forming and ossified, -- taking an ideological stance. i am relying on that right now. andy is in pennsylvania. caller: hello, representative. obama calling him the education president when he and with allfice, of the education -- the quality of education, the cost of the universities for drupal in -- quadrupling across the nation, and education in the united 25tes dropping to number across everywhere across the

-- in your own state, the quality of education dropping. the black youth in the country -- employment for black youth is , andgoing up to about 16% now with the budget deal being passed, and the amount of money being spent for, as you said yourself, trying to get qualified people into positions, what is in this budget deal that is going to make it so that we can find any kind of money and relief for education for black youth and trying to find money and put placement into any kind of education through this budget of the placement for qualified people and to get host:, -- ducation

host: i think we got the point. the sequester relief gives appropriators in the house the flexibility to fund and -- and defund various programs. one of the hardest bills to pass was the education and labor bill because of the great need, as you pointed out. with regard to there being 20 -- there might be further than that thetem education around world, we need to prioritize funding education. down ison we are so far because for years we relied on trust fund kids, the rich kids who could go to college. they have always gone to college and community colleges. our educational programs ought to be geared to the best and the

brightest. that does not distribute intelligence based on your family. --ess we are really to willing to reach down into some of those minority groups -- i would include that with some of our new immigrants, latinos and so forth. rural whites, it is not just black people. unless we are able to identify those kids and fun programs that withworked very well rounding out the talented among the poor. unless we are able to do that, we are going to continue to not lead the world. and we need to continue to lead the world in innovation. i am glad you called. moore, tell us about your district. represent the coolest district in america, the city of the lucky and a suburban

part, some of the highest income in wisconsin. that i have suburbs on the southern and that are adjacent to paul ryan's district. representative brenner and -- representative sensenbrenner and lake michigan. my favorite thing is like michigan. i represent a very diverse community. there is a large jewish community on the northern end. they --ard-working as ethnic groups on the southern end. the largest african american population in was. a lot of progressives. it is a joy. it is a joy of-- serving the fourth congressional district. host: what is the unemployment rate? -- if you tease out

minorities, it is higher than the national average. at the national average. it is really a big problem. we still rely in my district on manufacturing. of the largest employers. to the extent that there is any kind of decline in manufacturing, it harms our district. we suffer tremendously from not having good transportation systems. this is one of my biggest beefs with our governor who does not want to expand public transportation. a lot of our constituents are locked into the central city of towaukee with no capacity travel outside of that area to where there are opportunities, waukesha, washington, ozaukee counties surrounding milwaukee county. a beef where i have

with my republican friends in the governor. fact that transportation, which had always been the great bastion of bipartisan agreement, these do-e awry in nothing congress is. this is a double hit on unemployment in my district. not -- whoeople do do not know your history, what should they know? workingi am a very hard- person, i am a mother of three, grandmother of three granddaughters. with really identify people who are suffering and struggling. i have been unemployed, i have been on welfare. i have gotten scholarships to college. i have benefited from publicly funded education -- nobody chose me. i was not chosen or had to pull i take it or get number. i was able to benefit from

in me.investments i have paid those back many more times in public service and tax dollars. this is what we mean by investing in people. if you invest in people, there will be a good event i care very much about those people willing pull theird and weight. those are the people i am trying to help. welfare,n you are on did you ever imagine you would be a member of congress? guest: i never dreamed. it was not some aspiration. i resisted going into public service, it was something my mother wanted. to be in my 20's and i told her i thought she was crazy and i would never do this. never say never. talking of public service, i love to give, i love to share.

a leadership model is giving leadership. i love -- i would be a great waitress. i love people. i love public service. you have to pay people to work in restaurants and off. moore is a graduate of marquette university. next call comes from kelly in west virginia, democrat. caller: hi. to put you onoing hold, turned down the volume on your tv. listen through the following. -- the phone. greg in north carolina. caller: hello, representative,

how are you? guest: i am doing great, thanks. question -- it is a step in the right direction as far as trying to negotiate. far asot even close as what is actually going on out here. was contractedi by this company that makes unit s, it is a toy. the science is real and so is the business plan. everyone irolina, showed it to thought it was great and it targeted -- the targeted segment would have been schools and hospitals, museums, and anything instructional or educational. it was open source. the company really was not concerned about copyright

infringements, any modification that anybody made. they just wanted to know what it was so we could use it for advertising. that came after governor,e with the small businesses. the people interested in it before after the sequester were not interested. but it isll be done, really time-consuming. you have to travel more. question -- while i am moving around here. i am going to be brief, i am already late. how is it that they are focusing money, hows taking

are they focusing on social security and looking at health care. why don't they look at things like the patriot act, the national state registry, the division of motor vehicles? host: i think we have a lot on the table. anything you want to respond to? host:--guest: greg makes an important point talking about how the sequester has harmed research. this is something that people do not necessarily feel industry's -- in the streets. this is the kind of innovation we need to stay on top and create jobs and support small business. to keep people healthy, the medical research that is being done. research cannot wait for you to now.it five years from these projects stop.

i am glad you called to make that point. we are all doing -- we are doing other things with national security. there are hearings going on. know abouted to social security. people said why did the robbers rob the banks because that was where the money was. we do see a cash cow, have a surplus in social security and medicare, these are mandatory funded programs not subject to the sequester. republicans and a billionaire friends want to get a hold of the cash. and cut benefits for seniors. democrats have said these are our sacred cows, we are not we wouldtouch it, rather see more tax revenue from the businesses that can't afford - -tha -- that can afford to do it.

less tax breaks for gas, petroleum, fossil fuels. this is an ideological argument that did not become a part of the sequester. i am not counting the sequester massive grand bargain. it is not. all it does is show that there is basic movement and some goodwill to have some conversation. deal, is theis budget committee going to be active in the coming year at all? is it done with its work. guest: this leaves the appropriators a pot of money to raise levels. the chairman of the appropriations committee said that the 967 number was not basic money to run services and government. it was a dangerously funded.

pass thehy we did not 12 appropriations bills, it was not enough money. the sequester relief will at least give the appropriators m to move things around for two years. moore,weeting in, ms. what can government do to end the sense of hopelessness for the poor? a democracy, i have seen it work even under the circumstances. we thought we could not pass the violence against women act. we had native americans pour in here, women's organizations pour e in, people e pounded on the government until the leadership had to yield. we have seen it. when we were about to march into we saw the american

people spontaneously he wrapped -- spontaneously erupt in objecting. we saw the president backed away. democracy does work. got to have that same sort of public swell around the poor. me more than anything since i have been in politics -- legislator -- when i watch democrats and republicans do com come by our mbayah on throwing women and children out of the system. now that that has expanded to nowwho are unemployed and found themselves victims of a recession. we find millions of americans relying on food stamps. we should now have the critical mass so people will say we are

still americans. withnt to be treated dignity even though we do not have jobs and work. we want our government to step up and give us some basic human dignity. and it needs to be a movement. host: kelly, west virginia, democrat. go ahead. caller: yes. watching a lot of the news. a lot of times we will hear on beyonds bridges are repair in the u.s. unemployment is running rampant. in the next breath, we will hear that we are given $2.5 billion to pakistan, so many billions of dollars to egypt or whatever. to fix the problems in this country, we need to quit giving our tax money to other countries. wecan fix unemployment,

can't fix a lot of problems in this country if we quit giving tax money away that our own people are paying. the call.nk you for bridges are collapsing, we saw the bridge collapse in minnesota, that could happen anywhere, including my district. we have a bridge that is vital to our economy that is falling apart. that is one of the reasons we need a transportation appropriations bill. i am sorry to tell you that our foreign aid is only about 1% of our budget, that would not take care of the poor and fixed our educational system. but that does buy it is quite a bit of goodwill. if you think about the aid to egypt, look at how -- egypt has been. the futurenow what holds, but it has been one of with our allylps israel. israel values the relationship

they have had with egypt. when we give foreign aid to egypt, we are helping israel. a lot of aid goes to israel for their military capacity. colin powell once said if you break it you have to fix it. we went into iraq, places like that and found out there really were no weapons of mass distraction. left collateral damage with women and children. orphans. should we not do something and give some payments to help those penance to help those people? of our budget,% that amount is under a threat as we find people objecting to giving back. it buys us a great deal of goodwill.

there are also security agreements that we have with various countries. we have americans who live abroad and need protections. i appreciate your call. ist: speaking of budget, dod the elephant in the room when it comes to the budget. guest: ok. really happy to say is that with the sequester relief, it is about half-and- half. i think there are many more republicans that might enjoy seeing that being top-heavy with defense. it really was a split 50-50. republicansr fewer that are defense hawks than we thought there would be. with you. even people in the armed services are telling us we do not need this plane anymore. i have learned so much from my association -- when i was a we have gotator --

world war i weaponry that we are still financing in the name of economic development. it is hard to get rid of these projects. many of my colleagues, democrats and republicans, have districts where jobs are being created to make stuff that is obsolete. we really do need to become leaner and meaner. i laughed when president obama during the debate was talking about how we did not need bazookas anymore. it is true. host: who is the biggest employer in your district? guest: the milwaukee public schools is a big employer. some healthcare services, assurance health care is the big employer. we still have manufacturing as a

big base. we have international companies. we have got -- we have got ryan'sllar in paul district, right on the border. we still rely heavily on manufacturing in my district. pottawattamie nation is a huge presence in the walkie proper. they provide a lot of jobs to minorities and they provide -- in the walkie -- in the walkie proper.lwaukee they provide a lot of jobs to minorities. host: larry, west virginia. onler: it is good to vote the new budget deal. as far as unemployment, i believe in letting people have

an extension, but every time there is an extension, it should be reduced by 20%. as far as the budget, i would like to see doing away with the baseline budget where it goes up automatically. the proposal where every dollar gets cut one penny until we balance the budget. the third thing, i feel everyone should pay tax. they should do away with tax exempt foundations, people who did not receive the money on natural that they should pay taxes, charities, everyone. colleges have millions and millions of dollars in their taxities, contribution is rate, they have that invested in wall street and they make millions of dollars in interest. they pay no taxes. everyone pay their fair share and we will be better off. if i put $20 in the bank and i get interest, i show it on my

taxes. other people get lifetime interest. the other thing, i don't think most people know our country, even when things are good, we never pay the interest on the national debt from the first world war. in three years we will be able to celebrate paying interest on the debt for the first world war. i would like to know how much interest we have paid in the 97 years we have been paying interest -- host: a lot on the table there. representative moore. guest: let's get started. this is a complicated economic theory. i am very interested in your ideas. charities --y with i think that would infringe on the first amendment if everybody had to pay taxes. if we asked the synagogues and the catholic church to pay taxes, would we not allow people tax exemptions on their typing hing that theyt

do through their church, muslims do zakat. we run into some real first amendment infringements if we were to do that. unemploymento being reduced -- i do not think landlords are going to reduce the cost. they already do not get enough to sustain himself. i don't know how that would work out. in terms of base budgeting and reducing the basics time -- i to what i that adds hear all the time from republicans about creating uncertainty. what do you do when you are a school or a hospital or a research focused institution when you cannot you get a five-

year award of a grant to research lung cancer. you cannot depend on that funding increasing with inflation. suddenly, your materials increase with inflation but your grant does not. these are very interesting economic theories that may help towards the deficit, i don't know that they would help with any kind of economic growth. host: we have been talking with representative gwen moore, democrat of wisconsin, fourth district, milwaukee area. why did you vote for the budget agreement? i am a proud progressive, i am a proud liberal. idid not get everything wanted. i would have wanted to extend unemployment for sure. to those -- extend unemployment to those long-term unemployed people. i did not want to ding federal

employees. i am skeptical about delays in payments for medicaid. me a greatturbing deal. i have learned the hard way in congress that being ideologically stuck is not workable. to the extent that republicans were able -- paul ryan in and patty murray, their leadership leading the way . we have got to be responsible to the majority of the people in this country. i will continue to fight for those things. a door is open. i think i owed it to my constituents to show my willingness to keep -- to stay at the table. host: thank you for being on "washington journal." we have about 30 minutes left. we will open up the phone lines. a lot of topics on the table.

anything you want to talk about, from public policy point of view, we want to hear. we will go through some more newspaper articles and more news items after this break. ♪ >> let me be very clear, this is a very delicate diplomatic moment. have a chance to address peacefully one of the most pressing national security concerns that the world faces today. with gigantic implications of the potential of conflict. we are at a crossroads. one of those really hinge points in history. one path could lead to an enduring resolution for international communities concerns about iran's nuclear program. the other path could lead to hostility or conflict. >> this weekend on c-span, john

kerry on by house members should not impose additional sanctions against iran. as talks continue on freezing an'ss of the run's -- ir nuclear program. hisooktv, dick cheney and cardiologist talk about the former vice president's history with heart disease and advances in cardiology. american history tv, a look at the free african american men and former slaves who fought for the union. sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. the archduke francis ferdinand and his wife were in sarajevo, the capital of bosnia, part of austria-hungary at that time. it was a big serbian national bs celebrate the ser every year. serbia was for years -- serbia

was through this -- serbia was furious austria-hungary had taken over bosnia. they sell the archduke as a symbol of oppression and they decided to kill him. very sloppy police work, there have been warning something was afoot. one of the conspirators shot the archduke and his wife point blank. >> the assassination of archduke ferdinand and his wife and the events leading up to world war i. margaret mellon -- margaret i'm. -- onn q1 q and a. >> "washington journal" continues. we want to hear what you have to to say.

handle, is our twitter you can send an e-mail. our facebook page is open for comments and conversation. facebook.com/c-span. that stays up all day long. you can participate in a lot of good back and forth on that site . here is some more news articles that we have not had a chance to go through. keep your plan pledge earns politifact lie of the year. from "the hill," p olitifact has deemed obama's claim lie of the year. nerves, chance to calm but the promise was impossible to keep.

that is in "the hill." ," whitean "politico house press corps tees off on jay carney. they sounded off against white house press secretary jay carney over lack of access to president barack obama. carney said the white house is working to address concerns, noting the administration has been meeting with the white house correspondents' association. he did not give details about what steps are being taken to expand access. the issue of access has long been a sore spot for members of the press, who argue that the obama white house is more closed off than past administrations. tensions were aired in november when the white house correspondents' association and 37 organizations sent connie a letter accusing the white house of blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government.

gop 2014 daily caller" strategy, attractive minority votes. -- attract minority votes and reinforce red states. gop operatives and lyrical staffers gathered in washington from monday to wednesday for the republican national committee's political staff training conference. the gop plans to insurance restaurants organizers and democratic leaning communities to cultivate support from blacks buttress reds and , q2 retakingolds the senate and presidency. director chris mcnulty touted chris christie's path forward for

other republicans. christie held onto the governorship in a blue state thanks in part to inclusive campaign messaging, a strong ground game, and bilingual phone banking. callerng to a daily source at the conference. from "the new york times," this yemene -- drone strike in his wedding convoy, killing 11. struck aed missiles convoy in a remote area of london, killing at least 11. what appeared to be the second american drone strike in the past week. most of the dead appeared to be people suspected of being militants linked to al qaeda. there were reports that several civilians were killed. the drone strikes fold a deadly

assault on yemen's defense ministry that left 52 people died and for which all qaeda -- al qaeda's yemen-based affiliate claimed responsibility. the violence sharpens a dilemma for president obama, who said he had approved new, stricter guidelines for drone strikes and droneed to make the campaign more transparent. after the speech, the frequency of drone strikes in yemen dipped. we begin with a call from timothy and tennessee. much socialnder how security disability is going to be cut. are they going to cut that are not? and how much? host: why are you concerned

about that? caller: i am disabled myself. host: i do not think it was affected in the budget agreement of the house passed. social security and medicare were not touched. caller: ok. will social security benefits run out in 2016? have ae are going to segment on that. i am not going to answer any more questions except what i know about the budget agreement. we appreciate you calling in. charles and arkansas, republican. moore made a lot of comments. a couple things she did not address. children --er three the government is borrowing $.42 out of every dollar she wants to

spend and giveaway. her children are going to pay that $.42, she is not. she is going to be gone. grasped that. apparently she got where she is through public assistance. i am not knocking her for that. she has done well. t she made about the minnesota bridge. it did not fall because of the upkeep, it failed because it was designed wrong. the plates were too small, that was proven. the fact that the public did not take care of the bridge was not the problem. host: that is a lot of comments, we appreciate it. victor from louisiana, democrat. we're going to put you on hold until we get the volume turned down. a reminder that if you get on,

listen through the phone. you will be able to hear everything. but there is a delay if you listen to your tv. tony, indianapolis, independent. caller: good morning. thank you. i agree with the gentleman ahead of me. is thing i cannot understand with the affordable care act, obamacare -- when people have such a high deductible, they cannot afford insurance now, they go to the hospital or to a doctor or have medical things done to them. i know people who work for me $8,000 or $10,000 deductibles. how are they going to pay that, they cannot pay the insurance they have now. how are they going to pay that? who pays that? it does not sound to affordable. the front page of "the new

york times," obama panel set to urge nsa curb. the presidential advisory committee charged with supervising the national security agency has concluded a program to collect data on every should continue, though under broad, new restraint and tended to increase privacy protections, according to officials with knowledge of the report. argues intee's report favor of codifying and publicly announcing the steps the u.s. will take to protect the privacy of foreign citizens whose telephone records, internet communications, or movements are created by the nsa. it is unclear how far that effort would go and intelligence officials have argued beenuously that they should under few restrictions when tapping the communications of non-americans abroad who do not have constitutional protections under the fourth amendment. advisory group is expected

to recommend that senior white house officials including the president directly review the list of foreign leaders whose communications are routinely monitored by the nsa. president obama has apologized to chancellor angela merkel at germany for the nsa's monitoring of her calls, promising the actions had been halted and would not resume. he refused to make the same promise to the leaders of mexico and brazil. administration officials say the white house has already taken over supervision of that program "we are not leaving it to jim said onenymore" official, referring to the director of national intelligence. the resistance from the intelligence agencies is likely. months ago,iew two keith alexander, the soon to retire director of the nsa and commander of the military cyber a majorsuggested that comeback in american spying on foreign nationals would be naïve

-- a major cutback in american spying on foreign nationals would be naïve. surprised how often they have been asked to weigh damage against -- the white house conduct a regular review of those collection activities, the way covert action by the cia is reviewed annually. recommendation is the creation of an organization of legal advocates who would argue against lawyers for the nsa in front of the foreign intelligence surveillance court, the secret court that oversees the collection of telephone and internet metadata and of wiretapping aimed at terrorism and espionage suspects. mr. obama has hinted that he objects to the absence of any adversarial procedures in front of the court's judges.

that is just some of what david sanger wrote in "the new york times." calling from myrtle beach, south carolina on the republican line. you are on "washington journal." caller: good morning. i would like to make two comments, 120 representative from wisconsin. thehad -- one on representative from wisconsin. on trust fundent babies. there are plenty of people from maker beginnings who went to college. i do not want to get into all that. i think a very good question for all politicians, democrat, republican, the government accounting office, probably 25 or 30 years ago, knew that the baby boomers are going to be at a certain time.

and that's a slow -- and that social security would be coming out. the demographics of the age of did no oneng in -- ever think to consider that or that there would not be enough coming in and a lot more going out at the time? say 25 years or 35 years ago. host: iowa, it is your turn on "washington journal." caller: hi. one of the things i wanted to comment on -- the two. -- you folks hardly ever say anything about who your guests are, democrat, republican, right wing, left wing. eisenhower -- i was a democrat for eisenhower. eisenhower came in and went on a big spending spree. including our interstate highway

system and a lot of other publicly, federally funded programs. and pulled us out of the deep recession that ended up with us debt at the end of world war ii. why don't any of the democrats or republicans ever refer to eisenhower and the way he pulled us out of what we were in at that time, compared with the gdp of now. as bad shape.t the other thing i would like to remind you is you keep telling us old folks to go to the computer. i am very unusual. when i go to the club or any organization, i found out that almost nobody over 60 years old uses a computer and keeps track of things on the computer. otherople know of some

way to find out what you tell them. would you please. host: where is emmitsburg, iowa? caller: just a few miles from the minnesota border. host: what kind of work did you do? caller: i had two small businesses. they were both put out of businesses by foreign own business. that would be another good subject, to go to what american businesses are actually keeping the name of the american business but our foreign-owned. that would be very good. and why doesn't our congress make a law that when a multibillion dollar company overseas comes in and buys up all kinds -- one company bought americanst 1200

ates under and oper the american name instead of owning up to the fact that they are foreign-owned. they put us out of business. host: have you always been a democrat? caller: mostly, i have voted for republicans. i was deep into politics until i got to old. i voted for republicans locally. republicans that i know locally that i see you're honest -- -- that i know were honest. congressman ots of truths.rtial partial truths make awfully good lies. story, nobodye can say that is not true because

it is true. it might be balanced with other truths. one of the things i would like to point out -- china is one of our -- it is our new sears roebuck. figure it out. wall street is actually the and mostiggest casino of us cannot afford to play. host: it was a pleasure to talk with you and i hope we hear from you again. next call is mary lou, new jersey. caller: hello, how are you. host: i am fine, how are you. ok, thank you for c- span. the one thing that bothers me when politicians are discussing the budget, they are always referring to social security and medicare as entitlements. the true entitlements are the welfare, food stamps, rent

subsidies, home energy assistance -- the list is long. getone area that they never involved in a width of budget that is very important and costs taxpayers millions of dollars is the area of illegal immigration. when you think of what it costs to birth the baby's these eseegal aliens -- of th illegal aliens, all the benefits these people are getting that people don't know about. and now the dreamers are getting in-state tuition. they are getting slots and colleges that the children of should have.zens and then politicians have the nerve to say we went the brightest and the best. how can our own children be the brightest and the past when they cannot even get a decent education because these kids are filling out the slots and colleges. the american people really need to wake up and understand what this is about.

if barack obama tries in any way to push through immigration reform, this needs to be stopped. thank you, peter and have a happy holiday. 12:15 today, live on c- span, there will be a discussion about the health-care law by the alliance for health reform. you can watch it right here and on c-span.org as well. bethlehem, pennsylvania, democrat line. you are on "washington journal." caller: i just want to say happy holidays. this is a christmas city. has excellent schools, if you take our grates along with the city of boston, we have the highest-ranking get to the world. but they want -- the highest- ranking kids in the world. but when they throw in

mississippi, of course we are the lowest. we're doing pretty good considering that we have lost all kinds of industry. we had the second-largest steel plant. &t, black &ctric, at decker, we had 50,000 workers at one time. yes what -- guess what, our unemployment is at the national level. that is amazing considering we are part of the rust belt. we have local politicians, all democrats, who know how to create jobs. we are doing fine. the constanttion lying about the health care that is going to cost jobs. are you going to do about this competition -- all these medical center's opening. i live within walking district of six or seven new medical just

-- medical centers. he said we are not worried about that because we will not have enough people. plenty of jobs in the health industry. ok. congress no hand, longer represent us. the state of pennsylvania -- we have 18 congressman, 13 our republican and the 5 democrats got 83,000 more votes than the 13 republicans. you're telling me we have a democracy, that is a joke. host: you might be interested tomorrow on booktv, 48 hours every weekend on c-span2. at 10:00 p.m. on saturday night is our afterwards program, a book called "white collar congress," it addresses some of the and i -- some of the issues that appear to be of interest. booktv.org, you can find the

full schedule. it kicks off at an :00 a.m. eastern every weekend on c-span2 is americann3 history tv. 48 hours every weekend on c- span3. courtthe washington post" staffers of fired found porn. underaged boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct on hard drives recovered from the computer of former chief of staff to senator lamar alexander of tennessee. laskern will remain in custody before a hearing scheduled for monday. arn purchased several videos between november 2010 and march

2011 from a movie production company that was under investigation by the u.s. postal inspection service and the toronto police service. address,oskarn's ip investigators said authorities were able to obtain copies of allegedlyarn downloaded. 128 minute video includes sexually explicit scenes involving a girl between -- one 28 minute video includes a sexually explicit scene involving a girl between the ages of six years old and nine years old. this chart talks about the economics of the u.s. and the eu. here is the economic output of the u.s., projected to be $21.6 trillion in 2018. the european union is right there, the eurozone. $15.5 trillion as a whole.

ohio --ohio, west lake republican line. -- : how is your counter? how is your powder? gunpowder? theuld like all of listeners to get a copy of the declaration of independence and amendments and see if they can find anything in their that says the government can make you buy a product. bill is passed, you cannot put rules and regulations on it because they do not count, period. so intrannment is

sparent, it is painted black. you cannot see. appreciate your call. "the washington post," senate plans to work on nominations over weekend. a sign of how the senate is adjusting to a new set of procedural rules. senators will be summit friday and over the weekend for a series of votes on lower-level nominees amid sustained republican objections to the changes. the process of approving several topresident obama's picks serve on federal courts and agencies began early thursday when the senate confirmed illard to serve on the u.s. gesture -- the u.s. court of appeals for d.c. circuit. it handles federal regulation

cases. the process is expected to continue until saturday afternoon when senators plan to jonson's nomination of the secretary of homeland security. harry reid decided to devote most of the week's procedure -- proceedings two nominations in order to use the rules enacted last month that allow for most comedies to be confirmed without having to clear a 60 vote hurdle. republicans are making good on threats to use procedural tactics to slow the prices -- the process. the senate was an all night last night in the night before. we will see what happens over the late hours tonight. u.s. agencies dance around cell phone use aloft. "the new york times," the transportation apartment said on thursday it would consider banning cell phones for voice

calls on airplanes, a reaction to public outrage at an sec proposal to lift a rule that has long forbidden the use of mobile phones during flight. consumers will soon be able to text, check e-mail, and connect to the internet on their cell phones while their flight is above 10,000 feet. 2 to go ahead 3- with its own measure to solicit comment on whether to repeal the rule unconnected devices. all 5 commissioners said they have shared the public's doubts about such change. after nearly three weeks of public complaints for even raising the possibility of passengers having to sit for hours while seatmates chatter on cell phones, the fcc chair agreed there was a way to promote technology and protect the public interest. that is in "the new york times" and several other papers. lots of opinions about that. ken, south carolina, independent line.

caller: hello? can you hear me? i had to talk about the republicans and democrats, there is a cartoon i saw when i was a kid. get thetries to sheep. the dog tries to get the sheep all day long. -- at end of the night the end of the day, he says i will see you tomorrow. withe got a bone to pick some black americans. i am a gulf war veteran. when i see the full calling in and saying republicans won't let obama do this. he will not speak about black unemployment, a white woman or hispanic women for the supreme court. he met with the black caucus, he talks about education.

all the schools in chicago and new jersey are shipped across town. to me, all the talk about is immigration. immigration is going to kill the black community. when 22you think million immigrants -- they are end. to take the low people at m.i.t. and georgia tech, your time is coming. microsoft, facebook, the white house. your time is coming, too. those are the low-end jobs. i don't know why the u.s. -- getting into that corrupted government they have got. they can stay at home and talk. it got too big and it has collapsed. going to have to leave it there. thank you everyone who participated this morning and "washington journal."

we are going to close with this usa today editorial about newtown and gun laws. they have opposing editorials. tomorrow on "washington journal ," a roundtable discussion on the gun issue and on newtown with police chiefs on tomorrow's 7:00 a.m.n journal," every morning on c-span. have a good weekend. ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> the u.s. senate continues its

around-the-clock debate and vote on nominations. they have been in session since wednesday afternoon. senators confirm block -- barack obama's picked for secretary of the air force. 11ocrats are pushing through , mostly noncontroversial, nominations. if republicans keep their lot of debate time, the senate could be in the session -- in session into saturday. the house wrapped up work yesterday and they have gone home. before leaving, they sent a two- year budget agreement. not efense the budget -- here on c-span will be a -- we will be live with a discussion on health care costs. the discussion will center on the options for handling the rising cost of health care.