community centers to create wifi enabled so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. next. host: good morning. it is monday, january 8, 2024. the senate convenes at 3:00 eastern today. congress is facing down a government funding deadline. yesterday democrats and republicans announced a deal that would fun of the government for the rest of fiscal year but that agreement still needs to be passed by congress and signed by the president. we are asking for your thoughts on government spending. what you think should be cut? what should get more funding. phone lines split by political

party. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. catch up with us on x @cspanwj and facebook.com/c-span. a good monday morning. start calling in. your thoughts on government spending. this is the headline this morning, congressional leaders announced topline deal on appropriations. the rollcall budgets and associations reporter joins us via zoom this morning. what is in this agreement that was announced yesterday? what are both sides holding up as victories in this deal? guest: thank you for having me.

we have a topline agreement which is a big step forward. essentially it includes the spending levels agreed upon last summer during the debt limit negotiation. there were some changes which republicans are saying our wins. they got an additional 16 billion of previous appropriated money which would be covid money and irs enforcement dollars. the democrats are saying that is just money that would've been taken back next year anyway. a debate over that. essentially we have a deal and that is good news for the appropriations process. host: breakdown defense spending and nondefense spending. guest: the deal includes 880 $6 billion in defense spending and nondefense spending -- about a 300% increase from last year and

about flat on the nondefense side, and this was hammered out over the summer. obviously we could not elect a majority since then in this process to get to where we are today with a handful of short term stopgap spending measures and the overthrow of speaker mccarthy to negotiate this deal so it is not clear where we would land. essentially we are back where we were over the summer although there are some changes to the package which republicans are happy about, at least speaker johnson is heralding it as a win. host: had it -- how is this deal going over with the rank and file members. where are the potential avenues where this could be held up? guest: that is a good question. the house freedom caucus once big spending cuts. they are unhappy with this deal. if you look at the coalition

that will be needed to pass this legislation, they are not part of it, they have voted against a short term stopgap measure. with such a slight majority on the republican conference, johnson has not a lot of wiggle room to move forward as a leader if it is wide opposition among republicans. it'll be interesting to see where many republicans fall. the usual suspects of the freedom caucus are unhappy about the overall spending levels just like they were at the time of the deal. host: does this one of those bills that could potentially get more democratic votes in the republican-controlled house then republican votes? what is your prediction? guest: 98% chance, 100% chance,

that it will receive more democratic votes. if you look back at the previous resolutions, it is clear house democrats are going to carry this, barring some kind of major shift from what we have seen in the past. i think it is clear democrats will carry this forward. host: in terms of the timeframe, we are looking at a january 19 government funding deadline. the second one hits in early february. will there be enough time to go through the legislative hoops and get this signed by the president before the deadline, or is it possible they will need another stopgap measure to buy more time for this process to play out? guest: not enough time for them to get done by mid-january. there will be another stopgap spending measure, which will be a little tricky, but with

democrats on board it should be able to pass pretty clearly. i will caution that this agreement is an important step, but there is a lot of work to do , including the work of negotiating the bills, which will take four to six weeks to get to the finish line. but also, this agreement is different in which around this time they have an agreement on policy writers, which is what policies are included in the package. there is no agreement at this point on that topic. that will be another tough negotiation, especially as johnson faces criticism from the freedom caucus. chip roy was saying he will wait and see -- he is unhappy with the spending level but he says let's look and see what we get. that will be a hard negotiation

-- this deal allows them to get to work but there's still a lot more work to be done. guest: -- host: this legislation has not been crafted yet. it is a big deal. $1.6 trillion. anything else jump out in what has been released in the last 24 hours? guest: the bigger point of going back to last summer and thinking about where we ended up now, there was a lot of work done by both chambers and at the end of the day we landed similarly to where we thought we would land after the debt limit agreement was announced. there were some changes to the package than what we would've expected coming out of the debt limit, but overall if you take a step back and look wider, the

spending levels are essentially what was agreed to last summer. host: you can see his work at rollcall.com. thanks for getting up early with us on the washington journal. guest: thanks for having me. host: now we put to our viewers. government spending, what should we cut, what should get more funding? guest: numbers are on your screen. we will start with bill and alabama. caller: good morning. please allow me the time to vent my thoughts. let's start with the fbi, cia, capitol police, educational department, department of education.

i could go on. the list is endless. they are wasting our money. also to quote margaret thatcher, when socialists run out of other people's money, what you got, you've got nothing. host: that is bill and alabama. james in maryland. what do you think on government spending? what should be cut? caller: i think education should get more funding. we have our main competition with china and you see how more educated their people are and you start to wonder how hours are going to be and we should cut defense spending when it comes to giving money to other countries because it always seems to be that it comes back to haunt the united states. they gave money to south american countries, and those south american countries.

we did the same thing before isis came. we gave money to the country overseas, not syria. we gave money to them and the money for those rebels for the fighters, and somehow ended up in the hands of isis. every time we give money to someone else to fight some other war. host: does it concern you this deal has more spending for defense the domestic priorities? caller: i served the military. i know we have a stockpile of vehicles and all kinds of other things -- we create more than we

use and we sell it back. when i was in iraq we left so much material and so many things over there we threw it away because it was cheaper to leave it that it back. we do not meet all of that stuff in the first place. host: william in florida. you are next. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think they should lower the funding for the fbi until they get it straight and get him fired, christopher wray. i think mr. trump is missing a sure bet if he does not get tall see gabbard or joe manchin as a running bait. -- does not get tulsi gabbard or joe manchin as running mate. host: we will talk more about 2020 for later in the program. this deal the headline talks

about, congress reaches a $1.6 trillion deal on spending levels. washington times noting the pact is critical to avoiding a government shutdown and it keeps in line with last year's deal. speaker johnson sending out a letter to his house repuic colleagues, this is what he had to say in that letter. "while these spending levels will not satisfy everyone and they do not cut as much speing as many of us would like, this deal does provide us a path move the process forward, reprioritize spending within the top line towards conservative objectives instead of last year's schumer pelosi omnibus, and fight for the important policy writers included in our house fiscal 2024 bill." that is part of the statement from speaker johnson. it was democratic leader hakeem jeffries and chuck schumer sending out their statement yesterday. here is what they had to say. "the framerk agreement will

enable the appropriators to address many challenges america faces at home and abroad and allow us to keep the investment for hard-working american family secured by the legislative achievements of president biden and congressiol democrats and we would make clear to speaker mike johnson democrats would not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the 12 appropriations bills put before the congress." those statements going out about this agreement, an agreement among congressional leaders now needs to be translated into legislation and passed by the house and senate and signed by the president. a ways to go, but this agreement is a big first step. your thoughts on government spending in general. what should be cut and given more funding? democrats (202) 748-8000 top republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. line for democrats, thanks for

waiting. caller: i wanted to bring up the fact that my daughter had researched and she had come up with figures on the house of representatives and she said it was $35,000 a year. someone like me that is 76 and on social security and paid it in all my life and work two jobs to raise my kids. they have cut us, cut food stamps for the poor. i do not get food stamps, but they have cut the amount of money they give to senior citizens way down to almost nothing. i hope they are proud of themselves for what they do because they do this to us every time they get in office. maybe next election may be we will have a democratic house of representatives again. i hope so. host: linda, the members of

congress about giving themselves a $35,000 a year raise, i want to be clear on that. members can vote on their own salaries, that apply to congress, but it is not been $35,000 a year, just to put that out there. host: what did they get -- caller: what did they get? i know they got a big raise. host: pay adjusted in 2022, the last time, i will find out that number. they do not do it very often because they get a lot of hate for it when they do. i will get that number as we go to ed in ocean city, maryland. good morning. caller: ocean city, new jersey. the president, and all presidents spend billions of dollars flying around the country and the world, taxpayers pay for it.

the national endowment of arts and humanities could get their money from private sources. the u.s. house does not need that many members. i am an absolute pacifist. i would do away with the whole military budget. there is your budget cutting. host: how many members do you think the house should have? caller: it might come out to about 250? they do not need 435. i am in philadelphia a lot, i'm from delaware. in the philadelphia area, suburbs, those members of the house are not all that overwhelmed with what they do. host: thanks for the call from ocean city, new jersey. not an adjustment in 2022 for member salary. the most recent pay adjustment was january 2009. since then the compensation has

been $174,000 a year. the only exception includes the speaker of the house, pay $223,000 a year, and the president pro tem of the senate and the majority and minority leaders in the house and senate, $193,000 a year. congressional research service, a great place to go for all of your congressional and legislative research needs. this is howard in indiana, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i was on universal health care, the single-payer health care system. number two, i would have spaceports -- i would have space force so america takes the lead in dominating the next frontier.

so the resources in our solar system can be used to benefit humankind. the last thing would be reparations for african americans. there is analysis that shows a minimum $14 trillion is necessary to establish justice related to african-americans. those would be my three objectives. host: $14 trillion over how long for reparations? caller: it would have to be done in such a way so as not to adversely impact inflation and unemployment or employment. we want to be sure we bolster full employment and price stability. we do not want to adversely impact that. it would have to be done with study and analysis. there is a book called "from here to equality" published a

few years ago were a professor at duke university did in exhaustive study of economics and late all this out. it should be timed so that the funding can accrue along with economic expansion and that is why expanding into the solar system would provide that economic activity so it would be a peaceful growth that would establish justice for african-americans, establish health care for all americans, and provide an abundance for all of earth. we are not just limiting our resources to a single planet but we are expanding opportunity. that is my thought about this. host: that is howard in indiana. stanley virginia. this is alan. independent. caller: i was just listening to people: on the question about

what should be cut. if we just go back and look at these continuing resolutions, what does the taxpayer get? we get more spending and the deficit keeps going higher. why can't we just freeze it where it is so these guys can get together and work something out? this overspending, we just continue to do that and we achieve nothing. neither side will be of anything. when you make a deal, the deficit keeps going higher, which tells me neither side is doing anything. host: a continuing resolution does freeze it where it is and keeps it at the current funding level for a certain amount of time. they can make changes to a continuing resolution, but in general a continuing resolution says we will continue with the funding levels that are currently there. they are doing that.

they often do it for a short term to buy themselves more time to finish the appropriations process, but there have been times where there been many months continuing resolutions where they freeze at. caller: i understand that. then the question is if that is the case, why does the deficit keep going higher and higher? if we are spending the same amount of money during these continuing resolutions because that is all we hear, continuing resolutions, that is the same amount we intend to spend, but at the same time the deficit goes up. there is a problem. someone is not telling the truth. which is it? host: the debt is going up because continuing resolutions are based on a budget that has a budget deficit that is spending more than we are bringing in. caller: it gets back to spending . why are we spending more than what is coming in?

why is it necessary to keep spending and use this budget to could down -- this budget to put down a balance? this could be worked out if they sat together and used common sense. the american people are getting stuck for these guys playing these games with these numbers. i thought i would make that point. this thing could be fixed. you could take smart guys and fix it. it is so political and so corrupt. they just do the spending yet the deficit goes up. that is my point. thanks for taking the call. host: this is jerry in kentucky. independent. good morning. caller: i think allport said earmarks should be cut, start from the bottom of the pyramid

and built up. i was military in 1969. now i'm a registered independent. i've been a democrat, i've been a republican. i think it is time for a big-time change. we are in a big hole. i'm a veteran. i am a retired bureaucrat. retired from the government. it is fixed but i have a good income. host: what did you do for the government? caller: i started out as a nursing assistant and served at hospitals and started out in nursing by ended up with housekeeping and when i retired i was transportation driver. after i got to my peak in nursing i cannot continue what i loved, so i had to go back to wg

where i made more money. host: to rory in rancho santa margarita out in california, good morning. caller: good morning. my statement is about the border. they get all of these processing deals coming in. they should close the border and make -- when they catch people enter throw them out of the country they process them. if they ever come back, arrest them immediately or throw them out. i also think -- one for taking care of people in the other for strictly throwing people out. they try to come across the border and out. i have family in texas and they have said they have some of the national guard confront ins and they will not let them cut state of texas barbed wire.

they say no. there is no money coming in. in new york they try to kick veterans out and put illegals in there. there will not be any money for the illegals. they will starve and then they will riot and then people in texas and some other areas will defend themselves with guns. host: we could see a deal this week when it comes to border security, as the wall street journal notes, group of bipartisan senators hopes to release its proposal to tighten border laws later this week according to one top negotiator, with any deal likely to face an uphill battle, they write "sharply divided congress --" this funding deal that came together among congressional leaders is one that was announced yesterday, the $1.6

billion topline funding as they call it -- $1.6 trillion. then the individual funding bills are written off of that topline number. that will get a lot of debate ahead of this january 19 government funding deadline. after the $1.6 trlion deal came together saying it reflects the funding levels i had negotiated with th parties and signed into law las spring. rejects cuts to programs that hard-working families count on and provides a path to passing full yr funding bills that deliver the american people and are free of any extreme policies. now congressional republicans must do their job to stop threatening to shut down the government and fulfill their basic responsibility to find national security priorities including the supplemental funding request that would include funding for ukraine and israel and other priorities.

the president ending his statement saying it is time for them to act. that is the president of the united states. host: as aided noted the house freedom caucus, conservatives have expressed the most concern about this $1.6 trillion deal. statements from the house freedom caucus, yesterday after this deal was announced, saying it is even worse than we thought, do not believe this been. once you break through the typical washington math, the true total in this deal is close to $1.7 trillion. saying "this is a total failure." the head of the house freedom caucus, bob good, saying republicans agreed to spending levels that are $69 billion higher than last summer's debt ceiling deal with no significant policy win is nothing but another loss for america.

at some point he says having the house majority has to matter. stop funding spending with an open border. this question about one point $6 trillion or $1.7 trillion in this deal, the washington journal -- the wall street journal tries to break this down in today's paper as they take up the story. leadership of the two parties framed this agreement that was announced yesterday on topline nondefense spending differently, with the house speaker mike johnson describing it as totaling $704 billion and democrat saying total fiscal nondefense spending which includes spending on veterans programs would total $773 billion. the gap in part reflects different ways of treating key features of the deal, which builds on elements of the fiscal responsibility act, last year's law that raise the debt ceiling. the agreement allows congress to maintain funding priorities for the american people and avoid a

government shutdown. that is what is being touted by house democrats leaders. that is the wall street journal there. we get more into that as this deal moves through capitol hill. that seems to be the biggest intention right now, the disagreement over domestic spending numbers. kathleen is in chicago. good morning. caller: please let me get this out. two things. i wish you would put up a chart showing how much money is spent here in this country and how much is going out of this country. this guy in virginia, i understood what he was saying. if you put up two charts that show what you are spending domestic and people foreign come our debt would not be high. when it comes to the senate and the house, those guys only work

90 days a year. they should be put on an hourly salary just like the working people were supposed to be there boss. they want us to make $15 an hour yet a lot of these guys in the house and senate are millionaires and billionaires. why should we be paying our employees more than what we are getting? then they tell us we do not need a salary. they don't even work. if they do not work they should get paid. get that chart out. show what is spent here in america. maybe people will realize it is not what they are spending on people here, they are messing with our social security in our health care. host: what i can show is the u.s. world -- the u.s. news & world report took a look at foreign aid spending and packaged it in a chart from 2021, these numbers are a couple years old. they look at the top countries receiving foreign aid from the

united states in 2021. israel at the top of that list at $3.3 billion, jordan $1.6 billion, afghanistan $1.4 billion. if you be a, sudan, -- ethiopia, sudan, nigeria round out the top 10. economic aid accounted for 87% of all foreign aid obligations. military aid in 2021 accounted for 12.5% of foreign aid spending. caller: now put up what they spend in america for the taxpayers who make this money so they can give to other people. put up a chart on that. then these people would not be calling in talking about cut this and that. as america people are being jilted all the way around at these are people who work for us.

host: i can give you some of those numbers. for medicare and medicaid spending in 2023, fiscal 2023, about $1.7 trillion, social security about $1.4 trillion. defense spending totals about $849 billion. those are some of the biggest budget items in the u.s. budget each year. caller: social security, you take it out of our checks. you're not giving us anything, you're just giving our money back. thank you for letting me speak this long. people do not understand. we are not running up the deficit, we are not doing this. host: that is kathleen in chicago. this is brad in texas. republican. caller: i would like to say all of the spending increases all

the time and it does not seem to benefit america. it only benefits the democratic party. right now there are four heard $51 billion worth of illegals. i see it -- therefore hundred $51 billion worth of illegals. i am buying guns. illegals stole everything that is not tied down. it is criminal what the democrats are doing. they are bringing them in so they vote democrat, they are not americans. i love americans but not everybody deserves to be an american. host: brat in texas. -- brad in texas. reno. good morning. caller: two points i want to make. when trump was in office, the four years he was in office was

$8 trillion, more than the other presidents have done in twice that time. his tax cut he has given to the top 2% is still running. it goes clear through 2025. all of that is going on our debt. every bit of it. from jeff bezos and elon musk to get percent tax cuts. do not think that does not amount to a lot of money. that is going on our deficit. that is the one thing i want to point out. the other thing i want to point out his back when trump was running with vladimir putin who meant up with him, mike flynn, and jill stein of the green party. people think she is a democrat and she is not. she votes democrat but she is a republican.

i just wanted to bring those points up. host: that is carla in nevada. on the tax cuts and jobs act the editorial board of the washington times taking up that legislation, saying the wrong choice in november will cost americans to the tune of $3.4 trillion. the editorial board of the washington times, fan of the tax cuts and jobs act, they say the tax cuts and prosperity that legislation set in motion are starting to vanish. in 2020 businesses were able to invest in the future and deduct 100% of that expense upfront. as of last week they are allowed to deduct just 40%. it goes away entirely in 2026. businesses are not alone in feeling the pain. income tax cuts championed by former president trump expire at the end of next year, which means filers could see uncle sam's share of their paycheck rise from 12% to 15%, contrary

to the tax cuts for the rich trope, the latest relief in the legislation is found in the lower brackets. the only upside of the tax cut expiration is the clear choice it presents in an election season that has been light on policy. one side will restore tax relief and prosperity while the other party needs those automatic tax increases so it can spend more of your money." that is the editorial board of the washington times this morning. sam. line for republicans. go ahead. caller: a big part of what everybody that is calling in is missing is we do not have a spending problem. we have a revenue problem which goes back to the 1970's. two dudes are responsible. arthur laffer who said too much taxation results in a negative tax flow. the other guy is the two santa

claus theories. he argues republicans cannot win elections by suggesting we spend less so what they do is they cut taxes instead. that way democrats are forced to cut social programs and they get the benefits of the tax cuts. that is all it is. we just go back to pre-1976 and start taxing appropriately we would not have these problems. host: that is sam in south carolina. cecil in virginia. you are next. caller: my point is that you cannot just look at what the actual taxes are taken out but you have to take them to the final destination. we contribute a lot to nato, supporting mainly european countries. this country is full of immigrants. we are talking about who should be able to come into the

country. we should also trace that money through contractors. i think it is a huge ponzi scheme. host: this is stacy in virginia. a democrat. caller: good morning. things that we need to cut? we need to stop paying billionaires not to pay taxes. we pay them when they do not pay taxes. that is the first thing we need to do. congress owes $3.5 billion in back taxes, that is current and former congressmen and senators. they are not paying taxes now and pay later. we need to cut all fending -- we need to cut all funding to israel and any other military complex. i believe they are laundering usaid back to these politicians because if they are making 100s of the $4000 a year, how are

they leaving -- if they are making $174,000 a year, how are they leaving office a millionaire? it would take six years if they were not spending a penny of that money to be a millionaire. the citizens united ruling has destroyed this country and now we have foreign countries buying every branch of our government. it is frightening. that is what we need to start. i do not know what the fbi is doing. maybe they are on the payroll. they want to cut funding for americans who are paying taxes. we can barely afford food. we are struggling. they want to cut any funding. they were willing to shut down the government in order to help americans during covid. they have shut down the government. they would rather shut down the government then help americans, but they want to use our tax

money to fund genocide around the world. to steal natural resources from poor countries. we cannot afford it anymore. we cannot afford to pay our congressmen and senators our tax money, and then they take that tax money and send it somewhere else while they are getting monday under the table -- while they are getting money under the table. host: this is fred in cordova, maryland. republican. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. right now in terms of spending, we are in a cold war with china, russia, north korea, and iran. during the cold war with russia we typically spent 6% of gdp on defense. now we are only spending 3%. if taiwan falls in china can control the semiconductor industry before we start creating our own semiconductors,

they could destroy our economy. defense spending has to dramatically increase. the only way to solve the deficit problem is with entitlement reform. all of these other things are small amounts of money compared to that huge amount. that has to be a bipartisan approach which puts it on a sustainable effort. if we do not do anything with entitlements will be in huge trouble and if we do not increase defense spending will be in huge trouble. host: this is mike on facebook saying cut defense spending until the pentagon can pass an audit and hands-off social security and medicare. on the pentagon passing an audit, this is a story on defense news from november of last year on the pentagon failing its sixth audit attempt. that story at defense news.com.

comments from social media. todd saying fund universal health care, alas there is no profit in a healthy society. this is alan, how about tax the corporate's and the super wealthy and make the military more in line with american needs and spend the surplus on the american people. improve infrastructure and education. this is sherry saying stop funding ukraine and illegals. her recommendation. about 15 minutes left in this segment. want to ask you what should be cut from the federal budget and what you get more funding. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. gary fletcher, good morning. caller: independent. i have a disagreement with

republicans and the democrats. their math is screwed up. the democrats get this information we are spending all this money overseas. you laid out that beautiful chart a few minutes ago. the nice woman from chicago still did not get it. what i am saying is they like these billionaires are getting away with not paying taxes. jeff bezos is worth $250 billion. if they took all of his money, never mind just taxing him, $250 billion is nothing. we are in a deficit of trillions of dollars. there are 12 zeros after the number one trillion. they are talking tax this guy whose net worth is only $250 billion. taxing them is nothing. if they tax them 7% or 10%,

people need to stop talking about taxing billionaires when their main job -- the other thing, as far as cutting spending -- trump spending more money than invited, there is another mathematical problem. trump was in office for eight years and he had to deal with the virus. biden has only been in office for three years. how can you compare the men as far spending when one has been in office for eight and the other only three? this mathematics is just upsetting me when i hear these people calling in making this big comparison. host: maybe this makes it more clear. we are talking about $1.6 trillion to fund the rest of fiscal 2024. that is $900 billion for military and close to $800

billion for domestic spending. the president in his budget request, this was not approved by congress but this is what the president asked for, asked for foreign aid spending as presidents always do through the state department u.s. agency for international development, usaid. the president asking for a total of $60.4 billion in foreign aid. that is not military aid, that is economic aid. the total request was $60 billion compared to what we were just talking about, $800 billion for defense and $800 billion for domestic spending. does that help put it in perspective? caller: it does. our problem is we have to buy our friends. the world hates us. the money we are giving to these countries is to put our foot in their door, it is the price we have to pay to have the

expansion going. we are not helping them because they like us, we are trying to stay one step ahead of china and losing more and more friends. the reason we are giving these people money is for economic reasons and things like that. it is more of an investment than anything else. trump had a theory, he tried to make nato pay their money. trump is a businessman. he does not like to waste his own money. he went to nato and said to start paying up. when he is talking about building his military stuff, trump says i have a button on my desk i will push. that statement alone was worth billions of dollars in tanks and stuff. whether you like the guy or not, he does make sense to other crazy people and they cowered to him.

sometimes in a position of strength and in business that is how you have to be. like the guy or not he is pretty successful in that area. host: that is gary in north carolina. this is al in tampa, florida. line for democrats. caller: there is no reason to cut the debt at all. eisenhower showed us how to eliminate a debt. he had a debt about the same size we do and he also started the interstate highway program, a huge infrastructure program. how did he solve the problem? he tax to the rich at 91%. the rich own everything. they own tb, social media, and they are convinced the middle-class we should not tax the rich and that is wrong. that is where the money is, that is where we should be taxing. eisenhower did that. he was a brilliant republican.

he tax the rich at 91%. they can only take home nine dollars out of the last hundred dollars of income. host: and your idea of doing that, who counts as the rich? who should get a 91% tax rate? caller: i'm not saying it should be 91%, maybe 70%. it should be the top 1% of the top 10%. someone else will have to come up with that number. all we have to do is do it eisenhower did. tax them. host: ira in upper marlboro, maryland. independent. good morning. caller: i will be very brief. i am an african with children and grandchildren in this country. let me be brief.

why do we have to waste money stop if you do not know, the largest drone strike in the world is in nigeria, north of nigeria. then we find out the u.s. has 29 different military bases on the african continent. africans are not at war with united states. we built this country. we have nothing against united states. united states has nine different military bases on the continent of africa wasting our resources. the congress and all of these intelligence bodies, work it out , and stopped united states from wasting this money on bases on

the african continent. keep the money here, we needed here. we have so many homeless. we need education. where we waste that money on the african continent? we do not need any help from the united states. host: we have bases in germany and japan and south korea as well. you think that is also a waste of money? caller: is a waste of money in the sense that unless we are at war with anybody, if we are not at war with anybody -- there is no reason to have military bases on the african continent because we are not hostile towards the united states. africans built this country. why should we be hostile to the united states? find out how much we spend on

each one of them. host: that is ira in upper marlboro, maryland. mark is in connecticut. thanks for waiting. caller: good morning. i would like to read rate the point he read from "the washington times," where the democrats and joe biden keep saying the tax cuts and jobs act passed by republicans was a tax cut to the rich. you just read it. the biggest cuts came in the lower brackets. democrats continue to repeat this lie over and over and the american people are buying into that. in fact, the truth is is people who benefited most for the lower brackets. one other point. host: you think the rich in this country should pay more? more than they pay right now? caller: no.

i think people should be able to keep the money they make, more of the money they make no matter what bracket they are in. i'm not somebody who believes government should be taking all the money. they waste more money than anything. i believe there should be a flat tax. if you put a bill tomorrow on the floor, let's say 20%, everybody can keep 80% of their money, the republicans will vote for it and the democrats would not because they have plans for your money. they want to spend our money and decide how much of it we get to keep. i think that is the biggest problem is democrats with this out-of-control spending. we need to get some people with fiscal responsibility in there that will stop all of this wasteful spending they do. host: you think speaker johnson is someone with fiscal

responsibility who will stop this spending? caller: i think you would like to. he has a super slim majority. he cannot do a lot but he needs more like-minded people that is going to cut this wasteful spending. that is what elections are for. i think he is the kind of person that would be open to doing something like that. i do not think right now he has the votes to do it. host: that is marked in the constitution state. the buckeye state, jennifer, independent, good morning. caller: i would like to speak on the race for the house. -- i would like to speak on the raise for the house, it was not a raise, it was a tax-free reimbursement which is a lot more than a raise since it was tax-free, and it was $34,000. aoc, a millionaire, and also matt gaetz, a millionaire,

jumped on it really quick. i would also like to say that if they really want to end the immigration problem and the border problem, they would send these people to the wealthy districts. they put them in yankee stadium. all of the stadiums the taxpayers pay for, put them in there, take their phones, do the interviews and as soon as these guys miss their ballgames and all of their millions they are making from us, they take care of it. it would be ended in 30 days. host: that is jennifer in ohio. this is james north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the solution is to not cut spending but to get back the tax cuts that were given to the

richest among us under trump and george bush and ronald reagan. during the last four years of the clinton administration they went together and came up with an annual budget surplus that the bush administration immediately squandered and gave us a depression. i think the fate of the country is in the hands of the rich that have corrupted capitalism to the point where they have monopolies on everything that controls the country. until they give that up and get back that tax base, i think we will not succeed, it will collapse our economy, i think. thank you. host: that is james in north carolina.