Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20151215

President obama took a tougher tone on his strategy. Their, withegin your thoughts. Republicans 202 7488001. Democrats 202 7488000. Independence 202 7488002. Send us a tweet, go to facebook. You can also send an email. The phone lines are open so start dialing in. Want to get your reaction to what the Washington Post and others say. They will defend their strategy against the Islamic State. Calls,we get to your listen to the president and what was a rare visit to the pentagon. We are hitting ice is stronger than ever. Coalition aircraft have been increasing the pace of airstrikes. Last month would drop more bombs than any other month since this started. Leaders,king out commanders, and killers when my one. Since this spring we have removed one of the top leaders, the second in command. Recruiter and one who broadly murdered americans and others and in recent weeks, their seniorhief, extortion or and a weapons graft or. The list goes on. Were going after isil in downtown rocca. The point is that isil leaders cannot hide. We destroy more of isil forces. Their heavy weapons, bomb making compounds and training camps. In many places, never lost their freedom of maneuver. Isil is notummer, had a single nature operation on. He ground in syria or iraq in recent weeks we have hundreds of their tankers, wells, and refineries. The continue to lose territory in iraq. Recently, isil lost a strategic highway. Ahji. Lost that b we had a raid that rescued dozens of prisoners in which Staff Sergeant Joshua Wheeler made the ultimate sacrifice. Far, isil has lost about 40 . And will lose more. The president after a private briefing with many of his cabinet members and then outlined what are our compliments accomplishments. This . O you think of we are getting your thoughts on it and we have a fourth line for active military and you can join us on twitter and facebook. , potus, agree with strategy attempting everything possible, will not put boots on the ground, must wait for arabs. It is their fight. Jerry, what do you think . Caller hello, greta. Like this policy we are pursuing. I guess basically we are going to wipe out these isil characters, but at what cost . We are bombing innocent civilians along the way. This jihadi john psychopath they took out. The tracked into a house and blew up the house. How many women and children are in that house . They dont know how many are in their. Johnses of 100 jihadi are not worth the lives of even one innocent children. About talking talking about stepping it up that its on like they are accelerating it. He says they will take out civilians but i dont believe that for a minute. We should leave it alone and let the arabs fight their own battle. Civilians is hiding in areas. That is part of the discussions morning. You accelerate without civilian casualties . Same time they are tried to broker a diplomatic solution with syria and russia. Here is the headline, a tactical divide on syria. Russia is not taking the precautions that the u. S. Led coalition is. Russias military tactics differ so much that, it could be impossible to operate together. Omplicate the further efforts bombing that russian raids have been far less precise than those of the usled coalition. Western officials said the broader bombing serves western aims. Human Rights Groups a several hundred civilians have been killed by russian strikes. Story about the impact this is having. It notes that the humanitarian routes from turkey into syria have been bombed by russia. Medical facilities have been bombed. What is your reaction . Caller all those points are linetaken, but the bottom is when you go bombing, innocent people get killed. The blood of those people is on the United Statess hands. We have no business in that country in the first place. We should get out, leave it alone, let them fight their own fights. At least it wont be on our conscience that we went and created mass murder. Host you and beverly mentioning that these arab countries need to get involved more. Urged to set up the isis fight. He told reporters that he was dispatching defense secretary ash carter to the mideast to do just that and encouraged our allies in saudi arabia, qatar, turkey and the United Arab Emirates to step up their game and fight isis over there. I feeling this is an exercise in futility. Ideological an problem and it ultimately results from terrorists having tiny pensieises. Host ok, we will move on. Sorry about that. Terah, our you . Caller good morning. I have been watching the president from a long time and i believe he is tried to push them into a corner as best he can. If they put boots on the ground, they will kill a lot of our children. Hes worried about the innocent children, but what about our innocent people here . This is war. I agree with him. Hopefully it does work out to our benefit. He wants to push them into a corner. Host you think the u. S. Should put ground trips in syria and iraq . Caller no, at this time i do not. Host so whos Ground Troops . Caller pardon me . Host who would be on the ground . Caller at this time . Host you said push them into a corner. Caller the army have some on the ground now, but they will not change anything if they put in more at this time. They will kill our children. They have to push them into a corner and get them out in the open and then maybe we could do that. Host what about these airstrikes . . Are you on board . Caller absolutely. Host should it be precision airstrikes or carpet bombing. We have heard that from some of the republican president ial candidates. Caller i dont agree with them at all. They are just trying to put the president down to win votes. Host mike in atlanta. I agree with the president. Im usually conservative but i agree because ive been reading the papers lately about i think one of our drones killed four al qaeda guys. For isis was dealing with finances from those organizations. But every time i read in the paper, drone attacks seem to be working. Dont watch the Republican Debates but i want to on cnn i want to see what more donald trump has to say about isis. I want to see his stance as far not just the muslim thing, but how he would go about attacking isis. Host that will be tonight for the last Republican Debate. It is about National Security. Love blitzer is the moderator and many of those questions will be asked. Blitzer is there, and the moderator, and many of those questions will be asked. Percentages who say there is an extremely high or very high risk of a terror attack in the United States, look at that number has grown. From january to december. The percentage who say the u. S. Military in syria and iraq have not gone far enough, that number of the has increased. They say that they favor the u. S. Military response to the Islamic State group. From 58 to gone 68 . The deployment of u. S. Troops on the ground has grown from 31 in january the 42 in december. , president obama, some say in a tougher tone his strategy against isis. Caller im very pleased with president obamas address. Thes really concerned after Oval Office Address because he seemed to be all over the place. The wasnt really much of a strategy, but the main thing for wasesterday intensification. I am happy with the fact that he announced ash carter cash we have definitely suffered since chuck hagel took over, but when i heard that sending ash carter allies try to get more on board really happy with that. In the saudis have announced they are putting the coalition together. Having russia and germany involved i think president obama is starting to understand that the American People are concerned and scared. Theyre looking to the president to lead. We need to make a digital defense and offense. What do you think about him also dispatching secretary john kerry to talk with russia . He will be meeting with his and thenrt over there he will be meeting with putin and he will ask for help in syria trying to find some kind of get the medic solution diplomatic solution. Caller i think that is appropriate. John kerry has been criticized very heavily but i think he has to the best he can. I do think that the minister and john kerry have a decent relationship. A definite threat to the chechnya and rebels. I know he understands the magnitude of what it means for at the hands of isis. Hope. S really his last i think the world collectively understands and president obama is slowly starting to fully rise up. I think secretary kerry will be helped. Host i will leave it there. And in the papers today, saudi that they areed forming their own coalition to fight isis. Post, johnshington kerrys more immediate goal ending the conflict. He hopes to keep the momentum going shooting for full negotiations between the government and its opponent in january. He wants russia to pressure side to send a representative. Insists, john kerry that russia is playing a public an important role. Regularly with lever of with lavrov. On late monday, the kremlin confirmed that john kerry and put in will meet during the diplomats visit. American diplomats insist the key to turning back the Islamic State is a political settlement which will require moscows participation. Antagonizing it are pushing it away could be counterproductive. Reality doesnt mean cooperation will be easier. Although they have increased threats around other strongholds, they have not changed tactics. Theyre also looking at how to integrate russia more closely into the coalition without compromising the center were highly copper must information is shared. Russia could be given a sector of syria as its own battle u. S. Officials are worried that could make current divisions caller greta, president obama didnt start this mess. I have one niece who just came back from afghanistan. One who is active duty, one who inkilled and nephew in iraq 2005. No boots on the ground. If people want to put boots on the ground take your loved ones down to the recruiting office and put their boots on the ground. He has had no help from the democrats in the house or in the senate. No help from the republicans. It is easy to say, what are you going to do when running for office, but it is hard when you in the military comes to the door and tells you that we regret to inform you isis is nothing but a part of saddam husseins army. When we got there and arrived nephew, this is from my before he was killed in iraq he didnt even know what they were doing their. When they talk about illegals coming people have to know how many illegal people are serving from mexico who want nicaragua to get there citizenships. Iraqirst person to die in when they had the worst comeback el paso,g man from texas, who got his citizenship posthumously and we still go on talking about what we are going to do or what president obama is doing. If he do, damned if he dont. Putin or john kerry can talk to whoever they want it with a change anything. Host twitter echoing your statement, nothing that potus says will placate his critics. In their unreasonable mines, he can do nothing right. About thelks conversations theyve been having in regarding San Bernardino. Here is a pull that just came out. Backs a ban on muslims entering the country. The u. S. Public overall rejects the proposal by a wide margin but the gop majority is backing him and you can see that playing out in National Polls with donald trump it over 41 . Issue is likely obviously to come up at the last Republican Debate of 2015 and we will be talking about the debate and the president ial Campaign Later on in our last hour of the washington journal. Well get your thoughts on whether or not you picked a candidate and if not, why. Well also talk to these voters with early states voting in february. This is from the wall street journal, National Security is a top concern among voters. In april, the top concern was economic creation and job growth and now that went from 21 to 40 of those surveyed saying National Security is their top issue. Coleman in oklahoma, a republican. The santhe subject of bernardino shooters, it is a watershed moment. If anyone looks at the pictures of the young couple, coming into the United States, one was a citizen and one was the wife of the citizen, they are a lovely couple on the surface so it raises the issue of how do you tell a good muslim from a bad muslim. And the definitions of what muslims want to do is a raging debate just under the surface. There was any mom wanting to talk about moderation and how religion wants peace and out of houston he was immediately fired when he went back to his mosque and then reappeared on tv later to explain he was speaking moderation but the powers that be in the modern muslim religion forced him out because that is not a conversation they want to have. They want us confused. Host let me show you something in that papers. I think youll be interested. A lot has been made about how the female shooter in San Bernardino was able to come here to the United States on a posted visa when she had sympathetic comments to isis on her facebook page. Is from the washington times. Even as the president outlined yesterday military action the admin station is taking against them his message is being by ined undermined Homeland Security secretary jeh johnson refused and the policy prohibited them from reviewing social media messages of foreign visas. Libertiescivil backlash and bad Public Relations for the administration. The wall street journal has an update this morning. Boosts. Is now going to online scrutiny. Theyre working on a plan to ban Homeland Security social media post before certain people are allowed to enter the country. Currently they look at posting by visa applicants intermittently as part of three private programs that began in earnest this year. News unclear how quickly a could be a demented and other details could be learned. The house of representatives will vote on a bill to require did Obama Administration to come up with a copper hence if strategy to combat terrorist use of social media. Under the measure would have to Alert Congress about the social media several billsad since the rampage that aims to show they are taking concrete steps to address americas security concerns. Separately, congressional negotiators were looking at including in the bill and measure to impose new curbs on travel by citizens who live in one of the 38 countries that enjoy expedited travel to the u. S. Prevent any would of the citizen to travel to iraq, syria or sedan in the past five years from attaining obtaining a visa. I agree that americans need to be confronted with all that is going on, but president obama cannot show his hand. I were a few years ago when the towers were taken down, they said you cannot take the taliban by hitting from the bottom, you have to hit it from the top and lo and behold the taliban came and destroyed the tower from the top. We will hear from republican next. Larry in st. Paul. Caller your topic this morning is does is obama defending his isis strategy. He doesnt have a strategy at all and what he did yesterday at the pentagon was a waste of time. It was meaningless. We have marvelous, wonderfully trained generals and admirals. He takes no advice from them. If i were president i wouldve asked congress for a declaration of war. The American People involved. The talk about boots on the ground that what they ought to be doing is infiltrating infantry. The never talk about that, the kill ratios are too high. War re going to win a i am a vietnam veteran. People and congress have to decide, do we want to win the war . What are you willing to do to win . We a california color and and he said he was worried about bombing civilians. War,ure going to win a the romans and the nazis did what americans cannot stomach which is killing the populace along with the enemy. Obama might as well have saved his oxygen yesterday. He will keep talking this whole week leading up to his two week vacation in hawaii at the end of the week. Today he will be at a nationalization ceremony expecting to hit the same tones of tolerance toward Muslim Americans and later in the week he will be traveling to the National Counterterrorism center and the talking there about efforts to protect the homeland. Meanwhile, thats whats happening with the administration. Behind us this week, they are working to pass a 1. 1 trillion spending bill. Proposalnt funding runs out wednesday night. In order for lawmakers to have three days to read what they are putting together, they will have to make it public by today, with a vote thursday. That is the agenda for the lawmakers on capitol hill. Speaker paul ryan telling theylican lawmakers that win some and they lose some in this spending bill. We will go next to christine and for a, a democrat, good morning. I am calling for a few reasons. First, i really feel that the problem in the middle east has been caused by western intervention. I believe that the more we go there and involve ourselves the more jihadists will come to the front to defend what they believe is their right in religion. I also believe that sometimes, you speak too often express your views while questioning the colors. I think sometimes you taint what they are going to say by offering your view and at times it upsets me. Askingometimes i am just them questions to give their comments more context or to present the other side. Caller i know, but it didnt think that cspan people were supposed to give any opinion at all. Host it is not my opinion. Ellen, in washington, a republican. Guy running this country is the biggest fool i have ever seen. If you want to take up the army, take out the army. Take out those guys running around and pickups with their trucks in the armor send airplanes in and blow them up. You dont kill an army by killing the general you kill them by killing people. The soldiers. Host you are a republican caller you kill the soldiers part in . Pardon . Host can i ask you who in the gop president ial field do you think could do the best job . Anybody but the open borders guys like rubio and bush and john kasich. Host so who does that leave . Either trump or ted cruz. Lets take a look at the reaction from some of the gop candidates. Paul says the Obama Administration is fixated on syrian civil war. We need overall strategy and he also tweeted out that obama, clinton, rubio regime change policy created a jihadist wonderland, learn from history a glimpse of what he might say at the debate. If im elected to serve we will not cower in the face of evil. Jeb bush is saying we are only hitting isis harder than ever because we have not been hitting them very hard, i have a plan to destroy them. X marco rubio tweeted out his plan to confront isis in iraq. On the military front he says he tweeted out his plan on a link to his website. Expand airstrikes in syria and iraq with a plan to out Bashar Alassad provide support directly to sony and could it sunni and kurdish forces. Roy in california, a democrat. Agree with the president and the way he is doing things. Do foreignwe cannot policy based on polls or 330 like the guy said a few minutes ago, if he were president , this is what he would do. This is not a Clint Eastwood or john wayne movie where they are going to ride in and take care of this in a few minutes. Are hundreds of people thousands being killed, this not like ordering a burger from mcdonalds. It is going to take time. The president has all the information on the advisors and it is not up to us the public to. Ay what we think he should do dennis from florida, share your thoughts with us. Cant believe that president inks that obama is serious about this socalled war on isis. We have been at it for about two years and how many members of isis have we captured . How many have we killed . Every day we hear about a member of the American Military killed or injured in afghanistan , i never heard of us killing a Single Member of isis. We did nothing until after the paris attack. Once the president of paris the president of france said he would get serious over there, we told him where the trucks were in syria and iraq and he bombed 106 of them. We told him where there was a munitions dump and he bombed it. Why didnt we do that. Why do we permit them to be on the internet. I read they get one million hits per day. Why dont we bring these things down. What is, jeh johnson his qualification for being in that position. This whole thing is ridiculous. Do people think that isis is going to go away, its going to continue to metastasize and it has got to be dealt with. If obama didnt want to deal with them he shouldnt have taken the job. Host a couple things you brought up that are in the papers today. Taxes ensure jihadist income as bombing seeks to cut off oil caches. This story in the Financial Times is how they get just as much money from collecting taxes on the people they are controlling in the areas and most and other areas. Times the havel this graphic they put together about the income they have full they have. 2. 5 percentage of income they must hand over to isis, 450 million is the amount isis is expected to have made from isis in the past year. Million is he amount of attacks on grain and cotton that isis collected this year. Trucks traveling from iraq and to isis territory. That gives you an idea of the money they have and where they are getting it from. The u. S. Wont hit Islamic State publicity hubs. Intelligence officials have outt months mapping physical locations of safehouses where there compiling, editing and printing raw video for dissemination across the internet. They are not getting bombed because of the threat of civil casualties. Democrat. Lorado, a god for cspan and the free conversation. A color was saying what is the line in the sand that obama has drawn and to make official to go to congress and draw a declaration of war but we do that congress cannot do anything. If you want to start bombing these people but get congress to vote on who wants to it who doesnt and put them on record. George in florida, independent. That bushwant to say created isis thanks to the iraq war. That iraq has mass destruction bombs. Like, are you kidding me. The only mass destructions and bombs that iraq had was his two sons. It was a lie. Had to clean up the republicans mess. Its history. Cornell in waterford works, new jersey. Good morning, greta. We are in a nowin situation. The fact of the matter is the only way isis will go away is if we get out of the middle east. When weed this dismantled their leaders and even george bush senior says the way he didnt go to baghdad his cousin is no exit strategy. Now that we are there we cannot get out and it is an ideology we are not going to change and the problem is our president is doing the best he can with what he has to work with, because he has no help. History will show that he has been one of the best president s he started with 750,000 per month losing jobs and with no help the hundreds and hundreds of filibusters. A time he tries to do anything, they stop him. This is all unprecedented. History is being made. The guy spoke earlier about vietnam, we did not win in vietnam, we did not win in iraq, and we will not win in syria. And they are talking about the threat the threat is here already. As long as we keep going over either we pull out or we cannot win. It is a nowin situation. Showistory is going to that president obama is probably the best president ever because of filibusters alone. Host here is a tweet from one of our viewers. Maverick essaying tell republicans in congress to vote on war or not. It seems they forgot about authorization. Mark in ohio, you are next. Thank you for cspan. The real news. I just have to back up what the last caller said in the previous ones. The republicans got us here. They are isis right here on our soil. Lets start the draft and do things right and send their kids. Vietnam was a failure. I was too young to go, but when i see what happened there and here we are, going into iraq under lies. Lies from our two leaders and Nothing Happened to them. How do you think that makes us look to the rest of the world . Story in the a rest of the world that a maryland man has been charged with receiving 9,000 from isis to carry out attacks on american soil. The fbi says they cannot account for all of the money but some was used to buy phones, laptops and computers. No man charged said he had intention of carrying out an attack and that he was simply going to take the money from also in thees. Washington post is a story about the federal reserve. They had a meeting today in washington. Obviously everyone is watching closely to see what they do on increasing the rate. The headline from the Washington Post is mortgage borrowers may not have much to fear because it is normally tied to the 10year treasury yield rather than the interest rate. Impact mortgages in the front page of usa today many of the papers about Bowe Bergdahl say that he faces the hehest courtmartial could get life if found guilty of deserting his post. If you missed it, americans can hear his own account of his actions in the popular podcast serial which has hours of interviews he conducted with a filmmaker markable. If you want to hear him in his own words you can go to that podcast and here it there. Drones in this country if you are an Operator Owner will have to register starting december 21. That headline from usaa. We go to dan in georgetown massachusetts, an independent,. Caller i would just like to share a few points. The american independent thinking mind has been captured. Illegally, weraq event story about an september 11 that is backed up by prisoners held captive and who confessed under code worse of interrogation. We have an administration that internationally would like to be breakinguntable for the law and geneva conventions when it comes to basic human gohts and we wanted to into syria ourselves to start a but russia stepped in and said we have a deal to get rid of their chemical weapons, so we could not start the war that our leaders seemed to have wanted about two years ago. So now we are in there in another way. We are special forces, we dont really know whats going on there. Theyre driving run in toyotas they have american weapons and it seems as though no matter what we see on tv, no matter what we see, the same story is being told over and over about what media and government want us to see. Host ahead of tonights Republican Debate hosted by cnn in nevada, Hillary Clinton will be outlining her strategy to defeat isis in minnesota today. Cspan have coverage on three this afternoon at 3 45 p. M. To this on your phone with the cspan app you can get cspan radio on that. We are getting your thoughts and we have about five minutes left with your thoughts on president obama defending his isis strategy at the pentagon. We want to share one other new story with you which is the Washington Post about the San Bernardino terrorist attack. There are four mysterious hours that official and media have questions about which is the time between when the attack happened at 11 00 a. M. And when the shootout happened between the terrorists and police officers. It says in the Washington Post that syed farook altered from the car and died across the street while Tashfeen Malik kept firing from the back street. The final shootout of all 23 officers who fired 380 bullets while cite and Tashfeen Malik fired 76. It says they have been able to obtain some information about the shooters aced on cell phone data. Just before the attack, Tashfeen Malik declared allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State. Officials said they apparently snapped their cell phones later and disposed of them but officials have technology that can triangulate suspects based on where their phones connected towers. Jerry, share your thoughts on this isis strategy by the administration. Thank you for taking my call and let me take the opportunity to say merry christmas. Republicans to ask do you really want to go all out war . I am talking full Scale Nuclear . You have to kill everything over there and this is supposed to be the holiday season, christians are supposed to be uniting around jesus yet were talking about killing millions of people to swat a fly and what happens when we pop up elsewhere . Appreciate obamas careful tactic plan. One thing that all usa enemies is, weiled to forget will grind you down year after year after year until you are no more. Thank you, greta. The be here from john, high john. I would just like to know, since when did the president and military give out strategies on tv. Strategy. How do they know what theyre listening to. I just dont get it. Theyre taking steps because theyll think this man is qualified but what is george bush know about war, what would Ronald Reagan know about war. They have to listen to their generals. The generals have their strategy for war. Can we just get that understanding because there is a disconnect here with people and they just dont get it. That is john in georgia. We will take a short break and when we come back, we will turn our attention to the rhetoric around muslims and islam. Well talk with james from the American Institute and later we will get an update on the if youble care act first missed our landmark cases on the miranda decision am a you can catch it this saturday night at 7 00 p. M. Check it out on the website. I want to show you a little bit from last Nights Program with jeff rosen. A caller who asked about not being read his miranda rights. The breathalyzer and i passed that and he wanted to take me into the Police Station for a blood test. While i was there had my glasses taken away from me i wasnt allowed to read the paper. To make a long story short he market saying i refused it. I was attended he kept asking me questions i wasnt read my miranda rights until three hours later. At what point is he supposed to read miranda rights . The interesting thing is you dont have to be read around the rights to have a blood test because the courts of hell that blood is not testimonial. It is physical evidence. You may remember long ago during the clinton impeachment investigation we saw the president of United States in the white house having his blood taken and he had no system in place to refuse that because of the Court Holding it is not testimonial and the thing i remember most vividly from my procedural class was my teacher jumping up and down saying blood, blood, blood. Youheres nothing else remember from those programs it is just those words. While it seems very dramatic that the police are allowed to extract blood without your consent because you are not incriminating yourself with your own words. According to the Supreme Court you do not need to miranda rights. If you missed last nights landmark cases program you can watch at senokot p. M. On cspan or all the episodes on our website. Cspan. Org landmarkcases. Thepresident and founder of arabAmerican Institute to talk about Muslim Americans in this isis strategy. I want to begin with your group, who do you represent . Guest we represent the arabamerican community which is 4 2. 5 million to three million going back over a century of being in this country. About two thirds or more our christian. About one third are muslim. Our work covers a range of issues to domestic Civil Liberties issues and promoting better understanding of the community and dealing with problems of backlash like the ones we experience after 9 11 and more recently in the current environment. We also did a lot of Foreign Policy with issues involving american policy in the middle east are of great concern to us. Muslim,ere are less arab americans in this country than christians . Guest yes. General a sense in the public that we do a sense of the lay of the land. Americans conflate arab and muslim. All arabamericans are muslim or all muslims are arab it is not the case. The Largest Group of Muslim Americans are africanamerican muslims and after that probably south asian, with arabs being done the line. Among arabamericans, the majority are christian, will more than two thirds. Within the community, there is not a sense of i am this or that it is a question of arab ethnicity and sometimes the question of origin ethnicity. Palestinianamerican, egyptian american that kind of thing. Host where do christian arab americans come from . Most arabamericans, christian and muslim come from lebanon. Immigration is like an avalanche. As the rocks are tumbling down everything piles up behind it. We have concentrations. People would of come from a village in lebanon and they would say this is a great place to live and everybody flocks to that place. Arab immigrants went to south america, many went to africa, but the u. S. Became the home of mostly lebanese and syrian immigrants at the turnofthecentury through after i and immigration was frozen for about 30 years and after it eased up and the flock on arab immigrants tended, there were much more diverse components. Today there is a large number of egyptian americans and you many emenicans yo americans. You also have moroccans and nigerians coming in in large numbers and interestingly, it is a Success Story. And all of the data we have income is higher than the national average, ownership of business higher than the national average. Yemenis, they went from a short period of time from dockworkers to Business Owners and their children are in the professional class. Doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Syrian refugees fleeing the situation in your country them, or thoseof seeking Refugee Status have that family tie here . Many of them do. They have a village tie or some kind of connection with the church or the mosque. It is familiar with them and their background. The scare about this is unfortunate and i think quite destructive. There is a large Syrian American community or they would embrace refugees and i would tell you that within short order, the community of refugees coming out will be productive members of american society. I remembered your born, michigan when you had a whole group of people coming in from South Lebanon in occupied South Lebanon and the guy who ran for mayor said, the problem with dearborn is they are dirty and do not speak our language today the president of the city council is an arabamerican. Four of the members of the city council are arabamerican. Americans own most of the business you see and are buying property to revitalize detroit. Have become a Success Story in three decades. That is the way that arabamerican refugees and immigrants have operated in this country. Host we have divided the lines between republicans and immigrants as we do but we do have a line for Muslim Americans. We would like to get your thoughts on this whole debate about islam and Muslim Americans. I want to show you this poll from abc. The majority of republicans back the muslim been proposed by donald trump. We are coming out with it later this week and the numbers are frightening. In some ways attitudes toward muslims are like attitudes toward gay marriage 15 years ago. You have a red stateblue state republican divide. Democrats are far more open and inclusive, republicans reflecting a much more nativist and xenophobic attitude on a range of issues affecting muslims. You said there are more christian arab americans than muslim arabamericans in this country. How many arab American Voters energize and will this the populace to get out and vote . Ask the simple answer is yes. A couple million registered voters, concentrated in states that are swing states in andigan and ohio increasingly in florida. The numbers do and up making a difference. Orn arabamerican christians muslims here the rhetoric they whacks indignant. They know what xenophobia means they know what intolerance towards arabs means. Even if i am an arabamerican christian it scares me and turns me off and what has happened is the community which was divided, almost an even split edging democratic in the that thing tha turn people off. The rhetoric, as we got into the 20082010, 2012 campaigns, scared people even more. Right now, you have christians and muslims edging towards the democratic party. It is the rhetoric that has done it. Host we will get to your poll that you are putting out later this week. First, some calls. Bob is an pennsylvania. Caller good morning. I have a question. Do you ever hear of cooperation the host what do you mean . Caller it with United States , 19 a 41998. They use drills up in russia and in hawaii. Our marines went in and helped the russians. The russians came down into hawaii and it went on for four years. Guest i do not know about that. I will look at up. Host what is your point, bring it up . Caller how many arab nations have got hit with those earthquakes . If we had those drills continue, we could have saved a lot of muslim lives. You, thereme tell has been a lot of cooperation on issues of this sort. I can tell you, the United Arab Emirates went into kosovo with medical supplies. They supported our efforts there. A lot of work went into. Arthquakes in pakistan a lot of help going to countries in africa. I remember speaking to president jimmy carter at one point, telling me that the diseases are he helped cure that determined to his work in africa are possible because of the Financial Support he got from arab leaders the uae for example, extraordinarily generous. I think there are levels of cooperation that we do not know about. We talk about the problems, when they occur, involving america in the middle east. We do not talk about the ways that the middle east and americans cooperate. There is a lot of stuff that goes on that does not make headlines because it is not sexy. Five months is an cooperation isnt. Host what about dealing with ideology of islam that isis has taken, specifically the radical islam and what leaders can do . Twitter, someone asked, where is the condemnation of p . Of isis . Guest the fact is, we condemn it all the time. Obviously we do because it is a tremendous movement. And, it has done more horrible things to arabs then it has to anyone else. The christians in the middle east are being removed from their ancestral homes. Other minorities. Sunni muslims who do not adhere to the ideology of isis are being tormented and persecuted, and killed. F course, we condemn it the fact is that is not the issue. The issue is what are we doing about stopping it. What you have in the arab world is a growing consensus. , an overwhelming majority denouncing the movement, and looking for ways to deal with it, saying, we have endand corruption corruption and deal with extremist preachers, and deal with the social problems in the countries where isis grows. Becauseowing in iraq sunni muslims feel excluded from governance. It is growing in syria because the regime has not made a place for sunnis. Spread from iraq into syria. Coming fromremists europe. There are two migration flows in the world today. One is from syria to iraq and europe. Young from alienated muslims in europe to syria. E have to ask the question why why are kids living in slums of paris for three decades why are they so alienated from French Society that theyre going to join the suicide colts in syria. That is the issue that people have to look at. Host that brings up this headline from usa today that modern muslim families are vital in the antiterror fight. There is a picture of a mother raising a young teenage boy. Guest here is the issue. Certainly, they are. The problem is not as grave of a problem in america as it is in europe. So young be 100 or people here who have actually joined or tried to join more likely, tried to join, and were blocked from joining. In problem is a bigger issue europe, in belgium and france, in particular, where thousands have gone to join isis. The reason is because they are alienated from their own society. Theyre are not alienated from american society. The problem of what donald trump and company are doing is they may, if they are successful, and up creating the very conditions off which isis breeds. If donald trump idea that america should be hostile to americans takes hold, and the movement grows, we will get a generation of young muslims growing up saying, you do not want us, well, here is what you get. That is the scary part of all of this. We have to have a different we include,ow incorporate, absorb, and welcome people into our culture. Walter in new jersey, and independent. You are next. Caller how are you doing . Announced my question for you how can you convince someone like donald trump how dangers what he is doing is . Look, i cannot get inside Donald Trumps head. Is hiser sometimes narcissism so great that when he hears the crowds cheering, he just keeps going with it . Look, he has destroyed the trunk mp brand. People across the middle east to were doing business with him are no longer doing business with him. I would be dowamned if i go to a trump hotel. It is really a bad business decision on his part. I think he will end up paying for it. Probablyonvince them at the pocketbook. I cannot think of another way. Reallyto get beaten badly. I think Republican Leaders have to do what former labor secretary b did the other day which is a strong denunciation. The more that he is isolated, defeated, and the more his businesses suffer will i think bring him down and to some sense of reality here. From we probably will hear the republican candidates tonight, trying to differentiate themselves from donald trump. Guest i hope so. Host i want to have you react to donald trump on state of the union on sunday. [video clip] many friends who are muslims, and they are so happy that i did this. They know there is a problem. I have partners that are muslim. Said it is about time that somebody spoke up as to radicalism. You have radicalism in this country. It is here and trying to come through. I just read where isis has gotten a hold of a printing migrants to get them into the United States. Maybe that is true, maybe it is not. It is an early report. How crazy are week, allowing ourselves to be subject to this kind of terror. I dont think anybody doubts that radical islam is a problem, but the question is is your proposed solution the appropriate one or not . It is a temporary solution until we get our hands around the problem. We have a real problem. Host his muslim friends tell him it is good that he is bringing up this debate and the solution would be temporary. Guest i take, with a grain of salt, most of what donald trump says because frankly, way too is whates what he says he fabricates in his own mind. There is very little connection between assertions he makes an reality. If i were to say that donald your hair looks really weird, he would say, people commented on my hair today. He hears what he wants to hear. That elevatorve leadership in the region is supportive. I have been to the middle east, very recently, and have spoken to people, Major Business partners of his who are suspending their relationship and canceling contracts. I do not think this is the case at all. Maybe somebody said it is really good that you are attacking radical islam, but you have gone overboard, and made crazy assertions. He only heres the first part that he wants to hear. He does not have support. Host john, florida, good morning. Your question or comment. Back from 1995 to about 2000, there was a man and woman, who i believe was from saudi itbia that was talking about , a process. Know if you are familiar with this process. I believe they spell it fitna. This was a process where elite muslims, doctors, would go around the world and get into elite positions in order to take over the world, especially in america and the west. I was wondering if he was familiar with this process. Guest i have familiar with the concept, but that is not a process that exists. Reality. Ply not a there is no islamic content to take over the world. It is a religion, like christianity that is a religion based on conversion. Of course, they believe that their faith is true and christians believe that faith is true. We have missionaries that attempt and work particular people. Says, there is no compulsion in religion. Have aa that you would secret society, kind of like the antimason movement that existed, the scare stuff, trying to take over by sleight of hand or devilish tactics, it is part of the islamophobia, the scare fear muslims in general. No, there are muslim doctors here saving lives every day. They are in our hospitals, and thank god they are there. They are helping. Is afes pulmonologist remarkable man. They got he is doing what he is doing. Owe act is that we 0 debt to these folks who are part of our society, just as we have other ethnic and religious groups that came to america and were rejected when they came. We rejected jews, italians, the irish, etc. Where would america be without them today . T some day, we had arabs and muslims come to america. We could say, where would we be without danny thomas and the st. Judes hospital . Back when my father was coming, nny and my dads generation came from syria. We had a serious exclusion act passed by senator david reed from pennsylvania who said we do not need any more syrian trash from america. For threere excluded decades. Thank god danny came before that because we have kids being saved every day. You know, lets get real here. This is america. This is not the place where we are afraid of welcoming new people. It is a place where we embrace new people because they make us better. Ustaffa, a muslim american, you are on the air. Caller i support donald trump in his plan. The idea comes from saudi arabia hiding is what they are behind. They believe in jihad. Where the extremist come from, saudi arabia. Him, where are you from . I would stop him. Number two, i would stop muslim here. Ans from coming i think you need to stop it for a minute, and figure out a way. Host where are you from . Caller i am from sudan. God thatsten, think folks in the government do not have the approach. I think donald trump is wrong for promoting it. Let me be clear. This crisis was started as a concept when president obama announced we would take 10,000 refugees. Donald trump inflated it. I do not know where they joined up the numbers. The president said 10,000 per year. That is actually too little. Most of the immigrant and be settlement refugee groups wanted to do 65,00070,000. Martin omalley has said that many. Hillary clinton has said the same. The refugee process is so totally different than the immigration process that it really needs to be understood. If you look on our twitter feed, the arabAmerican Institute, and look at the vetting process, the level of screenings you have to go through, the scare that we are going to be flooded by Syrian Refugees by isis this is not just europe where people walk across the border and come in your country. You have to get on a plane, and before you get on the plane, you onnd two years being vetted multiple levels of investigation that make it clear who we are getting and who we are not getting. There is nothing to be afraid of. If the saudis are not taking these refugees in because they use them as security risks, why should we . Guest that is not the case at all. The saudis do have a couple thousand that have come in. Lebanon has 1. 3 or 1. 4 million. Jordan has over a million. Arabs are doing a lot. Egypt has 100,000 or more syrians in the country. Everyone in the region is helping. Thesect is that a lot of refugees do not want to go to the gulf. They want to go to europe and come to america. The United Nations High Commission has actually logged those who have applied to come to america. They have gone through a vetting process. Those whosorted out they think would be better suited for america or elsewhere. Us a list, and we go through a separate vetting process here. To say that arabs are not doing it is wrong. Actually, it is the choice of the refugee. They prefer to go this way or that way. Some refugees would prefer to stay in the arab world, and that is where they are going. Host you mentioned a poll coming out later this week. Who do you poll . Let me show our viewers one of the questions. This is on u. S. Policy on Syrian Refugees. Accept into u. S. , 30 say resettle 10,000 after say resettle only christians. Was an online survey. The numbers are interesting because of the demographic split between democrats and republicans with republicans overwhelmingly opposed and democrats favoring the president s proposal. You also have an internal split. The partisan split. Older americans, less educated americans, white americans having one view, and minorities and younger people and College Educated people having the view that becomes what is the more global view of supporting n. Inging refugees i on almost every issue, we get a huge divide coming out. Host another question that they asked is your view of Muslim Americans 30 had a favorable view while 37 had an unfavorable view. Guest that has been trending for a few years largely because of the media. Look, San Bernardino happened, and was a horrific massacre. The backlash of muslims afterwards was unconscionable. The way the media focused on it was unconscionable. After the shootings in colorado, we did not go after antiabortion advocates in the same way where everyone of them was targeted as somehow a danger to the country. After the massacre in charleston , south carolina, we did not go after everybody with the Confederate Flag on their car and assume they would be murderers. We did that, on the other hand, with muslims. By focusing on one kind of domestic terror and not another kind, you would think that muslim terror is the only asblem facing america where acts of terror are happening everywhere we blink. A cartoon i saw in the paper that was tragic after the colorado shooting. It was a husband and wife watching tv. Guy on tv set, dont panic, it was not a muslim who did it. That is the attitude that unfortunately exists. If the terrorist is not a muslim, we do not worry about it, we let it happen. If the terrorist is a muslim, we want to ban people coming in the country and to face mosque. Eface mosques that attitude that you see reflected on the screen is 60 republicans saying they have an unfavorable view of muslims, whereas almost 50 of democrats had a favorable view. Again, almost the gay marriage split that we had 15 years ago. Just showing the overall percentage. We will go to nathan in pennsylvania, a democrat. Caller hi. I wanted to say that the first step to fight terrorism is be honest and truthful. If we are honest and truthful, then we will move forward in the fight. Anything have not seen there is some. Ruth in a letter as long as there are good ,errorist and bad terrorists and as long as our interest are can go toble than we look forward to the roots of violence. That is the truth. Terrorist they are funded by us. Guest there is a problem. Im not taking my cues from the ayatollah. That exists. Ncern encouragedtan, we and supported as a way to defeat the soviet occupation and after abandoneds left, we the country. It broke up into several competing groups. The taliban came in, and when these weren, students who said, we have to unify the country and stop the civil war, all these different groups competing with each other. We looked at that as an initially positive sign. We thought, these guys might be extremist, but they will stop all of the internal killing in the country so we gave it a wink and a nod. We certainly encouraged it. In iraq, look, if george bush had not done this foolish invasion of iraq, a lot of what we are dealing with in the region would not be occurring. Americas prestige would be higher. Our military is overstretched, our prestige is too low. We learned from trying to remake both afghanistan and iraq that americas capacity to make this kind of change was not capable. Say, weear politicians have to bomb them back to the stone age or level the country, or do this or do that, they are not thinking straight. It sounds great as a oneliner that gets cheers from people, but they do not know what it. Eans concretely at the end of the day, we have many more extremists and we have right now. Host do you think that is a problem that russia is presenting for itself . The front page of the Washington Post, russian airstrikes in syria halt aid. Over 20 facilities have been hit since russia launched air war. Guest russia is digging a hole in itself. There is no military solution to this conflict. No one seems to get it yet. There has to be a political solution and compromise. People have to stop funding the different competing groups, and there has to be a political resolution that will ultimately create internal unity that can deal with isis threat. Host what does a diplomatic solution look like when it comes to Bashar Alassad . Guest pretty much what we talked about in geneva. Setting a precondition that he must go is a nonstarter for negotiations. Bashar alassad be the head of syria is also a nonstarter. Thatnsitional period creates unity and also away from his leadership is absolutely critical. It cannot be done in one swoop. Host eric from california, independent. Caller i would just like to say, as far as people reacting as to the california event, the reason is 9 11 was done by muslim terrorist. There has been terrorism domestically ever since people could go out to the post office. The reason people are afraid is because of 9 11. Host can you respond to that . Guest there is no question that 9 11 created a fear, a justifiable fear about domestic terrorism. You are absolutely right, at the same time, there is domestic terrorism that comes in different strides. Law enforcement says the biggest in the with groups fringe of the right wing. We have to have a holistic approach to this and deal with it in a way that displays arsons of security and stability, and not in a way that has is wildly striking out and saying outrageous things that the candidates have done. As i said, when you do that, you exacerbate the problem. You create security resulting in muslims feeling they d are not wanted here, which ultimately can become a larger problem to deal with. We cannot end up alienating a generation of young people who will ultimately become american, make a contribution to our country, we do not want to turn them away, which is what unfortunately is being done. Making their lives really difficult. I have young kids who work for me. Who are muslim sometimes the parents are afraid to let them come out of the house because they are afraid of kids getting death threats. 16yearold kid should not get messages on their phone threatening their lives because of their religion. That is not america, that is not who we ought to be. That is ultimately, i think, it is just wrong. It should not happen. Host the front page of the New York Times delves into this young Muslim Americans are feeling the strain of suspicion. Good morning mark. Caller good morning. Isten, all i hear from you blame america. Europe and america have opened their doors to immigrants from all over the world. We have become embroiled in this cauldron that is the middle east competing cultures and shades of religious intensity. All i hear from you is blame us because we are not holding hands. You want us to hold your hand, but when we hold your hand and try to be vehicle, you tell us were trying to be overly parental. I do not hear you blaming the arabs themselves. The arab cultures are at war constantly over my new shop my neinutae. Mariahere is a tweet from are you pretending that turkey does not support isil or daesh . Done certainly turkey has more than a wink and a nod. They have left a porous border look, there is a number of groups all of which have gotten support, either direct or indirect, from turkey. Turkey has its own interest in syria. There is an interest in blocking kurdish independence. They have territory that they want for themselves. They have an Ethnic Community in turkey in syria that they feel protective of. There is no question about that. Arabs have made horrible in turkey, and syria as well. Iran is involved look, the region is involved. This is a conflict in syria that has become a playground. Host a proxy war . Guest a proxy war that started as one thing and has become a regional proxy war. Is if america were to play the proper role and russia were to play its proper role, it would be playing the role of convening all of these parties which is what secretary kerry is doing right now in an effort to come up with a negotiated settlement. That is the only way forward. Host those negotiations continued this week with a meeting in new york where the secretary of state wants alassad to attend that meeting. Let us go to the democratic line. Caller i would like to ask what he would do, first of all. I dont want the answer now, but what i want to know is all of these millions of people that over, and we have whytake a chance and end could they not fight for their own country. Why do they said their wives, children, and elderly people . Some of them died on the way. Is is going to take us in everybody else takes over america . Nobody. We will have to fight for our own country. Host i will leave it there. Guest i would like to know where she comes from, what part of the world. Here came from somewhere, and often times fleeing the same kind of persecution and hardship, and making that kind of difficult choice. s story was a harrowing one, fleeing first the ottomans and then leaving to come to america. Host what was syria . Syria lebanon, but called at the time. I hear the stories from eastern europeans during the cold war. I hear the same story from the irish during the famine where one third of the country died of starvation, one third fled to come to america, and one third was left. Same story. This st interestingly enough, when each of those groups came, they experienced the same thing. The ukrainians, we were told were going to destroy our country. The times were anarchists every group was met with the same thing. It is not our story. It is not who we are. Look, they are not millions coming to america. There are millions fleeing their country. The president was to taken 10,000. That is it. It will take 23 years to go through the vetting process. I think that is to o onerous. He is trying to be as clear about the process so people do not get confused. Muriel says millions are coming. The same kind of thing was that after world war i when people were coming, and there was the need of this nativist movements. We passed all kinds of exclusion acts to keep out all the different kinds of people. The fact is look at our history. Look at how we have overcome our history. Look at where we are today. Where would we be without the immigrants who were denied to come into our country 100 years ago . Where would we be today without the polls, the italians, the irish, the germans . We would not be america. One century from now, we will look back and say, thank god we , thehe muslims in syrians, the iraqis. Give it a break. Be confident in who you are, be confident in what america is, and what america will become when we stay true to our values. More if you want to learn about the arabAmerican Institute, you can go to their website. Org. Aaiusa thank you for the conversation this morning. We will take a short break. When we come back, we will get an update on the Affordable Care act, and what is ahead for 2016. Later, we will take a temperature on 2016 with an update from iowa and New Hampshire. The reagan narrative was a lightweight, grade b after which is what gerald ford said about him. Even with the successes of the administration, historians have consistently rated reagan low, i believe on a bias. Credit surely discusses his act, i looked at Ronald Reagan after leaving the white house. I grew up in the 1980s. It was the halcyon time for us. I also write about the facts, i do not make things up. I do not believe anyone else makes things up. Succeeded in repositioning people thinking about Ronald Reagan so that emerges is of a very serious, deep thinking, considerate man. Sunday at 8 00 eastern on q a. Next weeks office week on washington journal authors week on the washington journal. Eastern,monday at 9 00 jeff smith on mr. Smith goes to what might year behind bars taught me about the prison crisis. Tuesday, constitutional attorney John Whitehead on his book, thatll feel america. Battlefield america. Baradaran is our guest on wednesday on her book, how the other half banks. Thursday, political scholar Matthew Green joins us to talk about underdog politics the Minority Party in the house of representatives. On friday, credit surely discusses his book, Craig Shirley discusses his book, act. Be sure to join washington journal for authors week starting this image way first. December 21. Washington journal continues. Host lets begin talking about 2016. Update on the impacts of the Affordable Care act. What does it say . Guest it says the law will cost the equivalent a reduction in the workforce that is the equivalent of 2 million jobs. Im freezing that really in a detailed i am phrasing that in a detailed way because you see this number reported sometimes as obamacare is going to cause job losses. That is not what is happening. Host explain what they said and how they measured this. I think people have heard the headline, but you need to dig down a little bit. Guest lets do it. Economywith any large they measured the effect on labor markets. In the case of a ford look at, there are lots of new policies in effect of the Affordable Care act, there are lots of new policies in effect. Will encourage a reduction in the workforce. Est reduction comes from the pure existence of subsidies to buy Health Insurance. It used to be that people would take jobs just to take Health Insurance. They might not like the job, but would stick with it because of the coverage. Now, thanks to the Affordable Care act, you did not to be in a job you do not like because of Health Insurance. People are expected to leave their jobs and do Something Else with their time, and they can get Health Insurance through the new Affordable Care act program. Host what are they saying about employers . Did they look at that . The impact of the informal care act, and what employers will be doing to not have increased costs of the law . Guest there are some effects on employers, but they are smaller, compared to the availability of insurance subsidies. What this number is really looking at is the effect on individual workers, more so than employers. There are some new taxes for employers. A largeple, if you are employer, you employ more than 100 people, do not provide Health Insurance coverage, you have to pay a fine to the government. Double will cause some employees to try not to cost at 100 workers threshold so they dont. Ave to pay the fine that effect on the labor market is a lot lower than simply people choosing not to work as much because they do not have to anymore. Host republicans seized on this. What did they say . Guest republicans phrase this as obamacare is causing job losses. It is an easy talking point when the Congressional Budget Office calculations and safety effect of this is 2 million fewer jobs in the u. S. Economy. Host the Administration Says what . Guest the Administration Says the way the republicans are phrasing it is not the most accurate way to look at this number. They say what is happening here is actually maybe a good thing. People do not have to stay in jobs they did not like anymore. New can quit, go start a business, work for themselves. People have more choices. Host we are in the Enrollment Period right now for the Affordable Care act. There is a deadline today. That is, if you sign up by today, you can start getting coverage january 1. D goes onlment perio the way to generate 31st, but if you get an today, you get coverage starting january 1. Talk about the role that process right now. Way to the number stand . Year this has been in effect, the administration has issued these lowball estimates, and when they beat the estimates, they pat themselves on the back of little bit. This year, they expected to have 9 Million People enrolled in plans at the end of 2015. Next year, they are estimating they will only have about one million more, like 10 Million People enrolled in plans. It is not a real high goal that they set for themselves. I have notto be really done the math, but they seem to be outpacing their goal, which is not a real surprise because it was such a local to begin with. They already have almost 3 million signed up as of last week. We expect probably a lot more people to come in the door this week because, as you said, today is the deadline if you want coverage of effective january 1. The we are talking about Affordable Care act, we want to get your questions and comments, the future of it, what is in 2016. For 202 7488000 democrats 202 7488000. Publicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7458002. For those of you and rolled, enrolled, dial in at 202 7488003. Lets talk about the impact on premiums and health care. Guest the situation with premiums is actually not great news. Premiums for Affordable Care act plans seem to be rising pretty quickly in general. We have seen a lot of plans this increasesct premium in double digits, 10 , some as high as 30 . It is important to note that this varies a lot around the country, and some plants have cut the prices this year to be more competitive. You can probably save yourself some money if you are an andlled by shopping around find a plan that is not raising its rates as much as your plan. That means you may have to change your doctor or you will not guilty go to the hospital you were able to go to this year. Ofis definitely a little bit a hassle, but if you are worried about the price of plans, shop around. Host carol on twitter wants to know this how Many Insurance Companies have opted out due to high cost . Guest the bigname that jumped out was United Health care. I should back up they have. Ot dropped out yet they say they are losing a lot of money on their plans and estimate they will lose 5 million next year. They say they will look at dropping out next year for 2017. They still sell plans for 2016. They pretty much ceased marketing their plans, discouraging people to sign up, but that is the bigname. It is important that they are leaving. They do not have a lot of business in the Affordable Care act. At about 500,000 they have about 500,000. They are not a huge player, but it is symbolic because they are the largest insurer in the United States by market value. When this big insurers says the Affordable Care act is not work for us, what does it mean for the rest of the country . Host we will go to mark, who is enrolled in indiana. Go ahead. Enroll because i rolle loste my insurance because of the Affordable Care act. Know, the only policy we have out here is United Health care. From what i hear, they are going to quit taking it. We will have zero options through the Affordable Care act. It is much more expensive. Deductible is much higher. We get no subsidy. Before we get any benefit, we would have to pay a little over 30,000. All the other Business People that i know i am a businessman that have been on the afford look at our forced onto the afford will care a aff, and they dont like it either. Deductibles your 30,000 . Caller i have to pay 18,000 in 13,000 in the director will. Guest i think the Obama Administration would want to Pay Attention to what is going on in your part of the state. Host every state is different. Guest they are all different. It is like a password. Health care has always been a crazy business. The Affordable Care act has made a little better organize, but it is still hard to understand why your state only has one en insurer available in the exchange. Maybe next year, someone will come in and replace. Im afraid, right now, it does not look like there is much happening. Host chris and marilyn, republican. Caller good morning. I just want to share some numbers with you guys. Care yer health basically, our entire package is 32,000, which we pay 12,000 of 20,000. Ey pay the last caller is basically the same thing except he is paying 10,000 in the Affordable Care act. Guest it sounded like you had an employersponsored insurance that your employer provides the coverage. They do not have to buy the plan on the afford will care act exchanges unless it is a small company, and they choose to. I do not know that their costs are all that directly related, but probably their prices are so high sibley because health care is so costly in this country. Hospitals, doctors and drug countries charge high prices and that cost gets passed on to your company. Host mike, virginia, independent. Caller my question is about the undocumented workers. They are of them not qualified to go on obamacare, yet the irs to are just them for not having obamacare. They are being taxed. What do they do about that . Guest undocumented workers are not eligible for the Affordable Care act unless they commit fraud, like you mentioned. They should not be paying the healthr not carrying insurance either. I do not think this is really an issue on the federal governments radar. Increasedfund has substantially. It was 95 if you did not have insurance in 2014. In 2060, youre looking at almost a 700 fine. Uest that is the minimum too it is actually a percentage of your income. Stillear, i believe it is 2 . You think about that. If youre making 50,000 per healthnd you do not get insurance, the finder section 1000. Of your income this year. It made people, Financial Sense for them, if they really did not want to go on the Affordable Care act, to go with the fine in previous years. Guest the finest still a lot less than what it cost to buy Health Insurance these days if you are not getting a subsidy from the government. Alot of people who cant get subsidy are not signing up. There are like 10 Million People who are believed to be eligible for subsidies who have not signed up for coverage under the law. Host what is happening . Guest lots of different reasons. Some of them may be skeptical of the program. Lots of them apparently do not know that they are eligible for Financial Assistance to sign up. Education has been a real problem with this law from the start. Host we will go to chicago next, charlotte, a democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. My husband gets medical insurance through his job. Am selfemployed im the only person working in my company. We do file a joint tax return. Actually, if it was just him getting insurance, it would be very inexpensive. When i am added in, it gets more expensive. Im not sure if i can go off on my own and get a medical policy on my own. I do not know how to do that, being married, and we filed the joint tax return. Democrat s a with republicans, it is like the sky is always falling if their Party President had passed Something Like this, they would be on board, but because the democratic president passed this, like a set, it is like the sky is falling. Intoe have been locked their jobs because of medical insurance. It is such a great start to let ,ur country and Business People and people who want to get out a greatd work, it is opportunity for those of us looking to go off on her own. Thank you. The factts not ignore that the afford will care act has provided an normas benefits to a lot of people. About 18 Million People have gained Health Insurance coverage since the law began that did not have it previously. That is a big number. The law has done good things for people. Situation, you should be able to sign up on. Our own if you would like to you are probably in a situatio , where you can compare what it would cost to join your husbands plan compare the cost of that to the exchange in illinois. Illinois is part of healthcare. Gov. , and toalthcare. Gov your personal information, and it should spit out some prices for you. Host houston, texas, mike, a republican. Caller good morning. I guess my first question is what good is it to have Health Insurance if you cannot see the doctor that you need to see in a timely way . What good is it to have Health Insurance when you need to see a physician or specialist, and are told, we cannot afford that, you are 72 you cannot have a hip replacement, we will give you pain pills. How does that work . That mike, are you saying is because of the Affordable Care act . Caller i am saying the way to bend the cost curve is when you have 18 million apparently, 18 million more consumers, where are the doctors . Where does the waiting line start . In the parking much a go host i see. The shortage of doctors than you add 18 million to the system. Guest i think the doctor shortage in the United States has been overstated. Access is something of an issue with the afford will care act plans. Some of them have what are very narrow medical networks with a limited number of doctors and hospitals participating. There are what we call adequacy standards in the law. Doctors require insurers to include enough doctors and their plan so that people do not face unfavorable waits in lines. We have not seen lines out of Emergency Rooms because of the Affordable Care act. Chicago call, i may have misspoken. If she is ineligible for her husbands plan, she is probably the affordableible with care act. Generally, if you are in eligible for a work plan, you are in eligible for the afford able care act. If the work plan comes out to be more than a percent or 9 of total income, she is been eligible to go to the exchange. It is not easy. Host does somebody help with that math guest . Washington journal . Ontinues insurance brokers. There are also counselors who have been funded by the Affordable Care act. They are called navigators. She can probably find some in chicago who can help her sort that out. Host we will go to brooklyn, tracy. Caller top of the day to you. Check this out. The aca. The aca act what i do not understand is why whydy yall dont post there is a comparison between the states guest we have seen a real big difference in coverage gains between states that have embraced the Affordable Care act and those that havent appeared in 20 states have not expanded medicaid for low income people under the Affordable Care act. The gains in Insurance Coverage have not been anywhere near as great as states that have expanded medicaid like california new york and new york. Host what efforts will there be to appeal the Affordable Care act repeal the Affordable Care act . Guest there is a bill out of congress. They will not be able to override his veto. What could change is in 2017 or 2018, the republican candidates say they will try to repeal this law. Hillary clinton and Bernie Sanders will maintain the law. They say they want to make changes, but it will stick around. Host what kicks in in 2016 . Guest the law is pretty much fully implemented as is. In 2016, there are some changes or in lawyers for employers. Smaller employers start covering their workers. The threshold drops to 50 workers. Host the president laid that mandate. Guest it will come into effect. Host ray in pennsylvania. Independent. Caller good morning. When the Affordable Care act was floated by the democrats, they said there was somewhere between 32 and 35 Million People who did not have health care in this country. The rates were so expensive in some states because it was only a Single Health care provider. You just said there are only 9 Million People who signed up this year. 5 million of those had health care before were canceled and had to reapply. Theres only about 4 Million People who signed up. Either that was a big lie about 35 Million People some thing about people who are not hereted a gentleman said he is so mad about this health care, he signed up because of what he is getting as far as retirement, it would cost them 250 a month. He said i cannot pay that because under the bronze land, it is a 5,000 deductible. I cannot afford that. He said, what is the use . I cannot afford it. The whole thing has been predicated on lies and innuendos appeared the present said you would not lose your doctor. When republicans take over in 2016 independent of the line, get rid of this law and get rid of this land, get rid of this law guest we are talking about two different numbers. When democrats were crafting the law, there were about 5 Million People in the country 45 Million People in the country without insurance. Since the law went into effect, only about 9 Million People have signed up for plans on the private market. In medicaid mother is neither 8 million who are getting coverage in medicaid, there is another 8 million who are getting coverage. If you balance at all outcome it comes out to about 17 Million People have gained coverage. Host 10 minutes left with alex wayne, the white house editor for bloomberg news. Michael is next in new jersey. Republican. Your question or comment . Iller my comment is this am a Small Business owner with my wife. Weve been one of those families who slipped into the cracks. Please to have a policy that cost is 900 a month. Our Insurance Coverage took that away from us. With the new laws, you have to go out and take this policy or this policy. The new policies around 1800 a month or a family of five. That does not include a 5,000 per person deductible. 020. An 8 our deductibles are skyhigh. For the five members of our family and employees, it is 30,000 a year. It is ash comical for a small family to absorb that astronomical. The Affordable Care act has done a robin hood scenario where they take people take from people who have a little bit and give it to people who can afford it. One of the underreported stories of the Affordable Care act is the losers in the law. There are winners and losers. Hopefully theres more winners, more people who gain coverage than people who saw their costs go up. Thatnnot ignore the fact there were some losers created by this law whose prices went up. With a five person family, you will be eligible for a subsidy in the individual Exchange Market an. It might make sense for you to drop your Small Business therage and go shop in as a family and see if you can get a better price. Host rick in michigan. Caller good morning. I think the future of the will gete care act brighter and brighter as time moves on, especially if Hillary Clinton is elected resident and we get a democrat majority in the house and senate. Where Hillary Clinton can get some stuff done. She should be getting special insight if elected. What would you like to change about the Affordable Care act . Guest she has criticized drug prices lately. Drug companies have been rising prices by quite a lot of the last couple of years. Hillary clinton says she would do something to try to control drug costs. She has proposed creating an additional credit to help a four hey for deductibles. Pay for deductibles. Specific out. The specifics have not been fleshed out. Caller tennessee. Udos to the gentleman caller i work for a retailer union. Our insurance for the last eight years has cost us money. We have to pay more than we ever paid. With Blue Cross Blue Shield changed to a 7030. Now, you can get certain things lets say you go for a colonoscopy. And they out something take care of the issue. Five years later, you go back an issue,se you had you are classified one way and your rates go up. If you did not have an issue, the next is free. Everything has changed where the average person whether in a ,roup plan or your own plan health care is about commission to salesman. Theres independent salesman you cut out the money and you will be able to control health care costs. If you dont take care of these commissions, you will never be able to afford healthcare. When you look around your predict in 10 years, Emergency Rooms will be closed down because you see , more doctorsaces doing inhouse surgery. Emergency rooms will be closed down within the next decade. Guest a real interesting study by this agency called the looked atof Medicine Health care costs in the United States. Of last year, we spent 3 trillion on health care. This agency looked at this number and try to figure out how much was valuable, how much of that spending went to something good. 700 billion of it was what they described as waste come including overhead and administration. Profits from supply health care to americans. Host kevin in leesburg, virginia. Democrat. Caller you may have made a good segue to what i want to say. What necessitates the creation of these highly contorted, complex solutions for health care . Lets talk about the numbers. , the u. S. To the oecd pays the highest per capita for health care amongst major countries there may be one that pays more. Guest we are third to norway and another country. The Health Outcomes for people are at the lower end. Why the drug and Health Insurance industries are holding our heads underwater. Usy are necessitating creating highly complex solutions when there is an easy answer. Singlepayer is the answer. There is already enough money in the system. It is just spread out. If we can consolidate that money and bring the costs down, the can beiencies and profit removed from the system and used to extend health care to many more people. Pay attention. Think about who the real enemy is here. Guest the caller is right. A lot of the costs are because the system is so fragmented and it is a forprofit system. Change to let you would have to go through an even more wrenching process. It would be huge changes in the unites states of america. The state of vermont back in , they said we would rather have a singlepayer system in our state. There was a carveout created in the Affordable Care act to allow vermont to create a singlepayer system. They would get a bunch of money from the federal government. They would have to cover as many people as the portable care act covers. The state of vermont has abandoned the plan because of the wrenching changes it would require, including large tax increases to replace the money that is now going to insurance companies. You would have to raise taxes to send money to the states that provide this singlepayer plan. Host alex wayne has been our guest. Bloomberg. Com for more of their reporting on the Affordable Care act. We are going to now turn our attention to campaign 2016. We want to take your temperature on the candidates. Have you picked one . Republicans, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Ndependents, 2027488002 voters in iowa and New Hampshire, 2027488003. Let us know if you have chosen a candidate and why. A will get an update now from political reporter from the Des Moines Register. Polls showing that ted cruz is leading in iowa. What is going on . Thats right. Doing a poll last week. Uz surge in the league here, 10 points ahead of donald trump at 31 . Who are you interviewing or surveying for these polls . Why does that matter . It matters a lot. Attendees that is a crucial demographic. Caucus,epublican cos you get 100,000 people to turn out. It is a complex process. How manyd to identify are truly going to turn out. Host are these caucus goers who are they . Are they mostly christian who arecal voters disproportionately favoring ted cruz . That is a part of it. The evangelical christians make up a plurality of the caucus electorate. They are powering ted cruzs rise. He isnt very much courting the social conservatives he is very much courting the social conservatives. Just last week, he was endorsed leader in the social conservative groups in iowa. Host what other endorsements have come down and are they helping . The evangelicals in iowa, there is a sizable republicans mitt pointswas within a few of rick santorum. There is an establishment vote jeb bush and marco rubio and Chris Christie have not into support on the ground. Host we appreciate your time this morning. The phone lines are open. We want to take your temperature on the president ial campaign. Have you picked a candidate . If not, tell us why. Thisashington times says a series of recent polls have shown mr. Cruz overtaking trump. Registeroines bloomberg poll gave mr. Cruz a 10 point lead over trump. That on the republican side in iowa. Take a look at the Des Moines Register this morning. Their front page, they have this headline about the democratic nominating contest. Bernie sanders is courting black voters in mostly white iowa. A strong showing here may draw interest of minorities elsewhere. Samantha in leesburg, virginia. Democrat. Have you picked your candidate . Caller i have. I have picked Bernie Sanders. I think he is the most rational and most honest. I believe in this day and age when you have a lot of media fear base showing the horrible things happening putting four 24 hours day, that is why trump appeals to some people because he seems angry and strong. Could take apeople step back and be less fearful and try to understand what is happening from a more rational , im hoping that is what happens. Given trumps appeal to so many outle, i tried to figure what is his appeal. So many are scared and he appeals to he looks like someone who will take charge and bring safety back. I find trump to be very immature. I think he would be terrible for our country. Im hoping and praying that people can get beyond their fear and see that. Host Washington Post front page this morning, trumps support at a new high. Joseph is next in providence, rhode island. Independent. Good morning to you. I want to congratulate donald trump. 1948, my family came over from israel. Im a black person. My family came from israel. The United States has not done a dam thing to help black people in israel. You all dont even talk about it. Host we are getting everyones thoughts this morning on campaign 2016 and whether or not youve decided on a candidate. Tonights Republican Debate is the last debate for 2015. It is on National Security. According to a wall street journal poll, americans say that is the top concern. That has switched from april of 2015 where 29 said it was job creation and economic growth. 40 say National Security as their top concern in this election cycle. John in mississippi. Independent. Caller good morning. Not yet decided as to which candidate i would support. I am leaning towards either trump or cruz. I have a question i would like to ask you. Hosts on thate are so young, right out of college, have not done a days work and you bring them on as experts . Ive an 86yearold man and retired military. I dont understand how you can have those young people up there that have no conception of what this world is like. Host are you talking about hosts or guests . Caller guests. You bring them on and they dont even know what they are talking about. They have not lived any life. I was born during the depression and i lived that life. Host bill in las vegas. Independent. Candidate . Osen a caller i have not. I cannot decide based on all the political minutia going on right now. Im not going to base my decision on a theatrical debate or soundbite. I need to see some real ideals and real political goals. I am not seeing any of that. Im seeing tv shows. Until i make my determination on which candidate is going to present an ideal and a solution, right now, i am leaning on not even voting. Host will you watch tonight . Caller absolutely. I need to see if any of these candidates are real. Im not seeing that from any of them. They are going with the flow of the polls. Host National Security is topping americans concerns for this election. The Las Vegas Review journal in their editorial today had a debate in nevada as a series of questions they want gop candidates to answer. They dont have to do with National Security. They say the reason why the candidates should have to answer have as because nevadans lot at stake. It has an early slot on the nominating calendar and it is a battleground state in november posture election. , we ared tuesday putting forth the questions that the candidates need to answer tuesday night. Would you and the ethanol mandate . What can you do to make it easier for people to start and grow a business . Where do you stand on the minimum wage . Would you support federal Grant Funding to states with high on document and immigrant populations . Is focusing one National Security and most of the questions will be about that. We will go to bill in las vegas. Independent . Chris in pennsylvania. Independent. Caller im voting for donald trump. He cannot be bought or pay off. I like that about him. Border security is a big issue. Hes really good on economics. A lot of my friends are democrats. They will vote for him also. There are a lot of people in pennsylvania leaning towards trump. What about his temperament . Caller i wish he would tone it down a bit. He gets a little crazy sometimes. That is more of his acting coming out of him. Host that would not stop you from voting for him . I think i would vote for him. This country needs a shakeup. I dont like the direction its going. I fear for my daughters future. Border security is big. The fact that he cannot be bought is really appealing to me. Host steve in iowa. You are a democrat. Who have you chosen . Caller i am agreeing with the gentleman that called an earlier that pointed out that there is nothing in the system for Affordable Care but americans pay more for health care than most other countries. That is a key part of the problem. Host we are talking about the president ial campaign. Caller hillary is the one who suggested the 504 tax credit for people who are caught in that bind between being not really high enough in the middle class and not poor enough. Illary has a targeted solution has the temperament , the stability of temperament from being secretary of state. She knows how to speak publicly and not go up on a rail. The obstacle in iowa, hillary is female. It is hard to get midwesterners to believe that a female person can become president. Host what is your reaction to Bernie Sanders . This headline in the washington times. I really like bernie as a senator and as a leader in the senate. He was great as a democrat. Candidate as an independent who has become a democrat to run for president. Im a democrat. I have been a democrat since i served in vietnam. For me, somebody who speaks independent speak and is appealing to independents is not really what im looking for. Host he has chosen Hillary Clinton. She leads in the polls in iowa. Her lead is not insurmountable. Have you chosen a candidate for the 2016 president ial race . If not, call in. We want to know why. For iowa and New Hampshire voters. Joining us in iowa is kevin logi. Lets begin with who is in the lead. What did the polls show in New Hampshire . Thanks for having me on. The polls are very interesting. Donald trump has doubled his lead in New Hampshire from september. He leads among republican candidates with 32 . On the democratic side, Bernie Sanders has a lead over hillary 40 with 1 for martin omalley. Trump is prominent ive never covered a race like this. Teflon, it is not like bulletproof armor. His support grows with each outrageous statement he makes. We break very late in New Hampshire. Of people say they are open to changing their minds. This race remains very fluid. Host why is that . Is that a typical New Hampshire voter . It is. Hampshires ethos. The voters take their role very seriously. They follow National Coverage and state coverage. They dont have a role in picking president , but they respond to whittling down the very seriously. They dont lock into a decision. Primaries, we would have had president herman cain or john glenn. Those folks were leading in the polls at this time before their respective primaries. That is the question we have here. His donald trump a lasting phenomenon . Can he keep it going for the next two months . What happens when he stumbles . All candidates to stumble. How will he cope with a stumbling moment in New Hampshire . Host what about the ground game . Does it matter in New Hampshire . It does matter a great deal. Donald trump is not the most organized candidate in the state. Only three candidates of the 14 still left have visited New Hampshire less than donald trump has. Others, Chris Christie spent three times as many days here as he has. George pataki almost three times as many days. Lindsey graham almost four times as many days. The ground game does matter. And with this crowded the Iowa Caucuses before hand, this will test that theory that the ground game does matter. Iowa could have a greater impact on New Hampshire than in the past. Heard. Bly, i call it the in the last week of the heard will move. It will move to pick an alternative to donald trump. The plurality will choose someone. Person . Hat ted cruz or Chris Christie or john kasich . Is it jeb bush or rand paul . We dont know yet. They will pick somebody. Goodat somebody has a ground game such as rand paul has a good ground game in this state, jeb bush has a decent ground game in this state, that more catapult him to even of a serious candidate. Host some of the like jeb bush or Chris Christie, because of the money and time they are spending New Hampshire, could win the state . They could. If you are jeb bush, you need a moment when you are making that move. He has spent a lot of time here. Some observers in the state dont believe the moment will come for jeb bush. He has a significant political organization. The Senate President is supporting his candidacy. He needs to have that moment, he needs to bring his pack. Maybe a moment in tonights debate could give him that spot. Chris christie got a spark. A lot of papers and supported his candidacy. Theres been a buzz about marco rubio as well. Ted cruzs rise in iowa has had some spillover here. We will see what happens. For New Hampshire voted Hillary Clinton in 2008 but Bernie Sanders is ahead in the polls. Could she would New Hampshire or is this because of the neighborhood neighboring vermont . Really good question. The jury is still out on this. Democrats in New Hampshire dont like to be told who to vote for. The establishment has decided you will vote for Hillary Clinton. Activists reject that. They flocked to howard dean. They flocked to bill bradley. All three of those people did not end up winning the nomination. Hillary clinton can still would New Hampshire. Bernie sanders knows she can still win New Hampshire. Independent voters are the biggest block of voters here. Are freent voters agents. They can vote in either primary that they. That day. Where they choose to vote will help determine who wins the democratic primary. Bernie sanders understands that. If the turnout is big, i went. If not, i lose. Independents among against Hillary Clinton by 20 of the vote. If they vote in large numbers, he can be Hillary Clinton. Beats Hillary Clinton. Polls are showing independents want to play in the republican race. That could really hurt Bernie Sanders. Hurt bill2000 that bradley. That surge ofel independence to john mccain robbed bill bradley. Chief Political Correspondent with an h one news news inhampshire nh1 New Hampshire. We appreciate your time, sir. Phone lines continue to be open here. We are getting your thoughts on campaign 2016 and whether or not you have chosen a candidate. Take a look at the front page of the Las Vegas Review journal. Heller predicts trump loss. Eileen in new haven, republican. Have you chosen a candidate . Caller im rooting for trump. I think he is the one we have to give credit to for shaking everything up. Im pretty much for him. Pretty solid. I just wish he would show more compassion. He is very domineering. I think he is selfcentered, but he has earned it. He is a very smart man. Somebody like him who doesnt , he isff from anybody the one that would shake things up. Host turn the tv down, listen through your phone. Wanda in tennessee. You are on the air. Thatr i was just hoping everyone saying the independents could go in and shape the government i would love to see hillary and her movement give them a chance to do their job. If i could speak on donald trump , i would say that donald trump if you feels like he can do so much for our country, he should go to another country and run for president. Host tom in texas. Republican. I believe i am for ted cruz. Donald trump is to selfcentered. Believe ted cruz can do something good for us. Host why do you like him . What have you heard from him . Guest quite a bit. I dont really want to go into specifics. That is my choice. Host take a look at the opinion section of usa today. The editorial says divisive and disliked, ted cruz rises in the gop race. The opposing opinion written by dan patrick says he will increase the turnout of faithbased voters. He will turn out to party and grassroots voters. Tea party and grassroots voters. John in virginia beach. Independent. Caller good morning. I think i will lean towards sanders. With thetough times war and stuff, he will be more diplomatic towards russia. Trump seems like you would cause a war. Can you imagine what he would act like with russia . He might want to go in and try to conquer the place. Host robin in pennsylvania. Democrat. Have you chosen a candidate . Caller i will vote for trump. I am from hillary country. I really think trump is the man. People have to put the way he talks aside and let him come in and do what he has to do to get it done. Host did you vote for president obama . Caller no, i did not because i was for hillary. Now, i see what she is about. Thank god i did not vote for her. Host wall street journal reports political history was made a political record shattered yesterday. Jonathan in michigan. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. If mr. Trump says nothing outrageous, im voting for mr. Trump. He has done more for this ntry with just talking just the words coming out of his mouth has done more for this country than obama did in the last seven years. At the columnook in todays New York Times. How trump could win and why he probably will not. Of bothow initial signs challenges the opposition is flawed enough to entertain such an outcome. In nearly every election cycle, there are candidates to lead in National Polls and win states but dont come close to winning the nomination. The polls at this followed how state can be misleading. Consider where we were four years ago when the race was transitioning from herman cain to newt gingrich. Donald trump does not do well in the field narrows and he is in oneonone matchups with ted cruz or marco rubio. Charlotte in iowa. Democrat. Have you chosen . Caller yes. Im going with Bernie Sanders. I want to get big money out of politics. Have you ever participated in a caucus . Caller yes. Host explain what that entails and what kind of commitment it takes. Caller it takes a lot of commitment. It is great. I love it. You are missing a big opportunity to get your candidate in there. I did it for john edwards. Pull people over to our candidate. Host you break up into those supporting candidates. Caller we break up into parts. Obama is on one side and edwards is in the middle and hillary is on the other side. Then, you find out who is left. Say will yound come over to our side. You have to really talk to them because they are stuck on their guy, some of them will not move. Biden. As six left with host it can take hours . Caller yeah. It did take hours. It was maybe three hours. Host it Bernie Sanders gets bunch . Ill you caller no. Host she is caucusing for Bernie Sanders. Caucuses. Covered the we will continue to do so. Look for our road to the white house coverage on our website. Kenneth in georgia. Independent. Good morning. Caller a few comments im voting for donald trump regardless. Let me tell you why. This country, as far as National Security goes, the greatest change in National Security in our history took place a week ago. On cspan or one cnn or fox or anybody, they dont want to touch that politically incorrect hot potato. With ourwe going to do recent policy change by the democrats and a bunch of republican women to put women in combat positions in our armed forces . Strong are we going to be . Asked americans about donald trump saying there should be a ban on muslims. The majority of republicans say yes. Most oppose his muslim ban. Muslims face discrimination in the u. S. You can see how the numbers breakdown. The u. S. Public overall rejects Donald Trumps proposal by a wide margin. Majority of republicans support the ban. Melinda in springfield, virginia. Republican. Caller good morning. I have always been a republican. Things havehout been shaking out, im going to have to go with Bernie Sanders. The whole thing has been derailed by trump. His rhetoric. Bernie really tells the people what we really need to be concerned about. ,reserving the middle class being aware of whats going on domestically and not getting everything coming up in the media come everything they want us to get wound up about. The middle class has gotten weaker. Pretty muchre running roughshod over this country. We are turning a blind eye to it. Host Economic Issues tops your list . Guest Economic Issues are extremely important. People are not paying enough attention to Different Things affecting their bottom line and their ability to take care of their family. Message hasrss always been the true, the same for decades. He has always been on our side. The middle class people in this country. People need to wake up to his message. Host adam in asheville, north carolina. Have you chosen . Caller im voting for Bernie Sanders. Tpp. Poses the he is much stronger on wall street and hillary is. Hillary is. He supports gml labelio labelin. For a president to stand by while her people are poisoned by gmos. Host go ahead. Caller i like donald trump. He is opposed to the tpp. That is a big problem in this country. Hillary is for it, then against it. I think ted cruz was for it, then went against it. The economy is an important thing in this country right now. Host do you have concerns about what he has said . The controversial remarks about muslims . Caller people blow stuff out of proportion of it. Host that does not bother you . Caller it dont heard i want to bring jobs back to this country. Host joe in new jersey. Richard in misery. Hi, richard. Souri. Hard in mis sanders. m for bernie the other networks dont give him time to talk. It is unfair. Hes the only one who says what he is going to do. The others, the same old stuff. Bernie has some ideas. He probably will not make it, but i have my money on him. In mesquite, texas. Independent. Have you decided . Caller i have not decided yet. I am trying to see who is going to do what. Each always heard president say what they are going to do. It seems like this country has been sold out. We need a president who will make a big change. The change needs to start with the people born in this country, raised in this country. They are talking about the Affordable Care act. That has been done. That was a mess. People that did not have come is been taken away from those who did have to give to those whove come into the country. Im trying to watch and concentrate and see what president is talking about our jobs, our economy, medical, housing. I have a niece that is very ill. Her have taken all of. Ssets for Social Security i dont understand why. Host lucy in texas waiting to see what the candidates say they will do on these issues. Getting ready for tonights debate, ted cruz tweeted this out he has a link to the youtube ceneo of the tommy boy se where he is playing along to the maniac song from flashdance. Trump was in nevada yesterday. Was not easy in vegas. Thank you for your continued support. Donald trump ahead in the polls in that state as well. Stewart is a republican. Say, i i just want to would have voted democrat, but im not about to vote for a socialist. I dont really agree with somebody who doesnt tell the truth in the white house. Donald trump has shaken things up. He has said a lot of things that are outrageous. He is saying what america wants to hear. I cannot see a liar being president. The last seven years have been outrageous. We need to change. Host who is your second choice . Caller Bernie Sanders. Host explain that. Caller if bernie was to get there i think hillary will win the nomination. If bernie was to get in there and donald was not come i would vote for bernie. Host you see similar economic messages . Caller yes. Wall street the top 1 , it is ridiculous. The growing disparity between the middle class and the rich is growing so quickly, it is outrageous. Donald says a lot of things about veterans that makes me happy also. Host donald trump is in the top 1 . You would trust him to represent you . Says whatnald trump he means and means what he says. He is in the 1 . What hetill agree with says. Host many in california. Democrat. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im voting for Bernie Sanders. , he is down to earth and from the middle class. Hillary clinton, all the baggage be arings, it would not good president. She has not been honest with the American People since day one. They did a lot of underhanded things when bill clinton was in office. I would not trust her to have her finger on the button. They are all for themselves and they are not going to be for the American People. The American People should wake up to Hillary Clinton. She lied about being shot at after getting off the helicopter. In the last election. Aboutd just warn america being critical of barack obama. He has done the best he could. Congress has been against them since day one. Host mitchell in portland, oregon. Independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. Say i am on the fence. Im waiting for a real leader who will increase the power and call out the false flags in our country over the past decade or so. Up and until we have someone who can speak the truth, i will be very leery. Thank you for taking my call. Host harry in pennsylvania. Republican. Have you chosen a candidate . Caller donald trump. He is right on trade policy, right on illegal immigration. He is right on National Security. I dont care what the experts say. Im voting for trump. Thank you for taking my call. Host have you gone to a rally . Weve lost him. Oceanside, new york. Republican. Hi, ian. Caller i am absolutely for trump. Businessman,sful not somebody whos done nothing. Whoever gets in office will have to grab