host: good morning it is monday, april 8 2024 the senate is said to return after a two-week vacation. once again in this 's a total

solar apocalypse is set to take place in the path to totaly from texas to maine. this will begin in about 7.5 hours and we want to know how you plan to experience it give us a call and let us know your a clips plans. if you are eating eastern or central un states (202) 748-8000, on the pacific (202) 748-8001 otherwise on acts it is cspanwj. a very good monday morning to you you can start calling it now according to a yuko poll 53%

planned to view today's solar eclipse with only 14% saying they are not interested at all. we want to hear your a clips plans. it is a north american continent with the path of totality across four states in mexico and then fi canadian provinces. the total a close duration varies by location without total a cli moving across north america from southern texas to northern maine and plenty of headlines in this morning's papers about the eclipse. this from the new york times citizens equally await the path of totality the first total

eclipse visible since 2016 and there will not be another visible until 2044. this morning setting aside this first hour to hear your plans to watch the solar eclipse especially if you plan to travel who you will be with and give us a call (202) 748-8000 eastern and central, mountain and pacific region (202) 748-8001. there was a recent event in preparation of the clips that bill nelson spoke about the importance of today's eclipse and this is what he had to say. >> i have often said our mission is for all humanity and that is because space brings us

together. there is no better proof than moments like this with a total solar. it is a moment when millions of people across north america will look towards the heaven and the moon passes in front in between the sun and the earth. it is a rare sight that we have not seen in seven years. it is unusual things start to happen as the normal rhythms of further disrupted. when you are seeing this a clips you ought to observe this. as the date appears to turn to dusk and the dark people have heard bird stop singing.

they have seen giraffes begin to gallop roosters start crowing and crickets chirping. watch for these unusual behaviors and we encourage you to help nasa of zeit -- observe the sights and sounds around you eclipses have a special power they move people to feel what kind of reference for the beauty of our universe. their power is not only to unify us on earth but to further science and discovery. in 1919, albert i's eyes theory of gravitational bending was proven with a measured when the

sun is blocked out by the moon. today a century later, the total solar eclipse still brings great opportunities in science. host: that was former astronaut bill nelson. we will hear from you about your a clips plans. we won and where you will be watching it and where you will be. if you are in the eastern or central time zones (202) 748-8000, mountain and pacific (202) 748-8001. anthony tweets he is traveling to missouri and thisime i only

have to go 45 minutes to toledo. i watched the last one from work i borrowed a pair of glasses from a coworker. and one more from donald. i'm not interested in the eclipse nor do i have glasses. if you are interested what do you remember from 2017? (202) 748-8000 in the eastern central time zones, (202) 748-8001 mountain or pacific. we have lori from pennsylvania. caller: i live in looks very - lewekesbury. i'm going up to dallas with my sister jane. they are having a special event.

host: what are they doing in the event? caller: i have a sister up at penn state. it's supposed to be pretty big. she wanted me to go with her. it is probably a 20 minute ride. were not quite in the path of totality. we will head out there at 12:30. host: more than half of americans say they plan to participate in, americans are all doing it together today. what are your thoughts on that amid everything going down on earth? caller: i think it's great for the community. i just watched bill nelson, the nasa administrator and he had

mentioned a unified humanity. i think that's really great. with all of the historical events going on with all of the wars. it's kind of like god saying look up. take a look at me. you know what i mean? host: how long do you think we are unified for? is it just for the eclipse or is it unifying? caller: i remember watching nasa when i was 5, 6 years old. i have a tendency to look up a lot. i's great that everyone is ing this together. i think it's wonderful this is gotten a lot of press coverage two. i think like what everyoned,

nasa has been ufying in terms thekraine war with russia's open space and they are up in the heavens. host: do you remember 2017? caller: i remember but i did not participate. i was busy working and i remember a little bit. this will be big for me. i'm not sure i will make the next one. i'm glad i'm going today. i will pack my knapsack and take a lot of snacks and go up to penn state. host: we are asking to hear your plans for today's solar eclipse. are you traveling? what part of the country are you in? when do you think about this moment senator rand paul tweeting about

e eclipsing this spectacular event will occur in the skies above kentucky. our commonwealth ione of the best places to visit this rare occurrence. members of congress encouraging people to go to their state. where are you headed for the central or eastern time zones (202) 748-8000 and mountain and pacific (202) 748-8001. caller: i see nothing special in this event. nothing. i live in west plains at a whole bunch of people have traveled and they are going to shut down streets. this is a 10, 11 minute event. this is ridiculous. these are a bunch of gullible people. like the woman who just called.

we will have a three day celebration? they have the street shut down and businesses are closed. it screws up the people who live in this town. there are travel trailers all over. people have gone crazy over nothing. host: debbie and cincinnati. -- in cincinnati. caller: i don't understand all of the hype going on with this. i wish a lot of americans would spend as much time voting as they do with the eclipse. host: do you like community events in general? caller: i do but i don't understand all of the hoopla.

host: does it shock you that 154 million americans are expected to view this? that's more than the super bowl? caller: exactly a wish they would spend this much time concerned with voting in our process and that way we probably wouldn't have as many problems as we do. host: debbie in cincinnati here's the picture from the new york times a pair of giant a clips glasses. dripping springs, texas, said that americans are watching the weather to get this since of where might be the best spots to view the eclipse. in indianapolis officials plan to distribute as many as 10,000 pairs of a clips glasses and

have insured the automatic lights will not turn on. alisha and operations coordinator so she could not wait to find out how the clouds would react. dear pressure could cause them to fly around they could also just tuck in for the tonight. we won it here your plans for today. are you traveling, do you remember 2017? (202) 748-8000 eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 and the mountain and pacific regions. this is mary and casper, wyoming. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: are you staying in casper? caller: i will look up because

we had totalitarian in casper, wyoming. host: what are your thoughts on this rare occurrence in the sky? caller: i didn't go to where there was a huge gathering of people. i went out in the country inside on the hill with the dog. host: better to be viewed by yourself or a canine companion? caller: it was interesting. i am with that other guy, too. i have a very negative view of the world anymore.

when you are looking up at the sun for totalitary you want what i think about having a nuclear bomb headed towards you. we will all be looking up at. two. host: are you an optimist or a pessimist by nature? caller: i'm a pessimist. host: do you think these moments could make a more optimistic country? caller: we are not supposed to drive and use gas. don't eat a hamburger today. i don't know how people can be optimistic when they want us to start eating bugs. host: this is north dakota congressman kelly armstrong

offering some useful tips for the solar eclipse. don't forget the eclipse glasses remember livestock could get nervous in the southern darkness. the height in north dakota taking place at 1:00 p.m.. we have wanda and grover, vermont. caller: thank you for talking- -taking my call. we are very excited here i'm sad to hear from the curmudgeons are not. we are so excited to go out and watch it. i'm going to watch it from my driveway. we're fortunate enough to be in the path of totality. i will have my little family with me. we all have the day off.

we cannot be more excited? host: why's it so important to you? caller: i would be fine watching it by myself but it makes it more speal my daughter is just as e as i am. the fact that we get to watch thisnce-in-a-lifetime event with her fiance anda to me it's a very special thing and i cannot be more excited. a lot of people ll be coming into town and i really hope everyone is safe doesn't stress. in vermont we had a huge dumping of snow so we are a little worried about the back roads. there's a lot of extra traffic. we are hoping for the best and

hope everyone is safe and goes to enjoy it. right now, our weather forecast is great. it should not obstruct the viewing. host: did you get the family together in 2017? caller: no, we did not. i'm not sure we were all in the same place. we did not. host: thank you for the call from vermont. the weather is supposed to be good. the wall street journal with the map that has the totality across the united states from southern texas to northern maine and into parts of northern vermont where the previous caller was from. we are hearing about your clips plans. we have carol from pennsylvania. caller: thank you for taking my call.

on friday i had lunch with some friends and we are in the 89% totality area in one of my friends was saying she's going to go to. , pennsylvania to watch it. without going into specifics, i had thought about driving up to buffalo or rochester but unfortunately i had a medical imaging test that didn't come out so great song good to stay in town and get work done. when you look at the science of this and if we lived on another planet how is it possible the moon and its distance from the sun. the moon is so small compared to

the sun but how is it our planet is situated that we do get experience these a clips -- eclipses. i'm gonna sit on my balcony. i appreciate you gave your viewers the opportunity to comment so we can learn from each other. host: before you go, for some people it's a math equation and other people it is life-affirming. i wonder your thoughts on that, that spectrum of reaction? caller: to me it's intertwined. it's the math, science and the

awe of it all. i am an optimist. how is it possible that the earth is situated where it is? there are all the other factors is something to celebrate and appreciate. i am sorry for people who feel put out. i get that. but it is also a way the world can come together and celebrate. even for those who were not able to travel you can go to nasa's website. host: thank you for your call this is mathew from new jersey. caller: good morning, how are you today? host: good. caller: as far as the solar eclipse is ced, is something fun to do that is free

tha't cost money. other than that i don't see the big deal in his shadow. host: a free ride for amusement park lovers. caller: pretty much what is the big benefit of it? host: what are you doing this afternoon? will you sit outside? caller: i will set up my office and earn money if you're going to complain about the prices get off your bot and do something about it. don't worry about five minute free ride. although some people will. the shadow on the sun, that's going to change my life. host: that's matthew in rutherford, new jersey. the moon will completely block the sun in parts of the country

where the largest path of totality for about 4.5 minutes and 28 seconds will be the maximum duration of the totality and that is if you are in certain parts of mexico and in the united states is closer to four minutes depending on where you are in that band. here is gregory from sherman oaks. caller: i can't believe these people who don't understand the whole point of being alive is experience and this is a fantastic experience. i learned back on february 26, 1979 standing on the bluffs in stonehenge, washington. a beautiful sparkling winter

morning as the sun shot of came over this replica of stonehenge above the columbia river. the whole night before that we had jew wizards, cowboys, hippies all hanging around-- we had wizards, hippies, cowboys. when it ended it was like a light old being turned off in this guide. it was an amazing experience of god to every solar eclipse after that. the 1991 a clips in hawaii and then got shut out by the clouds.

i've gone there to visit my uncle and he just died a month later which means traveling to see a solar eclipse is good for reasons beyond the eclipse. i went to england in 1999 and got zipped out by clouds but i was in england and i had a wonderful adventure there. and then in 2017i went to oregon with my wife and friends and brothers it was a dull late-summer eclipse and the damper was put on it because of climate change with forest fires around oregon. it wasn't the same kind of

experience that it was in 1979. the difference between a solar eclipse in winter eclipse. host: are you traveling today? caller: i am staying in sherman oaks. there were too many commitments and getting on in years. i am also 77 but i will go up on the parking structure near where i live and see how much darker this guy gets. -- the sky gets. one thing i noticed about the events you see zillions of pictures of the black disk in front of the sun but what i don't see nearly enough of is

the panoramic views of the landscape, the places where the offense occurred such that you get a sense of what it is like to be there. it's just an astronomical photograph. i hope people will take shots of areas around them. to really get the sense of what it is like to be there. host: the advice is don't get caught only looking up? caller: yes. it's no big deal to look at the sun through the glasses. don't look at the sun at all, just look at the landscape of watch it happen around you without looking at the sun for reasons of protecting your eyes and to get the entire

three-dimensional space time sense of what it is like to be in that place at that time. think about the ancients in centuries forward in the future when the last eclipse occurred there in the next eclipse and think about eclipse totalitarian past that intersect. the reason why the replica of stonehenge was built on the columbia river in 1979. it was built by sam hell as an what the sam hill? the reason that replica was at that location because it was the only place in the united states that would see in a clips twice in

the 20th century. the previous one had been in 1918. it turns out to be the perfect place to be. when the eclipse occurred the magic place in the sky became clear a minute or two before the eclipse. god's creation smiled honest that day. it was one of the best days and nights of my life. host: thank you for sharing those memories. for folks that are not in the path of the eclipse starting at 1:00 p.m. we will be streaming the nasa tv coverage of the eclipse on both websites and the free video app.

we hope you enjoyed the eclipse. this is molly in huntington beach, new york. caller: i planned to watch the solar eclipse in school because my parents signed a permission slip so that me and my classmates will watch the solar eclipse. host: what grade are you in? caller: i'm in fifth grade. host: did your teacher tell you about today? are you excited? caller: i'm excited. we are doing a solar eclipse packet so i had some background knowledge on it. host: what it it tell you about the eclipse? caller: we colored the path of where it will be and we colored our state. host: do you remember the 20

eclipse? caller: oh no, i never watched it. host: what do you think about the next one not being until 2044? caller: that's going to be a long time. host: i'm excited you get to see it anything else you want to say? caller: i hope everyone has a good solar eclipse. host: thank you molly. this is daniel in tennessee. caller: good morning john, thank you for taking my call. i hate to be dan the downer. auditor. to that being a former as i look at the eclipse reminds me of what happened not too long

ago. her parts of thea ended centuries ago pee criced during the eclipse because they didn' it in leaders through people over cliffs for political power. fast-forward to 2020, wead o man who sacrificed 120,000 citizens from political power, suppressing information about covid the covid plan, silencing dr. redfield, silencing dr. birx and other people on the covid panel.

where was mike pence during all of that? sorry to rain on everybody's parade but that one man killed 12 residents in tennessee and i am not forgetting that. thank you for taking my call. host: this is dave, you're next. caller: you might want to give a shout out to parents of young children to make sure they don't look at the sun. the only way i will watch the eclipse is a forward closer to it. the only eclipse i want to see is the biden a clips on the southern border. you want to warn the parents of those little kids to not look directly at the sun. host: nelson in san diego. caller: good morning sir.

it's pretty sad that people on the left and the right we heard what marjorie taylor greene said. i told someone at work that she was going to do that. i don't even think the eclipses anywhere in the bible. the bible says in psalms, when i went to bible college in

baltimore. the science is fascinating. the concept of time. time is something that god created. but that the way the planets are, the orbits, the universe and the solar system. i think a lot of people are just stuck where they are. host: so you think it is a spiritually affirming of? -- event? caller: god's creation and how big the solar system is.

i don't believe in superstitions but i believe in science and god created all of this. and i am grateful. i think people are not grateful about life. they are just sour. host: that was nelson in san diego and this is kevin in illinois. you have to turn your television down if you are going to chat? caller: i'm good to be on tv. host: you're on right now. caller: god bless you man. it's a great time, a great year. this is god's creation. this is his world. not man's world.

we did not come from the monkeys. it says that there in the bible. if you have faith in god and jesus and you look for prayer and you look for signs, you will get signs. you will see there is a god. they could not have made this stuff up. host: will you pray during vehicle clips? caller: absolutely. host: what will you pray for during the eclipse today? caller: i will pray that god keeps us safe and god will continue to let this planet bro and let it be his world. they are trying to change so much of his world. it sounded transgender subject but if you put on the wig and

lipstick i'm not a woman. if i put on the superman cape i can't fly. this is the time for family. in 2017 i was with my buddy and now he has passed away. it's a great time to stop. i have some great people in my life and if you appreciate life you won't be able to do this again. there are some things in life you only get one chance and when you get a chance you have to seize that opportunity. you don't want to be the one to hear about it. go donald trump, save our country, god is going to save our country and god bless you that people can go on there and give their real opinion. i pray every body will be

blessed and everyone will have a good day. god bless you with thank you. host: this is otis in south carolina. good morning. caller: how are you today? i would like to say today is my birthday. i have a total eclipse for my present. host: is it a good president? caller: yes it is. i won't see the totality where i live but i saw them one in 2017 and i think i saw the one back in the 90's. i watched it through a welders lens. host: how old are you today? caller: i will be 74 years old. host: someone earlier said a

friend called it life altering. you have been through a couple of these are they life-changing? caller: it's not life-changing but it is unique and you know you will not get to see it except maybe once in your lifetime. most of the time you will be lucky just to see one in your lifetime. host: we have k in massachusetts. caller: it's a beautiful morning out here. i thought i would be your youngest collar but molly beat me. i hear all of these grinches calling in its nothing about

dogs wonder and we have to be out working. but i am making my way up north. i don't know how much we are seeing down here. host: when you say going your way north are you fighting traffic? caller: everyone in my family needs a card today. i thought i might take it while they were at work. traffic will be just that bad. host: there is a story today about traffic work, work do you do? caller: i am coasting along and taking care of my family when i can. host: what line of work do you

want to be in? caller: i have another semester to complete but i haven't finished it yet. host: what will you be thinking about during the eclipse? are you still with us? caller: i am a little worried about this country. i don't have much faith in americans. we have made a lot of bad decisions in the past. i see a lot of disappointed choices we are making with our current president and the genocide in gaza as well as gas prices and groceries and housing and everything. hopefully, america will wake up. host: goodbye getting a car and

fighting traffic. this is kathy out in fremont, california. caller: i got up to watch c-span because i wanted to know what was going on in the middle east. i'm glad i got to hear you guys talk because now i am interested. i did take a picture out at 2017 and when i was a teenager i was at santa cruz and there was a nurse there who put a pinhole in a box. i am 75 years old now. host: here is a picture from the new york times.

this was in 1945 in the next eclipse after this one will not be until 2044. what do these moments in time mean? caller: i am going to watch it here from my home. i don't go to work until 1:45 we had an event last time but not this time. we had been giving out the glasses for free at all of our libraries and i have a grandkids in the d.c. area and i'm going to be calling them. host: will you call them during the eclipse? caller: they are probably at school but i am hoping they are interested in this. i think they probably are. host: you are a librarian?

caller: i am the library clerk. i do a lot of library work too. host: this is mike in indianapolis. caller: good morning. i would like to say i'm lucky enough to be here in indianapolis and i planned to take inasmuch as i can of the eclipse today. i just wish everyone who has the opportunity to watch they will have the kind of weather that will support the viewing of this wonderful event. that's all i have to say. host: before mike, kathy was talking about the clip we showed from nasa administrator bill nelson. here is more from that event. these solar eclipse manager was

describing the experience that nasa will be doing during today's eclipse. [video clip] >> starting with our a clips rocket it is a series of three rockets to explore the layers of the earth's atmosphere called the ionosphere it is the one hour communications pass-through. it can cause issues with gps communication. it will sample a layer of the atmosphere to see how it deals with the daylight change that can be sent into models atmosphere. nasa's with experiments on board will chase the eclipse giving them an additional two minutes of the totality.

dozens of teams will launch balloons to get measurements of the earth's atmosphere and the nasa team will use the balloon to study the weather of the eclipse. citizen science as a way to join nasa suck oration. i am highlighting up just three of those project. it utilizes a smartphone to understand the size of the sun and the second is globe observer. the records things like temperature to affect the eclipse on the temperature and clouds. the third project he will explore the reaction of wildlife and the sounds you hear. these are just a few of the weights to engage in the

eclipse. it's not just a stunning visual experience. i hope you join us in these memories. host: these so a clips coordinator there. you can get more on c-span.org. about 10 minutes left and we are asking for your solo a clips plans. what do you think about this rare solo event? this is rural in idaho. caller: good morning. i plan on taking a nap and hopefully i can learn how to pay the national debt off in the dream. host: not interested in that one? caller: during in the clips you could always get a nice afternoon nap. host: good luck with that in idaho. we have heard in alabama. caller: how are you doing?

host: i'm doing well. caller: i want to bring out a point if you don't mind. can you hear me? host: i can. caller: i would like people to take in the words i'm about to say. i encourage people to read romans 25. they loved the creature more than the creator. we all know that terrorism is bad but people don't feel god anymore. everyone thinking mankind is going to solve problems. mankind cannot solve problems. just like the united nations up

in new york, it was a forum for all countries across the world to come together. host: you think in the clips will help people feel god? caller: i know god's work is not man's work. we did not come from among the key, we come from god. he created all things. my right or wrong? host: this is susan in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i will be at work and i went to go outside and enjoy it. 2017 i was outside and marveled that it is i hope everyone can take a minute and enjoy the wonder of it and not make it a

statement. just enjoy this amazing natural wonder. here's an opportunity for us to really enjoy this really cool event. host: when did we lose our wonder? caller: i'm not sure. maybe at some of the technology. let's give it back and just enjoy the simple things that we all say we want. there is something happening today and we can do it today. host: what was your previous wonder moment? caller: i love nature. we are close to pinchot park and watching the plans come out and every weekend it looks different. there are wonders everywhere. host: we will have a couple of

those minutes today. in alabama, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, tim. caller: good morning. i'm in texas right now. on my way to oklahoma to try to find some clear skies to watch the eclipse. host: you are in the car? caller: i'm about a half hour south of dallas. host: why is something you are willing to travel for? caller: i traveled from alabama to san antonio where i made reservations several months ago because the forecast was best there. and that turns out not to be the case. now i am on my way to oklahoma for some clear skies or maybe

arkansas. host: to the caller who was going to take a nap wise is something you plan for months and get the car to travel for? caller: in 2017, i just happen to read something about the eclipse. i thought that's a reason to travel somewhere. i met a friend in denver and we drove up to wyoming for that a clips -- eclipse. it is a unique experiment to see the environment change, the temperature change, it's dark. it is a really unique experience. host: is it life-changing, life-affirming? caller: i don't know about

that. i thought it was a really, really unique experience. i felt really privileged to have that experience. host: anyone with you today? caller: i'm doing it on my own. no one was free this time. i am making the trip solo. host: what do you think about the next one in 2044? caller: i will be 79. hopefully i will get to enjoy that one. i've been hearing about the one in 2026 which will be in iceland and spain and i thought about making plans to travel for that

one. host: the wall street journal talking about that one in 2026 over iceland and spain. thank you for the call. from 1924 to 2020 three there have been 13 solo eclipses across the united states. in the next 100 years only 11 will be visible in the unit states. in 2033 there will be some visible in northern alaska t that's notnt 2044 when it will be in greenland, canada, montana, north and south dakota and another in august 2045 in parts of california, florida and

parts of the bahamas. it's only a couple of hours from now one will be visible in the path of totality running from texas to maine. time for maybe one or two more. this is cody in springfield, missouri. caller: good morning to you. i'm not trying to be gloom and doom but i think it is a warning from god to the united states and way better wake up and pray. i think something big is going to happen after this a clips. -- eclipse. we need to protect israel. if we do not protect israel god will take his hands off the united states.

it will be changing everyone's life. there will be a major earthquake. host: you think it will happen today? caller: no, it is a warning to get the united states to pray and revive. host: you think god has scheduled another one for 2024? caller: i don't even think we will be here by then. that's just my opinion. i think in 40 days of free don't up in 40 days. missouri is on the bible belt that i think there will be a major earthquake like it happens in 1939 when the mississippi ran backwards. it will make the one in los

angeles go off. host: this is marie, the last caller from newport beach, virginia. caller: good morning. i have no exciting plans for the eclipse. i probably won't even be paying attention to it. just a thought of my taxpaying dollars being spent on a natural wonder blows my mind. host: are you talking about nasa? caller: yes, for one. i wonder where all of these free glasses come from? are your libraries and state parks. i imagine that's government funded for a natural wonder? the other piece with the economy the way it is i am surprised.

i understand why people would want to see this awesome wonder. to drive hours with the price of gas that surprises me but i understand, it's a natural wonder. my plan is nothing, really. host: that was our last caller in this first segment. stick around plenty moreplenty . coming up next with the senate in today and the house tomorrow, we will preview the week ahead. will be joined by politico congressional reporr anthony adragna full up later will discuss the state of manufacturing in the u.s. following a recent report of a rebound in the sector. tick around. we will be right back.

♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate rerned from the holiday break. tuesday lloyd austin and under secretary of defseichael mccourt in the cir of the joint chiefs of staff testify before the senate armed services committee for the defense department's fiscal year 2025 budget and future defense programs. on wednesday house managers will deliver articles of impeachment against homeland security secretary mayorkas at the same day the secretary will testify before the house and senate subcommittees. and on thursday the japanese prime minister will address a joint meeting of congress. also fbi director christopher wray testifies before the house appropriations subcommittee for his departments fiscal year 2025 budget. watch live on the c-span

netwks or c-span now. also hit over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on-demand any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. get information on members of government in your hand when you preorder your copy of c-span's 2024 congressional directory. with bio and contact information for every house and senate member of the 118th congress. important information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, and state governors. the congressional directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling and help support our nonprofit organizations. scan the code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to preorder your copy today for delivery this spring. >> c-span has been delivering

unfiltered congressional coverage for 45 years. here are highlights from a key moment. >> although this city was the nation's capital for only a short time, from those early days the eyes of the world have continued to be on new york. one year ago, this great center of history come enterprise common creativity suffered the greatest cruelties and showed itself to be a place of valor and generosity and grace. here, or so many innocent lives were suddenly taken, the world saw acts of kindness and heroism that will be remembered forever. >> c-span, powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: when congress is in session we like to take a look at the week ahead in washington. we are joined by politico congressional reporter anthony adragna.

top of mind is the senate impeachment trial for homeland security secretary mayorkas. i we know how this will play out in the timeline in the senate? guest: a couple of months ago the house went ahead and voted to improve these articles of impeachment. we are expecting them to be delivered to the senate on wednesday. the thing to watch is if senate democrats make an immediate motion to try to do away with the trial. they can do that on a majority vote and a number of the more conservative members of the democratic caucuses, including some up for reelection, have all expressed openness to that idea. i think this will be a swift process. host: are there any democrats who want to see a trial go through? did democrats have the votes to do that? guest: at this point they will have the votes to do away with it. at this point even moderate

republicans who have said this is a policy disagreement, but the case has not been made for why he has committed impeachable offenses. you could see even republicans peel off. host: so this is not a matter of hearing the arguments from the impeachment managers that the house sent over, we will not see that part of this happened? guest: we may not actually get to that stage. republicans made the argument forcefully that they would like to see a full trial conducted. house impeachment managers also called for a full trial but there does not seem to be much appetite among senate democrats to see this play out. host: what has mitch mcconnell said about this? guest: mitch mcconnell would like to see a trial but he has been practical and acknowledged democrats will likely try to do away with this swiftly. host: wednesday when that is set to take place. over the weekend we saw the release of possible bipartisan breakthrough legislation on

american personal data online, that legislation just coming up and being read through. what we know about that process? guest: this was drafted by two washington lawmakers. this is an area that congress has talked about for a long time and has yet to be able to make breakthroughs. the fact that each of these senior lawmakers in a bipartisan way developing this legislation is an indication of the serious effort. we will have to wait a little bit to see if it is socialized and how members respond to it. coming up with a bipartisan breakthrough is pretty significant. host: we do not have a timeline for a floor vote in the house or the senate yet? guest: i am not aware yet. host: on the floor policy front where are we as we are watching additional emergency funding for ukraine and israel.

what is said to happen on that front? guest: all eyes are on speaker johnson. he has floated the idea of innovation to the senate legislation. he has yet to lay out a prompt -- a concrete plan. there are a lot of competing priorities, whether that is ukraine, israel, taiwan. the events last week with the world central kitchen in israel may further complicate the math. it is a fragile coalition. we are working to see what the speaker wants to do. host: one more, we are rapidly approaching the authorization deadline for section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act. revive viewers what that is and what is going to happen this week on that. guest: this is a controversial surveillance tool that allows intelligence agencies to conduct

information collecting -- an unusual coalition. the party affiliations do not break down neatly. far right freedom caucus members teaming up with fairly liberal democrats. it does seem like the version that will be considered is the one advanced by house intelligence chair mike turner, backed by the biden administration. we are expecting them them it's to that package and will see how those go on the floor. it is an unusual party breakdown. host: when do they have to authorize this by? guest: april 19. senator schumer and the senate said they will have to be prepared to move quickly. there fired up senators on this. we will have to see what happens. if they are able to get it out of the house. they failed to pass that so far.

host: the week ahead in congress is our topic. joining us this monday morning is anthony adragna of politico. viewers know him and he is always happy to chat with you. start calling in. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. he is with us for the next 15 or 20 minutes. bringing it to regional news. the baltimore bridge collapse and efforts to get federal funding to rebuild that bridge. what is the latest on that? guest: we are still waiting to see the latest statements from members of the maryland delegations as they believe they will have the funds to immediately respond to this disaster. i would expect congress to get involved. we saw the house freedom caucus last week to underline a set of

conditions they would need to support digital funds to rebuild the bridge and reopen the port of baltimore. the administration did send a letter stop they did not put a dollar figure, but they are still waiting to see maryland's estimate of how much this will cost. i think we are already seeing signs there could be hurdles for them along the way. host: if all that was not enough for you to cover this week, what else are you watching for? guest: there is no shortage of anything else. we will have to see the degree to which folks get engaged on the fiscal 2025 spending fight. i think people -- secretary mayorkas will be testifying as this trial is about to play out. a bunch of fascinating dynamics. there will be addressed by the

japanese prime minister to congress on thursday. host: he does not have to attend the trial, correct? guest: wednesday is when this vote could go down. will he be on capitol hill on wednesday? host: he will be on capitol hill on wednesday. he is testifying one of the committees there. host: your phone calls as we look ahead at the week in washington. anthony adragna is our guest from politico. line for democrats. good morning. caller: i recall mitt romney's book mentioned many republicans were leaning toward impeaching trump but did not because they feared for their personal safety. it seems the same reason arrives to try to impeach mae arcus without any -- since people who

are approached with bribes are legally obligated to report them where they become parties to the bribe, why aren't people announced -- required to announce when they have been threatened to let the public know how many elected officials are having their positions influenced by threats. host: anthony adragna on reporting threats to members of congress. guest: i've not heard it framed that way before. the capitol police tract threats very closely. for security reasons these are not disclosed in the real-time. in the aftermath of january 6 we have seen unprecedented levels of threat. members are talking about waiting to dip into campaign accounts to pay for personal security. no issue.

i think members have spoken about how it can be a deterrent to getting public and stay in public service. no question is a dangerous time. host: that brings up a question of members that have to report or don't report. where are we on members reporting stock sales and the movement of stocks? certainly an issue talked about in the past. what is it in this campaign season. guest: this is one of those issues where there is an unusual coalition in the same place. it seems like every year or two years there is a push to legislate. i have not heard much about it recently. it is hard to keep attention and energy behind trying to advance legislation. host: how long have you been

covering capitol hill politics? where are you now? guest: i started in the energy and environment space. i pushed over to a more general commercial letters and last couple of years. host: what is going on in the energy of environment space right now on capitol hill? guest: the big issue with ukraine funding is the idea of trying to on pause the biden pause on natural gas experts. that is something alluded to before with you. -- i talked to several climate hawks last week said normally, and positions like that in that may cost you our support. you'll have a hard time selling with the coalition to get those past.

host: why is this important to speaker johnson? guest: it is important to speaker johnson because louisiana is a huge exporter of liquefied natural gas. this was done for climate considerations. it'll be interesting to see if there were to be more momentum, how that would play with young voters. certainly that is one of the reasons the biden administration would not support an effort to on pause. host: you mentioned young voters. president biden is headed to wisconsin today. expected announcement on student loan debt relief. guest: i believe i saw headline that will apply to about 23 million people. certainly this is an issue that leader schumer and elizabeth warren and others have all been really fired up about. they would like to see the biden

administration do everything in their power to cancel as much debt as possible in your continuing to see the administration rollout these efforts and clearly it makes a big difference for a lot of people. host: (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans bang, and (202) 748-8002 for independents. we are talking with anthony and drag a looking at the week ahead -- we are talking with anthony adragna. we watch the sunday shows every week to find out the latest of what is going on and what sets the message this week in washington. it seems like there continues to be a lot of discussion about military aid for israel and funding for israel. john kirby was on the sunday shows yesterday with face the nation. this is part of what he said yesterday. >> the senate passed secretary

leon panetta said the israelis usually fire and then ask questions. is the biden administration still submission that there should be zero conditions on aid , military aid to israel. >> i am not going to get ahead of the president or decisions you might make or not make going forward. he was clear with his call that if we do not see changes with his policy and gaza, they will make changes. >> you think these are israeli policies? >> they can decide how they prosecute this war. we just talked about them pulling troops out. they get to decide how they will process operations. we get to decide how we react to that. the president was clear with the prime minister. if things do not get better we will have to make changes of our own.

>> the president is considering withholding, conditioning. for six months we have been hearing this. humanitarian's on our program. >> we see it ourselves. we are not blind to the wrist people are in and the suffering the people of gaza are going through. i will not get ahead of him or three-judge decisions he makes. >> he feel so strongly. why isn't the president out there talking? >> you saw his statement. he will call the prime minister and continue to talk to the american people and members of congress about what we're are doing and what we are not doing. host: john kirby yesterday on "face the nation." your thoughts on that exchange and what does it mean for lawmakers? guest: this is another storyline to watch. there's no question that frustrations have hit a boiling point in the democratic caucus.

tim kaine came out with a statement saying the biden approaches -- the biden administrations approach was not working. usually an ally is reluctant to criticize the president. bernie sanders has been hitting this for quite a while. i think that will further complicate the math and the dynamics around the aid package that hits the outsource -- you'll see house democrats unwilling to rubberstamp aid to israel without concessions from them. host: back to your phone calls. this is john in maryland. independent. you are on with anthony adragna. caller: i am confused when it comes to the debt. they are always talking about how much america owes. yet america spends all this

money to fund migrants. all of this money for foreign aid. when it comes to reparations for black americans all of a sudden they cannot afford it. how is it that america has all this money for foreign aid, all of this money to fun elon musk. they are complaining about debt. it seems to me if you are in debt he did not have all this money to spend. please answer that. don't pass it over. host: debt and foreign aid. guest: is a question we hear all of times on capitol hill. a lot of times house republicans say we are in debt, why are we spending all this money abroad? that is a position that has been advanced by marjorie taylor greene frequently in the context of ukraine and israel funding.

supporters would say he is a national security imperative that is why the u.s. continues to support efforts abroad. the u.s. national debt works out to about $103,000 per u.s. citizen. the biggest drivers of our annual spending medicare -- if you want to focus specifically on the defense budget, it is about $874 billion a year. all of those numbers available at u.s.debtclock.org. this is george in missouri, republican line. caller: good morning and good show as always. i wanted to talk about but i wanted to go with this last caller on the u.s. debt we do not have the money to give

to all of these countries. that is why our debt keeps rising. we just keep printing the money and kicking the can down the road for future generations. there are only just a to get our debt down. one is the government has to quit spending. . two, you must grow the gdp. number three coming must raise taxes. no politician wants to say that. raise taxes on everybody paying taxes, not just the wealthy. you have to raise taxes across the board. as far as israel and hamas, i do not quite understand how people can be siding with hamas. what does a cease-fire do? hamas has said they will go

after israel until there is no more israel. united states is telling people how to run our government. we cannot run our own government. we do not know how to get out of wars. we are trying to control every foreign government around the world. host: what you want to pick up on? guest: that showcases the nuance of the situation in the released. the response to that -- in the middle east. the response you hear from democrats is there a been tens of palestinian deaths and that is part of the toll that must be balanced in terms of policy.

host: just a couple of minutes left with anthony adragna of politico. get your questions in about the week ahead in washington. we started on the senate impeachment trial for joe may orca's. --or mayorkas. we are airing it on c-span2, c-span.org, and the free c-span now app. it was yesterday on this program that a viewer was asking what is going on with the biden impeachment. what is the latest on the efforts by house republicans to impeach the president? guest: obviously james comer and jim jordan are still expecting to rally the troops behind that but republicans publicly and privately concede they do not have the votes. we'll have to wait and see. i would not be surprised if this

is one of the storylines that ends with a whimper. it does not seem like they have picked up a lot of momentum. they have not proven anything. there is not the appetite as we get closer to an election. among many house republicans, to go down that divisive path. host: why? guest: electoral really they think that is a loser. it is a tough vote in the best of times. many of them feel like they have not seen something that would rise to the level of impeachment. host: pennsylvania, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. on the national debt, could you look up something for me? could you check and see what our national debt was in january 2021, the first year of the biden administration.

donald trump added $8 trillion in four years. i want to see how much debt biden has added in four years. the second thing come on the impeachment of mayorkas, i want to ask everybody one question. when george bush led in the 9/11 hijackers and 3000 americans were killed, who got impeached over that? who got impeached over the phony war in iraq when thousands of soldiers were killed and injured because of the phony war in iraq. who got impeached over that. as far as israel, since congress makes the rules, can't congress stop sending arms to israel and stop funding israel? thank you. host: a lot in that call.

guest: a lot there. i wanted to get back to the point on impeachment. it is something i've heard from talking to rank-and-file members of congress for the last half year, this idea that impeachment has become a tool that used to be -- it is used routinely now and he is to be something that was extraordinary. many of them think congress itself -- return the process of impeachment used in extraordinary surfaces, and that is something we are you with democrats and the tit for tat whenever an opposing party is in power. host: the joe biden number is not accurate, but over the four years of the trump presidency,

the contribution to the national debt eight point true trillion dollars, during barack obama $8.34 trillion. george w. bush, $6.1 trillion. bill clinton, $1.4 trillion. george h. w. bush, $1.55 trillion -- below ronald reagan is less than $1 billion for president. that story came out in june of last year. helpful for viewers who may be interested. what haven't we talked about? guest: i think we have hit everything. it is important underscore the fact that all of these will be really heavy left.

speaker johnson is in month six of his speakership, still trying to get his legislative legs. something i think will be interesting is how he navigates -- he will allow amendments the basic to plated some of the concerns. they have tried twice and not been successful. how he navigates that will be interesting for how he navigates further fights with foreign aid, the baltimore bridge. it will be an interesting test case for how he navigates the next steps. all this with the looming threat from marjorie taylor greene of the motion to vacate. i do not think there are many people up for another fight in terms of trying to pick a new speaker yet again. it is interesting to see how he navigates these thorny political

issues. host: we appreciate these previews of the week ahead on capitol hill. coming up, will be joined by scott paul of the alliance for manufacturing to discuss the state of manufacturing in united states. until then, it is open forum. a political issue you want to talk about, the phone lines are yours. the numbers are on your screen. ♪ >> this week is the opening of the impeachment trial of homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. only the second cabinet member in u.s. history to be impeached by the house. wednesday, house impeachment managers led which homeland security chair mark green delivers two articles of impeachment to the senate. refusing to comply with immigration laws and breach of public trust.

patty murray presides over the trial. the senate will be sworn in as jurors. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell says the chamber is expected to vote on whether to dismiss or kill the impeachment charges. live coverage wednesday on c-span2. on c-span now, our free mobile video app and online at c-span.org. >> celebrating the 20th anniversary of our documentary competition, this year c-span asks middle and high school students to look forward while considering the past. participants are given the option to look 20 years into the future or 20 years into the past and in response we received thought provoking documentaries from over 3,000 countries across 42 states. our top award of $5,000 for the grand prize goes to nate coleman and jonah rothline from connecticut. their compelling documentary

innocence held hostage, navigating past and future conflicts with iran. >> it is evident that in the next 20 years the united states must make more policy that places heavy restriction on all americans traveling to iran because not only will we see less hostage taking but the united states will no longer have to participate in such considerable negotiations with iran. >> congratulations to our winners and be sure to watch the top 21 winning documentaries on c-span every day this month. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policies are debated all with support of america's cable company.

c-span, 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: time this morning for other open forum, any political issue that you want to talk about. now is your time to call in. republicans, it's 202-748-8001. democrats, 1-202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. we will get to your calls in just a second. we want you to be aware of what is going on today on the c-span networks. at 10:00 a.m. after this program ends, we will be taking you to a preview of the japanese prime minister's official visit to the united states. it will feature the united states ambsador to japan, rahm emmanual. that event taking place at the center for strategic and international studies. 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and

the free c-span now mobile video app. also today author jonathan height will discuss the impact of social media on american life. that event hosted byhe american enterprise institute and that is takinplace at 5:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org and the video app. at 1:00 p.m. today or starting at 1:00 p.m. today we will be streaming the nasa coverage of the solar eclipse here on c-span but also on c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. if you are in one of those places where it's too cloudy to watch, why don't you check out nasa's coverage of the eclipse. you can watch it here on the c-span networks. your phone calls now in open forum. this is theresa in tennessee, republican up first. go ahead. caller: good morning. first of all, i hope mike

johnson is listening to your show this morning. we do not support sending more money to ukraine. we spent over 1-dz00 billion so far and what i don't understand with mike johnson, he voted against every ukraine funding bill as a congress member, but now as a speaker of the house, he is all of a sudden supporting it. it would be different if this was the ending of aid to ukraine. this is just the down payment. it's increased. it went from $60 billion, now it's $66 billion. it's just a down payment. they're going to want money to reconstruct the country and in a few months, they'll be wanting more money. i do not understand. he will lose the house. we republicans will -- go ahead. host: do you think if a vote happens here or say the senate ukraine aid package gets put on

the floor, do you think speaker johnson should lose the gavel? caller: absolutely, 100%, because he is not doing what the people who put him in office want him to do. they're against this aid to ukraine and the american people are. this is the red line. if they fund ukraine, i don't think they keep the house. they're not going to keep the house over it. and why is he willing to lose the house to give that money to ukraine? i don't understand. host: that's theresa in tennessee. this is the headline from "the wall street journal" this morning. ukraine aid package remains a mystery. the very large picture going with that story, picture of speaker mike johnson. this is dave in bloomington, indiana. good morning. caller: hi there. this is dave. i just wanted to go back to your first thing today, asking about the eclipse. we got my brother and his wife

from illinois and we are going to have a couple of ribs and corn from the garden last summer, home head mack roana -- home made macaroni salad. we were coming back from colorado, hadn't heard much. we have been in colorado for three weeks and hadn't heard much about the eclipse. we stopped at a res area in missouri and there wasn't nobody there. we parked our truck and trailer and wept to sleep about midnight, got up about 6:00. i opened the door to the trailer and there are people all over the place. i said, i don't know is going on but there's people everywhere. blankets and chairs right around our truck and trailer. the shelters, they had a big buffet set up. the place was packed.

so i walked the dogs and put things together, getting ready to leave. people said you aren't going to leave, are you? we want to get home. so we got to -- get their truck and trailer out. they had more room to sit around and enjoy the eclipse. we glanced at it a bit out the sun roof on the truck and -- host: still with us, dave? dave, i think you are still there. caller: yeah, i am still here. host: a moment you realize today more for family and to be together? caller: you are breaking up on me. host: that's all right, dave. thanks for sharing your story, your eclipse stories. happy to hear those. we spent our first hour hearing from viewers of what you are doing for today's solar eclipse. this is kyle in illinois,

independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to point out that when you add the numbers about the national debt, it seemed like that was a little out of date. currently biden looks like about $7 trillion sips he took office -- since he took office compared to trump's $8 trillion. host: i don't know the exact number right now of the debt during the biden administration. can certainly look that up for you. the caller was talking about comparisons with the obama and trump administration. the debt is something that does concern you? caller: yeah, of course. like i said, the list there, it said $1.8 trillion. i ran the numbers and it was around $7 trillion. so it looked like that was a little out of date. that's all i wanted to point out. host: kyle, when did you first start paying attention to the national debt?

caller: oh, probably a good 10 years ago maybe, when i got out of high school. host: and why was that something that a high school graduate felt like he needed to pay attention to? caller: well, i was always versed in social studies and it's something we always were talking about, and i have always paid attention since. host: do you think congress is paying enough attention to that issue? caller: unfortunately, no. host: that's kyle in illinois. this is susan in newport, kentucky, republican. good morning. caller: good morning, john. i am calling about something that i am concerned about that i heard on late night radio show a few weeks ago, and it was concerning someone talking about 700,000 chinese military soldiers are planning to invade

our northern border. host: you think we are going to be attached tacked by china from the north? caller: yes, that's what they said. host: what do you think? caller: it's possible because everyone is looking at the southern border, not concerned with the northern border. as i understand from the speaker, they said that the plan is being coordinated by some communists in the biden administration along with justin truedo, who is the prime minister of canada. host: why would canada want china to attack us? caller: why would china attack us? host: why would canada want china to attack us? caller: through canada? what is your question, john? host: why do you believe this is going to happen, susan, i guess is my question.

caller: because china has always been our enemy and they already are invading our country here and there and trying to take us over because they're probably our number one enemy. host: susan in kentucky. this is bill in wisconsin. good morning, you are next. caller: yeah, john? host: yes, sir. caller: yeah, i just wanted to call about the eclipse coming up. this is kind of maybe religious connotation and that is if you look to the book that talks about when jesus was crucified he hung on the cross for three hours, from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. the whole earth was dark. so that's lotifferent than

this three or four minutes like with what we are going to which is a wonderful spectacle. but it can't compare to what the sun of god did. that's all i got to say. thank you. bye. host: that's bill in wisconsin. north carolina, this is john, independent. good morning. caller: hey, good morning. host: go ahead. caller: first time caller. can you hear me? host: yes, sir. what do you want to talk about? caller: the border. i just want to bring up a point. you can check me if you want. when trump got in office, first year, 2017, he had paul ryan as the leader of the house. he had mitch mcconnell as the leader of the senate. i keep hearing people talk about closing the border. they could have made a law then and close $the border -- closed

the border. this is for all the republicans out there. they were more concerned about taking away women's rights. with the abortion rights. they came in, he was writing sharpie notes. he was writing -- how you want to call it -- executive orders about the border. co-have -- he could have closed the border. him, paul ryan, and moscow mitch. they had everything in line. they had the entire senate and the house and he was a republican president. everybody have a good day. but you could check me on that if you want. thank you. host: steve in wisconsin, good morning. caller: good morning. was just wanting to say that i think the national debt information that you showed is a little bit wrong, as far as bill clinton, when he left office, he had completely eliminated the

national debt, what i remember the statement was, it was only after the war, you know, that -- host: the debt wasn't eliminated. are you talking about a balanced budget? so there wasn't a deficit for a year? caller: that's what -- ok, maybe. maybe i misunderstood then. i was thinking that the national debt had been completely eliminated. by clinton. host: the debt is all deficits added up over the years, and if the budget is balanced it would add nothing to the federal debt that year. but the debt has been going up with each presidency. caller: ok, very good. thank you very much. host: steve in wisconsin. this is diane in key west, florida, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john.

i wanted to speak about the housing because i remember when greenspan during the bush era had put the interest rate at zero and everybody wept to the races. everybody used their homes for second mortgages. they would buy a house, flip it, make money and at that time houses became an investment, a good moneymaker. then we had in 2007 the mortgage crisis where people who whatever reason they couldn't make their loans. they would try to negotiate with banks and the banks wouldn't negotiate. these people lost their homes. the only ones who could afford -- well, we had corporations buying up slews of housing and today it continues. the only people who really can afford homes are these companies, not the ordinary mom and pop. i say we should have a law, if you are going to buy a house you

have to live there full time. and stop this investment in houses because we need places to live. you cannot build your way out of this. we have places like key west, environmentally sensitive, we cannot fit any more houses here. we are overpopulated. we have so much traffic. then you have pollution. you have other stresses that happens to communities when you have too much housing. so that's what is happening right now. you can't rezone and fix the problem. i say that we should have a law, if you buy a house, you have to live there full time and stop this investing in homes to make -- to use as investments and make money. thank you very much. host: diane in florida. this is james in louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to talk about isms in congress. host: isms did you say?

caller: yes, like capitalism, patriotism. our congress seems to be concerned with the wrong things these days. things that they have no control over and should not mandate. you cannot mandate patriotism. i saw a statistic a few weeks ago where i believe one of our presidents complained about a do nothing congress and that year, they passed almost 900 bills. last year congress passed 27 bills, just 27. that number stuck with me because it seems to be the same number that the declaration of independence -- we have 27 amendments to our constitution. the republicans seem to always pick on the second amendment, which only has 27 words.

they're stuck on 27. that's the number of bills they passed. so congress, quit pointing your fingers and i think today they're going to take up an impeachment of mr. mayorkas when they had the very ability to pass the laws that would have done something about what they're impeaching this man about. host: the impeachment trial set to take place on wednesday, and c-span coverage of course on c-span2 on wednesday when that happens. you can watch live here on the c-span networks. keep calling in for our open forum, new public policy, political issue you want to talk about. now is your time to call in. we are going to take a trip over to election 2024, check in on the week ahead, when it comes to the campaign trail. to do that this morning, we are joined by erin daugherty.

good morning. >> good morning. host: one of the things you have been tracking is the money race when it comes to election 2024. what is the latest on fundraising numbers for joe biden and donald trump campaigns? >> the biden campaign announced this weekend that they entered april with $90 million, they raised $90 million in march. that's a huge total and comes as the biden campaign and d.n.c. has already had a huge cash advantage over former president trump and the republican national committee. the d.n.c. and biden campaign was boosted this month by two big fundraisers. biden got a huge grassroots fundraising surge after his fiery state of the union address early last month. he also hosted a star studded fundraiser with former presidents■] clinton and barack obama last month in new york that brought in $25 million and was what the campaign said was the larmingest political --

largest political fundraiser of all time. this weekend the trump campaign hosted a fundraiser at his home where his campaign said he raised $50 million. that's a massive total and is crucial to the trump campaign's fundraising. they have been lagging. the biden campaign and d.n.c. in fundraising through this cycle. it's certainly going to give the trump campaign a boost and also sends a strong message that the wealthy republican donors are starting to line up hyped trump. host: you mention the grass roots fundraising and the big dollar events. for both these campaigns, is it 50/50? does one campaign do more of the big dollar side than the other? what do we know about breaking down with the money is coming from? >> yes, the biden campaign said that their grassroots donations fuel their fundraising during the first quarter and grassroots

donations are a huge sign of enthusiasm and support among voters for a campaign. these donations are considered donations upped $200 and so these aren't necessarily going to be as splashy as the fundraiser that former president trump had this weekend which is big ticket numbers. but at the same time, in november kind of what matters is these voters who turn out. the grassroots donations are a key sign of enthusiasm for a campaign, and both biden and trump are appealing to these grassroots donors. trump has sent out fundraising calls following speeches and rallies and if he has a court appearance for instance, and so both of these campaigns are appealing to the grassroots donations and trying to balance between appealing to the largest donors while also ensure that on the ground support and grassroots donors are very excited for their candidacy. host: the first quarter ending on march 31, the fundraising announce nounsments come at

the end of the quarter and you can dig through the reports once they're released. when are they fully released? when can reporters get their hands on these reports? >> those are coming in the middle of april and also later this month something that's interesting, the joint fundraising committees will be required to file their public filings with the s.e.c. so that will be the first time we have a good look at trump's joint fundraising committees because these candidates have various vehicles for fundraising. that will be a first real look at trump's money across his various committees. host: then there's outside groups who are gearing up to spend heavily on election 2024. anything interesting on that front that you've seen in this first quarter of this election year? >> on the democratic side, outside groups have pledged to spend a lot of money on biden's re-election campaign and the biden campaign is leaning into

this messaging as a way to show that democrats across the board are unified around his candidacy. going forward, i think that will see outside groups are going to ramp up their spending on both sides. it's only april. the general election has -- we have been in general election mode for the last month or so, so this is gearing up to be the longest and most expensive general election campaign in recent history. so i do think that we can expect to see these campaigns continue to appeal to the grassroots donors and big donors, but at the same time these outside groups have a lot of time and -- time to donate ahead of november and frankly niece campaigns will need that money. host: final question as we look at the week ahead on the campaign trail, anything knowable -- notable you are watching for this week? >> so earlier this morning, former president trump, he had a video announcement that he posted on his truth social account talking about his

abortion positioning and so trump has sort of dodged questions previously on the trail about his abortion positioning and he said this morning that he thinks that abortion should be left up to the states. this comes after his campaign has sort of floated a possible 15 or 16-week federal abortion ban. it was about an hour ago this morning. so i think i will be watching this week, on both sides, to see how republicans further to his right are reacting to that message and also how democrats and the biden campaign respond and try to continue to cast republicans as sort of weak on reproductive messaging. host: political reporter at axios, great place to go to for the latest on these campaign finance numbers. thanks for your time this morning. >> thank you so much. host: about five minutes left am open forum. taking your phone calls, any topic you want to talk about. now is your time. this is robert waiting in

florida, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i was calling in regards to serving in the military and specifically in my case the marines. after a couple of years ago, i don't know if you are familiar, but they passed that act. they found that a lot of the marines, civilians that served in vietnam and camp lejeune had had many kanes, many -- cancers, many babies were distorted and a lot of women lost their breasts, had all sorts of cancers. right now according to all the attorneys that are working the case, approximately 178,000 plaintiffs have filed that have served our country honorably or were the families of honorably served veterans.

in recent weeks and months that have been going on, the biden d.o.j. has basically given 178,000 families the finger and i will give you an example. the other day they were in the judge's chambers and the d.o.j. attorney came out and he said, you know, all these veterans should have known what they were getting into before they signed up to serve our country and to keep everyone protected. now if you call that honorable by the biden d.o.j., there is something radically wrong when you can go do the right thing, keep you free right now to speak to me, and you sit there and give us all the double middle finger but yet you got enough money to erase student loan debt, fly illegals into the country, pay for all this

nonsense and i think someone should definitely look into why they are not reimbursing these poor people, especially the women and children and families that had to sit there and nurse these kids that ended up distorted, died. i mean, i never knew this happened until all this discovery came out and we have been on zoom calls together. host: you mentioned the pact act honoring our pact act of 2022, standing for the promise to address comprehensive toxics act of 2022. jim is next in virginia, republican. good morning. caller: yes, good morning, sir. thank you for taking my call. i enjoy the conversation the man was making about student debt there. that's what i would like to talk about. the supreme court ruled that the president did not have the right to forgive debt. it's not a matter of forgiving

debt. it's accepting more debt for this country by forgiving student loans. the president should be -- is the chief executive officer of this country and should abide by the laws of the country. to me, that will be an impeachable offense. he doesn't go by the laws of the country, he can do whatever he wants to, how can he get by disregarding the supreme court which ruled that his forgiving of student debt is not legal? unconstitutional. that's number one question. the other one is, i've called before about this. congress, the government continually spends money that they do not have. they give it away like it's water. this has got to stop. we cannot we cannot continually go into debt every year. something's going to happen down the road that will really hurt this country.

that is my comment. thank you for taking it. host: on student loan debt, "the hill" newspaper with this on the front page of the website. biden administration announced new student loan plans that would provide relief to millions of americans if finalized. the plans would largely affect those with runaway interest as well as borrowers paying on loans for 20 years that qualify for forgiveness under loan-driven forgiveness plans. they would experience $20,000 of forgiveness regardless of income. those who qualify would get the full balance under unpaid interest forgiveness that would result in 25 million americans getting relief from balance growth garnered by unpaid interest. that is from "the hill" newspaper this morning. you will likely see more stories on that throughout the day.

this is david in frankfort, kentucky. by the way, open forum goes until 9: 15 this morning, so we have plenty of time for your calls. keep calling in online for republicans, democrats, and independents. david is a democrat in kentucky. go ahead. caller: if you wonder why people think kentucky ends are ignorant, all you had to do was listen to the lady that called in from newport, kentucky, a few minutes ago. she actually thinks there are 700,000 chinese that could possibly come through canada and invade our northern border. i guarantee you, never met the woman, but she votes for trump and she believes every word that comes out of that man's mouth. i will also correct the guy that called in right after her. jesus did not hang on the cross from 6:00 to 9:00. he hung on the cross from 9:00

for 3:00. thank you. host: scott is in l.a., independent, good morning. caller: good morning to you. i want to get a quick shout out to the really pleasant fellow who answers that phone, just tremendous. the reason i am calling, you are guaranteed to remember my call today, brother, because i will be telling you in no uncertain terms that r.f.k. junior is going to be the next president. the reason i say that, we have so many independents right now that feel like me and are real tired of these political systems that are so entrenched. just a moment on these two professional liars. donald trump's said e. jean carroll was not his type.

they put a picture in front of him and he picked her out as being his wife. if you had a laugh track, this would be the spot for it. you need to show that to the american people. when it comes to joe biden, i would not know where to start. i guess my favorite is the fire in hawaii was like the fire in his kitchen. i think the american people have had it with these congenital, professional, died in the wall, certified, bona fide liars. host: speaking of voting for independents, we have had political scientists on the program and people say they are open to voting for an independent. that is something they would be willing to consider, but then people get into the voting booth and a lot of those people who say they are open to voting independent go back to voting democrat or republican.

they are worried about wasting their vote. what are your thoughts on that or your message to those people that may apply to? caller: well, obviously, it is a great point you make. it is historically beyond accurate. i just think this is the year that is going to be so unique and different and special. and as the time goes on, as kennedy seems to catch a little bit of traction and gets a little more coverage and talks about the peace that he stands for, the world peace, enough with these wars already, people dying on a daily basis, and he just goes on and on, i just think you are going to see that as time goes on, people are going to say, you know what, his numbers are going up, let me take another look at him here.

let me analyze what he has got to say about everything. like everything else we do in this life, we weigh it all up, now we come to our own conclusions picked that is why your show is tremendous. this year will be tremendous to follow. i promise there has never been a political year like you are about to see. i think you so much. you have been so gracious to me. god bless america, man, and god bless c-span. thank you so much. host: that is got out of l.a. this is tom, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, john. thanks for taking my call. i wanted to follow up on the woman from kentucky who called in and encourage. i know c-span is independent and

want people to talk. i was hoping you could have given her another minute or two to ask her some questions about why she thinks the chinese are going to be invading from canada. host: i think i asked that exact question. caller: you did ask the question. she did not quite hear it. she was confused for a second. someone interrupted. i am just saying, those kind of moments where there is an adult, a voter in this country that really believes the chinese are going to invade from canada, it would be great if we could stop and really communicate with her and ask her. you did ask the question. why would canada want to support 700,000 troops invading the united states? i thought it would have been great if you could have spent more time with her, only because it is i believe such a ridiculous idea, and yet she is

an american voter that believes this. it would be great to have a minute of discussion where others can hear what she is thinking and hopefully she could come to some terms of maybe this is sort of a ridiculous idea. how do you invade and take over the united states from the canadian border with any kind of credibility. host: do you think she would come to that conclusion? caller: probably not. she just did not have any factual basis. i do not know. i guess you guys talked over each other for half a second. i just wanted to hear her try to imagine a little more of what she was saying. you had asked her, why would canada, why would justin trudeau want to do this? it is so ridiculous.

i am afraid other people in kentucky or around the country have gotten this information. you guys do a fantastic job. this is so important for our country to be hearing this stuff. someone like me listens to this, how can this person believe it? it is unbelievable. i was just prompted to call in. i have never called in before previewed to a great show. host: hope to hear from you again down the road. lisa in massachusetts, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, jonathan. nice to talk to you this morning. disinformation. there is so much disinformation that goes around these days. that is a lot of why that woman thought the chinese were going to invade. anyway, one thing i wanted to call about was ukraine. the woman called earlier and

said, why did we find them? i do not understand all of this. care must be all of this russian disinformation -- there must be all of this russian disinformation. why do we stand when one country tries to invade a sovereign nation? it rice me crazy. i do not like war. i think we should give ukraine the tools they need to defend themselves grade i just wish that god would step in. i watch them and i think, cannot believe all these people just want to give the land to putin. it is just horrible. host: just to come back to the woman on china invading through canada, we try not to do conspiracy theories here. caller: i agree. host: you are the third caller

who has called in about her call specifically. caller: [laughter] host: why do you think she struck such a nerve with colors in the past 15 minutes? caller: i think it is disinformation could that is not my was calling. i was calling for the woman earlier that was hoping that mike johnson would listen and would not fund ukraine. it makes me sad they are like, i don't know, why do you love russia so much? why do you want to give another country away to somebody that is going to try to invade them? host: dan in new york, your next. -- you are next. it is open forum. caller: love c-span, call in when i can. i like that the caller pointed

out r.f.k., jr. i do not think he is getting enough coverage. every time they try to pull apart his stance on vaccinations or some particular issue, they get down to the nitty-gritty of anything he may have said and they take it out of context. and yet, when president biden or former president trump say something directly that is completely wrong or beyond the pale, nobody really cares about that. i think people need to give r.f.k., jr., a better chance. when you think about the presidents we have had in our country, not more contemporary, but original presidents, their ability to speak their mind and talk about in-depth issues was really important. if you think of the presidents the last two we have had, certainly they are no great orators in any respect. the last thing i wanted to say

is you had this the rotarian person on the other day. i was so disgusted by what that person had to say, it seemed like they were so lost. we don't need public education, it is not important. if you listen to some of the callers that call in, you would realize how important public education is. yes, maybe we need to improve it, but the federal education is not what is to blame. it is normally the states to have taken on more control or not provided for the public education system as it should be done so. host: could i come back to r.f.k., jr., for a second? caller: sure. host: if he is going to make a significant impact or win in november, he would need to pull a lot of support from people who traditionally vote democrat or republican. there are a lot of newspaper articles written now about who r.f.k., jr., pulls more support

from, democrats or republicans. as somebody who seems to support r.f.k., jr., calling him on the republican line, what do you think the answer is to that? caller: i am a moderate republican. i think 63% of the electorate in this country are people in the middle. you may swing a little left or right and you may define what party you are based on some core values you may have, but i think 64% of the population is in the middle and they are looking for someone who is more of a centrist and looking out for the greater good of the country and people in general. i do not believe the democrats are right. they feel like subsidizing everything is the way to go. i do not think the ultra right wing republicans are right. i think most people out there are good, honest people, average people, just looking for a voice. what hurts r.f.k., jr., is the

fact the media does not give him enough coverage. the fact it is not explained that the way he speaks is a disability he has. it is not a choice he is that way. people should really listen to what he has to say and do more research into that person. i think he would be decent. his vice presidential pick? i wish he had picked somebody a little more, had a little more government experience, but i am open-minded to that. we just had someone with no government expense be president for four years and despite what people said, he did not do a horford -- horrific job. i think give r.f.k., jr., a chance. host: in new york, this is art, independent. caller: how you doing? i have one or two things i want

to talk about pretty the first is immigration, how it was under obama and how it ended up under trump. under obama, the grayson's at the border were 351,000. when trump took over and expanded, over one million. it seems a lot of what he talked about has a lot of disinformation attached to it. i believe it is time we changed our elections from days to weekends. it should be on the weekend. the two-day weekend to allow more people to vote. many people cannot vote because they work. by the time they get to work, they are too tired to go vote. i personally think the best thing we can do for national elections is allow them to be

performed on the weekends. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: that is art in illinois, our last caller in this open forum. about 45 minutes to go this morning. in that time, we will talk about the state of u.s. manufacturing. we will be joined by scott paul of the alliance for american many factoring -- manufacturing. stick around for that discussion. we will be right back. ♪ >> on wednesday, president biden in the first lady host a state dinner honoring the prime minister. what's guest arrivals starting at 5:30 eastern on our website or our free mobile video app. later, we will feature highlights from the evening including the prime minister's

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>> browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home decor, and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime. >> "washington journal" continues. host: a conversation now on the state of american manufacturing. back at our desk this morning, it is scott paul, president of the alliance for american manufacturing. how many manufacturers does your organization represent? when we say manufacturing, what kind of manufacturing are we talking about? guest: great question. thank you for having me on. i appreciate the opportunity to share thoughts with you any c-span listeners. it is a labor business partnership which is kind of

rare in washington. usually, they are at odds over a lot of issues paid we have been in operation about 17 years. it is a collaboration between the steelworkers union, america's largest industrial union. they represent not only workers in steel,, tires, they make gatorade, bottled for vodka, a lot of things like that. also, some of the manufacturers that the steelworkers have a bargaining relationship with. we are more a partnership of companies that have a collective bargaining relationship with the workers. host: how do you navigate that relationship at a time when we hear about battles between labor and management? guest: from the plant level on up, there will always be areas where there is collaboration and agreement and areas where there is not. we focus on the policy areas

where there is joint interest in making progress of either stopping bad things from happening for help and good things to start happening. all of that is focused around the idea we want strong manufacturing in this country, that it is the backbone of the middle class and important for innovation, national security, well-paying jobs. there is an array of policies on which there is surprising agreement between the companies and the union that we are able to have a focus on. host: is manufacturing strong post-pandemic for american manufacturing? guest: great question. the data tells slightly different stories. the first and most important thing is manufacturing jobs and output made more than a full bounceback after the pandemic-reduced recession --

pandemic-induced recession. that is the first time it has happened post-world war ii where it regained all the jobs lost during recession. that is number one. number two, we have seen over the last year or more than a year we have seen manufacturing job growth has slowed quite a bit, in particular compared to all of the jobs numbers i know that you see every month that have been quite high. there are a couple of reasons. one is people have stop hoarding goods as they did during the pandemic and are doing services and things like that now, so they are spending dollars a little different. number two, the fed interest rate policy is having an impact because manufacturing is capital-intensive. you have to borrow to do that. borrowing costs are higher. that restrains some of the growth as well. third, and this is kind of the ironic reason, because the

united states economy is so strong relative to the rest of the world our export markets are not what they used to be. all of these other countries, and secretary yellen was just in china talking about china's industrial capacity, all of these other countries are trying to find a way to boost their economies by sending goods to the united states. that creates import competition. that limits the amount of manufacturing job growth we see. there is reason to be optimistic in the future because we also see a record amount of factory construction taking place in the united states in a variety of industries. that is something we also have not seen for a generation. host: i want to get to import competition. in general, how many manufacturing jobs are there in this country? are they all at companies with hundreds and thousands of employees? is there such a thing as a mom-and-pop manufacturer? guest: great question.

there are about 13 million manufacturing jobs in the united states. it is less than 10% of employment right now. it used to be 40% or 50% post-world war ii. that has come down quite a bit but is still quite robust. the majority of manufacturers are the small firms. maybe 10, 20, 50 people. there tends of thousands of these -- there are tens of thousands of these firms around the country. host: what is an example? guest: someone selling a part into the auto supply chain, a fastener or something. i will not know the brand name, but you probably utilize it every day in some respect. it is a part that goes into a washing team or complex vehicles. there are a couple of sectors that have an outsized influence on manufacturing in durable goods, things people will buy every once in a while but will

last a long time. things like automobiles or airplanes which people do not buy but airlines do. they have massive value chains. thing of all of the parts inside your car or an airplane. those are all made by a lot of different companies around the united states and around the globe. yes, we do have some factories that employ thousands of people like tesla in fremont or ford in detroit, or a bunch of other places. the majority of manufacturing are the smaller firms located in urban areas and in small towns that provide a good employment base there. host: there is a special line in this segment. if you work in manufacturing, we especially want to hear from you this morning with scott paul from the alliance for american manufacturing. 202-748-8003 is that number. otherwise, phone lines as usual for republicans, democrats, and

independents. mr. paul is with us until the end of our program today. happy to take your phone calls. staying on jobs for a second. how much are humans losing their to robots in manufacturing question mark guest: good question print that is one of the big debates you see in economics. what caused manufacturing job loss? is it robots and automation or import competition or the changing economy? the answer is robotics and automation probably puts a ceiling on the amount of jobs that can be created. but the more important questions are, what is our share of the pie? how much of the world are we producing for? we consume about 20% of the world's products in the united states even though we have 5% of the world's population, but we produce far less than that. there is a lot of slack made up

by china, india, mexico, what have you print that has had a dampening effect on manufacturing. the most important factors for whether or not manufacturing is going to grow is the overall economy is strong. number two is, what does the rest of the world look like right now? are they buying goods or trying to sell goods? that relates to import competition and trade. number three is, are we turning those innovations, that productivity, back into new products we are manufacturing here in the united states? this is one of the great debates we are seeing on ev's, for instance. they are coming to the united states at some point in time. when is the only question, and who is going to make them is the other question. if we do not make them, we will see our manufacturing sector shrink quite a bit. but if we do, we have the opportunity for expansion. manufacturing has seen robotics

and automation decades. it has been a fact of life. the thing that has a bigger impact on manufacturing jobs in the united states has been that share of the pie which has shrunk, and also the import competition. host: you use that buzz term, import competition, a couple of times. this is janet yellen friday talking about her concerns about china overcapacity and import competition. [video clip] >> overcapacity is a new problem but it has intensified. we are seeing emerging risks in new sectors. [indiscernible] direct and indirect governance affecting capacity and demand. [indiscernible] what the global market can bear. i understand policies may be driven by domestic objectives.

but overcapacity can lead to large volumes of exports at [indiscernible] prices. this is can undercut business of american firms and workers and india and mexico and can lead to overconcentration of supply chains putting at risk global economic resilience. host: that was the treasury secretary friday. your thoughts on what she had to say? guest: this was an important trip secretary yellen made to china. i think she is generally regarded around the world as the most dovish in the trade sphere in the biden administration. so for her to deliver such a powerful message in beijing is very impactful. she very well-regarded there. she also realizes one of the major challenges this administration is facing is that it has invested trillions of dollars in trying to create a

new type of production in the united states, clean energy, semiconductor chips, rebuilding our infrastructure. if chinese firms with the massive support they get from the commonest party, tens of billions of dollars over decades , that could wipe all of that out in terms of job creation in the united states before we get started. host: how did this go over in china when she said it? guest: i think they agreed to disagree, to put it mildly. even before the secretary took the trip, i am not one optimistic about our ability to get beijing to change policies. that has proven to be a fruitless task over the last couple of decades. there was a lot of hope they would suddenly reform and become more democratically and economically open, this could be

great for everyone. it did not work out that way. we have all this evidence now. i think there is a real realization we may not be able to change beijing's behavior but we are going to call them out on it and we are going to take steps to defend our own interests. some of that may involve supporting our own industries print some of that may be involved in listing -- involve enlisting our allies to push back. some of it may be maintaining or erecting tariffs in the united states. host: we have ready for you. archie, independent, you are on with scott paul. caller: yes, sir. my question is, during the 1980's during the reagan administration, it was pushed everyone should have a college education, neglecting that baby boomers were having the manufacturing jobs as well as

construction jobs. after the time has gone on, in the year 2000 when they moved the building trades and everything out of the high schools to teach students how to use their hands, they said we would become a service industry. that may be true or not. we are not a service industry because baby boomers such as myself is retiring and we do not have the manufacturing base anymore in this country. my question is, how and why did manufacturing let this happen? we outsourced our best because the ones who were building it and doing it were born in the 1940's and 1950's and 1960's. host: let me let scott paul pick that up. guest: great question archie asks. i will say this.

i do not think manufacturing let it happen. i think money talks, policy talks and sets the parameters about what is possible. it was the policy of the united states government from democratic and republican administrations to vote open trade, expand markets in the hope of making countries our allies and making them more democratic, number one. number two, there was this theory that in order to advance as a society, more people needed a four-year college degree. we deemphasized career and technical education. we emphasized the four-year institutions. and now, we are in a situation where we need plumbers, welders, electricians. there are more than 500,000 open manufacturing jobs in any given month. it could be colleges that use to provide this or the high schools that use to classes.

this is now an issue. but you cannot turn this around overnight. this problem took decades to build up. i think there is this deep understanding that we went too far and there has to be a balance. i remember seeing an article in "the wall street journal" a few weeks ago about how gen z has this new interest in working with their hands and becoming skilled trades people because you can earn $100,000 with a year or two of training and you will not have student debt, unlike college, so it has become more attractive. i think we are getting it. i think wall street and both political parties said this is the way it is going to be. unfortunately, we are saying we told you so, this went too far, let's bring back some balance. host: what has been the biden administration's policy on tariffs? donald trump has floated more

than 60% tariffs on chinese imports. what would that mean for u.s. manufacturing? guest: let's talk about the biden administration first. the biden administration has kept in place a lot of the tariffs established during the last administration on chinese products in particular but also on many steel and aluminum products from countries around the world. that has helped to stabilize those industries. it has helped to start a movement of supply chains out of china. not all of those are coming back to the united states for some are going to mexico, through vietnam. it started a bit of the strategic decoupling where it is not decoupling for everything but for the things that might be most important for our economy such as semiconductors. we are looking at other sources for that now.

i fully expect the biden administration will maintain that. i do not see them ratcheting back these tariffs. as for the trump administration's 60% proposal, there's already tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of chinese products right now. 60%, trump likes to talk in round numbers. you see 60%, 10%, 25%. i think a policy with respect to china and tariffs need to take into account if there are substitutes for it, how important it is for the u.s. economy, are there other places we can make this, is this something we should consider scaling up so manufacturers have time to make a plan b? i think this is his starting offer. i do not know where it would end up.

with the china tariffs in the last administration, the headline was 25%. the truth was summer 10%. there were a lot of waivers given and what have you. there will always be exceptions to that. i think from a talking point perspective, my observation of the president, president trump, former president trump, is he likes to talk in round numbers people can understand. it reminds me of herman cain's 999 tax plan, something i will never forget because of the numerical alliteration. host: thank you for waiting. caller: i like the show, good subject. i am in naples, which is god's waiting room this time of year. in the summertime, i am up in metropolitan detroit. what scares me is i look around and see a bunch of people who are not capable of working, whether they are too old or they

are young people who do not have the skills to do the jobs of today. i think a lot of them are not capable of getting out of bed in the morning on a regular basis in a timely manner. it scares the heck out of me. i would like to hear your guest's comments on that. host: on the workforce. guest: it is a fact that the supply of able-bodied people is different than it was. some people left the workforce for a variety of reasons. it is no secret that have been more symptoms of despair and things that make it difficult to enter the workforce. there are also other structural challenges like it is more expensive. like finding childcare, for example, or finding a training program. we used to have shop classes in high school. they mostly do not exist

anymore. there is no outlet. building that back up is very important. we are in the process of doing that. what i have found is manufacturers that have been on their toes on this have had more success if they are understanding what the workforce needs. childcare might been issued or transportation might be an issue or let's partner on getting you the skills that you need and getting you ready for that, and you are going to get a good job that way. what i have generally found is if there is a partnership, it is easier for them to find the employees they need to make things work. importantly, unionized manufacturing is only 10% or less of manufacturing right now so you have 90% that does not have that kind of pipeline that has to build it themselves. we are still working on that. i am optimistic we can get it done because the career and

technical education system is responsive to demand. it will eventually get where we needed to go. host: we have special lines for folks who work in the manufacturing sector or have worked in the manufacturing sector. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa --202-748-8003. carol called in on that line. what form of manufacturing were you in? caller: i worked in a manufacturing plant in minnesota. host: what is your question about manufacturing today? caller: i don't really have a question. i retired from the ammunition plant in 2019. i retired in 2019. i started in 1980. i was a machinist for them. the trouble is the young kids do not want to work weekends.

that is usually where you start out, on the weekends. you work 12-hour shifts. three days one week, four days the next. you get three weeks of vacation. you can buy a week of vacation and pay it off during the year. you get 88 hours of holiday pay. it seemed like i was hardly ever working. and it is not hard work. it is heavy work. host: how many years did you work weekends? caller: i worked my last 12 every weekend. i chose that because i did not care. i would gladly give it so the younger ones did not have to work it. i did not care. my kids were out of college. host: do you have grandkids at this point? caller: no.

granddogs. [laughter] host: do you think manufacturing is a good industry to go in today? caller: yes because where can you start out at $23 an hour and go up to $31 and 90 days -- in 90 days? now, they are making it so you only have to work 90 days to get top pay. host: thank you for telling us about it. what kind of ammunition did you manufacture? caller: 223's mostly. andy government -- and the government's 40 cal. guest: i enjoyed hearing all of that. thank you for working in manufacturing. that brings up a couple of things for me. manufacturing is different from a lot of types of employment today because fundamentally

production work requires you to be there. you cannot remote in for your job at the assembly line. that is number one. number two, it also takes reliability so they keep the production going. these are lean, mean operations today. it is hard to be able to pick and choose your own schedule like you might be able to do at some service sector jobs, like here is the day i can work. no, it has to work for the factory, too. that requires a meeting of the minds. candidly, there are a lot of manufacturers that are used to the old ways where you did not have to worry about all of that stuff but now understand workers do have different concerns today from 30 years ago. they might want more flexibility, i need help with childcare. that is the big one, actually. they are getting smart about how to do this as well.

but it is fundamentally one of those jobs where there is not really a remote option for production work. you have got to be there and you have got to be there on time. one thing carol said about ammunition that stuck with me, you have probably seen the stories how we are running short of ammunition because there are only a couple of factories that make it in the united states. that is something we have been raising alarm bells about for years. our national security industrial base is incredibly thin. if we were ever to be in a situation where we had to either aggressively supply allies or ourselves, we have definite shortfalls in things from our ability to produce armored vehicles to ammunition, to ships, and what have you. it is not like we need to be on a war footing all the time. we do not need to do that.

but we do need to at least have the capacity to convert industrial spaces into defense, which we were able to do quite successfully in the past. but today, it is harder because you cannot make a walmart a tank factory. you cannot make an auto factory a tank factory. it is something our policymakers are grappling with. host: about 15 minutes left with scott paul from the alliance for american manufacturing. at 10:00 a.m. or a little bit after, we wi take you on c-span to pview the japanese prime minister's official visit to the united states. that preview will feature u.s. ambassador to japan rahm emanue you can watch that here on c-span and ao at c-span.org and the free c-span radio app. stick around after this program for that. back to your calls about the state of manufacturing. this is robert in kansas on the

line for democrats. good morning. caller: yes, it is arkansas. i am in construction. i was a little concerned about your talk about the tariffs. they had a direct impact on us because steel, aluminum, the tariff on canadian lumber, we saw dramatic changes. i had she team go from $15 a sheet -- i had sheeting go from $15 a sheet to 70. -- $78 dollars a sheet, and that was under the trump administration. your product and you have process. the process is what keeps everything going. i am not saying what you are making. people live, they pay their homes, they pay sales tax on their houses.

when you go overseas, you bypass all of that for the product. what is troubling me is china gets free access to our shelves through walmart. tom cotton did the ribbon-cutting welcoming comments vietnam to bentonville, arkansas. we are overregulated in this country. the liability is there. in the meantime, we should not give a country like china most favored nation trading status if they do not have a free press. that is to me the problem. we go to these countries and get the product down through slavery or whatever, we bring it back, set it on the shelves. we slow the process here. but in the meantime, that container, that ship with those

containers at that bridge is loaded with products. my point is i am not for tariffs but i do believe every product that enters this country from a country that does not have our most basic freedom of press, should have to pay a fee. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] got your point -- host: got your point. let's let scott paul jump in. guest: i agree china should not have most favored nation status, which they currently do. host: what does that give them? guest: it gives them basically our lowest tariff access to the u.s. economy if you are not a party to a free-trade agreement. to put china in the same place as the netherlands -- it puts china in the same place at the netherlands even though they are not an ally. we did that permanently in 2001 as a condition of china joining the

world trade organization. have been proposals to repeal that that have come from democrats and republicans in the select committee on china. one of the recommendations was to change that permanent normal trade relationship status for china. what robert is talking about with fees and tariffs are kind of the same thing. i get that it can make inputs more expensive to have tariffs. but tariffs that are done for trade actions are done for a reason. that is because a country is either manufacturing something in a way that you could not do in the united states, either with more pollution or harm to workers or with massive government subsidies where they are not encouraging their own folks to buy that stuff. we have stimulus for consumers to buy stuff in the united states at the same time as we

are subsidizing our streets now. it takes a couple of policy tools to get at that. tariffs have to be part of that solution. that has been a massive change we have seen in outlook. both democrat and republican administrations in the past did not want to do it for the last administration wanted to do it. this administration is like we want to do it as well for different purposes but we want to do this. i fully expect to see that continue. we gave a 20-year runway for china to make changes. they did not. in fact, they got worse. now we have to level things out a little bit. consumers do not see that because you pay the enterprise -- end price. if you are paying an impossible price for a product coming from

china, there is probably a reason for that and it is not a good one. host: the bridge crash, the human tragedy, what is your view on that from the manufacturing standpoint? guest: first of all, it is a tragedy. second, baltimore is a busy port. it is the 17th largest in the united states. a lot of autos and things come in and out, so it will have some impact. i think it is a reminder of how fragile our supply chains are, especially when they are globalized, and how one event can disrupt all of that. in addition to rebuilding that bridge with american steel, we need to continue to make our supply chains were resilient as well. host: back to the line for those who have been in the manufacturing industry or are in the manufacturing industry, this is norman in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for your show.

i always watch it if i can. i am an older fellow. i was a machinist for years. and then, i went out and sold industrial supplies for 28 years. when i first started doing that, i was selling like crazy. i was doing well. i was in and out of manufacturing facilities in the eastern half of pennsylvania, all of new jersey, maryland, and delaware. when reagan put in the overseas corporation that allowed the corporation to take all the manufacturing to third world, slave wage nations, and most of it wound up in china. for the next 25 years of selling, i watched as my market shrunk and shrunk as millions of jobs left this country and went to, at the behest of the rich corporations, went there and killed the middle class and our standard of living.

when we started doing that, china was not a lot more than a third world country. look at them now. we gave away america's manufacturing. we gave it away. along with it, we gave away america's economic power in the world. now, every place we go to try to help some other nation, china is right there ahead of us throwing money at it. if we had to go to world war ii today, we could not do it. we do not have the manufacturing facilities. we do not have the skilled labor that comes with it. we do not even have steel plants anymore. god forbid we ever have to go to world war iii with china. where would we get our spare parts? guest: norman raises a really good point about the trajectory he saw as it reflects things i hear all the time from around the industrial heartland and other places in the country. we literally gave this away. i want to say opec might have been a small part of this. there are a lot of other

factors. there was the demand for short-term returns. there was this idea of the neoliberal economic philosophy which in part was shared by both parties that you needed free trade, free markets. and there was the fact that we rightly help to lift both germany and japan up after world war ii with the marshall plan, lift our allies up. but then, we did not defend our own markets when they were under -- when there were unfair trade practices. that is a factor of politics and policies through all democratic and republican administrations, not only including reagan but both bushes, clinton, and obama to a large extent as well. we have seen a dramatic shift in the way our national leaders reflect us. we have seen this shift and

realization that it is important to manufacture here. we are not going to bring back a manufacturing economy from the 1950's. it is never going to look like that again. but there are exciting possibilities in things like semiconductors, clean energy manufacturing, continuing in aerospace, and a lot of other high-value products where we can again be a global leader and cl aw back some market share we lost. host: are most new jobs in manufacturing? guest: i think fewer than 10%. host: how does that compare to other industries? guest: higher than some, lower than others. public sector has higher rates of immunization. it is a little below average. host: should it be higher? guest: i think it should. the reason i say that is when you have that built in partnership, you can make

partnershi -- progress together. it is easier to find a skilled workforce. you have higher retention, lower training costs. there are a lot of synergies you get. i think you've seen a resurgence of interest in that. you have seen it with autoworkers as one example. it is something. you see this administration lifting that up as an ideal as well. i do think for folks who want more say in the workplace that it is a welcome development. host: a few minutes until we take you to the event previewing the japanese prime minister's visit. there is going to be a state dinner at the white house on wednesday evening. a lot going on this week. you will get a preview here in a couple of minutes as we ended this program -- and this program. time for one or two more calls. north carolina, republican, good

morning. caller: hello. i worked in engineering support for manufacturing for years and watched the jobs all move out of the u.s. first, they tried to use robotic assimilate to keep them in the u.s. and that faltered and failed. now, they all moved to china. i would like to know, with the chips act, what do you think is going to happen when the u.s. -- when the chips are all made in the u.s.? does that mean we will have to have a printhead circuit board act to keep the production here? the tariffs that were going to go into effect for things like computers or phones or whatever that went away was driving all of the manufacturing to go down to mexico, not come back to the u.s.

the labor costs, etc., does not allow to be most effective to produce in the u.s.. we make chips here and they will have to go to china. i do not understand how that will help us strategically. host: got your point. scott paul? guest: that is a very sophisticated question. semiconductors are more than just having a factory. there has to be a package they reside in. there are other parts. there are chemical and material inputs that go into semiconductors. in some cases, a lot of that productive capacity resides in countries like china. one of the things to note about the chips act is it does provide major intense -- incentives for the semiconductor industry. it also does pay some attention to the micro electronics supply

chain. i'm someone who believes like robert that it does not work unless you have all of that together. our circuitboard production in the united states went down as well. one of the things we are going to need to do if we want to lift united states up to be a world leader is to have incentives for the supply chain to be located in the united states. we made one out of every three semiconductors in the united states. we are down to about one in every 10. we are an outsized consumer of them. the chips act will help get that number back up, but it has to be the holistic approach. i completely agree. host: as we wait on the program about the japanese prime minister's visit, we can fit in a few more,. alex, independent, go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. thank you for educating the world.

my concern is tariffs is needed. the reason i say this is because i'm talking about the factory maker in north carolina, how china imports destroyed hickory, north carolina, because they decided to import furniture from china. now, it puts not just the hardship on the business but you ain't going to never find no craftsman anymore these days because of dealing with china. so tariffs is definitely needed. hickory is still making furniture, but the fact is it's not producing like it was. so yes, tariffs is definitely needed and need to be stopping this stuff from coming into the united states. put the craftsmen back to work. thank you.

>> i agree with him but i think he makes a really strong and powerful point which is when that furniture factory closes, it impacts not only those employees. it affects our ability to innovate in a way. our ability to have that skill space. it affects that entire community and makes it a little less well off than it otherwise would have been, which is why i think there is an active role for government in making these policies, whether it's through tariffs or industrial policy or what have you. so that we can have those opportunities looking ahead. host: the president of the alliance for american manufacturing, always appreciate your time on "washington journal." >> thank you, john. host: that will do it for us this morning on "washington journal." we will now take you to the center tore strategic and international studies, that event about the prime minister's visit to the united states about to get underway. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.