This morning, were asking our viewers to weigh in. How important is it to you as you consider your choices this Election Year and you consider increased trade to be an threat to the a u. S. Economy. Give us a call. Phone lines are open. Democrats can call 2027488000, republicans, 2027488001, independents, 2027488002. Up with us onatch social media and twitter cspanwj or facebook at facebook. Com cspan. A very good Tuesday Morning to you. Were talking about the issue of trade on the campaign trail. Thoughts andr your comments. Heres the latest gallop polling numbers on how americans feel about the issue on Foreign Trade. The majority of americans see Foreign Trade as an opportunity for economic growth. 34 see trade as a threat to the economy. The numbers have been in that way in that balance since about opinions americans about Foreign Trade, more it as ns started seeing an opportunity than a threat. Gallup a chart in the polling numbers in 2012. You can see the numbers over the years re than 20 according to gallup. Theyve been tracking this topic. Topic on become a key the campaign trail in 2016. Senator Bernie Sanders of vermo vermont, it will be a key topic in the all important state of michigan in todays primaries. He wrote a column in the Detroit Free Press over the weekend talking about the issue of trade. Heres how he began that column. Of state retary Hillary Clinton and i have differences of opinion on many no area is our difference stronger than trade policy and that strong isagreement came out sunday night in that debate in flint, michigan. Heres a bit of the exchange two. En the ry nie sanders secreta clinton supported every one of these disastrous trade written by Corporate America. [applause] nafta, supported by the secretary, cost us 800,000 jobs nationwide, tens of thousands of jobs in the midwest. Relationsnormal trade with china cost us jobs. Was on a pict line in the early 1990s against nafta because you didnt need a ph. D. To understand that American Workers should not be peopleto compete against in mexico making 25 cents an hour. [applause] and the reason that i was one of the first, not one of the last, opposition to the t. P. P. Is that American Workers compete t be forced to against people in vietnam today making a minimum wage of 65 cents an hour. Look, what we have to do is tell Corporate America that they cannot continue to shut down. Eve lost 60,000 factories since 2001. Imre going to have to, if president , start investing in this country, not in china, not in mexico. Againstclinton i voted the only National Trade agreement against me when i was called enate, it was nafta. I came out against t. P. P. It was reasonable know what was in it and opposed it. Debate a key trade issue. Donald trump making it a key theme of his campaign. Heres a story in the wall street journal. Frontrunner donald trump offends the status quo on Foreign Policy of trade. One of the policy issues covered in that story. The wall street journal describes Donald Trumps trade way, he has is promised to lead a confrontation with china and mexico, countries accuses of fleecing the u. S. By lowering manufacturing jobs. Donald trump brought this issue up on saturday in a rally. Comments. T of his donald trump we have these egg heads. They call them the elite. I say why are they elite . Why are they more elite than me . Cant tie their shoes. And they say i am the biggest free trader. It has to be law trade. It has to be even trade. We cant have trade where we have imbalances like 58 million with mexico. We cant lose 500 billion a year with china. We cant do this. Do, we tell at we carrier and i want to do it going to say yre its not president ial. Aybe ill do it anyway, let them say im not president. Phil ll get carl or ruffman or andy beal , and it very good. Heres what happens, we call id like to we say, congratulate you on your move to mexico. Congratulations. L. Think its wonderfu you hurt 1400 people and many more. And by the way, United Technologies which owns carrier owns a lot of other divisions too. Going to cted, not happen. Heres what id tell carrier. d say congratulations, i hope you build a beautiful place and employ a lot of people from mexico but youre hurting our country. So heres the story, folks. Every air conditioning unit that put across the border, which will be a real border now. Across unless they have our permission, right. Every single air conditioning unit that you make that comes opposethe border, we can a 35 tax on that year. Host and on this issue, like so many others, the republican establishment has pushed back against donald trump last thursday, the prior nominee for the Party Mitt Romney spoke out against donald trump on a number of issues and brought up the issue of trade. Says, if emarks, he Donald Trumps plans were ever implemented, the country would recession. Rolonged his proposed 35 airline instigate a uld trade war for consumers. Businesses and jobs to flee america. Thats from the transcript of mitt romneys Statement Last thursday. We want to hear our viewers thoughts this morning. How important is this trade trade issue to you as you look at your 2016 choices . Ell begin with jax this morning calling in for rhode island, line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Me personally, as i spoke to your screener, its not important. Am retired, reasonably comfortable. For young people, its very important, because there is a transfer going on for the elites of the Republican Party nd the Democratic Party and internationalists. About a d care less worker, et cetera, et cetera, jobs are going overseas because the cost of labor is cheaper, okay. So its going to happen and, you know, thats where capital flows. You, ly, i have to ask young man, they talk about winner take all states. Im going off subject here. Is illinois a winner take all state . If it is, why hasnt that really been publicized . Thank you very much. Host stick around. Were actually going to be covering todays primaries. Were going to have a couple of this ers calling in on topic, both in this segment of the washington journal and our last segment. Get that sure to answer for you. The key winner take all so much that get attention are coming up next week. Those are the first states that primaries, take all and thats florida and ohio thats being so closely watched. To get tho , i want those topics. The trade debate. Eric is online for the democrats. Ood morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Hello. Host yes. Go ahead. Caller a message to all your viewers if taxpayers dont pay for their own information, they only get information that the media wants them to have. To your question of trade, trade is a very important issue. Years lly have after 30 somebody talking different than the status quo. Onald trump is talking about tariffs. Bernie sanders is talking about ariffs, which is what both of hose guys are causing is enthusiasm for, you know, voters. Voters both exciting the and the main reason, in my opinion, theyre talking about corporate what the media will scare you into thinking, trade war. Middle ave the biggest class in the history of the world, so the idea that a trade we would lose a war is crazy. Democrats like clinton are for free trade. Clinton normalized trade relations with china in 2000 as he was leaving, he basically thumbed his nose at the Democratic Party and opened the billion poor o a chinese work ers and said hey, democrats and unions and things of that nature, i dont care about you. Im for free trade. Im a blue dog democrat, a corporate democrat, a moderate democrat. Of the ary clinton is same club. Bernie sanders or donald trump or nobody. Thank you. Host before you go, your concern about the corporate a ia promoting this idea of trade war, you said the Corporate Media will push their information out. Your do you get information . Think we lost eric, but well for to arizona, up next independents. Genias roberts. Good good morning, and morning world. This is a very important job for e and a very important issue, because ive lived through this here. Might experience in, you say, trade wars, and i am retired from u. S. Steel. It was a very, very good job. But what i want to say is this country better start paying inention to the fifth phrase the preamble to the constitution promote the general welfare. Me act, please dont cut off. This is very, very important for people that are voting and finally losete and interest, okay. Hat it amounts to is that the general welfare has not been this scamming all trading, which means go to where is, you know, r this country has been inflated every y respect you can, respect you can means that we ions like to regulat regulate utility costs. E used to have regulations to keep rivers from starting fires. Regulations to keep people healthy. And through politics, you can do anything, because you steer the issue in the way that you wanted, and now the biggest thing that has happened in this very, very bad, very sad, is his Citizens United thing that happened to really crash our economy again and for a long cannot cause people compete with the international money. You, you said sk youve been in the trade war and it affected your job. How did it affect your job in the Steel Industry . Caller okay. Ill be very specific, okay. Ive been all over this country. Ive enjoyed being adventurous and such, but ive also broke up to amily by having to move different states. E moved to utah on account of that there were starting to be a southern lence in california. At that time, i had five children and, you know, im a with my n, ive been kids all the time. Situation, help our but what happened . In utah, there was a steel plant miles south of salt city, right outside of provol. Nd through a corporate type of tructure, what happened is supposedly, they couldnt afford to pay for the environment rules that were put in by mr. Nixon, they did appened is correct somewhat the air and environmental hings by putting covers over the casting and, well, that was only for the air, okay. Now, for the water, we used to ump our residue and everything else. Stuff and any f kind of manufacturer, and steel, their primary manufacturing was steel. What happened is there was a ly,e right there and apparent we were polluting the lake very bad. Host when did you end that job plant . Steel 1985, i left there in 85. S see, 19 host and what did you do after that. Caller that was labor day. I beg your pardon . Host and what did you do after that . Caller i went to work in a steel mill im sorry. That was the steel mill. I went to work trying to help open up a new gold mine. Believe me, ive had a lot of adventure and ive enjoyed it. Host appreciate the call and sharing your story. I want to get to a few more calls though on this topic of the trade debate and how important it is in 2016. Michael is in new kensington, pennsylvania, line for republicans. Michael, good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Thanks for cspan, and im telling you, its great to hear from all rent callers over. You never know the experiences that some people have. Very interesting. Case, i wanted to talk about trade and i think simple as an issue as donald trump makes it out to be. Need to protect every industry somewhat, and i do not agree with free trade, costs lly when it american ompanies and jobs. Its not that simple of an addingand once you start tariffs onto products, youre price o increase the dramatically. Host you like hearing peoples stories. Whats your story . What do you do . How have you been impacted by trade . Directly been not impacted by trade. And b is im a dentist so ive worked in the health sector, and so i dont think that it does that much, except for the fact that we have a good jobs locally in the allegheny steel, which is a specialty steel manufacturer in our area, which provides many workers, and i think theyre having a strike right now. Is trying to reduce their costs and break the union shame toer, and its a see these kind of things happening. Host michael, thanks for in ing us whats going on your part of the country. I want to hear from all our iewers this morning on this topic of free trade. If its an issue thats specifically important to you in this election, i want to hear your thoughts, and weve split usual phone lines by the lines, democrats, republicans and independents. Here is a breakdown of the partisan differences when it noting views on trade, that there are only modest differences in the views on the impacts of Free Trade Agreements on the country and on peoples personal finances. About 6 10 independents, and 58 say Free Trade Agreements have been good for the United States, as do 53 of republicans. Early half of independents, 47 , say that their familys finances have been helped by Free Trade Agreements. We want to hear your stories and thoughts on this country. About a half hour left of this segment. Texas. Is in pasadena, on the line for the democrats. Morning. Ood caller good morning. Is the with trade, special interests as far as the way the deals are cut, the way oh, youll have to excuse me. Host go ahead, robert. Weve got time. Caller i just think that a lot of jobs are going to go overseas this, and i g like see all of the imports that are coming in. They say its good and healthy for us, but all of the cars, all any of, all of the the oil, exporting oil from orient,om alaska to the because theres so much sulfur cannot be that it refined here in the United States. Host robert, were you around for nafta . During nafta . G do you remember how that impacted you . Caller yes. Agree with it then. Host on nafta, financial times, robert, with me, because i want to get your thoughts. The story from mexico, starting to mend fences with the United States, to counter Donald Trumps rhetoric with the wall and trade issues. But in that story, theres an impactedt of how nafta america. Financial times writes that american the north Free Trade Agreement would lead to a loss of american jobs proved unfounded. Some six million jobs exist in the United States because of trade with mexico which has sixfold since the pack began in 1994 to more than half a trillion dollars each year. How did it impact pasadena, texas, robert . Caller the imports and also they made the port we have a broughtw port that they in so they can just inundate the country with things from overseas, and because were bringing in more than we export, economy. G to kill the and we were in horrible shape eight years ago. People need to remember that, ike you were talking about before the election. Remember where we were. We were almost in a depression, and people just forget about th that. Legit, that itts wasnt going to happen. It was going to happen. Shut down. Ill be a if it wasnt then, there will be future. Host all right. Eric from maryland, good morning, youre on the washington journal. Caller good morning. Id like to say thank you for cspan. Enjoy it very much and actually, my children are getting involved in politics through cspan, which is a wonderful thing. Host love to hear that. Go ahead, eric. Caller i wanted to tell you a little bit of a story. High school in 1987. Started my first jobs, worked and i was a. , couple of years into that, when the nafta agreement went through and ross perot said it would be the worst thing that ever happened to us. And it was the worst thing that me. R happened to worked as a manufacturing plant and 80 of our engines in texas. A ford plant maybe a year to year andahalf after nafta went into effect, plant in texas closed their doors, moved it 57 miles, which was 17 miles into mexico, reopened, and we went out of business, and i thought i had a job for life. I worked there 11 years. It was 1997, we closed. Host what did you end up doing after that . Caller after that, i was a worker, so i found a little bit of machine work in a rivet plant, but it wasnt enough so i had to work part time there, and i had to get anything i could get. I ended up working at a place called trek, driving a bull company a bull dozer and i worked there part time and part time at the rivet plant. School, got ng to student loans. Time, to school at night and a year into schooling, my they went to the night shift. Finished school, and they let me go to night school i mean i was going to school at night, and i was working during the day full time. Night shift at work, and i was unable to i nsfer from school, so then ended up with a 12,000 in loan use. t host eric, going through this experience after nafta, what was your experience with the transpacific partnership, that 12nation deal that was signed early last month that will cover economy. He worlds it took five years to negotiate as that was happening and all the debates on that, what were your thoughts on the t. P. P. . Aller basically, i said here we go again. I mean, im not sure whether it not. Be beneficial or i just think back to ross perot saying that this was going to kill us, and it directly killed me. And the reason why im not a supporter, but the reason why i think trump has as much support as he has, is because people are saying to themselves, well, weve done it the oliticians way and we keep losing jobs. So donald trump is saying that this will be beneficial to the company or our country, so why shouldnt we try it. Reason ieve thats the he has so much support because weve done it everybody elses ay and lost so many jobs because of it. Host thanks for the call from middleriver, maryland this morning. I want to keep getting your calls on this topic but well step away for just a second. We want to talk about primary day, another day in march, another day of primaries, four today, es taking place including michigan, of course, being the top prize of the day, but also mississippi, hawaii, and idaho and hawaii, its just caucuses. Ican so lets focus on mi