as always we'll take your calls and you can join the ♪ host: the white house hosts a multi-day african summit this week in washington d c. include trade investment, funding for aids relief. the president's weekly address address the weekly jobs report. the unemployment rate, however, take 6.2%. our first 40 five minutes, we want to hear from you specifically. do you see the economy improving eschenbach you can give us your thoughts this morning.

host: already 90 postings on our facebook page. you can also send us an e-mail. those numbers came out on friday. touted in the papers on monday. a review of them if you missed them, it was 200 9000 jobs added in july, but because of a multitude of things, the unemployment rate ticking up a little bit to 6.2%. taking a look of the jobs numbers created, it showed that 200,000 jobs were created. the president used that as the subject of his weekly radio address as he talked about the economy and how it affects the middle class.

[video clip] inover 200,000 new jobs july, on top of 300,000 new jobs in june. adding 200,000 jobs each month, which has not happened since 1997. all told businesses have created 9.9 billion jobs over the last six months. because of your hard work and comemination america has farther and faster than almost any other advanced company on earth. the economy is clearly getting stronger. things are clearly getting better. the decisions that we make now are to keep things moving in that direction. economy workse for every working american. making sure that the people who work hard can get ahead.

pushing for common sense ideas in our infrastructure. why i have been pushing to raise the minimum wage, pushing for fair pay and paid leave. these policies have two things in common, they would help working families feel more havee and secure and they been blocked or ignored by republicans in congress. >> the president saying the job situation is improving and getting better. your thoughts this morning -- host: the question -- do you see the economy improving? joe, republican line, what do you think? caller: i have been calling your great network for 35 years. i think the economy is improving, but it could do a lot

that are. we need to go to a flat tax or consumption tax. we have a guy that we are going to send up their, david purdue, a great tax cutter. even in georgia we are working for a great tax cutter. host: why do you think the economy is improving? six great months of jobs increases pretty good. the stock market is at an all-time high, but it would do -- it is growing slower than any time in the last few years. the corporate tax rate, for example, would be a great thing. i think we should send guys like

purdue up there, greatly improving the economy. pedro, it will be a lot better. kevin, marion, massachusetts, republican line. about theu think economy? is it improving? caller: government numbers are quite skewed. doing wellea that is is washington, d.c., maryland, and the government suburbs. they are doing exceptionally well. i see people still continuing to struggle to find employment, losing their jobs. people losing their homes. it is actually getting worse now . i don't know if there is any hope in sight except for a change in presidency to kind of put us on a half for prosperity in the middle class. right now i am not seeing that at all. host: what about your own

personal economic richer? -- it comes in spurts. a waitress who works at a restaurant, a lot of them are fully up left and right in your local areas. overburdened with a lot of taxes and are closing their doors. i see it going the other way on main street. but in the suburbs of d.c., they are doing beautiful. host: steve on twitter as his thoughts -- eli is up next. texas, independent line. hi. caller: tell brian that he is awesome, by the way.

you look at what happened during the great things got better for a while, but then they went down again. it was a double dip recession. "the washington post" analysis of the jobs numbers came out with this -- people working or looking for work, expanding, a sign that americans may be feeling more comfortable in their prospects of finding a job. you can put that into thoughts with lines on your screen. randy, michigan, you are up next. pedro, i would like to thank you and the folks behind the screen for putting on this great show. i can tell the economy has improved because of the way my children are working now.

my daughter is a personal trainer who works with the chiropractor and is now getting more private clients. i can tell that there is starting to be more discretionary money out there in the market. the sun lays fiber optics and they are working a lot right now. i'm glad that we have the president in there. it's too bad we don't have other fellow americans that could help what we have in their instead of just being stuck. thank you, pedro, for taking my call. up next.mont, tom, hi. what do you think about the economy? do you see it improving? caller: it is barely inching ahead. we need to take a look at our tax revenues that governments collect.

we will see the economy improving and tax revenues abound. people in the pentagon that can't pay their tax bills, we have some of the finest government jobs available. when you take a look at your local economy, are there signs in vermont that show that the economy is improving? caller: yes, it is. there are advertisements for jobs in the newspapers. that is another thing. with the numbers, all these jobs have been created, the great majority of them are part-time jobs. we need a lot more full-time jobs that are going to last.

they look good for a couple of months per year, we are all in big trouble. aree a lot of people who working, food stamps and government help. that is tom from vermont. this 1 -- harold, new jersey, thanks for going -- thanks for holding on, go ahead. i think the most important thing is the president doing his job. what is his job? andnforce the constitution give us the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness that he swore he would. what has our president give us? misery and chaos.

he did not promise us misery and chaos. he promised us that things would be much better. the truth never changes. in our declaration of independence we were guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. life, themes to congress of the united states did not overturn roe v wade. the second right was liberty. liberty. obama has taken away our liberty. how? phone a pen and he has a and declared that he will do what he wants to do, not what you promised the oval office. that he would enforce the constitution. host: ok oh, independent line. i am in the coal fields of west virginia and we are having mines closing, which means losing jobs. also the epa ruling with the

water restrictions that they are putting on farmers, i think that is going to affect not just west virginia and farmers but other farmers within the united states. epa becauset is the of the global warming and coming down on the omissions from the coal plants. we are not in west virginia. in direoing to be straits in a couple of years down here. so, what type of jobs are dependent on the coal industry? well, the electric company. coal firing plants produce electricity.

coal is the only thing in southern west virginia. we are growing in tourism, but if the it rest of the economy is not growing, those people won't be coming in for tourism. i don't see the coal fields in the midwest doing well. they're having the same problem. coal is not being bought except by china. in others the sales are down. that was the reason why they are reducing their workforce, because the sales. our topic, the economy improving. you may want to add your perspective into the numbers

that best represent our view on the social media channels. you were the president on the topic of the economy. the republican response was delivered by the congressional committee chairman. he talked about the economy and issues of it during the weekly republican address. [video clip] the governments spends rather than saves and believes that change comes from a desk in washington, not itching towners like this one. republicans have looked to do things differently. we have looked to rein in big government. the house has passed over 40 jobs bills, but the president and his party refuse to give them a hearing. especially when the economy leaves people behind, a debt bigger than the size of the economy, a humanitarian crisis on the southern border, the irs targeting americans for their political blue -- political beliefs, and rolling disaster of obamacare.

the president is disengaged when he should be leading. thempting to manage bureaucracy of basic services for veterans. these are the problems he promised to solve. within 94 days we get to do more than just help. we have the chance to deliver the accountability that will not come soon enough. i hear from folks everyday. as the campaign chairman, i can tell you the candidates for the house are just as frustrated as you are. they are leaders who are ready to serve. some of the analysis from ,he "washington post" piece "friday data showed that the

number of people who had been out of a job for six months in the ranks of part-time workers who would prefer more hours after spiking the previous dampening thed be pressure to pay them more. a little bit more about wages, many part-time and temporary jobs are part of this economy. nexen to john. john, what do you think? i am a manager of a high-rise in manhattan. these people never get home at night. they are doing three part-time

jobs with absolutely no benefit and it is frustrating to watch operation mockingbird, the cia disinformation probe in place for 50 years or so, the american people in general are uninformed. it is just stupid the way they behave. constantly feeding into this, i theirople going home with educations to bolivia. even the people in haiti, many of the families are strong but come from impoverished places. said, that gentleman ,ants to be -- blame obama controlled, the sale of a well

oiled machine. if anyone wants to try to refute that, just go read "american life." idea toasically his come up with something to fight communism. host: ronald is up next from champaign bill, west virginia. caller: it is chapman bill. host: sorry. caller: southern west virginia. obama saying the economy is improving? you have to call to make an appointment. i make less now than i did in 15

years. why don't he come to southern west virginia and check it out himself? the senseician i get he is working more hours at playing golf. host: when you look at the analysis from "the new york times," in july that share of those employed, compared to the total labor force, it goes down to what is known as hidden unemployment. wanting full-time work for july, the people the currently want a job, that number is 6.6 million. fridayumbers came out on . 6.2% unemployment rate

is the economy improving? do you see it improving? line that shouldn't it was your thoughts as well. next, fromis up dallas, georgia. caller: good morning, how are you? host: well, thank you. caller: i would like to say that area,lanta metropolitan the economy is improving. there is a lot of groundbreaking. terms of started and shut down, the problems we have been having in the u.s., i would also like to say that all of the chambers

of commerce in the united states , they all say that they have to have the illegal immigrants here for the industry of agriculture and construction to deal with to make things work. of those jobs in construction, landscaping, mowing grass, it was all done by the american populace at the time. the original indigenous have all of this immigration coming into the country. host: roy, utica, michigan, democrat line. to make awould like comment regarding the republican gop weekly address that was just

aired. that was just the republicans again talking out of both sides of the mouth. listen, the economy is improving but can do a lot better. i have an article right in front of me from the detroit free press dated july 31 of this year. it said that republicans blocked a bill that would limit tax breaks for companies moving overseas. they actually block this bill so can move companies overseas in get tax write-offs. in the same article they block the tax credit for these companies to move back to the united states. this is hypocrisy from the republican party. middle-class republicans are voting and are very misinformed.

and if they can read that article, they can see how the republican party -- thought you said you the economy was improving? what are you basing that on? in michigan, the auto industry is booming. the president helped to restore it. chrysler, ford, gm. these republicans are out to lunch. brian, utah, salt lake city. it took years to get $9.6 trillion in debt. inma is going to double it

6, 7 years, he is going to double the debt. math.ople know how to do plus we have the fourth branch of government. the epa is going to destroy america. when you get this stuff going on, it will go nowhere, you know? have water on your roof that makes apollo? do i have to tear my house down? the papers, "the washington post," taking the long look, the topic on focus being africa. the summit reportedly facing major obstacles. good morning. talk about the focus of the summit. what does the president hope to accomplish? it will focus on

business ties and trade between the united states and africa. it is about the white house trying to show a relationship between washington and african nations, moving beyond providing aids and -- providing aid and humanitarian assistance. it is a relationship that is good for our country and the countries in africa. host: who will be participating? -- caller: dozens of leaders from africa, and the president on -- the president will be involved.

there will be a rollout of high-level officials in the administration. a whole host of leaders will be opportunityt is an for them to work on business relationships and we might see some deals brokered during that time. host: any announcements expected entrée deals? caller: there are expectations of some megadeals coming, but they probably have a few things up their sleeve. there has also been a story about the commitment of george w. bush to hiv and aids funding. but that be a topic of the summit?

caller: both sides were complimentary of that ring his tenure, as well as president obama. it was a trip that i was on as well, i remember him talking about it. that -- i see remember that legacy from the george was tenure coming up as well. other any other major events that you should point the viewers to? caller: that is the big commitment, in terms of time. as virtually every week goes by you will see some sort of event going on with the president related to the economy. with everything else going on in terms of foreign policy, no doubt they will continue to focus on ukraine and the

israel and then palestinians. the president will likely be leaving washington at the end of the week or a two-week vacation in martha's vineyard. jeff mason joining us on the phone from "reuters." thank you for your time. in terms of the policy aspects on the headline, israel is scaring -- scaling back forces, "scaling back of cease-fire talks, it may proceed beyond mission. taking a look at the jobs , 200-9000, to be exact. , we are that happening asking folks -- if you see the economy improving. kerry, what do you think they're

in kansas city, missouri? i believe that the economy is improving in spite of giving the president an overwhelming democratic majority, if we make that change i believe that the economy will roar to life. host: what do you look at and think yourself the economy is improving? bush was in the white house with that whole fiasco with the 401(k) loss of value and everything. the president brought us back from the brink of disaster. especially if you want a job. i believe that we will get a raise in the minimum wage.

we will get those good jobs. it is ripe for the picking. if the working man can stop , he emphasizedl that it was easy to be cynical and cynicism is never cured of disease. if we can stop being so cynical and just take that leap of faith and try something different -- host: independent line, sandra. caller: our area is booming. i have never seen anything like it my life. it is building and building.

i have been here since i was 16 years old. i would like to see the people that have the farms, how they get the people to work the farms that makeople mistakes, but give them a job from america or wherever. also, education. they need to give them an education like they were going to do for other countries. on top of that, i would like to see west virginia and those with the coal mines and stuff. we are intelligent, not stupid. tom, for let -- fort

lauderdale, democrat line. caller: if the congress would do one thing, i would pray that they would do it. the large corporations that can planploy people and be incentivized to invest. what do we have? harry reid saying that he needs one dollar trillion for increases before he would even consider corporate tax reform? a the snake mated with weasel, we would get harry reid. this man is a liar. president obama and the democratic party are the most brilliant liars the world has ever known.

along.onomy is running the first is the housing market. housing is at a point where it could go either way. federal easing is coming to an end. what will happen when interest rates go up on car loans? the person who told us before about the auto industry, turned down. we are at a point where we need to stop lying. brandon, florida, good morning. caller: good morning. i think we are truly heading for a cliff. people with assets are getting richer. the middle classes and lower classes are not making any

progress. we could become the nation and the world with the lowest rates of energy pricing. every sort all around the world rejuvenating all-america. placing hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs and industries that use high-paying jobs as their bed rock. industries that we have in great abundance. it worries me that they may be leaning towards the exporting of these raw materials to allow for the price of our natural gas to rise to oil levels, benefiting , compromising what could the high-paying jobs for people

who do not have high levels of skills but could still make a great living. we want to show you at least the website from "the times picayune," of louisiana. , considering runs for louisiana governor, talking about what he would do as governor in our "newsmakers" row graham. also talking about migration issues and republican efforts to wind down the program that offers protection to young migrants already in the u.s.. [video clip] lot to do with the current flow in the crisis. theou look at the metrics, spike in terms of unaccompanied alien children started soon

after the president's 2012 executive order. the spike in the numbers clearly that.d right after is it a coincidence that his and that thisr current wave is about minors? i clearly think that that is part of the problem. host: those thoughts, plus what he would do if elected. you can see that today at 10:00. stories that deal of politics in the paper this morning, take a look at the president's role in the midterm elections and the role he should take in it. part of the analysis this morning says that the president must engage aggressively. his democratic allies say

host: he also writes in the next column over that -- host: that is part of the analysis from "the washington post." romney, look at mitt his role was helping people wanting to get into office. theyalendar filling up as seek to boost the trail, it was a party without a consensus leader, an elder statesman like bill clinton, romney is stepping

forward to fill the role for the gop. big void forretty national leadership in the party and romney is in the unique position to help to fill the void. can read more in "the washington post" this morning. james, connecticut, democratic line, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple of calls ago the caller hit it on the head with harry reid and this tax reform, looking for the corporate tax rate to be lower, the democrats -- we are not liars, we want an extra one dollar trillion from the rich. they have benefited over 10 to 20 years now, tax policies that were geared directly towards the right conditions with wealth increase.

we don't see that respect sometimes. we want another one dollar trillion from the rich to get the lower rate for the corporate tax reform. we want more immigrants to come in. we want immigration reform. we truly think that america was built on immigrants coming in. 90% of the immigrants coming in contribute to this country. we have closed out visas so that high-tech people can't come from overseas to work in our big high-tech industries. host: do you think the economy is improving? caller: the economy is improving americans work hard. we all work hard, over 50 hours or week. two to three jobs to try to improve. host: mark, massachusetts, hello. i definitely think that

the economy is getting better. just reading an article from the bbc from july 30, it grew 4% from april to june. all you have got to do is look at where we were seven years ago. i have never heard so many private jets at the airport. "the new york times," breaking down average weekly earnings for rank-and-file workers. --ins within the month change within the month, unchanged. one year ago that number was up .ver 2% 6.2% as the current unemployment rate in the united. that is the number from july.

bobby, democratic line, high. if obama worked with them -- caller: if obama worked with them it would be better. host: what makes you say that the economy is improving? caller: it is in georgia right here. host: meaning how? more jobs are being created where you live? caller: yes. jimmy, west hartford, connecticut, independent line. caller: how you doing? thanks for letting me on the show. if we raise the unemployment rate to about $15, that would increase the spending of the american people, which would in

turn create more jobs. free gaza. free gaza. michigan, democratic line. i found full-time work here in town several months back, in the wintertime, although quite a few people were laid off after i started. there is an article here from about one month ago in "the detroit news." the governor wanted to work with idea waslson and his to bring investment from china over here to michigan to create jobs. i think it is a big mistake. i think that if we can't manufacture here even the smallest of things, like can openers, which i had to replace -- i know that it sounds trivial, but when you can't open a can of tuna with a can opener

and you have to go by a nine dollar can opener, that is a problem. they used to come in boxes of detergent when i was a child. there is one upshot in the economy, my twin sister purchased the house -- a lovely house, you could add $100,000 on here,use -- on the price but she bought it for 11,000. these are not foreclosures. my younger sister purchased one as well. juxtapose that against the housing that i read in "the new york times." 70 million dollars for home. that is the problem with this country. the housing has gone out of control. now it is the complete opposite. when you have such a lopsided picture of the economy, that isn't helping people. i hope that the democrats take

this election seriously across the nation. that we have a strong possibility of taking back the governorship in this state. host: that is kathy, from michigan. chris alyssa talking about the worst week in washington and to have it, dean the -- deeming that the house republican whip, who just recently got the job, saying that it is his job to with the votes in support toislative priorities address the crisis of the undocumented children in the country. wanting to get the legislation passed and sent out of town, putting the ball back in the president's court. thursday morning gop leaders declared victory,

host: we will take one more call on a few see the economy improving. north fork, connecticut. caller: no, i don't see it improving. it is improving in some areas of the country, but for my situation here, my son-in-law was supposed to work with a bachelor's degree. the government, in their infinite wisdom, gave the post office some agreements where they cut back his hours. he now delivers papers at 4:00 in the morning and then goes to his postal workers job. then he even has a third job ,rie it he has three children children with orthodontics.

i am helping them. i am 76 and this is my situation. i worked my whole life is a widow. getting low rates, great. the thing about over -- older people to save their whole lives to earn interest on money that they saved so that they could supplement social security, i am hurting now, and going down to the lower middle class and helping my children. no, i don't think the economy is better. thank you very much. was the last call on this topic. coming up, we will talk about the one thing that did happen in congress when the senate and the house met, the bill taking a look at veterans affairs to help improve service conditions they're in iraq and that anna stan, veterans of america will join us on that discussion. later in the program we have a look at afghanistan.

the problems with the counting of the votes the took place in that election. lisa curtis will join us later as "washington journal" continues after this. ♪ [video clip] >> author sylvia dukes morris is our guest. >> she was so beautiful, smart, and witty. she was irresistible to men. even in old age -- at her 80th birthday party, there were

washington colonists there. they had to go out to dinner after coffee and at one point she began to stroke his beard. heavens, he said, i have never met an 80-year-old before like this. she had this advantage quality, this seductive quality, her entire life. >> sharing about their personal relationship airing the final years. tonight on "q&a." this weekend we take you on a trip across the country to the various locales is covered in our cities to her, including the oyster industry of columbia. as well as the restoration of the supersaver 100 jet fighter see the laboratories of thomas edison and hear the voices of

the mormon tabernacle choir, at 2 p.m. eastern on c-span three. >> today, on "in-depth," ron paul. he has written more than one dozen books on politics and history, with his latest "the school revolution." join the conversation as he takes your calls, e-mails, and tweets, today at noon eastern. watch more as congress is in recess. wide range of topics, including the middle east, immigration, marijuana, covering book fairs and festivals from around the country. television for serious readers. >> "washington journal" continues. the first guest of the

morning is alex nicholson. good morning. for those who may not know about your group, what would you want people to know? ours is the first large organization of veterans of the conflicts in iraq and afghanistan. we are growing exponentially and we represent the interests of that constituency here in washington and around the country. i assume you have been closely watching the a reform bill process. when it was finally passed by the house and the senate one of the things they referred to was the band-aid falling off soon. guest: we have been closely involved in it. yes. it is intended to basically be a stopgap measure. an emergency response to a crisis. it is not everything that is needed to respond to the crisis and congress certainly has more

work to do when they get back, but it was meant to be a first step to stop the bleeding and repair the damage that has been done. host: some of the elements go to paying doctors within the system , establishing an independent committee. breakdowns, are those figures enough? what about using private doctors rather than building up the doctors in the system now? there are short-term fixes, intermediate term fixes, and long-term fixes. the issue with ringing in and for theseoutside care providers is the reason they are in this position is they clearly don't have the capacity to deal with it right now. so, allowing the v.a. to expand capacity by utilizing private community providers is a way to get those who have been on the

secret waiting list to come out of the shadows and for them to come into the care and treatment that they need right now. there are longer-term infrastructure capacity solutions in the legislation. including expanding the number of health care providers. it is something that the v.a. needs for long-term sustainability. one of the reasons that we ended up in this position to begin was we don't have the capacity to deal with the demand for care, treatment, and service . there are short-term, intermediate term, and long-term fixes involved.

just to clarify, who would qualify to go outside and who stays within the system? it is about whether the v.a. can serve them in a timely manner. for those folks living over 40 miles from a facility or being forced to wait over 30 days, they will be authorized and facilitated to go outside the system and utilize a network of private community providers. host: in your opinion, what is the long-term fix? in your view, what has to happen in the long term in terms of manpower and money? --guest: v.a. has been underfunded for a long time. congress has given the v.a. every dime it has asked for and more over the past five or six years. we strongly suspect that the

budget requests from the administration and ba every year have testified as repeatedly sufficient to meet demands were lowball. the v.a. is going to first of all have to do a more realistic assessment of its own resources and need moving forward. the infrastructure capacity augmentation that is a part of the bill and conversation moving asward will have to continue they don't have the capacity to deal with the population. so, they will have to increase their number of providers, increase the infrastructure facilities and lease and build out more. they will have to partner with private community providers. basically, the v.a. has some serious, serious cultural problems. accountability is another big issue. one of the reasons we are where we are today is because of the

ofture of the lack accountability and essentially a culture of moral corruption amongst some at the v.a.. there are a lot of great employees there doing a lot of great work, but scandal after scandal it has become clear that there are some in the v.a. for too long who have not been accountable and have gotten away with very likely criminal some fromreventing getting the treatment that they need that sometimes. going to have to be a multifaceted, multidimensional approach. one of the aspects of the bill just passed by congress is the new accountability provision that will allow the secretary to fire underperforming or negligent senior executives. that only affects senior executive service employees. 400 to 500 folks within ba. certainly in most cases i would imagine that those are not the

most senior executives actually doing the reactions on the ground that led to the v.a. not being able to serve veterans like they should, so there will have to be more accountability provisions further down in the v.a., getting at what we call the title 38 employees who are , doctors,e providers general schedule employees, admin folks who manage these lists and create these workarounds, who have to have more bunker busting accountability mechanisms deep down in the system to attack the culture. host: our guest is here to talk about the veterans affairs reform bill that was recently passed in the house, alex nicholson, of the iraqi and afghanistan veterans of america. one to give him a call and add comments or ask questions? we have set aside a line for veterans this morning,

202-585-3883. were you surprised that a deal came forward from both sides? honestly?est: in this situation i was in. i thought that there would be hell to pay of congress went on recess and went back to their constituents without having something done. the typical thing to do these days is to try some partisan things don't get done or evolve the way that some a risk that that would happen, procedural tricks, blaming republicans and democrats. however, in this environment, with the recess coming up for so long in august, i would have been shocked if they had not come to an agreement. senator sanders and jeff

miller, leading the charge. what do you think about their efforts? guest: we were disappointed that it took a long as it did. congress started on the package of fixes to the crisis in early june. they were originally talking about being done by the july 4 recess. been.ould have there was grandstanding in the beginning. there was blame passing back and forth in the beginning. staff, of course, are the ones who really sit down and allow the deals, the terms to the deals like this. there was some obstruction in the beginning, i think. the senate works very differently from the house. some of it was the constraints and politics of the senate.

i believe. from what i saw, not only talking and working with them, we have seen the results. we are nonpartisan and i am fiercely independent. but you know, i mean, if you look at the objective evidence of how many hearings the house has held and the oversight conducted by the house, the bills conducted out of the house side and passed the floor compared to the lack of productivity in all of those dimensions in the senate, it is hard to conclude that the house -- we talked about congress generating bodies. in this case, on these issues, with these committees it is hard to lump those together when there is such a disparity between the productivity of the

house on veterans issues and the lack in the senate. host: host: first call for you is paul in south carolina. caller: i have a main question. first of all, i would like to say this. i did not know you had a line for veterans. in any case, i go to the veterans administration or the va hospital for some treatment. i find that most of the people working there are veterans. problem, in ae lot of cases. but my main question calling in this morning -- they have all of these outfits working for veterans groups, working for veterans. i would like to know if these outfits are audited to see where that money goes that people send

them? host: thank you, caller. guest: good question. a couple of different points there. i am originally from south carolina there. my father lives there and goes to the ba there as well. -- v.a. as well. there are a significant number of veterans that work in the v.a. the vast majority of folks are honest, hard-working folks who want to serve vets and do right by vets. it depends on what paul means by outfits working on behalf of veterans. there are elements within the v.a. and outside advocacy organizations. if there is a nonprofit, most of those are independent. but most of them are rated and audited. you have veterans services organizations and veterans advocates organizations.

there's a slight distinction. you also have the genre of veterans charities. people tend to focus on that when they talk about organizations taking money on behalf of veterans services. when they are wrong, they are usually exposed. host: jerry is a veteran from point pleasant beach, new jersey. hello. caller: good morning, gentlemen. thank you for taking my call. the main forgets this i am pointing out is the corruption, not only of the ba system. i served in 1961 to 1963. the only thing that is ever going to solve v.a. or health business -- it is a health business in this country. if we do not start addressing the overall problems, which is

greed of the two-party system. we just cannot deal with these peacocks down here in washington strutting around with reams of paper. i want results. i am sick and tired of these osturingostering -- ps over all these committees, doing nothing, putting on the back burner constantly. i take care of myself. i take vitamins, i exercise. i see the people affected by agent orange. the afghan veterans with s hots and uranium. this is a government that is harming our own citizens. host: thank you. guest: that has been one of the biggest problems we face, the frustrations. the bureaucracy, the politics, just getting to this emergency sure to try to stop

the bleeding took almost two months, way longer than it should have. the reason was grandstanding, it was politics, to an extent. this is a largely complicated bill. there was clearly more politics involved in this bin should have been. and a significant delay resulted. host: if we are adding more private doctors, who is responsible for oversight? guest: v.a. will have to be the court nader of all care for making sure that vets go out and get the care that they need and following up and getting medical records, making sure that the actual care and treatment is delivered. host: if there are concerns about things happening within the v.a., do you extend that outside the walls? guest: there are jeff only concerns about all this. ultimately, it is a matter of personal belief.

v.a. is going to have to improve its game pretty quickly. the alternative there is to just -- some people mistakenly think that is what this bill will do. the alternative is to turn everyone loose in the private sector. i cannot happen. some folks will not get the treatment they need or not know where to go. the response developed in phoenix. some veterans were discovered to be on waiting lists and were not in the system. they were some letters and said, we will pay for it. go off and find the treatment you need now. that was some solution. v.a. is going to have to be involved in coordinating the care for the people who need it. host: here's another from hershey, pennsylvania. caller: i am listening with interest. there are so many issues here. my question has to do with the

way the system works now. and though it worked after world war ii. i am old enough to have seen both sides of it and i am a veteran. i think that, as i understand it, in the days before this current time -- a veteran to go to the v.a hospital had to have a service-connected injury or i believe and, today, that anybody who is a that can claim the need to use the ba system and it is just overwhelmed by it. in turn, i think that implies that the current system is just inadequate. we are trying to service people who do not need that system. the need should be based on whether or not you have had a service-connected injury or disability. host: -- guest: his point is a good one.

the v.a. was setup up to deal with service-connected injuries. in order to get a determination, one has to submit a claim and be evaluated. usually, that involves a disability determination and payment as well. is of the issues that v.a. dealing with is that it has had a severe backlog of actually making those disability and service connected injury determinations. one of the things that was done a number of years ago to try to help that need care -- especially those that deploy to combat, where they may have had any number of injuries in addition to physical wounds -- essentially the criteria that you have a predetermined injury for a certain number of years after you get off of active duty. it used to be 90

days they've could go to the a for treatment. i was extended to two years, then five years. they're trying to extend that to 5 for mental injuries and visible injuries like ptsd that might show up 10 years later. right now, it is still five years. if you get on active duty and you want to serve, you can go to v.a. without a service-connected injury determination for up to five years. that may change with some of the legislation changing now. v.a. has steadily had a huge increase in numbers in terms of the patients who use v.a. the system has not kept up. they have been lowballing numbers. estimates of that offer a couple of years. one of the interesting things we have seen is a failure to acknowledge and predict -- or acknowledge predictable

spikes in future v.a. usage. that is one of the things going on now. we are drawing down from afghanistan. the army is drawing down. we will have a lot more active-duty troops becoming the vets. has notast, the v.a. done a good job of increasing resources relevant to the numbers coming off of active duty. that is one of the reasons, certainly. in additions to the others we have talked about. the system has been overwhelmed. host: you are hearing from alex nicholas. mike, ottawa, illinois. hi. are you there? caller: hello? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: i am from ohio. you know a marina general wrote a book -- hello? host: go ahead. caller: butler, a marine general, wrote a book "war is a racket."

remember the old saying, he spilled the beans? we need to look back and think about what he told us. eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex. co saidspector slum there is no database for the money spent that we have handed out. all these weapons, we don't know where they went to. what bothers me is the language being used. patriotism, democracy and all of that business. asse soldiers are being used corporate international spearheads. that is a problem. guest: you touched on a good point there. the lack of accountability with the money that is being given out. especially with respect to dod. there have certainly been issues with unaccountability. to same thing applies

v.a. they just came back and asked for another $17.8 billion, trying to plug the holes. they're trying to make up for these budget shortfalls and lowb alling. pages ofe two or three budgetary justifications for that $17.8 billion. one of the things the chairman of the committee kept making was -- this is late for the secretary, who has a background in business . you cannot get a loan for $100 with two pages of data and justification. a grant for $17.8 billion for the american taxpayer, with two pages of justification for what that would be sent on. is evidentlyv.a. very good at wasting money. that has been one of the

problems as well. some of the investments in technology and infrastructure have gone wasted. systems that have been purchased have been an enormous cost to taxpayer and have been abandoned. wasted and accountability is another big issue that the new secretary will have to deal with. host: that is robert mcdonald, the new secretary. what do you think of the choice? guest: it was an interesting one. we expected the president to look outside of expected circles. we expected him to look for someone who had a business background. there was even consensus from what i can tell on the hill that it did not matter if a candidate had health care in his background. that has been a big issue, managing the health care system. but i think the main criteria was going to be someone who had an excellent accomplished business management background. that is what we found in mcdonald's.

-- mcdonald. we did not know he was on the shortlist. they did not consult us about it. we had some other candidate so we had heard about and names that had floated. we had some people we thought may be under consideration. was big onelli suicide prevention, which is another big issue they will have to deal with. host: does he have a military background? guest: he went to west point and served as an officer in the army early on in his career. theoon left and went into private sector and spent the majority of his career in business leadership. host: as far as the qualifications you are looking for, did you look for someone with more of an afghanistan experience? guest: we wanted someone -- whoe is a huge cool now have served in iraq and afghanistan with senior leadership backgrounds who could have been qualified. we think the president was not

going to choose someone who was a veteran from iraq or afghanistan, who had significant experience with that exposure to the community. as we talked about earlier, you're going to have more and more folks coming off of active duty. this is going to grow. it is quickly going to become the largest group. experience with an exposure to the community, the issues and trends -- this generation of veterans is very different and unique from our generation. they have unique challenges. their associated with the tech savvy, for example. at least experience and exposure with this generation will be key. it is something we were pressuring the president for. host: here is another vet, patrick from california. caller: thank you for your service. i'm a vietnam veteran and i have been getting health care from the v.a. for about five years,

including just over three years for agent orange. i have to say that the health care has been phenomenal. is healtwo parts, vha care, vva is the benefit side -- that is where it usually has the backup. my compensation took 20 months. there have been a court case where 80,000 iraq and afghanistan veterans cases were thrown out. soy were then reinstated, they got pushed ahead of everybody else waiting in line. that was fine with me. the other thing is -- almost anybody who has served, whether overseas or not, has some kind of ptsd. not sure what pray while. i assume that you have to make a claim. v.a. does not come out and say, come to us.

they say you can come to us, but not that you have to sign yourself up. as far as the technology part, it seems to be cutting-edge. they have a working relationship with uc davis and other teaching hospitals. isnford, the palo alto v.a. one of the premier burn centers. i could not be happier with the care. host: you put a lot out there. guest: he makes a very good point. the quality of the v.a. is of a very high standard. it is generally good. once they can actually get access to v.a. care, the quality of the care is above standard. the issue is getting access to it. that has been the focus of the recent crisis. not only scheduling appointments, but the backlog of claims to get that service

determination, especially for folks who have been out for five years. five generations of vets have delayed onset ptsd and other issues that come out. those veterans are no longer eligible for the ability to walk into v.a. and daycare without service-connected disability determination. they're the ones who have been stuck in this backlog, waiting for determination. and then waiting for the appointment to get in. so, once you actually get into v.a., veterans across the board -- this is reflected in independent surveys. veterans agree that the quality of care, especially specialty care, for service related injuries and wounds of war, is very good. host: we have a line set aside for veterans this morning. robert is up next in missouri. republican line. caller: good morning and thank

you for taking my call. i want to relate to this young man here. he seems knowledgeable in what he is talking about. i would like to relate to him. i believe that these veterans -- i am 32 miles from mount vernon, missouri. i grew up there once a year for a physical. i have always been treated well there. i needed an operation about two years ago. so, i decided not to go through v.a. so many times, the veterans in the rock arkansas -- rock, arkansas -- you have to go down there. the v.a. here does not do all the procedures. it is set in america --

when the veterans come back all shot up. that is mostly what causes that. they should be first in mind. a veteran like me -- a vietnam veteran. i went in in 51 and retired in '79. guest: he brings up another good point. one of the issues that dominated this conversation about how to fix the v.a., especially on an emergency and short-term basis -- it ended up being a private sector utilization part of the bill that came out of congress. it will be a larger conversation. many veterans out there, and passng to v.a. facilities, any number of high-quality health care systems at which they could be getting health care in a much more convenient and perhaps quicker fashion.

drive, forho has to example, 32 miles -- that would be within the scope of what the v.a. would attempt to take care of itself, post legislation. someone who is more than 40 miles -- unless they had to weigh 100 days for an appointment, he would still be required to be seen at the v.a. for a specialty operation, having to drive more than 300 miles is ridiculous. especially veterans who are older. the toll of the journey itself could outweigh the benefit of doing it within the v.a. system. that has been a big part of the conversation. there is a movement on the hill and elsewhere to even beyond, outside of the context of the expand out options so that veterans are not forced to go outside of the system to private providers. for those who want to, they would have the choice to do so.

host: do you have a sense of when the president will sign this bill? we had a previous guest to said he was going on vacation at the end of the week. guest: i think he is going to sign by the end of the week, yes. host: jane from ohio, independent line. caller: yes. i would first like to thank you for your service. and the veterans, your unselfish bravery is something i would never be able to muster in my own mike. -- life. i followed the hearings fairly well as they were going on. i was struck by the level of corruption, the culture of corruption. criminal and immoral behavior was going on at the v.a. i'm embarrassed by the behavior of nurses that i heard, threatening doctors. i would have been fired. i would have had my licensed or stripped from me and i could've been placed under arrest for such behavior. i would like to know what you think the part played by the

federal government union workers -- health-care workers seem to take precedence, especially with the democrats, as far as what protects them. what is in the best interest of them? they continue to give bonuses. there is no fear and no consequences for what they do. the issue of not being able to fire people is not american law, as far as i know. that is not a federal law. that is a union rule. you cannot fire a union worker, even when they kill a veteran. i think that people like bernie sanders fire things up install things out. democrats get 80% of political donations from unions. familytwo members of my who are republicans that work in the federal government. they have to request at the end of the year to receive their union dues back. host: thank you. guest: that is a great point.

that is a part of what caused this and what is going to have to happen to fix it. accountability. she is right. it is too hard to fire an underperforming v.a. provider these days. there are rules in place to prevent someone from being able to be fired, just on a whim. some of those protections are enforced. one of the arguments that has been made against extending the accountability measures to lower level v.a. employees is that i can be is to fire or punish someone who blew the whistle about inappropriate behaviors wtiithin v.a. it is a double-edged sword. you have to have protections. it is also ridiculously hard to fire people who are outright

negligent and even criminal. we hope to see some of them prosecuted. host: the washington post was test with the accountability -- here is what they wrote. the top civil servants of long-standing protection are exposed to firing at a moments notice. ofhaps this is the thing inefficiency at the v.a. most likely, it would have the opposite effect. guest: that was part of the debate about whether or not to do this or go further. that is one of the things that held the bill up as well. the original bill that would do this was the v.a. accountability act, which passed the house with enormous bipartisan support. it would never have had the seven or 10 day follow-on protections. i was insisted upon by senator sanders. the original bill would not have

done that. it is striking a balance here between enabling the secretary to be able to get rid of these folks, who were so -- whose behavior we are so enraged by. the couple of examples of when that power can be abused. that is why oversight will continue to be key. host: philadelphia, pennsylvania. john, democrats line. caller: i would just tell the lady from ohio that private hospitals are not the answer either. there was a maryland hospi tal that cut salaries over time. soldiers were being left on the tarmac at dover air base. threeladelphia, we had people from africa who came up your because they were disgusted. soldiers were dying on the tarmac.

it was connected with a maryland hospital during the bush administration. on labor day weekend, and article was coming out in the new york paper. it was shut down after that. that should be investigated. that was connected with the dover air base. justtold us that they were so disgusted that they left and cut their salaries. they don't give bonuses. this was during the bush administration. i really think something like that should be investigated. host: thank you. guest: that is a good point. there is mismanagement in the private sector and the public sector. there is a lot more light shone on it in the public sector, especially v.a. right now. i don't think anyone expects the private sector to be w ithout laws. bet is why they will have to intimately involved in controlling and coordinating and following up on care. host: from the south dartmouth, massachusetts on the independent

line, this is ray. caller: hi, how are you? i was not a veteran, but i did have two brothers serve in vietnam. hearts, got two purple died christmas day, 1969. my other brother was older. i tried joining, but i was already married. they put me -- they would not take me. i had a kid. what i would like to know is -- arizona had the worst v.a. senator mccain is from arizona. why wasn't this investigated such a long time ago? you know? guest: arizona is sort of ground zero for the scandal. the phoenix v.a. and the media reports that came out of some of the experiences there is what started this whole firestorm that led to the increased oversight. there has been a recital long.

this got folks to pay attention to it. egregious case can focus the nation's attention. the nation has such a short attention span. we almost have add. if kim kardashian does something funny one day, that will detract from it. it did take the case of the vet dying in phoenix and his family coming forward and being willing to talk about it -- that painful and fresh experience -- to get the nation's attention and get it to stay on this. reasons thatf the senator mccain has been a leader in trying to solve this problem. i don't know why he didn't know about it before. we didn't know about it before. we certainly have known for years that there have been problems. the thing that was interesting about this particular set of issues is that those who engaged

in these practices became so skilled at covering them up and covering their tracks. they're still trying to track down the secret waiting list. they're still trying to figure out who was on these lists. the folks who committed these, what are probably going to end up being actual crimes, are still being investigated and hopefully will be held accountable. call.one more susan in boston, massachusetts. independent line. caller: thank you for your service. i was never in the military, but my father was in the army air corps and all his brothers, in world war ii and several cousins in vietnam as well. the one thing i have noticed or heard is that when you have a v.a. medical center is situated near or major medical schools, usually in an urban area -- anhester, minnesota might be exception. you just get top drawer care.

you get a wonderful, skilled team of doctors who will volunteer or do rotations at the v.a. hospitals. i just think that is a wonderful model, when possible. the other thing is to establish a med scholars program where they would have medical debts aived if they did a good chunk of service and a v.a. system, maybe four years. the other thing is -- there are so many problems that the current group of vets experience -- it is directly related to the fact that so many of them have such trouble reintegrating to a highly competitive, technical and education-based society and work environment. many of them come from small hamlets are disadvantaged backgrounds. either has military

to consider national service to get a more balanced military, where people can mentor each other and avril models to look up to. host: thank you, we have to leave it there. guest: she makes a good point about the partnerships. there is quality of care within v.a. it does vary across the system. she is absolutely right. when v.a. is able to partner with local medical centers, like in minnesota and other places, it does tend to increase the quality of care across the system. you'll be happy to hear that student loan repayment is part of legislation that is going through congress now. it has been identified as an incentive to increase capacity and make v.a. a more attractive workplace for health care providers. that is already being addressed. her last point in terms of integration -- that is the key. that is another bigger, wider ongoing issue.

host: we're just about to finish. what would you like to see the v.a. tackle next? the biggestnk that issue v.a. has to tackle is implementing this bill. there's going to be some discretion. we hope to see the secretary actually utilize the authority he has been given, like the authority to fire people who have been negligent in performing at the senior level. when congress comes back from recess, they have to tackle another round of legislation. v.a. is the starting point. v.a. needs more. i only have three weeks of work before they go to another recess before the campaign in october. they will have to get back to work and do something more, additional. nicholson is with iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. thank you for your time. coming up, we have a discussion tan, especially in light of their elections. lisa curtis will join us for that. we want to point you to book tv

in american history tv this weekend, as we continue our 2014 cities to herer -- tour. the chance for you to learn about cultural unlit or he highlights of cities we highlight. washington is our focus. we visit the taylor shellfish company ameren about the history of the olympia oyster. we are here at the inlet, at bowman farm. it has been in operation for over 100 years. we're watching the oyster harvest. there are farms on the tidelands below us. atlow tide, the farm is dry, high tide it is covered in water. we come out with these empty tubs and throw them over to the bottom. at low tide, the workers come out and harvest them.

here we are the next day, in the morning. the boat is picking up the tubs to transfer them over. then they will be cleaned and processed and packaged to send off to the final customer. >> we are in our processing plant. we deal with all of the single, individual oysters. they're all processed here. these are single, pacific. they will be culled today and make it out to restaurants by tomorrow. these are the native: po oyster -- native olympia oyster. this is what the industry was based on until the 1930's and 1940's, when overharvesting and pollution knocked the population

back. >> you can learn that and more on our 2014 cities to her, -- tour, sponsored by the local content vehicles of c-span. if you want more information, go .o www.c-span.org joining us now is lisa curtis with the heritage foundation. ,he is a senior research fellow good morning. caller: good morning. highlighted in the papers about the presidential election in afghanistan. the headline this morning is there is in on it being delayed. for those who may not be following, talk about the election and the problems we are staying with them. guest: we're at a critical point in afghanistan. after a relatively successful first round of elections in april, now we face a crisis situation where the second round --

the candidates are not accepting the results. what happened in april, we had a relatively high turnout of the population for the vote. but no one candidate crossed the 50% mark. one of the candidates, dr. abdullah, got about 40% of the vote. another candidate got about 32% of the vote. in the second round of elections, which were held on rgani went from getting 32% of the vote to getting 36% and abdullah got about 36%. bdullah called foul, saying there were corruptions with the second round of elections and did not accept the results. there were fears that he would

try to establish a parallel government, which would cause chaos in the country. so, secretary kerry stepped in and went to the country on july 12, brokered what looked like a solution to the problem, by getting both candidates to agree to a recount. they are now in the process of recounting 8 million ballots. 24,000 ballots -- host: these are paper ballots? guest: yes. and with the u.n. involved. the problem is, they still have not agreed on the terms of that process. we still had news this morning llah did notabdua show up to the recounting process. they are now going over the details about a couple ballots being found not valid. does the whole box get thrown out?

they have not agreed on the terms. we are still in a crisis situation in that country. the hope is that both of those candidates, they both understand democracy, they both have a lot of exposure to the west. resolving this crisis is important for countries. if they don't resolve it -- we're likely to see the resumption of civil war. the hope is that they understand that and that we will see some coming together of the mines in the next few days. host: what about president karzai? has he weighed in on this or offered something as far as the election is concerned? guest: dr. abdullah claims that the other candidate is working with karzai's people and the election committee people, that they committed this fraud together. he is alleging that karzai is part of this whole problem.

karzai, himself, has taken a backseat role. he has allowed the u.n. to play a role in this recount. he has kept a low profile. he would like to see this draw out. were supposed to have a new president named yesterday. of course, that did not happen. a lot of people think he is just playing this out. host: lisa curtis -- the situation in afghanistan, how do we view what is going on in the u.s.? what does this mean for them to have a new president, especially when it comes to policy efforts with troops pulling out of afghanistan? guest: it is extremely important. we have 12 years of investment in this country. over 100 billion we have spent to rebuild this country. over 2000 u.s. soldiers have lost their lives in the conflict. we have enormous investment.

we don't have successful democratic process, then the country begins to fall apart again. it will allow the taliban to come back. they're still allied with al qaeda. al qaeda will open up their training camps and we will be back to square one. we will have the same problem that we face a four 911. nt is enormously importa for the u.s. to do everything we can to facilitate an end to this crisis. it will determine the future direction of the country and how safe the u.s. will be from the global terrorist threat. host: our guest is joining us to talk about results of afghanistan's elections and issues regarding afghanistan as well. please dial the numbers on your screen.

if you want to tweet us or send us an email, you may do that. how similar or how different are they from president karzai? guest: either candidate would make a good president of afghanistan. either candidate would be much more helpful to u.s. goals in the region and president karzai. we could not get much worse than president karzai at this point. even though, when he first came into power, he was seen as a leader who could bring the different ethnic groups together. unfortunately, over the last few years, he has been extremely unhelpful to the u.s. in terms of criticizing the u.s. involvement, blaming the u.s. for civilian casualties. to auld not agreed bilateral security agreement that was necessary for the u.s. to continue to maintain troops

in afghanistan post 2014. to signe refused that, even though the afghans had stated that they wanted u.s. forces to stay on. there was an assembly last fall. they overwhelmingly voted in favor of the u.s. maintaining troops in the country post 2014. however, karzai refused to sign a bilateral agreement. on the other hand come of those candidates that are vying for the presidential spot have indicated they will sign the bilateral security agreement if they are elected to power. i think either candidate would be a good partner for the u.s. and a much that her partner than karzai has been. the problem is, they have to be willing to work out the elector al body. i think with secretary kerry is trying to do, in addition to

wasng to have this audit, to ensure that once the audit is done, the final results are announced. that there'd be some kind of power-sharing between the two candidates. loser, whos that the is not elected president, becomes the chief executive of the government. he also has some power within that set up. the problem is, they have not worked out modality, who picks the ministers, how much power do they have? they have not worked out those details. there is a strong sense that they will have to have some kind of power-sharing between these two individuals. host: music for us is here from the heritage foundation. george's on independent mind, hi. go ahead, please. you are on. caller: we have been there for 12 years. has gone between

the two wars and budget cuts. it is more or less a dictatorship country. and they have not gotten their act together, nor do they intend to get their act together. everybody is power grabbing. how long do we have to stay in a euntry where we can see no nd to its history? guest: well, the u.s. is withdrawing from afghanistan. by the end of this year, our combat troops will be out of afghanistan. the question is, whether the u.s. maintains a residual, noncombat force, that would basically be involved in training and advising the afghan forces and carrying out counterterrorism missions as needed. y, the u.s. has been

involved in this conflict for a long time. there has been a lot of pressure invested in this country. think, everybody supported the u.s. going into afghanistan and toppling the taliban after the 9/11 attacks. we knew that al qaeda was an ally of the taliban. now, we're to the point where our combat operations are ending. i still think it is important that the u.s. remain engaged with afghanistan, not in a combat role. to do the supportive role right, you do need a certain number of residual forces in afghanistan. i think it would be a mistake that we did not leave any forces in iraq. i think we are seeing the queda'sof that with al resurgence in iraq. we cannot afford for that to

happen in afghanistan. you're right, we have been involved in combat for a long time. the combat operations are ending. we still need to support the government and support the army that we have helped to build up. host: here is iris from michigan, independent line. caller: hi there, good morning. tos curtis, i would like know if you or anybody else in the think tanks have the knowledge to discuss these subjects. do you give advice to the government? it just boggles my mind that we have to always be at war for american interests. can you answer that for me? what experience do you bring to the plate, please? thank you. guest: yes, thank you. i have 22 years of experience in south asia issues. i have worked with the cia and

the state department and i have worked on capitol hill, where have advised a senator on the foreign relations can a. i travel frequently to the regions. to provide my best thinking and advice on u.s. policy in these regions. i do the best i can. with regard to -- i think you asked what ink tanks do. basically, we are there to educate the public, to try to offer policy advice. a lot of what happens in government is not public, as you know. we tried to help with that gap between what the government is doing and what we see is happening. hopefully we provide an educated role. explain, having worked in

different-- -- government agencies interact, how they formulate policy. we are often called to testify before congress. two weeks ago, i testified not on afghanistan, but on india, the foreign relations committee. role forhat there is a the think tanks, for public in on thens, to weight i policy process of the u.s. host: would you know if there is a team from the state department that is observing what is going on as far as the election is concerned? guest: absolutely. at the state department, you have senior representatives on afghanistan and pakistan. they just named a new one. dan sullivan has experience in the region. he has been traveling back and forth to the region, supporting secretary kerry.

secretary kerry was in afghanistan july 12 to try to broker this agreement. job in, he did a good 2009 of brokering the agreement at that time, after that election. there was discrepancies about the vote in question. he was able to convince abdel at llah at that abdu time to not demand a second vote and to allow the first vote to stand. that produced president karzai as president. i think he is the right person to try to work out an agreement here. i think he has the trust of the afghan the heirs. if anybody can sort of not -- help bring about an agreement, it would be secretary kerry. hi.: cara, democrats line, her:caller: i would like to ask

-- in 2001, rumsfeld said on the air to america that they have lost $2 trillion. --ing bush's administration have they ever found it? ok. guest: i'm not sure what this $2 trillion refers to. i would just say that, yes, there is an enormous amount invested enough to stand over the last 12 years. there are still challenges that remain in afghanistan. the u.s. has achieved to some of its goals in afghanistan. i do not think it has been a complete disaster there. we see that many more children are going to school. the economy is much more developed than it was when the

taliban was in power in the late 1990's. and, we see that al qaeda and the u.s. is able to push al qaeda out. so, i think that we have made some good moves and afghanistan. it is fair to say that there is an enormous amount invested in this country. so, i sympathize with the color's concerns about the financial investment. i do not know what the $2 trillion refers to. host: when it comes to the war in afghanistan, you paint it one way. president karzai paint it another way and that was published in the atlantic. he says i am a pacifist in my heart. we should have fought -- my effort was to repel the conspiracy in which afghan blood was shed. so, my purposes were different from nato. guest: i'm not sure what president karzai's game is at this point. he would not be where he was if

we had not had a conference at the end of 2001, after the taliban was toppled. the international community imported the new government. unfortunately, tensions between the u.s. and karzai have escalated in the last few years. tois partly him trying maintain his popularity in afghanistan. sometimes they are opposing the u.s.. that can be a popular position with his constituents. i also think that part of it is longs been in power so that he is not getting good advice. he is not thinking straight. earlier, you have to sign theng him bilateral security agreement with the u.s..

he simply would not do it. it is anyone's guess what his game is. a lot of people think he is just interested in maintaining power. i think that is important for this country. we need to see a resolution toward the end of this crisis and moving beyond karzai. no love going to be lost for karzai in this country. from pennsylvania on the republican line, gary is up next. caller: maybe the american people should be informed of the status of the agreement. sincee been in italy 1943. what is the problem about having troops in afghanistan or iraq

for stabilization for a couple of years? guest: thank you very much for the comment. i could not agree more with the caller. if you look at korea, we have 30,000 troops there. almost six years after that war ended. why can't we have 10,000 troops stationed in a country from which the 9/11 attacks took place? the largest attacks in history. 3000 innocent people on u.s. soil. we need to consider what is in the security interest. we need to have a continued presence. ace -- a supportive role. we need to remain financially engaged in helping to support the afghan military as well.

cost to there the potential for protecting our national security interest, it is clear. long we shouldow stay in afghanistan and the total cost of staying there. shouldi think that we look at the u.s. remaining engaged indefinitely. that means having a relationship with the government. clearly it will not be a sustained effort. we're looking at about $4 billion for the year. itself, iternment should be the amount that the international community can be supportive of. this is one area that we're

going to have to be engaged for a long time to come. army will not be able to support itself with its own funding. it will made support from the countries.other we are saying about half of that, $2 billion or so, that the u.s. would provide per year. if you look at that compared to iother 9/11 type attack, think we would say that this is worth it. host: all of the lines start with a 202 area code. the numbers are on your screen. pete is from columbus, ohio. good morning. says thatu're guest the reason to stay in afghanistan is because of the 9/11 attacks originated there.

was it conceived in germany or who knows where? it does not seem to be a reason to stay there. i don't know why we have troops in germany. guest: osama bin laden came. the taliban was ruling afghanistan. they allowed al qaeda to remain in afghanistan. importanceere was an for al qaeda in afghanistan. there still is. the core leadership is still located in the tribal areas. the taliban is able to gain more

territory and was able to take over the country again. leaders would be able to quickly come back from afghanistan and reassert their power base. hass not true that al qaeda been decimated. what we think is that al qaeda powert able to spread its and ideology through organizations throughout the world. we do not see an end to the al qaeda threat. we see a changing al qaeda threat. one of the core countries that al qaeda relies on for its power base is afghanistan. pakistan as well. it is important that we remain engaged in the region, in afghanistan and pakistan, to keep this terror spread under control. host: karen from florida some independent line. caller: hello. the reason why 9/11 happened is

because of american imperialism, our aggravation of these people that live in the middle east and want nothing to do with us. that of times, they claim they attack us because we are free or because they do not agree with our culture or women do not wear burqas. it is a bunch of b.s. we going to those countries and exploit them of their resources. that causes him all sorts of trouble, so they want to react. there are plenty of countries where people are free and democracy is -- these attacks do not happen. how do you explain that they're all of these countries that are democratic or free and is the so-called terrorists do not atat tack them? why did they target us? host: countries like what? caller: there are plenty around

the world to do not get attacked, japan is one of them. guest: >> most of the people killed in terrorist attacks around the world -- this is documented -- are muslims. so, i think you are wrong in thinking that the terrorists are just focusing on the u.s. they are not. they are focusing on any other countries that do not adhere to

their extreme they attack sawed aeair abe -- saudi arabia. they are not immune from the attacks of terrorists. there is global problems, a global phenomenon. it's not just something the u.s. faces and, you know, there are plenty of examples of the u.s. cooperating with other countries against this menace. frankly, i think that is in the future where we need to look: cooperative action between the civilized nations of the world that deal with the terrorist scourge. next from michael until florida, republican line. hi. >> caller: hello. how are you doing? >> well. go ahead, please. >> caller: i have a concern. my main concern is the harvesting of opium, poppy. >> that's a big issue in afghanistan. the other issue is the way the

people are armed, the locals are armed. can you give me a comment about what you know about two things: the corruption within the government that exists that we turn a blind eye. the other part is the infrastructure of the drug lords and their inflewence on not only the population. they have been doing this for hundreds of years and they are still there. how are we going to tackle that infrastructure, the corruption that's already existing within the government today and, as well as the drug cartel, that basically anything out of the speed limits. so i will leave you to the question. thank you. ? >> well, yes. thank you. i think you are absolutely correct. the newaarcotics issue is a hug one in afghanistan. what they have found is that,

you know, over 90% of opium in the world actually is produced in afghanistan. so this is a major problem. it's been a problem for the last, you know, 30, 40 years in afghanistan. so this is something i think that will have to be dealt with if we are going to see a stable afghanistan. the u.s. has some success in some parts of the country in dealing with this issue. different problems. we have beenability control the issue. what they have found is that given the farmer's alternatives, alternative ways to make their living, because, unfortunately, there has not been a diversified econo economy, and the farmers simply find it more lucrative to invest in drug production. so, this is something that i think we need to look at and this is another reason why you would argue that we should remain engaged in afghanistan

and continue programs we are running in helping afghans find alternative ways to support themselves and to develop and diversify the economy. it comes back to the economy. if the afghans have options, if they have a lotternatives that they can readily integrate with the other economies of the region, i think this is the way forward. this is the initiative at a time u.s. has been talking about, trying to bring integration between the different economies of south and central asia and provide alternatives, livelihoods for the farmers in afghanistan. >> lisa joining us from her taj foundation. >> i lived around the world. i think most of the interference

has been amateur or based on commercial interests. i will give you an example. if a couple of dozen criminals from chicago blew up a building in new york, the people of the united states would not start bombing chicago in the hope that they would get the coherence of the guys that did it. another example might be to see these things from an outside perspective or different perspective: if an army came to the u.s. from a foreign country to relief us of the ku klux klan or the mafia and spoke almost no english? would we think that was sensible? we are doing things not really sensible. we have exacerbated the situation. it's worse and worse. the only thing i can think of that drives people like some of these foundations that claim to be intellectual but aren't really intellectual. they are backed by people who have commercial interests,

perhaps to sell arms to people, perhaps to get control of oil and/or commoditiecommodities. to interfere in another country, iraq, they are capable of managing their affairs. someone from boise idaho who thinks they can arrange bab loan i can't better than the bab boneians is mad. >> guest: let's talk about afghanistan. you have a country that was moved by the taliban in the late -- ruled by the taliban in the late 1990s, not allowing women to go to school, to work, to even leave their homes in some cases. and you had people that were -- i met with many afghan women who were very grateful that the u.s.

came in, toppled the taliban. thinks have not been difficult. it's been -- it has been difficult. i think you can talk to plenty of afghans who are appreciative to the u.s. helping to overturn the taliban and allow their country to engage a on a democratic process. look at the vote april 5th. 60% of the afghans turned out to vote despite the taliban threats they don't want to be ruled by idealings on. you have laid out your view i think i have heard a different view, at least from the afghans that i have met and that i have spoken to. >> in new jersey, this is pat. hello. >> caller: hello. thank you. i would like to know why all of the terrorist threats we are getting. are people coming into this

country even after 9-11? we have security alerts. there are people who are allowed to enter america after we were attacked. i would like to know why. i see afghantan as a sovereign country. i don't see who is looking to invade them. they are capable of managing their affairs. why shouldn't we say as long as they sponsor terrorist groups, no one other than afghanistan can enter the u.s. thank you. >> thank you. the caller is right that there has been many threats to at a time u.s. after 9-11. thankfully most of these threats have been thwarted. this is basically done by our homeland security agencies and good police work, good investigative work, good intelligence work. we have beenability thwart many of those plots. not all. you had the boston bombings, the

fort hood shootings. you have some events that were not prevented. there are many more that was. there was one plot that a few years ago to bomb the new york city. that was thwarted. the man was toured. you have many other examples of this. this is because, i think of the invest, th investment that we have made in our homeland security infrastructure since 9-11. >> will this ultimately be signed bottom karzi or someone who succeeds in the election who signs it? >> the thinking it will be whoever succeeds president karzai but the problem is now we have this long, drawn-out audit process. nobody really knows how long that's going to take. and the clock is ticking. here we are in august. we need a bilateral security agreement signed soon so that the u.s. can plan for its

residual force. we are now coming up against the clock. there has been some talk about whether karzi could go ahead and sign it, you know, even though he has said he will not do it, is there a way to convince him to go ahead and sign it now? the thinking is that it would be his successor. >> he was asked what he would tell american troops as they depart afghanistan. i want you to listen to it and get your reaction. >> show tremendous respect to the american people. they are hard working people. they own their daily bread and butter through shear hard worer it's a compassionats society. in afghanistan t through paying

taxes and sending them to afghanistan. it's highly appreciated. i have not a complaint but tremendous regard for them and admiration. tive complaints and, at times, anger, very strong anger at the u.s. government at the way they behave to afghanistan and to the afghan people. >> lisa curtis, your reaction. >> i think, you know, he showed his appreciation for the u.s. forces and what they have done in the country. i think he knows his audience at that particular time. but as i mentioned, he has mailed some very unhelpful -- things that have not been appreciated in the u.s. over the last several years. and there will be no love lost when car eye finally, steps down so i think where he started out

as, you know, a good leader, a consensus builder, showed leadership qualities, his behavior has become more e radic, and his relationship with the u.s. as a result has become severely strained. >> a call from south hampton. this is robert. hello >> caller: good morning to you in the united states. hour are you going? host: host: fine. >> caller: this entire issue in afghanistan has been sorted out -- could have been sorted out a long time ago with security and what have you if we were to simply take the opium production use it to provide generally cheap and very affordable pain medication for hospitals and out-patient clinics throughout the world instead of relying on very expensive

pharmaceutical-produced, you know, sort of companies and that would have the affect of cutting off the finances of al-qaeda and of the terrorist groups. i am wondering whether or not there should be investigation this is the reason why this has been a non-event the opium production could supply us with a huge amount of very, very cheap pain medication once it's distilled into numerous varieties. >> that's the open-ended question. i would like a response please. thank you very much. >> it's illegal and so there is a whole underworld and that's how they are making the money. so i can't really speak to legalizing that and whether that has any impact on the economy either in afghanistan or the

u.s. but i think the problem is you can't distill them down to the opium production issue. afghanistan has faced civil war you had those who invaded the country in the 1980s and reports u.s. pakistan, awed e arabia. weapons went into the country at that time and the u.s. did make the mistake of turning its back on the country in 1989 after the so far yes, it is left the country was awash in weapons and, this is part of the problem that we have in afghanistan, that the u.s. did turn its back on the region to not remain engaged and not help, you know, turn the war-torn economy into a better country with schools, hospitals, et cetera. i think that is the major conundrum and problem that we face in

afghanistan it's big. it's complicated and it has to do with, you know, given the afghan people alternatives, alternative livelihoods but i think, you know, it's much more complicated than just one more call from maryland, independent line, go ahead. >> caller: good morning, c-span. what people fail to realize is that al-qaeda was a creation by the cia and fbi in the united states. we supported osama bin laden when he fought against shaz. they are if you knowing weapons to 0 sam a bin laden. these boogey men are a creation of the united states?

>> i wouldn't argue with you that the u.s. did support the afghan mujadine in the 1980s but he was not a creation of the u.s. by any stretch. he was an independently wealthy man he did not independentd depend upon the u.s. i don't think it's accurate to say he was a creation of the u.s. but the u.s. did support the mujahadine. there were weapons poured into the country and then the u.s. made the mistake of turning it's back in 1989 there was no resource for saying the u.s. was trying to exploit. it was purely an effort to, you know, expel the soviets from the

region so they could not keep spreading, you know, we are dealing with the fallout of that but we can't afford to turn our backs again as we did in 1989. >> lisa curtis with heritage foundation and researches issues of south asia and afghanistan. as we have been talking about, thanks for your time. >> thank you. host: host: we will meet a gentleman who was likely responsible for the of nouri al-malaki, the prime minister of iraq. we will have that and later on, a session of open phones to finish out. again, those are the numbers. >> will take place in about 10, 15 minutes from now ♪

>> author sylvia dukes morris is our guest. >> she was so beautiful and so smart and, also, so witty that she became -- she was just always irresistible to men. i never saw even though in old age, her 80th birthday part, the columnists sat together after dinner having coffee. at one point, she began to stroke his beard. afterwards, he said, heavens, he said, i have never -- i have never met an 80-year-old that someone you would leap into bed with. they had this vampish quality, said you can'tive quality her entire life. >> on the life and career of claire booth luke's and sharing about their personal relationship during mrs. luke's final years at 8 eastern. on east earn's q and a.

american history t.v. take you on a trip across the country for history and literary life during our cities tour, including the beauty of the point roberts in bellingham, washington and the oyster industry of olympia, the history of megan's r and b music and the super sabre jet line hear the voices of the mormon tabernacle choir in salt lake city at 2:00 p.m. history on c-span 3. today, on "in depth" former congressman ron paul has written more than a dozen books on politics and history with his latest, the school revolution on america's education system. join the conversation as he takes your calls, e-mails and tweets live three hours today at noon eastern on c-span 2. watch more book t.v. while congress is in congress.

book t.v. and prime time monday at 8:30 p.m. eastern and tuesday through friday at 8:00 featuring a wide range of topics, including the middle east, immigration, marijuana and covering book fairs and festivals from across the country. book t.v., television for serious readers. >> washington journal continues. >> if you go to the rebate pages of "the washington post" and their "outlook section" there was a piece by a gentleman named ali khadari, why we spoke with al-malaki and lost iraq. the special assistant and general advisor to petraous. joining us on skype from due by, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> what was the purpose of this piece? >> well, really, at a critical juncture in history now, when iraq obviously is on the heels of another election and another government formation, i felt it

was important to remind colleagues in washington and really the world of how we came upon al-malaki in 2006 and why the obama administration chose to back him in 2010 and whether that was a strategic blunder that both the administration in the united states and iraq and our regional allies will live for, for a very long time to come. host: host: if i understand it correctly, you have a key role as far as getting mr. al-malaki into the position he is. tell us guest: i have known him since 2003 when i was an aide to senior leaders in baghdad and when al-malaki was a relatively unknown and. by 2006, he had risen to become

somewhat obscure but powerful and we were facing a critical juncture before the surge in 2006. we had a prime minister who was largely feckless and i urged we needed a new prime minister, somebody who could unite the country and crush the al-qaeda elements and i felt al-malaki was the right man for the job at the time as opposed to some of the other candidates being considered who were much more closely aligned with iran than al-malaki was at the time. >> what skills did he bring in your assumption he would be the right man for the job? really the critical elements were the fact that malkey was not as closely aligned with iran and not as beholden to their intelligence services as some of his political rivals. that was becoming a serious problem by 2006.

and since then really. also, the fact that he seemed to be more of ab arab nationalist than sort of religious ideo gue he proved us right in 2007, twaip, al-malaki cracked down on" elements and so by the end of the surge, and that was critical for restoring stability in iraq and also for reinvigorating the political process. again, those 2010 elections which were so historic and so critical and that's when the iraqi people elected a secular nationalistic pan-religious c e coral list. and that was the coalition that won the elections in between although obviously the u.s. and

iran chose to ignore those results and al-malaki came back for a second they remember. >> if i understand it correctly, those instances that you were talking about en bold en mr mr. al-malaki and if i read it correctly, that's where some of the problems start to begin? >> right. so post surge, there were a series of very critical transitions each one of them isolated. if you pull them together, in light of the catastrophfee we are witnessing across iraq. the first thing, a bush/obama transition. bush had been focused on iraq and it was sort of an unhealthy obsession for him to ignore the domestic economy and other things. when obama -- when president obama came to power, he washed his hands of iraq, didn't wants anything to do with it we had a

diplomatic gap. there was not a successor for several months and when his successor arrived, he undertook some various things like landscaping the embassy grounds as opposed to focusing on the iraqi political process and following up on again the critical elements of the surge. al-malaki, sensing a western political vacuum began to crack down and the u.s. either ignored that or continued to support him with sales of f-16s, hell fire missiles and other hardware despite the fact that he was -- he had undertaken these purges. all of these things the current crisis where al-malaki continued to crack down on the sunni arabs which has led to this reinvigorated to this sunni arab i know surge emergency or rebellion or revolution, whatever you want to call it. >> that's what the subjectni arab elements are calling it. the most troubling part of that

is that isis has taken advantage of the sunni harab disen chantment and regained a foothold in iraq. that's troubling after the tremendous sacrifices. >> on skype, did you address concerns with the obama administration and what was the reaction? he did. fol folks petraeus and successors in centcom and in the embassy in baghdad in 2010 to assist with the transition after the elections from everyone from vice president biden, on down i shared how i felt he had been the right man for the job for the first term and felt it was critical to pivot away from him. he had lost the election and he

was clearly becoming more sectarian and more beholden to iran and, number 3, because he was clearly beginning a campaign to hijack the process of iraq's democracy by co opting the judiciary, defending the parliament, taking all sorts of troubling steps but frankly, from the white house and also at the embassy largely for political expediency in washington, i think everybody wanted to wash their hands of what they considered to be bush's quote dumb war" and they did not believe that iraq could dissent great as it has and there was a small handful of warrants that should we not continue to keep focused on iraq, continue to safeguard our interests and respect the

democratic process and election results, iraq would explode again but all of these concerns were ignored. since you have a relationship with him, did you hear from him directly about what you wrote? >> i have not. i have not chosen to contact the prime minister or his staff but i have heard indirectly from others that obviously he is unhappy with the piece. i have heard from every other segment of iraqi politics and all were quite pleased that really for the first time ever, a senior american official has written to explain what really happened and how the train went off of the rails in 2010. >> as i read this, you regret this decision ultimately. >> i should have been more clear on that front. what i regret perhaps most of all is not being even more forceful and even more vocal in

lobby ing my bosses and the whie house in 2010 against al-malaki's return. i did try to pull out the stops and lobby as respectfully but as forcefully as possible. they weren't interested in listening i do believe to this day malkey was the right man for the job given all of the options that we faced at the time. i believe al-malaki was the best man for the job. he really did prove it. violence went down by 90% from the civil war highs, by the end of the surge down 90%, security was restored in the country by and large and iraq was a path of stability and self reliance. where things really went bad and went wrong were during that

critical transaction faces and they chose to ignore iraq's constitutional process and iraq's election results and backed al-malaki rather than the political situation that won the elections. people saw that there was really elections and democracy meant nothing, that you could lose an election as al-malaki did in 2010 and you could be reanointed as prime minister by iran and by the united states. that's when they took up arms again. and that's when the insurgency began to take hold after many years of american sacrifices. >> the piece is called why we stuck with al-malaki and lost iraq. it's on the washington post. the author, ali kadari, senior advisor to petraeus joining us to talk about it. thank you guest: thank you for having me. host: host: for the last half hour, a

set of open phones. if you called in the last 30 days, all we ask is if you hold off from doing so today. here are the numbers 202-585-3881 for republicans, 202-585-3880 for democrats. 202-585-3882 for independent. from skype,@c-span wj. if you want to e-mail thoughts journal@c-span. on our sister channel book t.v., in depth. a 3-hour program at a ti progr* noon starting today on book t.v. from the washington post this morning, if you joined us at the top of our show, you know the president is hosting in washington this week a summit on africa.

find out allegations more in the pages in the washington post. one of the themes will be that of hiv and aids. from the washington post this morni morningari ai ariana saying whe african leaders meet, one of the most politically sensitive is the future of the u.s. commitment to global affair efforts to deal with hiv and aids. for more than a decade, the united states has taken the lead in this fight providing significant funding, 52 billion known for the emergency plan for aids relief. it is widely considered the most successful foreign policy initiative in history credited with saving countless lives and helping to enhance a nation's image abroad. congress is still debating the allocation for fiscal 2015 the funding issue set off an amount

of anxiety. the center for strategic studies. people are wondering whether this is a slow winding down. stories we will read but this open phones starting with dave in north port new york democrats line? >> i want to respond to the guy talking about iraq. to put everything on the government, part is a civil war in syria and the isis rebels ca causing the problems. it's the civil war spiraling and the arab spring and the causes of the arab spring. the other things with article 241, i think it was or it was about that voting for

independence and taking kirkuk and which is -- they have done now patrick, republican line, go ahead. >> i wanted to know what you think that the indifferents between hillary clinton's or jeb bush's foreign policy would be as opposed to say, rand paul's. we have heard even oftentimes that hillary would be more of a neocon than rand would on foreign policy. >> i won't give me mine what time do you think the general differences are? >> caller: i think the past 3 president sees have been unconstitutional when it comes to going to war, even if it's not a wide-spread war like we had in iraq and afghanistan.

they don't go to the congress to seek approval. i think rand would from anything to a drone strike or a much more widespread war. >> as you vote for the next president in 016, how much foreign policy will impact how you vote? >> severely. >> besides maybe the economy is my most, you know, my most. i voted for john mccain and i never will again. the only person i could see myself voting for would be rand paul although i don't agree with him on everything. i think he will at least finally be a president that will abide by the constitution and bill of

rights. >> you can hear from senate paul's father actually on our book t.v. program like i mentioned today >> caller: as far as the border, anyone whether or not comes across, they broke the law. once it starts, you don't know where it will end. the law is the law. period. host: host: katy texas. up next. >> i am a hispanic and i have siblings that obviously are hispanic, too. guthey don't approve of immigration reform. and i am like, if they don't approve, it's like there are so many people against it. signature the main hurdle they have to jump over is hispanics.

they are so many against immigration reform. >> the first of two americans to be treated for ebola is highlighted in the pages of "the new york times" this morning. it was built with the cdc with the headquarters nearby. dr. brantley and ms. writebol will be held in a position away from other patients and probably have limited contact with visitors, communicating with non-medical personnel through telephones and an intercom system. a sheet of glass will separate the ill from the healthy. the unit has been used three to five times since it was built. all of the patients were suspected of having serious disease like sars but turned outed to not have those illnesses. this is the first time the unit held patients who truly had a dangerous disease. from arizona, here is don.

republican line. >> hello. i am a core ian war vet. i want to comment on the va situation. host: host: okay. >> caller: i was pleased with wh they are doing 238 miles from me, i go. and at my age, that's a long, long trip i am glad they are going with the 40 mile rule. >> will help. >> from liberty texas caller: i was wondering why the

water empowered, since we are in the middle of a flood, it seems like it would be a perfect time to start to work on this project. host: host: for those who don't understand, what is what is it and a short explanation? caller: it's a solution that's come up by the la rouche foundation about waterways, clean lakes and? >> since we are in a severe drought this would be the perfect solution. i am wondering why congress won't take it up or talk about it. >> why do you think it will work? because it's simplistic's.

if you look at the plan online you will see why it will work. >> from liberty texas, again, we are doing a set of open phones this morning. for the remainder of our show, 202, 5853881 for republicans, 2025853880, democrats and 202585382 for independent. "wall street journal" writes about the fancy farm event in kentucky. you may have seen it and heard about it, featuring highlights of the kentucky senate race. this is "the wall street journal" writing up saying this hamlet framed the experience. still stark terms mr. o'connell, the current incumbent warned the attendees of casting a vote for ms. grams would amount to a vote for president barack obama.

a little bit of sound from both of those candidates through this last half hour. first from mckown and talked about his intelligent, allison grimes. >> the reality is that the obama administration and their liberal allies are making americans weaker at home and intaud. barack obama by any stand has been a disaster for our country. if you think about it, that's what you get for electing someone with no experience. he was only defense he was only two years in his first job when he started campaigning for the next one. sound familiar has campaign raised millions from extreme liberals. sound familiar? he didn't have any qualifications at all.

sound familiar? every time he got in trouble, and every time he got in trouble and his inexperience became obvious, he called in bill clinton. sound familiar? >> again, that's senator mitch mcconnell. we will hear from the other candidate in the race. nancy, kansas city, kansas, indent line. caller: i wanted to talk about the va. i do recruitment for the va. i don't think anyone is talking about the future when they give this money to the va, you know, for veterans to go to private doctors. obamacare is going to cause a real shortage of physicians in my mind. house that going to help the veterans when they go to a private doctor and they can't find one? so, that's my comment. thank you for letting me -- >> hold on.

blozs because you work for the va, what do you think about the organization you work for? what goes through your mind caller: well, i see waste. i see lots of waste where i work. and really, nothing is ever done about that. the other problem is they can't get rid of bad employees. not just because of the unions. because of tof the courts. when someone is fired, they go straight to the courts and get their job back. and in a lot of cases, they are bad employees. so there is a lot of problems. there really are they are to look at getting more doctors at the va. >> this is glen from pennsylvania, democrats line. ca glen, good morning. caller: good morning.

pedro. i am calling about the palestinians. host: host: caller: calling for theitsis p it's time to talk about one state. hear me? host: host: i can hear you. go ahead. caller: for 60 years, been trying this two-state solution. it's time to talk about one state that would take care of the killing going down there. one state, one state. host: host: barb from sioux city, iowa. republican line. caller: my name is barb. good morning. i would like to comment on the

iraq situation. >> started when obama add announced that the time and date he was going to start withdrawing our troops. when you have an enemy and you are fighting an enemy, you don't tell -- you don't tell your enemy, well, i am going to fight you until this and then i am leaving. you don't do that. i think that's when this problem started and the whole state of iraq just pretty much collapsed. and i think that's the reason. it was working with bush's surge, the violence had decreased tremendously. and right after obama made his announcement, the violence started to increase. now it's just a total disaster. >> you heard from mitch mcconnell at the fancy farm event we just showed you. we will hear from his challenge,

allison grimes talking about senator mcconnell and her desire to be in the senate. >> it has been a hard year for mitch mcconnell, 35 at my age, that's also his approval rating. the senator is worried about the results in november. when you see his campaign manager wearing a michigan for governor 2015 button. sorry, al, sorry, jamie. when you finally, see senator mcconnell and i on this same stage, you realize only one of us believes women deserve equal pay for equal work if he were a t.v. show, he would be madmen treating women unfairly stuck in 1968 and ending this season. . >> back to open phones, here is tom in concord,cal, independent

line. hi. >> how are you doing? >> fine, thank you. go ahead. vets, our government is not there for them. it's a sad thing because, you know, child support and family law system to this country does the same thing as the va hospital does. and the government pays these people to do crimes and ruin families that should have their work done for them. they have to drive 300 miles to another doctor. obama or all of the senators don't have to drive to go see their doctor. they don't with a to wait six weeks for permission to drive 300 miles. why is that? i don't understand. we need to stop worrying about other people's problems and worry about our own here?

>> next is charles and just a reminder, if you are waiting to get online, if you would turn down your television set to stop the feedback, we appreciate it. charles from kentucky, democrats line. hi. >> hi. yeah, this is charles calling about your earlier segment about veterans. i am army-retired. a lot of veterans don't know when you are retired from the military and you receive va disability, if your disability is less than 50%, whatever va gives you, they take it out of your army retirement check. but if you are over 50% disabled, they do not take it out of your army retirement check. you know, the government preaches equal opportunity. to me, that's not equal opportunity. if you do for one, you do for all which means if you are going

to take your va check less than 50% disability out of the retiree's army disability, then you should do it for people over 50% or vice versa. if the people over 50% are not getting it taken out of their army -- their military retirement, then the people that get less than 50% shouldn't get it taken out of their military retirement. >> john from tennessee is next on our independent line. hello. john from tennessee? caller: yeah. this is john from tennessee, vietnam era veteran. my comment is that i had a chance to sit in on phil rose open forum in jonesboro, tennessee. his comment was at the end, what we are doing for the veterans is what for the future veterans and the vietnam veterans, probably

80% there and we just all left stunned. that's all i have. >> from the politics of the nation section of "the washington post", a story about common core, the education policy. state lawmakers take the lead on school standards. lindsey leighton writing that the back lab against common core has prompted lawmakers in 12 states to get more involved in settling their own k-12 academic standards and adjusting politics into a process usually conducted in obscurity by bureaucrats. in several states, legislate temperatures made restrictions on state boards of education and in others, lawmakers have opened up the development of standards to greater scrutiny requiring that the problems receive public vetting. academic standards lay out scope and knowledge that students are expected to learn by the end of each great, adopted at the state level while decisions about how to teach and materials used are usually made by school districts. state boards of education whose members are often appointed but sometimes elected usually control educate orders and

subject matter experts as the craft's academic standards and highlights the states and specifically how they handle their standards under common core. you can read that for yourself in the washington post this morning. dale from texas, democrats line. hi. >> hi. good morning? >> good morning. >> listen. i just have a few short comments i want to make. i have been listening to c-span i don't know how long. i want to start off by talking about congress. in my opinion, you know, i think it's so sad where we are headed in the congress. the old folks say when i was real young, it's something like this. congress been out all night and ain't got shit to show for it. i am talking about democrats, republicans, independent alike. also, the only thing it's good for is making someone bad look good. the va, it's not -- i worked for the federal government for 30

years. what i found there was they just don't document and follow up. bring in family members and they train them to what they know, which is not always a whole lot. but if they spend time documenting, meaning what they expect of somebody, i was an account and i am saying yes, they ex pent what you expect. host: host: at that time trick, republican line caller: my name is patrick. i am a carpenter, been all my life, since i was 16 years old, framing houses and still doing it today. i am 58. but i had so many people here that bid against jobs against me that should not be in the picture, something we need to work on, this border, i am not against amnesty my wife came here illegally. it cost me about 8 ,$000 to get

her here legal. we had to go back to mexico and go through the process. i think that we could shut this border down and, you know, not to mention all of the drugs an the cartel that come over. it's ridiculous. i don't understand why we can not get this boarder situation straight. i just think it's a shame because the people thdon't reale the people that are being put out of work by these people that should not be in my picture, that might have been for the last five years struggling making way less than i ever did in my lifetime and it's getting less and less every day because these people work for nothing. i hear they work hard. you know what? so do i. i am tired of hearing they work hard. i want somebody working hard for me. i want somebody down here to shut that border down and get us a safe and great country. >> bonnie from california, lancaster california, republican line. bonnie, go ahead. caller: bonnie.

host: host: go ahead. caller: hi. this is bonnie. i am calling about i want to know how come obama doesn't do something about russia with israel. i think they should give israel back their country and i think president obama should grow some balls and do something. host: host: bonnie from california. houston chronicle this morning takes a look at governor rick perry with a potential second presidential bid by david ralph and peggy filite saying he had a campaign stock pile collected for a now non-existent reelection and that can work to his political benefit as he eyes another run for president. the longest serving governor in texas history spent nearly a million dollars since announcing more than a year ago that he would be leaving the governor's mansion when the term is up. some of his expenditures over the last year already feet neatly for the 2016 white house

bid. perry who is considering travel to iowa to woo republicans in the key primary state. the story goes on. you can find the rest in the houston chronicle this morning. charles, fairwater florida, independent line. caller: good morning. i am calling about the comment on the va. my experience with the va has been pretty good my whole life. saved my life a couple of times. i think there is an issue here we haven't really addressed and that is the service connected disability and the non-service connected disability and whether the service connected has prior to prior to over the non-service connected and just throw that out to you and your listeners. thank you. >> from murrayville, tennessee, carl is there. carl, good morning caller: yes, good morning. i am a lifelong republican, a second generation italian american. and number 1, as a republican, i

am in favor of the legalization of marijuana strictly for taxes. i do not consume marijuana but i do consume cigarettes and tobacco products. and as a result, with tennessee being a tobacco state, our growers pay income taxes on their crops. they sell it through corporations such as phillip morris and others. and and those corporations pay corporate taxes and then as a cigarette smoker, when i go to the retail counter, i incur an additional tax and i think that the united states of america is funding drug cartels in mexico and just by losing the opportunity to collect taxes on a product that's widely consumed in the united states. host: host: carl, is someone making an active effort in tennessee to make marijuana legal? caller: they will be right behind texas. no. and but it's all about revenue

and it's about taxes. and because we got rid of the mafia by legalizing liquor. we created the mafia with the making liquor illegal. and as soon as we re-listed it, the mafia, we don't hear about the mafia in the united states. host: host: cut you off early. dw from louisville, kentucky. independent line caller: i wanted to comment that i do agree and understand the gentleman's call from north carolina regarding the border crossing. i do. host: host: okay. caller: okay. host: marcia, you will be the last call. caller: hi. how are you? host: host: fine. thank you. caller: i wanted to talk for a few minutes. the fact that the mental health

services and whole system in our country is vastly under doing the job they are supposed to do. and this, to me, is one of the tragedies, and i have worked in situations with young people, with older people, with middle aged people, everybody for about 45 years. and i just feel like screaming sometimes. he specially, say, three months ago, when my own cousins' wife tried to commit suicide six times. and she finally, wound up doing it. and he has cancer. he is dying. what i am saying is this is just

one little example, and we've got to do something to care for the mentally ill in our society other than put them in jail. host: host: marsha from lakeland florida. marcia will be the last call. as for our program tomorrow, two guests joining us. hear from tamara kaufman of the brookings institution and a state department official on near eastern affairs as we talk about u.s. policy concerning the middle east. jason riley. a "wall street journal" evidently board member and the author of please stop helping us. guests will look at welfare programs and how he believes they are holding african-americans in this country. ...

>> as congress reps at business and makes a way for it august ray, we are pleased to have senator david vitor of louisiana. she is a senior republican on the environment works committee. he is chair of the caucus.