new york. >> this race was fought amidst a closely divided electorate. much like our whole country.

it was centered on immigration and the economy, much like the issues all across our country. we won this race. we -- you won this race. [applause] >> we addressed the issues. you know, what we just saw was a protest tonight. there are divisions in our country where people cannot even talk to each other. all they can do is yell and scream at each other. that is not the answer to the problems that we face in this country. the answer is to bring people of goodwill together to find that common ground. host: he had just won his election in the third district.

we are also talking about me marcus' impeachment from the help -- mayorkas' impeachment from the house. congress h ten decisive action to ho accountable a publ official who has violated his oath of office. senator rick scott says may work is has been -- may work us -- ma yorkas has been impeached. here is james clyburn who says maga has republican one into refuse a bipartisan plan that addresses the issues and embarked on a desperate impeachment of secretary mayorkas.

after reject thing both bipartisan bordeleslation and the senate bill for ukraine house gop has turned against their baseless impeachment of sec. may work us, despite zero evidence of crimes or impeachable offenses. we are getting your reaction. good morning. caller: good morning. do i have you? host: you do. caller: tommy tuberville, he is a traitor to america. donald trump is a traitor. if you support, trump, you are a traitor as well. host: getting back to the issues, the impeachment of mayorkas or what happened in new york.

caller: he won openly because the republicans should have had that seatback but they did not. that is simply because of the reaction to the donald trump. you cannot go against this nation. they say bad things about it all they want. i understand donald trump politics. they need to stop this. the country needs to come together and start supporting ourselves. they are all against america. catch up. quit all this crab about supporting -- crap about supporting putin. caller: good morning. i am a registered republican.

when 9/11 happened and i was convinced george bush was going to come after me because he was making these rules about freedom of speech that seemed to be changing. however, my sympathies lie with the people of the country. i believe in reparations. in terms of sec. mayorkas, i'm shocked to find out that he was impeached, i really am. i am shocked. that is my reaction to that. i guess the republicans are involved with that. cornell west -- i'm thinking of hosting an event. i have to listen to him somewhere. i love how he talks and uses --

host: we are kidding -- getting off the subject. mayorkas becomes first cabinet secretary impeached since 1976. they voted 214 to 215 over the handling of an influx of migrants across the border. the first time that a cabinet secretary has impeached. all but certain to be acquitted by the senate. it is said that it was the second attempt at impeachment following their shocking loss last week in which the absence of house majority leader steve scalise led to a tie vote. that will go to the senate next. they are expected to take that up after their presidents' day

recess. lisa and east elmhurst, new york. caller: good morning, everyone. happy valentine's day. i am happy that he won. that is aood thing for the democrats, as far as trying to get back to congress. i also want to talk about the against mayorkas. i have one other issue. i am -- i would like americans -- i am a black american and i stand with the jewish nation, and israel because of what the jews have helped black americans succeed. host: you said you are happy that the democrat won in new

york. why do you think he won? caller: i think they are tired that the congress is not getting anything done. they want things done. they are not working on immigration or things that they are supposed to be working on. one thing, i wish that the president would sign in order -- an order for immigration, an executive order to pass that. and another bill to pass the john lewis act. host: all right. lex -- let's talk to dwight. caller: if i'm not mistaken, i think you are coming up on year-to-year anniversary with us. host: that is right. thank you.

caller: you have been handling it like a champ. that is a hot seat. i would not want it, but anyway, what is the next thing they are going to do? somebody goes to the restroom and they will be impeached? this man has done nothing but his job. he is not a criminal. there was no crime. they are not going to impeach him and take him out. anyway, i wanted to call to congratulate you and tell you to hang in there with us. host: i appreciate that. norwalk, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. that guy from california was right. this is a waste of time. mayorkas works for biden.

biden's orders have put us in the position we are in right now. we have open borders, we are being flooded and spending billions of dollars a year. by the time this is done, we will be up to half a chilean year. there is one thing i would like to ask you. he is -- host: kim in idaho. independent. caller: hello. happy valentine's day. the impeachment -- they are

playing political games. i thought in america we are supposed to not be against our president. i am glad that new york won their special election for the democrats. otherwise, the problem that we are having is not only at the border. there are wars everywhere going on. thank you. host: we have this from tom in south carolina w says coming out that santos has been replaced, how about removing menendez from the senate? it will not happen since we have a double standard in congress. sterling, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning.

i would like to say that i am here to celebrate 248 years of the publication of common sense. i know you are all talking about mayorkas. it just reminds me of the pickett's charge, commandeered by none other than don quixote. that is what i had to say about that part. i want to celebrate this publication of thomas paine's common sense, a tribute to the start of the revolutionary war. what i would like to say about that publication -- he wanted us to read it, so i went ahead and read it. i had not read it and 59 years, since i was in junior high school. what i thought about it this time was that common sense today

is different than common sense of the 1776. and i would like to say, when i got through the first four pages , in 1965, i thought i'm glad i do not have to deal with somebody like that. while then i forgot that. i read it and i got to the first four pages at the end of last year and i said, did not we go through that? i had to go back and look at the copyright. 1776. host: thank you for bringing that up. we are taking your calls on the mayorkas impeachment in the house. also a democrat won the special election. we are taking your comments on those issues. republicans at (202) 748-8001.

democrats at (202) 748-8000. and independents at (202) 748-8002. there was a special election in new york. here is an ad targeting the winter. >> illegal immigrants are arriving by the busload. why? because tom suozzi allow them to be released back into our community. tom suozzi helped create our immigration crisis. and congress, he will make it worse. host: here are the details of the results of that election.

here are the vote counts. his opponent at 46.1% of the with a different -- a difference . roy is calling us next from michigan. republican. good morning. roy? are you there? let's go to sam and crystal springs, mississippi. republican. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: good. mayorkas obviously needed to be impeached. he will probably not be convicted in the senate, but he needs to be impeached in the senate. he has been a total disaster for the entire immigration bill, the

border and all. he lies about all this stuff about the republicans. there was nothing in there about the border. i do not understand what is going on with these democrats. one day the country will pay for it. host: when you say that you want me --when you say that you want mayorkas removed, president biden would then nominate somebody else who would do the same policies. is there something about what mayorkas did specifically that you would want him specifically removed? caller: he set up there in front of the house and the senate and outright lied about the border being closed or secure. it was an outright lie. you could see all the people coming over the border.

it leaves us wide open to terrorists. you have all these chinese national folks coming across the border. of course, you have some of these middle east owners -- eastern people coming over. and of course, sentinel is the biggest thing to me. -- fentanyl is the biggest issue to me. biden does not even seem to care. maybe he does not know what he is supposed to care about, but it infuriates me to see him act like it is not a big deal, but we know what democrats want. they are probably voting in 2024 . they always have a way of regaining elections. host: that was a bipartisan deal

negotiated in the senate. caller: it was not strong enough on the border security. all that bill was is trying to get these people through the lines, so to speak, a lot faster than building a wall, having more security on the border. we just do not know what we are listening to, watching or whatever. there is a lot more people concerned about this than anything else. and then this guy went into the house last night. new york is having all these problems with immigration. i just do not understand him being elected. host: got it.

let's take a look at a text that we got. a swingn e special election. it is direct result of speaker johnson's refusal to speak on the bipartisan bill. it igroundhogs day. david from florida says house republicans -- mayorkas nto f the border. it shows why we should ne republicans and any form of political office. this impeachment will fail in the senate but trump will a traitor who wants russia to attack nato countries. let's go to republican from port washington. caller: i am not surprised that suozzi won.

he worked very hard. he knocked on doors extensively. the other candidate was not available. i did not think making immigration a big issue worked because we are not a sanctuary county. others have not had the same problem as new york city. suozzi demonstrated that he wants to work in a bipartisan manner. the other candidate did not have -- had that exclusivity and writing the red wave. the weather was fine. it cleared up. it was not the storm they said. it was a workday anyways.

most people that wanted to vote when after work. after the early afternoon, there was no problems. you could easily get to the polls. i am a republican, but i voted democrat. my friends were not excited to vote. i did not get excited to vote either. i cooled multiple times to ask them, how can we -- can we campaign for her? the answer was always, we will call you not -- we will call you back. tom made himself available and we have faith in him that he is going to restore things. it is the fact that here in this district, we are punished for having houses that cost more,

but it does not mean that inflation has not affected us. it is a huge deal. it was the number one thing for me and my neighbors. he talked about a in a way that we concluded that he would be the one to restore it for us rather than the republicans. host: all right. this is from the same new york times article, saying a new playbook. it have struggled for years, mounting a defense against attacks when it comes to migration and the border. suozzi helped to write a playbook on how to do it. it says the issue had all the markings of a political storm, illegal border crossings reaching a all-time high in december and the arrival of 170

migrants in new york city have brought a sense of chaos close to home. mr. suozzi made the migrant crisis a centerpiece of his campaign. he called on biden to close the border. his opponent condemned the bipartisan senate deal that included stiff provisions and he went on the attack accusing her of adding partisanship over national security. and mary is calling from california. caller: i wanted to be clear on a few things. they did not talk about the people that they shoved into cages when president trump was in office. and what about --

[indiscernible] as far as immigration is concerned, they are pulling together. they are all pulling their money together. they are all working together. people need to get wise. that is all i have to say. host: the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i was in massachusetts to be years ago. i had a heart attack and an egyptian doctor save my life. these individual stories about immigrants causing trouble

should be weighed against the benefits that they give to our country. we need immigrants. look at who is cutting our lawns, fixing our roofs and making our food. people have to look objectively at benefits that immigrants bring to our country. secondly, people keep talking about drugs. i hate drugs as well. i am a democrat. the drugs are coming in on these huge trucks coming in from mexico, driven by american. and we are doing as much as we can to stop the transportation trucks, but i think we have to look at the demand side of drugs and start putting people in prison, who take drugs.

i am surprised that this country seems to be falling into a right-wing, fascist philosophy. that is about it. that is all i have to say. host: let's goes the republican line. caller: good morning. a year ago i said we had 400 million people in this nation and 100 million illegal immigrants in this nation. i was pretty much on the mark with that. they are pouring in from the north and we are just sitting back and we do not see -- by sitting back and turning a blind eye to all these people coming into our country. they are all young men of fighting age.

but i have never really been scared before. but i saw this in jamaica. i never really got to scared, but after losing our son, i lost a lot of what lives inside. he was run off the road and killed. now my daughter, i see her at 31 years old. we are going to have to give her a house, but what a horrible situation. how on earth could mr. biden receive all of these tens of millions of dollars? everybody knows he is worth that much. there is no arena of knowing how much -- how he acquired that money, but everybody is turning a blind eye to it. i am not a trump guy but i may not be a republican for long.

i think both parties are so corrupt. we had unbelievable amounts of people walking across. mayorkas, i'm not even sure if he is from this earth. i cannot believe he has not been impeached before. everybody please pray for me. i am not in a good state and the reason i am not is because my nation appears to be outrageously corrupt. thank you for listening to me. host: randy, democrat. good morning. caller: this is my first time calling in. i have been listening to all the people on your show talk about the southern border. the southern border has been a crisis for decades. it only comes up during a presidential election.

this is the only thing the republicans have to write on his people walking in, sentinel, taking people's jobs, doing this and that. our problem is domestic terrorists -- people are already here doing that. people come here for a better life. they came hundreds of years ago for a better life. but we use these people as pawns . there is a narrative of people who do not think for themselves, who do not speak their own words. they are like parents, repeating other people's words.

they do not investigate things themselves and then blame everybody else. this has been an issue for decades, the southern border. sit down, come together. let's do it. they do not want to put the bill out. host: all right. carmen. caller: i am calling because the impeachment yesterday, that was so unnecessary. if the republicans want to impeach mayorkas, than they need to be impeached for the very same thing. they had to be a great deals for the border and donald trump told them not to pass the bill so that he would have something to run on. he was supposed to be visiting

the wall and making mexico pay for it but mexico did not pay for it. we still do not have that wall. host: chris in silver spring, maryland. caller: first off, i am married to a legal immigrant and we had a fine policy where they allowed over 1.5 million people in a year. immigration coming across the border. they changed the asylum laws. the people -- i heard a story about a guy who went home to visit and when he tried to come back, cartels took his money. it is like a cesspool of lies. that compromise bill of 5000 a

month or something like that. they basically legalized the weakening of the immigration laws and asylum. host: currently, there are about one million legal immigrants allowed into the country. . what do you think about that number? should it be higher or lower? caller: those are the kind of things that they need to vote on , not just rubberstamping. there is lawlessness on the border. host: the argument is that if you inc. piece legal immigration -- increase deal immigration, you will have less people trying to get in illegally. caller: they are not screening people like they do for legal

immigration. people are basically coached on how to answer the questions. right now we have been a smiling gains shooting it out. supposedly, they are teaming up in some jurisdictions. they are promoting lawlessness. there will be a price to pay. that is why this is one for the history books. lies uncoated, lies on immigration. somebody needs to do something about it. somebody needs to stand up for the truth. we are in a joe biden fantasyland and it is no good for the country. host: charleston, west virginia. republican. caller: regarding mayorkas, they impeached him.

they will not remove him from office. there is basically no accountability. mayorkas' attitude and the media's attitude. the house impeached him. so what. there is no accountability. the problem is that they had to vote twice. a house of representatives with a republican majority. they had to vote twice to get this guy impeached after everything he has done or not done because republicans voted with democrats and it happens over and over again. we have a unity party in this country. host: there were only three republicans that voted on this. caller: if they had voted as they should have come if they had voted in favor of

impeachment, we would not have needed a second vote. but we cannot bill -- we cannot count on these republicans. look at what was passed. host: are you opposed to any bipartisanship? should everybody just vote according to the party and not according to what they think is right? caller: people should vote according to their principles. if you are a member of the republican party, you should agree with those principles. this is not an unreasonable request. if you are going to run and serve as a republican, try adopting some of the principles of the republican party. in the u.s. senate, they just passed a slew of republicans to send billions to ukraine. that money is not accounted for. we have no idea how much the money we spent is already accounted for.

this war has been going on for years and we are continuing to send money over there because vladimir putin is bad. we have a $34 trillion national debt and we have inflation skyrocketing this country. food and gas are unaffordable because we continue to flood our economy with it. i want to make this point. we must distinguish between legal immigration and illegal immigration. we must not permit illegal immigration to any degree. the only way we are going to secure our border is with the u.s. military. it will have to be a temporary solution. the problem is, my party, the

republican has nominated a guy who talks a great game about immigration, but he has done very little about it. host: who? caller: donald trump. host: ok. caller: we had a rocksolid conservative from florida running. the discussion turned to footwear and all these lies. it turned into a nonsensical show. host: all right. this is the statement about the election last night in new york. they said this. phillips is a fighter with a bright future within the republican party. this was an uphill battle. democrats outspent republicans 2-1. the democratic opponent spent decades representing these new yorkers, yet it was still a

dogfight. republicans still have multiple pathways to grow the majority. take a look at what was said. a texas republican spoke out against the senate bill considering its lack of funding for border security. [video clip] >> that is what is going on here. is there anything more cynical than having republican sitting around and defending their votes , saying that will help our base? saying it will help business? since when do we have development by funding were overseas? anybody who sees what is happening at our southern border would know that you cannot fund foreign wars while our border is wide open to lawlessness and terrorists. we are still feeling it in texas

even though most of the numbers are heading to arizona and california, but this is an ongoing problem. 139 were chinese foreign nationals. i think that is where the priority is first speaker mike johnson. he was pretty clear that this abomination of a bill that came out in the senate, that that bill will be dead when it comes into the house. host: this is a text that we got from an independent voter. if something that saddens me as an american is that voters seem to go by news media and do t do their homework by reading bills and truly investigating things. please stop being partan stephen in michiga if you read the bill, it is the strongest

bill ever propos. they will never get a -- ey will never get sething like this again. gary says, why did it take to be -- why did it take two attempts to impeach mayorkas? james, democrat. go ahead. caller: first of all, joe biden. they want to know where he got his knee from. a couple years before biden and obama left office, obama loaned joe biden money for something. in 2017, joe biden find a book deal for $2.5 million. that book deal turned into $15 million. now, the lady that interviewed chip roy yesterday, i listen to

this and she stated that the true inflation rate is 17%, which it has never been. people listening to fact -- people listening to fox news are getting bogus formation. as far as voting for the border bill, that should happen. republicans take credit for anything that looks good after the fact. one other thing i would like to say, every president of the united states, even back to abraham lincoln, was assassinated or attempted to be assessed needed by so-called conservatives. every one of them. we start talking about gun

control and things like that, we need to talk about where it is coming from. those that have gun violence, they are all red states. host: let's talk to delia in new york. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was listening. i also agree with the caller from virginia about the corruption. i am from new york and i live in harlem. to see what is going on is more heart-wrenching than anything i have experienced in my life. i have lived there all my life. i'm side. the truth has to be told. i am a loyal democrat. and in that, i have to tell the truth. i am very upset to see that if you go into new york and see the illegals that come in there,

they have taken over. they have taken over. the way they treat those of us who are legal citizens is appalling. it is almost like we are the illegal aliens. i see them take advantage of the system. going to sleep in luxury bathrooms and -- host: delia, they treat you badly. tell me a little bit more about that. how are they treating citizens? caller: well, ok. one time, i was sitting in the train station and one -- she was mexican and she had her kids with her. they do this all the time. she comes up behind where i am sitting with my -- with her

children and the children are leaning and sitting against the back of my seat. i do not say anything and they know about the racism that we face in this country every day. they see that a lot of times, we will not say anything. well, i had to learn how to handle that situation. i said -- i turned around and i said, ma'am, can you please ask your children to stop hitting the back of my seat? i am sitting here. i said it very politely. but that is how i represent myself. she continued to let her children do that. finally, i said, if you do not stop your children from doing this, i'm going to have to get the police. when i said police, she hightailed it over to the other

side, which let me know she was in the legal alien. she gets on -- that is just one instance of what goes on. i am surprised over the mayorkas impeachment, not that it will go anywhere. i am kind of surprised. but again, with the corruption, no, i am not. host: we have to move on. st. petersburg, florida. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am listening to a lot of people complain about the chilean dollars and we owe everything. it is just talking heads, what they hear on the television and

everything. half of them do not even understand how we owe all of that. i kind of agree with that lady. i am a democrat. how can they be doing that? they should be worried about other things. trying to adjust our system, even a bad situation, but they come in and they are jumping on cops. i am a democrat and i am not for that either. coming over here, jumping on law enforcement, something should be done. host: what do you think about may work is --mayorkas being

impeached? caller: it is a waste of time. they could have went back and tried to work out a better deal. i am really against it because it is a waste of time. they could have been trying to work out the bills that they turned down. it is ignorance. host: got it. on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. appreciate you taking my call. as far as the border is concerned, i think it is way too late.

the damage is done. there are so many problems with our government. it is so vague. our country has become so big, corrupt and overpopulated. there are no checks and balances. it is becoming harder to govern. if you believe in the bible, maybe it is time to cleanse this earth again because once again, we have pretty much destroyed it. host: when you say there are no checks and balances, secretary mayorkas just got impeached the other day. wouldn't that be a check and a balance? caller: i truly believe -- i am 57 years old. over time, it appears to me that somehow the democratic party appears to be more powerful than republicans.

they seem to be able to stick the knife in, anywhere that they want. my thing is, these democrats, they call themselves americans but they do not seem like they like america. what i feel is happening is that this country and this world is the same place where the kids and grandkids, generation after generation has to live. it appears to me in louisiana that the democrats want to destroy our country with fear and hate of wanting -- one man. it is heartbreaking. it really is. i am raising tw oh grandchildren and i have seen with their future is. they probably will not have won by the time they are my age. i do not understand why people hate each other so much. we do not need money for the border. we have national guard on

payroll and all these states. just shut it down. if you go to another country and you trust their borders like over here? they will shoot you down like a dog at the border. albans, vermont that saysint migration is not a uniquely american problem. people are b forced to migratuse of political, whether o economic opportunities. just another talking point to campaign on. election of a demoatn rhode island should be a wake-up cl for republicans. davis as -- says mayorkas needed to be impeached. texas has shown all of us how to shut down the border. we will go back to the phones to sandra.

independent line. hello. go right ahead. caller: good morning. i think the impeachment of mayorkas was a political thing. the congress is responsible for legislating immigration. they need to come together and quit grandstanding and quit being a servant of one man, donald trump. the bill was better than no bill at all. we are all in agreement that we need to do something about the border. we are all in agreement that they should be treated humanely. the governor and texas kind of created this monstrosity, especially up in new york where

the police officers beaten up. it was a grandstand thing. they ship these people all over the u.s., some of them not even knowing where they were going, or they were lied to about where they were going. i think is time out. we need to connect with each other. we are people of the united states. we should come together and work together. i have heard numerous people talk about their christian beliefs. you know, i think it is hogwash. if you read the bible, there are examples in the story of ruth, an immigrant and how they should be treated. there is a right way and a wrong way. until we stop looking at each other as republican and democrat, and start looking at each other as people of the united states of america and

demand our congress to do their doggone jobs. host: wayne is in olympia, washington. good morning. caller: i just wanted to call -- i'm tired of everybody talking about the ukrainian bill that passed. so, hearing everybody, just to be of years. we need to get it passed. the war has been going on for 15 years. host: we are not really talking about the war in ukraine more like the mayorkas impeachment and the election in new york. caller: back when i was

listening, that is what they were talking about. mayorkas -- host: go ahead. caller: if everybody did their job like mayorkas, they would be fired. the only resource they had to use was whatever it was. impeachment, yes. but yeah. it is unfortunate. host: let's take a look at what president biden said in a statement about that. republican stunts like that, republicans should want congress to del more border resources and stronger sury. sadly they are rejecting bipartisan plans.

others have worked hard on strengthening border security. reversing from years of their own demands to pass stronger border bills. giving up on real solutions in order to play politics is not what the american people expect from their leaders. joe. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is joanne i am 91 years old. every time biden gets on television -- i just cracked up. the media put a title on them, bidenomics. host: that was his title, not the media's title. caller: the title should be bidencomics.

when he gets out of office, he could have a heck of a comedian show. he has those stations and i think he would be fantastic. host: what you think about mayorkas' impeachment or the election in new york? caller: anybody and the u.s., i figure i am an average guy. there are a lot of people in the u.s. that are average as well. how can they not say that this guy should have never gotten that position? host: all right. let's go to dean. independent. caller: yes. thank you for having my call. i want to make a statement and then i want to talk about the impeachment stuff. what gets me is that you guys have not had anything on trump

about taking the classified information that has all our top-secret stuff on russia that has been missing ever since he left office. he is going to court for that. but impeachment -- it is just a big joke. you have to impeach somebody, so they tried to impeach biden. so then they tried mayorkas. a second time, they did it. the immigration bill -- it was not an immigration bill. it was a border bill. it is what they said that they

wanted. aid for israel, ukraine, taiwan. that is what they did. a republican was the one who orchestrated the -- the border bill. the bill itself would allow so many people in as asylum-seekers. that is our law. they want to manipulate the law but they would be able to go through a process, these people. that's all these republicans get on, these fox news people who hear this number but the truth is, we have these judges and they would process them and in three months, they would be gone. 80% of people who have claimed asylum have been sent back to their country. that is the lie that they keep believing.

i just don't understand. host: let's take a look at wh speaker johnson put out in a statement abat. mike, indianapolis, indiana, democrat, good morning. caller: looking great as always. i think the impeachment isn't

even about borders. it has to do with homeland security and there is probably dirt on the gop about j6. if the republicans really want to complain, they should complain on their own people because it's the conservative rich businessman that want cheap labor that are bringing these people from other countries for host: for cheap labor, got it. joining us now is a republican congressman from texas and easier to talk about border security in u.s. aid to israel and ukraine. you can give us a call on our lines, republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002.

representative self, welcome to the program. guest: good to be here, thank you. host: you voted to impeach secretary mayorkas yesterday, can you tell us why? guest: of course, you outlined it moments ago with the speakers statement. we have had the absolutely disastrous invasion across our southern border and i will tell you that's in and of itself 8 million people during bidens administration, 100,000 migrants have been lost across the united states, we are now at over 20,000 chinese military age males. we are setting our self up for our own october seven for the interior of the united states so yes, impeach. host: in the face of the gop opposition to the border bill, the senate yesterday morning past foreign aid only measure, $95 billion for israel, humanitarian aid and ukraine as

well as taiwan. should the house take a vote on that? guest: absolutely not. how town deaf is the senate? they stripped out the most important, impressing domestic issue of the border out of it and gave us nothing but foreign aid when the american people are suffering this invasion across our southern border. how tone deaf can the senate be? host: when you say they stripped out the border, that's because the house rejected the bipartisan plan the senate had come to an agreement on. guest: it was never a border bill. it was always a ukraine funding bill. the democrats will sell their grandmother for ukraine funding. whatever it takes. this will be mitch mcconnell's legacy to get this across and i stand firmly with the speaker of the house that this will not come to the floor of the house. host: you are leading the texas

republican delegation in backing the texas governor greg abbott in his efforts to be against the biden administration policies. why do you think texas should take the lead on this instead of the federal government? guest: because we have to. because the federal government is not doing his job. texas has to step up because the federal government will not do its job. the policy of the biden administration is an open border, period. i've been to shelby park twice in the last month and a half, once before texas took control them once after texas took control and we are doing what we have to because the federal government will not. host: would you recommend other border state governors taking similar actions? would you recommend the governors of say arizona and new mexico do the same thing? guest: they better because the

cartels have moved the flow since texas stood up and started defending our own border. the cartels have moved the flow over to arizona and california. remember, 24 governors across the united states supported governor abbott. some are sending support in the way of troops. yeah, they better start paying attention because the cartel has total control over the flow. they move that flow from texas over to arizona and california. yeah, they better start paying attention. host: when you say paying attention, what does that mean on the ground? guest: i would like to see other states step up and start doing their job on their border because they have a constitutional authority to do that. if the federal government will not protect them from invasion, they have the constitutional authority to do it themselves. i understand it's costly. texas is paying a heavy financial burden to do that.

again, if the federal government won't do it, the states will. host: what do you want to see as far as immigration policy? what changes to policy? guest: we have always said for months that it's not more money, is not more policy, is not more law. what we must do is find a way to force the biden administration to obey the law of the land that is on the books today. we have identified eight policies, just eight, the biden administration could do today with the stroke of a pen and it would cut down the flow. just one, remain in mexico, if he simply re-instituted remain in mexico, the border patrol deputy chief, the national border patrol deputy chief says it would cut down the flow by 65-70%. just that one policy. we have identified eight that biden could do today. host: we will take a few calls,

jill wants to talk to you, a democrat from woodward, ida -- iowa. caller: yes. i think it's ridiculous the amount of time spent on impeaching mayorkas. he obviously is not committed a crime or a hide misdemeanor. not implement inc. policy and doing things the way you want is not a reason for impeachment. as far as impeaching biden, trump says all presence have total immunity so that works for biden as well? my other thing is, you talk about texas controlling everything and saving lives. they are talking now come already trump is talking about taking the guard from red states and they will send it into blue states enforce the law. wow, that's respecting states rights there. you've got to respect blue states as much as red states. host: congressman self? guest: how do i respond to that?

there are a lot of views out there. one is that we do not have a nation. we want everyone to come here. the democrats are pretty open about wanting as many people to come across that border is possible because they will make them voters. this is no secret. we can debate whether or not it's right or not but the democratic party is quite open about the intent of this. states rights, texas has taken the lead and will take the lead. i think we will continue to do it. it's been successful so i think the other states whether they be red or blue, who was complaining the most about the illegal immigrants? it's the mayor of new york. yet they now have a $50 million bucket of money they will give to them. by the way, texas is only moving 20% of those illegal immigrants to new york city.

the federal government is transporting 80% of those that go to new york. don't blame texas for that, that's the federal government. host: would you be in favor of expanding legal immigration to cut down on the pressure on the border? guest: i go back to ronald reagan. he got scammed by congress. he agreed to a limited amnesty in exchange for a closed border. the limited amnesty happened, the closed border did not. i think the republicans take that as a lesson learned that we are not going to be scammed again by some fake border legal immigration bill that won't close the border. host: let's talk to ken in florida, good morning. caller: good morning, i appreciate you guys for allowing me to speak. you get to call in every 30 days

and one thing in talking to the congressman, when men call in and talk about abortion which i'm not for, ask them how many people have they adopted or have adopted outside that looks like them. to the congressman, congressman, why can't you all just level with the american people? what is it that you are so afraid of? it's not about the illegal immigrants, this thing has been going on since i was born. i'm 63 years old. whenever there is election time, it seems like you quickly start putting people that look different from you all as your main topic. yes, the guy you guys call yourself impeaching, you all know for a fact that nothing will happen to him because joe biden and the senate does not going to let him go nowhere. the same way the democrats did when that corrupt trump that you

will support in office got impeached. why can't you guys just quit and level with the american people? it's not about illegal immigrants. it's about you, people who look like you, white men that are afraid of something that's not going to happen in this country. thank you. host: what you say, congressman? guest: i think you look at some of our members of congress who are saying exactly the same thing i am. look at wesley hunt, the congressman from south texas. look at john james, look at some of our members of congress. they don't look like me either. yet they have exactly the same platform because they understand that we need legal immigration but we do not need the amount of illegal immigration we have happening. this has been going on forever but 302,000 in the month of december?

those numbers have never been seen before. 300 plus thousand in one month it's insane. host: jodi in north carolina, independent line, good morning. caller: i have a comment. i wanted to pose a question. i think the american people have a larger issue against immigration. back in the 1800s and 1700s when polish immigrants and german immigrants and italian immigrants were coming over here, i don't believe we were concerned about border control. i don't think we were concerned about our country being flooded and native americans being pushed out. the main issue is that government is running out of people to vote. it's looking like they need more people to come forward and vote so there is a rush and a push to get them to be american or mimic

what native americans, what chinese americans, any american who is -- who has already been your generationally, to mimic to vote. that is the major issues so the problem is, do you think or do you feel there will ever be a change as far as everyone coming together to recognize? the problem is that there is a cultural issue. we all have to understand one another in order to come together but nobody wants to come together because nobody understands the history of government area everybody is out for themselves including the government and that's the main problem. do you think you can come together so the people can come together? guest: i will respond to that by mentioning congresswoman omar. she recently said her president is the president of somalia. we have an assimilation problem in many cases. the assimilation of becoming an

american is part of the issue that we are seeing across america. the different cultures come in and are not, in many cases, assimilating or at least until the third generation. that is where it tends to happen, not the third generation. we start to see assimilation so that's how long it takes generally speaking. i realize there are exceptions to that. host: mary is in auburn, new york, republican. caller: good morning. i am 75 years old so i can watch a lot of things that are going on. i thought to myself, what about the foreign aid the goes out to these countries? i think any country whose citizens come over the border illegally should not get any foreign aid. those countries that don't receive foreign aid should pay

tariffs or taxes. this would take the burden off the united states citizens who should be taken care of our own citizens who need the help desperately. we have thousands. i think it would be something that should be discussed in congress as a way to maybe stop this illegal entry into our country. thank you and i will listen to your answer. guest: it's a good point. the power of the purse is the power of congress. specifically in the house of representatives, that is an idea that we do here occasionally. i will tell you that we are punishing our own people with bidenomics. i heard it discussed earlier before i came on. that's much more egregious, the cost of groceries is up, gases going back up. that is much more of a problem than foreign aid.

foreign aid, if it is given must be carefully given in the interest of the united states of america, not to support simply a country for whatever reason. soft power has got to be used judiciously. soft power as opposed to hard power, the military and frankly, we should not be participating in all of the you and organizations. we could go into that -- the u.n. organizations. but foreign aid going to the you and is not used judiciously in the interest of the united states. it's a great point about the power of the purse. host: congressman, i know you've got to run so i don't want to impose on your time but are you willing to take one more call? guest: of course. caller: derek, lansing, illinois, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm listening to the

congressman, good morning, congressman. i am in my 60's. believe it or not, i have voted for republicans before. i am so ashamed of you guys right now. i heard the bill you guys put on the floor and set -- and sent to everyday people in this country. i see all the negative things that you don't like, what do you like? you can't even get your own party together. you ousted your own speaker of the house. i don't understand what's going on with you guys. you said up here earlier when you first got on the show and you said the federal government is not doing its job you are the federal government.

you're pointing a finger back at yourself. that's my comment. guest: we are the legislative branch. the federal government is divided into the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. we legislate and make laws. the president either execute the laws or he does not. he is the one that is not executing the law on the southern border. that's the part of the federal government. we are not altogether. we don't all have the same duties here. he has the duty to secure the southern border based on the laws we passed. frankly, we are $32 trillion in debt. a lot of the bills we deal with try to bow that back because you are paying the price for over $1 trillion just on interest on the $34 trillion. by the way, the last 306 to five days come up we've added $2.7 trillion to the debt and over

the next year under present biden, we will add another $2.7 trillion to it going about $36 trillion. that is another threat to our republic, our self-governing republic. thank you very much for the opportunity. host: thank you, congressman steve self may republican of texas. thank you for coming on. guest: you bet, thank you. host: we will continue taking your calls this morning for another 10 minutes or so on open forum. anything you would like to talk about, we will hear from susan in newport, kentucky, republican. caller: your calling for susan? host: yes, go right ahead. caller: i'm soy missed the congressman. my concern was about the wall. i think if they finish constructing the wall, that would be a good place to start on border security.

the wall had been bought and paid for a long time ago. i just feel it would be a good place to start. on border security, thank you. host: all right, this is the new york times that says --

jim is next, florida, republican, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. good morning, america. 70 million people are on medicare and medicaid. 40 million people, americans, are on welfare. think of that. almost one third are collecting on the dime of the united states. here is the problem -- in 2031, medicare is broke.

in 2031, you take a 25% haircut from social security. with that said, i wish the senator or congressman was still here. that is going to move up with illegal immigration to all the 110 million people on the dime of the united states. your benefits are now going to be cut in 2027. no more medicare/medicaid, 25% cut of social security. all of the republicans and i praise them for standing up, you are going to lose your benefits, america very soon. everybody that is collecting medicare/medicaid and welfare, you better vote for republicans because 10 million people are collecting that illegally right

now. think about it. host: all right, larry is next in missouri city, texas, independent. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good. caller: i'm sorry miss the congressman but i gotta neighbor who sponsoring a family from across the border. they are saying that they have all of these republicans on flyers and everything about open borders. they keep trying to talk about job biden and they keep saying the borders are open and they are using what they are saying to come to the border. if they would stop, maybe the flow would stop. that's all i have. host: leslie in indianapolis, indiana, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. my statement is, it's like the caller before mentioned that the

immigration that's been going on way too long. i don't believe the republicans were the democrats are going to change it. all they do is get fat with cash every single time a new administration comes into d.c. they did it when they fast obama. -- when they fast tracked obama. host: independent line, good morning. caller: hello? host: go right ahead. caller: i wanted to say there needs to be a process for immigration and foreign aid in the foreign military wars. people need to be an agreement to turn over the country to the united states before we went in there and start giving them aid and start giving the military and they need to agree to have no one sovereignty being violated.

people do not have to apologize for trying to stop immigration because people in the country are supposed to look the same. that means you are keeping out the enemy. that's all i have to say. host: bill, midland, michigan, democrat. caller: yes, i have a few points. the first thing is i get sick and tired of hearing fox news people calling trump mr. president. as far as i noticed, biden won the election. he is the president. the second thing is, trump was convicted of a sexual crime and i'm wondering if anybody knows, was he put on the national sexual crime directory? if not, i wonder why not. he is convicted of it. the third thing is, i don't see how any woman or any soldier could ever vote for that man. he considers them second-class

citizens and it makes me mad the way he talks about our soldiers and the women, too. i don't see how they could ever vote for him. i've got a million things to say about him but i will let it go for now, thank you. host: arthur in michigan, independent line. caller: yes, i would like to say that the immigration problem is actually being made much worse by the u.s. neglect of its own backyard. in south and central america. we are actually giving a ton of money to israel, a lot of money to ukraine well right in our own backyard, the people in the countries are actually experiencing significant pressures on drugs and other things. not just that but in our own

backyard, there is trouble brewing and we see that in venezuela and other countries where dictators are. we are neglecting our own backyard in america and we are spending our money elsewhere. now we are complaining that these people are coming to our borders when actually, it has to do with us focusing on other places that are more important to us than south and central america. host: that's the last call for this segment. coming up next, former democratic congressman steve israel of new york discusses the states special election to replace ousted representative george santos and democratic strategy heading into the fall campaign. later,maya mcginnis discusses the national debt and the recent prediction by the congressional budget office that it could top

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this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues.. host: welcome back, were joined by steve israel, the former u.s. representative become a democrat to new york and also a global director at the cornell university institute of politics. welcome to the program. guest: it's great to be with you, good morning. host: democrat swazi won the special election last night my what's your reaction? guest: i have several takeaways. i used to represent the district and he just one of the special election. i think i have a pretty good feel for events on the ground. the first take away is it wasn't even close. everybody until about 6:00 new

york time yesterday, three hours from the closing of the polls, republicans were beating their chest and they thought they had this in the bag. virtually everybody on both sides of the aisle were suggesting that no matter who won, it was going to be inside the margin of error. it was about eight points of this was a convincing win for mr.swazi. this is a blueprint for democrats in suburban districts that must be one particularly in the presidential battleground in november. it's a candidate who figured out how to message on some contentious issues like the border. the republican tried to make the border the single issue for the campaign and that many democrats run away from that and the congressman leaned into it but doubled down and tripled down and flip the script on border issues and that helped him win. host: what do you know about tom swzi, do you know him

personally? guest: i do, he six evening congress and i've known them for quite some time. he is an establishment, very well-known, high profile political figure on long island. it was mayor of the small city of glen cove in the 1990's. he was county executive for a couple of terms and ran for congress once and served in the house when i left. he left undefeated which is a triumph. i know him quite well. i really do believe that he was perhaps the only candidate who can win this special in a district that have been trending republican because of his defiant centrism, is moderation and very proactive measure on crime and borders. host: we did talk about immigration but you just mentioned crime. how did that issue play out? guest: i think the two are often interchangeable in the minds of many voters.

the border plays with various degrees of salience and some district. it's a big deal in some districts and others at the talking point. in this district, it's a big deal because unlike many other congressional districts, new yorkers have awoken to real-time headlines about busloads of migrants coming in from texas to new york. put aside with the merits of that particular news is, it was, the narrative was. late -- pervasive. new yorkers were getting in real time anxious about those headlines. just a few weeks ago. there was disturbing graphic footage of some migrants who assaulted a new york city police officer. that is a crime. this continued narrative of a crime and migrants really

penetrated and finally, the message environment was set by republicans and quite honestly, several years ago when progressive democrats wanted to defund the police and cashless bail, that's a bad message environment. that's bad framing in a suburban moderate electorate. it got the sense of democrats who were weak on crime, not doing enough on the border, tom suozzi would not allow himself to be defined by those messages. as i said, he flipped the script on his opponent. host: if you'd like to join the conversation with former congressman steve israel, you can give us a call on our lines, republicans, (202) 748-8001 and democrats, (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. i want to play you a portion of tom suozzi's victory speech from

yesterday and have you comment on what the lessons for republicans and democrats. [video clip] >> this race was fought amidst a closely divided electorate area it's much like our whole country. this race was centered on immigration and the economy much like the issues all across our country. we won this race, we, you, one this race. [applause] >> because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions. [applause] >> what we just saw with the protest tonight, there are divisions in our country where people can't even talk to each other. paul they can do is yell and scream at each other.

that is not the answer to the problems we face in our country. the answer is to try to bring people of goodwill together to try and find that common ground. host: what do you think of that and is that possible, bringing people together in the current environment? guest: i hope so because we needed desperately. that message was perfect for the quintessentially moderate suburbs that i represented for many years. long islanders are not to the far left or right. they expect their elected officials to compromise, to cross the aisle and problem solve, to get things done. tom suozzi as a centrist clearly tapped into that. he did what is essential in politics. he met voters where they are. you've got to do that in politics, meet them where they are and then bring them along he did that first by reminding them

that he has a career of being a centrist in search of common ground and secondly, by affirming their anxieties over the issues we discussed, mainly migration and crime. i hope that this is an example to members of congress, particular those on the extremes that if you want to win, you've got to be able to talk about common ground. it's much of good government that will get us and move us forward, it's a good political strategy. i hope that this is a signal to those who want to move further left and right that smart politics and the effective policy is to constantly seek that common ground. you will not get everything you want. that's not the way the constitution was designed to give one-party everything they want. it was designed to find the right compromise, the right balance and we need that more than anything else.

the changes i've seen since i've left congress in 2017 starkly remind me of the need to find that common ground. host: let's go to the phones, will in port washington, new york, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i think i would like to open something for mr. israel to explore. i was born in north shore hospital and my mom is there today at 85 years old. she is from bayside/new hyde park and i walked past tom's office every day. there was tons of hyperbole on immigration and it was pushed back and it was great campaign but it was special. this is not a play on words but i wonder did the israel question come up in these districts, was there an israel picture in terms of israelis? you with your last name probably understand jewish-american politics and the fact that this

thing went for suozzi was more than immigration. guest: that's a student is great to hear from a former constituent in port washington. what will is referring to is the unique made for the headlines background the republican candidate, she is an african-american woman born in ethiopia and served in the israel defense forces. you couldn't have a more compelling bio for post-october 7 political environment. i think the republicans were banking on the fact that israel would play predominantly, particularly in areas of the third congressional district that have experienced a very significant growth in jewish voters and former persian jewish voters. talk about a place called the

peninsula, great neck in kings point as you know well. that area used to be a bastion of blue but now predominantly on israel, it has turned red. voters there are very sensitive to u.s.-israeli relations. they want a strong reef just relationship between the u.s. and israel.i think the republicans were banking on that to appeal to democratic voters away from tom suozzi. in the end, we will have to take a look at some of the data. it appears the great neck peninsula were those more conservative jewish voters, they have over performed for republicans but not nearly enough. there were other issues on the minds of voters in this special election. i think the republicans may have overplayed their hands on that. host: we've got a text for you from bill in ohio.

guest: what a great question, it was complacency. nobody believed george santos was going to win and so nobody paid attention to him. secondly, even the republicans didn't believe george santos was going to win so they didn't vet him. thirdly, the opposition research on santos was there but there was a sense in the democratic campaign that we don't need to use because this guy is not going to win the district. joe biden won the district by eight points in 2020. two years later, there is a sense that the district has a democratic gravity and no one knew who george santos was. we can win it without going negative. finally, this is a real problem, long-term structural problem -- local journalism is really imploded across the country. in the old days, you had a bunch of newspapers with good budgets

for investigative journalism that paid attention to these kinds of candidates that didn't happen. he was not vetted, he was not investigated until it was too late. he connive to an contrived his way into the house of representatives. the good news is my former congressional district has done america an extraordinary public service because we actually got democrats and republicans together in the house of representatives to agree on expelling george santos. our sin was electing him but our service to the public was getting true bipartisan accord to kick him out. host: another caller in new york in rochester, a democrat, dorothy, good morning. caller: good morning, i'm calling about things i don't understand. if i sound not to educated-- i am so, i am pro-palestine.

i feel like they've been misused like we have as a black person. as far as ukraine goes, i feel that too much of my money goes over there. i am old and don't get any food stamps. i'm 79 and on a fixed income. i think some of that money needs to go here for us. i thank you very much. guest: dorothy, thank you. you have a great member of congress in rochester. he works very hard. i understand where you're coming from. my name is israel and i have a 100% voting record for u.s.-israel relations and i am pro-palestinian. i think it is outrageous that a terrorist organization like hamas would subject its own people to degradation and deprivation. we use them as human shields. you see billions of dollars in

funding not invested in education and a future for their people but instead, invested in rockets that attacked israel without any provocation. anyone who supports human rights for palestinians and a future for palestinians and a two state solution should condemn hamas' completely irresponsible and animalistic treatment of their own people. on ukraine, i don't think it's exclusive. we can make investments in rochester and investments in infrastructure. the biden administration has been doing that and making critical investments in growing our economy. that doesn't mean that we should not make the investments we need to protect our allies and protect nato. if we listen to donald trump and we invite vladimir putin to

invade nato countries, the cost to us, the cost to you, dorothy, will be extraordinary those long-term cost. we cannot allow a dictator to attack our allies, subvert democracy, to take over huge swaths of europe and believe we can just kind of live within our own borders protected by two countries. world war ii taught us that's not an option. we got to do both, we got to prioritize. how do you prioritize and make sure you can make investments in america's middle class and working families at the same time support defense in the military? it's not that complicated. maybe we should stop subsidizing oil companies who don't need taxpayer help. maybe we should start raising revenues by asking the very richest of the richest of the richest in america to come up with a little more so we can protect and secure our allies

and our citizens. those of the right priorities i think for america. host: jim in winter park, florida, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i've lived in new york until 1994. i was born and raised in the bronx and moved to central long island. i watched last night to see what was going on and now i live in florida. i hope, my hope is that this gentleman that won the election is truly what he represented last night. we need democrats to start trying to work along with republicans rather than the vitriol spewing we get from hakeem jeffries. if you watch mike johnson who is the speaker of the house, he is very calm, he speaks nicely, i

don't hear him yelling and screaming about everything. when you see jefferies come on, the first thing out of his mouth is mga tyhis maga that, bed republicans, they don't want to work with us. i'm over listening to jeffries. we need somebody that can get together with the people and work things out. the other part of it is, we have laws on the books as of right now that say the border, if you don't come from the country that is bordering our country, you stop at the first border where you come from that will accept you as a person trying to flee your country. people coming from china, people coming from afghanistan, people coming from everywhere around the world through our southern border in texas out of mexico,

we need to stop these people. the games that we are playing in the government right now, mayorkas deserves to be impeached. host: ok, let's get a response. guest: thank you. i agree that the order needs control, the border needs law, the border needs order, the border needs to be closed when it's being overrun. i don't think there is any dispute. i will respectfully disagree with respect to speaker johnson and hakeem jeffries. everybody wants a compromise. we talked about common ground. when you have conservative republicans and progressive democrats agree on a compromise as they did a couple of weeks ago, ready to pass the house and the senate, closing the border, giving the president the authority to close the border and the president of the united states says yes i will close it when i'm given that authority and you have the most conservative and progressive

elements swallowing hard and accepting things they are not comfortable with, with all respect, donald trump says kill the deal because i want it to be my deal. i don't want the democrats to get the credit or joe biden to get the credit for it. i want these headlines to continue because i think these headlines are going to undermine democrats. that to me is the most irresponsible kind of politics. we had a deal and hakeem jeffries supported it, it was mitch mcconnell supporting it, chuck's just chuck schumer supportive it, jim langford supported it, he was ready to go until donald trump did a tweet saying i want the deal killed. why? so that he could solve the problem rather than allowing democrats and republicans to solve the problem. we have to stop the theatrics and hysteria and just find 218 votes in the house and 51 votes

in the senate to get the kind of border control that you want and that i want. host: let's talk to willy next on the line for democrats from georgia. good morning. are you there? caller: yes, i'm here. how are you doing? host: good. caller: sometimes you have a thought in your mind to speak on a subject i want to thank former representatives israel for his service in the congress. sometimes, you have a thought in your mind to speak on the subject but the gentleman that just spoke from florida, i don't know, i thought it was donald trump speaking instead of him. does he realize what he was talking about? they just passed the border bill but instead of giving the credit where it should be, he wanted to talk about -- i thought it was donald trump talking and please forgive me for getting off my

subject but i wanted to thank the congressional gentleman for winning new york city last night. i want to thank represented israel for your service. that gentle man from florida completely took my thoughts away from me to talk about what i wanted to talk about. i thought he was donald trump. host: let's talk to catherine in virginia, line for democrats. caller: hello and good morning, everybody. i want to make sure people understand who won this election. i think the representative here, thank you for being here. it was women in the grass roots that road tens of thousands of postcards. we've been winning these races in the last -- the wins have come from the grass roots. we have organize these groups against trump and the party establishment is finally getting it. we met tom suozzi and he knew nothing us.

it was groups coming in from virginia who drove up and was on the subject of abortion. you are talking about running a moderate candidate and that's fine but you are missing the most awesome story. it was these grassroots groups, the women that went door-to-door and the issue was abortion. we work with nate munson who was great. the downtown nasty women, the markets are democracy, these thousands of groups you guys kind of ignore but we are bringing the win and you need to recognize that. you didn't say a thing about these women that for five weeks had postcards for suozzi. host: let's get a response. guest: first of all, thank you for what you did. the fact that i didn't say it doesn't mean it should not be acknowledged. of course, it goes without

saying that the volunteer energy across the nation for tom suozzi was vital in his victory. if i'm donald trump and i'm looking at these results, and i look at the results of special elections and unique elections in moderate suburbs, battleground states around america like pennsylvania, wisconsin, north carolina, georgia, arizona, nevada, others, i'm nervous right now because that volunteer energy, the grassroots energy is given democrats a winning streak. they have won every single special election and battleground suburbs in most cases by the supreme court's overturning of roe v. wade. i respect whatever position people have on that but you cannot deny the fact that democrats are winning elections that they didn't think they would. they believe moderate voters in

moderate suburbs believe the supreme court went too far. democrats need to continue to build that energy and campaign aggressively on that issue. suozzi campaigned on that issue, no question about it, but he didn't allow himself to be out shouted and outflanked on the issue of immigration which was top of mind for many voters. host: when you are in congress, you chaired the dccc which is the democrats campaign arm. what was your message to democrats going into this cycle as far as the issues they should focus on and their messaging about this issue? guest: i would use new york three is absolute blueprint. special elections are not always predicted but they are instructive. lesson learned here is do not run away from issues that are on voters minds. address them with solutions. that's number one and number two

is we learned that the ground game that suozzi had thanked to catherine and others, that ground game is vital in those elections. the general election is a different type of electorate. it tends to be, special elections have non-persuadable voters. they are the base and the general election has more persuadable voters, you have to have different messaging. the message that tom suozzi used in your three can be modified, revised and executed in those battleground in moderate suburbs that joe biden needs to win. and house democrats need to win as well. host: dublin, pennsylvania, independent line. caller: yes, hi, good morning. i have several points in a couple of questions for the former u.s. representative. yes, i'd like to know the difference between democracy and a constitutional republic and

what are his thoughts? i would like to understand if he realizes, i see a couple of pictures on his backdrop there, i see obama and i see bush but i can't see the other one. if he understands what john brennan was talking about, the cia director regarding stratospheric aerosol injection in those programs that are about cloud seeding and manipulating the atmosphere for the climate and does he understand that's going on given the fact that he wants to help out with ideas or at least strategies. the last question may have is, do you read the kabbalah, mr. israel? host: any comments? guest: i'm just not sure what the reveling -- the relevance of

the cabal is to this conversation. i will not pretend to be an expert on stratospheric aerosol injection. i look forward to learning about it. as to the difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic, i invite you to intend one of my classes at cornell university. we talk rather expansively about those differences. host: christen philadelphia, independent line, good morning. caller: thank you for having me on, good morgen and i want to thank to the individuals who took my call and everybody that worked to make c-span possible. i just wanted to bring up, you said you were pro-palestinian. this is something i hear from a lot of people and it boggles my mind that people will say they are pro-palestinian in the general sense just to indicate that i care about the palestinians. if you are not advocating constantly for a cease-fire and

for an end to the occupation, i don't understand how you can say you are pro-palestinian. no country we've ever intervened in looking for terrorists has been thankful to us for bombing out their infrastructure and never repairing it. that was something i believe when i was in middle school that we were going into iraq and that is a childish belief. you look at history and warehouse foreign policy resulted in the government friendly to america. guest: very briefly because i know we are coming up on time. you mentioned occupation, israel ended the occupation of gaza and pulled its troops out and pulled

israeli citizens from the ground in gaza, back to israel and hoped there would be peace. within three days hamas have a civil war and began launching rockets on israel. we're just going to have to have a respectful disagreement. host: representative steve israel from cornell institute of policy. thank you very much. guest: any time. host: and coming up maya macguineas talks about the debt, we will be right back. >> the c-span bookshelf podcast

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look like this, it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. c-span, powered by cable. "washington journal," continues. host: we are joined by maya macguineas from committee for a responsible federal budget. let's start with what is the organization and what position you take on the federal budget? guest: we have one of the worst

acronyms ever, the committee for a responsible budget. i am a political independent. i have been with the office for 20 years. we have a board of directors focused on budget committees, the budget office, office of budget management. the main effort is fiscal responsibility. it's not balancing the budget, small or big government. it's about borrowing money based on economics. during covid it makes sense to borrow. but when we are strong it does not make sense to borrow. we are neutral on the political alignment. we have diverse staff. host: how is your organization

funded? guest: foundation and small donors. we get checks for 25, $50. we have small donors but mainly big foundations are where we get our funding. host: i want to put up on the screen, the findings of the cbo who said the deficit will grow from 1.6 trillion in 2024 to 2.6 trillion. overall, your reaction to those numbers? guest: he will be testifying

about this update in the budget they put out. this is the greatest document on the budget. is what i read to learn about the budget deficit. projections on how that, deficit , spending and revenue for the government. is impartial and a great way to learn about the topic. the news index report is not good. there has been so much volatility in the economy. we have things to worry about on every fiscal metric. this year's deficit is lower-than-expected. last year congress passed the fiscal responsibility act.

it is not going to fix the big problems of the budget. it saved over one trillion which is a great first start. there is a lot of bad news. we have deficits of over 20 trillion. they will be in record territory, the highest amount of borrowing per share of gdp that we haven't seen outside of an emergency. it already costs more than we spend on children at the federal level. it will be larger than medicare, the second largest item in the budget. our debt is the highest it has ever been in for years.

the bad news goes on throughout the report. i encourage people to read up at the summary is, we are in trouble. we are borrowing way too much. we are we from a national security level as well. how do we get politicians to take this seriously and make some of the hard choices about how to borrow less and pay for the things that we choose to do in this country. host: starting at 10:00 a.m. over on c-span two we will have the testimony from the congressional budget office philip swigel. before the house budget committee. we will have live coverage beginning at 10:00 a.m. maia,

explain the difference between debt and deficit. guest: dead is how much we borrow compared to how much we spend and normally, you are expected to borrow during bad times. but during the good times you want your budget deficits to come down. the debt is the result of all of that borrowing over the years. every year that you borrow, it issues vehicles that we buy and our funds by and use that money to pay for revenues. you can look at the dead as the

accumulation of all the deficits over the years. there is nothing wrong with debt. but what you don't want your debt relative to economy to go to quickly and are dead is going faster than our economy which is unsustainable. almost were troubling is the fact that it is expected to keep going and we have no plans to bring her spending revenues back into alignment. there are times you really need to borrow. covid, it was a huge emergency. recession to cover for the weak economy.

there are reasons you will want to borrow but reese's not to borrow his to do a big spending program but don't want to borrow for it. if they don't want to raise taxes but pay for spending it weakens our economy. we need that to be prepared for when we do need to borrow and becomes a national security threat and it's unfair to the next generation that will be saddled with these debts. host: if you would like to join the conversation to talk about the u.s. debt you could do it by party for republicans (202) 748-8001, for democrats (202) 748-8000, for independents, or text at (202) 748-8003.

just yesterday the inflation was reported to hold at 3.1%. can you explain the relationship between inflation and the effort to control debt? guest: it is very complicated. the reason why we have inflation. that is higher inflation than we were hoping for. it is not yet at the 2% goal that the fed has for inflation to be at the right level. more needs to be done. to make sure that inflation comes down. when the government borrows too much and puts too much money into the economy and you have more demand than supply that leads to higher prices.

we got hit with the trifecta. we had a response to covid, the american rescue plan which was too large and put too much money into the government. people had more money, the government had more money. that pushed up inflation. then there were two more factors . we had supply chain problems and that led to inflation and other sectors of the economy. with the russian invasion of ukraine. that got to inflation levels we haven't seen for 14 years. that inflation has come down. but there is still a mismatch. supply-side problems are better, supply chains have improved but we have people with more money in their pockets and government

demand for goods pushing the demand of. many times is the sign of an economy being strong but once it is too strong and inflation becomes anger. people demand for higher wages but that gives them more money that creates more demand they keeps inflation's going up. one of the best way to control inflation is if wages don't go up at that creates hardship. fighting inflation is not a pleasant experience. everyone is seeing it at the grocery store and you feel the pain of inflation.

host: in a recent setting, janet yellen gave her description of the path the federal government is on. [video clip] >> i believe we need to reduce deficits and stay on a fiscally sustainable path. thus far, in real terms the interest burden has remained below historical norms in the president's budget substantial reduction would keep us like comfortable levels. but we need to work together to try to achieve those things. host: what do you think?

guest: the secretary's concern about the debt trajectory. focus on those interest numbers i am struck by this number that we will spend more on interest payments then defense. she is correct that the president's budget last year put out a plan that would reduce the deficit because of trillions in tax increases. i give credit for them to put out a plan to reduce the deficit you haven't heard the white house talk about it. he doesn't own the economy. the president can't be accountable for all of them but how much does the president talk about the issue and push to put

it on the agenda? after a responsible budget heavy on the tax side increase. they did not talk about it again or bring together leaders of congress on how to fix the problem. instead one of the things we have heard from the president and president trump's promising things they will not do. the president has said he will not touch social security and that is a big problem. if we don't make changes that will become insolvent in the decade. in the white house has said they will not raise taxes on anyone making less than 400,000.

many republicans said they won't raise taxes at all but that does not align with the physical reality. these are not messages that anyone likes. but in order to fix the economy, this is a huge national security threat. if we are going to face these issues we will have to raise taxes and not just on millionaires. we are going to have to cut spending more than we have and we will have to make changes to social security and medicare. as long as we have politicians promising not to do anything we are at all was with the truth and weakens our ability to have a real discussion.

there is no one right way. we cannot go the way we are going and as the secretary talked about interests payments they are rising to record levels. that is only one of the warning lights from the cbo document. host: let's go to valerie in saginaw, michigan. caller: good morning. listen. things get so complicated when it comes to the deficit, budget. mainly when democrat presidents are in. mainly to raise taxes. we are bigger, more populated. we can't budget like we did in the 70's.

the population has increased. we have one president at a time. she is referring to trump as president trump. he has should not be given as much weight as you guys are giving him. we have a president named joe biden. if the republicans would stop running interference, making things worse. they always want to mess with the poor and working-class. they never want to start at the top. yes, we need more taxes. we need to make medicare for all. it's not about no intelligence, no money.

it's about trying to keep a certain amount of people down struggling. they don't like the middle class. host: you brought up a lot of topics there. what would you like to talk about? guest: it is an incredibly partisan time, worse than i've ever seen. i worry about it because i am a political independent and having two camps, us or them makes it harder to govern. the minority problem is less cooperative in order to help win the next election. when they think about the political outlook rather then we need to fix these problems and cooperate to get things done. i agree we need to raise taxes

because our situation is too bad to fix it on one side of the budget alone. if you look at the 10 year projections, spending is projected to grow much higher than historical averages and revenue is also expected to grow. the growth of spending comes from retirement, health care and interest. there are a lot of areas. i will say we did passive very large infrastructure bill. i look at the budget and think too much of it is on consumption and not enough on investment. we will all have different takes on it but where we need to start .

it doesn't have funding in place, the funding will run out for the fiscal year where one third through. the senate budget committee never put out a budget last year. i hope the budget committees will put out a budget this year. the house budget committee did put one out at the end of the year. we need to put a budget in place. the budget needs to have a physical objective. it can't be we are going to borrow 20 trillion. and that's assuming the tax cuts will retire. those numbers may well be worse. we need to compromise. revenues have to go up.

social security has to be fixed. if we do nothing there will be a benefit cut of 23% for every person. the billionaire and the person who needs it for everything. we have these interactive tools on our website. you could fix it with taxes. rather than just lifting the payroll tax. or raising the retirement age or slow the growth of benefits for people who don't need them as much. what we really can't do as a country's top president biden and former president trump both promise not to do anything.

it's important that we should have a policy on social security. no political leader should be ok with that as a solution and we need to quickly figure out where those fixes and social security are. one final thing, every politician i have talked about this with, the one thing they are adamant about is not touching benefits for current retirees. people try to scare citizens but we need to protect retirees so in 10 years, they don't have their benefits cut as well. every politician i talked to says we will not cut benefits

for current retirees. host: let's talk to raymond in seminole, florida on the line for democrats. caller: i just want to know, you are a breath of fresh air. there is no political tilt and i love that. i am a business person and what you are saying, everything makes sense. i want to push back on a few things. when you are talking about the overall deficit one of the main reasons, peoples credit card debt. you make an example to say instead of passing a trillion dollar bill and wait a few

years. we need to really plan and we could've waited for the infrastructure bill. you can't make those compromises in the same year. we are setting up a bad precedent for our young people. inflation has not come down. that is based off of last year, that 3.1%. now you have a baseline. now we have 3%. like i said i just want to be clear, is not the six or 7% but that doesn't mean the eight, 9% we have accumulated as gone away. jerome powell, his 1970 strategy

is not working. not cutting interest rates, people can't buy homes. forget about it. it. his stop working. you are not pushing down labor. none of that stuff is going to work. tell me what you think. guest: thank you so much there is a lot there and i hope i do it justice. about credit card debt. i read a book called hamilton's blessing about national debt. one of the things i thought about with the history of debt is that our approach to debt is change. i think a lot has to do with credit cards in the 70's and

80's. before that, people would say for things. you couldn't buy a car or a refrigerator without saving first. credit cards has changed that. we don't take the need to save as seriously as we do. there are huge problems with affordability. wages have not grown enough to where people can save efficiently. and that has contributed to people being more lackadaisical and they don't worry about saving. it makes sense to save -- or spend for consumption and it makes sense to borrow for public or private investment.

you invest when it will generate something with a high return. our federal budget is all consumption. 80 5% consumption, 15% investment. we should shift that with more of our money going into investment. it would make sense to borrow for investment if we paid for consumption. your final point, it's good to think about spreading out the cost of borrowing for things. there are a lot of bipartisan bills in the infrastructure act. there is a big stimulus from fiscal policy at a time where we should bring deficits down to fight inflation.

i have a much more positive view of how the fed has responded but the fiscal policy has made it difficult for monetary policy to be effective. it can have adverse effects on people trying to buy houses or borrow for other things. i worry about that. host: i was going to say. we will move to bill in columbia, maryland. guest: good morning ms. macguineas. i am someone who has looked at the projection put out by the cbo. they represented members and

billions is so what i did was added to zero so it could be represented in hundreds of millions. so i could get my head around it and the numbers for 2023 would be an income of 44,000 with expenditures, and a debt on your credit card of 324,000. those are scary numbers. if i'm making 40,000 a year and i owe 324,000 on my credit cards , i am not sleeping at night. when you go out 10 years, are these numbers reflect the

unfunded liabilities for social security and medicare? on the cbo reported says these are the numbers of laws remain the same. i'm assuming these 20 84 numbers don't reflect a hundred 50 trillion going out in the next five years. are these numbers reflective of the unfunded liabilities? guest: that is a great question. they are very sophisticated and i love that you are doing these numbers you should come with us and look at our numbers. on baseline day where running around with all of our numbers and you sound like you belong right there. there are two things in your

question. unfunded liability is the federal value of how much money would we need to put away today in order to pay all the benefits we have promised? those are those huge numbers we are talking about. it is the present value of something. you could look at those big annual reports from the treasury. the second point is what cbo is directed to do, it assumes those benefits will be continued to be paid after the program part a even if legally they will not be paid. they don't believe it's realistic to say there are all these because and nobody gets these benefits. they decided the most sensible

reflection is in the baseline in the next 10 years. those benefits will still go out the door. one other thing to related to, the other way this cbo makes its budget is current law based on policy. if there are attacks because that will expire, many of which will expire in 2025. they assume those tax cuts will expire. that is probably not realistic. they are almost always extended, who knows what happens this time. but there is something someone can look at that assumes those policies will continue. the dead and share of gdp will

go to 116% of gdp under a law based line but if all of those policies were extended it will be a hundred 30%. there are many assumption that makes estimates based on the conventions they are directed to use. speaking of playing with budget numbers. i have the same problem. i can't wrap my head around 20 trillion none of us can grasp what that is. we have a number interactive tool and i encourage people to look at them. one of them is called is it worth it? it breaks down every spending program, every revenue item in

the share of household paying individual. so you could look at household as set of just the overall cost and billions and i think that is a useful tool. we have a debt thermometer that tracks how much new policies. congress passed 1.3 trillion in savings. that came from the federal responsibility act. if you go back to past years you could look at who borrowed.

we have to try borrowing each year. so far, nothing. the interactive tools where you could fix the dead, vic social security, how old he will be when it hits his insolvency. i hope they are helpful and i find them an easier way to conceptualize these massive trillions of dollars. host: michael and plainville, illinois. caller: you are describing the symptoms of our broken system in which 50% of people can lay their hands on $400 in an emergency and 50% of the population has a negative net

worth. why don't we talk about solutions? number one, single-payer health care. we have to have it. the next one is a net worth tax. the people who have be nefitted from society's they need to pay for it. half of the population is dependent upon these programs to survive. unless we go after those who have profited from the system. you could cut all you want but it will lead to social disruption. guest: thank you for calling in with solutions. i hope that spreads to congress.

although people disagree, and people who agree but that is fine. we are entitled to have different versions of how the government looks. but as someone trying to fix the problem rather than deny it or make it worse, i appreciate that and i hope we have more of that. you hit two big ones, health care and revenue. we have to do a lot to cut the cost of health care. there have been places we have seen bipartisan support. things that would make the prices more transparent and bring down the cost of the overall health care system. i like elements of competition being a part of that. there is also medicare for all

and on revenues, if you want a wealth tax. there are a lot of people who support that. there is upwards of 2 trillion a year and uncollected revenues because of tax expenditures. tax deductions and exclusion. they are a poor way to do policy. when you think of areas where the cost of growth is the fastest, they are all subsidized through the tax code and when we do that, it doesn't make them more affordable it drives up the cost. we need to look at affordability . across the board, changing our

tax expenditures. almost all of them are concentrated to 10% of earners. it would also change the tax code, transparency. and i am a big supporter of a carbon tax. i think it would have many benefits and raise a lot of revenue. you can use that revenue to offset costs. i think they are critically important but they won't fix this problem alone. we have to look at spending as well. if you are worried about income distribution, one place to start is to reduce the benefits of social security for people who do not need it. it's important that program is

strong and secure for the many people, 50% depend on it for a large part of their income. if you worked your full life and paid into social security you should be guaranteed not to live in poverty. you have to look at other approaches also. one approach is to reduce the benefits of people who don't need them to protect those who do. people will agree and disagree and i encourage them to put forth ideas and rather than shooting other people's ideas, create an environment where we have to make changes. they all have trade-offs. raising taxes and cutting spending is never fun but we are causing ourselves vulnerability and weaknesses if we don't honestly discuss this.

we are a very diverse country and in order to function we have to compromise on those things. it is not all or nothing. that is what politicians are supposed to do for us. we need to address this quickly because if we are hit with another emergency or geopolitical tensions rise we are in a week in position to respond to these needs because we are borrowing for things we should not have. host: maya macguineas president of committee for a responsible federal budget. thanks for joining me today. guest: thank you for having me. host: next up, open forum them. your chance to open up about

anything you wish to. for republicans (202) 748-8001, for democrats (202) 748-8000 and for independents (202) 748-8002. stay with us. american history tv saturday on c-span two exploring the people and events that tell the american story. kate mazer talks about the role of african-americans in the civil rights movement before the 50's and 60's. we continue with this series " free to choose" the series by milton friedman. and it 9:30 p.m. constitutional law will accept president roosevelt's relationship with

the supreme court. at 10:30 on historic campaign speeches we look at john mccain's rally as well as bernie sanders. exploring the american story watch american history tv and find a full schedule on yr program guide or watch online at any time at c-span.org/history. friday night, watch c-span's 2024 campaign trail. providing a one-stop shop to discover where the candidates are traveling and what they are saying to voters along with firsthand accounts.

from voters. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this, it looks like this. where americans can see democracy at work. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are. because the opinion that matters the most is your own. c-span, powered by cable. washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington

journal, it is open for. we will take care calls. we wanted to show you this first, president biden delivered remarks to urge house republicans to take up that 95 billion foreign aid bill that provided assistance to ukraine. [video clip] >> history is watching. failure to support ukraine will never be forgotten. i want to be clear about something. i know it's important to the american people. while this sin support ukraine is spends it right here in places where the missiles are built. the way it works is we supply

military equipment with our stockpiles and we replenish those stockpiles sore military has access to them. stockpiles made in america by american workers. in not only supports americans but it allows us to invest in our own defense manufacturing capacity. it creates greater support for our troops serving in the region. it also provides israel with what it needs to protect his people from hamas, hezbollah and others and provides lifesaving aid to the palestinian people. finally, this bill includes funding for our priorities in asia. as we focus on the conflicts in

gaza and ukraine we have national security responsibilities in the pacific. we are a great nation. the rest of the world books to us. host: that was the president at the white house into your calls in fort lauderdale, florida. caller: hi there. thank you for c-span. i am really sad that i did not get to talk to that lady that was on there before but i will have to settle to talking to you . and you're a lovely lady yourself. i have a lot of problems with her organization. she is very practiced and very good. she is out there working on behalf of the billionaires. when you asked how does your

organization get money and she says foundations. it comes from billionaires foundation like pete peterson. as practiced as she is, the rich and poor have to buy the bullet and participate in helping our budget deficit. she let something slip there. right after she was done talking about the debt thermometer, you remember what she talked about? host: yep. caller: she said this past year it's been pretty good. the deficit has been reduced a couple of trillion dollars

because of the act president biden sign. she is saying that her deficit went down but she doesn't answer that the people who call. that never gets mentioned or brought up. you might look back at your own tape or video and see right there at the end of her but she said that. host: people can go to c-span.org and watch all of our programs there. rudy on our independent line. caller: good morning how are you today? host: good. caller: the reason i was calling is that my point of view with the border and the way things are. i believe they are trying to do the best they can with all of these people coming over. i hear about people coming in

from other parties and saying biden is not doing his job. they don't want to work with them but i think they need to come together on this situation, on both sides and work together. pass an immigration law, something has to be done about this. it doesn't look like they want to work together. host: james in kingston, new hampshire on the independent line. caller: red is definitely a color. my sinuses social security recipient and we are tired of hearing about cuts. we worked hard for our benefits, ok?

i learned so much every day from watching it and we need cameras in the courtrooms. but once again mimi, we need increases social security not decreases. host: ruth in houston, texas. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i agree with all the other colors that maya was such a breath of fresh air. but the reality is, washington is broken. they cannot raise taxes and decrease spending so the only way we will have a change is if we have a constitutional amendment that requires a balanced budget. washington dc is broken but luckily our founding fathers

provided another path for us to have a constitutional amended through article five. we would need 33 states to call a convention and pass a constitutional amendment and we would need 38 states to ratify it. i feel we have given washington many tries and i don't think they are capable of increasing taxes and cut spending. thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. i have one suggestion for you to think about. we are all americans here and they wonder if you take away the republican, democrat lines and not pit us against each other by putting us in categories. host: richard is next in

missouri. caller: we got the border thing fixed yesterday. we impeach that guy so we could go down and take care of the order. -- the border. they can bankrupt the company and wipe out all of the debt. i will get outta here. host: memphis, tennessee. caller: thank you for taking my call. this is a big topic but before we start talking about raising taxes which is not a good thing. we first have to look out the taxes we have created.

where is the money going? it causes a great burden at the dinner table. but we don't account for where this money is going. i don't think raising taxes on the small, it will never hit the billionaires. it is always going to hit the middle class and lower middle class people. they are going to suffer the worst. we first have to stop to say, pulled back from the table and let's see where this money is going and where we are wasting money before we talk about raising more taxes. thank you so much. host: dave in las vegas, and independent. caller: first of all, the

democrats are going to lose this election unless biden puts a military on the border. if he could do that he would win the next election, easily. everybody has bought about the border. you don't need a wall. you might as well call him sleeping joe. he cares about everybody else's border but ours. send all that money to ukraine? if trump gets in there he will cut social security and medicare. he already said he's gonna cut obama care. host: have you decided who you were going to vote for? caller: i'm not really sure but i would not vote for trump. i don't want to vote for biden either. he's asleep at the wheel.

i would probably vote for kennedy if he was running or liz cheney. someone who is a good person. trump broke the law. host: we are going to have to ended at this point. we will see you again tomorrow morning for another edition of washington journal and we will take you over to the house that is about to gavel and this morning. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms. washington, d.c.