, and it is something along the lines of, if you want to go fast, go alone. if you want to go far, go together. let's find ways we can go together, build that, in crowd, when i look at the road ahead and as we look at the challenges ahead, i think we couldn't have any better traveling companions than the wonderful people we have with us here on this panel and in this audience today. thank you very much for your attention. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> tonight on c-span, christmas at the white house. a tour of the white house holiday decorations, and the annual national christmas tree lighting ceremony. christmas at the white house, christmas eve, tonight at 8:00 eastern you're on c-span. -- here on c-span.

friday night, former president bill clinton at the dole institute of politics. clinton: you just look at how many of our collective bigotries we've overcome in america in the last 100 years. we are less racist than we used we usedess sexist than to be. we are less religiously bigoted than we used to be, less homophobic than we used to be. we have one remaining bigotry. we don't want to be around anyone who disagrees with us. [laughter] knowe laughing, but we it's true. we don't even want to watch television news we disagree with.

my late mother in law adored, hillary's mom, lives with hillary in washington when she was a senator and secretary of state until she passed away at almost 92. she was the most liberal member of her family. but she forced herself to watch an hour of fox news every day. [laughter] now we are laughing, and i sat down with her once at the table, we were tricking a cup of coffee and watching fox news. i said, dorothy, whitey you do this? -- why do you do this? she said, i want to make sure i know what they're saying and that i can answer it. nobody is wrong all the time and nobody is right all the time. >> friday on c-span, bill clinton's peace on bipartisanship in a speech at the dole institute of politics in kansas. the former president receive the

organization's leadership award. watch on friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. three days of featured programming this holiday weekend on c-span. friday evening at 7:00 eastern, congressional republican leaders honoring former vice president dick cheney at the capital, with the unveiling of a marble bust in emancipation hall. >> when the vice president had his critics going off the deep wife,e asked lynn, his does it bug you when people refer to me as darth vader? she said, no, it humanizes you. [laughter] [applause] at 8:30day night eastern, an in-depth look at policing in minority communities . speakers include the former st. louis police officer, washington, d.c. police chief cathy lanier. >> most people get defensive if

they feel like you are being offensive. in andery respectful counters and requests -- if it's not a crisis, not a dangerous situation, requests versus demands, those things change the dynamics a little bit. >> sunday afternoon at 2:00, race and the criminal justice system with white house senior adviser valerie jarrett and others. at 6:30, portions of this year's washington ideas festival. virginiainclude senator mark warmer, former vice president al gore, and author anne-marie slaughter. >> we've got to banish the word "he's helping." elping is not actually taking the burden off you. you are still figuring out what needs to be done and you are asking him to help. he's not the agent. he's the assistant. if were going to get to where we need to go, men do have to be lead parents are fully equal coparents. >> for a complete schedule, go

to www.c-span.org. up next, author matthew green on his book "underdog politics." he argues that minority parties yields more influence than previously thought. from "washington journal >> we are joined by matthew "underdog." of thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> we know about the great power of the minority in the u.s. senate but it's not so well-known that the minority has power. what motivated you to look into the advantages of the minority?

watching certain things the minority party was doing starting in the 1990's. when they are presumably powerless? that thingsear they're doing will make a difference as far as winning elections. that is what people my interest and i started going back and looking at history starting with the 1970's. looking at all the things the minority party doesn't house. -- it does in the house. host: you call the minority party the neglected stepchild of the house. and conventional wisdom follows the same logic, seems the minority party does not matter. in the senate, they can slow things down and filibuster a bill.

there is an assumption that they don't matter. part of the goal of this book was to rectify that and say the minority party does matter and what they do is interesting. host: the focus of the book -- you do go back in history -- your focus goes back to the minority parties beginning in the 1970's. , a look atrefresher who the minority party was, going back to 1971. job board from 1971-1994, republicans in the minority. from 1995-2006, the democrats are in the minority with the election of 1994.

e that and nancy pelosi has been the minority leader since 2011. is part of being in the minority a constant battle of wanting to be in the majority? youare always trying to -- have a dual role. a legislator and trying to get your party in the majority. exactly right. something we see now especially because competition for control of the house increased dramatically. when i started the book in the 1970's at a time when the republican minority cannot see a path to being in the majority, the democrats have a lock on the house, the republicans want to be in the majority, but they are not sure how to do it. they're focusing more on other things like policy, turn to get

what policy outcomes they can. that starts to change in the early 1980's. fast-forward to now come in the minority still cares about other things, policy, procedure, the presidency, their primary focus is how can we become the majority party. it is a lot more fun to be in the majority in the house. host: we welcome your calls and comments about the minority in power in the u.s. house in the year that has just happened in congress. 202-748-8000 four democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. all others, 202-748-8002. or send us a tweet. john boehner in the majority. his stepping down as speaker was driven by a minority of that majority in terms of the conservative caucus pressing forward with getting any speaker. i wanted to show you the

comments of john boehner as he in october.ro [video clip] >> my, oh my, what a wonderful day. i used to sing that on my way to work in the morning. my mission every day is to fight for a smaller, less costly and more countable government. advancedity has conservative reforms that will help our children and their children. it has become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution. this morning, i informed my colleagues that i will resign from the speakership and resign from congress at the end of october. as you've often heard me say, this is not about me. it is about the people, about the institution. just yesterday, we witnessed the awesome sight of pope francis

addressing the greatest legislative body in the world. heed hisat we will all call to live by the golden rule. , i started thinking about this. this morning, i woke up and said today iss and decided the day i will do this. as simple as that. host: matthew green, a regular watcher of politics. what did you think? guest: i was quite surprised at first. i had no idea that he would be .esigning johnof the story here with boehner is about the minority within the majority party. the conservatives who have been unhappy with his leadership style. there is also a story here about the minority party. if you are a majority party in the house but you cannot keep it

unified as the minority party, the minority has leverage. he has had difficulty getting legislation passed because he cannot get the democrats to vote for it and he cannot muster a majority of his own party to vote for it. you've given some additional power and influence to the minority party. that's one of the themes of the book. unity is important for the minority party. host: they have the power over the summer when the appropriation bills were moving prepared. there was language about the confederate flag. democrats helped grind the deliberations to a halt. andt: there are techniques procedures the minority party in the house can use to slow things down. it doesn't get as much attention as the senate does because those techniques are used more often. offered a motion to adjourn, the house has to vote

on those things and she offered a privileged motion having to do with the confederate flag. that brought up this issue. there is ways the minority in the house can force issues onto the floor agenda and make the majority party have to respond to them. back at 40e looking plus years back to 1971. who has been the most effective minority in the last 44 years? guest: the most effective minority -- it is hard to say. periods, sometimes the party is very effective and forti 202-748-8001

republicans, 202-748-8000 for democrats and all others, 202-748-8002. "underdog politics: the minority party in the u.s. house of representatives." matthew green is our guest. morgantown, west virginia. on that, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to ask if professor green had looked at the actions of third party representatives in the house. guest: the short answer is no. there has not been that many in recent history. third parties were bigger, a bigger presence in the house in the early 20th century and 19 century. by the time this book started in the 1970's, almost everybody is in one of the two major parties.

it is interesting that some have suggested that members of the freedom caucus could be considered something of a third-party. i do not think they are. to the extent to which they have their own agenda, you have an interesting dynamic where you have a majority party that is not really a majority but plurality. they have to negotiate with the two other parties to get a majority coalition. host: do you have a follow-up question? marcus in whitehall, pennsylvania. democrats lied. caller: good morning, gentlemen. -- democrats line. got inen speaker pelosi , i sent a document to influential people and it was all about institutional

dissemination. the ceiling that has never been broken. -- that isn 1960 what happened there. it is people that make history. about the caller talked presidents. i want to read a comment from part of your book where you are talking about ronald reagan. and therety parties leaders are likely to dedicate a good amount of effort to helping their same party president or presidential candidate. if reagan were not president, hootsuld not be worth two as a minority."

was this a new tactic? guest: to some extent, yes. the use of the floor for messaging purposes got its start in the late 70's, early 80's. it was republicans that initiated that. one thing that is important about the quote, everybody assumes the minority party cares about being in the majority. that is what matters most to them. but one of the important arguments i make in the book, presidential politics matter as well. while michael is feeling some pressure from members of his party -- we need reagan. we are republicans. we have to work together. that gives us more leverage and influence. host: you have a cartoon in your book about obama reaching out his hand right after the election. and a fist from house republicans.

the most mileage from that seem to be mitch mcconnell. it worked well for democrats to repeat that line over and over again. guest: there is a balancing act that minority parties have to play. they may disagree with the president of the opposite party. they don't feel an obligation to help him carry out his agenda. they don't want a reputation of being obstructionist. as we saw with mcconnell, that was used by democrats. you only care about partisan gameplaying. this is one of the delicate balancing act's that parties have to play with dealing with a president of the opposite party. host: send us a tweet. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. all others, 202-748-8002.

this is joe in carrollton, virginia. independent line. caller: yes. weretened to what you saying this morning. i went to a form of a while back where robert gates spoke. he made a comment that until to make votingd patriotically what was good for , nothing will change in congress. i find that to be very true and i still see it today. your comments on that, please. guest: the concluding chapter of the book is where i get on my soapbox a bit and talk about what this means for american democracy from my perspective. one of the arguments i make in the book is that we do need legislators to find ways to represent their party and their

districts but at the same time, they need to do things that are good for the country and make congress work well. part of that means simply treating the minority party with some degree of respect. and giving them opportunities to do thanks. that has not been the case the last several decades. it was a more open process in the 1970's. it is much harder for the minority party to do that. they do a lot of messaging, a lot of position taking, not necessarily helpful in terms of enacting good policy. host: are relationships between the two parties more partisan on the floor or in the committee? guest: definitely the floor has become a much more partisan place. committees, it varies tremendously from one chairman to another. where evennstances in today's congress, you have committees where there is

bipartisanship. members are working together. you have committees that are not that way. it depends on who is the committee and to the chairman is -- who the chairman is. you see more variation in committees than you do on the floor of the house. host: joel in california. independent line. caller: good morning. i background is like a rainbow color. need seniors who know life. senior citizens should be running government. they should come from , that the community

voted for them to represent their community. it goes by the chain of command thistep up through that government to be a politician, so we have to change all that, the underdog, that climate, mother nature, she is very underdog right now. appreciate all the religions to come together and respect and have responsibility. host: thank you for your call, joel. ann in portland, oregon. caller: good morning. i have a question. in the recent republican debate, it was mentioned that a lot of the politicians in washington are there because they are rs leopard that you

think we would get some needed change and will decisions made for the benefit of the country if we had a limit to the house of representatives in congress? say, six years? they would come from your life, go to washington, do their patriotic job, but for things that benefit the country and go back to real life after that? host: you are talking about term limits? caller: yeah. both in congress and the house of representatives. term limits is an issue that periodically comes up. it was particularly popular in the early 1990's when it appeared that the house and senate were dominated by democrats. and is still an issue people discussed that as a

needed reform. on the other hand, what we've seen is a lot of turnover. a lot of members are therefore 6-8 years and lose. happened isat has that we have seen increased change in who is in congress come in the house and senate and less dominance of certain members. that is still a reform that people discuss host:. next up is arnold host: in tennessee on the democrats line. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? up thed to just bring aspect of doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. loveo we get thou shall thy neighbor as thyself back in

politics. how do we get morality back into politics? i've written a book. it is free. it is online. it is called "divine of 9/11 intervention." it is a true story. rg. website is godislove.o the entire book is about how we get back to loving one another instead of using one another. host: a bit of what you talked earlier -- and the other comments? guest: one of the issues the founding fathers were concerned we haveow we ensure statesmen, people who care about the public good at large. bullet for silver solving that issue. thes worth looking at things that have been written, memoirs by older members of congress and biographies of our

earlier leaders and seeing -- many of them were focused more narrowly than on the nation at large. you see these older leaders have certain statesmanlike qualities. they were willing to say we lose today, but that is ok. i would rather do this because it is good for the country even if it hurts me politically. we get better governance when we have many folks like that in congress as possible. host: the passage of the spending bill a week ago, the headline in the washington post. the test of reince control over the caucus may come next year -- ryan's control over the caucus may come next you. [video clip] >> pray for a deeper understanding. when you are up here, you see it so clearly. wherever you come from, whatever

you believe, we are all in the same boat. i never thought i would be speaker. early in my life, i wanted to serve this house. i thought this place was exhilarating because here, you can make a difference. if you had a good idea and worked hard, you can make it happen. you could improve people's lives. to me, the house of representatives represents what is best about america. the balance opportunity to do good. -- boundless opportunity to do good. let's be frank. the house is broken. we are not solving problems, we are adding to them. i'm not interested in laying blame. we are not settling scores. we are wiping the slate clean. host: in the context of your book, he said the house is broken.

this was seen by many as a refreshing opening speech by the new speaker. different people may have read different things into it. those unhappy with john boehner's leadership because he was not conservative enough might say this is someone who understands the house is not working properly. another had come in the minority party, you might say we need a person every one is listening to . power distributed more widely. it was an important and necessary speech to reset the clock on politics. host: what we know of his relationship with the minority party? hest: before he was speaker, may have had good relationships with members of both parties. forot a lot of attention his dinner with nancy pelosi. this harkens back to an older time when members of both

parties have down and talk to each other. it speaks to the nature of the political environment we're in. people say, how dare you. we are in a very partisan environment and it's hard for members to avoid feeling yousure from folks saying need to stick to the party line and not work with the other party. that makes it harder for minority parties. host: nathaniel in texas on our public life. -- republican line. caller: why are you also stuck up and don't want to help america people? you will do the job for us. host: bobby in urbana, illinois. emma crestline. -- democrats line. caller: happy christmas eve. what i would like to say, mr. greene -- dwight eisenhower was the only republican president

than ever had a balanced budget for this nation. that is a proven fact. his policy as a republican president bears similarity to that of today. he invested in the highways, construction that literally built this country. i wonder why the republican party could not go ahead and from the strategy for tax cuts for the rich and instead used the tax money like dwight eisenhower and invest it in the economy. politics have

become very partisan. they have been partisan in congress for decades now. when the two parties are trying to work out a difficult problem relating to the budget, the easiest way to solve it is to give everybody something. you have tax cuts, budget increase, spending increase and so forth. it is much easier to do those things than to cut funding and raise taxes. this is one of the reasons you often have problems with endemic deficits. it's easier to give folks what they want as opposed to balancing the budget. budget politics is very partisan. how you spend taxes, it's about priorities. people take this stuff very seriously. which makes it hard to reach agreements. classese your undergraduate and graduate? guest: correct. host: what you find is their knowledge about politics coming

to your classes? guest: one thing i really enjoy about teaching here in washington is that you get students who have a very high level of understanding about politics. some have been involved in politics. i have a student who interned at the state legislature. students who read politics websites, newspapers and watches c-span all the time. they come in with a pretty high basic knowledge of how it works. that makes it easier to teach here. now we can talk about history, theory, these things he may not be familiar with. host: a comment on twitter -- that is more of a comment for our last segment. then there is this -- we don't want to over

exaggerate. sometimes we talk about the conflicts within the republican party. there is some significant differences on policy and procedure within the republican party. this is historically speaking not new. completelyre not unified. you have diversely within the parties all the time. the lastappened several years, these differences have exacerbated and become public. host: is the message different vis-a-vis the president from when they were in the minority? guest: one of the things i was assuming when i did research for the book, people in the minority would talk about things differently than the majority. one minute speeches at the opening of the session of the house, members can talk about whatever they want for a minute.

at samples of these to see their difference in what members are talking about in majority or minority. i assumed there would be a difference. there was not paid the difference was whether or not your party has the white house or not. not, theyrty does talk much more about the president and the white house the democrats. the same before when they were in the minority. what you need to focus on come on what you think you need to focus on when you are a party in the house is the president if it is an opposite party president. host: you brought up one minute speeches. i have to point out a part of our c-span website. we actually tally how many have tallieders

over the appeared i want to take a quick look at the 1/14 congress. -- 114 congress. i can switch this over to one minute speeches and show the leaders of one minute speeches. there are a number of republicans who are the leading 87ple -- glenn thompson with , joe wilson, the leading democrats are sheila jackson lee and brian higgins. all of that on www.c-span.org. oregono to ron in salem, on our public alike. go ahead. -- our republican line. caller: just a question. total wives get paid also for

their husbands being senators? did the significant others get paid? guest: if spouses are paid. i don't believe they get a salary from the government. they have their own jobs. host: charles in arthur dale, west virginia. guest: good morning. caller: and what it. -- good morning. my thoughts about this congress and stuff, to try to straighten minority andhe lower party does not have a voice. if you had a speaker for both parties, have them bring something up to vote and then we or whichwhich person senator or congressman would not vote for it. whether it is a democrat or republican.

there should be no meetings unless it is doors recorded and show to the people. there's quite a few other things that have to be said. all of our presidential candidates speak a family and stuff. let's go with ted cruz. he does not want his kids to be seen on tv. yet, he has his commercial on tv about his kids. he is degrading the president of the united states and our senate and our congress, that is all they do is degrade him. they would actually help him come i think the country could work together to come out with a better outcome. important of the most powers the my georgia power has

the house is agenda control. -- jordi power in the house is agenda control. in the houseower is agenda control. starting in the mid-1970's when rules.t started using they are now quite restrictive. one thing that was interesting about the crisis in the republican leadership met members of the freedom caucus were saying we want reform. to of those, we would like have more open rules. we want bills to come to the floor and everyone can debate and people can offer amendments and people vote as they do. they wanted that opportunity. there was a possibility for some bipartisan coalition there. the minority power wants that power, to bank. -- too.

if we at least have that open debate and let members vote as they wish, that makes every member feel they are serving their constituents. it gives the minority a chance to be heard. host: rochester, new york. andrew on the republican line. caller: you were just talking about open rules. up here, we have louise slaughter she was the one that shut down the congress with her closed rules. she was the head of the rules committee. she really shut that thing down. nobody could bring anything to the floor. one of our biggest problems in this country is talk radio is trying to divide the republican party. we will become the minority party soon if they don't stop that. i wonder if you could speak to

that. we have to get it together because we have a social security crisis coming down the road. comments in the book about messaging and how the minority uses that. guest: messaging has become more important for the minority. at this stage, we've seen both parties in the majority as they have both done some of the things the color talked about. restricting the rights of the minority to offer amendments. lot fromve changed a the 1970's. one of them is talk radio, the internet. members of congress are hearing louder voices from places. .hey are more partisan that is the pressure members of congress did not feel 40 years ago. that affects what they do and how they do it. it can make it harder to reach the bipartisan agreement on more

open rules and procedures that aller pointed out as an necessary. host: you write about newt there wasaying nationalized messaging by notressional parties -- long after he entered the house, with otherin forces young conservatives to seek out new tactics and communication. -- in communication.

is there anything parallel or similar today that democrats are trying to use in terms of the new way, a new form of messaging? guest: absolutely. the theme of the book is how , because theyes are looking for something, are often the innovators. floor speeches were used in the early 1990's to get a message out, so to have democrats explored the use of social media, these of blogs. 2009licans before them in were starting to use them as well. are alwaysrties looking for something, some way they can get their message out that has not been used before. host: let's hear from new orleans. angela on our democrats line. caller: good morning and thank

you for c-span and happy holidays to everyone. mentioningheard you gerrymandering or limiting people's access to vote. it seems the majority now is really convinced the only way -- on the last turn out, there was one million more democrats than republicans. yet, we have a house of representatives that has a republican majority. can you explain this to me? guest: i will preface this by there's sobook is -- many things i could have talked about with respect to minority and party politics. i focus explicitly on the house of representatives. things like gerrymandering or district drawing is done by the states -- these things are outside their control or they are things they cannot control

as readily as doing one minute for speeches. this is something political scientists have studied quite a bit. the evidence for gerrymandering influencing party control is not as strong as people might think. if you control district's creed, you can only get so much out of that. creatively.istricts democrats are more concentrated. he tends to live in cities. republicans are living in suburbs and rural areas. if you draw a district with a city in it, it will have 90% democrats, that is not efficient use of democratic votes. you would have to draw creative districts to get those democrats to be spread out. it's as much where people choose to live than where district lines are drawn. host: "underdog politics: the

minority party in the u.s. house of representatives" focusing on the minority in the u.s. house of representatives. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8001 for them across. independents, 202-748-8002. matt on our republican line in new york. caller: good morning. if i look back over the presidents of my lifetime, reagan and bush had to deal with a democratic congress. they had good relationships. clinton dealt with gingrich and gingrich -- clinton takes credit for welfare reform. gingrich enforced it. bush allowed kennedy to co-author his signature domestic legislation. then, we have obama. obama came into up this -- into office. -- job he did

of advisorsa world and czars and we ultimately end -- i don'tudget here understand how it is mathematically possible that the budget can be passed with more democrat votes than republican votes and a republican congress. people wonder why donald trump and bernie sanders have such widespread support. guest: a couple of things there. one is this most recent budget agreement. you mentioned the votes cast for

it. for the spending portion, 150 republicans voted for it. the is an example of how minority party can have more leverage and influence when the majority party is more divided. there are other things going on here. had a filibuster in the senate. it makes it hard for republicans to get things they would like legislative late. -- legislatively. rhyaning that hampered was the democrats felt they were more unified. rosy at want to have too view of history compared to today. one interview i did for the book was with a republican staffer who served in the house and 9065. 1965.

they felt completely shut out then, too. congressional politics is a numbers game. if you have the numbers, you are tempted to pursue your agenda and leave the minority behind. not as if reagan and o'neill got along tremendously well. literature andme some writings about how well they did get along. there were a lot of differences between those two. o'neill and reagan often got into significant conflicts over policy. host: matthew green is our guest. comments on twitter. a direct question -- thingss been some

written about the pledge and members of congress taking these pledges. on the one hand, they are important because constituents need to know that their lawmakers are going to do what they are elected to do. keeping taxes low, cutting taxes and not raising them is a cornerstone of the republican party agenda. members been argued by of congress, those pledges can lock in members and they feel they have to follow the pledge. the danger there is we don't a government where members must do everything their constituents they. sometimes they may feel circumstances require them to do something their constituents may not like. they may be wrong and we can vote in the house. the pledge is lock-in members and keep them from inflexible.

best from being flex will. -- flexible. host: grant on the republican line. caller: i have a few questions. one was on gerrymandering and you got to that. can you briefly touch on the systems so you can have socially optimum, diverse districts and what kind of role that would play on the minority-majority partisan politics we see? or votingof reform systems, what kind of impact that would have? how that would play out in terms --the relationship those two guest: i have not studied voting reforms.

this been some literature on that and it's an interesting that's other countries use different means of electing folks. you have local elections that one. always use 50% plus those can lead to different political outcomes. perhaps better, perhaps worse. as far as technology with gerrymandering -- when i first started teaching about the u.s. congress some time ago, new technology was just coming into play. ways to draw districts. we have computer technology now that can do all caps of interesting things. one of my favorite stories, a wascrat in california instrumental in drawing creative districts for california. there's a stories of him with this paper all over his floor

and he is on his hands and knees individual census data and tracks and trying to figure out how to draw this house and that house. everybody thought this was crazy. everybody can do that in the comfort of their own home now. that can be very problematic. i like to show my students google earth. you can look at individual districts and see individual houses drawn in or out. why that house and not the south. you can conceivably use it to draw districts that might .chieve some other goals fairness, for instance. some students did this for virginia after the 2010 census. if you get this kind of outcome and that kind of outcome. it gives more flexibility for state legislators who want to draw districts that might make district more competitive or electrically republicans and democrats. -- elect more republicans and

democrats. host: men who landed at gyro opter on white house lawn plans to challenge wasserman schultz. man who landed gyro copter on white house lawn plans to challenge wasserman schultz. we go to hazard, kentucky. michael on the republican line. caller: i think our president is so out of line with what needs to be going on in this united states of america. he is wrong in all the policies he has got going right now. they've taken the vote away from the individual people and left

it up to just a few majority of votee -- this electoral that takes the vote away from the american public. this is wrong. this divides america. this does not bring america together. wrong, he is so out of line with everything he is doing. what a not understand loaf of bread costs. he ought to live in the coalfields. then he would understand where he gets his power from. host: hampton bay, new york. ann on the independent line. caller: hello? host: go ahead. i am nothe one thing hearing and i hope you can hear -- i hope you me can help me, social security has not had an increase from 2011.

my husband worked for the federal government. he passed away in 2009. i continue to get his annuity. every time social security does not give an increase, i don't get an increase. i know they are both federal. i don't see what annuity has to do with social security. i don't know if that is in your wheelhouse of expense. guest: social security has been the third rail of politics for some time. it's difficult for either party to do the things they would like to do. you couple that with the difficulty congress has had in legislating, it makes difficult to see the kinds of changes that a lot of people would like to see. touches on the

residual effects of being in the minority. it strongc and spread identity as a minority party that translated into the assertive and savvy use of maneuvers to trip up majority democrats. 40 years oflicans' strong identity. where do you think the democrats are in terms of their control of their minority status? hand, they arene better equipped than the majority was in 1995. of the 1994 election, i was working on capitol hill at the time. the one day you could tell what somebody's party affiliation

was. if they were smiling, you knew they were republican. it took time for democrats to be adjusted this. there was no one who had been in the minority. now, we've seen it switch back and forth. they understand what that is like and what they feel they need to do to be a majority. host: vivian is next in tennessee. democrats line. caller: good morning. to say thisg in congress is the most corrupt congress i've seen. i am 65 years old. everythingagainst from the president -- the republicans are hurting people. .hey cut out unemployment

cut our program for the children, they want to privatize social security. all they want to do is war. they don't want gun control because they are making money off of them. andblicans, independents democrats, get out there and vote. speaker ryan will need to democratic support on the spending bills. guest: he made. may. there will be policy differences. there will be conservatives and his party who won't agree with what the rest of the party wants to do. steps been taking initial that could alleviate those differences. what matters to members of congress is policy. but also what matters is do they have a say, an opportunity to participate in the legislative process. many folks in the freedom caucus got shut out and punished when they were defiant. if ryan can successfully bring

them into the legislative process, he may be able to have a more unified majority party. carl on our republican line in nebraska. caller: i tend to agree with a callercolors here desk -- a couple callers here. i'm sick of the republicans. they have no backbone. i even see a little bit on the computer now and then about how social security is going to run out and our illustrious and his defense ,ecretary running the rules social security is going to be in bad shape. they put it in the general fund back in lyndon b. johnson's time. host: what you hope people learn

about the role of the minority in the house? guest: i hope they learned that it is more complicated than just hearing about being in the majority again. the party cares about policy. it's not just about running for reelection. learn that it is a place for members of congress to be innovative and to be entrepreneurial. a lot of what congress does are because of the minority party, not just the majority party. host: the book is "underdog politics: the minority party in the u.s. house of representatives," our

[laughter] saturday night at 8:30 eastern, in-depth look at policing a

minority communities. include washington dc police chief. defensive ife get they feel you are being offensive so being very in encounters and requests if it's not a dangerous situation, requests versus demands. those things change the dynamics. day, race and the criminal justice system with white house senior adviser valerie jarrett. portions of this year's washington ideas festival. speakers include marco warner, al gore come in anne-marie slaughter. word heve to interstate is helping at home. actually taking the burden off of you. you are still figuring out what needs to be done and you're

asking him to help. he is not the agent, he is the assistant. men do have to be lead parents or fully equal coparents. >> for complete schedule, go to www.c-span.org. >> this holiday weekend, book tv brings you three days of nonfiction books and authors. friday, a range of afterwards. at 7:00 amaga brooks discusses his book "the conservative heart." >> the biggest mistake we make thehe conservative side is one that should be the easiest, to get happy. >> cornell west examines the life of dr. martin luther king jr.. that for understood any human being who once to

reach a level of integrity, toesty, decency, you have kill something in yourself -- fear. your obsession with position and status and wealth. >> followed by the author of the "relevant to of the relevance of religion." >> religion does point us beyond ourselves and for faithful people, what's in it for me? it's not central. >> and senator claire mccaskill speaks about her book about her life experiences and government. >> i don't think it would do anybody any favors by trying to dress up politicians as if we are not real human beings. at 7:00, a evening

panel discussion on national review founder william as ugly juniors run for u.s. mayor in 1965 full depth -- 1965. one of the first questions i immediately asked is why did you choose these three men from the second world war >> my answer is that they embodied characteristics like a courage and patriotism. >> on sunday, looking back at a turning point in 1932, the rise of hitler and fdr. influence15 p.m., the machine. >> there is a reason that i chose the chamber of commerce as

a subject for my book. it is because it sums up the story of how we got here to this place. >> this holiday weekend, watch book tv. >> coming up tonight, first lady michelle obama hosts military families for a white house holiday event. and a tour of the white house decorations and later the national christmas tree lighting. up next, first lady michelle obama welcomes families to the white house for a look at the holiday decorations. during her remarks, she spoke about the importance of community and serving others during the holiday season. first lady michelle: