Day, and this morning on cspan, our interviews with congressional freshmen continue with georgia representative buddy carter. Then we talked to new jersey representative donald norcross. Later, the new head of the smithsonian on the future of the institution. And a debate on the legalization of marijuana. Tonight, graphic artist Joel Iskowitz on women aviators who received the congressional gold medal for their world war ii service. Another great thing about our nation is that we may not show gratitude to our men and women in uniform, or those who have done Great Service and achieved great great things for humanity, but after 60 or 70 years, he come around. And we give credit where it is due. These women these women, they flew marauders, which were nicknamed widow makers, ok . The male pilots, who they were standing in for so they could be assigned combat duty, they were afraid because it was nicknamed the widow maker. The Women Air Force service pilots, was hand selected. And these women flew those be26 planes b26 planes and loved every minute of it. They were an Incredible Group of latest. My wife and i got to meet when the congressional gold medal was bestowed upon them back in 2009. That is my drawing. In terms of process, it is a pencil drawing. It is not just one pencil drawing, i might go through 45 different versions. Announcer tonight, the designing and history of the congressional gold medals, americas highest honor. We hear from a graphic designer, Joel Iskowitz, then we will show you the ceremony for the world war ii monument. That is at 8 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan. Hinckley, of course, was the person who shot president reagan. And president reagan was not wearing his bulletproof vest that day. The thing is John Hinckley was stocking jimmy carter before this. Announcer sunday on q a, talking about the various assassination attempts and physical threats made against president s and president ial candidates throughout american history. There have been 16 president who have faced assassination threats, although none directly since ronald reagan. I also counted three president ial candidates. I talk about huey long, who was assassinated, and i talk about Robert Kennedy in 1968 who was assassinated, and George Wallace who was shot and paralyzed for life in 1972. So i cover candidates as well as president s. And it is a long list. Announcer sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. Announcer republican congressman buddy carter is the only pharmacist serving in congress. During this congressional freshmen profile, he talked about his career, family, and life on capitol hill. Mr. Carter won the seat formerly held by jack kingston. Congressman buddy carter from georges first Congressional District georgias first Congressional District. Is it what you expected . Mr. Carter there are some surprises, i will tell you that. I have served as a mayor for nine years and i have served in the state legislature for ten years. But i can tell you that this is different from anything i have ever done before. Host how so . Mr. Carter first of all, it is a fulltime job. Even when i was mayor, it was mayor of a relatively small town at that time. By the time i finished, it was much larger, and in the state legislature, it was only a 40 day session every year. We were in session from the second monday in january and tell usually march or april until usually march or april. That is one of the big suggestions i had to make when i was up here around to the and of large i was thinking, ok, it is time to go home, and they told me you cant go home. That is probably the biggest adjustment. Host where is pooler, georgia . Mr. Carter i served as mayor from 1996 to 2004. Pooler actually, savannah is a suburb of pooler. It is on the coast. It is in coastal georgia. Down in southern georgia. , i represent the entire coast of georgia. Host why did you decide to give up a parttime political job and go fulltime in congress . Mr. Carter my predecessor held the seat for 22 years. And i had always aspired to serve at this level. Of course, jack did such a wonderful job and was popular back. I had to wait for him to get ready to leave before i had the opportunity. I got kind of frustrated at times, but i realized what a great opportunity to serve as mayor and served in the Georgia State legislature. God has a way of making sure that we understand his plan. Host behind me, there is an editorial cartoon of kindness when kingston passing the baton on to you. Mr. Carter that was the day that i was sworn in. January 6 of this year, which is my oldest sons birthday. Sons birthday. Jacks oldest son was at my sons wedding. So our families are very close. Jack is been a great mentor to me, and i appreciate his help very much. Host where did you go to college . Mr. Carter my first two years, i went to what is then a junior college, a methodist school. Then i transferred to the university of georgia, where i attended pharmaceutical. Back then, it was a threeyear degree. Now it is a fouryear degree, but i have a bachelor of pharmacy. Host and why pharmacy . Mr. Carter when i was in high school, i was a want to be athlete. Short, but i was also slow. And it just didnt work out the way that i had hoped it would. And i made a deal with my dad, i said, dad, if nebraska or oklahoma has a scout out, i will get more serious. But they didnt send a scout out. I decided i better get a job, and i did. I got a job in a pharmacy. It was just perfect for me. I loved it hit i loved health care i loved it. I love health care, i loved interacting with customers, and i was very, very fortunate because i knew exactly what i wanted to do when i got into college. Host i see the footballs the hind you, georgia, georgia tech behind you, georgia, georgia tech. A pretty big rivalry. Mr. Carter it is a big rivalry. I have to not show partisanship much. Host you graduated from the university of georgia. Mr. Carter i did. As long as they are not playing georgia, i will post for georgia tech. Host and how did you make the transition to being a pharmacist to answer congress . Mr. Carter people do ask me that, but i have always been interested in politics and always been interested in public service. Growing up, i was very active in my church and held leadership roles. On. Active as time went when i got out of school, of course, i was working. My wife and i were starting our careers. Onn i opened my own business november 20, 1988, i knew i needed to get involved in my Community Even more. So i served for four years on the Zoning Committee and chaired that committee before iran for counsel, and two years later was elected mayor. Host so having served as a mayor, compare that to being here in congress. Mr. Carter very, very different. There are some things you can carry over. I often say that when i became mayor, the first thing i learned was how to count to four. Because if i couldnt get four votes, i couldnt get anything done. But you are right, you can get a lot done as a mayor. And particularly when i was mayor of the city of pooler because the population in 1996 was 4500 people. When i left in 2004, we were up to 19,000. We had phenomenal growth. I would rather be lucky than good. Itd most of that growth presented a lot of challenges. And a lot of that growth was people moving out of savannah into the suburbs. Young families. We really hit the housing boom at the right time. And it was quite an experience. Big decisionsf that had to be made, and we made those decisions. And when i got to the state legislature, it was much the same in the sense that when you have a 40 day session, you can come at the beginning of the session, introduce a bill and carry it all the way through and get it to the other body and then get it signed by the governor and have a law passed within 40 days. Where is up. Wow, whereas up here, it can be very frustrating. Aboutlet me ask you probably one of the most important jobs of every Community Zoning and planning. You had to do that as mayor. And you can travel to the community and realize which went doing it right and which went are doing it wrong. So how do you do it right . Mr. Carter i think the lessons are proper planning can save you so many headaches if you just do it correctly and if you have proper zoning, things in the right areas. And you have to have Community Input with that. You have to have the community to voice their concerns. And professional planners really do a good job at that. They really do a good job in setting it up and making it flow. You dont want to have one type of business that is not compatible to another right beside each other. You wanted to be in certain areas. But it is vitally important. I will tell you that. Down the road, it can save you so much financially if you do it correctly. And we learned that very quickly in pool or. Host when you serve here in congress, and so much debate within the house congress, does that frustrate you when you try to work on legislation and everyone is talking about internal politics . Mr. Carter well, it does. I came up with a clear agenda. I wanted to do something about our National Debt. Toonsider our National Debt be one of the greatest threats to our national security. I am the father of three sons and the grandfather of twin granddaughters and we have a grandson on the way. I want them to enjoy the same vibrant and and growing economy that we have enjoyed in my generation. Every generation wants the next generation to have it better. Unless we change things, i am not sure the next generation of have it as good as we have it. We have to address National Debt. We have to address health care in our country. We have to adjust the issue of a military and the cuts that have been happening. And we have to get a balanced budget. We have to do all those things. You get into these internal fights that we have seen is reallyit frustrating because we have a lot of serious issues in this country. Knew socialre, i issues, i knew state and local issues, but quite honestly i had to do a lot of catching up in foreign affairs. I had not traveled much in my life. In fact, i have only been out of the country once before i got up to. And that was to canada on a business trip once. We learn very quickly that there is another world out there, and the United States plays a very Important Role in that world. And we have some serious issues facing our country. Having said that, i remain confident and optimistic. I think we have a lot of good people in congress. Coming up here, you read all the polls about congress being, you know, so disliked and not popular. In fact, i went from being a member of the pharmacy profession with the number two most trusted profession in the country to a member of Congress Next to the bottom. I went from the top to the bottom. You think there must be a lot of deadbeats appear, but surprisingly to me, and encouraging to me, is the fact that there are a lot of good people in congress, a lot of smart people, a lot of people who want to move this country forward. Host i want to come back to the travel issue. Where have you gone . Mr. Carter i had the opportunity to visit cuba, which was a great trip, a great experience for me. I did that, and certainly that is important right now with everything that has been going on with the United States relations. And i had the opportunity to travel to israel. Israel was a lifechanging experience. My wife was able to go with me. Obviously, it was during the time that we were negotiating the iran nuclear deal, and we met with Prime Minister netanyahu, and certainly that was very important and there were a lot of times we met with political leaders. And that was the majority of our trip. But we also had the opportunity to see some historical sites and it was just very emotional. And very it was just a great trip for us, my wife and i, to be able to go and visit the land where jesus walked. And we were baptized in the jordan river, and that was quite an experience as well. Host how important is religion to you . Mr. Carter it is vitally important. God has blessed me in so many ways. Having grown up in the bible belt in south georgia, you know, that is a big part of all of our lives. But i grew up in church. I went to methodist school. God has truly blessed me, and i recognize him. I am thankful for all the Many Blessings that god has bestowed upon me and my family. Host lets go back to the debt and the deficit. The debt is in excess of 18 trillion. If you take the budget, two thirds medicare, medicaid, Social Security entitlement spending, and defense spending. How do you bring down the debt, cut spending, but also raise taxes . All,arter well, first of we have to cut spending. We have cut spending, and when i say that, i mean discretionary as well. Host including defense . Mr. Carter that is a different area because we have cut defense, and my opinion, too much. Was foron i think congress to get something done, and unfortunately it has not worked in that respect. I think we have reached the point now where we are reaching that the entrylevel, we are cutting defense too much. But i have always said we have to cut spending, we have to have entitlement reform. And most importantly, we have to grow our way out of this. We have to grow our way out of this, and we can only do that we can only have that growth by investing in our infrastructure and having economic development. That is perhaps the most important thing. Host but even if you do all of that, would you still need a tax increase to try to bring down the debt . Mr. Carter i dont know, and first of all, im not going to be in favor of a tax increase. Never say never, but at the same time, i think there is enough area where we can have cuts in spending and cuts in entitlement where we wouldnt have to raise taxes. Host where would you put yourself in the political spectrum . Mr. Carter i have a conservative values, there is no question about that. Having been raised where i was raised, i think that it it is natural for me to have conservative values. My father you know worked in a paper mill. He worked very hard. I was the first one in my family to ever go to college, and the first winter graduate from college. I learned the value of hard work. And i have had to work hard all my life, and i have and i have been very successful. I have been very blessed and had my own business. I owned three drugstores and headed institutional pharmacy that it did very well with. And i have learned through hard work and through working hard to save that you can succeed. Host are your parents still alive . Mr. Carter my dad is. My mom passed on june 21, 2008. I still miss her every day. My parents were married for 50 years. My mom passed when she was 70. My dad is 78 now. He remarried a wonderful lady who also lost her husband, lost her spouse. And they are doing quite well together. And we are very fortunate to have him with us. Host is your dad surprised you are in politics . Mr. Carter although my dad was not in politics, he was very active in the community. He was chair of the Recreation Department when we were growing up and he was very active with me. Particularly recreation. At he always had an interest, although he never held any office or ran for any office or anything. I think he is a little surprised probably. Host i see that as a picture of you and your wife behind you. Where was that taken . Mr. Carter that was taken on the speakers balcony the night we were sworn in. Host how did you meet her . Mr. Carter that is a great question. We met at college. Miller, a former senator and former georgia governor, wrote a book called the mountains within me. And he taught at young harris college. He described it as being a shoe factory because things come out in pairs. And we came out in a pair. She is a year older than me, a year ahead of me in school. I didnt like her at first because she was so much smarter than i was. Her mother was a teacher, and i always tell her that. But we were lab partners in college. And we have been together ever since. Host did you tell her you didnt like her at first . Mr. Carter [laughter] i tell her that all the time. [laughter] host what are your boys ages . Mr. Carter they are [indiscernible] they are fine young man. Our oldest son and a daughter in , spent agraduated couple of years up in new york city, then gravitated back down to virginia. They have blessed us with twin granddaughters. They are 26 months old now and they are just a delight. And now my daughter in law is pregnant with our first grandson. We are looking for to that. Our little son and other daughterinlaw live in new orleans. They met at the university of georgia, where they both graduated from. He followed her back to new orleans, she is from new orleans, and he was headed to law school and came home one day and said, dad, i think i want to be a chef. I year and a half later, he called and said, dad, i dont want to be a chef. And that is fine. They are doing great now. He is back getting his masters degree from the university of new orleans. He is doing well. Then our youngest son, he is in atlanta. When i was in the state legislature, i had a condo in atlanta. Now he has a condo in atlanta. I dont know how that works, but that is how that worked out. He is doing exceptionally well. He is enjoying himself. Host a big smile on your face when you talk about your grandkids. Mr. Carter oh, yeah. Again, identical twins. Host how can you tell them apart . Mr. Carter it is not easy. My wife and i baby sat a couple weeks ago. And we were actually putting them down in their crib, and got up the next money and relaxed we had put them in the wrong crib. Next morning and realized we had put them in the wrong crib. [laughter] host what is your routine here in washington . Mr. Carter first of all, i stay in my office. There isa cot host a cot directly behind you. Mr. Carter yes, there is. My wife vic experiment my wife spared no price in that cot. It is from bed bath beyond. There are over 80 members of congress who stay in their office. We have a membership that we pay dues to, and we have lockers and showers and it is like living in a dorm. It is really good for me because you build up a lot of camaraderie when you see these guys every morning. And i have become a good friend to those guys. Host can you sleep well in your office . Mr. Carter surprisingly, yes. Right now, there has been construction, but at the same time, i have had no problem at all sleeping. Host and what about getting back home deco mr. Carter every getting back home . Mr. Carter every weekend, except for when we babysit. I get home every weekend. The first district, i was born and raised. I have been there all my life except for the five years i was often school. It is my home, and i love it. I love coastal georgia. We have so much to be proud of. It is a beautiful area of the country. We have two major ports, the number two cargo port, container port on the eastern seaboard. We have brunswick port. Weve got for military installations, fort stewart, hunter. Strong ag presence down there. Host if congressman betty carter buddy carter could accomplish one thing, what would it be in your first term . Mr. Carter obviously, being a pharmacist, one of the things that is of most interest to me is health care. And certainly making sure that the free market exists in health care. And continues to exist. Because whether it be independent pharmacists and health care providers, we get squeezed out. And i dont think that is good for health care. I am a big freemarket person. So i really am concerned about that, and that would be one thing i will work very diligently. Host d you enjoy the job . Do you enjoy the job . Mr. Carter i love it. And this is a dream to me. Particularly, as you can imagine, representing the area you grow up in. It is really, really an honor for me. Host as you navigate through your district, here in washington, Republican Party politics, running a staff, what has surprised you the most . Mr. Carter you know, we got we have a lot of challenges in this country. And im concerned. Im concerned because my granddaughters, my grandchildren, my children, i want them to enjoy the same the same great country as i was able to enjoy. My life has been just a storybook. Im very grateful to these people who had childhood [indiscernible] nine was just perfect. I am so blessed in that way. But it does concern me about the future, particularly about everything that is going on in the middle east. Having visited israel, and not just meeting israeli political leaders, but leaders of the palestinian nation and the palestinian people. They were just as concerned over there as israel is our. Israelis are. The more you get to know about what is going on in the world, the more you get concerned. I am very concerned, and very confident and very optimistic, but we are going to have to make some very tough decisions. Host biggest personal challenge for you being in congress . Mr. Carter to be quite honest with you, my wife and i have an empty nest now. It was tough at first. She was home alone and she has her own career. She is a physical therapist and has done quite well. She has recently retired, and she tried to do that over a period of time and wasnt very successful at first. But it has been tough. Now we are doing great. 437 years, we have been together and then married. And i just have truly been blessed with a great marriage. Host when you heard your title, congressman buddy carter, the first time, what were you thinking . Mr. Carter it is easy to get caught up in that sometimes. And certainly, you know, i would be lying if i told you that didnt happen to me. But what i realized is that im just fortunate to be able to hold this seat. And im honored to be able to hold this office. And it is the office of the people of the first Congressional District. I fall in line behind jack kingston, and then betty carter buddy carter, that doesnt sound right. There is a lot of pressure there. Those guys are political icons. And just to follow in their footsteps is a big challenge for me. And i want to do the very best that i can. That is all i have ever tried to do. Host final question, body your buddy your given name . Mr. Carter it is not. My grandfather was earl patrick, so my parents came up with earl leroy. Goodness gracious. I think one day somebody said hey, buddy. I will take it. My given name is earl leroy. Is bless my sister, her name cecile armine. Host congressman, thank you very much for your time. Announcer tonight, graphic artist Joel Iskowitz on women aviators or received the congressional gold medal for their world war ii service. Very often, by the way, another great thing about our nation is that we may not show gratitude to our men and women in uniform or those who have done Great Service and achieved great great things for humanity, but after 60 or 70 years, we come around. And we