talks about nasa's discovery of water on mars. we can take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. ♪ good saturday morning to you. it is october the third. here are some of the top headlines in the news. the victims of the mass shooting at an oregon community college have been named. nine were killed and nine more were injured. in washington, arne duncan will step down after a seven-year tenure. president obama, for the first time yesterday, criticized airstrikes in syria. there is a lot to talk about this morning. we look at all of these topics, and more. first, we want to know your thoughts on the benghazi community, investigating an attack on for americans during hillary

clinton's term as secretary of state. republicans can call (202) 748-8001. democrats, you can call us at (202) 748-8000. independence, you can dial at (202) 745-8002. you can also share your thoughts on social media. you can find us on twitter, the .handle is @cspanwj beer on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. or you can send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. the benghazi committee has made headlines this week, after kevin mccarthy appeared on fox news, where he seemed to suggest that the work of the committee is purely political. here is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] >> what you are going to see is a conservative speaker that takes conservative congress that puts a strategy to fight and win. let me give you one example. everybody thought hillary clinton was unbeatable. r inut together othe

benghazi special committee. what are her numbers today.co her numbers are dropping because she is on trustable. no one would have known any of that had happened -- host: that was representative kevin mccarthy speaking on fox news about the work of the and whethermittee, or not it was given by politics or by something else. of course, hillary clinton immediately responded to those comments. here is her speaking on msnbc. [video clip] >> i have to tell you i find them distressing. i do the ambassador that we lost . along with them, we lost three americans. there have already been a investigations in the congress, one independent investigation. we have learned all we can dorn about what we need to

to protect our diplomats and other civilians. we need to be enforcing and implementing those changes, which is what i started, and secretary kerry has continued. when i hear a statement like that, which demonstrates unequivocally that this was always meant to be a partisan, political exercise, i feel like it does a grave disservice and dishonors not just the memory of the four that we lost, but everybody who has served our country. host: that was hillary clinton responding to comments from representative kevin mccarthy saying that the benghazi oversight committee helped drive down hillary clinton's pulled numbers. since then, representative mccarthy has stated that he did not mean to imply that the committee's work is political. you note or do not a

agree? you can start dialing in now. in the meantime, we will see how that media has been covering the story as well. from "washington post," "mccarthy's comments on benghazi probe may be a political gifts to clinton." host: from california, vicki is

calling, the first color of the day. good morning to you. what do you think of this committee? caller: i think it is definitely political, and was started to bring hillary down. of ourall the elements culture. it is because she is a woman, because she is a clinton, and she is for minorities. kevin mccarthy is not. he told the truth in his naive, innocent way. he is from bakersfield. i was born in bakersfield. i know what the mentality is in kern county. host: do you think hillary clinton should continue to appear and testify before the committee? caller: of course not. she should not even dignify this her.ble attack on it is for political gains, any means necessary.

barneyur next caller is from florida, on the independent line. what is your view? set,r: like the last color it was a sham from day one. it is a disgrace that a party would do that. people lost their lives. for the that desperate presidency. they just need to get another plan. host: all right. here is a statement that was boehner'sspeaker press office, shortly after representative mccarthy's remarks. the statement says that this is never been about former secretary of state hillary clinton, and never will be, and indeed, the select committee's very existence is only the result of the obama ministrations of structured of routine congressional investigations, and its failure to properly comply with subpoenas and document requests.

remains that secretary clinton and the obama administration have done everything they can to delay, derail, and stop this investigation. the american people deserve the truth about what happened in mccarthy, that has always been our focus, and will remain our focus. our next caller is linda from mississippi, go ahead. caller: good morning. toldnk that kevin mccarthy the truth -- accidentally told the truth. this committee has been running longer than the investigation into watergate. it is ridiculous to spend all of that money trying to get a republican into the white house. it is amazing that more americans are not outraged how the republicans are carrying on the united states business. if that is all they want to get

in the party for, they could have stayed in the gop organization and ran the campaign from there. outrage.ra host: do you think that the vestige of the committee has chanceslary clinton's of being the next president? caller: have a white? rt herhave they hu chances of being the next president? caller: what have they found? they have dug up dirt, trying to dig out dirt. if they can find it -- they should not even be in the

senate. i think they should fix the infrastructure in this country, dig up some money to try to fix the roads and bridges. host: all right. mississippi. from our next caller is coming from the republican line. that will be samuel from florida. what do you think? caller: hello, thank you particular call. host: what is your view of the benghazi committee? caller: i want to say that none of these investigative committees on benghazi have done anything. they are all totally useless. the real scandal of the whole benghazi story is that hillary for the war in libya, which has created a disaster in libya, and has led to the disaster in syria. the syrian civil war started in libya. if she had not push for the war in libya, we would not have the major disaster all across the

middle east. we would not have the migrant crisis. we would not have all these problems with the civil wars. host: all right. another caller now is willie from columbia, mississippi, on the democratic line. go ahead. caller: hello, ma'am. host: go ahead, you are on their. -- the air. , my biggest problem is how come they are complaining about this, when they are responsible for 9/11? when they were responsible for the death of 3000 americans. they complain about poor americans that were doing their jobs. i don't understand that. how can the republican party complain about the democrats losing four people, when they lost 3000 people? host: all right.

we hear your thoughts this morning. .ome more information politicized dug into this -- politifact dug into the claim that the committee is political. .hey found that is not true costing $4.5 million so far, with no final report, critics see that committee as a waste of taxpayer dollars and a partisan witchhunt. most outlets reporting the length of the committee, 72 weeks, or roughly 17 month. it is longer than the probe into pearl harbor or hurricane katrina. when we contacted the

clinton campaign, they found numerous examples of committees that lasted longer than the 's 17 months.e the longest ever that they could find was a senate special committee to investigate the national defense program which lasted 90 months. that committee questioned the awarding of contracts in world war ii. we are taking are on benghazi. what is your view of the committee and the work it is doing. our next caller comes from illinois, michael is on the republican line. good morning to you. caller: i'm just calling about the situation with mr. mccarthy. if he did not intend to say that specifically, he must've had something in the back of his mind. i think he is trying to raise some votes for himself for mr. boehner's -- mr. weiner'

job. host: you think that is helping him? caller: i don't think it is helping him at all. boehner's job, what he said came out totally wrong. the figure of $4.5 million for that -- there are many people out there that can use that money. i think it is going to hurt his position. i really do. host: would you support him to be the next bigger of the house? do you think he deserves our qualifies for the job? caller: no, i don't. tom, our next caller is from richmond, virginia, on the independent line. go ahead. i do their? you are on the air. caller: i am here. host: what is your thought on the benghazi committee? caller: i did call on the

independent line for a reason. i do not consider myself a or democrat, in part because of this topic. so far, mccarthy is being vilified for telling the truth and say that this is pretty political. yet, the president goes on tv politicize going to this massacre in oregon. i'm not quite get -- sure what i'm trying to say now, but the response in the media seems to be quite different. thanks a lot. host: all right. in "the hill" newspaper, this the story reports that the california republican is still the favorite to replace john boehner, who will resign from congress on october 30. mccarthy is believed to have locked up the 124 gop votes

needed to be nominated for the top job during a closed-door gop conference election set for next thursday. but, the rapidly rising lawmaker is as many as 50 gop votes shy of the 218 he needs to formally win the gavel. a representative said that he thinks it would be good for him to clarify, it is important for the next speaker of the house to from politics. from washington, d.c., ed is up next. what do you think of the benghazi committee? caller: i think the benghazi committee -- that is just a witchhunt. she is only one that has foreign-policy experience.

brock hasis david provent, and has already that hillary did not violate any rules at all. government, and had top-secret papers at one time, and know what this is all about. she did not violate any rules at all. actually turned over all the records. what they're trying to do is making sure that her numbers in the polls go down. actually, what is going on is women are being targeted because of these things. clinton,hillary rodham but hispanic women, asian women, and african-american women should also stand up against these kinds of things. host: do you think hillary

clinton should continue to appear before the committee? caller: i don't think she should go to the committee at all. treated.t being fairly we do not stand for that stuff in the united states of america. she is running for president. therefore, they know that they do not have an equivalent to go up against her. host: all right. on thursday, representative kevin mccarthy appeared again on fox news to clarify some of his comments. here is what he said. [video clip] >> this committee was set up for one soul purpose, to find the the familieslf of of four dead americans. i did not intend to apply in any way that that work is clinical.

it is not. >> that is not what you said. >> i was not saying the committee is political. the committee is totally to get the truth out. what happened in the truth is we found out about a server. full-servicee's -- full purpose is to find out what happened to four americans that night. it was never my intention to say that. representative kevin mccarthy, clarify his statement on the work of the benghazi oversight committee. we want to know your thoughts. what do you think of the committee's work so far. our next caller is kevin from colorado, on the independent line. go ahead. caller: yet, i think secretary negligents criminally in the support she gave the people in benghazi. it caused the death of four people.

is justt is a witchhunt like a low information voters. democrats try to say it is all about persecuting hillary, when really it is not. it is what she did as secretary of state. host: all right. that is kevin from colorado on the independent line. next up is gail. what do you think? caller: i find it incredible that they criticize hillary for benghazi when, from my understanding, it is republicans that cut the funding for security for the diplomats. i also agree with one of the callers that says more people should be outraged. i think more people should be outraged about what happened, and it is a witchhunt. "politico"

thepublication reports house oversight and foreign affairs chairman jason chaffetz plans to run for house speaker in what appears to be a long lead house republicans. the story goes on to say that his bid could throw a wrench situation. host: martin from connecticut is

next. what do you think of the benghazi committee? caller: i am on? host: you are on the air. caller: my view of your question is that this is about the president of the united states. he sent out susan rice after the so-called attack because of a video made by a man in california, and that is why the committee was started. the president sent out his employee, susan rice, and she obviously lied. via administration kept up a live for like five or seven days. the committee started. wake up, america. from our next caller is ed maryland. go ahead. caller: yes. when you speak of speaking out, like the last caller mentioned, and wake up america, i think

what we need to do is look at the very beginning of the whole benghazi situation in that basically mitt romney spent three weeks in israel, fundraising prior to the election. basically, benghazi occurred, and you had fox news with video of the benghazi attack. basically, romney knew so clearly that it was a terrorist attack. how did he know? how did they get this video? it was really a propaganda campaign to replace obama with romney. when that did not work, that is when it shifted to hillary clinton. i would like everybody to go to day.eginning, to the first go online, look it up. find out why romney was a legally raising money to win the white house. how did he know so clearly that the ghazi was a terrorist

attack? who told him? how did he know? there is a conspiracy behind this whole propaganda campaign now to get rid of hillary clinton, but originally it was to replace president obama with mitt romney. host: all right. we hear you this morning. we are talking about the benghazi oversight committee, and what your view of the committee's work an investigation is so far. let's bring in a few other headlines. today, in oregon, "the oregonian," has the names of the qua communitye ump college shooting. they also have photos. nine people died on thursday ater gunman opened fire the college, killing students and teachers. the website also includes new details about chris harper mercer, the shooter that was

involved in this deadly attack. the newspaper reports that a appearedicture on friday. the u.s. army discharged him just five weeks into basic training 2008. meanwhile, here in washington, "the washington post" has a story about arne duncan, the education department secretary, the announced he would be stepping down by the end of the year. here is the story.

host: in "the new york times," the newspaper reports on president obama's conference yesterday, including this article. the story reports that his comments -- he said that moscow acting not out of strength, but weakness.

host: we are take your thoughts on the benghazi committee this morning. how has the committee done so far? what has the investigation been like? do you agree with the findings? our next caller is fred from alabama. go ahead. caller: good morning, "washington journal," and c-span . i'm going to ask the thousand dollar question. what truth are the republicans looking for? they keep having committee after committee, after committee. if they know the actual truth, why don't they tell us the truth that they know?

then, let the people decide. the people deserve to know the truth. what truth are you looking for? if we see what that one guy did that is running for speaker -- committed the number one political sin. he told the truth, and now they are beating him up about it. have a great day. host: our next caller is alan from virginia, on the independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. as far as the committee, i still think they are searching for the truth. i think hillary has lost a lot of credibility. i don't think it is good for the country. both parties, all that want to do is fight each other, accomplish nothing. one example, maybe a poor acts, obama putin

talks. we are not truthful to the american people. that is why people are fed up with it. we need to get some integrity and honesty and leadership back in all departments, from bottom to top. host: do you think the representative mccarthy's comments and danger his chances of becoming bigger of the house? caller: if you listen closely to what he said, he pointed out what the committee was authorized to do. he was commenting about it. apparently there are a lot of issues still out there, as far as e-mails, and these things. they're trying to get to the think theych i should. if they are doing it for a political cause, i don't agree with that. president obama has already made this massacre of political deal. it is all about politics. we need to get back to what the truth is and respect one .nother's opinion

for some reason, the democrats and republicans, we have such a difficult time fighting that, ground. what is going on is unfair to the american people. we deserve better. host: all right. as he mentioned, president obama did discuss the oregon massacre in his news conference yesterday. he responded to some comments from presidential hopeful jeb bush, who said this recently. according to the "daily beast," he was calling for greater gun control saying, stuff happens.

host: here is what obama had to say in response. [video clip] >> i do not think i even have to react to that one. [laughter] i think the american people should hear that, and make their own judgments, based on the fact that every couple of months we have a mass shooting. and they can-- decide whether they consider that "stuff happening. do, i terms of what i can have asked my team, as i have in the past, to scrub what kind of authorities we have two keep

guns out of the hands of criminals. are there additional actions that we can take that might prevent even a handful of these tragic from taking place -- tragic deaths from taking place? as i said last night, this will not change until the politics changes, and the behavior of elected officials changes. the main thing i'm going to do is talk about this on a regular basis. ourll politicize it because inaction is a political decision we are making. that was president obama speaking about the shootings and politicization of tragedy. we want to know that your view on the benghazi oversight committee into the terrorist attacks and libya that occurred under hillary clinton, when she was secretary of state. our next caller is devon from

greenville, north carolina. go ahead. caller: yes. host: what is your thought of the benghazi committee of the work it is doing? caller: i do appreciate you letting me get my point of view across. at the end of the day, we can charge all citizens and the united states of conspiracy to commit a crime. we cannot charge our officials on that same issue. i think we should hold our officials to that same category because there are too many ins and outs and stories of what is going on, who is in charge, and the structure of what is going on in our government. we need to hold our elected officials of government under the conspiracy type of law, to really rain and some of them. as far as gun control, we do not need gun control. there is a mental illness think

going on right now that is real. there is a criminal element thing that has been there since the beginning of time. until citizens learn that they sense come to common and like-minded is to keep my family safe, and keep something on my body to keep me safe -- the citizens need to revolutionize, come to a common and say, ifndedness i can drive a car, i know i can keep a handgun on me to keep me and my surrounding individuals safe. host: all right. we hear your thoughts. we would like to keep the comments in this segment on your views of the benghazi committee. our next caller is richard from massachusetts. go ahead. caller: hello. host: good morning to you. what do you think of the benghazi committee? caller: i would like to put

another wrinkle into this thing as to why it is a witchhunt. rememberd to try to what happened with condoleezza rice under w bush, i looked it up on google. watch, 15 on her embassies and consulates attacked, and over 70 people died under her watch. sit, unlessld not ts next toa rice si them. let's find out the real truth, not politics. host: all right. here is how some lawmakers reacted to represent a mccarthy's comments. gerry connolly wrote on twitter,

gop leader revelation that the gauzy committee is all about damaging hillary clinton is shameful, using tragedy to score political points. said thattive ellison mccarthy's comments on the ghazi committee showing an electioneering scandal to discredit hillary clinton. mary is next. good morning to you. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think it should have been investigated by a bipartisan committee, so to speak, and maybe it was. ifpoint is, i want to know c-span has any type of charge to account for that $4.5 million that was spent. i want to know where my money went. do you have any idea on your buildanything showing who all of that, -- billed all of that? host: we do not have a chart

that shows that, but we will work on that. we do have that it was $4.5 million, and the investigation has lasted 17 months. next up is tony from new jersey. go ahead. caller: hello? host: you are on the air. caller: good morning. theally disagree with what republicans are doing with hillary clinton. , why don't people be upset about what happened in iraq and all of those thousands american soldiers, men and women, that lost their lives on a fake war? thank you. host: all right. tony from new jersey. a few comments now from twitter.

shared by manys of us. another comment, current hearing unnecessary waste of time hearing. next up patty from houston, texas. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: good morning to you. i'm justi'm calling -- like all the rest of them. they are spending all that money on the witchhunt. like i said, they are always trying to cut down on everything . they tell a democrat, all the stuff on here. it is not right for them to spend all this money. the soldiers cannot even get paid for their suffering, or

work, but they are spending all this money so they can discredit the democrats, so they can try to get in office. in office, they don't even help everybody. spending all this money is ridiculous. it does not make any sense. he is right, he let it slip out. that is how god do, let it all come out. i have been saying this for the longest, like this other gentleman said, with condoleezza rice, bush, and everything. all these people died, and all of these poor soldiers and their wives are suffering back here. they don't want to help the poor kids, the lady, and everything. all right. we hear your thoughts this morning. a little bit more information for the caller who wanted to know how the money is being

spent, in terms of the cost of the benghazi committee. this is information from the minority ranking member, elijah cummings, on the committee. he says that the cost to taxpayers is over $4 million, the information says the theulation does not include independent accountability report, the time, resources of the agencies, or the opportunity cost of spending this money elsewhere. again, that is information from representative elijah cummings, the ranking member on the select committee on benghazi. the next caller is built from virginia beach, virginia on the republican line. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i think the bottom line is we should have had enough u.s. military in place to protect the embassy and benghazi before --

in benghazi before the terrorists ever attacked it. i think that is the fault of our leadership. the last president that i really feel proud to have had is the father, george herbert walker bush. the rest made mistakes. going into iraq was a mistake. i think it was a personal vendetta. was anghazi situation mistake because they were afraid reelection. host: all right. the next caller is dan from post idaho?indiana -- or are you from idaho? caller: yes. i agree with everyone. it is a witchhunt. they have had all these years to , so theyith something

can jump on it. the only honest gop guy they have is mccarthy, who told the witchhunt. the they said they had lowered her prouds, and he is really of it. they are afraid of her hurt, that is what it amounts to. host: some democrats have called for a shutdown of the benghazi panel. using the committee should stop its work? caller: i think it should. i think it should have stopped long ago. ultimately canat they investigate? they spent so much money that it is just to the point where it is ridiculous. they will do any kind of trick they can to try to get the presidency back. they even have the colored people in the state, where they shut down the drivers license places where they have to have a drivers license id to be able to vote. from next up is porsche

dallas, texas. what do you make of all of this? is ir: the thing about it think it is like a witchhunt for hillary clinton. they don't want a woman as president. like i said, they are trying to do her service and stuff. she has a daughter and granddaughter. republicans, they passed a law for people to carry guns. every day, somebody got killed. they should not have passed that law. the police, the security people should be the ones carrying guns. host: do you think hillary clinton should appear before the committee? caller: no. they do not want a female. they resent that because she is the top in her field of females.

.hey do not want her they are trying to discredit her so she does not become president. host: our next caller is randy from hager city, wisconsin, on the republican line. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. if hillary would not have come out in the first place, before there was an investigation, and said it was something to do with the video, maybe there would not be an investigation. she stood right up there, and everybody knows that was a lie. as far as condoleezza rice and all the other secretary of states that have had something happen on their watch, they come out and tell us that truth immediately, good or bad. they tell us exactly what happened. they are not lying. that is why there was never an investigation. as far as they think they are picking on hillary, they should be picking on whoever, anybody that comes up there and comes up with excuses about why benghazi

happen. we don't really know, other than gaddafied for security, , there is so much coming out. why c-span is having this question on here today -- we don't even know the outcome of this committee, i think whatever comes out of the committee, it will be true. i want c-span to come back and ask the same question of what were your views on benghazi, not on the committee. why don't you have on there, what are your views of hillary clinton, or the secretary of state? c-span, you are trying to drum .p fighting here you have the wrong question of your today. host: all right. our last caller for the segment will be roland from baltimore, maryland on the democratic line. you have the last word. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm so glad i finally got on the show.

republicans -- it is ridiculous how much lying they consistently do. i am more upset with democrats, from listening to it and buying it. it is hurting, of course, hillary clinton in the polls. like her husband said, a few years ago, republicans, their math skills are horrible. they want to compare benghazi four./11 -- 3000 to it has that going on so long. it is totally insane. the last day when boehner is in office, i will be in d.c. with a sign, "a liar is replacing a liar." host: all right. roland from baltimore, maryland had the last word on the benghazi committee this morning. next up, even though jobs were created last month, the

unemployment figures stayed the same. we will talk to bloomberg's mentor is still well above the jobs report, and what it says about the nation's economy. on, david shepardson of detroit news will discuss the vw ambitions scandal. on "newsmakers" this week, eliot engel will be our guest. he talked about the airstrikes in thea and iran interview, which will air tomorrow at 10:00 and 6:00 p.m. [video clip] >> the real motor is to prop up assad. i think that is clear and everything that is happening. assad has always been a client of the soviet union. he was, his father was, before him. he always had close ties to russia. it is russia's only military base in that region of the world. i think they want to prop them

up, because they know, whoever comes after him will not have the same cozy relationship with russia that assad has. is a clear that putin liar, and he is not in syria to defeat isis. he is there to keep assad in power. them a you are obviously a critic of the nuclear agreement with iran. how concerned are you that that agreement embolden iran to play a larger role in what is going on in syria? there has been speculation that the white house is more opening to the iranian role. secondly, on the nuclear deal, is congress's role in the oversight done? you failed to pass legislation earlier this year to blunt its. workingpposed to

with iran on anything in the region. i do not trust the iranian government. they are the leader and sponsors of terrorism and any part of the world. i was critical of the negotiation, and the agreement because it will put $150 billion to iran.ra its economy was worthless, they had no money, they could not help their people, but they still found money to support international terrorism. they were still the leading state sponsor of the national terrorism. if they did that, imagine what they could do now when the sanctions are lifted and they have all this money. >> "washington journal" continues. now is the tories stillwell, economics reporter for bloomberg news. she is here to talk about the job numbers that came out

yesterday. thank you for joining us. jobs inomy added 142 september, less than analysts expected. should we be worried? guest: we should maybe be a little worried. not only did jobs come in lower than expected, but also we had some downward dividends to the previous months as well. we had 142,000 jobs in september, that comes after 136,000 jobs in august, which is much lower than we originally thought. i think there are some concerns broadwhat we are seeing a bro is starting to creep over to the u.s. as well. host: the unemployment rate stayed the same, 5.1 percent. how is it that we added jobs, but the unemployment rate did not change? guest: the disappointing part of this is that people left the workforce.

going tot, people school, people taking care families. also, just people dropping out of the labor force. we will deftly want to keep an eye on this, and see if this is part of the downward trend in the labor participation rate that we have seen over the past if it is, or something to be more concerned about. host: we are changing up the phone lines. if you are a full-time worker, you can call us at (202) 748-8000 with your point of view on the health of the economy. if you are a part-time worker, you can dial (202) 748-8001. those who are unemployed can call (202) 745-8002. of course, you can also share your story and thoughts on social media. we are on twitter, the handle is @cspanwj. we are on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. you can send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org. again, i guess this morning is torilla stillwell of bloomberg news. can you talk a little bit about

where you saw any silver linings in this report? where were jobs created? on the other hand, where did we lose some jobs? guest: silver linings were very, very hard to come by. it was interesting talking to economists. they said it has been a very long time since we have seen such an uninvited is the -- unambiguously bad report, which is disappointing. insaw an increase -- a decline jobs in many fraction jobs. we did see growth and hospitality sectors, as well as retail, but even services slowed down a little bit, which is something to keep an eye on too. usually the service industry as

little more resilient. payroll growth has slowed therefore four straight months. we will want to watch that, and make sure does not turn into something worry some. host: where did you see the impact of some of the global turmoil we have seen lately in the jobs report? say we knowld .xports have been weak the dollar is stronger, so make the harder to by foreign exprts -- buy foreign orts. host: we will take some phone calls now. first is ron from minnesota, calling on the unemployed line. how are you doing this morning? caller: good. thank you, and thank you for c-span. this is about the third time i have called, and i never get a

correct answer. "job," is the word, that one hour per week work, 40 hours for a week work? can i have the definition of "job." guest: that is a good question. the jobs report divides the between full-time and part-time employees. full-time employees are working 35 hours or more, and part-time is less than that. here is the headline out of "the wall street journal," hits jobs."oil it shows the annual job growth saw 2010 two 2014, when we 260,000 jobs created each month. so far for 2015, we are only at

198,000 jobs created each month. what are some of the reasons for the slowdown? i thought the economy was supposed to be getting better. guest: that is a great point. i think what we're seeing is last year we saw amazing job growth, really amazing job growth. as the economy gets stronger, ,nd closer to full employment of maximumidea tha employment in this country. as we get closer to that, payroll growth will slow. it is not super surprising. officials think that we are getting closer to their definition of full unemployment -- full employment. there is still work to do. they have said that readily, and i think all of our callers would say that as well. there should be continued growth. host: here is a comment from twitter, the real employment

rate is still 10.3%. there is some confusion over what exactly the unemployment rate measures. there is a higher one out there. can you explain some of that for us? guest: there is a measure that may be this twitter commentor is referencing. it is basically our biggest measurement of underemployment. people who are working part-time jobs, but would prefer full-time jobs. is example, someone who available for work, but maybe has not looked for work because they do not think a job is out there for them, they are so down on the labor market and the prospects. and, lumping in all of the unemployed people, we have a measure called the u6. that is at 10%.

it is the gap between the underemployment rate and the unemployment rate that still has federal officials concerned and keeping a good, close watch on that. host: our next caller is from m illinois, calling on the unemployed line. i just think that if the congress had been working with , it is just like, if everybody decided to do things the way god would like them don, i'm pretty sure that from the young children, teenagers, on up, everybody would have a good life. i prayed to god for a change. host: let's take another caller,

and then maybe you can respond to some of the comments. this is the full-time employed line, vincent, go ahead. caller: hello. how are you? host: doing great. how about you? caller: i think the most important part that is being missed is the wage stagnation. wage stagnation has been en vogue for the last like 25 years. wages do not go of. with wages being stagnant, you do not get job mobility or to have a robust economy. discretionary spending is not what it used to be. inflation is way up, even though the government does not use the statistics. i personally think both parties, republicans, and democrats, have perpetrated this on the middle class.

while they complain that there is a war on terrorism, there is really a war on the middle class , and it is alive and well. i would like your opinion. guest: i think you raise an wagelent point about stagnation. that was borne out in the data that we got yesterday. from one month earlier, average earnings fell by one penny to $25.09. we have been tracking this very narrow channel of 2% wage growth for the entire recovery. it is not what people want to see. it is not what workers want to see. as recovery gets stronger, and the labor market gets stronger, paychecks go out. the idea is that there our availableere workers out there, and employers have to make the best bid to get

the best talent. that is not happening in this recovery. some economists say that they see very nascent signs of it. it is worry some, it definitely is. you bring up inflation. thattion figures tell us inflation is still running pretty low, 1.3%, year after year. at least we do not have that taking away every day that we see in the paycheck. a 2% increase year after year is very weak by historical standards, especially considering what workers were used to and past expansions -- in past extensions. i think it is totally normal. as a worker, i would understand the frustration. if you are not seeing your paycheck increase if you would like to. the "ft" headline saying

that "u.s. jobs data raise new rates doubts." traders now expect the u.s. central bank to wait to raise rates until march. meanwhile, this comment from twitter. the federal reserve will guest: you lay out some of the debate around the that her reserve rate. the federal reserve is considering its first interest rate hikes since 2006. it is predicated on the idea that as the economy strengthens, we no longer need his emergency-style accommodation for our economy. policy makers are trying to figure out when is the right time to do that. they do not want to do it too soon and risk choking off growth

and you will have fewer tools to work with shared growth dipped again. but they do not want to be too late on this. accommodated for too long, there is a risk they will hike inflation. though -- they are trying to find the sweet spot for timing. a majority indicated they see this liftoff happening by the end of the year. yesterday's jobs report, that became much more in doubt. there are concerns that global risks are creeping into the u.s. economy. that is something they have to watch. they cannot raise interest rates in our economies weakening. yesterday's report really shook up things. we will take another caller. we are from raleigh, north carolina on the unemployed line. good morning. caller: hello. good morning.

is with the jobs situation, the thing that i feel thise issue in america is go minorities. especially black people -- is discrimination towards minorities. especially black people. i feel we are discriminated ofinst -- i did a bit research. -- i didrch says that not want to be rude, but when is lookingrivilege to hire new employees, they will look at the first names, the area where they come from. i think that is a very big issue. when minorities get hired to work in america.

i am a single mother of four. when obama first became president, a lot of his policies did not affect me, because i am not middle class. i am a struggling parent. but it is not all about me and it is not all about -- how can i say it? it is about everybody. the poor, the middle class, and the rich. i had to realize that i cannot look at everything as personal. i have to look at the fact that obama is trying to debtor things to help everybody. to progress in america -- host: anita, we hear your thoughts. your response? guest: the data shows that there is a gap between the unemployment rate of white andicans and of black hispanic americans is very

large. we cannot explain that fully on cks anda that bla hispanics are not as good at doing their jobs or are less worthy of being hired. economists say there is some element that could be discrimination and is in some cases. my mom is also a single parent. i am from north carolina. i can pick to you -- i can picture you in my head. it is tough for you and my mom and for many americans. my mom is a factory worker in north carolina. these last few months have been hard for her. hearing your comments and talking to her and to americans that i do in my job, i know things are not as good as people would like. that has federal reserve policymakers worried as well. that is why they are trying to time this rate increase. they are trying to get this

right has they know things are hard enough out there. host: even though we are in it does not feel like a recovery for so many workers. is that primarily because of this wage issue or what would you attribute that to? guest: i would say that your paycheck is your monthly check up of the labor market for many. if you are not seeing that paycheck increase and you think it is harder to buy the same things you have always bought, that will be your most consistent reminder of the job market. for me, that is the best explanation i have of why americans do not feel like this recovery is as strong as -- perhaps in their memory. unable to work trajectory for growth. it is taking us a lot longer to we created inole

the recession. given that it was so deep. we are six years out now, and rings are still not back to where they were. is from alabama, who is employed full-time here darrell, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. ms. stilwell, one of the reasons do notns, not workers, feel like it is recovery is that more and more people are dropping out of the labor force altogether. they are not workers. but the workers know these people. for the you accounted slow down based on how much we have grown. as we get towards full employment. that was your words. given that the economy may slow down. but the words "getting towards full employment," how are we doing that when so many people are dropping out of the labor

force? is that full implement the way you measure it? a good question about the participation rate. many economists have looked at this issue. they have found that over half -- at least half, i should say, of the drop we have seen in the participation rate, during the recovery, is due to an aging workforce. , this hugeomers generation, now they are reaching retirement age. about 10,000 of them are retiring every day. our laborweigh on force. that will shrink it, unless we have an influx of new, young workers. that, growth potential will be slower in the u.s. when we are talking about full

employment, we are talking about this fictional level. there will always be people in between jobs. people who do not have the right skills for the jobs open in that moment. there will always be some frictional level. we get beforean we risk too much inflation. i would say we are getting closer with the unemployment rate at 5.1%, but we still have a bit to go. nancy pelosi tweeted this. gops report shows house must abandon calendar of chaos and order to work with dems to have timetable of progress." what is the impact of washington? host: -- guest: we will see. congress this week agreed on a

short term spending measure. the government is funded through december 11. pastf they cannot agree then, we could run into issues. said if washington, basically -- if washington would negatively affect growth in the u.s., that would be very unfortunate because we are trying to get things back on track. we want to see growth as robust as we can get it. and budget showdowns and debt limit debates are not the way to do that. in thees uncertainty business climate which could cause some to hold back in investments. they may decide i want to wait to see how this shakes out. i do not want to put money anywhere. that is not good for growth.

it is also not good from a prospective position. the water -- the rest of the world watching this play out. how the u.s. conduct itself. hopefully, congress can figure this out. sal on theis unemployed line. good early morning to you. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am trying to look at just the numbers. from what i understand, in the past five years or so, the weekly first time jobless claims have been averaging about 270,000. and the monthly job additions have been averaging about 200,000. how do we come to 5% unemployment? i am just trying to figure out the numbers.

also, if there is 49 million people receiving some form of government pay, how does that not account into the jobless? thank you. you mentioned the weekly jobless claims. those have actually been bouncing at low levels. what economists described as fictional-- frictional levels. we probably cannot get lower than the level we see each week. thatis point, a lot of reflects industry or company specific reasons these people are being laid off. it is not wholesale firing we saw during the recession. everyone cutting jobs because the man was not there. it tends to be industry-specific now. we have seen layoffs in the energy industry as oil prices

have plunged. we have seen layoffs in manufacturing. companies.big tech it is industry-specific. to changenomy wants its direction, it can deal with that as well, but most economists would argue we are at low levels of jobless claims and we probably will not get much lower than that. host: our next call is from jennifer in cleveland, employed full-time. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a two part question. i am a full-time employee, but i am calling about the american fraud, so to speak, that education is the way to go. i have three teenagers about to go to college. how do i prove to them, when i have a college degree and i am working at someplace i will not say on the air that is not in my field, because the laws changed?

is ok, goell them it to college, live the american dream but you will not get a job? the second part of my question is i have a husband who was laid off from two manufacturing companies. he has 15, 20 years of experience. he has gone on so many interviews, it is not any. and he is not getting hired because he does not have a degree. if i tell my husband, for the sake of my children, to prove this is the way to go, you have to work hard -- which he does -- if i tell my husband to go back to school, who will take care of us? they do not want to see people on welfare, on food stamps, which we have to collect, he even though we are both working full-time jobs. a say go back to college. fine. who will take care of us, who will take care of our kids? we have downsized. we moved to a smaller place.

we cut extras pure pay is not going up. jobs are going down. it is american fraud. i love americana, do not get me wrong, and i work hard for my company. my husband is discouraged. he is making way less than he is supposed to, do i say quit your job, go back to school to make these corporate people happy? say to your first question, what do you tell your kids when you are trying to explain whether or not they should go to college, we do know that, for now, the college investment still pays off, in terms of earnings. it pays off. workers will have college degrees, post secondary degrees, have a lower unemployment rate than those with high school or no high school diploma. the case for college is still to be made, but i hear you and i

is notat the economy perfect, yet. and that there is still a lot of slack. it may be harder for certain , if theirfind jobs field is not very in demand now. i would maybe offer that piece of advice to your children. do some research in addition to what your passions are. what fields out there are in doand and what industries they need workers and are willing to pay them good wages? definitely check that out. as far as your husband, i think he is seeing things that many americans have seen is that we still have a decent amount of slack in the labor market and companies are able to choose who they want. they can set expectations and have their pick. because there are so many workers out there looking for

jobs. they say "i want a worker for a job with a college degree" where 10 years a degree is not required. there are enough workers that can check that box for them that they can take that pic. until we see that slack reduce -- economists say we will not see paychecks increases until employers can no longer say i will not hire you because you do not have a college degree and this job does not require one. i would say that going back to school is a personal decision. you should decide what is right for your family. i hope those data points can help in this tough decision. we have heard a lot about the issue of long-term unemployed and the challenges they face. is that area getting better? guest: long-term unemployment situation is getting somewhat better.

i still see it as a big concern. very lowtting to levels of unemployment, and we still have extremely elevated levels of long-term underlayment. -- underemployment. policymakers are getting concerned. will these people find jobs? at what point will the worker pool be so diminished that employers say i need a body. i need someone to do this job. i will train you. we are not seeing that yet. we see employers shift the whole trading dynamic. it is now a personal problem. it used to be that companies trained their own workers and provided a stable platform for them to learn their job. has shifted in the u.s. it has become a personal responsibility. from next is lloyd

montana. go ahead. caller: i have a question. are you tracking the illegals and what jobs they are taking in this country? i worked at the unemployment office here. them.e made to register and assist them with trying to assist jobs, when we had all of these people that were local that needed the jobs. difficult topretty find data on illegal immigration , given that they tend to want to keep sort of a low paper -- suffice terms of to say, it is hard to collect data. but we know that legal immigration, at least, will be needed for this country to continue to grow. i would labor force is getting smaller and smaller, just

because of the aging i talked about earlier. so we will need legal immigration. host: when you talk about the federal reserve and its position to raise interest rates, what other factors go into that decision process? i do not know their position in trying to figure that out. but basically they want to see that we are getting closer to our goal of maximum employment. they want to know that inflation will get closer to the 2% goal they have half for it. for some out there, "why would you want inflation to go higher, why would you want prices to go up," right? but there is a decent amount every church -- there is a decent amount of research that says 2% is a good target. ands employee errors incentive to raise wages rather than cut them.

-- it gives employers and incentive to raise wages rather than cut them. host: next is mike on the full-time employed line. question, but i started listening to some of these callers. for instance, that last lady who talked about how she was told to help illegal immigrants. that is a lie, and she knows it. anydy asked her to register illegals. this is what they do to stir up -- host: do you have a comment about the jobs report? to say thank god for little mercies. thank god that we do not have a president romney. if we had the same job numbers under robin, the same situation in the stock market under romney, the very same economic

situation you have today, you have these republicans talking about he is the second coming of christ. how the job numbers have fallen. but because we have a president obama, it is all doom and gloom, how everything is so bad and on and on. thank god for the mercies. host: mike, we hear you. next is jack from oklahoma calling on the part-time worker line. caller: good morning, how are you? first, they bureau of labor statistics, there were 15,000 jobs increased. for foreign-born workers. that said, and that is irrelevant to the overall jobs situation. i am sorry, young lady, but you cannot call yourself a journalist and cheerlead about economy. this is about economy.

there are tons of people forced out of the workforce that are no longer even looking for jobs workonce -- that one to but there are no more jobs to be have. foreign-born workers are part of the problem, especially illegal foreign burn -- foreign-born workers. we also have to many ceos that do not have common sense anymore. host: jack from oklahoma. victoria stilwell from bloomberg, and economics reporter. your response? guest: if you are looking at foreign-born workers, in a lot of that reflects people we have to hire from overseas, because employers cannot find american workers to do those jobs. down to skills. when you think of tech companies hiring overseas workers to fill very niche roles, that is a lot of what we are seeing in those foreign-born workers.

the bls does not release data on illegal immigrants. we have been pretty upfront with how this economy is still nowhere where people want it. next is israel from ohio on the full-time employed line. good morning. first, i could comment on any of the subjects. my birthday is 9/11 and i worked for one of the big and one of the japanese automakers. but one thing i never hear anyone talk about is the fact that a lot of companies tosource their hiring agencies. it makes it harder for you to get a job. you have to work longer. and they take some of your pay to the town agencies. -- to the temp agencies. how does that factor into the 5.1%? temp workers are

included in the report. there is a whole category for them. agency is taking more people, we will see that. i am not sure if it is as bad as people think, but there has been temp workers. but i think a lot of people are focused on the full-time/part-time divide. next caller is steve from new york on the full-time employed line. go ahead. good morning. caller: i am sorry. just a little nervous. host: you are on the air. go ahead. caller: i think victoria made several points that really backed up the argument for lower immigration. she discussed how wages do not

rise unless there is more jobs available then there are workers. tends to argue towards reducing the number of workers and the number of immigrants. also, she mentioned that employees are less reluctant to train workers because they have a choice to choose already trained workers. argues to lower immigration to reduce the number of workers. she also mentioned with so many workers looking for jobs, it ext ends people's unemployment, like the time they are on an -- on unemployment. guest: i totally hear you. fact is we have an aging

population and that labor force participation rate is at a low was level since october, 1997 -- 1977. that is mostly because of our aging population. if that keeps shrinking, maybe we can find people to fit these different jobs. but what if they do not have the right skill sets, what if they are not a good fit, what if they would be more productive in a different job? and what happens when we reach that point and more people retire? that is why we need an influx of people into our economy to help maintain the growth we have seen in recent years and in previous with, especially birthrates falling. host: you talk about the types of jobs created in the recovery. there is talk about good jobs, are they not good jobs. of talkhere is a lot

about jobs created in this recovery as being only part-time, bad paying jobs. i would say for the first you years of the recovery, that was not necessarily completely inaccurate. -- a lot of playing low-paying jobs are being created area but we are now in the point of their coverage where we are seeing way more full-time jobs created. we are seeing job creation in business and financial services. psalm education jobs that can be high-paying. -- somey depends education jobs that can be high-paying. we are getting good numbers on the jobs being created, and they look better than when we first started in the recovery. from texas.e she is unemployed. what is your comment or question? i am call laying in

reference to how many people are terms of legalin immigrants, the refugees. how many of these are taking jobs from american people? i thought the immigration system was set up that if americans could not do the job, the skilled jobs, here at the bottom, the low, unskilled workers are the ones that cannot get a job. yet they keep bringing in unskilled workers -- host: how long have you been unemployed? caller: over three years. i have given up. i am over 50 years of age. i have two males in the household. one work six days a week, over 10 hours a day. we cannot even afford to go to the lake on the weekends. texas.herry from let's get one more caller. maurice from torture calling on

the part-time line. go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you. a couple of things. i read and article in the "new york times" the week before last. i have been wondering why you have these corporate media types, especially in the business sections, that sounded like they wanted interest rates to rise. what he uncovered is the idea that they have to pay -- they have to pay in deposits. in the banking arena. and what they are making off of the deposit shrinks when interest rates are low. second, microsoft announced last year that they were laying off 18,000 personnel, if i'm not mistaken. you mentioned the idea of

unskilled or highly skilled workers coming from foreign countries. that being the reason we are importing all of these so-called tech workers. but you look at that perspective. microsoft laying off at least 18,000 workers. and making the acknowledgment that there is a skills gap occurring. i think those things do not match up. host: we will have to leave it there because we are almost out of time. victoria stilwell, we let you have the last word. microsoft or hp laying off workers, there is facebook's and amazons and googles hiring workers and growing quickly. we have to be careful about extrapolating isolated cases across the industry. there is a skills gap. i can understand why it would be a high skilled worker to see foreign worker do an american could

do. but companies have to pass a high bar before they are allowed to outsource that work. they have to provide proof that they cannot find a person in the u.s. to do the job that they want done before they are allowed to find that out, basically. victoria stilwell, economics reporter for bloomberg news. thank you. next, the u.s. and several countries are investigating volkswagen over technology they use to get around emissions standards. david shepardson of "detroit news" will explain that. and nasa announced water has been found on mars. we discussed that with john logsdon. ♪

>> the c-span networks feature weekends for politics, nonfiction books, and american history. on c-span, with nasa's announcement of liquid there was as, discussion about the possibility -- the possibility of life on space. eastern sunday, the washington ideas for him. speakers include mitt romney and senior advisor to president obama, valerie jarrett. on c-span 2's book tv on "afterwards" martha kumar discusses her book on presidential transitions. "in-depth," weon are live with thom hartmann, who has authored several books,

including "the crash of 2016: rebooting the american dream." join our conversation. on american history tv on c-span his book "and the explore theise" we death of 13-year-old mary fagan in georgia and the arrest and lynching of jewish factory worker leo frank. and sunday at 4:00 on reel america, the 1975 federal energy administration's documentary. get our complete weekends schedule at c-span.org. "washington journal" continues. is david guest shepardson. he is the washington bureau chief at "detroit news."

thank you for joining us. explain to was exactly what volkswagen did that was illegal and how it was caught. guest: this went over a seven-year period. the company was required to pass tough where u.s. diesel emission standards. when diesel fuel burns, it it releases a lot of emissions linked to smog and other health problems. that is why the u.s. instituted these standards. in 2009, they came out with a new diesel car engine that would meet these standards. when the epa and other regulatory bodies tested these vehicles, they appeared to pass. out lateras found through testing through a couple of universities and nongovernmental organizations was that gw was using's -- vw was using sophisticated software to turn off the emissions

controls in the real world use. the higher fuel economy, better performance and acceleration, and reduced cost word in the emission control systems. because the systems are more expensive than gasoline engines. about 11 million vehicles potentially admitted millions of tons of additional pollution. in the u.s. alone, 482,000 vehicles. to $18 says vw faces up million in fines or violating the clean air act. at this point, i the company removed it ceo, installed a new one, and set aside billions of dollars to address the problem. host: how was this discovered again and does this mean they actually have the ability to control those emissions but did

not deploy it in the cars on the road? exactly. they were controlled during the testing cycle. so when it vehicles were hooked it wast, and in the lab, fine. but the software was able to determine it was a test cycle. the position of the steering wheel. that the front wheels were not moving. so the computer could determine the vehicle was testing. you may have had this in your old car, but if you're a mission start to go above the legally allowed amounts, a little sensor goes off on your dashboard. tell themputer how to sensor not to go off during real-world driving. otherwise, the emissions problem could have been determined. the way got detected was in europe, there have been high commissions reported far above what is legally required. some researchers here, call the icc t, working with west

virginia university, tested vehicles. bated real-world testing and thought initially this could not be right because they were getting much higher results. so they published a paper on this back in 2014. reported it to the epa and the california air resources board, which began investigating. up until august, the regulatory officials thought that perhaps there were some technical glitch. maybe the software was not working properly. with thewas a problem emissions control equipment. it was not until late august -- until late august that the vw when the epa would not certify the new 2016 vehicles that they had been cheating and that they did this intentionally. to hear your thoughts and comments on the emission scandal. you can call us by regional phone lines. if you are in the eastern and

central time zones, you can call (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific, (202) 748-8001. and there is a special phone line open if you are a vw owner. (202) 748-8002. you can find us on social media as well. send us your tweets. the candle is @cspanwj. leave us a message at facebook.com/cspan. or send us an e-mail at comments@c-span.org. volkswagen owns a variety of models and brands. journal" haseet this chart that shows exactly which types of cars that are hit. about you 11ys million vehicles contain software that can help them perform better in emissions test. vw cars, 5 million. audi, 2.1 million. vehicles, 1.8

million. lamborghini and porsche are not affected. is the united states the country that has taken the lead in terms of investigating and perhaps bringing any types of charges against vw? or are they being investigated in germany as well? guest: they are, but the u.s. regulators, over the last five to 10 years, have been the most aggressive in reviewing auto industry conduct. there is a lot of reporting that germany and volkswagen are too close. top officials served on the vw board. a german's on by state. this is germany's biggest company. one in seven jobs in germany is tied to the auto industry. the u.s. is the one that first

opened a criminal investigation. 30 state of generals -- 30 state attorney general's investigating as well. now regulatory agencies around the world as well. in general, the u.s. has in the most aggressive in looking at various violations by auto companies. host: what is the investigation and tail? are we at the point of criminal hearings, charges? and eventually yes. next thursday, the house will hear from volkswagen's top u.s. executive, who said they "totally screwed up" in their german words and they will pay what they have to to resolve this. there will be epa officials and perhaps other witnesses. the government's goal is to figure out why did this happen, who did it, how much did vw profit here the first step is

setting up subpoenas, which his -- which has already been done. unclear how long it will take. most like and also hired the twod d.c. law for jones day conduct an external investigation, similar to what general motors date. this has become like an arm of the government. you basically hand the government what this is our best sense of went wrong to help the onernment with a roadmap whether to charge individuals or the company. vw is likely to face what toyota and gm did, which is a very long fine. what is not clear is whether they will find criminal wrongdoing on the part of individuals. william from california calling is very early. go ahead. caller: good morning.

i have been interested in this subject or a long time. i will have two short comments and i would like short answer is, especially -- and a long answer on the second one. in california, we have strict smog control. what will happen to these people who bought these vw's and there is no resale value? number two, i bought a brand-new off of the show room for in 2014. which had two recalls already. one on the electronic brakes system, and one on some wire underneath seat. and the car does not get used to much. every morning, there is water on the windshield. i thought it was because we live in a damp climate. i took it in because i was getting disgusted with it.

it turned out they did not seal something up underneath something and they had it for three days, and now they tell it -- tell me it is ok. there has not been any more should because it is summertime. i am stuck with that cars the water comes back in winter. thank you. guest: on the resale value, there is already dozens of lawsuits filed in the u.s. and around the world. it is clear vw will have to pay for something. when the ultimate fix gets made to these cars, that the miles per gallon customers get may decline. so vw may have to pay customers for the loss of miles per gallon. -- this isious cases not the first case of cheating by an auto company or engine manufacturers in emissions standards. previously, automakers were required to take remediation steps. help retire old diesel buses

from school districts. you can imagine the settlement will likely require vw to take to reduce theps emissions, offset the emissions in place. imp-- as to the impala, quality controls and seals are issues. can file a complaint. but when in doubt, take it to your dealer. next nexus is allison -- is al, a vw owner. i have given able to target for many years. i am not interested in turning it in. you talk about damage to the environment, what about the damage to the u.s. taxpayer with with the volt?

what about the previous-- pri uses with parts from strip mines. you do not have an either/or. these people will have to get into something. there is a trade-off with everything. personally, i think it was genius, with these engineers dated. the same guy work around the software was working on the turbocharger that made it to the transmission that worked on the dashboard. there is a p -- there's a reason living bees cars. it is because they are well engineered. the guy that just called, i would be happy to buy and drive his. guest: the caller makes two good points. there is no free ride. electric vehicles, where does the electricity, from? if you are living in a state with almost all coal powered good plants, it bears some

seo to missions as well. performances, people love those vehicles, in part because the software made them work at her. better performance, better miles per gallon, because it was not easy missions. but if you live in areas with high smog and high asthma, there are a serious health effects of allowing significantly higher emissions beyond the clean air act. there is as many as 54,000 early deaths from respiratory illnesses. think it is accurate to say that by simply allowing these vehicles to pollute above the legal limit that no one is hurt by your. -- by it. host: this story in the "wall the headline is "volkswagen may not face and bar

mental criminal charges," what does that mean? guest: $37,000 per car. you multiply to get the 18 billion dollar maximum fine. but there is no specific penalty for violating the clean air act. that is because the auto industry has been in effect give in washington in lobbying to prevent adding criminal charges. especially on the safety side. the u.s. attorney in new york when it out it is not a crime to sell a defective vehicle without some sort of bad intent. there are other statutes prosecutors could use. misleading the government. lying to government investigators. the in makes it difficult because there is not a specific statute. this is renewing calls to remove that. is there the possibility vw could face criminal charges

overseas? yes.: german prosecutors are looking at that at well. part of it is where did this take place? and were suppliers involved? a long way from determining who, where, what, when went wrong here. the hearing next week may be the first indication of what things are taking place. host: rahm is calling from new jersey. go ahead. caller: this is a case of software consciously put in to the vehicle. and someone actually tested that the software worked by making trials. up epidemicting proportions. this, in myis, mind, is the same scale of the cheating done by enron.

how can this company be allowed to survive when it indulges in this kind of behavior? host: -- volkswagen is currently the largest auto company. it has more than 100 plants. in the u.s., vw has struggled. they less than one per -- they so less than 1% of their cars in the united states. plans thatve growth have not been successful as they hope. to keep theirgle brand reputation, but they have a loyal following. there is about 5 million vw owners in the u.s. people who have these vehicles love them. host: this is the cover of the "economist." datarticle includes some that shows the stock price of a

volkswagen has fallen dramatically. take a look. here are prices from september. fallen looks like more than about half. more than half. can you tell us a little about the impact of this had on the company and its workers. can we expect to see layoffs? what is the impact on workers in germany? the ceo steps down, they hired a new one. i think the company is realizing this could be a bp style ultimate settlement, in terms of the deepwater horizon. their initial settlement may not be enough. there is a lot of reports that they may have to sell assets. to raise money. they have about $30 billion in cash equivalent on hand. going toare likely not go out of business. this is a large and important company around the world.

-- the number one seller of cars in germany and other european markets. but it will be expensive and painful. they will have to take significant steps to deal with the financial consequences. ist: is ribby reputational-- the reputational damage to vw spreadingage to to other automakers? guest: i think there is a broader issue. the part ofer on owners, because many bought these cars because they wanted to be green. and they paid more. people paid more than the sticker price because they were in high demand. and tax credits were worth about $50 million. is nots anger, but there

the type of anger or maybe urgency that you saw with some of the safety scandals with toyota or gm, where people were worried about am i driving a safe car? these cars are safe to drive. the epa will not take your car to the garage because you're eating too much emissions? the question is do i have to get rid of my diesel and by a buy a toyota -- prius or other clean vehicle. thank you, c-span, for your wonderful programs. david, thank you for being on the program. that provided the software to allow may fracture vehicles. the but with humanity, we always try

to cheat everything we do. profile ofchological people. if you think about all of the controls around the world. .n america, with the irs everything is controlling us. you mentioned it does not harm anybody. i think you need to look to europe. theseis over 50% of vehicles sold that are diesels. the pollution from these vehicles in the city is killing people. you can read lots of reports about this. i will go back to ralph nader. this is nothing new. it will be corrected over time. american care industry and a european car industry move ahead. thank you for your program. guest: the caller is absolutely right about europe. this began assons because of europe. their standards have been

getting increasingly tough. for diesel. but the emissions are much higher than you would expect, based on the emissions standards under law. and air quality is very bad in large european cities, in part because they have about 50% diesel vehicles versus less than 1% here. in the aggregate, these omissions are dangerous. they have a significant public health problem. the fact that you're one car is a mating more emissions, there is no impact on that person's family or health. host: du have a sense of how you may be able to quantify the excess of emissions emitted since the technology was allegedly put in place in vw's cars? how harmful was it? it was not one set amount they were committing. it was anywhere from 10 to 40

times admitted. also how many times is the car driven. at the 11an looked million figure and said it could be as much as one million tons of additional emissions. but until we see more, we will not see the full scale. but as part of any settlement, the w will have to take steps to quantify and offset emissions. host: michael from north carolina is a vw owner. what do you think? vw, but myo own a thing is the fixing of the emissions problem, you will lose about 10 to 15 miles per gallon from vw is what is on the paper. car, youhasing that paid about $10,000 extra for the diesel engine. with the repair and fix, does

that mean you would eat probate be probated that price back? and with the gas mileage, with they reimburse you with the gas that you bought? would you buy another vw after learning about the scandal? caller: i would. it does not change the fact that the cars are great cars. they are wonderful. they drive and handled great. i just feel like this is one of the bumps in the road that you just have to roll with. it does not change my perspective on the cars. i love the cars. a be the company or the guy running them is not the most straightforward, but that happens a lot. that is a perfect example of why vw may survive this. the company has loyal owners. the only thing i can say is that the estimates i have seen is probably not tend to 15 miles

per gallon less. maybe time percent 15% less. that may be high as well. host: what is a diesel car tend to get? get tomany of these about 40 miles per gallon. this was back when 40 was the magic number. i think he is right that there are going to be a lot of cost. we do not know the answers to the questions. we do not know if they will pay for the lost and pg. there was a prior scandal where theiri and kia overstated mpg. they did we pay the owners. that is it possible settlement. next is tom from

pennsylvania. go ahead. good morning. $2.2estion involves the billion fine that will be leveled against volkswagen. it,e they already admitted and they have implications and the good, could that money be channeled towards development of alternatives? automobiles with alternative fuel sources? could that money be directed to a company like tesla tempering down the price for their automobiles? iso, as far as volkswagen concerned, i am sure the german government will bail them out in some way. , our autoally industry will be bailed out by our government. instead of hiring regional conferences for pa executives

for using that money, could that money be, right now, directed towards developing the automobile industry, for both americans and germans? guest: that money would buy a lot of teslas, wouldn't it. we do not know what volkswagen will pay. set asidew is a money. they told shareholders this is we willy we anticipate have to pay. the caller raises a good point somesome prior -- that in prior settlements, money has been set aside for research. it is unlikely the settlement will involve giving money to tesla, but to the point of may be vw doing more on electric vehicles -- and the company has said they are spending tens of billions of dollars to build electric vehicles.

so that may include vw speeding those efforts up. here is a treat firm representative tim murphy. slack and at seems dirty little secret." of?you give us a preview the here next week? ? there are a lot of members who feel strongly that there ought to be a level playing field. i think you are going to get a lot of different -- difficult questions about the top u.s. executive who was unclear on what he was doing because the company has removed people. it will be interesting if he can give answers as to why this happened.

they have asked for documents that they are not getting until the middle of october. in the case of gm it has gone on for six months or a year and i would not anticipate, given the that there are a lot of prosecutors and agents, i can't imagine that this would be wrapped up on the early side given the complexity of the investigation. next color is ken from new york who is also a vw owner. go ahead. caller: i have a question. thisthis president, with , that is what is killing our industries throughout the country. he wants to kill the car industry. he wants to kill everything. host: all right. say that one of president obama's first acts in

office was to add $60 billion to do it u.s. auto bailout and save general motors. one of his top achievements was the saving of the u.s. auto industry and the fact that auto sales last month rent a 10 year high. the president has been to countless auto plants. certainly they want more green cars they want to reduce admissions -- emissions. they have spent a lot of time working to boost the u.s. auto industry. host: let's talk about some of the other auto acres here -- , the number of vw cars that might be affected. there was also a headline about fiat failing to report out or deaths -- auto deaths. guest: it has been a rough few years. in the case of fiat chrysler, they were ordered an

investigation earlier this summer for failing to possibly recall vehicles in 23 separate campaigns. they were called in for a brutal public hearing where the problems relate out, including not getting replacement parts for months, in some cases over a year. not notifying the government or consumers in a timely fashion. at the end of july fiat chrysler agreed to a record-setting hundred $75 million penalty. it includes money towards helping some consumers by other vehicles or retiring be a calls that had been waiting for repairs. in the meantime, it has now emerged that the chrysler failed to turn over a significant number of death and injury reports. in the wake of the ford firestone scandal, where there were deaths linked to tires on ford suvs, companies are

required to turn over early warning data, deaths, injuries, worried he claims, to help regulators find these problems earlier. the problem was, free social socialhis -- free --pre media these problems the not emerge for over 18 months. reportedreason as we there was a problem with how fiat chrysler was mining the data from their database and submitting it. they were not turning the data over, so now they are holding another investigation and this has caused -- the transportation secretary anthony fox to say, enough is enough. he is trying to call all the auto companies down to the carpet and saying we as regulators should get honest answers. it is not easy to regulate entities that are not being

straight with the government. host: next color is melissa from california. -- next caller is melissa from california. you are on the air. caller: i am calling because i spent a few years with the department of clean energy. i was able to learn amazing likes about things hydrogen hybrid technology. you can save not only the omissions in fuel costs, but also maintenance costs. people don't know this. people don't know a lot of things. there is a good reason people don't trust the automakers and even the government. they are supposed regulate emissions and pollutions, but you're telling people that they are allowed to get away with something that they don't have the right to do. people have lost trust in not just the auto industry but the organizations in the government bodies that are supposed to be regulating the auto industry. it is not just the auto

industry. this goes on and on in government corruption. but specifically with vehicles. kodak went under, biden that -- the coda went under, why didn't that money go to coda? there are so many things that still, gas vehicles -- there were options. when i hear conversations like this and when i hear about what happened it is wrenching to me because i understand the totality of the situation. i really wish that there were more options and more information available to people so they note that -- host: ok melissa. david talking with shepardson. what are the options out there

for people who want to have a more energy-efficient cars? guest: one of the things is, there are other options. hybrids and have fibers. if you want to get 50 miles per gallon, if you want to drive mostly electric, there are a lot of good deals, in part because gas prices are so low. electric vehicle sales are down about 20% this year and auto companies have been forced to offer significant price cuts to get people to buy these vehicles on top of the tax credit of $7,500. so there are a lot of options out there. auto companies are spending a lot of money building these vehicles, in part because california is requiring zero emission vehicles, a rising number of them over the next 10 years. it is not a lack of options. although there are certainly some of those vehicles that are only sold in california. but it is also the fact that low

gas prices, people are concerned. said, people have the right to pollute. unfortunately everything we do causes pollution, certainly electric vehicles are far better , generally speaking, than a gasoline engine. a society people have to decide how much do you value not polluting versus the price of gasoline. if the price of gasoline is lowered people are more likely to buy larger, inefficient vehicles. host: and you could see that in last months auto sales reports. absolutely. there is a huge shift going on, away from cars towards crossover vehicles which are suv like vehicles built on a car platforms. automakers are really concerned that we see the forecast and oil prices may remain are they are,

but are people going to keep shifting out of cars towards suvs, pickup trucks, and crossovers? those vehicles are admitting significantly more pollution and do use more gas. who is a vw owner, go ahead. we want to hear your thoughts. caller: good morning. i am a former automotive engineer. now i do policy work. you can imagine i have been keeping a really close eye on this issue. i thought maybe out get a comment. gm that has, unlike very limited ability to impose fines, this is epa. epa has a history of putting people in jail. this could be the problem. is, how much point

leverage does vw have down in chattanooga? they have a huge plant in there. there is an implied threat that if you give us a hard time, that plant could become a liability. but on the other hand, if they have been incorporating this into vehicles being built, that makes this a domestic possibly criminal issue. it is not like the cars were imported. my volkswagen was built in mexico. it is not like the cars are being imported into the country. this is something perpetrated within the united states. which means that not only brings in the federal, but also tennessee authorities. host: all right. guest: i agree with a lot of what the caller said. certainly he is right that the vehicles are built here. there is no question that the justice department has jurisdiction to bring a criminal

investigation. it raises a good point. there is a reason auto companies ine been so culpable washington. there are a huge number of jobs at auto plants. when an auto company does governmentrong, the is very reluctant. they don't want to put these companies out of business because a lot of people work for them. they had no idea. they did not know the software that was in there, the folks in chattanooga assembling these cars. the caller also raises a good point about bpa. .- about the epa the maximum fine is potentially $18 billion, it could even be more pending on how you read the statute. for general motors for not recalling 2.6 million vehicles, the maximum fine that they could impose was $35 million. now the administration would like to see that.

ultimately it was the justice department that was able to find gm $900 million using the criminal statutes. clarify, $18 billion. , versus 300 million. so it was 900 million that they find gm, and ultimately they paid over $2 billion. that includes the civil penalties. could be paid $18 billion that does not even count for violating the clean air act. host: pam, also a vw owner. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my

call. we were so disappointed when we .ook our car that we had bought we spent more to buy enough for my son who is in college and he has to go back and forth to school quite regularly. also at the time of purchase we asked, you know, we are not familiar with diesel, is it a clean vehicle? i went out to the dealership some handholding and instead i was almost forcibly they would have liked to forcibly ushered me off the lot and they gave me an 800 number. i suggested that we sit down and

call the number together at which point the end lady unfortunatelyat no one could take my trade-in but i would be happy to know that i could sell the car to someone if they would buy it. host: pam, would you buy another vw? point weell, at this have to german cars. one is sitting in the front yard because it is a vw that needs to airbags but they don't have any to give us and so the airbags only could possibly explode and kill someone when driving down the street. so i'm sitting here with to airbags. to answer your question, maybe if we had been treated with any all, when heesy at went to humbly ask relate can do about it. at this point absolutely not. host: we have to leave it there.

we are going to get one more color in and then let david shepardson response. just for maryland is our last caller. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for excepting my call. this. want to comment on it really is difficult to really try to come up with a sort of a decision, how to really address when it is hard to come in for more of a conservative thought process versus more of a liberal thought process. respond to these things? how do we keep companies in line that say they're going to do one thing and when they don't i understand that there is oversight. if we don't know what they're doing and we don't care to, because we are too much on political talking points, it just gets difficult. it really baffles me that we are surprised that a company that is to-profit tries to find ways

get more profits. host: all right. david shepardson? caller'srst to the point about the dealership. she is right. vw does not have a fixed yet. they are going to have to recall them. it might be a mechanical fix. and to the second caller, there is a long history of cheating in the auto industry. in fact in the 1990's, the seven largest heavy-duty deal -- diesel manufacturers admitted to widespread cheating and paid $1 billion to reduce emissions. auto companies in the past, many have admitted to installing devices that she emissions requirements. there are a lot of incentives to cheat, and that is why the government, when they find you cheating comes down so hard. a want to deter the rest of the industry from bad behavior. , thankavid shepardson you so much for being here.

says there is water on mars, but is there life and what does that mean for future at lucian of the red planet? john logsdon will explain when "washington journal" continues. and all we can law we are featuring the history of santa rosa cap -- santa rosa, california. coming up today at noon on willv, local authors discuss santa rosa, including a visit to the ranch where jack london wrote "white fang." jack london was one of the most famous authors in the world at the time. authorthe highest-paid in the world, getting $.10 or $.12 per word. he was translated into language after labors. people thought his writing compelling. he was deeply concerned about the human condition, and much of what he wrote about, well it may have seen on the surface like

,tories about dogs or the yukon were often about the state of humanity and his concern for humankind. >> we are on jack london path beautiful ranch, also known as the ranch of good intentions. this is where he lived until his death in 1960. the entrance to the cottage provides people with sort of a overview of his life. there are a lot of pictures on the walls. they can get a sense of jack london in the 19 -- in 1905 to 1960. as they walk through they will see the original study that he worked in, and then they will see the room you're are in now which is a much larger study that he created after the house burned to the ground. ♪

>> with her experience married to a five-star general, first lady maybe eisenhower knew his -- new how to manage a large staff. her favorite color of pink, which was affected in her wardrobe and corrugated and accessories. she was voted one of the nations first best -- best dressed. maybe eisenhower, this sunday night at 8:00 em eastern on c-span's original series, first influence and image. examining the public and private lives of the women who filled

the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency. martha washington to michelle obama. sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. "washington journal" continues. host: our next guest is john founder of is the the space policy institute at george washington university. he is also a proud -- professor emeritus of science at gw. they do so much for being here. aboute going to talk whether or not life can be supported on mars. us and made a big announcement this week. what did they find out? what theyerhyped found. we have known that there was water on mars for a long time, water and frozen form. what this announcement was is evidence of liquid water, some of the time, some of the places on mars.

there are not swimming pools up there. this is basically wet sand, and what was detected were minerals, perchlorate salt that was liquefied and the only way to liquefy it was with flowing water. this is not a direct detection of liquid water. it was the result of liquid water. host: so the presence of liquid water. guest: exactly. nasa these days ties everything to a journey to mars. illing this a mars mystery think with a bit overstated, but yes, a significant discovery. host: so if we have known that there is water on mars for a wild, why is this particular finding so interesting? water and frozen form, why is that more interesting than water in any other form? guest: there is this sense that

water equates to life. host: follow the water. guest: follow the water is the strategy on nasa on mars and has been for the last 15 years. they are looking or where water is because of the notion that where there is water there is the potential for life, for habitability. so finding evidence of water in liquid form, it is just one more step in that process to discovery. host: and what is the likelihood do you think that there might be some kind of life on mars? guest: who knows. it is a profound discovery either way. first of all, it is not going to be little green men. the question is whether there are microbes or some very basic form of life that has emerged with the carbon there, with water there.

these are the conditions in which life can emerge. if life is on to run-of-the-mill planets in one solar system, the chances are that it is a fairly common phenomenon in the universe. then wen't find it, keep looking other places. times"n "the new york the reporter kenneth james wrote about the nasa discovery and included this quote from the director of nasa's limitary science -- planetary science division, who said, that life exists beyond her? we now have i think great opportunities in the right location on mars to thoroughly investigate that. that represent a shift in tone for nasa where officials have repeatedly play down the notion that nasa -- mars could be inhabited. what is nasa's ultimate goal in terms of exploration of mars? ultimate goal the

for nasa, and we have to go beyond them a little bit, but for nasa it is really to of mars.d all aspects it is a very interesting place to explore, and the bottom line question is are there life forms? is there life now or was there ever life on mars? to find another life form this close in the universe would be a very profound discovery. host: we want to open the phone lines to you. you can ask your question or share your thoughts and comments with john logsdon, he is the founder of the planetary society at george washington university. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, call us at (202) 748-8000. metro-north --imagine or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. you can send us a tweet or a text message, or on facebook. you can also send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org.

obviously these types of emissions and discoveries come with a big price tag. do you have any sense of how much this discovery cost? guest: not very much in the sense that it comes from a i am blanking on the right name -- the mars hasnnaissance orbiter which been orbiting around mars for a number of years. earth analyze this data. this comes from an analysis of data over a. of years. you are talking about tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. but this is not billions of dollars. host: for the analysis. guest: for the space plan? it launched some years ago. mro is af i remember, half-billion dollar -- it is a

medium-sized robotic mission. the rover on the surface of mars with a $2 billion plus mission. relatively, in day-to-day terms, expensive things. but in terms of a space program costs, these are not very expensive undertakings. even so, do you think this is the right way for nasa to be spending even a medium-sized amount of money? guest: what is nasa for? it is for discovery. i think this is precisely the sort of thing that government space agencies should be doing -- exploration, science, discovery. addressing questions that have fascinated humans forever. like are we alone? this is exactly what nasa should be doing. host: let's take our first

caller, that will be carl from seattle, washington. you are on the air. caller: good morning. regarding human space travel to mars, i understand that with the radiation they would be subjected to, there is no technology that could be transported along with the people to protect them from radiation. the mortality rate would be unacceptably high on such a mission. can you speak to that? guest: i can. it is a little bit of an old impression you have. done has been enough work on radiation dosage and radiation yielding -- fielding to move the question from a showstopper, you can't get to mars without getting fried by radiation, to kind of an ethical question. is the dosage that you are likely to get acceptable to the person that is going to get a?

people too expose ?hat degree of radiation that is an ethical question. a question for government policy. to heal tolity radiation is pretty well established by now. host: we are speaking with john to clarifyjust want that you are the founder of the space policy institute located at george washington institute. can you give us a sense of what mars is like as a planet? what is the temperature, what is the terrain? what do we know already? guest: mars is overall a dry place. it has a very thin atmosphere. it has about one third the gravity of earth. it is not without gravity.

place except during march. it has seasons. during summer apparently in the places where this liquid flow has been identified, the toperature can get up to 50 70 degrees fahrenheit. but most of the time it is very cold. it has mounted higher than everest. it has canyons deeper than the grand canyon. it is a world with all kinds of terrain. if one goes to see the new movie, "the martian," it is a pretty good representation of what mars looks like. host: our next color is jack from michigan, go ahead. caller: yes. i am saying that the planet earth is about 60% covered with water. why is it we are not finding about 38,000 new life forms per

week? well, where is the number 38,000 coming from? we are still finding a lot of new life forms on both land and water. biologists, botanist are finding both animal and plant life all the time. what is interesting is the evolution of life forms. this planet has been covered with water for hundreds of thousands of millions of years, and various lifeforms have evolved. mars lost its surface water a long time ago, so there has not been the opportunity for lifeforms to evolve there. host: let me just clarify. you are saying that mars lost

its water source, as opposed to maybe it is developing a water source? this is a water remnant that we are seeing. guest: i think there is a pretty broad consensus that mars once had oceans. system, is in the solar the water evaporated. the atmosphere evaporated. mars may once have been a fairly lush place, early on in the history of the solar system. and have evolved into a place with frozen water but otherwise dry. host: so an appropriate question that is, did there used to be life on mars? guest: well yes. it is more likely that there used to be life than there is now. mars in the past was probably a more congenial place for life to emerge that it is to support life now. host: let's listen to nasa chief scientist alan stokes and --

it. -- ellen stoped [video clip] >> i think that is what now that has developed by saying we do need is on the ground. i think it is completely doable. , of coursetime continuing our robotic expiration like we are doing with the mars 2020, with the europaissions -- the missions. i don't think it is an either or. research, do biology and certainly synthetic recent -- synthetic biology is an expanding field at this time. i think all those things that help us refine those questions help us move forward. nasa's chieft was scientist testifying at a recent hearing on capitol hill. we are speaking with john she said boots on

the ground by 2030. do you think that is realistic? 30's. she said in the 20 that is a 10 year time span. you mentioned i am a board member of the planetary society which is the largest citizen advocacy in the entire world. we released a report talking about humans orbiting mars as a .tep to landing on mars the first landing mission would be 2039. he would have asked rep orbiting mars and perhaps visiting the martian moons in the early 2033., maybe that is a particularly good time to go from earth to mars. given the continued funding of nasa stoppedf

funding the international space station at $3 billion a year sometime in the mid-20 20's, yes, we can sit -- we concluded it is doable. there are plans that could get us to mars in the 20 30's. host: our next color is catherine from new hampshire. go ahead. caller: good morning. i have a question and then i had an idea. you know, we have so many strange things in the universe like black holes. are there such things in the universe as whirlwinds? away thed have carried soil and the atmosphere in the planets weree formed early in our solar system? whirlwindsr heard of , but it would not surprise me. , my idea ising is

not only have robots there, but send it 3-d printers that the robots could run. facilitiesset up the for the arrival of humans eventually. idea, ands a nice let's go back first to the whirlwinds. there are no whirlwinds because there is no air to be wind between the planets. after all, space is basically a vacuum. there is stuff there but not very much stuff. there is one theory. one of the things that the solar system is full of is collisions, of things banging into one another. there is a suggested that life may have been on mars. mars collided with some object.

it thrust pieces of mars off the surface and some of it landed on earth. guest: is this -- host: is this the bill nye the science guy theory? guest: it is not his theory but he likes it. there are serious people, i as ade mr. nine -- mr. nye serious person, who believe there is a serious possibility that we are martians. the earth life evolved from fragments of stuff that came from mars. i don't have any basis for saying how likely that it, but the solar system is a lively place. it is not wind, it is things banging into one another and scattering material. it is, it's coming through, some colliding. comments may be carrying lifeforms because a lot of them have a lot of carbon on them and moisture. they come in from the cloud out beyond pluto.

this is fun. one theory says that it is comments that kid -- comments -- lifeformsat carry and when they collide with earth that is where life came from. i am certain they collided with mars. 3-d printing is a fascinating new technology. whether it could make structures toge enough to be useful crews arriving on mars i don't know. i know the people who like 3-d printing are working on issues like that. that is not a wild idea. host: next up jeff from alabama. what is your question or comment? supporterhave a big of the space launch system. i think some of the planetary are chain-smoking.

right now if you want to have anything even remotely like what you see in the movies, you need to have larger launch vehicles. the reason these vehicles get ahead of us is they have the philosophy -- this philosophy of don't over think the payload just make the rocket maker. nasa hashazmat to -- met ugly resistance. ,ome of these anti-nasa antigovernment libertarians who think elon musk is going to save the world. how many heads did build i have to crack to get these people to start understanding that we need government lift if you're going to put anything out there besides a toy? heads isll cracking kind of funny, and you are from alabama, which is where this space launch system is based.

huntsville. i think there is an emerging dosensus that we cannot things like send humans to mars without a big rocket, kind of like the saturn v we used to go is ae moon, and the sls big rocket currently under development, scheduled for an initial launch in three years ,ith a kind of dummy payload not a crew aboard. out allknow how to sort of the things that one could respond to in your comment, but i think that -- well, for example, you mentioned mr. nine -- mr. nye. i have a lot of interaction with the bill. there are off

skeptical of the value of it and has come around because he recognizes if we are going to do ambitious martian missions, we need a heavy launch vehicle and that is when we have got. sean in tampa florida is up next. go ahead. caller: how are you doing? host: we are good. what is your question? caller: it's not a question so much as a statement. i heard them talking about going to mars and radiation and whatever. weas wondering why haven't colonized the moon and i heard them speaking again about people orbiting mars like in the movie believe him -- in the movie "e lysium." do you think that would really be possible, to make an atmosphere like that that would orbiting planet? guest: let's see. why haven't we colonized the mood?

well, we stopped sending people ,o the moon in december of 1972 which was a decision made by richard nixon that after apollo we were not going to continue to explore. we were going to stay in lower orbits near our home planet. we are now in the process of reversing the decision and beginning finally outward movement away from the immediate vicinity of the arts. 2010, said we are going to skip the moon. been there done that. our goal is mars. there are people, and i think i am one of them, who think skipping the offshore island as we move out into the solar system is not a great idea. nasa is very careful. i mean they work for mr. obama. mr. obama says skip the moon, nasa can't say no. there is no money in the budget

to build a moon ranger. so what nasa is saying is we are building a big rocket. we are building the orion spacecraft which was designed for a lunar mission. if someone else build a lunar lander we would be glad to work with them to do a joint mission back to the moon. i hope that sometime in the 2020's that possibility emerges. i don't know the movie "elys ium." you do it inside a closed environment, inside a small space station. you have the artificial environment in which humans could survive. mentioned, aou partner who might build a moon lander. what is the role of private industry in space exploration? guest: there are some entrepreneurs that are very interested in doing things on the moon.

programs,some robotic privately funded -- one of them thinks that they are going to launch a lander to the moon in two years, in 2017, on a privately funded basis and use that as a buildup to large-scale private activity, resource extraction, making rocket fuel on the moon. there are lots of ideas. entrepreneurial, commercial activities using lunar resources. mars, different question. spacex is aead of visionary and wants to die on mars. he's foundedasons spacex which is at this point

building rockets and cap feels to go from earth to the space station is that he will has has wanted to go to mars and found that there were no inexpensive enough transportation systems. ultimately that is what he wants to build. he is not doing that for money. he is doing that for his vision, and there are people like that. they are so taken by this vision of spreading humanity that they are willing to put their money behind it. iether it is enough money -- think has to be done in partnership with government, myself. host: our next caller is steve from california. what is on your mind. question.have a it might be a little bit out of your field, but maybe not. does it irritate you in the slightest that in spite of things like the visual , andings, the crop circles

especially the way the u.s. government has reacted with blackout documents that the ,liens, extraterrestrial life is here and has been here. you control in the ancient stone structures that we have no idea how they built these things. i am talking about the ones down in south america that definitely were not made with chicken bones . it is obvious to me, especially if you have seen the series "ancient aliens" that they have been here for a long time. host: all right. guest: i guess we can't get through a space segment without this kind of "they are here already" questions. host: we are all martians. guest: or from vulcan. i have no comment on that. there are a series of things

that can be explained as alien intervention. there are excavations for almost all them. i am a skeptic. but i don't say it is impossible. who knows? host: next up nancy from kansas city, kansas. no ahead. caller: hi. i am not really a very good person with science, but i saw that venus was closer to earth and i wondered why we are exploring mars and not a planet that might be closer. am i right about that? guest: well, let's say two things. one, venus is closer to earth and sometimes, but given the orbit if it is on the other side of the sun it is far away. the same is true with mars. sometimes mars is closer to earth, other times if we are on one side of the sun and is -- it is on the other, we are very far

from each other. the problem with venus is it is covered with clouds and the temperature is about 700 degrees. that is a little too hot for even spacecraft to survive for any length of time, much less people. it is just a very hostile place. there have been a few kind of radar probes that have explored mars, being able to see through the cloud layer. it is a rocky planet with terrain, with mountains and all of that. but it is just a place that is a very -- that is very hostile fright or their machines to end up. post""the washington reported on this study. they said the red planet has been fooling us for nearly a century. there is not seasonal vegetation. the viking mission in 1976 initially produced positive

results for humans looking for life. by carl sagan eventually concluded that the service is there i'll. methane in sign -- the martian atmosphere but no one knows if it is biological or nonbiological. they are as sure is good science can be. let's say a couple things at the same time that that same article talked about. did nasa time its release to the "these of the martian -- martian" movie. this was a paper reporting on science over a number of years that was going to be presented at a planetary science conference in france this week, and nasa wanted to get out in front of that presentation. sure they were where the movie was coming out. i think they overhyped what this

was about. science works slowly. that usingported was spectroscopic observation from the mars reconnaissance orbiter there was evidence that the dark streaks called recurring --these streaks on mars canyons were characterized by a particular mineral that has been liquefied, and the only way to liquefy it was was flowing water. that paper, in order to be presented and publish, was reviewed by a number of peers. that is an science works. it is as sure that you can be until the next discovery gives you an alternate explanation. host: we found the rsl acronym.

slope with a -- linea. let's turn back to the phone, don from pennsylvania is on the line. go ahead. caller: listen. we have to get back to reality here. we are nowhere near the technology to go to mars. it is too far. what propulsion do we have? closest approach you are talking about a year trip. guest: right. well, let's start with the reality that there are lots of spacecraft, robotic spacecraft, at mars on the martian surface and orbiting mars. they got there. so we clearly have the propulsive capability to send payloads the martian distance if we are willing to wait, as you say, nine months or so between launch and arrival.

once you get something moving fast in close vicinity to the earth, there is nothing to slow down. they just go. he don't accelerate. if you have nuclear rockets or some kind of plasma rocket where you could get constant acceleration, you could get to mars in a few weeks. but we don't have that yet. it would be a nice thing to have but there is all this phobia about nuclear propulsion. current take a rocket we are building and the new upper stage called the exploration upper stage, we can accelerate a human carrying spacecraft to a speed where it can get to mars in let's say, nine months. thatroblem is making sure

they don't kill one another or have social disruption. we are doing an experiment. after all there are two people, one american astronaut, scott kelly, and one russian cosmonaut that are spending a year on the international space station ofcisely to get some sense the physical and social aspects of long-duration spaceflight. we are working on this stuff. host: a question from twitter. if we find life on another planet, what then? guest: well, what then is we recognize that life on earth is not unique. what that does for religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, we are not going to find -- probably -- intelligent life in this solar system. that goes back to a question about aliens earlier. if there are aliens coming from

andide our solar system -- again, i don't want to go down that route -- i think philosophically the recognition that life has evolved in more than one place is fairly profound. it -- well,with first you say if there is life .n mars they are head scientist talked about a planned mission to the moon of jupiter. has an under the ice liquid ocean. maybe there is life there. is potentially habitable places on several modes of saturn. we continue to explore. if we find life it says keep looking. host: next on the phone is ari

from georgia. what is on your mind? caller: i have been fascinated with space expiration all my life. i think the money spent on these missions could be better spent on self-aware artificial intelligence and robotics been on space science. guest: well, that is a perfectly legitimate point of view. satisfying that we send our machines, we said even self-aware machines which are kind of scary -- will we as a some species, or at least cultures that have exploration as part of their culture, will we be satisfied to send our machines and not go ourselves? that is a very legitimate question.

because yes, space is a hostile environment. we are not involved to operate in the environmental conditions of outer space. it is expensive. it is risky to send people. it is a social choice whether we want to do it are not. i think we should. thing --first television i saw was the armstrong 11. i would like to see that happen again. host: next up bill from decatur georgia. go ahead. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. caller: with respect to the prospect of permanent colonization, is it known what a gravity does to fetal gestation? guest: the short answer is no.

you want to do a lot of extreme ontion -- experimentation not advanced -- not advanced mammals in that environment before you start talking about people being conceived and born, coming to a different environment. but first of all, will the martian settlement somehow provide artificial gravity? probably not. that would be too tricky. , that iso understand absolutely the kind of research we need to fund. i don't likeady -- the word colonize, by the way. i think settle is a better word. leaving this planet and settling somewhere else. whether we do that are not depends on whether there is something useful to do, whether there is good science.

whether there is some economic orefit of being there species survival benefit. there are a lot of reasons to think about this, but there is a lot of research to be done. follow thelked about water in terms of space expiration, looking for life. but is it possible that there is life that does not require water to live? might like to look very different from our own, and had we find that? guest: yes. it is possible. we are kind of a product of our own existence. we are carbon-based and water-based, and so it is easier for us to think that other life forms have those requirements in order to evolve. there could conceivably be life on saturn with a totally different chemistry. how do we look for? -- how do we look for it? almost by accident i think. you can't design experiments to

look for things when you don't understand what those things are. will find, conceivably, some evidence of something going on. and then design ways of figuring out what that is. we are a very ingenious species, the human race. we have learned a lot through our science. of george logsdon washington university and the planetarium society. think you so much for joining us. that concludes our chauffeur today. please join us tomorrow. "washington journal" will be featuring paul brandes, he will be talking about russian airstrikes against syria. we will also be talking with "the christianom science monitor." and we will be talking with angela stent about russia. we will see you then.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] c-span, aup today on house hearing on life and space, and the recent discovery of water on mars theory that is followed by canadian party leaders debating the country 's foreign policy. later, some speeches from the ukraine, palestine, and israel. announced that there were signs of water on mars. the house science committee held a hearing shortly after the announcement with the agency's chief scientist at experts on

the subject. this is one hour and 40 minutes. sing the potential of life on other planets and the recent discovery of liquid water on mars. lamar smith chairs this hour and 40 minute hearing. >> science space and technology will come to order. without objection the chair is ordered to declare recesses of the committee at any time. welcome to today's hearing, astrobiology and the search for life beyond earth in the neck decade. let me make a couple of announcements. one is to say we expect more members shortly but at least on the republican side, all of our members are in the republican conference that i left early in de