Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20140106 : compar

immigration laws on the books. nothing broken, just not enforced. any of immigration or these topics that we have focused on -- let me turn you to the cover of cq weekly. the deal worked out between patty murray and paul ryan -- will there be any bipartisan deal in 2014? thank you for the question. that moveonk members want to see congress functional. we had a congress which passed fewer laws than at any point since world war ii. that is a mess. we think a lot of the reasons is that the tea party factions of the republican party have an effective stranglehold over the entire republican party. because of gerrymandering, there are enough seats that they are able to cause damage. one of the places that they cause damages in the debate over the federal budget. the tea party faction is saying that we cannot sit -- do anything to close loopholes or raise revenues. the wealthiest americans, who make so much money, we cannot ask them to pam and -- pay a penny more. even though taxes are lower than they have been in decades. they are making this case against any sort of evidence, saying all we can do is slash and burn cut. that makes no sense. it is an extreme position. the position that is in a governing place in our country. that is a problem. in the house of representatives. is that we, asy a country, need to stand up and speak out for the core values that we as americans hold. include a balanced approach to our finances emma to our budget. investing in americans and the infrastructure that is crumbling. what i hope that we see in the budget discussions going forward is a focus on expanding the program's that we rely on. they support regular americans. put money in the pockets of regular americans. i hope that we move away from the obsession with cuts. the obsession with austerity grid that is actively harmful. i am looking forward to 2014 being a time when american speak up and protect programs like social security. i am looking forward to our officials hearing that. i'm looking forward to november 2014, upholding those officials accountable. we are talking about politics and the progressive movement. our guest is anna galland. david on the phone from nebraska. morning.ood i do not know what the temperature is in detroit, that it is below zero in omaha. the progressives are predicting this so-called catastrophe of global warming for 10 or 20 years. it seems to be wrong. this whole theory has where incandescent lightbulbs have been banned. the progressives got together with ge and philips, and now your average person has to pay five dollars for a lightbulb for --. what do you say to your minimum wage workers who have to pay more for a lightbulb? thank you so much for the question. i would say the one place we might agree is in our skepticism of big corporations. they have too much influence on our politics. rulesuld be careful when are being written and laws are being passed. the corporations are influencing the process. i totally share your skepticism. it is an important thing. big money and politics has a corrupting influence. we need to do whatever we can to rein it back in. whether keeping a focus on transparency -- i clearly disagree on the overwhelming majority. we have a near consensus among scientists that client change -- climate change is real. it is changing our planet right now. we just have the hottest november on record. it is winter in the northern hemisphere, but some are down south. australia has temperatures of 120 degrees fahrenheit. we will see record tornadoes. do we still have winter? yes. does it still bit cold? yes. does that change the fact that we're seeing any refutable long-term trend of the planet heating up and the climate changing? that is still very true. the year when we will be moving forward on affecting climate change. moveon members will fight along the way. we're holding the administration accountable to say no. one other metaphor that i think can be helpful, even if you thought the climate change was a theory, the theory was who knows which way to go. would you gamble with your life at a high level? would you roll the dice and see what happens to the planet? let's just keep dumping: the atmosphere. personally, i think that attitude is cavalier. it sounds risqué. it is not the kind of approach that i want to take for my kids. i want to see us be responsible with our planet. take care of it and take care of each other. we've something for future generations. they can enjoy just as much as we are able to. jay sthis e-mail from impson, you talk about raising the minimum wage. what will happen to the wages of the people who are making above the current minimum wage? will all of those people have to have their wages raised as well? he goes on to write the businesses will make small profit margins and will not be able to rip -- survive. host: -- that is worthng noting, i would encourage people to go to moveon.org and look at some of the videos that robert reisch has put together. that can really help to unpack some of the comp equity of economics here. raise living standards for people closest to the poverty line, people who work the cash register at mcdonald's, these are folks who are being counseled by the corporate headquarters to go apply for unemployment benefits. they are told to apply for vouchers. that is because they are simply not making enough to live on. that is a fact. what we need to see is both their living standard being raised by pushing the minimum wage up to keep up with inflation, and then what you can understand is that there is a spillover effect. our whole economy will do better when everyone does better. it is true. these laws can be crafted in such a way that they take into account particular needs of small businesses. that thell see is spillover benefits of more people having just a little bit more money is really extraordinary. it can affect millions of americans. not just those earning minimum wage. host: last call, linda, tennessee. caller: what is your strategy -- for working people's rights. i have two examples. there is zero coverage on local television and local newspapers. they passed a law that takes away the hourly wage earners standing to sue their employer for unpaid wages in state court. it is the most important fact of law. you can now soar in federal court. -- sue in federal court. andou are an hourly worker your employer stiff you, you have no right to sue for those unpaid wages. the legislature passed a law that repealed though requirements for state governments to pay a prevailing wage. a republican representative pointed out that this is a blank check for state government contracts bid assuming minimum or less than minimum illegal labor. democrats voted with the republicans. they were in favor of these lost. host: we will get a response. guest: for any other viewers, tankis a right wing think that helps to feed hyper conservative laws in states around the country. they came under pressure through campaigning led by our partner. in the wake of the george zimmerman verdict, for the death of trayvon martin, they are essentially funding the standard ground lost. -- laws. i certainly would say that we can draw attention and put pressure on corporate funders. they should withdraw their membership from this network. we can make sure that the loss that we have at the state level and the federal level reflect our values as american. we won a country that works for everyone, not just a few people. we do not want to have shadowy interest groups. that is what our members will be fighting for. we will fight the corrupting influence of special interest money. we will fight for a country where economic security is not a constant -- insecurity is not a constant threat. we will address climate change. we will fight for social justice and equality. we will eat all sorts of campaign. start your own petition. i am so proud to be there. host: final question for you. the president is outlining his agenda. is there a table at the white house? guest: we are a grassroots organization. we are a proud supporter of the president, when he takes action that reflects our progressive values. we are equally proud to stand up and say that we disagree respectfully when he takes steps that we do not agree with. we are not beholden to any political party. we are not a legion to any particular candidate. we are a grass roots movement. at the table,eat our members are claiming it. whether a democratic or republican president. galland is the executiveyou can also check it t c-span.org. the sundaynue on morning, we want to welcome andy roth, he is the vice president of club for growth. thank you for being with us. a lot of items. let's talk about health care. the website appears to be in better shape than it was on october 1. what is your approach in dealing with the affordable care act? guest: i do not know that there is an approach. there will be more problems. we know that. already,hat people today, are going to their doctor and are not sure they have coverage. then, we know that later on this year, a lot of people will get their policies canceled, just like last year. we're talking about in the millions. obamacare will continue to be remarkably unpopular. just the fact that if people do get signed up, they will have higher premiums and less coverage. there will be more narrow networks. i think it will be remarkably unpopular for the next several months. is, when do democrats comes the republicans and say they do we have to do something. the republicans do not have any skin in the game. is the approach to try to see this on their own? or would they want to fix the inherent problems? guest: i cannot be for republicans in congress. there are some the one to fix it. there are some that say no, p n start over. how they willsay go down that road. it will occur this year. host: how do you see your organization in washington? what is its purpose? guest: two purposes. one is on policy. we try to work with congress to pass policy. helped to elect people that believe in those policies. they help to push for the things that grow the economy. host: let me share with you the comments from john boehner. he referred to your organization or others. he talked about the budget negotiations and moving ahead to the 2014 legislative year. here was the speaker last year. [video clip] >> frankly, i think they are misleading their followers. they're pushing our members and laces were they do not want to be. that they just think have lost all credibility. these statess into to defund obamacare and shut down the government. that was not the strategy that i had in mind. if you recall, the day before the government shutdown, one of these groups said we never thought it would work. are you kidding me? , you don't know me. i say would it mean and i mean what i say. i am as conservative as anyone around this place. all of the things that we have done over the three years that i have been speaker, have not violated any conservative principle. not once. host: andrew ross, is he talking about club for growth? guest: he is exaggerating. it is true that we lost that shutdown battle. it is better to fight and lose the not fight at all. if we fought on principle, i think we have been vindicated. we have seen obamacare implode in a remarkable way. the supporters of the shutdown, like ted cruz and mike lee, predicted this. if we did it again and had another fight or debate about obamacare, i think we would see different results. host: let me show you politics by the numbers. they take a look at where we are. the president saw that he won reelection. versuser votes from 2008 2012. there are also 30 republican , sure from an all-time high of 34. they are representing 315 electoral votes. republicans have a 52% majority of state legislative seats. after the 2012 elections, republicans controlled governorships and legislatures in 25 states. they have 53% of the nations population. this looks at the political landscape. what does that tell you about 2014? guest: 2014 is a tough one. in 2010, we saw the tea party movement. we saw a rise in the voter patterns. 2010, -- in 2012, it was all about obama. 2014, a lot of people are having problems with republicans. they're having problems with why the republicans are sticking to conservative policies. and a lot of house and senate primaries, you'll see some incumbents get dangerously close to losing their seats. that is where we are looking in most intently. the republicans probably, i think most people are convinced that the republicans will keep the house. they may pick up the senate. it is hard to tell. host: let me ask you about this piece from politico. economic ideas rattled the gop. it points out that he draws crowds like a rockstar. he was named person of the year by time magazine. he true the ire of rush limbaugh for his criticism of trickle-down economics. francis writes political and dramatically shifted the message of the vatican. republicans in washington you reassess their relationship with the catholic church. this does not get into religion. the catholic church has always maintained materialism and consumerism is not good. that is part of what pope francis is talking about. the media tends to exaggerate the churches he is in the hopes that the church will come away from its use. i do not think that anything that pope francis said is anything that will cause concern for american policy or why we shouldn't fight for programs. graduate ofest is a the university of kansas. he got his masters from george mason university. michael is joining us from michigan. republican line. welcome. caller: thank you. is, iftion for mr. roth you listened to your first guest from moveon.org, she was saying are holding upns the works. isn't it true that harry reid has not brought a bill up for a vote from republicans in the last two years? the only thing wrong with this country right now is barack obama. two, the only thing worse than that is moveon.org. she babbles every time she comes on this program. host: thank you. guest: i would just go back to the first point. the idea that republicans are not passing anything. they are passing some good policies and some bad policies. the key is that gridlock is actually good. it is good for washington. it may frustrate a lot of people and policies in the political sphere. also in the public. gridlock slows things down and tells people that we need to think about what we're doing. make sure we do the right thing. thelock was very healthy in 1990's, when we had a robust economy. it was not healthy when it did not exist in the early 2000. they grew government at a remarkable rate. gridlock is something that we should encourage and hope that it continues. host: we are focusing on immigration. we spoke with our previous guest about what she sees in 2014. this is from u.s. news. immigration reform boost economic recovery. they're pointing out that there have been studies that emigration would boost the economic growth by nearly five percent. corporate a percent to be exact. it would also reduce the deficit. guest: i have to take a pass on this. we do not get involved in immigration. there are two main noneconomic and -- issues involved. we really do not take an issue on immigration. the senatethat passed this huge, comprehensive bill. the house republicans have no desire to take it up. they plan to take up a more piecemeal approach. bills totarget the more direct areas. we may take a look at that. we may not. our next call is brandon from pennsylvania. independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a few things i would like to share. one is that democrats handed the republicans the 2014 election. they are letting you play it smart. make sure the democrats agree with president obama. they are always saying that if you like your plan you can keep it. they're talking about a $300 million budget that ended up being like $1 billion. private companies say would be $10 million if they did it. concerns,nimum wage it would help you a lot if you got into putting a bill in yourselves. without raising the minimum wage. at the same time, lower the tax rate. that would be a real smart game plan. that is just my opinion. i wish you good luck. host: thank you. guest: he is right about the first part. i think that obama care will be a huge part of the 2014 elections. there are a lot of red state democrats, particularly senators from arkansas, who are nervous about reelection. you'll see a lot of members of congress who will be very nervous because of that issue. wage, i think that everybody firmly believes the price controls do not work. nixon tried them in the 1970's with disastrous results. it is unfortunate that people do not recognize that it is price control on labor. it does not work. as a political tool, if you want to pair with corporate tax reform, you have to see what it would look like. if there is a massive drop in the corporate tax rate, then maybe something could be done. the key here is, what is the end result of the legislation that you're proposing? does it grow the economy and all quarters? that is the: that is the result. host: do you target house and senate members? guest: a litmus test -- we have a matricide of issues. taxes, regulation, free trade -- all of the economic issues. isn we look at a senator who weak on the tissues, not just one, but a lot, and has a bad record. if there is a viable conservative alternative, the way look at that as a possibility to get involved. host: if you have a member of congress who supports you on every issue, but says that they support raising the minimum wage. what which are take the? -- what would your position be? guest: in that stare, he sounds , but he is a 95% wrong on one issue. that is not enough for us to get involved. the kind of people that we look to the feed are the people who have 60% or even 80%. host: your focuses on policy and not politics. this is what i put up earlier with anna galland from moveon.org. there is a story in national affairs about deficit. the president has a $6 billion deficit since january 2009. prior to the president, no president has submitted a budget with a trillion dollar deficit. president obama has submitted four of them. guest: it is true. what's be more honest than that. every president spends more than the one before him. almost always. that is something that we need to stop. president bush did it. president obama did. it is time to turn it back. we need entitlement reform and tax reform. when you'd really big things to stop hemorrhaging this town. it is not just a democrat or republican problem. host: our next caller is from rome, georgia. caller: good morning. there want to say that was a supplemental budget. how do youe to know let the republicans continue to get the vote against your own interests. you have people who are going unemployed. states with a large percentage of welfare. these are the red states and republicans who are voting against these people. against their own constituents. in georgia, we do not have medicaid. we are poor people. these are mostly white people. the population is mostly white. what i would like to know is this -- how can you guys continue to get these portal, white people in the south to vote against their own interests? most people on medicare and medicaid and social security and food stamps -- the population is way more white people than black people. could you explain to me the strategy that you continue to get them to vote against their own interests? guest: the idea that they vote against their own interests, i think there is a large issue here. that is the national interest. a lot of people realize that we trillion debt $17 . i am concerned about where this nation is headed. it has gone from a deep blue to a deep red. i do not know how to answer the ourtion, other than that country is hemorrhaging money. we need to stop spending. we do not have any other choice. host: this is from one of our viewers. do you still believe in the growth of the economy from the top down? guest: we never believed that great we believe that the key to success is to give people money, to let them keep their money. they can innovate and start businesses without the shackles of government. guys onit be the rich wall street or the doctors in california. or the guy with the small idea in his crotch. -- garage. those are the things that we like. we want to see that from all walks of life. host: who are the largest contributors? why is unionbusting a priority? guest: you can go -- that listener can go on to the governor website to find out who our donors are. they are freely available. we have to report them. --support regulating reducing regulation by unions. we do not believe that the government should be involved. enteries and employees into voluntary contracts between each other. that is not something that we believe that the government should get involved in. unions are fine, and and of themselves. when they use the government to coerce companies to bend to the unions well, that is a problem. host: to political questions. political questions. looking at texas, the headline is that the senate run has a look of a solo act. this is a portion of what is written in the post. stockman,ssmen, steve to a be the closest thing middle finger running for congress by himself. for every gift of $10 that you might write, i will send you an obama barf bag -- this man is running for the senate in a state with 26 million people. he is not doing well by conventional measures. he is down by 44 points. sometimes the challengers find a way to win. came: club for growth pac out early and said good luck, but we will not get involved. this goes back to our earlier point. he does not have a great score. there is a high interest score. steve stockman has a good record. we do not see any evidence of why we should get involved when there could only be a margin it runs. -- of different. primaries are healthy things. this keeps politicians on their toes. a keeps the more responsive to the voters. we think that is a good thing. let's go through this list from the washington post. senate races for gop. mississippi, he is being challenged by chris mcdaniel. host: we have endorsed chris mcdaniel. why is that he has been in office for nearly four decades. voters need a change. we have seen it and seen the evidence. they like him, but except gone bad. -- things have gotten bad. mcdaniel is an absolute conservative rock. we really look forward to that race. host: on the somewhat endangered list, they include in kansas, pat roberts is being challenged. in south carolina, lindsey graham may face a challenge. there are a number of republicans in south carolina. in kentucky, mitch mcconnell is challenged by matt bevin. guest: let me wrap that up. this also goes to the cochrane raise. trend ina fundamental american politics. i wish more journalists wrote about this. these lawmakers have been in there for decades. they like their senator. they like roberts. not especially with mcconnell. they are not really happy with him right now. there is the idea that they like them, but it is time for a change. it is time to find somebody new. clearly, they are not helping the situation in the state -- d.c. roberts is inat trouble and i think the mitch mcconnell is in trouble in kentucky. bevin is athink that better general election candidate against allison grimes. i want to ask you about wyoming. two familiar names. liz cheney -- guest: this is kind of like texas. the challenger and the incumbent appear to be above average. we do not see a contrast. from my position, i have not taken much time to see what could happen. whatever happens, republicans will get that seat. host: listed under least endangered, we spoke about texas. lamar alexander, who stepped aside, is running. he is facing a challenge. guest: this is an ongoing frustration. incumbents lot of who frankly need to be defeated. they do not represent their state and conservative state as well as they should. our frustration is that it is hard to find the target. it is very hard to define conservative challengers. you have to be very good on the campaign stuff. you have to fund raise a lot of money. together ave to put competent team or you can do the right things to win. unfortunately, it is very hard to find those people. you hope that they pop up. in tennessee, we have not been able to do it. it is frustrating when we see somebody like lamar alexander and his very poor record. he appears to be some uncomfortable. -- somewhat comfortable. host: you worry that your organization to the right and other organizations to the left create a polarization that is very difficult for both sides. frustration is that people think that compromising is a good policy. theo not find that that is case. compromise usually leads to bigger government. in the 1990's, there was gridlock. everybody remembers fighting between newt gingrich and bill clinton. we got a lot of great policies then. welfare reform, tax reform. there were a lot of good policies. we think that that is the way to go. principal, then, if we're going to compromise, compromise on how we will reduce the size of government or grow the economy. cuts for taxnding increases and hope that that will work. host: our guest is andy roth. he is the vice president of government affairs for club for growth. he is responding to this question. for congress not passing legislation is harry reid's fault. he tables all of the bills from the house of representatives. debra from dallas, texas. republican line. caller: good morning. i have a couple of quick questions. i have been sitting here i am thinking of the conservative interest groups on a common sense continuum. you in one end. conservativeste on the other end. here to jackson somewhere between. end, and heritage action somewhere in between. but i really do not understand s approach tothi politics is ever going to work. watching c-span nonstop since 1992, and i watched an awful lot of allah takes in those years, and i have positionn the politics win. i find it really troubling. the other question i have got -- or comment. do you ever think about the idea that when big government is more popular than it has ever been until they started taking polls about the thing, the democrats have now come up with their new sort of rallying cry, economic anduality, more government, sort of the bill de blasio, elizabeth warren model. i would like your thoughts on that. thank you. guest: thank you. on your first point on division in washington and about gridlock, i think we have talked about that extensively. i think it is a good thing as long as obama's of the white house, i think the gridlock is very safe for our republic. you know,ond point, the democrats have a strategy, and the strategy is to grow government. get more people dependent on government and use that dependency to get more votes in future years. but sometimes it backfires. i think because of the presidency of jimmy carter that we got ronald reagan, and i'm hoping it is because of the presidency of obama that we get a conservative hero of the right who could help reduce the deficit and grow our economy. host: do you have a favorite? guest: we do not. all of the popular names like senator rubio, governor christie, governor walker,, senator rand paul, though since to be the big-name so far. what i expect us to do is sit back, analyze the records, and tell the public how we feel about each one. host: one of the programs you can hear on c-span which is "meet the press," we're keeping track of members of congress. this from representative keith -- emergency federal unemployment insurance expired just one week ago and already the u.s. economy has lost over 400 million dollars. your thoughts on how he is framing that debate. guest: unemployment insurance altogether, i think we need to sit back and figure out what is a better way to do it. our answer at the club for growth is to return the authority back to the states. it makes no sense for someone and say topeka, kansas, to send a dollar to washington, have the d.c. chew upere in a portion of that, and send the rest to topeka. let's end the unemployment insurance program, send it back to the states so they can administer to their local communities and a much more efficient way. that seems to be too much for the people here in washington to handle. so at the very least, we should hope that if they do extend unemployment insurance next week when congress gets back in session, at least pay for it. i mean, you know, here in a d.c., we are famous for paying for things that we cannot afford. if we are going to extend this program, they for it, -- pay for it. does club for growth support the libertarian arm of the republican party? guest: we do not take any label, we are not a wing of the republican party, we are not a wing of the libertarian party. we believe in program and service policies that i believe a lot of republicans and a lot of libertarians support. host: next call from new jersey for indie rock of club for growth. good morning. caller: hi. i have noticed that the , thecare situation conservatives and republicans are leaning heavily on the fact that the president said if you want to keep your insurance you can keep it. that was a lie, i do not know if he was aware of it at the time, so it was a lie. if you are going to compare lies, i mean a lie about weapons of mass distractions would be way up there in the dash of mass destruction would be way up there in the list. i am not a fan of politics as far as congress is concerned. it is a do-nothing congress we have had. they should be focusing on job growth in the country. they should pass some job bills. in 2007 that we started going in a ditch, and they have had six years now to do something, and they have done nothing. wage, whenn minimum i first started working just out of high school, i was making $1.40 an hour, and a car was $2000. now the same car is $30,000, and the minimum wage is eight and dollars in our -- is $8.00 an hour. you cannot expect the growth we have in the 1970's and 1980's when you were not giving any growth of the middle class. host: thank you, frank, appreciate the call. guest: i want to address his point about passing a jobs bill. he is absolutely correct -- since 2007, 2008, we have not passed in a jobs bill. democrats will say the stimulus was a jobs bill, but that was just a big sinkhole of more debt with very little and results. that is something we did predict will suck you cannot have the government centrally planned how to grow the government. the best thing to do, and this is something that president obama can really ride the coattails on in his last few years of office, last three years in office, and that is progrowth tax reform. he has talked about it, he has got democrats in the senate and in the house who are excited to do it. everybody is on board, but for some reason he will not take the leadership to do it. i think the reason is because democrats want a big tax increase out of it. revenue neutral tax reform, which is what occurred in 1986 with tip o'neill and president reagan, is something we should do again. we can lower the rates, broaden the base, and the economy will i think ito end, and will be a wonderful thing for obama to do. to secure his legacy in the last few years. host: the cover story of "cq weekly," what do you make of the budget deal with paul ryan? guest: that is a frustrating one for us, the problem is the deal was pretty small in numbers into a lot of things. at the end of the day, it has unwound part of the sequester, lot tot does not mean a people. but what it should mean is that republicans and democrats back in 2011 promised to cut spending, and now they went back on those words. host: would you define it as a compromise? guest: i did, i do. it is a compromise to grow government. what they're are doing is increasing spending now with the promise of cutting spending later, which is ironic because two years ago they promised to cut spending and they are already breaking that problem. this was a spending increase, and it was a bipartisan compromise to do so. host: if paul ryan decides to run for president in 2016 based on this agreement that he worked out with patty murray, the democratic senator from washington state, what is your take? guest: i will not speculate on if he runs, but i will talk about his voting record. one thing that frustrates us at the club for growth is that his rhetoric is a lot better than his voting record. his voting record is littered with a lot of concerning items from the bush years, whether it drugdicare prescription benefit, a whole new $1 trillion entitlement, he supports wage controls, very, married to unions. -- veryncreased complementary to unions. he has increased spending in a lot of ways, no child left behind, tarp, we can go on and on. he is masterful at understanding how the budget works and how to reduce entitlement spending, but his track record is very concerning to us. ont: from alabama, cindy is the phone, democrats line. thank you for waiting, good morning. yes, what i see is history repeating itself. we hadw, the last time this kind of inequality between the 1% of extremely wealthy and or --% of extremely poor there is not even a middle class. we had a depression. theess it is going to take government and republicans especially to realize that we real -- be the very very wealthy to pay not even their fair share some of but just a little more instead of trying to keep cutting and taking away in making be poor poorer. host: cindy, thank you for the call. a tweet from george -- and trickle-down supply-side has been a failed policy for 30 years. to his point and city's point, your thoughts. guest: i think the democrats have artie done that. they've raise taxes just last year. just a little but more. they asked the rich to pay just a little bit more, but it is not working. the economy is still struggling, we still have 7% unemployment. i do not think the answer to solving inequality is to take from one person and give it to another through coercion of government. the idea is to make businesses and workers flourish so that the economy can grow without the intrusion of government, not more government. that is the problem that we historically have between republicans and the democrats when it comes to inequality. everybody wants in it -- we just have different views on how to do it. host: cj next, boca raton, florida, republican line. beenr: hi, steve, it has so long since i called. i opened up a twitter account just so i could tweet on c-span. host: irving, what is your handle, we will follow it? i am from boca raton, florida, and i taught school, but i quit at the end of last year, i could not take it anymore. now i get to watch c-span, and i love it so much. i watch it for three hours in the morning, oh, i love it. i taught in a almost all-black school. 13 years. i taught high school english primarily to seniors, i thought ap, and last year they put me with the low ones, but i am telling you, steve, it is the money, honey. our schools got a lot of money. it was the way it is used and the priorities. steve, the blacks did not value education. saided so hard, and i leave, i said, your teacher is going to have a stroke if you do not sit down and do your work, and they said ms., you ought to yourn your chair and have stroke, we ain't doing it. i cannot get them -- they do not value, we were compelled -- each year it got worse to pass them guyg because -- i heard one thomas and i hate to take up the time of our dear guest, but i think he needs to address things in more concrete forms. democrats vote against their own wishes because i think it is all words. i don't see that they have improved. on, they graduate, but they do not have the skills. they are reading and writing on a six grade level, and i don't mean to be so harsh. if i did not love them, i would not stay because, you know, i did not have to teach there. i did it because i wanted to. carol, we will get a response, thank you for your phone call, and we will look for your tweets as well. thank you for calling in. caller: bye, bye. onst: she brings up next point. education is one issue that is so frustrating. if it is one issue that should have no politicians involved in is education. if there is one issue that should remain as local as possible, it is education. it makes zero sense to me why families and communities could set -- should send their money to washington, tell them how to run their schools and how to teach their kids, and then hope that that leads to a good result. education money, education curriculum, educational regulations should stay at the local level in the state level, and i think you would see a boom in learning like never before. host: let me go back to your earlier appointed to trying -- point in trying to elect a republican to the white house. the publicans have not received a majority of the popular vote, the only exception was 2000 four with george w. bush. how does the gop change that? guest: that is tough. i do not focus on presidential politics -- i focused mainly on congressional politics. i would say that -- i will say though that we need to appeal to the common sense ideas. these are not extreme ideas, these are not radical ideas. these are simple ideas like maybe let's give the politicians less money to spend with. awful historical track record with that. let's just stop the spending and let's also balance the budget. balancing the budget is something that families and state governments do. let's do it at the national level. these are simple ideas that we can come up with her that i think appeal very much to voters. and let's reduce relations on a lot of the small businesses that are suffering. these seem like very reasonable things that are very concrete, that hit directly home to a lot of voters. host: andy roth who is with club >> next, a look at what is ahead in congress when they return this week. bob cusack is managing editor of "the hill." the senate returns monday for a procedural vote. how long is the extension, and what is the likelihood it will get passed? bill, a a bipartisan republican from nevada and a democrat from rhode island. they join forces to extend benefits that expired on december 28. the big question is, does it have the votes to pass? there has not been any additional republican support that has come out yet. harry reid strongly supports this and is hoping to put pressure on the republican-led house to pass this. but he first has to get the vote. toghly, democrats are going need at least a handful of republican votes. we are seeing if they are going to get those votes. >> a vote monday on the nomination of janet yellen. where is her support coming from in the senate? how did the recent rules changes under the so-called nuclear option support this vote? >> yellen does have the support. no doubt about it. for they went on break, a procedural vote, she got 59 votes. that has cleared the way for this final vote. way the nuclear option played into effect. a sickly, she did not need the 60. she needed the majority. this procedural motion is expected to pass. in committee, there is only one democrat who voted no. three republicans voted for her. we may see a mixture of the vote here. most democrats are going to support her. like the house is back with at least one vote on the health care law. how is this different from votes over health care? >> a new year, fighting over the same thing -- obamacare. it is not a repeal we have seen dozens of times from house republicans. this bill would mandate the federal government tell those whose data has been breached there has been a security problem with their personal information, who have signed up for the affordable care act. the obama administration has said no security or private information has been breached. heldcans in congress have hearings on this. they have heard testimony from experts. notsecurity on the site is strong. outspoken on this has been a republican from michigan. ask the house is gaining a new member and one is officially leaving. >> bradley byrne will be replacing jo bonner, who stepped aside. won a special election, and the general election after congress adjourned. he will be sworn in. mel watt is being cleared to housing agency. that was an nomination that really needed the nuclear option to happen, because watt did not have the necessary vote of republicans to clear. there will be a special election for his race once after he steps down. we are not sure when that special election will happen just yet. >> a spending bill to keep the government operating after january 15. what is the status of that? >> they have been working over the holidays, republicans and democrats, to put in language that will keep funding the government. the spending level is just over a trillion dollars, agreed to in ryan=-an-marie -- before the holidays. they have been working behind the scenes to fund the government in a massive omnibus. there is a question of when they come out with that bill. does that have the votes to pass? it should because of the budget deal, but we will see. >> anything else we should look at as the second session is getting underway? >> i think immigration will be a big issue in the first three months of the year. some on the right are concerned that speaker john boehner is going to move some type of immigration bill. that remains to be seen. he did hire a former john mccain aid. reform proponents like that. it remains to be seen what will happen there and what boehner will do on the extension of unemployment benefits. both parties have certainly gone into campaign mode. we will certainly see that as the year goes on. >> you will find bob cusack's work on twitter and online. thanks for joining us. >> the senate returns live at 2:00 eastern tomorrow. on the agenda, an extension of unemployment benefits and a continued debate on the nomination of janet yellen, with a confirmation vote scheduled at 5:30 eastern. you can watch the senate on c- span 2. in the house, they return tuesday for a pro forma session and will dabble in at 2:00 eastern. they will recess until 6:30, and then vote to establish a quorum known as the call of the house, to mark the start of >> up next "q&a" with economist marty sullivan. restoration t the project on the u.s. capital dome then a discussion on political and changing electorate. >> this week on "q&a" marty sullivan, the chief economist for tax analysts a nonprofit provides news at and analysis on state, federal nd international tax related issues. marty sullivan, i want to introduce you to our audience the same way we were introduced you in the "washington post" in october of 2013 headline picked out how the world's biggest companies voided billions in taxes, here is how he wants to stop them". what did you think of that? was a quite flattering article. it was great that after all of through rs of digging the data, me and my colleagues at tax

Related Keywords

Arkansas , United States , City Point , Florida , Alabama , Nevada , Australia , Texas , Kentucky , Rhode Island , California , Georgia , Michigan , Washington , District Of Columbia , Mississippi , Tennessee , New Jersey , Rome , Lazio , Italy , Nebraska , South Carolina , Wyoming , Pennsylvania , Kansas , Dallas , Americans , American , George Zimmerman , Trayvon Martin , Elizabeth Warren , Liz Cheney , Ronald Reagan , Pat Roberts , Mandy Roth , Bradley Byrne , Patty Murray , Lamar Alexander , Janet Yellen , Boca Raton , John Boehner , Allison Grimes , Newt Gingrich , Paul Ryan , John Mccain , Mike Lee , Anna Galland , Andrew Ross , Steve Stockman , Chris Mcdaniel , Harry Reid , Jimmy Carter , Jo Bonner , Barack Obama , George W Bush , Bob Cusack , Mitch Mcconnell , Matt Bevin , Marty Sullivan , Ted Cruz ,