on president obama overtime rules changes. we will also look at today's news and take your phone calls. >> i have signed a new executive order that expands the scope of our sanctions. i'm authorizing sanctions on russian officials and those operating in the arm sector in russia and individuals who provide material support to senior officials of the russian government. to interferetinues in ukraine, we stand ready to .ost further sanctions e ♪ host: president obama announcing the sanctions yesterday. today, we will get the official response russian president vladimir putin. good morning. the white house is addressing

the latest development in ukraine as russia now recognizes crimea as a sovereign independent state. putinscow, president obam will be addressing the parliament. your reaction to obama's response. are the sanctions enough? what should the u.s. do next to th? -- phone lines are .ou can join us on twitter the question is posted on facebook. or send us an e-mail. the front page of the washington post is this headline. europe hadd russia with sanctions.

the international crisis over ukraine as quitted sharply on monday as the u.s. and europe imposed sanctions on senior russian political and military figures. b boone signing a decree recognizing the ukrainian region of crimea as an independent state. vladimir putin signing a decree. 97% of voters said they wanted to become a part of russia. in this ration said the vote was rigged and discounted it as a legal. administration. what has become the most serious u.s.-russia confrontation in decades showed no sign of abating monday.

this from the guardian newspaper. the russian reaction to all this. the reaction was derisive writes the guardian newspaper. sanctions "a joke." the deputy prime minister who was on that list of sanctions issued by the president we did -- "some sort of prankster wrote the u.s. presence degree." putin will address the parliament today. western officials say sanctions will not be adopted against putin because he is the head of state. >> we will continue to make clear to russia that these provocations will achieve nothing but to diminish its place in the world. the international community will continue to stand together to oppose any violations of ukrainian sovereignty. continued military intervention in ukraine will only deepen russia's diplomatic isolation.

going forward, we can calibrate our response based on whether russia chooses to escalate or de-escalate the situation. i believe there are still a path to resolve the situation diplomatically. in a way that addresses both the interests of russia and ukraine. that includes russia pulling its forces in crimea back to their bases and supporting additional international monitors in ukraine and engage in dialogue with ukrainian government. host: the president yesterday from the reaping room. the russian deputy prime issued a second tweet. this is what is stated -- " comrade barack obama, what should you do for those who neither have accounts nor property abroad?

or you didn't think about it. ." unserious sanctions is the editorial. the sanctions are more likely to reconfirm the russian strongman's view that mr. obama has no stomach for a confrontation. within hours of the white house action, mr. putin signed a decree recognizing crimea's independence from ukraine. maybe a path to formal .nnexation of the peninsula he said he does not need to invade eastern ukraine if he can achieve local control by other means. sanctions are an imperfect foreign-policy tool, but russia's weak economy and dependence on western capital markets give the u.s. and europe to leverage of their serious. the sanctions are worse than ir main because the

impact will make america look weak. let's go to bob from florida. democrats line. caller: thank you for c-span. you do a nice job. boycott russian companies here in the u.s.. would maybe list some of the biggest companies that do business here. i could think of one. byoil -- i will never uy another drop from them. you could list the biggest that dos that americans business with better russian owned. i would love for you to give us a big list.

host: thanks for the call. jean has this point on twitter. keep mouth shut . oh another editorial from the washington post. park but no bite. -- bark but no bite. exceeds thes or most pessimistic expectations of his belligerence. it russian forces extended their invasion from crimea to an adjacent area of ukraine. the u.s. and its allies so far delivering less than a friend or the market expected in retaliation. unless the west steps up measures, the result will be more aggression.

josh from the washington bureau of the daily beast has the story. russian will sanction u.s. senators. putin is set to respond with his own list. several u.s. senators and officials will be banned from visiting russia, including dick durbin. they are sure to be on vladimir list.s sanction seven russian officials and for ukrainian officials will be barred from holding assets or traveling to the u.s.. putin is expected to release his retaliation as soon as today. it will include a top obama administration officials and high-profile u.s. senators in an thert to roughly mirror sanctions against russian officials. this is the headline this morning from the financial times.

putin backs the crimea state. his last night recognizing crimea as an independent state in the finds of sanctions imposed just hours earlier on senior russian officials by the u.s. and the eu. running to escalate the crisis in ukraine over sunday's overwhelming referendum vote by cry means to secede and join russia. vote by crimea to secede and join russia. good morning. caller: i'm calling from dayton, ohio. my name is kathleen. the question i have with president obama and many of our presidents is that when we the territorial integrity and the international , we applied there but don't

apply to israel. you guys had a recent special on c-span called "reassessing the ."s.-israel relationsh there's a double standard about application of certain international laws. flye double standards don't in the rest of the world. whisper ondly been a msnbc about obama meeting with the boss. host: we covered the photo op yesterday. time is not on our side as the president two weeks ago sat down with the israeli prime minister. stephen writes that the president pushed the palestinian authority president on monday

for a breakthrough in the peace process saying all sides know what sacrifices need to be made as they hurtle down the u.s. imposed april deadline for concrete progress. the prospects remained grim. even mr. abbas striking a gloomy note saying the window for getting a deal is slipping way. the latest flareup is over the a jewishtatus of state. has balked. we want to get your reaction to the u.s. sanctions on russia. is it enough? we heard from the president yesterday. we will hear from russian president putin as he addressed the parliament in moscow. the phone lines are --

this is the headline as putin and u.s. up the ante after the vote. u.s. needs to mind its own business." u.s. needs to mind their own business. you go back to 1917, a lot people don't know the true history of what happened during that revolution. the u.s. did not help russia. betrayed the royals and told the communists exactly where the royals were so they could be assassinated. there we go. to -- during the

chinese olympics, the u.s. try to take over georgia. through democracy, which was false. take andare trying to andltrate into the ukraine try to create some kind of animosity during these olympics. -- if to prove a point you takeoof up saying over georgia and then turn around and make a problem now airing the love fix -- during when the ukraine has always been a part of russia . host: this from tom on our twitter page saying, "rowing

rush into a recession would be the best way to throw putin out of office. we can't risk a war with a nuclear power." more of your calls in just a moment. a related story on all this in the u.s. and world report website with this question -- " is obama right to impose sanctions on russian individuals?" front page of the ..a. times the pittsburgh post-gazette, iant putin declares crimea independent. this headline from the hartford current is the west moves to punish russia. joining us from randallstown, maryland. caller: good morning. i think this country should be patient.

russia does not have the economy to go forward. someone told me a long time ago than's better to be quiet to open your mouth and remove all doubt. i think patience is clear. we have the military strength to do it. we must do this along with the eu. as long as we do that, we won't get into a situation like we did where we had the king, dick say thato come and they served with him. we don't need this kind of action anymore. we can handle it. we just need to be patient. we should do it with the eu. thank you. host: things for the call. this headline from the globe in canada. the kremlin embraces an independent crimea and mocks sanctions issued by the u.s. and

western governments. one of our viewers saying that the u.s. sanctions are meaningless to russia. they only understand force, but we should not bother to go there. this response from connecticut senator chris murphy in response to the vote on sunday. 95.5%, seriously? 100%?t just make it ard on ourall is rich republican line. ?s this enough t ,aller: i guess the question is i have not read anywhere on an actual list of what they want to do. or does anybody know what they want to do. so what we are going to do is enforce the russians -- she was going to tell the crimean's that

everything is off after the jubilation on television -- that they will have to go back to the ukraine. ? wewill tell them that have all these press reports and eul these dignitaries in th -- what do they want him to do at this point echo we are backing this key of government that everybody knows is iev this ke government. this dictatorship they think that will happen in moldova. i've been there. moldova asked russia to help them out and they refused. the poorest nation in the world

because of the european on how many them tomatoes they can grow. before people have a comment, they should actually googled some of these countries and read up on them instead of having a blanket comment that everything we do in america is right. and everybody that doesn't follow us is wrong. host: vivian has this point on our twitter page. president bush workssion to invade iraq?" kirk has this tweet -- mark kirk has this tweet. "will the u.s. dropped its bid to share classified missile defense data with russia?" monday's new york times as the celebration took place in crimea. we will listen to just need from maryland. good morning. is -- this isment

an election year. this is the best politics i've seen in my life. it's about politics. that's my comment. host: thanks for the call. we will go to richard in fredericksburg, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. -- thea comment ukrainian people have stood up for the freedom and we need to not lose sight of that. they have stood up for themselves. the ukrainians have stood up and we need to support them. host: thanks for the call. another viewer saying between

our debt, the war, the unemployment rate, why should we care about rush at all? the london telegraph is reporting on the situation on tanks set in ukraine. to defend russia from ukraine. additional funds to construct trenches and other defenses to show russia that any and persian -- any incursion would be resisted. dana milbank reporting on a call with officials yesterday on these latest sanctions. obama aims to hit putin where it hurts. there are no fewer than seven mentions of cronies on the conference call. white house word of the day, cronies used so much in this sanctions conference call it poll testedhey proteste

reaction to it. there was little in the sanctions that would impair putin or his government. our next call is david from vancouver, washington. good morning. caller: hello. i will ask reviewers, what would they expect president obama to gb stood up ink b canada in order to put russian missiles on the u.s. border? putin is defending russia against a project for a new american century plan to put nato at russia's front door. he has to respond the way he has. it's ironic that the vote count has been overwhelming in favor of crimea rejoining russia.

jews arest neocon behind all this. host: we will go to bill in waynesville, north carolina. caller: good morning. we all might be missing the big picture in this whole thing. crimea as russia's main access to ships and summer rains in the submarines in the black sea. our next world war could be in the making right now. take aica would stop and serious look and realize the great danger -- russia has more nuclear weapons than we do. nuclearmost powerful weapon on earth. they destroyed a whole island next to alaska one time.

putin is not week like our president. -- weak like our president. americathink most of o trusts this president to leave this country. wake up and start taking a serious look at what's going on. host: bill from north carolina. if you are just tuning in or are you are listening on c-span radio, we are getting your reaction to the announcement yesterday by president obama on a limited number of sanctions aimed at russian individuals involved in the incursion. by crimea.on vote addressing the russian parliament, saying that crimea cannot be separated from russia. we will get more reaction from president putin and your calls and comments. this -- "theas

price of failed leadership." he takes a larger look at the president's role in foreign policy over the last six years. hands so tidy echo our leaders terrible timing. foreign affairs crisis we have faced over the past five years, there was a point where america had good choices and good options. there was a juncture when america had the potential to influence events. but we failed to act. obama and secretary of state clinton have traveled the world and trying to rebuild the promise to meet relationships and build friendships across the globe. their failure has been painfully evident. it is hard to name even a single country that has more respect and admiration for america today than when president obama took office. now russia is in ukraine. part of their failure is due to their failure to act within

action was possible -- when action was possible. kerry must succeed. timing is of the essence. carol is joining us from st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling to say -- i see a big problem with the news media and how certain papers like the ones you been reading all morning have down our president. how do you expect the rest of the world to respect him? our congress gets up and down with our president. how could they possible respect target who is a constant of us saying he is no good?

when they made such a point that we are so broke, now they want -- where's the money coming from? i don't get it. host: thank you for making your point. we will hear from all of you and different points of view. daniel agrees with you. "emperor putin has no clothes." another headline on this tuesday. russians ridicule obama sanctions. the president slapping russia with the kinds of economic sanctions not seen since the cold war. the administration's supposed hardline was met with mockery and a collective shrug in moscow. next kathy from daytona beach, for the. good morning. independent line. romney i don't believe

or mccain have gotten over losing the election. i really think they are sore losers. something people have forgotten -- before the olympics, russia was being threatened with serious terrorist threats. putin had to beef up security. their something called fear of influence. every country abides by that. anything that happens new york border or close to you, you do take an interest in. anything that happens new york border. you can have a void there when it is rebellion. didn't what george w. bush did not. bush did not secure our borders after 9/11. he failed. richard has this point. the gop and the cowboys without

an exit strategy have yet to pay for their past adventures. another editorial from the financial times. prepare for putin's next move. believet putin may crimea should not exist as a state at all if it does not align with russia. caller: good morning. i think this may have something more to do with the imf and the baskets of assets each country is said to have. it's a fight over the assets of ukraine. that's exactly what's going on. this is more to do with the american dollar. if russia and china allowed, things could go downstream real fast. there's a lot more to this than what we are hearing. host: thanks for the call. next up is thomas from north carolina.

good morning. caller: one thing i would like to do -- hear someone answer, what about the astronauts we have on the space they should yucca we relied on russia to get on the space- station? we relied on russia to get us up there. host: things for the call. president putin is addressing the russian parliament in moscow. we want to listen in. you will hear vladimir putin through translator. they use force against sovereign states whenever they want to. game.lay some states toure other gather resolutions the way it

needs. if they can't do it, they ignore s.e security council that was the case in 1999 in yugoslavia. at the end of the 20th century, one of the european capitals was bombed for several weeks. place.rvention took putthere any resolution forth by the u.s.? they distorted the resolution on libya. they did not issue a no-fly zone. libya through a series of resolutions. people in these countries are tired of tyranny, poverty that

these interests exploit. these people -- host: the comments from letter vladimir putin. it woulddent said result and further sanctions. jan has thisnough? point on her twitter page. "putin does not care what the rest of the world thinks." sue has this e-mail -- we have to be smart here. what can we really do? president bush couldn't do anything to stop russia from invading georgia. don't blame to his hand. that's all. forts joining us from lauderdale, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the republicans are

as politicalis calculation. it's going to make president obama look weak on international affairs. when you start electing senators who vote on international affairs, that's going to be in the voting calculation. i don't think president obama has a lot of good choices here. one thing he really needs to recognize is that we did -- russia-united states will sign a protection agreement for the -- what value does that have? what value does any agreement that russia signs have? he needs to tell russia, we question the value of your treaty and the deal that we made

with relation to georgia as far as sanctions are concerned on them. my suggestion to him would have been that he could tell russians that the ruble is no longer currency for foreign trade. give me a call when you don't like that. host: thanks for the call. front page in the new york times . in a story that continues to generate a lot of speculation. flight 370 missing for a week and a half. jet path seen as altered via computer. here are the details in the new york times. whoever changed the plane scores would've had to have been familiar with the boeing aircraft. officials and aviation experts saying that it is far-fetched to believe the passengers could every program to the flight management system.

the speculation continues to be on the pilot or copilot. whether or not they were responsible for the missing missing for anow week and a half. . the first lady will avoid politics. the president will meet with chinese officials next week. the first lady heading out meliaow along with sasha as part of spring break -- sasha and leah as part of spring break. nhey will not focus on pate politics. it will be viewed as a cultural exchange between the u.s. and china. the first lady joined by her daughters. one other story we want to bring to your attention, this is from -- ae the new york times photograph of her with lady bird johnson.

she is responsible for the restoration of the first lady's garden, often called the jacqueline kennedy garden. she was involved in the investigation into john edwards, who used money contributed to his campaign for his affair. thumb fromer green inside the new york times. page of the washington post. this is keith from florida. republican line. caller: good morning. the last caller made a lot of sense. i agree with them. they should reject all of these treaties with the russians. he should have told vladimir, you show no honesty here. we are going to cancel all the icbm treaties. they should do something about the ruble.

they should say it is not accepted in the u.s. any longer. he needs to do something really concrete. thathing that has meaning vladimir putin understands. that's the only thing they understand, apparently. host: we've been showing you that split screen from russian tv. at the scene in ukraine. russian president putin speaking before the parliament. he is saying that the russian government is prepared to protect the crimean region. , whatation this morning is next? the headline from the new york times. putin recognizes crimea secession. the sanctions issued by the president -- in response to mitt romney's comments on the wall street journal. where was romney's outrage when

putin invaded georgia? bristol, florida. independent line. caller: good morning. many individuals have risen against their own leaders. putin is assisting crimea. we wonder why the world does not like us. we need to stop having these double standards and maybe we will get somewhere in the world today. thank you so much. host: thanks for the call. this is from the front page of the washington post. v hopes for the best, readies for the worst. renewing calls for diplomacy. a picture of some of those troops from the grainy and army. next is a viewer from brooklyn,

new york. the morning. ukrainianfrom the army. good morning. different trend on it. -- and crimea, russia has this bad record with them. with russia. go maybe it's an opportunity for russia to repent for what they did because they have promised a lot of help to crimea. they really need it. they have a lot of needs the re. obama can say what he wants. he's not going to recognize the election. it was a democratic election that was observed. ukraine became independent after the soviet union broke up, there were a lot of nuclear warheads they.

there was agreement between the u.s. and russia to take them down as long as they both kept the integrity of the ukraine. now it seems like they are violating that. that's what the anger is. all of the fear mongering going on -- i don't believe the european commentators believe putin will go in and make a war in the southern part of the ukraine. time andtake enormous energy from the soviets -- from russia to do that. the call.ks for jodi has this point. "people fear us because of our massive military. not the same as respect. ." taking a page from obama's playbook.

putin is using the crimea as a diversion. putin is basing russian nuclear weapons during aircraft and warships in cuba. the says, with all complaints about president obama, you might think that he invaded ukraine. what i hear is that opinion on something they know little about. this is an ongoing episode and any reasonable person or organization should wait to see how it unfolds. jimmy is joining us from pittsburgh, california. good morning. carter i think we forget stopped us from going to russia. -- russia goter along. they need to put the sanctions -- they are doing the best they can with the sanctions. the sanctions should be harder

on russia. when they were talking about going to get grain from here -- i'm from the agriculture center. i went to school and our teacher , russia will do nothing. they're just talking. russia cannot go to australia to get enough grain. they couldn't go to other countries. they should put more sanctions on russia. put, youions obama can't see it today. sooner or later, the sanctions will cost russia. they will have to turn around. host: thanks for the call. last word on all this. a simple question. how much blood and treasure do we want to spend when the last two wars are still costing us?

thanks for your calls and comments. your reaction to the sanctions. president putin speaking at this hour in moscow. front page of today's chicago sun-times. the homestretch. primary day in illinois. joining us on the phone is the washington bureau chief for the sun-times. we appreciate you joining us. guest: good morning from chicago. me ask you about governor quinn. who will he face? it's a four-way republican primary. comesll is showing bruce in as the front runner. host: there was a lot of -- has bill daley pledged his support for governor quinn? guest: he has not taken a role

in the primary. once he dropped out, the point quinn had the best luck because not only did bill daley lisa decided not to run. s, who both come --m big political families they decided not to run. host: as you look at this republican field, illinois is traditionally a blue democratic state. can a republican who has won in the past defeat the sitting governor? the last time we had -- we have had illinois isernors -- this governor

seen as vulnerable. that's why there is a lot of national attention on this race. governor lieutenant .rob laboy o going whi he is a populist. he is an organizer. is bill hiresgist deblasio's campaign manager. he is an underdog financially. steve has tremendous problems.

higher than the national average unemployment rate. field is openg right now. host: there are a couple of --mer he races shaping up primary races shaping up. guest: that's the north suburban district near lake michigan. this district hugs the lakeshore and goes west to chicago. schneider is going into a rematch with republican bob afterwho lost in 2012 serving one term. neither of them have a primary opponent today. in as the nominees. they have been raising a lot of money. been fashioning himself as a bipartisan centrist. ld cast how bob do

himself during his years in the house. host: i want to turn to the news of the day and get your reaction. in response to the sanctions announced yesterday by the president and that he russian officials, vladimir putin is expected to impose his own sanctions, including senators from traveling into russia. guest: josh had a terrific tory when i reached out durbin's office. i might have to paraphrase it. senator durbin spokesman told me that his lithuanian mother would be proud. host: let me turn back to politics. the larger issue -- the democrats and republicans. we are a year out from an autopsy report by the gop. we will be hearing from the

chair of the democratic national committee today and covering her remarks. the chair of the republican national committee -- a new cbs poll giving an edge towards the republicans as we move into this midterm election. this is the headline from cbs news. i want to share this latest ad the big gop aimed at tent approach to try to broaden the appeal of the republicans for 2014 and 2016. let's watch. >> i believe an opportunity for all. part of theuld be education system. a strong military equals a strong america. i believe there should not be so much red tape. right is worth protecting. >> i vote for an all of the above energy policy. >> i'm a republican. >> i'm a republican. >> i believe that opportunities for all. i'm a republican. that's from the republican national committee.

in illinois, how do you think this is going to play ouut? there are 14 states where the display. rnc kept it out of the illinois because it would get lost in a bunch of ads for local candidates. arecongressional races scattered throughout the state. they would have a hard time finding a place to make effective. that piece is full of diverse voices. theeems to not only have standard message but a reach out. that is one of the obvious questions that the rnc chairman is going to be facing. have you improved and broadening your appeal? host: what else are you looking at?

race doesbin's senate not have a primary opponent. the republican side, jim over -- in anning against , the state senator who was run multiple times -- his wife decided to take official residence in their florida condo because they could save on taxes. she does not vote in illinois. he left for florida for the last days of the campaign to be her with her. that's rather unorthodox. that caused a flurry of attention. in the 11th races congressional district, the incumbent is a democrat. bill foster. there are multiple candidates

in the republican prima primary. host: the washington bureau chief for the sun-times. -- "politicsadline in the homestretch. primary in illinois." thanks for being with us. 's votedhe obama wa absentee. host: will he campaign for governor quinn? guest: some democrats wanted this to themselves. i will be happy to take their time. he will pick them up at the airport. host: thanks for being with us. let me point out one other political story from inside the new york times. louisiana's ex governor joined by his 35-year-old wife. edward edwards is 86 years old.

he is going to run for congress in the baton rouge area. story this morning from inside the new york times. we will take a short break. when we come back, we will turn our attention to the recall of those gm vehicles. what is next for the automaker? jeff bennett will be joining us. harry holzer of georgetown university on overtime pay. what the president can and cannot do. we will get the details. "the washington journal." we are back in a minute. ♪ i will yield to our distinguished speaker if he wants to continue. mr. speaker? say -- thereted to was no question in my mind that

the arguments and statements i said on this floor came to me by complaint of other members. they have not been notified. i don't believe that they were notified. i believe that they did not get the mail in their office. -- sense of your letterhead i'm inviting you to hear a dialogue on my perception of what american policy and foreign affairs should be. 1970. go back to 1972 -- a gentleman who might have the greatest respect for intelligence committee. you ask them a question as to their policy and how they felt about the vietnam war and the question of, did you beat your wife lately? i want you to come in and answer the questions on the philosophy

that you had then. you talk about angola. you don't talk about angola. how during the eisenhower administration, we were the very people who later on were the people opposed to. very interesting. my personal opinion is this -- you deliberately stood on that well before nancy house and challenged these people -- before an empty house. it's the lowest thing i've ever seen in my 32 years in congress. all --me say, first of >> i move we take the speaker's words down. find more highlights from 35 years of house coverage on her facebook page. american cable companies 35 years ago and brought to you today as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider.

-- 35 years of house coverage on our facebook page. host: jeff bennett covers the auto industry for the wall street journal. he joins us just outside of each -- of detroit. from the wall street journal. gm sinks $35 million into the recall. the new gm chief had this to say. -- $300 million into recalls. >> i would like to provide an update. recall has the expanded beyond the review by the federal regulators. as of now, two congressional committees have announced that they will examine the issue. it has been reported that the department of justice is looking into this matter. in each case, we have pledged to cooperate fully while we work to make the recall itself as smooth as possible for our customers. these are serious development

that should not surprise anyone. something went wrong with our process in this instance. terrible things happen. as a member of the gm family and as a mom with a family of my own, this really hits home for me. we have a college is very but that is just one step -- we have a polity i. ologized.e a politp these letters and bulletins will explain the issue and the process for getting the switches replaced. we will also send follow-up letters to customers to let them know that parts are available. that should start the second week of april. we are adding a second production line to allow us to double parts availability. host: that assessment from general motors president.

as you heard her comments yesterday, the recall totaling more than 3 million vehicles. is this enough? guest: what gm is doing here is to get out in front and present a new gm to consumers here. in the past had been known as a lethargic, slow company. slow to identify problems. what you are seeing here is this new emerging leadership trying to present a better picture. beseems like it could connecting with consumers here. it is early. is theu have here president stepping out and taking responsibility, saying that she is spearheading an effort to find out what went wrong and they are moving ahead to try to get a fix to consumers

rather quickly. connecting on some level -- we will have to see now how well this recall goes for them. that is going to be crucial. if you have a lot of consumers who roll into dealerships and there are no parts or the dealer does not know what's going on or they are turned away, that could spell trouble for them down the road. back.let's step these are vehicles that have been on the road for the last 13-14 years. clearly people inside general new there was a problem. what was the problem? did gm respond appropriately during that time line? back in 2004, they were getting ready to introduce what was the 2005 chevy cobalt. there was an incident that was where the car, when it

was in motion, the engine would stall. some gm engineers which have not yet been identified replicated this problem. what they found is that when you either jarred the ignition key while it was in the ignition or you had too much weight on the ignition key, the key would actually flip from the on position to the accessory position. the middle section of your ignition switch. by doing that homage turned off your power to the airbags and to the steering. making the car much more difficult to maneuver. causing it to stall. what we know from gm's own chronology was that these opened up a report and look into the different solutions that were needed, came up with solutions -- but when it came time to decide what there were not they would go through

with it, it was decided to just drop the whole thing because of needed toime institute these new changes. so the report was closed and 2004, not much more was done. what we saw happen is through the years, this issue continue to pop up. rotating through the engineering reports. they would come in from the dealers saying we have consumers complaining about this. gm would look into it. they would identify the problem but not much was done. the biggest step they took was to notify dealers, telling them if you have this problem, if consumers come in reporting a stalling, tell them to take the extra weight off of their ignition key. rolled on through 2011 when gm finally began to put an

engineering task force in charge of looking at examining this problem. really was done until whenate when he 13 -- 2013 the problem was presented to mary and her group and the recall was initiated in february. host: this initial recall involved a dozen deaths and more than 30 accidents. the recalled half of the number that the recall has 1.6 million recalled worldwide, or 1.3 million bfo just in the u.s.. when they initially announced of they did only about half that, on february 13, one may announce that recall. they then looked at other vehicles and then decided to

expand that to include other ion hes like the saturn hr. click this is from one of the congressional committees investigating what happened. they're looking for information that will further their investigation. what do you want to see? guest: we want to see what happened. i theorize what would happen is this problem bundled up early on. the introduction of a vehicle is vital and critical. media is watching. annie delay is reverberated

through the media. openedport was imagineering that there was a problem. thefar up did it go in chain? the issue04, 2011, kept bouncing back and forth. we think it was mostly the slower engineering division or wording going on. the cases there are two things that happen. in 2007, there was a meeting between safety administration is -- administrators and gm. they found what happened and were questioning gm about it. not much was done. in 2012 and, a committee was

formed. we do not know how far up the chain the problem was reported and why no action was taken until late 2013 when they went to the ceo with the information. , gm stock bennett prices up 54% yesterday. the stock could climb to $48 per share. will the company pay any price for it? guestit? guest: that is the big question. they went through a bankruptcy in 2009. according to proceedings, any or lawsuits dealing with the company prior to the bankruptcy, you can only assume

is old gm. that should cover most of the lawsuits. there are only a couple that occurred after the bank -- after it went bankrupt. whether one can say gm committed ifud or something like that, that attorney is able to pull it through and make gm liable, then there is a different scenario that takes place. most of this cost could be absorbed the old gm. a lot of analysts are not seeing a financial impact on the new gm.

the biggest question the new gm faces as rhymes it could face from federal regulators. host: republicans, democrats, our phone numbers are -- we also welcome our radio listeners. donna is joining us from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i have a 2007 chevy cobalt. never had it stalled on me. i just got my thing from gm for the recall.

soon as the parts come in, i will take it and have it declared. i've never had trouble with my mission at all. >> did a notice come in e-mail or in the mail? >> i got it in a letter. >> what did it specifically state? collected dated about the ignition. >> did you buy it new or used? >> used. one time, i stopped it and could not get the keys out of it. so i took it to my son's service and it was a shifter. but my call never stalled on me ever. >> thank you for the call. >> yes. i would still say some of these have not stalled. happening across a

vast majority. it is just very spotty. i would still follow through with the recall. it is a free fix to you. you might as well do it out of a safety concern. you just do not want to run into .he issue down the road >> let me summarize more than a dozen tweets. how much, if anything, did that play into the timing of the recall and response in the short-term and long-term? >> this is a question we continue to get. i know the country is very divided on the bailout of general motors. you have got to understand the bailout was the only thing gm received was the money from that. the government did not get into the day to day business. very is mis-oriented

problem. i really doubt because they had received federal money that they tried to hide it or were keeping it from lawmakers. they just would not really put just get some to bailout money. it would make them look even worse. i think this was just a problem and they did receive a bailout from the federal government and they are just continuing to deal with what is really an internal issue for them. host: this is the headline today and general motors as three new recalls. this twitter question, what is recall?nition of a class the definition is that they are actually telling consumers you have to bring your dealership for a fix. there are a variety of recalls varied.they play out is

you cannot have something as simple of fixing a part to something it, astro-med as you have to park your car and get it off the road. we have a lot to of work to do on the vehicles. thatwe are seeing here is this is just a part fix they need you to bring in the vehicle , that they would replace the switch. cost for and by the automaker and nothing put on the consumer. recalls, you could have a voluntary recall like gm did or you could have a mandatory recall when safety regulators, cross the problem, they could force a company to recall cars or baby seats or whatever products are out there. >> let me go back to you start -- your story last week.

this problem was first detected in 2001. >> yes. what happened was gm put out a newer chronology about a week ago. trying to be were more transparent and they had 2001, there was an ignition switch problem, not to the degree we see it now, but there was something going on there, and we corrected it. in 2003, a consumer had come into a dealership saying, my mission switch looks like it has worn out and, at that time, a dealer had reported there was too much weight, causing the ignition switch to wear down. not much more was said. what is really the focal point 2004, when a is in

group of engineers noticed the stalling problem and noticed the mission switch and opened a report and look into it without closing a report and doing anything, that is where a lot of attention will be. why did they do that? why did they just close the report and not follow-up? >> jeff bennett joining us from michigan. peter is on the phone from pennsylvania. caller: mike are -- my girlfriend is in the process of 2006 with powers doing problems. and we tookt used it to the dealer and he tried to .ay she turned it to sharply is that involved with the recall a 2006-2007, or

even 2005 mile a year, yes. you are covered under the recall and should take the vehicle in. you should receive a letter stating you have this problem. there is a group of letters going out this week and there inl be follow-up letters april notifying consumers now is the time. yes, again, your car should be covered under the recall. house energy and commerce committee among those looking into this. congress investigating general motors into what happened. this is the first civil lawsuit filed last week. tie all this together. who is questioning whom and with -- will there be one single investigation? class you need a laundry list for this one.

you have a house committee, senate amity, both doing their own and separate investigations. the department of justice is looking into things. then you have the national highway traffic safety administration doing its own and best to gauge and. a chronology of events to them. they came back to them and said, we need about 107 of our questions answered. if it is found that gm did not face a fine ofd at least $35 million. at the bottom line, you have their own internal investigation, where they hired some lawyers to look into that. the ceo promised an unvarnished to look into all facets of how this problem happened. you know all of this going on. then, separately, you will

probably see a lot of lawsuits popping up from people who had and have been hurt. we have seen a couple coming from different states like wisconsin where two people were killed riding a cobalt and then an interesting lawsuit happened last week coming from canada where a canadian law firm is forng to sue gm canada recalls happening there. it is interesting because gm canada, you could say technically did not file bankruptcy. only gm filed a group seeing in the u.s. court. it is interesting to watch how that one may unfold. a list of investigations and a all going on at the same time. showsyour company line

exactly what we're talking about, the sales ignition switch. explain the photograph, what is the problem. it looks like a simple piece. guest: it is a simple piece. you putpened is when your key in the ignition and turned it off through what is the accessory or middle position on the switch to the on position, that is when the vehicle starts. withecause of some issues when the mission key is hit, it would switch back into the assessor he position. what we have seen here is really what the manufacturer of the replacements is calling a two dollar to five dollar part, causing the problem here. if they would have gotten in there and changed, you wonder if the issue would have even become what it is now.

what you are really looking at is a spring within the switch -- that too easily could be bumped back, allowing the key to move. >> do you know who made the particular part gm use? >> yes. the supplier is delphi automotive. this is a supplier originally a part of gm. gm was a company that was also making parts. the 1990's, they put a lot of part making business into their own unit and spun it off into delphi automotive and they were making the switches back then. it has now been charged with making the replacements. it is the one actually put on a second line to pump the switches out even faster. cracked davis joining us from chicago. thank you for waiting.

>> good morning. thank you. i am a certified master technician. instead of mechanics from the growth of the industry. we have seen a number of safety issues through the years back to the mid-80's, audi had some problems and out of those problems came shift locks, where you actually have to push your foot on the brake to get the car out of park into drive, reverse, or whatever. one of the problems i see out in the field is manufacturers never come out to us and interview us directly in problems we report to them. maybe there is a big difference between the guys who actually work on the cars and the guys who actually build them, engineers versus technicians. the block in communication, or the difficult between the transfer of information,

especially in safety related issues, is always dragged out. continue.lems will engineers probably do the best they can, wear and tear. from the actual guys who work on the cars, between disconnected the manufacturer and the guys actually out in the field. we findrk for a dealer. tremendous amounts of difficulties. this with thes union. with the unionty guys on how to discern information to the manufacturer. it is not really a question but it is basically a communication problem for engineering difficulties. the call.for taking

>> thank you for adding your voice and perspective to the conversation. we appreciate it. amazed me in covering the industry is what he had hit on, the vast amount of information that goes on automakers. the and whether it is a question of just so much of it out there or they do not have the resources to get that, it is interesting to see how they continue to wrestle with this problem, not only internally between the layers they have there, between engineers talking to designers, andjust on how they collect communicate with their dealers, who are on the frontline, the mechanics who see things even more. i have been in many a dealership or even at the local autozone and they are saying, yes, this is an issue we see all the time and no one seems to take notice about it. the one thing gm has pledged to

big customer call ander now in michigan here engineers are being directed to spend at least some time listening to customer complaint calls and looking at the information. it is trying to get more of the customer complaint information into the hands of their engineers earlier. hard problem to overcome for some reason, that again, there is a wealth of -- doesion that just as not seem to filter up somehow. >> our next caller is also from chicago, bruce. >> good morning. bankruptcy,ing, in anchored see extinguishes liability, but only liabilities

that are disclosed. i was wondering if all of the liabilities, if gm knew they were there when they went in the bankruptcy, if that liability is kept alive, whether there will be any clawbacks against the deal the unions got at the sake of the bondholders. >> an interesting question. you hit on what could be a big legal battle for gm. what do they know? did they know this without here? did executives really not know about it because it never got to them? did they try not to report it at all because they knew the bankruptcy will wash them clean? be good legal arguments coming up within the workings, to see if the lawyers might be able to pop

and get in and really go after the current gm, rather than dealing with an old gm already set up and has already filed for bankruptcy. >> that comes back to the issue of cost. two points, first this tweet from a viewer, let's have the analysis versus the -- hi -- what you're going to see

here, especially if this gets into subcommittee hearings and steps like that, is that they will grill gm and gm will have to step up and answer a lot of questions and it will probably fire people and pay fines. on whys a big question they are not doing more, not being given the resources to do more. they only investigate about 100 crashes a year. small based on what goes on out there. more importantly, the car of today has many more electronics in it than it did years ago. -- must be much more different. you can no longer just go out and measure how far the vehicle skidded off the roadway or how the crash happened. how the got to look at internal operations, the internal electronics, wiring, all of this stuff has to be evaluated.

it seems like it does not have those resources to do that. have pointed out, it really does not have the teeth it should. a $35 million fine for all the automakers to make billions of dollars, so, yes. being givensee them more latitude to levy heavier fines to really make a dent or send a message to these automakers. host: david is joining us from kansas. caller: i would just like to i havey telling you experience in the automotive industry for 35 years. a lot of customers have caused problems to these folks. card, you open up the door and it has the serial number on the car and the date it was manufactured.

so that when there is a problem coming down, and they catch it, they corrected. maybe some of those cars before had been sent on to a dealer. there have been so many technical services for every car , every dealership gets from their engineers, they have got it where you could hook up your car, to atomer's computer, and go to california soineers to see the data they can see what is going on. you still have a lot of customers not smart enough to know, you do not put a bowling ball on your keychain. host: thank you for the call. some of it is consumer

responsibility but some of it is also, you are right, there are all of the service bulletins much of the public does not know about. unless you come in and get the car service for other problems, the dealer does not really come ,cross it until they are like you brought your vehicle in and saw these bulletins were issued. you need to get this fixed. lettersemented recall and that being certain specific and work harder to kind of alert customers. machines have a lot of problems. some are small. some are big. there are service bulletins that get posted to tell dealers what to look for, but a lot of that does not connect with the consumer. know how tot overcome that. do you let the consumer know,

you have a faulty old and that or, you do replaced, not know the depth to which you should be alerting the consumer one-on-one to different recall problems. book, one of our viewers has the spirit where is ralph nader when you need him? let's go to tom in pennsylvania. all, we need to change the stigma of these recalls. company, a software they would just say we have a new release and update to your car. press, i want the manufacturers to recall or update as many cars as possible. whenever they notice there's a problem, they say, we could do this better. what happens is, there is bad press and dad stigma. .hey are recalling cars

the problems accumulate over time. let's get off the stigma that recalls are bad. recalls are good. we want the companies to, right off -- come off right up front. say, you had a defect before, let's get over that here it is a good thing. my question is, did the government withhold information until the treasury department was able to sell its stock off for $40 a share or whatever and it is now dropped off to the low 30's now? did they find this recall was going to come out, you know what i'm saying? >> yes. thank you for the call. >> i do not think they withheld information. i think they just did not have enough information at the time to know the trend was going on.

to connect the two.com i am not sure, i know there is a lot of political intrigue, but it seems like there is a disconnect that gm would withhold such a vital problem because of the bankruptcy issues and the coming from that. as far as your other point, recalls do have to be seen in a better light. a lot of automakers are trying to push that. three new recalls gm issued yesterday, it if you look at them, most of them are not real safety concerns. ahead anyway to call them, fix some wiring and attachment panel. there are steps a lot more automakers have taken. we see them recalling a lot more often, especially when you go back dating back to the toyota unintended accelerator, where recall is were really kind of

kept quiet. and now you see recalls have moved much more into the forefront and automakers are doing a better job trying to identify problems. final question. usa today puts a face on some of victims. an 18-year-old girl was killed in 2008 driving a cobol. what can thes, victims do in terms of lawsuit and litigation? class they're going to try to bring lawsuits here. there will be a real effort to crack open the bankrupt gm to go after gm. the current law holds, most of the accidents that happened before the 2009 bankruptcy do not go forward against the new d -- the new gm. there will be a lot of wrestling

to see if that could be changed. what you may see our other class -- class-action lawsuits. a canada class-action lawsuit that may come into the back door. i think a lot of analysts and a lot of those on wall street see this as a minimal monetary problem because most of those lawsuits will get washed. what is really the critical component here is gm's image. do they truly break from the past and reach out to the consumer? does the recall go as well as a car launch? which has to go flawlessly these days. they need to get the consumers in and replace the part and consumers need to leave happy. if there is any kind of breakdown down there, it spells bad news for gm. this is just as this company is getting ready to roll into a

2014. it has cleaned off its book and is back to investment grade, back to a contender in wall street. it will be interesting seeing how the company moves ahead and seeing how its new ceo really takes the reins here and moves the company forward. class we will conclude on that note, joining us from michigan. automotive reporter for the wall street journal. sinking 300e, gm million dollars into the recall. it is also available online. thank you for being with us here on c-span. guest: thank you very much. host: we will continue our conversation this tuesday morning and we turn our attention to part of president obama's executive orders. economistt to chief harry holzer.

update on a very busy tuesday morning. good morning, nancy. >> good morning. planet -- president vladimir putin told russia ukraine is guilty of cleansing ethnic russians. televised address you brought to our viewers earlier, to joincrimea's vote russia is in line with international law, reflecting its right for self-determination. he pointed to the example of coast of oh's independence did, supported by the west. now it is reported president treaty toed a incorporate crimea into the territory. along with their prime minister and parliamentary speaker. dorisreement has to be a by russia passes constitutional

court and ratified by both houses of parliament to take affect. those steps are considered mere formalities. vice president joe biden is in poland today for consultations with polish officials. the message is reported to be a reassurance the united states will stand up to russia's aggression in neighboring ukraine. the next travel, to lithuania. those are some of the latest on c-span radio. >> today's young adults, the millennial generation, having a lot of trouble getting started in life, they are sinking money into a system to support a level of benefits for today's retirees they have no realistic chance of getting when they themselves are tired. there needs to be a rebalancing of the social compact. it is a very important and difficult challenge for this country politically because not only is social security and

medicare half of our budget, it is by far the biggest thing we symbolically the purest statement in public policy as a country, we are a community all in this together. these are programs that affect everybody. the old map of the programs does not work. >> paul taylor on the losing generational showdown sunday at 9:00. in a few weeks, your chance to west.ith bing he will take your calls, comments, e-mails, and tweets on the middle east, iraq, and afghanistan live from noon to 3:00 eastern. c-span every weekend on two. also, join the online discussion and look for the book club . tab.ub

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] , a professorolzer of public policy in georgetown university. good morning and thank you very much. we want to talk about minimum wage but also focus on the overtime rule the president announced last week. what specifically is he calling for? class the president is asking for two possible provisions to the rule. is a feeling on the wages you can earn in order to automatically qualify for overtime pay. 455 dollars a week, which has gotten pretty low. a little over $11 an hour. above that, you might get overtime, but it is easy to declassify as a managerial worker to do any supervisory activities, you could be classified and no longer eligible for overtime. the president is calling for the

ceiling to be raised and may be variation in the rules about s management at that level. host: here is the president in the east room. >> i am directing my secretary of labor to restore the commonsense principle behind overtime. if you go above and beyond to help your employer and your economy succeed, you should sit -- share a little bit in that success. this will make a real difference in the lives of millions of , from managers to office workers to cargo inspectors. we will consult with workers and businesses and work to simplify the system so it is easier for employers. quest that is clearly part of a larger effort by the white house. they call it a year of action. a series of executive orders. that? the authority to do >> he does. it is within the realm of the labor department's authority to

define how the rule gets implemented and define what those pay levels are and exactly how you define the managerial employee. he does have that authority. quest let me get your reaction to this statement from john boehner said last week. he said, if you do not have a job, you do not qualify for overtime. you get nothing out of it. the president posses policies are making it difficult for employees -- employers to expand employment. employers will continue to sit on their hands. he did not talk at all but the overtime issue. he talked about employment. the real issue is what can we do to raise employment, a bigger issue. i would say there is no silver let to solve the employment problem but more sensible fiscal policy, some of the job creation measures i think would help on that as well. quest this goes back to the fair labor standards act, part of the

new deal put in place by franklin roosevelt. what does it state? >> it has two mader positions. one him of -- one is the minimum wage. a level and who gets covered. it has been frequent we updated every five to 10 years. the overtime provision is the other main provision, which says anyone working over 40 hours a time and a be paid half, as long as they are -- a qualifying employee. that usually means someone in management, the general salaried employee. quest a lot of attention on that report. the good news and bad news scenario. if you make more money, you will have more income and be able to spend that money to get out of poverty. the bad news is it will create a huge job loss, as many as 500,000 jobs. what is your read into the nonpartisan congressional investigation and what it looked into.

i think they did a good report and survey the wide range of studies and took the average studies.e credible they're saying at least 16 million people get a pay raise. we do not know exactly how many jobs would be lost. aboutbest estimate is half a million. it could be higher or lower. it is a trade-off. we often face a lot of trade-offs in economics. i read the job losses as still being fairly moderate -- modest. as i read the terms of the trade off, i read it as being favorable, even though a lot of us are happy about losing half a million jobs. that is what people have to decide. i think the report is credible. class our phone lines are open and you can also send us a tweet .r an e-mail

-- the whole approach by the white house is getting stiff opposition from the business community. the president pointed to gaps, now saying it would raise his minimum wage. could we see the private sector taking the lead, that government intervention is unnecessary, or must it be a combination of the two? class there are private sector employers all the time. they decide it is in our interest to pay above market level wage. when we do that, we attract better employees, they stick around longer. always choose to be a higher wage employer and they usually invest more promoting their employees. they often are called high road

employers. other employers choose to go a different route in pushing up the minimum wage a little bit. forces them to go that road a little more. again, some firms will always do that and maybe now that president has put on the table, a few more will do that. teenager or are a young person looking for a job and you have a company that will or $11 anm wage or 10 hour, it is simple to conclude what you will do? >> it is simple to conclude what you would like to do. the question is, who will be hired by gap? the companies that raise wages that way get a little choosy or at the front gate because they will be investing in the employees and the employees will stick around longer. little more choice involved on the employer side. class how do you leverage -- level the playing field? in what of the job market and

employers want to provide to their employees in terms of what of the -- what the government is looking for as we see a shrinking middle class, which has been one of the driving forces in the domestic agenda of the white house. class a big issue. earnings inequality is a huge issue. the recession and the weak job market make it worse. it gives even more power to employers and they can really sit back and wait to hire more than they want to. even if the job market were tighter and even if the president would get everything on his agenda, there would be a lot of wage inequality. big forces in play. all kinds of powerful technologies, different kinds of globalization, and those things create a lot of a word for , much muchhe top smaller rewards for people on the bottom without requisite skills, skills that used to put people in the middle no longer do so. they are easily replaced by

machines or worker overseas. that is a tough environment, swimming against those market forces is very difficult. areation and training important. even education and training only take you so far. class why is wall street moving into record territory and main street and middle class continues to shrink and struggle? guest: profits are strong right now. companies can make strong profits even if a few of those are trickling down from the middle -- from the middle class. profits have been very strong and wall street and the stock market are reacting. class a comment from our viewers who has a lot of concerns, saying -- guest: the fed has done a good job. first ben bernanke and now janet yellen taken over.

when the economy started to tank in 2008, when the bubble burst , the federalt reserve jumped in and gave extraordinary things to try to push interest rates down as low as they could and keep the bottom from falling out. i think they succeeded. now federal reserve taking the strong acids, we might have had a second rate depression and that was avoided partially because of the federal reserve's's activities. guest: as far as the gap, jodi says -- that might be true. some kid will get the job. maybe they will be more fortunate and more skilled and other young people will have to do the best they can try -- finding whatever jobs they could find. maybe it is another reason why the minimum wage ought to go up a bit. our guest is a professor of earth any diversity, harry holzer.

, "whereor of the book are all the good jobs going?" how do you answer that? a lot of the good jobs, manufacturing and other sectors, did not require a lot in terms of skills and training. they have been disappearing quickly or pay much less than they used to. what employers providing a good job, when they choose to pay above market wages, they will demand pretty good skills. in aneed to be competitive national or international marketplace. good jobs are going to workers with good skills, skills that merit that kind of pay and investment by the school -- by the firm. fueled by illegal immigration, the u.s. has a burgeoning underground economy. size of do not know the the underground economy. different estimates, it is all guesswork.

the number of illegal immigrants in the economy is about 7 million workers. that is too much. our immigration system needs to be overhauled. his broken right now. we can talk about what those fixes ought to be. i agree with the caller something needs to be done in that regard. we would have to talk about what exactly that is. >> our guest is a former professor of economics. joining us from ohio, good morning. theer: i'm concerned about trade agreements. i'm 56 years old and i have seen the two jobs he is talking about leave the country. it is the first time in my lifetime, i've been through recessions. it is the first time i've ever seen wall street comeback with the jobs in the past recession. been thession has worst since the great depression. a lot of it is with the trade agreement. the international trade

commission. steal on us, and they do nothing but a lot of talk and nothing gets to -- nothing gets done. we lose our jobs. now you will raise minimum wage for the immigrants and immigration problem we have. it is simple. you find employers that are paying these people. to have got to give a race immigrants and illegal immigration. they have taken all kinds of lower wage jobs. the middle class is shrinking and no one argues that. i really believe it is the trade agreement through nasa, gas, whatever they have done. you live outside the cleveland area. thenyone hiring manufacturing jobs? any employers, even small employers, looking to hire? if so, what kind of skills and what kind of pay are they offering?

caller: not really. they still have the patriot height read with the drilling of the natural gas. that helps a little bit. they are union jobs. very good jobs. 20-30 dollars our jobs. in the state or the county. we went five years here. there were sometimes four pages of foreclosures. that went on for four years here. real estate in the area, if you downt a house, it is still 25-40% anywhere in the county. middle-class has taken a big hit. they've taken a big hit because of trade agreements, things people do in washington. there are watchdogs, china console he deals dumps on us and

they get a slap on their hands if they even get that. >> thank you for calling him. we will get a response. >> he set an awful lot of things. some things he said, i agree with. some things, i have to disagree with. the vast majority of people who earn the minimum age -- wage are not immigrants. the minimum wage does help on that region -- reason, it helps the middle class. i really disagree with that point. a lot of what he describes has taken place in the last four or five years is because of the great recession and the recovery from that recession has been isy weak, as it often whatever financial bubbles burst. it takes a long time for people to start spending again and work their way out of debt. but he is also correct even without the recession, some of this would not be happening. it is not just because of the

trade agreements we signed. nude tech knowledge ease tends to displace a lot of middle income workers and lower wage workers. to -- newt stop technologies. trade as part of the story as well. especially with china. there has been some dumping going on but a lot of trade with china is legal. the truth is, international trade is mostly a good thing for our economy and it benefits consumers. it means lower prices, which means good things for consumers and rising standards of living. it is bad for those people who have to compete with low-wage imports who lose their jobs. i am sympathetic to that point jim makes. but that is always been true and it has been true for the last hundred years. block tradeways agreements to keep the products out? or should we try to keep the economy competitive and be part of the international system even though some people bear a cost?

for those workers who lose their jobs, we should be doing more and trying harder to reeducate them, train them, find them good jobs elsewhere in the economy and we have not been enough of that. it is a medicine worse than the disease for the entire economy as a whole. michael makes this point -- guest: there is some truth to that as well. employers have to make a judgment call. an economyever be that is very equal. the world we live in, the kind of market economy, will mean a lot of inequality. that is just a fact. we can also make policy choices to eliminate the excesses, the

minimum wage, overtime legislation, a piece of that story, better education and training. inequality eliminate but it will smooth down its hardest edges. viewers saying wall street is up because of profits from who? -- joining us from south carolina, republican line, with harry holzer. in regardam calling to our biggest problem, leadership by the president. yes no concerns for the american people at all. just pushing his agenda his way and no way. this is unacceptable. we pass laws and he is host to enforce them and not change them. look at health care. he is violating our bill of rights and the american people are frustrated, and rightly so. american people want to know when the president will work with the american people. a lot of other people, stars

like -- as far as i am concerned, we need a new leader. he should resign immediately. we need a leader. we can solve our problems but we have to work together as a team. that is a very partisan comment. there is not a lot i want to say in response. i do not think a lot of gridlock is due to president obama loan. he had partners on the other end of pennsylvania avenue, the house republicans who have been really loathed to work with him at all. he has put up productive proposals on job creation and other things, all of which have been blocked. i think it has been much more of the two-way street. same thing with democrats, the partisan attacks that do not help one way or the other. let me go back to our earlier discussion on where you draw the line with minimum wage or any labor related issue and

what the free market and businesses deem suitable for employers. guest: there is legislation. when congress passed the fair inor standards act, we write some things are fixed by law. say there is room in legislation for the department of labor under the president to decide. on last time, the ceiling the overtime provisions was decided by president bush. it was his administration that back $500 apushed week, that ceiling in place. the president law and the department of labor can regulate and define that level at which people start to become supervisory. of things not set by law and regulation, those things are left by the free market. as a society, we make the decision, what things do we just want to let the market rent and what -- where we want legislation to smooth off the

measures. we tolerate a lot more market forces than countries in the world. that is mostly a good thing. stancess ok in certain for the president to say, we will put limits on this and define what those regulations are. we hope in good judgment when they make those choices, but that is the kind of mix of law and market we have in this country ever since the new deal and even earlier. talking this morning about automobiles. gated thesecalm computer chips are to keep the cars running. we know what is happening in silicon valley. are we doing enough to train and take onyoung people to the jobs that would require them to the training and skills to do the job and get paid more? more: i think we could do in that regard.

in the united states, we send a lot of people to college, but a lot of them drop out before they have gotten any kind of piece of paper, whether an associates degree or some kind of skill certificate. some sectors of the economy like advanced manufacturing and health care where employers have difficulty finding the workers they need. it is a problem. a lot of people go off to college when they have not k-12red the basic 8-12 -- skills. think there are changes we could make to reform the system to bring it closer to the job market. that would help more people get the jobs they need and get the training and education they need to get those jobs. larry, andment from you can join in on our twitter page -- he says there should be no minimum wage. -- to carlos, joining us

from carlos. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a comment and then a question real quick. c-span and is iwatch you guys often. in and saying doingent obama -- not anything for the country and i disagree with that. he has been working as hard as possible. to make the country a better place, including jobs. if it was not for the [indiscernible] the feds pumped into the economy -- i want your opinion on that. i want your opinion on immigration. in chicago [indiscernible]

and i do notman see any help wanted signs. when i went to the north side of chicago to take care of my theness yesterday, restaurant jobs, they're asking for waiters and dishwashers and this that and the other and i applied to two of them. from, we believe something is better than nothing. what is your pain on immigration? it is the not a legal, if they are hiring people. this that. can you give me your insight on that, please? his remarksee with at the beginning with the federal reserve. it did help keep the country out of the great depression. immigration question is, gated. i think almost everyone agrees

highly skilled and highly educated immigrants are good for the economy. they come here and create businesses. they bring innovation to the economy and generate a lot of patents. for the economy. it makes the economy more dynamic and efficient. i think the less educated immigrants at the bottom, and carlos is right, some they compete with some workers at the bottom of the job market but they also create demand for new jobs. they bring them costs and prices in many industries which makes it possible for the companies to produce more. that is good for the middle class. it's a mixed record. it is not all negative. i think we have to fix the broken immigration system. we have 7 million or so illegal workers in the economy who work in the shadows and we will not get rid of those people were kicked them out.

is better they should have some form of legal status of they are here and it would be a more even playing field between those immigrants and nativeborn americans who are competing for those same jobs. the whole situation would make more sense if they had some legal status. it is more of a mixed bag but there are some positives as well as negatives. holzerur guest is harry and we are talking about minimum wage and overtime rules. welcome our listeners on c-span radio and hear art to e-mails -- welcome our listeners on guest: that is correct. the bush administration defined that level of $455 per hour.

per is a little over $11 hour. above that level, any employee can be labeled managerial. if they spend five percent of their time managing someone else. -- was withins in the realm of the bush administrations legal decision within the roma president obama and his labor department and their legal andrs to reverse that change the way that law goes into effect. host: from jason in north carolina -- and change the way that law goes into effect. guest: it has always been true

that americans and other people make their decisions about what kind of products or goods and services they want to spend their money on and they have to and what what cost level of quality they want. if they decide the better products are coming from overseas, we should be willing to compete with that. within reasonable limits. overall, that has always been true. it's hard for me to blame the american consumer when they face better products and blame the nation's problems on those consumers. host: one of our viewers says -- is that a way for companies to deal with that? guest: some companies choose to do it that way and that's fine but many companies don't area if a person who largely does very little supervision and are denied overtime benefits because of that and are not getting bonuses, we might need something else like this regulation to protect them.

host: from to,, illinois, good morning. caller: this is off the actual subject of the overtime rule and what levelchange but part of the proi have seen with manufacturing over the years and especially in manufacturingve of ball bearings for places like caterpillar and others. i don't remember what year it was but they made changes to temporary workers and how businesses operate with that. this particular manufacturer has their own temp service. they will hire someone temporary at minimum wage and have them few months and lay them off and recall them back and it starts all over again. they very rarely ever hire anybody full-time with full-time pay and benefits. the full-time workers actually make a good wage but few and far between.

they will hire kids right out of high school to work those jobs, usually third shift. that is what i see with manufacturing. of dealing with just going temporary. that is my view. he has a point. over the last couple of decades, more and more employers are relying on what is called nonstandard employees which includes temp workers, various kind of contract workers. a good part of that is good for the economy and part of that is bad. it creates flexibility for the employer and for the employee in that situation. it also means a brings down costs for the employers and it means they don't have to pay the same wage and benefits. i don't think it would be good for our labor market to over

regulate that problem. to overstate want that the things that of change manufacturing and the jobs offered, it has more to do with new technologies, digital technologies, robotics as well as globalization, huge flood of imports first through china and now from other parts of asia and latin america. those of the real forces changing manufacturing. in many ways, they are good for the economy and they give consumers lower-priced products and more choices and quality. there are costs and the workers that used to have those jobs there that cost him and probably need to do more to help them out. host: when will this overtime rule take effect? guest: i'm not sure exactly. i think the labor department has to review it and they will make proposals. omb will have to review that. it will probably take some

number of weeks or months for this to actually go into effect. it's a high priority for the president to expedite it where they can. host: we will go back to our initial question -- what specifically did the president announced? guest: the president announced they were going to change the ceiling for when you are guaranteed overtime. right now, it is $455 per week ait that is a little over $11 per hour. right now, anyone can be labeled a manager even if they do a tiny bit of supervisory work and the president wants that they sick -- that revisited. they would be considered for overtime if they are not managerial and the details of not been worked out but the president says they are

reviewing the policy and will recommend changes. host: from pennsylvania, good morning. caller: i have known congressional staffers in the leave i know anyone who work less than six to hours per week. is congress prepared to pay their people this to overtime? guest: i believe congressional staff and public-sector workers in general are generally not covered by the standards act in the same way. i would not want this extended to congressional staff. those areperk jobs. senators and congressmen rely heavily on these young people working long hours but they do it because they want to and it's usually a big boost to their careers. this will not apply to them. host: a minimum wage question -- there is a big debate about that. economists have been doing research on this question for

about 40 years. i can point to a pile of studies that say no, they don't and a bigger file says yes they are. that if thereay is a negative effect, it is usually pretty modest except if the wage gets. we -- gets pushed up to high. there are some localities, c-tac in the state of washington, the city of san francisco is talking about going up as high as $15 per hour and i think that will drive some businesses away. when he gets that high, businesses will decide they are better off shifting their operations somewhere else or limiting their employment while employers in the area expand. moderate levels of minimum wage, the negative effect of jobs per state is usually pretty small. states that choose to go that route make that decision and are usually happy they do so. host: from texas, our republican

line, good morning. caller: how are you all doing this morning? i am one of those business owners. i run a plumbing business here in texas. host: how many people do you employee? host: i have three apprentices getting ready to lose their jobs at this minimum wage goes up ther. you cannot be a plumber unless you are an apprentice. you cannot go to school for it and you have to show $8,000 -- 8000 hours under a master plumber. you have to work as an apprentice. apprentices generally do not make the company $10 per hour. usually it cost the company one or two dollars per hour to keep them on a truck. if i cannot afford to keep my apprentices, i will have to let them go and they will end up at mcdonald's at another dead-end job instead of learning to earn a good living. i started out as an apprentice at $3.50 per hour.

i now own my own company because i worked my way up. i was not given special breaks by the government. i earned it. i think the government needs to stay out of it and let us earn our way up and not give us our way up. host: overall, how many employees do you have? how many plumbers do you have on the payroll? guest: i've got five. they can do the work on their own but i higher apprentices that want to learn plumbing to keep their trade going. if it gets too expensive for me to do that, i will have to let them go and they will have to find other means to support their families. host: guest: thank you. share the concern about apprentices and i like apprenticeship. i think we could do more of that in this country. that is good for young people who are not getting bachelors degrees and colleges. i think it needs more support of the vast majority of people in america who are in the minimum wage are not in apprenticeship

positions. for the vast majority, it will not affect them in a particular way. i share his concern. i believe the government should do more to support apprentices. i think we could provide tax credits and other forms of assistance to offset the higher costs. some people say maybe there should be a minimum wage for a sprint -- for apprenticeships. i share the callers concern about apprenticeships and i want that'supported and really the exception, not the rule in the minimum wage market. host: saint augustine, florida, good morning. caller: good morning, a question for harry -- are you a democrat, republican, or independent? guest: i was a member of the clinton administration so i am publicly known as a democrat. don't do anything to reject that but my views are my own. i often break ranks with my democratic colleagues and

support ideas closer to the center or the right. host: let me ask about long-term unemployment. here is a tweet -- guest: that's a serious problem. we have millions of people in that category of long-term unemployed. there is evidence that employers are reluctant to hire them. employers will be reluctant to hire them. right now, employers have that luxury. if the labor market tightens up, they may not have that luxury but they may still be reluctant to hire these workers. i think we need to do more for the long-term unemployed. the obama administration has taken small steps to encourage employers in the federal government not to use long-term unemployment as an excuse to not hire somebody. employers are looking these

workers who have been out of work up to four years, may decide that their skills have atrophied and they have not kept up with the most recent advances in the field. we might need special efforts to target those folks and bring them up to speed and help them get back in the job market. if they can get back in the job market with low wages, maybe we need insurance to supplement their lower earnings. she is right, that's a major problem. host: from pennsylvania, republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. pertinent to the discussion on -- fore via unemployment the moment, i think over time is the obverse and unemployment is the reverse. we have unemployment throughout the united states with states administering any number of unemployment programs. this should be federal. isn't overtime more of a tax on

the people who are working and skills,ing their especially managerial, with the less fortunate which are the unemployed throughout the nation? couldn't be better a player over time people with skills indulging the reverse which is the unemployed to our advantage? thank you very much for your attention. guest: that's an interesting point -- it would make it easy for employers to require their workers to work very long hours, they will be more reluctant to hire new people. fore is an incentive employers to go that way. it is costly to hire somebody. you have to recruit them and screen them and train them and bring them up to speed. if you have someone already on making them work long hours is a good thing for employers. that's the reason why this

overtime provision matters and we need to revisit it and make it stronger. the employer has to pay time at the half, they might still do it. they might want those extra hours but now they bear a higher cost of doing that and maybe they will consider hiring somebody else of that employee pool. we don't want to unduly restrict their flexibility to have people work some overtime but we want some costs involved so they don't do it too much and consider new employees as well as the ones they already have. host: from twitter -- guest: unfortunately, right now and for the last 30 years of our larger slicesch are going to owners and the very top one percent.

the ceos and executives are getting a big slice of all that productivity. host: at what level? guest: i believe it is $400,000 for a family for a household. truth is that market forces are generating a big chunk of that. we simply gotten to the point where things are slanted toward business. are able to grab a bigger chunk of the prophet but it does not make sense to punish them or close off those doors because that would be shooting the whole economy and the foot. we want to think of other ways -- maybe restricting there is some regulation that could limit executive pay, maybe shareholders should have a greater say on what we pay those executives and those ceos. we need some regulations in place to will limit what

financial managers can earn and these additional protections for workers like the ones we have been discussing. an awfully big chunk goes to owners and employees at the top. some of that is how the market goes these days but we want to look at it carefully and see if there's anything we can do to limit those extremes and excesses. there is no said, silver bullet to try to help the middle-class who are squeezed at both ends. are those out there working two or three jobs to figure out of they can move up in the workplace and make more money and put investments for read tire meant, what needs to happen? do that the pillars to for those individuals who want to reach those levels? guest: at this point in the economy, the safest bet is going back to education and training. wagean do the minimum increases which i support and you can do the overtime provisions but those will still

have very small effects. education and training remain the best mechanisms if somebody wants to move up. is it a guarantee? no, it is no longer a guarantee. there are people with graduate degrees that lose their jobs. the market moves quickly. peoplehnologies make work faster but more education and training and people not just having any college degree but one that tries to target what the economy and labor markets seem to need going forward. i think we need to have stronger incentives for colleges to pay attention to that and for our workforce system to better tailor the education training we are providing to the good paying jobs. that still remains our best that even though that is also imperfect. you need a lot of tools at once. we will go to linda

joining us from columbia, maryland, independent line. caller: good morning, the reason i am calling is i am pretty sick of the argument being in such broad terms -- that trade is good and immigration is good and affordable products are good. i think what is happening is we are trading with countries with no minimum wage or no environmental standards and that is mainly just helping the one percent. it is good to fight cheap goods at walmart but if you don't have a job, you cannot do that. it helps the macroeconomy, not the micro-economy, the citizens in this country. i understand they're going to do another deal with korea like nafta and i'm sure that will benefit the one percent also. please comment. guest: i appreciate your question. these areth you that not simple issues of good versus bad. all of these things are complicated.

there are always trade-offs in an economic decision we make. there are benefits and costs. there are winners and losers. net, the trade agreements and immigration do not hurt the overall economy and we've have been having those trade agreements for decades. we have had not had high unemployment for decades and the economy just to those -- adjusts to those prism of these trigger is actually open up new jobs. now we have greater export opportunities. they often do more to open up exports for the u.s. up our markets for overseas producers. they would be tens of thousands of americans who benefit from those new export jobs. that's got to be part of the equation. internationalre trade provides lots of benefits and makes our economy sharper and makes us more reductive and dynamic. on net, it is usually a good there needs to be

environmental protections, basic standards have to be adhered to so we have to pay attention to those things but on net, it usually benefits the economy. we simply have to do more to help out the workers who are the cost. host: our conversation is with harry holzer, he is a visiting fellow at the urban institute and a professor of public hollis e a georgetown university and a former economist during the clinton administration at the department of labor. we will take a short rake in money come back, the affordable care act and its impact on doctors, the head of the american medical association will join us in a moment. first, the latest news. morning, economic news shows consumer prices rose in february as lower energy costs

were offset by a jump in food prices. , the most inse .4% nearly 2.5 years in the labor department says the consumer price index rose that much and matches the january increase. in the past 12 months, prices have risen just over 12%. u.s. home construction fell for a third month in february. a hopeful sign is applications for building permits rose to their highest level in four months. turning to the white house, president obama turns his attention to war veterans. he will award the medal of honor to 21 army veterans who are no longer living. they served during world war ii, korea, and vietnam. another three veterans who also are receiving the award are still alive. the honors, after congress ordered a review of whether service members of jewish or hispanic heritage and others were wrongly denied the metal

because of prejudice. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. c-span, for 35 years bringing public affairs events from washington directly to you and the putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences and offering complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house all as a public service a private industry. there c-span, created by cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. like us on hd, facebook and follow us on twitter. >"washington journal" continues. hoven is joining us from lexington kentucky. guest: thank you and good morning. turn ourwanted to

attention to the impact the affordable care act is having on doctors and the medical profession. where do you stand? as you are aware, the american medical association did support the affordable care act and we did that because of the 50 million uninsured in this country, the issues around quality, prevention, wellness, cost. as we look at this legislation now and the impact, we can see some significant improvements already. we know that young men and women can be retained on their current policies. we will see the medicare doughnut hole we are seeing pre-existing conditions being removed. we are seeing caps on lifetime benefits being removed and now we are beginning to see the previously uninsured who have purchased health insurance be able to access the care they need. and some of our states, medicaid

expansion is underway. all in all, it is a good thing. it is moving along and it is not perfect. as we know, we can make improvements and we look forward to being able to be involved in that conversation. host: as you and republicans are looking at making changes or amendments to the affordable care act, what are your priorities? guest: right now, there are several hot issues and one of them is the sustainable growth not, the sgr which was included in the affordable care act. this determines physician payments. it is based on spending targets, based on the gdp. it is not raced on the cost of delivering health care in this country. 2002, the payment of --sicians have written it have remained absolutely flat while the cost of care has risen about 20%.

what is happening is not good for patients or their doctors and it's not good for the taxpayer because we have spent $154 billion in this country ,imply patching this sgr sustainable growth rate. there are other things in the affordable care act which are not what we would want as well. the independent payment advisory board is something we are not in favor of. also, there needs to be further work on medical liability reform. host: we will come back to those points but let me put some numbers on the table. this is the latest from the white house and department of health and human services. is that enough to sustain the affordable care act? guest: we don't know the answer to that right now because it is early in the process. we knew this would not be instantaneous that we would go from zero to100%.

it will be incremental and as we see this moving forward, we will have to evaluate and look at what this is achieving. are the patients getting the care they need? these will be the questions we will ask. i think it is too early to give final answer to that. put: kaiser health is together a map indicating where the doctors are around the country. areheir estimate, there 400,000 active primary care physicians around the country. according to your association and the association of american medical colleges, there will be a shortage of doctors by the year 2020. the health care system deal with such a huge shortfall? guest: that's a very important question. those patients are already out there. they are not just falling out of the sky.

the patients are receiving their care in the venue that is probably not the greatest venue for them. they might be receiving their care at the wrong time at the wrong place by the wrong physician or clinician. what we have to do is change the methodology with which folks get their health care. we want them to have at her front and care with prevention and wellness and have to deal less with the tragedies of chronic disease and catastrophic events. having said that, the important thing right now is that physicians and their practices working in delivering team care. should use the nurse practitioners and nurses and pa's, physical therapists and the list should go on, working in teams to deliver the highest care possible in a coordinated way. should use the nurse practitioners and nurses andthin medical association is absolutely speaking so strongly for and working with many

practices throughout the country. as manyis year alone, as 32 million americans will be utilizing healthcare services and as more people are part of the affordable care act, that number presumably will increase in 2015? guest: correct. host: will we have enough primary care physicians to deal with the need? guest: we are working diligently to make that happen. there are a lot of efforts in play right now to increase the number of graduate medical education slots particularly for primary care physicians. also rewarding primary-care physicians for the work they do in coordinating care which is a lot of work and it's the best care we can apply to making folks not fall further cracks -- not fall through the cracks. we simply need to expand our graduate medical education in this country. in 1997, august cap the number of graduate medical education

slots for physician training. wese are the positions that have to fill in order to be able to practice medicine. school,out of medical we go into a graduate medical , weation training course have to fulfill certain educational requirements and then we move into the practice world or to academic medicine or research. cappedow, that number is and we must get that remote so we can open up the training slots that will allow our young men and women as they finish medical school to complete their appropriate training. that's what we have to have in this country. host: who does the american medical association represent? guest: the american medical association basically represents every physician in this country. the house of delegates which is the policymaking body of the ama is represented by 185

countrys throughout our which includes state associations and specialty associations. basically, every physician is represented through their representative in the ama house of delegates which sets the policies. host: the house friday pass that so-called doc fix. can you explain what the house legislation entails and the view by the ama? sgr must be repealed. this is a policy which determines physician payments and it is based on the duty pay. it does not reflect the cost of delivering care in this country. in medicareing instability in this country. sgrant to see repeal of the and want to see improvement in our medicare program to provide to our seniors better care and

better quality of care and lower the cost. to get to that point, we must repeal this flawed formula which is not providing for our seniors what they actually need. over the past year, there has been a very strong bipartisan, bicameral work by the three committees of jurisdiction in developing the policy that goes into the current legislation which is in play. house bill 4015 and senate bill 2000. bicameral work by the three the policy on this is something we collaboratively work together on and members of congress in a bipartisan way, supported this aggressively and anxiously want to see this a compass and we have to move this forward. host: on that front, the doctors you talk to, what are their biggest concerns or frustrations? frustration is that year after year, we have been 2002, threatens

cuts. in the year 2010, there were five threatens cuts. happens in that setting is these practices which are basically small businesses cannot determine what their income flow will look like. it actually table lies is what they are able to accomplish. we need to understand where we need to move forward. physicians want to provide new technology and new services to their patients that that costs money. physicians want to go to new models of delivery, innovative models, which would allow them to spend more time with their patients, improve the quality of the care, and so forth that that also costs money. thissgr fklawed formula preserves the status quo which is throwing money at bad policy

which is not fiscally responsible for this country. they are very frustrated by that. host: is that formula different if you are a private physician versus working for a hospital or hmo? guest:no, it's the same formula all the way around. host: our guest is the 160th resident of the american medical association and is words certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases and serve trade easily as the president of kentucky's medical association. we will give our audience more background on your experience. i am in internal medicine and infectious disease trained. most of my work has been in hiv aids care. i have seen firsthand what happens i in this country if people lose their health insurance. in the early years of the aids epidemic, people who have health insurance and were gainfully employed lost their insurance

because of illness because they cannot go to work and they lost their job and their health insurance just when they needed it most. that was very difficult. window that provided a into seeing what really happened in our country when individuals are not insured. the uninsured live sicker and die younger, it is a fact. we must change this trend. the affordable care act begins to move us away from that, allowing individuals to have the health insurance they need. thus, they will have access to prevention and wellness care which is important. host: our guest will be with us until the top of the hour. courtesy ofp here the kaiser family foundation which breaks down the number of physicians in each state. anne is joining us from florida, independent line. caller: good morning, thank you for c-span.

i appreciate this segment because i want to ask her -- dr. hoben - i'm in the state of are you familiar with colleges and universities having people come from other countries to get there dr. certification and then go to other countries and not serve americans in our country even though they get their american medical certification here at our universities. i would also like to ask her if she was familiar with people who called in from the state of florida who are not involved with the affordable care act to say that the cost is more expensive and they would rather take the penalty. individuals coming to

this country and then either stay in the united states are elected go back to their country of origin to practice medicine. we have benefited in this country greatly by our colleagues who are international medical graduates. in underserved areas in our country like urban and rural areas and we owe them a debt of her attitude for the work they provide here in the united states. around we have issues the insurer that we are able to train appropriately individuals who are qualified to practice in the united states. at the same time, we must look at the international medical graduates as well and be sure that they are adequately trained and that's an important issue. to the second question which has to do with health insurance saying ion and simply will not i'm insurance, i will pay the penalty -- the important thing to remember is that we all

pay when individuals do not have health insurance. we know, for example, that absent some sort of requirement, a family would pay an extra $1000 per year on their own insurance plan in order to cover the uninsured. the american medical association policy is that for all individuals to be insured but that is our goal. day, this getshe them to better care. that is what we want. we want better health, better health outcomes in this country, and we want to lower the cost. absent the insurance, we will not be able to get there. i think it is early right now to see where we are going with the cost of these various plans. the exchanges have four layers. there are variable costs based on co-pay amounts and so forth. i think it is too early for us to get an accurate assessment as

to what the costs will actually be for individuals. we want to be sure that these plans that they have are fitting the standards. you don't want someone to be underinsured because that does not accomplish the goal. host: from indiana, larry, republican line, good morning. my son is a physician. he says maybe 15% of the doctors are actually paying members of ama. do you have the actual paying members, the number of paying members you have in ama? i'm sure you don't represent all doctors in the united states. even though you claim you do. have a membership around 240,000 members.

those are the paying members but most physicians, 95-98% of them, are members of the state medical association or they are a member of a specialty association. those associations are this is from slate.com -

is there a better way to train physicians with the skills they need without spending more than a decade in the classroom? guest: that's an excellent comment have an excellent question. at the ama, we are involved in something called accelerating change in medical adage -- education. for decades, educators have said theneed without spending more tn a decade in the classroom? guest: system we are using for training and educating medical students is doubly not exactly what it should be. it was wonderful 100 years ago but it is not now. it ise are seeing whether a change in medical education, is directly impacting our attention to the issue. is there a better way? is there a more efficient way?

can we and must we consider that it should not be calendar days but it should be competency based education. streamlining training for men and women -- if someone wants to be a pediatrician, do they necessarily need to take all the courses and all the activities that someone who wants to be an ophthalmologist must do? see improvement change and it is already happening. we are beginning to see some movement in this particular area. the ama is funding a letter medical schools to help them accelerate the work they are already doing on innovation around medical education. i think we will see great benefits from that program. from millington, michigan, good morning. caller: good morning, what can doctors who will not

take insurance like medicare or .edicaid they will not see you. they turn you away. do we need to make some laws or rules that they cannot turn anyone away? . thank you, i think that we all wrestle with every day. you've got to think about it in the way we want to make the practice of medicine choices for and if they are in a large group or not. they have choices for themselves. the important thing is that we medicaid payments for physicians is equitable and that medicare payments for

physicians are equitable and medicaidthis represents the cof delivering the care and providing the best quality of care to our patients. there are multiple factors in play here. we look at the semitruck to one another on a regular basis. the issues here are going to have to be to get his edition payment to appropriate levels particularly in the medicaid and medicare programs so that they can provide the care to patients that they want to provide an should be able to provide. many of these practices are small businesses. the line of operation here is very thin. , inrder to employ people order to have the technology of faces they need in order to have medical records, it costs money. running a practice is very expensive. ist: dr. arvis hoven joining us this morning from lexington, kentucky. related to this is from one of

our viewers -- where do you see this part of the health care going in the future? all necessary in the health care delivery system, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, pharmacists, podiatrists -- we are part of the health care delivery system. we want to deliver the highest care we can possibly deliver. in all ofm believer us working together as a team to deliver that care. sort of then is cornerback of the team but there are teams within teams. with are folks out there extraordinary training and quick skills and excellent expertise and experience that should be a that team but we need to continue team care and utilizing everyone at their highest level of education and training.

host: guest: question number one has to do with the number of individuals who can become physicians. in this country, we have seen no limit to the number of young men and women who can become medical students. you just need to have enough medical schools. in this country, we are seeing more medical students and more medical schools popping up throughout our country. the problem we have is this tap -- cap that was put into place in 1997 on the number of graduate medical education slots which are residency positions for after medical school training. and is where the cap is that was put in place by congress. it slows down the pipeline about

traded -- who can get trained and how many. we are looking at ways to expand the gme slots in our country from the congressional standpoint but all providers and payers being involved in the process. many states have done some supplementary work in this area as well. we know that where folks trained, they tend to stay there and practice. this is a good thing for the particular states. issue.that an important

actually, the american medical association -- let me back up -- this work is done by state licensing boards. every state of the union has a state licensing board for physicians and for all practitioners of help that you -- of health as well. they do the policing and are sophisticated. they monitor andactually, the al control and they observe and there are some very strong program throughout our country. maintaining folks in the system who have done the right things to maintain the licenses. this is a state function. is the head of the american medical association and from granon the phone berry, texas. my wife is a breast cancer survivor. i just had a shoulder replacement. all of the doctors we dealt with over the last three years have said they will not accept the

ama insurance and they will not do that. are in a big metropolitan area near fort worth. host: stay on the line. the american medical association does not have any insurance. we do not sell insurance. this is done through insurance companies. it is done through medicare and medicaid. the american medical association does not sell health insurance. host: robert? caller: i understand that, i was talking about the affordable care act. yesterday,uestion -- i had an appointment with my ophthalmologist to did my , lenses for my

cataracts, and i asked him about the affordable care act and he began to tell me. one thing that surprised me is that if a person buys the insurance that is driven by the affordable care act and he sees them after a couple of months and is doing treatment and there is a payment stream going on in them the drop the insurance, someone, whether it is insurance companies of the government comes back from him and wants the money back. guest: there is something in the legislation called the 90 day grace. . that is what he is referring to. it says that for the first three months, of health care coverage newly purchased plan, for the first few months, is covered by the insurance company. if the patient defaults on the this takes away the

individual mandate which the white house says is fundamental to the affordable care act or it what are your thoughts? the american medical association supports the individual mandate. as i stated earlier, it goes to lowering the cost of care and making sure individuals get the kind of care they need and deserve in this country and ultimately controls cost. what we are concerned about is up to this point, on the medicare payment law, that there has been amazing bipartisan,

bicameral support in a very collaborative way. we are very thankful to the members of congress on both sides of the aisle who have been highly supportive of this activity. congress understands why this legislation must be repealed. they understand it. what we are asking them to do is to do this in a bipartisan way in a bicameral way so that we can actually see a law passed that will repeal the sgr that passes both chambers of congress and that the president would sign. this is our significant request. it is important for patients in this country. it is important for stabilizing our medicare program. host: massachusetts, colleen is on the phone, good morning. caller: thank you very much, doctor, you have done a great job this morning answering so many difficult questions. something that is happening here in massachusetts which is

happening nationally is the growth of concierge medicine. i wonder if you could comment on that. guest: thank you for the question. believe in choice and americans believe in choice as well. thatnk there are practices can be concierge practices and provide extremely high-quality care. it is the choice of the patient. it is the choice of the position and that practice to do this. in most states now, i have heard nothing against concierge medicine it comes down to choice of the patient and choice of the physician. host: lawton, michigan, good morning. caller: good morning, i have one question for you -- if there is going to be a shortage of doctors in the future, how will that affect the 440,000 people that get killed by mistake said

hospitals and doctors make? if you think back over the last 10 years, there has been an extraordinary group it in our hospitals and health care facility around safety and quality. ,n my particular area of work infections, i will use the example of what we call central line infections which are deep lines placed in patients who need high level drugs and antibiotics. in our hospitals, some years ago, we became concerned about the number of infections associated with these central lines. through some very great work and throughout our country, in michigan particularly, there have and some lovely pieces of work round how to prevent central line infections.

we have seen that has been implement it throughout the country. have infection rates decreased significantly. in every hospital in this country today, there are teams of health care providers, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, all working together to improve safety, increase quality and diminish these risks. we have seen great strides over the last decade in this area. we will continue to see great improvement in this area. i am very optimistic. you define this independent payment advisory board? is it fair to call this a death panel? guest: it is not a death panel. the independent payment advisory board really has to do with a group of 15 political appointees -- if medicare spending exceeded the target based on the current they would have the

authority to cut across the board medicare payments to all providers. 15 employees doing this particular kind of work. this has no relationship to anything of that nature. it has to do with medicare patients. a patient inhave late 80's or early 90's and they are about to undergo surgery for any particular reason, should the doctors asked the question if it is necessary and at what point are you putting this in front of quality of life areasurgery for any parr reason, should the doctors asked the question if it is necessary and at what point are you putting this in front of quality of life are? guest: i think you need to talk about the conversation that the patient and the doctor started with.

you need to determine what the problem is, what are the benefits, what are the risks, what do you want? that conversation is most you need towhat do i want my fio be like?