for 2013. our guests are charles nelson t the u.s. census bureau and noamlevey from the "los angeles times" and tribune newspapers. >> and this morning on the "washington journal," we want to start off by discussing with you the ebola virus in the u.s. and international responses to it. 202, 585-381 for republicans. democrats, 585-3880. independents, 585-3882. you can also make a comment on cspanwj on a, @ twitter. and finally, you can send an email to c-span @c-span.org. very quickly, two stories,

kevin sack and manny fernandez are in dallas. texas apartment not sanitized for days, more than six months after an outbreak of ebola began its rampage through west africa. local and federal health officials have displayed an uneven and flawed response to the first case diagnosed in the u.s. in the latest indication, state and local authorities confirm thursday that a week after a liberian man fell ill in dallas, and four days after he was placed in isolation at a hospital here, the apartment where he was staying with four other people had not been sanitized and the sheets and dirty towels he used while sick remained in the home. county officials visited the apartment without protection on wednesday night. in a separate story, the new york tooms, she's in liberia, and this story is about the u.s. effort there. u.s. effort in africa is bahrly off the ground, two weeks after

president obama announced that time was running out in the fight to stem the epidemic. the american treatment centers planned here in the center of west africa's ebola crisis are still a long way off -- >> that's in the "new york times" this morning. here's a front page of "the washington post," a picture of zachary thompson, director of the dallas county health and human services department, and christopher perkins, the county's medical director. they walk out of the apartment in dallas, where thomas eric duncan was staying prior to going to the hospital. below that, they have a story,

face to face with ebola in texas. they've got a couple of reporters there on the ground, including abby phillip, who flew there last night. miss phillip, what are you hoping to cover in dallas today? guest: well, good morning. one of the things that we're particularly interested in is how this community is dealing with the arrival of ebola here to the united states. of course, ebola is actually a terrifying disease, and there are worries that there are at least five children who are known to have some contact with this man who attended schools in the dallas area. so there is a general sense that the community doesn't quite know how to respond. they're being told to stay calm, but as you can imagine, that's probably a very difficult proposition for many of them. and it also poses a lot of questions about how other cities might deal with the sort of inevitable fear and panic

that might arrive if ebola should appear in other parts of the united states. host: abby phillip, who's taking the lead? is it dallas county? is it the state of texas? is it the feds? guest: well, it's both the state of texas and dallas county from what they have told us, but the c.d.c. has a very advisory very obvious role here. this is, you know, their test case, and if things don't go well here, that could be incredibly damaging to them. so the c.d.c. is watching over this entire operation, but we have county health workers who are doing the grunt work of literally going door-to-door, calling number after number, and talking to any and everyone who might have had contact with this man, thomas duncan. host: so your day today, are you going to go to the hospital where mr. duncan is staying? are you going to go to the apartment? what are you going to do? guest: well, there's -- i think

the apartment complex is particularly interesting, because what we know is that this man was staying in a complex where a lot of immigrant families are. there are, you know, dozens of languages being spoken, and these are the people who were the closest to the situation. some of those people, the people closest to duncan, are being quarantined in their apartments in this complex, but i think the broader community is also dealing with the side effects of the situation, so i'll be going there, trying to talk to them to see what they're experiencing,, and you know, there were reports that when he was very sick, he vomited in the parking lot of this complex, and that's a very dangerous situation. that's one of the ways that ebola spreads. so it would be -- it's interesting to know what they have been told about their own safety and about the precautions that are being taken to make sure that the

entire complex is essentially safe. host: did you consult with anyone? are you taking any precautions prior to going to dallas? >> guest: well, you know, i think i'm certainly going to be taking personal precautions. there's no real -- you know, there's only one person right now withee bowl a. there's no real risk that unless someone else becomes symptomatic i might contract it, but, of course, you need to be careful and probably should avoid touching people unnecessarily, hand sanitizer will kill this virus. i mean, i'm taking all the precautions, but i'm not particularly concerned. scommoip we can look for abby phillip's stories, a story or stories tomorrow in "the washington post." ms. phillip, thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: and we want to get your -- we want to get you in on the discussion about the ebola virus, the u.s. response, the international response, your concerns, etc. you can see the phone numbers there on the screen.

our area code is 202. 585-3881 for republicans. 585-3880 for democrats. 585-3882 for independents. and if you're outside the u.s. and you want to participate in this conversation, you can dial in at 202-585-3883. front page of the "wall street journal," u.s. ebola screening grows, the number of people in texas who are being screened for potential exposure for ebola expanded thursday to roughly 100 people, as health officials cast a wide net to try to prevent the one confirmed case of the disease from sparking an outbreak. james is calling in from grand forks, north dakota. james, please go ahead. caller: me again, hi. how you doing, buddy? host: good. caller: hey, did that lady abby just say she's going to use some hand sanitizer? well, that should work. i watch all news sources, and a

couple of weeks ago fox news, they were giggling and laughing and saying don't worry, it won't ever even get here. and then now they were laughing again with all the bubble-headed bleach blond that is come on at 5:00 and tell but plane crash with a gleam on their eye on fox news, and they were giggling again and laughing and saying that it can't be transmitted by any -- you know, through -- it's very doyle get. now, morning joe this morning, they were saying that people have got it through their hazmat suits in africa, but don't worry about it, that's just africa. but i don't know if i trust these people, but anyway, i just wanted to say one more thing, don't forget the other thrd world diseases that are growing. we almost eliminated completely cholera, we did, but they have a large numbers -- we have cholera coming from south of the border. we have shiges disease. we have several thousand cases of leprosy. host: all this said, james, do

you worry about this stuff up in grand forks, north dakota? caller: oh, no. it's 30 something below in the winter, i think -- i never even seen any bugs up here. i think it's nice and cold, it kills everything. and i want to say one more thing. are you still there, pete? host: we're still listening. caller: oh. i think -- i just -- you have a thing on before this about making comments to c-span. i just wanted to say, october 6, i called last year about this time. october 6 was designated by ronald reagan and congress back in 1983 as national german americans day. i just wanted to say happy -- on this monday, it will be, i believe, the 6th, that's a day that was set aside to honor the 60 million americans of german descent, and i think it would be nice if c-span would have something about what still is the largest moornt group in america. host: all right, james, let's leave it there and move on to daniel in dundalk, maryland. please go ahead, daniel.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. are we still talking about the ebola case? host: we're talking about ebola. caller: great. bottom line, be observant, don't go to places where you know it's there. so if you're someone that travels, africa is probably not a good place to travel, right? so unless you have the equipment and the things that ou need, and as far as in this country, you know, we knew it was going to get here eventually, anybody that didn't realize, so we just need to be careful, and there you have it. host: and two of our twitter followers ask kind of the same question. sam says, how come there are flights coming in from ebola countries? and dee dee says, why has government been spreading fear of ebola, but nothing doing to restrict travel? only way to bring it here.

from the hill newspaper this morning, ebola becomes political fight. ebola is become -- becoming an issue with several republicans, using the spread of the virus to the u.s. to criticize president obama's leadership. republican lawmakers are accusing obama of underplaying the threat. they say the national response to the discovery of an infected patient in dallas has been woefully inadequate, "i am concerned about it, and it's a big mistake to downplay it and act as if it's not a big deal," says senator rand paul on the laura ingraham radio show. he said obama officials are putting political correctness ahead of public health. conservatives are hammering obama for saying two weeks ago it was unlikely that ebola could ever reach america. texas health officials on thursday said they are now questioning about 100 people. sandall other republicans have honed in on the white house's refusal to put limits on air travel, a step taken by airlines such as british airways and kenya airways.

both have cancelled many flights to africa. karen, virginia, u.s. response to the ebola crisis, what do you think? >> well, i think that we should be quarantining people who are going to be traveling to that region and coming back here. you know, we're taxed on everything else, and people are going to be traveling to those regions, why not have a tax to cover quarantine when they're coming back into this country? i think that they should be quarn teed for 21 days. >> marion, augusta, georgia, good morning. caller: yeah, peter, thanks for taking my call. look, i think people ought to just putting everything on the president. but my main concern is this. in some faiths, we administer sacraments, they use a wafer, and then they use a wine. i'm concerned about how, how

this might affect individuals, if some churches use wafers, then use oak containers. i would like to use a response as we go through, go about taking sacraments and this type of thing, because you all have been talking about the precaution we ought to take. host: from politico, ebola highlights c.d.c. fund crunch. congress gave the c.d.c. an emergency injection of $30 million to combat ebola right before it left town last month. lawmakers will still have to confront what the agency needs to keep fighting this disaster and to get ready for the next one and the one after that. more than many agencies, the c.d.c. has been hit hard during the last four years, pervasive austerity, with hundreds of millions of dollars stripped from its budget, state and local preparedness has also suffered. washington's ebola response so far has been bipartisan. fine the u.s. like much of the world was slow to grasp the

extent of the west african tragedy. representative christopher smith, republican of new jersey, chair of the house subcommittee on africa, global health, global human rights and international organizations, announced he will introduce a bill supporting the white house's ebola response when congress returns after the elections. a committee aide gave no price tag, but said the package would include training and supplying healthcare personnel, treatment units with laboratories and corpse disposal teams in africa and collaborating with the private sector to develop vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tools. daniel is calling in from reno. hi, daniel. caller: hi. how you doing? host: good. caller: i'm kind of disappointed with how we have this ebola virus. africa have always been a continent more than just disease happen.

africa is being looked upon as no part of this universe. you have corrupt governments in africa where they don't invest in healthcare. america needs to look at this and teaches them how to be able o use their resources to fight . ebola is a disease that is new to the war. what are we doing to the continent? , or are o bring this they really walking to help africa? if they want to help africa, hen they really need to stop this government and not doing

right for the country. host: daniel, where are you from originally? caller: i was born in africa. host: where in africa? caller: new year gentleman. host: nigeria. william, we're talking about the ebola virus and the u.s. response. caller: good morning. i've watched this all day esterday going between fox and cnn, and because i'm 71 years old, don't have much other to do, and i watched with a lot of enthusiasm, because like i say, and is something new to us i was very disturbed when i heard from cnn that this man had vomited, you know, and when you have a crime scene, they put tags around and whatever, and nothing was done in that matter, and they say that it can be bodily fluids that can be transmitted. well, gee, if anybody steps in it or rode over it with a tricycle or whatever and also

flies -- fly, things like that, and flies transmit disease and ants and bugs, it may sound funny saying this, but that's how diseases are transmitted, by flies, and flies i'm sure would want to go to something like that. host: when it comes to a u.s. response, what do you think it should be? caller: i believe nobody is checking them, and they fill out a questionnaire and they lie on it, or maybe he did not even lie, but i believe that he did. but they come back here to try to get help, they don't even have any of these experimental vaccines available for this gentleman. and how many more people are flying here and going other places that we don't know about, and it can blossom? just get out of control, and we really don't seem to be doing anything about it, but i think that the plane should be holding for a while. obama ought to step in and say,

hey, don't come here. we're over there helping you. host: thank you. thank you, william. francis cool sints head of the national institutes of health. he was on this program recently, talking about the n.i.h.'s response to ebola. >> the vaccines are moving forward at an unprecedented rate, and i might say, this is an effort that we started 13 years ago, anticipating that there might be a need for a vaccine, because ebola's been around since 1976, albeit in small outbreaks. this is the fifth generation ebola vaccine. it looks very good. in the animal models, it seems to be completely protective. but, of course, you don't know until you try this out in human patients, whether it's going to be safe and whether it will work. so we did start just three weeks ago, what's called a phase one trial of this vaccine. 20 individuals have now been injected with that. they are volunteers here at the n.i.h. clinical center.

so far all is going well, no red flags to indicate there's a problem with the vaccine, but it will take now a couple of months to see whether those individuals mount an immune response that you would think would be protective against acquiring the disease. once we have those data, if they look promising, then we need to move quickly to get this into what you'd call a phase two trial in west africa, in individuals who are at risk. all of that's very complicated in a circumstance where, in liberia and sierra leone and guinea, there's a great deal of stress, as you can imagine, on the healthcare system and mounting clinical research studies is going to be challenging. but we're determined to figure out a way to do that. >> what's the time line? what are you looking at? >> well, it will be november before we have the evidence on whether or not the vaccine is looking promising. if it looks good, then shortly after that, and there are meetings going on today and almost every day exactly about how to do the design, we would try to then set up this more

extensive trial in west africa that would determine whether the vaccine is actually effective or not. host: and this morning from "the washington times," calls for a travel ban extend back to the summer when the disease first started to spread in liberia, a irali season and guinea. a florida democrat was one of the earliest to propose restrictions, calling for a 90-day ban on travel from ebola-touched countries to the u.s., "if they instituted the travel ban when alan grayson demanded it, mr. duncan wouldn't be here" --

host: there's also a chart here in the "washington times" showing the number of deaths, currently 3,338 deaths have been attributed to this new breakout of ebola, and you can see here, in the past, when breakouts have occurred, some of the smaller numbers of deaths, and it seems to have been more contained at that time. anthony is in sierra vista, arizona. anthony, go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, america. i think the response has been totally inadequate, and one of the most important things is i've traveled globally out of dulles. i've traveled globally out of dallas. and if we look at it from the aspect we're talking about isis and the islamic state and the things that they could potentially bring, and most of those individuals who, you know, subscribe to that

philosophy already willing to sacrifice their lives. so what's to stop them from going and getting a virus and bringing it right back to our communities? so my solution is we are inadequate. we need to start having people go to their healthcare providers so communities can start having an awareness of what's going on. healthcare providers are our first level of what's going on in the community. host: lee is in sterling, virginia, here in the suburbs. lee, you're on the "washington journal." we're talking about ebola. caller: yes, good morning. you know, as i listen to the many comments and just taking it in as a filter, i think about the basics of public health. and i think, you know, frankly, i don't think we're really doing the basis of public health here. to me it's like, ok, i think the last caller brought up a

really good point about awareness. i don't think we have enough awareness. the very fact that we had a gentleman vomiting in the street that had ebola, and you had someone cleaning it up without proper precautions, to me that's an awareness issue. frankly, to me, it goes back to leadership, and it goes back to leadership at the highest levels. the very fact that people can think that ebola would only stay in africa is the most ridiculous thing ever. we know the tremendous travel that's taking place, and the very fact that the virus may be contained, been all knew it was not reasonable, but unfortunately leadership kept on saying that it was not as big of a deal. host: lee, you're out there by dulles airport. the fact that mr. duncan flew through dulles airport, a lot of united employees live out that way. does that worry you? is that hyper bolick?

>> well, it worries me from the stance of the fact that we have not -- you don't have awareness from the public health perspective, and it's the fact that -- we owe it to our communities, to train our communities, educate our communities. we owe the simple public health type of solutions that we could put in place, and that we could educate, and that will help. but it does concern me. it does concern me the fact that ebola has a 21-day incubation period. so therefore, that can slip -- people can slip through that has contact with ebola, can slip through, and 21 days later, something springs up, a fever springs up, and then, you know, they're getting, it sounds like a -- it sounds like probably a common cold, and turns out it is ebola. that's part of the training campaign we need to tell, and this is something where, again,

it comes from the leadership. it comes from government. host: lee in sterling, virginia. this is jim in lebanon, tennessee. jim, go ahead. caller: i'm concerned that ebola has become airborne. i watched interviews of the c.d.c. director and other doctors, and they don't seem that confident on how it's transmitted. i watched a program on c-span, a panel, and they also seem very concerned about the ebola outbreak. host: newer lebanon, tennessee. do you have worries about your personal health? caller: well, ebola is in texas, so i suppose it could come to tennessee. floip "usa today" this morning, calm down, you won't catch ebola, she writes. writing about public health can make you a little crazy. after 14 years as a medical porter, i'm a self-confessed

germophob. i haven't touched a raw chick known years. anyway longer eat sprouts or cantaloupes, which have caused far too many outbreaks, but i'm not a little worried about getting ebola, because viruses aren't all the same --

host: annie is in texas. annie, you're on the "washington journal." caller: good morning. how you doing? host: good. caller: ok. i would just like to say that -- can you hear me? host: annie, we are listening to you. you just go right ahead and talk in that phone. caller: ok, good. thank you very much. i would just like to say that i'm much more concerned about all of those diseases that were brought to america from the illegals that we drug over here across the border. i've been really concerned before even ebola even came to

the united states. people are just -- i don't know what to say. my job was working in the medical field. i'm a disabled senior citizen. i'm no longer working. but i think it's sad how we can take anything and just make it a prejudicial thing just because of races. if nobody is concerned about all of those diseases that the illegals brought here and we placed them right in our schools. we didn't put them -- i'm looking for a real big he democrat i can to break out from those people, and we are not saying anything, because if i had the choice of standing or working in a facility whether weather there was ebola, a tv, as long as i had my protection gear and my gloves, my gown and my mask, i was going to be over in the ebola department. host: all right. that's annie in houston. here's the front page of her morning newspaper, the "houston chronicle."

ebola raises travel concerns, patients and families under guard. and in dallas, here's the "dallas morning news" this morning. ebola patients -- patient's contacts sought, top story, of course, in that local paper. thomas is in oklahoma city. thomas? caller: yes, good morning. i just realized that obama has let the genie out of the bottle. there is no way that we should ever, ever had this disease brought to the united states. how are we supposed to control it? we can't even control a common cold. host: how would you have prevented it? caller: i would leave it over africa. you know, we cannot control the world. we can only control the united states. we've had our diseases. we don't need any of their diseases. host: freddy, smithfield, north

carolina. you're on the "washington journal." caller: yeah, this is actually brady. how you doing? host: hi, brady. caller: assuming that an epidemic does break out and a how do we decide do we get to that first, or is it sent over to africa or health care workers? are there going to be enough vaccines made? i will take my questions off the air. ask thosewill have to questions rhetorically or give us your opinion because there is nobody here to answer it. caller: we have problems with the flu vaccine, in trying to go first or ahey flu epidemic or that kind of epidemic. i just think that we may have a problem deciding if the epidemic

comes out, deciding who and where gets the vaccine. that's all. actually, another call from houston. hi, ashley. caller: i really don't think we should get hysterical about the ebola situation. i work in the trauma center in houston for many years. we have seen everything, including leprosy. to beis no reason hysterical. just take care of what needs to be taken care of, and let the people understand what the situation is. we do not need to get hysterical and be nonsensical about the situation. it can be taken care of just like anything else, any other communicable disease. i thank you. host: tomorrow, we are having an expert on this program to discuss the ebola virus.

skinner is anr expert on ebola and infectious disease. in ebolarticipated briefings on capitol hill, the national security agency. he will be on this program 7:45 to 8:30 tomorrow morning. -- "usa today" editorial people boarding planes in west africa are now routinely checked for fever and must answer the questions about whether they have contact with people this is far from foolproof. uper does not typically show two to 21 days after exposure. our lawyers of protection. would eventually the u.s. have contacted any special screening for travelers coming from west africa. they have had informational tear

, a transparently inadequate step that is matched by failings elsewhere in the system. thursday, local public health officials were still scrambled to get a cleanup crew to the apartment where duncan had been so ill and where occupants are confined. if americans are to remain calm, people throughout the system need to earn their trust here coat -- need to earn their trust to cope -- need turned their trust." connie? be takingople should immediate action. this is where the president should use his pen. are beingeel people realistic when they say things like it can only be transmitted under kate -- under disease conditions. these things have a way of changing.

they lead from person-to-person. a woman talked about a very good point. i want to see the president come out and say we are doing this, shutting the southern border. let's hear what is happening. are they getting screened? before they get sent other places? take immediate action. that is what i want to see, the president being open with the people. this is not something to get hysterical about, but it needs to be taken care of right now. host: from "the new york times," "every 30 day delay it takes to vastly increase the number of the cdct beds occurs -- warned even the ebola case that surfaced in dallas appears to stem from the lack of treatment beds in monrovia, liberia's capital."

frank is in troy, new york. go ahead. caller: amongst all the civil war and all the poverty, things are going to happen. what they need to do is contain it, just like they said they need more beds. we need to help them contain it what, does ite, come out in 21 days? maybe if they want to come over here they have to sign up and wait 30 days for it to get here. i'm sorry, i thought you had finished. did not mean to cut you off. mike, milwaukee, good morning. you andthank you for your staff working the third shift at first shift. problem, we have to be confident that we have an outreach to try to cure the ebola people. , dr.a reporter said livingstone, i presume. risks for all of those who

and i would just like to say that our life is about stretching our serve and care mercy love and forgiveness. is in dallas. hi, annette. caller: i just wanted to let you -- honey willey, cure anything. raw honey. if the government would take the allowf beekeepers and them to heat it to 160 degrees before putting it on the shelf, it will cure everything. besides that cure, you are in dallas at the u.s. epicenter right now of this issue. are you getting a lot of news on this? are you worried about it? no, i'm not worried

about it because i know what honey will do. they have to get serious about it. eyes,ve to put it in your your nose, your ears, hold it under your tongue, and when it starts running into the mouth, then breeds -- then breeds -- and it will open up the windpipe. host: thank you for calling in. some other news from "the hill." senator mark pryor was overheard saying that the job of majority leader to the senate should begin to charles schumer. if you want to read that story, it is in "the hill" this morning. senator jerry moran is the kansas and he is also the national republican

senatorial committee chairman. he talked about in the taping. [video clip] is a reality. you used the word independent. you also talked about whether there would be a democrat on the ballot. a democrat has not been elected from the -- to the u.s. senate since 1982. what happened is that the democrats are seeing that their candidate probably was not going to win. i should say was not going to win. it encouraged him to get off the ballot, and the hope is that a so-called independent can win a general election. democratendent was a candidate against senator roberts in 2008. the so-called independent was a contributor to president obama financially, a contributor to harry reid. has some"independent"

appeal because we all like people who are independent. an independent. this is someone pretending to be an independent to try to overcome the problems a democrat would have running for the united states senate from our state. that full interview will air at 10:00 a.m. on sunday morning, as well as 6:00 p.m. a lot of these tweets are about air travel. closenk liberia should international travel." and monti says, "why no vaccine for ebola since its outbreak in 1962?" saysdirector tom frieden people on the plane with eric duncan were not at risk, but would you want to be sitting next to him?" here is robert. "the ebola virus never dies or fades away. that is why it is more dangerous than the common cold."

mike, you are on the "washington journal." caller: how are you all doing? i just watched the piece on this ebola thing. it has been 10 years ago or so, and they was talking about how they was containing the ebola virus. they had it in a lab. how in the world did it get out of a lab? it started over there and now it is over here. why all the steps it has taken to get -- you know what i mean? host: yes, sir. caller: it is skipping countries now. it is kind of worrisome. host: mike in kentucky. "the new york times does go this case on-- justices take

bias, redistricting, and judicial elections. housing, andn, employment, the court which will return to the bench on monday, urging it to hear cases on same-sex marriage, cases it did agree to hear will be argued this winter and are likely to be decided by the end of june. the court will continue to add cases in the coming weeks and remain likely to accept one or more of the same-sex marriage cases." in hert call is marked most a beach, california. you are on the "washington journal." caller: good morning and thank you for c-span so much. this is going to sound really harsh, but i think we really need to say that the people coming from these countries where this is concentrated just have to say you cannot come in right now until we are ready to

deal with this. we learn something new about this every week. just this case, mr. duncan, it seems we learn something new every day about him. just self-preservation, i would say. it sounds harsh and her conan and i feel bad about that, but -- it seems harsh and track county and, and i feel bad about that. but please start paying attention. they said the two words you do not want to hear at the same time our "ebola" and "exponential." we are already hearing that. page of the "detroit free press" this morning. "peters's has rebuilt lead in race for senate seat." he currently has a nine point lead over republican land.

caller: thank you for taking my call. as a health care worker, i use universal precautions. if you are clean with your person and within your home, you really have no need to panic. ebola is not jumping from person-to-person, and i see now fear is starting to set in with our fellow americans, and we are starting to other these people already down in dallas. ignorance -- fear breeds ignorance and isolationism. we must remember, when native anyicans did not know disease until they were invaded -- before you start to "other," think about that. host: monique, had you had discussions at work about this issue? all the time. there are mandatory tests that

have to be taken on a yearly basis, whether you have direct contact or not. all the time, yes. for sharing your experience. the front page of the "globe and mail" out of toronto. role into take combat fighting islamic state." the kiev 18 fighter -- dcf 18 -- "5500e new york times," iraqis killed." this article in "the washington post." it is about who is and who is not online. it is kind of interesting. the percentage of the net -- the percentage of the international population that is not connected, 99.5% of burma is not

connected. 85% of people in india do not have internet connection. you can see it going down in mexico. 56.4%. and down to the u.s. at 15.9%. jeff is in olympia fields, illinois. the u.s. response -- what is your view? caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. monique did have a very broad perspective, the caller before. however, she has to remember that the american indian in our country did suffer a great deal from diseases that were brought to this country, and those diseases actually ravaged their population. goes to the united states being a leader about this issue. as opposed to the u.s. trying to take on this fight by itself

because it is a serious problem. 50% of people in west africa are being contracted with ebola and they are dying. i do not understand why the united nations is not involved in this, why russia and china are not involved. galvanize as a leader so that we can bring the best resources to west africa, to quarantine, to address it. what the u.s. is setting up is allowing people into the country, and i don't care what anyone says -- the cdc -- we just had a reporter from nbc who did not have any of those bodily contacts who came down with ebola, and he now has the disease as well. how this isertain communicated from one person to another. we need to take extreme measures to protect the u.s. population. host: olivia fields, illinois. a couple of quick articles --

1.8-pointheen, a anator -- a one--- -- 1.8-point lead for senator shaheen. "voters register in droves in ferguson." and finally, this article about 2020-2020 two winter olympics. "oslo boxlo, norway, 2022e cost of hosting the winter olympics." the world'ssed largest sovereign wealth fund, there was no supplies when norway threw its hat into the ring to host the winter

olympics, a celebration of sports at which it excels." "according to official documents, the ioc's list of the land included a cocktail reception with four way's king ald, with drink paid for by the royal family. committee members expected to be chauffeur driven along lanes reserved for their use, copyright and priority, quantity selling it on to the samsung -- withhone is norwegian subscription. ours had ioc also to stay open a vipthey insisted, while lounge at the libby stadium should serve high-quality food." that is in "the financial times." coming up, we will talk about hispanics in the 2012 election. we will also talk about

conservatives in the 2012 election. but first, when it comes to the 2012 election, one of the things that sees bill -- that c-span does in the election cycle is cover a lot of debates. aiming to cover over 100 debates in the house and senate this year, and one of the debates we covered last night was the connecticut governorship debate. "re is the front page of the hartford current" paper. "not so polite," according to the headline. here is a portion of that. [video clip] >> as someone who takes the safety of our citizens seriously, i am proud of the changes we made with respect to gun laws making people safer. i am proud that we will have universal background checks.

and we limit the size of the capacity of a weapon to get 94 shots off in just a few minutes. that is what happened at sandy hook school. we have also said we do not want in the future at additional weapons of mass sold in our state. i believe in all of that, and i believe that we need to invest in mental health, and that is why we are doing it as well. , ispponent, tom foley telling you that he would repeal that law. that law that allowed us to lower homicides in connecticut by 32% in 2013. that law that is making children safer in schools and on the ,treets of rich port, hartford at new haven. that law which we came together on a bipartisan basis, the minority leader of the state , champions that -- championed that legislation. tom foley will repeal it."

i will never, ever do that." >> mr. foley? again, isr malloy, not telling the truth. i never said i would repeal the gun law, and i will not. passed, though, has not made people in connecticut any safer. we had a terrible tragedy in newtown. i said at the time to the governor through the media, not , please let's fix the problem. let's figure out what the cause of the problem was, and let address that and not do an overreaching gun bill, which is what he did. the source of the problem at newtown was a mental health problem, and the government -- the governor had the opportunity to address mental health issues in connecticut, i would like to address as governor. we do not have enough care for

certain people with certain mental health problems. he had an opportunity to take a good policy direction as a result of newtown, and instead, he went off in a direction that was unnecessary. when he did it, he took away the rights of people who consider those rights important. you recognized in our debate tuesday night that those rights exist and are important. so why did you take them away? we are not any safer. this is an inconvenience to a lot of people. i have not said i would repeal it. i want to address things that are more important like jobs and the economy and getting the control of spending in the state. mr. malloy, your rebuttal? >> mr. foley, i have had a lot of respect for you over the years, but tonight you just told somebody, everybody in the state that this is not true. you have said repeatedly that you would sign a repeal of the gun law. you have said it month after

month after month. now that you understand that people are catching on to what you would do to the children, the streets, to their urban environments, now you want to fishtail around and flop back and forth and have it both ways. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to introduce you to cristobal alex, president of the latino project. what is that? guest: thank you for having me. the latino victory project is focusing on building latino political power in the united states. we want to ensure that latino values are reflected at every level of government. it is founded by two visionaries. nos, a businessman. and eva longoria, an actress that you probably know. host: so what is your vision?

you say you want to build latino power. how? caller: we want to make sure that we have adequate representation. that is the foremost goal of this organization. in a country of 53 million latinos, 17% of the population, we only have 28 members in congress of latinos. we should really have twice that. in state legislatures it is worse than that. for example, latinos make up 2% of all those elected in the country. we have never once had a latino senator in this country. bywant to change that building a pipeline of latino leaders to take on this heavy role of government. these races are not inexpensive. we have to fund this movement for political change. finally, the third thing we intend to do is make sure the latino voices are heard on election day.

very importantly, beyond election day. is it a partisan organization? guest: it is not partisan. i am glad you asked that. when henry and i sat down, in well, weand eva as decided we had to build a nonpartisan effort. latinos are the future of the country and we have to that future in our own hands. we do not want to be taken advantage of by any political party. first and foremost, we want to build an effective nonpartisan front. host: why are latinos voting overwhelmingly for democratic candidates? guest: so far the democratic party thate best reflects latino values. our organization is focused on exactly that. what are the correlating of

values that are essentially american values? these are access to opportunity. education, aple good job that pays a living wage. it means a clean environment. latinos score at the top of the charts. many demographic groups when it comes to the environment -- nine out of 10 latinos want to see some type of action to curb global warming. it means access to a democracy that works for everyone. that means voting rights. finally, we want to make sure that we have access to health care, and that is a core latino and american value. it just so happens that currently the democratic party reflects those values, and that is why you see 71% of latinos voting for the party that favors those issues. nationalre is no election in the 2014 election cycle. where are latino voters going to make a difference? which districts, which states? guest: folks are talking about

the senate quite a bit. colorado is a contentious senate fight right now. latinos will make a decision in that race. there are a number of other races in the house. we are looking closely at at least seven races. all the way to florida. before you were talking about the governor's races. people are paying close attention, but in a number of those races the latinos will be a deciding factor. when we will see coming out of the election is not only that latinos are making a difference, to truly in those regions where we have close margins -- particularly in those regions where we have close margins. it is important because the day wednesday,ion day, you will see a headline in the paper about how headlines -- a

headline in the paper about how latinos are making a difference. that is going to be an important building block toward 2016. host: have you given money from the latino victory project to candidates directly? latino victory project is a 501(c) four. we spotlight leaders and we ensure that we are doing a big voter registration campaign with important partners. but we also have the latino victory pac. and through that we will make contributions to candidates who reflect those values. we have a rising star in california running for office. call a first. whowas the first latina

served as chief of staff in the united states senate. another is an amazing rising star in nevada. she was the first latina elected to the assembly there. she has a very good shot at being governor of that state. the lieutenant governor's race in texas is a close one. where did you grow up? guest: el paso, texas. host: where did you go to school? high schoolutiful there. host: i'm sorry, where did you go to college? guest: -- host: you did that prior to the latino victory project -- what else? up, my dream grew

was to be a civil rights lawyer. i went off to law school, and my goal was to eventually have that never happened, of course. civil rights litigation is oneor of the hardest things i have ever done. i really respect folks doing that work in litigation. was we had this smalln washington in a town in eastern washington that was 87% latino, a migrant farm worker area with a lot of agriculture appeared they had a white mayor, police chief, all white city council, and they had serious discrimination against the women in that town. we got a lawsuit, and we learned that the reason why they were

becausediscriminate was they do not have political power. i realized i could focus on litigation and empowering these women through litigation or i could go to the east coast to new york to launch in organization that was focused on building civil rights and political power through policy. host: mr. alex, we have this tweet -- marco is a very interesting guy, obviously a brilliant senator. it is a very important state. we throw our support behind candidates that reflect our values. some of the asked about ted cruz. here is what i said about ted cruz. every family has that crazy

uncle, right, and ted cruz is our crazy uncle, crazy canadian uncle. be able to support him. he is against voter id and against the minimum wage, against the environment, things that are core latino values. in the future when we get behind a presidential candidate in 2016 -- of course we are hope -- the present, on but the candidate will be about who best represents latinos. host: here is what the president said that the national latino congress. [video clip] to live upess fails to its responsibilities to self this problem, i have said i will act to fix as much of the immigration system as i can on my own, and i meant what i said. this is not a question of "if," but "when." itause the moment i act, and will be taking place between the november elections and the end

of the year, opponents of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics to try to block any attempt at immigration reform at realistice have to be . for any action to last, for it to be effective and extend beyond my administration, because i am only here two more years, we are going to have to of theore support american people so that it is sustainable and lasting so i am the nextbe spending month, month and a half, six weeks, eight weeks, i am going to be spending that time not just talking about what was done for the economy, but explaining why immigration reform is good for our economy and good for everybody. [applause] and when opponents are out there , i am who knows what

going to need you to have my back. host: crystal ball alex, what is your reaction to the president's strategy -- crystal ball alex, what is your reaction to the president's strategy? i think we will see executive action and immigration before the holidays. i think it will be bold action. he is right, we have to ultimately resolve this issue and fix our broken immigration system, and it has to be congress that takes that action. what we have to also remember is who really is to blame. we would not be having this conversation today about immigration if the house republican leadership was allowing a vote to come to the floor on immigration. we had a senate bill passed with bipartisan support. and then you saw the right wing of the republican party take that bill, stall it, and on the last day of the session, it

passed something, but what it said was, essentially they wanted to deport dreamers, the most courageous in our community. dreamers are, of course, the young folks who came here and will contribute to this country. what they have said is that they want to deport the dreamers. they really are the future of the country. clearly, we need to remember that on election day and stand with our immunity. ultimately, we need to get our friends over here in congress to pass that legislation to fix our broken system. host: how many latino american voters in the u.s. right now? 2014 about 7ct in million latino voters to come out. host: latino population in the u.s.? guest: about 53 million. aside a fourth line for latino voters. we will put that up on the

screen so you can dial in to .alk with cristobal alex finally -- hispanic or latino? the president was at the congressional hispanic caucus. you are with the latino victory project. are those interchangeable terms? used themave interchangeably. when i was a young kid i would say i was chicano. host: that has a mexican connotation. is mexican-american. i come from mexican farmworkers. hispanic or latino -- host: interchangeable. let's take some calls. mike in florida on the republican line. you are on with cristobal alex of the latino victory project. caller: good morning. minute mr.ugh the alex said he was aligned with eva longoria but his

organization is not partisan he has obviously taken three or four shots of the republican party. immigration is certainly not to be blamed on one party, first of all. looking at immigration reform, and i hope my comments are taken to be deemed appropriate, but you talk about having latino representation, and while i feel alreadyerican is represented by their constitution, so exactly what new rights are you looking for? the thing that concerns me is hispanics in mexico, they do not have exactly the same desires of governing something, they give away the rights to defend themselves. is that what i can expect in 15 or 20 years as the hispanic and latino population grows? host: all right, we got the

point. thank you. guest: thanks for your question. what we are saying that for a population of 53 million, we need an adequate voice in our government and in the policies that drive the country forward. our vision looking towards 2020 is this -- we expect the population to continue to about --at a pace of for example, 78,000 latinos turn 18 every month. that is an incredible growth rate we want to make sure the community is well-informed at int they participate elections and policy debates. the position for 2020 is this, you know that in 2020 we have a presidential election, and it is also the same year that we had the u.s. census, followed by redistricting and the reason why we are looking at 2020 is this -- if we can elect a record number of latinos and your office to make sure we have a voice in congress and state legislatures across the country, record number

of latinos are voted in and we have a record number of latino voices making sure the voices are heard, we can help redraw district lines across the country and helped drive policy debra fox latino american values. latino values are american values. these are things like a vibrant economy that works for everyone. these are things like water and an ample education. these are important issues that matter to all of americans. things we talk about around the dinner table and night. int: michael is calling some tampa. caller: thank you for the call. i realize i am on a delay. i am looking at the television -- host: just speak into the phone and do not look at the tv. the term latino is really a misnomer. i think you are mainly speaking

about mexicans in the united states. ricanoned to be puerto and them married to a cuban, and we do not use that word unless we refer to the caribbean situation. puerto rico, cuba, santo domingo -- host: that all said, what is the significance of that comment? is you the significance are misleading the american public. you are misleading your own people by calling it latino. host: i think he is going to the mexican angle. guest: i appreciate that and thank you for the call. , awife is from puerto rico beautiful place which he considers herself latina. i understand what you are saying. we use it interchangeably, latino and hispanic. you are free to call yourself whatever you would like. i prefer latino. democrat.in, texas,

leland. caller: thank you for c-span. my concern is that, as an anglo, if we saidere and "white" for every time you said "latino," saying the same things you were, i would be called a racist. it just seems like you are more thanrned with your race you are with american values and core values. mexico has been turned into a cesspool and everyone is trying to leave because of the corruption. i am afraid it is all going to be imported here. , yes, it is the land of opportunity. the land of immigrants. i will share a personal story. my mom came to this country as a migrant farm worker, one of 10

children who from a very young age traveled around the country hear it from bakersfield, california, to the panhandle of texas think picking con. they did it in search of opportunity. they wanted me and my brother to have the chance they did not have. think about that job -- in one generation, a migrant farm worker to being here with you this morning and in front of congress and on "washington journal" here. i can only happen in the united states because it is the lead of opportunity. clearly, it is a beacon of hope, that light you see shining on it the hill. that is what we think about when we think of the united states as a country of immigrants. the call upfollow with this tweet -- i think she is probably

going to the immigration issue. guest: clearly, the united states is a nation of laws. i often times think of laws like voting rights. of course, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1955 -- 1954 civil rights movement before the civil rights act or next year will be the commemoration of the 1955 voting rights act. these are the types of laws that made our country what it is today. it allowed for african-americans , people of color, people with disabilities and others, to really participate in our incredible democracy. that would -- that is what next the united states and incredibly special place. it is the rule of law. at the same time, when i think about these laws, i wonder and worry about an attack on those laws. what you have seen in recent years in the supreme court is a rightward shift in the courts where landmark laws, laws that

people gave their lives for, like the voting rights act, have been fully eviscerated. there is a detrimental impact on our country to do you are right, it is a nation of laws. we need to make sure those laws are intact and that corporate rejections are protected -- corporate protections are protected. caller: good morning. i have a couple questions. be --st question would what, if anything, do you think should be done about people who come here illegally instead of going through the system? i am very much for people emigrating to america. going through the system, doing what needs to be done, taking the time that our national laws require. host: and your second question. caller: you said that you need

more latino representation by latinos. latinos'you say that concerns are the same as all of our concerns. so why specifically do you feel you need a latino representative to represent your concern instead of voting for the best person to represent your concerns regardless of color or nationality? host: is there a large population of latinos there and northern indiana? caller: yes, there is a lot of trailer manufacturing. some of the big farmers use these things, and those are made here. so there are a lot of immigrant workers up here. i have had experience with a family member who had their identity stolen by an illegal person, and immigrant who used it to work in another place. it was a nightmare to try to get that straightened out with the

irs. host: thank you. illegal versus using the system and latino representation. guest: thank you for your questions. as i mentioned, this is a nation of immigrants. now we have approximately 11 million folks, hard-working people, that do not yet have documentation that is necessary to remain in the country and to get full employment. that needs to change. you are right. the immigration system is broken . we need to work together to resolve it. and to bring families in these hard-working folks, including the folks in your immunity that worked so hard, into our economy completely and into our democracy completely. question, whennd you do not have a voice in community isyour not fully represented, that means that important policy

issues are left off the table. i want to talk for a minute again about the environment. we have seen gridlock in congress, unable to move legislation on climate change come an issue that is very important to latino communities. nine out of 10 latinos want to see some action by the government to curb climate change your did without adequate representation, that voice is missing. that is what we aim to change with the latino victory project. increasing the number of leaders prepared to take office and eventually taking office. andrew from rochester, new york, republican line. you are on with cristobal alex with the latino victory project. caller: how are you today? guest: good morning. caller: i do not think you are -- i do not take you very seriously, because you say that you are bipartisan, but you are

not at all. you are a liberal democrat. let's say's, everybody knows that. so we are not taking you very seriously when you come out here and you are just a faker. honestdon't you just be with your audience? everybody has figured you out. before i came on made a very good point. what is the big deal about being you say "i am for american values"? could have a woman president, the first woman, the first-something president. that does not qualify you to be a representative the people, that you are latino. ," i havee term "faker to take offense to that. i do not think i am faking it. we are strictly a nonpartisan organization. that is really important.

when the founder and i sat down after 2012 to talk about how we would develop this organization, we made a very cognizant decision to be nonpartisan. ownave to build our political party. that is why we're doing this as a nonpartisan organization. us have letting overwhelmingly voted for one particular party that respects their values. if the other party, republicans, want to get latinos to vote for them, they have to work a little bit harder on things that matter liker community, immigration reform, the environment, minimum wage. correct you there, we are not faking it or it we are nonpartisan, and we are serious about that. we can use your help and rochester. if you can find a candidate, a latino candidate, that reflects those values, send me a line.

we would love to chat with them. host: laura, rhode island, democrat. thank you for c-span, and thank you for putting yourself out there, cristobal. my pet is redistricting. so you said the magic word a little while ago. i am wondering, to what extent , in your organization effect, pigeonholed itself as latino instead of creating a broad coalition to address the underlying issues of underrepresentation of , to put together an organization that goes across the spectrum to get the representation needed to have policy changes? guest: good question. first, i am glad you're are

calling from rhode island. it is a useful place. adage of to have an amazing latino secretary of state that shares your values -- you have the potential to have an amazing latino secretary of state that shares your values. and latino running for mayor in rhode island. it is an amazing place. but your question is right, we have to figure out a way to break out of this cycle. it is part of the reason why it think congress is so polarized right now. there have been extreme's strictly on the right driving policies, because the elections are not competitive as a result of redistricting. organization that launched about six months ago, and as we grow as an organization and as a community, we will be looking at these types of coalitions. host: larry, amsterdam, new

york, independent line. caller: i am going to ask a question i cannot believe has not been asked yet. set ach has the language or whateveratinos you want to call them being accepted into the american culture? i mean, i call the business year three or four months ago and got a voicemail that said "to continue in english, press one," and that was extremely offensive to me. if you are talking about a population of whatever you said million, that is certainly not a majority in the to say if i want to continue in the native language of this tontry -- you know, you have learn to speak to come to this country and to get citizenship. host: i think we got the point.

mr. alex? that youe citizenship described, the test is actually kind of complicated. it has a number of challenging questions appeared they are in english. i think it is a benefit for this country to speak multiple languages. spanish is a beautiful language, as is english, french, german. a number of languages are spoken in this country and we should be proud of that. i wish my spanish were a little bit better. my grandmother would be very happy if i practiced and spoke more spanish. i speak german. i would love to learn another language. i would be proud of it. host: is bilingual a trend of the future for the united states? benefit think it would the united states globally. think about our trade partners are mexico is one of the biggest. bilingualism or t

rilingualism, and i think we should teach that to our kids in school. host: let's take another call. caller: he said one of the reasons we needed to let these immigrants and was to keep their families intact. why do illegal immigrants come when they are breaking up their families? why is it only that the united states that illegal families can be kept intact? is actually ation global phenomenon. there are immigrants from africa to europe, from europe to the united states, india to the united states, and what we're talking about is the united states being a land of opportunity. that is why people come here. that is why might parents came here. that is probably why a generation before that your parents or grandparents came to this country. unless you are native american, we are all immigrants.

that is why we are here. host: a call from oklahoma. caller: yes, i would like to say to this young man, he keeps talking about he is from the immigrant latino community. there is no such thing can most people that emigrate here assimilate to being american. all of the sedin we have these special interest groups of people, and he says he's not represented by anybody in washington -- well, we have people that represent americans. if you are here legally, you should not have problems getting representation. what he wants is special representation for that particular community because a lot of them are here illegally. host: is that a legitimate viewpoint? it is not. we do have some amazing representation in this country. we do a good job representing ourselves, our culture, our food. if you look at congress, we do have some incredible rising star

latinos. some are rock stars. like the castro brothers. this is the embodiment of the future of the united states, incredible leaders that shine a wonderful spotlight on what the latino community has to add to this amazing country, which is a country of immigrants. few minutes left with our guest at we have a call from illinois. caller: good morning. buenos dias. ithink it is very sad, and will try to be as painless as i can be with the people calling in -- the fact is, i am from california. i grew up there. mr. alex will explain what the brasserro project is in the central valleys were the fruits are grown, no one ever had a problem with the mexicans coming in at doing work for them to her there were good mexicans fear they became bad mexicans when they took over the trades, started businesses, became

property owners. now they are moving east. that is the way it is going to be. five boys and my family and three of us are married to white women. that means our children are half-and-half. that is way it is wrong to be, whether you like it or not. just get used to it, i guess. what we used to ask for, now we're going to start to take it. it is not a bold statement, just something that is a reality. i apologize to people who think it is going to be different. it will not think thank you for your time. mr. alex, you are doing a great shop. guest: thank you. i appreciate that. the country is a melting pot of beautiful cultures. i appreciate what he said about that program. it wasn't effort beginning in the 40's and going into the 1950's that brought hundreds of thousands of migrant farmworkers from mexico to the united states to work in the fields. very hard work here that is how my family came to this country and how we became a part of the

american trained. i remember what i was a little kid, my mom would tell my brother and i that if we set our hearts to it, we could achieve whatever we wanted to achieve. that is the american jury. my mom was such a hard worker, and as a child, she had to work in the fields and was not able to get her high school degree. but she and my dad did everything they could so that my brother and i would have the chance she did not have. as i said earlier, it is a great honor of being here with you all this morning, being across from the capital, and being here with peter. that is achieved in one generation, and a can only happen in this country. paso? s mom still in el yes, she is retired with my dad and brother there. is alive in texas, which state with one of the fastest growing latino populations. there is a reason why texas takes a four congressional seats

in the last redistricting. that is because of the latino population. that is one of the reasons why texas has a strong economy, because of latinos coming into the state. -- state of texas thing also has problems, and one of those is voting rights. when my mom said to my brother and i we could be whatever we wanted to be, i mentioned i always wanted to be a civil rights lawyer. my brother wanted to be president of the united states. he loves politics. he cherishes his vote. president ofs not the united states. my brother is autistic. myn i was a kid, seeing brother growing up as a person with autism, it really struck me what it means to not have powers in this country. he votes in every single election cycle and is probably watching this show today. but in 2012, legislation and

texas past with, at the time and it may still be, the voter id law in the country. what they said was if you have a concealed handgun permit, you can vote, no problem. if you have a university of texas bank student id permit, vote.n they were trying to suppress the latino vote. in november of 2012, the historic election that had a milestone of latinos, my brother did not have the right id card that they could luckily for him and for tens of thousands of others in texas, that law was held up. so he was able to go and vote that day. by pure luck, the paper in el paso was there. they got his picture coming out of the voting booth, and he has it framed. it was the best day of his life. you have a university

id, you can still be out of state -- from out-of-state. guest: but you are a resident. host: do you have a problem with a photo id? country, theythe are doing a number of things short and the amount of time to do early vote. removing voting on sundays with -- focus on african-american and latino communities that our faith communities. we talked about the voting rights act, attacking voting rights. that, i have to say, is because they want to suppress the votes are they're looking at this mathematically. i am not saying most people are racist, but what i am saying is that they know math. by shaving a few of these votes out, they can have their candidates win. that means our voices are eliminated in the democratic process. that is what we are trying to

fight against. host: john, illinois, republican line. caller: alex, you are doing a wonderful job. keep up the good work you what is going on right now, and we had a lady from indiana talking and she said nothing about getting the right candidate in even though most of the population may be latino or chi says they may not be the right person. do not agree with that. with all the gerrymandering going on in the united states right now in each state, i think we are not getting the right people represented there. keep up the good work. you're doing the right thing. that. i really appreciate thank you for the call. he makes a good point -- when you look at the side of the population that is not represented in congress or in legislature or at the city level, you were talking earlier about ferguson. look at ferguson, for example. an overwhelmingly african-american community with very little to no representation on the city council, police four, etc. does police force,

etc. what we want to do is to really make sure that we have a voice, that we are hurt. that is precisely the point that you make, and i appreciate it. host: last call for our guest mes froml alex co florida, democrat. caller: good morning. i think the white elephant in the room that people fail to look at is this -- when we look to graphically at the usa, and a lot of the states in the country -- an indigenous population is the hispanic and latino people. when i travel out west to texas ,r new mexico, los angeles hispanic names are taking the names of these particular areas.

the you talk about changing the language and that language is already here and there. a lot of people are blindsided -- [indiscernible] cheated, we forget we have cheated. i have looked at a lot of areas over there, and they are still housing, the architecture, the people, the restaurants i go to. people now living in the united states because of lines that have been drawn. we have to look at the situation of what we have been giving in the united states of america which is more of an idea than it is a geographical location. guest: that is exactly right. a florida, we are seeing really fast growth in the latino population. in texas, we talked about that growth. remember, there are generations of hispanics or latinos in

places like texas and colorado that were there before the united states, so the border actually moved over them. host: cristobal alex, latino victory practice -- project, first-time guest on the show. thank you for being with us this morning. coming up, we will talk to matt schlapp, new head of the american conservative union. we will continue our discussion 2014.itics and election primary weekend -- booktv, american history tv -- they take over c-span2 and c-span3. 48 hours of books on c-span2. 48 hours of american history on c-span3. throughout the year, we go around the country and visit

communities to get a feel for their history and literary culture. this weekend on booktv at american history tv, we are going to visit boulder, colorado. here is a little bit of the mayor talking about his city. >> the city of boulder is part of theolorado, denver metro area. geographically, we are right and where the great plains butts up against the rocky mountains. in fact, that is why you see, to the west of us, the spikes of the foothills, the flat irons, and so on to it we have an unbelievable amount of open space. it is about 47,000 acres now or itput that in perspective, developed the urbanized area of the city of boulder which is somewhere around the order of ofbe 14,000 acres spirits that ratio is pretty spectacular

in how much open space that we own and protect. after the war when this whole boulderas booming, and was booming, too, growing very rapidly post-world war ii. this little city was growing rapidly, and the citizens of boulder decided that they wanted to continue to protect the space and the specialness, and they open space andh an agreement with the surrounding county that we would remain this compact city. that was at a time when other cities were groaning -- growing and booming like crazy. boulder may a different decision that people thought would kill us economically and we should not be doing this, but it was exactly the right thing to do. because what it did was it really kept that special nature of this city that you see to

this very day. >> "washington journal" continues. chair oft schlapp, new the american conservative union for what is the movement -- what is the mission of the acu? guest: it was established when barry goldwater went on to lose rather spectacularly in the race and conservatives dusted themselves off and said it was great to nominate a wonderful conservative to the presidency, but it would be better to win. so their goal was to knit together -- union is in the name is because the desire was to knit together all different conservatives from different respective spirit national security, economic, social conservatives, religious conservatives, all different perspectives, bring them together and try to have electoral success in public policy. host: what is your role in the 2014 campaign?

guest: if you're looking at the presidential example of the last two cycles, the center-right coalition has a lot of work to do. 2014 is obviously to have as conservative a congress as we can possibly have. this will come as a huge shock to you, that does not include keeping harry reid is the majority leader of the senate. we would much rather have mr. mcconnell as the majority leader of the senate. and we intervene into the public policy discussion. we want people to know who the true conservatives are. does it include keeping pat roberts from your home state of kansas in the senate? guest: absolutely. he has an obama acu rating. has a gold standard of congressional rating spirit we have been reading members of were since the early 1970's. so american80% or congressionalnion

rating could absolutely, we think he deserves reelection. it is my home state. i think as the days go by, not too many days left, that republicans and conservatives will be coming back to pat roberts, and i think he will win. host: does it include keeping john boehner as speaker? elect asr goal is to many conservatives into the republican conference. the question of who is speaker is really for the whole congress or the whole congress elects the speaker which is kind of the unique thing in politics. they will make that decision. one thing i will say is that sometimes conservatives are too focused on republicans not being good enough. we should focus more on who the real enemy is, at least our political enemy, and that includes those members who want to grow government, who want to support president obama's radical agenda, and who want to

take the direction of this country in the wrong direction. that is the fight. host: what is the threshold to determine whether or not john boehner a conservative or good enough? inst: we tend to not endorse races unless an incumbent has an 80% rating on our congressional scorecard, or higher. some members get 100%. 80% or higher, we usually indoor spear john boehner, before he was speaker -- in american politics, a strange thing is these bigger does not vote that often appeared before he was speaker, he did vote and voted a lot. he had a very high conservative rating. conservative great in congress. i think he has the toughest job in washington. but politics and a democracy are messy, but i think he is up to the challenge. host: what are three issues that the acu is conserved with --

concerned with? religious liberties. we have to figure out the right policy to society is changing rapidly. we are a very diverse country. we think it is really important to stay true to our constitutional principles and people's ability to practice the religion they choose or no religion if they choose. with the national security -- aat does it mean to be conservative in the realm of national security? it is a very open question. there was a bush doctrine. was president dick cheney very aggressive in terms of what this country needs to do on the war on terror. you can see paul, ted cruz, rubio, the movement, certainly the republican party, but the conservative movement having a conversation on what our national security policies should be. nary a day goes by without

a story such as this that mentions the koch brothers. this is on the front page of the "arizona republic." you used to work with the koch brothers. in what capacity? guest: iran their washington, d.c., office. host: is this a negative story we are looking at? guest: almost all the stories on the koch brothers tend to be negative. to knowe unique honor these people. certainly knowing charles koch's family in wichita, kansas, and knowing his children. i knew them before i ever worked for them. a loving family, good and decent people. i saw a man would leave work and go watch his good play a tennis tournament. i always was surprised and impressed with just how kind of ordinary they were in terms of the family unit. so it is kind of spectacularly

strange to see how this has turned into people think that there is something wrong with someone who has great financial means caring enough about his or her country to make these kinds of investments. i think this is a free-speech right to the wealthy individual on the right or the left as a free-speech right, a first amendment right, to spend anything they want -- they can spin all their fortune on the political causes they care about, and the constitution is clear on that. i think it is a shame that people are making these attacks. host: who is your political hero? would have to first say abraham lincoln for her like many presidents, he was not perfect. but the idea he was able to keep this country together is a wonderful thing. someone who is less political who is also a hero, jackie robinson. made a big impact on the current -- on the culture and the country. more on the ball field, but the way he handled himself really talk the nation what it needed

to do in terms of race relations. i think when it comes to culture is probably even more important. host: in your view, what does the republican party stand for today? guest: i think that is one of the things where are having a question. principlest up 11 yesterday, but they were good principles. i think the republican party, if successful, when it unites the three major lines of the reagan political coalition, our policies on the culture and social conservative policies, policies of free market and thatmic ologies, policies involve our national security policies. we will be strong and will have political success, and we always have had success. in terms of specific policies, we need to have a big and vigorous debate. i think the 20 16th presidential

campaign is wide open and we will have that debate. it will be good for the republican party hear it i think it will also be good for the country. -- pr spokeus about immigration. iebus [video clip] protect the american worker. this issue is personal. , greek and aeek german get married, a cultural disaster. [laughter] but i did name my kids jack and grace. one family generation and my name is over. my mom is greek and she grew up immigrated to the united states after meeting and marrying my dad who was in the army in ethiopia. but they moved back to the united states. they moved to queens, new york.

1970's,in the early took us to newton, new jersey. i was too young to remember, but my mom will never let me forget the opportunity that this country has given every one of us in this room. so i have seen the american dream come true for my own family to we need to make sure america remains a place where people aspire to work and dream and live. our country should be a will be -- a welcoming place for those wanting come here and do it the right way. i agree that immigration has made our country better. i think immigration is a fantastic aspect of our country. i think the best and the brightest want to come to this country to live, and that is a great thing. i do not think we should do anything to dampen people's desire to come here. the fact that he is an immigrant -- most of us do not go to many

generations back. we have a beautiful immigrant story. i married someone who is -- my father-in-law came from cuba. he was a political prisoner of cuba. he tried to assassinate castro. if you ask me who heroes are, my heroes are freedom fighters. that is a freedom fighter. he was a professional in cuba and came here and did everything he could. he made furniture, was an electrician. it anything to provide for his family. now he is an accountant. another great american success story. we all have these stories. continue.ies need to host: what do think about the president's actions or inactions on immigration? guest: this is where we get it wrong. i think when one branch of government acts unilaterally and

tells the american people that iis is what will happen, think we get great political controversy. if you look good all the polls around the country, you will see immigration is biking. one of the reasons is because our immigration system is broken. but it is also because people believe that president obama has taken very aggressive steps. it is not working with elected leadership in congress true president obama and his allies will say they are just stopping everything in the house. guess what, those people in the house were also elected by the american people. of powers means they have to work together to come to some kind of consensus legislation for review mentioned john boehner earlier. he should have been the best speaker for president obama to work through to get solutions on these kinds of issues. he is not a guy with sharp elbows. to it has been frustrating people on the right and the left in this country. i think the decisions made on

immigration have made it harder on the partssensus of this process we have to get fixed. carlin's --s, fort fort collins, colorado, you are on with matt schlapp, new chair of the acu. caller: something out of the last segment as we have a growing demographic in this country that is definitely not republican, and that is one thing. without redistricting or with the district the way they are, if they were analog, the republicans would never win hardly anything because the demographics are changing against that. the other thing i wanted to talk about was, you know, the republican party -- i like john boehner. i think he is great. but when you have people like ted cruz and sarah palin and these far-wright that pay to the

20% of the party, as john mccain said, well, last time i checked it took 51% to win. i think you need more moderate ,oices, people like jeb bush that are not just men and a cool, crazy right, that are pandering to the fox news crowd and all that. host: thank you, sir. moderate is the word he used. know if he's all that i am with the american conservative union. so i am clearly conservative. i do believe it takes 51% to win an election. conservatives have to knit together every potential ally they can possibly muster up towin. it will take the perspectives

and voices of people like syrup palin and ted cruz. i think ted cruz is doing a great job. i think we need to pull all these people together. as a center-right political coalition, if we spend all of our time attacking others in the coalition, do not focus on those that are in the left-wing coalition that have done great destruction of the last couple of years, from obamacare to the stimulus to these proposed epa regulations -- i fear we have projected weakness. those are massive problems. those are not brought on by the center-right coalition. their brought on by the centerleft coalition. we need to get serious on that winget it fixed and elections, take back the senate. matt schlapp, let's say jeb bush wins the nomination in 2016. are you happy, set, neutral? all, will heof

run? that is a very open question. i worked for his brother, and i do not think anybody really knows what he will do. if he were to run, he would be formidable. for, i am for am beating hillary clinton care nothing personal. the three terms of progressive president in a row will result in a very changed supreme court and federal judiciary and a very changed federal bureaucracy, new regulations that we might never be able to pluck back out of the garden. so i am for anything it takes to -- beat her. who i have decided to endorse i have not even revealed to myself yet. texas, republican line. caller: good morning. i just want to know, how does 80%mcconnell get an

conservative rating from the acu? personally, i think that any conservative who voices the pathway to citizenship" or some of the other things he says, he gets a zero in my book. at jeb bush, no way and the world. one more thing to c-span, it would have been great to have mr. matt schlapp here and mr. cristobal alex from the last hour for them to trade ideas. you do not really do that too often, but that would have been a great back and forth between these two folks. host: thank you for the suggestion. guest: i see you think i would have won that debate. i hope, anyway. mr. mcconnell has an acu rating of greater than 80% and he did not support the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill in the senate. he might have slightly different

positions than what you mentioned. if you are not for jeb bush, is a guess what, this democracy and you should go out there and support aggressively whoever you want to be president. this is why i think it is great that the presidential contest is completely wide open. no front runner on the republican side. we have not seen that happen in my lifetime. i think it is a great thinker to hope everybody watching this show, left or right, gets really involved in this contest. host: have you ever been accused of being the kinder, gentler acu? guest: we have been called all kinds of things. tone is important. there are some conservative groups with a different mission, and that is sometimes to call comes tot when it conservative positions. the acu has had kind of the opposite mission. yes, we want to stand up for our

principles aggressively, but we're trying to bring people back together to realize what the ultimate goal is to get into a big fight between social conservatives and libertarians is not our goal. our goal is to have a conversation that brings them together in the end. host: american conservative union also runs a political gathering conference that takes place here in washington every february or so. guest: the last three days of february. host: c-span usually covers that and much of it life. he'll is in georgia, democrat. is in georgia, democrat. caller: i am disappointed in the attitude people have calling in. i find it strange that you have a name with "union" in it when most americans hate unions for

some reason these days which established this country. i remember back in 1964 when i was a young teenager and they passed the civil rights act, i remember people saying to send africans back to africa. you know, you may think it is funny, but i think if all africans left and all makers -- mexicans left, you guys would whitebe on what you call trash and would be hating them and wanting them to change. host: what is your point? caller: you guys are glossing things over. a large population coming along our mexican-americans. i think african-americans are going to go with african-americans. young guys like the kid from colorado, they are going to join together. the conservatives are going to be out of there. tryeed to let the democrats

to run things. if they are wrong, i will vote for republicans in the next quencher years. guest: there is the americans conservative union -- it is a different kind of union. when i was elected chairman, i did have a few friends e-mail me and say -- when did you start to want to run a union? remind them it is not a labor union. it is a political union. as far as racism that this country has had to deal with and continues to deal with, i think the american conservative union and its founder, william f buckley, has a rather wonderful history and kicking out those from of intolerant voices the leadership in our movement. i hope that i have the courage to do that in the future, as well. as i said, i think immigration has made this country better, and i believe that strongly. host: round rock, texas, independent. caller: i am hearing you talk

and it is alerting. it says unemployment rate is at a six-year low of 5.9%, and this is in spite of what the republicans have done to help the president. i think it is also weird that you can set there and say you guys are trying to do something when the house of representatives, run by republicans, has the lowest rating of all branches of government. it is pretty bad that when the theident was first elected, senate minority leader said that we are going to do everything in our power to refuse any and everything the president comes up with. what do you mean democracy? it is not a democracy what you guys are doing. a lot of times this president has changed his policy to fit

republican policies. host: got the point. thank you. guest: my response is that the fact that so many people are we all have a right to have our active,s and get and members of congress have the right to say no. if you think president obama has the right to dictate, that would be more likely sham republic in cuba and to bank many countries around the globe. america is a great country because we respectively disagree. we should vote to make sure that continues to happen. schlapp, how did you get to notre dame? an interesting story. i never intended to go there.

it was not a lifelong dream, but i always respected the institution and its football the and applied kind of at last minute because a friend of mine was not going to fill out his application. i was accepted, and i have to say it had a rather profound impact on my life. i have met lifelong friends to my got rededicated faith, which is an important part of the experience at notre dame. i always realized i was a republican, but it was listening to probably too many liberal professors, including some callers, that i realized i was conservative, and started a magazine called "dialogue." it is a deceitful title because we were acting like we were not a conservative magazine, but we pretty much work. slick looking magazine. my college of spirits was a great experience. host: tennis scholarship? guest: i would love to say yes

to that. i reached a point where i was on the tennis team and did for a matter of weeks. but i realized i did not get the gift of the intelligence to be able to handle a full course load, have an almost full-time job. putting all of that together my desire to guzzle some beer and sleep in on a few days, i ended up dropping out from the tennis team. but i am still trying to become a better tennis player. host: steve is in jacksonville, north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning. i love watching your show this morning, but i find it comical how conservatives and toublicans, we do not step the plate and hit some of these things that the democrats keep throwing at us. i keep hearing about the koch brothers. my goodness, they build

hospitals, they give to communities, they employ 70,000 americans. we hear people calling all of the time about the big bad koch brothers because of harry reid. there was no problem with this when the unions were given half $1 billion in these elections. until had a problem citizens united allowed everyone to get involved with these. a guy from california, he made his wealth in oil and gas, and now he talks about cleaning up the environment. cbs, theirnd cnn.rothers are msnbc, how much money have they given the democrats with their flea -- with their free electioneering? why don't we fight against those elements? host: what is a political issue that concerns you? caller: we don't have the

ability we used to. i have 11 grandkids that i know for a fact do not have a chance like i did or my brother and sister did growing up. they do not have a chance for a job outlook. there is the guy from colorado. my goodness gracious. and the other guy from georgia, 5.9%. he was growing up in 1964 during the civil rights act and voting rights. republicans helped pass those bills as well. they were a big part of the reason they were pushed over the top. we got the point. thank you, sir. guest: that is a good recall of what has happened on the show so far. any go back to the koch brothers and money and politics. the fact is, since 2006, the left has been outspending the right when it comes to money and politics. mccain-feingold and campaign-finance reform, it was

signed into law by the president i worked for. it has not worked out. corporate money, people's money over and above the hard money limits, it just flows through nonprofits and super pac's. keeping money out of politics is impossible. second of all, it is bad. the supreme court and the constitution are clear -- money is speech, and people have the right to political speech. principlefoundational of this democracy, and people have the right to spend their money. i always thought these political entrepreneurs -- these liberal entrepreneurs that make their money in business and turn advocate policy that would disallow anyone else to make money in that business. host: "the financial times" has a chart with some of the money being spent by conservative groups in the toy 14 election cycle.

americans for prosperity, the -- harryhers group .eid's pac chamber of commerce. group, about $16 million. acu? do you guys spend money in these elections? guest: we do. we would like to be on that list. we have ambitions to be on that list. c4, i think folks will be seeing us get more politically active. as it is now, we intervene in these races and make very clear who has got the reich -- the right conservative voting records. we defend that record.

in the old days, we like to say they vote liberal and press release conservative. they go back home and act like they are more conservative than they are, and we are not going to allow that to happen. bend,donald in south indiana, democrats line. you are on with mark schlapp of the american conservative. caller: i am just going to talk guest isactually, this republican party -- previous guest at a party. i just laugh at the republican party, and i think you said you used to work for george bush or whatever. guest: i did. caller: i give george bush this -- he had it right. i am just flabbergasted how the republican party now have just turned their backs on the hispanic community.

the reason why i am saying this -- and i am a democrat -- is it just shows how the republican party nowadays are not -- well, actually, i have never thought they -- they are reactive. they are capricious in their thinking. that thehy i believe american people should not vote for republicans, because -- host: i think we know where you are going. the last guest said 71% of hispanic voters voted for democrats. guest: this is a big problem for the republican party. which is from south bend, is the home of the university of notre dame. aboutyou for not telling a college story that i might have been involved with. , therter of hispanics

democratic -- the demographics are changing. the country is becoming more diverse in all kinds of ways. the republican party will succeed if it is a conservative party, and that is the part of this i focused on. that conservative agenda has to speak to people where they are, no matter who they are. it has to speak to people struggling in poverty. how do people struggling across this country handle the obama economy, where wages are stagnant? --re every poverty weight where every poverty rate is going up, not down echo we have seen the explosion of food stamps and other programs. this obama experiment is not working, and i think the diverse nature of this country has to grapple with which political party, or which ideology or what political really on all you -- or what political ideology, will get us answers?

when we do not have the answers, we have to do a better job of thinking through the problems. we have very great problems. we are a great country. i think our best days lie ahead, not behind us. but we have to work together to come up with these solutions. the republican party will succeed if they endorse and are able to communicate conservative policies. antonio, texas. caller: good morning. i have a question i would like answered by this young man. i am 75 and he is not nearly that, but i am sure he has read history. i would like to ask the question what are you trying to conserve by being a conservative, or anyone else trying to be a conservative? i have a guess based upon the evidence in my 75 years. i am from mississippi.

realignmentseen is , slow andixiecrats removal of -- i have seen the lynchings in my state. i have also seen realignment into the republican party, etc., etc. , and i am notce going to belabor you or the principles you believe in, but i would like to hear what you call being a conservative. host: thank you, sir. guest: that is really a great question. in 75 years of life, you have seen a lot more in politics than i have in my 46 years. i discovered i was a conservative during my college years. is me, being a conservative

a philosophy in how you approach life, in how you approach government. a conservative philosophy was crystallized when ronald reagan spoke to us and pulled together a coalition of social conservatives, free-market conservatives, of people who believed we had to project peace through strength overseas. first of all, conservative means that you believe in the uniqueness, the unique, god-given beauty of each human being and the potential that they have. that understanding of what a human being is, what their role is on this globe was well understood by the founders when they wrote the constitution. i have been to james madison's house in the mountains of virginia, and those principles were espoused in the

constitution. the people, the country are the best when it's strictly adheres to the words of the constitution. us toonstitution allows speak freely politically. power between three branches of government. the constitution is supposed to be as true today, the day it was ratified as it is today. it is a document a very specific ofds -- it is a document very specific words. i think the founders would look at this government and say it has gone to places they never expected it to go. on human beings' ability to prosper in many ways. for me, today, in 21st-century america, i look across the political landscape and say to be a conservative is to be

desirous of a federal government that only does what it has to do and it hears -- and it adheres strictly to the constitution. we has individuals are free to do what we think is right. putting that together in a collective is what makes the country great. ron, newport beach, california. a republican. what a great guy you are. it is just too sad what has happened to the republican party. they never caught on to the fact that we are actually in a global society. we have so many great , andessman in the old days now we have a nice guy named duncan hunter, who is a wonderful republican conservative. you know what, we don't have those guys anymore who understand that we have a global society. all of our money is being shipped overseas. all the greed is ridiculous.

the banks are in a mess. and you guys are just sitting there bank like it is 1999, we are partying like it is 1999. you cannot do that anymore. we need a new paradigm for the republican party, a new direction for the republican party. because hillary is going to be in there for eight years. hereve to go down the road and come up with a new paradigm host:. -- with a new paradigm. host: ron, thank you. door: i used to work next to tom shaddox, and i agree that he is a great commitment. the american people believe the country is on the wrong track. i have a message for republicans, that that is not all anti-obama. the people in this country do not believe the country is on the wrong track just because they do not believe president obama's radical agenda.

it is also because they think america could be facing very dark days in the future, and they want to make sure that its elected officials focus on that. i think the republicans and the conservative movement, we have to think about these problems. we have to have a conversation about it. that is why the cpac coming up will be a very important moment for the conservatives, to come together. what is it that we believe? are we answering the question about what we would do if we had power? what we week -- what would we do to strengthen this country? those of the types of questions we have to ask. i think we have to better communicate, and that is what you should look for. helen in minersville, maryland. a democrat. caller: good morning. i am helen in myers bill, maryland -- in minersville, maryland. i am the daughter of a coal

miner. carefully tog very very and im hearing some alarming words. define the need to word conservatism. go back to the basic dictionary and do that. ant: you said you heard alarming word, helen. caller: the words conservative and union together. i am a democrat. i was brought up in the 1950's when my father used to take me learned meetings, and i a lot about why these people felt they needed to form a union. it was to help the working class people to literally be able to survive. , you areman, matt putting the word conservatism

together, which is a great word -- my 95-year-old mother is the most conservative woman you would ever want to meet. but when you put it together with the word "union," and all these other things i am hearing, it is not working out for me. guest: i am the first chairman of the american conservative union to be born after its founding. you can criticize me for a lot of things, but you cannot criticize me for naming an organization that was named before i was born. you are right, we should go back to the dictionary. the concept of unity is not owned by the democrats or by the left. it is a word that conservatives can embrace as well, and we do embrace it. i am confident conservatives will come together in 2014, and i am feeling more and more confident that we will have great conservative electoral success come november. but i do believe republicans stand in a great position to

take back the senate, and i think we will pull together in 2016. able be an open presidential nominating system on the think wen side, and i will have a great conservative standardbearer, and we will come what it to take on looks like, that the democratic nominee will be hillary clinton. from indiana, and independent. please go ahead. caller: good morning. there is something i wanted to say regarding what the speaker said earlier. i will use the words that money is speech. i know that he was talking about political contributions for campaigns, but i think that it misspoke.as maybe he if money is speech, maybe that is part of the republicans' problem. i feel like it is a perception republicans want to shrink

the government for personal gain. i am not saying that is what it is or that that perception is correct, it but it just feels like maybe through the media or through actions -- for example, if you are saying food stamps in this country have gone up since oh obama has come in office -- remember, we had this incredible economic collapse. host: can you bring this to a conclusion? caller: i'm sorry. i just wanted to hear his thoughts on that, essentially. on money being speech, those are not my words. they are the words of the supreme court. i am not saying that republican or conservative money is speech. since 2006, the left has spent more money then the right. i would rather the right spend more money. but isn't it curious that the donors on the right get all the scrutiny? people assume the money is

coming out of republican pockets, and a lot of it is, but more comes on the democratic side. in terms of the economy, people are hurting. the poverty statistics are alarming. how is this oh johnna -- how is this oh obama agenda working out for those who are poor, vulnerable, for those who are on the first step of the economic ladder? working outk it is that well. i am glad the unemployment rate think a lotause i of americans are not looking for a job and it hurts in that regard. america is the best hope for the globe. if it is not working in america, it makes us weaker, and that is bad in every regard. thanks for being here. any changes to cpac this year? a lot of changes.

we hope you will cover it again, as you always do. one thing i will say is, every conservative is welcome in cpac. give us a look. i do not care what your political persuasion or your perspective is, come to cpac if you are a conservative and engage in the conversation. cpac 2015 will be about having a conservative conversation. there are disagreements on immigration, national security, on things like traditional marriage. we have different voices. we have libertarian voices, we have mainstream conservative voices. we are going to have that conversation in front of the cameras. we think that is good for our movement, we think it is good for the country. host: and the straw poll? guest: the straw poll will happen again. ay a ticket, you can vote for conservative presidential candidate. once again, it is wide open. host: up next, a discussion

about a new census bureau report health insurance coverage and income. for this weekend on the c-span networks -- tonight at 10:00 eastern on c-span, a conversation with retired u.s. supreme court justice john paul stevens. 9:00turday night at eastern, a conversation with bill gates on the ebola outbreak in west africa. c-span2at 8:00 on authors john you and bruce fine talk about the war on the constitution. richardson on cox

saturday at 10:00 p.m. tonight at 8:00 on american history tv on c-span3, historians and authors talk about world war i one century later. talkinger fbi agents about catching the unabomber suspect, ted kaczynski. and the 100th anniversary of the panama canal, sunday at 6 p.m. at 202-6 26-3400. or you can send us a tweet @c-span#comment. tour takescities booktv and american history tv on the road, traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history and literary life. this weekend, we have partnered

with comcast for a visit to boulder, colorado. >> my book is called "the beast in the garden" because it is about a large animal that in ancient times or american history we would have called the beast, the mountain lion, in what is really the garden, boulder, colorado. boulder is a beautiful, seemingly natural place, but in many ways it has been altered by human kind. when you get this wild animal coming into this artificial landscape, you can cause changes in the behavior of that animal. a mountain lion's favorite food is venison. they eat about one dear a week. the deer living on the outskirts cityis beautiful, lush where we have irrigated gardens and lawns, we have deer living in downtown boulder. when the lions come back into the area, they were first in open space area, then they discovered there were deer in

town. so the deer lowered the lions back in town. then the lions discovered they could eat olives and cats. that is food for them. so the lions were learning and they have learned that this is where they will find food. there is certainly food up there, too, that there is lots of food to eat in town. retreat, in a beautiful place, for enrichment, and lightman, entertainment, and coming together. to people who were intended be the audience of the chautauqua were considered middle-class. most of the chautauquans were considered the speakers of the day, both what we might consider highbrow and lowbrow entertainment -- opera, classical music, and probably what would be considered the vaudeville of that day. >> watch all of our events from saturday on booktv and

sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3. "washington journal" continues. levey ofning us, noam and los angeles times," charles nelson with the u.s. census bureau. what are the highlights, mr. nelson, of the new census report? 13.4% of all people lacked health insurance in 2014. this is out of 22 million people. household income did not change significantly between 2012 and 2013. but the number of people in poverty did decline. 14.5% in 2013. this is the first time poverty has declined since 2000. host: let's go to health care.

42 -- 13.4% of americans do not have health care. guest: these numbers do not --lly reflect the a coverage the coverage under the affordable care act in the first two quarters of tony 14. netgear it will be interesting to see how these numbers change and how the composition of coverage changes. has the 13.4% changed, increased or decreased, and the last four years? guest: the trend is increasing coverage and decreasing uninsured rates. up until then, it was rising in the u.s.. the other trend is since 2000 there has been a trend toward more government coverage, particularly medicaid, and less employer-provided coverage,

which will probably change under affordable care. host: noam levey, when you see the numbers, do they tie together? guest: i think in the sense that income security and overall security for americans is an issue that is driving a lot of the public discussion right now, i think that is true. the affordable care act is designed to go after part of that equation, and that is why we will probably see some change in that part of the numbers this year. there is already some indication in some other surveys that the percentage of americans without health coverage has actually declined quite substantially in the first quarter or two of this year. so that probably goes to part of that security question. the income question obviously is still a subject of debate in washington, and it is still may be a problem looking for a solution. host: we want to look at some of

the numbers here, and we will put the phone numbers up if you would like to participate in our conversation about health care .overage and income some of these household finance issues that we often deal with here on the "washington journal ." the numbers are divided by put a thirdthen we line up as well for those of you who are uninsured. we would like to get your perspective as well. go ahead and i'll those. --million americans know have no health insurance. does this mean no government insurance, no medicaid, no private plan? guest: exactly. 271 million americans covered with health insurance. the 271centage of million with health insurance are covered under private plans

and government plans? how does that breakdown? guest: private coverage is still predominant in the u.s. 64% of all people insured have private insurance, most of it through employment. somebody's employment, either your employment, your spouse's employment, or your parents' employment. werehird of all people covered by government health care -- medicare, medicaid, military health care. coverage, medicaid is predominant. medicaid has more people covered in medicare. coverslitary health care 4% or 5%. shifted over the last 10 or 20 years? guest: yes, 10 years ago medicare was more predominant than medicaid.

a lot of states are covering more children with medicaid. kept the health insurance program of children with the medicaid number. that has given the medicaid number and quite a bit. thecertainly be recession, economic hardship that has pushed people into medicaid. host: what is the current population covered in the united states? -- uncovered in the united states? guest: it is down slightly from last year. i think overall it has been relatively stable over the last couple of years. that,a number particularly for a lot of policy makers, has remained stubbornly high. that is fueling in part a discussion about are the things

that can be done to attract it? there seems to be sort of two different stories underneath the poverty rate in terms of what is happening with families and with children, and what is happening with single adults. host: what is that story? the story is that this year poverty dropped for the first time since 2000. the child poverty rate in 2012 was around 22%. in 2013 it was around 20%. that is the first drop in the poverty rate since 2000. we saw the one factor that contributed to this is the fact that year-round full-time employment on parents with about onerew by million between 2012 and 2013. year-round full-time employment drives a lot of these numbers. so with increases in year-round

full-time employment, those are the groups we have seen with drops in poverty and with rises in income. child poverty is something we track very closely at the census bureau. that is down this year and it is pretty significant. noam levey, you cover the health care beach. why have the medicare and medicaid numbers shifted? been changeshave in the way that states run their medicaid programs. medicaid, for those of your know, it isdo not jointly funded by the federal government and by state government. so each state runs its own medicaid program. historically, the states have had a lot of latitude in designating how many of their residents qualify for that program. some states historically have been quite generous in providing a government safety net program

for people making as much as twice the federal poverty level, not including children's health insurance programs. states have expanded those programs over the years. poverty is a persistent problem, so it has grown. but the main thing that is driving it now and will continue to drive it is the eligibility. makers havelicy grappled with a large and stubbornly high number of people who do not have health insurance, as employers have stopped offering health insurance because it is too expensive, multiple populations, particular early children, who have been left out, have gained the attention of policymakers. the affordable care act takes that a next step. we will see quite a lot of medicaid increases further this year, and the government has already said 8 million new

people have come on the medicaid who previously did not have coverage through that program. that will grow because the increases care act the option to provide medicaid to adults. mr. nelson, i want to pick on you for a second. 64% have health insurance. .3% through a government plan have those numbers been getting closer and closer? have you seen changes over the last 10, 20 years? guest: certainly over the last 10 or 20 years, the percentage ,f coverage has been declining at least until very recently. government coverage has been going up. sohave an aging population, more medicare covers, more

medicaid, more children are eligible for medicaid. factors are several that are driving this increase. host: does the census bureau look at trends as well, and do you see a trend of these numbers getting closer and closer? things may change under the affordable care act. that is a big change in health insurance delivery in the u.s. but up until now, certainly the declining private coverage and increasing in government coverage. as people get into health exchanges, as medicaid covers the states taking medicaid expansion, we will see those rates change. guest: one thing i would add on that, employer coverage, which has been taken down steadily over the last 20 years or more in the united states -- there is

that may beion that reversing slightly as a result of the affordable care act. is thatking there because the affordable care act includes a requirement that people get health insurance coverage, that some americans who have the option of taking a health insurance plan through work but did not previously are doing so now. so probably the uptick -- i think most people do not believe it will be so substantial over time there will be a major increase in employer coverage over the ensuing years. but the decline may have halted, and that is consistent with what has happened in massachusetts. "the wall street journal" -- here is a headline. plans ofrance thousands of consumers across the country are set to receive notices this for a very

insurers, canceling their health plans and related sign of how the cia is reshaping their insurance plans ar. guest: the affordable care act puts a series of requirements that they cover the basics out of benefits. whoe are millions of people had insurance on their own before the affordable care act was implemented, and the idea was that with the law, those plans would be phased out and replaced by new plans that would meet these standards. course, is that some people have been quite happy with their previous plans, and not too thrilled to get a notice from their insurer that the plan they had before is no longer offered. the president last year, in response to an outcry over this cancellation, gave states the authority to effectively grandfather in some of these plans.

which some states did for a period of time. but, of course, those plans and others are finding out -- and we are seeing a little bit of a repeat of the phenomenon we saw last year. i should add that finally the scale of the cancellation, it appears to be thus far smaller than it was last year. that may not bear on whether this is as significant a political story as it was last year, but the scope of the transition seems to be smaller now. george is calling from ann arbor, michigan. you are on with charles nelson and noam levey. please go ahead. caller: i have not heard this mentioned, but i dare suggest universal health care, funded

the same way the united states funds our military. meaning, i pay taxes and i have .he full coverage why can't i just pay taxes and justdoctors and hospitals make it part of the tax system? instead of what seems to be all battling in the weeds about health care coverage and different separates -- different sectors of society having health care based on who you are married to, based on who you on maybe withd these health exchanges. some portions of the country, including in michigan's upper peninsula, the health-care exchanges do not work well because there are not enough health care providers and there is not enough competition.

levey?r. the american health-care system is the most complicated on the planet. we do not have one system, we have multiple systems. the point earlier about the division of coverage in this country is correct. there is a government system for some people, there is an employer system for other people. system forsafety net poor people. one of the solutions is to have a single-payer system, as they call it. some of the other industrialized countries have more of a government run system. canada and the u k r two prominent examples. .k. are twond the u prominent examples. we in this country have not settled the debate yet, but may

we we will -- but maybe we will. a cola,ch, hence florida. good morning. caller: i am enrolled in the american health care at. last week i received a notice showing me that i was no longer going to be insured at the first of the year. they said i have to reenroll and reapply. i am just curious to know -- host: did they tell you why? said as of they just december 31, they would no longer insure me, and i need to go back on the health exchange and reapply. i don't know the reasons behind your particular situation, but as a general rule , you should go back on the exchange anyway. anybody who even has not gotten

one of these notices ought to go back to healthcare.gov or to their state insurance exchange. from year to year, none of these health care insurance plans are going to stay the same. i am trying to think of what a good analogy might be, but if you go to your favorite restaurant, they may change the sandwich options from time to time and you will have to look at the menu and choose something else. particularly for people receiving federal subsidies to help offset the cost of their insurance plans, your income changes, your situation changes, health plans change, your subsidy may change, so it is important to go back to the healthcare.gov website and look around because you may have a better option and a cheaper option than you had this year. host: mr. nelson, does the census bureau extrapolate reasons why health insurance coverage varies by state, where you have minnesota, iowa, with

less than 10% uninsured, where you have texas and florida and -plus? with 20% state andcan get metropolitan and city estimates of people who are uninsured. whyo not know exactly people are uninsured, but we know that there are several characteristics, a guide of which state has higher rates of uninsurance. the states with higher poverty low-wageth a lot of workers, are going to have higher uninsurance rates. so states like texas and florida, where the uninsured rate is over 20%, will be a lot different than states in the northeast. we actually saw that a lot of southern states and western states have higher uninsured northeast and

midwest states. it is definitely a state factor. ,nder the affordable care act if you get medicaid expansion, some states will get it and other states will not. but there is certainly darshan -- we will certainly be looking at these because they will probably change in the future. question about that. we talked earlier about how generously health care safety net is in some states compared to others. historically, the northeast and the upper midwest have provided more generous as they have made health insurance subsidized by the government available to more of their low income citizens and they have in the deep south and some in the west. the other thing to note is that, traditionally, states where there are larger employers, where there is more of a history of organized labor, typically

employers in those parts of the country, the northeast and the upper midwest, are more likely to offer health insurance then employers in other regions of the country. but one of the things that will happen under the afford care act, the cousin medicaid expansion is an option, you are seeing the states that have the highest rate of uninsured population right now are the same states that have declined to take the federal money available through the affordable care act to expand their medicaid coverage. there is already some indication from some of the surveys that the gap is widening between the states that have low uninsured rates and those that have high uninsured rates. one thing to watch is whether or not there will be some associated changes in the health of those populations. host: have you done any studies on the increased taxation that people have because of the aca? guest: what do you mean by

studies? host: have you done a report? have you looked at taxation? distributed?d is the law is taxed in multiple ways. there are taxes on high income earners that are paying in part for this. there are fees and other taxes on health care industries that are being used to fund it. have been phased in over the last few years. the enterprise of expanding health coverage through the affordable care act is a multi-trillion dollar enterprise over the next decade or two. one of the things that the architects of the law did was, they paid for it. americans are going to be paying that bill. mr. nelson, does the census bureau measure health care costs? guest: we measure health care

expense, medical out-of-pocket expenses through several surveyed. so that is one of the things that we measure. although the reports that we came out with this month did not focus on that, but that is something that we do measure. wanda in california, thanks for holding. you are on with our two guests, talking about health care, income, etc., etc. do not have any health care. i have carried myself for three years. it has become unaffordable to me the fourth year. , my net is000 $35,000. my premiums are $12,000. i just cannot afford insurance anymore. $215 toums went from

$500. so i don't know what to do. i am a white-collar worker, and you are talking about low income people. so if you could tell me how i could afford this affordable care act, it would be a great thing for me to hear that. host: noam levey, any words for her? what optionst know would be available to you in your area. i assume you have looked on healthcare.gov website for what would be available to you. there is no question that there are a group of people like you who are making close to median income who are not going to qualify for government assistance in many cases to offset the cost of health .nsurance in many cases that will put a huge burden on people like you. -- mys my only section

only suggestion would be to you to go back and look this fall when the health insurance plans are posted on the market place in your state. look at what is available, and hopefully there will be something that will be more affordable to you. >> nancy in texas, good morning. good morning, sir. i speak to the older people's generation every day. they do not like this law. they are on obamacare, they do not like it. they cannot afford it. government cannot do anything right. i mean, look at every agency in the government. it cannot do nothing right. no matter whether it wants to take over our health care. what is wrong with this country? you don't know what you are doing up there. man,dy who votes democrat, are out of their minds. will let thati

comment stand. since we have a reporter and a census bureau worker on. i don't think either of you will direct -- will address her statement directly. inl median household income, $2013 in 1967, peaking at $67,000 in the late 1990's. now it is at $51,900. i see 19% next to this. is that a 19% growth rate from 1967 or so? from 1967 to 2013, income group 19% in real terms. more recently, we see it has been dropping. this was the second year in a row in which median household income did not change in real

terms after dropping two years in a row after the last session. even four years into the recovery, we are 8% below the medium -- love the median. .- below the median so we still have a way to go to get to pre-recessionary levels. host: does the census bureau extrapolate reasons for this? guest: there are lots of factors. certainly we did see this year there was more year-round full-time employment. workers than in 2012. the fact that median household income did not rise in the face of increasing year-round full-time employment may tell us that a lot of these additional workers and workers going full-time are leveled below the median and they are not pushing up the household income median.

maybe boomers are retiring, a lot of people reaching retirement age in the last couple of years, retiring. their incomes are falling. that is probably depressing household income a little bit. but certainly what you want to see is when driving year-round full-time employment, you want to see that push up to the median for all households. so far it just has not. host: kimberly from washington, pennsylvania, good morning. to become auld like universal health care from what i am a nice, everything about obamacare is unstable. haven't, it is to change. i don't even make $6,000 per year, and my government to sign off on medicare until this year. but what about all the people who died in between, waiting? host: noam levey, any comment you would like to add to what

kimberly had to say? you point out a sad fact about health care more broadly, which is that it is inherent instability. part i think reflects in the complexity of the system that we have. we talked about earlier the fact that people's situations change over time. change,ople's incomes they move from one place to another, so they are constantly having to make changes. one of the things the affordable care act tried to do was to provide some level of uniformity , at least in the sense that it would guarantee access to health insurance coverage, no matter where you lived in this country, which is one of the largest variables in health care. because some states like pennsylvania did not choose to implement the medicaid expansion, and it is being

changed now, there is this continued difference between states. i think what will happen over time is that there will be some that willtability come to the u.s. health-care system, but it is going to take a few years as the affordable care act, which is a huge change to the health care system -- as that ripples through, things will become more stable over time, but it is going to be rocky. host: bruce from aurora, colorado. texas: the nice lady from pre-much said what i was going to say about all of us people on , what we think about obamacare. i am on medicare like a lot of my friends. affected us in a negative way. the co-pays, the cost for insurance has all gone up. one example would be the total

out-of-pocket that they cover. now it is900, and almost $6,000, and that is just in two years. that is according to the new paperwork i got in the mail last week. prescriptions went up 23%. is an advantage plan i have, and if i go on regular medicare, it is even worse. host: we are going to say goodbye to you there, lewis, and bring in this tweet from peg. of medicareing costs, first time ever, attributable to the affordable care act?" guest: the affordable care act puts some restraints on payments on the federal government to medical providers, so that has had almost certainly some impact on how much medicare is

spending. on the other hand, we have seen over the last couple of years and historic slowdown in all health care spending, not just medicare. so it may be that something else is going on out there. some of that may be related to the affordable care act. the affordable care act has put some changes into the law into the american health care system that are complicated but are somewhat promising in the sense that they are changing some of the incentives and the way hostage -- in the way doctors and hospitals are providing medical care that make it more efficient. the other major thing that has happened in the last couple of years is a huge recession, which tends to suppress how much people spend on health care. it is not clear how much that would affect medicare since medicare is obviously a government program and people do not rely as much on the economy in making their medical decisions. so i guess what i am telling you is it is compensated, but that there is probably some affordable care act -- tot: charles nelson, i want

go back to this charge, median household income up 19% since 1957. jim in lake gaston asks via has the "how much consumer price index grown since 1967? it is a darn sight more than 19%." guest: all these numbers account for the rise in the cost of --ing, and so these are these have been adjusted to reflect that. so we are saying that median income has grown 19% even after adjusting to differences in the cost of living between 1967 and 2013. host: very quickly, run us through the health care numbers that you came up with. where are people getting their health insurance? guest: around 42 million people did not have health insurance in 2013. it is around 13.4 percent of all

people. for people with coverage, host of that coverage is still through private plans. around 64% of people had coverage through their private insurance, and about 54% of people have coverage through job-based plans. government coverage covers about a third of all people. more of those are covered by medicaid and medicare. host: charles nelson, noam levey , thank you both for being on the "journal." we will be back tomorrow morning. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute]