Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20240621

Save the Transpacific Partnership, we want to hear your thoughts on the future of trade deals. Give us a call. Our lines are open. Republicans call in at 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents 202 7458002. You can also catch up with us on social media. On twitter, facebook, or email us at journal cspan. Org. A very good saturday morning to you. One News Organization yesterday calling president obamas calling this president obamas worst day in congress. It came at the hands of not republican, but democrats. Here is the front page of the atlanta journalconstitution. The front page of richmond timesdispatch. Here is the front page of the New York Times this morning calling it a party and revolt referring to the democrats. Finally, to the front page of the Washington Post this morning. They call this a humiliating defeat for the president. We want to hear your thoughts this morning. Our phone lines are open. Did you watch the debate yesterday . We want to get your reaction. To break down what actually happened yesterday and the votes, we bring in emma dumain, reporter for roll call. Thank you for getting up with us after a busy friday. First, explain why democrats want away from the president on this trade vote. Guest it was really fascinating to watch. For the past several months, we have seen democrats in increasing numbers and volume revolt against the Transpacific Partnership, this 12 nation pacific trade deal. In order for obama to start negotiating that deal, they needed to pass on the call trade Promotion Authority which sets the parameters for such trade deals. Even democrats on the more moderate and fiscally conservative and of the spectrum are very concerned that a trade deal would be bad for jobs, for the Labor Community in the country, with the sanctioning of human rights abuses abroad, that implications for climate, a lot of social elements here that were bothersome to people. The real fight this week was over trade adjustment assistance, the bill that would provide Training Programs for American Workers who were displaced by global trade workers. Host this was a piece of legislation that democrats have widely supported in the past but one that democrats walked away from 14440, voting no. Guest thats right. Thank you for jumping in there to break this up. It is very complicated. The way that these bills were structured on the floor yesterday is that they needed to pass trade adjustment assistance legislation in order to advance trade Promotion Authority for a number of reasons. Some democrats did not like the language involving medicare it was missing some protections for Public Employees. There were problems with the bill itself, but more than anything else, it became a vehicle for democrats to block advancing trade Promotion Authority, because they new that they needed to pass taa to pass tpa. President obama went to congress yesterday to say, dont vote down taa because you dont like tpa. Nancy pelosi she came to the floor in the minutes before the final vote and said, basically it is ok to vote down taa and order to stop tpa, which i think is the real amazing take away from the story here how nancy pelosi turned her back on the president and empowered her colleagues to do exactly what he said not to do. Host the package of bills does not move forward as of today. What is the future . Speaker boehner has scheduled anotherr vote on tuesday, what is in not vote . Guest it is due to happen on tuesday, unless there is some drastic change of plans. Basically, it would be a vote to reconsider the friday vote on trade adjustment assistance. It changes assistant if traded just adjustment assistance, it goes to the white house, and the deal is done. This gives president obama and pro trade democrats to lobby supporters, and really make the case to vote for trade adjustment assistance. People who want this to take place in a Democratic Party say the number was much lower. They will try to make the case to colleagues over the weekend. One thing is clear and that is that republicans will not shore up any more vote. There were 84 republicans that voted for trade adjustment assistance, and extraordinarily high number of republicans. People with leadership were really holding their noses and try to get the ball rolling. Host we are talking about moving maybe 80 or 90 democrats. Either that may votes to move at this point . Guest that is the huge question. Steve israel, the former chairman and somebody who is doing messaging right now for the Democratic Party told reporters on friday that anybody who knows anybody who says they know what will happen on tuesday is like. Lying. It is a huge unknown. It could really go either way. The bottom line is that the real question whether democrats are going to decide that it is not worth putting up a fight, by dont think that there are democrats that were so opposed on friday that they will not be so opposed on tuesday. It has become a really ugly political site for democrats with labor, you know, you are either with us or against us. The aflcio is freezing up money. Theyre targeting democrats who are changing their position, voting against tpa. Flammable democrats who barely won reelection in 2014. Progressive colleagues turning on their colleagues. They were members of the congressional progressive caucus that slammed the president yesterday, saying that they were insulted by him. There is a lot of emotion here. It is a lot to overcome. Host you can read all of emma dumains coverage from yesterdays vote from rollcall. Com. We appreciate your time this morning. We are talking to our viewers did you watch yesterdays trade wattle . We want to get your thoughts. What do you think the future is of u. S. Trade deals in the wake of this derailment, at least for now. Lets go to show shoshana waiting in Silver Spring maryland. Caller good morning. I very much for keeping all jobs, as many as possible in this country. Especially with our manufacturing being lower than it has been in previous years. And, people graduate from college and not having enough jobs for them too. I went as many jobs to stay in this country as possible. I need a little bit of a review. Is what happened yesterday in my favor or not . Host it depends on whether you want this trade deal to pass and what you think there can be more jobs created by the trade deal or whether the estimates are correct, it will hurt the american jobs market. Caller is the bottom line is that it creates more jobs in the United States. Host junior is up in austin, texas. Did you watch the debate yesterday on the house for . Caller i watched part of it. The problem is that it just was not clear what was in it. There were other news articles that stated that they did not know what it was what was in it. When you have a lot of journals state that they do not know what is in the bill, that is concerning. The second part is that they wanted to pass a second deal. If you lost your job because of the s deal, they would pay you money. If youre going to lose your job, what is the point of the bill . I dont get it. Host that workers this is bill was the key vote that was voted down and derail this effort to move trade legislation forward. That is called trade adjustment assistance. They voted no 14440. Caller that is the whole point. We just do not know what it means for the rest of us. We really dont. Host that was judy and austin, texas. A lot of questions surrounding the transpacific trade deal that is still being negotiated. These votes yesterday were on workers assistance and the ability to give the president fasttrack trade authority. During the debate, the negotiating process for that Transpacific Partnership. We are trying to break it down for our viewers this morning. We want to get her thoughts on trade generally, and specifically the debate yesterday. Vivian is in tennessee, line for democrats. Caller good morning. All of this talk about the trade deal does not do america any good. They get this cheap labor overseas, bring the products back to us, like for instance clothes when they are making things in america, we did not have this problem. The Companies Need to bring the jobs back to the United States and then we could compete better with other countries. When we were making things here everything was going wonderful. Bring the jobs back. Host on twitter, the to be happening as well. One viewer right again, the only way to know that tpp is good for americans is by way of open and public debate, no secret deals. Robert says, president obama is officially a lameduck. Radical taoist says, is tpp in jeopardy i think it is dead on arrival. Another viewer says that one cannot live in the u. S. Economy with foreign wages. We want to hear from you this morning. Les is up from washburn maine. Good morning. Caller i work in Northern New York. Hello . Host i can hear you. Go ahead. Caller i work in Northern New York for a power company. I grew up in new york. They moved it to vietnam. After destroyed every factory in Northern New York just about. Bill clinton and Newt Gingrich should be an gel for what they did. Host do you have any confidence that this will be different from that. There have been those who have supported this deal saying that there is more protections, that this will not be the same deal that nafta was. Why are you convinced that it is the same thing . Caller i believe in what ross perot said. The sucking sound of jobs leaving. We have to do something because we are in trouble. Host les Bill Schneider from having to impose put this in context and his latest piece that came out last night after the vote. He writes talking about the vote that happened yesterday. 140 democrats voted no, 40 democrats voting yes on a vote that essentially stalled the president s efforts on the Transpacific Partnership. Tom is up next from tonya is up next from west virginia. Good morning. Caller president s can be impeached. Senators and governors can be sent to jail. But, the police union i think that is the next union that needs to be busted out. 30 years ago, i could afford my own apartment by myself with my first job. It is a job what clinton, bush, and obama have been doing. Why did we go to war with countries like vietnam when the government of vietnam wants to keep those people from asking for a raise like the chinese day. The chinese wanted a middleclass life when they got our jobs, and then they shipped the jobs to china. President obama is always saying on the one hand he won a fight for minimum wage, but then he wants to take your jobs. Shame on you president obama. I am with the tea party. Host doris it is up next from chicago, illinois line for democrats. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I have been following this very closely. I have been calling my senator and representative. I have happy to say that they both voted against this bill. The thing is the media needs to zero and. Democrats have never supported these trade deals. The majority of these democrats voted against it. They voted against clinton and nafta. They voted against the columbia deal. The people who pass these trade deals are majority republican votes. Republicans pass these bills. We saw the results of nafta. We have a 181 billion trade deficit with canada and mexico since nafta. 100 million jobs lost. Thats the lesson, we should learn from trade deals. Now, canada is suing us because we want to have country of origin stamped on army. They said, no. They are intervening with our sovereignty. No, no, no. Thank you. Host in the wall street journal this morning pelosi rejects appeals and hands obama a defeat. If you knew how pelosi planned to vote on the fasttrack measure and the companion package that would provide workers aid to those who lost their job due to international trade. Of course, that moment when she made her opinion known was the key moment of the debate yesterday on the house floor. Here is a little bit from her statement. [video clip] nancy pelosi i talked about the red hot stove that people put their hand on when they go home. Mr. Northcross talked about his district. Mr. Boyle about his. The list goes on and on. How do we say to these people that we are here for you, you are our top priority. When the impression they have is that this is not a good deal for them. But, it can be. Im hopeful that it can be. While i am a big supporter of taa, is taa slows down the fasttrack, i am prepared to vote against taa because then it is sad to say the only way we can slow down the fasttrack. Host that was nancy pelosi. The Democratic House leader on the floor yesterday, making her opinion known on the vote that was happening. Here is how the was wall street journal puts it in the editorial today pelosi knifes obama. The humiliation mrs. Pelosi visited on mr. Obama will not be unknown. Washington post called nancy statement the fatal blow. They quoted one member of congress who spoke on condition of anonymity, out of fear of retaliation saying, she screwed this president. We want to get your thoughts this morning. Jim is up from delaware. My for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. One point before we get to this today is separation day of delaware. When it comes to freetrade, im probably all for it, but the problem is that you do not know what is in the bill. The democrats out of like you have to throw for before you know what is in it. I think that was the fatal debate. There was no debate over the substance of the legislation. When you have free and clear debate, it allows people to know how they feel. I think that is one of the fatal mistakes that mcconnell and boehner did. They are distracting the Republican Party behind our eyes, starting to sound like nancy pelosi. Host do you think that Speaker Boehner and others will see retaliation from the right for voting for this. Caller got does. The republicans are not even a party anymore. It is a shame that they can get these majorities, but the leadership just sort of poohpoohs the debates of the party. They need to get more in touch with the rankandfile republican, as opposed to this lobbyist chamber of Commerce Group that seems to be calling all the strikes. I dont know if they will have any retaliation. I would like to see both of them replaced by some new thinking conservative blood. It is a shame what is going on. Host that is jim. Lets head to pennsylvania where bill is waiting, line for democrats. What did you make of the debate that played on the house floor yesterday over trey . Caller i would just like to say that i watched quite a bit of it. I found it interesting. I am a democrat. I am against the fasttrack because i think it will hurt jobs in this country. I thought nancy pelosi showed a lot of courage. Im opposed to the taa being financed through medicare. I dont think that she refinanced on the backs of the elderly. Those are some of my comments. Fascinating, though. Host it sounds a you have been watching this closely. Do think theres any room to move 80 or 90 votes from the democratic side if republicans dont help out the president in this revote that will happen perhaps tuesday next week. Caller i dont think they will get there with the democrats. My congressman voted in favor of both of them. I have a neighboring congressman who voted against fasttrack and against taa. I think he will probably stand strong with that. I think this clearly shows the country that republican is the party of free trade. I think during the next election, democrats will be able to take back both the house and senate. The slow shows that the democrats are for the working people. Host several members of congress taken to twitter yesterday to explain their votes. Here is congressman mike honda out of california. He was no on both trade adjustment assistance, the Worker Protection bill, and Promotion Authority host the fasttrack wibill. He wrote, today i voted with members of congress for transparency. Representative john delaney said, i support giving president obama the ability to do negotiate new trade agreements. Bill pascrell said todays vote was an important victory for the american worker. Might to love pennsylvania was also no on both. He writes, ivo against a terrible bill that would cut medicare and grossly underfunded assistance for americans who lose their jobs from tpp trade deal. We want to hear from the viewers. Daniel is an nevada, line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. These deals with nafta and this trade deal these are deals that only benefit wealthy people , and the people who owns the factories. It kills jobs. They are all employing the poorest of the poor. When youre poor people are all working, they can take care of themselves, pay their own bills, they dont need food stamps or hands out from the government. In order to bust the unions that were strong in this country, the past these trade deals. Now, they ship your job overseas , you are gone, your union is gone. A killed all the labor in this country. I dont see how we could ever bring it back. When i was a young man in the 1970s, even people with criminal records would get a second chance. There were so a jobs, they had to take a chance. Now you have thousands of people flying for the same job. I dont see how our country can ever come back. Host you reference nafta a couple of times, were you in the workforce when nafta took affect jekyll caller when nafta took affect je . Caller yes. I worked in a shoe factory. They were poor peoples jobs. Everybody was able to take care of them. Then now, you only have one shoe factory in the entire state of maine. It killed the entire industry. Like a set again, most of our unions have been posted busted up. Why were unions form . To let workers get a fair stake. You could not get rid of unions besides sending all jobs overseas. Host job is up next in akron ohio, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just do not understand it. We are america. America is supposed to be at the top. These companies, they take our jobs overseas. They should be considered traitors. The only way to solve this issue is if the product that they sell us has to be our jobs. We need to refuse those products. The republicans need to show a good effort towards the people and offer a wage raise a federal wage raise in place of the trade deal. If they do that, then the people can see, ok, we will be making some money. Thank you very much. Host randy is up next in michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to start up by thanking you and all the fine folks behind the scenes for bringing us this fine program. Host i appreciate that, randy. Caller i really proud of our democrats that stood up for the summer teen sovereignty of this nation. The trade deals came back starkly with the labels of origins on armie cover showing us the blackhole that we are walking into. I am side of president obama cant that. I supported him all the long. I spent 20 years in the union in the auto industry. I know how to go out there organize, and pickett. I will go out there and organized to defeat anybody who votes for the trade deal because they are not for the sovereignty of the nation. Host can you talk about the union . Has there been an organized effort from the union that you are involved with . Caller it is with the uaw. Just about every union is on board for this against it. A lot of technology hurt our jobs in the auto industry, but what really hurt was these trade promotion wages. You cannot bargain for wages anymore because now they really will move your job offshore is because they have all the infrastructure under bill clinton. I loved to work that because i worked a lot of overtime. That is really what saved me. During the 1980s with reagan, we were really laid off a lot of. Host there has been a lot of talk in recent years about the waning power of unions. Do you think the vote yesterday demonstrated the strength of unions . Members of the Democratic Party rejected a lastminute deal from the president and voted this one down. Caller i think it was the strength of American People all of them calling and after listing to cspan. I know the union guys did. You heard people calling from all across the nation. They have all seen it. We livesd with nafta. You cannot deal with people making . 50 per hour. What why sell them . I dont have anything that cheap. That is my feeling. I thank you very much for allowing me this much time. Host mark on twitter says if the Transpacific Partnership will bring jobs to america, why a displaced worker assistance bill, jostle be lost in hourly wages will be driven down. We showed you some members of congress on the democratic side of the aisle taken to twitter to put out their response. Here are some republican members of congress. Speaker john mader john boehner said that the republicans did our part. John cornyn from texas called the defeat of president obamas fasttrack trade deal a big win for big labor. One more tweet from congresswoman Cynthia Loomis she voted no on the legislation. We want to hear from our viewers this morning. This vote also the lead editorial in todays Washington Post. Selma is up next calling in from virginia, line for democrats. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. I am glad to see i have had a couple of people talking about country of origin this morning. That was passed wednesday in the house. It has to go to the senate. I called my representatives about it. I wish you would do something about it on cspan. I have not heard a lot of people even i talked to all of my children, and they have not even heard about it. A lot of people may not remember that the chinese drywall came into our country, and we have ad three houses in a neighborhood where they had to got the house gut the house and rebuild it. We had either protein to our pets animal food and then the pets died. My son lost a puppy that he had. 90 of americans surveyed want to know what is in their food. This new thing that they passed on wednesday, taking off labels, we will never know what country of origin armies come from our meats come from. Host i appreciate the suggestion. It does selig and issue that we can take up one morning soon. Jerry is up next. Good morning. Caller good morning. My comments goes back long before nafta went congress created taxfree zones all around the world. The major zone was first in singapore. There has been a conscious mismanagement in this country part of the plant to collapse the market economy. If you want to collapse the market economy, move manufacturing out of this country. I grew up in a time when i remember that the u. S. Steel was the capital of the world. Teacher it was huge. Think of war created a taxfree environment so that the japanese could sell their autos and the United States and compete at lower price. That was it to journal. Again, the dismantling moving jobs out of this country. You want to put collapse you want to collapse manufacturing . People need to do their research. Read up on collectivism. That is one of the last steps towards socialism and total dependency of our people on the government. Host carol has been waiting in rockaway new jersey, line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. Can you hear me . Host yes maam. Caller i want to read you to paragraphs that were written by a doctor, a former assistant secretary of the treasurys economic policy. He is an associate editor of the wall street journal. He has quite a few credentials. The caption on his article is rule by corporations. The very first to paragraphs are very important. The transthe survey trade and Investment Partnerships have nothing to do a with freetrade. Free trade is used to hide power of these corporations that use lawsuits to overturn laws of a sovereign nation. The first thing to understand is that the socalled partnerships are not laws written by congress. The u. S. Constitution gives congress the authority to legislate. These laws are written without the participation of congress. Host are you concerned that this is that the full move forward when the vote happens next week . Are you confident that there is enough caller i want to inform the people about the fact that these are not free trade articles. This is where they come from. The laws are written by corporations so they are in their interest. The office of u. S. Trade representatives was created in order to permit corporations to write laws that serve only their interest. This fraud on the constitution and the people is covered up by calling them trayvon treaties. Trade law treaties. Host of course there were some democrats that supported the president in his effort to move this forward, joining with mostly republicans to pass the trade Promotion Authority part that passed yesterday. One of the members was Jerry Tom Latham virginia. [video clip] today sos float is a vote for the future. It is not shaped i making trade is symbol of all that we found an economic progress. It is about seizing the future and shaping it. That is what tpa does. A prize open foreign markets. It sets american roles. It allows us to frame the issues and 40 of the worlds trade and economic activity. We have never had an opportunity as important as this one to shape the Global Economy to art advantage. We must not lose this opportunity. The grievances are legitimate. The concerns and fears are legitimate. We must look beyond them. We must address the future for future generations of American Workers. Host Gerry Connolly unable to convince his colleagues. Here is the headline from a quote the Chicago Tribune the Chicago Tribune. Here is another front page from boston globe. This is the lead story in several papers this morning. I want to get your thoughts. Frederick is waiting in hampton virginia. Caller good morning. I just wanted to comment on the taa. I have been a supporter of obama for a while. I applaud nancy pelosi today for speaking the truth. There is an old term about buying a pay, and not knowing what is it. There is the definition of insanity, doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting different outcome. We already had nafta, and it showed us what the outcome would be. When the representative spoke yesterday, what he felt the site is that it only empowers Corporate America in passing this will. Bill. It is ridiculous. I dont think there will be enough to move approximately 80 votes on tuesday. If the democrats keep their ways about things, which i hope they will, common sense will prevail. One would need to look at how they broke the build up into three different sections, and then look at history. Historically, republicans have always voted for this. It has been a game changer to be negative for the average american. Host one of those votes that will be tough to move this week is john lewis, who spoke out on the house floor yesterday and midst admist the debate. [video clip] represented clark let me be clear, i have supported some bills, and not others. Those of us on the ways and Means Committee have tried again and again to make the legislation better. Mr. Speaker, i have visited vietnam. I know there is much work to be done. There is no freedom to organize. Freedom of speech is limited. The people of georgia are calling and writing my office. For over 20 years, they have felt the hardship of trade. Good jobs are shipped to bangladesh, china, mexico. The United States should not have to compete with low wages and the environment of discussion. As for me and my house host congressman john lewis on the floor of the house yesterday. Time for just one or two more calls. Mark is on our line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. First, i want to rebuke the gentleman from nevada about the shoe factory. New balance has three shoe factories in maine alone in addition to others. Anyway, i agree with obama and the trade policy. It is not just the corporate take or whatever. There are farmers ranchers. It is a lot bigger than what people want to make it out to be. I worked in the textile industry , and in the preworld war ii it days, the northeast was the key of textiles. When the ways that too expensive, p moved to the. Then, it moved to Central America and east asia. The fact is that people dont want to do the work. It is hard and laborious work. I think people in Foreign Countries have the right to rise up and work these jobs if they want to, and eventually, those jobs will go to someone else. It is not exactly passing the buck. In illinois, you will see john deere, there is still a great amount Foreign Companies are investing millions of dollars creating toyota plans, and mercedes, and everywhere in the south. People will say that manufacturing is lost have no foresight, or yes, no real faith in america. Host a few treats on this topic. Doral says politics, politics, if we think we can compete in world trade, we are not truly doomed. Wild and wonderful says, having to depend on other nations for products. We did want to update our viewers on a story that is happening in texas is morning. We will look for further updates as well. Suspect cornered after gunfire targets at the Dallas Police headquarters. Dallas Police Fighting a total of two if sosa devices in their name. Police tweeted early t saturday that bullets shot through their windows. We will look for more updates on that situation as it happens this morning. That is our show for the first 45 minutes this morning. Ive next, after president obama decided to send an additional 450 troops to iraq this week, we will discuss the Coalition Military effort against isis with retired Lieutenant General james dubik. Later, we will shift gears and focus on the state of the u. S. Housing market and talk about how easy or hard it is to buy a home in the current economy. First, representative Jason Chaffetz was our guest on newsmakers. In this clip, he talks about the hack into federal records. It is now estimated to have compromised up to 14 million records. [video clip] representative chaffetz there are nefarious actors around the world trying to compromise our infrastructure. There have been multiple reports telling them that they need to make sure that these things are encrypted. They did not do that. There are literally millions and millions of records with highly Sensitive Information that is out there. On tuesday, we will have a hearing. Right now, the office of Personnel Management is being very resistant to attend. I have prepared to issue a subpoena, if need be to get them there. I think the public needs to hear about this, Public Employees need to hear about this. It may be the single greatest breach of data that our government has had. What is the early information obviously, there is a lack of security. Did they not follow i. T. Recommendations . What is the latest you are hearing . Representative chaffetz there are basic things that were not implemented. Our government there are government watchdog groups that came in, looked from this, and we hope to hear from them. They issued the warning, and multiple times, over a long amount of time, and i dont think our government took it seriously enough. The worry is that somewhere between four months and perhaps a year, these hackers were in there, being able to extract information personnel records, Social Security numbers, we are worried about potentially medical records. And then, to know who has security clearances. You can understand, if it is somebody like china, they have a very vested interest in understanding who their target should be. , washington journal continues. Host retired Lieutenant General james dubik joins us after a week in which president obama announced another 450 troops are headed to iraq. General, what do we know about what these troops will be asked to do over there . Guest as far as i can tell, it looks like expanding what is already going on. Im not sure that is a useful thing to do, but it is a necessary thing to do in the long term. My view is that the training portion of this mission is probably about right. At least adequate. What is not right is the advising component and the fighting component. Those two are not going as well as i think everybody expects. In terms of advising, two things. First, advice to the Iraqi Government. Training the army and Security Forces is a governmental responsibility. Armies reflects their government. In advising armies, you also have to advise the government. I think we have been in sufficient insufficient in that regard. Host defense secretary Ashton Carter said that he thinks the soldiers have not shown any will to fight. How do you train in that . Guest first of all, i disagree with the statement. It is true that some iraqis and some places have folded. The real issue is why. When you look at why, you generally come to some confidence. There is a lack of confidence in their government, in the systems that support them. The air support system, the medical evacuation system. These are confidence builders or confidence deflators for the will to fight. Even in ramadi, those soldiers fought hard under tough conditions for a long time. At that particular time, something happened. Rather than make blanket statements, we should look at what happened in that case and try to correct. Host former Lieutenant General commander in iraq from 2007 2 2008. He now works at the institute for the study of war. Specifically to these 450 new traders that will be going over, it brings the u. S. Ground troops and minute to about 500 individuals fear the white house is announcing that the training locations will be closer to the front lines of the anbar province. Does that put u. S. Personnel at risk . Guest as a trainer, i think it is worth the risk. Some of the 450 will provide some protection. Movement from locations out to say baghdad, in itself, is a difficult move. Moving the training bases closer to where the people you will want to train will, is a smart move. Host if you want to call in republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7458002. And, a special line for iraq war vets. If you want to 202 7488003 call in on the subject, the number is 202 7488003 if you want to call in on the subject, the number is 202 7488003. The president acknowledging that there is not a complete strategy yet for training forces. The Bombing Campaign is about 10 months old at this point. Are you surprised there is not a strategy on training . Guest very surprised. It is not something that you cant figure out relatively quickly. We have done it before, we have done it successfully before. We know what the components are. I have to say, focusing just on training is missing half of the boat. If you do not focus on the fighting part, the training part is not going to give you a true picture. Here is what i mean. That iraqis really need, and we need to help them, real success. That can improve confidence. They have had a kind of success in falluja, but not really. The fighting and the training go together. The third part is helping a government make the right coherent strategic plans for the reestablishment of political sovereignty in their own state. Host to get to that is a question that of your probably eventually asked. Does this involve more boots on the ground in your mind . Guest the absolute number is not the issue. We probably have the right number now, especially if you had 2000 coalition trainers. We do not have the right people in place to make sure that our air campaign is especially targeted. We do not have enough campaign trainers. In my view, we do not have enough advisers with the government of iraq. Host you are talking about putting u. S. Operators right there on the front lines. Guest yes. I think that is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, the bombs that we drop will sometimes be precise, but a good number of times wider be late or unable to drop because of the closeness of the battle. Host Lieutenant General james dubik is our guest this morning. Now former retired lieutenant journal from iraq. We will go to ed from fayetteville, north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Listen. I think the whole problem in iraq, the fiasco is because of general dempsey. He is the weakest general that we have had, nothing but obamas lapdog. Obama says john, dempsey says, how high . We need a general with a backbone that is not afraid to stand up to the present. Host who, in your mind would do that . Guest any of these marine generals. Somebody with a backbone. Dempsey is a wimp. We now have gays and lesbians in the military. We are giving entitlements to samesex partners, and there crying that we do not have enough money in the military. Screw them. Host your thoughts . Guest we live in a democracy. The military is subservient to civil leadership, and the responsibility of senior military leaders is to speak their mind, and give the president the best military advice that they possibly can. Once the that puts the chairman in a tough position. He may be doing very well what ed is wanting behind closed doors which is where he has to operate. Once the door is open he is obligated to excute the policy decisions of the civil authorities of this country. Host line for democrats. Gene good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Guest good. Thank you. Caller im a disabled vet. My sons been in the military 26 years. Air force. Retired in november. Guest congratulations to you. Caller the biggest mistake we ever made is when we invaded iraq. The easy part was to invade. But the hard part were still struggling with it. I think the troops are tired of deployments. Guarantee. I hope that no republicans that only one of them for some reason, rand paul, the rest there will be boots on the ground guaranteed. Guest well, theres no doubt in retrospect that the decision to invade iraq was not a good decision. But we are where we are. This isnt a video recording where you can go back and redo the decision. So the question is now what are the stakes that the United States has in the region . And i think theyre pretty significant. Anded then you ask the followon question what do we want to do about realizing those stakes in it is not in the u. S. Interest to have an isis state that raise bid force an International Boundry and then can use the state they create as a platform to launch strikes against u. S. Targets in the United States and beyond. This is not in our interests. It is not in the interest of the International Community to allow International Borders to be eraised by force. So while this is an iraqi problem to solve we have a stake in this problem and we ought to act as if that stake matters. Host your assessment of troop exhaustion he brings up too many deployments in the recent years by u. S. Troops. Guest sure. Well, theres no doubt that soldiers are tired. Families are tired of repetitive. But this is a function of how large the army is. We have decided as a nation which is an embarrassing decision to fight a global war against al qaeda now isis, to fight a war in afghanistan and a wake without growing the Ground Forces to do it. The reason the forces are tired because the nume rator and denominators dont work out. We have to expand the size of the Ground Forces which we cannot do under the sequestration rules. So congress has a role in this as well. Host we mentioned about 3500 trainers in iraq after the 450 are aeded. Carol wants to know on twitter what the troop numbers is. Do you have a sense of what the total one is . She says i dont believe we can trust the government numbers. Guest i dont know if theyre right or not either. I have only access to open source materials. Thats what i use. And the numbers that we see in the print is only numbers that i can go with. Host during the height of the surge, how many u. S. Troops were in iraq when you were there . Guest about 130,000 plus or minus. But that number fluctuated about every three months. Host do you have thoughts on how quickly or slowly those troops were pulled out in the withdrawal from iraq . Guest yes. This is a good question. Because what happened in 2011 was perfectly foreseen. Why rlt iraqi Security Forces in the place where they are now . There were three major things that happened starting in 2010. First, Prime Minister maliki made a series of domestic decisions that created more enemies gi excluding sunnis from real meaningful positions in the government and by excluding them from any power sharing positions. Second, he made a series of security decisions that really eroded the capacity of his own Security Forces. He made loyalty to him more important than profishsy. He stole from the chain of command the responsibility to run the army. And placed it in the office of the commander in chief. He became the minister of defense and minister of interior. So these action stopped all the professionalization programs that we put in place in 2007, 2008, and 2009. And the second major trend was isis. We werent following it here as a nation but starting in 2012 al qaeda and iraq then ultimately turned isis started a Concerted Campaign to liberate their leaders from iraqi prisons, to reestablish their networks. To erode the leaders that were left in iraqi police in military and government and this sucked out the profishsy that was there. And last we left. You can argue whether or not we could have stayed. Thats a fair argument. But the fact is when we left we left two big vacuums. The first was a vacuum at the governmental level. A vacuum of trust and confidence. The second was a vacuum in the continued professionalization of the iraqi Security Forces. Put that together for 21 2 years and you see the hollow force being created in the iraqi Security Forces. Then you see the attack in fallujaha late 2013. Prime minister maliki comes here asks for help. We give him none. We tell him change your policy maybe well give you some. But theyre not going to come any time to help. He goes back and turns to his only source of other help and thats iran. So iran starts getting more influence. Then in early 2014 mosul falls and we have what we have. So these things didnt crop up out of nowhere. They had been developing for a number of years. And the issue of the profishsy of iraqi Security Forces certainly isnt an iraqi created problem. We were part of creating that problem as well. Host a line this morning for recent veterans. Tom, zpworninge. Youre on with the general. General good morning guest good morning. Caller im a veteran. Im fully qualified in 1968. Ok . And ive been studying Unconventional Warfare ever since. First of all, lets talk sun su not clarbwiths. Ok . Talk about the will to fight, our treasure and blood, or for someone elses country. First, who funds your organization . Guest its all private. We take no money from the government. Caller but what private sources . Guest you can go on the web. Caller defense contractors . Guest no. You can go on the web and see where we get our money. Caller i stand corrected. Number two, let me talk some of your points. First of all maliki, he got in there in a teleconference with president bush. Theyre looking for a new leader. He did not come up from the bottom. Weve done this again. Go back to vietnam. Whether you like him or not. He was a natural nazi appointed leader. Back to korea. The original kim, whether he was a nut case or not, he was the guy that led the korean resistance against the japanese. Ok . We put in there who we all do. Signature mund reed, who went to harvard could speak english and looks good in the suit. Host i want to let you respond to your thoughts on mall kentucky and the points he brings up. Guest when Prime Minister maliki became the Prime Minister he was seen as a weak leader. And we werent sure that he was going to be successful. He became stronger as he went along. He was elected twice in elections that were at least the first couple of times relatively fair. The last election i think is in question. And that was much more manipulated, in my view, than earlier elections. But were not in the business of we shouldnt be in the business of selecting leaders for other countries. When we first invaded in 2003, there was a leadership vacuum. And this is larger than tom tom makes a perfectly good point but i would like to expand it to all leadership. When you look at iraq as a country, 30 years under salmed you didnt emerge a whole lot of leaders under that climate. Then after that this war that from 2003 has been going on anyone who emerges as a leader puts his life or her life at risk. So you have now 40 years of a leadership vacuum. And anyone with a real capacity thinks hard about leaving and not staying in iraq. So leadership writ large whether its the oil sector of other economic sectors, government sector, military sector this is a serious problem in iraq. Host houston texas. Damon youre on. Caller good morning, gentlemen. A couple of quick points. This may soupped naive but im so tired of the war talk. I think we need to get from foreign wars we need to shore up our promise here in america. We cant be more of a stake holder than the actual owners, the people of that country. It takes away from our ability to use those resources here which could help the issues we have here on our homeland. Secondly it seems though president obama has clipped his own wings. Hes gone against a couple of Core Principles to his administration this trade deal which takes away jobs, and now hes sending troops back to foreign wars. Some of his campaign was solely about job reform, solely about ending the war and resolving those things. Were going backwards. And i know that were invested in this. But we have to we have the bright ets minds in the world. We have to find a way to get out of this quagmire. Host general. Guest first, i think hes exactly right. We have to figure this out. Weve got smart people. We need a strategy to succeed not just in iraq but iraq, syria, around the world. Because the problem we face is a problem for the International Community. Were a leader in that International Community. Where i disagree though is with the divees tur. Look, leaving a war is not the same as ending a war. Weve made this mistake now for a number of years. We left in iraq in 2011 saying the war is over were gone. The war is not over. And the war in afghanistan is not over. And divesting ourselves from these things when theyre really not over will get us what weve got now. The three years that i described of movement in syria and iraq as a result of us leaving. Believing falsely that the war is over just because we have left. And i think that the president is now faced with a reality that he didnt want to face not alone in that many other president s in the same boat but the reality is that the war is not over. We have a stake in it. And weve got to figure out whats the best way ahead now not looking at the rear view mirror but looking through the front windshield. Host walt in tennessee for veterans. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to remind you of the the race when we first formed the second ranger battalion. Host youll have to explain that one to us. Caller im wondering if you still have your ruck sack. Guest i do but im too old to run with it now. Caller well, me too, sir. And good luck. Guest thank you. When we formed the second ranger battalion in the mid 70s we did a lot of Community Relations. One of the Community Relations was to participate in the 7. 6 mile race called the sound to narrows race in tacoma washington. And rangers being rangers, saying anybody can run a race, were rangers we should run with our rucksak. So one year i ran. And i have a picture, i dont know if he was thinking of this. I have a picture of doing that race with one of my daughters in a rucksak pushing my another daughter in a stroller. When was that . Guest 19 77. Host dale, good morning. Caller good morning. You were in vietnam . And if you served during vietnam, which a lot of my family was in vietnam, didnt we learn anything from vietnam . I mean, were looking at the same principles, when we look at iraq, when we look at korea. How long was the American People expected to stay in iraq . If the people are not willing to fight for their own country, how can we be asked to shed everything after nine 11 it destroyed americans. I mean theyre still climbing out of the hole. Host well, first, i joined in 1971. My first assignment was to the 82nd air bon division. I was supposed to go but the last group of lieutenants from the basic course were 1970. So no i did not. Second, i think there are a lot of lessons from vietnam that quite frankly we have not learned. The difference between fighting a war and waging a war. My reading of vietnam is we fought pretty well but our strategy our policies are campaign designs which are Civil Military projects which are associated with waging a war, picking the right aims. They were bankrupt in vietnam. And quite frankly, i see too many similarities now. Where we equated war solely with the fighting and we forget that theres this other component, the strategic dimension that says lets get your war aims right. Lets get a Real Coalition with political sense. Lets get the right set of policies and then lets use the forces well. And i dont see us doing that very well. Host how often do you think this administration considers the lessons of vietnam . How often do you think vietnam comes up in the planning and strategy areas . Guest i dont know the precise answer to that. For a while there the haunting legacy book was the rage. Its a good book. It should have been the rage. But thats one perspective of vietnam. Another perspective is the better war by louse sorely. Those two together give you a complete look. A better war high lights the fact that by the late, early 70s when westmoreland left we finally structured a set of strategy. But by that time we were there too long. We had already wasted way too much. Host should note that marvin who wrote a haunting legacy was on the show if our viewers want to check out a recent appearance by him. Ben, phoenix arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning. Ive got three questions. One, is there any estimate as to the number of isis soldiers that are actually mercenaries . Two, why do they conveniently have so much of our military hardware . Three why dont we send contractors over there instead of u. S. Military . Let iraq hire them not be paying for them . Guest well, in terms of isis fighters i dont really have an answer to that. Theres been a variety of estimates from as low as 10,000 to a high of maybe three times that. But its not just isis fighters that you have to look at. Its who are the core isis people . Who are the people that have signed on with isis . Because they believe in the ideology. Who are people signing on to isis either because they have no other means of getting money or theyre just afraid or theyve been intimidated. So the number is an elastic number. But what we do know is its efficient to tear down an international border. And that ought to give us pause. Second, why do they have equipment . Theyve taken it. Theyve seized it from the iraqi Security Forces. And theres no good way. You cant put lip stirk on that pig. Thats just the way it is. Last, i would caution against actually using contractors. This would be outsourcing the execution of Foreign Policy of the nation and i dont think thats a Good National strategy. Host one of the previous callers was talking about military theorists of the past. Understanding the enemy is something that always comes up. What do you think constitutes victory for isis . Guest well, theyve said what they count as victory. Victory is the u. S. And the west out of the middle east. Victory is the elimination of what they call apstate governments. That is any government that isnt fundamental as they are. And reestablishing the califate that looks like the otmon empire. That is what they say is success for them. And its really interesting, if you take two map and take one map of al qaeda in 2000 and you say put some dots on that map. Well, there will be two or three dots. Then you say put a map of where they threaten control or influence in 2015. And the stark difference is really amazing. It shows that they have they announced in 1996 what their strategy was and they are excuting that strategy. Our strategy . Against awk. Disrupt, dismantle defeat. Against isis defeat. Where are the map there . When you talk about success in a war you talk about success relative to the aims you set. And i would say on a strategic level that their aims are being slowly attained. Ours are not. Host steve in illinois. Good morning. Caller how are you doing. I have two questions kind of related. One was the whats the relationship between like the pathists the disbanded iraqi army from the beginning and isil . And also one of the reasons i thought we were getting out of this kind of wanted to get out of there is we were worried about basically civil war in iraq and we didnt want to get caught up in that. Guest your first question about bathists, theres a close relationship between the army which we should not have disbanded in 2003. And isis leadership. Thats why they have a relatively coherent strategy. Thats why theyre excuting it pretty well. The senior generals, a number of them, colonels, majors, officers ncos soldiers, have been part of isis. But i think this is a marriage of convenes myself. That they are with isis until they can depose their current government in iraq. And then you will see an internal argument between isis and the bautsdzists. But bautsdzists arent really the fundamental islamists that isis is. Host is that an issue that you were dealing with during the training for the surge to win over some of these individuals . Guest yes. And this is, when we looked at the enemy forces, we wanted to dissect the enemy forces in as little as many Component Parts as we could. Because we thought we could deal with each component part differently. And with respect to the bathists, those who were in a marriage of convenience with al qaeda in iraq ultimately starting in late 2006 and early 2007 and 2008 that whole awakening movement was a result of very concerted work by army marines british and americans to separate former bathists from al qaeda in iraq. That work before. It will be harder to do now because they view and i think they have reason to believe for this belief, that they were left out in the cold by the Iraqi Government once we left in 2011. And by us. And so while theres there are a number of tribes and we are reaching out to the tribes in part of this expanded training is to go out to anbar to train those sunni tribes who are not with isis and want to throw isis out. There are tripse tribes that do that. It is not yet the movement that we saw in 2007. Why . The confidence level isnt there. We need some success and we need some demonstration on the part of the Iraqi Government which they are trying. But we need more demonstration that sunnis are going to impart of this future iraq. Host sandy line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. My thing is that everybody remembers history a little bit different than everybody else. When bush left office he made a deal with maliki that we would be out in three or four years. Then when obama wand to stay there a little longer maliki wanted control over our military. Our military crimes. So i think we need to be a little more specific on that. Guest i would be glad to youre exactly right. The Bush Administration did negotiate a strategic Framework Agreement and a status of forces agreement with the maliki government in i think 2009 maybe 2008. And that set the timetable for 2011 withdrawal. At the time i was in baghdad at the time, the belief was that would give us space to renegotiate this to continue because there was common understanding that both on the governmental side and on the Security Side that we would have to continue to be an iraqi strategic partner. It would be much less than the number of soldiers that we had in 7 and 8 but the Strategic Partnership was going to continue. The negotiations between the two governments in 2010 and 11 my view sandy is a little bit different than yours. Renegotiation was very difficult because on the domestic situation in the United States was such that we wanted to withdraw and the domestic situation in iraq was such that maliki needed to be seen as not an american lacky. So the two domestic situations, worked against the strategic interest of both countries. At the end the issue over status of forces and control of our forces got a lot of play in the military or got a lot of play in the media, but my memory was that maliki would have signed an executive order giving us what we wanted with respect to troops and retaining responsibility for the troops but we demanded the council of representatives ratify it. This was a bar too high given the domestic situation in and so the negotiations fell apart. Thats why i, as i said, we left. You can argue back and forth whether we should. But the fact is when we left there was a diplomatic, governmental and security vacuum that helped create the conditions that went on. Host time for a few more calls. Eugene in virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im curious. I know we have we cant send our army in now. And we can the governments in the area dont seem to want to take participation. What if we waited, if isis becomes a state, then there is a state that we can actually declare war on because theyve declared it on us . Then we would be able to go in righteously and clean it up . Guest well, with respect to righteous intervention this is a justified intervention component of just war theory. I think what youre talking about. Also a legal component of the land warfare. Justification is already there. Weve been invited by the got of iraq. So the justification is clear. The issue, though, i think with our troops we should really be careful about how we think of this. I dont think anyones advocating a return of the surge to solve this problem. The iraqis have the capacity to do this. And they should do it. But we have a stake in this outcome. And i dont think any of the listeners, i certainly dont think that we are better off with the situation in the middle east that threatens not just our interests in the region not just our u. S. Nationals in the region. But is an incubator for potential attacks on the United States. There already have been a couple that we have foiled. Its not in our interests to allow our allies, jordan and israel to have this threat turkey, to have this threat on their border. So this problem is a wider problem we dont like to talk about. We like to talk about well this is an iraq problem. Its a regional problem and an International Community problem. Eugene is right. I think we have not yet got sufficient understanding of the among a coalition to deal with this threat thats much more than one country can deal with. Host in terms of length of commitment what are you thinking here . Is this something that especially after what happened after the pullout that American Forces and about future american president will be less likely to pull out troops again . Guest well, every one of these situations should be treated differently. But were already in a multigenerational war. I hate to say but this gives me no pleasure to say these kinds of things. But the people were recruiting now with three four, and five six years old on 9 11. So part of our part of the things we ought to ask ourselves as a nation is do we want to give the next generation this same problem or do we want to put the brains and the efforts and the strength of the United States with Coalition Partners to help make International Community that is deserving of the name . This is a tough task. Its a task that is thrust upon us by 9 11. We didnt ask for this task. But the longer we wait and understanding the true nature of the task, the longer we wait in structuring the actual solution to the problem, which is not a military success. Thats another 45 minute discussion. But the more we give this debt like our National Debt to the next generation were giving them a war debt. And you know, with seven grandchildren myself, i prefer they not fight in this. Host rich line for republicans. Good morning. Youre on. Caller great points. I think part of the problem is were used to going short wars. We get in, get out, and surprising or not we get peace with the countries we were warring with five years ago. Amazing. Not too many nations have that record. We have our hands in the tar baby, a thousand or two thousand year war which is completely different than the wars we get into usually. The other problem we have is after, with korea vietnam, we had two countries with changes in equation completely. Before, war was fought to the end. Who was bigger, badder. Now we have a different we cant just pull our big weapons out and solve it. The other thing is, it was a gift because we can use it for peace, a lot of peace that can come from it. And the good gift from world war ii which i hate to even say it was that people realized the world could be screwy. They knew it was going to be screwy they raised their families and said were going to do what we can do to keep the world right. Guest i think rich is exactly right in terms of the paradigm that weve been using. From about 1989, maybe the first gulf war panama was another example. We had this short war paradigm. First off, the paradigm wasnt about war. It was about battles. The battle for panama lasted pretty quickly. The battle for kuwait lasted pretty quickly. We didnt really wage any wars. We fought really good battles. That paradigm cannot apply to this yet we tried. We tried in afghanistan. We thought well get rid of the taliban and then hand off the tough part to nato. And in iraq well take down sad am and well hand off to i dont know. So part of the learning that should have been taking place from 2002 and 2003 and 2004 on is that our paradigm for short wars is the incorrected paradigm. Our leaders had talked about this in 2003 2004, we werent listening. This war you have to fight the war that youre in. Not the one that you want. We all like short wars. Host don from oak ridge nuge. Caller good morning. I have a comment regarding saub. Why arent the saudis willing to fight . And i mean by putting mab power. I think you would agree they have more at stake than this country does than america does. And its well known that they have one of the strongest or at least that they have invested more in military power than most other countries in the world. Is it possible that they are playing both ends genls the middle in this situation . Guest well, if they were, they arent the only ones. Iran is playing both ends against the middle the claim that iran is pumping money into a taliban. Now theres both ends against the middle. I think saudi arabia should do more. But from my view, its a matter of structuring an actual coalition. And saudi arabia should be a big member of that coalition. So far we have treated coalitions what some have called posses. An American Sheriff rides up and says who is with me . A bunch of countries say i will g with you and ride off following the American Sheriff. Thats not a coalition. A coalition decides what its common aims, strategies, policies. How will we as a coalition make decision as the war adapts . Wreff yet to structure a coalition like that. When we do, i think we might see Saudi Arabia Join and make a commitment because they will conclude that we are serious. If you remember in the beginning of the iraq war the saudis said to the said to us, look, dont do this unless youre into it. Well, were going to be into it. Well we left. So the saudis have to come along with this and we have to be part of this coalition as well. Guest general, a senior fellow at the institute of war. You can check out more on his work. We appreciate your time. Itch next well focus on the state of the u. S. Housing market and take your calls about how easy or hard it is to sell your home. Later with Hillary Clinton set to formally kick off her campaign the president today with an event in new york. Well be right back. The chief economist at the National Association of realtors joins us to discuss the state of u. S. Housing market. Always the most important question i guess is if somebody is considering buying a home, is now the right time to buy . Guest thanks for having me on the show. The market condition has really improved. We are seeing a greater interest among the buyers. Clearly they are indicating that it is the right time to buy. Mortgage rates still remain low even though in the recent weeks it has jumped up about half a percentage point. And given the Federal Reserve statement its likely to increase further later in the year and possibly going into next year. But one major hurdle to Housing Market recovery is lack of inventory in many parts of the discountry. There are buyers out there but very few choices of homes available for sale. Host so that lack of homes is boosting the Purchase Price for housing. Is there a sweet spot here . When are the Interest Rates supposed to go up . Can buyers wait longer to see if more supply comes on the market . Guest its simple supply and demand dynamics. Right now the demand is out pacing supply. Therefore, prices are being pushed up in my judgment way too fast. Prices nationwide are up from a year ago. Peoples incomes are only rising by 2 . There is a mismatch. And we cannot have this sustained situation. So the rising Interest Rates could taper off some of the potential buyers but there are other factors that will continue to support Housing Demand. Jobs are being created. In my estimate there are still sizeable pentup demand left over lingers effect of the recession we encountered. Younger adults living with parents now they want to move out. The rents are rising generally when the rents rise people want to convert into ownership. It looks like its going to be the case Interest Rates are manageable. So the hurdle is housing supply. We need more supply. We need Home Builders to get active. That will help balance the market. Host were talking about the 20,000 foot view. We want to hear about your experiences. Tell us about the Housing Market in your part of the country. This is our chance to hear from you and your experiences. We will keep our phone lines open. We want to talk about the predictability of the Housing Market. Is has it become any easier in 2015 after a Housing Market in 2014 that was rather hard to predict . Guest well, 2014 was a mixed year. So we did have a two year recovery going into 2014. And i thought that 2014 would be another increasing year for unit transactions. But they fell off slightly in 2014. Now were making up for that in 2015. The sales years to date are easily above last years levels. But one consistent variable that has been rising despite whether there is a fluctuation is home values. Home values have risen for four straight years. Now it is beginning to retouch the prior peak level that was set nearly a decade ago back in 2006. So prices are really coming back. And now the question becomes are we beginning to create a second situation where we had the Housing Market bubble but it is fundamentally different this time. So the demand is driven by healthy conditions job creation. People with strong credit are qualifying for the mortgages not the Loosey Goosey mortgages of back then. And further more, we have we dont have an oversupply situation. Back then Home Builders were building more than 2 million new Home Construction a year. Today it is only half that level 1 million host is the market being led by certain regions that are sort of carrying this trend . Are there parts of the country hotter than the other . Guest generally speaking where strong job growth. Jobs determine many aspects of the Economic Conditions and many sectors. Strong job market is driving. Look at the Pacific Ocean states. California, oregon, state of washington, they are doing very well. The Rocky Mountain states of utah colorado, and the southern atlantic states, florida, georgia South Carolina north carolina. They are doing better than the rest of the country. Host so what are the areas not doing so well . Guest the areas that are still slow to recover is the New England States. So aside from boston. Boston is doing well. But outside of the of Boston New England states are more slow to recover. They are seeing more buyers coming in but looking, far less robust recovery in the New England States compared to the rest of the country. And some pockets of the great plains area. And also any small manufacturing towns in the midwest where one company shuts down. That causes hardship to the local real estate market. Host were asking our viewers, is that what youre seeing in that part of the country . Taking your calls and comments for the next half hour or so. Fairfax, virginiaor. On the line for those who rent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for take mig call. What kind of encouragement would you give me . I owned a home in leaseberg, lost it in foreclosure. Any how, i lost it in 2010. My score is back up in the lower 700s. But im kind of leery about the whole Housing Market. Im scared. I dont want to get back in a home. Im renting right now. I dont want to buy a home again and lose it to all this market now going down. Im scared. What encouragement would you give me to get into the Housing Market again . Guest well first, you are not the only one. We hear from our realtor members that they also hear these stories among their potential clients. The first thing is when people buy a home, this is a major expenditure. So they should feel completely comfortable financially emotionally, in making that decision. So any anxiety i think people need to settle that down. So if they have anxiety about it maybe they need to postpone. But the factors are that we have this tremendous pent up demand. And when i say pent up demand im referring to the case that currently home sales are about 5 million. The last time we had 5 million home sales was back in the year 2000 at the turn of the century, 15 years ago. One big difference is that america has 40 million zirble People Living in the country yet we have the same number of home sales. We are nowhere near the bubble level home sales of over 7 million so were still down about 20 . But this is implying that the demand level is not anything bubbleish but is a solid base. Again people with high Credit Scores are the ones who are getting approved on mortgages. Your credit score in the low 700s, those are very solid Credit Scores able to obtain mortgages. You were referring to the more outer suburb of a major city in leesburg that area generally tends to recover more slowly. So there could be still some bargain opportunities in the very outer suburbs of major cities. Host ohio. Steve on our line for those who own a home. Good morning. Caller i was listening earlier. You had said that the Housing Market has the penalty up demand but theres not the supply of houses. Well that doesnt seem to be the case in my area. I look out my door. I see four or five vacant homes. I mean, the supply is definitely there. So i dont understand the message here. Is the supply low or is it like in my backyard extremely high . Guest i didnt get the locality of the caller. Host ohio. Guest so its places in the industrial midwest there are some areas where because of the job growth is very slow, there is excess supply. New jersey would be another example for different reasons. New jersey having this large overhang of shadow inventory. Shadow Inventory Means those homes with seriously delinquent mortgages or processes but yet to reach the market because of the very difficult Court Situation where it is not really too speedy homes getting on the market but there are some pockets of the country where there is more supply than demand. One can look at seattle. The demand supply in seattle is one month. That means a person lists their home they can anticipate the sale of their home within 30 days. A similar situation in denver. San jose prices are rising way way too fast because of lack of supply. All this high tech jobs seekers getting Stock Options they are bidding on the prices. So i am actually very concerned that we have an undersupply of homes. Certainly we dont need to build more homes in areas where there is an excess supply like in some towns like ohio but we do need more supply in seattle, denver san jose, and in fact many parts of the country. Host lets stay on the west coast. California. Anthony. On the line for those who rent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I live in the valencia area of california which is northern l. A. Theres still a tremendous amount of foreclosures in this area. The Housing Market is crazy. Its the prices are still high. And it seems like the only people that are buying are foreign investors. Its become a landlord community where it used to be a homeowners community. Which is really sad. I have two kids that are looking to buy and i keep telling them not to make the move yet because i still feel theres going to be another crash. This Housing Market has become like a wall street disaster. And i like to id like to get your opinion. Guest very good question. People should feel very comfortable in making a decision to buy a home. Its a major pur. Chass. Regarding foreign purchasers, the dollar has strengthened against nearly all of the currencies which means for foreigners it would be more expensive to buy here in the u. S. But we have not seen any weakening among the foreign demand. They are coming in principally all cags particularly from asian countries. China, india. Coming in and generally go to the california or Pacific Ocean states. And we have heard that they are buying often property unseen for the simple reason of wanting to get a rental income. Now, as a result of that, u. S. Home ownership rates currently is a at a 25 year low level. Its about 63 . It has come down from 69 during the peak. 69 was way too high so it was unsustainable. But 63 is 25 year low. And i agree with you that the part of living in america many people would perceive that part of their American Dream is to be home owners. Now we are at a 25year low at a time when home values are rising which means that we have more renters fewer home owners and those fewer home owners are getting the housing wealth from the price increases. So unfortunately america has become more unequal in regards to housing wealth situations. Host in terms of Home Ownership a recent study here in washington, d. C. Looked at Home Ownership rates and predictions 2020 years into the future expecting by 2030 for that Home Ownership rate to drop even lower to around 61 . So is this a sign that Home Ownership may not necessarily be a part of the American Dream as people are seeing it these days . Guest regarding the forecast, the urban institute of the next 20 year projection maybe will pan out. I disagree with that. I think the rate may come down for two additional years. But then it will begin to bounce back up. Many a survey, do you own a home at some point in your life . And nearly 80 of americans want to be a homeowner. But there are hindering factors. First mortgage underwriting standards remain tight. So only people with very high Credit Scores are being approved. So i think there could be some modest relaxation. We dont want too lax. We dont want to have a repeat of a bubble situation. But there could be some Movement Towards dialing down some of the underwriting standards. The second factors is home values are rising too fast. If homes are affordable more renters can convert into ownership. But home values are rising too bast was we have under supply of inventory. The builders are he is tant to build. So the Building Activity is very short in supply. Theas that is leading to prices rising too fast. So the Younger Generation is saying i cant afford it. Host brad is waiting on the line for those who own a home. Good morning. Caller actually its bud. Host oh. Bud. Go ahead. Caller i thank you for cspan. I really like these nonpolitical interviews. But i am a 75yearold wants to sell my home. Weve been approached by real estate people who would like to represent us. And we get the term it varies back and forth between a buyers market and a serls market. And i would like to know sellers market. How is that determined . For a given area, how would an individual find out if it is a buyers market or a sellers market at any point in time . Or is this just something that the Real Estate Agents have dreamt up in order to try to influence the seller . Guest so as an economist, when i look at the historicle patterns on the data one thing that we looked at is a months supply of inventory. The long term historiccal average is about six months. Higher than that one would say is a buyers market because theres way too many supplies. And buyers would have negotiating power to buy at a lower price. Right now the inventory situation is about four months. So it is tight on the tight side which means that sellers have a slight edge over the buyers. On a nationwide basis. But each neighborhood is different. For consumers you need to be aware that the majority of the consumers like their realtors because they can trust their realtors. So there are some who just fly by the night trying to use every gimmick trying to get the client. But most Clients Trust their realtors. And they would recommend their realtors to their friend or colleague. So i would say maybe you should talk with friends and colleagues or family members to see which realtor has served their best interest. And make a very balanced point of view from that angle. Host previously worked as an Economic Consultant at the u. S. Department of Veterans Affairs and u. S. Department of education. Our guest for the next 20 minutes or so. Lets go to new york. Leo on the line for those who rent. Caller good morning. My question is really more about policy. What is your position on dodd frank . Those on the left say that dodd frank wasnt strong enough. Those on the right say that dodd frank is bad for the economy. Your position as chief economist and Senior Vice President of National Association of realtors, what is your position on dodd frank . Guest well, the intent of dodd frank is to ensure that we dont have another Financial Market crisis which almost in the recent crisis led to the complete collapse in the Global Financial system. So we want to assure that doesnt happen through regulations. Now, aside from all the regulation part, i think there is one area where people can agree where there could be some modification in the dodd frank to improve the Housing Market, improve the broad u. S. Economy. This is related to dodd frank regulation on the local and Community Banks. Because small and local Community Banks are about 10,000 across the country. If you few make great profit or few go under its no big deal. This is Free Enterprise part of the market system. They are not a source of systemic risk. The reason why i mention the Community Bank is they are the source of Construction Loans for local Home Builders. The way we hear why the Home Builders are not coming into the game is that they are having difficulty obtain clg struction loans from the local Community Banks and the local Community Banks are indicating it is dodd frank legislation making them hesitent for making loans. So possibly some level of exemption on the smaller sized banks so Home Builders can get into the game. I think this would be a winwin situation in again the smaller sized banks are not the source of any systemic risk. When Lehman Brothers went down that led to top spending money. So for the bigger banks maybe dodd frank is appropriate but for the Smaller Banks maybe some exception could be the right direction. Host so when dodd frank was passed did the National Association of realtors take a position . Guest no. Host california legislator rain good morning. Caller lo rein good morning. Guest in my area of this town over built when they built orville dam. A lot of homes were built. As the work as they finished it and people moved away, this is over a period starting back in the middle 1960s. And now we have so many homes that were built during that time theyre older but theyre very nice homes. And there are areas here where theyve been fixed up. But host where is oroville, california . Caller Northern California. Halfway between sacramento and redding. Host go ahead. Caller on highway 20, which is the cross road. It starts on the coast and goes through highway 80 and into nevada from there. Its nice. Its pretty much a rural area still. Not a rapid growth. Chico State University is the next town over about 20 miles. So thats a thriving city growing all the time. But here, there are a lot of these older homes e that have for sale now. I was out of this area for about 30 years. I moved back in to 1987 to be closs to my parents. I thought i was i was a single working mom at the time. I wanted to buy. But i looked around and the prices were so high on these older homes. I saw those go for like years for sale. And people were just stubbornly wanting that price and they werent willing to sell for less. But now there are a lot of new homes. Its built up quite a bit over the years as the economy got better more businesses have come in and there are more jobs. But now thats all slowed down since 1980 when everything went down and slowed down. So now my area here is covered with homes for sale because of foreclosures. Host thanks for telling us about oroville, california. Guest itesdz all about nigegration. Where people move into theres Housing Demand. If people are moving out of the region the Housing Demand is going with them and one would have excess supply. So the migration trend overall in america has been moving into the Southern States whether the state of texas, arizona, florida. These are areas where people are moving into. Now specifically the related to your area perhaps there is a potential in the future. Because first there is the baby boomers moving into retirement age of 65. This will grow over time. We have seen many californians living in these citying selling their expensive home and moving into oregon maybe as people have not really moved into the upper Northern California area but we may begin to see that trend. Because certainly given the high housing prices in some of the coastal cities in california there would be a financial incentive to sell that home and get a much better sized better home in a more affordable area like your local area. Host rick in napa, idaho. Caller top of the morning to you. Ive got a great idea. The mortgage calculators set on every Bank Mortgage website are all set to a 30year note. The last recession i tried to change that 30 year note to a 40 year note which would reduce Monthly Payment. It doesnt allow you to do if we were to go to mortgage calculator. Org, you can change that to a 40 year note. I changed the 32a40. My Monthly Payment was reduced. Changed the 30 twoo 40. The Business Owners mathematically, you can reduce your Monthly Payment. Right now, we dont have a strong economy. The problem with our economy is the cost of products go up, but our paychecks never go up. If our paychecks cant go up it would pay our monthly income. Guest currently, 90 of the consumers taking out mortgages are using the 30 year fixed mortgages. If the 40 year becomes more available the Monthly Payment will come down a bit. I will be paying a mortgage for 40 years instead of 30 years. When people are buying a home and taking a fixed Rate Mortgage , this is the best the monthly housing payment would be fixed while the prices may be rising. The housing cost will be fixed. Host on twitter our reverse mortgage is a good deal . Guest reverse mortgage appears to be priced a little high. Maybe people taking on its a bit high. My parents asked me about it in my recommendation was they should not pursue the reverse mortgage. Host lenny on twitter rights and rightswrites in guest the new york city market is way too expensive. For many of the new generation they have taken on a large amount of student loans. The student loan amount right now is approaching 1. 2 trillion. This has struggled in the past doubled in the past six years. Psychologically, people do not want to carry too large of a debt. They would like to pay off the student that loan first before buying a home. The millennials delay their entry into the home buying. Host don, good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to follow up on dodd frank a bit. Im a Financial Planner in mobile. I concur with a lot of people that one fallacy i see in dodd frank is the debt to income ratio to get a home loan. For your big banks, you cannot owe over your 50 of your income. People who readily buy a home have good credit and are able to pay for it, they are excluded because of the debt to income ratio. My dad can only be 50 of my income. What am i supposed to do with the other 50 . My debt can only be 50 of my income. Guest we know there are some special circumstances. Two people are planning on getting married, they recently graduated from medical school the Income Growth is huge overtime. Even though they may currently have a good income, the debt to income ratio may not lead to qualify for a mortgage if the client there are some special cases where people would be potential homeowners but the stringency of some aspects of dodd frank is preventing that from happening. Host florida is a good place to go to talk about owning a home. Good morning lewis. Caller good morning. Ive been buying homes since 18 years old and ive been noticing inequality in appreciation. They give anybody with a heartbeat alone. Now, people see it as a cash cow and investors are driving up the home values faster than they were before. Its that type of mentality will it keep affecting the market and we will keep rising ourselves out of our homes. Investors are driving up the values. Also, i want to talk about what happened in iceland as far as the banks telling the citizens that they need to be bailed out. The banks were working the politicians to enslave people in debt. We need stronger rules on banks and our own government. Host lets stick to american homeownership. Guest one looks at the Overall Health of the u. S. Banking system or the guarantor of many mortgages fannie and freddie are making good profit. Indication that the Housing Market is healthy. The Consumer Finances are much healthier. The overall debt level has come down. The mortgage level is much less today than it was 10 years ago. Why home values are rising. For homeowners, the Equity Growth we have fewer homeowners. In the past decade, the homeownership the number of homeowners fell by too many in the number of renters rose by 10 million. America has become unequal and im concerned about this aspect where the homeownership rate has fallen to 25 year lows and im afraid it may fall for couple years. Host carly is waiting in miami florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to comment that its hard for me to rent. Im a teacher with a bachelors degree. I make 40,000. Theres been a lot of articles here lately in the miami herald about how unaffordable it is to rent a house. For me being a teacher, that would be half my paycheck. We get paid biweekly. The houses they are offering for sale are in high client areas. I would never live in those areas as a single mom. I would like to see them do Something Better with a program for teachers. Guest we need more Home Construction at lower price ranges. New homes are coming up with modern amenities and sometimes the smaller sized makes it more affordable because people are seeking a safer neighborhood. They say its fine as long as the neighborhood is safe. The supply constraint come under supply of inventory because homebuilders are not in the game. They can tap wall street money and issue stocks and bonds. If you look at homebuilders who happened have been key to the local economy, they are entering the market at a slow pace. This limitation is leading to prices rising. Home prices rising too fast. Rents are also rising. We have this broad housing shortage situation in america. Theres pockets where theres oversupply but its an Unhealthy Development to have this persistent housing shortage. Host fred is waiting in pennsylvania. Caller my wife wants to sell my house real bad. We lived there three years ago for the first time. We are now listing it again at 149,000. My wife wants to get out of here. Its a nice house. We cant even take an offer because no one has come to look at it. Weve had three people in three years. What is the market like a up here . Guest the three most important things in real estate location, location, location. In some resort destinations or rural areas, for one reason or another, it becomes hot. Other times, it becomes cold. In your region, it has become cold. Why people are not interested in that location, i cannot say. It goes through cycles. Whether you perceive this trend of people not desiring the poconos, maybe you need to price it right today. If you proceed come over time, people want to move into that area, many potential retirees coming from new york and new jersey, you will want to hold on a few years. There are so many dynamics in the local economy. Those are the frustrating uncertainties of life. Host is this your fulltime home or Vacation Home . Caller fulltime home. Host how long have you been going through this process . Caller we first listed it 3. 5 years ago. We listed it at whatever 79,000i brought it down to 149,000 hours. We listed it at one hundred 79,000. I brought it down to 149,000. Its almost 3000 square feet. Host does that sound like a long time for you . Guest way too long. There is a fundamental shift or maybe there was an oversupply before that threeyear period. I dont know the details about it, but its unusual for a home to stay on the market for longer than three years, even with those price reductions. Host richard on the line for those who rent. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. The reason for my call is to comment on the perceived preference for ownership versus rental. I have owned many homes. We currently rent. Im aware that the government provides many special incentives for homeowners such as mortgage deduction, interest adoption for tax purposes deduction for tax purposes and all that. The United States is somewhat unique in this. In canada and other countries, there are no special tax breaks in the ratio is no different and the ratio is no different. Why should the government consider the rental as an inferior means of ownership . Its a lifecycle choice. Many people are moving toward rentals. Millennials can no longer afford a home. Im not sure i agree that homeownership is preferential. The federal government should be not so much in favor of Home Ownership versus rental. Host that article we showed earlier in the june 8 issue of the wall street journal touches on some of the key issues you are talking about. Lawrence yun, go ahead. Guest thank you for sharing your viewpoint. Many share your viewpoint as well. The vast majority of americans have said they believe ownership is part of the American Dream. The interest reduction when into place in 1913. Over that century, america has become an economic leader. I dont think people can say the Mortgage Interest Rate reduction has slowed down because of economic activity. Being an american is being a part owner of america. Its led to many other beneficial impacts. Academic studies have shown that the homeownerss children have better test scores, lower latency rates. There are other intangible benefits of homeownership. We let people participate in the democracy and see how important Mortgage Interest Rate reduction is to their family and country. Host the numbers to the issue you brought up. The u. S. Commits 200 billion n annually. When her billion dollars annually in the Mortgage Interest Rate reduction. The wealthiest 20 of households receive 75 of the total tax benefit. Beth is waiting in baltimore, maryland on outline for those who own. On our line for those who own. Caller i live between the washingtonbaltimore area in a townhome. Im getting my home ready to sell in the next couple of years. I know the market goes up and down a lot. What should somebody do to prepare im looking to go into a condo. Guest dont take on any additional debt. Do your best to work down the debt load. Homeownership is not for everyone. For people looking the starter home in that price range, within their budget over time it builds equity and the use equity to build their next home, which is a little better. They subsequently make another move. This is the oldfashioned way of americans moving up over time. We were given loans to buy dream homes on the first buy in 2005. Host you can follow lawrence yun on twitter. Thank you so much for your time as always. Up next with Hillary Clinton to kickoff or 2016 president ial campaign, today in new york with a muchanticipated speech, we will open up our phones to get your thoughts on her chances in the 2016 field. But numbers are on the screen now if you want to call in. We will be right back. Director of clinical cardiology in boston, dr. Patrick on the advances in heart surgery and the progress being made in the understanding of part help. Heart health. This is a valve that has been crammed onto this catheter that is being now positioned into the diseased valve and it will be deployed here in just a second with the balloon being inflated and a new belt will be inserted inside the old calcified valve. The Delivery System is being withdrawn and the wire will be withdrawn. What weve seen in this pictorial display his replacement of a diseased aortic valve in a manner that does not require openheart surgery. We are trying to become smarter about predicting who will get disease, we are trying to become smarter as to identifying the most effective means to prevent the disease and smarter about following up over a longer p eriod of time. We are trying to harness the promise of the Human Genome Research project that has been in existence for more than a decade. With all the informatics that can be driven by the giants of the industry like google, for example, and information about sociology demographics, what is your likelihood to get diabetes and likelihood of developing Something Like diabetes or hypertension if you live in a certain part of the city where you have less access to the right kind of food or right kinds of instructions about sodium consumption, Little Things like that. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host Hillary Clinton set to kick off her president ial campaign formally today. A Campaign Speech set in new york. You can watch that later this morning on cspan a. We will be talking about it and the 2016 field as a whole. We are joined by Niall Stanage of the hill newspaper. Think you joining us this morning. Hillary launched her campaign in april with a video. Explain what is happening today. Caller this is the first largescale rally of the campaign. Its expected to draw a big crowd in new york city. This will attempt to really begin a different phase of the campaign. From the smaller events shes been having in iowa and New Hampshire, this is more of a Traditional Campaign rally. Host some new stories about actual location of Roosevelt Island. The nofly zone ordered today. Why did she pick this as the location for her big speech today . A couple of reasons. She did represent new york as a senator. As far as the actual Roosevelt Island location, she is clearly trying to take the mantle of fdr and eleanor roosevelt. Appealing to liberals within the Democratic Party and liberals who let been more skeptical of Hillary Clinton. Host some stories today about whats actually going to be in that speech today. Some expectation of lots of discussion of her mother. Theres the front page story about how Dorothy Howell influenced Hillary Clinton. Why is she discussing her mother . Caller this is part of a broader effort to transmit to voters more of a sense of Hillary Clinton as a person. I know that makes it sound slightly crazy given that shes been at the center of the political stage for almost a quartercentury, but people in the Clinton Campaign believe that the earlier parts of her life, the things that made her who she is have not so much attention. Received so much attention. Shes been reticent about talking about these things. This is part of an effort to counter that. Host the hill has a story about a new Campaign Video on Hillary Clinton that came out yesterday. She harkens back to 9 11. Is this part of that effort to talk about some of those aspects of her life that have been less focused on . Caller it is very much part of that effort. Its an effort in terms of that video to make an asset of her pugnacious this. Pug naciousness. Shes a figure that will fight in the corner of the people she represents. Everyday americans. Host we want to show our viewers a bit from that fourminute Campaign Video. Here is a bit from the end of the video. Hillary everyone deserves a chance to live up to his or her godgiven potential. That is the dream we share. That is the fight we must wage. My dad, the son of a factory worker starting a small business. My mom never got to go to college. Everyday americans need a champion who will fight for them every single day and i want to be the champion. I want to get up every single day, going to work for you standing up for you. By now, people know i dont quit. Host your thoughts on that video. Im sure youve seen the full four minutes of it. Caller i think it is a fairly effective video in terms of introducing the elements of Hillary Clintons life. There are other challenges shes had to overcome. The public polling has suggested that she is not very trusted by the population at large. This is not something that that video addresses. If the idea of her being a fighter, her early experience in life creating to warm voters up to her on a personal level. Host what is next . What we know about her next visit on the campaign trail . Caller she will be in iowa by this evening. She will appear at a house Party Supporters there. Host Niall Stanage i think we lost you for a second. We will try to get you back. We appreciate your help. We are talking about Hillary Clinton. Talking about her launch today happening at Roosevelt Island in new york. We are joined first by sherry in chicago. Democrats. Good morning. Caller i love cspan. For me, Hillary Clinton i hear clinton and i think nafta. I think about getting rid of glasssteagall. That will be hard for Hillary Clinton to shake, especially right now while trade is such a huge issue. With the tpp, which she has not come out one way or the other. It has such huge ramifications for all of us, not only the United States, but all over the world. I think she needs to be quite a bit more progressive in her views and she needs to be less cautious. If she wants to earn everyones trust and she wants us all to get in and push hard for her she needs to get out there and be a progressive. I like Bernie Sanders. I know a lot of people who do. Host i will point you towards a story in todays Washington Post. Foreign policy takes a backseat. The most experienced Foreign Policy hand in this 2016 race said nothing about events beyond u. S. Shores. If you want to read more on that , the Washington Post. We are taking viewer comments on Hillary Clintons Campaign Kickoff. You can watch that later this morning at 11 00 on cspan. Lets go to scott in tennessee. Line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning. As an independent, i look at both sides. Unfortunately, im not in favor of passing the torch back and forth between bush and clinton. If she wants to be truthful, she needs to give up her server. That would be the first start. She tries to say she is like a normal person. She made more in one speech than i made my whole 22 years in the military. For her to come out with these staged events, not answering questions at all, she has a lot of baggage from years back, including her husband, on both sides the bush and clintons needs to go away and never come back. Host you mentioned Hillary Clintons email server that has caused so much interest, including looks by members on capitol hill. Republicans trying to get access to that server. They chairman of the oversight and Government Reform Committee is our guest on newsmakers which airs on sunday. He talked about Hillary Clintons emails stored on that personal server in the interview. Was curious about this, secretary clinton on the day that she started her confirmation hearing literally set up this private server. I have told our folks and i think the right position has been, look, we should not be any tougher on her because she is a former first lady. But lets also not be any easier on her. She was a secretary of state for a significant amount of time. We do have the federal record within our jurisdiction. There are legitimate questions. One of the best, most comprehensive, best members of congress and the conference of way, he is the chairman of the benghazi select committee. We will let them push that as far and wide as they can. I have concerns about the safety and security, about putting our men and women in jeopardy. I think its a very legitimate thing for the congress to be able to access that information as well as the public. Host if you want to see the full interview, tomorrow and have 00 a. M. And then repeating at 6 00 p. M. Here on cspan. Tomorrow at 10 00 a. M. Talking about Hillary Clintons official Campaign Launch. Zachary is up in west virginia. For republicans. Good morning. Caller my take on hillary i think we need something new. I hear about her deal with russia just recently. I dont like her take i dont think she is honest. Do some Real Research on who you are voting for. I will vote for rubio myself. Host kevin is in north carolina. Line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. I just want to make a quick comment on Hillary Clinton running for the presidency. I do not believe she should be running at all. There are too many questions left unanswered as far as benghazi goes where we have servicemen on the ground and no one did anything and they were watching this in real time. The back story behind that there were weapons taken from that complex in benghazi that ultimately ended up in syria. I do not think that is a coincidence. She should not be elected president and if she is elected president coming to a travesty. Host who would you support for the democratic nomination . Caller none of them. We need to start over. I voted in the 2008 election but i did not vote in 2012. Im a former servicemember myself. I have a problem with Hillary Clinton or anybody who is lying to the American People, especially with benghazi. Theres a lot of things people dont know the back story behind that. Host is there anybody in Public Office now that does have your trust that you would like to cease that forward see step forward . Caller no sir. Ill the trust and given to these people is gone all the trust ive given to these people is gone. Host tennessee. Line for independents. Caller thank you for taking my call. I was born the last month of Harry Trumans administration. Im not old enough to remember a lot of what president eisenhower did. My first recollection of a president in this country was John Fitzgerald kennedy who come in my view is the greatest president in my lifetime. I have seen in my lifetime politicians go from moderate to get elected to being able to get things done in washington that will unite both sides or let them come to an agreement on something that can move this country forward to radicals on either side. I cannot remember the last time we had a moderate president. I have seen a great shift in political analysts telling this country i guess it was just came along, it was natural to come with the advent of television. You had to have somebody on their tell you who won and who lost. They are still doing it today. Even worse. They dont let me try to make my mind up after listening to a candidate. They tell me who won. I want to ask if you get your expert back on the phone, who sounds like a foreigner, by the way i want to know, are there any moderates out there i can follow . You will have a good day. Host he was referring to Niall Stanage. He was helping us preview todays announcement. You can see all of the hill coverage at the hill. Com. A few tweets about todays announcement, including from the National Journals alex. One of the press buses to the Clinton Campaign rally. Getting ready for todays event at 11 00. Another tweet about the Hillary Campaign announcement. Molly otoole showing a view of the festivities they are about to get underway. Or the effort to get to the festivities. Kathy writes in big guns rights lets go to charlie waiting in hannover, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to make a couple comments the servicemember touched on before as far as the benghazi situation. It really was a good run gunrunning operation. Worst of all is the uranium deal that everyone signed off on. If they make those kinds of decisions to give up 20 of our uranium deposits, where are you going to go from there . If i did what she did, i would be in jail. You would be in jail yourself. I just dont think she is ready or straightforward. Host talking about that story of a Uranium Mining Company deal. A highprofile story couple weeks back in the New York Times. The is next in cambridge, massachusetts. Line for democrats. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have some comments on hillarys Campaign Announcement. One huge breaking political story that happened recently is the mayor of new york city said he would not be there. That is monumental and so surprising that the Mainstream Media is not treating this story with as much attention as it should. As i watched this Hillary Clinton campaign unfold, i cant help but think of the was provence. Wizard of oz. The wizard doesnt think everyone can see him standing behind the curtain and continues with this beatrix. These theatrics. We can see you behind the curtain. We can see that youre not speaking out against the tpp or fast track. Why are you giving us these theatrics . Host on the build of law zero an issue we will be talking about. Tomorrow, we will wrap up the Campaign Announcement that happened today. We will have a reporter from the New York Daily News there. That announcement is life today, 11 00 a. M. Eastern. You can watch it here on cspan. The announcement is live today. Jeb bushs formal Campaign Kickoff is going to be happening on monday. You can watch that on cspan3. Donald trumps Campaign Announcement is expected on tuesday. You can watch that here on cspan. Cspan. Org. Plenty of Campaign Announcements to watch in the coming days. We have about 20 minutes left in todays show. Art is in fraser, michigan life for independent line for independents. Caller same old same old. These political geniuses that we have in this government hello . Host im listening. Go ahead. Caller it sounds like a repetition of bill clintons new puppet is his wife. Who else do they have . The old man bush is running. We need some fresh blood that can change this countrys direction. Host who is fresh blood . Caller there are several out there. Even if you put the old guy from New Hampshire there. Who could come up with new ideas. Weve been going backwards. Our political system has collapsed worldwide. We have no input. We are living in a dangerous situation. Obama has allowed holder and his program of police you cant trust. Look whats going on in dallas and baltimore. They stand alone with their hands in their pockets and their fingers in their ears. They are not hearing. They have to wake up. These politicians are driving this country into the ground. Host one more tweet show you. Hes at the event in new york. This is what the venue looks like for Hillary Clinton. That is steve scullys shot. Veto in hollywood, order. For independents. Caller good morning to you. Hillary clinton represents the democratic machine. They went ahead and allow an individual, a corporation to set up an lease andrew our Uranium Mines and drill our Uranium Mines. They went to canada and russia. After that deal was made, 20 of our uranium is still going. This individual will make a large donation to the Clinton Foundation. When russia started receiving that uranium, they also made a very large donation to the Clinton Foundation. Our Uranium Mines on federal land coastal land belongs to the taxpayer. We are footing the bill to maintain it. The best army in the world to protect us. If the democratic machine and the republican machine are really concerned about the middle class and those under the middle class, lets do what we are doing over there in alaska and let everyone get a s check and say lets make it an even 1000 so that people can prosper. Wealth of the land belongs to the taxpayer. According to 60 minutes, four of five years ago, they get Insider Trading information and become a multimillionaire every two years , but then again they tell the taxpayer that Social Security might not be there for you. Host richmond, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. My humble opinion i think hillary thinks all blacks are beholden to her. I disagree. We should put our focus on Bernie Sanders. He is a new voice in america. Hes a practicing jew. He could at least negotiate with Financial Institutions to get us a better rate on our mortgage. To stop all these senseless wars. Hillary and bill are from the same bowl of soup. Slicker than a can of oil. Bill did more damage to the black community than any president i know. The call reagan the devil. At least we knew him. Bill gets in there and do more damage to the black community than any other president. I make more money with reagan than i did with bill and barack. The republicans are nothing but plans and clothing but you know what they are going to do. Host a few stories to point out for you this morning. This from the New York Times about the iowa straw poll, the big political event that has happened in every election dating back to the 70s. It is not happening anymore. The republican tradition is dead for the 2016 president ial cycle according to party officials. That from the New York Times this morning. Some political news going on in utah today. Mitt romneys retreat. The policy retreat. Several gop candidates are also attending that retreat. As well as robert costa. He is joining us by phone now. Tell us about this event. Why is attracting president ial candidates on the republican side. Caller it has been something mitt romney has been hosting for many years. A retreat for major donors, people who powered him to the nomination in 2012. Its become a forum for the republican president ial contenders. They gather to share their views and try to build relationships. Host who are the key attendees . Start with candidates that are there this weekend. Caller we have presentations starting thursday and friday and it will end today. A threeday retreat. John kasich, chris christie, marco rubio, jeb bush is not here. Hes on a european tour. Its been fascinating to see how the Republican Party is still searching for a front runner. The bushes continue to struggle in the polls. You see a lot of the donors here, the mitt romney people looking for a winner. Someone who can go up against Hillary Clinton. You want somebody who can contrast with their generation like rubio. Host in terms of some of the free agent donors that are still out there, who are the ones you see attending this event this weekend . Caller theres been quite a few. A lot of hedge fund people, a lot of private equity guys. People come in from los angeles, new york. Theyre looking for someone who reminds them of romney. Someone who can build together a coalition. A major person in new york private equity and capital management. A major investor, longtime friend of mitt romney. Bobwh white who is a big Financial Planner and in boston. Press access has been limited. Weve had a claims here and there. A glimpse here and there. This is the gop elite. Host is mitt romney expected to endorse a favorite candidate at this point . Caller he seems to be very favorable about the field in general. He has been reluctant to way and specifically on one candidate. His son told me its unlikely for him to endorse before the next official nominee. Robbie and jeb bush have gotten along famously they are not enemies. Romney and jeb bush. He told me this yesterday when he watched rubio speaks, he almost felt his heart flutter. Host what is the talk, the expectation there are jeb bushs announcement on monday . Caller people are hoping he can find a way to kickstart his own effort, to bring energy and momentum to an exploratory process. He started with a lot of fundraising. Now, he needs to find a way to connect with grassroots voters. Does he have the joy he always talks about wanting to have in this political process . Can he show who view he is . Host time for a few more of your calls this morning. Hillary clintons official Campaign Launch happening today on Roosevelt Island in new york. Tim in michigan. Line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. She did a thing on twitter and social media to get ahead of everything. She has avoided media, she has not answered questions. Now that she is launching this big campaign today, when will she start answering questions from the media and taking questions . In regards back to the emails and the Clinton Foundation people need to wake up and realize that bill clinton was nothing but scandal after scandal. We know what we are in for with the clintons. Im not saying that because im calling on the republican line. Ive supported democrats in the past. Maybe over how the out of maryland omalley out of maryland. This is just a democratic coronation. The media will coordinate her to the position and thats what happened with barack obama. Host some of your questions about what happens next for Hillary Clinton. Something we will address in our political roundtable tomorrow at 7 00 to break down everything from the Campaign Announcement to the clinton camp. St. Louis, missouri. Line for democrats. Good morning. Caller my name is d. L. Marshall. Im from st. Louis missouri. I want to ask a question. The question in this country should be, do you want to continue to the path this countrys been going on lets go moving forward. You continue these stereotypes and bigotry because thats whats been perpetrated. After obama gets elected, we make him the worst president. Racism was the reason why. Now, weve got bigotry for a woman. Keep on with the stereotyping and bigotry, republicans. We will move forward and put it aside. Bigotry is alive and well in 2016 and will continue. Host elinor is in new york. Good morning. Line for independents. Caller good morning. I think its time to get rid of the politicians and look at statesman. Hillary clinton wants to be president. I dont trust her. We have two great statement in this country. Statesman in this country. Jerry brown and bloomberg. We have a big problem in this world and in our country. We need people who can really address those problems. I throw out those two names. Thank you. Host charles in fort collins colorado. Line for independents. Good morning. Caller i will try to articulate this we are caught the American People are broken. Not the political system. We the people keep on electing these guys from the right, these guys from the left. I sit here and listen to the talking points for both sides. Benghazi, iraq, everything. All this time, we keep electing these people and we bitch but never change. You hear these people calling about iraq and benghazi and all this. They dont find anything nice about hillary or robbie or whoever is running. They are idealists. Hillary or romney. The system is not broken. Its the people who are giving their opinions on other news channels and all these other places. Theyre killing the system because of their myopic idealism. Host lets go to janel in tallahassee, florida. Line for independents. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, janel. Caller me, personally, im an independent now. No more bushs, no more clintons, no more kennedys. Im a woman, but i will not vote for a woman. I dont want to go with any identity politics anymore. I want somebody who loves this country who is a real commander in chief. Who knows what theyre talking about and knows what theyre doing. Someone who respects all americans. That gel men gentleman was correct about that. Its hard to get rid of an incumbent. Thats just the fact. We need people that care about americans. Anyone who votes for someone like Bernie Sanders who is a socialist i give him a lot of kudos for that. He doesnt just lie. Host we are running out of time. I appreciate all of our callers today. If you want to see Hillary Clintons official Campaign Kickoff, coming up in about one hour here on cspan. We will be back tomorrow morning, wrapping up the announcement