Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160321 : comparem

do you support the president's efforts to engage with cuba? if you support those efforts, the phone number is (202) 748-8000. if you oppose those efforts, (202) 748-8001. a special line for cuban-americans, (202) 748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media on twitter and facebook. a very good monday morning to you and we begin talking about the president's historic trip to cuba. here are some of the front pages. wall street journal. andomatic relations begin there is a picture of the president in the streets of havana. the front page of the washington times. front page of the new york times, the headline as obama arrives, cuba tightens grip on dissent. stopdent obama's first after arriving was the embassy where he made brief remarks to the staff at the newly opened embassy. here are some of his remarks. >> hello, everybody. as the ambassadors stated, it has been nearly 90 years since a u.s. president stepped foot in cuba. it is wonderful to be here. back in 1928, president coolidge battleship -- came in on a battleship. him three days, this trip only took me three hours. this is a historic visit and opportunity to engage directly with the cuban people and to forge agreements and commercial deals to build ties between the two people's and layout my vision for the future that is brighter than our past. host: that was president obama and have on a, yesterday. usa today and other papers talking about an issue that happened right before the president arrived. cuban authorities arrested more than 50 dissidents who were marching to demand more human rights. some of the group of cuban authorities would back off out of respect for obama's visit, but despite dozens of international reporters in town for the group, -- for the meeting, the group was quickly rounded up. we're talking to viewers about president obama's efforts to engage with cuba and the castro regime. lines for those who support his efforts, oppose and then a special line for cuban-americans. onstart with bob logan, utah the line for those who support, good morning. caller: good morning. this foren waiting for years. i was in the service during vietnam. i also fought in korea. i cannot remember thousands of people being killed in cuba. we getigh time that closer to cuba. all of our jobs have gone to the communists now. we have to make ties with cuba and help those people out there who make $20 a month or something like that. thank you for letting me talk. host: should the united states demand that human rights and those poor people you talk about, that human rights improve before they engage economically? caller: what did we do about china? did their rights get stronger after we engaged with them? it is going to come natural or they will hate our guts. look at how we bullied them for years and years. it is the leaders holding these people down. a little nervous and shaky. host: thank you for the call. with go to lorraine in michigan on the line for those who oppose the efforts to engage with cuba. caller: good morning. i think it is a bad idea, because we have more americans and ited money over here seems like we are spending in overseas and we have a deficit that nobody wants to seem to address. i don't understand how we could ship jobs over there. i don't understand the philosophy. they will have missiles aimed at us. is lorraine in michigan, voicing her concern. new jersey, the line for cuban-americans, good morning. caller: hello. i do not support the president because i have been involved with the cuban refugees for close to 40 to 50 years and i worked very close to the ongoing communication between them and i can tell you that this is a forever, i'm used talking about castro, since they took over to entertain the people there as well as here and distract them away from their things is one of the you always see these demonstrators like you saw on tv just a couple of minutes ago, they come out because they are organized by the government to demonstrate against the rank and file population and the right to file population has learned to live with this type of torture .nd reality all i can tell you is that the media here gets it wrong. you have to see over the past theory of cuba, all of thousands of people that have been killed by the regime. including their own because the for theople thought restoration of the constitution of 1940. it -- anditten law, it was one of the best constitutions of the americas, without it, you cannot have effective freedom in a country or even security. . host: how do you get involved with cuban-american refugee groups? involved for close to about 50 years and i still get messages and the media is off course and is trying to push one thing, that the younger generation of humans is changing and wants change. that is hogwash. over the years, every time i dealt with the young will, even up to now, you find that they are holding their own and they also have a concept of their family's history and the suffering of their family went through and even the younger generations realize what is going on and they want to leave. did so many tried to cross the border and come to the united states recently, knowing that the relations that artie been installed? nobody wants to be on an island that is a prison and has no future. line for americans, (202) 748-8002 -- life for cuban americans, (202) 748-8002. american congressman from new york, his father was a prominent anti-castro voice, he wrote on twitter -- there is a tweet -- ,enator james lankford there are those of supporting the president's trip. ,ongressman becerra one of several members of congress who have joined the president on that trip and then senator chuck schumer of new york, we will be talking about that trip for about the first hour and a half of our show. just lines for those who support and oppose the effort and engagement with cuba and the castro regime. special line for cuban-americans. cornell in new jersey supports the president's decision. all of theo, because obstacles and everything that is going on, he is still the president, he is the leader of the free world, just like the pope is doing. they are doing great things. he said he would make change and he is making strides in spite of a dysfunctional congress, a dysfunctional senate and even some of the democrats that may oppose this. he is doing great things and this is historic. after 90 years, the first i amdent to visit cuba and more proud of him that i've ever been because of all of the filibusters and all the obstacles in his way, he is doing great things and he is going to go down in history as one of the best president we have ever had -- presidents we have ever had. host: you mentioned the pope. the vatican playing a key role in this visit. here are some of the front -- president obama and castro will for events that include a state dinner and statements to the media. the president is not expected to meet with the dell castro. it is unclear if the white house would convince raul castro to take questions from reporters. in cuba, president obama will also meet with political dissidents, literary speech outlining his vision for the future of u.s./cuban relations and join castro for a baseball game. that is from the washington journal -- wall street journal. we will be covering his trip on c-span. make sure to tune in to see all of the presidents various activities -- president's various activities. jim is on the line for those who oppose the president's trip. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. we have more to worry about than trying to get with cuba, right now. i guarantee we will try to make a democracy out of them and we will have another problem with another country. 90 years, this and that, i don't think this is the right time and i don't even know why we are approaching this. host: when is the right time? what are the conditions by which the right time could be? caller: it would be will we stop trying to go in and changing everybody who have been a certain way for too many years. i see where this is heading and it will go like every other thing. here comes the u.s. and you will have another country on your hands that you have people watching and i on. you have to watch who you allow in. immigration if it is closely regulated, but evidently we have a problem with that. i think this is the wrong idea, right now. that is all i have to say and i appreciate your time. host: john in florida, line for cuban-americans. i'm opposed to the policy because of the results. of engagement policy began in 2009 -- this engagement policy began in 2009 with listening of sanctions. the initial response was to demand the release of five cuban spies. the american who was in a work was not released until kids -- december of 2014, when the last of the spies was returned thanks to the commuted sentences made by the president. that was one thing that was trouble. once relations were normalized and opened up with respective embassies. despite the rhetoric, the actions showed a radically different approach. when he opened up in washington, d.c., you had a father murdered during the process in 2012. attending the state department cuban foreign the minister was, was threatened by the state department spokesperson from asking any questions. havana, when they opened up the embassy, despite the lipservice on human rights, they have enoughd not room for human rights defenders and dissidents. they had enough room to fly down a plane of lobbyists. i want to ask about your family's history in cuba. wind did your family come to the yourd states -- when did family come to the united states? and 96, fleeing be the ticket -- dictatorship. host: are you still involved in cuban efforts in miami? caller: i am a member of the human democratic directorate. i have taken victims to human rights council and the american commission of human rights to get their testimony. host: you mentioned lobbyists. there is a story in the washington post. lobbyists going to cuba, looking for a boost. different business interests that are watching this trip very closely and even involved in the trip as well. the story noted that under current law, the u.s. can sell to cuba, talking about lobbying for agricultural products to be sold in cuba. buyser, the food that cuba in the u.s. must be paid for in cash front of the credit and u.s. farm groups have long argued that allowing credit-based transactions allow them to compete with other countries that extend credit to cuba. some of the other business interests and individuals who are on this trip were released by the white house. there are several representatives from hotel ofins including ken siegal starwood. arnie sorensen of marriott. this was the list given out by the white house. we want to get your calls and thoughts and bring in folks who are watching on twitter. a few comments. from the zynga see, the insignificant island is time and is good to let capitalism work. another rights it is one of the best breakthroughs in american foreign-policy after nixon's trip to china. -- edwin writes i support the president's trip, it is about time someone made the first step. you can follow along on twitter. robert is in new york, on the line for those who support the trip. good morning. i agree with your previous caller, cornell, i think that president obama and his legacy will be historically relative, he is reaching out and sony directions around the globe, reaching out .or peace i understand the other callers who disagree with his stance and his gesture and his actions, because of past grievances and atrocities committed in cuba, except that understanding that piece has to climb over atrocities and grievances to get accomplished, wherever it is. we are currently at peace with germany, we are currently at peace with japan, anyone who knows the history of atrocities believevances might not that, but peace has a way of .isintegrating grievances president obama is making attempts for everybody across down.obe to calm his detractors and adversaries are doing the opposite. let's get riled up, and that includes not just political greed or corporate influence, it also includes riling people up on a religious level, as i understand it, the middle east is becoming more radical muslim and the united states is becoming more radical christian and with all of this piece threatening the status quo, let's awaken the ancient wars that have gone on hundreds of years and we can all put our god behind us and maybe i can compromise with you and reaching a settlement, but i've got a got here and i'm sorry, it is not much and that throws a monkey wrench into humanities progress. that is robert in new york, brian opposes the efforts to engage with yuma, good morning. caller: thank you, i just think i i am a conservative and think obama is had -- has not done a very good job. i think the new president, i think they will find out he is going to do a good job, but i just think obama has not been a very good job as president with the negotiating. is that of a gated the good terrible job with the a random thing -- iran thing. i think whoever the president shouldhink the president do that and let obama -- i don't think so. i don't think he has been that great of a president, like most of the democrats think i don't think he did a very good job on health care. most people are paying way too much and cannot get good care. i love your show, it is great and thank you very much. on twitterpope saying only republicans are opposing the president's efforts at engagement with yuma -- with cuba. i want to point out there are democrats who oppose his efforts as well. one of the most outspoken voices in the senate is robert menendez, a democrat. here is part of his speech on the senate floor, last week. >> i rise in memory of all of those cuban dissidents who have given their lives in the hope that cuba, one day would be free from the yoke of the castro regime. it is that freedom i had hoped president obama was referencing when he said what i said to the cuban government is and i'm quoting, if we are seeing more progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary cubans, i would love to use a visit as a way of highlighting the progress. if we are going backwards, then there's not much reason for me that is obviously not the case, which is why the boston globe's headline on february 20 it says it all, obama rakes pledge, will visit cuba despite worsening human rights. instead of having the free worlds leader on our latin america's only dictatorship with a visit, he could have visited one of the hundred of the ,ountries -- 150 countries including several in latin america that are democracies. president has negotiated a deal with the castro's and i understand his desire to make this his legacy issue, but there is still a fundamental issue of freedom and democracy at stake that goes to the underlying atmosphere in cuba and whether or not the cuban people will still be repressed and still be imprisoned, will they benefit from the president legacy or will it be the castro regime that reaps that benefit? unless the castro's are compelled to change their dictatorship, the way they govern the island and the way they exploit its people, the answer to this will be much different than the last 50 years. the castro regime will be the beneficiary. viewers,are asking our do you support or oppose the president's effort to engage with cuba as he begins his first full day in cuba, the first president to visit cuba and almost 90 years. all is on the line for those who support the efforts. is on the line for those who support the efforts. menendez,just saw bob he should change parties. is the only democrat in congress that is actually a republican. as far as this with some -- with cuba, obama did the right thing. how long can this go on? and thosee special people are friendly, there is nothing wrong with engaging with cuba. as far as donald trump goes, i does have to get this in because i watched -- all these republicans don't think his language is so brash and vulgar. i guess the economist came out and said that the truck presidency would be a top 10 global threat and one of the guests on issue -- host: before we get too far into a 2016 discussion, i want to stay with cuba. we will talk about 2016 later in the show, but we appreciate the show -- the call. bob is on the line for those who oppose the president's efforts to engage with cuba. caller: thank you for c-span. i would like to say i don't agree with president obama going over to cuba. they are not going to change any of their human rights stuff and imagine that the guy did not come out to meet him at the tarmac? the president continues to minimize his position and minimalize is our position as a country. -not like the iran deal and i do not like this stuff. if he is really going to push for human rights in the country, fine, but he is not going to get any progress. they will continue to murder people as they will, they are no better than saddam hussein. is referencing the fact that raul castro did not meet the president at the airport, yesterday, an issue that donald trump has slammed the president for, calling it a slight to the united states. we go to rate in california for those who support the efforts. caller: the reason i support the visit is because cuba is only 90 , and we seemorida to be in an uproar about him visiting cuba. cuba cannot do anything to us monetarily or any other way, but yet we count down to china, we count down to russia, two of the biggest communist countries in the world all of the jobs we have lost have gone to china and no one seems to care. they are sending the rich wives over here to have babies so they future, as amended do with the election -- have something to do with the election. i think that visiting cuba is a good thing to bring the cubans back into the fold and i i think hopefully in the wrong long run it will be a better thing for everyone. i'm neither a democrat or a republican and this is not a racist comment, but every time i look at cuba, i never see anyone who looks like african-american in a position of leadership. that gets to me. if they are so inclusive, why don't we see all hues of people in representing cuba? i support him visiting cuba. host: president obama in those brief remarks at the u.s. embassy that we show that the beginning of the show mentioned historical parallels in his visit. 1920 eight, present calvin coolidge sale to havana aboard the uss texas, parking the battleship in the exact spot where the uss maine was sunk during the spanish-american war 30 years before. this was according to "usa today." there are some historical parallels, obama will give a speech at the same cuban theater where coolidge addressed the pan-american conference. white house officials stress that obama's trip will set a slightly different tone. calvin coolidge traveled there on a battleship, but the optics will be quite different from the get go, said national security advisor and roads. coolidge's only visit to havana was the only foreign trip of his presidency and until sunday the only trip of a sitting president to cuba." let's go to robert on the line for those who oppose. good morning, robert. caller: how are you this morning? host: i'm good. i opposed the trip to cuba, but cuba is a beautiful island nation. we used to have good ties with cuba in the past back in the 50's before fidel castro took over. i think we should make an attempt to put our differences behind us, but as long as the castro's are keeping the people in cuba suppressed with communism and the way they treat people, i mean it is ok to have diplomatic ties, but as far as trading with this country, trading with them is almost as saying it's ok for them to treat their people the way they do. i do not believe in the way they are being treated and i firmly believe that we should not have ties with communists like red china. 00--ll be trading like trading with north korea. i disagree with having ties with cuba. host: here's how the editorial board of "usa today" puts it this morning. , at thequestion annomic sanctions have been uprising, and if anything they have been counterproductive, allowing the castro regime to blame the performance on the dicta of u.s. policies rather than a failed timeliness ideology. obama's approach is promising. after 55 years of efforts to isolate or ignore cuba, obama is right to try a new approach .ould that is th luann's on the line in ohio for those who support the president's efforts. caller: i am fine and i know you are, too. they have never done too much back to us. all the people who have came and are in florida are doing very well. it was not the rich that came here, believe me. i remains father was a professor -- my roommates father was a professor and i don't know where they are, but i think the best thing that can happen for those people in and us. how many other countries are like that? it's just a way of life. and i do love cuba. host: that is luanne and ohio. gabriel is up next on the line for cuban-americans. it is the line that we have set aside for cuban-americans. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to start by saying that people have to understand that cuba is a place that is ruled through honestly strength. strength is what makes that place function. that is no way a substantiation of dictatorship working, but i will tell you this. from my personal experience and my family, my father came from cuba. he was born in havana. i can tell you now that the way the place is is largely because the batistas came in early and for all the problems that were there, but then the corporations from the united states came in and they asserted themselves so much into the daily functions of cuba because it was right off the coast in the 1940's and going up into the 1950's. becauseg had to be done they were trying to push out the farmers that were there in cuba. part of the revolution that was happening through fidel castro was to throw these people out. and this was all really about sugarcane. i know this because my grandfather was a sugarcane farmer and that was one of the largest pieces of the puzzle that really caused the u.s. and cuba to the arms of each other. a lot of people don't know this, but anyway, i do think obama's choice is to move forward and to do what he is doing is right. i believe he must assert himself was strength. he cannot walk there and push back and allow raul to not greet him at the airport. there must be an answer of strength. that is what they respond to. host: what does the president need to say in his speech and remarks that are expected today? caller: i think he needs to assert that there is a cuban power that is moving, a change in cuba, but that it must come from within. it cannot come from outside influence like we have tried to do the so many different countries. i love this country and i've served nine years in the military. i love this country. my father came in the 1950's with his father, but i will tell you this. if the president does not use thereth when he goes or demands those assets that are really, really important to him being respected, he will lose certain standing in the room. i will just say this and be very quick. it is important for americans to realize that we cannot go into each country and try to rewrite the rules that they have used for many decades. for allro regime intents and purposes -- there are many cubans that love fidel castro. there are some in miami that still love fidel castro. that that with the caveat take the lessons of the wars of iraq and afghanistan, iraq specifically. look at that before you look to uproot a whole regime and understand that some of the things in their work have aspects that allow the country to function. do not come and say throw everything out. think about it. host: that is gabriel in north carolina. candidatepresidential and senator from texas, had a sayingn politico, obama siding with the oppressed, and always been america's aspiration. we had not done out of an abiding sense of justice, but also for hard-nosed reasons of national interest. castro's have been the implacable enemies for the united states for more than half a century. it is her interest -- in our interest to oppose them. that is why it is so sad and interest to our futures as well as cuba that i obama has chosen to legitimize an oppressive castro regime by visiting the island. you can visit the peace at o.com.c let us go to gerald in ohio on the line for those who opposed. good morning. caller: it is very interesting that the president has gone there. it is good in some ways, but one important thing that people don't know is that after the resolution started -- revolution --rted, cuba. into the drug got into the drug business. it is in a book by dr. joseph d douglas junior. he was a navy guy from the pentagon. there was a chapter from page 91-1 05 or he explains exactly how raul castro were involved in creating crystal meth with the soviet union and ortega and nicaragua. it is people missing the boat because this was a very thoroughly researched book. the highest ranking czechoslovakian general was debriefed and the government largely ignored the documentation. this is why i am backing trump. this is what ted is talking about. they were there and they know. , buta very complex issue cuba is very instrumental in the drug business -- maybe 50%. they set up the mexican cartels, everything. host: it's maybe something we can explore in our next segment. we will be joined by jason marczak for 45 minutes as we will be talking about cuba's economy. time for a few more calls. drew is in new jersey on the line for those who support the president's efforts. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a few points on the subject and i really hope that they are understood by the folks who are in opposition to the president could this has become more partisan than patriotic. i cannot wait to visit cuba. my dad was in the navy in world war ii and was on the admiral staff in the caribbean and told me wonderful stories about his shore leave and his experiences in cuba. i cannot wait to have that opportunity. involved with a couple of folks were actively involved in changing u.s. government policies. this one fellow has a website on , who lives in south florida. he and his mother were able to come to the united states in the 80's because he had spoken up in a school against fidel castro. they end up having problems and had to leave. the president of the united states has found a way for us to fixlutely six or attempt to a policy that was initiated under president eisenhower when we had a brief moment in time where fidel castro took power. one can argue whether batista deserve to be overthrown or not, but there was an opportunity. there was a pretty good time where fidel castro approached the united states under the eisenhower administration and was looking to develop relationships. we told him to screw off as it were and he had no choice but to reach out to our cold war adversary to look for support. we essentially drove him into a communist relationship whereas history could the been very, very different had the dulles brothers -- and that's another book. the fellow who called in and ilk about "red cocaine" and encourage people to read about the dulles brothers and the nefarious things they did. reaching back to gabriel of north carolina, who is probably the most erudite caller. this morning. this man reaches to us culturally knowing that we need to respect the cultures and understand that we are not just going in and dictating any further. as to being in new jersey at the moment, i embarrassed to be represented by senator menendez, who has found a way to join the two folks down there in south haveda, who by the way family relationships with the castro brothers. i do not recall exactly what they are, but they are family oriented relationships. was the first life of fidel castro if i remember the history correctly. caller: they have stood in the way of the united states having an open dialogue, which would have the impact. if we want to talk about human rights -- and by the way, another mild purita irritant is that i represented by chris smith in the house whose sole focus is human rights to the exclusion -- and i'm certainly in favor of human rights. i'm not in favor of the united states dictating them, but i'm in favor of human rights. the only way that we will impact favorable change in cuba is to lead by leading, not lead by preventing commerce, preventing communication, preventing the opportunity for the cuban people. the opening of the internet, the access points that we are providing from google and other companies to the cuban people will in effect show them the benefits of free and open societies. to be perfectly candid with you, i'm not sure what the folks who are looking to maintain the current status quo -- i'm not sure what they are thinking is going to happen when raul castro dies. it will not automatically be a wonderfully free and open democratic place. cuba is a parliament and and people waiting in the wings to take the next step up. host: i want to get jean in as well from houston, texas. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think the main reason i oppose president obama going over there is that we have a whole lot of baggage here we need to take care of before we need to start worrying about cuba. a lot of people don't understand that in the 1980's that they had all the people of vacuum in cuba to the united states, we welcomed them and they are still here. that's what we do. i don't call him a president. i called them a dictator because they oppressed those people so much. i totally agree with senator demint and this. he hit the spot. republicans are opposed to it -- yeah, we are. menendez is not a republican. thank you for taking my call and have a good day. host: that is our last caller in the segment. one more front page to show you from "the miami herald" with the headline "cold war to warm welcome." we will talk about the president's trip to cuba and the next segment of "washington journal. " we are going to be talking to jason marczak. and then we will talk to james ws about his cover piece on the ongoing effort to learn how local cities are responding to economic strain and the failings of national politics. that is all coming up this morning on "the washington journal." ♪ >> book tv is in primetime on c-span2 starting tonight at 8:30 p.m. eastern. each night will feature a series of programs focusing on politics to education to medical care and national security, plus on corn -- encore presentations from book festivals. tune in to the tv on prime time on c-span2. go to tv.org for the complete schedule. >> tonight on "the communicators," a look at the fcc's lifeline subsidy program and the plan to include broadband internet access in order to bridge the digital divide between higher and lower income americans. the fcc is expected to take up the proposal at the end of march. we will talk with the policy director at the benton foundation and i daniel lyons, a scholar at internet can indications and technology policy. we are joined by brendan sasso, a national security technology recorder -- reporter. >> it is unclear to me that angress would be able to pass support that is directly aimed at low income users. this congress has not been particularly supportive of folks who are in poverty. the conversations that have been on the hill have been hard to decipher. sense of the fcc is putting the cart before the horse because there's not been a real study to suggest that these are the drivers from keeping low people from receiving broadband service. we don't know if we need nine dollars a month for 10 million people. you want to make sure that you are employing the money effectively and fcc has not done that level of analysis. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: president obama arrived in cuba last night for a historic but somewhat controversial trip. ,e are joined by jason marczak the director of the latin american council. trip representsstree a major opportunity for the president of units i of the united states. guest: it's an opportunity to solidify many of the gains over the last few months. there's a lot of criticism that we have not gotten a lot in hasrn for what the u.s. opened up with in regards to cuba, but i would say that we need to look at this i what is happened over the last 15 months not as a negotiation with the cuban government but more of what the u.s. can do to provide opportunities to the cuban people. that is our goal of the policy -- helping cuban people. what we have gotten over the course of the last 15 months and what this trip can help solidify our real opportunities for greater economic freedom for the cuban people. there are now over 500,000 cubans that work as part of the private sector because of the policies over the last 15 months. remittances can now go to those entrepreneurs. they have greater opportunities for access to capital. u.s. businesses can now go in and provide services for parts of the cuban economy that are critical for these entrepreneurs. even the growth in tourism that has happened because of the peeling back on some of the travel restrictions has now opened the door for up to 110 daily flights from the u.s. to cuba. we have seen a dramatic increase in u.s. tourist to cuba. when americans go down to cuba, they are largely eating at restaurants that are owned by independent cuban entrepreneurs. taxi driversing that go right into the pockets of cubans themselves. they are tipping waiters and other things. the policy has helped to provide a slight opening with regard to greater economic liberties. i think that's important. host: it we are not demanding human rights changes before the economic engagement, before the political engagement we are seeing this week, are we giving away the caret here to get the castro regime to move in that direction? -- we the castro regime have tried for over 50 years to get the castro regime to listen to the united states in regards to improving its political liberties and that clearly has not happened. what the president decided a year and a half ago is that we have to try something new. we have to try to empower the cuban people and allow the cuban opportunities to access greater political liberties. what the president is doing is by going to cuba and by speaking television state-run later today, he is going to be directly addressing the cuban people. that is a powerful signal to show the cuban people that there are other options that exist besides the options that they have. but by flooding with american tourists, we are showing american values and ideals and open them up rater to the outside world. host: hasn't cuba had 20 of engagement with canada and the eu in the past several decades? helped thegagement cuban people on issues of human writes an economic engagement you're talking about? guest: the cubans have had engagement with the canadians . with the europeans, it has been an often on relationship. they have pulled off for a while, but they just signed a political agreement with the cubans. it's a whole different skill only talk about the power of the united states and the american tourists to influence the cuban people and to provide the accessw and the cultural that can help cubans to see what else is out there and what they currently do not have access to. this is a whole different ballgame when we talk about american tourists. host: i want to bring in viewers. .emocrats -- (202) 748-8000 republicans -- (202) 748-8001. (202) 748-8002. explain where the embargo stands today and the executive orders that we saw from the white house on how we can change economically with cuba. guest: the embargo remains very much still in place. what the president has done over the last 15 months beginning in january 2015, another round of executive actions of september, and just last week, he peeled back different aspects of the embargo that are under executive authority. we have done that and a number of different categories. one of the most widely cited as a category of travel. originally rather than requiring a specific license to go down to cuba under one of 12 categories, we have made it accessible via a general license, seeking go down the cuba if you are participating in journalistic activity or cultural exchange or research or whatnot without requiring a specific license. just last week, those licenses were changed such that you no longer need to go down to a specific group. you can go yourself to say i am here to participate in an activity deemed acceptable under one of the 12 license categories and you can directly go down. host: what are some of the major restrictions still in place under the embargo? guest: there's been an opening with regard to business. starwood hotels just signed a deal with the cuban people yesterday. are companiesbnb that signed deals. those deals are only permissible under certain types of categories for certain sectors of work. which are the areas most prime for u.s. investment, which is telecommunications and travel,gy, agriculture, and tourism, there is still a number of restrictions that remain. , for example, where the u.s. historically has been the number one agricultural exporter to cuba -- we fell from number one to number four recently. our agricultural policy because of the embargo, we cannot provide export financing for agricultural products. that makes u.s. agricultural products less competitive for cuba. cubans get their rise from the vietnamese rather than from american rice producers, for example. host: in "the wall street journal," they say the lettacle is designed to congress remove the cuban embargo. paysays the regime of the for the property install after the 1959 revolution and ensure basic human rights for cubans. how close do you think this congress is to lifting a cuban embargo? guest: i don't think this congress is close at all. i think this congress is very much -- this is an election year and this congress will probably not do much more than keep the lights on in washington. but there is momentum. there is momentum on capitol hill. i was just testifying last week on this issue. there is momentum for peeling away certain aspects of the embargo that really don't make sense and are hurting american businesses and are also hurting our ability to do what is our end goal -- provide greater opportunities for the cuban people. host: let us bring in the colors. allers. ron is on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. this is interesting. i'm one of the rare people that was in cuba before the revolution in 1956. i went there with my parents and we stayed at the hotel international. as we drove from the airport to our hotel, the cabdriver said it was very bad in cuba. at that point in time, you might remember that batista was killing people in the streets for a variety of reasons. it was the worst civil human rights violations going on there than anywhere since that time. long story short is that it's a wonderful thing that we are breaking ground with the cuban people. they are wonderful people. their hearts are very full. it is too bad that organized crime people went into cuba back into the 1950's. we have the sugar cartel in cuba at that time back in 1956. we had control over the whole thing. it was a good thing that they had the revolution. it was thing that we never restored reasonable negotiations. toay is an opportunity change that. i'm hopeful that the senate and our congress will wake up and smell the petunias and get out there and actually remove all those barriers. we need more than anything else to bring them into the tour is for century with internet connections -- 21st century with internet connections and all these things that have to go forward. it will all happen almost just --ough a mist has to sizing metastasizing of american culture. hopefully they will be able to hold onto their culture because we have ruined so many countries already. i think it's about time we did something good for something else. host: go ahead, jason. guest: i've stayed at the hotel international myself. it's a beautiful hotel. you bring up the point about cubans' access to internet and we have not talked about that. there are the number of wi-fi hotspots in havana that have gone from zero to 65 by the end of last year. additionallans for 80 new public wi-fi hotspots in 2016. on the plus side, the cost of access to internet in those hotspots has gone down by about 50%, but it still remains about two dollars an hour. internet access is still incredibly expensive for the average cuban, but one benefit that we have seen is greater .penness of the internet when you go to havana, you see these different wi-fi hotspots on street corners with cubans crowded around on their smartphones china get onto the internet. this is a positive change that we have seen over the recent period. host: robert in chicopee, massachusetts, on the line for independents. caller: the other nations of the world -- how come they are not dealing with the cubans? iatscome i'm not seeing f and bmws on the streets? there are other hotel manufacturers and companies throughout the world that could go to cuba. obeying theorld is united states embargo. that's a little far-fetched. remember cuba to when the castro's took over and i remember the pictures of the guys lined up against the wall and shot. i'm sure they were a lot of innocent people. countrypaper in this was reporting that the castro brothers were not very selective on the people that they executed. host: jason marczak. guest: first to address the issue of hotels, there are a decent number of foreign countries whose hotel chains are working in cuba. the spanish have malia hotels as one example of a hotel chain that is very much involved in cuba. it does not just a hotel chains. there businesses from the u.k. to spain and brazil to china. they are investing in cuba. one thing i would say is that it's unfortunate to lose out to friends and allies like the europeans or latin americans and so far as business in cuba, but it becomes cause for concern when we are losing out to the chinese and the russians. because of the restrictions that are in place in regards to technology infrastructure being built by american companies, you actually see the chinese state-owned company going in and making a deal to build technology infrastructure in cuba. i think both callers have addressed the issues of human rights abuses by the castro regime. that is something we need to talk about. there were a significant number of very atrocious rights violations, especially at the beginning of the revolution. ad there continues to be significant number of political prisoners, political dissidents who are routinely rounded up by the castro regime. some of that policy has changed from long-term detentions to a newer policy of what they call tension relief were a number of the participants are in jail for a half-hour, but it still has the intimidation factor. one of the policies should be empowering the cuban people to speak for greater political liberties and greater political rights for themselves. host: a question on human rights -- has it gotten better since the president started this policy of engagement back in 2014? , anrgument from anna heritaget the american foundation says that conditions on the i would have gotten were stress-related this year 2500, there have been political arrests, more than last year's total. the policy has shifted from this long-term does tension -- detention to this catch and release policy. there are currently no prisoners of conscience that amnesty andrnational would deem cuban jails, but there are a significant number of political prisoners that continue to be. just yesterday before the president's arrival, the ladies in white were making their weekly protests and they were summer rarely rounded up and put into short-term detention. this continues to be a major problem. john, we need to take this in perspective. this has been something happening in cuba for over 50 years, for five decades of these policies. things in cuba move incredibly slow. we like things in the united states to happen incredibly quickly. we do not have the attention span to not have a policy have its deliverables in short order, but in cuba, 15 months or 60 months is not a long time. that as carlos gutierrez has said is that economic liberties are also a human right. what our policy is doing is what we can change and we can give greater opportunities to the cuban people and so far as economic opportunities. the political liberties, the stopping of rounding up political prisoners -- we need to continue to pressure for that. present obama will speak to human rights today and tomorrow when he is in cuba, but change has to come from within. in my belief, that change can be further facilitated by people who are not dependent upon the state for their next paycheck. host: on the line for cuban-americans, francis is waiting in newport, maine. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: you are on with jason marczak. caller: what is going to happen with the property that was taken by castro in the 1960's to all the people who actually owned the property originally in cuba? guest: thank you for the question. seizedue of property and claims is one of the critical issues that needs to be resolved as part of any prosperous opportunity in cuba. there are close to 6000 certified claims on the u.s. 1.9 which totaled around billion dollars, but with interest, that is about $8 billion. the cubans on their part say that the embargo and the bay of pigs invasion and other u.s. policies have cost them in the hundreds of billions and i think that is a very far-fetched number. we need to an issue resolve, . as part of our opening with cuba, there have been technical groups that have been working to resolve a variety of different issues. it's issues like postal service for example where we just had the first direct mail shipment from the u.s. to cuba. the issue of claims is one that we are still very much in the nascent process of trying to resolve. there has been some progress, but finally resolving this issue will take some time. before it is resolved, we cannot have full relations with the cuban people and the cuban government. for example, the air service that has been started between nonstopir service, service between the u.s. and cuba, but when you do that with a country, there is a reciprocal agreement that cuban airlines would be able to fly to the united states. that is not happening because of a cuban airliner lands in florida for example, it could technically be seized because of the claims that are outstanding in the u.s. side toward cuba. this is a critical issue that we need to resolve. most of the claims are individual claimants, but the that is beingsh sought as part of the claims is actually owed to large corporations. i think that many of those corporations -- i think they are going to be prioritizing whether solvents the claim issue will be their top priority or whether peeling away some of the restrictions of trade is going to be there priority. u.s. companyare a looking to invest in cuba, how concerned are you about your investment becoming nationalized or seized by the cuban government in future years? guest: that is definitely a concern that companies have had -- not just american companies but companies across the world . cuba has a significant amount of investment from european, latin american, and chinese companies. cuban to address it, the government passed a new investment law that codified some of the terms and the rule of law around investments. it also gave a different number of tax breaks as well to encourage foreign investment into cuba. those tax breaks include tax-free status for the first three years and a much reduced tax rate, including a further reduced tax rate if you want to set up operations in the special areomic zone that cubans trying to put forward as an investment destination. cubans recognize their past and so far as being a country in which the sanctity of your investment might not be respected by the government. that is why they passed this couple years ago. -- this new law a couple years ago. that cuba ispening doing with the united states is not all the sun because that want to be our friends. they do not have a lot of other options right now. they learned their lesson from the special period when the soviet union collapsed. after the soviet union collapsed, they went into an economic tailspin. over the last decade of so, they been dependent on the venezuelans. the venezuelan economy is heading over to 7% inflation this year. --ezuelans are so losing worried about losing cuba and its orbit that they made a surprise trip to havana i had a becauset obama's trip he was nervous about what president castro was going to talk to obama about. the cubans are losing their options as being dependent on venezuela. they're being forced to look more broadly across the world. when you're doing that and dependent on foreign investment, there are few options to provide sanctity for the rights of the investment. host: there are several callers waiting to chat with you. jean, go ahead. caller: good morning and thank you mr. jason marczak for the great job you are try to do to help the cuban people here in this country that are u.s. citizens. as a member of the american chairman'm the pow mia here in illinois for my post. just within the last year, we have found out that the books are still in the red about the prisoners that were murdered at the hands of the cuban nationalists who were signed as interrogators during the vietnam war. we all know that there is no time limit when it comes to workarounds. again, i applaud the efforts of the presen president and my country and the people who want to reestablish relationships, but the delegation involving my senator should prioritize and sharpen the point a little bit and include the attempt to locate these wanted wartime criminals. i think it's very important because right now, the families are still waiting are closer from back then. if you want to talk about human rights violations, i mean, when they interrogated these liars and they would not give up their country or give up their brothers, i think it's very important that we need to establish and prioritize. efforts applaud your and good luck to you, sir. guest: some of these specific cases of these war criminals that you bring up -- i'm not familiar with some of these specific cases. i would say that part of the negotiations that continue between the u.s. and cuba involve issues around fugitives and issues around other types of security concerns, more broadly narco trafficking cooperation and security in the waters and whatnot. these issues that you bring up are all important and critical to have as part of a broad dialogue. i think these are things that we hopefully will resolve over time. the line for cuban-americans, andrea is waiting in florida. caller: good morning. i was calling want to make a comment just to give maybe a different viewpoint. five parents came from cuba in 1961 -- my parents came from cuba in 1961 and i was born in miami. i had a lot of family that were jailed and tortured in the bay of pigs. i've been growing up listening to all the stories and i am very passionate about the cuban issue. thatally what i think is with all these changes that are happening, it seems that we are kind of giving the cuban a a lotnt pretty much of things and they are not giving us anything in return, ok? all these american companies and the airlines and the cultural exchanges -- everybody gets pretty much what they want, but then the cubans in cuba are still oppressed like you saw yesterday. i think castro just can't be trusted. nothing is really going to change as long as the castro's are there. as long as all this is going on, it really seems like all the american companies are getting what they want and are making money, but yet the cuban people still have nothing to eat. areong as the castros there, i do not think any changes are going to happen and they just can't be trusted. guest: thank you, and drea. i understand your passion for and your parents coming over in the early 60's and this being an issue that is really part of your heart and soul. that you bring up the castros cannot be trusted and we are not getting anything return.- in what we have tried to do as part of the president's policy and the reason the president is in cuba today and tomorrow is to provide for an opening with the cuban people that had not existed beforehand. after five decades, as we were talking about earlier, the castros have continued to oppress the cuban people. that is a constant in cuba over the last five decades. and the embargo that we have maintained has not changed that policy. we are trying something new and we are trying it very much from what the u.s.of can do to help facilitate opportunities for the cuban people. we are not asking for anything in return from the castros because our policy in the end is a policy that is maybe not going to be that great for the castros. they may not want to give as much in return for a policy that is not great for them. our policy is going to be socialg the economic and economic order that they have established over the last five decades as being quickly transformed because of our policy. bodess not something that well necessarily for the cuban regime because their ability to stay in power is based on a policy of consistency. when we flood the cubans with a 35% increase in american tourists or have american businesses like airbnb now providing over 2000 rentals in cuba, which is then cash that the cuban people have direct access to, this is really changing the nature of things in cuba in which the country currently rests on a large segment of its population being dependent upon the state sector for his wages and daily needs. as they change that and the cuban people become less dependent on the cuban sudden,nt, all of a there is a greater opening for the cuban people to be able to speak for their own economic liberties. that is what we are try to do as part of this policy. cubans something the government is concerned about how quickly things are taking . many american couple's are frustrated that their proposals to the cuban government have not been approved because the cubans are very cautious about how quickly these projects should be approved because they do not want change too quickly. that change could really threaten the current order that existed. host: senator dick durbin as part of this delegation. 20 members of congress joining the president on this trip to cuba. schakowsky,n jan sherry brewster of illinois also there. barbara lee has been tweeting pictures from her trip as well. i will show you one of her pictures and a second. we will go to juan in miami, florida on the line for cuban-americans. caller: the cuban embargo has not been enforced properly. look at all these direct flights that come from miami. they are now flying from fort lauderdale and tampa. it has prevented me from eating my uncles. i lost 11 uncles over there because of this direct flight to cuba. there's a time for everything and the time for cuba to the free was in the 1990's when fidel that we are not going to give any more money. that is when we should have gone over there and gave money. send $50 to a resident in cuba, they are not going to overthrow the regime over there. embargo with coastal flights, you're supposed to go to a third country to get to people. that is what they did with my grandma when she left puerto rico to go back to cuba because she did not want to die and risk her 11 sons over there by themselves. my mother was the only one in puerto rico at the time. the embargo is not being enforced properly. due to these direct flights, they're going to miami in all these places. it is not going to work with the castros. as long as they are in power, it's not going to work. thank you for the call. first of all, you set the time for cuba to be free was in the 1990's. i would agree with that and i would agree that the time for cuba to be free is now as well. in regard to the enforcement of flights thatthe have been permitted before the president's actions in december of 2014 -- flights had been permitted for non-scheduled charter service prior to the actions of december 2014. if you are traveling to cuba with a specific license under one of the 12 categories that were permitted. what has happened because of the numerous executive actions since december of 2014 is to permit 110her travel now up to daily nonstop. they will be permitted with 20 to havana and 10 two additional nine airports across cuba. this is allowed under the embargo. what is still not allowed under the embargo and will not be changed without an act of congress and this is enforced his travel to cuba for tourism purposes only. you can travel to cuba for a specific reason, but if you're going to go hang out on the drinks,d have a few that is not permitted. that will remain against u.s. laws under the embargo remains in place. host: the flight that the president took was aboard air force one. this is barbara lee outside of air force one getting ready for the trip yesterday. several members of congress sending up pictures of this trip , this two day trip began last night and is going to end tomorrow in cuba. tony is up next in fort worth, texas. caller: i have a question for you. where is pedro? host: where is pedro? he is still here. he hasn't hosted in a bit. caller: i think we have such short memories. reasons fort of cuba not to trust us, but what we are doing is we're going to take baby steps. and nots been distrust really conflict, but 50 years. in america, cubans are saying we want our property back, but it's not going to happen overnight. thisok 50 years to get to with cuba did it will take a lot longer than 15 months to get out of the position that we are in with cuba. the cuban people should be happy that the people in cuba are going to get some kind of relief from this. remember that all this happened in the 1950's and 1960's in america was great. that's according to donald trump. we forget about the bay of pigs and all these things. there is a reason for them not trust us. host: jason marczak. guest: thank you for bringing that up. there's is a reason for them not to trust us and that is part of the reason that the project proposals, for example, by american businesses are being looked at very carefully by the cubans. only a reason not to trust us but as far as the underlying securities but also a lack of trust in so far as dealing with american business. the cubans have historically been incredibly wary of the true intent of u.s. business. they have some reason for this. it was not too long ago that the was usingam that twitter and other types of social media to try to undermine the regime as part of our democracy promotion programs. this is reason why cubans would aboutibly be apprehensive the u.s. investing in telecommunications infrastructure. you don't necessarily get it that the u.s. private sector is completely independent from the u.s. government because that is not the way things necessarily work in cuba. there are some real caution about some of the underlying intent of our business ventures. john was also mentioning the members of congress that are traveling to cuba with the president c. it is a bipartisan group of members of congress. oftentimes the political issues of the day are republican or democratic issues, but the cuba issued is one that truly spans the partisan divide with both those in favor and those who oppose the president's policies. host: randy, good morning. caller: good morning, america. i have a unique personal perspective on this with american business. my father was chief financial officer for itt in the late 1960's and early 1970's before he moved us down here to virginia. he became chief financial officer for the shipyards. he is 95 years old and soon to be 96. it was not until recently when he had a medical procedure when he was under the some anesthesia that the family was able to find out a little information about his work in south america with the regime in the early 1970's. when you go on and on about american business having influence, i would strongly suggest that we do our research and see how american corporations that had their assets nationalized back then by the chilean government and how we responded to that. i would suggest people google that. like i said, i don't mind letting up my dad now that he is 95 because i'm very proud of him. he's a great american and we are losing too many of them every day. have a great day. goodbye now. call: thank you for your it to your father for his excellent work over the years. you are obviously a very proud son and there's good reason for that. businesshat american incuba, first of all i think tht what you saw after the opening in december 2014 was this avalanche last year of business , governors and mayors traveling down to cuba to see what kind of opportunity existed in this was really a time of first contact between american business human ministries. really getting to know you face. what we are starting to see now is some businesses decided that of human economy is a gdp $77 million, comparable to the state of hawaii or leaks in the metropolitan area. i do not mean anything else toward hawaii or the salt lake city metropolitan area but this is not an economic powerhouse. certaine going to be u.s. companies that are going to find opportunity in cuba, agriculture, telecommunications, travel and tourism. but many have started to look at and will decide it is not worth it. there.nomy really is not when we are going to start to see arson deals, including more deals like the hotels deal that was announced last night. in certain sector, where there is potential for american business, other companies will start to look at other opportunities. when you look across the world at emerging markets, many other are outyond just cuba there. of she is full of a number key factors. host: be sure to check out jason marczak's work with the growth initiative. the wind for -- thank you for joining us. we are joined by james fallows from "the atlantic" to talk about his ongoing story of how cities are reacting to economic strain. we will be right back. ♪ tonight on the communicators, a look at the cost lifeline subsidy program in the ability to include broadband internet access to bridge the divide between higher and lower income americans. the sec is expected to take up the proposal that end of march. will talk to a visiting scholar at the center for communications at knowledge of policy. a nationalk to technology reporter. >> low-income consumers need access to broadband now. it is unclear to me that congress would be able to pass a sub court for this that is y aimed at low income users. this congress has not been supportive of those who are in poverty and the conversations ont have it on -- have been the hill have been hard to decipher. >> are they putting the cart before the horse because they have not done a real study to thatthat -- suggest low-income people really need broadband internet. to make sure you are deploying the money intelligently as effectively in the sec simply has not done that level of analysis. >> watch the communicators, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. book tv is in primetime on c-span2. tonight, topics for politics to education to medicare at national security group. prototype onv c-span2 codices bed.org league schedule. -- tune in for book tv on c-span2. for the company go to c-span.org for the complete schedule. book tv weekends, they bring you offer after author, after author, the work of fascinating people. >> i am a c-span fan. >> washington journal continues . host: for more than three years and his wife hav have studying american cities. there is a tradition in america, writing about road trips, what you learn from it. what makes yours unique? >> the timing of it and the vehicle. we had been living in china and we heard all about the u.s. the other was a vehicle we chose. i have been a pilot of small propeller planes. it is a plane with a parachute. hearing of towns that had an interesting economic story or interesting challenge and how they were able to recover from the word we have been going from city to city. -- went more than 25 spent extended visits in more than 25 cities. trip we have a map of your as part of the article in "the atlantic". how did you choose your cities? >> we were looking for places that were not a big place that had had a challenge. please tell us about your town and why we should go there. we got more than 1000 responses and about 700 where these full essays of why this specific town. could spend several years were alive during these things, but we want to several places that seems to be in a moment of crisis. we went to some of the midwest states that were underrepresented so far. what town have you seen that is in the moment of crisis? >> the place that was in a news with san bernardino, california. the town of redlands. we were able san bernardino last year, which is profound political and economic shocks. the city council is paralyzed and they are technically bankrupted. howe trying to figure out he did it a challenge to tout, young people were saying we're tired of being the losers of america analyst california, will start improving your cities in this way. some very interesting business people, successful politically conservative business people have got into the public schools which have a mean latino student base, admittedly white business people saying we will reform the school so these kids can have a future different from the present. host: we are talking with james fallows, a correspondent with "the atlantic" about his three-year journey. , theu want to call in numbers are on the screen. i want to start about the signs you together that a town or city will succeed. there is a list of about 11 in the magazine. guest: often on c-span programs democratic,ublican, independent call in loans. now you have regional call in lines. it is significant with national politics is as devices as it has ever been in my lifetime. things are getting done, in cities you do not find that . here is a brief illustration. we spent a lifetime in greenville, south carolina and burlington, vermont. that is where bernie sanders had been the nonchemical socialist -- nondemocratic socialist candidate. they were on the opposite ends politically, but you would think they were the same place. the city government worked with the schools and businesses to get things done. this idea of national politics being walled off from local events was one side. another intangible that we recognized his people -- is that if people know the story of america, even if they disagree fromit, the opportunity around the world. office, ohiorating is that we are big enough to offer anything, but we are small enough that you can get anything done. was wesouth dakota story come from smaller cities around we have become part of big city life will help the hardships of chicago, l.a., or whatever you one final one, the fresno, california area is -- least stylist city stylish city in california. i say that because they know i love them. they said we are tired of people looking down on us so we will have a tech center and an arson. -- and arts center. so when we first get to a city we had a set routine. we talked with the newspaper editors, the library with the public school people, the mayor, and one of our early questions was tell us who makes this city go. any city where you can tell things are going to have it, they would say it is following six people. guy runs a foundation, the sky's changing the school, and it did not matter who the answers were, but that there were answers. there were some cities where we ask the question and the person with it there for a while. that is a sign the city had deeper problems. whether there were people that felt that the city of people coming in mattered to them. host: let's start with lydia, in woodstock, illinois. caller: i want to put illinois on the map. it deserved be there. first. is rated i am sure chicago will be represented in your coming concern. i want to recommend the following book, corrupt illinois. theust recently came out, subtitle is h&h, cronyism and criminality. i recommended it last week to the council. at woodstock, just like a lot of ther small towns, we have of corruption. i would like to invite you to , where a manse from gds attended last week, and his program on st. patrick's day was pointing out that we have a lot of corruption. our recommended the book to him to review on his program. you, as ake to invite red,ble gas, with all the perhaps you can come to and not only represent your article and your interest, but look to our city as a possible template for the process that you are now considering. host: you get a lot of recommendations. frustration and have is we are not able to see 100 times more cities i enable to do. we're going to go through the midwest this summer. point is that we know the city government has been through history, often very corrupt. at this moment i think the effectiveness of city government is relatively stronger the national government. national government has disagreements that you discuss on your channel rescue these from happening. people cannot stand to be paralyzed that way because there is something we have to do. they can say there is this park thereeeds to be redone, is an infrastructure system that needs to be redone. the article is titled how america is putting itself back together by james fallows. it is in this months issue of "the atlantic". a three-year journey by a single renewallane, revealing and held the second gilded age might end. edward is in quincy, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. guest: good morning. go ahead with your comment or question. nobel: we found them laureate school is, when we laureate school visits, when we bring them to , itols all over the country inspires them. in life and achievement. thank you. to communicate and coordinate and being in touch with you. guest: i think the ways to get in touch with us are on the .ebsite for the atlantic we have seen things like that. not quite as impressive of nobel laureates, but greenville, south carolina, they are often in the news. is a manufacturing center, and right in the center of town in a historically underserved startedhood, they have something called the agent wittenberg elementary school for engineers. little gradeschool students who are learning engineering. of the very accomplished engineers from the tea plant and others nearby comments talk with his kids. we have seen examples of the surrounding country. i would like to learn more. host: where do you go to learn about a town? if he what we would do spent two makes an attempt to do not know everything, but you know more than a day or two. almost every place in u.s. has a tiny airstrip, so we would lead to talk to people there. initially there was a hotel in the center of town. the first calls would be our justified out our reliable sources of information. we started saying for the young people coming back into town? who is somebody who has lost a child? -- a job? the marker he had not known to look for until we began this journey was the ambitious community college. we all know that america's research universities are the dominant impact the u.s. has in the world but i think that the community college it's really on the way this stage of our economic history, where there is so much pressure on the middle. it is happening all around the world, and happening here too. community college's are the way people can get trained for higher wage jobs that actually exist now. in northern mississippi, in a place called the golden triangle, there is a place called east mississippi community college which is training very poor local people, some of them with difficult backgrounds, for jobs in these highways industrial plants. , they alle them feel have problems, but they are part of the state and are going in the right direction. host: from twitter, if the politics could get out of it, we could heal in full together. we're speaking with james fallows from "the atlantic" about his 54,000 mile trip and the u.s.around learning about these talents. you can call in on our regional lines. mary is in potomac, maryland. good morning. caller: i am calling about america going into china and listing 400 million people out of poverty. that means 400 million people across the world have suffered the consequences. there is no difference in human rights. even yesterday there were headlines that a columnist in china is missing. bolster acontinue to regime that is so impressive -- so oppressive and continues to growth in inhibit hong kong? host: we are about this trip around the united states. how do these issues from around the world, how are they playing out? guest: i will give you a 32nd answer on china. for the past 30 years the trend in china has been dramatic economic improvement and until recently there has been some political improvement internally. if people look back 15 years ago they felt better. that has changed in the last for years. the question that all people observe in china is how serious is this change? there have been moving this movement in an opening direction. now it is in a reverse direction. that is an issue. let's go to our next caller. good morning. caller: good morning. on the campaign trail, many candidates are talking about international trade. they are saying other countries are taking our things. but companies are not doing what they're supposed to do, taking trade as they talk about their own side of what they want. they don't create jobs here, which the export of goods is supposed to do. trade asthey do not abide by run those countries either. the governor of florida said he has low unemployment, but that is not true. us are out of work and , 8, 9 years ofed people who are not employed because of the same thing. incentive forets companies to come to florida. guest: the trends that she is discussing are important and real ones. this economy has become more polarized. itself it has enriched by disproportionate amount to the top. most americans do not realize that this is true in every single country of the world. this is a question i have put on china. this is a worldwide challenge of industrialization. the u.s. has actually proven .tself more resilient manufacturing but is starting up a lot of places, they have role of this movement of dispersed manufacturing. people are tempted to dismiss the best some boutique, small thing. but it has become an important source of jobs and entrepreneurial activity. i will mention one other fact. called thegroup kauffman foundation that has proven over history than the of jobs in the country comes almost totally from new firms, firms that have just started rude walmart employees, and wanted people over time, they are hiring and laying off, it is new firms for the job growth. it is important that the u.s. improve the conditions for a ownership and we have seen it happen around the country. host: are there wasted to improve the chances that they become the location of choice for these up-and-coming companies? >> that is a good question. a lot of people were talking with us as they travel around is cutal lowbrow answer the taxes, have a race to the bottom of who is going to be the cheapest waste operate or have the environmental regulations relax. that seemed to be part of it but not the main part tha. themain part is showing city government can help you get things done, rather than not get things done. the schools will work with a plan to train all. the university skin to corporate research programs. there is a very important point in this election year of the cities are attracting the most al qaeda copies that is comfortable for people to comment, whether it is investors from other countries, whether it is people of different races or backgrounds, feeling they are open, rather than closed societies. host: let's go to sinai, new york, a caller. caller: thank you. has your study or research looked into the destructive patterns of industry and the money in politics on the environment? it seems we have had various industries, whether it is oil, breaking,pelines little to do coverage on the news, but these destructive forces on america, whether it is clean drinking water, you have a river in michigan that cannot even be pumped to the water system because it is so corrosive it leaches lead. 2010 year student camera winners were proponents of nuclear energy, and only nine months later we had three melted down nuclear reactors in japan. thenderstanding is that quarry has escaped the site and they cannot get near it. could c-span do some soul-searching, the grand prize winners of 2010 were proponents of nuclear power, saying how safe it was, redundancy of safeguards, that nothing of this could ever happen. it seems as though the regulation by our government has much sopromised, so that we have so much nuclear waste and there's no place to put it and is growing every day. i wondered, had those student so powerful,een what they have had grand prize winner? the possible task of containing, or keeping it out of the environment, because it is just a matter of time before our environment becomes so inundated with these byproducts and off gases from these plants that life will no longer exist on this planet. know,for those who do not this is a way for students to engage in public policy issues. thousands of submissions come in each year for our process by which we go through that and pick our winners. you can find more information on our website. the first book i wrote was about the struggle for environmental protection down in savannah, georgia. in the history of american development, the struggle between corporate power of one kind of another, and protecting common welfare has been a very important theme in our national see and the places where we it most often was in appalachia, where the aftermath of the coal and chemical era has affected that part of the world. oregon,ral part of where they are trying to maintain international environment and rebuild the economy, and the just the climate issues in general. i agree with your premise that this is part of what america needs to be aware of to succeed and be bold. we are ahead of most asian countries, we are behind some european ones. host: one of the signs that his city will succeed, according to your study, is that people can pick out the local patriots. fort walton beach, florida. who are the local patriots in your community? do you know who makes fort walton beach run? caller: not really. i am relatively new here, and i am part of the process. thank you for taking my question. can america put itself back together? that presupposes that we have been together. i cannot think of a time except for warwick police have pulled together. -- except for war winky bullhead when people have pulled together. i think i can speak for most of us we do not think america has ever been together. you read the article, which is available, for free on our website, you can see that i try to deal with the question of comparing this. it mean tohat does say the united states is going through a time of trouble now, and how does that compare with previous times? in a college like studied american history and i would to graduate school for economics. i'm aware of the effect that if you know about american history, you do not believe in this golden age, because we had the original founding amerian -- ,mericans believing in slavery and we had fights over that through the articles. what we have right now is a combination of economic and political pressure. the economics is what it was in the late 1800s, with somewhat benefit of a new technological order going to people at the top. the other is a national government which is more paralyzed and it usually has been in our history. toally they have been able get things done, and that is not the case now. in the article i addressed the things beyond how we can find ways to put the different strains and components of america to use. one final short point, i spent a lot of my life living outside of the u.s.. what i most appreciate about being in america -- being an american is that we are a nation of different peoples. we only become the truest version of ourselves when everybody feels that he or she has the chance to do whatever is the best potential they can realize. age --t proposing gold the golden age in this article, i am saying what can we do about strains? steve, next caller, good morning. caller: good morning. i know this is slightly off-topic. using thegued about general aviation platform in your travels. i am wondering if you can discuss unique perspective in that in any particular unique badies either good or among your travels. guest: thank you for the question i. general aviation are anything that are not the airlines. lookedut 20 years i have flying around the country in a single ai engine airplane. described in this article there is the view you get of the united states from low altitude flying that is absolutely unique. when you are in an airliner five or six miles up, you are too far away to see things. when you're down on the road rethink everything about america stores, and big box roads because that is where you can go in a car. when you can fly over the country at low altitude, you can see the roads are these little rivers going through territories that is mainly not reachable by road. you see the u.s. is mainly forest on the eastern one third and farms in the middle one third and hazard and mountains on the western one third. there are lots of places you can reach by these little tiny airplanes that are so difficult to get to otherwise. places in northern montana, central oregon, or very far down east main. e. because we had so many unusual parts of america in the years we have been flying around, we wanted to use this as a vehicle to get to places that would be hard to otherwise, and to give people a sense of one more way of looking of their country -- looking at their country. host: orlando, florida, caller. caller: thank you for a fascinating topic. see if he haso read these books. one is called the new geography. it talks about how jobs are actually locating in different locations raised on a whole set of factors. if you're in a certain type of city you're going to see certain type of job. if you're in another type of city you will see a different type of job. also, general aviation. guy named alex maclean flies around and takes photographs from the air, and they are absolutely brilliant photographs. he did a series on detroit where these tractors met while he was flying above. i look forward to reading the article. guest: thank you very much. i am chagrined to say i have heard of but not immerse myself in the aerial photos. you can be sure when i leave today i will track that down. of jobs, igraphy have with that, and there is a fascinating field of study of lots of other people saying why is work going to places it is? there are some things that are concentrating, we know the san francisco area in its tech field, here in d.c. of the governmental fields and all the rest. there is something we talk about in the article, which is a counter movement. opposite of the big sort, where in duluth, minnesota, it has become an interesting center of aerospace technology, medical technology and outdoor space economic things in the fresno area of california they are making themselves and agricultural base in the technology field. we have had these interesting dispersions of regional smaller nodes. what is left out of this is the really small places, the city of a thousand people. world historye and technological history above but you can see a diverse ecology of where people go forward. that is what we're trying to have people be aware of. it is not just go to the biggest city where you can have a job. is dyingthe city fo for any reason, and people are trying to get out, do they look back or move on and not look back? guest: this is a question over the decades i have reported for "the atlantic" as i have got to pittsburgh and chicago and parts of detroit. people who cannot either move there are and start a workable which is a trauma in it self. americans are immobile country but people are from someplace and like to have those feelings. your contradictory realities of american life are some cities can go down and then revise. buffalo, new york is in the process of doing that, fresno, new york. something in the place they want to be. others are dislocated and always feel bad. they had to leave where they were from. this has also been a long story in our lives. remember in college many years ago reading the study of the barrel making industry in upstate new york before the civil war. people were called cooper's. war the industry changed and the people who have this concentration of skills had to go other places as there were not the same number of barrels anymore. host: let's go to cleveland, ohio, john is up next. caller: good morning. it is a pleasure to talk to you. old, and i want to is somee, is there level of gentrification, moving into the inner-city area, are you representing small areas, or big cities like pittsburgh? of the manysm lineal people -- of the millennials people speaking? also, do you think this will be a lasting development? nothing is permanent. i'm 81 years old, i know that. i am just wondering if it is idealism, or out of desperation , the wall divide street shenanigans. see someleasure to revival, but are they pockets only? the southwest has picked up steam, and the globalization is affected. but i see a certain amount of idealism in the younger crowd. like questions that i would love to talk about for 10 hours. but i will give you the shorts answer i can. on the idealism and younger people, i think this is very much a factor. something i had not appreciated until we traveled so much is how many cities across the country you have these downtown revivals where the still existing from 19th-century downtown which is very lovely is being revived, and mainly younger people are moving down there. they like to work downtown, the like to live downtown. vacancy artist districts and retail and residential. the same widespread development, much more than i had imagined. it is partly a sense of idealism, people caring about their communities. in your mid-20's you have a longer time ahead of you that i do that you can make your town a certain way. nothing is permanent, as you know, but i do think one message i had after living outside the united dates for most readers and viewers in the americas that the u.s. is fundamentally better positioned than almost any other terms of our scale, our adaptability, our openness to tell it from around the world, resources, etc. our only distinctive problem right now is our pearlized national government. our national government is less functional than most other countries. most other countries are in better shape. the u.s. government is a multi-century story of adaptation which will continue. we will continue to discuss this cover story in this months atlantic magazine. if you are 748-8000 in eastern or central time zones, it is (202) 748-8001 if you're in the mountain or pacific time zones. this fallows making around the journey country o. whoer: i speak as someone started in a trade union back in when 27% of america was union. you could invest in social security and invest in your union pension plan, and you could have peace of mind. that was the american dream. viewed and lived through the time of the dwindling of supportnd the lack of -- the do-nothing congress that has claimed that austerity is the way to prosperity and that tax cuts for the rex and a stagnant economy are good for america. in a sense, i'm going to read your article, i have not read your book will but i will. but in a sense, the american dream is at risk. the constitutional dream. thatng that i could say encapsulated in the better than this -- there are corporations that are leaving america. they invert. , these onesions american corporations are still using the market. they are collecting state, federal social security taxes from american citizens, and they are not american corporations. there should be a law against corporations collecting taxes from american citizens, and having that type of influence they have in washington. guest: these are serious and multiple points you bring up to deal with the last one, in case familiarrs are not with the term of corporate aversion, it has been the trend of the past decade as a tax to watch for corporation -- tax dodge for corporation to set up their headquarters in ireland and dodge see the u.s. taxes. democratsissue where and republicans agree that this needs to correct it. it is just the process of our politics right now that is not allowing this. it needs to be corrected, you can see politicians on both sides saying that. point of the change of the american economic structure, it is certainly true that over the last few generations the union movement has declined in the united states. i personally believe that is a bad and destructive thing, and is part of the pressuring you see in the united states and again in every other country of the world of having more pressure on people in the middle and more rewards going to people on the top. numeral see this anyplace you go. in plastic -- in past eras of u.s. history where you had this pressure like the late 1800s, that is what gives rise to the progressive populist movement to begin the union movement in its origins. we will see something like that begin in an accident game, where we have an economy that is growing overall, but if benefits are not including as many people as it should. to find a way to redress the social balance. what local discussion is going to be about. the other point i make is that the time in the two or three decades after world war ii, when there was this kind of social discussion about union households and steadily rising income, that was not the norm in american history. that was a particular time in american history before which and after which it was a much more trouble to us economy. people rising and falling. the question is what can we due to recapture the american history. that was a particular time in american history that we need to find ways to return to as much as we can. host: richard is in lake placid, florida. caller: good morning. both parties have become one, they basically want the same thing. there are just small, individual things that they put out there so people will either vote democrat or republican. , or are afraid independents the government will go back to the people. donald trump is the bridge over the swamp to the people. this quagmire of the career politicians, the snakes in the they will never give the power back to the people unless we can get away from washington dc. borders get some control, and we get the economy going and what i wonder -- i have over 30 years in the military. program in the mideast, we cannot win a war over there. i have flown in there and flown out the air force. they are killed and wounded, for what purpose? until we get rid of the career politicians in washington, the country is going to stay the same. go.a health care has to there are many policies and laws that are on beneficial to the people of this country. the government is supposed to work for the people, it does not. host: he brings up border control. immigration is a key issue you talked about in this story. guest: let me make one more point. some ofe surprising to your viewers. we were traveling for a couple of years before donald trump entered the race last summer, making immigration a very big. -- theme. what surprised us is that of until this point, this has been part of the normal american disruption of coping with immigration as opposed to some kind of emergency situation. ofmuch of arizona, we know sheriff joe, and his efforts. much of the change of the border had been seen as a reality, but less of an emergency. a related point on borders is the last few years in net flow of mexicans between the country of mexico and the united states as many leaving us coming the past two years. is through make here american history immigration has always been disruptive. whether with the arms for the germans and italians, the polish, vietnamese, whoever. they have found ways to accommodate and adjust. city by city, that is mostly what is going on now. accommodateto changes. host: harrisburg, virginia, helen. caller: i wanted to make a comment about the caller who was against nuclear energy. we no longer have enough plutonium to power the probes that we send in. we are running out of this energy and we have to use something called the chemical energy. it only less for a short time and it would never power a probe beyond the outer reaches of the solar system. we have to go back to making it. i want to see my great-grandchildren going to the stars. one of the things i love about c-span is you always learn something new did not expect to see why. i had not thought about that implication. host: justin from illinois, good morning. caller: good morning. i love the idea of what you and your wife did by going to the local communities at the local level, especially considering all of the elections going on. we forget that that is the important level of politics. is, i am a criminology major, and i study recidivism programs at the state and local levels. you talked about aerospace manufacturing. you talked about a couple of other industries that are the heart of these political efforts. i wanted to find out if you could give some insight on the criminal justice side of what local communities are doing to thist this, whether it is a division, retention, drugs. i appreciate it. guest: thank you. an area of relative weakness has been on policing and things like that. our initial focus has been mainly on economic development, social cohesion, and libraries and schools. we have looked less into that and other things. we have seen places where the products of the criminal justice system, people coming back out after time inside, communities are figuring out how to adopt them. in the very small town of holland, michigan, on the michigan on of the lake, they are a strong manufacturing center. there are families there with a strong community sense, and many have taken it upon themselves to bring in people with criminal backgrounds and say we are going to train you so you can have a working record again. in mississippi and northern mississippi, the golden triangle, parts of georgia as well. when you have cities that are a scale that people can say we see the effects of the city, of this trend within our own boundaries, and we can do something about it. we can have business people and faith leaders and ngos and school people say somebody is coming out of the correctional system and needs to have some sort of job. here's a way we can get him a skill. here is an indicted employment program. this era of over incarceration, we did see a lot of city by city efforts to incorporate as many people as they could back into productive life. host: jeff is in frederick, maryland. good morning. caller: how is everybody to get? -- today? i have two questions. juste my flying probably -- flying privileges revoked because of two points over on the blood pressure. greenville was one of my solos. trip is oneng your and are you a proponent of a third class medical reform, and do you feel that general of the asian place a big part in the local economy -- that general aviation plays a big part in the local economy? guest: the third class medical reform, for those who do not know what we are talking about, if you are a private pilot you need to get two or three years a medical examination, it is not class one that pilots have to get on major airlines. the piecesacks are like the caller, where if you have a minor on blood pressure infraction, you can have them revoked. you need to have a common sense guideline. i'm in favor of that reform, i hope it happens to i think that general aviation is a big factor in these towns, because if you're not on an interstate or near a hub airport, where people can get in and out to do deals, it is important to have these little airports. i am an employee of the atlantic, as i have been for many years. my wife has been doing this as a volunteer, and for our many expenses we have had different advertising contracts for a website and the magazine. there is no hidden funding, we're just doing features for the magazine, advertisers place ads on those features, and use that to buy gas. host: lowell, from fredericksburg, virginia. caller: every time i go out i run into illegal immigrants every place i go. i am amazed that the blacks and the whites are extraordinary incked together friendship because of the invasion of aliens from other countries. thin i haveg seen the administration doing this race baiting and causing will between blacks, whites, and latinos, and they are getting better and better at. it. the hatred that i see in the hatred that i hear on this program, which i'm sure the people running it also notice, is incredible. so how on earth could i ever [indiscernible] when we are so unbelievably divided? long: our country has a history of division of different kinds. we had natural civil war, we had slavery, all these other problems. most places in the country, people would say about the country as a whole, things are really divided. but then here in mississippi, things are getting better. here in utah, things are getting better. dakota, central california, there has to be some way to experience the sense of possibility and working togetherness, which in most parts of the country is still feasible at the local level, and find a way to protect the national -- project that nationally. many local areas are still working on it. host: one quote from your story along to show our viewers, you now, tohat it is " observe the united states is in a second gilded age. but sadly it does not turn out the same way the second time wait for thet's four forms to happen again. -- for the reforms to happen again. " include things like training programs for people to find new opportunities, reincorporate people from the criminal justice program, finding ways to discuss things that would be polarizing. it would be better if we had national efforts to lead this transition. for example, if you were moving toward an economy where people have fewer lifetime jobs, pension benefits to protect that , i think that will come at a certain point. right now localities are doing what they can. host: can america put itself back together is the question from the cover of "the atlantic" magazine. surprising sources of strength. is the author of that piece, and we appreciate your time on the washington journal. of next, open phones. we can keep talking about the issues that are impacting your local community and your local city. the president's trip to cuba, or any public policy issue you want to talk about in our last half-hour of today's program. -- phone numbers you can insert calling in now, and we will be right back. ♪ >> on the wigan, in it is usually authors with new releases. -- when i tune in on the weekend, it is usually authors with new releases. >> "booktv input brings you author after author, the works of fascinating people. and i am abooktv," c-span fan. >> i am a history buff. i enjoy seeing how things work and how they are made. >> i love american artifacts. it is probably something i would really enjoy. >> with american history tv, it gives you the perspective. >> i am a c-span fan. announcer: washington journal continues. the lastn phones for half-hour of the "washington journal" today. any public policy issue you want to talk about, we can talk about. a few headlines from newspapers around the country focusing on the president's historic and controversial visit to cuba. here is that the denver post this morning. historic visit, an opportunity -- that is the headline. the front page of the los angeles times this morning -- obama takes first step in cuba here that is the lead story. international papers focusing on this visit, as well. this one is out of canada -- it is wonderful to be here 55 years after severing relations. tory withes his his visit get we can talk about that or any other issue you want to talk about. george is calling on the line for republicans. caller: i wonder if obama will talk about cuba's health policies or health research. i heard they had a vaccine for cancer or lung cancer. tot: the president expected make remarks today and tomorrow, expected to meet with dissidents tomorrow. we will be looking, as folks around the world and around the country will the president will meet with the cuban president, raul castro, later this morning. remarks expected mid afternoon from both the president of cuba and the president of the united states. edward on the line for democrats. new york, new york. sun finally the came out in new york. anyway, i want to bring up the fact that we have hillary trump, two ofnald the most disliked people in the country, running for office. how did this happen? half the country does not trust hillary clinton. the other half dislike donald trump. these are the best we could come up with? you have got to be kidding me. host: what are you going to do in november? who are you going to vote for? caller: i am going to hold my nose. can i suggest a program real quick? i would like to suggest that one of the programmers who run your show -- why the way, c-span is fantastic -- that shows how many people are going to hold their nose and vote for hillary or devote for donald trump. i -- or vote for donald trump. i think the numbers will shock you. i am going to hold my nose. i do not know yet. i still cannot believe this is what we're stuck with. but thank you very much. it is shocking that we are stuck with these two. in new york, new york. five candidates remain among the two parties who are running for president of the united states. news on donations that came into those candidates coming out in this morning's papers. ted cruz, republican from texas, the senator raising nearly $12 million last month, filing with $8 million to spend at the end of the month at ohio governor john kasich, $3.4 million last month amid three times what he made the previous month, still falling far short of his rivals. , $6.9ican donald trump million last month. raised $2 million in addition in outside donations. outraisedrnie sanders hillary clinton by about $14 million in february, bringing in more than $43 million to her $29.4 million last month. end of the month, hillary clinton had about $14 million more left in her war chest than senator bernie sanders. those numbers coming out today. open phones here. u.s.-cubak politics, relations, or talk about your towns and cities around this country and the civic issues important to you. charles is in virginia, line for independents. caller: good morning. i just wanted to pass this on to you, and i am sure people are picking up on this. when they are starting to pull into the gas stations, it is unbelievable -- this story about summertime gas is a fiasco. they are pushing -- within 30 days, they have pushed gasoline up at least 30 cents, and god knows how much higher it will go . if this keeps going, we are going to be back to where we were before. oil is $40.-- there is no reason for us to be up to two dollars, and god knows how much higher it is going to go, because it is going to hurt the economy. people need to -- i should say, the gas companies, the gas stations should start to realize that american greed is setting in, and enough is enough. host: do you remember when gas was over five dollars a gallon? caller: oh, yes, sir. host: how did you change your routine? old, and im 74 years really did what every american should have done. i parked my cars, and i'm very fortunate being retired and all. i put less than 3000 miles a year on a car. we have had gas down in this area like $1.49, and now it is creeping up close to two dollars , and this is just march. what is going to happen when the really warmer weather sets in, april, may? you know, what are these people trying to do? and we have more gas and oil van we know what to do with. we are sending it to other countries. there is no need for this to be going on. and middle-class people, younger people that have to work, and down in this area, it is rural, country, and people have to travel 20, 30 miles each way to work, and they are driving -- they are not making a lot of money, and they are driving older vehicles, trucks, and these things are gobbling up their money. it is affecting food and produce. it is going to put us back into the way we were when, as you said, when gas was five dollars. it has eased up some, but we do not have the jobs. the gentleman you had on there before explained how america is broke. donald trump keeps saying he is going to bring the jobs back, but gasoline -- with us not being able to fill up like we were before, with the gas creeping up, and no jobs, we going down the toilet. host: we got your point. , linego on to california for republicans. good morning, marilyn. caller: good morning. i hope you will bear with me. i 91 years old and might be a little nervous, but i have a lot to say. when i was 19 years old, i decided to give my life in a pursuit of truth. had i known where it would lead me, i do not think i would have done it. prejudices and working hard. i took 31 newspapers and magazines, and i watched c-span. i learned a lot. and one of the things i heard on lamb. was ryan there was an article from the "washington post" one morning that said, and he really stressed that, and not one it andwas alarmed by called in about it. i was very shocked at how uninformed people are. host: what was the article about? caller: it said that 13 people control the entire economy of the world. they met once a and made their decisions on what was going to happen to us. ,ne of those men was kissinger and that really caught my attention because i considered him a traitor. people do not know what the federal reserve is. if they knew, well, in the words of ford, they would have a revolution. if they learned overnight, there would be a revolution in the morning. the cause they control, and these people are always talking about the rich people. who is to blame? the federal reserve. in martinez,s california, line for independents. good morning. it is open phones. caller: i would like to recommend to all the people who are really uninformed about fetal castro and what had -- about fidel castro and what has gone on in cuba, read a book called "the guerrilla print." footnote andence could be a textbook. about how allphy the guerrilla fighters, including isis and our current enemies, were essentially trained in the form of fighting, brought to the foreground by castro. he is not in power right now. his brother is, but they are no different. there is nothing that the americans can do to free the people of cuba as long as the "inverted corporations international" going to cuba and ire -- hotels, still h even the nationals of cuba -- at minimum wage. these are the same corporations that are in the sanctuary cities that are using illegal immigrants at lower wages to impede these people's growth, as well as taking jobs away from americans and lowering the standards of living in america. host: here is the front page of his today," obama against historic cuba visit. a picture of the president getting off air force one. one of his first stops was at the newly reopened u.s. embassy in havana. here is a bit of the president's remarks to the u.s. workers there in havana. president obama: hello, everybody. ambassador just stated, it has been nearly 90 years since a u.s. president stepped foot in cuba. it is wonderful to be here. back in 1928, president coolidge came on a battleship. it took him three days to get here. it only took me three hours. [laughter] for the first time ever, air force one has landed in cuba, and this is our very first stop. so this is a historic visit, and it is a historic opportunity to engage directly with the cuban people. and to forge new agreements and commercial deals to build new ties between our peoples. for me, to lay out my vision for a future that is brighter than our past. host: his trip continuing today and tomorrow in cuba. it is open phones this morning here on the "washington journal." augusta, georgia, line for democrats. caller: i am so tired of these people going after hillary. she is our best option. bernie sanders is just an angry old man that is a socialist. unfortunately, that is not a bad thing, but the republicans and fox news will have a field day on that. and we will get trump as president, instead of the democrat. host: hillary clinton will be on our road to the white house , aerage today on c-span3 campaign rally happening in phoenix today, which we will bring to our viewers around 6:30. line for republicans, good morning. good morning, everyone. i am just as fanatical about donald trump as that man was about hillary clinton. i am tired of the establishment saying constantly that they want to get rid of him. america is speaking. we, the people, want donald trump to get the republican nomination. i also think sarah palin would be an excellent vice presidential choice. and that is what i called to say. happy easter, everybody. host: donald trump is speaking this morning, expected to be at the american israel public affairs committee meeting today in washington, d.c. republicans by the candidates, john kasich, donald trump, ted cruz, happening at 5:00 p.m. today. hillary also speaking at that event the four she heads to the phoenix rally, speaking this morning -- hillary also speaking at that event before she had the phoenix rally. bernie sanders will not be speaking at aipac. to our next call. caller: first of all, thank you for letting me be on tv and speak my thoughts about cuba. i am a real cuban. i came at the age of 12 in 1967. i cannot forget all the times i pairmy mother to get me a of shoes, and the book said i already got my pair of shoes for that year. there was no space. the american people do not understand it. long as --o, so [indiscernible] there is no freedom for our people. there is no freedom. do not let them lied to you. you not let none of them lie to you. obama is disgracing our usa. this was not a dream. we did not wait 48 years for this. free withcuba to be no castro in it. i will never go back to cuba. my mother will die. --ould like to say thank you [indiscernible] money,d it right on the usa needs to wake up. cuba is a communist country. raul is his puppet. he is the boss. all those people that obama is saying hello to, they were chosen by fidel castro. ordered everybody to stay indoors. that is the real cuba. that is why we left. we are not here because we want to be here. we are here because we have to. we have a beautiful island that i would love to see again. i was looking yesterday to see if i see anything that i recognize, and i did not see anything because they did not let the tv channels show it. --ma will never be allowing [indiscernible] you do not understand to this is making me so mad and upset. [cries] i am so sad to my mother is so sad. in the 1950's, we came to america, and others went to mexico and other countries. my cousin is in puerto rico for years. for years. this is hurting us be of you do not understand, we want a free cuba with no fidel castro. free like the usa is. this is not freedom. this is freedom for the people that want to buy the property's that they take away from my grandmother. my father committed suicide in 1967.n this is painful to us. that is all i wanted to say. and thank you for everybody that has stand up for this. this is a disgrace. donald trump would have never done this to that is the man that we want. host: germantown, maryland, david is up next, line for democrats. caller: good morning. that was kind of scary to hear that. with theht disagree woman because the time has changed. i have from the soviet republic and have been in this country for 12 years. i think the president did the right thing to go to cuba, because this is the only way the regime can change, moderate itself, or it may collapse, just like the soviet union collapsed. i understand what she said. it was pretty much the same thing where i lived. soviet, the communism system, to just asking you how many produce and when to produce, not how or how much. so i think president obama did the right thing like going and normalizing the relationship. i think the cuban government itself is desperate. if you let me talk about the second thing, the president put was the right thing to do, because i have friends that rely on this, hard-working people with families, and those people are paying taxes. that is david in germantown, maryland on the issue of cuba, some numbers from recent polling about americans and their feeling about cuba. the percent of americans saying they approve or favor u.s. reestablishing diplomatic relations with cuba. as of last year, 73% saying that they approve the ending of the trade embargo against cuba as of the summer of last year. 72% say they approved. the pew research saying, for the first time, the majority of americans have a favorable view of cuba. the gallup survey from february saw 54% of americans had a favorable view of cuba. this is a dramatic change from 1996 when just 10% said they had a favorable view of the country. the partisan split still remains. nearly three-quarters of democrats said they had a favorable view of democrats, while just 34% of republicans said the same. those numbers from the pew research center to the president is in cuba on this historic trip. bill is an auburn, pennsylvania, a republican. caller: yes, hello. and 70 years old. i have been a republican all my life. i ate trump supporter -- i am a trump supporter. i want to talk about the riots at the events. , a democrat with the obama and clinton party, we found out that he is behind all this. it may beook like bernie sanders, so clinton can walk rate into the white house. host: how concerned are you about the conventions this summer, seeing the violence and the protests, the riots, as you describe it? what do you think will happen at the conventions? i hope everything will be settled. as far as i can see, if they start supporting trump -- the media makes a lot of this stuff up. it is a shame it if i was trump, whatld be doing worse than he is doing. you are c-span. i love it and listen to it all the time. brought out -- he won florida and stuff like that. he said, they are making up lies. [indiscernible] i feel i should bring out the countying that we do not -- i mean, the people are the ones who vote, not the rnc. thank you for letting me talk, because i never had the chance to talk before. host: all right, tennessee, line for independents. you are on. yeah, iyear, i think -- think a lot of people need to stop putting faith in politicians. a lot of people need to start doing things like pulling together as communities. you think about outsourcing, instead of people looking to somebody to bring back the jobs, how come communities do not pull together to take over those factories to run them as communities? then they can guarantee employment in their own communities. and if the communities owned the factories, it would not outsource or hire illegal immigrants. they would not have to deal with wall street. start a small to business, instead of going to wall street, you borrow money from the community and pay it back to the community. you created jobs in the community, and you pay it back with interest. in the community can use that interested take care of local infrastructure. host: are there examples from your community in tennessee? there are not examples and my community. but i know of other examples. probably -- is north dakota is the only state during the recession that do not go into the red. yet, north dakota is the only state in the country that actually controls its own credit, because they have their own bank. the rest were wall street. the seventh biggest corporation in spain is worth -- 125,000 workers owned by 125,000 workers. they do not outsource. in cleveland, you have a worker co-op, which takes care of that local community. they do solar and have green houses. and with the green houses, local communities building green houses. people do not like the gmo's and things like that, so they can build the green houses. they are owned by the communities, and they have control of their own food, control their own credit, control their own jobs. i think we need to stop saying we need somebody up there and start saying we need power down here. host: now to connecticut. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. last week, you asked viewers theirhey experienced favorite candidate, and i just ago,to say that 13 years it was on c-span. it was your series "students and leaders," if you recall that, or that was before your time. host: it was before my time, but that is ok. 2003.: it was what was really interesting is he had that high school class, and it was like the most comprehensive civic lesson that he engaged the students, respected the students, went back and forth, and they found out what an oligarchy actually was, because he explained that. if you look at the campaign rallies, he is treating it like a wonderful take civics lesson. he has not changed. andlearn everything else -- the thing that came across in 2003 students in leaders, and by the way, it is still in the archives, he still has respect, a profound respect and share responsibility with whoever is listening. what i loved was he was not saying, like hillary, i will fight for you, but he is saying that you have to vote in order to create the future. that is what i love about the shared responsibility. thank you very much. is in manchester township, new jersey, line for republicans. caller: thank you for the opportunity to speak. this is for mr. trump. if you recall, many of you will not, the greatest woman this country has ever produced was eleanor roosevelt. not only as an individual, as a first lady, but as an abbasid are. when she was being attacked from all sides -- but as an ambassador. and she was being attacked, she turned the other profile pay attention, mr. trump. do not name call. that is childish. stand firm on the platform that got you where you are. do not disappoint us. we are tired of the politicians and their allies. we need a future. -- we're tired of the politicians and their lies. we need to regroup and you are the one to do it. host: california, life are independents. sayer: yeah, i wanted to that i came up in monterey county, born there. there is agriculture. i am now 66, raised four children and grandchildren, no pension, no savings, no money, still working, having difficulty with medical care, just got back from mexico getting my teeth fixed. i would have never done that in a million years -- scared to death. go down there, such a lovely experience. people.ctors, great every older american in the southern part of the united states and canadians were there. work.ad glasses, dental you have to be careful who you get. acrosseferred, came back the border, which, by the way, no one even looked in a bag. i'd in not even see a electronic's. so they are talking about building a wall? try just going

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