u.s. house and discontinue work for an annual spending bill for the department of homeland security. in about 45 minutes, congresswoman barbara lee on the progressive agenda. also financial-services committee member nan hayworth on the debt ceiling. an economist on the economic impact of mississippi flooding. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] host: most all of the newspapers had economic stories this morning. what will the phonemics jobs report forecast? slowing economic data news and the dow dropped yesterday. this morning we want to talk about the economic recovery and what you think washington can do, if anything, to improve the economy. washington's role in the economic recovery, if any. there are the numbers on the

screen. we want to talk about some of the economic news that came out yesterday. here is the front page of the "minneapolis star tribune." no sign economy that a recovery is faltering. here is "the wall street journal." and from "the washington post," the lead story. the economic recovery is faltering and washington is running out of ways of getting back on track. two bright spots of the past few months -- manufacturing and job creation -- both slowed in may.

that is the front page of "the washington post." the story continues on the inside right here.

on friday, the labor department will release its report on may jobs growth and the unemployment rate. that is, again, from a "the washington post." what do you fit washington's role in the economic recovery,

if any, should be? we will start with a democrat from cleveland. steve, you are on the air. good morning to you. steve, good morning. caller: good morning. host: what do you thing washington's role in the economic recovery should be? caller: the congress of the united states should immediately draft legislation to stop the corporations of this country from outsourcing and pursuing the cheap labor that is overseas. i really believe that this is why we are in iraq, this is why we are in afghanistan, and i think this country is short selling the american people for the sake of -- for not having to pay higher wages. host: georgia. our friend joe who calls and every 30 days. mr. mcutchin good morning. caller: i think to get the

economy " we've got to have a president who understands the economy that is why i am so excited to collect mitt romney president. i think we need to cut the capital gains -- we've got to give people an incentive to invest the money. and i think i am thinking of changing my name to " cut to "mcutchin. president obama has no plan. all the democrats want to do is spend money and tax. republicans have a plan -- paul ryan. republicans met with president obama yesterday. the democrats have not had a plan for the american people for 50 years is to raise taxes. but we need to elect a president like mitt romney will understand the nation's economy. host: what is the economy like in your metro area? >caller: pretty rough. we are real estate-based. i went to a manufacturing some. they are all hurting.

people are uncertain. the regulations of the obama administration put out, that has been a damper. we need to cut the the regulations. i am a stock market man. the market dropped a big turn yesterday. you know why? big reason -- people lost confidence in the washington administration. the president is a nice man but the democrat possible agenda is raising taxes and increasing regulation and wheat -- we need somebody like mitt romney who is smart enough. he created millions of dollars -- jobs. we need to cut spending and taxes. host: joe, from georgia. we will talk to you in 30 days. he mentioned his support for mitt romney. mitt romney announces for president today. this is from the c-span website. he will announce his candidacy for president at a barbecue in new hampshire.

it will be live on c-span2 -- 12:30 p.m. eastern time. that will be live on c-span2. the senate is out of session this week. so, c-span2 is open for those types of events. some mitt romney backers are backing out this time. this is an article in "the washington post." here are some examples that they put in this article.

in south carolina, third on the 2012 calendar, mitt romney's highest profile backer is state representative nathan valentine -- that is just a little bit from this article about mitt romney. when they talk about the whole presidential, the republican presidential candidates, this is what comes up. when you put one word up and you can see this is done in that way -- the word they used the most about the republican field is the largest. unimpressed, disappointed, incompetent, all stand out. this was a "washington post" pew

research center poll. michael in charlotte on our independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? i feel the democrats are right that we need to tax but we don't need to tax the oil companies. i feel we need to tax companies that produce alcohol and cigarettes -- they are creating huge surpluses and profit and they are created long profit and bigger ones than the oil companies have ever made. i also agree that the republicans need to create a jobs bill. we need small businesses to be creative as well, not just producing jobs other businesses have lost. that would create incentives. the republicans have not passed any yet. host: john is a democrat from white plains, maryland. what do you think washington's

role in economic recovery should date? caller: where are the jobs that the low tax rates we have are creating? we have at the lowest effective corporate tax rate we have had in generations but no businesses are stepping up to the plate. we saw the results in may. it happened somehow under reagan, the taxes went down and jobs went up but then reagan also had to increase taxes in order to make a budget that make sense. for the republicans to continue to say we cannot tax to improve the economic outlook is only going to result in more instability because you cannot have a government that has no operating income when corporations like g.e. takes in money beyond what -- excuse me, what the credit score they received. they paid nothing effectively and took billions from the government in additional credits. how can we look at that example and say the tax policy is

driving the problem when we have given away the store already and the companies are taking profits and not hiring? host: this tweet -- front page of "the new york times" this morning.

more from this story from "the new york times." newport richie, florida. zack on the independent line. good morning. caller: i love c-span. i called a couple of months ago. basically, like i told everyone that there would be no more

jobs, and with the fed destroying the dollar, there is no way -- yes, basically, there can be jobs because it is called input costs and when you destroy the dollar because go up and no one can hire. the federal reserve -- i guess there was an article a month or so that basically said greenspan was talking about basically selling put options on treasury bonds to basically alleviate investors' tensions when they buy them. what happens when they go into the money? $100 trillion? they just need to stop destroying the dollar. it has nothing to do with taxes. you can look at their real value of savings constantly decreasing every year and it is not stopping. they can tax the whole economy 100% and steel everyone's wages

and a monopoly men will petition the fed to print up a couple hundred dollars trillion more and it doesn't even matter. host: what part of florida is newport richie in and what is the economy like? caller: it is near tampa and it is atrocious. like the guy who called before -- this was real estate. but that has been the country for the past 10 years or 20 years. you can go back and say 30 years. as soon as nixon closed the gold window -- a complete right up on the back of -- yes, the savings being destroyed. host: debbie in darby township, pennsylvania. democrat. caller: good morning. host: you are on. please, go ahead. caller: frankly, i believe the reason why we are not having any better recovery is republicans of doing exactly what they said they were going to do.

making sure they are doing everything in their power to make sure barack obama has on the one term. they don't care if of the country goes bankrupt. all they care about is making sure that the next president is a republican. host: there is the political side. what do you think republicans should be doing to help improve the economy? caller: they should put everything on the table -- table and that includes tax increases. of we have gone into the deficit after three consecutive tax breaks and a recession we have no choice but to increase taxes while we try to cut spending. host: bed was debbie from darby township, pennsylvania. -- that was debbie from darby, a township. hello, maria. caller: the president has the power to abrogate all of the

trade agreements that have been sucking the jobs. he only has to give six months' notice and have the senate approved it. number two, instead of income taxes on american citizens if and real american businesses, we should reinstate the import tariff that helped our country in good stead for centuries. no. 3, we should stop all foreign aid and wars and, incidentally, our country has a king right now proclaiming war and congress does not care -- does not care about the war powers act or the constitution. number four, we have to get rid of the federer reserve, give the power back to the treasury and go back to the gold standard. pitsch host: maria from stafford, new jersey. this is a tweet -- back to "the new york times" article on the economy.

the administration as focused on smaller ideas like streamlining corporate taxation in increasing american exports to asia and latin america. jeff in florida on the republican line. where is ovedo, florida? caller: down near orlando. host: what the the washington's role should be? >> , i think what we -- if we look back with obama talk about when he first came into office we knew and understood first of all what was the issue we were dealing with common which was the housing market and the downturn more so than anything. after getting into office -- the number one, they did absolutely nothing to address that other than giving an influx of money

to the banks, which was part of the problem. it and the people and about not getting anything, getting stuck with housing. and at the same time -- but the banks did absolutely nothing to address the issue. even today, most banks would not even sit down with a most individuals to work out a deal so they can stay in the house or at least deal with interest rates. what washington needs to do, in my opinion -- it is not about republican and democrats. when you focus on just republican and democrat it becomes about politics. what they need to do is identify the problems and get back to dealing with issues. i kind of wish people would stop with the whole class -- class warfare things. stop talking about who should be taxed more and start with the more money in washington gets, they are not dealing with the issue, but they are actually democrat or republican, whenever programs or policies to other constituents. host: it is a snapshot of the

orlando area economy. caller: here in florida, our unemployment rate is coming down but it is still slightly higher than the nations. here in this area of florida, most of our revenue is derived from tourism and the housing market. with that downturn, things are coming back -- because of the nature of our system we have here in the capitalistic system, it will come back, just like after 9/11, what washington does anything or not. if they would kind of get out of the way and let things happen. they can assist by stop trying to streamline and creating all the chaos with the class warfare. but here in florida i think things are beginning to come back but we are dealing with our problems as well. host: harrisburg, pennsylvania. zack on the democrats' line. caller: thank you for taking my call. thank god for c-span.

i liked jeff from florida. i love educated voters. it is my opinion also that -- i believe an assiduous in like this, the first thing that should of been done is a forensic audit and the names called out who knew what and when they knew what. we still have companies sitting on trillions of dollars of assets and not hiring any people. these people have names and also have head to head of these companies. who are these guys holding back our economy by not hiring people? you know what i mean? the $3 trillion in our economy that just disappeared. i do not believe it disappeared. senator has that money get one person talk about the bailout. absolutely correct. zero interest and traded absolutely nothing. instead of lending it to the american people.

including the people who had these homes who are under water. i had a friend who not only had a great mortgage, but had a second mortgage he didn't even knew about. that is how he was put into his home. a lot of predatory lending. young kids in -- it was a situation where there were kids from a donnell to qualified for a home. they have mcdonalds jobs. no way they should have been in a $125,000 house. and appraiser ask me how much i wanted a house to come out at. there is a lot of stuff that created the bubble and until we come to grips and be honest, we are not going to get out of this board like one of the caller said, the same people we put in charge to get us out of this caused this thing. host: thank you for calling from harrisburg, pennsylvania. james from arkansas e-mails in --

that is on james in arkansas. sherises tweets in-- a couple of headlines from "usa today" from the money section. jr. lives up to bad reputation. -- june lives up to bad reputation. although recovery pauses in may. here are some stats about how companies did. gm down about 1%, for about

0.3%, chrysler did you paid 10%, to yield down 33% -- lawrence, independent and louisville, ky. you are on c-span there what do you think washington's role in economic recovery should be? caller: i think they ought to do a lot of things. i am calling primarily about the people will call on the program -- i hear them all the time saying we should -- i hear politicians saying we should take subsidies away from companies and everything and the act as though it will fix the problem. people will make probably $25,000 or $50,000 have no concept what a trillion dollars and. graduate math for years. i have stood to cannot sit --

articulate what $1 trillion is. if we took all of the oil subsidies and put it toward the operational budget of this government's, we would be able to run it for 90 days. 97.8 years -- that is how insignificant they are. that gives you the idea of the problem we are facing. they act like $1 trillion is a couple of million. it is not. it is pouring us over a cliff. we have to get rid of subsidies, we have to increase of taxes, it of sepsis, cut programs, string department, we have to do a myriad of things and we are not going to do them because of the politicians. as simple as that. host: we believe that there -- 8 viewer tweeted in --

financial times" this morning -- obama makes detroit revival in central -- central. that is in "the financial times"

this morning. this is from "the wall street journal," their second editorial, "that debt limit defense -- dance."

in the politico this morning, john boehner calls for a debt deal in a month. he does not want to run up against the august deadline. but he is refusing to back away from calls for major spending in return for a deal with the white house. that is in politico. derrick is in cleveland. he is a democrat. what you think washington's role in the economic recovery should be? caller: i have been listening to everybody call and everybody is right and at the same time everybody is wrong. you can't do everything. you want to cut taxes, you want to raise taxes. raising taxes might be fine but at the same time it hurts the people who want to employ. so they are not going to hire anybody.

they are sending all of the jobs out of the country because it is cheaper to make the product outside of the country. host: what do you do in cleveland? caller: looking for a job. host: what was your last job? caller: i used to drive trucks. caller: how would you describe the economy in cleveland? caller: slow recovery. host: thank you for calling in did this morning. "the daily news" out of new york. an update on the anthony wiener story. on the front page of "the daily news" out of the year. and this is "the new york post." also in this article -- stop being nitwits.

that is in "the new york post" this morning. from "the hill" newspaper --

orlando, florida, on the republican line. james. caller: thank you for c-span. i think a lot of people are intelligent this morning. i think the woman from the dirty hit the nail on the head. -- the woman from new jersey hit the nail on the head. what the trade agreement to need to be revoked. they benefit a handful of americans who are becoming felt the rich but they don't benefit america in general. the tariffs need to be put back in place, the one to remove -- that were put in place in the 1980's but they did protect us

from cheap labor overseas and other countries subsidize their shipments over here, and protect american company who wants to manufacture and provide for american citizens and ship overseas. the gold standard does need to be returned eventually. something that needs to be done. as far as cuts in spending -- cutting spending and raising taxes. i am proud republican. not proud of what we have been like people for the past three decades. i-republican leadership of the time. i don't really pay attention to democrats because they did not really have the same ideology i do. i would like to reassure the democrats concerned about taxes, that the tea party is definitely looking at reforming the tax structure and increasing revenue. at first we want to decrease spending first. to me, is kind of like, get a college-aged kids maxed out the

credit card and they come and ask for new money. you have to tell on, look, get the spending under control first before i am willing to give you anything else. that is the way the tea party is looking at it. we need to get the spending under control first before we get more money to washington. host: thank you for calling in. independent line. caller: two points. slow recovery is better than no recovery. all these people saying on the republican side saying they might run -- we do not need to hear it. either they are running or not. we did not need to see them showboating. when it comes to big business, they are the ones making money, not small business. if you don't have a job, don't look at the small people. a tax hike on them. please stop running against the president saying -- that is all the republicans have been doing. running against him. we want to run for the country

and help the president make this place -- get it back on its feet. host: from dayton, ohio. this is a tweet from americanhero-- t the hill close -- from "the hill" newspaper.

ke ifn, democrat -- ken, democrat, california. what do you think? caller: i am 62 years old and i really do believe part of the problem our world has today is you have the second generation ownership taking over companies, their parents who built businesses. the reality is they have no compassion, nor do they have any understanding for the working individual. for them to go ahead and outsource their company's business is no big deal. and they look at it from the standpoint, well, i am still making the same money. the reality of the situation is, when you are talking about the republican party, they got to

stop throwing obama out of the window and then complaining how he lands. this makes no sense at all. i don't know what did do to get these people to work with each other. host: thank you for calling in this one. republicans, of course, met with president obama yesterday and democrats are meeting with him today and in about 15 minutes, barbara lee, a democrat from california, will take your calls and talk about the democrat meeting with the president after that, nan hayworth, a republican freshman from the year will take your calls, to talk about the debt ceiling. treasury secretary geithner is going up to the hill talking about the importance, in his view, of increasing the debt ceiling. we will get her perspective as well. massachusetts, and sandra on the independent line. washington's role in the economic recovery.

caller: the economic recovery for massachusetts is a very good outlook. we have a lot of jobs opening and everything else all over the place. the thing of it is, we need a million dollars set aside for orphan projects that i brought up before. the they have been set aside in the front -- to fix bridges and roads. why haven't they used it? that is what i want to know. it is free money we already have. host: from "the hill" this morning -- and from "the politico."

tad, washington, oregon. democrats' line. you are on the air? caller: one of these baby boomers got to lift -- who got to live in a sweet spot. you never know what you learn from our fathers, but my dear old dad told me his grandfather, great grandfather lost everything he made in the great depression. he said, get a trade, get a license trade. i became a journeyman plumber. he said get a union card and you would not be anyone's mercy. so, i did. to be honest with you, it has not been a bad run. dad said if you want to gamble,

go to las vegas. the house is engineered to take a loss but did not gamble with a banker, he will win every time. i feel sorry for people who are upside-down, feel sorry for the people with the credit cards. as far as the government bringing about a recovery, i think a good starting point would be to take these tax lawyers off the television set and ratchet up the irs and go get our money. there are a lot of people who owe money to the irs, who owns hands of thousands and they pay hundreds. i paid every nickel that has ever been required. i am puzzled why they think it is ok. is this a learned behavior? i just find it very shocking. host: ted, can i ask, are you a private contractor? caller: i am a journeyman driving a contractors truck. host: has business ever been slow? caller: well, i run a little

satellite shop and i am a one- man show. if i need more labor all i have to do is call and i can get a fleet of vans in a short amount of time. here in the north or -- no. oregon goes there are not many journeymen plumbers, at least to know what they are doing. if i need to bring them from the big city, i can. it has been slow, no doubt about it, but it doesn't really affect me because i never played with the credit cards. i never had a loan, except when i bought the house. i am a veteran so i bought this on a va loan. that is the only credit i ever had. i pay cash. host: how old you? caller: i and 52 and i can retire in two years and two months. host: congratulations to you. you talk about living in the sweet spot of history. caller: exactly right. i can remember you bringing that up a few weeks ago and you've

got a kick out of it so i was waiting for you to get on the screen. i think that in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, and what my dad was able to provide for all of us rotten kids. it just seemed to be a lot better time. people were having a lot better time, you know? now i feel sorry for the generation xers and millennials, because the only time they could experience that is through history books. it's public all right, ted, we will leave it there. that was ted, independent from oregon. next is tom from texas. caller: first i would like to say how nice all of you moderators present yourselves. i consider "washington journal" part of washington and i think you all could expose a lot of the hypocrisy by asking all of your guests what is your income and how many jobs have you created in the last 10 years, particularly in the last two

years. one williams -- juan williams recently got a $5 million contract and i wonder how many jobs he created from his personal income. he also had a legislator from georgia, i believe, a while back who said he was going to introduce his jobs bill, and the jobs bill with all tax cuts. tax cuts are not jobs. to create jobs you have to hire somebody to fill a need for you. i treated jobs, maybe four or five in the past years and i am disabled. that is how you create jobs. host: tom in texas, appreciate that call. from the cnn website. florida governor signs welfare drug screen measure.

that is on cnn.com. glenn beck launches new book in print. -- imprint. from the c-span website -- data security revisited at congressional hearings. deyton shaft, so the network -- today, 10 shaft from sony will testify. this is something we will be covering on c-span to pick -- today. from "the washington post" house

republicans pushing back against a series of public health measures, including school lunch standards and tobacco regulations. that is in "the washington post" this morning. the last call on washington's role in the economic recovery comes from chicago. joyce, are you with us? caller: ok, i and calling from chicago. first-time caller. arguing about democrats and republicans -- about the party. it is about us.

we the people, the united states, to form a more perfect union. we are arguing among each other. obama is the greatest present we have the best one sitting there was carter. carter sitting in the white house with a coat on -- energy. people calling saying how can we help. go on your computer, public debt, go down on the computer and it says -- how to make contributions to reduce the debt. it cut down further and you push, paid to the government. after it says paid to the government. i contribute money every month. it is not month, but it will never disappear if we all don't contribute the money to help ourselves -- we are in trouble right now. we are good people but we do need to do this. it is not about religion, it is

about helping each other in a time of need -- all of us children of the united states. host: what do you do in chicago? caller: i am a retiree. i am 66. i am not worried about -- i am a pastor. caller: and you are retired from the church, your congregation the host: are you tired from the church? caller: from transit authority. host: now as a pastor? caller: i have been a pastor 32 years. cancer survivor twice. host: appreciate the first time calling in. joyce call from chicago. this weekend on book tv, chicago tribune's printers row fast. live coverage of their annual book festival. saturday all day long, live coverage on book tv, c-span2 on the weekends, and sunday is our

"in depth" program with eric pose more from the university of chicago. noon until 3:00. if you go to booktv.org, you can see the full schedule of events. joyce, if you happen to be there, come on down and say hi. quick international articles. syrian activist struggled to maintain unity. -- attain unity. former libyan oil minister confirms regina and affection -- regime defection.

those are both from "the financial times." from "the washington post" -- mubarak has been detained in a hospital, was charged last month for the fatal shooting of demonstrators. that is in "the washington post." street battles raged on in the yemeni capital. that also is an "the washington post." final comment on washington's role in the economic recovery. this is a tweet --

coming up in just a minute is representative barbara lee, a democrat of california. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> this weekend on book tv on c- span2, live coverage from "the chicago to be an" printer 0 fest. native americans, sexual politics, the taliban, clarence darrow and more. also "in depth" with a live studio what it in your questions for university of chicago law school professor eric posner.

>> today marks the first time our legislative branch in its entirety will appear on the medium of communication through which most americans get their information about what our government and our country does. >> several times today this has been referred to as an historic occasion. whether or not it will be an historic occasion is, i think, a subject for the judgment of history. >> this week's june wheat march 25 years of televised coverage of the senate. on the first day c-span -- c- span2 was carried in a little more than 6.5 million homes and today over 89 million homes. once that first day or any of the 21,000 hours of senate coverage on line at disease been video library. all searchable, shareable and

free. it is washington your way. >> "washington journal" continues. host: on your screen is representative barbara lee, democrat of california. congresswoman, the democrats are meeting with president obama today. what is your message to him? guest: my message, of course, to the president -- and i am certain he agrees with -- we must not allow medicare to be on the table to be cut. we must preserve medicare. and also we must create jobs. the economy, of course, we see some glimmers of hope that we see setbacks in many communities. gec setbacks. in many communities the rate is 16%, especially communities of color. but you have to have direct investments in job creation, in infrastructure, in education, in scientific research. there are ways we can create

jobs and create them right away. our roads need repair, our bridges needed repair. and we have to do that. i know the message is going to be communicated to the president that we also need to begin to end this war in afghanistan. this is costing 100 billion-plus a year. our young men and women have done a phenomenal job and it is time to bring them home. it is time to reduce our military fit front -- footprints that afghanistan and use the money to create jobs here at home. preserving medicare and creating jobs and helping to move our country forward is going to be the message. >> congresswoman, the republicans met with the president yesterday. they are pushing for deficit reduction, for spending cuts. would you be willing to accept spending cuts? guest: i am not willing to accept spending cuts that would cut of the most lovable and hurt those who are unemployed -- that

would cut the most vulnerable. but let me tell you what i would support. we are looking at a pentagon budget that is really almost out of control. $750 billion-plus. again, we have iraq, afghanistan, and now libya. we have to look at how we ensure national security in a smart way. we talk about subsidies to the oil companies. you have revenues that can be raised there. to just talk about spending cuts without talking about going back to the drawing board as it relates to the bush era tax cuts for the very wealthy, for millionaires and billionaires, to me, that is unacceptable and i know many of us are not going to go for that. we have to do something about the debt ceiling and go on and move to raise it.

host: do you feel as a member of the progressive caucus, sidelined? guest: absolutely not. when you look at the capri -- progressive caucus, our two co- chairs have done at some of his job. i co-chaired. we have the people's budget that was balanced, that the not cut medicare, which was a budget that created jobs and provided for a rational national security strategy. it really is a mainstream budget that reflect the priorities of the american people. what i have seen over the years, the progressive vision, a progressive caucus, which is of course the largest caucus in congress, is really -- reflects the values and priorities of the american people. we have now over 80 members. when you look at many of the

bills that have been passed or have come close to passing -- i have some of the toughest bills and efforts on afghanistan. 81 members signed a letter that we forwarded to the present as saying we should have a significant and sizable drawdown of troops beginning in july. when you look at many of the measures coming forth, the progressive caucus has held firm, has held steady and it definitely has been against these oil subsidies and also the progressive caucus has held firm in not eliminating medicare, which republicans want to do. host: do you feel you have got to board from democratic leadership -- nancy pelosi and president obama -- do you feel you have gotten support? guest: in terms of afghanistan? did general, absolutely yes. if you look at the progressive caucus and you look at the votes

that were cast and you look at what the president is engaged in -- of course, he has the weight of the world on his soldiers -- on his shoulders. we have our jobs to do as progressives and as members reflecting the people. this is the people's house. our leadership gets it. our leadership is a leadership that brings together the caucus. of course, we have many different caucuses in congress. we have a very diverse democratic caucus. and i think our leadership -- and i have been here 13 years -- our leadership has been very fair and has made sure that the progress of the voice is included in the deliberations. we always may not win and, of course, our mission may decide to take a different course, but what i can say is they have listened. we have been at the table. many of our amendments have been included and they recognize the progressive caucus is a very strong caucus and our voice is very loud and we do reflect the

will of the american people, and we are willing to work in a bipartisan way and with all members of the caucus to see medicare preserved and to help create jobs that our country so desperately needs. host: what time did you meet with the present? guest: this afternoon, i believe at 2:00 or 2:30 p.m. representative barbara lee is our guest. the first call for congresswoman lee comes from glenwood, indiana. guest: don't cut me off. -- caller: don't cut me off. how're you doing? two things. the republicans are not going to let the president and anything.

second, the democrats need to get behind this president and help him. i and a first-time voter and i want to these democrats -- i'm a first-time voter. we need these jobs. so, thank you. guest: i believe what you have seen with democrats is an agenda that wants to ensure the american people that we will preserve medicare. and i know the president wants to do that also. we have been working very closely with the president as democrats to create jobs for those who are unemployed and also to create jobs to help turn our economy around. we have not seen republicans, for with one job creation initiative. democrats have been burning for the job creation efforts. we have been trying to make sure the president understands and we support -- and he knows that -- his economic recovery efforts.

with the recovery bill, we have created millions of zit -- of jobs but also helped stop what would have been a depression. the president turned it around. of course democrats in the congress how to do that. we did not receive any republican votes for that. there are going to be disagreements. this is a democracy. and we have three branches of government. you can't expect constantly for everyone to walk lockstep. what you can expect is unity on behalf of democrats and held for the american be but in terms of making sure senior citizens understand we will not let medicare be touched and we will move forward to create jobs. host: from "the politico" this morning. paul ryan conference obama on medicare. he directly confronted president obama over democratic ridicule of his controversial medicare overhaul plan. while other gop leaders accused the president of demagoguery during a chilly bipartisan

meeting. ryan, wisconsin republican, stressed the president -- ask the president to stop describing his plant -- to say it is what it is. his budget cut medicare. yesterday in the homeland security -- which is a rule, a measure that came up on the floor, to establish the parameters for debate for the homeland security bill, they cut medicare again. so, i think what mr. ryan is doing is trying to figure out a way to back off of that now because i think they see the majority of the american people are seniors. young people support medicare. and we do not want to see it tinkered with. we don't want to see it on the table to be cut.

and naturally they would get very defensive because i think they could see what is happening in the country and where public opinion is. again, it is what it is. you can see they want to eliminate medicare. there have been votes cast to demonstrate that in the house and senate and another vote yesterday. that is what they want to do. host: the next call comes from scottsdale, arizona. steve, republican. thecaller: i took my daughter to the hospital yesterday, she was really sick with stomach flu. i cannot believe how bad -- every time you go there, there is so much waste involved, so much time spent. there are overcharging everything. i think the problem lies in basically, especially these southern states, and they're all against the bill that arizona proposed, but they are trying to do something to save arizona. i think there is a lot of

trouble with the health-care industry right there at the hospital. they should go down -- the different congress people should go down and see how terrible things are. host: congresswoman lee, any comment for him? guest: i hope your daughter is doing ok. believe you me, i know what hospitals and emergency rooms are like. i have been in many with family and friends. that is one of the reasons why health care reform is so important and why we cannot let republicans roll it back. for the most part, the people that end up in emergency rooms do not have primary care. we want to prevent what you saw yesterday in terms of making sure that our citizens and people in our country are able to access to affordable, quality

health care with the primary care doctor or in a community clinic. health care reform is so important, and many of us are drawn to try to continue to strengthen the -- are going to try to continue to strengthen the health care bill. and to ensure that all people in our country have access to affordable health care so we can avoid situations that you saw yesterday. many of the measures of the republicans would actually increase and exacerbate the problems of people who need health care. when you look at the fact that they have not created any jobs nor are talking about creating jobs, we are talking about people who are unemployed who are losing their health care. so what you saw again yesterday, many people who actually lost their jobs, lost their health care, so they end up in emergency rooms. that is unacceptable in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. host: joe tweaks to you, "is

medicare so perfect that they cannot be ttinkered with in any way? there are no improvement and no cost savings possible?" guest: we are going to keep medicare as we know it and insure that our seniors have medicare. that's the point. i do not want to see any tinkering with medicare that will lead to what the paul ryan plan wants to do. that is either privatize or provide a voucher for medicare recipients to buy health insurance where they would have to come out of their pockets, hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars to access quality health care. so we need to preserve medicare as it is and make sure that it is there for those who are seniors is sin citizens nowd those who will be very soon. host: next call from texas, herman, a democrat. caller: what i am afraid of is

that behind closed doors, when meeting with the president, why don't the democrats then not given to republicans' demands? what the republicans have done is they have kind of like taken from a piggyback, they stuck their hand in and day what the democrats -- we are going to force you to put your hand in their. you put your hand in there. take subsidies from oil companies. my next point is that we should change the way our credit scores are done because the housing market is down. many folks cannot get a loan now. they are not lending.

guest: sir, you are absolutely right. the democrats need to hold firm, and i'm confident democrats will hold firm because the public understands and we understand that medicare cannot be tinkered with and that we must preserve medicare and that we must not allow the republicans to dismantle medicare, which is what they want to do. secondly, as it relates to credit scores, so many people have lost their jobs and their houses, first of all. the majority of the american people, that is the only equity, the only money, the only cash they can access throughout their lives, is the equity in their homes. thirdly, these scam known artists, subprime lenders, came into many minority communities disproportionately affected by the scammed loan artists -- by the scam loan artists. several years later, they lost

their homes. what we have to do as a government -- i believe we should have a moratorium on foreclosures. we have not figured it out yet. secondly, we should ask the credit agency to revamp the formula that they use when they establish credit scores. many people who have lost their homes have been paying their bills all of their lives. when you look at their credit ratings, the rating goes down because they cannot pay their mortgage. that is not fair and it is not their fault. i think you're absolutely right, and i wish we had the backbone in congress to tackle the financial services industry so that we can say no more of this. you have to insure the consumers -- to ensure the consumers are treated fairly. in most instances, it is not their fault that they end up with a home in foreclosure and the debt that has been incurred as a result of wall street going

of muck. host: representative barbara lee is a member of the appropriations committee. she represents the oakland and berkeley area of northern california and began her political career as any intern -- as an intern. this tweet comes in for you. "california is a mini example of the u.s.. voters wanted government to take care of everything for them and look what happened." guest: i don't think voters want the government to take everything -- to take care of everything for that. i think they want government to be responsible and provide for the common good. voters what the priorities of government to ensure opportunities, to provide equal access to opportunities. voters want the government to make sure that the basics are there for the most vulnerable because not everyone has a fair

shot. we want equal opportunity for everyone. i think voters want medicare preserved. i think voters do not want to see republicans cut medicare. i think voters want to see tax dollars go into investment into our infrastructure and creating jobs. i think voters what affordable accessible health care networks. voters want to make sure that women and children and men, families, have the opportunities to live the american dream. so government, while i do not believe government can take care of all our problems, we certainly have as a government the responsibility and the duty to provide for the common good and to provide those opportunities so people can achieve the american dream. host: next call for congresswoman barbara lee. at the rouge, louisiana, republican line.

caller: 1 comment and one question. i agree with representative lee about the militarism of our country. we should secure our borders. secondly, and this is a question -- my own representative from louisiana could not answer the question. why don't we usurp the power from the federal reserve and give it back to the representatives in congress to regulate and issue our currency? that way we can hold them accountable. it will eliminate -- the federal reserve is a cesspool organization. nobody i talked to can name any member that creates the money because they're not even based in the united states. they are european-based people. nobody can hold them accountable. the voter can not hold a

representative accountable because the constitution guarantees that -- that is my question -- can you please answer that? guest: think the federal reserve has a responsibility, and certainly it can do better in protecting the financial entities in our country and should be consumer-oriented, a consumer-driven. in the past, the federal reserve, i believe, has not been too out of sync with the met majority of the american -- with the majority of the american people. in the financial-services industry, to have capital have access to mortgages. it needs to be more consumer- oriented. host: house majority leader eric cantor this morning was on the cbs "early show come out and this is what he had to say. "washington must demonstrate that it can put its fiscal house in order before the country will

seen the strong rip -- will see the strong economic growth necessary to create new jobs." guest: it sounds like he's putting forth a catch-22 situation that does not exist. washington needs to invest in providing for efforts to create jobs for the american people. when you look at the fact that we have an unemployment rate of over 9%, and in some communities come in communities of color, 11% to 16.5%, recorded, that tells me that washington needs to -- you have to have jobs so that people have money to spend. consumer spending is a key aspect of our economic recovery effort. cantor andh mr. kanto boehner.dang

many people do not realize that we have millions of people in our country who cannot even get unemployment insurance, unemployment compensation, because they hit that wall of 99 weeks. we are working hard to make sure that we extend unemployment compensation efforts so that 99, as they're called, can receive the kind of relief they deserve. these are people who want to work. when you look at our fiscal house, you are looking first of all at people who cannot spend money because they do not have a job. you are looking at the number of -- there are four individuals seeking one job. we have a serious problem in our country where we have not created jobs because the republicans will not do that. and we need to do that so we can

begin to get our fiscal house in order. host: representative lee, we have talked about afghanistan in your views there. how do you think the president is handling the libyan crisis? guest: first of all, we know what colonel khadafy is about, and he certainly has been a brutal leader and we know the libyan people deserve better and that he should not be that head of state. i think that the libyan people deserve the chance to move forward in their own country. and i think we do need to make sure that civilian lives are protected and that we do not allow for humanitarian crisis. but i was the one who early on believed that the president should have come to congress. we should have debated this, and i voted against it in 2001, giving then president bush and any substantive president -- and

any subsequent president, giving them a blank check. i believe we should have debated a resolution whether to go and use force. we would have had an opportunity to look at alternatives, look at the facts on the ground, to look at whether or not we have to -- at some point we may have to put ground troops in. i hope we don't do that. congressman conyers led the efforts for no ground troops in libya. we should have had that debate. the american people would understand more clearly what we are doing in libya. i was in nato at the beginning of the bombings to try to understand nato's role and what the u.s., how the u.s. was going to back off, how nato was going to step up in terms of our u.s. forces. there are a lot of questions that need to be answered, and i think a full debate in congress should have been held.

i think we should have voted. this is a war, and personally and authorization to use force -- if we are going to engage in a war, our constitution requires that we declare war. i am not pleased with what happened, and we need to find a path forward where there is congressional debate, and the american people, because we are the people's representatives, need to be heard in that debate. host: as the u.s. had a cohesive policy when it comes to dealing with the several arab uprisings this past spring? guest: i do not think it has been a cohesive, but the administration -- there are different points of view on this. i believe our foreign policy needs to be consistent, as consistent as it can be and cohesive. i believe there are others --

and there are others who believe, that we need to take our foreign policy on a case by case basis. what works in yemen may not work in libya. our policy in sudan should not necessarily be the same policy in the condo. -- in the congo. the violence has subsided, but we really need to begin to look at how we have a consistent foreign policy as it relates to humanitarian concerns. when you see people being slaughtered and killed, what is it that determines the use of force in libya obverses syria? the american people want to understand better what our foreign policy principles are and how they are acted out and played out in terms of policy. i prefer a boat consistent

foreign policy that sends the message throughout the world -- i prefer a more consistent foreign-policy that sends the message throughout the world what we stand for. host: delaware, ed, on our independent line. caller: after serving this country for 33 years, i have become a hardened independent. i know paul ryan has put something out on medicare. all i want to do is see a counter. i need to see the democrats put something in writing that i can debate. they have not even put out a budget in the house in the set -- in the house and the senate in two years. how can i judge what their side is when i do not see anything in writing? we have to do something. this country is sinking quickly. guest: you have seen the democrats put forth a budget that's balanced, that reflects our priorities, and that really begins to produce the deficit.

as a member of the progressive caucus and former chair of the progressive black caucus, we put forth a budget every year that really sets forth a pathway out of this economic recession, creates jobs, invests in our infrastructure and education and helps bring our foreign-policy and our military policy under control. what i can assure you -- and i think you have seen our votes cast against dismantling medicare. democrats want to keep medicare, want to preserve medicare. that in itself i think should tell you about where we are coming from. we are not in the majority in the house, but we have an opportunity all of the time to send this message by our boats and the amendments that we put forth and bite -- buy our votes and the amendments that we put forth and by the budget we put forth. that is what democrats stand for.

host: 10, texas. alex, a republican. caller: i am calling on behalf of the -- i would like to say that your information on libya is not correct. president obama on top of the supreme court on a southern country to impose a leader that was given to him by -- we all know that sarkozy, who is running the foreign policy of the united states -- when president bush was in power, we found out how hypocrites the french were did today in libya, the information about protecting the lives in libya is not correct. this is another action from the french to try to eliminate african people.

what president obama has done in africa is very barbaric. he is killing many people, and as i am speaking to you now, the muslim leader that was put in power by the french, president obama is killing christians as i am speaking to you. host: alex, i think we got the point. guest: think you very much for your comment. i appreciate your insight and what you are saying. what you have just said is really another indication as to why congress should always debate these issues when it comes to war and peace. congress, again -- have we had a debate on libya, we would have been able to further discuss and reflect different points of view, which we may or may not agree with. but i think it is very important to say to you that whenever we have congressional debate -- and i hope that you listen to some of our debates -- many issues are discussed, and the policy debate is broadened.

that is the big problem i have with having gone into libya, not having an opportunity to debate the pros and cons and unintended consequences and what the different points of view are around the country. host: representative lee, if you go to the white house today and the president says we just have to have deficit reduction attached to the debt ceiling vote, what is your response? guest: my response to the president would be we have to talk about raising revenue first, mr. president. we have to talk about eliminating the oil subsidies, the subsidies for oil companies. we have to eliminate these huge tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. i would say to the president that we have to begin a significant and sizable withdrawal out of afghanistan so we can have $100 billion to begin to create an environment

for deficit reduction. and i would say to the president we have to preserve medicare and to take that off the table. that should not be part of the negotiation. host: when you go to the white house, it is it daunting? the president sweeps into the room and everybody is being nice? guest: have been to the white house many, many times under different presidents. president clinton, bush, now president obama. it is always an awesome moment. it is wonderful to be in the white house with so much history, and with the obama as in the white house, the white house really the people's house and the type of courtesy and graciousness and the type of hospitality that is created for everyone. i have had constituents come to the white house and just become overwhelmed at how happy they are to be there because of the friendliness of the staff and

the administration and the president and the first lady and the family. these are not easy meetings. they are very serious and they are tough meetings because they are very engaging. the president is very smart. as we all know, he is a great leader. he is a president who listens, but he also knows where he is going and you want the input of members of congress and others. this meeting today is another one of those efforts, but it is always an inspirational moment to be there, to reflect the views of my constituents and to be able to communicate back to my constituents what the president is believing and what he sees and where he is going. host: if you would, give us a snapshot of the economic situation in the oakland and berkeley area. guest: it is not unlike in many communities throughout the country. my constituents, first of all, i

say are the most brilliant, most diverse, committed to the american dream i have seen throughout the country. so this struggling through the reception -- through the recession -- we have many people who have been unemployed for 99 weeks or more who are begging for an extension of their unemployment compensation. many 99ers. many nonprofits are barely surviving. i have a problem with these hold earmarked issues. we cannot direct funds into our organizations that have been providing services for many years, so they're struggling to figure out how to survive through this very severe downturn. we have a huge foreclosure crisis. many neighborhoods have abandoned homes, and our great mayor, the first chinese- american mayor in the country, a woman, is doing a phenomenal

job. we have one of the greenest communities -- the green corridor in oakland and berkeley. we have major academic institutions, universities, community colleges. we have the port of oakland creating many good paying jobs. what has happened is that unfortunately people without the proper education -- education is a big problem. equality of opportunity for educational -- for a good quality education, because of a variety of reasons, still has not moved forward with making tremendous -- we are making tremendous progress, though, in oakland and berkeley, in my district. some of the cuts, many people in my district, women and children, low-income women and children, it need the program that provides food and nutrition for

women and children. that is being cut. when you look at my district as it relates to national disasters -- to natural disasters -- we have earthquakes, floods, fires throughout california. to see the republicans cut disaster assistance, which might district -- which my district needs desperately. the firefighters in my district are wonderful, but now we are looking at huge cuts in firefighter budgets and emergency first responders. it is a district that is feeling the havoc that has been created by these severe and extreme budget cuts that no one in our country deserves. host: had you seen an increase in your 13 years here on capitol hill, or a decrease in partisanship? who would you say are some of your republican friends?

guest: i have seen in my 13 years here -- i think it has been up and down. i will give you an example. when i first came to congress in 1998, i followed a phenomenal statement, ron delham, who put the congress on record to begin to debate the defense budget and our national priorities. he told me how partisan it was getting. but he really knew how, as chairman of the armed services committee, had a very interesting way of working with republicans. he mentored me and taught me how to not get personal when you are in these debates and why you should always debate the issues and policies but never get into the personal battle. i have tried to follow in his footsteps in that sense. so when i came to congress, he had been working on this hiv and aids, for example. my legislation to establish the

president's emergency initiative on hiv and aids was a bipartisan effort. president bush signed into law and i work in a bipartisan way with many republicans supporting it. the rest is history. global funds. congressman jim leach -- i was on the banking committee and jim and i worked together to establish parameters for the global fund. we work on legislation for orphans and vulnerable children, and on many efforts for hiv and aids. all of the big issues. i have since been able to work with republicans in continuing with some of those efforts on hiv and aids. what has happened is with the tea party coming in now, 7280 some new members who came in with one purpose, -- 70 to 80 some new members who came in with one purpose, to dismantle government -- some of us have

dug in and said, no, government has irresponsibility to provide for the common good. we have the responsibility to provide equal opportunities for every american. some do not see that as a priority. they see only balancing the budget and the deficit, which i believe should be a priority for everyone. the question is, on whose back to you balance the budget on on on whose back to you cut? you are not going to cut medicare. there were zero others -- there'll be others who say we want to dismantle it. both issues have been very partisan. democrats want to preserve medicare and republicans want to cut it. host: last call for congresswoman barbara lee. caller: why is the congressman

ryan talking budget cuts when -- now he is a fiscal hoc. why is he leading budget talks? guest: he does chair the budget committee but when you look at the fact that president clinton was in office, the president left us with a budget surplus. these deficits were not created under president obama. they were created under a republican administration, under former president george bush. you had the iraq war and afghanistan and you have a huge bush tax cuts for the very wealthy. wall street was deregulated and you had the huge subsidies for the oil companies. that is primarily the way we got into this deficit mode.

to see a continuation of the bush policies and to realize and see how the republicans want to dig us further into debt and into those policies as we move forward, to try to reduce the deficit and create jobs does not make any sense that is a question that the public needs to ask the republicans. i think the public needs to be reminded that this deficit was not created by this administration. it was greeted by the last administration. to begin to reduce the deficit by doing the same thing that the bush administration did in terms of its economic policies is not right. it is morally wrong because it will hurt the most vulnerable. it is just downright fiscally wrong and totally incompetent, if you ask me. host: barbara lee is also an author. >guest: the paper back of my

book just came out in january. it is my memoir and autobiography. it is to the to write because i am a private person. you have to write about real things that happened in your life. i read about some of the challenges as a young single mother on welfare that i had to go through as a former victim of domestic violence and other issues and how those experiences as a young african-american mom helped me shape and frame my points of views in terms of my politics and policies and why i am so passionate about some of these issues. toknow what it is llike live like some young people have to live and some in a single moms have to live. that is living on the edge so i write about that. host: when the book first came out, book-tv, recovered you talking about your book. you can go to book-tv.org and

you can watch that presentation. thank you for being with us. coming up next, we'll introduce you to a freshman republican, nan hayworth from new york. we'll talk to you about this after this news update from cspan radio. >> more and house majority leader eric cantor's appearance today on cbs's the early show in remarks about the economy and job creation. he said that democrats and republicans want to forge some consensus on the debt limit and spending but you cannot wave a magic wand and washington and automatically bring back large- scale hiring in the country. mitt romney talks about hiring in the new hampshire when he announces his presidential campaign. he will deliver a serious speech for serious times talking about the number one issue facing the

nation and the reason he is getting into the race, jobs and the economy. you can hear him live at 12:30 p.m. eastern here on cspan radio. more on the 2012 elections -- people familiar with the presentation in chicago yesterday reports that president obama's supporters are being raised -- being asked to raise $60 million for the presidential reelection campaign and the democratic party by the end of june. president obama raised $750 million in 2008 and some estimates said that the 2012 reelection campaign could raise $1 billion. those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. >> now available, the cspan congressional director ray, a complete guide to the 112 congress. new and returning senate members with twitter addresses, district maps, and committee assignments and information on the white

house, supreme court justices, and governors. order online at c-span.org/shop. >> every weekend, it is american history tv on c-span 3. starting saturday morning, 48 hours of people and events telling the american story. what personal interviews about historic events on oral histories. we feature some of the best known history writers and revisit key figures, battles, and the bends during the 150th anniversary of the civil war. visit college classrooms across the country during lectures in history. go behind-the-scenes at museums and historic sites on american artifacts. the presidency looks at the policy and legacy of past american presidents. get our complete schedule at c- span.org/history and sign up to have a e-mailed to you. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we'll are pleased to welcome for the first time

representative nhan hayworth, she is from new york and serves on the financial services committee. >guest: i represent the hudson valley of new york. we start about one hour north of the york city and extend through the town of poughkeepsie and southern dutchess county and across the river and have most of our county and a little bit of rock and counted. it is a beautiful district, about 1500 square miles and it is diverse. we go through suburbs through exbrubs and farm country. we have a lot of talent in our district. we have many people work very hard. we have some corporate headquarters, part of pepsico and ibm which are among the biggest enterprises.

we have a lot of small businesses. we have farms. we have major hospitals. we have some colleges. it is an economy relative to the rest of the country statistically is doing somewhat better which is heartening but we are not doing as well as we could be or should be. host: you serve on the financial services committee. today, treasury secretary -- secretary of the treasury tim geithner is coming to the hill to talk about the debt ceiling. what are you open to hearing? guest: that he is sincere about working constructively with the house majority. on realistically tackling the long term challenges that we face as we consider this debt ceiling. we have to assure that we are

responsibly dealing with the debt we have accumulated. we also have to send a clear message to action that we are taking on fiscal responsibility and discipline for the future. if not, there will be no investor confidence in our country's bonds. and rightly so.ly do you host: do you believe it debt ceiling should be attached to slashing budgets? guest: absolutely. if not, we are saying that we cannot tackle the issue that that will surely come around yet again to harm our potential. when we devote ever increasing portions of the federal budget, it is now about 10% of the budget for debt service, when we

continue to add to the principle on that debt and we do not stop accumulating debt and paid down, it clearly shows the amount of productive work week and with precious tax dollars declines. after awhile, in fact it is starting to happen now -- confidence that we will be able to grow the economy and be a great destination for investment, for growth, for job creation is going to wane. there are many opportunities around the world. we very much need to get that under control. host: how would you describe the meeting that republicans had with president obama as yesterday? guest: our leadership and several members who spoke in behalf of the concerns that we all share were forthright, courteous but unequivocal about what we need to work on together

with the administration and with president obama. president obama listened respectfully. i think there was an exchange of views along the lines that one would expect given that we all are all endeavoring not to inflame tensions but to move along in a process involving problems. that is our emphasis. we were hired in november to solve problems that the united states clearly faces. host: our last guest, barbara lee, a democrat of congress, used that term -- said several times that the republicans want to dismantle medicare. we had a special election of the new york and the republicans lost a longtime republican seat. is medicare going to be an issue that hurts the republicans in

2012? guest: it will not hurt the republicans. if anything, that had lined really should be and this is what i have been sharing with the constituents in our district and a completely understood -- the affordable care act and medicare through the independent advisory board is to bar and -- is designed to fulfill reimbursements. that will reduce spending on medicare. unfortunately for our seniors, that will limit their access to care immediately. as a physician and ophthalmologist who practiced for 60 years and i cherish my patients. my medicare patients -- who practice for 16 years and i cherish my patients. my medicare patients tried to cover their costs.

if those reimbursements decline which will be inevitable under the independent payment advisory board, a lot of doctors will find regrettably that they cannot take on more medicare patients. 12% of doctors across the country say they can afford to see medicare patients. the affordable care act that was passed by the 111 congress and signed into law by president obama and medicare as we know it. the republicans said that we understand we have an obligation to our seniors and that we must honor this and do so and we will also put mechanisms in place that will assure that we can effectively administer medicare in the future. host: rep nan hayworth, a representative from new york and she is also a doctor hayworth, an ophthalmologist and a

physician. she graduated from cornell medical college, graduated at the top for class, undergraduate from princeton university, married to dr. scott hayworth with two kids and a freshman. who did you begin what was the percentage? guest: john hall and it was 53%- 47%. host: was a republican democratic seats? guest: my predecessor had served for six terms and john will serve for two terms. it has been a republican seat for most of the past century. i will say that the model has changed among republicans as well. we are more fiscally conservative in this freshman class than has been the case for previous generations of republicans, even this is because of the circumstances that we face in terms of deficit and desperate host: we will take

some calls, omaha, neb., you are first. caller: i wanted to comment on the economic impact that you guys were talking about with medicare and all the other things like unemployment. the republicans and democrats are going after each other and everybody needs to stick together and the need to start helping each other. this economy will come back. host: any response? guest: i agree with you. we need to work together and i will go further -- i know that all of our colleagues in the house of representatives, all 435 of us have the goal of

making sure that every american has the best opportunities and can live his or her best life and the most extraordinary and wonderful country in history. where we differ and where the challenges come in is where republicans, by and large, hold that we achieve that goal by having the federal government have a light hand and our economy and our lives. our colleagues on the other side of the aisle tend to feel that in fact the federal government should be doing more in the economy. the election of 2010 told us that americans across the country felt that they needed to have a federal government that weigh less heavily upon them, that regulated less, that tax less, that took less from them, that did not punish those who create jobs. this fall -- the small businesses create the majority

of jobs in this country and they feel a disproportionate weight of regulation. we were hired to reduce those burdens in the new house majority. that is what we are working to do. we really do care very much about making sure that everybody has the opportunity and jobs, 40 million americans need jobs. we have seen the economic indicators and they are not promising because the federal government has continued to threaten its public with more burdens and more taxes and more ways in which it will take money out of your pocket, working capital out of the sisson economy. that is what we are working to change. there is a reason to arguments to be made. it does not have to be contentious. host: next call comes from water

falls, new york. is that in your district? guest: that in our district. caller: is good to see you today. my question has to do with your meeting with secretary of the treasury tim geithner. you are quoted on political.com as saying that he has to make clear that major spending cuts are needed. have you and your republican colleagues seen any plans out of the white house. if so, do you have any faith in those plants? how do you think you can work together to achieve some debt relief? guest: we have not seen the specifics, as you know. the president presented a budget proposal that was resoundingly rejected by the senate. he received zero votes in the

senate which was remarkable. the paul ryan plan received 47 votes. that will tell you that even among democrats, the president's budget proposal at least in the senate was not viewed positively. he simply did not take on the real issue that we have which is that the federal government's is spending money it does not take in, 42 cents of every dollar. it is borrowed. it is barred from you and your children and your grandchildren. we need to see a proposal that actually a bold cuts federal spawned in now. we have proposed a prosperity budget that spending return to 2008 levels and that is a fair and equitable way to deal with discretionary spending. we have proposed changes in the

way medicaid is administered so that our state's become more responsible about waste, fraud, and abuse which is quite widespread in many states. we have proposed that we take on the issue of securing medicare for the future. even will all of those moves, we have made clear that the budget will only gradually come into balance in two thousand 37. that is roughly when the project the federal budget including debt service will come into balance. that is when we will not spend more than the federal government take sen. the idea is that when we accomplish the obligations of medicare and social security that we move forward in making sure that americans can rely on themselves and on their government in the entitlement program that they are accustomed

to for the future. we also need to grow the economy. we need to create jobs in the citizen economy, the private sector. host: next call is wallington, new jersey, independent line. caller: good morning. i have a question regarding spending that involves massive spending across this country that no one seems to be addressing. it involves the issue of illegal immigration. the superintendent of los angeles county in california did a study on what illegal emigration was costing his one county in one year. it was $600 million. . the center for immigration studies issued a report that stated that 71% of households with illegal aliens that have children are receiving welfare

as opposed to 52% of legal americans. host: what would you like to see the congress do about that issue? caller: i would like to see our immigration laws enforced in terms of pushing e-verify which the supreme court okayed in arizona. i would like to see meat -- more deportations. i think we need to look at this issue and what it is costing the taxpayer instead of going after medicare and social security which legal americans have paid into. guest: nobody is going after medicare and social security in the budget we passed in the house in april. we are endeavoring to ensure that medicare and social security carry out their obligations to those receiving the benefits and those who will receive them. i am right with you. it is very true that we have

significant lapses in the way in which we have addressed our immigration policy. as we go through your preparations policy, in the coming months, you will see a lot done on homeland security and border security. in fact come e-verify will be a part of the bills we are considering. we want to make sure that that is a logical and pretty easy to follow first step to ensure that we are identifying illegal immigration when people come up for a job opportunity. it is not as widely used as it could be so that needs to be better in force. the 287-g program will be another focus of our attention. we want to help our local police

departments when they can engage in identifying whether someone was in the country illegally has committed a crime. it would seem that that would be a fairly ready opportunity to address the presence of someone in this country who should not be here. you will see through the budget process and what we devote to border security we are very cognizant of the fact that that is an important issue. you will see action taken in this congress in the next few weeks. host: our guest is representative nan hayworth, the republican freshman from new york. i want to make two comments. ever since the republicans took over the house, this economy has slowed down dramatically. all you do is talking about cut

and you can only cut so much it will slow down on hiring. who will go out and start a new business when they were about the debt ceiling now being raised? the interest rate will shoot up and we will go into default. stop playing games of the american people. -- with the american people. i hope and i know what will happen in 2012. you will not be there in 2012 and the democrats will take back the house because you are destroying the middle class with all these cuts. the private-sector cannot go higher because people don't have money to spend guest: all the money that the federal government spends comes from the

pockets of working american and. that is just a fact. what we are doing in the majority in the house and it was a majority that was elected overwhelmingly in november of 2010, was send a clear message that the american people who elected us to do this job felt that the federal government was doing far too much and was taking too much from them. the so-called stimulus comes from the american people's pockets. then the federal government takes that money and sent it through a bureaucracy and while these are well meaning people, i have seen bureaucracies firsthand now in this job in washington. it is not efficient. they don't know how to run a business in your community. federal bureaucracy to a poor job. there was a recent news story about two weeks ago about housing and urban development

and how their programs have wasted at least $300 million in taxpayer dollars that come out of the pockets of working americans. $300 million was wasted on local housing programs that they did not know how to administer. they did not hire responsible contractors or contractors who knew what they're actually supposed to be doing. they did not use criteria that would realistically indicate what kind of jobs they were capable of doing. this is typical when you have a federal government from washington trying to do that kind of local work. that is why we want washington to stop doing that kind of thing. we want washington not to take dollars from you. we want you to keep those dollars and keep the working capital and let the small businesses drowning in regulation survive. i talk to small business people across our dress -- district and they told me they are drowning

and regulations. their insurance costs have risen with the affordable care act. the bureaucratic responsibilities have expanded. they cannot have access to capital the way they would like to because banks are not loaning the way they would like to because they are under the gun from regulators. a lot of this relates to what happened with the financial regulatory law. we have a big problem on our hands that we as legislators can solve by bringing washington under control. we are on your side. in 2012you will see that the republicans in congress will have its work repudiated. i mean people will find that we are doing all we can to fight a tide of rising regulation and spending. host: here is a tweet --

guest: raising taxes is not the way to stimulate the economy. of raising taxes suppresses activity. it is a way of penalizing hard work, if you will. it is true that the federal government can take in more revenue if the economy grows. when the economy grows, we have more americans who in fact can contribute to a reasonable tax obligation. we have certain responsibilities. we need to use tax revenues for state local government. if everyone can work and contribute and grow because they are able to appreciate the results of their hard work and appreciate the results of their success, that is the way to make sure we have adequate revenues.

that is assuming that we have a federal government that actually spent wisely. that is where budget restraint comes in. this is about making the federal government the right size. it is not about taking good things from the american people. it is about letting them have good things and letting them enjoy what they worked so hard for, letting them take responsibility in their lives in ways that will assure that all of us do better. that is really the goal. host: next call is from north salem, n.y., on a republican line. guest: that is in our district. caller: good morning. thank you for being on today. i am a member of team watch n.y.. we are a group of constituents that watch polls and communicate with our representative so we have a good working relationship. i noticed that tim geithner and

president barack obama said that if we don't raise the debt ceiling, the u.s. will default on its debt. there is a proposal, hr-421 proposed by congress and mcclintock that would prevent us from defaulting. in a meeting in new york, you said you were going to co- sponsor that bill. you just wanted to have your legislative people to a quick review of it. the other day, you were not listed as a co-sponsor. did you find any fault with that bill? host: what is the team watched new york? caller: it is a group of constituents or around the state of new york to watch and communicate with our representative said that they

are doing what they're supposed to be doing constitutionally. host: are you associated with the tea party? caller: no, we are not tea party. we have broken ourselves now two different congressional districts. we communicate with congresswoman hayworth, we watch her, and she needs help she can come to us -- host: all right, we got the point. do you now what? -- do you know howard? guest: i do know how word. i have met with the team watched many times. i love what they do. thank you for the reminder. you can imagine that we have a very full plate of legislation with what we are working on as

primary legislation emerging from our -- that is one of the examples of a why team watch is a helpful partner for me. thanks. we will make sure that gets in. host: here is somebody else from your district. "i live in your district. if you are worried about the debt, why not stop subsidies for ?uclear power was ag guest: i think i met her at eight town hall meeting we have in bedford. every aspect of our tax structure does need to be scrutinized, no question. we need a flatter, fairer, less

complicated tax system, absolutely. that means we have to look at the entire constellation of what we have cobbled together over the years to try to compensate for what are on a reasonable levels relative to the rest of the world has as a base tax rate, in terms of corporate taxes. there have lots of -- there are lots of the fingers put on the scales of a tax assistance to all the different constituencies. -- on the skills of our tax assistance to help a different constituencies. they need to be worked out so that everybody stays the same and is doing the right thing. i understand the genesis of the question in that way. with regard to nuclear power, i have met with the nrc, all of their monitors on site at indian point, the management of indian point, have toured the plant

twice now. most recently, of course, after the fukushima daiichi. i am satisfied that the plant is being run it responsibly, with the primary concern for safety, because it is a very useful source of power, a carbon-clean power, which is important in this environment. i do care about our carbon emissions. nuclear power is a great alternative in that way. but of course, it has to be pursued safely. i am satisfied as someone who also lives in the neighborhood of indian point that it is not placing us in any sort of imminent danger and as redundancy up on a redundancy built in, in response to what has been learned over the decades in which we have used a nuclear power. host: you have a very active constituency. i don't think we've ever gotten as many calls from a local -- guest: well, we do, and i enjoyed meeting with them.

we are on the road all the time in the district. host: colorado city, independent line, thanks for holding. caller: i had called wanting to talk about taxes, but it looked like you have some ideas for leveling out the tax. i am going to ask you -- i get concerned when i see both democrats and republicans -- i'm an independent -- wanting to continue to do the free trade thing and continue with wars in which we are getting nowhere and we are losing a lot of people and losing a lot of money. i wonder where you stand on those issues. guest: well, i agree with you that we need to think very, very carefully when we but precious lives -- we put precious lives

and hard-earned tax dollars at risk in engagements that do seem to, unfortunately, defy the possibility of a definitive and swift victory, if you will. libya is a particular example, and i have from the outset stated my position -- my opposition to participating in that engagement without a stated objective of eliminating muammar gaddafi as expeditiously as possible. that is not to -- the president and called us and action without initially consulting the congress, -- involved as an action without initially consulting the congress, as you know bridge we're 73 days past when we began at his involvement. i think what you will begin to see the house take action in

that regard very soon, within the next few days. i agree with you that afghanistan and iraq have to be scrutinized, and i have great faith in general petraeus as our leader in afghanistan, and i commend the president obama for putting in general petraeus -- in proposing that he succeed leon panetta at the helm of the cia, because one of the ways we effectively address our challenges for the future is by effectively managing information and doing those quiet things that involve not a drop of blood being shed gui m . i am eager to see how general petraeus manages that going forward b. host: mitt romney announces his presidential candidacy today, 12:30 p.m. on c-span2 from new hampshire. have you indicated your

preference for a republican candidate yet? guest: i haven't. i have been particularly depressed by several -- particularly impressed by several who have entered into the field of presidential contenders. i was sad to see governor daniels of indiana leave the field. i am particularly admiring of him and his achievements in indiana, particularly indiana, which is a model for how we can effectively manage our health care through health savings accounts. governor romney is clearly a very intelligent gentlemen of impressive achievement, and i wish him well. i think he will be a vigorous contender. i think governor pawlenty and gov. huntsman are also going to be very interesting people to listen to and watch in the months that we have until the convention next summer.

host: next call for our guest, nan hayworth, vermont, jeff, democrat. caller: 0, excuse me. so, congresswoman, we have been in libya for 73 days, eh? guest: roughly. maybe 72 or 74. caller: how long have we been in iraq? guest: 90 years, jeff. rs, jeff.y yeaers caller: how long have we been in afghanistan? guest: many years. caller: as a congresswoman, you make a good ophthalmologist. all you're doing is having the same bogus it supply-side a snake oil that your party always batpedals. you guys solving the problem of the economy -- i mean, let's

face it. you started the fire in the first place, and your solution is to douse it with jet fuel. host: all right, jeff, i think we got the point. , the resultsh of recent elections of the congress and the current administration tell the story. we were told that unemployment would not rise above 8% with the stimulus, and in fact, and unemployment continues stubbornly right around 9%. we have roughly 14 million americans looking for work, we have economic indicators that this week have declined, we have businesses of all sizes telling us that it is very difficult to grow and hire and invest in this country. we have competitors around the world, and other countries who are becoming better destinations and for working capital for investment.

singapore grew 14% last year brought our economy is growing at roughly 1.7% right now. jeff, we cannot afford to do great things we would like to do as a nation, as individual citizens, and as a great country, if we have a federal government that takes money from working people's pockets, from our middle-class and working citizens, and wastes 8. that is what we have now . we have to stop doing that. you could not do that in your home life and sustain your home and your family. this federal government has to do what every sensible american does. it has to come down the right size and allow you to hold on to more of what you worked so hard for. host: a few minutes left with our guest, a freshman rep nan hayworth, republican from

new york. caller: i think the biggest problem we have as far as republicans and democrats working together is that the democrats -- they are not being honest as far as the picture that they paid for the public, that medicare does not need to be cut. the only reason it is being cut is because of republicans, just me people who want to, i don't know -- they play the class warfare game with the republican party just does it out of meanness. they don't acknowledge that the current economy is unsustainable and a half to be reforms. the obama plan gutted medicare for $500 billion, but that is not the picture they paid for the public everything is fine, we just tax it a little bi --

tax the rich a little bit when they note that if we tax the rich 100%, it does not solve the problem. guest: i agree with you. increasing taxes never result in the increase in good economic activity. that has been shown time and time again, and president obama himself said in 2010 when he signed the extension of the 2001-2003 tax cuts that we cannot afford to raise taxes at that time. why is there a good time to raise taxes? the answer is never -- when it is there a good time to raise taxes? the answer is never brought we have to have a federal government that respects with t -- what americans have worked so hard for, that does what the constitution requires it to do. it is an effective form of government if the federal government can stick to its responsibility to provide a framework for our liberties and.

when the federal government steps in to micromanage businesses and micromanaged the way you handle your personal finances and your lives, that is what we get into trouble. medicare and social security, especially medicare, or unfortunately on an unsustainable course. for every medicare recipient that enters the system today, about 10,000 among the baby boomers, on average they will have contributed $110,000 in payroll taxes over their working lifetimes, and that is a substantial sum of money now in fact, medicare is going to spend roughly $30,000 on them or more, because medicare rates are artificially low. you are absolutely right that that is something that we cannot afford to continue in perpetuity. we are going to have to make important choices together. on the republican side, our budget says that consumers,

patients and doctors and americans themselves should make those choices, and that we should not assigned to a federal bureaucracy. host: eugene, oregon, martin, a democrat. caller: good morning. i will keep this quick what do you think of growing in the u.s. economy by encouraging large businesses by withdrawing from the world trade organization and free trade agreements? guest: i think free trade is a very smart thing to do, martin. i don't think we should build walls around ourselves. we can do what we do best as americans when we sell our services and goods and around the world. indeed, there are countries around the world that can do as good as consumers by selling when they create to us. free trade is a very good thing. it has to be fair. we have to deal with each other

honestly, and that is where some of the challenges are, no question. but we cannot afford to build walls of at ourselves. host: freshman rep nan hayworth, republican of new york, has been our guest. thank you. we hope you can come back to "washington journal" again. next up, we will be looking at the economic impact of some of the natural disasters this country has experienced, the tornadoes, the flooding especially, along the mississippi. news update from c-span radio first. >> your people apply for unemployment benefits last week -- fewer people applied for on a limit benefits last week the number dropped by 6000. the applications still remain at high levels. the pool of people who either have a job or are looking for one is getting smaller.

economists say it that is not usually what happens in an economic recovery. analysts are not sure what the labor force is shrinking, but some reason may be that people are retiring, entering college, going on disability, or giving up looking for work altogether. jake sharman of "politico" reports that house speaker john boehner for the first time says that he wants to raise the debt limit within 1 months time and not a the speaker is still calling for -- within 1 months time. the speaker is still calling for spending cuts, and says the biggest risk we face as a country is doing nothing. those are the latest headlines from c-span radio. >> the c-span network spirit we provide coverage of politics, -- the c-span networks. we provide coverage of politics, nonfiction books, and american history. find our content any time through the c-span video library. we take a c-span on the road with our digital bus and local

content vehicle, bringing our resources to your community. the c-span and networks, now available in more than 100 million homes. created by cable, provided as a public service. this weekend on the booktv on c- span2, live coverage from "the chicago tribune's" printers row lit fest. also from chicago, "in depth," with a live studio audience and your calls and questions for university of chicago law school professor eric posner. sign up for a schedule email. standard rates apply. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from moody's analytics headquarters is economist sohini chowdhury.

we want to talk about the economic impacts of the natural disasters this country has experienced the last couple of months, particularly the flooding in the mississippi river basin. sohini chowdhury, how large is the economy of the mississippi river basin? how would you describe the economic area? guest: so, mississippi is one of the poorest states. the mississippi per capita income is the lowest in the country. its gdp reaches around $90 billion, 0.7% of the national gdp. host: what about the mississippi river basin, where it has been flooding? guest: yeah, so, the states that affected have been at the south river basin, south of illinois, so there you have at tennessee

-- memphis is the only major city to have been affected. most of the other areas have been rural so far. mississippi, louisiana, of course. host: what would you -- for macro impact of the flooding that occurred there recently, how would you describe it? guest: so, the industries that have been -- the first thing is that the numbers are still trickling in, because the flood waters have not yet receded completely. the damages are still being computed. in terms of industries in acted first, it would be cropland -- industries impacted, first it would be cropland. and then because you have the river, the river is an important form of transportation.

farms in the midwest to down at the gulf port, where they are exported out of the u.s. traffic along the river, barge traffic, shipping, those industries have been affected at the hospitality industry, casinos along the river. host: have we seen an increase in commodity prices such as corn, etc., because of this massive flooding? guest: yes, there have been a supply effects, supply shortage, definitely, because crops have been damaged. in arkansas, for example, rice fields, and tennessee, and farms that it inundated with floodwaters. we believe that these effects would be temporary, because most of these farms are in short. although there have -- there will be to rate shocks and the terms of the farmers having to

-- temporary shops in terms of farmers having to replant crops, it will not be strong enough to push up commodity prices. host: sohini chowdhury, what about shipping on the mississippi, particularly when we get down to the new orleans port? how has that been affected economically because of the flooding? guest: so, that was every big -- a very big -- barge traffic has been affected. 6000 barges move up the mississippi river on any given day on average. more that half of grain exports are moved from u.s. farms and exported into grain elevators and go up into canada, asia, and europe. for a day at least, barge traffic was limited just because of these very high prince. people are fearing that -- these

very high currents. people offering that there will be additional pressure, -- people are fearing that there will be additional pressure, and that limited interruption did damage to the economy, but because it is limited interruptions, it is fine. but it has potential to do a lot of damage just on transportation along the river. host: sohini chowdhury is an economist at moody's who is joining us to talk about the economic impact of the natural disasters we have experienced. now, if you have been in one of these recent natural disasters, we would like to get your perspective as well. we are talking about the economic impact of these disasters.

sohini chowdhury, you have talked about the temporary effect of the natural disasters on the mississippi basin. how temporary? if you had to put a full price tag on how much of this is going to cost the u.s. economy, what would that be? guest: the price tag is difficult, but so,. estimates -- but so far, taboret estimates are just that the loss to the region will be some things in million region of $16 million. i would say that the effects would be temporary, so the economies of that area will be back on the normal track by the next quarter or so, the reason being that the national economy is recovering. for example, casinos have closed, have been closed for a month. they started reopening during

memorial day weekend. there is a significant amount of tax revenue losses if it these casinos are closed. but given -- like we have forecasted, these would be short-term effects, because casinos are reopening and national confidence is rising, so people will once again start flocking to these casinos. once the floodwaters completely to see, we believe the econom ies back on track very quickly. host: sohini chowdhury can you comment on the effect of a tornado such as the one that went through joplin, missouri? guest: the tornado that went through joplin, missouri, and mississippi itself -- people have estimated that losses from those tornadoes, including e insured and uninsured, would be something like 10 billion u.s.

dollars, but again, we believe that like the floods, they will be temporary. a couple of reasons. one important reason is that unlike may be 20 years back, people now have a much more -- a better system in place to take care of these floods and tornadoes. it is not like they are happening for the first time. that region is tornado-prone. there definitely will be short- term effects not one positive upside might be an increase in construction -- there will definitely be short-term effects. won a positive upside might be an increase in construction. homes have been destroyed. an increase in construction activity would really all and be an upside to the economy. host: redding, connecticut, jennifer, your first up.

caller: yes, these are natural disasters, but how much of these "natural disasters" are impacted by climate change? i don't hear anybody really speaking of climate change on a national level. i don't hear c-span talking about it, i don't hear the mainstream media talking about climate change now is out there, it is happening today, it has been going on for years, and we have to take care of concerns about climate change. i think there was a very interesting cover piece this week -- "weather panic," the cover story. we are hopelessly on prepared. -- unprepared. host: sohini chowdhury, is this something that you study? guest: yes. as an economist, i don't study the causes of these tornadoes, but this year we have seen a rare number of tornadoes are around the country but you had

tornadoes in western massachusetts. definitely this particular year, there is something going on. climate change is probably one of the reasons, global warming. but unfortunately, i really cannot talk any details about white the grenada's are happening -- cannot talk in detail about why the tornadoes are happening? host: how much cropland has been lost in the flooding? guest: in mississippi, about $200 million in loss and damage has been estimated -- host: that is an annual loss because it has grown every year? guest: no, no, no, this just the loss in flooding in so far. agriculture in mississippi is like a $2.2 billion industry. agriculture was an even more important part of the economy

because of caught in. that was the major cash crop from the 1830's to the second world war. now the economy is a lot more diversified. manufacturing is there, but most of the manufacturing industries, like food processing, data and on agriculture -- they depend on agriculture. it is to the tune up $500 million. host: columbus, georgia, independent line. caller: listening to the global warming question, the economical effect of global warming, how much does the cost for our president to fly from washington to circle over that area just to see what is done? what is the cost -- host: i don't think that is a cost that our guest, sohini chowdhury, can address.

we're talking about the economic impact of the natural disasters the u.s. has faced recently. atlanta, thomas, you are on the air. good morning. caller: we note that, just like in japan, they intentionally flooding the mississippi river and caused all the food to be ruined, and wanted to have a deep water port or the nafta i wait there, intentionally do it all, and that obama is going to come down and look like a savior and try to get reelected. go to wasobamaborninkenya.com and see his real birth certificate. host: sohini chowdhury, we have this tweet here.

are you familiar with this situation, and whether it is one that is related to the flooding? guest: could you repeat that question, peter? host: there is the toyota plant in mississippi that got big tax breaks and it will not open. are you familiar with this toyota plan and whether or not it is related to the flooding? guest: no, actually not. i mean, the tornadoes are related to the flooding, that is true, because this particular storm system, resulted in the tornadoes and rainfall and therefore, the flooding, they are all interlinked. regarding the tornado plant, i am not familiar with the. -- with that. host: next call for sohini chowdhury, john, fairfax, virginia. host: you canno really afford

i -- you cannot really predict tornadoes. you can predict floods, and thank god for that still wasn't floodplains. my suggestion is we need to prepare for the future, and part of that could be a new flood plains to dig out areas of the flood and use the third to create a area -- trhhe dirt to create areas to live on. this could be done anywhere there was potential flooding, create a reservoir to take the flooding when it occurs and pump the water to people who needed elsewhere. guest: i just got a few words about the spillways and the crop land, so if you could summarize the question of for me? host: you know what, it was

pretty complicated and pretty long. i am not sure i could do it justice. are you having trouble with your audio? guest: i can hear you fine. it is just that some of the callers -- host: go in and out. all right. for the past 20 minutes, our guest has been sohini chowdhury, an economist with moody's in west chester, pennsylvania. we have been talking about the economic impact of natural disasters. one of the things that the last of the wo -- the last vi ewer did talk about is that you cannot predict tornadoes. what is the cost to the eight insurance industry of all of this? guest: the cost has been pretty high, a pretty significant. after katrina, the insurance industry went bankrupt, totally bankrupt. that is definitely a big concern for the industry.

i cannot but i number to that, but it is definitely a very, very significant about. host: we appreciate your being on "washington journal" this morning. guest: thank you. host: about 25 minutes left until the house of representatives comes into session, 25 minutes left on "washington journal" this morning. but it was 25 years ago that the senate officially went on tv did that picture right there is from june 2, 1986. you can see former majority leader, the late senator robert byrd, at that c-span control panel, about to flip the switch, a symbolic that he is about to flip the switch on senate tv. sitting next to him with the dark here it was the president of c-span, and of course, on the far left is the grand poobah of

the c-span, brian lamb. it has been 25 years since the senate opened its proceedings to television not come here is day one from the senate 25 years ago -- opened its proceedings to television. here is a one from the senate 25 years ago. but >> the senate will come to order. host: that was, of course, the late strom thurmond, gaveling in the senate for the first time on television. joining as is don ritchie, the historian for the u.s. senate. was the impact of the senate going on tv? guest: significant impact as it gears up c-span know, the senate is a traditional institution and does not change easily take it

had debated bringing -- does not change easily. it had debated bringing television into its chambers for decades. they were afraid that it would make a significant change to the style and that tone and the atmosphere of the senate. eventually, they felt somewhat relieved that it did not change. host: mr. ritchie, how long did it take for the senate to convince itself to go on tv after the house had been on tv for years? guest: in 1979, when the house went on, that established the experiment that the senators watch, and they noted that a lot more people are watching the house proceedings and that house members were becoming more familiar to citizens in some cases than the senators, which was a switch.

as more house members were elected to the senate, there was more pressure for the leadership to adopt 8. howard baker tried very hard for 1981 to 1985, but he was constantly defeated. he could not get cloture on some of votes because a lot of the senators from both parties were strongly opposed. but eventually, as you mentioned, senator robert byrd and senator bob dole, the democratic and republican leaders, got together and realize that something needed to be done. but even then, date required a four-week trial period in may 1986 before they would go live on june 2. then they allowed themselves of vote six weeks later as to whether or not to keep c-span in or out, and they voted overwhelmingly to keep television. host: how important was the support of robert byrd?

guest: robert byrd was the foremost institution alist. he studied its history, its procedures, new rules inside out. he was the person who elected the other senators of what kind of behavior was required of a senator. he would not have allowed any significant change that he thought would have undermined the institution. i think his support was really critical. if he was skeptical, the senate would have been skeptical. once he decided it was necessary, the senate came around. even so, there were 20-some-odd senators who voted against putting television -- bringing television. host: those are not c-span cameras in there. we just happen to put it on the air. we would like to hear your

thoughts, whether it is important, effective, etc. you can also send a tweet -- twitter.com/cspanwj. do you think it was a good idea it put the senate on television? guest: i think it has succeeded much more people are aware of the senate. there are major debates that people watching. we know from constituent responses that people are watching these debates. citizens are better informed about what the congress is doing, the senate is doing. in large part of what senator has to do is build support

behind the idea is that he or she is promoting. they can do this by standing in the senate chamber and speaking to the other senators and the people in the galleries and the congressional record. but television has vastly expanded the audience nationally and internationally. host: don ritchie, u.s. senate historian, thank you for spending a few minutes with us to talk about 25 years of the senate television coverage. strom thurmond, former senator from south carolina, at a little bit to say on june 2, 1986 from the floor of the senate. here is the senator. >> the televising of the senate chamber proceedings represents a wise unwarranted policy -- wise and warranted policy. it recognizes the need of the citizens of our nation to know the business of our government. it will, i believe, lead to a

more informed citizenry and hopefully improve the quality of our representative democracy. the ability of the electorate to study representation provided by senators will be greatly enhanced. in the long run, the quality of senate debate and decision making will be improved, and the nation will be the better for it. host: mary and from chicago, good morning. what do you think about the senate on tv, congress being televised? caller: i love it, but it should be on regular tv, because a lot of people are not informed. they get their information from fox news or somebody else and it is not correct. host: what you mean, regular television? caller: it is not on cable. a lot of people think they are informed because they and listen to fox news. host: how often did you watch

senate or house proceedings? caller: all day long. i watch this and i watch cartoons. usually i do it on the computer. host: next call is from michael in palm coast, florida. caller: so we got a baby sitter telling us that fox news ain't right. whatever. c-span is a wonderful thing, and i thank you every day for it, and commerce being televised is excellent. an excellent -- congress being televised is excellent. an excellent combination. the problem is that congres president gets covered. when you work withi a nigger -- host: oh, jesus. don't bother.

can ruin somebody's day -- you saw some familiar faces there, such as bob dole. senator chuck grassley was sitting in the sea, republican from iowa. there are still 14 senators -- who are still in the senate today. hatch, inouye, lugar, mcconn ell, rockefeller, among the 14 senators who were there 25 years ago when the senate began televising its proceedings. by the way, there were two women in the senate at that time, and are now 17. colorado, democrat. caller: thank you for c-span.

i've learned so much from watching c-span. thank you, mr. ritchie, what you are doing. you have one of all things on your show. -- wonderful things on your show. i wish that c-span could educate as a little bit more of about how the senate and house works, they do things that i do not understand, but i've learned so much, and thank you so much, because we need you very bad the. -- very badly. host: ned, what you think about congress on tv? caller: i enjoy it. it is so informative. i believe more people need to watch it. i don't think there is enough people in this country who know how things work. host: how often do you watch it? caller: i watch "washington journal" every day, booktv, you're the program, every

weekend, all weekend long. i just wish we got the history section, c-span3, here. host: all right. you don't get c-span3 in washington, indiana? .aller: no, we don't t host: do you know why? have you talked to provider? caller: they are getting ready to change, and i intend to write and ask about that. i would like to have all three channels. that would be really nice. host: we will put the numbers back on the screen if you want to comment about 25 years of senate on television. june 2, 1986, was one of the senate -- was when the senate broadcast its proceedings.

the often exciting to order to powers a year of a quorum -- 202 hours a year of quorum calls. kathy. caller: i enjoy watching this and i find it very informative. i love to take part in it. i watch it as much as i possibly can, because it is so important to know what is going on -- host: all right, thanks for calling in. a reminder, turn down your volume before you go on the air. st. louis. hi, donna. caller: i enjoy watching c-span, and i trust the info i get because i am getting it from the horse's mouth. my cable company kept c-span1, it was on the house, but it

left the senate channeled it 91, 97, i don't think most people know where it is any more. if you could do something with my local cable company, that would be nice. host: what channel is c-span2 on? caller: the move it to 997 -- i accidently found it myself. i get the basic cable from 1 to 100, and they moved c-span2 way up to 997, and i doubt that eianybody sees it anymore, and that is the senate and on the one i'd like to watch the most. host: that is booktv, too. caller: i don't know why they moved it so far down the numbers. host: to you think there's a downside to having the senate on tv? caller: absolutely not.

i watched the senate the most. host: the first senator to speak in 1986 was also the first representative to speak when the house opened its proceedings in 1979, representative al gore, june 2, 1986, senator al gore. >> today marks the first time when our legislative branch in its entirety will get up here on the medium of communication through which most americans get their information about what our government and country does. the marriage of television and free debate in the senate will be a benefit to american citizens. it will bring changes to this institution, but whatever changes are due to the feeling that millions of americans are paying attention to what goes on on the floor of the senate will, in the final analysis, be good and positive changes.

host: next call in 25 years of senate television coverage, congressional coverage, atlantic beach, florida. caller: good morning, how are you? i want to say that personally, c-span is one of the greatest shows that has ever been invented. informs the populace, and that is what this country needs more of. like one of the previous callers, i am limited, because i only have the basic cable. they only have c-span, the main one. maybe you guys might want to rotate it every now and then, because they're a lot of guys who cannot afford the upgraded package and i am one of them proud i also hope you might have more senators on the -- i am one of them. i also hope you might have more senators on the air. you have a lot of congressmen, and i like that. as far as that man who made that

comment earlier, you should not take offense to it. people are people and you cannot take care of everybody. host: what you do? caller: i work for the local utility company. my day off, and plant it in front of the tv. but i have kids i have to take care of, and i am on a tight budget, so we basically have basic cable. hopefully in the future you might be able to switch over to the senate every now and then just to give us cspan jockeys what we need. -- junkies what we need. host: just a reminder, those are not c-span's cameras in the senate. good morning. caller: i have a suggestion.

some of the things we see on c- span, especially in the house, because i also do not get the senate channel, are rather complex, deep political terms. how do we get a crawler across the bottom of the screen that explains some of these things? i have no idea what "cloture" means. host: that is a great question. our programming operations department, run by people who are on this program from time to time -- i think they have adding a lot of those, especially during house proceedings, or during the senate proceedings -- "cloture" or "point of order is." they add a lot of definitions to the graphics, which is helpful to all of us. great,. organ, you want -- oregon, you

are on. caller: i love "washington journal." i am an early riser, retiree. i watched the senate meetings. i have a journal's on every vote, every amendment, every bill. i totally miss robert byrd, ted kennedy. i will say, i have a question as to when the dow are important amendments or an amendment to -- when there are important amendments or an amendment to an amendment to bill, why the senators don't have to be in there and listen to this. there are great points on actually both sites. i am a democrat, but i look at both sides. but they are preaching to the choir, and i feel like it is kind of planned. they come in, they vote, they

leave, and you need to be an attorney to understand all the clotures and the process you go through. but it is an incredible opportunity for american citizens, or even if you are not an american, to be able to have this opportunity to see what is going on before your eyes and to watch the speakers and to watch what they say and see what they say later. i just wish they all had to attend their votes instead of a vote and leave. i am truly appreciate it to have this opportunity. host: 10 we go back to your comment about keeping journals -- can we go back to your comment about keeping journals on every vote and bill? caller: yes, four years. host: do you transcribe what is going on?

caller: the votes, how they voted, the senators' names. i have a new representative, so i have been watching the house more than the senate, because of the change with the tea party people and getting acquainted with who they are. when i see some of this stuff -- i am not a fox news person, but i did used to watch fox news, but i am msnbc pretty much exclusively because i feel that they bring out what i have in my journal, not just some bogus statements or misquote of a percentage. i can go back and i'd look up and i think, this is not how they voted, this is not what they said, and i have their votes at how they voted at how many times they voted.

you know, i am not well, so it is something that has kept me going. at times it probably -- i am 76. i get very upset at some of the ways things go on, especially like last summer, the no votes. it is a lot of interesting things you learn about just how everything is played out when you watch it as closely as i do. it is just a great opportunity. so many countries cannot do this. they cannot even voice -- but i love the fact we can do this. host: all right, barbara, thank you for calling in and sharing your insights and some of your hobbies. we appreciate and that.

i would just simply say that all the posts -- the hosts on "washington journal" have other jobs. this is a parked thing we do on c-span -- part thing we do on c- span. gary, what you think? caller: i think it is beautiful. it is great. we get to see what is actually happening with our country. i do agree with the woman that says i wished there was more clarity as far as some things we simply don't understand. host: ok. caller: secondly, 25 years as many, many congressmen in there, and senators. why don't they make a term limit?

the president has won, they should -- has one, they should. they are not paying into social security, they are not doing this, not doing that. you want to talk about debt, you know -- host: all right, thanks for your comments. debbie in raleigh, north carolina. caller: it is difficult to be more effusive than some of the other callers, but i appreciate having access to the senate as well as other channels on c- span. i don't have cable tv at all. i get all of my c-span coverage across the internet. i stream it from the website. host: do you ever have problems with that? caller: no, i have excellent connection.

it is probably behind the televised coverage by a few seconds, but i think that is a tolerable delay, especially given one of your earlier callers. a little more delay would have been good for him. host: do you think there is any down side to having cameras in congress? caller: well, my i understanding is that the senate in particular -- i don't necessarily agree with the previous caller about term limits for senators, because we are a really large country. it helps to have experts in governance as much as anything else. especially for the senate, where my understanding is that most of what gets done and there is through relationships, and none

of that we will be able to see on tv. but we can watch the result of it, and that is when there are votes or committee hearings, and we get to see how they interact. this is an invaluable resource. is for me personally, because news coverage has dissolved into entertainment and opinion. host: all right, we are going to have to leave it there, debbie. and as is often the case, the twitter followers take a topic and make it their own and is a different topic and then what we were talking about, but it is interesting to see what they are talking about. a lot of them have suggested that "washington journal" put a twitter crawl. twitter crawl.