over to everyone and lift up the whole country. And theck to 2020 economic debate, from the rose garden, President Trump going after joe biden on several fronts. One has to do a little bit with what we are talking about, his work during the Obama Administration. The president pointing out what did not get done back then. [video clip] pres. Trump america lost nearly 10,000 factories while joe biden was Vice President. 10,000 factories. Today, andmething made a Statement Today that i wrote down, it is accurate. Years,en was here for 47 the last eight years not long ago he said one in five miles of highways are in poor condition. We are doing a good job on highways. Why didnt he fix them three years ago . Tens of thousands of bridges are in disrepair and on the verge of collapse. That is probably not the right number. We have bridges that should have been fixed. Why didnt he fix them . He was there for eight years with president obama. Tens of thousands of bridges. He wrote, highspeed broadband. Why didnt he get it . Three years ago was not a long time. Things,t do any of the but now he says he is going to be president and as president he is going to do all of the things he didnt do. He never did anything except make bad decisions, especially on foreign policy. Host President Trump yesterday in the rose garden. Jim tankersley, you have watched joe bidens economic pitches, how does he counter this question . Why didnt you fix infrastructure . There are two issues embedded in the president s critique. The first is about manufacturing. It is true, the Obama Administration inherited an economy that was shuttering factory jobs and they did not rebuild what was lost. It is also true that President Trump, though he has seen manufacturing job growth in the first two years of his presidency, has not come anywhere close to getting back those jobs lost. It has unfortunately been a ratcheting down over the last several decades where a recession comes, wipes out manufacturing, and then there is either little lower nor rebound into the jobs little or new rebound in the jobs to follow. Is actuallyart something joe biden and donald trump have in common. They both really wanted to do massive Infrastructure Spending while in office. The Obama Administration did some with a stimulus bill, that it did not get a second bill through which president obama had wanted for much of his time in office. President trump had been promising a large infrastructure bill which she has also not gotten through. That has both been the case that both have dealt with part of their time in office a congress that was in part controlled by the party. It is also true that the Obama Administration and Trump Administration briefly controlled fiscal policy in washington. Infrastructure never seems to get done. I think it is a great question why the Obama Administration wasnt able to do more infrastructure and the time it had more in congress. The answer is that what it prioritized in terms of legislation. He had other priorities that came first and there is only so much you can get done as president even when you control the house and senate. Host only so many calls we can take. We will try to get one or two more with Jim Tankersley. Patrick in costa mesa, california. Caller good morning. I am very disappointed with the media, what is going on over here. I think everybody should turn off their tvs and listen to the real news. Log onto infowars. Com. Minute or two,st we are talking about the Joe Biden Campaign. What are you going to be looking for in those next plans . Guest i think we will see them before the summer is out. The first is how far will joe biden go toward the more sweeping progressive larger ticket proposal some of his rivals had during the primaries. He is clearly adopting more of it, but we will see. The second is, there has been a shift in the way biden talks about the economy. He has always talked about structural changes in the economy. He is talking more about making investments to promote closing the racial wealth gap, and promote Economic Justice across racial lines. I think that is a product of the protests we have seen. I will be interested to see how that evolves, not just in a race plank of an economic platform, but throughout his economic platform. At ticket will be interesting to see what the president proposes it will be interesting to see what the president proposes. What agenda he has is for restarting the economy from the depths of what remains a difficult time for millions of American People. Tankersley, economics and tax reporter for the New York Times. His book, the riches of this land the untold true story of americas middle class. I appreciate your time. Guest i enjoyed it. Host up next, time for more of your phone calls on this question we began with today. Asking about your top issue of campaign 2020. Democrats, republicans, and independents, you the numbers are on your screen. We will be right back. Live, dailyatch our unfiltered coverage of congress. Issues that matter to you. Ongoing efforts to focus on a mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, health care workers. Briefings along with on coronavirus, Supreme Court oral arguments and decisions. Thanks for coming out. Announcer , and the latest from campaign 2020. Be a part of the conversation every day with our live callin Program Washington journal. If you missed any live coverage, watch any time demand at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Announcer cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program. Cspan created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service, and brought to you today by your television provider. Announcer washington journal continues. Host until 9 00 a. M. , more of your phone calls. Our question, your top issue of campaign 2020. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents 202 7488002. Here is some of the reaction to that question from some of our folks who follow along every day on social media. More Affordable Health care, rebuilding infrastructure, reforming Police Departments in order to weed out bad cops. Steve, we need to get rid of , clean up the earth and stop Climate Change. Our top issue according to another steve, the pandemic. Anyone who thinks differently is not paying attention. Everyone who is paying attention knows the president blew it. Tony saying, secure mailin ballots. Get rid of the electoral college. Just a few comments this morning from social media. This is jerry on the phone from green trail, idaho. What is your issue . Caller biden is going to raise taxes on corporations. What is that going to stop corporations from going overseas and taking jobs and money overseas . Mcdonalds already did that one time. Ist we need in this country if youre going to need things made in china, make 50 of your product here if you want to sell it here. Host that is jerry in idaho. Washington. In caller good morning. How are you . Host i am doing well. Issue is bringing politics and government for the people, by the people into the 21st century. Host how do we do that . Caller [laughter] host just listen through your phone. Caller ok. I am sorry. I have not done this before. I mean, this is my third time. You guys do a wonderful job. Somebody trying to do something is worthwhile. To your original comment about bringing politics into the 21st century, how do we do that . Recognizeioritize, things as they need to be dealt with. You have to have some organization. I am going to say what i need to say right here, had they not messed around with what biden they got rid of that whole entire pandemic office. Trump does not want to have people around him. Tim is in florida, a republican. Caller good morning. I want to talk a little bit about issues in the campaign regarding special interest. , somer it be media familiar names like the republican party, the coke brothers koc everyone has these interests and generally the interests we talk about are the people who have the most money. When you turn on the news and you see kids getting shot, babies getting killed, and then we are just juxtaposing that to george soros investing 220 million in these socalled social Justice Movements no one knows where that money goes, right . What is he really advocating for . Withder what you could do 220 million in a place like chicago. To cleanse that money up the streets. The broken windows theory is applicable to this day. I got my degree in criminal justice, and that is still taught. Everyone has that these interests, but the only interests we seem to focus on our billionaires. Tom steyer, george soros, the koch brothers, when does it come down to the people who say we dont want everyone to die . We want everyone to prosper. The question to me becomes, when does the vote starts to count . When are we electing politicians to do what we want tohim what we want them do instead of who is paying them. I think that begins with sweeping investigations on pay to play schemes. Everyone in washington trembles in their boots about that. Schweizers book really popped it off. Host who do you trust in these investigations . Caller i trust federal agencies like the fbi, but when politicians get involved in those investigations they get corrupted. Look at the gang of 8, richard burr again, im a republican. Richard burr to me is not a republican. He sold stocks before the pandemic happened, he is a coward. Involveder is directly in a lot of corrupt schemes. Hey,i agent tells them listen, we have proof that james wolf leaked the documents. The fbi used resources and that agent took time and effort and theory job to get that and investigate guess what . Nothing happened. Host john is in fairfax, virginia. A democrat. Good morning. Caller i think biden should emphasize defunding the war against drugs, particularly marijuana. Marijuana should be taken off schedule one. I think by supporting that move, he would bring a lot of voters to the polls who otherwise might not come to the pulse. Otherwise might not come to the polls. Host james in columbus, nebraska. What is your top issue . Caller we all have these great ideas to make government better on the national level, but we dont have any money to do it. The National Debt is my top issue. New castle, delaware. Republican, good morning. Caller i think before joe biden decides he wants to be president , they need to investigate him and let everybody know what he did in china when he took 1. 5 billion from the chinese bank. Also, the ukraine mass that him and his son hunter got into. I dont think that joe biden is going to go in there and work for four years for nothing. Lets see if he gives up his salary like President Trump did. Host who is they . Do you think congress should lead an investigation . Caller democrats. Hillary, covered for and she took all the millions of dollars. And then they covered her joe biden covered for joe biden. All of this corruption was during the obama and joe biden administration. Delaware jesse in albuquerque, new mexico. Teacher. Am a i am seriously worried about the education of our students going forward. Ideas i heard someone they talking about are worried about covid and they dont want students to get it to spread, so they want to cut classes in half to make sure class sizes are good enough for kids. At the same time they would have to stagger the learning. I think they need to invest in , building new schools, more schools so that we can have all of our kids learning all day. More teachers. That wicked people employed. Construction that would get bored people employed in construction and education. The frontstory on page of most major papers today, harvard beach President Trump to stay with the administration retreating on plants to make foreign students have to attend one class in person or risk losing their visas. U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the policy last week saying if schools move to online classes, there is no need for foreign students to be in the u. S. Because they can take their courses anywhere. Amid massive outrage and a lawsuit led by harvard, the government caved, telling a federal judge tuesday that it was revoking that policy. The Justice Department did not say exactly why it canceled the policy, but the move praised by the judge, praising both sides for reaching a deal. More calls,ouple asking what your top Public Policy issue is in campaign 2020. Eric in waynesville, north carolina. Democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. I appreciate your professionalism. It is a hard gig you have. Is, the spread of misinformation at lightning speed because of technology. People will gravitate to one ideology, and they wont let go of it. The refuse to look at the other side. They stick their fingers in their ears. Freedom of speech is a great thing, freedom of the press, we have got to have it. Freedom to spread misinformation is very concerning to me. I think republicans and democrats, independents acrosstheboard i just dont see any way of getting hold of it. People are going to say what they want to say. And lack ofnfusion continuity within our culture. Always been the biggest threat to a democracy is the spread of misinformation. It goes back through history. That is the way these revolutions get started, by people spreading misinformation. That is a painful, slow process we are going through. I appreciate your time and i love everybody. I hope we can all get along. Host thanks for the call. Cynthia from california, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Money is being spent on these meetings in congress and back and forth. Trump and thing with his kids and his cronies if we are going to spend these money on all of these things and meetings in congress its time to change everybody in the department of justice, all of his cronies and his allies are going to jail. Its time to get rid of the electoral college. Its ridiculous that people should stand in line for four hours in democratic areas while republican areas are just fine. I am seeing on tv people waiting for hours and hours. I want to see my taxpayer money be used for good. Its time for these people to go to jail. Host our last color in this segment of the washington journal. In this segment of the washington journal. We will be joined by Beth Connelly to discuss how the covid pandemic has impacted the Opioid Epidemic. We will be right back. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs coverage on television, online , or on the free cspan radio app. , created by americas Cable Companies and brought to you today by your television provider. Monthsng the summer reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all the Contact Information to stay in touch with congress, federal agencies, and state governors. Order your copy online today. The president , from Public Affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. President , of every organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst. It features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. Visit our website cspan. Org thepresident. Order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. Washington journal continues. Host Beth Connelly studies opioid use prevention and thetment in her role as project director at the Pew Charitable trust. Y, oneonnol headline on the opioid pandemic during the coronavirus pandemic, opioid overdoses are skyrocketing as covid19 sweeps across the u. S. And the old epidemic returns. Can you describe what we are seeing and what the data shows pond opioid use in the past four months . Crisisthe opioid overuse has been exacerbated by covid19. 2 Million People have an opioid abuse disorder. People are 10 actually able to receive treatment for their opioid use disorder. Because of covid, people are isolated, people are not able to reach their support systems, and being alone has complicated peoples ability to be connected and connect to their treatment and support systems. The numberown that of opioid overdoses has increased. We are hearing that from a number of states. Host towards the beginning of social distancing and when things were being shut down there was perhaps some hope that social distancing and the closing of borders and more enforcement might disrupt a drug supply chain for dangerous opioids. Has that been the case at all or was that a misplaced hope . Guest we have been studying att, we have been looking the treatment and availability of treatment. When a Public Health emergency was declared, the federal government did allow flexibility to states to increase the availability of treatment, evidencebased treatment is a key for opioid abuse disorder. Time ofre is a emergency there are often increases. Gotten increases after deepwater horizon, superstorm sandy, and the coronavirus is no different. The federal government allows states flexibilities in offering treatment in ways that were not offered before. Methadone,mple is people use methadone to treat opioid abuse disorders, were required to go through an Opioid Abuse Program every day to pick up their medication. Canr the flexibility people take home up to 20 days of medication, thereby not having public and interact with a practitioner or provider to receive their medication. Used to have counseling and psychotherapy in person now are able to utilize this via zoom like we are doing now, over the telephone, facetime, this has created more access to treatment for people who have been impacted by opioid abuse disorder. Host are people using that access . We had a call or a month or two ack saying that caller month or two back saying that the Group Session she was going to does not work over zoom. There is nothing like walking into a room for a support group, and she was thinking about not going to those zoom support meetings. What have you found in terms of people making use of that ability . Guest we have heard from a number of states, localities, and providers that they have been expanding their use of ,elemedicine and use of zoom and the flexibility the federal government has offered. In the seen an uptick people that are actually using these telemedicine options. When you have the ability to use telemedicine, you employment is not impacted, you dont have to worry about transportation, childcare needs are not as compounded as when you have to do on in person visit. Are working with their practices with telemedicine. There are some reports that some had to start from scratch and build it up, and others had been using telemedicine before and have been expanding their use of telemedicine to help more people. Host we are asking viewers to share their stories. As we talk to beth connoly of the Pew Charitable trust, studying Substance Abuse prevention and treatment initiatives. A special line for those who have been impacted by the Opioid Epidemic, 202 7488002. If youse 202 7488000 are in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 for those who are in the mountain or a time zones. The u. S. Congress has appropriated between 2. 6 and 3 trillion for the coronavirus response. How much money within that is specifically targeted for funding the Opioid Epidemic amid the pandemic . More than 400 bylion has been provided congress to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health services a federaltion, samsa, agency. That goes through them and is distributed to the state in order to address the Opioid Crisis in light of covid. Host what are some ways that money can be used . Primarily for treatment, to increase treatment for opioid abuse disorder, decreasing theiers, implementing flexibility that i spoke of, and to increase treatment for people recognizing that there has been an increase in opioid overdoses. Host is there other money that is being cut for programs that are not seeing the support amid the total focus of moving the government towards responding to the pandemic . The guardian story notes, a former director of the West Virginia office of drug control policy, in the story he points to a federal Health Institution that shifted its focus to coronavirus, including freezing 1 billion in a Research Project that had been aimed at finding a less addictive pain treatment, this is his quote. It has rob the oxygen out of the room and made the coronavirus the sole focus of what is happening. There is also fatigue about the Opioid Crisis. You can think of covid19 as a hurricane whereas the Opioid Crisis is like global warming. It is not happening at the same speed and scale of coronavirus now. Now or can right governmentederal acted quickly in offering flexibility to address this issue for people needing to be social distant socially distant, allowing access to medication in a way they never have. There has been a goal of making sure treatment is available. This is evidencebased treatment. Waynow that the best to treat opioid abuse disorder is through medication. Medication has been proven to be far better at daily recovery than an abstinencebased program. There is medication to treat opioid abuse disorder, methadone the federalne, and relaxation and flexibility has seen an increase in access to treatment. Host plenty of calls for you this morning. The connolly with us until bottom of the hour. John is up first out of new york on the line for those impacted by the Opioid Epidemic. John, good morning. To say i would just like that it saved my life by me not being able to get it on the streets anymore. I was forced to go through withdrawal and i have not touched anything since, thank you. Host thanks for sharing your story. Beth thank you so much. , on thath connolly aspect of the impact of coronavirus here and social distancing. Beth social distancing really has created isolation for people because they have lost some of their support systems, people who use drugs may use drugs alone and not have access to support, if they overdose. The increase in telemedicine has helped to beef up that support system so people can access care. Host felix out of hope mills, north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning morning, how are yall . Beth good morning. Caller i have a very specific question. I am 100 n, physically disabled and my chronic pain is around eight to 10. I have 13 vertebrae and 15 discs not including the other appendages that are messed up. Theve been on opioids under eyes of competent medical personnel for 35 years with no problem. When the Opioid Epidemic came along when people started going to doctors instead of drug dealers, getting things that were contraindicated, they started these drug tests. That is what my specific question is. Screens thate drug are done by nonfda approved doctors, how is a person in my position supposed to challenge a test when it comes back for a substance i am allergic to and they change my medication from 60 milligrams of morphine a day to 75 milligrams of morphine when i see the doctor every 28 days. When the test comes back with a false positive i am cut off immediately. That leaves people in my position i am only going to tell you our position, which means we either go to the street and grab heroin, fentanyl, or contemplate suicide without proper conditions. What do we do to challenge a questionable result on the test . We dont even know about it for 20 days or so. Host thanks for the question. Is that something you have studied . Beth this is not an area we studying. I thank you for sharing this and i am sure other people will benefit from you sharing what you are feeling. To yourend talking Health Care Community providers and other providers in your area. Host mike in union city, indiana. Good morning. Taking opioids away from people who need it and causing people to go to the streets to get what they need. You are hurting people by take a from them. Some people do need them and some people do play with them. The people that need them ought to be able to get them. They should not have to go to the streets to get it. Host we get this comment a lot, how do you find that balance . Beth thank you, collar, for your question. Workingnce is around with your Health Care Provider to ensure that you are receiving the treatment you need and there is treatment for opioid abuse disorder that a provider who has evidencebased treatment available to you is the best they have proven to be the best in adjusting this. Having this conversation with Beth Connolly of the Pew Charitable trust. You can see the Capitol Building over my shoulder. I want to talk about legislation that is waiting to happen on capitol hill. You talk about the mainstreaming Addiction Treatment act, we show viewers a little bit about that act. Beth sure. The mainstreaming addiction atment act is tore are three medications treat opioid abuse disorder. In order for a doctor or Nurse Practitioner or physicians assistant to prescribe this drug in an officebased setting, making it easily available to those who need it, they must receive a waiver from the federal government. There is no other Prescription Medication that requires this type of waiver. This type of waiver creates a disincentive for doctors to obtain the waiver and not provide the treatment. Provide thisng to drug to expand access to treatment we need to get rid of the waiver. This would do just that. It would eliminate the waiver and allow doctors who prescribed all kinds of drugs in their setting, in their officebased drugng, to provide this which is safe and effective and was approved by the fda in 2002 and has been used effectively to treat opioid abuse disorder. Host how much support is there for this, is it being put on the back burner amid the coronavirus legislation and issues being tackled . Beth there is bipartisan support for this bill in the house and senate. We hope that it will keep continuing on this trajectory until it successfully passes and is signed into law. Host is there other legislation that is waiting for action in congress that you want to point out . Beth there is legislation that would allow for medicaid to be reimbursed for people who are in jails and prisons, 30 days prior to their release. This piece of legislation would help people access treatment as they leave and reenter their communities. People that about 50 of who are in prisons or jails actually meet the criteria for Substance Abuse disorder. We are connecting them with medicaid in order to connect them with treatment. There is a high risk of overdose and death as people exit correctional institutions. Getting them to treatment is critical to keeping them safe and alive. Host this is david from evansville, indiana. Good morning. Caller this is dave, thank you for cspan. Thing has madeid it difficult for people who take opioids. I have probably been on opioids for 30 years. I used to take a script to the doctor with four or five pills left in it and say i have had these for two years and i probably need some more. Anytime you get government or an expert involved or something they are going to screw things up. I just heard this lady say they used to have people come in for methadone once a day end go through the rigmarole to get there methadone. They came up with the bright idea that they are going to give a junkie a 20 day supply and let them take it home. That does not make no sense whatsoever. The reason these people came in every day was to make sure that they were straight and werent abusing things. You are going to give a junkie 28 day supply . Most of these junkies probably dont hang by themselves. They usually associate with each other. What do you think is going to happen when you have a group of people with a 28 day supply of methadone . Dave, and thank you for your concern. People who are in treatment have made a commitment to their treatment. They are committed to recovery. They have, using their medication, worked with a practitioner or doctor who prescribes that. They work with a counselor. In this way they are well supported in their treatment over the course of time. We have not seen yet any data on diversion as a result of this federal flexibility. People are committed to their treatment and they have a support system in their Health Care System which will help them and support them as they move through recovery. Hit, before coronavirus where were we in finally getting our arms around the opioid pandemic in this country the Opioid Epidemic in this country . Beth there are a number of practicesurces and people can take advantage of to receive treatment for opioid abuse disorder. There are opioid abuse treatments through an Office Setting and outpatient treatment. However, there are a number of barriers that were inhibiting the access to these treatments. Prescribe the strict rules around methadone. Other type of drug that has this scrutiny, which adds to the stigma for this treatment of a chronic brain disease. Opioid abuse disorder is a chronic relapsing brain disease and treating that and trying to reduce the barriers of accessing treatment has been clear. Laws that we talked about prior have been in place to covid. With covid really exacerbating the problem we have to move more quickly and address all of these barriers because we are seeing opioid overdose increase. Host do you think we will have to wait until we solve covid to do that . Or do you think that there is the will to move on those issues even amid the pandemic . Seen that this Addiction Treatment act mainstreaming Addiction Treatment act being moving through during covid, people recognize this is one way to address the epidemic. , butnly during a pandemic in the midst of this pandemic we can help more people because we will have more prescribers. Regulatoryfederal flexibilities that was allowed this drugscribing of over thes the waiver phone and over telemedicine. Toe doctors are able prescribe and do this in a manner where they can reach people through the phones. We can increase access to treatment for all people with opioid abuse disorders. Host from eugene, oregon, you are next. I spent a summer in a medically induced, when i had an accident to my leg. Spent three months in a morphine induced coma. What alternatives i have nowadays to deal with this. Our work is not around the treatment of pain, but thank you for your call. Working with a Health Care Provider to address your pain is your best avenue. Someone in your family has treatment for opioid abuse seeking out a provider who provides medication and evidencebased treatment is the best place to look. Host sandra out of eastpointe, michigan. Beth good morning. The thing that gets me so angry is that people who want to take opioids take them for the wrong reasons and are hurting people who actually take it because they are in pain. The government is hurting them, doctors ple the in my case i have severe medical pain. Thank god my doctor helps me. Thousands and thousands of people, their doctors are afraid. Ofse people have no quality life left because they are suffering because of the people who want to abuse drugs. Same thing with alcoholics. There are people who are alcoholics and there are people who drink socially. It just gets me so angry that the government really is hurting people who actually go through terrible pain every day and they cant get the help because of people like you. Host what would you say to that caller . Call thank you for your and i recognize your pain and that you are trying to get help for it. Our work has been focused on treating people with a chronic brain disease, chronic relapsing brain disease and helping to ensure that they are in recovery. Been working around pain and pain management, that is something i hope you are successful with on your Health Care Provider. Host pewtrust. Org is the website if you want to check out the worth of work of buprenorphine andwork of Beth Connolly the Pew Charitable trust. We have a special line for those impacted by the Opioid Epidemic. Kendra is on that line out of florida. , i go i just want to say to the methadone clinic here. The guy before was saying they give you a months supply and you can just basically he acted like you can do whatever. No. My clinic is extremely strict. They can call you at any time to ,ome back with your bottles have them counted, do a drug test whenever. Had our counseling call us over zoom. My clinic is very strict. Clinic know what kind of he goes to, because they are all different, but mine is very it has been extremely mspful to me, because i have , absolutely, and methadone was the only thing that helped me be function dayand today with it. At times while it is embarrassing to say that i go there, i am very happy i found a place and am able to go there. It is not like they just pass it out to anybody, they are very strict and you do take drug tests all the time, you see your counselors all the time, and there is always people watching you. Clinic he goesat to, but mine is extremely strict and extremely helpful. Host thank you for sharing your story. Beth connolly, i will give you the final minute. Beth thank you so much and thank you for your courage to call and share your story. It is important to hear from people like you hor in recovery because you can inspire others. Congratulations on your recovery. Ideaant to repeat is the one thing we know about opioid abuse disorders is that barriers to treatment are complicated by how people are stigmatized and how medication and treatments themselves are stigmatized. Story. Ou for your stigma is really something that we see across the treatment system, and people who receive something we its need to address. Host thank you for your time today. Pewtrust. Org is the website. Thank you for your time. About a halfhour hour left in our program. Until 10 00 a. M. We will end with a tax day question. Today is officially the irs tax filing deadline. We want to hear about your strange andin this different year of filing taxes. If you filed early 202 7488000. If you are filing today 202 7488001. If you need an extension 202 7488002. Go ahead and start calling in. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs coverage on television, online, or our free radio app. Be a part of the conversation through the Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Daily,h our live unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house. On issues that matter to you. Our ongoing effort to focus on the mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, healthcare workers along with briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, Supreme Court oral arguments and decisions. And the latest from campaign 2020. Your calls and comments welcome. Be a part of the conversation with our live callin program, washington journal. If you missed live coverage watch ondemand at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. It is irs tax filing deadline day. 2020 this year. Asking you to call in and speak about your experiences filing during this pandemic. We want to hear from you if you filed already, if you are filing today, or if you need an extension. As you are calling in we will turn to the phone with a tax reporter with politico this morning. Talking through a little bit about the reasons why congress thought moving back the tax deadline this year would be a good idea. Has it had its intended effect amid the pandemic . Caller guest i think a lot of people did appreciate the extra three months that they received this year to get their taxes done. In looking at numbers up until the last week or two, there were more than 10 Million People who had yet to file. Wait untileople who the deadline in typical years for many reasons, those folks probably repeated that this year. Host how has covid19 impacted the irs and their ability to process their filings and get returns to people who are getting a return . At the irs have been moving slowly. Home tens ofnt thousands of employees at the end of march because of the pandemic. A lot of those workers could do what they do through a telework or remote work set up, but a lot could not. That includes processing tax returns, particularly paper returns. Still 10 or so of the 150 million tax returns the irs processes for individuals still coming in on paper. Any of those that came in on paper basically sat in an unopened pile of mail until irs workers started coming back in june. Is taking people a while to get through. The commissioner of the irs was testifying two weeks ago and he told lawmakers that they were getting through about one million a week of those unopened tax returns and they had about 5 million when they first came back to work. It will take a little over a month if that rate holds up to get through those 5 million. Host people who are filing today should expect to wait longer for their return this year . Patients is patience is in order for everyone. If you filed electronically the process is different and it probably moves quicker. If you file on paper things take several weeks to months for a refund to be sent back to you. If you file things electronically and transmits to the irs very quickly, and state revenue agencies if you live in a state with income taxes. If you are due a refund they come back to you quicker as well. The irs commissioner, top ,reasury Department Officials host have there been any estimates on how much moving back the tax filing deadline by three months has cost the federal government in terms of actually getting the money in . Im sorry, you broke up. Host has there been estimates on how much it cost to move back the tax filing deadline . Guest not that i am aware of. It just means the government will bring in the normal amount you would see through april 15 has just shifted. Our Tax Obligations remain the same. Theoretically i dont think the number would vary a lot just because we are paying it later, it just would be recorded at a later date this year. Push ors there been any interest in making july 15 a permanent day for tax filing or should filers expect to go back to april 15 next year . Inon i think everyone washington would prefer the normal nextturn to year for a host of reasons. Years,them is, in normal around this time of year the irs is already gearing up for next year. If you push payments and return due dates into the middle of the tomer you are now starting interfere with the prep work that goes into next years programming. The new forms and revised forms. There is a reason why it happens thinklly in april, and i the preference is to get back to that. Host if there is another round of stimulus later this year is that likely to interfere with prep work for next year even more . Aaron i would imagine so. The first round of stimulus, the irs was in charge of handling how that got distributed and then ultimately got it out the door. Work, when i mentioned those irs workers that work from home, if they were not working on tax returns or things they would normally do, a lot of them shifted to working on stimulus payments. Stimulusr round of payments happen later this year and the irs is in charge again i imagine it will siphon away from their normal work and they will get directed to another extraordinary assignment, stimulus check number two, then get back to their daytoday. It has certainly been an unusual year for the irs and its tens of thousands of employees. Host an unusual year for everyone. Aaron lorenzo, a tax reporter for politico. We appreciate your time this morning, talk to you again down the road. Aaron thank you. Host taking your phone calls for the last 20 minutes of our program. Just want to hear about your experience filing your taxes this year. We split up our phone lines differently. If you filed early 202 7488000 is the number. If you are filing today 202 7488001. If you need an extension, 202 7488002. How has the process gone for you . How easy or hard has it been . Bruce is up first out of anaheim, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is, if the tax has been cut by the president why am i owing the last two years . I dont understand the reason why. Tax cuts didnt impact you at all . All, i owed money this year and i owed last year. I filed already but i dont understand the reason why we owe money if they say that taxes have been cut by the president. Host we talked a little bit about that in our earlier taxent about joe bidens plans versus President Trumps tax plans. Do you think tax issues will be a big issue in campaign 2020 . Not sure. Am its just funny to me that i am owing money and not making that much money. You hear about a tax cut, and a lot of those folks we pay taxes through checks and you pay taxes when you go out to buy stuff. I am wondering where the money is going, where is the money going . Host wendy is filing today. Of canyony out country, california. Caller good morning. , i am be filing today enjoying your show. The free filing like turbotax and whatnot, people are winding up being charged even though they meet the criteria for free. If that happens they need to call and get that straightened out. It happened with my daughter. They couldme up and not understand why they would be assessed. The caller mentioned why he owes. When there is a tax cut, if they cut your holdings you will have less taken out. Unless they cut the tax rate along with the withholding you will not see a difference, the difference is your check was more but you had less paid in. Has kind of been absent, they have a Public Affairs department but you never see anyone from irs in the media like you use to back in the 80s talking about things. Now it is cpas or financial advisors. I tell people to get on the website, you can file an Extension Online for free. Go to irs. Gov and pick a vendor. Host what did you do for those 27 years . Caller various things. I started pretty much right out of high school and did not go to college like i should have and ended up staying in. I audited for a short time, and was in the field and also worked as a clerk. I have never worked harder, i have never worked with people who had more integrity. Host how do you think your former colleagues are doing today amid coronavirus and trying to deal with a bit of a different tax season . Caller it is different because i did not work in the Service Center and its a totally different environment than when you are in collections, in the field, or auditing. I have no idea what the people in the Service Centers are doing and how they are coping with having to process things when they are not there. The Security Issues are really important to the irs, so i have no idea how they are doing it. I cant imagine how it is when they come back and all the work they have to catch up with. I know with the irs that deadlines are deadlines. It may not be your fault, but thats your problem. You work until the job is done. I cant believe they got the stimulus payments out as quick as they did. I cant imagine that task. Is able to gety through and file and move on, because we still have this pandemic to deal with. Host as someone who worked at the irs for 27 years, do you usually owe every year, do you get money back or hit it on the nose . Caller you cannot. If you work there you cannot. I got a refund back. It depends on how you work it. If you get a refund of 1200 that basically meant you could have had 100 on your check. 100 a month, most people wouldnt do too much with an extra 50. With 1200 you can do so much more. I think that tax cuts and the new w4 that is confusing people, it will be more confusing. This unemployment people are getting is going to be taxable. I think unless they legislate for this year and make it not taxable people are going to be surprised that they open. It did not used to be taxable. When i started it was not taxable for federal. They automatically given extension. If you do need an extension for california there is nothing to file, it is automatic through october. Ost wendy, thank you for sharing your experience. ,ut of jamestown, california what is your experience this year . Cspan. Thank you for i watch quite a bit. I filed on march 12 for my refund and i have not seen it yet. You do paper filing or electronic . Caller i did paper filing as i normally do. There is a pretty quick turnaround generally, but i have not seen it yet. I tried contacting the irs numerous time. All the different phone numbers, you have a special phone number for your refund. I called probably 20 times. At the end of the conversation on the refund number, it says we cannot talk to you about this right now. You put in all the information that they want for the amount, information to identify yourself , and at the end it says we are not doing anything right now. Theyrs, i dont know if received my refund documentation or my tax return. I cant find that out. , andtacted my congressman he is attempting right now he is a u. S. Congressman to get that information for me and he is saying the irs is telling them six to eight weeks before they can even respond to his request about my tax return. Host who is your congressman . Caller mcclintock. Host how much do you rely on your return each year . Caller i am retired and i am on fixed income. I did take out money at a 401 this last year. Has evernow if anybody done that before, but if they had they understand that they always take out 20 federal and 10 state. They are taking 30 of your 401 k money. Is a huge back problem right now. Me ifis no way to tell they received my return. Be automatic for them to develop some kind of system. When they receive a tax return documentation it should be immediately responded to the person that they got it. Host thank you for the call. Mark is in nebraska on the line for those who need an extension this year. Walk us through your experience this year. You. R thank i always take an extension, for 23 years of being selfemployed. Is myason for doing this tax agent recommended it to get out of the fray of all of the common filers to get the irs to communicate with you is very similar to getting trump to claim he is a liberal, it is not going to happen. They are the poorest run agency in the government. Its part of the reason we have a huge debt. The penalty and interest system has no rhyme or reason. They keep changing the head of the department, every elected president puts in a new department head. Understaffedorly and as the last caller said there is no communication with them. They need a total overhauling. To where they can do their job. Minutes left in todays program. Will minutes on cspan we head over to the citizens against government waste report released today. Bookare releasing their identifying wasteful spending in the 2020 appropriations bills. Stick around on cspan after 10 00 a. M. Eastern if you want to watch that, several members of Congress Expected to speak at that event hosted by citizens against government waste. Il then the phone line for those who have filed already. 202 7488000. If you are filing today 202 7488001. If you need an extension 202 7488002. Wisconsin on the line for those who filed early. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. As the exactly the same person from california had. , what i did, iis sent a copy in and mailed it last night, because i thought, oh my god i could not get any information, where is my refund . They told me, sorry, cannot do anything. I dont know if im going to be in trouble or not. Its my money and i want it now. I dont know what to say about this. I am really exasperated. Host they cant even tell you whether they have it or not . Caller not at all. Host what amount of money are we talking about if you dont mind saying . Caller around 1000. 1000, thats a lot of money. To one of thed tax reporters at politico about the paper filings this year that many of them were sort of stacked up at the irs and had to wait until employees could physically get back in the building. How much patience do you think youre willing to have when it comes to your return . How long are you willing to wait . Think i have a lot of patience, the only thing is now i made a copy and i sent in another one fearing that somehow it gets lost in the mail and now, i my going to be in trouble for filing twice . I dont know what to say now. Host thanks for the call and good luck getting that sorted out. Wendy from fort myers, florida. Morning caller good morning. Know i need to file an extension i guess. You need to file an extension . Congress gave americans an extra three months to file. To be honest i had i have memory issues, and i did dont know that i what i should do, get with an accountant or something . Host how do you usually file your taxes, do you do them yourself or work with an accountant . Caller i get someone else to do it. I dont do it myself. Host it might be a good time to mention the Taxpayer Advocate service. We often have the Taxpayer Advocates on this program. Information about the Service Available at irs. Gov. It is an independent Agency Within the irs that billed themselves as your voice in the irs and they help taxpayers who have problems with filing and these problems are causing financial difficulty and it includes businesses as well as individuals. The Taxpayer Advocate, your voice at the irs. Gov. Chicago city, minnesota on the line for those who need an extension this year. Need some time to file my taxes, i have not done it yet. You ready to file in april, or has the coronavirus disrupted things for you throughout the three months . Caller yes. This has delayed my getting ready to file. Host do you think you will get money back . Caller i usually do. Host how much do you depend on that return . Caller i would probably spend it foolishly. Host what do you think you will spend it on this year . Think you will spend it on when it comes . Caller what will i spend it on, probably my wife. Host good answer, thomas. Karen is in clayton, indiana on the line for those who filed early. Filed early and thank you for listening to me. Agency and ia tax early, but my tax agency shut down that day they were supposed to get with me to finalize my taxes. It was a another month or six weeks before i could actually get the taxes in. Shortmy refund within a time because i automatically do that. Theso automatically got package from Congress Giving me some extra money and i plan to spend it taking a tree down that is covering my house. I am calling because of the bigger issue one of the callers talked about, how dismantled the irs is in the staffing and changes of leadership of every election. I think there needs to be a complete overhaul with the tax system, doing away with exemptions and taxing money not tax brackets. I think that is how we have gotten a shift of tax money to that therich and middle class is paying all of the services of the government, which is our government, it does not belong to elected officials. Everyone should vote and we should look towards revamping the entire Financial System of our government. You got yourd stimulus check, did you put any of that money away . We talked to that tax reporter from politico about the taxes that people will have to pay next year on that as income. Caller wow. I think thats ridiculous. I think its ridiculous that they still charge interest on student loans. Because the fed is now like under 1 . Have aboutt back, i 1500 i put back to take the tree down because the tree people never showed up. Host is that what you will spend your stimulus money on . Caller i was going to but the people got up in the tree and decided they could not do it without a bucket truck. I am retired and on a fixed income. Of our poor orot disadvantaged in this country have survived this host thank you for talking to us. Beverly is in new port richey, florida on the line for those who filed early. Caller good morning, i filed early. I always send my tax host i can hear you through the phone, you can turn down your television. Caller i filed early and whenever i send my tax return in i send it certified as well as when i do my quarterly payments. I also send those certified. Hearing back from the irs that way you that you know you have risked they have received your tax return and they have also received your payments. Take thatwould responsibility upon themselves they would know that the irs receives their returns and then there payments, thank you. Paul,dave in st. Minnesota, filing today. You are walking to the mailbox to file . Caller [indiscernible] will send out later today, i waited because im concerned il a few more thousand than i did last year. I have concern about that. There has been some tax change over the years because of the withholding. Talked aboutller that with the withholding change. , onlymy math on this paying under 10 but my bracket is 20 . I go to h r block for questions and i probably will ask for an extension. I owed so much this year and last year and i was waiting to send my payment. Host do you mind saying how much he will end up owing . Wife and i earn around 140,000 together, and our older kids are living at home but are independent. We have over 6000 that we have paid in. Probably 5000aid or something. We owe about six grand i am just waiting, i dont want to i may have to put it on a credit card unfortunately. Host nicholas is in missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host you filed early . Caller yes, and still havent got my federal. It has been almost six months. Host did you filed by paper or electronically . Caller i filed with h r block. Host do you know if the government has received your tax filing . Caller yeah, we had a struggle, and the r block government because of health care, because of obamacare. They took 200 out, and i still havent got my paycheck yet. Had to send it in twice, and i am still waiting on them to return it. Its been a struggle. Host good luck this year trying to figure that out. Appreciate all the calls this morning, and good luck on this tax day. I should note, just to be clear, on a statement from earlier, the checks thistimulus year, taxfree money. You wont have to pay on the stimulus checks as part of the c. A. R. E. S. Act. Theres the cnn story about it, just to clear up that went. That is going to do it for todays washington journal. Of course, we will be back here m. Morrow morning at 7 00 a. Eastern. We will now head to an event hosted by the citizens against identifyingaste, wasteful spending in 2020 appropriations bills. That is set to begin just a few minutes here on cspan. We will see you back here tomorrow morning. [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. 2020] cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by americas Cable Television companies as a Public Service and brought you today by your television provider. We are waiting for a briefing to get started on wasteful spending in the federal government. This is live coverage on cspan. You can start calling in now as we show you two takes on president Trumps Press Conference from the rose garden yesterday. Here is the headline from breitbart. Donald trump tears into joe bidens entire agenda at the White House Press conference. Peterhe New York Times, baker, chief white house correspondent. The white house called a news conference. Trump turned it a meandering monologue. This was the president yesterday from the white house, talking about joe biden on the issue of the economy. [video clip] nearly 10,000t factories while joe biden was Vice President. Think of tha