party, specially to secure our elections which a topic i want to get back to a little bit later. i saw in 2020 of the lawyers are donated to political campaigns, get this, 88% gave to joe biden and 12% gave to donald trump. that's a remarkable spread and similar to what we see across the board with bankers and doctors in business analysts. i guess it's worth noting that is a member of congress i'm in the last white-collar profession that's close to 50% republican, right? and thankfully in a year we will be over 50% republican in the house of representatives. [applause] so i can't complain but it is a difficult time right now for a lot of professionals to be overly conservative, and to think there's enormous value in just the existence of a group that publicly supports republicans like you that allows

republicans to meet and speak freely and organize. so thank you and i hope your membership grows in the years to come as well. so to begin with i want to give you a rundown of what's happening in congress because a lot is happening very quickly. we just finished a seven-week recess, and speaker pelosi and chuck schumer and senate leader are trying to ram through seven years worth of spending, a $1.2 trillion fake infrastructure bill, and a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. i won't bore you with the specifics but right now today as we speak we have $28.8 trillion national debt trillion dollars national debt. think about that. we can't afford either one of these spending bills. even if we could they are not worth buying. so on tuesday i i urged repubn leadership to start going against the $1.2 trillion

so-called bipartisan fake infrastructure bill. i'm happy report on wednesday whip scalise announced at our republican study committee meeting they would be officially whipping against the bill. which is a formal republican position in the house of representatives against this phone infrastructure bill. these bills, both of these bills the reconciliation bill, the infrastructure bill, are a package. one can't exist without the other. we have given house democrats a tight window and they can't afford to lose more than a couple of members if they're going to pass the $1.2 trillion fake infrastructure bill. so i more hopeful than ever that congress won't pass either of the bills as we meet here this morning. either way, if they did, democrats will have authored $13 trillion of new spending since taking over the house of representatives on january 2 of

this year. for reference, that's slightly less in new spending than congress spent in total over the course of the entire trump administration. right now democrats are supposed to pass the so-called bipartisan infrastructure package. they have to pass a continuing, if they're going to pass that they have to pass a a continug resolution to avoid a government shutdown by october 1. just days away from today. now the continuing resolution that pelosi passed also suspends the debt limit through december of 2022. and leader mcconnell has already stated the senate won't pass a bill that suspends the debt limit. so the continuing resolution would likely die in the senate. it's perfect, i think, that the last organization to get shut down by democrats, we, the federal government, so what goes

around comes around, right? so i think, so i really did think that democrats bungled this package. there's more infighting and has been since biden took office and they are running out of time. so things are looking rosy for the democrats. but, unfortunately, the biden administration, not joe biden itself, but his advisers are way less dysfunctional. and they have been able to do a lot more damage in a very short period of time. not just fighting, larger deficit by directly weakening our constitutional system of government. we have never had an administration that relies this much on empowering agencies to unconstitutionally write laws that can't pass through the legislative process. we have never had that. ocean is now forcing people to take medicines against their will. bullshit -- the cdc's suspending private property rights.

ignore the constitutional obligation that protects instrumentation. the doj is writing state voting laws and selectively enforcing criminal law, all this is obscene. right now and especially after 2022 when republican party needs more anything else is, get this, more lawyers. and i'm not just saying that because of the audience. the -- this administration, biden administration has dealt isis after crisis at the border, and afghanistan. there's a murder crisis in our cities and we have an inflation crisis and a debt crisis. the administration broke the law every step of the way. there's a lot of oversight work that needs to be done when republicans went back -- win back the majority in the 2022 midterm elections. i do think that americans not just republicans but normal nonpolitical people are really

overwhelmed and disgusted by the bureaucratic intrusion over the past year. if the republican party can take control of the house and drag the worst offenders to the floor and group them on live television and investigate agency negligence and wrongdoing, and hold the biden administration accountable for its lawbreaking, then we'll shown the voters that we can stand up for the people and stand up to the people, that they didn't elect butler shutdown their businesses and you are writing unconstitutionally writing their loss. i think that's her path of winning back the presidency in 2024. proving that republicans belong to the party of the constitution, a democratic norms and of law and order. president trump communicated a little bit differently, right? open to think about the substance, speaker pelosi and old uncle john completely shattered our norm of governments. the best example of a personal is the january 6th commission.

and my time on it which didn't last very long. in fact, i never actually made it to a committee meeting. because for the first time in history of the congress the speaker of the house vetoed members of the minority from serving on select committee. i guess that's going to be on my wikipedia page. because that is never happen in the history of this country or in the history of congress. but i've still been working on responding to the january 6th committee with other former committee appointees and with some of the republican leadership lawyers who are of course great and very smart people. we are fighting against the january 6th committee plans to subpoena republican members of congress, phone records, their social meeting messages and even their e-mails. the majority party is abusing its oversight power to spy on the minority party. that, , too, has never happenedn the history of america.

but we have planed to fight it any good chance to stopping it. we have been sending letters to telecommunication and social media companies, and if they don't do the right thing what they are legally obligated to do will be hearing from them under oath very soon. speaker pelosi has done more damage to congress as an institution than any mob ever could. not just in her assault on 230 years of oversight precedent but also in her assault in the biden administration's assault on our democratic process itself. as i mentioned the biden justice department threatening to sue state to return to the prepended a coding loss. remember, those laws were changed illegally without the consent of state legislatures to give democrats an edge in the 2020 election. and now they're threatening to sue states that follow the constitutionally prescribed process.

speaker pelosi's first bill in this congress h.r. one aims to rewrite our voting laws and have democrats a permanent majority giving them permanent power. this visit a normal political game. it is the rigging of the rules of the game. the first bill that i and republican study committee which i'm proud you chair in this congress introduced was the save democracy act. it is an election integrity bill that requires valid voter id and boost voter integrity by banning practices like ballot harvesting, automatic mail-in voting and drop boxes in federal elections. it restores faith in our elections by proving that they are safe. it is the republican parties flagship election reform bill and i hope to see it on the house floor when we take back the house after the midterm election. republicans need to offer simple solutions to strengthen the underpinnings of our democracy.

because the other party is trying to weaken our democracy each and every day that they are in power. so thank you for having me. i hope i haven't taken too long. i'd be happy any questions you might have about the work of the republican study committee, the house legislative agenda, the national defense authorization act without on the floor last night, afghanistan, what if you want to get into a method into any questions for the remaining amount of time we have. >> hold on for a second. let's have the microphone, so if you raise your hand she will work her away over with tha. i'm going to take the privilege, i guess i'm not the podium by privilege of the microphone here and ask congressman banks the first question. we were at the embassy of georgia last night, and spent quite a bit of time talking to staff. countries like georgia have a lot of concern about the afghanistan debacle, a

particular georgia with rush having already taken about a quarter of the country, sitting on the border with russia. and to be honest wondering if we're going to be there to have their back if putin decides it's the time. >> the irony, right? of what we heard for four years that followed trump was destroying our status around the world, our allies would never trust us or like like is an producing donald trump is going to do that even though he never did that picky actually, it was actually quite the opposite and then in an instant joe biden and his incompetent administration, his inability to lead as commander of cheap any moment destroyed our status around the world, unlike -- prove me wrong, unlike any point in modern american history. i don't think there is a historic comparison to what joe biden did in an instant that diminished america's role in stature and the respect that the rest of the world had for

america, as much like what happened in afghanistan. we are hearing it from country after country. hike which is america when we saw them retreat and leave allies behind can leave it on people? never in history of this country has a president knowingly and intentionally left americans behind enemy lines like this president did in afghanistan. there are still americans who cannot get out of afghanistan today because of this presidents incompetence and negligence. i don't how to answer your question other than that. we need a commander-in-chief back in the white house who puts america's interests first. when american leadership is missing like it is in this moment, the rest of the world feels the effect. that's what we're seeing now, sorting what the at any point in my lifetime. >> thanks, jim. >> unfortunately we are stuck with this guy for another three years and few months.

those of you who bring up the impeachment question, i'm sure that would rather happen. [inaudible] >> august 25 letter from the generous six committee seeks to waive with biden and the department of justice approval all of presidential executive privileges and they've asked for pretty tremendous publication of intelligence and personal advisors and government advice and attorneys to the president. how are we going to do with that? although you're not on the committee. >> i'm not on the committee. only in a banana republic can one party abuse their power to spy on the other party and weaponized the legal processes in this country against their political enemies. that's exactly tapping with his january 6th commission. what can we do about it? veeck installed in every step of the way. i have written letters to all

the telecom companies explain to them that if they hand over records of members of congress to bennie thompson and committee company have to hand them over to me and the other side as well. at least we can remind them that they don't have to hand over those records, that they should hand over those records, and have a debate about that process. in the meantime that's what were doing. but when we get back the majority we have to hold those accountable who abuse their power today. and you all should hold us accountable for that when kevin mccarthy is the speaker of the house and republicans are in the majority. bennie thompson and liz cheney and others who were part of this process to abuse the powers should be held accountable for that abuse of power. it's our duty when we get the majority to hold them accountable for it. >> first, congressman, i want to thank you for all you doing in

congress and hope you are fully successful. political question. it's hard for me to believe that all of the democrats in congress are really totally in line and instep with nancy pelosi. are there any effort underway, without naming names, to get some of these folks to convert or at least to declare themselves independent from the democrats? >> i i wish i could say that the was but nancy pelosi doesn't control the democratic party in the house of representatives. this is not, this is not my grampus democrat party, or nancy pelosi's democratic party. this is bernie sanders grandkids democrat party, right? this is bernie sanders democrat party. this is not my democrat party because aoc come bernie said his come the radical socialist, progressive wing of the democratic party controls of this democrat party. that's why you have this tug-of-war going on over the reconciliation bill and the

infrastructure built and the cr, all of the other radical proposals they put on the floor are put on the four because the radical socialist wing of the democratic party controls the democrat party today. what i hear from my, many of my democrat colleagues who come from, there are no real, the democrats have stripped away all of the moderates, the last pro-life democrat was the guiding dance dan polansks taken up by the aoc socialist wing. they got rid of all of the so-called blue dogs or moderate or procomp any democrat who dare call himself pro-life, they had been defeated in primaries. that's the state of the democrat party. that's why they find themselves so out of touch with the reality of where most of the country is today, why do about to lose their majority, but i predict you today i will get my starbucks card, which if you

know me that's wholly to me, i will bet my starbucks card that for all of you today we went back a majority and not will but but by a large 2010 like margin. because i wait is building up in this country to take back from the democrats in the house of representatives were trying to destroy it. >> thank you, congressman. good to see you. i had a question about the looming government shutdown. is there, predictions are always hard to make but as her prediction you have or is it going to happen and how long will it last? >> i've been a member of congress for five years and is seen some wild things, and i've got out of the business of making predictions. but if the house, the house as the continuing resolution earlier this week. it needs 60 votes in the senate,

and mitch mcconnell said were not going to pass it. so the only, the only way to raise come to pass the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown in which is separate from the debt limit question, is for the democrats to come back to the table and by republicans back to the table with them and say how do we get this done? so far they haven't done that. democrats have not invited republicans to the table to negotiate a bipartisanship i can get 60 votes in the san and passed out of the house. why haven't they done that? because the aoc bernie sanders socialist wing of the democratic party won't allow them to do that. they own the democrat party so until chuck schumer and nancy pelosi say we are ready to ignore aoc and bernie sanders and bring republicans to the table to negotiate what i've bipartisanship might look like, then we're staring at a government shutdown, which all of us want to avoid.

but it takes democrats who control the white house, the senate and the house to come to that reality that they have to negotiate with republicans to get something like that done. >> thank you for being here and thank you for your leadership. as you mentioned in afghanistan there are american citizens and others that are desperately trying to get out, not just in kabul but all over the country. i'm somewhat familiar working with veteran groups to get lift for these people which we have. they are not only american citizens and dependence but they are green card holders, sib holders, interpreters that helped our forces. there's women activists. there's prosecutors and judges who put these people in prison. they are being hunted down.

they're going from safe house to save house. their time is running out. what can congress do, whether through appropriations or otherwise, to help these people and help us get them out? i'm the democrats a a spoken t about this issue, too. >> yes. i mean, get this. it's even worse than you think. when the biden administration turned its back on americans in afghanistan you had private rescue efforts that try to go into afghanistan and extract americans out of the country, or legitimate special immigrant visa holders are those who are legitimately eligible for an sib to getting out of the country and the state department lock of these private. why? because it's a on the face of the biden administration. it's embarrassing that takes private evidence special operation retired special operations forces to go into

afghanistan to say these people's lives and give them out of the country because the biden administration refused to do it themselves. so if they can do, why couldn't the biden administration do it? it's embarrassing for them so the block, i mean i had, i can tell you how many phone calls from many of these private rescue efforts who were saying we are on the ground, we have americans are others who are trying to get out of the country but we're pretty being prevented from taking off an aircraft or land anywhere to get these people safely evacuated. it just goes to show you foresaw the biden administration lie to us. they like to us from the outset. about their ability to withdraw, their ability to leave afghanistan in a secure situation when they left i remember one day reading intelligence report saying kabul could fall to 30-60 30-60. fill the very next day. that is what we found. i served in afghanistan. i've gone back and led codels of

my colleagues on both sides of the aisle back to afghanistan in recent years. we were being briefed by the same generals who were there into the very and were breathing us about isis isis-k threa. they were telling us how to use the taliban was stronger than it ever been the last couple of years, since, since 2001 but the real threat is the isis k threat and that's what they were concerned that. that's where we're tried to bring in negotiation with the taliban to more secure situation so we could fight isis k. the administration knew all of that but they lied about it and he dismissed it and we got what we did when they retreated from bagram airfield, which is why spend a great deal of time when i was employed there, massive base with multiple airstrips. by the way it would've been ideal, it would've been the

ideal location to evacuate americans and those come we've i quit when hundred 10,000 afghans but a fraction of them are actually eligible for special immigrant visas. we backward afghans who simply physically get to the airport and hop on an airplane without vetting them. now we're stuck with a situation where the impossibility of vetting 60,000 afghans were in the united states, the other half are on bases them of the countries where they're being held until they can be vetted. this is a dangerous situation but it just shows the sheer incompetence of this administration. the president whole numbers are showing that the american people see the incompetence for what it is which is good but again were stuck with this guy for three years and a few months. and if he's done this much damage in that short period of time imagine what he can do and another three years.

>> i was shocked reading the "new york times" for this lack of coverage for the afghan incident but found buried in their the so-called bible doctrine. it seems like we are now paralyzed militarily and we're only going to use diplomatic means to resolve differences. is this a treasonous policy that leaves our hands tied to do anything? >> any question that starts off with i was shocked when i was reading the "new york times" -- [laughing]

yes. again, i mean we are dealt the hand of an incompetent president who is shown his inability to lead, who is reversed -- many countries around the world, world leaders around the world might not have always like donald trump but they respected him and they respected america with him at the helm. with this president they don't, they don't like them y don't respect him. i mean, that's the situation that we have and it's a dangerous one because it has ramifications for a long time to come. in 2024 will have will have an opportunity to replace the current administration with a president whose mission was immediately have to be to restore the position that america holds on the world but also to combat the greatest threat that america faces economically and militarily which is the rising communist

china. the greatest legacy i believe president trump over four years created was rowling the rest of the world recognize the china threat. this president has retreated from the legacy and, frankly, were in a position with the president, president biden, where we are back to something even worse than the obama era, appeasing china, bending over backwards for china's interest over america's interest after four years of having the only president in my lifetime who recognize china as the threat and is willing to do something about it. so i'm not sure the bible doctrine is fully developed at this point because i don't know that joe biden knows what the bible doctrine is. but i think that's probably to be determined. anybody else? >> congressman, thank you for your time at for being here today to us when asked about the threat of time is china but you

address that. i wanted to ask more specifically what can be done towards taiwan? >> we just passed the national defense authorization act out of the house yesterday. it remains a bipartisan issue i believe that at least leaders on armed services committee on both sides of the our recognize that i want as our life and we have to do everything to support that. but at the same time we have a president and commander in chief and the white house who spent an hour and half on the phone i believe with xi jinping last week apologizing and with stone of appeasement towards xi jinping for some media reports have put it apologizing for america being tough on china for the last four years, and that's not going, that's, that's not

the peace through strength mantra that president trump exercise i think as well as president reagan did in projecting that would be a price to pay if china ever invades taiwan. so i'm not sure that china is afraid of, i'm quite certain china is not afraid of president biden for america in this moment like china was over the four years of the previous administration. so what more can we do? i suppose if the president, if the the president is going to turn a blind eye or willfully ignore the china threat then it will take a con consultant led by republicans after the midterm elections i will continue to ride support to taiwan. i guarantee you with speaker mccarthy and with myself and others as leaders on armed service committee we will continue to do that. >> jim, for an exit question my son is a naval aviator, joannes sent is a marine. with ex-military here.

how does not just killing of the marines in afghanistan but the entire afghanistan debacle, how does that affect the morale of military and function of them military. >> it's more stanch substantial than you realize. we have never calls come into the veterans crisis line of veterans who served in afghanistan. i hear frequently from those who i start with and others who served in afghanistan the sacrifice they made but with more deeply troubling for them and me is thinking about those that we lost along the way, the sacrifice of that would pay. i served with congressman dan crenshaw lost an eye come with brian bass the lost both of his legs, both of them in afghanistan. within the same time i served with side -- the highest ranking listed member in my unit who was killed while i was there. those of the sacrifices we question from whether or not they're worth in a telephone

absolutely worth it because for 20 20 years we avoid another 9/11 on american soil. that made it worth it. don't for a moment believe that your service and sacrifice were not worth it because of the incompetence in a moment by this administration. let me also make it very clear. i was deeply involved in the afghanistan debate over the last four years under president trump. didn't always agree with what president trump was trying to do right in the end because i can tell you from private conversations i had with president trump and the trump administration, president trump had always left the door open light footprint special operation forces in afghanistan to prevent what happened on joe biden's watch from happening. at the time we had about 2500 troops in afghanistan. we did have a single death of an american for a couple i believe a couple of years on donald

trump's watch pics of keeping a light footprint special operations force to prevent the taliban from taking over the country, if the team time the negotiations led by mike pompeo and donald trump come with the taliban wanted was a seat at the table. there was never an agreement to give in the country which is what joe biden did, right? biden administration call the taliban, what was it, fashionable and -- what was -- diplomatic and professional. yesterday the announcer going back to killing gays in afghanistan, abusing women, the human rights abuses on behalf of the taliban, the biden administration pump them up like they are good citizens. we're seeing that is exactly the opposite. that's what's most troubling. i see that you haven't yet. just walked in the room and

rodney davis from the great state of illinois. and i can't wait to leave the podium and let him take it and allow you to hear from your keynote speaker. >> thank you, jim. we really appreciate you being here. >> have a good day. >> today a colorless will discuss budget gimmicks and fiscal responsibility with the american enterprise institute. watch live at two p.m. eastern on c-span2 come online at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> weekends on c-span2 bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. saturday on american history tv at 8 a.m. eastern on lectures in history a look at the 1863 new york city draft riots and civil war newspapers with city university of new york professor emeritus joshua brent picky discussing the citizens across the country experienced the events through the drawings and articles that chronicled them. then on the presidency ronald

and nancy reagan at two p.m. eastern attribute to the former first lady on the centennial of her birth. arcus mark supporting a anniversary president reagan's 1981 tax cuts passing it along. a look back at the legacy of president reagan's economic agenda. booktv features leading authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. sunday at 10 a.m. eastern on "after words" the president of the clare boothe luce center for concerned women, how to raise a concerned daughter interviewed by independent women's forum president kerry lucas. at two p.m. eastern from the printers row lit fest in chicago will feature interviews with miles harvey on his book the king of confidence. refugee high, coming of age in america, and the book francesco the golden arches in black america. watch american history tv and

booktv every weekend on c-span2 and find a full schedule under on your program guide a visit c-span.org here. >> sunday night on q&a lawrence wright pulitzer prize-winning author and new yorker staff writer talks about his latest book the plague year, , american the time of covid, which examines the origins of covid-19, the response to the outbreak by the chinese government and handling of the pandemic by the trump administration. >> there was a global pandemic preparedness report that was prepared by johns hopkins and other entities, and it ranked the united states number one in being prepared, and all the things the president cited about the greatest public health institutions in the world, and scientist, they were true.

and yet if your turn the rankings upside down it would've been perhaps a more realistic representation of what actually happened with countries like rwanda and latvia and vietnam doing very well, and the u.s. and uk number one and number two doing really poorly. hubris had a lot to do with it, there's no question about it. >> lawrence wright sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a as a podcast, find it where ever you get your podcasts.

>> joining us is ben cline republican of virginia member of the appropriations and budget committee. your vote this week to continue funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. >> well, it's unfortunate that we are in the situation, greta, what refacing is a looming government shutdown of october 1 and that is due to the lateness of president biden's budget submission. and the fact speaker pelosi has seen fit to tie an increase in the debt ceiling always controversial subject to the bill, when the senate has already said that they will not accept that. we are in a brinksmanship between leadership right now and

we'll stay tuned to see how it goes. hopefully we can resolve it and not in any kind of shut down or impact on the american people. >> the treasury secretary wrote in the "wall street journal" at 97% of the bills do is from spending from previous congresses and the previous administration. why not pay that bill? aren't you responsible? >> the point is we can have bipartisan conversation about how to address the debt and moving forward we want to find bipartisan solution. unfortunately we have been shut out by speaker pelosi, by senator schumer and by the white house about conversations about what they are doing with this $3.5 trillion organization bill. yes, that the debt ceiling would cover its past debt or primary past debt but looking forward if we are going to cover the debt that's already been accrued we

have to have some changes in place moving forward so that we don't continue to just kick the ball down the road. we are already $3 trillion in debt. one of my colleagues likened it to having a sewage pipe burst in your house. you are neckdeep in, forgive my french, crap, and instead of fixing the pipe you decide to raise the roof line. that's essentially what raising the debt ceiling is akin to. we need to fix the problem that's causing all this debt. >> did you demand the same changes from president trump when republicans approve the debt ceiling three times? >> i was elected in 2018 so halfway through president trump's administration. and so i think that we need to be responsibleoi stewards of the debt but it has gotten out of control. is was elected by my constitues to rein in wasteful spending, to get back control from washington

to the states and to the people per the tenth amendment. so i continue to try to do that, recognizing the $3 trillion in debt that we have is too much and it is weighing already on future generations. we don't want to compound that moving forward. out 15 trillion in household wealth, cut the value of u.s. stocks by a third, because the u.s. economy to shrink by 4% over the next 12 months, and pushed the unemployment rate up to 9%. your reaction? guest: all the more reason for democrats in congress to reach an agreement to get this done. if they want to work with republicans on a bipartisan deal similar to what happened when the sequester was adopted and we took steps to rein in spending -- i was not there yet -- but

those are the steps that need to be part of an agreement to take control of our wasteful spending. what they are asking is for us to go along with a debt ceiling increase, cover the debt that has already been accrued and then not have any reforms to the system. they can do it by themselves. the house is democrat-controlled. the senate is democrat-controlled. they can pass it through reconciliation with only 51 votes. the president is a democrat. they don't need republicans. if they want us to come along, we have certain requirements in terms of cutting wasteful spending that are going to have to be there. host: the house is slated to vote monday on the infrastructure package that passed from the senate. how do you plan to vote? guest: i am concerned with nancy pelosi playing politics with what should be a bipartisan agreement.

core infrastructure is something we can all agree on. roads, bridges, airports, trains. what has happened is the core infrastructure agreement that happened between republicans and democrats has been hijacked once again by speaker pelosi, tying it to a $3.5 trillion boondoggle. she calls it human infrastructure, which is a term that until i arrived here and this bill started to be debated was never used. human infrastructure is whatever you want it to be. she has thrown in the kitchen sink into this bill. host: how is it tied to that? aren't they separate votes? why not vote for the 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure? guest: the progressives in the house have said they will not vote for the 1.2 unless it is preceded by the

3.5. they want the human infrastructure bill passed first through the senate and the house before they even vote on the $1.2 trillion core infrastructure bill. you have a bait and switch essentially. when you are doing that with the american people, they do not like it. host: it is still separate votes. guest: sure, but you are linking the two. if you say we are not going to bring up 1.2 until we passed a .5 or that they are going to be considered together, then you have dynamics within the democratic caucus to ensure that both past. i will not be part of any kind of gamesmanship or head fake whereby a core infrastructure bill passes and is the key to unlocking $3.5 trillion in spending and additional debt on future generations and big bloated socialist government

programs. this is a bernie sanders budget. he is the one who wrote the plan. he is trying to get joe manchin to come along with it. fortunately, joe manchin coming from neighboring state of west virginia, understands the impact that type of spending will have on our economy and negative impact on our debt. you see inflation going up already. the price of gas is up, the price of food is up 15%. this type of spending cannot continue. host: patty in new jersey, republican. caller:caller: you are up first. hello. how are you? guest: i am good. how are you? caller: i am good. i want to make a comment. as a republican, i want to say briefly that i am so upset at the tenor of the republican party right now and the hypocrisy of mitch mcconnell.

i really wish the republicans would come out of this conspiracy theory land that is so harmful to children and people, things that are just not true. with the pandemic people are dying because of it. i would like to say about the infrastructure deal, i think it is too high, the 3.5. my suggestion to you and your congressmen and senators, please come together. that is what we send you therefore. come together and bring it down. for example, the college, the junior college part of the infrastructure, the human infrastructure deal, well, i really don't feel the taxpayer should have to blindly pay for college for young people unless they have the aptitude. there are lots of programs right

now for that. you have to have the aptitude to go to college and the desire to go. i think there should be things, constraints to some of these so-called giveaways, which they are. i feel it is too high. that is what the senate and the congress is for, to come together. host: heard that point. congressman. guest: you are right. we should come together. if nancy pelosi would ask for our input, we would be happy to provide it. she, with a three seat majority, has decided she has a mandate essentially to pursue the largest spending bill in the history of this country. with a tied senate and the tiebreaker being the vice

president, somehow they should be able to force through all of these new, expensive, socialist federal programs. that is just not what the american people want. i am a member of the problem solver caucus, which is a caucus in the house that has an equal number of democrats and republicans. we try to come together around issues where there is common agreement. we are not all of one mind because there are conservatives like me in the problem solvers caucus and liberals as well. we try to find areas of agreement. core infrastructure was in agreement we had a while and back. -- a while back. can we agree on bridges, roads, airports and rail stations, yes.

that began the conversation on infrastructure. if we had stuck to that, we would have a good bill that would be supported by almost everybody. unfortunately, it has been hijacked bipartisan interests. we are where we are. we will continue to pursue that bipartisan conversation. host: explain if you are part of the problem solvers caucus, you support this infrastructure, why not vote yes, join five of your republican colleagues for the $1.2 trillion package and let the chips fall where they may on the 3.5 trillion? maybe it does not pass in the senate. guest: what is being done is putting the two together in a way that says regardless of the way you feel about this 1.2

deal, and i have some concerns that a lot of the provisions in that bill are unnecessary, are related to climate change and other issues that are not core infrastructure issues. the fact that it is seen as the key to unlocking this $3.5 trillion bill because if you pass the structure bill, the moderates have said they will be more likely to consider the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill if they first get the 1.2 trillion core infrastructure bill. that is where i have to disagree with my colleagues on the other of the aisle. if we were doing just a core infrastructure bill, i would be glad to support it. because it is being tied to the larger bill, republicans cannot agree to that. host: vivian, tennessee,

democratic color. caller: good morning. i am sick and tired of you republicans going around and saying everything is too much, infrastructure, everything poor people need is too much. mitch mcconnell got up there and said he is not going to vote for any deal that congress, democratic congress put up. that man said it out of his mouth. you all up they are along with him. you in virginia, you know you got poor people. you all voted against the infrastructure deal, but it passed. your people got the money. republicans got the money. i have seen people talking up there. you are republican was glad to get that money to help out. you talking about infrastructure. wiped out people's homes,

floods. down in texas, you saw what ted cruz did, ran away while the people freezing. water busting in. do you all care? no, sir. you don't care about anything. host: what is your question for the congressman? caller: this is what i'm going to tell him. why you go against everything that the poor people in the working people need? guest: thank you for that. you talked about the disaster relief. that is important money people need down in the gulf coast. that is part of the continuing resolution to keep the government running. what you're seeing is pelosi not looking at what is the art of the possible. she is looking at reaching as far as she can to the left to get everything she can in there.

taking a bill that is designed to keep the government running and putting in disaster relief money and then tacking on an increase in the debt ceiling, totally different conversation. if she wants to negotiate with republicans, it would require concessions on their part. they are not willing to consider concessions in terms of spending. we are spending too much money in washington. it is not our money. it is your money. we want you to have more control of your money because you know how to spend it. that is why we are supportive of reducing tax burdens, not increasing them. this tax increase democrats are proposing is the largest tax increase in history. it is going to fall on everybody. there are tobacco excise taxes. there are taxes on corporations and people earning over $400,000 of year. corporations get their taxes

raised, go ask any small business what they are going to have to do. they are going to have to raise their prices. that is why the american people are going to suffer under this tax increase and not benefit. all the new spending coming out of washington is going to reduce the impact of the dollar in our economy. it is going to make it more expensive for people to buy things. it is going to hurt us moving forward. host: john in vicksburg, independent. caller: i want to say about all this money going on in washington, something that is being ignored and has been ignored for 20 years has been a brief history. on september 10, 2001, donald rumsfeld chose that date to say

he could no longer account for $3.2 trillion in past transactions of the defense department, pentagon basically. i think money used wisely would go a lot further than money that is just thrown out there. there is no trail for it. nobody looks at what is going on. how much more money has the pentagon wasted? like another caller said, republicans never want to do anything for the people. all they want to do is take care of their business constituents. that is not only the republicans. the democrats are the same. they are all bought by corporations. that is the way it is. guest: >> hotel and thank you for your comment. what we have in washington and in the defense department is no exception and we just past the tdefense authorization bill the

furnace the pentagon to record levels and i voted no because it was not accountability in the spell for what happened, the tragedy that occurred in afghanistan resulted in the loss of life, 13 soldiers were killed in a bomb. they had withdrawal by the biden administration was underway. and i called on the secretary of defense to begin investigative proceedings against the chairman of the joint chiefs and for what is clearly an obligation of his oath of office and there needs to be accountability in this defense authorization bill. we cannot just throw more money at the pentagon that is incapable of withdrawing us from an active scene like afghanistan without the loss of life we tragically saw. so we need a lot of reform in

the defense department and i hope to eventually support the authorization bill for the defense department because i support our troops. we need to ensure they have the resources they need going forward. when he goes to conference, i hope that there is more accountability language putting the bill so that i can support it pretty. >> houston texas, republican good morning to you predict. >> good morning. i don't know if the representative klein address this or not, two things. actually three there so many thanks but people keep talking about how this in this real rich countries have medical and educational and they go for free. can somebody please tell the market people, just how much taxes the people in those countries pay for that.

i'm here to tell you that the taxes and the american people would not want to pay. and chuck schumer yesterday, he gets disgusting after a while because you know, you hear things and people accept them. and the fact that chuck schumer is in congress said that social security if this debt ceiling and the republicans didn't get on board with this doubts the social security checks will not be going out. he didn't say that it somebody worse but he said it. and that is untrue. that is totally untrue. in the scare tactics, they're not working. people are tired of it. this goes back to 1950, in 1950, will you know, we didn't have welfare back in 1950. >> okay the house is50 coming ad

so response what you said pretty. >> charlotte, you're right, there's too much doublespeak in washington and too much hysterical morning about things that will not happen. social security checks will go out and one of the problems that we are facing down the road is only about ten or 15 years down the road is the solvency question, for theio entitlement program to make sure those are there whether it social security, medicare, medicaid, those are there for future generations. and right now, they're scheduled to run out of money so to speak in just a few decades. and what nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are proposing is to expand those programs now and make them insolvent and so we

have to to underpin the brakes on this type of irresponsible spending programs and spending plans for the future of this important entitlement programs and make sure that we keep them sustainable into the future. >> chris from dayton, ohio. >> good morning, i would like to suggest, it takeser infrastructe to deal with infrastructure pretty do you want the info but you don't want the people to deal with this, how we build it. people need healthcare, they're going to needey retraining, daycare, education, and so package is going to lift all of those and you gop's, you republicans don't want this to happen. you don't want people t to prosper. and so that you can rule rather than govern. thank you rated. >> will thank you for the comments and again, is important

to know the democrats control the house democrats control the senate and the white house. so if there's something they want to pass, they have the vote to pass it and if they want our votes, then they need to come to the table andnd the need to talk about the changes that have to happen here in washington on behalf of the market people because you talk to americans in their fed up with washington, they call it the swamp for a reason. because too many bureaucrats are making decisions that impact our daily lives we need to return control to the state into the people. that's what were fighting for some of the democrats want are going on infrastructure, i would like to vote for one for not going to vote for something that is a key to unlocking bernie sanders socialist dream budget of $3.5 trillion. and as long as nancy pelosi and chuck schumer continue to insist that the tour link than we have got a problem. and you will not get the votes

from the most of the republicans. >> and from tennessee, republican. >> if i have a problem with the republican omma is that they don't speak up one of the democrats say, just like the latest of schumer things also keep fairly people would not be the checks which they didn't vote for this teresa debt ceiling. the man on the report trying to blame president trump for biden's stupid full out of afghanistan president trump had an approval that un security council and plenty withdrawal fromhe afghanistan which biden d austin, they tore up, because they wanted to do it their way in which someone happened. we had a beautiful young man here from tennessee thatt was killed, one of the 13. and then a drone killed a family of ten, seven children. so you republicans need to stand your ground. >> anand, the house is going to come in charlie so congressman

want to give you a chance to. >> thank you and for that and that young man who was tragically killed in afghanistan, as he was transported up to arlington national two washington dc, along interstate 81 through my district in virginia heard volunteer fire and rescue and police departments, the front line were all on over the overpasses waving the american flags and thinking that man for his service. we thank our men and women in uniform and those in our police and fire rescue every day for putting their lives on the line and were doing their part in the pandemic. so we want to make sure that washington respondents to the views of the people. we can do that best by letting you keep more of your money making decisions that benefit your family. and resisting with the left is trying to do to this country through this $3.5 trillion boondoggle of a socialist bill

bernie sanders is pushing and we are going to fight every step of the way, the media thank goodness for cspan putting on both sides of the debate because mostst media outlets do not and the only put one side on in the viewers out there watching cspan for a reason, there watching cspan because cspan welcomes both sides of the debate and that is why am i am on c-span because the other networks do not doo this. we need to make sure that we push back on the democrat plans and on their false assertion about what is happening here in washington. we will continue to fight to be responsible and the tax dollars and make sure that we bring down the debt. that we balance the budget. when we make sure that we encourage fiscal responsibility and make sure that we keep your taxes low so we will continue to fight for thatag and continue to articulate it in great places like c-span. >>