host: good morning, a rare overnight session of u.s. senate ended this morning with the passage of a 95 billion dollars

for a bill for israel, ukraine and taiwan. the legislation still faces an uncertain path in the house. we begin washington journal by focusing on one of the countries at the heart of that bill. what are your thoughts on the biden administration's support of israel? if you think the biden administration has funded too much support israel, (202) 748-8000 is the number. if you think it has been too little, (202) 748-8001. and if you think the level of support has been about right, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text this morning. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. this is the headline in today's washington times newspaper,

biden and jordan's king abdullah urge israel to show restraint as assault looms in gaza. the president and the king at the white house yesterday. here are some of president biden's comments from that appearance. >> as the king and i discussed today, many state hostage shield between israel and hamas which would bring a sustained period for at least six weeks which we could then take the time to build something more enduring. to push this forward, the key element of the deal around the table, though cap made. i'm encouraging israeli leaders to keep working to achieve a deal. the united states will do everything possible to make it happen. they king and i also discussed

the situation in rafa. our military operation should not proceed without a credible plan for ensuring the safety of support of more than one billion people there. many people there have been displaced multiple times, fleeing the violence and now they are packed in, exposed and vulnerable. they need to be protected. we've also been clear from the star we oppose any forceful displacement of palestinians from gaza. host: a joint appearance of the white house yesterday if you want to watch it in its entirety. here is another headline on it, this one from the wall street journal this morning. israel proposing the creation of tent cities in gaza as part of the evacuation plan and on that

would be funded by the u.s. and arab golf partners ahead of that impending invasion of the city and the strip south. they write the biden administration is warning israel against going into rafah without a detailed plan to protect civilians there. we are talking over the course of these months on israel, your view on the biden administration support of israel in its war. (202) 748-8000 if you think it has been too much support. (202) 748-8001 if you think that level of support has been too little. and if you think it has been about right, (202) 748-8002. maureen is up first out of thomas river, new jersey. what do you think? >> good morning. yes, i do think that we are spending too much in support of

israel. host: and why, maureen? caller: so many different things. obviously i do not condone the attacks that happened on october 7, and the hostages being taken. the fact that it has been four months now, everything has been done to put those hostages at risk such as a complete, asinine type of thinking, totally counterproductive to put them further at risk, and yet the united states' unwavering support no matter what. financial, military. especially with the security council.

every deal that we have has always been against palestine, and they don't need anymore more money for this. it is like doubletalk that is coming out with these administrations. i watch these things on youtube all the time. host: that is maureen in new jersey on the financial side. this aid package that just passed the senate this morning, it was within the past hour that that idle vote closed. include the $95 billion package overall, more than $14 billion in assistance for israel. some $60 billion would go toward ukraine. taiwan also funded in that aid package. you probably saw the story yesterday about that daring

hostage rescue. the right -- they write, both men will israeli-argentinian citizens have been taken and had been in captivity for 129 days. the rate happened at the same time as airstrikes raining down on gaza, as they write in that story. the number of palestinians expected killed in that raid, some 70 palestinians dying in the airstrikes that happened surrounding. that is the story in today's wall street journal. this is wilmington, north carolina. good morning, your next. >> if anything, i think the

biden administration is doing pretty good job, actually. and that is coming from a republican. we need to support israel, they are our ally. if we don't, all the people in the world is going to continue pushing against democracy and freedom in that area. host: you say this is coming as a republican. so what are your thoughts on republican criticism of the biden administration and how they have been conducting the eight effort to our ally there in the region? caller: i think some republicans want to see americans actually fighting in gaza or something like that, but that is way too far. this is israel's war. we can support them and we can give them weapons, but it needs to be them fighting the actual battles. host: is there a limit to the aid or just the sheer numbers coming out of gaza? the reports from health ministry, 28,000 palestinians have died since the war against hamas began. the health ministry saying some

12,300 of them children or young teens. caller: i don't know how much we can trust the palestinians since they are controlled by hamas but either way it is very sad what is going on. they need to be sure they're taking all precautions necessary. they can't have an enemy like that on their border. host: taking you to saturday in the united states senate, a debate over this $95 billion aid package. senator bernie sanders to the floor of the senate. this is what he had say. >> israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism. but it does not have the right to go to war against the entire palestinian people. and that, tragically, is what we are seeing.

as of today, israel's military campaign has killed more than 27,000 palestinians and injured some 68,000. two thirds of whom are women and children. unbelievably, 1.7 million people have been driven from their homes. nearly 80% of the population. that is more than twice the population of my own state. these people displaced have no understanding as to where they will go tomorrow or whether, in fact, they will ever return to their communities. that is where they are now. push out of their homes, hungry,

desperate, no understanding of where they will be in the future. the devastation caused by israeli bombardments is unprecedented in modern history. some 70% of the housing units in gaza being damaged or destroyed. the israeli bombing attacks have destroyed most of the infrastructure in gaza. there is no electricity there, and very little clean water. host: bernie sanders on saturday. again, the latest king yesterday, president biden standing jordan's king abdullah asking once again for a six-week pause, a hostage deal that would include a six-week pause in fighting and the latest today,

director william burns expected to travel to cairo today to engage in more negotiations and it comes to the hostages, talks with officials that include representatives from egypt or israel and others. that is the latest as this is happening. asking you this morning about the biden administration's support for israel in its war against hamas. caller: that story you were talking it out where they rescued two hostages, they also stated three hostages were killed in that bombing that they did afterwards. i think they said there was actually 31 other hostages, 131 that were already dead. i want none of my money supporting the genocide and slaughter of innocent children and a country that is occupying and is actually a jim crow nation.

the biden administration, and the public, benjamin tells them to jump and they ask how high. i agree with bernie, bernie is actually jewish and he actually tells the truth, i believe. graham got back on a little later after bernie the other day. graham comes on wanting to go to war with iran, china, we would have to go borrow some money from china to actually go to war with china the way i understand it. so i don't know if people over the want to send their children over to get them killed for these guys, these politicians that just can't play in the same sandbox for some reason. they all want to fight and kill and so forth. so i don't know, it is just crazy. host: you used the word genocide.

comments from today's washington times, a lawyer here in washington, d.c., author as well uses the term auto-genocide. it is what he says palestinians are doing to themselves when it comes to this war, explains it this way in his column. the accusation that israel intends to destroy a people or a nation is false and preposterous and they readily put the issue to the test. they could rise up and because the government to free the hostages and stop all the activity. he goes on to say and let israel's past behavior, when despite the overwhelming military superiority that they have including a likely nuclear arsenal has refrained from wanton killing, it is clear that if hamas lays down its arms, the killing of palestinians in gaza. this will confirm that israel is not engaging in genocide, but rather it engaged in an act of self-preservation causing

collateral death. today, incredibly -- readily be observed that hamas cannot begin a war against israel but is nonetheless ready potentially to the last palestinian as a. this is nothing less than a kind of self-inflicted genocide of and by the palestinians, and action whereby a group is intentionally causing the killing of its own people. this is dan in youngstown, ohio. good morning. >> so if you go back before october 7, the palestinians apparently have plenty of money to use to help the civilians, to help the palestinians, and instead they took the money and used it to buy munitions, to buy ammunition, to buy weapons to

build tunnels under the city. everything that they did was all about war. and now the israelis are supposed to handle them with kid gloves after they come in on october 7. if they wanted a cease fire, they had a cease fire. and instead, they went in and inflicted damage to civilians. killing thousands of people, including babies and women. now they continue to hold these hostages. the democrats are absolutely crazy to blame netanyahu for any of this. look, they are still holding hostages after all this time. what does that tell you? they want war, they started the war, and now they are talking about protecting the civilians? the civilians who elected hamas

to represent them, knowing that they were preparing for war the whole time they allowed their leaders to build these tunnels under the city. are they prepared for war? everybody knew this was going on. you can't have somebody building tunnels underneath and you don't know. host: from fox news, the headline on the tunnels, hamas had command tunnels underneath. united nations released a headquarters in gaza according to israel, republicans saying it is another reason to fund that u.n.-palestinian relief agency immediately. two more tweets from members of congress, senator chris van hollen from yesterday. i all accounts the situation in gaza has gone from nightmare to pure hell.

need to hold the netanyahu rnmentountable and get humanitaanssistance. and congressman jason crow saying on monday there is a humanitarian disaster facing lestinians in gaza in the west bank with hundreds of thousands at risk of starvation there. taking your phone calls, asking you about the biden administration's level of support for israel in its war against hamas, asking if you think it's been too much, too little, about right. president biden on thursday making statements as well about israel, saying it has been over the top and some of their responses. that is getting a lot of attention on friday and into the weekend. this is president biden on thursday. president biden: as you know, the conduct of the response in

gaza, in the gaza strip has been over the top. i think that, as you know, initially the president of mexico did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. i talked to him, i convinced him to open the gate. i've been pushing really hard, really hard to get humanitarian assistance into gaza. there are a lot of innocent people who are starving. innocent people who are in trouble and dying. it has got to stop. number two, i was also in the position and i'm the guy who made the case that we have to do much more to increase the amount of material going in, including fuel, including other items. i've been on the phone with the

qataris, the egyptians, the saudis to get as much aid as we possibly can into gaza. there are innocent people, women and children who are badly in need of help. and i'm pushing very hard now working tirelessly in the steel. how can i say this without revealing it -- a sustained pause -- host: that was president biden on thursday of last week. those comments, especially the over-the-top part getting a lot of reaction. marco rubio was on the floor the next day talking about those comments and other efforts by the biden duration, other response efforts by the biden administration to that war. this is marco rubio from friday. >> today, we read that the white house has sent top aides from the white house to michigan to

meet with some of these activists, to see if we can somehow bring them around to vote for him in november. you know who some of these people were? more than one of them were people who had openly been supportive of hamas and hezbollah. at least one of them is a guy who is public the set on multiple occasions that the u.s. is controlled by jewish money. that is who the white house went to meet with yesterday. and then we retreated to a press conference and what i imagined was an unscripted moment, maybe not, israel's response to hamas has been over the top. which is ironic because i support israel funding and here we are today to announce a bill that has all this money for

israel, which i support, so what every funding? we are funding israel's over-the-top campaign against hamas? it doesn't make any sense except politics. that is not politics. host: marco rubio on friday. the bill that he is referring to ended up passing this morning in the united states senate about an hour ago, approved in that $95 billion aid package for israel, ukraine, taiwan as well. and one more note on marco rubio, there is a column in today's washington crimes about -- washing the antiwar protesters blocking a highway and blocking traffic to get attention for their protest. the senator has drawn up the state passage on interstate act,

that legislation set to be introduced in the house and senate decriminalize any intentional obstruction of a highway that occurs without proper authorization. wants to make that a federal crime. this is steven in robbinsville, missouri. your next. caller: i think the biden administration doing about right. let's face it, war is hell, nobody wants to see innocent civilians killed. hiding behind civilians just like they're doing in ukraine. a bill without republicans, the majority of the american people to support ukraine, do support israel and to support taiwan. not trump and not putin. thank you very much, have a nice day. host: son tree, you are next.

caller: yes, i'd like to say i think it's a disgrace that biden is supporting israel and congress is funding this thing. we are funding genocide. we have crawled down in the sewer with israel with regards to what they are doing to the palestinians. enough is enough. no one is thinking about diplomacy. can you imagine, biden is talking about pausing, about six weeks. whole families are being wiped out in palestine. children don't have legs, arms. families are finding pieces of bodies. they are wiping out whole families. israel is sick with a disease. we have got to find a cure with it. we've got to try to help that

nation come back to reality. it is disgraceful. i would not vote for biden ever again. thank you. host: that is cindy in florida. this is joy out of chicago, good morning. caller: good morning. it sounds to me like joe biden is trying to save face by saying i implemented this and i implemented that. marco rubio has always been bought and paid for. i am a republican, and i'm really against reparations but it is odd to me how money can just be without a thought given to israel, ukraine and taiwan, but they won't even consider the second atrocity of this country, the atlantic slave trade. they don't even want to talk about that that they present billions of dollars to israel and ukraine. i do think it is genocide, and

we will show up -- i am a trump supporter and a putin supported. god bless america, though. host: did you say you are a putin supported? caller: there is a lot of wordplay in the media about him. i don't like dictatorship but some of his values, i think americans should take a look at some of those values. host: blood values in particular? -- what values in particular? caller: i don't want to say particularly the value because it is frowned upon. old-fashioned american values, family values, exit that nature. we are losing our integrity. host: you think vladimir putin has old-fashioned american values? caller: i think that when it comes to family, conservative values about what families should look like and how we value family, it is more to my

liking. america is whatever goes. we approved legislations for things that are not family-oriented. i'm just going to say that. so there are good things and there are bad things about this man, and that is just my truth. and there are good things and bad things about trump but right now, they do not reflect family. they seem to be anti-family and they seem to be anti-conservative as far as i'm concerned. and i know that they are democratic but at the same time, what about family? what about basic families in america? it just seems like our values are frowned upon, the basic needs that we have. host: this is carlin, nevada, you are next. caller: yes, i wanted to say that i'm 80 years old and i can

remember when i was a young girl when my grandfather -- i was raised by my grandparents -- and i can remember when israel was given part of that, and the palestinians were supposed to have the other part. and i can remember my grandfather saying you just watch. he said you give those jews an inch and they are going to take a mile. host: this is andrew in staten island, new york, good morning. caller: good morning. i think that there is a problem netanyahu. i think that they are taking a page out of the old-fashioned nazi regime and supplementing that into their own policies.

to allow those individuals back in that land. that is my opinion. host: in staten island last week after efforts to move a truce negotiation, benjamin netanyahu addressed the nation. this is about 30 seconds of what he had to say. >> hamas in the optical blocking a better and more peaceful middle east and is threatening security. the pressure of the world should be on destroying hamas as quickly as possible and not in preventing israel from doing so. all those who support peace should support our quest for total victory. total victory for our security, for peace in the region, to secure our common future. host: that was benjamin netanyahu last week. taking your phone calls this

morning on the washington journal, asking your thoughts on the biden administration's support of israel in its war effort against hamas. do you think it is too much, too little, about right? having this conversation in the first segment of the washington journal today. good morning. caller: good morning. well, i'm so glad that you read that piece from the washington times. everybody has it backwards. israel shouldn't be backing off. hamas should be backing off if they cared anything about their palestinian brothers. we need that. we need israel's aid in the middle east, they are our ally in the middle east, and we need to help them they don't need the money, they need verbal support. the president is trying to play both ends against the middle and

talk like he wants them to quit when you were the thousand. so thank you for reading that. host: when you say that they don't need money, they need verbal support, you're saying -- caller: what the president should be saying. hamas should come out of underground and give up. they are not going to win, they are just going to have all their people killed and it is their fault. he's got it backwards. so he should be pushing in that direction instead of saying israel should back off. we didn't hear anybody say we should go easy after 9/11, we just want a few people. we don't want to hurt any civilians. i don't recall anything like that. now all the sudden because he is afraid to lose some votes, it is completely backwards.

hamas should give up, they are not going to win. host: virginia, you are next. caller: good morning, sir. i'm calling about the fact that nobody has got an issue over where this money is coming from that we are getting all over the world. all of the money that we are giving them his money we do not have. this has got to stop. people ought to be responsible for all the money that we are giving away. in congress and all of government, and open credit card to get any amount of money we want to to these countries. nobody is going to pay for this. host: when do you feel like the last time was that congress, that the u.s. government was

responsible about the money that they send overseas, the money that they give away, as you described it? when with the last time that they didn't treat it like an open credit card? caller: i don't remember. host: never in your lifetime? caller: no. everybody wants something for nothing. and it has got to stop. we need to run the government like we run our household, and we don't spend more money than we have. at some point we are not going to be able to spend money, we are going to be broke. that scares me and my children. host: dave and bellingham, washington, you are next. go ahead. caller: thank you, washington journal for all of these callers.

not only do we give our president a pass on saying every time he is asked, return the hostages. how can anybody say they are working for peace if they don't start with that sentence every single time? return the hostages, then we will talk. host: that is dave in washington. chris out of philly, good morning, you are next. caller: good morning, i will be real quick. first, to the caller that called in supporting putin and trump about his family values. i'd just like to say trump's left with a porn star that he paid $100,000 for and we will soon have results on that trial, but so much for your family values. if you don't like gays you might as well just say that. the other thing is yes, we are giving enough 82 israel. but people need to understand is that if we don't have some type of nuclear presence over there

on that side, it's going to be over on our soil. so remember that when you want to cut funding and you don't want no money and why are we getting money, it is all about nuclear stuff these days. it has nothing to do with -- you're not marching the soldiers and doing all of that. it is drones and it is nuclear, biological. we will all be running to the mexican border if something like that it's our country. that is the resolution on that. why are we even building a wall, we should be taking over mexico -- host: that is kristen philadelphia. this is the front page of the new york times today. the main image on the front page of the new york times, craters in rafah after bombardment there by the israeli military. concerns about the ground offensive and what it will mean for the approximately 1.4 million palestinians who are now

sheltering and living in rafah. it was that looming offensive that was one of the topics of the meeting at the white house between king abdullah of jordan and president biden. we show you president biden's remarks. here is king abdullah yesterday at the white house. >> we cannot afford an israeli attack on rafah. it is certain to produce another committee. the situation is already unbearable for over one million people who have been pushed into rafah since the war started. we cannot stand by and let this continue. we need a lasting cease-fire now . this war must end. we must urgently and immediately worked to ensure the sustainable delivery of sufficient aid to gaza through all possible entry point in mechanisms and i thank you, mr. president, for your support on this.

restrictions are leading to inhumane conditions. no other u.n. agency can do what -- is doing in helping the people of gaza through this military catastrophe. it's working other areas of operation, especially in jordan, where 2.3 million is also vital. it is imperative that they continue to receive the support they need to carry out the mandate. host: king abdullah of jordan yesterday at the white house. about 15 minutes left here for this topic on the washington journal. border security, immigration policy, we are to try to reschedule and get him back on

as soon as we can. close to 8:00 we will then transition into our open forum and let our viewers lead the discussion. later in today's program, we will talk about that special election today that is taking place in new york. a special election to replace george santos in congress, this election happening tuesday in new york's third district. it is out on long island. in her nana clocktower this morning, we will be talking with aaron collins, irs taxpayer advocate taking your phone calls and become closer to tax season. it is about that time of year that reschedule national taxpayer advocate, doing some casework as we chat with you, our viewers. another 10 or 15 minutes, taking your phone call on the biden administration's support of

israel in its war effort against hamas. this is george in michigan, you are next. caller: thanks for taking my call. do you remember when george bush was in office and netanyahu, republicans controlled both houses? and netanyahu used to come over here and cause a wedge in our politics, and he did everything to anybody that ran against -- he did anything to side against republicans and now they won't side with him, but that is beside the point. netanyahu, he is one minded, one-sided. if you can't say it is a massacre, i don't know what is. i know israeli lost 1000 plus people, but we're talking 27,000 people. women, children.

and my solution to this crisis is that international order in jerusalem, an international force on the border of israel and palestine, and we will start there. host: a u.n. peacekeeping force? caller: yes, sir. we might even go farther, but this is to on stabilizing. with the ukraine thing in this situation, and the taiwan situation, we are being pushed and we are going to be pushed into a war. we could avoid this if we use our heads and get around it now. if we don't, we are going to go down a slippery slope. you guys cut me off last time. my son works in the middle east. host: if we are going to be

pushed into a war, george, a war against to? caller: john, it will be a war. it could evolve china, russia, iran, and anybody else who wants. the whole continent of africa. i don't know how many countries are there, but there's only about a handful that are actually stable. anything could happen. all these influences. and the money being spent. just think about, we could spend all this money. we've been fighting each other for humanity. the guy told you about family values. they guy bob ukraine, has already killed half a million people. half a million.

where are we going with this? host: lafayette louisiana, good morning. caller: good morning and happy mardi gras. it is mardi gras in louisiana. host: i forgot about that. what happens in lafayette this time of year? caller: a lot of carrying on. good times. a lot of good, catholic values and stuff. host: switching over to foreign policy in this topic we've been talking about. caller: i think the military-industrial complex is having a good time the last few years. i think we should have more diplomacy involved in this, kind of get the hawks to calm down. you got to work both sides of

it, but i think peace is a better option. i'm not sure how they are going to do that, but bobby kennedy jr., i kind of listen to him. i can river my younger days, people having a little more ability to kind of get together and talk it out. have a good day. host: this is dave in dade city, florida. good morning. caller: good, thank you for taking my call. a lot of people are piling on israel for what is going on, and they have problems with their short-term memory. if i remember correct, hamas

attack israel and invaded israel and took israeli hostages. israel has every right to defend itself and its citizens. hamas crossed the line, now they are paying the price. host: and what is our responsibility here as israel's ally? caller: our responsibility as an ally is to help support israel in any way we can. and anyway israel asks us to support them. to give them whatever they need for them to defend themselves. israel has been fighting a battle of survival since their existence since 1947. the arabs stated goal then as it

is now is to drive them into the sea. that is not beating around the bush, that is putting it straight out there what they want to do with israel. they want to wipe israel off the map. you don't poke the bear with a stake. you're going to get what you deserve. host: coming back to our level of support, is there anyone that you would put on financial or weapons systems to ask for u.s. boots on the ground, it somehow evolves to that? is that something we should give them? i guess i'm asking, is there a limit? caller: i'm former military. we don't need to put boots on the ground because that would be escalating. as two callers ago said, that would be a slippery slope. the problem is this is turning into a proxy war with the a lot

of the other countries getting involved that don't need to be involved. that is where lines get blurred. it is not just israel vs. hamas. there's a lot of other money coming from china, from russia, iran. they are getting involved in something they don't need to get involved with. host:'s after that attack in jordan that killed three u.s. soldiers, there were those who were saying we need to strike back at targets inside iran because these are iranian proxies that planned and executed this attack that killed american soldiers. what are your feelings about that? caller: is about darn time. biden has been coddling these people and that is why you have emboldened them to do this. the first time they did something legacy should have swatted them like the flies they are with a big flyswatter.

what was theodore roosevelt's policy? walk softly and carry a big stick. people didn't mess with us when ronald reagan was president because they knew there would be quick retribution. with biden, they feel we can get away with it, and that emboldens people to attack us, to attack our troops. if they know that they attacked our troops and there won't be retribution against them, they are going to think twice. host:host: newport news, virginia, you are next. caller: yes, sir. there are so many haters in this world who want to fight and look for a reason to. i was fortunate enough to look at my google and find a lot of information that i didn't think would be there, but if you pull

of the information on the palestinian people and pull-up about what is happening in jerusalem, understand that they are the third or fourth richest. and folks try not to know about it, but all those poor jews walk around begging -- host: washington, d.c., good morning. caller: good morning. i just feel that the biden administration is doing a good job. i'm not too sure about israel and they don't like what they are doing, what i do understand

why they are doing it. they have american hostages over there. we've got to think about the people being held hostage. without their mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, maybe their fathers. it is heart wrenching while we sit here and say israel is committing genocide. it is not a good look. putin is fighting ukraine with no purpose is committing genocide trying to take over a different country and we need to get aid over to ukraine. we as americans, we have to support the government and stand by it. so we can help the people that are in desperate need of help. that is my thoughts on that.

host: the biden administration support of israel and its war effort, then we are going to switch over to open forum and we will have time this morning for an extensive open forum to hear from you on any topic and let you lead the discussion. two more on this and then we will move to that. pennsylvania, go ahead. caller: good morning. i think everybody should watch the movie "wag the dog." we are all being misled with lies, with wrong traumatology to manipulate us into giving whatever the rulers of this planet want. and who are the rulers? those who cannot criticize are the ones who are ruling over us.

let's begin with a definition of terms. we are not financing war, we are financing genocide. we keep buying this concept that hamas, who is hamas? have we ever seen hamas get on tv and say we are going to bury you or we are going to attack that or we are going to drive the israelis into sea? in fact, it's the opposite. host: have you seen the videos from october 7? caller: how could the paraglider's fly into the airspace of israel? a fly could not go into israel. host: gary is next in oceanside, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what are your thoughts? caller: 22 years ago watching the trade center collapse, believe me, what happened then and what happened in israel is a

great comparison. the world was behind the united states. we did what we had to do to solve the issue. israel has every right to protect itself and it is not a genocide. if it was a genocide, everyone would be gone. hamas has no interest in making peace with israel or the world and it end now. host: you said the world was with us after 9/11. what do you think of the worldwide opinion of israel immediately after october 7, and where we are today and where nations of the world are today in terms of how they view this? how different was that from 9/11, how different is it today from october 7? caller: firstly, most of the world is inherently anti-semitic.

and it has been for years. so of course they think that the world would give them a pass because it is a terrible thing showing all the murders and rapes, etc., but what happens eventually is everything -- and i'm a democrat, this human rights faction that is -- i hate her for the say it, but almost too little. it is war. people die. places are leveled. you don't hear the outcry after that. there was a purpose to it. to solve the issue. i just feel eventually, hamas has to give up and the united states should stop supporting all the arab countries around them that are now denouncing hamas. and i don't think we give money to syria, we give money to jordan.

the jordanians, i don't know how many years ago, they took the palestinian after. the united states has to support israel. they are our only ally in the middle east. host: gary, our last call her this topic. if you want to bring it up and our open forum, you certainly can, because that is where we are going. any public policy, any political issue you want to talk about, we let you lead the discussion. (202) 748-8000 republicans,. democrats, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. a reminder again, we were expected to talk about immigration and border security policy at the national border patrol council. he couldn't make it in for the

interview, we are going to reschedule him and give you a chance to talk to him, ask questions on this topic a little later down the road. we will let you know when we do get that reschedule. also today, we are going to be talking about the special election that may be taking your, third district replaced rich santos and now stanford national taxpayer advocate joining us in at just about an hour. to talk about the irs, tax issues, do a little bit of casework. caller: still a very full program this morning, but go ahead and start calling in for our open forum. as you are calling in, an update yesterday on secretary of defense lloyd austin, back in the hospital once again we found out. he was rushed to the hospital for symptoms of emergent bladder issue as it was described at walter reed national medical center. just outside of washington, d.c., this was yesterday from the pentagon.

>> secretary austin currently remains hospitalized at walter reed and is in good condition. as for the statements we will be as yesterday, secretary austin was transported by a six early detail at approximately 2:20 p.m. eastern time yesterday to walter reed national military medical center to be seen for symptoms suggesting an emergent bladder issue. at approximately 4:55 p.m. the same day, secretary transferred the function date duties of the office of the secretary of defense to deputy secretary of defense kathleen hakes. deputy secretary hicks continues to retain the functions and duties of the secretary of defense at this time. according to secretary austen's doctors after a series of tests and evaluations, he was admitted yesterday evening into the critical care unit at walter reed for supportive care and close monitoring. shortly before today's briefing

we released an update from the secretary's doctors at walter reed regarding his status, and to assure everyone here today and those watching at the same information, i will read that full statement from dr. john maddox, from medical director and dr. gregory chestnut, center for prostate disease research, director at walter reed national military medical center festa, maryland. beginning the statement, the secretary of defense lloyd james austin the third underwent nonsurgical procedures under general anesthesia to address his bladder issue. we anticipate a successful recovery and we will closely monitor him overnight. a prolonged hospital stay is not anticipated. we anticipate the secretary will be able to resume his normal duties tomorrow. the current issue is not expected to change and an anticipated full recovery. his cancer prognosis for mains excellent. moving forward we will continue to provide updates as new information becomes available

regarding secretary austen's status and we will certainly wish him a speed recovery. host: that was yesterday at the pentagon. taking your phone calls now, again it is open forum. any public policy or political issue that you want to talk about, now with the time. this is jack in maryland, republican up first. go ahead. caller: i hope the secretary gets well soon. anyway, my thought is visions of weapons of mass destruction where they started a war over something that didn't happen, and i hope the same thing doesn't happen again with iran. they don't know whether they are behind these attacks, so you can't go attacking that country not knowing. they may not be behind it. i'm sure the mexican government with those cartels, they have no control over them. i could had better leave iran alone until we know for sure what is going on.

host: you think it is good to practice restraint, as it were, after that attack on the american group? those in congress and elsewhere are calling for direct attacks on iranian soil. caller: yeah, i don't know about that. unless something comes off that soil and they know it for sure, they had better have proof before getting us into another big or like that again. that is all i can say. they had better go easy with this one. watch what they are doing over there. watch what they're doing. then other countries, let them get involved more. why have we got to be the king of the world, you know? host: tyler in the land of enchantment, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i could talk about how this is genocide but with c-span being a journalistic institution i want to talk about the complete assault on journalism in

palestine over the past four months. while younger people like me are watching this play out on our phones, the people sharing the images from inside gaza are either being killed off or forced to evacuate. we rely on people directly on the ground, a nine-year-old journalist is interviewing other children about life under occupation. over 110 journalists have been killed since october which is a huge violation of international law, not to mention the 30,000 plus with millions more displaced. host: how do you find these folks? is it twitter or x? caller: i follow a lot on instagram. -- issuing a lot daily about what is going on. a nine-year-old journalist is

interviewing other children about what is going on. you can find every famous journalist who was forced to activate. as well as the head of al jazeera who has had an entire family killed, good his sons -- including his sons were killed while in press uniform. this attack on journalism has happened the past couple of months. host: after the russian invasion of ukraine, there was a lot of focus on videos and journalists at the front trying to follow what was happening as russia was moving across ukraine. how would you compare efforts to find those journalists and the ability of those journalists to get their images and words out

what we have since october in the gaza strip? caller: i am more focused on what is happening right now. i am really just focused on the hundreds of journalists be killed and the tens of thousands of palestinians being killed. right now there is an invasion of rockford during the super bowl so people weren't paying attention to it and hundreds more are being killed every day. there has been any october 7 happening in gaza every week since october 7. 30,000 people killed, millions displaced. this is a genocide. war is a racket so that blood and bone are exchanged. end the war. think you for taking my call. host: tyler in new mexico to nashville, tennessee. this is clarence. caller: good morning, john. good morning, america.

the passage last night of the aid bill i think came at the wrong time. it should have been after the border protection bill thanks to the members of my own -- chuck schumer and senator mcconnell put together to defeat anything -- host: you would like to see that bill passed? caller: i would have liked to see his past and i would have liked to see it passed by 100% of votes.

republicans who ran in their state and sold us out is likely for did, he was really republican we ever saw part of these bipartisan bills. so many of them wind up with senator mcconnell, the snake we call him in this part of the country. joining together like blood brothers. host: a democrat from new mexico comments in usa today and he point the finger directly at donald trump, the headline "why did the border security fail? blaine trump." do you blame donald trump for

this bipartisan negotiation falling apart? caller: i blame trump for making stupid statements he makes so often. i am not concerned about him. i'm concerned about the republican senators that are lifted and sent to washington -- that are elected and sent to washington and join mcconnell's policy to help the democrats get their way. host: do you think those are public in center city washington are too concerned about donald trump? caller: i don't know what they're concerned about. it is not just this issue, it has been the same for 17 years, the same maneuvers take place. as always 2, 3, maybe seven

republicans out of 49 go to the other side. it is never the opposite, it is always the same thing. i blame the democrat governments in the states. senator langford's on state centered him for his vote on this. i think it is a big issue. i am concerned about the conservative part of this country. that is my point. host: from today's washington times their front page today, this is the online version. "the gop gets burned by the latest flirtation with the immigration deal, focusing on james lankford" here.

and the history of republicans trying to make -- what is happened to them. you might be interested in that story. the final vote on the aid package with $60 billion for ukraine and more than $14 billion for israel happened after 6:00 a.m. this morning on the senate floor, one of those rare overhead sessions. this is chuck schumer after that bill passed. [video clip] >> it has been a long night, a long weekend, and a long few months. a new day is here and our efforts have been more than worth it. today we witnessed one of the most historic and inconsequential bills -- and consequential bills to pass the

senate. it has been years, perhaps decades since the senate passed a bill that has such an impact not just on national security, not just on the security of our allies, but the security of western democracy. as i have said, if we want the world to remain a safe place for freedom, for democratic principles, for our future prosperity, then america must lead the way. with this bill, the senate declares that american leadership will not waiver, will not falter, will not fail. host: senate majority leader chuck schumer about an hour ago after an overnight session after they passed the 95 berlin dollars foreign aid bill. it was a very busy night overnight.

it is expected to be a busy night in the house. is destroyed from the associated press poll. having failed to impeach alejandro mayorkas the first time, house republicans are determined to try again on tuesday. it is not at all if do over. a second vote will produce better tally after last week's politically embarrassing setback when republicans failed to impeach alejandro mayorkas, trying for a second time today. action on the house floor, you can watch gavel-to-gavel here on c-span. this is allen in arkansas, independent. caller: you were so gracious when a call two or three months ago to pull up the website from ukraine. while i make a brief comment to go -- a brief comment again, i

much appreciated. -- host: remind you that is? caller: anna from ukraine -- i mentioned jean make patrick being one of the most intelligent persons of my lifetime and ana from ukraine is a ukrainian schoolteacher, phd, and started an online youtube after the war started to give a personal biography every day of the war. she has described the most articulate aspect of this war

that is so much like our american revolution. i am a retired history teacher. i have gotten a couple of degrees. i hate to get personal but several u.s. patents and so want. i had a talk show 50 years ago. this is my area of study through college and on and on. i just have never heard anyone more brilliant and articulate expressing ukraine and how much they are similar to our own american revolution. host: anna from ukraine, on youtube, some 122,000 subscribers. i wonder how you would answer that question i posed to the

gentleman talking about journalism in gaza right now compared to journalism following the invasion of ukraine and the ability to get the message out. what do you think of those two different scenarios? what similarly and differences do you see? -- similarities and differences do you see? caller: pie called on the independent line because i am more conservative than the republicans so i don't identify with a political party. i have supported so many conservative republican positions, pro-life come on and on. i like marjorie taylor greene and some of these other conservatives in the house, the new speaker. you guys have to come off of

this. i don't know what the problem is, but support ukraine is absolutely like a mirror image of our own revolution when our country started. they will be our most valuable ally for decades to come and we are kind of besmirching ourselves by not fully supporting them. if you would show her image -- i am calling to invite ron for half an hour. she deserves an hour on "washington journal "i was watching week to week hoping she would be invited on. i am appealing to your ceo once again. i know he and i are about the same age. for the love of god, invite this woman on.

she will be the most brilliant guest in my humble opinion you have been better -- you have ever invited on. host: we always appreciate suggestions. this is amar in alexandria, virginia. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: i would like to start pressing that the government's policies and support of israel is disappointing and a betrayal to democracy and human rights. the issue in palestine and what is happening is the tragedy that started in 1948. let's not forget the origin of the problem. what israel is doing is committing mass genocide and there is blood supported by the u.s. government. no questions are being asked. mosques, churches, reporters,

mothers and fathers are being killed by daily basis as the u.s. government is doing nothing to stop it. they are giving them weapons with no questions asked. where is all the talk about freedom and human rights? host: when you say no questions asked, do this into some of the debates in congress about this -- do you listen to some of the debates in commerce about this? -- in congress about this? caller: when the u.s. president goes on live news telling them he witnessed killings of israeli children and mothers and all of that talk, where is the proof? how do you say that -- how do you as a president to lie to the american people?

where is the president talking about all of this? where is the president telling them to stop? how are you using those weapons? we were talking about too many people -- you are talking about 2 million people, no food, no water, no home to go back to. i grew up with chickens and hands, put them in a form. the whole world is asking the u.s. government to stop and they are not doing anything to stop it. and then they're talking about -- you spoke to someone 20 or 30 minutes ago and they were talking about their anti-semites. arabs are semites. stop with that stupid argument.

it is not a religious war. this is wrong. everybody is aware of it. there is truth. host: i do think this ends? caller: israel needs to recognize they are an occupier and give palestine their freedom. the u.s. government is to hold them accountable. host: a peace deal or a truce to stop the fighting and a two state solution? caller: definitely. but then they keep talking about it. israel does not follow the united states government and they did not see anything. they have been kicked out of their homes, since 1948.

their control in their movement, in the way their living. they are controlled in their travels. people on a daily basis are being taken away from the. i want the entire nation to listen to this and tell me in what world this is okay. someone walks by your home, he just happens to like your home, he will come back with the military. they will tell you you have 10 minutes to enter the house because the house is being taken by the israeli family. you are talking about palestinian families that lived in their house for generations. in what what is this okay? in what world is this democracy and freedom? is this democracy? is this human rights?

host: take me back to october 7 and the attacks on the kibbutz -- caller: daily attacks on palestinian people. you don't call someone defending their land to terrorists. just because someone is terrorists does not mean there terrorists. who is the terrorist? we are the ones who have our land occupied. we live under american occupation. if i come to your house and a take it by force i cannot cannot and call you terrorist? host: this is john. good morning. caller: good morning. that was pretty interesting. i am calling in this morning about the senate, how they let the american people down again. $95 billion come here we go

again. we were supposed to get any immigration bill done. but what did you get a border deal done and instead they try to give us any immigration bill with 5000 allowed to come in every day. here we go with ukraine again. we are going to be up to almost $200 billion for ukraine. we still cannot get an inspector general to oversee the money for ukraine. we have 500,000 dead and counting and ukraine. what are we good to get for this? what is the end game? i am wondering if the american people know we are paying for government salaries and a ukraine. we are paying for everything in ukraine to keep operating. the manpower ukrainian army is trying to use his 50-year-old and plus and special-needs needs younger people. they are getting them off the street and throwing them into the back of the fence and send

them to the front lines. i hope everyone is aware of what is going on in ukraine. the betrayal by the senators is a big thing. the border bill disappears and 200 billion -- $200 billion and counting for ukraine. it is ridiculous. host: review in favor of that negotiated deal on the border -- were you in favor of the negotiated deal on the border that ended up falling apart? caller: it was more like an illegal immigration deal. how do you start a deal where 5000 people are allowed a day? if anybody looked into that border deal, we were going to pay for the blues for the people to come into the country so they could have their hearings. host: you think it was as good of a deal as could be gotten? caller: i don't think so. host: with such a divided senate and a divided house? caller: i don't think it would

have passed because the republican side of things. key democrats would have been jumping for joy because it legalized illegal immigration. i don't think that is a strong point. i thought if you could stop the flow at 5000 a day, why can you not to stop the flow at zero a day? i was definitely opposed to it, i thought it was more beneficial for the democrats than border control. i did not think it was a good border deal that'll. -- border deal at all. host: coming up at 8:30, it is richard out of minneapolis. republican. caller: how did we get so screwed up? if these republicans don't start supporting ukraine, i am going to switch over to nikki haley. as far as israel goes, i think

it is going to have to be occupied for 20 years or so just like we did in world war ii. we occupied europe and installed democracies. we occupied japan's and install it democracy -- we occupied japan and installed a democracy. we are going to have to occupy israel. the israelis should stop about now. they are going to have to go in with individual forces and root out hamas and should drop a couple of bombs on iran. two or three bombs, a bunker buster in their nuclear plant would do good. as far as immigration goes on the border, why can't they stop that? trumpeted it -- trump did it. he is kind of a loony tune. nikki haley is smarter that he

is. he is kind of dumb in the things he says. that is my opinion today. i don't know. how did we get so screwed up? host: that is richard in neapolis. this is dan in oregon. caller: i have a couple of questions for anybody out there. israel is not a member of the united nations and not a member of nato and yet they are our allies. what has israel ever done for us? the second question is, is it true that fox news is owned by rupert murdoch and he is not even american, he is australian? our major news network is owned by a foreigner?

host: this is jan in louisiana. democrat. good morning. caller: i have two points. happy mardi gras, louisiana. it seems like we have a support israel. joe biden has more experience and they like him. i believe he will do the best thing along with military advisors. happy mardi gras, louisiana. host: what did you think about that report last week, the document handling report and the comments about joe biden and his mental acuity? caller: about what? host: joe biden and his ability to remember things.

are you concerned about joe biden's age? caller: i am not concerned about joe biden's age at all. he can think come he can do, he has great experience. along with the great vice president, he will be just fine. host: that is janet in louisiana. president biden -- also visited the national association of counties conference. at one point of the president joked about his age and memory. this was the president from yesterday. [video clip] pres. biden: after devastating floods, traders, and hurricanes, we are going to keep working together to respond and boost resilience to extreme weather. my administration is helping install rooftop solar to build a network of charging stations.

we are revitalizing communities smothered by pollution. we are promoting clean energy made here in america. what i did not realize, and i have been around -- i know i don't look like it but i have been around a while. i do remember that. [cheering] there is so much we are getting done. host: that was president by initially. back to your calls. this is steven in quincy, illinois. caller: several weeks ago your program had congressman kimber shut -- kimber shut -- from the

second congressional district of tennessee. he went on and on about the crime rate in the state of new york and the crime rate in illinois and the fact that states are bound by democrats and that is the cause of the high crime rate. according to fbi statistics, the state of tennessee has more than twice the crime rate of the state of new york, the state of tennessee has more than twice the murder rate of the state of new york. in fact, the states with the highest crime rates, south kelowna, tennessee, arkansas, missouri, alabama, and mississippi all have republican governors and republican legislatures. the state with the lowest murder rate, hawaii, also has the most

gun regulations and a democratic governor. other stools with low crime rates -- schools -- states with low crime rates, oregon, washington, maine, massachusetts, connecticut, rhode island, all run by democrats. host: are you going off of the fbi crime statistics? caller: i am. i have the almanac of 23, page 15 if anybody wants to refer to my source. host: that is stephen in quincy, illinois. from washington, republican. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i propose a worldwide magna carta for our times. we need a modern era magna

carta. aba functional worldwide promontory and system. world governments and financially powerful people would make up the modern era house of lords. this would be like the united nations. host: why is this a good thing? caller: the house of commons, this worldwide system, would include and be made up of representatives of all of the indigenous peoples of all of the countries of the world. for the poor people -- i'm talking way in the future. a goal to look for, a modern magna carta where the poor and

the financially wealthy make of the house of lords. host: hi gutter system. caller: that is simply my thought. host: jamie, maple lake, minnesota. democrat. caller: i have a question for all of these trump supporters. i watched them on the interviews for their not concerned and endorsed the fact that trump was to become a dictator and it is all fun and games. my question is this, what do they think is good to happen if he becomes a dictator? one of the first things he is going to have to do is take away everybody's guns. i am in my 50's at all my life i can or rubber -- i can remember the republicans scare people into thinking democrats are

going to take their guns. if trump gets into office and he becomes a dictator, he is going to have to take away the guns of the people. republicans and democrats because that is how he is going to remain in power. once they find out he is really not for him, he is not going to help them in any way, it is all about him and the power, they are going to want to rise up against him. host: do you own a gun? caller: yes. host: why do you own a cap? caller: i do target practice, things like that. i'm not afraid defending myself. i don't carry it for protection. host: have you been worried about someone taking your gun before? caller: nevercaller:. host: you are now? caller: no.

if i had to give up my gun, it would not be a life or death situation. my point is this, if trump gets into office -- host: i got you. caller: republicans need to wait about their guns. host: that is jamie in minnesota. lynn is in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. this is my first time calling. both compelled to because of the things i was hearing about israel. tyler, called in earlier who is getting all this news from instagram and tiktok, there is a lot of propaganda being promoted by your ron -- by iran. even civilians in gaza are

saying things that are not true because they are either fitted with hamas or raised under the regime of hamas where people have been taught to hate. in particular, he was talking about it was reported yesterday there was an al jazeera prominent journalist who was a hamas operative. they recovered a laptop with images of him training with hamas and being a journalist. unfortunately in this area, it is so twisted that americans cannot conceive of the things going on there. it is not like here. host: what is the best way to

figure out what is going on, who to trust, how to come up with their own opinion? caller: that is a great question. since october 7 i have been figuring that out myself. i used to read the new york times and the washington post. i cannot even believe it. they used to be papers i trusted. i cannot get news from them anymore. they are so one-sided and it blows my mind. i read the wall street journal and the jerusalem post and a smattering of idf or official israeli sources. there is a project called the 10-7 project that like the

anti-defamation league and the american jewish congress have put together. i get a newsletter from them that has sources and news from all different sources. >> you said -- host: you said you usually go to the wall street journal and you don't trust the washington post. both papers have a story about the impending likely ground offensive into rough up, concerns about what that might mean for civilians. this is how that was played in the headlines. "israel proposes evacuation before attack. the biden administration once against the assault without a plan to protect civilians." here is how the washington post puts it. "panic mounts iraq for over a looming israeli offensive." -- mounts in rafah over a looming israeli offensive."

do you see a difference in how they're playing it? what do you look for for -- look for when you said you trust one over the other? caller: i don't know that that headline is the best example of this. the washington post -- it is a travesty what is happening to the civilians in gaza. the washington post is always blaming israel for everything. hamas is literally placing civilians in harm's way and what's hi -- and wants high death tolls. everyone in causes a journalist now. everyone has their phones out and they're trying to send these terrible images. it is so twisted.

israelis don't want to kill -- it is not like one side wants to kill civilians. israelis don't. hamas says they want to kill civilians. that is what is horrible here. the washington post does not call that out. i cannot even believe they do this. any hamas source, it would be this is true because hamas says it. when israel says it, israel claims xyz but we have not been able to independently verify it. when you talk about hamas, the death toll, they just quoted. -- quote it. now they are saying according to hamas but they never say we have

been unable to independently verify. it is a double standard. host: got your point. we will continue with open forum in just a minute, until that :00 a.m.. i would -- until 9:00 a.m. today is also an election day in the third district of new york, a suburban long island district. a special election to replace george santos. i want to take a few minutes to update what is happening in that race and where it stands. we are joined by kevin fry of spectrum news, new york one. thank you for coming in on a snowy morning. guest: survey not as snowy as it is on long island. host: that is something that could impact voter turnout. set up for viewers who have not been following this special election, who is running to replace george santos? guest: it is a match up between

someone who is a familiar face in this district, congressman tom suozzi. before that he was the county executive and before that he was a local mayor. he is running against muzzy bill up a registered democrat. she is a county legislature. -- host: there has been one debate in the special election. what did both candace try to do? guest: she has been pounding -- over that she decided to not do any big -- any debates. it happened after early voting had started.

part of this argument is that she is untested and unvented. and she's not answering public questions, she has not of herself to the media as much. in this debate he kept re-rating this message. pilip's message was trying to tie tom suozzi to joe biden who is under the polls in this district and try to pay him -- paid him as a party-line vote. the larger picture here of the national conversation is coalescing in this small congressional race. host: a little more on tom suozzi, why did he step away from congress in 2022? did he ever run against george santos? guest: he did and defeated him. in 2022 he opted to run for

governor. he was with kathy hochul, lost that primary and has set out for the last year and a half. now he is running again. he opted to jump into this race before george santos was ousted. the democratic leadership in this district selected him to be the party nominee in no small part because he has an institutional background where we saw a major swing from 2020 where this was a biden plus eight district. host: we know how close congress is. there was a tie last week on a vote to impeach alejandro mayorkas and george santos mocking republicans via twitter saying "miss me yet." -- miss me yet?"

when it was that close. what resources are the national parties putting into this election? how much are they playing on the ground in long island? guest: this is the only game in town right now in terms of congressional races. for both parties, there is any opportunity to make some hay it to the general cycle. this is one of those swing districts the democrats need to pick up in order to take back control of the house. as soon as this week, we could get new maps in new york's congressional district because the court has ordered the maps be read drawn. in terms of the funding, you are seeing the congressional leadership fund, the democratic campaign arm, etc., all pouring millions of dollars into this race. in terms of the age, it is definitely the democrats who have -- they have more or less

committed to a two to one ratio on ad buys. suozzi is out raising pilip. he knows how to go through the fundraising process. host: has there been much polling? what we know on that front? you mentioned the weather, do you expected to impact turnout? guest: from the polling perspective, they are within the margin of error. suozzi is routine the entity public polling beating pilip but just by a handful of points and within the margin of error. this is going to be a nailbiter. there is also the factor of the snowstorm and the weather impacting nassau county and queens. does that deter voters from heading to the poll? it seems to be the conceit that

democrats were able to build up some strength in the early voting period. if republicans are relying on election day turnout, that could become a problem. both campaigns are offering to drive people to the polls to get them there. host: what time are polls closing? you expect we will know an answer tonight order these routinely go to overnight counting? guest: things rep. brown: canonical p.m., but nassau county -- things will wrap up tonight around 9:00 p.m., but nassau county is famous for -- most forecasters are expecting we could be here for a little bit. perhaps by the end of the night we will have a sense where this is going. host: before you go, viewers

probably were used to george santos updates for that a while. what has he been doing since he was ousted? guest: if you are on cameo, he has been offering videos there and this has been pretty good for his bottom line. it is a website where you can go on and request customized videos and customized messages. he has been producing those at a regular clip. he is now waiting did their processing. there have been various status update hearings and the question of could he take a plea deal. if things continue apace, we expect that to be a trial in september range on the three federal charges he is facing. host: kevin fry for spectrum news, you can follow along with him on twitter or x @kevinfrytv.

guest: thank you for having me. host: about 15 minutes left in our open forum. any policy or political issue you want to talk about, is your time to call in. lisa has been waiting. clifton heights, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: this is my first time calling. i have a lot of issues on my mind. first of all, we cannot control the weather, no matter what the democrats say come and blame everybody for. you can stop eating everything and live on the grass, but you cannot control that would -- control that. i would like to mention a lady that called earlier, her name is lynn. i would like to safeway moment -- i would like to say for her, call up the lovett letter if

you want to true israeli updates. i want to start with the palestinian people. i know there was a palestinian fellow who called up and said the israelis say. we have just 10 minutes to get out of your house. he is a liar. i know a lot of palestinians. in people from israel from years ago, my family over there. not one of them were ever told to get out of their house in 10 minutes. he is a big liar and these are the people that like to wash over people's minds and people will say i cannot believe it, they only had 10 minutes. it is not true.

they say we are going to take this land over. they had a war in 1967 and won it fair and square. that is what he is speaking of. host: this is a llama in albany, -- alayna in albany, new york. caller: i went to talk about manufacturing consent which was a famous book by noam chomsky in 1988. the media is complicit in a lot of the war actions. if you think back to after 9/11, there was a big media push, a lot of speculation that may be directed this and then internet to be al qaeda. the whole reason we got into those wars in afghanistan and iraq is because we were led this story that we have this war on terror but it worked into we

need to spread democracy -- worked into we need to spread democracy. the way the media handled it, people thought iraq was partly responsible for 9/11 and they weren't. that is the way the media is controlled dinner to -- the people who were embedded in the military. host: what do you think about the war on terrorism today and how it will be remembered? caller: yet the axis of evil and stuff like that, the way we portray these other groups as it is a way of ginning up support for these actions. the same thing is happening in israel. you go back to october 7, the

people reporting there are often embedded with the idea of who controls what, what they are allowed to report. a lot of the u.s. media is based on israel and tel aviv. manufacturing content -- manufacturing consent is a lot thinner to the how we get into these wars and the way it gets out of hand. one year ago, we had the chinese spy balloon that went over america. that happened many times before. just because it was in the media, it became this huge controversy and a discussion about is china a military -- it ginned up people that were in this conflict. a lot of this stuff can be handled in better ways.

you don't need to go into all-out war to handle situations. i think we could've handled al qaeda without toppling afghanistan. it could have -- we could've handled iraq without overthrowing the country. as far as israel and gaza, there is a way we could have dealt with hamas without going into total warfare that is costing thousands of lives. host: this is randy out of roger city, michigan. morning. randy, are you with us? to matt as we have five minutes left. cherry hill, new jersey. caller: i was watching tv and there was a book can't they call wrote and i don't know too much

of this and i don't know if anybody is what i'm going to sue myself. he was saying on the day donald trump left the presidency, ronna mcdaniel's who donald trump is pushing out as the republican national committee chairperson. she called him and apparently donald trump answered and donald trump, jr. was also in the room and they were on speaker and she called to say we did a lot of great things together. he said listen, i going to start my own third party if you start walking away from me. she said, please don't do that because if you take all of those people that are following you away from us, republicans will never win another election again.

junior is in the background yelling something, too. she says. i'm still -- she says pleased to do that. he says i don't care about the republican party. this is a book written and recorded it happened. host: "winning" by jonathan carl? caller: the workshop was in it. host: "tired of winning" is the most recent book by garth and carl, we covered it on the fourth. does that look familiar to you? caller: i think that is what it was. the thing that blew me away -- that blew me away. but besides that, when all the people -- mccarthy went down to mar-a-lago and did whatever he

did to get donald trump back in the public eye. that was after he said i will run by myself and take people with me if you don't follow me. everyone is wondering why he is fully donald trump, no matter what he does. host: you are calling on the republican line, argue republican? caller: yeah. you think donald trump is a republican? he voted for democrats his whole career until he realized the only way he could win and get people to follow him is if he went as a republican. the facts are for 50 years -- 40 years he voted for the democrats. i don't consider him a republican, i consider him someone who is very scary and try to be like putin and all the cool guys he likes. host: who is a republican to

your liking right now? caller: here is the crazy thing for me. i lived in new jersey when chris christie was the governor. we had silly things. he did a lot of stuff here. when he was on the debate stage, he was telling pre-much -- he has known donald trump 20 years. this is the shocking thing i heard on the book tv think. don't forget donald trump when we had our pandemic, he came on stage in march 2020 after nine comfortable air this thing was going to be because he was told by these people, the before. he said on the podium they want me to wear a mask but i am not doing that. you can do it if you want but i am not doing it. one million people died. maybe somebody should start looking to see what this guy

said. nikki haley will blow but in a way that will blow -- will blow by in a way -- will blow joe biden away. the republicans are being held captive because they know they will lose their election if donald trump takes 30 or 40 million people away from him. -- away from them. host: this is -- from oklahoma city. caller: i was looking through my papers looking for a car title and account a journal i took for a trip to colorado and i was obsessed with the accommodations because i had to have c-span in the morning and coffee in the room.

i realized i am addicted. i have to see c-span. i am very concerned about journalism because i fear truth is dead. anything that is said, there is good to be someone that says that is a lie. we have to be able to agree on some things that are true. host: how long have you been watching c-span? caller: from the beginning. host: when was the last time we agreed on things that were true? caller: i don't get the question. host: as a question -- as a country, when did we agree on facts and not -- and to dispute the facts other than the opinions or issues?

when was the last time we generally agree on the facts? caller: i don't think we did ever agree. i had insist that there is some truth -- have to insist that there is some truth. when you are on the air, people call and say things that are not true, provably not true. i would like to give you permission to say that is not true, look it up. next call. i would like to give you permission. journalists, i know that is not in your playbook. you have been trained to present truth. that is what i am looking for. i am just looking for the truth. there is no trust. people trust nobody. host: when you hear from a caller and this is something

like that, does it tell you about them, do you let about them from that -- you learned something about them from that? caller: i think they are just looking at the wrong place for truth. we are to look in the person presenting it to you. it is like hypnosis. we like to watch moving things and talking things and it catches our attention. we sit here and turn off our own thoughts and we let it just absorb into us. and we had logarithms. they say be afraid. you need to be afraid and donated to us. we have got some real enemies. that is what gets people motivated. here. -- fear. it turns into anger. people that call on this program

, it is unbelievable. host: do you think the interactive nature of this program helps people from turning off their thoughts? we have to pick up your phone and explain your opinion, do you think it helps them to sit back and be passive? caller: i guess i am a child of the age of reason when we said we don't need kings to tell us what towe can examine what is td determine the best, noble have to go down. when you do not have truth, we are just sitting in water. the best thing to do is nothing.

host: michael in oklahoma city, our last caller in this open forum. we will be joined by erin collins, who will talk about her office's annual report to congress and look ahead to the tax filing season. we will be right back. ♪ >> the weeks that lie ahead, the famous and influential men and women will have a lot to say about friedman's view of the society in which we live today. >> saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern, american history tv will air the 10 part series, free to choose, featuring milton friedman. he coproduced the series with

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are truly informed, a republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, from the nation's capital to wherever you are. the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like, c-span: powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: it is usually about this time of year that we invite the national taxpayer advocate chat with viewers. remind viewers what the role of the national taxpayer advocate is. guest: sure. the office that the, the taxpayer advocate service, and the position that i have work created by congress about 25 or so years ago. it was the intent to help

taxpayers, those folks having challenges with the irs. we refer to ourselves as the safety net when all sales, our office is there to help taxpayers one on one. congress also gave us the authority to provide recommendations for the irs with respect to problems of service or administration or they focus on protecting taxpayer rights. we have the ability by the statute to provide administrative recommendations and also the ability to provide legislative recommendations. in our annual report to congress, we provide recommendations to improve administration, to make it easier to file your taxes. host: a line from that report to congress -- the year 2023 was one of extraordinary transition

for the irs and taxpayers. cautious optimism. why do you have cautious optimism? guest: i think a lot of us are trying to put the pandemic behind us, but during those years, the irs was also struggling. like everyone else, at the beginning of 2020, the irs did shut down its facilities. as a result, returns were piling up. it took the irs two to three years to get out of the challenges that covid caused. last year, the irs closed out the year almost even with respect to the returns that had been filed. electronic returns were processed. payments were made, but they still have areas they need to improve. telephone service -- there was a period of time, i think 2021, only 11% of calls were being

answered by the irs. taxpayers were calling three times as much as in previous years. it was a struggle for taxpayers as well as irs folks. what we are looking at currently is that this filing season will be a bit more smooth. we are seeing electronic returns that are being filed and paid promptly. things are looking good. i have my fingers crossed. host: the place where you note that you have continued concerns, though, is the irs assisting victims of identity theft. guest: these are folks who have had their identity stolen. someone has commune in and pretended they filed a return say that they are erinollins in order to get my refund. wh i finally file my return, i realized somebody has already claimed my tax return. the challenge the irs had was in

order to get caught up, with the irs was doing was borrowing from peter to pay paul. they were moving resources around to prioritize the filing of tax returns. they moved people who helped folks who were victims of identity theft and moved them to do other work. as a result, what we saw was those returns took about an average of 19 months in order for the folks to properly identify themselves and get those refunds, which i think we all agree is not a reasonable period of time. we are currently working with the irs. they are aware of the issue and trying to move the resources back to that position so we can clear out the backlog and fix it. host: the employee intention

recredit? guest: that came out with the cares act in 2020. congress wanted to help businesses in need. think about small businesses, a restaurant for example. with covid, a lot of customers were not coming into restaurants. what congress wanted businesses to do in that situation was keep their employees on roll, in order for them to still receive a paycheck even though the business was not receiving the same amount of customers coming in. it was win-win -- the business stayed afloat and employees received a salary. congress created the employee retention credit as a way to provide businesses additional relief. host: and from the taxpayer perspective -- the document upload tool, what is that? guest: the document upload tool is something that irs i.t. folks came up with.

my office was struggling getting documents into the irs. things were getting delayed. we talked to our i.t. folks and said can you come up with a portal so that taxpayers can upload it directly from their phone. if you are trying to help a taxpayer with respect to income tax credits where they were trying to establish that their child lived with them and we wanted them to upload documents, they could take a picture from their phone and up load -- upload it through ool and get it directly to our case advoca with the irs has done is they have not taken that to all plated across the board. challenge is the total was not originally designed to take the volume of everything that comes into the irs on paper. now the front end of the total

works great -- people can upload the information. but the irs has to create backend processing. when the document comes in through the tool, they can get it out to respective divisions rather quickly. right now, it is all going to a coordinated place. we need the tools to send it to the correct unit so people can work the paper. host: there is a lot in these reports. the most interesting thing is to have you chat with taxpayers themselves. here is how viewers can do that. erin collins of the national taxpayer advocate office, it is (202) 748-8000 for those in the eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. the national taxpayer advocate will be with us until 10:00 a.m. eastern. brent in michigan is up first. caller: hello.

i do not know if this is something you can address but i have heard representatives, republican representatives, repeat over and over that tax cuts increase revenues. that is one thing. is that true? another is that i am a -- a caller supporting trump a couple of days ago since he voted for trump because trump would lower interest rates. could you address the importance of the independence of the federal reserve from political influence? guest: since i do not work for the federal reserve, i have a similar role in the sense that i am independent of the irs. our agency is an independent organization housed within the irs. i would not exactly say we are

on par with the federal reserve, but we have the same interest in the sense that we look at administration of the laws. we do not opine on policy. we leave that to congress. what we do is we try to take the laws as written and work with congress and the irs to make recommendations as to how to administer it more easily and protect taxpayer rights. good or bad, i do not control interest rate. the importance of the independence of various organizations is critical. host: the caller said tax cuts and what it means for revenues. that aside, what about funding path cuts to the irs and what it does for revenues -- an ongoing effort to figure out how much money the irs should have worked whether it should be clawed back. any thoughts on that? guest: when you think about what

the irs does, it ran is not the best. a lot of people once or twice a year when they have to do with the irs, they mumble bad words under their breath, but the irs brings in over n98% of the country's revenue. that is what congress is able to allocate for services. it is a vital function for this country. it is important that it be properly funded. in order to collect that revenue, we need the resources within the agency to do a good job. if we can help taxpayers provide a better service, better guidance, quicker resolution, i think that is going to help on the back end, which will be very -- will maybe encourage people

voluntary compliance. if they are not funded properly, it makes it hard for the irs to do their job on behalf of taxpayers. ho: dave you were tweeted in this question, asking about an armed government agency. guest: that seems to have gotten a lot of play in the last couple of years. irs does have a criminal investigation action that -- function that on certain types of things they will get involved. for example, any criminal fraud. they usually work with the fbi are other federal agencies. these are for the most serious cases. it is a small division within the irs. irs has approximately 90,000 employees. i think the cid division is somewhere between 2000 and 2500, a small portion of what the irs

does. we have no intention of increasing the size of criminal investigation agents. good or bad, nobody else carries guns in the irs. i do not think that is where the irs will be going. host: freehold, new jersey, ken, good morning. are you with us? this is bill in florida. caller: [indiscernible] host: we will work on your line and go to michael in cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning. the question is campbell gates -- now exempt from campbell

gates taxes? guest: that is not my expertise. i do not want to give you the wrong guidance. that is something you could reach out to the irs to get additional help on. irs.gov is also a good resource. if you put in requests or questions about capital gains, you may able to find your answer relatively quickly. host: why is it so hard to figure out what you owe every year? guest: taxes are complex. part of the reason is taxpayers lives, as well as companies, their transactions are complex. when you look at the internal revenue code, i think part of the challenge is you look at what taxpayers do from investments to businesses two types of entities to if you have a corporation, a partnership, are you married?

single? when you look at people's lives, they are complex. what the code is trying to take into account as all those variables when congress establishes the "law." it is not easy to file a return. host: is anybody talking about holding up a postcard and saying we should do our taxes on a postcard? guest: last year, we talked about tax simplification. i we would all agree that the postcard equivalent would be nice. i think the challenge is if you are trying to give different aspects of our society -- families versus individuals versus businesses a different advantage through the tax code, you cannot do that on a postcard. it comes down to what does congress want? what do taxpayers want? what do we want our tax system

to be? if it is simple, you are probably leaning toward a flat tax situation. if you want benefits -- for example, today a business be able to deduct an employee's salary? you would think the answer would be yes. if you go that direction, it would be more complicated. a flat tax would be -- again, you could have it slap across the board that everybody would pay pick a number, 5%, 10%, 20% of their income to the irs. no deductions. i probably -- personally do nothing that will happen in my lifetime but it has been discussed as to whether that is a more fair way. host: the viewer on twitter -- we just want fairness but that seems to be too much to ask. guest: that is something our office really does try to focus

on -- what is the fairness as to how the laws are applied? we do not necessarily get into the policy of writing the laws. we administer laws after they are written. we try to make sure they are applied fairly across the board. host: denver, colorado. you are on with erin collins. caller: my question is in the context of large business taxpayers. i know the service has a good job of getting backlogs of personal returns caught up, but that is not the case in the large business space where you have got taxpayers who've got amendments, abatement requests and repeals -- appeals. they are waiting in line. holding the irs accountable for

that responsibility. guest: you are correct in the sense that the irs has a lot on its plate. they did prioritize over the last couple of years the filing of the tax returns which most people which generated a refund. that was important, but what we are seeing is that the irs does not have adequate resources. you are referring to amended returns as well as examination or having the ability to appeal to the independent office of appeals in a timely fashion. the irs has more funding. they are trying to hire. if you are interested, there are positions available, but they need to build up their examination function the independent office of appeals. until that happens, you will

face a delay in backlogs. it is a challenge. the irs is aware of the, but we need more employees through the door, trained and working. host: you are trying to hire 87,000 new employees right now? can you do that well? guest: in my opinion, no. but remember the money that was provided by congress was over a ten-year period of time. irs has a high attrition rate and a high percentage of folks who will soon be retiring. when you think about that number, the lot of it is attrition. these past two years, irs has hired about 30,000 employees but only increased its workforce by the single digits. a lot of the hiring that we talk about has to do with the 10 year

period of time and also taking into account attrition. i do not think the irs is going to go from 90,000 people to 177,000 people. we are talking about 87,000 new people over a ten-year period and a lot of it will be attrition. host: coming up on 9:30 on the east coast, about a half hour left with erin collins, york national taxpayer advocate. the website to find out more about your office, where should viewers go? guest: you have two things you can go to -- irs.gov but also our only segment within irs.gov. if you put in taxpayeradvocate, that takes you directly to our website. the design that piece of irs.gov

for providing information. it tells you how to contact your local office. we have 75 offices across the u.s. to help taxpayers one on one. i mean individuals, small businesses, large businesses. those facing financial hardship and working with the irs and struggling can come by for our services or those folks for whom the irs is broken, they can come in and we can assist. you're not a substitute for the irs but we are the backstop when all things go wrong. come into our office and we will try to help. host: if taxpayers are using your office, are they less likely to be hounded by the irs they are working with you to try to solve a problem versus trying to deal with it on your own? guest: i am not sure i like the

word hounded but if you have an issue with collections or something else, he will step in and work with you and advocate on your behalf. if you have a collection matter, we can get that suspended while we are working with you and working with the revenue office on the collections matter. that is what we are here for. think of us is a safety net for taxpayers. host: to be clear, you get a live person? guest: once your case is assigned, you will be assigned to a case advocate. some advocates they leave or change positions, but we try and have the same case throughout the life of your situation where channel. -- situation or challenge. you will be assigned one person. host: ardmore, oklahoma,

darrell. thanks for waiting. caller: a flat tax makes it simple for the american people. you can collect it as sales tax. everybody, whether you are a millionaire or make $2000 a year, everybody pays their percentage. guest: i do not write policy. that is up to congress. if you follow taxes, there have been all sorts of discussions of a flat tax, a granulated flat tax, a back tax, those are all things that have been considered by members of congress. keep the ideas coming, keep talking to congress. taxes are complicated. it be in everybody's best interest to try and simplify it. host: value added tax, what does that do? guest: europe, that is common.

it is like a sales tax. it is a different way to apply the tax system. taxpayers need to think about what do we want our country to be? how do we want to find it? that is what taxes are, the ability to fund our country. the code is written currently is one way. host: rhode island, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to give a shout to the irs. i have never had a problem with the irs. when i was 19, in new york city, my dad did my taxes. i got a letter from the irs saying i owed money. i went to the office and started

at the front desk and worked my way to the guy at the back desk. they ended up giving me a refund because i had kept all my receipts as a student and a working girl in new york, working in restaurants, things like that. ever since then, any time had a question for the irs, i called. the agent was courteous, gave me their number, sent the pamphlets that i needed within a few days. as my life adapted itself to different things, i would just call the irs and always got the answer that i needed to file my taxes appropriately. they are doing a good job. they need everything to continue to do a good job. if they need something, give it to the irs. that is all i had to say. guest: that was much

appreciated. irs employees work hard and try to do the right thing by taxpayers. public service is not for everyone, but we have a lot of employees who try to do the right thing and try to help taxpayers. you can get annoyed and there are occasional issues with employees, but the majority are trying to do their best. you mentioned with irs referred to the taxpayer assistance centers. since covid, we have been requiring that you make an appointment ahead of time, but those are players -- places where you can talk to a live person and with the irs and goes through your challenges. i am guessing that is probably where liz started, what we referred to as taxpayer assistance centers. host: grant with this twitter

question -- are people retired on social security disability taxable? guest: that is one of those questions that i will hunt. and i used to be a lawyer, my answer would always be it depends. it depends if you have other income, depends on filing status, on the amount of the dollar. it is not something i want to answer off the top of my head. if you are a lower income individual, that is what our sites are for. if you make under $64,000 per year, you can go into one of these sites. if you go into irs.gov but it will tell you where those sites are located they will provide three tax systems and work with

you on those issues to help you file a correct return. host: something like the national taxpayer advocate or other parts of our government that we interact with. guest: we have -- within different federal agencies. i take it as a compliment when people say you are doing great. why don't we have it in every federal agency? we have -- part of our job is the advocate on behalf of all taxpayers on behalf of particular issues. that is what the annual report is, an opportunity to look across the board of what the irs can do better. we also have the advocacy piece. one on one, we work with taxpayers to resolve problems with the irs. it is an amazing role that i have the honor of sitting in.

i will give a shout out to my people. you do a tremendous job of your long. host: how much interaction do you personally help with the commissioner? guest: key is down the hall. i see him on a regular basis. we have joint meetings throughout the week. i have one on one with the commissioner on a regular basis. host: john in ohio. caller: good morning. in 2012, the irs was used to crush the tea party. who was the leader of the irs then? congress was requiring -- before trillion dollars in debt.

to think that the irs is doing a good job is baloney. guest: everyone is entitled to their opinion. i can tell from being inside the building that the irs is trying to do the best that they can. do they have room for improvement? absolutely. as a whole, when you think about it, there are over 170 million individual tax return filed every year. over 20 million business returns. millions, if not billions, of information forms being filed, it is a difficult job. i give them slack because of the amount of work. the irs has had challenges but at the end of the day, they still process those returns to issue refunds. living up as timely as he would like, but i am cautiously

optimistic that we will see things start to get better for taxpayers. host: irs funding and the armed agent issue, is the irs caught up in politics? is that a relatively new thing in the history of the irs? where is this happening in the 20th century? guest: the irs, when people think about the irs, they assume that is what they are for. i would like to think you put the service part first when you think about the irs but there has always been a challenge. the irs it should not be political. they should be an administrative function. there is politics around tax and around change of law. the irs should be administering

the tax but they should stay out of the politics. host: georgia, mark, good morning. caller: this is a good lead in. my question is somewhere to the last. it relates to the lowest learner and what they viewed as the first election interference. i wanted to get your opinion on that. is that the view is election interference from the irs? like next concern is if you have 80,000 new irs agents in light of the recent discovery that government agencies can request information about purchases that something like that could be weaponized again? what internally has the irs done

to make sure that the politicized asian -- politiciazation can never happen again? guest: the irs should be nonpolitical. the challenge that they have is hiring and training the right people. we guest this. training is important for these individuals. irs agents have access to your financial data. we want to make sure that that is not handled inappropriately. there have been challenges in that. the irs continues -- that is something we look at to make sure that taxpayers' data is protected and not used for any other purpose other than processing your return.

i think we are talking about the one i co-authored? host: i am. guest: guest: in my prior life, when i was working the path attorney, i co-authored a tax practice and procedure to tell practitioners how to work with the irs. everything from filing your tax return to litigating in court. although i am no longer an author and do not get royalties, it is a good book for practitioners to work your way through the administration of the lifecycle of a tax return. host: why did you write that book? guest: long story but my former law school teacher, when i was in law school, asked me to help him draft and work on the first

edition of that book. fast-forward 30 years, he wanted to retire and no longer work on the book. he called me, gave me a present, handed me the book and said i would like you to take this. i thought he was giving me a copy of the book. no, he wanted me to take over the book. it was great. i did it for 10 years. my co-author happened to be my husband, also a tax lawyer. advice for your marriage -- do not write a book for your spouse. we survived it and we are doing well. she is still currently writing the book. once i took this job, i walked away from the book. host: due to becoming national taxpayer advocate? guest: i started out with irs counsel and spent 20 years working on the filing system,

examination appeals, litigation. i get is the amount of time that you spend working with taxpayers, understanding the process of the challenges. a lot about all the problems that taxpayers face. i feel like 20 years walking in this role was a great training ground as the struggles and taxpayers that -- struggles that taxpayers were experiencing. now i get to fix those. host: stuart, alabama, good morning. caller: two questions -- why do they tax my social security? guest: again, asked congress. but not all social security is taxed. it depends on your other income

as to what is taxed and what is not taxed. if your income is below a certain level, it may not be taxed. there is two groups -- involuntary tax assistance. these are volunteers, accountants, cpas, who volunteer their time to work for free with taxpayers through the filing season. shout out to those who volunteer. also a second group that is called the tax counsel for the elderly. if you are over 60, this is a free service where they assist taxpayers in filing your returns. you can sit down with one of those volunteers and they will walk you through the numbers and determine whether you have any tax liability as a result of your social security. host: what was your second question? caller: has our government

borrowed from the social security trust fund? guest: that is something again i will stay away from. i do not know the answer. host: burlington, new jersey, catherine. caller: i did my own income taxes. i am wondering why do i have to send copies of my 1099 formed when the irs already has it? guest: that is a good question. when you look at irs records, the irs computer system is complex. if you think about how many people include those records, i like to include as much information on my tax return so the irs sure it is correct. you have a valid point about what information do you need to give the irs versus what does that already have? you think about w-2.

they are filed and you are provided a copy at the end of january. by the time they hit the irs system, it is already march or april if you file early, the irs wants to verify your income. in a lot of people -- i call it opening gates. in january, it was open and we already had millions of returns coming in. host: any idea what the irs needs to know from you picking up on the identity left issue? what will the irs asked and not ask the taxpayer? guest: the irs cannot ask about your personal life. it should be financial in nature. we talk about identity theft. there is something called an ip 10. it is your personal identification number. it is something we encourage

taxpayers to get. one of the things i learned when i started this job is -- we just did a blog last week about the advantage of requesting an ip pin from the irs. if you have one, you are required to put it on your tax return. if someone else tries to file using your name and social security number but they do not have an ip pin, the irs will not process this. i highly encourage people to request an ip pin. that prevents bad actors from filing before you do guest:. if you go into irs.gov, taxpayer advocates, there is a button that you can push that says subscribe to the blog.

host: taxpayeradvocate. irs.gov. this is jeff and pennsylvania. good morning. caller: the reason i am calling is i have had an issue with the irs. it has in -- it has been ongoing for four years. it resolved and then it would not. it just is coming back at you. just a month ago, i called taxpayer advocate. i did not get a case number. supposedly, this does my question would be hiding no if it is really resolved? should i have received a case number? guest: if you go into our local

offices, into the taxpayer advocate at irs.gov, there is a section on how to contact us. it lists all 75 offices. it will give you the name of the local taxpayer advocate, phone numbers, address, email address. you can contact the local taxpayer advocate and confirm whether you have an open case, the case number, and the status. manage expectations. similar to the irs, we had high inventory. i wish we were more prompt, but we are trying to help as many taxpayers as we can. sometimes it is a four week delay but if you have an open case, they should be able to give you that information. reach out to your local office and see if you can get assistance. host: reminder that the house is in at noon.

at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, we will be taking you to a policy conference in washington hosted by the washington international trade association. diplomats from mexico, costa rica, the european union will all be there. you can watch that on c-span. if you have questions for your national taxpayer advocate, it is (202) 748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zone. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. erin collins will be with us until 10:00 a.m. eastern. this is james from olympia, washington. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: three things i wanted to talk about -- the first is i just pay capital gains on the sale of my house.

basically, that is my retirement. i started and because of this, i had to get a professional tax service person to take care of my taxes. as arthur i can tell, they saved me about $15,000. there is a possibility that i might see a penalty because of this sharp increase in my income. in the last five years, i have been living on just social security and a part-time job that i had. the other one that really bothers me is i was on obamacare here in washington. every year that i was on obamacare, i was taxed an extra $400 because the difference between washington giving me

obamacare and with the federal government said i was supposed to get, they took lenny out because i got too much throughout the year. the other thing that is curious is a lot of people talk about flat tax. i have been paying taxes for a long time. turbotax will give you the percentage that you paid. i have been around 30% for a long time. this year i jumped up to 11%. people talk -- you've got 10%. i am just a poor guy. why would i need to be paying 10% when i have been paying 3% all along. i am curious what you might think about those things. one other thing i was going to bring up as i had to deal with the office of personnel management. i think they are in the same

boat is the irs. they do not have enough money to cover the business they are supposed to do. i had to get patty murray to contact the office of personnel management. when i did, they have slain somebody to my case. it was done within three months. maybe we've got to get senators involved with the internal revenue. guest: the flat tax is an academic discussion at this point. there are a lot pros and cons. what the caller just mentioned is how is it applied fairly? if you are in a lower rocket, paying 3% prior to the sale of his home, flat taxes make sense. that is the struggle that a lot of people are having. if they were to go to that way,

how do you do it fairly? how you help lower income folks, individuals and provide benefits for individuals? it is more of an academic exercise than a reality at the moment. host: verily in columbus, ohio. -- mary and pompous, ohio. caller: one of the things i have been dealing with the irs about -- $1200 checks. i never received my. -- mine. when i went to file for, i went to my city irs. i told him i never received it.

what i ended up finding out was the talk hundred dollars in this check was endorsed with my name -- $1200 in this check was endorsed with my name and cash. i never received it, it never cashed it. i was going back-and-forth and forth with my irs office and never got anywhere. is it too late to try to claim this check? how do i go about proving that i never did cash this check, even though they sent me a copy of the check with my signature? there was some series of 20 numbers. nobody could explain what those numbers meant. it was never cashed by me, nor

was it cashed at one of my financial institutions. guest: you are not alone. other folks have had struggles. basically, what you have explained is someone took your check, endorsed it, and kept the money. you can go into your local office. we have an office in columbus. you can reach out to our local advocates and ask them to get involved. they can work with the irs and try to see if we can get you a new check. but manage expectations. you will have to make -- jump through some hoops and fill out paperwork to sate you did not cash the check. the irs will try to get you a replacement. host: karen in california. caller: i want to say thank you.

i had a similar issue last year with the stimulus check. every time i called the irs i was given the runaround. i would be hung up upon after hours of waiting. finally, when i contacted your agency, my problem was solved. thank you very much. i do not know why the irs cannot work as efficiently as you people. why can they not just generally be national taxpayer advocates, all of them, instead of this craziness? guest: thank you or calling back in and recognizing my folks in the local offices.

that is what they are there for. i have had discussions with many of the executives in the irs. all irs plates should be advocates for taxpayers. they should be looking at how do we provide better service, do things more on the front end? that has been the focus for the last year plus since the additional funding is to focus on how does the irs do their job better? one struggle is the irs still needs to hire more employees. host: a couple of minutes left with erin collins, national xpayer advocate. richard on twitter -- the irs does not provide specifics on tax returns aside from saying you owe more. 55 years of filing taxes no problem and suddenly yearly

errors mysteriously appear. zero confidence in the irs. guest: one challenge for taxpayers is something that we refer to as a math error adjustment. irs has the authority to make an adjustment to your tax return. one of the things we have been pushing with the irs and now have come to congress and asked for legislative fixes is when congress sends out those math error notices that they provide a detailed explanation to the taxpayer on the changes and what are your rights to contest. under the internal revenue code, you have 60 days to say you disagreeing with the math error adjustment. they have to undo it and give you an opportunity to prove white you were right. what we have been concerned with are the letters that go out to the taxpayers. they are not clear.

they do not provide enough information for the taxpayer to understand the adjustment. host: one you are asking does your guest know about direct file? guest: yes. direct file is a new pilot that the irs is doing where they have developed their own software. most people are familiar with the diy software where you prepare your own tax return. the irs is doing something similar but controlling the software. they have developed a program. it is limited at this point, invitation only. they are hoping to expand it. this is the first year of the pilot. they will step back after this and examine it. we have focused on is this a good use of irs funds? irs has limited revenue. also, is this a better experience for taxpayers?

is it more efficient? do they feel it is safer? it will be interesting to see where this goes. a lot of people like the software that they use. this provides an option for taxpayers but will not be a mandate. host: this is daniel in chicago. caller: good morning. i have a comment and a question. first the comment. i have used irs publications and websites. do you put technical writers to clean up the writing that the irs puts out? guest: one of the things that my office as well as other departments within the irs is trying to push the irs to simple, plain language, letters and notices. i will pick on myself. when i was a lawyer, sometimes

as a lawyer, you want to put every possible scenario in a letter to make sure you have covered all bases. the problem is once you do that the letter does not make sense to normal people. when you think about folks like yourself, you do not need a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo. you want to know in lane language what is the challenge and information. or if it is an instruction, how do i do something? more in layman's terms than they do language. host: erin collins is the national taxpayer advocate. you can find her office and irs. gone/taxpayeradvocate. that will do it for us this morning. the houses in at noon eastern. getting momentarily is an international trade conference, thgt international

trade association. it will hold its conference this morning for diplomats from mexico, single or, costa rica, and the european union. stick around for live gavel-to-gavel coverage. that will do it for us. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. half a great tuesday. -- have a great tuesday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [chatter]

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>> we are live in washington, d.c. waiting on the start of a conference on international trade featuring nebraska congressman adam smith. it looks like they are a couple of minutes away from getting started. in the meantime will show you a portion of washington journal. host: this is the headline biden in the georgian -- in the jordan king's begging for a stop the assault on rafa. [video clip] >> as the king and i discussed the united states and i are working on a hostage deal between isra