a look at the mental health of america's veterans with a doctor of the veterans health administration and a kernel of the washington, d c medical center. ♪ host: good morning. it is veterans day. at themarking that day tomb of the unknown soldier. president obama will be laying a wreath there this morning and we will talk about veterans issues on the program coming up. we want to talk about the fourth gop debate. the candidate squared off on taxes, trade, foreign policy. what was your take away, democrats 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independence, 202-748-8002.

send us a tweet @cspanwj. or go to facebook. or send an e-mail. the phone lines are open. take a look at the exchange between donald trump and john kasich on immigration. mp: we have to stop illegal immigration, it is hurting us from every standpoint and causing tremendous difficulty with respect to drugs and what it does to our inner cities and it is such an unbelievable moment because the courts have not been ruling in our favor. it was a 2-1 decision, a terrific thing that happened. we are a country of laws. we need borders.

we will have a wall and the wall will be built. the wall will be successful at if you think walls do not work, ask israel. the wall works. properly done. >> can you just send 5 million people back with no effect on the economy? >> we are a country of laws. we either have a country or we do not have a country. we are a country of laws. , they willo go out come back, and hopefully they get back but we have no choice if we are going to run our country properly and going to be a country. we need to control our borders just like people have to control who goes in and out of their house. if people think we are going to ship 11 million people who are law-abiding, in this country and somehow pick them up and ship them out of mexico, think about the families and the children.

the answer is, if they have been law-abiding, they pay a penalty, they get to stay and we protect the wall, anybody else comes over, they go back. for the 11 million people, we know you cannot pick them up and ship them across the border. it is a silly argument. it makes no sense. : your lucky in ohio you struck oil. [laughter] dwight eisenhower, a good , heident, people like him moved 1 million and a half illegal immigrants out of this country beyond the border. he moved them again and they came back. he did not like it, move them way south and they never came back. [laughter] dwight eisenhower.

you do not get nicer or friendlier, they moved a million and a half people out. we have no choice. we have no choice. kasich: in ohio we have grown 347,000 jobs, unemployment is half of what it was and our fracking industry may have contributed 20,000 but if mr. trump understood the real jobs come in the downstream, that is where we will get our jobs. ohio is diversified. thing, they do not think when it comes to the truth. i am suggesting we cannot ship 11 million people out of this country, children would be terrified and it will not work. p: undelete -- i have built an unbelievable company with billions and billions of dollars, i do not have to hear from this man.

host: a lengthy exchange between donald trump and john kasich on immigration. the debate continued with the other candidates. marco rubio who was part of the gang of eight who came up with a comprehensive immigration reform proposal that passed in the senate, some noting that marco rubio was out of that exchange and that debate over immigration. david in virginia, a democrat, what did you think? ele thin gru running for president in the republican ranks. gentleman.p is no the way he spoke to ms. fiorina, big things he said about i have more funny -- money than you mr. k-6 so i do not have to listen

to you, things that are beyond the bend. any sensible politician. that is not politics. i would like to see him say that to vladimir putin. host: he would say that is right, he is not a politician. guest: he still has to act like one when he meets with people -- with other politicians and other leaders around the world. host: you do not find him presidential? guest: absolutely not. job.ush does not want the case forch made a good himself. like the gentleman from

texas -- i cannot remember his name. host: senator ted cruz. guest: he is another one that is beyond the pale. host: why do you say jeb bush does not want it? guest: his attitude, the way he acts. i do not think he wants to be president. he feels like it is a family tradition that he has to uphold. brother'sshore up his -- the policy decisions and mistakes that were made during his brother's administration. host: that was david, a democrat .n virginia i want to hear from a publicans, eight candidates were on the debate, the smallest amount, what do you think? an independent in flushing, new york. guest: good morning.

i followed both debates. -- what is clear [indiscernible] --know what personality will matter. fiorina --and carly the rest of the guys are no different. host: what do you like about carly fiorina and in carson? guest: ben carson is calm. americans want someone who they trust. ben carson has that. he might not be politically

correct. like muslims cannot be president. these might hurt him. carly fiorina is the woman for me. she is in business, she knows how to handle money and her personality is good. donald trump insulted her and she was calm. know if republicans go with these two personalities they have a chance. jeb bush should step down. he does not have it. he should step down and let the other guys. democrats should learn from a publicans -- republicans.

[indiscernible] host: let's hear from a republican. tennessee. play whatould like to ted cruz said about immigration. that we should have illegal immigration and the rule of law -- legal immigration and the ruled law. and wepeople come in love refugees come in. cruz said about other subjects and marco rubio as well. had a lot ofrina good sense to say on taxes and balancing our budget and getting zero budget or we can cut certain things. i would appreciate if you would play what ted cruz said. guest: that's where we will go in -- host: that is where we

will go to next. how jeb bush and ted cruz responded to the immigration question. 12 million illegal immigrants, to send them back, 500,000 a month is not possible. it is not embracing american values. it would tear communities apart and send the signal that we are not the kind of country i know america is. having this conversation send a powerful signal, they are doing high fives in the clinton campaign when they hear this. that's the problem with this. we have to win the presidency and that is by practical plans. we need to allow people to earn legal status where they pay a fine and work and do not commit crime and learn english. they earn legal status, that is the proper path. people online trying to come in to the country, very

unfair to those who want to come have gone, they through the process and are waiting, very unfair to them. ted cruz: when the mainstream media covers immigration they do not see it as an economic issues. for millions of americans watching this, it is a personal economic issue. i will say the politics of it would be different if a bunch of lawyers and bankers were crossing the rio grande. or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were driving down the wages in the press. [laughter] [applause] then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is the falling our nation. [laughter] couldose who believe we -- people should come to the country legally, we are tired of being told we are

anti-immigrant. host: ted cruz on the immigration question last night. jeb bush said the hillary clinton campaign is doing high-fives when they hear donald trump talking about another republican candidate talking about immigration. a spokesperson for the hillary of clinton campaign said they were doing high-fives. a philadelphia democrat, mark. wast: watching that debate tough. the one thing that strikes me about the republicans is none of them want to raise the moment which i find hard to believe. second of all, they spent so much time talking about vladimir putin and isis. i went to the drugstore yesterday that cost $10 a pill.

medicare and they will not pay for it. my supplemental plan is saying i should use generic but the generic does not work. i am spending about $700 a month on health-related insurance premiums and medicine, over half my social security check. i do not hear anything about this. l? i care about isi do i care about vladimir putin when i can barely afford my medication? host: the breakdown on how much time they spent on different issues, taxes, deficit, budget, the debt took up most of the time at 26 minutes and national security and foreign policy came in second at 18 minutes. bank bailouts, 15 minutes on that topic. immigration, over six minutes. medicare, under five. trade, the same on the

discretion of trade and the trade promotion authority. on obamacare, over four minutes. the economy got four minutes. minuteswage under four to income inequality, two minutes because rand paul talked about it. your thoughts on the fourth gop debate posted by foxbusiness and the wall street journal did republicans we want to hear from you. democrats, 202-748-8000. what did you make of the eight candidates republicans, 202-748-8001. also the debate at 7:00 p.m. eastern time would be for other candidates. marilyn, you are up. guest: it was refreshing to see professional journalism last night, fox did it well, asking substantive questions.

to every democrat, i am independent, that is -- independent is a code word for democrat. obama rules like a king. take all your illegals, over 21 million, take them in your backyards and you pay for this. this country did not ask for this. we want to take america back and make it great again. not to embrace socialism and communism, this was forced upon us just like health care was shut down our throats. we want common sense laws in place. another tactic the democrats pulled was let's call their bluff. host: about executive orders by

the president on immigration, take a look at the washington post front page. president obama is looking for the high court to help them. justices will rule on immigration actions after the latest legal setback. said it wouldtion ask the supreme court to rule next year on the president's plan to allow millions of undocumented immigrants to remain at work in the united states without fear of deportation. a ruling which could open political debate in the presidential election. after setback for obama in court there is a new urgency among the white house officials and advocates to start enrolling immigrants before the president leaves office in january of 2017. the latest on that. what are your thoughts on the debate last night? debtspent far more time on than they did immigration. and the economy. what are your thoughts?

huntington beach, california, a democrat, jerry. guest: i did not know you changed your name. it was scary, the debate. it does not add up. keepnot see how they can -- come up with these things, they will cut taxes, increase military spending, and magically balance the budget. -- they need ae reality check. there is something wrong with this whole idea. if i had to pick a worse statement, it came from carly fiorina, she said that the united states -- when the united states is wrong, the rest of the world is strong and when the united states is weak, the rest of the country is weak. what evidence does she have?

thank you not answer questions. it was a mess. guest: -- host: who presented the greatest challenge to hillary clinton or bernie sanders? depending on who gets the nomination. guest: probably none of them but the only two that were rational or rand paul and ben carson. the rest were hysterical. it was crazy. it was amazing. guest: an independent in new york. you are on the air. debate andtched the i think the republicans are clowns. there was one thing jeb bush said that i agree with. that was his remark on immigration that you just played. it sounds remarkably like obama's executive orders on

immigration, pay a fine, the resid pathway to citizenship, we do not do for you. -- deport you. plan.exactly like obama's host: james, a republican, what did you make of the debate? guest: it was a good debate. overall, everybody did a reasonable job. john kasich went over the top. i do not think bush did well. rand paul did a good job as he always does and more attention needs to begin to him. i've had several holders called me-- pulling stations call and they eliminate rand paul out of the questions. they give me choices of jeb bush carson,d trump or ben they would not put rand paul in

there so his polling numbers have to be low. the question was, who would i vote for for president in the republican primary? they gave me those choices without giving me the choice of other people. rand paul was not in their. i said he was a good choice because he stands up for liberty. in my opinion, he would like to give us out of some of these wars we do not need to be in. last night, they asked a question i have not seen shown on the morning show about us having a no-fly zone and he said, if we do that, we will encounter russian planes that we would be shooting down, that would cause a war with russia. his stance on foreign affairs are better and make more common sense that what some of the others do. so many of them that are

warmongers and the war missing he had to argue with rubio with, i thought he was correct. marco rubio cannot handle his own credit card, much less united states'credit card. i would like to see more rand paul and people giving him a chance to explain his point of view. we are missing an opportunity. the last thing most people want is rand paul to be the president of united states over the big businesses do not want him. host: let me show our viewers that exchange between marco rubio from florida and rand paul from kentucky. this is their money, it is refundable, not just if the taxes i guess the government but refundable against the payroll tax. everyone pays payroll tax. this is their money.

this is not our money. if you invest that money in the piece of equipment, in a business, you get to write it off your taxes but if you invested in your children, in the future of america and strengthening your family, we will not recognize that in our taxes, the family is the most important institution. i know that rand paul is an isolationist, i am not. the world is a stronger and better place when united states is the strongest military power in the world. host: that exchange between the two senators over military issues. while they were preparing for last night's debate, the senate was voting on the defense authorization bill. in the new york times, making it harder to close guantánamo. the military measure which passed in a 91-3 vote includes provision that if the transfer of prisoners to the united states oil, which has been a core component of the administrations plan to shut the prison.

mr. obama had vetoed a publishing -- previous mission -- a new version was approved by the house last week. overwhelming bipartisan support. the bill bans bringing guantánamo detainees for -- to the united states for prosecution or detention. it tightens restrictions on transferring detainees to other countries. 91-3.ill approved six senators did not vote, senator ted cruz, lindsey graham , senator heller, rand paul, marco rubio, and senator david who washo was -- vitter in his home state for a debate last night. the president says he will approve this measure. approvede yesterday an $80 billion spending bill for veterans programs and military

construction projects to be adopted this year here and we will talk more about veterans issues coming up on today's "washington journal." we are spending the first part of the program talking about last night gop debate. james and south carolina -- a democrat from maryland. guest: good morning. this is very divisive to the republican party when you have so many horses in a race. there are so many horses in this race did that is not uniting the party. host: who should get out? guest: who should get out? some should eliminate themselves. they do not belong there. host: tell us who. guest: that is not my place on

c-span when so many people can hear it as to say who should get out. some people want to hear themselves talk. immigration or the lack of it, i do not know if this was brought up but i see them all the time, shopping and grocery stores, they come here and they do not speaking but i do not want to learning which. they bring -- learn english. they bring their children here so their children can be born here and it is costing us a fortune. host: how do you know all that i seeing them in the grocery store? guest: i see them all the time and they stand there, "i do not speak english." they bring their children. guest: bellevue, nebraska, bob, independent. guest: it is great to listen to republicans talk about immigration. it is great to have them deal

with problems with immigration. in the 1950's, people from mexico were very poor like now and many of them came to the united states and work in the united states and then returned to mexico every year. this continued militarization of the border. this is becoming more difficult so people do not go home, they stay here. the other ongoing issues you have -- host: we are listening. guest: the other issues are the issues that the white working class has competing with people. you think a person from x go with a sixth grade education was a better worker than a high school graduate and it drives republicans crazy. business in the united states --en benefits and has years

the republican donor class has benefited the immigrants. it is a cultural grinding of the teeth for republicans and you saw it last night. guest: did you watch -- host: where getting your takeaways from the debate. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independence, 202-748-8002. eight candidates on the states last night at the fourth gop debate. what did you make of it? this is what hillary clinton said. these candidates do not seem to mind a big government when it is politicians interfering in women's personal health decisions. one of the other moments from the debate was over minimum wage. fast food workers and others were protesting across the country yesterday, fights for

$15, they want the minimum wage changed to $15 an hour and the candidates were asked about this. here is what donald trump and ben carson had to say. countryp: we are a being beaten on every front economically and militarily. nothing we do now to win, we do not win any more. our taxes are too high. i have a tax plan that many people like very much. it will be a tremendous plan and make our country and our economy dynamic. taxes too high, which is too high, we cannot compete against the world. i hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is and people have to work really hard and they have to get into that upper stratum. we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. we just cannot do it. i would not raise the minimum wage.

carson: people need to be educated on the minimum wage. every time we raise the minimum wage the number of jobless increases. this is a problem in the black community. 19.8% of black teenagers have a job. that is because of those high wages. if you lower the wages, that comes down. as a youngster in my first job working in a laboratory as a lab assistant and multiple other jobs, i would not have gotten those other jobs if someone had to pay me a large amount of money. what i gained from those jobs is a tremendous amount of experience and how to operate in the world and relate to different people and become a responsible individual. the is what gave me

opportunity to extend the opportunity in this country. that is what we have to think about, how we allow people to ascend the ladder of opportunity as opposed to how we keep them dependent. [applause] >> you would not raise it? it carson: i would not raise because i am interested in making sure that people are able to enter the job market and take advantage of opportunities. host: donald trump and dr. ben carson rejecting a rise in the minimum wage. hillary clinton's

good morning.

guest: good morning. is, we cannote spend that much money. trillions andnd we are in deep debt. it --keep doing [indiscernible] donald trump makes a comment about illegals i am offended because they look at me and say, he is an illegal alien. against that vote -- the -- they make me feel the legal. chicago,emocrat, and connie. guest: thank you for taking my

call. i did not see the debate in its entirety. otherhed all of the three. with any ofressed the candidates. because they failed to address a large portion of the elements like violence that is rampant all over the country, especially in chicago. about immigration -- illegal immigrants and say they are -- if they are god's on a throne and they are anointed to say you cannot come here. they must look at this country -- all of us except the native americans are immigrants.

who do they think they are that they can sit back and say "you do not belong here, i want my country back." if they look at their ancestral history and said they want their country back, they would have to go back across to europe. host: the moderators last night begin the debate by saying, neil vuto, saying they would focus on the economy and what the candidates would do. a democrat from atlanta, what is your take away? guest: the funniest moment of the night was when donald trump was going ballistic over tpp and rand paul pointed out that china was not a signatory to tpp. that was hilarious. host: the transpacific partnership tracheal has been

sent -- trade deal has been sent to the senate and they will review it. as we told you last week, it has been put out there for the public to review, over 30 chapters, thousands of pages. if you're interested you can find it online. another moment of the debate that made the front page of the washington times would be headline "ben carson hits media treatment of lies." here is what he had to say about the media vetting of him. thank you for not asking me what i said in the 10th grade. [laughter] [applause] follow-up.orget that [laughter] vet allon: we should

candidates. i have no problem with that. i do have a problem with being lied about and putting that out there as truth. [applause] much if mind that so they would do it with everybody like people on the other side. when i look at somebody like hillary clinton who sits there and tells her daughter and a government official that this was a terrorist attack, and then tells everybody else that it was a video, where everybody -- where i came from they call that a lie. [applause] think that is very different from somebody misinterpreting what i said that i was offered a scholarship to west point. that is the words they used.

i have had many people say the same thing to me, that is what people do in those situations. we have to treat people the same. finding out what people really think and what they are made of. and people who know me know that i am an honest person. host: dr. carson, the front runner of the gop primary. this poll from the washington that they asked republicans and republican leaning independents with leading candidate they definitely do not want to see on the general election ballot. jeb bush ranks the highest of those republicans of all the different groups that they do not want to see him on the general election ballot. among republicans and republican-leading independents, 32% for jeb bush, 27% for the moderates and conservatives -- 30's -- 41% of the very

conservatives do not want to see him on the general election ballot. those numbers are very low for dr. ben carson. conservatives said they do not want to see him on the ballot and to present a conservatives, 4% of moderates and 3% of republican and republican-leading independents do not want to see dr. ben carson on the general election ballot. host: texas. guest: reasons why donald trump is a dnc operative, he is there to disrupt the entire thing. he will not be elected. if he does become the nominee. ben carson reminds me of carter. i am not impressed with him.

when you look at the rest of the field, only two candidates i think are worth my effort is ted cruz and marco rubio. they would make a great vice president and president. first of all, the reason for the memory cruz has and is a great negotiator. andy bader. debater.e later -- it would be a thorn in the side of castro. host: did you watch the debate? guest: i do not have to. you have to think outside of the box. host: i bring that up because some people are noting that during the debate, takers talked about his memory -- ted cruz talked about his memory and the agencies he would get rid of at

the federal government. he could not think of the fifth, reminding us of rick perry when you cannot remember a third agency he would cut. jeb bush writing today about health care and his plan to replace the so-called obamacare law, the rights that he will lower costs, health care is expensive because washington has distorted the meaning of insurance. he writes health insurers pay the majority of the bills and control how much health care services are delivered and under my plan, instead of insurance paying it, consumers would be empowered to make choices right for them. patients could save money by choosing a treatment causing -- costing 8000 as opposed to one costing $34,000. if you're interested in this issue, washington post editorial today, opinion piece by jeb bush

on health care. a lot has been made about the boat marco rubio has missed. the usa today looks at who else has missed votes. these have missed hundreds of votes, bobby rest, luis vieira's -- luis gutierrez, and the list goes on. want to share this story. it is about the university of missouri and the coverage of the story of racism and the football players. the professor who confronted the photographer has quit her journalism post at the university. she has apologized personally to the photographer. below that is a story about the 1950 student, the real missouri 890 student, he speaks at

about his experience. they write that he gained admission to missouri's graduate program in economics in 1950 after civil rights groups won a court ruling desegregating the university and decided to attend knowing that one of the black men that had gone to court had vanished who sought to break the color barrier. no white students would room with them. blacks had the one opportunity for off-campus socializing, a coffeehouse near the university bookstore. he recalled entering a second cap eight with three white students, the man looked up from the counter and said, and said i can serve you three but i cannot serve him and they said, if you cannot serve the four of us, you cannot serve any of us. times did a york republican from maryland. the marco rubio rand paul

exchange was good but you left out the last 10 seconds on the video where rand paul asked how are you going to fund this militarization? especially given the way the deductions for the tax and given away and investment income. this goes for all the war creatures, how are you going to pay for this with no tax money? host: thank you for bringing that up. while the republican candidates for a public -- for president were debating, there was a special election for louisiana governor andy christ senator --

and the current senator is running for that. take a look at a clip from their bait. -- a clip from their debate. >> the state democrat party does it on your behalf, a holier than do negativenot campaigning when you had the most vicious campaign ads that veterans have been offended by. you have nothing to do with the trial lawyer fax that has been running negative campaigns in the billions of dollars for months. isn't that completely disingenuous? you have nothing to do with that? let me finish. theou are not living by honor code, you are living by the lawyer code, try to create technicalities. >> my campaign has not paid for

a private investigator. i have not seen any footage of you anywhere. it is not. with respect to the negative ads, if it is a low blow it is because that is where you live. it is 100% truthful. .ou did not say it was untrue you want me to take it out because you do not like it. i understand that you don't like it. it hits you where you live. >> i was talking about what veterans have said. >> hundreds of them have contacted me and they want to know that you will work things out on your position in congress. >> ok. all right. >> you are holier than thou. >> i am not holier than thou.

[crosstalk] >> you will say anything at any time. you are unconstrained by the truth. a moment from last night's louisiana governor debate. we covered it here on c-span as part of our campaign 2016 coverage. washington post this morning notes that they are in trouble for this race. they say the louisiana governor's race has become a referendum on david bitter and he can't win. the republican senator is down anywhere from 11 to 20 point. early voting has already started. forunder heavy fire on tv participation in a prostitution he is up today with a television ad that shows him sitting with his wife and kids around the kitchen table. we are talking about the republican presidential debate

last night. william, a democrat, you are next. caller: thank you. good morning to everybody. understand is how anybody that is not rich would vote republican. thinksublican party about as much as -- about four people and people think about chickens. thousandsousands and of people getting killed. . can't remember that president [indiscernible] they should all be indicted for war crimes. why would anybody in their right mind vote republican? that is all i have to say.

host: ok. willy in mississippi, a republican. do you think that one candidate one last night dr. caller: i am sorry. i am a democrat. ok. [indiscernible] one thing is for sure. one of the reasons why the black community is so poor is because of these banks. you've got some kind of thing. it's black businesses. they do not have money to do anything. if you go down there and you have money in the bank you tell your loan company that has high and your then you

company belong to the bank. what is going on here is a blockade of the black business community. as long as we have got that the black community is not going to vote republican. and in greensboro, north carolina, a democrat. your thoughts this morning. caller: i wanted to make two points. the first point i wanted to make as i heard the previous caller imply that this president is responsible for so many of the immigrants coming in, but that happened during the housing boom prior to this president coming into the office. that was one of the issues when he came into office that everybody was talking about, immigration policies needed to be reformed. and yet you hear so many of those republicans claim that people came in under this

president. on the secondhand, how would a person import 11 billion -- deport 11 billion people. it does not make any sense. even though they came during the housing boom, they are contributing to the economy by the work that they are doing. in other words, you would be affecting the economy when you would deport all of those people. ne, as youand -- an know, last night donald trump repeated his stance on immigration, that five million people need to be deported. that was challenged by john kasich. donald trump bringing up president eisenhower. g, you go to fact check.or they have a history of what eisenhower did. they say that i've -- operation back operatedt

for only a few moments -- months. federal officials set up roadblocks and stopped trains at points at some distance north of the border. 800 border patrol agent ceiling jeeps, automobiles, and spotter airplane's used a system described as blocking it off and mopping it up. they greatly expanded the operation to the entire state of california including industrial as well as agricultural areas. in 1954 the operation was extended to texas and eventually encompass activities in northern cities as well. many noted at the time that the process was very inhumane. a lot of people died during this onertation of around million, 2 million people. in ohio, republican. you are on the air.

what did you make of the debate echo -- what did you make of the debate? caller: i liked it but i wanted to comment on the minimum wage. that youmentioned don't lose jobs. yes you do. if you look at it as a piece of a pie but now you want to cut them into bigger pieces so you have to cut six pieces out of the aps pie, two people are not going to get a slice of that pie , that means to people don't get a job because you are paying the other people more. money.'t just get more you have to make do with what you have. more people are going to lose their jobs. host: ok. that was the first question in the republican -- to the republican candidates last night because the fight for 15 protesting was happening yesterday across u.s. cities.

fast food workers, home care workers, were all protesting on wanting the minimum wage increased to $50 an hour. governor cuomo of new york announcing that he will raise it for state workers they are. trade, the economy, foreign policy. there were back-and-forth on all of those issues. we are asking you what is your take away from the debate as we are less than a year away from election day 2016. we are also going to be talking about veterans issues so i want to share a couple of headlines with you as we mark veterans day. this out of the white house from "the new york times." the obama administration today will call on congress to enact measures to help military veterans gain access to health care, disability, and educational benefit.

president obama will urge congress to improve a program that allows veterans receive private medical care, speedy appeal for disability claims, and pass legislation aiming to improve the quality of schools that serve veterans. mr. obama's proposal also comes as the administration is promoting the first fruits of its efforts to reduce homelessness among veterans with virginia governor terry mcauliffe said to announce that his state has become the first two and veteran homelessness. the cities of las vegas, syracuse, and should execute -- schenectady new york have also announced that they have curtailed veteran homelessness. also announced that all 50 states, the district of

columbia, and puerto rico will provide recently transitioning veterans and their dependents with in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in line with a provision in the $16 billion overhaul of the v.a. department passed by congress last year. so coming up here on the washington journal we are going to be talking about all of these .eterans issues health care, homelessness, etc.. paul in california, a republican. what did you think? i thought -- caller: i thought it was a really good debate. not having as many people on the stage we were able to get to know the candidates even better. i thought rand paul did a really good job with correcting mr. trumps error in including china in the tpp. heaw that we scored some -- scored some big points showing that he is a man of the facts.

i really liked what he had to say. marion from south carolina, a democrat. what did you think? caller: i thought it was fairly decent. i just don't agree with the infighting and all that. that theo believe economy would be much better if we do raise the minimum wage. i don't think the country is going to go broke because the more money that is out there for people to spend the more is going to circulate. they have people on part-time work anyway so really would make a difference. host: harold in alabama, a democrat. good morning. caller: i want to comment on the minimum wage, carson and trunk -- trump.

the cost of living has been way down and they say that it will lose jobs and bring on high prices. they call a gallon $5.69 and they say you lose a job and things will go up. if you don't raise and wage things are going up now. caring about us and and they worry about food stamps. that is wrong. take care of your own country first and then everything will be all right. at say someone doesn't need any disability andn this is the third time that i have not had a raise and i living paycheck to paycheck. i worked all my life. i did not ask for this injury. andybody needs a fair share

if they work and a tax you than the rows of effects and everything. people. ok we get to alan next -- ellen next. caller: i am calling because i am very upset about not being able to get the television debate because i don't pay more for my television. have?what cable do you caller: comcast, and i don't pay more. so by not paying more i don't get the debate. several of my friends are the same way. we are very frustrated. we think the television stations are controlling us. host: it was offered online. caller: we don't all have online. i am 88 years old. host: point taken. caller: some of my friends are the same age.

we are very frustrated by not getting the debate. i couldn't get it even on the radio. it is really tricky stuff. debates, hear the everyone of them, democrat and republican. bad that they are channeling us to who we want and what we say. politico put what together on the debate. it aired on fox business network and stream for free online. no cable suspension is necessary to watch it online. to capitalize on the ratings insurgents from earlier debates, they are also widening access to the channel for its paid tv partners such as directv. tos will allow access viewers who normally can't watch.

in missouri, an independent color. good morning. caller: this regards the minimum wage. it just causes inflation in and it just raises our prices to pay for it. and thereforeb it people who get it, and about a year, they are back where they started. theit does is devalue dollar. host: by the way, the venue last night in milwaukee, wisconsin, it was the milwaukee theater. politico notes that the venue has a loaded history. teddy2 candidate roosevelt was shot in the chest by an assassin outside a milwaukee hotel. instead of heading to the hospital he continued to the auditorium and delivered a 90 minute campaign speech in front

of a horrified audience. he pulled out a bloodied 50 page speech with bullet holes in it from his coat pocket and declared, it takes more than that to kill and boulders. bull moose. bill -- the wi-fivenue it -- password inside the venue less night was stop hillary. caller: thank you for taking my call. i thought that it was interesting last night but i thought that rand paul really to get -- took it. marco rubio came up with all of these spending ideas. it was just like george w. bush. there was one thing that did not come out last night. there were three of those people who were on stage last night. last week they were in a

republican religious get together that talks about killing the gays. they said well, maybe we should wait a little while but if they don't convert we should kill all the gays. host: where did you read about that? caller: it was on rachel maddow. they were there and we saw the picture, we saw the guy. they were standing right there. the pastor down in iowa was talking about, we should kill all the gays. he was saying the bible says we should kill the gays. if you are going to be standing aere and being endorsed by pastor that is saying kill all the gays, i think it should be something that comes up. mickey in vineland, new jersey. independent caller. caller: good morning.

and iattention to issues watched both debates last night. i think that mike huckabee and ,hris christie did very well and syrian at more or less stuck to the issues -- fiorina more or less stuck to the issues and new what they were talking about. host: another headline this morning for you from the papers, this one from "the new york times." in korean war memorial here washington finds more aid in korea that in the u.s.. if you ever been to the national mall there it is. you can see all the different war memorials that are there, this from the new york times. , the otherthat

memorials on the national mall do not seem to phase as great fundraising challenges as the korean memorial. it is receiving ample backing from some of america's biggest companies. $28.9undation has raised million to raise and to build an underground education center. the friends of the world war ii fundraiser had not yet met its campaign for an element it wants to add, it is fiction of franklin d roosevelt d-day prayer. mr. go on to write that weber is hoping that more u.s. institutions will contribute to the korean memorial and that the foundation will be able to add a new structural element to the memorial, a wall of remembrance

that lists the names of everyone who was killed, wounded, or missing in action. let's go to joe in kentucky, a republican. good morning. what did you think of it? caller: it was ok. i did not want all of it, but i maybest trying to get former general colin powell and the former secretary of state to maybe join in. i think he would make a fine .resident vice president biden, i would like to see him. host: ok. we believe the conversation on politics they are because we are going to turn our attention now to veterans day 2015. today is november 11. we are going to talk with bill rausch.

he is to talk about the issues facing today's soldiers. and then later dr. harold kudler , the medical health specialist -- mental health specialist at the ba and colonel elspeth cameron ritchie will talk about veterans mental health issues. those conversations coming up after a short break. >> thank you for your support and for the kids for just saying no. thank you. that the women of the future will feel truly free to follow whatever path their talents and their natures tell them to. >> i think that the white house what youamorous and

did with so glamorous, your life was so glamorous. saw where the parties and meeting people. have got to tell you, i never worked harder in my life. >> nancy reagan served as long time political partner and caretaker for president ronald reagan. and involved first lady she was active with key staff decisions, policymaking, and campaigning. she made drug use her signature initiative with her just say no campaign. nancy reagan. this sunday night at 8:00 p.m. user and on c-span's original series. first ladies, influence and image. examining the public and private lives of the women who filled the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency. for martha washington to michelle obama. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on

american history tv on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from new york is bill rausch, political director for the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. let's begin with what the white house plans to announce today. they want congress to pass the measure -- measures that would eat -- ease access to health care for veterans. fails want to take some action on education. and then you have several states announcing that they have resolved homelessness for veterans. what do you make of all of this? guest: it is an interesting week for us. it is veterans week and it is a special time for the veteran community. state, local,s even the federal government stepping up and putting forth initiatives. is not onlyuse pushing for legislation as you mentioned. they have gathered veterans and

family members of the white house this morning. the mayor of new york city announced a new department of veterans affairs. are is a week where there all kinds of exciting conversations about how to serve those who serve us, how to give back to the men and women who fought for this country. these are all great exciting things. from our perspective is what happens next week, next month, next year when not everyone is .aying attention it is not just this week when everyone is paying attention. what is the state of veterans affairs at the department, in your opinion? guest: the department of , ourans affairs right now

third policy priority this year is to reform government for today's veterans. we like to say that secretary bob mcdonald probably has the most difficult job in washington dc. i know your guests later today are going to talk about some of the ba medical clinic work, but v.a. has the completely lost the trust of the veteran population. one of them reach out to us is that i feel uncomfortable going to the clinic where he lives. he reached out to us and we encouraged him to go back. had apecific individual good experience for the first time in a long time. , that is what we achieved from a membership perspective. and simultaneous to that we are pushing for new policy to modify the v.a..

the clay had asked at the beginning of this year, helping the v.a. recruit more mental health professionals where there is a significant shortage, helping the ba to conduct a survey. those are the kind of activities we can continue to build on and restore trust to veterans, because at the end of the day the v.a. exist to serve those who have won the battle. host: so we are taking your questions and your comments on this veterans day. we have a special line for active and retired military, please call in at (202) 748-8003 bill rausch. bill rausch, let's talk about action in the senate yesterday. they approved and $80 billion spending bill for veterans programs and military construction projects. what can you highlight from this legislation that serve veterans? guest: yesterday was a busy day

on the hill. there are a few things that we want to highlight. we are talking a lot about veterans issues, but a lot of these issues also apply to the men and women in uniform. one of the things that we are very pleased to see some of congress was -- and the budget deal, specifically -- some relief from sequestration. we think that is significant because what we have seen on the dod side, because of these , individuals are being forced out. they have people saying, thanks service, it is time -- [indiscernible] he is been championing these issues for the community, he is

continuing to work for military basis, and a daily he also has a package that he will be putting forward in the near future that we think is encouraging. host: let's go to mike in white plains, pennsylvania, a democrat. you are on the air. caller: let me put it this way. war theevolutionary veterans gotland -- got land. bought it upeople and then they had to borrow. the only veterans that have ever gotten paid out were world war ii veterans. they should learn to take care of america first. we should never have been in iraq or afghanistan. host: bill rausch? guest: i will speak on the house of iraq and afghanistan veterans

, our members, but i will also speak up on a personal perspective. i spent 17 months in iraq. i feel very fortunate and blessed that i have been welcome to thiswelcomes back country in a way i know many of my predecessors have not. just yesterday we noted veteran -- we met a veteran who talked about the challenges he had when he came back from vietnam. he came back to ohio, a small town where members of the local , other vietnam aterans talked about other -- very different experience to what i had. i feel like the post-9/11 generation has benefited from the vietnam veterans, especially their work and the trailblazing they did which i believe created this sea of goodwill we benefit from today.

there are certainly challenges in congress. we talked about funding packages just a moment ago. fully funding the v.a. has been a challenge. havey and large most folks been very supportive of the post-9/11 veterans. from my perspective i feel we have been very fortunate and blessed by a country that truly has been able to separate the war from the warrior. host: and in our last hour of today's washington journal, the ,ast half of our our -- hour we'll be talking with veterans only and asking them about the transition to civilian life. veterans only as we continue to mark veterans day 2015. bill rausch, what about unemployment among veterans? here the headline. jobs are now in reach for these reasons veterans. the rate is almost identical to civilians. what is going on? guest: what is going on with

veteran employment is that many years ago the veterans community administration business leaders the a commitment to address challenges of unemployment within the veteran community. like most things in america when we make a call to action we can get the job done and so we have seen those unemployment rates go down. it is a really remarkable story. one of the things we're starting to challenge ourselves with now is, rather than just focusing on getting that veteran a job, making sure they get the right career. when we go out and we talked our members and we look at our annual survey what we find are a lot of veterans, after they transition, and of changing jobs multiple times within the first three to five years of separation.

we are looking at veteran entrepreneurship. just on staff we have a woman iraq war vet who just opened up a crossfit gym with her husband in northern virginia. we have a member who is a successful small business owner who set up an incubator in northern virginia. it allows veterans to come in and get assistance and mentorship from other business leaders. we have tackled a lot of the unemployment challenge. what we're doing now is starting to refine that approach to support veterans in an even greater way. we think it is a good news story. we the other piece of it is have to defend the educational benefits that have facilitated and allowed a lot of veterans to join the workforce. there are a lot of folks that want to do different things with the new g.i. bill, which has been one of the most sweeping pieces of legislation that is

impacted the post on 11 veterans community. we need to make sure we protect that so we can continue to set veterans up for success. steve in tennessee, a republican, also on outline for active or retired military. go ahead. caller: i am a vietnam era marine. i just want to say something. there is nothing of a change of the v.a.. i couldn't take it anymore. now i pay for my own medicine. it is not your v.a.. nothing will change until you get the crooked dirty stinking unions out of it. it is the veterans v.a., do understand? host: bill rausch? guest: two things. you are a marine and i know yesterday was the marine birthday, so happy birthday.

i did the same thing. i have private health insurance. i agree completely that it is the veterans v.a. and we are constantly reminding them of that. organizationrofit and we work with other partners to make sure that veterans are receiving the care they deserve. highlight, the more veterans we can get into the i think would help us transformant. i don't know your personal experience but i do share similar challenges with the v.a. from my own personal experience. i will say this and it is not just because i am an optimist. i member when i got back from iraq, we were losing many folks a month. there was a civil war. when i left in september 2007

american deaths were below 100 per month. things have gotten better is my point. regardless of what you thought of the situation i know my experience led me to believe that no matter how dire situation, when we come together and we put the mission first we can fix it. from my perspective, we do not think the v.a. is a lost cause. we have seen improvements. line is one crisis of the most remarkable good news stories of the v.a.. we have a case worker program and they work with the veterans crisis line when an individual is in crisis and faces very challenging mental health issues. we give them a hand off over the veteran handling -- hotline. the challenge is there are inconsistencies across the board. i will give you an example. the medical center in washington dc, when i move from ohio to northern virginia i went into the medical center and i had my appointment. i missed my first appointment --

and this may sound silly -- because there was not a parking lot available. i did not even get to experience whether the care was good or not because the barrier to entry was so high. a have a parking garage now and have addressed that issue but that is just one example. it is not just about the care, it is about all the other barriers that exist. one of our jobs is to hold the v.a. accountable. if our members come to us with an experience that is not acceptable, we raised bed. i will say this about secretary bob mcdonnell. hadof the reasons we have faith in him is because he has been responsive. i can't tell you how many members we have sent directly to him and he fixes the problem. that should not have to happen, and that is not scalable, that shows us in our members that he not only cares but that it is the veterans v.a..

now is where we are right and we are going to continue to push hard to make sure the v.a. continues to reform. reforming government for today's military. host: let's get to travis in dayton, ohio, active military. caller: my point has to do with the fact that the whole system is very redundant. we have a health care network, we have a dod health care network, we have v.a. health we have obamacare, we have medicaid, medicare. governmente or six health care organizations with billions and billions and billions and billions of overhead costs. is the v.a. health care system even necessary? if you want to provide health care to veterans you can give them an insurance policy to allow them access to a health care network. the system appears to be redundant in my opinion. any comments?

guest: yeah. first of all, i am from ohio, so good to hear a buzz from dating. in terms of v.a. versus private care, as is a really important conversation especially in the context of the previous segment when we talked about the presidential debate last night. from our perspective there is this false choice of you either need a v.a. because the government provides the best health care, or you need to privatize it. the fact of the matter is that the v.a. already facilitates care in the community. it is already happening. i think this year there are about or .5 million more million more-- 4.5 appointments with private physicians then there were last year. it is an interesting challenge to integrate that. but just so the viewers understand it, it is not as orple as privatizing

protects the v.a. because it provides best health care in the world. the bottom line is that veterans, just like every american, want to receive health care based off of their own calculus. whether it is where they live, how far they have to travel, how long they have to wait. areof these things decisions made with her family and her physician. for some folks that does not make sense to go to the v.a.. again, using my own experience, i would go there for some things. i go to private physicians for other things. but i will say as far as the v.a. being necessary, we see from what our members have done that there is a difference between the culture and the condition. if you look at morbidity rates

among veterans, a much higher morbidity rate at a much lower age. the v.a. is accustomed to that. v.a. again, look for the veteran not only from a health care perspective. a disability that you are also receiving from the v.a. your health care conditions and experience informs that disability claim. it is an integrated model, an integrated system. i know from personal experience that the v.a. is not perfect. i don't work for them, but i do know that when i noted town to talk about serious issues related to, or other experiences that are in unique because i am a veteran, my private physicians typically have no idea what i'm talking about. i take my medical records and they are flabbergasted. they don't understand. they want to talk about it. they want to test me for certain things. it becomes very complicated. so we also have a look at

educating the private physicians on, for example, pain thresholds. the scale of one to 10 pain threshold is typically different for someone who has served for various reasons. but we need to educate those private physicians. so when we look to integrate care -- the caller mentioned all of these different programs and systems, and he is right. it is a complete waste. it is inefficient, it is confusing. there are up to one dozen ways to receive care in the community. it makes no sense. physicians don't understand it and they are just incentivized to use a certain programs because of reimbursement rates. veterans don't understand it, employees don't understand it. we have been calling for a consolidation of care. the choice program that is currently in effect and expires in the near future, we think it is an opportunity for the v.a.

to consolidate all of these programs and make it simple and the v.a.,eterans, for for physicians. the fact of the matter is that 70% of veterans using the v.a. have another form of insurance and they are already seeking care in the community. we need to make sure that care is integrated and that we are serving veterans, serving that individual as best we can. that is what we do. we hold folks accountable and we push the ball forward. host: hillary clinton yesterday on the campaign trail said she would not privatize, accusing republicans of wanting to do that. and then there is this in "the washington post," is statement from senator john mccain who chairs the armed services committee saying, anyone who would accuse me of wanting to privatize the v.a. is inaccurate and offensive. she should know that the overwhelming majority of thisans do not consider

privatization. they know that reform is necessary to expand their health care choice. caller: good morning. i just wanted to touch on my experience and transition. i received the g.i. bill and 12 months post-9/11 g.i. bill. i think they need to do a better job at telling us who is hiring and what jobs are going to grow because i'm in training now doing a post bachelorette program for a job i could of got with an associates degree, but nobody told me. also, i had to deal with out-of-state tuition when i went to georgia for school. i'm glad they are getting rid of that. also with the troops for teachers, they told me that you have to do it within three years, but it takes four years to get your bachelors degree. so it seems they are not doing a good job of informing us who is

hiring. mr. rausch. guest: i think he caller brings brings up somer good points. all of the efforts and initiatives that have been put forward to help the community -- and again, i can't say this enough, i mean, the support that i received at a personal level at a professional level in my community is just really really -- really, really remarkable. unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation to the caller's point. and there is too much information. whether it is trying to get care in the community at the v.a., whether it is understanding your benefits under the new g.i. bill, it is very difficult and it is for a challenging. we recognize that over a year ago -- and when we're working

with congress to draft legislation -- we have a provision in their where it requires -- in there where it requires v.a. to bring all the resource together on one website. as simple as that sounds, it hasn't been done. they are in the process of doing that right now. harold kudler, we have been working with him to make sure they have been doing what is put forth in the law. there is a lot of information out there that a lot of -- again, the see of goodwill is out there. -- sea of goodwill is out there. this is the moment to talk about the community component. today here in new york city, we are going to have nearly 700 folks marching in the parade here in new york city. and we are going to be giving each other high fives, giving each other harks. some of us may or may not cry

after we see some friends that we may not have seen for a while. i met to veterans last night from reno, nevada. we were in baghdad together for a little while. i mention all of this in the context of the community component to transition, whether it is getting a job, doing back to school, dealing with trauma, posttraumatic stress, receiving care. these are very localized issues. and we can't emphasize enough the power and the importance of community, especially when it comes to combating suicide amongst troops and veterans. many of us when we left uniform felt very alone. we felt disconnected. i ran from the military community. i didn't want folks to know that i was a veteran. for me, one of the most remarkable things that happened was i had a community, a small town in ohio, where very few

people had served, frankly, but i had a few community leaders reach out to me. he would take me out to breakfast. i mean, he would check on me. that may be sound silly, but it is powerful. one of the interesting things that we can talk about and should talk about today and every day, not only when the president is making a proclamation or congress is saying they support veterans, all things are true, but as a community and a country, i think we have an obligation to just get to know our neighbors. say hello, introduce yourself. ask them how they are doing. ask them how their family is doing. get to know us because the bottom line is that as a veteran, i am not only proud of my service, but i have a unique skill set to offer my community. the opportunity exists to reach out to the -- like the caller,

who maybe didn't realize that the three years to eligibility maybe wasn't quite that correct. so i think as a nation, we need to focus as much on the policy as we do the community and the culture component to make sure we are supporting men and women in uniform. at the end of the day, we are just like everybody else in the country. i wasn't born a veteran. i was born a kid in small-town ohio who decided to serve my country and was very privileged and honored to be able to do that. now i'm just like everybody else with a unique and special skill set that i think has a lot to offer. the community component, i don't think we can emphasize it enough. 150, igoing to have over think maybe nearly 200 that's together across the country -- vets together across the country where folks come together. that is where we really start to move the ball forward and we

really start to change the conversation and the culture in this country. it is the best thing maybe about veterans day. host: and we are going to be talking that -- to veterans only in our last half hour of today's program, and asked them what it is like when they come back. , the website is iava .org if you are interested in money market thank you, sir, for your time -- interested in learning more. thank you, sir, for your time. guest: thank you. have a good day. host: we will be talking with dr. harold cutler, and retired colonel elspeth cameron ritchie. and later, we will open up the phone lines to veterans only on this november 11, veterans day, 2015. we will be right back.

>> two things are very different today. first of all, we have a justice system. these trials are not held to be what we consider modern law. theree has a defense -- were no lawyers, by the way, i should say, at the time. the court was an extremely unruly place.

on "q&a," sunday talking about her book on the salem witch trials and the scope of the accusations and trials on the massachusetts communities. >> the interesting part about the accusations, especially the way we think of salem, is that wealthy merchants were accused of which is, sea captains were accused of witches. this is not in incident where all the victims are seen as males -- females. we didn't burn witches, we hang them. there was so much encrusted in myth and so much misunderstanding here that i felt was important to dispel. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's "q&a." c-span has the best

access to congress. watch live coverage of the house on c-span, and the senate on c-span2. listen live anytime on our c-span radio app. get best access from behind the scenes by following c-span and our capitol hill reporter on twitter. stay with c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org for your best access to congress. journal": "washington continues. host: mental health and veterans , that is our topic you this morning. we want to invite active and retired military to start dialing in. (202) 748-0003 fo. all others, (202) 748-8001 fo. we have in studio this morning, dr. cutler. as well as retired colonel elspeth cameron ritchie, also a

doctor. welcome to both of you. guest: a pleasure to be here. host: we are going to get calls here momentarily from active and retired military. dr. cutler, if i could be -- dr. kudler, if i could begin with you. what is happening? guest: mental health is fundamental to the v.a. and it has always has been. people are taking a serious look inside the agency and outside the agency. are we getting the job done? are we doing it quickly enough of the right places? and this is keeping us very busy, but i tell you, it is great work to be doing. host: what will the president be announcing today on that? the president wants to improve a program that allows veterans to receive private medical care. does this include mental health care? guest: absolutely. last summer, congress signed the

veteran's choice act, which has any veteran waiting more than 30 days or lives more than 40 miles from of the eight is eligible to choose to get their care -- from ba is eligible -- from a eligible to choose to get their care -- a v.a. is eligible to get their care from a community health care provider. and how do we pay for all this, who is the contracted provider, who can we approve? we are getting very good at this. and the administration is working on making it even better. host: and you are new to the v.a. system. what were you doing before? and have been on the job for a week, so what is your experience so far? guest: so i am not going to talk about a big v.a., but i will talk about my experience, which is good. i did a career in the military,

and then i worked in washington dc. then i spent a little while looking at what job i wanted to take. i finally chose the v.a. for a number of reasons. i will tidy what some of those are. first of all, i have a lot of really good friends who work there and like the experience. they have increased the pay for psychiatrists coming in, so it was the best job offer financially that i had. and then secretary mcdonald, who is a real special person, personally invited me to join, as did dr. kudler. so far, i have been very, very pleased. it has a great electronic health system, which really makes looking at records easy. there is a lot of focus on access to care. this last week, we have been spending time looking at all our patients in the mental health system who haven't been seen for 30 days. we are going to have an access stand down this saturday to mixture that anybody who feels they need to be seen earlier can get in, and so the washington

v.a. will be open for business on saturday. host: and that brings up the report that just came out recently. from "usa today," the report to the gao found in a review of 100 while 86 cases, patients seeking an initial mental health evaluation were generally seen within an average of four days of scheduling an appointment, the exley waited an average of 26 days to get that appointment. -- they actually waited an average of 26 days to get that appointment. guest: there are lots of ways to count things. i do want to argue with them, although looking at 100 records, in a system that sees 1.5 million mental health patients, is not really a meaningful sample. we would argue very strenuously with the way they count to those outliers. but saying that, our goal is

every veteran should be seen when they want to to be seen, when they want to be seen. otherwise it is of no use to them. , if thoseritchie seeking mental health care has to wait, that becomes almost a barrier for them of seeking help. the resistance to seek help mental health anyway, and then when they have to wait, that becomes an issue where they might turn away and not seek the help after all. guest: that is absolutely true. and your previous speaker talked about issues like parking. and there is now a new parking garage at the washington v.a. there are a lot of barriers, especially if you are ambivalent about seeking care. my job is going to be with the community-based outpatient clinics, which are around the washington dc area. and i'm very interested in the idea of providing care of to the community so it is much easier

for people to go, they can keep a job and go, because sometimes in the past it has been so difficult for the veterans to get care that they have to take the whole day off of work. there is the vet centers, which are easier to get to, but the more we can put mental health care up to the community, either through the v.a. or one of the things that is critically important is for the civilian providers to know how to treat ptsd, no to ask the question, have you served in the military or are you a veteran. so the less barriers to care, the better. host: let me just throw these numbers out here. statistics on posttraumatic stress disorder. one in three returning troops are being diagnosed with serious posttraumatic stress symptoms. less than 40% will seek help. in 2009, a record-breaking year for suicides, 245 soldiers killed themselves. five active-duty troops attempt

suicide each day. charles is in maryland. retired. charles, good morning to you. go ahead. caller: yes, hello. i am calling from the ba facility here in maryland. -- v.a. facility here in maryland. , am a mental health patient and i just want to say that the care and treatment i have received is first rate. i have no problems with it. reach around and pat yourselves on the back there. host: let's talk about who is seeking mental health care, and what other treatment options. guest: first, i want to thank charles for his call and for his service. and also for, frankly setting a very good example on national television. when people have problems, it is not easy to put them into words. americans are not raised with a lot of mental health literacy. a friend of mine often points

out that if i have a toothache, i know to go to a dentist and i know what to find one. but if i have a problem with depression, i don't have words for it and i don't know what to do about it. do i want to go to their office? charles the setting an awfully good example, and we hope that when people do have problems they will come to us. host: most often, is it there. that you are prescribing? or i we talking about pharmaceuticals? -- or are we talking about pharmaceuticals? to every single patient, i have always said, look, you have a lot of tools. some of them you may like more than others. in your situation, medicine may be a part of the story. another part.y be and there are other therapies we have. what appeals to you? where should we start? if it doesn't get the job done,

we may add this or that. it will always be a mix. guest: and i would like to pick up on that. what is really important is patient engagement because one of the characteristics of people coming back from the wars now is the are very ambivalent about seeking care. if they come to somebody who spends their time looking at the computer screen and not at them, they are not coming back. so it is really important if you prescribe medication to talk about the medications and possible side effects. medications have sexual side effects, and patients are not going to stay on medications that cause problems to this extract or ability to perform. both harold and i have really gotten interested in what is called integrative therapy, acupuncture, yoga, and my pet interest is service dogs or therapy dogs. horses can be useful.

there is a lot of them out there. the research is not there yet, so they are not food and drug administration approved. but patients like them. and often it is going to be a combination of, say, yoga or mindfulness and meditation, and then perhaps medication and psychotherapy. host: and on that note, the congressman from ohio who practices yoga himself, is very much into mindfulness. there is a story in the "huffington post" that he and others have a bill where they would turn the american legions that are shutting down and these other veterans bars into wellness setters instead. what do you think of that idea? guest: i think wellness is a great concept. a lot of people say mindfulness feels touchy-feely, but the concept is to get back in touch with yourself. to give your brain a rest.

to feel in control within your own body and then within your own life. i think that is a wonderful place to start. guest: i belong to a american legion number 41, and part of the reason i joined as they have a great garden, actually, and they are into things like gardening and baseball. it is not just a place for people to go and drink, which is the concept we used to have. but i think they are converting part of it into doing mindfulness and it is a great idea. host: new york, good morning to you. caller: good morning. greta, thank you very much to dr. cutler -- dr. kudler and dr. ritchie and all the people behind the scenes to make c-span possible every day. host: thank you for that. caller: thank you. i have -- [indiscernible] i have also served as a case

church withtrinity the mentally ill and homeless, and have had veterans and other persons come across my way. but i am homeless right now. i -- i have used the techniques that colonel ritchie has spoken about, but after the loss of three homes, a hernia caused the software go cancer. 90% of my esophagus was removed. and everything i have done since i was two years old from tying shoes to bending over, gardening has to be relearned, yoga has to be relearned, i live with post-traumatic stress, bipolar, and depression. thank god i have a service animal now. i would like to offer a couple of solutions because as major

general butler said, war is a racket. and this is armistice day. and we ought to be promoting peace and peacemakers. i had to call in on other because i am a peace corps veteran. i had the most cap rant of case in peace corps at the time, giving midwives in senegal, west africa prenatal material. unfortunately, america doesn't admit mistakes, wouldn't set me back -- send me back. i finished my education and have gone over three times on my own, including serving the rwandan refugees after the genocide 20 years ago. first of all, if we are going to keep promoting military 10% offes, i said 10% -- the top of the budget has to

begin for and for care of all -- allto be given for care for veterans. $6.40 oh they -- a day on food stamps. onn we have to lift the cap income tax. everyone has to pay their fair share. atit shouldn't stop $118,000. this will solve the entire social security budget. host: and can i ask you are you homeless because you want to be or because you can't afford housing? caller: if you give me the time, i will sustainably tell you. caller: -- -- cyst think tillie -- cyst think tillie -- s

usinctly tell you. suit -- [indiscernible] clinton'sfrican the staff gracefully sent me to adult protective services, rather than follow the statutes of seeing me within three days, they dumped the case because they were looking at the computer. and if anyone had been in court on their own, they were going this one's got to go. and to the disabled were being dumped. host: i apologize for jumping and because we have a lot of other callers who would also like to talk. would you like to share your thoughts? guest: there is a lot in there, and i will only be able to dress -- to address a piece of this. has ptsd,eman depression, and bipolar. and that is very common. people think of ptsd on its own, especially now with the recent

afghan and iraq that's. -- vets. the signature weapon of these wars has been a blast -- the blasts. again, a note for civilian providers other, always ask about the range of effects because it is a whole person that is hurt, physically and mentally, in many cases. guest: and if i could add -- and i appreciate patrick's service -- i think a lot of what he pointed out his it takes the entire community to respond to work. , we go to warwar as a nation. it is the only way we can. and when people come home, they come back to a nation that needs to be with them and understand. when we go to war, it resonates across the entire country and across generations. the v.a. is still paying dependence to one survivor of

the civil war today. with that is the families. not just the parents and kids of the service member or soldier who has gone to war, but the brothers and sisters and aunts, so it is a water effect on the nation when one of our servicemembers deploys and comes back. host: let's go to robert in diamond, missouri. retired military. good morning to you. caller: good morning, greta. i have a question. i tried to get on earlier, but i missed. mail -- i got a card that is called the choice card. it was sent out by the veterans. they had a toll-free number on their, and i called the toll-free number -- there, and i called the toll-free number. i told them my situation, i told them my right knee had been

operated on, and then my left knee started hurting. so they told me that, well, to call back in 10 days. after i received the letter. i called back in 10 days, and explain to them what my situation was -- explained to them what my situation was, and they give me a number. they gave me a toll-free number to kansas. they said that we can't find you all on file. well, where did i get the card to start with? host: robert, i will have dr. kudler jump in. guest: i will share your frustration, robert. giant bureaucracies can be maddening, and when you're in pain, when you're entitled to care, and we can't -- when you answer, of straight course you are frustrated. i do want to say that a veteran should never be afraid if they

are not getting the answers they need from the person they are speaking to to go a rank higher. but also speak to your state veterans service officer, who can help you negotiate with this. call rate to the director's office and ask for attention to your situation -- right to the director's office and ask for attention to your situation. i apologize. that is not the way people are supposed to get care. guest: i have also heard secretary donald say to call me directly -- secretary mcdonald say to call me directly or e-mail me directly. i have been impressed by people who really want to help. and our orientation, they said if somebody asks for directions, don't just point them there, take them there. i have seen people go way out of their way to do everything they can, but, yes, robert, i share your frustration. host: paula here in washington

dc. caller: thank you. the question i would like addressed has to do with why perhaps there aren't enough physicians, including mental health decisions, in the v.a. system. in my day, and i had exposure to this in the 1970's and the 1980's, there was something called fte where there was enough trouble recruiting physicians that doctors came in for less than full-time but were considered full-time. and i'm wondering if that is still going on it guest: all, -- still going on. guest: oh, no, that is not going on. if you are less than full-time, we are going to be sure when you are with us and when you are not with us. but speaking to the issue about the shortage of physicians, it is not just the v.a.

there is a national shortage. especially in mental health, we are looking at a shortage for a long time. the v.a. has significantly raised the salaries for psychiatrists and a putting in all sorts of benefits. we are also using tele health so i can hire a psychiatrist in wisconsin and have them working in texas. not everything has to go through the heads of a psychiatrist. if i can get a license professional mental health counselor, and therefore spread my resources around, but the bottom line is there are not enough psychiatrist. we are working on training our own. host: what about news practitioners? writing in today's "washington times," saying honoring the veterans by improving the health care, she says let nurse

practitioners do some of the work. in particular, nurse prepared at aare masters and often doctoral level. guest: well, both the v.a. and the military use nurse practitioners. i cannot speak the how many there are in the system, but they are a valued part of the team. guest: they have been with us for a very long team -- time. they have their own patient panels, and we weill -- we value them very highly. host: jerry, go ahead. ninth in served in the 1965. i had an incident two years ago when i went online, and it seems

like i was accused of killing one of my fellows, which is not true. so i kind of -- [indiscernible] -- out. i needed some help. i called the crisis line. the cops showed up at my house twice. i know i needed some help, so i went to the v.a. i had an appointment for an hour. i am on oxygen, and there was a guard, and i got disqualified for that even though i paid for it. be that as it may, i made a timely appointment could then they canceled it and i said, look, i am on oxygen, can i please go see a? yes. went in and talked to the main psychologist. -- [indiscernible] me and said,d at

well, you appointment is only 15 minutes. how much do you drink? i said, what? he said, oh, you are now go, you take jocks -- you are an alcoholic, you take drugs, you just a want to communicate. -- don't want to communicate. he said, by the way, i don't fill out any paperwork, i don't do anything for you. i don't take drugs. be that as it may, i got so depressed the only thing i had in my name was my car. i went to the bank, took a loan at my bank, $350. she used to work for the v.a. she put the paperwork in for me. and i went to this whole system blindfolded because i didn't have a representative to but i want to see what the normal veteran went through, and the reason why i did that because my next-door neighbor went to the

same thing with the v.a. he killed himself. so i am just saying that -- and i want to get the impression that the veterans are putting their hands out to get something. i took 14 credits. that is 12 credits full-time. i only got $50 because some of them were not credits. so all -- so i only got $50 from the g.i. bill. i worked three jobs and went to three junior colleges. i got three degrees. medicalmendatory -- laboratory technologist and a of medicine nuclear technologist. i invented a platform for breast-cancer that works at

dupont. they didn't pay me a penny. i developed a system to do that on my own dime. i went to a big meeting with -- industry. the owners there -- how much money do think you are going to get? i said i probably want to make a nickel. i help these ladies who come in for breast-cancer and there is no platform because there is a new study. host: that is jerry in florida with his story. guest: that was tragic. and just to think about being in 1965 and coming back and not having your service honored and being given 15 minutes, that is not the v.a. i want to work in. i would like to recommend to him and others worried about something happening to them, the vet center would be a very good first stop.

we have a computer located. google that center locator -- vet center locator, and map. will on your -- and upwil come a map. click on your state, and the phone number and location will appear. they are not medical, but the point is they would help. whether or not he could prove he was working on operation ranch likelye is more than presumptively service-connected for any condition that might be related to agent orange. there are a lot of benefits he is not getting. host: can i ask you -- he seems to imply that he didn't seek help rate when he got back, but there was some incident that sort of sparked this trauma for him, and that he is seeking help years and years later. how often does that happen? guest: what we have seen with

the vietnam veterans is that many of them didn't seek help when they came back. and now they are. and that is for a few reasons. one is they may be getting older, they may be retired, perhaps they lost a spouse. and also the wars in iraq and afghanistan have triggered a lot of emotions. one of the characteristics about ptsd is that it is triggered by, say, the sound of a helicopter or the smell of diesel fuel. and some of these triggers take you back free powerfully to the war. so he didn't say that, but i suspect some of those issues happened to him. and certainly to other vietnam vets out there. don't think you are going crazy if you have been doing well for 40 years and all of a sudden you are getting flashbacks. host: we will go to sam, who is retired military, and austin, -- in austin, arkansas.

caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i am a 30 year plus veteran of the air force. i was a dog kennel back in the 1970's in the vietnam era. i had an eight year break in service and i went back in, and i retired in 2007. i have a lot of medical issues. i had cancer in 2004 and a lot of skin problems and things like that. but what i find with the v.a. is most of the dock is they have down there -- doctors they have down there are not american-born doctors. a lot of them come from india, from china, from wherever they come from. and you are going in there for treatment. some of them can't even speak english. i have used the v.a. here in and i haved in texas

used it in pennsylvania because i travel quite a bit visiting my grandkids, but all the v.a.'s that i have dealt with seem to think that we are there for them. they are trying to get you in and out as quick as they can. you have very, very limited time with the doctor. they are in such a rush because there are so, so many veterans lined up at the doors. cars almost like cattle watching people come in and out of the v.a. host: sam, let's take those points. the types of doctors and also the amount of time they are getting with the doctor. guest: one of the things is people coming in from other countries. these people are trained in american programs. they have the skills, but i agree, communication is an issue. we can actually provide help with language skills for clinicians who are not good at

this. we have the same in our residency programs. but also the idea of being in a rush, i guess we are. we have a lot of people that we are seeing, and there have than more -- there have been more appointments. this is partly because we are screening people and getting them into treatment. .e are rapidly expanding the choice act will give us more expansion. i am also very glad that people like sam are coming in for help in putting up with right now the crush -- rush to meet that need. we will all get there together. and i want to thank sam for his service. host: one of our callers mentioned armistice day. guest: you know, i headed on the jacket anyway. the red poppy actually comes from a poem, which was a world war i poem written by a man who died before it ended.

guest: which i might say you have memorized. copies used to spring up -- poppies used to spring up wherever graves were. the poppy is to remember world war i, which ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. the v.a. was born out of world war i. there were soldiers coming out of the civil war, but they were places for people to live. they were not hospitals. at the end of world war i, there were over 4000 american veterans with so-called euro psychiatric ropsychiatric-neu casualties. they didn't have the skills to treat veterans or understand the combat issues that had brought them there. the v.a. was created by congress

and by mental health professionals and the public to create a home for those folks. we are still growing. and we have a ways to go. guest: and to add to that just briefly, this longest war that we are in, iraq-afghanistan, that has been about 2.4 million service members who have deployed. and then the aging vietnam population and from korea, there is still people. so the need has gone up so much. that is part of the reason i keep emphasizing the importance of the zillion -- civilian providers. there has to be enough of them who are willing to see that. host: we are talking with two doctors this morning and fault in veterans health and mental health -- involved in veterans health and mental health. veterans and0 for

retired. caller: good morning. host: good morning. welcome. caller: i was calling in reference to a family member that -- i have a sibling that didn't serve in the army, but he got honorable discharge. so i was checked to see what type of service the v.a. offers for family members that have members of the family that received honorable discharge from basic training where it could affect their mental health. we have been to numerous v.a.'s, we have been to psychiatrists, and our main issue is getting them long-term treatment, which i know that this person needs. i have seen them bounce back from having treatment for a week or so, but that treatment is not -- it needs to be more long-term. i am in the field of public

health and i see the need and have done my research and mental illness, so if there is evidence chance through the v.a. for members of public health to better assist the population, maybe through adding behavioral health analysis to your facilities. guest: thank you. first of all, i worked in north coletta for the past 30 years. so i want to mention to you that to the v.a. has a call line for family members called "coaching into care." i don't remember the phone number right off hand, but if you google it, it will pop up. and you can call this and speak to a health coach who will use public health principles to help you and -- help you help your veteran connect with the right information. and say your veteran would rather get care in the community, connect to to

community care. system get you into a pa where ever you are eligible. i want to mention that right off the bat. and i have known each other for several years. our departments cochaired the first v.a.-dod conference under mental health. coming out of that conference, i know i worked at that idea that if i thought i was a good psychiatrist, i would do a great job. i came to realize it was a public health issue. going to work required the department of defense, veterans affairs, and every civilian provided to ask the question: have you or someone close to you served in the military? and be able to talk to each other. this is a public health question. nationil the entire shoulders that burden, we will

not have the responses we need. host: can i ask you, it might be a good idea to take a step back here. what is post-traumatic stress disorder? and what the summit have to do to prove that they have this? guest: posttraumatic stress a term that was first used in 1980; however, we know that all wars have caused psychological reactions. there are different words for it. of ptsdmain attribute is a heavy traumatic event, and it has to be pretty bad -- the death of somebody or being in a disaster or being in combat -- and then you have a series of symptoms, reexperiencing, flashbacks, numbing and avoidance, hypervigilance, which is a fancy word for looking around all the time. and hypervigilance is good to have in a war zone, but if these

symptoms persist when you come back, they can cause problems. and recently, there has been an update two years ago where they added sleep problems, physical problems like a nausea, and also your debility and anger. anger. irritability and so, these are the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, and they often come with depression as well. does that answer your question? host: it does. we will move on to charlie. charlie is in milwaukee, retired military. caller: good morning. i was in the united states air force and i was stationed over in turkey in the 1970's. and the -- [indiscernible] -- the base on a regular basis. werewas a time where they

in conflict with greece over cyprus. stop things from coming into the country. i was -- i had so much chemicals on my body that you can take a knife and go down your arm and it would come all off to and then when i -- off. and then when i left turkey, i went to a different air force base. and come to find out that the air force base was one of the anducers of agent orange, that they also had a lot of agent orange on the site. but when i went to the veterans administration, they were not give me -- what's not give me any -- would not give me any benefits for it. and the question i want to ask was, you know, the animated to

having agent orange -- it admitted to having agent orange, but they didn't say anything about the civilian population that were farmers and grew crops -- i used to go down the site and there was a farmer that had vegetables and i would get the vegetables and i would eat the vegetables at least two times a month. was at i got out, i home, i had blisters. and the milwaukee v.a. didn't have a dermatology clinic. host: charlie, i hate to jump in, but we are running out of time. dr. kudler, what do you say to him? guest: it is a complex toxicology question, but frankly the v.a. is one of the few institutions would be able to assess his problem. he has trouble connecting, i thinking is to keep going back through the v.a., the on

spokesman. veteransthe disabled may be a great way to find him somehow. guest: wars are environmentally dirty. and we have heard about agent orange, you remember the first gulf war where there was the culture and -- where there was the question of what causes gulf war virus. whether that causes problems, and over and over again through therey we have seen that are physical reactions to the toxins are present. certainly when i was over in iraq, we could smell the chemicals in the air. so it is a very important question. and again, the v.a. is a leader in this area, but it also -- civilian psychiatrist out there, make sure you ask about toxin exposures. host: let's get in alfred, retired military. could you make it quick, sir?

caller: yes, ma'am, good morning. my claim has been on appeal since february 15. february 15, 1974. manner i used to get my claim recalled -- [indiscernible] -- have locked my every appeal -- blocked my every appeal. and i'm not the only one. we need someone to get in touch with us so we can get our claims resolved. i have contacted the senators. all i'm getting from them is negativity. there are a lot of veterans here in the state of north carolina. we need a hotline that we can go to to help get our claims resolved and get through the red tape. could someone provide me with the number where i can get through and get some help with my claim of 42 years? guest: i want to say, in north

carolina, the commission -- commissioner for veterans affairs is quite an activist and a marine. and he will get on your case. the secretary of veterans affairs has given out his phone number. i don't have it personally, but you can call the v.a. at any level. winston-salem at the headquarters. i do appreciate your service. i hope you get a resolution they quickly. guest: you bring up another thing that i would like to mention. harold has been a leader in north carolina and aligning the civilian world with the v.a. and what we have seen based on that experience -- and with the substance abuse mental health is aices administration -- state-by-state look at what is going on. this involves not just the health care system, but involves

colleges and universities. my last job, i was a cochair of the washington, d.c. effort. we worked a lot with police officers on how to work with veterans. my last word about advocacy today is look at what is going on in your state. before you develop a new program, map out what is there. and then there is probably a lot that you can do in your state to help veterans. , thank you.dler colonel ritchie, thank you. guest: it was great to be her. guest: a great and reflective day to everyone. host: we will continue after this with today -- with today's "washington journal" with talking to veterans. dividing the lines, eastern and central, dial-in at (202) 748-8000 fo. mountain and pacific, (202)

748-8001 fo. we will get your calls here in just a minute. we will continue to mark veterans day 2015 with many folks coming to washington dc to visit all the different war memorials here in washington dc. and we are down on them all talking to some of those folks -- on the mall talking to some of those folks. >> a sunny, windy, and emotional morning. memorial,the vietnam -- we are on the national mall, located near 22nd street and constitution avenue. we are joined this morning by frank baldwin. he is a vietnam veteran, a marine. 1965 to 1966. i have been hearing a lot this morning the term, "welcome home ." >> welcome home is something we

never got. so we remind each other every year. welcome home. >> and your father served in world war ii. can you talk about his experience coming home? did he ever talk about getting a welcome home? >> no, he didn't. i don't think any of them did. and of the work, everybody was happy -- end of the war, everybody was happy. >> how was it different for you? >> a lot of people were against the war. a lot of protesters. that made it very difficult when i returned. [indiscernible] >> and you're talking earlier about what you did with your uniform. >> well, sometimes you didn't wear it. you had to hide it a little bit. kept it in the motel room, things like that.

>> do you like talking about your service and your time in vietnam? then i will every now and -- [indiscernible] around vets,at's -- i feel comfortable. >> how do you think the veterans are treated today coming home from the current conflict? >> -- [indiscernible] -- and hope that the new veterans get their care. ptsd -- [indiscernible] -- still fighting. >> like you said, you come here every single year. have you ever run into one of those current vets and had a

conversation with them? >> absolutely. a welcome home. young.e still they have to settle in. the older they get, the more comfortable they will feel. they get a good home welcoming. >> thank you so much for your time. >> a pleasure. thank you. have a good one. host: a vietnam vet they're talking about his experience -- there talking about his experience coming back. what was your experience like? what was your expense coming back and the transition into civilian life? you heard from that vietnam vet, talking about what it was like, down at the vietnam memorial.

a lot of attention and folks gathering on the mall to mark this veterans day 2015. all of her in temple hill, -- oliver in temple hill, maryland, good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. your head. what was it like for you? caller: when i first came home, it was a shock. know, i didn't know about ptsd. ptsd during the recent wars. using the v.a. back in the 1980's, they treated me for thyroid cancer. i didn't know that was what they were treating me for. i am retired, and i got sick and sicker over the years.

know, they take me for the ptsd and they take me for the physical illnesses. i am not mad at them it is just sometimes we don't know what to do. and it just took a long time. host: oliver, where we are coming back from? did you serve in vietnam? caller: yeah. that was frightening. it was very fearful. and the fear made me angry. the anger made me mean. host: and what was the community like when you came back? did you go to temple hills, maryland when you came back? caller: know, i lived in d.c. host: i don't want to -- caller: i don't want to talk about that. host: we will move on to robert in hattiesburg, mississippi. what was it like, your

transition checkup -- transition? caller: let's see, world war ii, i was in the navy. host: we are listening, robert. caller: world war ii, i was in the navy. i went to the south pacific. as a signal man. and had a good time with the ship. it was like a tour for me at 17 years old. i saw the world. ship.blems on the and a japanese suicide plane missed us one time at tonight. us. we went for two years out there. no other problems with the ship at all. we went around all the islands and came back to the states, got discharged in 1944, i think. and -- ifor a job

graduated seventh grade with and a d. i started looking for a job as a car mechanic and someone said it was a lot of work but you could go to school on the g.i. bill and get $65 a month. through the rest of school and went through high school, went to college on the g.i. bill. for years, and i started working -- four years and i started working for the space agency in cape canaveral for years. i never needed to be a -- the v.a. at all. here i am retired and 90 years old and i feel guilty about never having to use the ba -- v .a. host: that's robert, 90 years old. keep the calls coming in. veterans only this morning.

transitioning to civilian experience? we will get some are of those calls, but joining us on the timothy retired colonel karcher. let's begin with what you do. what is the greater sacrifice and what is your mission? guest: good morning. thank you for having me on. no greater sacrifice is an organization committed to providing a debt-free college education for the children of our fallen and severely wounded servicemembers. by debt-free i mean paying tuition and fees for any in-state college or university. providing room and board, books and expenses, and any other expenses that are deemed necessary. in addition to that ending we also provide a personalized mentorship for each recipient child and their family.

we help them to set goals, both career and educational and help them achieve them. through that personalized mentorship we ensure the success of this child. that is kind of what the foundation does. do you and this group feel that this is important, and how many children -- students have you supported thus far? guest: a lot of times we focus on the service member and the sacrifices that they have made. ,e look past the unsung hero and families behind that servicemember. the sacrifices of our children are huge. i have seen this in my own family, i have been twice wounded. they get a visit from military personnel saying that their parent has either been killed in action or severely wounded. , if the turmoil servicemember is wounded there is a complete disruption of life during the recovery and

.ehabilitation process they are just living with a is veryparent who likely disabled in some way shape or form. those are the sacrifices our children are making. i would say we often overlook that and we do not give them the credit they are due. i am alive today because i wanted to live to be with my family. so far we have supported 73 children to date. that may not sound like a lot but that is almost $5 million committed thus far. that is just for the children who have already started college. some of them are not even college agent. the cost of a debt-free college education is upwards of $100,000 these days. that is what we are committed to providing for each of these children. spent 26onel karcher

years in the u.s. army, including a tour of the middle east where he was wounded, losing both of his legs. colonel, who are supporting these groups? what are the donations like? how can people help? guest: the best way to help is we have a website like any other organization. there is a "how you help" button. to be very clear, the way we get the ability to help these young children is by raising money. we provide $.92 out of every dollar we raised. this is huge in the nonprofit world, and it is only possible through the donations of our fellow americans helping the children of our severely wounded and fallen servicemembers. website, again, that nogreatersacrifice.org.

thank you for your service and thank you for your time this morning. guest: yes ma'am. have a great veterans day and thanks to all the veterans out there. host: we turn to veterans only this morning to get your thoughts on what it was like transitioning to civilian life. ted is in oregon, good morning. you are up next. go ahead. are you there? caller: can you hear me now? host: there you go. ted, go ahead. caller: i just want to say to all the air force engineers that are out there this morning, that is what i was, and it was a good time. nobody ever shot at me. my friends are all my friends from way back then. i find that most guys of my generation never put their hand up and took the oath. i called them the would have could have should have. 's day ivery veteran

have a civilian come up to me and thank me for my service. that makes me crazy. just keep it to yourself. we did what we did because we love our country. thank you very much and have a great time. host: all right. president obama will be marking veterans day as all previous presidents have by laying the reath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. that ceremony will be taking place at 11:00 a.m. eastern time .his morning the president plans to also announced some initiatives related to veterans access to care as well as education. a story this morning says the president will urge congress to improve a program that allows veterans to receive private medical care, speeds disability qualitynd increases the for services that serve veterans. veterans only this morning.

peter in new york. what was it like for you? caller: i am a veteran -- vietnam veteran. in march ofetnam 1968 and came home in 1969. no one has been treated as poorly as vietnam vets. the v.a. has been busy useless. the ba has been basically useless. getook me 40 years to be -- my benefits. the american legion, if you want to file a claim go to the american legion because they are the best. they will help you and they will follow through. when we came home we were treated poorly. if you watch all the advertisements about how great all the soldiers are you never hear them talk about vietnam. and when that was happening, when you came back and that was happening, what did

you do? guest: the -- caller: there were a few occasions i went to demonstrations in washington dc in what was called the winter soldiers organization. the police gassed us and beat us and all those kinds of things. we had wet t-shirts and things like that that we wrapped around our faces and got closer to the ground. but we were treated extremely poorly and for i went to the v.a. to try to get help, going to college was a mockery. the gentleman that i had who represented the v.a. in new york, he was mean. he was nasty. picky.extremely i want to know how you go to college full time on $90 a month? you can't. host: ok.

patrick in new orleans. what is your story? i am a retired 100% disabled vet. recently increased to 100%, at least -- that which time you get rating. they say you are unemployable. you apply for your social security disability and although the v.a. has rated you at 100%, the social security administration disapproves your claim. this is not just a one-time thing. i'm not the only veteran that went through this. and then youating have to go through social security and they have a totally different look. if there isndering ever going to be an equilibrium between the two, between the v.a. and the social security administration, where one rating

is one rating. you'll have to jump through hoops trying to prove something that is already evident by the rating given to you by the veterans administration. all right. we are talking to veterans only. we will go back down to the national mall where john mcardle is talking to people who have come to mark veterans day. >> mr. priest joined us, he served in vietnam in 1969 and 70 and has been here every year since it was first dedicated. he is feel this year -- here this year with the marine force, a group he calls his brothers and his family. i want to ask, do you think there is a dividing line in this country between civilians and members of the military? >> i do.

that dividing line was caused by a couple of things in my opinion. one is, if you look at the history of world war ii, everyone had skin in the game. fewer than 1% have skin in the game today. there is no tax levied against the citizens of the united states to fund the war. civilians appreciate the military but only to a certain degree. it is a lot more than saying thank you. the v.a. is a great example. it is going to all kinds of trouble now -- getting into al qaeda trouble now for not being able to provide services. why is that? you you choose to go to war have to fix the v.a. before the troops come home so you are prepared. it happens time and time again, it just repeated itself. that is part of it.

the other parties it is very easy to walk up so that -- to a vet and say thank you, and i believe most of those banks are sincere. but if you do not really understand what is going on you are not really sure what you are saying thank you for. that is not good or bad. it just is. so i want civilians to get more involved with their veterans, get the lowdown, ask questions. we are going to tell you everything but we can give you a different perspective. >> is there something the ba -- v.a. or leaders in the federal government can do? ok, what are the ancillary systems we need to put in place to support that effort? funding strategies and staffing strategies for when you go to war so you are prepared to take care of veterans when they come home. to me it is simple math. you can't put one in and expects

to get two out. they always put one in. you have to put them both in. if you don't you have this problem we have today. this is not a new problem. itame back from vietnam, happened after vietnam, it happened after korea. there are 14,000 positions in the v.a. that are unfilled. >> how often do you think about your service? >> there is not a data goes by that i don't think about my service. i had an experience, just to put it mildly. ir many years i wondered if had done things differently if the outcome might have been different. you can choose what happens. you need to move beyond that. i have brothers who struggle with ptsd, cancer, you name it. i think about them every day. i think about my brothers on the wall every day. what can i do to help them by helping others? mr. priest from farmington

hills, michigan. thank you for your time. host: one of our nation's veterans there with the veterans memorial behind him talking to c-span. he pointed in the direction of the capital when he said lawmakers need to think about -- when they say we are going to war -- what needs to happen with the veterans affairs department. "the washington times" this morning with this quote, hillary clinton vowing to fix the v.a.'s obsolete pewter system. she said she would protect it from republicans efforts to privatize it. senator john mccain responded to that claim saying that for her to say that me and my colleagues is wanting to privatize v.a. inaccurate and offensive. he says she should know that the majority of the veterans don't consider the dual system a privatization.

they want the reform and it is necessary to expand their health care choice. we are talking to veterans only this morning. ryan in pennsylvania. what was it like. share your story. when did you serve and what was the transition like? caller: yes. i would act -- like to ask you a question. i assume you're not a veteran or it host: i am not. caller: first of all i served 72 -- 1972 until 1976 in the navy. you maybe you can give your position -- opinion as a civilian. why not just give veterans they come out to go to any hospital in the country and let them get what they need? tabthe v.a. pickup that instead of giving them vouchers. what are they going to do? stand in line at hospitals? they stand in line at va hospital's. nobody i've ever talked to on medicare who is retired said i

hate medicare are you -- on medicare. you think thatif is the solution. if veterans were able to access medicare you think there would not be these weight -- wait times, there were not be these issues. caller: and don't see retired people complaining about medicare. veterans should have no care -- no cost. no deductible, no premium, no 20%. veterans should maybe play some of the cost and once they transition into civilian life they can pick up more costs for their own medical benefits. to that would allow veterans not have to have this humongous support for this and that. card. up my v.a. i got sick of it. the other thing i want to point out is, i want to thank all veterans for their service.

some veterans look out of the veterans suffering with the r guys need to think twice about some of these guys that serve and suffered. so many came act from iraq, what was it -- back from iraq, what 186,000186,000 women -- with mental illness? of course these guys suffered. we need to start looking at veterans across the country as people who can -- need help and areople who are worthless. ththat. host: and let me just add something because we talked about this early about post dramatic stress symptoms. one in three returning troops is being diagnosed with posttraumatic stress symptoms and only 40% will seek help. on average five active-duty troops attempt suicide every

day. john in newark, new jersey, go ahead. caller: hi, how are you this morning? host: just fine sir. tell us about your experience. caller: i am a korean war veteran. the forgotten war. they called it a police action but it was a war. people died there, people got hurt there. a lot of us were drafted their and a lot of us joined on our own because of the fact that we felt that america was worth going there. i am in harmony with the veteran who said that we really don't need the v.a. we should just use medicare for the health care of veterans. this way they can get the kind of help that they need. i am one who started going to the v.a. too, who stopped going

because of the fact that there was too much to go through. getting back to being a korean veteran, people don't remember what happened to us in korea. come backrom vietnam and say that they are treated badly. we were not treated so good either. not only that, when i was in the , i am a black 80-year-old man. i never experienced any racial bias when i came along as a kid in newark, new jersey. i experienced my first racism when i went into the military, when i went into the air force. 1954.as back in that is my comments. have a good day. host: before you go, have you visited d.c.?

have you been to the korea memorial? caller: no, i haven't. host: there is a story and i want to get your reaction to this. more money for that war memorial is coming from korea in the .nited states one of the folks working on it statesng more united companies will contribute. they are hoping to add more structural elements to the memorial. a wall of remembrance that list the name of everyone who is, wounded, or missing in action. what do you think about that? caller: i think it is good that korea is doing this, but when we came home america did not care about us. i don't the chimeric is still cares about us. and as far as the v.a., if you watch "boardwalk empire," the v.a. has been in trouble since world war i. it started in world war i.

people try to game the system. if you watch that picture you will see. it is still being gamed today. host: we will go next to mark and california. either. tell us your story. caller: hi, how are you? host: good morning. .aller: i'm a vietnam veteran all i can say is i was so happy to be back and i did not start dealing with the 2000.ntil the year i got really sick and i have not nothing but good to say about the v.a. until i got this last doctor. i don't know where they dragged him from but he is the most worthless person that i could

ever have found. the first thing he started doing was cutting back on my drastically, and i had to go over his head. senator sanders helped me personally and i want to say thanks god for senator sanders because he cares about people. ok, and senator sanders is running for president. he was the chairman of the veterans affairs committee and the senate when the democrats had control of the chamber. we have a few minutes left. we are going to take a few more of your phone calls but first let's go down to the national mall. more folks visiting on this veterans day. robinson is 33 from baltimore, maryland. he served in the army in afghanistan in 2002 and iraq in 2003.

currently he is an advocate general with the maryland national guard. can you talk about the experience going through the v.a. and using the g.i. bill? >> sure. i got out in 2007. that was at a time when the g.i. bill that we had was the montgomery g.i. bill. it afforded a little bit of money to help me pay for my education. fortunately they added the which gave.i. bill us a lot more money to be able to pay for my law degree and my business degree. i worked with the v.a. to do that. it was a little bit bureaucrat against first, but i never felt that it was going to stop me from getting my benefits. billbeing said, the g.i. was a life changer for me. i just absolutely could not have gone to college and afforded my education if it wasn't for the g.i. bill.

vets want toest -- from the v.a. in your opinion? i want to copy it by saying i have never gone to the v.a. for medical care. i only used it for my education. i just feel like when i read in the papers it is like veterans are whining for more, to have everything brought to them. myself, i know that is not the case. i think what veterans want is to thingsn how to get the that we frankly earned, either contractually or through our service. show us what we need to do and we will take it from there. we will work with each other to show each other how to get the benefits and what to do. we do not want to be called. we want to be taught.

usis naturally ingrained in to go out and achieve what we need to achieve. achieving is getting the services that we have earned. we will help each other to get them. >> what are you going to be doing today? >> i was invited to speak at the vietnam women's veterans memorial. i am just going to be saying a few words about my service. part of the reason i was invited to speak is that the organizer, dr. stevens, worked at the university of maryland and she organized veterans fellowship and helps to lead the initiative. in was implement all bringing scholarships to students there. i was one of the first tillman scholarship students. >> what is the tillman scholarship? >> it was started in honor of pat tillman who lost his life in afghanistan. his widow started a fund

intended to provide veterans with a little bit of money that will help them get by, that will help them find -- fill the gap in their education. might help close the gap between what you're getting from the g.i. bill and your what -- what your teat -- tuition costs. that foundation has been going strong in maryland since 2010. that is when i got my scholarship. but part of being a tillman scholar means understanding who pat tillman was, what he spoke for, and trying to live in a way that honors his service. of my speaking today. i will be talking a little bit about him. >> we appreciate your time this morning. >> think you so much. gathering on the national mall this morning to mark veterans day, also armistice day as many as you know, which is the day that is celebrated every day on the 11th of november 2

market the armistice signed between the allies of world war i and germany. cease-fireect -- the took effect at 11:00 in the morning, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. the date was declared a national highlight -- holiday in many allied nations to commemorate those killed in the war. joe in louisville, ohio. we are talking to veterans only this morning. good morning. caller: this is joe cool. host: you are on the air. caller: combat support company germany, 1975 to 1978. allow me to say quickly to my , i playedt there

softball with you guys, football with you guys, we had a good time. we danced together at the disco dance floor. i want to say that the best of the v.a. clinic is the one on market avenue in canton, ohio are you host: all right. bill in black creek, good morning. caller: hi, thank you for taking my call. you -- and ing to saw a few things going on. i just want to mention that i worked for the v.a. for 28 years in new york. we did not have any problems. i wrote to president obama in reference to this and wanting to make some changes for the vets. for myself, when i got here in north carolina, i went to the

v.a. and the ba said to me i'm sorry, we cannot take you and because you have medicare. we didn't care, whatever insurance they had. or if they were servicemember we took them in. like i heard a gentle and say earlier, i did the same thing. hell withhelp -- to the v.a.. i am paying for my medicare and you are telling me you can't take it? wide. -- why? disheartening to me. they would not take me. they sent me something in the mail saying we are charging you for services. a second, ifait you know anything about the v.a. this