utah. at 9:15, ♪ u.s. capitol. president obama will present his state of the union tonight at 9:00. can be part of the conversation on the phone, on twitter, and our facebook page. c-span.orge in via or listen on c-span radio. for our next 45 minutes, we would like to hear from you about what issue you want president obama and the congress to tackle in 2014.

here is how you can make your thoughts known -- democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. if you want to reach out to us is @cspanwjdia, it or journal@c-span.org. a lot of stories about executive order. executive order, specifically when it comes to minimum wage. the wall street journal is reporting that they would raise the minimum wage for workers on to $10.10l contracts an hour, according to a fact sheet from the white house officials. the current federal minimum wage

is seven dollars $.25 per hour and has not been raised since july 2009. about 16,000 federal employees were paid at or below the minimum wage in 2012. the agency does not specify how many employees were government contractors. starting at 9:00, our coverage the-span for the state of union. a lot of information. we invite you to go to our c-span.org website for more information about our coverage tonight. times adding that mr. obama would call on americans on tuesday night to to closein the fight the income gap with proposal such as raising the federal minimum wage. of likely voters said income inequality is at least a somewhat serious problem. fortier percent said that society would be less fair if government got more involved in regular leading the economy.

what would you like the president or congress to address in the year? if you want to make your -- ghts known, call democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. if you are a computer, you can reach us on twitter @cspanwj or on our facebook page. one wants to see a top down economically planned economies, and focus on abuse to women and workers. want president obama to talk about d.c. statehood.

are people in his backyard who have no representation in the united states congress. they pay the highest federal taxes in the country per person, have no control over their local government. no control over their judiciary. we want him to talk about freeing the nation's capital and giving full-service and -- and a full -- and giving full citizenship to the people of the nation's capital. about it. eventually, it will happen. we have had demonstrations. he put the license plate on his car for the inauguration. we want him to talk about statehood. it is going to happen. host: mike, up next.

from pennsylvania, independent line. ifler: i was wondering president obama can use the executive order on the unemployment. thank you, bye. host: hyattsville, maryland. he talks too much about immigration and makes promises [indiscernible] the state of the union coverage starts tonight at 8:00 tonight on c-span. you can see the president starting at 9:00, leading up to it. a chance for you to comment on what you would like to see.

you can make your thoughts known on our social media sites. facebook.com/c-span and if you want to use twitter, c-span chat is the handle that you can use for our twitter. i would like president obama to address the unemployment rate of african-americans. it has been the highest since he has got into office and it is still the highest. i would like to him to start talking about some kind of initiative to get the unemployment rate of african-americans down. host: what specific things can you try to do on that topic? someone in hisre administration is smart enough to come up with an initiative or incentive for businesses to consider african-americans first during their hiring processes if

we have the highest unemployment rates. a look atory taking the state of the union when it comes to the jobless rate overall. it talks about an initiative that the president has reached out with companies. he will try a different approach when he is expected to announce the white house has secured pledgers -- alleges from a number of the major u.s. employers to adopt hiring rawls -- hiring policies that discourage us from a nation against the long-term unemployed. they include xerox corporation. isege discrimination difficult to prove or measure, but several studies have found a longer someone is out of work, the less likely they are to find a job.

a scholar found out there was a at six sharp drop-off months of unemployment in companies contacting the fake applicants for interviews. patricia, independent line. temperatures should. i would like to hear the president speak of peace, rather than war. like to see they provide adequate funding to care for our veterans, millions of whom are not receiving appropriate health care. i know it is a dream, but i would like to see it happen. veterans, it comes to it is mental health care or other health care? caller: i would like to see all health care addressed. more than one veteran an herselfkilling him or

because they are not receiving health care. i would like to see the president take into account the genuine cost of war before he puts a boots on the ground. includesne cost of war taking care of our veterans. if we were not at war, we would be saving all of that money we could put that money into life rather than death. host: william, st. louis, missouri, democrats line. go ahead. is -- iny question washington, for six years, we had a decision on whether what laws going to be passed and lawmakers doing what they're supposed to be doing. bar pilot -- bipartisan is one of the words i don't understand. every time something gets passed, the governor of some state changes the law because the president approved it, but they can change it to the way they want it to go.

i think he needs to address how do you work with the government and the congress when neither one wants anything to go anywhere bipartisan. i thought it meant they worked together and came to a issue.ise on an host: jim imhoff weighing in via twitter. retrieved if you believe he needs to apologize for failed obamacare system. if you believe he needs to apologize for failed obamacare system. grand rapids, michigan. caller: i have a question. i would like for them to work more hard on the women and children here it have been talking a lot about the -- women and children. they have been talking a lot

about the immigration laws. we need minimum wage to go up. they need to work on that, especially with them cutting off all of the women and children that are suffering. --y're forgetting about how there are still women and children out here that are suffering in the united states. the elderly work hard all of these years and they need to put it back into the elderly. we should be focusing on the women and children that they have cut off in the states. host: the wall street journal conducted a poll. part of the poll is a tracking of job approval ratings. 43% approval rating in of theson to presidents

past. 62% for clinton. 54% for reagan. pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent line. pushinghe should stop for the transpacific partnership and the atlantic partnership. these trade policies are going to hurt americans. they heard people in other countries to. o. if our country was functioning right, we would have about 50% of the people employed in government service, whether it was city, county, state, or federal. or 40 years, all of our services have been dropped to a skeleton of their previous ability to function. for example, public health.

they are understaffed and underfunded. if we had a pandemic in the united states, we would have to bury our family in the backyard because we do not have emergency management and emergency staff who could deal with it. we have fires, the forest fires or rollover -- all over the country, a huge people need to be involved in dealing with the forest. they have to get rid of the youh and things that are, light a match and half a state goes up in flames. the soil conservation, we had a dust bowl back in the 1930's. we don't have enough people doing therees and soil conservation measures that would keep our land healthy. you go through the whole thing. firemen,ers, police,

the technical people that need to be testing the water to find out who is polluting the water, the people who are testing the agricultural products, finding out where we are being poisoned with bacteria and poisons from pesticides. host: that was pittsburgh, pennsylvania. a look at the president involved in the ross s of doing last -- in the process of doing last-minute changes. this photo courtesy of the new york times. james, pennsylvania. good to be on your program this morning. thank you for c-span. i am a progressive leaning democrat and i would hope the ofsident speaks to the issue the minimum wage, that it should andncreased to at least $10 $.10. even more perhaps.

immigration reform, definitely. i wish he would emphasize the problems we have with the economy now. with two points in mind -- i think we need to know more is notcally -- there enough education being done by any governmental source to highlight the damage that was done back in 2008. the global economy, how that affects our economy and home. we have left wall street off the hook. it is as if we are dumbed down today in not knowing more about how wall street failed the economy, failed the american people. host: how would you rate the president's handling of the economy? caller: he has had little to

nothing in the way of support for what he is trying to get done. i cannot imagine -- he has tried his best to work with the republican party in the making attempts to create avenues whereby we increase employment and get people back to work. jobs arepts to create very real and i think we do not know enough about why the republicans are so adamantly against his wanting to support legislation. has: "the new york times" an analysis. a strong feeling in the country

is that the economic deck is stacked in favor of those at the top, at the expense of the average person. blame don't necessarily president obama for that, but their frustration certainly affects their feelings about this handling of the economy. if you're just joining us for our first 45 minutes, the state of the union coverage is tonight. our coverage starts at 8:00 tonight. issues to ask you about that the president and congress should address in 2014. call us, send us a tweet, or put a posting on facebook. lennox tom a -- lennox, rockville, maryland.

caller: i want him to speak about what the company is doing. over newbringing companies to bring in -- they're bringing over new companies to take over the old companies. the new companies are firing people. the other company looks at it and the profile, they talk a lot of stuff about it. people cannot get work. people are doing very good in -- nothing. the president can do something to let them know that it is not right for them to come in, bring in a new company, higher cheaper people and -- people like they are nothing. tomas, muncie, indiana.

independent line. seizure of assets from multibillion-dollar companies where they implement money laundering facilities for goods for the cartels. not feasible and a keeps everyone on mulberry road. host: carol, salem massachusetts. please consider the n this country does not approach a living wage, no matter where you live in the country. unless you are prepared to give and 40e a hunting rifle acres and a mule, you have to give them a living wage.

the fact that we have not in so -- we are so far behind, it gets worse all the time. this is a disgrace for decades. using the president should wage -- should raise the minimum wage even if he has to use an executive order to do it? pay their the have's share for a change instead of continuing to -- when we need money, go to the money -- the people that don't have it, cutting it out of social security and medicaid and medicare.

raise the floor under the federal income tax. host: ed is up next. unemployment insurance, they recently decided to terminate when they voted on it, they could not get it to pass. i am a veteran of 11 years, an air force veteran. was in school for rehabilitation for my vocational training in culinary arts and trying to get my skill level up to where i can get a better paying job and here i am in the middle of the school year and they terminated my unemployment insurance, so i cannot return to school. it has been a hardship. i am surprised they cannot get

this to pass. people like me who serve the government and we're trying to get skills to get a better paying job and they terminate the insurance program. it has been a tremendous hardship. it helps with gas and food and get you by. host: how did your life change because of that? caller: i was in school and had returned to the niagara falls area. to get by right now and living on what little bit of savings i have to get by during this hardship. school androlled in i don't have my insurance benefits. i will be trying to find work, but it has been a tremendous hardship.

host: if the president goes forward on these kinds of themes, how do you think the best way to do it is, especially as he -- especially if he has to work with congress? toler: when it comes down it, people that are genuinely trying to get a better job or or not even seeking a minimum-wage job, but a better job with minimum skill level, they should look at what they're doing in terms of surviving. when you are in school, you are on a tight budget as it is. i was approved for program because i was unemployed veteran. toy had something for me better my vocational training and now all of a sudden, in the middle of the school year, they shut off the unemployment insurance and they cut me right

out of my schooling. host: that is ed from new york. this is leading up to this dating -- the state of the union tonight. a listing of the guests of the president tonight, including -- carlos adero bauman, and jeff survivors of the boston marathon bombing in april. representative jim brydon will be bringing the father of navy seal tie woods who was killed in the benghazi attack as his state of the union guest.

the washington times has a follow-up on that. i understand the importance of knowing that america leaves no one behind. to bring him as my guest. house is preparing the present -- the white house, the president, preparing for the speech night. our coverage starts at 8:00 tonight. you can participate on facebook and c-span chat as well. good morning, bob, go ahead. i think the president should bring about a federal workers and all of the people on social security will get across-the-board raises rather than a percentage.

everybody has to pay the same thing for a loaf of bread or something when they each and the eat and the they rent. this separates people down the line. this puts people into poverty more than anything else. frank, linton indiana. thank you for c-span. i think the president should talk about jobs and the next he --ht to talk about [indiscernible] they took it away from me when i was 59 years old. host: what was your career? caller: i worked for general electric. host: how did trade affect that? caller: i worked in a

side-by-side refrigerator plant and all of the high-end refrigerators went to mexico. i got laid off at age 59 and i don't know whether anyone has experienced it, i am sure they have. when you're 59 years old, there is discrimination against age. i think he ought to stop the dash. it is nothing for the american people. about want to do anything equality between the rich and poor, he needs to stop that. we could have had millions of jobs if you would just do that.

i haven't heard of one prosecution during the savings and loans debacle years ago. people wereur charged with criminal offenses -- over 700 people were charged with criminal offenses and i haven't heard of one you. some details about the new agreement. the new five-year deal ends direct payments to farmers and makes cuts to food stamps without removing anyone from the program. the text ofeleased the actual deal. it will reduce deficit by about $23 billion. it cuts $90 million from farm subsidy programs, saves 6 billion dollars by increasing efficiency and conservation programs and saves a billion dollars by reforming food stamps. additionalends an $16 billion on risk management and job creation and training.

michael, republican line. caller: good morning. --n we look at the nation the united states uses a lot of money [indiscernible] will become active united states, you will see that a lot of people in the united states are homeless. they don't even have food to eat. why should the united states continue to do [indiscernible] what should the president or congress do about that in 2014? they need to look at internal matters. look at the people who are living inside the united states.

[indiscernible] it is not logic. host: sarah, palm coast, florida. independent line. caller: good morning, c-span. and i voteds old for the president twice. i thought he was going to be able to do a lot of things. he is very smart, very charming. i hope he is a christian. to do is find jobs, jobs, jobs. anyway he can. he has to learn how to be a leader with the congress. lbj did it was civil rights. he can do it. . wish him well

host: when it comes to job creation, what is the best thing the president can do? caller: he can have infrastructure. that will create a lot of jobs and the republicans will fight it, but you have to -- he has to learn how to work with the congress. most of them need to be thrown out. they are so corrupt and they spend most of their time trying to get reelected. this is ridiculous. they have to learn to work with the president. this is like a bunch of little kids in washington, d.c. host: what does the president have to offer and what does congress have to offer? caller: i don't know enough about it. i know it is a very hard job. i don't know what to tell you. oil companiesfrom

and airlines to stop lobbying against it so we have wonderful train companies that would have tons of jobs for people. a republican response to the state of the union. the person tasked to do that, cathy mcmorris rodgers. she will join along with the big names who give the opposition response. among them, gerald ford, hubert humphrey, bill clinton. a friday, she posted photograph of herself holding a speech in one hand and -- as she practiced. it shows a little bit of a section where she will present the state of the union speech. she posted that on vine, it is

quick tom a but it gives you a sense of the room she will be in. part of our is also c-span coverage on the state of the union. the speech starts at 9:00. we start at 8:00. we will give you information and a chance to comment on the phones and on twitter and facebook. you can listen on c-span radio and a live stream it on c-span.org. part of our complete coverage starts live at 8:00 tonight. our first guest joins us in about 10 minutes. we want to get your issues -- thoughts on the issues the president and congress should address in 2014. mary, good morning. i hope he uses his last couple of years to do something good for the american people. there is a bigger gap between the rich and the poor. simple things, like instead of importing engineers and nurses from foreign

countries, he should employ the engineers and nurses here. he can do a lot of things by executive order. instead of saving the big companies like bank of america out -- which we bailed we have companies like google taking half of their profits and dropping it in ireland. maybe he should address those issues as far as -- are these american companies? are they international companies? they ought to start looking at taking some of the money from the people that have the money. worthyhe does something in this last couple of years. he can do a lot of things by executive order and i think people would support him. host: do you think executive order is the best way to go forward rather than working with congress? caller: if he can work with them, fine. he can do a lot of things by executive order. if it is a matter of getting

something done for the american people, whatever way is best for him. he can do a lot by executive order. they have not been very willing to work with anybody. i am hoping he does something really worthy. he inherited a big mess and has been cleaning up the economy from the last president and he has not really done anything -- health care was a big thing. that is a very good thing. he has to address the issues. do you think it will be a big speech as far as themes and ideas go? caller: what else is he going to talk about? he needs to concentrate on the american people and trying to he needs to list the middle class. when you list the middle class up, you do the best for everyone. caller: this is anna.

had anye to know if he intentions of talking about the extensions on the -- wanting to know if he had any intentions of talking about the extensions on the unemployment benefits. host: that is what you want him to talk about tonight? caller: yes, i do. i went through school to go to cna classes while i was on benefits. there is no way without my benefits i can go out the door. i have no money. that is what i was living on. that is how i was paying my rent and doing everything. look for money to even a job. how are we supposed to do that and pay our bills? i don't understand. radel resigned yesterday. you can find that on our website. this is some reaction off of the floor don't newspaper -- the

florida newspaper. some indication of names of who may replace him. -- of them is page kriegel paige kriegel. eegel. --lizbeth benaquisto. some of the quote saying some of my struggles had serious consequences. while i have dealt with those issues on a personal level, i cannot fully and effectively serve as a united states representative to the place i love and call home, southwest florida. this was two months after he

pled guilty to a misdemeanor of cocaine position -- possession. i think the president is right on target with trying to get the minimum wage raised. should executive order the federal honoring women -- federal unemployment extensions. nine runs out in a month. my wife has already run out. my son is unemployed. i am the only one with a little bit of unemployment, trying to keep three people and we are looking for jobs diligently. i cannot believe congress did this at christmas time when people need it the most. i think the congressman john congress and john boehner are fighting the president left and right.

host: jennifer is up next. new castle, pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: why not more emphasis on the people who do not receive their unemployment extensions. host: why focus on that? toler: how are they going afford health care with the bill that he wants to pass? big falls, minnesota, independent line. we get i am curious -- to the obama law for obama care, they are signing people the way it is right now to pay for, what is going to happen in the future when the next administration

repeals this law? who is going to be paying for all of these people that are on ,bamacare and in a few years they won't even be able to throw it away because it they do, they will put themselves so far in debt to pay for it. people from across the aisle sit together in a spirit of solidarity. sent out a tweet about his plans for tonight. i am partnering with lisa murkowski to urge our colleagues to sit together during the state of union -- state of the union. he also posted a little bit of video. we will see that emerge as the day goes forward and tonight as well. pat, jackson, tennessee. caller: good morning. i was thinking about -- c-span

had a session on where they were showing the president meeting with a lot of business people. they were talking about bringing some of the companies and manufacturing businesses back into the united states and we have not heard anything since then. them upith a lot of there. a lot of people have been saying that the president is not doing anything to get jobs back, but i saw that on c-span. he was meeting with business people and trying to get them and offering and asking them questions about what can the united states do to draw the businesses back and they were giving their suggestions and everything. he has been working on that, i know. i wish you would come out and talk about how far that has what are his plans

about getting the manufacturing businesses back in the united states. i also wanted to stay he has really had a difficult time. he has been over backwards trying to work with all of the congress people up there and it has been a shame how they have turned their backs on him and not help him at all. we could be far ahead in the economy if they would be willing to open up and work together up there. thank you, pedro. next up, nashua, new hampshire. caller: good morning. is that thement president should address term limits. we do not have a representative congress. we have millionaires and multimillionaires and i think that should change. to twold limit them

terms rather than have rich people come in and continue lining their pockets. the second thing about the nsa -- the president went -- gave an apology speech about how we used to spy on people and so on. there are $2 billion writing on this. on this.- riding someone is using their money. it is a huge pressure to keep using that money so people can be spied on. that is scary. issuesre both of those things you want to hear expressed or is there one thing overall? caller: i would like him to express about term limits and someone should investigate the financial end of nsa and the spine. the other thing is the corporate welfare. were given by the supreme court, the definitions

they have, the same rights as individuals. if they have the same rights as individuals, they should have the same lives as individuals. things that do the individuals do. major corporations pay zero in taxes in the united states, but they scream that we have a poor educational and so on. they do not support the education, even in the communities where they do business. host: one more call. lansing, illinois. caller: i agree with the last caller. she was hitting it on the head. i would like the president to raise the minimum wage. wage go,t the minimum here i am going to give you one dollar $.75 in three years or $.50, push it all the way

through. and thethe food stamps care for the babies, that is sad. when congress gets lunch money, they get lunch money and they can do whatever they want to do with that lunch money they get. , starve, and struggle. if the appreciate president would step up to the plate for the american people and let the republicans go in the corner like kids and sit there for the rest of the three years like you would punish her own child. thank you this morning. those comments, we will continue on with our state of the union coverage throughout the program. tonight, you can weigh in with more of the same if you wish. on the phones, on twitter, on facebook. our coverage starts live 8:00 on c-span. listen for it on c-span radio and c-span.org.

we will hear from ken walsh of the u.s. news and world report. two legislators will join us later on. we will hear from jason chaffetz . all of that as our state of the union coverage from washington journal continues. ♪ >> i realize that tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy. the politics will be hard for both sides. none of us will get 100% of what we want.

the alternative will cost us economy, visit hardship among millions of hard-working americans. interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future. it's do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. the greatest nation on earth cannot keep conducting its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. we cannot do it. [applause] , let's agree, right here, right now, to keep the people's government open and pay our bills on time and uphold the full faith and credit of the united states of america. >> watch president obama

delivered this year's address. it starts like tonight at 8:00 eastern, with the president at 9:00. fromwed by the response cathy mcmorris rodgers. your reaction by phone, facebook and twitter. the state of the union, tonight, live on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. c-span launched its first schoolbus in 19 93, visiting hundreds of schools and communities nationwide and c-span awareness on how expands government programming. they continue on the road and campaign trail. look for us on the road and online, on our website, c-span.org. you can follow us on twitter. brought to you by your cable or satellite provider.

university students will get their chance to visit the c-span bus. join us live on "washington journal" as we hit the road for the 12 conference tour. " washington journal continues. our first guest has written a book. aboutlsh joins us to talk the state of the union. the washington times, one of the isdlights -- the highlights the challenge that the president faces. what are your thoughts on that? guest: if you look at over the years, there have been some spikes, but not under obama. he started out, about 54 million viewers in his first speech to a joint session.

it amounts to the same thing as a state of the union. it has been declining every year since then. last time it was about 33 from a high of like 20 million more than that. there has been a decline in viewership. upmight be that he ends preaching to the choir. talking to his base, the democrats and people that lean toward him. willlicans and independent tune them out. i think that is something we are going to be looking for. host: a poll asks questions about the state of the union in viewership, saying that -- what is the likelihood that you watch the speech? 23% say extremely likely, 24% very likely, 33% say not at all likely. i guess that goes to your reasonings about why people

don't watch these speeches. guest: there are reasons you get. one is that it is familiar. people lose their attention. they don't think they're going to hear something new. they don't think they will hear something important. that poll and others, people were asked if they think the speech will be important. 60% of people said they don't think it will be important. they don't think they need to watch. we may be surprised, but so far, it looks like the white house has been minimizing expectations . they have not been signaling that there will be some big, new initiative. maybe they are lowballing it to take everybody by surprise. the result is that people do not think there will be a need to watch. the other thing i mentioned is that the white house does have other ways of communicating with people. we cannot just look at the tv audience. they have been aggressively on housetwitter and white

website and various other places. that is appealing to their core constituency and i think those are the people that will be watching. host: as far as how important 31% saying not important at all, followed by 26% saying someone important, as far as topics, one of the things we have heard about it income equality. the idea of executive actions on getting some of these done. to themeshat compare previous of this president guest:? guest:-- of this president? we're going to bridge the partisan gap in washington, we're we are going to get a lot of things done. that is not happen. there have been lowered expectations. the white house officials have been talking about income inequality. they are little uncomfortable with the two words now.

income inequality, they feel like that may be too divisive or scare people. you may not hear a lot about income and equality. aboutthe same thing trying to give the middle class and poor people that the president is working on their behalf to provide opportunity. a lot of familiar themes, you're going to hear a lot about the things the president has talked about many times. immigration legislation, that is the one thing that we can predict that he feels he needs legislation on. he is going to keep pushing on the republicans. they may have some movement there. is the big legislative push. otherwise, as you say, executive actions, unilateral actions -- >> when it comes to federal

contractors -- guest: congress has not gone along with that. there will be this minimum wage for federal contract employees, not a full minimum wage increase, but it is something the president can point to to say that he is getting things done on his agenda. host: what does it mean when you have to resort to that type of tack, as far as executive action is concerned? in the sixth year of a presidency, which is where obama is, it tends to be difficult to get things done. they tend to run into trouble. some of the fault lines from earlier in their presidencies get more wide and they have more problems. that they figure that they have to bypass congress and so at this point, i think president obama may have a brief

time to work more with congress. the whole system will shift towards the midterm elections. it will be divisive and partisan. the president knows that if he does not keep the senate under the democratic control, if republicans take the senate and keep the house, then he is getting into lame-duck territory, rather quickly. host: ken walsh is our guest to talk about tonight's state of the union. if you have questions, the lines on your screen. democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. andwitter, it is @cspanwj you can send this e-mail, journal@c-span.org. ocala, florida. republican line. caller: i think the president

should address the american people to start with some kind of family budgetary concerns. he should again, let's get back to the nuclear family. working, one person maintaining the household and the children. five tvs.ink we need we can do it to tvs. tvs. with two all i hear today is people calling in and saying how somebody should give them something and i don't ever hear them talking about cutting down on some of their frivolous bills. guest: this gets back to the whole idea of the basic culture we are in, the society we are in. you hear a lot of republicans and conservatives talk about the need to return to a

responsibility society that people take responsibility for their own problems and so on. addressedobama has this in some cases, talking about the need for stable families, reticular early form particularlyied -- .or men to get married he has talked about that quite a bit. he might address that tonight in his speech. i don't think he will dwell on it. i think you will be more of a policy speech. there are a lot of people around the country who feel as you do. there's a notion that people need to take more responsibility for themselves and cut down and improve their own lives on their own. isther thing i mentioned that along this line, democrats and republicans and independents around the country, if they -- whether they feel the government should help people more not,

there's more of a sense of going to the state level and the local level to get things done. to the governors, whether it is a democratic or republican governor, looking to state legislatures. people feel that is closer to them. that is part of our federal system. along the lines of what you're saying, people are now feeling that if washington cannot get things done, which apparently, washington cannot in many places, people are looking to the local governments and state governments. that is where a lot of pressure is being applied. that is where a lot of people are thinking that maybe things can work practically at the local level. after the speech, the president hits the road. selling his policies on a small scale, retail level? after they go out right the state of the union and make a swing through much of the country. he is going to a number of

states, including wisconsin and tennessee and some other places. he is going to take his message out around the country. he will illustrate some of his points with the venues he goes to. it is like a campaign swing. this is very common. unless there's something very mostlling in the speech, of the time, people move on rather quickly after the state of the union. we are so cynical that you see a lot of the polls today, we can talk about further if you like, indicating how cynical people have become about whether anything can get done and whether president obama can get anything done. he has a short, small window to convince people that he is up to the job. they depend on the speech for a bump in approval rating? guest: it almost always happens that they do get a bump up. it almost always never lasts.

it is difficult to find a memorable line or moment that you recall from a state of the union speech. the ones that come to mind are very much in our history. franklin roosevelt gave the four freedoms speech. lyndon johnson, the declaration of the war on poverty was in his state of the union. it is pretty rare that we remember these speeches. often they are laundry lists and there is not a theme in them. people remember things more than 5b on a list. host: good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning? my concern is the president on the unemployment issue and jobs

in the southern area as well. guest: he says he will talk about that when he goes to tennessee. there is every indication the president will talk about unemployment. the extension of the unemployment benefits has stalled on capitol hill. a lot of the republicans want some cuts to offset the loss of revenue for extending the unemployment benefits. i think they will get an extension of the unemployment benefits. i am sure he will talk about that tonight. wedge issues is a republicansalled -- are off base on that. i think you hear that as a big issue tonight.

i do suspect that will get done at some point. host: kevin from fort worth, texas, hi. caller: good morning. it really doesn't matter what the president says tonight. he needs to get on the road and make sure the house becomes democrat [indiscernible] [indiscernible] thank you very much. >guest: the president is being pushed in different directions. many democrats feel the president should do right to confronting the republicans from the get go saying the republicans are blocking items such as the minimum wage and unemployment and benefits and

immigration overall and that he audit take the case to the country that the republicans are at fault and they need to be pushed out of control, the house in particular. i am sure he is going to do that later in the year. the signals from the white house are that he is not going to be as confrontational as he will be as we get closer to the midterm elections. he will try to find some consensus and be conciliatory. you might see that on immigration where he has been very confrontational in some ways because the republicans are blocking this. that sinceing signs the republicans seem to be talking about some move toward immigration legislation in the path towardith a

citizenship but a path toward legal status, a different thing. maybe he will let that play out and will hammer them on immigration right away. host: how am i watching tonight's speech if i am an incumbent? guest: a number of incumbent democrats are in a lot of trouble. senator pryor in arkansas, senator landrieu in louisiana are among those. look for thewill state level to see what the president will do for them in adopting policies that they want to see pushed. in different states it is different things. incumbents whome appeared to be hanging by a thread.

does he campaign for them as we get closer to the midterm election in november? you had some question -- you always have a question and i used to cover politics from a state level. they want the president to come in and does that do more harm than good? you will see a number of legislators not wanting the president to come in. host: ken walsh of "u.s. news & world report" is here to talk about the state of the union. he wrote a book about it, "prisoners of the white house: the isolation of america's presidents and the crisis of leadership." how does you learned, that apply to what the president faces tonight? guest: the president is a major character in the book. it talks about the isolation that presidents feel.

he has talked about it in interview about how surprised he was at how isolated the president can be and he felt he was becoming in his first term. look at the way the white house operates. his life is so abnormal. you have the idolizes around him, which every president has. you do not want to bring them bad news. the security is intense. bodyguards, secret service everywhere. president obama understands this. he likes to get out of town a lot to get a sense of normalcy of what everyday people are thinking and doing. that is difficult to draw in everyday life experience out of.

he will get out on the road. and mistake was getting stuck in the bubble of washington too much. latanya, democrats line. caller: good morning. i am taking issue with president obama's numbers declining. it goes all the way back to ronald reagan and his sixth term. and also it is the --president obama is putting out things he would like done. it takes a congress to work with him. if they are putting up roadblocks, how is it him not communicating? it is the republicans not wanting to do anything the president wants to do. guest: that is a good point.

the house has blocked many of the things he wanted to do. that is still the case. a long-standing argument. the president won reelection. a lot of house members won reelection with a bigger margin than obama. they say, why should i go along with him? i will let you decide which argument is better. years gone down every under obama. there have been cases where the numbers have gone way, way up. president clinton's first state of the union had high viewership. hadsident bush, the son, amazing state of the union

leadership when he was arguing the case for war in iraq. you can argue the news lends itself to that. it has got to be a question the white house must have in obama's numbers going down. maybe it is that our attention span as a country is so short now that people do not want to pay attention to a speech like this. this has become such a ritualized event. it.ink people are tired of a lot of it is showmanship, by any president. every president that i have covered have done the same thing. it becomes showmanship. you will see tonight. there'll be all kinds of

gamesmanship in the house chamber. the democrats will cheer when the president talks and the republicans will sit on their hands. under president bush, it was the democrats who were quiet and republicans who cheered. it becomes a game. more more people are tired of this. even some of the supreme court justices do not want to come anymore because it is cheerleading and showmanship. they get called out. they just have to sit there quietly and not or shake their heads. i wrote about this this morning, this ritualized part of this institution of the state of the union i think has tired people and they are feeling it is

predictable and then also you out the responses now, the heart he has a chance to respond after it and that becomes another ritualized thing. republicans now have three responses. they have the official one and one from a tea party person and one from a libertarian. they cannot come up with one person to speak for them. host: the official cathy mcmorris rodgers is. guest: the message you get from those three factions is the republicans are divided. cathy mcmorris rodgers is a high ranking woman in the house. the republicans have a problem with women voters. they want to show women who are on their side and part of the leadership. rand paul is speaking as a

libertarian, on his own. is tea party -- mike lee speaking on his own also. they will not get the attention the congresswoman is getting. it shows how fractured the republicans are. host: do we know who was staying behind? guest: they keep one member of the cabinet out of the chamber in case there is some absolute disaster and somebody has to take over the government. they rotate this around. i do not know at this point. they like to tell you at the last minute which cabinet secretary is not in the chamber. that is the tradition for security reasons. a goes from one cabinet department to another. host: david is up next, good

morning. caller: i am not watching this. he does nothing but lie and brag about how he will turn this country into a socialist dictatorship. he is going to go after the demandake things fair, that we be stripped of our second amendment rights and protect ourselves. the same old garbage over and over again. he can break the constitutional law by special presidential orders. he doesn't have to follow the constitution. guest: this will be one of the lines of criticism, especially if the pursues this executive order, unilateral action strategy. many people in the administration are saying that is what he should do.

they think he has been taking too long to do it. far, you areet so going to be really upset after he starts to do it. i saw a number yesterday. president bush and president clinton both had issued many more executive orders then president obama has so far. he has been holding back on that. i think he will see an outpouring for the rest of his term, a specially if there is no change in congress. host: jason from laurel, maryland. caller: good morning. as far as you think the stage would be set for education, for the education for public schools as far as security is concerned. there have been a lot of violent

acts going on in schools. they talked about the gun laws. something should be done on the lower levels as far as community and it needs to be from the top to address this with the tactic skills to get your license. i want to note if that will be talked about at the state of the union. guest: you mean gun violence and protecting schools. caller: yes. i was talking about as far as -- host: jason, go ahead. caller: equipping teachers. them teachers, as far as being in the position to handle the situation. guest: that is a good point. this is another area of contention.

favor ofo are more in the use of guns or the ownership of guns feel this is an answer, that teachers in schools should be able to protect the students. thergument about whether teachers should be armed or maybe there should be an armed guard in every school to protect the students in case there is an attack. there is tremendous amount of controversy about this. the other side is people do not want to have this atmosphere of menace and danger in the schools and that maybe an armed guard would do that, would lend that sends two things. the money it would take to train these folks and procedures. lots of schools are still

controlled locally. it is still a local decision that you are talking about. i do not think the president would advocate for arming guards in schools. i think that is something he is opposed to. aboutnything he will talk gun control and the need for more control about guns. we just had another killing in a mall in suburban maryland this week. issue.gun violence how much will he address that? that is another tradition they call heroes in the gallery. president reagan invented this idea of having people who had done courageous things or who he wanted to recognize or values that they exhibited sitting in

the gallery with the first lady. president reagan did this with a utnick.ed lenny scot a plane went down in the potomac river. this fellow jumped into the water and saved somebody's life. this became a popular story around the country. he was treated as a hero and president reagan had him in the gallery. ever since presidents have had what they call here rose in the gallery. they'll have people who survived some of these gun incidents in the gallery tonight. they will try to draw attention to the gun issue that way. this is one thing that congress has not gone along on. he might uses as an occasion to talk about how he will try to use executive orders even more on the gun issue.

host: survivors of the boston marathon expected to be there as well as jason collins. the -- not just recognizing heroism. this is making a political point by recognizing people who embody some issues the president wants to call attention to. the heroes of the gallery have become showmanship as part of the event. host: jim breitenstein -- guest: that is another point. to what extent will members of congress try to make their own points making -- bringing guests. we will have this increasingly played out in the chamber where members ring people that they

want to make a point about. one of the members is bringing hannity. people are making these points and this ritual is spinning throughout the chamber. host: ronald is up next for our guest ken walsh from "u.s. news & world report." ronald, are you there? caller: yes. a lot of black young man have begun and are stepping up to the plate, raising their children and we have not got the credit of raising our children. a lot of black men raising their children and the unemployment rate is high in mississippi because of the government and walmart keep holding jobs

down. they will let the jobs come in. i think the president should address that and make them step up to the plate. guest: on the issue of african-american men and families, president obama has talked about that quite a bit. he is made the point about men the need to be more sensitive to taking care of their families, and to make sure they are working and supporting their families and being good parents. this is a message he sent that a lot of people are happy he has done this. estateuation is state and they differ about how difficult it is to find jobs. this is part of the long-term unemployed. even though the unemployment

rate has gone down as a national torage from seven percent 6.7%, there were still a tremendous problem with long-term unemployment giving up for work because they cannot find it. there are structural problems in the economy that have kept a lot of people unemployed for a very long time. economists say the longer you are unemployed, the more difficult it is to find a job, especially people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. it gets back to the income inequality, closing the gap between the rich and the poor. he might not want to talk about inequality. he talks about opportunity. recognizesroblem he

very clearly and we will see what he comes up to address it. host: he makes those statements in other speeches. does he trumpet it tonight? guest: i think he does. democrats are urging him to address these issues more vigorously and i think he will do that tonight. hello.erry from georgia, caller: let me turn my tv down. i would like to talk about the state of the union. what is the state of the union? i think we should all work together to better our -- it is too divisive right now. we are pitting republicans against democrats. we don't ask are you democrat a republican. we are all going to go down

together. i think when obama made that statement, is about one job was to stop president obama. that was a slap in the face to every american. that is where the divisiveness started and it has been going downhill ever since. host: how do you think how the president addresses house republicans? guest: house republicans have been the fundamental obstacle to a lot of these programs. the caller is talking about mitch mcconnell, who is up for reelection this year. right from the beginning of president obama's administration, macconnell said one of his biggest priorities would be to ensure the defeat of president obama when he ran for

reelection and to stop his programs. there was this argument being made on capitol hill to stop obama, not giving him much of a chance to be persuasive. that is true. could he have worked with the republicans more? how does he address the republicans tonight? i think he is probably going to walk the line between saying, i am going to try to work with you, house republicans. i will give you another chance. if it doesn't work, i will not hesitate to go on my own with these executive orders. this is the last chance to get something done. if it doesn't happen, i will go my own way. host: the president's former speechwriter talked about how

the writing starts around christmas. guest: the president over the holidays was thinking about this on his vacation in hawaii. this is very common. it tends to be a very long process. you have seen other speechwriters talk about the process and how miserable it is for the speechwriters. they are not just working with the president. they have pollsters, white house staffers, people all over the government. a former speechwriter did a piece about it this week and said you have college roommates who want to get paragraphs in the speech. you have a huge patchwork and i have to smooth it out and get some kind of arrangement where people lose track and what the president is getting at. it is a very difficult process

and they pretty much do not like it. it doesn't rise to the occasion. it is a laundry list, too many time in the sense of being a compelling address to the country. host: the lands of the speeches are tracked. in previous years about an hour. as far as how long the speech goes, how does it lay out to those in the room or watching on television? guest: in the room, they are making their points. h, you have a 59 or hour speec that includes all the applause and introductions. so, it is almost, it is pretty rare it is less than an hour. he gets to be detectable from the viewers perspective.

people jumping to their feet. the other side being silent. becomes -- it one-upsmanship and i think that gets tiresome for viewers. host: this is anthony from washington, d.c., independent line. caller: tonight's state of the union address, and i am not against immigration. doesng as it has been, how immigration help the unemployment situation? i would like for the president to address that. guest: this is a rather complicated issue. that people who advocate immigration reform or change immigration laws to make it

easier for the people who went to the united states illegally to stay here, millions and millions of these folks. it is difficult to imagine how we would throw them out of the country. do you keep them in the shadow world where they might get into trouble? a lot of people take jobs that americans do not want. that is a controversial issue. some feel americans would want those jobs. you have this huge body of people who want to the united states illegally. what do you do with them? would it be better to have them be productive taxpayers and participate in the country more productively? they would also get more benefits from things like medicare over time. it is a big argument in washington. the president's argument is

these are people who are not criminals and came to find a better life. they did break the law to get into the country. there should be some way to keep them here and to have them do something productive. the other side is they broke the law and should not take advantage for breaking the law. they should go back home and come back in under the regular as teachers. this is the fault line that has always been there on the immigration issue. do you give them amnesty or not? billdent reagan did sign a that did give immigrants, illegal immigrants this notion of an mistake. he was an icon of the conservative movement and he did that.

house republicans are now talking about finding a pathway to legal residency as opposed to citizenship, which is the sacred prize of american life. this is something that they will unveil very soon. something the president will want to see what is in the proposal. host: anything tonight that would constitute a surprise for you? guest: if there is some big initiative it would be a surprise. the white house has been dotting back on expect haitians. dialing back on expectations. i was surprised at how much he had backed off from these grand ideas of hope and change. he talked in terms of every president is part of a long-running story. you just hope you get your paragraph right.

he was writing a book and now he's down to a paragraph. neither this is a tremendous head fake and they want to lower expectations so people will be more surprised if he does come up with a series of initiatives. the white house has been discouraging this idea. , our guestalsh reports for "u.s. news & world report," and the author of the book "prisoners of the white house." coverage of the state of the union starts live at 8:00 tonight. we are leading up to the speech at 9:00. we invite you to go to www.c-span.org to find out more. our next guest will have a unique perspective, jason chaffetz, the republican from utah. later we will be joined by bernie sanders. but first a news update.

>> senate democrats are dropping the issue of extending unemployment benefits for now. bolton reports that the senate voted last night to begin dealing with the flood insurance bill. harry reid hopes to schedule for work on the farm bill and several of the nominees. the timing of the next vote is uncertain. senator reed caprivi issue back to the floor quickly if a compromise emerges. atch live coverage at 10:00 eastern. an appearance this morning by denis mcdonough who commented on the executive order on raising the minimum wage saying we think $10.10 an hour is the way to go.

no one who works hard full-time should live in poverty. more on tonight's address from julie who says the creation of a new savings plan geared toward workers whose employers do not offer such plans. retirement accounts often have fees that are onerous for low-wage workers. this would allow first-time savers to start building up savings in treasury bonds. the account can be converted to a traditional ira. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> this is where the professors lived when they were in fayetteville. they saw the house and it was for sale and hillary pointed at the house and said, that is a cute house. bill took of the airport and said i bought your dream house.

i cannot live there alone. there were nine people at the wedding. it was a small ceremony. killing was retaining her own name --hillary was retaining her own name. they told hillary's mother and she cried. faith hill was a place they settled in. was a place they settled in. they had reached a plateau where they had achieved a place with a set goals for themselves. >> watch our program on first ladies or see it saturday on c-span. our series continues with laura bush on monday. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is jason

chaffetz, republican from utah. and member of the homeland security committees. thank you for joining us. talking about state of the union . you think you'll address you? guest: very generally. this is the sixth time we will have heard from the president. it is always good to hear from the president. he is sending very next signals signals.ixed he says if you don't do it my way, i will go on my way. that is a little offensive. the action he took this morning ed it is a very mix

message. i do not think that is the spirit of the constitution. no one thing is supposed to be easy. when the president says it is my way or the highway, that is not very conducive to getting things done. host: make the case you have worked with the president. guest: i introduced a bill -- he introduced a bill that says you have to paid your federal taxes, you should be prohibited from getting a federal contract. i agreed with him. it sits over in the senate. why the president won't lift a finger for a bill that he sponsored as a senator. i am sponsoring as a right wing conservative republican. i am doing things that i know i

am agreeing with the president on. host: what do you expect specifically to hear from the president on these topics? guest: he wants to simply raise the minimum wage. i would look to the state of utah. rateve a 4.1% unemployment and a thriving economy. we have a great environment for business. maybe we should learn from a state like utah as opposed to we are going to do these things that we have been doing for decades and have not worked. host: what lesson could the president learned from states? we did some of the heavy lifting in talking about the retirement program as

opposed of to find benefit plan. it doesn't sound real sexy the makes a huge financial difference in the state. there are things like that that are very important. a regulatory environment that is predictable. when you keep talking about these changes, it creates uncertainty. capital is resistant to making investments where there is uncertainty. consequently people do not invest. raising theut this cost of wages and memo the wage and the increasing regulatory environment i energy production, as a business they are hesitant to make an investment. one of the things that doesn't get enough attention our

students and youth. you are in essence saying we are going to hire less young people. if you are selling subway sam which is or you own a movie theater and you talk about let's raise the minimum wage, when you increase the cost of labor, you will have less people that you can hire. i worry that the 15, 16, 17-year-old are the ones that take the brunt of this pain. i understand somebody is trying to make a career. let's get them trained up so they can make more than minimum wage. host: our guest is representative jason chaffetz of utah. you can ask him questions on the phone line. 202-585-3880. 202-585-3881 for republicans. 202-585-3882 for independents.

mentioned students. we have students as part of our c-span bus and will be joining us throughout the course of the morning to ask questions of our guest. our first hall this morning is john for representative jason chaffetz. good morning. caller: good morning. i have always been an optimist. i have a lot of friends, republicans and democrats, good people, they vote. between the lobbyists and the type of people that vote by mary's, it doesn't --and primaries, it doesn't make a big difference. i voted for obama and reagan and clinton. neither side is going to sit down. you talk about students. the debt that student has will

affect the housing market. you are right about training. germany is always at the top. i am a democrat. i can go for the pipeline. both sides control most of the people that sell big money. both sides know us. you have to appeal to those people. i think we are at a stalemate. guest: good morning in kentucky. i am glad you are dissipating. we need more people participating. i am going to continue to be bullish on america and our future. we need people to be involved in this political process. look at the voter turnout number. we struggle with this in utah.

the apathy about one vote doesn't matter. it came down to less than a few votes. with twogreat race candidates with different visions. that race was decided by less than 1000 votes. i want everybody to be encouraged and enthused. we have to get some younger people engaged in the process. host: texas tech university is where our c-span bus. mr. jacobson, good morning. go ahead with your question or comment. mr. jacobson, go ahead. issues,al with those let's take another call. nation from ohio -- mason. caller: good morning.

i have a couple of things to say. i typically judge people by their actions and not their party affiliations. you'reng to you, i think in a bit of denial for three reasons. you talk about getting something done and having more jobs. last year was the biggest do-nothing congress we have had for probably ever. when we talk about the president doing something on jobs and you talking about how he is not trying to accomplish anything with jobs in the economy. he put forward a jobs bill that did not go through. republicans but no jobs bills on the table. your perception of the people earning in the wage is completely wrong. statistics show today's middle

wage earner our adult trying to survive and raise a family on. the a working 80 hours or more and cannot get by. job creation is great. we need to look at more job creation and training. you cannot leave the folks not being able to survive working 40 hours a week. guest: thank you and good morning in ohio. as far as a do-nothing congress, you equate the number of bills passed with progress. i would not necessarily equate the two. 150ave passed more than bills that now sit in the senate. just look at the number of bills that are sitting there that they have taken no action on. passed anress, we

immigration reform bill. the debt with high tech vi sas. do you think harry reid and the democrats would take that up and vote on that? no. it never got a vote. i would also look at the senate, which is controlled the democrats. i am not saying we are perfect. it is erroneous to equate the number of bills passed with progress. we don't have a president that engages in this process. there is nothing you can point to that the president of the united states has engaged to work with the opposition. that is who we are in this nation. we have to reach our hand out and come up with compromise. i do not see that with the white

house. let's look at obamacare. one thing that obamacare really hurts is this penalty or this requirement that some people who to getnimum wage jobs pushed a little bit so the maximum amount of time would be 29 hours. i had a woman who said, i am a single mom and working hard and not my employer is going to moving from 40 hours a week down week to meet a requirement with obamacare. these kinds of things are difficult and wrong. if you want to tackle that, let's repeal obamacare. host: mr. jacobson from texas tech again, go ahead. go ahead. you are on, sir.

what you think could be done to strengthen our economy? guest: thank you and good morning in texas. we have a whole array of students who are getting ready to graduate. my daughter is entering college. that is a big concern. you get your degree and then let? obamalicies of president and the democrats have not worked. the democrats have the house, the senate, and the presidency. he invested in bigger and broader government. billion that was supposed to stimulate the economy. it didn't. it failed. they did cash for clunkers.

we have a host of things. you have to deal with the health care sector. you have rising demands and people paying more into this process. you president obama said can save $25 per family and that $2500.true -- you have to deal with this in a responsible way or it will exasperate the problem. we believe the energy sector should be thriving. look at the extraction of resources on public land, it is not happening. we are thriving in north dakota on private property. out west, this government has done everything they can to put a stranglehold on the development of good, real jobs. we have to go field by field.

we have regulatory certainty and a great place to live in utah and we are thriving. our unemployment rate is about 4.1%. host: gary, good morning. caller: good morning to you. the democratic party has aligned himself -- you can google. they domunist party -- it by strengthening the economy and the military strengthens the company --country. they outlawed the communist party. [indiscernible] so -- host: what would you like our guest to address? caller: use the act against the

party. host: you are up early in the mexico. guest: good morning. i am not familiar with this particular act. i will look at it. i don't know i agree with that approach. we have a lot of good people on both sides of the aisle. they are good, decent people. most people are here for the right reasons. i don't know i agree with the premise of your question. good morning in new mexico. host: we have an e-mail. guest: i would argue we are on the right side of most of these issues. you have to tackle them one at a time. there is no piece of legislation that is clean and crisp. we do have the one- and two-page

bills. when you get a big bill out there, there are pluses and minuses and you have to make a judgment call. there is a populist approach and everything you want to do. you want to divide the certainty that people need. we would have curbed back the debt and deficit. most americans would say you should only spend what you get back in receipts. do not spend more than you take in. the most people agree we should be energy independent? i think most people agree with that. principle. you just have to tackle the issues one at a time. host: here is thomas on the democrats line. caller: by first question is

what federal employee is making minimum wage? if we have over a million illegals and 1.3 million unemployed, how can we pass any immigration bills at this time? reinstate unemployment benefits. guest: thank you and good morning in texas. you are right. federal employees make a good, healthy wage. they do a good job. i worry there are two many people under federal employment. i think what the president's action debt with the contractors. the president unilaterally has just made government that much more expensive. we'll have to pay for it. he has not made the case for the justification for this. i have no idea what the total cost will be to the federal

government. as far as unemployment benefits, we have got to get people back on their feet. the id is to teach people how to fish. we can be very compassionate. one of the numbers that scares me, there are 30 million more people on food stamps than there were in the year 2000. i have to believe that some people are gaming the system. 30 million more people? we have nearly 100 million americans on some kind of federal assistance? that just strikes me as wrong. 30 million more on food stamps? i would love to know how many of those people also have the nfl sunday ticket or directv are the

nicest iphone at the same time they are taking food stamps. that is a concern. host: you brought up immigration. the house republican leadership framework will call this week for a path for legal status. where are you when it comes to this? guest: there are five bills that we passed out of committee that i am supportive of. we have to fix legal immigration. if you don't fix legal immigration, you will never solve this problem. i am opposed to amnesty. there are a number of things i am for. visa reform has to be out there. we have 400,000-plus fugitives. we don't have an entry exit system into this country.

the government cannot tell you who has come into the country. close to 8 million of these border crossing cards. they're only supposed to go 20 miles or 55 miles into the country. we have no exit programs. aikido on and on for about an hour. we passed two bills out of the house. house andats had the senate and the presidency and they did nothing, absolutely nothing on immigration. sometimes you hear democrats preach on the need for immigration. when you have all levers of government you control, you did nothing. we passed two bills last term. harry reid did nothing. now we have five bills in the

queue. host: bill kristol of "the weekly standard" says -- guest: we got to do things in this country because they are right. we parse these difficult issues. when are we not in cycle? they are talking about 2016 presidential race. i want to tackle difficult issues. why not take more difficult votes? that is what we get elected to do. it is still january. the election isn't until november. if you don't like it, vote no. that is what we need to do more of in this country. every time i have been here -- host: you said you have to do

something because it is right. why is a right to take the stance on immigration? guest: i am not aware of anybody who thinks that immigration in this country is working properly. i know and woman who has been going through this process for more than 35 years. she is trying to do it legally and lawfully. we are failing those people. they are not willing to overstate their visa. we have got to pirate ties those to pirate we have got ties those people. host: students from texas tech university joining us. a photo of them as they sit and wait for their turn. good morning and go ahead. caller: good morning, congressmen. guest: good morning. caller: how do you feel congress

will proceed with immigration reform? do you feel guilty could interest in pushing reform? guest: the senate has a bill and most people think they sent it to the house. it is still sitting in the senate. i believe that we should build upon where we agree. if you look at the democrats, the most ardent open border type of democrat out there and the most tried and right wing republican, there are a lot of things we agree on. why not just pass the things we agree on? these a reform -- visa reform. they have bipartisan support. the democrats argument that we need a one size bill. billed one comprehensive and let's move that through the system. there is something for everybody

to hate in there. i cannot vote in support of amnesty. can we tackle the other 70% of problems with immigration? y;eah. build trust. if you are close to the border in mexico, people that are from mexico can get no more than seven percent of the available visas. take intoes not account proximity or size of country. you are getting the same percentage as zambia, which is a little bit further away. why not bump it up to 15%? why not pass that? do one issue at a time and we will have more power --roberts. caller: good morning.

i want to talk about the minimum wage. i think it is a terrible idea to try to ways it -- raise it. it was never supposed to be for people to earn a living. minimum wage was supposed to be for young children, young citizens to be able to be hired after school, during summer to make a few dollars and, hopefully, they would be at the bottom rung of the company and maybe stay at the company and grow. they want think that to make a living on the minimum wage are kidding themselves. the only way to make a decent living is to get an education. guest: there was a lot of truth in that. i feel for the people who were struggling along. i think the long-term solution is through education. it is very difficult for somebody to continue to live on the minimum wage.

you have got to show some aptitude, you have got to work hard, you have got to improve your skill set. companies have a financial incentive to keep you there. it's a look we are agreeing on this. i would look at the youth. got to payy, we have everybody more, you are saying, we are not going to teach that 16-year-old the value of a dollar and how to work. that is a huge missed opportunity in the nation. i think the previous generation stood a better job of getting their kids to work, getting the fingernails dirty. that is one of the most important things i did. i worked as a gardener in arizona and it was awful. it was tough. it was one of the most important things i did. if you're going to force employers to go through all of these gyrations with obamacare and the minimum wage, the employers are just not going to do it. you're going to lose this generation who is going to get up off the couch, get away from

that xbox, and actually do some work. i would challenge the democrats. if you are so ardent, why not get rid of exceptions? there are a host of industries that do not have a minimum wage and have exemptions from the minimum wage. if you are going to get serious about the minimum wage, let's tackle those industries. my guess is, you are not going to do it. host: test it -- texas tech founded -- 33,000 students attending that university. here is a student. caller: good morning. thank you for speaking with me. my question is that i'm about to graduate and go into the real world. ceo said that's of young healthy adults to not apply for obamacare, there will be massive premium increases.

what are my incentives for enrolling in the formal character? -- affordable care act? is one of the fundamental challenges i have the so-called obamacare. i have voted 40 times to repeal it. there are many adverse actions that happened because of obamacare. i want people to be responsible. i do think young people should get health care insurance. i don't think they should be forced to do it. i don't think the federal government should force them. i do think it is the responsible thing for people to do. i think we need more participants in this. you will never know when you might have that unfortunate accident or disease or something else that might happen and we do not want people to be caught financially. for the rest of us to have to end up paying for it. rightare is not the

prescription for making this happen. it is just not. host: our next call, terry, akron, ohio. --ler: i was just wondering you mentioned how you had reforms which are public unions in utah. a guaranteed pension to a 401(k). i think the republicans are against unions, against things like that. would you be willing, as a congressman, and you guys ever real challenge, would you be willing to give up your guaranteed pension and go to a 401(k)? guest: thank you. i appreciate it. defined contribution as opposed to a defined benefit plan is the right direction for what we are supposed to do. federal employees have a pension program that is involved and engaged.

i am not yet a recipient of this. i am a bit younger than that. i am not anti--- one thing i disagree with you on this is whole idea that i am antiunion. i am working with the union on customs and border patrol on some reforms to their pay. they introduced it to me and said hummel we would like to reform our pay structure. i am work with them. i default, i am not actually anti-pension. i am not antiunion. of theo worry that some collective bargaining agreements and some of the things we're doing are contrary to the things we should be doing as a nation. particularly with the law enforcement side of the equation. we would have to get into a deeper, broader discussion about that. i do not think that necessarily pensions are evil. when you have states like illinois and california that have not funded their pension programs, then i have a real problem.

first resolution that i introduced in this congress with a resolution that said, don't look to the states to try to reimburse you on this. a municipality, as a county government, they have got to be responsible for these rich pensions. look what happened in san jose, california. you will have a host of cities, counties, states that will want to and need to file for bankruptcy. do it in a financially prudent right. don't think that the rest of america should have to bail you out of these rich pensions. former secretary of state clinton address the topic of benghazi. we want to play you some of what she said and get your response. [video clip] regret with what happened in benghazi -- it was a terrible tragedy. fourng for americans -- americans, to diplomats, two cia

operatives -- losing an ambassador like chris stevens, who was one of our very best and had served in libya and across the middle east and spoke arabic and was well regarded by the vast majority of libyans who came in contact with. it was a great loss. it was a great loss to our foreign service. to our country. it illustrated one of the biggest problems that i faced as secretary of state. we have a lot of dangerous locations where we send not our military, but are civilians. they go in, they have language skills often. they try to assess what is going on in the area. host: your thoughts. guest: look. we are united in the idea that that was a regrettable situation. i look at what the united states

senate did under the leadership of dianne feinstein, a democrat, who came out and they used the word preventable. this was preventable. aprilll remember that on 6, 2012, a facility on benghazi was bombed. june 6, 2012, it was bombed again. what happened to the security profile? they went, at the end of july, from having 30 security thannnel to having less 10. you have to ask yourself, why did that happen? why did create it -- we create a death trap? hillary clinton testified months after the attacks that it was the people on the ground made the security decisions. that is not true. ,e heard from eric nordstrom that was absolutely not true. there are still a lot of questions that i think she, secretary clinton, and others have got to answer, not just about the talking points, but why is it that they created this death trap?

why was a preventable according to the democrats in the united states senate? what was the response so pathetic? secretary clinton, president obama, secretary pineda lied to the american people for weeks? why, more than a year after, do we get comments out of secretary clinton? because the poll numbers are not going in her direction. no one has been captured or killed. we do not white -- know why they moved the personnel down. there are so many unanswered questions. the only reason we're still going through this is this administration continues to stonewall us in our ability to talk to people. on september 11, 2012 and america has still never heard from somebody who was on the ground that night in benghazi. never. that is not acceptable.

i would love her to testify again. we will continue with our investigation. host: peyton. texas tech university. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you so much. federal research funding is a very -- is a very key importance. do believe certain fields have priority? guest: great question. cancer. without a doubt. cancer took my mother's life, i great-aunt's life, my father's life. we have 1500 people per day in this country die because of cancer. there is not a person there at texas tech or anybody watching show that does not have a loved one, friend, relative that has not been touched by cancer. when you have something that is day,ng 1500 americans per

that is important. you are telling me we don't have a $24 billion to fight something that is killing 1500 americans? this nation should be focused on this like a laser beam and tackle cancer. i get fired up about this. it is very personal for me. it is something that should be a national priority. i was fiscally conservative at the republican. that is something that, as a conservative, when it is killing 1500 people per day, that is where we should be spending some money. host: ashley, from texas tech university. caller: good morning. in your introduction, you referenced getting trained up for jobs. in d.c. this past semester and texas tech opened a new major, however, that means i have more time left in my

undergraduate career. with the student loan balloon, what kind of reforms would we be seeing as a result of the situation with the cost of attending a public university continues to rise? guest: i wish there was an easy solution. cost of that type of education is rising faster than inflation. i wish i had a simple, easy answer. one of the things that the democrats pushed through on their reform of the student loan program was they pushed the private sector out of the business of being able to provide these types of loans. i do not see the wisdom in that. i think the competition, opportunity to have some private entities also offering these types of loans would be a good thing. ofwe can tackle the idea helping to drive down the cost of education. i wish i had a good, easy answer for you. i want people to be able to value this education and be able to get a job. do we find the fundamental change of direction of this

country, we are going to continue. sanford, florida. democrat's line. caller: i have been listening to c-span for almost 10 years. [indiscernible] payuld be so glad and i none of my employees less than $12 per hour. is going to think happen if these people who can't afford $10 minimum wage, what you think is going to happen? i will not be able to pay my employees a lot more than what i am paying them now. basic economics for a small business. i wish you nothing but the best of luck. if the federal government is going to force you to pay your people more, what are you going to do? you will pass those expenses

onto your customers or you will pay less people. the big corporations will be able to take care of themselves. the big, big companies will be able to take care of themselves. -- then yousinesses have problems and challenges. couple that with the rising costs under obamacare and you have a formula that will make as mrs. very difficult for the small business. they are the engine of what makes america tick. host: we want to hear from the last student at texas tech. alex. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you, once again, for taking the time to answer our questions here. my question comes from personal experience. this previous semester it was fortunate enough to represent her university at a congressional internship program. i witnessed firsthand the effects of the government

shutdown. most polls and studies conducted showed that the majority of americans credit the republican right specifically the faction of the republican party, how do you think that will affect the republicans in the upcoming election? guest: thank you for joining us. i was the strategy of moving through that process the way they did -- it was wrong. 14 times in a row, i voted to keep the government open. little erroneous to simply blame the republicans on this. quiteheless, i think frankly, all the federal employees got back pay, they centrally got a couple weeks paid vacation, let's be honest. i got paid and did not have to come to work. was it the right thing to do, absolutely not. by the time the election rolls around, next year, most people will look at that and it will

probably not be very high on the priority list. it is not something that will come up again. we passed bills to get to the funding mechanism. there is no threat of a government shutdown going into the next election. i appreciate the question. host: we want to thank the students of texas tech and their academic advisor. to what you just said, as far as the debt ceiling is concerned, has a date and addressed? guest: we have not got a cohesive the answer. wednesday, thursday, friday, house republicans will gather in a strategy sessions and one of the key topics we will get through is how to do with the debt ceiling. we cannot just keep raising the debt ceiling. when president obama was senator obama, he took that position. i think that is right. ago,i started, five years the national debt was about $9 trillion. now it is more than $17 trillion. you just cannot keep doing this in perpetuity. host: what would you like to see? guest: we have got to spend less

in our federal government. i think the equation is very similar. you also have to tackle entitlement reform. social security, medicaid, medicare -- you never ever solve this equation without tackling those. , from utah.chaffetz thank you for your time. you can see our coverage of the state of the union tonight starting at 8:00. another perspective coming up on state of the union. we will hear from senator bernie sanders, independent from vermont. we will have that discussion in a moment. >> some economic news. the commerce department says orders for durable goods fell just over 4% in december. big 17.5%ss, led by a drop in the follicle category of commercial aircraft. an update on guantanamo bay.

prisoner suspected of being an osama bin laden bodyguard is pleading for his release from the u.s. naval base in cuba. is theiodic review board first such hearing to be publicly observed. reporters are watching remotely from an army office in arlington, virginia. 2002an has been held since and is one of dozens of guantanamo bay prisoners considered too dangerous for release, even though the government may not have enough evidence to prosecute him. president obama order the military in 2010 to periodically review the threat posed by these men. the president, while he gets ready for the state of the union address, congresswoman cathy mcmorris rodgers is preparing the republican response. representative or s rogers is chairman of the house republican conference. president's the address live at 9:00 p.m. eastern, immediately followed by the gop response.

our preview program begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. 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. offering gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house. all is a public service of private industry. created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd. unlike us on facebook. follow us on twitter. reform ande that tax entitlement reform will not be easy. politics will be hard for both sides. none of us will get 100% of what we want. the alternative will cost us , visiturt our economy

hardship on millions of hard- working americans. let's set party interests aside and work to pass a budget that replaces reckless cuts with smart savings and wise investments in our future. let's do it without the brinksmanship that stresses consumers and scares off investors. the greatest nation on earth -- [applause] the greatest nation on earth cannot keep investing its business by drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next. [applause] we cannot do it. agree. let's agree. right here, right now. to keep the people's government open and pay our bills on time and always uphold the full faith and credit of the united states of america. [applause] >> watch president obama deliver this year's address. our preview program starts live

at 8:00 eastern with the president at 9:00, followed by the response from the republican conference chair and your reaction by phone, facebook, and twitter. the state of the union, tonight, live on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is senator bernie sanders, independent of vermont. what is the most important thing you want to hear from the president? guest: i want the president to knowledge the fact that our country faces enormously serious s, that theoblem' middle class is disappearing, the more people are living in poverty, that the of seen gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider and we have got to address that. wealth inequality, which in its current form, is not sustainable. host: is an eight -- executive

action the best way to do that? guest: i was pleased to read in the paper today that he did something that some of us urged him to do. we have many, many hundreds of thousands of workers in this country or employed by federal contractors who are making $7.50 per hour and the president said that the wages will be raised to $10.10 per hour. that is a good step forward and making sure we raise the minimum wage for every worker in this country and address one of the serious problems we have just most of the new jobs being created are low-wage jobs, part- time jobs. people cannot live on $7.25 per hour. the action is a good step forward. host: is there a legislative action to raise it? guest: passing a minimum wage law. host: i think there is. -- working with the house? guest: i think there is.

workers cannot survive on $7.50 per hour. polls are very clear. it is republicans as well. it is time for the republican party to start listening, not to the big campaign contributors, not to the walmarts of the world, the burger kings of the world, but to the people of this country who understand the people are entitled to have a certain amount of dignity on the job and have a certain type of wage, at least $10 10 cents per hour. i think the american people will be talking about this issue. host: our previous guest mentioned small business is being affected. guest: we have heard that argument for a zillion years. if you look at the studies, it is not true. has one of the higher minimum wage laws in the country. a dollar $.70 per hour -- $8.70 per hour and we have one of the lowest unemployment rates.

they are moving away to cut social security, medicare, medicaid. they not only do not want to raise the minimum wage, they want to abolish the concept of the minimum wage. many of my republican colleagues in the senate think we should do away with the $7.50. if you want to pay somebody three dollars per hour, that is human freedom. that will help the economy. haveottom line is that we a horrendous distribution of wealth in this country. the worst we have had since 1928. the worst of any major country on earth. 1% of the population with 38% of the wealth of america. 2.3% at the bottom. the people in the walmart family 40% ofore wealth than

the people in america. it is unsustainable. when so many people have nothing to spend, you cannot create jobs , you cannot create a strong economy. host: how do you make that appeal? two colleagues in the house? guest: this is my deal. as an independent. the way i do politics is a little different. i do not think i am going to make a rational case for the right wing republican colleagues. i think we rally the american people. the american people understand that when real unemployment in this country is at 6.8% -- it is 13% -- when youth unemployed -- unemployment is putting percent. understandn people that we need to create millions of jobs. one quick way you do that is you rebuild a crumbling infrastructure. our roads, bridges, water systems, weight will -- wastewater -- we need to do that

work and we can create millions of jobs doing that. we waste huge amounts of energy. the american people want us to do that. our job is to not just make a rational case, but more importantly, rally the american people to stand up and fight for the jobs we need, for the minimum wage that we need, for a tax system which does not allow one out of four corporations in this country to pay zero in federal income taxes. zero. instead of cutting social security or food stamps or education, i think we should be asking the wealthiest people in the largest corporations to start paying their fair share and deal with the deficit. numbers will be on your screen. you can reach out to us on twitter and e-mail. yvonne is up first on our republican line. milwaukee, wisconsin. caller: good morning.

it nice hearing from you. i have a question or a comment. can president obama extend unemployment through an executive order? do you believe he would do that? i would like to have all the republicans out there know that i have been a republican, i do feel this abuse in the system, but i feel like there is also -- in the case of unemployment -- there are a lot of people that cannot get a job 50'sse, i in my upper dutch companies are not going to openly say, because of your age they do not want you -- but it is hard getting a job. it is hard even getting in for an interview. you hear nothing back. what do they expect us to do? thank you very much for the question and for sharing your experience. would you are talking about is

something that is impacting many, many millions of americans. the president cannot do an executive order to extend and long-term unemployment benefit. we need the votes in the senate and the house. we have been fighting day after day -- i suspect it may come up again this week -- to get a republican colleagues to give us the 60 votes we need to help the 1.6 million americans whose long-term unemployment has of's iron -- has expired. 37% of all unemployed people are long-term unemployed. it is for the reasons that she indicated. there were parts of this country where it is just terribly difficult to find work. hundreds, if not thousands of people apply for the jobs. point -- the problem facing older workers. it is no great secret that all over the country you have employers who are saying, you are 55 and you are going to be

does she will be earning more than somebody who we can hire a 25, we will have to get rid of you and coincidently a few months later, we will hire somebody at 25 at a much lower salary. especiallyrs have an difficult time. we are working hard to get it done legislatively. host: an announcement is expected in the state of the union that the president has reached out to procter & gamble to end this employment discrimination. guest: it is a real problem. unemployment is too high. it is no great secret that would many large employers have done is just coincidentally, the people who are in their 50s, who have been in the company for 30 years, just coincidentally they seem to disappear. just coincidentally, a few months later, we will hire in a few young people. we have got to stop that.

you see older workers who have been working at a company for 20 or 30 years earning a decent wage, proud of the work they're doing, getting the benefits, when they lose their job, it is very hard for them to get a job that pays the same type of income that they had. many of them are now working at jobs at half wages and two thirds. host: michael from new orleans. independent line. caller: good morning. thatce to talk to someone has rightfully owned the congressional six percent approval rating. i would like to go in little off-topic to show you how wrong you are with one subject. opponent -- aong strong advocate are of global warming. we are going to one of the coldest snaps in a decade.

a bunch of global warming hacks that were trying to prove that the ice was melting. god had other ideas. they had to be rescued from the ice. please tell us, why don't you focus on the real things? geo-engineering. -- you dohat we have not know about that. host: we will let our guest respond. guest: mike, i think you and i live in different worlds. i try to listen to the scientific community. isy tell us that it overwhelmingly true that climate change is real. published scientists on this issue understand that it is real, that it is already causing devastating harm for our planet, that that harm will only get worse, and that climate

change is in fact man-made. nobody suggests that because climate change is real that that means that the weather is going -- climate change is not what the weather is today. it is what the weather is overlong patterns. community isc telling us that if we do not address the needs to significantly cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, the planet we will if to our kids and our grandchildren, in terms of droughts, in terms of forest inundation ofs of seacoast cities, is going to be her and us. we are in slight disagreement on that. i will stand with the scientific community. host: jim from twitter -- what is your fair share? guest: what is not a fair share is when you have 1% owning 38%

of the wealth and 68% owning 2.3% of the wealth. note, during the 1950's, when the economy was reasonably strong, the effect of tax breaks for upper income people was double what it is today. i would suggest to jim that the great crisis facing our country is the extraordinary level of greed which we are now sing from the big-money interest. you have people out there who are worth tens and tens of billions of dollars, that have than they will be able to spend in 100 lifetimes. apparently, that is not enough. they need more and more and more. i believe we should be struggling for a nation in which all of our people have at least a minimum standard of living, where we do not have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world.

where millions of young people are unable to afford a college education and leave school deeply in debt. that means a tax system which does say to millionaires and billionaires and large corporations, you live in a great country, you will have to contribute to make sure that all of us can benefit from the greatness of america. host: tempe, arizona. democrats line. caller: hello. been the longest-serving independent member of the american congress in history is a great accomplishment. you're one of the few willing to talk about one of the -- the issues that are ignored by the mainstream media. would you personally be willing to independently review a letter written to the department of commerce but dr. william pepper? this letter states that the 2008 report on the distraction of building seven on 9/11 omitted critical data which would have

made the crash due to fire explanation impossible. no i will not. i do not believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy. i believe that al qaeda and that martin cause 9/11 -- bin laden caused 9/11. host: gloria, independent line. caller: thank you to mr. sanders for your support of raising the minimum wage. when i was in-- first grade, i was taught that every job in our community was important to the success of our society. i want to know why retail jobs and food service jobs are treated as less than? raising the next generation is an important job. you cannot make you living at it. retail is important to our economy. we all cannot afford to go to college. i am a smart person. we have good, smart people doing

the so-called minimum wage jobs. they treat us as less than. we cook the food, raise the children -- i say, please, congress, give us a living wage. thank you. guest: thank you very much. you are absolutely right. every job is important. we should respect every worker. that we have a whole lot of folks in this country who work in childcare and one can argue that childcare workers are the folks who are shaping kids from 0-3 -- the most important years of a human's life -- they are paid less than what mcdonald's workers make. that does not make a lot of sense to me. food workers make minimum wage. what we're are talking about, in a broader sense, is a huge transformation of the american economy. one of the reasons why the middle class is disappearing.

that the largest employer and the united states was a company called general motors. they manufactured automobiles. they paid workers a strong, middle-class wage. there was a strong union behind them. people have health benefits. what happened, for a lot of declinedis those jobs and the new jobs that were created were in service. those wages pay terribly low. if we are going to save the middle class and allow people to have a decent standard of living, there is no question that we're going to have to raise those wages. employers are going to have to hope was raise those wages. including aolicy, strong minimum wage. that is what we are fighting for. host: representative diane black sent out this tweet. what do you think about him reaching out as far as working

with congress? guest: he has been reaching out for five years. chopped off, chopped off, chopped off. we asked them to raise the minimum wage. that is not a complicated issue. we asked them, at a time when we have more wealth than any economy, to ask some of the wealthiest people whose tax rates are lower than the middle- class, to pay a little bit more. pay nothing in federal income taxes -- to ask them to do away with the loopholes that enable these people to pay nothing in taxes. they are not giving us an inch. of course we want to work together. it is a lesson the president has learned, i hope he is learned. seene senate, what we have , the evidence very clear. more filibustering in the last five years than in the history

of the united states. we have seen a record level of extraction is him -- obstructionism, lack of cooperation. theas got to reach out to american people and demand that our republican colleagues start listening to what the american people want. who want toblicans cut social security, who want to transfer medicare from the strong program it is into a voucher type program. do you know what the american people say? wrong, wrong, wrong. our republican colleagues are not listening to the american people. the message is, please listen, work with us, protect the middle class. host: that penn and phone analogy. ofis about the larger topic executive orders. -- theye less durable are far less durable. enough.t is not good

here is what the situation is. legislation is far more preferable than executive options. but when you have a republican party that, to a significant degree, is now controlled by the och brothers and other extreme, right-wing forces, it is importable -- impossible to accomplish anything. you have to do the best that you can do. one issue that we have got to work on -- and i hope the president talks about it today -- is campaign finance reform and this disastrous citizens united decision, which is now four years old. let me tell you what this decision is about. it says that the billionaires and large corporations -- you can spend as much money as you and buying politicians buying the candidates that you

want in defeating other candidates. very few people that i know, conservative, moderate, progressive, believe that that is what american democracy is about. one of the reasons we have a government shutdown a few months ago is because of citizens united. many of the right wing republicans said we will have a primary against you and we have all the one we want -- money we want. we have to address the obscenity of citizens united, which is undermining the very foundations of american democracy. using many of my republican colleagues feel that way? maybe. but very few. eric. laurel, maryland. democrats line. caller: thank you. senator sanders, i appreciate your work. i hear the republicans always mentioning the founding fathers. workednding fathers

together on everything. these people wage a war against anything that the democrats have. we can die together as a country, but we should work together as a country. partisanship is wrong. you are supposed to work together so this can be a united country. this is the united states of america and i am so sick of them. it is disrespectful for them to even have right-wing extremists to be sitting in the gallery when the president speaks. that is insane, man. we need to work together. period. guest: let me say this. be, it used to be ,hat, except in rare occasions that it took a majority to pass legislation, 51 votes. what has happened, since

president obama took office, is now that virtually never happens. we consistently need 60 votes. our republican friends were very upset because harry reid pushed thatgh a rule which said we would only need a majority. that ison he had to do we kept getting stalled and stalled and stalled -- even 60 votes, delayed, obstruction. in terms of what the caller said , when it takes 60 votes to get anything done, that is obstructionism. i think we need to be aggressive right now and go to the american people and demand that the republicans start representing the middle-class and not their corporate sponsors. host: here is jerry on our republican mind. nse. caller: good morning. sanders, i would like to ask you, who was one of your

founding fathers that you respect? -- last judges called up last guy called up and said they really did not argue that much. i have read madison's notes about the constitution. these guys when at it left and right. guest: of course they did. people like jefferson and hamilton and all these guys. of course they had great debates. here is the point. the point is that historically, at least in the senate, there was an understanding that people had to come together. that you did not use the rules of the senate, which are very easy to manipulate, i can go down on the floor of the senate this morning and say i object and i could bring the united states government to a halt because of the senate does not do anything, the house cannot do anything, the white house cannot do anything. but you do not do that unless it is an extraordinary circumstance. . those rules of been usurped by the republicans. easy obstructionism every day.

i'm not going to say that the democrats did not do some of that in the past. they did. we have never seen anything like this at the level we have seen today. it is virtually impossible to get anything done because of that obstructionism. arthur, corpus christi, texas. republican line. caller: pleasure to talk to you all. i want to make a comment. about -- i have heard, for least four or five years, that are big corporations are sitting on tons of money. yesterdayis on c-span that this is still going on. baffled as to why this money just does not move. or anot a financial genius wall street type person, but it

just seems like there should be some kind of mechanism that would make these companies interested in getting their money moving. guest: thank you for raising that issue. one of the real concerns and frustrations the american people are feeling is wall street. we are in the midst of the economic difficulties we are the 2000 because of seven wall street meltdown -- 2007 wall street meltdown, which was caused by the greed of wall street, the recklessness, and their illegal behavior. the taxpayers bail them out. chase paidgan billions and billions of dollars presidentthe ceo, the jamie dimon got a $20 million

salary for my significant increase. salarya $20 million after paying fines. wall street lives on the world of its own. there are not part of the overall economy. the purpose of wall street is to make them to make the kind of profits that they can on the island that they live on. rather than being degrees for the economy to create the jobs we need and make the economy go. because they cannot make enough profits lending out profits to small and medium-size businesses -- that is one of the economic problems we face. in terms of wall street and people do not understand this -- we bailed them out because they were too big to fail. every one of the top six financial institutions in this country is larger than it

was before we bailed them out. you have the six huge financial institutions, which are assets that are equivalent to two thirds of the gdp of the united states of america. you have an incredible concentration of ownership. they read half of the mortgages in the country, two thirds of the credit costs. andiew is that, for duffers -- doesn't different reasons, the time is overdue for us to break these huge financial institutions off, bring more competition into the financial marketplaces, which is think be good for the whole country. host: did the dodd frank legislation take care of these issues? guest: it certainly did not take care of these issues. it accomplished some things. i voted for it. one of the reasons i voted for it is we have an amendment in theire. it was a modest step forward. we have got to break these huge financial institutions off.

they have too much economic power and too much political power, as well. host: back to minimum wage. dd fredericks writes -- guest: i don't think it will blow back. important point. one of the reasons i think you are saying median family income reasonswn, one of the you are seeing millions of people working longer hours for lower wages has to do with our disastrous trade policies going and permanent normal trade relations with china. corporate america pushed on democrats and republicans in a bipartisan way. trade policies which made it easier for companies to shut down in america among layoff workers here, go to china, vietnam, or elsewhere.

we have got to get a handle on that issue. the issue has got to be -- goal has got to be to demand that corporate america start to re- invest in a country called the united states of america and not just countries with a can pay people $.50 per hour. host: isaac from connecticut. independent line. caller: i think the concept of a progressive tax code is the worst thing this country could move toward. you need to move toward equal tax, not the fair tax, not a sales tax. income tax based equal tax. 10% on every dollar from the guy doing dishes to bill gates and every billion iraq there. 10%. guest: i strongly disagree with you. huge tax break for bill gates and an increase in taxes for the guy washing dishes. think this country was based, or at least in its modern history, on the understanding

that those people who are doing very well and the wealthy in this country today are doing very well have got to help us address the serious issues facing this country. we cannot burden the middle class or the working class with taxes, but we do have to ask them to pay their fair share. host: johnny, from the world and louisiana. speak: it is an honor to with senator sanders and to listen to you. you speak out on the issues with honesty and integrity and i love listening to you whenever you are on television. i am clicking my channel and i start to listen to what you have to say. my hat is off to you. continue to work for us. to help this country go forward. at what thee republican party is doing. their obstructionist in every way. i would just say this. i think because the president is black, he cannot said, members

of congress cannot say it, but i think that is the reason they are doing what they're doing. they do not want to help them in no kind of way. the do not want him to score any points. i hope the next lecture in comes around, that we will have more people in office that are honest and willing to help this country go forward. a cannot sustain the way it is going now. something has to give. i thank you, senator sanders, for all the work that you have done. may god bless you. guest: thank you very, very much. looks be clear. i think the caller makes a point. at everyehemence president -- all of them have had strong opposition -- but there seems to be a certain tinge and some of the extreme hatred for obama. i think we would be naïve not to assume that race does not have a role to play in that her and this type of hatred we are seeing. point thatmakes the the paths we are on right now is

unsustainable. i agree with her in a general sense. ift we are looking at now, current trends continue, is the movement of our great nation -- and i have to tell you that my father came to this country from the age of 17 from poland without a nickel in his pocket, -- he was the proudest american there was. familyable to raise his in dignity. he was able to make a modest living, sent his kids to college. on the current path that we are in, i feel we're moving toward an oligarchy. what oligarchy means is that you have a handful of very wealthy people controlling the economics of the country and controlling the politics of the country. that means you have company sitting there and saying, we are making a profit in america, but i can make more money by going to china or vietnam. shut it down, let's move to vietnam. you have other billionaires

saying, i am worth $70 billion, that is not enough money. let's get social security, medicare, medicaid. i want to pay less taxes. i want you to find me 50 candidate -- candidates i can pour money into. this is movement toward an oligarchy were very few people have incredible wealth and incredible power and many other people, the vast majority, have very little in the bank accounts , struggling day-to-day. have very little political power. they do not have a lobbyist or on wall street. wall street has the lobbyists. a lobbyist you're on capitol hill. the current situation is unsustainable. we need to rally the american people for justice in this country. host: three of your colleagues have offered the wrong version of the affordable call -- four book eric. it would let -- affordable care act.

the proposal replaces obamacare 's optional expansion of medicaid to people earning 138% with capital allotments. reest: i am familiar with their argument and i have been dealing with them for years. they had an opportunity to do something on health care when bush was president and the did nothing. the united states of america is the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to people as a right. believe in a single- payer system similar to what all countries have. despite the fact that we are currently spending almost twice as much for personal health care as to the people of any other country, we still have tens of millions of people who are uninsured and many others who have insurance, but large to dr. bowles on large copayments. the affordable care act is a

modest step. it is based on republican principles. it is based on republican principles. romney instituted something similar in massachusetts. to my mind, we have got to go further in terms of health care. health care should be a right of all people. medicareo it through a , single paid system, we can lower costs. you take the private insurance companies out of the equation. we control the drug companies. state will lead the nation -- the small state of vermont -- will lead the nation into a single-payer approach and other states will follow. host: what is wrong with their reproach? -- their approach? guest: when you have tens of millions of people who have no health insurance, but we spend twice as much of other people, those issues do nothing to address that. host: brian from pennsylvania.

republican line. go ahead. caller: welcome him of bernie. though i am a republican, i disagree with most of what you say, i love the discussions that you bring forward. one thing i would like to 98% of -- you said that the scientists agree that there is global warming. that is possibly a right figure. far, far fewer believe that it is caused predominantly by human beings. i just wonder why you try to lump those -- create that figuring and use it as a monolith when there are really 2 distinct figures. guest: you and i have a disagreement. certainly, the overwhelming majority of scientists believe that climate change is real. the evidence is also that the vast majority, i do not know exactly the number, but the overwhelming number of them

believe that it is caused by man-made activity. host: we're just about out of time. the federal government is relieving a gag order on tech firms about national security agency data request. guest: a modest step forward. we did not discuss the nsa. i happen to believe that in a general sense, the accumulating information of fed rate phone country isn this unconstitutional. i think the president has begun making some modest changes. i think we have got to go a lot further. all of us are concerned about terrorism. i think we can protect the people of this country without undermining the constitution and the privacy mites -- rights that make a separate -- free people. some of you think that the major concerns you hope you will hear about will be heard? know ione of them that i will hear about is an executive order raising the minimum wage for workers who are working for companies that are on federal

contracts. that is a step forward. i think we will certainly that l contract. i think we will certainly hear the president talk about the need for a minimum wage for all workers and i think the president will probably talk the seemed levelhe it of wealth inequality we see in america and the need to address that. thank you, senator sanders. we go to the house. before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., january 28, 2014. i hereby appoint the honorable daniel webster to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, speaker of the house of representatives, john a. boehner. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 7, 2014, the chair will now r