a talk on plastic bags and wet prohibitionists get to wrong the on them. ♪ morning, everyone. it is wednesday, november 4. the house yesterday began debating and voting on a multiyear highway bill that included an extension of the import-export bank. lawmakers will be able to offer numerous segments which will consume today and tomorrow -- numerous amendments. bill is the speaker's first test on whether he can keep the republicans united on the massive bill. some republicans remain skeptical. they are giving mr. ryan high

marks for his decision not to pursue conference of immigration reform while president obama is in office. .emocrats, 202-748-8000 republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can also join the conversation on twitter or facebook. you can also send us an e-mail. we will begin with usa today's editorial board and their view -- leaving paul ryan nearly everyone frustrated and angry. influxes of undocumented immigrants continued to strain schools, hospitals and other services.

the speaker of the house told his republican colleagues that he would not pursue immigration behind closed doors. at the firstay republican leadership news conference with the new speaker, here's what he had to say. http://twitter.com/cspanw[video] that thethe fact president tried to do an end run around congress to go it alone and right loss unilaterally -- write laws unilaterally come he has proven himself untrustworthy on this. , we as border enforcement all have consensus, that would be fine if we could advance that. i do believe if we try to move whenconference of way

the president has prison he wants to go it alone, i don't think that works. host: what you are thoughts on the new speaker of the house saying there will not be conference of immigration reform while the president is in office? paul ryan writing the opposing view in usa today saying we have to get serious about enforcing our laws. the american people cannot trust president obama to uphold the law. to go around congress by ordering his administration decreed a new legal status for undocumented immigrants.

we turned to all of you this money. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. we turn to all of you this morning. paul ryan say no comprehensive immigration reform. the usa today editorial board writing this --

the usa today editorial boards says republicans should work with democrats on a compromise on comprehensive immigration reform. richard in west virginia. independent. good morning. what do you think?

whether obamaeve had done his executive order is because to try to get around the gridlock in congress. unlocked, there won't be a need for these executive orders, good or bad. congress needs to get its act together and start negotiating and compromising and passing laws. take a look at the national employment recovery act. that thereu think should be a pathway to citizenship along with border security? so-called comprehensive immigration reform. caller: i believe so. i'm in favor of what teddy roosevelt said in 1907. andomeone comes to america assimilates into our society, they become citizens.

you can google it. in north carolina. caller: good morning. ryan'sng speaker comments about using and enforcing the laws, may i suggest what is a simple solution to the immigration problem. using the united states postal service in conjunction with the irs. every immigrant that comes through here resides in a place and he was postal service would document that person coming in. you can have the united states postal service select a fee and follow up with the ims in terms of collecting federal tax and documenting within five years.

has deported the most immigrants coming in here. since we live in a high-tech area, previously in history, most immigrants came through ellis island or angel island. utilizing the u.s. postal service, which speaker ryan wants to designate, would provide revenue for our government and also -- who was the first contact for these immigrants? they have to get their mail, have to send things back and the u.s. postal service would be a logical and reasonable vehicle documenting immigrants. host: sandra in alabama. republican. the morning two. -- good morning to you. caller: i think mr. ryan is on the right start. i did not want him at first. if you will stand firm, i will support him all the way.

said the quotean about teddy roosevelt -- they ought to do it like eisenhower. this people here who don't need to be here. you have to come in the right way. host: george in florida, also a republican. brian. i agree with -- ryan. offensivehat is more -- when you see the homeless and beggars driving a brand-new car, taking our jobs. ryan.to host: when paul ryan was contemplating being a candidate for speaker, this was the headline in political. conservatives were skeptical of him because of his past support for overhaul efforts. --itico writes this

paul ryan has a lengthy history of pushing for overhaul that has run counter to the most conservative wings of his own party. look at what paul ryan writes in today's usa today in the opposing view. he writes that americans have every right to be skeptical. they don't think the federal government will keep its commitments. the last time congress passed a comprehensive bill in 1986, it was supposed to stop illegal immigration. yet, the number of hyundai committed immigrants more than doubled to 11 million. -- the number of undocumented toigrants more than doubled 11 million. joel in new york. republican. caller: good morning, c-span.

i think it's great that paul ryan is finally seeing the light. when illegals come into the country, it hurts average americans in many ways. from the schooling in the andd the hospitals the fact that they are not assimilating at the rate they are supposed to be. what bothers me the most is that the other side is not being clear on what they would do with illegal immigrants. donald trump says he would like to deport many of them. he would do the best job on it. the democrat plan is to hand the money. free schooling, free education, .ree loans, free health care there has to be a middle ground and only the republicans are willing to find the middle ground. joel mentioning donald

trump. he was in new york for a book event yesterday. , his pastrco rubio isport of immigration reform something that rules him out for the republican nomination. marco rubio part of that small gang of eight that works on the bill that passed the senate. take a look at polls on immigration. world is split on whether immigrants take jobs away. concern is evident in all countries, people are generally thinkd, the 8% -- 58% immigrants take unwanted jobs. an issue we hear about here on the washington journal from all of you. one poll that finds on immigration policy, wider partisan divide over border

fence then paths to legal citizenship. we are talking about immigration reform this morning. speaker ryan sang over the weekend that there will be no efforts to push comprehensive immigration reform while president obama is in office. he said republicans cannot trust the president because of the executive action on this issue. joe in baltimore. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i hear that speech done by the speaker -- now, i would like to see him walk. the best dog so far has been from dr. carson. considerable,e a wise measurement of application of deportation losaws.

legal immigrants to take jobs away from americans. i happen to be a n immigrant. i observe it from this perspective. a country has a right to protect itself. i heard the talk, now i want to see the walk. host: ruth in illinois. independent. noter: i think that ryan is -- he does not care about what is in the best interest of americans. but he cares about is making sure obama does not have a legacy when it comes to immigration. had act that congress bipartisan bill that could have been passed and was not was an effort to make sure that they follow through on what they said they were going to do. to make sure they did not agree with anything that obama did as

long as he was in office. that hurt the country. it's more gridlock of what we've seen in the past. we will see more in the future under ryan because he took that office basically saying i will stand up and be my own person but that is not true. first thing out of the box, he is doing exactly what they told him to do. to make sure obama does not have a positive legacy. how sad is that? heause of race or because of is not your person, you will hold hostage not just the american people, but also the immigrants coming in. i don't agree with illegal anything. you come to america, you have to come the right way. pass.n't get a free i don't believe that. takeo don't believe you your marbles and hold him tight and don't play the game.

-- hold them tight end don't play the game. that is sad. host: take a look at what some democrats had to say on twitter. hillary responding to what she heard from the speaker -- xavier becerra saying -- bill foster saying -- rogers says this -- stella says --

let's hear from pat in california, democrat. good morning to you. caller: good morning. dated a newspaper 11/11/1979. the los angeles times. daughter'sor my birthday every appeared on the front page, it states illegal aliens, endless cycle of insecurity. this problem has been with us since my daughter was born 36 years ago. thatis article, it states 800,000 mexicans had been apprehended in 1979. our politicians do not want to solve the problem. this is the biggest source of cheap labor. they've been able to destroy unions with this. entire lifestyle has

changed and all the politicians are guilty. they don't want to solve this problem. host: how do you think the problem should get solved? caller: let me tell you -- i live eight miles from tijuana. i see a surge because of all the violence in mexico. people are pretty decent, but -- theple left money only document they need is a visa. they come in, buy houses and i know for a fact a lot of the cartels are living in my neighborhood. anybody who lives around here knows that to be fact. thereis a documentary out called cartel land. everybody should see it and everybody should demand every politician, they had better build a wall.

there's been too much violence overflowing into our country. from november is 11, 1979 did host: apologies to that color. -- that caller. this issue has gone on since 1979. my apologies to you. i hit the wrong button. you theo show headlines. kentucky, courtesy of the newseum in washington. vin ousting the incumbent --

only the second gop governor and four decades. -- in four decades. the incoming governor hugging supporters. he will be the second gop chief and four decades. -- in four decades. high o. no voters rejecting an initiative that would have legalized recreational and medical marijuana but limit medical marijuana growing to 10 farms. that is their headline. take a look at the other headlines in ohio. the columbus dispatch says pot issue goes up in smoke. issue to making it harder to pass amendments like issue three was passed. you also have this from the cincinnati inquirer, no pot for

ohio. -- issue two making it harder to pass amendments like issue three was passed. plans recreation tax rejected. democrats keep control. this in the herald news this morning. there is also this from the telegram gazette, the voters speak. mayor heads to third term in massachusetts. we will get a bit more into election day yesterday later on in the program. for now, we are talking about speaker ryan sang he will not pursue any sort of comprehensive immigration reform while president obama is in office. mike in new jersey. independent there. go ahead with your thought.

good morning. caller: good morning. with a form of constructive criticism. a question posed this morning is whether or not speaker ryan would bring up no comprehensive immigration reform. , you are allowing this conversation to turn into --ther or not immigration republicans wanted immigration reform as of two weeks ago. now, the way you let the discussion go this morning, it went into a direction of isn't you can get it back to the subject of whether or not it's right for republicans to criticize the current immigration laws and policies of the u.s., get it back to whether or not the house republicans should take up with the senate and what theassed president and already done

through executive agreement. that back toing the question that you post this morning would be great because someone on this line, the whole thing has gotten out of whack. the republicans complain and whine about not having fixed immigration. if you can get it back to that answer and make them answer the question -- do you want to see a comprehensive reform? you don't like the current situation, no one has been -- very few people appreciate the president's approach to it as well. at least let it go to the house and let them consider it and go to conference and hash out their differences. if you can cure it back to that, that would be greatly appreciated. question thist a morning, we are getting your reaction to what the speaker said. it broader discussion for many people. toot of different components this idea, the politics, the policy of comprehensive immigration reform.

some reaction from republicans -- betty in illinois. democrat. caller: hi. host: good morning. caller: good morning can i want to applaud speaker ryan for his decision not to have immigration watch.under obama's the caller who called in and wanted to accuse her publicans for obama's legacy, i disagree. obama is not a lawmaker. he has no right to make laws. his job is to sign lost the have all agreed on and he has not done that. he took it upon himself to

become a dictator and pass immigration laws, which is wrong. especially for african americans like he is doing something to help african-americans but all he is doing by bringing in all these illegals is taking where the jobs come accreting havoc in the neighborhoods, it's unbelievable how crazy this country has gotten in regards to illegal immigration. -- i hopeow whether speaker ryan sticks to what he says. -- this is not just illegal syrians,

refugees. he thinks he is slick. he will bring in refugees instead of illegal aliens. these people come penniless with not a dime in their pocket and h who will take care of them. this country is falling apart we have to do something to stop this. that's what i have to say. host: margaret in georgia. republican. ladyr: i agree with the before me. that she and id are going to suffer. agreement between the president and ryan. he can run out there and make little pop shots at the

president, but he is also an agreement with him on this immigration. that it'sorry happening this way, but that's the way i see it. host: margaret referring to paul ryan trying to work behind the scenes to get a gop consensus to an overhaul ofn the nation's immigration laws, but telling lawmakers behind he would notthat pursue immigration reform while president obama is in office. he said it to the lawmakers and said it publicly on sunday. the house began debating and voting on amendment to a multiyear highway bill. the new york times with the headline that this bill presents ryan with an early test.

we have covered that first news conference. if you missed it, you can go to www.c-span.org to watch it there. the house will be voting again today on more amendments in the final vote is expected on this highway bill which has funding for only three years -- they have to find funding for three more years as they continue. a final vote on that will happen

-- the u.s. national debt jumped by that much on monday. the same day president obama signed into law -- that in the washington examiner this morning. there is also this, president obama's administration yesterday saying they will not budge on keystone. president obama intends to decide the fate of the

pipeline during his tenure. rather than suspended the federal resume process -- review process. president obama says he will decide on that. business and tech section of wall street journal this morning says the pipeline delay unlikely to hurt refiners in the united states. crude imports from canada set a record in august come averaging 3.4 million barrels a day. that crude oil still coming into the united states, most of it being carried by train. there is this in the wall street journal this morning. bob corker profits from quick stock trade. thelengthy story about course of his career -- he has

made many short-term trades in shares of little-known chattanooga real estate company. those of you interested in reading that, that is in "the wall street journal" this morning. back to our discussion with all of you about comprehensive immigration reform. speaker ryan says it is off the table while president obama is in office. carl in charleston, south carolina. independent. caller: good morning. you would love it in charleston. ryan is using the president as a scapegoat.

he says the president cannot be trusted, but that is just a lame excuse. the reason i don't think it's a good idea, i know how hard 1950'sworked back in the , 1960's and 1970's to get a for doingnt money construction type of work and brickwork. the money could benefit them. all of a sudden, you get these mexicans coming in and they are willing to do it for half the money. averagea bunch of whites and blacks who've lived here all their lives. in -- i live in charleston.

they go to stores and everything and they could care less about speaking english. they don't love america like people down here waving confederate flag. they may not like blacks, but they love america. language inheir secret and they love it. host: eileen in florida. republican. caller: good morning. ago alonggan years with the big agricultural farmers got together and decided they were going to bring immigrants into our country to keep our food costs extremely low. so, they loved immigrants coming into our country. what i don't think any of us realized at the time was they were bringing them in here to

marginalize the people in this country so that those working on the farms and whatnot lost their jobs because they cannot afford to live on that kind of paycheck. in and werets came exploited and deliberately used for that purpose. happened.at has now, we have so many immigrants in our country that when i turn around and look and talk to someone, they don't even speak my language. they don't even know who i am or what i'm doing there. it is not that you don't love these people. wherever they come from, you love them, there is nothing wrong with them, they are wonderful people and work very hard. so did the people born and raised in this country. host: don in pennsylvania. democrat.

you are on the air. caller: good morning. ronald reagan say is the most overrated president in history of the nine states. -- in the history of the unite states. theseer how many of callers who have these negative things about a lot of the immigrants -- i wonder how many are christians and what would they say if christ was standing at the border -- what would jesus do? he would not tell them not to come in, that's for sure. we have a lot of hypocrisy. host: let me show you another headline about what speaker boehner is up to. in the home him office -- taking advantage of a little-known perk taxpayers provide to those vacating the

highest chamber of office. the communications director said it was too early to speculate whether an upcoming him to miss bill would include a funding request for boehner's post speakership office. -- upcoming omnibus bill. there is a story about that e. coli outbreak from chipotle. all outbreaks tied to tainted food. they are seeing an increase in that.

there is this related headline from usa today. lawsuit.facing e. coli confirmed cases now at 31 and it may rise. there is this from wall street journal, irs audit falling to an 11 year low. when youssioner saying have fewer employees doing lines work, you leave tax revenue on -- fewer employees doing compliance work, you leave tax revenue on the table. from the new york times editorial board, schoolkids in handcuffs.

the video of a white shirts deputy -- sheriff's deputy -- the new york times editorial board weighing in on that issue this morning. lewis in pikeville, maryland. independent. i think we are now trapped between the concept of in sourcing and outsourcing. many jobs are going over to

europe, asia, china and other places. the immigrants are coming in, calling it in sourcing and taking total jobs. people coming in, taking jobs that blacks could do for 150 years. .irst, the german immigrants we cannot be policeman or firemen. then, the italian-americans took the construction jobs in 1920's. then, we had the koreans and all the asians taking all the local stores. we have suffered from in sourcing for years. now, it's affecting the larger population, it becomes an issue. we understand that in sourcing has taken our jobs. the solution is that we ought to pay a tax -- if you hire someone , you pay their social security tax would have an excess private

tax, making excess money because salary.paying less we have suffered from insourcing for 150 years. now that it's affecting the larger population, it's an issue. host: brian in houston, texas. democrat. caller: how are you this morning? host: should comprehensive immigration reform be sought? ,aller: it's unfortunate watching the blame placed on people --ome host: we are listening to. go ahead. caller: let's move on to ralph in d.c. independent.

caller: i've been watching this political football with everyone posturing -- republicans don't want to do any real reform because they cannot break the middle class's backed by hiring cheap labor without think social security and medicaid benefits. the democrats love it because they want to have more hispanic voters voting for them. i go to home depot, any construction site and 90% of the workers are hispanic. i hear this stuff from the liberal reporters saying americans would not take that job -- if you were paying $12 or $14 an hour, they won't take it. to see the lion standing outside of npr or c-span with all these immigrants who can english and will replace

the reporter for have to wages and benefits. saying i will not take this anymore. job. now, it's not their they don't care. host: roger in alabama. independent. caller: glad to hear that black men call and say that immigrants had hurt his community more than most. understand -- can't understand why people keep voting democrat in that community when they don't seem to care too much for you. they already have your vote, they are not worried about you anymore. this is goodut how to let them income its christian christian --n, its

it will make the country come to an and. you cannot have that, but you can do it for people who are working for living. dies atrmer congressman 84. the former sixth district died late tuesday at his home in greensboro. hospitalized in september as a result of complications from skin cancer treatment. that is this morning out of north carolina. steve in michigan. independent. caller: good morning. they are playing tapes from 10 ted kennedy and he was 100% democrat and he blames ofry reid for the failure immigration reform, not the republicans were independents,

he's blaming harry reid because he would not bring it up. it will have to get a slice of the pie to latinos and other people -- there will be less and less for other people to get the groups that support the democrats. host: let's hear from lila in maryland. independent. good morning to you. caller: good morning. movementt is that the in the world where people are moving to places where they can find jobs and be able to sustain their lives and have something in their life that is better than where they come, that is the whole idea. we let the masses come in but

once we started letting people coming illegally, people are upset because there's not enough jobs, they think the people coming into the country are taking their jobs. the problem is that we let the jobs go to other countries back in the 1990's. when ronald reagan was writing to stop the bill to open the gate way so businesses can go to other countries and use ,heaper labor to make products instead of making things more competitive and creating business, and created business and wealth and other countries. to start creating businesses and wealth in this country and taking care of people here. we need to look at some reform in our system of allowing people to come into the country. there are a lot of people coming into the country illegally by marrying people, people coming in here with false

identification and that does need to be addressed. we bigger problem is that have an unhappy society because the young people of today, what job openings do they have? we need to work on that. host: lila in rockville, maryland. republican presidential candidates upset with the debate rules and process that has taken s place so far come asking for negotiating better terms for them. debate, media organizations should stand up against these demands. responsible journalists will ignore the threat. angelo in new orleans.

democrat. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and thank you for taking my call. i'm 68 years old and i will be honest with you -- i realized years ago when they passed right to work in louisiana, i was a stagehand and a union stagehand for baton rouge, came down to the superdome and they cut my salary in half. i was making $15 an hour. he came down and offered his services and his crew at $7.50 an hour with no benefits and cut me completely out of work. now, they're complaining about the immigrants. this country was formed on immigrants. very odd the argument

they are having right now. host: we will end our conversation on immigration there. we will take a short break and when we come back, we will talk with freshman republican who served quattro tour's in iraq -- tours in iraq. what is next for the house under newly elected speaker ryan. we will be right back. ♪ >> i have learned that you can do anything you want to. iey asked me if the thought the first lady ought to be paid. you can do anything you want to.

soapbox, suchreat a great opportunity. lady toadvise any first do what she wanted to do. criticized. at the have stayed there white house, poured tea, had receptions and i would have been criticized. i got a lot of criticism. you learn to live with it. you just live with it, you expected and live with it. >> she was her husband's political partner from their first campaign. she attended president jimmy carter's cabinet meetings. champion women's rights and mental health issues, testifying before congress. their partnership on health and peacekeeping issues has spanned four decades. rosalynn carter, this sunday

night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's original series "first ladies, influence and image." their influence on the presidency from martha washington to michelle obama. sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. 's signature feature of book tv is our all-day coverage of book fairs and festivals from across the country with top nonfiction authors. we will be in massachusetts for the boston book festival. in the middle of the month, the louisiana book festival in baton rouge. we are live for the 18th year in a row from florida for the miami book fair international. and the national book awards from new york city. some of the fairs and festivals tv. fall on c-span2's book

"washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome to our program this morning, congressman seth moulton, democrat of massachusetts. a freshman serving in his first term. represents the sixth district in massachusetts. tours ind four iraq. what were you doing there? guest: the first two twersky my was a platoon commander. then i had an interesting job -- tours, i was a platoon commander. host: do you see the challenges of what this administration is wrestling with now? the fight with vices and trying to bring iraq together politically -- the fight with isis? guest: the history of the surge,

it was quite successful. people who look back today and say the surge was a failure are misreading history. the surge was tremendously successful. we had tremendous military success but had not seen the political progress we needed yet. a lot of people called for a diplomatic surge and we built the u.s. embassy in baghdad. we did not follow through. our big mistake was not just pulling the troops out so quickly, and was pulling those advisers out of the prime and asked her's office. -- prime minister office office. we created the vacuum that isis was able to grow into. host: what is your assessment of president obama saying he will send in less than 50 of these special forces to the situation in syria? does it make a difference to

fight isis? guest: isis is a national security threat to the united states of america. they have brutally killed americans abroad. we do need to defeat isis. i'm very concerned with the president's plan. fundamentally, what is lacking in the middle east is political stability. it is a political vacuum that isis has grown into, especially in iraq and syria. the fact that we are sending and 50 special forces troops on the ground into syria without a greatpolitical plan is a concern. i object to the president's plan when he sent the 500 military advisers into baghdad. when isis came into iraq, they did not just defeat the iraqi army. the iraqi army put their weapons down and went home. it is a political problem in iraq. you do not fix iraqi politics by training iraqi troops. host: is a twofold?

the surge worked. should the president be pursuing a diplomatic solution at the same time, going back in and doing a surge? guest: i'm not saying we might never need troops. the politics have to come first in the politics have to lead the military action. the troops have to fall in on a political plan. i'm not sure that we are clear about what the desired political outcome is in syria. if you contrast this with russia and what russia is doing, they are actually providing some clear political leadership. every 18-year-old russian soldier on the ground knows that the desired political outcome is for them to keep assad in power. i'm not sure that we have provided that guidance to our troops come at the lowest level, the guys on the ground like i

was in iraq or at the higher level with the generals in charge of this mission. host: are you saying that a ssad should stay? guest: that is russia's outcome. russia has been a good job of making clear what their strategy is in syria. i don't think we have had that clarity. i don't think we have provided clear strategic goals in the fight against isis or in the fight in syria. host: would it help if congress were to weigh in on that and provide another authorization for military force when comes to fighting isis -- when it comes to fighting isis? they are operating under a 2001 amuf. guest: it's not congress's job to come up with the mission and strategy. that is the administration's job.

those of us on the armed services committee asked the questions to make sure that strategy make sense. we have not seen that strategy from the administration. as far as congress's role, we should absolutely have a debate about the authorization for the use of military force. host: what answers have you received from the pentagon about the failed policy to train syrians trying to fight assad? millions of dollars spent on that. what are the challenges of training iraqi forces? guest: great question. i went to check in on this in february. we went to iraq and afghanistan, and talked to many of the military officials over there in charge of training these opposition fighters.

it became apparent to me back in february that we had not laid out a clear strategy. we had not laid out political goals. when i asked them, what are these opposition fighters going to do, who are they going to fight, it was not clear. which is why i did not support funding this program. i thought it would fail and it failed quite spectacularly. host: why? what are the challenges? guest: it is very hard if you are a soldier or marine on the ground to execute a mission if you don't really know what that mission is. we have not made it clear in syria what the plan is. who were these guys going to fight? are they going to get together with a bunch of opposition assad ord fight against isis? if they defeat isis, what happens next? from we looking to depose a

or lookingrily for a political transition? these are fundamental questions we have to be able to answer if we are going to have troops trained to be successful on the ground. host: let's get to calls. florida. democrat. go ahead. caller: good morning. -- thewanted to situation over there is nothing that can be resolved politically. there is religion problems that supersede even the political problems. until they resolve the sunni be --roblems, there will anything politically will be undermined. that is the first thing they have to worry about. we cannot be over there. we won't be doing any good over there. you think russia has a good

plan? i think they are getting themselves into a quagmire. george bush looked real good on that big ship, but give it a year or so and it will be in a quagmire. we need to stand back and let them result -- host: do you think you can result the religious issues? caller: we can't. that's why we don't need to be sending troops over there. whiled to support them they find their resolutions for their problems. guest: a great question. thank you for bringing it up. there are centuries-old religious turmoils in the middle east. we have been able to achieve political stability. we were on track to achieve political stability in iraq when i left in 2008. things were pretty good and we even did that under the prime minister. even with a terrible prime , we were able to make

progress when we had advisers helping him do the right thing. we all want to bring the troops home. i've been typical of the president's plan to put more troops back into iraq and syria. the president's plan. we have to pursue this diplomatically and politically before putting troops on the ground. we have the largest refugee crisis in europe since world war ii. whether we like it or not, that is because we left the syria crisis. i would love to the other nations involved but that is a burden of leadership in the united states to take responsibility. a long time, there were calls we have to do something in syria because of a humanitarian crisis. refused to answer those calls and now we have an massive

refugee crisis and frankly isis is planning terrorist attacks abroad. here.is a threat what is so important is we deal and have aoblems political plant. i do not support russia's plant. i just use russia as an example of a nation coming and providing a clear strategy. it is not one i agree with. they might wind up in a quagmire. i do not think it is a good idea to support a sod at all. but my point is at least russia has made it clear what their political plan is. we need to make that clear as well. i think if we could have a clear political plan and use diplomacy , we would be better off. host: new jersey, independent. caller: good morning and thank

you for your service to i am a u.s. name it -- u.s. navy vet from the vietnam air. it scares me know in washington seems to be in charge of anything anymore. on c-span tonight, what a disgrace to the country the veterans administration is. they steal and robin till people and no one is held responsible. help us out here. this is getting out of hand. thank you for your service. i have tremendous respect. you came home to a country that was not grateful for your service. they were i disagree with, you might have disagreed with vietnam but at least when we came back, we came back to a grateful nation trying to take care of our veterans.

thank you for your service. we have so much to do to fix the vienna. when i was elected, i was committed to getting my health care from the v.a.. i am getting my health care from the da in january after i was sworn in, i went up to the v.a. because i needed surgery. i said here we go. i checked in the washington v.a.. after 25 minutes, they told me we can't prove you're a veteran so we will consider taking you in is humanitarian. i wanted to say why don't you google me or something. i was there as a veteran and not

a congressman. i sat down with people there for five or six hours. i had an excellent surgeon and a great anesthesiologist or surgeon worked regularly and did shifts at the v.a. because she cared about taking care veterans paired she was there for all the right reasons. i found the support staff was not always the best quality. i woke up at noon, surgery my cousin came and picked me up and picked up medicine from the pharmacy. they prescribed me percocet and said you can take one or two. i went back to capitol hill and i did not take any medicine right wipe it we had votes and i want to remember how i voted.

the anesthesia was starting to wear off and it was starting to her quite a bit. i took one pill. started a staff meeting. then it got really bad. i said i guess i need to take a second though. i look more carefully at the bottle. though they prescribed me percocet, they sent me home with as well. they had figured out i was a come from but did not manage to give me the right medicine to take home. we need a lot of work at the v.a.. i've proposed four bills working at the house. reform the way the v.a. recruits and retains and makes sure their employees are well educated and well-qualified to be there. incremental steps to make a difference. we have bigger things in store

to work on. there are very good people like surgeon who took care of me when a new my procedure done. innovators trying to up and the system. i am working with them to fix just bureaucracy. we have not done enough to reform it. host: veterans day next week? i am spending it in my hometown and we will have a veterans day town hall, an idea that came from sebastian, the author of "war and the perfect storm." he wrote an incredible article on posttraumatic stress in the vanity fair a few months ago. a very good article, and several said it was the best they had ever read on posttraumatic stress.

it resonated with a lot of veterans to one thing he talked about is how there is a real divide in america between 99 and aof 1% and the half. every veterans day, rather than have praise and ceremonies, veterans could come in and share their stories and the community thought to serve. price of marine aviation. the town always turns out on to come in and just try to connect with veterans as we tell our stories and explain what we went through. i hope this would be the start

of this tradition. we will go to hell and next in maine, a democrat. caller: thank you for your service. my first comment is i appreciate your experience with the veterans administration health care delivery system that i would also like to point out this can be replicated in every private health care system in the country. you have thee is media and many people underserved in our community. think every person in a leadership position is only as good as his and her advisers. who isou please tell us

advising the president of the united states regarding military and political policies? could you assess their competency in your pants and also the competency of the military leadership and the whole thing that we have in the middle east? thank you. >> first of all, thank you for your questions. i should also say i am supportive of getting veterans the best health care in the .orld on where they can get it veterans not getting adequate care in the v.a. should be looked go to private facilities. advisers,estion about i learned it is incredibly important to have a good team. i could not be more proud of the team i have every day. we had about 1000 applications for the 15th positions back in massachusetts. we really have the cream of the crop.

i am not in the administration and i cannot really stay to your advisers. i do think they need to be more receptive and capitol hill. i took a lot of time to speak to members of the administration to talk about my concerned -- concerns with their strategy and effect we do not have a political plan in the middle east. i will give you an example of someone who is a fantastic advisor to the president and i have unbelievable confidence. that is general joe dumb for it, the new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. beforeime he testified the armed services committee, justntire committee was incredibly impressed by his intellect, wisdom, and judgment. that is exactly the kind of advising theed

president to so many challenges in the middle east. [indiscernible] we will go to scott next, democrat. caller: i have so much to say about the situation. i think all i hear is what barack is not doing, leading from behind and all of this type of language about his gentleman. situation, we would not have to do with the situation if it not had to do the previous administration. these people took us into the war and lied about the facts. someone needs to be in jail for what they did, that we tortured people and everything. what the manazy

had to try to deal with considering the fact this could have been avoided had they listened to the people and not gone in in the first place. guest: frankly, i agree with you. i think the iraq war was a tremendous mistake, the biggest mistake in foreign policy the united states ever made. i think it is also important not to give the current president on -- a path -- a pass. we should never have gone to iraq. the war went poorly for a long time. then we turn things around during the search. though i wish we had not in their in the first place, i believe we started to get things right. what has happened since then is iraq has really flipped back. the president elected promising to get us out has sent us back in five years later. on the i focused on

armed services committee, pending withdrawal from afghanistan. what we have got to do is make sure we do not make the same mistakes pulling out of afghanistan that we made going out of iraq. the worst thing we could do is pull out too quickly, not have the political and economic ensure theneed to success of the afghan government, and then get into a position where we are sending troops back into afghanistan as well. i agree with all of your concerns about the bush administration and i saw the results of those failed policies in the failed leadership fundamentally, that is why i'm here. iran because of the mistakes i saw washington make during the iraq war. it is also important to get it right. the push and ministration made tremendous mistakes but we have also got to fix the mistakes the obama administration made as well. host: we are talking with ,ongressman seth moulton

democrat of massachusetts. he served in the marines from 2002 to 2008. you have got a masters in business and masters of public policy from harvard university. i want to show you the 2014 headline. seth moulton kept his military awards a secret. what awards did you win and why did you keep them a secret? people make a big deal about this but i think there is a healthy disrespect on almost all veterans who served on the front lines for people who go around telling war stories. i proud -- i was proud to serve. i believe in america and i believe in the marines i served with and that is why i was there. i saw an awful lot of other marines and soldiers do things, some things that were never recognized. i do not think it is appropriate proud to have-

earned them but that is not why i am here in congress. host: why did you get out of the military? would i always thought it be a four-year stint. i did not think i would make a career out of the military. when i got out, i found i really missed it. i frankly joined and said i will do my public service for four years in the marines and no one will ever question again in my tire life whether a certain country. check that box and then move on. go into the private sector and have a successful career. but i found i really enjoyed public service more than i expected to when i was in the marines every single day, even in the midst of a war i disagreed with, my work had an impact on the lives of other people. misssense was something i when i got out of the marines. that is why i'm here, trying to help serve other people.

it is great to be back in public service once again. host: detroit, in independent. caller: good morning. i served in the military and also the navy. oath tooined, i took an defend the constitution of the united states and that is what we were doing. it also said i would defend it against foreign enemies and domestic. you have to realize what is going on in the country today is we are divided. the united states anymore p or we are the red and blue states. we are republicans and democrats. we have got to recognize how we started the country. it was not written by lawyers. the founders of the country were

not lawyers. we established our government to be free. country andnother put their leaders in place and no one did that for us. we put our own leaders in place here. you want to go over there and set up a government over there and expected to work? that is not how it works here. what you're saying is the mistakes they are making, we went over the problem they had, but at some point, they have to establish their own government and set this up himself. all, thank you for your service in the navy. of the fewi am one members of congress who is not a lawyer. i understand your concern. you i wast to tell elected on a platform of bipartisanship. even though i was the only democrat in the entire country this year --

but i did not do so by running to one extreme. look, two parts in that is why he is not getting anything done. we need to break through partisanship in washington. that is resonating even in the democratic primary in massachusetts. stop i remember most, it is when i went into a rally in massachusetts and i met a navy veteran from world war ii and i explained to him that being a veteran myself is why i was running for congress. to be honest, he did not have much to say to me but he said one thing i always remember it. he said, promise me you will go to washington not as a democrat or republican but as an american. that is the exactly the kind of congressman i try to be every

day. to get to middle east, i agree -- it does nott mean they do not occasionally need help, especially when areas become a and syria breeding ground for terrorists. theave got to deal with national security threat. my position is the primary effort should be political, to help and support them in establishing the kind of government to be self-sufficient. we do not have to go in there and continually run the government for that. we started to achieve that during the search but they started to support iraq and we did not provide that. as we look at the problem in syria and taking the troops out my priority is making sure we leave stable governments in our wake and we do not ever have to send

american troops back into fix the problem once more. host: rob, independent. caller: thank you for your service and perspective. my question is sort of a comment and a question about how you said we have not set out a clear plan of what we are doing over there in the russians are going after terrorists. originally, when isis was doing all of this, their bar verizon, and we have got to stop this, this is terrible, we will go over there and start bombing, of themallies, some would not let us use the airbase at first. they come in dragging their feet. our goal was we would defeat isis. reason why it the has not been clear is because our allies have been dragging their feet. i think this goes to a religious divide. the sunnis and the she is. turkey saysand,

they want to help us but as soon as they do start helping us, they go after the kurds, the actual ones who are helping us. you got it right. going aftere terrorism. on the one hand we say, we want to overthrow assad. this demonizing, assad is terrible and has done a lot of terrible things. but look at what isis is doing. you do not hear us much about what they are doing. they want to shift the focus because i think they really want to take him out. they are concerned but the biggest concern is let's get rid of assad. i think that is the wrong strategy. go after ourve to enemies, terrorists,, go after them, stay there, and then they will work it out politically later.

that is all i've got for you. guest: i share your concern. our allies are dragging their feet and we have to do more. that is part of the diplomacy, regional allies involved in the effort. we have had some success. they have really stepped up to the plate, conducting bombing runs against isis. we seem to be the only ones providing ground troops. add ae got to fix it and slide diplomacy has got to have a leading role resolving the crisis. host: we are all out of time but thank you very much for talking to our viewers this morning and come back again. we will take a short break and when we come back, we will talk to the republican of indiana, the way forward for republicans. later, the series continues with the managing editor of reason

magazine. the october cover story, she writes about how plastic bags are actually good for you. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> i thought there is only one person, only one about whom i would write if i were to write a second biography. course, i did write that book and i thought, i will be standing next to the president speaking to 3500 of the most important people in the world here. that,the idea i might do

and i thought maybe i would give him the books later. and if i feel the chutzpah in the moment to be able to pull off the goofiness, i will do it. >> this sunday night on q&a, author and radio host on his writing career. the crossover between religion and politics. >> i think it is important for everyone to take politics but neverand vote, make an idol of politics. there are people who have done that and they are sort of rather thanhe idol the god who would cause them to care for the poor and injustices. it is a fine wine and something i talk about fairly often. >> sunday night on c-span's q and a. ♪ collects c-span presents landmark cases, the book, a

guide to our landmark cases series which explores 12 supreme court decisions including mulberry versus madison, brown versus the board of education, miranda versus arizona, and roe versus wade. book,rk cases, the highlights,kground, and insights into each case. landmark cases is available for eight. -- $8.95. get yours today. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome back .ongressman luke messer

let's begin with speaker ryan and what he has said as he kicks off his 10 year. saying it is opportunity for all. what does that motto mean and sot changes will he make that lawmakers rank-and-file see an opportunity? it brings -- guest: it brings all kinds of opportunity and we will do that now with speaker ryan. the country as it operates, i think it is clear that you should not do things the same way a musty want the same results. if you look at what american people want to say about congress, we know the approval ratings are not very good. open up theeed to process to make sure individual members have a voice because when individual members have a voice, the people they represent will have a voice. happenve that would within our caucus. make rules changes that will allow individuals to have their voice heard to make sure individuals have time to get to

the floor. i think they believe it is to happen in a broader chamber as well. it is fundamental that we do not trample the minority. i co-from a state legislative process. state legislators will tell you somehow they vote and a vote a lot. the minority has the ability to bring a motion to the floor pretty vote them down or for them. we need to make the process happen more here. host: when will that happen and what changes are you talking about? the first change speaker ryan promises, that we will change the way we have a committee structure within congress. it is a committee that selects who are the chairman committees, who are the members because they will meet today to select the next ways and means chairman and the next to replace congressman ryan. we will broaden the base.

it has historically been a few dozen people. it becomeu will see much larger. host: ryan holds the card in the ways and mean it -- ways and means contest. the head-to-head contest for the chairman of the ways and means committee will take place today. it hinges on the man who last and that is paul ryan. both will make the final plea this afternoon to 33 members of the house republican committee. they have each corded intensely over the last week. how is that different than how it worked in the past? these take effect by thanksgiving so they will not impact today. we are blessed with two great candidates. an experienced person from texas, a very experienced member from ohio, both have been very strong policy leaders. i do not know which one will win today because i think it is it

place where the presentations will matter, but we are blessed to have two choices and once this is done, we need to get back to the work of the american people. while it is interesting here in washington to hear about rules and procedural changes and that is important, the american people want to know what we will do for them. you -- you too the republican news conference he had and he talked about the gender -- the agenda going forward. mr. ryan: thursday was a day we came together as a conference, unified, and agreed to proceed together with a vision. the highway bill is a good place to start it we are opening up the process, allowing members to participate in a way the founders intended and we are advancing an issue that is a big priority to the hard-working taxpayers in the country, fixing our roads and bridges and

improving our transportation infrastructure. the chairman did a phenomenal job putting this together and that is why we will have an open process on the floor with a lot members ofts from both parties. it is a good example of how we will do the people's business. i told people we would do more of this. committed to a complete set of changes to make it a more deliberative and participatory process. we will get this right for the american people. host: how will conservatives in the freedom caucus and others measure that there get a more opportunity from the speaker? guest: you will see it this week because we will vote into the night and have debates into the night and potentially be more than 100 votes that come to the floor. that is the way the process is supposed to work. transportation is a fundamental constitutional responsibility of the government, and it is one of congress passes jobs, how we

will build those roads and bridges and other infrastructure. they were sent here to speak up for the area they represent. what has happened and this is a cycle of the house through its history, where you have gone from a chairman base leadership rank-and-file members, two times you consolidated power in the speakership. we have gone through an area, not just john boehner but nancy pelosi before him, where we have had very strong speakers who controlled much of the debate. what speaker ryan is saying is try fromot just try to the speaker's office to control what it looks like. let's let the members come in and debate and not just one or two or three or four things, but dozens and if not 100 more policies. members can speak and we can move a bill forward. vacating the chair, what does that mean? paul ryan said he wants to make

it more difficult for rank-and-file members to offer a motion to vacate the chair. where does that stand? >> he said he has got to be able to practically govern. one individual member could file a motion to vacate the chair and a few dozen people from one party could be the reason is amended other party would not vote for his speaker of the opposite party could take that speaker out. it has been that way for a long time. for 100 yearsr and no one ever utilized it. have almost like the roles been found. we all recognize you want to continue to have a motion to vacate. if you have a speaker acting in inappropriate ways, that the bodies should have the ability to remove them. there is some question about what the threshold should be to file a motion to vacate. should it take half a dozen or a dozen or multiple dozen folks signing on to a position --

petition before that motion is filed? it is an important part of the rule where one person in the current rules can file a motion and it comes to the floor immediately without committee work. should you make the motion with a person has to go through a committee process? much more like impeachment proceedings. and only takes half of congress to impeach a president and then of course approval by the senate to why should it take more to remove a speaker? i think it is probably true it should be a majority vote. a privileged motion to go straight to the floor. i think it will be part of the conversation. my believe is it will have a package of changes in an environment where they are proceeding. roles

so people feel good about the entire package. host: let's get to calls. republican, you are up first. go ahead. good morning. i agree you should not be addressing the immigration reform bill because i think it is a dead issue. while you are at it and contemplating the infrastructure, why not add a certain amount of money for a border fence, which would at least be part of infrastructure and probably one of the more important parts of infrastructure that we could be addressing right now, which would show the republican party is at least trying to keep its word? thank you. speaker ryan said we would not move comprehensive reform when you cannot chest the president because he is going beyond and outside the law to allow millions of folks to be have essentially an

unlawful, executive amnesty. caller thatith the we need to get focused on border security. iran on a promise that we would do border security first. most of my colleagues in the republican majority did the same thing. chairman and the homeland togethercommittee put a strong border security bill that came out of a committee earlier this year and has now been tied up. is my hope we can combine the bill with some of the work in the judiciary committee on immigration and border enforcement and keep that promise, whether it is appropriate to be part of the transportation bill or not, it is clearly infrastructure. andation can stay sovereign we as republicans should be leading on the issue. host: will, an independent in arkansas. caller: i want to talk about clean water for a moment. you are aware you can boil most water and kill most of the bugs in the water or put chlorine

bleach and it and kill most of the bugs. you are from indiana. out and boil any of your water in any of the ditches or put chlorine and clear it up in any of the water and would you drink it? i want to know how you voted on clean water and what is wrong with clean water. i would not be drinking water out of ditches, my mama taught me better than that. at the say when you look environmental debate we are having as a nation, it is not about whether or not we should have clean water or clean skies. we all want a clean environment. our kids live here and my parents and grandparents live here. we have a make sure clean environment. the question is at what cost? the debate i think you are referencing is what the obama administration is calling a clean water provision that frankly brings the federal government into regulating every

dish and field all across the country. i had seen a map in indiana. three quarters -- if you have a field out in the middle of the cornfield in indiana where looking for a ditch and the water settles there and the federal government is now saying they can regulate it, that is not what the law originally intended. the obama administration is not even arguing the law originally intended that there they're just saying they can read the language in the law that way and it gives them an incredibly broad overreach in being able to regulate water per i am for clean water but i just think the federal government does not necessarily need to be in everyone's backyard. host: joe, a democrat. caller: how are you doing? i was not going to call on the clean water thing but i think anybody that is actually paying would watch c-span

in the normal course of congressional activity, where you watch the boats and listen to the hearings and the expert testimony, it is pretty clear when it comes down to a vote, republicans are looking at every vote from how it impacts business. that may be good in a free-market society, but if it is at the cost of people's health, and let's look at the water, for example. it was republicans that cap fracking fluid, one of the most toxic, deadly fluids created by man with as many as 700 chemicals in it that we cannot find out what is in it of them and many cancer-causing, republicans intentionally kept that out of the clean water act because they knew that stuff would be thrown out. part of the problem is when you , you arets over people really missing the longer-term goal of it. not to reiterate what was

just said, we all want clean water and air. we have regulations in place that give us the cleanest air and the cleanest water we had in this country in decades. but you talk about the cost to people. if regulations were free and had no impact on the economy at all, we can have unlimited regulation. wore helmets every day everywhere we walked on the sidewalk driving to work writing, you know, a tricycle, we would never have head injuries. but we all recognize the cost of doing that does not make sense. when he to understand there are jobs that can be lost under these regulations as well. we should notay have clean air and clean water. i want regulations in place to ensure that we just should not over regulate to the point that we cost jobs and hurt people. republicansfor for

in the house and a new speaker. paul ryan from wisconsin, a gop agenda. let me ask you about this headline in politico. split over clinton's e-mail probe. some want to dig deeper on the unusual server set up. what will happen here? there should be another investigation, a separate one from the benghazi committee, looking into her e-mail server? guest: there is a law enforcement investigation from the fbi. of fouron the death americans. and the response from the obama that may have helped to cause that problem on the backend managing it well. from that investigation came the knowledge of the hillary clinton use of e-mail outside of the law in violation of the nation's national security.

i think if you create another committee, this will frankly be viewed as political whether it is in reality political or not. there was a two-year budget deal path and you still have to move forward with a spending bill, a large package for the federal agencies. the white house says it is not in federal interest to shut down the government. will there be language attached to this package that would defund planned parenthood? potential ep are this is what legislating is spared it we have so long that sort of forgotten what it looks like no one wants to see the government shutdown aired as they work through the process doing a series of minibuses, essentially, those are washington words for saying we

are funding the government. legislators are supposed to make decisions about how the money is spent. if you read the constitution, that is what article one says. i suspect we will have a broad debate much like the transportation debate where members will come to the floor and we will have debates on most of the issues and we will vote and it will be added to the bill . .nd they will not be added host: what other potential writers will we see that reflect the debate we are having? what else? debatesf you watch the over the last several months or the appropriation bills i have set forward, it will be a host of virtually anything. that is what the constitution allows. ask questions of what

the epa should appropriately be doing and what the department of education should be doing. student data privacy, we will .robably offer an amendment that is the way the process is supposed to work. when we have appropriations, members come to the floor with any host of hundreds of ideas that could be added in. it is a practical matter when you talk about the entirety of the government, but i think you will see a broad and robust debate and it is healthy for the country. we can all make our case and and move forward, and the president has a veto pen as well and he can decide whether or not he will sign the bill and that will all be part of the debate. backr: i'd like to step and look at the whole congress and government situation, say we

are looking at it from 30,000 feet. congress is pretty much totally inept. who did this benefit? it benefits people at the very top. it is representation without taxation. congressmante the for thecolleagues situation where the rich are not taxed, the infrastructure crumbles to nothing, there is no health care at all, and if there is, it totally decimates the and -- od host: we will have the congressman respond. guest: i understand the derailment's's disillusionment. i'm excited about the speaker's commitment that we will open up the process and let individual members offer bills and

amendments on the floor to when members can do that, the people we represent get a chance to speak. it is not so much about making sure we get a number on the amendment there. it is the people they represent who do not get a voice heard when the process does not work. the gentleman said well in the process does not work, the elite benefit the most. he did not invent executive overreach or executive orders. what he understood as a constitutional oil is when congress does not work, the executive branch can run with a really no one to spot them, particularly when the supreme court refused to draw any boundaries to where the executive may go. i think folks should be excited as they see that debate on transportation in the next few days. i think you will be excited to see the appropriations debate but that should be the very because what i know

when i am back home in indiana is folks in middle america understand the town is broken and we are not delivering for the american people. a couple more calls for congressman luke messer. in indiana, democrat, good morning. i just wondered if you had heard anything about there being a cancer scare in newcastle in a certain area of town, something to do with well water? this other person told me, how do we know it is not these people coming in and taken over all our businesses, putting something in the water? i just wonder, if you have not heard about this, would you please check it out and find out and let it be known in the paper? iest: i am not aware of it, want to say hello to you and

everybody there in newcastle. we will try to figure out potentially if folks here in c-span, how we can contact you, we will get you contacted soon and look into it. host: rob, independent in florida. good morning, representatives, you made a comment a while back about clean water and clean air. what is going on with the air? it is just not saying anything about all the chemicals spraying on us. your family also, what about them? thank you. i think we all want clean water and clean air and the question is, what is the appropriate balance? i understand your concerns and as somebody who has three young

kids my share them. , at: congressman luke messer republican from indiana. our time is short today. i appreciate your time. i know you have got to run. come back again. coming up next, we will turn our attention to the october cover story for reason magazine about plastic backs. managing editor, wrote the story, are they good for you? that is coming up next. ♪

>> c-span has your coverage of the road to the white house 2016, where you will find the candidates, speeches, debates, and your questions. we are taking our road to the thee house questions in classrooms, giving students the opportunity to discuss what important issues they want to hear the most from candidates. the whitey road to house coverage 2016 on tv, the radio, and online at c-span.org. >> these to ask me if i thought the first lady ought to get paid. you can do anything you want to. such a great soapbox, such

a great opportunity. i would advise any first lady to do what she wanted to do. another thing i learned is you will be criticized no matter what you do. could've stayed at the white house and poured tea and had receptions and i would have been criticized as much as i was criticized. and i got a lot of criticism. you went to live with it are just live with it. you expected and you live with it. >> she was her husband's political party -- partner from their first campaign. she attended jimmy carter's cabinet meeting. even testifying before congress. andpartnership on health peacekeeping issues stand for decades. rosalynn carter, this sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's original series, "first mh." influence and

from martha washington to michelle obama, sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. part of our spotlight magazine series, we are talking this morning with the managing editor of reason magazine about your cover story for october about plastic bag spirit you say there are good for you. you write, what prohibitionists get wrong about one of the greatest inventions, lies is it the greatest invention? it seems like a ridiculous claim. plastic bags are everywhere. they're very ordinary. but people who live in the miraculous modern era forget what it is like before that. gross,frankly kind of

not to put too fine of a point on it. my idea with the piece was to look at the actual case for and against. i came out pretty pro-bag. host: you break apart the environment arguments against plastic bags. let's start. san francisco is the first city to ban plastic bags. what was the argument and what did you find out? thet: one thing about argument against plastic bags, it is multipronged. it is welcome all. you say, well, actually, the case for how plastic tags impact global warming is not strong. you hit that mole and then people say, what about the pollution in the waterways? separately.hem all i think the most compelling one is the danger tumor in life. people have an idea that if they throw it plastic bag away or one blows away when their walking down the street, and is a direct

line from that plastic bag to a dead sea turtle. that is really not true and the statistics you heary cited, things like one million seabirds, 100,000 marine animals, they are cited all over the place from environmental advocacy groups, those statistics as far as i can tell come from a single study in the that was actually about fishing gear that was capped off. there was real danger tumor in life from fishing gear in the 1980's. there is no other study i could find anywhere. what about litter? people say plastic bags make up a major part of the later that you see. guest: there is a definitive litter study. 2009 version of that study,

called keep america beautiful, found that plastic bags are responsible for about 1% of visible litter. it is what we think of when we say literature the stuff lying around that should not be there. so you know, 1% is not nothing. but again, the specific targeting of plastic bags, that is the sort of place that is a little disproportionate. host: what about the emissions footprint? it takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce 100 billion plastic tags that are thrown away in the u.s. every year. talk about this claim and what you found out. do is the first thing to get perspective. we use something close to that amount of oil every day. to use a days worth of oil from the year to produce all the plastic bags anyone can ever use

ever, again, it is legitimate to say maybe we should try to cut that out, but there are other cost benefits and one is that whatdensity bags, which is we mean when we say plastic and grocery bags, they are mostly made from natural gas. statistic, which has appeared in the new york times and other places, it is misleading because it somehow implies a different manufacturer process or a different scale. natural gas is generally considered preferable. it recently became a little more expensive relative to oil. somewhat more of these bags are now made with oil. basically, bags are made with natural gas. it is not that they don't use fossil fuels. host: plastic versus paper. guest: that is the original question. i was a 1980's kid and i remember that question at the grocery store to now the russian is, did you bring your own bag

and whatever you don't, you are like, i am so ashamed. same thing when plastic versus paper was introduced. it was not just a practical issue. urban dwellers prefer plastic and suburban dwellers prefer paper appeared at has to do whether or not you are stacking them in the back of your car or carrying them on the subway. the paper versus plastic question initially introduced in people immediately recognized it as a kind of moral because, and it was that was also the rise of environmental awareness and people were saying, ok, save the trees because that was more of the thing in the 1980's. gases,wait, greenhouse we used to say then.

it was never clear even then what the calculus was. stressedhat ambiguity people out. that is why it became not just an everyday question but a punchline. why did the grocery industry even turn to plastic bags? guest: there is a book i came across that said it would disclose the secrets of the grocery industry. pinpoint the moment when plastic bags become the norm. a circumference i want to say at the holiday inn and new jersey, the people who make decisions about what they will use for bags. manufacturers of the wells -- relatively new technology were able to show plastic bags were $.11 cheaper than paper.

11% cheaper than paper and that was it. it became, it went from something like a small percentage of storms have -- stores having them to nearly everyone. she writes that plastic bags are good for you can we want you all to weigh in on this. -- in this article, she takes a look at all of the environmental arguments and claims against plastic bags. moreonmentalists claim than one million birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals die each year from plastic. that comes from a study about fishing gear that has nothing to do with plastic bags at all. let's step forward to today. 2007, symphysis could become the first to ban plastic bags and

what kicks off the movement and where does it go from san francisco. the testing ground for new particular environmental regulation, it seems like i think the low hanging fruit, something everyone could do that would make things a little better. ithink one of the reasons took off is precisely because it is so public. around the same time, there is a canvas that -- canvas bag, celebrities were photographed carrying around selfbag, and the idea was advertising or i am a kind of person who thinks about the environment, who cares, who wants to do the right thing. there are a lot of environmental laws that are aimed toward stuff that people can feel good about that do notlic

necessarily work out when you do the math in terms of either the environmental benefit or the economics of sustainability. boardof people got on when someone idea they virtually always been say let's take it. host: it goes on from there. we get a few living d.c. and you go to the supermarket, if you want plastic bags they will charge you for them. guest: i actually think a bag tax is preferable to a ban, because it does allow for people who want the back to get them. article,r writing this i still do use my reusable bags. i am a yuppie, i don't want people to judge me. for me and then becomes an economic question. but even in d.c. they did a bunch of studies before the tax went into effect where they looked at the waterway.

in d.c. in was branded very much as a detection of the watershed even thaterway, but study which was commissioned explicitly to back up the tax, they found that plastic bags were still only the third most source of litter in the waterways. ok.: well, plastic bags one a nobel katherine mangu-ward writes in her article that this is what environmentalists don't understand. i guess you answered my question about cotton bags over plastic, but here's a question. do they recycle these plastic bags, and if they do, what do they make out of them? i will leave you with that question. guest: that is a really good question.

canrecycling thing actually tip the balance one way or another when we are talking about appropriate choices and environmentally. people very often reuse their disposable grocery next. they use them for trashcan liners, they use them to clean up after their pets, they use them for school lunches. a lot of the math depends on whether you are assuming a single use or a double use for those bags, but the crinkly , as opposedle bags to the cotton ones, are actually a bit better. you have to reuse something -- you have to reuse this minute 11 times. and in terms of the climate change impacts, 11 times kind of covers reuse for a plastic bag. bags you need something like 131 reuses to get up to the

environmental equivalent of a single plastic back. to some extent it is about being honest with yourself. are you really going to religiously use and reuse these bags? statistics suggest that people do not. guest: -- host: they are not bringing their backs to the grocery store? there are lots of surveys about how often people forget their backs. -- their bags. to me one of the most surprising specifics that i discovered when i was researching this is that 6090 tons ofe were .rocery bags thrown away i think 18% get incinerated, but essentially people are disposing tons ofhing like 680

reusable crinkly grocery bags went into landfills that year. is fewer bags, those bags are much denser and they take up more space. but people were throwing away more reusable bags than they were disposable bags. host: let's go to texas, james, a democrat. what do you think of this? caller: i think it is great. let me get to my speakerphone. plastic bags are great. i reuse them all the time. is -- you areon laughing at me, i can see you on tv. the main question i have is why can't we make it by a problem with that? -- why can't we make it biodegradable? guest: it is really expensive to do that, and actually the amount of water that it takes to make the biodegradable bag is so much

greater than again, when you are viewing the total environmental calculus, it does not make sense. the simple answer is economics. people would like biodegradable bags. there is demand for them. some people do make them and use them but they are quite pricey and a generally turns out people are not willing to pay the premium. host: robert in maryland, a republican. caller: hi. catherine, you look very good today. guest: caller: thank you. caller: i wanted to ask how often does it take for a plastic bag to biodegrade and how long does it take for a paperback to biodegrade? guest: this is not totally might myry a bank -- my areata -- area of expertise but the answer is infinity. when you put a plastic bag in a landfill and airy it, it does not biodegrade.

if you are sort of thinking about that as your main calculus for whether or not to use a bag i would say don't worry about it. when it is in the landfill all is lost. host: rodney in new york, independents. you are on the air. go ahead. ok. you have to listen through your telephone. caller: i am listening through my telephone. host: ok, you are on the air. caller: in rochester there is a very successful grocery store that has been selling reusable plastic bag for at least five years, and i have been arguing for them. i say, you should not be selling these plastic bags, or if you do sell them at least you should allow a way for people to turn them back in, because what would happen is if you went home and forgot your bags you could go to the store and then you would end up using plastic bags. i said if you could just pick up

another reusable bag then you would not need the plastic bag. as those bags start to wear and tear, they would be getting them back where they could decide ok, this one has got to be recycled. it strikes me that that is the only sensible way to do it. these bags are really durable. and ire very convenient, don't even know -- it is like pounding on the wall trying to get this company who is progressive in other ways to realize this is the only sensible way to do it. bag lendingsable library is actually not a bad idea. it does get around some of the problems, including inadequate laundering of the bags, which is something that individuals typically cannot be trusted to do. maybe the store would do a better job. before reusable bags, most hades in the 1990's

recycling for the single use bag. you have actually seen a decline in those and consequently a decline in the market for the recycled plastic that comes out of this. it is another case of independent consequent is, where environmentalound behavior was also produced a flow of clean plastic has been undermined. host: that is a tweet from one of our viewers. harrington wants to know, how are we as a global community reusing plastic bags? are we recycling them? guest: the vast majority of people who come in contact with single use plastic bags do not treat him as a single use. they treat them as at least double use. not everyone reuses every bag, but i think it is something that -- like 70 percent or 80% of households that use them to line their garbage can or whatever. we are not super great and recycling those bags, but we are even worse at recycling reusable

bags when they come to the end of the -- their life. they are much more likely to end up in landfills. companies that produce plastic bags, are those american companies? how are they responding or how have they responded to this movement to ban them or tax them? talk about the price of oil and gas in all of this. guest: there is definitely a very fluid market in the raw material. lasting bonds are a commodity -- plastic bags are a commodity, they are incredibly cheap. we needed to buy a plastic back to take a picture of it, we wanted to get the one that had the smiley face for obvious reasons. we ended up buying 1000 of those four --$10 on amazon -- or $10 on amazon. there are a bunch of companies that make them, american, chinese. the question of what materials

of -- in those bags are recyclable varies hugely based on the price of oil and gas. it is a very fine margin business and it is the price of natural gas in particular -- if it goes up just a little bit, that can make a big difference in the decision about what the composition will be. host: you write about in this story, you talk about the washington dc tax, the san francisco band. dallas, a coalition of plastic bag manufacturers are challenging a markup that the city has imposed on bags, you talked about georgia, a bag on bans,ns -- a ban on bag and of course the right round zero is california. but what about on the federal level? guest: whenever there is anything to ban the feds will get in on this. in this case it is james moran who has introduced a five cent

national bag tax. he has done it several years in a row, not too much traction so far. for the most part the federal government is content to let states experiment, and i think that is actually a good thing. these things are hard to roll back. but the kind of trench warfare of a state-by-state ban and tax does provide a lot of useful information. host: we are talking about plastic bags, katherine mangu-ward, managing editor of theson" magazine wrote cover story about how plastic bags are good for you. john, a democrat, you are next. one thing about plastic bags that just drives me crazy is the fact that because they are so light and airborne they get caught up in trees no matter how tall. and no matter how deep you go into the woods you are going to find that. it is just a disgusting reminder

of the kind of litter prone, d beautification of our wilderness that goes on in the u.s.. this woman sounds very articulate and intelligent. i wish you would put your talents to work to solve environmental problems instead of creating environmental problems. talk about the environmental claims, because that is what you looked into. thing to note here is that the plastic bag caught in a tree thing is an incredibly visible sign and it bothers a lot of people. this collar is not alone -- ca ller is not alone. there are several african countries that refer to plastic bags in trees as the kenyan flower. i actually think if you read the article what you will see is

that what i am doing here is trying to help people do what is best for the environment. i think everyone wants to do the right thing and we saw that with the anxiety of paper over plastic. now it's the same with three usable bags. there are always down sides to every choice, and i think people are a little bit line to the downside of reusable bags, including the fact that a very small percentage of the vast numbers of these bags that are produced do wind up producing the kind of litter that we see. write that far from being the environmental threat activists make them out to be, plastic bags are not particularly to blame for clogged or choked rivers, as succeeding the animals, or global warming. instead, they are likely our best bet for carrying all of our junk in a responsible manner. don't believe the haters. plastic bags are good for you. so plastic over reusable bags? to do i think if you want

the right thing for the environment, as paradoxical as it may seem, using a plastic bag when you need to select -- schlep some stuff is actually the right call. host: why? guest: there are a couple reasons, but the main one is that the claims were reusable bags do not add up. they are not as landfill friendly. a lot of them and up getting thrown away. they are environmentally expensive to clean, and you hot water,sh them in which you should do, that uses more hot -- resources that people believe. and the fact that we can sometimes reuse what we think of justese disposable bags really tips the scale in terms of environmental claims. it looks good to carry a reusable bag, and people want to do it, but they also want to do what is good, and i would urge them to check out this article.

host: so a question on twitter. how can you accurately count how many bags of any construction go into landfills? guest: that is a good question. i don't really know the answer to that except that there is a lot of money to be paid in knowing what happened to our trash. so there are people who have a huge motivation to figure out that answer. recyclers, for one. anyone who could make money by retreating plastics or other materials out of landfills. there are people who care about this and look into it. ie studies i have read believe are done across many countries, i think they are pretty accurate when they give estimates. host: let's hear from jim in richmond, virginia. independent. caller: good morning. my comment is that i don't understand why we have to be so nasty in the united states. i just wish you would take a

ride and go buy a couple of the and theping stores plastic bags that are all over the highway and on the roads under the trees. you can go over to ireland and ride down and it is absolutely beautiful. they carry their own bags. if you want a plastic bag you pay extra for it, and it would not take long if people would get on the bandwagon and carry their own bags and watch them and make itthem safe. the environment would look a lot better. you mightright, so have missed what she had to say about this. go ahead and repeated. guest: i think the aesthetic claim is in many ways the strongest one against non-reusable plastic bags. one reason i think we are so sensitive to this little bit of plastic in the occasional treat is because our environment has gotten so much cleaner over the last several decades.

it used to be that if you had some garbage in your car you just threw it out the window. there was a huge national campaign to stop that. plastic bags are occasionally the holdouts. they are suchuse an incredible technology, they are so light, so thin, that a little puff of wind takes it into a tree. i think it is reasonable to be concerned about how they look on the sidewalks, but at the same time the broader environmental case is just not strong. host: let me throw this into the conversation. 2011, coliform bacteria was found in nearly half of the reusable shopping bags tested in a random survey of shoppers. only 18% of shoppers report cleaning their bags regularly. guest: doing this article made me read -- wash all of my reusable plastic bags. there is sort of this idea, this

of goodness around the reusable bag. you have already done the right thing, you are ready to go. who uses thesee regularly has at some point done this. you take a packet of chicken, put it in the back, take the up,ken out, you crumple it you put it in the back of your car. next week you put some celery in the same bag and then you eat it raw. this is a way to illness. it is not a massive public health concern. introduction of disposable packaging, first paper bags and then plastic boons were huge bins -- for hygiene. in some ways reusable bags are a return to the habit of our great great grandmother's. although we have better hygiene in many ways it is still worth keeping in mind that you should watch the bag for your bagh forh -- was the

your own health, but if you do it it becomes worse for the environment. host: let's circle back a little oil and gas. what is the industry saying about recycling bags versus making new ones? guest: oil and gas prices are a big deal for the industry. is thatg that we do see the relative prices of oil versus gas determine what is going to go into the bags. we talked earlier about this statistic about how many barrels of oil are used to make the bags that you use every day. relativethe shift in prices can determine the outcome there. also the outcomes for recycling plastic bags recently have not been good, and if you have talked to anybody in the industry they will say getting a clean supply of plastic bags to recycle is tricky. people are less likely to pay

enough for american plastic bags to make it worthwhile to ship them over. host: ok. ted in new hampshire, a republican. hi. caller: how are you? my question is, you have some major cities on the eucharist and the west coast, and they take barges full of trash loaded with plastic bags and they dump it in the ocean at such a large freight that it washes ashore on the hawaiian islands. a lot of the islands are covered with it. it is also an environmental hazard to our food supply. that cannot break down. this: i think actually, sort of image of the barge flying -- applying its way around the coast with nowhere to put its garbage, i was a really formative moments in the american environmental consciousness.

there was really just one due to essentially bad planning on the part of municipal managers who did not have anywhere to dump this garbage. that was really an aberration, and even in that case it was not dumped into the ocean. it eventually did find a home in a landfill. but that moment, that moment of the barge floating around with nowhere to go, really gave people a strong and present -- impression that we were in a crisis situation. i urge you to check out an article by my former boss, he wrote a version of this in the 90's and recently updated it, about the economics of recycling . he is very optimistic. he says we have plenty of landfill space and we do not garbage intoour the ocean. when it does end up in the waterways it is an accident, not a policy. that is actually not something we should feel bad about. host: the article is "lasting

bags are good for you." katherine mangu-ward writes that one bag and hold 17 pounds, well 1000 times its own weight at the cost of about a penny. if you want to read more go to reason. con. katherine mangu-ward, appreciate your time. coming up we will open up the electiones and discuss 2016 as well as the elections that took place across the country yesterday. yesterday on the senate floor a new senator gave his first speech. his -- a pledge to number bellowed about -- fellow nebraskans that he would follow the old senate rules. this is what was written. considered a question. 1950's a capitol hill

veteran offered this advice to newcomers. there are two kinds of congressman, show horses and workhorses. if you want to aim and the papers be a show horse. if you want to gain the respect of your colleagues, keep quiet and be a workhorse. from the senate's days, new members have observed a ritual of remaining silent ring floor debates for a period of time. that once ranged from several months to several years. this senator waited a year. here is what he had to say on the floor yesterday. [video clip] everym home virtually weekend and when i hear is what i think is the same all of you here every weekend rate a pox on both parties and both houses. that thebelieve politicians are even trying to solve the great problems that we face. to the republicans, those of us who would claim that the new

majority is leading the way, few people believe it. to the grand standers who would try to use this institution chiefly for the platform for outside pursuits, few believe that the country's needs are as important to you as your own ambitions. for the democrats who did this body great harm through nuclear tactics, few believe that bareknuckled politics are a substitute for principle governing. and who among us doubt that many both on the right and left are now salivating for more of these radical politics? the people despise us all. why is that? because we are not doing our job. we are not doing the primary thing that the people sent us here to do. we are not tackling the great ouronal problems that worry bosses at home. i propose a thought experiment. if the senate is not going to be the venue for addressing our biggest national problems, where should we tell people that venue is?

should they look for long-term national prioritization if it does not happen on this floor? or, would anything really be lost if the senate did not exist? to be clear, this is a thought a greatnt, and i think many things would be lost of the senate did not exist, it's our federal government does not have the benefit of this body. but game out with me the question of why. what precisely would be lost if we only had a house of representatives, a simple majority. growth of the administrative state is increasingly hollowing out the senate and the entire legislator. many in congress have been complicit in the hollowing out of our own powers. would anything really be lost if we double down on woodrow wilson's desire to remove more

ness of theki legislative process? host: and we are back. we will round out today's "washington journal" with open phones. start dialing in. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. .nd independents (202) 748-8002 some states had elections yesterday. here are some of the highlights from republican -- from kentucky, matt bevin won the governor's race. legal marijuana failed in ohio, republicans retain the virginia senate, and the lgbtq equal rights measure is rejected in houston. let me go through the papers. this is the front page out of betucky, "that in victory --

vin victory leads a gop surge." you also have this, he will be the second gop chief and for decades. no-high-o.f ohio, the voters rejecting a measure that would have legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana. they overwhelmingly written -- rejected that. issue two, making it harder to pass a marijuana amendment, was passed instead. then you have this, no pot for ohio. usa today says this about arizona's election results yesterday. in tucson voters decided whether to ban the use of red light cameras used at eight intersections. supporters say the decrease crashes and help encourage

drivers to it here to the speed limit. opponents say having a machine is cute -- issues a ticket violence and accused person's right to face his or her accuser. and then in houston voters rejected proposition one, that would protect people from discrimination based on their sexual identity or marital status. it came to be known as the bathroom bill when credits -- critics focused on a provision that would allow transgender people to use any washroom. is sad thatink it joe biden decided not to even run for president. host: why did you want him to run, keith? caller: i thought he would be a good president. host: why? caller: because. i don't know. he has had eight years of experience being vice president.

i think he has a lot of experience. ok.: just as a reminder, turned down that tv. riley in oklahoma, a republican. caller: yes. president obama said that the threat rater than isis is the crisis of climate change or global warming. and yet in the republican debate there was no question from the journalist dealing with what obama says is greater than isis. the democrats would have you to doubleat we need or triple the price of electricity, get gasoline to eight dollars a gallon in order to fight a nonexistent global warming. this,blic is not aware of

and yet for obama to be saying this actually means we are going on about the u.n. taking over that issue of climate change, raising the price. obama's promise to send $100 billion to fight the global warming. this is a major issue for the country, because it will cost jobs. it will damage our economy. yet in the two republican or weee republican debates, can't really get any discussion on this and all the democrats say oh yeah, there is global warming so we have to raise the price of carbon fuels. host: so do you agree with republicans that they should be able to set the terms of these debates, and that they need to have a different format and moderators need to be asking different questions? caller: yes.

it is logical. you have democrat activist as your moderators to talk about things like fantasy football, they ask questions dealing with moral authority. do you have the moral authority? it was ridiculous. democrat activist questions, talking about like, rubio's finances, but you can't talk about hillary clinton. question about her involvement in the clinton foundation fundraisers. to million in saudi arabia the clinton foundation. so yes, there is an issue whenever the democrat reporters control the questions to try to embarrass the republicans. certainly there need to be changes. host: let me ask you about this. "the washington post" editorial

board has this this morning. they say that media organizations should stand up against these demands. they write this. republicans to choose a debate before conservative friendly media outlets less likely to offer questions out of line with conservative orthodoxy. senator ted cruz of suggested that irresponsible ideologues rush limbaugh, mark levin, or sean hannity moderate the gop debates. seems is to replace perceived liberal bias among the moderators with explicit, purposeful conservative bias. what do you think? "ller: well, i think first, the washington post" with their "irresponsible" commentators, that tells you exactly where they are on this. reasonable people need to find out where the candidates stand,

and this is what i think the republican candidates are concerned about. they have unreasonable people trying to play gotcha with them, instead of allowing them to present to the public what they are positioned are on specific issues. ,o questions on global warming no questions on hillary's financing. no question on anything that the public needs to know about. host: ok. we will move on to matt in new jersey, an independent. what is on your mind? caller: i just wanted to talk about the debt crisis. recently they have passed a bill for the debt ceiling to increase. right overnight they spent $339 billion. it is ridiculous. the democrats are all for social security. i have a huge problem with that because they are taking money out of social security and health care to pay for the debt. i also have a huge problem with the republicans.

host: ok, we'll move on. story, theiling washington examiner has been after the president signs that billion.jumped to $339 keith in alabama, a republican. .aller: i have from appalachia i just want this president to know -- people to know what this president has done to us. every one of our jobs is gone. i am from coal country and we are struggling. made allal government these claims, but you kill a deer on your own land to feed yourself and you go to jail. it is getting ridiculous. our culture, our way of life, it has devastated us down here. i just don'tes --

understand these policies he has had. i don't know how we can eat down here. that is how bad it has gotten. host: robert, richmond virginia, democrat. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i would just like to address what the previous caller was saying about energy and the price of gas. host: are you there? caller: the price of gas is actually below two dollars a with the democratic policies, which obviously is not true. and as far as the energy, if we actually it that -- is creating jobs in a different sector. color justs mentioned about coal, that is a very's -- very small part of our consumption now.

and the detriment that is caused as opposed to the benefits, i think we can do better. host: ok. in the race for the white house, front page of "the washington , marco rubio rises in the polls, becomes a target. both trump and bush have attacked his finances and his missed votes in the senate. and theronald trump new york yey for his book event. he might after marco rubio he also a dr. ben carson. take a look at what he had to say. [video clip] a person that has tremendous personal energy to get us back on track. you cannot do that when you do not have that. i think marco is highly overrated. he does not have it and all you have to do is look at his stance on things. quality thatks the you need. everybody in the world is ripping us off. you need a very strong person with tremendous energy. thank you very much folks, but -- it is so important.

does noty, ben carson have that energy. we need somebody with tremendous energy to straighten out the , to straighten out our horrible trade deals, to terminate obamacare and come up with something far better for far less money. you need somebody with tremendous personal energy as president. donald trump in new york yesterday attacking his rivals for the white house, going after ben carson, marco rubio, saying that they don't have enough energy. we are getting your thoughts on politics and policy here for about the next 25 minutes. there is also an article on donald trump in "the new york times," reporting that latino groups are calling on the saturday night live to drop trump. saturday night live inviting trump as its host this week is

no laughing matter, at least for hispanic and pro-immigration group that have intensified their calls for the -- the group -- -- to show to rescind its invitation. there is also this. "obamacare co-op finance cut in half by failures." 1.2 billion in federally backed loans wasted. michigan's announcement yesterday means that 12 out of 23 co-op dropped out of the marketplace, costing taxpayers about $1.2 billion in government-backed loans. his health care law is struggling to meet projections as it begins the third year of full operations. for more on that, go to the washington times. let's go to darren, here in d.c., an independent. caller: hi guys. thanks for c-span. i really appreciate the program. the main thing on my mind is

that neither party is really doing the people's work. we have real issues in this country, real things that people care about, i guess the main thing is keeping our economy .oing and getting people jobs the wide and expanding cap between the rich and the poor, a lack of money. i live here in d.c., the cost of living is outrageous, and write down the street there is congress and it is a whole different world compared to the people right here in the district. over the past years the best thing that we have done is energy independence, even though i am kind of conflicted with this deal. fracking, but because of that we are energy independent. it was a big concern several years ago. and lastly i would say, immigration. we have a big problem with immigration here in this country, illegal and both

parties profit off of illegal immigrants. i see it here in the district all the time. these people, many of them come .ere just to work they don't have papers, they know they don't have papers, and employers hire them. construction workers, on the west coast it is probably different with the agriculture, but here on the east coast they are mainly employed to do domestic work or construction. it is total exploitation of people. nobody really wants to do anything about it, because the fact that it is very profitable. host: ok. shirley in iowa, a democrat. what is on your mind? caller: i would like to have you have a program that is totally about democratic socialism, because then you could explain to people that most of our allies are democratic socialist.

also then you could tell people hundreds ofd save dollars per year if we would go to a single-payer system instead of paying these very expensive our about half of well-earned or hard-earned wages. ok.: let me let you know, in case you missed it, that we did have on the program the democratic that ist of america, the group that aligns themselves with bernie sanders, they talk about what it means to be a democratic socialist. go to our website, c-span.org. you can watch it there. about capitol hill, the 2016 legislative calendar was released the other day. to lengthyll take

legislative breaks in 2016, giving members of both parties plenty of time to attend electioneering business back in their home states. comes in the second half of july with national conventions for republicans and democrats. off fors will then be the month of august, taking them through labor day. the schedule for 2016 also envisions no legislative business in the month of october and in the day before the election scheduled for november 8, 2016. also from capitol hill, there is this story. if you are looking for john in an office building and that is because he is taking advantage of little-known perks and privileges taxpayers provide for those vacating the chamber's highest office. he is a setting up a government funded office that will have as

withas three aides salaries over $100,000 each. he can maintain the outpost for over five years with taxpayers footing the bill for office operations. this has been set up since the 19 -- since 1970. the communications director said it was too early to speculate on whether the omnibus bill will include a funding request for his new office. orlando, a democrat. good morning to you. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: yes. i wanted to mention about marco rubio. how he keeps climbing in the orlando and live in brian maxwell had this article in the paper.

rubio, he does not even go to work. he is a senator for the state of florida, but he is getting paid he is a liar.hat ,e is lying about all of this all the deals that he has made. $800,000, that is in the next article. you, do youask think you should resign his senate seat will he is running for president? caller: how can he run for president telling all these lies? host: ok. speaking of polls, take a look at the latest poll showing that in a hypothetical matchup clinton and ben carson are tied,

.u and then one year before election day 2016 dr. ben carson is practically tied with donald trump, and he tops hillary finaln 50% to 40% in the face-off, trump gets 24% of republican both, marco rubio is at 14%. he has seen an increase. ted cruz at 13% and jeb bush at 4%. i've been in florida, an independent. caller: hi. host: go ahead. caller: i cannot understand why no one has challenged donald trump, who explains to the world how he will handle everything when he broke his marriage vows

at least twice. how are we to understand that he will not betray his oath of office is, god for bid, he is elected president? why is the press not pressing this man on this issue that most of us value? host: ok. bill, ohio, democrat. caller: how are you doing? yes, i am a democrat. i have been voting since 1976 and i am really test off with the candidates and what is going on. something that really gets me is this immigration deal. i have got a plan for immigration, but if i tell them what about it they will say well, you are a racist. i am not a racist, as far as i know. i don't have any hispanic friends, but that does not mean i don't like them.

is, why don't we go ahead and support forfeiture laws and go ahead and give all the illegal immigrants, give them 90 days to sell their possessions and leave the country? ok.: well as you might differ from speaker ryan over the weekend saying that republicans will not move on conference of immigration reform will president obama is in office, saying they cannot trust him, that he poisoned the well by moving himself on immigration. he put into law executive actions, executive orders on the immigration bill. the house this week is working on a multiyear highway bill, hoping to get this past so the senate can pass their own version, they can reconcile the two and they will have in place a long-term funding plan.

this one is six years, the house bill has funding for three of those years but not the last three. the senate has funding for all six. this is a piece in the new york times, the highway bill is presenting ryan with an early test of whether or not the process will be open enough for rank and file members and will they unify behind this bill? manyard earlier that amendments are going to be allowed to be offered during the debates and offered on. they started yesterday, they will continue in the house. , late votes as they allow many armaments -- amendments to come to the floor. al is on the line. caller: good morning. i just want to make a comment

about this country getting jobs back. i think donald trump is the man for that. i can handle my own personal matters. everyone thinks mexico is a poor country, they are not a poor country. they make automobiles, they do agriculture, they have a drug business bigger than all of our pharma. ok.: let's go to shirley and georgia, democrat. good morning. what are your thoughts? caller: good morning. this is a little off-topic, but i'm a senior citizen. i on a fixed income. i found out back when i started , young my social security can bring your debit card into the bank to get your cash and the bank cannot charge you atm fees. i have been doing this for two or three years now and i saved

the atm fees. i was in yesterday, and guess what? they take a fee now out at the bank so you have to go to the atm if you want cash. there are senior citizens out there who cannot afford it. so i went to another bank and got my cash. i think somebody ought to look into it. thank you. host: ok. we told you earlier the news this morning out of north carolina, former congressman howard coble died at 84 years old, and the north carolina republican represent the sixth district. he served in the u.s. house longer than any other north carolina republican. night as ae tuesday result of convocations from skin cancer treatment. he was in a hospital in september as a result of this competition. 84 years old.

we sat down with him before he retired for one of our retirement interviews, in case you're interested in learning more about him, you can go to our website, c-span.org. we are in open phones this morning getting your thoughts on public policy and political issues. me throw this one into the mix. this is from the washington post. hunt --t obama won't punt on the keystone decision. he plans to decide the fate before he leaves office. pipelinebe a 1179 mile between alberta and brusca -- nebraska. and then there is this from the business section of "the wall that theurnal," saying delay of this pipeline is unlikely to hurt refineries in the united states. that is because crude imports

from canada set a record in august, averaging 3.4 million barrels a day. oilns now carry a lot of including tens of thousands of barrels a day from canada. close to one million barrels of oil and day move across the u.s. on oil trains which act as rolling pipelines. more than 10% of all oil hold -- auled byoad -- -- h railroad originates in canada. and then there is this story about what quarter has done during his tenure as -- corker has done during his tenure as senator. until recently he had not made stock purchases. he purchased between $1 million and $5 million in shares of a firm from this chattanooga real estate firm and sold them five

months later for 42% gain. if you are interested in that, "wall street journal" this morning. . what are your thoughts on any public policy issue, campaign 2016. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, and independents (202) 748-8002. phone lines are open. dial in. morning about schoolkids in handcuffs. they run about this video that went viral showing a police throwing and dragging an african-american students across the floor. they say it may well be indicative of a greek -- greater security problem in school district. the video shows a problem that has grown worse in the united states since the 1980's. when the country started to put more police officers in schools.

in many cases it has created repressive environments and educators have stepped back and allowed police officers to set the tone, even when that man -- meant manhandling and arresting students for minor behaviors that once would have been dealt with by the principal. these policies have not made schools safer but they do make children more likely to drop out and become entangled with the justice system. and they disproportionately affect minority and disabled children who are more likely to be singled out for the harshest form of discipline. flora in california, and democrat. we are in open phones, good morning. go ahead. caller: i wanted to call in and say about greta, i sit and watch every day, and she does not give the callers a chance to talk. when are people going to complain? they hold the phone forever while she does all the talking. host: ok. paul in san antonio, a democrat.

caller: what i am calling about today is there are a lot of people talking about job creation. they need to start looking at the democrats, particularly ted cruz. he wants to eliminate the irs, the postal service. all those thousands of people will be out of work. they need to think about that. thank you. in new york, an independent. what is on your mind's? caller: i just wanted to say, why don't congress make an amendment to the constitution and add bribery to a? that is a way of life for them. the other thing i wanted to say is that people don't realize in this country you need to thousand dollars net pay a week $2,000out of poverty --

net a week to get out of poverty. making five dollars an hour will never see the american dream. host: josie in jacksonville, florida, and democrat. caller: i just wanted to mention that paul ryan is going to rule thatoehner's only allows bills to come to the house floor that can be passed with the majority of republicans. so than the bills are sent to the senate and they are dead on arrival because the republicans can't pass the bill, so it is .ust continual gridlock republicans like to say that harry reid would not allow 300 house bills to be voted on, but neither have they. it is gridlock. fromouse has to pass bills

democratic and republican representatives so that it can pass in the senate with democratic and republican senators, and hopefully one day he signed by the president. host: ok. on climate change, there is this headline in "the washington a bumpy road to you and climate summit in paris. for several years obama has appealed to the leaders of the biggest developing countries, china, india, and brazil, to map out aggressive steps to greenhouse gas emissions or dramatic way slow their growth. the president is passionate about the paris summit. deborah into virginia, a democrat. good morning. what is on your mind? caller: good morning.

thank you for c-span. i would like to ask at the general public how they feel -- i am a democrat and i love bernie. i think hillary has done a good job in her day, but i would like to ask, how many people would people over the age of retirement out of our government? they are into their 70's and 80's now. host: ok. that was deborah in virginia. social security and retirement, there is this piece atusa today, it takes a look atretirement age -- retirement age, it is 67 for

those born in 1960 and later. this is what the benefit looks like. this is how much social security per month a person could receive depending on which age they start their benefits. if you start later you're going to get more. one expert is fond of saying that good things come to those who work. that is because once you reach full retirement age you can earn as much as you might like and receive a full social security benefit at the same time. phones, we will wait for the house to come in. they could be opening the doors and gaveling in any second. let me show you this. chipotle facing an e. coli lawsuit. there have been 31 confirmed cases of e. coli and that number may rise. that comes as news from "the washington post," they are reporting that large outbreaks of salmonella, wisteria, they

have seen a big increase in that over the past five years. large outbreaks of disease tied to tainted food are up over the past five years. the cdc tallies 120, they can be letahl. legal -- the house is gaveling in for their legislative session. thanks for watching. oceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c., november 4, 2015. i hereby appoint the honorable glen thompson to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january , 2015, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders andor