Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160107

2027488,000 for democrats, 20267488001 for almosts and 2027488002 for independents. Email ont to send us the matter on the effort to appeal the Affordable Care act. Org. At journal cspan it was largely a party line issues to pass the parts of the Affordable Care act. Timesshington highlights people that supported it and against it. Voted no. Blicans one democrat, collin peterson, of minnesota, supported the is the fast track budget process to bypass the filibuster. Republicans who robertthe party, and richardn katko, hanna of new york. It would strip the federal planned parenthood for one year. They wanted to publish the for undercover videos showing officials negotiating the sale of fatal body parts. Thats in the washington time thymes. The New York Times and talk about the veto and the vote it says the that mr. Obamas promised vote to veto will be the eighth of his presidency. It will be the most consequential. Toy dont have to the votes override the president. The white house and the allies long expected the coverage would increase and other policy arose. Suggested that more than 17 million uninsured people have gained coverage since they the Health Care Law in 2010. Many of its components such as mandatory coverage for preexisting conditions and the ability to cover young Adult Children are very popular. Again this house votes a bill that passed in the house. President ds to the for veto. We want to get your thoughts. Not only on the passage of the processt also on the thats been taking place on the Affordable Care act. 2027488000 for republicans,01 for and 8002 for independents. You can coast on the social well and ours as facebook is facebook. Com cspan. The people that spoke out in the support of the bill was the republican who took to the house yesterday and talked about why he thought the bill was a good one. For republicans and americans overall. Heres some of his thoughts from yesterday. So today well vote to repeal pieces ofe major obamacare that distort the andet, raise prices, reprize our citizens of choice. Today will limit the employer mandatory. Forcing a citizens to buy a product they do not want and costly. An i say good riddance. Just one of the many republicans. 8001488000 for democrats, for republicans, and 8002 for independent. Lets start in maine. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller good morning. This is my first time calling in. Seen on to i had walkerwhen when scott was asked why republicans were against Birth Control. Replied because we have a shrinking work force and we need to get the numbers built up. This was aired right on your program. The cspan channel. This is extremely disturbing to thats whats behind the whole shutting down planned parenthood. Host was it more about the funding . Caller yes. Host why so . Caller im sorry, would you repeat the question . Host you said you paid more attention to the planned parenthood. I asked why you paid more to that than the repealing parts of the Affordable Care act. Because since the republicans have wanted to get rid of planned parenthood, they want to get rid of Birth Control totally. This is just one first step to do it. Host lets hear from randy. Worth, texas, republican line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Calls. For taking my i wanted to comment on the vote to appeal obamacare. Outy republican listeners there, dont fall for the okeydoke. This is just the speaker of republicans inhe congress should have fought the budget. Any power in the house. What they did they set and let arebudget go and now they going to get up there and come say we the people and have we are trying to appeal the obamacare. Is is just a cover up for themselves. So my message to the Republican People out there . Please, please listen to me. Allow the republicans to your citizens and say they did something. They didnt do anything. If anything, they just gave up their power. Obama is going to veto the bill. Thats going to be the end of it. You it doesnt matter that a bill on this effort after the many votes they have taken end up on the president s desk . Caller yes, it is going to end desk. Mississippi hes going to veto it. We gave up our power as republicans. Dont have any power. All the president is going to do is veto it. It is going to be everything again. Normal the republicans had a chance with the extended bill. They let it go by. Now the democrats they dont listen to us at all. He gave up all of the power when bill. The budget host lets hear from minnesota. Here is al. Next. Orning, you are up what do you think . Caller i think getting rid completely is the right answer. Host you are on. Ahead. Caller the president said this was going to save health care. Has gone up 18. 5 since he that. Beyond any shadow of a doubt when you have a high deconnectable, the average who is making 35 to to,000 a year cannot afford pay that deductible to even begin to get that Health Care First place. He host is it significant that a passed the house . Caller is it sunlight that what was passed . Is it significant that the bill passed thats going to go to the president s desk . Beler it is going to significant if it does shut down obamacare. Thats what is going to be significant. We get our freedoms back of choice. We dont have a government or like ant thats acting dictator and cramming down our Unaffordable Health care that you cant use. Lets hear from the republican thoughts. Caller i couldnt agree more with the last guy. I wanted to give my own personal experience as one of these caree guys that democrats about. It is unaffordable. Callers might be retired, a lot of them on disability, thats different. Is paid everything for. Textilei worked for a biomedical textile company in maintenance and things like that. Right before this went in to effect. We had a big meeting. The bestinated one of plans they had. I had a Health Savings account. Awesome. The company was able to put a lot of money in there. It was the best thing i had. In half byt obamacare. Then when im laid off in collected for about five months. They gave me the cobra thing. Afford at 300. A month for 550 c. O. B. R. A. That was affected. That was unaffordable. I had no Health Insurance for 2015. Now this is im going to be 51. This is the first time in my im going to be punished by the government, i believe im going to be fined. Going to owe money also because i didnt have it taken my unemployment. So im going to have to pay a fine, i think 350 on top of i owe. Next year could be as high as take0 which ill still because im work as a subcontractor. What do you think about the efforts of the House Republicans yesterday on this . Im forwell, im for them trying. Because the other thing is i went on the exchange. Wanted to bow down and do what im told. I went on there. 800 number. You can do it through the phone. Different the bronze plan was about 360 a month. Covers absolutely nothing, pedro. 6,000 deductible. Theres no doctor visits. No prescription. Thats just the blond. The silver one was 500 something. Host thats nathan about the experiences on the health care changes. A vote that sends the bill to the president s desk that would parts of the Affordable Care act. One of the people speaking out against the effort is the house congressman, Jim Mcdermott of washington. He was calling out the republicans in the house about an alterative to the Affordable Care act. Weve been waiting five years the plan to the floor and let us have a vote on it. Theres no plan that you are bring to the floor, because you do not care about the American People and their health security. It away from 22 million withe and assaulting women this bill is simply clear do not caret you what happens. You may think this is good politics. Ear but back in the state, the even the governor of kentucky, a republican, has decided, you know, i dont want to take it away from people who are on medicaid. This in washington. We already know that if you the requirement that Insurance Companies give people no matter what their health care is, their health care state is, you are to sink the individual market. We lost it in the state of washington. Sentencing the whole country to that. Said you want the repeal vote to be on the 22nd. Gentlemans time has expired. Host again if you want to give us a call and your thoughts on 2027488000 for democrats, republicans, and 8002 for independents. We were elected on a pledge to try to repeal obamacare. Jolly, adavid republican in florida. If we are unsuccess, we should turn to other matters like the security. The focus cant just be repealing obamacare it has to be is the Health Care Plan . New york times. Michigan is next. Good morning, brian. Caller good morning. Are you this morning . I would like to point out the republicans have been against the health plan. They were against medicare. The republicans never thought they would vote for medicare period. Or Social Security for that matter. Do not like social health programs. Figure it is live survival of the fittest. It is social darwinism. It is crap. Is. S what it ive got mine. Im going to keep it. To heck with all of you people. Good morning, michael, on the republican line. Go ahead. Michael. His is hi. In my opinion i think the Affordable Care act is horse rubbish. In my opinion. With a 20 yeard old wife and have a kid on the way. 80. Nsurance premium is thats not with an obamacare plan at all. In my opinion, it is also kind a way. Unist in forcing somebody to have something they, you know, want ors shouldnt whatever. Just opinion thats something that shouldnt i wants Affordable Care, go to work and get something done about it. Jobs, they have you know, insurance where you get insurance through them after a certain amount of weeks or months you work there. I mean you dont need to go affordablend get care when, if you work you already got it. Buffalo, new york, good morning. What do you think about the effort yesterday . Hope theykind of repeal it but replace it something that keeps some of the in. Isions my personal situation i got kicked off of my plan. I havent been able to get in to the exchange because it keeps telling me they have no records of such a person. They keep taking my tax money. I dont exist. Had bloodf mine cancer. He lost his doctor. Lied to us. Some of the provisions are good. Andink they need to take it change it and then start anew with a new plan. You think of the good provisions . Caller the kids that can stay policies. Ents the bit about the preexisting conditions. I think those are very important. To see those stay. I would like to see them somehow andack to a private system get the government out of it. But enforce the insurance to keep those kinds of provisions in. Host were in florida thats where shade lives. Hello, good morning. Caller good morning. Affordableut the to ask you isnt obamacare. They keep calling it obamacare. Obamacare . When i went on the exchange, i care, i gotealth something blue, but im having a hard time trying to figure out what are they talking about obamacare . About this. Talking saying thehey are kids can stay on until they are 26, no preexisting conditions, they cant charge a woman more. That do is it is a provision that the insurance cant discriminate against you. You go on the exchange. Did. Like i mind that change. Ive been on it for two years. Changed. It so i had to pick another plan. Guess what . Me and my family couldnt get insurance before. Obamacare thats what you want to call it. Now im able to we got insurance. Thank god we had it. I know it could be done. Thent understand why want because president obama they have stuff in there that needs to change. What plan do they have . They want to talk away my insurance . Doing to . E what are they going to give it . Host well continue on on our toughts on the house voting repeal Affordable Care act. Also voting funding for planned short time. Or a those two things well discuss and continue on. 2027488000 for democrats, 2027488001 for republicans, 2027488002 for independents. They are deciding if north korea fired a hydrogen bomb. Shifts to campaign, and responded to the news recently. It was saying in iowa senator cruz said north korea yas claimed tests and once it nuclear bomb technology. Quote if Hillary Clinton is showed thesident, we crystal ball where iran is headed. Latest fox news that the nuclear test highlighted quote a from barack obama and Hillary Clinton. He said as president he will put together a coalition that will convey the conduct is unacceptable. The wall street journal. The Clinton Campaign came back with a statement and the results news about north korea saying that part it will provocative and dangerous act. North korea must know we will take whatever steps to defend ourselves. Is tokoreas goal blackmail the world. Any wayt give in to or encourage this kind of bullies. Statementrt of the from yesterday, she reflected a sayingbit of politics this is yet another reminder of what it has taken in this election. Addressinged without any candidates. We cannot afford reckless publicity stunts that risk war. Dave is up next. Dave from pennsylvania, republican line. Dave, good morning. Caller good morning. Host what caller thanks for having me on. The democrat from florida i theed with him and republican from texas i agreed with him. We have a lot of people making good points. The point that i want like to ine is the republicans are favor of they are not thelife simply because of work force that was mentioned earlier this morning. Republicans are for prolife because weve all had a chance your program to have a chance at life on this earth. Is immoral to murder the unborn. Republicans are against Affordable Health care act in the respect. Does need theres a few good things in it. It needs modified. Real bad things that ise about because of this you have lower, middle income workingrker that are even like fast food places. They have to they got hair hours cut because of obamacare below 40 hours a week. Now they are going out and working two jobs. Thats the reason why the Unemployment Rate is lower. Because the economy is good. The problem is theyve had to go get two jobs because a lot of the employers cant or thet afford to pay them obamacare thats that comes ath working 40 hours or more week. Host mike is up next. Monroeville, ohio. Independ line. Hi, mike. Caller we need to know what kind of lunacy is going on in washington. 333 to 550 from something. Im a veteran luckily. Is ludicrous. If i get sick i have to drive 75 order to get for somebody to see me. In order for this to happen, it takes anywhere between three to five weeks for my appointment. Were getting exactly what we get and what we deserve these individuals that dont take time to read the bills and shove stuff in the bill at night. The only way this is going to stop is if we put a stop to it. Thanks. Postthe washington highlights the speech thats the Environmental Protection agency. Talk about the last year of the administration and what they plan to do on Climate Change. Is highlighted in the Washington Post this morning toing that she is expected describe amongst other things plans to increase Technical Assistant to foreign governments dioxiderolling carbon gases to greenhouse insurance the climate accord adopted last month. It will show progress in reducing it. Like chinaith powers know how to carry out the agreements provisions. Fillare prepared to help in the gaps. The speech takes place at 12 30 here on washington, d. C. You can see it live on cspan. Epa administer speaking about the last year of particularly on Climate Change. 12 30. On cspan3 at michigan on the democrats line. What do you think about the actions by the house . Begin to tellt you how my life is over if this goes through. Our president. And im so sick and tired of andblicans calling in calling him a liar and being against anything that hes for. All they are saying now that come if he would just in and talk to them about something, what why would he want to go talk to them . They just they curse him. Never heard a republican say well, a couple have said kind of good maybe one good thing about him. Been all theyve us is just make his life miserable. Since he become president. He hasnt had a chance. Hasnt had a chance to do anything. And my husband lost his job when 55. As ive called in twice and talked sides about the fact that he was 55 and for four got up every morning jobs. Plied for he only got four callbacks in all of those years. Worked over 30 years in a foundry. A day. Issed host well hear from he works so hard. Then when he lost the job, of we lost our insurance. Hes got he oh god. Hes got ms now. Over the years, weve been trying you know, he tried to get a job. That was getting, you know, to he couldnt have job in theme foundry. He still could have had a job. Host got you. Rebecca selling her story and experience and talking about the efforts on the house to fill the president s desk expected to be vetoed on the bill dealing with repeals of major portions of the Affordable Care act. Jay is from kentucky. Republican line. You are up next. Hello. Hello. Good morning. Thank for taking my call. 350derstand there was only people in the United States. Think it was 790 billion were spent on obamacare. He could have took 2 billion and put it in everybodys account. Saved money. Supported the efforts by the House Republicans then . Caller im all for it. Retired and on medicare. Lastrted i started month. I had to switch insurance because my wife they took one third of her insurance away. I had to pay that. Me three hours on the anyphone trying to get difference. The cancer and we have all of the problems. People are worried about Climate Change. Host from kentucky. Required to buy health care for individuals and lose access due to the deductible cost adding that aca is a fraud. Theead of trying to repeal aca, they could enhance it with that will save people lots of money. Seattle, washington, independent line. Sandra. Hello. Caller hi. Thank you for letting me talk. This is awesome. I have been on medicare since 2000. I started using the medicare advance plan. Hear me . Host keep going. You are on. Okay. advantageed to take of the Medicare Advantage plan in 2012. Was wonderful the first year. It started to go down from there. Since the Affordable Care act in has gotten horrendous. At this point, i can no longer afford to even get my medications. Copays, as farf the as i can tell, this Affordable Care act is nothing but a great big old gravy train for the Insurance Companies. They are making lots of money. Somehow we are supposed to think they are doing us a favor and they are fairly making it, but people invest in that and they are making money and if you listen or read what Warren Buffett has to say, he will tell you his favorite thing is Insurance Companies because it gives him what he calls float. All that money coming in from premiums gives them this great pool of money which they then use to invest and make lots of money. He meets whatever the obligations are of his insurance company, he can do that. We are rich people, getting rich people rich people getting more rich. Host not only did this bill deal with the Affordable Care act, but also the funding of planned parenthood. One of the people that spoke out against the funding planned parenthood was congresswoman caster of washington. Republicans begin the new year with a vote against women, against Womens Health, and a vote to target planned parenthood all rolled into one. Women across the country will not forget the coordinated Smear Campaign against planned parenthood last year that was based upon false, manufactured videos full of distortions and misinformation and we will not forget how republicans in congress acted in concert with a shady group and used the controversy to eliminate familyplanning support and vital cancer screenings for women across the country. That my goping colleagues begin the year who need helps the most, working families, young women, women of color. While republicans choose to start the year this way, what i hear from women and parents and moms and dads is that they want greater economic security, greater personal security, that is what congress should be focused on in 2016. Host up next is charles, democrats. Hello. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a vietnam that i am a vietnam vet. Party islican deliberately harming planned parenthood and using it as a scapegoat when they do not use their own budget to reach their goals. They are being abused by their own party and it is a shame. I was they would realize that it is over for them unless they challenge this Republican Party. [inaudible] lower income people do not get any benefits and are abused and they act like they are being taken care of, it is unbelievable. Host kenny from South Carolina, republican line. Caller one is a question about this insurance doing his job, how many jobs out there truly get insurance to their employees . The other thing is, repealing funding for planned parenthood. They are paying for a service that was already given. Whoever,d medicaid or now you pay your bill, that is the way it works. They are not given the money upfront and then do what they want with it. For servicesng rendered, that is just business, i dont understand the problem. Kevin,rom maryland, independent. Thank you for cspan, i appreciate your programs. I wanted to call in and say i support the Affordable Care act Health Care Made insurance possible for me. Thing, these large they werepanies not giving people standards. The Insurance Law requires that all health care Insurance Companies provide Similar Services of high quality. Sick, that, once you got and they could not make any money off of you, they would take you off the plan because you had a preexisting condition. Now, everybody has the opportunity for insurance. Mine happens to be affordable and i use it with the Affordable Care act and it costs me 400 a month or highquality service. Thatt to let people know there is a lot of misinformation out there about what the Affordable Care act does do. Host keystone xl pipeline back in the news due to a new lawsuit. Toronto star reporting this morning that transcanada, the Company Behind the pipeline, launched a double salvo against the government for blocking they plan to file chapter 12 er the annex and a fta under nafta. They say that they also filed a lawsuit in u. S. Federal court in texas, asserting that the president decision to deny construction of the pipeline exceeded his power under the u. S. Constitution. The pipeline has been in limbo andmore than seven years has been an irritant in u. S. Canadian relations. From west virginia, keith, republican. Thank you for taking my call and thank you for cspan. Preexisting conditions, the things about that should be kept, but there should be other things that are done in. We are a Small Business and we had insurance for our employees. In 2014, when we got the renewal, we were paying 48,000 a year for insurance for employees, the cheapest we could find through an Insurance Broker was 76,000 a year. In most expensive went to almost 100,000 a year. Our cpa said you cannot afford that, so we helped our employees get the help desk it on the exchange. Two of them still dont have insurance. They are a couple of single guys and their premiums are approximately 700 a month. Im not sure what they are going to do. They will probably take the money out of their tax refund and still not have any insurance. Brother hadt is, my insurance. He worked approximately 30 years and i guess his was one of the cadillac plans were he had a 250 deductible. His wife has been battling ander for a couple of years they lost their insurance and he had to go on the exchange. Went to a 5,000 and it 5,000 deductible plus a premium that he cannot afford. That is keith, giving us his experience with the Affordable Care act. You heard from legislator caster on planned parenthood. Onre is republican wagner why she believes funding should be cut. There are more than 13,500 publicly supported alternatives for Womens Health care in the country. 588 in missouri. Alternatives that treat women without performing abortions. Alternatives that will have more access to federal money for Womens Health care. This means that in missouri alone, there are 45 Health Clinics for every planned parenthood clinic in the state. Distracted by be political rhetoric. We are strengthening our support for Womens Health and we are stripping federal taxpayer dollars my organization that forms more than 300 327,000 abortions a year. Host james from georgia, democrat line. Caller good morning. I am calling in to voice my support for obamacare. It, irecall before we had used to look on the news and hear a lot of people talk about how they did not have health care. A lot of kids with bad diseases and problems that could not get health care and how their parents were suffering and so forth and could not afford to get the care that they needed. Im calling to voice my opinion. To hear all the republicans call in and talk they express all this disappointment with obamacare this lavish lives they throughout their about lavish lies they throw out about obamacare. Before it, there were people who could not get Health Insurance, period. They werent doing much before these people got Health Insurance. Before. E complaining they werent complaining before. Now they sit here and throw all these lies out. That is james from georgia. Justice roy moore issued an order saying that a Ruling Issued last art last march by the Alabama Court still applies to samesex marriages. Clerks will have an ministerial duties to not issue samesex marriage licenses. He said that the conflict between the state court ruling of the u. S. Supreme ruling in june has caused can usually and uncertainty among probate judges. As hehat as long quoted a state law that says the chief justice has the power to take affirmative action to correct or alleviate any condition or situation adversely affecting the administration of justice within the state and he wrote that than the supreme many from a judges are issuing samesex marriage licenses while some were not, he went on to say the disparity affects the administration of justice in the state. From myrtle beach, South Carolina, here is mali, ly,ependent mol independent. Caller i wanted to comment on the Affordable Care act. Carolina, iuth cannot afford to pay for the Affordable Care act. I have a disability and im concerned about the people that live in South Carolina, anyone making under 11,000 a year does not qualify for medicaid or the Affordable Care, any kind of help. I wanted to voice my opinion on that, especially people who are waiting for justice disability, which takes about two years. Host what you think about the efforts to repeal the Affordable Care act . When it first went through, i thought it was unconstitutional. Forcing people to pay for that for and then fine not being able to afford it seems very additional very unconstitutional. Host do you support republican efforts to repeal the aca . Caller at least parts of it. Get rid of the fiens. Fines. People who cannot afford to pay under 11,000 a year, medicaid has not been expanded, get rid of it. Host only i can with of the washington reports Washington Post reports among the things the fbi will start tracking is animal abuse, saying that the fbi defines cruelty to animals as recklessly, intentionally or knowingly causing harm or death to animals, including torturing, maiming, poisoning or abandoning. This will include organized abuse such as dogfighting or cockfighting. Thislican, last fall on effort by the republicans last call on this effort by the republicans. Caller i am a single mom with three children. At, when that i work obamacare first came into being, we were told that our insurance policy would change and the cost would not go up. Over the last two years, we just had the insurance meeting this year, we were dropped by united my care and given insurance costs have tripled in the last two years. Before, when i had health care, it was a audible and since the aca, my insurance is now unaffordable and it seems to me that the people who are importing it before, barely affording it, my deductible used to be 500, now it is 5,000, we cannot afford to get sick. It is unbelievable, like the biggest scam. Host as far as these efforts to repeal it, is it something you support . Caller absolutely. I had a brother with a brain tumor when he was 12 years old and my parents had insurance and as soon as he had his tumor, they dropped him. There is a misconception about preexisting conditions. He can still get insurance, but it is so ensure so outrageous that he really cant. Tell you we will do all these magical things and it is not true, it is very expensive. People are not getting health care, they are not getting to choose who they get it from, so i would like to see this repealed, there has to be a better way. Host we will continue on with the conversation about that vote with legislators joining us this morning. First up is representative megalomania of South Carolina. The representative nick vaney. I mick mul all of that as washington journal continues after this. Booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and offers authors every week on cspan two. Saturday at 7 00, booktv is at the university of wisconsin with a history professor to discuss the march on washington. This was a movement that was going to the core of many peoples believes about what this nation should be. It did change a lot of minds, but it also steeled a lot of people to their positions of hatred and their commitment to inequality. At the clock p. M. Eastern, afterwards with a fox correspondent who look at the life and political career of Vice President cheney. He is interviewed by a former White House Press secretary. No one on the right has attracted more vitriol from the left, more intensely than dick cheney with the possible exception of the men he served in the white house. Vice magazine treating exit or mali crabapple talks about or talks about her art and her book. I started out writing personal essays. I only had five published pieces but when i got the book deal and people really liked them and i have this delusional fantasy that since i had written a 2000 word essay that writing a 100,000 word book would be like writing 50 2000 word essays. 20 booktv all weekend every weekend on cspan2, television or serious readers television for serious readers. Washington journal continues. Program,ning us on the a republican representative from South Carolina. Good morning. How did you vote . Voted to repeal, the 40th time ive done it in the house. Because of the senate, it will actually get to the president s desk. Host 62 is the number i hear. What is the significance . Make the case that this vote is different. Guest this is the one that counts because we told people i have elected in 2010. We told people the first thing we would do is get a vote to repeal obama care and we did that. The very first vote we had was to repeal obamacare, but because of the democrat controlled in the senate and because the senate moves slowly, the senate never took up a repeal bill. It was only when we are able to budgetinto reconciliation of the senate was able to take up a repeal bill. This is the one that counts and will go to the desk. Host even know he will most likely veto it. Guest we knew that when we ran it. People know that what barack obama and the white house, we will always have obamacare, he would never not veto the bill. To know thatple republicans would stand up and present the other side of the story. Go back in 2009 when we were discussing it as a nation. There was not that much debate, it was a general debate about what we should do about health care. There was not much about the specific bill. We go back to Nancy Pelosis statement that you have to pass it in order to read it. I hope now that we send it to the desk, he will set up and say im vetoing it and heres why and we can have that debate we did not have. Once again,st republicans cannot contain their they are wasting time on a radical bill that will never become law as to celebrate the 62nd vote on dismantling the Affordable Care act. Where as theys wasted their time on a radical bill that did become law back in 2009. Host that is all you will say on that . Guest was there a specific question . We never had the debate. In that statement, there is no defense of the merits, no response to the difficulties that people are facing. Im on obamacare and i cant get service. I cannot get health care. Coverage, there is no response to that in a statement. We wantwhat we want, the president to come out and say here is why it is a good idea so we can say here is why we think it is not. That debate needs to take place. My fear is that the president will avoid that, that what you saw last week about guns, is desk it is an attempt not to have that debate. Host if you want to ask questions, 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans, 202 7488002 for independents. Email us if you like at journal cspan. Org. Why wasntought up this fight made last year when it came to putting it at attaching it to the actual budget . With a was that a better situation . Attaching a fan of things you must pass legislation, but the senate did not do that. The only way to get this to the president s desk was by using this arcane set of rules called budget reconciliation. A very narrow area of law that does not need 60 votes in the senate. Invented if it had been attached to the spending bill, the threshold was no longer 50, it wouldve been 60 and there are not 60 republicans in the senate. Caller, they mentioned what is the alternative . Guest one of the biggest frustrations that rankandfile republicans have with the ryanous leadership, paul aside, back to john boehner and eric cantor running the place. 2012d been promised since that we would offer our alternative ideas. They are there, you can find them on the website. We have a comprehensive obamacare replacement bill. For some reason, previous leadership was afraid to bring it up. Im glad the leadership is gone and that new leadership is in place and i hope that we will now have the nerve and guts to go on the stand and say not only did we not like obamacare, but here is our idea on how to fix things. If we dont do that, we will of failed the country and our party. Host what are some of those alternative ideas . Guest the examples i give people are to look at the insurance systems that work. Life insurance works, Auto Insurance works. The different types of insurance. There is competition for it. Showing ads on tv different Auto Companies selling insurance. You dont see that for Health Insurance because most the most of the time, your employer picks it for you. Insurance. Other if your car if your window gets broken on your car, you sit down and you do a calculation. This to make the repair or can make a claim against my insurance. We dont do that with health care. You walked in and the doctor says you need an mri and you get one. It is the only thing we buy is that someone else pays for. It is a broken system. You can look to examples in other areas of insurance. The cost of Life Insurance and Home Insurance have come have gone down in the last 10 years. Look at the list of things you can improve, there are models elsewhere and insurance areas. We talk about selling across state lines to promote competition. Host republican from South Carolina joining us, first call from florida, democrat line. Are you there . Lets try another one, chicago illinois, republican. Is, why doquestion why do republicans let the democrats say that republicans are trying to limit womens access to health care when they are trying to limit their access to murdering babies . Guest the short answer is we cant dictate what they say. They have freedom of speech. We have to let them say it. The better question is, why dont we respond and we do try. We made the case during the planned parenthood debate last year that we were trying to do move the money from planned parenthood to the federally qualified Health Care Clinics which provide more services to more women in more places. They better serve the lower end of the economic spectrum, so we try to have that argument, but if the media wont drive that out, we are left talk about it on facebook pages and twitter accounts. We agree, we try to make the case this was not about Womens Health care. We tried to make it clear that not simply taking money away from planned parenthood, but we were moving into places where it could better serve them and tell. It got lost in the wash. Host missouri, democrat line. Yesterday, we had another republican on from the south and he was talking about gun control. Im not going to talk about that, but what he said was that the Republican Congress could pass some gun control law if the president would work with them. To the president come and work with you on repealing this help care law or did you just decide that you could do it without him . Every time we have a discussion , the health care on cspan only thing ever discussed is the cost of health care insurance. The cost of discuss what health care actually does and how these medical corporations running all the hospitals and medical groups are just flat overcharging everybody for everything they do . I recently went to the hospital three times, three different days, did not stay overnight. It was just for testing. Wasopay after medicare 8,000. This was just for testing. Kennedys hell medical groups and doctors groups and hospitals get by with this get by with this overcharging . Its not the Insurance Companies. It is the credit groups, the hospitals, and the doctors. Host thank you for your comments. Guest back to the original point about the president still do notus, i know who my white house liaison is. I was reading a book about the founding of the nation, the first thing resident washington did after he was sworn in was right a letter to congress. Written by john adams in congress at the time. He actually wrote a letter to himself. A wonderful history piece, but the example is there. The president works with congress when it works props properly. This president has not worked with congress to time not sure he knows how to. Left to our own devices, we would much rather deal with health care than reining in the second amendment, which is what he wants to do. To your point in more seriousness, are the things that house could do . Yes, the house passed an amendment three years ago to increase federal funding for the background check system. We discovered at the time there was a difficulty between the states. They were not communicating well with each other. As beingre adjudicated mentally dangerous in north North Carolina was not sharing their information with South Carolina. You could move to South Carolina , buy a gun, and it would not turn up in a background system. That was broken. I voted for that as many republicans did. In the democratic controlled senate. Had the president gotten involved, we may have been able to fix that piece of the puzzle. Those types of things do not get done. Beforeheard the rhetoric about corporations and so forth. Let me respond to john. Just because it is built 8,000, it does not mean he was overcharged. I have no idea what services were performed or the complexity. Deal forght be a great the level of health care he got. People think they are entitled to health care as a matter of law and by virtue of being here, they are entitled to a level of health care. I think that is a dangerous position to take. Every time we say we are entitled to something, we have to recognize the flipside of the equation. Beautiful things about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is it does not require anyone to do anything other than leave you alone. Someone else is obligated to pay for it for you and i am not willing to go there. Is patty froml connecticut, independent line. Go ahead. Caller thank you. Please do not cut me off. Republican to say a columnist, andriy mccarthy, says the republicans do this all the time. They take their time doing a bill right up to the limit so they can say, we tried. The store away. Paul ryan gave the store away. They try to placate the republicans. Mitch mcconnell, paul ryan is losing the Republican Party. That is why donald trump is making headway. It. Sick and tired of the health care thing is a ploy. It is doing nothing, just like Everything Else you do. Nothing. I was a republican. No longer. Thank you. With her more than she probably realizes. The donald trump phenomenon is real. Is leading in South Carolina. I have been in 568s five states supporting rand paul for president. The scent of why trump is doing so well, it is real. There is a broad swath of not only Republican Party but well, whot voters as are simply angry with the parties. Ment in both that is why you see Bernie Sanders doing so well on the democrat side. That anger is real and wellfounded. People in the Democrat Party have done a lousy job following through with their promises and we have done a lousy job under delivering. We had a thing called the pledge to america and we did a terrible job of following through with those promises. Anyone who wants to really uphold would pull out that document. The anger is real. I do notissue see that. Dont judge him as the omnibus. Still hads will to me the cold dead hand of john weiner. Ominousot do an spending bill. Paul by 2015. The deck is clear now and he is done with all the stuff, cleaning up after the previous leadership in our party. You can judge by what happens now. Do the same thing republicans in that building are doing. Give paul a chance. He has got one year. Have a 2017, and we will chance to judge by its own actions and not cleaning up. I think it was a promise kept. People will decry it as being meaningless and doing nothing, but we knew that would be the case in 2010 when we ran. We knew the president would veto the bill. Everyone knows that. It should not be surprised a surprise to anybody. But we made a promise and kept a promise and are trying to drive a debate here the country is divided on how we should deal with health care. We are trying to drive that debate. As a result of what happened yesterday in the house and the senate, by sending the bill to the president , health care becomes a focal point in the debate. I have not heard it yet. It is all about isis and who is angry and who hates everybody more. Lets have a debate on how to fix the Healthcare System for. We should have in 2008. We didnt appear the democrats passed the Health Care System. We need to have it now. Republicans are trying to drive that debate. Louis, maryland, republican line. I will stick to the health care bill. Health care is not working. [indiscernible] you have [indiscernible] not what youre getting in health care. Issuethe is you the is, if you want medicare and medicaid expansion, just say you want to do so and you want to charge someone else [indiscernible] know it isfunny to ironic the same process used to Pass Health Care more, when the democrats have [indiscernible] i just wanted to point that out. Fact that you have rights, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, someone else has to pay for it. You have to pay for it. The numbers do not lie. Double digits, almost 20 in Health Care Costs just this year. It will continue to grow. Medicare and medicaid expansion. What happens in the next two years host you put a lot out there for our guest let him respond. Guest i got this question a lot about us using the same process to repeal obamacare as the senate and house used in 2010 to pass it. That is partially correct, just to clarify for the folks who watch the show who are much more educated on this. Correct. Artially the first pieces of obamacare were passed when the democrats at 60 votes in the senate. The first part of it went through with 60 votes and the rest of it went through budget reconciliation. It is one of the reasons we were not able to repeal all of obamacare. Technically what we did yesterday repeals most of obamacare but not all of it. That is probably getting more detail than most people care about. Think it is better to say, if you want to be intellectually honest, it is working for some people but not for other people. All we have done is move the group people in the country who are uninsured. It used to be if you are very poor and did not qualify for medicaid, you cannot afford health care. Obamacare fix that by allowing heavy subsidies. If you are one step above that, middleclass, if you were a one income household with a couple of kids, you used to be able to afford health care because your employer would provide it, but now you cannot. A lot of folks used to have Health Insurance, who cannot get it now. Lost in all of the debate, is that we are talking about the cost of Health Insurance, not health care. The 19 a month Insurance Coverage people can now have carries with it several thousand dollars deductible. People can afford the Health Insurance but cannot afford to have health care. I was talking to one of the doctors in my district. They said one obamacare was first on the scene, they were ande eager to take pimco people in. And getld now get in their annual physicals. Doctors were happy with the reimbursement rates. If you were sick and needed something and now your in, you cannotked afford to get that and hospitals. With more unpaid bills. We have not fixed the problem, which is why you are still seeing health cares going up. Host as far as financial support, that will start decreasing. I am very supportive of my governorss decision not to do that because i learned a valuable lesson. The first thing State Government give tothe money they the local, municipal governments. The first money we cut up here when money gets tough is the money we get to states. All of these promises have been made about the federal money to expand medicaid. If you look closely, the last budget proposal, you will see he is already starting to telegraph that he wants to reduce federal support for state programs faster than originally promised. It was a pig and a poke. A drug dealer saying take this one for free. Everything will be fine. But i think states will rue that decision and it will have dramatic effects on the budget decision. Virginia, is sam from democrats line. Caller good morning. The american tell people, for the past 20 years, have you passed before obama came to office . Secondly, the man who said he pays a thousand dollars for copay was not asking it would be free. Just as you advocate for affordable, that is what he was advocating for. For it to be affordable. And you are accusing, just like romney did, that he wants it for free. You people, people who say something, that they want it for free. That is so unfortunate you have to use that word again today. Thank you. Word andwont use the i apologize if i offended you with my word choice. I think i could make the argument in a different way. We talk about affordability. That is fine. Receivedume he 100,000 for health care. Forou have to pay 8,000 it, that is pretty affordable. I do not know what he received so it is hard to have the debate that sounds callous, doesnt it . But it is the kind of conversation you have to have unless you want to make the argument that it should be free. It is not the argument. Everything else, the ipad youre looking at is better than the previous one in and it is cheaper. The phone i have in my pocket is better than the previous one and it is cheaper. We have a wonderful history in the country of figure out debts figuring out a way to make things better and more affordable except health. I maintain the reason is while you pay for that ipad and i pay for my phone and someone pays for my camera, someone else pay for the Health Insurance. We have disconnected the Market Forces that work everyplace else and as a result, we are seeing this product react differently than Everything Else we buy. That is my argument on the health bill. To the point on gop, you will not find me defending the indefensible. I was a Small Businessperson when george bush was president. In healthincreases care. I kept waiting for my party to address the problem. We talked about traditional marriage amendment to the cost tuition under karl rove. That was wrong and it is one of the reasons i got into politics fair we started talking about things not important to ordinary americans Area Health Care affects everybody and it affects them right now. A real problem in the early 2000s. We didnt address it. I am hopeful we do a better job in 2016 of telling people what our ideas would be if we put them in charge. We did not do that and i think it is incumbent to tell people what we would do to see fit to put them in charge in 2015. Specifics about how this issue changes now . Guest what i am so excited paul has ais history. It is easy for politicians to say things. People do more than what they have said more than what they say. Paul has put big ideas, and then we voted on them. They were contained in his budgets over the time he was budget chairman. We actually voted on some big things. They were hard votes. They drew a lot of political fire here you saw the democrats running as the session with a guy who looked a lot like paul ryan pushing an old lady off a cliff in a wheelchair. But paul did that as budget chairman and you will consider continue to see him do it as speaker of the house. I do expect us to offer the American Public our ideas on health care in 2016 and i hope we get a chance to vote on it. North carolina, independent line. Home of the pickles. Caller it has been like four years since i called in so please let me say my peace be i wish you would tell american listeners how many tax dollars you have taken for your Health Care Plan. Congress hased taken over 13,000 per Congress Person year to subsidize their health care. You are a very parttime employer. About three years ago, you passed a law that says Congress Gets you for life, even if you are a one term congressperson. How many tax dollars are you taking to subsidize your health care . Know, you you do not are either a liar or you dont know because you dont care because you got yours. He does not know, he has got people there in the background who could make a phone call and get that answer right away area how many tax dollars are you taking for your health care, and then you have a call the gall to say, theres not enough of our money to give it to yourself. Thank you. Guest if you give me a few minutes to respond, i will. I hear a lot of this on internet. A lot of folks get a chain email that supposedly came from warned buffett that said here is how you fix congress. I will go down the list because i have done this many times before. People think we get full pension after one year in office. That is false. Term limits. N of if you want to see term limits in the building across the street, give those people full pensions after one year and they will all leave. But we do not get that we get 1. 5 percent accruing after five years or Something Like that. A good deal, but not full benefits after one year served. People think we do not participate in Social Security. That is false. I expect to get it when im 65 years old. People think we do not have to repay student loans. That is false. Remember,gs i cannot and they think we exempt ourselves from obamacare. The exact opposite is true very i am the only classic citizen in the United States of america prohibited by law from participating in their employersponsored Health Care System. You probably get one through cspan. I have friends back home in banks in hospitals and stuff. Im a federal employee and the office offers all of their employees. As a member of congress, i am prohibited from doing that to i have to go on obamacare and i am on obamacare. People raiseings their hands if they are on obamacare p are the only people who raise their hands are me and my staff. An employer contribution toward my premium. I think it is 857 and . 92 or Something Like that. Host can you get a subsidy on top of that . Guest no. The employer pays a certain percentage of your premium and that is what i get. Than i paidmore now one obamacare went into place. When i was a private citizen, my insurance was cheaper and i had better coverage third when i was a member of congress before the obamacare law kicked in, i was still paying less for better service. Doctor, the very first time i was on obamacare, i went to my doctor. An Indian American gentleman in South Carolina. I walked in, gave him my card, and he said, were sorry, we cannot see you. This is my doctor, and i like him a lot. They would not see me. Cashd, can i may be pay and you can give me the prescription because we all know what it is and he said we cannot do that. It is real and we live it. There are a bunch of reasons, of pickles,he home there are a bunch of reasons to not like congress. We are not good at our job. We are better at talking been doing. You do not have to make up reasons here at all those things people worry about are mostly false. Host new hampshire, republican line. Say that wanted to either 2008 and 2009, obama did have a summit with all of the republicans. How they could improve obamacare before he passed it. All they did through the whole summit, because i watched the whole thing, was that they were debating like they were trying to get into office. They did not want to do anything. They did not even tell him no, they want to start from scratch. I do not know what scratches because he gave up all the opportunity to say, ok, if you want to start from scratch, where do we start . All the sudden, no issues were coming up, nothing. Really think it is their fault because there was a debate. Are misleading the people saying no, democrats did this, you know, where he actually the republicans to get involved with this so that everybody could have a fair share. They did not do that. Dont say it didnt happen, i watched the whole thing. It is just sad that even now, you dont think it is a right for us to have good Health Insurance. That is a shame because we are losing america. We lost it way back when. When i had my two boys, it cost me absolutely nothing to have them because i had 100 blue cross blue shield. I paid my fair share. Working. With the company. Now, it is almost like they are taking everything away. They are trying to take Social Security, medicare, you name it. T let the guest response respond, thanks. Guest i was not here in 2008 and 2009. I did see this. I saw the debate on the floor. With nore disappointed issues being brought up by congress in 2008 2009 with health care, the democrats were in charge care do not blame the republicans which you profess to be a member of. Democrats were completely in charge of it in 2008 and 2009. To the extent there was no meaningful debate and health care, you can blame the other folks. Toemember republicans asked read what they were voting on, and they were denied the ability. There were blank pages up at the front of the floor that were not available to be read because nothing was on them. If that is light the way you would like the system to run, that is what you got what he wanted. Therly, you wanted to be way you mentioned, which is you wanted to be free. I would love it to be free, but things are not free. It was not free way back when, as you mentioned. Someone paid for it. One of the reasons the Health Care System is broken is we consume something we do not pay for. We have no idea how much it cost to have a child, an mri. It is the only thing we buy that not only do we not know what it costs, we do not care. All we know is somewhatfor it. Else pays for it. I recognize this comes across as , butand to economic driven that is the only product or service we buy that is treated that way. This is a longer answer for another day, but the government effectively sets the price for Health Insurance through the medicare and medicaid involvement and health care service. The prices. Nt set he will tell a doctor, i will pay you 7,000 for a Knee Replacement and have private insurance follow suit on that instead of allowing the free market to dictate what that is. To take medicare, you cannot charge for that service here at you cannot say, i will pay you 1500 if you pay me cash. Ask your doctor how may people he has filling out paperwork. Friend of mine in South Carolina. 20 people in his office, filling out paperwork. That is it. Think about how much more Affordable Health care would be if you were just in the business of providing health care and not of pushing paper. Ralph, democrats line. Caller two questions i would like to propose to the representative there. Number one, i am thinking if i were a congressman, this bill had been discussed for over 20 years. Time, you are telling me that no congressman could have Staff Members working on that so it would not be he saidown your throat . Was jammed down your throat. If it were me as a congressman, i would have stopped what i was doing and read it rather than, how many times have you appealed it . Over 50 times . The other thing is ted cruz said he had to get on the Affordable Health care because his wife lost her job. Which meant, it is not mandatory for you to be on that. If it is so bad, why is it he would opt to get on that instead of taking another insurance follow the, which i am sure he can afford. Thank you. I did not have the option ted cruz have had. Withfe is stayed home three triplets. It was not available to read. I do not know if i can say that clearly enough. We voted on the bill before it was available to read. Can ask mrs. Poulos lee nancy pelosi herself. It is probably the largest social piece of legislation we have dealt with since the Civil Rights Act, medicare and medicaid since the 1960s. Obamacare is only the major piece of legislation we passed in this country on a partisan basis. And at the Civil Rights Act medicare and medicaid. They were able to come together and find the middle ground that some folks in both parties could support her and why is that . So it does not become divisive, so it does not suddenly become a republican versus a democrat issue, exactly what obamacare is. That is a reason i fall the democrat leadership. For not recognizing the Historical Impact of what they did. They took a major piece of social legislation and broke with tradition. Tradition in this country is when we paint with a broad brush, when we do the big stuff, we do it on a bipartisan basis. , the last big thing we probably did was reagans tax policies in the 1980s. I know it was a democrat house that approved it. Are we do the big stuff, we supposed to do it as a country so it does not divide us. That is exactly what obamacare has done because of the way we passed it. Host one more call from centerville, massachusetts. Caller good morning. Originated here in massachusetts, if i am not mistaken. It was called romney care. Here, it works. That they had with it, they seemed to have worked them out. You are from South Carolina. Opted out of the exchange. Harder andat make it more expensive for the residents, even makes less than 11,000, they cannot get medicaid. If your doctor is not taking you as a patient because he doesnt know which way your state is going, he dont know what to charge you, i know what it would cost me to get an mri, how much it costs me to get a cat scan, my premium does not go up every year, it actually went down. I have a family of six. I am not familiar with how it is working in massachusetts. I understand it was one of the models, called romney care. I also understand one reason we did not have the debate in 2012 is republicans have to and happened to elect the person incapable of attacking obamacare because of what happened in massachusetts. Speak to that. We did not opt out of the exchange. We chose not to offer our own state run exchange, but there is a federal in caroline appeared that is the one i use p or im not sure what the objection is there. I think medicaid was a formula for economic failure in the near the federal government stops subsidizing as heavily as they have. Does the delegation in South Carolina get the chance or how does that work . Guest that decision is way above our paygrade. I found out about it in the news like you did. But i think she will do fine. Unfortunately, i think the downside on giving the speech is higher than the upside. A real nice job a couple of years ago for a couple of weeks. Bobby jindal did it off fill an awful job. The Downside Risk of doing that is a lot higher than the upside but i think she will do fine. Host thank you for your time this morning. Coming up, we will speak with democrat raul grijalva, the militia standoff going on, the larger issue of federal Land Management. Later in the program, greg myre in the middle east tensions between iran and saudi arabia. We need to know how many people are reading us. We need to know how they are coming to us here if they are not coming directly to our website and are coming through facebook, google, twitter, snap chat, reddit, or any of the other venues, we should know that. Sunday night, marty baron talks about the changes to the post since he took over in 2013. Inalso discusses his work the movie it, spotlight. I think it is important to keep in mind it is a movie and not a documentary girl you had to compress within two hours seven month plus investigation, including things that happened afterwards. You had to introduce a lot of characters and the important themes that emerged over the course of the investigation. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on q a. Here is a look at american cspan3. V on next tuesday, president obama will deliver his last address to congress. Beginning at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, it will feature four state of the Union Speeches by former president s in their last day in office. Saturday, jimmy carter followed by ronald reagan. Sunday, george h. W. Bushs final state of the union followed by bill clinton. At 10 30, lynng maranda, playwright and star of the broadway musical, hamilton, except the George Washington book prize special achievement award. 10 00, we lookat back to the 1984 president ial campaign and a debate between eight president ial candidates in iowa. Has to have the trust and confidence of the American People. Private promises and public statements to the American People being the same, it has to be from all of our people. For the complete weekend schedule, go to cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Guest of arizona, democrat, he serves as the cochair of the congressional caucus. Good morning to you. How should folks best understand what is going on at oregon as far as the standoff, not only specific things but the larger issue of Land Management. What do you tell people about that . There is Historic Context to all of this. In the west, ongoing efforts for three or four decades for a thement started with rebellion and you had utah pass legislation in their state. It to be turned back to the states and in the process, for more control at the local levels. Has been an essential philosophical and political point for a long time. The struggles and has been, quite frankly, over ownership. Some of us, including me, isieve that the federal land a shared commodity, a shared legacy that all taxpayers pay for in this country, that they are not particular proprietary of a particular state, but they belong to all of us, whether the grand canyon, yellowstone, the refuge in oregon, that they share responsibility and a shared happy of the american taxpayer. As such, the Land Management of those areas is i think very conscious of how you balance tribal, local communities, and they have,e mandate for recreation, visitation, hunting, and extraction, which means mining, logging in some instances, and gas and oil. Explain what is going on in oregon, the conflict between was going on with Land Management issues and what do you think about the approach . Guest i think what is going on in oregon is probably less do with Land Management issues than with making a political statement. The Militia Group that is there, the bundy plan and others, are there to make a statement that the land must be returned immediately. The father and the son must be released. And that locals should control that land. Even the sheriff in the county has asked them to please leave. The local Community Ask them to please leave. The political statement is, to me, that is why we are promoting the resolution and asking members to sign on. Basically, this resolution, saying this is not a way to communicate a position, being occupying ang and building, and threatening, in die,cases, we are here to that searchilled, for martyrdom is the political tactic they are taking here. It is dangerous because, i am a big believer people have a right to civilly disobey laws that it ineel and we have seen this country. The key is that they are peaceful and nonviolent. That is how you make a statement to over for overturn laws. Instance, it is to try to make an issue there by, i think, fundamentally, groups that are really extreme on the whole discussion about western lands and what the lands should be. This refuge was established only over 100 years ago. If we talk about leakage and ownership, the original owners of the land was the tribe. Back and seeing who belongs, take it way back. Leee, the Resolution Says disapprove, we condemn it. And we ask that we cease. Why this resolution at this point, i think it is important for those occupiers in the socalled militia folk in there, to understand the tactics do not have support from the highest elected officials in the country, the united this congress and the administration. Host first call for you comes from montana, independent line. You are on with our guest. Go ahead. You. R an honor to talk to i happen to know people like this. They are all over the place up here in the mountains. They feel they have lost their america. They feel like they are being marginalized. Some of them are super religious and a little over the edge. They are part of this cliven bundy clan that got away with federal agents being scoped out with highpowered rifles at everything. They got away with that. People killed off from there and went down to vegas, used the dont tread on me while they are eating pizza. These people appear see black and brown people moving into the mountains here, and it makes out feel even more left because the people have been born and bred into a white place and they think in different parts of the country, you can see we used to have rebel flags everywhere. After we got rid of them in the south, and got we got rid of that flag. Host thank you for your call. Think it is is 1. I important to respond to, that there is an america in america this insecurity about where the country is going. I do not necessarily feel the occupation in the building is a demonstration of that restoration, but there are a lot of linkages organizationally with many of the groups. It is a sense that this is us versus them, my america and not theirs, and i think that breed is kind of division, this anxiety that we are sensing an american in america right now. Sensing it in the political time and in the community level. Rural america is one of the poorest regions in the country. For the regiont is essential. In 2013, this refuge wrought into the area millions of dollars worth worth of business ship. Business has gone up in the last few years and that revenue in the community has gone up. 71,000 people. Rural America Needs help. Rather than stoke this kind of division and make it about armed occupation, i think the strategy should be how do we get resources to support that part of the country . It is a legitimate point to talk about. Federal lands . Ge i think that is a legitimate point. But to take that convert that idea into us versus them and we are armed and occupying the building, and we are here until someone moves us out, i think that is taking that to an extreme, a big extreme. Host texas, democrats line. Here is matt. Caller thank you for taking my call. I do not live in the rural west, but have been following the occupation of their. I think what it ultimately comes roosevelt did a good thing setting out millions of acres, but how do we ensure that they have access to Natural Resources . You are on the committee. How do we ensure people have grazing rights and access to Natural Resources in a way like the previous caller said, because ultimately that is what they want. They want to feel like they have a part of the land that we as taxpayers all own, but they do not want to feel like the federal government is dictating on them. Im a democrat but i can understand where theyre coming from. The point is the public lands, whether blm or refuge or , they have a multiuse mandate part of how land is managed. And i think there is a balance of how the community dissipates in decisionmaking, what the use of their land is, whether it is taking resources out, or how do you balance that with habitat protection, preservation, and how do you balance that with a visitorstourists and shared that brings money to the communities, there is a balance. Either or. Cannot be it is something that requires much more collaboration and discussion than what is going on. I think the Community Needs to be involved. I do not think it is in the best interests of the American People and the taxpayer extractions that do not pay for anything. You can extract silver, gold, copper, and not pay a penny in royalties to the american for either cleanup or the remediation of the area used for mining, and walk away from it at a taxpayers expense. Is i reallysue believe turning over full control as some of the groups are saying, certainly this , wetional Militia Group should be able to make all the decisions we want. The last ring i want to do is turn over a National Park refuge to the bund is for them to make decisions as to what is the most appropriate use of that land. The most appropriate use of the land is a mixed mandate where all americans profit from it and the local community has some utility as well. That requires balance and collaboration and discussion and dialogue and it does not require having to look down the barrel of a gun to get that done. Host there are 600 80 million acres 680 million acres of land owned by federal government agencies. Does this turn to a states rights issue states rights issue . That is where the supremacy supremacy clause does, frankly, in the constitution, very legally and constitutionally, gives the federal government not only the right but the authority to manage and control these lands. The issue for me is becoming a states rights issue, certainly the action in utah and other let lectures have indicated we want the land given to us and we will toe the vital decision as how it will be used. It raises concerns from across the country from a person who does not live in utah and wants parks, to those thatrness areas, but given is not where the decision will be made they want the authority but one the federal government to continue to pay the bill for it. I think there is a mixed message when you hear that conversation. They want the authority to control the land but not the responsibility to have to pay for it. From west virginia, republican line. Thanks for taking my call. My question for the representative is about the protesters. Say theye protesters will do a lot of things but so far they have been peaceful and have not done nothing. Said they dont get no support from the government and other politicians. Does that mean the black lives Matter Movement always protesting and burned down town after town after town, has support of the government and its people to do that, while these other folks have not done nothing but all of a sudden, they are the bad guys, they are the militias, they are the terrorists, and they have to go now . That is completely unacceptable and needs to be changed. I would question your conclusions. I think if we were looking at a situation and i dont think there was a string of one town after another being burned, by the way. And the violence that occurred around ferguson and other areas was regrettable and everybody said that should not have happened in the protests and expressions of ones rights should not turn into violent acts. I think that goes back decades in this country, from the Civil Rights Movement on down. Having said that, i think there is a double standard we need to be careful of. If the nation is on the rule of law and the people equal application of law, then everybody has to be treated the same. Say this wasre to an armed occupation of a federal by black lives matter, by Climate Change activists that feel nothing is being done on by united with dream, people who feel we have not done anything about immigration, a Muslim Community that feels they upon, if theyed conducted an armed occupation, i people would want the rule of law and the application of law to be suspended. To i am saying is it has got be done equally. What we are seeing here, unfortunately, sometimes encouraged i elected to shows, saying we are sympathetic with have beene and they driven to this point because no action has been taken. Giving comfort and providing justification for an armed notpation, to me, it is working in the best interest of and wemunity as a whole should not treat the whole situation with a different standard. The standards should apply to everyone. Host this definition of why we are calling the group terrorists, would you go that far . Guest no. It has been militia that i have. Ead what i have read and interpreted many times and what i have read is they are out of conviction and principal occupying that. If they are making a statement. The fact they are armed is a consequence. I do not dismiss it that easily. When you saw the protests, black lives matter, thugs and criminals was the expression used on that. Law, and ifhe anything, it is a criminal act and it should be classified. Classified as that. Host democrat, hi. Was agreeing with the representative of to that point. But i believe this is a terrorist act. Had it been anyone from a foreign country that tried to hold one of our federal pieces of land with arms, it would be considered a terrorist attack on the country. Even though these folks are u. S. Citizens, they should be held accountable. Allowed to be told we have to let criminals out of jail because these people are holding us basically hostage to federal lands. Well. Are my lands as a lot of farmers and ranchers and oregon have gotten away with it for years, paying hardly anything to use the lands to graze cattle that they turn around and sell for a profit. As the representative said before, they never go back in and clean up and take care of the land are they just use it. Guest and thank you for that. I was just throwing the word terrorist around too much. Labeled with that in an instant. In this instant, i think the criminality involved is enough and i dont want to make a leap and begin to label and commit the same sin of over labeling and generalizing about individuals. They broke a law and i think theyre there for a little agenda. Charges will be filed against indicated by Law Enforcement authorities, i would say that is the way to go. The resolution i have is to try to get enough members so the message is sent to people this is not Something Congress needs to tolerate, that this is that you are breaking the law, it is unlawful, and it should cease. Here is tom from illinois. On the republican line with our guest. Raul grijalva of arizona. Caller thank you for giving me the opportunity. Starts by the farmers out there, they burn off the grazing land in a direct. Iolation dont cut me off because i have got some other things. Didnt start there, that they wanted to try to get rid of the price and the federal guy running the land did not want to do it and they did it anyway because they that was the thing to do . Moret to talk a little about the aspect in this country of Land Ownership by the people that work land. That is what the country was built upon. Land ownership. It was different from any other country in the world. This is taking that away. You are putting it under federal bureau rats. Liveld say to people who on the land, i am a farmer appeared i have got cows and i have got the epa coming in telling me i cannot let my cows in the pasture, all these rules , taking over and telling us exactly what to do, and i am paying an outrageous amount of money in land tax. Thank you. Guest on the first part of the comment having to do with two individuals that supposedly precipitated the issue, the father and son convicted of times, both, they say in order to try to create an area in which a fire would not area,the winter grains both those destroyed acreage in the federal property, and the second one was the potential that it would use a coverup for shooting in the refuge. Adjudicatednvicted, by a court, and now were called back by an unsolicited gentleman to finish up their fiveyear term. Precipitated it. Are telling these militia occupiers that are armed, saying stay out of our business, we dont need you to come help remediate this for us. They do not want them there. And were found guilty voluntarily turned themselves in again to the authorities to finish out their sentence. There, there was no real support on the part of people most affected for their presence. One of theart is things that happened in Rural America with farming and cattle over agriculture in this country. Small, independent farmer finds it harder and harder both to survive and compete. Theuld say the same about cattle business as well. You find it harder and harder to compete as there is this vast conglomerate, both in the livestock side and the agricultural side. That has been one of the reasons why we see the disappearance of family farms. Disappearance, im from southern arizona, the disappearance of family cattle ranches throughout the southwest. Development and houses go up. It is a tradition in the west that should not be lost and it is sad to watch it disappear. Joining usgrijalva and talking about the issues in oregon. Of the naturalr resources committee. Earlier this week, greg walden took to the floor to talk about this issue. I want to show you his take and get your perspective. [video clip] they are good people. By a higherghters proportion are fighting our wars. Nd die i have been to their funerals. Inviting friends across eastern oregon, i will always fight for you. But we have to understand theres a time and the way. Hopefully the country, through this, understands we have a real problem in america. How we manage our land and how we are losing them. It is not likely have not tried here. Year after year, we pass Bipartisan Legislation to provide more active management of our forests so we do not lose them all to fire. We are firefighters lives, homes. Teddy roosevelt would roll over in his grave. Guest mr. Walden is a good member of congress. I served with him on the research committee. He has collaborated and likes to Work Together on all sides. His comments were heartfelt and sincere. I want to say too that one of the issues going on in the management of public lands is the majority in congress and the house of representatives, republicans, have consistently shrunk the budget. That you are left with less money because it is diverted to fire intervention and firefighting. You are with less personnel to be able to carry out the Collaborative Strategies that need to happen with the community in order to work things out. Less security and protection from the public. Capital investment keeping our lands healthy. Mean you havees stretched the system to the point. He indicated fires, he indicated the fact that not enough resources and not enough capital in these parts. Yes, we are reaching a centennial for our national year. Next that centennial marks the celebration of one of the most of theed legacies country, our public lands. Has incident in oregon nothing to do with that celebration. What it does have to do with, as i said at the beginning of the ,how, a political agenda extreme in that sense. What mr. Walden said is the healthy differences we might have over management that can be dealt with as opposed to my way or no way, which is what we are confronting now in oregon. Host from iowa, milo, independent line. Go ahead. Caller my opinion on this is that the situation over the land is just a makeover of what is really happening. The land is just an issue to bring up the idea of the progressive agenda. A progressive and considered myself a progressive from the 60s until 2010. Was is when i saw there something wrong. They had to get the health care through because the American People are stupid. There may be some, but there are a lot that were working hard. They could not Pay Attention to and get caught up with what is really going on in this country. Up now. Ey are waking they are middleclass folks that have worked hard and pay for come actually paid for other Peoples Health care, such as obamacare. This is going on and it has been going on for seven years. They have been called racist and put down in every possible way you can imagine. Host sorry to interrupt, what would you like our guest to address . Caller pardon me . Host what question do you have for our guest . Areer my question is why these people being demonized . We know the protesters because they have weapons . Host thanks. Guest the fact is that you have created a situation, it is a provocation. People are armed and the statements made by some of their leadership and members there are certainly, we are here to kill or be killed and we will die for this cause. There comes a point, and i said our right to have Free Expression in this country, which all of us believe in, that has toisobedience is and be an american tradition of nonviolence and peaceful. People have been arrested for protesting laws they do not agree with in this country forever, peacefully and nonviolently, to make a point. To make people understand. This is not that situation. No effort to demonize, just to point out the facts. The fact is, there arent, they have broken the law and they continue the provocation there. From new york, republican line. Youre on with our guest, raul grijalva. Before iongressman, state my comments, i want to let you know that reasonable people on both sides of the ledger would not agree with the tech ask with the tactics being done now. Having said that, did you offer any resolutions that condemned protesting in ferguson or r ioting in baltimore and burning of buildings and even muslim extremists doing shootings . I want to know if you have offered anything on that and why you are picking out this particular one . Guest i am not picking out this particular one. Of us expressed, not in the form of a resolution, all of us expressed our disappointment and disapproval with the violence that occurred. A member,ink theres even members that represent that area, that said that this is good this is going on. We disapprove of the violence and consistently disapproved of the violence as a tactic for anything to try to change what is fundamentally wrong with our society, period. This is not demonizing are picking on this particular group. The provocation is there. The armed people have occupied a federal facility and a refuge. The law. Theyve broken what is going on in terms of negotiation, restraint, patience on the part of Law Enforcement authorities, it is wise and necessary. And it should continue. There has been breaking of the law. Rule of law needs to be applied equally. The resolution that we authored and put on for other members to sign on simply states that Congress Disapproves of the tactic, reasonable people as a proof of the tactic, that it should cease and is unlawful. Host has rob bishop signed off . Guest know he is not. We are not going to have a hearing. We are going to talk about the takeover of public lands, that will be the theme. No, he has not. Host barry in michigan, democrats line. Hi. Caller good morning. I dont have a problem with what they are doing. Far as the arms, somebody needs to stand up and not take no for an answer. They are doing it in the wrong place. There is hundreds of thousands of land in wyoming being given basically to individuals. Theres where my problem is. There are ranchers with 100 cows, they are given 20,000 that to control by the blm nobody can go into. This is given to an individual, not a nation of people. We should have more national refuges. These people are right in their argument but wrong the place they are doing it. It should be done in wyoming and montana where the blm is turning over 20, 30, 50 60,000 acres of land to individuals. There is where the problem is. They would probably have more people following them and joining them on that line if they were doing it when the government is giving land to an individual and not a nation. T understand that and i have asked this before. I have never gotten any kind of an answer other than,weve got to keep the public away from the cows. That is 20,000 acres and denied as an american citizen to use. That is basically owned by me. Host we will let our guest respond. Great point. Seven out of 10 westerners in the western states support the public lands and support that public lands continue to be under federal control, which means National Taxpayers control the lands and have a say in what happens. The other important thing is it is ironic that efforts to look we permit policy, how and how much we charge, need to still work in congress. We need to look at that. The gentleman is right. In wyoming, if you are grazing on state land, you are paying than on federal land. My point being, we are not even allowed to address the issue of revenue generated from grazing fees. Becameu have bundy, who a cause celebre, who owed 1 million in unpaid grazing fees. Looking at the grazing fees and the policy that promotes both some responsibility as to what happens with that land being used for grazing i think is the way to go. , this is aason subject politically that other people do not want to talk about. Host nick from louisiana on our republican line. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. Thest want to know why media no longer covers both sides of the story. It is always just beside that you all want to push. Nobody is talking about that the federal government came in, illegally went around the state. The state law is you have to go through or done go through oregon and get the states permission. The government never got permission, it came in and practically stole the land out from under this man. He did not want to sell, they pressured him into selling. When they would not sell, they charged him with all kinds of crap and sold his land. Farms in this country have been stolen and shut down since obama has been in there. Its like coal country in virginia, they are shutting that down, too. Anything they do not like, they come in and shut down. Guest part of the shutdowns in both of those industries and the lessening of profit in those industries has to do with market share more than anything else. Coal is not the commodity that it was 10 years ago. Less andergy market, less is being used. Economics has driven that slowdown more than anything else. In terms of the ranchers, the h they were not put in jail for refusing to sell their land to the federal government. They were put in jail for arson. A very specific charge and a charge that was proved. Lets not mix apples and oranges. It is not true. Those percentages are not valid and rooted in fact. Host bob from kentucky, independent line. Caller good morning. One thing i have not heard this partng, i have a two statement and i will make it brief and hope i get some kind of response. One thing i have not heard this morning, when the federal government declared like Yosemite Park and the statue of liberty and other areas as they have beeny, turned over to the United Nations as belonging to the people of the world. I see problems when they take and property like in oregon declare it a National Treasure unitedn it over to the nations, which is a true fact. Guest i have never heard of that. It does not exist. Our National Parks are not turned over to the united global,so it becomes they earned by the American People and taxpayers pay for them. That is the end of that point. The source of information for true. Ntleman is not i dont know how as you can respond to that. Host because the event in oregon is happening on federal land, what have you made of the reaction from the white house and should there be more of a reaction . Guest i think the land managers, interior, i think their reaction has been restrained. Restraint and patience. Some people would like it to be more aggressive but this is no time for us to create a situation in which we are reacting to a provocation in a way, as they search for martyrdom on their issue, to provide them that opportunity. Time is on the side of the entity. S a federal it has been there for 100 years and the original owners, the native americans, probably have a stronger claim to the land than any of the occupiers that are sitting there saying we want this turned back over to the people. Arizona,l grijalva of Natural Resources Committee Ranking member joining us. Thank you for your time. Guest i appreciate it. Host we hear from the middle east institutes greg myre on and saudietween iran arabia and the divide between sunni and shiite muslims. That as washington journal continues. We need to know how many people are reading us. We need to know how they are , if they us example are coming to us through facebook, google or snap chat or reddit or other venues, we should know that. On q a,y night Washington Post executive editor talks about the changes at the post since he took over in 2013. He discusses the depiction of his work as editor in chief of the boston globe in the movie spotlight. Is faithfulhe movie to the outline of how they investigated unfolded. It is a movie, not a documentary. You had to compress with an 2 hours a seven month plus investigation and editors a lot of characters and introduce the important themes that emerged over the course of that investigation. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on q a. Cspan takes you on the road to the white house and into the classroom. This year, our student can documentary contest asks students to tell us what issues they want to hear from president ial candidates. Wrote to thes white house coverage and get details about our student cam contest at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host our last guest of the morning is greg myre, a scholar at the middle east institute and Digital International editor for npr. Org. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host we are here to talk about the conflict between saudi arabia and iran. As far as folks following along, what is the general conflict and what are deeper issues involved . Guest iran and saudi arabia see each other as leaders of the. Unni and shiite world around with shiites and saudi arabia with the sunnis. This friction goes back decades. A good starting point is 1979 with the iranian revolution. The shiites, who are smaller s worldwide, had a feeling of being oppressed and began to rise up. Iran wanted to explore this revolutionary ideology and notions of the rule of clerics. As the shiite blm as the shiites led by iran began to ask her themselves, you saw pushback from the sunnis, often led by saudi arabia. 1987 there was the pilgrims. A lot of the shiite pilgrims from iran were killed in a stampede. This led to a break in relations between iran and saudi arabia for three years. The last five years with the arab uprisings has heated up. We just had another incident recently which has exacerbated tensions. Host that incident was the death of a cleric, give us context of what happened. Uest on saturday, saudi arabia beheaded 47 people convicted of crimes they. Almost all of them were sunnis linked to al qaeda and convicted of terrorism offenses. There was one other individual, nimr alnimr,c, he had been a critic of the saudi government and called for more shiite rights, addressing the discrimination that many shiites feel. He was beheaded. Hes a saudi citizen but because hes a shiite, iran felt this was an attack on shiites. This sparked protests in iran and protesters, the hardliners in particular, went to the Saudi Embassy and one of the consulates and ransacked the place, set it on fire. Saudi arabia cut off relations in response. The friction and confrontation they have had for years have escalated dramatically. Host our guest to talk with us about tensions between iran and saudi arabia. 2027488000 for democrats. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488002 for independents. Some of these crimes for those killed go back at least a decade. Saudi point to the government that they got tired of it . Why so many years after the fact . We see this from where we sit in washington or the u. S. , we look at these as big conflicts between the countries. It was very much a domestic issue in both countries. In saudi arabia, they have had terror attacks there and felt the need to crack down. They convicted a number of people linked to al qaeda over the years. Justice system, although quite heavy on the Death Penalty cases can drag on and people can be convicted and remain in prison for many years. Some of these cases date back a decade. Host the larger issues of being , whati or shiite separates the two . Guest you got to go back to the first days of islam in the seventh century. After the prophet mohammed died, there were two schools of thought. Thought that the Muslim Community should choose the leader of islam. This became the sunni community. Others felt it should be, the leader of islam should be decided through the prophet mohammed and his family. More specifically his son in law, ali. Its began the conflict and has been they are going on 14 centuries. The differences have always been there. They have also, sunnis and shiites have also lived in relative harmony in many places. It would be wrong to think there are 14 centuries of unbroken conflict. It has waxed and waned. In the past few decades, weve seen it increasing. Host isnt as simple to label one is moderate and one is more hardline as far as beliefs . Guest not really. The beliefs are similar. They all take the pilgrimage to mecca, prayer five times a day, marking ramadan. The belief system is similar. An imperfect analogy is catholics and protestantss in the christian faith. You have seen places and periods where they get along and there are no issues and other times we have had intense wars. Not about a way to look at it is along that line. Host greg myre talking about these issues. Calls are lining up. Our first call comes from michael in Washington State on our independent line. You are on with greg myre of the middle east institute and npr. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me. Believe the new king of saudi arabia and his princes are totally inexperienced politicians. We see the war against yemen in 2015, it has killed 3000 civilians. They keep blaming iran for arming yemeni houthis. The policy of saudi arabia has changed to fighting the shiites and isolating iran. They did everything to stop the iran nuclear deal. And now killing shia people and nimr. This would be a good example of their hostile policies. Guest saudi arabia has king salman, he has been in power for a year. He has taken a more confrontational policy with iran. He named his son mohammed, about 30 years old, as defense minister. Saudi arabia has started a Bombing Campaign in yemen where they are supporting the government that was ousted there. They have been active supporting rebels in syria. For the saudis they were outspoken in opposition to the nuclear deal with iran. Friction had been there for a long time but king salman has taken a more aggressive posture towards iran. Host sam in virginia, democrats line. Caller good morning to you and your guest. I had a question about the saudi s and the number of citizens they had involved in 9 11. 15 of there was like 19 hijackers were saudis. They did not receive any punishment. We just bombed iraq and afghanistan. Of there the recipient , weest amount of gun sales provide them bombs there for the yemeni and bahrainis and the rest of the country. To role of the United States basically stay away from this thing and ignore the fact that a highseeing where amount of money from the petrol dollar. Guest saudi citizens, 15 of the 19 9 11 hijackers were from saudi arabia. Saudi arabias argument would be we have also been victims of al qaeda. We have cracked down and these executions saturday, virtually all of the 47 executed were convicted of acting on behalf of al qaeda. Saudi arabia says we are fighting al qaeda, too. Some al qaeda members have come from our country, Osama Bin Laden most prominently among them. It is not as if we are somehow supporting al qaeda. We are trying to combat it. This is something they have been trying to deal with but there is also criticism that in syria they are supporting extreme Islamist Groups shared this is an ongoing issue with saudi arabia as to the role they are playing. We have a longstanding relationship with saudi arabia and a relationship with iran with the deal, where does the United States stand . Guest that has been a couple getting factor. In the old middle that has factor, inlicating the old middle east the u. S. And saudi arabia or allies and iran was a rival on every single issue. In the last five years, the middle east has been going through of people and change and it is realigning things dramatically. For example, president obama has reached out to iran, trying to create a new relationship with the nuclear deal and get past decades of hostility. The saudis do not like this, they think the u. S. Should not be doing that deal and they think the u. S. Is being to accommodated towards iran and aggressive iranian action. This is part of the friction. Theres a lot of tension between ae u. S. And saudi arabia in relationship that had been solid for decades. Host carries michael in pennsylvania, hi. Caller good morning. A quick comment and the question. Decadesspent several interacting with middle eastern countries. The ossification you talk about is still alive and well in many ways within the government. What i see happening is [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, without any better outcome of the Iranian Regime is very actively seeking to extend their influence. My question is, my reading of history would leave me lead me to believe that the sunnis and the shiite have been killing each other on a regular basis for more over a millennium. In all honesty, you did make a point that the two communities, there were times in history where they got along. I would add to that, that was mostly when they were under somebody elses control. Resolution to a this short of a regional war . Time, my fearin is, there is no other option on the table. I will shut up and listen to your answer. Thank you. Host michael, thank you. Guest we already have a regional war. We have wars in iraq, syria, yemen, unrest in turbulence and other countries. It is a major, historical change. It is going to take a long time to play out, and there is no one regional power. Sb caller mentioned, iran has been active and aggressive on several fronts. If you look at it from the iranian position, things have not gone terribly well. They are supporting the shiite government in iraq, but that country is in the midst of a war with the Islamic State. They support assad, the president of syria. Lebanon has been helping them, but lebanon is in turmoil as well. The iranian economy is not doing well. They have been under international sanctions, which they may get some relief from the nuclear deal. While iran has been active in all of these places, the shiite and sunni countries are seeing this as a major problem. Iran is not rolling over in scoring great victories. We are looking at a very prolonged conflict that will have to play out over a number of years, because there is no dominant and regional player. That is why there is often a call for the u. S. To do more here emma slater. Less there. The iran and saudi dispute, i do nothing countries are in the position to have a confrontation, but i think what it will lead to is a complication of every regional problem that we already see. In particular, the war in syria because iran and saudi arabia are on opposite sides. If they continue to support their side, i think we will see more of that. At the end of this month, there are additional talks are looking for a truce in syria. If iran and saudi are still having his level of fiction, but seems likely, it will seem less likely for both. Host lydia. Caller, we expect very hard questions from npr and cspan, and i thank you for the services that you both provide. Nevertheless, we are not asking the hard questions. I am going to put it out to you as a scholar. I am sure you are familiar with the word and it is on with lebub, an arabic word which means lord of the flies. Name, but itrate is actually lord of the flies. It used to be a good name in egypt that meant life and fertility. Do not give the name to them. Bob beez legal lebub. I hope Charlie Hebdo puts on the cover the head of a pink and isis is beezlebub. The hard on them, ask the hard questions. We as americans have been warriors for saudi arabia, the gulf wars, the geopolitical player outlined in wall street journal, august 20 6, 2013. They have been behind the scenes as a player, and with the saudis and israelis, when they lost their direct control over communication and got unfiltered , they were in a hissy fit. Host thanks, lydia guest respond. Up the point with the u. S. Being less involved with the war in the region. What role should the u. S. Be playing at this time . Since there is no dominant regional player, and we already have so much conflict, if the u. S. Was to withdraw and retreat entirely, some critics say that has been the way it has been moving, that leaves the region open to continued chaos. Also seen how difficult it is for the u. S. To impose its will in iraq and other places. I think it is going to be a challenge for the u. S. To still be involved, but not to be down and d bogged and conflicts that hopefully these countries can solve. With u. S. Guidance and leadership, but not with the matter of the u. S. Imposing itself. Danny. Ilbert town, caller i have a couple of questions. Have you ever seen the outside military force were civil war in a country . The next one, what do you think to manyaq by referring offering to mediate this problem between iran and saudi . Guest in terms of an outside country, i would agree with you. I think that is very rare and i think that is why whether it is the u. S. Getting involved, worry or it is the saudis and iranians getting involved. The likelihood that they will be able to resolve it on their own is very low. Ado think it will require global, broadbased solution. It will not just be the syrians, they are going to need outside help and i do not think an outside player can dominate themselves. The second part of the question, i do not think iraqs is the is goingo that to be the country to do that. Typically, iran has been the that has good relations with the saudis and iranians and things going on behind the scenes. The nuclear discussions with the United States and iran and other oman powers went through that might be a better candidate. Illinois on the republican line. Caller there are a lot of things between iran and saudi arabia. [indiscernible] caller i believe we should join the army. I may think saudi arabia will be able to stabilize the region and support terrorists in the region. That is it. Guest what i would like to pick up, the u. S. Response to the saudiiran feud. The u. S. Being a close ally with saudi arabia for many years, the response we have seen from the white house in the past few days has been neutral. They have been calling for both the saudis and iranians to show restraint. It is not a full support for the saudi position as you might expect as we might have seen in previous years. I think this is an indication of where the u. S. Is in terms of trying to balance and i have this escalate. It has also been the saudi complaint that you are not supporting a strongly enough. You are showing way too much sympathy towards iran and some of its provocative actions. Host this is propagated by syria and yemen . Or other factors . Guest most certainly. The Nuclear Agreement as part of that. Making sure the flow of oil in the region is not disrupted. I think we are looking at multiple factors. Host i was looking at concerns for oil not only to the u. S. But other parts of the world . Guest it is not been disrupted. The oil is below 100 a barrel. Thoughtse some early that the saudiiran friction would shoot it up. In fact, the prices have edged down the past couple of days. It has been a pretty relaxed view of the impact it might have on the oil markets. Host on the independent line from springfield, massachusetts. Caller how are you doing . Excellent conversation today. My question is a historical one. Wars in europe for hundreds of years overseas position which we saw play out in ireland which is a great tragedy for decades. How much does this reasonable that conflict . Maybe we should stand clear of that because it is a war of superstition and not a war of resources and u. S. Interests. Guest these are never perfect. I do not think it is a bad analogy to look at. I think you do have to look very hard at the semishiite split. It is only one of the factors. I think what we are seeing now is the political rise. Saudi arabia and iran only became modern countries in the 20th century. What we are seeing now, this political competition between two countries which also has religious differences. We are looking at a multiplicity of factors. I would not look at just the 70 sunnishiite split. You saw the city countries quickly lined up with saudi arabia and nearby also breaking isolations and recalling their ambassador. He saw how quickly how polarizing this became. This is one of the great dangers of this friction. Not that there will be a war, but the countries will be choosing sides. Host taking a look regionally, who are the sides and what are they taking . Gotst saudi arabia bahrain and a couple of others to close down their embassies in iran. The places that get most interesting is the gulf. Between iranpace and saudi arabia. The united arab emirates, which is good relations with both sides. They supported the saudis to an extent that downgraded relations with iran. Because iteresting has a large sunni and shiite population and countries in the gulf, like bahrain. To see what is going on in these places with both populations is interesting. The our guest is greg myre npr institute. Guest is a nonpartisan institute which provides policy information and raise awareness and raises conferences. It has been around for decades. Host he also serves as International Editor for npr. Org. Talking about what you have seen in iran and saudi arabia. John from virginia on the democrats line. Caller thanks for taking my call. Listened to some of the callers and saying that iraq should be mediated between saudi arabia and iran. I think iraq has their own problems. Betweenwhat is going on the sunni and shiite. Power,st time the shiite they go after the sunnis. The reason that i am calling, what happened was saudi arabia, crime. Rk committed a he has to do with the saudi government. Iran is not the shiite president. But they are doing right now, every time one person gets killed, they are going to burn every embassy. This is not how you behave. You see what is going on in yemen, bahrain, iraq. They are trying to create a problem. I believe that this nuclear deal that barack obama made with iran will give them leverage, that they think that america is on our side. If we can do our religious agenda, america cannot do anything about it. They have to do with us with the nuclear issue. I believe that this issue is citizens. Udi and the they have no business running other countries and their embassies. This is insane. ,f Something Like this happened tomorrow it is another clerk killed by pakistan, they will embassy. Pakistani i believe the president of the United States gives them leverage to iran to do what they want to do. Host thanks. Guest pick up on the nuclear deal, which i think is interesting. So far, in the past couple of months, the results have been fairly positive in the sense that iran has shipped out 25,000. Ounds of uranium to russia it was supposed to dismantle centrifuges, dealing with heavy water reactors. The observers who are monitoring this say that iran may need its initial round of obligations as soon as this month. On the one hand, you do see some progress in the nuclear deal seems to be going as it was supposed to. The additional notion, was that will this have a spillover effect and reduce tensions in the region. The answer to that is clearly no. Iran has fired Ballistic Missile tests, which is raised concerns here and elsewhere. We have seen other provocative actions. We have seen the embassy attacks at the Saudi Embassy. I think we are looking at a couple of interesting things maye this nuclear deal proceed as it is supposed to, but you are still going to have you regional tensions. Is getting any attention at the United Nations, where the arab league . Guest the arab league is having a meeting this weekend. I think this has been called together by the saudis and try to build support for their cause. What will be interesting to see, is how much support three saudis can build and other arab countries and how confrontational they want to be. Do iran and saudi want to ask you iran and saudi want to escalate this . Do, maybe we will start to see this play out in the coming days. Host from virginia, william on the republican line, go ahead. Caller i cannot understand why the United States is allowing them to come here and set off bombs. Should knowrack that weve been attacked twice in history. Weve been attacked by the british, we got away from them and they come over here and try to get us to give it back to them. We fought them and would not do it. We won that war. You take the civil war, which is the worst war of all, fighting brothers and cousins, fathers and sons. Looks like to me, the old saying goes, im 57 years old, there is a rainbow at the end of everything, but it does not look like a rainbow for us. If we would fight them on their homeland, instead of hours, the United States would never be touched. Guest United States has been rather save in terms of the homeland since 9 11. 40 somelooking at americans killed in terror attacks by islamic extremists since 9 11 on american soil. Tax,of those were two of the shooting at fort hood and the San Bernardino shootings. The other was the Boston Marathon bombing. There have been relatively few attacks. Not to say it is not a threat, a lot of that has to do with the artwork we have seen in terms of security. The middle east is an absolute seen and we have escalation of violence and terrorism throughout the world. It has not come to United States in a big way. Im not predicting future, but it is important to remember that we have been able to prevent that from coming to the u. S. Host from kentucky on the independent line. Caller good morning, i enjoy your guest. I want to clarify a couple of things really quickly. One, everybody keeps talking about the 15th out of the 19 hijackers being from saudi arabia. If you do the research, you will find out they were shiite muslims. For the most part have been radicalized. Sunnis are moderate, that is a fact. I really enjoyed the be discussion the discussion. Where should america stands . I do not believe we need combat troops. I think america should stand with the moderate muslim folks, and not the people that run around and yelling death to america all of the time. Having lived and worked in the muslim world for many years, i can tell you there are many moderates. We have seen this rise of extremism over the past couple of decades. I do have to take issue with one thing you said. Certainly, there are shiite extremist, but also sunni extremists. It is important to remember that al qaeda was a sunni group. I believe the saudi hijackers were sunni muslims, not shiites. Al qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and his organization was a sunni organization against the shiites. The Islamic State is also a sunni Muslim Organization against shiites. I think the notion was established after the iranian. Evolution we have seen that in iran and hezbollah and other groups. Now where weoint have a lot of sunni and shiite extremists. Oklahoma on the republican line, catherine is up next. Caller good morning, thank you. I was wondering about the us fighting in iran. She is the one running the country, not obama. If anybody wants to look that up at her family was into communism. I was is wondering if that is why we are fighting in iran . Guest no, i do not think that is true and president obama has been reaching out to iran with the nuclear deal. The u. S. Has made some historic breakthroughs in terms of contact, we will see how that plays out. There has been a level of hostility ever since the 1979 revolution and president obama has sought to create a new relationship. Host have we heard anything in the last 24 hours and 48 hours about what happened saturday . As far as what is going on. Guest we had a Development Today in yemen where iran says di arabia bond its embassy embassy. S there are some reports that the embassy was hit, there are other reports that the airstrikes were nearby, some reports that some of the guards at the embassy were injured. There are also eyewitness accounts that there has been no damage to the iranian embassy. We are already seeing potential escalation. The attack at the Saudi Arabian embassy were criminals. Is this an Important Development . Guest it is for two reasons. It shows the split because the supreme religious leader and iran has talked about vengeance for saudi arabia, taking a hardline position. Irans president is considered a pragmatic, moderate, and he has come out and say it is wrong for these embassies to be attacked. He has called for an investigation. He that the criminals must be prosecuted. That shows the split. You cannot look at iran or any of these countries with a monolithic place with one point of view. There is this constant struggle going on inside iran between moderates and hardliners. We was the this plan next month with elections. A caller on the independent line. Caller first of all, i want to thank you for your analysis because a lot of people do not know what is going on. On the matter of saudi arabia and iran, im happy that this happened because the conflict between two countries, we show the world how they are really thinking. We see saudi arabia that invaded the iranian embassy, and why . Because protesters went to the embassy. That is the response you get from them. Reese violence all the way. Said once ands, in an article, therefore policy is a policy of checks,. They are spreading their money and buying other peoples loyalty. You can see who is really right. They killed somebody, and that somebody is not just one person. They killed 47 people in one day, beheaded most of them and shot some of them, and they come out and say they were terrorists. Was just a cleric and religious man. They say he was a terrorist and to go and kill them at his followers, and a lot of people, just because they were opposing the saudi king. We say democracy is the fundamental value of our country, but when it comes to countries that we are allied we would say that good countries are the countries who are democracies. Likee end, it is nothing it. Our biggest ally in the middle east is saudi arabia and they are not a democracy. Host we will let our guest respond. Nimir this incident with alnimr the killing of nimir mir. Im saudi arabia says he was a outspoken critic of the saudi monarchy and called for greater shiite rights and the road and say hely, the saudis encouraged and led an uprising in 2011 in the eastern part of saudi arabia where the shiites are concentrated, therefore he was involved in the balance and that is why he was convicted on terrorism charges and put to death. His supporters in iran would say no, he was just speaking up for the oppressed shiite minority and that this was simply political. That is the difference in terms of opinion, but that shows where the friction came from. Host leon from brunswick, georgia on the democrat line. Caller i think we need to stand with saudi arabia and let iran take over. Lives from enough iran, and we have not had that in saudi arabia. Thank you. Guest i think it is a lot more complicated. One of the earlier callers brought up the 9 11 attackers that came primarily from saudi arabia, even of they not from the saudi government. It is extremism in Saudi Arabian. Has beend raising there is a similar situation going on in yemen, but there are the reporters, we are not hearing about the. The u. S. Has basically gone along with the saudis on this. It has created a mess. Jake on the republican line, we are running short on this subject than with your question. Caller i was just wondering if you had any kind of policy recommendations in regards to this conflict for the upcoming president . Guest im a journalist, not a policy maker or suggest there. I would only say that i think it is a very valid question for this campaign. The u. S. President ial campaigns are usually focused on domestic issues. I am glad that it is a lot more about Foreign Policy at this stage. I do want to your more about the candidates have to say, because this is a mess. There is no clear and easy access. Given our experience in afghanistan and iraq, we have seen how much effort it takes to try to achieve our goals. But we have also seen a withdrawal, if the u. S. Is not involved and how quickly things can go bad. To campo find a way down the violence we have seen and trying to get to some sort of political solution in these countries without getting the d down in warsgge that are civil wars. Host for the folks who are watching at home, what you look for in the next couple of days . Guest i am looking very closely at what iran and saudi arabia are saying. Im not expecting a major confrontation, but i want to see if they are trying to escalate or the escalate. Ost greg myre that is it for our program, we will see you tomorrow. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, washington, d. C. January 7, 2016. I hereby appoint the honorable Darren Lahood to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, paul d. Ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 6, 2015, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. January 5, 2016, the chair will now recognize members