ghoian. and republican representative tom cole of oklahoma, member of the appropriation and budget committee will take your calls about the budget proposals for the next fiscal year. >> good morning. its tuesday, march 11, 2014. senate democrats continue their marathon, all-night session to discuss the issue of climate change. you can watch those speeches live on c-span to this morning. we are opening up our phones to get your take on that climate change talk-athon that features 30 democratic senators so far. richard blumenthal of connecticut is on the floor right now. did you watch any of the marathon session in the senate? do think it will have an impact when it comes to how the government considers the issue

of climate change echo give us a call. our phone lines are open. if you are outside the u.s. -- you can also catch up with us on all of your favorite social media pages on twitter and facebook. a very good tuesday morning to you. that all-night session continuing this hour on the senate floor to talk about the issue of climate change. we will be talking about it with you, our viewers, this morning. we will talk about what is happening the floor and where the senators are hoping to go from here. host: who organized his

all-night session and what is the goal of it this morning? guest: the senator from hawaii. the cochairs of the climate action task force were also involved. all the younger members of the senate who have been doing yeoman's work all night in the wee hours and the less attractive slots in the early morning to talk about climate change. host: what is the goal? what are they hoping to get out of the session? guest: what they're trying to do is elevate the issue. there's no immediate legislation on the horizon for climate change, but they are hoping that by talking about it and doing it in a high profile and unique way that people outside the beltway will pay attention to it which in turn will eventually persuade

their colleagues in the senate that climate change merits legislation sometime in the future. host: a story in yesterday mentions it. talk about newly minted senator ed markey. he is one of the authors of the cap and trade ill-fated in 2009. guest: he was one of the leaders of this. he is one of the more high-profile people on this issue. it is not really about legislation like the legislation he advanced as a congressman

with henry waxman back in 2009. there isn't really an opportunity for the kind of a bill at this point. members of the senate have been talking about the effects climate change has on their constituents, or the opportunity for legislation in the future, blumenthal was just talking about the military and its take on climate change. the discussions are pretty wide-ranging. host: if there is not specific legislation, there is president obama's climate action plan. how much resistance is that coming -- is that running into on capitol hill? guest: it has become a big punching bag for republican senators and congressman. it is a centerpiece. there has already been a proposal for new power plants which republicans have been trying to find a way to block through legislation, mainly

because it would require new coal-fired power plants to capture some of their emissions. it would ban the construction of new coal-fired power plants. yes the obama plan has been a major talking point throughout the night as well for these democrats on the senate floor. host: what has been the reaction from senate republicans? they made a few speeches. guest: most of them have not spoken. one of the exceptions was james imhoff who crashed the party early in the night and spent more than half an hour on the floor sort of haunting his democratic colleagues and saying that climate change was discredited. he was saying this was an act of

desperation. this of course did not go down very well with the organizers of the event. yeah, most of the republicans just did not participate. a few of the moderates had not been asked to those who have supported climate change legislation in the past. host: as we look ahead to the present climate action plan hasn't been any effort to pull back and some of those efforts it being a 2014 congressional election-year? it seems that some democrats are in tough races in 2014 and our actions from this all-night marathon session last night. guest: not all the democrats participated in this event. especially not the vulnerable

democrats. mary landrieu and others who have nuanced positions on climate change anyway. they just did not participate. host: jean chemnick has been covering this event for green wire. host: we want to get your thoughts. did you watch any of this session? we want to show you a little bit of harry reid. he spoke yesterday, kicked off the climate change all nighter. here's a bit of what he had to say. >> one of the world's most well-known spiritual leaders the 14th dalai lama of tibet visited the capital. we talked about the moral imperative to protect the planet we call home. the dollar, spoke with passion and longing for his native tibet

where mountain snows melt in the spring to feed the rivers and provide bangladesh, china india, nepal, pakistan with water. emily is are sometimes called the third poll because they contain nearly one third of the world's nonpolar ice. in recent years, climate change has caused milder winters, less snow and less water for 1.3 billion people living downstream from tibet. in the western united states we face a similar problem. for more than one decade drought has plagued the colorado river, both upstream and downstream. the lifeblood of a number of western states including nevada, california arizona and other states. mr. president, it during this time we have had some so-called average snows in upper colorado, but none of it reaches the river. the climate has changed. host: that was senate majority

leader henry -- harry reid. we are talking about it with our viewers on the washington journal this morning. you want to get your take on what you have seen on the senate floor this past 15 or 20 hours. let's go to new york, new york on the line for democrats. steve, good morning. caller: the first thing i would like to ask you is if you can run it on saturday or sunday so that people can actually watch this in its entirety. i watched a little of it last night. i got up at 530 this morning. i watched a senator from connecticut. the one thing i wanted to mention is just about not only is the energy concerns in this country, but also our food supply, because these variations in climate, as people have

mentioned in the senate, are really affecting our food supply and our ability to grow certain vegetables and foods. i am just a gardener, and if the temperature goes above 90 degrees, you can't grow a tomato. i just wanted to point this out and one other anecdotal comment. i just heard where this winter with the polar vortex, the temperature ranged from 100 degree -- there was a hundred degree difference between northern canada and florida in one weather cycle. that is a frightening event. this is real and happening, and people need to pay attention to it. thank you, c-span. host: if folks do want to watch

it in their entirety, they can always go to c-span.org and view their or of course you can watch it live on c-span to this morning. that is senator jack reed of rhode island on the senate floor now. let's go to richard waiting in minneapolis, minnesota on our line for republicans. richard, good morning. caller: good morning. i think the republicans should take the stand that climate change is real, but do we want to really destroy our economy by this cap and tax. we are really driving ourselves into a noncompetitive economy with the cap and tax and the raising minimum wage. after all, the democrats and republicans sent our jobs overseas with nafta. now they want tpp transpacific

partnership, we are becoming noncompetitive in the world, so why put another obstacle in front of this nation? host: richard, you're taking republicans should take a stand that climate change is real and happening. how do you propose that they deal with that? caller: we are already doing a lot of things, but cap and tax is the wrong way to go about it. we shouldn't put a lot of burdens on our businesses by mandatory regulations. i think businesses are innovating. the worst thing they can do is stop coal generating plants. we have so much coal that we are going to need it area pretty soon, if all these power plants

turn over the natural gas, the natural gas is going to go so high that people in minnesota won't be able to heat their homes. we had a propane crisis here in minnesota where the propane went up to six dollars per gallon. people had to pay $7,000 to get their propane tank filled. host: that is richard: from minneapolis, minnesota. -- that is richard cohen from minneapolis, minnesota. some comments is morning, the comets have been coming in since last night on this issue.

a few of the comments on a facebook page is morning. we will be checking back with those.

democrats, round-the-clock speech not just hot air.

that story goes on to quote sheldon whitehouse who called the all-night runner speech is a critical step to raise this issue and make a stronger stand in the future for legislation. back to the phones. ralph is waiting in battle creek, michigan on our line for democrats. ralph, good morning. caller: i just want to make the point. i watched angus king of maine is it? he made a lot of the really important points about the science. there's no disputing the fact that carbon levels in the atmosphere have almost doubled in the last 10,000 years.

they are now at 400 parts per million. we were at 200 parts per million. the carbon levels are going to continue to go up in the atmosphere as we continue to burn oil and coal and natural gas. he talked about the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is excess carbon dioxide. it is dissolving into the oceans and causing ocean acidification which is messing up the development of sea life. that is a scientific fact. we are talking about glaciers melting all over the world. that is a scientific fact. sea levels are rising all over the world, that is a scientific fact. to me, is it 97% of scientists

believe that global warming is happening? that is because it is man-made global warming. there isn't any debate anymore in the science community. now is just a question of how fast is it going to go. some are predicting two degrees fahrenheit, four degrees, others are saying it will go up much faster. there will be feedback loops. science, to me, is overwhelming. host: the president propose just last month the new one billion climate change resilience fund $1 billion to help communities dealing with negative whether that is the result of climate change. you think this a good place to be putting federal dollars right now? caller: unfortunately, because we waited, and because sea levels are rising, and because

we have these dramatic, extreme weather events, we are going to have to start paying for it with repair costs and remediation. i think -- we should put a tax on carbon and let the marketplace sort out the best alternatives. maybe we have to have an emergency fund. protect some carbon. have an emergency global warming emergency fund. we're going to have more of these extreme weather events. host: let's go to mike waiting in boswell, pennsylvania on the line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. if it was so critical, why doesn't harry reid in las vegas why does and he shut off all of his lights and quit taking all the water out of the colorado

river for sin city? we are in rural america and we live on less than $50,000 a year. we have to keep our electric will a low $100 a month. we have to watch what we use in fuel or coal to heat our houses. if the rich would cut down on their need to fly airplanes and cut down on fuel all year that we have to breathe. nobody is talking about the airplanes. that is my comment. host: mike from pennsylvania.

our reporter from greenwire earlier mentioned that -- here is a bit of what this congressman had to say. >> since we stood first started debating it here in the late 1990's, they have all failed to show that -- the byrd hagel legislation. united states should not be a signatory to the kyoto treaty. the kyoto treaty was negotiated with al gore in south america. in 2003 we had the mccain lieberman bill. it fails by a 43-55. they had the mccain lieberman

bill in 2005. it failed. it is -- the trend is going in the wrong direction. in 2010, a resolution of disapproval on the eta's greenhouse gas rule was 47-53. in 2011, the prohibition on greenhouse gas relations was 50-50. in 2000 13, a budget amendment was cut down 47-52. the sentiment of the house and senate is going to reverse direction. host: senator james imhoff of oklahoma last night. members of the senate have been tweeting throughout the night very to those who have been participating in the session you can check that out on c-span's twitter page. one of our lists is u.s. senators.

one of our senators who twitches an hour ago, he said the cost of climate change legislation is too high for our community. here is a bit of what the white house had to say. -- of what senator white house had to say. in an effort to suggest that this climate change thing is not all that we shake it up to be. the first point that he made was about a group of e-mails that came out of east anglia university which the climate denier community sees don and nicknamed climate gate, as if watergate, there is a big scandal in those e-mails.

there was some probably not entirely appropriate things that were said in the e-mails, but the question is, was the science underlying it affected or compromised in any way? well, so-called climate. was actually looked at over and over and over again. because it was at the university of east anglia, the university did an investigation because it involved scientists at penn state. penn state is an investigation. both of those universities gave a complete clean bill of health to the underlying science that was at the basis of this. the house of commons, the british house of commons is investigation. they came back and said nothing

wrong with the science there nothing wrong with the science. the u.s. environmental protection agency and the national science foundation of the united states of america also did investigations, as did the inspector general of the department of commerce. and 343, those investigations came back as well, saying if they did say anything inappropriate, nothing wrong with the science. so after all that, after six published reviews whose results confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the science. . . host: that was senator whitehou se. this is the 35th all my

session, according to the united states senate website. to qualify to be an all nighter, a session must go past 4 a.m.. there have been 35 since 1915 that have done that. you can see jack reed on the floor of the senate. you can watch is over on c-span2. we're taking calls from viewers. we want to hear your thoughts on what you have seen so far. let's go to dock waiting in baton rouge louisiana. caller: i don't agree about used anglia. there is an e-mail from some dr. here, i think cotton is his last name, he said change numbers are in there, as long as it fits our narrative, don't worry about it. it almost sounds like a democrat talking point.

anytime harry reid says anything about anything, i don't agree with it. he is a liar. he is just like obama. i wouldn't put anything past them. let's go to jack waiting in appalachia, new york on the line

for democrats. caller: i'm glad you guys are talking about this issue, because climate change is very important to me. host: we will go to thomas waiting in north las vegas nevada our line for democrats. caller: caller: a couple of problems. the issues being discussed on a global scale, we can't do anything by ourselves. we need to make sure that other people bear the financial

responsibility for cutting carbon use. i think man causes it, but history shows that every time it gets warm, it gets cold right afterwards. something in the planet stabilizes the temperature. i don't think we're just going to keep getting hot until it is 500 degrees. that is all i have to say. democrats have to show a cost of valuation of initiatives they want to do to cut carbon. host: that is thomas calling from nevada this morning. a few headlines going around the country. i want to bring you up-to-date. today is a special election in florida's 13th district. that is to replace the late congressman bill young republican congressman down there. that race featuring alex sink the democrat and david jolly the republican. we will delve deeper into that race coming up at about 9150920 with mark caputa -- about 9:15

or 9:20 with mark caput\to of the miami herald. unanimous senate passes a bill on military sex assault bill.

talking about that 97-0 vote yesterday. we have about 15 minutes left to talk about the senate's all-night session on climate change. we want to get your thoughts. sander is waiting in shelbyville, indiana on our line for independents. sandra, good morning. caller: it was before the sin nominated -- before the tsunami hit.

i asked an older science teacher if this would have an effect on our weather and she said yes. when the tsunami hit, when the earthquake that caused the tsunami, it was so violent it tilted the earth a little bit further. since then we have had several really strong earthquakes to tilt us even further. she told me that tropical plants had been found deep under the arctic and antarctica ice caps. at one time, they were in an area where it was tropical. she said every thousand years, the earth makes a complete turn and the shifting of the magnetic pole and the tilting does have an effect on our weather. host: you seem pretty interested in this issue, did you watch any of the all-night session? caller: i tried host:.

host: what he think about what the senator said? caller: i think it is climate change. they're going to keep saying it in order to keep getting their grants. i checked with an older science teacher. i guess i am just old school. host: we will go to sarah waiting in aurora, utah, waiting on our line for democrats. caller: i love "washington journal." c-span is a great television channel to inform people who watch. my opinion is that there seems

to be a real bifurcation in the united states. it seems like there are those who look to science for answers and those who look to religion for answers, except for when they're sick, and then they always look to science except for a few crazies. it seems to me that science is a far better source for information. i would go with the science. we are also bifurcated in the way that some people care more about the money, and someone care more about the money -- care more about their grandchildren's future. that is how i evaluated. host: we ask our last caller were she got her information from on this issue. you say science is the right way to go. where do you go to try to find the best science on this issue? caller: well, again i look at to what the scientists say. one organization that i look to is 350.org.

host: let's go to wayne waiting in shreveport, louisiana on our republican line. caller: it is like the choir preaching to the choir. this isn't anything but a big scam, this climate change. they have the american people believing it. i just can't believe that they would be so naive to believe there is climate change in this country or anywhere else. i have been his 68 years at it hasn't changed a bit. i don't know where they are coming from, but i know one thing is doing, it is destroying our coal mines. we get cheaper electricity that way. it won't bring up our gas prices. it would -- i am the one saying all this. it blows my mind that all these years people believe this garbage. host: here is what the epa's

website has in response to a question. is there a scientific consensus on climate change? what to think the right sources are to look to? caller: what you read right there is probably somebody being paid off by obama and them. it is all a lie, man. i don't believe who wrote that is telling the truth. i don't believe anything this country does anymore is telling the truth. why should the american people fall short and believe all these

lies that we are going through right now? i have been telling people for years that we cannot live without coal gas and oil. there is no other amenity to replace it in this country. were they going to ride around in on icicles with little windmills on the back? it just does not make sense. people are acting like fools. i am an american man and i worked my tail off all these years, and yet i'm getting scammed by the federal government. you think senators would have something better to do than get up there and blow hot air. host: that is wayne from shreveport, indiana. the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell also use some of his time before the marathon session began to criticize some of the anti-: girls, as he calls them

who are participating in the overnight climate change discussions. here's a bit of what he had to say. >> madam president, there is a depression in appalachia. communities are hurting. tonight you're going to hear 30 hours of excuses from a group of people who think that is ok that that is just ok that we have a depression in appalachia. it is not ok, it is cruel. it is cruel to tell struggling coal families that they can every job because some billionaire and seven cisco disagrees with their line of work -- some billionaire in san francisco disagrees with their line of work. what you will hear over the next

30 seconds is more important than anything this anti-coal liberals will say over the next 30 hours. here is what howard had to say. i say to you, mr. president of the united states. we are hurting. you say you're the president of the people? well, we are people too. no one loves amounts more than we do. we live here. we crawl between them. we get up every morning and we go to the top of a mountain in the cold rain and snow to put bread on the table. come and look at our children. look at our people, mr. president. you are not hurting for a job, you have got one, i don't. that is howard from eastern kentucky. i am not sure how anyone can hear something like that and think that attacking coal families is ok. host: senator mitch mcconnell.

30 speakers, 30 democratics speakers on the floor. the "new york times" this morning says this. that is the wrapup of what is happening on the floor from "the new york times." coral davenport is that reporter there. we're going to come back and revisit it at the end of the "washington journal" today.

if you did not make your call in this session, you can try later. we will talk to a caller now from richmond, virginia on our democratic line. caller: first, i want to congratulate you on your position there at c-span. i think you do a fantastic job. i have been working in the field of communications about climate change for about 15 years. for the first 12 of those, at least, i was beyond frustrated and angry at the ignorance of a lot of the american public about the science of climate change. i continued to to be amazed that people don't understand the difference between weather and climate. it has become so frustrating for me.

i have made a little bit of a shift in my way of talking about the subject. first off, the conversation around the science is like a ping-pong game. it is back and forth between people who don't understand the science and people who are trying to make this people understand the science. it is just like people talking to the wind. the reality is that people need to think of this as a new paradigm for making money. it will need to understand that there is a whole world of entrepreneurship out there based on this subject. the future of business in this nation and in the world, essentially, is all around efficiencies and sustainability. host: do you think the senators should be focusing more on that subject with their speeches on

the floor? and you like the focus you've seen so far from them on their overnight session? caller: caller: there talking past each other about the science. you need to have a person on by the name of tom bauman -- tom bowman of long beach. i've working with them for quite a while. reunite both work with the national academy of sciences, noah nasa, the aquarium of the pacific. he has a really good bit of information to give people out there am especially entrepreneurs about how to work in this field and make money. host: we have a few other folks waiting to get their comments in as well. we will go right to myron waiting in jefferson iowa on a line for independents. caller: good morning.

thank you. i had a comment. it is about the senators. if they didn't do this overnight , we would never know about climate change. my gosh. the cable news is don't talk about it. the mainstream media definitely never talks about it. you can't find one article. i think if they really got looking close, they might look at that airplane that disappeared and they might find that it might have something to do with climate change. it is ridiculous. people can call us, people who do not believe in this, that it is a money scam, all the names they want. thank you. host: we have a call from new

york on our for independents. -- on our new line for independents. caller: there hasn't been much fact. there's been a lot of talking points and opinions. i think it is very important there definitely is an effect on our environment. more importantly, we have a very big problem in this country with jobs, unemployment and with health care. as one of the original people that their plan canceled with obamacare, i just this month found out that my medication formulary was cut in half. so in addition to my $700 month payment for obamacare enrollment, i now have to pay close to a thousand dollars in medication. there are a lot of things we face is country right now. i do not think is the best use of the senators time or energy. i think we have much bigger

hurdles ahead of us. why appreciate the tip of the hat to the partisanship aside to the lobbyists and big interest really, there are much bigger problems facing us today tomorrow and next week. host: one of the callers before that was limiting the lack of news stories that he is seen in the media. here is one from the "christian science monitor." inside that article talks a bit about the spending on clean energy and other subjects. other colors have a chart on different countries power sources. the top five nations with the highest gdp is growing.

if you want to read that story it is in this week's edition of the "christian science monitor." that is all the time we have in this segment of the washington journal. we will revisit the subject at the end of the show today, if you want to stick with us. or you can watch the ongoing floor discussion by the democratic senators is happening on c-span two. we are going to talk with the aclu's chris sukhoi and who talked about edward snowden's impact on the technology industry yesterday, while appearing with the former nsa contractor at the south by southwest festival in austin texas. later, we will be joined by republican congressman tom cole of oklahoma to talk about next year's federal budget. we will be right back.

>> the gentleman from tennessee. >> mr. speaker, on this historic day the house of representatives opened its proceedings for the first time to televised coverage. i want to congratulate you for your courage in making this possible and the committees that have worked so hard under the leadership of congressman charles wrote roads to make this a reality. the good will far outweigh the bad. from this day forward, every member of this body must ask himself or herself how many americans are listing to the debates which are made. when the house becomes comfortable with the changes like -- wrought by television coverage, the news media will be allowed to bring their own cameras into this chamber. in the meantime, there is no censorship. every word is available for

broadcast coverage, and generalists will be able to use and edit as they see fit. -- and journalists will be able to use and edit as they see fit. this will allow more open government on all levels. c-span created by america's cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a public service by your television provider. washington journal continues. host: the former nsa contractor feared -- appeared by video at the sxsw by southwest festival in austin, texas. chris sukhoi and joins us now to talk about the conversation yesterday. this event was about the technology world and how it has changed in the wake of edward snowden's actions. first, how do you set up a

google hang out with edward snowden yesterday? >> as i said in my remarks at the event yesterday the irony was that we were using a google product to have a conversation with edward snowden about spying. it was not lost on me. we really had to make a difficult choice between a tool that would better protect information about where he was and a tool that was easy to use and that would work. we ultimately went with google's tool, and then we had to lay around some additional protections to make sure that his location stay private. host: an interesting conversation yesterday and we will be bringing its of the conversation during washington journal. first, let's get to the subject that we debated yesterday. how was edward snowden's action.

what is it done for internet security since it was first made public. ? >> for years, if you sat down at a coffee shop and you are using the wi-fi connection to browse e-mail or log in social networking account your information is vulnerable. anyone who is sitting at the same coffee shop as you can actually hack into your account because these companies were not using the most asic forms of security. google started doing that by default in january 2010. is made other companies getting here take a long time. they finally decide to turn security on in january of this year. i was a result of a front-page story in the washington post revealing the nsa's partner, the british intelligence agency, was

collecting more information about american customers than any others. yahoo! did a bad job of security on its customer information. with your thinking as a patriot or a traitor, there shouldn't be any debate. the products given to the products given to studies tech companies have become better over the last eight months directly as a result of these disclosures. host: when we talk about how this changes in relation to customers and the companies whose products are using. guest: we live in an interesting world right now where we get some a fantastic services for free. if you compare where we get from internet companies to it we get from the phone companies or cable companies, and probably pay a wireless carrier 40 or 50 bucks a month. yet you get this service

entirely for free. of course, there's is no such thing as a free lunch. in fact, these companies are not in the process of providing free services, they are dealing with our information. their incentive is to cover -- is to collect as much data as possible. i think in the wake of the snowden disclosures, consumers really need to -- google really does know an awful lot about you. they know when you're sick before you go to doctor. they know when you are unhappy in your relationship before you tell your spouse. they know if you are having suicidal thoughts because you're typing those things into the search engine. you really need to make sure that the companies that have this private data really have our best interests in mind. host: we want to show our

viewers a bit of what edward snowden had to say at that conference. video feed itself is a bit choppy due to some of the connections that we are talking about and how edward snowden was able to speak at that conference at sxsw in austin. there a bit of what he had to say. >> when a thick about what is happened with the nsa in the past decade, the result has been an adversarial. it is not what we wanted. it is something we need to protect against. one would think about the protections and the practice iger -- and the proactive seizure, there is a policy change that needs to occur.

it is the thinkers and the developers community that can really craft those to make sure we are safe. the nsa, the global mass surveillance that is reading more mail than just the u.s.. they're setting fire to the future of the internet. you people in the room right now our firefighters. we need you to help fix this. host: edward snowden talking about the tech response, but also the need for a policy response. not far from capital fill -- from capitol hill. what are you recommendations for policy response to these issues? guest: we have been backing legislation that would rain and some of what the nsa has done. i would also strengthen the oversight of the fifo court.

we should also understand that the vast majority of at the nsa does is not governed by fisa. most of at the nsa does takes place outside of the united states. it takes place of our borders. they don't have to check in with the courts. that is something that even in the last eight months, even though there has been a broader debate about surveillance, i think many americans don't quite understand that much of what the nsa does, it largely polices itself. one of the biggest stories it came out in the last eight months, one that was put out by "the near times," and "the guardian." the nsa has been collaborating with u.s. technology companies to weaken the security of the products that they sell to consumers. the issue here is really that in

the 1940's when the u.s. was using encryption to translate german code. today, that is not really the case. they're not really that many enigma machines anymore. today, consumers governments bad guys, good guys, they'll use the same technology. there are no terrorist laptops. there are no drug dealer cell phones. lawyers doctors journalists human rights activists and criminals all use the same technology. all that means is for the nsa to have capability to spy on the worst of the worst. they also need to have the capability to spy on people who are doing nothing wrong. people who are obeying the law and going about their daily lives. they have a result -- they have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

the nsa has been trying to make it easier to have access to all of these computers. the way to do that is by either inserting vulnerabilities with the help of these countries. host: we're talking with chris sagoian. tell us what your work consists of over there. guest: the aclu is a large organization that seeks to protect civil liberties of all kinds. i work in a team that protects digital civil liberties. i personally work on surveillance issues. i did a phd, finished a year and a half ago. it was really focused on figuring out the role that telephone and internet companies play in enabling surveillance of their customers. 60 years ago when i started this, i was focusing -- people have this idea that the fbi

which is short outside your house and phone calls. they didn't realize it typically involved a little bit of help from verizon or at&t or google. so what i try to do and what my team does is we focus on civil liberties as the intersect between the governments attempts to monitor us and the civil liberties attempts to push back. host: you have worked on some of these issues both inside and outside the government. talk about some of your work on the ftc. guest: i worked at the ftc. they are the good guys. they are not spying on peaceful. there are no black helicopters there. the ftc has this huge task of the leasing privacy violations on the internet. i was lucky enough there to help with investigations of facebook, of twitter myspace, and netflix. it was a really fun opportunity.

unfortunately, the ftc does not have much in the way of resources. i do believe that the government can play a significant and positive role in the protection of both security and privacy online. it is just upsetting when you realize that the ftc has this tiny budget and then there's his $10 billion agency up the road that is working to subvert the privacy that the ftc is working so hard to preserve. we have been providing legal advice for some time after he became known. video chat is not very easy, particularly when someone is in russia. it took coordination to get this thing going. >> are there further chats with him down the road? guest: if you are organizing an event, you would want to have

the most attention when finally gets announced. host: every guest is here to talk to you and answer some questions. edward snowden was video chatting in that event sxsw. we will start with david calling in from beachwood, ohio, on average democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning to c-span. ifi have a comment in the question. according to the doctrine, do their ways long to the public. i believe that to be true. i was brought up with that. therefore, we can monitor police firemen, engineers, etc., because the data is going over the airwaves. i remember 30 or 40 years ago maybe sooner, when cell phones

came out people were monitoring other people's cell phone calls with some type of scanner you could buy at radioshack. my comment is, what's the big deal? if you have a landline from at&t, are you more secure? guest: that was a fantastic question. our cell phones are not as safe as you might think they are. the gentleman who called in is exactly right. there was a scandal where a florida couple listened to a telephone -- telephone call with newt gingrich. the security got better when we

move from analog to digital phones. unfortunately, the phones are not very secure. for 20 years, law enforcement and military agencies have purchased equipment enabling them to buy cell phones without a cell phone company. they send signals to the wall of your house and check your phone into having the data. it sounds a sci-fi movie. 20 years ago, this was technology that was really special. today, anyone can buy themselves online. there are websites that sell this to analogy and you can build one yourself. our cell phone calls are not safe from a third-party. how many agencies there are from other governments in washington dc.

people has -- have wanted to spy on phone calls of investment bankers and ceo's is. we need to have a debate as a country about the security of our telephone system. we are not having this debate. they are taking advantage of the lack of security. landline phones are not that much more secure. they cannot be spied on with this equipment. the police and -- other agencies can still go to accord and get a warrant to wiretap your calls. look into apps that provide secure encrypted communication even something as simple as skype or the face time at build into apple's ios mobile operating system. that would be a system over a

regular wireless phone. if you want to have a secure call typical to intercept, look into two apps available in most apps stores. they can let you make encrypted calls and it takes two to tango. >> you bought some of the big companies out there, google and at&t. do smaller technology companies know how the nsa uses the data or know what the vulnerabilities are? what is the difference between big companies and smaller companies? class in the big companies, once you grow to a decent size and the government is coming to you regularly -- if you are a small company, the government shows up to the door and it is probably a terrifying experience. you do not really know the rules. when a company like google or facebook, they have a team of people that do nothing but

respond to surveillance requests. in a case of the phone company this maybe two or three people large. they are receiving a substantial number of requests from the government. small companies this is an uncharted area for them in many cases. even if the government has not yet shown up to a tech company it does not mean they do not bludgeon user information. >> let's go to jack waiting in manchester, new hampshire, now up -- on our republicans line. you are on. are you with us? he might have stepped away from his phone. we will go to randy waiting in texas on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: 60 minutes had a program on sunday on these free apps and other internet capable stuff and they can monitor you through free applications.

we all know the patriot act. that is the government and businesses being able to track americans. when one american wants to track our politicians, they want to burn him at the stake. it seems ironic to me they want to be able to track all americans and see what you're are doing, where you are doing it but when an american citizen wants to track a politician or a group of politicians, they want to burn him at the stake. i had one other question, occasionally during the day, i will watch c-span on the house and it always seems like there is one senator talking to an empty room. all the seats behind him are empty. this was talking about immigration and our health care, two hot topics. where are all the senators and congressmen at? it is an empty room there talking to. something as important as that you would think they would show

up to hear what they have to say. >> thank you for the comment from texas. senators talking to you and other folks watching on tv, and their colleagues have c-span on in their offices as well. chris, do you want to make any comments on his thoughts on the ability of how citizens are tracked versus how lawmakers react. guest: i do want to knowledge this is -- 60 minutes special he mentioned is fantastic. focused on a section of the industry, companies who build gigantic databases. this is not the drugstore or the supermarket or the internet company, but companies whose names you have never heard of who build gigantic databases on every american and then sell that for pennies on the dollar. they are largely unregulated. the information they have is either sent to live -- in many cases, both sensitive and

correct. americans should be reasonably concerned about the existence of the gigantic pause -- piles of data. some companies work with many partners and those include the companies that provide the apps on your phone. the companies also include companies who do questionnaires at the supermarket or by telephone. they collect data through warranty cards. many opportunities throughout the day where you might fill out a form that provides information about who you are, what you're interested in, and what you want to buy. that makes its way in this underground ecosystem. i think americans should be concerned about this out-of-control data ecosystem. host: are the tech companies fighting back or rolling over? guest: over the last eight months, we have seen tech

companies pushed back in some ways. at a high level, companies like google and facebook and microsoft, they secure the connection between their customers and the company's respective computers. that means they have made it more difficult for the nsa or any other intelligence agency to spy on their customers without any knowledge or consent. we learned a couple of weeks ago british intelligence agencies have been spiny -- spying on the lead cam of two yahoo! users. they're having a sensitive or potentially intimate communication and because they were not private and were not encrypted as they were going over the network, you could literally grab them if they are going to the air. other companies have been locking back down. it does not mean the nsa can never get information about google users. it means they now have to go to google directly instead of getting it from at&t or verizon

or comcast or one of the companies that handles internet data. what the companies have not done is totally stop the government from spying on their users. the reason is google, facebook, microsoft, these are advertising companies and their entire business model is focused around collecting and -- collecting data on individuals and running out rhythms to try to figure out what makes people tick. these companies had less data there will be less data for the government to get when approaching companies, that would require companies radically shift their business models. it is difficult to be in the business of providing ads and providing privacy preserving services for users. the companies still have not made the leap. it will take them charging their users. i do not think facebook is ready to ask to pay five dollars a month for a social networking service.

host: you think that is what it will eventually come to. guest: if we want facebook to put its user interests first, we have to pay for it. facebook has a lot of engineers and google has tens of thousands of engineers with salaries to pay. that is not free. google has to make money somehow. right now, the way it does is by clicking as much data as possible in squeezing the data out of it. if we want them to protect that data, we need to provide them with an alternative record -- revenue stream. that will likely come in the form of people paying for services. people pay for his phone services, fedex, newspapers, and i think consumers can pay two dollars a month for e-mail, five dollars a year for search engines. the companies are not making 1000 dollars per year off revenue. they are making small sums of money but multiplied by hundreds of millions of users.

people need to reevaluate the relationship they have with these companies. if you are not paying for the product, where is the money coming from? >> it would be interesting to hear from our viewers on that specific topic. our phone line is open. our guest is a senior analyst. let's go to jerry waiting in louisville kentucky, on our line for independents. caller: i have a couple of statements i would like to make. first of all as a whistleblower, this comment was made and basically it is ok if a dog bites may. if a dog bites you, you have got to be crazy. there is a different concept of money involved in security.

there is also talk about where to go. this issue plays out for somebody who wants to do wrong and have the mindset on hurting someone, someone who is evil. if somebody said -- is what is being done now making it harder for those who want to do wrong echo holding back security. there is a thin line with privacy and security. guest: many americans in the past eight months have been told what nsa is doing is monitoring bad people. that story is starting to fall apart. was chancellor of germany is not a terrorist. we do not believe she is a

terrorist but we are aspiring on her phone calls -- spying on her phone calls. the fact is, a vast amount of the intelligence collection that is being done by nsa is not focused on terrorism. it is focused on information that may be of some strategic use to the united states government and that is ok, but let's have an honest debate. let's at least acknowledge much of what the nsa is collecting is not terrorism but is just making it easier for the u.s. government to do its job. host: so you would defend the nsa on this topic that the times the nsa stop the attack or the times they succeed, we do not hear about those times as much. what would be your response to those folks? guest: i am not computing --

disputing that. what i'm also making the claim a reason one is much of the deaths much of what has taken place has nothing to do with terrorism. in many ways, it is more about just giving the u.s. government and edge. in discussions and negotiations with friendly and neutral trading partners. i am not saying that is right or wrong but at least let's have that debate. we have created a massive debate that puts the privacy of every american that risk, vacuums of information, hundreds of millions of people around the world who are doing nothing wrong. if we are not doing that solely in the name of terrorism it is tougher to justify. american people have been told one thing while the nsa is doing something very different. host: the proposal of possibly

paying for some of the services, on our twitter feed -- also -- we are talking with chris soghoian. we are taking your comments and questions. let's go to bill waiting in oklahoma on our independents line. caller: thank you. i wonder how your guest feels about the question of the protection of personal identities and whether security for their identities was more important than privacy issue. as a victim of identity theft i

know how secure my phone line is from a person who could pick it out of a phone book they can transfer your dial to their control and charge all kinds of calls to it. guest: i think identity theft is a serious threat ear let me offer this perspective. if the number of murders in baltimore this year went up by 100%. the chief police would be fired. if the number of attacks, the number of identities stolen increases this year by 100%, no one would be fired. we have a massive epidemic of cyber security attacks and theft of credit card numbers and usernames and other information

used to steal identities. there is no in the government who is responsible for this kind of information. known in government will be held accountable. although the topic of cyber security is constantly coming up, no one really wants the responsibility for consumers. everyone wants the money and power go along with it for critical infrastructure like power companies in the grid. when it comes to the average person at home who is having information from their bank, or their bank account details are being stolen, there is no one there who will be held responsible when things go wrong. as a result, we have incident after incident where tens of not hundreds of millions of credit cards are stolen by criminals. we need to prioritize computer security as a country.

a supermarket should not have 50 million credit cards be stolen. the most valuable thing the supermarket should have is a list of who bought toilet paper not 50 million credit cards and right now, the way our financial system works, every retailer has a database of credit card numbers they are ill-equipped to protect. host: talking about information to share -- guest: we definitely need legislation that would tighten up the data industry. the unfortunate thing is data brokers have a lot of lobbying power. the issue has largely gone below the radar. when congressional committees have sought to propose legislation in this area, it has been vigorously lobbied against by those who stand to lose. look. it is an industry that is out of control.

there have been brave leaders in congress like a senator who has really called for this industry to be reined them. it will take a little bit more for that to happen. i encourage every american listening to look online with a search engine to look for information on how to opt out of data brokers. you need to print out and sign a form for every individual data broker, not easy. if you do not want your information to be on a database and you do not want to pay $.10 to figure out every where you've lived, you need to take steps. >> much of the conversation, the results of disclosures by edward snowden since those leaks have been considered by some the most wanted man by the american government he was tossed and yesterday at sxsw about the

impact of his everts and would -- whether he would do it again. >> it was not so i could single-handedly change the government and tell them what i want to do. i wanted to inform the public so they can make a decision and provide their intent for what we should be doing. the result -- the result of those with the government, and the government never said any single one of these stories had wrist human life -- the result -- the public -- the government, and every society in the world in a more secure place. more secure communications. a better civic interaction.

and the result of understanding what is being done in our name. when it comes to what i did, and what i do it again, the answer is absolutely yes. what happens to me, i took an oath to support and defend the constitution. i saw it was violated on a massive scale. the interpretation of the fourth amendment had been changed. [applause] thank you. the interpretation of the constitution had been changed from no unreasonable search and seizure to any seizure is fine, just do not search it. host: that was edward snowden appearing via google chat yesterday at sxsw.

our guest was there on stage as well, talking with edward snowden. what do you think happens to edward snowden from here on out? >> depends a lot on the u.s. government. i know he wants to come back to the united states. he is an american citizen who loves his country. but there are some things out of his control right now. he really wanted to kick a debate in this country and the debate has happened. the president has appointed two independent reviews that have recommended many sweeping changes and the president has even said he will make some of those happen. edward wanted the public to be brought into the loop, to find out what was being done in their name. in that regard he has been really successful. it does not mean our job is done. we now need to rein in the nsa and make sure the foreign surveillance court does its job

and stops issuing secret interpretations of the constitution behind closed doors. we need to continue to shine light on this part of the government's activities and that will take a lot of work and require from people on both sides of the aisle. host: a few minutes left with chris soghoian. let's go to joseph waiting in hershey, pennsylvania, on our line for democrats. caller: good morning to both of you. i have to apologize for my lover -- level of not expert knowledge on this. if you could somehow make clear the position of each of the political parties, both on the national defense aspects of this and the personal privacy aspects of this. i have trouble understanding who to believe and who to be influenced by in their positions

that they espouse. guest: that is such a good question. privacy and surveillance is a weird issue that does not really fit into the traditional political spectrum. instead of having something like gay rights or abortion where you know where each party stands surveillance is one that really brings in people from both sides. you have people like gerald, one of the most liberal members of the house, and ron iran paul both supporting the same kind of thing. really what you have is a part of the democratic party and a part of the libertarian wing of the republican party who are pro-reform surveillance, pro-privacy and pro-data security and then you have an element from both parties who are pro-surveillance. both the house and senate intelligence committees love the nsa and knew about most of what the nsa was doing long before the rest of us did. the senate intelligence

committee is shed by diane, a senator from california, super in love with the nsa. on the house side, the chair is a republican. this is not as simple an issue as looking at the color of blue or red and saying, ok, my member is good or bad on the issue. you really need to look on the website of your respective member of congress and senator and figure out where they stand. as a rule of thumb, the more extreme your member is, the more likely they are to be pro-privacy and pro-surveillance. we tend to find people in the center who are more pro-surveillance and pro-national security. it is unfortunate but that is where we are. host: here is the story from today's "the new york times." the story talks about some of the controversy surrounding the nsa, especially in the wake of

edward snowden's disclosure. the man chosen by mr. obama to navigate the bureaucratic and public relations disaster is admiral rodgers, who on tuesday will face members of the senate at his confirmation hearing. the thunderous applause probably not-- if you want to read more on that

story, it is in today's "the new york times." scott is waiting in gainesville, virginia, on our line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. i understand the significance of revealing the system. can you explain for me where the lines are drawn with this man -- where the lines are drawn revealing what is going on domestically versus revealing intel detail, internationally. it was senator dianne feinstein who expressed concern this man had developed code keys to get into the higher international intel, as opposed to just having clearance access to the system he revealed. where do you draw a line to commit a crime?

guest: i think edward snowden was really bothered by what he learned. american people have been bothered. the president in the wake of the disclosures said he welcomed the debate and that debate cannot happen until edward snowden went to the press. we should be clear about one thing. snowden has not published anything to the world. what he took, he has given to journalists. at least what he has published has come through to journalists. people have made the final call have all been journalists. journalists who check in with other journalists. if you look and see every thing published, things have been redacted. not by the government but by the newspapers, the new york times the guardian, all of these news outlets have voluntarily censored information from slides they were provided by edward snowden because they believe

there was not enough newsworthy material in that portion. they thought they could tell the story about how the nsa would either violate civil liberties or violate privacy without revealing sources or methods or revealing information about which targets were unveiled. the press has struck a good balance. snowden picked the right approach by saying, the media isn't -- this is their role in the constitutional system. they're supposed to provide a check and balance against overuse of power by the state. i am bothered by it and the fact the intelligence committee knows the stuff is taking place and has not done anything about it and bothered by the fact the fisa courts has rubberstamped the stuff. i am not the person to make the call but which individual pieces to be made public and medicine thing depresses far better able to do. host: our independent line from

texas. you're on. we lost her. we will go to marry in michigan on our independents line. caller: good morning. i wanted to say i always assume since they passed the patriot act, they were listed on our phone calls. friends and i would say, hey what is up nsa? we always thought as long as we were not terrorists and did not do anything wrong, we had nothing to worry about. i still feel that way up until we started seeing the abuses by the executive branch against american citizens and average citizens who wanted to become involved in the democratic process in the country. we see the abuses by the irs and the fbi against these small

groups i believe that is one of the reasons the people in this country have really gotten up in arms about the nsa. we do not have any proof that the nsa's targeting citizens but we do have proof the executive branch is. that is what biggest problem is. we need to have a committee on the whole abuses of the executive branch is. host: we want to get inclined as well from new jersey on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. the way i look at it, with the gentleman who went to russia, i believe it is treason in a way. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: i will give you the last

minute we have in this segment. guest: i would remind the caller edward snowden did not want to get stuck in russia. he was transferred for a -- he was transferring to cuba. there were many places he would rather be than stuck in russia in the winter. most people do not want to be in the russia -- in russia, particularly right now. he was stuck. i think he would like to come back and live in the united states again. he will not do that now. for now, he is doing what he can to make sure there is this debate taking place. the fact we're sitting here in the studio this morning talking about nsa surveillance reflects a huge change that has happened as a result of the disclosures. it simply would not have been here a year ago. host: chris soghoian, you can see his work at aclu.org or

follow him on twitter. we appreciate you joining us this morning. up next, a republic --republican congressman tom cole joins us to talk about the 2016 budget and his work as the senior member of the appropriation committee. we will be right back. first, here is a news update from c-span radio. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> 51% of republicans believe -- have support for same-sex marriage.

by contrast, 27% of republicans ages 50 and older favor of allowing gays and lesbians to marry. this comes against a backdrop of rapidly changing public opinion overall and the issue. it is a record high in pew research service. and independence declaration that establish an autonomous republic of crimea. the english parliament voted today to take steps if voted on sunday to split off and join russia. they said they will not recognize the vote as legitimate. tensions continue with russia over ukraine and cooperation continues in space. nasa said the russian capsule carrying the a u.s. russian crew

landed safely after spending nearly six months in orbit on the international space station. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> the original plan when it opened a 22 story capital in the 1970's was to tear down the historic capital. a fight ensued between politicians and the people of florida. there was a save the old capital campaign. an architect plan to demolish the structure. how exactly the historic capital would be restored to was then the debate. it was not whether they would save it or not but what time to

restore it to. the 1902 version offer great benefits. all three branches of government were in one building and the goal of the department of state was to turn it into a museum and use it as a tool force florida schoolchildren. to come here one night and see the supreme court and understand three branches of government and how they work together it really was a benefit. host: we now return to the subject this week. one of the members who will play a key role in the viewing --in reviewing president obama's plan is tom cole.

conversely, one release from your office last week called the president posses spending plan disappointing. guest: in a number of ways. the president does not recognize the agreement in terms of capping the amount in discretionary. we are submitting something he knows cannot possibly be excepted. rejected by democrats in the senate as quickly as republicans in the house. he backed away from what i think you deserve a lot of credit for his last budget, dealing with entitlement reform. chained cpi, which would slow down the increase in medicare and medicaid. it pays for itself in some degree because it slows down tax breaks that otherwise happen based on inflation. he kept the means testing for medicare. i was glad to see him do that. finally, i think his defense budget, particularly given the situation we have now, certainly calls for second thoughts and review. there are major reductions in

american capability that i think are probably sending the wrong -- sending the wrong signal. there are things in there that give us something to work with. the president himself said this is an aspirational document. on balance, since he is not dealing with long-term, it will come up short. host: what do you think paul ryan will put forth in his budget plan? guest: it will actually deal with the problems in front of us. i will expected to see a medicare proposal similar to what he has had in the past. he will have language about social security. that is something i think we could deal with in a bipartisan way. probably not let -- in an election year, but we need to get serious about that. he will adhere to the caps in the ryan-murray negotiated budget. it is not written yet but i do not think it will be dramatically different from the last two or three paul ryan budgets. he will grant medicare to the

states again. we do that with welfare and it worked well. i think it will be bold and innovative. i think it will be politically risky. all the things the president posses budget was not. host: the budget agreement you brought up, a touch it cap in 2015, an agreement that got pushed back from republicans in the house. a lot did not vote for that. do you think paul ryan will have trouble passing a budget that sticks to those cats? -- caps? guest: a quick question -- a great question. what it does not have his extensive entitlement reform. those are two pretty a -- attractive things and it makes it easier for people who would have preferred a lower discretionary number to swallow it. i can tell you that is a matter of considerable concern to us and we will work very hard.

again, a budget has to pass from your own party supporting it. will not get democrat revotes in anymore than the president would have from his budget. it is important we recognize paul is dealing with a complex set of circumstances and he is offering bold ideas. if you do not agree with everyone of them, that is fine, but you ought to be there for this particular one. host: pelican congressman tom cole -- republican congressman tom cole. he served on the appropriations committee and share on the legislative ranch subcommittee, the committee that has spun the agencies of congress total requested 2016, 4 $.46 billion to run congress. is that something you think will pass? guest: i think so.

it is a bipartisan committee. i am fortunate my ranking member has been there a long time. she is a former chairman of the committee. she has been a great working partners. -- partner. we all live in the same house. that house, the capital of the united states, the library of congress, are some of the real crown jewels of the country. host: not a lot of people know what that consists of. guest: capitol police, sergeant of arms, the maintenance of the capitol complex, which includes the house office building. it is the federal campus, a really important oversight agency. those are in the -- indispensable tools that will do

congressional oversight in an effective way. we are the plumbing around here. we are not very exciting but without it, it doesn't work very well. we will work this well in a bipartisan way. host: 4.46 billion dollars is nearly a five percent increase over fiscal year two thousand 14 over agencies in capitol hill to keep congress running. is congress ok with a five percent increase? guest: i am not sure that is our final number. an agreement on the 302 be posses, -- b's. they will set those and we may take a whack there because there are other competing and pressing priorities. he gives us a place to start. you have to remember we have cut members offices by about 20% in the last several years. funding for their offices. that usually leads to staffs and

cuts. i suspected it in most other members offices. we all showed -- also reduce what we spent on a library of congress what we have been spending on the capitol building in those types of things. you can make a pretty compelling case for stopping the cutting and at least trying to make sure the essentials are done well. we will still look for savings and again, you will find both sides worked pretty hard on that. i do not see this as republican and democrat difference. it tends to be, what is an adequate level of security and what will we do in the capitol dome, for instance. those types of things. custodians, disassembly of freedom in the history of the world. >> that is about a $60 million project. is it on track to begin? guest: you will see it sometime in the spring. we were pretty close with the architect of the capitol with that.

a lot of confidence with him and his staff. we have not done much to the years except paint it. the reality is there is about 1300 cracks in it. they are not visible but are there. i was taken on a tour. i was maybe the last capitol dome tour for 2.5 years. it gives us a good understanding of what the needs are. everybody wants the capitol to function well. americans from all across the country come regularly. it is a highlight. we needed to be safe and functional and we need to stand as a strong symbol for the country. host: we will take your comments and questions. mike is waiting on our line for republicans. good morning. you're on our line with congressman cole. guest: you are from my hometown. caller: yes sir.

my question is, if obama has given $1 billion to the ukraine how will that affect your budget and where does the money come from to be able to do that at this point in time? guest: it has to be voted on by congress. it has moved to the house and frankly, we will try to find savings to offset that. we are trying to behave in a bipartisan manner. the ukraine has been a friend of the united states. it sent the troops to help us in the middle east. it is not a direct ally but on the periphery of russia. a pretty important country, and one that is honestly being dismembered. we have not seen anything like this since the second world war. a great hostile power in europe is dismembering a neighbor. it is something that evokes a

strong american response and that is what we are trying to do. caller: the $1 billion we are going to get, how will that be allocated to the people in the country? guest: ukraine has some serious economic challenges. the european union is putting in $16 billion. it is not as if the united states is carrying this all by itself. we will sit down and try to figure out what makes sense. they have debts they have to pay. they all interest on loans. the country has serious problems in the leadership was kicked out and it frankly robbed the country blind. billions of dollars overseas. pressing energy needs. it relies on russia for its energy consumption and is under a lot of pressure right now. they are maintaining their military readiness at a higher rate than normal. a lot of need there. united states will not be the only country that contributes. europe collectively, as they should, since it is in their

neighborhood, will be doing more financially than the united states. host: an update on that aid bill, this is a story in the newspaper if you want to read it this morning noting the senate foreign relations committee has scheduled a business meeting tuesday in hopes of marking up a compromise on a package for the ukraine. on monday evening, it was unclear whether the panel was yet ready to move on that bill. if you want to read more of these stories by alexander bolton in the hill newspaper. we are with congressman tom cole this morning. we will go to scott it eastlake ohio on our democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. why don't we eliminate the cap on social security deductions while putting a cap in on what you can get back when you retire and make social security safe for the next million years.

i do not think asking people that make over $100,000 to keep adding to our social security bankroll is a terrible thing to do. i think most people would agree. guest: people earning a that level they will not receive back the benefits they pay for. the real question is, how much more do you want to take from them and is that the real driver of the issue? i agree with you we need a proper hands of look at this. it is an important program. i have been working with a democrat from maryland. a trip to new member of congress. john has talked about setting up a commission to look at these things. i can assure you it would bring back suggestions nobody likes on either side of the aisle. and then force congress to vote on it in a straight up or down

amendment. that is an idea with a lot of merit. if he goes forward with a legislatively, i told him i would work with them. there are things people would not want to do in terms of benefits. chained cpi, which the president proposed last year, an important measure. gradually increasing the age given a life span, that is something we have done before. something called progressive indexing should, the slowdown, growth, there are things there and eligibility things we need to look at. but, there may well be the revenue piece that the caller mentioned as well. i would expect anything to fix a program this big. we spent a lot more on social security. it is bigger than defense and bigger than medicare. it is the biggest program it has and a good program. host: i want to get your

thoughts on the issue of climate change. our viewers know we talked with them this morning about the all-night session taking place on the senate floor still happening right now. senator bill nelson of florida, democrats talking about ocean acidification and the effects on the bees for right now. your take on this all-night session? guest: politically, this is more about asp -- atmospherics and politics then it is about a solution. if you are going to do something, you do not do all-night sessions that you do legislation. i do not think of the will come to vote in the united states senate and that is too bad. there are good contributions on both sides on this particular area. i see this as something politically that is more likely to happen after november 2014 than before. host: on our twitter page, you made comments about our military budget and concern with cuts. he asked --

guest: not bigger than the next 20, probably the next 12. that is a tricky comparison because of the people do not pay their soldiers anything like we do. the benefits structure is different. what you need to look at his military capability. frankly, we are cutting hours dramatically at a dangerous point. we are getting ready to send aircraft to:. -- to poland. hopefully, we will avoid that. we are sending plain so next year we will not have to send. that is not a very compelling message to russians to be worried down the road. the united states military has frankly kept the peace. and not only defended this country but allow for the advance of democracy and cap the sea lanes open since the second world war. other countries can -- participate in that as well.

people forget 30,000 nato soldiers with us in afghanistan. we are not the only people out there on the front line. we are the biggest power and the most sophisticated military peer that has benefited the country and not heard it on balance. we have kept the bees and avoided major work. we have had serious wars. we have not had world war ii and -- since 1945. you have to give the men and women in the united states military credit for having done that. they have been an instrument for good and not for kong -- conquest. it is important we have a robust capability. >> let's go back to the phones. judy is waiting in ohio on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. at what point is congress going to realize science does not support the government explanation for why the third tower building fell on 9/11 and acknowledge the need for a new

investigation into the evidence that explosives brought it down. guest: i am not familiar with the exact case you are talking about, but i think the investigation has been awfully thorough. i think the commission of 9/11 did an excellent job if you have a chance to read that. you probably have since you have an interest in the topic. we will continue to have discussions about this. it is sort of like a tragic incident like the kennedy and lincoln assassinations. we still talk about those things and have multiple theories. my view is that we pretty much know the truth. in this case, i am not convinced by anything i have seen although i am always willing to look at something, that there were explosives inside a building. i think this is really an attack delivered by al qaeda and two aircraft and we know what happened on that particular day. there he -- if there is compelling evidence, i do not have doubt congress is willing to look at something.

host: joe on our line for independents can -- independents, on north carolina. caller: i agree with the operational maintenance of taking care of the parks and the capitol building. and the operational maintenance of our roads and bridges, where we pay an exorbitant amount to the government and the government puts it out and someone misappropriated and puts it somewhere else. as far as the budget goes, a child that does not even know how to talk knows what maple syrup is. why are you appropriating money for that? and for snipes. i also think you still have to have caps on your turn, terms on how long you can be. you need to go. don't you people in congress and senate have any shame on how you are cheating the american people? guest: i am not exactly sure

what the question is but let me go to the next quickly as i can -- through these as quickly as i can. there is some waste. there is no question. expenditures that should not be there, absolutely. we have done a lot to assert -- work that out. we cut discretionary spending most of the examples you use were from in four consecutive years in a row. we are actually spending $164 billion on things like defense less than george bush spent. there have been discretionary cuts. the things you mentioned come pretty easy to get at, they are mostly things like medicare, medicaid, most was -- social security. those of the three big ones. farm programs. things like that. congress has passed a farm bill and cut spending on nutrition programs and farm programs by about $22 billion. we are in a cutting mode up your peer the examples you are

talking about are worth considering. in terms of congress cheating the american people, look, congress is probably the least popular institution in america right now. on the other hand, nobody is there that was not elected. if you do not like to remember, you ought to replace him. he will get the opportunity for third of the senate and every member in the house in a matter of months. there are primaries before that. it is not hard to change congress. if you look at the number of members that are new, it is the majority of members. huge, over half republicans in the house have been elected in the last three years. host: you brought up the idea of term limits. guest: i have always been supportive of that as long as it is the same for anybody. california, new york texas, you will count the matter what because of the size of your delegation. oklahoma, with only five members, and, three of the five have been there three years or less, so it is not as if we turning over members, it takes a

long and hard effort to get in a position that influences events important to your state. if we do it for everybody, i am fine with it. we do that in the state of oklahoma. a lot of states do it. it would say a constitutional amendment. -- take a constitutional amendment. i'm willing to vote for that -- we have never gotten it through here. i do not think we are likely to get there. i do not think the american people are shy about changing their senators or congressmen. fortysomething senators are in their fourth term now. i think they will keep shaking the place up. at the end of the day, again, you want to do that in your home district you have the right and the ability to do it and the american people are in a firing mood right now and they have been firing members of both parties in the last several elections. host: you talked about oklahoma and the big states there. on twitter --

guest: they get tax advantages. interestingly enough, oil and gas pays a much gas pays a much higher tax rate. their tax rate is a lot lower than exxon. the industry is not just the big guys, the people who have made this country india -- energy independent are our small losers or do most of their drilling inside the united states. you do not get any tax advantages to do drilling overseas, you do to encourage production over here. that is one of the parts of the economy that has worked rather well. but it is a very large capital business. we doubled the amount of oil but we produced about five or six years ago. we are more natural gas than we have ever produced within

exporting energy to the rest of the country for 100 years. we have done our part to help our america. and you want to look at most of the oil and gas states that people think are rich, their per capita income is usually below the rest of the country. these are areas that give other natural resources with the people in other parts of the country can have what i international standards are relatively cheap gasoline and power rates. host: let's go to steve on our line for independents. caller: good morning. we have digressed from the original argument of i would like to address the social security issue. it is this. population, life expectancy, are all bell curves. the bell curve has gone up of an people do live a little bit longer. i am not going to address doctors or surgery of anything

like that. social security and medicare are both self correcting. here is my point. just has we had to build a lot of alan true schools and a lot of high schools to accommodate the baby boom, now the baby boomers retiring, and i'm one of them. i get to say this because i am 61 years old, and i am dying. i'm going to be off the rolls and probably another year. don't have to worry about me. he here is my point, everyone is going to die sooner or later and they're going to stop collecting benefits. we're still going to have the money coming in, and this is going to be just another old -- bulge in the facilitation of government and social services. when i first went to work but i actually paid my social security off by july or august, and never

after that because it went to 7.5%. people groan and complain of and they're just dying over the fact that they might have to pay another one percent. when i was a young man coming up in the steel mills of gary indiana, we understood that we paid social security for the old guys. the young guys were going to pay for us. host: let me let the congressman jump in. guest: i am truly sorry for your help child, and i hope you can collect from the system that you put into over the years. in terms of the system, we are not very hard what we think -- far apart and what we think.

i do not want to get rid of social security, it is probably the single most effective antipoverty program that we have had because it keeps older americans from slipping into poverty, which is a routine situation from before social security. do not take what i am saying as being against the program. i'm about 64 gevo so i'm pretty close to this program as well. i paid in a lot less than my kids are paying in. my son once called me evidence that i got the first four digit paycheck of my lack of a and you cannot believe how much you guys are taking out of this. we laughed about that, he is a good young man. when we hung up, i got to thinking and when i was his age and got my first three digit paycheck, i was paying two percent to social security not 6.1%. we are putting a

disproportionate burden on younger people right now they're paying more in, they're not likely to get everything that they are taking out. that will probably be a mix of things that people find unattractive. in 1983, we did this before, ronald reagan sat down and everybody give something up. revenue went up, but so did the effective date of when he could collect the revenue. there was a give-and-take, and we need to go through that process again. we have a lot of reserves and social security, it is not an immediate crisis of all. we will be able to handle for the next 25-30 years. we are eating into the reserves now. i would rather deal with the problem now than do what we did in 1983 and wait until we are months from going bankrupt. the corrective measures would be lost lest onerous -- a lot less onerous.

i think congress ought to step up to the plate, and actually do something on this issue. host: "congressman tom cole on the issue of social security. we just received an e-mail from nancy in texas, who writes -- guest: very few people do escape social security anymore. that was true in the past, but most people are required to participate in this is the, almost nobody gets out of it. that is a good thing come in my opinion, it is an important

program. where not trying to balance it on anybody's back of a button when you're drawing up more money than you're putting in, you cannot do that forever. there need to be some changes made. that may be additional revenue as well. it will be a give-and-take process. people of both sides of this argument, just like an 83 -- in 1983. there is some language in there that suggest we need to sit down and talk about it, and is not like the medicare or medicaid section for there is a very specific land laid out. the reasons are twofold. first, and is politically risky for one side to trotted out there and the other side to not that has a lot to do with us. it is one area that is really a math problem. i am not with the thing out there so that we do not prejudice the democrats. this is an area we should be able to sit on. george bush tried to sit down and deal with the congress on

social security coveted "weapon and 2005 in 2006 leaving and elections. that is unfortunate. i would rather go back to the model of 1983 with both sides that down for a government -- when both sides sat down for a compromise. we know the average life expectancy is that we know the revenue flowing in his, and we have all the information we need to sit down and fix it. to me, we ought to just do it. and explain it. if we came up with a fix that are served and protected the system going forward, any member of congress from either party could get up in a room and defend it because all want this program protected and preserved. they know by lots of that -- by at large that we are not doing that. they are living off of reserves and we cannot do that indefinitely. host: congressman tom cole, elected in 2002, in his next

term on capitol hill. we will go to ray in richmond, kentucky on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. thank you for your time. you are talking about cutting spending, which we all agree is happening, we say it is due to sequestration, but cutting is happening. something that we never talk about, and it is ironic that i just picked up my tax return yesterday, a couple of weeks back another one was on. as a 53-year-old american, my taxes have never been lower. i would love for you to comment on that. guest: i cannot comment on your individual tax rate, but you're quite right in terms of income

taxes, we just had an increase in 2011. -- january 2013 we brought in additional revenue, syntaxes have gone out. but there certainly lower than they have been at some points like during ronald reagan's presidency. that does not include your local taxes, or your state taxes. your effective tax rate, is usually pushing around 50%. you make a good point. we can live within the tax revenue that we have that is flowing into discretionary spending. we have shown that we can live with that number. but the real drivers are our medical cost in medicare medicaid, and social security. we are not talking about those things. the president has never been a reform proposal on the table paul ryan has.

you can like it or not like it he is taken a lot of beating for that. until we have the two parties willing to put proposals on, we are not going to solve it. this is a presidential responsibility. the person who should be in favor of an entitlement reform package is whoever the president possibly fasteners going to be -- the president's are is going to be. that is just unconscionable, we are going to bankrupt the country. it is disappointing to be that the president has not put a serious plan on the table. he is not going to run for reelection again. there are parts of his budget, last year's budget on chain cbi and medicaid and medicare means testing that would have passed.

what he wants a tax increase plus that. that is a killer, an awful lot to do. if we get presidential leadership covey will find that congress will go along. that is what we got from a regular 1983, that is what we want to get from president obama at some point. host: a tweet -- caller: congress is included. i am not moaning about my rates. we used to be the federal program, we're not anymore. we passed a law, i'm not complaining about it. there are relatively few exceptions that is why you see a lot of labor unions that were very supportive of the law and their members have changed their viewpoint about it. i think it is really a flawed piece of legislation that is is drawing the insurance markets it is cost shifting.

there are certainly some winners in obamacare but it are many more losers than winners. it is going to increase the cost of health care in my view. the president has changed it about 30 times, and we are trying to push it past the 2000 16 election combat medic should tell you what the impact is going to be on the average american. not very good. i flawed bill that i've never voted for. why did you vote 41 times? some of them became law. we save $62 billion. you do not have to file a 1099 like you used to have to. we extended care for the assisted living or shouldn't --

portion, i got that repealed as well. it is not with people being exempted government is just going to be mark benson for people who have insurance. when you do something like this you bring in a population that has a measure of health care putting them to completely in the system, most of those folks either chose not to do it or did not have the means to do it. people in the system are going to pay more get a little bit less than they have gotten in the past. host: i want to ask you about speaker john banner, he had an interview last week with his local paper. he talked about his confidence and being reelected speaker again -- guest: i think that is true.

many of the caucus are new, many of them are learning the process. john boehner is a concert of his of ideas never voted for a tax increase, he is resigned it over more budget cuts been a any other speaker of the house in modern history. the only leads one third of one half of the federal government. we do not have the senate, we do not have the presidency. i think given the limitation that he has he has done a good job. i think members understand that. i understand the frustrations with a lot of republicans that want to get more done. my advice would be go to go in more elections. it would be a lot different if there were more majority believe -- if it were majority leader, is that of majority leader reid.

all of them voted or this at considerable risk to themselves. we need more friends, when some of the senate seats in places around the country. >> you are the former chair of the campaign arm of the 2008 republicans. guest: it was a tough year. our job was to try to minimize losses, clean up the community and get it ready. i think we did that. we did a wonderful job giving us back into the majority in 2009. >> what is your expectation for members of seats gained or lost? guest: we're going to have a great year in the united states that is, but in the house, we won most of the easy seats to win in 2000 and -- 2010. this is the second largest republican majority since the second world war.

the chairman of the nrc see is a chair -- nrcc is a terrific chairman, we will pick up a few seats and hold on. nobody wants the senate to become republican more than republican house members. we send bills over there to die on a routine basis. i think we have a terrific chance to pick up at least seven or 87 seats. we only have one or two of ours in any kind of jeopardy at all. this might be the year that we finally get a mission a majority. if we do that in the last few years of the president's administration we want to gsu directly with us -- he will have to negotiate directly with us to get ells on his plate. host: wayne is waiting in harrisburg, pennsylvania. caller: good morning.

you said you were friends with the ukrainian people. what about being friends with the middle class and the poor? one thing that will settle social security is put us back to work. we are hurting out here. you are sitting up there won't pay us anything. guest: most of the deals that have come through that have been compromises, the fiscal cliff bill, i voted for that, hurricane sandy really provide voted for that, i have to say in my own hometown moore oklahoma, when we were hit, the president gave great support even though he has never carried any county in that state. i do not consider any american

president my enemy. i certainly differ with him on a lot of issues, but i think i do represent the people that sent me here. i agree with your point, the most important thing is putting people to work. you're absolutely right. in that sense, this has been a failure as an administration. this is the worst recovery that we have had in modern american history. there's a lot of things we have to do. let's build the keystone pipeline, that puts people to work. that is the flcio and the teamsters on that issue. there are a lot of regulatory things we can do to help, but i think it takes two to deal. i think i've demonstrated i am willing to work in a bipartisan fashion, and our conference has done that. you give me an instance of when the president has ever broken

from his majority to come to a deal like the oakland it all the time -- and bill clinton did all the time. i think that benefited the country well. host: robert is in terry, mississippi, on our republican line. caller: hello. i want to talk about conserving water. why not build some pipelines and make some rubber wars, and conserve water -- and reservoirs, and conserve water? guest: i come from a state where the drought and the real issue so i could not agree more. by not dealing with the doug lepard of the budget google we have really shrunk the amount of money that is available for the kind of investment your talk about, reservoirs, roads levies, you name it.

we're going to have to deal with that. one of the earlier callers mentioned all of the money flowing into transportation. there are certainly a lot of money, but given the means that we have, probably not enough. when i was a kid, cars got about 12 miles a gallon, would do not get that new. we have compressed natural gas, and other alternative fuels that are starving our infrastructure. i think we're going to have -- if only because the population, continued water shortages especially in the western part of the country. host: thank you for being with us this morning. tom cole club member of the budget appropriation committee. we will break down today's special election in the 13th congressional district of florida.

we will be opening up our phone lines to talk about that all night session in the senate. >> the swedish embassy confirms that a swedish journalist has been killed in kabul. the embassy counselor told the associated press that the asia correspondent for swedish radio was the them. the attack happened outside of a restaurant and one of the most heavily guarded districts. it underscores the uncertainty in the upcoming elections. an update on the missing airliner the men using stolen passports do not pose a threat

could authorities expand the search area. no sign of the wreckage. president obama travels to new york city for a pair of democratic fundraisers, the cost is $32,400 per person. the president will be taking questions in an intimate escutcheon -- discussion. joining the president at the two above, former secretary of state hillary clinton. the two are working together to help the democratic national committee retire some debt and to raise funds for the fall elections. 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 and house event briefings and conferences, and offering complete gavel to gavel

coverage of the u.s. house. all is a public service of private industry. we are c-span ever created by the cable tv industry 33 years ago, and funded by your local cable or satellite divider watches in hd, like his and facebook, and follow us on twitter./ washington journal continues. host: we're now joined by marc caputo by skype. thank you for joining us. gives a brief refresher of how the special election came about today. guest: it opened up the seat when bill young passed away while in office. it is a very interesting county. it is a swing seat.

though there was a longtimerepublican at the head of it, he is always been there and a -- and joined the benefits of incumbency. even though the republicans outnumbered registered democrat i about 2.5%. about a quarter of the district registered voters are registered independents or third-party voters, most of them of party affiliation voters. it is an open tossup swing district, and it is interesting to see all the outside money and messaging come colliding in here. about $12.5 million have been spent on this race, $9 million would have been outside money. host: let's talk about the stakes in this race. there seems to be a lot more in terms of setting a tone for the 2014 cycle. possibly the governor's race

about the latest piece in the miami how -- harold. how is this race being used in the context of those other races? guest: we are seeing and tackling of elections. the dumbest and smartest thing about elections is turnout. one of the things that the democrats have faced time and time again is that although they outnumber the republicans, they do not win because they do not show up in the same numbers. you have a swing district that is not labeled bolt to the whole of florida -- relatable to the whole of florida, but we have an opportunity for those basis to get out and get their vote heard.

they have been running as a classic or new conservative, and that is essentially been a baster not election for him, and get those republicans out. they hold an edge in registered voters. the democrat has been focusing on not getting the base out, but in feeling to -- but appealing to the independent and swing voters. i think there's a limit to look -- i think there is a little bit to learn here going forward. host: the 2012 election in this strict, obama won the district by just 50% to 45% -- 49% in 2012. we are showing a map of where it is.

was this seat ever competitive under congressman bill young? did they ever contested before? guest: it was contested, but he always won over the other candidates. democrats only ran nominal candidates against leung since he was so powerful. -- bill young since he was so powerful. he was a country club, moderate republican in today's context. he fits the county well. it made it a waste of money for democrats to really contest the seat. however, now you have an open seat, you have loads of interest in the race nationally and

you're seeing that result. in the mid-2000 $12.5 million could win you a down ballot statewide race. now we're talking about a congressional district where you have four hundred 60,000 voters as opposed to the rest of florida, where you have about 12 million registered voters, which is rather astounding. host: talking with marc caputo a writer for the miami herald. marc caputo, as we get done to the final arrows of the election, one of the issues that have had the biggest impact on the race? guest: the 10th of may times which is a hometown paper that has done the best job covering this, they are both electronic and in the paper, and you see that obamacare played an outside messaging role. some folks in the national media what this to look like in a referendum on obamacare, and it

is not good there were the -- and it is not. we had the attacks on the republican candidate with a war on women. adam smith my colleague at the tampa bay times has said that toss a coin kind and whichever side comes up, do not be surprised. he says there is momentum toward jolly, but when you aggregate the polls out, there is a edge towards sink,. . if the republicans get to the double-digit lead in registration turnout on election day, they're probably going to win. if the democrats hold the below seven percentage was cover the democrats will probably win. what is the difference between

seven percent and 10% of republican turnout? we will see tonight. host: you mentioned the outside groups that are involved in this race, here is a pie chart from the center for public integrity here in cdc talking about campaign spending. only a third of the campaign spending was controlled by the two candidates themselves. the other money coming in from the outside groups. is there anything to read into this outside spending leading into the 2014 election in florida? guest: a lot of groups have a lot of money to burn very for all of the money that has been spent against obamacare, you wonder how much of that has been turned into subsidizing peoples health care plans. if you wonder how much these ads actually helped. i wonder if these things are designed to depress turnout.

that will be answered at the close of polls today. we have no idea what the turnout is going to be. there's been about 125,000 ballots cast. that could be a significant portion, more than half of the electorate is already in. host: thank you for joining us this morning. enjoy election day in florida at least in that 13th congressional district. guest: thank you. host: now we open up our phones to you to talk about any of these issues with covered so far this morning on the show from the senate all night session on climate change, edward snowden or the 2015 budget. we want to get your comments on this last half hour of washington journal. our phone lines are open.

while folks are dialing in, a little bit more before we strayed too far from the campaign frontier. here's this diary in today's wall street journal. story about patrick o'connor noting that the visions on policy and party building tactics are already emerging among the republican party. we have seen that this week in some of the statements by the two senators on abc's this week with george stephanopoulos.

he is quoted as saying i am a big fan of rand paul, i am a good friend with them. i think we should be reluctant to deploy military force abroad but i think there is a vital role just as ronald reagan did. senator ted cruz, rand paul responded in an editorial is being called stop warping reagan's foreign-policy. every republican well-liked to think he or she is the next ronald reagan.

today's republican should concentrate on establishing their own identities and ideas. a bit of the back and forth there between two men who are seen as presidential contenders for the republican nomination in 2016. our phone lines are open to avoid talking about any of the issues we have rocked up on today's show. we will start with emily in wisconsin on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i have two separate comments. one is i am thankful to edward snowden for leading the american people know what the nsa was doing. whether it was right or wrong, i do not know, because there is so much involved in that whole

conversation. the second thing i wanted to say is that there was a lady that called this morning talking about earthquakes and how they might possibly be affecting the weather. i went on the internet last year to see how much the earth had tilted on its axis. if that could possibly be the cause of warming will bring -- mobile warming or climate change. at that time is that was 27.4 degrees in 2007. i tried to find out more information from 2007 to the day i called, which was about the middle of summer. i could not get any information because the united states government would not release it. host: what are the one size you trust when you go to look up information on this issue? caller: when i went on the internet, i looked up can you

please tell me how many degrees the earth is tilted on its axis, as far as all of these earthquakes that were occurring? since 2007 we have had so many more. i went down through every single one of the separate lines, and there was a gentleman that knew all about earthquakes and how they affected the earth, and he said that the united states government will not release any information on how much more we have tilted on our act as 2007. host: we will go to floyd waiting in waterbury connecticut. we're talking about any of the issues we have wrought up so far on today's show. caller: the simple solution to solving the problem with social security is to get rid of the 1200 thousand dollar cap and

tax hollywood and the sports people, and people making $20 billion a year. have them pay a simple tax. that would probably go down rather than being the sixth point -- the six percent rate. those are the people who make the political contributions, so the system is out of whack. that is really all i have. host: chris is waiting in colorado springs, on our line for democrats. you're one the washington journal. caller: good morning. i just wanted to mention removing candidates from schedule one four agriculture and recreational uses, we are long overdue. the five major cities -- studies

since 1993 have supported the legalization. the israeli government since 1975 has been working with canada to improve cancer rates. we hope that what we lost, if nixon and kissinger had not been heading it off we cannot accept schedule one are scheduled two and has to go to where it can be used most effectively for the economy, and for our health, and well-being. that is my, this morning. host: we should note that the senate all night session has now ended. the talks on climate change and some of the comments from about 30 different members of the democratic members of the u.s. senate throughout the night.

we show do them this morning one of the folks who helped to lead that effort was congressman from hawaii. here's what he had to say this morning. >> the most absurd event and i now think we have seen it for three or four winters, is every time there is snow, at first i thought it was just a little rhetorical joke, but they are actually saying that because it was snowing last week that there must not be climate change. that is an argument they are relying upon. in the face of actual evidence, then i'll having to rely on anecdotes, the fact that it is icy in antarctica, or there was a snowstorm ubin d.c. to rely on individual on it does about the weather i think is

pretty tough stuff to take root i just want to -- to take. i just want to make sure that we do not let that stand. that you can look out the window and understand what is happening with the claimant -- climate. climate is long-term patterns over large swaths of land or oceans. the weather is you get to check in and on your iphone app tomorrow. it may or may not be hot or cold tomorrow, that does not tell you a thing about what is happening with climate change. to the extent that somebody was to take off again status 32 degrees and therefore climate change is not written by do not think anybody actually believes that argument. it is important that the american public realize how facetious that claim is. host: that is the senator from hawaii talking earlier today during that all night talking on on climate change.

according to the united states cost website -- united state's senate website, rand paul and ted cruz were speaking. we are glad to take your questions in the last 15 minutes as we open up our phone lines on that subject, edward snowden, or the 2015 federal budget which we talked about on today's washington journal. our line for republicans robert, good morning. caller: i wanted to make a comment about the 2015 budget, and the movement for dispense pending. -- defense spending. it is cost effective to transfer personnel and equipment through the guard and reserve, which still maintains the

functionality of defending america at almost one third the cost. as far as defense spending, we have options besides eliminating bases and materials, and movie tour personnel structure that can be maintainable into the future. host: our phone lines are open, jim is on our republican line is welcome to use in knoxville, tennessee. good morning. caller: i wanted to comment on the global warming. they started out in 1980 at and band leon, but they only bandit in the capitalist countries can be can still buy the old freon in mexico. a lot of guys who of vintage cars go down there and buy it. what is this, a left wing movement to collect it all 90% are democrats that ban this

stuff, like with lead, it is all democrats that are in favor of this. if it was important, there must at least be 10% of confirmed to us that believe in global warming. it is a method to reduce the power of capitalism. they cannot stand -- for example, in thailand and japan there are no democrats because they lost because of capitalism. that is why they lost and 56, 72, and 62 because the free market is why the democratic party. question about it is if you take a piece of window screen, six foot by six foot, hang it up and that is one million squares. 20 years ago there were 300s of those little light that would be co2, thou there are like 400. if you back away from that

screen and block out 300, they are tiny amounts in the air. host: we have been asking our viewers, especially on the subject of climate change, where they go to get their information that they trust on this particular issue? you are talking about freon usage and that sort of thing. where do you go? caller: i forgot the name of the alabama and that wrote the book clinton confusion -- climate confusion. and then there was that guy in the denmark. they are phd's that have studied the think of and say we could have such little in act -- little effect. china and india produce for to

five times what we do, but it is all politics. it is already for china to produce as much co2 as they feel like, because they build coal plants same way in india. there no problem with all of the co2 they pour into the air because their leftist. host: we have shown you some tweets from members of the senate during their all-night session. here is outdoor -- al gore talking about this. let's go to michael from pennsylvania on our life democrats -- line for democrats. caller: i wanted to make a comment on all of these onto debate and everything.

always worried about the united states and everything, cutting this, and cutting that. what about getting along with economy? all these people are hurting indiana's dates were social security -- over the united states were social security was cut and they did not have enough money? they depended on that money to pay their bills company goes back into the cycle and gets recirculated again. now the people are so far behind and losing their houses and cars. they should but more perspective on things like that, for the working man that did work all his life.

we can hope to get these things in perspective so he can pay his bills and put the money back into the system, were just recycles again. it is just hard for a ribbon indiana's days not to do anything about it. host: thank you. the next time you call, turned on the tv so we can make sure to hear your comment clearly on the washington journal this morning. we had a report hundrede -- reporter previewing the session. here's a story from the same publication talking about a plan to protect -- expand reductions along the coast.

if you want to worry that more on that evidence from environment and energy news. let's go to our line for independents. robert, good morning, you're on the washington journal. caller: i the quick, and when they talk about climate change. anyone who takes a physic wars understands what causes climate change. the earth is on 11,000 year

cycle because of recession precession. it wobbles. every 11,000 years the sahara desert becomes tropical and then goes back to being a desert. climate changes is a natural occurrence, and when they talk about the dry california whether we are having basically, if you go back thousands of years to sediment samples and things, we have actually had an extremely wet last hundred 50 years. this time a change in such a scam, it is just a way to take people's money and redistribute wealth. we are having climate made, but it is nothing we can do about it is going to happen. host: that is robert in california. jim on our line for republicans. caller: good morning.

i just want to make suggestions on a guest. i would just like to have you have a meteorologist, who has done a lot of research on climate change. i just saw an interview last week he was the cofounder of greenpeace, and he said he had to get out of there because they have gotten so radical and they are lying so much about things that he got out of greenpeace. host: if you or others want to suggest guest to the washington journal, the send us an e-mail. you can also send us a tweet. we have featured several viewer

suggestions on the washington journal, happy to do it again. let's go to clay on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. i'm going to be very interested today in the confirmation hearing of michael s rogers as he is brought in as the cyber warfare director. what i find interesting is that general alexander, the previous direct your -- director got his star when he took command of the fleet. i want to know what the direction will be with alexander and rogers, and what that entails. it is about command and control of communication. not one navy ship will be built in the additional 44,000 that are already employed by the nsa

that will be stationed. i am very interested to know what the policy will be with cyber warfare and how that fits in. ostensibly, there is another purpose for the group that is not being told to the public . i think there is more to this, there's a connection between the army, the navy, and air force. host: talking about confirmation hearing for vice admiral michael rogers named tactical nsa chief. adding to the challenge of rogers is the fact that he has always been an insider. he has never had to deal with a surveillance program never had to defend it. he is a cryptologist, never had

to speak in public about these issues, much less and/or senators showing off for the cameras. that story is in today's "the new york times"if you want to read it. charles is up next in augustine georgia, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i am charles, and i'm calling in connection with the gentleman that is a democrat from hawaii. he needs to come down here and see the devastation that the ice into the trees of the houses and everything. they have filled up every landfill in this whole area and still have jumped all over the

place -- junk all over the place. i like the idea of increasing social security tax on those making millions of dollars. they need to do not tax the military, retirees, or social security people. if they get better way, we would have a better country. host: kurt is up next from salem, oregon. good morning. caller: thank you. it makes me very irritated when i hear democrats, especially in the senate debate last night almost all from wealthy states. you never see they had of the congressional black caucus talk about simon change and carbon tax. it directly hurts low income folks, it will move fight everyday to make sure that they have enough money to go to work.

it is an absurdity that when you have the size of unemployment that we have in this country right now, that they would look at these alternative energy options bipedal is a good for -- i penalizing before. -- the poor. the best strategy would do not do anything about it, and then these trillion dollar projects to build a seawall for new york city would probably help the unemployment and fix all of that problem. these people that have never had to make sure they had for dollars for gasoline so that they could get back to work would propose these carbon taxes which are so discriminatory toward the poor./ host: another story in

headlights today that headlines today. the story notes that they defended the agency's actions long been concerned about the potential stalling problem.

that is two days in that is in today's washington post. we're just a few minutes left on the washington journal this morning, we want to go to our viewers again. john is in quincy, illinois on are relying for republicans. -- on our line for republicans. caller: i read about how the panel was set up to discuss this global warming. they could not bring in any of the effective sun, so they could get the outcome they wanted. but they could not included into the analysis in the united states. the fellow that set that up was more a strong. this came out of rio, and at the same time, they were behind the

deindustrialization of the united states. look into it. host: brian will be our last caller on the republican line from canyon lake texas. caller: i had a comment on the global warming and senator feinstein and the senate democrats talking about climate change, global warming, climate change, global cooling, it has been a number of things over the years. al gore is fully invested in this. he makes millions of dollars off of it. there's a reason why democrats are involved in it, they make lots of money off of it. that is my comment. host: our last caller on today's washington journal, but if you want to watch that senate all-night session that happened last night, and talk about climate change and we can go online and see that at

www.c-span.org. we will send you right to the senate armed service committee for the committee is considering a number of nominations including when we talk about today's show. michael rogers, to be an admiral and direct your of the national security agency. have a yougood tuesday. >> i will use my own experience right now. we have a continual outreach to the broader commercial industry sectors in an attempt to identify what technologies are available that we could use. there