of the federal reserve raising interest rates, consumer spending, and job creation. thewe're joined to discuss u.s. strategy against isis and the role of arab and muslim ♪ good morning. from washington, it is sunday, december 27. we will begin here this morning with the economy, and ask all of you, are you on track to retire? the federal chairwoman says the economy is on the road to y interestthat is wh rates were raised in december. are you prepared for retirement? up to 41 years old, (202) 748-8000. .1 to 60, (202) 748-8001 if you are 60 years old and

already retired, we want to hear from you as well. (202) 745-8002. you can send us a tweet, @cspanwj. you can find us on facebook, facebook.com/cspan. you can also send us an e-mail. journal@c-span.org. you can start dialing and now. let me show you some reason polls. here is one from gallup, which found that americans are settling on the older retirement -- and older retirement age. plan to retire before 65. retireport they before the age of 65. the median retirement age is 65. also take a look at this. more non-retirees are expecting to rely on social security. social security as a major source of retirement income. 15 highest percentage in

years. 401(k) plans are still rated as the top source for non-retirees. we want to get your thoughts on this this morning. have you been able to save for retirement? now during the recession some saythe recovery, we are in expansion, what does this mean for your retirement? are you on track to do so? the numbers are on the screen. we have divided it by age. if you're older than 61, and already retired, (202) 745-8002. let me show you what diane theey had to say who is director of retirement security. she was on this program earlier this year. [video clip] >> this is data from the federal

reserve. all american households, not just the savings. we know that that $2500 is the average account balance for the average family. >> that is the balance, not how much they contribute annually? >> that is the balance in terms of what they have. many people get individuals who are within 10 years of retirement. those individuals have an average account balance of $14,500. that is about one year of what they would get from social security. if you look at data on people who are saving, you hear from financial services firms, you will hear better numbers. if you limit it to people saving, those people 10 years from retirement have about $104,000 in retirement. still not enough. one of the biggest issues we

have is 40% of the households have saved nothing for retirement. if you look at all the households again, you look at how many people have less than one times their salary put away -- eight out of 10 of us have less than one times are salary saved. host: eight out of 10 have less .han 1/10 of their salary saved we are asking all of you, are you on track to retire? . from philadelphia on the line for 61 and older. are you already retired or on your way? caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. thanks for being there. you do a great job. a national treasure. anyway, i'm 63. i had to take disability four years ago because i had a spinal cord injury. month.1151 a

it took a couple years for the ssdi claim to go through. i have no children, i never married. i have a brother and a sister, we are not close. , it took a couple years, and i was homeless for a while for a spinal cord injury. that is pretty hard to do. i was in a couple of shoulders. eventually i found a place. i actually went to a retirement home. my sister helped get me in what i started getting my check. she got me into a retirement home in florida. . did not like it at all i did not like the people there -- they treat you like kindergartners sometimes. i got out of there. i took a bus back to philadelphia where i grew up.

i did not know anybody around here anymore. i managed to eventually find a place that helps homeless people. home.called project they do their best and they do a wonderful job. this are you still in homeless shelter? caller: actually, it is not a homeless shelter. for aon a waiting list couple of old folks homes here in philadelphia. i was on a waiting list for a couple of years. this one came through after about a year and a half. it is not a -- homeless shelter, it is actually around a 12 story apartment .uilding in center city rent would be like $2500 a month, probably.

this one, i am paying $530. host: your social security disability is about $1200 per month. caller: $1151. i have no savings. i live paycheck to paycheck. i have awhat, frankly, masters degree, for crying out loud. host: why didn't you save throughout your life? why didn't you have a retirement fund? caller: alcoholism. partly because i never put down roots. i worked construction. i was more of a freelancer. you know, i have done a lot of different things. lobster fisherman, ski instructor, lots of things. some of the work was under the table. sometimes contractors -- even when government contractors -- they would take your social security, and there is a post to

match it. back in the 1980's, we would not get an annual social security notification. we did not know, and they did not even check that employers for collecting and matching funds. host: i have to get in other voices. we will go to ohio. what is your name? orastay.arr host: you are on track to retire? caller: i am not. i worked for a company, they went". they hold my attention. i cannot perceive that until i am 65. i went to school, i finished my myhelors, i am enrolled in masters program. i'm incurring some student loan debt. along those lines, i'm going to have to pay that debt off. i have to contribute to my own 401(k) now.

i moved to southern ohio, and the job does not pay as much as the job i used to work back in the 2000. host: how much were you getting paid then? caller: i was getting paid $18 per hour, little over. host: now, how much are you getting paid? caller: $16 per hour. plus, i have to contribute to my own health care benefits which is $150 per week. i did not have to worry about that back in the 1980's, the 1990's. now, i have the student loan debt, you have to contribute -- most employers now have to contribute to your insurance and stuff like that. host: how much is in your pension and how old are you now? old.r: i am 55 years

my pension, i think is $1200 a month. -- this company i am working for -- i just moved like eight weeks ago -- i can contribute, but i do not think they have a match. or 3% per 2% per year year. host: what is your profession? caller: i'm a production supervisor right now. anthony andl go to florida. how old are you? caller: i'm 73. are you retired? caller: what i would like to say is shame on obama and congress for not giving us seniors at least a small amount of arrays

on our social security -- a raise on our social security. billions ofd dollars to get the mexicans and all these other people coming in here, taking the jobs and the benefits, and raking in all our tax dollars that we used to get in. host: are you living on social security alone? caller: yes. host: how much is that for you are month? caller: $1016. host: how much do your bills come to? don't ask. i have to do odd jobs on the side under the table. it is all thanks to our government. host: you are 73 years old? caller: yep. host: we will go next to sharon and texas. how old are you and what is your retirement status? caller: i'm 69. i'm retired.

fromchange my status disabled to retired because they said that i would make one money that way. $665 perliving on month. home are you in your own or your apartment? caller: i'm in my own home. host: do you have a mortgage? caller: no. i went to reverse mortgage. host: to get money out to live on? caller: no, i did not get any .oney out i have to pay a mortgage fee. gary we will go to and texas. are you on track to retire? caller: two years ago, when i was 55, i worked for the u.s.

get 64% 32 years, and i of my base pay. host: how much does that come to, if you don't mind is asking ? that.: i get 64% of i never paid social security in my life. host: isn't enough to live on? caller: yep. i get the cost of living raise. greensboro, north carolina, david. how old are you david? caller: i-55 right now. host: what you retirement status? caller: i have been a caregiver for eight and a half years. my mother and father. they both died in a house, they

did not want to go anywhere. diedight -- when my father on november 16, i'm in a void of what to do. inhad less than $600,000 retirement. he was in burlington industries .or his whole life fatherernment forces my to take out a certain amount each year or tax that 50%. the government wants to stick its business into someone who has less than $60 in the bank and worked as but off every day pennyid the irs every that they wanted, and he take out money that he did not have to necessarily take out. then, we look at the clintons going back into the white house? that is the biggest joke on the planet. host: you are how old right now?

caller: 59 years old. a caregiverve been for the last eight years, what does that mean for your savings? caller: i have none. my father took care of my insurance. i am going to have to do something about that. that is eating me up. my income, i don't even know what my income will be. that is a certain amount control from the irony that i inherited, but by did not inherit everything. i worked every penny of that. i fixed everything. the vehicles, the cars, bedding, food. i did this for eight and a half years so my parents did not have to go anywhere. they stayed and their house. whatever they needed, i got. i would do it again. right now, the abuse of the that is what they did

with my father, the last day of dialysis, they sent him to a hospital. i have gotten the local news to talk about it. $1.8 billion. i know what is going on. i have offered to fix it. i will fix this country in 200 days. i'm the real deal. host: take a look at another point, this one from april 2015. non-retirees fiscal outlook recession levels. 40% have a positive outlook. 30% have a negative outlook. the outlook has improved since bottoming out in 2012. we will go next to francine in a manner, georgia. what do you think about retirement right now? how much have you been able to save and how old are you?

caller: i'm 46. i have not been able to save anything. the retirement, it is like a dream that everyone wishes they could do, but life happens. i think a lot of times things happen that are beyond your control, you just can't do that. i think that is why we have social security to kind of protect people. i do not think it should be your everything, but i'm glad it is there to help. host: have you had an opportunity to put money into a 401(k) or an ira, something like that? caller: when i was younger and single -- i have been working since i was 16. we have to have someone else there to help you.

my husband had a totally different view of money. and i wasn'tids working, he was taking care of the money situation. he just had a different viewpoint. host: while you were married and raising your kids, were you able to save money? were you living paycheck to paycheck? caller: we were saving money for part of it, but then, once it got to be -- when you have someone else you have to have theyresponsibility -- if have a different viewpoint, you have to work with that. thing.s our i was a saver, he was not. it did not matter how much we saved. now. kind of scary

i have nothing. i have two minor kids. health care, all of this -- i have no savings. i have had to take it out and live on it. host: your kids have not gone to college yet? caller: no, they are not college age. host: don in california, share your story with us. are you on track to retire? caller: i think so, yes. i'm 61. my house will be paid off in about three years. impediments are number one, the interest rate savings is practically nothing. under 1%. that, i think has been a shame. no one has talked about that

during these entire eight years of interest rates near zero. er, and be a good sav i am a good saver. the stock market kind of worries me. i don't have the temperament to take that kind of a risk at this point. other thing is health care costs. , at 62uld get medicare or 63, i would retire then. as it stands, i will have to wait for that. host: you will retire at 65? that is your plan? caller: i hope to do it earlier, but yes, that is probably when it will happen. host: throughout your career, have you been able to have access to a 401(k), or any sort of retirement fund? toler: i have always tried put something away. i have gotten up to about -- i think $450,000. times not moved in a long

because you do not get any interest on savings, by think that should be ideas ml, a decent cushion. in theou have it all savings account in a bank? caller: i have a infidelity, vanguard, those kinds of mutual funds places. most of it is in money market funds. host: we'll go next to tony in florida. caller: good morning. age in the midmy 40's, on track to retire, but social security does not seem to be part of the mix. when i talked to my financial advisor and colleagues, it is all about making the right moves in the 401(k). it is a little bit of a stress because you want to plan for retirement, but then you look at -- we move from defined benefit with 401(k)s.ns

that puts the onus on us to make the right investment choices and you look at the market go up and down. don who was just on talked about 1% or less in terms of savings. you feel like you are losing money by putting it in some type of cd or money market because it gets less the 1%. then, you put money into the stock market, too much equities, and you can have a year like 2008 where you lose 30%-40% of what you have invested. not looking for the government to come up with answers, but simplify this thing so if you do follow a plan, and believe in delayed gratification, there are a lot of things that my family does not do because we are trying to focus on savings and making non-social security .ncome part of our platform

there are new cars that we want to buy, but we don't buy because we are trying to put the money away. i don't know if 20 years from now social security will be around. i'm 23 plus years from turning 65. my biggest concern is health care making the best investment choices. host: had he sought out the advice of a financial advisor, or do not want to pay for that? caller: i have two different financial advisors. i have my own thing that i do with brokerage and. it is more stressful, i think, then it should be. if you are working and making money, saving into the system, and putting it into the 401k, you would hope that if you 20-25 years, for things will work out, but there is so much uncertainty in the

market. what if i get ready to retire and there's another 35%-40% in the stock market? host: did you lose your retirement funds -- any of your own money, or was it the money to you are crude or your employer matched? caller: it was the 401(k) money that took a hit. age, i'm probably 85% in 40% in bonds.only my own money that was in my personal accounts -- i have a lot of that stuff in cash in money market accounts, so for chile for that i did not take a hit. i have been a good income earner for a long time, so my balance is higher in the 401(k). that is what we are planning for right now. host: do you have kids that will

go off to college someday? would you go into the 401k and take the tax hit to help pay for college? caller: we have a very different mentality from a lot of people. our kids go to public schools. we invest time in tutoring in what happens in the public school system. the other thing, i don't believe in going into debt for college. i would rather take money out of my 401(k) or some retirement and buy a business for my son once he gets out of college. maybe a franchise that he runs and becomes his own on to newer, $200,000, spending and then not having a job. i would rather him have his own business. host: take a look at this

headline from fox business. college: newr kids survey shows many would choose college." we're talking about grandparents too. larry from pennsylvania, how old are you and are you on track to retire? caller: i'm 66. i'm retired. security and my pensions -- $4500 a month. property, free and clear. i have two stocks. the one closed friday was valued at $516,000. the other one was only $20,000. now, where do you begin. make $15 per hour

and $16 per hour -- i don't want to turn into some big political speech, but a defined pension, that is what i have, that is what i worked union jobs for years to get. larry, it sounds like you have saved and done pretty well? are you living comfortably on $4500 a month? .aller: i'm doing ok i don't need a lot. can i ask you, what stock closed at over $500? caller: the shares i have in the stock. the shares i got by the closing price on friday, it is worth $516,000.

ice. larry in pennsylvania, already retired. we are asking you this morning, are you on track to retire? some say the economy is doing better. do you have money or have you had money to put in savings? what is it looking like for you? we will get back to more of your phone calls in a minute. some front page news for you. "the washington post" to a year-long story looking at fatal shootings by police officers in this country, something that agencies have not been able to do. this is the number for 2015 -- 965. this is what they found in the year-long study. they found that the kind of incidents that have ignited protests in many u.s. communities, most often white police officers killing black men represent less than 4% of fatal shootings. meanwhile, they found that the

great majority of people who died at the hands of police fit at least three categories -- they were wielding weapons, they were suicidal or mentally troubled, or ran when officers told them to halt. on the jump page in "the washington post" they write this up 6%hough' black men make of the population, they make up unarmed men that .olice shot a hugely disproportionate number, three and five, of those killed, after exhibiting less threatening paper were black or hispanic. if you are following this issue and interested, again, "the washington post" doing a year-long study on that. take a look at this from "the

washington post" this morning. past immigration stance is haunting marco rubio as he tries iowa.n traction in he is asking mr. gaudi to , wheren with him in iowa mr. rubio is in third place and trying to raise his numbers. then, there is this also about the ground game in iowa from "the washington post." donald trump, how he is doing in the caucus state. although his ground game has followed a relatively standard playbook, over the summer, he hired 10 staffers and i was who traveled around the state in a bus to hand out t-shirts, bumper stickers, and

hats. the campaign has yet to purchase databases of potential voters, a key organizing tool used by most campaigns. such a tooluying from a private contractor, the campaign has compiled its own database using contact information from every rally attendee. the question posed in the article is can trump get his supporters to turn out and caucus? unlike a traditional primary, only a small fraction of i the caucus.e voters tend to be older people who vote regularly and more likely to have a college degree, not necessarily the group trump seems to have fired up. we will wait to see what happens in february. iowa will go first, then new hampshire, then south carolina. you can find our road to the white house coverage on our

website, c-span.org. there is also this from "the keyl" this morning -- endorsements for clinton are on the lockdown. of course, and include the president, joe biden, elizabeth warren, nancy pelosi, the afl-cio. she has yet to lock down those key endorsements. back to our question with all of you this morning. are you on track to retire? arkansas. good morning to you. what do you do for a living to go are you retired or still working? .aller: i'm retired now i've been retired for almost nine years. in 2006 i retired. host: how are you doing? very well, doing

myself. i listen to the young people talking about what they won't do, and will be in social security. i just want to say, social security is good. the problem is corporations refuse to pay money. look at someone making $7.50 today, it is ridiculous. you know you can't put any money in their or take any money out. i did a lot of overtime on my .ob the fact is that over time adds up. host: do you have a pension? caller: i do. host: that money was contributed ?at what age at what age did you put money into a pension? caller: 22. i joined the union in 1965.

i stayed in the union for 42 years. not aed no job that was union job. host: in the 1970's, you were making $11 per hour, how high did it go? caller: $23 per hour. host: are you on track to retire? rosalie and connecticut. are you on track to retire? or are you already? caller: im. i retired in 2011 when i was 74 .ears old, a widow i didn't start working until i was almost 50. i had to go back to school when my husband died at 48. host: what did you go back to school for? caller: was the reason i went back to school was to support -- we had four children, 310 when 10 when-- three under

he died. i went back and took accounting. i needed something lucrative, something to raise the children because, as i said, three were under 10 when he died. i worked my way up to a federal 2011.on by $270,000 a year and a good 401k and a small, defined pension. ,hat has happened is at my age with several hundred thousand dollars in the bank, the -- i'm to invest it. i don't know where to put it at my age, i might lose it. i'm on my way down to lower

middle class. i was higher middle-class, and now i am on my way down to lower middle class because of the children. two of them don't have jobs, they are having problems, so i'm helping them. the interest on the money i have , to make a sizable income, this was000 a month -- several years ago before 2008 came. , get a fraction of a percent hardly anything. maybe $128 on $600,000 in one month, if you can believe that. host: your money is not making money anymore? caller: i'm losing everything that i acquired.

i worked hard to save and supplement social security, now i'm losing that. i don't know where to put money at my age for fear of losing it in the stock market. host: thank you for your call this morning. we have gotten a lot of calls from people retired or on their way. this is from "forbes magazine," "are your 20's too young to plan for retirement? according to the article, millennial's are starting to plan for retirement around the age of 23, younger than their baby boomer counterparts, and a very good start. says, let's take a

tolistic look when it pays start saving for retirement, some simple things you can do to realistically, the best time to start is in your 20's, no, the 20's is not too young. we will go to john and florida -- in florida. what is your status right now? caller: i'm 60. tout 22 years ago, i moved florida. a couple weeks later, i called my mom and said, i have $1000 in my savings account, i was really thrilled about that. later, is 22 years and i have a million dollars. host: is it because of florida? floridai mentioned because that is where matt. host: it's not income taxes, husband helped?

picked for my career, i something i love in college. computer programming. i've done that all my career. i got myself a financial advisor that was recommended by a friend. i have pushed him to keep me and stocks through all of our relationship. may, i got something from social security that said i would get $2000 a month roughly if i retired at 62, which is the earliest age i can retire. at that time, he drew up a retirement plan, and moved to me out of the stocks. we have been waiting for the federal reserve to raise the interest rates. i just started that this december. i, we are getting

a 200 square foot travel trailer ready for retirement. we are going to live in that. we are having a blast getting it ready. we already found out where we will park it. lot at anng to rent a resort. i cannot go on medicare until and 65. i'm planning to go on obamacare when i'm 62 and also retire when i'm 62. host: can i ask you, with all of that, you say you have a million dollars in savings -- do you consider some middle-class, upper-middle-class? caller: my whole life, i've considered myself an educated member of the working class. host: what does that mean? and worked educated

all my life, so i'm a member of the working class. host: here is from the national institute on retirement security. americans in nearly every state will fall far short in meeting retirement.for the lowest ranking states .nclude california florida, high retiree costs, low wages for older workers. south carolina, low potential retirement income and how labor market scores. that from the national institute on retirement security. jerry in north carolina. good morning to you. caller: it is great talking to you and happy new year. host: happy new year. because of6, but

disability, i quit working when i was 57. ,y wife, my bride of 44 years she still works, but she will probably retire at 66. that's the thing. retirement age is no longer 65. after 1948,born retirement age is 66 for social security. i hate to tell you this, but for you it's like 67. , between the two of us, we have a couple of ansions, social security, and 401(k) plan. we are pretty much set. we don't have any outstanding bills except for our house mortgage which is pretty much

low, and that will be gone in a couple of years. life is good in north carolina. nathanet me move on to so i can get in a couple more phone calls before me in this conversation. good morning to you. .aller: good morning, greta i'm 67. i had to retire last year. i tore my rotator cuff and my doctor told me to retire. i have 35 years hauling cars. i was a union car hauler. the got a letter from the teamsters, and they're cutting my pension 54% starting july 1. host: why? because you retired earlier? caller: i waited until i was full retirement age. host: why are they cutting at? what is the reason? caller: they are out of money. of some youn unions went out business since jimmy carter

deregulated trucking in 1968. host: jim, victoria, texas. caller: good morning. go ahead, jim. tell us your story. are you already retired? .aller: i'm already retired i'm an 83-year-old retired military with 30 years p.irement at masterp life is good. host: how much do you get a month in retirement? caller: about $5,000. idst: is your house pa for? twoer: i just sold my house weeks ago, and we are full-time rvers at this point. host: we will keep talking about

the economy with a wider look at the economy next year. eanna smialek will be here. then, we will talk with michael o'hanlon on the latest on the fight against isis. we will be right back. ♪ >> with congress on holiday recess, the c-span networks feature a full lineup of primetime programming. monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span, laura logan, sebastian younger, and other journalists who have risked their lives covering the middle east. tuesday night, celebrity speak out on a variety

of issues. wednesday night, events from the c-span archives, featuring notable figures who died in 2015. thursday, a look back at the year in congress. on new year's day, friday night at 8:00, law enforcement officials, activists, and prisonists examined the system and its impact on minority communities. on c-span two, monday night, memoirs by reporters, activist, and a former white house press secretary. tuesday night, books on economics. night, science and technology. thursday, discussions on isis and terrorism. on new year's day, several of our "in-depth" programs from this year. 3,american history c-span monday, the 70th anniversary of arf areration of our swe

auschwitz. thursday, "road to the white house rewind." on new year's day, then men love randa acceptsnn mi an award. those are some of the programs in primetime on the c-span networks. "q&a," tyler able talks about the second volume of "mr. pearson's diaries," which ofe an insider's look washington, d.c. from 1962 1969. >> sometimes he would criticize

themselves in the diary. you come across places where he was, "i think that column too strong, i should not have ord it quite that way," "lyndon will get mad at me for that column, but he needed to be told, and i'm glad i wrote it." >> "washington journal" continues. morning,our table this smialek is here to talk about what the economy will look like next year and he years to come. technically, we are in an expansion. i want to show our viewers what janet yellen had to say about where we are right now and the reasoning for raising interest rates. [video clip] >> earlier today, the federal open market committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate by one quarter percent bringing it to

one half percent. this action marks the end of an extraordinary seven-year period during which the federal funds rate was held near zero to support the recovery of the economy from the worst financial crisis since the great depression. it also recognizes the considerable progress that has towards restoring jobs, raising incomes, and easing the economic hardship of millions of americans. it reflects the committees confidence that the economy will continue to strengthen. host: are those things true that she said? that we have seen progress when it comes to jobs and income. guest: it is certainly true we have seen progress when it comes to job. in 2009, at the peak of

unemployment, we were at 10%, and we are all the way down to 5%. we are approaching what the fed considers to be the natural rate , turn in the labor market of for jobs andg graduating from college. what we have not seen is a huge pickup and wages. americans are taking home paychecks and they were not previously taking home pe paychecks, so that is a positive. the fed, and janet yellen has said this over and over again, encouraged to see a pickup in the paychecks. that would be helpful for the american consumer, which is the powerhouse for the economy. host: take a look at this .eadline "goldman sachs 2016 looks like a dud for the economy."

she says she sees progress, but others say we may not see as much growth as predicted. guest: i think, as always, there is a range of forecasts as to what the economy will look like next year. they see the long run growth at 10%, something slightly above that next year, and above 2015 next year. stronger see economic growth. host: we are talking with jeanna smialek, economic reporter for bloomberg news. she has covered the treasury, and economic indicators for bloomberg. she will take your questions and comments this morning on the economy. where do you think there might be some trouble spots or what are you concerned about for the next year? let's talk about predictions. what do they base it on? guest: it is a variety of

economic indicators. the data coming in. inflation is a big one right now been freelyas tepid. we have not seen a lot of price pressure. a lot of people are saying that 2016, it will start to shine through. we are hitting the full employment mark, wages should pick up, demand should pick up and prices should rise. host: what will cost more? guest: what the fed is looking at is inflation in the overall economy. what they want to see our broad-based things. we are already seeing some things cost more. what we have not seen is the broad over the entire economy gain that they want to see. obvious like, oil prices have been down. host: what about the consumer?

why does a prediction of the consumer matter for the overall economy? consumer makes up something like 70% of the overall economy. anything that happens to the consumer is part and partial of what happens to the broader economic growth. in 2016 is another strong year for the consumer, that would be good news for the pace of job growth, inflation, all economic indicators going forward. a lot of people are respected it will be. we are still seeing low oil , and consumerowth confidence is at a high level. consumers are feeling good about where the economy is at right now. host: president obama touting the economy in his here and news conference before he left for vacation. [video clip] ,> as i look back on this year one thing i see is that so much of our study, persistent work

off the years are paying for the american people in bay, tangible ways. our early actions to rescue the economy set the stage for the longest streak of job growth on record. the unemployment rate has been cut in half down to 5%. most important, wages grew faster than any time since the recovery began. over the course of this year, a lot of the decisions we made early on have paid off. years of steady implementation of the affordable care act drove the rate of uninsured under 10%. health care prices have grown at the lowest level in five decades. 17 million more americans have gained coverage. we now know that 6 million people have signed up through healthcare.gov for coverage beginning on 10 way first. 600,000 on tuesday alone.

new customers are up one third over the last year. the more who sign up, the start of the system becomes. that is good news for every american who no longer has to wait about being one illness or accident away from hardship. host: what did you hear that? guest: he is obviously touting his health care plan. from the fiscal side of the ledger, this has really been the year -- this and 2014 have been fiscalrs what we saw policies go from contractionary to neutral or even expansionary into 2016. that is good for the economy. we have had a lot of setbacks where congress, the white house have held back the economy. we saw the sequester, the shutdown, the fiscal cliff issues and all of those things put a dent and consumer confidence. it kept people from going out

and spending, it kept investment reigned in. host: in what way is it expansionary went washington acts -- when washington acts? guest: what has been happening is washington has either been cutting budgets or threatening to cut budgets. both of those things have kind of the same effect. it is really a chilling effect on spending. there are a goes throughout the economy. what happened this year is we .ave a budget deal there was less of a chilling effect. you did not see these big, scary headlines talking about shutdowns, etc. i think that has really helped when it comes to consumer confidence, and certainly does business confidence. host: let's go to brandon, you are on the air. caller: thank you very much.

this is really a lovely debate and discussion. i think, going forward in 2016, the on for seen an unpredictable andaining to economists their predictions, with the economy in this country is the morale factor of the consumers at large and the confidence level. whatink those two things -- plays on those two things emotionally and psychologically extreme, theh mainstream media and how they project the year to the consumers that view the networks . what i'm afraid of is there will probably be some pretty erratic behavior economically due to the social effect of the big media ,nd the power that they have

and affecting people emotionally and psychologically with political news, good, bad, or indifferent. one ofe believes that the weak spots will be consumer confidence. good: i think it is a point that consumers definitely respond to what they see in headlines, and certainly during election cycles, that can be scarier. we will likely see a lot of inequality focused headlines this year. at the same time, what we will unemployment is .t its lowest since the crisis americans are gaining jobs. theoretically, wages could be rising. i think those things will help consumers out. what helps even more is consumers not only thing that in the headlines, but in the bank accounts. at the end of the day, if you have more money in your bank r outlook will be

brighter. caller: my issue with the federal reserve, over the past few years, their interest rate policies have actually been here,ing the savers out and giving the savers and negative return on their principal. also, basically confiscating wealth. putr balance sheet, they $4.5 trillion on the federal reserve balance sheet. interestthis affect rates in the economy for the next year or so? do they basically just had the vanishon and say, venic that, or how does this play out? guest: the balance sheet is a really interesting issue right now. the fed has said they will keep the balance sheet for the time being.

rolling it off -- when they begin to make it smaller, that will be slightly contractionary, or at least not expansionary. we know that for the time being, they will keep itthey have had w they are raising interest rates, because with a big balance sheet things do not work the way they did prior to the big balance sheet. they're using interesting tools to raise interest rates, but the big question is will it work. they have been trying it meant they have never had it live. it does not being seem like a huge issue but it is something we will hear about in 2016. host: independent line, good morning. say, on thent to economy, why the republicans --

nobody getting jobs. show, andl in on this they are always saying the economy is bad and nobody is getting jobs. ,hey have the scare tactics with people saying they do not need this or that. they are just trying to push to make the economy dumb. the republicans push hard to get rid of it, and scare the people out there. about thes talk political rhetoric. on the democratic side you are hearing a lot about income inequality. do the figures match what the candidates are saying? republican side you hear a lot about regulation and executive order by this regulation -- five east

by this administration is putting a hamper on things. sides have some good points. it was exacerbated by the recession, but it has been happening for decades. these are trends we're going to definitely hear about them and the numbers bear it out. investmentr about and regulation can we have seen lesser business investment than we would expect that this stage in the recovery. economists are puzzling over that. it is difficult to say anything decisive about that, but republicans can use that to bolster their arguments. do have some signs of weakness in the labor market. levele an elevated

of part-time workers for economic reasons. there are arguments on both sides of the ledgers. host: ted cruz, republican senator running for president, i would to show you what he had to say recently about taxes. talking about his flat tax plan. 2008 two today we have onwn 1.2 billion dollars average. the newtells us this is normal. it does not have to be great if you look at the history of america we have three levers to facilitate economic growth. the first is tax reform. old, -- bold out a

flat tax. 10% for every american. one also pulled back regulators. the third is sound money. every time we have pursued these three, the result has been incredible economic growth rate we have done it before, and with leadership we can do it again. those threeere levers for the government to pull? you're going to see both sides putting forward ideas that sound good, and others disagree with. what we know from economists is that the economy does well when there is fiscally neutral policy .

you cannot run a huge deficit forever, which was a concern. that is the basic point. the you think about what capitol hill and white house are doing on the economy. sound money is if you are talking about the gold standard, economistsg that almost uniformly agree is not a good idea, but is one of those issues that continue to pop up. host: joel, a republican in churchville. caller: good morning. i am not a fan of president obama. i do love ted cruz, i do leave right.absolutely i do not believe the optimistic outlook being spread by your guest, and here is why.

the liver participation rate is about as bad as it has ever been in my lifetime, and i am 49 years old. job creation has mostly gone to foreign-born workers. what little progress has been accomplished over the obama years, i want people to forrstand that he lobbied something called tarp under year, at bush's one bad trillion dollar stimulus. and when he spread around other people's money, it will have some positive effects, but president obama is carrying a trillion dollar deficit or more in his first five years. there are still people who are , or whatever workingmen they want to blame, instead of sizing actual fact -- citing actual fact.

it is an excellent point that labor force participation is at its lowest point in decades. it is extremely low. it is not very clear why it is extremely low. we do know that we have an aging workforce, and as they age they tend to participate less and less. they reach retirement age, they switch jobs, go part-time. demographics do not entirely explain what happened. janet yellen has repeatedly said i think we can still pull more people into the labor force. i think there is more work to be done here. that is an excellent point. host: here is a headline to go with that. cbs news. notcord number of americans in the labor force. the participation rate the lowest in 38 years.

we go to our next caller, maryland. caller: good morning. the fees.talk about there were laws passed to control the fees. it seems to me they have to change because when i open my --dit card bill, they say they will charge me almost $40 dollarsrest, and seven for the balance. what happened to the value of our cash? we will take that question. credit card fees.

community recession did not get many solicitations in your mailbox for credit cards are you are seeing those pick up again. what we do see is that those rates, where they are shorter-term, that is what is affected by increases in the interest rate. the main interest rate, the fed interest rate. increase was also very tidy, zynga will see the impact very slowly and you may not notice it for this first year, at least. host: what is the impact of raising interest rates on mortgages? guest: mortgages are much longer term interest rate. only 25 basis points, a quarter of a percent, it will

continue at a gradual pace, is what the fed has said. expect any huge expensive market growth anytime soon. host: what about the housing market in general? heart of thehe recession. what does it look like right now? guest: i was looking at the economist notes this week and we might see a really solid finish 22015 for the housing market. november,ice start in a bounce back from october. multifamily is a volatile sector , but it has been looking very strong. in general, the housing market is where the regulators would like to see it right now. host: mortgage rates dip despite usafed rate hike, the headline today.

caller: every single economist that is interviewed states that consumer spending is somewhere around 75 percent of the economy. my question is, why is there toays so much resistance general pay raises, and minimum wage raises, which would stimulate the economy with people having more money to spend? and, people would be paying more and ficafederal taxes taxes which would help the budget deficit and social security, and medicare? i will listen on the tv. the minimum wage question is one that economists have been pondering for decades. forsay this incentive is businesses to contribute capital

to labor. means moret automation, more robotics, cutting down on staff to stop from having to pay more. you do not want to increase minimum wage to a point where it is businesses to switch over to war robots and fewer people to more robots and fewer people to simplify it. the main argument is will it actually help americans if we will it these wages, or creates the feeling of a tight economy? host: take a listen to what hillary clinton had to say when she was as at the most recent debate how do you raise income for middle-class families? guest[video clip]

they have not been able to get ahead, and because of everything has gone up very of course we have to raise the minimum wage, of course we have to do more to incentivize profit-sharing like we see with market basket right here in new hampshire and new england where all of the employees get a chance to share in the profits. and we have to get more on equal pay for equal work. transparency about how much people are making. that is the way to get women's wages up. that is good for them, good for our communities. host: hillary clinton talking about what she would do to raise income for middle-class families. we are talking with jeanna smialek from bloomberg news. ets for you.tweaks -

what is the anticipated effect of the federal interest rate rise on the was budget deficits is creative money will -- created money will cost more? registrar talking about how to get rid of that huge bouncy they currently have. raising interest rates will make everything more expensive. any money that is already borrowed on not a fixed rate will become more expensive in the long run. host: we go to our line for republicans. scott, in sherwood. caller: good morning. my question is the interest rate by the feds was just raised.

they assume in the years to come they will continue to raise it. deficit that will cost more money, correct? also, i think president obama came in with a $10 trillion national debt and will be leaving with approximately a $20 trillion national debt. is the ramifications on our children and grandchildren for that? thank you. guest: something that is a nice thing to talk about and put it into the perspective is what happened with the deficit over the last couple of years. we have seen the deficit come down as a share in gdp. that is something that the obama administration has really been counting of -- touting up.

expected to rise again with the cost of social security increase in the congressional budget office, if you go to their website, has a wealth of information about this and they laid out in extreme detail. if you are worried about ramifications, that is the first place to turn. they have an intense amount of information you can learn from there. host: michigan, independent caller, you are next. caller: i have a couple of points that i would like to raise. regarding inflation, for the last couple of years we have been saying we have very low inflation. but when you go to the supermarket, what i have noticed for the last couple of years is they reduced the value of things of frozenag vegetables. it used to be 32 ounces. now this six ounces for the same

price. same for potato chips. it is across the board. i wonder where they go grocery shopping, the fed. you have to buy groceries more often, so you do not really see that. raising interest rates, back in whenwind greenspan -- greenspan, the economy was booming, and we had real job startedthat greenspan reading interest rates and the stock market went up because of the strong economy. then within six, eight months, you raise the interest rates to in six months they killed the economy. us right into a recession in 2001. i hope that janet yellen is

.ware of that fed it i it is fine to raise the interest rate, but it is about a six-month lag to affect the economy. guest: that is a great point. during the greenspan era we did see a steady rate of hikes that many people thought was to -- too fast and to study. and janet yellen has said, without specifically calling out to greenspan, that we do not want to repeat that. they saved will be gradual, data dependent, so they will be watching inflation data, jobs data, and they hope to see how that plays out. it is working at a six-month lag, they will only have race 50 basis point before they get to see how that first 25 basis points effects the

economy. the idea of what they are trying to do is to make it so slow and so not predictable, based on data, that it will not have the same effect that greenspan did. host: what is the next potential rates that we could see a race? -- raise? expectingare from them, economists are hree, the markets are expecting two. in marchachs says interest rate increase is very likely. arkansas,we go to democrat, go ahead roberts, you . caller: thank you. the biggest thing on our economy

has been our unfair trade laws. right now it is still federally we have workers called, i can go through the holes lack of regulations. agree, many things are overregulated, but they are not changing them. they stepped out of the country and went to these foreign countries so they can bypass these and bring them back. it is truly unfair to the competition. becoming where we have to have these products. just lately we had called what -- just lately we had what was called country of origin labeling. to mexicoit is unfair and canada if we know the origin of our food because of that, the law got repealed in

package to keep the government going. and now we will lose the right to know the origin of our food, primarily because they want to keep bringing mexican cattle across the border and slaughter them. and when you see it in store, all you will now is the cuts of meat it is. guest: what we have been seeing with trade is that american very good.et is not that has been a major drag on our economy, and for a lot of businesses that hope to export. what we are hoping for a 2016 is brought -- aconomy broad continues to reverse, they think it is a 2017 story. host: how does the strong dollar

play into this? guest: it is part and parcel to the fact that overseas growth has been particularly weak over the last year and a half and that is bad news for inflation, certainly for exports. the fed believes it will stabilize next year. i have talked to economists who are not so sure, but the dollar is notoriously difficult to predict. host: what about china and the overall growth of the global economy? with this argument over are they having a hard landing or a soft landing, and think a lot of economists are moving toward soft landing. they are on a stable, slower growth path. that will be a story to watch in 2016 because i do not think it has entirely played out yet. there are a lot of questions because their economic data is

not particularly reliable. or transparent. host: brian in utah, independent line. caller: happy new year, everybody. main problem that we have here is you have a progressive party. there is no democrat or republican. onre is a progressive party, both sides. then you have three conservatives, ted cruz, mike lee, like great senator, and read all that is a libertarian conservative. be our debt, we're going to $20 trillion loss in death by the time obama gets out. rome collapsed on its debt. 401(k)s, when it collapses, you lose those, it is over. host: let's talk about what economist say when it comes to

our debt and deficit. guest: clearly, it is something we need to deal with in the long term. you cannot run a huge national deficit and an extremely long-term situation. most are not particularly worried about where it is right now. the projection is that it will social security costs are to rise dramatically. that is something we will have to deal with because it could be destabilizing to the economy in the future. host: next caller, republican. you.r: thank there was a couple of points, some of them have in talked talked about. minimum wage, your just spoke t spoke about robotics and automation. but we also look at the world market. we can import these things if

the prices get to be too high. if you want to buy a shirt that is american made you could buy end, and, our l.l. bean -- bean.. it will cost you $40, but you can get it. but they do not want to limit you from going out and buying something cheaper if you wanted. the economy is a complicated situation. your organization and all the news organizations like to use housing prices as a barometer. for me, it is one of the poorest investments around people go to work in the dark and come home in the dark to live in a house you cannot afford. we tire all this wealth and

housing, and we get no productivity out of it. guest: on your first point on the minimum wage, absolutely true that the hike in minimum wage can lead to outsourcing for cheaper labor costs. on housing, one reason i think people of the size housing to shore up a good investment is because it is something concrete and solid that you can put your money into month after month instead of paying rent which you will probably have to do anyway because you have to live somewhere. at the end of the day, you can sell it. if you already have to pay for housing, at the end of the day you and up with an asset. that is howcally, americans have held their great, and housing is a american tradition. host: tweeting in, what has been the trend in mergers and acquisitions? we have seen an increase

in mergers and acquisition. that is a pretty well told story. what we have not seen as a a lot of small business creation. small businesses are really down. we had a researcher who did some great work on this great it is very confusing, people do not know why that is happening. people thought the affordable care act in particular, as entrepreneurs got an outlet to access health care would be starting new businesses and i do not know if the data is proving that yet. it is an open question over what will happen in the next level of years. host: is it access to credit, to capital through banks? a small-business owner, you need to take out a business to get started because of the recession -- a loan to get started, and because of the recession it is restricted.

show a steady income, even if you own your own business. that later point is a good one. i tried reporting on this story a while ago, and as i was talking to news organizations, they repeatedly told me that a lot of banks are saying people are not even asking. approachingot even and asking for credit. that is not only anecdotal information, but curious to me what is happening. i do not think we have a solid answer about why this has slowed so much. host: what about fear of the recession happening again? you do not want to start your own business because if there is a recession and the economy falters, you're stuck. guest: there are two theories that, over and over, that is one of them. people are just afraid, they do not want to start businesses again.

but this trend started a little bit before the recession. there was a trend toward this prior to 2008. the other argument is that big-box retailers, we have seen so much concentration, could bechises, those chilling in the entrepreneurial spirit because how do you compete with that? those are the theories that get tossed around. host: democrat line, next caller. caller: good morning. i have not heard you say whether they were going to raise savings interest rates. guest: this has been a major issue. a lot of people who are on fixed incomes, and a lot of people who just want their money and a fairly liquid account have said over and over again throughout this low interest rate time that this is not fair to us. as interest rates regress we should start to see the feed through to the savings

account. could take a long time. about expecting to get 1% next year. going to be anything massive in 2016. 2017 could be more meaningful. if the dollarer, is strong, then america's by power should be high. why isn't it? guest: if you travel overseas, you will find your much more buying things because your dollar goes further. we will see that persist into 2016. host: joe, temple florida, republican. i wanted to ask a question about the entitlement programs and their growth.

i wanted to get your opinion on the idea that it seems like the democrats have almost appealed to sliding demographics. all those -- the mitt romney idea. areidea that the democrats buying large segments of the population and using them as a base to regard year after year into elections. gboard year after year into elections. guest: i think members of both parties excel with that demographic. this year is going to be expensive, going into medicaid and medicare year-over-year. there is very unpopular political news, even though it is an expensive program. there are going to be things that the economists bring up over and over, that social security would be the easiest way to rainless and. host: pensacola, florida,

martha. hello. first: this is the time i have seen c-span in this context. i had a question of clarification. remembered that the national deficit was almost $17 million with president obama notcoming into office, $10 million. i would like you to clarify that. not have the numbers on this sitting in front of me. but you could fight all of the data on these points at cbo.gov. thing you would want to know. why would the interest

rates, as low as they are, congress and the government does not our own money to invest in infrastructure, which would stimulate the economy and provide jobs. guest: that is a question that has been echoed by many economists, because it seems time towould be a good bring money and and invest in infrastructure. togress has not wanted pursue expansionary policy of the last couple of years. it is a matter of political will at this point. there are some solid arguments for and against spending on infrastructure. on the one hand you could createte the economy and jobs, on the other side it is not private sector investment and it will increase our national debt. at the end of the day congress congressin --

decided this is not something they want to invest in at this point. host: did the market react positively to that? guest: what we saw with the highway bill is that a lot of economists and participants are saying we are going to switch to being slightly expensive area -- slightly expansionary. this, it is a positive for 2016. host: john, republican line. caller: happy new year. , i am to ask the guest noticing here, in this great country we want to have good service but we don't want to pay for it. if we look at our highways, if we look at our schools, everything is collapsing. but my question is, as a , when our politicians

are fighting about the budget that they are supposed to take ago, thea year businessman does not like uncertainty. it makes me feel uncomfortable when i do not know what is coming next week when they come back and how they are going to react. will they shut down the government? i do not see any bright future is 2016 because everybody trying to show that i am more conservative than others to take the of the problem in country right now. we're losing manufacturing, education, everything i can think about. in that case, i do not think the economy will do better in the 2016 year because of that. guest: it is interesting that you bring that up. anytime that congress is creating uncertainty by failing

to do things that are necessary to run the government, and continued economic growth, people have uncertainty. it hits the business confidence surveys, and that is definitely true. what we know about election years is that neither party toos to rock the boat much. you do not want to be seen as the dysfunctional party in congress. that could help us out this year. you have to focus on that. economists are saying. they are not looking at congress and saying they will be a drag on the economy what they have been in the last years. host: carl, independent line. c-span.thank you for my background is in corporate turnaround and operations analysis. i have been in over 200 manufacturing businesses can review their budgets and so forth. i have never once seen a situation in which regulation

was an item on a company's budget. it is so small, the cost of regulation, that you need a magnifying glass to find it. this is not an issue here in the united states. there are some businesses -- i have been in baby food to rototiller's and so forth, but i have not been in paper. there is high cost regulation that, but they are not offshore. the type of businesses going offshore, regulation is not an issue. guest: i think a lot of it is taxes. president obama has said that the tax code needs to be looked at. a lot of issues surrounding inversion. i think those are the issues that we are really looking at when we look at why these businesses are going. what they are choosing to produce, where they are choosing to produce, and who they choose

to employ as their labor. taxes are what we're going to be watching next year. host: you can follow jeanna reporting on twitter as a bloomberg news. thank you for your time this morning. break, ande a short then turn our attention to the fight against isis. we will speak with michael o'hanlon from the brookings institution security center. we will be right back. ♪ >> as 2015 reps up, c-span presents congress, year in

review. a look back at the knees making issues, hearings, and debates that took center stage on capitol hill this year. us thursday, december 31 at 8:00 p.m. eastern as we revisit mitch -- revisit mitch mcconnell taking his position. visit.ancis's -- john boehner's resignation and paul ryan taking over as speaker of the house. that is thursday, at eight p.m. eastern. theonday night on communicators, we'll take a look at how the music industry works. the associate professor of music business at berklee college of music discusses how new music that forms have impacted the way musicians are paid, and what reforms congress can implement

to make the payment structure more transparent. joined by ar is reporter for vacations daily. >> the narrative of artists and songwriters feeling like they do not understand where their money is coming from is not new. i think we are living in a world today where everything is trackable. the nsa could know where i am, they can know where you are, they could know what you're talking about on your cell phone. there is no reason that artists and creators should not be able to know where their songs are being streamed and how they are being a for that. and not on a significant time like either. watch the communicators, monday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. >> c-span takes you on the road to the white house and into the classroom. this year our student cam documentary contest asks students to tells what issues

they want to see candidates discuss. get all the details at c-span.org. washington journal continues. host: we are back at our table this morning, michael o'hanlon from the brookings institution, the author of a new book here to talk about the fight against isis. we want to begin with the headline from the wall street journal, iraqi troops closer to seizing ramadi. that is also on the networks this morning. why is repeating ramadi important to the fight against isis? guest: i think you used the right word, important great i'm not going to say it is the city,ve, the most crucial or the turning point. those things would be overstated. but ramadi is a city of three

quarters of a million people. it was certainly the central city in and bar province and will be again. bar province, and will be again. we remember the terrible fighting in the u.s. invasion pace in 2004. history lot of associated with it as well. it is where al qaeda had its roots. it is where the sunni tribes started to work with us, not against us and that was the turning point during the surge. it has a lot of history as well. in and of itself, and is important, but not the be-all and end-all a. host: now is fighting to get it back from isis?

guest: it is sunni dominated, and we are trying to keep it that way. we are trying to persuade the iraqis not to involve any shia militias, the popular mobilization force, that were funded by iran, and dominated by gangs that- shia are as violent as the sunni extremists. if you were to liberate ramadi using those forces, you might laying the foundation for the next round of sectarian warfare. it is very important that the rebuilt iraqi army do this. half of the iraqi army fell apart last year, so it is taking time for us to rebuild. i think president obama's strategy has degraded somewhat in the last year.

he knew he needed to get the iraqis to take the next step. if they do not rich across the sectarian divide, there is no point in doing a military operation that we lead because you will do so the seeds for the next setback. the key here is the iraqi army. host: this army that is fighting is sunni? guest: good question. i think the units that are fighting are largely sunni. i am not sure i want to say most for each and every case it they do have some help from the sunni tribes in that area, who live there, or virtually all sunni. what you have is probably a 50-50 mix of sunni and shia and the iraqi army forces, maybe a little more heavily weighted toward the city, but at least a are representing the federal government. there is a sense that it is ecumenical, if you will. and then the sunni tribes in the region are working with them. are ok.ements

what you do not want is the shia dominated, and basically unofficial militias. but as the part that is most important to keep out. they were involved in the liberation of saddam hussein's hometown, but it was questionable as to whether they should have been involved. are beingviewers shown in the of iraq, and you can see ramadi in relation to baghdad. for this it mean next us-led coalition? if they can get back ramadi, then what? what is important in this fight against isis? guest: this part of a rock in eastern syria is desert except for the river valleys. you have the euphrates river, most notably, and that is where the cities are located. along that particular large lawn body of water that goes into

syria. if you see is, there is a beauty about it, but it is a star judy. you have desert everywhere except for the mile or two where the canals can reach out and you know your gated zones next to the river -- you have your gated zones next to the river. you have to turn north and go through a number of changes of terrain, and to the tigers river and other loans to get to muzzl osul. -- to ann extent extent the crown jewel of the area. it is controlled by isis right now. that is going to be the big challenge for 2016, it may take longer than that. host: overall, what is the status of isis as far as their ability to continue this fight? their resources, the ground they

have gained and lost? guest: a great question. president obama has struggled to question because a few years ago he called them the words hersity, wishes he could take back. but now he says they are contained, which is right to a fence and they now have no prospect of taking any more land of substantial importance. or populated zones of a large city. take a zonetill here or there, and with the dynamics in syria be what they are, youing what they could get a power vacuum developing. ground inre losing iraq and syria. but i would not call them contained globally, especially after the paris attacks. boko haram has just sworn allegiance. people who declare

loyalty because they see isis as the new, cool thing. there is no particular downside to saying you are an affiliate. it does not mean that. but allows isis to project this image as they tried to draw more recruits around the world and they're still doing a good job, unfortunately. host: this morning, an audio message, the leader purportedly says the caliphate is well. michael o'hanlon talking about the strategy to fight isis. here are the phone lines for you. you can also send us a tweet if you like. i want to go back to this washington post article because in this audio message that the isis leader put out he taunted the united states for not putting boots on the ground.

"they do not dare to come because their hearts are full of fear from the holy warriors. allies dream of destroying the caliphate through their proxies and henchmen, and , theyer their tail is cut hastened to establish another. " he unfortunately, have some people who listen to this nonsense and find it compelling, which is part of the reason why he is recruiting so many people from half the world's countries. they have sent some kind of population, group, or stream of syria,uals to a rock and generally speaking. the story 2015 is even though the military tide of the battle has begun to shift, the recruiting dynamics have not shifted very much.

i do not think there will be americans who find this preposterous language compelling. i think virtually any american, republican, democratic, independent, is going to agree what we of been through, to the extent that we could be affected , that that would be wonderful. the question is, have we gone too far in depending on them? concern wouldmy come from, that it is not quite enough to work with these local all as i would love it if they could do the whole job on their own. is still finding recruits with this kind of message, and that is a problem for us. syria, that question, what to do remains a big one. set,n peace talks are obstacles still remained to this. you have written a couple of

pieces yourself about what secretary of state john kerry is trying to pursue. doomed area of peace talks, and also you have called the country productive. -- and then counterproductive. why? that it is yours us from looking straight at the battlefield dynamics and recognizing that we are still losing. our friends are still losing. president bush sought -- assad is still dropping barrel bombs on the insurgents we are trying to help. under them areng still suffering enormously. by implying that you can get

these parties to agree to peace talks, let's say there is a 5% chance or a 10% chance. the other 90% probability is that the war will continue. we do ourselves into thinking we have a viable strategy through the peace talks, and we leave the moderates and helped -- unhelped. the carnage continues and the extremists grow. host: what do you think is the ramifications of this? but the government and the opposition have confirmed that airstrikes killed one of the rebel leaders who was fighting against bashir all aside -- al-assad.assir guest: in the broader sense, these dynamics are unfortunately a little more favorable for as

sad. he thought he was in bad shape, and gave a speech saying he could not maintain his army. thes only about 15% of , so the russians went in, and it has worked to some extent. great, butot doing the whole idea that assad is about to fall is no longer a reality. going, it is not burning out. i think we have to recognize we're going to have to strengthen the moderate forces in more significant ways that we have so far. host: american troops on the

ground? american trainers on the ground, and president obama has conceded that point. he's that he would put a special operators on the ground in syria. we have some cia operatives doing the same thing already near the same zone. but it is a very small effort so far. we are trying to get this so we can fight isil, and we are ssad out ofegotiate a side power. i think we are out of kilter and how we are thinking about this. areter in how we thinking about this. host: let's get some calls. caller: good morning.

manyually spoke with you years ago when i was a student in washington dc. -- oneed in the rock war war then. i have always admired you. i am more hawkish than most to share my general foreign policy ideology. the fact thatt senator kerry has lost, times had changed. reading my morning papers, because i do not want to be ill-informed. here's my basic take.

i do not think, and i do not here, theem partisan democrats are criticized and easily so -- host: i need you to get to your point. caller: i apologize. host: i have to move on. we will go to bill in massachusetts. caller: good morning. i am really concerned about what ishappening as far as isis concerned with the american people. 60's and thee adults are one thing. they have a lifetime of experiences. it is the children. i can close my eyes, as i am sure all of you can at c-span,

whenn we remember back to we were in grade school, that special teacher, we remember her smile, something she taught us, her voice. we remember in those days saying the pledge of allegiance every day before classes started. once a week -- what is your point? if mr. my point is that same would remember those memories, he would remember being surrounded by muslims. host: i do not know what the point was. next caller. waser: michael o'hanlon

frequently on, advocating for the war inn during iraq. i wonder if he feels he made a mistake to promote the invasion, when basically, if we had not invaded iraq, we would not be fighting aces at this point -- isis at this point. guest: a fair question. the basic point you make is correct. in broader terms, i argued throughout 2002 that if we were going to invade iraq it had to be only after a very carefully prepared time frame in which we a chanceam hussein to disarm before that. i wrote extensively about how to ship out, and how i was willing

to support a disarmament that was verifiable without invasion. i have a lot of critics from that time frame. i also argued that if we were to invade iraq we had to do it with serious intent to have a large force for a long time. we go in and break a state and unseat its leader, you own the country. attributed to: powell, the pottery barn argument -- colin powell, the pottery barn argument. that if we were going to do this, it had to be viewed as a serious enterprise, and should not be taken lightly. we needed a very well-developed plan, and should only happen if they had no other choice. that is the broader context in which i did ultimately say that i was not opposed to the war. it is only fair to give the broader context. wound up in some

very serious disagreements with those at the time. -- i said with my colleague, phil gordon, it won't be a cakewalk. we are going to have to go in for a long time and with a lot of force. i would like to think i was at least partly prescient about that -- those stakes. this is the last interview president obama did before he went on his holiday. this is how he responded to critics who say now he should be using more force. well, we are going to bomb more. where are you going to bomb? when you talk about something like carpetcombing, what do you mean? precisionut

strikes based on where isil is -- carpetbombing, what do you mean? we carry out precision strikes based on where isil is. f your contention is that we bomb tens of thousands of innocent iraqis, that is not who we are. many of these critics can get away with suggesting that bombing more or being less discriminate in how we approach that would make a difference. let me put it this way, i trust my commanders, folks who have fought long and hard in places like iraq or afghanistan, when they described to me -- describe to me, here is how we are going to gather intelligence, here is how we are going to approach targeting.

we have been at this a long time in afghanistan and iraq and places like some of you and yemen -- like somalia and yemen. and the key is to make sure we got sound intelligence -- we've got sound intelligence. and i make no apologies for wanting to do this appropriately and in a way that is consistent with american values. [end video clip] mr. o'hanlon, what's your reaction when you hear his argument for these pinprick airstrikes? guest: he recognizes we are not going to go back and do the same thing in syria and iraq that we had done in iraq and afghanistan a few years ago. i think on that point, he is rocksolid. i also think his general policy of firmness but restraint towards russia and china is smart. i think he doesn't overly react

to putin or to issues in the south china sea, but he still chose -- shows a certain firmness. when i look specifically at syria, that's where i think he has to always acknowledge -- he is a very analytical person, which is one of the reasons i like him. i think the data in syria says it has failed. he was trying to avoid a big operation. the parisroadcast attacks. it wasn't obama's fault, john mccain's fault, any americans fault. american's but it's true that every military thing you do there might be a potential downside. we cannot use that as an argument to stay disengaged, with very minimum help to the opposition. i think that has been a big mistake. he did not bring up the fact that we had 50 people we were trying to train in turkey, send them back into syria. they wound up getting picked off.

half of them never made it back to the battlefield. this was out of an initiative that was supposed to train 5000 in 2015. we are not matching up to our declared goals. meanwhile, the enemy has tens of thousands of force. the elements of what mr. obama are saying are correct. but taken in a broader context, i think we have to find better ways to strengthen the moderate opposition. it is not easy, but we are really not trying that hard. host: series a tweet from those "what are these, for?"ates" fighting guest: i have no doubt that some would take out revenge against not just the inner circle of a solid -- of assad, but the alawites, in general. we need some kind of confederation model.

this is one reason i don't agree with secretary kerry's peace talk concept. you have to have some kind of political vision for where you are headed that different parties can live with. the sunni extremists never want again, under assad neither do the sunni moderates. we are going to help them -- have to help them. ad out. to move ass i think we have to be part of an ultimate peacekeeping force, too the situation. is not right for that. but if and when we get to that point, american forces will be needed on the ground as peacekeepers. that will be a difficult and dangerous task. host: would the sunnis allow there to be an hour white iteresentation -- be an alawh representation in this new government? guest: i think so.

if the outside world is working with these forces, we work with them directly, we coordinate with this week government in damascus, but we are basically on the ground with them directly. there cannot be any kurdish is what you, which have to make sure of, so that turkey could be aboard this whole concept. there are muslims in the south and center of the country, and ultimately the alawite area in the north. philip gordon, who was president counsel, wrote a piece with jim dobbins, one of our most accomplished state builders, and they argue for some potential nationbuilding as well. host: good morning. you are on the air. caller: good morning. you can hear me? host: we can. well you were arguing

about the approach in 2002, -- while you were arguing about the approach in 2002, i was saying you should start with the misadventure of syria. you would have a beachhead on the ocean. you could show that you knew what you were trying to do before you try it in a thicker country like iraq. at this point, -- in a bigger country like iraq. at this point, we are supporting saudi arabia in yemen. we are doing nothing to actually figure out how to get rid of the poison which is what hobbies and -- is wahabism. still, in 2016, next week, we are not agreeing that the best

way to turn saudi arabia insignificant in the future is to throw everything we have into renewable energy, because we have a lot of oil companies this morning who are going to be advertising on tv. make sure the channels, abc, nbc, cbs, don't talk about it. host: hello there for mr. o'hanlon to respond to -- a lot there for mr. o'hanlon to respond to. guest: if you look around the world at our allies, there are a couple that stand out as being our most complicated allies, who often work as much against us as with us. i think you are right to say saudi arabia is near the top of that list. and our oil dependency, the world's to spend and see -- world's dependency on saudi arabia is part of the reason we cannot play hardball.

focusing on our own independent energy opportunities is very important. the problem is it is not going to change the fact that india, europe, and, korea, others depend on middle eastern oil, including saudi oil. over time, we would like to see less dependence on the saudis. but in the short-term, we are going to have to find other ways to get leverage with them. and i do think you are right. so far, we have to recognize that our approach has largely failed. one thing i believe we need to do in syria, and then i will wrap up as you have raised some big subjects, in syria, we do need to show leadership in order to deal with the extreme frustration of countries like saudi arabia, the uae, qatar, turkey, who are so against assad

, who have listened to us safer years that we want assad to go --well, and have seen as do listen to us say for years that we want assad to go as well, and have seen us do very little. maryland. baldwin, jimmy, independent. caller: it seems like the whole affair is a proxy war between iran, the shia and the sunnis in other places. -- that saddam is gone that used to be the thing that kept iran in check. but now that saddam is gone, in iraq.has hegemony host: let's talk about that. he mentioned a proxy war.

guest: i think you are right. i think that is a lot of what's going on here. if we looked through a ledger of the factors working with us and the factors working against us, there are a lot of favorable realities about the broader militaries. most of the countries are sunni majority. egypt, saudi arabia, uae, most of the oil money. we have a lot of friends. it's not like we are pro-sunni and anti-shia, but to the extent we are worried about iran, there is that element we have to account for. theses really the place come together. also syria. the only viable political solution that will hold the country together over time is something moving towards federalism or a confederation. we already see part of that concept in kurdistan, the part of iraq that has the 4.5 million, 5 million kurds, and

the three main provinces, and they live essentially on their own. they contribute to the army, the central government, they have profit-sharing arrangements, but they are basically running their own space. i think we need to encourage the shia-led government in baghdad to allow that same possibility for the sunnis. it's going to be hard to persuade them to do that, and some of the sunnis don't even want to do that. if you don't get that piece in place, i'm not sure how you really deal with this long-term. i would envision three main sectors within iraq. mostre money from the oil, of which -- they share money from the oil, most of which is in the shia area nearby zero -- area. countries around iraq, allies like turkey, go for that? guest: i think so. they have already made that agreement with kurdistan, and

that is the hardest one for them. at this point, the turks, as much as anything, they want assad gone, or, at a minimum, assad no longer controlling the in syria.ims there greater concern in iraq is that there be some stability and that the sunni muslims not be oppressed by forces loyal to tehran. that vision is hard to implement, but it still offers a path forward. host: we are talking with michael o'hanlon, national security expert with brookings institution for 20-some years. also, author of "the future of land warfare." caller: good morning, mr. o'hanlon. how are you today? guest: fine, thanks. yourself? caller: good, now that i have you on the line. president obama has done so many good things over the past eight

years. i'm happy we have not been bombed or attacked in the past eight years, so i'm ecstatic about that. my question to you is, how do you feel about so many people who want to keep this war going, killing more people, more children, more innocents? there,e just go over talk to these people, see where they are at? if they don't want to be our friend, let's just move on and find new friends. host: let's talk about a diplomatic solution. ? is there one -- is there one? guest: we all shared aspiration, that you have pointed out in an eloquent comment. is there a diplomatic solution? i would say no. the taliban want to oppressed people, take power, keep women at home, keep them away from

school, keep them out of the workplace. they want to punish the, quote, "infidels." most of us in the united states would be infidels because we are not sunni muslims, but even within the sunni muslims, the taliban has its own definition of who counts and who doesn't. host: and on isis? guest: so i don't think we can just talk to these people and persuade them otherwise. we had some interesting efforts to talk to the taliban in the late 1990's under the clinton administration, which did not go very far. it turns out the taliban was inviting osama bin laden in at that time. this is not a very productive area, in the sense that we are going to win the taliban over with the force of kindness. we could potentially help the afghan government solidify its own hold on the country. 2015 has been a tough year for that, but not without its rights its bright spots.

to me, that's the only way you get there. they cannotremists impose their will through brutality. that is a necessary ingredient towards a peace deal. host: let's talk about the threat to the homeland. "the wall street journal" headline "passport forgery poses terrorist threat." . isis -- helpp stop isis attacks in our own country? guest: we have a lot -- let's credit the development of homeland security -- the department of homeland security, law enforcement officers. with this san bernardino tragedy still fresh in our minds, we don't want to say we have done a , generallyob, but speaking, this country has been pretty safe since 9/11. and it's because of the hard-working americans and the

citizens who keep their eyes and ears open and help. in terms of what people can do to stop san bernardino or that kind of terrorist attack, we are going to get into a lot of big policy debates very quickly. i think we need to make faster inroads against isil in syria, because i think the narrative that isil or isis uses to say they are winning has to be defeated, and the best way to do it is to take them on in their homeland. i probably have a number of republicans agreeing with me now, but i may have more democrats agreeing with me when i say i am staunchly in favor of much stronger gun control. i just don't see a serious case for allowing semiautomatic weapons to be available to the majority of american citizens and weakening the background check system. i think if it were harder to get automatic weapons, it would be harder to carry out these kinds of atrocities. and then we have to keep -- i'm delighted the government did not shut down. we have to keep paying our men

and women who work at gsa and andand elsewhere -- at tsa dhs and elsewhere. ourave to keep thanking police men and being better it was fund them. most major cities do not have enough resources devoted to this kind of challenge locally. that's the beginning of my list of what i would like to see done. some of it is being done. that's part of why we have been fairly safe. host: james, a republican. you are on the air. caller: quick question, two parts -- what kind of presence do you see , if any, for the united states having, as far as ground forces or any kind of cohesive military effort, i hate to use the phrase "boots on the ground," but you understand what i mean? and what would that look like? guest: great question.

general dempsey, who, as you is chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he had this idea of having a number of regional hubs that would be counterterrorism bases for the united states. that's part of the logic that preceded -- persuaded president obama to extend the u.s. presence in afghanistan throughout his presidency. he changed his mind. then we will have 5500 u.s. forces in afghanistan, right now we have about 10,000. i think the 10,000 number is a better approximation to what we need for the next few years, but these are the kind of numbers, the combination of securing some bases, having limited amounts of air power, having intelligence on the ground, some training capacity to work with our partners, and some commandos we can bring in -- seated to take

direct action at the time or to get out and help mentor and advise. this is the package of capabilities that i think we will need not only in afghanistan or iraq, where we have a good deal of that right now, but also increasingly in syria and perhaps even one or two other places. the good news is that these are not huge force packages compared to the big invasions of iraq and afghanistan of yesteryear. the bad news is they are still going to involve fighting among billions of dollars, and occasional -- fighting, billions of dollars, and occasional american casualties. up plus orwind -20,000. william in tennessee, you are on the air. your question or comment? thank you, c-span.

base.ie to their that does not help people like me. i am having a difficult time understanding you. apologies to you. we have to move on. caller: thank you for receiving my call. i want to thank michael for his input. it does give the american people a choice of understanding the situation there in the middle east. local islamichat groups are speaking out against this act of isis and taliban. can you tell me what country in the middle east religious leaders are condemning this either publicly or privately? that way, the american people

can say the religious people in those countries are speaking out and here is a recording. information that these religious leaders from the sunni, the kurds, are expressing their concerns about these radical groups. host: ok, james. got it. guest: i think that's a good question. one of the challenges we have with asking for muslim or islamic leadership on this question is that the sunni muslim world in particular, as i understand it, does not have anything parallel to a pope or a clear center of leadership. there are a lot of individual mosques, a lot of individual imams.or there are broad movements that are pieced together by some of these people acting in a similar way to each other, but it is hard sometimes for them to organize.

you wind up here in voices from the broader islamic world, who wind up eating important in one way or another, and some of them are here in the united states -- important ineing one way or another, and some of them are here in the united states. they are well-intentioned overall. we have a number of leaders from around the broader islamic orld, president ashraf ghani would be one of my favorites. messagee others whose is sincere. i cannotroblem is, give you a simple, clean answer because there is not an islamic pope.-

there also isn't a single islamic country that is the national leader. saudi arabia has makeup, but the saudi leadership -- has mecca, but the saudi leadership is not necessarily a place you can turn to for spiritual guidance across-the-board. week have to -- we have to keep looking for individual voices. i want to clear answer. i have to create a mishmash in my own head. there is no clean, single answer. host: "the hill" newspaper had this about the audio message with a threatened to strike israel. guest: one of the reasons we cannot tolerate this isil group and why i think it should have been clearer even before paris is that this group hates most of our friends around the world and has a vision of running the entire broader middle east. s, i am saying isi

saying isil. i.s. means the islamic state. l means the islamic state in iraq and the --, including israel. they want to be a caliphate. they want to rule wherever muslims live, or have lived, or have a claim on land. that's what this vision of an extremist caliphate means. in theory, they want to go all the way from southern spain all the way over to indonesia and israel is certainly within their gunsights, like it would be for many other extremist groups of this type. they don't always get ahead of themselves and talk about their ambition, but this is why they welcome loyalists from libya to nigeria to the sinai to afghanistan to azerbaijan, because they, in their own mind, want to rule this whole area.

as long as they can keep the myth alive that they are making headway toward that, they will struggle -- still draw recruits because people think they have momentum. there is no doubt they would go after israel if they could. host: the president also uses isil when he is talking about it. are there diplomatic reasons to use isil and not isis? guest: i have some good friends who like to use daesh, which is the arabic term and is slightly derogatory. that.we should all say daesh. it is not that hard to pronounce, although people say it different ways. at least we could agree on the spelling. president obama is using a term the intelligence community has employed. it reminds you of the near term ambitions of this group. syria,nt to run iraq,

lebanon, jordan, palestinian areas, israel. that is they are near-term set of goals -- that is their near-term set of goals. we are going to try hard to prevent them from becoming the in the broader area, but that is still their ambition. banks for hanging on the line -- thanks for hanging on the line. caller: happy christmas. thank you for c-span. their name is a symbol. it stands for them, just like the swastika stood for the germans. i think it is the most brilliant idea to change their name, especially if it is derogatory. i have heard ambassadors use it. they are using it in britain. obama has no heart for this fight.

he is much too close with the ayatollah. i think that's what he wants to be, in my opinion. host: let's talk about the influence of iran in all of this. guest: on president obama, one thing i have tried to listen to him say over all the years, those of us who haven't been president have to appreciate how much of an emotional toll it takes to write all those condolence letters, to spend all those times of families, to know that your orders send people to their deaths. president obama heels with that in a powerful way that is hard for the rest of us -- deals with that in a powerful way that is hard for the rest of us to understand. when he says he does not want to go into a big fight in the broader middle east, i am persuaded that the reason -- that is the reason, fundamentally. he has seen far too much of this violence. the families themselves feel it even more than he does. next to them, he has a sense of

responsibility. i don't see him -- i think he has made mistakes in being disengaged from iraq for too needsnd understating the in syria, but i don't see him as being unwilling to reassess. too slow andbeen too little, that's my take on where he's coming from. i wouldn't say it's because he likes the ayatollah. having said that, he obviously did a big deal in 2015 with the arabians. it is a controversial deal. it has become very partisan, as we all know. the logic of trying to get to this kind of deal, however, was started by george w. bush. former president bush has come out against this deal, so i don't want to put words in his mouth or imply otherwise, but the logic of trying to use sanctions to produce a new government in iran that would then be willing to do a negotiated deal on the iranian program is exactly what we have -- infter on a bipartisan

a bipartisan way for 10 or 15 years. you can like or not like the deal, but the logic of how we got here has its roots in the last 10 to 15 years of american foreign-policy and the bush administration as well as the obama administration. florida, ain tampa, democrat. good morning. iller: we have, in syria, think you might agree that syria is a linchpin to this problem with isis and bashar assad. so, we have three things going for us. expertise,istical military expertise, and we have a third resource, which is the syrian refugees. 800,000 refugees have left syria. why are we not exploring the formation of a large army

providing the incentivize, angry to gomen to form an army off to syria and take over? guest: a serious question. my colleague, ken pollack, has proposed an option along the lines of what you are talking about. he wrote about this in "foreign affairs magazine" in 2014. he argued that we take a lot of exiles, refugees, you name it, bigtry to dig up -- build a army abroad, say in turkey, jordan, maybe a little bit of both. instead of training a few dozen here or there, we actually try to build the biggest fighting force in syria that could then take on both isil and also -- and assad. logic ofize with the this. but if you haven't been able to find a few hundred people, how

are you going to find a few thousand? but there are enough syrians that are angry enough with as sad that it might work. we can try that if we wish, but let's get into places like the kurdish areas of syria, some of these races where moderates -- these places where moderates are powerful today, and let's try to recruit and train much larger numbers right there. most of the people who want to fight in syria want to protect their communities. what you don't want to do is wait for them to go into exile in order to form an army. you want to do it on location so they can get trained and protect their communities at the same time. i have been more of the view that you are better off trying to find the recruits on the ground, which means we have to have a few hundred or even a couple thousand americans, saudi's, jordanians, brits working on the ground inside the country to find these recruits, but there is something to what you are proposing as well, i

agree. guest: a lot of syrians -- host: a lot of syrians have fled. -- livedps lives there there? 12% jews,ghly 13%.tan, maybe -- roughly million to 4 million kurds. 4 million alawites. 3 million to 4 million christians. 15 million sunni muslims. watch inot more to this coming year when it comes to the fight against isis in syria and iraq. if you are learning more --

interested in learning more from that websitelon, is up. thank you for your time. when we come back, we are going back to where we began, the question about retirement and are you on track to retire. those are the phone lines divided by age. we will get your calls in just a few minutes. first, this week on "newsmakers," we sat down with national education association president lily eskelsen garcia. that airs today on 10:00 a.m. -- at 10:00 a.m. here she is talking about the impact of the new "every student succeeds" act, the successor to the "no child left behind" act. [video clip] is real believes there

change hear from tests and punishments and reprisals. it is a new day. country got to a new world. it was the first time we weren't under this national cloud of no child left. we have an implementation team on the national level so that our state affiliates, local affiliates, and all of the coalition that are being built -- coalitions that are being built with them, with school psychologists, parents, disability rights groups, civil rights groups -- coalitions are coming together like never before. what they are looking for from the national education association is show us a andework, study this law tell us what our opportunities arestart advocating -- to start advocating for the voice of the educator and the parent who says this is my kid's

school, i should have something to say about this. all of those things were pretty much shut out with no child left. it has to look like this. this is the only number that counts. this is the only thing we are going to look at when we say your school has made adequate yearly progress. and they were all illusions. we want something real. by your count, states will be moving very quickly, changing some of their big policies, like accountability systems and teacher evaluations? guest: right. the accountability system under no child left said, your quota -- get your quota of kids. ng we liked that came out of it was, for the first time, they disaggregated the data. they want to see where the gaps affluent children

and poor children, children with disabilities, children who are english language learners. host populations of kids who were so seriously disadvantaged e populations of kids who were so seriously disadvantaged. we should know not only what they are getting but how they are doing. [end video clip] see the entire interview at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. you can also hear it on c-span c-span.org.line at we are going to wrap up today's conversation with a discussion of retirement. if you are 25 years old to 40 years old, dial in at (202)748-8000.

between 41 and 60, (202)748-8001 . 61 and older, including folks who are retired, (202)748-8002. before we get to our first call, take a look at a recent gallup poll that found americans are settling on an older retirement age. 37% of those surveyed expect to retire after age 85. -- age 65. beforeort they retired age 65. the median expected retirement age for non-retirees is 65. michael first in miamisburg, ohio. good morning. how old are you? caller: hello. you look better in blue. i would like to see you wear some color. host: duly noted.

got it, michael. caller: i'm 64. i'm disabled because i went to vietnam and it's finally got to me. but anyway, i'm dependent on social security. everything i got is paid. withgot a whole $12 to do whatever i want. i can go out on the town and splurge with 12 bucks. ont's the money on depending until i expire. extra after i pay all my bills. and that's about it. yes, you look better in blue. host: ok, michael. kansas, city, missouri -- kansas city, missouri. how old are you?

caller: 38 years old. host: have you been saving? caller: i have saved in the past. i haven't been doing much saving now. i believe the average american is not ready for retirement because, at the end of the day, the average american is overleveraged, index, barely holding on. that's -- in debt, barely holding on. that's become the american dream. we need major changes. host: ok. you were saying that you were saving, you are not anymore. were you putting money into retirement or just into a savings account? caller: 401k and also a savings account. i started off working at coca-cola when i was a young boy. they matched me 60% -- $.50 on the dollar up to 60%. i was big time, but the economy fell apart.

i had to make a lot of changes. i think that's the situation a lot of americans face. there is an effort to try to create jobs. jobs that pay living wages instead of minimum wages. share the prophet with the workers instead of a few greedy withe -- the profit the workers instead of a few greedy people. host: when he changed, did you have to go into your 401(k) and -- when it changed, did you have to go into your 401(k) and take money out? caller: i had to take all kind of money out when the economy fell apart. i had to make a lot of changes. we are now just trying to create jobs. real jobs that are going to pay libido wages -- pay livable wages. host: ok.

thomas, good morning to you. caller: good morning to you. host: are you on track to retire? caller: i don't plan to retire. i'm an attorney, i'm 79. i feel good physically and mentally. i have no retirement plans. host: why not? caller: i like working. host: have you been saving? caller: i enjoy it. host: have you been saving as well? caller: i've got well over $1 million in savings. host: did you put it into retirement funds? what did you do? caller: it is an ira that i manage. i have been doing it for years. i started saving the day i got out of law school. host: and how much did you start saving? caller: oh, i had some really good years and i saved a lot. and i had some mediocre years,

but i still saved money. host: would you or have you dipped into those funds to pay for college educations for children or grandchildren or other expenses that have come up ? caller: yes, i have. i have four children and i put two or three of them through college, all the way through law school. host: ok. we will hear next from harry in florida. what's your story on retirement? caller: i plan on retiring when i reach full social security age. six years, two months. host: ok. will you rely on just social security? caller: no, i have some savings i've been putting in roth ira's for the past several years. about $250,000 in savings. between that and social security, i also have a pension

from union work for 42 years. host: do you already know how much you will have on a monthly basis when you retire? caller: i am thinking probably around $6,000 or $7,000 per month. host: and your expenses? caller: approximately nothing. caller:we own our own home. it is paid off. we take a couple good cases per year. --t: and you will be caller: when i am 66 and two months, i can draw my full social security, and that's when i plan on retiring. host: what was your career? caller: i was with the pipe liners in tulsa, oklahoma, laying pipeline. now i work for the gas companies as an inspector on their integrity work. host: when you were a pipe

builder, how much were you making at the beginning? how much did you end up at? caller: when i first started out 70's --per back in the 1970's, i was making anywhere from $4 to $5 an hour. $52 an i retired, about hour. host: do you think your kids or kids today, people coming up, could do what you did, start out in that business, in the unions, work their way up, has a middle-class income, and have savings like you do in the end? caller: i think it is so much tougher because this country has done so much to bust the union's down. it is so tough. everybody is divided now, instead of the days when i came up when we were united and we could bargain for a good contract and good working conditions.

now it seems like everybody is baking and cutting each other's throat, rather than working together as a workforce. host: ok. pipeline builder for many years, saying he will be retiring in six years and two month. -- months. another gallup poll. toe people expecting to have rely on social security. it is the highest percentage in 15 years for non-retirees. 401(k) plans are still rated as the top source for non-retirees. santa fe, new mexico. hi there. how old are you? currently.m 71 anyway, what it is is that my social security wasn't quite

sough, and i get benefits, my nap and my medicare. my medicare pays my medical bills, prescriptions. now i have reached the age where i have to take my ira --bursement, which i hvae to take it out. that is the law. and now i'm over the top and i don't qualify for those benefits i was getting. i'm worse off. i have less than $12 to splurge on. out theu have to take ira savings because of the law, which means your income has gone up, yet those ira disbursements are not enough to pay for your health care and other expenses? disbursement,ra

plus my social security benefits , is not sufficient. it is less than what i was getting before. host: when you got the benefits. caller: before i took out my disbursement. because of the cut off for receiving hud housing, snap, whatever else. host: milton, are you on track to retire? caller: no. i've been retired. i'm 81 years old. i have been retired since i was 65. anybodyant to say that who wants to prepare for retirement, even if you can put in $10, whatever it is you can or away, and get a roth ira whichever ira you decide on, and

put as much as you can into it. host: why do you say that, milton? caller: that's how i was able to retire. that and other things, with good investments. maybe other people cannot invest well. theyf they have 401(k)'s, should put as much as they can into them. save their money. ifmatter how little it is, you manage to put it away over a period of time, it accumulates. now with low interest rates, it is not so great. but interest rates will get higher. at any rate -- also, i was a business person. i had a little store. i always make sure that i paid as much as i could into the social security accounts. , in other words, my

income was enough to pay the highest amount of social security and thereby get the largest payout at this time. host: ok. all right, milton. take a look at the pension rights website. they have polling data that shows americans believe there is a retirement crisis. an overwhelming majority, 86%, believe the nation is facing a crisis, while 75% are concerned about their own ability to achieve retirement security. lack of financial funds is americans' biggest worry. more americans are worried about not having enough money for retirement then about other financial matters, including paying for health care, their mortgage, their children's college education. david, are you retire? caller: -- retired?

caller: yes. i don't want to be retired, but i was forced into retirement by the federal government. i'm a retired postal worker and also a vietnam vet. i served 18 months in vietnam as a young man of 18. when i got out, i was a lost soul. i don't have it all figured out. i know our politicians don't really care too much for our country. all they care about is greed for themselves. if they would take a little bit more concern and interest in people -- interest, then people would not have such bad lives. why can't people enjoy their lives so that when they do retire they can sit back and feel good about their self and their families? it is a shame that there is so situation inhe gun this country, where people are paying out of the government to

take care of when. their old man -- of women. their old man is out there taking care of stuff by being a postal worker. it is like farm land water, air, food. they pay people not to grow food. if they grew more food, they could help third world countries. it used to be when i was a kid, people retired. the people who graduated from high school took over the jobs. but people can't retire. you see old women and stuff working at mcdonald's. host: i'm going to leave it there. you talk about people graduating from high school and taking jobs. take a look at this from "the new york times." as graduation rates rise, the fear is that high school diplomas are falling short. experts question whether standards are meeting the needs of colleges and careers. and someomists corporations saying that they do not believe kids are getting educated.

the standards are not high enough for certain careers and the needs of colleges. and this comes as we are seeing a rise in graduation rates. that is the front page of "the new york times" this morning. pennsylvania. your age. are you on track to retire? gretchen? this host: it's greta. caller: i am 51 years old. i retired when i was 44. i was in the union for 20 years as an electrician. 12ent to 20 years of school, high school, three trade school, five through the apprentice ship. and if it wasn't for the union, i would not be able to survive. when they put me on security disability, they automatically month theythin a

gave me my union pension, which they do through how many years you have served. so, i'm very comfortable. i have no mortgage. i own the properties. two properties. i have probably $60,000 in the bank. i did have to cash in my 401(k) to pay off my house. i was nervous that i did not have any income at all at one point. i was living off my savings. but i'm very content. i see my brothers and sisters. i have eight siblings. only a couple of them joined unions. the other ones are struggling, they are the ones not in unions. unions are very important to me. and i think, i just wish they would come back the way they did era, when theffa teamsters got started. i was sad to hear the man who called earlier this morning and

is going to lose half of his teamsters pension because of jimmy carter. i don't know what happened there. host: when you took your money out of the 401(k), did you have a tax penalty? caller: yes. i had to pay $20,000. it was only on an equity loan. i bought the house for $18,000, but it was worth $89,000. i hit the panic button. i didn't want to be homeless, so i took the money out of my thing, anday off my i got a $20,000 penalty for doing that. but at least i own my home now, and i own a second property in another state as vacation property. host: ok. new york. good morning to you. caller: hi, good morning. briefly, im and an 88-year-old veteran of world war ii and the

korean war. i have been retired for 26 years. when i started out, the retirement was pretty good. i had a plan from the company, retirement from social security, and a 401(k). unfortunately, everything looks good for a while -- looked good for a while. i ended up more in the money market and bonds. my ira was in bonds. the ira is disappearing and my savings is disappearing, for the lack of interest. i've got to believe i'm not the only one. i'm going to be broke before i die if i keep living longer. you know, there have got to be trillions of dollars lost by older people because of the interest rates. host: the interest rates being 0%. caller: i'm getting about 1/2 o f 1% on interest rate.

wes: i'm going to go on to in south carolina. good morning to you. tell us about your retirement. caller: i am 48. i work in a mechanical trade. i have some retirement saved up. i've got a couple of problems. host: are you part of the union? caller: i don't even plan on retiring. do you plan on retiring? i intend to be doing something. i play music, too. i hear so many stories from people calling in. it's all about money. how much money you got. most importantly, i think it is the quality of life you can have in retirement. host: we will leave it on that note. thank you all for calling in. that does it for today's "washington journal." tomorrow, we will talk with the executive editor of "defense

one." we would talk with their -- a reporter about energy stories of 2015. we will end -- talk about the end of the year and energy stories throughout the past year. that's tomorrow. join us at 7:00 a.m. eastern time, 4:00 a.m. on the west coast. thank you for watching today. see you tomorrow. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> as 2015 wraps up, c-span presents "congress, year in review," a look back at all the newsmaking issues, debates, and hearings that took center stage on capitol hill this year.

31, us thursday, december at 8:00 :00 p.m. eastern, as we revisit mitch mcconnell taking his position as senate majority leader, pope francis' historic address to congress, the resignation of house speaker boehner, the election of speaker ryan, reaction from congress on mass shootings here and abroad, gun control, terrorism, the rise of isis. "congress -- year in review" on c-span, thursday, december 31, 8:00 p.m. eastern. "newsmakers,"k on the president of the national educators association, lily eskelsen garcia. thank you so much. we have two reporters to help us with questioning. stevens is the education reporter for politico. the present has signed an update to the no child left behind law.

the every student succeeds law. nea's view ofhe this is. lily: you didn't see me float in here. this is the most historic thing that happened in a long long time. in of those bad ways was 2000 two, when they passed this bipartisan fanfare, this thing untested."child left we haven't been -- we have been living under this dark cloud for 14 years. a year ago, almost a year ago when we said we are going to start a campaign to reauthorize really strengthened the things we need to really improve our schools, -- our schools. even our best friend said, yeah right.