coke would attack pepsi, pepsi would attack coke, he depressed the entire product category caps off things. to a certain extent, our system is depressing the category of democracy. young people turning off the news and are not reading the newspaper. i going in depth to policy issues. that is cleaning a situation in washington that is very problematic. again, some of that bitterness in the states, as well, but it is nowhere as near as intense. i think are able, after the elections, to be able to move past the bitterness and sit down at the table and figure out what is the appropriate compromise. i think governors are committed to trying to help congress and sit down to have discussions. in some cases, i have talked to legislators in colorado about how can i, you know, by sitting down with a different interest group, helped get a congressional representative you know, into the end zone on a particular issue and make sure that they feel there is enough backing for them in the state to take sometimes what is a difficult position? i think if that happens on a more frequent basis in all the states, maybe we can move past this kind of gridlock. but it has been tough. governor herbert: i asked a have reason to be optimistic and hopeful that as we move forward we can get past some of the partisan wrangling. partisan itself is not necessarily bad thing. it is not getting anything done and not being willing to compromise that sometimes gets in the way. but i'm optimistic that we move forward and there is new opportunities, a new beginning. we have new leadership, new opportunities. i will also say this. one, governors get along well because we don't have to play the kind of king of the hill game they play here in washington. we can have meetings, we can talk about issues, we do it we can, then we go back to our own hills. that is a little different dynamic than what we find here in washington dc where they play king of the hill here. just a different dynamic. when you to understand that i respect them. the thing that is the biggest concern for me is washington dc and the congress and the executive branch doesn't trust the states. there is a lack of trust. we need to -- we need to knock down that barrier. they don't think we will do the right thing. they take the money, they bring it through washington, give it back to us with strings and, you know, regulations and parameters. because they don't think we will spend it right. at a think, here is a program they don't have in the states. we have to create one because we don't think there are doing it right in the state. it really, to me, boils down to a lack of trust. so i think our job as governors and certainly as leadership of the national governors association, is to make sure we do everything we can to bring down that barrier of non-trust. you can trust us. we are pretty smart people in the states. where doing some good things. in fact, in many ways, much better than a collective work that comes out of washington dc. which, and probably most of our views, they're trying to do too much. we might fall down skin our needs, but we will pick ourselves back up again and find solutions. and we will end from each other. it is a wonderful system. we need to bring back some of the trust from the federal government to the states. and that is part of the job. if we can do that, i'm very optimistic about what the future will bring. >> what you think of the -- governor hickenlooper: go ahead. governor herbert: he is kind of a shoot from the hip, tell it like you see it kind of guy. and i think he speaks for mayor giuliani, himself, and not for many others on this particular issue. i know there is frustration that comes, whether it is efficient with the executive branch or congress. and sometimes people -- his words are probably ill-advised in the overall context. that being said, i think he was a great mayor. governor hickenlooper: what he said. [laughter] i want to thank you all for coming. appreciate, as governor herbert said, we are both optimist by nature. incurable optimist. i think every governor everywhere, it comes with the territory. it is like being under bernards when you go out and starting from scratch. governor scott of takeover something that is already going full speed, but there is that sense of optimism that provides a context for so much of what we do. we appreciate the media always giving us the benefit of the doubt and always showing that same optimism. we are grateful for your time and your attention. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the national governors association beginning its annual winter meeting with an annual news conference by the chair and vice chair of the nga. colorado governor governor hickenlooper: chairs, governor herbert vice chairs this year. and i live coverage here on c-span will continue at 11:00 a.m. eastern time. one of the scheduled speakers today is union square hospitality group ceo danny meyer. the obese -- he will be speaking . that is happening at 11:00 a.m. speaking time on the room that you see on your screen now. and later today at 3:00, another session on jobs and the economy with maria about aroma -- again, both of those sessions of the national governors association winter meeting life here on c-span. while we wait for the 11:00 session to get started, a look at issues facing the states of today's "washington journal." host: joining us now, a reporter who is also going to be covering one of the sessions today. for those who may be watching later on c-span, what to the governors talk about specifically when dealing with these large national issues and how it affects their states? guest: whenever a group of governors, or right now there are office county officials in town, whenever they come to town, there is usually two purposes. one purpose is to share ideas. i spoke with governor hickenlooper: of colorado. that is something he said we are really going to be talking about. he has a big initiative on how states can be more effective. he is a former businessman himself. whether you believe in small or big government, everyone believes in good government. so that is one of the aspects. the other big reason is that this is where they get a lot of their money. a third of the state possible budget comes from the -- state's budget come from the federal government. on monday, they will be meeting with the white house, and governor -- governor hickenlooper: and governor herbert both set of -- set -- sat with a few of us reporters yesterday and outlines those issues several -- that would tax think that you buy online, things that you buy on amazon. they are going to talk about immigration. they're going to talk about trade deals. there is a lot of their plate for monday. host: a third of the state's budget come from the federal government. how does that fall down? guest: a lot of it comes in the form of medicaid. and those kind of payments. medicaid is one of the biggest expensive at the state level. and it is also a huge expense of the federal level. so, yeah, it can come through congress, it comes their executive budgets, all kinds. host: so it comes to the house, generally we hear from the obama administration that the economy is improving. guest: generally speaking, states are doing well. states are doing ok. and the terminology of the credit rating agencies, states are stable. that is not to say they are not bad, they are not great. it seems that the worst is behind us. the really difficult years of recession are behind us. but the economy is still slow. every governor is still very concerned about jobs and unemployment and the economy. you know, it is still -- it would still be better if things were moving faster. host: just to give you a snapshot, the national averages 5.7%. states like north dakota showing 2.8%. south dakota 3.8%. what is factoring into those states with lower numbers or with higher numbers? guest: some of the strongest it's right now, by and a lot of measures, north dakota is number one by almost every measure and that is because of the oil boom there. energy is really driving a lot of this, especially in the west. and sort of the middle corridor of the country from texas up to north dakota, states are doing very well. host: our guest is here to talk about conditions in the states, particularly as the national governors association meets today. you can watch it later on c-span, by the way. if you want to ask our guest questions you can do so this morning. you know, we put the lines bipartisan but when these governors meet, i suppose the partisan issues go out of it? guest: to some extent, yes. this is a bipartisan organization. as a said, a big reason is for sure that he is. to some degree, it is run by a democrat and a republican. governor hickenlooper: and governor herbert have a great relationship. i have seen them interact many times now. they joke with one another. obviously, they disagree on a lot of issues, but they do steal ideas from each other. even yesterday there were talking about an idea that they stole from utah called 66 by 2020, which they are shooting to get 66% of residents, adult residents, to hold a technical certificate or college degree by 2020. it is about sharing ideas. a lot of partisanship. host:'s a lot of states were affected by the afford will care act. how is that playing out? guest: a lot of this right now i mean the big question is what happens in the supreme court. they are expected to issue a verdict in june. just heard about it this week. this case could devastate the law as it is being implemented. host: as it is about subsidies. guest: basically the issue on hand is that 13 states on exchanges, and the rest of the states are on the federal exchange. or some variation of that. the administration argues that the law says that -- the law was greeted with the intense that subsidies would be available to anyone on any exchange. the argument on hand is that any a portion of the law, it does say that subsidies are available to those, quote, established by the state. so the issue is what did congress intend when they drafted that law? if the supreme court rules against the subsidies in those days, millions of people, as many as 8 million are getting subsidies right now, would be affected. host: on another level, talk about the states that expanded the medicare programs. how are they faring economically? guest: so far, states are doing well. kentucky has been a standout. you might think of it normally as a lead -- red state. the governor this year has said you know, it has been incredibly effective date they have reduced the uninsured rate from i think 20% to about 12%. they just had -- and found that the state is expected to say something like $800 million in the next 10 years. things to the medicaid expansion. so there are arguments that this is really going to save money, but the counterargument is that the medicaid expansion under the act -- the federal government has promised to pay most of the costs in the long term. a lot of republican governors argued that you say that now but when things get tight in 10 years come you going to shift for those costs up. i citizens will be so used to it that he will be able to pull it back. host: covering politics and policy. first call for you is from tom in new jersey. tom is on independent line. go ahead. and he totally runs the debt up towards $19 trillion as we are today, you would think the economy