will be taking a leave from his business and general counsel. no start date has yet been set for his new white house job but white house spokesman says he would start soon and the appointment is expected to last for roughly five to six months on the ebola initiative. the "new york times" also addressed ron clain and described his background in this story.

but is ron klain even a czar? actually the "wall street journal" and the washington wire reported that that is the inappropriate title that is not the right thing to call him even though white house critics have been hearing from critics to appoint a czar. that's not what the white house has done.

here's josh speaking yesterday on why ron klain is the right person for the rob. >> what kind of person is appropriate to fill this role? the fact of the matter is, this is much broader than just a medical response. the response you've seen from the administration is a whole of government response. to ensure we're leveraging the necessary resources to protect the american public. so as i mentioned earlier, u.s. aide and the department of defense in addition to the .d.c. have been involved in re sponding to the outbreak. you've seen security and customs and border patrol monitoring our borders and screening passengers from airplanes entering the country. there are additional screening measures that the department of homeland security put in place in the last couple of weeks to make sure we're protecting the american public. there's an important role to

communicate with state and local leaders including public health officials to protect the american public. there is a significant medical component here as well of course. but it's not solely a medical response. that's why somebody with mr. clain's credentials, somebody that has strong management experience both inside got but also in the private sector, he's somebody that has strong relationships with members of congress and obviously strong relationships with those of us who worked with him here at the white house earlier in the administration. all of that means that he is the right person for the job. host: that was white house josh ernst speaking yesterday about the appointment of ron klain as the new ebola czar. what do you think of the appointment? is he the right person for the job? what do you think of the administration's handling of this response? call us and let us know.

our first caller this morning jay from pennsylvania. go ahead. caller: actually i called on the republican line. i'm not a happy republican but i am a conservative. i'm not going to vote this particular time. this coming up. i just wanted to say what i always offense say is to put it in historical perspective. the nation always came before the individual. the health of the nation and survival of the nation. it's too bad that ellis island is now a museum. we had ellis island for a reason for what came to be almost close to tens of millions of people that were coming in the great wave that

was winding down about a century ago by 1914 to 1920 it was about to end and we were about to go into a time of immigration lull that lasted 40 years to assimilate the people that were here. but ellis island was there for people with tuberculosis, europeans with other diseases. they were either quarantined or many were sent back. it's tough love that really built this country. we just seem to have a problem with just saying no. we have 320 million people almost and as we import the third world we're going to become a third world. host: so do you support a travel ban on those flying from west africa to the united states? caller: of course. and most the majority of the american people do. there's a lot of people with blue eyes that were sent packing back in the 1900 or 1912 because they were not healthy enough to become, to be

let in. because the health of american people came first. that's because we had wise leaders that put the republic first and we have come to a point starting in the civil rights movement where we extended civil rights from black people to all people of the world and universal rights which is a ridiculous concept. not everybody has a right to come here. that's just the way it is. if we don't practice tough love when it comes to immigration we're going to end up like we have now where diseases, cholera, new strains of tuberculosis from southeast asia, we have several thousand cases of leprassy, bed bugs when you go to -- some of those bad motels you're going to pick up bed bugs from guatemala. if you want your first world .ay of life you'd better stop

being nice. nice guys finish last. host: ond independent line. kathy good morning. caller: good morning. host: what's your comment today? what do you think of the the president's appointment of ron klain? caller: i think it's a joke. that man has no business being in that position. the government has already failed. they said the c.d.c. was already involved. ebola is here. it's not going to go away. they're not following procedures in hospitals right now. it's a joke. host: all right. and representative fred upton had this tweet in which he described his response to the appointment.

host: i'm really in tears here because i just feel we've lost everything that's happening here that we've lost the america that we used to have. host: are you saying that the actual position needs to have more power or are you saying that ron klain himself is not the right person to be in that

position? caller: well i spoke with one of your agents and i found out that klain doesn't have any medical background. so i think that is not a good perp to handle the position. host: all right. randy from long beach, california. in the "wall street journal" this morning there is this editorial. next on the phone lines is michael from new orleans.

aller: good morning. if we're so allegedly supposed to be the representative government, i would ask this. you can go to any message board, any forum. you can talk to people on the street. you can look at the letters to the editor. you can listen to the phone calls and to c-span. and an overwhelming majority of the people in this country say stop the flights. yet we have a president that gets in front of us on tv, looks us straight in the face and tells us we don't mean a damned thing. now, there is a general strike being called for the united states for monday, tuesday, and wednesday to stop the flights. stay home. do not go out. if you think your job is more important than your life, then go to work. but there is a general strike being called by info wars.com.

alex jones. let's send a message to this president that he is not a king . that americans, the people come first in this. and that this is a national security issue. and that if he doesn't stop the flights immediately, then he should immediately be removed from office and placed under arrest for placing the american people in danger. host: several texas lawmakers are actually planning to pose legislation to introduce an ebola travel ban. two texas republican lawmakers will be handling this effort.

nearly 70 lawmakers including some democrats have come out in support of a travel ban. next on the phone lines on the republican line betty. caller: thank you so much for me getting some words in today. have long been a republican supporter, but i am changing to independent because i'm not happy with the way that my party defended all the things that have not been disproven that has been coming from ashington. host: are you concerned about ebola?

aller: i am concerned. our president seems so absolutely positive that his ay is the highway. he is just not right. thank you so much for letting peace.my host: next on the line is hartly from georgia on the independent line. what do you think of the president's appointment of an ebola za? caller: twofolds. firstly, we have to look at the historical situation in west africa. what africa -- west africa has been occupied and destroyed for hundreds of years by the western powers.

u.s., britain, france. these countries have only been active in terms of running their own country since the mid 60s. so of course they don't have of acilities to take care the problems that are happening there. once again, these countries have been raped out of their resources for hundreds of years by the west. so the west has a responsibility to help. we need to take a look at that. as the gentleman earlier talked about, the problem with disease, we have to understand that over 70% of the indian tribes were eliminated because of the disease that were brought over from europe. so let's not pretend that this is a problem that has just started with the west. it started hundreds -- with

west africa, that is. with hundreds of years ago. in terms of the appointment of the czar, or they're telling us he's not a czar so why are we continuing to use the word? the president has told you that he is a coordinator which means he is going to be involved with other people and he's going to answer to other people. so let's get away from the word czar. that is not what he is. also, you will understand that the president is not an idiot. he knows that medical people have to be involved in this process. and they will be. host: our next caller is wesley on the democratic line from sacramento, california. caller: good morning and thank you very much for taking my call. the last gentleman who spoke from georgia stole

caller: i've been a nurse for a very long time. we need to have someone whot on the ground inif he can shs control physician or even a nurse who can coordinate this. this person may be able to deal with the dysfunction of the agencies that the not only just local but also on the federal level. but he really should have hit the base of this. not c.d.c. the face of it should have been a physician that is an infectious control if a stigs.

and the other thing is that we really need to have the person that should have been at the helm that he has not been able to select. so we need to get about the business of saving at least having the nation's security, health security and then focus. and we need a surgeon general. and we need them now. so i was not pleased with that because that face should not be someone who is a political appointee. host: all right. pat on the independent line. we have this tweet as well. next up, john from michigan. caller: good morning. well, i have a few facts here.

back when aids came into this country my wife was a nurse and the hospital employees, including doctors, nurses, and most of the staff, were absolutely scared to death of this. and would not treat these people. now, we have the same situation with ebola. if you ask the people that are actually in the medical profession top to bottom, they do not want to treat these people. they're scared to death. i just add, my son works in a hospital and he talked to one of the nurses and she has a couple of children. she works in the emergency where these people would be coming in. they had a format for what they were supposed to do and she said it was an absolute joke. and this is a big hospital.

this is university of michigan hospital. she said they have absolutely no idea how to treat this. she said she would not -- would not be involved with that because she was afraid to take this home to her family. there's where we are with that aspect of it. as far as it being handled we need to shut this thing down. we need to protect first of all those people that are going to be involved with that in risking their lives. to blame that hospital and those nurses is absolutely ridiculous. we need -- host: we're going to leave it there. we're going to switch gears for a moment. we'll come back and talk more about ebola. we also want to bring in the wild ride that wall street has had this week. it was the most volatile week in i believe three years and we have matt who is the market and finance editor on the line to

break down the numbers for us and tell us what happened. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? are stoo host: i'm good. so tell us exactly why this week was so volatile. it seems like just a few months ago we were talking about how complacent the markets have become. this week seems to blow all of that out of the water. host: >> well, it's one of those situations where complacency has bread more fear after a little while. it's very kind of difficult to connect all the different threads of the market this week. there's a lot of different things going on. one of the main things seem to be a real shift in the global economy. we've got the united states which is pretty much the bright spot for the global economy right now among the developed economies. so that's helped push the u.s. dollar up quite a bit against some of the -- it's main like

rivals, the euro, the yen. what we're seeing is that feeds through to a lot of different areas. so the price of oil has been falling sharply because global oil prices are set in dollars. and as the dollar strengthens, oil prices fall. and that's fed through a lot of different channels to worries that the global economy would see a broad-based fall in prices, which would be a deflation situation. and that's kind of worrisome to the global economy. so we've seen a bunch of different reaction to that throughout the markets. host: we're actually going to be addressing the fall in gas and oil prices later on today. but this morning we've been talking a lot about ebola. i'm just curious, is there an ebola impact on the market? is there a fear factor going on in terms of investors and their concerns about global uncertainty? >> it's hard to see it in the data yet.

but it's kind of one of those things in the backdrop. there were a lot of questions about ebola earlier this week when delta, one of the biggest u.s. airlines, reported their earnings. the ceo said they haven't really seen much of any disruption. but you see it coming up in a number of questions from the analyst that is cover some of america's biggest companies. by and large, the executives running these companies say they haven't seen much impact yet but the analyst whose watch them, the fact that they're asking the questions, there was a large industrial company, ney well, which produces after mark parts, parts used to maintain airplanes. and analysts there were asking, well, if there's a decline in flying because of the ebola, does that mean you'll see a decline in sales because there will be less of a need for

replacing the parts for airlines? so you can see how it could feed through into the way people are thinking about the markets. it's just hard to find a real tangible example of how it's driving things down. although in the backdrop there is this sense of fear which is also pushing people into the safety of the u.s. government bond market, the dollar. so you can say there's fear out there. it's just hard to say that it's specifically about ebola. host: you mentioned that there are concerns of a broad global slowdown yet stocks yesterday rallied. so they had a very strong i believe over 1% increase. does that mean that things are ok again on wall street? was this week just an anomaly? or where are we headed going forward? >> the real thing, we mentioned things that are happening in the backdrop and it's hard to find tangible evidence. the wung thing that you should

also keep in mind when you're seeing the markets become more volatile is because the u.s. economy is doing so well, the federal reserve which has been engaged in a number of policies in depth shoring up growth for basically since the financial crisis, they are on track to end some of those policies this month. and we've seen in the past when the fed has tried to step away from some of its supportive policies that the markets seem to lose confidence. , the most as if there's fed is actually like that hand on the back of the bicycle helping the markets move forward and there's a lack of confidence in once they take off that steady influence or the training wheels you might say that there's a bit of a lack of clidfns that the economy is strong enough to carry on on their own. so that's one thing to keep in

mind. and an interesting point about the markets going up yesterday. there were some after the market earlier in the week some members of the federal reserve 's monetary policy commitee basically chame out and said maybe we won't take off the raining wheels as we said. host: the bottom line here m. for an ordinary investor certainly the headlines out of wall street were frightening. people were afraid to look at their statements. how worried should an ordinary investor be and should they do anything with their portfolio? >> it's very hard to say because there's so many disht kinds of ordinary investors and i wouldn't want to assume to give blanket advice. the most famous investors say, the markets are basically very moody entities. they will go up, they will go

down. if there are particular companies you like, when the markets go down, it's not as if the fundamental earnings power of those companies have changed overnight. so there's an opportunity, there can be an opportunity to buy stocks that you like. but the equity markets are volatile. that cash right now, the stock market is always a risky place to place it. host: all right. thank you again for joining us this morning. guest: thank you very much. host: i want to show you this chart to sort of high light the volatility on wall street this week. the "wall street journal" had this top headline. you can see where the markets started at the beginning of the week how far it fell before picking up steam throughout the rest of the working week before ending up at 16380 with the dow

on friday. i want to bring in one more news headline for you as well. this news out of the supreme court. it said saturday that texas can use its controversial new voter identification law during the november election. we will turn back to your calls

caller: they are more advanced in medicine now and i'm not sure why it's a big problem now when it was not a big rub them back them. -- big problem back then. if anyone can remember and if they have old newspapers which i it would explain a whole lot of things about ebola. this is not new. it's been around before. host: next up is the joe from hawaii on the independent line.

what are your thoughts? caller: let's give the guy a chance. czar that was appointed, let's see what he does. everything i have seen the president to is the opposite of what has been done in my time and we got good results. back in the 60's and what not. and what i see, we are playing the animal farm game. next up is lawrence from frederick, maryland on the democratic line. caller: good morning, how are you? host: what are your thoughts today? [indiscernible] his title is misleading. [indiscernible]

host: you think he should be called a czar or not? caller: he is the coordinator so why call him a czar? do you think he has enough power to get the job done? caller: yes, he can probably get it done. he is a coordinator. host: thank you. abu fromcaller is manassas, virginia on the independent line. amler: good morning, i originally from sierra leone in west africa. i want to comment about this. i don't think they are being very fair.

this is not the first disaster this country had to deal with. we had to deal from the avauin flu previously but no one called for a flight ban. [indiscernible] what is the president appointing someone who does not have a medical background? us -- appointed sonia sotomayor for the united states. [indiscernible] they're going to politicize this because the republican cm advantage. -- cm advantage. host: when did you come from

sierra leone to virginia? caller: the last time i was there was 2003. host: do you still have family there? caller: yes. host: what do they say about the situation on the ground? from andhere i came that part of the country, they are doing good. this disease is not threatened them at all. hopefully, they will take care of it before it reaches that part of the country. they are calling for a flight ban. it is driving us away from the republican party and we will not forget this. nine -- we might not be a valuable voting bloc for the

united states but this will be a loss. host: next on the line is jay from sine valley, california who is a republican caller. caller: good morning, c-span. i want to come at this from another direction. i spent 10 years in the nuclear industry on 20 more and the hazardous waste cleanup. we have had to spend significant , puttingazmat suits them on, taking them off, preventing ourselves from getting contaminated. we had the benefit of having a geiger counter type instrument that could survey our bodies as we were disrobing and trying to prevent ourselves from being contaminated. they don't have that here. i wonder if something like -- we have seen of those tv shows the police where they spray lumninol to find evidence of bodily fluids and the use of black light to find the traces.

theseing the disrobing of nurses and doctors, potentially maybe something like that might be able to help to prevent them from getting further contamination on their bodies. journal"e wall street had this headline this morning --

we will be taking your calls in just a minute but we want to let you know that we will have on nzwsmakers this week, don lega who is the director of planned parenthood super pac and i plan to spend up to $20 million this election cycle in senate races in nine saint century talked of a new campaign tactic that planned parenthood is using in california called social pressure. >> it's an interesting program that and no one else is done and is being studied by the analyst institute. there is a theory about turnout called social pressure. the obama campaign used it in terms of getting people to vote and made to get my friends to vote. we have been recording people in their own voice, talking about

, lowt's important to vote likelihood voters and on election day, we will play those back to them and the day before election day to hear themselves and why they thought it was important to get out and vote. it's the first time it's ever been used. we have recorded hundreds of thousands of women in north carolina. that is coming up on "newsmakers." you can see the entire interview on sunday at 10:00 a.m. at 6 p.m. on c-span and you can hear it on c-span radio and "newsmakers" is available online. we are taking your calls this morning on the appointment of a new ebola czar by president obama, ron klain and we want to hear your thoughts what you --

whether you think he's the right man for the job. caller: good morning, how are you? the appointment of this individual as the ebola czar truly sets the standard for irresponsibility. what you need is a medical person, preferably from the military, to courtney these efforts with their u.s. military since they will be on the ground in west africa. in adent obama brings person from the financial sector. this is key because this is not about public safety. the cdc director, one of the first comment he came out with was that he did not want to see disruption in commerce. he did not mention public safety. he does not care about public safety. he cares about the politicization of this issue and aspects for big

pharma. anybody that believes these people care about the american people and care about public safety are truly fooling themselves. this man came from the financial sector. why would you put someone as the ofef individual to take care a national crisis like this? ofwould be the equivalent putting a medical doctor in control of ballistic missiles. it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and the american people need to wake up and start holding the representatives accountable particularly when we know for a fact that this is what airborne organism. it has been proven repeatedly in three separate studies, one in with the biowarfare division in the army and another study that came up from the university of minnesota. there are note, robots that can be sent into acte rooms that essentially

as sanitizers to ensure that these rooms will be free of ebola. they could have brought these units in, these nurses would never have gotten sick, all of the responsibility falls on the director and the american people need to demand his immediate removal from power. that was from the democratic line. our next caller is richard from lake placid, florida. he is an independent caller. , washington morning journal. i agree with the previous caller from pennsylvania. we have a serious problem in the white house, national security threat. incompetence or by design and agenda. the both of them are very scary situations to the lives and the property and the security of the united states. you can see by his past actions

on fast and furious and how thousands of weapons were given to drug dealers and benghazi where he would not protect our ambassador. you can go on and on and use this -- host: do we need an ebola czar at all? caller: what we need is very competent medical people and people who care about the population stop the flights, seal the border and we can send out medical and military. i am not for having 4000 military people in there to be exposed and come back to the country and infiltrated to the country and spread ebola all over the place. it almost seems like what their plan is is to actually spread ebola instead of contain it. from and next caller is

charlotte, north carolina, on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: i want to correct a couple of situations with respect to the previous caller from pennsylvania. that is absolutely false information he is giving. ebola is not an airborne disease. it's a proven fact. i am a graduate from university of massachusetts and i know this for a fact, it is not airborne. it is saliva, liquid and those aspects from bodily fluids. the problemntion that republicans have. they have problems with all minorities. look at them. hispanics, they don't want to see hispanics in america. 60% of these different places in the south like texas and

california and arizona are for themexicans or hispanics problem with this election is the minority and we will all vote because i'm not going to miss a vote as long as u.s. cities need to vote america. [indiscernible] i'm going to take the day off to just to vote against republicans. host: we want to get one caller in. this is from ventura, california on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call and thank you for c-span. i will make a few quick points. everybody should just relax. ebola is a serious disease. that gentleman was getting a little loud and so was the other gentleman. blackn, chinese, white, -- everyone will get treated and get their social services whether they like it or not.

the second point is a friend of mine just died of pneumonia in five days in california. up by --his soul but aside from ebola, everybody listening, everybody has to worry about their own health. ebola is just a shot in the arm for us to wake up and realize that our health is the most precious thing or it when i went to visit my friend in the hospital, i had a face mask on and one of the nurses said that is not going to do you any good because you have a cut on your arm. that is airborne diseases out there and i'm glad the president did appoint somebody. i have called this program quite a bit and bashed him and the democrats but this time i will give him props. it did not go arm in him -- arm in arm with lawyers and l.a., he did something. itwould get a bad rap of didn't but thank you, c-span. right, our last one

for this segment. we will continue the discussion about ebola in the next segment. we will speak with dr. ron waldman who is leading ebola efforts for save the children in west africa. later, we will speak with rob barnett was the senior energy economist for bloomberg government about the politics of the oil and gas markets. first, we have secretary of state john kerry speaking yesterday about the international efforts to fight ebola at its source in west africa. guest[video clip] >> meeting this crisis is going to require that we draw on each other's collective experience. and our collective capacities. no one country, no individual group of nations is going to resolve this problem by themselves. this will take a collective am a global response, all hands on

deck that is the only way to get it done. we believe that coming together this morning can be an important beginning to really create the kind of global response necessary. i know you don't may -- you don't need me to tell you what we are up against. i'm sure you have heard it from your own capitals and every time you turn on the television or the radio, you hear or see us.ping scenes that tell it's got wrenching and the images of a pregnant woman being turned away from a hospital and she is on the verge of collapse or men and women dying on the

streets. and a lot of hopeful nations planting the seeds of prosperity and open societies are now battling a brutal epidemic. it's not just the suffering we see or the potential risks we face that make this a different kind of crisis for us as diplomats. we live in a world of a lot of close calls, tough decisions on a daily basis, difficult and contentious issues where you can have an honest disagreement about what the best course of action is or about what the facts are or the results of your decision may be. . ball is not one of them. it should not be contentious with respect to the fax -- ebola is not one of them. we know the risks.

we know the science. we know the medical certainties. we know what is required to beat back this epidemic. >> "washington journal" continues -- host: our next guest is dr. ron waldman with save the children and is leading the group's effort to combat a bowl in west africa. he is also the president of doctors around the world and has tont several decades working fight infectious diseases. thank you so much for joining us. guest: my pleasure. host: start by just telling us what save the children is and the role you guys are playing in west africa now. guest: save the children is a large nonprofit organization that has humanitarian programs in many countries around the world, development programs as well. as the name states, it's an organization primarily devoted

to advocacy on behalf of children,nd providing orphans, and other most vulnerable members of that group protection and other services. host: what are you guys doing in west africa specifically? are you manning treatment centers or is it mainly charity work? guest: we are responding in every way we can to the best of our ability. we are really trying to address the needs of the situation and of the affected population. we are working in all three of the most affected countries, sierra leone, guinea, and liberia. in sierra leone, we have built and will be staffing a large ebola treatment center approximately 80-100 beds. in liberia we have built several treatment centers which we are not managing ourselves. instead, we have developed a strategy of putting smaller isolation and treatment units

closer to the community. in guinea, we are probably -- primarily doing community-oriented work and education. host: when did you guys start focusing on this issue? guest: since august. host: how many people are you able to treat now? guest: the need is so great that we are trying, as are the other nongovernmental organizations, to catch up, to a situation where we began a little bit slowly and are behind the curve, so to speak. in the treatment centers we build, those are approximately 100 beds in our plans are to put up smaller units in rural areas closer to the communities and we're planning for another 100 or more beds there. no single agency can do this on their own. we have heard that from doctors without borders and everyone. this has to be a large, coordinated effort both on the

part of the government's and the international aid organizations and first and foremost, on the part of the people themselves. host: you work with save the children specifically, how is the impact on the use in these countries unique? guest: it is devastating. many people who are following this have seen some of the most storiesnd around us come from the affected countries. children in particular who are unable to fend for themselves in to someare victimized extent more than the rest of the population although the epidemic has touched everyone. we are dealing with situations where mothers who are ill, for example, will come for treatment hammering their children with them because there is no other choice. the mothers or family members may go on to die leaving the children in a treatment center by themselves, having been

and witho ebola virus no one to take care of them. frequently, the children are being shunned by their communities and stigmatized and disseminated against -- and discriminate against. our organization is trying to play a leading role in providing protection to those children where they needed and provide care to those who needed as well. that means isolating children and african circumstances -- in difficult circumstances and caring them if and when they should become ill. the situation is quite dire. it is a disaster in every sense of the word. host: we are taking your calls this morning for dr. ron waldman who is leading the save the children effort to combat the bulletin west africa. he call on the lines displayed on the screen --

you can send us your thoughts and questions on twitter and on facebook or send us an e-mail. waldmant caller for dr. is david from manassas, virginia on the democratic line. caller: hello, dr. waldman. guest: good morning. caller: i would like to make big comment on the effect of sequestration and - perry's refusal to take money for the affordable care plan from the government and how it affects this gentleman that

came in from liberia. he obviously told the people at the front desk what his situation was but because he did and theyany insurance were strapped for cash because of the federal -- i mean, the texas government's refusal to take funds from the federal government, they sent him home with 103 degree temperature and projectile vomiting. condition that a person that had insurance when not have been sent home in. host: do you have any thoughts or comments? guest: i cannot stay to that. i'm not as familiar with the

situation. i know you are right that they should not have sent that person, specially in his history of having been recently been in liberia and the symptoms with which he presented. i believe the hospital has issued an apology for that. hopefully, the system here in the united states will be tightened up so that an incident like that can never occur again. bobby fromup is jersey city, new jersey, on independent line. caller: good morning, i want to make a comment regarding not flying from liberia. liberia is a country that provided a lot of the slaves for america. [indiscernible] everything broke down in that country.

the united states is the nationbuilding around the world. they did not pay attention to like. . liberia is not a country, it's not an ally to the united states. it's a country that provided free slaves to the united states. the remarks to stop lights or liberia, these are people came to this country from other places. they don't know the history of liberia and the united states. [indiscernible] they are not putting more effort in developing the country. host: i think the caller brings up an important point which is that liberia in particular has been through decades of civil war. there was already a large number of orphans in the country. can you talk about about that as -- and the impact it has in combating ebola? guest: that's right, all three of these countries have recently been through this a few times and this is been -- has had a

major impact on her health systems and many people attribute their inability to control the spread of the ebola virus early on in this outbreak to the fact that their health systems are quite weak. i myself work in liberia about 10 years ago just as the new government was forming in an effort to strengthen the health systems. and maybe i process can correct the caller in saying it's not that nothing was done but i agree that not enough was done. that is part of the reason why we find ourselves in the situation now. the caller is correct about the history of liberia and the united states has had quite close ties to liberia. i only wish that more people would be more engaged with the plight of countries and every place in the world but andicularly in west africa helpless at save the children advocate for the needs of

children in all of these countries. i think it is fair to say that although great progress has been made in liberia over the course of the past decade in terms of child health, it has not been enough and the health systems and not been strengthens to the point where they're able to withstand an assault such as the one now. host: you talk about unique challenges that your team faces in treating children in particular. you talked about isolation units for some very small children. guest: this is no one's normal state of being. i don't even know if i can do justice to the devastation -- let's stay with liberia -- that liberia has undergone over the past few months. all government systems are broken down. it's hard to imagine that anything functions normally. certainly in terms of children

and schools, they have been close for some time and are projected to remain closed for considerable length of time. the smallest children are certainly bearing the brunt of this for school-age children as all are at risk of losing year or more of their education. we know from past experience that when that happens, it's very difficult to pick that up in the future. far isst priority by doing everything we possibly can to stop transmission of this virus from person to person, by contact with other people's bodily fluids. we know the signs of this disease and we think it's possible to stop the transmission in the next few months. as i said earlier, we did get a late start and we are behind. when you consider all of the collateral damage that has been epidemic, it's almost unfathomable. the economy of liberia has completely tanked and is almost nonexistent in terms of people's

abilities to work and generate income for themselves. they become completely dependent on the international system for just subsistence. their food security is threatened, their livelihoods have become impossible to pursue. we mentioned education has fallen apart. transportation, -- although this is an epidemic in a public health emergency, it's really one that has had consequences that have rippled through the whole of society. is fromr next caller detroit, michigan on the democratic line. caller: hello, dr. waldman. i am just confused. i don't know if save the children is the same as feed the children. i am just now hearing about ebola but i've been watching c-span for over 15 years.

i am 63. of anynever heard onempt to put an emphasis the genocide that is going on there. in africa. why we cannottand save these people from ebola. it is the worst virus or infection that hasn't that country. -- that has hit the country. the children is not the same as feed the children. those are distinct organizations. save the children does work to do more than just feed and it withmore than work

children. in response to this epidemic, we are trying to do just what you said -- create facilities that can take care of anyone who has the need and anyone who might be affected by this epidemic. it's important that children are dependent on adults to a large extent and will thrive better if their parents are kept safe and sound as well. we offer services to the entire population. from next up is paul tennessee on the independent line. , good: a little surprised morning, dr. waldman -- i'm really surprised about america. america is a superpower. but the politics is dominated the whole debate. which is very amazing. there is no country on the

planet calling to shut down the ebola. even the british people from sierra leone, they are there helping. [indiscernible] medical people in sierra leone are helping. in 1997.ft my country i have never been there. the thai my mom and dad passed away so don't have anyone there but i'm here. i have children and a wife here but i am so surprised of the politics. the most important thing is to resolve this issue. [indiscernible]

relationship your with the military that is in west africa now? do you work with them or see them at all? guest: we work with them hand-in-hand. it's quite an unusual event and that the scale of this outbreak is unprecedented for a disease of the severity. the aid organization, doctors without borders, in june, called for the military's of the world powers to contribute to this effort. that's an unusual thing for a humanitarian organization to do. they did it because this out rate has surpassed the capacity of an individual ngo - non-governmental organization to deal with this. the resources are not there and everyone is totally exhausted and stressed out. host: is it the scope of the disease that has made it so deftly or is it something unique

to the virus itself that makes it such a concern? guest: there has been previous outbreaks of ebola virus, more than 20 of them, mostly in central africa. there is one occurring now in democratic republic of congo. what has happened in west africa is not entirely clear. it's a disease that is new to that region for the most part. what has happened is that prior to this outbreak, the previous cases of ebola have all occurred in rural areas, relatively isolated. this time, there has been traveled from the peripheral areas where began to urban centers. in monrovia, the capital of liberia, when the virus arrived there, it was enabled because of the density of the population and other factors. it was able to really spread quite quickly and get out of hand. with the caller that there has been a lot of politics involved at least as we see and

hear in the united states. we really need to be following the science. we know about this disease and we know what needs to be done. we are not doing it fast enough and we are not doing enough of it. although i will hasten to add that in sierra luzon -- it's in sierra leone was is a former british colony, the aid agency of the united kingdom has taken the lead. in library, the united states really has stepped up its game. it came to the table somewhat late. commitments of the department of defense and the 3000 or 4000 troops that are beginning to arrive now in addition to the lift capacity of the military in ,erms of supply and logistics that is going to be extraordinarily helpful over the next month or so. with the united nations as well, it is gearing up its efforts as

well as the ngo's./ this will take a major africa amid the largest effort ever buy all of those sectors of the humanitarian community, the donor countries, the united and firstd the ngo's and foremost, the governments of the countries themselves and the populations of those countries who need also to take ownership of the situation and follow the guidance of authorities who know what they are doing. host: inuvo quote usa today." "usa today" -

guest: that's right on that some unusual situation in an of itself because normally, in this part of the world, extended families are usually there to take care of children in need or family members in need. there is such a sense of fear and panic in the population at this point that anyone who is known to have had contact with someone who died of ebola is shunned and stigmatized. save the children, we hope to be able to step to the forefront and offer protection and andstance to those orphans

also children affected by the virus itself. they can become ill and require management and they require food and every kind of support imaginable. the consequences of this epidemic are going to be with us for a very long time. right now, we are only in the first phases of what we are seeing in terms of having to do everything we can to reduce and ultimately stop transmission of the disease. after that, the rebuilding effort will be ordinary. host: next on the phone line, we have mary jane on our republican line from ohio. caller: hi, boy what a mess we have. -- i don't know whether you can confirm or deny this but back in the 1970's when this is bull a first presented itself -- when ebola first apprentice itself, it was because of that spider monkey

and kids playing with it. it's a friendly animal like a squirrel. if thatlike to find out is in fact have got started. iest: i would not say -- don't know specifically about spider monkeys. this is a virus that had its origins in animals. a common practice throughout africa is the hunting of bush meat, wild animals and whether it can be monkeys or other kinds of animals that can be infected with this virus. the leading hypothesis is that hunters who do not wear protective equipment at all may animald eat an infected and some of the blood or other fluids from that infected animal can therefore in fact the human who is hunting. there, the virus can spread

from person to person. a reservoirs are for the virus and other animals are coming contact with those bats and then become sick. butall animals get sick nonhuman primates certainly do. the story about the current is that a community in the forest area of guinea might have killed some bats which and that's hows the virus entered the human population but this is usually a disease that circulates -- that has a rebel -- that that has a reservoir in batson circulates in animals and occasionally can cross over. the term that is used is spillover -- into the human population. and there, one person can transmit to another and so on and so forth only through bodily

fluids. influenzat's not like that spreads through the air and more quickly. host: that raises an important point because there has been confusion. next on the phone lines is tom from arkansas on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i would like to agree with the previous caller that this is a politicized disease. that's the most dangerous thing we can do. we are supposed to be a christian nation and the united states. morenk we should show christianity, not just talk about it by helping the people of the world who are dealing with ebola right now my question is, what is the prominent religion and west africa? are there christian people in liberia? guest: there are.

host: next up, waldorf maryland on the independent line. caller: would you please comment on how we can help your in the united states? could you also comment on how those health-care workers and non-health care workers can help and is it a time when people should go to volunteer in africa? guest: thank you for the question. majorndeed, one of the limitations or hurdles that needs to be overcome is the lack of human resources that have volunteered their services for this outbreak. it's unusual. in other situations, many people have stepped forward to volunteer their time and their

skills. in this situation in west africa, it has been more difficult to recruit. people see pictures of doctors and nurses and other health-care workers dressed in spacesuits and personal protective equipment and they know there is a risk in taking care of these patients. some people have stepped forward and their efforts are incredible and they are to be highly praised. yes, there is a need for volunteers. mention one place where people can go but the united states agency for international development has a volunteer sign-up list. if you go to their website, gov, it comes up right away. it's a place were and he health-care worker people with other appropriate skills and suspicions are needed. people who do water and sanitation engineering, people who are managers -- all of these

are skills that are highly desirable and very necessary in this effort. people can volunteer and people can volunteer also by calling any of the many non-governmental organizations such as save the children. they are responding. the logjam is starting to break open a little bit as people begin to appreciate the need more and people begin to see this is something that can be done. otherwise, money is needed in making donations that are within anyone's capacity to make are always incredibly appreciated and can be put to very good use. it seems like there has been some question about why there has not been a broader national or international effort like we saw around the tsunami and around haiti to donate $10,

etc. have you seen donations increase? it got off to a slow start. i think people do not really understand fully what we were dealing with. majorhave been contributions made by the government and private foundations and now the personal giving is really picking up in a very encouraging way. onlynk this is true not for my own organization but for others as well. need forstill a real financial contributions to be made. this is a really major effort that is required. these countries are quite poor to begin with and have very little infrastructure. any construction that needs to be done for the isolation and care of patients needs to be

done from scratch. procurement needs to be done of the necessary commodities and building materials. it is a medical emergency and personal protective equipment is thator effort rtainly surpasses any of the capacities of the most affected countries. host: we will now turn to nelly in new york calling on the republican line. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. thatr: what proof is there a bullet is not airborne? -- that a bowl of viruses not airborne -- that ebbola is not airborne? guest: there have been more than 20 previous outbreaks but that is not a lot and our knowledge of the virus and its characteristics is somewhat limited. there has never been incidents

of airborne transmission. --s not really part of it's not part of the biology of the virus. viruses don't change so dramatically. there has never been an outbreak of antivirus during the course of which the virus has changed his route of transmission. that theetty confident transmission of this virus is through contact with bodily fluids. if you are standing quite close to a person who has a high load of virus in their body and they cough in a way that saliva would go through the air, it's conceivable that can happen but that's not the same as the virus being on droplets from a respiratory system i'm going several feet or more through the air. we have just not seen that happen. it is not been shown to happen in the lab and we are confident

of transmission will not change. as i say, there is no certainty but that is the preponderance of opinion by the leading scientists who are familiar with the virus. host: from dallas, texas, independent line. caller: there was a book that came out like 20 years ago called " the hot zone." everybody said to find that book and you might learn more about ebola. i also wanted to make a comment about rick perry and texas. texas is not a state come it's a country. i'm not kidding about that or making a joke. we beat to her own drum which i'm not happy of. also, the man that made the statement in virginia, i have never been turned away or my friends because of no money.

at a hospital. host: we will leave it there. next up is michelle from spencer, oklahoma, on the independent line. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. your nonprofit, how much of the money that is donated goes to actual treatment of the children versus administrative costs? my second question is this -- we have had one patient come in from west africa with ebola. travel are asking for a ban and had two patients from texas who contracted the disease. are we going to ask for a travel ban for people in texas? thank you. guest: thank you very much. i think you made two good points -- save the children is a highly reputable charitable organization.

there are ratings for these organizations. i don't know the exact number. if you consult a website or an organization like charity navigator, they rank nongovernmental organizations on the basis of exactly what you are saying, what proportion of the funds they have goes for programs as opposed to administrative costs and overhead. i think you'll find that save the children ranks among the highest of the organizations in that regard. in regard to your other question, i think you're right. see the level of fear and panic developing in the united states population that is really unwarranted. welld one patient arrive

with no symptoms in the united states in texas. the person fell ill after his andval, went to a hospital was turned away from the hospital. it has -- there have been a lot of calls for travel down on the pack of that and the two other cases we have had in the united states are both in health workers who have been in direct contact with the patient. no one who has not had intimate exposure to the patient has been affected. there is a very good call and reason for people to be monitored. they need to be carefully followed in case any signs of illness develop. in the united states, we have a strong and robust health system. it is true that mistakes have been made so far by the hospital theprobably and allowing patient who was in ohio to fly back to texas. we learn from those mistakes in

the system can be considerably tightened. in the publicnce health system in this country that the disease can be contained and the spread can be limited to an absolute minimum. i am sorry to see the level of fear and panic that has developed. i do not think it makes a positive contribution to our ability to be able to address the epidemic at its source in west africa. that is where we need to turn our attention and that's where we need to make our major efforts. host: a couple of comments from twitter --

-- yes,ood questions burial practices have been a major source of spread not only in the separate but in the previous outbreaks. in many parts of africa, the burials are accompanied by contact with the dead body. die when the load of virus in their body is at its greatest. contact with the body of that time is a high risk event. liberia wherer voluntarynow been organizations on the government and the world health organization, there are mobile aerial teams that are increasingly accepted by the population -- mobile aerial leams. --burria

teams. these rituals have to be disrupted. these are incredibly important events, births, marriages, deaths are the things that hold the fabric of society together. yet it is in the interest of public health for people to abandon their traditional practices at this time. yes, burial is quite important. we feel that at least 70% of aerials are performed safely but we risk of exposure will not be able to get ahead of the outbreak. to be able to isolate 70% of patients. we need to assure 70% safe burial's m&a to do that within the next 60 days. from haymarket, virginia, on the democratic line. . caller: good morning, i will

make a case that most people would not agree with. case that wessic africans should help ourselves. the ebola outbreak came early this year and we africans did not do anything to tackle it head-on. i know we don't have the medical expertise but we should've done something to tackle it head-on before it gets out of hand. now it is out of hand. host: what country are you from? caller: ghana. with all the money that we have and all the lifetime that we live with big houses, cars -- it should come from individuals. if you don't do it, nobody will do it for us. because iteling that came to the doorstep of the country, the that's why we are

tackling it now. guest: i will not disagree with you. i think you're actually right and i hope i've made the point that i think first and foremost that the communities need to ownership of this program and the two understand the risk that is presented to them and they need to educate themselves. they need to not panic. i need to change their behaviors and ways that reduce the risk of exposure to the virus. but, they need help. because of the nature of this disease and the need for isolation and the need for medical care, i don't think that communities will be able to do this by themselves. i think this really does need to be an international effort but it does start first and foremost the the communities in affected countries taking ownership of the situation and changing their behaviors in a way that reduces their risk of exposure and undertaking other

changes in -- and lifestyle or cultural practices. of then lower the risk spread of this very dangerous virus. host: from chicago, the independent line -- caller: good morning. knows aboutoctor this but remember years ago when tuberculosis was scary and everybody -- they were sending people out to sanitarium's, isolating people. and then i hear today that a lot takingle are ignoring flu shots. more people die from flu in this country than anything else and it seems like the reporters are not letting know how many people are dying from flu. that's because they've refused to take care themselves. guest: you're you're absolutely,

and there are other diseases host or a clay that have caused similar levels of panic. example, plague is an example, some incite fear and panic more than others. tuberculosis, that you bring up, is the silent killer, because we do not pay enough attention to it. but you're absolutely right. there are many conditions that take as large a toll or heavier toll than the ebola virus is now and will in the future, and i think it is an important important to make that with all of our attention focused on ebola, there are more people dying in the ebola affected countries now of malaria, tuberculosis than there are of ebola. that said, the course of this epidemic is such that it is continuing to increase very, very rapidly.

a very highly, lethal condition in which under the oft of conditions about half the people who contract it will die, and we need to bring it to an and as quickly as possible in order to be able to rebuild health systems and make them stronger so that they can offer treatment for all of those other that affect the population of these countries. independent" had a story about these ancillary --eats, the headline is ebola outbreak: famine approaches. ebola is massof quarantines, which brings a new crisis, and that is starvation. the world health organization warned that more people would be dead by the end of the week of ebola, a quarter of the people that die from now nutrition. guest: i think bringing up the

issue is quite important and i mentioned before that people feel security is threatened. this is the harvest season, and people cannot get to the field to harvest their crops, so there is a major food crisis looming. i think some of those are dire. we have dealt with food shortages in the past, and i think it's assistance is required to prevent food insecurity or starvation. i think the assistance can be provided. we are working already with the world tree program and other organizations to try to make sure their least those who are infected, cases of ebola, their families and their households and communities are given the means to subsist, at least by providing them with enough food, but i think the major point of the article is absolutely true. as i said before, this epidemic is going to have major secondary

consequences throughout the whole of society, and that involves food security. that involves livelihoods and people's ability to earn a living. that involves the education sector. every aspect of commerce, trade, transportation we are seeing is having a major impact and already the economy of these countries is a major difficulty. host: andrew from pennsylvania is calling on our republican line. caller: hello. i have two comments. ofst of all, what kind coalition has this president put together through the ewing to try to address this problem? u.n. to try to address this problem? second of all, when you call this a travel ban, isn't this really in isolation situation where we need to do the 21-day check for these people to try to see, check and make sure that they do not have the virus and try to make sure that we get

these people checked and have them check for their immunity to make sure that they have their -- that they are ok from their virus and so that they can be checked out, just like the nurses in texas, so that they can then be cured and checked out so that then they can be taken off of the list and then be able to travel once again. so the united nations has put together the largest itief effort ever, and has been slow to get started, but it is now coalescing. ghana,dquarters are in and they are going to be organizing, mobilizing, and making a major contribution through this international effort. again, their effort goes across all of the agencies of the united nations or innovation with the world health . ganization

i mentioned the world food program, that is heavily involved, unicef, our close collaborator, because of its interest in protecting children of the major influence around the area, as well as other organizations that are helping in this effort. regard to the travel ban, let me just say that personally i am not in favor of a travel ban. i do not think it is necessary. i do think that anyone who has a theory of hi exposure to virus, should, as the caller suggests, be monitored for that incubation period, which can range from today's 221 days, and should be monitored -- from two days to 21 days and should be monitored for any signs of illness. -- ithink the travel ban is a debatable question for sure.

said, mye i perspective, it could have a major negative impact on the relief effort because first of all, we talked before about the difficulty that there has been in recruiting staff, to tell people that than when they finish with their jobs have to remain in isolation, or in teen in quarantine for 21 days, that is a major disincentive. banned from these countries come it is difficult to get both personnel and relief and commodities into the area that are really, really necessary. what we need now is apt to lowly not another slow down to this -- absolutely not another slowdown to this relief effort but a major acceleration. host: what about getting supplies to the team that you work with? see, there aree two commercial airlines that are flying to the region, air brussels, brussels airways, and royal air.

they have flights from europe and north africa to the affected countries. so far, we have been able to take advantage of commercial airlines that fly fast in and out. there have been other emergencies in the past where commercial airlines have not been able to fill the entire need, and i'm familiar with several instances, for example, where the u.s. department of expense as offer space for humanitarian personnel on its flights within an infected region, and there is also a , whichnations services funds is within the region and can transport military personnel in accordance with their needs. host: next up is robert from california on the democratic line. rubber, good morning, you're on the air. caller: hi, good morning. guest: good morning. caller: a couple of questions

done what is your estimate time on knowing that the government are now helping out as much as they can? that we can get the virus under control. i have one other question after that. host: go ahead, robert, what is the other question? caller: the second question is the economy -- what kind of prevention will there be from invasion from foreign forces? well on the first question, i think it is very difficult to predict. we are looking at the number of -- and the amount of spread of the virus. how many people are infected by one person who has a disease? what we really have to do is bring that number down. right now it seems to be situated at about one and a half on the whole, obviously have a person cannot be exposed, but on

average from each case, there seems to be about one and a half additional cases that occur because of transmission of the virus. we need to bring a number down. when the number reaches one, then one case will give rise to one other case and we will be in a stable situation. one,the number goes below then we will begin to see a decline in a number of cases that are occurring over time, and the epidemic will eventually die out. we are hoping, as i said before, that if we can get 70% of cases isolated from the rest of the population, if we can ensure 70% safe burial and we can do that within 60 days, we hope to be able to stem the epidemic. in regard to the second question come as we mentioned before, these are countries that are fledgling democracies. they have only had democratic

governments for about 10 years. prior to that, there was major civil strike. instability in guinea as well. your question is well taken regarding the strength of government. these governments are not so strong. they are fragile d. i do not know so much about the threat of intervention from the outside, but i do think there is a threat of civil strife redirecting as it did in the past through the actions of warlords who may attempt to take over power and other factions that are lined i do think that is a looming threat that needs to be carefully watched and protected against down the line. that is why part of this effort is to shore up the governments that are in control now by helping them strengthen their health systems, helping them to stabilize, and reinforce their economies. these countries had been doing quite well during the course of the past decade.

this has really thrown them back. int: we will now turn to eva ohio on a democratic line. caller: it is chillicothe. host: ok, thank you. caller: i would like to ask this gentleman, why is it that we from the koch brothers and all the other politicians that have billions of dollars? heir money that is gathered and for political reasons to why, i certain things -- don't hear them donating or contributing anything to this terrible situation we are in, and then involve them, too. of they would gather in all this billions of dollars to vote

for somebody, actually to stop their voting on each side here. they have cut everything out of ohio as far as they can cut that . they took basic money and tried to turn it over to get this terrible thing that has happened to all of us and help out some instead of voting for somebody -- you know, concerning elections. host: all right, eva, we will leave it there. our next call is from rich on the republican line. caller: lots of good points. i think we have to get our a game up here. we cannot let the horse get out of the barn and it's been billions of dollars trying to get it back and i on africa, if there try to get 70% of the people not touching

the body, they have got to do a hell of a lot better than that. we have got to help, but they should do their share. it should be in the high 90%'s. four people coming back to the country for 21 days, we have to put up with other problems that i do not think that is right if you want us to help. the other thing is we spent trans of dollars on all kinds of wasteful things and now we are coming down to say oh, why did we spend it on here? well, that is just why because they wasted on trips and everything else. the other thing is when we isolate people when they come to the hospital and call from their cars and have a unit go out and help them out we probably could reduce a lot in the hospital so they could be ready. i will hang up and hear your answer. host: dr. waldman, your final thoughts. guest: i think this caller makes very good points. it is not the a game that we need, it is our a+ plus game that we need. is raging outk epidemic

of control. the response of the international committee was late, there is doubt about that, and we need to lay heads up with a virus that is not stopping and accelerating. we are starting to see a major response occurring now that i think there are reasons to be somewhat optimistic about our ability to bring this outbreak under control and begin the rebuilding effort that we talked about earlier. i think that all of the players from international governments, for both the united states government and the countries from around the world need to step up more than they have. i think the united nations organizationsnd need to continue to build their response effort. i think non-governmental organization such as my own save the children need to find the ability to step up their efforts as well on the ground.

that the local government in liberia, getty, and sierra leone as well as the communities and the populations of those countries has to now seriously do everything that they possibly can and more if we are going to stem the tide of this epidemic and be able to stabilize these countries and begin to restore conditions to the way they were previously. then weast caller said, need to put our efforts into strengthening the ability of these countries to center themselves by making appropriate investments across the whole of society so that an episode like this cannot occur again. host: dr. ron waldman, he is leading the effort to combat ebola in west africa with save the children. thank you so much for taking the time this morning. we really appreciate it. guest: my pleasure. host: up next, we will be speaking with rob barnett, an

analyst for bloomberg government. "washington journal" will be right back. ♪ only c-spanan networks, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, a townhall meeting on the media's coverage of events in ferguson, missouri at harris-stowe university in st. louis. smithen historian richard on his biography of rock a fellow -- of rockefeller. tonight at 10:00 on "after onds," author jake halpern the collection industry, and p.m., they 2:00 southern festival of books. , lectures 8:00 p.m. and history on booker t.

washington, and then on "reel america," exercise delawar. find our television schedule at c-span.org and let us know about what you think about the programs you are watching. call us at 202-626-3400, e-mail us at comments@c-span.org. join the conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. our campaign 2014 coverage continues with a week full of debates. on c-span monday night it up monday night at 8:00 eastern, governor nathan deal with jason carter, and then steve daines and amanda curtis tuesday night at 9:00 on season, the south carolina governor debate between five candidates, governor nikki haley,

vincent shaheen, tom irvine, steve french, and morgan bruce reeves. thursday night, the iowa fourth district debate between representative stephen king and democratic jim mowrer. more than 100 debates for the control of congress. "washington journal" continues. host: our next guest is rob barnett, the scen senior energy economist at bloomberg government. thank you for joining us. guest: pleasure to beer. are: prices at the pump going down sometimes three dollars a gallon, but there might be more to it than that, can you explain what is going on here? guest: absolutely, with any commodity, anything like energy, consumer should want to pay as little as possible for it. not necessarily good news for

producing companies and that sort of thing, but over the last few months, oil prices have dropped something like 25 percent. we are flirting with $80 a barrel right now in the global oil market, and that translates directly into what consumers are paying at the pump right now. "ost: the "wall street journal has this chart showing the decline in oil prices over the last four months or so, from over $100 a barrel in june down to close to $80 a barrel in october, yet we see production has been going up since 2009. in the u.s., 12.9 million barrels a day. is this a problem of just over supply or is there something else happening there? nott: generally i would think of falling oil prices as a problem. again, i think it is a good news story, especially for consumers, bringing a lot of money back and pocketbooks for ordinary americans, but the falling prices are a function of a lot

of things, but production is really a function of technology, so you have seen hydraulic fracturing or fracking as some people call it, has really first the natural gas market in the united states, and we have seen natural gas production surges. we've see seen that same technology applied to shale, and u.s. oil production has grown something like 2 million barrels a day over the last two years, soy very large increased we thought well production was coming down and it would sort of decline for the foreseeable future, and then we kind of see this hockey stick over the last couple of years, the production running backup. i think there is a good news story on prices as well, at least in the natural gas base, fracking has been able to produce natural gas pretty cheaply. i think the technology application to the oil sector also helps with cost and prices. host: one of the other questions

is what this means for other countries in terms of their production. oil productionen increase and believe in places like that, or are we seeing them slow down? right now the technology story is really a u.s. story. we have not seen the application of hydraulic fracturing, shale, in other countries yet. that are a lot of things plague the technology question. in other parts of the world like europe, they had just been reticent to adapt the use of fracking. there,ould be resource but the countries have not shown as much as an interest in using the technology. china have a lot of interest in it, but so far we just have not seen it being used as frequently there. so a big technology story, but it is a u.s. story at this

point i host: we want to hear from you the falling oil prices affecting you, and what you think overall. republicans can call (202) 585-3881, democrats can call (202) 585-3880, independents can call (202) 585-3882. eddie did find us on social media, we are at twitter facebook, and send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. how do these prices impact the manufacturing sector? guest: generally speaking, energy as an input to manufacturing, so lower prices again is a very good thing. if you are producing any have in the united states, lower prices is a very good thing. andust was between oil natural gas, lower natural gas prices has been one of the

contributors to the mini manufacturing resurgence we have been seeing in the united states over the last five years or so, so lower energy prices is great news for manufacturers in general. i do not think there is any downside there. host: this story from "market watch" says gas prices will fall another $.15 to $.20 a gallon, they have fallen below -- prices that the pump or the lowest in four years and should continue to fall. host: how much farther do you think as prices could go? guest: one of the things we do a bloomberg is we survey

forecasters come and we asked them what they think prices are going to be. right now, the sort of professional forecasting class, if there is one, is very bearish on prices, so they would expect prices to continue falling for oil, and in that translates into gas prices at the pump. certainly if oil prices stay in the range that they are now or go lower, we will see prices at the pump come down. is a our first color victor from silver spring, maryland on our republican line. good morning. you are on the line with rob barnett. caller: good morning. i'm not surprised of the price of gas and oil is going down despite everything that obama and his environmental wacko friends have done to block it. north dakota, louisiana, oklahoma, texas, though states -- there unemployment is something around maybe 2%. look at pennsylvania versus new york state. got liberals running

new york state, and they won't allow fracking of any kind, yet on the other side of that line in pennsylvania, you have got fracking, you have got jobs. i bet the people of new york would love to get in on this. guest: absolutely. there is aer noted, very strong correlation between states that are witnessing this oil and gas resurgence that we've seen here in the united states, so places like north dakota have a very low unemployment rate mainly as a result of all of the oil and gas development that is occurring in the state. north dakota, the boston oil play that is there, has really been one of the leaders in terms of that big increase in production we have seen here in the united eights come and you have got to have people from the rigs and do all of the work. and translates into other sectors of the economy, too. i think even folks working at

mcdonald's may quite a bit north dakota because there is not enough labor to meet all of the demand for the services and the extra things that go along with all of that economic activity that host: we did talk earlier in the show about the volatility we have seen recently on wall street and some of that is related to broader concerns of a global slowdown in the economy. on twitter, someone writes -- the low energy demand of a weakened economy is the major drop in gas prices. we are in a downward economic spiral. do you agree with that? guest: in the united states, oil demand peaked around 2005, so demand for crude in the united states, and europe, and in developed countries have actually been decreasing because of efficiency, so we have been buying more fuel-efficient cars. as a result of prices and as a result of policy. the issue, i suppose, is that the decrease in demand you've seen in the u.s. and other developed countries has been offset i rising demand in china

and india, other developing countries, so i would not think fuelany sort of falling use here in the u.s. is necessarily an economic one. right now we see no indication that the u.s. is tipping slower because fuel demand in the u.s. is decreasing. that is certainly something to keep an eye on, but it could be an indication that other parts of the world where demand growth has been more robust are slowing down. phone lines ishe dan from georgetown, massachusetts on the independent line. you are on the air. caller: good morning. wheni get concerned about i hear this kind of talk about how great it is because oil is plummeting in cost is the impact . the impact of doing all of this fracking, doing all of the drilling, the impact of pumping

this stuff out of the ground, burning it and releasing the carbon into the atmosphere. humans it is as if we collectively are dumber than dinosaurs, you know? planet,oing this to our and the only bottom line we are looking at is the money bottom line. environmentalf concerns with the fossil fuel industry in general. as the caller noted, climate change, a real big issue, a big focus for the energy, but the surging oil and gas prices in the u.s. is a contradiction. we want to expose it both ways. the president on one hand wants to have that good news story in terms of the economic activity associated with all of the oil and gas production that has occurred in the u.s. and also

wants to be very active on fighting the issue of climate change. keystone is an issue that has played into that really in a big way where we were talking about sort of stopping the flow of canadian oil into the u.s. and sort of halting at, not allowing it to increase. at the same time, we are not really talking at all about the domestic oil and gas production that is occurring, and generally i would say it is seen positively here in the u.s. despite the overarching concern of climate change. host: next is john on the democratic line. caller: yeah, i agree with all of these politics, all these rich people who have the , can go outdollars and buy cheap oil, and after three or four months, it becomes $3.40 and they make billions of

dollars. they want to reduce the revenue of russia and iran basically, so they are hoping to reduce their help, and we think bashar assad is going to fall down. that is all. it is politics. host: we have this message from twitter -- can low oil prices toppled the russian economy? what would target prices need to be come and how long would it take effect? guest: it is hard to say what prices would need to be to take down the putin regime, but i would suggest prices would have to go quite a bit lower than they are today and they would have to be lower for a certainly sustained period. not a good news story for any country that depends on inherent oil revenues, and it is not just russia come into saudi arabia, any major oil reduce or that rely very heavily

on the revenues from the production, so i do think that for those countries that are so reliant on it, they certainly want prices to go higher. so far opec and other countries that maybe try to manipulate prices have not been very successful at moving prices in the market. host: the "wall street journal" has the story exactly to that problem -- global oil glut since prices plunging. saudi arabia's focus on maintaining market share even if it means cutting prices. the sauditer from arabian prince. iran said it would also except lower prices, and that is one of the things that might be driving down the price of oil. do you think the price of oil will go so low that they will be forced to cut production, or

what has been their historical response of the past? guest: in general it is very hard to get a cartel to work together in concert, so that is what i think you are seeing is on the one hand if you cut production, you are taking the essentially market share risk and every country wants prices to produce as much, so there is a dynamic there that perhaps is impeding the sort of work that they are trying to do together to manipulate the price in the marketplace. they are only a share of the market and if you look over the last two years, u.s. production has increased much more than opec production, so i would say the u.s. has become more of a force. russia is a big force. there are a lot of countries not

in opec that have seen growing production, so i think over time we have seen their ability to influence the market. host: we will turn back to the phone lines with russ from sandstone, west virginia on the independent line. a truck come i am disabled, i use it for medical transportation, however, i read a book by someone in the industry that was in it for a lifetime that worked from a blaster all the way up to refining. it depends exactly how oil is produced all the way through the process and refining, it is stored in giant tanks, and it is topped off level by level -- diesel takes a lot less refining. the question is -- how much it so much more expensive than gasoline what it takes him was nothing to put into production? diesel is a more

energy-dense fuel, so it has got per gallon a little bit more energy, so i think it is priced according to that as opposed to the amount of refining it takes. when you think about the price you pay at the pump, only a small piece of the total price you are paying is the refining cost of dog the underlying cost of the crude oil is really the bigger driver, so generally speaking, you see diesel price higher because it is a more dense fuel. host: we will hear from debbie in flint, michigan on a democratic line. morning.ood i love c-span. we have learned that isis has seized all of the oil fields and they are selling the oil in the black market from $25 to $50 a barrel. how is that impacting these prices? herend of looks to us out

that, you know, they dropped the bottom out of the market. question, andreat actually sort of gets at the point that when you have a market, everyone's costs are not the same. whether it is isis selling oil for very cheap, the conventional wisdom is that in saudi arabia, the cost of producing oil is five dollars, $10 a barrel, certainly nowhere close to the $80, $100 per barrel prices we have seen over the last decade or so, so when you have a market, there is going to be a big difference in the prices that different countries and companies bear in order to been a product to the market -- in order to bring that product to the market.

what is the most extensive barrel of oil that we need on the global oil market? that is the question you have to ask. traditional you was sort of say maybe some of the canadian oilsands, maybe the ultra deep water off the coast of brazil. to bring that oil to market is quite expensive, and if you the right prices, you will not develop those resources, so it is not a question of -- well, what can the cheapest player in the market produce for? it is a question of -- what is the marginal cost of the oil that would come off the market, and that is what will impact the price. host: steve, you are on the air with rob barnett. caller: i'm kind of curious as to what these oil cubbies are going to do it about 20 years and we start running on a fusion reactor, running on the really

-- we are virtually never going to run out of energy, and it is completely nonpolluting. i did a little study with the hyper theory on company. if we put three in the center of manassas, the access would be $20 a month, and running wires and maintenance going to that, in between the metamorphosis rock was asphalt, so the biggest oil on the planet stretches somewhere around middleburg and is up in the west coast of virginia, so i mean we are not really -- there is really no excuse to run these prices up other than they are putting it in the bank because eventually they're going to be kind of out of work. on sort oft point technology change in general.

markets are sort of static over time. if you look at the companies that are in the dow today, i think it g is the only one that has been in the dow for like 100 years, so constantly the composition of companies is changing. , and iday comes certainly think it will, it is just a question of when will we have a lot more cost-effective technologies coming into the marketplace. we will see a big change in the dominant players in the energy market. i suspect that some of the current players, the names we know will make that transition well, and someone not. that is generally the way markets work out. as of right now, there is a big question of fossil fuel divestment in the energy space, so there is a group of investors that dude think about that --

that do think about that risk. there are also thing about policy and climate change that would affect the companies, not just technology risk, that would say hey, maybe investors should be concerned about this and put less of their portfolio into some of these companies, but i think market for those questions out very well. we will see how things evolve over time. host: patricia from florida is on the independent line now. caller: hi. i am a c-span junkie, and i cannot do without c-span, but i would beg the speaker that you have on to get a high degree in environmental studies to go along with his financial perspective of the cost and the function of the companies' perspective in oil and gas and especially fracking, which is ofng up 300 times as much as our diminishing water supply in this country, much of which is

in the western drought states where they cannot even raise cattle or crops because of the lack of water, yet the fracking industry, which he says is a no-brainer if it reduces the cost of gas, that is fine. it isn't fine. we have got to take it -- and these people who are specialists in this field whether it be financial or industrial or future energy source, have to find out what the cost, the real cost in environmental degradation. host: rob, if you want to respond. guest: sure. i think the caller is getting to the point at all energy is a trade-off. we have yet to find the perfect way to supply energy. if you are talking about renewables, you're probably dealing with cost and

intermittency. that is a big problem. everyone likes access to modern energy. if you are dealing with oil, gas, coal, there are serious environmental concerns that i do think are not ignored. i mean, these are issues that are managed and are constantly being addressed. i do not think that any industry or any company -- you know, they do not have a blank check. they have to operate within the license that society gives to them, so i think these questions are constantly being discussed in industry, and there is a dialogue between policy makers and the companies that work in the host: i would like for you to talk a little but about how lower gas prices trickle through the american economy. this "wall street journal" says e-cent drop in gas prices means a $1 billion annual decline in energy spending by the americans, estimates by

brett ryan. will this help consumers and make sure the recovery is on track? guest: absolutely. right now for better or worse we have a society that really does the oil and gas sector to help everything run smoothly, so i think over time as we are adopting more efficient vehicles and more efficient uses of energy, the price actually becomes less important. but at this point we are still very sensitive to prices, so a reduction in price is a very good thing for most people, give them more money to spend on other things host:. do we think that they will actually spend a, or do you think we will take the savings from lower gas prices and just put in a bank account for a rainy day? onst: it is going to depend 300 million consumers here in the united states, but i would say generally speaking we are not very good at saving as a

society, so generally people in the u.s. spend what they have got other parts of the world are much better at saving. i would expect most of us and in the u.s. if they have extra money because of lower prices at the pump they will spend it on something else most likely. host: rodney from gaithersburg, maryland is calling on the independent line. caller: good morning to both of you. just a little politics before i move on to my main question. a caller a couple calls back is going the price down despite of obama's policies. i am quite sure if the prices were up, he would say the prices were going up because of obama's policies, so what a web he weaves. gashear about venezuela, prices above $1.00 something a

gallon. is that based on subsidies, or are they putting the gas on the land that we are, that the price of -- guest: yes, so venezuela come other countries do pay lower prices, but it is because the government is essentially subsidizing the price of they pay. one conundrum that i think folks surprised. have been by his we greatly increase production here in the u.s., but we are still subject to the global oil price. in our country, we don't have the government involved in the prices that we pay at the pump other than some taxes, but the market price, which is set globally, really dictates what we pay here. countries, they choose to insulate their consumers from a price, but generally speaking that is only occurring in countries that are, that have a

significant source of their government revenue coming from the oil and gas industry. host: from walled off, maryland, -- from maryland, ben is calling in the independent line. caller: i want to thank you guys for taking my call, and i want to make a reference back to that chart, the graph that was displayed at the beginning of the segment. he see an incredible increase in oil prices come in and you see a -- oil prices, and then you see a decrease. bush, bush, clinton, reagan -- host: ben, did you have further comments? all right, that is ben. we will hear now from wayne and shreveport, louisiana on our republican line. caller: hi there, but, how are

you doing? pro-coal,as, pro-everything. we need oil and gas. my truck don't run on water and air. climateust -- these change nuts get on the air and talk about climate change. i am so sick of hearing about climate change i want to puke. host: what is the price of gas you are paying where you are? caller: right now, the chevron station is running at $2.75 a gallon, i am surprised by host: good deal. next up is ed from the colony, texas on the independent line. caller: a couple of callers ago was talking about something about nuclear fusion i believe that i have heard that a lot, but i never hear of it as far as being put together in our energy

makeup, and what about wind and solar? what kind of percentage of that of our total energy demand or what have you? what is the future -- i cannot understand why that is not more why developed field and that cannot become a significant percentage of our energy makeup. guest: a couple of questions there, so on the renewable peace committees actually a segment of the energy sector that is growing very fast, but we are starting from a very small base. wind makes up about 2% of electricity generation here in the united states, nationally least, and solar is well less than 1%, so you are seeing renewables grow very quickly. some countries -- germany is approaching 20%, 30% on renewables, and in some states

here in the u.s. you actually see some pretty high percentages, 10%, 20% renewable generation in some of the states, so i think you are seeing that renewables can play a much bigger role. they are not available all the time, so when you think about coal, gas, you can turn the plans on when you need them, nuclear the same thing, hydro more or less the same thing, you have the intermittency problem. i think generally the technologies have -- this is not always true -- but they are more costly a lot of time satellite a big question about the cost of wind is well, how windy is it when you put in a when determine or how sonny is it when yo -- sunny is it when you are putting in a solar panel. the caller also mentioned nuclear. we currently use nuclear fission for about 20% of our electricity in the united states.

nuclear fission -- there has been a lot about it this week because last week lockheed martin announced they have a nuclear fusion program as part of their skunk works program and they are hoping to bring that technology to the marketplace in the next 10 years, and i think the difference is there have been lots of academic and government institutions working on fusion for decades, for quite some time. this was the first private company to come out and say we are making a big investment there. we will see where it goes. i think there is a lot of interest in bringing new technologies to the marketplace, but it takes time. energy is a very capital intensive business, and because of that capital intensity, it takes time to turn it over. you get a new iphone every two years probably or maybe three years, but your cell phone you are constantly turning over. power plants, refineries, all of these things have 20-year,

30-year, 40-year lifespans. it takes time to cycle it into the stock. host: could there be any potential downsides for lower oil prices for the u.s. economy? " ran thisngton post story -- the problem is two factors behind the oil price drop, a weaker global economy and a stronger dollar, could hurt the u.s. by reducing exports, employment, and spending, not could outweigh the economic benefit of cheaper fuel. guest: the point you just made a sort about the heart of the issue, but i still come back and say sort of generally speaking, not just for the u.s. but is never lower price a bad thing. if you don't have access to energy and you are in africa,

there are billions of people who still don't have what we would whender modern energy, and the prices lower, whether it is lower because oil is lower or because solar and wind are cheaper, that is a good thing for anyone who has zero access today. if you are already using fuels and the price comes down, that is good for you because you can have more money to spend on other things. i do not see the harm from lower prices generally speaking. i think that is ultimately a benefit not just for u.s. consumers were for consumers globally. host: we are hearing from jeff in fresno, california on the independent line. caller: hello. the only energy density that has to do with diesel fuel is the person who creates the engine to run the diesel fuel. i do not understand how this person can't say that the diesel . el cost more money when it first cannot come it was way cheaper than gasoline, but

then the bean counters with the thatompanies found out they had to stop creating it and selling it for that price because everyone would go out and buy a diesel car and save money and get more gas mileage. the only reason why it is highest because they don't want you to have diesel fuel. they don't want you to have a diesel car, ok? it has all to do with money. guest: look, europe uses diesel mostly for their cars and trucks and they pay a lot more at the pump than we do. we do use a lot of diesel in the u.s. shipping,ly for long-haul trucking, things like i do not think there is any prohibition against buying a diesel vehicle here in the u.s. generally speaking, you are going to getou are a little better fuel economy on a diesel car because it has got the hired into the of the fuel, so if you buy, you know, several

manufacturers are selling diesel vehicles in the u.s. in beer you will actually save theory, youl -- in will actually save money on fuel. they are similar prices, and the spread has to do with a lot of factors including the energy density of the fuel. host: do you have any sense of how hybrid vehicles are doing? they were obviously a big buzz when they first appeared. are they still driving car sales? 3.5%, hybrids are about 4% of u.s. auto sales right now, piece of thell market, but has grown pretty quickly over the last decade. i would actually .2 electric vehicles and say what we've seen with electric vehicles is more impressive than what we've seen with hybrids, so if you think about when hybrids for skin to

the u.s. market, it took a long time for manufacturers to adopt the technology. we have got a lot of hybrids that you can buy today. in just a few years that electric vehicles have been on the market, we have seen a number of -- almost all of the manufacturers have electric the a call either on the market are coming very soon. we have some manufacturers that do not even offer a hybrid, so electric vehicles have penetrated the market from --ically starting at zero they are still a small piece, but they are growing more quickly over the same type of period than hybrids did. host: albert from green line, new york is calling on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. ,y question for the guest is the market of, for instance oil, without manipulation we would not have a market, so my

much of the-- how price of oil value now, whatever it is come $80, $90 -- how much of that price is speculation? guest: good question i nobody has the perfect answer to that. market say that the oil and the gas market in the u.s. are some of the most liquid markets in the world. every second of the day you have buyers and sellers, movement on the price. it is not like a house or something that you buy and hold on to for a long time. price has a lot of transparency to it in the sense that it is very liquid. i think when you have a very

liquid market, it is actually hard to manipulate, so i would say there is probably very little speculation or manipulation in the market. when you see markets that are il liquid, meaning they do not have a lot of transactions, that is when you tend to see things like manipulation in the oil market. there are questions about opec and things like that, but in terms of the actual trading activity -- host: on the production side versus the trading side. guest: on the trading side, there is a lot of transparency on the price. host: bob from florida on the democratic line. caller: there are three points i would like to make. theve never heard discussed listing costs of oil. in the old days, our listing and they$14 a barrel ae that low listing cost as weapon to destroy our production

by dropping the price, putting our marginal wells out of business and then increasing the price. the second point i would like to only about 20% a barrel goes into energy. the rest of it goes into raw materials for products. averageance, the passenger tire has five gallons material.it as a raw of course that number goes up with the size of the truck tires, off the road tires, and so forth. the third point i would like to pooris that we do a accounting job on the cost of mideast oil. if we add the cost of our military, necessary to protect a source of supply, that adds $200 a barrel to every barrel of oil which from the mideast,

puts it over $10 a gallon at the pump. i would like to hear those points discussed. the white. -- thank you. guest: great. higherpe, they have much prices of the pump, which is mainly due to taxation. you heard some folks in the political community in the u.s. call for putting in much higher gasoline taxes that would sort some ofthe proxy of those intangible costs that some people in our country think we are bearing for global security and things like that. haveould theoretically that happen in the u.s., but i think there is a lot of reticence. i would be very surprised to see our congress pass any kind of pump pricess higher

in place. host: especially before the midterms. [laughter] thet: certainly not before midterms, but whether you are thinking of global security or climate change, there really is a reticence to not touch the price that people pay at the pump, but we are getting to the same point through sort of a backdoor channel because we have put in very high fuel economy standards, so those higher standards would sort of be the equivalent of a higher price at the pump. you would pay more for your car as a result. now we will see these issues over time, but there is no right answer. i think congress is always going to be interested in energy. host: i think we have time for willast caller, and that be taught from indianapolis, indiana on the republican line. todd, can you make a quick? caller: i have a comments come a situation where people use programs where you don't drive your car for an hour, i would

assume it is for the gas mileage thing. interestingill be at these poll-fired -- coal host: final thoughts? we are definitely scaling that back. meme because we are using more natural gas. front, coalonmental is the most carbon intensive fuel. reduction,ig carbon a big pollution reduction by switching to natural gas instead of coal. of at least right now it is cheaper. thank you for taking the

time, we appreciate it. we will be opening up the phone lines for you to call in on your thoughts on oil and gas prices or on the midterm elections. we want to hear from you. -- just two weeks until c-span will be covering many races and debates. you can find all of our coverage on our website. incumbent republican governor scott walker and his challenger married or come asks about driving laws in the state. wisconsin is the only state where jumped driving is a ticket and not a crime. i am on record as saying it should be a misdemeanor. there are not enough consequences for that first offense. we have to make sure there are consequences. 180 five deaths,

5000 crashes are alcohol-related. this is costing us, costing our society. a lot of money along with this type of personal injury. we have to take a tougher stance on this. i will work with law enforcement to make sure that we have in to cut downe need on the number of fatalities, to cut down on the number of crashes. also we need to make sure this doesn't overburden our justice system by having alternative adjust to be able to this. we also have to make sure people who have a diction problem are able to get the treatments in order to do this. right now we do not have tough enough consequences that are going to make enough difference in undressing this. it is time for wisconsin to join the rest of the country and realize that this is something that is important to ensuring the state the -- the safety of

our roads. >> this is a tragic issued out there. i remember years ago when i was first elected official as a state representative, one of the most heart-wrenching cases was a family from our area was someone who lost a son. now, theeven more so problems are and to the numbers but the number of people who have been out on the road multiple times committing junk driving. i agree with the other two attorney general candidates. it is going after repeat of fenders, toughening up the penalties. of the issues that republicans and democrats can come together and work on. i am pleased to talk about endorsements.

the people out in the roads will understand we have to crack down on people who are repeating this criminal activity over and over again. >> governor walker has had four years to address this. you would avoid a lot of the if you hadnders tougher consequences on the first offense. people need to know right off the start that before they get into those habits of drinking and driving that there are real consequences that come from that. , i was just at our annual governors conference on traffic safety. i am pleased with the good work of law enforcement, first responders, the department of we have seenn, traffic accidents go down and some of the safety factors -- the way to do that is crackdown on repeat offenders.

particularly those who continue to go back onto the road. >> "washington journal" continues. open the phone lines are for you to call in and tell us orut what you think on oil gas prices, ebola, or other public policy issues on your mind. you can call -- we are also on twitter. we are on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. you can also send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. we will start with mike from misery on the independent line. caller: good morning.

i tried to to get on earlier but some connection problems. anyway, i would like to know if any of your listeners out there, i was reading on the news this green production and the government was allowing trucks to haul more than they normally could to the green silo. i want to know how this was affect propane this winter. last year i paid about $4.19 per gallon when it peaked out. another little question reedit -- question. ago there was this natural gas liquefied converting. i wonder if it would work in a home propane system. if anybody would have any ideas or comments i would appreciate them.

host: irises calling next on the independent line. go ahead. caller: i was just wondering why the president is bringing in a term why we even use the czar when it is about russians. why can't they call it something else? are you required to take the job if it is offered to you by the president? gary from california is on the democratic line. gary, turn down your tv, you're on the air. caller: turn it on? host: turn it down. caller: hold on a second, let me just turn it off.

comment is about energy in america and around the world. what the last color was speaking about. -- caller was speaking about. my comment is -- i was wondering -- the fact is -- is it safe to increase supply on oil and fossil fuels and at the same when ther prices military, the police, and the fire department have to be concerned for the safety of the oil when it is on top of the surface, and the security of the free world, what is the most important factor? host: we will leave it there. a few headlines for you this morning. the ap reports that the supreme court has upheld texas's voter

id law ahead of the november election. three justices dissented. the law was struck down by a federal judge last week but a federal appeals court put that ruling on hold. the judge found that roughly 6000 voters could be turned away at the poll because they lack acceptable identification. early voting in texas begins on monday. in the new york times this morning, this headline on the case of ferguson, missouri. the officer involved in the shooting is said to cite a struggle.

the officer told authorities mr. during the scuffle brown reached for the gun. bullet struck mr. brown in the arm and a second bullet missed. this is the first public account of officer wilson's testimony to investigators. it does conflict with other witness accounts. stephen from deerfield beach, florida is on the independent line. what are your thoughts this morning? caller: my comment is about the severe criticism about the obama administration, related to ebola and the fact that the republicans have no response. lets -- you don't

hear anything from the top level of the republican party as to what we should be doing, especially in congress. host: "the hill" newspaper reported this week that several republicans are -- the housean of foreign affairs committee says --

from west virginia we have greg on the republican line. what to you think? caller: i was going to make a comment on the cost of natural gas on the environment. natural gas is worse on the anvironment in my mind the coke. oil that comes out of the more harmful than co2 in coke. host: do you work in the coal industry? truck. yes, i drive a

jonah fromup is buffalo, new york. -- is joan from buffalo, new york. think enough of our citizens free -- of our -- i probablyware watch more gubernatorial debates then i have in my 67 years. i have never seen such vitriol, ugliness, as opposed to people dealing with the issues. as for african-americans and vote has beenir taken for granted for too long and misused.

i have been a registered democrat i vote with my head, not my heart. i think people ought to vote in their test interests. the race in new york state is ugly. for the first time in my life i'm seriously considering not voting on the democratic line. housed come from woodbridge, new jersey, on the independent line, --host: from woodbridge, new jersey, on the independent line, we have mike. i feel dr. walden was downplaying the whole ebola -- he said the fear was unwarranted . i fell that -- i feel that we

know very little about it. to to work ebola and the flu. tuberculosis and the flu. when something like this arise s, it's very important to quarantine people, just like when china had the sars. they didn't let anyone in or out. host: which feel comfortable getting on a plane? would you feel comfortable getting on a plane? caller: no. it takes 21 days for symptoms to appear. i don't know what to think about it. host: mike from woodbridge, new

jersey on the independent line. up is karen from louisiana, democratic caller. think the medical they are making the medical community paranoid over it. if they make them paranoid, how are they going to take care of patients? host: karen from louisiana. week thateported this according to a new poll the cdc's approval rating has dropped since the ebola crisis. a cbs news poll found that only 30% of those -- 37% of those surveyed think the city see -- think the cdc is doing an excellent or good job. may 60% of americans thought the cdc was doing an excellent or good job you do it is one of the highest-rated agencies above the cia or nasa. tom is our next caller.

caller: good morning. was with regards to obama appointing a czar. a goodson i think it is thing is because the center of disease control does not belong -- running around having to enter questions and give interviews. i think it is good they appointed an expert. as far as calling the person a czar, that can go either way. my belief is that it goes back politics.s ebola is not in its infancy. it has been around for quite some time. there are many different strains and i think we should have an expert who is devoted to this unfortunate crisis that we have in our country. how it you rate the cdc's handling of the outbreak?

becausecannot read it we do not have all the facts yet, i believe. unfortunately the people that really matter are the ones that are getting sick. host: tom from -- caller: i mean the medical professionals and everything. host: patrick from south carolina is next. he is calling from the republican line. good morning. caller: i would like to maybe address an issue on climate change, specifically this outrageous drought that is going on in california. the weather anomalies, where we had these spikes in temperatures, high and low erratic weather patterns, there are many who would concur with is a geo-engineer where the weather is being

manipulated by these aerosols that are being sprayed out by these highflying jets. the fact is this is going on. these aerosols are being sprayed and people are taking these aluminum dioxide into their lungs. i don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but facts are facts. host: the wall street journal reporting fannie mae and freddie mac are entering an agreement that could lower their years -- lower barriers on credit.

mortgage rates have dropped, sparking some refinancing as "the washington post" reports.

all of our literary offerings will be in one block, including how one reporter broke through the male-dominated world covering the nfl and green bay packers. in the state of wisconsin there had never been a female court anchor. -- female sports anchor. there was one reporter but she was not allowed to sit at the anchor desk. there were role models for me on the national level. robin roberts and some of these early pioneers in female sports casting. people ask me how did i break into this male-dominated field. i was born into the height of feminism in the 1970's. it was just the two of us, my

mother had a nontraditional career. she was a carpenter. then she became an architectural designer. think a womanr could do or be whatever she wanted to do or be. i'm an only child. my mother was not a big sports fan. breaking into the field in 1992. why can't a woman being sports? the history and literary life of green pants part of c-span's city tour. we are turning back to your phone calls. we want to hear your thoughts on the news of the day. from virginiaid on the democratic line. caller: hello.

everybody is complaining about the price of gasoline. they are not looking in the right direction. of the direction people should be looking in is the gas mileage we are not getting. the technology should be out there. it is i way i can prove own a 1937 chrysler, and it is 77 years old and it gets 12 miles to the gallon. the best they have done in 77 all thethout -- with technology is 38 miles to the gallon. they go to the moon, they build , the technology has existed since 1977. the writing is on the wall. consideredyou that 1937 vehicle for an electric? caller: it is an antique and classic.

is still the math it probably getting better gas mileage than the new ones with all the senses that are put on them. is charles from alabama calling on the democratic line. caller: giving her the power to the packers service on sunday -- host: next up is a caller from south carolina on our republican line. caller: i am calling about ebola. the man said nobody can get sick

in one day in fly. we should have -- we should have restriction on anybody getting to this country. nobody can get a ticket in one day in fly to the united states on the same day or two days before. everybody can have their tickets . .fter that we can monitor them host: the telegram in fort worth texas had this front page today --

from texas the dallas morning news has this page. guidelines, --

from pennsylvania on the democratic line, dennis is our next caller. caller: i think it is ridiculous. at a time when everybody is concerned about the government becoming larger, why are we appointing an ebola czar when we have the surgeon general vacant for six years. appointed aey surgeon general and let them take care of the above a situation? -- the ebola situation? host: next is marshall from new york on our republican line. caller: i want to talk about the ebola virus. i wouldn't want to get it.

i don't think anybody would want to get it. the reality is it is very hard to actually get. how it was transferred, i have no idea. i think it is unrealistic for anyone to get it and there are more important issues in the world and in the united states that we should be worried about. you can see how many people care about the issue. there are now political funding's of the cbc. the public perception and the medical perception, you can look at the baltimore doctors.

basically talk about this -- about the science behind the disease. caller is francis from south carolina. caller: i don't understand why they have to politicize everything that comes along. if the president had put himself in charge of the ebola thing, the republicans would say he is wrong. he does have a head doctor.

it doesn't matter. that's all i have to say. host: that concludes our show this morning. we will be talking with jennifer duffy, a senior at cook political report here to give her view of the midterm elections as we head into the final weeks before election day. we will also speak with a former u.s. surgeon general, who will be discussing the ebola outbreak by the obama administration and whether having a surgeon general in place would have -- would help the u.s. efforts. thank you so much for joining. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]