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we are funded by these television companies are more including nico. ♪ nico support c-span is a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. good morning. as we near the end of the year we are taking stock of the couny's economic mood. beyond the indicators such as inflation and unemployment, we want to know how you are feeling personally about the economy. are you optimistic or pessimistic? if you're optimistic call (202) 748-8000.

pessimistic (202) 748-8001. you can text us at (202) 748-8903. let us know your first name. welcome to today's washington journal. let's start with a couple of polls that cbs news did. here is the headline. cbs news poll finds americans feel inflation impact on living standards and opportunities. this question asks what was the most difficult economic time for the u.s. and here you can see it was asked about the covid shut down between 2020 and 2021, the post-pandemic, the great recession, and cash shortages

and inflation in the 1970's. it breaks it down by age. this is overall. you can see the highest numbers is the covid shut down of 2020 to 2021. this question asks compared to your parents, is your standard of living better, the same, or worse? the largest group saying worse at 46%. better is 33%, and the same at 21%. interesting to find out what you are feeling about that and how you're feeling about the economy and your situation. the numbers are on your screen. optimistic, (202) 748-8000. pessimistic, (202) 748-8001. let's look at jerome powell who announced he would keep interest

rates steady about the surprises he found in the economy. [video clip] >> casters were broadly forecasting a recession for this year. not only did that not happen, that includes fed forecasters and essentially all forecasters. a very high percentage of forecasters were expecting week growth. not only did that not happen, we had a strong year. that was a combination of demands on the supply side. this was the year when labor force participation picked up, where immigration picked up, where distortions from supply and demand from the pandemic really begin to unwind. we had significant supply-side gains with strong demand and we got what looks like a 2.5% growth year at a time when potential growth this year might have been higher than that because of the supply-side.

that was a surprise to just about everybody. i think the inflation forecast is roughly what people wrote down a year ago but in a different setting and i would say the labor market has also been better. if you look at the sep from a year ago there was a significant increase in unemployment that do not really happen. we are still at 3.7%. we have seen strong growth, still a tight labor market but one coming back into balance with the swift support from the supply-side. that is what we see and that combination was not anticipated broadly. host: that was the fed chair jerome powell and here is the headline from the washington post. everyone expected a recession.

after pressure over everything from sky high inflation to a looming recession the head of the federal reserve was asked what he does for fun and says for me "big party, big party, this is really as fun as it gets. this is really as good as it gets." for an official who sticks to a tight script the mood was jubilant but it also speaks to a leader who feels finally free to crack a joke. as 2023 winds to a close pal and his colleagues are far from declaring victory on inflation. they cautioned their actions could be thwarted by any number of threats from more the middle east to the china economic slowdown. americans are upset about the cost of groceries and other basics. if we take a look about what we

are getting on social media, mi says this on facebook. pessimistic. our debt is rising at the outlook cannot be good. flooding the country with unskilled laborers is not good for the economy. we will get back to that but first we will go to your calls. steve in florida. good morning. caller: i am very optimistic about our economy. the stock market is going through the roof. these people that are coming across the border, i say put them to work, make them pay taxes, break down our debt. when biden took over the country he had a lot of work to do. we are seeing the results. i am looking forward to 2024. i believe the wages are going up. food prices are going down.

gas prices are going down. i am optimistic for 2024 and our future for this country. i am a former marine. i have seen us go a trillion dollars in debt over the trump administration -- i've seen us go $8 trillion in debt over the trump administration and now we are starting to bring that debt down. i believe in supporting ukraine and i believe in supporting israel. however, i believe israel needs to put a stop to what they are doing. host: i want to ask you one of the questions cbs news asked in a poll, which is compared your apparent standard of living is your standard of living at her, the same, or worse? are you better off than your parents or worse off? caller: back in my parent's days , a loaf of bread was $.15. i am 74 years old.

gasoline was $.17 a gallon. inflation has been going on for years and years. host: obviously there wages were much lower than they are today. caller: absolutely. host: what was your question -- caller: what was your question? host: it is ok. you answered it. daniel in illinois. go ahead. we are listening. caller: i am very optimistic about the economy. if you compare it to other industrialized countries in the world we have the lowest inflation, the lowest unemployment. like the previous gentleman said , the stock market is doing very well. investment is coming back to america. countries all over the world are

looking to get back into the american economy. i am very optimistic. let's take a look at what -- host: let's take a look at what janet yellen said. she outlined factors that helped lower inflation without weakening the economy. [video clip] >> i think there were significant supply disturbances that were caused by the pandemic. shortages, big shifts in the structure of demand that went to sectors like automobiles that were faced with enormous excess demand, shortages of chips, shipping, huge increase in shipping costs from asia. supply disruptions have gradually come down up i cannot

say exactly how much that has contributed to lower inflation, i think that has been a factor. you also had enormous disruption in the labor market with a very significant number of people laid off or losing their jobs who need to find new work. i think that led to disruptions in the labor market. they are also gradually healing. the rate of unemployment is coming down as people settle into new jobs. that is a very disruptive process we saw. not only desperation on the part of firms as the economy picked up and they were desperately trying to add to their workforce, but a mismatch of workers and firms that one

people to quit their jobs, look for other work until they settled into a good match. quits for unusually high, job openings were high, wage increases were high as the labor market had been so disrupted. now if you look at it, job openings are down substantially. i do not mean by the levels that are worrisome low, but normal good labor market pre-pandemic levels. host: the treasury from earlier this month. we are taking your calls. anne in easton, maryland. good morning. caller: i am pessimistic because we have to realize the terms inflation and unemployment are defined by the government. as i understand it inflation measurement does not include

food prices and fuel prices and i also know that unemployment is defined by somebody who is actually receiving unemployment. many people have exceeded the number of weeks and are still unemployed. i asked people to take a look at those definitions. thank you. host: kimberly is in north las vegas. good morning. caller: good morning. i am optimistic. i just heard the lady before me. the thing is i know i am better off than my parents. i work in a job that is totally affected by interest rates. this is the year i started my company. the thing is when rates are high like this, this is the time i felt i need to start my own

company. it is a good thing. i am very optimistic about what is going to happen in the future. food prices. from what i am understanding, if you go to the store and pull a bag of chips off the rack, it will be six dollars. you have to find deals. there are deals all around. people are lazy. they do not want to look. i am paying pre-much the same thing as i paid pre-pandemic for most things. host: how are you finding those deals on food? are you shopping in different places? are you waiting for sales? caller: exactly. i am waiting for sales. i will tell my kids, they say i want a certain thing right now, i will say we will get something else that is on sale and when i see it we stock up. i do stock up.

i do not have a pantry full of chips or something like that, but i do have a lot of chips. we do stock up. when i see a sale i do take advantage of it. that is another thing where i see toilet paper on sale, i go ahead and i do have the finances to go ahead and stock up. i am not buying it on-and-off time. i catch a lot of sales. i look at the sales paper every week. i do my digital coupons, i do all of that because back in 2008 when it hit us again in the industry i am in, we took a hit. me and my husband took a hit. we have learned. we are older.

i am older. the thing is i have learned, and most people should have learned that this is cyclical and you start looking for sales. you cannot just go to the store and grab something off the rack and start buying. you have to look. i think it is great. not everything is great but i am very optimistic about the future. host: thank you. john in staten island, new york. what do you think? caller: i am pessimistic. i wanted to make a suggestion. you should have an economist talking about the economy. no offense. the health care system in the united states is very expensive. we do not cover everybody.

have somebody on to talk about how other countries do with that problem. canada has the single-payer system. host: you do. you can always look at our video library at c-span.org or things you might be specifically interested in. how are you doing? is health care costs harder for you? how are you doing? caller: it is harder for me. i do not have health care. i have some problems. host: you're paying for everything out of pocket? caller: i am not paying for anything. i do not go to the doctor, i have some health problems by cannot afford it. we have a very low minimum wage. we have very high debt and i would say that in other countries the very wealthy subsidize the poor. it seems like in this country

the poor and middle-class subsidize the wealthy. host: there was a cbs poll that asked this question. in today's economy who has a chance to get ahead? it said from 2017, everyone was 43%. now that has dropped to 36%. the people saying that just a few at the top have a chance to get ahead went from 53% in 2017 to 64% now. do you agree with that? would you put it everyone or just a few at the top? caller: i have read that compared to other countries it is much harder in this country to move from one percentile -- you are in the bottom percentile to the middle to the top. it is hard to move from the low class to middle class or the middle class to the upper-class

compared to some european countries. host: michael is in four oaks, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what do you think? caller: i think everything is doing much better than we can expect after a horrible pandemic where slaughterhouses and meat processing plants were completely closed down. we had horrible bottlenecks. i think both the previous and current administrations did a great job with the covid-19 virus. i would like to wish everyone in the united states a merry christmas. i really think the stock market has taken off once again. it is like pulling a light switch.

it is well over 37,000 points for the dow. host: do you own stocks? caller: know, but someone in my family does. host: merry christmas to you, to. mike is next in norwalk, ohio. caller: good morning and merry christmas. the guy from new york hit the nail right on the head. how is obamacare working for us? as far as janet yellen, trotting her out and saying things are doing better, isn't she the one who said we would have transitional inflation? what happened? a year and a half. come on. do you think we are doing better? we may be doing better because we are not at the bottom of the bucket. when i go to the store i am still spending double what i was when trump was in.

gas is coming down but it is still ridiculous. we should start drilling on our own oil, that way we do not have to buy other countries oil. everyone says everything is doing fine. biden has everything under control. have you even watched this guy make a speech? come on, people. you have optimism and pessimistic, you should have is everything right and wrong. i believe everything is still wrong and the only way things will change is if we get trump back in there. i was doing a lot better when trump was in there instead of obama roles in there and screws everything up. host: speaking of the former president, here he is at a campaign event in new hampshire criticizing the bite administrations economic policy. [video clip] >> review better off five years ago are better off today?

there is no contest. nobody would say today. what a difference a president can make. it does make a big difference. if you go back seven or eight years, it makes a tremendous difference. since joe biden took over we have had a three year inflation date of over 20%. under my leadership inflation was nonexistent. we had gasoline at $1.87. after three years of bidenomics, they call it bidenomics from hell, the average mortgage payment has gone to $3322 today but you cannot get the money so it does not matter. biden's antlers are making the banks richer and making you poor. they handlers are making the banks rich and the banks

discriminate against conservatives, they discriminate against religion because they are afraid of the radical left. i think the bank regulators are doing a big number because they are not allowed to do business with you and we will get those banks when we get in office. we will get them. nobody knows the banking industry better than me. i am not going to let them take advantage of you any longer. they have taken advantage. what they do to the people in this room and millions of others is a disgrace. we will end it. joe biden and the democratic party are incapable of solving any problems. they have not solved anything. they have only created problems. as long as joe biden is in the white house, the american dream is dead. host: we want to know what you think about that. are you feeling optimistic or pessimistic?

here is eugene on facebook who says very optimistic. "if bid is reelected and his infrasucture program is implemented." and we got a text from important organ. -- from portland, oregon. if donald wins, pessimistic, if joe wins, very optimistic. dev posted this on x. very optistic. union strong. fox watchers will be pessimistic. allie says very optimistic. all you have to do is look at the data from all other developed countries and see how they trail the u.s. rich is calling from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i am confident things will get better. i know inflation has increased -- has decreased.

things are difficult but things will get better and i think we will avoid a recession. host: let me ask you one of the questions from the cbs poll. is your income keeping up with inflation? caller: i am budgeting right and jobs are plentiful right now. i'm a young guy so i'm not spending too much on mortgages. host: but you are working? caller: i am keeping up pretty well right now with my costs. i am pretty confident i am holding things together. host: ok. david in north carolina. why are you pessimistic? caller: good morning. i am pessimistic because of the big lie about inflation. i am a senior collecting social security. in 2023 the social security recipients got an increase of

between 8% and 9%. this year we are getting an increase of over 3% based on the consumer price index. that means these layers of inflation are not going away. it is the big lie that people are being fed about inflation going down. it is going up. the 9% from last year is still there, now we have 3% on top of that. this is all at the foot of this administration, whose policies are driving prices through the roof. people think inflation is going down yet they still say they go shopping and they see the prices at the grocery store, which have not -- which have far exceeded the raises for us seniors and our social security increases. that is the big lie and people start getting informed about what we are being fed about this. merry christmas to you and the country. host: merry christmas.

before you go. have you made adjustments because the social security increases were not as high as you would expect? caller: i am very fortunate in my family is very fortunate, i had a good life, a good living. i am not worried about that. i am worried for other people that have not been as blessed as my family has been. host: gary in fort worth, texas. good morning. caller: first of all i want to say merry christmas and you are doing a great job today. three quick footnotes before i start. about four or five callers previously, i am a republican, trump says everyone believes the economy is getting better, i do not leave wife. biden is doing -- i do not know

what. biden is doing a great job. he is not my president but i will vote for him next time. it is political. when you played the trip -- when he played the clip of trump's and he went into biden destroyed the economy and obamacare of all of this. all of this will be a political legal issue coming in 2024 it will affect all of our pocketbooks. i am a hospital director. i have never had so many applications that we have hired. we have opened four new hospitals hunter biden. -- hospitals under biden. we were going into bankruptcy prior to biden coming in. what i believe is the judicial system will affect all of our economies, all of our pocketbooks. look at what happened in michigan. we had another phone call where

trump tried to influence the dual -- tried to influence the election in michigan. it is 11 minutes long. host: how is that impacting the economy? caller: is impacting the economy because of the republicans get back in power they will open up all of these policies that are causing trickle-down economics which i know did not work for me as a republican. i have more taxes, i had to pay more. i cannot hire people, people do not want to work. when you start talking about the policy of trickle-down economics it does not work. you have to open the economy up. that is what biden has done. trump, i think his policies were decent. he was not disciplined.

the same way he is not disciplined legally, criminally, all of the things he is doing. it is affecting not only our pocketbooks, it is affecting our children's behavior, the schools. i am shocked at ronna mcdaniel. i love this woman. i cannot believe the phone call she was on trying to overthrow the election. i am completely shocked. i did not think this behavior would come from her. can they arrest her? it is serious. all of this has an effect on the economy. when people feel like the country is not moving forward with positive people and people who care about us as individuals to write the economic policies, when they are influenced by criminal behavior, then people step out like i do and say i do not know what kind of policies people will write.

if they are involving criminal behavior i'm not spending any money. i am not going to spend any money when these people are running policies that are affecting not only my hospital, my community, everyone that is involved. therefore republicans have a duty to go out and vote for the democratic people in charge. host: gary did mention rhoda mcdaniel, the chair of the rnc. i want to show you what she wrote in an op-ed about the economy. she said "joe biden could any more out of tou. he spent thanksgiving in nantucket where the median home price is $5 million at the lavish home of one of his bille donors. he is so disconnected from ev americans he continues to brag aboueffes of bide as if americans do not feel the pain of rising prices. unfortunately, more reports are

showing it could only gee from here." cost of the gifts outlined in the days of christmas just hit a record high. the cost of a christmas tree up 10%. more than one in three americans are skipping christmas presents due to inflation concerns. madeline is feeling pessimistic in virginia. good morning. caller: morning. first i would like to say i am scared to death of the people walking across the border that will eventually want to kill all of us americans. that is my biggest fear. my biggest problem today is i went to pick up my prescriptions for 90 days and my pills for diabetic, $345.

i cannot buy it. host: has it gone up or has it always been that much? caller: it was $140 the last 90 days. when i went to get it for this 90 days it was $345. host: are you on medicare? caller: i am on medicare and i have my supplement, which has always paid for everything because i pay out $540 a month for medical insurance just so i do not have to pay out-of-pocket. host: cornell in new jersey. why are you optimistic? caller: i am optimistic because in spite of the republicans not having an agenda in their sole purpose is to shut the government down and cause

disruption, we are moving forward. people speaking about obamacare, the fact of the matter is there were numerous hearings on obamacare and a lot of the things that could have benefited us were cut out to appease the republicans concerns. yet not one republican voted for obamacare. yet, for years they have said we are going to get rid of obamacare. they have no anything to replace it with. as far as the way wages and everything is, when donald

trump's 2 trillion dollar tax credit to the wealthiest americans, 83%, went to the top 1%, since donald trump i am having to pay back at tax time where as historically i never had to pay. the bottom line is people that are constantly saying bring trump back. you have a man who is a sore loser. i will not name call because that is a republican standing point to be name-calling and bullying. host: i wanted to ask you since you talk about health care, are you on obamacare? caller: now. -- no. no. host: how are you feeling about next year economically?

revealing things will get better or worse? the same? caller: i am optimistic because even the gentleman earlier that said about his parents and wages were a lot lower. you could survive on one income at one time. women did not have to work. today you need two or three people, two or three jobs to stay afloat. republican policies. the wealthiest americans are getting wealthier since ronald reagan and his unionbusting. the unions created the middle class. unions are at the lowest point

with the right to work laws. i am optimistic because this is the thing. the republicans have no agenda. host: we got that point. california. how are you feeling? caller: i am feeling very amused. for everyone who is talking about republican and democrat and all of this, the economy has not changed. gas went down and bread went up. obamacare, i was on obamacare, i needed a hip replacement. my premium was $1049. obamacare covered $71. guess what, when i came to income tax time they wanted the $71 back for the six months that i was on it.

then they increased it for the next month. there is so much free money rolling around, everyone talking about this -- you have a criminal running for a free country. this dude actually said i am down with putin and this is how you're supposed to run a country. talking about the economics. he set up front i do not pay taxes. those who do are stupid. do not blame me. you have a criminal running. someone i want to touch on, the guy who said, this is a lie. there is no difference in economics. recession is influx big time. you're talking about jobs. a lot of jobs and nobody is trying to work them. everybody wants to be remote. everybody wants to work remote and do nothing because it helps

the economy, the employer's. the young ones talking about rent, you do not have to worry about mortgage. you cannot even pay rent. host: how are you doing besides the health problems. are you able to pay mortgage or your rent? how are you feeling on that? caller: what i am feeling is the reality is that mortgage, rent, everything is not benefiting anyone here that is working, the middle class. someone said about the gap that is growing. if i decide i have mental problems and i do not want to work, i can get free everything, free medical, free dental, free housing. homelessness is out of control. i am optimistic about what?

here you have a criminal running for office. host: we got that. let's take a look at what president biden said. he was in milwaukee talking about what his administration has done for small businesses and the economy overall. [video clip] >> everything benefits. everyone benefits. it is not a joke. it gives hopes. since kamala harris and i entered office americans have filed 15 million new applications to start a new business. 15 million. lacked business ownership in over 30 years -- black business ownership in over 30 years. black wealth is up 60% since the pandemic.

i mean this from the bottom of my heart. we are just getting started. so many of you had the vision and took the risk and you bet on yourselves. together we are transforming the economy by investing in all of america, and all of america. i said if i was elected i would represent everyone. no matter what color the state was. think of all of the businesses that you know about throughout the midwest, back my way as well that closed down because you had corporations decide they get cheaper labor across state if they move somewhere else so they sent jobs overseas and brought the product back home and we changed that to supply chain. we are having jobs here and sending product overseas. [applause]

from the time i got involved in public life, i've only been around a few years. [laughter] bless me, father. [laughter] we do it by building the economy from the middle out and top up. nonelectrical down from my -- not a lot trickled down from my dad's table. the poor have a shot in the middle class does well. the middle class does well and we all do well. host: here is a post we got on x says "rich people getting fatter, the rest are scraping it is not biden, he is doing gr it is the tax code reagan forced on us. it would take a super majority to put it back where it was. everyone prospered."

ruth sayer on x -- truth sayer on x say "we continue to live within our means and save e can for retirement." randy says "both of my mid-30-year-old children are working well. the outlook for michigan looks good. biden's economic strategy is starting to work." will go to jasper in memphis, tennessee. why are you optimistic? caller: i am very optimistic about the economy moving forward. when trump, in he is saying about his economy. i want the republicans to know when donald trump came in gas was $1.35 a gallon and people did good.

then he went in and passed his tax cut and know you have to pay for the money he took out of the economy. banks will get higher. any time progressives want to give everybody a pay rage -- give everybody a pay raise, guess who stops it, the republican party stops it. every time obama try to do something with immigration, mitch mcconnell would stop it. i am from tennessee. guys flying the rebel flags and f joe biden. they're having a hard time in their voting against their own selves. host: how are you doing? caller: i am retired and i am 70 years old and i am still working. there are plenty of jobs. a lot of these worldwide folks do not want to work because it

-- a lot of these rural white folks do not want to work because they do not want anyone black or female telling them what to do. that is the problem in tennessee. biden has pipelines going in. he has road construction going in. you can work for a decent wage. tennessee did not want to do nothing. these people in tennessee, especially in the rural, they are a sorry bunch of people. these republican women calling about they are doing bad, i guess so because you have to pay for your health care they because you voted against people that cut in half your health care. you have to pay for it now. host: darrell is in michigan. why are you pessimistic? caller: i am pessimistic for a

different reason than what people are talking about. i don't think we should count the economic statistics as that important compared to the psyche of the american people. for many years they ask people do you think we are on the right road or the bat road and many more people are saying we are on the wrong road than the positive wrote. -- in the positive road. we have hundreds of thousands of people living on the streets in california. we have a $33 trillion deficit which we have stolen from our children and grandchildren who will live a lower standard of living because they have to pay off the debt we have already spent. we have two wars going on in the world, dangerous wars in

dangerous parts of the world. we have a population of 1.4 billion chinese, no matter how we work it out, 330 million americans not keep up with 1.4 billion chinese for the next 30 years. we will pay dearly for a lot of things. even as we sit around the table and we talk about our sons and daughters who are doing very well, we have all of these things in the background we are so concerned about and should be. the time will, we will say will we socially adjust to two family hierarchies -- both putting their children into schools. this has never happened before. our whole society is changing. if we add up all the psychic

factors knowing at the underside of the united states -- whether the dow jones goes up 20 or 30 points is not so critical. we now have annnc that 1% of theorld owns 50% of the wealth. it is unbelievable. it is very dangerous. host: let's take a look at what republican presidential candidate nikki haley said. she was on a local news program in iowa to talk about how not only democrats but also republicans are responsible for the policies that impact the economy. [video clip] >> if you look at the fact we are $34 trillion in debt. the last three presidents raised our debt 40%. our kids will never forgive us for this. we are now having to borrow money to make our interest

payments. china owns some of that debt. we better start getting this right. what did republicans do? i would love to blame this on biden. he sent us down the socialism street that has is out of control and dangerous. republicans did that. they passed the covid stimulus bill that expanded medicaid and left us with 100 million americans on medicaid and 42 million americans on food stamps. that is one third of our population. did republicans try to make it right? no, they opened up earmarks and pet projects, passing 7000 of them last year. it's been $30 million on an honors college in vermont, $10 million to tear down a hotel in alaska. the list goes on. in the 2024 appropriations budgets, republicans put in $7.4

billion worth of earmarks and pet projects. democrats put into $.8 billion. now tell me who the big spenders are. we call out everybody because it has to stop. host: that was republican presidential candidate nikki haley. kim is next in arkansas. -- tim is next in arkansas. caller: i've not worked in 30 years. the stock market will have the biggest rally in history when trump walks into jail. that is my prediction. it will be a great year and biden's economy will take us into the future. i promise it will be a great future. host: james in mississippi. what you think. caller: i tnkhat guy from arkansas was smoking something. with donald trump fuel was $1.63

a gallon. it is going toe cheap on the consumers. firewood sticks in my mind today. it was $22 a sheet under donald trump. under joe biden it went to $100 a sheet. c-span needs to investigate on this. we have all of these illegal aliens coming into our country. who will feed them. farmers in mississippi say we have hard times. people come into this country illegally because we currently grow a certain amount food. i am talking the farmers. when you doot see lumber cars that means nobody is building

nothing. we hauled lumber. the economy was wide open. when biden went into office he laid off 1000 men in the oilfield to buy oil from venezuela, a communist country. it blows my mind. fuel is four dollars a gallon and is to be $1.63 with donald trump. that is what i have to say. have a merry christmas. host: merry christmas. michael in virginia. why are you optimistic? caller: i feel like the country and the republicans have not given joe biden an opportunity to do his job. i think he has done a tremendous job and he has done more for the country in the three years he has been in office since donald

trump has thought about being president the four years he was in office. i think everything has gone to pot since trump has been in and out of office. if he gets reelected as president it will be worse because we will be in a fascist, communistic situation. i think the american people voting for donald trump need to open up their eyes and see this man is only looking out for himself. host: how are your finances? caller: i am retired and i am living within my means so i am doing ok. i do not have any quarrels. i am doing pretty well. i am happy with the way i am living. host: joe in virginia.

what do you think? caller: i am optimistic if president trump wins, but i am pessimistic if biden gets elected. the reason is, i would like to give everybody political advice. do not vote for a president of the united states just because you like him or you think he is a nice old man. you vote for a president of the united states because he is successful businessman and he institutes policies that are successful and grow your wealth and that is what donald trump did. when joe biden took office, gas was less than two dollars a gallon. trump did not get us into any wars, now we are in two world wars. let's talk about inflation. democrats like to blame inflation on the war in ukraine but before the ukrainian war

biden stepped into office and he stopped drilling, we became oil importer instead of oil exporter , which caused the markets to increase the price of oil around the world. what happens when oil increases host:? host:how are you doing personally? do you feel like your wages have kept up with inflation? are you struggling? caller: i have been a blue-collar worker my whole life. it has never mattered to me whether a republican or a democrat has gotten into office because i have always lived within my means. i raised four sons. i put them through a private christian school. i am 59 years old. my house is paid off. my sons have no college debt. i am still a blue-collar worker.

i will always make ends meet because 99% of the time it is a personal choice whether you are in debt or whether you are not. as far as policies go, let's face it. the biden administration have been a failure. would anyone have thought four years ago that biden's policies on the border would result in 100,000 american deaths a year to fentanyl? biden -- if biden should be impeached for anything, he should be impeached for not defending the lives of american citizens and allowing fentanyl and drugs to control our border and kill hundreds of thousands of americans under his administration. host: david in new orleans. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. you are very chipper for this time of the morning. [laughter] let me say this.

i think a couple of your people -- i think most of the problem is us. that is the economy goes up and down and presidents comment go. we are to spending money with reckless abandon. if we were careful about that, the corporations can raise prices and it will not slow us down a bit. i tried to live within my means and all of that. i thank you for taking my call. host: nicole in arizona. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling on the pessimistic line in my reason is because i am pessimistic about the direction of america and our political world. since we lost our election when

we had al gore, he was set to deal with everything that had to do with the weather changes and things like that. i feel that was a stolen election there from the republicans. now we are dealing with donald trump stealing elections. we were said to go with hillary clinton. someone released a stupid report a week or so before the election that threw that off. i still want to know who told the doj to announce they will investigate her again and again over that server when it was already settled. that was wrong. host: how are your finances, how are things going for you? how are things going for you economically? caller: not well. with health care we've all been trying to move towards a universal health care. every time we turn around republicans are shutting it down.

we voted for obama so we could get that health care and they shut it down with their antics. they are not following what the majority voted for. the republicans are a big problem. democrats do the same thing when they are in. they can ever get what we want through. immigration was dealt with with obama. trump came in and crushed all of those policies we had. he made it worse. now is getting worse. everyone wants to blame it on obama or joe biden. trump is the one who ruined our immigration movement going forward that was not able to go forward for decades and decades before because the republicans and the democrats fight about it all the time and they never have a good solution. i am very disappointed in i'm very pessimistic. we have been going down a long road and it is getting worse.

donald -- anyone who can look at donald trump's crimes and accept that and acknowledge that is delusional and they will be making decisions when it comes time to vote. host: dan in pennsylvania sends a text, the poor pay for everything they can afford, the middle class pay for what the poor cannot, the rich do nothing. james in florida, you are optimistic. tell us why. caller: good morning. my comment is first of all i want to say merry christmas to everybody. host: merry christmas. caller: i am a republican and i voted for trump. when he was in office a lot of the people i know, the mom-and-pop businesses were booming. they were able to put the kids in college. no wars. they brought our guys home from the military.

gas was great. it is not like it is now. then biden comes in office and we have two wars going on, we have people coming across the border bringing fentanyl, killing our people. since he has been in office it is almost like the american people are turning against each other. we are supposed to come together as one nation. i agree with a lot of people. sometimes trump says things i do not like. he is a businessman and he had china paying us big money, which they have never done before. at this point in time, when my parents -- i grew up very poor and we did not have a lot. what we had, we cherished it. we understood what a dollar meant.

today, biden when he came in office, -- my opinion is even if donald trump doesn't win the election, we need somebody to come in and bring america back together as one. we are brothers and sisters, we are not like other countries. i am retired and what little bit i had saved, i have to go into it now because inflation is so high. i just want everybody to come together and love each other because we are all americans. this is how we are in america. host: and that's how we will end this segment and thanks to everyone who came in. next up on "washington journal," kimberly whaley discusses the end -- the implications of the colorado supreme court decision to keep former president trump off the 2024 presidential ballot and other related news.

later, the vice president of conservation research and innovation at the centers discussed the 50th anniversary of the endangered species act. we will be right back. ♪ >> the house is in recess and will be back for the second session at the start of the year. the senate convenes january 8 and the house on january 9. both chambers faced to upcoming federal budget funding deadlines to avoid a government shutdown. the first is on january 19 and the other is on february 2. >> the appropriations committees are ready to do the work and we are waiting the other side to come forward with a number we can agree upon. >> leader mcconnell and i will

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