ben geman. and as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. host: it morning. it is monday, april 21. this morning, our focus is on the first amendment. we will have the way in and discuss how you interpret the amendment. please dial the numbers on your screen. join our conversation on social media. andcan also go to facebook

post your comments there. you could also send us an e-mail. text of the first amendment -- we went to hear how you interpret it. congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. o'er abridging the freedom of speech, or the press -- ginsburg had a discussion at the national press club. let's take a listen to what they had to say. they focused on what the founders meant when they talked about freedom. [video clip] >> there's a point that justice

scalia made. he said the first amendment has protection against constraint. government constraint. our expression of first amendment is quite different from the expression in the declaration of rights of man. you mentioned -- this first amendment is saying hands off government. it does not say everyone shall have the right to speak freely. that is with the declaration of the rights of man says. not at all. the says congress shall make no laws. about freedom of speech or press. it instructed to government. hands off. ande rights already exist you must not touch them.

host: if you would like to hear more of that conversation, check out the full dialogue at c-span.org. there are comments already coming in on facebook. john writes that this is not h, it's about rights theeligious beliefs, government not making laws based on any religion -- no law should infringe on these ideas. it is clearly written there should be no limit on the exchange of ideas. we should create our own a news outlet. no permits needed. that is the first amendment. you can reach out to us on facebook. let's go now to twitter. writes, congress can pass

no laws that infringe on my right to complain on how they are ruining my country. our topic is your interpretation of the first amendment. these give us a call, we would love to hear your take. screen.ers are on your let's go to to a story from politico. seem to be polar opposites on the bench of the u.s. supreme court. bader ginsburg and antonin scalia sat down together at the national press club on thursday to discuss the first amendment, government surveillance, and their own personal friendship. a journalist asked if they could issue an opinion --

comment, but to were willing to discuss how they might approach a case examining mthe nsa surveillance program. you can read more at politico.com. we will take another listen this morning. the justices talked about what they had in mind when they thought about the concept of freedom. [video clip] >> there are no absolute right. it does sound that way. congress our past no law. there are laws that congress can pass. so, the idea of an absolute right -- i don't know any rate that does not have limitations. >> even at that time, in the minds of the founding fathers? explain why, after listing freedom of speech, the founding fathers found it necessary to

add for crucially important words. freedom of the press is what they were talking about. why did they add that phrase? >> i think it is a natural addition. it is the freedom to speak and to write. it was not referring to the institutional press. i am not sure that they even refer to the institutional press. they meant the freedom to speak and publish. that clause has been interpreted. it does not give any special prerogatives to the institutional press. prerogatives to everyone with a xerox machine. >> what do you mean institutional press? >> i mean those organizations ande business is writing

publishing. host: that conversation happened last week at the national press club. to see the full video, had to c-span.org. ecil is our first caller on the democrats line. caller: i would like to --am i being heard? host: go right ahead. speeches, asof the far as international corporation -- why and understand international corporation has free speech when it is connected to everything. it is international and it embraces the entire world. when you go international, ruby --everybody has a

say-so. host: that is from ceci. l. our topic is your interpretation of the first amendment. let's get the associated press. of government surveillance is likely to come before the supreme court on sunday. ginsburg appear less than thrilled. scalia thinks the judicial branch is the least qualified branch to balance security and intrusion. they spoke about the subject of the national security agency on thursday night. next up, teresa on the line for democrats. caller: what i understand about the first amendment is that it is not for sale to the highest corporate there -- bidder.

the constitution has been turned on its head by some of the supreme court justices. you are not supposed to go out bazooka.n ak-47 or thomas jefferson believed that the constitution should be changed every 10-20 years to protect future generations. host: that was teresa in florida. where going to georgia next, where j is on the line for democrats. caller: thank you. the first amendment is being used by these extreme radical groups, in order to protect them. these threats and different types of groups -- the constitution is not a shield against the law.

the constitution should be followed. with these guys are doing -- they are trying to hide behind the first amendment and use this to say it is freedom of speech. it is anarchy. there threateningly government with god. the average person on the street can say i will hurt somebody. then you are locked up for a terrorist threat. the first amendment does not applied evenly to people with money. host: what would you like to see changed? caller: i would like to see it be enforced. like edward snowden -- this is not first amendment rights. the starty also marks of the boston marathon. we want to look at the boston globe. resolute and ready with 2013 in

mind, emotions high. this is the 118th boston marathon. next caller is in michigan -- david is on the line for democrats. you are on "washington journal." caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: yes. i like the quote that we just made. jefferson said that we should change in the future. things to change. it is so degrading to our country to criticized our leaders in such a fashion. it is degrading to their character. and i think it is damaging. i do not know how the limits can be made, except to educate

actseners to consider two f in what the media is feeling. physique ofof the our president is totally destructive. it is so degrading. i'm just very upset about that. host: a couple more comments from twitter. you can reach out to us there. mills says the first amendment stands for the limit religion.founded one more tweet from carol. the first amendment allows all citizens to say and write what they please. it is not an absolute right. tad in rhode island on the line for independents. caller: good morning.

the supreme court has said that money is free speech. my argument is bullets are also free speech. thank you. maine on the line for democrats. caller: my comment -- the first amendment is there to protect political speech. justices, as both mentioned in that interview, it does not mean that you can speak libel. but, being political speech, i think the supreme court got it wrong. they are only human. they make mistakes. there are very few unanimous decisions. think they got it wrong.

i do not think money is speech. it is a medium of exchange. if i give you money, i expect something in return. and that, i think, is something that has needed to be said for some time. i am glad to get it off my chest. thank you. host: the topic is your interpretation of the first amendment. the lines to dial are on your screen. host: we're going now to florida where richard is on the line for independents. caller: down here, what they have done is made this auschwitz -- there are a bunch of people in

sodom and gomorrah. ,hey made a statue 999.9 infinite -- that is against the homeless. they removed the benches. you get arrested for sleeping outside. you get arrested for littering or lowering -- loitering. if you have a sign that says you need work, you get arrested. host: what is the first amendment? caller: freedom of speech -- you will be arrested by florida code 999.9. host: all right. leastback to boston, at one member of congress is running today. that is an arizona democrat. a bunch of 3:00 a.m. wake up in trainingtting

with her busy schedule of votes and meetings -- she hopes to complete her 10th marathon on monday in honor of someone who will never cross the finish line. she is running in honor of one of the victims. members of his family were among the more than 200 wounded. lake worth, florida. denis is on the line for republicans. nothing is impacted by the first amendment more than the education of our children. , the firstmean amendment says that the government will not pass a law restricting exercise of religion or freedom of speech.

is ablic schools, there socialistic government imposing their views on our children. many conflict with our religious views. at the same time, they want the children to speak out publicly about their religious views. and how an organization like the aclu, which purports to defend our rights -- it is beyond me. the supreme court has ruled it is ok to violate the constitution. choice,e have to have or we will lose every child in america. i do not think any fair-minded person has the right to impose their religious views on children. i think the answer is no. we have to have the right to put our kids in any school we want.

it should be with her own tax dollars coming back through vouchers. host: one more clip from that meeting with justices scalia and ginsburg. [video clip] >> was understood that there were limitations on the press? was understood that there were limitations? speech.on oral and libel laws. >> what about the press at that time? were they thinking about at that time? >> i don't know that there were any special rules applicable to the press. they did not have to get permission to publish. neither did anybody else. there were some very important figures in our history, like thomas jefferson. >> it is interesting that jefferson, before he became

president, spoke very highly. he spoke of it as a polluted area. one thing that epitomizes the importance of freedom of speech is the balance for america. the right to speak my mind is america to me. >> i think if you had to pick -- you probably shouldn't have to, but if you had to pick one freedom that is most essential to the functioning of a democracy, it has to be freedom of speech. democracy means persuading one another and ultimately voting. majority rules. you cannot run the system if there is muzzling of one point of view. it is a fundamental freedom in a democracy. host: that was from last week's

program at the national press club. let's go to shreveport, louisiana. randy is on the line for independents. caller: about the schools -- that is the government training center. the first amendment, you can speak where you want, when you want. not in an alleyway. you can talk about anything you want to talk about. they have taken so much of that away from us. back in the 60's, i was just a kid. that was freedom of speech when they were protesting against the vietnam war. they could say what they wanted to. host: should there be any limits? caller: no. why should there be? you speak your mind. we are not a democracy, we are a

republic. mind, cannot speak your you might as well go back to germany. speak.eople could not stalin, those people could not speak. that is what is coming here, it looks like to me. it is just a matter of time. their taking all of this away from the american people. it is so unreal. host: taking a look at another story making headlines. -- was shattering in eastern ukraine. by mannedned separatists. this comes as joe biden is

headed to that region today. the prime minister appeared on meet the press. he was asked -- he will ask the obama administration. [video clip] >> we need a strong and solid state. when it financial and economic support. we need to modernize our security forces. we need real support. it is easy to answer the question you just asked me. how can you stop a nuclear state that spent billions of dollars to modernize their military? instead of ukraine. the former president, together with russian supporters -- they dismantled ukrainian military and security forces. we need to be in a very good

shape. in order to stop russia. supporteed to have real from western partners. when weapons. -- we need weapons. when it financial support. we need to modernize the military and overhaul all structures of ukrainian defenses. host: that is from this weekend on them "meet the press." joe biden is headed to that region today. our topic this morning is your interpretation of the first amendment. wendy is on the line for democrats. caller: yes. i believe that -- host: you still with me? caller: i believe that freedom of speech has been affected by what happened on 9/11.

they should not have to be. is hinderingrity people it should not be. we should be allowed to say what we feel and that is not happening. i am a teacher. there's a reason there is a separation of church and state. children are very accepting, of adults are not. they accept each other. we do not separate church and state like most do. we believe children should have that right to feel safe in their environment. when parents are involved, that becomes more complicated. children are very innocent and they accept it. we're becoming more of a communist country. where not allowed to say what we need to say. nobody is standing up for what they need to. we need to start boycotting things. we need to boycott what we do not believe in like european countries. things that are not appropriate

for country. host: next is kansas on the line for republicans. i dropped myorry, remote. i will have to call you back. host: we will look forward to your call later. that's good to washington, d.c. brad is on the line for independents. caller: the first amendment is contradictory. a good example is when the president was sworn in. he says he will faithfully execute the laws. he is using faith, as far as i can tell. and the governors -- do, want control, and they democracy and the first amendment. the best example is -- the president should use the solveolitical work to

immigration issues. they're using denial of medicaid payments. undocumentedmany illegal residents who use medicaid. they get all of the medicine they want, but they do not have the response ability of paying. the contradictory nature -- look at places like pakistan. democracy is controlled by religious people. that is my comment. host: in the new york times, another headline. hairstyleson popular raises reactions.

they are popular with black women. the congressional black caucus has asked chuck hagel to overturn that the regulation on behalf of women in active duty. this comes at the same time of a new rule banning tattoos on recruits. lakeland, laura. john is on the line for independents. caller: the governor will not make any official religion of the state. or prevent anyone from practicing a relgiigion. under taxes, it does not say they cannot be taxed. everybody is nonprofit. schools and businesses should be taxed. they all use the same services. host: the topic this morning is

your interpretation of the first amendment. the next caller is patrick in minnesota. he is on the line for republicans. turned on your tv a little bit. caller: ok. host: you there? caller: ueyes. i believe in the first amendment. there was a case in minnesota 20 years ago. protest on a sidewalk. arrested.d be this is just one of the cases. i think they are opposed to religion, of course. there are real liberal forces in

this country. that is all i have to say. host: iowa. bob is on the line for independents. caller: hi. host: hey there. how is it going? caller: pretty well. thented to comment because constitution has always been pretty important to me. it is, after all, the law of the land. i think, after i studied the years, iion for many think i can safely say that the first amendment and most of the constitution fall into one of two areas. the first amendment falls into that ruth bader

ginsburg outlined earlier, with a hands off signal to the government. you haveher hand, things like article one, section 8. the government is specifically delegated powers. and the constitution says hands off to congress. actual,t is a matter of perceivable harm to the nation -- if the government does not keep its hands off. pardon me, if the government does not put its hands on. host: with look at a story in the washington post. efforts to raise the

minimum wage at the state and local level will run through november. some states could consider ballot measures to raise rates higher than the federal rate. this is the same year that states have increased the minimum wage after the proposal to raise it to $10.10 stalled in congress. some have approved minimum wages higher than the federal level. the district of columbia has also raised its rate to $11.50. the topic this morning is your interpretation of the first amendment. let's go to randy in oklahoma on the line for republicans. the first amendment protects -- host: next up, the bronx, new

york. michael is on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. we should change the constitution. ent to anyban cont particular religion. mayle may feel that this make people angry. why should we do it like that? it is not freedom of speech. thank you.of hate, host: a couple of comments on twitter. tes, the first amendment encourages the free exchange of ideas so that people can be informed. amendmentthe first

gives people the right to say things that are unpopular. barney is on the line for democrats. caller: hello. my impression of freedom of speech is to be able to express oneself anywhere, anytime, anyplace, about any subject. the only thing that really bothers me is when the supreme court says that money -- ech.same as beach. -- spe that put the whole government up for sale. the people with the most money have the most boys. it is simple as that. host: that was barney. we will go now to florida. richard is on the line for republicans. caller: i am an african-american republican.

the first amendment will not matter anyway, as long as obama as president. it has become a joke. executive power to jump the senate, it is of noxious. -- obnoxious. host: a couple minutes left if you would like to call in. the numbers are on the screen. jacksonville, florida. jim is on the line for democrats. caller: the man who called in from louisiana -- you asked if there should be limitations on the first amendment and he responded no. thinkwondering, do you

there is a responsibility that we point out an example of a clear and present danger? host: if you would like to comment, i am happy to listen. right, we will move on to pennsylvania. where he is on the line for independents. i would like to speak about the first amendment. december 15, we faced amendments 1-10 with the bill of rights. that is called article one. amendments 1-10 have done away with our rights. the bill of rights is amendment 2. that is article two. everyone is getting upset about the amendments. they do not start until amendment 11. 11-27 is where amendments go to.

right now, the bill of rights -- that is what i have to say. i wish people would get their act together and quit calling them amendments. they are called the bill of rights. host: another comment from facebook -- this is not an interpretation of the first amendment. just my opinion. i am a middle-class senior citizen who observed that the constitution is obsolete in many areas and in need of a major overhaul which the congress could never accomplish in its current form. function is special interest groups to pick and choose references for a plethora of agendas. brightest legal team to present their opinion to a supreme court.

you can always comment on facebook. kentucky, caroline is on the line for democrats. caller: i would like to express my opinion. our forefathers established this when they first came to america. i feel in my heart that the amendments are true. they should not be changed. they knew what they were doing. florida,vero beach, howard is on the line for republicans. hello? caller: i am here. host: we would love to hear what you think. caller: there was a gentleman who called, who was republican. b said the truth about arack obama and was

disconnected. who is pushing the buttons there, dear? host: a couple more comments on twitter. michael writes that it is pretty irrelevant anyway. speech is under strain of all and 2014. someone writes what if your interpretation is different than mine? last comment from jack -- money is not speech, money is exchanged. we will take a quick rake. when we come back, president obama is headed to asia. we will be joined by michael green to discuss that trip to philippines.the later, we will look at the affordable care act and the role of insurance companies. ♪

>> i went to thank our distinguished ranking members for all the work he has done this week. a lot of us has looked at the situation. when secretary paulson came to bille gave us a three-page and said give me a blank check so i can put money in it. i was offended at that time. what happened since then? taxpaye 107 pages of r protection to that bill. we understand the gravity of the situation. we have worked with our colleagues to make this a better bill. we understand that there are upsides to the taxpayer. so that when this happens and profits come, the first person in line with the american taxpayer. we make sure there is an

insurance program to make sure that washington -- wall street shares in the cost of this recovery plan. we also made sure that the executives of these companies do not profit from this recovery plan. we cut the initial cost in half. congress will have to approve the second half next year. why did we do all of this? because this wall street crisis is quickly becoming a main street crisis. it is quickly becoming a banking crisis. what does that mean? why does that matter to us? why does that matter to janesville, wisconsin? if it goes the way i could go, that means credit shuts down. businesses cannot get money to pay their payroll or pay their employees. students cannot get student loans for next semester. people cannot get car loans.

seniors will not have access to their savings. are we standing at the edge of this of this? nobody knows, but maybe. it is very probable. madam speaker, this bill offends my principles. but i will vote for this bill in order to preserve my principles. in order to preserve this free enterprise system. this is a herbert hoover moment. he made some big mistakes after the great depression and we lived with those consequences for decades. let's not make that mistake. there's a lot of fear and a lot of panic out there. a lot of what this is about is getting that out of the market. ouseink the white h fumbled this. they have brought the issue up to a crescendo, to a crisis.

world markets are here on congress. it is a heavy load to bear. we have to deal with this panic and fear. colleagues, we are in the moment. this bill does not have everything i want in it. he got a lot of good things in it. but we are here, we are in this moment. if we fail to do the right thing, heaven help us. if we fail to pass this, i fear the worst is yet to come. is weoblem we have here are one month away from an election. we're all worried about losing our jobs. all of us say this needs to pass, but i want you to go for it, not me. unfortunately, a majority of us will have to vote for this. we will have to do that because we have a chance of arresting

that crashed. just maybe this will work. for me, for my own conscience, so i can look myself in the mirror tonight, i want to know that i did everything i could to stop it from getting worse. to stop this wall street problem from infect the -- infecting main street. i want to go home and see my kids and my wife and know that i did but i thought was right for them and their future. aselieve with all my heart, bad as this is, it could get a whole lot worse. that is why we have to pass this bill. i yield. >> find more highlights on our facebook page. c-span, created by america's cable company 35 years ago and brought to you today. "washington journal"

continues. host: president obama is headed on a trip to asia. joining us now is michael green, the ceo of the center for strategic international studies. thank you for being with us. tell us about the importance of this trip. guest: the president was supposed to go last fall for a series of summits. they had to postpone that because of the government shutdown here. that happened to bill clinton. this is a makeup trip. he will go to japan, korea -- with president bush, the president has gone at least once a year to asia. it is the most important region in the world to us. third-largest economies are in

japan and china. china's power is growing. a steady hand from the u.s. and a reassuring presence are much appreciated in the countries that the president was it. host: these four countries, why those four specifically? guest: we have a lot of important allies and partners in the region. these four, because the president will go to china later this year. he will have a chance to talk to the chinese leaders. there will be a summit. these countries, because they are the maritime states. the law in china -- they are feeling pressure over territory disputes. they have felt neglected in u.s. foreign policies. japan is our biggest ally. the most troops we have --

korea is a long-standing close ally. we are right next to the north koreans. the philippines have been pressed hard. they had a big natural disaster. alaysia has not had presidential visit since lyndon johnson. they are emerging as an important u.s. partner. there a leading voice in southeast asia. host: you mentioned china earlier. the president is not specifically going to china. he will go later. how much is tied into chinese relations? guest: a lot is about china. china is growing rapidly. they are the largest trading partner that the president will visit. it is not like these countries want trouble with the chinese. they are feeling enormous pressure. the chinese art claiming small

islands. these islands stretch from japan to the philippines. the president has put a lot of attention on asia. he has not sent a consistent signal on how we think about china. at times, he has said we want to remodel our relations. at other times, he has sounded pretty tough, standing up for our allies. one thing he will have to do is explain how we are standing by our allies and will not tolerate pressure on them. at the same time, we will cooperate with china and have a lot of mutual benefits. it is a hard balancing act. will have to try to make that message clear. host: the story is laying out on every front page. i want to read from the washington post and get your thoughts.

on one level, the president has a list of tasks waiting for him. he will try to ease tensions with the japanese prime minister and the korean president. and he will show support for the philippines. it is also a step in the administration's project of balancing its relationship with the most dynamic region and the world, as china expands its influence. how to ask about pivoting to asia. pivot was so-called announced in 2010. the white house wanted to rebalance. we were spending too much time on iraq. we need to pay attention to asia. the economic dynamics are incredibly important and the dangers are real. there was a lot of drama.

i worked in the bush white house for five years. it is not likely ignored asia, that they wanted to put an exclamation point on the region. . hillary clinton was well liked around the region. she really traveled and spent a lot of time there. there are questions in the region about the second term of the obama administration. they don't know if secretary kerry has the same level of interest. the president is trying to say we are still committed. there are specific things that will tell if that is true. is beings trade limits negotiated. it is important in japan. . questions about the defense budget, which is being cut. china's is growing. there are questions you'll have to answer about our commitment.

attentiones so much and influence. just going out there is a great opportunity for him. host: our guest is michael green, the vice president for an asian advocacy center. to join our conversation, dialogue numbers on the screen -- dial the numbers on the screen. host: first collar is henry in michigan on the line for democrats. hi, henry. caller: good morning. i would like to ask mr. green that the world thinks about the credibility of the president, particularly when we have had so many on the right

ing againsteak the president. they are overtly racist against the president. ndw they characterized him a the first lady. as they have elevated putin a cult hero. all of these things do not show the world that we have unity. i wonder what mr. greene thinks about how the rest of the world perceives our president. we at home are so divided. guest: well, first thing i would say is this happens, unfortunately, to republican and democratic presidents. having much of the world is used to the cacophony in washington. this point scoring.

there is an impasse and governance. we have difficulty passing agreements. that does cause some concern. i think our friends and allies overseas are nervous, to be honest. president obama grew up in hawaii. is considered a president who gets the region. there are concerns about his toughness. what was really quite devastating was the syrian crisis. the white house put on a redline and walked away from a. japan, or korea, or the philippines, the american president is drawing a redline -- that is an unnerving thing. the president will have to

compensate for that. his popularity will help him. some of the dysfunctionality raises questions about our competence, as a leader of the free world. republicans and democrats will have to work on that. host: he is on his way headed to asia shortly. there are republican lawmakers already there. a congressional delegation is in japan right now. we have a quote from paul ryan in the wall street journal. he says we want to underscore how important this partnership is for agriculture. the u.s. and japan hope to announce a tpp deal to show that there alliance remains strong. china was involved in the tpp. talk about that a little that. guest: when you consider the previous caller's point --

there is a large chili nation of republican leaders going before the president and backing him up. the transpacific partnership would -- if they sign off -- the a structure of trade and investment. big countries, like japan and oulda and someday china w join. they say it is very useful. there is a set of rules in the pacific that we can use to form an economy. is a big deal economically. bit.ll grow quite a in japan, agriculture is sensitive. the betting is the president obama will not seal the deal. it is too bad.

if we get it through congress, because house republicans generally support free trade -- it a midterm election here, is hard to cooperate. he may not get this big deal done this year. i think he wants to move it down closer so it can be done after the midterm election. host: but go to arkansas. brad is on the line for independents. caller: anybody there? host: you are on. caller: thank you for taking my call. there are some things about the tpp. like -- make nafta look like a walk in the park. jobs, americans could not compete with the. it would destroy our economy.

deals, like trade involve tpp now, lowering the barriers to trade and investment had established that a rules. everybody'sppens, economy needs protection from high tariffs. they have to compete more and it could be hard for those workers or sections of the economy. the reason that republicans and democrats pursue these deals is product roserall significant way. we're competing in a global economy and we play by the rules. a deal like this ensures that all of our partner steps, which are growing, also play by the roles. they protect rights, do not have

large partnerships that do not have an unfair advantage. administration is that the american workers -- the rules are fair. the main point is not lowering the tariff as much as making sure that these partners follow rules so we can export them compete. it will grow many more jobs than it costs. it could be a hard thing to take. no one knows what the effect will be. a single pass because it will benefit more people than challenges. host: stick with that for a minute. in the washington post today, there is an op-ed. it is called the centerpiece of the economic rebound in the region. it also says that this is the most important trade deal under

negotiation today. do you agree? guest: yes. it includes not only the 12 countries in it, but the koreans will probably lock in. other countries, eventually china, down the road, will lock in. they are more likely to do those reforms and protect operating. -- property. their more likely to do that if the rest of the region is following these rules. so, if you think that americans compete with the rules are fair, this is a good deal. the president is coming to this late, in my view. the votes are there in congress. he let this slide too close to the midterm. to try to go to tokyo and get the deal, it is probably too

late. i think this is likely to pass after the midterms. host: san antonio, texas. diane is on the line for republicans. caller: i would like to have some supporting details about something that was mentioned before. concerns about congress's impasse. what countries are you talking about? i read the overseas newspapers all the time. i have never heard them blame the congress for anything about what is lacking here in the u.s. guest: that is true, actually. there's a lot of coverage of congress by media outlets. you do not see as many editorials. i did not mean to imply that it is congress's fault.

there is a difficulty governing now that involves the presidency and both houses. there's plenty of blame to go around. what specifically worries are that when we cannot pass a budget, we cannot have a consensus. on deficits, we end up with sequestration. that supports automatic cuts of the defense budget. those cuts mean that we cannot trained with the air force is in these countries, or put in doubt whether we can keep them in aircraft carriers as we have. that is what we a written about. japan is a democracy, they have their own difficulties. notdifficulty is whether or the u.s., the president leaving, congress, produce a budget. and can deal with our deficits keeps our defense spending strong, or whether or

not the president can get authority from the congress and the free trade agreement. the trading legislation is stuck as well. hear people blaming republicans and democrats in congress. they are a little it worried about whether the u.s. has its mojo. i think we do. in our energys revolution, in our growing american interest in asia, entrepreneurship, specific americans in our own politics and society -- the fact that we cannot do basic things the government asks us to do, like isduce a budget, that worrisome to partners who see american power, depending on our strong military, our free-trade. that is what people focus on. >> you mentioned sequestration and defense budgets. what is the commitment to the region in terms of military presence? is it enough and how much does budget toion and the

the pana scott -- budget to the pentagon affecting that? our presence is mostly air and navy marine corps. most people would say we have enough. the question is, can we sustain that? the pentagon will shift resources to -- aircraft in the pacific. the navy has said 60% of its ships will be in the pacific, the highest ratio in our history. the marine corps will have mold orleans -- multiple marines. if sequestration levels hit and we are forced to dramatically , there are questions on whether we can maintain. american carrier battle groups

are symbols of our strength. already this year, some things this is something we can afford. we have to have a consensus in budget. on a long-term class on the line for democrats. >> hi. i grew up in new england. on the river where the shoe industry was a huge business. new england, pretty much. a lot of that work has been exported to asia. having several scrap metal yards, i used to exports that metal. i was often amazed we could not compete with so-called labor -- cheap labor in europe, where we

are sending basic products over their and they are refining it and turning it into something that turns into something that turns into something. it ends up that home depot or walmart. the president is going over there and there is a lot of talk of trading deficits. also, you hear about small economics. unemployedople are in that state. , most of the money going to wall street has nothing to do with capital improvements in business. i think small business knowing we will gain these jobs back. wonder why the administration has not put money into businesses, developing business, all throughout the country.

>> most economists would agree with you small businesses in the u.s. are the real energy in our economy. competing, maybe 10 years ago, people really worried whether we could compete with the chinese because their wages were one 30th by some calculations of u.s. wages. now is thepening chinese economy is growing and the wages are going up and chinese economists are asking how we can compete with orgladesh or vietnam indonesia, where wages are much cheaper than chinese wages. they are going through this in their own way. i estimate the middle class is for or 500 million people. they are buying a lot of stuff. american companies exporting to china are doing quite well and small sized enterprises are

beginning to export through internet platforms, like the chinese version of ebay with american companies serving as an intermediary. have the wages vanish they used to have but they have a big middle-class buying products america can sell. agileuires a nimble and thinking about business and a very global way to think about business. there are things that can be business,ink about another c-span episode. but that is just the reality. there are downsides and big upsides. andonly in china increasingly in other parts of asia like indonesia or malaysia or the philippines, which is going very well now. in japan, they're not going as fast. class a question from twitter.

how do you predict america's military presence in asia, especially in regards to china and japan. click the chinese economy is growing and the budget defense has been growing the past 15 years and double-digit's, to 18% or so a year. they are growing faster the military is not as capable as ours. some people say china will have a defense budget that passes hours in the next 10 or 15 years. it takes time to learn how to do it we have done, which is to have more joint miss in our services and allies. china does not have allies. in the u.s., the most important thing we can do is to strengthen our partnerships. if china sees the u.s. and japan alliance is very tight in our partnerships with other rising

powers like india are very close, there is not really an opening china can really drive a wedge in to dominate the region. they will realize it is not and their efforts should be focused on the economy and finding win-win solutions to the problems in the region over territories in particular. join us and more cooperation with partners will really help. push not worth trying to the u.s. out or pushed around u.s. allies. at the same time, we have to find ways to build confidence with china. the chinese report -- respects ,trength and american strength our military is much more advanced, and especially our allies. we have partners who want much more engagement with us, much more cooperation. big theme for the president's trip. these countries want to do a lot more with us to stabilize the

region. class you have the president -- joe biden headed to the ukraine. i wonder that could undermine the effort the administration currently has in the asia-pacific region. class on the one hand, when you have something like a serious crisis, ithe crimea looks to our allies in the front lines in asia like we are distracted and like we are not paying attention to the threats and challenges -- threats and challenges they face. thehe other hand, governments in asia realize what we do on the other side of the world has an impact on how people think in asia. if the u.s. and allies in nato and asia can draw a firm line in dissuade mr.nd boudin from trying to expand, that sends an important lecture -- important lesson to the chinese when i think about whether to push harder, or the

north koreans, when they think about whether they should launch missiles to challenge us. they also realize, the u.s. is a global power. if we just say, never mind, we will ignore europe to pay attention in asia, what will happen in europe will be a lesson and i think they realize that. they are always nervous, our allies about us paying too much attention in the world. click democrats line. >> he those points, if i may. i am struck by the fact general motors just announced it will be manufacturing cars in china. when they manufacture cars in china, the chinese manufacture -- manufactured in eastern europe. of the production, a quarter of it is sold on the junk market.

in new york, you get mock offs. what is it really doing for the american economy that it will be building cars in china, let china will buy for themselves? secularly -- secondly, dmitri brought up a really interesting issue created by the japanese and chinese crisis, wherein they do not want another world war i site situation, which would result from a crisis over the chinese japanese areas of influence. they would be dragon. -- dragged in. betterpe, it might be

than it is to be stuck trying to keep up with the united states and it's crazy military mission so far. see where the military and this industry will be any good for the u.s. economy. has not been so far. are goingee where you with best. class on the first point about gm, it is building plants in china, selling cars to a growing chinese middle class. a lot of consumers. it is more competitive for them to build in china. the chinese government insists on a certain amount of investment if you want to access their market. on the other hand, when you talk to industry leaders in japan or when theyven china, think about the most attractive

place to invest, they think about the u.s.. entrepreneurship, cheap energy, because of the shale gas revolution. manufacturing in the u.s. is coming back and foreign direct investment in the u.s. and is pickingcountry up. the chinese are sending their best and brightest to study in the u.s. and investing in the u.s. it goes both ways. that is the reality of the world we live in. you have to create an environment in the u.s. where investment is attractive and jobs are created. building plants and then selling those things in the u.s. and creating jobs in the process, a lot of jobs. need to make sure the chinese market is fair at the same time. rows at the white house, about 10 years ago, a chinese company still computer designs for a

u.s. car. there was almost nothing we could do. it was eventually resolved but a classic example of how the lack of rule of law in china is a problem. the best way to deal with that is this partnership where all of asia set some rules that is pretty strict. if china wants to be a part of that, they will have to play by the rules. that is why this is important. on japan china, it is the 100th anniversary and you have japan and china, the second and third largest economies in the world bumping together over these islands in a way reminiscent of france and germany or britain and germany on the ee is of world war i. some people look at this and say, we have got to separate them and tell them both to come down.

the underlying cause of the problem is japan is dealing with a china pushing out and expanding in china use economic to undermine japan's control, with both -- which both countries claim. the right response for the united states is to stand with and work our allies with the chinese for diplomatic solution that does not involve using force or economic pressure . we have to be there and show we are committed and working to life.e our the president will announce this trip that the u.s. and japan are revising and upgrading our defense corporation guidelines so we're better able to deal with pressures on us, so we cannot be divided by countries that would like to use military to intimidate our neighbors. we have to have a resolved stance and use diplomacy. we walk away, we are more likely to have a collision.

a collision between japan and china would be devastating. even if it was not a word. even if it was a clash or accident, markets would react negatively. we cannot just walk away from it. >> than a scholar is in brooklyn, new york, on the republicans line. caller: good morning to you. this travel,ay president obama to these countries, sitting down with america, it is just a shock. your idea about why the travel does not make any sense to the citizens of this country. 20 or 30 years ago, 10 years ago, we are very proud to be an

american. now, to be an american, causes a lot of problems for us. my questions, i want to have your idea about, is it because of our mistakes and our foreign issues were not? thank you. that, in asia, and by mean from india to japan, southeast asia, northeast asia, you can be very proud to be an american. the u.s. is very popular in these countries actually. there will always be some protesters. you have islamic populations unhappy about our policies. radical groups on the left and right in northeast asia that are anti-u.s.. u.s. is veryw the popular. is, to the credit of the president, but our popularity

grew in asia under president bush. president bush left office in 2008 more popular in most asian come trees then when it came in -- asian countries then when it came in. , despite secular trend ourselves, where, in most of these countries, we are actually more popular. the governments in these countries will have a lot more american engagement. to do defense cooperation and they want the president to visit. even china, with whom we have a very complicated relationship, president tang has put forward an idea of a new model of relations, he wants to find a relation where we are cooperating. it is controversial, where he said the new model of great power relationships, he is trying to downgrade japan, the

administration is walking a little bit away from it, but the point is even china wants to find a way to have a positive relationship with the united states. we are in a very good position which is something the president can work with. there are questions about whether we are up to it, given some of our political challenges and so forth. but definitely, this region wants more of the u.s.. the one exception is probably north korea. potentialnteresting for human rights, obama could use his stock in the philippines andnnounce those and washed have finally agreed on u.s. military cases there. more than 20 years after the last american troops left, i wonder how likely you think that is to come out of this trip. >> very likely. it was ready to go for the trip the president canceled last

fall. it is a big deal. people remember we annex the philippines. ago after the spanish-american war. to first country in history encourage and support independence in the philippines. still,the philippines there is a body of opinion that has always been unhappy about hadican dominance, which we in the philippines until 1992. because of china, because the chinese have been sending ships and pushing the philippines out of violence, the government would like to have some presence again. we will not have bases like japan and korea, but we will have agreements so our marines and sailors and national guard units can come through and use , help themd a runway

with disaster relief, and, in doing that, show the flag, show that we stand with the philippines, but also help the philippine military be more professional and help them deal fullthe problems in this of violence where people need basic help. we are doing good by helping the philippines military help their own people, but we are also showing the flag and showing allies and partners want the u.s. there and will not be intimidated by china or anyone else. >> u expecting to hear from president obama? what are his goals in visiting malaysia? clinicalere are tricky problems he will have to deal with. one is northeast asia. they're both democracies and allies of ours. but clinically their very bad now. the japanese political leaderships, revisiting history

issues, visiting shrines that are controversial and so forth. korean political leadership acting very strongly against that. a flat lateral recession last month. basically korean and japanese leaders were at odds. he brought them together and they took the photo and smiled. other problem is malaysia. it is an enormous opportunity. to doime minister wants more in the u.s.. for a long time, malaysia cap the u.s. at hand length. and we had tense relationships. they want to do more with us, more security and diplomatic cooperation.

southeast asia is a major trading company of our spare they have political challenges also. the malaysian court also for theed a ruling leadership position, essentially putting him back in prison for five years for sodomy charges. most people think it was a blatant clinical move to take out the opposition. that is exactly the kind of anti-democratic energy we cannot be quiet about. the president has a really tough balancing act. countries more and more eager to cooperate with the u.s., doing well economically, doing the right things in the region but with the domestic clinical runsenge that basically counter to democratic norms, i have no idea how he will do the balancing act. it will be one of the more interesting parts of the trip to watch.

maryland.from go ahead. one more time. all right, we will try to come back to him possibly later. on independent line. caller: i was calling in my own aea, the late 1990's, we had manufacturer my question for regardless of what trade deal is passed, how was there ever supposed to be a level length field when other countries such as china are not abiding by the same laws, environmental rules, etc.? no matter what agreements you pass, it will never be able to guess -- china and the other countries as well. thank you. guest: corruption is endemic, more than communism, the biggest problem in china right now is corruption.

members are becoming fabulously wealthy. members of the military army corruptionromoted -- is endemic in that hurts u.s. businesses as well. it includes problems of stealing andllectual property rights so forth. there is a problem. the one thing we have going for us is the chinese leadership knows if it cannot protect intellectual property and it cannot if it does not have anticorruption matters and rule of law. the chinese economy cannot grow. it is starting to slow down because they have done most of what you can do to grow your by making things cheaply. now they have to innovate and do things. the hardest will be freedom of information.

you have to get the basic rule of law with patents and anti-corruption. huge obstacles domestically. we need and want them to fix that so we can trade more fairly. partnerships will all sign on to those rules. insists will write and on about 97% of what is in this agreement, including environmental and other standards, to bring all these countries up to a level we abide by. have aet this right, we much better chance of getting sinceon board, especially chinese leaders recognize they need the external pressure and external example.

we do not do this trade deal, the pressure comes of china. we'll have fewer opportunities. it is not just a nice thing to do. i think given the rise of the chinese economy, we must. we have got to get the rules set . we do not do this trade deal, line forure comes of>> romney e republicans. areer: i understand they talking about ukraine and all of that over there. why are they talking about all those russian troops and naval ships in cuba? well, the concern in the far east, not cuba. the russian presence, six years ago.

in the far east, the russia is in -- is a player. they do have the military and the russian far east. the countries in asia would like to see russia play a larger role because they do not want to china have too much dominance. thea and russia often line on issues -- often align on issues. japanng in countries like and korea, russians and asia, that would be a nice counterbalance to the chinese. of course, we have to worry and we have tone find ways to pull together the western alliances, including countries like australia, to dissuade the russians. you cannot really separate one part of the world from the other. the impact on our communication,

try guys and bad guys lessons from how we handle the ukraine. it is important that we get this right. the last caller from this segment, new hampshire. independent. caller: a quick point. i do not have a problem as soon as we could subsidizing tax law, the exported jobs. these companies are making billions of dollars on exporting jobs on our country and it is not fair to us. when they rectify that, then we can talk about it. deals we signde usually have provisions that prevent government subsidies of that kind. that is an issue congress will

have to debate separately, maybe become a part of the debate when it goes to congress. the trade deals, congress approves on the fast track. the house of representatives, congress that has the authority to negotiate commercial treaties. not the president. negotiatesnt usually the fast-track, congress loads it up with conditions and the president goes and negotiates the deal. the president does not now have that. not quite knowing exactly what the congress will accept, which makes trading partners nervous. he will have to bring it back when he is done and get the authority to negotiate the deal in the first place and negotiate itself. some may come up in the congressional debate and make accommodated. on a whole, i think it has a strong chance of passing when it

comes up hopefully over the next year or so because it provides so many opportunities and some a chance to set rules of american next court on better terms than we do now. host: thank you for being with us this morning. president barack obama will travel to asia this week hitting japan, south korea, and the philippines. we will take a quick break. --en we come back, let's go to an update from c-span radio. >> joe biden is heading to the ukraine. a shootout in the checkpoint in each set -- eastern ukraine left

at least three dead. the vice president arrived today meet with the active ukrainian prime minister and president. an update on the sunken ferry, the south korean president says the decision-making aboard a ferry that eventually sank was, in her words, unfathomable. captain and crew members guilty "unforgivable and murderous behavior." --many as 200 million people some crew members are facing charges. a speaker says the government plans to hold a presidential election despite the civil war. today's announcement came just hours after a pair of mortars exploded near the parliament

building. president assad is likely to seek another seven-year term. election will be held on june 3. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. start with the basics, which is everybody acknowledges consumers have the right to an antenna, everybody that knowledge is the right to recording content themselves, everybody acknowledges there is nothing wrong with a combination of an antenna and a dvr. debate is about where it is located. the in 10 a desk the antenna is dead until the consumer loves and then instructs antenna to a particular frequency. each makes their own company. unique and distinct, and

transmits it to themselves. none of those facts have been disputed ever. it comes down to, we as a country permit the idea of which reportst, have consistently found, yes, we do. congress has been encouraging the idea of local broadcast television. the idea that a new way of capturing the signal by an individual could somehow be prohibited is absolutely incorrect, wrong, and incorrect policy. to innovationblow in the next step of our industry , a movement of all these technologies away from the consumer's home into the cloud. >> whether aereo is filing copyright law by chance -- transmitting without permission.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] this segment will discuss how the health insurance industry is responding to the affordable care act. thank you for being with us. about how insurance companies are responding to the latest news. guest: they have got all these new customers. it is a lot more than a lot of people expected at this time. open woman for the affordable care act for these folks buying individual covers directly from the insurance companies," he urged. on march 31. they're trying to find out who they are, how thick they are,

and that will affect the rates is coming up in terms of filings they have to make. they know the affordable care act prohibited insurance companies from discriminating with pre-existing conditions. that effectively prevented them from finding out whether or not people had pre-existing conditions when they were applying for insurance and when insurance companies were accepting that. not have a really good idea what sort of conditions these folks have, and they're going to cost, how that is going to affect rates for next year. they are all china figure that out, seeing who they signed up, trying to figure it out from early claims coming in. they really have to quickly beure out what rates will for 2015 because the filings are starting to be due in the next

couple of weeks. class a number of insurers are expanding offerings. i am typically interested in the largest insurers in the country and what they're doing. class the largest is united. toy decided for this year goingt really easy on into these exchanges. a lot of insurers were quite in there willncerned would be a lot of disruption in the market this year, that you'd get a sicker pool of people than they had planned on, a lot of insurers had concerns about whether software is going to work, which turned out to be very well-founded. united stood back. some of the other big ones, at no was very cautious is here. also very cautious. the one large for-profit insurance company that did go in in a big way was wellpoint.

californian, basin in many markets there, better known by their and some, blue cross. they have a lot of blue cross lands. blue cross was the one umbrella organization that went into a big lake.ges in blue cross was already in the individual health insurance market and they had to protect that market. they were sort of the league players in just about every state to do that. in 2015, now that the industry has seen this pretty big turnout in the first year, 8 million people signed up as the president announced last year, they are now figuring out what they will do for 2015 it looks like customers signed up.

it was reconsidering it and looking at expanding its presence in -- next year. one of the few plans, blue cross plans to sit out, 2014 was the plan in north dakota. they said they would be in those states. it looks like we will see more .fferings than we had this year some states will offer significantly more selection if into an even increase. some states had only one or two insurance countries -- companies . we might see that get better. class when you're talking about the strategies for different some are holding back and waiting to see what happens. >> depends on whether they are in that business to begin with. we are talking about individual insurance, which you buy through

the exchange. of the a direct customer insurance company, rather than the health insurance we all know, which we get through our risk --s or employer employer-sponsored. if you're in that business, you want to protect that and not just sit aside and comments like that business away. companies in that business tended to want to stay in it, be in the exchanges, have offerings when you went on healthcare.gov they wanted to be there on the menu so you could pick from them and hopefully, from their point of view, at a competitive price that was financially responsible. there were new entrants this year. health-care co-ops which were not profit, private plans that

.ot subsidized in half the states, you have a co-op. these, by definition, wanted to be in the market this year. some did very well. some did not so well. they priced too high, which was the case in connecticut, or in were very dead computer problems, worse than those on healthcare.gov. for example, maryland health connection did not work well and never got fixed the way it should have been. the co-op in that state had some problems getting members. it had trouble getting the word out because people had trouble getting on the exchange. these larger insurance companies

, individual insurance is a business asf their a proportion of total business. we are talking about united. multibillion-dollar companies. united as an entire provision about health care services and not insurance. individual insurance is a small piece of their pie. they could afford to sit back and see what 2014 would look like. seen all the have new entrants, they are starting to look at that again and say, maybe this could be an area of growth for us. and maybe we ought to be there in a bigger way into thousand 15. seniorguest is the correspondent for kaiser health news. if you would like to join the -- ersation,

i want to ask you real quickly, if i am a consumer and am looking for health insurance under the affordable care act, what does this mean for me? guest: let's say you are a consumer who is still uninsured. you do not have insurance now and you did not sign up for health insurance. depending on your circumstances, you might have to wait until late this year to sign up. time endedrollment march 31. there was wiggle room for people who had trouble signing up, if you are on one of the dysfunctional computer system, they gave you extra days. there was a big rush at the end, as a lot of people expected. big crowds on the systems. unless you have a special circumstance, you have to wait

until the november enrollment time, or january 2015 covers. a lot of exceptions. if you are in a special situation, if you have coverage now but you lose it between now and the end of the year, if, for example, you are with an employer-sponsored plan, you lose your job and you lose the can go to these exchanges. the open enrollment has an exception and you can go on the exchange and get coverage. if you get married, other exceptions let you get on and get in outside the open window that most of the people have to adhere to. there are also exceptions. it is not widely known but the administration has allowed exceptions to the individual signte, a requirement to up and get health insurance, or

pay a penalty. there are some openings there. for example, there are specific religious exemptions that will allow you -- you do not have to do it. had --re, if you remember the president said, if you like your plan, you can keep it. a lot of plans were canceled. rule that said, if you lost your plan in that circumstance and you find the replacement plan is unaffordable, they will again give you a waiver on the penalty. consumers,dividual the sign-up has passed. not nearly everybody signed up. the next opportunity to do so will come late this year. >> the first color for this segment is in new york. hello.

guest: i was in glen falls last month reporting on health care. i hope the weather has warmed up since i was there. >> it has finally. we can play little baseball. i just wanted to say, i am an independent. i pick up my own insurance. this is helped me a great deal here monthly, from around 1100 to 800. i have a friend who is a farmer. i -- i have a friend who is an independent trucker and it helped him significantly. premium prices were rising, long before the aca, every year, continually, the co-pay went up and up. to say for us, in states where they are trying to make it work, it is working. >> you saw your premium go down. what kind of plan did you get, if i can ask echo class a silver plan. the middle of the road.

i am not really super well off, for sure. quest that is very typical. the sober plan was expected to be one of the most popular. for listeners who do not know, there are metal grades of plans. the bronze plan was the lowest cost plan. then there was silver, gold, and platinum. the silver plans turned out to be among the most popular. -- itemiums came in varies widely by state, but you can get subsidies. kyle sounds like he has a family plan. i would mention to the caller, he said health-care prices have been going up and up. there is no guarantee it will

not continue to happen. a lot of people sought relief under the aca. the caller sound like he was one of them. it sounds like you got some subsidies. there are tax credits applied instantly when you buy the coverage. one of the concerns now, and we may talk about it later, is, what are premiums going to look like for 2015, will the co-pays and premiums keep going up, that is one of the big questions of the affordable care act. now, the question is unanswered. we will have to wait and see. host: an article recently reports statisticians working for next year's insurance premium rates, expect to see an average increase of seven percent, well below the feared double-digit increases making headlines.

>> that article was based on an interview with one guy. he was basically making an educated guess. a very smart guy, but nobody really knows at this point what 2015 will look like. we are getting all these mixed is sort ofich, complicating the problem. we have insurers, actuaries like the one quoted in the article, saying, it will be mid to upper single digits, which sounds like a lot, heck of a lot more than the overall inflation rate is right now, but, in the history of health care premium increases, is pretty tame and everybody would be pretty happy with that. on the other hand, we have wellpoint. toldlue cross plans, who insurance analysts on a conference call a couple of weeks ago that it is expecting inble-digit less increases

its health insurance exchange premiums for 2015. this could just be a game of expectations. insurance companies typically ask for a higher rate than the state insurance commissioners and other regulators ultimately give them. this could be wellpoint -- they could be planning a negotiating flag here. nevertheless, people still do not understand, insurance companies are still figuring out what their costs will be this year. there have been early reads on what has been going on. the first table the common when you are an insurance company, drug claims. hospitals take weeks and months to get reimbursed by the insurance company. drugs tourists put their claims in electronically. they are starting to see these claims come in for patients who

enrolled and got drugs prescribed in january and february, and, some of the information coming in indicates some fairly ill, fairly high-cost patients who signed up for the plans. insurers can figure this out based on what kinds of drugs are being prescribed. if you see drugs related to diabetes and aids and hepatitis, you know these are folks with who typicallys cost more than your average insurance and rowley. insurance --, insurers are saying, maybe we will have significant costs, maybe louisville have to raise premiums by double digits next year. on the other hand, folks are saying, look at the rhythm of enrollment here in the insurance plans. the people, there was a

six-month enrollment time, and it stands to reason people who have chronic illness who need insurance coverage and want to go to the doctor to have insurance, you pay for that, would be the first to sign up. perhaps the early claims coming in are disproportionately from folks who have higher illness. the thinking is a lot of these folks who rush at the end of up would ben younger and healthier and would counterbalance out some of the early claims coming in that suggest high-cost. in fact, we are also hearing anecdotal reports that that is that young folks waited as long as they possibly could to sign up. they are younger and healthier and that may fulfill the hope come a lot of people were wondering, the people would sign

up to bounce out the risk pool. some folks are suggesting that may happen. insurance companies are just really coming to grips with this right now. to say what we know premiums will do for 2015, it is really just a guess at this point. >> president barack obama toss about the newest enrollment numbers at a nuke -- news conference last week. let's listen to what he have to say. >> i do not think we should apologize or be defensive about it. there is a strong story to tell. with the other side is doing and what the other side is offering would strip away protections from those families and from hundreds of millions of people who already had health insurance , but never knew if the insurance company could drop them when actually needed it, or women who were getting charged more just because they are a woman. puzzled why the sole

agenda item when it comes to republicans -- it is curious. what i intend to talk about is what the american people are interested in hearing. plans for putting people back to work. plans for making sure our economy continues to innovate. , training people for the jobs out there right now and making better use of our community colleges and linking them up with businesses, and how we will continue to bring manufacturing back, the way we have over the past several years. and how we will put more money in the pockets of ordinary people. if republicans want to spend all of their time talking about repealing a law that is working, that is their business. what democrats should do is not be defensive, but we need to move on and focus on things very important to the american people right now.

take? guest: a lot of people describe what he was doing there as a victory lap , because they had already declared victory a couple of weeks before when they passed the white house's target, the congressional budget offices original perjurer -- projections, 7 million. inn they hit 7 million mid-march or so, they proclaimed victory. the last-minute rush we talked over 8ctually put them million. that gave the administration and the president leading it occasioned to really take credit for something that a lot of people, democrats and republican alike, but was not going to happen. never in october and november how completely dysfunctional

healthcare.gov was. it really was a mess. people were revising expectations downward. the fact they got as many people signing up is surely trumpeted , as we justrats heard, as a signed this is working in the law is here to stay. have not seen is how these people will like having it. the plans are very comp gated. it is not clear people really know what they have signed up for until they start using it. a lot of these plans come with high deductibles. are prettyone substantial. a lot of people get subsidies to pay for them. what they have not seen yet is what happens when they try to use it.

the congressional budget office reported recently premiums are lower than expected. subsidies will be lower than expected. revised downward their estimate of what obama care will cost. one reason the premiums are lower than expected is the provider networks are narrower than expected. when people use their plans, they may not see the doctor they like in it, they may not even hospital they want to go to in it. they also see very high , typical deductibles for a silver plan for a single person coverage is $3000. who do not follow health insurance, the deductibles what you have to pay out of your pocket before the insurance plan kicks in.

$3000 deductible for bronze plans that we mentioned, the cheapest plan you can get, the deductibles $5,000 for an individual. if you have a family plan, it is $10,000. those used to be called catastrophic insurance where you are basically paying out-of-pocket the day today cost of going to the doctor, getting tests, and so forth. unless you get very sick, the insurance does not kick in. it is not clear. it is interesting to see how people will react. thosea lot of people sign up fod and platinum plans with lower deductibles. a lot of people like our caller from upstate new york are very happy with their plans. but i think we still need to see startople react once they

using the plans. as a nation, in terms of the nation, my colleague at the kaiser family foundation, take a poll regularly on how people are thinking about the affordable care act. it is still pretty unpopular politically. when you use that term. now we are here, we are in it, people have signed up, we have got customers, now they will road test it and we will see how it goes. host: calls coming in, rachel in texas. she has health insurance through her employer. caller: yes. for the first time, my sister has insurance at a cost her $36 a month. is on medicare. she is 80 years old. she is in chronic pain. she gets phone calls from groups telling her

she will lose her medicare. it has got her scared to death. they just want donations but her phone rings all the time from these people. thed you tell me what part prescription drug programs will cost us? guest: i cannot quote you figures but it's fair to say passeddicare part d under the second president bush was one of two extremely expensive, significant benefit laden social welfare programs passed by congress in social health welfare programs. it was passed by congress in recent decades.

they both added hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal budget. you mentioned the talk about medicare because of the affordable care act. thats a big talking point republicans have been trying to take advantage of. ande are some reductions what providers get, what hospitals get, and insurance companies get from the federal government under the affordable care act. there is no reduction in benefits. in particular, the affordable paymentsrequired that under the medicare advantage program which are private medicare plans run by insurance companies -- insurance companies have been collecting a premium

on those programs. the happen costing taxpayers as for privatemore medicare advantage plan than regular medicare that most people get. every year the department of health and human services is having to ratchet that down and having to figure out how they are doing it. this year, the insurance companies went on a huge publicity and lobbying campaign to minimize that reduction. part of that was reaching out to that medicareying is being eroded because of the affordable care act. medicare advantage was already getting a premium of what other medicare debts. have not beenits changed by the affordable care act. in florida, anthony is on the line. morning, my

question to you is what is going to be done about those folks who are trying to get onto the plan in order to get the subsidies to get the plan? we talked about everyone posturing in regard to which direction should we go regarding health care and how it is administered. one of the things i find concerning working and purchasing in my career for over 20 years is that when i received my bills working in a surgical center, i am surprised by the cases beingere are billed to me at $1500 and if i did not look and ask for the billing, if you multiply that times all the patients out there

who don't do that, who is checking that and taking care of that due diligence to reduce actual costs? guest: thanks for the call. you are talking about how people will get care in the states that have not -- that have blocked the subsidies. i assume you're talking about medicaid. obamacare, the affordable care act, had several measures to expand coverage but the two main ones were expanding medicaid which is the program for low income folks where it's like medicare for seniors only you in insured by the government a state and federal program. medicaid had a pretty restricted eligibility criteria in most states. the affordable care act expanded that to include almost all

adults under a certain percentage of the federal poverty limit. andsupreme court considering the affordable care act struck down the part of the aca that made medicaid expansion mandatory and it gave the option to the states. right now, we are at about 26 okayed medicaid expansion and the other ones have said no or are considering it. some are on the fence like pennsylvania and virginia. what happens to those folks who are stuck? offersordable care act subsidies to go buy your own health insurance on these computerized exchanges if you are over a certain income limit. it is 12 or $14,000 if you are a single person.

if you are above that threshold and you get the subsidies, you lthcare.govy on hea or if you are under that, you qualify for medicaid in every state unless you're in one of the states op that did not to expand medicaidt in that case, you are in a coverage gap and ins one of the larger gaps the way the affordable care act has been implemented. there is still health care available to folks in this category. there are community health clinics that see folks who are uninsured. hospitals are required by federal law to take anybody in the emergency room and stabilize them whether they have insurance or not. have is anon't insurance plan where they can go to the doctor and be assured

that they have full coverage. your other question was about prices which we could talk all day about. it is a great point. one problem of the health-care system is when somebody else pays the bills, the actual customers, the patience, you and me, really don't have an incentive to look at the charges and see if they are the right charges and shop around for the best deal. many people want to change that. there is a lot going on in health care now to increase the transparency of these prices. hospitals are starting to pledge to let people see what the cost of their coverage might we when they go to the hospital. a normal concept and any other retail business but for hospitals it's pretty radical. a couple of weeks ago, the federal government started publishing what private doctors are charging and making for health care. employers now are making prices

available to their employees in their health plans for certain procedures, typically radiology. they will give you a particular price and say we will pay $500 for an mri and here are the places to go. here is what they costing you can shop around but we will only give you $500 so you make a decision. that is changing slowly. it is a problem and one of the marks of success in five years or so will be to what degree we have a much better sense of what's in our health care bills and what exactly we are paying for and how does that compare with other people who are offering the same kind of product. georgiac,laudette gets her insurance from somewhere other than her employer. are you with us? on and gog to move

instead to lisa in shreveport, louisiana. caller: how are you? i am from shreveport, louisiana. i have a problem. i am single and 55 years old. my health care will cost me $400 per month. i lost my job. i cannot get medicaid and i have no idea what to do. i am just sick. guest: you say your health care is $400 per month? caller: that's what they said it would cost me is $400 per month. guest: so you went on health care.gov and try to sign up? caller: yes, sir. guest: it sounds like you did not end up getting that insurance. caller: no, sir, i cannot afford it. bobby jindal is my governor and he did not expand medicaid.

i could not qualify for it so i have no idea what i will do. guest: do you have an income now? caller: i have no income whatsoever. they said i did not qualify for medicaid so i don't understand. you are in the category of people we just talked about. caller: yes, sir. i heard you were talking about that. i don't know what to do. i am really scared. it's tough if you lose your job and you are in a position like that -- recently lost your employment -- there is always an option called cobra coverage after you leave your job in which case you can pay the premiums and keep the coverage that you just had. and your case, it does not, that's an option even if you were still in the cobra coverage window.

you've got to sign up within a certain period of time after you leave your job. $400 per month on the exchanges too much than the cobra premium is likely also too much. you are one of the folks unfortunately who is in this coverage gap we talked about. louisiana did not expand medicaid. if the caller had an income even relatively low like if she made $50,000 per year or so, she could go on the exchanging get the subsidies. -- $18,000 per year or so -- she would qualify for medicaid and the in's -- in an expansion state. it's an unfortunate situation and it's got a be worrisome. as i mentioned, there are community health clinics. i'm sure there's one in shreveport.

that sees folks who are uninsured if they have an issue. sometimes there is a waiting list to get him. that is one option. unfortunately, many people are still using hospital emergency room's as their caregiver of forst resort -- of first resort because hospitals are required to see people and it's expensive and inefficient way to deliver health care. willf the marks of success be of the system is fixing itself to reduce those but right now in some states like louisiana, that is the first choice for many people. host: last call from this segment comes from cincinnati, ohio. hello, i'm talking about reducing health care costs. it's called tort reform and malpractice.

my suggestion is they should get rid up unitive damages -- get rid of punitive damages and pain-and-suffering and to compensional damages and go after these trial lawyers and pay back the excess amount of money they have been rewarded for three years. pay that money back into the health-care system. right, i think both conservatives and liberals would agree that the american tort does add to health care costs in this country. doctors tend to order more tests and be more careful because they're concerned about eating suit.

sued. while they find that malpractice costs do add to the expansiveness of the american health care system, it is not the main thing wrong with the system. we are talking about a few percentage points in any given year. if you did wholesale tort reform the way some on the right would like to do it, i forget the exact number but is somewhere in the single digits like five or in healthent gain care costs for one year. and thatone-time gain is basically what health-care inflation has been at the bottom and for year after year. a lot of folks agree that we do need to do tort reform. as a one bullet fix for health care costs.

i think most disinterested experts would tell you that that would not solve the whole problem. host: that's all the time we got hancock segment and jay is a senior correspondent for kaiser health news and thank you for being with us. back, the your money series will continue attacks benefits for so-called clean energy but first, let's get a news update. at 9:15 a.m. eastern time -- a senior administration says president obama is considering granting clemency to hundreds, perhaps thousands of people jailed for nonviolent drug crimes by the time he leaves office. it's a number that is not in seen said gerald ford extended amnesty to vietnam draft dodgers in the 1970's. the scope of the new clemency initiative is so large that administration officials are preparing a series of her smell and rockets changes to help them

manage the petitions. vice president joe biden is on his way to ukraine and ahead of his talks inkiev, news on crimea from bbc news. they say that russia plans to create a gambling zone in crimea after annexing the ukrainian territory last month. president obama is at the white house today for the easter egg roll. news tweetsof cbs that today marks the 136 year the white house has had the easter egg roll. dates back to rutherford b. hayes and 1878. it is the largest annual public events at the white house with some 30,000 visitors expected. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. over 35 years, c-span brings public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white

house events, briefings, and conferences and offering complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u.s. house as a public service of 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. it's time for our weekly " your money" segment. the senate is expected to take up legislation that would temporarily restore text that expired or soon to expire and some of those credits are directly aimed at the energy industry. first of all, explain to our viewers what the expire actives. guest: it is the latest elvis comes up every now and again that has a huge area of tax credits.

some of them are for energy but also other things. it could be for making movies or tv commercials. research and development credit is another popular one. these tax credits were aimed to sunset that have a strong political constituency. they come up for renewal and you get these they catch all bills to push them forward for a year or so all at once. typically, these things are a grab bag. this is about $85 billion and has a pretty significant energy piece to it. host: talk to us about the details of the energy component. -i thinkhe biggest piece this is the second biggest these of the whole bill -- it would redo tax credit for renewable energy production largely for wind for about two years. it would push it forward for a couple of years. wind developers take advantage of that and there are other renewable energy sources. it provides two point three

cents a kilo watt hours and it is one of the prized pieces of policy for the wind industry and is a heavy lobbying battle to get it done. one reason the industry is interested in this credit is it has been around for decades. it has been allowed to lapse, you will see growth in the industry and that falls off a cliff when the credit shows up again, it starts to go back up again so that shows you how necessary it is for this industry. host: say these credits are extended, what do these companies do? industrypending on the -- sometimes they lay off people. the credit got extended at the 11th hour last year. in advance of that credit, there was not the demand for new orders because developers did not have that level of knowledge about whether the credit will either. -- would be there. you had a big wind turbine

reduce her in colorado having layoffs. year, new wind power installations went off a cliff. now that the head of the expiration of that credit -- what i came back into force, companies ramped up again so you will see very little new wind power generating capacity added over last year but in the coming year, it looks like there will be a lot because once it gets extended and the companies wrap up again, they place new orders. host: late last year, you wrote a piece looking at senator max baucus from montana. walk us through that and what we see from him on this front. guest: before he became interested in china, he did what most chairman of the tax writing committee-he does not want to be just a caretaker. some of the policies they like but because there is a long-term unicorn of a goal of a broader

tax reform, he said let's try to really shake up how our existing super confusing patchwork of green energy incentives work. he would boil it down to just a couple and on the electricity say, the main one would there is a technology neutral credit so you could be making wind or power from natural asked or power from other types of sources and depending on how cleaner power it is and how much of a carbon emissions reductions you get, the credit would expand the cleaner you get. senator wyden is backing him and pushing forward for this bill. they want to put their own stamp on the policy. you can tell from the title of the extenders bill this year that he is not a huge fan of

doing it in a rushed way every couple of years. activesled the expire way of saying one more time but then let's have a rudder set of tax policy overhauls. mant: our guest is ben gie with "the national journal." could you walk us through some of the politics of this? the wind tax credit has bipartisan support because the wind kind of blows in places that are both red states and blue states. texas is the biggest producer of wind power which is a very conservative state.

senator chuck grassley of iowa who is conservative is the father of the wind power tax credit. -- whenuite interesting the bill was marked up in committee, you had a republican amendment to strip away these energy tax incentives and it split the republicans. republicans including senator john thune of south dakota and senator grassley, they said we would not vote for the amendment and some republicans did vote for it. they lined up generally for where you don't have a lot of wind power. have gotten of it more difficult for the wind industry over the last couple of years. because ofel, it's the size of the growth of this industry. when the wind and the tree was very small, the tax credit did not cost the federal government very much. as the industry has grown, the credit has become more and more expensive and more controversial. you could say it's a victim of its own success. it's spending the credit for it

decade and that would cost about $13 billion. at the same time, you have had a hardening of political lines on green energy over the last several years. the federal loan guarantee or a -- program became quite controversial and republicans became critical of it when the solar company solyndra collapsed. you have two headwinds working against the credit. the industry has grown and you have had this hardening of political lines ran green energy. host: the senate energy committee member lamar alexander criticize the tax credit. [video clip] >> the problem here is that congress is picking winners and losers when it gives wind power such a big subsidy that sometimes the subsidy is more than the cost of electricity. our:this does is undercut nuclear plants. what that does is put us at risk as a country.

any country that uses that much electricity needs these big plants that operate almost all the time called nuclear to keep the lights on and have the jobs and the cars. we cannot run on windmills. when the wind blows great we cannot run only on solar power when the sun shines. we have to have the baseload power. subsidyof the wind picking and choosing winners and losers, it undercuts the baseload power and its cause the center for strategic c e combination of this could cause 25% of our nuclear plants to close in the next 10 years. host: what is your take? guest: the senator from tennessee has been a longtime opponent of the wind energy credit. ofmentions the question

being right on the issue of intermittency. certain types of renewable sources of energy like wind and solar will not come onto the grid at all moments. policy makersce, are trying to get right is making sure you have both a certain level of baseload power and also being able to integrate cleaner and greener sources. a very small still percentage right now of the country's electricity. i think it is roughly four percent. solar is far less than that. they have had the growth of the renewables industry and epa regulations soon to come online that are creating some other headwinds for the coal industry. conservatives and republicans are concerned that this could affect the reliability of the electricity grid. has been almost bent

over backwards to say they are mindful of that creating these new regulations. the energy department tried to the loan- revive program the other day and one thing they are focusing on is technologies that help integrate renewable energy into the grid so storage technology and that sort of thing. the telephone numbers to call him are on your screen. let's go to a couple of questions from twitter -- guest: in the main, the tax credit covers geothermal and certain types of i/o mass and wind energy and perhaps a couple of others. i don't believe the existing generation of hydropower is

covered by the credit. i want to return to something the senator said -- even in that short clip -- he said we should not be picking winners and losers. if an alien came down to the house and senate hearings and understood what was being said, they would conclude quickly that ticking winners and losers is one of the greatest crimes you could ever have in our society. that is something that critics of green energy policies tend to say. we should be allowed in the market to decide that. the other side of that question is the fact that some of the fossil fuel technologies and joy some parts of the tax code that are permanent so that don't have to have to your battles to see the extension of their credits because it is kind of there in perpetuity. host: another question from twitter --

guest: that's a good question. beings the question debated. the cost is been coming down for wind and solar. thanare newer technologies some of our longer-term energy sources like coal and natural gas and oil which is used for transportation. these are technologies that have been around far longer at scale. folks in a knowable's say we can envision a time or we don't need the support but at the moment, even though we are making , we still need the support. there is also a sense that perhaps the subsidies in getting the cost down to the point where you don't need them work in concert. ,he more you are supporting it in the shorter-term, that's

what's helping the cost come down. much of the debate around the when the credit -- voted againsthune this amendment in committee and killed the wind credit but his view is let's give a glide path downward but not cut it off entirely. the next caller is john in mechanicsburg, pennsylvania on the line for republicans. thing is going on and they bundy ranch want the chinese to invest in windmills there. how do you stop politicians from getting their hands in their? we have natural gas, more than the middle east. that sounds like a better energy source for us. we don't have to put all this money into the other green energies. guest: the caller mentions

natural gas in pennsylvania. i was up there looking at the natural gas development couple of weeks ago. the shale gas revolution has led the united states to be the largest natural gas producer in the world. that creates both challenges and opportunities for combining natural gas with renewables. than coals is cleaner when you burn it to create power. it creates about half the carbon emissions of burning coal and that's a big reason why u.s. greenhouse gas emissions have been falling in recent years and are about 10% below the level they were one year ago. one of the questions around whether natural gas is a friend or ally in the fight against climate change depends in part on how successful regulators at the state and federal level and industry is at clamping down on leaks of methane.

when you're finishing up a well or you are compressing the gas or storing it or trance porting it could be leaking out at different points. for natural gas to really be a winner on the climate change front, you cannot only make sure that is just not the fact that a person's cleaner when you use it to make energy but you have to make sure it is not springing leaks along the development chain. while natural gas is a much more greenhouse gas friendly fuel than coal, a lot of scientific oddities say that eventually we will need incredibly steep reductions in greenhouse gases, certainly by the midcentury, to avoid some of the most dangerous effects. of climate change. secretary will say ,hat natural gas is a good way

a bridge technology, in the coming decades. from a climate change standpoint but eventually, we will have to find a way to not only get carbon emissions sucked out of coal-fired energy production but carbonize natural gas production to have that as a continued role. host: in bethesda, maryland, on her line for democrats -- caller: i would like to ask the about the he knows engine being built in india to produce small cars. it is propelled only by air. oil, no gas, nothing, just air. istata andes name they are working from switzerland. and those in the u.s. should be aware of this and try

to work with these people and do it as fast as possible. they will come up with a real small car only for three passengers, it looks like. into this. could get -- host: it sounds like we lost him. guest: i have heard of the company the gentlemen mentioned. i have not heard of the technology are. notlicy focus right now is only looking at these types of renewable electricity per auction but looking at extenders package for avenues. it is looking at how can we lower the carbon footprint. seenf the things you have the administration do is increase fuel efficiency standards. they're also trying to wrap up

their loan guarantee program for automakers making different types of green parts of cars. controversial, two. the portfolio is usually done in the energy department. there has been trouble with solyndra and electric car company. of thes is part extending package for you have the credit labs for bio diesel production making fuel from different animal fats or soybeans. the credit would also be extended in this package as would some other incentives for the biofuels industry. that is in austry fairly precarious situation. the environmental protection last year for the first time kind of lowered the amount of renewable transportation fuel it has to be blended into the nation's motor fuel supply.

thingas a controversial and was supported by the oil industry which is not a big fan of i/o fuels but the biofuels industry really absorb the wounds. you've got this kind of double of an epa decision to lower the amount of their fuels combined with the expiration of some of their tax credits. that's an industry that has got his work cut out for it. host: fort worth, texas, on our lives for republicans. caller: i have a lot of questions. the one i wondered the most about is we have the natural gas here in texas. it does not help our electric bills at all. it has to do with the president closing out the coal-fired plants we had here. my electric bill went from $155 to $355. i would like to pay by the month

. we have these meters now so there's nothing we can do about it. the more we have, the more we are punished. it seems like it does not trickle down to us. can you regulate the sick surety and safety of all of these places instead of taxews? if we can get rid of the irs that would help. is texas still on their own grid? i hope we have our own. china is using a lot of oil in their power. know who is making dollars behind their back. that sounds like a steep increase of your power bill. curious as to what

regional power bills will be. you have seen announced retirements of coal-fired power plants. there is debate about why. theblicans will say that obama administration is essentially forcing these units into retirement through their existing air pollution regulations over the last few years which are not controlling carbon emissions but the more conventional pollutants. i also have a first-time standard for mercury and other types of toxics. time, what is creating a problem for the coal industry is natural gas. you have had a huge roman including from shale texas. the price of natural gas has come down a lot from where was a decade oh to the point where you've got a lot of power we will goaying that with natural gas because it used to be spent seven hours cheap. host: what have we heard from the administration? guest: the administration wants

to see the wind tax credit extended. like itenate, it looks will come up fairly shortly after the senate gets back the week after next. then we'll go into a deep freeze for quite a while, i would imagine. i would be surprised if you saw any final action on it until after the election. at the same time, the chairman of the house ways and means committee who is retiring, dave isolathe juice --is loathe to say let's continue with business as usual. we have seen this movie before where the wind credit and other renewable credits go into the brink and fall off and then come back.

it has the cost of gotten higher and you've had these hardening political lines around green energy, it will be a cliffhanger. host: what are the prospects for passage in the house of it clears the senate? guest: i think it will clear the senate. it sailed through the committee just fine. the senate finance committee did a voice vote and i don't think the house will take it up after -- until after november. i think it might depend on whether there is some other must pass bill that it would have to hitch a ride on. last wind credit got extended but it was not stand alone. a kind of hitched a ride in that year and fiscal cliff deal. i think we will have to see what trends are moving during the lame-duck session. host: here is a cheap caller: ♪ caller: ♪ caller tweet.

is that a preview of the argument we could see if it comes up in the house? guest: absolutely, he is flipping the argument. senator alexander said we should not have the government picking winners and losers in the energy sector. the flipside of that could say , let's also stripped the existing provisions out of the tax code that benefit the fossil fuel industries. from a political standpoint, that can be more difficult. it is tough to add something to the tax code then to take away long-standing permanent giveaways. iowa next caller is from on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. this is such a rich environment here. that pertain to me in iowa would be the renewable fuels tax

credits which i think are very important. energy which we are strong with that. i am for that. i think the problem of our energy future is it is too heavily out of balance in favor of big oil. i think that's a problem when it comes to lobbying and planning for the future energy needs of our country. i will hang up and listen. the oil industry is a potent lobbying force. they have batted 1001 it comes to keeping the tax credits. the oil industry will say that we have had this tremendous success in the united states

both from a shale gas and oil revolution. their view would be let's not halt the momentum because that could affect the jobs profile of the industry in this kind of momentum. critics would say that this is a big powerful industry that gets these tax credits that that it doesn't need. look at their quarterly profit reports. you can show that they don't need this. the gentle man is from i/o and the renewable transportation fuels credit, the ethanol incentives, those have provided -- that industry has provoked -- proved pretty durable. one of the reasons is if you look at the states where you have a big ethanol industry, it tends to be the states -- some of them are blue and red or purple. you've got a lot of lawmakers including from iowa like senator big fans.ho are quite

of theeresting piece extenders package and how it relates to developing the next generation of ethanol and biofuels. you hear about cellulite city which is not made from food rotted but rather from all different types of things and other plant material and maybe cornstalks. scaled uptry is not to commercial scale production and has a kind of market impact that its boosters and advocates have either hoped for or anticipated when the last time in 2007, we had a big expansion of the nation's renewable transportation fuel mandate. the sender's package would also extend the credit for cellulite city of ethanol production. about $55 million wages not that much money. and onee scope of this,

of the reasons for that is because this industry is not reached commercial scare them -- scale nearly as quickly. walker, louisiana, ir line for republicans -- caller: i'm glad that ethanol came up. i'm not really happy with the way it was characterized especially with corn. even environmentalists say it is a very harmful idea to take -- and bad for the environment -- to make fuel out of corn. isanted to find out if there any curious reporters at "the national journal" that might question the science of greenhouse gases. we gone withs have increased carbon dioxide emissions without the temperature going up one degree? guest: you brought up the

environmental footprint of out that all and also climate change. the caller is right in the sense that over the last 15 years since 1998, you have not had an increase in average global temperatures. that has been a sharp as theperiod preceding that. the last decade or so has been by a lot. ticketbeen the hottest since records began in the late 1800s. while the rate of the average temperature increase has been rather small, people refer to it as a pause or hiatus but we have had maybe eight of the 10 hottest years on record within the last tech eight. the united nations client -- climate change program at code the findings of other scientific bodies but can i would've report let you do say they are more certain than ever that global

warming is occurring and its largely driven eye burning fossil fuels and other human activities. been a kind of scientific consensus that has been shaken in any significant way. on the climate change question, the climate footprint of ethanol has been a topic of debate. there was once a time when the ethanol industry was seeing it thrown in with other renewable energies and was seen as a good guy. it has been science of last notde or so that looks at only how much greenhouse gases rather howing but this nationwide and worldwide of the footprint of ethanol production and the sense in the senseing --

that if you're diverting more of the food production into use of fuel, is that causing things like deforestation in other countries to make up for that decrease in the use of that production for food? indirectly induced change. when you factor that in, it's not so clear that ethanol is a big winner from a climate standpoint depending on how you model or do the numbers. you can get different results and the epa has determined that it is better from a greenhouse gas standpoint than conventional gasoline but how much better as a matter of dispute. ah --sarah is on the line from utah for him alive the democrats. caller: we need to continue tax credits for clean alternative energy and we need to be aware that we have so much oil in the united states that they are our

number one export. jet full diesel and are our number one expor. it seems ludicrous to give these tax credits to these oil companies. about ticking and choosing. -- then we talk about picking and choosing. we need to think about the future generations and climate change. guest: the caller probably issue a fossil fuel exports. that is one of the biggest political fights going on now. we do export an increasing amount of stuff that comes out of refineries and that's been a big growth market. do in any.s. does not

significant way is export crude oil. a patchwork of policies were put in place in the wake of the oil embargoes of the 1970's. there is a de facto ban on the export of large-scale amounts of crude oil. no one was really clamoring in a significant way to get rid of that when you is oil production was falling. now the we have had this shale energy boom in places like texas and north dakota and elsewhere, we are swimming in more of the stuff than we thought we had. that is leading some pretty big and powerful companies to say let's knock down these terriers to exporting u.s. -- u.s. crude oil. the administration can probably butx some of those limits how much leeway it has as a matter of some dispute. you are also starting to see some legislation on capitol hill around that.

i would be surprised if that moves anytime soon. a related topic is export of natural gas which is allowed. the same time, we used to tilt terminals to export national gas. -- natural gas or if there is a big rush to take advantage of the global growing demand for natural gas. it needs energy per postal -- energy department approval or export. some of these countries do not have a free trade agreement with the u.s. there is a lot of pressure on energy department from capitol hill. it's coming from natural gas advocates in both parties. it's to speed up the approval process and there is some legislation which will move through the house pretty soon. legislation would allow you to streamline that approval process.

number the energy department would waive it through and i think that will come up soon in the house adobe interesting to see how many democrats support that. i think republicans will vote overwhelmingly for it. you will have some democrats in favor of but some will say if we explored natural gas i large-scale level, that could increase prices for consumers but also affects the manufacturing industries such as dow chemical that use natural gas. you have a few of those companies do not industrywide. they have been pushing back against this push for large-scale exports. host: kansas on the line for independents. in kansas, there is

concern that as the federal government debt increases and they decide decisions on what to includinghe budget renewable energy tax credits, there is a concern that there would be a lot of windmills left idle because there is not any money there to actually support those industries. what can you say to that? guest: i think that certainly hits the concern right on the head. facilities that are up and running have presumably taken advantage of that tax credit. thatot aware of the idea those with stops spinning eventually. what i think is a larger concern is theirndustry

ability to finance new projects hit -- would really take a from the expiration of these credits. you had the amount of new wind power installations rise or fall on whether or not the tax credit is in place. the gentleman comes from a state where there is a lot of wind power potential. of his credit,e this affects how much more the industries able to install in the state. from north carolina, the line for independents. caller: hello? yes, i just heard senator lamar alexander say that you cannot run on wind when the wind does not blow. and you cannot use solar power when the sun doesn't shine. you cannot drink water in the rivers in virginia or the dan

river in north carolina when they are dumping chemicals in coal ash into them and destroying the water and the fish. picking andut choosing winners -- in north carolina, they haven't picking and choosing duke power for many years and giving them any kind of break they wanted. he needs to retire. guest: that call guest is something that we have not been discussing. we have talked about climate change. you've got a whole host of other environmental issues that don't have much to do with climate change. you get this from long-term energy sources like coal. in north carolina, you had a recent spill of coal ash which is the byproduct of coal-fired power production. you get other types of effects on the mining of these resources. --lear is also a technology

that has safety concerns. the industry has a pretty good record in the u.s.. we have not had an accident along the lines of the fukushima catastrophe in japan but that shook the confidence in that industry. you have the nuclear regulatory commission re-looking at its own rules and has been pushing ahead with certain tighter safeguards. it is also increasing the headwinds. for years, we have heard about a nuclear renaissance. for the first time in decades, you are seeing at few nuclear plants built in the u.s.. there are two reactors under construction in georgia and a couple more in south carolina. is many more we see something i think is managed in question and is uncertain right now. the industry was planning a fairly wide will tout a few years ago. it depends on whether the companies can get the financing

and it depends on how much public confidence there is in the sector. host: from the democrats line in north carolina, go ahead. i would like to speak about the efficiency of ethanol. we have two natural gas wells on my farm, actually. we need to export what we can but we also need to keep it here in the united states. extent, they are used for different things. one area of growing interest is how much we can or may our long-haulike

heavy-duty trucks, could we have more of those running on natural gas? sources ofthere is energy is that turn on the lights and source of energy we put in our automobile tanks and there is not much crossover. like that little bit the climate of electrically powered and cagle's -- electrical powered vehicles. there is also a huge amount of interest in long-haul trucking vehicles and fleet vehicles for like fedex and ups. can they run natural gas -- you would have an increase in the use of natural gas for fleet vehicles. that is something you have or number of years and that's relative especially. host: on our line for independents =- is,er: the question i have

you said a few minutes ago that the price of natural gas has come down. virginia, the price of gas was very high and there was a lack of gas for heating homes. this has been a big problem. he said the price of gas has come down. it was very high over the winter. guest: a very fair comment. you will have different fluctuations from a nationwide standpoint. natural gas prices are not where they were a decade ago. given where you are on the calendar and the different parts of the country, you will see fluctuations. way, it is still sort of lower. host: ben geman thank you for joining us this morning.

the time we have for this program. please join us again tomorrow for "washington journal." we will go live to the heritage foundation in washington where they are hosting a panel ,iscussion on top again that the resurgence of russian political warfare. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] .