Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20151226

Is 202 7488000. 650, 202 7488001 51 and over, 202 7488002. You can catch up with us on social media on twitter, atebook, or email us journal cspan. Org. Good saturday morning. We are talking about your experiences participating in a march, protest, or demonstration. We want to hear your stories. We have our phone lines open with the numbers on this green. The phone lines are split by age. Updates on recent protests and demonstrations that have made the news in the days leading up to christmas. The first is in minnesota at the minneapolis airport. 8 people were arrested in a protest that tangled travel at the minneapolisst. Paul airport. Fromhave been released jail. The black lives Matter Movement was diverted from the mall of america where they were ordered to leave kerry they used the mall disturbance as a decoy. They have been trying to draw attention to the shooting of a black man by minneapolis police. It remains under investigation. That is in minneapolis, minnesota. From the Chicago Tribune the headline is a protester was freed on wand after his arrest her and your Christmas Eve march along the magnificent mile shopping district to protest the shooting of laquan mcdonald. The protest was meant to replicate a march on Michigan Avenue that disrupted shopping on black friday. The christmas protest was smaller, 100 demonstrators. They called for the resignation of the mayor and the attorney. The mayor has been criticized in the delay of releasing the video of mcdonalds shooting. The attorney is facing outrage because the officer was not charged for more than a year after the october 2014 shooting. Those are 2 protests that have made headlines. We want to hear about your stories. Where you have protested, demonstrated. Do you think it was effective . , its on our facebook page. Says no, i have not participated. Actionseived injustice, speak larger than words. Anyone can hold the sign. The real act of this activists do more than exercise their First Amendment rights in public. Below that, i have organized several major ones. Issues faces to lawmakers. I am prochoice and prosecond amendment. Politicians have been seeking to abridge rights that i consider essential. Our phone lines are debated divided by age group. Up to 25, 202 7488000. Over 26 202 7488001. 51 and over, 202 7488002. Mary, good morning. Caller how are you . Host i am good, mary. Caller when i was 12 years old in 1961, i was participating in a civil rights and menstruation in winstonsalem, North Carolina. It is one of the most exciting times of my life. We demonstrated at a restaurant. We were arrested for obstructing the sidewalk. Personshat time, we had who would call us all types of names. We were a group of children who. Eally believed in the cause i have to say that out of over 66 years of my life, that had to be one of the most impactful and fascinating times of my life. Host what makes a protest successful . Caller for me, it was the the excitement of those involved. The feeling that we were working toward a cause. Consequence of that particular demonstration, and the demonstrations throughout that period, the actual establishment was integrated. We knew that we were working. Oward something that was deep something that we knew was important for us. We were children of color. We were black. There were some whites who joined. As i said, it was exciting. It was a time of cohesion. It was a wonderful experience. Think it wasd you ok to stop protesting . How long did you do for . Caller at that particular time, theonly my actual actions of walking and demonstrating lasted, for that particular year. We protested in other ways. Even in conversations with others, if you will. By speaking our beliefs. If that isw answering your questions, but that is my answer for you today. Host we appreciate your thoughts and stories. Next, jacksonville, florida on the line for those between 26 and 50. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host im good. Caller i protest all the time in jacksonville, florida. Without protests we have to continue to aggravate the system. It is very racist in jacksonville, florida. I protested in the jordan davis trial. Documentary for him. We protest numerous things, including economic blackouts in jacksonville, florida. I continue to protest. I protest on facebook. It is the only way to get the attention of people that stand up for our human rights and civil rights in the city. Host there is an article last year, the headline was why street protests dont work. They note the problem is what happens after the march. Ends with violent confrontation with the police. More often than not it fizzles. Ut their israeli a well oiled and Permanent Organization that is capable of following that produces real demand in government. Have you seen that . Is there an Organization Behind the protest that can do the facetoface dull political work that produces real change . Caller that is part of the problem. We had a shot down of a shut down of a bridge earlier. I supported it. It fizzled out because there was infrastructure to take it to a political level. A lot of the people that protest do not believe in politics. I have not seen any confrontation with the police on a massive level in jacksonville. I cannot speak to that. I do feel like it is important to take those protests to a political level, to continue at the legislative level, where the laws are unjust. Story,or the atlantic published in 2014, one example of why street protest do not work was the occupied protest that garnered so much attention. As it notes, it fizzled out. We want to hear your thoughts. Your take and experiences in a protest movement or march. On the line for those 51 and older. Midge, good morning. Caller good morning, america. Not the coast. E, host have you protested . Caller regarding the atlantic article what it is not looking into my involvement with politics was accidental. Protesting attica all the way to current issues. What they are not pointing out , i would get involved in these demonstrations and go home. Instead of getting involved in organizations, these demonstrations affected me personally, on my personal interactions with people. People almostte on a daytoday basis. E, but we rural main have some audience somalians in lewiston. When i meet people, i always give them a positive attitude about not being afraid that people are going to hurt them just because they are different. That started from my political days back in the 1960s and 1970s. I dont think, you know, once you are a Community Activist or political activist, i do not think it ever leaves you. You just change how you are placing your energy. Host what got you started in the 1960s and 1970s . What were you marching for . Came fromll, i i an abusive family. Peopleo think about suffering when they have not been anything wrong. I got involved with people that red diaperlly babys. I came from a workingclass background. Were a bunch of harvard and radcliffe red diaper babies that i got involved with going to a gay bar in boston. A bunch of them were there. It was the let me think what they were called the brighton roses. That was the name of the organization. They adopted me. They taught me what i like to say are the classics. Experience. Derful i agree with mary that being involved with these people, seeing how actually we made a difference not that society is different, but many of us can actually take a last breath wasing whether it education, labor, community, or religion there is a whole generation of us that made a difference in life. I hope that those who follow us have the same experience. Host thanks for the call from rural maine. Next, west palm beach, florida. The line for those between 26 and 50. Have you participated in a protest . Caller yes. In college in mississippi. Oftesting the inequity funding for historically black colleges. And other colleges in mississippi. Ase. As called the aras c i did im happy to say that now i think there is more equal funding for historically black colleges in mississippi. Im not lived there since the 1990s, but i think there is more funding. I think the protest was beneficial, along with the court cases. We were able to get funding for the historically black colleges up to the level, or near the level, of schools like the university of mississippi and mississippi state. When was it ok to stop marching . When a court case started, the end . When did it go from marching in the streets to allowing a court case to work through the system . Aller im not sure i know that as a student at a historically black college, we were tired. It was so obvious when you went university of mississippi and came back to our school, we didnt have any of the things that were offered at the university of mississippi. Did not seem like the university of mississippis, but we were both state schools. It was a feeling of, you are less than. That is why students participated. Although we did not march, continue to march, we allowed other aspects of demonstrating continuously putting it in front of the governor, before people in the state house in mississippi, and letting people know this was not equitable. We continued to do that. I think protesters today, younger people, i think that they have more energy. I dont think they are going to allow, specifically you talk about the black lives matter, i do not think they are going to stop protesting. There is something about human lives. I think, you know, it will continue to be protests i think they will continue to protest until we see a change. Host for an atlantic story on why street protests dont work. One of the examples is the occupied protest born in the summer of 2011. The occupied movement was cities. Roaring in 2600 such a global, massive, and seemingly well organized initiative should have had a greater impact. The topic of economic inequality has gained momentum. In practice it is hard to find meaningful changes based on occupied proposals. It has now banished from the headlines. That was in 2014, before the beginning of the 2016 election cycle. Hear your thoughts on whether protests are effective. Your stories about participating over the years. Linda from minnesota on the line for those 51 and over. You are on washington journal. Caller good morning. I would like to comment that i think you probably cannot measure whether protests worked or not. That is a matter of one persons perspective. You can say whatever you want when you write. Willurse, statistics support one way or the other, oneononeu speak with a person, you can impact them forever. The woman who spoke earlier advocate ine is an maine oneonone on a daily basis, that is a powerful thing. We know the power of speech is tremendous. Writing. Our way of articulating things comes through in many different ways. Say that several hers ago my daughter had first episode, experience, with Mental Illness. Soon after that, there was a forh in the organization the National Association for Mental Illness. End. T there at the i was able to meet a doctor who could tell me the first step for turn screw. March, they were trying to show solidarity. I met a doctor who could guide me to where i needed to go to understand the realm of Mental Illness better. Just as a way of having a give march hasn a group, a a great effect. I know that, because it happened to me. I also know that Mental Illness affects people, professionals, and more than that. It is for those who are diagnosed. Thinga huge pervasive right now in congress. Representatives are getting up bills that would fund thateorganization addresses meant on this. Mental illness. Mental illness and substance affront to thee generation coming. Host when of the bills you are talking about is from congressman murphy. He has been on the show talking about his legislation. On the issue of Mental Illness, do you think that the action that congress is starting to take, the attention it has gotten, has come from marches and demonstrations, or high profile incidents and shootings . Shootingsu know, the have always been at the forefront, of course. People are reactionary to that. It is violent. It is blatant violence. Subsection of people. We are always going to react. The media is always going to force that on people. A greater portion of people who are mentally ill are not any affront to anybody. In fact, they tend to be more of the victims. That is a fact. I have been put in a situation my boy havingof experience with heroin addiction, and my girl we are still trying to understand exactly what is going on. This is a huge thing, the mind. It is uncharted. Drugs have side effects and dont work. They are doing research at this point. Sharing appreciate you your story. I did not mean to cut you off. You have something to add . Caller just that i will be an advocate forever. It was my honor to march with people who have a common cause. I am in favor of marching together. , nationsur cell phones can gather together and become democracies. We know that because we can gather together we can do great things. I will be an advocate forever of having give and take with people who are likeminded. Whether that is at a march, and an Assembly Hall we need to speak out for the right causes. Host thanks for the call. A different take on the effectiveness of protests and marches from a Washington Post story last year. The headline is americans dont , but protests might work anyway. They say that protests put and keep issues on the political agenda. That is how civil rights, vietnam, and womens rights had their fx. Effects leading to political change. A different perspective on protests and marches. We want to hear your stories and perspectives. On the line for those between between 26 and 50. Caller thank you for having me on. Occupy inxperience in santa rosa, california. To members of the community i dont normally get to on that topic. Was a demonstration to me from another part of the community. Overall, it was a positive experience. Like how you are sectioning the calls. I think that the Younger Generations are missing a few basic elements. We and what do we want . To really get down with that. A lot of the protests stem out of consumer class section demographics of the population. I think that it is time to get back to a boycotttype mentality. To a targeted approach boycott, using them to get corporate attention. Unfortunately, that is how it will have to be, beginning with affecting someones money. Through that, gaining attention from other interests in the corporate realm. The when you talk about Younger Generation, how do you think social media has affected the willingness of the Younger Generation to march, protest, demonstrate in the streets . You consider retweeting hashtag s and social media statements . Is that a former protest . An effective one . Caller i think it is a team effort. I think that the effort generated by actually moving your body, getting on the street, showing that kind of heart is different. Even though your voice is heard. Your voice is telegraphed across the nation into other peoples hands, i do think there have been positive things on facebook. Keep in mind what facebook is up to. There could be a protest right there not using facebook that could be effective. The whole thing is an unknown quantity at this moment. Once again, i like that you have sectioned us into age groups. My generation and the one right below me have a lot to remember. Unions used to be a big part. They pushed for civil rights. They pushed for the schools. Tion of they pushed for abortion. It is highly understood by those who understand the backgrounds of unions that those issues would not have been moved to where they are without the backing of unions. We have a lot to learn from that , our forefathers, and how and from that generation. Host 25 and under. Belmont, new york. Danielle, you are on the washington journal. Caller how are you . Host im good. Maine, andnesota, california. That is why im calling today. Host what do you mean . Their comments this morning . Caller exactly. It takes one person to change everything. Protest something all i have to do is talk to one person. That is all it takes. What california just said, the Younger Generation if you do your research, your work, and everything like that, it doesnt matter how old you are. It really doesnt. It takes one person to change the world. Host when is the last time you marched and protested on the streets . What was it about . Every day. I talk to personal people. I talk to everybody. It doesnt matter how old you are. You have to speak your mind, and speak it loud. Sorry, this is a touchy subject. Day, whether it is the war on drugs, who is the next president , black on black crime, white on white crime. It is an every day protest for me. Host do you think fellow members of your generation are as socially motivated as previous generations . Caller i am trying to work on that. [laughter] host we appreciate the call. Historical perspective from gallup polling. This came out several years ago. It is about polling from the vietnamera. In 1960 seven, americans were asked if they had ever participated in a peace rally on vietnam. 99 said they had not. When those who had not participated wereparticipate, or area, 9 said they want your to buy october, 1960 nine, as antiwar fever continued, more than 2 Million People because nationally coordinated vietnam protests. Host historical polling on the vietnam era. We want to hear your stories, and we will revisit this subject at the end of our program today. Ron has been waiting in eagle river, wisconsin. Ron, thanks for waiting. Caller yes, good morning. Ann arbor, live in michigan in the mid1960s, early 1970s during a rather turbulent time, political as well as social. Did protests mean anything . Today, as anything . Did they accomplish anything . Yes, i would say they did. If you have a united cause but if you have a small group, no. It is very relative. The 1960s was a time of peaceful protest as well as some discussing times i saw. Everything from sit and stew and other violent means of protest. Somethinglike it was going on every single day. Ron, is that kind of more violent protest ever justified . Is there ever a time when you would say that is the correct way to protest . Man, this was a long time ago, and my attitudes have changed considerably. Convinced thatso things were not going the way the world should be, and many people were willing to go ahead protests,e violent ,ven from building bombings and like i say, it was very turbulent, but i can remember protestsrly social with John Sinclair where he was given a 10year sentence for possession of two joint, and john lennon came into town with was and a large protest organized, and he was freed soon after that. So do protests matter . Yes, they do matter, but like i said, you have to have a united cause, and people have to believe in the enough to, well, enough to go ahead and see it through. Day, happy new year to everybody. Ronhost ron in eagle river. Another piece from one of our other papers that we have been looking into from forbes has a story about nonviolent protests vs. Violent protests. Its also written in the past year, t researchers two researchers from Foreign Affairs studied 323 different movements from 1900 to 2006 involving both violent and Nonviolent Movements. Their conclusions were that Nonviolent Movements were twice as likely to succeed as violent movements, and that Nonviolent Movement often significantly increase the chances of a more peaceful and democratic government emerging the aftermath. The that by one of researcher super dissipated in that study for Foreign Affairs. If you want to look for more on that, we looked at the forbes story, the proven superiority of nonviolent resistance. Lined is in alabama on the for those between 26 and 50. Good morning. Caller good morning. That was a very good article you just read, and i have to agree with that. The protesters that are going on today in america about the Police Killings i do not think the protesters are really going to have an effect on , for the police going out and just shooting and killing unarmed black people in america. Unless they find a way to and affect the finances or the money here in america. So what i think they have to do, they have to protest places, like they did in the mall, where they affected the money coming into the mall, and then they left the mall and went to the airport. Place. Orts is another more protests in america, and that will affect the money in america, thank you. Host here are a few pictures from that mall america protest. These are from the Associated Press. You can see the sign being held by black lives matter, one of the protesters there. On the protest that started at the mall of america and spilled over to the st. Paul international airport. This is another picture from the Associated Press and one more for you of one of the protesters being arrested. In culvero walter city, North Carolina on that line for those 51 and older. Walter, good morning. Caller yes, i am 72. I was a news photographer during the19 si60s during protests, the civil rights protest. 16mmin the day, we used film cameras. You can tell i am ancient history. Anyway, after Martin Luther king was assassinated in memphis, we were covering the event in west nashville, a predominately black university. My news journalist was a gentleman from minnesota. I can remember his name clearly, al becks was his name. I was shooting film of the demonstrations, and they were throwing molotov cocktails, and what have you. The thing that puzzled us, is most of the businesses that they were attacking and destroying were africanamerican businesses. Bustingan, they were windows, busting down doors, they were looting and what have you. Since he wasg me, and im a man of the south, from orlando originally, and i said al, i do not know how to explain it. They got pretty close to us. We were shooting behind police error case. We were about, oh, i would say a football field away, and they started getting closer to us and what have you, but i do not know what to say. We could not understand why they were attacking their own peoples business, and these were predominantly black people with some white people mixed in, and that was one i really remembered, and it really had no effect, and the damage wanda being in the millions. Host when you think about that protest and how you and the news media covered it, compare that to how these protests are covered today, whether it is the black lives matter protests against involvement in military operations, whatever it is, how the media covers protests today, are they more synthetic, less synthetic . More sympathetic . Less sympathetic . Caller are you talking about the media . Host yes, sir. Caller i do understand your question. The media has got to cover it. That is what the media is supposed to do. They cover the protests, especially if they are significant. Media coveraget of members of the media in the front lines of the protests, mixing in with the protests and trying to the interviews as that is happening. Was that happening in the 1960s . You talked about covering from behind a police their case. Caller well, we had to. Back then, when you try to pass a police barricade, you would be arrested or you would be probably pushed back. Fortunately, most of Law Enforcement we all knew each other because we covered stories together. Me we covered accident, homicides, there was usually a commander or cap to Something Like that, and they were basically keeping us back or our own protection because some of these demonstrations were really more mob activity. As far as today, this is what you are supposed to do. You are supposed to cover events, especially if they are significant, whether we are against them, for them, or what have you. A lot of people condemned the news media, but the news media is just doing what they are supposed to do. I do not know if that makes sense or not. Host appreciate a call from North Carolina this morning. Northis up next in toolina on the line for 26 50. David, good morning. Caller good morning. First, i would like to say when you go to the street protesting, you give up a few of your securities and have to give way to the jurisdiction of the authorities when youre on the street. So i have been using facebook as best i can to try to get through theto representatives about policy change such as using facebook on a public setting on a public page where we can comment on legislation as it moves through the body of our government. I have called dozens of representatives to try this, and it is not getting through to them. The videos i post, i post them overseas, and i am thinking i am put on like a nopaste list, just like a nofly list by some bureaucrat, that nopresses my opinion because one person has the my video even not have posted it multiple times. Host david, what kind of legislation are you most interested in . Caller well, a lot of it. Just everyday it is Something Else that restrict us, especially the Insurance Companies the way we are mandated to do commerce with private Insurance Companies, allowing one private individual to make the money off of a government mandate. Or a group of private individuals to make money off a government mandate kind of thing. Host david, when was the last time he went out and marched as opposed to trying to use your computer and the internet to affect change . When is the last time you took to the street . Caller i am not going to do that. I mean, i am in a small community. Washington is five hours away. It is dangerous to do that. To becomeod way confrontational with your local Law Enforcement. It is not feasible with the new social media platforms we have available. It would be ludicrous to devolve that to marching in the street. We need to get facebook verified. Our congressmen ought to be able to take our comments on the stories they post on facebook instead of fixing it where we cannot comment as they post. And we just need good, verified social media platforms to do our protests with. After we get that, then we will move on to the other subject matter. Host david, one other question. You tried to commit it your representative, other members of congress. Have you tried calling their offices and try to talk to them at least on the phone . Caller i have called them dozens of times, i sent them emails, but they do not have a public receipt for the emails, you know. I can email virginia fox, nothing shows up what i email her, none of her other constituents can see what i email her, although i want to have a discussion in public, you know youre you can taste these representatives down on the street, but it only takes a second for them to turn around and walk away from you, so come to think of it, yes, i have been on the street trying to confront my representatives. The callid, appreciate from todd, North Carolina this morning. If you did not get in on the segment of the washington journal, we will be revisiting the same question at the end of todays program, so stick around and please do call us back. I want to keep hearing your stories later today about your experiences in a street protest or demonstration. Talk about will thirdparty president ial candidates in an effort to allow those candidates more access to the president ial debates. Peter ackerman, chairman of the group level the Playing Field, will join us. Later, we will talk tax advice and take your tax questions here and we will be joined by kiplinger editorial director Kevin Mccormally. First, the National Association president lily garcia is our guest on newsmakers this week. She talks what her impact on the Student Succeeds act, the successor to the no child left behind act, behind which Congress Worked on and passed earlier this month. Lily i think everybody that believes there is real potential changing the face of reprises orn punishments were saying it is a new day. The country woke up last friday to a new world. It was the first time that we were not under this national so weof no child left, are actually we have got an Implementation Team on the National Level so that our state affiliates, our local affiliates, and all of the coalitions that are being built with s. T. E. M. , with school psychologists, disability Rights Groups, civil Rights Groups coalitions are coming together on the district and state level life you have never seen before, and what they are looking for from the National Education association is a framework. Study this law and tell us what our opportunities are to really start advocating for the services, the programs, the support, the voice of the educator, and the parent that says, this is my kids school. I should have something to say about this. All of these things were pretty much shut out under no child left with very strict, it has to look like this, this is the only number that counts, this is the only thing that we are going to look at when we say your school has made adequate yearly progress. And they were all egregious. They were not something here. So then by your account, it will be moving very quickly, things in place like account ability systems and teacher evaluations . Lily right, because accountability under no child left under the federal government said hit your quota. The one thing we really did like that came out of the 2002 no child left for the first time, they just aggregated the data. They did not give us the right data they only give us energized testing data, but they said we want to see where the gaps are between affluent children and poor children, minority children, children with disabilities, children who are english was learners because those populations of kids were seriously disadvantage, where they can to School Meeting so much, and the law said people should know not only what they are getting, but we should know how they are doing. Host and you can see the entire interview with National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen garcia. You can hear it on cspan radio and newsmakers, also Available Online at cspan. Org. Now we are joined by Peter Ackerman for a discussion on thirdParty Candidates. Of thees as chairman group level the Playing Field, which is pushing for thirdParty Candidates to have better access to president ial debates. Mr. Ackerman, first, what evidence do you see that americans are ready to move away from the traditional twoparty system and really embrace a thirdParty Candidate . Iest well, the evidence that have is not for they are ready to embrace a thirdParty Candidate they are ready to thirdpartyer a candidate or individuals were unaffiliated with either of the two candidates. The evidence is abundant. Wasmple, when attempting to create a nonpartisan ticket that would be on the ballot, so we went out and created the largest signature drive in the history of this country. About 4 Million People in 41 states. You know when you stop people on the streets for a signature drive, you have virtually second to make your case we asked them question would you like to see someone on the ballot other than a democrat or republican that you could vote for . Would. 70 said they if thats what polling we have done has shown that 81 of the American People would like to see a third competing in every election. To believe that the only way break partisan gridlock is to have independents in power. In this cycle, 62 of americans are willing to vote for an independent. Host in this segment of washington journal, we broke up our lines, democrats, republican, thirdparty supporters, and independents. Supporter,hirdparty 202 7488002. Independents, 202 7488003. Otherwise, democrats 202 7488001 and republicans 202 7488000. Focused inn, you are the cycle on the president ial debate. Why . To recruit alize candidate, we have to give them a reasonable chance to get into the debates. We discover there is no reasonable chance to get into the debates. That is the bad and spirit the candidate is known to be in the debates with six months ago, which we are suggesting is a solution to the kind of problem, that candidate would have the name recognition that would allow them to compete versus the democrats and republicans are it without that path, the current rule, which you have to have 115 toith seven weeks ago, comes late in the cycle to create a name recognition needed to compete. So we believe there is a simple fix to the problem that exists today, and we are focusing on that. The president ial campaign, why that versus others . There is an opportunity to perform at a senatorial level, the local level, but the beauty of this effort if there is one simple rule any to be change that could finally change the way we view our politics in this country. That rule i am sorry, go ahead. Host that rule is that 15 rule. For viewers, the rule, the criteria for a candidate to protest the in the commission on president ial debates event, you have to be 35 years of age, a natural born citizen, qualify to be resident am a at least 15 support in national polls, which is what we are focusing on, you have to have a mathematical chance of some of securing a general election. Why that 15 , why is that a barrier that is too high . Guest the 15 is not the problem per se it is the designation date that is so late in the cycle that basically chokes off the flight path of name recognition for anybody who is not a democrat or republican. If you are democrat or republican and you want to run for president am a you know from day one that if you win the nomination, you will be in the debates. Everyone else, the libertarians, the greens, and the hundreds of amazing americans that would run if they thought they had a chance to compete, cannot that issue resolved until if you are not known to be in the debates or happy prospect of the in the debates, you are not considered legitimate by the media. You will not be covered by the media, and therefore you have no way to get name recognition unless you buy it through your own way, which is a 260 million bill. Host this is an effort you have been working on as he said not just the cycle but in past cycle, level the Playing Field, the current effort. How much money have you personally put into this effort . Guest from start to finish going back nine years, about 27 million. Host why is this issue so important to you . Guest because my background has to do withs governments around the world. About isive written the subject of civil resistance tiered how grassroots activities can basically thwart authoritarian rule. So to me come in my career, the issue of governance is to determine the quality of life, and i was approached by a fellow dougug belli and bailey and ham jordan to be involved in an effort called , to create a nonpartisan ticket to be nominated online that would be on the ballot in all 50 states. We had to fight the ftc for three years to create a viable way to finance that effort. Then when we succeeded at the court of appeals on beating the ftc and then basically created an american select. So throughout this whole process, we have had the experience of seeing the ways in andh the two parties president ial debates have basically impeded any composition that was not democratic and not republican. To me, that is a big problem with our democratic system. Toit is more important to me get these rules right and to open the process to amazing americans who can run but refused to be affiliated with either party, refused to create and who will not run because they cannot compete under these rules. Host Peter Ackerman, leveling the Playing Field is the organization. The website president ialdebatenews. Com if you want to check out his work and the work that has groups are doing. You can call in. Liness segment, we have for democrats, republicans, thirdparty supporters, and independents. Roland is up first from columbia, maryland. Roland, good morning. Youre on with mr. Ackerman. Caller hello . Yes. Host go ahead, roland. Caller i support thirdParty Candidates mainly because i feel they are more independent, they are not controlled by big money as much as some of the other main Party Candidates. I remember when i was a young man, 19 i am 83 now. , and the headnor company had opened up a new store in baltimore. Restaurant, and i tried to go into the restaurant with all of the other employees. And i am approached because i was of color. They said only heads of departments are allowed, yet many of my coworkers who were white, they were able to go in. I approached governor mccullen, and i said they were disseminating, and he lifted his looking like he had no interest in helping. I come outse after of the military, i faced racial dissemination still. And the only way we could get they asked us to get three hours of pay for the united drive, and i told the guys in the labor department, they will not listen to us or talk to us unless we use Something Like the united drive and resist giving money because they would not listen to you otherwise. Do you think that a third party or independent governor or executive can make changes because they are less beholding to a partys structure . Are you more trusting of a nontraditional Party Candidate . Caller i think that is the reason because i feel they are any political system where they have to bend to the wills of the power that be. I guess not too much whole because money controls everything. Host mr. Ackerman, not too much hope he says. Guest i think there is hope, but i can understand why he feels there might not be. There is a tremendous level of discouragement in this country. Pew not too long ago had a very concerning poll asking simple questions. Do you think that our leaders are legitimate . 19 said yes, 16 said they were not sure, and 66 said no. I think a lot of this is not being laid at the feet of the twoparty duopoly. Two parties perform an Important Service in this country, but they do not perform a service that is healthy to this country when they try to exclude competition. Is wiserleman i think than many of the political operatives in the city who believe that the twoparty system per se is the fount of all wisdom and is there to solve all problems. Obviously, most americans do not believe that if the case now. Host as pointed out, your focus has been opening up the commission for the National Debate process. That is october, the cochair of the cpd released to their criteria for nonpartisan candidate selection. I want to read a statement they included. We are mindful of the changes in the electorate and the number of voters who self identify as independent. We believe our selection criteria addresses this dynamic. Not intended to serve as a springboard for a candidate with modest support. Participation is determined by the level of public support a candidate in joys as election day approaches. Your response . Guest the appropriate standard as they are supposed to create objective roles that do not create a predetermined outcome. They have today are the same rules they have had for the last since 2000. Have precluded in the independent from being in the debate. Backu back test the rules, to 1960, not one american who did not participate in the primaries has ever pulled above 10 has ever polled above 10 . Ross perot was pulling at 8 . , a manhe current rule voteot 18 of the popular would have been excluded from the debates. He was the only independent to make the debate stage since the cpd has been running the debate system. Guest he never would have been allowed into the debates under the current rule. Host thoughts and questions for Peter Ackerman. Line for thirdparty supporters, 202 7488002. Independence, 202 7488003. Otherwise, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Rick, good morning. Caller good morning. When you open it up for a thirdParty Candidate, what happens when someone wants to be a writein candidate . Host a right in candidate a write in candidate. Guest they are always available, but difficult to have an impact. With the exception of alaska. I do not think the issue we are talking about is writeins. Host do you have a followup . Just wonderingas if it opened up the field wider. Known people in cities running for Smaller Government have done that. Few years ago, in san francisco, there was a mayoral run, where a supervisor was only going to be a writein candidate. She was very popular in the city. I am sure that made a difference. I am wondering, though, with the upe if this would open it. Donald trump is spending his own money. He is popular. He is running his own show. Someone else just as popular in a certain area of the country run for president . Guest they can. They can go out and get on the ballot in that state. There is only one way to get on the ballot. That is through signature drives. Going into the street and stopping people one by one, showing them a petition that is approved by the individual state. You cannot do it online or by phone. With respect to the question of the previous caller, anybody can for in any state, president. How do you create a National Campaign that is competitive with the two parties . That is more difficult than just a regional candidacy. You what is the solution are looking to with the cpd . Thresholdower the 15 to 10 , 5 . 10 , no one has hurdled 10 in 56 years. The issue is not the hurdle percentage. It is two problems. Goesolling activity that on is now understood to be an accurate. Has over an 8 error rate. You can be above 20 in the polls and actually be miss polled and thrown out of the debates. Relying on polling as the only method is not appropriate anymore. In the Legal Proceedings we have been involved with, the chairman of the federal Election Commission has agreed with us and said there is a polling crisis in this country. The more important issue is not the number, it is the date in which the designation is made. We offer a simple solution. Ets not just rely on polling lets create a competition available to everyone who is not a democrat or republican, in which every american can participate in. Iconice winner is in an position and the press has to cover them. They would enjoy the same media the candidates for the Republican Democratic congregation would enjoy. Thele would get to know candidate over a sixmonth period. Adopted,at measure be hurtling over 15 is more unlikely we have to operate from a standing start with only seven weeks to go. On the debate stage would be reserved for that person. Is there any likelihood there will be a decision on that ofsuit before the debates august, september, october timeframe for 2016 . Guest it will not be in time for an independent to get on the ballot because by the time the ballotase is resolved, access deadlines will have passed. It will be too late for an independent to run. Appreciate special requirements and independent has. Hat are not burdened the first is Ballot Access. You have to go out. You have to get on the ballot in all 50 states. That costs money. It is about an 8 million to 10 million bill. The two party does not understand, there is a huge differential and the ability to raise money. Oryou are a democratic republican nominee, you can raise over 800,000 per person. , federalhrough state parties, directly through the candidate, and other mandated entities, which can be used by the candidate. This is not including the uncoordinated money with the sources. If you are not affiliated with a party, you cannot only raised less than 3000 a person. You can only operate from small donations. Down and talk to 100,000 people. How do you talk to them if you have no media . Have 100,000ing to media like i am having with you now. Someone tosible for finance their Ballot Access under the current rules. If you are a billionaire, you encounter other difficulties. Ross perot financed his own Ballot Access. When you get to the designation day, the 15 required, you are facing polls that are inaccurate and subject to manipulation. Facing mac, you are not going to facing that,out you are not going to put yourself out, even though you have been working two years to create the base work. Hampshire, arthur, line for independence. Am calling in. The third party. I support the thirdparty business. Bernie sanders should be running as an independent. Run this way, as a democrat. That is not right. I would like to see things change on a lot of levels. I know youre just approaching this here. , there is a lot of crab that has been thrown in crap that has been thrown in. Bringing up a is lot of good points. I wish there were more people thinking like that. Thank you for your time and work. Host thank you for your call. Guest a man like this, hearing him is inspiring. He raises an important point. Ben carson was an independent. We do not know what donald trump was. Careerlong republican. Sanders was a socialist. Through one running of the two funnels in the two parties . Viable way that will glide past name recognition. The two parties guard those pathways and make sure there is not a third pathway in the president ial debates. The differential and the ability to raise money is another example. When you think about it, you have in this country 70 of the country that is moderate democrats, moderate republicans, and independents. Aey should be able to create coalition that would nominate the president. Under this system, you can only have a president that comes from far left to far right moderate and centrist. Would say people are independent. Moderate would like another alternative. One question is Bernie Sanders, ben carson, and donald trump notest those, a problem is republican would vote for Bernie Sanders, no democrat would vote for donald trump. Why cant we have a protest vote . The reason for that is these roles. Writes allwilliams president ial candidates should be in the debate process. The voters should hear views of all of the candidates. Onyou want to fall low twitter, it is. Witter. Com cspanwj i agree with a lot peter has said. Maybe my looking at it is from a slightly different direction. I have registered as republican in the past. Even for future elections, i feel that if you are not a democrat, the republican voting block was about 47 of votes cast, it was not enough to win. With a president having tocutive orders, it seems have to be curtailed, no matter who uses the office. We need to have a genuine third parties so that representation for the 47 really does not seem to exist anymore. It seems we are a voice, but we are being overlooked. The minority constitutes such a high number, as to the upper 40s, and you are not represented well, that would be my reason for truly needing a third party. Think the caller is spot on. I do not think, i think the data is conclusive. I do not think the two parties as they exist today come close to representing a full range spectrum of opinions and desires of the American People. When ross perot got 19 of the vote in 1992, 20 of the country was unaffiliated. Today, the number is approaching 45 . Amongst millennials, it is over 50 . In what other field in our country would you exempt servicing a market that is half the market . That is what we are doing dominatehe people who the market also make the rules of the market. That is what we are looking at now. Host michael has a question for you. Where do you see the fairest electoral process . I do not know how to translate fair into a specific result. The good news is what we are talking about here, there is a way to make this process infinitely fairer, if 19 people who you do not know, who operate in secret, who claim to be nonpartisan but are clearly partisan, i will expand in a minute. If they would change one rule. To aange from a poll competition in which every american can participate in. All they have to do is that. Whatever they call fair now would be infinitely fairer on that. Host Peter Ackerman is our guest for the next 20 minutes or so. Level the Playing Field is the group he chairs this cycle. Laguna beach, california. Caller thank you for cspan. Misquote thet to author or get the authors wrong name, but there was an article years ago about the green party and it was a particular candidate running. His experience was that the green party was actually by democrat insiders control to maintain over the dialogue and the how thes or to control process panned out in terms of what the primary issues being emphasized in the media. My question would be, how do we checked that our third parties, when they are formed, are genuine . How can we check their credentials and make sure they are not run by insiders or powerbrokers in the two major parties, just trying to control the election . Guest that is a terrific questions or do i think the answer is competition and transparency. Posed was towe create americas independent primary. We have six people more than qualified to be president. Great military leaders, heads of university, senators, congressmen. They were introduced to the public over a series of shows and then would debate, to want to, three on three. Host a reality show situation . Guest in a way. We think of the person getting thrown off the island. This stream of shows would start with introducing the candidates to the public to get to address the transparency issue. There would be a series of debates. The debates,gh through the ability to basically use the internet to accurately preferences,s people could vote. The ones with the least amount of support would leave and we would get down to one candidate. We asked the commission on president ial debates a simple question. How many people, if we did this, would have to vote before you say the winner is legitimate . To one of our was told we sort of like the idea, but it does not matter how many people vote. Theave to see if we like person who comes out of it and we will allow that person into the debates. That is not appropriate to the law. Imagine, would you not think that if 20 Million People voted or 30 Million People voted, more people would have voted in the product then in the primaries. Shouldnt that person be allowed into the debates . Of 5000,d to a sample which is deemed to be more inaccurate. Saidnt them a letter and please give us a number and they would not respond. Host the line for independents. Bob, good morning. Caller thank you for cspan. Ask,ckerman, i wanted to of the independent parties, the green party, the libertarians, the constitutionalist and reform parties, the aspect of national debt,e crony capitalism, why they are not able to work closely increase their standing . Guest that is also an excellent question. Inthe lawsuit that we have court now, we are joined by the libertarians and the greens, seeking the same thing, the end of the commission on president ial debates. The federal Election Commission created the basis for the commission on president ial debates by deeming them to be on that basis, they have a 501 c 3 status. Aat means they are basically charity, which people can contribute to on a taxfree basis. To them is the commission has to be nonpartisan. They are anything but nonpartisan. What that means by nonpartisan is that they are obliged to create a set of rules that are objective. Objective means they are not supposed to create a predetermined outcome or bias towards any entity. A Party Affiliation cannot be the sole reason for being in the debates. If you are looking for a commission that is nonpartisan, you would expect its directors to be nonpartisan. We have one director who is in it for hillary clinton. Another announced he is in for jeb bush. We have one that has stated publicly if you want a third in the debates, go to shrill locker, or indonesia. Or indonesia. Anka six members of the commission who have donated money in this cycle. Wrong withthing giving money to a candidate or declaring support. Be onpeople should not this commission. They should recuse themselves and leave. An honorary cochair of the commission has a spouse running. Peter ackerman, our guest for the next 10 or 15 minutes. If you have questions, the lines are open. He is a businessman who is managing director at rockport capital. He is coauthor of a book published in 1994. Lets go to chuck, who has been waiting in tucson, arizona. The line for republicans. Good morning. Morning. Ood merry christmas. Thank you for taking my call. Theomment and question to guest is that it seems that the third parties of the people he take theenting want to system we have in turn it upside down. Andproblem, it seems to me, comment on have a this, we have far too many independent and nonparty voters in this country. If peoplee better like mr. Ackerman and those forming third parties and dislike both of the parties would simply say if you can agree, 51 with either of the parties, join them, get into the party wherever the candidates are selected, help select the have your effect on the system, the way that it was, until 1970, when the independent movement, almost have to get rid of either party. They are all bad. If they are all bad, the way the system is set up, winner take all voting, you cannot have proportional boating voting which would be required to get a third party going. There are some a things that preclude a kind of changes in mr. Ackerman is suggesting in terms of trying to turn the system upside down. We need to have people joining the parties and getting in and working within them to change them if they do not like what is going on. The 1970s. Up until until that time, we had statesmen coming out who ended for the country. Now we have nothing but gridlock because there are far too many snubendents and people who their noses at the system the way it is. Host thank you. Guest there is a lot in the callers question. Historically, he is correct. In 1984, you had 12 or 13 democraticat were that were more conservative than most liberal republican senators. You had an overlap. It allowed a lot of things to get done. Today, the most liberal republican senator is more conservative than the most conservative democratic senator. Why cant we get back to this overlap mode . It is a great question. Some great statesman came from that process. The world that exists today. If you read books like it makes it clear that the reason today is that over time, the two parties have created rules that inhibit competition, so the operatives of both sides are two extremes of where the American People are today. I cannot create the electorate that exists, but we have to relate to the electorate that exists. They have the right to have the opinions they want. Youth of 50 of the the country do not want to be affiliated with either party, maybe they are not providing the service they should be. I want to make it clear, nobody involved with this is interested in destroying the twoparty system. The twoparty system that precludes competition is something we would like to stop. We believe is this active competition, as it is in all feel, that satisfies independents, two things will happen. They will have better candidates because they have to deal with the competition. In effect, we are trying to accomplish the same thing this caller would like to see happen. It cannot be done by prohibiting independents from expressing themselves. Rand paul hat ron paul had a lot of support in 2008 and 2012 running as a republican. Would he have had done as well . Guest he would have been a great third party or independent candidate, as would Many Americans would be. Host martin, chicago, illinois, for third party supporters. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. [indiscernible] int martin, you are going and out. Give us a call back or lets try to work on that line. Ins go to bill, waiting reading, pennsylvania. Line for republicans. 20 to 22 years, we used to have a lot of dinners , have to be honest with you. I am disappointed. The third party is not going to work because the people in america are very dumb. They do not know how to vote. The two system party creates power on both sides of the aisle. The only way you can change that is if the people have a big margin. A comfortable margin. Lobbyists. Change the that will never happen, peter. I was there for 25 years with rand paul. Will nothard and it work. The only way it is going to work is if the two system party, like the gentleman from arizona said, if people start acting like normal and learn how to vote learn how to vote. The biggestange thing we have to change, these guys in congress, you do not need all of these people there. You have to get rid of the lobbyists. That is the worst thing you have in this country. Thank you, god bless you. Have a nice christmas. There is a lot of history there that i think is quite interesting. There are a lot of ways to attack political reform. People trying to make a political system better. Our focus has been on one thing, to create a glide path for independence to run. Independents to run. There are amazing americans out there, more than capable, more credentials to run, who will not , who are invisible to the American People because there is no point in them running or gathering money if their effort is going to be futile. There is a lot of ideas outside the ones we are talking about that are valid. Our focus is on creating a glide path. Host bryant is on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for thinking my call. My primary complaint is with cspan this morning because i have been watching this morning, and approximately one hour ago, you folks were promoting that it would be 4 45, a debate between the thirdParty Candidates for president of the United States. I have been watching for the entire time, and since 4 45 45 minutes since now there has been nothing but a debate between thirdParty Candidates for president of the United States. Instead, we have the thoughts and observations from mr. Ackerman, which is anything but a debate between vibrant thirdParty Candidates for president of the United States. Why did cspan lead us to believe that there would be a debate between the thirdParty Candidates with all due respect to mr. Ackerman and his sir, are you, kind not and do not reflect a debate between the thirdParty Candidates seeking the presidency, which many of us would like to hear from. Please explain. Host we are tight about mr. Ackermans effort to level talking about mr. Ackermans effort to level the Playing Field. Also, you keep to our group and our effort who are the folks supporting your effort . A series of are people. On generate 12 of this year, a group of americans sent a letter to the commissioner president ial debates saying that the current rules were a legal and there to serve the two major parties. The people who signed them with people like where people like joe lieberman, great military , oure, Larry Diamond scholar from stanford on democracy issues, a former trade representative, lee hamilton, the heads of the 9 11 commission , the only independent senator in the state all saying the same thing that this rule is precluding competition. The people who signed it made the point that if you changed the role and independent would show up, it did not mean that they would necessarily vote them. Just the opposite. The country demands this third choice. Obviously the previous caller would have liked to have heard from a group of those people that were not democrat or republican. Im sorry ive not he thought i would be, but the fact that he earns for a debate is exactly what we are working for. Int ray has been waiting texas, line for republican theory good morning. Although i am in texas now, i spent my formative years in california. I run for congress and tried to get ross perot elected. I pretty much stopped voting in the 2000 because i gave up on the fact that if we try to get a threeway race going, whoever wins would probably have a majority of people against him. 51 of the voters did not want him. I was hoping mr. Ackerman would endorse instant runoff voting or ranked voting and explain how you can get any ballot to get a majority winner. That somebody artie asked question. I am involved. Host can you explain what those are. Guest you basically rank your preference. The candidate with the least number of firsts is thrown out instantly. The beauty of this is what the caller alluded to it prevents the spoiler issue. There are many people that would like to vote for independence, but they are concerned that their vote would be wasted ,ecause they would then allow if their second dress was they would make likely that the third choice would occur. The spoiler issue is misunderstood in this country. A you are a spoiler to be spoiler, people have to know who your second choice is to know that if you did not exist, who you would vote for. Ralph nader was a spoiler for alco gore. With ross perot, it was very different. Democrat,ly gathered republican, and independent candidates. In the polling that was done after the elections, it is clear that 31 of the vote would have gone to clinton. Way tochoice voting is a allow people to express their preference without being worried that their expression would lead to the worst candidate. There is an effort in maine right now could be the first. Tate to have ranked voting i think it is a wonderful initiative. It is another way to get at the process that we are talking about which is to invite and encourage independent, third parties, and others to be competitive. Host if you want to learn more about what Peter Ackerman is you can follow his group on twitter. He is chairman of level the Playing Field. I appreciate your time this morning. Herext, we will talk about tax advice. He can start calling it now. We will be right back. With congress on holiday recess, the cspan Networks Features a lineup of primetime programming. Monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan, laura logan, sebastian younger, and others who have risked their lives in the middle east. Activists. Celebrity from the cspan archives. Thursday, a look back at the year in congress. On new years day, friday night at 8 00, Law Enforcement officials, activists, and journalists examine the prison system. On cspan 2, booktv, monday night, memoirs by , and ars, activists former White House Press secretary. Wednesday night, others talk about liberals on science and technology. Thursday, discussions on isis and terrorism. On new years day, friday night, several of our indepth programs from this year. On American History tv on cspan 3, monday, the 78 anniversary of the liberation of us with. Auschwitz. Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the 13th amendment. Wednesday night, a debate on which president would be a better model for gop candidates today. Thursday, road to the white house rewind. , a playwrightday receivesof hamilton an award. Those are some of the programs featured in primetime on the cspan network. Q a. Ay night on ther able talks about second volume of mr. Pearsons diaries which give an insider take on washington, d. C. From 1960 to 1969. It was a remarkable are the things he did. Sometimes he would criticize himself in the diary. If you read some that carefully, where he come across said, i should not have said it quite that way, or lyndon is going to get mad at how i wrote. He column he needed to be told what i wrote, and im glad i wrote it. Sunday night at 8 00, on q a. Washington journal continues. Wet for our next hour, welcome back Kevin Mccormally for an always popular segment on washington journal. We are tied by year end tax preparation. If you have a question that you want answered before the end of the year here, you have about one hour to call him this morning. We will put the numbers on the screen for you. In the meantime, kevin after passing a 622 billion tax deal, what should the average taxpayer know about what was included in the deal . Guest i like to call it regifting because this is the they letl every year a lot of tax breaks expire, then they say at the last minute, we will extend them retroactively. Thekey things i think are charitable contributions. This is a big one. Iras are distributable to the taxpayer. It is a big deal. It is one of the worst things that congress does string people along on this one. I have a lot of friends are Financial Advisors that have clients that worry about this all year around. It want to give their money to charity, but dont want to do it if they do not get the break. This time, congress made it permanent. If they want to do it, monday, tuesday, wednesday next week, they can call their ira and distribute the money. Is this not a big break. The extension of what they call expensing. When a business buys a new computer or a new tractor, they have to deduct it in something called depreciation. Dropped down to 25,000 last year. It stayed there until last week until president obama side a bill, putting it back up to 500,000. That is permanent. Made the child credit was permanent. Explain that. Guest generally, that credit is what they call nonfor nonrefundable. Lets say you have three kids. 500 would disappear. For lower income people, they made it refundable. And that example, you make a check for 500. A refundable credit. The refundable if i was supposed to expire. Not expire, but greatly reduced. They made that permanent. Impactne that might those who live in cities more the mass transit charity charge. Guest very dear to my heart because i take the subway to work every day. Congress allows workers to the. Part of the cost. What they have done is for people who try to work in part, they can take up to 250 a month in pretax benefits. For people who take the subway, like me, it was 130. That is the dissemination. They ended that this year. It will not help that many people. It is very difficult for people to capitalize on the retroactivity, but they did make it permanent, so next your it will be 255 that people can direct from their paycheck it is still part of their salary, but goes directly to pay for parking or transit passes. Host if you have any questions about any of this or questions as you prepare your taxes at the end of 2015, now is the time to call. 202 7488000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 if you are in the mountain or pacific region. Ralph is up first calling from new york. You are on with Kevin Mccormally. Caller good morning. My name is ralph. Upstatew worker from new york. I have a common question. John, the host, i want to thank you for your work. My question is for the guest on scholarships. I will lay it out for you. Lets say you are a college student, you would home, your parents claim the American Opportunity credit for you. Lets say you are a student and you still are working, earning over 6,300 you are required. O file you file a separate return, not claim yourself, but what guidelines do go by if the what part of it is taxed or not . That is beatup question. That is the tough question. Guest you are saying the scholarship is more than the actual amount of the credit you are claiming . You cannot have a double benefit. If you have a scholarship, it theot be used against American Opportunity credit. That is the basic rule. You could not double the on the stuff doubledip on this stuff. Does that help . Caller lets say the scholarship exceeds your qualified expenses. That is the question. What guidelines to go by if there is money left over . If any part of it is taxable or not for the student . Guest i understand the question. Im afraid im not certain of the answer. Generally, it scholarships are you pay forlong as the studies. I think that would be the key. Schoolt think that if a is giving a student more money than necessary for tuition and fees, maybe it is in exchange for some sort of work. I think you can go to the Student Aid Office and they can answer that question. Host lets go to california, georges on this morning with Kevin Mccormally. Caller thank you. Ijust want to say, before talking about tax issues, a very important issue for me. ,o matter our religion, nation we are all proud americans and all fight for freedom. That is the fundamental value that we all value. Ok . Jailere is someone in without doing anything wrong i think we should all go out for him and have a mars. We are going to have a march next saturday and go defend this man, this hero, put in jail without doing anything wrong in this country. Host we are going to be talking more about that. We will get folks stories in the last half hour about protest movements that our viewers have participating in, keep listening. What is your tax question for Kevin Mccormally we only have him for a limited amount of time. Caller you are going to go on and interrupt. Im telling you now, our money, our tax money, should go to the noble cause and making this man free, getting him out of jail is a noble cause. You want to talk about taxes . Lets talk about taxes. We pay a lot of money. It depends on people getting killed around the world. Host Kevin Mccormally, he brings up we should be spending our money on noble causes. It goes back to the perhaps charitable donation question here. It invites people at the end spend their money on noble causes. Away you take tax money in deductions, but it allows you to decide how that money is spent. 1000 dollars to a charity, basically you are requiring the people in that building to give 250 of that. It is money they cannot spend on anything else because you diverted to a cause that you most agree with. Host Kevin Mccormally has been working at kipling for how long . Guest 35 years. Host he comes on a couple times of year to take taxpreparation questions that you might have. Joe is up next from iowa. Caller good morning. , andim calling in today this guy comes on every year. The system is way too complex for everybody to understand. I think we need to scrap the entire system. This leads right into the next segment. We need a revolution. Bottom line. Host ok. Joe in des moines, iowa. Talk about the prospects for comprehensive tax reform. He says the system is too complicated. Guest he is absolutely right. The last bill was 1986. I think 2018 is the year. Maybe it is possible. Nothing is going to happen next year an election year, they will not pass copperheads of tax legislation. We think at kipling that they ultimately will. They always do. It is like the extenders. Sometimes they try to clean all out, they reduce the rates, they do something for business, and they start relatively fresh. I think maybe the next president of the United States what hap would have a chance. Paul ryan that is his big issue. He will be pushing it. The American People just disagree so much on what the revolution should be. Which of these deductions you have to take away. Mitch mcconnell from kentucky just got a special break for resources. Deals. One of his sweet he got extended. Some people would disagree with that. We think it is the greatest thing. That is what they have to agree to. Host one issue that congress has disagreed a lot on is the aca. From irish eyes if our Health Care Costs were more than the 9. 5 of income, can we did that the difference from taxes . Guest only to the extent that your total outofpocket expenses exceed 10 . To the extent that they exceed 10 of your income, it is deductible. Very few people do that because fortunately very few of us have those huge medical expenses, especially after insurance. Host speaking of aca, penalties going up this year for those people not covered. Guest they go up a lot in 2016 they double, i believe. It continues to increase. Host lou is in florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Concerns the taxation of 1099s and the requirements that if you pay someone more than 700, you are required to give them a 1099. However, corporations were accepted from that rule. A few years ago, congress was going to change the law and give. Orporations a 1099 how is that . Is that still the same requirement now . Guest it is 600, not seven. That is still the same. And corporations, if a higher individual, they must give them a 1099. We have some freelancers, and we have to 1099s them on any work over 600. It is corporate. It is one of those things that they probably will require in the future. Ca is waiting in texas. Caller i have a question. Im 75 and my partner gives me money to run the house. T is like 7,000 a month sometimes he writes me a check for 20,000. Is the money he gives me, because he is are you paying taxes on it, is it taxable if it is given to me . Guest the rule basically is why he is giving you the money. If he is giving you money or services you perform around the house, then it is taxable. If it is not taxable, it is probably considered a gift. There is a federal gift tax designed primarily so people cannot give their money away while they are alive to avoid the federal estate tax after they die. People can give anyone a 14,000 against per year. If these are gifts he is giving but he is very generous, probably have to file a federal gift tax return. All of us have a credit that is big enough to wipe out the gift tax for the first 5 million. Almost nobody pays this. You are required to file a return. Host and of year tax questions. That is what we are taking for the next 35 minutes or so. If you are in the eastern or central time zone, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Kevin mccormally is with kiplinger. A lot of great information on kiplingerr website website, including the map of the most and least tax friendly states. The blue states are the most tax friendly and the red states, the least taxed friendly. What is the key difference making a tax from the state . Guest one thing is how they treat retirement. Is this the retirement or the general . Host general. Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes. All the ways the government will be dipping into your pocket. The least tax friendly are the ones that deepen big in the deepest. The states are normal is different enormously different. Alaska is a state where the citizens generally get a check from the government based on oil revenue. Oil revenue has sure well, so now they are tied about asking the citizens to send them a check instead. This works for people who are looking to relocate, have a job offer in a different date you really have to look out the taxes are. House inst bought a baltimore the property taxes are crazy compared to washington, d. C. , and we think we pay a lot. Host our conversation of tax reform. Dave writes it on twitter, the more complex taxes are the more jobs it creates, i dont see the Current System going anywhere in this economy. Lets go to mark and houston, texas. Good morning. Caller good morning, kevin. My question is depreciation and expense. 2000ght a truck back in 2013, december. Can i claim a depreciation expense . Guest you generally start depreciating the year you put in service, that would have been 2013. If you have not been deducting it yet, you probably need to see returnsan file for previous years. If you lease a truck, you can write off part of the lease cost every month. The lease to own you would be depreciating in the regular way. I suggest you check with an account because you could eat able to file amended reforms for 2014 at 2015 ever cover and recover some taxes you pay thid then. Caller my question is whether i am better or not to take some lost on a property that has been very difficult to sell in iowa or is it better off for me to donate this to say, habitat for humanity, which is better for me financially . It would certainly be better for you to sell it at a loss. If people are making contributions between now and next thursday, we recommend that people appreciate securities or land because when you do that deduct the fair market value. The rules are opposite when it comes to property do you have a loss on. If you give away property to habitat for humanity or any other charity the have a capital loss on, you get to deduct the loss. You are better off selling it for the loss and deducting the loss, and giving the proceeds to the charity. Then you get to deduct the same amount plus the losses you get a double benefit. He would be better off selling and donating it then selling and donating the land itself. Great question. Host . Is up next from florida. Don is up next from florida. Caller good morning. I had to use my 401 k to buy a residence after unemployment. Now they have a lien on my house , my primary residence, twice thousand dollars. I was wondering if you have any advice for me . Guest that is a tough one. If you used a 401 k , if you 55, the money before age depending on whether or not you are working, there is a penalty. They are pretty tough on that. Im afraid i cannot see how ean. Get around the lie it does not extend the 401 k s. Go to the irs and asked them for help. They really are reasonable when it comes to working out a payment system. They want your money. They dont want to take your house. They dont want to put you in jail. These you can work out installment payments to get that way thousand dollars paid off. I think you will find that they are reasonable. We have people that have dealt with them, and they have been pleasantly surprised. Host how do you recommend people do that . Is there an irs number to call . Guest there is. The last four numbers are 1040. Just google irs. They might send you to a local office. It may be better to meet with someone facetoface. The one 800 will get you into it. If you do not get help, there is a tax on this one tax ombudsman. Urnal continues we recommend for people to go straight to the ombudsman, and if you have an issue, she will fight for you. Every office on capitol hill had someone who worked with irs on behalf of constituents. That is another thing. Try it yourself, if you feel anyone is being unfair to you, call your congressman or senator, and asked for help. Host eastern or central United States, 202 7488000. 202 7488001 mount nor pacific region,. Florida. To michael in caller hello. Im wondering what you would think of going after school theircts that have let schools fall into gross disrepair while taking a. Epreciation tax at the same time, we can look at mcdonalds, for example, and other food franchises. You never walk into a mcdonalds ofs leaking,ro get that happens all the time in our schools. Forwe tak go after school taking the depreciation tax and not applying it . To make it even worse, we then have to issue bonds, on top of paying taxes, and still, even after we issue the bonds and pay taxes, still, the roof leaks. Any comment . Guest first of all, it is shameful. I agree with you. Schools are not taken depreciation deductions because theyre not paying taxes. I cannot think the irs can go after them. This is a local issue or maybe a national issue, but congress and the president are really trying to get more education responsibilities back to the state, rather than the other way around. Bonds, itpeak of brings up another issue. Kiplinger talks about investments for the year ahead. One thing that our income people really find appealing are taxes for Municipal Bonds because there will be some Income Opportunities there because the School Districts really do need money, and you can count on them not going out of business. Host speaking of money for School Districts, in the tax deal that came together before there was at town, provision that may permit deductions for elementary and secondary School Teachers for school supplies. How does this work . Buy School Teachers supplies for the kids who cannot afford paper, markers, things like that. Congress developed this 250 line deduction. Most will teachers take it. What they did this year it is another one that expires each they made it permanent, and expanded it to cover professional development expenses. In the teacher is not buying supplies for her kids, but taking a course to keep up to speed, those costs can be included in the 250. Host art is up next from chicago, illinois. Caller good morning. I have two questions and possibly a followup. Is there a statute of limitation on the reductions . If you deduct something and find is there a time limit . Guest generally three years from the duty of the return. In aprilturn was due 2014. N april 2017, the statue is up that is the most time you can go back and file or the irs can come after you if they found out use of its election they did not deserve. The three euro will almost always applies to people who failed to report 25 of their hasme or more, the irs seven years they can go after them and anyone they could prove flat out fraud, no limit. Caller i give money to my grandchildren. Can i deduct it . Guest not at the federal level. 529 states have these savings, like iranians for savings. You put money in them, it grows taxfree, and if it is used for college, it is taxfree. Very popular. You usually have to do it by december 31. A few states that allow you to go until the tax deadline. There is a deduction in most states, but the feds give you the tax break that there is no tax when it is withdrawn if it is used for college. There is no tax reduction at the federal level. Host what if you are doing a 529 any child does not go to college . What happens to that money . Guest first of all, you can shifted to another child with no consequence. Or, you can use it for yourself to go back to will. If no one uses it, you will have pay tax on the earnings. At the federal level, you dont have to pay money on the money. Ou contributed there is a 10 penalty, but it is rare because you can shifted around and use it for yourself or your spouse if one of you wants to go back to school, or grandkids. The law lets you have opportunity to spend it for the purpose it was designed for which is college education. Host bill, you are on with Kevin Mccormally. Caller thank you. I had inventions company that neutralized, and i received stock. When i sell it, what will the cost of the stock be for that . Guest that is a fabulous question. We have been following this for 25 years here at Mutual Companies are owned by their policies holders. When they become a stock company, they give policyholders some stock in the company in because they are taking away their ownership. When he ultimately sell that stock, what is your tax basis . A lot of people argue that the tax basis is whatever the stock was worth on the day they gave it to you. If it was worth 10 per share the day gave it to you, that should be your basis. They give it to you in exchange for your ownership rights. The irs says the basis in zero, so when you sell the stock, you owe on every penny. Last year, there was a big case for taxpayers. It. Taxpayers won unfortunate, this goes to question two weeks ago, there was an Appeals Court case that and said there is no basis. It will be appealed. You have two choices, pay taxes ,nd immediately file a refund or you can claim a basis, and if they canatches you, force you to pay the tax, they probably cant penalize you because you have a reasonable reason for claiming a basis because there are these court cases out there that have not been overruled yet. It is a really complicated issue. Host what are the chances of this make it to the Supreme Court . Guest the people who have taken it to the Appeals Court level hope so. Whether the Supreme Court takes it up is unknown. Also, they really happened 20 years ago. There are few Mutual Companies that are doing the same. The people who had the money they are dying off, selling it off. There are fewer and fewer involved. Iris usuallys the do at the Supreme Court . Does the Supreme Court take many cases . Guest i dont follow that that closely. The one they have taken our obama care. They really get to the Supreme Court because they apply to so few people. , you are on next. Myler thank you for taking call. I would like to have you comments a little bit on these tax relief agencies. You hear them advertise on the radio, television all the time where people oh thousands and for thes of dollars irs, and settle for pennies on the dollar. As a taxpayer, a fair taxpayer, i consider myself a good ofpaying american, i kind resent these things. Could you give an overview on how these things work and what the irs view of them may be . Han thank you very much and merry christmas. Guest i know what you are saying, you dont want to feel like a child for legally paying your taxes. I think they overstate the opportunity for people. An easy marker when it comes to these things. They do have rules, like i mentioned earlier. They want to get their money. If they determined there is no way you can repay whether you are appealing to one of the agencies, they will do whatever they can. It is very rare. I have been wanting to look into it because i do not know how they afford to advertise as much as they do because, according to the irs, there are so few times that they are successful in relief. Tex i dont think you have to worry about people getting away scott free. The commissioner of the irs tells Congress Every time he has a chance that the irs cuts the Congress Keeps squeezing him because of the controversy a few years ago, but they are really shooting themselves in the foot, i think. I met the commissioner, he is a decent guy. Them. Re not out to get host if you want to check out their work, it is kiplinger. Com. Kevin mccormally has been working there for three decades. He joins us every year to talk about your and tax advice tax advice. Ginger, you are on. Caller good morning. I had a few statements to make the i was unaware of. I always assumed on Social Security tax that we always had to pay. Iseard recently that reagan the one that started taxing our s. Cial Security Check is this true . I also wanted to comment there would be so many more american stimulating the economy if we were really truly allowed to write of our interests as we used to be able to could you comment on both of those statements . Guest sure. You can blame reagan for both of those things, though i do not really blame him. He was the president and it passed overwhelmingly in Congress Democrats as well as republicans supported it. The Social Security one was one of the last big efforts to save Social Security. I think it was 1982. It was a tip oneill idea. Up until then, Social Security benefits had been absolutely taxfree. Starting in 1982, they said with single people with income over 20,000 and married people with income over 32,000, they would have to pay tax on half of the benefits. Locked in stone, and congress did it on purpose. Later, they decided to increase the maximum tax to 85 of the benefits paid. You are right. And the early days of Social Security, there was no tax on benefits, and now there is. We do not expect it to go away. When it comes to the interest, they decide to take away the deduction on credit card interest you can still deduct on mortgage interest, student loan interest. I was talking to students before the show about the huge debt they have. At least they can deduct the interest. They did not want to encourage people to take on debt. Of course, people who have that would like any assistance they can in paying it off. Homeowners have a home equity line of credit. You can borrow up to 100,000 against your home and use that money for any purpose you want. You can use it to pay off your. Redit card, buy a car host steve has an interesting twitter. Shared on he says, never get into trouble with the irs, never, always withhold more than you think. He also said, i bought a stock my first and only time getting in trouble with the irs. If you want to share on twitter, cspanwj. Mary from toledo, ohio calling in this morning. Good morning. Caller i did something really dumb. I invested in an mlp within an ira a. Ecifically a roth in 2016, mlp merged with another, and based on articles i have been reading, it sounds wouldhe sale of the mlp have triggered a positive is this related income and that is what hits the ira account. Stock, have now sold the and took a significant loss, it sounds like the unrelated business income is still going cause me to owe text to the government. What i tried to get my head around is how infinite the value could be that i only government based on the income tax . I cant seem to get any answers. I probably wont find anything out until the k1s come out, but what can you tell me and what was the purpose of the government deciding that Something Like this should be taxable . Guest it is a fascinating question. It can create something called unrelated business taxable income. Im not sure what the purpose is. Designed to stop. He shenanigans going on i have an mlp in my ira. It has never produced 1000 per year of unrelated income that could be taxed. You are not the one who is taxed. You do not own the m, here are a the ira is a trust. Asked about my mlp, and if it were ever triggered, vanguard would have to do the tax return for the government. I would not have to pay for that. I would have to pay the tax, they would take it out of might ira. I have never had the 1000 threshold level. You need to go to your custodian, and they should figure it out for you. Im sorry, i dont really know the rationale. It probably was not an ira, it was probably some other Charitable Organization that took advantage of this unrelated le. Iness income rru i suggest you go to your ira custodian. Fascinating question, very complicated. With 510 minutes left Kevin Mccormally of kiplinger. David waiting in virginia. Good morning. Caller im in virginia beach, virginia. I am a cpa. I have been preparing taxes for 45 years. Andve been listening subscribe to the kiplinger letter. I appreciate you. My question is given the Affordable Care act and the if you do not have a Health Insurance policy, it is also my understanding that the efforts tot engage collect the penalties. What i am not certain about i have tried to research, how is the irs going to apply payments . I have clients that refuse to pay the penalty, they always owed tax because they are selfemployed. What they are asking me is if i send money into the irs for my regular tax, how do i know the irs is not going to apply that to the penalty first, for which they do not have Collection Opportunities to use all the collection efforts versus applying it to regular tax . Guest i do not know the answer to that. I assume that the payment has to go against the tax first. Otherwise, i think we would have heard about it. This is a provision where obamacare passed. One of the opponents to make it not work, they forbade the irs from collecting the penalty. The only way they could collect the penalty is if you had a could claimming, they the penalty, but they could not do the regular collection activities putting a lean on your home, anything like that. They are for the from doing that. I assume payment of your clients has to go towards paying the business first. Check will have to go against the taxable because it goes in with the return im not certain. Otherwise, i think we would have heard about it because someone on the hill would have sniffed it out. Host are the estimates about how much money is going on collected due to the penalties . Guest i have not seen that. The penalty is really just started this year. I think it will take a while to sort that out. Host lets go to our waiting in ohio. Alan waiting in caller good morning, gentlemen. Andy christmas to cspan thanks to cspan for providing such a Wonderful Service to the country. Earlier, you struck a chord when you talked about how you have to be aware and careful about when you move around the country, retirement, and income in different states. Ive in the general cleveland area. We have the regional income tax collecting agency. It is kind of ironic because, of course, taxes are necessary, but if you worked in one city and live in another city, a lot of people have to pay a city tax, tax, i call it a suburb that the federal government tax, and medicare. A lot of people dont realize, there is a lot of money in cleveland, ohio, a lot of here. It has had its challenges, but the area has quite a bit of money, but a lot of people are suffering, and incomes are not that high. What are your feelings about the regressive characteristics . How common is it to find that kind of taxation pattern in the other parts of the country . Guest in lots of parts of the country d. C. Is a perfect example of this we had people in virginia and maryland that make up more of the workforce than the district. We have reciprocity between the three states. You live in baltimore and work in washington, you pay her taxes to annapolis, maryland. The kinds of things you are talking about, usually you are not taxed on the same money it somethings you have a city tax, a suburb tax, estate tax, a federal tax, and that is rare. I was watching the basketball game last night and thinking about lebron. That is a lot of money that you tax rate there. Host speaking of sports, i feel we have had this conversation about athletes making money in the different cities they play in and how they figure out their taxes for the different states. Guest it is really coveted appear that is why they have to have accountants. And playsn comes down in washington, d. C. We want a chunk of that money. Host mike is up. Caller good morning. Taking aon concerns loss on the sale of stocks. An example is in 2008, i bought 100 shares of an oil Company Stock for 44 a share. Now it is eight dollars a share. And i have but more shares bought more shares at various prices. Loss and 44 down to eight dollars, or do they average it out amongst all the other shares i bought for 10, 15, or whatever . Guest that is a great question. You did not average the cost. When you go to mutual funds, you can average the cost over the lifetime of the funds. When it comes to stocks, it is up to you to tell the broker which stocks to sell. If you tell your broker sell the ines i br by in 2008 in 2008. That is your basis, your tax basis, the difference is your loss. If you dont specifically identify, the irs identifies you sold the stock that you owned the longest first in, first out. Even if you do not specifically identify, the first 100 will be treated as the 44 shares. Host speaking of records, we will try to start a new record with you today. Mel is up next. Go ahead. Caller yes. From 20072008, the reason being because of the. Conomy i was laid off also, i had to go on disability. I only huge not to the huge amount to the state of North Carolina, and a huge amount of federal taxes. My question is i have no way of paying that money back because i am on disability. I guess small amount every month. I was wondering, is there a statue of limitations on taxes . Guest there is a statue of limitations for when they can assess the taxes, but it sounds to me that they already assessed this tax. If they have not said anything to you about that money, you are safe because you are beyond the threeyear statute, unless they can prove fraud. If they know that you owed them say, 50,000, then all you can do is go to the irs and say, i cannot pay this, but come up installment plan, and work with them. If they cannot help you, i would go to your congressman or senator and say, can you help me out here, i want to get straight with the government. What they will say is do you have a house, an ira they cannot go after your ira, but if you have a house, they may say you have to sell the house to pay it back. Be straight with them and say, here is my situation, what can we do to make this right . Craig is inis in maine. Caller a couple of quick questions. One is my accountant for the last several years has gotten in the bad habit of filing extensions for me. Does that raise flies with the as long as you file within the extension, you are all set . The other question is my son and i have been flipping houses im a contractor for the last couple of years. B by the home and we do most of andwork we buy the home we do most of the work. I was under the impression you can be treated as a capital loss or gain, but the accountant has been treating the money that we have been living off of, while we work on the house, as income. Guest on the extension issue, a lot of accounts file extensions because taxpayers go to them really late in the game. We have seen no evidence ever that an extension raises a higher audit risk. I dont think you have to worry about that. I dont know if i understand the second question. The only way you will have a capital gain is when you sell the property for more than you invested in it, which would be after you sell it. Host are you still there . Caller i am. The properties ourselves, and the money that we offinto the house, i live as well. That is part of the money that is put into the rehabilitation of the yourself income while you are doing the work . Right. Money where does that come from that you pay yourself . Thats what i dont understand. It is my own money. It is if it is your money not taxable. You are sayingif you buy the house for 100,000 and ou pay your son yourself 20,000 while you do the rehab, you are drawing down to that extent then number one it is not income to you. You cant count that as part of the reinvestment into the house. The value of your time doesnt count in the rehab. F it did you would have to pay taxes. Talk to your accountant and see this straightened out. Host that is is all the time we this segment but please come back again. End todays ll program where we started. E are getting your views about activism and politics. Specifically we want to know if participated in a street protest, march or demonstration and if so what tell us protesting and what the experience was like. We wi we have split it up according to age. Calling now. We will be right back. With congress on holiday cspan Networks Feature a full lineup of primetime programming. P. M. Eastern 00 on cspan laura logan, sebastian oung other and other journalists who risked their hrufrs covering events in the middle east. Celebrity ht 8 00 activists speak out on a variety of issues. From the night events cspan archives featuring notable public figures who died 2015. Thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern a look back at the year in congress. New years day friday night at 8 00 Law Enforcement officials, activists and examine the prison system and its impact on minority communities. Cspan 2 monday night 8 3 activists reporters, and former White House Press secretary. Books on economics and the economy. Wednesday night authors talk and books on science technology. Thursday at 8 00 p. M. Discussions on isis and terrorism. On new years day friday night at 8 00 self of our several of our indepth programs this year. History tv cspan 3 anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz. Tuesday night the ceremony on 150th anniversary of the 13th amendment. On which president would be a better model for. O. P. Candidates today Calvin Coolidge or ronald reagan. Thursday road to the white new years daynd friday night 8 00 playwright and of hamilton accepts the book prize ngton special achievement award. Those are some programs featured primetime on the cspan networks. Washington journal continues. Host in the last half hour we have you ever participated in a protest, street demonstration. We want to hear about it. We want to hear your experience. What do you think the impact was. A call. Ur phones are split up by age group. Segment as details are emerging about some high profile oftests over the past couple days including one at the mall minneapolis, minnesota. A protest this spilled over to the minneapolis airport. Noted Police Reported five men and three women were protests that briefly shut down a terminal at st. Paul polis airport. Eight were arrested on charges rom Unlawful Assembly and Disorderly Conduct to obstructing police during a demonstrationtter on once from 18 to 36 kwraoefrpblgs and from as far massachusetts. The airport protest was soon after they were ordered to leave the mall of america. It blocked traffic and led to check points ty and news this week about well. Sts in chicago as stories about. We want to hear about your participated you in. Helen is first from cheverly, the 51 on the line for and over. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. How are you . Host im good. Caller thank you for the opportunity. Patrticipated in a couple i was born because in alabama can you hear me . Host yes, maam. In alabama s born and i was 9 years old when rosa on the bus. Problem i listened to this. In an environment if you did not protest as a group ou cannot accomplish anything by yourself. O, i participated there and then i moved to connecticut at age of 16. 1963, we went down and we marched from selma to montgomery montgomery. It was because of the oppression that my family was going through there, the opportunities were not there for us. North to find the a job at 16 to help my family because they could not survive there. And it does work. It is just that sometimes people cherry pick and decide this protest is good, this one is bad. You get a group together, peacefully like we in the 1960s, your voice should be heard. Collective group of people there for a reason. They are all going through the want changesd they and they cannot get to the changes. Ut you are heard when you are there. But most of the time during the the sts that were going on big problem was we were peaceful but there were doing were always someone who was you, as they say, in your place. That is where some of the started. March peacefully. Kids getting killed in churches. Peaceful. S were very and things i saw as i was growing up. Im calling in this morning a lot of problems still at my age im still seeing want the same e Constitutional Rights as everyone else. Me, there are a lot of good people in this world, god, that good people are outweighing the bad. To protest. Ople the abortion right people or prochoice or dont have it at getting their voice heard. Demonstrations come in various voices and various easons so keep the world free and let them express themselves. But we need to emphasize do it then goceful manner and to your politician to try to help make changes. Today. S my view host thanks for the call from cheverly, maryland. Helen talking about her growing up in alabama. Some news out of alabama i want o show you some of the front ages from down in the south where theres been heavy storms in the wake of in that part of the United States. Loodwaters cover parts of the valley is the headline from the decatu decatur daily a state of mental over five inches. Tornado adds to the storm woes. That is some of the headlines of decatur daily. You can follow those as well on dailys website. We want to get to your calls. We have asked if you have ever in a protest or demonstration. Dorothy is in baltimore, for those n the line 51 and over. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have participated. At the time we were young children. Anything have particularly do that summer so naacp. Ed the we were sitting in in the dime in the woolworth store and it was ok. I had no problem with it because we were still young. In the meantime as one of my teachers said history repeats itself and the same thing we marched back in the day and the back again Congress People keep going back, back, back. That is not fair. Know one thing could stop this stuff . If the people wouldnt take money and go ned shopping with all that christmas slow it andiday and that would make them stop that do need our they dollars. Host have you marched in recent years . Caller im 70 years old. Time. A youngster at that host when did you think it was put down your sign which is to stop marching . Think you had accomplished your goal . Caller well, we only could get so far. When they started opening up the by little d little came along. All of a sudden now they want to take it back to where it was. That makes no sense. You are not progressing if you to take back like the voting rights. What are they doing . Taking it back. They say it is a lot better. No, it is not. It is worse now. Its gotten to be real bad with all the members. They are raising everything they could raise. Nobody is making that money. They are ridiculous. Host what did you think about he protests in baltimore this past year . Caller you know what . It wasnt as bad. Here in 1968 when they had the riots. 1968 was not as bad as because that little bit of stuff they did people just went verboard because one thing about it, those same houses that you saw on this tv for this time, them are the same houses in 1968. Back. Never went it looks like a war zone in some of these areas. It is pitiful. These people own a lot of this property. It is terrible. To live between boarded up houses. Not doing e really too much to help the poor people. Host that is dorothy in baltimore. Ron is from roseville, michigan and 50 ines between 26 years old. Good morning, ron. You are on the washington journal. For taking my call. I was part of the occupy wall in the detroit area. When we were marching for the i felt me in my life like i was where i was supposed o be around the people like minded people like michaeyself. Rarely a time we were marching through the street and the olice were trying to put us over to the side to the sidewalk and i remember they got out of i had a sense of fear but we didnt get out of andstreet and we kept going that police where they tried to it us off on the sidewalk powering. I felt as though they had to listen to what we had to say. Being just there and being part f that and with those group of likeminded people that, hey, you are going to listen to us. E are tired of what is going on. We see what is going on and we want you to listen and when they and turned our way into an escort i felt like they were actually listening and a later down the road i see that it did have an impact country because you see with candidates like Bernie Warren and elizabeth i believe that theres an occupy protest out in seattle on city council. Like they did listen and things didnt pop up overnight. Host it is interesting you bring up the occupy movement ecause it is one of the protests that the atlantic uses story xample in their from 2014 about why street work. Ts dont they say they fail to create significant changes in politics policies occupy wall street is a great being. Orn in 2011 it spread and was roaring in the central squares of nearly 2,600 cities around global massive and seemingly well organized initiative should have had a department. Act but so the topic of economic gained momentum in practice it is hard to find and large changes by the occupy movement has vanished from the headlines. Well, it says that but everything is a slow process. Media,s time because the what they put out on tv is what people tend to believe. Control of e peoples perspective to make them see certain things. But it will take time. Like you said, it was all over the world and you saw the kwrrbgs liberal egypt. It did wake people up. It may not have the effect that right off the jump, but if you look at it, it did have an effect and people are starting to wake up. It is hard to be, it is hard to the system. When something is in place the divide between the rich and poor so great that is hard to overcome. A lot of times it has to fall it can be ore overcome. It will be a slow process but ou are seeing it in the Politics Today with donald trump, with Bernie Sanders. Ook how they are hiding Bernie Sanders behind hillary. Im sad about that. A good i it but it can pen change. I see it. I dont believe that article. See that it will be slow and tough, but i see the change coming eventually. Roseville. Is ron in william is up next, birmingham, alabama on the line for those 51 and over. William, good morning. Caller yes. William ryan. I was born in 1950. 65yearold retired this is my ran and protest story with my ongoing about our government. With the n in touch white house, president obama and Michelle Obama 11 times and they wrote me back. Host what are you protesting, william . Caller i didnt know what protesting was. Woods, and n the to go to service in 971 right out of high school i part of the protest where i know, when i went to alameda, y in california, this is where the rotest group that i ran into run by jack hair about a law that 215 about. He Congress Passed in 1937 that are s 17 states n there with me on proposition 215 and i hope that people wake up. I have heard the callers here this morning and i totally the ree with them about simple rights. Grew up during that time and hey are more the blacks are more prejudiced against the whites than ever. Working. Int and people dont really know how really s. We hear atomic bombs. Against atomic bombs but nothing has been said by our having enough Hydrogen Bombs to destroy the world. That is william in birmingham with his protest story. Next bonita springs, florida. Have you ever participated in a protest . 60. Er im actually over i have been in quite a few way from the he vietnam war through today for pay for firemen and police police, equal raoeuights no mat your race. The syrian refugees. There. S just so many out the one thing i do have to say is i totally disagree not with concept but the way they are going about the black lives matter. I think getting into peoples fa disheartening ecause it is a very good rotest but i dont like just getting into their faces and poking fingers at people and stuff like that. Realize they need to be heard but there are other ways to do it. Also, i dont understand why nd fire, mostly vote republican because they are so gainst everything that they stand for, whether it is paid leave, whatever. I have seen policemen where they cut off d to basically when they were injured on the job to where they could never work again. Host you say you participate in a lot of different protests years. He what was the most effective. Was there one protest that did ht the most change or the most good . Gosh, have to say there have been so many. It equal rights was one but came many years later. Now it is reversing because you candidates like donald talking race and others in the republican party. It is just, you know, race is not the issue. Look at the way things are done even education is cut down by race. Go into the poorer sections and they cut down as many of that as they can out section. But you go into the other allions and they are giving the money they can. Me wrjust it just irritates to no end that we are reversing back to the 1960s. Host if you want to share your protest story what you were about, how effective it was, we have about 10 minutes left. You can call always. We split by age group and we will put them on the screen for you. From North Miami Beach on the line for those 51 and over. John, good morning. Caller this is what happened. 1972 Democratic Convention when George Mcgovern and went there to try to protest against bobby crew. Nd his we were for the vietnam war, not. Ve it or anyhow, we went there and we we werent necessary because the police were doing a job. Ble it was blood all over. Clobbering people and them on the ground and we were horrified, my two friends and i. Did is we tried to get s close as we could to those people that were able to get away from the paddy wagons and e tried to get them to the hospital and there were ambulances all over. It was a horror show. Connecticut at the ribicoff ur governor stood up and yelled at daley podium and we were watching every Street Corner had a Television Going and we were a appla at that time because we changed our minds on such a when we saw horrible, horrible thing and we hope that never happens again. Host did you march on the other side, with the protesters after that . They harassed them. We said we are going to have some fun. Provietnam and we are going to go and we didnt we saw. Hat we saw a massacre, almost a massacre except i dont think anybody get killed. Guys were and those bad news. They sucked ght these performance in to go with horrible. T was it was horrible. Ost what happened with your activism in the years after that experience . Caller i completely changed. Voted evenly about democrat voted for can and perot. We had to go to work because we were in our 20s. I was 24 at the time. Other friends, one was 27 and was 27. R we were out of college and the were getting their masters degrees. Employed and i kept this quiet for a long time but now that im retired i can about it. Host when was the last time you gone out and marched for an issue, john . I go to see the candidates. I dont protest now. After seeing that im not going to get involved in anything more. I do send letters. I get on the internet. Kinds of out all varies things. But i have become much more liberal after that day. That was an historic day and im around. Were not but it was a day to remember. Are walter cronkite. A day like all days. Hich alter and illuminate our times and that riot did alter our times. In addition, i think it changed course of the war. Host thanks for sharing your story. Gap gallop. From 1967 they asked if they had participated in a peace rally in vietnam. 99 said they had no. When they were asked if they were like to if a rally argued in their area 9 said they would. By october 1969 as antiwar more than two million protested in vietnam. Gallop is asked the public if they wished they stronger effort 25 ished they had and 67 wished or 67 did not. A t numbers from gallup and story they had a few years ago that you can check out online. Peace and war protest. Time for one or two more calls. The linem houston, for 51 and over. You are up next on the washington journal. Tkpwhra caller good morning. I attended four protests. An antiklan protest when they marched in in herman park. Hen i attended two of the tea party rallies and i went to becks rallyor glen there. I guess what amazed me was the conservatives that were protesting attend these things. They are so much more peaceful and when they are done they police have no problem with the crowds and we have had massive crowds at these even at the antikkk protest believe it or not it was alf conservatives and half liberals issue showed up for that and there were about 200 klan parade route and there were about 4,000 protested it all the way and the only violence we had was an extreme liberal hispanic man who burned an American Flag to get attention. For the most part what i have seen the more conservative the the more lawful the protest. Host of the different protests in which do you think was the most effective in rying to create change or get the message out . Caller definitely the glen beck protest. Because i have never seen such a sea of manity and humanity and then when it was over with everybody there cleaning it up and they literally made the place cleaner than when they ed. Ar verybody was so friendly and nonviolent except a few agitators who would try to come people up but the people wouldnt respond to them. Probably the most effective i saw. Caller do you have any perhaps the new year . Caller i talk to everybody i and tell they will what is happening to america and how anddulent Global Warming is how the federal government is controlling our lives more and more. Do individual protests now. I find it more effective. Caller. Yne is our has make sure you tune in tomorrow. Gina l be joined by smialek of bloomberg and Michael Brookings the institution the author of the future of land wars we will be u. S. Strategy against isis. And gin at 7 00 a. M. Even 4 00 a. M. Pacific. Until then, have a great saturday. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] on the next washington smialek on the of omic outlook and effect the Federal Reserve raising Interest Rates and consumer spending. Michael ohanlon discusses the u. S. San francisco against isis arab around muslim countries in fighting isis. Washington journal live with the days headlines, your phone calls,appear tweets every day on 7 00 a. M. Eastern. As 2015 wraps up cspan yearend ongress review a look at all the news making issues, debates and took center stage on capitol hill this year. At us thursday december 31 8 00 p. M. Eastern as we revisit itch mcconnell taking his position as senate majority. Ope franciss address to congress. Resignation of john boehner and election of paul ryan. Over the nuclear simildeal to mass and reaction shooting. Gun control. Isis. Ism and rise of congress yearend review on at an thursday december 31 8 00 p. M. Eastern. The Bob Dole Institute awarded the leadership prize to clinton. Resident bill in the speech he talked about bipartisanship. International affai affairs. In is an hour. Resident clinton the dole leadership prize is awarded annually to an individual or group that served ur country in an exemplary manner. Previous were