election to the house. he is also a sunday school teacher at his local baptist church. representative david trone and his brother opened a small liquor store in delaware in the early 1990s. the company eventually moved its headquarters to maryland and has expanded to become the largest fine when retail in the country. and washington's eighth district elected representative kim schrier, a pediatrician, and the only female doctor in congress. new congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. >> dan delaney was a former u.s. representative from maryland serving from 2013 to 2019, and he is now a democratic presidential candidate, the first democrat to declare his interest in the presidency. thank you for joining us. >> thank for having me. >> what convinced you that you wanted to be president?

>> i think this country is terribly divided, and we need a president who can bring us together, to start solving problems, restore a common sense of purpose for who we are as a people and focus on the people. the world is changing so fast and we're not doing the things we need to do to prepare our citizens for the future. i am a unifier, a problem solver, and i have a very clear view as to where the world is going and i knew now what we need to do for the american people. >> sometimes, pulpal identify as progressive or otherwise. where do you fall? >> i am more of a centrist. a lot of people call me a pragmatic idealist. the things i've tried to do, if you look at congress around climate change, universal pre- k, etc., these are big ideas and they often line up with some of the more progressive movements in our party, but i am always looking to find common ground and get things done. as an entrepreneur, which is what i was for 20 years before i ran for congress, i started two businesses, took them public on the new york stock exchange, ran them. i've always been about building things, getting things done, getting things talked about and

i think that's what we need. >> give me an example. >> as president i would have worked with congress to figure out an amount of money we should have allocated, and then i would have gotten the experts in the room. not politicians. people who actually know something about border security, which i don't think the president falls into that category, by the way, and i would have said give us your recommendations. how to best deploy taxpayer money we allocated, against border security. i suspect they would come back with technology solutions, more personnel in certain places, more money for law enforcement and they would probably come back with barriers in certain places. what i would do is say that's what we should do. >> the president said he talked with members of the border patrol. who else would you have talked to? >> i think the border patrol clearly have insight into this, and expertise on the front

lines. they are dealing with it. i would include border patrol in those discussions, but there is a lot of other people who have good ideas. i've talked to some technology companies who believe using drones and sensors, and very tall pulse with cameras they can secure huge parts of the border at relatively modest cost. i think you need a bunch of different voices, people from the technology community or on the cutting edge of security. you absolutely need our law enforcement and people who are working at the border, border security. you need a lot of voices. they should develop a consensus. we should decide how much money we want to invest, and that's what democrats and republicans say you should agree to do. if this was any other shoconte c-span, whatever the case may be, if you had an issue you had to deal with, you would figure out your budget, ring in experts, listen to them. you wouldn't turn that into a political stunt, which is what

we have done. >> that's a centrist viewpoint. >> it's a problem solver's viewpoint. >> what makes you think it will work on a presidential level? >> because it's what the american people are looking for. i have done 14 trips to new hampshire. just got back late last night. 23 trips to iowa. 350 events in these two states. when you sit and talk to people, living rooms, coffee shops, they want to get things done. they are dealing with issues with their healthcare, or mystical prices are too high. we have seen communities hollowed out by how our economy has changed. they are worried about automation and artificial intelligence. they are worried about their digital privacy. they know we have a mental health crisis. we could go issue after issue, and they want solutions, progress. they don't want political parties to keep fighting. that only serves their interests and not the interests of the american people. >> john delaney talking about his bid to become president of the united states. you can asking questions on the phone line.

you can tweet us @c-span wj. when did you officially start? >> the fall of 2017. >> you left congress to do so. >> i conserve my constituents and actually do all the work you need to do to run for president. i've always believed in my life, you have to be all in. you have to own your ambition and your goal. you have to put everything you have behind it. i don't like this cat and mouse game or hedging my bets. that's the entrepreneur in me. i was the you youngest ceo in the new york stock exchange with my first company. i have a goal, i put everything behind it. >> we had a lot of names entering. >> i haven't cleared the field. >> does that bother you? >> no because it frames the conversation, right? look around climate change. i have been a huge advocate for doing something against global

warming. i was given legislator of the year award. i was against the excel pipeline, introduced a carbon tax in my first term. i was part of putting in place the first bipartisan carbon tax proposal in congress last year. i have a very clear view as to how we get something done soon on climate. we have this green new deal that's emerged. a bunch of people i'm running against have gotten behind that. that's completely unrealistic. that's never going to happen. that's a step backward on climate change. in some ways, i think having other people in the race sharpens the focus for the voters as to what they are looking for. i think with me, they will get someone who will focus on finding common ground, solving problems, getting things done, reserving a sense of positive moral aspirations for who we are as a people that we can actually work together and build a better future, and start bringing this country back. >> what's wrong with the green new deal?

>> the goals are impractical. we need to get to zero carbon by 2050. we pursue my plan, we can get there. there is no we're going to get there in 10 years. it doesn't make any sense to tie action on climate to universal healthcare, to universal basic income. i am for universal health healthcare. not universal and come. if you try to tie those things together as a condition of action on climate, you are basically saying i'm not going to do anything. they also said we should rebuild every structure in this country. every structure. if everyone stopped working, dropped everything they were doing, and started working on trying to rebuild every structure, we still wouldn't be able to do it in 10 years. it's this kind of things. it's just not honest with the american people about the path forward. >> have you reached out to environmentalists and given

them your ideas compared to the green new deal? >> i think the environmental community has been careful. like i do, they think the energy around the green new deal, and the fact that it shines such a bright spotlight on climate change, is terrific. i applaud that as well. the more people who are focused on climate change, and the significant risk it is to our prosperity, and national security, the better. but i think the environmental community also wants us to get things done like the bipartisan carbon tax bill. i introduced less carbon, which i believe i could make law in my first year as president. i believe the coalition exists to get that done. the environmental community also understands we need to do something right away on climate. climate is not a linear problem, it's an exponential problem. it gets worse and worse with each passing year, and harder and harder to deal with, so the key to climate is not only doing something big, but doing something immediately. i think one of the problems with the green new deal is it

effectively makes it harder to get something big done. >> we have calls lined up. resident candidate john delaney joining us. cleveland, ohio, republican line ted. you are up. go ahead. >> good morning. hello. you said you traveled to iowa and new hampshire. my question for you is will you traveled down to the border and interview some of the people living along the border, and get their opinions on you said drones? >> yes. >> that's part of the solution. so i have been to the border twice in the last six months, just to get to your question, ted. i went about a month ago. my wife and i traveled to a place called delhi, texas, about two hours outside of san antonio, where the largest detention facility in the u.s. exists. there were 1700 women and children fleeing central america, seeking asylum in this facility. the reason we went, is we took 14 georgetown law students, and

two law professors down with us to spend a week helping these asylum-seekers process their cases. so i had very good insight as to what's going on with asylum- seekers, and understanding the conditions they are fleeing in central america. it reminded me why we have asylum laws in this country and why it is so important that we do things to help stabilize countries in central america. about three or four months before that, i went to a different part of the border, mcallen, texas, and that area with some of my colleagues to actually understand some of the on the border security issues, right? some of the trade issues going on. i have spent a lot of time on the border, which i think you have to do and i think your question is good because we shouldn't be talking about these things unless we actually seen them, and talked to the people, and understood what's

going on. >> from washington, d.c., angela is next. >> good morning. i have a couple of quick questions. how do you see a way forward toward bridging the gap between the divisiveness and race relations throughout our country that his been bared out throughout the trump administration? my second question is how do you -- what's your plan for bringing up the middle class, and making it more fair for hard-working people in this country? >> let me deal with your first question about healing these racial divisions. and these other divisions that the president, in my judgment, and it sounds like you agree with me, has kind of exaggerated, cultivated, and encouraged to some extent. i have a totally different view. obviously, i think the president should be a voice of

clarity in this country when in terms of standing up against hate, bigotry, racism, sexism, whatever the case may be. i think a president should wake up every day and basically swear never to divide the american people, to do something in their power every day to try to bring the country together. from time to time, that means standing up strong against hate, and making sure the president's voice is present in conversations. sometimes, it's physically present, where you have to show something has happened, and speak with clarity about who we are as a people and what our values are. if you can't do that it means speaking out. i think the current president is the divider in chief. i think he wakes up and tries to divide the country. i am the opposite. i want to try to bring the country together, stand up against hate and bigotry wherever i see it. the second question is around the middle class. we have seen the middle class somewhat disappear in this country. we seen a lot of growth in the low skill, low-paid jobs, and significant growth in high skilled, high paid jobs.

we have to invest in the middle class. what are the things that would be top of my agenda in my first 100-day agenda is something that would be called the earned income tax credit, which is the most successful program we have for putting money in the pockets of hard-working americans. i am calling for a doubling of the earned income tax credit. i think it is much better tax policy than the tax cuts we saw that the republicans put through in the last congress, which was largely focused on people who didn't need the benefits. whereas the earned income tax credit is a bipartisan idea. it actually originally came from republicans because it's tied to you getting a job. i think that should be doubled. i think it would be material in lifting middle-class workers. once we do that, and start helping them right away, then we have to do things to improve public education, make sure people are investing in communities that are left behind, doing things to kind of create ongoing job-training programs, doing things to create a universal healthcare system because there is a lot of issues the american people have with healthcare.

i have a short-term and long- term agenda for helping the middle class. it starts with putting money into their pockets from the earned income tax credit. then we start doing things to ensure they can succeed in a world that is changing so fast. >> reporter: how would you approve taxation on the corporate level? >> i think they cut it too low. the corporate tax was 35%. my two companies are both publicly traded. we have paid the full corporate tax. we didn't have loopholes or anything special. that was the highest rate in the world and it was hurting our competitiveness. it should have been lowered. i favored lowering it to 27% or 28% which is what former president barack obama wanted to do. i went had a path of getting there with the meeting deductions so you do it fiscally responsibly. t to abour 28%. that is the business community wanted to go to 25%. for years, that's what they lobbied for. the republicans cut it to 21%. no one even asked for 21%. that was inappropriate. the difference is $400 billion.

you see the kind of debt we arkema waiting right now? almost $1 trillion deficits. the debt at $22 trillion. how much more successful would it have been if it cut from 35 to 21, but instead 31 to 25 and we had $400 billion into the coffers, or we took the $400 billion and invested it in a national interest such a program, something we desperately need? >> the next call from michigan. this is mark. you are on with john delaney. go ahead. >> yes, john. ho i'm curious. i have aspirations of running for president of the united states. i'm trying to offer a silver bullet in taxes, that you cannot offer the public. it's a five-year tax cycle prorated one year. everybody who is working will have a chance to not fade pay federal tax for one year, which means they would receive 1/5 of

whatever he or she was expecting to pay in fica, city, state, federal, whatever tax. they will receive 1/5 back. either during the year or the and of the year, i don't care which, but i think they can spend it or save it better than the government can do, then our government could raise taxes on whatever issues they pretend to want to pay for or pass down to the state to deal with, and there is still one year. you and i both know we wouldn't have to cover the bill for nothing since you haven't put anything down on the deficit. from that standpoint there, are you willing to run on that type of issue. other than that, i really would like to get in contact with you. >> great. you can reach out to our campaign, www.johndelaney.com. you are basically calling for a 20% across-the-board tax because you're basically saying one out of every five years no one pays any tax. that's not my tax plan. i have a lot of specific plans.

i talked about the earned income tax credit, what i would do with the corporate tax rates. of talked about things we need to do to make our tax code more competitive. i actually think the fact that we are putting all paying all for the deficit is a big problem. i think we are leaving an immoral debt to our children and our grandchildren. debt they cannot repay. and, someone has got to run for president like i am, with a real plan to actually get our fiscal trajectory on a much healthier and more sustainable basis. oh, i am not in favor of all of this tremendous deficits we are accumulating, which i believe the republican tax cuts from last year contributed materially to. we are running it almost trillion dollar deficits at a time when the economy is actually pretty darn strong. and, that is a really bad formula. it is not just the united states. the whole world is overleveraged right now. when i say the world, having countries, sovereign debt, they call it. this is a big crisis that the world has to deal with.

there is a lot of government debt out there. interest rates are low. people don't realize how much debt you have until rates go up. rates will ultimately go up. everything returns to the historical norm. and, this is going to be a shock to the global financial system. i want to make sure the united states prepares its own house. so when that happens when a good position. >> of in your trips to new hampshire and iowa, how are you finding your campaign? >> we were just in new hampshire for several days back i was doing town halls in small towns like andover, new hampshire. in the middle of a snowstorm. and we have 50 or 60 people. i didn't give it with the aclu last night. was my last event before i drove to logan airport and got the last flight back. a couple hundred people. were getting great turnout. have six offices on the ground in iowa. 24 terrific team members. we're organizing my crazy. we opened by manchester office this last trip. i have got six terrific team members are. we just hired our seventh. so we have got, by far, the

best ground game going on in those two states. >> are used to fund your campaign? >> i am not entirely funding, but i am i pledge that i wouldn't do that. but my wife and i are also in a position to invest in our campaign. and we are doing that. >> how much of that are you investing, versus how much are you getting -- >> last year, we invested mostly. 75-80%. the reason i did it that way, as i thought the 2018 cycle was so important, and i spent a lot of my time lester campaigning for the candidates. i didn't want to distract people. someone wanted to give money to a democrat, i wanted them to give it to the people running in 2018. we didn't really - a bunch of people who know me just get to the campaign. but i think him of time, it will be about 50/50. i will probably raise half in front. that's what i did with my congressional races. that is just an i/o and you have to. after that, i'm planning on doing really well in iowa and

new hampshire. that everything changes, obviously. >> what kind of numbers do you have to see in iowa and new hampshire? >> i plan on winning both of them. so, i think that will be just fine. >> okay. let's go to kentucky. kathy is next. high. >> i. i wanted to know his thoughts on the medical marijuana. and, i also wanted to know his thoughts on what it would take to get wages up to $15 per hour. >> i'm sorry. >> will leave it there. >> i clearly am supportive of medical marijuana. i think every one should have it available to them. as prescribed by the doctor. so, to me, that is a fairly straightforward issue. as relates to wages, i support, and i have been on the legislation, to raise the minimum wage to $15. so, i think we have not raged the minimum wage in a long time. it should have been indexed to inflation all along. to go up a little bit every year. that would be good for the worker and the business would

be able to handle it. so, i support getting it up to $50. i think you have got to face it and carefully. i think there are some regional disparities. i think when we talk about the minimum wage, both sides have to acknowledge that $7.25, which is the current federal level, is way too low. if you work full-time and on the minimum wage of $7.25, you are living below the poverty line. that does not pass the look yourself in the mirror test is a country. but, we also have to acknowledge that you can actually raise the minimum wage to high. if someone were to say, it should be $100. well know that is too high. we know a lot of people with loser jobs. so, you have to find that right place on that continuum, if you will, where you are boosting wages, but you are not putting companies in a position where they accelerate layoffs, or accelerate movement toward robotics and other technologies to replace human beings. so, i think we can get to 15. i think having it rolled out more on a regional basis makes some sense to me. because, new york, versus other

parts of the country, it is different. but i definitely think we have got to get it up. >> esther delaney, what goes through your mind when you medicare for all? >> i think the medicare for all bill in the u.s. senate, i'm not sure a lot of people understand what medical for all really needs. because it has not been defined. but has been defined in the u.s. senate, where the have a very specific bill that a lot of people have signed up. i think that is bad policy. that specific bill. and i am for universal healthcare. i think every american should healthcare as a right of citizenship. i think it is a human right. and i think it is actually smart economics. right now, we have a universal healthcare system. called the emergency rebecca law, if you go to the emergency room, they have to take care of you. think the problem with the medicare for all bill, it gets - private insurance. which doesn't make any sense. most people have private insurance i like it. secondly, a goes to people who have paid into medicare peeper. they like that program. it is basically saying to them, we are going to take your healthcare and give it to everyone else.

that is not going to be very popular. but the other problem with it is kind of a simple economics problem. which is, if you look at medicaid, which is one government program, it pays about 80% of costs. if you look at medicare, it pays 95% of costs. and commercial insurance pays about 115-120% of costs. vessel u.s. healthcare system. another example. hospital inpatient stays for the same procedures, medicare pays half of what commercial insurance does. so, there is no evidence to indicate that the government, if it is the only payer, will ever actually pay the cost of healthcare. which will ultimately result in reduced quality, and reduced access. because, no one is going to invest in a paper coming, i was just traveling around hospital in new hampshire. this past trip again i said to the administrators, i said let me ask you a question. if you were to take all your commercial insurance receipts last year and cut them in half, which is what would be at medicare is paying all the bills, could you keep the doors open? and this is the hospital

providing unbelievable care in its community. taken care of mental health, opioid crisis, right? this is a true community hospital. on the front lines, dealing with the needs of its community. they run at about one and - 1.5% profit margin. there not profit. they said no, we were not able to keep our doors open. i think when people embrace such a radical change to the u.s. healthcare system, 1/6 of the u.s. economy. -- reimbursement system. there is no evidence that the government will take us. i think that will be ruinous to our healthcare. what i am proposing is something very different. everyone gets healthcare as a right. leave medicare along. you get healthcare program is a right when you are born. until you are 65. we rolled medicaid into that. it is a basic healthcare plan. it travels with you. you have it all the time. but you can also buy supplementals on the market. just like people do with medicare. they have basic medicare and they buy supplementals. that will be allow that -- that will allow you to have a basic

and vibrant market on top of it. that will improve access, it will make it universal. will do things to lower cost over time., it will eliminate the quality disparities. i actually have a plan to pay for a. >> the first thing we should do is fix vehicle affordable care act. >> to some extent, my plan is the next step in the affordable care act, is how i think about it. >> jean in ohio. go-ahead. >> hello. i would like you to speak to nepotism, and the amount of nepotism that is going on right now in the white house, with the president and all his relatives there. as well as to the revolving door of people who come in and out of various administrations, when the republicans are in, they call in the old republicans out a senior bush's administration, add of gw bush's administration, the democrats are in, they call it the swamp masters out of the clinton administration, and i am a

democrat. i just want you to speak to the nepotism. >> so, nepotism is a form of corruption. so, when you hear the word nepotism, it sometimes sounds a little benign. there would you really hearing when you nepotism is corruption. because, what is going on with nepotism, if you are basically saying, i am in a trusted position for the public good. and i am hiring, not the best and the brightest, which is what i should be doing, i am hiring a family member. right? and putting money in the pocket of that family member. at the expense of hiring the best and the brightest, and doing what is right for the american people. that is corruption. there are a lot of ways corruptions manifest itself. nepotism is a form of corruption. so, that is my view on nepotism. as it relates to the revolving door, i agree with you. it is unseemly. that does not mean i am against people who have had publicist service experience, really public good public service experience, and daily public service because a change of

administration or whatever the case may be. and when you are building up a government, you tap their expertise. so, i am not against people doing that. but i think you always have to be bringing in new ideas. you don't want that revolving door where people leave government, go to the private sector, kind of cash in, based on the government contacts, go back, and then do it again. so, it is very kind of situational. but i think we need new people, we need new ideas. we need fresh perspectives in general. >> lisa from rhode island. you are next. >> i. i just wanted to call to tell you, as far as the wall, we do need a wall there because i have family that works down there. second of all, with that lady just said, she is full of it. because no one has gotten anything on tron. i am so sick of hearing that. third of all, i just got a raise, and have never got one in eight years with the democrats, with the bombing in. so i don't want to hear another word.

because i am on an income, which is small. and i finally got a decent race. >> thank you. thank you. congratulations on your race. i think that is terrific. so, congratulations. >> mark from new york, that will be the last call. >> i. thanks for taking my call. i hear that you are running as a centrist at a person who wants to reach across the aisle and get things done. my concern as a democrat is, the republicans keep on moving in a very extreme direction. you know, they -- run on racialized politics. how can you get things done, when you have the side is going so far to the extreme? and has very high support amongst republicans and those politics? >> so, first of all, i think you have to differentiate a little bit between some of our republicans and elected officials, and republicans in the country. things like gerrymandering, our elected officials don't really represent the people to some extent. which is another problem in and

of itself. the other thing i would say, is if you look back over time, you look at all the great things we have ever done, whether it be medicare, social security, sending someone to the moon. whatever it is, it has always been done when you build a big coalition. that's how we have to get things done. so, i am about solutions. and, bipartisanship, if you will. is a means to the ends of getting things done. so, i just think there is a fundamentally better conversation to have with the american people in this country. one of the things i plan on doing at my inauguration, is looking out at the american people and saying, i represent everyone of you. whether you voted for me or not. and to prove it, in my first 100 days, but i am going to focus on, are numb five or 10 big things that already exist in the congress, in terms of bipartisan legislation. were good mighty democrats and republicans have worked together, and found common ground. wouldn't it be amazing if a leader in the first 100 days totally changed the tone in this country? answer, we are going to do

things for people. were not going to do things for politicians. here is a bipartisan immigration bill. criminal justice reform. infrastructure. digital privacy. national service. launching a national artificial intelligence strategy. things that make sense and are responsive to the problems at the american people are dealing with your kid then also, position us for the future. based on what is going on with technology and globalization. the most important forces in the world. and actually say, there are some good things where people have already found common ground. and i know they exist because i worked on a bunch of them in the congress. they are there and there are good mighty people on both sides of the aisle. i am going to champion those things in the first 100 days. and then, i think we will change the tone in this country. and then, go to go to the congress once per quarter and say, let's have a debate. i will go to the for the house of representatives and debate the congress about the most important issues of the day. we need more transparency. we need our elected officials to focus on finding common ground. and we need them to get things done for the american people. and i believe with my leadership, we can do that.

and i believe it is exactly what the american people in their hearts know that we need. >> don delaney is the former u.s. representative from maryland. he is the first democrat to declare his intention to become president of the united states. thanks for your time. >> thank you, pedro. c-span's washington journal, live everyday with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, the heritage foundation's steven moore, co-author of trumpet not mix inside the america first plan to revive our economy, will discuss the trump administration's economic record and impact of the 2017 tackle. transport senior eugene miller will discuss prospects for a major infrastructure deal. also, democratic congressman, john larson of connecticut, will discuss his legislation to reform and expand social security. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. joined the discussion.

tonight on c-span 3, the senate rules committee, considering changes to how the senate debates presidential nominaon. congressman -- talk about national security and foreign policy. and the senate service committee on u.s. military in the asia-pacific region. -- the senate rules committee voted along party lines to approve a change to how the senate confirms presidential nominees. if passed by the full senate, the measure would reduce debate time for many non-cabinet executive nominations. there is the committee debate on the bill. it is just over an hour. committee on rules and administration will come to order. good morning. glad to welcome you and all of my colleagues here today. today, the committee will consider three items. two of those