but we have to make sure that the progress and responsibility on the progress lines up together instead of the responsibility lagging behind. >> i'm glad he is taking leadership, trying to bring the public, civic society, and the tech folk together with the senate to say, what do we do? >> we will invite you back down the road. but today, policy advocates talk about ways to protect children from online sexual abuse. you can watch the subcommittee hearing live at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. c-span now, free mobile video app, or online at cspan.org.

>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies, and more. >> "washington journal" continues. host: >> we welcome you back to the luncheon. talk with us about the state of housing in the u.s. and focus here on interest rates and the increase in interest rates. >> good morning. thank you for having me. the base point interest rates were announced last week.

what does that mean for mortgage rates in particular in the months ahead? >> let's look at what happened 12 months ago, 18 months ago, to today. you had been close to 3%. today, it is near 7%. this is due to the most aggressive interest rate hike policy since the 1980s. personally, i would disagree with that assessment. there is more indication that inflation will come down further. there is a long impact of monetary policy. it appears to be rolling along. i think the mortgage is priced in. the question is, what is the direction of the future?

any further increases will push up mortgage rates up even higher. >> what is causing the ongoing demand for new housing in the united states? >> well, usually, home sales are down about 20% from one year ago. this is predominantly in sales that are down. new home constructions, homebuilders, they are seeing some recovery happening. they are back to pre-covid activity. their stock prices are rising. this is due to the fact that they are providing the inventory. you can ask homebuyers across the country, what is the biggest frustration? lack of choices and inventory. even the lack of choices out there. people will say, maybe i will turn towards new home construction. the builders are seeing recovery due to the fact that we have a very low inventory level across the country.

>> you touched on this a moment ago. you are concerned that the interest rates could get to a point where that could be the sticking point, not just the inventory. that could be in inventory. interest rates have gotten too high. >> when the interest rates rise, we see the first sectors to respond to higher interest rates, is the housing sector. it retreated initially. they are starting to see some recovery, but with higher interest rates, it just means that people who consider ownership, home ownership as part of the american dream, they are saying goodbye to that. people have the aspiration, but they don't have the financial capacity at higher interest rates. >> you talked about the rebound in new home construction. but overall, with new homes and existing sales, where are prices compared to last year? >> prices nationwide, meaning that national median home prices

around the same as it was a year ago, +2% or -2%, depending on the month. it has been very stable, despite the overall reduction in home sales. what is interesting is we are seeing some regional impact. san francisco home prices are down 15% from their peak levels, while the florida market continues to see press gains. in the midwest, the most affordable region of the country, they are seeing 3 to 4% increases. >> we have the chief economist with the national association of realtors. we are talking about the state of housing in america with interest rate increases announced by the fed. we welcome your calls and comments. here is how we are separating the lines for this conversation. if you are a homeowner, 22 487- 8000. if you're renting your property, 207-404-8001. for all others, 207484 8002.

jay powell was talking about the housing market and the rising interest rates. let's get your thoughts on what he has to say. here he is. >> you talked about getting the housing market back in better balance and also that the market might have bottomed. where do you see the situation and balance or lack thereof right now? particularly with the constrained inventory of existing homes that might otherwise be coming on the rket homeowners are reluctant to move? that is all happening with the 30 year fixed-rate mortgage on the heels of that fed tightening. are we getting closer to balance her further away? what is your sense? >> we have a ways to go to get back to balance for the reasons they talked about with existing homes. there are many people who have low rate mortgages where they

might want to sell in a normal situation, they're not going to because they have so much value in their mortgage, which means the supply of existing homes is really tight, and we are keeping prices up. on the other hand, there's a lot of supply coming online now. there are people coming in and a lot of buyers are first-time buyers coming in. they are buying it with these relatively elevated mortgage rates. i think this will take some time to work through. hopefully more supply comes online. you know, we work through it. we are still living through the aftermath of the pandemic. >> your thoughts on what he had to say. >> well, mostly, he is reflecting what is happening in the marketplace. the inventory levels are low because many homeowners who had purchased when interest rates were low dose homeowners have the chance to refinance.

if they want to make a move, they are facing 7% interest rates. they are saying, i don't want to give up my 3%. now, let's remember. we are always changing in terms of life circumstances. additional child in the family. maybe people looking for things -- marriage is a good indicator. divorces happen. a death in the family. there are always life-changing circumstances. new jobs. people are not moving. this is saying that america is not being dynamic. that time and in some is not there. homebuilding takes time. even commercial buildings, there are new commercial buildings that they're converting to residential units. it takes time. maybe we could incentivize some of the real estate investors to release the property onto the market and you can do that by lowering the gains tax on those transactions and make it temporary.

make it conditional if only first-time buyers are purchasing whatever it was to do. but we need to have or inventory. >> that seems to be more recent post covid. in terms of the core of major cities, looking at some of this commercial property that is being transformed into rental property. what racing out there? >> we are in washington. it is not as bad coming into the office. there are many vacancies. many cities across the country, they can see rates that are still rising. and you can have a logical conclusion that if there is a shortage of housing, can we convert those into buildings into a residential unit? so that requires some funding and tax credit incentives

because from a private perspective, it is costly to reconvert. there has to be some level of funding. one can say, in america, we need to fix bridges, but why don't we concentrate on building some more homes? >> we have focused on homeownership. what can you tell us about this effort post covid? their efforts to limit rents. i know montgomery county in maryland put a cap on rents. >> it is understandable, given that rent is rising and if one is a renter, one feels very frustrated. in terms of economic impact, it is probably the worst economic policy for affordability because that means that future new construction will not happen. so we need to ensure that we fill -- build more homes so that rent comes down.

if you look at the areas where the rent is very high, or areas with restrictive building, but in the south and midwest, rates are reasonable. we need to get away from rent control, which is having a devastating impact on the city over the long run. in the short-term, it benefits renters. housing shortages can be intensified. rent can be higher. >> you think it scares off the developers from building new rental properties. >> we want to have improvement in building. i think america wants to see improvements. >> we welcome your calls and comments. we will go first to our homeowners line. ashes calling from north carolina. >> i want to talk about the politics. i talking about that or just

the homeowners? >> we are talking about homeownership in the state of housing, ash. >> i don't have much to say about that. i want to talk about the politics. >> all right, well, save that for another segment. we will go to andrew in new jersey. andrew, welcome. >> thank you for taking my call. we are missing the whole point on building and homeownership in this country. the federal reserve system is the culprit. i invite everybody that watches c-span to read a book called the creature from jekyll island. it is all related to the fed. that was created by the cdc in the fda and dr. whatever his name is. the reality is the federal reserve is the instigator.

>> we are going to go to tampa bay, florida, and hear from randy. randy, go ahead. >> good morning. on the residential superintendent in florida for 40 years in the tampa bay area. it has been a strange phenomenon here to see thousands in the state of florida coming from california and new jersey and illinois, young families, but younger people have never had a chance to buy anymore. the younger people can't afford to buy. they are renting at ridiculous cost. 2000+ dollars per month. so there is a real void. our company will do over 8000 this year in the tampa bay

area. >> 8000 units? >> yes. 8000 single-family homes. we are booming because people are leaving. the majority are selling up north and buying down south. a lot from california. it has been amazing. >> lawrence, your thoughts? >> rent in tampa is much higher than what it had been pre- covid, before californians and new yorkers were moving in. $2000. i can easily do that. that is much better than the $3000 i was paying in california. relatively speaking, the florida market, they're building more. there is rising population. we need to build more. in 2019, we did a study and we looked at the publishing growth in the united states and the number of jobs being created. .

that is why we need to assure that there is a steady supply of new construction. single-family homes, apartments. that we want to make sure there is a steady supply of new construction. family homes and apartments. that is the only way to moderate the housing costs. >> did the local governments have a role in helping facilitate affordable housing? >> absolutely. you start talking about some of the regulations that may be hindering some building activity. you place restrictions on buildings. you can have some zoning rules, we say, you have to be a single- family home on a fairly large land plot. you cannot do as much. local zoning rules all have a

major part to play. >> let's hear from rob in syracuse, new york. rob is a renter. go ahead, rob. >> good morning, guys. i live in part of upstate new york that is experiencing resurgence in employment. we are going to spend $100 billion just outside of syracuse. it is going to provide 50,000 jobs. we have no housing. we have no housing to accommodate what is on the horizon. so i'm just giving everybody a warning. we really do need residential construction up here. thank you for taking my call. >> okay. realtors and circuits have expressed concern with the manufacturing moving in. the number of jobs and other secondary jobs that would be created, but the lack of housing,, let's remember upstate new york. it is one of the most affordable regions of the

country. one can buy a decent middle- class middle income midprice home for about 200,000 or $250,000. it is very affordable. property taxes are high so that people are a little anxious about the higher property tax. but with new job creation in the region, housing affordability, there is a greater chance to build more. they are not restricted by the land availability. there is a great opportunity. but the local government. the local officials need to allow more building to happen, knowing that jobs will be created. one other point. i was in casper new york. near the border. i was amazed. i wanted to buy a median price home for about $125,000. amazing condition. so one is seeking affordability and has that flexibility in terms of working remote or possibly retiring.

there are parts of the country which are quite affordable. >> so it is your job and your role as economist for the national association of realtors, not just looking at data and charts, but actually looking at on the ground construction of what people are doing in places like that. >> you know, i'm very fortunate. america is beautiful. you have the opportunity to go to different regions of the country. i was in omaha earlier. there's a lot of apartment construction. we talked about red control. they're not concerned with rent control. they are going to build more apartments to keep rent manageable. you go across the country, but in some areas, there is a lack of housing. one realtor who used to be a top producer is saying, you know, it is tough to do business out here because there is not a single inventory available. think about consumers. they are limited in their choices with no inventory in the neighborhood. they cannot purchase.

that is why i think we have to consider some policy, even temporary measures to bring more inventory onto the market and then trying to get some of the mom and pop real estate investors to release that property with capital gain tax reduction. that would be a big boost. >> as he pointed out, you did your study in 2019. we are almost 5 years on, with millions of homes that still need to be built in this country. >> homebuilders with the recent data, they are feeling about the historical average. they're not building more to compensate for the housing deficit. it is still lingering along. we need to oversupply for a few years just to catch up with some housing shortage stuff that we had encountered in the early years. >> 224074800. ginger on the homeowners line in alexandria, virginia.

>> good morning. thank you for taking my call. i guess i want to know what is going to happen to seniors. my parents moved in our home and we have welcomed them last year. they had a lot of stuff. we needed to put some of our stuff in storage. my husband and i have been looking over a year for affordable housing. just another place for us to go in order to help our parents. we have covered the whole dmv area. south kona, north carolina. there is nothing out there. the inventory is so low. something needs to be done about the inventory. also, something needs to be done for seniors who cannot live in apartments, who cannot -- they have mobility issues. it is a really a mess. we are just trying to find another place. you know, that is affordable for us.

the thing is, there are seniors and the young. this situation is very serious. we are in a real housing crisis. i just want to know, what are people thinking about in terms of helping young people and helping seniors get housing? >> thanks, ginger. >> one trend that we are noticing is that more households are living in multigenerational families. they buy a house. there is a grandmother and one side of the house. there is the normal family on the other side of the house. we are seeing more of that. this is due to the cultural factors trying to help out the elderly. there is the affordability. we are seeing this trend from the dc area, or the caller is from. you can go further out into the next two counties.

things become more affordable, but it depends upon whether a person needs to be there for school reasons or job location, before retirees. it is much more affordable going out to the next county or two, away from the big city, and that is what we have noticed since the pandemic. >> a question for you on twitter. why was it cost-effective to build affordable homes for baby boomers but impossible for today's generation? >> trying to build a home for profit reasons, and a look at the price of lumber, the price of the construction workers and the wages they have to pay, and considering everything, only way to make the numbers work, we are focused on this home. in some areas, they can build for a lower price because the land prices cheaper. to build more affordable housing, it really requires some level of incentive to make

it work. tax credits or some level of government spending. people can viewed as infrastructure spending. infrastructure spending dedicated towards housing aside from building bridges and highways. >> it might be worth pointing out that when baby boomers began buying their first houses in the 70s and 80s, the interest rates were what? >> my parents first bought their home when the interest rate was 14%. some people said they bought their home at 18%, and you ask them, was that the right decision and hindsight? they said, that was the best decision i ever made because the great thing about america is people can always refinance when the interest rates go down. but people began to refinance. they were buying it at a high point. when interest rates were high, home sales were slashed by half. people were stuck in place.

interest rates have a big impact. >> going back to your concern over mortgage rate increases, is there an inflection point where the rates get high enough that it might see prices at least fall somewhat, although there are higher interest rates. >> it is a double-edged sword. it may benefit homebuyers, but it is hurting home sellers. they are losing equity. one of the reasons the economy has been holding up reasonably well is because over 60% of americans are homeowners. they feel comfortable buying furniture, going to the restaurant. consumer spending has held the economy. the better solution is to stop raising interest rates. increase supply. more supply means that more people can become homeowners.

at the same time, we don't have the decline in prices in a major way. stable prices. that would be the better solution. >> all right, to henry, in modesto, copley. good morning. >> thank you for taking my call. i want to start by saying, if you recall, with 2008 and that debacle, there was a group of people that didn't lose, and that was the banks. i want to say about housing currently and forever, they opened up the oklahoma territory for people. the government gave land out where people could make their own property there. that is a good idea. the government owns a lot of land and they can but that for beginner people and small manufactured homes. it is for young folks to get their first home.

they wanted to build communities. they haven't made enough money. they haven't been able to on the home or lost their home. those kind of things could go. also, the buydown's is a brilliant way to go. they can afford their thing. when we have those interest rates way high up, what they are doing is they were carrying a 20% part of the loan. the banks will not let them do that now. they want to make their money off of that. the homeowner has a bit of equity and i take that 20% and get the monthly payment. they can make some money back. these things are not allowed by the banks. >> lawrence, if you want to respond. >> certainly, that empty land

may be held by the government. land is one of the pricier elements for buildings. they can say, okay, homeowners, we will offer this land at a reduced price. we want you to build affordable housing. the numbers can work a little bit better with lower land price. the other thing is that related to the buydown's, some homebuilders are offering that. they are making profits. they are saying, okay. we are going to build homes. come buy from us, and we will offer a 6% mortgage rate. related to the seller, and financing, some homeowners will have the fha.

they have the opportunity to do seller finance. mortgage rates are high, but may be the home sellers can offer some financing opportunity. that is not very popular at the moment because most mortgages are done through other ways, but if some realtors and banks can be creative, the demand for housing is clearly there. it is just that the inventory is not there, and interest rates are high. >> you were recorded recently saying that the housing recession is over, but he said, at the same time, that the recovery has not yet started. you talked about inventory. what other things have to happen to me that recovery? >> the inventory situation needs to be addressed, meaning more supply and homebuilding. more real estate investors. more real estate coming onto the market. the other part is to ensure that younger americans who say, you have the opportunity to buy a home. we are not there now because of high interest rates. so when inflation comes down, i

hope they understand that the inflation will go down and stop raising interest rates, or even cut interest rates going into next year. that will reduce mortgage rates so that now the younger generation will have a better chance of participating in ownership. >> let's hear from homeowner mark. he is in massachusetts. go ahead, mark. >> good morning. thank you, lawrence. thank you, phil. lawrence, i heard you are a great guest. you bring a lot to the table. i work is in residential construction myself. i have about 20 years in the northeast. i live in cape cod. it is mostly a vacation community and mostly high and construction. but what i have seen is the materials inventory and the price spikes don't correlate with the actual lumber futures like right now, it basically

bottomed out a month ago or six weeks ago, and then spiked up again. now, it is dropping again. the price of lumber is still up. i don't know if it is price fixing or what is going on, but material prices are low. but the retailers are charting the price it should be at retail. >> you couldn't even get plywood back in 2020 and 2021 point >> the lumber is available, but the prices fluctuating. if the prices fluctuate, we are going to keep it at the high- end. we need to be sure there is a competition everywhere in the lumber production, and also, we need to ensure that we have more people coming out of trade school, going into construction, because lack of workers, lack of skilled

workers and trade skills can make it difficult to build a home. it is not all about every american going to college. some people can go into trade school and then earn a very good middle income, but that direction somehow is not happening as of yet. we certainly need more people going into construction. all of that also needs to be considered. >> you would want some entrances that the prices are not going to rise precipitously in the time that you are making up new development. is that possible to do for developers? >> one can try to lock in the price, but even the futures prices are changing. one thing that we saw during covid and that we are not seeing now -- what happened was people were building in the middle and they stopped

building because lumber prices became too expensive. or the garage door never arrives on time, so they have to wait another year. so waiting and waiting, that is very costly for the developers. the waiting time has the opportunity cost of waiting. most of the supply chain issues have been settled down, so now hopefully the builders become much more active overall. the prices of homebuilders are going up. they are making a profit. we want to ensure that the local government does not hinder the incentive to develop more. >> kathy is a homeowner in michigan. kathy, good morning. >> good morning. the situation i'm seeing in the community in which i live is the gross proliferation of the airbnb industry and the housing that is no longer available for rental or home purchase.

due to probably close to 40% of the houses inside the city limits here are airbnb's. there are three on the block out of nine houses where i live. a house that is a stones throw away sold for 300 something thousand. i think that was eight years ago. they sold it in two days. $950,000. >> who is buying those houses? >> i don't know. i don't know who is buying them. people that have a lot of money, obviously, but with the situation, many people who work in the community here at the hospital, at the skilled nursing facilities, at the factories, they don't live inside the city or in the county. many of them come from sheboygan county. you're talking about 50 miles away.

it is treacherous winter driving in particular. i have been speaking about it publicly, and, you know, that doesn't sit well with the powers that be here. i was lucky i bought this house when i bought it. it is not like when i grew up in flint and housing that was available for most people. it was affordable. >> thank you, kathy. >> the airbnb issue is about a housing supply issue. financially, if you have the same number of homes in that area, and then one becomes an airbnb, then housing stock is reduced. there is lust time for that opportunity. we are looking at other resort

area destinations. they found that the airbnb did not lower housing supply if you allowed the developer to move well. this housing unit is becoming an airbnb, but we have 10 additional housing units. that includes that. it is all about supply. as long as there is supply, we provide more opportunities for more americans to buy and rent. >> let's hear from james in chicago. he's also a homeowner. good morning. >> hi. good morning. how are you? kathy had a great question. i'm a volunteer on the community development board here in chicago. we have been working on a lot of different projects. there's a lot of land that is undeveloped. it is held by individuals and entities.

ones that don't even live in the state. trying to contact these folks that own land that we want to develop, a transit station, our city has pretty prodevelopment regulations, too. it is not a regulation issue. or transit stops with empty lots of land that are basically legally incentivized to develop, to develop dentists. the other problem is, you can't reach them. in the city of chicago, we have about 120, 130,000 units of vacant housing. any given year, we have 60,000 people experiencing homelessness and/or just being in transition. there is an ample supply of homes and units if you look at

the sheer numbers, but then why are the prices so high? i want to get your thoughts there. my solution to this is, you know, you have too many landlords holing and owning housing and holding those units back from the market, who artificially inflate prices. we need to do serious urban land reform and social housing to take it out of the hands of them. >> and we have a comment from julian. he said that many buildings need to be rezoned and reverting into residential housing. >> if you have empty land and it is owned privately and nothing is being done with that, then they are not getting any return on that. it is better to put the money in and get interest rate returns. one is not getting any return on that.

i think it is just a matter of trying to find out who is owning the property and then incentivized to release those properties with financial incentives. it doesn't make sense when you have a housing deficit at one end, or people having struggles to buy a home and on the other, we say, there are so many vacant homes. it doesn't align. furthermore, commercial real estate, that could be converted into half retail and half into educational centers. maybe a gymnasium. or housing. one has to be very clear about how to utilize empty commercial buildings and to partly residential units.>> the wall street journal has a story this morning about the price of home insurance. home insurance charge more and cover less the headline. they write the higher cost lower coverage trend extends well beyond florida california and other states prone to hurricanes floods and wildfires.

they say that i don't think anywhere is safe from this right now. someone quoted in the article. what is the story behind the rise in home insurance prices is max >> look into -- that i'm beginning to hear. certainly in the more prone areas like hurricane prone or wildfires we have seen some property insurance not being available. one of the could be again lack of the skill trade workers there is a property damage and they need to repair. the cost of repair is much higher because the lack of plumbers. so we need to address multiple more people going into the trade skill industry. i think that will help. the other part is look at the competition. if the insurance market essentially dominated by a few companies rather than more competitive marketplace. we need to always assure there is more competition in the marketplace. and certainly in the real estate is usually competitive. we have 1.5 million members competing among each other

seriously competitive we want to see other industry as competitive as real estate. >> we will hear from joe and wesley chapel florida up next. >> good morning. my question is regarding i guess new construction home new construction. in the florida area right now. i'm wondering what is the impact been on the restraints of utilizing undocumented tradesmen who possess the skills that are needed and required to construct our new homes. i see a number of projects here in florida where there is substantial number of tradesmen not what i would call anglo- saxon, brown black -- i mean black. but undocumented i think.

tradesmen who are doing an excellent job of bringing these houses fort with.>> the simple solution is a sure we have a legal process -- for people to come to a specific purpose. work on construction for 3 years. and then return to the country of origin nation and then maybe reconsider whether the person can return to the country and work in construction. the other part is not only about relying on immigrants to build homes, but americans for americans to go into the trade skills. many community colleges are offering welding skills. carpentry. roofing. we need more americans to go into the trade skills. >> the chief economist for the national association of realtors. thank you for being with us this morning. some thank you. >> live to a house judiciary. >> budget and appropriations reporter. give us the latest mr. quigley

thank you for your time this morning. >> so at this point are we still on the path of a possible lack of funding for the government? >> i think so. i think that announcement from speaker mccarthy does complicate the next two and half weeks when it comes to government spending. congress needs to pass a stopgap spending bill by the end of the month to keep the government to avoid a partial government shutdown. right now that is looking more questionable than ever. especially -- >> any endgame -- continuing resolution discussants would need bipartisan support in the house. it appears because there are some house republicans who do not want to vote for any government spending measures at all. they really it is going to be complicated.

democrats are not going to feel obliged to house speaker mccarthy i think. >> when you talk about a continuing resolution explain what that means and what it means to this whole funding process. >> so, last december congress passed right before the new congress took over congress passed an omnibus which lasted until the end of september. at that time government the fiscal 2023 spending will run out -- fiscal 2024 spending to get past. that is because the turn of the fiscal year is at the end of this month. when that happens congress needs to step in and pass appropriations. ideally that would be the full year of her appropriations. we are nowhere close to agreement on those. it will be a stopgap measure. >> what are the discussions taking place in the background on this? who is leading those

discussions? >> we are seeing kind of two very different paths hear from the house and senate. in the senate bipartisan appropriations stopgap there is a big procedural vote yesterday -- package appropriations bill in the senate. huge bipartisan support. they are working together. between speaker mccarthy and president biden and the debt limit negotiations this summer. the senate is moving forward with bipartisan bills. on the house site you are looking at a more partisan process. that is somewhat normal that the house will go on a bipartisan route at this point. they are running into issues when it comes to passing appropriation bills on the floor of the house. significant more cuts to the bills appropriated -- which are already underneath the cap. you have moderates concerned about policy provisions -- in the house.

it will be interesting the next few weeks. we are still at the point both chambers are working on their individual appropriations process. continuing resolution negotiations have not quite started. at least at the high level we expect to see in the next two weeks. but at this point they are still working on developing processes. very important vote today in the house potentially. they're trying to pass their defense appropriations bill. it does appear there is opposition from some conservatives that could take down the -- so that we will have to wait to see what happens.>> opposition to that bill from the president himself. >> yes democrats are very much against this bill. largely because of the culture war provisions the house republicans put in during the appropriations process. they really -- in the bill relating to a variety of issues the white house -- democrats.

it would be surprising to see any where many democratic votes on this. >> in the days ahead mr. quigley what are the things to watch out for at least in your mind to see if there are any breaks into the current and past? >> i think we just have to keep a close eye on the negotiations. we will see the senate continue to move forward and pass and appropriations package next week. and the house continue to the process looks like it may be stalling out. so i think the next two weeks negotiations between the house and the senate. on keeping the government open. i think a lot of the -- behind the scenes usually last minute to avoid a shutdown. it looks like that is pretty questionable again especially after yesterday's announcement. >> reports on budgets and

appropriations issues. rollcall.com. thank you for giving us this update. thank you for having me. our first guest of the morning is representative carlos jiminez the republican from florida is the 28th district. also the armed services and homeland security committee. thank you for giving us your time. can we start with your level of support for the speakers concerning the inquiry? >> i agree with this because actions. i think there is plenty of evidence there to support an inquiry and this is what it is. an inquiry. we need to look deeper into the affairs of the biden family including the president of the united states. we have to do our constitutional duty. if you have evidence that there may have been some wrongdoing we have to pursue it. i wholeheartedly agree with what the speaker did yesterday. >> what avenues do you think need to be pursued? >> everything.

there is plenty of evidence. this is something is going on. there is plenty of smoke. i know when there is smoke there is fire. we have millions of dollars going to the biden family even to his grandchildren. you've got documents in the fbi that said the -- executive bribed hunter biden and the president of the united states $5 million each. then you have the president's own words where he bragged that he fired a prosecutor ukrainian prosecutor who was looking at charisma a company which hunter biden is was on the board of directors. for what we don't know because he haps absolutely zero experience in energy. there is plenty there. there is all these shell corporations that were created. there is testimony from people that said the president of the other states was involved in the business of his son even though the president always denied even knowing having any knowledge of his son's businesses. the president has been caught

in a bunch of lies. this money did not come from inside the united states. it came from countries outside the united states. countries that are adversaries to the united states. that makes it very serious business. it is our constitutional duty to make sure nothing is going on here. >> should the whole house been brought in with a boat to launch this inquiry instead of doing it unilaterally? should the house have been the whole house should have been brought in on a boat is that the unilateral approach this bigger took pics mick we may have to vote. >> there may be some precedent for that. regardless of that we need to look at into it. we have to we owe it to the american people to look and see what is going on. i certainly have my doubts about president biden. >> you said you might have to vote but why not take a vote before hand was next mac you

have to ask the speaker pics mick whether we take a boat or not.>> i support the speaker's actions and what he wants to do.>> do you think the republicans would have gone along with you to launch the inquiry with a boat? >> i would hope so. there is plenty there. those who say you want direct evidence. i don't think the president is that dumb. here is my checking account why don't you ship all this money to my checking account so you have direct evidence somehow he was involved. i think he is smarter than that. i think the biden family is smarter than that. even though they are not all that smart because everything is unraveling as we speak. i support the speaker's actions because we need to see if the president is compromised. the current president of the united states is compromised. that is our duty. i have no problem with an inquiry. just let it go where it takes you. there is nothing wrong than the president president biden should not be afraid of anything. if he did nothing wrong the inquiry will show he did nothing wrong.

if he did do something wrong then if i were the president i would be a little scared. >> you can ask our guest questions. for democrats. independence -- representative how would you like to see the funding issue of the government resolved? >> i hope we could do it through normal order. through normal appropriations. hopefully this week we will pass that the defense appropriations bill and that will be number one. we should then move on to homeland security and past that bill. and get as many appropriations bills passed as we can. i know we have some disagreements here. within the republican party on the entire issue of appropriations and government shutdown. i'm not in favor of shutting the government down. continuing resolution either. we need to go back to normal order and pass the 12 appropriations bills. we have to fight it out then we fight it out. that is what democracy is

about. that is what i would like to see. hopefully this week we will get the defense appropriations bill passed. that is important to this country. we have the number one adversary is china. they are continuing to saber rattle in the taiwan straits. they already have plans on how they're going to unify with taiwan. they have flown planes over the taiwan strait to get there navy there. i personally saw it when i was on a trip a couple weeks ago. and we need to take that serious. seriously. we need to beef up our defenses and we need to help taiwan give them the ability to defend themselves. >> on that build a defense bill there is issues between the house and senate about the funding figures. and also issues about writers put on when it comes to various social issues. do you think that will complicate the passage quest next mac that is what democracy is about. it is like sausage making. it is never clean. >> i'm sure that if we pass it

here and we send it over to the senate it is going to be conference and we will hash out our differences and whatever comes out the senate is not going to be happy with. and we are not going to be happy with. that is probably where we are going to end up.>> you set it you hope it will pass. what is your confidence it will? >> i'm fairly confident it will pass. i don't want to be somebody that in my party that accused of holding up a defense appropriations bill a bill that increases defense spending. we can't go back to last the school year spending. that would be to me actually kind of dangerous. knowing what china is doing on the other side of the world and how they are building up their military. we need to increase our spending. we need to spend the money we have more wisely. we need to get rid of programs that don't make sense which this bill does. and then actually increase spending in those areas especially research and development the advancement of

our next generation fighters. also our shipbuilding capability needs to be beefed up in the u.s. as we face this adversary which is a real adversary. which is the communist chinese party. they have the economic wherewithal to fund their military. they are actually doing it. they are advancing in a rapid clip. we need to make sure they never catch up with us. for me it is vital to the national interest of the united states we passed that bill. >> the 28th district of florida. our first call is from sergio in pompano beach florida. republican line. you're on with our guest. go ahead. >> good morning. how are you sir kwasnik >> you are on with the guest. >> good morning representative. how are you sir? >> doing well >> i have two questions for you. my first question how do you feel about former speaker nancy pelosi running for speaker of the house?

do have a problem with that? and how do you feel about that situation? also, what kind of evidence do you have against hunter biden in your investigation of the family? >> as far as nancy pelosi running for speaker of the house anybody can run for speaker of the house. that is democracy. i have no problem with her running for speaker of the house. she can do whatever she wants. the evidence that we have is that we have -- a very good highly respected source in the fbi that filed a form back in june of 2020 on a conversation that individual had with the ceo of -- which is an energy company based out of ukraine. that individual talking to this informant said he had indeed bribed hunter biden. and bribed the president of the united states who he called the bigeye. this is before we knew who the

big guy was on hunter biden's laptop. he caught him the big guy. for protection. what were they seeking protection from? they were seeking. so protection from a ukrainian prosecutor who was looking into --. guess what? back when the president was the vice president he bragged about how he was going to withhold $1 billion of u.s. aid to ukraine unless they fired that particular prosecutor. that certainly does not smell very well. and there is something rotten in denmark. there is send something rotten in ukraine. the president said this prosecutor was corrupt. now documents that we had see now from the european union said this prosecutor was actually meeting all the benchmarks they needed in order to move forward. even the united states state department said there was really no big problem with this prosecutor. and yet as vice president he took it upon himself to