roughly $9ok at the billion spent on head start with the executive director for law and social policy. ♪ the former secretary of state says she is months away from making a decision about a run for the presidency. that does not stop a campaign from building on her behalf for a year. inlary clinton's future an of this is the focus morning. later we will focus on what the

president might say and which of his agenda items might have a chance in congress. thank you for joining us on this washington journal. our phone lines are open. for democrats, the number is (202) 585-3880. for republicans, (202) 585-3881. for independents, (202) 585-3882 . you can also reach out to us online in on twitter we are at @cspanwj. on facebook we are at facebook.com/cspan. you can also send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. morning, isn this there a plan for hillary? this morning we are going to talk to the author and political reporter of "the new york times."

could just walk us through your story and tell us what you found out about the clinton universe. i found they are really unique in american politics. bill clinton has been collecting people since kindergarten. they want to help and they all want to be heard. they all have an interest in getting hillary clinton elected did in 2008 that led to a lot of voices, a lot of cooks in the kitchen. these people and make sure chaos doesn't ensue? there are concerns about bill clinton and his legacy. guest: people i spoke to said he is differential. exactly what a loss

would do not just his wife and his family but his own legacy. his people around him are concerned. his legacy building is part of his philanthropic work. i think he is very aware of that. i think he is also very interested. d building up grassroots support for her candidacy -- bill clinton called one of the people attending to check in on things and see how it was going. he is definitely feeling things out. i wanted to ask you about that cover. how did that come about? i write the words, i did not have anything to do with the cover. from what i heard, i already described the story as hillary clinton's universe.

they alike and it -- they liken it to the movie "space cowboys." it was a species theme when we were talking about this. i did not see it until a couple of days before the story ran. i knew it would spark some attention. has certainly been a lot of conversation. one idea that has stricken me is who makes up the hillary clinton circle? is that old guard people or are there new faces there? she really has inspired loyalty. the women we have heard about around her are people she has had since the white house. they are not necessarily on the payroll now. they are her closest advisors, her friends, people who give her advice. and then she has brought in new people. that might be a promising sign

for a 2016 campaign. department the state , jake sullivan is a policy guy who works for biden now but she is close to. -- it is sort of a mix. but it is made up of this core group of people. if she does in fact ron, how much help will she get from president barack obama, the one who toppled her in 2008? usa has said it will work towards getting clinton elected. to bringhey are going in some obama people. people i talk to said they don't even need that. by 2016 campaigns will be waged and even more data driven in an advanced way.

and can they find that new generation? they sort of snapped everyone in 2008. axelrod describes putting together obama's team as oceans 11. they picked the star guys who were not already working on clinton's campaign. that worked out amazingly for them. that is the challenge, go out there and find new generation. host: talk to us about the reporting process. this is a lengthy story. how much axis did you get to do it? -- access did you get to do it? access toy gave me her closest advisors to talk about this concept of loyalty and why they worked for secretary clinton for so long. i also talked to some of the new people. that is something -- they wanted me to have that perspective. they want this narrative out. the state department is run nothing like 2008. two thousand eight was chaos, there was a lack of management.

-- 2000 eight was chaos, there was a lack of management. was chaos, there was a lack of management. i talked to friends who have known them in the days before they were so rich and famous and powerful. that was really interesting as well. host: i want to ask you about something you mentioned earlier, the number crunching and code-breaking hackers. or are theyl exist face is that we will see emerge if she does run? one interesting element, chelsea clinton is mostly running the foundation now. ld be ans like she cou interesting merging of old and new guard. i wondered if she would eventually emerge in some kind

of role to find those people. have that business, hedge fund, consulting background. the former secretary says she is months away from deciding about her political future. any idea what the timetable actually looks like? a science ofs like analyzing everything she says along those lines. i had heard she said in a private speech with a hedge fund in new york last year, the question was a good one. -- was to was to word run for president, what would they need to logistically decide? -- win when would they need to logistically decide? he said by the middle of 2014. host: we have been talking with the author of the "planetar hillary" piece.

hillary is the topic of c-span's first lady program. let's take our first call. thank you for calling in. caller: good morning. hillary clinton would be an excellent president. host: what makes you say that? caller: look at her background. she has been in politics for a long time. she is a very intelligent woman, very compassionate woman. that is what we need from today's president. obama, yes, he is intelligent and everything. he is everything that we needed and wanted. saider every republican they want to make him a one term president, they did not want to go along with anything he said or did or try to do.

clinton is the one. she is going to be the next president of the united states of america. host: you mentioned her experience. a lot of people would say she's while, politics for a maybe a newcomer needs to come in. what do you say about that? caller: that's fine. they said the same thing about barack obama, that he is too young and too inexperienced. clinton, experience, knowledge, everything -- she is going to be the next president of the united states. enough is enough with the do-nothing congress. barack obama is a republican's worst nightmare. , educated black man. and that is the problem they have with barack obama. thank you.

times" is new york not the only outlet focusing on hillary clinton's future. online -- that story focusing on the independent pac for hillary. from new york, georges on the line for republicans. -- george is on the line for republicans. caller: i am against her as president. toward the ignorance secretary of state -- host: it sounds like we lost

george. let's go to mississippi on our line for independents. are you with us? caller: yes, ma'am. taking my call. as far as hillary clinton running, i would be just as happy if she would go in and up.a would give i don't think she can do no worse. obama has come in and made a everything. i don't think he can even read or write. them are going to lie to you so it doesn't make a

difference. host: another article focusing on hillary clinton. the headline -- chris matthews called her nurse ratchet -- that is from "the washington post" over the weekend. let's go to to let -- go to damascus, maryland. caller: good morning.

hillary clinton would not be a good choice to run for the democratic primary. she is part of the corporate side of the democratic party. if you look at elizabeth walraven, she is on the pro-working family side. , -- izabeth walraven elizabeth warren, she is on the pro-working family side. look at all the campaign contributions that hillary clinton will get and it will be from the corporations. host: who would you prefer to see run? caller: someone like elizabeth walraven, bernie sanders -- when it -- someone like elizabeth warren, bernie sanders. host: from twitter --

in westborough, massachusetts, stanley is on our line for independents. getsr: if hillary clinton into the white house, bill will be there to. him at theed breakfast table. dr. ben carson will come out of the woodwork and the irs will have to be replaced. think about it. the last caller mentioned bill clinton, as did kentucky senator rand paul over the weekend. "usa today" reports --

our next call comes front texas -- comes from texas, tony is on the line for independents. you talk about all these people running for president. might as well just have a monkey running for president. they are all in bed together. don'tt know why people understand that there is no republican or democrat. they are all working together against the poor class. we don't have nobody on our side. why doesn't nobody understands that? why don't they see that? , noon't have no clinton republican on our side fighting for mankind. all just lies and deceit

because they are all crooks and criminals. they don't have to prove anything, they don't have to show anything, no transparency whatsoever. did becausehat we we are allowing our children to be not talked -- not taught. they are taking their cell phones to class. are taking them apart in china classes. they are doing so dang much. we are losing it all. we are going to lose our whole country and we are just letting them take it all. a lot of brilliant observations in that "new york's piece.- "new york times"

that is from "planet hillary." our next call comes from harrisburg, pennsylvania. roses is on the line for republicans. -- rose is on the line for republicans. caller: i just want to say i think they should turn it over -- i can't hear you. host: we can hear you. we should give the republicans another chance because the democrats make the biggest mess ever with this obama care. we should have dr. carson and allen west takeover.

maybe we may have some transparency in the white house. next call comes from texas, chris is on the line for independents. good morning. clinton, whenary i think about her candidacy i think it is an all or nothing wager for the democrats. talked aboutallers elizabeth warren or alan grayson. even if they did run they would have no chance of winning. in aemocratic party is hillary or bust mode right now. there is no plan b. i hope for her sake that she runs. hillaryter today clinton is set to address the national automobile dealers association.

"since leaving her role as the nation's top diplomat she has given speeches to national groups. clinton receives about 2000 -- about $200,000 per speech. the group represents more than 16,000 new car and truck dealerships. this appearance was announced back in july." our next call comes from jamestown, north carolina. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am very happy to see a person of color as the host of "washington journal." choice for the 2016 general election would be vice president joe biden running for president and elizabeth warren running for vice president. clinton,illary

although she would be a fine givedate i think it would the koch brothers and others .uel to pour in tons of money the race would then evolved into one of the worst smear campaigns . i think vice president joe biden and elizabeth warren would be a wonderful team to lead our country for the next four to eight years. in texas, chris is on our line for democrats. -- he hase biden is

andcharacter and confidence relationship skills and building .kills --thing you hear about him the quips or what he has to say or whatever. it has nothing to do with his character. i do like hillary clinton. havingng is weird about bill clinton in the breakfast table. i am pro, i am a centrist. pro-capitalist, i am a centrist. i think it would be good to have getting close to the white house. elizabeth warren would be a nice vice president. thank you for taking my call.

in new york, kerry is on our line for republicans. caller: how are you? i am a registered republican, not sure how i feel anymore about being republican. womanld be nice to see a in the presidential office. hillary clinton? i am not so sure about that. i think there is a lot of discrepancy between her and her husband. i do not trust that family. in this "new york times" piece -- our next call comes from jack calling from virginia.

i do not support hillary. iraq.ted for the war in that was a critical vote. i would support mark warner, former governor and now senator and successful businessman from virginia. yorker" overhe new the weekend -- is a mostlection three years away --

next is ron from ohio on our line for democrats. caller: i support hillary clinton to a point. i am shocked at how dumb america got. they voted for obama twice. that shows you that america is not bright no more. our students are stupid, our kids are not getting educated right. the only thing hillary clinton wants to do is get her weird husband back in office, a pervert. when people just run out and

vote for her because she is a woman, that shows you their ignorant. -- shows you they are ignorant. vote for somebody just because she is a woman. they need to remember, hillary clinton is a very cultured person. in benghazi, no one took accountability for that. america is on a bad road. we are falling apart. our economy is rough. what do you think hillary clinton is going to do when she gets into office yet though she is going to try to implement -- and to office? she is going to try to implement -- in to office? she's going to try to implement hillary-care. it is bad for our economy. comes fromext call

watertown, wisconsin, frank is on the line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't think hillary should be the candidate for the democratic party. people forget about benghazi. four people were killed. when she was on the foreign affairs committee she said it was over, it's done with, what can we do about it now you tell she didn't do nothing -- do about it now? she didn't do nothing. it just would not be right for hillary to be president of the united states because of benghazi. she was never held accountable for it. couple more of your tweets this morning -- and bill king writes --

next up is ken in lancaster, south carolina on our line for independents. caller: and my on? host: -- am i on? host: you are on. caller: i am a united states veteran for the 10 mile division in new york. every time somebody calls and criticizes rock obama, a black person calls and asks why they are criticizing him. sizes barack obama, a black person calls and asks why they are criticizing him. at the end of his presidency, just one the jobs are almost -- that isis one when --

everybody knew about apologize. paula jones. what woman would stay with a man who asked her for a divorce? [indiscernible] four people got killed, she got a pass. all of them get a pass be the best get a pass. -- all of them get a pass. it looks like we are having trouble with your reception. let's move on to rick from florida on our line for republicans. i don't think hillary clinton would be a good president. be a person -- she

doesn't seem to be a person of conviction. she seems like she likes to put her finger up in the air. will go is popular she for that the boating crowd or crew -- that boating crowd or crew. -- that voting crowd or crew. bring up benghazi. i cannot see her as commander-in-chief especially after that. she has a lot of baggage to. -- baggage too. i think the clintons, they should just go away. thank you very much. host: next up is can in virginia on our line for independents. caller: i think tactically it would be a mistake for her to

run. think she would divert fundraising and i doubt she could get the nomination. if she got the nomination i don't think she could win. i don't really care because i am not a democrat. two other points but hillary specifically. i think there should be a constitutional amendment that family members cannot run for president if you have been president before. i can't remember how far back it goes. maybe all the way back to the 1932 elections, there is always somebody from yale on the ticket. i think we need a moratorium on the yale graduates because they seem to have a lock on the white house. a look at somee of the comments coming in on facebook. remember you can write in at facebook.com/cspan.

next call is from gretchen in new york. she is on our line for democrats. caller: good morning, i am a long-time listener and first time caller. i have three points. hillary is not just any woman, she the first lady of arkansas --t ran for senator and one first lady of arkansas. she ran for senator and won. i'm so tired of males talking about the female body. when they cause the problems

they should take some of the responsibility. thank you very much. goodbye. tweet -- ing at a that is a chart looking at ratings from the pew research center, favorability ratings from hillary clinton -- four hillary clinton. the chart goes all the way back -- favorability ratings for hillary clinton. 2002.art goes back to jerrymony, north carolina is on our line for independents. morning, you are on "washington journal." i am a veteran and i am really scared of what is going on in our country and the freedom we are losing. african americans will never get

to run again because of all the damage barack obama has done to our country. i think dr. ben carson and allen west would be the for -- would be the perfect team to get this country back on 10 -- back on track. i am a white 75-year-old man and i would love to see them on the ticket. i think they are good people. i think those guys can get us back on track. next call comes from ohio, lower is on the line for democrats. -- laura is on the line for democrats. go ahead. caller: thank you. hello. hi. my name is laura. i'm from ohio. i would just like to say that president obama has not been given a chance.

i think he is a wonderful president with bright ideas. i think hillary clinton could make a good president. mr. obama steps into a big mess that the bushes left for him. i believe he has done his best to try to make things better and he has just been voted down left and right. i think if he was given a chance he could brings country together -- bring this country together as a unit. we are supposed to be united, not divided. i don't understand why we are fighting against one another when we should be working together to make this the best country that it always has been and always should be. the topic this morning, should hillary clinton run for president in 2016? the "new yorko

times" cover story, "planet hillary" -- that is on the bill clinton factor for hillary clinton. our next caller comes from nashville, tennessee. david is on the line for independents. name is david and i served in the military for 21 years. i served under the clinton administration and i was very proud of the way hillary maintained control throughout all of the mollo -- throughout all of the monica and the scandals. -- monica lewinsky scandals. athink she would make fantastic president. she dropped the ball when she went into the meeting with obama and walked away from her chance

to straighten this country out. i lost a lot of respect for her. i don't think she should be again. to run she fumbled the ball just like she did in benghazi. she would probably be more of a detriment than an asset to the american people. thank you. sam in wisconsin on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i don't think hillary should run for president. first of all if she does become president -- you have to understand, you she will become commander-in-chief. becomerstand, she will the commander in chief. can you understand that?

maybe somebody in the obama administration would be held accountable. if she has to go to summit with leaders of the middle east, is she going to half to where that's going to have to wear a burqa? -- is she going to have to wear a burqa? i hope the citizens of the united states understand this. i cannot picture hillary clinton as commander in chief. in arcadia, louisiana on our line for democrats, should hillary clinton run for president in 2016? caller: i am african american and i would just like to say this, especially to the black man who called in, it doesn't

matter if hillary ron's. what matters -- if hillary runs. if anyoneers is white runs. if someone white runs everything will be right with this world for the so-called whites. this country was built on the back of african-americans. if everything is white in this world, everything will be fine for them. lisa is on the line for republicans. caller: all hillary clinton is is a pantsuit for obama. she is awful. as far as i am concerned dr. ben carson is wonderful. of i am a white woman from

louisiana and -- i am a white woman from louisiana and i don't think it should be black or white. ben carson is an intelligent black man and i am white. thank you. host: should hillary clinton run in 2016? pennsylvania on our line for democrats, what do you think? caller: i think hillary will be a great resident. i am about this -- a great president. i am about the same age. of i was -- i was a great fan of bill. everybody did well. everybody made money. for people to talk about bill clinton and hillary like this is terrible. it is time for a woman to be a president. -- to be president of the united states. we are going to have hillary as

president of the united states in 2016. forget about benghazi, that was a lie. to woodbridge,o virginia, jonathan is on our line for independents. i am just calling because i wanted to say i don't think she should run. i hope she doesn't win. i am an independent and i am also white. i am a veteran. i would be happy to support dr. , who ison african-american. church withnt to his family growing up. they are a wonderful family. ultimately we need somebody who understands we do have a spending problem and we are going to get it under control. i don't think kilo clinton will address are spending problem. from louisiana on the line for democrats -- hillary clinton

should run for president. i think she will help this war on women. republicans are just for the rich getting richer. in pennsylvania, heather is on the line for independents. caller: i would just like to -- the that the clintons limousine driver that drives them around, to that -- around mcommented that they just want money. when they go to these functions they would comment bad about the people. i don't think they should be trusted. i would vote for ben carson. i do feel sorry for obama. i don't know if it is a racist

thing that's against him. ourwould be sad if you country still had a racist problem. support gary johnson. a lot of people do not know about him but he was the libertarian candidate. host: our next call comes from ward washington -- from fort washington, maryland. black woman from fort washington, maryland. hillary clinton will run for office and she will win. is only thing mr. carson going to be doing is trying out for uncle tom's cabin. proved they like to start wars. hillary clinton will be a great president. i will be out as her cheerleader.

i want to make sure there will not be a male president. barack obama has had nothing but racism fly around in his face. fromrs need to stay away fox cable news and rush limbaugh. from missouri on our line for independents -- caller: if more people would listen to fox news and rush limbaugh but there would get the truth. and also glenn beck. i think ben carson would be a bug -- would make a wonderful president. last call comes from dave in liverpool, new york on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. my comment is i want hillary to run because i need a democrat in the president's seat. need somebody picking good

supreme court nominations and getting people other than conservatives on the supreme court. the democrats need to come out in 2014 and 2016, we need to try to take back the congress and the senate. of if hillary does when -- if hillary does when we are still going to have problems with congress and the senate. have a good day, america. todd -- next up, willich will discuss the state of the union. later we will talk about the affordable care act. we will be right back. ♪

>> the real moment actually started with two gentlemen, one was jack dorsey and the other was a close friend. they worked at a company that was a podcasting company in early 2005. it was in san francisco. the podcasting company was failing. no and jack had been out drinking. -- noah and jack had been out drinking. of -- d an idea his cofounder of this company

had the idea that you could be able to share with your friends and be able to connect with your friends. he was going through a very difficult time at the time. this thing called twitter would make you feel less alone. that was the genesis of the idea but everyone had a different concept of what it was once it started to grow. looks at then origins of twitter tonight on "the communicators," at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span 2. bama c-span launched its first schoolbus in 1983, raising awareness on how c-span covers politics and government. today, 20 years later, the c-span bus continues on the road festivals,ok education events, and schools. look for us on the road and online on our website,

c-span.org. you can also follow us on twitter, all brought to you by our cable and satellite provider. this winter university students will get their chance to visit the washington -- visit the c-span bus and join us on "washington journal." "-- >> "washington journal" continues. host: he is the correspondence takeaway international. tomorrow president obama heads to the capital for the state of the union. this is his sixth speech. for those of us that work around here, let's be honest. the rare -- itf is one of the rare occasions that the public really pays attention to the president and congress. things pop up when there is a big news event.

chance to capture the attention of the country in primetime. forngs last year were down the state of the union, among the lowest in the last 20 years or 30 years. still there were 30 million viewers, which is a lot. it is not celebrity bachelor. you are looking for public attention and that is the president's opportunity. from the president's perspective this comes as no surprise. he has a congress that is recalcitrant, not coming along with his agenda in any way. the only thing congress is itself,done is among things that have to get them like fiscal cliffs and spending bills, 15 days late. it looks like we are on the cusp of a "farmville". they have been working on it -- of a farm will.

they -- of a farm bill. they have been working on it for two years. most people watching the speech should know legislatively it is not going anywhere, especially in election year. what the white house is told us to expect is a president who will work for the congress when he can. he uses executive power to get things done. the president can issue executive orders. is a president who is traveling a lot, getting with ceos, getting with captains of industry so that he can be seen as doing something for an agenda when congress won't come along. congress is extraordinarily unpopular. the president is not doing great himself. congress is much much worse. one thing the white house has been saying, and it stands to

-- if you are going to congress saying these past this, please pass that -- converse saying please pass this, please pass that come a you don't want your success rate tied to people who are batting seven percent or eight percent. see what you can do on your own. more importantly see what you can be perceived to do on your own and a time when the middle class is not doing well and the country is hobbling back to economic recovery. people don't like washington but they want to see some measure of action. that is the marketing million the white house is operating under. --marketing million new marketing mileu the white house

is operating under. host: our phone lines are open. of the president's approach will be tied to the fact that 2014 is election year, a number of competitive races, democrats need to can train -- need to regain control of the house and senate? democrats, roughly half the people, are looking up at give usium and saying some firm ground to stand on as democrats. you mentioned taking back the house. or two -- ione would say they have a good chance of taking back the house. really what's democrats are fighting for is preserving the senate. democrat scored and mated a

message that started to emerge a .ouple of months ago - we saw a lot of debate over extending unemployment benefits. dovetails with a large part of the message you are going to hear from president. house is recasting this as economic mobility. of as the country is limping toward recovery, middle-class wages are stagnant and have been for many years. that is not new. you are going to see a message the democrats like that they think appeals to a lot of modern voters. one of income equality, employment insurance, minimum wage increase, making college more affordable. the bread-and-butter middle-class issues you are going to see the president

mentioned. we just got done talking about the fact that congress is not terribly interested, particularly the republican minority,the senate in passing anything the president will call for. the president can go around and say i have my pen and i have my phone and i am going to be executive about these things. article one of the constitution does not give him a love -- give him a a lot of leeway in terms of federal minimum wage increase. the white house has not said this directly but there are people who know the policy here the white house can do something about the minimum wage. i don't know if there is a federal employee that makes minimum wage. the president can drag his pen across an executive order and

say that federal agencies have to favor contracts from private companies. they have to figure companies that offer at least $10 an hour. increased immigrants want. that provides a little bit of a market push and it will cause employers who do business with the federal government, which we all know is worth billions, to boost the wages of their workers. and for those workers, questionable about what kind of accomplishment can be agreed upon. our first call comes from milford, delaware. i think in the state of the union -- i hope he does address the minimum wage. what the guy just said about favoring companies, using lead themorders to

towards that. i hope he also addresses immigration policy. i think that will help win -- help in 2016 with taking back some of the seats. don't think we can take back the house but i do think the democrats could gain a lot of momentum. minimum wage is something everybody needs and wants. i thank god i do not have to work under minimum wage. i have a great job. i don't know how much but i think it needs to be addressed. host: the caller mentioned immigration, which is something i left out. i bet you a dollar we will hear the president's talk about immigration. in a congress that does , immigrationttle has a pulse all of a sudden.

democrats have been confidence that the immigration issue is playing well for them. policy -- get the politically untenable for any party that wants to run nationally. , they midterm election have their own local issues. thatlican leaders know something has to get done for tweet 16 and they have to improve their position. foroes have a pulse -- 2016. and they do have to improve their position. but we are told to expect from the republicans and immigration plan that is designed to get bipartisan support. areas ofe key disagreement between the president and house republicans

is a pathway to citizenship. not expecting the republicans to have a pathway to citizenship in their bill. republican leaders have been telling us that this is specifically designed to sit down and try to get something passed. one bright the legislative spot you see early this year. i would say after immigration, the only other thing that gets done in this congress is things like the debt limit. jay carney was on abc's "the sweet." let's take a look at what he had to say. -- abc's "this week." let's take a look what he had to say.

[video clip] was an we saw this week america that cannot deliver to the people. folks want to come up to the middle class. congress has had a bad year and the president has had a bad year in terms of the public's perception. the president has not had a lot of legislative victories. no big legislative successes. republicans perceive that conservative republicans caused it. it affects everyone's rating. obamacare was a disaster, that do not help the president. syria has not helped the president. if you remember back a couple of months, a sort of diplomatic stumbling where russia came to

rescued thend syrian chemical weapons confrontation. that did not play well for the president. the state of the union is a good place as any to push off on solid ground. democrats want that, too. the risk very little room except maybe on immigration for this divided congress and this president to come together on major policy issues. going it alone is the best he can do right now. host: eric is on the line from baltimore. caller: good morning. i think the state of the union is like a traditional thing to be done. it does not resonate with the american people like i believe

it used to. we are not united in any way. some of the things a mama want obama--some of the things wants to a commish, he will not be able to do --to accomplish. his big shot at doing controversial things. now he couldn't have made a dent in our budget crisis and being united. republicans are not going to give him anything he wants. for us to sit here and he says the state of the union and we are united, we know that is a lie and a farce. hopefully we have some republicans to try to sign on. you talked about immigration. let's worry about jobs.

jobs, jobs, jobs. if he can get some of that done, we will be united. without getting these people unemployed, getting them back to work. that will unite the country. thank you. guest: the caller is correct. the president did use a great deal of lyrical capital. --a great deal of political capital. that is why we have the affordable care act. foralth insurance program tens of millions of people is a major a congressman, assuming the law continues. there is no reason to believe that it will not. that, iat, --beyond don't know the president to try

to convince people that the country is united. the subtext of his matches is that we are not. dual not cooperate with me. you do not like my agenda. i will go around you to the public. you saw rand paul yesterday criticizing the president. the republican leader mitch mcconnell has used similar language about abuse of power in the white house in many different regards. i do not think he will be disappointed to see a president play act like the country and the congress is united. >> next up from oklahoma. caller: i have a couple of points a lot like to make. we have provisions to feed , house them, take care of

them and other provisions. i was wondering what laws do we need? you say congress is not working with the president to pass laws. i do not know what new law that we don't have that we need now. question on whether the president is black, he is as much white as he is black and people need to get over that race. guest: taking the second question first. may be we will leave it there. the president is a first. there is a national conversation about it.

i don't know that we have to go much further than that. in terms of programs for the poor. when you talk about income inequality, one thing you are going to see, i mentioned the "farmville" --i mentioned the farm bill. it is a gigantic bill with lots of complicated formulas for sugar and dairy. the largest part is food stamps. supplemental food assistance for the poor. house republicans passed a bill that would've passed -- cut the food stamp bill. and looks into the emerging deal that house republican leaders say they will find the votes to pass on their side with cuts of

roughly $9 billion. there are some various programs that are perceived as gaming the system. looks like it will cut about $9 billion over 10 years without cutting the value of benefits. that is not a new law. you have obamacare. there is a medicaid expansion that was designed for low income people. many states did not expand it. i do not know the president will last for any new laws in the state of the union to assist the poor. there was some money for head start. under sequestration, a lot of these programs were getting cut. progressive democrats insisted

and went to the mat on that issue and got more money for early child could education. there is not money for everything right now. host: i want to ask about the politics. many republicans are departing from the state of the union response script. response to bel as uniform a message as possible is given away two free agencies. about --k guest: which ones is the question. this reflects accurately the state of the republican party right now, which is divided into itself.

you do not need a bunch of desperate state of the union responses to know that. look at the republican members of congress who are getting primaries. mitch mcconnell has incredible challenge from a tea party member. you have the tea party response. rand paul is giving the rand paul response. there is the official republican response. let's start with rogers. not the only woman but the highest ranking. she is from washington state. i think the publicans are open she can speak in a real way into the camera and to american people in response about home issues. she just gave birth to her third child as a member of congress, which is a record, i think.

she is a mom and a repeated mom as a politician. that is the official response, to the one they would like to break through the most. the others have been pivoting off of the legal debacle, at least for moderate voters. that and starting to talk about other issues besides the affordable care act and obamacare all the time. lee has given a couple of andches to solving poverty income levels. most of the nuts and bolts when not surprise you -- low taxes. lee has been pivoting off that a bit. on cruz, there is another renewal of the debt limit coming

up in the next couple of weeks. maybe by late february congress will get to debate this. we have been around this track twice already. twice they have raised the debt limit. major confrontations and potential defaults. what is going to happen with the value of u.s. treasuries? yesterdaynnell asked on television whether they would demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. he did say republicans would demand some types of policy changes to go along with the debt limit. that is not saying we demand dollar for dollar spending cuts. steadfastuz remains that the debt limit should not

be raised without spending cuts. he can't make it difficult for mitch mcconnell to make a deal. depending cam and listened to ted cruz, echo, kate the debt limit issue. host: john from atlanta. caller: how are you doing? they should call the pinocchio awards. nancy and harry sing a song. mentorbe -- i think the jr.d do the carlos sr. and performance and that should be transparent. thank you. sarcastic, iand guess. i think he was referring to the

nancy pelosi and harry reid. if they all got on stage together, something i would watch. caller: hi. yes. -- the woman called and said barack obama is half white. maybe she needs to go down to the senate floor and let them know that. they fight this man on anything he has to do. for all the good he has done, does he get credit for any of those things? no. thing, socialw security, some moment in cincinnati, barack obama. they are going to fault him and are not going to work with him unless he signs his executive order. those congressmen that are

collecting funds on that, they should not be allowed to. is serving in the congress. they want to cut from food stands and that is a crying shame. and i feel for our president. any time a white man takes the oval office, i think things will go back to the way the tea party wanted. guest: the president is frustrated with congress, without a doubt. plenty of reports that in his private meetings he expresses his frustration with the state of relations with the congress. his relationship with a lot of congressional democrats -- this is a convoluted problem. strategy then

republicans have taken on since early 2009 is a part of it. congressional relations have not been very good. in terms of subsidies in the bill,ille", -- farm one of the programs that is getting cut in the farm bill is direct payments. a lot of farmers get taxpayer money based on how much land they have. it is designed to support farmers when crops are bad. that program has been seen as a and money going out to people who are wealthy anyway. the formal is changing in a way that is supposed to be more sensitive to the realities of farming. direct payments largely out the window.

host: our guest this segment is todd zwillich. our next caller is kimberly in washington, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. i have two concerns. with the obamacare, the health care -- host: go ahead. cap on until we get a the cost of everything, there is not any kind of insurance that will be able to help us. i have breast cancer and trying to get my five year survival rate clearance from i in college just --from my oncologist. andants between 86 dollars 400 and $14. i work part-time. i live with my daughter. i am baffled.

justs it from $86 to $414 for a meeting with the doctor? as far as the race thing. hillary tried to get us health care. she was white. it is like a scam. somebody tries to take from them and they are going to fight them. guest: you would have to know more about the caller's income situation. month, you would qualify for medicaid in any state in the country. if not medicaid, premium subsidies under the affordable care act. she mentioned the issue of cost. one of the main criticisms of the affordable care act is there

is not a lot of cost control. it brought a lot of people into the system but didn't have a lot of downward pressure to lower health care costs. ite people are insured, spreads the risk, if you can get those people to sign up. there are a lot of rice controls or price caps. members of congress are talking about bringing back some price controls on prescription drugs that used to exist, to try to lower the government's cost but the public cost on pharmaceuticals. that may go somewhere in the next couple of years. next call on the line for democrats. caller: i heard him talking about the president's executive

powers. how far can the president go with that? we know we have a congress that doesn't do anything. in looks like the next year or two we will depend on how much he's able to do. i will take my answer off the phone. >guest: the president can exercise executive power in anything in the executive. we talked about new requirements to contract, to favor companies increasing the minimum wage. that could be a policy the white house puts out. with the plenty military. he cannot raise taxes or revenue or spend new money. he cannot pass new laws.

he can bring others to microphones who want to be seen next to him or threatened those who don't. that is the bully pulpit part. the president does have some power in this regard. it remains to be seen exactly howeffective this can be in effective the president is at how much he is bringing the country forward in the time of stagnant wages. we will see about that. host: you mentioned the farm bill. what else are you expecting? guest: the farm bill will be the most important thing, if it does come to a vote. that could be up as soon as wednesday on the floor. it would have to come out today.

unemployment insurance failed before the break to get 60 votes. republicans do not vote to extend benefits after bipartisan discussions broke down. that discussion will continue. democrats feel that is dovetailing with the message the president will have. they do have one or two republicans with them. there is a little bit of bipartisanship there. the house will vote on an abortion bill. there is already no federal funding allowed for abortions as part of spending bills that went through about 10 days ago. has implications for here in the district of columbia for how they can spend its own local money on abortion

services and family planning. one hearing that i will be watching is in the judiciary committee. it could be wednesday or tuesday. eric holder comes in for an oversight hearing. there will be plenty of issues discussed. to have been a couple of things that the attorney general will be asked about. surveillance for sure. the president announced his potential policy changes and some policy shifts on data collection from the nsa. he said he was tasking the attorney general to come up with new recommendations -- the president said we will still have access to this type of information. but members of congress and the

white house have come to understand because of revelations of edward snowden that he cannot continue as it was. the attorney general is task with helping the president assad where should this data live?\ nsa?d it stay with the live in some other place? some other place in the cloud or some third party has a lock and key and you can only search it with a court order from the fisa court. that is one thing the attorney general is going to be asked about. edward snowden remains in russia. the president and attorney general have been asked -- there is a criminal investigation. about how snowden should be

treated as a whistleblower. tried in courts should he come back to the united states? i would imagine he will be asked about that. host: i want to stay with surveillance. the president just gave a sweeping speech about the nsa. guest: i would be surprised if he spent a great deal of time on it in detail. i would not be surprised if he mentioned it in passing or parenthetically. the president devotes part of the speech to national security. i am sure he will talk about iran. he probably has to mentioned syria. under the national security tent. it would be hard to give a state of the union speech and pretend the nsa issue is not out there.

probably not a lot of time. host: texas, jeff is on the line. 'll.er: good morning, y how is it going today? my comment is on the minimum wage hike. i am and employer and own my own country. i just got done with my taxes. eight dollars an hour for my apprentices. i am paying $14.46. if they make me raise my hour, ices to $10 an will have to drop my apprentices because i'm not going to pay somebody that does not know the job that much money. i am and i'm foyer with under 50

employees. employer --eye and and with under 50 players. this year they're going up close almostin some places and 25% everywhere. phenomenal rise of tech percent or under is not a big of deal as what has risen now. i am going to have to drop my employees because of the wage. i have to drop them and put them to obamacare. there is no way i can afford to pay these high rates. that is my problem. crux of the debate of the minimum wage debate. bristle atemployers the prospect of being forced to

raise wages for people at the bottom of the income scale. washington --in they are not a traditional our player with congress. it is a separate kind of republican politics. if thell make it again president tries to legislate on the issue of minimum wage. the caller is correct that it would present difficulty for him and his business. as counter argument is that middle income and lower income areggle, corporations sitting on record amounts of cash that they are not putting back into the economy. a lot of that money is staying in new york and in banks and not

circulating in the economy. wage isthe minimum stimulative because people at the bottom of the income scale do not save a great deal of money. ont they do is they spend it rent, groceries, clothing. stimulative.t is if you are in retail, having more people walk around with more money in their pocket is good for everybody. that is the counter argument. host: just a couple of minutes left this morning. todd is on our line for democrats. caller: hi. i wanted to make a comment about willich said about the

president and the executive powers. i guess it makes the president look like he's limited as far as what he can do. , it should beed blamed on the two parties, as far as what is happening in this country. there was a botched previous administration. years tod take 8-10 get back. guest: it is so difficult to say. there is the old saw about the ship of state, that it does not turn on a dime. the president has reminded the country that the state of the economy he inherited when he took office. we were already on a slide.

the housing slide that took place after that and the worst recession in 80 years after that. any president would be having a difficult time in terms of policy and in terms of politics of getting out of this. that thens know president owns the economy. presidents who preside over bad economies tend to do poorly. there is a lot of unfairness on both sides of that. but that is the way it is. that is the way it shall remain. republicans are trying to narrow their message getting down to 2014. jobs and the economy are critical. employment is critical.

to message from the republicans runs into a loggerhead when the country does not see them cooperating with the president on jobs program and infrastructure spending. more important to republicans is obamacare. callers who were frustrated with their employees, frustrated with sign-ups. the program is in its embryonic stages still -- i should not stay that, --i should not say that, it has been born. republicans are running on frustration with the affordable care act. their running ads against democrats who support the affordable care act. is trying in arkansas to defend his vote on obamacare.

he's not the only one. you,obably goes to tell washington is an ecosystem. connected.g is maybe he gives you an idea as to what republicans are eager to get something passed on immigration. they did poorly with latino voters. we can focus on this one issue that will help us the most, the affordable care act. host: we will leave it there. our guest has been todd zwillich . thank you for being with us this morning. guest: my pleasure. host: we will take a break and then be joined by rebecca adams with cq healthbeat. we focus on how your taxpayer dollars are being spent

on early childhood education. first an update on c-span radio. syria.pdate on a spokesman expects the talks to turn to a transitional government today as the delegation is accusing the government of preventing aid convoys from reaching a city in central syria. the talks involving a mediator are aimed at ending the civil war. the u.s. is condemning afghanistan's of what they call dangerous insurgents who pose threats to afghanistan's in the region. the release of prisoners has been a sticking points as the sides continue to work on a deal to allow troops to remain in the country pass the end of this year. ray nagin is set to go to court later this morning on bribery

and corruption. he was mayor of new orleans went hurricane katrina hit in 2005 and served two terms before leaving office. an update on the florida republican congressman caught trying to buy cocaine in a staying. the congressman, a republican from florida, set to resign from congress today. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. theirl and hillary began -- hillary came a year later. her career began right outside this building at the university of arkansas where she was a professor and taught criminal law, trial procedure.

was wellesley educated, ivy league law school grad that had worked in d.c. nixon had been impeached about two weeks before hillary taught her first class. >> first lady hillary clinton tonight live on c-span. >> c-span. we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings, and conferences, and offering complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. we're c-span, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd. follow us on twitter. >> "washington journal" continues. >host: our guest for this segmet

is rebecca adams. a was a big wrench mark of the affordable care act, the role of young people. guest: the administration put out the first demographic breakdown. what we're seeing is that the administration and others have targeted 40% of the sign-ups would be among young people, people 18 to 34. that is not happening so far. about 24% of the people signing up our young people. that is in proportion to the population. that means the administration has a lot of ground to make up in the next couple of months he for open enrollment ends. host: taking a look at those numbers.

what does that mean? people arereason why looking for young people is that it is a proxy for health. the administration wants more people signing up for care and will need care if you have a lot of 55-year-olds sign up. they will be using their health care quite a bit. you need the younger people to subsidize those costs. there has been a concern that insurance companies might raise their premiums next year to make up for any losses they have this year. when can we expect to see an updated number? guest: they do it every month. expect to see it soon. then we did see on friday that

it out a little bit of information. they said 3 million people have signed up for marketplace plans. they did not break it down for us. host: our guest is rebecca adams , an associate editor for cq healthbeat. we would love to have you join the conversation. we want to hear from you -- host: you can also talk to us on twitter, or on facebook on e-mail. what efforts has the administration made to reach out? guest: the administration is doing everything they can to get young people out. they have a budget for paid

advertising. they are trying to gear it towards young people. that is for the open enrollment period. the are advertising during upcoming olympics. they are enlisting celebrities to talk about it. they have some paid ads with some basketball legends. those came out recently. they are highlighting these videos on funnyordie.com. there is a new video out with that. they are trying to convince people that this is something that they need and this is protection that can help them. they are trying to explain how the market has changed since the affordable care act took place. host: our first call from arizona, anthony. caller: good morning.

because the affordable care act has allowed my son who is in college to get a policy. believe. 26, i he has spent a little time in college. it ended up the policy do not cover more things than the university covered. one child is married in just had their third child. she is paying $1500 deductible for that third child through her husband's insurance policy. i grew up in a family of single-parent, seven children. we were on welfare. associated with that was limited health care. it is so critical that we all

understand health care is more than just the dollars spent. it is a lifetime of how your lifestyle is going to end up. i am 54 now. i will try to live another 20 or 30 years. i have some serious health problems. prevention made a key decision on how my life would have been. i have been able to get on top of it. , have stressed to my children you have to have health care. when i left the military, i spent $600 a month to make sure i had coverage until i could get a job that provided coverage. guest: the caller brings up a lot of interesting points. there is a theory that prevented

care does improve health outcomes. that is one reason why the affordable care act does require health insurers to cover preventive issues for people. hopefully that will help improve health outcomes among different demographic groups and among the population as a whole. he did mention his son was able to stay on his insurance policy until he was 26 years old. that happened about six months after the law passed. million young adults have been able to stay on their parents' health insurance policies. people cannot go to the marketplace to check out and see whether the coverage that is available would be helpful to them. a lot of them would be eligible

for subtitles as well. host: look at this chart. they say that there was a more than eightfold increase in december for young people that selected a marketplace plan. explain to us what that means in english. guest: sure, sure. there was a surge in december. the number of young people who signed up grew more than the number of people who signed up in general. there was an eightfold increase among young people. they see that as generating additional interest among young people. we are starting from a very low starting point. the first day it was operating, only six people were able to sign up.

the marchve that as 31 deadline approaches, more and more young people will try to sign up for these plans. they believe older people, were the first ones to sign up. morethink as time goes on, and more young people will show interest. host: next caller from michigan, steve. go ahead. caller: hi. how are you doing? host: go ahead. you are on "washington journal. " caller: how many people suffer over obamacare? where is the freedom of choice? guest: the individual mandate. most americans need to buy

insurance this year, the law says. 1% of your is $95 or income, whatever is more. the supreme court upheld this as a tax. you can get exemptions, including if you cannot find affordable insurance. there is a provision that requires people to buy insurance this year. funnypeter from kentucky, six. caller: good morning. my question is concerning the the percentage of 18- signed-old's that up. i was given aup,

notice letter that are needed to know about my prison release records. what was the purpose about that? guest: i do not know about the prison release records. i wanted to mention there are call centers that people can call into if they have trouble enrolling online. people can go to in person centers for help. that has been really important when we saw the problems with healthcare.gov. there can be navigators and counselors to help you walk through the process. you can go to any of the online brokers. or you can talk to a regular broker. host: if i am under 34 and i sign up, what kind of premiums am i looking at compared to the

other people in this population? guest: people who are younger have cheaper insurance than older people. -onelaw has a three-to ratio. insurance companies can offer younger people a discount. they can offer rates to older people that are three times the rate for younger people. that is a little different than what we saw previously. some insurance companies had a five to one ratio. that means they can charge older people as much as five times what they charged younger people. younger people i be paying a little bit more than what they paid in the past. the federal subsidies can be very helpful. they are probably eligible for interesting help.

you get a premium discount if you have -- if your income is less than 200% of the poverty level. everythingiscount on if you're between 100% and 400% of the poverty level. those subsidies can help quite a bit. host: brian is 47. caller: i was wondering the difference between canada and what we are using right now. that is all. guest: canada has a single-payer system that is different from what we are seeing here. the obama administration did not pursue a single-payer system. they knew it would not be able

to get through congress. system that his government-run. what we have here, the government regulates the private insurance. the government also offers and financial assistance to people who cannot afford it. it is very different from what they have in canada. host: target last week said they will stop offering plans and send her employees to the marketplace and that home depot has done that. guest: employers are saying we can provide financial assistance to people and they can get a better deal in the marketplace. it is better for them if we get them a little money to buy insurance in the marketplace. host: morgantown, bob is on the

line, 62. caller: good morning. we have kind of muddied the waters on how a society as. i am 62. my automobile insurance goes to help subsidize the higher risk of the younger people. my taxes have gone to help pay for schools and universities and such. my insurance premiums have gone to help subsidize people with families. i do not mind one little bit. we're forgotten the concept of society a little bit. guest: there are all sorts of subsidies. seee are examples that we all across society.

younger people will be subsidizing the cost of older people if they buy insurance. .hat is part of the deal younger people will be paying in --i should say healthier people. we do not know the health status of these people. healthier people are paying in for protection. when they do have high costs, those costs will be covered. in some cases the healthier people might be paying more. at some point, they may be a time when there is a car crash or they have some kind of problem and will need that kind of coverage. host: david in frederick, maryland. caller: hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have some very quick points. i do not like the arm-twisting

and the lies that have been coming out of washington. as a young guy, that just bothers me. that is not the way to get my attention. the advertisement do not sway me to get insurance. that i am a tax repairer. i have to have multiple background checks. the navigators are able to take very confidential information and they do not have to have background checks. can you speak this dusty to that last point. guest: this is something that republicans in congress have raised, that navigators do not have to go through background checks. some states have passed laws

with different requirements. this has been discussed. there is a lot of information that navigators get. they go through intense training. these are people who have been trained and that it -- and vetted and are there to help people. host: david said he was not sure if he is going to get insurance. what is the consequence if they do not want any part of it? guest: this could be a big problem for the marketplace. let's say the percentage of young people stays exactly the same. there has been a lot of researchers that do not think we will see the kind of death spiral that some people are fearing. that is where premiums continue to go up and that scares away

healthier people who think it is not a good deal. every year you see higher and higher premiums if you are healthy people. what people have said is it is not going to happen here. there are a lot of protections in the law. there is a requirement that everybody buy insurance. subsidies encourage people to buy insurance. there is some financial protections. the government covering the sickest cases and sharing the losses with insurers if necessary. and there is a protection so that plans to get a lot of healthy people will pay to those that get a lot of people signing up with very high cost. all those protections help quite a bit helping the marketplace from turning into this death

spiral. there was any sting analysis put forward by the kaiser foundation. they found if the percentage of young people stays the same, about 24%, premium costs would go up, the cost including premiums and profits would be than the% more insurers revenues. that is a problem certainly. 3%-4%ers have a typical profit margin. they can make it up the next year with slightly higher premiums. if the number goes up next year, then it is even less of the consequences. is a little more than 1%.

it is something to watch. we might see slightly higher premiums next year. it will not turn into a catastrophe. host: jordan is on our line. caller: hi. good morning. and a lot of people i talked to said they are worried about the healthcare.gov because of hackers. i know there were hackers who testified in congress. i just wanted to get your comment on that. a lot of people said that is the reason why they are not signing up for it. guest: this is something that did come up in congress. there was a lot of concern about this. the former chairman of the committee brought this to people's attention. a concern was that

healthcare.gov was certified by temporary security basis. the administration said they were will protect people's information. they do this all the time with medicare. they have gone through different credentials to make sure people's information is protected. host: i want to ask about congress and what their role is likely to be. the house has taken a number of votes repealing the affordable care act. what is the next frontier? guest: we are going to see continued attacks. this is something that is not going to end. republicans controlled the house and we will see additional votes. this will be a big issue in the election. i am sure we will see quite a bit of campaign rhetoric. host: dan is calling in from

california. caller: good morning. i am calling from hawaii. aloha. i wanted to give the president much praise on obamacare. what's the difference between the a health-care and obamacare -- v.a. health care? guest: they are very different systems. the v.a. system is so much to the dish system --to the british system. what we are seeing with obamacare marketplaces or exchanges is private insurers like blue cross, blue shield or thoseor cigna, any of companies offering private insurance that is government regulated. people choose among those plans and decide which one to buy. the insurance does have to

conform with a lot of different requirements in the law. it has to meet certain requirements about the benefits and about how much of the cost is covered. in a cnet in the regulation in which there were four different --you have seen that in the regulation in which there levels.r different tier in terms of the quality of care think it varies by hospital. there had been complaints about the v.a. system but a lot of people say it provides essential care for them. host: so none of us would impact them. guest: if you get your care from the v.a., you will continue to do that. host: michael is 56 years old.

caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i got hurt about 20 years ago in a coal mining accident. i had to go on disability. ism on freedom blue, which out of medicare. i have had eight major surgeries. every time i go to the hospital wait. have to i had a real bad ekg. they wanted to do a stress test right away. they may need weight a week - -they made me wait a week. deductible.e my have a young child at

home. my wife special we went away health care service agent. june, theyed it to said. we qualified for a silver plan. they said that we could continue to pay our premiums, which went up $18 more than what the increase was in our benefits. see where this is beneficial to us at all. that is what my comment is. you said you could qualify for a silver plan, but

the cost is $18 more than what you are paying now? caller: right. so far. we will not know until june. it is in 80-20 split. but she goes in for a hospital visit, we will have a deductible of up to $6,000. and ourincome circumstances, that could bankrupt us. where anybody -- state farm or progressive with auto insurance. insurance,they have these young kids, but they really do not. they did not pay upfront. you think you are covered, but you really are not. the falsehood in that. myedom blue, they took oxygen away from me.

they said, we really did not take your oxygen away from you. it will cost you $30 per month. i cannot afford $30 per month. but they really did take it away from me because i cannot afford $30 per month. so essentially, they did take away from me. guest: out-of-pocket costs are a big concern for people. the deductibles on the marketplaces are pretty high compared to what you would see in employer-sponsored insurance. $6,000 is not unusual. the health-care law does offer some protection from what we previously saw in the individual which is the group we are talking about here. you compare the deductibles that are offered here, $6,000 is common. thosealth-care law caps at $6,350.

individual market before the health-care law was not regulated this tightly. when you talk about bankruptcy, people really could go bankrupt because they might be faced with $100,000 in costs. that is not allowed anymore. that is the good news. the bad news is that the deductibles can be pretty hard for people, especially people in your situation. i think that those are concerns that are being heard. that inentioned earlier the system, younger people or healthier people are subsidizing health care costs for those who are older or not as healthy. if you are in the pool of younger, healthier people, what is the benefit for you to sign up? guest: it is the law. you are required to sign up for some kind of insurance now. there is that. the other thing is that you just never know in life when you will be the person who gets in an gets a diagnosis for a disease that you did not know that you would be getting.

you are buying protection. there are a lot of people who say, i would rather spend the money on something else. it is a little bit harder to make that argument to people. certainly, people, younger people have a lot of interest in getting return on investment. the investment -- the return is there, but it is a little less tangible than something that you can walk around with or a new ipod or whatever it might be. host: our next call is from greenwood lake, new york. caller: hi there. thank you for taking my call. my point is this. i am for the affordable care act. i will not be able to use it because i cannot afford it. it is $525 per month for my husband and myself. that is the bronze plan.

it is just not affordable with the deductibles. that does not mean that for my niece and her husband wore a little bit younger than us, with two children who are in high school and college, this is going to benefit their family. it is going to be something that they will squeak by, but they will be able to afford it with the subsidies in the help. this is so important. it is a start, a beginning. i would have preferred a single- myself. i hear a lot of misinformation about things like that. nothing is perfect. you have to work out the -- all of the kinks in this law. things can be changed and worked on and bettered over years. who said his man friends were not going to get insurance because they were afraid of the security breach, for crying out loud, in my cancer orf he gets

gets ill and dies because he did not have insurance, because he was worried about a security breach when we have had the security breaches at target and all of the stores where they have no problem and going and buying computers and whatnot, it is kind of silly to me. that is nonsense. my daughter, who has a fairly --ent job, but her expenses she is going to have an issue with being able to afford the affordable care act. been 260 dollars per month. she has a car payment, car insurance. tolls, gas -- she cannot afford that. she is also going from a temp position to a full-time position, so she will be getting health insurance. my husband and i have been self- employed, going back and forth from working to other

and our- for the people own business. i thought i might be eligible for some health insurance through a company i was going to work for, but now we are going back to being self-employed may be. we do not know what we are doing. going on 57,t 56, i know i need health insurance. i can feel it. guest: i think that is why you are seeing so many people in that age bracket by insurance. what is interesting about the sign-ups is that not enough young people are signing up, but a lot more old people are signing up than what they expected. we are seeing -- if you look at some of the charts -- the percentage of people they were hoping for a monday 55 and older group was about 70%. we have seen so far -- 17%. 33% of sign-ups are in that age bracket now. , iferms of your own cost

you do not qualify for a subsidy, it can be expensive. it sounds like you do not qualify for a subsidy. that can be a problem. if you want to compare costs, you can also go and look at other costs -- other insurance offered through blue cross blue shield or other insurance companies outside of the marketplaces. he do not have to buy insurance through the marketplaces. you can look at other individual market plans as well. through any of the brokers to might be available to help you. it certainly sounds as if you are facing some pretty formidable cost. host: our next call is dominique who is 23 in richmond, virginia. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a young black man. i'm on my grandfather's insurance. he has blue cross blue shield. i have a blood disorder.

most of the doctors that see me do not know what to do. last night, i was in the hospital and released me because they said they did not know what to do with me because i am allergic to all of the blood centers. but blood centers are the only thing that are supposed to help me. tvm sitting at home watching with no doctors willing to keep me in a hospital and actually find out what is going on. i have been suffering from this since i was 19. i'm trying to figure out how this could help me. i don't pay attention to the government and all that stuff. i am in a moment where i am hurting and i am down and i do not know. i need some guidance. thank you. you have a regular specialist that you go to see who watches what you are doing and observe your care? caller: yes, ma'am. guest: but they are having

trouble finding a solution for you. caller: yes, ma'am. , theyight, the hospital released me because they said there was no more they could do for me. this, butate to say it sounds like you are in a better position because you do have insurance and a regular specialist. i do hope they figure out what the best medical care be -- would be and i wish you luck and i hope everything works out. your doctors can work a little bit better to try to help you. host: our next call is in cambridge maryland. 46 years old. caller: am i on? host: you are. caller: when i turned 18, i did the responsible thing and got insurance. prudential. never used it until i was 35. i pay $210.

all of a sudden, i had a kidney stone. i had to go to the hospital for two days. my bill payment was $5,000. my insurance picked up $2000. i was thinking, i have been paying all this time for insurance and when i actually need it, i still am going to have pocket money to pay for more than half. i thought i had good insurance. i thought maybe we had accounts for the young. 40, thenwhen i got to by a subsidy plan to help you with the major accidents. if i had money in the bank, it is my money. i could use it as i needed it. all of these kids that are getting ready to get insurance, do they realize that some of these premiums have $6,000 deductibles? $6,000.not have

where result money going to come from when the need to use the insurance? they have nothing to pay the deductible. the hospital is going to end up having to lose it. i hired a guy, he ended up being an illegal mexican, he got appendicitis and went into the hospital. he finds a later from the irs that there were 10 with the same name as an and social security number. i thought he was legal. it was $10,000 for the bill. he had no insurance. there he is. he just got out. he just went back to mexico about a year later. once the irs started coming around. he left and went back to mexico. the hospital had to eat that too. we think it is an answer, but these people do not have the money in their bank accounts to pay the deductible one a comes down to it.

the think they have insurance, but then they really do not. i guess we are all going to get stuck with a bill. guest: the hospitals are certainly very concerned about that. they're always talking about the bad debt that they have to adopt and take care of themselves. this is something that the government does provide some assistance in covering bad debt. less and less. people have to make sure that they understand that the insurance they are buying does not cover everything. they will have to pay out-of- pocket before some of the bigger costs are covered. the nice thing is is that there is this limit on the amount that you have to pay, even if you have a $100,000 surgery. $6,000 can be a lot of money to come up with. certainly, people are thinking about that. i should mention that there are

some plans that offer a lower deductible than that. there are some plans that have a $2000 deductible. those generally tend to be at the upper ends of the tier level. you have to pay higher premiums if you go that route. affordability is a big issue. host: our last call comes from buffalo, new york. henry is on the line. caller: how's it going? just to make the short, i am from puerto rico. born and raised in new york. i come from a country where the government is not too much help as far as public assistance and so on and so forth. there was also a caller who mentioned that he had to pay the deductible out-of-pocket which was $3000. what is the plan for the to do with employers

who are dropping employees from full-time employment know that a lot has changed? what is the plan for the government to deal with these employers for making these harsh decisions during this tough economy? word box of cereal is almost five dollars. what is the plan of the government? what is the congress or executive branch plan to do in reaction to these employers? the money has to cycle itself. employers are avoiding hiring any other citizen. decisions are to cut the hiring. guest: in terms of dropping from full-time to part-time status for the employees, there is not

much the government can do. the businesses have control of those decisions. there is a penalty for employers who have more than 50 workers who do not offer insurance. that is not going to take effect until 2015. there was also a tax credit in the law for small businesses. fewer than 50 people. they can take advantage of a tax wayit to try -- that is the the government is trying to encourage people to cover their employees. some mechanism for the government to go after people who are dropping people from 45 hours per week 229 hours hours per- to 29 week, there is not a good way to do that. host: we will leave it there. rebecca adams is an associate editor at cq health beats. we will take a quick break. when we come back, we will look at how your taxpayers -- tax

dollars are spent on the head start program. reportingo playbook on a dinner that took place last night. secretary jack lew continued the tradition of the former secretary's dinner. attendance included former secretaries blumenthal, rubin, summers, snow, paulson, geithner. it also included former fed volcker.- bernanke was presented with an award. president obama is getting ready for tomorrow's state of the union address. he is expected to announce that some of the nation's largest employers am including xerox,

at&t, lockheed martin, and procter & gamble, have signed a white house pledge agreeing not to discriminate against the long-term unemployed when making a hiring decision. who will sitsts with the first lady tomorrow night, to survivors of the boston marathon bombing and openly gay nba player jason collins. chosensts are often because they symbolize an issue or policy the president is promoting. c-span radio will have live coverage of the address tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. eastern. those are some of the latest headlines. when bill and hillary began , hillaryching careers clinton's career began right inside this building. professor. she taught criminal law, trial

procedure, the prison project. hillary was a wellesley educated ivy league, law school grad. nixon had been impeached about two weeks before hillary taught her first class. >> first lady hillary clinton tonight at 9:00 eastern, live on c-span and c-span 3. c-span launched its first c-span schoolbus in 1993. visiting hundreds of schools and communities nationwide and raising awareness on how c-span covers politics and government with our public affairs program. today, 20 years later, the c- span bus continues on the road, on the campaign trail, and visiting book festivals, history events, and educational conferences and schools. it look for us on the road and online at her website. you can also follow us on twitter. all brought to you by your cable

or satellite provider. university students will have a chance to visit the c-span bus and join us on washington journal as we hit the road for the big 12 conference tour. >> washington journal continues. , we: each week at this time stop and take a look at how your taxpayer dollars are being spent. this week we want to drill down on the early childhood education program, head start. golden.us is olivia a former health and human services secretary for children and families. she is now the executive director of the center for law and social policy. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you so much for having me. explain what head start is and what it does for children and families. guest: head start is the nation's leading early childhood program. programdes a preschool and early head start for babies and toddlers.

ist makes headstart special that it provides early high- quality education, but also from the very beginning its philosophy has been comprehensive services. a child who is hungry or has an untreated ear infection will not be able to learn. it provides services of that kind and has always had a focus on parents. children to-- succeed, parents need to be invested in education. cuts, the number was a little over one million. about 950,000 in the preschool program, which serves an little eligible children. in the early head start, the babies and toddlers program, serves around 100,000 children. that is only about 4% of the babies and toddlers in poverty.

that really does not reach a lot of those who need it. host: let's talk about the cuts. headstart was hit by the across the board's sequester cut. what was the damage done there? guest: before i get to the damage, which was substantial, i want to note that we are beginning the new year with good news. in thes an expansion budget agreement for the coming year. there is good news. in 2013, headstart was hit very hard by the across-the-board cuts. childrenate is 57,000 lost slots in headstart. almost 20,000 staff are laid off or had their wages cut. there were a lot of other impacts. i had a chance to talk to a group of directors in the fall. they worked really hard to cut things that would not remove kids from slots.

they still have an effect on the program. you close a center see you can consolidate kids in a different location. that means a struggling parent to has very little money for gas is going to be driving all over the several counties to get to the center where their child is. host: we want to make sure we bring you into the conversation. for democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. , (202) 585-3882. if you are headstart participant or your family is benefiting from that service, (202) 585- 3883. talk to us about the good news for headstart. what has been restored? guest: think you for the chance to talk about this. it is very exciting. as he said, i was assistant for something like three decades.

it is $1.4 billion for early childhood programs in total. the headstart money, about half of this, restores the cuts from the sequester. the other half is for early head start. to build partnerships with childcare programs. the reason for doing that is that it is a way of expanding high-quality childcare and early education for very young children while not doing all of its are headstart. being able to improve the quality of the childcare settings the parents may be leaving their kids in. the ambitious proposal that the president made last year in the state of the union. we hope that he and the congress will build on this to make much more progress next year. to you want to talk about, functionally speaking, if

a child or student is involved in headstart, what are the takeaways they are likely to be in -- come away with? guest: let me say a little bit about what the program does to provide this takeaways and then what we know from the research. that child will be in an early childhood classroom -- if they're an early head start, some early head start programs to the early learning for home visiting, for the mother and the baby. either way, the goal there is early learning, vocabulary, pre- reading. as well as what people in the field call socioemotional development. you're focused come you can pay attention, you are excited about learning. addition, health, mental health, help with special needs, nutrition. a lot of headstart kids have a special need. help for parents. with the research says is that at the end of the headstart

year, you tend to see very wide- ranging effects across those results for children and for their parents. host: i want to ask you about the findings read in contrast that there was little evidence of systematic differences in children's elementary school differences -- experiences. meanss through what that and what that tells us about the program and what it does? guest: two big headlines from the research. the secretary had an advisory committee on headstart research which provided a report putting this all into context. the first big finding is the one i just said. right at the end of the decades ofear, studies show these effects on early learning come on vocabulary, health, social emotional skills, parenting.

there is much more dispute about what happens if you years into elementary school. a number of studies am including the one you just cited, show that when you look at achievement tests in elementary school after a few years, you do not see differences. but there is another group of studies which say that even if you do not see it in those achievement tests, the differences emerge later on. you see headstart kids doing better in terms of finishing high school, avoiding crime, avoiding early pregnancy. it is kind of a puzzle. i think there are three schools of thought. i think some of each is probably the right answer. one is that if you include the programs more you can see more effect. the second is that if you improve the schools kids go into and the life experiences at the going to elementary school, that will help. the third is if you start earlier, if you make early head start larger and give kids more of a boost.

i think probably all of the above. host: let's go to the phones. our first call comes from joey in oklahoma city, oklahoma. our democrat line. caller: thank you for a great topic. what i have been noticing since i watched a lot of the congressional hearings is that on one side, it seems that the republican party is working overtime to make sure abortion is illegal and that all of the babies get here and that there are millions and most of these kids would be low income. and then they are the very first party to cut food stamps, headstart, school programs. -- we are ranked last in the country now for schools. it is the party that is causing the problem and i do not know why people continue to vote for them. guest: i guess the one thing i

would say is that the optimistic news about bipartisan support for this big boost in early childhood am of the 1.4 billion dollars, makes me quite optimistic about the are to come. i would say that support for early childhood has been quite bipartisan in the states, even in your state -- they have made important preschool investments. while i understand the frustration with the big picture, i do think that we have some reason to be optimistic, particularly after the congress, in a bipartisan way, supported a boost to headstart, childcare, and to prekindergarten programs is hise president' passionate about the area and could lead to neck steps. host: minnesota. republican line. caller: good morning. i have a comment about the $1.4

billion funding of this. i started my first job right out of college 35 years ago. i had 29 preschoolers and that was 3 and 4-year-olds. andve taught kindergarten at inner-city schools. i agree with the study that we do not see any significant gains. i would like to see the $1.4 thinking out-of- the-box. we are missing one of the pieces here in education. parent responsibility. kids come to school totally unprepared to learn. that is one of the things that is frustrating to me as a teacher, after 35 years, that this program shows no gains and i am in the front lines trying to teach every day to the best of my abilities to get these low income children to do better.

i see no results. i would like to see an early childhood support as a big thing. we have to start thinking out- of-the-box if we are going to spend $1.4 billion on something that shows no gains. i will take my comment off the air. thank you. guest: a couple of thoughts. thank you for your work is early childhood teacher, including in headstart. the standards have gone up over the years. a program that had 29 children would not be ok now. been ratcheting up, it has a high bar in terms of standards. i would highlight that the reason the studies i told you about that show these really important impacts as young people from headstart, when young people are in their teens, finishing high school, making choices about the future -- one of the theories about why that might happen is just what you are saying.

headstart differs from a lot of prekindergarten programs in that it also focuses on parents. it focuses on parents's investment in their education. it could be that as well as children's own commitment to education that is showing up later on. i agree with the idea of thinking outside the box. improving programs constantly, continuing to make them better, is a crucial element of investment in early childhood. host: our next caller is a headstart participant. surely in tallahassee, florida. caller: good morning. thank you so much. this is a fabulous concentration of discussion. part of a family that received one of the first headstart certificates in 1967. departed who started

in albany, georgia -- very much aware and been in the trenches of having to create funding and having to create community partnerships for headstart. some of the challenges that we isd to put in the forefront that headstart was created to for core, opportunity particularly black children, who are not receiving any pre-k instruction. out of the laws for the great society that provided for, as you know, even for that time, black families could to bidding entity could -- collective tax

dollar did not receive the support of medicare or social security or including their children, childcare. now we have a system that really is a private system for early child care. childcare is the states give money to churches and privately operated centers for child care delivery. this is what really have. we are concerned about redistributing money and redistribution of wealth. we are creating -- we have a creates -- the states pay for that. let's be clear. i want to how -- talk to that particular component is a direct problem that we really have. having to raise our budget 30%

to 40%. the fact that this funding that -- along with the bipartisan support -- they talk against it, the lady from minnesota who says she has been in a 35 years, it was a dynamic for someone who has been in it, worked in it, but they say it has no positive impact. it makes no sense. that economy does not add up. guest: thank you so much. think for you and your family's commitment to the program over the years. i want to pick up on a couple points. a constant evolution of head start, that it is from 1965. white families in appalachia, black families in the south, native american families -- now it serves also children of immigrants, latino, asian families.

i remember visiting head start centers after hurricane katrina. they were learning to address the trauma that young kids go through. whatever happens to low income is about head start trying to evolve to respond to those needs. it is a constantly evolving program. now,other point is that compared to in the 1960's, many more mothers work, including many more poor mothers. or is a much bigger network of child care programs. that is certainly true. one of the things that is exciting about the broader is that i said that $500 million goes to early head start in childcare partnerships. , which wasstart created in the 1990's, was created because of the huge needs of infants and toddlers. many low income parents struggle

to find a childcare setting for the kids. early headstart is tiny compared to the need. many childcare settings for babies and toddlers are not very good. especially if you cannot afford a big ring him. the idea is to build partnerships between headstart and that broader childcare system. so that headstart can bring its capacity for training and to upgradingces the quality of other programs. that happens in a lot of places. host: you mentioned the proposals. where do those stand right now? are those things you think have a chance of gaining momentum in congress? guest: part of what is so isiting about the omnibus the down payment on each of the president's plans.

the piece that restores cuts to child care programs. it includes $250 million going to the race to the top program that is expected to be used for grants to states to improve their preschool programs. to develop or expand them. it is kind of a sign that in a tight environment, there is out-of-the-boxng strategies to meet this enormous need. host: when you are talking about the states and speaking about these early programs, who oversees them and how can one determine whether or not they are effective in michigan as they are in south carolina? guest: that is a good question. let me start with headstart and move to state prekindergarten programs. headstart is a national program. it has national quality standards and national monitoring. conger says moved to strengthen the monitoring in some ways. we can talk about that.

the federal government provides the resources direct to local grantees. they might be a local government or school system or it might be a nonprofit, like a community action agency. aree you have, while there still issues about consistency -- like it might be harder in one state to recruit highly qualified staff and in another state, they might be having an easier time with that, the standards everybody needs are the same. in addition, states have invested in prekindergarten programs for four-year-olds. those very a lot. they typically focus on the classroom and not on comprehensive services and investments and parents. they typically serve a wider range of income levels. they are not targeted at the circumstances of poor children. what the research suggests is that at their best, those

programs can be terrific too. there is probably quite a lot of variety. there are not studies that directly compare, but the research suggests that there is a lot of difference. different states have different standards and different approaches. these grants will help enhance the quality where it needs to be raised. host: our next caller is in age ran, michigan. our independents line. i just had to say a few things because i work for headstart for 20 years. i just retired. i just can't say enough about how wonderful the program is. especially the health services are so very important. there are children who have , hearing,ental issues vision, those kinds of things. we can identify and address those. they cannot learn if they have a mouth full of cavities. we bring the dentist in, the doctor in, so much of that

happens right in the center. it is very convenient for the families. that is the other part. but the parent involvement. where i think we need to think outside the box is that these families need more resources. for notsy to blame them doing this or that for the child. but if you do not have a car or a place to live, it is very difficult to do. we try to work with those families and get their basic needs met. that is not always easy. outside the box, we need to think about how to get the basic needs met for the families. the other thing i need to say is that the month paperwork that is involved in this job does not help your job to be very effective. so much time has to go into proving that your programs are quality. so i do not know how you deal with that. it does take a lot of time. guest: thank you. and thank you for your 20 years

of commitment to young children. i would pick up a couple of your points. on the health impact. the study we were talking about a little while ago found that when you look at the end of the headstart year, there are not as many health impacts as there used to be, because we have done better for other children. we have done better in terms of getting health coverage and health care to the children who are not in headstart. one big area of impact is dental. where we have not done as well for others. you are absolutely right. being in pain from your mouthful of cavities. that is a deterrent to learning. i'm glad you highlighted parent involvement. a couple of years ago, i was in a number of early headstart programs and i was so struck, again, by the extent to which outreach to involve the most isolated and stressed parents was part of their job. they do not just wait to see who comes in the door. and then meeting their needs. the last comment about paperwork

is interesting. the result was a balancing act. congress strengthened headstart's oversight of quality. the reviews now include an tool thatn where -- a researchers use where they look at a classroom and rank it. that is not part of the review. -- now part of the review. they're trying to add things to make it as focused as possible on quality. you did not want to be spending so much time measuring that you are not teaching and engaging with families and kids. but you also want to make sure that you are doing as good a job as you can. kept theeadstart has balance reasonably well, but it is not easy. host: our line for republicans. caller: hello. i have a couple of quick comments. not so long ago, i think of the last year, there was a study that came out that assessed the long-term benefits of head start rather than the short-term benefits.

i think it said something along the lines that once a headstart child gets to high school, you cannot tell the difference. certainly, maybe in kindergarten, you can see that this has benefit from headstart, but after several years, not so much. know if the like to guest is familiar with that. my second quick comment is, why not let the states do this? --ing the federal government the overlay of the federal bureaucracy -- it adds an element of inefficiency to the process and i'm wondering if the states are not better equipped to understand what their needs are. just in the last week, in new york, the new mayor wants to fund with taxpayer money headstart. the governor, a very liberal democrat, does not want to tax -- further tax -- the tax base there.

a naval officer for many years. i taught at the naval academy. i figured out how to teach at the naval academy -- special training. i think they enjoy a good reputation. i was not trained to be an educator when i got there. when many of us got there. i wonder if the parents can be motivated to teach their children whatever has to be done. my brother was three years older than me, my mother read his lessons to me when i was 4, 5, 6 years old. i think that has worked out well for me. i wonder if something along those lines can be implemented rather than the very huge, costly program. put over on the backs of the taxpayer. i will remind everybody that the government spends about 40% of its budget by borrowing from it. i would like to guest to address that point. guest: your first point was about the research. we talked about the study.

you are not quite right about what it said. it said that an elementary school, you do not see a difference on achievement. one of the things i would say from the broader range of that particular study is that it went through the early years of elementary school. one of the interesting things is that a range of studies -- i -- asaw the most recent variety of studies do show effects when you get to high school and later. they show effects in terms of finishing high school, less special education, less involvement in crime and so forth. there are a lot of theories about that might -- why that might be. theory is that the elementary schools are not very good. they are under resourced.

secondary -- second theory is that the headstart and prekindergarten program should be better than they are and to potentially start earlier to reduce some of the difference. is that you are going to have to -- you should expect early childhood programs to lay a foundation, but not to inoculate against all of the things that happened to poor children later on, whether that is being homeless or struggling in other ways. that we should expect that a combination of what we do for early education and what we do later on aunt tillie to those long-term effects. point wasur second about the states. directly to local communities. it has lots of flexibility at the local level. in addition, a variety of

states, both democratic governors and republican inernors, have invested state prekindergarten programs, which typically focus on four- year-olds only. to provide the educational experience part. not so much the parent involvement and dental and all that. states were increasing their spending, but the problem is that date budgets are very susceptible to bad times, like those we have been going through. those programs are stuck. one of the investments that was in the budget agreement is exactly for that. it is to get state investment moving again through helping states start up rogue rams or -- programs or improve quality. host: our next call comes from here in washington dc. money is on the line.

is on the line. caller: the headstart program has been amazing in the district of columbia. i have a 17-year-old who is one of the top high schools in washington dc. my daughter started off in head start. colors when she was young, but there was something about headstart. they gave her a chance to be around other kids. to learn to discipline. and to take her imagination to another level. ,y son, who is seven years old he is going to a great school -- a charter -- in southeast washington, where he started off in headstart. he is now in the second grade and reading on a fourth grade level.

headstart has been tremendous for me. not only that, it helped me sustain a job. that was a blessing. guest: i want to make a couple of points. your last point, that many parents in head start like you, are working at low-wage jobs with tough schedules. the option that the previous parent talked about of could you do it only in the home? that really does not work for working parents. they need both for their kids to have this terrific experience and to have some help working. when you think back to where we started, the effects of the cuts that came from the sequester, you have to remember that it is not just the effect on children, but also on parents, who sometimes had to cut back on the jobs because they had nowhere for their kids to be. that is a really important point. i also want to underline what you said about your son, that he started early.

view isnk that my own early and enabling children to have several years of a really good early learning experience matters a lot, particularly for low income children. that is a great example. congratulations. you must be very proud of both of your children. guesthost: what is on your wish? if you could make changes, what would you want from congress, from the administration? guest: i think i have a wish list of three or four things. congress, stability. a trajectory. if you think about the effects of the cuts and what you have to do now, you cut staff, lost some of your best staff, people who have traffic other options are

going to be pretty demoralized and move on. you have to be constantly spending your energy going down and going up. knowing where you are going and being able to focus and make the problems -- programs better. theink that what is in omnibus budget agreement and in the president's proposal is of investingsense in the youngest kids through early head start and you invest in child care and in prekindergarten. you do not want to put all of your energy into just one spot. kids really have needs. the third thing i would just say is that we have a lot of children growing up in poverty. we have about a quarter of children in the united states in poverty. almost half growing up in struggling, near poor families.

there are just a big gaps to reach in terms of how many kids. headstart reaches about 40% of poor kids in its age range. early head start only about 4%. i would reach more. the last thing would be to just keep the focus on improving quality and making it consistent. headstart, as a whole, has met the standard congress sets for teachers having a ba, 60%. that into make sure every program, wherever it is, we are achieving high standards. call comes from clinton, iowa. mary is on the line. independent. are you with us? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: yes, i went through a headstart classroom for 15 years. is that i know they

are required to do certain things. the waste is astronomical. so much of the food is put into the garbage. so many things are bought that are unnecessary. the teachers want certain kinds and i think maybe what we should focus on other types of teaching not the teacher teaches, that the teacher teaches with more. you need to start out with a simple, simple things. that is also in the food program. is that theythat have some in the things that they have to have. i think it should go back to the basics. the children love simple things. butter. apples, peanut when you start putting all of these sweet potatoes and all of these different casseroles and i know they want to make it

multicultural, but even the multicultural things don't work. that is my comment. thank you very much for taking my call. guest: first of all, thank you for your teaching. it is interesting. grantees with 1600 around the country, there are lots of different experiences. it sounds as though in your program, you are worried about whether the teachers were doing the best they could and about the food. the one thing i would say about the food program in head start is that, of course, one of the weights headstart has adapted to the changing lives of poor children is that obesity and not having access to healthy food has become a bigger and bigger issue. hast of focus in head start been on nutrition and exercise. i do not know the answer as to whether, in the program you were in, those really in port and goals did not work out the way they were planned. nationally, there have been a

lot of efforts to make sure that we are paying attention to the physical health and nutrition and learning of children in head start programs. host: mesa, arizona. it the line for republicans. caller: first of all, i want to ay that my daughter was schoolteacher in denver colorado a few years ago. her husband is going to dental school. she was shocked -- she grew up in mesa, arizona. you keep pushing this headstart -- they cannot get their kids to kindergarten. they cannot get their kids to first grade. a horse to water, but you cannot make the horse drink. it goes back to the parents. it goes back to the parents. our education needs to be in our state. kids have never set foot in a public school. this is when he was a community organizer. push publict to

education done everybody's throats. but the elites of the democratic party, washington, dc, that lady was amazing. she worked with our kids. she is one of the very few. need to --, you guys ,nless the parents are involved and nothing is going to begun. done. we put more money into education than any other country, a look at where we are. headstart when you cannot even get the kids to kindergarten. i disagree with everything you have said. i feel sorry for these children. though after the parents. i do not work, they do not do anything. they cannot read a book to their children. come on. that does not take money to take -- to read a book to children. guest: a couple of things.

the first is that i would say that both the bipartisan support for the omnibus bill and the fact that a broad range of states, republican and democratic governors, have invested in early childhood education and provided state supplements to head start, that says to me that a broad range of people of many different political views believe that helping young children and their parents is really a worthwhile way to spend money. i think in terms of parent involvement, what i would say is that if you have a chance at some point a volunteer in a headstart program, get to know some parents, it's focus really is on engaging parents. you heard from the lady in washington, i spent a lot of time with headstart parents. they are often working a lot of hours. as a result of that program and going into a deeply committed to their children's success. host: one quick follow-up question. we are almost out of time. i want to ask you, you mentioned

what qualifications these instructors have. how much they have across the board. guest: headstart focuses on having enough adults in the classroom. in smallto work groups, you want to make sure you have plenty of adults. there is a teacher and assistant teachers. the congress and administration and a headstart community have focused on increasing the share inthe teachers who have a ba early childhood education. some will still have an associates degree and be working toward a ba. that is an area where it is important to make sure that people get that education. the one thing i wanted to add, if i may, for everybody was watching, is that in addition to other keyrs, participants in headstart are volunteers. areou have any viewers who older or retired, my mother volunteered in a headstart program in her 70's after she had retired and she loved, not just the ability to connect to

the kids, but to connect to the teachers. there were young, passionate people committed to teaching young children who could benefit from her life experience. i think that we have government and public funded ways to improve the quality, but i do want to urge your viewers also to think about what they might be interested in doing. host: we have enjoyed this hour by olivia golden. the executive director of the center for law and social policy. thank you for being with us. guest: figure for having me. please join us again tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. have a great morning. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]