future of the progressive movement. 30, a look at the future of the tea party. host: the next phase of the budget talks has begun. senate budget conference committee is due to meet. hear fromwe want to you on your budget priorities, what would you like to see this conference committee achieve? if you like to see budget cuts, entitlement reforms, more spending, and of sequester? you can see the numbers there on the screen.

you can also contact us via social media. you can vote on a pole on poll onc-span -- a facebook.com/c-span. here's the front page of "the new york times closed quote this morning -- -- of "the new york times" this morning --

-- ofg us on the phone is

cq roll call. what happened yesterday? what happened was they had breakfast along with the ranking members of the house and senate budget committees and basically just had in informal discussion. then they had a short meeting really pattys murray and -- patty murray said they were hopeful that they can reach some kind of agreement but they did not get into any specifics. did any other committee members meet besides the four of them? guest: no it wasn't the four of them. oft: looking at the budget the new conference committee, 12 democratic senators, nine republican senators, for republican house members, three

democratic house members, it seems awfully waited on the side of the senate. is that correct? it is andt is the way it seems kind of strange. the conference committee ultimately, a majority of senators and am majority of representatives would have to agree on any kind of solution. it is waited in that sense. the senate budget committee is much smaller than the house budget committee. wholennot appoint the house budget committee to the conference. think there are 22 senators on the conference. , even thoughical there are far fewer representatives. washington has seen this type of committee before,

looking at grand bargain's. what is the optimism level? as you said earlier, everybody is pretty skeptical even though patty and paul ryan put an optimistic face on it. the sequester is of concern to both republicans and democrats. i think that will probably be the initial focus of this conference committee, to see if they can come up with some kind of partial replacement for the sequester for the defense spending cuts and domestic spending cuts. i also might be able to reach an agreement on a spending level that is different than just continuing with the current discretionary spending level. what happens if no agreement is reached by this

committee by september -- id sambar? -- by the sambar? -- by december? they still have a month to try to come up with some kind of agreement. krawzak.t is paul a little bit more from the new york times --

what are your priorities when it comes to this budget agreement? he is a republican -- steve is a republican in new jersey. i had a question about the content of the national that -- national debt. i was wondering if the producers could bring on the gal or the gao or theasury --

cbo or treasury. which parts aren't funded and unpaid for, and why? i was wondering maybe you could do a segment on that. host: this is olivia in birmingham, alabama. caller: i trust patty murray. i am a little skeptical of paul ryan. ofo not want to be skeptical him because we need to do something about the debt. we need to do something about social security and medicare. i am a senior, i am receiving my benefits. i am thinking long-term. my nieces, my nephews, and a lot of young people in america --

i don't want him to listen to the tea party wing of his party. he really needs to get in there and he needsrray to really really be on the same page. we are sick and tired of this. we need to do something about the debt. i am a democratic person. we need to do something about the debt. we need to do something about social security and medicare. we don't want them going in there with a meat cleaver. we want real substantial talks going on. in america and tired of what is going on with the tea party. you wait on just a minute on the line? i want you to get a republican

on the line and respond to what jim has to say. i did not expect be part of a party line. i am pretty much done with the republicans after this weekend. i think speaker boehner should be forced to resign because he let the bill go out with -- let the bill go through without a majority of republican support. in delaware things are getting worse and worse. taxpaying citizens are now living in the cars because there is no economic -- there is no economic opportunity. we have throwing money away on the fiscal plan. we have lost most of our major industry. rises of electricity keeps going up, wages are going down, taxes are going up, i am working about half of what i used to. the government keeps spending money on these crony capitalism -- they keep making the dollar go less by less.

i think washington has turned into the emerald city, everything goes in and nothing comes back to the people. we don't need the federal government. you go to washington and it is like going to the garden of eden where every business is open. up in delaware half the businesses are closed. there is no opportunity for young men in that town. has acted beyond the constitution. all bills should start in the house, the house should have the purse strings. that is why i represent and work with the people right now. i cannot take it anymore. you thinkia what did about what jim from delaware had to say? caller: we live in the greatest

country in the world. i would not want to live anywhere else but america. be dissuaded ever away from america. you can do anything in america. i am an african american woman. we did not have rights years ago. we were enslaved. i don't look back on negative things. do not ever lose sight of america. this is the greatest country in the world. we can do anything we want. people are not moving forward because some people do not think to move forward. you have to want it in your heart. you can do anything in this country. don't speak -- don't be dissuaded like this. party isty -- the tea coming around with these negative ideas. they are stopping things from going forward.

this is america, don't ever let anyone speak down america. host: jim what is your response? we have created a whole new class of slaves in this country with obamacare, we have created a class of dependency. people have to keep voting for the check as opposed to supporting themselves c. people will be taxed to death were you cannot keep any of your money. there are so many regulations you have to jump through to start a business. this whole shutdown was designed to inflict pain. i have never seen a president who has gone out of his way convenience so many people -- out of his way to inconvenience so many people.

i think the tea party is a breath of fresh air because they want to turn things around, they want to get america back to a small federal government where the people prosperity, not just the bureaucrats and government workers. it's like the government against the people. there are no democrats or republicans. it is the government against the people. she probably does not say that because she is getting a check from the government. i am paying the government and not getting anything back for it. it is just insane that people do not see it. very muchk you both for participating in a conversation here on "washington journal." in "the huffington post" this morning --

"any large-scale debt reduction deal must include increased revenue in exchange for charges to mandatory spending programs. the government funding and debt limit bill signed wednesday night set a december 13 deadline for budget negotiations to report back to congress. if no deal is struck, congress will have until january 15 to approve continued government funding or face a nether shutdown. harry reid's hard-line -- which were offered just hours after wednesday night's eel was signed into law -- reflect an increased sense among democrats that after a big shutdown victory, they are

a strong political -- they are in a strong political position heading into the next crucial month of debt reduction. the worst of it will be seen in the coming years. that gives democrats more leverage to say no to lopsided offers. ." "i get an extra billion dollars this year as compared to last year. defense loses $23 billion. i think there should be some people among the republicans in the house and senate who should say we should -- who say we should take a look at that." dawn is in kansas, good morning. comment on the wages of our representatives and senate members. i understand their yearly wage is $174,000 per year.

if they take a 50% cut across the board, it will still be overpaid. the taxpayers should tend to the people's business. it is pretty good when they can pass the bills and give themselves raises and everything like that. there is a lot of money that can go to help the debt and get this thing back on track if they would consider cut in -- cutting their salaries. numbers onan see the the screen if you want to dial in and participate. we are going to listen to albert on the republican line in rhode island. i was impressed when you had those two people had a conversation with each other. i will to you what is bothering me. was passed primarily for the minority population. that was fine.

last 40 years since johnson's war on poverty, 78% of the population were married and having children. they you have 78% of women having kids out of wedlock. this is a statistic. prisons,ation in our 74% are black, 23% spanish, two percent white. we are spending more money -- the money is causing -- costing taxpayers for population. the democrats have urged the minority population. have hurt the minority population. white, black,are spanish, asian, everybody who pays their taxes. those are the people who carry the country. there are too few of them. host: john is in atlanta,

democrat. caller: good morning. i just hope that when they go to the talks regarding the budget for this country that they approach everything -- everything needs balance. in life. you have to have a balance, you cannot have everything all lopsided. what is balance to? -- balance to you? balance, you know, in investment. we all have a piece of the rock. this country belongs to us. in order toay taxes

keep up the infrastructure. in other words, everything should have a balance to it. i believe if we have a balance i think that everybody in this country will benefit. [indiscernible] you for your call. patty murray spoke to reporters after having breakfast with paul ryan. [video clip] as we a good conversation begin the challenge that has been handed to us in the coming short weeks. we believe there is common ground in showing the american people that we can work at congress and make sure our economy is growing and make sure people are back to work and we can do the job we were sent here to to. -- to do. morning politico this

--

that was the opening in politico. linda in illinois. caller: good morning. i have several comments. government and waste, i am aware there is a lot of waste in government. have forged for several government agencies. nobody seems to talk about this.

they are not focusing on the young people. these young people that have to work and pay taxes and support social security. seems like they're focusing on the older population. these people are not going to run the country, the young people are going to. they need to focus on insisting them -- on assisting them with employment. in washington i am looking at all of these old people, you need to change that. i agree with several of the callers. the middle-class was protesting because they are the ones that are going to pay these taxes. the poor are not going to pay anything. it is the middle class that suffers. there is an author that has written three books that has

been going on -- three books on what has been going on. we have second way politicians in a third way society. people need to stand up and demand a change. we have immigration on the books now. do withwant to immigration while we have possible food shortages, overcrowding -- but if you want to get this thing more mixed up -- we do need to reach out the tosser. regarding david rogers politico piece -- next call is on our republican line. caller: inky for taking my call.

-- thank you for taking my call. a shout out to jim from delaware. people are now aware of the fact that harry reid has been stop and goals from coming to the floor. -- has been stopping bills from coming to the floor. the house has come up with many bills, many negotiations, many senateises, and the refuses to pass anything or see anything on the floor. that is what we are going to expect for the new -- for the next four years. thank you for taking my call. to -- in's listen

springfield, ohio. what is your opinion? caller: good morning. guilty,they all look all houses. obamacare,king about let obamacare go through. we just have to stop fighting. please stop fighting the president. that's all i have to say. arethese other people that coming in and running america in we got only 17 stores. let obamacare

through, what do you think of that? caller: i read the senate version. it is going to destroy our economy. it is already defecting jobs. barack obama decided to change the definition of full-time employee from 35 hours per week to 30. onple are getting cut to 20 -- 229 hours and below. with the house care bill you are going to see increases in of the insurance because fact the mandate in the health care bill are planned for more free services. private insurance goes up. that is why you are seeing insurance for the pool -- insurance cost $30,000 per family.

it is a $30,000 policy. it is a bad bill and we are going to find that out. people are going to be hurt and destroyed over this one bill. i just hope to god that something comes out of this committee. what is your response? caller: we have been in part time we went to part-time 30 years ago. when the ceos start taking all , people are now making only eight dollars an hour and you want to know why there are food stamps, they are not making it -- they're not making money.

everything is going up but paycheck. host: thank you for your time this morning on "washington journal." paul tweets -- our last two callers focused on the health care issue. jim demint had an op-ed this morning in "the wall street journal" --

this is chuck in virginia.

good morning. i have a postscript to his diatribe. i would say nonsense. the whole obamacare issue is front and center. that is all they talked about. as soon as they got in office they would repeal obamacare. get over it. the republicans lost. the majority rule.

if obamacare is the train wreck they say it is then let it to wreck. if it does in fact fail it will open up the door for the republican party to come back into power. just let it happen if it is going to wreck. we are running around all over the world acting as the world's policemen, spending money we do not have. we have two wars. we have all of these resources being squandered. what we need to do is do what the president committed to doing when he ran the first time, provide tax cuts to companies to

bring jobs overseas -- bring jobs back from overseas. bridges are falling down. that is my spiel. caller: here's politico --

john is a republican in florida. good morning. caller: it is like americans are supporting 7 billion people around the world. we are giving china and russia aid. we can cut that a lot. this alien amnesty act there is going to be another 40 or 50 million people here. this is a terrible thing, like the obama health care act.

the democrats were saying that the republican shut the country down. obama put 23 million people out of business. i don't know how they should always businesses down in 14 days. you know they're lying when they open their mouth. [indiscernible] host: from wisconsin. what you see is one of the priorities he e caller: -- as one of the priorities? of the priorities is not taking care of our seniors. news tells us now that social security is in entitlement. they don't explain what an

entitlement is. worked for myself general motors for 31 years. i paid in for social security every one of those years. as i got older and learn more about how our government works. works,our government somehow the right must have voted a law and they stole money out of social security funds. sinnott they are saying we are underfunded. so now they are saying we are underfunded. in gm, their pension fund in billion 2008 was $18.8 overfunded. retirees are having to pay insurance when they did not have to pay insurance. theyey are getting older

are relying more on social security and pension. the government has taken social the question i have is where is that social security now? what to our sensitive student pay into social security -- our representatives due to pay into social security? michael tweets in -- front page of "the washington times" --

insight is a chart of some republicans who are facing primaries because -- inside is a chart of some republicans were facing primaries.

those are some of the republicans facing primaries. here is an analysis piece --

he goes on to talk about the party's future --

william in virginia, thank you for holding. what people don't understand, all of the people in congress should be losing money. they have nothing but money.

the people that are really suffering are the people that do not have money. they put god in all of this. they have all the money. dollar outtake one of all their money to help other people. do they do it now -- do they do it e -- do it? no, they get richer and richer. it all comes down -- [indiscernible] put god back into the hearts of every human being. this is tony, a republican

in texas. i just want to say there is no god here. this has nothing to do with god. our government is all corrupt. how can you see the american has to abide by this experience but the government does not -- everyone is out for their own agenda. it is not fair. country is being taken apart piece by piece by the rich and powerful. and the american people are being turned into slaves. by one. color, one i don't know why anyone does not see and understand that. this is all it big show. what do you think they hoped to

put the tv people for? i see fit -- i see through the gray. we are just being malarkey doubt of here. thank you. host: butch is in kingston, ohio. caller: i think we should cut from the top, workout way down to the bottom, and not stop from the bottom and work your way to the middle. all need to marched washington d.c. and protest and take to the streets. that is my comment. we have two guests coming up on the washington journal and that we are going to return to this topic. we will have more chances to hear other voices and have you voice your opinion. coming up next is adam green of the progressive change campaign committee.

freedomworks will be after him. "americannd on history tv" and "booktv", we visit erie, pennsylvania. here's the mayor of that city talking about what it faces now and some of the history regarding 1812. >> we have a lot of the same profile of the midwest industrial cities. we had to change our identity as heavy manufacturing moved out. because we sit where we do on -- onuri, -- on lake yuri have been able to expand in tourism. over the last two decades we have began to change what our identity is.

we hold onto some of the older -- we hold himnd to -- we hold onto a lot of the old manufacturing. he started to capitalize on our waterfront and those types of resources and the economy that is associated with that. unique because we capitalize on two fronts. yuri is very rich in history -- either he is very rich in -- erie is very rich in history. there is a lot of pride in that. there's a lot of history. we just came off of the 200th anniversary of that battle. year for usderful

and the city. i think that heritage really affected all of us. we were part of changing the world. had that battle gone differently the world would've been a much better place. i think it is a great sense of pride for all residents. "washington journal" continues. we are joined by adam green. what is the progressive change campaign committee e -- campaign committee e -- campaign committee? we work with those in power after helping to elect him by helping them government as a grassroots movement.

dads, veterans, teachers, doctors, every congressional district. by aligning our members there with people in congress, we can really move progressive ideas forward. our main focuses economic populists issues and democracy issues. given what is happening here in washington over the last couple of weeks and the deal that was struck, do you feel good about what had happened yet go -- about what had happened yet go -- happened? guest: people were commenting on the same events -- and the way we were talking about the events was different from what the democratic committee parties are saying. their basic message is "democrats are awesome." for four and a half years we have been urging democrats to fight. finally they took our fight and -- they wente have

around. a muchwho would have better chance at life by getting head start on education, they do not have it because of those budget cuts. we won an important battle in the war but we are fighting a larger war. our organization is trying to think the on obama and think about questions like how can we expand social security benefits, not tread water? how can we do more with elizabeth warren to hold washington more accountable? is not considered a victory when nothing bad happens. you have senator murray leading democrats, paul ryan leading the republicans. on the senate side, you have senator murray and senator bob one from with -- from wisconsin -- senator baldwin from

wisconsin, bernie sanders is on that committee as well. do you feel good about the makeup of this committee to carry your water? guest: i think there are some great people on that committee. i do have a couple of concerns. who is atr, somebody the university of virginia law school, he was one of the most grant -- he is one of the most outspoken people for grand bargain's. this is overwhelmingly unpopular. ,ven in kentucky and texas ending social security benefit is popular by two to one. he is representative of more of the corporate role -- corporate world. guy.yden, great he cut a weird deal a couple of years ago with paul ryan that

would result in cutting medicare benefits. we cannot have that. we are going to make sure the folks in oregon say to him to not cut a bad deal. you won, you don't need to pretend like it is the revelation of 2010. go on offense, don't play defense. if sequestration continues, is that a loss for the progressives? guest: it is a net loss. programs like head start and things that would help seniors and people that are working class people right around the poverty line, programs for them get cut. budget cuts really matter. economists say that in this type of economy we need more government spending, not austerity. a bigger loss would be systemic change to social -- to social

security and medicare. what level of involvement would you like to see with president obama? and you trust him? you learn the right lessons from this fight, which is i did not cut a bad compromise and i won, then i would like him to be very involved and forth republicans to cave -- and force republicans to cave. people in the white house have it in their mind that there is something sacred about copper mines for its own sake, whether it is a good or bad compromise. somehow the american people just want compromise. that is completely not true. it was not true in the shutdown or the government reopen. they want the government reopened.

they don't want democrats to cave on that issue. they won't set -- they want to say thank you for compromising. we are going to be looking at our progressive heroes. what we have seen with elizabeth warren -- -- : jim has tweeted in guest: it is not a bad thing. that is why there is a great bedfellows coalition.

i think millions of americans e- mails and phone calls should be -- many people on the right agree. when it comes to being pro- choice, make sure that government is not involved in people's lives. kidng to someone who is a who might not be able to get an education, hey there is a program called headstart did you have a better chance of contribute back to our economy later in life. that is not a government intrusion, that is an investment in our future. move -- adameen green worked with movedon.org four years. he serves as press secretary for the democratic national committee in oregon. if he has an undergrad degree from george washington university in washington at law degree from the university of virginia. our first call comes from lancaster, south carolina, an

independent. i am a veteran. i need to give this out. americared of black calling in to say they want obama to do this or do that. obama met with the black caucus. unemployment is [indiscernible] the immigration bill is going to kill the black community. the affordable health care bill, it is not affordable. it is $285 per month. in south carolina they did not even take some of the money. you cannot even get medicare. you still out in the cold.

the president gets a lot of credit. [indiscernible] our tax base is gone. got a lot there on the table. anything you would like to respond to? guest: let me get to your core issue, the struggling of everyday people in our economy. i don't think it is one race, i think it is everybody. i think a lot of people in the tea party have a lot of the same greece is -- the same grievances you do in terms of the high cost of health insurance companies charging people for health care. the vast majority of americans are saying to the president, theck up for little guy. it would be better for our

economy. host: bill king tweets in -- guest: are you saying you are a bold progressive? you are not alone. this is a valuable opportunity to say what we look for in a candidate. we look for somebody who will go on offense, not just tread water. we don't want a checklist liberal. we want someone who will be strategic. somebody who will be an organizer and congress. elizabeth warren is the best case study here. we ran the draft elizabeth

warren for congress campaign. we brought in $1.17 million to her campaign. when you look at what she has put in washington, she has wall street reform back on the table. she grilled wall street executives and held them accountable. conversation on student loans. that shows that it is possible. to answer your question of when -- the answer is now. this will not be a one-year return on investment. it is a multiyear strategy. we think of it as a 20 year strategy. if you're like-minded, i invite you to join us. host: carl on the republican

line. i have a question. i'm 76 years old. i live in the detroit area. has been run by democrats and progressives for 50 years. i have done a lot of reading on progressives and where they came from. the readings i have done say they started back in the wilson partyd it was a communist that changed our name to the progressive party is that true or not -- party. is that true or not? guest: there was a progressive movement over 100 years ago. i know my strengths and my weaknesses. my cofounder is a labor historian. if you want to labor us -- e- mail us, i would be happy to

talk about progressive history. a tweet -- i get asked this a lot. the difference between a liberal and a progressive. there are people in congress who are called checklist liberals. in front of brought them, they will vote the right way. that is different from being an old progressive. -- bold progressive. that is being first out of the gate instead of 50th out of the gate. i am somewhat be mused when we talk to people who have been in congress and they say on certain , i have done this for 30 years. ifsay, where is this issue

you have been fighting for it for 30 years? elizabeth warren is already making bold steps. we are making progress every year. simply dropping a bill in the hopper, the same bill, every year for 20 years, does not count as leadership in our mind. the modern progressive leadership is focused on economic populist issues. the corporate takeover of both parties is the take -- issue of our day. choice by itself is -- aeing able progressive bold progressive. host: joe tweets in --

guest: let me address the 20 year question. we want a government that represents the will of the people. i urine for a time where we have two political parties -- you're time when we a have two political parties. that can come to a reasonable solution to move goals forward. we have both political parties skewed by corporate donors. we have occasional victories on gay marriage. it is very rare that we have victories over big corporations. when we do our polling in texas and kentucky and we find that

they want social security expanded -- in some cases by 10 to one -- they want wall street reform, if we find that in texas and kentucky, something is wrong with our democracy when nobody is advocating for those issues. the will of the people is not being heard. if both parties are accountable if we havele -- campaign finance reform -- we will be living in that world. host: anthony on our democrats line. new jersey. caller: thank you for taking my call. it is refreshing to know that one station in the country actually has a neutral point. two comments. as a democrat, i see the for thean party and

next decade i can see them winning a national election. if this happens, i think in 10 years they will splinter off and what will happen is i believe that if the democrats do not have the majority, we will no better than a european democracy having elections every year. secondly, i believe speaker boehner is a decent human being. i also think he should read the biography of lyndon johnson to find out how to be a truly effective speaker. he is the head of the republican party. he should act that way. host: with regard to this house- senate budget committee coming

up, do you see room for compromise? it sounds like you might see some room? caller: i'm a democrat. i strongly believe in free enterprise and individual freedom. there has to be room for compromise. that is the basis for a democracy. i think the tea party forgot that lesson. -- if congresse and self-interest aside puts the long-term interest of the country first, i believe that compromise is very much possible. host: adam green. question of was a short-term interest versus long- term interest. there was also a question of good people trapped in a bad

system. that brings us back to campaign finance reform. have members of congress spending four hours per calling-money donors -- big-money donors, the input will be vastly skewed to the very rich. politicians agreeing to take -- thats of only $250 will change the way the system works. that gets back to my will of the people point. if we have republicans and democrats who are representing their electorates back home. but when we have the coke

coch brothers, we will not have -- as if senior citizens are the problem, -- that is absurd. republicans, democrats, and independent voters need to tell the politicians that is wrong. we want a good compromise. not a bad compromise. host: who is one of your big donors? we have over 100,000 small donors -- small dollar donors. the president spoke yesterday, at the white house, about the conference committee going on. this is what he had to say.

[video clip] >> in the coming days and weeks we should sit down and pursue a balanced approach to a responsible budget. a budget that grows our economy faster and shrinks our long-term deficits further. at the beginning of this year, that is what democrats and republicans committed to doing. budget, theassed a house passed a budget, they were supposed to come together and negotiate. and had one side not decided to pursue a strategy of brinksmanship, each side could have gotten together and figured out, how do we shape a budget that provides certainty to businesses and people who rely on government? provides certainty to investors

in our economy? and we would be growing faster right now. thegood news is that legislation i signed yesterday now requires congress to do exactly that. what it could have been doing all along. guest: a lot of that sounded good. wewe had a world where actually had a free market economy as opposed to a rigged economy, where big donors get to elect their own tax laws, that would be fantastic. republicans are for free enterprise is just that, a myth. the new innovators tell us that we are not living in a free enterprise system. i have talked to countless tech entrepreneurs were fighting to get into the marketplace and are excluded because of rigged regulations.

with the president also has said and what the white house press secretary has said is that they turned back to the white house budget that they offered several months ago. budget cutly, that social security benefits. that was a budget that was offered in the spirit of the tea party revolution in post-2010. that was offered in the spirit -- not offered in the spirit of winning two weeks ago. to the extent that the president socialing to cut security benefits, we will be pressuring him and others who support that. host: jim is an independent in texas. caller: i have a question for mr. green. mentioned one of the goals of

his organization to increase social security benefits. when i heard that, i almost fell out of my chair. if he has a program to do that, that would be marvelous. i would love to hear him comment on just how his organization would accomplish such a thing. host: jim, what do you think of that goal? caller: it is a wonderful goal. but goals are goals. facts are facts. for 30 years i have been listening to how social security is going out of business. the demographics are against us. balancernment is not in and there is no sign of it ever being in balance. i am mystified and gratified by the comment, if that is a real goal, how do you do it? what can i do to help you make that happen? guest: i really appreciate both your interest and your

hopefulness around that goal. it is interesting that you said 30 years -- that is pretty much the reagan area -- era. there are twin bills in the senate. from iowa and alaska. these billsey have that will expand social security benefits. the do the polar opposite of cutting costs. the increased cost of living adjustments. someone who is 85 years old will get about $800 more. then the question is, how do you fund that? right now, millionaires, billionaires, and the wealthiest in our society do not pay taxes

on social security the on the first $113,000 of their income. they are done paying social security taxes by early february. if we scrap the cap, and ask them to pay on all of their income, that would bring trillions of dollars into the system. it would allow us to pay for the expansion of social security benefits and come on top of that, and trillions of dollars left over to expand the solvency of social security by decades. you don't hear a lot about that in the news. you don't even hear about that on the democratic side. you don't hear them talking about that. they want to take whatever money to give awayuse it the store to the wealthy.

they can find ways to lower corporate tax rates, but they want to cut social security benefits for grandma. -- we, coupledte , we our partners at moveon have been rallying across the country, holding local events -- to expand social security benefits. congress will be negotiating a deal next month. social security benefits will be put back on the table. please join us at expandsoci alsecurity.com. host: a tweet coming in -- i could talk about occupied for an hour. they changed the conversation.

it compared references to debt reduction -- a right wing frame in an attempt -- o to get everyone to think we need to cut stuff -- before occupied, this chart had lots of mentions of debt and no references to income inequality. inequalityy, income was talked about more in the news. deserves a lot of credit. as to the actual tactics, that is a longer discussion. who visit the city where , theyr broke up occupy

should be posed the question every day -- did you publicly support occupy? were you a part of breaking them up? that is a litmus test for if they are there to do the bidding of corporate america or whether they are for progress. host: republican line, charles. i am really hoping the gentleman that made the statement earlier concerning obamacare -- he said let it rack -- wreck. that is an idea that has been going on for quite some time. it is a very careless idea. let me start by making a quote by abraham lincoln. someone what they can do for themselves. i have been employed for 23 years. we had a machine shop. we are out of business today

because we let it wreck. president clinton took the work that we were doing -- we were doing quality work number sent the work -- to mexico and used our tax dollars to subsidize the steel for them to do the job. how many cars can you sell a day and how cheap can you sell them if you use our tax dollars and give you the automobiles? you can do a cheap. -- it cheap. it put many companies out of business. we have the idea still, let it wreck. thiscare will let -- wreck country. we cannot take this idea. pelosi saying,e

we need to pass this bill so we will know what is in it. that mentality should not even be representing our people. host: charles, thank you for calling in. think you are responding to somebody who called and previously. -- in previously. there was a lot wrapped up in their. i think there are good people on all sides of the issue. there are people who have been impacted on all sides. i made the cases for less regulation and more regulation in certain cases. we shouldn't have the nsa spying on us. -- if you'ree bottom line is, we don't need government, i completely disagree. things like investing in public education, investing in head start, having jobs programs and

putting people to work -- that is an investment in our long- term future. the case for government is strong. government should help people. i do agree that there are some cases where it is failing. host: kent tweets in -- guest: the tea party is not saving the country from anything. decline.arty is on the this last two-week. period has focused america on how non-principled the tea party is. that a lot ofis new house districts have opened up. they are competitive, where they

worked a few weeks ago. our organization is trying to defeat members of the tea party i recruiting and supporting members -- by recruiting and supporting progressive members. happen to live in pennsylvania's seventh district districticture -- six -- if you live in florida's 10th district, or florida's one he seventh district -- 27th district, if you want to run for office as a progressive democrat or you know someone in the , please let us know. seeking and will support candidates in those -- the teafeat that party. host: what about running

primaries against democrats? guest: happy to do it. at the end of the day, our top priority -- there needs to be accountability. votes for cutso to social security, medicaid, or medicare benefits should be prepared for primary challenge. the districts i listed are districts with a vulnerable republican with no democrat challenger. if people stick their neck up cut social's security benefits, we will be having active recruitment in your district. host: what about tax reform? guest: let's do it. some people think tax reform and they think, let's cut corporate tax rates. ,f you put that idea forward

that is symbolic of the current government we have that fights more for the big guy then the little guy. than the little guy. if you mean taking away tax loopholes to level the playing field, that is great. should it be revenue neutral? no. we should shore up programs that deserve it. i'm a big fan of tax reform. part of tax reform should also mean making millionaires pay their fair share in social security. we should go beyond the clinton rates for the super wealthy americans. that would mean trillions of dollars more to fund public education, infrastructure, and social security. host: marvin on our democrats line in florida. good morning. i was calling about obamacare. i did a little

research. from what i can see, it was a type of plan that richard nixon advocated, the type of plan that bob dole advocated, the type of plan that mitt romney advocated. it seems to be a republican idea. why are they so opposed to it if it seems to be a republican idea? republican or democrat idea -- what gets me is this. people need health care. we're talking about human beings. we are talking about people. we have people who can't afford health care. marvin, are you with us? ok, i'm sorry. people actually need health care. it is a human thing. i have worked in the health care industry for over 10 years. i have watched people come to the emergency room, get a diagnosis of cancer, and they

don't have health care. what happens to these people? they die. we are talking real, human people. host: i think we got the point. mr. green. guest: three points i wanted it. your fundamental point is that the role of government is to help people. i agree. the people who say we want -- don't want government to help people, they can go to somalia. they can go to another country where we don't believe in a social safety net and the type of values you are talking about. they can go there. two other points that are more political -- the one you hit on the idea of the tea party principle, the republican party principles. the tea party is not tethered to a set of principles unless that principle is opposed to obama. , ideas hatcheds

in the heritage foundation, should have been written -- embraced by the modern-day republican party. that's why we need to defeat some of these randomly obstructionist tea party people in 2014. the other point we raised is how our political discussion has been framed for the last 30 years. the fact that the democratic party is in a place where our side's proposal for health care is something that was hatched in the heritage foundation says how successful the right has been in pulling did -- the discussion into the corporate fringe. 80% of democrats supported it. 50% of republican voters supported a publicly run

government insurance program that competed with private insurance. we need a strong progressive movement to get us there. host: where did you grow up? how did you come to your position? guest: i am from new jersey. my dad ran for and won school boards. campaignthe first volunteered for. i was a democratic party guy for a number of years. in a press secretary and communications director positions. in 2004, i had a mental switch from being a democrat hack to an activist builder. my year in south dakota was formative for me. in that year, a bunch of socially conservative, pro- right, pro-gun -- pro-life, pro- , he was fighting for their

-- these people were willing to cross party lines to vote for him. there is an economic populism streak that isn't one party or another. it is what america needs. i had come from the blue state of new jersey. that was also strong in the red state of south dakota. it really got me thinking. after this 2004 election, i decided to turn down jobs and .ake a job with moveon then we formed the progressive change campaign committee. ashley in decatur, georgia. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i have two questions.

considering the outcome of this with thedeal government shutdown and debt ceiling situation, it is unfortunate that a lot of government workers were laid off .nd felt the major effect how is itn is, sir, possible for the people to put forth the initiatives to express that, governmental body if the government workers will be furloughed, in the event that this should happen again, how is it possible for us to express to these government officials that no one gets paid -- including the president?

-- int think it is fair so many instances the people who -- not in the limelight people who make way more money than the people who were laid off still get paid. i think that is a disgrace. host: we got a point. guest: i think your fundamental point is right. we can bake things into the system where this doesn't happen again. if public workers don't get paid, politicians also have delayed payment. that is what we sow with public workers. i think we need to think bigger. the talking point during the was the-- shutdown

least of our problems. we need to expand social security benefits. we need ideas like that on the table. those are the things we should be talking about. c-span provides a valuable opportunity for folks of different opinions and folks across the country who engage in this type of conversation. us if ourou to join ideas resonate with you. we are organizing in communities all across the country and pressing politicians to represent the will of the people. a tweet from rock dots -- guest: we need politicians to be independent of big-money donors. no mother wants to be dependent on a small check every month when she can have a job. we need a government that is thinking about the little guy in our society, not the big guy in our society.

we need to wire rural america with internet. we need to wire schools with modern technology. we need to make sure bridges and roads don't collapse. we have the ability to put people back to work if we make those investments in our future. people want real jobs. nobody wants to be dependent. that is a myth. host: adam green has been our guest. campaignessive change committee. thank you for your time. we will continue this time. up next is matt kibbe of freedom works. we already know there are

landmines out there. the abortion issue in the united states, guns, race, arab-israeli relations. i have worked with other cartoonists and other countries. they have their red lines that they have to be aware of. what cartoonists can get away of and san francisco might be different than in alabama. >> i think there are fewer conservatives in journalism period. it is generally not a conservative thing. peopleism tends to draw who are more liberal, it would be fair to say. isthey say that bad news good for cartoonists. it gives us a lot of fodder. harder andher work have less bad news and know we were going in a right direction. we are not going in a right direction right now. i feel very -- like it is a real

calling to me -- to get my opinions out there. not allweekend, it is fun and games for editorial cartoonists. saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. two, the outlaw jesse james. 7:45.ay evening at four decades after watergate, a look back at nexen and the saturday night massacre. -- nixon and the saturday night massacre. in ohio clock is the metaphor for the government shutdown. an ohio clock is the metaphor for the government shutdown. >> the clock behind me was

the oldest clock. it was ordered from a philadelphia clockmaker. one of the many reasons why the c-span video archives are amazing. is amazing. library you can share programming any time. go to c-span.org and go to the video library. click on what you want to watch and press play. you can also search the video library for specific topics or keywords or you can find a person -- type in the name, hit search, and go to people. bioto their -- go to their page and check their appearances. click share and send it by e- mail. , twitter, or google plus.

industryy the cable tv and funded by your local table or satellite provider. >> washington journal continues. host: our conversation on the budget issue continues with matt kibbe, the president and ceo of freedomworks. theentional wisdom is that tea party and republican party went down in flames with regard to the government shutdown and what happened afterwards. do you agree? guest: no, i don't. i think it is always difficult to be the one rational person in the room to say we can't keep accruing debt, we can't fund something with borrowed money that everybody in washington agrees does not work. obamacare has been dysfunctional. the president himself has either delayed or repealed at least 20 parts of this health-care law. we came in and said, you know

what, we have to do things differently than we did before. from my perspective, there has been this bipartisan collusion where the democrats get everything they want and the republicans get everything they want. after 9/11 this started to happen. adversarial of punching would be a good thing. we make trade-offs, we make tough choices, and we only fund the things we can afford. host: what is next? now that the conference committee has been set up, what is next? here is the headline in the "washington times." i don't know what will happen at the next budget deadline. thatld predict before that the debate between democrats and republicans would be how to unwind the sequester savings. the sequester savings were predicted to be a disaster.

nobody noticed. they were opposed by huge sections of both parties. and yet that was the promise increase for the last in the debt ceiling. we keep raising the debt ceiling and that we are trying to unwind those savings that we got. you have that part. they will try to spend more money, not less. the big issue between now and andmber 2014 is obamacare the implementation of obamacare. we will focus on the individual mandate and the unjust nature of delaying for big businesses, but not the line for young people forced into the system. >> do you think it was time to reopen the government or to increase the debt ceiling? at some point, you have to pay government hospitals -- bills. only two pieces of

legislation that the democrats have to act on. one is the budget, the other is the debt ceiling. the house can pass a million pieces of reform legislation, but harry reid can ignore those. a you are going to force conversation between the republicans and democrats, there are only a few leverage points. the: if you had been in house republican caucus meeting, would you have given john boehner a standing ovation? guest: no. i think the mistake that john was an made unwillingness to pull everybody together early. thatbroadcast quite loudly they were going to do whatever it took to avoid a government shutdown. if you go into a negotiation showing all of your cards to the other side, you will lose. they naturally lost. i think what frustrates our caucus is the circular firing

squad that some senate republicans and house republicans formed against the people that were trying to stop obamacare. host: who were some of those? guest: famously, lindsey graham and john mccain were wacko birds. mitch mcconnell, richard burr. of the matter is that all of them voted against obamacare. all of them said on the campaign trail that they wanted to defund obamacare. was that we are the only guys would've offered a strategy to do this. they could've offered a different strategy, but they didn't do that. robert tweets -- i have been working on obamacare my entire career. monstrosityhis big

that is funded on the backs of young, less-wealthy people, it would be a lot smarter to fix the tax code. the tax code punishes individuals trying to get health insurance not from their employer. make health care pretax, with pretax dollars. save for whatle will certainly be future health- care problems. the we don't do that. everything has to be controlled or washington d.c.. times" haswashington an analysis piece this morning. a surprising number of prominent republicans are saying that at the gop loses the 2016 general election, the party will go the way of the whigs or formally's let into a moderate and a conservative party -- formally split into a moderate and a

conservative party. .uest: you are seeing a clash it is not just the old wing of the republican party versus the new wing. -- it is already happening with the democratic party. it is happening with the demo -- republican party now. grassroots activists have an ability to fund candidates and organize. they can go around the republican national committee. that is the new reality. everything is more democratized. republicans should come to terms with that. they still want to control things from the top down. that wection would be take over the republican party and they go the way of the whigs. activists that believe in freedom. i don't call it the tea party anymore. it is constitutional conservatives, libertarians, t partiers -- aa

lot of independents who it opted out of politics because they didn't see an option in the two parties. that is what happened in 2010. we had a lot of independents show up because they're worried about too much spending in washington dc -- the boot on the throat of the american economy. we are going to have that conversation again it will be 14. 2014.-- in host: who are your heroes? , -- had love todd cruz cruz, marco rubio, rand paul. understanding that all of them did not agree with us on this squabble. they have brought civil liberties back into the conversation. that is were the new party is. it is about economic freedom.

it is about understanding that washington d.c. is a game played by insiders. it may be big business, it may be public employees unions. somebody else always gets to the table first. we would like to get some of that inside trading out of washington and let people take charge of their lives again. host: president obama spoke the white house yesterday morning. [video clip] together to make government work better. instead of treating it like an enemy or purposefully making it work worse. that is not what the founders of this nation envisioned when they gave us the gift of self- government. you don't like a particular policy or particular president? than argue for your position. go out there and win an election. push to change it.

but don't break it. don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. that is not being faithful to what our country is about. what he is really saying there is that the only time the american people have a time to question the government is during an election. i know he does not mean that. i think this is a partisan statement on his behalf. if you go back to what the founders envisioned, with george washington said in his final , is that theess sacred fire of liberty sits on the shoulders of the american people. not only should we have a right to challenge the government's position, we have an obligation. there was a day when this was accepted by both political parties. , the famous

democratic leader in the house, shut down the government 12 times. of jimmy to stop some carter's priorities. he did it to stop some of ronald reagan's priorities. party spotted out. the american people -- parties fought it out. the american people participated. president obama is pushing against history. the internet has read and franchised americans. franchised americans. they have an opportunity to beat the insiders. no president or john boehner longer get to decide who our candidates are. they don't get to decide what kind of health care we get. we get to decide that. that is the american way. host: skeptical doubt tweets in --

i have worked a lot in entitlements over the years. entitlements. you reform entitlements. that is important as we go into this grand bargain debate. if you come up with an imaginary number and say we need to achieve the savings, it does not work. we have tried to do that in the past. we try to do it in the early 1990's. if you want fixed entitlements, you need to accept the fact that people are already in medicare, people are in social security -- they are stuck with the system they have. they may like it, they may not like it, but they can hardly change their plans that late in life. but young people should be given options. they should be given choices. if they know that social security won't be there when they retire, if they know that medicare will be a heavily rationed system that will not

give them the health care they need, they should be allowed to choose to save it for themselves. they should be allowed to buy catastrophic plans when they're .oung voluntarily they should be allowed to save for that moment when they are when something unexpected and catastrophic happens. then they have insurance. that is not how the system works. all of these systems are one- size-fits-all. they are highly regressive. the tax young workers, middle class, lower class folks that are primarily paying payroll taxes. it is a huge wealth transfer. host: jim in pennsylvania on a republican line. caller: good morning, c-span. i called because of the last caller who was a socialist- marxists. about is aed demonization of the republicans

by the democrats. they have done a good job of it. i think the people of america should look around and see where the democrats have ruled for a long time and what has happened there. i am talking about the cities. the cities of america, the majority of which are dominated by liberal democrat parties. look what is happened there. the democrats of detroit the cities -- have destroyed the cities. every night people are shooting each other in the cities. worst of all, they have androyed, collapsed, decimated the public school systems in the cities. the majority of people who could flood the cities over the last two generations and escaped to the republican- controlled suburbs. ofh all of the demonization

the republicans, people ought to look around and think, where do i want to be? most people want to be where the republicans want to run something. or do they want to be in the cities where the democrats are the story? host: i think we got your point. your response to that caller. guest: i think it is a great point. you look at the flight from california. you look at what is happening in detroit. you look like the population growth in texas. april vote with their feet. vote with-- people their feet. they seek out economic opportunity. money on anto spend education system were kids don't get the education they want. all of these examples, the city examples you are using, are exactly what is going to happen

to united states if we continue to try to -- we don't need one- size-fits-all. we don't need to give all the authority to the teachers union. the experiment has been tested. the democratic party has been hijacked over the last generation, since i came to washington dc, by the progressives. they have gotten more radicalized. they don't have a solution for anything that does not involve more government. host: alex in arlington virginia askils then -- could you mr. kibbe to clarify what he meant by real americans? guest: i love this question. people suggest that when you use a phrase like that you are trying to define people. mice are real americans, i am

talking about everyone who lives outside the washington beltway. i think the world is divided between people who are inside the beltway and outside of it. us, real americans, live outside the beltway. trying tos always divide us and slices and dices based on our age, on the color of our skin, on our income. slice us and dice us based on our age, on the color of our skin, on our income. curtis. i think we should do more focusing on the finance. i think we are running on old data.

i think that is the issue right now. all the people saying about taxing -- you have the money. taxing is the name of the game. if you are going to make money, you have to give back. we need to learn how to save our money. we need to try to stop spending our money in one year. it does not make sense. even though we do get taxed on it. if we stop doing all this stuff -- like random money. we would be better off. host: thank you sir. comment for him -- any for him? guest: the challenge in washington dc is getting people to make tough choices. we had a major tax increase at the beginning of this year. we spend money that we don't have. dollarbout $.20 on every

we need to balance those things. if you went after the special- interest, you could achieve that. in order to do that, real americans outside the beltway have to insist on accountability inside washington. host: lead story in "usa today." peg tweeps -- -- tweets in -- guest: most of the government does not shut down when we shut down the government. 84% of spending continues. i wonder how much we spent walling off the grand canyon and walling off the world war ii memorial. i was here in 1995 when we shut on the government last time. i have never seen such an adversarial attitude were

government employees literally went after the people that pay their salaries. i think it is an outrage. i think it cut both ways. they controlil your health care and you disagree with them. texas on our independent line. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask about something involving the budget. you hear a lot of talk about budgetary reform through cutting defense spending or cutting social security or cutting medicare or reforming medicare or social security. i wanted to ask about tax expenditures. right now, they almost equaled the income tax revenue that is coming in. that cannot be sustainable. before we are collecting the revenue, we are sending about the door. that is in the form of capital gains. workers compensation.

there was a lot of spending that gets done through the tax code. what would you and people of your ilk propose to do about that? host: before we ask him, what would you propose? programs think these have to go. i think they help the top 20% of americans. they don't need help. they are in the top 20%. i actually agree with you. i think the tax code is ex abit one for how insiders get seat at the table before the rest of us. my proposal has always been a flat, simple tax code. we should have a flat income tax that treats everybody exactly like everybody else. what ever i say that, people are going to immediately ask about the home mortgage reduction, what about this, what about that.

as long as we are using the tax code to reorganize society to achieve social means, instead of the simple function of raising revenue, guess what, the theders are going to game system for their benefit. when i get rid of all of it and make it super transparent and make everybody live under exactly the same rules? future.that is the i think tax reform is compelling across the ideological spectrum. like tax cuts, some people don't. it really depends on who is at the table first. host: james from simi valley on our republican line. my comments are directed toward the young people, the millennial's. s. baby boomers are moving into retirement at a rate of 10,000 per day. 300,000 per month.

they are taking the vast majority of this wealth with them. they will be untouchable. the millennials will get stuck with the tax. $20 billion per month in interestpayments and in the meae are going to stick them with the bill for obama care. they are coming out of the schools with an inferior education. even if you do have the ability to go to college, we stuck them with a trillion dollars in student loans. these people have to realize that the republicans have the only answer to this problem. guest: i agree with you. this is called generational theft. it is borrowing and making obligations that you cannot fund in the future. primarily because of medicare and social security, there are are -- there are $100 trillion in liabilities.

before i came down, i pulled some numbers based on obama care. this is the debate going forward. wealthhe immoral transfer from a younger, less wealthy people to older, more wealthy people. that is the deal that the president and democrats gave to the insurance industry to prop up this redistribution scheme. current price is $79 for a 27-year-old man. it goes up to the lowest new toce is $254 per month comply with the individual mandate. that is immoral. it is wrong. already saddled with the fact that the economy is not generating jobs, incredible college debt, they are getting screwed one more time. host: where did you grow up?

in grove city, pennsylvania. host: why do you have your politics? this in myote about book. when i was 13 or 14, i was listening to an album i bought by rush. iran -- ayned it to rand and that led me to reading economics and to do what i do. what do your parents do? guest: they are not around anymore, but my dad worked at general electric. host: joanne, illinois, democrats line. caller: good morning. i have a comment to make. ,or the last two to three weeks our government has been on shutdown because of this man's group and people that support him.

learned from the last three weeks that government is good and that we need government. one comment that he made was that young people are paying for older people to have insurance. think of social security. that is the way it has always been. we pay as young people for those that have already worked and when we get to that age, then somebody will pay for us. that is the way the system works. it is a good system and will always work. if you listen to someone like this man, we will not have a government and we need a government. you should stop telling that lie to people. hisard that this company -- organization, freedomworks filed for bankruptcy. why would we want to listen to someone like that when he cannot take care of his own organization? we have not filed for bankruptcy or anything like it.

the fact is, if you believe government is good and if you believe that the government should perform certain functions , you have to come to the terms with the fact that we cannot keep spending money we do not have. taxes, you'reised going to undermine people's ability to find jobs. if you keep spending money we do not have, we do crazy things like letting the federal reserve monetize that that. that essentially steals money out of your pocket. it depreciates the value of the dollar that you use to buy the food that you eat. somebody needs to be the adult in the room and say how do we balance these things. we should look at defense spending, all of these things that showed up in the last budget deal. i think we should put everything on the table. theannot continue to keep most important promises that we have made as a federal

government unless we deal with this problem. host: a tweet. flat tax does not equalize tax burden. it penalizes those with lower incomes. guest: i disagree. if you look at how rich people pay taxes, you look at john kerry's tax return for instance. he did not pay much in federal income taxes. they are able to find loopholes. they are able to hire a lawyer, sometimes they hire lobbyists that solve their problems for them. everybody should pay the same. that is the american way. -- we believe in equal justice under the law. when you treat everybody differently, you are giving your power to some third power -- third party. to pick winners and losers. we saw this with the irs scandal. it has happened under democrats

and republicans. they have gone after americans. it is not right. host: rockaway, new jersey, independent line. caller: i have so many things to say. pick two ofn't you them and go ahead. ? byler: obamacare was written wellpoint, the health insurance industry. woman whohored by a was one of the chief aides on the baucus committee. the 1700 $16 billion that as he raced out of the medicare fund in order to support the funding is one aspect.

where was mr. ryan on the republican side? he was very quiet. he came out of the woodwork recently with his private accounts theories. my supposition is that these two wingsparties are of the same bird. they play good cop and bad cop. 6he democrats was the $71 billion for the medicare program. mr. ryan comes along with his taxation, his flat tax, or what ever he is introducing, hiding the private account robbery of medicare. there you go. very quickly, what would you like to see done now? caller: i would like to see the corporate government that exists

demolished andy replaced by people that represent the american people and the american people's concerns and aspirations. host: we just talked to adam green. both of you would say we agree with carol. am i right? guest: progressives wanted a single-payer health-care system. they want to take the insurance interest out of it. what president obama did was set down with the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry who were major investors in advocating for that plan, but this is how washington works. whether you are progressive, conservative, or anything else, the deals that are cut, the legislation written is always written by those that show up at the table.

was designed plan to pay off the insurance industry by forcing young pay -- young people to pay more. cover people with pre-existing conditions. it fattens the profits of the insurance industry. if you are progressive, you should not like that. we would like to unwind all of that by simplifying the tax code and allowing people to take more control over their own insurance with their own dollars. to corporate comes government -- do you agree with that? not just health care, but when she talks about the corporate government. guest: i call a collusion. i call it insider collusion. you have corporate interests.

i am not talking about inner enterpriseests -- interests. -- generalction electric is dependent on the government model. that is the kind of collusion we should be opposed to. progressives and use this to hijack the democratic party. more people have more information to organize and know what is going on than ever in our history. that are linedts up no longer have that privilege position, because we find out what is in the bill, we read it online and share it with our friends. i think the power is shifting back away from washington and into the hands of the people. i think that is a good thing. host: when you look at what is the,

future? with independence. ist you are seeing overall not a trend towards either party, less the people affiliated with either party. they are not excited about republicans, democrats. independent registration is going up. people are voting based on their principles and values. there is an opportunity for those of us that believe in freedom to find a compelling connection with latinos and libertiesle in civil and crony capitalism, and economic opportunity. host: what about immigration? guest: that is a perfect example of what i am talking about. the deal that was cut in the

senate and washington, d.c. was based on democrats like dick durbin who are protecting union interests and some republicans who want to build a wall. solve thet to immigration problem, the principle is, everybody that wants to come to this country and work should be allowed to. if that is the principle, why are we limiting visas and the ability of people to come in legally? what up this -- what upsets a lot of tea partiers is that you would reward people that broke the law. i think the ins dysfunction is responsible for that. durbineaders and dick are responsible for not letting good people come in who want to work. m, des moines, calling on the republican line. do you think it was

worth it, losing $24 billion and gaining nothing? i raised seven children. if we did something twice and it did not work, you have a congress that voted to abolish obamacare. time and money that we sent them there to do a job. that is a waste of taxpayer dollars. what you think of this? work: we will continue to to fix obama care, to defund obamacare, to delay obamacare. a lot of people are going to discover they are getting kicked out of the health care lands that they like, against the president's promised. tople are going to be forced buy something they cannot afford and they're going to discover they have been herded into a government exchange when they

are perfectly happy with their employer-based insurance. this is a train wreck. we have a moral obligation to fix the -- to fix it. does that mean we should accept it because it is the law of the land? i think that is a ridiculous argument. accepted that public policy in the history of america and we have an obligation to fix this. host: kings point, tennessee. i have two things to say. has only hadty raises so long. it has been a long time since social security got a raise. when they do get a raise, they /3 of that back and put it in medicare. my quota for obama care $7,000 a year.

that is more than my social security check. a lot of people are getting sticker shock as they see what they are going to have to pay under obama care. with these problem one-size-fits-all systems is that you do not get the benefit of compound interest. when you say privately, you generate an income. in social security, it is a zero-sum game. young people to pay the checks of retirees. unsustainable because of demographics and because of the lack of savings in the program. has spendl government the social security trust fund. republicans, democrats -- they did it. the fact of the matter is, the government does not save money, they spend it. that is where these liabilities come from. we have to do something about it

that keeps the promises that are made to seniors but let's young people choose. host: this tweet from grace. this is the wrong time to cut apparentlynding and the insider, mac kb, is not a real american. e, is not a real american. guest: if you look at what has been going on, we have been borrowing so much money that we do not have, and when we borrow money we do not have, the federal reserve monetizes it. that creates corruption and all of a sudden we have housing bubbles. we're about to have a student loan bubble. it is going to hurt a lot of people. if we do not rein in washington dc, real people pay the price. no one in this town is going to pay the price.

we are building. this is a wealthy town because government is growing. we do not have the money to pay for these things. future generations pay that price. your second book is coming out april 15. what is the title? "don't hurt people and don't take their stuff." i am trying to get out the basic values that connect basic americans don't want to see less centralization in washington, d.c. and get back to the basic american principles. host: president and ceo of freedomworks. matt kibbe. there going to continue conversation we have been having all morning. issues,the budget health care, etc., we will

continue that with you in just a few minutes. we will be right back. ♪ >> over the years, when you look back on the books that had an impact on the president, what did you find? my inspiration for writing this book -- i was curious to see if books had an impact. bookel harrington wrote a in the early 1960's about poverty, especially in west virginia. kennedy supposedly read that book and it led to the war on poverty. review --ad the book that inspired kennedy to tell this chairman of the council of economic advisers to look into policies that could be used to

alleviate poverty. november, 1963. johnson heard about this program and pursued it as president. or 8:00 on c-t, span's q and a. cam hot justtudent asked what the most important issue congress should consider in 2014? the competition is open to all middle and high school students for the grand prize of $5,000. we have doubled the number of winners and total prizes. studentcam.org for more information. "washington journal"

continues. host: we want to hear what you think about the budget conference committee, what has been happening in washington. there are the numbers on the screen. republicans, (202) 585-3881. democrats, (202) 585-3880. independents, (202) 585-3882. you can also leave it -- leave a comment on our twitter feed. a poll onso vote in facebook. we have a poll about what you think about the budget deal. , there iske comments a lively conversation going on on facebook. in the news chart york times this morning. i want to get an idea of where we are starting this budget committee. when it comes to health care

programs, these are the budget gaps that are currently being faced. the senate and the house have passed budgets in this past year. -- 275 the senate billion when it comes to health care programs, mostly cuts to medicare providers. they would like to ob of -- appeal obama care -- repeal obamacare. the senate would not leave sequestration in. the house leaves cuts in place, but redistributes cuts in military spending to domestic programs. that is about $995 billion. you can see that there is a little bit of room to make up

between both the house and the senate. october 28 that week is when the 21-22 member commission is going to get together -- i'm sorry, 28 member. 15 democrats, 13 republicans. that is who makes up the house budget committee. there are the summit -- the senate democrats on the committee and then we will show you the house members. scott, west virginia. scott, good morning. caller: i would like to comment on the last speaker, mr. kibbe. he knows his stuff. he is so right that it is not funny. he should run for president. he is the way of the future.

host: why? caller: everything he says is right. america needs to get on board. they need to listen to him. he knows what he is doing. he is not trying to make a big name for himself, he is trying to help the american people. he will if given the chance. host: kevin, michigan. i want to talk about why nobody is ever -- nobody discusses a raise in taxes. in 1936, the tax rate was 80 to 90%. for people making over $5 million. we need revenue, not spending cuts. be, he saidr. kib

nobody has a seat at the table. you have to have something intelligent to say, and him and his crowd do not have anything intelligent to say. all i have to say. thank you. host: were you with us earlier when we had adam green on? caller: i caught the end of it. host: what are your political views? caller: i am moderate. i am a little bit left of center. i am conservative on some issues. i do not think the tea party has their vote against their own interest when they vote republican. -- itf the tea party ,ooks like they are retired older, and are voting against their own interests. host: will kind of work you do? caller: construction. i am laid off.

live about 60 miles north of detroit. host: do you tend to vote democratic? caller: yes. host: hang on the line. i want to check in with gary in sterling, virginia on our republican line. what are your thoughts? i worked 45 years moving furniture, construction, -- i would like to say that i have worked for more white welfare queens than black ones. as far as the sequester, i think that is foolish. teachers and they

have never had a child end up in prison who went to head start. $5,000 or $6,000 for head start. or $45,000 for prison. you do the math. against birthre control, that is what they have in common. on theou are calling republican line. about common sense and the advancement of humanity. ohio,charles, medina, independent line. you are on the air. from where yout are saying. i am out of kentucky. please go ahead.

tell us what you want to talk about. sendingi am against arms to somalia. we are saying that we do not have the money to take care of ourselves and if this is true, why are we sending money over to somalia? number two, i am against us syria. arms over to i do not feel we should be spending money other than on our own country and let's get our country straightened out. they cut back on our own money to support people over there. that is not right. host: thank you, sir. we got the point, i think. here is a lead editorial in journal -- in the washington journal. hisident obama emerged from budget headquarters on thursday

to survey the battlefield how businesseclare is done in this town has to change. the last point is a good idea, but nothing will change unless the president shows he is willing to accept general -- genuine bipartisan compromise. lectureed his usual about the dangerous and irresponsible republicans out to ruin the country. he sounded some of the right notes about making divided government work. disagree on if we something, we can move on and focus on the things we agree on, and get some stuff done. he went on to suggest that parties can work together to pass a farm bill, immigration reform, and responsible budget that grows our -- our economy faster and shrinks our long-term deficits. they will require compromise in the white house as well is in the gop.

jerry, massachusetts, republican line. i am a rockefeller republican, i am generally liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues. like to think about the debt ceiling issue the way we think about the military base closings. you cannot get republicans and democrats to agree if there is an issue they are -- in their theirce dollar -- in particular district. they are not going to support it. to have a long-term commission that deals with the debt ceiling. we cannot keep taking this country to crisis after crisis. caller make a great suggestion -- he suggestion six democrats and six republicans, but the democrats pick three of the republicans, and the republicans picked three of the

democrats. you have to pick off one of the opposition to get something done. you have an up or down vote. you do not allow all of the amendments and what have you. the militaryay base closing commission is kind of dealt with. issue, i would like to comment about health care. i do not see health care as a free market. i think we need to go to a single-payer system. make is mostould other countries that are similar to the united states are spending about half of what we spend on medical care with better outcomes. if i ask the republicans -- if i gave you a system that only had half the cost and had better outcomes for medical -- for our

health care system, why won't you take it? i just throw those two points out. host: thank you for calling in. in the washington post this morning is this article. fight over health care law isn't , some in gop say. sarah kliff -- where and what is going to help with the health- care law next? guest: i think we are shifting now that the shutdown is over. there is going to be a laser focus on the affordable care act for open enrollment. rocky is a mild way of describing the launch. there is a lot of trouble signing up. law actually work? can people access benefits and are they happy with what the

affordable care act is doing for them? did the shutdown overshadow some of the problems with the health-care rollout? guest: i think it did. it was a great time for the federal government to launch a glitchy website. attention was somewhere else. october 1 was the day of the shutdown and the day that the exchanges launched. it took some of the attention away from the affordable care act, but i think we are going to see a refocusing. the question i have is whether the administration can fix some of these problems the website is having in a fast manner or if these are challenges that are going to stick around for weeks, even months. websitesead that the were using 10-year-old technology. is that accurate? that is an estimate.

one of the things that are challenging are the big parts of the technical project. those are not available to us as outsiders. medicare is looking at that internally. suspicion by technology experts on the outside that some of the systems could be very old. programstate medicaid have a few systems that could go back as the 1980's. much theink about how technology has changed, you can see why that would be creating a problem for this. host: one of the fights was over the medical device tax. is that dead? guest: for the moment, yes. if i was lobbying to get that tax repealed, i would be having a rough few days. up again and again in this fight, and it did not make it into the final deal. we will see if the medical tax comes up.

it could, when the deal that we're going through now is over. with theah kliff is washington post. we appreciate your time. back to your calls. david, miller place, new york. you're on the washington journal. all the callsyed this morning. there are a lot of intelligent people, raising valid concerns. my perspective is different. were --ur government wanted to provide for the working poor in this country. we should be able to provide some amount of health care for the working poor. this has turned out to be a bailout for the insurance and health care industry because

they were selling or producing a roddick that working classes could not afford. product thata working classes could not afford. the nuclear disaster in fukushima -- could there be able a classn't there be action lawsuit against general electric?- general electric manufactured these things and that is probably what is causing a lot of cancers. the failed nuclear industry. i wish c-span would do more coverage on failed nuclear industry. host: deborah, buffalo, new york. caller: i am an independent, but i have a tendency to vote

democratic. our government -- i think they are fighting. it is like they are at war with each other. they are not going to solve any of our problems. they are too busy fighting with each other. becausen a lot of dead we fought two wars and did not pay for them. we did the medicaid ascription plan and did not pay for that. the tea party people want to say you have to pay your bills. you have to start at the beginning. you have to start with the two wars. you cannot solve your problems overnight. it is probably going to take us 20 years to get ourselves out of real debt and get a real financial plan. the debt did not happen overnight and the solution is not going to happen overnight. that is all i have to say. host: thank you. in other news, obama taps chief

for homeland security, j johnson -- jay johnson is his name. foras general counsel obama's first term. there is his picture. bill young turns gravely ill in the longest serving house republican became gravely ill overnight. in walter reed, here in washington, d.c. article --is her there is this article -- senator cruz is blocking the nominee for fcc chairman. he has a new target in sight -- the fcc. they block the conference -- the tom wheeler.of

-- theyd they didn't said they want greater shirts from president obama's nominee that the agency would require more funding disclosures for political tv ads. here is a little bit of a fun article. colbert does not spare politicians. grynbaumreenbaum -- writes when the comedian took to the dais for his keynote speech, atflashed a sly glance cardinal timothy dolan. i have great respect for cardinal dolan, though i have to say it is not easy when you are wearing that outfit. the cardinal gave a broad grin.

in that cape and red sash, you look like a matador who has let himself go. did you not see the invite? arthter echoed around the deco ballroom. it said white tie, not flamboyant zorro. it is one more sign that cardinal dolan and mr. colbert might be having the most prominent friendship and catholicism today. last month, cardinal dolan made his debut on the colbert report. colbert declared himself america's most famous catholic. he said i know what the cardinal

is thinking, stephen, pride is a sin. we are even. this is a 1500 a plate dinner. here are some of his jokes on mayor michael bloomberg. tiny, tiny man. drown in ad he might 16 ounce cup. new york city is the only place in the world where the lesbian canada is too conservative. raymond kelly, are you here alone or did you bring the whole biker gang? those are some of the jokes that he told at the dinner last night. dj is in wisconsin, republican line. listened to the last

caller talking about the wars and the debt. that burned me up. problemspeople to 60 and when everyone -- to fix the problems. when everyone elected obama, he --e in doing what he wanted bring the deficit down, bring the debt down. get our finances in order, mr. president. put us on the right track. that is why he was elected. he comes in here doing what he wants and here this lady is fighting for the democratic party. we elect everybody to fix the problems that are out here. agendas and itir

is like they are driven by it. and itt a one track mind is like they cannot do anything for the people because they came in there with their mind fixed on this is what i wanted to do. look at obama's record from the first two years. host: thanks for calling in. in an interview, snowden says he does not -- he did not take secret files to russia. he argued that he helped american national security. the secret continuance of these programs represents a far greater danger than their disclosure he said. he added that he was more concerned americans had not been told of the nsa's reach. further down in the article it says that mr. snowden said he finally decided to act when he discovered a copy of a

classified 2009 report on the warrantless wiretapping program during the bush administration. he found the document through a which hed search described as an effort by systems administrator to check a computer system for things that should not be there in order to delete them and sanitize the system. john is in sumter, south carolina, democrats line. please go ahead. go again.re we first of all, to your last caller -- the president has no power. creates the debt. secondly, we pay all this money overseas for people to be our friends.

all you have to do is say this one has this and this one has that, let's go blow them up. where's the money coming from? social security. if you are so worried about social security, i worked for 40 years. about your children. least, abortions. you are telling me young girls, you cannot get contraceptives or anything. you have to have this child. sayr she has the child, you no, we cannot give you any help. you are a welfare mother. come on, people. thank you. georgia.l, albany of issues going

on, what do you think about this? view, ifrom my point of am going back to my father's generation. when politics is what it should be, the two-party system working together. there is so much divisiveness, fear, and hatemongering. i do not understand that. was growing up, everybody had a point of view and it did not mean you hated the other person. groups special interest --what the supreme court did these special interest groups especially, and the media. the media feeds our fear.

i would like to see this change. i do not see have a we can get anywhere. our political parties are driven by the same things we are. problem.e very we expect them to act differently from us. we are the government. that is all i have to say. gail.thank you, a couple of headlines i want to share from the washington times. sifting through the remains on the battlefield. the blame game begins. joining us is nathan gonzalez who is with the rothenberg political report. it was politically going to suffer from the last three weeks? who has benefited?

guest: everyone should take a deep breath. is a year --here that can be an attorney in be ancs -- that can eternity in politics. republicans suffered from the shutdown. their polling numbers suffered, more voters blame republicans than democrats or the president. we do not know what the 2014 midterm elections are going to be about. it is going to take time. as we went through this crisis, we talked about how the worst time to measure the political fallout of a crisis is when you're in the middle of it. now that it is over, we will start to see how it has impacted some of these races at the state and congressional district level.

we might be headed for a similar fight at the end of this year and early next year. delay our ability -- that could delay our ability to measure the political impact in the 2014 elections. this is the big story now that everyone is talking about. there is a lot of time for other in control of be what the public is thinking about next november. host: we looked at a chart in the washington times of the republicans who are facing tea party by mary's. that paper had an announcement that mr. cochran got a primary challenger because of his vote on the budget bill. us,these going to stay with these tea party challengers? if this happens again, what is

the result? guest: the idea of a tea party challenge -- we are just at the beginning. tea party conservatives are emboldened by victories, such as ted cruz's victory. that emboldens other candidates to come up to challenge establishment candidates. in some primaries, i will not have an impact because it is a republican seat. have an impact because it is a republican seat. mississippi, democrats will probably be excited about the possibility of facing a tea party challenge, someone who is more conservative. skeptical that a democrat

is going to win a federal race in mississippi at this stage of the game. seeing at this gains fromong-term democrats or repercussions for the democrats? just looking at the map that is in play, democrats on the defensive. most at --out of the out of 10 of the most vulnerable senate seats. we do not know if there's going to be the 6 that they need to take over the majority. that each party could gain a couple of seats here or there, now i think we are waiting to see what the fallout is going to be. either way, i think it is going to be a reach for democrats to

get the 17 seats that they need s furthere republican implodes. host: thank you for that update. we appreciate it. here's a column written prudent on politics. the inspection of the entrails in the wake of the vote will go on for days and weeks, but the real fun will be discovering all in thebes and greece senate bill, adopted by the house. it looks like the usual christmas tree for congressman, with more than a little sugar to make the medicine go down. but why not? it is not their money. $3 billion forot a dam in kentucky.

his reelection campaign is sputtering toward a stall. the republican establishment wants to make mr. cruise and the tea party the villains of the piece. blame -- there is blame enough to go around. mr. cruise and the tea party would not have come to washington if mr. mccain and the republican congressman had remembered why they were sent to washington and not given into the sins and seductions that tempt the best among us. the public and have a history of taking satisfaction in living the good life in the shadows of the capitol. this rattles the chains. the tea party, like mr. obama, will be here after the corpses are cleared from the battlefield. the tea party has made a difference, but has not learned how washington works. the soldiers are likely to be quick studies.

of 2000 voters learned that the tea partiers were better versed in science than most. he was stunned. he expected them to find -- he expected to find in the dunces the mainstream media keeps telling us they are. republican line, virginia. please go ahead. caller: i have a couple of things to mention. -- these are things that have already happened in my area. my doctor, i had him for 40 years. he quit. we had a hospital here for 70 years, it shut down because of obamacare. it is over an hour away to get to the hospital in kentucky. the hospital in this area quit taking aarp interest -- insurance.

obamacare shut down the coal mining in this area. we had a car lot in this area and it shut down. i hope ken cuccinelli can get elected in virginia. i am afraid if terry mcauliffe gets in, we are going to have another obama here. next up, loser, san antonio, texas, democratic line. i am retired military. i stayed 23 years in the military and then i moved to san antonio, went to work for the sheriff's department and i have been sitting here for the last seven years watching c-span. my father told me when i was a never vote for a

republican as long as you live. i'm going to tell you why, give me a moment. when you talk about debt and the tom a it is all about the have and the have-nots. take care of the sick the elderly and people that cannot do for themselves. republicans take care of the rich, the powerful, and the crooked people. also, when they shut down the government, that cost us $24 billion. $24 billion could have been spent for americans, whether they were democrats or republicans, to put people back to work. the republicans, it is all about

policy. are you still there? host: we are listening to you. ever -- have you followed your dad's advice question mark have you ever voted for a republican? caller: the best thing he ever told me -- i followed his advice. i have never voted republican. host: we have to leave it there. front page of the financial shutdown will not deter fed from eyeing december taper. murfreesboro, tennessee, go- ahead. caller: i would like to talk about entitlements. if anyone is entitled to tax dollars, it would be americans before any other country. they need to look at the budget on security. , homelandthe nsa

security, marines, air force, you can go on and on to the local level. how much money do you have to spend and steel -- and still not feel secure? this is gary. keep sequester in effect. it is the only way we have cut spending rather than reducing the rate of growth. here is james -- he says no one will remember the shutdown in 2014. another says i am relieved the panda cam is back on. won't anyone think of the pandas? story in thead l.a. times this morning. economic hit from impasse could indoor. -- could endure. over the debt ceiling may not look like much,

analysts estimate the loss at tens of billions of dollars and reckon that much of that will be recouped the next quarter. the extent of the economic harm goes well beyond what can be immediately tallied. these setbacks may prove to be far more costly, lasting, and painful then a few months worth of slower growth. frontpage, l.a. times this morning. thank you for being with us. booktv this weekend, 48 hours, american history tv on c-span 3. you can find the schedules on booktv.org. thanks for being with us. enjoy your day. ♪

>> president obama will officially announce jeh johnson as his new homeland security department secretary. he will take over for janet napolitano. president obama will make the announcement from the white house rose garden today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. we will have live coverage. the store johnson is a civil and criminal trial attorney for a new york law firm. attorney in the top the defense department. before that, general counsel for the u.s. air force. he was an assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. year, out for them rdhamrsity -- at fo

university, he spoke. >> continued efforts at transparency as an important government interest and not just to keep the press off its back. when it's back is against the wall. that is easier said than done. transparency is hard. the reality is that it is much easier to classify something then it is to declassify it. bureaucratice biases against declassifying something once it is classified. put ten national security officials in a room to discuss declassifying a fact, they will say i am for transparency in principle, at least 7 will be concerned about second-order effects. someone will say "this is really hard, we need to think about it some more." the meeting is adjourned, the officials go onto more pressing matters.