democrats. when we brought up rand paul, ad other republicans who have unique standpoint, there is an ability for some of these issues -- work withith republicans, and she laid the invitation right out there. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. >> and if the senator takes her up on it. >> i think he might, and showed. >> what is next then? what are you watching for? laying the groundwork for the next elections, but are they talking 2014 or 2016? is the end-all and be-all for the political cycle. the presidential election is always where everyone is paying attention.

but you have control of the house and senate. >> it is implied -- in play. >> i will be looking at whether they can continue to get the high number of african-americans getting out to vote and not only the 2016 presidential elections, but in the midterm elections. if that number fluctuates, if it drops, the democrats could be looking at a top year in the polls. >> what happens if the republicans controlled the senate and the house? if there is a republican-controlled congress, what does that mean for president obama and all of his supporters, and his ability to tackle the issues on their own agenda. >> with this more focused lens on the african-american community. >> exactly. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> once this deal is completed,

it was comcast as the center of every major media policy debate we are going to have. see that being in the public interest by the the sec should block this murder, and this is why we have antitrust laws. a deal like this seems unthinkable to most americans. the fact that we have gotten this far says a lot, but for me there is no condition that is good enough to let a deal like this go through. --nsactions are quick frequently used as a way to shape markets. there are a lot of conditions that could be placed on the internet service provider, whether it be neutrality, low-cost offering, a buildout to schools for the neck and edtiative -- connecte initiative. there are a whole host of things

that comcast agreed to a little over three years ago. i can see it inc. seriously considered at the fec as something they would approve, but with a lot of conditions. >> the impact of the time warner cable, comcast merger. on c-span two on monday. >> a look inside the national governors association meeting right now. currently underway, a session about early childhood education. we are just catching the last couple of minutes. we will show this session in its entirety later today. we begin live coverage of the second morning session shortly. they had the secretary of education speaking. live coverage of that second session on growth and jobs in america starting soon with fox news moderating that panel.

we will then be taking some of your calls, and get your thoughts on the nga sessions that have been going all weekend. live later this afternoon, a session from the nga on prescription drug abuse, and what states are doing about it. wille that begins we get some of the comments from the iowa governor on this morning's "washington journal." we are covering the nga, thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. host: you announced earlier this year that you are seeking a six term. are you now the longest serving governor ever in the history of this country? --the first governor of this

of new york was elected in 1777 under the articles of confederation and third 21 years. he has the record in all of american history. host: why are you seeking a sixth term? love the state of iowa. own unemployment rate is down from 6.1% down to 4.2%. we have a good team and a lot more work to do. we have a lot more that we want to accomplish. host: we have a phone line set aside for those of you in iowa.

was a reversal this past year on how you initially viewed the evil magician of obamacare and its impact on iowa residents. why the change? guest: first of all, what we did was come up with our own plan. we want to be the healthiest state in the nation. at the des moines medical school we did health risk assessments on all faculty staff and students, we encouraged people to set their own goals. we found that this worked effectively. now what we have done -- we had to get waiver to do this, and i have a split legislature, so it was a delicate situation to work out, but we called the iowa health and wellness plan. people need to pay a modest premium if they are below the

poverty level, but they had to do health risk assessments and if they do that the state will refund them the cost of the premium and that way they can know what their risk factors are and what they can do to reduce them. we are also working, obviously, to encourage people not to use tobacco products, exercise, good nutrition -- all of those things that can make us a healthier state. the affordable care act, or obamacare, is unaffordable and unsustainable in the long term. we know there are a lot of problems with it. we also want to make sure we are doing all that we can to help iowans and make sure that iowans are doing the kinds of things that can help them live a healthier, longer life. host: why not go ahead with the straight expansion of medicaid? guest: it is not affordable or sustainable. i have watched medicaid expand and expand over the last several decades as the health of americans goes downhill. we are trying to do the opposite. we are trying to improve the health of our citizens and get

people to take ownership of their own health. we did work on a compromise between the senate democrats and the house republicans on our health and wellness plan. we then had to get a waiver from from hhs. it took until almost christmas eve before they gave us the waiver. better job of providing opportunities for our citizens to live longer and healthier lives. what are the priorities when the house republicans return this week? according to eric cantor it is to look for ways not to replace obamacare, because even republicans know that i will not happen, but to fix the current law? my question to you is -- what advice can you give lawmakers, democrats and republicans, that would be valuable in today's

political context to change or fix the affordable care act? what needs to be done? give states the flexibility to adapt to their own needs and give them the opportunity to do innovative things that can help to actually improve the health rather than just have this federal isernment mandate that it too expensive, not workable. obviously it is more than hhs can handle. they have proven that with their disastrous rollout of the system. they could not even give us the information about the people that we wanted to enroll in the health and wellness plan. so, after their system failed, we gave people an opportunity to sign-up on our system and it has worked much more effectively. conversation with governor terry branstad, now in -- fifth term, seeking rina

reelection in november. democratic line, good morning. good morning. the republican party is just living off the stimulus package programs that president obama put into office. but you do not want to seemed to want to give him any credit for helping out your states. first of all, i have two parts. you republicans are against the minimum wage that would help me as a people. you are also for farm subsidies and you are against [indiscernible] and it is hurting citizens. there are people who need the medicaid and your state. your state is going to receive federal dollars and you reject are thetly because you ideology of the republican party. obviously he is from georgia and does not understand

what we have done in iowa. we have used a waiver program and a different approach. he made some statement about farm subsidies. the new farm bill actually eliminates direct payments and eliminates subsidies. the one thing that we are concerned about the the obama administration is advocating is reducing the renewable fuel standard, which is always been supported by the epa. i met with jim mccarthy yesterday to say -- we want a robust, renewable fuel standard. we want to be able to convert more of our corn and other anducts to renewable fuels be less dependent on foreign oil. that has been working well in this country and we think it would be a big mistake to cave in to big oil. that is something that iowans are united behind on a bipartisan basis. from our next call comes

tom, vermont, independent line. good morning to you, sir. caller: how are you doing? host: great, thanks --guest: great, thanks. theer: alcohol belongs in glass, not the gas. we are taking our food and we are burning it, turning it into alcohol, burning it and cars. the alcohol is also causing tremendous damage to the motor vehicles, as well as -- you bought the line from big oil, hook, line, and sick -- sinker. pollutealso attended to the groundwater on the east and west coast. you ought to come to the midwest and see how this is working effectively, what it has done in creating jobs and reducing our dependency on foreign oil. you just have a lot of misinformation put out by the

very -- the huge amount of money, you know, that big oil spends doing out misinformation on the east coast and the west coast, to me it is pretty disturbing, but those in the midwest, republicans and democrats, recognize that room -- renewable fuels, wind energy, ethanol, bio diesel, is part of the solution. it is something that makes a lot of sense and has been good for the environment, good for the economy. i have been involved in this fight since the 1970's. i know we are up against the ,uge, deep pockets of big oil but you need to study this further and get better information. set: we do have a line and aside for those of you who live in iowa. 3883.85- a story here from "the des moines register." what is happening here? bit.: this is easing up a

not only in iowa, but across the upper midwest we had a wet spring, so we needed more propane for drying corn this fall. and then we had an extremely cold winter. the result is we have had shortages of propane and the costs of gone up dramatically. i have signed an emergency disaster designation, permitting truckers to go longer hours. we have also been in touch with governor perry. he did similar things in texas in terms of getting the propane up from texas. we worked in conjunction with other midwestern governors and were able to get the federal agencies to give more flexibility. have eased the problem somewhat. the price spike at five dollars per gallon is now down to i think three dollars per gallon,

but it has been a very difficult winter. many of our rural residents rely on propane for their heating, farmers do for their livestock. host: a farming related question from one of our viewers -- "what percentage of your state is currently agricultural"? part of thebig state in terms of the land. a lot of it is used for agricultural purposes. i would say one in six jobs are dependent on agriculture. agriculture income has been good in recent years. because of things like renewable fuel standards and better commodity prices for corn and soybeans, we are the leading corn and soybean producer, and ourport reduce or, cattle numbers have been coming back. when you talk about feed versus fuel, there is a great byproduct when you make ethanol all distillers dried grains, a high-protein that is better than feeding your cattle corn.