c-span.org. >> the green party hosted a virtual version of its 2024 presidential nominating convention. they confirmed jill stein as their presidential nominee. new can watch the proceedings this sunday, beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> discover the heartbeat of democracy with c-span voices 2024. we engaged voters at this year's democratic national convention and ask what issue is most important to you and why? >> [indiscernible] i think it's really important that we turn out to vote and show the world we have a voice. and that we can make a difference.

>> the most important issue is making sure we are protecting women's rights. >> my name is david. -- he wanted to balance the budget and raise the standard of living for all americans. both parties have forgotten how to have that conversation. we are in a time where we are outsourcing so much work to foreign countries that are standard of living is declining at a rapid rate and we are creating national security issues at a rapid pace. >> c-span voices 2024, be part of the conversation. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we are

just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. host: this is washington journal for saturday, august 24. it was another eventful week for candidates. the biggest ways making headlines. robert f. kennedy, jr. dropping his presidential bid and throwing support behind donald trump. vice president kamala harris excepting the democratic nomination at the party's national convention in chicago. we are focusing on campaign 2024 and want to hear your thoughts.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us your comments at (202) 748-8003. include your name and city. you can post a question or comment on facebook at facebook.com/cspan, or on x at @cspanwj. good morning and welcome. thank you for being with us. the headline we talked about is robert f. kennedy, jr. suspending his campaign and throwing support behind donald trump. the headline from this morning's washington post. kennedy halts independent bid, endorses trump. robert f. kennedy, jr. has struggled to gain traction as a third-party insurgent. he would suspend his white house

bid on friday, withdraw from battleground states ballots and endorse donald trump. kennedy announced he would suspend his campaign with a number of caveats after several months of declining polling numbers, accumulating debt and reemerging controversies from his past. he made the announcement yesterday in phoenix. here is a clip of his remarks. [video] >> i promised i would withdraw if i became a spoiler who would alter the outcome of the election. but has no chance of winning. i believe i have a realistic path to electoral victory in the face of this relentless systematic censorship and media control. i cannot in good conscious ask my staff and volunteers to keep working long hours or keep

giving when i, honestly tell them i have a real path to the white house. furthermore, our polling consistently showed by staying on the ballot in battleground states i would likely hand the election over to the democrats, with whom i disagree on most existential issues. censorship, war and chronic disease. i want everyone to know i am not terminating my campaign. i am simply suspending it and not ending it. my name will remain on the ballot in most states. if you live in a blue state, you can vote for me without harming or helping president trump or vice president harris. in red states the same will apply. i encourage you to vote for me.

if enough of you vote for me and either major party candidates win 270 votes, which is possible. the polling shows them tying it 269-269. i could conceivably end up in the white house in a contention election. [applause] and about 10 battleground states where my presence would be a spoiler i will remove my name. i have already started that process and urge voters not to vote for me. host: more from that washington post article about rfk junior dropping his bid. the decision comes after days of speculation he would step aside. in the past several weeks he spoke with trump about potentially supporting him. and with vice president harris about a potential role and her

administration. nicole shanahan publicly floated the idea of him departing from the race. trump has praised him recently. just hours after rfk junior's departure from his independent bid he joined former president donald trump on stage at a rally in glendale, arizona. here is a clip from that event. [video] >> tonight i'm pleased to welcome a man who has been an incredible champion for so many of these values that we all share and have shared for a long time. i don't think too many of you people have heard of him. he's very low-key. he's a low-key person. he's highly respected. he is a great person. i have known him for so long. for the past 16 months, robert f. kennedy, jr.

[cheers] >> ♪ there goes my hero watch him as he goes ♪ there goes my hero he's ordinary ♪ there goes my hero watch him as he goes ♪ ♪ >> whoa. [cheers] and he deserves it. he deserves it. [crowd chanting "usa"]

host: we are hearing your thoughts on campaign 2024. we will start with david in riverside, california. republican line. caller: good morning, tammy, and good morning america. this is the weirdest time in politics i have ever seen. donald trump got shot. did not get killed, which is fortunate. democrats tries to put him in jail and her him in many ways. you had joe biden. he was pressured out of the race and out his vice president harris. when she ran for president in 2020, she said they would be no private health insurance on her plan. which is why i believe she lost the race. this is about freedom. if you can summarize it, the united states of america, they would be freedom. religious freedom, freedom of

speech, freedom of all kinds. harris in her first tv ad -- the freedom she talked about was the freedom to kill your offspring and from gun violence and poverty. communists do not give you freedom. they might give you equity, which she talks about all the time. she believes everyone should end up in the same place and better where they started, which is almost the definition of communism. the poor will not be so poor but the wealthy will not be wealthy. those of the top will have no motivation to get there. the government owns you. you don't own you anymore. i want the freedom of the constitution. the freedom of the founders. the freedom to live a christian life and do good unencumbered by a government that was to put you in bondage. good to talk to you. host: howard in indiana on the democrats line. how you say the name of your

city? caller: carmel. plain caramel. about this week's convention, it was very well done. i think kamala harris emerged as the commander-in-chief in her presentation. she was very clear in putting trump in his place. he's a very unserious individual and we spent too much time talking about him. i advised c-span to think about how you speak it -- of trump in relation to president harris. it is too often a leap to promote a false equivalency. trump is a criminal, a sexual abuser. you need to calibrate how you talk about him in relation to anyone else. otherwise, you put him on the

same moral plane. he should not be on the same moral plane. he is a disgusting individual. that is a matter of fact. it is not a matter of debate. it is not ambiguous. it is very clear. any individual supporting trump is beyond me. i look for president harris to be our first female president. thank you. host: pat in new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. watching the dnc from day one, they had the mobile unit from planned parenthood there so you could get an abortion while you wait and a vasectomy. this is nothing but dark and evil and god will not be mocked. whatever you sew, you will reap. host: lester in newark, new jersey. republican line. caller: good morning.

host: go ahead, lester. caller: my question is, i saw the dnc. they were talking a lot of crap. [indiscernible] we need a president that is for the people and by the people. kamala harris, she will mess things up for us. i want to continue to go after her. [inaudible] i want to stop her and it will stop her. we are going to win this race. alaska, oregon, although states. host: that was lester. will in baltimore, maryland.

democrats line. caller: good morning, c-span. i support kamala harris. at the time i could not support biden because of his handling of the israeli-hamas crisis. however, i do think what happens in the next two months could swing this election, because this -- especially in the swing states. support for israel should be convincing to one party being responsible for limiting loss of life. you can't blame all the innocent palestinians and dead palestinians on hamas. i would hope kamala harris as to get elected first but i don't

think her speech went far enough in condemning the loss of life in gaza. contrary to belief, this has never been a war. the israeli-hamas thing is not a work. it's a massacre. one side has aircraft, artillery. the other side has a few guerrillas running around hiding underground. stop calling it a war. call it what it is, a massacre. thank you. host: mentioning vice president harris's speech at the dnc convention this week. this headline from the new york times. the headline, harris faces challenges turning joy into vote. she emerged from her convention with a burst of momentum that democrats hardly expected a month ago when they thought they would be tethered to a possibly

due to reelection bid by president biden. she has rejuvenated a once demoralized party and given a jolt of optimism to democrats who now see victory in reach. the buzz kill reality is that victory is anything but assured. the thousands of delegates in the halls were not representative of the swing voters she needs to defeat former president donald trump. history is littered with presidential candidates who roust their partisans conventions only to fall short in november. whatever else he is, mr. trump is no pushover. mrs. harris can affect a battle in the next two and half months. here is a clip of vice president kamala harris' speechs. [video] >> every day in the courtroom i said proudly before a judge and i said five words. kamala harris for the people. [cheers]

two week -- to be clear, my entire career i have only had one client, the people. [cheers] and so, on behalf of the people, on behalf of every american regard this of party, race, gender, or the language your grandmother speaks, on behalf of my mother and everyone who has ever set out on their own unlikely journey, on behalf of americans like the people i grew up with, people who work hard, chase their dreams and look out for one another, on behalf of

everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, i accept your nomination for president of the united states of america. [cheers] host: a lot of eyes were on the convention. the rnc convention last month. this tweet says, the final night of the dnc drew an average of 26.2 million viewers across 15 networks. roughly 6 million more than the three nights prior. viewership surged during harris's speech with 28.9 million viewers tuning in from 10:31 p.m. to 11:11 p.m. eastern time. it also notes that the 2024

republican national convention it is highest viewership on its final night, averaging 25.4 million viewers across the networks. viewership eat at 28.4 million from 10:45 to 11:00 p.m. linda, wilmington, north carolina on the independent line. caller: good morning. i only have one comment -- well, i hope kamala wins. no one has mentioned the senate and the house of representatives. people should vote out the people that injected the clorox. they've got to go. somebody has to remind them beyond voting for the president they also have to vote for the

people in the congress. host: who are you going to be voting for in your local election, your state election? caller: my state election? what's his name? i can't member his name. host: i put you on the spot. i apologize. caller: the democrat. host: is he an incumbent? caller: no. he can't run again. he was good. he can't run again. host: rob in florida on the republican line. caller: good morning. i have a question. i was listening to kamala. she said kamala harris for the people. i was open during the convention and i heard about hope and joy and change. hope and joy and changey stuff. two miles away on the south side of chicago in the four days of

the condition you had a 17 shootings and six people, two kids shot dead. what joy do they have? they are right next door. out we hoping for joy or is this something they say they have now? they are not going back. going back to what? four years ago when we had stability in the economy? when we had borders? we had zero illegal immigration? i keep hearing people repeatedly say donald trump is a racist. first of all, the woman who accused him, she never gave a date. she said it happened 20 to 30 years ago. are we to believe donald trump walked out of his trump tower three blocks away to bergdorf goodman, the biggest department store in the country and raped a woman in the dressing room in

the middle of the day? come on. you hear everybody say he was adjudicated. that was a civil trial. ok? they had no grounds for any type of judgment or trial for trump because it was a 30-year -- there were no details. she said it happened at bergdorf goodman. is that the rape? are they talking about 15, 16 years ago? trump, when he was on a bus with 15 men and he was being secretly recorded by little whatever his name is. they were all laughing and joking. you will have 15 men, no women, no children. what are they going to talk about? host: tony in indiana on the democratic line. good morning, tony. caller: good morning.

it's a last ditch effort to get into the white house. he said himself he went to harris first. no one wanted to talk to him. trump is obviously his second chance to get in. he stated he doesn't agree with donald trump. he's hoping that he would uphold his -- he would uphold his word, which he office he hasn't. i agree with a lot of what he said about the disease with the children and everything. i agree with him about that. donald trump has never kept his word on so many things. the people that kennedy talks

about in the business and everything and corporate that he wants to go against are the companies that donald trump has given all the tax credits to. i don't see how that is going to -- how he's going to be able to tackle that. it seems like a really great thing he's wanting to push for but i just don't see how he's going to be able to make that work. i think in the long run all he's going to do is going to put trump right back in the white house again and he's not going to be able to do any good for the american people. i don't know. what do you think about it? i don't know. i just don't see it being a good thing for the american people. i think harris will be the one that can help us move forward. i think trump is going to move us back. we are not going to go back. i think kennedy is just trying

to do a last-ditch effort to get in there. host: this headline from cnn before rfk junior ended his presidential bid. trump says he would consider appointing rfk junior to a role in his administration. also this note from axios from last night's rally in glendale. trump valves to release docs on jfk assassination. he will establish an independent presidential commission on assassination attempt, he announced that a presidential campaign rally alongside robert f. kennedy, jr. the big picture here, trump said he will task the commission with all remaining documents pertaining to the assassination of john f. kennedy. they would also conduct a rigorous review of the assassination attempt on him

last month in pennsylvania. kent in norfolk, virginia. independent line. caller: good morning. i enjoy the work you will do. certainly has shaved up to be an interesting year in the election process. it is trump's election to lose and now harris's election to lose. both seem to have their personality cult. we will see how harris answers questions about gaza and other issues which she has been a part of for the past four years. it is still a long way from the election day. host: are you going to be supporting one of those? caller: i was going to vote for third party i'm leaning towards harris. i would like to see what she has decided -- has to say. a good speech does not win elections.

a candidate does not bring you joy. you have to do that for yourself. we will see what she has to say and how she does at the debates with trump. host: what issues are most important to you? caller: the economy is very important to me as far as that goes. i think just education and our foreign relations. how she will do on that. host: nina in florida on the democrats line. ning, nina. caller: good morning. i have a couple of comments. i watched the speech last night from robert f. kennedy, jr. i agree with him that all poor people are having an obesity problem at other people because of the food industry. the washington post article you read earlier was very negative to me. it did not say anything good about what he's trying to accomplish. the cnn i was watching was

making fun of his disability with his vocal cords, his voice. i thought that was so horrible. i'm going to see what products are advertised on cnn and i will not be buying any of those products. i thought it was horrible to put him down like that. i appreciate the call and have a good day. host: can i ask you a question? you are calling on the democrats line. do you know who you are voting for the election? caller: no. i had been donating to robert f. kennedy, jr. until yesterday. he announced he was suspending his campaign. it is kind of up in the air for me. i will continue watching him. i do hope he does get a place in maybe the health something, the cabinet if trump gets in. i don't see harris or tim

talking about anything for the children and the obesity problem. i don't know. i am up in the air again after yesterday. i will start getting back in and watching everything. y'all have good coverage on c-span. i appreciate y'all putting all the speeches of their. -- up there. host: sharon on the republican line. caller: yes. i wanted to say i have been a democratic for 37 years. i switched in 2020 to be republican. not that i totally believe all republicans are right but i agree with kennedy. my background is in pharmacy. i have been a pharmacist for 37 years. i have seen the degradation firsthand. i started the alert 20 years ago about what was happening in the pharmaceutical industry and moving into the medical industry.

when i became a pharmacist, we had drug companies in the united states. they had great quality control. we were able to pick up the phone and call a drug company. that is all gone. you cannot call any drug companies. the drug companies, we get them now from china primarily. i don't know if a lot of people know this but there have been recalls on medications like crazy. zantec was taken off the market for a while because of the carcinogens in active ingredients that were put in there. we have no controls anymore. laxed controls because of regulations in the united states. it has disappeared. 1 he switched -- host: he switched parties. what caused you to switch? caller: i witnes -- i was a staunch democrat.

i'm in the suburban area of scranton. it is heavily democratic. however, my eyes were open. i was able to see through the medical profession what was happening. the democratic party left the people. they were the party for the people. they were the watchdog. they tried to hold what used to be with the republicans, the big corporations, the big money. everybody else trying to come in . they tried to keep it a watchdog for the people. that has disappeared. i'm not going to say i'm happy with the republican party, but i am very happy and i have followed jfk junior -- mr. kennedy. he is telling the truth. he is absolutely telling the truth. he has really put so much in with what he's found and what he's tried to help people on. he has taken on this massive

establishment that is not there to protect our health. if anybody takes a look at the children the children nowadays, you can see how overweight they are at young, young ages -- host: you are in a battleground state this election season. who's getting your vote? caller: my vote is going to president trump. it is going there because -- let me tell you something. kamala harris, i have listened to her, i try to get all the data. but she has not delivered any data. she is not telling us. she's using the words she's "for the people." she has been there almost four years. she has delivered zero activity for the people. i feel bad for people who think she will make a difference, because she has not shown any inkling of a difference in four years. host: that's sharon in pennsylvania. we'll hear from james in

michigan on the democrats line. caller: good morning. i hope the american people are listening to some of the comments here. kamala harris deserves a chance. joe biden is the boss. she will be the president of united states. she cares about the american people. they have been trying to work or the american people. thank you and have a great day. host: robert f. kennedy, jr. joined former president trump in arizona at a rally, shortly after endorsing him and dropping his own bid for president. here are some of robert f kennedy's remarks from last night. [video clip] >> a few hours after the assassination attempt, i got a call from a state food advocate who has been fighting for many years to try to end the

corruption at the cdc and fda and usda. [cheers] if these institutions, these regulatory agencies are actually run by the big food processing companies, the big ag and the chemical companies that they're supposed to regulate. he said to me that he'd been advising me for many years and on my campaign, and he told me that night he was also advising president trump. and he asked if i would talk to president trump. i said, of course. a few minutes later, i got a call from the president, and we talked. we had a very good talk. he invited me to come see him the next day. i went to minneapolis and saw him. we met again at couple weeks later in florida. we talked not about the things

that separate us, because we do not agree on everything, but on the values and the issues that bind us together. host: robert f. kennedy, jr.'s endorsement of former president trump is bringing some attention, some negative attention, and people who are calling him up for leaving his roots. this headline in the opinion section of today's front and post says a betrayal of the kennedy legacy. in part, it says his bizarre campaign for president this year with his revelations that he had a dead worm in his brain and once left the dead carcass of a bear cub and central park was an investment. his announcement friday represents a betrayal of a higher order, given how low kennedy has been polling, his endorsement probably will not

make much of a difference in the presidential race. yet in casting his lot with a former president who preaches intolerance and division, he has cast aside the principles for which iterations of kennedys have stayed. several members of the kennedy family on this tweet yesterday, talking about the endorsement. it was treated out by kerry kennedy, the daughter are robert f. kennedy and the youngest sister of rfk junior. the statement says we want and america filled with hope and bound together by a shared vision, a brighter future, a future defined by individual freedoms, economic promise, and national pride. we believe in harris and walz. our brother bobby's decision to endorse trump today is a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. it is a sad ending to a sad story.

that statement coming from kathleen kennedy townsend, courtney kennedy, kerry kennedy, chris kennedy, and rory kennedy. we are taking your calls on campaign 2024. we hear next from anthony in las vegas, independent. caller: good morning, c-span. i did not see it as a surprise, kennedy endorsing donald trump. i used to be a lifelong democrat. in 2016, i walked away from the party after watching them cheat bernie sanders. but a lot of that, you did not cover. it looked like donald trump going to point kennedy to go after the vaccine makers. if you listened to that entire thing, which i watched it, unedited, he is going to go after, looks like, monsanto, the

vaccine makers. even you, c-span, you held the hearings, the congressional hearings that show the covid vaccine has been killing our population. but you never cover that the next day. and you have held those hearings. senator ron johnson shared -- chaired most of those hearings. as an independent, makes me wonder why you not cover that can i watch that on the c-span networks. i am curious why c-span never covers that -- host: i am confused, you're saying we cover it but do not cover it. can you clarify your thoughts? caller: what i mean is you show it unfiltered. but when you go on the "washington journal" the next day and talk about hearings that c-span has, you don't cover those. to me, those are more important than the presidential campaigns. because that affects the whole population. so why doesn't c-span, why won't "washington journal" cover those

hearings? and i watch them on your network. host: i understand your point now, thanks for clarifying. i would say i think the presidential election also affects everybody. we will hear next from steve in ohio on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, c-span. thanks for the format you guys provide. it's really a great format for people to call in and express their opinion. i just want to say that, if the dnc, they're saying they are the party of democracy. you have to question this, because if that's the case, why did they file lawsuits in several states to not only keep kennedy off the ballot, but they also helped follow the lawsuits to try to keep donald trump off the ballot in several states.

and, you know, also, why are they influencing media outlets and social media to censor information? you got to think about that. we would not -- they would not even offer secret service protection for kennedy. and you know the history of his family and what they've been subject to. and then, they offered substandard secret service protection for donald trump. and he was a past president. and he almost got killed in that situation, because of the poor protection he was offered. so what does the democrats, what does their democracy look like? well, they got rid of biden, and they installed kamala harris without any true election. host: stephen in olympia,

washington on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, united states of america. my whole thing was i was a past republican in my lifetime, growing up with my parents. my high point as a republican, prior to becoming a democrat, was i was a big, strong ronald reagan reagan economics kind of guy in my younger adult years. i would argue and debate over reaganomics with every ounce of my soul. coming down, as the years went by and trump got in the picture, i knew quite a bit about who he was as a young man growing up and whatnot. i just had this dislike about this man. i consider myself, like all americans -- i hope -- to have great common sense instilled in them. some do, some don't.

i use the phrase "some people's children" with the people who act like they do not have one ounce of common sense in their body. but when trump came along, i just did not like the guy, you know. it was like everything that came out of his mouth -- it didn't take long for me to decide i did not want to be part of this. when i brought that decision amongst the table of my family, who were all republicans, they started debating and arguing over me. and all the antisemitic stuff that is over the table are here, it just got me to the point where i just kind of walked away from my family. that kind of really spoke with them. just a common, hi, hello over the phone, but i do not want to get into politics with them. i do not like this man. he is proven to be some like a heretic and politics, so i do not like it. so i am voting for kamala for

this presidential election. i just see that she is qualified. her history of her work ethics, bar none, the most qualified that i can, with my common sense, who is ready to take the job as commander in chief of this great nation. thank you. host: michelle in maryland on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. you know, what happened with rfk joining trump's campaign is that you have two sexual assaulters who are now fused as one. robert f. kennedy admitted to sexually assaulting a babysitter in the 1990's. and, you know, as far as the regulation, trump wants to roll back regulation, so i do not understand how he thinks

aligning with trump is going to advance his cause. as far -- people forget it was a gop president, bush, who initiated china as the most favored nation, and that has continued. the republicans have steadily pushed that agenda, so we have jobs going overseas because of the republican party. that has to do with our medications as well. we have china just taking over everything, which began with republicans and continues. i just don't understand that. trump wants to do the same thing. rfk, with his last name as kennedy, to be so effective, if he truly believed in that issue -- i think michael moore's film about the food industry is more effective. if he is truly interested in that, why doesn't he align with

forces already taking on big pharma and the food industry? it just seems like a narcissist, like trump. i'm a christian, and i don't like the platform with the dems, you know, gay rights and abortion and so forth, but you know what? this is politics. it's not a church. god will deal with -- you know, let the church preach the gospel, minister to people. let the government just -- host: i will ask you a question. you are an independent. do you know who you will vote for this fall? caller: i cannot vote for trump. i'll be honest. i voted for trump in the first election. i voted for biden the last though around. there is no way in the world i could vote for trump. harris is like a breath of fresh air. you know, we need character and

integrity in the office. trump is mentally ill. we were concerned about biden, with his age, how he would deteriorate over four years. you know, trump is crazy. what would he do for four years, especially with the supreme court decision, and especially with him wanting to align himself and surround himself with sycophants? host: michelle in maryland. she was talking about robert f. kennedy, jr. and his exit. some data from pew research. a look at who supported him in the 2024 presidential race, one of the charts shows rfk junior voters were far less likely to strongly support their candidate. you can see the difference between biden and harris and trump and kennedy here. the strongly category is that greenish kohler at the bottom --

color at the bottom. -- in august, for vice president harris p of the chart also shows kennedy supporters were relatively young, less attentive to politics and less motivated to vote. we have about 15 minutes left in this first segment, hearing from you on campaign 2024. a couple texts and tweets coming in. this tweet, why didn't trump make rfk junior his running mate? vance is deadweight. this one from jersey girl, it is a choice between the past and the future, as mistreated by the dnc, the future is young, vibrant, diverse, and a gal italian. the past is old and bitter. this text from sandy in

bloomington, indiana, rfk junior continues to show himself a total fraud and not job after trying to blackmail both harris and trump campaigns. he supports the one who took him up on it. hopefully, like most people who bow down to trump, he will end up being betrayed. back to your calls. marshall in tennessee on the republican line. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. caller: i hope you give me the same time you just gave that lady, because i call in every 30 days. first off, i want your viewers to be encouraged to listen to the full speech of rfk yesterday. what he said is so true. don't listen to your information outlets. just like the articles tammry r ead, they are trying to smear

this guy as a crazy, bazaar 80 it -- idiot. i remind the kennedy family that it was jfk that said ask not what you can do for your country but -- ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. today, the democratic party has completely flipped that. ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do or you. these are going to be rapidfire. 26 june, the popular vote in the democrat party was bernie sanders. the dnc and the delegates, against the will of voters, gave them hillary clinton. 2020. in february of 2020, biden was like at 16%. kamala never even made it. we came out with kamala and

biden, chosen by the dnc and delegates. 2024, it was chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, hillary clinton, and barack obama who forced joe biden out of office. you have -- in this country who told their voters, we will not even put him on the ballot. we are taking away your choice of who to vote for. yesterday, listening to kamala harris - or thursday night -- she said a couple things. number one, she said -- and these are not the names, but uncle joe, aunt sue. these were not family by blood but family by love. joe biden, about a year ago, wh en parents were rightfully

infuriated because schools were giving puberty blockers to the children, joe biden came out and said these are not your children, they belong to all of us. i would remind the listeners, in communist russia and china, the children don't belong to the people, they're government property. host: all right, thanks for your comment. we will get other voices in here. james in memphis on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i listen to c-span every saturday and sunday, and i listen to them for the truth. i also listen to msnbc, i listen to some fox, i also listen to cnn. the listeners who feel like they have an excuse for donald trump or those who feel like they just can't vote for kamala harris, i would like to issue three challenges to them. one, look in the mirror and say,

if the same thing donald trump is accused of, would you vote for joe biden or kamala harris if they were accused of those things? two, if they had the opportunity to read kamala harris' book, c alled "the truth we hold," with a still be thinking the same thing about her? three, we owe it to ourselves, and i ask them to kind of think about, looking at other cable channels, other than fox, because i've listened enough, long enough, to know those who are committed themselves to just fox only. thank you. host: vice president harris and her running mate, governor tim walz, will be on the campaign trail again this coming week. this headline from nbc news, harrison walz headed to georgia as they seek to build on

momentum. the democratic ticket will launch a tour in southern georgia, and harris and walz are expected to tape the first interview together next week. since the convention, the harris campaign also launched their first ad that is playing val graham states. here's what that looks like. [video clip] >> here's a few things i believe. middle-class families, like the one i grew up in, what common sense solutions. you want to get ahead. we must create an opportunity economy, where everyone has a chance to get a car loan, buy a home, start a business. most of all, instead of being focused on the politics of the past, we need to be thinking about the future. i'm kamala harris, and i approve this message. host: the wall street journal, in their opinion section today, is weighing in on vice president harris' remarks on the dnc.

the headline, kamala harris' " new way forward." kamala harris introduced herself to the american public thursday evening, and her presentation was much like this week's democratic national convention. while delivered, optimistic, and mostly devoid of policy substance p and whether she can keep this up, unexplained, and unexposed for the next 70 plus days will determine whether she becomes america's 47th resident -- president. it goes on to say ms. harris a tentative layout her vision for america. she said she will solve the housing crisis without expending how or expanding why there's a crisis on her watch. and she will reduce prices without a repeat of her recent proposal to impose price controls. a lack of specifics is a part of a strategy to separate yourself from the biden-harris years. the idea seems to be the less

specific she is, the less chance you will be associated with the unpopular parts of biden's tax, regular, and spend agenda that produced a decline in real americans incomes. until she provides an agenda, voters can assume they are also part of her proposals. just under 10 minutes left. we go to herb in high point, north carolina on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: yes, i just want to say a couple of things. the first thing is donald trump, he is supposed to get a sentence next month, so we have to ask ourselves, if that were a joe biden or kamala harris, and they were looking forward to 34 convictions and being sentenced, with a get it put off like he is?

i would try to get it put off, too, i mean, i can't blame him there. let's keep that in mind. thanks for your time. host: jeff in new york on the rep. pocan: line. -- republican line. caller: good morning. they are complaining about trump and everything, but he does what he says. they all condemn him. but we had a lot of lower prices. things was a lot better. and everything else. but biden gets in there -- trump have the gas line going, and biden shut her down first thing. now we pay a lot more for gas. trumps gas and everything was a lot cheaper when he was in office. host: ruben in philadelphia on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, how you

guys doing today? i'm just trying to figure out, does anybody remember mitch mcconnell saying, after the second impeachment hearing, that donald trump was practically and morally responsible for what to lace on january the sixth? and do they also remember, on the tapes, that donald trump knew how deadly the virus was, but he was still going around saying free minnesota, free virginia, knowing this was a deadly virus? also, the former governor of arizona just came out and said donald trump had false electorates, and that he did not win that election. the election wasn't rigged. the people of georgia had to beg him to stop spreading his lies, because he was getting desperate. donald trump committed treason. he is a traitor. his name should not be on the

ballot. how could anyone call themselves a patriot and support this man when he intentionally tried to block a border bill from being passed? if he was such a patriot, he would have encouraged people, hey, work with joe, and we will win again in 2024, but let's get the things done that needs to be done for the united states. donald trump is for donald trump, and that is all. host: elaine in north carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello? host: hi, elaine. caller: hi, how are you? host: doing well. caller: good. first and foremost what i wanted to speak on is i'm a black woman. i'm from north carolina. i was raised in california. kamala harris, let's be totally real about this. she has destroyed marriages -- let's go back in history when she was in san francisco with

the mayor, who she slept with to get her way up the ladder. everything has been given to her, just like her being a nominee. nobody voted for her, they gave it to her. i have five black boys. two of them was in the system, charged with three strikes. one was for his second offense. no was killed. but kamala harris gave him life. gave him life. no one is talking about how she stereotypes and went after predominantly black men in california and was giving them three strikes for marijuana, for driving under the influence. let's keep it real. ain't nothing real about her. she flip-flops back and forth. this nominee for her, i voted

for obama but him and michelle praising her for everything, just like when she became vice president. she was in north carolina, they're doing parades, she was not the president. stop cheering her her on like she is all of that. put her up on the debates. answer questions from the media. keep it 100. tell the people who you really are -- host: that's elaine. she mentioned a couple things, including that there is a debate coming up. she wanted to hear from vice president harris. this headline from the associated press, ready or not, election season in the u.s. starts soon for the first ballots will go out in just two weeks. article says there are just over 70 days until election day november 5. their major dates, events, and political development will make it fly by. september 6, the first mail ballots get sent to voters.

the first presidential debate is set or september 10. former president donald trump, the republican nominee, is set to be sentenced in his new york hush money case september 18. early in person voting will start s&s at timber 20th in some states. elaine, that caller we just had from north carolina, this is also a note from north carolina, they will begin sending mail ballots to all voters, including military personnel and overseas voters, on september 6. linen from north carolina is our last caller for this segment, on the democrats line. good morning. caller: how you doing? i'm 67 years old, and i ain't never voted. but the situation we are in now, i have to vote. for the other caller from north carolina, kamala harris is probably the best we are going

to get right now. because if we pick trump, he'll take us through the ringer. he's a liar, a cheat. host: that was len in north carolina. that is it for our first hour. next on "washington journal," r street institute senior fellow jarrett dieterle is going to join us to discuss presidential nominee kamala harris' plan to fight price gouging and rising food prices. later in the program, we talk with americans for tax fairnes'' david kass about vice president kamala harris' tax policy proposals and potential changes to the tax code. we will be right back. ♪ >> hi. i'm susan slane.

campaign 2024 has evolved in some expected ways. from now until election day, c-span promises you unfiltered coverage of the candidates as they battle to win the white house and congress. you may not know that c-span is a private company that operates without a dime of government money. like many media organizations, we have been impacted by cord cutting. this summer, we are asking for you to help support our unbiased political coverage with a donation. here's the good news. 100% of your contributions, large or small, directly supports c-span's operations. best of all, an anonymous donor has pledged to match your donations, dollar for dollar come up to $25,000. you can find out more at c-span.org/donate. help ensure c-span's unique, longform coverage of politics is here to stay. visit c-span.org/donate. thank you for watching and thank you so much for your support. ♪

>> sunday on "q&a," the sit down with -- and author of "rigging barriers with chili," on the history of the washington, d.c. landmark. >> april 4, 1968, you stay open? >> yes. we were the only place allowed to remain open. >> allowed to remain open? >> actually asked to stay open. they wanted everything closed in d.c. that uprising took place, and they had a curfew for three nights. >> every city has a great space and place for african-americans to go to enfield safe and feel

as though this is our place to talk, to eat, to socialize, to listen to a jukebox. -- chicago has -- d.c. had ben's chili bowl. >> ben's chili bowl owner virginia ali and historian bernard demczuk sunday on "q&a." you can listen to all of our podcasts on the free c-span now app. ♪ >> join us this weekend for 48 hours of nonfiction books on c-span 2's book tv. today, watch our all-day coverage of the 2024 library of congress national book festival, live from the washington convention center in washington, d.c.

this year's guest include librarian of congress carla hayden, doris kearns goodwin. and the former assistant secretary during the george w. bush administration argues that economic terminates them, an idea central to much cousin, is shaping u.s. domestic and foreign policy could at 8:00 p.m. eastern, -- argues that modern autocrats are working to defeat democracy. find the full schedule on your program guide, or watch online in timeout booktv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is r street institute senior fellow jarrett

dieterle to discuss vice president kamala harris' plan to fight price gouging and rising food prices. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: you have a recent headline talking about -- the headline is harris joins the ftc's food fight against kroger-albertson's merger. bring us up to speed on that deal, where it stands, and what could happen. guest: the deal was announced a while back. the ftc then launched a very long investigation, as is often the case, antitrust cases. now they are challenging it in court. we will see what ultimately happens. the argument, essentially, is if kroger and albertson's combined, two of the larger grocery store

chains and the country, it is a monopoly, and if it does, what antitrust is designed to push back on, and that is the framing of where it stands. there is a lot of factors involved in antitrust analysis, and the grocery markets are rapidly changing. they are very different today than they were even 10 years ago , online being just one example. a lot of people are ordering their groceries exclusively online since the pandemic. there are club stores, like the cost goes -- cost of -- costco's of the world, aldi. so how do we define the grocery market is the biggest debate going on right now. there is a lot of this agreement between the ftc's -- disag reement between the ftc's view and those in favor of the merger. host: your headline, the ftc's

fight against the merger may hurt the very consumers it is supposed to protect. explain. guest: what people often do is break out the rankings of the biggest grocery store chains in america, and when they do that, you will find kroger and albertson's are the fourth and fifth. it is pretty easy to say, oh no, they combine, that is a monopoly. the problem is, they, even if combined, would still be small in terms of store outlets and grocery store sales as walmart, who is number one, for example, in groceries. also the way the ftc's defined with the grocery market is, it curiously excluded online grocery retail, like amazon, and club stores like costco. amazon and costco happen to be the second and third largest grocers in america. the reality is -- you can make a

very strong argument that, if you want to protect us against monopolistic behavior, a combined kroger and albertson's would actually be a more formidable competitor with some of those bigger dogs higher up the food chain, pardon the pun. i think the problem is, if you are not careful and just looked at the top line numbers, you can actually end up, arguably, with a less competitive grocery market. host: who would benefit from the merger ? -- i think that we need to also step and just realized if a

combined company like that started engaging in monopolistic behavior, that are already alternatives, like two clicks on a computer screen today, that you can get groceries from them. so consumers will not be trapped into some -- into one option for groceries. some people look geographically and say there's only a kroger's store here, maybe in albertson's. that can create a local monopoly. but online completely flips that on its head, because it is anywhere and everywhere at all times. and people are willing, often, to travel further to places like costco, club stores. the way we deduct the geographical analysis is also changed. we need to be careful about whether we are updating our analysis based on a 21st century market and not what it looked

like a couple decades ago. host: something you have mentioned a few times, something that vice president kamala harris, one of the reason she spoke about the potential merger is the potential for the increase in food deserts. explain what a food desert is. guest: a food desert is a concept that we have certain reasons where there is not a readily accessible grocery store for local residents to buy from, that they will not have ready access to food. therefore, it is a food desert, as the policy speak calls it. that is one of the concerns. not so much necessarily that there will be areas of albertson's stores entirely, but there would be areas that would only be a kroger/albertsons if this merger happens.

it overlooks, again, that is just looking at traditional marketing overlooking things like walmart, target, which offer groceries that people buy frequently, again, the online marketplace. it also overlooks that part of antitrust deals often investors, and that is just a fancy way of saying that kroger's and albertson's would come as part of the deal, would likely be required to sell some of their stores to a third company, actually, to prevent the concerns about there being these areas, these deserts of no competition in the grocery marketplace. that is another thing often lost in this debate, that there are mechanisms for mitigating monopolistic concerns. this deal would potentially include those. host: we are talking with jarrett dieterle of the r street institute about the -- about

price gouging, rising food prices, and how vice president kamala harris plans to fight that. if you have a question or comment for him, you can start calling in now. the lines, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. going back to the food deserts, you mentioned that there are other alternatives in some of these areas that are not directly what you would consider a grocery store. a lot of these food deserts are in places where individuals are in low income, they are low income areas. are membership clubs and services that may have a delivery fee or you have to pay or a membership, viable alternatives for people who are considered low income? guest: that's a fair question.

often times middle-class and lower middle-class americans prefer shopping at the club stores, sam's club, costco, because it is cheaper. even when you factor in the number should, you will come out well ahead at the end of the year in your groceries. i also know that the online marketplace, yes, there can be delivery fees, in some instances .but again, often times you can pay a membership that actually ends up being incredibly cheap compared to the overall groceries you are getting. and oftentimes, they can be cheaper online. i do not think the presence of a membership to essentially activate access to a club stores or things like amazon prime, where you get the shipping, is a huge deterrent. even if you factor those rises in an people shop at those stores, oftentimes, they are getting much cheaper food than they do at even the local

brick-and-mortar grocery store. again, i think you would have to really look at the numbers and ask yourself if that is a real concern or not. just given where most americans shop these days, i mean, 15% of the younger demographic, 20's and 30's exclusively to their shopping at costco. again, it provides a very affordable groceries, particularly for very large families, too, so you can get a lot of economies of scale for far cheaper prices at places like that, frankly. host: this is one of the issues that vice president kamala harris has been talking about on the campaign trail. she rolled out her economic land in north carolina last week and spoke about this issue specifically. we will play a clip and talk about it on the others. [video clip] >> when i am elected president, i will make it a top priority to bring down costs and increase

economic security for all americans. as president, i will take on the high cost that matter most to most americans, like the cost of food. we all know that prices went up during the pandemic, when the supply chains shut down and failed. but our supply chains have now improved. and prices are still too high. a loaf of bread costs 50% more today than it did before the pandemic. ground beef is up almost 50%. many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades. and while many grocery chains pass along these savings, others still aren't. look, i know most businesses are

creating jobs, contribute into our economy, and playing by the rules. but some are not. that's just not right. and we need to take action when that is the case. host: there could be two different issues here, two different things she is talking about. price control, price gouging. explain the difference between those two. guest: good question. it is a little bit difficult, because the plan that vice president harris has put forth does not include a lot of details right now. we are left a little bit to fill in blanks. but when you have a price gouging plan, you generally view that as something that is trying to monitor excessive prices. there has been legislation introduced, for example by senator elizabeth warren, that

would put that in effect, and it uses language like excessive prices. so what are excessive prices? that is the analysis needs to be determined, and that would probably be up to the ftc. price controls involves setting the price of a good. but when going after excessive prices that are undefined and indeterminate, and you then look at what grocery stores are doing to react to that, they are going to be very cautious, and they will be very scared to raise prices, lest they trigger a price gouging acquisition from the ftc. you also have to keep in mind, in order to have a price gouging ban, you need to understand with the benchmark will be. went to get in that territory, you are ending up in a place that is functionally analogous to price controls it i think people are getting very hung up on the definition, and i think that is a miss, because the

reality is this will be a form of price controls, even just -- if it might function a little differently. i think that the vice president is trying to avoid this being characterized as price controls, but the way -- what we know from the scant details available, it would function the same. and pretty much any economist across the ideological spectrum will tell you that price controls are an extraordinarily bad idea and have prevented be so throughout history. host: we are talking with jarrett dieterle about vice president kamala harris' plans to fight the increase in food prices. we will hear first in this conversation from brian in washington state on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, "washington journal." jarrett, are you familiar with

the bob ferguson story in washington state, when he went after the chicken and tuna industry? he went after those people for price gouging washingtonians in the grocery store. in the last 8 to 10 months, and the last year, i received, in my mailbox, a reimbursement check from the truth that -- from the chicken and tuna industry, for over $100, for them overcharging me when i purchased their products in the local grocery stores. as an example of the price gouging, i contacted the spokane news stations to do a store on the local advertised flyers. in the last three weeks, our local grocery store flyer, one of two, had hamburgers on sale for $2.99. then, the next week, it was on sale for $5.99.

last week, it went back on sale for $3.99. and this week, the fourth week in a row, ground beef is now on sale, in the same store, for $2.99. how, in 21 days, did a -- what is it -- a $3 price fluctuation in ground beef, how is that justified if the live cattle market did not have the same changes but may even have the price reduced because of the middle of summer, in pasture, the price of beef goes down? so our senator, maria cantwell, has been involved in stopping the merger of kroger. i am very thankful for it. competition is good for everybody. the less competition, the less choices a consumer has to make. host: jarrett, your response?

guest: i agree. competition is great. that is why i take the position 90 -- i do. i think a potentially combined kroger's and albertsons would create more competition. a couple thoughts. first of all, i do not inc. anyone is saying price gouging does not exist, never exists. there can certainly be micro markets, geographical areas that it does. it sounds like what took place in washington state, with the tuna example. the beef is interesting. if you think about it, we are actually quite used to prices fluctuating, in many markets, quite heavily. there's a lot of factors, gasoline being a great example. we had times, in recent months, even the last year, that they were almost widely gyrating up

and down. it is not as simple as just saying, well, how much is a barrel of oil? the has some import to that, has some impact, but it is not the only thing clear the same with beef. you can't just look at what that cattle is trading at on the commodity markets, for example, and then extrapolate that to what stores are charging. it could be all kinds of issues. they could have had a wholesaler that ended up having an excess amount of beef because order their other customers didn't buy it from them, so they offer it to the grocery store for a heavy discounting of the grocery store says, ok, we will take the beef, price it at $2.99. the next week, the wholesaler does not have that, so the price goes up. so i think we can get into an area to diversify what is a

really complicated and sophisticated supply chain. and it is still supply chain recovering from covid. just because the pandemic has been gone does not mean we have no hiccups and no backlog from the pre-covid days. many economists, on the right and left, agree with that. host: 38 states already have price gouging laws on the books. what are the law -- what are the challenges of enforcing a law like that? guest: the state price gouging laws, it is important to different from the plan proposed vice president harris. they are ones intended to take back in an emergency situation, something like a blizzard, which mx. 8/100ths get to the store. we do not want stories to take advantage of that situation and

charge higher months for basic staples. certainly covid was an accident situation. those laws got enacted during covid. what vice president harris has proposed, again, there's no details, many are reading it will be used in nonemergency situations. there are, it is much broader in scope and why it is functionally analogous to price controls. in recent days, some of her campaign advisors have been speaking to the media, so just thing she did mean to model them after state price gouging rules and it would only be in emergency situations. the problem is she has gotten herself into a bit of a pickle here. either the plan is one that will be narrow come only in emergency situations, in which case we are not in an emergency situation right now, so there or it will not be activated at all and have any impact on grocery prices, or

it's not like the sate -- state ones and applies across the board and is functionally analogous to price controls, which is a policy which economists reject but also a lot of americans are deeply uncomfortable with. i think that's why we see her campaign trained to do a little back channel locking back of the policy, because the feedback to it has been negative so far. host: gary in indiana on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, mr. di eterle. i appreciate you being on here. this is a great topic. i think "60 minutes" needs to do an expose on what you're discussing. there are a couple things to point out and i will end with two questions. the first is, the local kroger here in town, there is a certain item the use to have and they do not have any more. it's a box of cheese crackers,

cheddar cheese. i forget what it's called. i used to get that. i can't get it anymore. i have to go further down the road to walmart to get it. that doesn't make any sense to me. what's the deal with that, if you can explain it. the other thing is where does supply and demand enter all this? thanks for being on today. guest: thank you. those cheese crackers sound delicious. i feel your pain, that they are not available. i obviously do not know that exact situation. i certainly know that grocery stores respond to that supply and demand you mentioned. so perhaps not as many people were buying those crackers, and they did not deem them profitable to keep stocking. usually, grocery stores -- not

usually, always, grocery stores will sell things people buy. the point about walmart is interesting. given walmart's scale, often times, they are able to have a greater variety of goods. they've really beefed up their grocery markets, which is why they have become the largest grocery retailer in the country, including the largest online grocery retailer in the country. i wish he did not have to drive further down the street, but it actually provides an example of market competition and supply and demand. for whatever reason, walmart has found customers are buying that product, and they continued to stop it, and the grocery stores are not, but there is a substitute available. host: former president trump has also been talking about food prices, obviously an issue

impacting a lot of people. he talked about vice president harris and food prices in a recent news conference. [video clip] >> the radical left person wants to put price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices, not down your prices. harris declared tackling inflation will be a day one priority for her. day one. but the one, really, for kamala, was three and half years ago. where has she been, and why hasn't she done it? why hasn't she done it? she was the borders are but did not do anything. the worst borders are in history. there has never been a borders are so bad. she has been unbelievable, in terms of her badness, to our allies, some of our great allies. you know who i am talking about. here is the record of economic calamity that kamala is

desperate for voters to ignore. she cast the tie-breaking votes that caused record inflation. she cast the votes. she is trying to blame biden, as you know. so it was biden, but i will do a better job. but it was her. if she wants to do a better job, she still has five months left. but she can't do a better job, because she does not know how to. she is of a place in life where she would not know what a better job is. going to destroy our country. as a result of kamala's inflation price hikes, they cost the typical household a total of $20,000 -- these are numbers coming from government, they're not coming from me. host: former president trump talking about prices there. the high prices, consumers have been dealing with those the past few years. what do they look like now compared to the high point or the peak? and will they come back down? can consumers expect to see

prices where they were pre-pandemic, pre-inflation? guest: a very important question, and it is interesting, because both sides of the debate are a little scattered on whether they think it is getting better or not. we have seen the prices -- first of all, they certainly spiked during the first two years of the pandemic. no one questions that. the rate of their increase, the rate of inflation of grocery prices has slowed since the beginning of 2003, but still gone up slightly. there has been some very recent evidence of grocers starting to slash prices again. again, the law of supply and demand is taking effect. and there are actually projections from the usda that grocery prices could decline about another half a percent

over the next year. if you read the white house's council of economic advisers posts, they have put out that 27% of what they call the household grocery basket of goods, which they kind of have a sampling of the different goods people buy at the grocery, 27% of those, almost one third of those have gone down in price, and 77% of those have at least slowed the rate of increase. so, there may be some hope on the horizon with it, and it is a tricky place for both candidates , including vice president harris, because the white house, which she is a part of, is saying this is getting better. on the other hand, she is trying to paint a picture that it might actually be worse than ever and we need a national price gouging ban. and president trump is in

somewhat of a similar tricky situation, because, you know, certainly there has been some evidence that the grocery store prices are teaming a little bit, but at the same time he certainly wants to make the argument that they are -- they have not gone down low enough, which is true. they have not gone down as much as we would like to see them. the question is ultimately why? why haven't they? some is corporate greed, corporate profit margins. and i think we need to, again, look at the data. we have seen corporate profit margins for grocers increase some since the beginning of the pandemic. from around 2% to 3% 4% profit margin. if we step back, the overall average corporate profit among all industries is in the 8%

range. so, grocers have always been very narrow profit margin industries. to the extent that they did slightly increase profit margins it was very likely because of uncertainty during the pandemic. they didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, so they wanted some buffer in place. we are starting to see those margins come back down. one of the biggest drivers, according to the new york federal reserve of high grocery store prices is actually the wages of grocery store workers that have risen exponentially during the pandemic. and that is something that people focus on the commodity prices piece, but there also is just a labor cost piece. there is a reality that roses are paying more for labor, and that is reflected in the price. host: let's talk with and in maryland on the independent line. good morning, and.

caller: i live in grand 0 -- ground zero of this situation. in a one mile circus -- circle diameter, one mile across, we have harris, which is part of kroger, we have a club, we have target, we have act, we have weiss. two miles across town we have a minor size walmart. our town is 17,000 500 people. our county is 37,000 people. in eastern maryland we are in a rural area. however, we have a high number of high income retired folks. those of those who love our harris teeter, and it has only been here about eight years, are just stunned to discover that it is part of this thing going on. our harris teeter would become a piggly wiggly. it would become pedestrian, not

an upscale store. we have these other stores that are more pedestrian. so how does chopping off one store solve the problem? understand, we are not in washington, d.c. we are on the peninsula. so how does chopping off one store and giving it to a different brand solve the problem of supposedly high prices, etc.? thank you. host: garrett -- jarrett? guest: i don't know what is a pedestrian grocery store versus a non-pedestrian grocery store. it sounds like there is demand in that area for some more higher and groceries. i think the market would very likely reflect that. i think that there is a higher income demographic that does shop at the whole foods of the

world, and also more of these bespoke, local farmers markets or food stores. so it is a little bit difficult for me to suss out where piggly wiggly would fall on that metric. no, my personal experience is, if you go into stores like walmart, for example, there are organic options. i think that what we are seeing is consumer preferences are very complex. and we are trying to find at the end of the day antitrust analysis, which is an economic argument. and if we get into trying to base it on discrete preferences of unusual consumers, like the viewer earlier with treat --

with cheese crackers, or someone who uses a pedestrian or nice grocery store experience versus a lesser, nice one, you cannot really on tether it from any kind of empirical measurement, and we are just in preference land, and everyone has different preferences. be in you might prefer piggly wiggly or harris teeter. other people might think the opposite. yet other people might think that target is way better than all of them. i think we have to recognize the policy has to be based on some kind of universal metric and standard, and not just the perk of ladies -- the proclivities of discrete consumers. host: richard in augusta, georgia on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern is that in 2022, i think it was, i saw a news clip, video, of the ceo of kellogg's

and kimberly-clark, and another ceo, was on a zoom call where they said they was going to intentionally raise prices to create inflation, to hurt president biden. at the time and just so happened that inflation was not soaring sky high like it finally did go up. so, if cnn or msnbc would show that video -- because i saw with my own eyes when i was watching the news, flipping the channels, those through -- three ceos were intentionally trying to create inflation. i want to say thank god for south carolina, which i drive four miles to walmart. no taxes on groceries. if the prices for truckers would come down by cutting the federal fuel tax that would help, may become a the prices as well. again, the ceos of kellogg, kim

billy clark, and another one was on a zoom call intentionally trying to raise prices. host: jared, any response? -- jarret, any response? guest: it feels like that happens, and we have seen stuff like that over the years. i have not seen that exact video clip, but especially when that gets released through the media usually ends up backfiring. it is not a good idea to do as a company, because you are raising prices on your customer base, right? that does get punished in the marketplace. people will choose another serial brand, for example. you know, maybe there is a situation where people fear collusion among several of the makers, to raise prices for some political reason. but, again, that usually does

not work out very well in the long run, and in that case, especially getting exposed to the public. so, i think that, again, we want to make sure that we are being clear and understanding that we do not want people to engage in shenanigans in the marketplace and certainly that stuff should be monitored to the extent that it happens. but also keep clear eyes on what the overall market is doing with food prices and what overall grocery stores, food producers are doing, which shows us that, especially the profit margins are relatively in-line with what they have been for years. i think that individual, you know, case studies, can be informative at times, but we

also need to have more of a broad analysis as well. host: we will try to get in a couple more calls. we will go to kathy on the independent line. good morning, kathy. caller: hi. good morning. happy saturday. yes, my concern, first of all, thank god for c-span. in the call about the cheese crackers, it reminds me of an experience i had with the product that i wanted. i love gator, and i contacted my store. they didn't sell anymore, so what i did was call a wholesaler. what is going on now is, a lot of seniors don't like using the internet as much, but with the development of e-commerce over this past decade you can go directly to the consumer, to the wholesaler. which i did.

they did not send might gator to my residence, but they did have a distributor store. if he can contact that cheese cracker company and ask if they can reopen the door as a west to send to kroger, it would be ok, if not they can send it to them because they need to have that shelf space. that being said, more times than none purchasing the product directly from the wholesaler or the distributor has saved me a massive amount of money. i have seen a lot of my products that are in the stores costing a lot more money than it does if i get it directly from the buyer. it infiltrates, but at the same time, after a while it changes. my question to you, drug and

food, gas, real estate, all of the supply and demands are equivocal. not only in e-commerce, in the private sector, and knee as myself a senior has experienced as soon as the democrats, they do have a point here. as soon as they are in the office that is when the other side takes advantage. and you see these little pockets of camino, taking advantage. the same experience with the mask during -- when -- and, you know, in all fairness when trump was in office with the mask, the 3d mask and one of the suppliers wanted to sell it to china. host: kathy, we will get a response from jerry because we are running low on time. guest: quickly, the point about

going directly to wholesalers is quite an important point. i think that it actually shows, again, information. we have more access than ever to things we did not have in the past. we can quickly googled the wholesaler for things like alligator and get that delivered to our door. what an amazing thing. only in the last couple of years at our fingertips we are doing something that 99.9% of human history was impossible. and i think it also shows how the grocery market might be more fragmented than we think, right? if people are getting stuff directly from wholesalers they are essentially operating millions of many groceries in their own homes. minister school. it shows how the market can be dynamic and it is changing so rapidly, and so i think stepping back and being able to appreciate that is important. host: one more call. tony in tampa, florida, on the republican line. hi, tony. caller: how are you doing?

i wanted to ask two quick questions. number one, with the unionization of the mexican workforce in that new nafta bill, because i see that the goods that come up from mexico are more expensive now, did that have anything to do with the prices going up? and i just also wanted to say too, how about the food stamps and snap program? does that make food prices go up? because one of the workers at our publix told me that is another reason why prices have raised, because they can get higher prices, because, you know, people have money to pay and they get their money for whatever they charge. host: gerrit -- jarrett? guest: i'm not a union expert. i'm not sure what role unionization plays there versus

supply chain issues. so, i'm not exactly sure. i don't have an answer for that. on the snap issue, whether food stamps or not make an impact, i think what we did see make an impact was some of the covid-era funding that came through to consumers, which provided a lot of relief for people. but also likely at least contributed at some level to the inflation we have seen. because they are chasing you -- chasing less goods. certainly we do need to be careful of situations where we are giving more dollars to more people, that that could lead to higher prices. the dynamic we have seen on higher education, where over the years there has been more scholarship, tuition assistance handed out, and prices keep getting higher and higher, that

can happen in markets and we need to be careful about it. i don't think today that just snap benefits is the reason that grocery store prices are higher, but certainly when you do create more dollars chasing less goods, like the government did with its emergency relief in covid, it does impact inflation. host: jarrett dieterle, he is a senior fellow with the r street institute. you can find his work online and on x. thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you. host: later on "washington journal" americans for tax fairness executive director david kass is going to join us to discuss democratic presidential nominee kamala harris' tax policy proposal and potential changes to the tax code. but first, it is open for them. you can start calling in now and talk about any public policy

issue that is important to you. here are the lines. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . we will be right back. ♪ >> join us this weekend for 48 hours of nonfiction books on c-span2's book tv. today watch our all-day coverage of the 2024 library of congress national book festival, live from the washington convention center in washington, d.c. this year's guests include librarian of congress carla hayden and sunday at 6:30 p.m.

eastern, jeff bergner, former assistant secretary of state during the george w. bush administration with his book " american materialism," argues that economic determinism is shaping domestic and foreign policy. then ann appelbaum with the new york times with her book " autocracy inc.," argues that modern autocracies are working to weaken democracy and offers her thoughts on how to defeat them. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide. or watch any time with booktv.org. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington. live and on-demand. keep up with the day's with live streams and hearings from the

u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics. all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio. plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now it is a bit -- is available at the apple store and google play. download it free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-span now. c-span now. your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> "washington journal post quote continues. host: welcome back. start with ronald in dayton ohio on the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. after i watched the dnc convention, they were calling in, talking about, lying about donald trump knowing about

project 2025, and jd vance wrote the forward to project 2025. i just don't know where people get their information from. they are putting ignorance over facts. that is all a to say. host: robert in minnesota on the republican line. good morning, robert. caller: you were just talking about inflation, and then kamala says she is going to give everybody $25 -- 25,000 dollars for the first time house. that is just going to cause more inflation for the housing market. that is the same think they set about food prices. host: -- said about food prices. host: robert, are you still there? robert, we are having a hard time hearing it. we will go to matt in new york on the republican line. good morning, matt. caller: good morning. i have noticed in the last few

weeks, a few weeks ago you guys had a segment where whether or not people were optimistic about the economy and then just this past week you had another segment, who do you think could handle the economy better. well, to me that is just beating around the bush. why don't you have a segment that the question is, are you better off now financially then you were four years ago? you know, they say a number of months ago they had ratings about what people thought of media, and c-span itself was, like, 60%. it is stuff like that that makes people pause. another: segment i would like to see is about how the democratic party hid, and most of the

media, hid from the american people the mental state of joseph biden. it is amazing that 14.5 million people got to vote for a guy that they were told -- and they were even told by kamala harris, because she said she was the last person in the room with this guy and he is on top of his game and out-works everybody. and it was all a bunch of lies. i would like to see a call in segment with democrats only, stating, you know, the question. how do you feel about a party that misleads you the way they did? and that is pretty much what i have to say, thank you. host: linda in fort lee, new jersey on the democrats line. good morning, linda. caller: good morning, america. i'm calling in regards, i'm so disappointed with kamala harris. she says she is going to do a

lot of things, but look at how many years she was in the white house with the president and did not do nothing with the border, did nothing with bringing down prices. i have made up my mind not to vote for her, and i'm going with trump. i think trump is going to make a difference in the world for the next four years. host: who did you vote for in 2020? caller: i voted for president biden. host: one of the other news stories from this week is a press conference that fed chair jerome powell gave this headline on the front page of today's wall street journal. powell tease out the rate cuts. federal reserve chair jerome powell gave his strongest signal yet that interest rate cuts are

coming soon, saying the central bank intends to act to stave off further weakening of the u.s. labor market. the article also says powell's comments friday all but into a conclusion the fed's historic inflation campaign, one that powell amplified two years ago when he signaled his readiness to accept the resignation as -- recession as the price of lowering inflation. here are some of jerome powell's comments from jackson hole, wyoming yesterday. >> overall the economy continues to grow at a solid pace, but the inflation and labor market data show an evolving situation. the upside risks to inflation have diminished in the downside risks to employment have increased. as we highlighted in our last statement, we are attentive to the risks of both sides of our dual mandate. the time has come for policy to adjust. the direction of travel is clear

and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks. we will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability. with an appropriate dialing back of policy restraint there is good reason to think that the economy will get back to 2% inflation on maintaining a strong labor market. the current level of our policy rate gives us ample room to respond to any risks we may face, including the risk of unwelcome further weakening in labor market conditions. host: back to the phones. david in reno, nevada on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. boy, i used to be a democrat, and then cannot understand where they were going with the party, so i switched to independent. they do nothing to bring their party up, it is just kind of stay neutral.

so now i am a republican, apparently. i don't identify as a red, blue, or orange voter. i just worry about policy and what is best for my children. and when he has children, their children, because it doesn't seem like this federal government is doing their best. it is time for we the people to govern the government. host: david, one of the issues that you are most concerned about for your children and their future? caller: it would be nice if they were able to breathe clean air and not have their food injected with aluminum and all of this crazy stuff that they are chem trailing the skies with. i even see them talking about chemtrail's on c-span, so we can't pretend it is not real. why is the government so involved in food? the fda is a horrible

representative of us and we need to get back to understanding completely what is in our food, what is in our air, and what is in our water. because this federal government does not care, apparently, about the long-term health of the future. they are just worried about spending their money today and tomorrow and not worried about how it truly affects the long term. i know they use these big words to make us feel emotional about this, but we need to get away from emotion and get back to policy. host: gregory in west palm beach florida on the democrats line. morning, gregory. caller: good morning. i would like to thank c-span for all of the years of good service you will have provided to america and the rest of the world. because your format is awesome. host: thank you. caller: one thing i would like to say is, i do not appreciate, the viewers that come on and criticize you guys' format.

everybody gets an opportunity to speak on what they believe in and what they value. but, all right, let me say this. i think america is in a great place. this is the best america has ever been in my lifetime. everybody can win. women, children, lgbtq, mad, angry white guys, mad, angry black guys. everybody can win right now. there is opportunities for everyone. i would like to tell everybody to chill and enjoy the ride. america has always been the greatest country -- well, now is the greatest country that has ever been. you all have a great day. host: that is gregory. marvin in colorado on the independent line. good morning, marvin. caller: you got me? host: yes, hi, marvin. caller: i would like to know why the republicans and democrats, they are complaining to one another over the same things.

and government has more to do with it than the presidents are good to show. what i would like to know is, why can't they get together and make an honest decision? that is the same between the republicans and democrats. and then everybody else in the united states. to make an honest decision and tell the people that our government is working for the people. all people. host: marvin, you are an independent. do you know who you are going to support in the fall? caller: no, i don't write at this moment, but i would say i'm going to go with kamala harris. donald trump, if he would quit telling lies, that is just it. quit going on there and each one of them telling lies. and they ain't making no decisions. they ain't getting together to make an honest decision and they

are arguing over the same things over and over again. why don't they make an honest decision and let the people of the united states hear that? they both are working for the united states of america. so why don't they give the people in the united states of america an honest answer? host: marvin in colorado. i wanted to show you this headline from today's washington post. political chitchat at work is frequent and fraught, a gallup survey shows. the article says that as of february nearly half of u.s. workers had talked politics with a coworker in the past month. a figure that likely only increased as the presidential election has progressed. the report from gallup notes, and also says a separate poll conducted in may found that 57% of u.s. adults said they have at

times avoided sharing their political views because of fearing harassment or poor treatment. these interactions were nearly as common for hybrid workers. hybrid and in person workers were also more likely to overhear a political conversation. 38% and 48% respectively. remote workers are somewhat insulated, with 20% indicating they discussed politic with coworkers and 16% saying they had overheard a political conversation. the data shows and also says that workers -- when workers hear their political views shared by colleagues can increase their feeling of belonging. 14% of u.s. workers surveyed reported that talking politics with a coworker helped them feel included, according to gallup data. while 11% said they had grown closer to college because of

shared political views. but nearly as many, 12%, reportedly reported being made uncomfortable by a political discussion in the workplace, while 3% said they have been treated unfairly by coworkers because of their political views. we will hear from john in massachusetts on the republican line. caller: thank you for making my call. taking my call. i'm going to make a comment and ask a question. this is the country that started the federal reserves. this is the country that every time we get an economy going it always goes up to the top. it is always for the 1%. you democrats and republicans are two sides of the same fascist coin. these are the people that voted for hitler's. this is how wall street funded your bolshevik revolution, through your international

bankers. you got your world health organization right now that wants to control everything, from your announcements, to flu shots, to everything else, that were not elected. so i'm wondering, where can a black person or colored person go on this -- -- colored person go on this planet without an imperial country invading it for resources, like venezuela, cuba, africa, columbia, and everything else? you have rothschilds, rockefellers, j.p. morgans at the top. your federal reserve was the one that was started by the rothschilds, rockefellers, j.p. morgan, right? so all of the profits go to the top. your corporations are owned by the 1%. where is it that regular people can get represented by a government that sold them out 50 or 60 years ago? host: that was john in

massachusetts. we want to show you an event that is happening today, live on c-span two. c-span's book to be is live on the library of congress. it is the national book festival in washington, d.c. since 2001 we have featured hundreds of in-depth, uninterrupted author talks. our coverage begins with this event you are seeing right now. it is an interview with carla hayden, and we will take it to -- take you to it now to give you a taste of what it sounds like. >> all about who have to stay up at night. >> is this a year-round job to plan this? >> as soon as one book festival is over the planning starts for the next. the main thing is making sure we have the authors. you are going to be able to see

on c-span some of the authors i just mentioned, including david rubenstein, who is the sponsor of the festival. he has his book about presidents. so, they're just a lot of things that you can tune into, or actually come into. and if you would just show, if you are in person you get this really cool bag that i can attest will hold a lot of books, and then later you can advertise in the grocery store. it makes a wonderful -- it has straps, everything like that, and this year's caller, black. >> this year if you come down to the book festival, tori overhear -- overhear will hand you a book bag, and i want to tell our viewers, if you were the first 20, 40, viewers to email us, send us your name and address,

we will send you a book bag. go ahead and send that email. dr. hayden, what is your role today? >> my role is to be not only a cheerleader, but introduce certain authors, sessions, and and i get to actually interview tamron hall and her co-author, who is a chef, and has appeared on her show and on the today show. and talk about why they wrote this book about food and comfort and what it means when it is time, when we all are needing a little comfort, and so that is going to be a wonderful one for me. >> you mentioned david rubenstein. host: that was librarian of congress carla hayden. other speakers this morning include historians doris kearns goodwin and eric larson, and aei

political analyst do ball 11, and others. -- do volvo 11 -- duval levin, and others. you can find it at c-span.org. let's go back to the photos and hear from renee in west chester, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: yes. what i wanted to say, i'm going to vote for kamala. all i hear from trump, two things. he wants to lower the corporate tax for the corporations. the is for the rich. he is not for the working people. and another thing. he doesn't care about the environment. and he wants to be a dictator. he wants to change the government, where when he goes in he stays in.

and probably after him would be one of his son, or his oldest son. that is the type of government he wants to change america two. host: rimer -- renee, you are in pennsylvania. what are you hearing from those around you? caller: kamala. i hear some trump. i do hear some trump, i definitely do. but i think with pennsylvania and swing states the people actually look and think. here is this guy running for president, and he is calling a female opponent ugly. he is saying a lot of sexist and all kinds of misogynist -- just things like that. and another thing. women's rights. women's.

that is a very big issue. and a lot of women have fought for that freedom. and even within our family, when it was illegal, we know someone who died from a legal abortion. i didn't, my parents did. but it is just, you know, well, i had a great aunt that was ruined from one. host: that was renate in pennsylvania. pennsylvania is where former president trump, the assassination attempt on him happened during a rally last month. this headline from cbs, secret service places at least five agents on the and trump assassination attempt probe. u.s. secret service has placed them on leave as a result of its investigation into last month's assassination attempt. one agent on trump's detail and three others in the pittsburgh office were among those placed on leave, according to federal

law enforcement sources. it is unclear if all of these actions are disciplinary, since agents are routinely placed on leave during the course of investigations for various reasons. including mental health release. the secret service's internal affairs division is -- he is continuing its investigation into how a 20-year-old gunman was able to fire hate rounds from a rooftop where trump was speaking in butler, pennsylvania on july 13, including one shot that grazed the republican presidential nominee's. time for a couple of calls. we will hear from anthony in nashville, tennessee on the independent line. caller: hello. i want to say what really put me on the voting for harris and walls take it was that you do for 17-year-old boy, when he had tears running down his face and said, that's my dad. he is america's dad, and we are

going to vote trump out and get rid of him, and hopefully the republican -- my republican friends, my republican women voting for harris, i applaud you for your reproductive rights, and we will set america straight and get rid of trump and trumpism for good. thank you. host: dave in -- is it man, pennsylvania? caller: mannheim. lancaster county, pennsylvania. host: go ahead, dave. caller: i'm calling on the republican line. i'm just doing a little bit of an observation. one of the most famous democratic families in american history where the kennedys. the kennedys are very famous. they still are. i just want to give a thought-provoking idea, just think about a kennedy is now

supporting a republican. and just think about that. i will wait for people's responses. thank you. host: clyde in lawton, oklahoma on the democrats line. good morning. caller: yes. well, how are you all doing? host: we are doing great, clyde. go ahead. caller: considering that trump -- people, i tell them trump is in the bible and they look at me like i am stupid. how many letters in his first name? hello? host: we are running short on time, can you? caller: how many letters in donald trump's first name? host: clyde, can you get to your point, or we are going to have to move on. caller: he has six letters in his first name. his first name is in the bible. host: we will go to gabrielle in

silver springs, maryland on the republican line. gabrielle, good morning. caller: hi. i would like to talk to white american women. they are responsible why trump was elected in the first place. white women who vote for trump are a betrayal of women. women always stab other women in the back. they could not vote for hillary clinton. a serial adulterer, a serial liar, a serial conman, a man who has destroyed every thing he inherited from his parents. he is a bankrupt artist. are you going to tell me the reason you vote for him is because he is good on the economy? he was never good in the economy. he has run everything into the ground. host: gabrielle, you are calling on the republican line. who are you voting for? caller: i voted for donald trump

before. host: what about this year? caller: i'm not voting for him ever. i will vote for a roach before trump ever. host: that does it for our open form segment. next, americans for tax fairness executive director david kass is going to join us to discuss and accredit presidential nominee kamala harris' tax policy proposals and potential changes to the tax code. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips.

you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. scan the qr code to download it for free today or visit our website, c-span.org/c-span now. c-span now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. >> join us this weekend for 48 hours of nonfiction books on c-span2's book tv. today watch our all-day coverage of the 2024 library of congress national book festival, live from the washington convention center in washington, d.c. this year's guests include library of congress librarian. the former secretary of state

during the george w. bush administration argues that economic determinism and i -- an idea central to marxism, is shaping u.s. domestic and foreign policy. at 8:00 p.m. eastern and appelbaum of the new york times with her book "autocracy inc.," argues that modern autocracies are working together to weaken democracy and offers her thoughts on how to defeat them. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide, or watch online anytime at booktv.org. >> 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 and decided, all

with the support of america's cable companies. c-span. 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now to talk about campaign 2020 four and tax policy is david kass, the executive director of americans for tax fairness. guest: great to be here. host: why don't you start by telling our audience about your organization and your position when it comes to taxes. guest: absolutely. the are coalition of organizations of national state and local groups who are united by one simple belief. we need tax reform so we have an economy that works for everybody, not just those at the top. we believe corporations need to pay their fair share in taxes so that we have revenue to be able to invest in working families and cut the deficit. host: one of the big issues this

election season is going to be the economy and taxes. he heard a little bit from vice president kamala harris a week ago, and one of the things she was saying is that she's not going to raise taxes on people making under 400 thousand dollars, which is in theory an extension of what we have seen with president biden. what can you tell us about that proposal and how it has worked so far? guest: the democrats wrapped up their convention and passed a platform this past week which is basically just the biden-harris budget, and in that budget what they have is, they would raise the corporate tax rate. they would make sure that a lot of loopholes are closed, and also that $400,000 pledge is a very important one. but they say is anyone making less than $400,000 a year, their taxes were not go up.

not even a penny. for those who make more, they would be asked to pay their fair share. so, the idea is that the wealthy and big corporations should pay additional taxes. host: when we are looking at those families making under $400,000, what percentage or what estimated group is that compared to those making over that amount? guest: over $400,000 is about 2%, so the wealthiest 2%. so, it would not impact 98% of americans. host: one of the other tax proposals that vice president harris has made is a $6,000 tax credit for new parents. a child tax credit. what do we know about this proposal and how does it compare to similar proposals that have been in place? guest: two years ago the democrats passed an expanded child tax credit.

so, this is something if you have kids, you get a certain amount of money per month, and we know that actually for the year it was in place it cut child poverty by 40%. so, it had a huge impact. what the vice president has proposed is to expand it even further for newborns. so, that first year of life, when there are so many expenses and new parents know it is very expensive. so i think it would have a significant impact. host: 4500? guest: it is 2000 currently. it would be a very large expansion. host: just going down and looking at some of the other proposals she has made, this headline from abc news, harris proposes raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, rolling back a trump law. remind us where corporate tax

rate was before president trump came into office and where it is now. guest: absolutely. in 2017 the trump tax cut was passed by only republican votes and no democratic votes. they cut the corporate tax rate by 40%. so, a huge cut down to 21%. he was actually the most expensive item in the trump tax cut, and they made it permanent. so, what the harris administration says is, they have to go back up to 28%. we believe that you go up to 20 -- should go back up to 35%. right now corporations pay 21%. if you are in a worker making $45,000 a year you pay a higher tax rate than multimillion dollar corporations, and we don't think that makes sense. host: you are saying your organization would like to see it go back to where it was, what would be the challenges involved in that?

even if vice president harris were to get in office? guest: you know, they will be able to have enough votes to pass it. that is really the question. but i think there is no question that the corporate rate was actually lowered even further than corporations thought was going to happen. there was some consensus that it could be 28%, and they cut it even more in 2017. what is interesting, though, is the number of republicans even who are saying it needs to be raised a little bit. so i think there is some bipartisan interest in making the corporate rate go back up. host: and one of the tax issues people may be seeing, because both candidates, former president trump and vice president harris, are talking about it, it is eliminating taxes on tips. what do we know about their proposal, and is it a viable option? guest: a great question. yes, both candidates have

actually said they support it, although harris has said with some guardrails. we have some concerns about the proposal. first, 97% of low wage workers do not get tips. so it impacts very few low-wage workers. there are a few ways that would be much better. the first one is raising the minimum wage. that would have a big impact. also helping unions to be part of -- helping workers to be part of unions. and then these pro-worker tax credits, the tile -- child tax credit. those three things would have a bigger impact than this proposal. host: we are talking with david kass, executive director of americans for tax fairness about campaign 2024 and tax policy. if you have a question or comment for him you can start calling in now. the lines, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002

. some of former president trump's tax cut provisions that were put in place are set to expire next year. remind us about some of those key provisions. host: absolutely -- guest: absolutely. overall what did the republicans say was going to happen with that bill? they said it would pay for itself. they said that workers' wages would go up and is this investment would increase. i don't think any of those things have happened. it has been an expensive failure. it did not pay for itself. it actually increased the deficit by $1.9 trillion, and i think a number of nonpartisan analyses have shown it really expanded the ceo pay and corporations. so, the pieces in that, that big corporate tax cut, it cut the top rate on individuals to 37%,

it doubled the exemptions for the estate tax, and so now you can give $27 million tax-free to your heirs. i wish i had $27 million to give to my heirs. host: you could adopt me. guest: it is really so much money to be able to give tax-free. have also weakened the alternative minimum tax, which is set up to make sure the rich cannot use deductions and things to pay little or no taxes. so it really primarily benefit the wealthy and big corporations. host: there is an article on yahoos finance, the article, trump-era tax cuts are set to expire. here is how much you will pay. individual tax rates also were cut. what impact did that have on the national debt and deficit? guest: absolutely. as you say, the 2017 tax cuts, a number of those provisions are

set to expire at the end of next year. we are saying that for anything, a provision that helps people making under $400,000, they should continue. but the rich and big corporations don't need more tax cuts and we should let those expire. i think it would really be helpful to continue those for people under $400,000. host: he will hear from our audience on the issue. we will hear from rick in new york on the independent line. morning. caller: morning. thanks for having me on. i've got a question. there is so much grass -- graft and corruption in congress, supreme court, even the executive branch under trump. this is kind of silly. i would not ask it six years ago, but is there any way to have our top leaders take a polygraph as a requirement on their tax policies?

on their economic policies before they get into a position of power? guest: thank you for your question. i don't know the answer to that. i can say a little bit about, we do believe that all presidential candidates should be releasing their tax returns. i think that is helpful, so that there is transparency about people's taxes. host: kevin in marshall, texas on the republican line. hi, kevin. caller: hi. yeah, my question or comment concerns the corporate tax rate. when you are going through supply shortages and disruptions of the supply chain, giving a tax cut to corporations helps produce. any economist would recognize that.

the corporation has more money to spend, to ramp up production, to hire more people, to pay higher wages or lower prices. corporations, a corporate tax makes no sense. all that is is a tax on production. if it goes to the ceos, you tax that. if it goes to stockholders, that is dividends. that gets taxed. the money that stays there is the money for more employees, research and development, all of that stuff. i'm sure your organization when trump did the tariffs, the first thing they said, that tax is passed to the consumers. the consumers will pay that. yes, they do. just like an income tax does. you are trying to work both sides.

you are not making any economic sense. if you are giving tariffs because of that, it is cost to the consumers and yet you are against a tax cut to corporations when it could also go to cut prices for consumers. guest: thank you so much for that question. as we look at corporate taxes, in the 1950's one third of the federal revenue came from corporate taxes. now it is about 90%. -- 9%. it has dropped dramatically. there are big corporations who pay zero in taxes. that does not make any sense either. as we think about how do we help the economy, it is really how do we help small businesses. the average small business owner makes $55,000 per year. why are we getting tax cuts to huge corporations making record profits when we should really be

thinking about ways to benefit small businesses. i don't think big corporations need more tax cuts. host: the caller said you were trying to cover both sides. remind our audience about your organization, the mission and your approach to the issues. guest: sure. the economy is really rigged for so many people. there are two texas dems. if you are a nurse or a firefighter, you pay taxes every week. if you are a billionaire, you can pay almost nothing in taxes because you are getting a lot of stock and if you never sell the stock, you can pay zero in taxes. billionaires actually pay a tax rate of 8%. the average american pays a rate of 13.6%, almost double. we should not have these two texas dems, one for the super wealthy.

that is why propose a global mental tax. host: what would that look like? guest: the biden-harris administer agenus talked about a 25% tax on those who have wealth of $100 million or more. your average person, your teacher is paying taxes every two weeks. why shouldn't billionaires pay taxes too? this would make sure they are paying at least 25% tax rate. host: i am always looking at the end goal so if a program like that were to be put in place, how would it impact the debt and deficit and are tax system. guest: it raise a significant amount of money -- it would raise a significant amount of money. it could be used for deficit reduction and tax credits and other things for working families and cutting prices. host: let's hear from meryl in

missouri on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: did i get that right? is it merrill? caller: that is fine. i have been called a lot of things. on the tax cuts for the corporations, i would like your guest to comment on the stock buybacks for the companies. i know there is the idea of tax cuts for wealthy corporations, when it was first sold, they said they would invest more in research. and they are not. they are just buying back their own stock to increase the price of it. can you comment on the ira? i know we have republicans like ted cruz and local republicans

in missouri saying you will have 87,000 wages -- agents coming out to investigate. according to the irs, the commissioner, they are giving a return on investment two to one. people making $1 million per year, in january they have already siphoned more than half $1 billion in back taxes. if you could comment on those. guest: i would be happy to. thank you for those questions. the first one on stock buybacks. the caller is right. corporations got this huge tax cut 40%. what happened was stock back was

-- stock buybacks want to record levels. a corporation buys its own stock back. why do they do that? it raises the price of the stock and makes the people who own it, the ceos and other rich investors become wealthier. that is where a lot of the money has actually gone from these corporate tax cuts is to stock buybacks. the democrats passed in 2022 a 1% minimum stock buyback tax. there is a tax when they do that. the biden-harris administration has proposed a 4% buyback tax and we fully support that. on the irs the caller makes it really important point. for more than a decade, republicans cut funding for the irs. that meant there was less staff to answer the phones, provide customer service and to audit the very wealthy.

the very wealthy have complicated tax returns. they have partnerships and all of these things. we need more staff at the irs to look and make sure folks are not cheating. the democrats in 2022 passed $80 billion for the irs to higher more staff. the result in a couple of years has been amazing. when you call the irs and you need help, it used to take 30 minutes that you would have to be on hold. now it is three minutes. so customer service has improved dramatically. the irs has gone after these wealthy people who have not paid their taxes. four billionaires who owed money, the irs has already collected $1 billion. that is what happens when you give the irs the tools to do its job. for every dollar invested in the irs, it returns $12. host: mary in maryland on the independent line. good morning. caller: hello.

i am calling to say that trump is in this race basically for one reason. to keep the tax cuts for the rich going. if musk is willing to put in $46 million per month to make sure that trump wins so that the tax cuts will stay intact, how can that be good for the entire country? how can anybody --good morning. host: go ahead. i think you are hearing your echo in the background from the television. caller: how can that man, trump, be good for the middle class and the working class? project 2025 is written by trump

's main people. they are talking about defunding social security and medicare. how can any senior vote for trump? if you have your thinking caps, think. the ones voting for trump are under his spell. host: let's get a response. guest: thank you for that question. first about billionaires and money and elections. we did a report in 2022 looking at the election and found that billionaires had contributed a record amount of campaign funds. one out of nine contributions came from billionaires. we did another report showing that 50 billionaire families had

contributed $600 million to the election. democracy is about one person, one vote. it should not be i am a billionaire, i get to buy elections. that is really one of the huge impacts of billionaires having so much money. they end up buying elections. in terms of project 2025, i am glad you brought that up. this has gotten some price. this is something that the heritage foundation organized with lots of conservative activists and there are many different pieces. the biggest thing it does is it would raise taxes on the middle class and cut taxes on the wealthy. it proposes two tax rates. a 15% rate for those making less than $168,000 and 30% for those

who make more than $168,000. it sounds simple. what is the problem? you pay a higher tax rate and it would cost you an additional $2300 per year in taxes that you pay. if you are making $5 million per year, you get a tax cut of $325,000. again, the idea that cutting taxes on the wealthy and increasing taxes on the middle class is a long approach. it would also cut the corporate rate even more from 21% to 18%. it would cut the capital gains tax which is wealthy investors are paying a rate that is half of what average americans pay on their income. it would lock in some of these bad provisions by making congress can only pass changes

with the super majority. this is a dangerous and concerning approach to make sure the wealthy get more tax cuts and the burden increases on middle-class families. we think that is the wrong approach. host: another one of the provisions in project 2025 is considering the introduction of a u.s. consumption tax. guest: yes. it would also propose a 30% consumption tax. what does that mean? if you buy a car, food, any purchase, they would add a 30% tax on that. that kind of burden on working families, we think that is the wrong approach. host: henrietta in florida on the republican line. hi. caller: good morning. just four short things. one thing is that the trump tax cuts allow companies to write off 100% of any capital

equipment they invested in. that makes them more competitive. that is why the steel industry went out of business. secondly, the tax rate, if you know anything, we compete across the world for businesses to come to the united states. thirdly, a lower tax rate generates more revenue. this gentleman here, i would like for him to tell me what kind of an education he has. quite frankly, if he does not have an mba, everything he says is kind of ridiculous. in addition to that, does he know that billionaires, do you know who they contribute to? both democrats and republicans. lastly, trump has disavowed this crazy project 2025.

more importantly what i want to know is do you have an mba? host: let's give david a chance to respond. guest: it would not be the first time someone said my opinions are ridiculous. i appreciate the caller saying that. one of the things the caller talked about was lowering taxes. what we have seen this that the lowest taxes are not necessarily the best. as a society we have to pay for national defense. we have to pay for education. we need a certain amount of government services. the question really is, who will pay them? is it the wealthy or is it going to be the middle class? our point is that the wealthy should pay their fair share. the second point is we need enough revenue to be able to invest so that we have a well-educated workforce, so that

we have roads and bridges that work, a court system that works, all of these things so that businesses can prosper because they need those public services to be able to have a strong economy. host: we are talking about vice president harris's tax proposals. again, something that her and former president trump have brought up is getting rid of the tax on tips. this headline from the guardian newspaper, no tax on tips fires of nevada hospitality workers. former president trump just started airing ads in the battleground states that issue. we will play them for you now and talk about them. [video clip] >> attention. president trump will end all taxes on social security benefits and end all taxes on tips collected by service workers. >> i am donald trump i approve this message. >> harris and biden have

unleashed the irs to rest workers and they may be coming to your house next. only president trump has a plan that ends all taxes on service workers tips. >> i am donald j. trump and i approve this message. host: we talked about the tax on tips, something he has proposed at rallies, eliminating the tax on social security. what do we know about that? guest: just add one more thing about the tax on tips, one of the other concerns we have abounded is that -- we have about it is that if there are no income limits, if wealthy law firms and other folks would reclassify their income as tips, that does not make sense. that is another problem with their proposal. on social security one of the questions we must ask is that would drain social security even further. where is the money going to come

from? it would make social security right now even sooner and that is another concern. host: charles in fort collins, colorado on the independently. caller: just three quick things. i want to know who you are funded by. my next question would be is do you think if we pass the people's act hr1, eliminating lobbyists, gerrymandered districts and things like that, it would make a change in our tax policies? where can i find this information you are talking about? i would really like to be able to digest it and look it up. guest: our funding comes from foundations and thousands who believe in our mission. you can look at are website to find a lot of the information. host: liz in new jersey on the

democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. i like the title of your group. it is the first time i'm hearing of it. i think one thing we need to educate the american people on is that americans contribute to the cost of our government in different ways and donor states where i live and here in new jersey send more money to washington and give very little back. they dig deep in state and local tax agents to be able to run our state. i think about fairness and we should be equalizing the amount that americans pay regardless of what state they happen to be living in. new jersey is a donor state.

most of the northeast are donor states and we are paying for the military. we are paying for the government. a lot of the recipients of our money are in the south and southwest. those folks seem to think that they are actually paying the bill because they called and complained and think that trump is somehow going to save the money. trump costs new jersey money. the taxpayers supporting -- [indiscernible] unless they are the top 1%, thank you. guest: thank you, caller. again, the question is as we look at the tax system, how do

we make sure that the big corporations pay their fair share? it is not complicated. there are lots of things we can do to raise a different. they are raising the corporate tax rate. that would raise $1.3 trillion over the next decade. if we had a millionaire tax of 10% come on people making $2 million or more, that would raise a huge amount of money. there are things we could do. the alternative minimum tax, getting that back. we could raise trillions of dollars to make sure we invest in working families. we can do this. from a policy level, this is easy to do. the other point that is important to make is if you look at the polling, raising taxes on the rich and corporations is overwhelmingly popular. democrats, independents, even republicans support raising taxes on the rich. that is why you seen so many politicians talking about. it is popular with what people want. host: come january, we will have

a new administration in the white house. what are some changes that your organization would like to see the new administration put into place? guest: thank you for asking. first off is making sure that the trump tax cuts expire for people making over $400,000 per year. that's important. getting this corporate tax rate back up to 20% would be very important. the alternative minimum tax, strengthening that. billionaire surcharge. the other really important piece is the billionaire minimum income tax, to make sure billionaires are paying their fair share and we get rid of this system where we have two different systems. one for billionaires and one for everybody else. host: darlene in florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have two questions. one goes back to the $400,000.

is the $400,000 gross or net income? my other question is what the youth about flat tax and what percentage across the board to everyone in corporations etc. without any tax loopholes? thank you. guest: starting with the flat tax. i think the way it would work is you have one tax rate for everybody. what that would mean is instead of having a progressive tax system which means that if you make less money or you are a working-class person, you pay a lower tax rate than the wealthy. what it would mean is a flat tax in order to generate the money, you would have to raise taxes on the middle class. by having a lower rate, a lower rate for the wealthy, they would get a huge tax cut.

we were talking about that earlier. a tax cut is a way to shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class. we think that is a terrible approach. simplifying the tax code is a good idea but this approach is a bad one. host: we have just a few minutes left. we will hear from mark in st. paul, minnesota on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. ms. harris says that former president trump is going to raise tariffs and criticizes the plan because she says that will increase prices to the consumers because corporations will just pass through those cuts. at the same time ms. harris wants to increase the corporate tax rate. will that not have the same effect of increasing prices for the consumers because the same corporations will pass on the increased tax consequences? guest: great question.

about the tariffs proposal. former president trump has said that he wants to increase tariffs for all goods by 10%. maybe a 20% tariff. a tariff is a tax on u.s. importers. if you are bringing goods into the country to sell, you pay 10% or 20%. it is true that would be passed on in higher costs and the average consumer would pay $1500 more at a 10% tariff rate. i think that the corporate rate, the views in the economic literature are pretty clear that a lot of that is not passed on to the consumers and it is a different situation. host: bob in connecticut on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have a couple of comments on some of the statements you made. one with regard to the 8% rate on billionaires. you compared it to the teachers and firefighters and president biden did that during his speech. you know that is a false calculation because the 8% they calculated was based on a study that the white house office of budget conducted over a period of time from 2010 to 2018. . not based on real numbers. it included a real-life capital gains stock from businesses and etc. having some knowledge of mathematics, the bigger the denominator, the lower the rate. the billionaire tax rate actually gets included with the top 1%. that top 1% of taxpayers pays annually about a 43% rate and this year it will probably go to 45%. 45% of the taxes in the entire

united states, income taxes, are paid by 1% of the people including the billionaires. that is a fact. the bottom 50% pay nearly zero taxes. maybe it is 2%. when you take into account credits for earned income and childcare, which is ok because we are a generous nation. if people in lower income levels cannot afford taxes but they can get the benefits of the country, that is fine. guest: thank you, caller. yes, it is true that the 8% calculation includes the wealth gains that billionaires have. that makes sense because that should be considered income. you have a paycheck, you are a teacher, it is income. we think it makes sense. it is true the wealthy pay a fair amount of tax. their income over recent years

have gone up tremendously, dramatically more. the rich are getting richer. they should pay more taxes. host: lori in illinois on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to thank you both for your service. i do a lot of research and i am concerned to the point that our future generations will never recover from the debt being strapped to their backs. i support your work wholeheartedly. but the next president has to get to the bottom of that as well as all of the other mitigating factors that are starting to surface. it is the question of how much we are in debt. we both know, i grew up in the middle class, if the money is not in the bank, i will not pay my bills. where do we stand with that right now? guest: thanks for the question. the biden-harris budget would

cut by $3 trillion. it would raise taxes on the wealthy and big corporations, invest in working families and put a significant amount toward deficit reduction. we can do both. there is money to be able to invest in families and cut the deficit, which is important. host: a lot of tax policy will depend on who was in the white house on january. what are you watching for between now and the election? what policies or details do you want to hear from them? guest: it is very important that we hear from all politicians of what they would do on tax policy. would they continue the trump tax cuts which were so overwhelming be beneficial for the wealthy and big corporations? do they believe in tax fairness? today believe that the wealthy should pay more in taxes in

order to cut the deficit and invest in working families? that is the message we will be talking about over again. host: david kass, americans for tax fairness executive director. you could find them online and on x. thank you so much for being with us today. guest: thank you so much. host: test does it for today's washington journal. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern with another addition of washington journal. enjoy the rest of your day. ♪ ♪

>> sunday on q&a, we sat down

with virginia ali and bernard, author of "breaking barriers, "about the history of the landmark. >> before 1968, did you stay open? >> yes. we were allowed to remain open. we were asked to remain open. >> every city has a great space and place for african-americans to go to and feel safe and feel as if this is our place to talk, to eat, to socialize, to listen

to a jukebox. new orleans, new york, chicago as there is. >> men's sunday night at 8:00 eastern on q&a. listen to q&a and all of our podcasts are free c-span now app. the green party hosted