host: it's one day, october 15th. the today begins with news out of dallas that a second health care worker providing care has now also tested positive for the deadly virus. today on the "washington journal" we'll discuss calls to raise the protection standards for nurses and other health care workers when it comes to ebola. this morning we're putting the question to our viewers, would you support u.s. travel bans to

contain ebola. phone lines are open. republicans can call (202) 585-3881, democrats (202) 585-3880, and independents, and if you're outside the u.s. it's (202)585-3883. you can also catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages on twitter, facebook, or e-mail us at journal at c-span.org. a good wednesday morning to you. "the washington post" put this question to a thousand adults over the weekend. here is the response they got to the question, would you support or oppose restricting entry to the united states by people who have been in affected african countries in dealing with ebola? 67% said that they would support the twin percent who said they would oppose that question, that poll also asked questions about screenings at airports in dealing with ebola outbreak, would you support or oppose

stricter screenings of people entering the united states who have been in the affected african countries. 91% said they would support to just six percent saying they would oppose. the question of how confident are you in the federal government's ability to respond effectively to an outbreak of ebola virus in the united states? we're talking this morning about the u.s. travel bans, would you support a new u.s. travel ban to contain ebola and for more on this topic i want to turn to keith hang, a staff writer for the hill newspaper. mr. hang, good morning to you. >> good morning. host: several lawmakers calling for new travel restrictions. how would these kind of travel restrictions work? >> there is a lot of debate about that in congress right now. the obama administration and health officials internationally

and in the u.s. have said travel ban would be counter productive to relief efforts in africa and would make the situation with ebola worse. you have a lot of lawmaker, republicans and some democrats who are saying that that is the quickest way, more effective way to contain the virus than the increased screening that you're seeing at some of the major airports that have been rolled out this week. >> what are other countries doing? what are some comparative actions by the countries? >> well, there hasn't been a high profile travel ban yet. you had a -- london just instituted a similar screening at heathrow airport that we have here now at dulles and jfk, where they're checking passengers temperatures that are coming on flights from west africa and having them fill out questionnaires about their travel history. but thus far there hasn't been a major nation that has unsubstituted a complete travel

ban. >> talk about the history of travel bans in the united states when it comes to infectious diseases. >> his is something that is usually suggested but it's very rare. i can't think of an example off the top of my head. one of the reasons that it hasn't happened yet is the airlines here in washington have been pushing against it. the travel association, called the ban draconian. they said the response is being way blown out of proportion. host: you talked about the screenings that are starting to take place. are those expected to pick up in the coming days and weeks? >> well, right now they're screening at five pierts, like i mentioned, and the obama administration has said they're confident that that would capture 94% of the people that are coming into the u.s. from these trouble spots in west africa. one of the thing they're using

to reassure people is that there aren't a lot of direct flights from that part of the world, like even the gentleman that became the first domestic person to be diagnosed, first person to be diagnosed domestically, and had a lay overat dulles. you can't really fly directly to laguardia, for instance. but the trouble the administration is having is that they would hope after the announcement was made you have lawmakers saying let's add dallas and houston. and then you had lawmakers from minneapolis, from minnesota saying ad minneapolis st. paul to the list, and that's far removed from texas. but it's sort of reverse not in my back yard everybody wants to have the extra checks now. host: as you've been covering this what do you think could tip the balance in materials of

pushing the administration to take a step in doing actual travel restrictions? >> i think it's really touch and go. you have to see how this plays out, if there are more cases they may be forced to -- they may see lawmakers get more involved. there is definitely a push growing on the hill to have that happen. host: appreciate your time this wednesday morning. >> thanks for having me. host: we're asking our viewers in this first 45 minutes of the "washington journal" would you support u.s. travel bans to help contain ebola? we're talking about this subject. as news breaks this morning about a second health care worker in texas who has been tested positive for ebola, second health care worker who helped provide care for thomas eric duncan. this according to the cnn story this morning, the worker reported a fever tuesday, and was immediately isolated according to a hospital

spokeswoman. the facility will begin monitoring all those who had contact with that unidentified worker. this comes of course after one of the nurses at the hospital has already tested positive. the preliminary ebola test on the second worker was done late tuesday at the state public health laboratory in austin and the results were received around midnight last night. we'll be talking more in our next segment of the "washington journal" this morning about protections for nurses and other health care workers as three areeling -- as they deal with ebola and potential ebola patients. but this morning we want to ask for just the first 45 minutes would you support u.s. travel bans to help contain ebola? we'll start with ray calling in from pennsylvania on our line for republicans. ray, good morning. caller, of course, we need a travel ban. do you believe that if we get 30 or 40 cases of this in one area

that they're going to have a kidney machine and the workers are going to be willing to treat this? can you imagine when the health care workers say i'm not coming in anymore, i'm staying home. this could go out of control very quickly. a travel ban is a must. it should have been done when this problem was going on in west africa months ago already. why would we let -- and it needs to be isolated where it is, because once it spreads around the world and it gets in our inner cities you're never going to stop it. host: that's ray from pennsylvania. paul is in south carolina on our line for independents. paul, good morning. caller: yeah, good morning. ray is 100% correct. we need to stop with the political correctness, and keep this disease out of the united states however we can. i know there's people saying that it's going to have a

negative impact on relief efforts. that can be a one way street. all the relief efforts are going into africa. if people have to come out that are infected, if americans have to be treated, let them come back like the first couple of doctors were on special planes and isolation units, but we have to keep cecile crowns out. i think that eric duncan knew what he was doing by coming to the united states when he did. he knew it was the only chance for him to save his life, that he was ultimately a very selfish individual who is responsible for these two health care workers now infected and possibly people that they came in contact with also. host: one of the people who is saying it could hurt relief efforts is the cdc director, tom frieden. here is a clip of him monday talking about the issue of potential travel restrictions.

>> on tissue of banning travel, i understand that there are calls to do this. i really try to focus on the bottom line here. the way we're going to reduce risk to americans is do the steps of protection i just went through, and stop it at the source in africa. today cdc has 150 of our top disease detectives throughout the three countries and many of the counties within the three countries helping to turn the outbreak around, working along with the department of defense, with the world health organization and with many other governments which are surging in to help stop it at the source. if we do things that unintentionally make it harder to get that response in, get supplies in, that make it harder for those governments to manage, to get everything from economic activity to travel going, it's

going to become much harder to stop the outbreak at the source. if that were to happen, it would spread for more months, and potentially to other countries, and that would increase rather than decrease the risk to americans. above all, do no harm. and that's why we want to focus on stopping the outbreak at the source. host: on the other side this morning, the "washington times" editorial board talks about this issue of potential travel restrictions. the editorial board writing it's symptomatic of the broken many gracious system that someone from liberia with recent contact with ebola victims was allowed entry into the united states. common sense would have restricted entry.

we're asking our viewers this morning, what you think. you can have the conversation with us on the phone over e-mail, on twitter, on facebook, but we'll go to the phone. keith is in fargo, north dakota on our line for republicans. keith, good morning. caller: i'm a democrat. i must have called the wrong number. host: that's okay, keith. go ahead. caller: we need to stop these foreigners over here into our country that i think we're -- all the stuff is coming from. we -- you there? host: yes, keith, go ahead. i'm listening. caller: we need to stop letting them over here that are bringing all kinds of diseases over here,

and we -- we need to -- until we get it under control we need to not even let our own people out of this country until we get this under control. it's just like aides. and now we got this. host: have you changed any of your travel plans? are you scared to -- caller: i haven't traveled since it was like 2005 or so, i went to germany. host: all right. that's keith. steve is in alabama on our line for democrats. steve, good morning. caller: good morning. my comments are simple. it's funny how everybody whips into a panic like they know what they're talking about for a disease that has been around for a very long time, that was well written about in a couple of books in the '90s. there should have been an outrage then when they let a bunch of ebola trained mong

everies in a rental car. these people are whipped into a panic for no reason whatsoever right now. host: that's steve in alabama. you might be interested in a column by frank burnie today in "the new york times." the headline, scarier than ebola. that column in today's "new york times." we're asking about travel bans this morning. would you support u.s. travel bans to help contain ebola? a few comments from twitter

already this morning. the government has a duty to ensure national health whenever a threat exists by whatever means necessary. and janet writes, janet fuller, yes i would support a travel ban now instead of more drastic measures later. we'll keep looking for the tweets and facebook comments. we'll go to joe and in michigan on our line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i would support a travel ban, but also what i'm concerned about is the ones that are coming over the southern border, these people who are coming into our country, they should be banned. there is tuberculosis. what is our health system dealing with where these people have been shipped to? we don't hear a boo about that. can you tell me that everyone of those people that came in were vaccinated before they entered

united states? i'm sorry, but i think we're -- we have a health crisis, but i think it is also dealing with these illegal immigrants. host: jo joe and you -- would yu agree with plaques collins on the facebook page who writes would it matter? they just fly to mexico, lock the front door, leave the back door wide open, that will work. caller: well, what did i just say? nobody should come in to america unless they do it the proper way. yeah, isn't that great that we're wonderful? everybody wants to come to america, but they don't want to act like americans. host: and sharon on our facebook page writes in travel ban very common for this sort of thing, what is wrong with this administration? it's an upside down world with these people. and above that, i prefer having

a surgeon general and fully funded cdc. stop buying the fear. those conversations happening on our facebook page, on twitter. you can e-mail us, as well. we want to get to your phone calls, about a half hour or so on this question, would you support u.s. travel bans to help contain ebola. dean is up next, london, kentucky on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. it's obvious the government isn't going to be able to do anything with this. my question is simply this. why doesn't the -- take action? they're exposing their crews to this disease. why don't they do something? why do we always have to depend on government which can barely do anything anyway? host: dean in london, kentucky. ebola is coming, a travel ban won't stop the outbreaks.

he writes, that's from forbes, not bloomberg, as i said earlier that column by j.v.chamari.

good morning. caller: i wanted to make a comment about everything going on right now. people are not understanding, like did anybody take the time out to find out like how did this get here? host: are you talking about the first patient? caller: no, not the first patient. not the first patient. the virus itself, how did it get to africa itself? host: you want more research on the evolution of ebola in africa? caller: it just didn't appear there by itself. somebody put it there. host: all right. that's mark in atlanta, georgia. we'll go to david in virginia on our line for republicans. david, good morning. david, you with us? turn your tv down. all right, we'll come back to david and go to theodore calling in from arkansas on our line for

democrats. theodore, good morning. caller: yes, i'm calling because it should be -- first of all it's too late to keep it from coming to the united states but second it's important that people live in red states understand this. they did not accept obamacare, their leadership did not accept obamacare. now is the time we can have elections to stand up and say we need health care ourselves. you have a congress, we don't have it. thank you, sir, and have a great day and thank you for receiving my call. host: talking about some of the political issues. this ebola travel ban starting to play in some races ahead of the 2014 election. here is a story from the "washington times" this morning, ins by noting that the question of travel bans is royaling political campaigns. the time to consider stopping flights coming in from west africa has passed said ed gillespie.

it's time to impose a flight ban which is exactly what this administration should do. that's in today's "washington times." a few tweets about this topic from members of congress, specifically several members who have called for travel bans. peter king of new york, republican, the president should suspend travel to the united states from west africa and visas to grints of west african nations until we get a clear analysis of ebola transmission. this tweet from pat roberts, i am calling for complete and immediate travel ban from the infected west african nations. and this one from walter jones, republican north carolina, i'm calling for travel ban on noncitizens coming into the u.s. from ebola stricken countries. chick it out on a link to his web site about it. those are a few of members of congress who have called for the "washington journal" in our

first 45 minutes. richard on our line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning. are you there? host: yeah, go ahead. caller: i believe all the flights should be banned, also, because this man -- all flights banned out of africa i don't think it's going to solve anything. but down to our southern border you have m city, which is kind of about 20 million people in that vicinity. what if it were to brick out in mexico city or something like that? we need to stop it. we need to treat it like it's a bioterrorism. we need to take it very seriously. back in the early 1900s there was a virus, the spanish virus that killed 100 million people worldwide. so i think we really need to contain it and stop all travel, and close major highways over there, too. and it's like -- go to the un,

have leaders, we should go to the un and have -- there should be a top priority for the whole world to be involved. thank you very much. host: speak of the united nations, at a un meeting yesterday world health organization officials reported that new cases of ebola in africa could reach 10,000 a week by december. that's ten times the current rate. the head of the new ebola emergency response mission told the security council of the united nation that's none of the three most heavily affected countries, liberia, sierra leone and guinea, is adequately prepared. only 4,300 treatment beds will be available by december 1, according to current projections, and even those would not have adequate number of staff members. the acceleration of new cases if not curbed could easily overwhelm them. that's a story from "the new york times." an above that story is a headline, the cdc says it should

have responded faster to the dallas ebola case, talking about the nurse who is affected, who has tested positive for ebola last week and of course, the news coming out this morning that a second health care worker who helped treat thomas eric duncan at that texas health facility has also tested positive. yesterday before that news came out, cdc director tom frieden also talked about what the cdc was doing to help contain and ensure no more positive tests come out of that dallas facility. here is a bit of what he had to say yesterday. >> some of the things that the teams are doing to improve safety are looking at every step in the procedures, and those experts are making immediate enhancements in what's being done. i'll mention three in particular. the first and most important is

ensuring at every hour of the day there is a site manager there who is overseeing aspects of infection control. that individual makes sure the personal protective equipment is put on correctly and taken off correctly. in fact, in our work stopping ebola in africa, this is a single most important position to protect health workers. a single site manager whose expert and oversees every aspect of the process. second, we're enhancing training, ongoing, refresher, repeat training, including by two nurses from emery who cared for ebola patients, and are assisting and training nurses and other staff at the hospital in dallas. and third, we're recommending that the number of staff who go in for care be limited. we want to limit the number of

staff who are providing care so that they can become more familiar and more systematic in how they put on and take off protective equipment, and they can become more comfortable in a healthy way with providing care in the isolation unit. host: we'll be talking more in our next segment of the "washington journal" today about how nurses and health care workers can protect themselves from calls to increase the safety and protections for those individuals with the head of the largest nurses' union in the united states, in about anyones or so. we'll have a special line in that segment for nurses to call in, but for the next 20 minutes we're talking about the travel ban, some of the calls for a travel ban to help contain ebola. i want to get your thoughts, some other front pages for you this morning. here is the front page of the hartford current talking about state readiness for ebola there in connecticut.

twin hospitals submit planning documents. the boston globe, state strives t.sherry is up next, coming in from combine on our line for democrats. sherry, good morning. caller: good morning. my thoughts on the ban are why are we always closing the barn door after the horse is out? we are never prepared as a nation. there was funding in place for research and development, for vaccination towards this and the republicans voted down in congress to defund any of this area of research and funding. and we live in a global world, and all of our business dealings are overseas and products are imported from overseas. how do you know getting on airplane if the person that came

from london didn't have a family member or wasn't themselves in that country? you never know who you're around. it doesn't matter if you're in this country or you're flying out of it, this is something that needs to be dealt with. i agree, and i just really don't know if this is the total answer for it. i think that people trying to make people not have health care is not a good idea at this time. i agree with the article you read about the flu immunizations and we have had disease in this country for many, many years, even before we became a global nation, where our business dealings for all overseas. we have to face that the people we walk next to in the store, sit flex to in a restaurant, serve our food you have no idea where their family has been, where the food has come from, i just think that there really

isn't a clear cut answer to how this is going to be dealt with. host: shaz sherry from indiana. a few folks responding to some of the callers we had on the show already today, writes that this should not be a political discussion when we're talking about these travel bans and responding to a caller earlier who used the term selfish when we're talking about mr. duncan who was diagnosed and later died of ebola down in texas. she writes i can't imagine anything more ironic than saying duncan was selfish when helping a sick pregnant woman when he's expected to have contracted the ebola virus in africa. we're taking your calls this morning, one other programming note i want to let you know about concerning the issue of ebola in the united states. today at noon on -- thursday at noon, i'm sorry, on c-span tom frieden, the director of the centers for disease control and prevention, we've seen him

already this morning on the show, we'll talk about ebola and testify before the house energy and commerce oversight sub committee on specifically the u.s. response to the ebola outbreak. that's thursday at noon. tomorrow at noon here on c-span. your calls for about the next 15 minutes or so, let's go to sherry calling in from iowa on our line for independents, good morning. caller: hi. i am with the military, and i was really -- i'm a health care worker. i was concerned about the lack of interest in being prepared for the possibility of ebola. in the military, our job was preparedness and that's how i live my life every day, to be prepared for what are the future possibilities. and even when i brought up the

topic, it was not something that was -- there was no one who had interest in being prepared to the very basic level of putting supplies in and preparing a simple room so that we would have a place or doing any type of assessment on the very front lines. so i'm not surprised about what's currently going on in our country, because i work in health care, and i have seen the limited response. i had a discussion recently with someone regarding travel, and some of the comments made were that we should limit travel, but i think what we need to understand is we always have to take into account where a person is from and their background and what are some of the things that

when we say we're going to close borders or limit travel, just being from a specific nation, how will us closing borders actually get us to the outcome or the goal that we're looking for? host: do you work in a private hospital now? caller: i do not. i work in a federally funded hospital. host: how much training have you gotten in terms of screening patients when they come in specifically on the issue of potential ebola cases? caller: the only training that i received was training that i actually sought out myself from the local public health community. host: and what was the -- what was that training you got? was it hands on training in terms of putting on safety scrubs and that sort of thing? was it literature you were provided? caller: it was actually none of the above. it was a webinar type of

situation, where we had someone come in and talk about ebola. and from the web i far basically what i was told was not to become too excited, don't get -- they were trying to avoid an uproar in the public. that's what i took from it. host: what do you make of the cdc's response efforts so far? caller: i really wish that the cdc had someone in place who worked at that same level that the military worked at, where preparedness is the cee. you're prepared prior to, and then you don't come up with issues like i think we're currently facing. host: you're talking about something like an ebola czar that has the ear of the

president to talk about these issues? caller: i'm not even talking about someone who is specifically for one disease. i'm currently working on a public health degree, and where -- i just want to know, public health one of the things that excited me about it is that public health has always said that they were the first -- the front line to protecting against disease, and that's to me so exciting that you can be part of this group who their desire, everything that they work for, is this level of protection. and i just want to know, you know, where are the people who have that public health training, who -- from what i've been educated that is what their goal is, that is what they're working for. they're working for prevention,

and i just don't see them at the forefront of this, because i think they have the education, they have the knowledge, because we're not talking about one disease. we're talking about being prepared. prepared is a huge umbrella, it covers a multitude of things. host: that's sherry in iowa, health care worker. we'll have a special line for nurses and health care workers in the next segment of the "washington journal" this morning. for now i want to get to as many calls as we can in the last ten minutes or so. christopher of chicago, illinois on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: i'm actually on the line for independents, not democrat. host: go ahead, christopher. caller: i wanted to talk about a few things because i've been taking notes since i was put on hold. number one everyone needs to read two books, called checklist manifesto and complications.

after you read these books you guys will have an understanding of the health care industry and how it's hard for doctors and health care individuals to get our things done because there's complications. we need checklists. that's number one. there shouldn't be a travel ban on anyone coming to the united states of america. there wasn't a travel ban on christopher columbus, shouldn't be a ban on anyone coming to this country. if anyone is affected by ebola, that's not treated like it's aides. that's what happened when magic johnson announced he had aides, sorry, take that back. he had hiv, and everybody treated it like this. here we go, we're going back to discrimination again against africans. are we going to discriminate against african-americans? and the city of chicago i couldn't shake a police officer's hand because ebola is real. so i want everybody to take a deep breath, we need to calm

down, it's not that serious. we need to just pay attention and be -- be people again. this esamerica. we're supposed to be the home of the brave, we should take that humble, i will say it again, humble ourselves and understand at the end of the day, god has -- god will always keep us and protect us. host: christopher calling in from chicago. the lead editor i all in "washington post," keeping an even keel. nikki waiting on the line for republicans in north carolina. nikki, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm actually calling on the independents. host: go ahead. caller: i got a question because i'm african, and i'm from lie beer a, so i've been in this

country for a long time. i think america wants to be fair to us, and so we're not allowed to come over here? i think it's fair that we stop exploiting groups to america, also. host: what has been your personal experience? you say you're liberian, what has been your personal experience in all these new headlines coming out? caller: i have family back home, and i have to call them and check on them every day. and i always tell them about precautions on what to do and what to take, it hurts me when i hear something, like, oh, because we're not seen as human beings anymore. the ebola virus came into our country. we didn't ask for it. just like how if anything else

happens in america we won't -- like america won't be seen as the country that has who is contagious, no one is allowed to come into america, no one is allowed to leave america. all of a sudden africa is a huge deal and we're being seen as the target and being outnumbered and being called names. host: a few e-mails we have received this morning. dave writes, yes i absolutely support a travel ban. since when is it politically correct to protect a nation's citizens from enemies and disease. talk about a world turned upside-down. cindy is up next, norwalk, connecticut, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. i do support a travel ban and it's not to be discrim in a tore e. my heart bleeds for what's going on in west africa. i believe we would be better as a nation to send as much help there as we can, by military

transport, and those coming back after serving would be quarantined for three weeks. it's just a matter of common sense. what help are we going to be to other nations if we all start getting sick? it always starts with one person. and to compare it to the flu virus is ludicrous, because ebola has a 75% mortality rate. yes, 30,000 people may die, but you cannot compare the two. it's apples and oranges. and to me with the cdc, they're wishing, they sent the team down there right from the beginning, they haven't had to deal with a major disease like this in this country. and to me it's plain laziness, it's denial. what are they getting paid to do? to say that they're not being funded properly i don't want to make this a political thing but the obama administration borrowed a billion dollars to

promote health care. so from the cdc, so it's all just really smoke and mirrors. and the trust factor i think is what is getting americans paranoid about the ebola virus, because we don't get the truth a lot of times from our government. so i think skepticism in our government breeds more fear than the actual virus coming here. you know, to me this is a nation of we can't. we can't ban travel because how will food get there? we send food over. when we send food over it remains on the docks for months. host: cindy in connecticut. one other e-mail, screenings did not stop thomas eric duncan from coming here. how can the cdc spot someone not yet symptomatic? how do we stop people who are

lying and stop people who do not know that they are exposed to ebola? just some questions from joy this morning. got a few more minutes in this first segment. want to run three awe couple other international headlines for you, this from "the new york times." here is a bit from the president's public comments yesterday. >> this is going to be a long-term campaign. there are not quick fixes

involved. as with any military effort there will be days of progress and there will be periods of setback, but our coalition is united behind this long-term effort. our nation's agrees that isil opposes a significant threat to the people of iraq and syria. it poses a threat to vowrpding countries, and because of the numbers of foreign fighters that are being attracted and the clays on that isil was creating in the region ultimately it will pose a threat beyond the middle east, including to the united states, europe and foreign countries like australia, that have seen terrorist networks trying to infiltrate and impact population centers on the other side of the world. so we are united in our goal, to degrade and ultimately destroy isil, to the region, or the international community.

host: that's president obama yesterday. a run down of the uniformed officers who participated in that meeting, they were from australia, britain, canada, egypt, france, germany, iraq, italy, jordan, kuwait, lebanon, netherlandings, cutter, saudi arabia, spain, turkey and the united arab im corrects. got time for one more call on this question this morning. would you support u.s. travel bans to help contain ebola? butch has been waiting in kingston, ohio. good morning. caller: i did support a travel ban, but i would like to know the food basket carrier, they eat the fruit and then the people eat the -- is that where it's coming from? and we have a big illegal meat trade coming into this country which is kind of under the radar. i would like to know more about that in the meat, if that's

where the people over there are getting the ebola. thank you. host: thanks for the questions. a tweet from carol on the issue of a travel ban, how can a temporary ban from those four african countries destroy their economy? what economy? we would send aid and supplies. and monte writes, a travel ban is futile. can we confirm that a passenger from tokyo was not exposed to ebola without traveling to west africa? this is some of the conversation that's continuing to happen on our twitter page. but that's going to do it for this first segment of the washington journal this morning. up next week talk to the copresident of the largest nursing union in the country about how prepared the hospitals are for ebola. later, we'll talk to tim films who heads up americans for prosperity. but first, last night's arkansas u.s. senate debate focused on

spending, the affordable care act. here is a bit from last night' debate. >> i'm always getting, you know, criticized by my democrats, but let's talk about the government shut down. i did not support that. i felt that was terrible. congressman cotton did. i did not support that. please bear in mind when we reopen the government, when we reopen the government i was part of the group in the senate that brokered that, and it was a very important moment in the senate. we got the government back open. i have to give a lot of credit to a republican of maine, susan collins, she called me one morning and said i have some ideas. will you come to my office and talk about it? and that was the beginning of it. we got the government to open again. one of the things that people in washington know about me is i always try to work in a bipartisian way.

that's leadership to me. that's get things done. that's get things done for arkansas, something that you all know about me, it's my trademark, if you will. it's what people in washington know, and the good news is i continue to work with republicans and i always will. >> mr. cotton. >> mark prior says he votes in a bipartisian way. i guess that's true if you consider voting with obama 95% of the time. voting for a trillion dollars in debt every single year. standing up to big spenders in washington is one example where i can say i did stand up to my party. earlier this year we passed a big spending bill. how did they pay for that? senator prior and obama and too many republicans tried to balance the budget on the back of veterans, cutting pensions unilaterally. they extended the spending caps nine years.

if big spenders in congress can't have spending discipline for nine months i don't think they can do it nine years out. that's just in keeping with senator prior's record of rubber stamping the obama general today time and time again. which of the 93% of the votes that you cast for obama's agenda do you regret? >> 30 seconds and i would remind you the question asked is when have you voted against the party line and why. >> i mentioned a few of the times i voted against the party lines and why and there has been many of those since i have been in the senate. the reason why is because i represent you. i don't represent a party or i'm not there to oppose or support a president. i represent you and i take that very seriously. the people who watch the senate every year have ranked me and this is folks that that know the senate, not all the ad and spin that you hear from the congressman here, they rank me every year as the most, one of the most independent senators in washington. i'm independent because i listen

to you. >> mr. cotton, last rebuttal for you. when have you voted against the party line and why sh. >> i didn't hear many instances of senator prior voting against barack obama. if you want to go back to the government shut down i along with every other congressman from arkansas voted for every spending bill to keep the government open. it's senator pryor who kept voting against the people of arkansas. you didn't have to pay a tax you couldn't afford your plan. i get senator pryor things senators should have special perks. host: tonight on c-span, our campaign 2014 debate coverage continues at 7:00. we'll be featuring the florida government flor december bait between republican governor rick scott and former florida governor democrat charlie christ, and then at 8:00 we'll

feature the kansas senate debate, it's the third and final scheduled debate between senator pat roberts the republican and independent challengerring greg orman, live at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. good morning. first want to start with your reaction to the news out this morning that a second health care worker in dallas who provided care for thomas eric duncan has now tested positive for ebola. >> well, it's extremely worrisome and it fulfills some of our fears from when we first started talking about the total lack of preparedness for america's nurses. host: what are some of those fears? you've been doing a survey asking nurses about their own

hospital preparedness. >> well, we did the survey because we know what it's like to work in this nation's hospitals, and we get -- this isn't the first time this occurred. right now it's ebola, which is life-threatening, but we have done this before when there was a threat of sars, we talked about it with h 1 florida one. we have a fragmented piecemeal system in this country, because we don't have a national health care system like other countries do. so what you're left with is each individual hospital or system deciding for themselves what kind of preparedness is required and what kind of equipment the nurses will wear, and whether or not that equipment will be there. so you may have the cdc guidelines stating we urge you to use such and thus, but it is totally up to each of the hospitals as to what they choose. we need an optimal, uniform standard of personal protective

equipment for nurses and health care workers. and it needs to be standardized as to how you put it on, how you take it off. is there a buddy system which it looks like there should be? where i watch you put on yours, you watch me, we tape each other up and make certain as we check each other that all of these things are taped, there is no skin exposed, and we watch each other take it off so that we can be assured that we're doing it correctly, no skin was exposed and if there is there's a protocol with bleach, et cetera, for how to treat those affected skin areas. host: as we're getting the news this morning out of dallas, has your group been in contact with any of the nurses at texas health presbyterian hospital to try to find out how this happened? >> actually, they came to us. we had put the survey out there that you mentioned and we found -- sadly what we expected

to find, we have many, many respondents and from 46 states, and over 70% said their hospitals were not prepared. at least 36% said they didn't have the equipment that they needed and had no idea whether it would be there when they needed it. and so these dallas nurses became more upset when their coworker came down with ebola, and was actually being blamed for a breach in protocol. so they came to us fearful for their jobs and this is something we put up with every day. if you don't have a union contract, people are afraid for their jobs. they had indeed been told you don't talk to media, you don't talk to the press. they came to us. they said if you can listen to us and keep us anonymous, we can tell you exactly what was going on in those days before thomas

eric duncan came and since. host: what did you find out? >> well, pretty horrifying things. remember the cdc said there was a breach in protocol. from the nurses point of view there really was no protocol, and they, of course, had asked for it, had begged for it. when they did start with certain protocols as to what to use for equipment to protect themselves the equipment was not by any standard adequate. and those protocols kept changing. to the point where when the hospital said you will adhere to certain protocols, the nurses and other workers had to say well which one? today's? yesterday's? this afternoon's? just horrible things that we heard about linen being piled practically up to the ceiling, the patient himself not being isolated for several hours. and this was a patient in the

throes of a raging ebola infection, which means lots of bodily secretions, vomiting, diarrhea, et cetera. host: when you're talking about more uniform standards for nursing, for nurses, who would be in charge of implementing those standards? would it be the cdc? would it be some other official? how would these private hospitals implement these standards? >> well, as i mentioned, it is up to them. the cdc can recommend, but that's the health care system we have in this country. it's for profit, and unfortunately this is what we're seeing, and some hospitals are coming right out and saying it. if you expect us to do such and thus, it will, you know, bankrupt us. we can't do that. nurses don't think that way. nurses will get what's best for the patient, what's safest for themself and coworkers. money is secondary. first you take care of the

issue. it's really for us like a case in point, a case study, of our national values. what do we value in this country? do you value the lives of the patients and those that would care for them? or is money the bottom line, your first concern? and for nurses, because of the system we have here, unfortunately the bottom line does seem to come first. host: we're talking with jean ross, the president of the national nurses united. the copresident there. she is here to answer your questions and comments, we're going to split our lines up regionally in this segment of the "washington journal." if you're in the eastern or central time zone it's (202)585-3880, mountain and pacific time sewn two soar 25853881. we have a special line this morning for nurses, if you have a specific question for jean ross. nurses can call (202)585-3883. as blinked national nurses united had a survey in the field

talking about ebola preparedness, talking to nurses around the country, over 2200 nurses have responded to that survey so far. 85% saying that their hospital has not provided adequate ebola training, 40% saying their hospital has insufficient supplies of eye protection. if you want more information on that survey, you can check out national nurses united web site. but in terms of the preparation issue, cdc director tom frieden spoke yesterday about what the cdc is doing to try to better prepare hospitals. here is a bit of what he had to say. >> one thing we want to make sure is that whatever is done with where care is provided, every hospital in the country needs to be ready to diagnose ebola. that means that every doctor, every nurse, every staff person in the emergency department who

cares for someone with fever or other signs of infection needs to ask, where have you been in the past month? where have you been in the past 21 days? have you been to liberia, or guinea? that's important. that will reduce the risk that someone will come into a hospital and not be diagnosed. the fact is that usually infections in health care settings spread from someone not yet diagnosed. we have to shore up the diagnosis of people who have symptoms and who have traveled. the second thing that we will be doing, starting today, is establishing a cdc ebola response team for any hospital, anywhere in the country, that has a confirmed case of ebola we will put a team on the ground within hours with some of the world's leading experts in how to take care of and protect

health care workers from ebola infection. that will include experts in infection control, in laboratory science, in personal protective equipment, in management of ebola units. experts who will assist with experimental therapies, public education and environmental controls. host: jean ross is the copresident of national nurses united. you're listening to those changes announced by the cdc director yesterday. your response .. ..

i think so that that recognizes that patients can enter our system anywhere. anywhere in the country, any department. some of the nurses were asking, you know, we're concentrating on emergency rooms and i.c.u.'s. pardon me. but what if a pregnant woman came in and she shows symptoms? now you've got the mother and the baby. now what do you do?

so, the recognition that they can enter the system anywhere is a good idea. host: we're talking with jean ross of national nurses united. she's here to take your calls and questions. christina is up first calling in from oakland, michigan. christina, good morning. caller: thank you so much for letting me be on c-span. please give me the time. i'm a retired nurse. i worked in surgery for over 30 years. part of the problem and thank goodness for the nurses' union, nurses can go and be protected by saying what's really happening. i remember when h.i.v. started up. the first patient we got in surgeries. our management made fun of the people that were working the cases and how they were overprotecting themselves. these were the people who made fun of people but they weren't going to come near that patient. all too often as i've seen over

y career, it's always been cross first. what's cross benefit? this has been going on with multiple, multiple, multiple things. working in surgery, contamination was always a big deal. you contaminated that. they would tell you, no, i didn't. be quiet. this is just -- to me, nursing unions are what is need because now, we can have somebody that will protect us because believe me. management and hospital administrations do not care. we don't put people who put on the line. we don't ask them their opinion. too we think it costs much, they're not listened to. host: jean ross?

guest: well, she's correct. things have changed over the years and gotten worse and worse depending on that bottom line. but i would like to give a shoutout again, to those dallas nurses. they do not have the protection of a union contract. not yet. do have nurses in texas but not in that city, certainly not in that hospital. for them to come forward as pretty much whistleblowers, very, very brave. and once again, they are looking out for the patients and themselves. host: the front page of the "houston chronicle" this morning "routine health care tasks become risky with ebola." that's one of the lead stories in today's papers. let's go to fred waiting in south carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you're on with jean ross. caller: two questions. what works better in this country? unionized automobile plants or

non-unionized and where do people choose to buy their cars? and you made the comment that hospitals only care about making more money. isn't it your job to get the nurses the highest pay they can get and isn't that hypocritical of you? host: jean ross, some questions about unions. guest: it is up to us as a nursing union to advocate for our members and what happens in this country and others, because we have global groups with whom we keep in contact, is that when nurses have the proper working conditions and when they are paid a decent salary and benefits, you'll keep nurses. you keep nurses that started out dedicated to the profession and will stay there. and what you want as potential patients is a nurse who is dedicated, knows what she's doing and is planning on staying in that facility, in that profession. and we make no apologies for

that. other professions should be doing the same thing. but we have to concentrate on what we have. and the nurses have your back. every year, there's a gallup poll and all but one year, that was with september 11, all but one year, we have been at the top of the poll. when the question is asked what profession do you trust in this country? and as you could imagine at the bottom are lawyers and hospital administrators. at the very top, number one every year is an r.n., a registered nurse. and that is because people know we are there 24/7 and we are watching out for them. we watch out for the mistakes. we are the ones that are alerting people now. do not believe what you have been told about the system is fine. everything's hunky-dory and we are prepared. we are not and we are being honest. host: to keep it on ebola for a second, when hospitals are

dealing with potential or confirmed ebola cases, do they ask for volunteers of nurses to deal with those patients or could a nurse be forced to deal with a patient that a potential or a confirmed case? guest: my understanding right now is different hospitals again, they're doing in different ways and it's going to be up to the nurse. and i do fear for nurse who is don't have the protection of a contract because you do stand the risk of being fired if you refuse. it depends on where you work. we have always said it's similar to what you learned when there was -- when we first found out about aids. when we did c.p.r. years ago, you were on top of them. not just doing depressions but mouth-to-mouth. then what were you taught? no, you need to have a care for yourself and in passing on to

others what that patient might have. you must wait for a mask. very hard for a nurse and other health care workers to do to let a patient sit there until they have the proper equipment. but it's what's going to require. and once you keep the nurses and other workers safe, then you don't stand the risk of passing it on to others. host: we have the special line this morning for specifically, nurses to call in. ronald calling in on that line from laurel, maryland. ronald, you're on with jean ross of the national nurses united. caller: good morning, c-span. i don't know if you have an echo on the background. people say this is a c.d.c. problem. this is a global problem. it's amazing how quickly this went from a pandemic pretty much to an epidemic. of course, i have a lot of concerns here as do a lot of your callers. you talk about nurses as far as health care personnel that are

on the front line but it's not just nurses you look at your airline attendant, the e.m.t., the technicians. this is a big problem. some of your colleagues are saying that -- callers are saying don't worry. everybody relax. but the trend this has taken, it reminds me of the h.i.v. virus. it's pretty much taken the same track. and hopefully, we're not too late as far as jumping off on he bandwagon here. host: jean ross? guest: i share the gentleman's concern. hopefully, this is not too late. we started months ago trumpetting. we're not prepared. people look into this. i'm glad he said it's not just a c.d.c. problem because it isn't. i think i mentioned that earlier. you know, again, our national values, they've had their fundings cut too. very, very important things to us. it requires a global effort.

can't just be the united states. it needs to be everyone. should be all hands on deck. we need to contain this in africa. while we're concerned and preparing gearing up for what can happen here as we accept patients as should other countries, we need to be mindful that this wasn't taken care when it should have been. we could have stopped it. we need this global effort to contain it in africa. now, that is the best way to stem this. host: and that's the second caller today to bring up comparisons to the h.i.v. epidemic. can you talk about -- you've been a nurse for several decades now. your experience and the comparisons between the two? guest: well, when we first heard about it, there was -- there's been kind of differences. at first with aids, we were like everybody was obviously frightened, but we weren't sure

how it's passed. once it became clear how it passed, that alleviated a lot of fears for health care workers. again, we were trusting. you always have to be a little skeptical and have a care for yourself and your coworkers. but right now, with what we know, our experience inside the hospitals for more benign things, not something like ebola or h.i.v., just simply saying we know that this patient is coming in with a fever or symptoms. we don't know what it is. we need equipment. very often, we go to our carts where the equipment should be. and it's not there. and sad to say, we very often have to fight. and that's delays. that's delays for the patient, possible contamination. certainly a worry for us. and nurses have to be able and should be able to say i need to get in and help that patient. that patient needs help. but you need to do your job, employer. you need to supply me with the

equipment that's going to keep me safe. you got to hold up your end of the bargain. and so often, they don't. host: also calling in from our line for nurses, tamara is in barrington, illinois. tamara, good morning. caller: is there any talk of making regional like bio hazard centers? i don't know if you would be familiar with what the national thought is on this. but it seems to make sense that -- i think at this point, there's only a few pie owe hazard centers and if we were to make it regional and then transfer patients to these centers, it might make sense. that way, we could focus the resources appropriately and make sure that we have the adequate equipment to protect the health care worker. host: jean ross, your thoughts on that plan. guest: we don't but they are considering such a thing as parts of a plan. and i'm not going to weigh in on

to what is the best plan, whether it be regional or not. what we need to keep insisting on and repeating is patients can enter the system anywhere. so whether you transfer them to regional centers or not, the nurses and other workers have to be prepared. the patient has to be protected and isolated. and that's a very difficult thing to do. right now, what we see when we look at optimal protection, we nebraska, e see in and we have been in contact with people there as to what they recommend for the type of hazmat suits. is it a respirator or goggles and a face shield as the c.d.c. originally said, that type of thing. so we've been impressed by them and we're looking at those standards. host: what would your recommendation be for a nurse

who had to care for a potential ebola patient but he or she didn't feel prepared? >> you have to insist on -- you have to care for yourself and you have to insist that you have the proper gear before you go in. and it should be the optimal standard, the gold standard, if you will, and that would be full coverage. and at this point, it looks like rest operators. - respirators. host: our next caller is dee. caller: i own a cleaning company. you should be a video of the emergency room and how this ,entleman, where he was sitting like pens, clipboards, chairs. and also, transferring of

objects. did he -- he got prescription for antibiotics. did he go to the pharmacist? counters. there's just so much. and when they were cleaning the unit, you had kids playing. you have a toddler playing with a toy right on the edge where i'm sorry, so much i want to say. and the last thing i'm shocked is why can't we just call out congress for not doing their jobs? you know, and also the republicans for risking our country. ebola has no race. they have no political affiliation. it's just looking -- we need to come together as a country. host: jean ross. guest: oh, there's so many good points and i agree with her. you know that i say nurse's

first concern. and i also add and other health care workers she's absolutely correct. if you look at mr. duncan and the accusations that the nurses brought forward, one of the things they talked about was that he had specimens of liquids including blood that went through what we call the pneumatic tube system. this is a long line of a tube system. and without being properly sealed, which it wasn't, the entire system is contaminated or stands the risk of being contaminated if there was a breach. so for those people who have to clean up the linen, the floors, etc., i also like the fact that she brought up this is not a partisan issue. and yes, you should be protesting to your government. because we don't have the system that we need, a coordinated system where there is a dictated to say this is the plan you will use. we're not going to urge you or

courage you -- encourage you. and this is the plan and make it stick. until we have something like that from the government, we are doomed to do business as usual and business as usual will kill us. host: how do you make those plans stick? can the government shut down hospitals that don't live up to their standards that you're talking about? guest: we don't have a system in place where they have the wherewithal to do that. that would take, i guess, some protesting from the public and insistence on doing something now with this piecemeal system that we've got. what can we do if he the best we can do right now, people should be talking about that. william is waiting in st. paul. caller: i'm a nursing assistant and i would have to think that there are aids that were in that room that was also unprotected.

i guess -- i don't understand how this person could get through -- i think personally, i the point of entry before they've got to the hospital. i know i work in the hospitals and i know that it's a cost-effective approach to everything and we don't have a lot of proper equipment. sometimes the nurses are not informed about the extent of the illnesses or the disease. and some in the room are unprotected because you're not prepared of what you're going in the room to deal with. sometimes there's only gloves. and if you try to say well, i want to put on something extra, a gown or a mask or something like that, people get offended. they're so hurt about the look of how it would look to the

families or the other people in the facility until they won't even let you protect yourself even if you wanted to because it's not something that they really honestly to be frank with you, it's not something that they think is that important or they care that much about. host: jean ross, what's your response? guest: he's correct. he is correct. he mentioned, he's a nurse's drian -- aide. the nurse in spain, we had to check if she's a nurse. in many countries, it's the kind of system that they've got. it doesn't matter what the health care worker is. you mentioned intake. intake is so important and i will tell you. we have had to fight mightily, sometimes, day-by-day with hospitals as to who actually does the intake triage? it should be a registered nurse,

but again, if you're looking at the bottom line, many hospitals and systems are pushing people who don't have a nursing degree or not nurses either. there are people that you hand an algorithm and ask them this, this, and this question and we should be able to glean the information that we need. this is dangerous. you want health care professionals doing your triage, especially in a time like this. host: gainesville, virginia's next. van is waiting. van, you're on with jean ross of national nurses united. caller: good morning. i want to ask if she was familiar with the center for domestic preparedness in alabama. they have a training center that's a former army base where they have been doing for at least 15 years, all hazards training, just for situations like this where anyone in the response community where this hospital workers, police, fire,

even administrators can come down. they can actually work in an environment where they can actually use -- or an old hospital. well, they simulate a bio hazard and they actually have to operate in level a, a respirator. and i want to know if she was aware of it. and also, this is 100% federally funded free from landfall, lodging, meals, open to anyone. host: are you trying to say that program should be dallasly expanded here? caller: well, it should be expanded. it's available right now and it's woefully underused by the response community because it's just not well-known. and by the way, it's about an hour and a half from the c.d.c. in atlanta. and the c.d.c. has been sent over their ebola training program and there's actually functioning there as of september. host: jean ross, are you familiar with this?

guest: i myself are not familiar with that particular one. however, we do know that we can learn a lot from the people who do this kind of thing as he says, routinely. so when i mentioned the kind of equipment we need, we also need proper training and proper training for us is people who know what they're doing have a hands-on training with us and showing us and then drilling, constant drill downing and practice. that's how we learn. we as nurses have had disaster drills periodly at our hospitals and you have people come in and volunteers and they're volunteering to be patients and we have to -- we're told what the natural disaster was, a huge fire, water main bursting, whatever, chemicals and we practice and we should have been practicing for accepting ebola patients. but despite our best effort, we were listened to until now.

host: we're talking to jean ross, the co president of national nurses united. she's been a nurse for 35 years in minnesota. she's with us for about the next 15 minutes or so. we want to get to as many of your calls as we can and have a special line in this segment specifically for nurses. carol is on that line calling in hadom, connecticut. good morning. caller: good morning. this has been very interesting. i'm glad i turned it on this morning. i've ban nurse for over 30 years and i've worked in many different places and i know that the nursing population in the hospital is the largest expenditure in any hospital. a lot of times, they do curb what things are available to us. i'm very concerned about the protective things. i was reading online that they're using gloves, masks and gowns. we can always -- as jean said, you see what these other people are wearing. they're probably covered.

i've never seen that in a hospital. and i could see at the hospitals that are working presently not putting money out there to do that and it is frightening. and also going back to the person for the nurse's aide and the housekeeper. a lot of times, they don't get the equipment either when they get into the rooms. host: can you talk a little bit about the training you received at your hospital when it comes to ebola? caller: as far as i know, it's only the emergency room that got it. we're in an area-wide system and we've heard nothing about it. we did get some papers through the internet and that was about it. nothing has been, you know, given to us about it. host: and what kind of nursing do you do, carol? caller: i work at the search unit. host: jean ross, let you jump n. caller: again, totally correct. when i talk about training, as you recall, we were told that

the nurse that contracted ebola had training. now we're finding out what they talked about training is. being given a link to the c.d.c. website or a intrahospital website is not interactive training. interactive training means you are facing and you are teaching me. i have the ability to ask questions and i should. and you need to depend on your nurses. nurses are wise. we know what's best for the patients. we're the ones who do that work. and in order to protect the other ancillary staff that work with us, including the nurse's aids, we need to be listened to as to what is appropriate and what we need now. host: this is an example of the information available on the c.d.c.'s website printout of the several page question and answer from the c.d.c. questions and answers for nurses and health care workers ranging from how do i protect myself against the ebola to dealing with travelers

and infection control. let's go to lylea waiting in washington, d.c. good morning. you're on with jean ross. caller: good morning. i think this is a great conversation. i work in -- i used to work in education and now i work in health care, home health in particular. and i was thinking about this from the standpoint of even h.r. policy. i know that a number of individuals i work with has family members that are from west africa. and i don't think that when thinking about it from the personal responsibility standpoint or even from each organization having a contingency plan to say what would happen if? for example, if a coworker of mine were to travel to the affected area and come back. from an h.r. policy, what does that look like? should the h.r. department -- because we can't just necessarily depend on the individuals to be responsible enough to doing things that are

right. most people will but you'll always have ones that won't take things as seriously. what does it mean for the people we're caring for? what does it look like from a school system? i really feel for the nurses. i work for charter schools. so i know first hand what it looks like to work in an environment where you don't have protection from the union and when you sound the alarm, you're looked as a bad person or your alarmist or you're over the top. but when things like this happen, like what would those nurses -- would those nurses have lost their job if they say they don't want to take that next step? would they have been suspended if and i also just think from a nation standpoint, we have to look at it from a personal responsibility, from each individual business, what does it look like from the school system? what does that look like and just use our brains and think. i have to protect myself. i have to protect the people i serve.

i have to do my part to fight epidemic.tial host: jean ross, several questions from lylea. if you want to take one or two. guest: you're right. that's a lot of questions. she seems to have a really good handle on what it's like to protest and have a fear for your job. and for nurses as well as teachers, it's not just the fear for your job, it's also a fear for your license. it's a very real fear. i mentioned this earlier and i can't stress it enough. the nurses from dwhroose came to us are fearful and i understand and they should be because people do get fired for coming forward and doing their job, which they're ethically, morally required to do, which is to speak up and protect the patients. as far as personal responsibility, i'm not sure where she was going with that, but i will tell you this. you remember in the beginning,

said hed did mr. duncan had been traveling and he had been exposed? and i hate it when we go there. try to put yourself in his place. let's pretend for a moment he didn't know or suspect. you know, if you might be infected with a life-threatening virus -- the survival rate we're told is anywhere from 50% to 70% or non-survival rate, 50% to 70% to 95%, you know, would you say to yourself, i stand a better chance of going somewhere where i think they know what they're doing? i was planning to go home to see my family in this country. i think it's expecting an awful lot of people to say yes, they should fully disclose what they think they might have been in ontact with.

host: cardinals, good morning. -- charles, good morning. caller: hats off to all the nurses and doctors, front lines in the hospitals. really making a difference in our communities and states. and what role would you suggest or do you know that the federal emergency management agency does play currently and if you don't know, what would you suggest that they do? and on response to the man that .alled before concerning fema what programs are available to say state hospitals or private hospitals for training, for nurses or doctors and viewers responsible for allocating that money to the hospitals when they return? host: jean ross?

guest: i really do not know and we are concentrating on the best education for us. if the employers -- if the c.d.c., whoever, says this is the best way to provide it, what we are asking for is that they do their job and due diligence and provide for us the training. so i cannot tell you what is in the works because that is not in our purview. there is about a little over 2.7 million registered nurses in the united states. the bureau of labor statistics, median pay is $65,000 per year. that works out to about $31 and $.50 per hour. we will go to sean in sunnyvale, california. good morning.

i want to have a say about what you said earlier. that train is useless. but what happened in turkey and trina. that was just a natural disaster. not even an ebola type disease. thealso, whoever looks over scrubs anything in hospital, should those bit will be under scrutiny for not supplying nurses with all the equipment you really need to serve the patient? 10 also, you deserve the proper equipment in stock and then some, but his ebola is this serious and it is not airborne, over your t-shirt mouth there that is a patient's life in there. you cannot just be in the hallway spinning circles.

we are going to have to protect the people who care for patients and fully protect them optimally. if you dothem optimally. if you do not, you will decimate the only hope you have in helping stem this in any country. it is the people who take care of those patients. it is time to start listening. we warn you, this is what has been going on. we will not stop, and we are going to insist that we are protected before we go into care for these patients. the copresident of national nurses united. we appreciate your time this morning. guest: thank you. host: up next, we will be joined

by the president of americans prosperity, and later, we will open up our phones to you and what you are watching in the final three weeks of the 2040 election. we will be right back. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> be part of c-span's campaign 2014 coverage. like us on facebook to get debate schedules, video clips of

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focus oncontinue to groups in the election cycle, we are joined by tim phillips, president of the americans for prosperity. we are 2.3 americans from all walks of life in all 50 states focused on making sure every american has their best shot at the american dream. we think the american gene is best achieved through economic freedom. a 501(c) nonprofit. what does that mean? guest: we issue education efforts. we are allowed in limited .acitti -- capacity in united states senate, but that is only a portion and a cannot be roughly half of what has been raised in a given economy.

>> politico describes the group as the coat others, americans for prosperity. in youre do they play foundation? where proud to have them in organization. host: how much of your money comes just from those two gentlemen? guest: we do not disclose the amount. the most feared regulatory agency in the country to go after folks who disagree with him on the issues. we think it is probably a good idea. most know the koch brothers are substantial supporters. host: how much are you planning to spend? well over $100 million during the course of 2014. roughly 73 or $74

million last year. work we're doing and the fact we are building a genuine grassroots efforts, tv advertisements, we do those, absolutely. that is not the majority of our spending. it is less than half of what we do. over 500 field staff in states across the country. their job is to go out and recruit other activists and volunteers to join the effort and deliver our message that economic freedom is the best way for both to live the american dream. >> what are the main races you're focusing on in this cycle? advocacy of these democrat senators. we think harry reid's majority has failed when it comes to bringing economic prosperity. ,hrases like north carolina congressman braley in iowa, the priority states most folks would

think of when they think of the senate races that are most in play. we are expressly advocating the defeat of these candidates. fieldin terms of the efforts you're talking about, those are in play. those who have made not been involved in elections before, what to field staffers do? is it physically knocking on doors and asking people to vote? guest: it is. but not just doing it themselves. also, recruiting volunteers, hopefully folks from all walks of life, to join us. we know in the busy landscape that is american life today, and view, skeptically, a lot of advertisements out there, the most effective means is person to person and from folks they know. to have volunteers working with our staff and reaching out to people. to peer, whether in the neighborhood or community

associations or baseball games one-on-one to deliver our message. the message is simple right now. these democratic senators, their policies under the obama administration to get the economy moving again to get folks back to achieve prosperity, it has failed us. it is just not working, whether it is obamacare energy policies rated as failed us. is here tohillips take your questions. our phone lines are open. they are split up -- the washington post last week described a fps the most valuable insight ally. would you agree with that assessment? >> i would not.

we hold republicans accountable. we thought the farm bill was terrible. it was corporate welfare and corporations are doing just fine. our taxnot need dollars. we aggressively pushed republicans to vote against the farm bill. that is corporate welfare and we have urged republicans in the they alone can do, they can shut the thing down without any democratic help. right now in the senate effort, we think the democrats are the problem in the united states senate for the economy. host: you said you expect to spend -- how much of that was spent on republican primary races? to be we chose not involved in primary races across the country. we did not get involved in 2012 or 2002. not see a real need to.

we look at where we could make a difference in where there are key issues at play and we just felt the difference between some of these republican candidates on economic issues did not rise to the level of express advocacy. we have only done it twice in our roughly decade-long history. that is it. out of all of the times we could have done it, we have only expressly advocate the election year on two occasions. reluctantly.step we would rather not be doing this. when we look at the performance of harry reid'senate majority in the administration, they have simply held the people with government overspending and dysfunction in washington and obamacare, and i could go on. they failed the country. people are hurting from all will -- all walks of life. especially for folks struggling the most. the left claims these are the folks they want to help and it is just not helping. taking yourillips

questions and comments. we will start with al on our line for democrats. good morning. i have been knowing walking in here in day one. in 2009, he said he was against president obama. in 2004, when we got the budget, he was against it. sitting here to protect banner. tell the truth. not asked leaders in the house to pass it. you want to respond? i do not know if you was talking about americans for prosperity or you personally. guest: i do think the president has failed the country on policy. reelection.12 for

we spent roughly $34 million out of a budget that was over $100 million. it was a limited portion of our total budget. ,ith regard to minimum wage medicine issue worth talking about. the left says they want to raise minimum wage here it economic studies out there and even hillary clinton and the president acknowledged, raising the minimum wage would kill roughly half a million jobs in the country. jobseople losing their again would be the most vulnerable people. that is not a good thing to do to kill a half million jobs when we are to have the lowest labor force participation since 1978 courting to the bureau of statistics. can you talk about your work before americans for prosperity? campaigns,level going back to the late 1980''s. reagan got me excited about the political arena. when i was in heist oh, i became

one of these reagan kids. chief of staff for bob goodlatte. judiciary chairman. from texas onin our line for independents. good morning. go ahead. how to get voters to vote against themselves. about democrats, i understand they voted with the president. publicans voted 100% against the president. how did they bypass partisan? the policy, putting up 20 feet will, they help people, but then the republicans try to make it

like it is against the people. what specific policies are you referring to that are for the people? something -- they want to know how you will pay for it. everything we do, they knock it down like he is spending too much money. everything he want to do, he spending too much money. if we do some of the advertisements and a lot of the messages door-to-door is that some of these senate dem press vote for the president 99% of the time. we do not look at that as a partisan thing. we look at that as for judgment on the part of these democrat senators in supporting some of the policies i have outlined, like the global warming agenda, which makes energy more expensive and more difficult to produce very often.

obamacare policies like that. that we doly right hold these democrat senators accountable for voting with the president 99% of the time. we do not do foreign policy issues. have notvotes, we gotten involved in. we do tie the democrats to president obama from the standpoint of their voting records. we think it is bad for the country. does military spending factor into the issues you're looking into? guest: usually not. we do not do social issues or foreign policy area we do look at waste in the defense budget. a lot of times, there is waste. when you pull out waste in the defense budget, you can be called anti-national defense. that is a loaded charge. but we do try to look at it. texas, republican mike,

john, you were on with tim phillips from americans for prosperity. caller: good morning. i want to look at it from a different point of view. i am a firm believer that gay it will in this nation, more than likely become the law of the land here and i believe this country, america, she was dedicated to god back when george washington was president, this country has turned her back on god. until this country repents, there is not one thing washington, d.c. can do until that happens. i actually believe this country will go down and collapse because of the sins of this nation as a whole. this nation has become complacent. this one of the social issues you do not get involved in? economic really do

issues. we respect the importance of those issues, but we focus on economic policy like taxes and spending and regulation and issues like that here these are important issues across the board. it is just not what we do. host: on our line for democrats. robert, good morning. caller: i'm just wondering the americans or prosperity, where they were when president bush was in office, coming in with a surplus and left with a deficit. two wars, did not pay for them. unemployment jumped up 10%, he was not worried about it. you are exactly right. we criticized the bush and ministration. they spent way too much money and expanded government. republicans am a very often, like what you're talking about in 2003, 2004, 2 thousand five, they expanded government dramatically and it was not held. no child left behind is mostly a

failed project that made government eager, more expensive, and more wasteful in many ways. under republicans come exploded to 15,000 in the last year of their control of congress in 2006. we did call them out. the first national issue campaign we ran was on earmarks. we call them to end the earmarks. the 50 most egregious earmarks in our view, 27 of them were in republican house districts. 23 of them were in democrat house districts. the caller is exactly right, they failed to make government more efficient and more effective. did you have a follow-up? caller: yes. he says he held republicans responsible but he did not. -- unemployment 10% and

now it is 9.5%. mitch mcconnell made a promise even before obama took office that he would not help the president. everything democrats tried to pass, republicans block it. and these tube want to put republicans in charge. those rts different issues. we asked lee did hold publicans accountable. if you look at the coverage of the end of earmarks express. we also decried government spending during the bush years. a lot of friends in the republican party were upset with me and with americans for prosperity. i remember having house members caught up in sake how you are hurting the team. i remember having to answer him a we are not on your team. when you're spending more money and making government more wasteful and ineffective them we are definitely not hundred and. so we did hold them accountable and they went out of control.

it is one reason the republican brand him even today, is still harmed with many americans. in regards to opposing the president, he is right in that we have oppose obamacare. we think it is a terrible law that hurts people and not helps people. i think the results are bearing that out so far. we oppose most of his policies because they do not work and they end up harming more americans than they are actually helping. we do oppose those and we make no policy -- no apologies for that. on a line for republican, jim. caller: you're doing a good job and you continue to do the job. i would like to comment the gentleman from arkansas -- you cannot blame bush for everything. when you jump on an airplane and ,ly around the world and a golf then you are the president. when something gets hard, you have got to blame bush. i can tell you one thing, these last two instances in the middle

east and the latest news on weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons were found, you cannot blame bush. he put it out there. leadership.sue, the worst president since james earl carter. i do not know about him. buchanan. we have got really good leadership. let's get rid of this bunch. thank you. i think early in the obama administration, the strategy of blaming bush for everything, and work for the president for a while, for president obama. i think the american people figured out, it is not about the bush administration anymore. it is about the ease of the obama administration. the reason he is so unpopular in the american people is because his policies are not working.

with regard to president bush, we do think he did good things. rates.t tax so he did some good things. on the issue of government spending and the size of government, they did fail. they got out of control on spending. host: i just want to point out the caller was bringing up weapons of mass destruction, perhaps referring to the front page story on today positive new york times. -- the story noting from 2004 to 2011, american trained iraqi troops repeatedly encountered on at least six occasions and .ounded by chemical weapons the story noting the united states had gone to were it active weapons of mass destruction program. instead, american troops gradually found it ultimately

suffered from the remnants of long abandoned programs, built in close collaboration with the west. leadingmultipage story the new york times today. you talk about the policies of the president that you oppose, in a cnn interview in april, you mentioned we want to make sure issueare is a number one in the country in this election cycle. have you been successful in doing that? like most americans are thinking about obamacare. post andr foundation polls, they do not like it and want to see changes in regards to it. he mentioned ebola. i want to point out some democrat campaigns and liberal groups are trying to use this tragedy, folks contracting the virus in people dying, for

gain, saying cuts are the reason for the ebola outbreak. i think that is outrageous and they should stop it. to webou are referring advertisements from democrats this week. guest: it is outrageous easing death and sickness of our fellow americans to try to score political points here they also happen to be incorrect. host: up next from california on our line for independents. thanks for getting up for -- with us. caller: thank you for taking my call. raising the minimum wage would cut 500,000 jobs.

if you have $28 million, and i do not want to raise it to seven dollars an hour, which would make it about 1425, but if you , these people,n they work eight hours a day. most of them work 360 days a week. if you do the math on that, that is somewhere around 500 and $84 billion. host: we got your point. jobs created raising the minimum wage. guest: i do not see how forcing employers to pay more per hour -- new jobs. it means they have less income .o hire more folks most of the studies done, i was interested to note hillary clinton and others on the left have acknowledged it would be job losses i increasing the minimum wage by a half.

those are the studies genia -- generally accepted. imperative. is worth moving -- losing those jobs. we disagree. somewhat immoral to force americans out of work. a lot of times, part-time jobs are the gateway jobs to better life and a better career. americans out of work. a lot ofit was back to what we d earlier. the left's policies and up harming the people they will claim they want to help the most. laborhing them out of the market. think about young people and african-americans. they are suffering under unemployment rates that are historically high for such an extended time year after year. so many americans are pushed below that threshold now feared

being harmed by obamacare because of regulations with obamacare. those policies, i do think they mean well, but the end up hurting people and americans that are most honorable and set of helping. caller: you all keep saying president obama like to blame bush. why is the republican party fighting so hard to keep george w. bush's policies in play and trying to block everything the president does. the president is trying to take it in a different direction. my other question is, besides policies, what other are you all referring to that obama is doing that is destroying the country? one more thing. obama plays less golf than any other president. thank you.

do not have a view on how much coffee place. i am not interested in that. presence of the parties need time off occasionally. i think with obamacare, he mentioned we are not telling the truth. story,simply telling the which is, millions of americans lost their health insurance under obamacare. we see premium increases in a lot of states. and now, with the latest revelation that obamacare premiums increase for next year, they will not come out until november 15. conveniently after the mid-term election. this law is bad and it is hurting people. his first week policy coming out they claim jobs created, that it would get the economy moving, we wasted roughly $1 trillion of tax their money and people are in debt

borrowing from china come and we did not get any help. today has been the slowest economic recovery in postwar american history. these policies have failed us. think about the global warming agenda as well. we are for renewable energy as long as it works on its own. not propped up by regulation. host: democrats, good morning. i want to question you on, have you paid any attention to the senate race here in new jersey? we have a well-qualified candidate running an underfunded campaign without any help from the rest of the republican party.

we are running against a corrupt ex mayor of the city who refuses to debate our candidate. lockstep is walking in .y ignoring the scandals we're wondering, we need help, and we are wondering if there is , tohing you can help do continue the reagan policies and bring prosperity back to america. guest: we have not chosen to get involved in that state here and we chose not to get involved in new jersey. i think new jersey is a tough lose state. christie to get elected as a republican government -- but progresse,

have a registration advantage. it is an important race, but we do not know that is the best place to put expressed advocacy. host: a republican caller new york, good morning, dan. go ahead. that there isg the economy and how sluggish the recovery has been, what is being done? so many people have been forced onto the social welfare system. programthe food stamp welfare tripled since 2009. what is being done to weed out waste, and abuse in the

systems? to have a strong economy, which we do not have right now. it is ridiculous to think we should raise minimum wage close to $15 an hour. waste, and abuse in the systems? to have a strong economy, which we do not have right now. it is ridiculous to think we should raise minimum wage close to $15 an hour. guest: labor force participation. especially americans of working , few are employed, especially when you consider full employment. is a big problem. social security is skyrocketing, food stamp use is skyrocketing. substantial, fraud in the system. that is not surprising it were most americans. they know social programs are

full of fraud and waste. at the same waste, and abuse ine they bringe, dependence and they harm people giving, few are employed, especially when you consider full perverse incentives. incentives maybe not for an employer. they get nailed for it under obamacare. of laborieve the lack force participation. terrible of the legacies of the obama administration. host: powerline for independents. new mexico. doug is waiting. caller: good morning. i have a question. the koch brothers, do they have a solution brothers -- a solution? a -- have -- what

policies do conservatives have of substance for health care? first and foremost, we do not want a washington, d.c. kind of government one-size-fits-all law. they do not work well. especially in an economy with over 300 million people, incredibly diverse in every way. rural, suburban, every other way. having the government in washington design a program for something as personal and important as health care is a bad idea. it does not help people. there are a lot a program for something as personal and important as health care is a bad idea. it does not help people. there are a lot of reforms you can take that would help people. are the coke brothersehost:

involved in any of those? with their business sense, have they propose any specific solutions? guest: i do not think david and have proposed. they have a foster that economic freedom is better as opposed to the government when it comes to helping bring about the best health care. i think their philosophy has been made pretty clear as they have articulated. a lot of the reforms we support our simple. we do think risk pooling, a lot of people have pre-existing conditions or are self-employed with only five or six or seven or eight folks here they need to band together and be allowed to do risk pooling to give more access. we also think we have got to work to help americans become

consumers of their health care. we go out and buy a flat screen television or a car or a truck. we are consumers and we compare and contrast out there. i think it is more of a cultural issue over time. when americans become consumers over health care tom a we will lower health care costs also, i will meant -- will remember this tiered so much happens when you're in the doctor's office. it is really just having to protect the medical professionals from lawsuits abuse. we need to adjust that as well. a one-size-fits-all fix from washington dc for something as vague and as competent it is health care, it just does not work. we are seeing the results. roger from indiana on our line for demo that's. caller: good morning.

i am a democrat. guest: my dad did as well. talk about mr. obama and his stimulus plan. 80% of that was tax cuts. it. party voted against hold on. let me finish. let me finish here it -- finish. that is number one. you talk about obamacare. i came from the heritage foundation. that came from republican think tanks. the supreme court is ruled by republicans 5-4. why? why is abortion legal? why is gay marriage in 30 states now legal?

this --guest: this stimulus bill, is laughable to think it was tax cuts. government employees not laid off were harmed during the recession. that is where most of that money went. there was a second economic issue the caller mentioned. host: on twitter, a question for you. -- guest: we do. we have called for that to and because it indeed does. it is incentivize is americans. this is something, so many americans are frugal their whole lives there they put money is tied, now there's the interest rates that are basic zero four

their savings. they sometimes have too into the market, where that can be risky times. you can see savings impaired by the policies of the federal reserve. we have called for those two and. end. on social welfare programs, the government does a lousy job. they do good things protecting our country. the government does some things well. this is not a broad damon. but when it comes to big, social welfare programs, they do not work on a do not help people they are supposedly supposed to help. on our line for independents. are you with us? to miami, florida, on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: hello?

good morning. i have a comment on two important questions. if americans for prosperity is supposed to be for prosperity, why is it you cut the taxes for corporations, however, me as a guyse west person, you should not be cutting taxes area -- taxes. you cannot say government can play a part here and we cannot cut out the social programs. it has to be run properly. so would will continue to work.

guest: it is difficult to say government programs really work and help people. when i think about the times government has just failed, the irs abuses, where they went organizations and individual americans because they disagreed with policies. i think about medicaid. i think we celebrated the 50th anniversary. word that isa pretty subjective when poverty is ready worse now than it was then. i think about this administration presses economic i'll see.

the results, it is clear they do not work for americans. i think about medicaid. or not we should expand medicaid over or obamacare. we at americans for prosperity said no, that is a bad idea. part disease, one of the biggest killers, as folks who either have private insurance or who have medicare, so we should not add millions of more americans on failing social programs like medicaid, where frankly, they die sooner from the biggest

cancer and heart disease. that is not compassion and we think that is the wrong thing to do. we ought to help people. talk about groups you are reaching out to to talk about unemployment. stories struggling to find a job. >> i thought i was doing everything right. hope.s i lost i had to move back in with my parents after everything they have done for me. >> great work heard anyone else want to share? >> my name is dan and i am unemployed. five hi, dan. dan. hi, >> government is killing our dream. the current generation,

they have some of the lowest, some of the highest on his -- underemployment rates when -- and unemployment rates. that is how that it is. they moved back in with their parents. people are hurting. these millennial's are struggling. i go to college is a fair amount and i have twin boys. a lot of our older friends, they moved back in with her parents and they cannot find jobs were only get part time work. it is not only because of the administration's is policies. but it does have a large amount to do with that. roseyou choke off economic and demonize as this president does entrepreneurs and

businesses, yes. the caller earlier mentioned corporate welfare. we should not do corporate welfare. we oppose it whether it is in the farm bill. they are doing just fine. to policies of nz -- envy, help these millennial's get up on the ladder of achievement in this country. call,time for one more jake has been waiting on the line for republicans calling from new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. i appreciate the conversation. full disclosure, i just obtained my law degree. i have two questions and i'll exit quickly. one, i wanted to know what costs are associated with avoiding medical malpractice cases. if you caned to know

cite any examples that could be change that the obama administration has undertaken that hurts small businesses there it i appreciate the conversation here it >> sure. so often when you visit a doctor and a specialist in a clinic, a lot of what they are doing is simply checking boxes to avoid medical malpractice, in case something were to go wrong. very often, it drives up the of the medical professionals we trust to diagnose and make decisions to help us get better. they are simply trying to protect themselves from these lawsuits. medical malpractice has become one of the biggest expenses for most doctors, etc. the policies of this it ministration that of her the most, i think obama care is the prime example of that. a lot of businesses now do not

want to go over the 50 employee limit because they are suddenly subject to obamacare with all the regulations and cost. a lot of his sister keeping them leaves below 30 hours a week, which hurts these people. businesses have no choice. complying with obamacare is so onerous. as goodlt, it is not for americans who lost their insurance and see premiums go up here at -- go up. host: first, a news update from c-span radio. >> inflation was limited last month because of gasoline and food cost. the labor department says the producer price impacts -- index fell from the previous month.

in the past year, producer , slightly below federal reserve's targets. much better oversight of the dallas hospital, where two health-care workers caught evil after treating the first u.s. patient with the disease. she went on to say the government is taking more steps prevent the spread, including training for workers and a 24-hour site manager to see how the claimant is put on and taken off. spread, including training for workers and a 24-hour site manager to see how the claimant is put on and taken off. the wall street journal tweets about more reaction am a dallas official who said more ebola cases are a very real possibility after the second health care work or tested positive. this from a dallas mayor who said, "it may get worse before

it gets better, but it will get better. a dallas county judge said we are not going to put protective orders on them in the five health-care workers there it returning to politics, cnn president biden speaking in a closed-door meeting yesterday called t partiers "crazy." he added, this is not your father's republican party. when michele more bachmann speaks at the heritage foundation. you can watch the event live on c-span and here on c-span radio. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> on our last 40 minutes or so, we're opening up our phones to you and asking what races you campaigning as the 2014 closes on election day.

-- our phone lines are open. you can also send us a tweet and we will look for those as well. a conversation on twitter or e-mail us as well. we want to know what races you are watching and what campaign you are interested in. senate democrats fight againsthe mitch mcconnell. throwing in the towel on their fight to oust the senate gop leader mitch mcconnell. the story noting most polls have shown the race living away from the democratic nominee for weeks in a contested, long considered a top pick of opportunity for democrats. with the democratic senatorial campaign committee's efficient,

the party is shifting solely to defense in hopes of protecting majority.e fixed seat in terms of one of the races where they are shifting to .efense, it is alaska to join us to talk about that race, we're joined. status, teresa go, what to know about mark chances of holding onto the seat? --guest:n.org he had he had momentum early. it seems like early september, he lost the lead. the republican, dan sullivan, is holding a small but significant lead. , six points, depending on the poll that you look at. host: what will be the key

battlegrounds you look at? where will the race be decided? the outside money and the campaign seem to be focused on anchorage. the hometown of the former governor of sarah palin is a where i thinkrea a lot of the energies are focused on. bigr is trying to have a push. host: we have been trying to bring our viewers local issues as well as national issues as well. what is pebble mine? mine in proposed western alaska. very large. it has groups in that area and also around the state.

both candidates in general are trying to say that federal overreach is a that thing. that is a huge theme we keep hearing in the campaign. how, "i will stand against federal overreach." unusual or took the bold move in supporting the epa in ruling against the mine. it has been called a preemptive veto because it has not applied for permits yet. but he said, no, i support that, because this would be bad for fisheries in western alaska -- western alaska. that appeal to some native groups and commercial fishermen.

host: remind voters who didn't sullivan is. what is his background? guest: he has been called the guy with a golden resume. an ivy league education. he worked in the bush white house. he worked in the state department. under condoleezza rice. -- a marine, an active-duty marine. he was alaska's attorney general for a brief time. -- naturalational resources commissioner, a big job in alaska. one of the things the mark begich campaign is pushing, he came to alaska as an adult, so he is not from alaska. that has been something, a

narrative, thread throughout the campaign. one of the key figures play into the race is a republican, the other contender. here is a recent mark begich at mentioning that senator. >> we have over 3000 telecommunications jobs in alaska and mark begich has fought to protect them. a ceo of one of alaska's largest companies. i worked with mark when he transformed the economy. he did the same thing as senator. , one of thee works only states with both senators on the appropriations committee. we cannot afford to lose that. i voted for lease and now i am voting for mark. is joining usin on the phone. alaska public radio network air it how did she feel about being mentioned in a mark i get at? --

mark begich ad? picture run was a with that showing the both smiling at each other. the senator issued a cease and desist letter to try to get the campaign not to use her image. she said they were implying he has her support when she -- he does not. backing danng -- sullivan. about her support for dan sullivan, here is that advertisement. >> we are all tired of the negative advertisements. i am especially disappointed by the dishonest attacks by dan sullivan. i need a partner in the senate who will work to advance alaska's interests. alaska needs dan sullivan. joining us onin

the phone. six debates in nine days later this month in alaska. what are you expecting out of those debates. what issues will be the key issues? to say.t is hard we have seen debates between them, many debates between them. i do not know. i can imagine fisheries will be a hot topic. -- toughercopper against epa the federal government. hard to say. we have not got much to go on. there have been two debates between them so far. host: polling numbers also, not a whole lot to go on but a few polls in alaska. why is it so hard to pull alaska? there are far-flung communities, people a little bit off the grid. one conservative candidate joked

that his constituents did not like to answer the phone for fear the nsa was listening in. he was obviously joking, but there is a little bit of, you know, not being so henley to telephone pollsters. it is hard to say area -- say. , on her wayskin back to alaska today to cover the race. thank you so much for your time this morning. withe asking our viewers less than three weeks to go in the campaign, what races are you watching? our phone lines are open for the next half hour. good morning, on our line for democrats, wilson, go ahead. caller: i have some questions or just comments for rick scott in the upcoming general election. it seems that, coming from a religious and faith standpoint,

and just a humanist standpoint, that rick stock -- rick scott have started a secret government church with the church of florida, letting the secret meetings do whatever they would like to do on their agenda instead of ashley taking care of what needs to be done for florida and and attacking charlt in every sort of way from the changes he may have tried to do .o help florida [indiscernible] >> the recovery florida governor's debate tonight on c-span at 7:00 eastern, 4:00 pacific if you want to watch it live. here is the front page of today's tallahassee democrat preview a be gubernatorial debate. "crist, scott square off again" is the headline. mary, on our line for

independents, good morning. up,er: when i was growing you worked hard, but you took care of your own family first before you start making foreign aid to the world. do you think foreign aid is a key issue in this election? caller: i think what was it, over the past -- ever since 47, i think, they were given 5 billion plus. for the state of israel. i mean, why don't they tax themselves a little? host: mary in cornwall, new york. read the story earlier about the national democratic pouring their money out of the kentucky senate race. your thoughts on that move? i am going to see

hillary tonight. she is going to promote alison. i think mitch has been there too long. to me he is just kind of stuffy. he was on ang that -- a radio show recently and he was going to tell everybody that i thought it was kind of stupid. i just think that alison is a fresh face who can represent women and the rest of the constituents in kentucky. that what are you seeing these national democratic groups are deciding to pull money out of the kentucky race. what are they missing? caller: i don't know much about

that. 369 inmember of local louisville, and we would like to get mitch mcconnell out of there because he has not helped rid -- add add jobs jobs. barbara is calling from arkansas on our line for democrats. caller: this is the first time i have ever gotten through. week, anddebate this cotton -- everything he said started with obamacare. obamacare, obamacare. we have been absolutely daily used with ads -- we have been absolutely deluged with ads. but the one thing that he said that really bothers me is that

seniors right now that are on medicare do not have to worry in with you know, he is paul ryan and they want to do away with medicare. and social security as we know it. and people are not going to be able to live when they put it in the stock market. as you go up and down, you know how that goes. the man just wants to get the democratic seat. they want control of the senate. and he voted against the farm bill. arkansas are our farmers. they voted against it. my husband and i are on social security. we get $1800 a month. whatd to buy the insurance

medicare does not pay. is $410 per- it month. it is because we both have medical issues and we cannot change. if they are going to take the ,oney away from the seniors like medicaid and all that, then they need to give us a class on how to be poor. conway,rbara in arkansas. c-span has covered several of the arkansas debates already. you can watch them all online at c-span.org. barber also bringing up the amount of money that his been sent --that has been that has been spent on ads. buys could topd "nearly $1code

billion worth of political ads have inundated the airwaves ahead of this year's midterm elections, even in part by a stronger democratic presence on tv than a 2010. study byding to a new the wesleyan media project. an estimated $337 million has already been spent to air more ads in senate races, surpassing the $324 million spent in 2012 ads. walter is calling from baltimore, maryland, on our line for independents. caller: first of all, we have a serious governor's race in maryland between anthony brown and the republican front man. , as the last caller said, just pay attention to what they are saying and their two-faced doubletalk. what we had here in maryland is

the same thing. they are saying one thing to the general public, and then they get into a closet and they talk completely different. they will give you -- i will give you a quick example. there was one bill passed in the that limitsyland the accessibility of the ak-47 and the rounds in the magazines. the republican says he will -- as well as what they call concealed carry permits. he says to gun right fanatics that he is going to change that law. but to the general public, he is not denying it because the papers got the actual minutes from the meeting that he had with these people who confessed that that is what he told them. instead of being honest, they just doubletalk. so i am watching the senate northin kentucky and also

carolina because they are the two points of contention with reality. walter, inight, baltimore maryland. -- in baltimore, maryland. 'ost think that others congressmen are the problem, and not theirs. that is the problem. "all i know is- that i am mad as hell, and i have no idea why anymore." diane, on our line for independents. what is your view on the alaska race? caller: let me make a couple of comments about a lady that you had on first and then i will answer that question. i was disappointed that you did not get someone who knows a little bit more about alaska. she sounded like she did not know anything. the pebble mine is a huge mine up in a major watershed area for

all of the feeder streams that produce some of the biggest salmon fisheries in the world. alaska has provided the world inh over 50% of the salmon the world, freshwater salmon. just a drop or two of copper -- it is a coppermine -- will kill the salmon and the eggs and that. not to mention there are tens of thousands of jobs in the fish industry, which is huge in alaska, which is why people are closing the pebble mine. polling was difficult. the whole state of alaska are 770,000 people. there are about a little over 300,000 in the anchorage area and a little over 200,000 in the fairbanks area third more than 500 and some thousand, plenty of people to poll from alaska. so it sounds like we are in the bush and nobody talks to anybody

from her comments, and that is not true. as far as the races i am the sullivanlaska, one is a real close one. i am an independent. i tend to lean conservative but was going to world -- was going to vote for him because i like the work he has done. i am a person who watches c-span etc. a bit, the hearings, but sullivan also sounds good. the difference between them seems to be that mr. sullivan is a little less aware of how independent alaskans are and how important their industries such as fisheries and how closely they watch industries such as mining. we are all for development but in a safe manner. host: diane from alaska, one of

battlegrounds. another key senate race is in louisiana, where there was a debate tuesday night between democratic senator mary landrieu republicanher challengers, bill cassidy. here's a clip from that event. [video clip] >> i believe climate is changing and i believe humans contribute. however, we have to be careful about the policies we promote. fuels,unds of fossil natural gas in particular because it is a 50% cleaner burning. -- content itself a great attributes of a great service and increase security -- america could do itself a great service and increase security. i opened up 8 million new acres in the gulf. i have secured expedited permits on western lands.

i do not agree with president obama on his energy policy. served with three presidents and six governors. i have had disagreements as well as support for some of their policies. we have to be careful about what we do, but we can build a strong canada andre with mexico and the energy independence. global temperatures have not risen for 15 years. there might be time at change, but we are not seeing them reflected in temperatures. we are losing our coastline, but that is relative to sea level rise. the levies on our rivers are --ing needed sentiment needed sediment from restoring our coast. seenorida they have hardly any rising of the water relative to the beach. we have had far more. if you want to preserve the coastline, i am not sure coastal climate change is the issue is much as it is getting the sediment out of the mississippi

river, putting it into the marshes where it can rebuild. that is what is important. as regards the mary landrieu's support for the energy industry, her first votes were first senator harry read. senator harry read will not allow an oil and gas jobs bill to come to the floor of the senate. she already said that would be her first vote. the louisiana senate debate last night. another partially watched senate race is in new hampshire. jeanne shaheen is trying to hold onto her seat against former senator scott brown. joining us on the phone to talk about that race is james pindell of w m you are out of manchester. tell us where the race stands today? in 2013 we had the hypothetical matchup between jeanne shaheen and scott brown,

jeanne shaheen beating him by six points. last week in our latest w m you wmur poll shows her beating scott brown by six points. a longbeen stuck for time. that is our poll, done by the university -- one of the most respected polls in new hampshire. others have shown the race to be tighter. polls in both campaigns show this race to be tighter. showing for the first time, an independent poll with brown with a slight lead of one point, clearly within the margin of error. --ngs to watch in this race not just the independent or the undecided voters. interestingly, what you need to watch our republican voters. there is a 10 point gap, or a 10 has been, seems to be point gap of enthusiasm.

democrats really supporting jeanne shaheen. republicans, there are question marks about scott brown. republicans need to come home and vote republican, and then scott brown has a chance of winning this. right now that does not appear to be the case. host: where do the question marks stem from? is it his serving as a senator from massachusetts? guest: you would think. it is a proxy statement from other things you do not agree with scott brown. you will say that in conjunction with the real reasons you do not like him. if you are a conservative, you do not like the fact that he is pro-choice. you do not like the fact that he does not have a perfect voting record when it comes to guns, of issues big and republican primaries. host: in terms of the final three weeks of the campaign, are there any issues with scott brown coming from the primary? it was a particularly pretty easy walk for him to the nomination, correct?

interesting. he had two main challengers. votes, itbine the basically is tied. to-one, that is kind of misleading. not just a republican voters, but also the negative ceiling that people have -- the negative feeling that people have toward scott brown. i think he is at around 19 in terms of net favorability. that is a rough spot interview of people who do not like him. being -- weple are are still beginning to learn about scott brown. i talked to voters in overtime about this. voters all the time about this. if they are on the fence, they will not admit it. people really want a protest vote about obama.

obama is at about a 35 percent rating. voters say they will have to take upon us and look at scott brown and they will ask themselves the question, mi really going to do this? this guy just who just moved to new hampshire this year who i do not know a whole lot about. in terms of issues, this race has been pretty negative over the last couple of weeks, for the last couple of months. interestingly, the issue has been abortion. republicans thought this would not be an issue. -- new hampshire is generally a pro-choice state. first republican since 1986 to be pro-choice in the state. publicans have been using this to bring out the women's vote -- republicans have been using this to bring out the women's vote. scott brown says he is pro-choice, but how has he voted

in the past? there are three different campaign ads in the last week. two from jeanne shaheen, one from scott brown responding to the ad. james pindell, we will check back in before the election is over. thank you so much. have about 10 minutes left in our show today. we want to get to your calls heard what races are you watching in the last three weeks of the 2014 election ye? harold is calling from our line for democrats. good morning. waiting into tom concord, california, on our line for independents. caller: good morning. everybody is pitching about about-- is bitching obama, but we brought him in.

gets -- what does he do? what has gotten fixed? million dollars, this guy goes out of the country but complains. but they pick and choose what they want to. host: what are the right things to complain about? need to start looking at what is going on around here. the court system, there are no civil rights anymore. we are told what to do. what did that guy do for $134 million besides go around and he is getting paid about obama, when we as people voted him in? host: let's go to john from milford, pennsylvania, on our line for democrats. caller: you are a wonderful host and i look forward to watching you when you are on the show.

district race in pike county, tom marino is running for reelection, a republican. one of his campaign points is that he is for term limits. but he has served two terms, a total of four years so far. , after hiselected fifth year, he will be vested in a lifetime pension. i do not know how many voters are aware of that, the numbers -- the members of the house are entitled to this. i think it is hypocritical, it is outrageous, and the little time that, you know, he spent in washington, with all the recesses and breaks, he has continually voted to repeal obama care. as far as i am concerned, the young man, nick troiano, who is

running, an independent, i am tending to vote for him and i think we will be better off giving him a shot. john in milford, pennsylvania, on the issue. gaincrats hopes to in-house fade." week, the democratic congressional campaign committee has essentially given up efforts to unseat republicans in several races, pulling advertising money from a dozen campaigns in the public and held districts to focus on protecting its embattled incumbents. democrats need 17 republican seats to win back the majority, of the 25 races still on the campaign committee's battlefield, only seven currently belong to republicans. that means democrats are -- , michigan, onoy

our line for republicans. good morning. caller: watching the race in kentucky, allison grimes -- alison grimes, apparently one of the >> credit committees is taking their funding away. there are several committees and people still donating to her. withdrawal of the most funds were approximately 2% of her funding, so it is like a it is justrty -- that they are transferring those funds to something they think is more important. that particular committee. the democratic senatorial campaign committee, the campaign arm of senate democrats, spending money, pulling their money out of that. caller: i understand. however, there are many other pac's stills and

donating to her. it is not that people are giving up on her election, it is just that one committee. host: are you supporting alison lundergren grimes? do you want her to win that race? caller: yes, i do. i think women should be in politics more. host: stanley calls for our line for democrats. caller: i am watching all of the races, and i wonder if these people have a concept of history. if they recall who was in charge, what administrations were in charge prior -- eight to 10 years prior to 1929, eight to 10 years prior to 2008, the great recession -- i hope you will take this under

consideration. it is a myth, a serious myth that the economy does better under the goths. that's all. couple of tweets coming in talking about the senate races. kevin denver writes in, "it is interesting that every incumbent casts the senator deciding vote on obamacare here it must have taken some serious coordination." the front page of "the washington times" has a feature story titled "meet the spoilers." that with poll lowers consistently in single digits, third parties have no chances of winning in states such as alaska, arkansas, colorado, iowa, and kentucky where the major candidates are locked in tight races.

that story also includes some polling information on why the third-party candidates could crash the party as the headline is from the washington times. looking at that tight colorado 43%,e race, mark udall at cory gardner at 42%. democratic senator kay hagan, tillis, 45%. we want to get to your calls. let's go to millersville, pennsylvania, on our line for democrats. good morning. hi, go ahead. >> i am calling from pennsylvania. watching the pennsylvania governor's election.

wait for this election to be over. i don't think the current governor was meant to be a governor for any state. things have gone from bad to worse in the state. he wants to implement obamacare in pennsylvania. people in the republican party talk about obama care and the negative. they do not talk about how they are going to get covered. i would like to know how they are going to do that. they need to stop talking about that, just like they stopped talking about all these other things that obama has done. do not talk about it anymore. i am looking to see them keep

quiet, but obamacare in a few months. host: enraged prostate on the -- a tiny sum of money. happy healthy at work and is taking place in the final three weeks of the election. let's keep coral, florida, our line for independents. good morning. are you there? tulsa, oklahoma, is next. desmond is on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: how are you doing? , watching ad to say little bit of all the senators comes these races going on, but the one that has been standing out to me the most is the republican, tom cotton, out of

arkansas. cotton has mentioned obama's name 50 or 60 times. every time you ask him a question, he is a ramp. obamacare. like, if they are just bashing the president, the american people voted in, i just find it totally ridiculous that you can do this to the president with no solutions. they do not answer nothing. it is like they are on the same page. it is crazy. no matter -- the first thing they say is obamacare this, obamacare that. they could way insure 10 million some people and be bad. i don't get why they feel that -- there is nothing to replace it with.

we know it is back to the old system. would not want obamacare. from the newine york times about voter id laws. texas may proceed with the voter id law according to an appeals court. enforcethe texas can strong voter identification requirements. in this november's election, blocking a lower court's ruling last week that the law was unconstitutional effort to suppress the vote of blacks and hispanics. the historian noting that the contested senate law requires that voters show certain types of state issued id a tighter requirement than in the past when voters could provide varied evidence, even in electric -- even an electric bill. of voter fraud have

been reported. let's go to pittsburgh, pennsylvania. what races are you watching, jim? i am watching the governor's race here when tom corbett is running against the secretary under the previous democrat administration. , and we are blessed to have tom corbett because number one, he is an honest man who says what he thinks and does what he says. he has kept the state budget under control and had no tax increases in his four years in office. as far as obamacare goes, the a $2500t promised reduction in premium and better and ige, and i am retired just got my medicare part d