we americans sometimes have short memories, don't we? but none of us will ever forget seven years ago when our country was facing the worst recession since the great depression. a meltdown on wall street left our nation's entire economy hanging by a thread. ..

>> and instead we embraced, and instead we returned to the truth that our parents and grandparents understood that the more a person learns the more a person earns. [applause] that a stronger middle class -- that a strong arer middle class is not the consequence of economic growth a stronger middle class is the cause of economic growth. [applause] i'm not even sure our parents and grandparents, democrats and republicans alike even had a word for that type of economics. they called it common sense. [laughter] in other words, the more money that workers earn, the better customers businesses have, and the better our economy grows. so together we actually, we passed the living wage. we raised the minimum wage to

$10.10 an hour. [applause] we made college we made college more affordable more more people and four years in a row without a penny's increase. we made our public schools, as tom mentioned the best in the country for five years in a row. we made it easier for people to vote and not harder. [applause] and because we understood that renewable energy creates strong jobs and good communities we made sure we seized the economic opportunities inherent in climate change if only we rise as americans to meet that challenge. [applause] together we brought back the help of the waters of the chesapeake bay together we made maryland one of the top states for upward economic mobility.

together, according to a report released this week, we made maryland the top state for women-owned businesses in the united states. [applause] and through all the eight very difficult years we made sure that our state had the highest median income in the country for all eight of those years. and since the depths of the recession, maryland's actually created jobs faster than our neighbors to the north or south of us. you see, it's not about left, it's not about right, it's not about center. it's about doing the things that work; better choices for better results for the american dream that you and i share. that's what it's about. [applause] when a family can actually send their sons and daughters to good schools, the american dream is

alive and it's true. when a family can work hard and through that hard work claim a seat at the table of american prosperity, the american dream is alive. and none of these things my friends, happen by chance. they happen by choice. the choice that we have to make to to believe in one another, to believe in our country and believe in our ability our ability to make that aim real. as a nation, here's the good news. as a nation, we have now created jobs for 60 months in a row. positive job creation for 60 months in a row. [applause] we are recovering jobs faster than most other countries coming out of this recession. and that is absolutely the good news. but the bad news is this: let me ask you a question.

how many of you by a show of hands firmly believe that you have you haven joyed a better quality of life -- have enjoyed a better quality of life than your parents and grandparents have enjoyed? raise your hands. second question, how many of you believe just as firmly that your children and grandchildren will enjoy a better quality of life than you have raise your hands. and it's the great question at the center of this table democracy. people are actually more pessimistic now for all of the good work that we've done together to bring our country back, people are more pessimistic now about their children's future than they were four years ago. the vast majorities are working harder only to watch their families fall further behind. for too many of us, the dreams that could be, that once were seem to be slipping from our

grasp. and you've seen this look in your neighbor's eyes, and i've seen it too. america's worried, and it's for good reason. 80% of us are earning less today than we were 12 years ago. and that is not the way our country's supposed to work and that is not the way our economy is supposed to work. and until we solve this problem we cannot rest. [applause] get this. 50 years ago the nation's largest employer was gm, general motors. and the average employee the average employee could send a child to college on two weeks' wages. two weeks. recently the washington times ran a story with this headline, and i quote: the american dream

is dead. well, let me say here from polk county to those who would write those premature obituaries of the american dream, the american dream is not dead the american dream will not die because you and i are going to fight for it and make it true again! [cheers and applause] our economy is the product of the choices we make and the choices we fail to make. you mean to tell me that we can concentrate wealth at the top as it never has been before but we can't create good jobs and good wages to support a family? do you mean to tell me that we can pay record bonuses on wall street, but we cannot eradicate childhood hunger? i don't buy it and neither should you. [applause] we are better than this. [applause]

we are better than this. we are americans, we make our own destiny. and it's going to be up to the democratic party to finish the work that we have begun together. and what is that work? that work is to make our economy work for all of us again to resore the american dreams. -- restore the american dream cans. [applause] do we a favor -- do me a favor. close your eyes if it's helpful. but i want you to think of your parents and your grandparents. they understood the essence of the american dream that we share. and it is this: that the stronger we make our country the more our country can give back to us and to our children and to our grandchildren.

the poet laureate of the american dream bruce springsteen asked once -- [laughter] is the dream alive and won't come true, or is it something worse? when the american dream is denied our -- [audio difficulty] [applause] >> and what does that mean? that means raising the minimum wage raising the income threshold for overtime pay and actually making it easier rather than harder for people to join unions and bargain for collective bargaining rights and greater wages. [cheers and applause]

that's what it means to make the dream come true. and to make the dream come true we must not allow another wall street meltdown to rain down on hard working american families. it is not too much to ask and it is not too much to expect for our national government to rein in wall street to protect big banks from working over little people and to keep big banks from ever wrecking our national economy again. [applause] we must. [applause] and to make the dream come true again, we have to embrace a clean energy future. we are americans. we don't back down from threats. [applause] we have to recognize that

renewable, inexhaustible sources of energy actually represent the biggest business opportunity in a century. and you all are harnessing it here. look at your wind industry and what you're doing to put people back to work and to give your children a cleaner and more secure people. and to make the dream true again, we must increase social security benefits and not cut them. [applause] and to make the dream come true again, we must invest in our children. it is absolutely appalling that you can refinance a mortgage on your home easier than kids can refinance a mountain of college debt. [applause] we've been talking a hot about the american dream. my father flew in a b-24 liberator, 33 missions over the japan in the pacific where your

dad was. and he would not have gone to college were it not for a far-seeing and generous country that created the g.i. bill. we need to make it, make college more affordable for all in our country again. and to make that dream come true, we also have to be able to give our college graduates the ability to start their own dream, to buy a home without being unbankable because of the amount that they owe on their college debt. but look, folks the most fundamental power of our party -- and i would submit the most powerful fundamental strength of our country -- is the power of our moral principles. the power of our moral principles. triangulation is not a strategy that will move america forward. history celebrates profiles in courage. not profiles in convenience. this day each day we must be unashamed, unabashed defenders of that american dream that we

share. in other words the dignity of every person tells us that the righting to marry is not a state right, the right to marry is a human right. [applause] your traditions as a generous and compassionate people here in iowa tell us, as americans tells us that when refugee children arrive on our doorstep from central america or any other country fleeing star vegas and death gangs -- starvation and death gangs, we to not turn them around. we act like the generous, compassionate people we have always been. because the enduring symbol of our nation is not the barbed wire fence, it is the statue of liberty. [cheers and applause] this is who we are.

this is who we are. this is who we are. and, yes in god we trust. yes, you and i are proud to be members of the democratic party. and let the tea party measure their success by how many times they can shut our government down and sell us short. but we measure our success in jobs and opportunity for all. let them speak of the sad yesterdays that were. we speak for the tomorrows that can be. the american dream is what makes america exceptional. fear and anger never built a great nation. our country is built by the compassionate choices that we make together guided by our better angels. we love what our country is and, what's more we love what our country can still become. so take pride in what you believe. and the next time someone asks you who you voted for don't be shy. i want you to tell 'em, and i mean it, if a child asks you who

you voted for, i want you to tell that child i voted for you. when you see someone with health insurance now who didn't have it before and they ask you who you voted for, i want you to tell them i voted for you. when you see someone sweating through another long shift and they ask you who you voted for i want you to tell them, i voted for you. and when you see someone who wants nothing more than their family to be treated with dignity and equal rights under the law i want you to tell them i voted for you. and when you see someone who hungers for opportunity and a good job, i want you to tell them i voted for you. yes. we are democrats and we are democrats for good reason. because ours is the party of opportunity, ours is the part of optimism ours is the party of the people ours is the party of the better american dream and

ours is the party that will move america forward. [applause] thank you all very, very much. [applause] >> senator marco rubio yesterday announced that he is running for the republican presidential nomination in 2016. he made the announcement in miami. >> yesterday is over. [cheers and applause] and we're never going back. you see, we americans are proud of our history but our country has always been about the future. and before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of america. but we can't do that by going back to the leaders and ideas of the past. we must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them.

[cheers and applause] and so that is why tonight, grounded by the lessons of our history but inspired by the promise of our future i announce my candidacy for president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> marco! marco! >> and on this morning's "washington journal," we spoke with two reporters about senator rubio's announcement and the 2016 presidential race. >> host: already a very busy

week on the road to 2016. here to breakal it all down for us this morning is "the boston globe"'s political editor shira center and katherine lucys katherine based in iowa where hillary clinton is heading today and tomorrow and katherine want to start with you. who's hillary clinton meeting with, and what are the events she's going to be appearing atwill today? >> guest: hi there. well yes, she got out to iowa just as fast as her scooby van could carry her this week, and clinton is making a very clear choice to stay away from the bigger cities or bigger rallies or events. she's going to be in small towns doing some much more sort of intimate gatherings. she's going to be touring ad mu community college today, meeting with educators students. tomorrow she'll be at a produce business and meet, doing a business round table. and beyond that i think they're expected to be doing some more

private meetings with, you know lawmakerses, democratic activists. but the goal and her campaign has been very clear about this, they want personal interactions, you know, regular folks small towns. she's really trying to set aca taupe here. >> host: met a great family we stopped this afternoon, many more to come. and there's a picture of the family there. want to bring you in on this hillary clinton's second chance now to make a first impression. how does a person who is so well known sort of reintroduce themselves? >> guest: it's going to be very difficult. and you could argue it's the greatest challenge ahead of her when it comes to seeking the nomination. a quinnipiac university poll came out last week that showed something like 90% of people had either a favorable or

unfavorablen -- unfavorable opinion, and just 5% of voters in the iowa poll said they had not heard enough to make an opinion about her. just 5%. you compare that to the republican tool 54% of survey respondents saying they did not have enough information to make a decision about it, to make a decision about a republican candidate in the race. there's very little wiggle room more her. so i think part of what the road trip is supposed to do is supposed to reintroduce her as a new hillary clinton a metamorphosis into a common woman's woman in many ways. >> host: and on front page of today's boston globe the story: iowa voters examine alternatives to clinton. as we said, katherine lucey is based out in iowa and as you're talking to political watchers veterans who have watched so many campaigns come through iowa katherine, what are they saying will make a successful

rollout here a successful visit to iowa in just the first couple days of her new campaign? >> guest: i think clinton's people are talking to the same people i am because i think there is a real sense here that people want to see her come in talk to people go to diners go to coffee shops do the low key retail politicking that iowa caw gus goers really expect and demand from their candidates. so i think in terms of this approach, that is what i'm hearing activists say, they want to see her. and there's been some anxiety on the democratic side for the last few months because compared to the republican field where you have a huge field of candidates, there's less happening with democrats, and they want to get going. they want to see candidates they want to talk to them, they want to vet them. even if it's hillary clinton and, you know they've met her before, they want her out here. >> host: and we're happy to have our viewers join this conversation as well. our phone lines are open,

republicans 202-7:00 48 -- 748-8001 independents, 202-748-8002, and a special line for those callers, those residents of iowa and new hampshire in this segment 202-748-8003. a lot of focus in those two states, especially this week. shira, take us to new hampshire, a gathering of republicans scheduled for this weekend in new hampshire. tell us what's going on. >> guest: yeah absolutely. on friday and saturday nearly every republican presidential hopeful will go through nashua, new hampshire, for the state pear's leadership summit. party's leadership summit. it's at the crown plaza which i hear is lovely. and there are 19 speakers who have signed up for this. the only two who are not are ben carson and rick santorum.

it's going to be two solid days of speeches. rick perry will kick it off friday, marco rubio and jeb bush friday evening and scott walker will close it out at the saturday night dinner. >> host: and, of course, marco rubio announcing his campaign for the presidency yesterday. want to show our viewers a bit there that announcement. >> yesterday is over. [cheers and applause] and we're never going back. you see we americans are proud of our history, but our country has always been about future. and before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of america. but we can't do that by going back to the leaders and ideas of the past. we must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them.

[cheers and applause] and so that is why tonight grounded by the lessons of our history but inspired by the promise of our future, i announce my candidacy for president of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> marco! marco! marco! marco! >> host: and that announcement coming in marco rubio's home state of florida. here's the miami herald's front page story on it, candidate rubio calls upon new conservative generation, the headline there. we're talking with our political

experts, shira center of "the boston globe" and connecticut run lu catherine lucey of the associated press. phone lines are as usual this morning, republicans democrats and independents. we'll start on the line for democrats. george is in louisville, kentucky. good morning, george. >> caller: good morning. nice to hear from everybody. i'm just hoping that this it doesn't get too negative. i hear the smear campaigns are going to be out en masse. it started with the lee atwater campaign in '88, and i just hope if hillary gets hit with a lot, i think the benghazi ordeal, i think it's a scam scandal. there was no standdown orders. and i think most of the lies are coming from the right-wing crowd. and i think we have to -- i am tired of hearing about

negativity about other people. i want to hear why we should vote for somebody as opposed to just trying to smear someone else. and if hillary gets smeared, i hope she fights back with everything in her. i'm really tired of these unconscionable smear tactics from the other side. thank you very much. >> host: catherine l are ucey pick up on that and public reaction to hillary clinton's announcement, the video and now the van tour through iowa. >> guest: yeah, sure. i mean, to the question i don't think anyone can expect there won't be any negative campaigning in the next year and a half. i think that's probably pretty unlikely, you know given the times that we're in. there's been lots of interest on the republican side about clinton, when she'll get in and certainly there's been criticism and negative commentary about her before this. but certainly now that there's a candidate in the race, huge republican field can really, you know, focus on her a lot more

directly, and they probably will. >> host: and we should note that hillary clinton will be in monticello iowa later today. you can watch that appearance on c-span2 at 1:15 eastern time 12:15 central out in iowa. speaking of the ability to go see presidential candidates, a tweet from jodi as we've been having this discussion. she writes: iowa's the only state one can talk to the presidential hopefuls. they should choose a new first state each election. we'll go to paul waiting in chesapeake virginia. our line for independents. paul, good morning. >> caller: yes. i have a couple of comments here. one is a question. are any governors looking to get into the race instead of senators? some of these senators who are getting in are young and we just went through eight years of that.

so and the second question is hillary claims to champion the middle class. twelve years in the governor's mansion of arkansas, eight years in the white house and then secretary of state. my question is what does she really know about the middle class? thank you. >> host: shira center at "the boston globe," if you want to take the first part of that on governors or those with executive experience jumping into the presidential race. >> guest: yeah. when you have 21 possible republican candidates running, yes, a few of them are governors, most notably scott walker the above of wisconsin is looking seriously at the race and polling quite well in some of the early states. former florida governor jeb bush is another candidate potential candidate with executive experience. he's also polling well in the race and the kind of candidates who aren't polling as well, former maryland governor bob ehrlich, former new york governor george pataki, other

chief state executives who are considering running for president. >> host: and catherine lucey, if you want to pick up on the challenge of hillary clinton relating the middle class americans. >> guest: that certainly is what she's setting out to do here. she's going to be here trying to talk one on one with real people. we certainly saw the tone she was setting in her video was she wanted to connect with everyday folks on their problems and their concerns looking to the future. and i think one of the things she's going to be talking about and she said on her web site, you know she wants to be people's champion. so i think she is -- whether i in terms of how she'll frame this i think it will be i understand your concerns i will fought for your concerns, and i think that's one of the ways she's going to approach. >> host: and catherine lucey, you had a recent story in real clear politics about another former chief executive on the campaign trail martin to

malley. >> guest: absolutely, yes. former maryland governor martin o'malley has been in iowa several times recently as he ponders a 2016 democratic bid as well. and he's been received very well here. i saw him, i've seen him do a couple of events and he is definitely offering a you know, a progressive message talking a lot about, you know income inequality raising the minimum wage, you know financial reform in terms of, you know, oversight of banking. and people are responding to that. so i think, i think he has a message that people are interested in, and i think also democratic activists here and in other early voting seats really do want to see some options. they don't want to just have a coronation so to speak of hillary clinton. >> and hillary clinton's so far ahead in some of the polls the early polls that we've seen. catherine lucey, do they matter at this point? and, shira center, i want to get

your thoughts as well. >> guest: of course polls matter and, obviously, clinton is a prohibitive favorite at this point, but i think thing that's interesting almost a year out from the iowa caucuses is that surprises can happen and these are states where if you put in the time if you are really making the rounds, if you are meeting with people, i mean, people are going to listen, and they are going to, you know to give you a shot. they're not -- the caucus voters here, the caucus participants here really want to vet the options and take seriously the fact that they are first in the nation. so they are going to give anyone who comes in here, give them a look. >> host: just one of those polls on the democratic side of the ticket, hillary clinton ahead by 40 points in north carolina to her next closest challenger, potential challenger, vice president joe biden. o'malley with just 5% to clinton's 53% in that public

policy polling poll. shira center, do polls matter at in this point? >> guest: not really, but not for the reason you might think. yes, it's early so what i they do measure by a large portion is name recognition and hillary clinton is extremely well known. but it's just looking at the nature of especially the field on our side. even if you have something like nine candidates really vying actively in the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary, that means the winner will probably only get between 15 and 17% of the vote maybe % on election night if they really have a blowout. and when you're looking at numbers that small it's extremely hard to judge this far out how well a candidate can do. >> host: happy to take viewer calls and thoughts on these topics or any topics related to 2016 for about the next half hour here on "washington journal." david in maryland line for

democrats. good morning. >> caller: good morning. it seems our politics has become some type of perverted theater. any politician that doesn't raise millions and millions of dollars can't run. any politician that says anything against israel, even if it's true, cannot run is pilaried and not even talked about. rand paul, for instance who i'm not a fan of, but he has said some things that make common sense how america should free itself from its relationship with israel. and the media does not give him due time like they will clinton or rubio or jeb. someone needs to talk about that. kennedy, when he said there are forces that want to enslave america, we know three weeks later he was killed. so americans need to stop being

transfix with the the theater get down to the truth. >> host: catherine lucey, the first part of the viewer's question talked about fundraising expectations. what are the expectations on hillary clinton after her announcement over the weekend? >> guest: i know that she's, obviously, she's getting right into fundraising. they're starting right away, and they're going to raise huge amounts of money. the thing though, with these races on both sides -- and we've seen this, you know, the past few cycles -- is that there's so many vehicles for fundraising and spending both in terms of the candidate committees, but also outside committees that huge amounts of money can come in in a lot of different ways. so it's going to, i mean it's going tock the biggest spending presidential, and she's going to have ample opportunity to raise and access funds. yeah it does create a certain kind of race, absolutely.

>> host: and shira center on maybe foreign policy in general or israel policy specifically as they will factor into the presidential contest and primaries. >> guest: right. so i think you're going to be hard pressed to find a candidate that doesn't describe himself or herself as partner and friend of israel, and i think it'll be the same thing on the democratic side. republicans have been emphasizing america's relationship with israel more and more over the last decade or so and i think the current negotiations in iran will really keep the issue in the forefront at least through the summer until we figure out the details in early august which is conveniently right around the time of one of the first debates. >> host: don's up next in reading, california. thanks for getting up early with us on the "washington journal." >> caller: i've got a little bit of a cold, so i hope that i can

do this. marco rubio's entrance slogan or his slogan yesterday was a new american century which is kind of interesting. i thought it might be a shout out to the military industrial complex going back to the draft of the prompt for the new american -- of the project for the new american century where neo-cons wanted to get military spending back up to reagan era levels. i wonder if he might be just reaching out to them just a little bit. thanks. >> host: catherine lucey on the new america century slogan. what do you think marco rubio is trying to refer to here? >> well obviously, a slogan could have a number of meanings. the most basic one, though i think is he is trying to phrase himself as a new face a new voice and the future in the

republican party. and that will contrast him with other folks in the race. and certainly that's i think going back to our comments earlier about hillary clinton and she reinvent and sort of reposition herself, that is a contrast for her. rubio is new and presents new ideas, and i think her critics will say that she represents the past. >> host: el paso texas, is up next. line for republicans where gina is waiting. good morning, gina. >> caller: good morning. actually i am a former democrat, and i was rooting for hillary in 2008. was very disappointed when she didn't win the caucuses in iowa came in third place behind john edwards and barack obama. as we learned since then john edwards has basically been a disgrace. besides that history, how can iowa convince the rest of the nation that their opinion that

hillary should be number one now when they tried to convince us that she wasn't good enough in 2008 because we needed hope and change? she was supposed to be, she was supposed to be the one for hope and change now, but she wasn't the one then. so if the democrats didn't want her then, why would they want her now? and i think it's kind of hypocritical that the democratic party is trying to convince us gung ho that she's the formidable candidate when they convinced her to drop out of the raisins day one. >> host: catherine lucey based in iowa, another caller with concerns about iowa being the lead here in the primary season as iowa always is. can you talk about it from your perspective on the ground there? >> guest: right. well yes, obviously iowa does get a lot of flak for being first and having this kind of intimate access to candidates and the this kind of voice in

the nominating process. and i think a lot of activists here and politicians here will be quite candid, they are lucky. but they would also say that they take the process very seriously and that this is a place where candidates can do a kind of one-on-one retail politicking that they can't easily do in bigger states with bigger media markets. so clinton can come here and really, you know have these experiences with voters that would be hard to do in other places. this election versus 2008, it's a different election, it's a different field of candidates, and there were a lot of iowa democrats who liked hillary in 2008. she did get a lot of support in the caw canses -- caucuses even though she ultimately came in third. and there's a lot of people who are excited to see her and do think this is her time and are quote, ready for hillary.

so i think there are folks who are ready for her, and there are people who want to see options and wait a little while and figure out what's out there. but they're committed to the process here. >> host: and "the boston globe"'s shira center same question to you about new hampshire, some perspective on the ground there. new hampshire a state in 2008 where hillary clinton briefly took back momentum during the democratic primaries. >> guest: yeah absolutely. after her horrible loss in iowa as your caller mentioned, third place in the caucuses, she came to new hampshire and rebounded and defeated barack obama by just a couple points there and it really propelled -- in many ways it propelled her and extended the democratic primary you could argue, several months beyond that to really change the dynamic of the race. but if you want to talk about access to candidates voters of new hampshire -- because the state is so small -- i think, really have an incredible access to candidates that maybe is on par or even more intimate than

iowa voters given the size of the state. there's an old joke, and i never quite tell it right about a new hampshire voter undecided and wavering about a candidate saying what? i only met him or her twice, you know? that's the way it goes in these small states because they have so much access. >> ands we'll try to bring c-span viewers access from the new hampshire republican party, that first in the nation leadership summit kicking off friday at 9 a.m. eastern. you can check it out on c-span2 starting at 9 a.m. and, of course the boston globe sure to have plenty of coverage from that event as well. craig in maryland line for democrats. good morning you're on with shira center and catherine lucey. >> caller: good morning. what i was calling about was the smear campaign. what about martin o'malley? martin o'malley with his extra affairs that he has with women where he had to have an affair covered up by his father-in-law

joe kern? what about that? thank you. >> host: catherine lucey, do you want to pick up this? you followed martin o'malley around iowa a little bit. >> guest: i really can't speak to a smear campaign or those allegations specifically. from what i saw here, obviously he was well received in iowa. no one was talking about any such allegations at any of the events i've been at, and i think he's got a lot of opportunity here. >> host: let's go to lee, alexandria, virginia. line for republicans. lee, good morning. >> caller: thank you very much for taking my call, i certainly appreciate it. my question is this: the 2008 election kind of showed the faceoff between the old guard and both the democratic party and the republican party. first obama and clinton and then obama and mitt romney.

as we go into the next election, who is likely to upset in the democratic party clinton is the same way that barack obama did? is there a candidate out there with the same kind of name recognition and charisma and potentially momentum that could provide the enthusiasm that obama provided? >> host: shira center, do you want to lead off on this one? >> guest: yeah absolutely. so just looking at the timing of the cycle as a whole, certainly by this point in the 2008 cycle even when hillary clinton looked like a front runner and maybe had the air of invisibility around her we knew barack obama was looking at the race, he was very serious about the race he might have already announced his exploratory committee. we knew about this even a year ago in this time in the 2008 cycle. this time around there is no one specifically on the horizon who has that kind of national following, that charismatic leadership who has said they are interested in running.

i think the only candidate who already has those qualities is elizabeth warren, and she has said repeatedly that she has no plans to run, she does not want to run, this is not in the future more her. so she would be the only person. i think hillary clinton could potentially be upset by in this primary. and it is notable, if you look at a lot of hillary clinton's messaging over these past couple of days, she's talking about a lot of the things elizabeth warren talks about all the time which is reviving the middle class, economics justice these huge themes that elizabeth warren has been talking about for several years. >> host: so, shira, does that answer bill king's question from twitter who asks even if they don't run or if they do will elizabeth warren and bernie sanders push hillary clinton's positions further left? he says many of us don't believe she is left enough. >> guest: you know, i don't think bernie sanders, with all due respect to the senator from vermont, i don't see him having a huge impact on which way

hillary clinton goes in this primary or how she models her platform. elizabeth warren, as i said has already had an effect on the democratic field in a lot of ways. she is the party's populist. you see hillary clinton echoing those tones already. >> host: we want to hear from our viewers for about the next 15 minutes or so. we've got shira center of "the boston globe" and catherine lucey of the associated press. if you're not meeting with candidates right now in iowa, we'd be happy to hear from you this morning on "the washington journal." 202-748-8003. yolanda is waiting, line for republicans. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. no be, i just wanted to give my comment that i can't believe it when i hear people say it's her turn. it is nobody's turn. aren't we to pick the most experienced, the one -- it just

bothers me. i keep seeing white water e-mail scandals and especially benghazi. that boths me a lot. when i see clips of pictures of guys who lost their lives and then hillary answering questions saying what difference does it make? i just don't trust her. i'm sorry. we need some fresh new faces i think. >> host: catherine lucey, if you want to pick up on that the trust issue and how the clinton camp reacts to comments like it's her turn. >> guest: yeah. i think the clinton camp is trying to get as far away as possible from the "it's her turn" type messaging by doing things like driving through iowa in a van, you know meeting, you know meeting -- doing her first events at small, intimate meetings with voters. they are being very clear that they want her to, you know, that she wants to earn every vote that she's going to fight for every vote.

so they are trying very hard to get away from any suggestion that she is taking this for granted, that she expects this. they are sort of comparing this to her campaign for senate in new york where she did a big listening tour and met with tons of people and convinced, you know that state that she was the right pick fur senator. -- for senator. they say she wants to work for it like that again. >> host: and you mentioned that van already the name scooby is the van. the "usa today" having a story specifically on the scooby vanishing scooby scoots clubton to iowa, named scooby because it reminds clinton of mystery machine in the soonty do -- scooby doo cartoon hit of 1970s. >> guest: i think if it looks like the scooby van, we'd have a much easier time finding her, right? >> host: talk about that. why has it been so tough to find her? is that on purpose by the

clinton campaign here? she has shown up on social media occasionally, but possibly at a chipotle was some of the reports last night. >> guest: yeah, looks like they're trying to keep this trip low key. they're not sending out tons of twitter pictures of her on the road with people. they've done one or two things but, yeah otherwise she appeared to go to that chipotle and not tell anyone who she was and just order her whatever it was. >> host: there's a picture from "the new york times" that we're showing our viewer. shra center, your thought on the low key nature and having to catch hillary clinton on security cameras here. >> guest: yeah, it is kind of interesting because on the one hand, her campaign could have totally overplayed this taking selfies at every gas station between here and monticello iowa, but they didn't. i think they wanted to keep it low key, not that they were totally overplaying it, you know? it reminds me of during mitt

romney's campaign when he went on kind of his every man tour and he bragged about getting 4.99 hamburgers and flying southwest all the time. they don't want to look like they're overdoing it. and instead it looks a little more natural. whether or not you believe it if you have a reporter calling the manager at chipotle outside of toledo and asking for the security footage then taking a selfie with the staff making your burrito bowl. >> host: jim's up next in texas, line for democrats. jim, good morning. >> caller: am i on? >> host: yes sir. >> caller: okay. what i wanted to share with you was, you know, all the women i talk to, republican, independent and democrat they all love hillary clinton. now, i don't understand that. i'm a man. but then they say, well the republican they've got the white males. i'm a white male all my friends are white males and all my friends are democrats! where are they getting this story that they've got the white

males? and then you think about the hispanics, you think about the african-americans. i mean and you talk about the asians even. they all love hillary. it's gonna be a landslide man! >> host: catherine lucey, if you want to pick up on the voting blocs that the clinton camp is trying to court here and specifically the female vote. >> guest: yeah. i mean obviously, in the weeks and months leading up to this announcement clinton has been doing a lot of speaking events and really has been talking a lot more about -- than she -- about gender equality, about equity in the workplace about issues that particularly matter to women and that's a contrast to 2008 where he didn't really at least at the get go talk about those things as much. so certainly i think that's going to be a much bigger focus in her campaign, you know? appealing to women and some of the issues that are important to them.

in terms of whether it's going to be a landslide i think we'll all have to wait and see. >> host: and catherine lucey quick question from instagram from still an individual please and the reporter if hillary will take questions at the events in iowa, and will they be staged like was revealed in 2008? what do you know about taking questions at those events? >> guest: i do not know if she'll be taking questions at the events. they are -- there is going to be press at, you know one event today, at least, you know an event today and an event tomorrow. i would assume there'll also be a variety of unscheduled stops and things like that. i would think she'll take questions from some of the people she's meeting with because she's doing round table discussion cans. so in the community college today, she's doing a discussion, i think with educators and students. tomorrow she'll be having some sort of business round table. so i've got to think that's going to, you know create the opportunity for people to ask her questions and share with her

their concerns. >> host: we've got a couple minutes left with catherine lucey and sh irk ra center, if you want to ask questions about 2016, we'll try to get to as many calls as we can in the last few minutes. jimmy in panama city florida line for independents. good morning, jimmy. >> caller: i have a quick comment. why would anyone, if we have a national disaster -- [inaudible] i am a clinton supporter. of this country was doing well with them. and so is a woman there's no problem with me. i think she'll be a good president, and i'm going to vote for her: thank you. >> host: hey, jimmy, are you still with us? shira center, do you want to puck up on any of jimmy's comments there? >> guest: i didn't quite hear what he was talking about -- >> host: on the natural disasters. >> guest: yeah. so, you know, obviously gosh,

just here in massachusetts trying to get federal funding for this huge snow in boston over the february has been a battle for the governor here. so obviously, it's an important issue that doesn't just affect, i think, tropical states or even the plains states. so it is something that the next occupant of the oval office will have to set a lot of policy on. i think it directly affected a lot of citizens in a way you wouldn't expect. >> host: do you want to talk about chris christie and maybe some of the thoughts about him dealing with natural disasters and, of course, the hurricane in new jersey? >> guest: yeah absolutely. so chris christie's presidential campaign is probably not -- has probably not gotten off to the start he would have hoped but he's coming to new hampshire today, he's coming back again later this week two times and he's doing a series of town halls. something like nine different public events where he's meeting and greeting new hampshire

voters. and this is really chris christie's prime venue. he's famous for his tough talk in these town halls and getting some flak for that, so he's going to be showing people from new hampshire what that's really like. and one of the things he is going to talk about is how he handled the sandy crisis. he got good reviews for how he handled that hurricane a couple years ago. so i think one of the things he's going to say is, you know, don't -- this is a huge part of my record, and this is a qualification to be commander in chief of this country. >> host: back to ohio, todayton ohio -- dayton, ohio where david is waiting on our line for democrats. go ahead david. >> caller: good morning. i would like to remind the people that it doesn't matter really who you elect as president if you have a do-nothing congress. we've got 47 members of the senate who claim they're going to be there forever til no matter what. you're going to get a president who's going to only be able to issue executive orders because you have a do-nothing congress.

thank you very much. >> guest: catherine lucey, ciewpt to pick -- do you want to pick up on how congress plays into the presidential campaign messages here? >> guest: i think certainly in iowa and a lot of states there'll be an effort, you know with both parties to try and build their numbers in congress. iowa had a really -- democrats had a tough year last year. they lost a senate race, they're now down to just one of the four house seats in iowa, so i think one of the messages that i think clinton is trying to push is she will help with party bulling and she -- building and she will be here to help democrats build up their bench. whether that helps them in congress next year or takes longer, that remains to be seen. >> host: and shira center politics editor at the "the boston globe," getting an up front seat

at the newspaper "roll call." >> guest: yeah, absolutely. one of the most undercovered themes of the obama president by was just how bad his relationship with congress was. he was only in the senate a few years before he ascended to the oval office, so he didn't quite have the basis for relationships that his number two, vice president joe biden, had. so many times over the past six years you'd see barack obama try to make the deal but in the end, he'd send joe biden to carry out the details with mitch mcconnell or john boehner, for example. hillary clinton is different. in terms of her relationship with congress, i think she would probably have a better one was she did serve a pull -- because she did serve a full term plus, but also her family's been so ingrained in politics and democratic politics over the last few years, she has built relationships, the clintons have fundraised for so many members still in congress right now. her husband work with the many of them in the '90s on issues. it would just be a very, very

different relationship between a democratic president and a republican congress than the one we've seep over the last six years. >> host: and shira center joining us from the boston globe newsroom there in boston. let's head to new bedford montana, where crystal is waiting on our line for democrats. crystal, go ahead. >> caller: hi, good morning. thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to make a comment about hillary and how she is going to be bashed, and we all know that she's going to be bashed because she is hillary. and i just wanted to make -- ask a question. how come nobody's talking about senator cruz and his wife having obamacare? thank you. >> host: catherine lucey, do you want to pick up on that, whether ted cruz in particular or the affordable care act in generalsome. >> guest: yeah. well obviously, senator cruz has been a key critic of the affordable care act. president obama's health care overhaul. i saw him here in iowa recently

and he was talking about his situation. his wife has taken a leave of absence from her job where his family had been getting their health benefits. they are now deciding how they will get coverage for their family. one option is to to get coverage through his job as a senator which i think technically mean you going through the change system. but it's essentially just getting the overage a senator would get under any circumstance. he said it was not clear yet what they were going to do, they were still deciding. >> host: let's go to frank in augusta, georgia, line for republicans. frank, good morning. >> caller: hello yes -- am i on? >> host: yes, sir, go ahead. >> caller: okay, yeah. i wanted to make some comments about hillary. number one when hillary was in the white house, she came up with this horrible health care plan that was even worse if it could be than obamacare.

after the white house she ran for senator which she did nothing, absolutely nothing as a senator. then after that she, of course we know she became the secretary and did nothing there. what i am so tired of hearing about hillary is all these people when you ask them what has she done, they tell me what she's for. she's for the middle class, but she doesn't say what she's going to do for them. she's for this she's for that, but she doesn't have a plan. she has done nothing as the first lady, she's done nothing as a senator, she's done nothing but hurt us as a secretary, is so if she gets bashed it's for her lack of, what's the worthed i'm looking for? she should not be a president. i can't get the word, but i am so afraid that if we get hillary in the white house, she will finish destroying this country that obama started.

>> host: shir center what has been the clinton camp response to comments like that and discussion about hillary clinton's record? >> guest: well, they've, first of all mentioned her breadth of experience right? she's -- her time in the united states senate, united states senator from new york, they also mention her time as secretary of state, they call her one of the most qualified candidates to ever run for president. i'm sure the caller who just called in would not agree with that assessment, but what that is what the clinton campaign touts. in terms of her accomplishments as secretary of state, they tout her small businesses across the globe, that was one of her chief accomplishments, her work with women, her work in southeast asia increasing stabilization

across certain participants of that region -- parts of that region. but presidential campaigns on the whole aren't necessarily -- candidates don't necessary hi talk about accomplishments. they do talk about their vision for the future why they want to be president why they've p end doored grueling campaigns to be president. and also it'll be interesting just the notion of accomplishments of any of the candidates of the last couple years. a lot of these candidates on the r side are from the united states senate. we know congress has not exactly been comment over getting things done -- excellent over getting things done and a lot of governors who oversaw a pretty terrible economy those last few years. so it's going to be interesting to see how a lot of candidates talk about their accomplishments on the campaign trail. >> host: running out of time in our segment here. martha from rural maryland on our line for independents. can you make it quick? >> caller: yes. i'd like to know how marco rubio can run for the presidency if his parents are both from cuban

descented? -- descent? do you not have to be a u.s. citizen to be president or vice president? and thank you for taking my call. >> host: catherine lucey, do you want to take this? >> guest: i don't know the details of might be owes' bio -- marco rubio's bio, but as far as is i understand it, he is an american citizen. >> host: and shira center? >> guest: yeah. pretty sure he was born in america, which makes him an american citizen. ted cruz had this issue as well, he was born in canada i believe, maybe on a military base. this provision that the caller's referring to dates back hundreds of years to when colonial americans were afraid of having a foreign king leading the united states, so it's obviously outdated in its intent. >> host: want to thank catherine lucey of the associated press based in iowa busy day today and tomorrow. appreciate your time and also want to thank shira center from

the boston globe's newsroom, she's the political editor there. thanks so much. >> guest: thank you. >> host: went and how and why did the l.a. times start sponsoring this book fair? >> guest: the los angeles times started this book fair about 20 years ago. it's the 20th anniversary of the festival of books, and it was just an important way that the newspaper could engage with the commitment. could provide a space for all kinds of people from publishers authors, thinkers but also chefs and artists and actors and actressings to come together to -- actresses to come together and celebrate los angeles as one of the creative capitals of the world. >> host: and what can we expect next weekend in los angeles?

>> guest: we're going to have over 500 authors, celebrities, musicians, artists, etc., as well as hundreds of booksellers publishers and cultural organizations across nine stages. there's something for everyone. bring your kids bring your grand parents. there's a huge -- grandparents. there's a huge amount of things going on. candice bergen can t.c. boyle, brian grazer, your favorite, billy idol joyce carol oates patton oswald jason segal, john scohazzi o.k. they've ya spencer, there's something for everyone. students, hipper ises, spanish -- hipsters, spanish-language programming. more than a hundred considerations on everything from digital privacy rights to the future of the american identity. >> host: what kind of reaction do you get from the community to a book fest?

>> guest: you know it's been an immediate success. when it was started to 20 years ago, it right away became a cornerstone event in los angeles culture. people mark it out all year long. it's been a signature event. it's been kind of a way the los angeles times invites all kinds of folks around the community come celebrate this great city. it's grown to one of the largest festivals of its kind. there's really nothing like it anywhere in the united states. you know, it started very simply as brupging together -- bringing together people who create books and people who love to read them, but it's grown into this much broader celebration. you know among other things we have a big book award we give out every year, and this year we're adding something new. we're having something called an ideas exchange where malcolm gladwell is going to be in conversation with the los angeles times film critic. you know, if you listen to npr,

you're probably familiar with kenneth 's voice as npr's film critic. >> host: well, as regular viewers know booktv will also be there. the c-span bus will be there, and we have partnered with the l.a. times festival of books to create a book bag. and we will be handing those out from the c-span pus and you're familiar -- bus and if you're familiar with the area on the usc campus, we're just about half a block from tommy trojan. and is there a cost to attending the festival? >> guest: the bulk of the events are free. there are some of them that are ticketed due to limited space, but this is really a chance to invite the country in to invite los angeles in in partnership with usc to look at california california as, you know, the gateway to both latin america and the pacific rim, to look at some of future some of the challenges the country faces in its future. they're quite acute in los angeles from drought and climate change to immigration and the

multicultural diversity of this nation. across the board all kinds of exciting opportunities. >> host: you can go to the los angeles times latimes.com, and you can also follow the book fest fest @lafob, los angeles festival of books. thank you for being on booktv. >> guest: sure. looking forward to seeing folks next weekend. >> host: and again, booktv will be live on c-span2 all weekend next weekend from the los angeles times' festival of books, saturday and sunday april 18th and 19th. go to booktv.org to get the full schedule, a lot of call-in opportunities, a lot of panels lot of nonfiction authors that you'll be hearing from all weekend live on booktv. >> and a look at a story in the national journal about the top republican on the senate foreign relations committee, bob corker of tennessee reaching an agreement with democrats on legislation that would give

congress approval power over any u.s./iran nuclear agreement. they've agreed to changes to the bill that we could see come up on the senate floor as early as next week. a senate committee first will need to review the bill. you can watch that mark-up of the bill over on our companion network, c-span3. we'll have live coverage 2:45 eastern time. pushed a little bit later than earlier expected with the senate foreign relations committee working on the iran nuclear review act. and while we wait for the senate to return here on c-span2, expected about 2:15 eastern time a few minutes from now, we'll take a look at the situation in the middle east. this is a conversation we had today on "washington journal." >> host: and on the day that iraqi prime ministerial badly is set to met with president obama at the white house we welcome formerword to iraq christopher -- former ambassador to iraq christopher hill back to our program. ambassador hill, first, what's on the table at this meeting

between the prime minister and the president? >> guest: oh, i think it's going to be a lot on the isis crisis. certainly, hiker the al-abadi will want to brief the president on what he's been up to trying to pull together country after a kind of difficult run with his predecessor, nouri al-maliki. you know abadi speaks english, it should be a much more sort of pleasant meeting for the president, but nonetheless, i mean, the issues are really tough. >> host: you mentioned -- >> we are going to leave this, take you to the state gallery at the capitol mitch mcconnell at the podium. >> discussing a concept agreement that would give us an opportunity to have some votes on amendments on both sides and wrap that bill up today. it would be important to finish it today because the reductions in doctors' reimbursement would take effect at midnight tonight so i think there's a bipartisan desire to move forward on that.

i've asked senator fischer to join us to talk about an equal pay issue she's working on. you also know that the the trafficking bill still seems to be hung up and senator cornyn b -- who's the author of that -- is here to discuss the latest effort to free that up. and as i've indicated before once we get past trafficking, we'll move on to the lynch nomination. and we'll also probably in this week be dealing with going to conference on the budget. finish with that let me turn to senator fischer. >> thank you. like to thank senator mcconnell. today is equal payday national equal payday, and i wanted to highlight a proposal that you all got to see pass three weeks ago as an amendment in the budget process. it's a bipartisan proposal not only republican supported but also democrats. out really reenforces current law that we have and makes sure

that the public understands that. it also has a nonretaliation clause in it that mirrors the president's executive action that he took a year ago with regards to public employees. that's an important part of it. as we always like to say, knowledge is power and this gives that knowledge on salaries to all individuals in the workplace. i really want to stress that it is a bipartisan proproposal. this is championship -- proposal. this is common sense, this is a proposal that will pass, and it's time to that we move forward and do that. the perception is out there that equal pay is not in the forefront of people's minds. it is. we have a proposal that will pass on a bipartisan basis, so i am hopeful that our friends on the other side will give up on the sound bites and all the political posturing and really get down to work in passing a

practical proposal that's going to offer more transparency to people. thank you. >> as senator mcconnell and a number of you have noted, we are on the cusp, i think of a very productive work period over the next few weeks here in the united states senate. thinking about the budget, things like medicare reform, the lynch nomination the iran issue and trade promotion authority. i think there's a we're going to look back on this as one of the most productive periods the united states senate has had in literally years. with one exception. unless we can get unstuck, as leader mcconnell said. for some inexplicable reason senate democrats have chosen to filibuster a bipartisan bill that would do a lot to help the victims of human trafficking. typically a girl between the age of 12-14 years old in what has been called, appropriately so

is modern day human slavery. why in the world would this get caught up in the partisan wars here in washington, d.c.? well, i've heard from our senate democrats what some of their concerns are and we've made concrete proposals to try to address those concerns while maintaining the basic integrity of the bill. we would, basically, handle all of the funds that go into the victims' compensation fund through the regular appropriations process, and we will use the same hyde amendment language that was negotiated between nancy pelosi and speaker baner in in the doc -- speaker boehner in the doc fix bill we'll be voting on this afternoon. i don't know how in the world they could possibly object when we're answering, responding to their concerns and saying, you know, we're willing to work with you to address those in the interests of all of these victims of human trafficking. we'll find out. my hope is that the senate rises to the challenge just as we are on these other areas.

certainly, we need to get this done and get it done soon so we can get on to the vote as the majority leader said on nominations. >> senate republicans are committed to getting washington working again for the american people. and as has already been pointed out, we got the first budget that responsibly balances in a decade. we -- this week we'll work on getting through the sgr something that's been hanging around here for almost 20 years and has already seen 17 short-term fixes in a 12-year period. if we can get -- and i think we in this -- we will act on the iran bill that allows the american people's voices to be heard and whether or not there ought to be an iranian nuclear deal. and we're hoping very shortly to have a trade promotion authority bill marked up in the senate finance committee which will be

very good for our economy and farmers and ranchers and small his people and manufacturers here in this country. so there's a whole range of things that are getting done in a bipartisan way around here. this has been as senator cornyn pointed out, this is a good period for the american people. the one thing that's being held up, a week-long filibuster on the anti-human trafficking bill. i hope that the democrats will give up that filibuster, allow us to move that legislation forward as well and there are lots of other things that are on our agenda to get dope for the american people -- to get done for the american people if we can get a little help from our friends on the other side of the aisle. republicans are committed to getting this place working again. senator mcconnell pointed out earlier today we have had 94 votes already compared with 15 in the entire year last year. >> have to leave this stakeout here in the u.s. capitol take you live to the floor of the senate. after their weekly party lunches, the hill reporting the

senate will be considering medicare payments to doctors this afternoon. both sides agreeing to consider six amendments.

mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the

majority whip. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: the majority whip is informed that the senate is not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. cornyn: i thank the chair. mr. president, hopefully this afternoon we will take up a very important piece of legislation that will be coming over from the house of representatives that received an overwhelming vote of republicans and democrats alike a package negotiated at the highest levels of the house leadership between speaker boehner and his staff and nancy pelosi and her staff. what could it be that brings the political parties and the leaders of the parties in the house together to try to build a consensus and come up with a solution? well, it is really to right a wrong or remedy a mistake that congress made back in 1997. basically at that time congress

decided in order to save money on health care costs that it would begin periodically to cut the amount of money that was reimbursed to health care providers, primarily doctors and hospitals, and that's how congress thought way back then that we were going to save money. well what has happened in 17 of the 18 times these cuts will have been implemented? congress has realized that it was a mistake because here's the problem. when you tell doctors in rural parts of texas you're going to earn 20% less to treat a medicare patient tomorrow than you did today well, what they're going to decide is can i afford to keep my doors open? can i afford to pay the bills? maybe i can't afford to see any more medicare patients. and when doctors simply refuse

or are unable to see medicare patients then our seniors lack access to health care that they need and they deserve. so in very difficult contentious times politically, i think this so-called sustainable growth rate, or doc fix bill that i'm alewding to that -- that i'm alluding to that's coming over from the house or that is from the house that we'll vote on this afternoon hopefully actually represents a commonsense solution to one of our big challenges and certainly will get congress out of this embarrassing position of every six months to a year or so having to come back and to backfill and fix a problem that we ourselves created back in 1997. hopefully we will be able to pass this legislation and get it done and give physicians and health care providers the

certainty they need about the reimbursement rates under medicare and thus will allow more of them to see more seniors and provide them health care benefits under medicare. now, some people may say well, this bill isn't perfect. well, they would be right it's not perfect. but actually there's no such thing as a perfect piece of legislation, particularly when it's the product of bipartisan negotiations where both sides had to give in a little in order to get to an agreement. but i do commend speaker boehner and leader pelosi for working in a bipartisan way and producing something that's received resounding support from the house of representatives. as i said, this legislation provides our health care professionals with a predictable expectation for reimbursement rates. an idea that only sadly had been a treem -- dream for many

physicians in texas and across the country and one that congress can now and should make a reality. but this legislation also does something else very significant. it not only addresses the reimbursement rate of doctors it also introduces other changes to medicare that will help reduce the deficit over the long term. not just the next ten years but 20 years out and beyond. now, some people may say well, if congress passes this legislation now can't they come back and undo it next year? well the pattern has actually been when there have been negotiated bipartisan agreements on things as important as medicare and social security, that they tend to stick and they tend to stay in place. and so i believe that while this negotiation certainly wasn't an easy task and while it is a modest first step, the good news is it does represent real,

meaningful entitlement real estate form, something the president -- reform, something the president of the united states has said he supports and something now that both parties huer in washington and -- here in washington and congress have been able to support. this bill does make important strides on a difficult issue. when i said a moment ago it's not perfect let me explain exactly what i mean by that. not all of this bill is paid for. today i plan on offering an amendment that would keep our country from going into greater debt by offering that pay-for for this piece of legislation. how would we do that? well my amendment that i hope, again, we will vote on this afternoon, perhaps a series of as many as eight votes and then final passage of the bill -- my amendment would repeal the individual mandate in obamacare. that would according to the congressional budget office, free up literally close to $400

billion that could then be used to satisfy the deficit for this so-called doc fix. may have rightly demanded an offset for the bill, and i'm very sympathetic to that, and my amendment is designed to address it because as the presiding officer knows given his long service, not only in the bush administration at o.m.b. and in the congress, as well as as in the senate, we've got to do something about the long-term debt and unfunded liabilities of the federal government. i am amazed almost daily about the lack of urgency. perhaps that's because interest rates are relatively low and we're not feeling the drain of debt service payments to our country's creditors because they buy our debt and they demand to be paid interest or debt service on that debt, and when interest rates begin to creep back up again, as they invariably will,

that's going to put a real dent in everything from national security to the entitlement -- or to the safety net programs that we all believe are important. so my amendment will repeal the individual mandate in obamacare and help pay for this appropriate fix in doctor reimbursement rates in medicare. so you may ask well, isn't that a pretty dramatic or controversial thing to do, to repeal the individual mandate in obamacare. well, i just -- i asked my staff to go back ans to and to get some quotes from a candidate running for president in 2008 -- happens to be the current occupant of the white house. here's what then-senator obama said on february 28, 2008, on one tv show. he said, "here's the concern.

if you haven't made it affordable how are you going to enforce a mandate? i mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating that everybody buy a house." well as the presiding officer knows, the president actually said when we passed obamacare frankly without my support and the support of this side of the aisle, the president claimed it would lower health care premiums by $2,500 year for a family of four. that's proven not to be the case. the president himself when he was a candidate running for office in 2008 opposed the individual mandate. here's another quote on cnn in 2008. this is senator obama running for president. he said, "in some cases there are people who are paying fines and they still can't afford it. so so nowso now they're worse off than they were.

they don't have health insurance and they're paying a fine." that's what the individual mandate is all about mr. president, as you know. i'll go on with the quote. he said, "in order for you to force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a pretty harsh stiff penalty." so president obama back when he was candidate obama back when he was senator obama he opposed the individual mandate. all my amendment would do would be to repeal the individual mandate and allow us to provide a savings to pay for the rest of this legislation. well i'll read one more quote because i find the irony pretty rich. senator obama said -- and this is when he was running against then-senator clinton -- apparently now again running for president. senator obama said in 2008, "she" -- referring to hillary clinton -- "believes we have to

force people who don't have health insurance to buy it. i don't see those folks -- and i think it is important for us to recognize that if you're going to mandate the purchase of insurance an it is not affordable then there's going to have to be some enforcement mechanism that government uses." "and they may charge people who don't already have health care fines or have to take it out of their paychecks and that, i don't think is helping those without health insurance." so mr. president my amendment that would offer to pay for this bill would repeal the mandate that then-senator obama candidate for president was so critical of. it would repeal a tax on the american people that coerces our citizens into purchasing health care that they apparently don't want or they wouldn't otherwise buy but for the government -- th you don't buy the

government-approved care, even if you don't want what it provides then we're going to coerce you into doing it, we're going to penalize you for it. this mandate is bad for america and it hurts people, instead of giving them the helping hand they need when it comes to health care. so we're going to have a lot more to say about how we need to repeal and replace obamacare with more affordable health insurance that gives people access to the doctors and the services they want and need. but on the present bill, no one denies the need for a long-term perpetuate solution topermanent solution to the way we bay health care providers under medicare. so for the benefit of seniors and the american people, we need to do this and find a way to pay for t it. i'm hopeful we can pass this legislation pay. i believe the current provision expires at midnight tonight. it is important that we stop i canning canican -- that we stop kicking

the can down the road and we allow our family doctors to do what we want them to do most, which is to focus on what they do best and what our families need the most. at the same time, it will ensure seniors access to the care they need. such a meaningful solution is long long overdue. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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