brooding the rules in favor of special interests. we should be able to find agreement that what america needs is a middle-class budget that gives everyone a fair shot to get ahead and to build a stronger future for themselves and their families. these budget proposals miss another opportunity for all of us. unfortunately, they will not help our budget -- economy rise and most importantly, they will not help hard-working middle-class americans rice. i thank you for this opportunity. senator merkley: thank you very much, mr. chair. as i compare the two versions of the budget from the house and senate come i was asking myself the same question as when we deliberated on the senate's

version. is this a budget that will work for working americans? or is it a budget designed for powerful, special interests? you see, there has been a lot of rhetoric on both sides of the aisle about helping the middle class and fighting for workers but a budget document puts down real numbers, concepts, and we can see if it is just rhetoric or a vision for expanding and strengthening the middle class. i am disappointed neither the senate or house budget meets the test of fighting to make this country work better for working americans and both the house and senate budget and a parallel fashion are designed to help the powerful special interests. so many sectors, so many parts of our community will be affected in a negative way with this vision. our seniors will be either

affected by the house version or the senate version. our infrastructure is assailed in both budgets. women infrastructure deficit, a highway trust fund running out of money, and both budgets failed to create good paying jobs in a strong economy in the future. this budget fails our children. it cuts the head start on the house side and on the senate, sec was station and additional cuts perhaps as many as 620,000 children who would have had an opportunity to get a fair start in life want get that start. it certainly felt our children when it comes to doors and opportunities for higher education. pell grants are an essential component for our families that are struggling.

they open those doors for our children for higher education. and yet, here we have it -- to budgets that/pell grants. we have in specified cuts that most estimated magically impact the snap program and the house side with more do you dealt in specifying hundred $25 billion in cuts for the hungry. like my colleague from wisconsin, i searched for those efforts to ask sacrifice of those best off in our economy. we all understand the programs for the best off are put in the tax code so as to be protected year from year. they certainly can be identified in the budget process. yet we see not a single dollar. take the acts to be hungry and

the seniors and the children and the consumers by trying to of this rate the independence of the watchdogs against predatory practices so, in the financial marketplace. take the acts -- axe to all of those but not one dollar asked from those will off. -- well-off. i gave it a failing grade for all of these factors. the house budget does know better. we sit here as a conference committee, have the choice of choosing or fighting the mid-distance between two filling visions or engaging in a bipartisan discussion to address the significant education deficit in america infrastructure deficit in america, inequality in america. to address the shortcoming and good paying jobs in america.

that is the path we should take. chairman: thank you. that concludes the presentations. i particularly want to thank the house members for their patience and participation and for staying under the five minutes. i think -- thank the senators for staying under six minutes or the most part. [laughter] mr. chairman: statements can be submitted by the close of business tomorrow. with all of the statements conclude, this meeting of the conference committee on the 2015 fiscal budget revolution that resolution is recessed. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> coming up tonight on c-span, hillary clinton host a roundtable in new hampshire. others alibi a discussion on the budget discussions happening in congress and later, another chance to see house and senate negotiators debating their 2016 budgets. coming up on the next washington journal, linda dempsey of the national association of manufacturers joins us and discusses what a solution that would give the president fast-track authority in negotiating the transpacific ownership trade deal. jared polis talks about the lgbt committee. later, jennifer lawless.

washington journal is live every morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern and you can join the conversation with your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. the senate finance committee hears from u.s. chamber of commerce president and ceo thomas donohue tuesday at a hearing on trade policy and congressional trade priorities. that is live starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> she was considered modern for a time mrs. president by her detractors and was outspoken about her views on slavery and women's rights. as one of the most prolific writers of any lady, she provides a unique window into colonial america. abigail adams, sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. examining the public and private

lives of the woman who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency from martha washington to michelle obama. sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span three and is a consummate the series c-span's new book is now available. providing lively stories of these fascinating women creating an illuminating entertaining inspiring read. it is available as a hardcover or e-book through our favorite bookstore or online bookseller. >> hillary clinton monday toward whitney brothers in keene, new hampshire. a business that makes children's furniture for education settings. she set down for a roundtable discussion with the company president and some employees. topics included small business issues, technical education programs come and retirement savings. this is 50 minutes.

[applause] dave: i would like to welcome you to whitney brothers. this is really cool. [applause] dave: we are a manufacturer of early childhood equipment, which you can see, but our main customer is aid six months to six years. that is who we gear our products towards. we sell all over the united states and canada. our products are in a lot of places, day care centers, jewish community centers, ski areas

car dealerships, anywhere where mom and dad can leave their child for 10 minutes or longer if they got a job or have to go shopping. you might find some whitney products. there are 40 of us employees and we are excited to have the secretary here, and i think the process will be is that briefly my coworkers will identify themselves, say one or two sentences about what they do here, come in the years they have been here at whitney, where they live, and then i think we will have a discussion and the secretary will speak to us. thanks.

so i will start off. i am dave stabler. i have been at whitney for 32 years, probably longer because i worked here as a boy during the summers. and i did not like it much when i was here. so i left keene in my 20's and came back in my 30's when i realized that keene was a great place to raise a family. and that made it worthwhile, and the business was a growing business, and that made it exciting. i live in keene. i have three sons. and that is really about it. billy, do you want to start us off? bill: i live in swanzey.

i have worked for whitney for years. i have one son in the navy and three stepchildren from my wife. very nice working here, a very good place to work. >> my name is ken cooper. i have been here for about a year and a quarter. i run a machine for the finishing department. even though i do not have any children, this is very fulfilling and rewarding to be able to work with materials to make the furniture that i have seen in many churches over the years. >> my name is pam livingood. i have been with whitney brothers for 11 years. when we receive the -- to manufacture beautiful products around us, we put the end product of into the shipping department which goes out into our communities and daycare centers.

i have lived in keene. i have three children, two daughters and a son, and three grandsons. >> i am mary. i worked for whitney brothers for 16 years, as a supervisor. i retired two years ago and came back to whitney two weeks ago. i have three children, grown. i have six grandchildren. >> jim? jim: i am jim, and i am from keene. i am in the engineering department. i take ideas that the customer will bring in or anyone will have or ourselves, providing new products for consumption out there. we do a little bit of everything. i thought i would come in here doing drafting work, and i'm doing testing, new designs. i come out and actually -- what i like about this place is i can walk around and see the thing being built, being manufactured,

and to converse with my fellow employees. and personally, i have two daughters and a stepdaughter and a stepson. they are all grown. dave: chris? chris: my name is chris swanson. i have worked at the brothers for 12 years. i started off as a receptionist. i do a variety of things, from human research customer service, to clothing. i still help answer the phones so i may be one of the voices you hear when you call. i live in fitzwilliam, and i have two grown children, a boy and a girl and a new granddaughter.

secretary clinton: well, thank you all so much for inviting me and giving me a chance not only to learn more about this business, which is a family business, 112 years young, and to meet some of the people who work here, as i did when i was walking through and as you just introduced yourselves. i am excited to hear from you about what it takes to get a small business up and going and keep it growing in an increasingly competitive global economy. small business is the backbone of the american economy. here in new hampshire, 96% of all businesses are considered small businesses. and they employ more than half of the workers, the employees in the state of new hampshire. so new hampshire is a perfect example of what it takes to start and grow a small business.

i come from a small business family. my father had a very small business. he printed drapery fabric. he did much of the work himself, sometimes with day laborers, with my mother, my brothers, and me, taking the squeegee, you go down, you go to the next, and you keep going. i saw now there is a machine that you just do the printing on all kinds of material, and i'm thinking back to those years at my father's plant. he made a very good living because of his hard work and his absolute willingness to do whatever it took to design, to produce, to sell the products that were at the heart of what he produced. and so from my perspective, i want to be sure that we get small businesses starting and growing in america again. we have stalled out. i was very surprised to see that

when i began to dig into it, because people were telling me this as i traveled around the country the last two years, but i did not know what they were saying. and it turns out that we are not producing as many small businesses as we used to, and a recent world study said that we are 46th in the world in the difficulty to start a small business. there are lots of issues, and we will get into some of those, i hope, today. i want to hear from each of you, because of what i am doing in this campaign is making my own decisions about what we need to do. i want to embed what i propose as policies, not in ideology not in some philosophy, but in the real daily lives and experiences of american workers and business owners and everybody who has a stake in

making sure that the economy is working again. really, we have to do more for young people because what we're finding is that with student debt -- and new hampshire has the highest student debt numbers of any state in the country -- that interferes with young people taking certain jobs buying a house, even getting married, and certainly starting a business. when i was in iowa last weekend, i met a young man, his dream had to been to own the bowling center is hometown. he graduated from college because he worked during the summers and he wanted to own that business, got a chance to do it, but with his student debt it was really a struggle because even though he was very responsible, he had done everything we expect a young person to do to try to better themselves, he was running into real credit problem.

even now he has got the business, but he runs it -- he has a little grill and restaurant, he with two employees are trying to make a go of it. here is a young, ambitious guy and when i was thinking about my dad, it was a lot easier in those days to have an idea, what you needed, and go to work. that piece of this, as we were walking around, as dave was telling about all the incredible machines that are used here in production, all but one are from another country. and many of them, if i am right, dave, are from europe. dave: that is correct. secretary clinton: europe has high wages, they have high costs. why are they producing these advanced machines instead of us? what is wrong with this picture? you can see that maybe lower cost places that are mastering the art of machine reduction would be competitive, these are high-value machines, sophisticated machines. how do we get back into more basic production again so that we can resume our lead in manufacturing?

something that i can get essential. a lot of people disagree with me. they say those days are over. i do not believe it. you walk around here, you see these machines from italy or germany or wherever else they are from -- why aren't we producing these machines? what do we need to do to jump-start manufacturing in our country? we've gone through some tough times, and i think americans have done everything they could think of to do to get through those tough times. but now it is not enough just to tread water. we need to get ahead and stay ahead, and people need to feel that their work is being rewarded them, that the deck is not stacked in favor of those at the top, that they have a chance to go far with their hard work and their aspirations will take them. so in order to put together a set of policies for my campaign, i really want to make sure that they are in line with the real

lives and real working experiences of the people that i would love to represent as your president. so we're going to take on four big fights. we're going to fight to build the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday, and make the middle class mean something again in this country. we are going to fight to have strong families and strong communities, and -- whose customer market is between six months and six years. that is right where i am focused these days. i want to make sure we have a functioning political system. i am going to fight for that. i will work with anybody. i have done that. i did it as senator. i will do it again. but i will also stand my ground if i need to. part of that is getting unaccountable money out of politics, because we cannot afford that, even if it takes a constitutional amendment. and then finally, we always have to be vigilant to protect our country against the threats we know. we can see them.

but then the threats we cannot see, pandemic diseases, cyber warfare, etc. so i'm excited about this campaign. i'm thrilled to be back in new hampshire. i see some of my friends out there in the audience. the first place i ever came for any political campaign was in 1991, when i was here campaigning for my husband. in october of 1991 celebrated my birthday here in keene, and i have a lot of wonderful memories. so with that, dave, i'm going to turn it back to you and we can start hearing from some of the folks. dave: i will ask the initial question, and you guys can chime in. early childhood is our interest, but we are fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. i would like you to elaborate on exactly what you think you might

do for childcare in the future if you are elected. secretary clinton: that is a question near and dear to my heart because i think every society starts with our youngest citizens. and when i got out of law school, i went to work with the children's defense fund. so my whole adult life, both professionally and my volunteer work, has been around children and families, and it is to me the most important commitment we can make. and now it is not only that we want to take care of our children, our grandchildren, but we now know that the way brains develop, thanks to all the great research that is being done by a -- our scientists, that those early years really are critical to the success that a child will have in school and what that child can learn and then what that child can choose to do, what kind of opportunities will

be available. so i think we have to start in the family. and i have been working on a project to convince parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, to read, talk, and sing to their babies, and that is equally important in any childcare setting. so when you are producing furniture that give kids a chance to be part of a circle, to work on a table, all of that, it is safety and stimulation are the two most important needs that little, tiny babies have. and i think we need a much more broadly based universal pre-kindergarten program so that kids have a chance to get ready for school, and i really applaud states -- and they are not all the states that you might think of. oklahoma has a universal pre-k program because their state decided they would invest in the early years to get their kids better for school.

and i think that childcare problem -- i was looking at a statistic that it can cost as much as $12,000 a year in new hampshire for quality childcare. that is more than the community college costs, as i understand it. and what are we going to do about that? how can you expect most families to afford that kind of cost? so we have got to do more to support quality child care and universal pre-kindergarten because by the time a child enters kindergarten, a lot of their brain development has taken place, their vocabulary has been developed. so if we want them to do well in school, and i know there are a couple of retired teachers out there, you want our kids to do well in school, it has to start in the first five years, and that is where you come in. and you were telling me about a light table and other things that you prepared for settings where little kids are -- that is all to stimulate them and give

them a chance to develop that brain and learn more so they are better prepared for school. dave: thank you. guys, you want to start off? anybody? pam: my grandson goes to the head start across the way over there. it is filled with whitney brothers' products -- coat lockers, and in there are our little tables and chairs. it made me feel proud that i worked here that these people were buying -- also, the growing drug problem in the area. we also need to see more for in our area. there are limited resources.

we would like to see something in that respect. do you have any further ideas? secretary clinton: i do, actually. i am really concerned because, pam, what you just told me, i'm hearing from a lot of different people. there is a hidden epidemic. the drug abuse problem, whether pills or meth or heroin, it is not as visible as it was 30 years ago when there were all kinds of gangs and violence. this is a quiet epidemic. it is striking in small towns and rural areas as much as it is in any big city. we see steady cutbacks in drug abuse programs, treatment programs, mental health programs. i see senator kelly here and know the senator here is trying to get resources.

we have a perfect storm. we have an increasing problem that it is only beginning to break through the surface so that people -- i think a lot of people are thinking that it is someone else's problem, not my problem, and indeed it is all our problem. and we do not have enough resources, so that if someone decides that they want to get help, where do you send them? what of opportunities do they have for treatment? i'm convinced that the mental health issues -- because i consider substance abuse part of mental health issues -- it is going to be a big part of my campaign because increasingly it is a big issue that people raise with me. and when i was in iowa last week, i literally heard from one end of the state, from davenport to council bluffs, about this problem and how the state was shutting all their in-patient facilities and there was nowhere for people to be sent. so we've got to do more. we have treatment in the affordable care act, which is a

good thing, and we have it, at least on paper. it's called is mental health parity, where insurance companies have to care for mental health like physical problems. but we are just at the beginning of trying to figure out what this is, and the whole substance abuse issues do not end with this. you read about a small county in southern indiana where there was an epidemic of hiv among the people living in the community because they were sharing needles and shooting up some kind of pill that was turned to powder. so now they have not only the drug abuse problem, they have people who have contracted hiv. this is not something that we can just brush under the rug and wish it would go away. we need a concerted policy national, state, local, public private, and we need to help young people like the mother of your grandson. pam: thank you.

>> the drug issue is not a new issue itself. the little town that i grew up and i was the only kid my age not involved in drug. there was a dealer across the street. if you wanted drugs, you went to the house next door. there was no recourse not to take them at that time. 300,000 acres two local sheriffs, that is a lot of territory to cover. it is not a new issue, but it is an ongoing issue. hillary clinton: that is exactly right. it has taken a new turn, if you will. more young people, may be

because we stopped in the messaging about how dangerous drugs were. i remember the kinds of advertising we would see all the time. we do not see that all -- anymore. for young people, many leave what is wrong with pills? they do not believe it will be dangerous for them. that is a good point. >> i was in line with the drugs and things. you make the point about educating the kids at an early age. i think it might be advantageous to push the drug issue in heads tart in a way that they will all understand so they know it is not a good thing. even though your friends might do it, you do not have to. there are other ways.

hillary clinton: starting early. mm-hmm. you hire a lot of people. >> we do drug testing. we want a drug-free workplace. hillary clinton: i think that sends a strong message. a lot of employers are either doing that, or thinking about going back to doing that. is that what you hear from your human resource contact? >> yes. we have big machines that people are running. if they are high running them, somebody is going to get hurt. hillary clinton: what are some of the other issues? jim, what is on your mind economically and how you see things for yourself and your family?

>> my kids are all grown and they are in their late 20's. they have established themselves. i do not have to worry about them anymore the way i used to. i have worked for small companies all of my life. most of them had just enough money to give minimal health care to retirement. i have very little saved for retirement because of trying to make ends meet for kids. the complany i just left before i came here a year ago just close their doors. they were making panels for the building, which i thought was the way to go. when they closed the doors i

had 27 years looking for them. it left me looking for a new job. the whitney brothers were looking for my skills to help them with their products. i look at your ideas on health care and social security. where are those heading? i am in my late 50's right now. 10 years from now, i will hopefully work less. in regards to our company what can be done to help to bolster our company to help us live a little better life? hillary clinton: you worked for 27 years. was there any kind of retirement account 401k anything? >>

there was initially. that lasted until the economy went belly up in 2008. our company went right down the tubes. people were not going to spend that extra bit of money to get a better product. you see what happens here. we are struggling to compete with the chinese and other people that are making similar items. they are cutting costs. you look at everything that we have put into our products. we get everything out of it that we can with the fancy machines and the processes that we use. hillary clinton: you really raised an important issue. one of the really big problems

we face is that american worker productivity continues to go up. american workers work harder, longer, and more productively than workers in any other part of the world. it has been difficult to turn that increase productivity into increased wages and increased benefit. when you have smaller companies the margins are too thin. when you have larger companies they would simply choose not to. they would rather do stock buybacks instead of contributing to the salaries that contributed. some companies have the cash and they make decisions that leave out their workers. some people are just trying to keep the doors open and the work coming and try to be successful and stay afloat.

what we need to figure out is how we incentivize companies that have the cash to do more with it and how we can support smaller businesses to be more competitive and get more export markets. dave and i were talking about how important it is for small businesses to have access on two market opening. how do you get the most support you need for a website or telling other potential customers about your product? how do you compete with somebody doing the same thing in china? we have to look at this from the top and the middle and try to figure out what the best way to do it is. on social security, there is a lot of loose talk about social security. i do not know how people can make some of the arguments that they make. if you look at how dependent so many people are on their social

security, they have worked hard for it. they retire. they postpone retirement as long as possible. they want to keep working. they want to get the maximum amount of payout for social security. the social security trust fund according to the trustees will be solvent until 2035. what do we do to make sure that it is there and we do not mess with it and we don't pretend that it is a luxury. it is not a luxury. it is a necessity for the majority of people that draw from social security. my only question to everybody who thinks we can privatize social security or undermine it in some way, what will happen to the people like you that work 27

years at the other company? they are going to take a deep breath. let's figure out what works and how we build on what works. let's not get into arguments about ideology and rhetorical attacks. let's take a deep breath as a country. we are going to have retirement issues. people who have worked hard deserve to have enough security when they retire so they can have a good quality of life. i am 100% committed to that. >> this dovetails with mary's situation. mary worked here for a number of years quit, and then came back. can you talk briefly about why you came back and was it a financial decision or just because you were bored? >> it was a financial situation. there are those things that you

have to keep up that you do not count on. coming back to work, why not come back to whitney brothers? it is a place that i am familiar with, i like the product. hillary clinton: did you think that when you retired the first time that you had enough resources to take care of your needs and then something unexpected happened? >> yes. to live comfortable. not above, the comfortable. hillary clinton: did you start drawing social security? >> yes. hillary clinton: what did you get a month? >> when i started? hillary clinton: when i started. >> you do not remember? >> i drew from social security

$1400 a month. hillary clinton: if you look realistically, especially if you own your home, you are independent and able to take care of yourself, you will have a lot of expenses, both predictable and unpredictable. when you came back, did you believe that you were here for a period of years, or will you take it year by year? >> part-time. hillary clinton: i can tell. they were not calling you every day, saying why are you not back? it was an unexpected expense. >> her experience is really priceless. that brings up something i would like you to address. one of the egos problems that we

have is getting good adults that are trained in math and computers. we compete against a lot of local companies. it is c and c folks people who have math skills. our machines are metric. you need intelligent employees. we have the college and the high school to have technical services. it just does not seem to be enough. we are always struggling to find people like that. would you agree? hillary clinton: i would agree. i met a young man who was out here. he went to the keene state

college program to learn these skills. that is what we need. at the high school, and the college level more programs that are related to the skills that employers actually need. what are the job skills that you are trying to get? >> they are technical skills. there is a place for the humanities, but there are technical skills. the electricians plumbers, those are the ones we are looking for. hillary clinton: we have to get back to encouraging more young people to see these as careers. then we have to have more education-based skills programs and employer-based skills programs. training programs that are both public and private and try to give young people the opportunities. it is really important that we

do more to publicize why thsese skills are going to get you a good job. i think we have lost the thread here. too many young people do not know. you can get a really good job as an electrician or a welder. the computerized numeric control systems on these big machines, that takes a year or two of training to really understand. that is a level the on what we think of as technical education. when people come for a job interview, where have they gotten their skills? do they even know that those skills will enhance their chances to get hired? >> the majority of people that come here, it is on the job training. it is not really school training.

there is a career center at the high school. it is more mental. it can go hand-in-hand. it is more on the job training. >> we are having to train relatively green people to run the machines. it has worked out. in the local marketplace, we are competing against a lot of different companies. we might train someone for a year or two and they would go somewhere else for a couple of dollars more. that is life. that is tough. we would like to think that there is a greater pool of technically skilled people. >> we are doing wood manufacturing and we are going against the overseas people. we need to keep our costs low.]

we can only pay so much. hillary clinton: you have cost pressures and skill pressures. you have to have more programs that will prepare more people. it sounds so simplistic. we made a mistake. we backed off, thinking that it would be picked up by businesses, community colleges, technical schools. that did not happen fast enough. there are more and more places where you can get these advanced skills, but we need to create a bigger pool of people to meet the needs that you are talking about. i did go to community college in iowa that takes high school students and trains them on c a nd c's. then they are job prepared when they leave high school.

they might graduate 30 or 40 a year when the demand is much greater than that. i really approve of the president's proposal to try to make community college as free as possible. that would be a big help in new hampshire where it is so costly. the amount of tuition is so high. that still does not help unless we somehow provide incentive for more people younger and older to go into these trades, right? >> i had to switch jobs again for some reason. thank god i still have recent skills. as a drafter and designer, i learned how to use the computer without more education. if i had more education, i might be able to do more. going back to school time-wise as well as cost is hard.

with health care and all of that, there isn't any money for me to go back to school to get new skills. either to enhance what i am doing here or think about doing it somewhere else. >> i had to look into a cnc program. that was in claremont next session. that was in the middle of winter. fortunately, i found this place and it worked out pretty well. hillary clinton: what are your hours of operation? >> we are 7:00 until 6:30, but we are always doing overtime. it is eight or nine hours. during the summer, we occasionally have skeleton crews on the second shift. the busy months are through july

and august before school starts. hillary clinton: you have this equipment here. if you could get some kind of grant or other support from local government, state government, even community college or state colleges, and you could have a program at night. somebody could come in and say that we are going to designate whitney brothers as one of our training facilities. your expert employees would get some kind of wage bump. i just think we've got to be imagining outside of the old box on how we will have people of ages -- all ages have the opportunity. maybe there could be some

cooperative approach that can make a difference. from my perspective you hear it from everywhere. we do not have enough skilled workers. we have a whole missing group of workers that could be employed in our existing industries. if we do not exit, we cannot be competitive. you eat -- we will be behind the curve in trying to succeed. >> changing the mindset, when i was in school growing up, there was nothing wrong with being an electrician or a plumber or a carpenter. these were really good jobs here he you can make good money doing that. that seems to fall off the table. everyone wants to go right to the top. you have got to go to the bottom

and work your way in their. even in the grammar schools, get these kids -- a lot of kids just do not want to go to school. they do not want to go to college. you do not have to go to college to make a good living. but you have to get it out there that's it's ok not to go to college if you do not want to. you can get a good job and make a good living and support your family by doing these other things. that puts that off-track somewhere. hillary clinton: i agree with you. >> when i was in high school, we had to have a semester or two of shop classes. >> everything got computerized. everyone wants to do something with gadgets or i will design computer games. that is what i am good at.

everybody will do that. it is true, you need a nurse. you are going to get sick sometime. we have to have people building our houses. we want to be here working with whitney brothers. >> when your refrigerator goes dead, somebody has got to ask it. >> we are not all computer geeks. i do not think i could be one if i tried. you have to find your fit. i think the generation coming up needs that push. here are some other things to do a sigh from sitting in front of a computer your entire life. hillary clinton: a kid told me about a community college advanced program. he graduated from high school

and got a $48,000 job as a welder. he had some kind of national certification. here he is 18 years old and starting off on a really good track. >> you probably know more about it than i do. there are several high schools in chicago that are affiliated with -- ibm is one of the companies. it is an eight-year program. these kids are trained through high school and this extended high school, being mentored by ibm. when they get done, they are guaranteed a job at $40,000 a year income. you do not have to go to university of illinois. you get your training right

here. five out of the eight schools in the country are in chicago. hillary clinton: that is exactly the kind of model we need to look at and decide where we could implement that. we have two what is working and do more of that. you make a very strong point. you have to persuade, particularly young people, that this is an opportunity. this is an economy that really needs them. some might want to be computer programmers hearing some might want to be the best welder are the best plumber. we have to make it attractive for young people to feel like this is a good route for them. dave, we will give you the last word. how long have you worked here? >> 32 years. it is a wonderful industry.

i get to do r and d word by going to childcare centers. you get three and four year old kids running around. i have an enviable job. i have the 3:00 a.m. worries also. it is not all peaches and cream. it was about two feet of water wear they are sitting. one final question i might ask you, capital improvements, we like keeping our machines modern and up-to-date. historically in the last 10 years, we have been able to write off the capital improvements.

in 2015 they are talking about reducing that to $25,000. i know that is congress. i am curious as to your feeling. if you are president, what can you do to help small businesses like ours to improve the equipment that we have and not make it so onerous so that we can spread it out and still do right by the irs. hillary clinton: i think that is an important question. i do not want to make your life anymore onerous. i want you to invest in maintenance and upgrading of existing equipment and that new printing machine if that will make you more competitive. we have to make -- look at the whole new tax system. what is an economic development as opposed to one without

economic purpose? there are those where people are playing games. capital gains was supposed to be a way to reward people who made risky investments. investing in somebody else's business. we have to take a look at the whole tax system. i would not support anything that makes your business or difficult to run. you have a real business and you have economic imperatives. you are in the production of goods. i want to do everything i can to support goods and real services and take a hard look at what is now being done in the trading world, which is just trading the second trading. it is wrong that a hedge fund manager pays a lower tax rate than a nurse or a trucker or an assembly worker at whitney brothers.

we have to say, if you are doing something which is enhancing the economic productivity of your business and the larger economy we will be open to that. if it is just playing back and forth in the global marketplace to get .1% advantage, maybe we should not let that go on. that is at the root of some of the economic problems that we all remember painfully from '08. from your perspective, i would want to be a president that made it as easy as possible for you to be as productive and profitable as possible. you have 40 plus people whose lives and families depend upon that. >> great to have you here. thank you all for coming.

the secretary has got a busy schedule. i am not quite sure how this works from here. hillary clinton: i think we will do a picture with everyone who was in the roundtable. then i want to say hello to some of my friends. if you could come stand behind me and we will get a picture. can you get us all in? we will get everybody up closer. don't get lost. ok. this is great. thank you. good luck with that

five-year-old. where is your daughter? >> once or twice. hillary clinton: i did. you are kidding. i went three years and then i graduated. ok. hillary clinton: -- >> they are in our age group. hillary clinton: young people. >> you are in my neighborhood. >> so historic. i love the hudsonthanks for being part of this.

[no audio] [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] hillary clinton: hi, how are you? >> coming up on c-span. a discussion on the budget negotiations happening this week in congress. then we will show you the first meeting of house and senate negotiators to meeting their respective 2016 proposals. later, hillary holds a roundtable in new hampshire. coming up on the next "washington journal," linda dempsey joins us. she will discuss legislation that would give the president fast-track authority in

negotiating the transpacific partnership trade deal. then, hunger spend jared -- congressman jared polis on protections for the lgbt community. and white young americans are -- why young americans are turned off to politics. you can join the conversation with your calls and comments on facebook and twitter. >> inspector steve linnick will testify tuesday. he is expected to look at hillary clinton's use of personal e-mail. you can see it live at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span3. >> here are a few of the books we will be covering on "book tv." we will be in maryland, state capital for the annapolis boat

festival. hearing from alberto gonzales and reporter james risen. we will revisit maryland for the gators book -- davis berg -- gai thersburg book festival. we will close out at new york city where the publishing industry showcases their upcoming books. we are live for lit fest with pulitzer prize-winning author lawrence wright. that is on c-span2's "book tv." >> during this month c-span is pleased to present the winners in the studentcam competition. it encourages middle and high school students to think critically about issues that affect the nation. students were asked to create a documentary based on the same

the three branches and you. to demonstrate how a policy law, or action by one of the three branches of government has affected them or their community. destin bigsby from long beach polytechnic high school in long beach, california is one of our second prize winners. his entry focused on weapons availability and background checks. ♪ >> i hate guns. >> i find them frightening. >> if it lays their inning in a do nothing. >> when seconds counts, law enforcement is minutes away. >> i hate guns. >> if i could snap my fingers and all the guns would be gone i do not see why not. >> we will have to have that conversation somewhere along the way that since when is it appropriate, what is appropriate for our citizens of the united states to carry and use?

>> i was born in the age of suicide, street justice, and mass shootings. all because of the second amendment. >> the constitution is kind of beginning to show its age. >> i am destin bigsby a voice for america's youth. nearly 20,000 people commit suicide with a gun every year. once the trigger is pulled, there is no stopping the bullet. like so many others, mike has an -- my cousin committed suicide with a gun. putting my family into shock in disarray. still, to this a, avoid has been left that can never be filled. do i think that any of the --

any depressed kid that walks into a gun shop should be able to walk into a gun store and buy a gun? probably not. >> he threatened suicide. we were able to intercept him prevent the suicide, take the gun away from him, get rid of the gun, get him in therapy, but that only lasted so long. and then he got another gun. >> we tried to get him a lot of help and he ended up walking into upon shop and buying -- walkinginto into a pawn shop in buying a gun. >> he did not have any trouble even though he was already in the database, as we say, as mentally per -- mentally ill person quite believe should not be allowed to buy a gun. destin bigsby: i live in los

angeles county. three cities wrack3eed with gun violence. i am here in compton california, one of the most dangerous cities in the united dates to speak with people about gun violence. >> there are easy ways to get around that. >> killing innocent people is totally wrong. it is not about that. >> you kill someone, that is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. >> i was playing with my friends, it was a drive-by shooting. bullets flying everywhere. it was very scary. i could have lost my life and i did not want anyone losing your life as well. >> the college street justice. there is no ultimate justice. it is someone losing their life to something that was really stupid and trivial from the start. >> that is what drive-bys is.

cowards in a car, basically. destin bigsby: more than 230,000 guns are stolen from those who legally purchased them. >> we ended up arming obviously criminals. that was not the intent. click the rap community is changing its view on guns and snoop dogg is leading the charge. snoop dogg: when we speak as one, as a whole community, it should not be [inaudible] they do something about it. destin bigsby: i am here in newtown, connecticut to his big with the people and make sure that a tragedy like the one at sandy hook elementary never happen to get in. -- never happens again. on december 14, 2012, 6 teachers and 20 elementary school students lost their lives at

sandy hook elementary. i sat down with the people of newtown to hear their story. >> i am walking around looking for this little brown head and i do not see it. i am sure -- that is not a thought in your mind that anything can happen to your child. destin bigsby: she never did find his little brown head. her son lost his life on that day. >> i felt numb. i felt like emma ok, it is survival mode at this point. two years later and it is still -- i will always -- it will always been currently difficult. >> as we proliferate our society with weapons there are opportunists to get powerful weapons, we may see the body count go up. destin bigsby: the weapons that were in adam lanza's hands

should never have reached his hands and hopefully will never reach the hands of anyone in his mental state anyone -- ever again. >> it did make a difference. when he stopped to reload at one time a group of children were able to run out of the room and escape. his final action in the classroom which was instrumental in saving nine of his classmates' lives. as the gunman rolled out -- ran out of bullets, he called for his friends to run. he told them to run that they did. and then he reloaded and murdered jesse. destin bigsby: it is a shame that the world lost jesse. he cannot die in been. something must be done to be sure something like this never happens again. >> this is an absolute epidemic. >> when there is no response in

congress, not a single legislative act to pass to try to do something about this, it sends a message, a message of quiet endorsement. destin bigsby: it is time for the legislative branch to pass stricter gun laws. my future and others' depends on it. how many have to die, how many mothers cry until something is done? next to learn more, go to c-span.org and click on studentcam. tell us what you think on facebook and twitter. next, rebecca shabad of "the hill" newspaper explains the inner workings of the budget. from "washington journal," this is 40 minutes. host: joining us now is rebecca shabad to talk about senate and

house budget negotiators. they started today at 3 p.m. let's first begin with telling our viewers why a budget resolution is needed in the first place. rebecca shabad: it has gone back to 1974. it is not a binding resolution. it is nonbinding. it does not really hold too much weight but it really sets guidelines for appropriators who write up the government spending bills every year. that is really the main reason for it. at the same time for republicans who now control both chambers of congress, this is a messaging document to set their political priorities. it is especially important for them to do so in advance of 2016. it is kind of a general document that congress works on every year. sometimes democrats have not done it in the past. once they could not work with republicans in the other

chamber. now they were tokens hold both chambers, it is important thing to show they can govern. host: the house has their version, the senate has their version. both chambers are run by republicans, so they are that different? guest: this afternoon's meeting is a public meeting of all of the budget negotiators the majority of the negotiators are republicans. there are a few democrats on the panel and they are going to lay out their different priorities what they want to see in some sort of budget agreement and just to take a step back, what happened in late march is the house republicans passed their own budget. the senate republicans passed their separate budget. thyeey are ready similar documents but there are -- they are very similar documents. republican leaders have set

the schedules to have votes on the floor at the end of the month for spending bill and the cannot exactly do that until they get a budget agreement. host: what are the sticking points, what are the differences between these two bills? guest: i have been laying out these differences over the last few months. one of the top ones is to send spending. between both documents in order to circumvent those budget caps set by a 2011 law, they are going to increase the pentagon's war fund which we have been using to pay for the wars in afghanistan and fighting isis. they will raise that to $96 billion. there are some differences within those provisions in each document that they are going to have to resolve. beyond that, there is also reconciliation of budget procedures that republicans can use to enact major policy provisions. their differences on medicaid

and medicare that are drastic between most documents, so they have to come to some sort of compromise before they can get a deal. guesthost: will the defense hawks win? guest: they did win in late march. there was a big divide between the military hawks who wanted to pump up the pentagon's spending and basically bust the sequestration budget cap, but in order to satisfy everyone, they had to live to the war fund. at the same time, there were these fiscal hawks who did not want to increase spending because that would then in turn increase the deficit. the differences between the two documents are, both of them stick to the sequester levels. they pump up the war fund to $96 billion without any offsets. but in the senate budget, it has a procedural hurdle that says ava spending bill comes to the floor -- if a spending bill

comes to the floor then there will have to be a 60 vote point of order in order to a dance that bill. they can be pretty problematic especially for republicans who are considering their reelection races next year. it could be a very interesting battle to watch. host: let's take a step back. what is reconciliation first and foremost? senate republicans want to mobile -- repeal obama care. there are divisions in the house, different camps. what are they saying? guest: reconciliation is this obligated budget procedure that basically will allow republicans to enact major policy proposals. democrats use this procedure to enact obamacare. they were pretty successful with that on the hill. and now republicans have been saying all along since they won in the midterm elections, let's

use reconciliation to a pit -- repeal obamacare. reconciliation bills will be the next step in this process. in order to move to reconciliation, they must have a budget agreement adopted in both chambers. if they are successful in doing that, that would then trigger the record -- reconciliation process and what that does is these divisions in the budget agreement would instruct authorizing committees to write up these deficit-saving bills on medicare, medicaid, obamacare, maybe even food stamps. it is up to republicans at this stage how they want to handle the process. the problem is, is senate republicans have signaled they only want to use reconciliation to repeal obamacare, maybe do something on tax reform, but maybe not so much. house republicans, however especially speaker john boehner kevin mccarthy, they all said they want the process to be very flexible. in their original document they issued 13 separate

reconciliation's instructions to committees. that kind of signals that they want it to be a flexible process and maybe decide down the line how they want to handle it. one of the issues during this timeline is the burwall case at the supreme court which will decide a major portion of obamacare and that could determine which path republicans want to take in this reconciliation process. the one thing i want to add though is president obama can veto any of these bills, so republicans may not get too far in that process. host: house and senate budget negotiations kicking off today. 3 p.m. eastern. that is our conversation here this morning talking about what is inside these two pieces of legislation. the president said he will veto anything that contains an appeal -- a repeal of obamacare. what else has he said, drawn a line in the sand and said i will veto that skidmark guest: -- i

will veto that. guest: he has said he will veto if it contains [inaudible] one thing that he has signaled is he would not sign -- he uses the phrase he would not sign a budget that uses a cap. what he does sign are the spending bills that eventually come out of this budget agreement later this fall. the sequester level cap basically limits the pentagon to a certain amount of money next year. i think $523 billion eliminate's non-domestic spending to $994 billion next year. he wants this cap to be raised by $74 billion next year on both sides, a total of that.

he has some -- has not exquisitely said if i get this bill and it does not have this amount of money than i will veto it. they cannot get to that point yet because the bills have not been voted on. it kind of signals that there could be another fight, possibly another step down looming later this september and that could be pretty problematic on both sides of the aisle. host: we are talking about these budget negotiations. we want to hear from republicans (202) 737-0002. what do you want to see republicans do on fiscal issues and specifically, this budget proposal? democrats, (202) 737-0001 and independence, (202) 628-0205. you are on the air. what is your question or comment

about the 2016 budget proposal? caller: let me comment first -- about the caller prior to your guest indicating that mitch mcconnell did indicate that the priority for the senate was to get rid of barack obama. he did say that, during barack obama's, prying to his -- prior to his second term, you can pull that and check it out. in terms of her guest, isn't it true that when the pentagon's budget, it is not really cut they would take away money from, let's say, building future fighter planes and program that money toward building up the intelligence arena, or they would take money away from recruiting and they would put it into some rain technology -- submarine technology or nuclear subs that kind of thing.

do they really cut the budget or redirect money in a nether prioritized -- another prioritized military necessity? thank you. guest: it is up to pentagon leaders how they want to spend this money. i should go back to the 2000 law that sets the budget cap for a decade. that basically reduced funding for each of the fiscal years from 2013 until 2021, something like that. that means that the pentagon's budget next year is already cut, and what that is doing to the pentagon is it is really squeezing them and military leaders constantly go before congress, go before congressional channels and complaint to congress about what this is doing to their programs on the hill. how it is hurting their programs to prepare soldiers to go overseas to fight isis. it is a pretty big problem, according to the pentagon. there are other experts who say

the pentagon knows how to handle this. they basically have done exactly what republicans are trying to do in order to circumvent these budget caps by turning to the war fund and they use this flex ability to do that. democrats, however, a lot of this call this war fund a slush fund and the hate the use of it and call it a gimmick. it is a problem according to the pentagon, but there are critics who say we are the biggest military spender in the world and we really do not need to spend any more than that. host: are republicans trying to bust the spending caps, also on discretionary spending? guest: democrats -- we want to increase the funds that we want to increase the spending for domestic programs and obama -- the obama administration

officials have pointed out that homeland security, the department of veterans affairs those are not within the pentagon's spending cap. that is on the domestic discretionary side. republicans want to increase defense area there are a number of senate republicans, particularly john mccain who is the leader of the senate armed services committee, and lindsey graham, who might run for president next year. they have sent, -- they have said let's try to boost defense spending and spending onto mastic programs. that is exempt the what obama wants. he wants equal dollar per dollar increases on both sides. host: rebecca shabad writing on the budget. you can find her on thehill.com writing on the difference, trying to reconcile the differences. reuters recently reported that the speaker of the house named

allies, his allies to negotiate with the senate over this budget. what do you think that means for the outcome of any proposal? guest: it is an interesting group of people. there are 30 budget lawmakers. most of them are members from the senate. in fact, senate majority leader mitch appointed every single republican from the senate budget committee to this compromise panel and all members of the -- all democrats on the senate budget committee. there are much fewer people from the house on this committee. it is hard to say how much influence speaker john boehner's allies might have. one of them is a freshman. there is a newbie on this panel. what i wanted to say before is that and i think i mentioned this, negotiations have been going on already. tom price, the chairman of the house budget committee and --

they have been meeting behind closed doors for weeks. they have been in constant touch. they have been working on making sure all the topline numbers lineup and it is really up to the republicans on this conference committee to work out these sticking points that we were talking about earlier to make sure that there is some sort of agreement on those fronts. host: staff have been working behind the scenes for weeks. and when will some sort of agreement come to the floor? guest: house majority leader kevin mccarthy has already scheduled two spending bills to come to the floor of the house before the house goes on its next recess in early may. what that means is i was looking at the calendar earlier before republicans basically only have two weeks or less than that to get a budget deal done. they cannot hold the floor votes

at that time unless they get a budget deal done. i think we might see something in the next week. it might not necessarily be this week because there is a lot going on on the hill. it could be i think next week. host: we will go to iris next, a democrat. caller: good morning. a question for rebecca. why do the rich always get tax breaks and the poor get entitlement programs? thank you. guest: republicans in their budget do not want to increase taxes at all. they have stuck to that point that republicans have always tried to emphasize in their spending priorities and at the same time, they want to lower spending for the government.

i cannot really explain to you why republicans want that, but that is pretty much how the frame their budget documents. host: in clifton, new jersey independent. good morning. caller: i would like to ask rebecca, i would like to have a balanced budget and more coverage on the fast track negotiations. host: let's talk about a balanced budget. guest: the house and senate republicans are balanced. the house budget would balance within a nine year time frame in the senate would balance in a 10 -year time frame. it would probably balance in a decade because a number of senate republicans have been skeptical about what a budget that balances in less than 10 years would mean. and that basically would mean that they would have to cut even more faster. for example, the house budget balances in nine years and by doing that, they have to cut $9.52 trillion over that ajit

window in order to get to that point. -- legit window in order to get to that point. they definitely want a balanced budget and they want to erase the deficit. a lot of economic experts have said that a balanced budget would be ideal, but at the same time, sometimes having a deficit actually stimulates the economy and since we are still kind of in a recovery from the 28 and 29 -- 2009 -- 2008 and 2009 crisis [inaudible] caller: thank you. the priorities of the house and senate are pretty obvious at this point. the president has been trying to get loretta lynch confirmed. he has had legislation over there at the house to take the flight to -- fight to isil and the house will not sign

legislation but they have time to come up with tax breaks for the ultra rich and trying to do away with the debt tax but austerity for everyone else. they just want to cut spending. they want to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, to sink the elderly. the approval rating for the house and the senate speaks volumes. the single-digit, low double digit approval rating. that tells me that nobody really approves of the republicans and with a are doing, how they continue to get elected into their -- i have no clue. host: we will take your statement, talking about priorities for the republicans. guest: republicans, you are right. it is pretty obvious what they want to do, and the real thing on real issues surrounding these budget negotiations and everything republicans have been doing in the first few months of

their majority in congress is 2016. that is what is on everyone's minds. we already have three republican candidates for president in the senate, marco rubio, ted cruz and rand paul, we might have lindsey graham jump into the race and we have a number of republicans up for reelection in the senate next year. that really is kind of pressuring republicans to show they can govern, show they can get things done, and republican leaders in both chambers said from the get go, since they w in theo midterm electionsn, they want to stick to regular order. with that normally means is getting everything done in time, and making sure they use the proper procedures to get everything done, and so far, republicans have been able to show that. they did have some stumble over forming the homeland -- determined of homeland security in february but since then, they have gone back on their feet and passed a compromise on fdr last

week. that was a big success for everyone involved. it is pretty there that looking forward, they are all talking and thinking about 2016. host: and fgr means the medicare doc fix, the rate that doctors get for being -- seeing medicare patients. when democrats were in control republicans very critical of them for not passing a budget in the senate. any chance that this falls apart and the republicans do not pass a budget? guest: there is always that chance. looking at republicans and their internal divisions, there is always that possibility. at the same time because their two budgets they adopted in the house and senate in march are so similar, i think we are going to get an agreement. i would be pretty shocked to see something fall apart at this part of the timeline, so i think

we will see something, but there is always that possibility. host: wayne, independent color. hi there. caller: thanks for taking my call. first of all, i wish everyone would the -- stop calling this obamacare. it should be called nexen -- nixoncare. he would approve it if all the profiteers were in place which are in place now. are there any congressman or senator's or any bills being proposed that would take the affordable care act into the 21st century and make this a nonprofit system? guest: that is a good question. democrats have hit republicans over why they cannot come up with some sort of obamacare replacement. republicans have said we hate obamacare and we want to repeal

it but at the same time, they have not come up with a comprehensive package of health care legislation that could be used instead of obamacare. especially at the supreme court, rules against the obama administration. democrats constantly attack republicans for this. republicans may want to focus on that especially in this budget process, and maybe if they do use the reconciliation process to repeal obamacare or try to they might try to infuse some language some sort of alternative bill that would be used to replace obamacare. host: the supreme court has to decide whether or not congress meant to allow subsidies for exchanges that were set up by the federal government or those exchanges are just meant for states [inaudible] democratic caller.

caller: i had a couple of quick questions regarding the budget they are putting together. the first one is, i forget the acronym, the nonpartisan budget markup [inaudible] and they look at cuts are gains. host: the cbo? caller: thank you. i want to know if that has been reviewed which i do not think it has where a budget has been passed but that is the first question i have. the second is, the austerity that they are putting together based on the old paul ryan bill. it was proven act then -- back then, if the budget is not going

to balance in the time they say it is, in 10 years, generally where all the cuts are a must such as food stamps, medicare, medicaid and all those crucial institutions that we have that help and assist the people in need, and then there is no tax reform such as, you are talking about cuts to or payouts to companies such as exxon mobil tax breaks for the wealthy the banks, and what have you. i just want to know if anybody has ever taken look at that, has that been under consideration has a conference been set up between the senate and the house and i guess that is about it. i am really concerned. guest: just to address your

first question, basically, the congressional budget office which i think that is the office you were referring to, they would be expected to analyze the final budget document just to show what sort of effect it would have on the budgetary process on whatever economic effects it might have. that would probably come later on in the process if republicans do get some sort of budget deal. to address your second question on getting to balance and cutting the spending, a lot of skeptics have agreed with you and said that it would be very hard to get to balance and republicans are kind of using the document to show what the ideal situation for them would be. and they do think that they could get the balance by cutting $5.5 trillion, five .12 in dollars in both budget documents. the question is what president obama signs or even the next

resident, whoever is elected in 2016, what they signed spending bills that would lower government spending to that effect? i am not so sure. we do not know who would be elected in 2016, and at the same time, on tax reform, paul ryan who is now the chairman of the house ways and means, they write taxes and chairman orrin hatch on the senate finance committee they both talked about doing some sort of tax reform deal. they both talked about how important it would be to do it on a bipartisan basis. when i mentioned using reconciliation before to get tax reform done, that might not the the case. they might try and work with democrats to get some sort of deal on obama's desk. host: stephen, independent color. -- ca;;er/ller. caller: i thought it would add

something constructive to the conversation for the first time in my life. i would like rebecca, i would like you to explain to the viewing public here, when the last time was that -- why on the this bills were passed and what was the last time congress passed 12 independent spending bills. i mean 12 independent. not 11 as a package and then one a few months ago. these congressman used on the biz bills to hide the dirty deals are cut between themselves . an example being obamacare. when obamacare was passed, we all remember the cornhusker kickback with ben nelson from the brisket. the gator-aid. the so that mary landrieu could say, i voted for obama care for a reason. could you explain to the viewing public why congress uses these

on the this bills as i say to hide these deals that stink to high heaven? guest: let me take a step back and explain what an omnibus bill is and how we get to this point. basically, at this stage republicans are trying to negotiate a budget agreement. that basically sets spending guidelines for the appropriators in congress who write up these government spending bills fraud the different agencies in congress, and there are about 12 appropriation bills in each chamber, and they come to the chamber's floor. and then they are passed in each chamber, but as you pointed out it has been a while since they have been able to pass all of the appropriations bills individually that they need to get done. what normally happens is, july gases, then congress goes on recess, and by that recess time, they do not really have all this bills done. maybe they brought some of them to the floor, maybe some of them

passed. some of the appropriations bills have not even gotten to the floor. what normally happens is, once congress gets back from their august recess every year, they have september, and their deadline is september 30 two get all the spending bills done and send it to obama's desk. that is a pretty short time frame to get all of the spending bills done. so what happens is, they package all of them together into what is called in on the spending bill come a or omnibus spending package and it is all the appropriations bills in one and they get sent to the floor. they are voted on and sent to obama. that basically happened almost every year. i think the last time that congress has been able to pass each one individually was back in the 1990's. so the omnibus spending bill should be expected this year. it was pretty complicated last fall when congress punted again and they basically passed what is called a continuing

resolution, and that basically keeps the government funded at last year's levels, and then we got this debate in the lame-duck session last year where they almost passed an omnibus spending bill, but because of immigration issues over immigration reform proposals republicans only funded the department of homeland security until february. republicans, i want to emphasize is republicans have said they want to use the spending process to point out their priorities create this could be a problem later down the line. when republicans send an omnibus spending package to the white house and obama sees that they are sticking to the sequestration budget cap and he probably would veto it. host: gary on twitter saying -- guest: that is a good question.

there are a number of experts that look at a balance budget and say, can that really happen? that is an ideal world. the last time the budget was balanced was back in the league 1990's under president clinton, i believe. that is an ideal situation when we are spending the same amount we are taking in in taxes but at the same time as a pointed out before, we are still in an economic recovery from the recession. a number of experts have pointed out that having a deficit could actually stimulate the economy so maybe we want to be on this track in the next two years still. host: cincinnati, ohio. eric, republican. you are on the air. caller: i wanted to say one thing here. when we talk about in god we trust, do you think color of money might have a provision? www.c-span.org

host: what are you referring to? caller: we live in the world where the money is all green. when we add color to the money can we see where the money has been spent? everything is not green. host: i do not think we are following. let's go on to otis. caller: i just want to say hi to rebecca. it is a great thing what republicans are trying to do. [indiscernible] trying to have a budget and i think that is a disgrace. democrats have set back on their hands and have -- let this president have full rein and

doing nothing concerning the budget and i do not see how he can just veto anything when he is not doing his job at all. host: ok. let's talk about how republicans deal with obamacare in the budget proposals they put together. they want to use reconciliation possibly to repeal it but they have to deal with it in their own budget. how are they doing that? guest: both budget say they would repeal obama care. they probably would try to use the right conciliation -- reconciliation process to get that done. the case before the supreme court, the supreme court is expected to rule on that in late june and the reconciliation process would happen around july, so that would give republicans a little bit of legal -- wiggle room depending on how the supreme court rules in that case. now, if the supreme court rules against the obama administration

and unravels obamacare republicans might say, we do not need to use reconciliation to torpedo obamacare. let's use it for something else. let's use it to reduce medicare spending, medicaid spending. it is unclear how they want to repeal obamacare, but they keep saying let's use reconciliation. host: carl in rogers, arkansas. democrat. caller: how are you doing? host: you are on the air. caller: i wanted to bring up this fact that when the publicans are bragging about their tax cuts, every time the cut taxes on the top 20% of the wealth in the country, they are raising everybody else's taxes, so when they say they are not raising taxes against you, it is really not true. guest: republicans say in their

budget documents which i pointed out before, they do not want to raise taxes and it does have the effect of affecting everyone in the country. the real priority for republicans at this point is not raising taxes, maybe even cutting them at some point, depending on how they want to reform the tax code, and reducing government spending. that is really their goal in this process. host: you wrote a story yesterday, gop divided on medicare overhaul. what are you reporting here? guest: they are -- there are pretty drastic differences between the house budget the past in march in the senate budget. the house budget mary's the proposals that paul ryan put forward in his budget and that is partially privatized programs for seniors. republicans in the house have been gung ho about this proposal over the last few years. the senate budget, however, does

not offer some sort of major overhaul for medicare. they basically say,let's let's honor president obama's request to save $40 billion in the program over the next 10 years. when i reported basically is some republicans are kind of skeptical about the house proposal to partially privatize medicare. lindsey graham spoke to me last week and i asked him, could this make it through your conference and he said, i do not think so. he is pretty ingrained in the senate republican congress. he has a good idea of how much support would be behind the proposal. he might want to run for president, and he does not think it could muster sir this budget conference and even other senate republicans who are vulnerable i spoke to rob portman, he wants to just stick to the senate proposal. what we might see in this budget agreement is just a top line

number for cutting medicare by a certain amount. maybe that would be done through the reconciliation process. it might not actually define and detail what sort of overhaul, if any, they would want to do. host: how does president obama, but savings and medicare? guest: and his budget, i did not take a very close look at it. what i have read and heard, he does not specify how he would get to the $430 billion. it is a consultative process and senate republicans want to stick to that number. the interesting part is, even though house republicans want to do this major overhaul and partially privatize medicare, that proposal would actually cut less in the program over the next 10 years. it is a very interesting dynamic between two sides, and that could be one of the sticking points in these negotiations. host: ok. that and other -- [no audio]

for the first time. that is 3 p.m. eastern. hello. caller: you are throwing around all these numbers by your biggest numbers, 51% of all our children live in poverty in our schools. you are throwing all these numbers. how do we look at our children in the eye knowing that 51% are hungry every day in schools? i do not know what you are [inaudible] we are the only country in the world, modern country that has these problems. they have free education, they have free have -- health care. they have none of the problems we have. do not follow -- everyone says do not follow their model. you are worried about taxes up there on the hill. i got people starving on my street that i am feeding.

i am a small business owner i am a veteran and im embarrassed by this country right now. you were worried about all the isis problems. you better worry about the civil unrest here. the people in the streets are talking about rising up and we are getting to the point of no return. you had better start paying attention to us. guest: democrats are talking about the sequestration budget cap on both sides. what that spending is [inaudible] on the department of veterans affairs for benefits. democrats want to raise and breach those caps next year and president obama has said that he would not sign a bill that only increases defense spending while it does not increase the domestic discretionary spending. there might be some sort of agreement later down the line this year that lawmakers will try and get to. paul ryan, when he was the chairman of the budget committee and patty murray, when she was

the chairwoman of the senate budget committee, in late 2013 they got a deal where -- that said that sequestration would be relieved for the next two years. that deal, part of that deal is basically still in effect. sequestration is not really happening right now too much. it did not completely reverse sequestration, that it eased it to the point of most people being satisfied. there have been some rumblings on capitol hill over the last few weeks, lawmaker saying maybe we can get another one of those deals to relieve sequestration over the next two years. so even republicans are negotiating a budget at this point in the process. maybe we will get to another sort of agreement similar to that ryan-murry deal that would boost spending on veterans benefits and food stamps. host: you can follow rebecca shabad's reporting on "the hil

l." guest: thank you for having me. >> coming up on the next "washington journal," linda dempsey joins us discussing legislation that would give the president fast-track authority in negotiating the transpacific partnership trade deal. then, congressman jared polis talks about his role in bolstering discrimination protections for the lgbt trinity. jennifer lawless why young americans are turned off to politics. "washington journal" is live every morning at 7 a.m. on c-span. join us on facebook and twitter.

>> coming up, house and senate negotiators debate there respective 2016 budgets. hillary clinton holds a roundtable in new hampshire. later, from toronto, the debate on how the west should you with russia. -- deal with russia. >> veterans affairs secretary robert mcdonald testifies tuesday about his department's budget request and other issues. live at 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3. >> she was considered modern for her time. called "mrs. president" by her detractors and was out logan about slavery and women's rights. she provides a unique window into colonial america and her personal life. abigail adams, sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on "first ladies:

image influence and image." on american history tv on c-span3. th companion book is available. -- and the companion book is available. providing lively stories of these fascinating women providing an illuminating and inspiring read. it is available as a hardcover or e-books are your favorite bookstore or online bookseller. ?>> house and senate budget conferees met for the first time to work out differences in their 2016 budgets. both bills aim to balance the budget in 10 years while repealing the health care law. increasing defense spending, and cutting the budget for medicare medicaid, and highway projects area this meeting is over two hours.

-- highway projects. this meeting is over two hours. >> i am pleased to call this conference committee to order. since the house hosted the last conference on the budget resolution, it is my privilege to recognize the chair of this year's conference, the distinguished chairman of the senate committee of the legit, senator lindsey. senator lindsey: thank you. today we are going to consider the concurrent resolution on the budget and the house amendment. we will begin with opening

statements. i will recognize myself first and then dr. price and then senator sanders and mr. van hollen, and then we have a list of the others in order. so at this point -- we appreciate all showing up so far. although those who do not show up will help reduce the length of the meeting of course. [laughter] we meet today with moving the join house-senate budget conference with the goal of producing a balance budget, about to that strengthens our nation's defense, protects our most honorable citizens, improves economic ruth and opportunity for hard-working families, and slows the rate of the federal government's out of control spending growth. it was no small task.

the last time both houses of congress passed a balanced joint budget resolution was in fiscal year 2002. that means we have not had balanced budget for almost 15 years. when it comes to the federal budget, americans know that we have lived for too many years with too many blown deadlines and too many last-second deals. both ends of pennsylvania avenue have allowed this to become the new normal on how we operate. this is why passing a budget is so important for our nation. it lets the congressional holocene makers who allocate the dollars get to work and observe the spending limits in order to achieve goals for the nation. passing budgets is not always been a priority, especially in the senate. in fact, over the past five years, senate democrats have only able to pass one budget. now that congress is under new management, senate republicans put together a balance republicans -- balanced budget in our first 100 days. we are changing the way we do

business in washington by each passing a balanced budget which would make the government live within its means. we take the next step and start to work in a joint allen's to budget shington by each passing a balanced budget, which today we take the next step and start to work on a joint balanced budget resolution to expand america's economy and increase opportunities for hard-working families. restoring the trust of the american people can be done by passing a balanced budget, and it's about restoring the trust of the american people because of the federal government's chronic overspending and exploding debt threatens each and every american. the biggest reason for this broken trust is because of our failure to do what voters have long demanded, to eliminate wasteful washington overspending, to make government truly more effective and more accountable, to improve the programs that protect our most vulnerable citizens and strengthen the health and retirement security of our seniors. americans see trillions in